"Why didn't you come up for air?" I yelled down at the petrified warrior. "Why didn't you?"
"He returned for you Daniel." she added. "Only you!"
Thinking back, I had no recollection how long Kat or I were trapped underwater. This moment now, however, was horribly vivid. "He doesn't have long." said Eddinray, and bending to the samurai's lifeless body, he cleared Kat's mouth with his fingers then listened down his throat. "He's not breathing." he added, methodically tilting Kat's head back, elevating the chin and blowing several deep breaths into his mouth.
The world moving too fast for thought, a concerned Eddinray pressed two fingers over the samurai's neck.
"Nothing…" he said."Not a bloody thing!" Growing desperate, Eddinray began to compress Kat's chest using hands on that old armor. Push. Push. Push.
"What are you doing?" asked Harmony, scared. "Get off Godwin! Get off!"
"He's trying to save his life!" I cried, pulling her back.
Eddinray vigorously pumped on Kat's chest for sixty more seconds, and with no response, madness suddenly came over the Englishman. He beat at Kat's heart with his wet fists, he bashed and he pounded, grunting and panting, spitting and screaming.
"Godwin!" shrieked Harmony. "Stop! Stop!"
Kat's ribcage ghoulishly cracked inward, and seeing no further point, I attempted to put a stop to it, but utterly hypnotized, Eddinray fought me off, and then lashed a final strike on our friend's chest.
Kat returned that instant, vomiting oil and blood. Harmony and I sighed so deep with relief; Eddinray on the other hand, expressed nothing. Still on my hands and knees, I viewed the gaunt face of Eddinray with admiration. Strangely, he didn't look pleased. "He's okay Eddinray." I said. “Where…did you learn that?"
Eddinray smeared at his bloodshot eyes then turned away. Almost immediately, a belligerent Kat attempted to sit up, but a stabbing pain in his chest put him down.
"Rest silly man." Harmony, snivelled and cried. "We won't be moving an inch 'till I'm satisfied!"
Resting his head on her lap, Kat allowed the angel to tend to him, and looking at me through her caressing hands, the samurai's bear husky voice asked — "Who revived me, Fox?"
"Eddinray." I whispered. "It was Eddinray…"
***
Despite the black rings now permanently marking Kat's eyes, his strength soon recovered, and his pigheadedness too, as he ignored his broken ribs. We trailed him over a barren dark plain; a flat and frosty mirror was our surface, and it reflected all the twinkling stars and space above us. Unusually, Kat did not keep his sight ahead, but on his own shimmering image on the glass. "Hurry!" he badgered. "Keep up!"
"To what?" asked Harmony, frustrated; but like an energetic Labrador, curious by a scent, Kat kept his focus to the floor. Our reflections were as clear as the faces next to us, and with nothing but walking to do, we examined them.
Harmony was disturbed by the blood and dirt staining her wings and once spotless gown, before attempting to untangle the knots in her ropey yellow hair. Eddinray's features were sunken and his figure looked emaciated under mail, but his mind was clearly elsewhere right now.
I was far from pleased with my own face, generously wrinkled with patches of grey in the hair. I wonder what Missy would make of her Daniel now, and if Kathy would still recognise this beat up old man as her father.
Kat did not care for his grim looks of course, something much more imperative concerned him. Faster than I've ever seen, he drew out his katana and began slashing and growling at thin air behind us.
All of us startled, we could only wait for him to stop swinging, and when he did, there sat a fragility over Kat's face, a fright he could not control nor conceal; and that fearful expression on the fearless sent shivers running down my spine. "There's nothing Kat." Harmony said, coming to caress his shoulder.
Shaking off her hand and his own paranoia, Kat returned his sword to its sheath and gave no explanation for his actions. A question appeared ready on Eddinray's lips, but he held it in when Kat dropped to his ass and frenziedly began dusting at the mirror under his nose. His predator eyes hungry, the samurai was smiling now. Mystified, we others gathered round, and smiled too at what Kat had discovered. There where two steel rails and many sleepers under our feet, under the ice; train tracks running in an easterly direction.
A content Kat now rose from his crouched position, patted the cold from his palms then said -
"The Fortress is close."
35. The Express
That rail track went uninterrupted under the icy mirror, and we followed it. The cold stung like bee-stings all over, but numbness soon replaced the pain of Jack Frost's bite. Harmony and Eddinray seemed glued together in their stride, whilst Kat and I pathetically blew what heat we could into our hands.
"Rub at your chests." chattered Eddinray. "Your extremities will…take care of themselves!"
"And where did you hear this?" asked Harmony, wiping a runny nose.
"A witch doctor my dear, right before I impaled her on the leg of a table. The wretch had it coming, of course, and fine English Oak did the job too!"
I couldn't tell if Eddinray was rambling good advice or just plain rambling, but whatever the answer, the thought of rubbing frozen hands over my bare chest did not appeal. The journey over the mirrored terrain did its best to take our minds off the cold. The flat surface glittered like diamonds in the darkness and was littered with interesting things to look at; mostly the remains of previous explorers, now preserved as ice sculptures for all time. I paused to observe the features of one ordinary looking man, no older than myself. It seemed as if he was reaching one hand toward the stars when the freeze snatched him. "Move it!" ordered Kat. "Move it or join him!"
"The cost of sin." muttered Harmony, over my shoulder.
Soon after, a unique sight astonished us. It was a gargantuan work of modern art — thirty chilled, and translucent tentacles came down from the sky to stab into the mirror. I touched one of those enormous legs on passing, and green mucus dribbled over my fingers. Squinting skyward, I saw nothing of this creature’s body, it was far beyond my sight. There were, however, plenty more exhibits to catch the eye.
Paused in motion were a dozen Yeti like creatures, each more than twenty feet tall; and walking between their oversized woolly legs, Harmony pointed out one great white shark a little ways off, its curved snout clearly petrified the instant it broke from the ice. It took time to get my head around the idea that the bulk of these souls originated from distant planets in undiscovered galaxies, that they too had brains and personalities behind the hair, tentacles and teeth. We were all children of other worlds.
Snot hung like an icicle from Kat's nose, and his eyebrows and beard were white from frost. Yet onward he persisted, onward until at last his determination paid off. Our leader held up his katana like a barrier, then broke off the dangling ice from his nostrils.
"What have you found?" I asked chittered.
Still fascinated by his reflection, the warm smirk on Kat's face seemed to thaw the frost from his beard. Next to the long track underneath us, our reflections stood around an upright post with a golden bell on top; below that bell hung a delicate silver chain. "Wondrous illusion." said Harmony, puzzled. "How do we reach it?"
"Is that what you've been looking for, Kat?" I asked him, while he tensed his right hand. "What are you up too?"
"I cannot feel it." he replied, and making a fist, Kat lowered himself to the mirror before punching through the ice. I winced at the sound of cracking glass and knuckles, but unconcerned, Kat immersed his arm whole into that murky water.
After thirty seconds of scouring, an agitated expression told us Kat was having difficultly finding what he was after. "Your arm will freeze off!" gasped Eddinray. "Freeze off then break off! Don't say I didn't war — "