The Four Realms

by Adrian Faulkner

  "Come on," said Joseph, unimpressed by Maureen's efforts to slow down their pursuers. She must seem very slow to him, even at her fastest she couldn't keep up with the troll's mighty strides. She could only go as fast as she could. The problem was that the elves were probably quicker than her as well, and stopping to snatch any passing weed would just slow her down even more.

  Even so she'd find herself breaking the stem off a plant whenever she passed someone's window box.

  The road passed through a residential area, terraces of flat roofed, two story Edwardian townhouses facing onto the streets.

  "We need to find somewhere to hide," Maureen said.

  Joseph pointed at a set of stairs at the side of one of the terraces. "Up there," He said pointing to the roof.

  Maureen looked behind her and saw the elves running down the street some way behind. She was about to question if going up was a good idea, but Joseph was already half way up. His bulk meant he had to angle his body sideways as he did so, wedged between wall and rail. Maureen sighed, swallowed her reservations, and followed him.

  The top afforded her a lovely night time vista of the city, lights twinkling under the full moon. The garden furniture set out on the roof terrace suggested that others enjoyed the view on a regular basis.

  "No time to look," ordered Joseph as he started running along the roof. Maureen followed, although within a few strides Joseph was outpacing her. She saw him take a jump and drop out of sight. Had he fallen off the building, had he jumped two stories to the ground? Had he left her?

  It took her a full minute before she'd made it over to where he'd jumped, her lungs now burning from the exercise. Here the terrace dropped to a single story a set of stairs leading back up to continue the third floor terrace. Below Joseph was waiting impatiently. Upon seeing her, he indicated for her to jump. "I'll catch you," he said.

  There's no way I can jump down a single storey, Maureen thought. She decided that she'd go back and down the stairs, and was about to do so when she looked behind her and saw the elves running in her direction.

  She looked back at the jump. It was impossible. There was no way she could even vault over the two foot wall that lined the edge of the terrace.

  A fireball in the shape of a dragon's head shot past her, wide enough of its mark that Maureen didn't have to evade. A wasted spell in Maureen's opinion. Still, if it depleted their stocks of plants that was a bonus. But they were gaining on her and the next spell might be more accurate. She was trapped.

  "Come on," urged Joseph. "Jump."

  Maureen thought about what spell she would cast in defence if they shot another fireball her way. Something air-related maybe; some form of air blast.

  She looked down at Joseph below her, then back to the advancing elves. She twiddled the plant stem between her fingers, and sighed. This might not work.

  She whispered the incantation, and steeled herself. The elves slowed down, noticing the build-up of wind, waiting to see what spell had been cast before deciding on the appropriate counter-curse. But this spell wasn't aimed at them, Maureen had targeted it at herself.

  A gush of air threw her up and over the wall. Maureen looked down and saw Joseph running across the lower roof trying to position himself underneath ready to catch her. But she flew over his head and toward the further, higher terrace. As Maureen felt the plant turn to dust in her hand, she realised that was so many things she was yet to fully comprehend. Every spell had a cost, and some plants were more efficient than others. Some spells could also be scaled, a larger fireball for more plants. But whilst Maureen understood that this was possible, she lacked detailed knowledge. She was still an amateur, but by God, for a couple of seconds as she flew over the single story building to the roof opposite, she felt like the most powerful wizard on earth.

  She braced herself for impact, worried about the upcoming tumble, but in the end she landed so softly, it was like stepping off a bus.

  Joseph came up the stairs to meet her. His voice was a mixture of breathlessness and wonder. "That... was amazing."

  "I'm out of plants," Maureen said, before chastising the troll, "don't do that again."

  Joseph just nodded, taking the comment the way it was meant. Maureen looked behind her to see the elves carefully jumping down off the roof. "We've only bought ourselves a little time."

  They set off once again, Joseph staying at Maureen's pace this time. That might not be enough, as the elves soon appeared to be catching up. There was a whooshing sound, and at first Maureen thought it was another fireball. But it was only when Joseph darted behind her and winced in agony that she realised the elves were firing arrows. She looked up and saw the shaft sticking out of Joseph's back.

  She shrieked. "Joseph! Are you all right?"

  He was obviously in pain, but he wasn't slowing down. Not life threatening then, but it still made Maureen's blood boil. It was probably best that she didn't have any plants at that moment, as her rage would have made her stop and throw every spell she had at their pursuers.

  Instead, she held her tongue and focused on the way ahead. Behind she heard Psyninius scream, "don't shoot them you fool, Lavaria wants her alive."

  They were running out of roof again, and the elves were now so close that there was no time for hesitation. Who builds a terrace of two story houses and then places the occasional one story building along it? bemoaned Maureen. Before she even had time to wonder how she'd get passed this one, she felt Joseph pick her up mid-stride, hold her close to his chest, and jump. She closed her eyes tight as they flew over the wall and down a storey to the roof below. Joseph rolled as he hit the ground trying to break his fall, but the impact was too much for the roof to take, and as he did so, it caved in, throwing the rolling Joseph and Maureen down into the building below.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN - Magellan

  Darwin came around to the rhythmic plodding of someone half carrying, half pulling him along. He could sense the rise and fall of their footsteps, sense his feet being dragged along the ground. He was being supported by a single arm, which was thrown over the shoulder of whoever was carrying him. It ached at the strain of supporting his whole body, but didn't hurt anywhere near as much as his face, which stung and felt puffy.

  He tried to open his eyes, only to find the one next to his cut cheek swollen and impossible to open. His other eye tried to focus.

  They were walking down a corridor, slightly smaller than the tunnel they'd walked down when first entering the complex. He cast a quick glance over his shoulder to see that Cassidy was out front holding a torch, Ryan - still just dressed in his boxer shorts - at her back with gun in hand. The little shit, Darwin thought. First opportunity he had, Darwin was going to kill him, whether Cassidy protested or not.

  He'd assumed that D'Toeni was carrying him, and a furtive glance upwards confirmed it, the vampire looking ridiculous still dressed in Ryan’s clothes. D'Toeni caught his gaze though, releasing Darwin's arm and letting him fall to the ground. Feet scrambled for equilibrium as he fell in a heap, the arm D'Toeni had been holding him by too numb to really help stop the fall.

  D'Toeni looked down at him. "Good, you're awake. Get up and walk."

  Darwin got to his feet, aided by a few light kicks from D'Toeni. How could someone he'd looked up to for so long betray him? He'd been on his guard for a trap, but he'd always expected it to come from Ryan, not D'Toeni. Some fucking hero he was. If he didn't feel like shit he would have taken a swing at the vampire. He'd probably just hand your arse back to you, Darwin thought.

  His main worry now was Cassidy. Easier for him to focus his concern on someone else rather than himself. Externalise his fears and all that. She'd been betrayed as well, although to be fair, it was a slightly different Cassidy that Ryan had betrayed. She still had feelings for him though, he could see it. Maybe that was evidence that parts of the old Cassidy still lived, or maybe... maybe she liked guys with no socks.

  Oh Darwin, he thought to himself as he paced along, you're a
fucking mess. So full of big ideas, so short on actual practical application. So weak, so useless.

  The tunnel opened out into a room the size of a small hall. Perhaps some sort of mess area or maybe an old style gym, Darwin thought. Whatever it had been, it had long been gutted of tell-tale signs. But there sitting in the middle of the hall floor, on orange plastic seats, were two men.

  They reminded Darwin very much of Mr East, the man they had encountered in the library. They wore the same style suits, and whilst the one on the right seemed older, the man on the left could have been Mr East's brother.

  "Ah," said the older man, "The infamous Darwin and his cohort Cassidy. So pleased to finally meet you."

  "And who are you?" Cassidy asked bluntly.

  The younger man walked down toward Cassidy and Darwin felt himself tense.

  "I am Mr Magellan," the older man said. "And the other gentleman is Mr North."

  Mr North started rifling through Cassidy's pockets.

  "Nice," Darwin said in reference to the names. He finally got it. "I met your friend, Mr East. Pushed him into a gateway to hell."

  If he had hoped to get Magellan and North riled, he failed, as the older man just looked at him and smiled. Mr North pulled the notebook from Cassidy's pocket, and took it back to Mr Magellan.

  "There," said Mr Magellan. "That was nice and simple, wasn't it?"

  He took the notebook and started flicking through the pages.

  "Well done," Darwin told D'Toeni. "You just sold out your own race."

  "Least I get to live," the vampire whispered, kicking at the back of Darwin's knee so he fell to the ground. Rage grew inside Darwin. He was angry at Ryan, that little cocksucker who pawed over Cassidy. He was angry at D'Toeni, the vampire he had come to save only to have him stab him in the back. But most of all he was angry at himself. Angry at wanting to believe the vampire was something more than some low-down murdering scum. And there was nothing he could do. Sure he could snap Ryan's neck; he felt fairly confident that he could take out Magellan or North based on his fight with Mr East. But beat D'Toeni? No way. Never in a million years. And he hated himself for that.

  Magellan looked up from the notebook. "Go fetch Darwin a chair, would you?"

  D'Toeni grunted and disappeared back down the tunnel.

  "Tosser," Darwin muttered under his breath after he was sure the vampire was too far away to hear. Why worry? Darwin thought to himself. If D'Toeni overheard and came back and kicked his arse, how much worse could things be? He spent so much of his life trying to please people: trying to please Cassidy with his ethical feeding; trying to please the vampires in order to gain acceptance. And where had it all lead him? Fuck it, he thought. Fuck it all.

  Magellan looked down at Darwin. "You know what I find so strange about this world? Your ability to sacrifice logic and order for the sake of self-preservation."

  Darwin struggled to his feet. "You can't blame people for not wanting to die."

  "And yet, you were willing to die over a notebook."

  "Wiping out my whole race tends to make me a little stubborn."

  Magellan laughed. "I think I can understand that."

  "What are you going to do with the notebook anyway? You've gone to an awful lot of trouble to get it." If he was going to die, Darwin would at least like to know what he was dieing for.

  Magellan held it up. "This? Do you know what this is?"

  "It's just a notebook," Darwin said, sounding a little unimpressed.

  "Just a notebook? Ha! Do you know what's so special about your world?"

  "What is this? Twenty questions?"

  "Your gateways. Not the fact that they lead to other worlds, the universe is filled with many such examples of parallel realms. No, it's the fact that your gateways always remain open."

  "Right," Darwin said in a long, drawn-out, sarcastic way.

  "No, it's true. I have the technology to open a gateway from here to anywhere on your world. Small enough, that I could fit it on a wrist. We have devices smaller than you that can transport us across space. We could almost reach my home planet. But can I maintain that gateway beyond a minute or two? That's far beyond the technology of my people."

  Darwin felt he ought to be shocked at the revelation of where Mr Magellan and his friends were from but it kind of made sense. Besides, having grown up with the knowledge of other realms and their races, the concept of aliens didn't seem that outlandish.

  There was one thing that didn't make sense to him though. "You have all this technology and want a wizard's notebook? It's not exactly going to be hard science is it?"

  "No, Darwin, it isn't. I said the same thing myself. But chip past the legends, past the stories of battling gods, and what you do have is research and observations from which we can extrapolate hard data."

  "So all this? All this killing? Is just so you can study why our gateways don't close?"

  Magellan shrugged. "Pretty much."

  "They're lying, Darwin," Cassidy shouted. "You wouldn't kill someone for a notebook if your interests were purely academical. There's more to this than they are telling you."

  Mr North walked over to Cassidy and grabbed her by the chin, turning her head left then right as if examining it. "You're an interesting one, Cassidy Mulligan. So unlike your simulation. I wonder if you are really you."

  Cassidy tried to pull back from Mr North's grip. "I don't know what you mean."

  Mr North raised an eyebrow. "Really?" He leaned in close, his voice dropping to just above a whisper. "What say we take you apart, and find out?"

  Ryan stepped out from behind Cassidy. "Leave her alone. You said you wouldn't hurt her."

  Darwin almost wanted to roll his eyes in embarrassment for the boy. He could see the boy was shaking.

  "That's the trouble when you do a deal with these people, Ryan," Darwin said. "There's no guarantee they'll keep it. They've already wiped out the vampires, you really think they're gonna care about you and Cassidy?" There was something strangely satisfying in knowing that Ryan had been screwed over as well.

  "You make it sound so melodramatic," Magellan said.

  "Really? I wonder why? You come to this world, you kill an innocent man, and then proceed to kill anyone in your way as if it doesn't matter."

  "Don't give me your morality lecture. You've killed innocent men as well, have you not?"

  Darwin scoffed. "Oh, don't try and put me in the same book as you guys. I kill for food, that's all I do." He couldn't say that for his entire race but he could for himself. He felt his self-loathing abate a little to make way for pride.

  Magellan sighed. "I find it interesting how the people of this world justify their lack of morality by accusing others of indiscretions."

  Darwin was about to argue that his months of eating rats justified his morality when Ryan pointed the gun at Mr North. "You leave her alone, you hear?"

  "Ryan!" Darwin ordered. "Don't be a dick. If they can take out vampire elite forces, one teenager with a gun isn't going to frighten them."

  "Shuddup," Ryan shouted back, fear evident in his voice as he turned to face Magellan and North. "I mean it. Kill the other two if you want, but leave Cass and me alone."

  "Oh great, thanks," Darwin muttered.

  Cassidy turned to face Ryan.

  "Ryan," she said, tears starting to well in her eyes. "You've got to put the gun down."

  "No," he said. "You and I, we could go away, start somewhere afresh, be together again."

  "Ryan this isn't... we can't... Trust me."

  Ryan was fighting back the tears as well. "You know, I'm such a fool. All these years, I've been thinking I hate you, wanted you to suffer like I've suffered. But I don't hate you Cass. I can't hate you, I just can't."

  Cassidy took hold of his free hand. "Then put the gun down, and let's do this the right way."

  Ryan nodded over toward Darwin. "You mean the way where you disappear off with him again." There was more sadness than malice in his voice, as if he knew that h
e'd already lost.

  "It's not like that Ryan. I..." she stopped to think for a second. "I can't be with you, Ryan."

  Ryan sniffed, wiping his nose with the back of his arm. "Fine," he said, trying to compose himself. "I understand."

  Darwin could see the anger rising in the young man and hoped he wasn't about to do anything stupid.

  Ryan moved to point the gun at Cassidy. "If I can't have you, then no-one can."

  Darwin was rushing the few feet toward Ryan before he'd even stopped speaking. North saw him, probably thinking this was some escape attempt by both the men, and tried to head Darwin off. Ryan, seeing both North and Darwin spring into action, grabbed Cassidy round the throat and flailed his gun widely.

  The gun went off.

  There seemed to be a second of silence, everyone frozen in position, before North dropped to the floor clutching his eye and started writhing as if in some sort of fit. Darwin could see what looked like oil pouring between his fingers.

  The wound in North's head exploded, shooting huge black tentacles fifteen feet skywards, knocking Darwin, Cassidy and Ryan to the floor. With it came a squealing sound, a cross between a pig, a bear roar and air being let out of a balloon that grated against their ears. There was something so ungodly about it that it caused the hairs on the back of Darwin's neck to prickle. The tentacles grew in thickness until they were as thick as a man's torso in places and writhed. One swooped down, wrapped round Ryan's leg and hoisted him up into the air. He screamed in terror.

  "Ryan!" Cassidy called, as his gun fell out of his hand and clattered to the floor.

  Darwin started to back away along the ground, worried that the tentacles were close enough to grab him as well. He glanced behind him to see D'Toeni entering the room carrying a chair.

  "What the fuck?" the vampire said.