The Four Realms

by Adrian Faulkner

  She span round from behind the trunk of the tree and threw a fireball, an iceblast and an airblast, one after another. Bam, bam, bam.

  The elf absorbed the fireball with a waterfall, but the iceblast turned the waterfall into a sheet of frozen ice and the airblast shattered it, sending shards flying at the elf. He cowered from the bombardment. And if he is cowering, Maureen thought, he's not casting. That's the way to do it. No let up, just one move after another, trying to get your opponent on the defensive, like some rapid game of chess with split second decisions and moves.

  She hit him with an earthquake, unsure of what her strategy should be now. He countered with a spell that sent a ghostly bird, so vapid Maureen had a hard chance making out what it was until it flew in front of her and tried to claw at her eyes. She threw up an icewall but immediately realised her she should have cast a firewall, as the bird passed right through. A quick airblast blew it far enough away that the spell would not have chance to get back to her before it dissipated. She didn't give herself a breather, instead repeating her combo of fireball, iceblast and airblast. This time the elf was prepared, using an airblast to push the fireball back so that when it froze and shattered, it was Maureen and not he that took the effects.

  While she shielded her eyes from the blast, Psyninius let loose an earthquake that rumbled toward her and knocked her off her feet. He followed this up with a fireball. Maureen tried to cast an air shield but she was just too late and had to roll out of the way as the blast impacted the ground where she had been. A split second later and it would have hit her. Even so, it managed to singe her sleeve. A second fireball was caught by the airshield just before it petered out.

  She couldn't keep this up. The sweat was pouring off of her and she was bruised and dirty. Yet the elf looked as a fresh as a daisy as he hopped from foot to foot in glee.

  "Your magic is so basic it's laughable," he told her. "Only the elves have been shown the art of mana by the holy Mother."

  He was just toying with her. Do something, she told herself. Cast some spell while his attention is diverted. Something... anything. She couldn't, she was exhausted. Just the thought of casting one more spell was beyond her.

  "Go on," she panted, deciding that if she couldn't beat him she would at least be defiant until the very end. "Do your worst."

  "My worst? My worst? Oh you have no idea of my worst."

  He talks too much, thought Maureen. She struggled to stand, but the curse of defeat weakened her to an extent that she had trouble getting up.

  "Holy Mother," he began to preach. "Gardpoul has been vanquished by this heathen. Take his spirit into the ever after, where he may join the eternal river. Let its banks overflow, become not a river, but a tide, and give me the power that I may vanquish his death."

  Maureen crawled toward Joseph and collapsed, back against his bulk, lacking the energy to do anything but watch.

  Psyninius muttered words under his breath and at first Maureen thought nothing had happened. But then she saw rubbish from the alley blow toward the elf. She'd have thought it a breeze were it not for the fact that it blew in from all directions. Rubbish collected at the feet of Psyninius. The items were small at first, twigs and crisp packets, but then getting bigger, palettes, barrels and bins. They seemed to be piling together, a refuse pile some twelve foot high. Maureen wondered if this was some funeral - or worse, sacrificial - pyre. Then she saw it pulse.

  It started to move, limbs built of trash unfurling and stretching. Two green fires ignited in what Maureen eventually made out to be eyes, and then the creature stood. It was twenty-foot tall and a humanoid made entirely of New Salisbury's rubbish. Broken railings and metal piping made deadly fingers, and when the creature let out a tortured roar, it was from behind teeth of broken glass.

  The creature took a step forward, unsteady at first, but then more assured. It gave another roar and swiped at the rear wall of one of the buildings that back onto the alley. It disintegrated into masonry and dust, and had Maureen not - more by instinct than design - put an airshield around Joseph and herself, they would have been pummelled by the debris.

  Fatigue gave way to fear, and Maureen cast a fireball at the creature. It hit the creature on the arm, and ignited it. But the presence of a burning arm did not seem to bother or hinder the creature in any way.

  She threw an icebolt at one of the legs, but whilst it connected and froze the leg, the spell wasn't strong enough to reach above the knee.

  Psyninius laughed. "Your magic can't stop it."

  He was probably right. Maureen turned and tried to rouse Joseph but he was still passed out, or dead. Oh God, she hoped he wasn't dead. Even so, she wasn't going to leave him. Every step of the creature caused the ground to shudder, and Maureen closed her eyes, not wanting to see how close the creature was getting.

  Think Maureen, she thought to herself. You can't let it end here. There must be something you can do? But the elf was right, what little magic she was able to conjure was no match for the golem of trash before her.

  How she wished things could have been different. She wished she could regret her decision to investigate Ernest's death, but she could not. Knowing that it ended here, she'd still do the same again. No, this was the logical end. Better to die here in magical combat that in some old people's home. Her life had never meant much until a few days ago, and she wouldn't have changed the last few days for anything.

  She opened her eyes and saw the golem towering above her. It lifted one huge arm, stretched its steel fingers wide and in one swift movement brought the hand crashing down on top of Maureen and Joseph.

  Maureen felt as if the very air pushed down on her. Around her in a wide circle she could see that the ground had lowered by a couple of feet. She looked up at the hand, as it lifted and banged down once more, again stopping in mid-air as if there was an invisible wall.

  A bolt of lightning shot out from behind her and struck the creature through the shoulder. It sparked and flamed, the creature roaring, as the arm detached and fell useless to the floor.

  Maureen turned to look down the alley toward the Friary. There she saw a robed man reach into an all too familiar plant pack and pull out some seeds which he threw toward the Golem. As they left the wizard's hand, they took flight on their own, zipping toward the creature. One flew right past Maureen and she could have sworn she saw two rows of sharp teeth. The seeds hit the Golem, and started to grow, intertwining between all the various component parts that made legs, arms and torso. As they grew, they would tighten round some parts until they snapped, or toothed flower heads would chew through them. Slowly, bits started falling off the golem. Most were caused by the plants, but some damage was caused by the creature trying to rip the plants out of himself.

  A leg dropped, then the other arm fell away in two pieces. The creature started to topple, letting out one final moan before it hit the ground and smashed back into the detritus if had been before.

  The wizard stepped forward and threw back his hood. Maureen gasped to recognise Rofen. He didn't look at Maureen, stopping only to take Joseph's pulse before walking to face the elf.

  "You," he said, 'are a very, very long way from home."

  "Fool," the elf screamed. "Do you mean to frighten me?"

  "No," the wizard said calmly. "I've come to ask what you are doing in New Salisbury."

  "It's a free city," the elf hissed.

  "Indeed. More than can be said for the Empire these days."

  "You won't stop me wizard." Psyninius pointed at Maureen. "I have a debt to settle with this one."

  Rofen turned, looked at Maureen, then turned back to look at Psyninius, eyebrow raised. "Really? And what makes a mere gatekeeper of interest to the Empire?"

  "She killed Gardpoul."

  Rofen glanced at the charred body. "I seriously doubt it," he said.

  "Enough!" the incensed elf screamed, throwing forth two golden flaming strands, criss-crossing as they zoomed toward Rofen. They wrapped themselves arou
nd him, pinning his arms to his side. An explosion of water that appeared to emanate from the wizard released him.

  Maureen watched in awe as the two magic users sparred. Attack and counter-attack. There was no let up, each of them chanting as quick as their tongues would allow them. It was so frenetic, Maureen had a chance keeping up, trying to understand which curse countered which. Maureen recognised some spells - the earthquake was there, although Rofen's version threw jagged spikes upward. But there were many she didn't. Huge water and fire elementals, spells that turned night into day, turned the roads into a carpet of snakes. Rofen seemed to take an early lead, Psyninius appearing to be on the defensive. But slowly the elf turned it around and Maureen could see Rofen casting more and more defensive spells. She wondered if she might try and help, but with the battle moving so fast, she thought her spells would be long overdue by the time they arrived.

  So instead, she crawled over to Joseph's head and lifted it into her lap.

  "It's alright," she said, stroking the troll's head. "Rofen's here now. It'll be all right." He felt so very cold.

  But she wasn't sure it would be all right. She saw Rofen get knocked to his feet and narrowly miss a falling icicle the size of Joseph. He twisted and turned, countered and tried to push the attack, but it was obvious that the elf was too strong for him. Sweating and grimacing in pain at the never ending assault of spells, Rofen pointed a finger skyward and high above them a red firework exploded.

  It would be several minutes before Maureen understood the Firework's significance. By this time, Rofen was burned and bruised, cut and bloody. Maureen thought he wouldn't last much more than a couple of minutes. He'd now become entirely defensive, trying to bat away Psyninius' spells with less and less precision. He was getting tired and sloppy.

  But the red firework had summoned the other wizards from the Friary to his aid. They came running round the corner and into the alley just as a wind spell picked up the battered Rofen and threw him against a wall. Rofen hit it with such force that it caused a few bricks, loosened by the Golem's swipe, to fall and smash to the floor.

  Psyninius looked at them. "I could probably take you all," he said, before glancing at the charred body of Gardpoul and then running back into the labyrinth of alleyways from which he had originally appeared.

  "Groups of four," Rofen gasped, his face drenched with sweat. "Spread out. Do not engage."

  Most of the wizards grouped up and ran off in different directions. Maureen hoped that they caught up with and captured Psyninius.

  Of the few that remained behind, a middle aged man with dyed receding hair went up and knelt down beside Rofen. The Abbott batted him away.

  "I'm all right," he said between big breaths of air. "Sort out the troll."

  It took several of them to roll Joseph over. The gash across his chest looked worse than Maureen had imagined.

  Maureen raised a hand to her mouth in shock. "Will he be alright?"

  A wizard nodded. "His pulse is weak, but trolls are pretty resilient."

  Rofen hobbled over. "Good, see to it that he lives, Lamb. I have a lot of questions to ask him."

  Maureen gulped, worried about what exactly Rofen would ask.

  "Are you coming to the hospital too?" another wizard asked.

  Rofen shook his head. "No," he said. "Ms Summerglass and I have a lot to talk about!"

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE - The Bunker

  Progress with Ryan was slow, but at least he had stopped vomiting. He was in a bad way. Darwin was in half a mind to kill him just to put the boy out of his misery, but credit where credit was due, the boy was doing his best to do what he could to help speed up their escape. He didn't moan at his broken arm despite how Darwin had slung it over his shoulder to support his weight. Probably still in shock, Darwin thought. When he comes out of that, he's not going to be so easy to move.

  "I think I broke a tooth," he muttered as Darwin and Cassidy supported him, half dragging, half guiding him back down the tunnels.

  "You're doing fine, Ryan, just hold on in there," Cassidy reassured.

  There was a high-pitched roar from behind them.

  "You hear that?" Darwin told the pair of them. "That's your signal to start walking faster."

  It wasn't as if Darwin was without injury himself. He was still unable to open one eye and his face felt puffy and sore.

  As soon as Magellan and North realised that they were gone and gave pursuit, they would catch up to them in no time. But what could he do? He couldn't exactly leave Ryan as much as he disliked the boy.

  "How much further is it?" Darwin asked Cass. He'd been unconscious when he'd been dragged up here on the back of D'Toeni.

  "I'm not exactly sure," she replied.

  The weak lighting, made arrival at the larger tunnel - the one that would take them back to the hatch - a surprise.

  Darwin could almost sense the relief in both Ryan and Cassidy as they stepped into the tunnel. They still had to get down it though, and he sensed that all of them were wondering if they would make it.

  The roar that echoed down the tunnel behind them was followed by unintelligible shouting. Their escape had been discovered.

  "Shit," said Darwin under his breath. "Cass, we need a place to hide. Try all the doors."

  Supporting Ryan on his own meant their progress was slowed even more, but there was no way they would reach the hatch in time.

  Cassidy ran from side to side, trying all the doors. "They're all locked," she said frantically.

  No sooner had she said that than one door opened. She ducked as a huge lump of concrete smashed into the door frame where her head had been. It disintegrated on impact, covering Cassidy in its dust.

  Darwin took one look at the concrete wielder, and snarled. It was D'Toeni.

  "You coward," he shouted, all consideration about giving their position away forgotten. "You left us there to die."

  He lowered Ryan to the floor and ran toward the doorway where the vampire was standing. He launched himself over the top of the crouching Cassidy, slamming into the vampire, the pair of them tumbling into the room behind. There were tears in Darwin's eyes as he tried to roll around on top. He wanted to punch D'Toeni, kill him even. How could he forsake his own race like that?

  He was no match for D'Toeni, who despite still wearing Ryan's socks on his hands, managed to take hold of Darwin's fists and stop him punching.

  "There isn't time," D'Toeni said. "We need to get out of here."

  "We?" Darwin scoffed. "You changed your allegiance again?"

  "No," D'Toeni said, releasing Darwin's fists and standing up. "I'm still on my side."

  Darwin stood and regarded him for a second. He didn't trust the man, but could he really pass up an ally? He was acutely aware there wasn't a lot of time and a third person to help carry Ryan would speed up their escape.

  D'Toeni looked out the door to where Ryan sat. "You need my help," D'Toeni said with a cold smile that reinforced Darwin's thoughts.

  "Gah!" Darwin yelled. He'd like nothing better than to pummel the vampire into the ground, leave him for North and Magellan to do as they please.

  "You're not going to trust him, are you?" Cassidy asked. "After what he did?"

  There was no time. Darwin pointed to Ryan. "You're carrying him," he told the vampire.

  "You can't trust him," Cassidy complained as he and the vampire walked past. "Darwin, he left you for dead."

  "Cassidy, I don't have a choice. We risk it, or we leave Ryan behind. Simple as that."

  He didn't like being short with her, but he was down to just bad options, and he had to make the best of what he had. He had no doubt that D'Toeni would betray them as soon as their backs were turned, but his little plan of just handing them over to Magellan in return for immunity had gone sour. That meant the vampire was as happy with this arrangement as Cassidy was.

  The real benefit was that with Ryan riding piggyback on D'Toeni they could now run.

  Not a moment too soon either. No
sooner had they started running down the tunnel than Magellan and North rounded the corner into the larger tunnel. Half of North's head still sprouted huge tentacles, though they seemed more controlled now, smaller, thinner.

  Given Darwin's injuries and D'Toeni's cargo, they weren't as fast as fast as Magellan and North, but still the ladder up to the hatch loomed out of the dark much sooner than expected. They were knocked off their feet by a sweeping tentacle just a few feet from it, sending all of them tumbling to the ground.

  "Get to the ladder," Darwin yelled.

  There was a scream. He glanced over to see Ryan ripped off D'Toeni's back, a tentacle wrapped round his neck. The boy clasped at it in panic as it hoisted him up.

  D'Toeni was on his feet, rushing at Magellan. Right, thought Darwin, that means I have to deal with North. With the tentacle limbs more controlled, North cutting the silhouette of some mythical gorgon, it left the alien's body exposed. Darwin started to rush it. Above him, a second tentacle wrapped round Ryan's feet.

  "Stay calm, Ryan" Cassidy called out, just as the two tentacles yanked in opposite directions, and split the boy in two.

  "Fuck!" said Darwin skidding to a halt, as blood, guts and offal spilled from the carcass onto the floor. The smell of it distracted Darwin from the incoming limb that wrapped round his own legs.

  "Darwin!" Cassidy screamed.

  Blood rushed to Darwin's head as he was hoisted up. He tried to reach his feet to try and disentangle his bindings, but he was too disorientated. He felt something snake round his neck. He fought at it, but it gained ground, curling and tightening. He started to choke. Oh no you don't, he thought, and bit down hard on the limb, ensuring his fangs punctured the skin and drew blood. North screamed and the tentacle round his neck unravelled in recoil, but the one around his legs stayed firm.

  Darwin had been careful not to drink any of the blood, but a little made its way into his mouth. It tasted of aniseed. He spat it out, as another limb started coiling round him, this time round his chest. He clawed at it, but it still snaked its way round, squeezing him tight this time crushing the air out of his lungs.