The Four Realms

by Adrian Faulkner

  "Cassidy," Darwin called out. The girl skipped up, removed her backpack and managed to skip through with ease.

  For a second Maureen thought she might be forgotten, but after seeing Cassidy was safely into Venefasia, he turned to look at her. "Come on," he said holding out his hand.

  The gap seemed even smaller up close. Maureen didn't think there was any way she was going to be able to fit through it. She wasn't fat by any means but neither was she slim. There was no time to worry about it. She took a deep breath and pushed herself into the crack.

  She'd only got a shoulder through when she got stuck. She pushed and pushed until she felt firmly wedged and yet still didn't feel more than a quarter of the way through.

  "I'm stuck," she said, her head on the Venefasia side. Cassidy ran over and grabbed her hand whilst behind her Darwin muttered “This ain't gonna be dignified" and started to push from his side.

  Maureen felt that they were just making things worse. She'd be stuck and those creatures would get her.

  "Breathe in," Darwin grunted.

  "I am breathing in," Maureen replied.

  It felt like Cassidy was about to pull her arm out of her socket. Her stomach hurt from the wood of the door digging into it, but just when she thought she couldn't be any more stuck the pressure on her stomach released and she came tumbling into Venefasia, nearly falling on top of Cassidy.

  It was like getting into a nice warm bath, as the mana in the air fully surrounded her, making all her aged aches and pains disappear, bringing youth and energy back to her body.

  There was a clatter as Darwin's sword landed on the floor beside her. She looked back to see Darwin trying to get through the gap. He was quite a slim young man, but even he was having trouble getting through.

  He'd got one leg and a shoulder through, when he jerked backward, his hands grabbing the broken edges of the crack in the door. His eyes went wide, as his knuckles turned white under the pressure.

  "They've got me," he said in shock.

  D'Toeni laughed and went and picked up the sword. Cassidy was the only one who ran over and grabbed at his arm. Darwin looked at the vampires, as if realising none of them was going to help him. His eyes seemed almost teary.

  One good turn deserves another, Maureen's mother always used to say, and Darwin had helped her through the door. She noticed some moss growing in the corner of the wall. It wasn't much, but it might be enough for one spell. She reached for it, and then turned to face the door.

  "Duck," she told the boy as she threw a fireball over his head and down the passageway. Maureen was unable to tell whether it hit or not, but it had the desired effect, as Darwin was released and he shot into Venefasia, Cassidy only just darting out the way just in the nick of time.

  "Lucky," D'Toeni scoffed, playing with the sword's edge.

  Cassidy looked to Maureen. "You have to shut the gateway," she said.

  "Me? How?"

  "Use your magic."

  Maureen wanted to tell Cassidy that her magic didn't work like that, that she needed something to replace the moss that had just turned to ash in her hands, that she only knew the most basic of spells. But she elected to keep that quiet given that she was surrounded by vampires. Let them fear her, she thought.

  "I... I can't."

  Cassidy took hold of her hand and squeezed it. "Yes, you can. I'm sure of it."

  They had to close the gateway or those creatures would get through. She thought of the one she had seen with the elves, what if it was joined by a further two. But even if she was able to close it, did she want to? She'd never be able to get back. She thought of her cats and wondered if they had survived the destruction or not. No, she thought. This is what you wanted, to be able to escape into Venefasia where your life had some meaning.

  Tentacles started to appear at the crack of the door.

  Maureen scanned the floor, the moonlight helping her a little in the darkness.

  "There," she said, pointing along the wall to Cassidy. "Bring me that weed. Quickly girl."

  Cassidy rushed over, picked the weed and brought it back to Maureen. It seemed pitifully small. She doubted that any spell could be cast by such a tiny plant.

  Maureen closed her eyes, not sure of what spell to cast. Fire and ice would not provide anything more than a temporary barrier. She thought of the tower that rose above the gateway, thought of the ceiling in her own house and the earthquake spell she'd cast. She'd never be able to cast one big enough, even if she'd been laden with plants like she had been in the florists. Instead, she visualised the tower, felt the pressure each brick must be under from all those above it, felt how they all shared the load, and then visualised one brick disappearing and the pressure on the others shifting ever so slightly. In Maureen's mind it was enough, enough for the other bricks to be unable to take the weight of the tower and crumble under the pressure.

  "Is she going to do anything?" Brian asked.

  Maureen opened her eyes, ready to glare at Brian, maybe even chastise the vampire, but as she did so she noticed the weed turning into ash. She panicked. How could that be? She looked around for another magic user. She'd not cast a spell, had she?

  "Look," Cassidy said, pointing.

  She gasped as she saw cracks shoot up the side of the tower. Darwin noticed them too. "Everyone get back," he shouted as bricks started to fall out of the wall.

  The destruction seemed to increase, as larger and larger pieces started to fall taking parts of the cloister roof with it. When that tower came down, Maureen thought, it would probably take the entire cloister with it.

  "Follow me," she said, a hurried walk now turning toward a run. "I know a way out."

  Behind them as they fled the tower collapsed and a gateway died.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE - Damage Control

  West stared at the wall where the passageway had been. The door was still there, hanging off hinges embedded into the wall. So was the hole West had blown with his entrance. But the actual gateway was gone.

  "How does a gateway just disappear?" he asked.

  North dragged himself up beside him. "It's gone?" he asked in their native tongue.

  West metamorphosed his tentacles back into hands and knocked on the wall to prove his point.

  "Perhaps it's just debris from the cave in?" North suggested.

  "That formed into a perfect wall?"

  North knocked on the wall himself with a tentacle as if to be sure.

  West called for Sally. He could have done with her help in the battle, but Magellan would never have stood shoulder to shoulder with a drone. He sighed. Maybe if he'd let her fight alongside them, the vampires wouldn't have escaped.

  He looked down at Magellan's remains. This was not good. "There'll be an enquiry."

  North nodded. "It's a mess."

  Indeed. A mess that would involve the Dictatoriat. He'd have to act fast, destroy all evidence of what he was doing, try and blame it on Magellan. The Dictatoriat wouldn't understand, a group of elders who sat there up in orbit with no hands-on experience of this world.

  What about North, though? Could he be trusted to be complicit in the lie? Surely he must realise that this amount of chaos was likely punishable by death. If they could say it was Magellan's idea and they were forced into obeying his orders... But North wasn't that inventive. No, he'd tell the truth, believing that there was some honour to be gained by doing that. All that would achieve would be to get them all sentenced to death.

  It was Sally he was most worried about. As a drone, she had no rights, they'd not think twice about whether to execute her or not. She'd trusted him and in return he had managed to get her killed. He cursed himself for his clumsiness.

  She came down their basement stairs now and from the look on her face, he could tell she knew there was trouble. He nodded to her and she understood what needed to be done. They had gone over this plan many times. She turned and went back up the stairs, not a word said between them.

  It annoyed West that if th
ey had any hope of saving their people, he had to become a heretic. Sally had people back home as well. The Dictatoriat was so bureaucratic; they'd still be discussing plans of action long after their planet was lost. He only hoped that there would come a time when drones like Sally would be seen as the martyrs they were, forsaking identity and destiny for the betterment of their people.

  He held his breath waiting for the sound that told him she had completed her final mission. When the blast rang out, he found himself breathing a little sigh of relief. Better she died by her own hand, than by the Dictatoriat. In her dying act, she'd regained control of a little bit of her destiny. All evidence was now destroyed, it was just his word against North's.

  Had the passageway still been there, he could have arranged a nasty accident. Even if it had, his devotion to his world didn't extend to cold-blooded murder.

  "What was that noise?" North gargled in their native tongue.

  West could only smile.

  "Oh, very clever," North said realising what West had done. "But don't think you'll get away with it that easy. The Dictatoriat will execute you for your heresy."

  "Really?" asked West. "Way I see it, our fates are now intertwined. If I go down, you're coming with me."

  He offered North a smile, giving the impression of confidence. But if he was honest, he had very little of it right now. The future seemed so very uncertain and for the first time in a long time West found himself longing for the assuredness an ordered life would bring.

  "I'll see that you burn for this, West."

  He had a battle ahead, West knew that much. One that would involve him fighting for his own life as much as he had been fighting for the life of his own planet.

  "We'll see, Mr North. We'll see."

  CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO - Aftermath

  The ruins of the tower stood like a broken tooth against the New Salisbury skyline, lit in orange from the fires that now burned at its base. Even from their vantage point of the Plaza, the glow from the fires seemed to light the entire horizon.

  "We better hurry," said Darwin looking at the sky. "It'll be light in a couple of hours."

  He never saw Monk's fist for the second time that evening. It caught him unawares and knocked him to the ground. As if he hadn't been beaten enough this evening. Darwin's body felt broken and bruised.

  "When were you planning on telling us?" Monk shouted.

  Darwin rubbed his latest wound. "Tell you what?"

  "About the notebook, Darwin. Or did it not seem important?"

  "I didn't realise that was what they were after. Cassidy and I just found it on the dead wizard." He glanced at Maureen. Having seen what she did to the tower, he was more worried about the consequences of saying something derogatory about McFadden than he was of Monk's beating.

  D'Toeni pointed Metzger’s sword at Darwin's chest. "I say we kill him."

  "I just saved all your lives, or were you not looking back there?"

  Monk considered him for a second and then spat. "I suppose that makes up for the thousands that died because of you, does it?"

  "Leave him," said Honest Tom. "He's not worthy of even death."

  Darwin pointed at D'Toeni. "Has he poisoned you against me? Back in Swindon, he did a deal with those things."

  Monk just shook his head. "No-one can trust anything you say any more, Darwin."

  Anger burned inside of Darwin. This wasn't how it was supposed to end.

  "We're all that's left. We have to stick together," he said.

  "No," said Tom. "We're all that's left. You never were one of us, Darwin."

  He couldn't help himself. Tears welled up in his eyes. "I did what I thought was right."

  "Really?" asked D'Toeni. "And did 'right' include betrayal, or did you learn that from little miss goody two-shoes over there?" He pointed at Cassidy.

  She went to take a step forward, but Maureen grabbed her shoulder and held her back.

  Darwin got back to his feet, fighting a losing battle against tears. Brian walked up to him as he did so.

  "If I ever see you again, Darwin," he whispered. "I will kill you. I promise."

  "Come on," Monk said. "Let's go before it gets light."

  D'Toeni raised the sword to Darwin. "Shame," he said pointing to his bloody face, “I would have liked to have paid you back for this."

  He lowered the sword, turned and started walking away with the rest of the vampires.

  "You need me," Darwin shouted after them. "I can go out during the day. You need me. You need me."

  Either they didn't hear him or choose to ignore him.

  An arm wrapped around his. A head touched against his shoulder. He looked down to see Cassidy.

  "It'll be OK, Darwin, I promise. But we need to get away. That tower is going to attract a lot of attention."

  Darwin snapped his arm away from her, his self-pity turning to anger.

  "This is your fault," he shouted. "You've done nothing but try and turn them against me all along."

  Cassidy looked shocked and slightly hurt but Darwin didn't care. "Darwin... I never..."

  "You kept wanting to make me more human."

  "Because you are!"

  "I'm not!" he yelled. "I'm a vampire, Cassidy. And you've turned my own people against me."

  He didn't know what he was saying, didn't care. He just wanted to lash out.

  She started to cry. Ordinarily the sight of her tears was enough to melt any argument, but not today. Today, they just felt like another ploy to manipulate him.

  "I was trying to help you," she pleaded grabbing for his arm again.

  He shrugged her off. "Leave me," he said. "You've done enough damage."

  "Darwin! Please."

  "You've poisoned my life. I never want to see you again."

  Maureen put her hand on Cassidy's shoulder. "We really need to be going."

  Cassidy ignored her and looked to Darwin, her eyes trying to talk to him in that language only they had shared. But Darwin was too angry. He didn't care what she had to say. Not anymore. He'd not go back to a life of rats and pig's blood. He was a vampire and he'd rip the very fear from his victim's necks.

  He turned. It felt like the world had rejected him, so he would reject it. He didn't need the vampires just as he didn't need Cassidy. He was better off alone.

  And without looking back, he ran off into the night.

  #

  The woman wove a drunken path up the alleyway. She was unsteady on her feet, and her high heels did nothing to aid her. A set of flagstone steps had to be traversed with concentration and precision, and even then, once at the top, she nearly toppled sideways into the bay window of a boutique.

  She was dressed in a blouse and smart skirt, and as he watched her totter up the alley, Darwin wondered where she had been to be wandering the city drunk at this time of night. Her outfit was too plain for a night out.

  No, he told himself. Don’t try to understand her. Ordinarily he would have worked his charms and bedded her first, but tonight, filled with rage, he just wanted to feast.

  He had been made weak by caring too much; caring what Cassidy thought, caring what the vampires thought. They’d all betrayed him and his tears still stung. He didn’t need them, he reminded himself. He was his own person and he’d go it alone, being the type of person he wanted to be, not one trying to constantly please people.

  The alleyway opened up into a little courtyard, a solitary gas lamp providing the sole illumination. She sat heavily on the wall of the raised flowerbed in the centre of the courtyard. The shadow of the overhanging boughs of the tree behind her dappled her in shade as she unstrapped one and then the other of her shoes. She let out a sigh of relief as she removed them, wiggling her painted toes in the night air.

  Darwin kept to the shadows, watching as she stood, shoes in hand. He went to follow, but his arm brushed something in the darkness. It was only the slightest of sounds, but it was enough for the woman to turn and peer into the darkness.

  “Who’
s there?” she called.

  Darwin froze, frightened that any movement might give him away. She continued to stare into the shadows for a minute, looking directly at him but not seeing him, before turning and carrying on her way. Swinging her shoes as she went, she started singing to herself.

  Darwin waited longer than he otherwise would have, before following her up the alley. He was quick and light footed, his hand around her mouth before she even had chance to scream. He pulled her into the shadows, tilting her head to expose her neck.

  He lent in for the kill, only stopping himself at the last minute. He looked up and stared into the panic-stricken eyes of the woman.

  “Your name,” he said. “First, tell me your name.”

  <<<<<<>>>>>>>

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  The path to publication is much like those epic quest fantasies of old. There is much time spent in the forests of despair and swamps of rejection. Like all good stories there are moments of doubt, when hope is a fragile flame about to be snuffed out.

  This has been a long quest, a decade in the making, and there have been many in my fellowship that I am indebted to.

  Thanks to Nick, Simon, Pob & Mark, the most loyal of companions, who’ve had to listen every New Year as I proclaim that this would be the year the novel would get completed. They’ve seen me at my worst, now I hope you can see me at my best.

  Thank you to my editor Andy, who took a dream and gave life to it; a man who has let this novel be all that it could be. I am eternally indebted.

  Thanks also to my family, Amanda, the guildees of Casualties, Heff & Westie for all their support on this long, long journey.