Diary of the Displaced Box Set

by Glynn James

  The stairwell did eventually end, though, and we found ourselves upon a massive platform that stretched away almost forever, oddly lit somehow by some source that wasn't visible.

  That was when I spotted the first dark shape on the ground. It was hundreds of yards away, across the brick ground. Two of the Maw were already moving towards it, sniffing the ground, but not getting too close to it.

  It was another of Nua'lath's people. Another tattooed disciple of their strange priesthood, except this one was far more grotesquely mauled than the others had been.

  I stood a few feet away, cringing in disgust at the mauled thing. It was barely recognisable, but one part of its smashed face bore the same tattoo markings, and the same material that their clothing was made from was lying in torn shreds across a large area.

  Rudy and Adler stood next to me, and Rudy was shaking his head.

  "It's like it was torn apart...like."

  I suddenly realised.

  "Just like how you died, Rudy."

  He looked up to me, his face pale. How a glowing white ghost can be even paler, I don't know, but Rudy managed it now.

  Adler leaned over the mess.

  "Yes, this is how it was when I returned to the shack that time and found you dead, Rudy," he said, his voice quiet and wavering. I knew that neither of my two ghostly friends cared much about reliving their demises, and even less about how they had split up. I think both of them regretted it to a level that they believed they might both still be alive had they made different choices, had Adler not been in such a hurry to leave, and maybe if Rudy had not been so stubborn.

  "Killed by Nua'lath."

  I didn't repeat DogThing's words to Rudy and Adler.

  There were more bodies as we moved on, each of them mauled in a similar way, and after we had passed maybe twenty of them the carnage ended. Once more we walked across an expanse of open ground that was almost perfectly flat but for the occasional broken patch of brick-work, or an area covered with a blue, spongy moss.

  Then the Maw were growling, and I moved quickly forward towards the noise. As I approached I could see that a dozen of them were surrounding something, a figure that was kneeling upon the ground. Another half a dozen bodies were lying in a circle around this one that was still alive, and they weren't mauled and ripped apart like the others had been. These last few dead were killed by blades.

  I stepped through the circle of Maw and towards the figure, my blade and my gun at the ready.

  "Be careful," said Rudy.

  The figure looked up at me for a moment, rose slowly from the ground, and bowed.

  "I am honoured to be in your presence, Halldon," said a deep cracked voice. He stood up straight, and looked directly at me from within his hood. I could see that he was younger looking than the others had been, but there was no mistaking the tattoo markings. At his feet lay two long wickedly sharp blades.

  "Who are you?" I asked, pointing my gun at him.

  "I am Sha'ris, acolyte of the High Temple," he said, bowing once more. "I was an initiate and student to Dha'mir before I was passed into the brotherhood."

  Dha'mir. There was that name yet again, come back to remind me of his betrayal. Even though he showed regret, and helped me in his last breath, I wouldn't forget.

  I watched the creature...creature? They look almost like men, really, except for a few differences; the lack of a defined nose; the larger than normal eyes; the paler than pale skin that is almost translucent. Their mouths are lined with long, sharp, exaggerated teeth, and their shoulders sit higher than a man's, but other than that they are humanoid.

  "Why are you waiting here?"

  He blinked at me, expressionless.

  "I was waiting for you. My brethren are all dead. I am alone. I knew that you were following the trail, and I decided that instead of failing in my duty to destroy Nua'lath and retrieve the talisman, I would wait, and offer to join with you in achieving the task. I had, like Dha'mir, believed it a crucial element to the success of the task, but I was restricted by my brethren in making the choice. Now they are all dead, I have decided to curse myself to the unlife, and accept that as my fate for joining forces with an enemy, but I deem it a necessary sacrifice."

  He frowned.

  "Well you can go right ahead and die with the rest of your people. I have no intention of teaming up with you."

  He nodded and I turned, intending to move around him and carry on. I knew that the Maw would happily deal with him.

  "I expected that you would react as such."

  I stopped and looked back.

  "Really? Well I'm pleased for you. Though you're about to become Maw food."

  "James," interrupted Adler. "Maybe we should talk to him first? Maybe..."

  I felt a twinge of anger rising.

  "For what? So he can lead us down some merry path and then stick me with a sword? Did you even listen to what I told you about Dha'mir? I wouldn't trust any words that thing says."

  Adler went silent, which I thought was unusual. He'd never been one for backing down before now.

  "But James..." it was Rudy this time, "don't you think that he must have had good reason to wait for you?"

  "Yes, perfectly good reason. Team up with me to fight Nua'lath now that his buddies are all dead, and stab me in the back later on. Am I right?" I glared at Sha'ris.

  "Yes. Of course," he said. "If you stand in the way of me taking the talisman back to my people."

  At least it seemed he was being honest.

  "I don't want your damn talisman. I've never wanted it. You can take your damn talisman and stick it right where it's dark for all I care. If you even have one. And why aren't you dead like the rest of your freaky friends? Can you answer that?"

  His face was emotionless.

  "I am faster with a blade than even Nua'lath. My brethren were there to provide distraction so that I could make it past the barrier of protection that the Icons provide him, and make the killing blow. I have failed twice."

  I laughed at this, though it was a shallow and empty laugh.

  "You failed twice? Not much good at this are you?"

  "You also have failed many times, even to the point of losing your kin to his will," he said, staring back at me.

  I wanted to feel angry at this, and I could feel a rage burning in my stomach, but the feeling sank. He was right. I stood there for a long while, just staring at him.

  "I have spoken out of place. I apologise," he said, which took me aback for a moment. "Our two races have warred for so long that I cannot help but dislike you intensely. The hatred is blood-deep. My mentor, Dha'mir, held his hatred back for a long time, and was scorned by the brethren for even associating with your kind. But he taught me that we have a common enemy. We have hunted Nua'lath for longer than you, ever since he first became corrupted and strayed from the true path when he stole the power of our people, bending it to destroy. We were never meant to step out from our home. We are meant to stand in vigilance over the Great One and use the power to sustain him."

  I frowned, wondering why this enemy of mine was suddenly telling me far more than Dha'mir ever had.

  "Your kin abhor us as much as we do you, we are too unalike for us to ever exist together in harmony, but my kind also have a great respect for your resilience and determination. Whilst we are forced to leave our home and hunt Nua'lath, we will always stumble upon each other, and killing one another is a natural result. Is it not in both of our interests to join forces and finish this, so that I may return home with the talisman, and you and your kin never see us again?"

  The more he spoke, the more his words made sense, but I just couldn't bring myself to want to team up. This was no ally that I'd ever wanted.

  "I still don't trust you. What reason have I got to think that you're not lying to me?"

  He swept his arms outward and in an arc, indicating the bodies.

  "I killed the last of my brethren to take a chance at a different approach."

  I cou
ld see by the expressions on Adler and Rudy's faces that they were as shocked at this as I was. It took me a minute or so to grasp the idea.

  "You killed your own people to join up with me?"

  He nodded.

  "But...what could posses you to do that?"

  "They were set in their path and their ways to continue on and attempt a third attack. I knew it would be our final failure. Do not misunderstand. I had no desire to hurt my own kind. I only wish to restore that which rightfully belongs in our high temple. I will be punished for my crime. But I will also take the talisman home."

  I stared at him for what seemed a long time. I had to make a decision, and quickly. I couldn't waste any more time with waiting when I knew that we were gaining on Nua'lath. If what this man was saying was true, then working with him, against our common enemy, may be the only way to succeed. And if I was honest with myself, I knew what I had to do to defeat Nua'lath - separate him from my family - but I still hadn't the slightest idea of how I was going to do it.

  "OK," I said, finally.

  He looked startled.

  "You are accepting my proposal of a temporary alliance?"

  "Yes, but it ends when Nua'lath is dead and you take your talisman and go."

  We set off again, most of the Maw travelling ahead of us with DogThing, seeking out the scent of the trail, and Sha'ris walking by my side, with Adler and Rudy with us. GreyFoot was still clinging to my side like I was a parent, just as she had since we first entered The Ways. She was constantly on edge, as though something was bothering her.

  I found myself holding two conversations at the same time, one with DogThing as he kept me updated, and the other as I probed Sha'ris for more information.

  "Not far now. I can sense them."

  "You can? How close?"

  "Very soon. Their passing here is strong."

  I took a deep breath. Finally the moment was coming. My stomach churned and my nerves tingled. I had the Maw with me, and Adler, and Rudy. But Sha'ris? I couldn't account for him. I knew that I was going into this fight with the odds against me.

  I tried to ignore it. I'd been through worse, alone.

  "How did you know we were coming?" I asked Sha'ris. "You were waiting for us."

  "Yes, we passed you in the ruins before the battle at the portal. I knew you were there, as did many of my brethren, but we could not sense your exact location. Also, our rear scout was waiting at the top of the stairs for a while when you entered the last chamber before climbing to The Gallery."

  "The Gallery?"

  "Yes. The Ways is split into many levels, and the topmost was strangely called The Gallery. Our histories do not tell us of the ancient peoples that built or named the different places within The Ways, only the region names."

  I frowned at this. The Gallery, as he had called it, was a vast open plain of sorts, but instead of dirt and grass the ground was almost perfectly flat brick work patterned in a thatchwork style. All of the bricks were of the same size and the colour of dark slate. A strange name to call such a strange place.

  "Your histories? How old is this place?"

  He shrugged.

  "No one knows that either, but our histories date back over twenty thousand years through the names of the families that have held the High Priesthood, and it has been here, almost unchanged the whole time. Many centuries ago it was mostly occupied by my kind, and was used as a way of travelling to many worlds, but it became less so after Nua'lath took the talisman. We still have the means to use the portals, as you know, but The Ways has become a dangerous place, with many creatures that never belonged here now inhabiting the dark places.

  "It's pretty big then? The Ways?"

  He laughed. I don't remember ever hearing Dha'mir laugh, so the noise that came from Sha'ris was quite alien. It was a deep booming sound that was barely comparable to a human's laugher. It sounded mocking, but his expression suggested otherwise.

  "The Ways is indeed large. No one has ever found the end, as such. It is, in theory, an endless place. Once, many centuries ago, there was a prophet amongst our kind called Lha'rul. He left our lands and said that he, as his particular rite of passage, would walk the entirety of The Ways, and map it as he went. About three centuries after he left upon his journey his remains were found in a tomb somewhere in The Ways. Who had buried him, no one knows, but the tomb was a shrine, and very decorated, and within the tomb were his journals. There were thirty-five volumes, and over a thousand maps, each covering an area that was vast. It was calculated by scholars that he must have walked for over a hundred years, barely stopping. Many of the places on his maps are so far away that a man could not walk there if he walked for ten years, and many of the places on the maps we have still to visit. Lha'rul recorded the locations of over five thousand portal markings."

  "That's ridiculous."

  "Indeed."

  A place so vast that ten years of walking wouldn't take you to some of the furthest reaches, and connected to over five thousand worlds. It was mind-boggling.

  Sha'ris opened his mouth, about to speak again, but then he stopped dead, his expression changed to intense concentration.

  "Do you hear that?"

  I stopped. Listening.

  I couldn't hear anything at first.

  "Everyone stop. Listen."

  Far away, echoing through the halls and across the flat brick plain, came the very faint sound of a raised voice. And something else, something humming, an almost inaudible crackling sound.

  "A portal?" asked Rudy. "Is that what that noise is?"

  "He is opening another portal to leave here?" said Adler.

  I looked at Sha'ris.

  "I think, Halldon, that if we are to catch up with and confront Nua'lath, it should happen here, where there are few creatures for him to throw against us or twist to join the ranks of his minions. He has some still with him, but we have thinned their numbers out significantly. We should attack as swiftly as possible, surprise him if we can. We should..."

  "We should run."

  "Yes."

  I stared at my unlikely ally for a few moments, wondering if I was about to walk into my last fight, wondering if by teaming up with Sha'ris I had made one final mistake.

  But it was too late now.

  "Are you ready?"

  "Yes."

  We ran.

  For what seemed like hours, we just ran, even though barely half a mile in distance went by. The open brick plain that we had started on quickly gave way to rows upon rows of massive pillars that were twenty feet in diameter and rose into the darkness around us. Had I not been in such a hurry to catch Nua'lath before he escaped from this place, and possibly got ahead of us one more time, I may have stopped to see the strange things that we rushed past on our way, but there was no time.

  I saw things that can't be explained easily, things that would have looked more at home in The Corridor. There was a tree growing from the ground just before we reached the hall of pillars; the brick-work around it had just broken and fallen back as the monstrous thing had pushed its way up, and this was like no tree that I had ever seen. There was no end to it, and it rose up into the darkness, promising to just keep on going. The trunk of the tree must have been a hundred feet wide and the roots that stuck up from the ground were taller than I was. There were no visible leaves or other forms of growth, but the thing was definitely alive. As we skirted around it, still hurrying in the direction of the noise, the entire thing swayed towards us. It didn't reach out to us, but the whole mass of the tree swayed back and forth slowly as we passed by.

  Half way across the hall of pillars, as I jumped over holes in the ground that seemed to fall endlessly into the darkness, I saw the rusted and broken frame of a tank. This was an old one, and I remembered that sometime in the past I had seen tanks like this as they roared across Europe in the war that humankind had called the second great world war, or something like that. We, the Resistance, had only been involved in a few incidents during the two
great human wars, but my memory was sharp enough now that something floated to the top, something that didn't need a flashback. It was a panzer tank, and to confirm this I saw the body of a long dead and shrivelled German stormtrooper lying dead on the ground just a few feet away. The body looked as though it had been drained of all of its fluid, blood, water, everything, and I was suddenly unsure that the draining had been natural decay.

  Something had killed the soldier.

  Something that lived here in The Ways.

  It had killed others too; I saw the bodies scattered across the ground over the next hundred yards as we ran onwards.

  Things moved in the darkness around us. Slow, slithering things, and things that crawled or scuttled away as four humanoid figures and a mass of Black Maw dashed past them in the darkness. I was sure that those creatures were used to the half-light, but I still wasn't, and although I knew that they could see us, I couldn't see them. Most of them quickly disappeared into dark shadows and holes in the brick-work before we got anywhere near them.

  Then, the noise was overpowering, and the glaring light was dazzling as we rushed towards the edge of the cavern. I almost fell, but slowed myself in time, and I realised that I had been lucky. If I had not stopped when I did I would have plummeted fifty feet into the massive chasm that now opened up below us, and maybe even into the dark pit that lay in the very centre.

  My brain was struggling to keep up with the speed at which everything was happening. Barely an hour ago we had been walking quite calmly through the seemingly endless maze, and now, now my confrontation with Nua'lath, with CutterJack was racing up to meet me at a rate that I couldn't fathom.

  It was the first time since we escaped from The Corridor that I'd seen him, and looking down into the cavern sent a sharp chill up my spine.

  In the middle of the deep, circular chasm was the same sort of portal sign platform that I'd seen a few dozen times already, one of apparently thousands in this endless maze of bricks, except this one was alive. A bright halo of flickering, crackling power hovered in the air just in front of the brick wall that held the sigils that identified the location the portal would lead to, and that was the first thing that burned into my mind. The destination pattern was glowing with a bright orange fiery light, and it was like staring into the sun for a moment and then looking away.