A World of Secrets (The Firewall Trilogy)

by James Maxwell

  Selena’s eyes were wide as she glanced at Taimin. “The Protector of Zorn. He came to power when his father was murdered outside the city. Someone took his head. That’s what started all the fighting.”

  Ingren nodded. “A quest demands that the hunter seek out trophies with special qualities. The place you call Zorn was once our outpost. Bonded would visit to prepare for hunts and watch fights in the arena. We left it a long time ago, when the barrier began to have dangerous surges . . . columns of hot air that came without warning.”

  “Firestorms,” Lars muttered to Taimin and Selena.

  Taimin gazed into the distance. Zorn was discovered empty by the Protector’s ancestor, hundreds of years ago. Who could say how long it had been abandoned for?

  His mouth tightened as he turned back to Ingren. “You built the firewall. You put us here. We are nothing but your prisoners.”

  “Yes,” Ingren said. She stared directly into his eyes. “But now that the barrier is gone, we will surely do something that perhaps should have been done a long time ago. You have no understanding of our power. This is our world. Our weapons command the sky and the land. Our warriors will come and kill you all, before you have a chance to threaten our farmland, our towns, and our cities.”

  Dread sank into Taimin’s chest. He couldn’t prevent himself from looking at the severed heads.

  Ingren spoke her next words with finality. “Believe me. None of you will survive.”

  39

  Night fell on a day of calamity. Nothing would be the same again.

  Members of five races—five allied races, fighting a distant war with the bonded—talked together in the bowl-shaped basin. Their heads often tilted back, and eyes turned upward to gaze at the stars. They discussed their fates and shared their fears, and came to the growing realization that their world wasn’t what they had thought it was.

  For a long time bax had fought human, and skalen had fought them both. Mantoreans had roamed the wasteland, trading with the other races and protecting their own kind, while trulls scavenged and stole. Yet they now had a common enemy. The bonded had trapped them in the wasteland for eons.

  The fence around their prison was gone.

  But soon they would all be destroyed.

  Taimin found Selena standing alone on the ridge as she gazed out at the desert. The starlight gave her long coal-black hair a blueish tinge, and with her high cheekbones and slender frame she was as beautiful as ever. He knew she must be as exhausted as he was, but that like him, she would be frightened by all they had just learned.

  Selena didn’t say anything as he came to stand beside her. He spent a few moments looking at her, marveling that she was here, in front of him.

  “I missed you,” Taimin said.

  “I missed you too.” She turned to face him.

  Taimin gathered his thoughts. “About your father,” he said. “He did something incredibly brave, even though he knew it might kill him. He died to help us.”

  “He spoke to me at the end,” Selena said. “I wish I had known him better.”

  Taimin and Selena stood in silence for a time. In common with many of the others clustered around the three broken peaks, they stared up at the stars. One point of light was traveling slowly from one side of the heavens to the other. Was it a shooting star, or was it something else altogether? Perhaps one of the ships that Ingren had told them about? Ingren had tried to explain more—she seemed to revel in her greater knowledge—but Taimin still found it hard to understand that stars were distant suns, and that around those suns were worlds and ships that traveled between them.

  He glanced down at the basin. He spotted Ingren easily by her height. She was still down there, speaking to some of the skalen. As she stretched her long arms to explain something, the skalen looked at her warily. But despite her size she appeared to be harmless and resigned to her new status as a captive.

  “I found it again,” Selena suddenly said. She met Taimin’s eyes. “My power. I’m in control now. I won’t use it to harm anyone again.”

  “You did it,” he said seriously. “I always knew you would.”

  “And your injury . . . ?” Selena cast a perplexed look at his foot.

  “The dead one wanted to fight on even terms, so they healed me. They are strange creatures, to say the least.”

  “I can’t believe it,” Selena said. She let out a breath, shaking her head.

  “Neither can I,” he said. He smiled. “Don’t laugh, but it’s going to take some getting used to.” His smile faded. “And you may not understand, but it only happened after I understood something. It never held me back. In fact, it made me who I am.”

  “I’m glad,” Selena said. She paused. “What now?”

  “I’ve been speaking with the others. We’ll head back to Zorn together, and we’ll tell everyone we meet what we’ve learned.”

  “And then? Can we fight them?”

  “In truth, I don’t know,” Taimin said. He wanted to reassure her, but found he couldn’t. “You saw inside the machine . . .” He trailed off.

  “We have to try,” Selena said. “Think about what they’ve done and why we’re here.” She gazed down at Ingren. “We’ll have to take her to Zorn with us.”

  “We will.”

  Selena shivered; they were all struggling with the cool breeze. She watched the figures in the basin. “We’re going to have to learn to work together. This is bigger than we can handle alone.”

  Taimin grimaced. “All I wanted to do was reach the world outside the firewall. I didn’t think about . . .”

  “How could you have known? How could any of us? We had a dream. Once you know there’s something better on the other side of a doorway, it’s hard not to walk through.”

  Taimin had never forgotten what he and Selena had seen when they left their bodies and gazed down from the void, at the edge of what Ingren had referred to as space. The wasteland was a tiny sliver of a spherical world. Silver rivers carved their way through forests of emerald green. Vast oceans of dark blue surrounded gigantic landmasses. In just a few brief moments he had discovered deserts and plains, mountain ranges and networks of islands. The vision had stayed with him ever since.

  But the world he had glimpsed wasn’t his own. Perhaps Syrus, the mystic who had sheltered him and Lars for a time, was right, and Earth was real, rather than an afterlife some believed in. Perhaps Earth was the last remnant of an ancient memory among the humans trapped in the wasteland.

  Taimin had learned that there was more to the world than he had once thought. Now he knew that even this world wasn’t all that there was. Ingren had spoken of many more worlds. The thought filled him with awe. But it was also daunting.

  “The firewall is gone,” Taimin said.

  He gazed out at the dunes that made up the desert. There was now no barrier, nothing separating the bonded from their prisoners.

  The warrior, Ungar, had embarked on a quest with the sole purpose of taking heads as trophies to display to his fellow warriors back home. From what Taimin had learned, Ungar took pleasure in fighting. It wasn’t an attitude Taimin shared. He fought when he needed to, but it wasn’t something he had ever sought out.

  He knew in his heart that Ingren was right. The bonded would eradicate their former captives, rather than let them freely roam their world.

  Taimin turned to Selena. “We have dark times ahead of us.”

  She nodded, as troubled as he was. They were both silent for a time, wondering about the days to come.

  Then Taimin spoke again. “Thank you, Selena. For not leaving me.”

  “We’re stronger together,” she said firmly.

  He looked up at the heavens. “But will we be strong enough?”

  40

  A tall tower of white stone dominated the city of Zorn. The tower gazed out over streets and avenues, rows of houses, an oval-shaped arena, and an enclosing wall. From the top of the tower, anything that moved on the barren terrain outside the city would be se
en long before it approached.

  Taimin stood alone as he took in the view. From his lofty position, high above the buildings, he looked out and pondered.

  He now knew that the city—or outpost—had once provided temporary homes for the bonded while they watched fights in the arena and prepared to embark on hunts. That was long ago, when the wasteland’s population would have been much smaller, making it difficult to track down the bax, skalen, mantoreans, trulls, and humans roaming the distant plains.

  The purpose of the observation room at the top of the tower was now clear. A lucky sighting might stir a frenzy as bonded warriors raced from the city, competing with each other to claim a prize. The region surrounding Zorn was flat and inhospitable. In those days, hundreds of years in the past, anyone who strayed too close to the city would not have survived long.

  Taimin gripped one of the perimeter columns to lean forward and peer down at the plaza surrounding the tower’s base. The atmosphere in the city had changed; it wasn’t just humans browsing the market. He saw a few bax and skalen moving about below. There was no longer talk of a threat from any of the wasteland’s races.

  Zorn was at peace. As the great revelation had spread, the constant infighting between the five races had come to an end. Newcomers arrived almost every day, and with them they brought trade.

  It was time to prepare. Ingren, currently held prisoner in the tower, had said that the bonded would know the firewall was gone almost as soon as it happened. They closely monitored events in their own world and would act without delay. The inhabitants of the wasteland, who had suddenly been freed, would soon face an enemy of unimaginable power.

  Voices broke through Taimin’s reverie. He turned to take in the rest of the observation room. There were no walls framing the wide, circular space; instead, an outer ring of stone columns supported the ceiling. A series of steps sunk into the floor led down to the tower’s lower sections. Stools, chairs, and low tables had been moved to the side: everyone in the room was standing. The issue being discussed was urgent.

  He saw Elsa, the leader of Zorn, a wiry woman with graying brown hair and a brisk manner. She was deep in discussion with Blixen, Warden of the Rift Valley, one of the most intimidating bax Taimin had ever encountered, with grooves above his deep-set eyes and studded leather armor that barely covered his barrel chest.

  Moving past them, Taimin saw Selena and Ruth speaking with Rei-kika, a mantorean and skilled mystic. Farther away, Vance and Lars stood with Rathis, an old skalen Taimin had met in the arena. Rathis looked disturbed by something Vance was saying, while beside them both, Lars’s face looked grim.

  Taimin knew some of them better than others, but this new accord felt as if it would last. The only question was, even united, did they stand any chance of survival when the bonded came?

  Elsa caught Taimin’s eye and waved him over. Leaving his position, he navigated the room until he reached her group. Blixen regarded Taimin with his dark, glowering eyes.

  “We’ve been talking for hours and we still don’t have a plan,” Elsa said bluntly.

  “Can we hide from them?” Blixen asked in his deep, gravelly voice.

  Elsa opened her mouth to speak but then her eyes slowly widened. She was staring past Taimin’s shoulder. All conversation in the observation room trailed to a stop.

  Taimin turned.

  He frowned as he caught movement in the sky. Whatever it was, it was small at first, but rapidly grew larger in his vision. The object was metallic in color and spherical in shape, with a blur of something whirring just above it. Floating above the city, suspended in the air, the sphere gave off a buzzing sound that became louder as it neared the tower.

  Taimin’s heart thumped in his chest. He knew instinctively that the thing he was looking at wasn’t from the world he knew. The metallic sphere had spinning wings above it, like those of a flying insect, moving so fast he couldn’t focus on them. The orb drifted above the city as the noise of its passage grew in volume.

  Soon Taimin could make out detail. A round side of the orb was dark and contained an inner white circle. The white part, surrounded by black, moved as the orb flew over the city, roving, shifting to face one direction and then another. There was something the sphere resembled more than anything else: an eye.

  The floating eye inspected as it flew. It traveled over homes where parents looked after their children and buzzed over streets where city folk came to a halt, shocked as they stared up at the sky. When the eye reached the tall tower, for a brief moment the white part faced the observation room as it passed by.

  Taimin tried to tell himself it was just a machine, but he nonetheless felt a strong sense of menace. His dread grew stronger as the eye glared directly at him. Fixed in place and inspected by a moving object with no body or soul, he wanted nothing more than to hide.

  At last the buzzing orb left the tower behind. The eye swept over the entire city, performing a wide circle, before increasing speed and returning back the way it had come.

  Taimin knew the value of scouting terrain, counting numbers, and assessing defenses.

  He knew when he was a target.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  My utmost thanks to everyone at 47North and United Agents who have been so supportive throughout all stages of the publishing process, with special mention to my editor, Jack, and agent, Robert.

  Eternal gratitude to Ian, for helping make sense of my crazy ideas. I’d also like to credit Jon’s help with early development, and my amazing readers: Amanda, Amy, Nicole, Estrid, Sandra, and Rosa.

  Thanks to all of you who have reached out to me and taken the time to post reviews of my books.

  Boundless recognition must go to my wife, Alicia. We share these dreams together.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Photo © 2015 Anna Niman

  James Maxwell grew up in the scenic Bay of Islands, New Zealand, and was educated in Australia. Devouring fantasy and science-fiction classics from an early age, his love for books led to a strong interest in writing. He attended his first workshop with published authors at the age of eleven, and throughout his twenties he continued to develop the epic fantasy story he would one day bring to life.

  The internationally bestselling four books of The Evermen Saga were published with 47North in 2014. James soon followed with his second series, The Shifting Tides, a sweeping tale of adventure, intrigue, and magic.

  A World Of Secrets is the second title in his latest series, The Firewall Trilogy, with the sequel, A Search For Starlight, out in 2021.

  James lives in London with his wife and daughter. When he isn’t writing, he enjoys French cooking, acoustic guitar, and long walks in the English countryside.

  For free books and to learn about new releases, sign up at www.jamesmaxwell.com.