The Word Guardians: and the Twisting Tales

by Lawrence Yarham

  “Crap!” replied Peter, realising the significance. “So, he saw the meeting?”

  “Looks like it,” replied Janine. “And I think he was able to hear everything as well,” she said, replaying the sound of the falling book in her mind. “I heard the book fall just now. As if I was there.”

  “Damn it,” exclaimed Peter. “He knows about our plan to come here, then.”

  “Yep. This could be disastrous for us,” replied Janine gravely, still moving through the library and watching different actors at play. There was still no sign of Sam or Yas though.

  “Where are they?” she asked the mirror. “Show me where they are.”

  “I know where they are,” echoed a voice in the chamber. Janine jerked backwards and broke the connection with the mirror. Dai and Kierra whirled quickly to face the person speaking.

  Penn appeared around the corner of one of the arched doorways, casually looking at his fingernails, preening.

  “Where are they?” demanded Peter. “What have you done with them?”

  “Nothing. It’s nothing to do with me,” he said dramatically, moving towards their chamber and giving his trademark slippery eel smile.

  “But you know where they are?” Janine pressed, stepping forwards.

  “It’s funny really,” said Penn, ignoring her question. He walked slowly over to join them.

  “What is?” asked Peter, his irritation rising. He’d had conversations previously with Penn and knew that the man was a master of deception.

  “You see, Orfeo thinks he’s so clever. He’s been doing all the watching from here,” Penn gestured to the hall. “Yet whose been watching the Watcher?”

  “You?” suggested Dai, moving cautiously towards the others, while occasionally glancing behind him. Then he realised. “I guess that was rhetorical?”

  He and Penn exchanged knowing glances.

  “So, you know what he’s planning, then?” asked Janine, pushing her luck. “Care to share?”

  “Yes, and no!” replied Penn, switching his glance from Dai to Janine.

  There was silence for a moment as the four of them waited for Penn to divulge what he knew. Instead, he merely looked at each of them in turn, smiling his inane smile.

  “Oh, you want me to tell you?” he asked finally, acting ignorant.

  “What do you know?” asked Peter, taking the bait. Penn was getting on his nerves.

  “The question is, Detective,” Penn replied. “What’s it worth to you?”

  “Of course,” sighed Peter, smiling wryly. “I figured you wouldn’t just share. What do you want out of this?”

  “I’m glad you asked,” Penn replied, walking over to Peter. “Let’s just say I want the police out of my organisation, once and for all.”

  “You know I don’t have that much power?”

  “No,” replied Penn. “But I know who does and, shall we say, Orfeo has his ear?”

  Janine understood who he was talking about. “The Commissioner,” she explained. “Yas and Sam overheard him talking with Orfeo at the dinner.”

  “So, you think he’s in Orfeo’s pocket, then?” Peter asked Penn, incredulously.

  “Let’s just say that Orfeo is making sure his previous ally… me, is no longer a threat.”

  “If you’re saying Orfeo made the Commissioner start investigations into your empire, you’re wrong,” countered Peter. “Your disappearance under suspicious circumstances merely opened the door for us to ask questions about alleged questionable practices in your organisation.”

  “Detective,” Penn laughed. “Who do you think made the story of my disappearance suspicious? Who created the stories of the different practices you mention? Don’t be so naïve!”

  Peter stopped for a moment. As much as he knew that Penn was a master of twisting the truth to suit himself, he realised that Penn had a point. Peter didn’t know who had created the stories, only that they had been reported and that investigations had begun.

  “How do I know that you’re not just twisting the truth here to suit yourself?”

  “You don’t, Detective. But if you want to know where your young friends are, then you’ll have to trust me.” Penn looked out of the window. “At least for now,” he added.

  “So, what do you want me to do?” asked Peter. He needed to know what it would cost him before he could decide whether to agree to it or not.

  “I need you to convince the Commissioner that he won’t find what he is looking for in my organisation. I want your hounds to stop sniffing around my business.”

  “You want me to get him to call of the search?” replied Peter, incredulously. “Based on what? A whim?”

  “I can provide you with evidence that Orfeo is the cause of the issues in my organisation.”

  “I don’t believe you!”

  “Oh yes,” continued Penn. “You see, Orfeo needs the reach of my media empire to convince the minds of many for his next little trick. So, he needs me out of the way. He instigated the rumours to limit my powers. He also figured he’d won the lottery with me having disappeared and being trapped in a realm. But then he sent his champions to slay the dragon… me… and his plan went awry.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Penn started moving towards one of the mirrors.

  “Stories are twisting in the realms, as a result of his actions.”

  “What actions?” asked Janine, intrigued. She felt as though answers were potentially at hand.

  Penn touched a mirror reverently and swept his hand across it. Then he looked back at Peter and Janine, to prompt them.

  “If you can provide me evidence of what you say,” said Peter, “I will take that to the Commissioner, yes. But that evidence must stand up. It can’t be fake in any way.”

  “Don’t worry,” replied Penn. “It won’t be.” He turned and moved towards Peter, his hand extended. “We have a deal, then?”

  Peter extended his hand reluctantly and shook. “Yes,” he said, glancing at Janine. “We have a deal.”

  He retracted his hand from the handshake as soon as he felt that he could. He still didn’t like the man and couldn’t help feeling that he’d made a deal with the devil.

  “Now, tell us what you know,” Peter urged.

  Penn moved towards the windows, overlooking the lake.

  “There’s ancient stories,” he started. “Of apocalypses being unleashed.”

  “Nothing new,” dismissed Janine, moving away from the mirror and to the centre of the hall. “Foretelling the end of the world, or of history changing events. Plagues, wars and famines have been rife throughout history. The Black Death, the Mongol conquests, the fall of Rome, the First and Second World Wars…”

  “Yes, and there is a belief that each is tied to some key event, or arrival.”

  “Well, there’s been historical speculation that something had driven these, but there’s never been any proof of that,” countered Janine, her curiosity rising.

  “Typically, it’s an uprising,” continued Penn. “A means of engaging the masses in order to quell any resistance to change.”

  “With wars and falls of civilisations, sure,” agreed Janine. “But it wasn’t the same for each of them.”

  “Or was it?” rebuffed Penn. “Orfeo believes there was a common linkage.” He turned around to face Janine. “He has been seeking to create such an event.”

  “Like a terrorist act of some kind?” asked Peter, becoming agitated. “Look, if you know what he’s doing, you need to tell us.”

  Penn held up his hand to appeal for quiet. He smiled at Peter. “If only it were that easy, Detective. No, what Orfeo has in mind is a longer game. He wants to be able to influence the minds of many in order to enact change. For his own gain of course.”

  “What change?” asked Peter. “The protests?”

  “Yes,” replied Penn.

  “How’s he doing that? How is that possible?”

  “He is convincing people that now is the time to act.”

>   “So, how?” repeated Peter. “Surely he can’t do all that just through your little organisation. It’s not that powerful?”

  “Maybe,” agreed Penn, recognising the put down. He also didn’t like Peter. The man was just too ‘follow the rules’ based for his liking.

  “But he wants the buying power of my empire on social media,” Penn continued. “He wants to back up the messages he places there with the same on the news, in adverts and in printed media. He wants to convince people of what he tells them, just because it’s everywhere. Rather simple, really.”

  “Fake news?” asked Kierra. “People wouldn’t be so dumb, would they?”

  “Persons, no,” agreed Penn. “But as a collective, yes. People are strange creatures. Orfeo plans to call the masses to action. He wants to weaponize the population.”

  “Do what?” asked Peter, incredulously.

  “To create a revolution, of course” replied Penn.

  “Against what? Who?” pressed Kierra. Penn sounded crazy and too self assured for her liking.

  “Against the established rule of law and government.”

  “But why?” Peter asked. “To what end? There has to be a reason. A cause can’t just be established without a motivation.”

  “Of course, Detective,” smiled Penn again. “In your work, a crime always has to have a motive, doesn’t it?”

  “Usually,” Peter replied thoughtfully. He accepted that there were sometimes in the moment crimes, though. “So what cause is Orfeo using to mobilise people?”

  “Control,” Penn replied. “Limiting the choice of news, shutting down social media, limiting freedoms.”

  “But that’s not true,” retorted Dai, stepping forwards. “It’s people like you that are spreading the fake news,” he pointed at Penn. “That’s the problem!”

  “Is it?” Penn replied, raising an eyebrow and returning his gaze to the window. “Orfeo has already motivated people to protest and riot. I had no hand in that.”

  “In small groups, yes,” agreed Peter. “But rolling that out on a mass scale is something else altogether.”

  “Yes,” agreed Penn. “This is only the start. He plans much more. For that, he needs to unleash a force that cannot easily be defeated. Index.” He let that hang in the air.

  “Excuse me?” asked Kierra. “What the hell’s Index?”

  “He’s not reappeared yet,” replied Penn, matter-of-factly. “The question you should be asking, is ‘how is he planning to do this’?”

  “Reappeared?” Peter asked. “What…?”

  Penn gave him a look that told him he was not going to get an answer unless he asked the right question. Peter relented, wearily. “Okay. How’s he planning to do this then?”

  “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” replied Penn, nonchalantly.

  “This is crazy!” retorted Kierra, throwing her hands up in the air. “Index? Horsemen? What next, global catastrophe?”

  “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” confirmed Janine, ignoring Kierra, “is a myth of four entities coming together to then unleash plagues, war and famine. What are you saying? Index is the apocalypse that Orfeo will release?”

  “Yes,” Penn preened. “You catch on quickly,” he nodded approvingly. “Quite the scholar if I remember!”

  He paused for a moment.

  “There is nothing written of the persons, the horsemen, other than personifying the traits of war, famine, disease and death. The myths give them a vague description, but there is no place from which they come. Merely that they arrive.”

  “And do what?” asked Peter, getting more impatient.

  “They are figments of the mind,” continued Penn, ignoring Peter.

  “Oh well that’s good then,” dismissed Kierra sarcastically. “I thought we were all buying into this crap for a moment!”

  “No, you misunderstand me,” corrected Penn, eyeing Kierra disparagingly. “Orfeo means to create the horsemen from embodiments of the traits. He has been grooming certain characters to portray them. Persons who have power but whom he has been able to control, through weaknesses they have. He means to use them to fulfil the myth.”

  “Who?” asked Peter. He wasn’t sure he wanted the answer.

  “Akoni,” answered Penn. “He has manipulated events to make him believe he is unworthy. He is grooming him to be Pestilence.”

  “How do you know any of this?” challenged Peter. “Why should we believe you. I agree with Kierra, this is sounding too far-fetched?”

  Janine touched him on his arm and appealed for quiet. It was clear she believed the story held some merit.

  “What about war?” she asked quietly.

  “The girl’s father,” replied Penn calmly. “The lawyer. The defender of the truth. Always at war for his clients.”

  “Interesting,” agreed Janine, the information appealing to the intellect within her. She remembered what Yas had told her after meeting with Akoni. What Penn said offered a possible explanation for why Orfeo might want to trap Akoni and Yas’s dad. “You’re sure?”

  “Yes. I have been able to observe him for quite some time.”

  “And what of Famine? And Death?” continued Janine.

  “Detective Wheeler believes he has lost everything that means anything to him. His son. His wife. The trust from his colleagues and his friend.” Penn poignantly looked at Peter as if to underline that last point. “He is Famine.”

  He turned back to Janine. “Orfeo’s number one, Raelinn, is Death. Orfeo has them trapped in the Void and plans to summon them when he has Pestilence and War together.”

  “So, we have to stop that from happening, then?” suggested Peter. “Simple!” he added sarcastically.

  Penn laughed.

  “What?” asked Peter, irritated.

  “You think about trying to avert an apocalypse, but I say the goal should be how to work with it, instead.”

  “What d’you mean? Of course we need to try to avert it!” interrupted Peter. He looked at Janine.

  “We need to stop them from all coming together,” Janine agreed, thinking aloud.

  “Yes, but how?” asked Peter. “I suspect Orfeo will use Yas to get to Akoni and her father. We need to get to Yas before he does.”

  Janine nodded and turned back to face Penn.

  “You said you knew where Yas and Sam were?”

  Penn said nothing but made his way over to a mirror and touched it with his finger. In response, a number of images flashed across the surface until one stayed present. That of somewhere underground. A chase in progress.

  “It appears they are chasing Orfeo, somewhere underground, trying to rescue Akoni.” Penn described the image shown. “I would imagine Orfeo is orchestrating the chase to bring them to where he wants them.”

  “Where’s that?” pressed Peter.

  “I believe I have a way we can find out.”

  “How are you going to do that?” asked Janine, fearing that she may not like the answer. She saw Penn move his hand.

  “Wait!” she shouted, reaching towards Penn.

  Penn ignored her and pulled at the mirror. The scene inside shook, creating a jolt in the realm.

  “What did you do?” shouted Kierra.

  “I’m helping you,” replied Penn, nonchalantly.

  Shapes started to rise up from the stone floor of the hall.

  “What did you trigger?” asked Janine. “I knew we shouldn’t have trusted you. You’ve tripped some form of alarm, haven’t you?”

  “Yes,” replied Penn. “Disturb the images too much and it triggers a magical tripwire, if you will.”

  The shapes changed into humanoid characters, Orfeo’s soldiers, and they were appearing all around them.

  Before they could react, they were surrounded.

  “So, he knows we’re here?” asked Peter. “You’ve tricked us! You son of a …!”

  “No,” replied Penn, sternly. “For the last time, I’m helping you.” He breathed. “The soldiers will take us
to where Orfeo wants to get to. That way we’ll get to where I believe he’s been channeling magic. You want to stop this don’t you. But I’m telling you now, it won’t work.”

  “What do you mean it won’t work?” asked Janine, as the soldiers started moving in around them.

  “You’ve got to trust me on this,” replied Penn.

  “And why should we?” challenged Peter, stepping in between Penn and Janine.

  The soldiers surrounded them, created a doorway and wordlessly ushered them towards it.

  Penn looked at the doorway and recognised their destination.

  “Ahh, my publishing offices,” he indicated, nodding at the doorway. “In fact, I believe this presents a mutual opportunity?”

  “How so?” asked Peter. He had the feeling that the conversation had arrived at exactly the point that Penn had wanted.

  “I believe I can show you the evidence you need to take to the Commissioner.”

  Peter was prodded in the back by one of the soldiers. He moved towards the doorway, Penn just ahead of him.

  “I like this,” said Penn enthusiastically, over his shoulder. “I don’t often get to work with the law!”

  James and Raelinn stepped through the doorway from the Void and onto the rear deck of the river boat on the Nile, that Y’an had left previously. They squinted their eyes against the sunlight and looked around.

  “Where has she sent us?” James asked grumpily, as the doorway disappeared behind them. He tried to re-open it unsuccessfully. “I guess there’s no going back then,” he added.

  Ethereal readers appeared and hovered around them in expectation.

  “What are they waiting for?” asked Raelinn.

  “I don’t know,” said James. He looked at the doors to the main salon further along the deck. Actors started appearing, looking concerned.

  James caught sight of movement on the deck in front of his feet. He looked down to see an outline of a body forming. A knife lay next to it, along with a trail of blood. A forensic examiner appeared. She picked up the knife and put it in an evidence bag, then stood up.

  “What you see is what you get!” she explained unhelpfully. “The victim was stabbed in the back and their throat was cut.”