The Word Guardians: and the Twisting Tales

by Lawrence Yarham

  Janine followed Peter, with Yas’s dad just behind them, while Dai and Kierra made their way towards the left sidewall to examine some of the other areas.

  “Tell me,” Penn said to Orfeo, near the entrance and just behind Yas and Sam. “What look were you going for here?”

  “You have no idea of the power of magic here,” Orfeo sneered in reply. “Look at what I’ve achieved with the place!”

  Penn raised an eyebrow. “Humility was never a strong point of yours, was it?”

  “You know I could kill you right now?” challenged Orfeo. “You’ve brought me the boy. I have your empire. I no longer need you.”

  “Or do you?” mused Penn, rubbing his chin with his hand.

  “What do you mean? What could I possibly need from you?”

  “You are not completely sure that you have everything you need, are you? There’s a chance I may still have an answer you need,” said Penn, masterfully sowing a seed of doubt in the vampire’s mind.

  “You fool! You think I would need anything else from you?” Orfeo shot back.

  “Okay then,” replied Penn, standing his ground. “Have it your way. You clearly know best. Go and get the boy and let’s get your party started.”

  “Men!” Orfeo shouted out, sharply.

  Scorched patches on the rock behind them started to fill out and form into human shapes, ultimately creating Orfeo’s now familiar soldiers, humanoids that were not quite complete.

  “Escort Mr. Penn and the others down to the works,” he ordered. “And watch them closely!”

  A soldier nodded, extended a sword and ushered Penn forwards.

  Penn looked around. “Who is the prisoner here?” he enquired, mockingly.

  Orfeo provided no response but glowered briefly.

  “You,” Orfeo commanded another soldier, appearing next to him. “Come with me.” He and the soldier made their way off to the right, across stepping-stones leading towards a bridge and a partially built castle.

  “What the…!” James exclaimed on the ground floor by the symbol, as the scorched dust on his finger started to form into a hand. He shook it off and it joined a morphing blob on the ground. He stepped back quickly. The shapes formed into two men and a woman, all similarly roughly formed. “I guess that confirms the soldiers the actors had witnessed on the boat then?”

  “Yes. Orfeo’s soldiers,” Raelinn said behind him. “It seems like he’s prepared.”

  “For what?” James asked back.

  The soldiers fanned outwards, forming a semi-circle. Swords formed in their hands, and they pointed them forwards, to prevent anyone leaving.

  “This feels like a gathering, James,” Raelinn replied. “He’s planned this.”

  The penny dropped in James’s mind. “Like in the best of crime thrillers. The detective assembles the witnesses in a room,” he thought aloud. “But what’s the crime? And who’s the detective here?”

  “I don’t know,” sighed Raelinn. “But I think we’re about to find out what Orfeo has been planning.”

  As he descended, Peter looked around to check on everyone in their group. He spotted the soldiers just behind Yas, Sam and Eddie and stopped for a moment to observe them. Janine bumped into him, and they held onto each other for a moment to steady themselves.

  “What is it?” asked Janine.

  “The soldiers,” said Peter. He waited to see what they were going to do next.

  “If I didn’t know better, I’d think we’ve been expected,” remarked Janine.

  The soldiers thrust spears forwards, urging Eddie and Sam to keep moving.

  “Yes,” agreed Peter. “I get the same feeling.”

  “Continue downwards,” suggested Yas’s dad to Peter and Janine. They turned to look at him briefly.

  “Who put you in charge?” asked Peter, testily.

  “I believe what you seek will be there,” he continued.

  “You know that?” countered Peter, turning and continuing downwards. “Or is that where you’ve been instructed to take us?”

  Yas overheard and was confused.

  “We’re in a realm though right, Dad? Mom said you hadn’t been to realms… for ever?”

  “My client is Orfeo,” replied her dad, over his shoulder. “He has engaged my services.”

  “Oh,” replied Yas, not happy. “Since when?” she asked incredulously. It just didn’t seem like something her dad would do. “You know what he’s done, right?”

  “Enlighten me,” retorted her dad.

  Yas was stunned. Her dad felt distant, detached. Her mind raced to provide some evidence to try to bring her dad onside.

  “Well,” she flustered. “He’s just kidnapped Akoni and a Custodian for a start. He’s also controlled Eddie’s mind. He’s not someone you should trust!”

  “You have little understanding of what’s going on here!” her dad shot back, continuing down the steps behind Peter and Janine.

  “Try me!” countered Yas, getting irate. Sam touched her on her shoulder, but she ignored him.

  “Be careful of slinging around accusations,” her dad replied. “It can get you into a lot of trouble.”

  “Me?” replied Yas. “You’re telling me that I don’t understand! Have you any clue what he’s been up to? I’m pretty sure he’s been behind the protests in the city. He’s been encouraging people to take action. To commit crimes!”

  “So you say,” replied her dad calmly, “As I recall, you and your friends are wanted in connection with the riots at the library.”

  “But that’s here in a realm, Dad!” shot back Yas. “It’s not real!”

  Her dad stopped briefly and turned to look at her, a puzzled expression on his face.

  A buzzing arose in Yas’s head. It was the same sensation she’d felt before, only stronger. A wave of dizziness and nausea overcame her, and she put her hand to her head. It felt like it was directed at her this time.

  “You alright?” asked Sam, appearing at her side.

  “The buzzing,” said Yas, wobbling a little and trying to settle her feelings. Her stomach and head were churning. “Do you feel it?”

  “No,” replied Sam.

  “I do,” said Eddie, right behind them. “It’s intense.”

  “Woah,” moaned Yas. She was having to concentrate to not let it affect her vision. A different her would have thought that this was another migraine. Now though, she trusted her gut instincts and they were telling her that the buzzing was coming from her dad. The question was why.

  “Move!” instructed the soldiers from behind, prodding Eddie sharply in the back with a spear.

  “Ow!” Eddie protested but started moving again.

  Peter, Janine and Yas’s dad continued down the remaining steps to the ground floor. Yas, Sam and Eddie followed, being urged along by their soldiers, with Penn further back being escorted by another.

  Peter and Janine arrived on the ground floor near the wall with the floor to ceiling books. Peter walked quickly over to James. The soldiers became alert and held up their swords, but only to remind everyone of their presence.

  “What happened to you?” Peter asked.

  “I was trapped in the Void,” James replied. He looked at Raelinn. For a moment he wished he and Raelinn were back there. It was much simpler. Here he was forced to reconsider whether she was a friend or foe.

  Peter also glanced at Raelinn, remembering her from the mansion, when he was rescued prior to the Battle for the Peacekeepers. James spotted the look. He realised that Peter was thinking the same.

  “James sacrificed himself to save his son,” Raelinn replied, as if sensing what the two men were thinking.

  “Yeah, but…” replied Peter, wondering if James had been controlled to do it. He knew about his friend’s gambling debts and bad decision to work for Orfeo and how, as a result, he had betrayed his colleagues. He was still wary. “…you made him do it, I guess?”

  “James is no weak-minded fool,” she replied, a little curtly. James look
ed up at her in surprise. It was harsh but was a compliment. “Yes, he has made some mistakes, but haven’t we all?”

  “Dad!” shouted Eddie, running from the bottom of the steps across to the four of them.

  “Eddie!” James cried out, opening his arms to hug his son.

  “I thought I’d lost you…” said Eddie, in his dad’s embrace. His voice broke. Tears started to form.

  “I’m back…” replied James, his voice breaking a little too as the tenderness of the moment hit him. He looked at Raelinn trying to understand where she was at. He hoped that the time they had spent together in the Void had meant something. He was worried though that being here she’d reverted back to being Orfeo’s loyal servant. She gave the slightest of winks to him.

  Eddie released the hug and stepped back. Yas stepped forwards and tapped Eddie on his shoulder.

  “You okay?” she whispered.

  “Yeah thanks,” Eddie nodded, wiping his face, self consciously.

  “What are you doing here?” asked Peter, to James.

  “I was summoned,” interjected Raelinn.

  “By Orfeo?” suggested Peter, starting to build evidence that this was prepared and planned for in some way.

  “So, this is a trap?” asked Janine, stepping forwards. She looked behind her to Penn, who was only now walking across the floor to join the group. “You’re working with him to bring everyone together?”

  “I can assure you I just want Orfeo out of my organisation,” replied Penn, choosing his words carefully. “Look at what he’s done to the place?”

  They all looked up and around them. They noticed something that they hadn’t before.

  “The magic is flowing from somewhere,” remarked Janine, pointing.

  True enough, as they watched, they could see something moving along in the fabric of the realm. Different sized particles were silhouetted against what was already in the realm. They flowed outwards, disappearing into other scenes. They couldn’t pinpoint the source, but there was a large rock that was obscuring the flow and that was floating down towards them.

  “Ahh, good,” crowed Orfeo, his head coming into view just above the rock. “You’re all here, finally.”

  The rock continued downwards, giving the others a better view of who else was with him.

  Akoni stood beside him, guarded by a soldier. Behind the three of them, was a large rectangular black shape, like a doorway, but solid black. A plinth of some form, it seemed to be the source of the particles flowing out into the realm.

  “Akoni!” called out Yas.

  He nodded in reply. He had a pained expression, and it took her a moment to realise that he had his hands pulled behind him. He was also looking at their dad. She wasn’t sure which was causing the greater struggle. Seeing Dad again after the way in which he’d left must have been difficult.

  Yas’s dad was staring in disbelief. He mouthed ‘Akoni’ silently, then the buzzing that Yas had felt earlier rose in intensity again. Yas stepped forwards and touched her dad’s arm.

  “It’s a trick,” he said at last to himself. “It can’t be.”

  “Dad?” she asked.

  He looked down at her, confused.

  “It is Akoni,” she confirmed softly. She felt the buzzing fade and saw a change in her dad’s face. It was as if she had broken through whatever façade had been there.

  He nodded blankly and then looked back at the descending rock. Then he blinked, as if coming out of a trance, and looked around with fresh eyes.

  She saw his disbelief. She wanted to tell him ‘I told you so,’ but in that moment she also saw the father figure she remembered. It had been a long time and she realised that she had missed him. It stirred emotion in her and she had to be mindful to keep it in check.

  “How?” he asked, his eyes searching for answers.

  “Penn and McVale split him apart and trapped him in the realms. He’s been reforming for the past two years,” Yas summarised, from what she believed to be true. She left out the attempted betrayal of grandpa and his journal. It didn’t feel right to go there, at least not right now.

  “McVale?” asked her dad in stilted form, trying to find something that made sense. “From the bookstore?”

  “Yes,” she said softly.

  “And Penn?” Her dad looked around to Penn who opened his hands as if to say ‘surprise!’

  “Yes,” Yas repeated.

  “And you…?” he continued. “Does your mother know about this?”

  “I’ve been trying to tell you, yes,” she interrupted. “About the realms. Grandpa. Akoni. All of it.” She breathed a huge sigh of relief. She hadn’t realised how much keeping this a secret had weighed on her. “Dad. It’s okay!” she added softly.

  The rock that Orfeo and Akoni were on stopped about six feet above the ground and some additional stepping-stones formed, leading down.

  Orfeo nodded to the soldier, and he pushed Akoni forwards. Akoni moved down the steps awkwardly, his hands bound behind him.

  “What have you done with him?” said Yas, angrily. “Let him go!”

  “All in good time,” said Orfeo, unhurried. He glided his way down the steps behind the soldier. “He is unharmed. For now!”

  The soldier remained near the rock. Akoni moved forwards, the binds around his hands unravelling. He brought his hands in front of him and rubbed his wrists. Yas ran over to him and gave him a hug, which he returned, awkwardly.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” Akoni dismissed, trying to subtly push her away. He felt awkward but didn’t want to make it look like a dismissal. He looked past Yas to her dad, who just stared at him blankly.

  “What is this all about?” asked Janine angrily, looking from Orfeo to Penn.

  Penn tapped his chest and then shook his head, to say ‘not me!’

  Orfeo smiled and moved across to the centre symbol to join the soldiers that were already there. Then he turned and opened his hands.

  “Welcome,” he said generously.

  Then, looking at Penn, he added slyly, “it’s time to get the party started.”

  “What party?” asked Peter.

  “The apocalypse,” answered Penn.

  “Yes,” agreed Orfeo. “The four horsemen have arrived at last!”

  Janine looked around at James, Raelinn, Akoni and Yas’s dad.

  Yas spotted her glancing around the room.

  “What?” she questioned.

  “Well,” continued Orfeo. “I say men, but actually it would be more accurate to say ‘horse-people’”

  “Who are the horsemen?” asked Yas, a sinking feeling becoming evident in her stomach. She looked at Janine.

  “If what we have been told is correct,” started Janine, to answer Yas, “Orfeo has been cultivating War, Pestilence, Famine and Death.”

  “Cultivating?” asked Yas. “What does that mean?”

  “Bravo,” Orfeo replied, wanting to take back the spotlight. “You see, the four horsemen are just one set of myths regarding an ancient figure or force. For Christian religions there is talk of an apocalypse, a force that when unleashed can create apocalyptic events. In ancient Egyptian mythology there is the story of Isis searching for the pieces of Osiris, to put her husband and God back together. There are others too, but I digress.”

  Orfeo moved onto the symbol on the floor and took a moment to look down at it.

  “You see,” he said, reaching down and touching the symbol. A light started to emanate from the centre. He stood back up and stepped to the side, so his face wasn’t bathed in the bright beam that shot upwards. “These myths all have one thing in common. The finding of pieces, or persons. But they have all missed the point.”

  “What point?” asked Sam, naively.

  Orfeo raised his hands up. The silhouetted energy from the black plinth started to flow towards him. He moved his hands into the stream of white light, to signal to the energy that this is where it needed to go.

  “Err,” called P
enn from behind. “There’s just one thing.”

  Everyone looked around at him.

  “Not now, fool!” Orfeo shouted, slinging word magic in his direction. A gag started to form as it flew, but Penn swatted it away with a wave of his hand.

  The black energy reached the white bright light and flowed up and down inside it. Strings of words rippled up and down. The black stone plinth rippled and flexed as the white light expanded and pulled in the darker energy.

  “What point are we missing?” repeated Sam, glancing nervously at the flowing energy.

  “That the pieces of Osiris,” Janine interrupted to fill in the blank, “or the four horsemen of the apocalypse are not necessarily whole persons, or whole objects. Just energy. Behaviour and personality traits that have been encouraged and promoted.”

  “Yes,” confirmed Orfeo appreciatively. “You learn quickly.”

  “That came from me,” corrected Penn, faking a look of hurt. “But never mind. Do go on.”

  “So, who are they?” asked Yas, glancing nervously at Akoni. She had a bad feeling about this.

  Janine glanced around to Penn.

  Penn decided to step in. “Orfeo here has been cultivating a sense of unworthiness in Akoni, haven’t you?” He glanced at Orfeo. “His betrayal of the family. Not able to prevent himself and others being trapped. He’s cultivated a sense of disease! Pestilence.”

  “No,” Yas said, putting her hand to her mouth and looking at her brother. He glanced guiltily down at the ground, confirming the very traits that Penn was talking about.

  Yas was determined though.

  “Akoni,” she said, trying to make eye contact. “Look at me.”

  “Dad!” she urged, appealing to him to help.

  “Oh, you won’t find much help from him,” gloated Orfeo.

  “What? Why?” Yas asked, looking from her dad to Orfeo, and back again.

  Penn stepped in again. “You see, your father is War. Defending clients in the face of accusations. Always in conflict. Working on cases that have been specifically selected for him.”

  “What?” Yas exclaimed. The buzzing arose in her mind and she saw her dad’s puzzled gaze. It made sense to her now. He had been distant and distracted because of whatever Orfeo was trying to sow and grow in his mind.