The Word Guardians: and the Battle for the Peacekeepers

by Lawrence Yarham

  “Left! Now!” he shouted, as both he and Yas pulled together. The leftmost horse obeyed immediately, with the rightmost glancing back at them for a moment, clearly perturbed by the diversion from what it was expecting. It had little choice but to oblige, as the leftmost horse cornered as tightly as it could and pulled the other horse with it. The chariot bumped and skidded away from the expected path and bounced across ruts and grooves. Both Yas and Sam shifted their weight to stop the side from lifting.

  Sam glanced up nervously at the centre stand. The guards on the centre box, having readied themselves with their arrows, now started to move towards the side of the stand and along the back gantry. He spotted also that Vickers and Sleight were doing exactly what they had expected and were crossing the track in one of the gaps. There was no turning back now.

  Yas and Sam made the turn and approached the entrance. A group of spectators scattered left and right.

  The passage ran along the whole depth of the stand and had a narrow archway at the end. It looked wide enough for them to pass though, but they could see other traffic and people moving across the end.

  As they entered the passage, Yas looked back. Sleight was the closest to them, being nearest the centre of the track when he had turned. He partly blocked Vickers, she had to slow to let him in front. McVale, behind them, travelled past the turn and kept going. The driver on her chariot was doing all he could with the reigns to try to unseat McVale, trying to whip her. McVale was having none of it though. She sent a word ball flying backwards which hit the chariot driver on his chest and caused him to have to focus on staying upright. It gave McVale time to reach down and unlatch her horse from the central bar and gallop off further up the track.

  In the shadow of the passageway, Yas and Sam looked up to see a guard reach the edge of the stand and line up for a shot downwards. He fired twice at them, the arrows whistling diagonally down. They narrowly missed the back of the chariot and struck the hard-baked ground. He fired again, and then turned his attention to the chasers.

  Sleight kept focussed on catching Yas and Sam’s chariot, but Vickers threw a word ball upwards. It unravelled as it reached the guard, the first narrowly missing him but causing the guard to have to jump to the side. Once Vickers had also entered the passageway, she fired again. Her second shot came more out of the shadows and the guard only saw it at the last second. A tendril caught his arm and pulled him backwards and off balance. It was enough to disarm him while they moved past his position.

  The archway loomed ahead of Yas and Sam. They could see sunshine the other side, but they could also see lots of people and carts as well.

  “What are we going to do?” Yas asked in alarm.

  Sam looked ahead and saw what she had seen. Up to that point, he had been more worried about the Controllers behind them.

  “Oh crap!” he said, looking forwards. “Turn right!”

  “What about all the people?” she shouted.

  “Go right!” he ignored her, planting his feet firmly for a sharp turn. Yas did likewise.

  “Coming through!” she shouted.

  Sam looked at her. “What are you doing?” he yelled.

  “We need to warn them?”

  “Use magic!” he yelled, incensed.

  “Oh!” She was annoyed at herself for not having thought of that. In her mind’s eye she imagined a gap in the traffic. A collection of words started to boil and bubble just above her wrist.

  “Eugh,” she exclaimed, jerking her wrist to shake it off. The words shot forwards and expanded rapidly just the other side of the archway, creating an intense metal sounding “Bwamm!” Yas and Sam reached the archway and turned to the right as hard as they could. The horses obliged, but struggled over the ground, which was rougher. Time slowed as they half slid, half turned. Around them was a collection of words expanding rapidly, the pedestrians in the street scrambling away to leave a clear space for them.

  The back of the chariot slid sideways while the horses scrambled for grip. It was one of those moments that looked serenely executed to the observer yet full of terror to the participant. The horses narrowly managed to complete the turn and started accelerating along the street. The chariot slammed its side into the wall of the opposite building and then scraped its way along until the horses managed to pull the chariot back into the centre. Fortunately, everything was still intact.

  Yas looked up the street. Walls jutted out into the road on both sides, making the view up ahead difficult. What they could see though was something they both recognised. A lighthouse off in the distance.

  “Alexandria!” realised Yas, speaking aloud. “A place we’ve already been.” She remembered it from the images that Y’in had shown them.

  “Yes,” said Sam, urging the horses forward along the street. “So?”

  “Its just that,” replied Yas, “The Great Oak told me to remember a place I’d already been.”

  “And that helps us how?" asked Sam, not really understanding. “I don't know how long we can stay ahead of them!”

  He focussed on keeping control of the chariot. It was more difficult than in the stadium because of pedestrians going about their business. The horses seemed to realise and had slowed a little. It gave more time for people to move out of the way but gave an advantage for those pursuing them.

  “Listen,” he said as he concentrated. “At the Galleon. I need to explain...”

  “Its okay,” said Yas as they continued to bounce and bump along the road. “I get it. Or at least, I think I do.”

  Out of nowhere, a slew of arrows rained down.

  “Crap!” shouted Sam as he half ducked to shield himself and Yas. Yas looked up to see the guards targeting them from the top of the high walls of the stadium. They had taken an opportunity while there were few people around them in the street. However, they then held off as the chariot approached the next intersection, where more people were gathered. A mother dashed across the front of their path to move a small child out of the way. Other spectators moved back quickly, distracted from trying to grab a glimpse of the action inside the stadium. Sam looked right, just as they passed the entrance, to see if anything was about to collide with them, then he urged the horses on again.

  “I’m not on their side, you know!” he shouted.

  “So, why the mind games then?” Yas retorted.

  “I got confused with everything I was told. I’m sorry!”

  “Yeah, I don’t understand why you listened to her, though!” added Yas, looking back to the lady in the chariot beyond Sleight’s.

  “McVale isn’t who you think she is,” stressed Sam.

  “Yeah, I figured that out for myself!”

  “I was trying to tell you. At the library.”

  “Well,” she relented. “You were right about that, for what its worth.”

  “She was playing her part well. It was only because my dad and Vickers told me stuff.”

  “I can’t be doing with all the mind games, Sam. You’d tell me the truth, right?”

  “You can trust me,” he reassured her. “I promise!”

  She looked back at him for a split second. She saw the friend that she had come to know. He may have acted differently back there, but she realised, he’d had plenty of opportunities in which he could have handed her over to the Controllers. It might be an elaborate game still, but she figured she could see the person he really was, and knew that she could trust him. Plus, she wondered if the Fates were talking about McVale. Perhaps she was the friend she was going to lose. A wave of relief came over her and she nodded.

  Suddenly, the back of the chariot was hit with a word bomb. The explosion lifted the right-hand side clean into the air. They both held onto each other as they struggled to regain balance. The chariot careered along the street with one wheel up, hitting the opposite wall. The lifted wheel part turned, part scraped along the building, then dropped back down onto the ground. They’d slowed. Looking behind, Sleight was in firing range. McVale had emerged fro
m the junction they had passed along with several guards, also on horseback. Some joined the chase, just behind Vickers, others turned down an alley, presumably looking for an opportunity to head them off. Sleight fired, sending a word bomb towards them. Fortunately, it landed to the side of them.

  “Go, go, go!” urged Yas asking the horses to move. A larger opening came up on their left. It looked wide enough to make a turn and she figured that they needed to move away from the stadium.

  “Left! Left! Sam!” she shouted and pulled hard on the reigns. Again, the chariot bounced and bumped as the horses struggled to keep their grip. They straightened up into a market, like the one they had arrived at when they first visited the realm.

  “Oh! Not good,” Yas moaned, again summoning words from up her sleeve and sending this ahead of them. Sam watched approvingly as they exploded and rang out, ‘Blammm’. People scattered left and right, out of the way of the word magic.

  A word bomb landed behind them and lifted the chariot off the ground once again. Arrows whistled over their heads from guards who had arrived at a different entrance to the square.

  “What the...!” shouted Sam, getting frustrated. Yas cried out in alarm as she momentarily lost her footing and started to slide backwards. Sam reached down with one hand and helped her up, in time for her to see that the left-hand side of the chariot was about to collide with a stall. They ducked down as the wheel hit and coloured baskets of powder were thrown up into the air. Fragments of wood splintered and flew around them. The coloured clouds partly obscured their path from their pursuers. Sam glanced back and hoped that Sleight would not appear from the confusion. Sadly, he did. He expertly steered his chariot through the wreckage, followed by two guards, and he threw another word bomb at them, as if to underline the point. A black twisted set of word strands expanded behind them. It hit the left backside of the chariot, splitting off a piece of the backplate and knocking them to the right.

  “Oh no!” cried out Yas, realising what was going to happen. She fought to try to bring the horses to the left again. She did enough to prevent a collision with an antique stall selling pots and bowls, but not enough to avoid the right-hand side colliding with another stall. A part of the stall became lodged in the chariot wheel, causing a worrying grinding noise. The stall created resistance to the turning of the wheel, jamming it completely at times. It slowed them down and allowed Sleight and the guards behind to close in. More arrows whistled around them, one hitting the chariot. Sam quickly knocked off the remaining pots and bowls and tried to dislodge the stall. It created more clouds of colour behind them.

  Sam was getting frustrated. He glanced backwards and could see another word bomb forming in Sleight’s hands. His pulse kicking up, he felt a vibration in his own hands. He looked down and noticed that he had started to conjure his own defence. Magic word clouds of his own were forming into powerful tight balls.

  “About bloody time,” he said, and threw them backwards. Sleight laughed as he dodged the expanding word ball, but it bought Sam and Yas more time.

  “Hold on!” Sam shouted as he threw the second word bomb downwards onto the stall debris still stuck to them. It was a risk to the chariot he knew, but fortunately the remains splintered off into many pieces. Wood flew backwards directly into Sleight’s chariot. He was close and didn’t have time to launch his own defence. Seeing the splinters of wood flying towards them, the horses reared and stopped, throwing Sleight forwards. Then Sam followed up with another word bomb, which he managed to drop down behind the horses and roll under the chariot. It exploded, ripping the chariot floor upwards and sending Sleight somersaulting backwards. He landed heavily in a vegetable stall, the stall folding up around him as he landed. The horses of the pursuing guards reared, coming to a halt as the damage transformed into a new stall in front of them. As Sam and Yas continued, their last glimpse was of a man laying covered in squashed fruit and looking furious. Pleased with the reprieve, they steered their chariot towards an area of the market that was less densely populated. Behind them, McVale and Vickers slowed to navigate around the new obstruction.

  Yas and Sam started to feel a vibration from the right wheel. Sam looked down at it. It was moving more freely now, but the word bomb he had used had dislodged a piece of the outer rim.

  “Yas!” he shouted, pointing to it. “I don’t know how long this will hold up.”

  “Crap,” she agreed, worried. “We need to get somewhere safe!” She wondered about the museum where they met Y’in? She steered the horses away from the market stalls and towards an exit that led onto another street. “What about the lighthouse?”

  “And the doorway we entered into this realm from?” suggested Sam. “Do it!”

  “Let’s hope its still there,” she replied, fighting with the vibration as they rolled over more rocky ground.

  A word bomb landed in the dust behind them and sent tendrils forwards that whipped at the back of the chariot. The force of the explosion jerked them forwards and then backwards.

  “Erghh,” shouted Yas in frustration. “We need to lose them!”

  “They just don’t give up, do they?” said Sam as he turned to see Vickers closing in on them. She was followed by McVale and two other guards.

  Yas turned hard to the right to get them back on track towards the lighthouse and the square that they had visited when in Alexandria previously. Going a little slower, the turn was easier, the partly broken wheel sticking and helping. They headed into a quiet street.

  “Turn there,” urged Sam, pointing to an opportunity up ahead on the left. “Let’s try and lose them.”

  Yas pulled hard on the reigns and slewed sideways into a small side turning. It was a harder turn, the right wheel not allowing them to manoeuvre enough and they collided with the opposite wall. They both looked at each other in alarm, but fortunately the chariot held up. Then just a little way ahead was a turning on the right. It was an easier turn, the right wheel sticking and helping again, but it placed more pressure on the axle. Something pinged and cracked.

  “That didn’t sound good,” he said, looking over the side.

  “We've got a bigger problem, though” replied Yas.

  “What?” he asked, looking at the wheel to see what had broken, before it became worse.

  “Look!” shouted Yas, pointing.

  Up ahead of them, where the street had previously opened out into a square, a wall was forming.

  “Dead end!”

  Sam stared. “Can we use magic on it?” he shouted, starting to form a word ball in his hand. He threw it forwards as hard as he could, then started to form another. The first slammed into the ground a little way before it, the second landed closer, the words rippling across the surface. The wall continued to form, if anything at a faster rate.

  “Doesn’t look like it!” Yas yelled.

  “We need another door, Yas!” Sam shouted.

  “Tell me something I don’t know!” Yas retorted, irritated. She tried not to panic but couldn’t quite fight back the feeling.

  There was a muffled explosion behind them. The back of the chariot was lifted upwards in the narrow street and landed heavily, pushing the horses forwards. It was a reminder of who was pursuing them. Vickers and McVale were still there and getting closer.

  “A door, Yas!” Sam urged, seeing the wall loom closer by the second. “We need to get out of here!”

  “I’m working on it!” Yas yelled back. “You’re not helping!” She breathed to try to remain calm and allow her imagination to provide an answer. “Somewhere I’ve read before,” she said to herself. “Something I’ve read.”

  Sam turned and threw more word clouds to try to slow Vickers. The clouds expanded outwards as they flew backwards, becoming inky in nature and obscuring the path. Undeterred, Vickers ploughed through each one.

  “Now Yas!” pleaded Sam, as he switched from keeping Vickers occupied. The wall was getting really close. The horses continued to gallop onwards, but Sam realised that there was a
point at which they would stop, and that would leave him and Yas trapped.

  Yas let go of the reigns and thought of a door, right in front of them. They still needed to move away from the Controllers, she realised that. Otherwise, it didn’t matter where they went. She let go as much as she dared and allowed the process to happen in her mind. It seemed easier to link into that feeling now, to let imagination be at play and just follow whatever was created. It was like a spark that ignited the imagination, which then filled in details around it. She saw night, cobbled streets and lamps casting out distinct pools of light.

  She looked in front of them to see that a doorway had appeared in the wall. It surprised her that it was much larger than before, wider and taller than the other doorways she had created. It was large enough for the horses and the chariot.

  “Awesome!” Sam acknowledged.

  The horses continued straight into the opening. The threshold of the portal was an odd sensation. The horses and chariot metamorphosed around them. Yas and Sam had the sensation of being pulled apart from each other. Sam felt Yas being pulled forwards and down slightly, and the sides of the chariot seemed to drop away below him. For Yas, she felt walls rise around her where there were none before.

  They emerged onto a Victorian street, at some speed, in an area that was immediately recognisable. On Yas’s left was the British Museum, the place she had visited before with McVale. Yas was now sat in the passenger compartment of a Hansom cab, with the cold night air rushing towards her.

  “Sam?” she yelled out. She couldn’t see him. “Sam?”

  “Up here,” he shouted back. He was behind her in the driver’s seat, urging the horse onwards. “Where are we?”

  “Victorian London,” she shouted up.” I was here with McVale, when she was snatched.”

  “Oh right!” Sam called back. There were some howls in the background as the museum disappeared behind them. Yas noticed the full moon dancing light across the cobbles. “Were there werewolves and hounds here, by any chance?” he shouted down.

  “Yes,” replied Yas. She didn’t remember telling Sam about those, only that McVale had been snatched by one. “How did you know?”