Passages (Alternate Worlds Book 1)

by Taylor Leigh

  Stay true to your path and who you are. Do not give up. No matter what.

  Molly

  He reread the note again, brows lowered in consternation.

  ‘What?’ he muttered aloud again, baffled.

  What did it all mean? Molly must have been losing her mind when she’d written the note. It made absolutely no sense to him, yet she must have had some reason for it. But what? What had she remembered…he thought to her dreams and the alien wood. What about that had she recalled that would result in her untimely demise? Dreams and visions were something that went over his head. Tollin was more than willing to admit there were things out there he didn’t understand, it just didn’t happen very often.

  ‘Confused?’

  The voice made him jump, even though he recognised it. It had just been a while since he’d actually heard it. He whirled round and was confronted by a familiar figure.

  She stood on the other side of the stream, shining in the dulling light like illuminated gold. Her long, golden hair tossed about her shoulders despite the absence of wind. Her eyes shone so intensely, the light blurred her features into a soft, indecipherable lightness. He never could describe what she looked like, but, oh, was she lovely. It was the woman Molly had labelled the Lady of Light. To him, she had always been The Guide. The woman who had been his companion as long as he could remember. She was his purpose, she was the one who subconsciously whispered to him where to go, who to help. Without her he was lost, nothing more than another purposeless soul in the vast universe of Realms. Sometimes he hated her. Being a companion in her company was one of hard times and heartache. This was one of those times. The Light had taken Molly away from him, and this spirit, his Guide, glowed with the stuff. There was no doubting there was a connection. And he wasn’t happy about it.

  Still, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d physically seen her—much less spoken to her. Even though he was cross with her, he was still irritatingly intrigued by the special occasion. Curiosity always got the better of him.

  ‘I should have known that you’d be here,’ he said softly, darkly.

  She wasn’t fazed, but he couldn’t exactly see her expression to know. ‘You looked a little lost.’ Her voice was strange, inhuman. Not a tone he thought he’d be able to recognise, or imitate, if he wasn’t directly listening to it.

  ‘I suppose you’re responsible for this?’ He waved Molly’s note in the air. ‘Were you jealous of all the time I was spending with her instead of thinking of you?’

  The Guide turned her head slightly. ‘No. I’m so sorry, Tollin. She had to leave. Not because of me, but because of you. She’s running, Tollin. Something is hunting her and she can’t stop running. She’ll continue to jump throughout time and Realms. She landed here because the Light thought—or I guess I thought—it was safe.’

  He shook his head in surprise. ‘What? I don’t understand! She’s travelling through time and Realms and she just randomly landed here to be with me for several years? Why? What’s hunting her?’

  ‘She didn’t land here randomly. I tried to guide her as close to you as I could. I thought you could make her safe.’ She turned sheepish, an emotion he’d never seen from her before. ‘I just got the timing a bit off. She is being hunted by something dark, something powerful, something that I cannot control. And it’s always growing stronger, always growing hungrier, tainting even the most pure. Nothing is safe.’

  ‘Very cryptic.’ He spun in a circle, mind overloaded with information. ‘So Molly is out there somewhere, unaware that this happened? She’s just going to lose her memory again? Be a different person?’

  The Guide sighed. ‘Somewhere, or some time. The Realms are a big place.’

  Tollin shook his head in disbelief. ‘Will I ever see her again?’

  ‘I can’t tell you that. She was supposed to stay with you much longer than she did.’ Her expression once again grew sad, tired. Tollin knew the feeling well. It felt like a reflection of his own soul. When she raised her golden eyes again to his, they were deep with emotion. ‘There are many faces in your future, Traveller, all of which you will grow to love and all you will have to lose. Such is your curse. There are powers out there, Tollin, dark powers that do not want you to succeed, powers that are terrified of what you can learn and what you are destined to accomplish. They know your possible futures and there are certain places, certain things…certain people that you’ll meet that they are never going to want you to.’

  ‘And was that Molly?’

  The Guide’s golden eyes grew soft. ‘I’m sorry. Molly’s time with you was regrettably short. But she remembered her origin, who she used to be before she landed here. It wasn’t safe. Her hunter was closing in. I suppose you, in a way, are responsible for that. You are the brightest spot in the Realms. You draw those who need help close to you like a magnet, but even you cannot keep all of the dark forces at bay because they’ll continue to chase after you like hounds.’

  ‘So you just took her away,’ Tollin growled.

  ‘No. Not me. I don’t want you to be alone like this. She was good for you. But I couldn’t stop it. I don’t have complete control over the Light yet. Even things that are masked in Light are no longer safe. It’s confusing and things are growing beyond my control. It takes all my strength to just stand before you now. You are all I have left to keep me stable. The Light is even too dangerous for me now.’

  Tollin crossed his arms and swaggered closer to her. His eyebrows went up. ‘Really? I thought you were the mastermind behind it all.’

  She shifted, visibly flustered by his piercing stare. Strange, he thought, for a spirit. ‘I’m afraid not. I’m on my own. Only part of a whole.’

  He blinked, confused. In the five hundred years he’d known her, he couldn’t recall a time she’d been so talkative. He’d never heard her say so much about her existence in their entire relationship. ‘So you’re just a rogue agent, then? How very daring of you. And where’s the other part?’

  She turned away from him, hair whipping behind her. ‘Lost, at the moment. As are you.’ She turned from retrospective to business-like in a flash, putting her hands on her hips. ‘You’re missing something obvious, you know. Something right in front of you.’

  Tollin huffed out his breath. She never talked straight. But she was right, what good were these guessing games at the moment? He ran his fingers through his hair and pulled his gaze reluctantly away from the spirit to the forest around him. He wasn’t sure how literal she meant, but it was worth a look.

  Something caught his eye, pressed down in the muddy streambed. He trotted along the bank towards it, tilting his head sideways. The impression in the clay was massive, slowly filling with water, as if recently pressed there. It was a footprint. A clawed, four toed print, perhaps a yard across. Tollin held out his hand over it, unbelieving. So this was what was prowling the forest. He glanced up. The tracks went off, shoving through the forest, in the direction of the mountain.

  The way Victoria had gone.

  He whistled. ‘That is one giant beastie!’

  A distant, rumbling roar echoed through the trees.

  Tollin stood. He ignored the creeping thought that something had happened to Victoria. It wasn’t a possibility. He wouldn’t let it be. After losing Molly, he couldn’t lose someone else.

  He pulled out a device from one of his deep pockets and switched it on, ignoring the Guide’s stare. The handheld bleeped to life and blinked steadily. It was monitoring the life signs of whoever was wearing the medallion, and the location. By the looks of things, she was on Blaiden land, still alive, but moving steadily away from him. He frowned. She was definitely going the wrong direction.

  ‘She’s hopelessly lost. I’ve got to go after her,’ he said aloud to the Guide, aware of the slight tremble in his voice.

  ‘Have more faith in her. Victoria is smarter than you think.’

  Tollin was just about to quip a reply, when the hair on the back of his neck started to ris
e. Someone was coming.

  It took him less than three seconds to dive into the brush and drop down into a crouch. He checked his own medallion to make sure it was still functioning. The blue jewel was still flashing so he figured he had at least half a day’s worth of power left in it. He made a mental note to charge the battery once he got home. For now though, the device still should offer him screening, as long as he stayed hidden.

  The Guide made no move to hide, but she drifted towards him, till she was standing by his shoulder. He glanced up at her and shrugged. He figured she wouldn’t put him in danger. She was many aggravating things, but she’d always been loyal.

  Two Blaiden materialised out of the brush, taking no care to be quiet. Tollin’s eyebrows shot up in interest. It was his first time to see any of them in standing tall and healthy—unlike the broken man at the freak-show. The Druids were right. They were giants. Though Tollin was a rather tall man himself, these men had him beat by at least a metre. They were also the strongest looking men he’d ever seen. Though the weather was growing cold, the men wore nothing but somewhat rotten-looking wolf pelts draped over their shoulders. He noted as well that both carried spears that could easily skewer a bear.

  While Tollin considered himself a reasonably friendly, curious person who wasn’t afraid to meet new people, he decided this was one of those rare times when it would be better to stay out of sight.

  ‘I lost the girl’s scent upstream,’ one of them snarled.

  They spoke in an older form of Druid, a different dialect, warped and more primitive, something Tollin hadn’t heard in at least two-hundred years. He was surprised he still understood it. He looked down for a moment, thinking. What girl were they talking about? Victoria? Possibly, but he doubted it. Sure, Victoria was upstream, but she had technology on her side. The Blaiden couldn’t have found her this quickly. Not unless she was being a complete idiot. Tollin didn’t take her for an idiot. He cast his gaze back up to the two, not wanting to miss a word.

  ‘Keep your eyes peeled. She’s crafty, but she’s out there. She is hunting, I know that. Keep your eyes open for prey and we’ll find her.’

  Ah, so it wasn’t Victoria. Who then? Tollin’s mouth hung ajar as he tried to work out what the two were talking about. One of the Druids, most likely. He felt his stomach turn over slightly. Story? If the Blaiden knew they had been talking…he scowled. If they were hunting her then things were bad. Worse than he thought.

  As if to confirm his fears, one of the Blaiden said, ‘I don’t know what she told that man, but it’s obvious she knows too much. She knows how to kill the spores. She’s trouble, dangerous.’

  Tollin made a face. So they did know she’d spoken to him. That complicated things.

  ‘What do you think of Drugai’s orders…moving ahead with the plan?’

  Tollin’s ears pricked up.

  The other man grunted and spat black saliva to the ground. ‘It’s about time! Drugai has been trying to work with that idiot, Flynn, for too long. If it stops the girl from destroying the spores, then I’m all for it. Have you spent a day without them? The spores? I was punished once…it was worse than death. All I did was vomit and scream. Those stoneflowers, if Drugai says we must destroy them, then I’ll burn down the entire cursed forest to get rid of them.’

  ‘You won’t need to,’ the other man said. ‘We just have to burn down the fens and slaughter that man, then we’ll be free.’

  Tollin bit his bottom lip. He exchanged a glance with the Guide. Her featureless expression was unfathomable.

  ‘Yes…’ the first man said slowly. ‘Keep your eyes open for him. He wears that red coat; he should be easy to spot. Who knows how long the girl has been leaking information to him. He could spoil everything if we’re not careful—’ He stopped himself and looked round, then his voice dropped lower. ‘I will be glad when all of this is over. I want to stop beating the drums of war and finally taste flesh!’

  ‘You may get your taste of it tonight, if you’re lucky. Drugai says that tonight it begins. He no longer wishes to bow to the orders of the priest and why should he? It’s time we stopped handing over our spores to the Tartans and wipe them out once and for all now. And we’ll be starting with the village of the loch men. Tomorrow the men shall die and the city will burn. The freeze coming will keep them sleepy, slow. They won’t expect an enemy to move through the cold when everything else hides. They’ll be completely unprepared. Once they are gone we will have nothing to stop us, taking care of the flowers will be easy, maybe even unnecessary. With the cold will come the war.’

  ‘I’ve heard Drugai has special plans for the Tartan’s favourite son.’

  ‘Ah, I want no part of that. He is friends with the Traveller,’ the other Blaiden said warily. ‘The feeling when I hear the Traveller’s name…there are old stories, whispers…he is a formidable foe…’

  The first Blaiden grinned a sharp smile. ‘Then the one who kills him and captures the genius will be all the more honoured. Now come on, we need to get on with this. Have to leave Flynn a nice surprise, don’t we?’

  Both men chuckled and then slipped off again. Tollin waited a moment more before popping up out of the brush. He straightened his vest and scratched his head. He’d heard just enough to be worried about what was going on without knowing what they were planning. It was not his ideal circumstances, but, whether he liked it or not, it was what he worked best in. All he needed was a few hours to think and plan and he’d have them figured out and have a plan to stop them, or so he hoped.

  ‘Well,’ he said. ‘That was ominous.’

  ‘Rather.’

  He glanced sideways over at his Guide. ‘I don’t suppose you can help me out.’

  ‘You know I can’t interfere.’ He could have sworn she looked disappointed.

  Tollin puffed his breath. ‘Right. You could probably fix this whole mess with just a wave of your hand, couldn’t you?’

  Her voice was a humourless laugh. ‘You think too highly of me.’

  Tollin turned in a small circle, looking upstream. He bobbed up and down on his heels, teeth clenched. He hated the idea of leaving Victoria. What would she do when she came back to not find him?

  ‘You need to get back to the others.’

  Tollin clacked his teeth together. ‘But Victoria is still out there.’

  His Guide came to his side. ‘I’ll protect her.’

  Tollin’s brow rose. ‘I thought you didn’t get involved.’

  He could hear a smile in her voice. ‘For you, I’ll risk bending some of the rules.’

  Tollin’s twitched into a suppressed grin. ‘I’d kiss you right now if I could.’

  The Guide let out a wry laugh. ‘Oh, don’t go making me wish I was human again. Hard enough as it is!’

  He pointed a finger under her nose, causing her golden eyes to slightly cross. ‘Make sure she finds her way back to us.’

  His Guide bowed her head, golden hair spilling round her. ‘Don’t worry; she’ll be under my protection. Now, stay safe yourself, yeah? And go do what you do best.’

  Tollin saluted her as he watched her disappear into thin air. In the briefest of seconds no sign of her presence remained, like he’d just dreamed her up. Watching her go always left him feeling strangely hollow. It was a feeling best to ignore, since he couldn’t rightly explain it.

  He cast his gaze back up the stream. ‘Oh, I’m sorry, Victoria!’ he groaned.

  Tollin turned the direction of Watcher’s Keep and broke into a run. He had to get there before the Blaiden, and he had no idea how much time he had. Tollin needed a plan and he needed it fast and he needed to warn the villagers of the coming storm.

  He could only trust his Guide would keep her word and protect Victoria from harm. Right now he had bigger problems, not the least of them being a pack of drugged giants out looking for blood—most mentionable his.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Victoria leant against an oak tree and rubbed her arms. It was gettin
g colder. The climb was tougher than she’d expected. It was nothing compared to what she’d already fought past, but her legs were burning and she was gasping. Her breath was visible.

  Sweaty and filthy, she remotely wondered what Andrew would say if he could see her now. Trudging this far into Blaiden land was most likely not what he’d had in mind when he asked her to lie low for the day. The thought brought a smile to her lips.

  Victoria pulled her shawl tighter and looked around the wood. She could see the top of the slope. Not long now!

  The trees round her were busily dropping their coloured leaves. The dead ones beneath her feet had not allowed her to walk very quietly, but it hadn’t made much difference. She had seen little sign of life since she’d started her climb.

  Now that she thought of it, it did seem a bit odd. Yes, there were birds, mainly crows, which occasionally flew overhead, but they seemed to merely be passing over, not living on the land. Down below the forest had teemed with life. There were elk, scaly packs of raptors and an abundance of all other creatures, but here, everything seemed to be hushed and suppressed. Nothing moved or flew or scampered from her. It was odd.

  She was just ruminating over this, when the noise of rapidly approaching feet reached her ears. Victoria dropped behind the tree she was leaning against and peered round towards the noise. A lone doe was hurrying down the slope, crunching through the leaves as it ran. The deer dashed past her, slipping as it bounded out of sight. Victoria watched it go, frowning. She was quite sure she hadn’t startled the animal, so what was it running from?

  She didn’t move from her hiding spot for a long moment, but kept her eyes searching the forest up the slope. Every time she saw the gentle waving of a branch or the flutter of leaves her heart gave a small jump.

  She began to think how stupid she was. She was on the Blaiden’s land, trespassing, with no weapons to speak of and no clear idea why she was there. Now she was just following a stream that no longer was visible. And to what end? What happened if she actually did find the water’s source, or the spores? Not like she could do anything about it. Not without Tollin.