The Void Hunters (Realmwalker Book 2)

by Jonathan Franks

  Hope plunged her sword into the soft area between the scorpion's mandibles when Gen pinned its tail to the ground. Gen sliced at the tail, which shook violently and twitched beneath her. Hope slid her sword out of the creature and stuck it in again as deep as she could. It shuddered and lay still. Thick yellow ooze clung to Hope's arm as she pulled her sword free again. Gen was on her feet again in an instant and Hope whirled around to face the other predator.

  The scorpion caught Shae's wing with its right claw and yanked her off balance. She hit the ground again and the other claw came diving at her face. She cringed and felt it fall, hard, against her face. She opened one eye and saw that Gen had amputated the claw and whirled and ducked low, preparing for another swing. Herron aimed carefully for a split in the scorpion's armor and stabbed viciously into it as Hope repeated her stab between the mandibles on this one, but it caught her arm.

  Hope screamed in sudden pain as the scorpion secreted its acidic, digestive fluid on her skin. She sawed vigorously at the soft inside of its head and the scorpion folded the back of its body over itself to jab at Hope with its stinger. Herron used the scorpion's own momentum to aid the force of his swing as he sliced upwards into a joint of the tail. He cut through it cleanly and it smacked to the floor, twitching violently in reflex. Gen flipped her grip on her sword and stabbed it through the top of the cephalothorax. It squealed slightly and went limp.

  Hope let go of her sword, which still stuck inside the scorpion's head. She yanked her arm away and looked at the acid burns on her forearm. A streak of her flesh from her wrist to her elbow bubbled slightly from the creature's digestive enzymes. Shae poured water over Hope's arm, then yanked Hope to her knees and pressed her arm to the sheet of ice on the ground.

  Herron yanked Hope's sword free from the creature's corpse and wiped it clean. He looked with sympathy at Hope, wincing as Shae pinned her arm to the ice.

  “No, just…” Shae struggled against Hope's attempts to yank her arm free. “Stop it! Quit moving! What's wrong with you? You need to apply cold!”

  Finally, Hope stopped struggling and relaxed. She let Shae hold her burning skin against the ice. It felt cooler but it wasn't altogether soothing.

  “What the hell?” Gen asked. “You have to worry about the worst things here. When you're forty times this size, you're way higher up on the food chain!”

  “The what?” Herron asked.

  “Don't you have the food chain here?” Gen asked. “Like the frogs eat the bugs, and then the bigger frogs eat the smaller frogs, and then whatever eats bigger frogs eats those, and so on.”

  “Ah. Um, I've never heard it called that. But, yeah, that happens. Of course that happens.”

  Gen pushed past Herron and knelt next to Hope. “You okay?”

  Hope gritted her teeth and showed Gen her arm. The skin was peeling and blistered. She shook her head.

  Gen made a sympathetic noise and opened a small glass vial. She slowly poured the healing solution over Hope's arm. The redness faded and the blisters shrunk. The peeling skin stayed mostly where it was.

  Hope sighed in relief. “Oh, that's much better.” She got to her feet. “Come on, we'd better keep going.”

  “You okay?” Gen asked again.

  Hope nodded. “I'm fine.”

  They each picked up the lightstones they'd dropped when they started fighting and started carefully walking farther into the tunnel.

  “Oh, no,” Shae whispered.

  Herron whirled. His hand was on his sword. “What?”

  “Up there. I know why they came at us. Keep going.”

  They continued down the tunnel and in a couple of minutes, they saw an odd white mass on the ground near the wall. It writhed and moved. When Herron shone his lightstone at it, the soft shells of dozens of tiny scorpions glowed back.

  “Babies?” Gen asked.

  “They are really territorial,” Herron said. “That was probably a mated pair protecting their litter.”

  “Is that what they're called?” Gen asked. “Baby scorpions come in a litter?”

  Herron nodded.

  “What do you we do with them?” Shae asked.

  “Nothing. Let's just keep going. It shouldn't be much farther now.” He started walking again.

  They squeezed past the clump of baby scorpions and continued down the winding tunnel. Eventually, they reached a ledge and in front of them stood an unending, featureless sheet of gray. They stared into The Void.

  Shae shivered in the cold and her teeth chattered. “Well, are we going in?”

  Gen nodded. She took Hope's hand and they walked into The Void together.

  chapter 25

  Geoff and Gabby sat at the dining room table, but not in their normal places. Geoff was sitting in George's seat; Gabby was in Gen's. They were directly across the table from each other and not touching. Gabby's hands were folded in her lap and she sat up straight. Geoff slumped forward and leaned into his palms, his elbows on the table.

  “I suppose,” Gabrielle said, “that it will make no difference to have you swear one more time that it's over and it's done with. That you'll never bring it up again.”

  “I'm sorry, Gabs,” Geoff said.

  “I know. But that doesn't change anything.”

  “It should change everything. I didn't mean it.”

  “Well, I do,” Gabby said. “I almost didn't come back. I saw your car in the driveway and I almost went right back to the hotel.”

  “I'm glad you did come back,” Geoff said quietly. “I was totally lost without you. I'm so sorry. I'll never do it again. I'm hurting, too, and I lashed out. I'm sorry.”

  “I have some conditions for my coming back.”

  “Okay,” Geoff said. “Go ahead.”

  “One: we go to counseling. We need to talk to someone about grief. We need to talk to someone about each other.”

  Geoff nodded. “Okay.”

  “Two: I need a little while before I'm comfortable sleeping with you. You don't have to sleep on the sofa. Sleep in George's room.”

  Geoff nodded again. “Okay.”

  “Three: You have to talk to Violet.”

  “What?”

  “You need to make things right by Violet. You cut her out of my life twenty five years ago and that's over with.”

  “But you were with her! You cheated on me with her. With my sister, Gabrielle!”

  “And I did, again, while I was away.”

  Geoff gaped at his wife. “You what?”

  “I was with Vi while I was at the hotel. She stayed with me the entire time.”

  “You…? And then you came back? After you… you...”

  Gabrielle's voice was icy cold. “Yes. You want me to say it? I fucked your sister for a week before I came back to you.”

  “How could you?”

  “Because you decided to hold something over my head that happened twenty five years ago. Something we'd already gotten past and made up for. Something I think we can both say I did my penance for. I couldn't be with you. I needed someone. I needed to give you something new, a fresh wound to heal instead of an old scar that never goes away.”

  “That's fucking twisted.”

  “Geoffrey! Watch your language!”

  Geoff narrowed his eyes at her and shook his head. “You two were together and you want me to call her? Invite her over for dinner? What?”

  “She's your sister, Geoffrey. Your parents are both gone. She's all you have left.”

  “Oh, and I suppose she was all you had left, too?” Geoff sneered at her.

  “I didn't think I was going to come back. I could have not told you at all. But I'm telling you because if I'm coming back, I'm coming back for good and I need to be honest with you. You need to make amends with her and I want her back in my life, too.”

  “You mean, like you want to…?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Fuck,” Geoff sighed.

  “Geoffrey!”

  “Sorry.”

 
; “You were there when Ron died, with him. I was here, with her. We needed each other. After all this time, I think we still need each other,” Gabrielle said.

  “Then why didn't you stay with her?”

  Gabrielle was quiet for a long moment. Then she looked Geoff in the eyes. “Because I love you. We've had three beautiful, amazing children together. And the reason they're so amazing is because we love each other and we're good together. I want to apologize to you that I lost sight of that. I can't be without you. I don't want to be without you.”

  “But you thought you did.”

  Gabby nodded.

  “And while you thought you wanted to be without me,” Geoff continued, “you went and had sex with my sister.”

  Gabby nodded again. A tear rolled down her cheek.

  Geoff smacked his head down on the table and put his hands on the back of his head. Whenever he assumed this position, his helpless, hopeless, end of the world position, Gabby would always pet the back of his head. Now, she kept her hands in her lap. He moved his head to look at her but kept leaning on the table. His eyes were red and wet with tears.

  “Oh, Geoff,” Gabby rushed to the other side of the table and sat in Greg's chair next to Geoff. She wrapped her arms around her husband. He stiffened for a moment, then relaxed. He wrapped his arms around her and cried. “Ssh, ssh,” she tried to comfort him, “Hey, you know I'll always hold you when you cry.”

  Hearing the words she always used to comfort the children made Geoff cry harder. Gabrielle put her hand on the back of Geoff's head and petted it gently while he sobbed.

  “I'm sorry I hurt you,” Gabby said. “You hurt me unwillingly. I willfully did something to hurt you. I'm so sorry. Can you forgive me?”

  Geoff nodded into her shoulder, still crying.

  “Are you okay with this?” she asked.

  Geoff pulled back and sat up, wiping his eyes. He took several deep breaths and sniffled. “Do you love her?”

  Gabrielle nodded. “Yes. I don't know. Maybe.”

  “Do you still love me?”

  “Oh, Geoff, of course I do.”

  “At least,” Geoff sniffled again, “you're not out there playing around with other guys.”

  “Geoffrey?”

  He looked at Gabrielle.

  “I didn't realize how much I missed her until you brought her back up. I love you and I want you. But please don't take her away from me again. I can't bear to lose anyone else.”

  “Will you still stay if I say I need to think about it?”

  Gabby nodded. “For a while.”

  “I need to think about it.”

  “Okay. I understand.”

  “When you left me,” Geoff said, “I thought it was all my fault. I drove you away. Two of our children are gone, I needed you, and I pushed you off. Now I realize that all of this was still here. I thought it was all gone. But I guess it wasn't gone for me. And now you see it wasn't gone for you, either.”

  “I'm sorry.”

  Geoff shook his head. “I wasn't trying to make you apologize again. I guess I'm saying… I guess I'm saying that I understand. And for what it's worth, I didn't have any… um… encounters while you were away. I just realized more than ever how much I need you to make my life worth living. Especially without Greg, without Genny. I can't lose them and lose you.”

  “I'm sorry.” Gabrielle started crying. “I'm so sorry.”

  Geoff took her in his arms. “There you go. Now you can get my shirt wet, too,” he chuckled weakly. “I'll always hold you when you cry, too.”

  -

  Two days later, Gabrielle and Geoff were sitting on their front stoop. They passed a quart of Breyer's French Vanilla ice cream back and forth between them.

  “I can't believe you and George finished all my Chunky Monkey,” Gabrielle laughed.

  “That was two weeks ago. I'll get some more tomorrow,” Geoff said.

  “It's okay. I'll go shopping tomorrow. You just come home after work.” She bumped her shoulder into his and laughed.

  Geoff took a heaping spoonful of ice cream and licked around the edges of the spoon, then put the entire spoon in his mouth and sucked it clean.

  “This is the longest we've been apart since you were in the hospital,” Geoff said.

  Gabby nodded. “I know. Let's not talk about that, though. That was awful.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Oh, look!” Gabby pointed down the street. “It's Jimmy.”

  “Who's with him?” Geoff asked.

  “I don't know,” Gabby answered. “Some girl.”

  Jim and Portia walked up the street, holding hands.

  “Hey, Jim,” Geoff called.

  “What are you doing?” Gabby whispered. “You'll embarrass him!”

  “I think you mean I'll embarrass you!” Geoff whispered back.

  Jim and Portia walked over and stopped at the end of the Summers' driveway. Jim waved.

  “Who's your friend, there?” Geoff asked.

  “This is—”

  “I'm Portia. Nice to meet you.” She walked up the driveway to where the Summers were sitting. Portia wore a flannel shirt over a Depeche Mode t-shirt. Gabby tried not to laugh when she read the letters on the t-shirt that were visible. “-USIC FOR THE -ASSES”

  “I'm Gabrielle. This is my husband Geoff. We've known Jimmy since he was born. And my daughter has that same shirt.”

  Portia looked down to see what shirt she was wearing. “Oh, yeah? That's cool. Nice to meet you.” She took Jim's hand and led him down the driveway. Jim turned and waved at the Summers.

  Gabby leaned over and whispered to Geoff. “He replaced Genny with a girl just like her. Strong-willed, a music snob, pulls him around.”

  “I don't like the flannel, though,” Geoff said. “She looks like a lumberjack.”

  “And she's okay!”

  They laughed.

  “I'm glad you're back,” Geoff said. “You were all I had left. I missed you and I'm sorry.”

  “I'm sorry, too.”

  chapter 26

  “Why wasn't it this cold when we went into The Marsh?” Shae asked.

  “No idea. Let's just keep flying through this until we get into the Realm,” Herron said.

  They flew quietly for several minutes.

  “Herron?”

  “What, Shae?” Herron snapped.

  “The ground is gone.”

  They looked down and saw the gray nothing of The Void beneath them. There had been gray, stony ground when they entered, but now there was nothing.

  “I guess if Firemoss was still here, we'd be over it now and we'd have to fly down into the cavern. Let's try flying down.” He descended slowly and the others followed him.

  Shae's teeth were still chattering from the cold. Hope took off her flying cloak and slipped it over Shae's wings, then wrapped it around her shoulders.

  “Oh, thank you! I was so cold I thought I would die.”

  Hope nodded and flew back to Gen's side.

  “Aren't you cold, love?” Gen asked.

  Hope shook her head. “Nah. This isn't as cold as it gets at home. I'm fine. How are you doing?”

  “Surviving.”

  “That's something,” Hope smiled.

  Gen looked at her for a moment. “I love your smile.”

  “Aw, thanks.”

  “Look.” Herron pointed below them. The grayness thinned and they could see the brown, rocky ground. “Come on.”

  As they flew downward, the grayness lifted abruptly and they could see the scenery around them. Instead of the city of Firemoss they expected to see, there were thousands and thousands of tall, mushroom-shaped rocky formations.

  Herron flew to one of the columns and touched it. It was cool and hard and smooth to the touch. The stone was a pale, beige color, striped with translucent amber streaks. “Skies above,” he swore. “It's a petrified mushroom forest.”

  “A petrified mushroom forest?” Gen echoed. “Is that possible?”


  “I guess so,” Shae said. She opened her cloak. “And it's not so cold down here. I think I might survive now,” she giggled.

  “Thank goodness,” Hope laughed. She flew to one of the stone mushrooms and put her hands on it. “It's an interesting texture. It feels almost like stone, but it's so smooth.” She traced her finger down the mushroom across the different stripes. “The texture feels a little different in each strip.”

  “Where's the city? Is this Firemoss?” Shae asked.

  “No,” Herron said. “Firemoss is a city like you'd expect, with buildings and people. There's no mushroom forest in Firemoss. There's no mushroom forest anywhere in The Caverns, as far as I know.”

  “I wonder where it came from. Did it turn to stone like this when it entered The Void?” Shae asked. “Or was it already like this? Or maybe it was a mushroom forest that went into The Void, like, thousands of years ago and it turned to stone while it was already here.”

  “Good guess, miss,” said a voice from behind them.

  They spun around to face a pale, slender figure standing on the ground. He wore a fitted, dark red shirt over black leather pants and tall black leather boots. His eyes were very slightly slanted and his hair was shoulder length, straight, and a graying sandy blond. Instead of delicate insectoid wings, he had black, leathery bat-like wings.

  “I'm afraid,” the stranger continued, “that this isn't Firemoss. You're really nowhere near our new addition. The Caverns are several days from here. I'm afraid the geography inside The Void isn't quite the same as outside in the Realms.”

  The fairies landed on the ground in front of the stranger.

  “My name is Glest Slynn. Welcome to The Mushroom Forest.”

  “Thank you,” Herron said. “I'm—”

  “You're Herron, and Shae, and Genevieve, and Hope. We were alerted to your arrival.”

  “We?” Hope asked.

  A dozen more figures stepped out of the forest and stood behind Slynn.