Reality Falling (The Book Wielder Saga 2)

by Davies, Sean

  “Winston’s on his way,” Kaine said cheerfully. “I’ll go grab us some wheels, something you’ll fit in with that armour on.”

  Alice stayed with Jonathan outside of the bar. It was hot in Desem and the dusty breeze did little to cool them down. The village was small but it looked like it had seen its fair share of damage, either from the fighting or looting. There were no people in the streets. The few shops had been ransacked, and the only visible activity was people peeking out from behind their bungalow curtains. They could see the seemingly endless row of light-brown and light-red barren hills and mountains, which lined the far side of the continent, from behind the small houses. There wasn’t much vegetation apart from the artificially placed green lawns. The rest of the place was dry cracked ground, a few scraps of sun scorched grass, and the odd cactus.

  “You should stay here,” Alice said to Jonathan out of the blue.

  “Why? It’s only going to be a conversation,” he asked confused.

  “These things are rarely that simple,” Alice said grimly.

  “Wait, what are you planning?” Jonathan asked, but before he could answer, Kaine drove down the road in a pick-up truck that looked like it had seen much better days.

  “I hope the owners didn’t mind,” Alice remarked as Kaine pulled up alongside them.

  “Well I didn’t stop to ask,” Kaine laughed. “You’ll have to climb in the back, Alice.”

  Alice clambered into the back and sat on one of the truck’s makeshift benches that ran down either side of the open-topped rear. She got out her HCD again and checked to see if the Autons were still making good progress.

  - - -

  Winston hadn’t made it very far in his plan to go and see Kavarne and Lynette on Highway One. He had ‘acquired’ a flashy black sports car from a car dealership that had only sustained minor damage during the attack. From Industria, he had driven to Rigorton where he had a quick stay to check on the forces of the Omni, and rediscovered his appetite in a diner.

  He was half way through his double-stacked burger and fries when he had seen the news report on their small wall-mounted television set. He shook his head with disgust at the Inquisition’s attack on the refugee boats. Winston knew that innocents had been harmed accidently because of his actions, but there was no need for them to go out of their way to attack them. They could have at least moved them on to Tropica.

  Winston had been feeling pretty dozy with the overwhelmingly bad news about his partner’s demise, so he’d called into a modest hotel, got himself a good supply of Dreamleaf, and smoked it until he’d passed out. He had woken up sometime in the early afternoon feeling very well rested, and after a lot of coffee and a massive breakfast he’d made use of one of Rigorton’s radio towers to contact Veronica.

  When the transmission went through, he was surprised and slightly disappointed when Lewis answered. They had a quick catch up, and then Lewis told him how Veronica was having a bit of a hard time coping with the loss of Lucius, and that she’d left the city for a few days to collect her thoughts. Winston was worried about her safety and told Lewis that he was returning to the Capital immediately, but Lewis had assured him that she just wanted some space to come to terms with Lucius’ death. He said that he and the Archmage had dispatched a group of Alts to tail her to keep an eye on Veronica and protect her if any rebels stumbled into her during her travels. Winston was glad that Lewis had shown such concern for her wellbeing and safety. He and Veronica hadn’t seen eye-to-eye since the very first mention of the Archmage and it was a hopeful sign that one day they could get along again.

  Before ending the transmission, Lewis had suggested that he take his time and enjoy the moment of calm before the next merger, so that’s what Winston did. He met up with various members of the Omni forces around the city, checked on the progress of both Alt and human activity, shared drinks and drugs with the Supernaturals, and shared sweets and soft drinks with the Alternatives. Eventually he ended up partying until the early hours of the morning at a Supernatural nightclub, whacked out of his face on anything that was on offer. Winston had felt great that night, leaving all of his troubles long behind with his sobriety, but when he woke up in the afternoon the next day with a killer headache and a message from Kaine he regretted it so much. The leader of the Dogs of War wanted his chat a lot sooner than Winston had anticipated, and after quite a long delay, Kaine had finally got back to him on when and where he wanted to meet; in an off-the-map ghost town near the beginning of the mountain range in south-western Desem. It wasn’t a long drive from Rigorton to the coordinates, but Winston was worried that he wouldn’t be able to find it at all.

  He ordered some room service and had a warm shower, and just after he’d dressed himself in some loose casual wear, a nervous member of staff brought up his breakfast and a pot of coffee on a wobbly plastic tray. Winston tipped him generously with a small wad of Imperial Credits, and the hotel worker thanked him in a shaky voice but looked at the money like it was nothing at all. As Winston closed the door and set the tray down on the bed, he realised with a shock that amidst all of the fighting, looting, general confusion and social instability, that the world currency was losing its purpose. He imagined that, to a regular human, it must have felt like the countdown to the end of the world.

  He tucked into his breakfast. The eggs were overcooked, the bacon was too greasy, the sausages were overdone on the outside and undercooked in the inside, the coffee wasn’t hot enough and tasted like it had been watered down, but Winston finished it all anyway. He was grateful that his toast was fine at least.

  He assumed that Kaine wanted to work out a new deal or plan, something that the Archmage wouldn’t approve of, which Winston was prepared to listen to. He had always liked Kaine, but more than that, he owed it to Lucius’ memory to give his old friend and ally the chance to speak his peace. After the meeting in the ghost town, Winston would get himself to Highway One and then Beachhead One. Whether he saw Lynette and Kavarne or not, he’d be on his way back home to the Capital as soon as possible. He wanted to be home at the Hotel Noir, waiting for his wife Veronica’s return as soon as she had cleared her head. Nothing seemed the same without her by his side.

  Winston left the hotel and asked around the city for directions to his destination. Getting the car he’d taken smeared in dust and dirt, he charged down the roads out of Rigorton, through Fallowne and eventually off-road towards Kaine’s suspicious choice of meeting place.

  He drove over the dry orange, yellow and brown dirt, weaving in-between tough leafless bushes and bony stunted trees with white and grey bark, kicking up a massive cloud of dust behind him. As the mountains on the far side of Desem began to steadily grow on the horizon, a cluster of small wooden houses also popped up amongst the shimmering heat waves. The houses were dull simple shacks built beside a gentle river that had some rare green vegetation growing along its banks. It had been long abandoned from the days when gold and silver had been Desem’s chief export rather than Deep Vein Oil. Somewhere down the line the place had been abandoned, either because they’d found too few precious metals nearby or just fallen on hard times. Rather than rotting, however, the arid heat had preserved the old buildings quite well.

  Winston parked on the outskirts of the ghost town, and walked through the creepy empty old houses towards what passed for a town square. Kaine was standing in the centre by a large stone well.

  “Winston, thank you for coming,” Kaine said gravely.

  “No worries,” Winston replied. “So what’s this about?”

  “It’s about what we discussed in Industria City. The Archmage is no good, and I want to discuss the matter as far away from any of his cronies as possible.”

  “Well, he wants to rule the world; of course he’s not good,” Winston replied with an awkward chuckle. “But then, neither are we.”

  “There’s bad, and then there’s just plain fucking evil, lad.”

  Winston could feel something strange nearby. He had fou
nd that he could sense Supernaturals and Alternatives by the magic emanating from within them, and there was definitely someone else in the ghost town.

  “Who else is here?” Winston asked slightly agitated.

  “Someone who has some very important things for you to hear, kid. You’ve got to trust me on this one. It’s going to look... off,” Kaine said anxiously.

  “Who-?” Before Winston could finish, the sound of crunching dry soil grabbed his attention.

  Winston reached for his pistol and sparked some electricity in-between his fingers on his other hand, readying a powerful lightning spell. A brown skinned, black haired Inquisitor woman in sleek white armour walked out from behind one of the buildings. One of her hands was up but the other held onto a spell-forged war hammer. Winston recognised her from when the Inquisition had first arrived in the Capital. They had locked eyes but he hadn’t thought anything of it. Her eyes had been brown back then, but now they were white; exactly same as his.

  “Your eyes... you’re an Inquisitor Book Wielder?” he asked confused, not lowering his guard for a second.

  “I’m Lord Inquisitor Alice Eve,” she said cautiously, “and yes, I am also a Book Wielder. So you’re the infamous Winston Reynolds?”

  “Yeah, that’s me,” he mumbled to her before turning to face Kaine slightly. “Kaine, what the fuck is going on here?” he demanded. The whole thing seemed like a trap.

  “Just hear her out,” Kaine urged. “You and everyone close to you is in danger.”

  “Why should I listen to an Inquisitor?” Winston said disgustedly. “Especially one that murders boat-loads of innocent civilians.”

  “That’s rich, coming from you,” Alice spat back. “So hypocritical. How many people have died because of your own selfish actions?”

  “Hypocritical? Like being the leader of a righteous Supernatural-hating holy group like the Inquisition, when you yourself are a Book Wielder?” Winston retorted.

  Alice ignored the remark and carried on angrily. “And how dare you mention those ships? You’re the one who loaded them full of your Gloom friends.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Winston said.

  “You didn’t know after all,” Kaine murmured.

  “One of you needs to explain, right now,” Winston said angrily. He felt like he was losing the plot.

  “The refugee boats that left Industria were loaded up with Alts, lad,” Kaine explained. “Orders came from the Capital straight down to that bitch Kat.”

  Winston looked dumbfounded. “No...” he said stupidly. “Surely they would have run it past me first?”

  “They’ve been keeping us both out of the loop,” Kaine said grimly.

  “About that, and a lot of other things it would seem,” Alice added.

  “Omniosis ordered the execution of the civilians taking refuge in the dockyards,” Kaine continued. “Kat and her people burnt them all to ashes. That’s why The Dogs of War won’t be fighting with the Omni anymore. The Trinity have agreed to take us in, and I’ve taken the third leadership position. I wanted to talk things over with you before this happened lad, but it didn’t really time out like that, what with me killing Kitaria.”

  Winston couldn’t think straight. There were too many questions racing around his head for him to focus on properly. “But... someone would have said something to me?”

  “I wouldn’t be so trusting of those close to you,” Alice advised.

  Winston mistook the comment as an insult. “What would you know about it?” he snapped.

  “More than you know, Winston Reynolds,” Alice said. “Brooke and Alexander told me to warn you about your friend Lewis.”

  “Brooke and Alexander?” Winston was getting more confused by the minute. “They’re dead because your people killed them!”

  Alice shook her head. She’d come to the ghost town hating Winston, or at least the idea of him, but now she pitied him slightly. He was only a young man, a young man that would have had a life like any other if he hadn’t been chosen as a Book Wielder, and now she was pulling his world down around him. She could relate quite easily to that disillusionment.

  “My people didn’t kill them, they captured them,” she explained. “They’ve been safe on Central Isle the whole time. We’ve just had them moved into a nice little house, but still under guard of course.”

  “But Lewis said-” Winston stammered. He sounded like a moron and he knew it. “How do I even know you’re telling me the truth?”

  Alice took a long breath. “They told me to tell you what happened the day they got captured, the day of your pre-wedding party. Your ‘friend’ Lewis went to them and told them there was an urgent mission to the north of the Capital. He said that they should be back with plenty of time to attend the festivities. When they got deep into the forest, Brooke and Alexander lost sight of Lewis and the Freaks – Alternatives, rather. Then they came across some of our forces but the scene looked suspect. They went to investigate quickly and found that everyone there was dead. Including your parents, I’m sorry to say, but they were made to look like they weren’t deceased. That’s when the Autons stumbled onto the scene, as contact with the resistance fighters had been lost some time beforehand. Brooke and Alexander fought them obviously, but they soon found that their powers were being cancelled. Excluding myself, there are only two people I’m told have been blessed with the same gift.”

  “Me and Lewis,” Winston gasped. He didn’t want to believe that his friend had done that, or that the Archmage had manipulated him so blindly, but there were too many facts that the Inquisitor knew to dismiss her completely.

  “I asked the Trinity about Lucius’ death,” Kaine said. “They said they haven’t had anyone operating in or near Imperia City for weeks. They know it’s a waste of time seeing as it’s so well defended. I know you can’t always trust the words that come out of their mouth, but over the years I’ve learnt to sniff out their bullshit, and when I asked them about their involvement I’ve never seen them so honest.”

  “You think Lewis is responsible for that too?” Winston asked dryly. It was all too much for him to take in.

  Thoughts kept popping into Winston’s head. He remembered Lewis mentioning that he’d tried the black water out of desperation on his first visit to the Gloom. He remembered how much his sweet tooth had grown wild, all the strange behaviour that seemed to increase in frequency as time went on, and how eager he was for Winston to meet and follow the Archmage Omniosis and his plans. Winston realised that after his powers had been awoken by Omniosis that his irises had turned black, almost like an Alts, whereas Alice’s and his own were white. But Lewis had only claimed to have tried a scoop of the foul Gloom water, and Winston couldn’t believe that a tiny amount could turn a human completely into an Alt; not without some majorly invasive needlework from Mortissa and her maidens, at the least. He did wonder if that was enough to make him Omniosis’ puppet though.

  Kaine shrugged. “Can’t really say. Lucius was no combatant, but he was wiry and cunning like a fox. It would’ve been easy for Lewis to get him off guard though, especially if he can cancel powers.”

  Something twigged in Winston’s mind. “You said you can negate magic too,” he said to Alice. “How did you get that ability?”

  “The Twin Goddesses,” Alice said factually. “They were actually-”

  “Twin Archmages,” Winston interrupted. “The ones who drained the magic out of the world. Yeah, I’ve heard this story. I was also warned that they’d send someone to deceive me.”

  “That’s funny, because they warned me that you’d be reluctant to listen,” Alice said back.

  “What do the witches want me to do then?” Winston asked critically. Kaine he could trust, somewhat, but the Lord Inquisitor was a different matter altogether.

  “They want you to listen to the facts, the real story of who and what the Archmage is, and the horrible things he has done and will do. You need to put the world back to how it was Winston.” A
lice said pleadingly,

  “That’s not going to happen,” Winston said defiantly. He surprised himself with just how resolute he was on the subject.

  “You should at least come with us for now kid,” Kaine suggested. “We can go over things in more detail in the safety of the Catacombs.”

  Winston looked at Kaine and Alice, confused. Kaine hated the Trinity of Old for their action around the time of the Great War. The Dogs of War and Shadow Circle gangs had even made an alliance to take them down, and now he was part of them. The Inquisition was meant to purge the world of Supernaturals and now they were helping the Trinity too. He was suspicious that there were even more lies and deceit going on behind the scenes to gel these unlikely alliances together. Or was it just a sign of how obvious the Archmage’s dark intentions were to everyone else? Combined with the accusations about his best friend Lewis, Winston felt well and truly lost, and if they were true then he and everyone he was close to were in great danger. There was so much conflicting information spinning around his skull, and he just couldn’t figure out what to do.

  Kaine’s ears prickled and his nose flared. “Do you hear that?” he snarled. “Did you tell anyone you were coming, Winston?”

  “No,” Winston replied, but after he’d spoken he realised that he had been asking around for directions.

  Alice and Winston started to hear what Kaine’s ears had picked up earlier; it was the sound of galloping hooves. Suddenly, a gunshot echoed through the ghost town and Kaine went down. He’d been shot in the shoulder.

  Kaine burst through his clothing and transformed into a hulking Werewolf Brutebeast with light grey and white fur. He howled savagely as he leapt back to his feet. His gunshot wound was now nothing to him.

  Alice and Winston ran separate ways and into the cover of some buildings.

  “Winston!” Lewis’ voice called out from the distance. “Winston, where are you? We’re here to save you!”