Reality Falling (The Book Wielder Saga 2) (20 page)

Kaine looked like he’d been hit in the face. “Okay... there are about a million questions I need to ask you about that story of yours sometime soon, but I’ll bring you along if it’s to help out Winston. Just behave yourself, alright? Try anything dodgy and I’ll consider you a hostile.”

“You two may be the best of friends now, but
we
have yet to make a decision,” Cherriesa reminded them.

“If I’m taking the Inquisitor to see Winston then I want an answer now,” Kaine said defiantly.

Silvario and Cherriesa once again engaged in a silent debate, and the ever increasing scowl upon the Vampire’s beautiful face told Alice all she needed to know before anything was said out loud.

“We agree to your terms,” Silvario said. “Welcome to the Trinity of Old, Kaine. Your people may enter as soon as they are ready. We will talk more when you return.”

“If you or your gang try anything, I will have you all sealed in a Catacomb section for the rest of time,” Cherriesa added in a sweet yet threatening tone.

Kaine nodded at Silvario and winked at Cherriesa. “I take it you guys have a portal that exits somewhere near the outskirts of Rigorton?”

“We have one that will bring you out in a little village called Fallowne that’s to the west of Rigorton. Jonathan can escort you both,” said Silvario.

“Okay, well we best be off then,” Kaine said, looking at Alice.

“Thank you,” Alice replied warmly. With his help she was finally going to be able to pass on her message from the Twins. The chaotic times would soon be over – that was, if Winston could be convinced to correct the damage he’d done to the world. Alice would worry about bringing him to justice afterwards, whether the Supernaturals liked it or not.

“Follow me please,” Jonathan said to Kaine.

Just before leaving the room through the main portal, Kaine stopped and looked back. “There is one other thing, a query really, but I want an honest answer. I don’t care if you did it or not – well, I do, but we’re at war. These things happen.”

“What are you babbling on about?” Cherriesa asked impatiently.

“Lucius,” Kaine began slowly. “Did you have him assassinated?”

Silvario looked at Cherriesa confused. Clearly he had not ordered the attack, but was unsure if Cherriesa had done without telling him.

Cherriesa shook her head. “No, the Capital has become untouchable. We have not had anyone operating there for weeks.”

“Are you being one hundred percent truthful?” Kaine asked unsure. It was strange, but he seemed more afraid of the idea of them
not
initiating the attack on his former partner. “If we’re going to be working together I need to know if you did.”

“I told you, we are not responsible,” Cherriesa said angrily.

Silvario nodded. “She’s right, Kaine. As much as it embarrasses me to admit it, we cannot get anyone near to Imperia City and haven’t been able to for quite some time. Their defences are too strong and they have blocked off most of our portals, even the ones we considered to be secret.”

“And besides, I would not have assassinated Lucius,” Cherriesa added evilly. “I would have brought him here and publically burnt him at the stake... slowly.”

Alice expected Kaine to flare up. From what she’d gathered and been told, he and Lucius had been long-time friends, or at least partners in a mutual arrangement for quite some time. Instead, he looked towards Alice with fear in his yellow Werewolf eyes.

“We need to hurry,” Kaine said to Alice. “Winston is in even more danger that I thought.”

They left the sanctum, and Alice and Kaine followed Jonathan through the underground network. They exchanged the facts that they had gathered about both sides, and Alice was amazed at how normal Winston sounded. Apparently he had a natural talent for tactical planning, but the rest seemed like he was in the right place at the right time. More and more, Alice got the sense that they were all being guided by something. There were far too many coincidences popping up, and it was starting to feel like they were actors playing their parts on the stage. She quickly dismissed the thought; even if they were being manipulated by some force truly divine, she wouldn’t be able to discern its will, so there was no point trying. For better or worse, they were stuck on this roller coaster until the ride was over.

“Have you heard anything about a Lewis Thorne?” she asked Kaine.

“Lewis? Yeah, he’s Winston’s friend. A bit odd though,” Kaine said casually. “How do you know about him?”

Alice went to tell him, but realised he might be angered by Brooke and Alexander’s incarceration. They all seemed to know each other. “Oh, I’ve just heard things.”

Kaine looked at her sceptically. “I may be a bit rough around the edges but I’m no idiot, lady. Who you got?”

Alice hesitated before owning up. “Alexander and Brooke told me. They’re pretty sure he set them up.”

Kaine exposed his teeth and growled. “Then I bet that little shit had something to do with Lucius’ death too. If he’s in Winston’s ear then that explains why the kid is so eager to go along with the Archmage’s plan.” Kaine scratched his chin and put his long wild grey and white hair into a loose ponytail. “You better be taking good care of Brooke and Alexander.”

“I am,” Alice replied honestly. She was glad she’d just made them a deal. “Brooke is actually going to do some work for us, once I work out the details.”

“Good, see that it stays that way,” Kaine said gruffly. “And don’t forget about Alex. He’s one hell of a Mage, he was with me when we when we first started fighting in the Great War. We used to call him the Artillery, or Alexander the Art,” Kaine chuckled as he reminisced.

Alice just nodded. She was always so surprised at how much secret history existed beneath the world she once knew, and the Supernaturals had so many interesting and exciting stories about those times.

“We’re almost there,” Jonathan said to his followers.

He led them through a portal into a bar’s cellar. It was dusty and a little bit dingy but it was still clearly in use. Wooden kegs of beers and ciders lined the walls piled upon one another, beneath the shafts of light from the small surface level windows near the stony ceiling. Wine racks, shelves of spirits, and chillers packed with glass bottles of both alcoholic and soft drinks filled the spaces in between.

Kaine opened one of the chillers, grabbed a bottle of beer, removed the cap with his teeth and took a nice long drink. Alice looked on disapprovingly.

“The bar above is Trinity owned,” Jonathan explained, “so it’s okay.” He seemed to be saying it more for Alice’s benefit than Kaine’s.

Kaine pulled out his mobile phone. “There’s a ghost town to the south-west, near the mountains. I’ll message Winston now and ask him to meet me there urgently. I’ll leave you out of it to begin with ‘cos he might get the wrong idea.”

“That’s fine,” Alice said, following Jonathan up some wooden stairs.

The three of them made their way into the main bar, which was relatively deserted apart from some Supernaturals with assault rifles and few old hard-core regulars who were drinking steadily at the bar uncaringly. They gave Jonathan a nod of acknowledgement but gave Alice and Kaine disapprovingly curious looks.

Alice pulled her handheld computer device out from the opposite thigh compartment that she kept her minimised book in as they left the bar.

“What you doing?” Kaine asked.

“Just looking up this ghost town,” Alice said, tapping at the screen. “Is it this one?” she asked showing Kaine a blue and black aerial view of the old deserted town.

“Yeah, that’s the one,” Kaine said. His phone beeped and he read Winston’s reply.

As Kaine was busy reading the message and then typing his reply, Alice sneakily brought up a tactical overview of the area. There were some Auton patrols nearby and some agile types doing recon. She selected all of the local agile types and then tapped on the ghost town’s location. There were only fourteen of them, but they would be able to make it there ahead of them, whereas the normal heavier armed Autons wouldn’t. Kaine and the Trinity may have made an arrangement, but Alice was going to stop Winston even if it meant dragging him off to Central Isle and convincing him the hard way.

“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.