The Cornerstone (9 page)

Max felt something was required of him at this point. ‘Erm. Ok. Good name… sounds impressive.’

‘And you are?’

‘I’m Max Bloom. I come from Farefield. In England. Er… on Earth.’ There wasn’t much more he could add.

‘I know where you’re from, boy. It was our House that discovered the pathway to your world.’

‘Right… gotcha. Good for you.’ This wasn’t going well at all.

‘How is it we have not heard from the Wordsmith appointed to watch the doorway?’ asked Jacob Carvallen. ‘Why did I have no warning of your unauthorised use of The Cornerstone?’

‘Imelda, you mean?’ Max looked at Merelie, who nodded. ‘Well… the book wouldn’t let her contact you.’

‘What do you mean by that?’ Jacob asked, looking down at The Cornerstone.

‘It wouldn’t let her use it. She said it was being stubborn.’

‘It knows father, The Cornerstone knows!’ Merelie blurted out. ‘It knows something’s coming… that’s why it wouldn’t let your spy talk. That’s why it brought Max here!’

‘Be quiet Merelie!’ Jacob snapped and looked at Borne. ‘Arma, how could you allow this? She should have been under your supervision at all times.’

‘Your daughter is more than smart enough to elude me when she wishes to, sir.’ Borne replied. ‘She’s committed to her cause and believes everything she says. Perhaps you should listen before dismissing her fears completely.’

‘I
have
been listening for a long time, Borne and there is no evidence that this great evil of which she speaks exists!’

Max lent forward in his chair. Merelie’s angry father looked like he was about to spill the beans.

‘I have had the custodians searching the void,’ the Chapter Lord continued, ‘Wordcrafting for days at a time, and they have found nothing!’

Merelie jumped out of her seat. ‘Father, you never told me that!’

‘I’m not a stupid man, Merelie. If someone I trust warns me of impending doom, I look into it.’ Jacob gave Borne a meaningful look. ‘I listened and did what I thought was appropriate.’ He turned his attention back to Merelie. ‘But there’s been nothing. No sign that the void between worlds is about to spill out a monstrous evil that will lay waste to us all.’

Merelie sat back in her chair, deflated. ‘But the dreams, father. The way the words have come to me… it must be true.’

‘I don’t know what to tell you, Merelie. I really don’t,’ Jacob replied, a little compassion slipping into his voice for the first time.

He got up, walked around the desk and took his daughter’s hands. ‘This has to stop now. You have to send this boy back and forget these nightmares. Nothing is coming to kill us. We’re safe.’

Merelie’s eyes filled with doubt. ‘It’s been so clear father, for so long. I see them breaking into our world. Invading our minds and twisting us until - ‘ The fear etched across her face was horrible. ‘You asked me why I brought you here, Max. Why I needed somebody from your world?’

Here we go!

‘It’s because only someone like you can stop it. When the darkness spreads, only a powerful Wordsmith from your world can save us.’

Max looked blanker than a gambler’s cheque.

‘Right, ‘ he said, digesting this. ‘Just one question?’

‘Yes?’

‘What’s a Wordsmith?’

Jacob Carvallen tutted and looked at Merelie. ‘You didn’t tell him much, did you?’

‘She’s tried,’ Max said in a strained voice, resisting his natural urge to start chucking insults about. ‘We keep getting
interrupted
.’

‘A Wordsmith is one blessed with the natural talent to shape words and grasp the power they hold… and the training to do it properly,’ Jacob told him.

‘A wizard, then?’ Max felt on slightly firmer ground here.

‘That’s a word from your world, boy. Not ours.’

Stop calling me boy.

‘Whatever! Wizard or Wordsmith. I’m not one, I know that much.’

‘But you will be!’ Merelie exclaimed. ‘You
have
to be. Your world has so many books… so many words, so much potential power. You should
all
be capable of word shaping. That’s why I brought you here. You can save us, Max. You alone can stand against the darkness I’ve seen coming!’ Her eyes gleamed with hope.

‘Right… so what happens to me if I’m not an ultra super powerful Wordsmith when this darkness turns up?’ Max asked, dreading the answer.

Merelie looked non-plussed. ‘Why, you’d… you’d die. We all would.’

I should have stayed in bed this morning.

Jacob gave him a sympathetic look. ‘I’m sorry, boy. I’ve known my daughter’s intentions for a long time. She believes that you - as a citizen of your world - are the saviour of my people. With The Cornerstone colluding with her, your presence here was guaranteed.’

Max Bloom drew himself up to his full five foot eight inches, took a deep breath and aimed the pointy finger of doom at Merelie. ‘You’re telling me you dragged me into this stupid dimension to stop some indescribable creatures from sucking your brains out ‘coz you think I can be some kind of magical wizard, shooting lightning bolts out of my arse? And you reckon I can
single-handedly
save your entire race. Have I got that about right?’

‘Yes, Max. That’s right,’ Merelie said with a smile, happy he understood his part in the grand scheme of things.

Max’s face had gone an alarming shade of red.

‘Did it not occur to you,’ he continued. ‘That I – and every other berk from my world – might not have any super-duper magical powers, and that if I go up against your evil monstrosities, I’ll get skinned alive in thirty seconds flat?’

Merelie looked confused. ‘No, Max. That’s not how it’s supposed to happen.’

 ‘
Supposed
to happen?? You… you… ‘ He was so angry the power of speech was starting to desert him. ‘You’re bloody nuts!’

Jacob and Merelie were both taken aback.

‘There’s no need to talk to my daughter that way,’ Jacob warned.

When Max gets a temper going, his instincts for self-preservation get sidelined. ‘Oh, shut up, baldy! If you could control your bloody kids I wouldn’t be in this mess!’

‘Don’t speak to me in that tone, boy!’

‘Stop calling me boy! I’m not your bloody servant!’ Max grabbed The Cornerstone and shook it at Merelie. ‘Send me home. Send me home now!’

Merelie actually had the decency to look a bit scared. ‘Ok, Max. I will… but without you, we’re all dead!’

‘Well without you, I’m not! I should - ‘

We don’t get to hear what Max should or shouldn’t do, as Borne - who’d had quite enough of his mistress being insulted - gave Max a smart whack across the back of the head.

Nothing too damaging, you understand. He isn’t a barbarian.

However, the blow was more than hard enough to send Max from standing indignantly in a rage, to laid out on the floor, completely sparked out.

Borne had actually done Max something of a favour, as several Chapter Guards had started drawing unpleasant looking crossbow guns from their holsters.

One lunge from Max at either of the Carvallen family members and he’d have been turned into a pin-cushion with frightening speed and accuracy.

Jacob Carvallen was not the sort of man who got shouted at a lot and nobody had ever called him baldy before. It was an experience he was still trying to process as he looked down at the incumbent form of Max Bloom. ‘He certainly is a strong-willed one. I can see why The Cornerstone likes him.’

‘That’s what I said, sir,’ Borne pointed out.

‘He could still help us,’ said Merelie.

‘I rather think not,’ her father said. ‘There’s no need for this boy to go into battle and sacrifice himself. No darkness is set to engulf us - the custodians have proved it.’ Jacob knelt and checked Max’s pulse. ‘I think you’d have a very hard time convincing him to help us now anyway,’ he added, satisfied the boy’s heartbeat was strong and regular.

Everyone’s heartbeat shot up as the large study doors flew open and a grossly overweight man in a billowing blue suit waddled in, flanked by several guardsmen, also clad in blue.

‘Carvallen! What the hell’s going on?’ the fat man roared. ‘You’ve been away from the table for too long! Falion is spouting her drivel about equality for the masses again and Lord Morodai objects. We need you to mediate!’ He caught sight of Max lying on the ground. ‘Who in the Writer’s name is that?’

‘Apologies Osgood,’ Jacob said, ‘I shouldn’t have absented myself for so long. You needn’t worry about this boy. He’s a problem of my daughter’s making, but I think we’ve managed to clear it up… haven’t we Merelie?’

Merelie said nothing. She was concentrating too much on glowering at the fat newcomer.

‘Hello Merelie,’ he said, seeing her for the first time. 

‘Good morning Chapter Lord Draveli,’ Merelie responded, with enough ice in her voice to go well with a shot of whisky.

Osgood Draveli looked at Max and back at the two Carvallens standing over him.  ‘Let me guess Merelie,’ he sighed, ‘this has something to do with your insistence we’re all doomed, hasn’t it?’ He snorted like a pig. ‘You finally did it, didn’t you? Dragged some poor fool from that charmless little existence over here to be part of your delusion.’

‘That will do Osgood,’ Jacob said. ‘My daughter has had the facts laid out to her and I’m confident this is the last we’ll hear of this.’ He looked at Borne. ‘Arma, take my daughter to her rooms. I will oversee this boy’s passage back through The Cornerstone. I want his return properly supervised by the custodians. Until then, I’ll have him held in the cells.’

‘Father! He isn’t a prisoner!’

‘What do you suggest, then? This is a problem of your devising.’

Merelie thought for a second. ‘Let me take him down to the Library. The Cornerstone will need replenishing anyway, so I might as well.’

Carvallen looked at his daughter with suspicion.

‘Trust me father,’ Merelie said, ‘I know I’ve gone too far. I’ll send him home as quickly as possible.’

‘Time is of the essence, Jacob,’ Osgood piped up again. ‘The talks are at a very critical stage and you left at a most inopportune moment. If this doesn’t work out, it could mean war between the Chapters!’

‘It won’t come to that, Osgood,’ Jacob said. ‘Merelie, I’ll trust you to get rid of this boy. Don’t disappoint me please… Borne, make sure she keeps her word.’

Without waiting for a response, Jacob strode out of the study with the corpulent Osgood Draveli in his wake.

- 6 -

Waking up can be a truly
wonderful
experience, if it’s in the right place, at the right time.

A Saturday morning in July can be a fantastic time to wake from a pleasant dream - to see the sunlight filtering in through the crack in the curtains. The duvet is warm, you’ve slept like a log, and the day holds the promise of doing not a lot in particular.

Waking up can also be a
horrid
experience, if you do have school or work that day, and it’s 6.45am on a freezing cold January morning.

But even that unpleasantness pales into insignificance compared with waking up in another dimension, slung over the back of a sweaty bodyguard and nursing a clanging headache - all because a mental blonde chick thinks you’re a wizard.

‘Blrhrmfrhm,’ Max said as he came to.

He felt lifted, then dumped unceremoniously into a large chair - which at least had the good grace to be soft.

‘Go easy with him Borne,’ Merelie told her Arma.

‘He insulted you, Merelie. I don’t like that.’

‘He was angry.’

‘Manners are manners.’

‘Where the hell am I?’ Max said, as he checked his keys were in his back pocket.

‘We’re in the entrance lobby to the Library,’ Merelie said, walking over to a large door at the back of the room.

‘Library?’

‘Yes, the one you were in the last time you came here.’ She knocked on the door gently.

Despite the smack on the head and subsequent grogginess, Max was up like a shot, looking for invisible library monsters.

‘Relax, boy,’ said Borne. ‘The guardian is nowhere near us. It patrols the sections of the library where the mystical books are. We’re quite safe here.’

Max looked at him with deep suspicion, but relaxed his guard.

He had to admit the room they were in didn’t look the type favoured by your average invisible creature from Hell.

It was spacious and well appointed - laid with luxurious green carpeting with the Carvallen coat of arms stitched into it - and containing several plush cream coloured couches and chairs.

It was a bit like the waiting room of a particularly upmarket plastic surgeon’s office. The kind celebrities go to when they want to shave off a few years.

Merelie walked back, her shoes making no noise on the thick carpet. ‘It shouldn’t take too long,’ she said. ‘The head custodian will know we’re here and will be up shortly.’

‘Whoopee crap,’ replied Max, sitting back on the couch in a huff.

Merelie sat and looked at him with her big, blue eyes firmly set on stun mode. ‘I know you don’t believe me, Max. You don’t think you have this power in you, but I know I’m right. When the evil from my dreams is unleashed, it’s you who will save us.’

‘But your old man says there’s nothing to worry about!’ Max argued.

‘I still think he’s wrong,’ she replied, but there was doubt in her eyes.

‘He’s a powerful bloke, though,’ he pointed out, ‘being in charge of this place and everything. Maybe he knows better than you?’

‘He hasn’t had the dreams… and neither have you.’

‘Oh, here we go with the dreams again.’ He shook his head. ‘Dreams are stupid, Merelie. My mate Figgy says they’re just your brain taking a dump.’

She didn’t quite know how to respond to that.

Max, knowing how idiotic that had sounded, tried to regain some momentum. ‘What I’m saying is… dreams don’t mean anything. It’s just your mind processing the rubbish floating round. Figgy says you’d go mental if you didn’t dream. There’s nothing more to it than that.’

‘Not my dreams, Max.’

‘Really?’ he said, folding his arms and sitting back.

Merelie’s eyes narrowed. ‘Borne? Give me The Cornerstone!’