Reality Falling (The Book Wielder Saga 2) (8 page)

They both doused their plates in gravy and wolfed down the food like a pair of animals. It wasn’t long before they were finished and the pair were slumped in their chairs, struggling to move with amount of food in their stomachs.

They sat contently for a while, watching the Supernaturals and Inquisitors unwinding in the common room, until finally Jonathan spoke.

“We should go,” he said a little bit regretfully.

“Okay,” Alice agreed, and they walked in silence down some tunnels and through some portals until they had reached the outside of the Trinity’s inner sanctum.

Supernatural guards, standing as still as statues, lined the room containing the portal to the Trinity’s living quarters. Marble steps led up to the big light purple portal that was set into a large alcove in the wall.

“I’ll wait for you here,” Jonathan said.

Alice nodded and made her way up the marble steps. Jonathan was technically her handler, as the Trinity wouldn’t allow any member of the Inquisition to roam the Catacombs without an escort. Likewise, she didn’t allow any Supernatural to walk around Central Isle unattended. Although the two sides seemed to be bonding, neither of them trusted each other enough to drop their guards completely.

As she entered the Trinity’s lavish private sanctum through the purple portal, she could see that Silvario had just finished dining too. He was sat at a fine old table flicking through a book and drinking white wine.

“Ah Alice, please make yourself at home,” he said cheerfully. “Wine?”

“No thank you,” she replied bluntly. “No Cherriesa?”

“She is feeding at the moment, but she’ll be finished soon.”

The Trinity’s sanctum was furnished with some of the finest pieces from all over the world and from varying ages. The artwork, antiques, and decor must have been priceless. Three smaller portals led to each member’s living quarters. There was a red one for the Vampire Cherriesa, a dark purple one for Silvario, and a yellow one for the late Werewolf Svorn, who was assassinated by one of the Trinity’s own Book Wielders after being poisoned with Gloom water by the Archmage and his lackeys.

Two half-naked human men walked out of the red portal looking rather dazed, their clothes scruffy and crumpled. Behind them came a Vampire woman with waist length shimmering blonde hair, and like most Supernaturals she was drop dead gorgeous. She was scantily dressed in a white and gold corset that could barely contain her enormous breasts, and a frilly little skirt that just about managed to cover her lower areas, but when she walked Alice got a flash of a furry blonde landing strip.

The audacity of Supernatural girls made her cringe. She’d heard a lot of the Vampires, Werewolves and Mages using the expression ‘when you live forever you’ve got to do something other than kill time,’ but she didn’t see how that translated into ‘go and be a slut’. For a brief moment she wondered how much sleazy trash Jonathan had slept with, and the idea made her stomach churn.

The human men kept their heads lowered but the Vampire woman gave Alice smug look as she walked by, though they all quickly bowed to Silvario before leaving the sanctum.

Cherriesa came strolling out of the red portal, wiping blood and whatever else from the sides of her mouth with the back of her hand. Alice wasn’t surprised to see that she was half-naked. Only a see-through white negligee covered her amazingly smooth brown skin, her large firm breasts and long dark nipples, and her perfectly trimmed triangle of dark pubic hair. Alice didn’t know what she hated more; the Vampire bitch-queen herself, or the fact that she was actually jealous of her.

The Vampire leader of the Trinity gave her a sly smirk. “Good evening, Alice. I hope you weren’t waiting for too long.” She stretched out, blatantly exaggerating her form and exposing even more of her body than before.

“No, I wasn’t actually, but thank you for caring,” Alice said back in a bitter tone. She’d heard that some Vampires were psychic and wondered how far Cherriesa had tunnelled into her mind.

“Well I hope you had a nice meal, and bath...” Cherriesa grinned evilly.

Alice’s quandary had been answered. She scowled and went red with anger and embarrassment, and she considered whether or not to just walk out. She even toyed with the idea of killing the bitch.

“Please, Cherriesa,” Silvario pleaded. “We do need Alice’s help.”

“If you say so,” Cherriesa said grumpily, and folded her arms against her bosom.

Alice was grateful that the top half of the Vampire’s modesty was covered at least. “I didn’t think you’d let humans down here, even as Vampire food.”

“Some volunteer,” Silvario began, “and others stumble across our world, by accident or otherwise. We find that sometimes it is better to keep them down here than it is to trust them to keep their mouths closed.”

Alice looked horrified.

“What?” Cherriesa challenged. “It’s not like we don’t make it worthwhile for them.” She gestured to her amazing figure beneath the see-through negligee once more.

Alice grunted in disgust and looked away; she’d seen enough Vampire rack for one day. “Why do you want me to go into the Gloom, then?”

Silvario took the question. “I’m afraid to say that our potion reserves have been steadily diminishing since Winston Reynolds’ partnership with the Freaks. We would like you to cross over into the Gloom, in one of our secluded safe houses, to help replenish our reagent reserves. I’m sure that I don’t have to remind you of just how important potions are to our resistance efforts. We would surely be overpowered without them.”

“Don’t you have other Book Wielders that can do a supply run for you?” Alice asked.

“Our other Book Wielders are busy turning our reserve ingredients into potions,” Cherriesa cut in. “Most Book Wielders are adepts at alchemy, unlike you,” she said rudely in her sickly sweet Tropican accent.

Alice threw a dirty look in her direction quickly before turning back to Silvario. “I wouldn’t even know where to start. I don’t know what to look for.”

She had flicked through her book, though probably not as much as she should have, but it had only really shown her how to master the negation magic.

“Don’t worry,” Silvario said nicely, “I had considered that.” He went to one of the many bookshelves within the room and pulled out a small lime green hardback book.

He handed the book to Alice. She looked at it and could just about make out the title ‘Basic but Potent Defence Potions’ embossed in fading brownish gold print. Some of the pages had their corners folded and marked at sections that had pictures of the ingredients she was looking for.

“There’s nothing special in there,” Silvario explained, “especially compared to the wealth of knowledge that your own book contains, but as it will be stuck in place when you cross over you’ll have to make do. The pictures should be helpful.”

Alice nodded. “Okay. Get in, grab reagents, get out.” It seemed easy enough.

“Hopefully it will be that simple,” Silvario said earnestly. “Jonathan and some of our guards will escort you to the safe house. You are of course welcome to bring some of your own people too.”

“Hope you have a safe journey to the Gloom,” Cherriesa in a sweet and obviously sarcastic voice.

She pulled off the negligee, balled it up, and tossed it through her red portal before smirking. She walked off, deliberately swaying her hips from side to side to emphasise her perfect buttocks as she entered her private chambers.

Alice stormed out of the sanctum and walked alongside Jonathan back to the room that she was borrowing.

“Did it go okay?” Jonathan asked after they’d walked in awkward silence for a while. “Cherriesa give you grief?”

“Let’s just say that I saw more of her than I would’ve liked to,” Alice fumed.

Jonathan’s eyebrows rose. “Yes, she is quite the exhibitionist at times.”

“Massive understatement,” she replied angrily. “Tell me, are all Supernatural women whores?”

Jonathan laughed. “Not all of them, though most are a little bit ‘out there’. But then, when you live forever...”

“You’ve got to do something other than kill time,” she interrupted mockingly.

“You might understand someday.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re a white-eye. You’ll live forever too – well, you will if you’re careful.”

Alice was blown away by the revelation. “Are you serious?”

“Well, the white-eye Book Wielders back in the day were immortal like other Supernaturals, so I should think you are too.”

“Are they still around?” Alice asked.

“No. When the witch hunter inquisition was in full swing most of them mistook themselves for holy warriors, what with the ability to cancel out the powers of the
foul
and
evil
Supernaturals. But when the leader of the witch hunters found out they were actually another form of Supernatural, he had them all killed in their sleep, along with most of the misguided mages they had in their ranks too. The ones that survived joined us.”

Alice didn’t say anything back. Instead, she wondered what Edgar would have done if he’d known that she was technically a Supernatural. Would he have had her killed too?

She went back to the room, fixed her armour back on again, holstered her plasma submachine gun, and picked up her hammer. Jonathan knocked on the door and brought in a large duffle bag filled with tools and storage cases needed for her trip, and then they started making their way through the network of portals alongside four members of Trinity guards. Alice didn’t bother calling on any of her own people. The biggest danger for her would be in the Gloom where they couldn’t follow.

Alice started flicking through the small book. “So where is this safe house, then?”

“This one is up in the hills of Rura, far north of the Capital.”

“I just wish you could come with me.” Alice hesitated. “I mean all of you, that is. It would be safer, and you could tell me what I’m supposed to do.”

Jonathan smiled and took the book out of Alice’s hands, flicking through the pages that had been folded. “Stonebark, Mankroot, Psychothorn...”

“What pleasant names,” Alice joked.

Jonathan shrugged. “The Gloom is far from pleasant, unless you Book Wielders have been lying to us for all these years.”

Alice smiled as they passed through the last guarded portal in their journey through the Catacombs.

They entered into somewhere that was completely dark. It was cold and the air smelt dank. Jonathan summoned an orb of glowing white magelight to brighten the room. They were standing in a long abandoned cellar, with dusky wine racks and barrels falling apart, water seeping through the stone walls, and rats scurrying away from the new source of illumination to hide amongst the debris. A small set of stairs led to a trapdoor which Jonathan unlocked with a long metal key from his robe, and the group made their way up into the safe house.

It was dark inside the old house, but light from the twin moons shining through the dusty old windows brightened the place up a tiny bit. One of the Trinity guards, a Mage, shot a few tiny fireballs out of his finger tips and into the house’s wall mounted candelabras, and Jonathan dismissed his mage light.

The large house was old and dusty, faded paintings hung on the walls, and the vintage wallpaper was peeling in places, but apart from that it was mostly intact. Overall, it was definitely in better condition than the cellar.

“You should go upstairs,” one of the Trinity guards suggested, “just in case we get unwelcome guests.”

“Yeah, definitely,” Jonathan backed him up. “I’ll go up with you,” he said to Alice.

They went up the creaking stairs and into a dark study where Jonathan placed the duffle bag on the floor, and lit the candles and lamps with some fire magic. Out of the darkness, they could see an old battered desk which was out of place in the centre of the room. Alice guessed that it had been used to cross over many times before.

She hesitated for a long while before asking, “What do I do?”

“Oh, sorry,” Jonathan said, remembering that it was her first time, with the exception of being dragged into the Gloom skies by the Twins. “Place your book on the desk, open it to any page, and place at least one hand on it. Then focus, I guess.” He looked around. “Where is your book, anyway?”

“In my armour.” Alice pressed on the side of her thigh and a small rectangular compartment opened outwards like a trouser pocket.

She pulled her book out of the compartment. It was currently the size of a very small jotter pad as she had used its own magic to resize it, and she placed it upon the desk. Alice ‘willed’ the book to its normal, much larger size and opened it down the middle.

Jonathan picked up the duffle bag and handed it to her. “Be careful in there. If things get too much, just forget the ingredients and run.”

She was touched by his genuine concern but too embarrassed to show it. “I’ll be fine.”

Alice put the book of Basic but Potent Defence Potions into the duffle bag, rested her hammer against her hip, and placed one hand onto her book. She gave Jonathan a fleeting glance before the world spun violently around, becoming an incomprehensible blur. Her stomach churned, and then suddenly with an unpleasant jolt she was standing alone in the Gloom.