The Word Guardians: and the Twisting Tales Read online

  The Word Guardians

  and the Twisting Tales

  Lawrence Yarham

  Copyright © 2021 Lawrence Yarham

  First published in Canada in 2021 by Lawrence Yarham, lawrenceyarham.com

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, contact the publisher, via the website above.

  All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Editing: Angela Yarham

  Cover design by Larch Gallagher, larchgallagher.co.uk

  ISBN 978-0-9939964-6-7

  First Edition

  To my wife and daughters, thank you for your continued love and support.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 1

  Akoni

  A large boat waited at a jetty on the river Nile. In this realm, the day was hot and bright, the sun shining down from a sky uninterrupted by clouds. There was a breeze, but it too was warm and provided no relief from the heat.

  Being near the Valley of the Kings, the realm provided stages for associated storylines to play out. Tomb explorers, ancient curses coming back to life and crime stories were acted because of people in the real world, reading and imagining scenes in their mind’s eye. Whereas it was believed that these were solely in the private minds, most readers were unaware of and unprepared to accept that in fact they unconsciously collaborated with other readers to form and reshape the realm, to help retell the stories. Up until recently, this was also the opinion shared by Yasmine Oakham, who was currently one of the ethereal readers here. She smiled, acknowledging what she now knew, that storytelling has been this way since the first stories and drawings. Along with her best friend, and now boyfriend, Sam, she had discovered that the realms could be visited. They had been able to do so because they had come to believe the power of the written words and the magic that existed between them.

  There were other readers also hovering around the boat in ethereal form, watching different storylines evolve. Actors in the realm, formed from the soil on the riverbanks, carried cargo towards the jetty. There were large boxes containing treasures that had been unearthed from the nearby tombs and resting places. Other actors appeared, portraying those leading tomb excavation adventures, and two such adversaries spent time arguing as a large box was carried by four men onto the boat.

  The boat was a steamer, part cargo and part cruise ship. It made its money providing passage for anyone willing to pay. The captain was untroubled by what was right or wrong. He simply provided a means to get from one place to another while keeping himself and his ship under the radar of those who might question who and what he carried.

  The rear deck was open but shaded to the blistering heat. Other actors were sitting there, a coldness between them despite the heat of the day. Clearly something was brewing that might launch the start of a murder mystery story. Other ethereal readers floated, moving about the back deck, observing the scene playing out. Oddly, and unnoticed by anyone, there was no detective in attendance.

  Two characters that were sitting up on the top deck had noticed, though. An Asian man and woman sat playing a board game. They were Custodians, having fled their realm after being discovered by Controllers. The Controllers were intent on influencing the imaginations of readers, to gain power over them.

  “Has the detective arrived yet?” asked the Asian lady. Her name was Y’an, his Y’in.

  “No, not yet,” replied Y’in. He looked up lazily to the jetty, as if expecting to see someone. “The readers are expecting him, but he has not yet appeared.”

  Y’an nodded.

  Y’in returned to studying the game board in front of him. “I have a feeling I may need to take on the role, in order to start the story.” He picked up one of the tiles in front of him and placed it on the board next to another. Then he looked back at Y’an.

  Y’an nodded, a knowing look on her face. “We have not had to intervene since Alexandria,” she said, also picking up a tile and then placing it down to join another. “Not since helping Yasmine and Sam find his kidnapped father, and that traitor, McVale.”

  “Yes,” agreed Y’in. “And we have been followed ever since.”

  He nodded approvingly at the play made by Y’an, and then placed a new tile of his own.

  “You think we’ll need to move on again?” Y’an asked, looking at her tiles. She was deciding what play to make next.

  A breeze blew on her face. Down below, along the sides of the river, the reeds bent and rustled against each other in response. Then, beyond the jetty, white birds appeared in the sky, growing larger from initial ‘V’ shapes.

  “No,” replied Y’in. “I believe the story is being manipulated, somehow.” He looked around him.

  “By whom?” questioned Y’an.

  “The Controllers,” replied Y’in, as if it were a common place event.

  “For what purpose?” asked Y’an.

  “That is why we need a detective,” smiled Y’in in reply.

  He paused, then came to a decision and stood up. “I’m afraid we will not have time to finish our game today.”

  Y’an also stood up. “Is there something to be afraid of?” She waved her hand over the board. “You just didn’t want to lose.”

  The board disappeared.

  “We must be careful,” he replied. “I have a feeling the story is not what it seems.”

  Y’in put his hands behind his back and walked calmly towards steps leading down. Y’an followed. They descended onto the rear deck, where the actors awaited. He introduced himself as the detective.

  The birds flew towards the boat and landed on the railings around them, then hopped down near to Y’in and Y’an. They were large wading birds, some with dark heads. Y’in regarded them coolly.

  Y’in glanced at Y’an and smiled, then turned to face the birds. He’d sensed something.

  The birds, as one, flapped their wings and launched into the air. For a moment, all Y’in and Y’an could see and hear was the beating of white wings. Then, as the birds ascended off the deck, a magical doorway appeared, along with two men who had evidently just stepped through. The actors that had been on the deck before also disappeared.

  The door sat there, impossibly. It was a rectangle with a middle that looked like the surface of gently rippling water, with an outer edge that sparked and fizzled. Clearly its appearance, along with the two men, had startled the birds and reset the story somehow.

  The two men looked like explorers who had not seen a shower in days, but there was more. As they moved, parts of their body were out of step. It was as if they were under some form of curse. Gaps appeared in their faces momentarily, through which muscles and bone could be seen. Then the gaps closed, to open elsewhere. They ran forwards, seizing the element of surprise, brandishing knives.

  Y’an ran forwards and grabbed the first man’s arm, then twisted the blade out of his hand into hers. She twirled the man around wit
h the momentum and gripped him firmly, the blade now to his throat.

  Y’in also twisted but was not as prepared for battle as Y’an. The second man slashed at Y’in, cutting his hand as Y’in tried to disarm him. It gave the man time to pull Y’in into a position of submission, the blade pressed against his back. Y’in looked at his hand, blood dripping slowly onto the deck.

  “Let go of him,” Y’an commanded, pressing the blade closer to the neck of the man she had in her hold. He tried to twist his way out of it, but Y’an was faster, anticipating his every move.

  The other man smiled. “No,” he said. “I have what we came here for.”

  “Why do you want him?” asked Y’an.

  “I will go with you,” said Y’in calmly, “as long as you leave my assistant and this realm unharmed.”

  The man holding Y’in nodded to his companion.

  “It’s okay,” Y’in said to Y’an. “This has to be the way.”

  Reluctantly, she nodded. She lowered the blade from her captive’s neck and pushed him forwards, in case he turned on her.

  “Very well,” said the man, holding Y’in. He relaxed his grip.

  Y’in stepped forwards to Y’an, grasping her hands for a moment. They both nodded and closed their eyes, as if sharing a common understanding.

  “This is the crime,” he said, opening his eyes. “Find the detective.” he asked. “Only then can the story be restored.”

  Y’an nodded.

  “Start the story,” he said.

  She nodded. “I will find you.”

  Y’in nodded, then looked at the two men.

  “Take me to your master, then. I want to know what he needs from me.”

  The men looked at each other and smiled, sharing an unspoken secret. Clearly, they knew. The first man grabbed Y’in on his shoulder once more and steered him towards the doorway. Then, they stepped through. The second man, who had watched Y’an in case she made any further moves, followed.

  Y’an watched the door disappear, then looked downwards to a motionless figure that had formed on the ground just in front of her. Then she looked at the blade, puzzled. There were drops of blood on it from Y’in’s hand. Clearly the story was trying to connect her to the crime here, or at least the apparent crime. As Y’in had said, the story was being manipulated. She knew she had to leave, or she would become trapped.

  She looked around her to the ethereal readers, each regarding the crime that had been committed on the deck. One of them was a young lady she recognised, Yasmine Oakham.

  “If you can see this,” she said to Yasmine. “The story is not what it seems.”

  The actors that had previously been there re-appeared at large glass doors behind her, the entrance into a bar and lounge area. They all started talking amongst themselves. Then they moved towards her, urging her to drop the knife and step away from the body. She watched them all, in a detached state. She could see the storyline flowing around her, like a twisting coil of words, pulling at her, wanting to attach and keep her there. She looked up to the ethereal reader of Yasmine.

  “We need your help, Yas.” She looked around. “And forgive me. I need to be out of sight, right now. Somewhere that only those who are not seeking me will find me.”

  Then she vanished into the thin, stiflingly hot, air.

  Yasmine Oakham, Yas to her friends, jolted. She’d just thought she’d heard a voice but was unsure where it had come from. She was reading, sitting alone in the staff room of the public library in Bystead. It was the end of her first day and she was waiting for Sam to join her. She was tired, not having slept too well the night before. She had been nervous about starting work at the library with her boyfriend, and troubled also by the recent reappearance of her adopted brother. He’d been missing for two years and then had turned up out of the blue.

  It had been one month since her and Sam had been involved in the Battle for the Peacekeepers, a fight over a collection of mythological characters that her grandpa had pulled together to form a police force of the realms. He had then become aware that the person helping him, Ms McVale, who ran a bookstore that Yas used to work in, had an altogether different agenda for the use of the Peacekeepers. She and the Controllers wanted to use them for their own gains, to control others. Fortunately, the battle that ensued was one that the Word Guardians, of which Yas and Sam were a part of, had won. However, it had become clear very quickly that the battle was part of a larger war. Yas had been warned of this by the Fates, and events that had happened since were making that picture more believable.

  She was also still reeling from finding out that her world was not what she had assumed it was. Together with Sam, her best friend at the time, they had discovered that the places imagined in the mind’s eye while reading were real and could be reached through doorways. What had followed were adventures in make-believe places, and she found herself wondering what felt real anymore. Her job, her last year of high school and her relationship with Sam or battling Controllers in the realms?

  The door opened and Janine Vickers entered the staff room.

  “Hi Yas,” she said, in her usual business tone.

  “Hi Janine,” replied Yas, absent mindedly. She put her book down. Her relationship with her manager was good, but initially rocky, to say the least. When they’d first met, Yas’s assumption was that Janine was working for the other side, the Controllers. She and Sam had referred to her at that time using her last name, Vickers. Through subsequent interactions though, it had become clear that Janine had been undercover and not sure who she could trust. Yas reflected that Janine’s behaviour had mirrored her own life up until recently. She felt as though they both found it difficult to trust people that weren’t being completely open and honest with them.

  “So, how was day one?” asked Janine, walking over to the counter and washing out her coffee mug.

  “Good, thanks,” replied Yas. “It went okay.”

  “We must be doing something wrong then?” joked Janine.

  “I guess,” replied Yas, still deep in thought.

  Janine finished up at the sink and came over and sat at the table.

  “Everything okay?” she asked, detecting that Yas was not fully present.

  “Yeah, it’s just… you know… the meeting with Akoni.” Yas replied. Today was the day that she and Sam had agreed to go into the Forest Realm, a place she had discovered by accident and literally had fallen into. Now she was going to meet with her adopted brother. He had appeared to them, from the future, just after the Battle for the Peacekeepers and they had agreed to meet today. So many questions were unanswered from that brief conversation with him. Why hadn’t he appeared sooner? Where had he been? Could she even trust him?

  Janine sat back and folded her arms. She was not one to display affection, but Yas could tell that the sentiment was genuine.

  “You’re worried?” Janine asked.

  “It’s been so long,” replied Yas. With Janine now in a relationship with Sam’s dad, Peter, Yas couldn’t help but see her as a replacement mentor where realms and magic were concerned. Yas had been betrayed by her previous mentor, Ms. McVale, when it had become clear that she was using Yas for her own means. As much as Yas felt that she should be guarded, she was impressed by Janine’s ability to remain centered in a crisis. She was strong mentally, intelligent, and was part of a wider group of guardians called the Sentinels. Janine seemed to have a worldly knowledge that Yas thought she had up until about four weeks ago.

  “It would just have been easier if he wasn’t… you know… around?” continued Yas.

  “It’s natural,” Janine replied. “Just be careful, okay?”

  Yas nodded. It was good to have Janine’s confirmation on her own thoughts about Akoni. She knew he was their best lead currently in the search for who was behind the Controllers. Prior to the battle, their prime candidate for ringmaster was Penn, the owner of the largest media organisation in the eastern half of the country. He had been vanquished though by Yas
, splintered into a million pieces across realms. Orfeo, the leader of another faction of Controllers, had also been vanquished in the run up to the battle. Sam’s dad had run him through with a stake. Orfeo’s second in command, Raelinn, had been trapped by Peter’s friend, Detective James Wheeler, in a realm she referred to as the Void. Prior to her disappearing, she had mentioned the name of another Controller that they knew little about, Index. They desperately needed to understand who was doing what and hoped that Akoni may have some answers.

  “Everyone shows their true colours eventually,” added Janine. “You just have to figure out how much you’re prepared to invest in them up to that point.”

  Yas nodded again. It was good advice and it made her wonder what experiences had shaped Janine into who she was today.

  The door opened and Sam walked in.

  “You’ll never believe what just happened out there!” he exclaimed.

  Yas and Janine looked at him.

  “This old guy was asking me where he could find the Word Guardians. Got annoyed when I searched the catalogue and showed him there was nothing. He told me I was being ‘evasive’,” he quoted with his fingers.

  “What,” said Janine. “Did he say why he was looking?”

  “No, he just kept going on about wanting to give them a piece of his mind,” continued Sam. “He said that they are behind all the protests and unrest that’s happening and that they need to be flushed out into the open.” He paused. “Weird, hey?”

  “Is he still here?” asked Janine, concerned.

  “No, I escorted him out and then locked the doors. He was mental if you ask me.”

  “Possibly,” Janine tentatively agreed. “But it makes me think that something else is going on. Someone is influencing people’s actions from behind the scenes. It would be good to feel like we’re not one step behind all the time.”

  “What did he look like?” asked Yas.