The Foreshadow of Balance Read online

CHAPTER II

 

  The next day was school and Dylan found he could concentrate a little more; he didn’t want people to think he was being strange and ask him. Teachers were pretty good at that, asking if you felt alright and if you needed to go to the nurse. So he answered questions and the bullies made jokes about him being a square, but he didn’t care, they could do and say whatever they wanted as long as no one found out about the portal. And then maybe, when Lucas came back he could come into school with his big axe and the bullies would never make jokes about him again. Yes, that would be the end of it, his prayers answered. He was sure that Lucas would do it, just to help him out. It wouldn’t take long.

  Answered prayers, he thought. Hadn’t he wished, wished so hard that there was a portal in the shed? And now there was one. Had he somehow wished it into existence? If that was so, it must be to defeat the bullies. Lucas was his knight come to save him.

  He ran home after school and picked up his poker and went straight out into the garden; he peeked into the study first, but his Dad was busy with three or four books on his desk. So he sat down on the cold grass and stared at the portal. It was still light outside, but the shed door was black. He sat like that for an hour maybe before suddenly Lucas was standing in front of him. He nearly screamed, but held his breath. He didn’t want to scare Dad. And then there was a second man standing there. This one had a long green cloak that went right down to his feet and a hood that covered his face in shadow.

  “You see?” Lucas asked.

  “I see,” said the other man. “I see, yet I cannot believe.”

  “Cannot or do not want to?” Lucas asked and the man laughed. “And sitting before us is the Guardian of the Portal, Dylan of The Shed.”

  The man pulled back his hood and Dylan saw that he looked younger than Lucas, but maybe that was because he was cleaner. He had a sharp nose and chin, and a short, neat beard, but his smile was warm and bright.

  “How do we go? An honour to meet you, Dylan of The Shed,” he said with a smile. “Please do stand up.”

  Dylan did so and held out a hand, which the man took and shook.

  “We have the same greetings,” the green man said to Lucas.

  “We must talk with your Father, Dylan,” Lucas said.

  “OK. Come inside.”

  They walked through the house, but the green-cloaked man stopped before they got to the study.

  “It is warm in here yet I see no fires,” he said.

  “It’s central heating.”

  “Central heating?” Lucas asked. “What is that?”

  Dylan shrugged. “We have radiators,” he pointed to one. “They’re filled with hot water.”

  The green man laughed again. “Truly we are in the Fifth World, Lucas.”

  “Wait until you experience electrickery,” Lucas told him and winked at Dylan. Ha! He winked at me, like friends do!

  “What is all this?” his Father asked from the door. “Oh, Lucas. Come into the study and… who is this?”

  “You must be the Father of the Guardian, Connor of The Shed. How do we go?” the green man said. “I am Bell; I am, or was, a Forest Ranger of the King.”

  “Welcome Bell, come into my study, I have much to show you.”

  Connor James told the two men everything he had told Dylan, and a little more that he had read, ending with talking about the Book of Five Worlds.

  “Yes, I have heard of the book, but if it exists then the Black Queen has it,” Bell said and Lucas grunted in agreement.

  “Who is the Black Queen?” Dylan asked.

  “That is for later, young Guardian, we have more pressing matters.”

  “Who do we tell?” Lucas said.

  “I don’t understand,” Connor admitted.

  “There have been many wars between the Four Worlds,” Bell explained, “but in the last one the Chinerthians won and the Four Worlds have been ruled by the Black Queen ever since. If she found this portal she would take this world too, or if another world finds it they may use it to defeat the Chinerthians. Either way this world would be put into slavery and war.”

  “But we would fight back, we have guns and tanks and bombs,” Dylan told him.

  “What are these things you speak of? Weapons?” asked Lucas.

  “Let me show you,” Dad said and turned on the television.

  “What in thunder is this?” Bell shouted in alarm.

  “It is a television, it runs on electrickery,” Lucas told him.

  “Here,” Connor said having flicked through channels. On the screen were scenes from one of the wars going on. The four of them saw soldiers firing machineguns while tanks rolled behind them.

  “And they are not in the box?” Bell asked slowly bending forward. “It is like a Seer’s Orb?”

  “Similar,” Lucas said. “They are in another part of this world, am I correct?”

  “Yes, you are.”

  “And these are soldiers with weapons?” Bell asked.

  “I’m afraid so,” Dylan’s Dad said.

  “Then it is worse than I imagined. We cannot let such weapons get into the Four Worlds.”

  “Can’t we close the portal?” Dylan asked.

  “We don’t even know why it has opened again,” Bell said.

  “I have an idea,” Connor said.

  “For another time, we must get you to the Wizard Btolomy.”

  “What? Why?” asked Lucas.

  “Because he will never believe us otherwise.”

  %%%

  It was agreed that Lucas and Bell would go back and fetch clothes for Connor and Dylan and be back as soon as possible and then the four of them would go to find the wizard.

  But a horrible week passed, school went on as normal and so did the bullying. Dylan lost his lunch money every day that week and got a nasty bruise on his stomach the one time he wouldn’t give it to them. But he still had his secret money pouch that sat under his armpit and didn’t go hungry.

  But that wasn’t the worst thing. The worst thing was the waiting, the evenings sitting in front of the shed waiting. Even his Dad sometimes joined him and they both sat in the cold air and waited.

  Would they come back? Maybe they had decided to just forget about it; maybe it was too dangerous; maybe they had been caught by the Black Queen. Dylan couldn’t bare it, the waiting was the worse thing he had ever been through, all the questions, the unknowing. It was much worse than the bullies at school. But then on the Thursday night they came.

  %%%

  “What happened to you, why didn’t you come back?” Dylan asked them once they were all seated in the study.

  “We had things to do, preparations,” Bell said.

  “You both look exhausted, what did you do?” Dad asked.

  “Robbed a tax stronghold,” Lucas said and drank some of his booze.

  “You did what?” his Dad shouted.

  “Be calm, Connor of the Shed. We had to,” Bell said. “We’re going to need money and now we have it.”

  “A tax stronghold? Tax for whom? Tell me not this Black Queen,” and Lucas and Bell said nothing. “Well?”

  “You told us not to tell you it was the Black Queen,” Lucas shrugged.

  “You have to be joking,” Connor fumed. “Now they’ll be looking for you, they’ll find the portal.”

  “Relax,” Bell said, “it took us so long because it was far away. No one saw us.”

  “You think no one saw you,” Dad replied.

  “We weren’t followed, but yes they will be looking.”

  “That’s why we need to stay here for a little while,” Lucas said.

  “No, we’re supposed to go through the portal,” Dylan complained.

  “You will, but for now we need to lay low. This is a very important mission, Guardian, we cannot rush into it,” Bell smiled at him.

  %%%

  In the guest bedroom there were two single beds. Lucas sat on the edge of one, Bell on the other.

  “I’m not sur
e I like this,” Lucas frowned.

  “What? Why?” Dylan asked.

  “It’s so squashy.”

  “It is that,” Bell agreed finally lying down. He then pulled out the pillow and mashed it around a bit before putting his head back down. “I may drown in this pillow overnight.”

  Dylan laughed.

  “Don’t you have soft beds and pillows in your world?

  “No. Maybe royalty does.”

  Lucas was rolling left and right on the bed until he fell off and thudded to the floor.

  “By thunder! Who thought luxury would be such a pain?” he rumbled from the floor and Dylan and Bell laughed.

  “Tell me how you broke into the tax stronghold,” Dylan asked.

  “That’s for another time,” his Dad said from behind him. “For now I think we all need our rest. If needs be I’ll call the school Monday morning; you’ll have a nasty bout of gastro from a family barbeque and will staying home for awhile.”

  “Really? Cool, thanks, Dad.”

  “Indeed. Now to bed, see you in the morning.”

  “If I survive the night,” Lucas grumbled from the floor.

  %%%

  The next morning they sat crowded around the small table in the kitchen. Lucas was busy with his third plate of sausages and bacon while Bell eyed the gurgling coffee maker with suspicion.

  “This stuff is amazing,” declared Lucas pouring more ketchup onto his plate. “Made from tomatoes, you say? Amazing.”

  The coffee finished and Connor poured three cups and brought them to the table. Bell took one and sniffed at it.

  “What’s wrong with it?” Dylan asked.

  “I am not sure I trust your electrickery to make me a drink.”

  “Hm, smells like Ka-Vey to me,” Lucas said and drank some. “By thunder!” he then exclaimed.

  “I knew it would be bad.”

  “Bad? Bad? It is positively wonderful,” he drank down the rest and held his cup out to Connor who poured more in.

  Bell could only shrug and try some himself and indeed his face lit up.

  “By thunder, Lucas, you are not wrong.”

  “Well, I need to go out and buy some clothes for Lucas; I think mine should fit Bell. While I’m out why don’t you show them how the shower works? Man, I’d love to be here to watch,” he grinned at his son who grinned back.

  “OK, this is the toilet.”

  “This is a toilet?”

  “Yes.”

  “I suppose it looks a little like a toilet,” Bell agreed.

  “Looks nothing like a hole in the ground to me,” Lucas said.

  “You pull this lever to flush,” Dylan said and showed them.

  The two men jumped back a little as the water flushed down.

  “Where does it go?”

  “Down into the sewers, they’re underground.”

  “Amazing.”

  “If you think that’s amazing, the shower’s really going to blow your mind…”

  %%%

  They all stood in the hallway, Lucas now dressed in jeans and a brightly coloured shirt.

  “I’m sorry, it’s all they had in your size,” Dad apologized.

  “I look like a flower maiden,” Lucas complained.

  “I smell like a spring meadow, this shower crème is amazing,” Bell said happily.

  “We smell like women,” Lucas frowned.

  “But only you are dressed like one,” Bell laughed and Dylan did too.

  “OK, well let’s go,” Dad said. “Er, Lucas?”

  “Yes?”

  “Your axe?”

  “Yes?”

  “Well, you can’t take it with you, can you?”

  “Why not?”

  “Leave it here; you’ll see when we get out there.”

  “Fine. Smell like a woman, unarmed like a woman,” he harrumphed.

  “Don’t let the Amchantae hear you,” Bell warned.

  “Yes, even here they probably can.”

  “Who are the Am, Amchant…”

  “Amchantae? Warrior women,” Lucas said.

  “Oh,” said Dylan. He thought there were a few girls in his class who might be Amchantae.

  They walked through the city and Lucas and Bell stared at everything. It was like having young children, trying to stop them walking in front of cars or touching things.

  “This is all truly amazing,” Bell said.

  “You don’t have anything like this on your world?” Dylan asked.

  “No, nothing. Our carriages are pulled by horse.”

  “Or powered by magic,” Lucas said.

  “Magic sounds much cooler,” Dylan said as they walked into a coffee shop.

  Once they were all seated with coffees and a smoothie for Dylan, they began to talk.

  “With this technology we could easily defeat the Black Queen,” Bell said.

  “Yes, but didn’t you say you lived in a forest town?” Connor asked.

  “We do,” Lucas replied taking a large gulp of coffee.

  “Well all of this used to be forest; this world used to be a lot like yours. Now we have all these good things, but they bring a lot of bad things too.”

  “Such as?” Bell asked.

  “Well look around you, everyone is squashed into a small area, that means there is more crime. In this world many people make it very rich, but that leaves many more people very poor.

  “In your world you are ruled by the Black Queen, in this world we are ruled by big businesses. If you brought all this into your world, yes, you would defeat the Black Queen, but ultimately you would be ruled over by similar people.”

  “I don’t really understand,” Lucas said, “but it seems to me you think bringing Earthen technology into our world would be a bad thing.”

  “Yes, yes I do.”

  “You can’t stop that happening,” Bell said. “Once the oppressed people of our world find out about this they will want to use it to destroy the Black Queen.”

  “Exactly. And then what? They will rule over the Four Worlds in just the same way as she does.”

  “Hmm, you may be right,” Bell thought. “Rulers are greedy for power in all worlds.”

  “But who is the Black Queen? Why does she rule? Why is she bad?” Dylan asked.

  “That is a long story, but it has to do with the Balance of the Five Worlds, I think. Btolomy will know more. However, there are five worlds, indeed?”

  “If you say so.”

  “Each one has a Mark, something common to all the people in that world. This world has technology, Earthen people are marked by their ability to invent and discover, you understand this?”

  “Yes,” said Dad.

  “So our world is one of nature, we connect with living beings, animals, trees and such, that is our Mark.”

  “In direct contrast to this world,” Dad said.

  “Yes,” Bell continued, “they are balanced. Then there is Chinerthia, a warrior world on the other side.”

  “The other side?”

  “Think of the Five Worlds as being in a circle, Dylan,” his Dad said.

  “OK.”

  “So war and technology are linked, you see, such as the images you showed us of guns and the carriages, tanks?”

  “Yeah.”

  “So you see that on one side you have a world with an opposite mark and on the other a linked mark. Balance.” Bell sat back and drank the rest of his coffee.

  “But that doesn’t answer my question,” Dylan pressed.

  “Well, no, I don’t really know the answer; somehow the Chinerthians changed the Balance and gained strength over the other worlds.”

  “Btolomy will know,” Lucas chipped in.

  After another night’s sleep Bell decided that the trail would have grown cold enough to go.

  “It’s only been a couple of days since the robbery though,” argued Dad.

  “Indeed, but we must get to Btolomy,” Bell countered. “Every day we risk someone finding the portal.”


  “OK. Dylan go and pack a bag, I’ll do the same.”

  And so, dressed in the clothes and cloaks that Bell and Lucas had gotten for them, Connor and Dylan James walked through the shed and into the Forest of Capel, around five miles from the forest town of Capel in the realm of Collyshire, in the country of Thalm on the planet Sylvae.