Acclayne Book 1: The Game Begins
Chapter 23

Kaylaerlooked up at the night sky. Through the canopy of trees she couldmake out the faint glimmer of the stars above. A trip that shouldhave taken days now spanned weeks; not that she was complaining-anything to get out of doing school work. She flicked back an errantblonde hair that was irritating her forehead before resting her headon her forearms.

Living out in thewilds; tracking; sleeping out doors – this was the life. In manyrespects it was good that they had been forced to prolong theirjourney; taking the long way round to prevent being spotted. A brieflook of discomfort crossed her face as she contemplated the reasonfor their route change. Sometimes it was easy to forget what hadhappened all those weeks ago; the fighting... the bloodshed... thescreams. The more she remembered, the more it unsettled her and soshe often chose to ignore the flashbacks that plagued her.

Looking for adistraction she turned to watch Alaina sitting by the camp fire. Shewas busying herself talking to Malcolm and Methyn. Since Flyn hadleft them Kaylaer didn't feel much like socialising. The eveningafter the attack they had been all set to leave Vallaylii. Despiteall still being pretty shaken; apart from Juney who was experiencinga manic adrenalin high, they had agreed that their safest option wasto keep moving. Even Flyn had been prepared to come along for theride; that was of course until they had paid one final visit toGiflyn. None of them were prepared for what they found.

Kaylaer winced as sherecalled his bloody, crumpled form on the floor of his weapons room.The giant of a man seemed so small to her lying there broken andwhimpering. As a rule she hated men, she didn't waver on that point,but no one should be treated like that. He had called out,incoherently, for his son, and as he watched him tenderly help hisfather there was no doubt in her mind that Flyn would not be joiningthem. It wasn't until much later that she would admit that she wasmore than a little disappointed.

Juney had rushed tohelp them; whispering urgently to the two of them. Kaylaer still hadno idea what had transpired but she was willing to bet that it wassomething to do with those people that had attacked them. Even nowshe shuddered at the thought. Watching the others she wandered howthey could laugh and talk so normally; knowing that they were beinghunted.

“I can't eat that.”

“Ohman up would you? You killed the bloody thing.”

“That'snot the point-”

“Iam quite impressed by the way.”

“Youare?” Alaina smiled, forgetting herself for a moment, “anywaythat doesn't matter. I'm turning vegetarian.”

“Juneyarched a perfectly shaped eyebrow at her. “Really?”

“Really.”

“Ohso you killed this for no reason then?”

“Ah-it might have killed us first?”

“Hmm,I think I could have just injured it, you know if I wasn't going toeat it-”

“Youwouldn't have.”

“Damnright I wouldn't have; I would have killed the little bastard becausethe simple fact is that I am sick and tired of eating dried bread,and dried meat, and dried... dried... well I don't know what this isbut that's turning on me too.” She held up a questionable lookingbag of dry green pellets and pulled a face. “You'd rather eatthese?”

Alaina stared at thebag and her stomach flipped over- nauseated by the very idea. “Pointmade.”

“Good,besides...” she said handing over a mound of the gamy, cooked meat,“protein is good for building muscle mass, and don't take this thewrong way; but you could definitely do with a bit more of that.”

“Ithink I'm doing alright.” Alaina sulked while she picked at herfood. All of the hiking they'd done over the previous weeks had begunto subtly transform her body; her long, lean legs were becoming tonedand defined; the uneven terrain had seen a dramatic improvement inher balance; and the blade work she'd been doing with Juney hadincreased her upper body strength. All-round she was secretly quitepleased with her progress. She could even hold The Twin-Blade in theair for more than a minute now without her arms hurting.

“'Alright'yes, but alright won't save your life-”

“Idid quite fine saving myself today thank you very much.”

“Wolvesdon't have weapons or magic Alaina, and you're still very clumsy withyour sword.”

“It'snot my-”

“Andtherein lies the problem.”

“Willyou stop acting like it has feelings? It's a SWORD.”

“Yoursword. Yourmagicsword, and who are you to say it doesn't have feelings? It's waitedall this time for you, it defends you when you need it to and yet yourefuse to claim it.” Juney was standing now; completely enraged.Her eyes burned with a passion that was fiercely intimidating. “Howdo you think that would feel?”

Juney stared at Alainafor a few moments before closing her eyes and returning to her seat.She rubbed her temples. “It's no wonder that you're still soawkward with it; you're fighting against it the whole time instead ofwith it. Man, you are so frustrating.”

AsI lay in our tent that night; between Kaylaer and Juney, I mulledover what she'd said. Did The Twin-Blade really have feelings?I've never really understood how this magic thing works, so I supposeit might do. I mean, whose to say it doesn't? I sat up quietly ontomy elbows to get a good look at it. It was standing up against theother side of the tent; casually leaning there waiting to be needed.A shiver went up my spine; how was I supposed to tell Juney that Iwas scared of my own sword? I could feel its power running through meevery time I held it, and every time it felt that little bitstronger. It was really freaking me out. If I didn't fight it I feltas if I might lose myself completely. Bottom line was I just didn'tthink I was strong enough to handle it – after all; I'm not mymother, as Kaylaer saw fit to keep reminding me every chance she got.

“Ah – I'm sorry,”I whispered into the darkness, “I promise I'll try harder.” Juneystirred beside me and I quickly lay back down. So not only was I awhimp but I was also loosing the plot - talking to a sword, forgoodness sake. What the hell was wrong with me? Juney stirred again,and farted. Nice.

I lay there with myeyes open and noticed how the shadows of the leaves above seemed todance across the ceiling of the tent. It was nice being out in themountains and the forest; it reminded me of the camping trips I usedto take with my dad. We'd build little rafts to float down the riverand toast marshmallows on out camp fire. Those were the days. It wasin quiet moments like this that I missed home the most; my family, myfriends... any sense of normality whatsoever. Some mornings I stillwoke up and pinched myself, this was my normal now; Kings and Queens;Magic and duels; damsels in distress and swords with feelings. Insome respects I was glad that I might never get the chance to explainthis back home – they'd never believe me.

I closed my eyes andlet the first waves of sleep start to envelop me. We were to make thefinal push towards Cortharen tomorrow, so Juney said. We were only aday or so's travel away and we'd need all our strength for the lastleg. I didn't think we could possibly be that close; we were stillnear enough at the top of a mountain from what I could see.

I let my body relax andit felt as if my arms and legs were disappearing into the floor.

“Goodnight.” Iwhispered in my final moments of wakefulness.

Goodnight.

***

They woke to the soundof rainfall the following morning. During the night dark clouds hadinvaded the clear skies; heavy with rainwater. The ground beneaththeir tents felt soft and sticky; making it difficult to pack theirequipment away – even with Methyn's magical assistance.

Despite Juney's claimsthat their journey was nearing an end no one felt particularly highspirited. It was as if the rain had washed away what littleenthusiasm they had had – the bitter icing on a very stale cake.

It was mid-morning bythe time the thick woodland started to thin out around them.Unprotected by the canopy of trees they were all soon wet through.

“Did I mention Idon't like rain?” Alaina asked no one in particular, her red hairhad turned a dark auburn – saturated with water, thick strandsclung to her damp forehead.

“Once or twice.”Methyn sighed as he trudged through the sloppy earth. His lightfootwear was hardly appropriate and the flat soles could replace no gripon the mud. Even the two children were quiet; focused on not fallinginto the sticky mud.

“Cheer up you lot;look.” Juney pointed through the dense rain. A few miles away, downin a valley, were what appeared to be the outlines of buildings. Itwas hard to tell through the misty gloom.

“Finally! Please tellme that's Cortharen.”

“It is.”

“Fantastic. How arewe getting there?”

“How do you mean?”

“Well, we're uphere,” Alaina said slowly, “and it's down there.”

“Is it really? Ihadn't noticed.” Juney rolled her eyes. “There.” She pointed.The weary group stared blankly at her.

“Sorry, but did youjust point to that slippery looking cliff face?”

“I did. Problem?”

“Would it make adifference?”

“No.”

“Thought not. Let'sgo then.”

***

Don't look down...don't look down... don'tdon'tdon't- for the love of all that is- ohfuck! Now why did I do that?! I froze mid-decent and hugged myselfinto the rock face. I'd have buried my head in an inviting lookingcrevice were it not for the fact it that it was damp and smeltdistinctly 'mossy'.

“Didn't I tell younot to look?” Juney's voice floated up from below me. Yes you did,and so did I, and look; I didn't listen to either one of us.

“Ye-es,” I calleddown without looking, “but I did it anyway.” I just about madeout some mild grumbled profanities from the ground.

“Even the childrenmanaged it.”

“Iresent that. I'm more of an adult than sheis.” I could see Kaylaer's arrogant stance in my mind's eye. Evenin my imagination she was becoming irritating. I don't believe inhitting children but mark my words; when that child comes of age sheis getting a serious bitch-slap from me.

“Children arefearless!”

“Not really...”Malcolm piped up in a timid voice. I suppose he didn't really likeheights either, though I can't say I was all that surprised. “Ijust didn't look down.” Yes – very helpful that – thanksMalcolm.

“Areyou going to move, you know, sometimetoday? We really are quite close.”

“Yes and I could dowith a cup of something to calm my nerves.” Oh brilliant evenMethyn and his inappropriate slipper-like footwear had made it to thebottom.

“Go on without me.”I paused, “Fetch me on the way back. Oh, and bring me a flask oftea Methyn; if it's as good as you say. I'll just hang out here for awhile.”

Another grumble. “You do realise that the further down you come, the less-er- upyou'll be?”

“Now that is logicfor you.” Methyn sighed and though I couldn't see it I was prettysure Juney shoved him.

As daft as it was Iknew she had a point so slowly, with my eyes very much shut, Istarted to shuffle my way down. I t was potentially the longest andscariest fifteen minutes of my life, and when I finally touched downon Terra-firma I could have thrown myself on top of it and proceededto do something wholly indecent to it.

The heavy rain hadbecome a light drizzle as I'd descended, and by the time I hadfinished it had stopped altogether, Which was just as well seeing asI was holding everyone up.

“You realise you wereonly about as high up as a two storey house.” Kaylaer pointed outwith a raised eyebrow.

“And your point is?”

“Nothing. Justsaying.” She turned away with a blood-boilingly smug look on herface. I looked around, Juney and Methyn were nowhere to be seen.Wherever they had gone, they'd left most of their bags andThe-My-Twin-Blade. I eyed it uneasily.

“Where've they gone?”I tried with as much nonchalance as I could manage. I hoped I hadmanaged to disguise the shrillness of my voice; I thought I pulled itoff quite well considering my near-panic attack of a quarter of anhour ago.

“They've just goneahead a little ways to plan which route is best to take.” Malcolmsmiled reassuringly at me from where he was sat.

“Yeah, so no need tofreak out or anything.” Kaylaer smirked. Okay so maybe I was not asnonchalant as I would have liked.

“As if I would!” Iforced a laugh that bordered on hysterical – even to my ears. IfKaylaer was going to take the piss then I was going to beat her toit. “-ah, ahahahahaha!” I finished, “and why have they leftthat?”I gestured towards...um... Twin-Blade. “I hope they don'tthink I'm going to be able to hold down the fort HAHA! I mean, anepileptic moth would have more coordination HAHA! Am I right?!”

“Er – whatever?”The kids shared a look that fit perfectly under the category of'double-yew tee eff' before Malcolm said;

“Juney thinks thatyou should probably be carrying it from now on – so you can getused to it.”

“Ah.”

“That, and it'sheavy.”

“Right.” I lookedat Malcolm looking at me; he was waiting for some sort of reaction. Ididn't give him one.

“So- anyway, whatwere you saying about Transmorphesis and Lingual Linkage?”

“Yeah, Mrs Gleberasked us to morph a Caterpillar into a Cat. Well you know SimeonArkel?”

“The one with theears?”

“Yeah,well he thought she said 'cart'...”

“Oh no...”

“I know!”

“You'd think withthose ears he'd be able to hear properly at least.”

“Well yeah! Anyway sohe starts making it bigger right, I mean, we all do. It has to be catsized. His caterpillar got so BIG that it actually broke his desk.Before Mrs Gleber realised what was going on his caterpillar hadJesse Millner's head in it's mouth!”

“Oh My Mother...”

I left the two of themto their school talk and went to sit with the bags... and Twin-Blade.I decided that that's what I was going to call it from now on. Dropthe pre-fix altogether. Juney couldn't shout at me for that.

It really wasn't so badwhen I wasn't actually wielding it. I mean, I was sitting right nextto it now and I had no urge to use it to go and chop Kaylaer's headoff or something. Okay; no urge that wasn't already present. So itwasn't constantly playing with my mind – getting ideas above it'sstation. Though despite it's inactivity, I could still feel a humcoming from it, a static energy that seemed to radiate from it- likewhen you rub a balloon on your t-shirt.

I reached my splayedhand out to touch it and as I did so Juney and Methyn rounded thecorner; making me jump and recoil my hand.

“Suspiciousbehaviour,” Juney smiled, hands on her hips. “playing with thingswe shouldn't be?”

“I'll play with mysword if I feel like it.” I stuck my tongue out. That'd teach her.

“Well it's abouttime.” she arched her eyebrows. Ah, she got me. I'd called it minehadn't I? Damnit.

“Yeah, well.”

“Nice to see youdecided to join us by the way, Even if you did take your time aboutit.”

“I told you I don'tlike heights.”

“And I told you notto look down.”

“Yeah but at leastI've done it now. It's over.”

“That bit, yeah.”

“What do you mean'that bit'?”

“We're only halfwaydown.”

“You WHAT!?” I feltMethyn's hand on my shoulder, trying to reassure me.

“That's why we wenton ahead. We've found a way which is a little less, ahem, steep.”

I instinctively grabbedfor the Twin-Blade: putting aside our differences for the moment.

“You said we werenearly there!”

“We were: nearly atthe halfway point. Don't worry, like he said; it's far less steep.Then we're pretty much in town.”

I gulped.

“I do still recommendthat you don't look down.”

Sodo I.

That makes three of usthen.