Acclayne Book 1: The Game Begins
Chapter 5

“You areAlaina, are you not?” The withered old man in front of me pulleddown his spectacles and fixed me with an impatient look.

“Yes.”

“TheAlaina Oakley?” He raised his heavy eyebrows and his foreheadcrinkled like an accordion. I was not sure what he meant byemphasizing ‘the’but I was the only Alaina Oakley I knew…

“Isuppose?”

“Then toanswer your question child; there has not been ‘somemistake’. The admin on this one isperfectly precise, besides; Ido not make mistakes.”The man who sat behind the huge wooden desk; who was clearly allabout the italics, apparently had no time for me, or my ‘nonsense’as he had referred to it earlier. I failed to see how my faintingspell was deemed nonsense when to me the whole damned situation was‘nonsense’.

“Wellthere must be amistake okay? Doors don’tjust appear from nowhere, especially notin the ladies room, they do notget opened by some randomdoor knob from B&Q, and they definitely do notlead you to some sort of mental breakdown place where people call younonsense.” By theend of my rant I was hyperventilating. I could give this guy a runfor his money on the italics front. He busied himself shufflingpapers around his desk, aligning them neatly by tapping them againstthe table. Without looking at me he said:

“I do notmake mistakes. I was asked to send someone to track you downspecifically. Thisdoor did not appearfrom ‘nowhere‘, clearly it was drawn onto a suitablesurface, besides it did not become a door until it connected with amagically infused doorknob.As for it coming from Bee and Queue, well I’m not sure what thatis, but it certainly did not.It came from the Academy-as anyone in Glakyrie worth their salt wouldknow.” It was at this point that he fixed me with a judgementallook. I found myself shifting guiltily from side to side as if Ireally ought to have known that one; not that I even knew whatGlakyrie was. As if reading my mind he went on to say; “Though Ishouldn’t expectsomeone from yourdimension to understand. Glakyrie is the land in which we live andapparently we dothings somewhat more efficientlyhere. As for where you are right now; you are in the Palace receptionarea.” He glanced at his watch. “You have a meeting with the Kingand Queen in exactlytwelve and a half minutes. Oh and stop overemphasizing. It‘s irritating.”

Standing in front of themassive desk I felt as if all the blood must have drained from myface and somehow rushed to my feet; which now felt as if I couldn‘tmove them. I looked up at the crotchety old man who was now gazingdown at me as if I was something he was unfortunate enough to havetrodden in. Barely anything he had just said made any sense to me.From what I could gather I had been brought here on purpose; to aPalace no less, to speak with the King and Queen. Scratch that. AKing and Queen. I was beginning to think I was in some sort of drinkinduced psychosis.

“Ohdear.” He sneered down at me. “They were all expecting such greatthings from you, but it seems you are unable to even understandthe most basic speech.Though what they expected from someone of yourheritage I simply do not know. Still, who am I to question the Royaldecision? Sit down girland try to make yourself presentable.” He gestured towards acluster of chairs across the room. Juney had lazily strewn herselfacross two chairs, which even given my current state of shock Imanaged to replace impressive; on account of her relatively smallstature. She had disappeared briefly when we had first arrived andnow she had returned I felt some of my trepidation ease. She hadchanged her clothes since I had last seen her. Now she wore tight,black leather trousers which looked like they had seen better days,flat heavy boots and a few layered tops; all of which looked to be inthe same state of repair as her trousers. The outfit was clearly wellworn.

The clothes were not theonly thing that had changed in her absence. The prim lady I hadpreviously acquainted myself with had vanished and in her place satthe most boyish woman I had ever seen. She sat halfway down her seatwith her legs akimbo, picking at an errant nail on her right hand.Sensing that she was being watched she motioned for me to join her.

“Ignorehim. He’s a miserable old git.” She muttered without so much aslooking up at me. The ‘Old Git’ coughed loudly and pointedly.“Yeah, you heard me.”

I sat down gently besideher and crossed my ankles. I wish I’d had the sense to wear somejeans instead of my teeny tiny dress. Not that cross-dimensionaltravel is something you often consider when planning an outfit for anevening of clubbing. If I’d have brought a coat with me I couldhave draped it over my somewhat exposed knees at the very least. Itwas as I self consciously stroked my knees it occurred to me that Ihad in fact been advised to bring a coat. The tall stranger hadn’tseemed a threat at the time but Juney had insisted that we hide fromhim. Surely that meant that he knew about this place as well- hell heprobably even came from here. I sighed and leant forward, bending myhead down as I tried to make sense of the situation. He warned me tobring a coat. That meant that he knew I was coming here, but howcould he know that if Juney wasn’t to be seen with me.

“Don’tthink too much about it, it’ll make your head spin.” Juneyinterrupted my speculative thinking by placing a small hand on myback. It was unnaturally warm. The heat crawled slowly over my backand soon I felt the comforting warmth envelope my shoulders; nowherenear her hand. It was as if she had wrapped me in a soft woollenblanket, my troubles seemed to ease. “There, nothing to worry aboutright now. Besides we’re in for a bit of a wait yet.” She smiledat me reassuringly; the first time she had looked at me since she’dreturned. I saw nothing but sincerity in her eyes and felt the needto trust her despite my earlier want to run and hide. I felt anuncertain smile on my lips. Sated, Juney leant back and began to pickat her nails again. Her big eyes no longer on me I felt questionsbegin to surface.

“Hey, yousaid we have a bit of a wait?”

“Yes?”She didn’t look up at me.

“Wellthat crotchety bugger over there…” I paused as I heard himshuffle in his seat; disgruntled, “said twelve minutes or so.”

“Yeah,like I said; a while.” She stopped picking at her nails. I frowned.Twelve minutes; or very possibly five by now, wasn’t a ‘while’at all. It was barely any time at all. “You’re still thinkingEarth minutes. Sorry I should probably explain.”

“Earthminutes? We’re not still on Earth then?”

“Excuseme?”

“It’sjust on TV when people go to different dimensions it’s stillusually Earth isn’t it? Did you ever watch Dr Who?” A poorlydisguised laugh come from across the room.

“Televisionisn’t real life Alaina. We aren’t on Earth, we’re in Glakyrie,largest land on Acclayne of the Eighth Sun.”

“Soyou’re telling me that Dr Who can’t possibly be real but youexpect me to believe that this ‘Acclayne’ place is?”

“Yes.”I sat back in my chair feeling entirely overwhelmed once again. “It’sokay, like I said, plenty of time to absorb…”

“I don’tcare where we are Juney but twelve minutes is nowhere near enoughtime for me to absorb something like this.”

“Okaymaybe not, I’ll concede to that one.” She shot me a small butdazzling smile before looking toward the ceiling. “How best toexplain this. Time…” She started. And paused for what seemed likean eternity. “moves differently here.” I raised my eyebrow ather.

“Youpaused for that longand that’s the explanation I get? Bloody marvellous.” I crossedmy arms over my chest and slumped a little in my seat.

“No, youdon’t understand, you’re used to linear time. Your timeline isjust that; a line. Completely straight. Ours isn’t.”

I laughedout loud, a short, sharp desperate laugh. It would occur to me lateron that I sounded like a woman on the verge of madness; which Iprobably was. “Time islinear, that’s how it works: going forward.”

“Well,yes and no. Earth time is straight forward, in both senses of theterm. Acclayne time moves in waves.” Juney drew a wiggly line inthe air in front of us with her finger. “Like that. It still movesforward, ends up in the same place as a straight line; it just takesa little longer to get there that’s all.” Satisfied with her ownexplanation she slumped back in her chair and began to crack herknuckles.

I sighed. “It doesn’tmake sense. It goes against all the laws of physics.” I muttered tomyself indignantly.

The manacross the room cleared his throat; “Yourrules of physics do not always apply herechild.”

…

“Ninethousand, seven hundred and fifty two green bottles hanging on thewall… Nine thousand, seven hundred…”

Methyn did his best toignore Kaylaer’s enthusiastic singing coming from behind him. Thechild was completely obnoxious and ignored all of Methyn’s emptydisciplinary warnings: there was nothing much he could do while theywere travelling into the inner city of Corthus apart from grin andbear it, and like any child nuisance Kaylaer exploited theirsituation to the full. Malcolm on the other hand was using the tripas an opportunity to learn; unperturbed by Kaylaer’s constant jibesand threats of violence, he persisted in asking Methyn question afterquestion:

“…sothen if the magic sector is so important why isn’t the institutebuilt in the inner city?”

“Ah nowthen, this is all to do with defensive strategy.”

“It is?”

“Yes,when the old part of the school building was first built it was builtas a garrison to house the Corthean army; most of which was made upof skilled sorcerers. It wasn’t until later; when the need for agarrison was no longer necessary, that the school was formed. As youknow the new building wasn’t added till much later when thecurriculum was extended to include…”

“Er,Sir?” It wasn’t often that Malcolm interrupted and Methyn was ona roll so he didn’t hear him at first:

“…themore academical subjects; like the ones I specialise in, thusallowing for the…”

“Sir?”Malcolm tugged on his professor’s sleeve. Methyn was certainly notvery tall by Glakyrian standards but Malcolm seemed to be impossiblysmall even to him. He looked down at the boys confused face.

“What isit?”

“I’mstill confused about the placement of the school sir.”

“I toldyou, as a garrison it was meant to defend the…”

“No Iunderstand that sir, Cortharen is to the North of Corthus.”

“Yes.”

“It isthe only other city in Glakyrie that would pose a threat to us isn’tit?”

“Yes itis, but like I say the time for defence has long since past. Therehasn’t been unrest between the two cities for quite some time.”

“I knowsir, but I was wondering then; why was the Garrison built to theSouth of Corthus?”Methyn thought over the question for a moment. He had to admit thatthe boy had him with that one, there was no logical reason for theplace being built where it was, as a defence strategy it had beenuseless.

“Becauseback in the day everyone was stupid. Duh.” Kaylaer pulled a face atMalcolm. “At least now, only someof us are.”

Methyn rolled his eyes,why Cartaisey had insisted on sending both students along he did notknow. Malcolm would benefit from the educational value of theexpedition; no matter how short lived it was going to be. Kaylaer onthe other hand was proving to just be somewhat of a handful. Methynglanced down to his side, he was sure that Malcolm’s lower lip wasbeginning to tremble.

“There isno need for that behaviour Kaylaer.” Methyn heard a ‘harrumph’from somewhere behind him. “Though there is a little truth in it,‘back in the day’ as you put it, the general grasp of geographywas miniscule. Somewhere along the line the plans got confused andthe Garrison was built on the wrong side of the city.”

Kaylaer laughed behindhim and Malcolm looked up in awe. “And nobody realised?”

“No itwasn’t until much later; after Cortharen had successfullydemolished half of the inner city for the third time that anyonenoticed that the attacks came from the opposite side.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah,what a bunch of morons.” Kaylaer kicked a small stone at Malcolm.

“EnoughKaylaer.” Methyn raised a hand to his temple. He envied themessenger walking ahead of them.

“Whatever.Nine thousand, seven hundred and forty nine green bottles…”

It was dark by the timethey reached the inner city, and Kaylaer had made it as far as Seventhousand, four hundred and seventy five before giving up. Malcolm onthe other hand had continued questioning Methyn for the rest of thejourney. Though Methyn found the consistently unsatisfied curiositywearisome, there was a part of him that envied Malcolm’senthusiasm. With every turn in the road came a tirade of newquestions. If the boy could retain all of his newfound knowledge thenhe would replace the rest of the academic year a cinch; Methyn couldonly hope that some of the information was getting through toKaylaer, who was still walking a few paces behind them sulking, or soMethyn assumed. It was such a shame, Kaylaer was not lacking inskill- far from it. Methyn hadn’t seen anyone so gifted in thephysical use of magic for many years, he was sure that if Kaylaerwere to put in the effort then they might even have a prodigy ontheir hands. Unfortunately Kaylaer was far too easily distracted, notto mention needlessly violent, for that.

The group followed themessenger through the city, taking many twists and turns until soonthey were off the main path and deep into the residential areas. Thebuildings seemed to lean against one another for support and reachedendlessly into the sky, blocking out any view of the stars from thestreet below. Narrow alleys meandered off in all directions fromeither side of the group as they walked, leading into darkness.Methyn gulped.

“Are yousure this is the right way?” he called to the messenger who was nowjust a little way in front of them.

“Quitesure, it’s not safe to take the main path straight to the Palace.We’d be far too exposed; what with all of those street lampsshining down on us, the open walk ways etc. We’d be like sittingducks.”

“Asopposed to walking through narrow alleys in near enough completedarkness?”

“Exactly.These roads are like a maze, no one is likely to replace us here.”

Methyn looked to the skybut saw nothing but tall shadows looming overhead. “That’s what Iwas afraid of.”

“Excuseme?”

“Nevermind. You’re certain that you know your way?”

“Beggingyour pardon sir but I grew up on these very streets, I know them likethe back of my hand. Safest place in the world so long as you’rewith someone who knows where you are.”

“Right.”

“Besideswe’re almost…”

“Oh sir!”Malcolm visibly perked up beside Methyn, it had been a long trip forthe small boy. “There it is!” He raised a small hand and pointedahead of him. The palace appeared as if from nowhere as they turnedwhat was the last corner. Aside from the Academy, Methyn had neverseen a building as large as the mighty Palace that stood before them.It was simply built, but it’s smooth lines and symmetry only addedto its grandeur as far as Methyn was concerned. It was the pride ofevery Corthean; no other building in the region was like it- notnecessarily because there was a lack of funding but rather becausethey had built one unbelievably big building and that was quiteenough hard work thank-you-very-much.

The road ahead of themstretched out into an open square in front of the palace, Methynrecalled the last time he had visited- when he was around Malcolm’sage. He had been even more awed then than he was now. The palace wasbeautiful at night- he could not dispute that, lit up majesticallyfrom below with bright lights, but during the day it was spectacular-stonework glistening in the daylight, the square filled with thebustle of traders and shoppers, smells of all kinds of foreign foods.Taking it all in he found himself hoping that they’d be stayinglong enough that he could show Malcolm and Kaylaer why they should beproud to be a part of all of this.

But tonight the squarewas empty and the wind whistled through undisturbed. It was as lonelyas it was beautiful.

“Beautifulisn’t she.” The messenger had joined Methyn and was gazing up atthe Palace walls. “I told you we’d get here in one piece didn’tI?”

Methyn smiled. Calmnesswashed over him and his worry sank back down into his stomach.

“Sir!SIR!” Malcolm’s voice rang out loudly from behind the two men.His footsteps getting louder as he ran to join them. “Kaylaer!”

Methyn sighed. “Whathas…”

“Kaylaer’sgone!”

Methyn’s worry shotright up from his stomach and laid itself out on the street foreveryone to see. Apparently 'worry' came with a side of carrots.