The Void Hunters (Realmwalker Book 2) Read online

  The Void Hunters

  Realmwalker Book II

  JONATHAN FRANKS

  Copyright © 2015 Jonathan Franks

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 1517759943

  ISBN-13: 978-1517759940

  DEDICATION

  To Hugh Howey, Andy Weir, Mark Dawson, and other brilliant and successful authors who began with self-publishing and took off. Thank you for helping me realize that I could write books and that my stories are valuable..

  CONTENTS

  DEDICATION

  CONTENTS

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  chapter 1

  chapter 2

  chapter 3

  chapter 4

  chapter 5

  chapter 6

  chapter 7

  chapter 8

  chapter 9

  chapter 10

  chapter 11

  chapter 12

  chapter 13

  chapter 14

  chapter 15

  chapter 16

  chapter 17

  chapter 18

  chapter 19

  chapter 20

  chapter 21

  chapter 22

  chapter 23

  chapter 24

  chapter 25

  chapter 26

  chapter 27

  chapter 28

  chapter 29

  chapter 30

  chapter 31

  chapter 32

  chapter 33

  chapter 34

  chapter 35

  chapter 36

  chapter 37

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I’d like to thank my early readers: Christina Zastrow, Eric Kirsner, Felicia Franks, Frank O’Brien, and Oz Heller. I’d also like to thank Darren Callahan and Kevin Leonard for their continued support.

  Sign up for the author’s New Releases mailing list and get a free copy of the latest novella Plainsmen: The Drop.

  Click here to get started:

  http://www.jonathanfranks.info

  And please consider writing a review of this book on Amazon. Reviews are what keep self-published authors’ works relevant.

  chapter 1

  Gen stepped into thick darkness. There was the sound of howling wind, but the air was completely still. There was a feeling of falling, then a moment of absolutely nothing. A part of her expected this and knew to wait for a moment. She did, but the darkness didn't go away. The howling stopped and was replaced by the sound of trickling water.

  She had walked through the Bridge from her world - the human world - into the fairy Realms. Her feet were solidly on the ground. Herron was heavy in her arms and gravely wounded. The air was damp but stale and slightly dusty. It was pitch black.

  “Light...” Herron groaned. “In the pack...”

  Gen was wearing Herron's backpack, but she couldn't rummage through it with her arms full. “I have to put you down,” she said.

  She gently laid Herron on the ground and slipped one of the straps from her arm. She swung the pack in front of her and looked for the light. It'll be in a pocket that's easy to reach, she thought. He always keeps it in the side pocket. More of Ivy's memories were flooding into Gen's mind. She opened the side pocket and revealed a cool blue light. She reached in and removed the lightstone and saw that she was standing in a large cave.

  There was water trickling down one of the walls and a bed of thick green moss on the floor along the wall underneath it. Behind her was a large oval-shaped mirror, identical to the one she'd stepped through on the other side. She put the lightstone in Herron's hand and picked him back up. She walked through the cave and up a long, winding tunnel that sloped steeply upward. She passed through a couple more caves, but she focused on getting out of there rather than looking around.

  She entered a large cavern bisected by a large, underground river. There was no bridge. “Oh, no,” Gen said.

  “You need to... fly across...” Herron said. His voice was growing weaker. She knew she had to get him to the healers at The Peak as soon as she could. Time was running out. You can do this, she told herself. After all, you flew all the way to the cemetery. You can fly over this river.

  She spread her wings and lifted off. She was about halfway across the river when there was a loud splash underneath her. She looked down and gasped. A giant slithery gray eel-like shape plunged back into the water, then curled around and lunged toward her. Its mouth was full of sharp teeth.

  Gen dodged out of the way and the eel thing splashed back in the water. She flew as fast as she could the rest of the way across the river and when she reached the over side, the eel creature threw itself to the stone floor of the cave. Gen watched in grotesque fascination as the eel separated its short, slimy legs from its body and crawled after her. She flew even faster, avoiding another snap from the mouthful of sharp teeth.

  She darted through the tunnel and the eel creature chased after her. It slammed into the stone wall, too big to fit through, then it squeezed itself into the tunnel and burrowed through it, surprisingly quickly. Its side-to-side gyrations against the tunnel walls were causing dust and rocks to fall from the ceiling.

  A rumbling and a very low grinding sound echoed through the tunnel as Gen flew up through the steep passage. She saw daylight ahead of her and she flew as fast as she could. Rocks fell all around her. A stalactite fell from the ceiling and narrowly missed her. She burst from the mouth of the cave and a thick cloud of dust plumed from the entrance. She spun around and watched the opening crumble closed. The Caves had collapsed.

  She looked up the side of the mountain. It went on farther than she could see until it was shrouded in clouds above. “Okay. Going up!”

  She flew up and up. It took over an hour and by the time she saw the settlement, she was exhausted. She set down as quick as she could and screamed, “Help! Please help! I need healers!”

  Some of the fairies around her gaped at her in surprise. One of them pointed and said, “Over there!”

  A few others rushed ahead in that direction and a pair of fairies, one male, one female, met Gen halfway.

  “Skies above,” the male said. “It's Herron, the Realmwalker.” He motioned to Gen to put Herron down and she gently set him on the ground. The healer knelt next to Herron and muttered a few words Gen didn't understand. His hands began to glow a soft green and he held them just above the deep gash in Herron's abdomen. Then he turned to the female healer and said, “Let's get him inside.” They picked him up and flew into the small white building.

  Gen started to go after them but she heard someone cry out, “Ivy!” Gen turned to look and a fairy barreled into her, a female fairy with short, soft hair of pure white. Hope, Gen realized.

  Hope wrapped Gen in a crushing hug and took Gen's face in her hands and kissed her deeply. She tilted her head and parted her lips and sucked Gen's tongue into her mouth. Gen was so taken by surprise and all of this happened so fast that she didn't manage to put up any sort of a struggle. Then a part of Gen, something in her that wasn't there before, a new sense of familiarity, of maturity, of comfort, of deep love, compelled her to kiss Hope back. She regained some control over herself and pulled away.

  Hope looked at her, confused, and maybe a little bit hurt. “I was so afraid I'd never see you again! What's wrong, Ivy?”

  Gen shook her head. She was flushed and breathless from their kiss. It was almost exactly like kissing Jim, only softer. “I'm sorry, Hope. I'm not her.”

  “Not who? What are you talking about?” Hope moved to hug her again but Gen stopped her.

  “I'm not Ivy.”

  Hope looked her suspiciously, clearly not believing
her.

  “Look at me,” Gen said.

  Hope stepped back, looked Gen up and down, and up and down again. Hope's eyes widened in wonder when she saw Gen's wings. “What happened to your wings?”

  A crowd had gathered around them.

  “Let's go somewhere,” Gen said. “I need to tell you some things.”

  “Okay,” said Hope. “Let's go back to the residence.” She looked at the white building. “Is Herron going to be okay?”

  Gen nodded. “I think he is. Come on, let's go.”

  Hope took Gen's hand and led her to the Walkers' residence.

  The building was familiar to Gen, although she knew she'd never actually been here. She knew which of the doors led to the bathroom and which to the bedrooms. She knew that Ivy and Hope had stayed together in the second room and Herron had stayed in the fourth, opposite from theirs.

  Hope led Gen to the sofa and sat down, still holding Gen's hands. Gen was conflicted. She didn't have the heart to pull her hands away, and she also desperately wanted to pull Hope close and hold her.

  “I'm not Ivy,” Gen said. “I'm sorry, Hope. Ivy's gone.”

  “Gone? What do you mean gone? What do you mean, you're not Ivy? Of course you are. Look at you!”

  “I'm Genevieve. I'm Ivy's human. She was my fairy.”

  “Was? What are you talking about?” Hope's face had drained of color, looking almost as white as her hair. Tears welled in her eyes and her lips trembled.

  Gen wanted badly to brush her thumb over Hope's shaking lips to comfort her, but she resisted. “It was Pepper. He threw a fireball at his human and it exploded. I pushed her out of the way and it blew up. I took the entire blast.”

  Hope looked confused and upset. She shook her head.

  “I was dying. Ivy sacrificed her life to save me.”

  “Sacrificed her... When one dies at the hands of the other, their counterpart will live forever! You killed her! You killed Ivy!” Hope bolted to her feet and stumbled backwards away from Gen. She tripped over the table and crashed into a chair, which tipped over, sending her toppling to the floor. She was sobbing. “You killed her!”

  Gen stood. “I didn't want to,” Gen explained. “My boyfriend, Jim, put the knife in my hand. He and Ivy decided it. Ivy kept telling me that if we didn't, we'd both die. She couldn't let me die. She kept saying she couldn't let me die. She said it was an honor to trade her life for mine.”

  “How could you? How could you murder her?” Hope screamed at Gen.

  “I didn't.” Gen was crying, too. She yelled, “I didn't want to! They put the knife in my hand, and they...” Gen struggled to continue. “They put Ivy under it and Jim was the one who moved my arm. I didn't mean to!” She fell to her knees, weeping. “I didn't mean to! I would do anything to trade places, so that she was here with you. She loves you so much,” Gen cried.

  Hope got to her feet and narrowed her eyes at Gen.

  Gen shook her head, crying. “She loves you.”

  “You mean she loved me.”

  “No,” Gen said. “I mean she still loves you. I don't know how to explain it, but I feel her inside me. Like she's a part of me now. I remember things that she knew. Like we were in that bathtub together,” she pointed at the bathroom door, “and you held her and kissed her when she—”

  “Enough!” Hope yelled. “You look exactly like her. Are you trying to be so cruel? You kissed me like that, outside; you tell me about the things we've done together! And you're not her! You killed her! You took her away from me!”

  “Maybe I did,” Gen said, quietly. “Maybe. But it's complicated. Yes, she's gone. She's... She's dead. And it was at my own hand. Because as soon as it happened, I was completely healed. My old scars went away. The burns went away. She saved me.”

  “Well, great for you,” Hope said snidely. “I hope you can live with yourself, with what you've done.” She sniffed and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. She flew to the second bedroom and slammed the door behind her.

  Gen walked to the door and put her hands on it. “Hope, please.”

  “Go away.”

  “Hope,” Gen said. She closed her eyes and another wave of Ivy's memories filled her mind. She turned around and slumped against the door. “I remember when you rescued her from the snowhawk. You fired your bow and arrow at it and yelled at it. Then we saw you and you were the most beautiful fairy we'd ever seen. You practically stopped our heart.”

  The door thumped under Gen's hands and she realized that Hope was leaning against the door just like she was.

  “And I remember the kiss in your house. You told us about the beetle. Then we kissed. You said you didn't want Herron to have to wait outside in the cold.” Gen sobbed again and sank to the floor. “Please, Hope. Please don't hate me. I need you.”

  Hope opened the door. “How do you know those things?”

  “I told you. Ivy's memories... They're in my head now, along with my own. A part of her, her... spirit, maybe, her essence, became a part of me when I... changed. I had to tell you. You had to know the truth about what happened. And Ivy was the bravest person I'd ever met. She sacrificed everything, she sacrificed you, to save me.”

  The anger on Hope's face was gone, replaced by deep, utter sadness. “Aside from your wings,” she said, “you look exactly like her.”

  “I know,” Gen said. “We talked a lot about that. You look a whole lot like your counterpart, too. You and Ivy are in love. Your humans are, too.”

  “You mean you are in love with my own human?”

  Gen nodded. “His name is Jim. I've known him all my life. I only just told him I loved him a few weeks ago.”

  “Then I'm sorry I kissed you,” Hope said. “I'm sorry. You look so much like her, I though you were her. But you aren't. And you're in love with someone else.”

  “But I am her,” Gen said. “Every minute that goes by, I feel more of her in me. I remember all of your time together. Gen is in love with Jim and Ivy is in love with you. And I think I'm...” Gen paused. “I think I'm both of us.”

  “Of course you are.”

  Gen and Hope both started violently at the shock of hearing this new voice, a flat, cold voice that Gen knew she'd heard before. The Mer Oracle. Gen and Hope rose to their feet and the Oracle strode into the common room of the residence.

  Out of the water, the blue color of her skin was much more vibrant. Ivy hadn't been able to tell that the Oracle's blue skin was swirled with patterns of darker blue. She also hadn't realized that her thick black hair shone with a slightly bluish reflection. The Oracle wore a floor-length dress of black silk. It had a very high collar that extended to her jaw and circled her throat.

  “When a fairy dies at the hand of her human, the human lives forever,” the Oracle said. “You absorbed the essence of your fairy. You took her energy into yourself. This is how it happens. You spoke the truth: You are both of you. You are no longer the human girl you were yesterday. You are more than that now. You are Genevieve, and you are Ivy. Her essence, her experiences, her maturity, her life, her memories, they are surfacing within you.”

  Gen and Hope looked at each other, then back to the Oracle.

  “Why didn't you tell Ivy this would happen?” Gen asked.

  “I did not know.”

  Gen raised her eyebrow at the Oracle. The Oracle returned her gaze, staring evenly at her for a long time.

  “The sight, seeing what the future holds, seeing the ripples of consequence from the actions we take,” the Oracle said, “that does not extend into your world. The human world. I can only see what happens in our Realms.”

  “Does nothing see into the human world?” Gen asked.

  “There are those with that gift. I am not one of them.”

  “The Caves collapsed. There was a cave-in and I can't go back. I can't get to the Bridge anymore.”

  “I know.”

  “How can I get home?”

  “You are home,” the Oracle said. “To part of you, at lea
st. And there is something important that I believe you must do.”

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “In your new form,” the Oracle said, “you have the power to restore the Realms that were sent to The Void. You can give each of those Realms a new Heart.”

  chapter 2

  “What do you mean?” Gen asked the Oracle. “How can I give these Realms new Hearts?”

  “It is something that you are now able to do,” the Oracle said. “You must enter The Void and restore the Realms to the world.”

  Gen and Hope looked at each other. Hope shrugged.

  “I have to go home!” Gen said. “I can't stay here. I don't belong here.”

  “You do belong here. You are the sovereign of The Meadows,” said the Oracle.

  “The Meadows doesn't exist anymore!”

  “It will once you bring it back,” the Oracle said. “You must bring it back. Three Realms have been sent to The Void in a very short amount of time. There are creatures from The Void that could enter our world through those rifts, and that would be bad for everyone.”

  “My parents will be worried about me. And I sent poor Jim to tell them that I wasn't coming home right away. How can I tell them? I can't go back to let them know I'm okay!”

  “I have brought someone who can help you. My new apprentice,” the Oracle said, “has many gifts. Something she can do is to influence the dreams of humans.” She walked to the door of the residence and opened it. A fairy, female, short and curvy, with long, bright, vibrantly red hair tied up in a ponytail, entered the common room.

  “This,” the Oracle said, “is the new fairy Oracle.”

  The apprentice bowed. Gen, uncertain about what exactly to do, bowed back.

  “I'm Shae. Pleasure to meet you.”

  “And you,” Gen said.

  “Hope,” Hope said.

  Shae bowed to Hope. Hope did not return the bow, but eyed Shae warily. Shae turned to Gen.

  “He'll be okay,” she said.