The Foreshadow of Balance

By Dangerous Walker

When a portal to the Four Worlds opens in ten year old Dylan James’ shed, the fate of the Five Worlds, including Earth, hangs in the balance.
Dylan and his Father embark on an epic quest to defeat the evil Black Queen of Chinerthia, find the Book of Five Worlds and close the portal. Along the way they are joined by Lucas the barbarian; Bell, the Forest Ranger; the enigmatic Shadow Ranger; the Twin Magicians, Kaitlin and Alura; and d’Gaz the pirate.
Together they travel across the world of Sylvae in order to free the True King and start a rebellion before crossing through the portal into the magical world of Hokino.
On their way they will face monsters and dragons, natural disasters, the undead and meet mystical princesses of the elements before assaulting the Prison of Articus, freeing the True King and defending the mountain stronghold of Talon’s Fall from the Chinerthian army.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dangerous Walker
• Release date: Dec 5, 2013
• ISBN: 9781311233660

Dangerous Walker

WELCOME.Welcome to the Library of the Universes.In it you will find many tales; adventures and horrors; love and loss. You will find heroes and heroines of all temperaments and backgrounds. You will fly through space; fight in wars; face beasts and ghosts.And as you read, you will find yourself drawn into this place, this Library of ancient Lore, and discover the truths that lie in the Universes and between them. Tales of ancient Evil that may still rise again and the Good that opposes it.Through the words and the pages will you lift the veil and then, O weary traveler, you might find that which you seeked, though I warn you, you might find more than you wished.But come then, find a seat, make yourself at home. Let me show you some books that might take your fancy and let's go on some adventures, you and I.

Book preview

Adventures in Space

The Trimedian (book 1)

Tears of War (book 2)

Strangers (book 3)

Pray for Rain (Parts 1-3)

The Book of Five Worlds

Five Tasks (book 2)

The Road between Gods and Monsters (book 3)

Southern Hunter

The Haunting of Berkeley Square

The Library of the Universes (and other tales of the King Imminent)

In the Valley of Elah

A NOTE ON THE TEXT

Some of the ebook sellers cannot have blank lines between text and so to delineate a scene change I have used the following %%%. Though this may seem weird I chose it because in the font I am writing in (but not necessarily the font you’re reading in) the percentage symbol looks a lot like this symbol:

Why I have made this choice will become clearer in Book 3, but also if you read the short story collection, ‘The Library of the Universes’.

The Black Queen stood on the balcony of her planning room and looked out over the expanse of her castle and beyond over her lands. It was a room she spent a lot of time in even though there had not been a use for it in many a year. She had conquered all that there was and there was no one left who could stand against her.

Or at least she had thought.

There was a saying that knowledge was power and she had all the knowledge here in the room behind her. Except up until a year ago she had not fully immersed herself in it. Now she realized that there was more knowledge to have and so more power. What she was now trying to work out was how to gain that power, something she was sure she could do. Nothing and no one could stand before her and like so many powerful people, it was that belief that was her greatest weakness.

She was no fool, she knew she had to understand more, but she didn’t realize quite how much she didn’t know. And it was that, along with the ego that comes with power, which left her blind to what was happening three worlds away…

PROLOGUE

No, it’s mine!

No, it’s mine. Geez, Dylan, do you need to learn it again?

No.

I can’t hear you.

No.

Good, so give me my lunch money.

Maybe he could go and tell his Mummy.

He doesn’t have one, dummy, laughter as they walk away. Tears on a cold winter’s day.

He’s starving by the time he gets home from school and so he sneaks into the kitchen to grab a biscuit or two. Dad is working in his study so he has to be quiet or he’ll get told off for spoiling his appetite. Two or three times a week now he has to do this; grab a secret snack and then finish his dinner even after he is stuffed. His Dad can’t know he’s being bullied. He has enough to worry about.

And so Dylan James hides under his bed covers and eats two biscuits and a lump of smelly cheese and wishes again that his Mother were still here. She’d understand; she’d hug him and brush away the tears on his cheeks. She would go down to the school and…

The covers are whipped off!

Ah ha! his Dad cries. Found you!

Dylan looks down trying to hide his mouthful of food.

Eating before dinner again?

Dylan shakes his head and swallows; the biscuit ball scrapes down his throat. No.

You think I haven’t noticed? his Dad sits down on the bed. Are you being bullied? Someone taking your lunch money?

No, he mumbles.

You can’t stand up to them?

They’d beat me up again, and now the tears really come, but his Dad pulls him into his arms.

Well then, until that day you need to eat lunch.

I told you they’d beat me up, he wails.

Ahh, but let them take your money for now and we’ll keep a secret stash in your sock or something.

But, but, that’s just more money.

It is, but you have to beat them somehow and this is good enough for now. I think I have a secret money belt somewhere from my travelling days, I’ll go look while you find some water to wash down that snack.

And Dylan James loved his Dad.

It had been a good day, he had avoided Brandon Cole and his bully friends and when he had tried to give his Dad back the extra money he had told him to keep it, a reward for out foxing his nemes- nemasees, nema-something, his Dad always used big words. He thought he had a pretty good vocabulary for a ten-year-old boy. Nearly eleven! He knew words like ‘vocabulary’ and that you could shorten it to ‘vocab’ and it meant ‘all the words you know’. But his Dad still used words he didn’t really understand.

But still he was happy that night, sitting in his Dad’s study reading a book about knights in Medy-evil times. Knights were cool. His Dad was working on his computer writing something about Medy-evil times, that was what his Dad did. He taught Archaeology and History at the University. That was another long word he knew, Archaeology. It meant digging up people’s stuff from a long time ago. Dylan thought that was pretty neat.

The news was on the small TV in the study and it was talking about countries not having enough money and something bad the banks had done. Sometimes his Dad would look up and grunt at what was going on in the news and then go back to typing. Someone was talking about how people didn’t trust their Governments anymore, Dylan wasn’t sure what a Government was exactly, but his Dad had told him they were the people who ran the countries. That seemed like a big job. The person on the news was saying that people didn’t believe in 20th Century ideals anymore, and that there was a steady rise in the interest in spirituality and his Dad listened to that bit, grunted and nodded and then went back to his work.

Dylan didn’t know what 20th Century ideals were, but had an idea spirituality meant magic. He liked magic and wizards. There didn’t seem to be any magic around anymore, not like in his books, but he believed that it was still around, it was just hidden now. Maybe that was what the news person meant. He would love to find magic and use it against Brandon Cole. Make him fly in the air, or turn him into a frog and then everyone would laugh at him and not Dylan.

Time for bed, young man; a scholar needs his sleep, his Dad said as he stood and stretched.

A scholar was someone who studies. Dylan didn’t like studying much, but he tried because it made his Dad happy.

%%%

The sand pit was empty. It was really for the little kids, but Dylan had been reading about the pyramids of Egypt and he wanted to see if he could build one. He looked again. There was no one around so he sat down in the sand and started to build. It wasn’t as easy as he had thought; the dry sand kept sliding down the sides before he got very high. He was so intent in his building that he hadn’t heard them arrive.

Ahh, look at the little baby, Brandon Cole said.

Building sandcastles, another boy said.

Dylan stood up and looked at them, then down at his unfinished pyramid.

It’s a pyramid, he said.

I don’t care what it is; the sand pit is for babies. Are you a baby? Brandon asked.

No.

Well you must be if you’re in the sand pit.

Yeah, Aaron Sharp snorted, a baby.

I’m not a baby, Dylan protested and stepped out of the pit.

Aaron said you were; are you calling him a liar? Brandon asked.

No. Yes, I’m not a baby, I was building a pyramid, he said, but Brandon pushed him and he fell on his back in the sand.

You’re in the sand pit, so you must be a baby, Brandon laughed. Are you going to cry like a baby?

No, but he did, he couldn’t help it, the fall had hurt.

The bullies laughed and walked away. They didn’t want anything but to spoil his day. He hated them.

%%%

That evening he was wrapped up against the cold in the back garden. He had his plastic toy knights, but he was thinking about the shed. It sat just behind the house by the fence. It was just a normal garden shed, just big enough to fit their bikes, a lawnmower and the other things Dad kept for the garden that he wasn’t allowed to play with. But to him it was the portal. Once that door opened he could step through and into another world, a world where he was the hero and Brandon and his friends were the baddies. They would kidnap the princess and he would defeat them. He was the hero that all the villagers loved because he defeated the dragon and the evil wizards. He rode a horse called Flax and lived in a small house in the forest even though the king wanted to build a castle for him.

He picked up his plastic knight on horseback and charged it through the grass chasing a giant snake that was heading for a school. He would have to catch it and cut off its head before it got to the school and ate the children and then his teacher, Miss Ann, would tell him how she loved him and would kiss and hug him.

Dylan, his Dad called from the kitchen. Time for dinner, big man.

CHAPTER I

It was a horrible day, not because it was cold, but because Brandon had taken his money again. He still had his secret money so that was OK, but Brandon hadn’t left it there. He had been teased through English for answering too many questions and then they had ruined his science experiment and the teacher had sent him out. By the time he came home he was miserable and went straight out into the garden. His Dad had some big talk coming up and was still busy in his study and that suited Dylan just fine. The evening was cold; his Dad had taught him that heat goes up from the ground and gets trapped by clouds keeping it warm when the Sun goes down. But there were no clouds this evening and it was still light enough outside, though not for much longer.

He was playing with his plastic knights plus an evil wizard and a big stuffed toy dragon. He had gone through the portal in the shed and the red dragon was a lot bigger than him and his fellow knight and there was no way they were going to beat it unless they could convince the evil wizard to help.

He looked again at the shed; he hated school and studying and those stupid bullies. They thought he was stupid, but he wasn’t, he was smart and they didn’t like him for that. He wished he really could go through a portal; he wished he could find the magic on Earth and use it to go away. Take him and his Dad somewhere, bring his Mum back.

But she couldn’t come back, not even with magic. He didn’t really understand it, but his Dad said she had gone to a better place. If he could learn magic, maybe he could take him and his Dad to that better place to be with Mum.

And then the shed door exploded out and a great big, grey pig ran out into the garden squealing, steam coming out of its nose (its snout, Dylan knew) in great clouds and then it stopped suddenly. It looked left and then right and then straight at Dylan. He wanted to scream, but nothing would come out and then a huge man ran out of the shed.

He wore thick fur instead of a coat and Dylan could only think that he looked dirty. The man stopped just like the pig and looked around. He looked at Dylan and moved towards him and then stopped and looked at the pig, which was looking between them. They both looked surprised.

And then Dylan screamed for his Dad.

The pig turned in a circle looking for somewhere to run, and the man moved again toward Dylan, who could now see he had long thick hair and a beard to match with some kind of dirty green trousers on and a metal shirt under the big fur coat thing. And on his back a big two bladed battle-axe.

Dad! Help!

And then Dylan’s Dad ran into the garden with a cricket bat in his hand and stopped as suddenly as the pig and the man had.

Who are you? Dad demanded.

How do we go? the man asked back in a deep voice.

Get out of my garden now.

Your garden?

Get out now or I’ll use this, he held up the bat, but the man unslung the axe.

And then I would have to use this. But I don’t want to, at the sight of the axe the pig finally made up its mind and ran back to the shed and disappeared inside.

Now I’ve lost my dinner, the man said and seemed sad.

Sorry, said Dylan.

It wasn’t your fault, I should have grabbed it. But where am I?

I’m going to call the police now, Dylan’s Dad said.

The what?

What’s wrong? Dylan asked the man.

Dylan, come here, his Dad said. This man has been drinking.

Dylan understood this. When you drink something called booze you got funny in the head and did stupid things. Sometimes Dad drank booze and got sad about Mum and cried. He didn’t like that.

I haven’t had a drop all day, the big man argued. I wish I had some now for this is greatly vexing.

Dad has some booze.

Dylan, stop talking and come here, and Dylan walked past the man, as far away as he could, and Dad relaxed a little when he was next to him. OK, put the axe away, man.

Once you put down your… what is this strange weapon you carry?

It’s a cricket bat, it’s for a game, Dylan told him because the man didn’t seem dangerous, just confused.

And then the man threw back his head and laughed.

You threaten me with a bat from a game? and he laughed again and Dad lowered the bat.

Where did you come from? he asked.

From the shed, Dylan answered.

The shed? the man asked. No, I come from the forest town of Capel in Collyshire.

Right, Dylan’s Dad said.

And where am I now? Is this Shed?

No, that’s the shed, Dylan said and pointed. The man looked at it and then slowly looked back at them.

What world am I on? he asked slowly.

That’s enough, Dad started.

What world am I on? the man asked more angrily.

Earth, Dylan said and the man seemed to go white through the dirt and suntan.

No.

Yes.

The Fifth World.

What did you say? Dad asked.

The Fifth World.

You better come inside.

What’s going on Dad?

What’s your name? he asked the man, but he didn’t answer, just looked around. What’s your name?

What? Lucas.

You better come inside, Lucas, I think we need that drink.

%%%

They sat in the study, it wasn’t very big and it was stuffed with books, a desk and two comfy chairs. It seemed even smaller with Lucas in there. He stood and just looked around while Dad poured him a glass of something that he took in his big hands. Everything seemed small compared to Lucas, Dylan thought.

Sit down, Lucas, let me find something, Dad said and started looking through his books. Lucas took off his axe and squeezed into a chair and Dylan stood next to him.

"Why do you need such