The Cornerstone (12 page)

‘Recent discovery? Like when?’

‘Two hundred years, more or less.’

‘That’s
recent
is it?’

‘Oh, yes. Very recent compared to the others.’

‘Others?’

Merelie was about to respond when Garrowain stopped next to a bookshelf with some particularly thick volumes stuffed into it.

‘Ah, here we are.’

He pointed a finger at by far and away the largest book Max had seen on this fun little excursion.

It was a good foot thick and four feet high. There was no writing on the spine, just an embossed image of Earth, detailed enough to have individual continents picked out in the stitching.

Looks we found the Rough Guide to Earth, then. How’s the little bugger going to lift it?

He expected Borne to step forward and heave the book down for Garrowain. The Arma had been silent during the whole trip and hadn’t served much of a purpose. Heavy lifting looked to be the best use of those ridiculously muscular arms, so Max supposed the giant was about to do his thing.

He was therefore surprised when the big man didn’t budge and Garrowain stepped forward, holding his hands out.

‘You’ll give yourself a hernia trying to lift that,’ Max warned.

‘That is not how we read books of this type, Mr Bloom.’

‘Then how - ‘ Max stopped, his head snapping around. ‘Is the universe about to explode?’ he asked, squinting in preparation.

‘I rather think not,’ Garrowain said. He placed his hands on the book, muttered briefly under his breath and stepped back as the familiar silver light played along its spine.

The great tome slid out of the shelf and hung in the air, bobbing up and down. The cover opened with a slight creak as Garrowain moved closer.

‘Blimey,’ Max said, more than a little awestruck.

Merelie smiled. ‘This is the power I was on about, Max. You take the weight of the words and build a foundation with them. Anything is possible if you shape them well enough.’

‘And Marrowbone here is good at it, I take it?’

‘It’s Garrowain… and yes, he’s very good.’

Max’s dad had recently been promoted, for being good at whatever it was he did for a living. To celebrate this, Peter Bloom had bought a lovely new fifty inch widescreen LCD telly with full HD.

He’d shown off the high definition glory with a wildlife documentary. It was so bright and crystal clear on the massive screen that after ten minutes Max’s eyeballs had begun to ache and he’d had to go for a lie down.

The effect produced between the covers of this floating book was similar.

A glistening star field appeared on the double page spread. Comets streaked across the page and Max couldn’t help but hear Captain Kirk’s famous monologue in his head.

A slowly revolving planet Earth zoomed into view.

Golden writing appeared above it, floating just off the page:

‘The planet Earth exists in the most recent dimension discovered by the shaping of words.

‘Symon Carvallen created the gateway to this reality from the Chapter Lands in 1823 Y.W and commissioned a new Cornerstone book to facilitate a permanent and stable link.

‘Each Chapter House retains its own Cornerstone, linked to their respective dimensions. As our knowledge has increased, so has the complexity of each Cornerstone book that has been created. The Carvallen is the fifth and most advanced.

‘Symon Carvallen founded the fifth Chapter House - as was his right upon the creation of a new gateway - and the House of Carvallen has henceforth flourished under the guidance of - ‘

Garrowain gestured and the pages started to flick over. ‘Apologies, the introduction takes quite a while. I’ll forward to the passages we require.’

The pages stopped turning about midway and the interior of a large building swam into view.

The place was cavernous. Obviously a library, it had massive bookcases along the walls and the architecture was clean, white and thoroughly modern.

‘In their research of this world, the Chapter House of Carvallen discovered a wealth of knowledge in written form, unheard of in the Chapter Lands, or in the other four existences overseen by the older Chapter Houses.

‘This image shows The British Library, situated in the capital city of the nation known as Great Britain, where the gateway from our world leads.

‘It is a repository of knowledge so huge it contains millions of texts, both factual and fictional, all written solely on Earth.

‘Unlike our world, where only five libraries exist, Earth has
thousands
, full to the rafters with books.

‘This indicates that millions – if not
billions
– of their people are able to both read and write! The possibilities for word shaping from this are staggering!’

The picture changed from the British Library to the Google Internet homepage. As the writing continued to spiel out, images flicked through thousands of internet sites at high speed.

‘Not only do they have more books than the other worlds, they have a vast web of knowledge they call the internet, which is theoretically accessible to everyone. However, at this stage, the validity of the information included on this is in doubt. Any attempt at word shaping from such a dubious source could result in injuries… both mental and physical.’

Max chuckled as he pictured somebody trying to punch holes in reality using the words they found on the average sci-fi blog or gentleman’s entertainment page. Mental and physical injury sounded like a tragic understatement.

‘It should be noted that at this stage in the Carvallen research – some two hundred years of undertaking – not one individual from this world has displayed any evidence of talent for the use of Wordcraft.

‘This is
unprecedented
.’

The last three words hung in the air, glowing in an almost accusing fashion. Max stared at them, trying to marshal his thoughts.

This was quite an effort, as his thoughts didn’t want to be marshalled in the slightest and were in danger of going AWOL any second.

He’d never thought much about the importance of books. To him they were just… there. It never occurred they might be special in any way.

And yet here he was: in a world where books were virtually worshipped - not least because they could somehow be used to perform magical and incredible feats. 

He looked at the frail custodian. ‘So my world’s amazing because it has all those books?’

‘That’s right.’

‘But this library’s enormous!’

‘Indeed it is, but it is only one of five in the whole of the Chapter Lands. Every book ever written in this world is contained within them - as well as those culled from the dimensions joined to each Chapter House. Very few books have more than one copy. Compared to Earth, the amount of books we have is tiny.’

‘Books are rarer here?’ Max said, starting to get the point.

‘They are. Considerably so.’

‘The guide sounded surprised that so many people on Earth can read and write,’ Max pointed out, ‘it’s not the same here, then? Even though you hold books in such high regard?’

Garrowain nodded. ‘Quite right. Because words have so much power and can be used to do great or terrible things, the amount of people who can read and write is controlled.’

‘Controlled?’ Max didn’t like the sound of that.

‘Yes. Otherwise there would be anarchy.’

‘How many of your people can read and write?’

Garrowain thought about this for a moment. ‘A few thousand, I’d say.’

‘That’s all? How many people live on this planet?’ Max asked, knowing he wasn’t going to like the answer.

‘Oh, about nine hundred million.’

Nope, he didn’t like it one bit.

- 11 -

Several floors up in the cavernous Great Hall of Chapter House Carvallen, there is a meeting going on, and what they’re discussing dovetails nicely with recent revelations about literacy in this strange world.

At the summit, representatives of all five Chapter Houses sit around a large table in the centre of the hall. The table is that same deep shade of Carvallen green and a few hundred tins of Pledge must have been used to make it so shiny. You could eat your dinner off it.

The room itself is an amphitheatre - the massive table ringed by rows of stone seats, beneath a high-domed glass ceiling that bathes the hall in warm sunlight.

The five people sat at the table are the Chapter Lords; the four men and one woman who run this entire civilisation, collectively known as The Chapter Lands.

Each is dressed in the colour of his or her House.

We know the deep green of Carvallen and the blue of House Draveli - but alongside these are the red of House Wellhome, the purple of House Falion and the gold of House Morodai.

Behind each Lord there are five Chapter Guards, standing with varying levels of discipline, depending on which house they represent. Morodai’s are the stiffest and Draveli’s are all slouching.

It’s rare for the Houses to meet in this fashion and even rarer for the youngest of the five to host such a meeting.

These are fraught times and Jacob Carvallen is seen as a moderate man and a cunning negotiator, so custom has been suspended for the sake of accomplishing a lasting peace.

The five Houses have always had a fractious relationship, but current levels of animosity are unheard of.

Falion and Morodai - the two oldest - are at the centre of the conflict as usual. Wellhome backs their cousins in purple and Draveli acts as side-kick to their Morodai masters.

This latest battle - one of words and not arms, so far thankfully - concerns House Falion’s desire to teach more of its people the skills of reading and writing.

Morodai stands opposed to this, surprising no-one. If Falion’s people learn to read and write, Morodai’s will no doubt want the same privilege.

This is a potential state of affairs that Chapter Lord Lucas Morodai is less than happy to entertain. An illiterate work force is a controllable work force – and one unable to word shape. He’ll never agree to educate his people, and has just announced this to the hall, in tones that brook no argument.

‘But the benefits of allowing my people these rights are clear!’ said Bethan Falion, head of her House and most forward thinking of all five Chapter Lords. ‘They will be educated and better able to serve us. The same holds true for your citizens, Lucas!’

Morodai sneered. ‘More able to cause destruction and panic, you mean. Give them this power and the Houses will be reduced to rubble!’ He addressed the whole table, running thin fingers over his close cropped black beard. ‘Maybe Falion and her family - with its rampant liberalism - would embrace this, but I certainly do not! This is just the latest example of idiocy from their House.’

‘How dare you!’  Falion jumped to her feet.

Jacob Carvallen held his arms out in a calming gesture. ‘Now let’s try to be civil about this. Nothing will be resolved with insults and shouting,’ he said, trying not to stare directly at Morodai.

Morodai gave him a look that clearly stated he couldn’t care less what Jacob Carvallen thought and gave Osgood Draveli a sharp nod.

Draveli got the hint.

‘I agree with Chapter Lord Morodai,’ he piped up. ‘House Draveli does not wish to risk teaching its chattels the use of words either. The potential dangers outweigh the perceived benefits.’

Aaron Wellhome snorted into his wine glass. ‘There’s a surprise,’ he said in a voice that rumbled like thunder. ‘Draveli sides with his master again.’

‘And you automatically agree with the Falion woman, Aaron. That too is
quite
the surprise,’ said Morodai, causing more uproar from the table.

Once again it fell to Jacob Carvallen to cool his fellow Chapter Lords before the whole thing got out of control. The Chapter Guards were starting to look decidedly twitchy and this whole thing could degenerate into an ugly punch-up if he wasn’t careful.

As he calmed his colleagues, his lovely wife Halia - sat in one of the packed galleries behind the conference table - leaned over to her Arma Elijah, a deep frown on her face.

‘This is going nowhere,’ she said. ‘They squabble like children, with Jacob acting as parent.’

‘Indeed,’ said Elijah, a grizzled veteran of many conflicts. An ugly, jagged scar ran down the left side of his face, a souvenir of the last argument between Chapters that had come to blows. ‘They snivel and moan, waiting for the other side to back down… but they never will. This meeting is pointless.’

‘At least Bethan’s wish to teach her people is valid. It’s about time this discussion was aired among us again.’

Elijah snorted. ‘You think so? Morodai will never budge. He treats his citizens like sheep… to be herded and kept in filth. Without his approval, Falion’s plan will never come to fruition, whether it’s wise or not.’

‘You don’t believe the people have a right to the words, Elijah?’ Halia said with some surprise. Her Arma always seemed so level-headed and sensible. Surely he thought this move towards an educated populace was a good thing?

‘I believe knowledge can be a dangerous thing if not controlled. While teaching the masses sounds a good idea, I wonder what’d happen if enough of them had the talent to word shape.’

‘I’m not suggesting we give them free reign, Elijah.’

‘No? Then how will you control what they learn?’ He clenched a fist. ‘Will you punish them if they learn something you don’t want them to? Kill them if they start using Wordcraft and become too powerful to control?’

‘I would never kill my own citizens, Elijah!’  Halia sounded horrified by the suggestion.

‘Truly, ma’am? Even if they threatened the very existence of Carvallen?’

‘It would never come to that.’