Turning Pages Read online

  What really captured my attention, however, was where the water stretched towards the horizon. Instead of disappearing into the distance, I could see a clear point where it simply stopped. It was hard to see from where I stood, but it looked as though the ocean simply cascaded in a torrent of whitewater over the edge into nothingness.

  I turned to check the other directions: the cathedral blocked a lot of my view, but my east and south both showed ocean which ran to the edge of the world. I could only hope that land continued down the hill past the cathedral and that I had not just stumbled upon the tiniest plane in existence.

  The only exception to the calm, boundless sea was a small cloud which floated alone in the clear sky. It was far lower than I would have expected, and from its grey underbelly gushed a tremendous torrent of water. It ejected its liquid cargo into the ocean, feeding the glittering sea which dropped from the edge of the world.

  Slowly, I licked my lips and hoped that I had not actually died this time.

  However, the faint buzzing in my ears told me the item I had been sent here to retrieve was nearby. Very nearby. I looked regretfully at the beautiful cathedral from which a soft voice rang out in prayer. The buzzing increased.

  As I moved quietly towards the cathedral, I noticed the inscriptions above the door, proclaiming a name I did not recognise as Lord and Saviour.

  I had this place pegged already; a wonderful, beautiful plane, until you found the slums. A place where the rich could afford their luxuries and the rest had to suffer. It made me feel a little better about what I needed to do. Which was, more than likely, interrupt morning mass.

  Gently, I placed my hand on the human-sized cutout in the huge wooden entry and pushed. It opened easily and revealed that the cathedral somehow managed to be even more breathtaking on the inside. Stained glass panels washed the room and its occupants in a swathe of pastels, falling across their grey robes and dying their pale eyes all manner of colours. Gold filigree decorated the dark wood of the pews, and the crucified statue behind the pulpit looked as if they had simply coated a man in black marble and hung him there. I had the unnerving feeling that I might have been right.

  The buzzing in my head strengthened as I laid eyes on the vaguely familiar figure. My gaze was drawn to the neck of the life-sized statue, where a small medallion shone iridescent in the light from the windows. Apart from its gleam, and compared to the glory that was around it, the copper amulet was rather underwhelming. Luckily it was not my job to judge the thing, just to retrieve it.

  A touch on my arm nearly scared me half to death, and I turned to look into a pair of gold-coloured eyes with alarm. The woman’s gentle smile might normally have caught my attention, she was beautiful after all, but some part of me shirked away from her. I put it down to having a job to do. With another gentle touch, she ushered me towards the pews; a latecomer being welcomed to prayer. I looked apologetically at her, considering whether to shake my head and dismiss myself, or take a seat and wait for the sermon to be done. Being in the cathedral filled me with a gentle warmth, and I found the idea of staying to be rather appealing. I returned the woman’s smile, thinking of taking a seat and waiting until the priest was done.

  The sudden gasps and shocked cries that rang out from the crowd had me spinning away from the woman. I turned towards the pulpit in time to see several things happen at once:

  A group of young people in cream-coloured robes darted towards the priest who was now sprawled out on the ground.

  A man in pale attire, different from the robes we all wore, clung to the slightly suspended statue, eyes on the scene below him.

  People in the pews surged to their feet, the entire congregation in shock and dismay.

  The entire scene was surreal; dyed technicolour by the stained glass roof.

  The man leapt away from the statue, landing in a crouch on the pulpit as his eyes darted desperately around for an escape. The buzzing in my head swelled and increased, and I noticed the statute was devoid of the medallion. Of my medallion. With a scowl, I moved swiftly towards the intruder, but so did many others. Seeing the movement, the man vaulted the first few rows of pews and bolted towards the exit on the other side of the hall. Without a second thought, I ducked between the nearest pews and tore after him.

  Emerging on the other side of the cathedral, I blinked away the vision of the coloured light and charged after the thief. On this side of the building, there was only a large swathe of grass before the ground started to dip. As I reached the end of it, in hot pursuit, I almost froze in my chase.

  The cathedral was on a large hill that overlooked… well, everything. Descending down the steep slope was a city. Crystalline spires rose high into the air, many just shy of where the cathedral began. Glass and crystal shone in the light of the day and water glimmered as it flowed around the buildings. They were built on an island. No, islands; each one connected with shimmering bridges.

  Further on, out past the land on either side of me, the world simply ceased. Water cascaded down over the edge into apparent nothingness, while intermittent nimbuses dropped waterfalls down into the pale blue ocean. If I stared hard enough at the mass of islands which sprawled to my north, I could almost make out where they stopped and, further, where the sea beyond simply ended.

  Strangely enough, the man who had stolen the medallion was also stock-still. I could not tell if he, too, was taking in the sight, if he regretted stealing from the church, or if some other strange power held him fast.

  It mattered not, I realised, as I dove towards him.

  The hill was steeper than I had anticipated, however, and the man gave no resistance as I slammed hard into his back. The impact sent us both tumbling. I fought desperately to regain my footing on the grass, but the rolling slope was too steep, and the two of us pitched down it. Black marble rocks, like that from which the cathedral had been hewn, dotted our path and I threw up my arms to shield myself from slamming into them on the way down.

  By the time we landed on the inside of a great black marble arch, the air had been stripped from my lungs and they burned as I dragged in a few gasping breaths. Nearby, the man lay on his back, panting and groaning. Up close, I could see that his pale face swam strangely in my vision, and I realised the fall had done me more harm than I knew.

  Finally, his eyes met mine and they widened in surprise.

  “You!” he snarled.

  Me? What sort of rivalry had I walked myself into when I had taken this body? I had dodged a few awkward encounters in the past, where someone had recognised the bag of flesh I had inhabited, but no one had ever glowered at me so vehemently before.

  “Give me that,” I told him, my voice much deeper than I was expecting.

  With a scowl, the man launched himself away from me and it was all I could do to snag the loose leg of his pants. We tussled for a moment, him kicking at me with his free leg before a well-placed heel to the fingers had me releasing my grip. He was on his feet and throwing himself down the grass-covered street of the city in seconds.

  Tall spires passed us as we ran, their crystalline terraces glittering. It occurred to me partway into the sprawling city that I was shoeless and that the grass of the streets was incredibly soft. It was so silky that I had a hard time finding the purchase to run on it. We passed people of varying skin colour and tone and I saw that the delicately tapered ears and small flesh-coloured horns were more frequent than I had originally thought. The people seemed surprised at our mad dashing, but no one came after us or tried to halt our game of cat and mouse.

  Across a flat surface like this, it was clear that I was faster. I caught up with the man within our first few hundred metres and reached out to snag him by the collar. Fabric ripped, and he stumbled out of my grasp. Bolting across the grass, he threw himself inside the beautiful arch at the base of a tall spire. The entrance was completely hollow, a high-roofed cave interwoven with cream and gold vines throughout. Tables were spread out in the centre, a bountiful feast of steaming
bowls and plates of fruit upon them. People were milling about to the side, but they turned their shocked faces towards us as the man vaulted into the room and leapt bodily onto the nearest table in order to cross it.

  I was caught off guard as plates and bowls flung skyward, the shouts of the spire’s occupants joining with the din they made as they crashed to the ground. Having made it across, my quarry bounded up the spiral staircase on the other side of the room and disappeared onto the floor high above.

  I growled, backing out from the spire and looking desperately for a way to cut him off. I had noticed the thin bridges that connected various buildings over the grassy pathway. Now, I darted towards the twin spire on the other side of the ‘road’, surprised to see that the interior was identical, down to the plates of food. Ignoring the startled glances I received, I moved quickly down the side of the room and began to climb the stairs.

  Floors covered in comfortable furnishings appeared as I climbed. I passed them swiftly until I came to a part of the tower that was too thin for the stairs to continue upwards. In front of me, the bridge stretched out, wrought from the same white material as the towers it connected. Halfway across it, intent on heading in my direction, was the thief.

  Colour drained from his face as he saw me. Or, at least, I thought it did. It was hard to tell with the haze of pale feminine features that superimposed themselves over his. He looked over the edge, to the long drop, then back at the amulet in his hand. A bitter expression twisted his features as he returned his gaze to me.

  In a brief second of pause, we stared at one another from across the bridge. I took the chance to dart towards him and he tried desperately to backtrack. Idyllic rooms flooded past my vision as I chased him down the stairs. Frightened cries went up from the crowd a second time as we reemerged into the room the thief had upturned.

  I was grateful when we reached the ground once more, but cursed as my quarry darted into an adjacent building. For a moment, I was worried that he was going to try and go up again, but he simply ran through. A passerby was thrust roughly out of his way as he burst through the arch on the other side and darted towards the edge of this island. It was only upon reaching a porcelain bridge that he stopped, gasping for breath. With one hand, he hung the amulet over the railing, dangling it above the water below.

  “I’ll drop it!” he said, glaring heatedly at me. He was studying my face as if trying to commit my features to memory. Or perhaps he was trying to discern the features of someone he recognised. Or maybe my face was swimming and shifting just like his did. His eyes seemed to change in position and form, black patches appearing over them, highlighted by the shifting haze across his features that pervaded my vision. “Don’t push me or I will, asshole.”

  The insult felt dirty in a place like this and so bizarre that I found myself trying not to laugh. I barely managed to keep a stern face as I snorted. “You wouldn’t. You’re after it, too.”

  “Why are you following me?”

  The accusation was so baffling that I actually lost my composure this time. My lips quirked at it, my breath catching in my throat. “I want that amulet.”

  He removed his gaze from me to look at the copper medallion that he was threatening to hurl into the sea. Then, something caught his eye in the deep, clear waters and his gaze dropped.

  I made my move.

  With a burst of speed, I launched myself at him and tore the medallion from his grip. Off-balance, I hooked my shoulder beneath his ribs and up-ended him over the side. His grip on the copper chain remained, and I was worried he would drag us both over the bridge. As I heard the splash that signalled the strange man’s exit, I realised the amulet had gone with him. He no longer had a grip on it, but it plinked down into the water beside him, and my stomach dropped.

  With a groan, I hurled myself into the water. It was surprisingly warm beneath the surface, and the liquid was a comforting sensation against my skin. I could see the amulet falling away from me as I dived, and the struggling figure of the man next to me as he attempted to right himself. Coming to the end of where the dive’s momentum could take me, I pushed myself further, kicking as hard as I could to propel my body towards the amulet.

  I did not look back, did not check to see if the strange man was in pursuit. My only focus was the fading glimmer of the amulet as it fell slowly from the sun’s touch. I could see no ocean floor as I forced my burning lungs beyond their limit, but the amulet’s descent looked as if it slowed. I thrust out a hand in desperation, fingers catching at the copper chain before it slid from my grasp.

  I tried once more, a burst of strength I did not know I had thrust me forward, and I wrapped the chain around my hand. Somehow, I managed to fish the tape from within the robes. Despite the submersion, it stuck to the amulet as I twined it around. I tucked the object inside my robes with unsteady fingers as my burning chest gave in. Water cascaded into my throat and lungs as my body rebelled and I gasped for breath.

  A strange noise caught my attention as I jerked and writhed, my body panicking. I had just enough time to see a huge shape move into view, its dark body riddled with luminescent white spots, before my world went entirely black.

  

  Cold night air seeped in through an open window, rousing me just as the nausea did. Poison, I remembered vaguely, and instantly recalled why I normally refused to use it. I heaved myself up on the table and began to retch violently over the side. Foul-smelling liquid dribbled down my chin and smeared across the examination room floor. I knew that was where I was, because the cold was coming from the refrigerators, not a draughty window, and the place smelled of cleanliness.

  Not anymore, I thought to myself as I stared down at the brackish mess on the floor. I was at least grateful that this room was designed to have a mess made of it.

  A growl from the doorway signalled Daniel’s arrival. “And here I was thinking you were a damn sight cleaner than last time,” he complained, passing me some disinfectant wipes.

  “Why am I up here? You weren’t actually going to cut me open, were you?” I asked him.

  “C’mere ‘til I tell ya, you’re clinically dead,” he told me with a roll of his eyes. “Probably would’ve just healed off you like that bad case of death by poisoning, eh?”

  “Have you cut me open before?” He was avoiding the question and I did not like the idea of someone playing around in my chest cavity.

  “Wouldn’t know if I had,” Daniel argued. “Besides, why you don’t just off yourself in your own damn building and wake up there by yourself, I’ll never know.”

  “I tried that,” I explained, glad to see that I was still in my own clothes. I pulled myself from the table and straightened my jacket. “But I can’t do it in a location more than once in a while.”

  Daniel snorted, slapping me lightly on the shoulder as I walked by. “See yourself out, I’m behind schedule.”

  “Miserable winter?”

  I caught him grimace as I reached the door to the lab. “Road accident. Truck collided with a busload of tourists.”

  I did not bother making sympathetic sounds; Daniel was never much for pity anyway. Even if I had wanted to respond, the wave of nausea that hit me as I stepped into the hall had me reeling.

  I plummeted from the rooftop in slow motion. The fall lasted an eternity, my impact on the ground even longer. I could feel the crunch of every bone, the way my head caved as it hit the ground…

  I vaguely remembered hailing a cab and watching the streets slide past the car as I lolled my head against the window.

  My stomach roiled inside of me as something sickly and dark absorbed slowly into my veins. My breathing grew sharp and thin, what should have been a painless slide into unconsciousness became an excruciating eternity as I retched and gasped on the floor. My breath came shorter with each one, but the pain and desperation did not stop…

  It was only once I was home, the tape-free amulet collected from inside my door, that I let myself dry-heave over the sink. Thankfu
lly, I had already rid my stomach of its contents back in Daniel’s workplace. Once I had worked up the will, I swallowed the pills with some water. The morsridone eased the waking nightmares from behind my eyes, and the distant pain that accompanied them began to fade.

  Exhaustion overcame me the moment I swallowed them. Though I did not levitate and no talking cats were present, I was prepared for something stranger than merely wanting to sleep. I had only a moment to leave the amulet on the kitchen counter, should a messenger arrive to collect it, before I dragged myself to the recliner and fell into a deep slumber.

  **

  When I awoke, the entire flat was pristine. I did not normally live in a sty, of course, but I could not remember the last time I had seen the stovetop sparkling or the kitchen counter so organised. A quick glance at my CD collection told me it had been reorganised alphabetically. Blinking, fumbling for the switch on the kettle, I took a better look around. The amulet was exactly where I left it, the chain kinked at an angle. Aside from the strange cleanliness, there were no signs that anyone but myself had been inside. It was only as I poured hot water carefully into my mug that I noticed my hands were flecked with grime. Did I…? I thought, rinsing my fingers under the kitchen tap. It might explain why I hardly felt rested.

  Well, that was a new side-effect. I considered whether making a list of them might be wise, as I sat at the counter and fiddled with the medallion. There were some I would rather not remember, however, so I turned my thoughts back to yesterday’s events. I wondered why the man with the strange face had wanted the trinket so badly. Hell, for the first time, I even wondered why my people wanted it so badly. The amulet was plain and dull - copper or bronze, perhaps - and it did not appear to do anything special. Regardless of how it looked, I had never had competition for my jobs before. The situation reeked of a mistake or perhaps even something more sinister. I knew better than to think this was about me, although the thief had been incredibly irate to see the man whose body I had inhabited...