Free The Cornerstone by Nick Spalding Page B

true.’
    ‘I don’t know what to tell you, Merelie. I really don’t,’ Jacob replied, a little compassion slipping into his voice for the first time.
    He got up, walked around the desk and took his daughter’s hands. ‘This has to stop now. You have to send this boy back and forget these nightmares. Nothing is coming to kill us. We’re safe.’
    Merelie’s eyes filled with doubt. ‘It’s been so clear father, for so long. I see them breaking into our world. Invading our minds and twisting us until - ‘ The fear etched across her face was horrible. ‘You asked me why I brought you here, Max. Why I needed somebody from your world?’
    Here we go!
    ‘It’s because only someone like you can stop it. When the darkness spreads, only a powerful Wordsmith from your world can save us.’
    Max looked blanker than a gambler’s cheque.
    ‘Right, ‘ he said, digesting this. ‘Just one question?’
    ‘Yes?’
    ‘What’s a Wordsmith?’
    Jacob Carvallen tutted and looked at Merelie. ‘You didn’t tell him much, did you?’
    ‘She’s tried,’ Max said in a strained voice, resisting his natural urge to start chucking insults about. ‘We keep getting interrupted .’
    ‘A Wordsmith is one blessed with the natural talent to shape words and grasp the power they hold… and the training to do it properly,’ Jacob told him.
    ‘A wizard, then?’ Max felt on slightly firmer ground here.
    ‘That’s a word from your world, boy. Not ours.’
    Stop calling me boy.
    ‘Whatever! Wizard or Wordsmith. I’m not one, I know that much.’
    ‘But you will be!’ Merelie exclaimed. ‘You have to be. Your world has so many books… so many words, so much potential power. You should all be capable of word shaping. That’s why I brought you here. You can save us, Max. You alone can stand against the darkness I’ve seen coming!’ Her eyes gleamed with hope.
    ‘Right… so what happens to me if I’m not an ultra super powerful Wordsmith when this darkness turns up?’ Max asked, dreading the answer.
    Merelie looked non-plussed. ‘Why, you’d… you’d die. We all would.’
    I should have stayed in bed this morning.
    Jacob gave him a sympathetic look. ‘I’m sorry, boy. I’ve known my daughter’s intentions for a long time. She believes that you - as a citizen of your world - are the saviour of my people. With The Cornerstone colluding with her, your presence here was guaranteed.’
    Max Bloom drew himself up to his full five foot eight inches, took a deep breath and aimed the pointy finger of doom at Merelie. ‘You’re telling me you dragged me into this stupid dimension to stop some indescribable creatures from sucking your brains out ‘coz you think I can be some kind of magical wizard, shooting lightning bolts out of my arse? And you reckon I can single-handedly save your entire race. Have I got that about right?’
    ‘Yes, Max. That’s right,’ Merelie said with a smile, happy he understood his part in the grand scheme of things.
    Max’s face had gone an alarming shade of red.
    ‘Did it not occur to you,’ he continued. ‘That I – and every other berk from my world – might not have any super-duper magical powers, and that if I go up against your evil monstrosities, I’ll get skinned alive in thirty seconds flat?’
    Merelie looked confused. ‘No, Max. That’s not how it’s supposed to happen.’
     ‘ Supposed to happen?? You… you… ‘ He was so angry the power of speech was starting to desert him. ‘You’re bloody nuts!’
    Jacob and Merelie were both taken aback.
    ‘There’s no need to talk to my daughter that way,’ Jacob warned.
    When Max gets a temper going, his instincts for self-preservation get sidelined. ‘Oh, shut up, baldy! If you could control your bloody kids I wouldn’t be in this mess!’
    ‘Don’t speak to me in that tone, boy!’
    ‘Stop calling me boy! I’m not your bloody servant!’ Max grabbed The Cornerstone and shook it at Merelie. ‘Send me home. Send me