God Stones: Books 1 - 3

by Otto Schafer

  Sarah screamed.

  “Sarah! Please don’t scream. It will be okay,” the voice whispered.

  But Sarah didn’t care… couldn’t care, and she screamed again. Then a hand clamped over her mouth, stifling her scream to a horrible moan.

  “Sarah! Listen to me! It’s Juan! I am going to help you. You are injured, and we are going to need to set some bones and get you to help, but right now you must not scream.”

  Agony. White-hot agony seemed to come from every part of her. One of Sarah’s eyes opened, and she fixed it on her tormenter, screaming beneath his hand. His face was panicked, and he spoke in rapid-fire Spanish. She couldn’t understand it all, but it sounded like he was asking for a syringe from the med kit. She tried to turn her head, not wanting to see herself. Instead she saw what was left of the utility truck – a broken cab resting upside down against a tree, almost unrecognizable in its twisted shape.

  Around her, others spoke with a quiet urgency. “Give her two,” she heard a voice say as everything began to close in. The pain became distant as her consciousness began to slip away. She reached up with the hand that still worked and grabbed a fistful of Juan’s shirt. Her jaw hung strange and slack. But she forced the words. “Ga… Gabi! Please! Oh god… Juan! It has… Gabi!”

  Sarah’s eyes rolled back, showing only the whites as her hand fell slack to her side.

  47

  I Thought This Was the End

  Saturday, April 16 – God Stones Day 10

  Petersburg, Illinois

  “What do you mean, ruin the end?! I thought this was the end!” But Garrett knew better. As quickly as the words left his mouth, he knew this was not the end. He suddenly felt sick. Not sick, different. Physically something felt different, but he wasn’t sure what it was.

  “No way, bro! No – you know this isn’t the end. You just said it yourself a second ago – we have to get started.”

  The strange sensation was in Garrett’s hands. It started as a tingling, but now the sensation was all the way to his elbows and his hands were burning. Not painfully, but enough to notice. He held up his hands, looking at them for the first time. His skin was a dark charcoal color, like it had been burnt. They all stared in silence at his strange hands and arms, his grey-black skin fading as it disappeared under his short sleeve tee shirt, but no one else looked surprised – only him. “What the…”

  He felt his heart suddenly racing. The dragon! Had he been burnt and hadn’t realized it? He rubbed the top of his hand briskly with the palm of his other. A section of the grey-black skin peeled off, revealing something else underneath – markings of some kind. It was hard to tell in the low lantern light, but his skin was definitely lighter in color underneath. However, there were thin red and black lines crisscrossing in some strange designs. Garrett reflected back on the dream, then finally spoke. “You are hereby reborn of dragon blood and fire.”

  Lenny and David looked at each other, wide-eyed.

  “Holy crap, guys… Holy crap!” David thrust two fists in the air. “It’s all true!”

  “Where did you hear that?” Lenny asked quietly.

  “I dreamt it,” Garrett said, still staring at his hands as he flipped them over and back, again and again. He couldn’t believe how different they looked. It was frightening. He squeezed them into a fist then flexed his fingers out, expecting it to cause pain, but he only felt the tingling. “Why, what do you think it means?”

  “We know what it means, Garrett,” Lenny said, standing to pace. “That’s what we need to tell you. Turek’s prophecy told of everything that happened. It said you and your sages would kill a great giant and slay a dragon.” He drew in a hesitant breath. “But then the chosen one would die in the depths of an ancient river, only to be reborn of the dragon blood and fire.”

  Time seemed to stop as the small room fell completely silent.

  Garrett finally spoke. “Turek’s book says that? Specifically, that?”

  David nodded, examining the strange patterns on Garrett’s hand where the burnt skin had flaked away. “Yes, and so much more. These marks, I think they are runes. I wish Pete were back – he would know for sure, but I have seen similar ones in some of the fantasy video games I’ve played.”

  “Fantasy video games?” Garrett asked.

  “Hey, everything comes from somewhere, right? I mean I’ve seen giants, dragons, elves, and magic in video games too, and who would have thought any of it was real until now?”

  Lenny stopped pacing and turned to Garrett. “The people here, the Keepers, they believe Turek—”

  “Wait, Lenny,” David said. “Just stop – this will be easier if we show him.” He turned to Garrett. “You think you can walk?”

  Garrett handed the tray off to David and threw back his blanket to find he had a pair of shorts on. A clear tube protruded from his lower leg, connected to a large bag of liquid hanging from what looked like an old wooden coat rack near the head of his bed. He wondered how he hadn’t noticed it before. “What the hell is this doing in my leg?”

  “It’s an IV,” David said. “It’s how we kept you alive for the last ten days. Normally it would go in your arm but, well, they weren’t sure that was such a good idea given the burns.”

  “You sure he’s ready?” Lenny asked.

  Garrett reached down and ripped the tape off his leg then proceeded to yank the IV out, which hurt way more than he thought it would, but he did his best not to let it show. “So, let’s go see whatever this is you need me to see. I have to know what’s going on.”

  “Slow down, buddy!” Lenny said.

  But it was too late. He was already swinging his legs off the side of the bed. “I need to get up. I need to understand, and I need to see James. And why in the hell are we using lanterns? What’s wrong with the lights?”

  Lenny grabbed Garrett’s arm and steadied him as he stood. “No power, man.”

  “Because of the fire on the square?” Garrett asked, swaying as his head swam.

  David moved forward to help. “No, no power anywhere. As far as we know, the whole world could be without power.”

  “Maybe I should throw a little golden glow at you and see if we can get you tip top?” David said.

  “Does it still make you pass out?” Garrett asked.

  “Oh, hell yeah. I have no control over it. The glow comes and it’s lights out. Now, granted, I haven’t been using it much over the last ten days. People have to be hurt, so I just been trying to help Coach, since they don’t seem to care much for him anyway. Oh, and I do any basic healing for the others when there is a need. But these dicks didn’t trust me to try it on you. Afraid I would interfere with the natural order of things. But hell, now that you’re awake we can give it a go?”

  “No, not right now. Let me do this – besides, I don’t want you passed out. I want you with me.”

  David beamed a bright mustached smile as he and Lenny helped Garrett get dressed.

  It was nice to be out of the dobok and in a pair of real pants. The pants weren’t his from before – he supposed everything he ever owned was gone – but the green cargo pants were a perfect fit, loose and comfortable. Lenny handed him a tee shirt and a brown, hooded knit sweater. Moments later he made his way out of the room and into a hall or tunnel. He really didn’t like being underground. He had had enough of tunnels to last him a lifetime, and he longed for the sun.

  After a short walk they reached a doorway where a man stood on guard. Garrett didn’t recognize the older man with a scruffy greying beard. He assumed he was a guard by the rifle slung over his shoulder. The man looked flustered at the sight of Garrett. Garrett didn’t think much of it at first, figuring he was just surprised to see him awake, but then the man did something unexpected, something Garrett found very odd. The man dropped to his knees and bowed, placing his forehead on the ground.

  “Are you okay?” Garrett asked, kneeling down to check on him. The man looked up in surprise, then his eyes settled on Garrett’s hands.
The man quickly ducked away, pressing his head back to the floor. Garrett frowned. He was a second-degree black belt – he had been bowed to plenty, but not like this. No one had ever got down on their knees and put their head on the floor. That was weird.

  They exited the hall and crossed a plain-looking room, filled with several tables and chairs. A cafeteria maybe? Then they made their way into yet another hall. Two turns later they were standing in front of an unassuming, gunmetal-grey double door.

  “You ready for this?” Lenny asked with a wry smile.

  Garrett crinkled his brows. Ready for what, exactly, he wanted to ask, but they were being so secret about it he thought it easier to play along. “I guess so.”

  David pushed open the doors.

  They entered an expansive room lit with lanterns that hung from hooks mounted on the cinder block walls. Row upon row of chairs were lined up, all facing him. Judging from the podium before him, he had entered onto a makeshift stage. The chairs were empty but the room was not. It was full of people. They were grabbing the chairs and stacking them in a corner, clearing the room as if preparing for a dance. Some people Garrett recognized as classmates, neighbors, and other members of the community, but others Garrett didn’t recognize at all. As soon as they noticed his entrance, all motion stopped and the room fell eerily silent. Everyone stared at him. The only motion now was from the opposite side of the room, where people continued to quietly flood in. Within seconds the underground auditorium became packed with people.

  Garrett suddenly felt an uncomfortableness akin to one of those dreams where you find you’re standing alone in the middle of your school gymnasium, the bleachers are packed with the entire school, and everyone is laughing and pointing. You wonder what the hell is so funny, what they are all looking at. Following the pointing fingers, you look down to find you’re naked from the waist down, and the cause of everyone’s laughter is your bait and tackle dangling in full view for the entire world, or at least the entire school, to see. Then suddenly you wake up, flushed. But this wasn’t a dream, and Garrett wasn’t waking up.

  The people before him were looking at him strangely. He couldn’t quite place the meaning in their eyes. It wasn’t fear or pity, not like you look at someone who just found out they were dying of cancer or had been in a horrible accident. There was no laughter either, but just to be safe he looked down and, yes, he still had his pants on. No, these people looked at him as if he were… were what? A ghost? He leaned over and whispered into Lenny’s ear. “Dude, what the f is going on?”

  James pushed forward through the crowd, an uncharacteristically bright smile on his face. “I never doubted you, little brother.”

  “What’s going on, James?” Garrett asked.

  James continued to smile, nodding. “I never doubted you! And I know father never did either.”

  “James? What is this?” Garrett asked quietly. His brother’s smile was strange, full of pride. Then, like the man in the hall, James – the big brother who had banished Garrett from his room, twisted his arm to the point of nearly breaking it on numerous occasions, and squeezed his shoulder muscle until he screamed uncle – took a knee and bowed his head.

  Following his cue, everyone in the crowd dropped to their knees and bowed, pressing their heads to the cold concrete floor.

  Garrett neither liked nor understood what was happening. Had he been named king of the basement while he was sleeping and no one told him?

  Lenny smiled a serious smile and spoke into Garrett’s ear. “This is what you had to see to believe. The Keepers of the Light weren’t just hiding the bloodline of Turek the ancient wizard or the descendant of an old Templar knight. They were protecting something far more important. They were protecting the bloodline of god, Garrett. And not just the bloodline, but the chosen one. The descendant of the bloodline is to fulfill a prophecy so incredible it’s unthinkable.”

  Garrett looked at him blankly, but his mind was reeling inside. The conversation he overheard in the temple with Coach and Apep, and the dream where he asked Turek if he was god. Turek said he created humankind, but there were seven creators and the mother was god. What did that mean?

  In typical David fashion, he put it in layman’s terms. “You’re the descendant of a freaking god, dude! You’re like Hercules or some shit!”

  James lifted his head and shot David a cutting look.

  He was whispering excitedly, but too loudly. “I’m sorry, but c’mon! That’s what we’re saying! That’s what he is, man! There’s no sense sugarcoating it.”

  A god? The god of humans? His mind continued spinning in search of some kind of reason. He supposed all sorts of people believed in all sorts of gods. And, to be honest, they were certainly dealing with some epic weirdness. Space aliens, dragons, and giants, but god… we’re talking creation. Garrett closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. His knees felt suddenly weak, and the wonderful food he had eaten moments earlier threatened to come back up.

  “Garrett?” Lenny reached out and grabbed his arm. “Are you okay?”

  He opened his eyes. “Jesus, can you please make them stand back up? They don’t need to bow like that.” He hated this. It felt… wrong. He had only gotten lucky – sure, very lucky, but still. For crap’s sake, he had almost died a dozen times. He didn’t know what was happening, but he knew one thing: whatever this Turek guy was – Garrett was no god.

  James stood. “Garrett. You are the descendant of the god of humans. They are bowing to you in the kowtow, showing you the respect and love that’s due to a god.”

  Garrett winced and frowned. “Please stop saying that.”

  From the crowd Elaine rose and walked toward them. Her sandy-brown hair was braided into a long plait that lay over her shoulder. Her long white dress trailed behind her as she stepped carefully through the narrow spaces between the kneeling, bowing people.

  Garrett saw his mother and ran to her. They embraced. He squeezed her, hugging her as tight as he could. He never wanted to let go – the embrace felt like the safest place in the world.

  Elaine pushed him back to an arm’s length and looked him in the eyes. “Tell them to rise.”

  Garrett shook his head. “What?”

  She spread her arms over the crowd. “Tell them to rise.”

  Garrett turned to the crowd, hesitantly clearing his throat. “Everyone,” he started, “you can stop doing that now.”

  The crowd of people sat fidgeting, unsure, as they looked from Garrett to James.

  “Command them, Garrett, and they will obey,” James said.

  He didn’t want to command anyone, and he certainly didn’t want people obeying him. “Please, everyone, stand up. Thank you, but you don’t have to do that – ever.”

  Elaine cupped his face in her hands. “You have made me so proud. You have defeated a giant, slain a dragon, and died in an ancient river only to be reborn of dragon blood and fire. You’ve done everything just as foretold.” She grabbed his hands and held them up for everyone to see.

  Garrett looked out over the crowd from the makeshift platform. The surreal moment moved slowly, too slowly… too strangely. The crowd repeated after her in an even chant, “You have been reborn of dragon blood and fire!” They bowed again, placing their heads back down onto the floor.

  “Stop!” Garrett said. He wanted nothing more than to hide underneath something.

  “Garrett? Please be respectful to your followers,” his mother said.

  He pulled a face and looked to Lenny with pleading eyes. “Get me out of here.”

  Lenny nodded. “Where to?”

  “Coach. Where is he?”

  His mother placed a hand on his arm. “Wait, Garrett. Your people—”

  Garrett didn’t wait. He turned and followed Lenny and David toward the back of the stage.

  As they spilled back through the heavy door and into the corridor, James was right on their heels. “Syldan? We have him locked up under around-the-clock guard in another wing.”r />
  Garrett spun on his brother. “Locked up! Why?”

  James drew in a deep breath. “We knew from Turek’s writings that Apep wasn’t from this world, but the fact that he was elvish – well, that was enlightening. Then we learn Apep apparently had an older brother named Syldan. This wasn’t in any of Turek’s writings. He has been here all along, right under our noses, watching us.” James clenched his hand into a fist. “Garrett, we aren’t sure of his intentions or whether he is evil but—”

  “Coach isn’t evil, James!” Garrett interrupted. “I order him released immediately.” As much as he rejected the thought, he was supposed to be some relation to god now, right? So then James had to obey. Jesus Christ, the thought felt blasphemous. Nevertheless, whether he believed it or not, his brother did. “You have to obey me, right?”

  Usually speaking to James this way might get him twisted into a pretzel, but he wasn’t that Garrett anymore and James… James wasn’t that same older brother.

  James stared at him for a long three-count. “I am the last of Turek’s original disciples, Garrett. I am the only one left who lived when he lived. I remember his death like it was yesterday – the day my own flesh burned. I have lost my father, John, and everyone else who lived then – everyone who knew Turek on this earth. They are all dead.” James thrust a finger into Garrett’s chest. “You ask what I have to do? What I have to do is protect the Light, and its Keepers. Even when that means protecting a foolish boy from himself.”

  Garrett felt his ears getting hot. “James, you have—”

  James held up a hand and sighed. “Listen, it isn’t like he can go anywhere. He can’t even walk.”

  “Then why is he imprisoned?’

  “He is locked away for his own protection as much as for ours. He’s Apep’s brother, Garrett, and although you believe he’s on our side, it may be very difficult for others to believe his motives are pure. Until we decide what to do with him, I just want to ensure everyone is safe, including him. Besides, it may not be much of a decision. He seems to be dying. I’m actually surprised he lasted this long.”