Age of Heroes: The Witch Hunter's Gauntlet

by Bret Schulte

  “Isn’t that very convenient for the BEA,” Albion said with acid dripping from every word. “The vault containing the Lantern of the Blue Flame was burglarized by someone with highly detailed information about magical vaults and access to very sophisticated technology. Then someone uses the lantern to resurrect the greatest threat the magical world has faced in over a century-“

  “Second greatest,” Dean Futuro interjected.

  Albion nodded. “Too right. The second greatest, thanks to your science.”

  Dean Futuro smiled back.

  “And do not think it has escaped our notice that Cervantes has only struck magical targets,” Albion said accusatorially.

  “What are you suggesting?” Agent Sampson asked in the sternest tone Sam had heard yet.

  “It just seems odd, doesn’t it?” Albion asked in a fake calm voice. “Last time Cervantes struck multiple targets among both of our communities. However, this time he has focused solely on us. And we all know that, if Cervantes was resurrected by the Lantern of the Blue Flame, he has no choice but to act out the orders of his master. It would seem his master is purposely neglecting to attack the BEA, perhaps because he works for the BEA.”

  Sam wouldn’t have thought it possible for this situation to get more uncomfortable, but apparently she was wrong--very, very wrong. It looked like the war that Agent Sampson and Agent Rosenberg had mentioned was just a few minutes away.

  “An observant person might draw the conclusion that the BEA is purposely undermining the ISG in order to mount an attack on the magical community.”

  “Never,” Agent Sampson said, calmly but firmly.

  “Then provide us with the necessary weapon to defend ourselves,” Albion said. “Or we may have to cancel this useless alliance and retrieve our rightful property.”

  “Bring it on,” Dean Futuro said. The old man drummed the top of his cane with his fingers.

  “Gentlemen, please. We all have the same enemy,” Agent Sampson said. “We should be focusing our efforts on finding ways to track and destroy Cervantes. Without the Witch Hunter’s Gauntlet, we are going to have to work together.”

  “You can’t handle one little vampire?” Zack asked in his oh-so-special condescending way. “Some wizard.”

  Alarms clanged as Albion’s hands flared green.

  “This is insufferable,” Albion growled. “Theft. Desecration. Murder. And all you have to offer is mockery and lies. That war you wanted fifty years ago, Alistair? You just might live to see it after all.”

  Albion tucked his arms back into his robe and stormed out of the office.

  “Escort him off school grounds, gentlemen,” Dean Futuro said to the guards. There was no trace of worry or regret in his voice.

  “You may have single-handedly set human/magi relations back by centuries, Dean Futuro.” Agent Sampson pinched the bridge of his nose and hung his head.

  “Ah, Albion’s all talk. Two-thirds of the Sorcerer’s Council would have to vote to go to war, which they would never be foolish enough to do,” Dean Futuro said happily.

  “You had better hope not,” Agent Sampson said.

  Dean Futuro brushed Agent Sampson’s comments aside. He leaned in to get a better look at Sam and Zack. “As for you two, if either of you knows where the gauntlet is, which I am sure you do, I would advise you to use it as soon as possible.”

  His eyes flicked over their heads for a moment and he frowned. “More unwanted company.”

  Sam turned around at the sound of the office doors creaking open. She noticed for the first time that there was a screen above the door showing an image of the room outside. Principal Shepherd marched into the office, her heels clicking on the marble floor.

  “Dean Futuro, what right do you have to take my students out of class?” She crossed her arms and pursed her lips.

  “None at all,” he answered. “But my guest here…”

  Agent Sampson stood up and presented a badge. “Agent Sampson, BEA.”

  “BEA? What could you possibly need to see these two students about? Why was I not notified of this?”

  “A family matter, ma’am,” Agent Sampson said. “Pertaining to a possible inheritance-“

  She cut him off. “Agent Sampson, is it? I would think that the BEA would be well aware that when dealing with minors any questions you have should be asked with the child’s parents’ or guardians’ knowledge and consent.”

  “Of course, ma’am,” Agent Sampson said sheepishly.

  “Good.” She touched both Sam and Zack on the shoulders. “We shall be going, then.”

  She steered them out of the office.

  “Don’t worry; I will contact your parents immediately about this. Dean Futuro has greatly overstepped his bounds here,” she said as they stepped out of the building.

  Agent Rosenberg and some nervous-looking college boy who Sam assumed to be Zack’s Resident Advisor stood outside next to a pair of the golf-cartlike vehicles the security officers used.

  “Now, I need to go back and have a few words with the Dean. Your Advisors will take you back to your dorms.” She added as an afterthought. “Oh yes, and you have been granted excused absences for the classes you missed.”

  Zack strutted over to his RA’s cart. He winked at Sam as the cart sped away.

  “Come on kid, let’s roll,” Agent Rosenberg said jovially as she started up their cart.

  It was still windy and wet and miserable, so Sam happily climbed into the cart. Agent Rosenberg was surprisingly quiet on the way back to the dorm. Maybe she just didn’t want to risk someone overhearing her in Agent mode instead of Residential Advisor mode.

  Sam’s mind was racing for what seemed the hundredth time in just the last few weeks. Instead of just being accused of stealing something, she was now accused of hiding something that could save lives. Oh, and it could lead to a war if she didn’t hand it over soon.

  She couldn’t shake the nagging fact that Zack knew more than she did, probably a lot more. There was a good chance he even knew where this gauntlet thing was hidden. Sam knew that her mother didn’t get along with her family; but with Sam’s parents dead, there weren’t any Hathaways left to protect the thing. Sam was only nine at the time, and Harold and Helen, though good people, were not equipped to defend something from wizards and vampires and evil scientists. Maybe the gauntlet had gone back to the McQueens for safekeeping.

  It was an intriguing theory. On the one hand, it would let Sam off the hook; but on the other, it would also give Zack one more thing to be cocky about.

  Not to mention the fact that it put all of the McQueens in danger, if true.

  “All right, we’re here. Home sweet home,” Agent Rosenberg said when they reached the dorm entrance. “I need to take the cart back, unless you need to talk.”

  “No, I’m fine.” It seemed unlikely that Agent Rosenberg would suddenly give her any useful information. Sam stepped out of the cart.

  “All right then, here’s my spare card.”

  Sam took the card and waved goodbye to Agent Rosenberg as she putted away on her little cart.

  It wasn’t until she was in the elevator that Sam remembered that her clothes were still in her gym locker. She had one more class that day, but she decided she had earned a mental health break and was going to go to her room, change into something comfortable, hit the vending machine for some chips, and just watch a little TV. She hadn’t actually watched much TV since classes started and figured her shows were feeling neglected.

  Zoey would still be in class for a while so Sam had the room all to herself; the only sign of Zoey’s presence was her messy bed.

  After a quick wardrobe change, the great quarter hunt began. By scrounging through her backpack, her desk, the gap between her night table and the wall, and yesterday’s pants she managed to find a dollar seventy-five. She needed one more quarter to buy her super-nutritious dinner, so she decided to see if Zoey had left any change lying around on her side of the room. Sam could pay her back
later.

  When she walked around Zoey’s bed, she saw it. Outside of the window was a floating metal ball. A metal ball with a bright little red light on it that was targeting her.

  Chapter 10

  Everyone Hates A Good Riddle

  Sam had never seen anything like it. The little round robot was just hovering there outside her window. The tiny helicopter propeller was spinning so fast that she could barely see it above the little baseball-sized spherical body of the robot or whatever it was.

  Sam jumped back and squealed a little when a tiny robot arm unfolded from the sphere and tapped on the windowpane.

  The little red light seemed to be looking right at her. It actually looked like it was pleading with her to let it inside. She wasn’t sure why, but she found herself reaching for the latch. The robot bobbed up and down appreciatively. Or at least that’s what it looked like to Sam.

  She opened the window, and the little robot zipped right past her and landed on her desk between her borrowed laptop and her sphinx snow globe. The propeller stopped and the blades folded up and slid back into the body of the sphere. Sam stood there for several long minutes, staring at the little red light that was staring right back at her.

  She rummaged through her backpack for a pen. Very gently she poked the sphere. It rolled back a little, but otherwise nothing happened.

  But then she saw two odd blue ovals under the slot where the little robot arm was hidden. Next to the top oval were the letters SDH, and next to the lower oval were the letters ASN. She poked the lower oval with her pen again and the ball rolled over.

  If the robot was going to attack, she figured it would have by now so she took an extra-deep breath, held it, and picked up the metal ball. It was smooth to the touch and very cold from being outside in the wind and rain. She turned it over in her hands.

  She had no idea who or what ASN was, but she did know an SDH: Samantha Diane Hathaway.

  The blue oval was roughly the size and shape of a person’s thumb, so she pressed her thumb against the blue plate. The oval lit up and the little red staring light turned green. Something sharp poked her thumb.

  She yelped and sat the ball back down on her desk. But it was no longer just a ball. Four little legs poked out of the bottom of the robot, stabilizing it on her desk. A bright green light shot out of the robot right into Sam’s face, nearly blinding her.

  “Hello, Samantha,” a familiar voice said.

  Instantly her knees buckled and she found herself on the floor. Tears were streaming from her eyes so uncontrollably that she couldn’t see anything but blurry colors, and she so desperately wanted to see right now.

  “I realize this might be quite a surprise for you,” the voice said.

  “No! Wait,” she pleaded as she rubbed her eyes. Her face was completely wet now.

  She dabbed her eyes with the bottom corner of her bedspread. Steeling herself against any new tears, she looked back up at the green flickering image of her father.

  The fully three-dimensional hologram of her father stood completely still. His eyes locked in a gaze over her head. He looked kind of worried and kind of tired.

  Sam was so excited by the fact that her father was standing in her room that it took a while for it to sink in that he was not moving.

  She must have paused him when she said “wait” earlier.

  “Oh, no.” She stood up to address the hologram. “Restart. Unpause. Go. Speak. Play.”

  The flickering image began to move again.

  “I don’t know how old you will be when this message reaches you. I hope you are old enough to understand that we love you more than anything, and if we left you it was because we had no choice. I also hope you are old enough to handle this. Harold, Helen, if you are seeing this before Sam is ready I trust you to make the right decision.”

  He stopped and absentmindedly looked at his watch the way he always did when he was trying to think of the perfect thing to say.

  “Samantha, since you are seeing this message two things must have happened. Your mother and I have passed on and the BEA has issued an Alpha Level Threat warning. The last time that happened was when the vampire prince, Cervantes, uncovered the Witch Hunter’s Gauntlet and set out to destroy the world. Your mother stopped him, and the time may have come for you to do the same sort of thing.

  “You see I am going to link this little whirlybot your grandfather invented up to the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs’ database. Unfortunately honey, due to your family’s history, the BEA will be keeping tabs on you for the rest of your life. This robot is programmed to find you if the Witch Hunter’s Gauntlet is ever needed again.”

  Sam sat down on the end of her bed.

  “The gauntlet is rightfully yours, and it will be your responsibility to find it and find the right person to wear it. For security’s sake, the gauntlet is hidden where only you will be able to find it.”

  He stood up a little straighter, as if preparing to give a big important speech.

  “Take your oldest friend to the place where the four monuments of endless winter meet and a Pendragon’s weapon waits.”

  Sam sat there dumbfounded. She had absolutely no idea what that meant.

  “It’s time,” a mysterious voice said. Her father turned his head to look at the unseen speaker.

  A gigantic dopey smile spread across her father’s face.

  “Well, apparently you are on your way. They just took your mother into the delivery room. I can’t wait to meet you,” he paused for a moment. “Goodbye, honey. Remember, we love you and have faith in you.”

  The hologram vanished. Sam sat in silence, wondering how she could play the message again, when the robot sparked and popped until a puff of smoke wafted out the top. Sam decided it must have been one of those “this message will self-destruct” things.

  “Wow, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re our only hope.” Zoey sat up in her bed.

  Sam leapt to her feet.

  “What are you doing here?” she yelled in surprise.

  “I live here,” Zoey said indignantly. She wiggled her way out of the mound of covers.

  “Yes, you do. Sorry. I thought you were out,” Sam scrambled for words.

  “I don’t have a class this period, so I usually come back and take a nap,” Zoey said apologetically.

  “How much did you hear?”

  “The whole thing,” Zoey said, shrugging her way out of her twisted cocoon of a bedspread. “I was going to tell you I was here, but then the hologram popped up and you started crying and…”

  “Sorry about that.”

  “It’s fine. I understand, really. It is hard to lose your family,” Zoey said. She climbed out of bed.

  “Is your family still out of the country?” Sam asked. She felt a little bad for not asking before. She didn’t even know what country they were visiting.

  “What? Yes. Was that really your dad?”

  “Yup,” Sam said, bracing for the inevitable flood of questions.

  “That was a pretty awesome hologram.” Zoey picked up the sphere. “This is really amazing. Your grandfather built this?”

  That was not one of the questions she was prepared for.

  “Apparently,” Sam said. She didn’t know anything more than what the hologram said.

  “Did he say something about a vampire?”

  “Yeah, yeah he did.” Sam thought it over for a moment. It looked like this crazy stuff wasn’t going to go away anytime soon. Maybe it was time to see if it would cost her a new friend. “Do you believe in unicorns?”

  Zoey gave her a look that clearly showed that she thought Sam was crazy but was too considerate to say so.

  Sam explained everything she knew about the ISG and BEA and Cervantes and all the other crazy stuff. It didn’t take long, since she knew very little, and Zoey just sat there and absorbed it all.

  “So, you’re, like, supposed to save the world or something?” Zoey asked, as if it was a real question and not a joke or a completely insan
e idea.

  “No,” Sam said automatically. It was an absurd idea. That couldn’t be what her father meant. Could it? “Well, maybe.”

  “Hmm, that seems like an important thing to know.” Zoey put the sphere back down. “I mean, if I was suppose to save the world I would like to know.”

  “I am not saving the world,” Sam said, more adamantly this time. It was a ridiculous idea. Will Smith saves the world. James Bond saves the world. Joanne and Samuel Hathaway Jr. save the world. Samantha Hathaway watches TV.

  “Well, you just said that witches and vampires are real and that the witches believe that you have this fancy glove that can defeat the vampires.” It seemed even more ridiculous when Zoey explained it. “And if you don’t find this glove and give it to them they will declare war on us. Is this going to be a fun super-happy war?”

  “No.”

  “Then I think you’re saving the world, Sam,” Zoey said with a nod.

  “Nuts.”

  Zoey sat down next to her and put her hand on her shoulder.

  They sat there for what felt like hours.

  “So, have you figured out your dad’s clue yet?” Zoey asked.

  “Nope.”

  Zoey patted her shoulder again.

  Just as Sam began to wonder just how long she could sit there in silence, someone knocked on the door. Zoey jumped up and rushed to the door. Sam understood; it was an awkward situation, and anything that could break it was welcome.

  Tasha practically leapt on Zoey when the door opened.

  “Did you hear. Did you hear?” Tasha shouted as she jumped up and down in excitement.

  Zoey watched Tasha jump a few more times before responding, “I’m going to go with a ‘no’.”

  “They just put up posters all over campus,” Tasha said. “They’re holding a Halloween Masquerade Ball.”

  Sam and Zoey stared at her in silence.

  “On Halloween,” Tasha added nervously.

  “Figured that, yeah,” Zoey said.

  “Okay, I am sensing that you are not nearly as excited about this as I am,” Tasha said, a little crestfallen.