by Jeff Gunhus
“My mother knew it could be different. Even after a thousand years as a vampire, she saw the possibility. She saw that love could––”
“Don’t speak to me about love, boy,” Ren Lucre roared. “I saved your mother from death and she gave it away. And for what? What did her sacrifice get her?”
A voice came from behind me. “Peace, Father. It brought me peace.”
Ren Lucre looked past me, his lips mouthing silent words. His hands trembled until his sword fell to the floor.
My father fell to his knees inside his cage, gripping the bars with his bare hands.
I turned.
My mother stood in front of the door, the curtain pulled back so that a streak of white light from outside flooded around her. Even so, she glowed with a blue energy as she took a few steps toward us and stopped.
“Peace, Father,” she said again. “The kind that only love can give you.”
“I chose to be a vampire out of love,” Ren Lucre said, his voice quavering. “I chose it so I could save you and your sister from ever dying.”
“That wasn’t love,” she said. “That was fear. And fear lives alongside so many other kinds of pain. Anger. Hate. Jealousy. All of it.”
“That’s how the humans feel toward the Creach,” he said, his voice regaining its strength. “You’ve seen it. You’ve seen the way they hunt down even those who try to fit into their world. They’ll never stop.”
I stepped forward. “But a war will guarantee hate never ends. Fighting hate with violence leads to more hate and more violence. It will never end.”
“You can find peace, Father,” she said. “You and Jack, together. As it was meant to be. As it was foretold.”
Ren Lucre’s expression grew puzzled and he seemed to suddenly understand something. He shook his head. “That’s why you did it,” he said. “You knew using the Jerusalem Stones would destroy you. You knew the cost was that your husband would be captured and his friends killed. And yet you still did it. All because you thought this boy could set things right. That he might be the One.”
I glanced to my dad, looking for some kind of reaction to the revelation that his capture had been because of my mom’s actions. Because she’d sacrificed herself for me. He only stared at her, lost as if in a vision, tears streaming down his cheeks.
Ren Lucre laughed. Softly at first, then more deeply and fully until the sound filled the hall. It was a haunting sound, filled with a mix of sadness and scorn.
“My poor daughter, you gave up everything for a lie,” he said. “The prophecy of the One that could set things in balance is just a fool’s tale.”
“That’s not true,” she said, the blue light around her fading in and out as if she were losing energy.
“It is true,” he said. “I know because I’m the one who made it up.”
A pit opened in my stomach and bile rose to the back of my mouth. All this time I’d told myself that I didn’t believe in the prophecy of the One, but I’d actually been holding onto it as my only hope.
“W…why would you do that?” my mom said, her body fading with each energy pulse.
“To have the Black Guard send me their best every generation,” Ren Lucre said. “The hunters picked someone as the One, filling their heads with delusions of grandeur, and then sent them to me like lambs to the slaughterhouse.” Ren Lucre pointed at my father, at the Colonel and then at me. “And it works every time.”
My mom looked back and forth between me and my dad. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I’m so sorry.”
My dad cried out from behind his gag and beat against the bars of his cage.
“Spare him, Father,” she said, barely visible. “Spare my son.”
She winked out of existence and the hall was replaced with a deathly stillness. It was so quiet that everyone there clearly heard Ren Lucre whisper, “Sorry, but I just can’t do that.”
I’d had enough.
I yelled out, lunging at him with my sword swinging.
He grabbed his sword from the floor and raised it just in time to meet mine. Another shower of sparks covered us both when they connected.
I swung again and again, all anger and fury, grunting from the effort, doing anything to connect.
But he blocked me easily.
“C’mon, Jack,” he sneered. “You’ll have to do better than that.”
I swung harder, wilder blows as if I might be able to just cut through his sword to get to him.
Finally, exhausted, I took a step back.
“Try it more like this,” he said, lunging at me.
A second later I was stumbling backward, fending off blow after blow. He was so fast I always felt like I was a half a move behind. There was no way to counter-attack, only desperately block his thrusts and slices. With every blow I felt my grip on my sword weaken.
Finally, with a great cry, Ren Lucre smashed my blade just above my hands. My sword went flying through the air and clattered across the stone floor.
The world seemed to stop. There was a moment of perfect clarity when I registered the fact that it was all over. I stood weaponless in front of Ren Lucre. He had won. Everyone who had put their trust in me to stop him had been wrong. All the people who had died just to get me to this moment had sacrificed themselves for nothing. He knew the Jerusalem Stones were somewhere in the castle, he’d said so himself. How long would it take for him to find them? An hour? A day?
Not only had I failed, but I’d been played for a fool.
Ren Lucre had told the truth. I saw that now. It’d been his plan all along to get me to bring him the Jerusalem Stones, and that’s just what I’d done. I’d brought him the ultimate weapon.
He’d planted the idea of a hunter being the One and I’d let myself believe it. My ego had carried me away and I’d put everyone at risk because of it.
And now Ren Lucre was going to launch his war against humanity and he would win.
All because of me.
Ren Lucre must have seen the acceptance of my fate in my eyes, because he raised his sword over his head and prepared for the finishing blow.
“Goodbye, Jack,” he said. “Thanks for everything.”
With a cry, he swung down at me.
At the same second, there was a blur of motion from the side, smashing into Ren Lucre and sending him flying.
Eva.
“Looked like you could use some help,” she said.
I stared at her dumbly, not sure what to say.
“Did he fry your brain or something?” she said.
“No… it’s just… I just…” I was having a hard time thinking straight. I shook my head to clear my thoughts. “I’m just glad to see you.”
Will, T-Rex and Daniel ran up to us. T-Rex tossed me my sword.
“Did we miss it?” Will said. “Did we miss fighting Ren Lucre?”
Daniel nodded behind us.
Ren Lucre slowly stood up from where he’d been knocked to the ground, his sword clutched in his fist. His face was a mask of fury.
“Don’t worry,” Daniel said. “Something tells me we’re just in time.”
35
“Get ready!” I yelled.
Ren Lucre attacked us with the power and fury of a dozen men. A second sword appeared in his free hand and he cut through the air in a dizzying whirlwind of blows.
All five of us were engaged immediately, focusing all our attention on fending him off.
We circled him the best we could, but he was impossible to pin down. Whenever we almost had him surrounded so we could launch an attack, he caused one of the big metal cages to roll at us, crashing through our position and scattering us.
“How’s he doing that?” Eva asked.
“He has the fifth Jerusalem Stone,” I said.
“We have the other ones,” T-Rex said.
Ren Lucre stopped for a second and we all froze.
“Was I supposed to keep that a secret?” he said.
Ren Lucre grinned and renewed his attack with e
ven greater fury, sending cage after cage hurtling at us.
I spotted Ariel and Xavier lingering outside the fight. I couldn’t figure out what she was doing but I knew we could use all the help we could get.
“Ariel,” I said. “Help us.”
Right after the next cage rolled between her and Ren Lucre, she sprinted behind it and body slammed into him.
But he was in a fighting stance, so she just bounced right off him. She fell to the ground and one of Ren Lucre’s swords pierced through her leg.
She screamed in pain.
I was the closest to her. I grabbed her arm and dragged her backward while Daniel covered us.
Her face was twisted in pain as she clutched her leg.
“What did you do that for?” I asked. “We needed you in the fight.”
Ariel grimaced. “We all have our strengths,” she said. “Stealing things is mine.”
She opened her fist to reveal Ren Lucre’s Jerusalem Stone.
“You picked the Lord of the Creach’s pocket in the middle of a swordfight?” I said with new admiration. “That might make you the best thief in the world.”
Ariel smiled, pleased with the compliment. She put the Stone into my hand. “Would have been more impressive if I hadn’t gotten stabbed in the process, but yeah, it was pretty good.”
I pulled my belt from around my waist to wrap around her leg. Xavier slid to the ground next to us and grabbed it from me. “I’ve got this. Go. Each of the others has one of the Stones. Use them and end this.”
I nodded and stood with the Stone in my hand. I felt its energy flow through me, nothing like what I’d felt when holding all four of them, but it was still power.
Just as I felt the power, Ren Lucre realized his was gone.
He held out his hand to send another set of cages toward us, but nothing moved. Quickly, he felt for the pocket where the Stone had been, and then snarled toward Ariel as he realized what had happened.
Then he did an unexpected thing.
He ran away.
At a full sprint, he went toward the curtained opening that led to the balcony.
“He’s getting away,” Will cried.
We chased after him, through the curtains and onto the balcony.
After the dark interior of the tower, the light outside was blinding. I still had my hands to my eyes when a shadow passed over us.
“Dragon!” Will said.
I looked up to see Ren Lucre climb on the back of a red dragon as easily as if he were riding a horse. He guided it with a touch on its shoulder. It beat its wings and pushed off with its claws, ripping off a section of the balcony railing.
“Hand me your Stones,” I said to the others. “Quickly.”
T-Rex and Daniel handed me theirs, but Will and Eva did not.
“Come on,” I said.
“Not after what happened last time,” Will said. “It’s too much. It’ll take you over.”
“He’s right,” Eva said. “Try to use three. They might be enough.”
There was no time to argue. I focused my energy on the Jerusalem Stones and they came to life in my hand. I felt the Templar Ring, the one I found in the Cave of Trials, also get hot on my finger. I closed my eyes and imagined what I wanted to happen.
“Another dragon!” Daniel warned. “Coming right at us.”
I winced as a bolt of pain went through my head, one second there and then gone. Next, with my eyes still closed, I could see us standing on the balcony, only I saw it from far above.
It was disorienting at first, but then I realized that I was seeing through the dragon’s eyes. For that moment, I was the dragon.
“Should be go back inside?” T-Rex yelled.
“Don’t worry,” I said, my voice reaching my ears as though I was underwater. “That dragon’s our ride.”
I controlled the dragon’s decent, less taking over its mind than just sharing space with it. I sensed that it was willing to accept the arrangement so I didn’t force it or command it. Instead, I just suggested what it should do and asked that it do so. The dragon relaxed as it made a wide circle around the tower and then landed on the end of the balcony.
“Climb on,” I said, leading the way.
Once were all on, the dragon craned its head back to look at us. I knew that it could kill us all with one puff of fire, but being in its mind I knew that it would not. It pushed off with a flap of its wings. The weight was so much that the balcony crumbled behind us, leaving a gaping hole in the tower.
I was still half in the dragon’s head and half in my own, searching everywhere for Ren Lucre.
I felt the presence of the other beast before I saw it swoop down from above, coming right out of the sun.
Ren Lucre had flown high and waited to attack. I saw the tell-tale sparks in his dragon’s open mouth signaling that it was about to douse us with fire.
I allowed my dragon to cut to the right and barrel-roll with its wings wrapped tight around us as Ren Lucre’s dragon blew a torrent of flames.
The heat was incredible, but the wings protected us.
Once the fire stopped, my dragon extended its wings and broke our tumbling fall from the sky. It had to push off from the rocky slope beneath us to get back into the air. It chased after the other dragon and quickly caught up with it, dodging left and right in aerial maneuvers.
With our minds still together, I guided my dragon to shoot flames at Ren Lucre.
A communication came back at me as a combination of language and images. Dragon language. It was basic and primal but I understood it perfectly.
The dragon Ren Lucre was riding was my dragon’s daughter. She’d only attacked us because Ren Lucre had forced her. My dragon begged me not to make her hurt her own child. With the Stones I knew I could force her to attack, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
A rush of gratitude from my dragon filled me. I gave her full control over her mind and body, asking for only one thing.
Put Ren Lucre on the ground.
With a primal scream, my dragon beat her wings and pulled right behind and slightly higher that her daughter. I pulled my sword and grabbed one of the heavy spikes sticking out of my dragon’s neck for balance.
“What are you doing?” Will yelled behind me.
Carefully, I stood up, immediately losing my balance and nearly falling. Holding onto the spike I was back in control, although I was crouched like someone riding a surfboard for the first time. In fact, that was kind of what it felt like. Only if I fell off my ride, I would tumble several hundred feet to the frozen lake below.
“Sit down, Jack!” Eva yelled.
But my dragon had sent me an image. A plan of how to get Ren Lucre off. It was a terrible plan that was probably going to get me killed. The only problem was that I couldn’t think of anything better.
My dragon pulled closer, forcing the other dragon lower and lower to the ground.
Ren Lucre turned around and saw me crouched on the dragon’s back. He must have guessed what I intended to do because he steered his dragon up so that they crashed into one another.
I lost my footing and, considering the plan was to jump anyway, decided to just go for it.
I sprang off the back of my dragon, yelling as I flew through the air.
The collision was more painful than I’d imagined. I smashed into Ren Lucre’s side, blocking his sword as I did.
A second later, we were weightless, wind whipping past us as we fell to the ice-covered lake.
36
Ren Lucre clutched me as we spun downward, his fingers digging into my skin.
“This how you want to die?” he said.
“No, I’m hoping it’s just you.”
I pushed off of him with all my strength and we separated. The second we did, I closed my eyes and clenched my fist tight on the Jerusalem Stones. I imagined a protective bubble around me and repeated the same words over and over in my head.
Soft landing.
Soft landing.
; Soft…UGH
I hit the ice hard, but not as hard as I should have considering the distance I’d fallen. It felt more like jumping from the second story of a building. My legs absorbed the shock and I rolled forward, popping to my feet at the end of it.
I have to admit, I felt like a rock star.
Especially when I saw the hole in the ice not too far away. The impact crater from where Ren Lucre had hit.
I waved up at the others and the dragon swirled down to the ice for a landing, the surface creaking under the strain of the extra weight. The others slid off the dragon, patting and thanking her.
Once they were off, the dragon gave me a short nod of her head and I returned the gesture. Then she beat her wings and lifted into the air where she was joined by her daughter. The smaller dragon nuzzled her mother and together they flew off over the fjord. As I followed their path, I noticed the dark line stretched across the ice field between us and the castle.
The Creach army was advancing toward us.
“Is Ren Lucre dead?” T-Rex asked, staring at the hole in the ice.
“No such luck,” Will said. “Look.”
We all saw it at the same time. A hand reached out from inside the hole and grabbed onto the ice. Ren Lucre dragged himself out and slowly stood up, grunting from the exertion.
“Ewww, gross,” said T-Rex.
He was right about that. Most of the bones in Ren Lucre’s body were broken, sticking out in odd directions. Both of his arms hung loose from the shoulder and one of his legs was fully twisted to face the wrong direction. Even his head lay cocked to one side, the side of his face flat against his shoulder.
“You’re a mess,” Will called.
With a violent snap of bones, Ren Lucre wrenched his head back into an upright position.
“Here we go,” Eva said.
Ren Lucre’s arms and legs slowly regained their shape, bones cracking back into place, joints twisting until they once again bent in the right direction.
Once the bones were back into place, Ren Lucre stretched like a cat rising from a long sleep. This caused a few more loud pops as his spine snapped into line.