Jack Templar and the Last Battle

by Jeff Gunhus

  “What are we going to do?” T-Rex whispered.

  But it was Ren Lucre who answered him. The old vampire strode toward us.

  “Now you are going to die,” he said.

  “Grandfather,” I begged. “It doesn’t have to end like this.”

  Surprisingly, Ren Lucre stopped his advance.

  “You said yourself that you did what you did for love. That you became a vampire to save your daughters. My mother also did what she did for love. She sacrificed everything. And so did Aunt Sophie, a devil-wolf who learned to love a human. Master Aquinas fell in love with Gregor, a vampire. The human part of Hester is why she sacrificed herself not once, but twice for something larger than herself.”

  “You think I’m doing this for me?” Ren Lucre sneered. “For my own glory? No, this war is for every Creach that is hunted and oppressed in this human world. The human age is over. Now they will feel what it’s like to be hunted, to be forced to live in shadows.”

  I pointed to the sky. “Even the dragon I rode cared first for her own child. Don’t you see? This is the common thread between all of us. Human and monster. It’s the reason there exists the Law of Quattuordecim. Humans and monsters bound themselves in the Auld Magic to protect their children above all else. We can build on that. We can build understanding between humans and monsters, and stop the killing.”

  Ren Lucre looked uncertain for a moment and I felt a rush of excitement that I might be getting through to him. A quick glance toward the castle told me that the Creach army was getting closer; it was only a few minutes away by the look of it. I could clearly see the individual shapes of goblins, trolls and ogres as they ran toward us, weapons raised.

  I shifted back to Ren Lucre. His face strained with emotion. He reached a hand over each shoulder so that his arms were crossed in front of him. For a second I thought he was holding onto himself for comfort, perhaps even sobbing. The idea even came to me that I could walk over and embrace him.

  But when he slowly brought his hands back in front of him, he held two long daggers which he’d pulled from the sheaths on his back.

  “Sorry, Jack,” he said. “I just like my plan better.”

  He roared as he launched at me, blades slicing through the air.

  I was taken off-guard and stood there flat-footed. T-Rex was next to me and he reacted faster than I could.

  He shoved me aside and blocked Ren Lucre’s attack with his own body. I stumbled and dropped the Jerusalem Stones.

  Behind me, T-Rex’s scream turned my blood cold.

  “No!” Will yelled, jumping in front of T-Rex.

  I turned and saw T-Rex on his knees, clutching his stomach with blood-covered hands. A red stain spread out on his shirt. His eyes bulged with pain.

  Eva and Daniel were holding Ren Lucre off now, but he was beating against them without mercy.

  I searched desperately for the Stones. If I could find them, it might be enough to hold him off. But if I got the fourth and fifth Stone from the others, I knew I could destroy him.

  In my heart, I knew it would destroy me too, but it was worth doing to save my friends.

  My hand closed on the Stones and I immediately felt their power up my arm and into my chest.

  I turned to Ren Lucre and held out my clenched fist to him.

  A shock wave rushed toward him; I could see it cross over the loose snow on the ice.

  It hit him full force and knocked him backward.

  But only a few yards.

  And he was still on his feet.

  He smiled at me, realizing as I did at that moment, that three Stones were not going to defeat him.

  “Eva and Will, give me your Stones,” I shouted.

  “No, it’s too dangerous,” Will said.

  I pointed to Ren Lucre, who now seemed content to wait until the hundreds of Creach approaching across the ice field reached us.

  “It’s the only way,” I shouted.

  Eva reached into her pocket and pulled out her Stone. She was about to throw it to me when she stopped. “But you’re not the One,” she shouted at me. “It’ll kill you.”

  “There’s no such thing as the One,” I said. “There never was. That’s why… that’s why we have to…”

  I stopped talking. The answer was right in front of me. It was the lesson I’d learned over and over again on this journey. It was the lesson I wanted to share with the Creach and humans to create peace.

  We are stronger together.

  Always.

  I wasn’t the One. There was no way I could have gotten to this moment on my own. Each of my friends had fought and struggled and even bled next to me. Ren Lucre thought he’d created the false prophesy of a single hunter who could bring the world back into balance, but that wasn’t the case at all. It was always bigger than one person. It was all of us.

  We were the One.

  Together.

  “Daniel, catch,” I shouted, throwing him one of my Stones as I rushed to T-Rex’s side. I pressed one of the Stones into T-Rex’s hand. “Can you fight, T-Rex? One last time?”

  T-Rex’s eyes narrowed, fighting through the pain. A look of absolute determination showed on his face as he nodded. “I am a hunter.” With a grunt, he pushed himself up from the ground and stood up. “I’ll do my duty, come what may.”

  I turned to Ren Lucre.

  “Last chance,” I shouted. “Surrender and join us. Help us change the world.”

  Ren Lucre looked at me like I was mad. The line of Creach had reached us, hundreds of snarling monsters behind Ren Lucre. He spun around and pointed to them.

  “I don’t even need to fight you,” he said. “One word and they will tear you apart limb from limb.”

  “You’re wrong about that,” I said, shouting so that the Creach could hear me. “I challenged you to a battle for leadership the night we first met. You accepted the challenge.” I pointed to the Creach. “You all know this to be true.”

  There was a roar of Creach noises but I saw many heads nodding. That was good enough for me.

  “That was a trick,” Ren Lucre said. “I let you imagine you got the better of me so that you would find the Jerusalem Stones and bring them here. And it worked.”

  “Maybe it was a trick, but the challenge was real,” I said. “Which means we have unfinished business. You and I––”

  “Enough!” Ren Lucre shouted. “Kill them. Kill them all.”

  We braced for an attack from the Creach, but they didn’t move. Some stomped the ground, obviously wanting to run at us, but something held them back. And I had a good idea what it was.

  “What are you doing?” Ren Lucre screamed. “Kill them.”

  “They abide by the Auld Magic,” I said. “A challenge for leadership cannot be ignored. And if you can’t handle five junior hunters on your own, maybe you shouldn’t be the Lord any longer.”

  “All right,” Ren Lucre said. “I’ll do it myself. I’ll fight you all.”

  I smiled. “That’s exactly what I was hoping you would say.”

  Ren Lucre snarled, running at us with his teeth bared and his knives raised.

  Will and T-Rex were to my left. Eva and Daniel to my right.

  As Ren Lucre ran straight at me, they moved around him so that he was surrounded.

  I clenched the single Jerusalem Stone in my hand with the Templar Ring. I closed my eyes, knowing that if this didn’t work, the next thing I’d feel would be the steel of Ren Lucre’s knife in my chest.

  I didn’t try to think of any result that I wanted from the Jerusalem Stone I held in my hand. I just opened my heart to it. I let it know the love I felt for my friends. Let it know my grief over losing my mother and Aunt Sophie. Let it know the shame I felt for my fears. I just gave myself to it, hoping that the true me would be enough.

  I felt a jolt of energy enter me from my right arm, pass through me, and exit my left side.

  When I opened my eyes, I saw that I wasn’t the only one.

  A beam of pure en
ergy connected the five of us, creating a circle.

  Ren Lucre was right in front of me, frozen in mid-run, arms raised in attack. We’d stopped him only a second away from stabbing me with both of his knives.

  The energy field pulled him away from me, his feet sliding on the ice until he was exactly in the middle between all of us.

  The ice underneath us shook, fissures appearing.

  A perfect circle of ice rose from the lake, carrying Ren Lucre up with it.

  Once it got ten feet in the air, it stopped. And once it stopped, Ren Lucre became unfrozen, but not unchanged.

  His hair turned white and grew down to the middle of his back. Then it yellowed and fell out. His face turned wrinkled and spotted with age as his body curled in on itself, bent over in pain. We watched in horror as he aged a thousand years in only a matter of seconds.

  He reached out a withered hand toward me, a single clawed finger pointing. “Y… you are now… Lord of the Creach… see… see if you don’t… learn to hate… hate… humans the way I do…”

  “I’ll never be like you,” I said.

  Ren Lucre grimaced, a final bolt of pain surging through him.

  “We… shall… see…”

  Then his body collapsed into a puff of dust.

  And Ren Lucre was no more.

  With a gasp, I let go of my Jerusalem Stone and fell to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably. There are some weights you only notice once they are lifted, and the feeling I had knowing it was all over was so intense I thought it would tear me in two.

  “Jack!” Will shouted.

  I looked up, wiping my eyes, trying to pull myself together. Will was waving me over.

  “Come here. You have to see this!” he said.

  I dragged myself to my feet and staggered over to where Will was on the ground next to T-Rex. My friends’ hands were still covered with blood, but he no longer held onto his stab wound.

  “Show him,” Will said.

  T-Rex lifted his shirt and rubbed his hand over his stomach. “It’s gone,” he said “All gone.”

  Will and I hugged him and the tears started flowing again.

  “We have news too,” Eva said.

  We looked up and saw Eva and Daniel standing over us. She opened her mouth and bared her teeth. They were gloriously unpointed.

  “You’re human again,” I said.

  Eva nodded. “The Stones did it, just like you said.”

  “Me too,” Daniel said. “I’ll kind of miss the wolf part of me, but it feels good to be back. Especially this.” He turned in a side profile and pointed to his nose which was once again whole.

  Will, T-Rex and I stood up and hugged them. We’d made it through. Somehow, against odds so impossible we’d never stopped to calculate them, we’d won the day.

  “Uh… guys,” T-Rex said. “What about all of them?”

  We turned to the hundreds of Creach watching us. I remembered Ren Lucre’s last words. You are the Lord of the Creach now. Besting him in the fight had given me that right.

  I walked to the line of Creach, pulled my sword and threw in down to the ground in front of them.

  “There will be no war today or any day.” I said. “Soon, a call will go out for some of you to send your youngsters to a new Academy, one designed to teach us how to live together and draw strength from each other.” A murmur passed through the assembled Creach. I waited for it to die down before I continued. “It will not be easy. There is hate on both sides that we have to mend. And there will be problems along the way. But if we work together, we can accomplish the hardest victory of all. We can win the battle for peace.” I paused to let the idea set in. “Now, go back to your homes. To your families. To your children. This battle is over. And I will need all of you to help me fight the next one.”

  Slowly, the Creach turned and did as I asked, walking away from us.

  T-Rex, Will, Eva and Daniel took up position on either side of me.

  “A new Academy?” Will said.

  I shrugged. “I had to say something.”

  “It’s not a bad idea,” Daniel said. “I’d be happy to be an instructor for you.”

  “Me too,” Eva said.

  “You’re on,” I said. “Now, let’s get back to the castle. We need to get Aquinas, Xavier, Bocho and the others out of there.”

  We started the long walk back. Even though we had the width of the entire lake, we walked right next to one another, so close that we were touching.

  Will put an arm over my shoulder. “Now that you’re Lord of the Creach, do we have to call you Your Majesty?”

  T-Rex laughed. “Maybe Your Creachiness?”

  “I was thinking Lord Templar,” I said, seriously.

  No one said anything for a few seconds, and then we all burst out laughing at the same time. The laughter went on and on until it wasn’t about what I’d said, but just pure joy that we were all still alive.

  Slowly, the laughter faded, bubbling up a little here and there, until it finally stopped completely. We walked in silence the rest of the way, each of us lost in our own thoughts.

  We had won this battle, but there was an even more difficult fight ahead of us to secure a lasting peace. The weight of that reality became heavier as we approached the castle walls.

  But whatever challenges were ahead, we would face them the only way we knew how.

  Together as a team. Together as friends.

  Together as one.

  Epilogue

  The repairs on the castle were well underway by the time of the spring thaw. With the help of the Jerusalem Stones, it was amazing how quickly we were able to rebuild. After seeing them used this way, Will, T-Rex and I had a theory that maybe the history of the Stones went back much further than the Templars, perhaps back to the Egyptians and the building of the pyramids. We would never know for sure, but it was fun to guess.

  “They’re here,” Master Aquinas said, coming into my tent I’d had put up in the main courtyard. “The first combined class of Creach and human children have arrived.”

  I crossed to my chair, picked up my coat and pulled it on.

  “I still think you should do the welcome speech,” I said.

  Master Aquinas shook her head. “This is your vision, Jack. It must be you.”

  I nodded. “Any new reports of the Colonel?” I asked.

  “Oh, he’s out causing trouble somewhere,” she said. “Not everyone will want peace. On either side. But if you win most of them over…”

  “…especially the young ones…” I added.

  “…then a true lasting peace might take hold.”

  I buttoned my jacket and turned to her. “How do I look?”

  “Like a leader,” she said smiling. “But the jacket has nothing to do with it. It’s all in your eyes. And that’s been there since they day I first met you.”

  I squeezed her forearm gently and was about to leave the room when she called out. “Jack, I never apologized. Not really. I should have told you about your mother. That she sacrificed herself for you.”

  “And my father,” I added. “She sacrificed him too.”

  “And I ought to have told you that the prophecy of the One wasn’t real.”

  “It was real,” I said. “Just not how Ren Lucre envisioned it.”

  She nodded. “Regardless, I lied to you. I’m sorry.”

  I crossed the room back to her. “You were trying to protect me. And now we’re building a new world based on that desire to care for the ones we love.” I hugged her. “I need your wisdom now more than ever.”

  “And you shall have it,” Master Aquinas said with a twinkle in her eye. “Whether you want it or not.”

  I laughed and walked outside.

  “Nice to see you’re in a good mood today,” my dad said as he walked up to me.

  He looked far better now than that day I finally rescued him from that round iron cage in the tower. A few months of Bocho’s good food and seeing the sun again had put some meat back on
his bones. Every time I saw him I still flashed to the moment when we finally reconnected. In my mind, I had to distinguish between the emotions of when I’d thought I’d reunited with him when Ren Lucre had been disguised as him, versus the true reunion. The second time, once I’d unlocked the cage, my dad had just collapsed in my arms and we simply held each other, sobbing together.

  Since then, we’d come to build the relationship we’d never been allowed to have. I was happy to discover his years in Ren Lucre’s dungeon had not poisoned him with hate. He immediately supported my ideas to reunite Creach and humans and offered to help any way he could.

  “Are you ready with your welcome remarks?” he asked.

  “It’s just a little speech,” I said, feeling the tickle of butterflies in my stomach.

  “Right,” he said. “Just making history. Don’t sweat it. Don’t think about how whatever you say is going into the history books that will be studied for generations to come.”

  “Gee, thanks,” I said.

  He clapped my back. “You’ll be fine. Just speak from the heart.”

  “I wish mom was here,” I said.

  My dad looked up at the sky, blinking back a sudden tear. “I believe she is, my boy. I believe she is.”

  I walked out to the platform build especially for the occasion. My head instructors were already there waiting for me. Daniel, Eva, Will, T-Rex, Xavier and Ariel were lined up wearing their dress uniforms. Even Hester was there, no sign of her time spent as zombie. It was incredible what the Jerusalem Stones could do.

  I walked out to the platform built especially for the occasion. My head instructors were already there waiting for me. Daniel, Eva, Will, T-Rex, Xavier, and Ariel were lined up wearing their dress uniforms. Even Hester was there, no sign of her time spent as zombie. It was incredible what the Jerusalem Stones could do when all together. That kind of power was useful, but it was dangerous too. That was why I’d given one to each of my closest friends to hide as they saw fit. If we needed the Jerusalem Stones again, I knew Daniel, Eva, Will and T-Rex would have kept the Stones safe and that they’d all be ready to fight.

  Bocho was waiting for me at the base of the stairs.