by Jeff Gunhus
“So how can we use the fact that he’s still searching for me to our advantage?” I asked.
“If you remove the medallion, you remove the cloak. Every monster within a mile will know where you are. More powerful members of the Creach will sense it from even farther. The Five Creach Lords will know where you are no matter where they are in the world. Including the one Lord over them all.”
“Ren Lucre,” I said. “But that’s only if I really am a Templar.”
“Whether you are or not, you obviously come from a hunter bloodline,” Eva said. They are searching for you so they should be able to pick you up regardless. The hope is that you’ll be able to see where he’s at as well.”
“You said this was dangerous,” I said. “Do you mean because the monsters near-by would be able to find us?”
“No, we can handle them. The risk is that Ren Lucre is pushing so hard against the power of the medallion to find you, that when you remove it, his power basically explodes your head.”
“Cool,” said Will.
I slowly turned and looked at him like he was crazy. “No, not cool. Not cool at all.”
“You’re right, sorry,” Will said. “It was just the way she said it.”
I shook my head and fingered the medallion. “And what do you think the chances are that my head will…you know…explode?”
Eva shrugged. “I have no idea. If you were a normal hunter who broke the seal the day before his fourteenth birthday, with no training, and no background? I’d say a 100%. Maybe not explode, but that at least your memory would be completely erased and you’d turn into a drooling vegetable.”
“And since he’s ‘born to be a monster hunter’?” Will asked.
Eva looked me over. “I say there’s a fifty-fifty chance. But I don’t think there’s any other way.”
“Great,” I said. “Just great.”
Eva looked at me. “Clock’s ticking. What are you going to do?”
I fingered the medallion, trying to come up with any other way to find Cindy. But I couldn’t think of anything.
Chapter Ten
Slowly, I lifted the medallion up, first to my chin, then my nose. I closed my eyes and every muscle in my body flexed in the anticipation of the incredible pain that I imagined would accompany my brain being turned to mush.
With a deep breath, I lifted the medallion completely off my head.
Nothing.
I opened my eyes and looked at Will and Eva.
“I guess it didn’t—”
A searing pain exploded in my skull. I dropped to the ground, grabbing the sides of
my head. There’s no other way to describe it, except to say my brain felt like it was on fire. A wave of sound washed over me like a windstorm. A million voices all shouting at once. My vision blurred from the intensity of it.
The world around me turned dark and Eva and Will looked like shadows, even though they were right in front of me. I could just make out that they were mouthing words, but it was muffled and I couldn’t understand what they were trying to say. I held my head with both of my hands and squeezed as hard as I could, trying to ease the pain.
Oh no, I thought. Eva was right. My head is going to explode.
Slowly, I was able to take some control over the sounds. I blocked some out, shifted others to the background. The pain eased up a little. Then from among the chorus, five voices slowly rose and became more intense. I turned toward them and searched them out.
The five voices rushed toward me like storm clouds rolling in from the horizon. As they approached, the other voices became quiet. The voices melded together into a chant, deep and rhythmic. They took on form and shape, black shadows dancing in the sky above me as they chanted in unison. Long dark strands from each shape reached down like the fingers of a tornado and coiled around me, holding me, comforting me.
Then the shadows twisted tightly around me like they were ropes. The five shadows pulled as hard as they could, crushing my body. The chant continued. Louder and louder.
I screamed.
Suddenly, with a high-pitched cry, the shadows released their grip, pulled back up into the air, and disappeared.
Silence. The only sound was the wind in the trees and my own jagged breath as I lay there on the forest floor, panting from the exertion. Eva pulled me up and propped me against on her lap. “Easy, breathe,” she said. “Breathe now.”
I grasped my chest and found that the medallion was back in place.
“How did—”
“I couldn’t take it,” Will sputtered. “You screamed like you were dying. It was horrible.”
“I shouldn’t have suggested it,” Eva said softly. “It was a stupid idea.”
“No, it was working,” I said. I told them about what I had seen.
When I was done, Eva looked at me strangely. “They must have been the five Creach Lords,” she said. “But that’s impossible. They must be thousands of miles away. I’ve never heard of them being able to physically touch something from that distance.”
“What were they saying?” Will asked.
“I couldn’t make it out.” I shuddered at the thought of it. “I felt like they were pulling me toward them. Like I was being pulled out of my body.”
“Sounds like that’s exactly what they were doing. Lucky we put the medallion back on you in time,” Eva said.
“Did you see Ren Lucre?” Will asked. “Do you know where he has Cindy?”
I shook my head. Eva stood and walked away. “I guess we will have to figure out some other way.”
But nothing had changed. There was still no other way to find them.
I grabbed the medallion and lifted it off my head again.
The sound roared at me, but this time, I was ready for it. I opened my mind to the sea of voices, probing, searching. It felt like I was airborne, flying through it.
I heard the chanting from the five shadows, but I turned from them and they faded into the roar.
Then I saw a pillar of black fire, churning like it was a fiery tornado. I can’t explain why, but I immediately knew that it was him. Ren Lucre.
I dove into the black tower of fire, and suddenly, I saw a clearing in the woods that I knew. Over by the river. Right next to Swallow Falls. There were hundreds of Creach. At the center, Cindy sat on a rock with her knees up to her chest, sobbing.
My point of view moved toward Cindy, but then switched to the right at the last moment. Suddenly, I was looking at a still pool of water, the half-moon shining off the surface. Slowly, the face of Ren Lucre slid into view, reflected in the water.
That’s when I realized that I was looking through Ren Lucre’s eyes.
“I know you’re there, Jack,” Ren Lucre’s voice whispered. “I’m waiting for you.”
I felt myself flying backward, away from the clearing, out of the black tornado, through the roar of voices and back to where Eva and Will stood.
I opened my eyes, breathing hard.
“Are you OK?” Eva whispered.
I looked down and saw that I still had the medallion in my hand. I slowly put it on and looked at Eva.
“How did you do that?” Eva asked.
I picked up my sword from the ground. “I know where they’re at,” I said. “Let’s go.”
Will followed first, falling into step right next to me. “This is crazy; you know that, right?”
“The real crazy thing is that I think you’re having fun,” I said, smiling.
“Yeah,” Will said. “I guess I am.”
Eva caught up to us. “You know the old saying: it’s all fun and games until someone gets eaten by a mug-wump.”
After a few beats, Will and I erupted into much-needed laughter. Eva looked shocked at our reaction, the expression obviously common to her. But eventually she cracked a smile and then finally laughed along with us. It felt good to laugh as a group, especially since we were about to enter a fight against insurmountable odds, which none of us was likely to survive.
&n
bsp; Twenty minutes later, that laughter felt a million miles away as we slid into position behind a huge oak tree at the edge of the clearing that I had seen.
Only now it looked different. Most of it was the same: the clearing, the churning rapids, the roar of Swallow Falls downriver . I could see Cindy sitting in the same place, hugging her knees to her chest, rocking as she cried. While the moon would have been enough light to see by, the Creach had lit dozens of torches along the edge of the river. With so much light, the forest glowed like it was day. This made what was in front of us even harder to believe.
All the Creach were gone.
Only Cindy remained, looking small and frightened.
I peered into the edge of the forest outside of the reach of the flaming torches. Even there, I couldn’t see any movement.
“What happened?” I whispered to Eva. “Is it possible something chased them off?”
Eva shook her head. “It’s a trap. It has to be.”
“What are you talking about?” Will said. “There’s no-one here .”
“I think Eva’s right,” I said. “We need to stick to the trees and move around the outside. See if we can find them first.”
Eva nodded her agreement but Will huffed in frustration. We moved to the right. I should have paid more attention, but it never occurred to me that Will would decide to do his own thing.
Eva and I climbed silently from one tree to the next, careful to scout the area below the tree first to check for Creach monsters hiding in the shadows. We were three trees over before I heard Eva hiss under her breath. I glanced over at her and she pointed to the clearing.
Will was already at the rock, trying to untie Cindy’s ropes.
“Will, no,” I said. But it was too late.
From every direction around the clearing, and rising up from the water right next to Cindy, Creach monsters closed in on Will. He held up the short sword that Hester had given him, but a harpy flew at him and easily snatched it out of his hands.
The Creach howled and screeched, many pawing the ground.
Then they fell silent. Ren Lucre strode out of the woods, flanked on either side by his personal guard of minotaurs . The Creach parted to allow a path to the new prisoner. When Cindy looked up and saw Ren Lucre, she looked terrified.
I knew how she felt. Seeing Ren Lucre brought back the same paralyzing fear I had felt before. My mouth was dry and my body shook at the sight of him.
I glanced over to Eva and saw that she was also frozen in place. She stared at Ren Lucre, her lower lip quivering. At first I thought it was fear, and that for all the talk of wanting to face Ren Lucre, she felt the same way I did. But when she turned to me, even though she had tears in her eyes, I had no doubt that what she was feeling was not the fear that gripped me. It was rage. Pure and simple rage. Whatever she felt toward Ren Lucre, it was personal and it was intense. I wondered what had happened to her to cause such pain.
Down below, Ren Lucre reached Will. An ogre had forced Will to his knees and kept his head down to the ground so that he bowed to Ren Lucre as he approached.
“So, you are the last Templar?” Ren Lucre said. “I’ve waited a long time for this moment. And not a Jerusalem Stone in sight.”
“He thinks it’s me,” I whispered. “What’s a Jerusalem Stone?” Eva ignored me and continued to stare at the scene playing out by the river.
Will shook off the ogre holding him and stood, moving in front of Cindy, his shoulders squared. Although I was scared to death for him, I felt a surge of pride at his bravery.
Ren Lucre looked at Will in confusion. “You’re not the Templar boy. How can this be?”
“Not what you expected?” Will said. “I feel the same way about you. I kinda thought you’d be taller. Maybe not so scrawny.”
The Creach grunted and squawked at this insolence. A goblin laughed hysterically, only to have a minotaur draw its sword and lop off its head. The Creach fell silent.
Ren Lucre shook his head and spun around to look at the trees.
“He knows we’re here,” whispered Eva.
“Templar!” Ren Lucre shouted. “Where are you?” Ren Lucre grabbed the sword from his minotaur bodyguard and grabbed Will, holding the sword to his throat. “Is this what your bloodline has become? That you send a boy to die for you while you hide? Can it be that you are such a coward?”
I wish I could tell you that this was when I turned brave and heroic. That I jumped out of the tree and charged into the Creach horde with my sword raised over my head, yelling a battle cry at the top of my lungs.
But that’s not what happened. In reality, I froze. I was so scared that I couldn’t move. I watched Ren Lucre hold the sword to Will’s throat; my entire body shook and I felt like I might throw up. I felt completely helpless. Worse, I felt that maybe he was right. Maybe I was a coward.
Ren Lucre spun in a circle, looking at the tree line. “He is of age!” Ren Lucre shouted. “I can feel his life force in my hands.” He grabbed Cindy and held both of them. “Come to me, Templar, or I will slit his throat and then feast on the girl.”
“We can’t just stay here,” Eva hissed. “We have to help them.”
I looked at her, the fear overwhelming now. I shook my head and looked down, embarrassed.
“Great,” Eva said, the disappointment clear in her voice. “That’s just great. OK, you can stay here. I’m going to—”
The tree all around us exploded in furious movement. Giant spiders with hairy legs and foot-long pinchers attacked us from every direction. Eva sliced one open with her sword and yellow goo poured out.
But the attack was too fast. The spiders wrapped both of us up in thick, sticky webs, and in less than a minute, we were both immobilized in cocoons with only our faces showing.
“There you are. I’ve been looking for you,” Mrs. Fitcher said from far below us. I looked down and saw her climbing up the tree, the hooks on her wings grabbing hold as she climbed, looking more like a bat than ever. She reached us and smiled. “My master will be so pleased.”
The spiders lowered us to the ground on thick strands of web. They dropped us unceremoniously from a few feet off the forest floor, so we hit hard with a thump. The spiders climbed down, lifted us up and carried us forward.
Mrs. Fitcher walked triumphantly in front of the procession of spiders toward the torch-lit circle, waving her wings in the air. She pushed her way through the monsters to the center of the circle, where the spiders dumped us in a pile at Ren Lucre’s feet. “A gift, sire,” Mrs. Fitcher said, bowing low.
Ren Lucre pushed Will and Cindy aside. The minotaur guard grabbed them roughly.
I struggled against the webbing, but it was pointless. It was too strong. Ren Lucre looked us over. “Stand them up.”
Three ogres and a rock troll lifted us up and balanced our cocoon bodies vertically. The Creach bellowed and squealed. Ren Lucre held up his hand and the clearing fell silent once again.
Silent except for the sound of my own heart hammering in my chest.
Ren Lucre took a massive sword from one of his minotaur guards and walked around us in a circle, studying us.
Suddenly, he lunged forward and slashed at both Eva and me with a few fast movements of his sword. Then stepped back. The spider cocoons that held us prisoner peeled away and fell to the ground. Amazingly, he had cut through them perfectly, right next to our skins. We were free.
Well, we were still standing in the center of a circle of over a hundred monsters, facing the Lord of Darkness himself, but at least we were out of the cocoons. And we still had our weapons.
Eva wasted no time.
In a blur of motion, she pulled knives from her suit and threw them at Ren Lucre.
Almost effortlessly, Ren Lucre knocked the knives out of the air with his sword.
Eva launched herself at Ren Lucre, aiming a kick at his chest. Again, he effortlessly deflected her attack and dropped her to the ground in a heap. A thickly, muscled minotaur grabbed her by the arms and
held her tightly.
Ren Lucre smiled. “Did you really think it was going to be that easy? That you could avenge your family with the flick of a knife?”
Eva struggled against the minotaur, but it was too strong.
“Oh yes, I know who you are. I remember the taste of your mother. Your father. Your brothers and sisters. When I saw you cut off your own hand to escape your bindings, I thought to myself: there is a hunter with the proper spirit. That’s why I let you go.” He leaned into Eva. “What’s your next trick? Are you going to cut off a foot?”
Ren Lucre gave a nod to the minotaur and it threw Eva to the ground. The Creach horde erupted in cheers, eager for bloodshed.
Eva picked herself up and stood next to me. The minotaur had taken her sword. Unarmed, she stared Ren Lucre in the eye. “No, I was thinking more of cutting your heart out,” Eva said.
Behind us, I heard Cindy’s voice call my name. I turned as she and Will ran up to us. To my surprise, Cindy hugged me. I have to admit, even with everything going on, even with certain death around the corner, I still felt a little jolt of electricity go through me from her touch. That is, until I realized she was sobbing in my arms.
“Shhh…you’re going to be OK,” I lied. “You’ll see.”
“That’s not it, Jack,” Cindy sobbed. “I know what it means that you’re here. It means you’re going to die.”
Eva was right next to me. I looked at her, but her eyes were fixed ahead of her. Her breathing was quick and shallow.
“Turn around, boy. Let me see you,” Ren Lucre said.
I pushed Cindy over to Will. As I did, Will mouthed the words “I’m sorry” to me. I nodded, then turned and found myself facing Ren Lucre.
“So, are you really Henry Templar’s son? Or are you just a decoy?” Ren Lucre intoned, searching my face. “I see the resemblance to your father. The same arrogance in the way you stand. The same stupidity in your eyes. Not to mention, the same innocent Creach blood on your hands,” Ren Lucre said.
I trembled as I stood there. I tried to think of something brave to say in return, but my throat was too tight. I just stood there.
“What?” Ren Lucre said. “You have nothing to say? I’ve been waiting for this moment for twelve years and you just stand there and stare? Say something. Let me know I have finally found my vengeance.”