by Jeff Gunhus
I climbed to my feet as fast as I could. Ren Lucre stood in front of me, not even breathing hard. He twirled his sword in his right hand.
“Wait,” I gasped, “I have an offer for you.”
“The time for talk is over,” Ren Lucre snarled.
He stabbed at me and I jumped to my left, knocking his thrust away with my sword. He immediately changed directions and swept low at my knees. I tried to block him but I was too late. His sword sliced into my leg, just above my knee.
I fought the impulse to grab it with my hand, knowing that it would give Ren Lucre a clean shot to my head. The pain screamed up my leg like it was on fire. But I forced myself to focus on the attack.
The blows kept coming, harder and harder. I stumbled backward, and again, I ended up smashing into the line of Creach. This time, the first few rows of goblins parted in a panic and I ran into one of the minotaurs. It felt like running into a stone pillar. I bounced off and hit the ground, groaning.
Mrs. Fitcher happened to be near-by. She swooped in and kicked me in the backside until I stood up.
“Get out there, you disgusting, little boy,” Mrs. Fitcher shrieked. “Get what you deserve!”
I staggered back into the circle. I reached down and felt my leg. My hand came back covered with blood.
Ren Lucre stabbed the ground with his sword and left it there. He raised his hand toward one of his minotaurs and it threw him a mace, a pole topped with a metal ball with nasty spikes on it. He strode toward me.
“Wait,” I said. “You can still get what you want.”
“What do you mean?” Ren Lucre said, circling me as he shifted the mace from hand to hand.
“Let my friends go and I’ll withdraw my challenge,” I said, eyeing the mace. “They go free, and you get to torture me in front of my father all you want.”
Ren Lucre swung the mace from side to side then launched his attack. I dodged left, dodged right, the spiked mace ripping into the ground next to me each time, barely missing. Then I stumbled and fell backward to the ground.
I looked up just as Ren Lucre swung the mace with full force down at my head. I held up my shield and crouched beneath it.
The spikes pierced right through the shield, one of them stabbing through my forearm. I screamed from the pain.
With a grunt, Ren Lucre heaved back on the mace, pulling my shield off with it. I cradled my arm to my stomach.
The Creach roared in triumph. They knew it was only a matter of time now.
Ren Lucre threw down the mace and called for a new weapon. A minotaur walked out onto the field and handed him a long, curved sword. Ren Lucre tested the edge of the blade with his finger and smiled.
“I don’t understand,” I said, leaning on my sword,. The blood loss from my wounds was making me dizzy. “I’m trying to give you what you want. Just let my friends go and you win.”
Ren Lucre shook his head. “You fool. You invoke the oldest of magics but you know nothing about it. A challenge cannot be revoked. One of us must be defeated on the field. It cannot simply be withdrawn.”
“That would have been good to know about ten minutes ago,” I said, buying time so that I could catch my breath. I winced at the pain in my arm and leg. It was slowly dawning on me that I didn’t stand a chance of winning this fight.
Ren Lucre circled me slowly. “I can see hope leaving you. You’re just like your father, defeated in your heart long before your body.”
I looked up sharply at these words. I felt my heart pound harder in my chest and my hand clenched into a fist.
“Do your duty, come what may,” I murmured under my breath.
I stood up straighter. My pain faded into the background.
“Do your duty, come what may,” I said louder.
Ren Lucre eyed me curiously. “It is the curse of your family. Always to believe you can do something which you cannot.”
“See, you’ve got it all wrong,” I said. “It’s because we believe that we never stop. And that’s why you fear us so much, isn’t it?” I lifted my sword and held it up defiantly at Ren Lucre. “You said I’m like my father? That’s the best compliment I’ve ever gotten from a thousand-year-old, half-demented, pathetic-looking vampire.” I waved him forward. “Bring it on, you loser.”
Ren Lucre cried out and rushed toward me, the curved sword flashing in the bright stadium lights. I ran toward him, yelling at the top of my lungs.
We met in a clash of metal. We snarled and grunted as our battle reached a fevered pitch.
Ren Lucre’s sword was a blur of motion. But, somehow, impossibly, I kept up with him.
There was no time to think; I just allowed my body to react and it seemed to know what to do. I blocked every one of Ren Lucre’s thrusts with the skill of a master swordsman.
Finally, he stopped and stood in front of me, still not breathing hard, but with a look of complete frustration on his face. And, for the first time, I thought I saw fear in his eyes.
But seconds after the barrage from Ren Lucre’s sword stopped, the pain from my arm and leg roared back. I gasped for air, exhausted and barely able to breathe. My mouth was so dry that I couldn’t even swallow.
As I tried to catch my breath, somehow I understood that whatever had just happened, however I had managed that flurry of sword fighting that had seemed to come out of nowhere, it had been my best chance to win. But now my body was too tired. Too broken. I felt it in my bones. My best chance to defeat him had passed.
Ren Lucre walked over to a rock troll and snatched up its spear, a long weapon with not only a razor-sharp tip, but wicked barbs along the shaft that looked like fish hooks.
I looked back to Eva, Will and T-Rex. I could tell by their faces that things did not look good for me. Eva held up her left hand, tipped with a sharpened hook, and yelled her encouragement. My heart was beating so loudly in my ears that it sounded like she was a hundred miles away. I couldn’t help but feel like I was seeing my friends for the very last time.
I turned back to face Ren Lucre, now armed with both the curved sword and the troll spear. A cruel grin spread across his face.
“Tired, young hunter?” Ren Lucre said. “It happens to humans when they lose too much blood. Trust me, I know.”
I wanted to say something clever back, something to show him that I wasn’t going to die being afraid of him. But my mouth was so dry that I couldn’t make a sound.
I switched my sword to my left hand and closed my fist with my right. Staring at Ren Lucre defiantly, I raised my fist to my chest, then thrust it out in the salute of the Black Guard.
I looked over and saw Eva, Will and T-Rex follow my lead and do the same.
We might have been about to die. But we weren’t ever going to be defeated.
Ren Lucre flew into a rage and launched his attack.
I barely had time to grip my sword and raise it to block his first blow. He hit it so hard that it lifted me off the ground. The troll spear came next. I heard it swoosh by my head right next to my ear.
The Creach horde smelled blood and they roared into the night sky, louder than ever.
Ren Lucre swung again, even harder.
I stumbled and tried to catch myself, but I couldn’t. I fell to the ground, my sword flying from my hand. In a second, Ren Lucre was on me, the troll spear pointed at my throat.
“No!” Eva yelled.
The monsters hushed as Ren Lucre stood over me. I turned my head, ready for him to end it. When I did, I saw I had ended up close to Will, Eva and T-Rex. All three looked terrified.
Ren Lucre wore a twisted smile on his face. “You see? No matter your bloodline, no matter the sword you use, even if you had the Jerusalem Stones themselves, you are the inferior creature.” He turned to the Creach and bellowed, “This is what becomes of any who oppose me!”
I looked over at Eva and was surprised to see tears streaming down her face. I tried to shout something to her, but my mouth was so dry that it came out as only a hoarse whisper.
Eva shook her head to indicate that she didn’t understand. Ren Lucre continued to play to the Creach crowd. I tried again.
“Give me…a…hand,” I said.
She looked puzzled, then suddenly understood.
She twisted and disconnected the hook on her wrist. Taking careful aim, she chucked it straight at me.
I grabbed it just as Ren Lucre raised the troll sword to finish me off. I banged the spear aside with the hook, and then sank it into the back of Ren Lucre’s leg.
He yelled in pain and fell on one knee. As he did, he dropped the troll spear onto the grass.
I grabbed it, spun around, and skewered him right through the chest.
Everything went silent.
Ren Lucre’s eyes bulged as he looked down at the spear sticking out of his body. He clutched it and staggered backward. Finally, he looked up and sought me out, the hatred burning in his eyes.
He smiled at me with blood-covered teeth. “You think you’ve won? This…this isn’t over, Templar,” Ren Lucre said, his voice faltering as he choked on his own blood. “This isn’t over…until…you’re dead at…your father’s feet.”
His eyes rolled upward and he fell to the ground like deadweight.
The Creach horde stood in stunned silence. I dropped to my knees and watched, certain that at any second, he would get back up and come after me.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and flinched. I looked behind me. It was Eva. Her face showed that she was as amazed as I was that I was still alive. Will and T-Rex crowded around me.
Then a piercing scream erupted from right behind us.
We ducked down as a dozen harpies, led by Mrs. Fitcher, flew at Ren Lucre. They grabbed his body and lifted it into the air.
With great beats of their wings, Ren Lucre disappeared over the tree line and off into the night.
I looked around at the Creach horde. Every rock troll, wraith, werewolf and zombie stared at us.
Slowly, a few of the monsters turned their backs to us…and walked away. The few turned into more and more, until finally, every Creach turned and walked away into the night.
Cindy ran toward us, now back in her human form. She approached me, looking concerned. “ Oh, Jack, are you OK? You were so brave,” Cindy said.
Even though she had betrayed us and almost gotten us killed, her soft voice felt like music. I smiled at her. “Uh…thanks…I just…”
Eva stepped from behind me, seeing the goofy grin on my face. “Give me a break,” she said. She reared back and punched Cindy hard in the face, dropping her to the ground. “Move on, siren, or I’ll really give you something to sing about,” Eva said.
Cindy got to her feet, holding the side of her face. With one last look at me, she turned and joined the retreating Creach.
I sagged forward, suddenly exhausted. Not just from the fight and my wounds, but from all the emotions of the night: losing Aunt Sophie and Hester; finding out that my father was still alive; actually dying and seeing my mother, before coming back to life; and the ever-present dread that I was going to die. All of it suddenly hit me and I almost collapsed under the weight of it.
I felt Will, T-Rex and Eva grab hold of me to support me. Never in my life had I felt so thankful to have friends.
“Come on,” I heard Eva whisper in my ear. “Let’s get out of here.”
I suddenly realized that I had been crying. I wiped the tears away and stood with Eva’s help. I let them guide me to the Mustang, but I kept looking back at the spot where Ren Lucre’s body had lain.
I can’t tell you how I knew, but I’d never felt so certain of anything in my life.
This fight wasn’t even close to being over.
Chapter Fourteen
I walked through my house for the last time, carrying the single suitcase that I had filled with things from my room. I crossed the living room, limping from my wounds. Eva had wrapped them and the bleeding had stopped, but the pain was still there. I walked gingerly through the disaster zone. At least the Creach had carried their dead away. Incredibly, the item I was looking for was still on the fireplace mantel.
It was a picture of Aunt Sophie at a beach somewhere, holding me when I was just three or four years old. She was smiling and looking at me like I was the one thing that she loved most in the world.
And I realized that this had been true. Even though she had started from a place of hatred, tasked with the assignment to raise me only so that I could be put to death, she had found love in her heart. The picture showed the true Aunt Sophie and the true way she had felt about me. After her sacrifice, this was how she deserved to be remembered.
I packed the framed photo in my bag, took one last look around the house, and left it for the last time.
Outside, Eva, Will and T-Rex sat in the Mustang. Eva started up the engine as I jumped in.
“You all right?” Eva asked.
I nodded. Truth was, I was pretty choked up, but I was tired of crying. I was ready to move on.
Eva put the car in gear and rolled slowly down the driveway.
Next, we stopped at Will’s house. It had grass growing two feet high, shutters falling from the windows, and a white fence that was half-eaten through by termites. He stared at it for a few long seconds, then turned to us.
“There’s nothing for me here. I want to go with you guys,” Will said softly.
I looked at him, not sure what to say.
“C’mon, you know what they’re like. They’ll probably be glad to have me out of their hair. Besides, it’ll probably take them a few weeks to even notice I’m gone,” Will said.
I looked at Eva . I could tell the choice was mine.
“We’re not coming back,” I said. “Not ever.”
Will nodded. “I wouldn’t want to. Being a monster hunter might be the one thing I’m good at. You leave me here and I’ll end up like those losers down at juvy hall. You know I will.”
“Well, I could use someone to watch my back,” I said with a smile. “I’ll need all the help I can get to find my father.”
“Yeah!” Will said, high-fiving me. “This is going to be awesome.”
Eva eased the car forward and we rolled down the street toward T-Rex’s house. Noone spoke. We knew we were just seconds away from a very difficult goodbye.
“Stop,” I whispered to Eva. “Stop right here.”
Eva slowed to a stop at an intersection. If we looked to our right we could see down the street and see T-Rex’s house. Unlike the rest of the sleeping neighborhood, all the lights were on and there were people walking around. The front door was wide open.
“Grandma,” T-Rex cried out, trying to climb out from the back seat. Will held him in place. He pointed to the van parked out front. Printed on the side in neat block letters were the words Child Protective Services.
I turned in my seat. “You told me some people were trying to take your Grandma to retirement home, remember?”
T-Rex nodded, “And take me away from her.”
“That’s what Child Protective Services does,” Will said. “If I hadn’t lied for my folks, they would have taken me away ages ago,” Will said.
“If you go over there, they’re going to put you with another family,” I said. “It might not be that bad.”
T-Rex wiped his tears. “No, you guys are my family. I’m going with you.”
Eva shot me a look that said this wasn’t a possibility. There was no way T-Rex was cut out for the hard journey ahead of us, let alone ready to be a hunter. I grinned. I’ve never been one to let little things like that get in my way.
“Then you’ll come with us,” I said. “The more help I have to find my father the better.”
Eva looked at me hard. “We talked about this; you can’t go after your father. Not yet.”
“I just defeated Ren Lucre,” I said. “I think I’m ready.”
“You were undisciplined and reckless. If those monsters had attacked us at the end, we’d be dead now,” Eva said. “If you’re going to
do this, do it right. Get the training first, then go for him.”
“But I—”
“If you do,” Eva said, “I will go with you on the rescue. And I can bring others.”
“And if I don’t go to the training?” I asked.
“Then you and Will are on your own. I won’t go just to watch you die,” Eva said.
My heart told me to go search for my father right away, but logically, I knew that Eva was right. Without her, I would already have been dead several times over.
“This guy, Aquinas…” I said.
“Master Aquinas, “ Eva said. “And she’s a woman.”
“She knew my father? Can she can tell me what really happened to him? To my mother?” I thought back to the last thing my mother said as she left me: Forgive me. What I did, I did only to protect you. I hadn’t mentioned it to the others, but the words ate at me. What had she done? Why would I need to forgive her for it?
And there were so many other questions. Was I really the last Templar? Had Ren Lucre accepted my challenge out of caution, or did I really have Creach blood in me?
Eva took my hand in hers. I felt the blood rush to my face and suddenly I could think only of the kiss she had given me right before the battle. I looked into her eyes and found them looking at me kindly. “I can’t promise you’ll find answers to all your questions, Jack. Only that you will find more there than I could ever give you.”
“And can she tell me what the Jerusalem Stones are?” I asked.
Eva dropped my hand and her eyes turned instantly cold. “What did you say?”
“Jerusalem Stones. Ren Lucre mentioned them two different times. At the river. Then again which we were fighting. What are they? Some kind of weapon?”
“That also would be a question for Master Aquinas,” Eva said. I could tell she knew more than she was letting on, but I already knew her well enough that I wouldn’t get anywhere pressing the issue with her.
I looked back at Sunnyvale. There was nothing for me there. All the answers I sought were ahead of me. And it seemed that many of them were to be found at the Academy.