As the three continued to press against the wall, Jacob risked a quick glance at Aloren. She faced the entrance of the cave, and her eyes were out of focus. She appeared lost in thought. Had she not noticed the beast yet? How was that possible, especially with him having warned her?
Relief spread through him when the creature didn’t see them right away. It shuffled over to the pile of junk, bent over, and moved the coarse material.
It stopped, its back stiffening. It lifted its head as if to sniff the air, then turned until it faced the small group that cowered against the wall of the cave. Jacob’s breath caught when the creature’s eyes met his.
For what seemed like an eternity, they held each other’s gaze, neither moving.
His breath caught again when he realized he was able to sense the creature’s feelings. Did the beast have the ability to transfer its emotions to others? The glimpse of the monster’s emotions was brief, but complete. The beast was confused at not having noticed right away that there were humans in its cave. It was angry at finding that its things had been touched, and surprised that the human could see him.
The last feelings Jacob sensed were determination, stubbornness, and then another wave of anger. These emotions were caused by the gaze Jacob held with the beast. It was not used to small, insignificant humans defying it as Jacob realized he was doing. He tried not to tremble or show fear, refusing to look away. But he’d never had a poker face—there was no chance the beast wouldn’t recognize how terrified he was.
The creature opened its jaws, a hiss issued forth, and Aloren stiffened. This small movement caused the brute to lose its eye contact with Jacob and it looked at Aloren instead, surprised. The creature hadn’t expected a female. Taking a small step forward, it stared at her.
Aloren’s gaze was now directed toward the bend in the cave, still unable to see the beast. Was Jacob the only one who could see it? He bit his lip, trying to remain levelheaded. This was disturbing. It was an evil creature, and Jacob had recognized its emotions. What was wrong with him that he could connect with it?
He suppressed a growl, recognizing that if he didn’t maintain his focus, they’d all be toast. Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to put aside any speculation on the matter. He looked back into the creature’s huge eyes. A sudden feeling of protectiveness came over him when he saw its plan to get rid of Akeno and Jacob first, leaving Aloren for last—like dessert.
Jacob put his hands on the wall behind him, bracing himself against the cold stone. The wall warmed under his palms, and an idea crossed his mind. He’d been able to mold the rock—why should the cave wall be any different?
Keeping his eye on the monster, Jacob dug his fingers into the now-soft rock. It gathered easily into his hand, and he pulled several sections of it from the wall. He started molding the lumps into a larger rock, but stopped himself when another idea hit him—wouldn’t a sword be better? He, Dad, and Matt used to swordplay all the time. If he got the weight close enough to one of those practice swords, theoretically, he’d be just as good with it. He hoped he’d remember the things Dad had tried to teach him.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Squeezing and pulling, he tried to make a sword, but couldn’t get the edges sharp enough. Instead, he twisted it into a club. Not as cool, but he could at least defend himself and the others. He hoped it would hold its shape long enough for him to distract the beast.
He was surprised that the rock seemed to know what he wanted and went cold, becoming solid once more. Wow—that was awesome.
Jacob focused his concentration back on the beast’s feelings. Its anger had been replaced by determination. It hadn’t noticed what Jacob had done and Jacob moved forward, realizing he was, in essence, challenging the feral creature. The monster sensed the challenge, and a deep rumble came from its chest. Jacob scowled, recognizing a laugh. He tried not to think too much about the extraordinary strength the beast most likely had, focusing instead on the fact that he now had a weapon.
The creature dropped into a crouched position, getting ready to attack. Jacob felt a burst of adrenaline shoot through his body, along with intense fear. He took a deep breath, doing his best to appear self-assured.
Using his right hand, Jacob grabbed Aloren and pulled her behind him, pushing her toward the entrance of the cave. “I guess it doesn’t matter if we talk, since this ugly thing knows we’re here,” he said.
“It’s in the cave with us, isn’t it?” Akeno asked just as Jacob grabbed him as well, pushing him next to Aloren.
“Careful not to get too close to the entrance,” Jacob said. “There’s no sense in being attacked on both sides.”
Holding the creature’s gaze, Jacob strode—glad he didn’t trip—to the center of the cave, keeping the weapon behind his back.
“Hdakr djksla bi skr!” Low, guttural words came from the creature’s throat. Jacob took a step back—he didn’t know the thing could talk. The words didn’t make sense, but Jacob could sense their malicious intent. His body was tense, ready for an attack to come at any second.
The brute took a couple of small steps to the center of the cave as well, then stopped. A long pause—was the creature waiting for Jacob to do something first?
Jacob closed his eyes, trying to figure out what he could do. Concentrate on what the beast was feeling—an obvious thing, but hard to do when he needed to figure out how to defend his companions.
A thought crossed his mind. Touch its skin.
Jacob opened his eyes. Touch the creature’s skin? Where did that come from? He hesitated, appraising the beast. Nearly every inch was covered in needle-like hair. Only its cheekbones and forehead were clear.
He looked the monster in the eye, trying to gauge where the thought had come from. The monster was concentrating on its hungry stomach about to be appeased and was amused by Jacob’s show of bravery. Jacob was able to see now that the monster’s main source of protection was its ability to remain invisible to its prey, but for whatever reason, Jacob could see it.
The creature returned his gaze, shock registering in its huge black eyes.
Hadn’t anyone else ever seen it? And why would touching it make a difference? Would that somehow lessen the creature’s power?
Defending two helpless individuals from something they couldn’t see would be next to impossible, much less finding a way to touch the creature’s face, but if doing so allowed him power over the thing, he had to try.
Jacob was six feet away. He pulled the club from behind his back and held it in a defensive position in front of him.
The creature sauntered to one side of the cave, and Jacob got the feeling it wanted to play with him first. He had no desire to give the monster any sense of enjoyment and put all his concentration on what he had to do.
The monster cocked its head to the side. Another laugh came from inside its chest when it seemed to notice the weapon for the first time.
Jacob tossed the club from hand to hand, ignoring the brute’s laughter. He leaped forward, swinging the blunt weapon. It connected with the monster’s head with such force that Jacob almost dropped it. His bones jarring from the impact, he moaned when he saw that it didn’t even stun the monster.
No longer laughing, the beast grabbed the weapon and tried to rip it from Jacob’s grasp. Jacob, holding on to it, was swung into the air.
He kicked his legs, but couldn’t get the weapon out of the beast’s grip. Deciding instead to use it as leverage, he flung himself around the back of the monster, landing on its shoulders, the weapon falling to the ground. Aware of the sharp sting of thousands of needles piercing the skin on his shins and arms, he reached around and touched the monster’s face. Aloren gasped, and he heard an exclamation of surprise from Akeno.
They could see it! His feeling had been right.
Visions of the beast’s memories flashed into his mind—dark tunnels, fire, a huge city under a bright sky, a large, poorly lit cavern full of other beasts like this one, humans, animals. Then
he saw one thing that would get them out of this situation.
“Lirone!” he shouted. “The beast is afraid of Lirone!”
The creature’s loud, responding roar erupted in the cave. It reached back, grabbed Jacob, and threw him across the small enclosure. Hitting the wall hard, Jacob bounced off and knocked into Aloren and Akeno. He jumped to his feet as the beast charged them.
Jacob ducked under the creature’s massive arm as it swung around to hit him. “Akeno, you have to shrink it!”
The creature swung again, this time at Aloren and Akeno, who tried to scramble out of the way. They were barely fast enough to avoid being hit, and the monster growled.
“Hurry, Akeno!” Jacob yelled, attempting to kick the monster in the stomach, doing his best to buy Akeno some time.
The beast grabbed Jacob by the leg and swung him across the cave. Jacob slammed hard against a wall and fell to the ground. Dazed, he couldn’t get up for a second.
“Shrink it?” Akeno asked. “Now?”
Jacob shook his head to clear his thoughts. “Just do it!” He got to his feet as the monster came after him. He spotted the club lying where it had fallen and grabbed it, running to meet the creature. Swinging with his might, he brought the weapon across the monster’s head.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The creature turned on Jacob and shoved him over, growling. Jacob jumped to his feet as Akeno rushed toward the entrance of the cave, attempting to put space between himself and the beast.
Jacob turned back, hesitating, unsure what his next move should be. Nothing seemed to affect the creature.
The monster reared on Aloren, grabbed her around the neck, and thrust her against a wall, holding her a foot above the ground.
Anger coursed through Jacob, and he screamed, charging. He slammed hard into the creature’s side, surprised when the beast dropped Aloren and almost fell over. Without hesitation, Jacob grabbed Aloren’s arm, pulling her up and away from the beast.
“Shrink it!” he yelled over his shoulder as he ran with Aloren to the back of the cave. Turning around to face the beast again, he swung Aloren behind him.
The creature roared, making Jacob’s ears ring, and charged them. It smashed hard into Jacob, knocking him into Aloren. They both fell to the ground. Jacob threw his arms over her just as the monster reached for them. It jerked and disappeared.
“Got it!” Akeno yelled.
Jacob grabbed Aloren’s arm, helping her up, wincing at the pain all through his body. “Run to the entrance!” he shouted to Akeno.
Akeno turned and ran. Aloren and Jacob followed, but Jacob’s leg gave out, and he collapsed on the cave floor. With Aloren’s help, he lurched to his feet. Pushing the pain aside, he continued on, reaching Akeno.
The Makalo yelled in surprise as Lirone’s explosions erupted all around him. He turned back to Jacob and Aloren, a panicked expression on his face.
“Put him out in the storm!” Aloren yelled. “Put him out in the storm!”
Akeno spun around, holding the monster at arm’s length, then threw it. The monster landed on its side in a small clearing about forty feet away from the cave, now large and fully visible to Lirone.
Aloren and Jacob grabbed Akeno, pulling him back into the cave entrance just as Lirone sent a ball of flame smashing toward the ground where Akeno had been standing.
Jacob looked over his shoulder as they turned and ran the length of the cave. The monster jumped to its feet and roared, starting to charge up the hill.
“Come on, Lirone, come on!” Jacob said.
The monster bellowed again, but the din was cut off. Jacob glanced back in time to see the aftereffects of an explosion. The monster was no longer there.
Once out of sight of Lirone, they stopped and collapsed to the floor of the cave, gasping for breath.
“Wow,” Jacob said. “That . . . was close.”
“Yes . . . it was,” Aloren wheezed.
“What’s it called? That’s what was dead in my house, right?”
“Yes,” Aloren said. “And it’s a Molg. They’re a race that . . . lives in the Dunsany Caves and . . . as you figured out, they eat humans.”
Jacob shook his head, unable to believe that his dad and sister had been dragged from his house by them. Satisfaction cascaded over him, though, when he thought of his dad taking out two of the brutes.
Aloren continued. “Unless on the errand of the Lorkon, they never leave their caves. I’ve never seen one around here—usually, they follow a Lorkon into Macaria.” She gasped. “There are probably more! We can’t stay here!” She tried to jump to her feet, but Jacob grabbed her arm.
“No, no, we’re fine,” he said, holding her down.
Aloren stopped, and Jacob let go of her.
“How do you know?” she asked.
“The others aren’t even near where we are.”
“The other Molgs?”
“I’ll explain—”
“And another thing,” Aloren said. “Why could you see it, and we couldn’t?”
Jacob scratched his head. “I’m not sure. When it first came into view, it didn’t even notice us. I could clearly see it and was surprised you two couldn’t.”
“Of course we couldn’t,” Aloren said. “There wasn’t any light.”
“What changed?” Akeno asked, brushing the new dirt off his shoes.
It took Jacob several minutes to explain to Aloren and Akeno what had happened, from sensing the Molg’s feelings to touching its skin, causing him to see that the Molg had just come from a meeting with other Molgs.
He tried to keep the worry he felt out of his voice. Being able to connect with something evil was disconcerting to him. He didn’t want to let on that he was feeling that way—not until he figured things out.
“Since we can’t go anywhere,” Aloren said, “you two might as well rest. Heaven knows you need it.”
Jacob didn’t argue. Aloren was the only one who’d gotten plenty of sleep lately. He lay down, using his knapsack as a pillow, and shut his eyes.
***
Jacob wasn’t sure if he slept or not. When he sat up, though, every inch of his body hurt from the fight with the Molg. If he’d chosen football instead of basketball, like Matt, he would’ve been used to getting knocked around. He tried not to let on that he was hurt—he didn’t want to deal with exhaustion and pain again. That had been brutal.
“You really took a beating,” Aloren said. “Akeno, can you light up the room again?”
Akeno did so, and Aloren shuddered when she looked at Jacob. There were little holes all over in his clothes from the Molg’s hair.
“Oh, wow,” she said. “Jacob, you’re stuck everywhere.”
“I’m fine,” he said. “Just bruised. I might be slow on the trail for a while.” He turned to Akeno. “How are your hands? I’ll bet you’re even worse off than I am.”
“Fine,” Akeno said. “By the time I had him, the spikes were too small to break the skin. But it was hard to hold on to him. He really struggled to get away.”
They were silent for a few minutes. Jacob wished he had his guitar with him. He almost laughed when he thought of it sitting in the corner of his room, dusty from lack of use. He’d bought it at a pawn shop several months before, hoping to impress a couple of girls, but had given up on the idea after a few hours of practice. It just wasn’t his thing. Matt had always been the talented one at the guitar.
“How much longer until Lirone leaves?” Jacob asked.
“I don’t know,” Aloren said. “I’d rather wait and be absolutely sure he’s gone, though.”
“Yeah, me too.” He lay down again, trying to relax. He smiled and closed his eyes, imagining he was in his own bed, pulling the blankets up under his chin. What he wouldn’t give for that to be true.
“Jacob?” Aloren asked.
He rolled to face her. She was lying on her back, not making eye contact. “Yeah?”
“I, uh . . . I know this is all about you and you actua
lly have to be here, but I’m still really glad you came.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Jacob couldn’t help the sheepish grin that crossed his face. “Thanks.” He put his hands behind his head. “I only wish it had been under different circumstances.”
“Same.” She paused and sighed. “We wouldn’t have made it if you hadn’t been able to see the Molg.”
She was right, but he didn’t want to dwell on it. “What if you never find your brother?”
Aloren rolled onto her side, facing Jacob, and curled up into a ball. “I don’t know. I guess I’d have to find somewhere else to put my focus.”
“You could live in Taga with the Makalos,” Akeno said. “I’m sure we’d have plenty of room for you, and besides, you could even get to know the humans from Jacob’s world.”
“I think I’d like that,” she said. “If I can’t find my brother.”
Even though he heard the big “if” in her voice, Jacob still had to hide a smile. He agreed to show her around town, marveling at how differently he was coming to view her now compared to what he’d thought of her for the first day and a half.
Aloren turned over, and Jacob assumed she didn’t want to talk anymore. No dad around, and a mom who’d constantly been sick, then died. How would it be? Both of Jacob’s parents were very involved in his life. Sometimes too involved—but at least he didn’t often get lonely. Matt was almost always there when there was nothing to do.
His heart started aching again, thinking about the deadline he’d missed and the chance that he might never see his dad and sister again, and he had to force himself not to think about them anymore.
Instead, he thought of basketball tryouts and Kevin, Coach’s annoying son who was also a junior and seemed determined to keep Jacob out of varsity.
***
The light entering the cave changed, and Jacob glanced toward the entrance. “Akeno, turn off your light for a minute,” he said.
Akeno jerked awake. “What? Another Molg?”
“No,” Jacob said. “I think Lirone’s gone.” He got up and took a few steps forward. Sure enough, the light outside was brighter and had a warm appearance.
Forsaken Prince (Kilenya Chronicles Book 1) Page 11