The Prince Warriors and the Unseen Invasion

by Priscilla Shirer

  “Look,” Ruwach said. In the beam of light the kids could see the gnarled metal girders of the Fortress of Chaós. Something thick and black oozed from the many gaps in the girders; it took a moment for the kids to realize it was an army of Forgers spilling out of the fortress. From above, in the fortress towers, arrows continued to fly, soaring over mountains and valleys toward the golden land on the other side of the chasm.

  “Forgers,” Evan grumbled, staring at the image. “I really hate those guys.”

  “I’m not so crazy about them either,” Levi added.

  “Are they coming here?” Brianna asked.

  “Are they coming for the key?” Xavier said. “The one we took? The one that opened the prison door?”

  Ruwach withdrew his arm, and the vision vanished. “No, this time Ponéros is coming after you.”

  “Us?” said Brianna in a small voice. “All of us?”

  “He knows if he can steal your seeds, he can weaken you. So he will attack. Quickly. And soon.”

  “So . . . what can we do to stop him?” Xavier asked.

  “Show him you will stand. You will not back down.”

  “Just . . . stand?” said Levi, looking at the other kids in confusion.

  “If we had swords, we could fight them.” Evan spoke with a tinge of impatience. He really wanted a sword. “Wouldn’t swords be a really good idea right about now?”

  “You have everything you need,” said Ruwach.

  “Here we go again,” said Evan under his breath.

  “Can’t we at least get whatever is in those locked rooms?” said Levi, stepping forward. “I mean, with just the five of us against a whole army—”

  “You have everything you need,” Ruwach said again.

  “But these seeds . . .”

  “The seed is your shield,” said Ruwach. “Remember your instruction?”

  The orbs on the kids’ breastplates began to spin. Whenever the orbs awakened, the Warriors knew they would be given some sort of instruction that would help them on their quest. They waited anxiously as the words churned inside the orbs and then spilled out into the air before them:

  If you have faith the size of the smallest seed, nothing will be impossible for you.

  “Go now.” One of Ruwach’s long arms reached out, pointing to something behind the kids. They turned around to see what it was.

  Nothing.

  When they turned back. Ruwach was gone . . . and so was the Cave.

  * * *

  They were back on the hill where they had started. Skot’os still loomed, dark and ominous, on the horizon. But no arrows were headed toward them. It was quiet and peaceful. The sun shone brightly overhead, warming their faces.

  Xavier looked down at the river, but there was no Crest rippling on the water anymore. He strained to see the lines of Forgers emerging from the gates of the Fortress of Chaós, as Ruwach had shown them in the vision. But he couldn’t see anything through the fog.

  An unseen enemy.

  “Well, nothing’s happening,” said Evan. “How long do we just stand here?”

  “Ruwach said to stand, so I guess we just have to—stand,” said Brianna with a shrug. She held the seed in her hand, turning it this way and that and trying to figure out how to “use” it as Ruwach had instructed them to do. She really liked the way the jewels of the case sparkled in the sunshine.

  Levi yawned. “Do you think sitting would be okay? I’m getting tired.” He sat down on the soft grass. Brianna and Evan joined him. Manuel laid his shield on the ground and sat on top of it. He had to wedge himself between the arrows poking out of it, as he hadn’t been able to pull them out. He closed his eyes and leaned his head against one of the arrows.

  “Hey guys, don’t fall asleep, okay?” Xavier remained standing. Someone had to be on the alert. On guard. He felt uneasy, although he usually felt uneasy in Ahoratos, particularly when it seemed peaceful. That was usually when everything went wrong. He seemed to be the only one who felt this way, however.

  He looked around, examining the terrain. At the bottom of one side of the hill was the river. The other side sloped down to a thick grove of trees.

  “Maybe we should go down there,” Xavier said, pointing toward the trees. “It would give us more cover.”

  “I thought we were supposed to stay here and stand—or sit,” Brianna said. She had started to pick tiny white flowers nestled in the grass and weave them together to make a crown.

  “I’m with Xavier,” said Levi. “It’s getting kind of hot up here. We could use the shade.”

  “I don’t want to carry my shield all the way down there,” said Manuel, glancing down at the trees below. “I need to rest up a bit first.”

  “This doesn’t seem like a very safe place,” Xavier said. “Come on, I think we should go. We can all help carry the shield—”

  Before he could finish, before any of them could begin to stand up and take a step toward the trees . . . a deafening roar rose up from the edge of the sky.

  Chapter 15

  The Olethron

  What in the world is that?” Brianna screamed. She pointed toward the red sky over Skot’os, which had lit up like a supernova.

  No one answered. They couldn’t. Terror silenced them. The streak of light became bigger and bigger as it climbed into the sky. The kids soon realized it was actually a streak of fire. And it was headed straight for them.

  “Run!” Xavier said. He turned and raced down the hill toward the trees. “This way! Hurry!” He stopped and turned to make sure the others were following, but they were still sitting on the ground, struggling to get up.

  “I can’t move!” Brianna said, pushing off the ground with her hands to no avail. It was like the ground was holding her down—she felt like she was stuck to it. “Help!”

  Levi and Evan tried to get up as well, but they too were unable to release their limbs from the soft ground.

  “It feels like it’s pulling us down—” Levi said, grunting with the effort to free himself. Manuel, since he was sitting on the shield, had gotten to his feet, but he was struggling to lug the cumbersome shield with him down the hill with little success.

  Xavier darted back up the hill. “Come on! Get up!”

  “We can’t!” Evan said.

  “What’s the matter?”

  “I don’t know—something’s holding us down. . . .” Evan thrashed around some more.

  “Take my hand!” Xavier ordered. Evan reached a hand up to Xavier, who grabbed hold and yanked several times before he was able to free Evan from the ground. “Okay, run!”

  Evan started running for the trees as Xavier turned to Brianna. He used two hands to pull her up, although she felt twice as heavy as her small size. Then she and Xavier hauled Levi up from the ground after several tries.

  “Now go! Hurry!” Xavier shouted, once they were all standing. He looked up at the giant fireball, which was rising to a high arc in the sky with a long tail of fire like a comet. But there was something else he noticed: the fireball had a face. Dark, blotchy eyes and a wide, gaping red mouth. The face of something so evil and monstrous it stilled Xavier’s heart.

  Evan, Brianna, and Levi scrambled down the hill toward the trees. Xavier turned to Manuel, who was still trying to drag his shield with him. He couldn’t go three steps without stumbling.

  “Leave it!” Xavier shouted. “Let it go! Just run!”

  “No, no, I need it!” Manuel cried.

  “Manuel, look!” Xavier pointed to the fireball now beginning its descent toward them. Manuel gasped and rose up, abandoning his shield, half-running and half-falling down the hill with Xavier.

  “Take cover!” Xavier shouted as he skidded into the trees, crouching and pulling Manuel down with him. Brianna, Levi, and Evan also hunched over and covered their heads, just as an explosion ripped op
en the top of the hill. They could feel the intense heat and draft from the blast even where they cowered in the trees.

  “Look at that!” Evan shouted, pointing to the hill, which now had a giant, smoking crater carved into one side.

  “What was that?” Levi said. “A meteor?”

  “It was the Olethron.”

  All the kids turned to see Ruwach behind them. He hovered between two trees a foot off the ground, his body hazy, transparent, as if he were an apparition and not a real being.

  “An . . . Ole-thron?” said Xavier. “A new weapon?”

  Ruwach shook his hooded head slowly. “There is nothing new under the sun.”

  “My shield,” said Manuel, in exaggerated anguish. “It’s—gone.”

  “Any shield you make of your own hands cannot withstand the destructive power of the Olethron,” Ruwach said. “But your seed can.”

  Another roar came from the sky. The kids gasped and dove for cover as another mighty Olethron burned its way through the air, sending up fountains of dirt and ash when it hit the ground. Xavier looked up to see what had happened and felt the intense heat scorch his face.

  “We’re gonna die!” moaned Manuel, his arms over his head.

  “Get us out of here!” Brianna cried out to Ruwach, whose image was growing fainter in the thickening smoke from the explosions that wafted through the trees. Ruwach did not answer, just lifted up one long arm and pointed with his glowing finger . . . straight back toward the top of the hill from where they’d just come.

  “What? We can’t go up there! We’ll be pulverized!” said Manuel.

  Just then the kids’ breastplates lit up, blinking rapidly. Xavier stood up slowly, turning until his breastplate stopped blinking and shone with a steady light. It, too, pointed to the hilltop, which was clearly under attack.

  “No way!” said Evan.

  “Hey, we’ve been through this before. We need to follow the Way of the Armor,” Xavier said, determination in his voice. “Come on. Let’s go.”

  None of the kids moved. They heard the thundering whine of another Olethron as it blazed through the sky. It landed more distantly, so they couldn’t see the fire, but they felt the shudder of the ground under their boots. A moment later a shower of ash filtered through the trees, coating them like snow.

  “Ouch!” Brianna said, wiping a bit of ash off her nose.

  Xavier picked a piece of ash off his shoulder and looked at it, feeling the pulsing spark as it continued to burn. He felt his resolve waver. This weapon, the Olethron, was real. It burned with real fire. It meant total destruction.

  Xavier saw the others staring at him, waiting for him to tell them what to do. Ruwach was no longer visible. Xavier paused, suddenly uncertain. He wondered if he might accidentally lead them into the path of the destroyer. But Ruwach, the breastplate—they’d never steered him wrong. Although they had steered him into what seemed like mortal danger more than once.

  Xavier felt the seed warming in his pocket. He reached in and pulled it out. It was glowing again, as it had in the basement, but more brightly. Like a tiny red lightbulb.

  The seed is your shield.

  Ruwach’s voice echoed in his ears. How could this tiny seed be a shield? He didn’t understand that at all. But he knew from past experience that Ruwach couldn’t possibly be lying, even when he was not telling them exactly everything.

  Have faith.

  The orb on his breastplate began churning different colors. Letters spilled out into the air, arraying themselves in the instruction they’d all received from The Book:

  If you have faith the size of the smallest seed, nothing will be impossible for you.

  Xavier’s fingers closed over the seed. He held it tightly, feeling its warmth inch up his arm. Maybe just holding it would somehow protect him.

  “I’m going,” he said to the others.

  “No, you can’t!” said Evan. “You’ll be in—carcerated!”

  “I think he means incinerated,” said Manuel.

  “I’m coming too,” said Brianna. She stood up and moved toward Xavier. She too held her seed tightly in her fist, still in its bejeweled case.

  “Me too,” said Levi hastily, once he saw that Brianna was going with Xavier. “I’m going too.”

  The three of them stood together, clutching their seeds. Around them more Olethrons exploded, making the trees, the ground, the very air shudder. Smoke burned their eyes. Evan and Manuel looked at each other.

  “Not me,” said Manuel. “I’m not going—without my shield.”

  Evan shook his head silently, looking at the ground.

  “Fine then, stay here,” said Xavier, although his heart fell at the thought of leaving his little brother behind. He glanced at Levi and Brianna. “Ready?”

  Brianna nodded, holding her head high. Levi nodded with much less enthusiasm. Xavier turned and began walking resolutely out of the woods, toward the hill. Levi and Brianna followed, side by side. As they emerged from the woods, an Olethron rocketed toward them, filling their senses with noise and fire.

  Chapter 16

  Just Stand

  Xavier, Levi, and Brianna stood stock-still until the smoke cleared. Xavier checked his face, his body, making sure they were still intact. The Olethron hadn’t hit them, but the blinding flash and the awful noise had made him feel certain that it had.

  “I’m scared,” whispered Brianna. Xavier was too. But he didn’t want the other two to see that. He looked up to the top of the hill, still smoking from the first Olethron attack. It seemed like a long way—far longer than it had been running down. Climbing that hill would be the hardest thing he ever did—harder even than walking into a sandstorm or navigating the Fortress of Chaós. But he knew, deep down in the pit of his soul, that he had to do it.

  “You guys don’t have to come,” Xavier said, turning to Levi and Brianna. “Stay here with Evan and Manuel. It might be safer.”

  “We’re coming,” Levi said. He sounded braver than he looked. Brianna nodded in agreement, forcing her shoulders back, her chin lifted.

  Xavier nodded and took a step forward. Immediately, another Olethron crashed down, this one only a few feet away, the blast knocking the Warriors sideways. For a long moment they were blinded by the smoke and falling ash, their hearing deafened by the concussive blast.

  “Everyone okay?” Xavier said as the smoke cleared.

  “Yeah.” Brianna checked to make sure she still had all her fingers. “That was close.”

  Xavier was surprised to find that the three of them were still standing, despite the force of the explosion. Something about his boots felt different. He picked up one foot and noticed that steel hobnails had sprouted from the soles. The spikes had dug deeply into the ground, keeping the Warriors from falling.

  “The boots!” he said. “Check it out.”

  Levi and Brianna both looked down at their feet, noticing the spikes in their boots for the first time.

  “Stellar!” Brianna exclaimed.

  “Yeah, cool,” said Levi.

  “They’ll help us to get up the hill,” said Xavier. With that he started and the others followed suit.

  They had only taken a few more steps before another glowering Olethron came roaring toward them.

  “The rock!” Xavier said, pointing to a large boulder partway up the slope. They scrambled to get behind it as the Olethron exploded just in front of them, most of the force of the blast absorbed by the rock, which shook and splintered as if it were made of glass. Brianna bent over, covering her head with her arms.

  “I’m really scared now,” she whispered.

  “That makes two of us,” said Levi.

  “Three of us,” said Xavier. “Come on. We need to move. Keep looking up. Don’t look at those things. Remember crossing the Bridge of Tears? Stay focused, okay?”

 
Brianna nodded, wiping the tears and ash from her eyes. Levi, impulsively, grabbed her hand.

  “I’m right here, Bean,” he said. He smiled at her. She smiled back.

  “There’s a clump of bushes up ahead,” Xavier said. “We’re going to run to them and take cover again.”

  “I don’t think we’ll make it,” said Brianna.

  “We will. Our boots will get us there.”

  The three Warriors took off at a dead run for the clump of bushes, their boots giving them a firm footing on the increasingly treacherous terrain. They dove for the bushes just as another Olethron exploded, although this one was farther away. The brush did not give them protection, but it did give them a hiding place for the moment.

  “Seems like they shoot when they can see us,” said Xavier.

  “Is there another place farther up to hide?” said Levi.

  Xavier peeked around the brush to scout out the terrain. “I don’t see one. We’ll have to go all the way to the top from here.”

  “All the way?”

  Xavier nodded. “I’ll go first, you two stay behind me. Run as fast as you can. Don’t stop.”

  “What if another Olethron comes?” said Levi.

  Xavier glanced from one to the other, not knowing quite how to answer. He shrugged and said: “Duck.”

  “Duck?” Levi repeated. “That’s it? Just duck?”

  “It’s all we got,” said Xavier. Another Olethron thundered nearby. Brianna covered her ears, trying not to cry. Xavier looked at her. “You okay?”

  She nodded, glancing at Levi. He gave her a reassuring smile.

  “Let’s do this,” she said.

  Xavier crouched like a track runner and took a deep breath. On your mark, get set . . . He heard an imaginary starting pistol in his head and took off for the top of the hill. Just keep moving, he told himself. Don’t stop. He felt as though he could see a path laid out for him, perhaps projected by the breastplate, he wasn’t quite sure. It did not go straight up but swerved this way and that, making the run take even longer. And yet he felt sure-footed, as if his boots were actually carrying him up the hill. The smoke stung his eyes and the blasts made his ears ring, but he could still run, still breathe. He felt energized, as if each step he took gave him the courage to take another.