The Keepers Of The Light (God Stone Book 2)

by Andrew Schafer

  As she seemed to read his face, she drew in a deep breath and turned back to David. “That’s good, David, push down hard – try and stop the bleeding.” Breanne changed her focus to her brother’s leg, assessing the blood-soaked cloth covering his wounds. “I’m going to need to change this dressing – he’s lost so much blood.”

  Lenny whispered to Garrett. “You’re right, we need a plan, bro. Do you think you can use that focus technique to break through one of these rock pillars like you did with the patio blocks at the test?”

  “No, I don’t have super-strength, Lenny. There’s a chance I could slow down the thing I am focusing on, but what’s the use in it?”

  “Well, can you slow Apep down while we think?” Lenny asked.

  “I have no idea if that would even work on him. Besides, slowing things down doesn’t help us get past these columns.” Garrett slapped a palm against one of the giant stone stalagmites.

  “Okay, well what about that sword?” Lenny said, pointing.

  Garrett looked down to find he was still holding the sword in his hands.

  “It was Turek’s, right? Maybe it is magic or something?”

  “I’m not using this sword to hack at stone columns, Lenny! What if it breaks? How the hell am I going to cut off the giant’s head then?” Garrett asked.

  Lenny held up his hands, waving off the idea. “Yeah, that didn’t sound so stupid until I said it out loud.”

  Garrett sheathed his sword. “We need Paul.”

  On the other side of the columns, Syldan sighed heavily. “No, Apep. I won’t let you destroy the humans.”

  Apep shifted impatiently.

  “Since meeting Turek I have fought in at least a thousand wars with these humans. Waiting for the day to come – this day. Since then I’ve come to know them. Their lives are so short, yet maybe this is why they live so fully, so completely. You have no idea the potential of these humans. I have watched them live, love, and die. I’ve seen them give their lives for one another – even for me.” His tone was certain. “No, brother, I won’t let you destroy this world.”

  Janis moved close to her father.

  “And you think you’re going to stop me?” Apep said.

  “You’re aware of the prophecy of Garrett Turek?” Syldan asked.

  Garrett froze at the sound of his name.

  Apep laughed. “The one humans believe in so blindly they are willing to send a boy here to give me precisely what I need to wake the nephillbock!”

  Syldan shook his head with an almost sorry expression. “Your vanity has no end. You think this is all about you, and so you underestimate them just like you did Turek.”

  “They are nothing! You speak of Turek. I killed Turek!” Apep said, his voice shrill, his patience slipping as a sword seemed to materialize in his hand from nowhere.

  Syldan didn’t even flinch. “You did what you were supposed to do, nothing more. Do you think the god of the humans would have died at your hand if it wasn’t part of a greater plan? You played a part, Apep, and that is all.”

  “The god of the humans?” Apep frowned as he spun the sword in a figure eight, testing the weight of it. The sword sizzled like a searing steak as it cut through the air.

  Garrett frowned.

  “What did he say, Garrett? Did he say Turek was a god?” Lenny asked, his voice raspy in an urgent whisper that threatened to become much more.

  “I… No. I don’t think that’s what he said.” That couldn’t be what he said. That would mean… mean what? Garrett’s head spun suddenly. The prophecy, his parents, James. The Keepers of the Light. He was the light. No. He couldn’t think about this. Not now.

  Right now – they needed out.

  30

  Farewell, Brother!

  Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones Day 1

  Petersburg, Illinois

  The tension was rising between the two men, and Garrett felt his heart racing. Behind him, he heard Breanne saying David’s name over and over. On the third time, he spun, glancing back with a frown, trying to divide his attention.

  David was sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed. His hand was over Pete’s wound, but he wasn’t pressing down.

  “David, you okay?” Bre asked again.

  No answer.

  “David, you need to press down firmly to stop the bleeding.”

  No answer.

  Garret glanced back again. “David, what’s up, man?”

  No answer.

  Breanne gasped. “Garrett!”

  Spinning around, Garrett saw that David was opening his eyes. And they were – glowing. “What the…”

  “His eyes!” Lenny said.

  David grinned widely. “Finally, I know what I’m supposed to do.” His chest began to emit a golden glow, which then migrated out from his torso, and across the rest of his body then down through his arms and legs. The glowing aura intensified, lighting the stone cell like blinds had been thrown back to reveal the morning sun. It flowed like liquid sunshine out of David’s hands and into Pete’s wound.

  Now the glow was gone from David; the only remaining light was coming from Pete’s gut. It looked like a bright lightbulb had been suddenly turned on inside him. They all watched as, slowly, the light dissipated, fading away until it too was gone.

  “David?” Garrett said, watching his friend sway back and forth.

  David blinked a few times. “It’s okay, I… I just feel like I stood up too fast.”

  Garrett frowned. David hadn’t stood up, but just as concerning was that his words were slurred, like that time they got into some booze during a sleepover. They’d drunk so much that, the next day, when David’s father pulled out the bottle of vodka to make a Bloody Mary, he quickly realized it was mostly water, which they’d stupidly added to cover up what they’d done. David sounded just like he had that night, right before he’d hurled on his mom’s favorite crocheted afghan…

  David blinked again and this time his eyes rolled back in his head. He swayed forward then tipped over onto his side, unconscious.

  “David!” Breanne shouted.

  Apep and Syldan were still arguing. Either they didn’t notice what had happened inside the stone cell or they simply didn’t care.

  Everyone crowded around David.

  “Are you okay? David?” Lenny slapped him in the face.

  Next to David, Pete opened his eyes. “Janis… Why?”

  “Pete! My god, Pete!” Garrett said, frantically wiping at Pete’s blood-coated stomach with the bottom of his dobok. “Your stab wound! It’s gone!” All that remained was a jagged scar. It looked pink and fresh, but it was sealed.

  “She stabbed me!? She tried to kill me!” Pete said, his face twisted in disbelief.

  “Yeah, well, you missed the part about Apep being her dad.”

  “What? Apep? But…”

  “Listen, Pete, we’re in the shit, man. Can you move? I mean does it hurt?” Garrett asked.

  Pete slowly turned and pushed himself up onto his elbow. He looked down at his stomach, still smeared with blood. “My shirt’s trashed,” he said, lifting one of the torn edges. “My mom’s going to be pissed.”

  “Forget the shirt. Are you okay?” Garrett pressed.

  “I… I think so,” he said, blinking. “Things are just fuzzy, and I got a stomachache, but yeah, I think… I think I’m okay.”

  Garrett turned to Bre and Lenny. “Wake David up.”

  “I’m trying, bro,” Lenny said.

  Garrett turned back to the gap between the stones. “Well, try harder. Whatever he did to Pete he needs to do to Paul.”

  Bre and Lenny looked at one another in simultaneous realization. “Wake up, David! You have to wake up!”

  Outside Syldan took a step toward the dragon. “I have taken precautions, Apep. Now, I am going to finish what was started.”

  Apep squinted his eyes. “You put the dragon in the tomb after imprisoning me?”

  Syldan moved completely from Apep’s path, pla
cing a hand on the sleeping dragon. He nodded. “You slept through the dragon wars, Apep, but I didn’t and, together, Turek and I killed thousands of earth-born dragons and we captured the elder seven – the seven you brought here from Karelia,” he said accusingly. “Then we came back to not only this tomb, but each tomb – all seven, placing an elder dragon inside each. Turek tied each dragon to the same spell keeping the nephilbock asleep. You wake him, you wake an angry dragon.”

  “I’ve heard enough of your words, brother,” Apep said, his sword beginning to glow with a radiant blue energy as a razor-sharp tentacle snaked out from the tip. Slowly the strange blade slithered back and forth as if alive before drawing up, poised to strike. Apep pointed the tip of the now-coiled sword toward Syldan. “Soon, Syldan, soon I’ll build an army so immense it will devour this world and unleash hell upon ours. I will force all of Karelia into submission! The entire planet will serve one king! One god!” Apep smiled, toothy and proud.

  Garrett and Lenny shared terrified looks.

  “You are truly mad, Apep!” Syldan said.

  “Balls!” Lenny said. “This is going to break bad, bro, I can feel it.”

  Despite the fact that Coach Dagrun just turned into a… drakkawhatever, Garrett still felt in his gut that he could trust him. “No, we still got Coach!”

  Outside the stone cell, Syldan shouted ancient words of power in a thundering voice. “Akozak ak ff esh!” His M4 carbine changed from steel to a bright blue light then rematerialized into a brutal-looking war hammer. The head of the hammer rested on a crooked wooden handle wrapped in leather strapping. One side of the head was shining silver, blunt with smaller knobs, like an oversized meat tenderizer, while the other had a black spike that resembled one of the dragon’s talons Garrett had seen a few moments ago. The two sides of the hammer blended together in a swirl of black and silver.

  With his other hand Syldan drew a Colt .45. It also transformed into the strange light then materialized into a short double-edged bastard sword. The blade looked as though it was made of black onyx and the handle of ebony. Syldan smacked the two weapons together, creating a loud crack! followed by a brilliant burst of blue light. He ran forward, charging Apep.

  Apep tossed his own sword from one hand to the other then back again as he stepped back with his right leg.

  As Syldan closed the gap, Apep struck out with his sword, their weapons clashing with a crackle of energy. “You’ve no idea of my sacrifice. Because of you, I was forced to mate with one of these animals. I was forced to go against our own god and create an abomination. That’s how committed I am, Syldan. The laws of our own gods can’t even keep me from my destiny!” He pointed accusingly at Janis.

  Syldan blocked with the sword and drove the war hammer down hard from overhead.

  Apep side-stepped and countered.

  Syldan swiped the strike away effortlessly with the bastard sword.

  Flames danced in Apep’s violet eyes. “You doomed me to this place… this filthy place!” He lunged again at his brother, and this time the snaking sword flexed unnaturally, finding its way around Syldan’s war hammer and slicing open his face.

  Syldan let out an angry war cry and attacked with both weapons, switching between the war hammer and the sword in a flurry of violent blows. The barrage of swings backed Apep across the chamber toward the sleeping giant. Syldan faked a strike with the bastard sword as he dropped to his knees, striking down on Apep’s foot with the war hammer.

  The spiked end impaled Apep’s foot.

  He shrieked in pain. “Lilith!”

  Garrett and Lenny watched on in stunned shock as Janis changed. Not into the older woman they knew as Eugene’s wife, Lilith, but into something between Janis and Lilith in age, yet not human either. Her skin changed from Janis’s pale peach to a slightly darker blue-grey, she grew taller and more shapely, her ears became only slightly pointed, and her eyes changed to a shimmering gold – similar to Apep’s but with a less pronounced angle and sweeping curve. Her hair, already dark, grew longer and her facial features became sharper – harder.

  Pete was sitting fully upright now and looked to be coming to his senses. “What did I miss?”

  Lenny shook his head. “Dagrun is Eugene’s brother. Eugene is Apep and neither are human. They’re both some kind of alien thing, and Janis is really Apep’s daughter, a half-alien thing who is also Lilith. There ya go, you’re all caught up!”

  “What?” Pete said, crawling over next to Lenny and peering through one of the gaps in the stone. “Janis is Lilith? Janis can’t be Lilith. My Janis? She can’t be Lilith.”

  Lenny grabbed Pete by the shoulders and turned him to face him. “Bro! Did you even hear me? You’ve not only been making out with an old chick, but she’s not even human! You were making out with an old lady space alien! Honestly, man, if we don’t die, I’m never letting you live this down. Although, Lilith the half-alien is… kind of hot.”

  Pete shrugged Lenny off and pressed his face back to the gap.

  Syldan looked up at Apep as a smile stretched across his face. “The power of the God Stones belongs to everyone. Just because you hold the stones doesn’t make you their master!” He struck Apep hard in the face with the hilt of the bastard sword as he stood back up.

  Apep covered his face and bellowed in rage.

  “God, Breanne, please hurry!” Garrett said over his shoulder.

  “You’ve no idea of my power!” Apep said, his voice rising to a screech.

  In the stone cell, David opened his eyes. “Holy shit… what happened?”

  “He’s waking up!” Breanne shouted. “David, you passed out.”

  David sat up, smoothing his mustache and with it his face.

  “Are you okay?” Breanne asked.

  “Yeah, I think so,” David said, rubbing his eyes. “Whoa, what are those?” He pointed through the columns at Syldan and Apep.

  Lenny sighed and then drew in a long breath. “Dokkal-somthin’s. Here’s what you missed. Dagrun and Eugene are actually—”

  “Dark elves?” David frowned.

  “Huh?” Lenny said.

  “They look like dark elves and you started to say dökkálfar. That’s Norse for dark elf.”

  “Why do you know that?” Lenny asked, shaking his head.

  “Bro, I’ve played every fantasy game there is. Plus, those look a whole lot like dark elves to me… maybe taller than I imagined but—”

  Lenny huffed. “But this isn’t a video game—”

  “Everything has to come from somewhere, right? I mean we got giants, dragons, and wizards already. And didn’t Mr. B say imagine everything we ever heard about magic was actually—”

  “Jesus! Can we please talk about this later?” Breanne said. “David, I hate to ask this, but you need to do to Paul whatever it was you did to Pete. Can you do that?” she asked.

  “What did I do?”

  “You healed Pete, David!”

  David blinked again. “I did?”

  “You did, and I need you to do it again… please,” she begged.

  “Okay, I… I can try.” David crawled over to Paul and placed both hands on his leg before closing his eyes.

  Garrett turned back to the scene outside their prison just in time to see Apep drop to his knees, his smashed nose a fountain of magenta blood. The color was strange but no stranger than his elvish form. The hole in his foot was spilling just as much blood as his face, forming a small pool beneath him. He looked up at Syldan towering over him with his war hammer raised high above his head. “You know… brother, you’ve always… been a better warrior than me. But your problem is you care too much about… honor. You cling too tightly to your morals. But I say, victory goes to the one smart enough to know how to win!” Bloody purple spittle sprayed from Apep’s mouth onto Syldan’s now ill-fitting BDU pants.

  “Goodbye, brother,” Syldan said, setting his jaw and swinging the hammer toward Apep’s head.

  “Coach!” Garrett shouted too late. />
  The hammer didn’t move.

  Syldan hadn’t noticed Lilith slip quietly behind him, and Garrett noticed too late.

  The slender half-elf raised her voice from a whisper to a full-throated yell, chanting an ancient spell.

  The war hammer ripped free from Syldan’s hands with a sudden jerk from behind. He tried to turn and look, but his feet were fixed, bound to the floor. He looked down to find dark roots were wrapping around his legs like a great serpent in a hurry to consume him. Within an instant they were already constricting his waist.

  Garrett and Lenny watched helplessly as their coach tried to pull his hand back down to fight the roots, but more roots had made their way up from behind, not only stealing his war hammer but also wrapping around his wrist and yanking his arm behind his back. Quickly, he raised his bastard sword in his only free hand in an attempt to try and hack at the roots. But as he swung, Apep blocked the strike with his own sword, giving the ever-growing tangle of roots the time they needed to snatch the wrist of the only free hand Syldan had left. The roots pulled both hands together, binding his wrists behind him.

  Inside the cell David began to glow.

  The roots wrapped around the throat of the now-helpless man and began to constrict. Syldan tried to speak words that would nullify the spell. “Flahoz—” he groaned but couldn’t get the words out before the roots squeezed off his air.

  Janis called out another word of power. Thorns protruded from the woody roots that were now beginning to look like some kind of leafless, thorn-covered vine. Thorns an inch long, then two, then three grew outward as the vine writhed.

  Syldan let out a snarl of rage as the thorns pierced his flesh like sharpened nails.

  Apep stood and stared into his brother’s eyes. “That’s why you can’t beat me. Honor is for the weak and morals are for humans.” Apep drew back the sword then thrust it into Syldan’s gut, his wild eyes widening as he drove the blade as deep as he could force it.