The Keepers Of The Light (God Stone Book 2)

by Andrew Schafer

  James shook his head. “Not walking per se but dragging themselves. And it’s not all of them. It just seems to be the big ones or maybe the older ones. Look, no one has seen them move, but trees are out of place and they leave a trail of churned-up earth.”

  “How?” Garrett asked.

  “We think they are pulling themselves along by their roots.”

  “No, I mean how in the hell can trees be moving?”

  “Oh, simple, it has to be the God Stones. They are altering things,” James said.

  “Have you asked Coach about it?” Garrett asked.

  “Well, oddly enough, he only woke yesterday. I tried to talk to him, but he said he would only talk to you and to leave him be until you woke. Except his language was a bit more – colorful. I thought about torturing him and perhaps if you hadn’t woken up today, I might have lost patience and ripped off one of the bastard’s pointy ears,” James said flatly.

  Garrett looked back over his shoulder at Lenny, who held out his palms and shrugged.

  They came to a room with two guards standing on either side of a large steel door. The guards dropped to their knees and bowed immediately upon seeing Garrett. Garrett recognized one of the guards as Darnell, but he went by Yogi. Yogi was several years older than Garrett and had always been a complete dick; now he wondered if that was all part of the plan. Part of his training? Another lie to add to the long list of deceits. Either way, he didn’t like the older boy bowing to him. He paused at the door before entering. “Please stand up, guys.”

  The men stood. Yogi, looking at the floor, shoved a key in a padlock, and unclasped the door.

  The smell of moldy basement, damp and cold, hit Garrett’s senses as soon as he entered the room. There were some folding chairs, a crate like the one Garrett had in the small room he woke up in, and the cot Coach lay across. The walls in this room were stacked stone, and the ceiling had rough-hewn wood beams. It wasn’t that the room looked old, just rough, like it was intended to be a food cellar or a horse stall, not a bedroom. Garrett let his gaze fall to Coach. Even in the unfamiliar elven form, Garrett could see he looked bad, really bad.

  “Coach? Can you hear me?” Garrett asked.

  No response.

  Garrett approached the cot. Now that he wasn’t fleeing for his life, he had time to actually take in the strange appearance of the creature. He was so different, with his blue-grey skin and strangely shaped eyes and ears. They looked as though they belonged to a wolf not a human. Even stranger were his eyelids, shaped like a sideways s, that swooped out and faded away where his crow’s feet should be. His eyebrows, nose, and jawline were defined, with hard edges. He didn’t look particularly like any elf Garrett had ever seen in movies or books. He was very tall, not short, and his skin color didn’t fit that of any elves he had seen depicted either. Only his pointed ears fit Garrett’s conception of an elf.

  Garrett leaned forward and touched Coach lightly on his shoulder. No response.

  James frowned. “Careful, Garrett.”

  Garrett frowned back and shook Syldan gently. “I’m here, Coach. I’m here.”

  Syldan opened his eyes and smiled weakly. “Brick.”

  James hurried forward to take up position next to Garrett.

  Syldan shifted his golden yellow eyes toward James. “Ah, your… brother… he doesn’t like me.”

  The others came forward too.

  Lenny offered Syldan a drink from a glass that sat on the crate.

  “Thanks,” he said, taking a small pull as he appraised Garrett and cleared his throat. “You look good for a dead kid.” Syldan smiled, weakly. “You know I tried… Garrett, I tried to save you from the worst of it… but I guess your Keepers had it right after all… Whatever was going to happen was going to happen no matter… no matter what.”

  James leaned in. “How do you know about the Keepers of the Light? How do you know about the prophecy?”

  “Back off, James,” Garrett said, putting a hand against his chest.

  “It’s okay, Garrett,” Syldan said fixing his golden eyes on James. “James is a good man… a good brother. You are lucky to have him in this. You need to understand his mistrust. After all, my own brother almost killed him once before. But I am a friend. You see, long ago… I was a friend to Turek … when he walked the earth before the Keepers of the Light ever formed, before the Knights Templar, even before Egypt was Egypt and the word pharaoh was ever spoken. I helped Turek cast Apep into darkness. I placed the Elder Dragons in the seven tombs. I listened as Turek cast the spells that tied his blood” – he pointed a long finger – “your blood, Garrett, to the nephilbock and the dragons.”

  James’s eyes grew wide.

  “That’s right, James, I heard Turek’s plan from his own mouth thousands of years before you were even a tingle in your papa’s pants. I have been here since the beginning. Not idly waiting either. No, I have lived thousands of human lives on this planet, all the while wondering why the gods wouldn’t let me age, wouldn’t let me just grow old and die.” Suddenly Coach squeezed his eyes shut and grunted out a pained cry.

  “Coach!” Garrett shouted.

  “The pain will… pass.” He winced, then drawing a few slow breaths, he continued. “By the gods, a death in battle with my men would have been the sweetest death. I have served in thousands of armies and fought hundreds of wars. But as time continued its relentless tick tock… I began… I began to think it wasn’t the gods keeping me here. It was one god, Turek. I started to think he wanted me here for the day Apep finally unearthed the God Stones and broke the spell waking the nephilbock and the dragons. I convinced myself he wanted me here to save you from the worst of it. Now, after what happened and what my brother told me in that temple, I understand the reason I never died and still live now.”

  “Why?” James pressed.

  “In the tomb, Apep said time isn’t linear and that no time will have passed on my world since the last time the gate was opened. That was over twelve thousand years ago! This means my father will still be alive. My bloodline will still be in power. I am the rightful heir to the throne.”

  “I don’t understand,” Garrett said.

  “It’s okay, Garrett, in time you will. What I am about to give you, you must believe it… all of it.” He slipped his long-fingered hand beneath his blanket and retrieved a crudely folded piece of parchment. With a shaky hand, he pushed it toward Garrett.

  Garrett reached out and gently grasped the paper. As the parchment slipped from Syldan’s hand, what remaining color he had drained from his face and his visage took on a new grimace of pain.

  Syldan turned his attention back to James. “You feel… you failed… failed Turek when you could not… save him from… my brother.”

  “Of course I do! He died because we couldn’t stop Apep!” James said angrily.

  Syldan reached for James. Extending a long arm and finding James’s wrist, he squeezed it assuredly. “Let go of it, James. You did not fail… Turek died, but he did so by choice… so that one day his people… led by his descendent… the blood of his blood… the one reborn of dragon… blood and fire, could, with the help of his own chosen sages one day set right… a wrong from long ago. That’s what this is about, James. It’s about taking your people home and fixing the wrong.” Syldan gasped and began coughing uncontrollably as he turned his gaze to Garrett’s hands. In his fit of hacking, blood began to seep from the corner of his mouth, a bright trail of violet making its way down onto his chin.

  Finally, bringing the coughing fit under control, he drew in a slow, shaky breath and studied the runes on Garrett’s hands like a medium might study the lines of a person’s palms before telling them their future. “Very good.”

  “You know what they mean?” Garrett asked hopefully.

  “What do they mean? They mean a great deal… they are dragon runes… that I know of… no human has ever… been marked with… with dragon runes.”

  Garrett wanted to scream. He had had eno
ugh of riddles with the journal and enough of mystery with the God Stones. He just wanted some straight answers, but Coach was clearly in a great deal of pain.

  But Syldan only nodded and closed his eyes. “All of you, listen to me,” he said, forcing his hand to lift, to beckon them close.

  David and James knelt down next to Garrett and Lenny, who had already taken a knee. The single lantern lighting the room cast a portentous glow that reflected a strange hue off the face of the elf.

  Syldan drew in a long breath and looked at each of them in turn as he spoke. “The prophecy was only the beginning. The ushering in of the events to come. I would never have guessed Apep would assemble the stones so soon. Only two times were the stones assembled. Only two times, but both times they were used to open the gate soon after. Now it seems my brother will use them to do much more. I am not sure how the Sound Eye will react over time on this planet or how this planet is reacting to the Sound Eye even in this very moment. I know what the prophecy says comes next. At some point in the coming months my brother will open the portal home, and you must be there when he does.” He settled his eyes on James. “Let go of your burden, James. You… have a new… burden to bear now. Do for your brother what… I could not do for mine… help him follow his path.”

  James swallowed and nodded.

  Syldan’s strange yellow eyes bore into Garrett’s own as he held his gaze. “I’m… afraid I can’t… stay any longer…” He shifted his eyes to David and smiled. “Thanks for trying to fix this old soldier, David, but I have fought my last battle.”

  Tears spilled freely down David’s cheeks despite his efforts to keep them in check.

  “Listen to me, all of you,” he said, his eyes now fixed on Lenny. “You boys must do this together… Win or lose, the sages stay together… no matter how bad it gets. You are all Turek’s chosen. Remember that… all of you. Syldan grabbed at Lenny and pulled him close. “Lenny,” he rasped, his own eyes filling with tears now, “I am so proud of you. Never forget that.” The dökkálfar smiled and squeezed Lenny’s hand. Then he closed his eyes. “I’m going… home.”

  Lenny’s mouth pressed tight, but his brow hinted at confusion.

  Garrett’s eyebrows knitted together. “Coach! Wait! Please!”

  Coach Dagrun – the dökkálfar elf, Prince Syldan, son of King Vulmon Loravaris, named heir to the throne of Osonian, Dragon Master, military war hero, and cross-country coach – exhaled his final breath and died.

  James pulled the blanket up and gently covered Syldan’s face.

  Except for the soft sound of David’s muffled sobs, the room fell into a heavy silence.

  Garrett finally broke the stillness by unfolding the paper Coach had given him. Inside the folded parchment was what looked like a large gold dollar coin. It was round and golden but way thicker than a coin. On both sides were weird markings.

  “Let me see it, Garrett?” David asked, pawing at his eyes. He studied the object for a moment, flipping it over in his hand. “It’s covered in runes like your arms.”

  “What does it mean?” Lenny asked.

  David’s mustache, wet with tears, twitched. “I have no idea. I can’t read elvish runes. But I bet it is a magical item of some kind.”

  Lenny snatched it from David, frowning as he studied the strange symbols. “Maybe the note says something about it.” He nodded toward the paper.

  Garret began to read.

  Garrett,

  I don’t know how much longer I can hold on, so I write you now in case I don’t make it to see you again. I live on the corner of North Twelfth and Harris. In the basement of my home, on the east wall, is a tunnel that was part of the Underground Railroad. It’s covered by wood paneling that you will have to remove to gain access. Go inside and follow the tunnel as far as you can. There is a small room at the back. In the room, next to a desk, you will find an old trunk and inside it a diary. I want you to have it.

  I began writing it some time ago in the hopes I could pass it on to my own child someday. I see now this will never be, so I ask that you take it. It will contain many answers you seek. But be warned, you will discover truths inside that may change your opinion of me. I won’t make excuses for everything I’ve done and can only say I have made difficult decisions that I thought were in the best interest of those involved. Keep what you learn to yourself until the time is right. When that time comes, I know you will do the right thing.

  The Eyra of Tunga is one of the few items I brought with me to this world. Someday, you and your sages may find it useful.

  —Coach

  The room fell quiet for a moment that seemed to stretch out. Garrett reflected on the time he had spent with Coach. The first day he met him, and just a few days ago when he’d made him captain of the cross-country team. Finally, he raised his head, “Goodbye, Coach.”

  “Bye, Coach,” Lenny repeated.

  “Bye, Coach,” David choked out.

  Lenny drew in a deep breath and rubbed a hand across his face. “Well, that letter was pretty ominous.”

  David sniffed. “So we have to go back into a tunnel to get another book. One that you probably won’t like reading. You’re kidding, right? This sucks ass!”

  “Well, we found out the name of this Eyra of Tunga thing,” Lenny said, turning the golden object over in his hand, “but we didn’t get any answers.”

  James nodded. “True, but it tells you where to find them. We still have time before dark if we go now. Well? Anyone up for a trip across town, Keeper of the Light style?”

  “Garrett, you up for it?” Lenny asked.

  “Yeah,” Garrett said, glancing back at Coach, his still shape unmoving under the sheet.

  “Don’t worry, I will have his body carefully removed and prepared for a funeral pyre,” James said. “It’s what he requested.”

  They filed back out into the hallway, where the two guards were talking to a large man dressed in camo BDUs and white tee shirt.

  “Paul!” Garrett shouted.

  The two clasped hands and pulled each other into a bro hug.

  “I heard you were awake! Are you all caught up on what happened?” Before Garrett could answer, Paul looked to James. “I finished my assessment of the Undertown’s rear quadrant. It isn’t bad but I see a few things we could implement immediately that would make a big difference.” He turned back to Garrett.

  Garrett nodded. “Yeah, I think so.”

  “Good. I am hoping you can tell me your plan for finding my sister,” Paul said in a serious tone. “I have been bouncing off the walls waiting for you to wake up. Do you know where she is?”

  Garrett blinked. “I… I…”

  James held out a hand. “He just woke up, Paul, and Syldan just died. Give him some time.”

  Paul frowned, a protest building in his eyes.

  “We are going to Coach’s place. He left a diary there. Maybe it will contain answers. Join us.”

  Paul nodded. “A diary? Yes. That could be helpful.”

  James led them through what Paul had referred to simply as Undertown. The catacombs wove under not only a good part of downtown Petersburg, but also snaked back into the bluffs as well. James explained, “Many of the narrow tunnels lead to the Keepers’ homes. This allows us to move in secret, meet up, strategize, and prepare without being noticed.”

  “And keep an eye on me?” Garrett asked pointedly.

  “Protect you,” James countered.

  Garrett decided to let that go for now. “But why the secrecy? Isn’t the whole town in on this?”

  “No,” David answered quickly. “Pete’s mom wasn’t and neither was my dad.”

  “My parents were. That’s why I was being trained at night too,” Lenny said.

  Garrett thought this made sense since Lenny had to train but Pete didn’t. He assumed now David didn’t either. “Wait a minute, David, so where does your dad think you are?”

  “Oh, he knows now. Now that I’m one of your sages, James had him brought i
nto the fold.”

  “And he was good with it? Just like that?”

  “No, he took some convincing, but with the world going crazy out there and our even crazier story, he is convinced. At least convinced enough to stay.”

  “What about Pete’s mom?”

  James shook his head sadly. “You know Pete’s mom is engaged to Jack’s dad. Pete went to her and tried to tell her the story. I think she wanted to believe Pete, but Jack’s dad wasn’t hearing it. Pete ran off. We found him and brought him in. As for his mom, she ended up going to the police. But the ones who aren’t Keepers or aren’t already dead from their run-in with Apep have their hands full out there. They don’t have time or resources to worry about a missing kid right now. The last report we had on her, she had gone to live with Jack’s dad, and we haven’t heard from her since.”

  Jack – there was a name he hadn’t thought of since waking up. “Has anyone heard from Jack or his brother?”

  “I had some of your men scouring the river. They found two older men dead a couple miles past the dam. No sign of Jack or his brother. It isn’t likely they made it either, Garrett. The Sangamon tends to hold on to its dead. Frankly, I was surprised it gave up the others so soon,” James said.

  A cold chill ran down Garrett’s back. Thanks to Lenny, it hadn’t held onto him. It would be fine by him if he never saw the Sangamon again as long as he lived.

  James stopped, motioning toward a ladder. “Here we are. North Rutledge is about as close as I can get us to Syldan’s. We are going to have to hoof it from here. Once we get topside, stay close and follow me.”

  It was the first time the sun had touched Garrett’s face in over ten days. They beat feet through a yard and into the woods, where an old set of tracks used to run through but had been pulled up long ago, leaving only a gravelly trail.

  “This way,” James said, but then drew up short. “There!” he pointed. “You see what I mean?” Cutting across the old railroad tracks was a swath of turned-up earth about fifteen feet across. “That’s got to be a tree trail,” James whispered. “C’mon, let’s keep moving.”