The Keepers Of The Light (God Stone Book 2)

by Andrew Schafer

  James’s serious face broke into a smile and he laughed. “Yeah, for sure you would have.”

  “Now just pretend I’m there with you, asking the dumb questions, and before you know it we will be in Mexico together.” Garrett extended his hand out to his brother.

  James reached past Garrett’s hand, grabbed his forearm, and squeezed. “See, hundreds of years ago this was a proper handshake.”

  Garrett smiled, clasping his brother’s forearm in return.

  Then James yanked his brother forward and hugged him tight. “But this has always been a proper hug.”

  Garrett embraced his brother and slapped his back. “Mom is going to freak out.”

  “Yes. But once you’re gone, I will help her understand. Nothing changes. We will meet you there.”

  “Can you wake Ed and Paul and let him know we’re leaving?”

  James nodded. “Anything else?”

  “Can you get us out of here without Mom seeing us?”

  James smiled. “I think I can handle that, little brother.”

  The four friends, born and raised in Petersburg, Illinois, prepared for the journey of their lifetime, an adventure that promised to take them across two countries and to the portal to another world.

  No one knew how this was going to end, but Garrett knew, for the first time since this whole thing started, this decision was his and nobody was making it for him. Right or wrong it was his. Standing there in the low light of the supply room, watching his friends stuff gear into packs, it felt pretty damn right.

  “Alright then, boys, let’s go to Mexico.”

  Epilogue: Jack

  Sunday, April 17 – God Stones Day 11

  The Sangamon River, Petersburg, Illinois

  Jack pushed the stick into the small fire and flipped the branch over. He grabbed another from the stack and tossed it on before sitting back down. Eleven days since that night. The night Garrett killed his brother. At first, he thought Danny must have made it out. After he’d dragged himself from the water, he screamed for Danny, screamed and screamed, but his brother didn’t answer. He figured he must have gotten washed further down, that’s all. So, when the pain settled and he could get to his feet, he started walking.

  By the time Jack had gotten to the old busted dam, his throat hurt from screaming. He was freezing. He knew he had to find Danny, and fast, except he musta got washed over the dam and he ain’t heard of no one living through that. But then no one was tougher than Danny, and if he knew anything it was that if he’d made it out, his big brother made it out too.

  Making his way past the dam he’d forced his raw throat to keep on screaming. His whole body was shivering and the pain in his head was bad, but nothing compared to the pain in his testicles. That bastard Garrett might have broken one of his nuts.

  He had rounded the bend in the river and made his way under the Highway 123 overpass, more than a mile from where they had gone in and still nothing. “Dan-ny!” he screamed out over the dark water as the tears began to come. He couldn’t stop the tears, and he couldn’t keep going. It was pitch black. His only source of light was the strange, lightning-filled sky, but it only came in strobing flashes. The rain was falling in sheets. He couldn’t see for shit, and he had fallen repeatedly.

  Without a plan Jack had found a relatively dry spot under the overpass where he could curl up in a ball. He couldn’t go home, not without Danny. What would he tell his dad? Besides, he just couldn’t do it. Home was a good two-mile walk. He was so cold. Somehow his lower lip was healed, but his face was still throbbing, and everything hurt. That night, he had been more scared than he had ever been in his life as he lay there and cried.

  Morning had arrived, along with a strange dog licking his face. He forced opened his eyes in a squint of pain. It was a chocolate lab with a bright red collar. He blinked, realizing his legs and arms had practically gone numb from the cold. “Get away, mutt,” he had said, as he reached out and put his frozen hand on the dog to push him back.

  Something happened.

  The dog cried out in a high-pitched yelp, but it froze in place.

  Jack felt a warmth pull into his hand, like he had just reached into a warm bath. His hand stayed on the dog and the warmth drew up his arm and across his chest. The shirt he wore went from wet to dry as the warmth spread.

  The dog whimpered softly.

  Jack didn’t pay any attention to the dog as he closed his eyes, feeling the warmth move up his swollen and bruised neck and into his head, while at the same time spreading down his torso and into his testicles. As the warmth radiated through his body, all his pain melted away. A moment passed and the dog quieted, and he felt… amazing.

  Jack drew in a deep breath, let it out, and opened his eyes. He gasped in horror, yanking his hand back away from the dog. It didn’t look much like a dog anymore. A good part of the lab’s coat was missing, replaced with rotted patches of raw flesh, one of its eyes was dried up, and its teeth… Jesus, its teeth had fallen out.

  The lab fell over, unable to stand. It looked like loose, rotting fur draped over bones. Jack stared, not understanding what had happened. The dog took a last labored breath and died. Jack looked down at his hand and back to the carcass. He pushed himself back away from it, got to his feet, and ran.

  He ran as fast as he could along the bank of the river. He couldn’t think about that dog and whatever… that was. He had to find Danny. That’s all that mattered. Danny would know what to do. His voice was strong now and the sun was up. He yelled for Danny for the next seven miles, never once taking his eyes off the river. But as the hours passed with no sign of his brother, he feared he would have to turn back and go home. That’s it, he had thought. Maybe Danny went home? Maybe I missed him somehow. The more he ran, the more he knew that must have been what happened, he simply missed him. He decided he would round the next bend and then turn back.

  Looking back, he wished he would never have rounded that bend.

  Something pale and bloated was poking out of a brush pile on his side of the river. It didn’t look like a person though, not at first. But the closer he got the more his guts began to twist. When he was fifty feet away, he knew it was a person. But it couldn’t be Danny – it had to be one of his brother’s friends… not Danny.

  At thirty feet away the water was moving so fast it looked like it might rip the body out of the brush pile. The body had Danny’s hair color, but it couldn’t be Danny! Tears began to flow down Jack’s face as he walked numbly forward.

  At ten feet away Jack could see the bloated and bruised face of his brother, and he dropped to his knees and screamed. “Danny! God, Danny, please! Wake up! Get up, Danny!”

  Jack pushed himself up and waded into the current, grabbing his brother’s bloated body and jerking him free of the brush. The Sangamon pulled back, sucking them into the current.

  The next several miles, Jack had clung to Danny’s body with all he had. He fought the river, trying not to get pulled under, but eventually the river won the battle, forcing him to let go of his brother or drown. Jack flailed frantically, screaming, “Danny!”

  He would never forget the image of Danny’s body as it rolled over in the current one last time and disappeared.

  Jack had spent the next several days trying to find Danny again. He slept in the woods along the river, built fires, and ate what small critters he could find. He discovered that he could focus on animals such as squirrels and fish, and, if he did it right, he could infect their brain or their heart without tainting their meat. He ruined a few, turning them completely rotten, but it didn’t take long for him to get the knack at targeting their organs once he puzzled it out.

  After a while he knew, he was never going to find Danny. He also knew he never wanted to go home. Once his father found out Danny was dead, it would just be another reason for him to drink and beat on him. No, he wasn’t going home.

  Then, mourning the loss of Danny shifted his thoughts to Garrett. Garrett, who had humiliated
him and killed the one person in the world he loved, Danny. At first, Jack didn’t want to live, but now, eleven days later, he lived for one purpose – to kill Garrett. But he wouldn’t just kill him straightaway. No, he didn’t deserve mercy. Garrett needed to feel what he had felt. He would kill everyone he loved first.

  Sanity had departed days ago, and what was left now was vengeful and broken. In the late evening of the eleventh day, Jack sat on a sandbar stoking a fire and talking with Danny. He wasn’t sure when talking out loud to Danny had started or how it happened. “I’m going back, Danny! You hear me! I’m going back to find that son of a bitch Garrett Turek and his friends, and I’m going to make them pay! Lenny, Pete, and those outsiders too! All of ’em are going to pay for what they did to you, Danny! Garrett’s mom, his brother, anyone who ever smiled at him, Danny! They are all going to die, and he is going to live to see it. Then I’m going to kill Garrett slow, starting by rotting his balls off!” he screamed out over the river, his voice cracking in rage as spittle flew from his mouth.

  Behind him, beyond the sandbar, the trees stirred.

  Jack spun. “Who’s there!” he shouted.

  Silence.

  “I know you are there, by god – I heard you plain as day!”

  From the woods a tree rushed toward him, its roots churning through the dirt as it pulled itself forward with surprising speed.

  “Je-sus!” Jack shouted, backpedaling past his fire and into the river up to his knees.

  The tree stopped in the center of the sandbar. “Boy!”

  Jack spun around in a circle, looking for the source of the voice.

  “Boy, where is Garrett Turek?” the voice said.

  Jack looked up into the tree, trying to see if a person was in the branches, but then he realized the voice was coming from the tree itself.

  “What? I… I don’t know,” Jack said, standing still in the water.

  “Did you not yell his name twice? Did you not state your intentions to kill him?” the tree asked, its branches moving in multiple directions all at once as its newly budding leaves shook.

  “He… Yes, but…” Jack straightened. “Yeah, that’s right. I said I’m going to kill him and everything he loves. What’s it any business of yours, tree?”

  “Where is he? I have business with this human.”

  “What business do you got?” Jack asked.

  “My queen desires an audience with him,” the tree said.

  The tree sounded real proper, like big city proper, and Jack didn’t care for it. “Look, tree, if you want to kill him, you better get in line. And if you don’t want to kill him, you best get out the way.” Jack stepped up out of the water and onto the bank.

  Jack looked up at the tree, his own way of looking someone in the eyes to show he wasn’t scared and he sure as hell wasn’t backing down. Except he wasn’t sure where its eyes should be. He figured they must be up high somewhere, so he stared up, and that’s when he saw the eagles. Least he thought they were eagles, flying right toward him in a flock. Which made zero sense, since eagles don’t fly in flocks.

  “I will ask you one more time, where is Garrett? Answer or suffer.”

  Those sure as shit were not eagles. Jack’s eyes went wide as the definitely not eagles drew close and took notice of him on the sand bar. The tree, which hadn’t stopped moving its branches to and fro, suddenly froze still as a rock.

  These were huge beasts, way bigger than any eagle, and as they slowed and began their descent, Jack felt a strong sensation to run. He knew what these were, what they had to be. These were pterodactyls. There were half a dozen, plus one really big one.

  Sand stirred all around him as the beasts descended, their wings flapping. The big one was red and scaly, and now he realized it wasn’t a pterodactyl. Its long talons sank into the sandbar as it stepped past the tree. The others looked like children compared to this one. They stood in a row, watching.

  “What is your name, human?” the red dragon asked.

  “Jack.”

  “Why are you screaming Garrett Turek’s name?”

  “You could hear that?”

  “Answer me,” the dragon said, huffing two bursts of smoke through his nostrils.

  The air around Jack filled with the putrid smell of rotten eggs. Jack swallowed. “I want to kill him!”

  The dragon stared down from over thirty feet high. “Where is Turek?”

  “Probably back in Petersburg,” Jack said, pointing upstream.

  “Why then are you yelling for him here?”

  “I’m not yelling for him! I’m… I’m angry and I want to kill him. Don’t you ever yell when you’re angry?”

  “No. I burn everything when I am angry,” the red dragon said.

  “Kill the human,” said one of the smaller dragons.

  “Yes,” hissed another. “Can I eat this one?”

  The red dragon twisted his long neck back toward the younger ones. “Silence!” he bellowed. “Yes, the dökkálfar said he would be in Petersburg.” He lowered his head. “I desire this human, Garrett Turek. Tell me precisely where he is and, perhaps, I will spare your life.”

  Jack swallowed again. “Are you going to kill him?”

  “None of your concern. Now, answer me.”

  “Because I can help. I know stuff. I can find him. If you let me help, I can show you!”

  “Enough!” the red dragon said.

  Jack frowned.

  “Kill him, Goch!” a brown dragon said.

  “Oh, yes. Let me! Please, Goch, let me burn him!”

  “No. The dökkálfar Apep said if Turek is alive he will be in Petersburg. You will tell us, or I will burn it from you – starting with your toes.”

  Apep? Did he just hear the word ‘Apep’? Jack thought back to the night he met the man in the cloak. The night something in his head fractured. He asked the hooded man in the alley that night how he could find him, and the man had said he would know when the time was right and all he needed to do was—

  “I tire of this.” The red dragon opened his mouth and began to roar.

  “Wait – Apep!” Jack shouted.

  The dragon roar stopped, and all the other dragons fell silent.

  “I… I know Apep… I mean I serve him.”

  Goch leaned all the way down, bringing his nose close to Jack’s. “You serve the dökkálfar!?”

  “He lies!” said the grey dragon.

  “No! I’m not lying,” Jack pleaded. “And I know something else too! You’re not the only ones looking for Garrett.”

  “Who else seeks the descendant of Turek?” Goch demanded.

  Jack looked over at the oak tree and pointed.

  All the dragons turned to look.

  The oak tree stood still as a statue.

  “That big-ass tree was threatening me right before you guys showed—”

  The oak tree spun, its roots ripping the earth out from under the row of young dragons like a rug being yanked from under a row of elephants. The sound of creaking and twisting wood screeched across the river as the tree thrust a sharp branch thicker than a baseball bat downward, through the chest of the closest dragon, killing it instantly.

  Goch spun and leapt forward, wrapping talons around the offending branch, snapping it like bone. The tree shouted in rage as the young dragons got to their feet. The woods beyond the sandbar began to rustle and move as more trees began to make their way onto the sandbar.

  Goch roared and let out a belt of fire. The mighty oak tree burst into flames.

  All the young dragons began to flap their wings, lifting off the ground, but the grey one wasn’t quick enough and in a final war cry the oak tree fell forward, pinning the young dragon beneath it. In the tree’s final throes of death, it stabbed branch after branch into the smaller dragon.

  Goch spread his wings.

  “Wait, you can’t leave me!” Jack shouted as the trees closed in.

  Goch leapt from the ground, flew over Jack, and wrapped him around t
he waist in his long talons.

  The young dragons circled, burning the woods around the stretch of river as they went.

  “Tell me, human. How do we find Garrett Turek?”

  “I’ll do better than that. I’ll show you.”

  Glossary

  Ancient Language of the Gods

  Ray doeeshozmue, rah ak ff esh!: All substance, bend to my will!

  Flah oz zaeshi ff mue, flah oz zaeshi! flah oz zaeshi!: Feed and grow my pets, feed and grow!

  Rah ak ff esh oz eshmue eshoz eshflah!: Bend to my will and ignite with fire!

  Shirayshi, akdoe!: Shadows obey!

  Akozak ak ff esh!: Transform to my will!

  Flahoz—: Relea—

  Eshakmue ff esh!: Impose my will!

  Rayzae!: Back!

  Akdoemue oz doe!: Consume and burn!

  Mue—: Def—

  Akdoe mue flah ak zae ozoz. Zaeshi ak ff esh!: Obey me roots of the earth. Grow to my will!

  Mueeshshi esh ak akdoemue: Bestow gift of tongues

  Shirayshi, Esh akoz, oz akdoe!: Shadows I command, you obey!

  Eshesh esh zaeray!: Still his heart!

  Rayesh ak eshmue, Esh akoz oz flahmue!: Water to ice, I command you freeze!

  Spanish

  ¡Perfecta!: Perfect!

  Sí, compañera: Yes, friend

  ¡Dios mío!: My god!

  Me estás tomando el pelo: Are you kidding me

  muy obstinada: very stubborn