by Otto Schafer
“Yes,” Mr. B admitted. “It is one thing to feel the magic of the God Stones coursing through you, to feel the energy even if your mind is fully open. It is, however, quite another to harness it through your third eye and truly control it. Deploying the full power of the God Stones requires knowledge of the gods’ language, but unfortunately the gods’ language is lost to us. And even knowing the language does not simply make one a master. Think of mastering the energy of the God Stones as reaching enlightenment. The Buddhist monk practices meditation his whole life to reach enlightenment, and yet he may never get there. The good news is you don’t have to be a master spell caster to tap into the power of the God Stones, but you need to be able to channel it.”
Breanne nodded slowly. “So somehow we need to open our third eye?”
“No, Breanne, not for you and not for you either, Paul. The fact you survived the exposure to the God Stones and your pineal gland didn’t explode outright must mean your third eye has altered.” Mr. B turned back to Garrett. “But both you and Lenny have been training to open your third eye for years.”
“For years?” Garrett asked.
“Yes,” Mr. B said, gesturing with his hand. “When you struck me, what were you thinking of?”
“Running,” Garrett said with a shrug, knowing it sounded silly.
“And when you slowed the concrete blocks during their fall?”
“Trail running. It was like I was there on the trails, and then… then time slowed,” Garrett said, shaking his head in confusion. “It’s like I had all the time in the world.”
To his surprise, Mr. B nodded. “Ah, it does not surprise me that you are at your most meditative state when you are running. But you didn’t slow time itself, Garrett. You slowed the objects you were focused on. You slowed time in a specific radius. To Lenny and I, the objects were actually moving in slow motion, but time was passing normally. Think of it as an envelope. You slowed time in the envelope.”
Garrett nodded slowly.
Lenny nodded. “It was crazy sick. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me.”
“What about Pete, Janis, and I?” David asked, thrusting a thumb into his chest.
“I suspect your pineal glands will open fully upon exposure but be patient, you haven’t spent years training your focus as Lenny and Garrett have. Using the magic without focus could result in side effects or unintended consequences,” Mr. B said.
“Or our brains could burst, and we could all die!” Janis exclaimed.
Mr. B held up a hand and paused for an uncomfortably long second as if contemplating. “Not likely. You are the prophesized seven. I am sure you will be fine.”
Pete raised an eyebrow and shared a terrified look with Janis, then mouthed the words, “What the f !”
David smiled, rubbing his hands together. “Awesome!”
“As the energy from the stones saturates the world, all will change, and your powers will be greatly increased… that goes for all of you. But finding your focus is the key to harnessing it. To defeat Apep you will have to be able to do this. Apep won’t stand around while you try and figure it out. He won’t go easy on you like I did. Do you understand?”
Garrett caught Lenny’s eye and raised his eyebrows in disbelief. That was easy?
“Okay, Mr. B, but it would be really helpful if you knew at least some of the language – some of the words or something. Didn’t you learn any of these god words from Turek in all that time you spent with him?” Lenny asked.
“No. The stones were sealed, and spell casting was forbidden by Turek’s order. He taught me many things, but never the language of the gods.”
Garrett frowned. What good would harnessing power be if he couldn’t control it?
“Wait, so you’re telling us we all have to take up running?” David’s mustache twitched disapprovingly. “The only running I do is when I’m being chased by something.”
“No, not at all,” Mr. B said. “It’s different for each of you. You will each need to find your own way to inner focus.”
“Mr. B, I just want to help my dad. Please just tell us what we need to do,” Breanne said.
Mr. B looked to Peter. “You have Lincoln’s journal and you have learned the location of the temple?”
“We know where the entrance is,” Pete offered. “You know what’s inside the temple?”
Mr. B nodded. “You must beat Apep to the temple and once there you must destroy what’s inside. If Apep gets there before you he will learn how to assemble the God Stones into one complete stone called the Sound Eye. This is how he will open the portal. If he is successful in opening the portal, our planet likely will not survive it. This planet wasn’t built for the God Stones, Garrett. You must stop him. Once you do, the stones must be sealed away forever for the earth to be set back to normal.”
Garrett looked at his master with uncertainty. “What is it I have to destroy?”
Mr. B hesitated and Garrett could see he was holding back. “Mr. B, you have to tell me what I must do.”
Mr. B pulled in a long breath. “Instructions. You must destroy the instructions. When you get inside and you see” – he paused – “do not hesitate. You will see it and you must destroy it before Apep finds you.”
Garrett gave him a sideways look. What was it he wasn’t telling him?
“Mr. B…” Pete gazed intently at the master. He looked like he was going to say more, but he pressed his lips into a tight line.
“Pete?” Garrett squinted at his friend.
“We’ve listened and have chosen to believe your entire impossible story. The least you can do is tell us all of it,” Paul said, crossing his arms. “We need all the intel we can get if we’re going to be successful in this mission. Tell us what we’re up against here.”
Mr. B sighed then nodded heavily. “You’re right, of course. This is going to sound even crazier than what I have already told you, but I assure you every word is true, so brace yourselves. If Apep gets to the temple first, he will—”
The door rattled suddenly.
“Did you hear that?” Mr. B asked.
“Yeah… I did,” Breanne said, looking at the door.
They all fell silent, following her gaze.
“Sorry, we’re closed!” Mr. B shouted.
The door rattled again, then stopped.
Everyone froze, looking at the door.
“Do you feel them, children? The God Stones are here,” Mr. B whispered.
Garrett’s eyes went wide as a faint blue glow somehow permeated the door. The glow wasn’t coming from under or even around it but through it, as if the door itself was emitting it.
“Children, go now! There is a door in the back.”
All but Garrett and Lenny ran.
“What? Wait – no! We can’t leave you,” Garrett shouted.
The door rattled louder, and the blue hue grew brighter.
Running to the weapons wall, Mr. B yanked down a long staff of dark wood – one from the display section, not from the practice equipment. Turning to Lenny, he nodded. “Lenny, take this staff – it will serve you well. I used this when I trained with Turek.”
The boys stood openmouthed as Mr. B grabbed a second weapon – a sword.
Slowly the door swelled inward, flexing like a balloon filling with air.
Mr. B motioned desperately at the children to run. “Garrett! I thought we would have more time. There’s more you need to know! Go now and warn your mother and father of Apep’s arrival,” he said, glancing back to the door. “Garrett! You must go home first. Your father will have something for you. You must take it with you to the temple. Once you have it, go to the temple and destroy what’s inside! Remember, you must destroy it before Apep can get to it! I will hold him here as long as I can! Now run!” he shouted.
The door creaked – an awful, ear-piercing sound – as the fibers strained to their max.
As the boys turned to run, a hand grabbed Lenny’s arm. Mr. B pulled him close, but Garrett h
eard every word.
“Lenny, you have to protect him,” Mr. B said. “Keep him safe – he can’t do this without you. You’re the head of the Keepers of the Light now.” He turned away from Lenny, unsheathing his sword. The sword swished free of the leather scabbard as the old master idly tossed it to the mat.
They watched as Mr. B turned and marched fearlessly toward the door. Without looking back, he shouted, “Go! Go now!”
The others who had fled the mat at Mr. B’s first command had already moved to the rear of the dojo. Shoes in hand, they made their way down the back hall past the locker rooms, pausing at the back door.
“Where’s Garrett!?” Breanne shouted urgently.
“Garrett!?” Pete shouted back down the hall.
Garrett slid to a stop at the mouth of the hallway with Lenny on his heels. Pete frantically motioned for them to come, but Garrett couldn’t pull himself away… not just yet. He needed to see who – or what –was at the door; he had to see it for himself. He grabbed Lenny’s arm and pulled him down into a squat with one hand while simultaneously motioning for Pete to wait with the others at the end of the hallway.
The front door of the dojo exploded inward in a violent splintering of wooden shards. Along with the door, chunks of the door’s frame and even a section of the wall burst forth like a too-ripe pumpkin getting stomped. Garrett gasped a sharp breath as a strange blue haze spilled in like a thick rolling fog, a prelude to the evil behind it.
Mr. B raised his sword, ready to strike, as a cloaked figure stepped through the broken door frame.
The figure walked casually across the entryway, hands clasped behind his back, not bothering to remove his boots as he stepped onto the mat with all the nonchalance of a curious tourist perusing an art exhibit.
“Hello, fat man. It’s been a long time,” the cloaked figure said.
“You’re already too late, Apep,” Mr. B said flatly.
“Oh, now, I don’t think so. I would say I am right on time. I already have the God Stones and soon you will be dead, as will all these ridiculous children you’ve enlisted to fight the battle of a man long dead and forgotten.”
Garrett peeked out from behind the wall just enough to catch a glimpse of Mr. B’s lip curl as an ancient rage swelled inside him.
“You really think your Garrett and his little band of friends can defeat me?” Apep said, unclasping his hands. “Even when Turek could not? When all his men could not? When you yourself could not? Not only did you fail to stop me, you failed to save your master.”
Mr. B’s shoulders dropped slightly, causing his sword arm to droop. Garrett and Lenny exchanged looks.
“Oh, come now. Did you think I didn’t know about Garrett? Really?”
“Yes. He will defeat you,” Mr. B said, holding his sword high and ready, careful to keep his eyes fixed as he slowly circled. “He is the heir of Turek. The prophecy has already been foretold and your fate is sealed. He will destroy you, ridding the universe of your very existence once and for all.”
“Pft! Prophecy,” he huffed with a chuckle before pausing to study a sword hanging on the wall. “Your collection is very nice, very… authentic.” He held out a gloved hand and splayed his fingers. The sword flew off the wall and into Apep’s hand as if magnetically drawn right into his palm.
“I know this. You can’t assemble the stones, Apep. You don’t know how,” Mr. B said.
“This is a minor problem soon to be rectified,” Apep said, pointing one of the gloved fingers of his free hand at Mr. B. “You know, I’ve waited a very long time to end you. To finish what I left undone so, so long ago.” He was matching Mr. B’s circling motion step for step now as he began spinning the sword casually in his hand.
Hearing the stranger’s voice, Garrett felt compelled to get a better look at the guy. Carefully he tried to ease himself ever so slightly past the edge of the wall and sneak a peek out from the hall. Apep was completely concealed under a long trench coat, his face shrouded in the shadow cast by an oversized hood.
“Careful, Garrett. Don’t let him see you,” Lenny warned, pulling at Garrett’s dobok sleeve. “I think we need to go.”
“Christ! They both have swords,” Garrett whispered urgently.
Pete came belly-crawling up to them. “Maybe we should get the heck out of here like your teacher guy said,” he advised.
“Hold on, Pete!” Garrett said, still trying to see what was happening. Apep was spinning the sword in front, then behind his back, then in front, back and forth in an advanced flowering technique Garrett had never seen. “Are you seeing this!?”
“I’ll tell you what,” Apep said, abruptly tossing the sword to the side. “Let’s not bother with this. I’ll let you see what you have been guarding all these years with your own eyes… before I remove them from your skull.” Apep reached for the fastener of his duster with a gloved hand and unclasped it. Slowly he pulled one side open from his chest, and one by one the God Stones levitated out from an inside pocket of his coat. Inside each stone, a strange force danced with energy. As they rose upward, they spaced themselves apart evenly before forming a perfect circle. The circle of stones ascended above Apep and Mr. B, spinning slowly overhead.
Mr. B narrowed his eyes and stood fixed, his grip on the sword tightening despite his centuries of practice keeping it loose in his hand.
His whitening knuckles did not go unnoticed by Apep, eliciting a knowing smile and wag of his finger. “Tsk, tsk, Master Brockridge – control your fear.”
Still peeking around the corner, Garrett was the first of the three in the hall to see the stones. Something inside his head went strangely and suddenly wrong – like someone had grabbed the funny bone of his mind and begun to squeeze. The pain went from dull to sharp in the matter of a few heartbeats and was quickly followed by the immediate impulse to vomit.
From the look on Lenny and Pete’s faces, they felt it too. Both covered their ears and pressed their eyes closed, fighting the growing agony.
Garrett forced himself to look through squinted eyes, but the pain was so intense and getting worse by the second. Beside him he heard Lenny moan.
Apep held his hands out, palms up. “Alright, Grand Master Brockridge,” he said, giving a sarcastic emphasis to the formal title. “I have a proposition for you. It’s quite simple really – if you can beat me, the God Stones are yours. You can do with them as you please, bury them again, hide them in the dirt to satisfy your petty fear. Waste all their potential. Waste them and their power. But if you fail, oh my! I kill you and everyone on this wretched planet. I build my army and this world – this world burns, and I open the gate to my kingdom and leave this one behind in so much forgotten ash.”
Bolting forward, Mr. B struck down with the blade at Apep’s face with a vicious overhead chop.
Apep stood motionless with his hands to his side until the last possible second before sidestepping. The blade swooshed by, missing his shoulder by millimeters.
Above them, the God Stones spun.
2
Perfect Circle
Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones Day 1
Rural Chiapas State, Mexico
“Gabi!” a voice echoed from down the gorge.
A man with a wide-brimmed hat poked his head inside the tent. “Gabi, they’re calling for you!”
Gabi’s eyes sprung open wide with excitement. She sat the small animal bone and brush down on the tray and burst from the tent, rushing past Juan and into the hot Mexican jungle. The sky was a cloudless blue, as deep as the ocean and as still as a cenote. And there, high above, in the middle of it all, hung the burning sun, poised proudly against the royal blue backdrop, unmoving, as if nailed to the sky itself.
“Slow down, Gabi! The site is thousands of years old – it will still be there when you get there,” Juan called after her, laughing.
A giant smile stretched across her face as she hurried down the well-worn trail. Gabi was fast, fast as the wind. Faster than any boy her age, that w
as for sure. The trail wove down deep into the gorge, zigging and zagging between shoulder-high piles of rubble extracted from the collapse that had nearly killed the Moores over a year ago. As she drew close to the crevice, she saw María waiting, a hand extending a helmet toward her as the other beckoned her forward.
“Is it time?!” Gabi exclaimed, gasping for breath as she pulled the helmet over her silky, black hair.
“Sarah asked me to find you. She wants you to join her inside,” María said, her headlamp still on, though barely noticeable in the early afternoon sun.
“Down below?! Is it open?! Is she asking for me to come down to the lower chamber?!” The excitement spilled from her, overflowing like a fountain.
María smiled and laughed. “Yes, she is asking for you down below. Now come, let’s not keep her waiting.” María helped her with her chin strap as Gabi pulled her long pigtails above the helmet’s backstrap. “¡Perfecta! Now in you go,” she said, ushering her into the crevice.
In the process of clearing the collapse, the team had needed to widen the opening. As she walked easily through the crevice, she could only imagine the terror the Moores must have felt as this whole place came down around them. Gabi’s hands began to sweat, but not because she was nervous about being deep underground. No, it was quite the opposite. She had been waiting for this moment for months.
Sarah said she had a strange feeling this site was old, really old. How old, she couldn’t say. No one could – not yet. But it wouldn’t surprise Gabi to find out this site stretched back three thousand years or more! What if it were the oldest site in all of Mexico! And given its south-central location, it almost had to be an ancient Maya site. Of course, they would need carbon dating to prove it, Sarah said, but with the bone and pottery shards they had sent to the lab, they would have confirmation soon enough.
The prospect of this site being the oldest Maya site in all of Mexico excited Gabi. Why shouldn’t it? If it were true, this site was her heritage – her people. After all, her mother, Itzel, was modern-day Maya.
