by Otto Schafer
“That’s enough, Apep,” Dagrun said. “I’ve been watching you for some time now, doing what you do, plotting your big comeback. Very clever, posing as an unassuming Christian do-gooder, but you’ve never fooled me.”
Eugene pulled a face then shot Dagrun a look. “Enough? Yes, pathetic human. I suppose you’re right!” He raised his skinny arm and motioned with his fingers as he mumbled some strange words Garrett had never heard. “Shirayshi, akdoe!” Shadows darted from Eugene’s spread fingers toward Dagrun, taking form into something seemingly solid and pointed.
Dagrun motioned idly with his own hand, as if he were backhanding a pesky mosquito, not magic from a powerful wizard. The dark shards deflected before reaching him, falling harmlessly to the floor and dissipating back into shadow.
“Holy shit, did you see that?” Lenny said, peeking through a gap between the stalagmites.
“Yeah,” Garrett said, allowing the tiniest bit of hope to seep into his voice. He knelt next to Pete, speaking in a low whisper. “Guys, we need a plan.”
Eugene frowned uneasily. “I don’t recognize you. What’s your name, Keeper?”
“My students call me Coach Dagrun.”
Eugene looked befuddled. “Dagrun?”
“That’s right. It’s the name I gave myself long ago.”
Eugene’s expression changed, taking on a suddenly uncomfortable pucker. “No,” he mumbled slowly, his head beginning to shake. “That name has special meaning where I come from… it means—”
“Dragon,” Coach interrupted.
“Father! Who is he?” Janis asked, uneasiness clear in her voice.
Lenny and Garrett shared a look. “Father?”
“No. It isn’t possible! Syldan? You can’t be here!” Eugene said, his eyes springing wide with the terror of some realization.
“But I am here,” Dagrun said.
“You couldn’t have opened the gate! Not without the Sound Eye!”
“No. I couldn’t have. You opened it for me, Apep,” Dagrun said.
“But that would mean you have been here since…?”
Dagrun pointed at the prone giant. “I’ve been here since you and your nephilbock opened the gate the second time.”
“But… but how?” Eugene stammered.
“The portal stayed open just long enough for me to slip through before it collapsed.” Dagrun stepped forward toward Eugene. “Come now, Apep, did you really think he wouldn’t find out? Did you think our father would allow you to lead our enemies to another world where you could build an army unchallenged?”
“It is you!” Eugene staggered backward like he had been struck. “Brother!”
Dagrun’s body began to change, to transform. His limbs, both arms and legs, stretched several inches, as did his neck. His skin changed to a bluish hue, and his ears grew to points. His eyes slanted up, then curved in a graceful arc back down. His facial features changed too, his jaw becoming more prominent and his hair transforming from a short, sandy-brown buzzcut to a long flowing sheet of black. Within a few seconds, he had completely changed into a tall, lean… what?
Garrett and Lenny tried to find an angle to see between the stone columns.
“Jesus, Garrett, what is that?” Lenny said, pointing to the thing standing where Coach had been.
“I… I can’t tell for sure. But he isn’t human.”
The corner of Syldan’s mouth turned up in what Garrett could only figure was a cross between a hateful sneer and a smile.
“That’s right, Apep, twelve thousand years I’ve waited.”
Eugene’s thick brows drew together. “But—”
Syldan held up a silencing hand. “During most of my time here I allowed myself to just forget you. But over the centuries there were the nights I couldn’t forget. The nights I lay awake thinking of what I might say to you in this moment. I have played it out so many times. But now that the moment is upon us, I have only questions. What is it you hope to accomplish, Apep? You are a failure. You failed our father. You failed your people. You failed your own brother, and even when you tried to kill me as I slept… still you failed. Did you think if you killed me our father would change his mind and give you the throne?
Eugene’s eyes flared and looked wild. Wilder than Garrett thought possible.
“You nearly destroyed this planet with your ignorance, Apep. And what if I hadn’t come? What if I hadn’t intervened with the dragons you brought here? I will tell you what – they would have wiped out this whole planet. You joined with our sworn enemies and brought dragons here! To what end? You thought you could control them – you? I am a Dagrun Heru, Apep! You could never have controlled them!”
“Enough!” Eugene screamed, his face screwing up in disgust. “It is laughable that you have the temerity to lecture me. Do you think I cared about controlling dragons? Or about this planet? I came here to build my own army of giants. And the dragons?” he huffed. “I knew I was on the cusp of losing control of them, but it mattered not! All I needed to do was finish my work in Egypt. The pyramid was nearly complete, and then I could have opened the gate home. I wouldn’t have needed to control them, they were starving – they’d have laid waste to everything in their path.”
“You would destroy your own kingdom, your own people? You would have unleashed thousands more dragons into our world?”
“Yes, Syldan! Where were our people when father banished me? Where were you when father had me stripped naked and marched into the misting sand?” Eugene’s face was trembling with rage as he pointed a shaking finger at the newly transformed Dagrun. “To return to Karelia and take what is rightfully mine – I would unleash hell! I would burn it all and be king of ashes. But at least I would be king!”
“After all this time father will be long dead! Who knows if Osonian even exists?!”
Eugene smiled. “You are a bigger fool than even I could have guessed. Time is not linear, Syldan. I won’t have lost a single minute from the time I last opened the portal!”
“What?”
“The heir to the throne is the eldest son. I am the eldest, Syldan! Not you! What father took from me goes against everything we are. I will enjoy looking into his eyes as the life drains from his worthless soul!”
As Eugene beat a fist into his scrawny chest for emphasis, Garrett gaped, mouth open in wide-eyed shock at the once-kind man with the shoestring arms – the bean counter, as he often referred to himself. The man who gave Garrett and his friends each a penny to make a wish. He looked at Lenny, whose feelings must have mirrored his own, because as the lighthearted Sunday school teacher continued ranting like a psychopath on the topic of destroying worlds, what Lenny said next captured Garrett’s feelings perfectly.
“Garrett, if there is really a Twilight Zone, we’re balls-deep in it now.”
Garrett could only offer a slow nod of acknowledgment as he turned back to the gap between columns.
“Gods, I should have just killed you in Egypt, but Turek convinced me we should only imprison you and cast you into a suspended sleep. I had my people in Egypt dig you a nice deep hole and stick you behind walls so thick it should have been impossible for you to escape. But just as Turek predicted, here you are.”
Eugene’s clean-shaven cheek twitched as his head cocked to the side. “It was you who doomed me to that rotten hole for nearly nine thousand years! My own brother!”
Now Eugene’s form began to change. No longer was he the scrawny accountant. In only seconds, Eugene was gone. In his place Apep appeared, taking on the same bluish hue in his skin as his brother Syldan, stretching to nearly seven feet tall, his frame filling out into a muscular build. His once-bald head suddenly boasted its own full head of black hair, long, silky, and dark as night. His chin became more chiseled and his nose lengthened to match his brother’s. He stood up tall, pushing out his chest.
Syldan met his brother’s violet eyes with his own and nodded. “It was I.”
“And you would kill me for what? These humans?” Apep spat, his face cont
orting in bitter disgust. “We are dökkálfar! Superior in every way! Our race lives thousands of years in comparison to their paltry dozens. We are lucky to bear one child of our own, but them – they breed like Karelian morph flies, consuming everything until there’s nothing left. They’re a plague on their own world – roaches, vermin, meaningless insects! I will be happy to know this world is pulled apart at its fabric as I step through the portal home!”
Janis watched on, her face deadpan as if an emotionless robot dwelled behind her alien eyes.
Inside their cell, Garrett and Lenny tried to follow along. Garrett pulled his eyes away from the gap to glance back at Breanne and David. David knelt at Pete’s side across from Breanne, who had her hands pressed down over Pete’s stomach.
Pete was dying or maybe dead. Garrett couldn’t tell, but he looked bad.
“Bre, I need to do something,” David said.
Breanne’s eyes darted up as she tried desperately to stop Pete’s bleeding, applying pressure to the deep wound. “What?” she gasped.
David nodded, motioning her to let him take over.
She peeled her hands from Pete’s gut.
Garrett tried to swallow back a wave of queasiness.
David tore open Pete’s shirt and placed his hand over the slippery wound, a dark crimson seeping up between his fingers.
Garrett’s heart sank at the site of the jagged puncture. So much blood. More than he had ever seen in real life. Time was not on their side. They needed to get out and get help for Pete. He tore his eyes from his friend to share a look of worry with Breanne. She pressed her lips into a tight line. Her brows were knitted, and Garrett realized she didn’t look so good. Like she was fighting to hold it together. Please don’t lose it on me, Bre. Somehow, he knew if she fell apart, he would follow right behind her, and then what?
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 nephilbock!”
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 wha
t 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, placing 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.”
