by Otto Schafer
“Garrett!” Lenny shouted, falling into a fighting stance.
“This is bad!” Garrett shouted through gritted teeth as he drew his sword.
“You think!” Lenny said.
“It’s freaking out! I think it’s trying to make a run for it!”
“It can’t fit through the tunnel!”
“It doesn’t know that!” As Garrett watched the giant advance, a suicidal plan blossomed from a single thought. Although it was not human, it had legs and feet, just bigger, so it was reasonable to assume it had an Achilles tendon running down the back of its foot as well.
Suicidal is fine for me but not Lenny. But Garrett knew Lenny wouldn’t leave him. “Run, Lenny, I’m right behind you! Go! Go! Go!” he shouted, slapping his hands against the water, and with that Lenny took off.
Garrett turned back to the giant as it bore down on him. With only three long strides the giant was on him. Every ounce of Garrett’s being told him to move, but he tightened his grip on his sword, set his jaw, and held fast.
The giant’s foot descended overhead.
Just a half second more.
When Garrett felt the wind off the giant’s foot, he made his move, spinning away as the foot splashed down. He swung the sword blindly through an explosion of erupting water. The long sweeping arc of the blade encountered very little resistance as it bit deep into the back of Balor’s foot, cutting through the flesh and tendon, until finally scraping across bone.
Although Garrett felt all of it through the hilt of his sword, he knew beyond doubt his strike had been true when the giant’s slack foot rose from the water. He had severed the giant’s Achilles tendon. The big beast’s foot came back down, landing toes first and then rolling unnaturally with an audible crunch.
The giant fell hard, face-planting into the water.
On top of the slab, Breanne blinked away the past to find herself in the very real present, consumed instantly in heartache and loss. Paul was dead. His heart had stopped beating, and even David couldn’t fix him. Sobs came and through them she heard Apep’s voice chanting a strange combination of syllables. This was the language of the God Stones. Even with Janis’s spell, she couldn’t understand it. She felt Apep’s hand under her arm, yanking it awkwardly like a parent snatching up a child about to get into trouble. His grip was painful as he pulled her, but she deserved it. She deserved whatever came next because she knew this was all her fault. She dragged her brother here to this town, to this impossible place deep under the ground. Earlier he told her she couldn’t keep blaming herself and that what happened to her mother wasn’t her fault. But wasn’t it? Wasn’t it also her fault she couldn’t stop her father from opening that damned chest, and look what happened? So many people were dead! Now Paul was dead! God, not Paul! Her father… Jesus, her father would probably die! She looked across the chamber. The giant was running and then falling. She saw Garrett and from the looks of it he would be dead soon enough. Suddenly she knew what she had to do.
As soon as the giant hit the water, Garrett went into motion, finding the back of its other foot. He swallowed hard, rearing back to hack just above the thing’s heel. He chopped down as hard as he could, as if he were trying to split wood with a sword. This time he had leverage and when the sword bit in, it sank deeper than he thought possible.
Balor bellowed something incomprehensible and pulled his legs beneath him. He tried to stand but failed, letting out a cry of rage and falling back on his ass. He searched for the source of his agony and reached for Garrett with his good hand, the one with all six fingers still working.
From across the chamber Breanne screamed his name and Garrett froze, his heart knotted. He had to get to her. He tried to dodge the hand, back-pedaling in the waist-deep water, but he wasn’t fast enough. “Kiai!” Garrett yelled, slashing with his sword.
Balor yanked his hand back too slowly, costing him the tips of three of his fingers.
Garrett shuffled back.
The enraged giant’s eye went wide with fear as his attention shifted to something beyond Garrett. He pushed himself away, dragging himself backward toward the chamber’s opening.
Despite the pain Garrett had inflicted, he realized the giant didn’t fear him – it was Apep’s chant he feared. Garrett turned back to the slab and climbed. “I’m coming!”
Breanne held out her hand and shook her head. “No, Garrett! No! Get out now!”
Garrett froze, confused. He was at the opposite end, still a good thirty feet away.
“Just run, Garrett!”
“No! Apep, listen to me. Take the stones! You can have them! Just please, let her go!” Garrett’s eyes welled and threatened to spill over. The bastard killed Mr. B and Phillip. He felt the rage pushing him to the brink of losing himself. He wanted to attack, but what if Apep killed her? He couldn’t lose Bre too… he couldn’t. He knew it then and there. The God Stones, Apep – damn it all to hell. He just didn’t want to lose Bre. “Just leave, Apep! Take the stupid stones and go! Just go!” he commanded.
The air between them hummed with an electric energy.
Thirty feet away Apep fell one word short of completing the cast. He placed the Sound Eye on his head like a crown, smiled at Garrett, then laughed. He narrowed his eyes as his voice turned serious. “You dare to command me?” His voice rose again as he pointed at Garrett, “You get nothing! You lose!”
Breanne’s face was a tearful grimace as the bastard squeezed her arm too tight. It was too much. Garrett squeezed the hilt of his sword so tight his fingers ached. Her eyes still told him to run, but he only wanted to run to her.
Apep sucked a calming breath between bloody lips. “But I will leave you with this thought. You won’t find this one in The Art of War, Garrett. Another way to subdue the enemy is to offer them a gift. One thing about humans – giants love to eat them… alive.” His smirk returned. “Something for you to ponder while you sulk in your final moments.”
“No!” Garrett screamed and bolted forward, raising his sword high to strike.
Twenty-five feet.
“So long, my boy.” With a flourish of his free hand he spoke the final word.
Twenty feet.
Garrett had to shield his eyes as the energy around him coalesced into a blinding glow encompassing both Apep and Breanne in a perfect sphere. Still he ran.
Ten feet.
As the light intensified, heat radiated out from the sphere in a wave so strong his eyebrows singed. But it didn’t matter – he would run blind through fire if he had to.
“Breanne!” Garrett screamed, the heat filling his mouth and throat as he pulled in a breath. He had to be close to her. Had to be! There! He could hear her in front of him.
“Gar… rett!”
Five feet.
Then the light was gone along with Apep – and Breanne.
“No!” Garrett screamed, dropping to his knees. “No!”
For a single heartbeat, the chamber fell silent and Garrett wanted to die. Despite the insanity of it, until this moment he’d had hope and that hope fueled him to fight. But hope was truly lost, and it twisted his insides.
Somewhere in the darkness a rat squeaked.
Another breath and another heartbeat passed before it came, but it came and when it did it was deafening. A loud crack that vibrated through his bones. He raised his head and blinked away the bright spots still floating across his corneas.
His vision returned just in time to see the entire back wall of the ancient tomb collapse.
37
¡Eres el Amor de Mi Vida!
Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones Day 1
Rural Chiapas State, Mexico
Gabi didn’t look back. She couldn’t. Her mother’s scream and Fredy’s pleas told her everything. Oh god, please! María Purísima, please! Please, no! The heat of grotesque fire too close warmed her back, but she did not look. To look was to die. She made the corner for the second time.
A split-second later, Itzel and Sarah rounde
d the sculptured corner just as the flames passed.
Itzel fell into Gabi’s arms as both collapsed in a heap, stunned and sobbing. “I think Andrés made it to the water! María Purísima! I saw him catch fire, but I know he went into the water!” Itzel screamed in near hysteria as she pushed herself up.
“No, Itzel! You can’t!” Sarah said.
Itzel reached beneath her shirt, pulled out the necklace Sarah had given her, and yanked it free from her neck. Her eyes were wild with terror as she tried to force a final smile. She shoved the ring and necklace into her daughter’s hand. “I love you, Gabriela. You are noconetzin.” She turned to Sarah. “Please! Get my daughter out of here, Sarah! Promise me!”
“I… I promise,” Sarah said, grabbing her arm. “But Itzel, please.”
Itzel wrestled her arm free of Sarah’s grasp and was gone.
“Mamá, no!”
Back in the large chamber, Andrés poked his head above the water in time to see the dragon, which was standing right next to him, let out a last hateful gush of flame toward the giant. As flame gave chase, the giant ran past the broken platform, where the water deepened. When the giant was nearly waist deep, it spared a glance over its shoulder, gasped in a deep breath, and disappeared under the water for a final time.
The back of Andrés’s body stung like the skin had been completely burned off. Perhaps it had. He fought to stay conscious through the pain as he pulled himself onto the platform. He had to get to Gabi and Itzel; he had to make sure they were safe.
The dragon turned its massive, horned head and watched as he pulled himself slowly out of the water. He could feel it staring at him and, though he didn’t want to, he slowly risked a cautious look over his shoulder, careful to move slowly.
The dragon was smiling. And then it spoke in a strange feminine voice he couldn’t understand.
Andrés turned to face her, still on his knees at the edge of the water.
Twisting her thick neck, she lowered her head all the way down to meet the human’s eyes and spoke again.
Andrés shut his eyes up tight, like two guillotines dropping, as hot, rancid breath washed over his face. He groped blindly for the knife he always carried at his side, slowly drawing it out from its leather sheath. The dragon was speaking to him in a dialect unlike anything he had ever heard. It seemed as though there were two separate voices talking at the same time, one high and one low, neither matching the other nor making any sense.
He forced himself to look and instantly wished he hadn’t. The thing’s head reminded him of a massive black iguana but with horns. Only it was so, so much bigger and darker. Its jaws looked strong and its head muscular. The dragon’s mouth was open slightly, showing a row of saliva-soaked teeth. As Andrés looked into its eyes, he realized he didn’t need to understand its words to know what came next.
He forced himself up onto his knees and met the dragon’s eyes, telling himself not to blink. Large orbs swirled with brilliant emerald flecks and starburst of amber that reminded him of fire, and they too stared back unblinking, bottomless with ageless wisdom and an incredible intelligence. There was something else there too. Andrés frowned – what is it? He felt like he could be swallowed by those eyes, that he might fall off the ledge and into a bottomless maelstrom of fire. His whole body began to shake uncontrollably. Above all else, clear and true, he saw the dragon’s insatiable hunger.
Andrés tightened his jaw until it ached. It was now or never.
To his left Itzel screamed out, “No!”
“No, Itzel! Go back!” Andrés yelled, extending his left hand out to the side, motioning her back. In the other he squeezed the handle of the knife as though it were the only thing worth holding onto in the world. With a sudden jerk he raised the knife high above his head and shouted fearlessly into the dragon’s face. “Eres el amor de mi vida! I’ll be with you always, Itzel!”
“Andrés!” Itzel screamed.
Andrés thrust the knife toward the dragon’s eye.
Azazel lunged forward, her mouth snapping shut to chomp down on the upper half of the human’s body. Metal clattered to the stone floor as she drew back. The human’s bottom half sat motionless, still kneeling there on the stone path.
From her right she found the source of the pained cry. Another human sat whimpering. Waiting to be devoured. Hmm, good. As it should be. But that one would have to wait. The queen of queens stretched forward a second time, finishing the lower half of the human. She swallowed, closing her eyes to relish every taste. Stretching her neck, she lapped at the stone with her long, forked tongue, like a hungry dog licking clean the bowl, careful to leave nothing behind.
Azazel sighed, her wide nostrils flaring out as her breath stirred plumes of smoky dust from the walkway. She turned her head to the whimpering one, and again she was satisfied.
She heard another scream. Ah, more humans – and close. This was very good indeed.
38
Not Today
Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones Day 1
Petersburg, Illinois
Lenny caught up to the others at the end of the corridor, where the floor dropped away into the cave. David and Pete had made good time – Coach might even be proud of their efforts considering they both nearly failed his P.E. class – and Paul had kept up with them. Water spilled off the ledge, filling the stretch between the mouth of the tomb and the tight crevice they had come through earlier. They would somehow have to swim it with an unconscious Coach and a wounded Paul.
“Let’s go, guys, we are going to have to swim it.”
“What? With them?” David gestured to Coach and Paul. “And what about Garrett and Breanne?”
For the first time, Lenny turned and looked back down the corridor. “That dick didn’t follow me out!” Lenny slapped the water. “If he doesn’t get himself killed, I’m going to kill him myself!”
“What about my sister, Lenny?” Paul slurred, his body shivering from the cold water.
For the first time Lenny realized Paul’s left arm was hanging oddly and his head was bleeding pretty bad. What the hell did Apep do to him? He couldn’t think about that now. “Look, Garrett’s a big boy. He will get her. You guys are hurt, and we are running out of time. You said it yourself, David, Lake Petersburg is on the other side of that cracked wall. If it goes, how are we supposed to make it out then?”
Even as he said the words, he felt a stab of guilt at the thought of leaving Garrett. But they couldn’t wait. Garrett would get Bre and the God Stones, and he would catch up. At least that’s what Lenny had to tell himself. “Get in the water and I will slide Paul and Coach in, then I will follow, and we will pull them across. Maybe it isn’t over our heads yet.”
“Okay, Lenny.” David’s voice cracked in a way that said this plan was anything but okay.
Pete climbed in without a word, and Lenny began to think the poor kid might be in shock.
A sudden roar from the tunnel caused Lenny to jump.
David shouted and fell backward into the water. He stood up, his feet barely touching the bottom. “What the shit was that!?”
From deep inside the corridor came the sounds of splashing and pained grunts.
Lenny pointed the headlamp down the corridor, illuminating the seated giant pushing himself along with its hands. “Balls!”
“It’s the giant, isn’t it? The godforsaken giant! Lenny, dammit! Tell me it isn’t!”
“It is!”
David screamed, grabbed Coach, pulled him off the ledge, and made for the crevice.
“Go, Pete!” Lenny said as he grabbed Paul by the collar. A sudden, bright golden glow filled the corridor, as if the sun had somehow risen inside the tomb. The grunting giant silhouetted in the glow roared again, redoubling its efforts to escape.
“What the…” Lenny’s words were overtaken by a new sound. It was low at first, but quickly built into a loud rumble – water? The corridor began to shake.
When the wall collapsed, Garrett turned and ran as har
d as he could down the slab toward the tomb’s exit. He reached back and sheathed his sword on the run and when he was as close as he could get, he dove headfirst off the slab and into the water. He didn’t look back. He just kicked and paddled harder than he ever had.
Behind him water surged around the slab, quickly swallowing it and reaching high enough on the wall to squelch the firelight, leaving the chamber in total darkness.
The full force of Lake Petersburg’s silty water hit him right as he entered the tunnel. He had no choice now but to fight to stay upright and go with the surge. The water carried him, blind as a bat, down the tunnel toward the crevice. If he could get to the crevice without drowning, he had a chance. Then, over the rushing water he heard deep grunts. The giant?! Oh come on!
Suddenly, he slammed into the beast. Garrett flipped upside down then, and for a terrifying second, he was pushed down beneath it as both rolled in the wave. Garrett kicked in sheer panic, his instinct to survive taking over as he fought desperately not to be crushed underneath its massive bulk. Scrambling forward, he kicked and kicked, occasionally finding purchase, whether on a wall, the floor, or the giant itself.
Unsure which way was up, Garrett held his hands out in front of him, fighting the urge to breathe, when he suddenly slammed into a wall and was promptly pulled sideways and into a tighter tunnel, where the current pushed him with a newfound force. This has to be it! God, please, this has to be the crevice, he thought. A moment later he spilled out the other side to the sound of voices.
“Look, it’s Garrett!” Lenny shouted.
“Swim to us, Garrett!” David yelled.
“Ah!” Garrett shouted, covering his head as the cavern shook and chunks of the ceiling fell all around him. From the crevice came a gargled roar. The gushing water rose, pushing Garrett forward. The entire lake was pushing its way through the tunnel with fierce relentlessness.
