The Watcher Key

by Troy Hooker

  With the deformed Croc growing bored with the four, it snaked off beneath the surface in search of easier prey, leaving the friends to hurriedly shove off, all piled in the one boat until they could help Sam and Emma back into the abandoned boat, which was nearly a quarter full of swamp water.

  When they were finally underway once again, the sun was on its way below the canopy of trees. Having skirted the cloud of Darkness, they had trouble regaining their bearings, and even started down a few fingers of the swamp in the wrong direction before Gus figured out the map once again. Every time they would try another waterway, Gus would turn them around and paddle them the other direction.

  Emma was just beginning to panic, and Gus was furiously riffling through the map to see if they had paddled down another dead end, when Lillia suddenly saw a glimpse of what looked like a giant orange wave of sand just over the treetops in the distance.

  “There are the dunes!” Emma exclaimed after Lillia pointed toward the huge mountains of sand. “We made it to the sea!”

  For a moment, they all cheered loudly, partly from relief they would not spend the night in the swamp, and partly because it meant they were one step closer to home. Quickly the dark water began to narrow into a small channel that passed through the heart of the dunes, and the water began to clear as the moss-covered, gangly trees disappeared behind them. The channel widened briefly into a small inlet before opening up into full view of the sea.

  There were no waves as they paddled out of the inlet into the clear blue water of the sea, and large fish could be seen swimming in the remaining light of the sunset as they searched for minnows and small fish near the shore.

  Seeing the pointed peak of the Lightbase just south of the inlet on the beach, they hugged the shoreline, paddling until they reached the base, then pulled their boats up the sand, glad to be out of the water. The large stone structure loomed in front of them, the last bit of sunlight blazing its face.

  They emptied their gear from the boats, grabbing the small pile of wood they had thought ahead to carry with them from the swamp. As they approached the steps, however, Gus suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, holding a hand up to signal that something was amiss. Silently, the four listened as they heard voices echoing from the top of the tower.

  “We will deal with that later,” said a muffled voice. “We need him gone from our city immediately. I have already set things in motion in the Council. He will be in your hands shortly.”

  “I suppose the fact that you will become Chancellor from all of this is only out of genuine concern,” said another distinct but muffled voice.

  Sam waited, but then whispered the words along with the muffled ones at the top of the tower.

  “I do what’s best for Lior. Nothing more.”

  Gus and Lillia turned toward Sam with wide-eyed amazement, their mouths hanging open. Emma turned beet red, knowing she should have caught on the minute he told her.

  “You will always look out for yourself, and nothing more, Talister,” the man muffled.

  “Don’t flatter yourself, Jonathon. You couldn’t begin to understand the complexities of being in the public life. Best keep to the better of your talents—cleaning up dragon feces.”

  There was a lull in the conversation, then a half-hearted exchange of parting greetings followed by a shuffling of shoes on steps, which prompted the four friends to disappear over a small sand dune beside the tower.

  Emma’s eyes widened and she began furiously tapping Gus’ shoulder and pointing toward the beach, and then everyone saw what made her panic—the boats were still on the shore, in full view of anyone leaving the tower.

  The short, athletic bald man walked from the stairway entrance and onto the sand, pausing a moment to watch the sunset. He was wearing a robe, but they were not the elegant robes of Lior City. Rather, they were dingy brown and frayed at the edges, and underneath was a belt that carried a sword with a hilt that looked like it had been used often. Briefly, he seemed to gaze in the direction of the boat, but then circled the tower and disappeared over the dunes to the north.

  Up in the tower, there was a blinding flash of light, and a blue beam lit up the cloudless sky toward the mountains, signaling that the man in the tower had just disappeared through the Lightway.

  The four stood slowly and crept over the small dune toward the tower in the darkness, still wary of the eerie silence after the meeting in the tower.

  Eagerness to get home delayed their conversation and forced them to overcome their fear of the unknown. As they crept quietly up the steps, a soft breeze brushed their faces and caused the sea to belch out small waves that licked the shoreline. At the top, Gus quickly worked at readying the Lightbase, using the coordinates he had found from the first Lightbase to plot a course back to Mount Halpa, and then hopefully home.

  Because of the security precautions in Lior City, they wouldn’t be able to simply dial in to the Lightbase at the City Center, but they hoped to somehow communicate with them once they reached Mount Halpa’s tower. At least they would be closer to home.

  Sam and Lillia assisted Gus with the preparations, repacking their backpacks to ensure the easiest travel while in the Lightway, and wrapping the Stone in a napkin to minimize the possibility for breakage. If it was going to help Mr. Sterling expose the curse shadowed over Lior, it would have to get there in one piece.

  Emma stood at the window staring out into the ocean, and it took only a few moments for the others to notice that she wasn’t helping.

  “Emma, what are you doing?” Sam called out first.

  At first she said nothing, but then turned slightly to face them, and back again.

  “I d-don’t know. I just feel like there is something—wrong.”

  Lillia and Sam stood and joined her at the window. The wind had picked up, and the clear night sky had given way to a massive dark cloud moving in from the north shore. The three watched as the cloud moved as though it was alive, spilling itself over the trees where the swamp lay, and moving quickly toward the dunes and the tower.

  “Oh NO!” Emma exclaimed suddenly, surprising the others, including Gus, who was just about finished with the Lightbase.

  Seeing that she had caused instant panic, she sheepishly hung her head.

  “Sorry. I just realized I forgot my backpack in the boat. I will go get it.”

  “I’ll go with her,” Sam said immediately.

  They silently descended the stairs, and pausing only a moment at the stairwell entrance, they hurried into the dark windy night toward the boat.

  It was where they left it, but the increasing waves were now licking its stern. Emma snatched her backpack quickly from the boat, and Sam hurried her back up the beach toward the tower.

  As they huffed through the cool sand, something caught the corner of Sam’s eye, causing his heart to skip a beat. Emma saw it too, and she was instantly at his side. But it was too late to make it back to the Lightbase.

  ***********************

  Suddenly, all around them were figures emerging from the crests of the moonlit dunes. The tower was out of reach, and in a moment, they were trapped and surrounded by horrific Dark creatures of the night. Emma’s senses had not lied to her.

  Deformed wolves with massive black fangs approached hungrily toward them, creeping along as though they were ready to pounce at any moment. Sam reached beside him and took Emma in his grip, pulling her close to him. There was no running, and nowhere to hide.

  Feverishly, he looked for a weak point in the circle of wolves, but they seemed to read his every thought and closed in tighter, their eyes full of Dark fire and their fangs dripping with the anticipation of the taste of flesh. Just when Sam was about to throw himself on the sand and cover Emma with his body, six figures melted into sight from the darkness behind the giant predators.

  One figure was cloaked in black, his eyes glowing iride
scent green in the moonlight. He stepped in front of the circle of snarling creatures and held up his hand to them, and they instantly crouched to meet the sand, whimpering as if in pain.

  The other five warriors slinked closer in the now scarce light of the moon, each showing the hollowed eyes and scarred faces of Metim. Their appearances showed they had seen violence, for their war-torn tunics were stained with blood and dirt. Each carried a sword at their waist, but they kept them sheathed as their leader approached the young Descendants.

  The cloaked figure stopped only feet in front of Emma and Sam and removed his hood. Instead of giving into his fear, Sam forced himself upright to look into the man’s glowing eyes. He was bald and clean-shaven, handsome, and showed the muscular stature of a man in his early forties. He seemed to peer directly into Sam’s soul with his piercing eyes, and if it weren’t for Emma’s silent crying and tightening grip on his arm, he would have been unable to break the stare.

  “Sar Samuel,” his voice seemed to echo deep inside Sam’s eardrums. “I have been waiting to meet you.”

  “Who are you?” Sam said shakily.

  “I am Arazel,” the man boomed calmly. “I am here to retrieve an item of great value that is in your possession.”

  Sam knew instantly what he wanted—the Watcher Stone. Emma had given it to Gus, who was in the tower. Perhaps he had it well hidden by now.

  “Denying you have it would be foolish. I can see it in the tower clearly.” The man didn’t take his eyes off of Sam. “Your friends are surrounded. Please go and retrieve them and the Stone.” He paused for a moment. “They will not be harmed.”

  “How will I know you won’t hurt them?” Sam breathed harshly, certain by the way the man spoke there were no other options but to hand it over.

  “I am a man of my word,” the man spoke, his eyes blazing. “But do not press me. I do not hesitate to end life if it serves my purpose.”

  Sam looked to the stairwell, and the man nodded that he would let him pass safely, but he held up a hand briefly, which seemed to force Sam to stand paralyzed mid stride.

  “Do not try to use the Lightway. It has been disabled.”

  Once the strange force let go of Sam, he held Emma close to him and helped her to the stairs, and the great deformed creatures parted to allow them through. They glared with their terrible eyes at the two as if they were letting their last meal slip past their claws, and drool began to pool around their mouths, dripping all the way to the sand.

  At the top, Gus was crouched behind the stone doorway and motioned to them to climb quickly. Emma said nothing, but moved with Sam as he moved. Her breathing was rapid, and she was pale even in the darkness of the tower.

  Gus helped Sam move Emma inside, and then grabbed him and pulled him over to his backpack. Silently he handed him two small silver surfboard discs that Boggle had given them.

  So they weren’t going to give in after all. It seemed that Gus had a different plan, one that involved escaping. He just wondered if it would lead them to their deaths.

  Sam nodded and slipped them into his pocket—one for him and one for Emma. Then Gus produced a velvet pouch from the backpack and took out two small round circles with an engraved inset button and handed one to Sam.

  Sam recognized these as the devices that Boggle had given them just before they left his house. He didn’t know what they did; he only remembered that Boggle said not to be too close when they went off. Sam slipped this also in his pocket as Gus took the Watcher Stone from the backpack to give to him.

  It seemed to glow just slightly as Gus produced it, and for a moment the two just stared at it, as if mesmerized by its beauty but also taking the moment to think of an escape plan. It was too dangerous to speak with Arazel’s wall-penetrating senses, so they would have to wing it. For all they knew, he had already seen them exchange Boggle’s inventions and could be planning to kill them as soon as they descended the steps. But they had to take the chance. From what they believed the Stone to be, it was too dangerous to let go.

  Sam battled his own fear of facing Arazel once again and thought about making a break for it alone. He thought of all that had led up to this point—from growing up in the city, to moving in with his Grandfather, to this. There was no going back now, no erasing what he had seen and experienced with his friends in Lior. He was somehow intertwined with them, and he felt it now more than ever.

  He could not turn and run, however. He believed now he had to fight, if necessary. He would face Arazel, and he would do whatever he could to keep the Stone away from him, even if meant their deaths.

  His face grew hot as he stood and led his friends out into the chilly night stairwell. The wolves had not moved from their spot, but they looked impatient, as if being held back by some restricting force. He knew they would be the first to tear into them when the fighting started.

  Sam knew they would lose, but Emma and Lillia both silently agreed to use whatever Light ability they could get, although the Dark power that Arazel and the Metim had would likely overshadow any attack they made. Sam wasn’t very knowledgeable on how the Light abilities worked, but he was capable enough to know they were outnumbered and out-skilled.

  They made their way slowly to where the Arazel stood, trying hard to look as though they were giving in to his demands. No one knew the signal, but Sam imagined it would be him that started the resistance.

  They stood in the cool sand in front of Arazel, who hadn’t moved even slightly since Sam and Emma left him. He gazed searchingly into each of their eyes, as if attempting to detect some element of deceit. Finally, after a long silent moment, his bright green eyes focused back upon Sam.

  “Wise decision, Sar Samuel,” he said.

  “Why do you keep calling me that?” Sam said angrily.

  The man had no expression, except perhaps a little more glimmer in his eyes at the question.

  “You have been named for the Prince of Darkness, The Dark One, Nasikh, ruler of Sheba Haloth and Ayet Sal,” his voice boomed. “The Prophecy says another will stand in his place to lead the Darkness. You are called Sar, for you have been chosen as second to the Dark One.”

  Sam felt the blood rush to his face once again, as he searched for the courage to initiate the fight without losing the element of surprise. His friends looked wide-eyed at him, waiting, and growing more fearful at every moment.

  “And what do you think?” Sam said, afraid that he had overstepped his bounds. “Am I your great lord? Should you be bowing to me?”

  Arazel’s eyes blazed, and Sam was certain he was growing impatient.

  “It is yet to be seen,” he said with the slightest hissing sound emanating from his lips as he spoke. “Now, I believe we have talked long enough. Hand the Stone to me, and you will not be harmed—”

  In the middle of the sentence, Sam saw his chance to act. As Arazel spoke the word “Stone,” he saw him divert his eyes, only for a moment, as he searched for the artifact among them. At that moment, Sam pressed the button on Boggle’s device in his pocket.

  His pocket buzzed softly, and Sam grasped hold of the object tightly.

  “You’re right. You know nothing about me. In fact, you probably don’t know that I like to surf,” he said, and then tossed the object in the air in front of Arazel, diving backward and rolling into the sand.

  Suddenly, three flashes of light erupted in front of him, as well as one from his own hands, as the Lightboards transformed. Gus, Emma, and Lillia were already climbing aboard before Boggle’s device finally went off.

  A huge explosion of blinding light from Boggle’s device silently turned the night into neon blue daylight. The flash hit Sam like a bolt of lightning, compressing his chest and taking his breath away. Blinded, he searched for his Lightboard, feeling around him for its shape.

  Three streaks of light had already whipped away from the scene, and Sam could only hope it
was his friends. On the ground lay deformed wolves and Metim, writhing in agony from the flash. Arazel had disappeared.

  He finally grabbed hold of his Lightboard as the Dark creatures were beginning to shake off the explosion and struggle to their feet. Sam climbed aboard the shimmering disc and tipped the nose of it down, which instantly propelled it forward.

  He whizzed over the sand at breakneck speed, finding the controls easy to maneuver.

  Leaning into a turn, he followed the three blue dots racing ahead of him. He tipped the disc down a little more and was amazed to feel the Lightboard accelerate to nearly double its speed. He kept up the incredibly fast pace until he caught up with the others, at which point Emma threw him a fearful but relieved look.

  Ahead, the darkened outline of trees could be seen rapidly approaching, and further still were the cutouts of the enormous range of mountains shooting into the sky. Safety just inside the tree line, he thought. He wouldn’t feel completely safe until they were deep within the cover of the forest and out of sight.

  The cool coastal wind stung their faces as Sam and the others finally slowed in front of the trees facing them. They eased into the tightly-packed pines, picking their way through until they came to a small clearing in the woods. Gus jumped off his Lightboard and immediately smacked the button to return it to its smaller size.

  Shivering from the cold ride, Sam did the same, unlatching his backpack to pull out a sweater. Both girls were obviously shaken but unharmed, and shivering in the night air. Sam immediately gave his sweater to Emma, and Gus followed suit with his own for Lillia. They considered making a fire, but agreed it was still too risky. Instead, they huddled together as Gus sent a meaningful prayer to the Creator.