by Troy Hooker
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It was Sam who opened his eyes first from the prayer to an unusual chill up his spine, unlike the normal feeling from the cold night. Hollow eyes from the five Metim, appearing out of nowhere, peered at them from just inside the clearing. Then, in the moonlight, a thick black vapor of smoke descended into the center of the clearing near the friends and rapidly morphed into the figure of a man with a smooth bald head and fiery green eyes.
Arazel’s face was expressionless, but he held up his hand toward the four teenagers.
“You do not disappoint me, Sar, although I must say I expected it,” he said calmly. “Your father would be proud.”
“You knew my father?” Sam said loudly, the sound reverberating off the trees in the clearing.
Arazel held his gaze.
“He is well known among the Metim,” he said impatiently. “Now I must retract my offer to allow your friends to go unharmed.”
Emma began to whimper, and Lillia pulled her close to herself.
“You are afraid of me, so you must kill my friends?” Sam spat at him.
Arazel paused a moment, then as Gus reached slowly for his backpack, a burst of green light erupted from Arazel’s fingertips, hitting Gus square in the chest. Gus lay motionless on the ground.
Arazel dropped his hand to his side, and the Metim lurking in the shadows of the trees rushed forward in unison, carrying with them vapors of Darkness in their open hands.
Suddenly, a blue beam of Light projected from Emma’s hand, her eyes closed and her palm outstretched. The beam formed a shield, larger than any she had previously produced. The shield instantly enveloped three of the approaching Metim, pinning them and their fistfuls of Darkness to the ground.
Lillia sent a bright blue flash from her palms, sending a Metim flying backward with a gaping wound in his side. Before she could produce another, however, the last Metim was upon her.
Sam’s mind raced, and without waiting, he unsheathed a small knife from his belt and pounced on the Metim that had pinned Lillia to the ground. Instinctively, he grabbed the Metim’s wiry hair and exposed his neck, jabbing the knife into his throat.
The Metim spit foul blood and stumbled backward off of Lillia, his hollow eyes wide with fear. Darkness poured from his fingertips, swirling around his hands and concentrating into a pulsing, fluid form. He then reared his hand back, blood spewing from his neck, and attempted to thrust the Darkness forward at the two youths.
Lillia was too quick, however, and before his deadly mass of Dark poison could leave his hands, she sent another bolt through his heart, instantly dropping his lifeless form to the ground.
Then Lillia and Sam were at Emma’s side. She still had the writhing Metim pinned under her Light shield, but her strength was quickly weakening and the Light from the shield was fading.
Lillia prepared herself for another bolt and Sam wielded his tiny knife toward them as the Metim began to get to their feet. Finally, the shield failed, and Emma went to her knees.
Instead of fighting, however, the Metim only stepped back out of the moonlight, their hollow eyes fading into the darkness surrounding the clearing.
Arazel was suddenly in the clearing, his eyes blazing. He lifted his arms up above his head, and suddenly Darkness descended upon them all, drenching them in a thick, fluid-like black cloud. Sam couldn’t see beyond his own hand, so he quickly reached out for Emma and Lillia, grasping their hands and pulling them in to him.
Suddenly, Lillia froze in his hands, then her body went limp and she dropped to Sam’s feet. Emma dropped immediately after Lillia, and Sam was left standing alone.
There was a brush of wind across his face, and then a voice whispered in his ear, so close it was as though it was inside his own head, and so painful it caused him to grasp his ears in agony.
There is nothing left but for you to do as I ask, the voice whispered.
There was nothing left but to give in. He would have been willing to die for the protection of the Stone, but Arazel wouldn’t even let him do that. Instead, the Dark Conjurer had to take everything away from him to get him to submit.
He could have taken the Stone at any time, Sam was sure, but it was Arazel’s way of showing his superiority. A game—and Emma, Lillia, and Gus were the meaningless sacrifices. And now he was going to give in and give him the Stone as Arazel had wanted all along.
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But suddenly, there was something that welled up inside of Sam, through all of the emotion that built up to this moment—wonder, frustration, fear, shock of losing his friends—all wrapped up into the exhaustion of just wanting to get home.
All of it funneled suddenly into a great feeling of anger toward Arazel, the Metim, the wolves, and even Talister, who seemed to be selling out someone from the City of Lior for political pride.
The feeling rose so quickly that Sam couldn’t control it, and suddenly everything around him faded except for his anger at the voice in the cloud of the one who just took his friends from him.
Suddenly Sam could see through the Darkness, the scene bathed in clear blue. Sounds were amplified, movements slowed, and his fear ebbed from his body. His hands grew warm as his fists clenched in pure violent anger, and then small blue sparks dancing from knuckle to knuckle began to glow a brilliant blue.
He raised his hands instinctively in front of his enemy, and blue Light exploded from his palms, drenching the entire clearing in a luminous display.
The Light hit Arazel square in the chest, and he stumbled backward, his green eyes wide with surprise and anger. Sam wildly aimed his palms at him once again, fighting to keep control of the powerful bolt.
It hit Arazel once again, and the Dark Conjurer, fighting to keep his balance, went to his knees. But the blast wasn’t enough to keep him down, and the blue beam was suddenly met with an electric cloud of Darkness, slowly pushing the Light backward toward Sam.
He held the beam of Light still for as long as he could, but it was too difficult to control and seemed to be gaining in strength the more he tried to control it. As the Light from his palm increased in power, it became even more difficult to steady.
The whole scene was an enormous fight between Light and Darkness, sparks of blue colliding with dark, liquid clouds, each spraying their remnants everywhere around them. Sam felt no fear of Arazel in that moment, only the warm flood of blue Light that flowed through his body. It didn’t seem to fade as Emma’s did, nor did it drain him of his own strength. But the man with the green eyes was as strong and more skilled with his power of Darkness, and eventually Sam could not control it any longer.
He stepped to the side and lowered his hands, stopping the flow of Light to his opponent. Arazel lowered his hands at once, confirming Sam’s suspicions that he would not kill him, no matter what he did.
Sam dropped to his knees near Emma and Lillia, the warmth of the Light fading into a mixture of hatred and sadness. He put his hands on Emma’s forehead, feeling for any sign of life. She was cold and breathless, but curiously felt like she was still alive. A hand to Lillia told Sam she was in the same condition.
He looked to his enemy with contempt but with pleading his eyes. The man seemed to understand his unspoken question, and his face of surprise and anger turned expressionless once again.
“What do you want from me?!” Sam yelled loudly, his voice shaking.
“My master requires your service.”
It was at that moment that Sam decided he would go nowhere with this man of the Darkness—alive, at least.
“I’m not going anywhere with you!” he shouted, and on a whim unsheathed a knife and held it to his own throat.
Arazel smiled devilishly.
“I am patient to allow you to go now, but I assure you there will be a time when the master will call on you,” he boomed. “You may keep your precious life in
Lior for now, but I will still need to collect the Stone.”
Sam knew his attempt at resistance was over. If his friends were still alive, the Dark Conjurer would not hesitate to kill them, even if Sam took his own life.
Sam stood weakly, walked over to Gus’ backpack and took out the Watcher Stone. There was no fighting any longer. Arazel was stronger, and Sam wasn’t prepared to sacrifice his friends for a stupid rock, even if it was the key to somehow exposing the real threat of Darkness to the City. It simply wasn’t worth it to lose those he had just begun to care about.
Perhaps it was part of Arazel’s plan all along—follow the defenseless young Descendants into the forest and have them go through the Lazuli in the library instead of doing it himself. Maybe the rush of air past them was actually a Dark soul he sent in there to check on them. Or maybe it was Arazel himself.
Either way, it was better to sacrifice an object than a life.
Sam walked purposefully over to the cloaked being, trying his best not to appear afraid, but being so weak he stumbled as he walked. Arazel reached out and took the Stone, and Sam stood his ground, even though everything inside him screamed at him to turn and run. Arazel peered with his cold green eyes at Sam, as if searching him.
Sam turned back to tend to his friends, but he was suddenly caught by a paralyzing force, freezing him where he stood, just as the wolves on the beach had been restrained from ripping into them.
“Do not attempt to come after me, Sar Samuel. I will not be so forgiving with your friends the next time.” He bore his eyes into the back of Sam’s skull. “And there will come a day when you will subject yourself to the mercy of the Darkness.”
Sam said nothing, only tended to his friends, keeping his back to Arazel purposefully. Anything that would have come out of his mouth would have shown how afraid he was, so it was better to keep silent.
The anger and confidence Sam had prior when facing the Dark Watcher was buried somewhere beneath the urgency to revive Emma and the others. Going after Arazel and the Stone was not even a fleeting thought in his mind at that time. He only wanted to get his friends home.
Then, above the clearing, there was a flash of blue, and a circle of pulsing Light opened up the night sky above them. Four beams of intense Light streamed instantly to the ground, and four figures materialized suddenly in front of Sam and Arazel.
Arazel’s eyes grew wide at the sight, but instead of fleeing with his prize, something compelled him to face his enemies of the Light, as though bound by the Dark force within him.
Upon raising his hands above him, he called in three Metim hiding in the shadows to attack the four robed strangers that appeared before them.
Before the Dark servants had even taken two steps, however, one of the robed figures had rushed forward, and rolling gracefully to one side, dropped two of the Metim to the ground with a sword through the heart.
The remaining Metim stopped suddenly and, looking around at his dead companions, turned and attempted to flee. Another robed figure lifted his hand and blue fire shot from his palm and hit the Metim in the back, turning him instantly to ash.
Then Sam looked at Arazel, who seemed to have a slight smile on his face as the four robed people stood in waiting for someone to make the first move.
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It was deathly silent as both sides sized up the other, but then one of the members of Light disappeared suddenly and appeared at the other side of the clearing, firing a bolt of Light toward Arazel, who blocked it in an easy stroke of the hand, simultaneously releasing a green bolt of light back at him.
It missed, but then Arazel outstretched his hands to produce a large swirling cloud of Darkness above them that began hurling thick black choking nebulas at the warriors, each containing haunting faces that struggled to be free of their evil prison.
Without hesitation, a massive burst of Light erupted from a warrior’s palm, morphing instantly into a protective Light shield that settled neatly around all four warriors, forcing the haunting faces with their hollow eyes up into the night sky.
The shield was then concentrated toward the Conjurer of Darkness, the Light immediately taking hold of him and wrapping him into a thick, pulsing cage of Lazuli light. But the Light cage would not hold him, and quickly he was free in an angry burst of Darkness and green electricity that sparked violently around his entire Dark form.
Arazel then lifted his hands skyward once again in a fit of rage, where a violent cloud mushroomed up above the clearing, drowning out any moonlight that still shone through the thick air. It then descended down all sides of the clearing, dropping like a curtain until it surrounded them all in deadly black Darkness once again.
The haunting black cloud then took on life of its own, the intense green electricity sparking forcefully from one side of the curtain of Darkness to the other. The robed warrior with the shield rushed to where Sam crouched helplessly near his still unconscious friends, the Light shield from his palm shifting from the other Sons of Light to immediately bathe the young Descendants in the protective umbrella of Light.
While they fought, Sam felt for a pulse from Emma’s stiffened body, but felt nothing. It was as though the very life was snatched from her, but without a scratch to be seen. He quickly moved to Lillia and to Gus, finding them in the same condition as Emma.
He feared the worst, and in spite of the furious battle being waged around him, he stood and lifted his hands up to the Creator whom he could not see.
Creator, Lord, I don’t know if you can hear me, he began, but I really need your help now. Please help us all.
It was short, but the most meaningful prayer he had ever prayed. He only hoped the Creator would hear him.
He watched as the other three warriors outside the shield gracefully dodged the streaks of deadly green light in an almost rhythmic pattern, each returning deadly bolts of blue Light skillfully back toward the Dark Conjurer.
One spark of deadly strong electricity flashed within inches of one of the Sons as he attempted a risky maneuver to temporarily bind Arazel in a prison of chains made of pure Light, if only for the chance to give another an edge to fire a bolt from behind. The bolt nearly hit its mark, but with lightning fast movement, Arazel sidestepped the brunt of the bolt, catching only a grazing on his left arm.
Throwing off the chains of Light angrily, Arazel now stopped his barrage of Darkness for only a moment, ignoring the confused looks of his adversaries as he glared only at the four teens under the shield.
Sam saw the Dark Conjurer’s eyes burning with rage, and he swallowed his fear enough to force a rigid smile to his face in defiance. But Sam knew at any moment he could turn his attention on him and his friends, perhaps destroying them all in one wave of his arm, if they weren’t dead already.
Suddenly, Emma began to stir beneath his arm that he had laid upon her, and his heart leapt as he raced to her. She was still cold, but was alive. He looked to his other friends, hoping they would awaken like Emma, but they had not yet.
Like the brave warriors of Light, they too had been willing to fight—and die for something they believed in, and for him. Even in the midst of the pure evil before him, the compassion within him reigned supreme. He still held onto the anger he had felt when fighting the Dark Lord, but it had subsided and been replaced with the desire to see his friends healed. The same anger had slipped below the surface, and love had filled its place.
It was strange, the anger he had felt, as though it was purposeful and necessary for that moment, almost like it had been given to deal with the injustice of the Dark act before him.
Enraged, the conjurer of Darkness began his campaign of destruction once again, shooting twice as many twisted bolts of green electricity mixed with Darkness and forcing the Light warriors to use every possible move to dodge the deadly blows.
Delirious, Emma tried to sit up but could not. Sam placed h
is pack underneath her head for support, and as he did, Lillia and Gus stirred. He sent a quick prayer of thanks to the Creator for answering his prayer, then still inside the shield, he watched the warriors battle with the incredibly fast Fallen Watcher.
As fast as the warriors were, Arazel was faster, and he knew it. Seeing his advantage, Arazel turned his palms silently upward and rolled his eyes back into his skull, at which point he was instantly surrounded by herds of lifeless creatures with hollow faces that rushed from the electric curtain of Darkness to destroy the Light warriors before them.
At the sight of the rushing hoard, however, the three warriors clasped their hands above their heads, causing a curious song-like noise to ring out throughout the clearing, and from each warrior immediately burst fountains of Light that sprung from their palms, radiating so brilliantly that the four friends had to shield their eyes.
From the fountains poured an untold number of magnificent creatures made of Light, some predators of the forest floor and others from the air.
As the hoards advanced, they were immediately met and overcome by the fountains of brilliant beasts, quickly succumbing to the incredible Light that radiated from the creatures. They devoured them violently, leaving only wisps of Darkness that could be heard screaming in agony as the Light devoured them.
Finally, as the army of Dark creatures began to disappear before him, in a grand show of power and force, Arazel lifted both hands into the sky and sent an atomic burst of Darkness and lightning so fierce into the clearing that it sent all four warriors flying backward into the Dark curtain, instantly dissolving the shield that covered Sam and the bleary-eyed friends.
They felt a deep compression in their chests as Arazel’s Dark cloud imploded suddenly on itself, sucking the cloud, the curtain of electricity, and Arazel into a black hole. Then there was nothing but silence.
Chapter Seventeen
Amos
The warrior with the shield hurried to his friends, who seemed to be banged up but still in one piece as they stood to their feet. One warrior held his side, and another carried him over to where Sam and the others were, laying him down to inspect his wounds. He was cheerful and in good spirits, but Sam could see there was a nasty gash in his abdomen.
