The Watcher Key

by Troy Hooker

  The sword-wielding warrior turned out to be a woman, who now knelt next to the wounded Son of Light, holding her hand gently over the gash in his side. The rest of the group watched a soft blue Light pulsing from her palms as she moved her hand lightly over the gash. The warrior winced in pain at first, but then forced himself to relax, allowing her to work.

  Then she moved to Lillia, and then Gus, and finally Emma, passing the healing Light over all of them until they felt as though they could once again stand. Emma, upon seeing the destruction in the clearing and the wounded warriors, immediately embraced all of them, thanking them profusely.

  Sam noticed all four warriors wore similar bracelets with marbled blue stones on their left wrist like other Descendants, but all glowed brightly in the pale moonlight. Although they carried stains and rips from the battle, their robes were made with uniquely ornate black fabric with silver highlights. They carried a different aura about them, one of confidence and reserved strength, but genuine humbleness as well.

  “You are the Sons of Light, aren’t you?” Sam said weakly to the warrior that had protected them with his shield.

  He sat calmly next to them as if he had just had a relaxing cup of coffee, although sweat beaded on his upper brow.

  “My name is Tarmin,” he said gently. “You’re blessed to be alive.”

  “I know,” Sam mumbled, still somewhat stunned at the intense fight that just took place before him. “I—we shouldn’t be.”

  “Whoever summoned us certainly did it at the proper moment,” he said.

  Emma held up the small white button device that Mr. Sterling had handed Gus before they left.

  “Gus handed it to me in the tower,” she strained to speak.

  “You were wise to use it. And although you are safe from the Dark Watcher now, we must be getting you all back as soon as possible,” he told them. “More may come.”

  Gus spoke for the first time since he was hit with the bolt, but it was under his breath so that the others would not hear him.

  “The Stone … do we still have it?” he said, his voice shaky.

  Sam bowed his head, knowing that if he could have only held out a few seconds more, they could have still had it.

  “No.”

  There was silence as Sam’s words sunk in. They had lost everything they had accomplished to this point. They had nothing to show for their journey to the Old City except for a few a few cuts and a good dose of exhaustion. Now Arazel had the Watcher Stone in his possession as well, almost as if it was planned.

  Thinking back to the moment in the artifact room of the secret library and the strange brush of air they felt, Sam shuddered suddenly at the possibility that Arazel had followed them and was only inches away … but then, how could he have been there with the concentration of Lazuli so close?

  Lillia walked off clumsily into the clearing at the news, throwing her sweatshirt on the ground as she left. Gus looked like someone punched him in the stomach upon hearing of the loss of the Stone. Emma hurried after Lillia, snatching the sweatshirt back up as she went, her strawberry hair sparkling in the clear moonlight.

  He knew it wasn’t his fault, but he still felt guilty for letting it go. What would the Metim and Arazel do with the Stone? Did they already have access to the Sha’ar gate? Were they already planning their entrance into Earth, and his giving up the Stone gave them the final piece into the rise of Darkness once again? Or was it just a legend that meant nothing at all?

  Now that it was gone, there was only room to wonder how they could have done things differently. They wouldn’t be the ones to determine if the legends were true; the creatures of the Darkness would be.

  At the mention of the Old City, the Sons of Light gathered around Sam and Gus and began to ask questions of the youths’ adventures into the abandoned area.

  Gus wasn’t up for storytelling much, so Sam offered the information to the warriors, who listened with keen interest as he told them of the wolves they encountered, the destruction of the City, and their narrow escape through the boathouse cavern. He did not, upon warning looks from the others, explain anything about the library, Holobooks, or the Stone.

  “What was your purpose in going?” said one of the warriors named Parus.

  Sam swallowed hard, feeling as though he was on trial. He knew there were spies in the City. Could any of the Sons be one of them?

  “We had heard there was some Darkness around the City. We just wanted to see it for ourselves.”

  Another warrior, who was quiet before, now leaned in from where he sat.

  “Even after fifty years, the Darkness is very strong in that area,” he said softly but with authority. “It was a very foolish idea to do what you did.”

  Before Sam could open his mouth to defend himself, the girls came back to join the group, Lillia looking as though she had just finished crying. It was another one of the rare moments Lillia showed any sort of emotion other than anger.

  Sam chose to keep quiet after that, accepting the blame for the group’s foolish actions. He didn’t want to keep the truth from them, but he was certain they could see right through his deceit anyhow.

  “We need to get you back to the City,” Tarmin said, patting Sam’s shoulder gently. “I’m sure all of your parents will want to hear from you.”

  ***********************

  Gus struggled to his feet, favoring one of his legs from the fall backward.

  “Will we be traveling by Ruach?” he asked them.

  “Yes, we must. No other way is faster than the Lightsphere,” said Nibetz, the woman carrying the sword. She winked at Gus, who promptly blushed.

  “I can’t believe it,” Emma whispered to them as they gathered their packs. “I’ve never traveled with the Sons before—and by Ruach!”

  The wind began to pick up and Tarmin hurried them all into the center of the clearing, at which point he gave them instructions on how to travel by Ruach.

  “Most call it a sphere, but it’s more like riding the wind, which is how you must think when you step into it,” he said, obviously hurrying through his instructions, each of the warriors surrounding him and scanning the trees for any further signs of Dark forces.

  “Think of it as asking the particles of Light to allow you to join them. With your spirit, you will join the Light. I will be calling the Ruach, but when it arrives, you will be on your own. Don’t worry if it doesn’t work the first time—we will come back for you shortly.”

  Immediately, Sam wondered what would happen if he wasn’t able to convince the Light to allow him to join it. They made it sound like it had a mind of its own, as if it could choose not to allow him, then leave him behind.

  But it was too late to worry about it now, as Tarmin lifted up his hands to the night sky. Suddenly an incredible cloud of Light appeared above them, rapidly descending upon the clearing until they were all wrapped in its brilliant blue glow.

  A quick glance at Emma’s fearful expression told Sam he was not alone in his worry, so he reached out and grasped her hand, and then thinking quickly, with his other hand grabbed the hand of a very surprised Lillia, who in turn grabbed Gus’s.

  “Now close your eyes and allow the Light to surround you,” Tarmin said, and then he disappeared into thin air, leaving only a small absence of the Light in his place.

  One by one, the other warriors disappeared into the cloud, until only the four teens were left in the warmth of the Ruach.

  Sam closed his eyes and concentrated on the Light surrounding him. He could almost feel the particles as they swirled around his body, blanketing him in warmth and comfort. The sensation of being pulled upward rushed over him immediately, and upon opening his eyes carefully, he watched as his body was pulled toward the thin tops of the trees above the clearing.

  Suddenly, they were shooting through the sky at blinding speed, their bodies skimmi
ng along the cloud of Light in front of them, the trees far below them. Tarmin and the other Light warriors raced like blue shooting stars in front of them, streaking through the night air.

  It was even more amazing than the Lightway. It was surreal—like swimming through an iridescent pool in the middle of a vast ocean of Light. It was as though he was just a boy again, dreaming about superheroes flying through the sky … warriors against the worlds of Darkness.

  Lior City quickly loomed largely in front of them, the brilliant spires pointing beams of Light high into the atmosphere, as though they were guides for lonely travelers looking for a place of rest. It was the most beautiful city he had ever seen.

  Lior now felt more like home than anywhere he had lived with his foster parents or with his grandfather. He longed to stay, to make a life here, and perhaps never return to Earth, White Pine, or Mr. Wilson’s crazy class.

  And he had never felt so familiar with any group of people in his life as his friends and their cabin circle. Existing on the outside was all that he had known, until meeting his friends and their family. They weren’t blood, but they loved him as if they had never known differently, and that was as strong as family, if not stronger.

  The cloud slowed upon its arrival past the City Center, into a remote section of Lior, and finally to a small outcropping of older cabins that surrounded a large stone pavilion nearly buried in ivy from many years of growth. There was an enormous garden surrounding the pavilion that stretched far beyond the cabins, nearly to the boundaries of the City walls. A small stream danced happily around sandstone rock ledges and straight through the middle of the garden to the small Lazuli pool next to the pavilion.

  Still high above the garden where the Ruach cloud now hovered, they could see the waterfall beyond the garden where the stream originated. The moonlight sparkled off the surface of the water, and Lazuli light beneath gave the stream a further fantastical glow that couldn’t be reproduced.

  The cloud lowered them gently into the garden between two large weeping trees and next to the pool, where the particles of the Ruach Light made one last swirl around their bodies before scattering into the night sky. It was peaceful, like being at the pools of Lazuli near the Old City. Sam believed it was possible that the Sons reconstructed it to mimic that very scene.

  Tarmin and Nibetz walked over to the four awestruck youth standing on the edge of the pool. Nibetz offered her hand to Emma, then to the rest of them.

  “Sorry I didn’t get a chance to meet you before,” she said quietly, her dark straight hair reminding Sam of an older version of Lillia without the oriental features. “My name is Nibetz. I am the one and only Son who is actually a woman.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Sam said genuinely.

  Tarmin pointed toward the blue spires beyond the pool and the trees, then looked toward Emma.

  “You will find your path to the City through there,” he said.

  “Thank you ever so much, all of you,” Emma suddenly reached out and hugged Nibetz, who hadn’t expected it.

  “We live to serve others,” she responded, holding her gently while trying to detangle her now disheveled hair.

  “I would make it a point to disclose what information you have not chosen to share with me to your father. He will want to know everything,” Tarmin said sternly as they looked for their packs, which curiously they didn’t remember taking up into the Ruach cloud with them. “And we would ask that the device that leaves us at your beckon call remain a secret, and be used sparingly.”

  “You can be sure we will,” Gus said.

  Nibetz produced one of the packs she had been holding and handed it to Emma.

  “You will all want to go and see a healer as well,” she said. “I would recommend a young lady named Darva on the Thalo Hall street. She is very gifted.”

  Tarmin handed Sam his backpack, which he too, produced out of nowhere.

  “You would have forgotten this, I am sure,” he said jokingly, then lowered his voice slightly. “If you should need help again, you may call on us. Now go and be blessed.”

  When Lillia and Gus found their packs, which were also held by the two other Sons named Josael and Grantham, the group thanked them once again and set off wearily, hand in hand, toward the spires of the City, leaning on each other both for moral support and out of sheer exhaustion.

  ***********************

  “What do you mean you fought the Metim?” Mrs. Sterling sat on the edge of her chair after the four youths had reunited with the exasperated but relieved Sterling parents.

  “And please elaborate more on the Stone if you would,” Mr. Sterling added, asking for probably the third time.

  Sam had been quiet up until now, but felt as though he might be able to help out an increasingly frustrated Emma.

  “It was in the temple library in the City, hidden in one of Bogglenose’s secret rooms created for the Holobooks,” he told them.

  Mr. Sterling shook his head.

  “I can’t believe it. The library was destroyed. I saw the official report from the Office of Research.”

  “I can assure you, Mr. Sterling, we had possession of it until Arazel took it from us,” Gus yawned.

  “I believe you. I can’t imagine why the report on Old Lior would contain purposefully altered information. But I did have a hunch.”

  “Unless you have been subjected to some hallucinatory effects from the Darkness produced by the Metim?” Mrs. Sterling stooped to hug her daughter once more.

  “We are fine, mom,” Emma sighed as though she had been hugged entirely too many times since returning.

  “I am fairly certain since we all saw the same thing,” Gus attempted to explain, but was interrupted by a flustered Mr. Sterling, who now began to pace back and forth in front of the dying fire.

  “There are only a few people that can be party to such conspiracies—” he began, but forced himself to stop at the danger of saying too much that could be considered confidential, but not until after Lillia shot a “told-you-so” glance at the other three.

  Gus sipped his coffee that Mrs. Sterling scrambled to make upon their arrival.

  “We think the Lazuli pool beneath the library provided some protection.”

  “Well, it was never made to be indestructible, but it was reinforced with Lazuli when it was built.” Mr. Sterling put his hand on his chin. “I wasn’t surprised to hear it was destroyed, actually. Most Metim wouldn’t have gone near the library, but with the vast number of Dark forces the day of the attack, the Darkness could have weakened the effects of the Lazuli.”

  “Mr. Sterling, I need to tell you something else about the night the Stone was taken,” Sam looked into Mr. Sterling’s eyes, hoping he would not take poorly the news he was about to tell him.

  He had wrestled with telling Mr. Sterling about the conversation between Talister and the bald man in the tower, but with Talister’s position, he felt it best to confide in him sooner than later before any more harm could be done.

  “Certainly, boy. What is it?”

  “We heard Mr. Calpher talking to another man at the Light tower in the dunes,” he said, careful to not sound incriminatory. “He said there was someone in Lior that needed to be removed because they were dangerous. And … from what we heard, it sure sounded like Mr. Calpher was getting something political out of the deal.”

  Mr. Sterling listened carefully, but did not respond to Sam. Instead he smiled and stood to accept a piece of root cake that Mrs. Sterling was handing out, joking with her about the amount of frosting that layered the top.

  “Thank you Sam. You were wise to tell me,” he said as he dug into the cake.

  Rather than pressing him, Sam let the rest of the evening unfold, as Miss Karpatch, Cooley, and Sayvon stopped by to see them. But he and the other three knew from their conversation that Mr. Sterling was hiding his true thoughts fro
m them. Maybe Sam had gone too far, or sounded too accusatory toward Talister. It was, after all, Mr. Sterling’s best friend.

  “Do you think we shouldn’t have told him?” he asked Gus later when they had a moment away from the others.

  “I don’t see why we would keep something like that from him,” Gus responded, his yawns growing more intense. “We heard him speaking. While it’s probable that we misinterpreted a conversation, it’s still unwise for us to keep information like that silent.”

  “I guess,” Sam responded, inheriting Gus’s yawns.

  After a few more root cakes and coffee, everyone headed home and the Sterling household stumbled to their rooms. Gus agreed that it was good to be in their own beds again, and after a good shower and tooth brushing, Gus was heard snoring soundly in the dark upper floor of the cabin.

  Sam lay in his bed too, exhausted, but unable to sleep once again. There were too many strange pieces to this puzzle that didn’t make sense. Why was the secret library reported to have been destroyed, but hadn’t? How did Arazel know about the Stone? There was no doubt he could have been following the group the whole time.

  Sam remembered the rush of air that passed him and Emma while they were in the artifacts vault once again. Could that have been him? Or did Talister Calpher have a Dark connection with Arazel, and was he feeding him information all along?

  An even more concerning question was, who was the person they were talking about removing from Lior City? Was that person the one who threatened to expose their connection to the Darkness?

  Sam thought about his grandfather, and of White Pine. They had missed an extra week of school on top of the fall break—not that he had personally missed worrying about Bush lurking around every corner. But it had been nearly a week now, and his grandfather would certainly be getting worried. He wondered if Mr. Sterling had updated Amos while he was investigating Mr. Chivler’s disappearance.