She nodded very slowly.
“What’s with the rocks?” asked a bored voice.
I turned to see that Raven was standing behind Calvin and Miles, staring at the pillars. Blade was up, too, and he was looking at the symbols carved into one of them with interest. His eyes kept flicking to a red stone on top of one pillar.
“Check it out!” said Blade, walking over. “This pillar’s got fire carved into it.”
“This one looks like a bolt of lightning,” Raven commented.
I looked around at the pillars. Each one of them had a different colored stone on top and a different symbol carved into its side. In addition to the fire and the lightning bolt, I saw what looked like a water drop, a current of air, and a rock. The sixth pillar had what looked like a series of concentric circles, with the outline of a human head in profile in the center. The stone on top of it was purple, and was the only one that was slightly see-through. I didn’t know what the pillar carvings were supposed to be.
My attention seemed drawn to the pillar with the picture of the rock. The carving looked so beautiful, and the stone on top was such a nice shade of grey-brown. Something about it was compelling. It made me want to reach out and brush my hand against it.
“Look at the wind,” said Calvin dreamily. He was staring at the air stone with fascination in his eyes. “It looks…fluffy. Like a bunny. Or a tribble.”
“A what?” asked Raven, who was staring at the pillar with the lightning bolt.
As I turned to look at her, I saw Blade reach out toward the fire pillar. “It’s warm,” he said quietly.
“Blade,” I said cautiously. “I don’t know if—”
Blade brushed his hand against the stone. I jumped as a blinding flash of light burst out, accompanied by a sharp crackle. I had to blink a few times as a white streak was seared into my vision. I saw Blade backing cautiously away from the pillar and the stone on top of it.
“Um…oops?” he said.
A low hum grew on the air. At the same time, the stones on top of the pillars began to glow. The glow spread down the pillars. It shone through the carvings like the light was coming from inside the rock.
“What did you do?” I asked Blade, trying to hide the anxiety in my voice.
“Nothing!” Blade insisted. The hum grew louder and louder. “I just touched it, I swear!”
Without saying a word, we all backed into the middle of the circle. I felt Tess behind me and put an arm protectively across her. She reached out and clung to my shirt sleeve with a trembling hand.
All of the stones started to hover. They rose up off the tops of the pillars and started to spin in midair. Their glow grew brighter, as did the glow from the pillars. I saw Miles’ face bathed in the light, throwing harsh shadows across his anxious expression.
“Dude, you activated them,” Calvin said. “That’s not good.”
“Oh, like you’re some kind of electronic stone expert,” Blade said sarcastically.
“Well, look at them, man!” said Miles, losing reign on his emotions.
“I don’t think they’re electronic,” said Calvin, ignoring Miles. “I think they’re—”
He shut up as the stones began to orbit, moving in a circle around us, hovering right at my eye line about a foot over the tops of the pillars. They moved faster and faster until they were a glowing blur in the air.
I started to think that maybe we should get the heck out of there. The stones were plenty high for us to duck underneath them. If we made a run for it, maybe we could get out before…before whatever was about to happen, happened. I didn’t know if the rocks were bombs, some kind of electric fence, or what, but they were about to do something. I figured that when they did, there would be better places to be than right in the middle.
“What’s happening?” Raven asked.
“I don’t know, but we need to go,” I said. “We’ll make a break for it and duck under the stones. When I say go, okay?” I risked a glance over my shoulder at everyone and saw them nod in agreement—even, thankfully, Blade. “Okay. One. Two.”
Before I got to three, the blue rock leapt out of orbit and flew at Miles, hitting him in the chest and knocking him to the ground. The glow from the rock dissipated into Miles, fading into his body. He gasped for air. The rock flew back to the circle and started whirling around us again.
“Miles!” I cried.
“Oh God, they’re killer rocks!” Calvin yelled. He hit the deck, but the white rock jumped out and slammed into his back. “Ow!” he yelled. “That’s cheating!”
I tried to put myself between Tess and the rocks, but it was impossible. They were all around us. As I watched, the yellow one flew forward and hit Raven in the chest, knocking her down. The red one got Blade, and then the purple one streaked toward us. I barely had time to move in front of it, but it dodged around me like it was alive and hit Tess. She cried out and went down.
Finally the brown one jumped out and got me, knocking me on my butt with a grunt. I tried to hold back a cry of pain to give the others some courage, but the impact hurt. A lot. I rubbed where the stone had struck me, trying to dispel the pain. A glow in my chest faded beneath my fingers.
With all of us on the ground, the hum slowly died. The rocks slowed in their orbit. Their glow dwindled to nothing, and they settled back down on the exact same pillars they’d started on.
I groaned and started to push myself up, but a funny thing happened. I felt the stone courtyard under my fingers, and it sort of…tickled. I ran my hands across the ground and felt the rough surface of the stone. It felt comforting. Warm somehow. Like…the thought seemed ridiculous, but like hugging a cousin that I hadn’t seen in years but had always been really good friends with. For some reason, the stone felt alive. I didn’t want to break contact. To my right I heard Calvin breathing deeply in and out, chuckling every time he did.
Then there was a POOF, and an old, gruff voice said, “Well, now that that’s over with.”
I leapt to my feet and whirled around. Just outside the circle of stone pillars, in the direction of the doors I’d been planning on making a run for, stood an old man. Not just old—this guy was ancient. His face had more wrinkles than a shirt after it had been slept in overnight, and his bushy white eyebrows jutted out like the wings of a bird. His crazy white hair stuck out in all directions, immediately making me think of Albert Einstein. He was wearing an old, faded grey robe and clutching a gnarled wooden walking stick that was a little taller than he was.
I jumped in front of Tess and Calvin, who were both climbing slowly to their feet. I felt Miles step in on my left and Blade on my right, the three of us forming a wall in front of the smaller kids. Raven stayed off to the side a bit, staring at the old man, unsure.
“Who are you?” I asked.
The old man scoffed. “Who am I? Listen, girl, I’m not the one with anything to prove. You’ve got big shoes to fill, child, and you look barely old enough to ride a horse, much less save the world.”
“Ride a…save the what?” I asked, utterly confused. I could understand what he was saying, but a part of me was aware that he wasn’t speaking English. Even understanding his words, though, he wasn’t making sense.
The old man sighed heavily. “Always with the new ones,” he grumbled. “It’s always ‘what are you talking about?’ and ‘who are you?’ and ‘why are these people trying to kill us?’”
“What?!” I shrieked.
“Hey man, where are we?” Miles asked. “What’s with those rocks?”
The old man sighed and peered at all of us instead of answering. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw Miles and Blade look at me. Like I was supposed to know what to do. It looked like the old man saw them, because his eyes narrowed and focused on me.
“You,” he said. “What is your name?”
I glared at him. “Why?”
“Come now. You’ve asked me for my name, despite my being your elder, but you do not offer your own? Give me yours, and I will give
you mine, and then I will hear from the rest of you.”
My brow wrinkled as I thought about it. All of this was so bizarre, I didn’t know what to think. But there was something about the man. Something in his eyes. He sure seemed to be a crotchety old guy, but I didn’t feel like he actually meant us any harm.
“I’m Sarah,” I told him finally. There was no way I was going to give him my last name. “Now, for the last time, who are you?”
He snorted. “‘For the last time.’ Such bravado.” He thrust his staff out to his side and bowed low, holding his hand over his middle. “I am Greystone the wizard, and I am, most unfortunately for all of us, at your service.”
“A wizard. Right,” said Blade sarcastically beside me.
“Cool!” cried Calvin. He pressed forward between me and Miles and stared at Greystone with a wide grin. “What can you do?”
Greystone looked at him with disdain. “Oh, you’re one of those.”
“What, you expect him to just believe you’re a wizard?” said Raven, stepping forward and unexpectedly coming to Calvin’s defense.
Greystone rolled his eyes as though this whole affair were so unimaginably far beneath him, he couldn’t have reached it with his feet if it were on the ground. Then he held up his hand, and a tiny ball of orange flame erupted in midair. It burned brightly for a few seconds, turned blue, and then vanished as he closed his hand into a fist. Greystone held up his hands and wiggled his fingers like he was telling a ghost story.
“Ta daaa,” he said. “Oogie boogie.”
My jaw dropped, and my eyes felt like they were going to burst out of their sockets. Miles, Blade and Raven were all looking at the old man with the same expression of stark astonishment that I must have been wearing.
Only Calvin seemed excited. “Oh my God, that was so cool!” he shouted, running his hands excitedly through his hair. “Dude, that was real? Can anyone do it? Can you teach me?”
Greystone sniffed and looked past him, back to me. “Are you satisfied, Lady Sarah?”
Why was he asking me?
Miles stepped in before I could respond. “Hey, man, what was with those stones? They, like, attacked us or something. It hurt.” He rubbed his chest ruefully where the blue stone had struck him.
“Forget about that,” I said. I stepped forward, coming to stand beside Calvin. “Where are we, and how do we get back to school? Are you keeping us prisoner or something?” It seemed like everyone else was willing to go with the flow, but the only thing I could think about was that some weird, possibly crazy old man had kidnapped all six of us and was now keeping us in a courtyard in who knows where. I wanted to find out if he was just crazy, and would let us go once he had a bit of fun, or if this was something worse.
Greystone gestured toward the door. “There is your exit. At any point, you may take it. However, may I kindly suggest that you do not, at least not without me, unless you all wish to suffer a most gruesome and painful death.”
Miles stepped in front of Calvin. “Are you seriously threatening us? There’s six of us, and no offense, you’re old. We could so take you.” I resisted the urge to point out that this guy had some kind of fireball powers. No need to let him know I was worried.
Unexpectedly, Greystone burst out laughing. He roared, guffawed and slapped his knee as he doubled over. For a moment I was afraid he was going to have a heart attack.
“You could ‘take’ me, eh?” Greystone finally choked out. “In the interests of our continued, if unwilling, relationship, and in the interests of the continued existence of both our universes, I will forgive you that little slight. I needed a good laugh.” He wiped his eyes and let out a little hoo noise. “There is some gumption in you. I’ll give you that.”
Suddenly his face became serious. “But gumption alone will not save you. I will, I suppose, be forced to explain everything to you eventually. But in this precise moment, you have to come with me, or we will all perish.”
“We’ll what?” asked Blade behind me.
Calvin turned to him. “‘Perish’ means die.”
“I think he knows that, man,” said Miles, irritated.
“Actually, I totally didn’t,” admitted Blade.
“Enough!” said Greystone sharply, cutting them off. “Chaos above! Are all children of True Earth as gabby as you six? Now is not the time for words, but for action.” Once more he fixed on me with his piercing blue stare. “What you must know right now is that if you care to live, you must follow me.”
One by one, the others all turned to look in my direction. I felt my chest grow tight and I could hear my heartbeat pounding in my ears. They were all waiting for me to decide. Like I was some kind of leader. What, because I was the student body president?
But if Greystone was right—and I’d just seen the guy make a fireball, so I figured maybe I should give him the benefit of the doubt—we had to go. And if the others wanted to listen to me anyway…
“All right,” I said, nodding. I stepped toward Greystone. “Let’s go.” One by one, everyone fell in behind me. There was a twitch at the corner of Greystone’s mouth, and then he led us to the large oak doors on one side of the courtyard. When he reached them he stopped, turning to look at us.
“Listen to me very carefully, and ask no more questions. On the other side of this door is a battlefield,” he told us.
“I don’t hear anything,” said Blade suspiciously.
“That is because of the magic that surrounds this place,” Greystone explained. “But outside, thousands of people, good people of Midrealm, are fighting to protect you. They are laying down their lives in order to protect yours.”
His eyes roved over our tiny little group, sizing us up. I couldn’t help but feel that he was judging us, and that he was finding us unworthy of the sacrifice. Each of us shifted nervously under his stare.
“Us?” squeaked Calvin. “Why?”
“I said no more questions,” Greystone shot back in exasperation. “What I am trying to tell you is this—your lives are important. So do not lose them. We must cross the field to reach the portal on the other side. Try not to die. And whatever you do, do not engage the enemy.”
“How will we know who the enemy is?” asked a tiny voice—Tess. It was the first she’d spoken since the stones had attacked us.
Greystone scowled at her grimly. “If you cannot recognize this enemy, you are unworthy of the stones.”
Without waiting for an answer, he turned and struck the door with his staff. There was a deafening boom, and the doors swung away to show us the land beyond the wall.
PIERCING SUNLIGHT BURNED MY EYES, and I held up a hand to shield them. The sun had been hidden behind the rim of the wall, but now with the doors open it was shining right into my face. My eyes adjusted, and I stared out across the landscape in horror.
Death was everywhere.
On the fields before us, thousands—perhaps tens of thousands—of soldiers were fighting for their lives. They were all clad in armor and wielded swords, shields, spears, axes, weapons of ancient history. The massive sea of their armor shone in the daylight, glowing nearly as bright as the sun itself. Closest to us was a thin line of men and women in brilliant silver with red trim, their right flank held by a high, steep hill.
I looked a little further, and I saw why Greystone said we would recognize our enemy.
A horde of black…creatures…pressed upon the humans. Their shape was almost impossible to establish. Their armor was clear enough, but beneath the plate mail and inside the helmet visors, everything was darkness. A roiling, writhing mass of pure smoke and shadow.
My breath caught in my throat, and I took an involuntary step backward. I felt Tess cowering behind me. Even Calvin was terrified.
Greystone stepped in front of me, his eyes hard. “Let’s go,” he commanded. He turned and began to move quickly in the direction of the battle before us.
“I’m not following that guy!” Raven shouted, struggling to be heard over the roar
of the fighting.
“We don’t have a choice,” Calvin said. “They’re losing.”
He was right. The creatures were slowly overwhelming the men and women fighting to protect us. They’d break a hole in the lines here or there and quickly be contained, but every time there were less and less human bodies holding them back.
“Come on, guys,” I said. We had to move. “Stick with Greystone, and stay safe.”
“We should run!” said Blade.
“Run where?” Miles asked him. “Do you know where we are? Do you know where to go? Could you find a way to safety before those things,” he pointed at the creatures, “found us?”
“You telling me what to do?” Blade asked angrily.
“Nobody’s telling anyone what to do,” I interrupted before Miles could respond. We didn’t have time to get into an argument. “Blade, you can run if you want. But I’m going with Greystone. He’s the only one who knows what the heck is happening.”
Without waiting for an answer I turned and walked off after Greystone, hoping to high heaven that they’d all come with me. Thankfully they did; I saw them on either side of me as I tried to keep my eyes locked on the small, stooped figure dressed in grey that approached the back of the human battle line.
“Cara!” shouted Greystone. Contrary to how he’d sounded in the courtyard, his voice was now powerful and booming. It cut through the sound of the fighting like a knife. “It’s time!”
A figure turned to face him, then reached up and removed her—for now I could see it was a woman—helmet. She was young and beautiful and had white-blond hair that was trimmed short and glistened in the sunlight. She stared past Greystone at the six of us, and I was amazed to see relief wash over her face. Like we were there to save her and her army. We weren’t there to save anyone. We were terrified. At least I was.
The woman turned back to her soldiers, and her voice rang out in command. “Runegard! On me!” Immediately, as though they’d been waiting, about two dozen warriors disengaged from the lines and surrounded her in disciplined ranks. Cara shoved her helmet back on her head and used her metal sword to point at the six of us. The sword was stained with what looked like blood, except it was black instead of red.
Realm Keepers: Episode One (A Young Adult Fantasy) (Realm Keepers Episodes) Page 3
