FIERY ILLUSIONS (Keeper of the Emerald Book 2)

by B. C. Harris

- 57 -

  S O S SUPPORT

  After some sleep and much needed food, Squirt, Radwin and I left Tamor to return back to my world. Choosing where to go was a difficult decision. I had no idea where the police might be waiting for me. In the end, I choose to return back to Drew’s house, hoping the police were not there.

  Fortunately Drew was alone. After a brief conversation with him, I told him I needed to check our S O S chat room.

  He leaves me alone as I start my mother’s laptop.

  Soon, I’m in our S O S chat room.

  There’s a message from Jamie.

  WISDOM: Glow, where are you? We’ve got to get together.

  Get together? Does this mean that Jamie still wants to help me?

  GLOW: I went to Tamor. I just got back. I’m at Drew’s.

  Jamie replies back right away.

  WISDOM: We’re all ready to help.

  All ready to help me? I’m shocked that my friends are still supporting me. Not only will they be risking their lives, they will also be risking being arrested by the police.

  GLOW: Thank you.

  COMIC MAN: I’m here.

  GLOW: Why are you willing to take the risk to help me?

  WISDOM: If we don’t help you, we might all be dead by the end of tomorrow. We have nothing to lose. Besides, you’re our friend.

  COMIC MAN: And members of the Society of Spies stick together in both good times and the bad.

  DRAMA: I’m ready.

  It’s a great feeling to have all my friends supporting me. I tell them a little about my visit to Capurni.

  When I finish, I ask Jamie and Michael if they discovered anything from the computer files that were obtained from the Colosseum earlier today.

  GLOW: Anything from the computer files?

  WISDOM: Yes. We have a pretty good idea of what Santtonnice is intending to do.

  COMIC MAN: Santtonnice is planning on destroying our planet. He has the location of every supervolcano in the world, as well as another twenty normal volcanoes. His plan is to use the emerald to cause each of these volcanoes to erupt.

  WISDOM: The result of these massive eruptions around the world will instantly kill millions of people. Over the coming days, weeks, and months, the clouds of ash and smoke from the volcanoes will block the sun’s rays from reaching the earth. The absence of the sun, as well as the poisonous gases from the volcanoes, will kill all advanced forms of life, including humans, across our planet. Our climate will go through a dramatic change, plunging our world into another ice-age.

  COMIC MAN: Santtonnice and six of his followers will enter the seven boxes on the stage. They are time machines. The boxes are time capsules.

  GLOW: Yes, I know this. Capurni explained to me how they will hibernate in these time capsules until they emerge in the distant future to start a new civilization.

  WISDOM: So unless we stop Santtonnice, our world will be entering its final days starting tomorrow.

  I feel sick.

  GLOW: Anything else?

  WISDOM: Yes, you might remember that inside the Colosseum was a small pyramid with the seven boxes and seven pillars.

  GLOW: Yes.

  COMIC MAN: It’s called a stepped pyramid. They were once built by the Mayans in parts of Mexico and some of the surrounding countries.

  GLOW: Is there some reason why Santtonnice copied the Mayan pyramids?

  WISDOM: Yes. The Mayans often built their pyramids so that during the winter solstice, the rays of the sun and the resulting shadows would create the illusion of a giant snake slithering up the stairs of the pyramid. When the imaginary snake reached the top of the pyramid, a human would be sacrificed to their gods. This would be the beginning of a great celebration.

  Is Santtonnice planning on sacrificing my mother?

  GLOW: Human sacrifices? Is Santtonnice planning on performing a human sacrifice?

  WISDOM: Yes. When the rays of the setting sun reach the top of the pyramid tomorrow, he will perform a human sacrifice.

  DRAMA: Human sacrifice? Who is he going to kill?

  There’s a pause before there’s a response.

  WISDOM: Glow.

  - 58 -

  A SHOCKING FIGHT

  It’s now 6:15 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. We’ve spent the last few hours at Drew’s house trying to come up with a plan to stop Santtonnice.

  In the end, we came up with two possible solutions. The first was for me to flee to Tamor. Without my emerald, Santtonnice couldn’t put his sinister plan into action. The second possibility was for me to use the emerald to kill Santtonnice.

  Neither solution was perfect.

  After a great deal of discussion, I have decided to use my emerald to kill Santtonnice.

  We decided to leave for Rome at midnight. Although we’re still not completely sure what we’re going to do once we get there, we know that I have to get into the Colosseum to confront Santtonnice.

  I told my friends that I would find a safe place to stay until midnight. I didn’t tell them what I was thinking of doing; they didn’t ask.

  Once my friends were safely back in their houses, I used my emerald to return back to Rome.

  I’m now in the abandoned office we used the last time we were here. I’ve been staring at the Colosseum for a long time.

  It’s already in the early hours of Christmas Day in Rome. The Colosseum has an eerie glow to it. Before today is over, my planet could be destroyed. I could be murdered as a human sacrifice by Santtonnice. I’m already trembling with fear.

  As I look at the Colosseum, I wonder if my father is a prisoner in one of the tunnels under the floor of the Colosseum. Does he have any idea of what’s going to happen today? Has he seen my mother? Does he know that I have the emerald?

  I know how painful it has been for me during the past eleven years as I often wondered what happened to my father. Now that I know why he vanished, I realize how hard it must have been for him, not knowing if he would ever see my mother or me again.

  Walking back to a couch, I lie down. It’s uncomfortable, not at all like the couches made of celleria in Lattisan.

  I shuffle uncomfortably on the hard couch in the deserted office. Sleep doesn’t come easily. In a few hours I have to return to my home to bring my friends back here.

  As I toss and turn, I wonder if I should go right now into the Colosseum to confront Santtonnice. This way, my friends wouldn’t have to be involved.

  I constantly hear cries of hunger arising from the suffering masses of people in the streets below. A few times I think I hear someone coming up the stairs, but in the end it’s always just my imagination.

  In every shadow that ebbs around the deserted office, I think I see horrible creatures creeping towards me.

  Squirt and Radwin offer me some companionship, although at the moment they are both sound asleep. Squirt is lying upside down against the back of a chair, while Radwin is sleeping on top of my backpack.

  After a period of time drifting in and out of sleep, I decide to go to the Colosseum. I’ve come to the conclusion that it makes more sense to confront Santtonnice without endangering the lives of my friends. I realize that if I kill Santtonnice, I might destroy the future for my parents. I know that I can’t let my concerns about my family from preventing me from saving my planet.

  Unfortunately, Squirt and Radwin are still with me. I wonder if they can help me in some way as I lift them into my backpack.

  I’m an emotional mess. Confusion and fear are running rampant throughout my agitated mind. I’m struggling to find the courage to meet Santtonnice face-to-face.

  Finally I gaze into my emerald and say, “Sandarium, Colosseum, Santtonnice.”

  In a split-second I’m standing in a large dark room. On the far side of the room someone is sleeping in a bed. It must be Santtonnice.

  I place my backpack on the floor.

  Grasping my emerald, I say, “Abruella,” as I point it at Santtonnice.

  A bolt of lighting strikes the bed.


  Santtonnice is smashed against the wall.

  I wait too long before continuing my attack. Suddenly Santtonnice is standing beside the bed.

  “So we meet again,” the lecherous being sneers at me. “I have been expecting you. I knew that you would try to save your mother and father.”

  My emerald is glowing like it’s about to explode. It fills the room with a light that’s almost blinding.

  “Listen carefully to me. If you follow my instructions, you can save your parents.”

  Nothing comes out of my mouth.

  “I will take you to your mother and father. They are both safe. Then we will make a fair exchange. You will give me the emerald, and I will give you your parents.”

  “But my father looks like an insect,” I say.

  Santtonnice smirks. “I can use the emerald to transform him back into another human.”

  “Never!” The words burst from my mouth.

  “Then I will kill you and your parents,” Santtonnice shouts as he leaps across the room at me.

  At the same instant, Radwin appears out of nowhere flashing his blinding lights into the monster’s face.

  Santtonnice swats Radwin as though he’s a small bird. Radwin crashes against a wall.

  Grasping my emerald, I say, “Abruella,” as I point it at Santtonnice.

  “At the same instant, Santtonnice shouts, “Korabellum!”

  A burst of light smashes Santtonnice against a wall, but at the same moment I find myself floating helplessly.

  The emerald is obeying commands from both Santtonnice and me.

  As Santtonnice lifts his hand, I’m horrified to find myself rising even though he’s not touching me. As Santtonnice tilts his hand one way or another, I’m being pulled through the air as though I’m a puppet and he’s the puppet master.

  “You want to play games with me? I will kill you right now, and walk away with the emerald.”

  I remember Capurni telling me that the Keeper of the Emerald is invincible, although at this moment I’m not sure whether I’m still the Keeper of the Emerald, or whether it has now chosen Santtonnice to be its Keeper once again.

  “Contassia!” I scream, holding my hands before me.

  Instantly a translucent shield appears between Santtonnice and me. I drop like a bag of bricks to the hard wooden floor.

  As I strike the floor, the brilliant green light that was filling the room vanishes as though someone turned off the switch.

  The glimmering energy shield separating Santtonnice and me provides an unusually soft light in a room charged with fear and anger.

  “Abruella!” Santtonnice screams.

  Nothing happens.

  Santtonnice sneers at me.

  “You have survived this time,” Santtonnice taunts me through the impenetrable wall that separates us. “I expect you to be back inside the Colosseum today one hour before the sun sets. If you fail to do this, your mother and father will die horrible deaths.

  I try to look brave.

  “Then I will deliver the same fate to your uncle and two cousins.”

  Lucy and Richard and Uncle Henry. My relatives from England. Has Santtonnice kidnapped them as well?

  Strutting around like a starving panther on his side of the energy shield, Santtonnice snatches Squirt and Radwin. “And,” he snarls as he almost strangles my two helpless friends, “these pathetic creatures will also die a painful death.”

  Santtonnice stares at me with the full force of his depravity. “Even if I fail to get your emerald, I still have the power to unleash a war on this planet that will be unlike anything that has been experienced before. Perhaps you forget that my followers now number into the millions, and they will do whatever I ask them to do, including the slaughter of your little band of friends.”

  Jamie, Michael, Drew, and Jasmin, I think.

  I feel powerless to respond to Santtonnice. His repulsion is so great that all I want to do is get out of this room, although seeing Squirt and Radwin in his violent hands fills me with dread.

  “You, and you alone have the power to save your family and friends.”

  I need to get out of here.

  “Sandarium, Lattisan!” I frantically exclaim.

  - 59 -

  HELP FROM CAPURNI

  Capurni enters the room.

  I’m sitting on a couch.

  “Capurni,” I say, “I just barely survived a fight with Santtonnice. I think my emerald still listens to him. He was able to use it to fight against me.”

  Capurni listens carefully as I describe my fight with Santtonnice.

  When I’m finished, he speaks.

  “From what you’ve said, it appears that Santtonnice still has some control over the emerald.”

  “Does this mean that I might not be able to kill him?”

  “As long as Santtonnice is still linked to the emerald’s power, I think it would be very difficult to kill him. In fact, because he is much more aware of how to use the power of the emerald than you, it’s possible that there is a much better chance of him killing you, than you killing him.”

  “But you told me before that the Keeper of the Emerald was invincible.”

  Capurni pauses before replying.

  “Yes, that’s correct, but the important question now is who is the Keeper of the Emerald? Will the emerald decide to listen to you, or to Santtonnice?”

  “What’s the use?” I say. “Maybe I should trade him the emerald, and hope that he allows my parents and the others to go free.”

  “Do your instincts tell you that Santtonnice would let your parents and you go after you give him the emerald?”

  I shake my head.

  Even if he lets us go, I think, we would die anyways in the holocaust that followed. None of us would survive the eruption of dozens of volcanoes across my planet.

  “I have to defeat him,” I say with determination. “That’s the only way to stop him.”

  Capurni smiles. I know that he agrees with me.

  “Since the last time you were here, I have researched Kienda’s writings concerning E. T. again.”

  “What did you find?” I ask.

  “I learned that Kienda discovered a one word command to use for energy transmutation.”

  I gaze at Capurni awaiting the revelation of this one word.

  “Vergendice.”

  “Ver…gen…dice,” I repeat. “All I have to say to transfer my father’s mind back into his body is vergendice.”

  “With one more requirement,” Capurni says.

  “What’s that?” I say.

  “They have to be touching,” Capurni replies.

  I remember Capurni telling me this before. I wonder how I will ever be able to get my father and Santtonnice to touch.

  “Once you have transferred your father back into his body, you can be ruthless in attacking Kienda with the emerald. While there is no doubt that he will be a powerful adversary, I believe you can be successful.”

  To be successful, I’m going to have to overcome my anxiety. At the moment, it’s paralysing me.

  “I think some food and rest will help you,” Capurni says. “Why don’t you lie on the couch and enjoy a massage from the celleria. I’ll got get you some food and also a picture of Kienda so you will know what your father now looks like.”

  I smile with thanks as I immerse myself into the soothing action of the celleria.

  - 60 -

  CHRISTMAS

  As I sit on the couch in Drew’s living room, his soft snoring in the next room comforts me. In another few minutes it will be Christmas.

  For the past hour or so, I caught up on my S O S messages after returning her from Lattisan. They were pretty much the same. Where was I? Do I have any new ideas?

  I type.

  GLOW: Everyone ready?

  I guess that it’s now about six in the morning in Rome on Christmas day. The sun will be setting in Rome in less than twelve hours. We have twelve hours to stop Santtonnice.

&nbs
p; Jamie is the first to respond.

  WISDOM: Good to hear from you. Where are you? I’m ready. Anything new?

  Anything new? What will my friends say when I tell them that my emerald still obeys commands from Santtonnice?

  GLOW: I will explain to you when we’re together. I’m at Hunk’s. He’s sleeping.

  I’ll tell them about my visit to the Colosseum later.

  COMIC MAN: I’m ready.

  DRAMA: Me too. Get me first so I can wake up Hunk.

  Some things never change, I think.

  - 61 -

  ONE HOUR TO SUNSET

  When we first arrived back in the office in Rome, I told my friends about my fight with Santtonnice. Most important of all, I told them that I had to meet Santtonnice in the Colosseum one hour before sunset.

  From my friends, I learned that each of them had left a note in their bedrooms informing their parents that they were going to be away for part of the day, and not to worry. Not to worry? I imagined their parents going crazy when they discovered the empty bedrooms, especially on Christmas morning.

  As we considered our options, Michael remembered an important fact that the rest of us had forgotten. Yesterday, we left one of the nano-drones inside the control room at the Colosseum. As soon as we realized this, we were able to use it to do some further exploring.

  As Michael maneuvered the tiny fly around the interior of the Colosseum, we discovered the location of my mother, my relatives from England, and Squirt and Radwin. They were all being kept in separate prison cells that were in a wall that opened onto the Colosseum floor with Squirt and Radwin inside cages. My mother’s cell was lined with mirrors.

  The only person we were unable to find was my father. I showed my friends the picture of Kienda that Capurni had given to me and told them that this was now what my father likely looked like. I still couldn’t accept that he might be a large, hairless animal that resembled a cross between a fly and a spider. Even though I have a picture of him, I’ve been unable to use my emerald to locate him. He’s probably being held in a cage of mirrors.

  Carefully and methodically we used the nano-drone to travel throughout the Colosseum. Fortunately we never ran into Santtonnice.