by Jeff Gunhus
“This guy’s good,” Daniel said.
“Yeah, bummer, right?” I replied.
Pahvi left no time for us to form a plan. He pounced forward, his blades carving complex feinting patterns in the air. I raised my sword to fend off his blow only to have his sword disappear at the last second. On pure reflex, I swung downward and luckily blocked his dagger streaking up toward my gut. Daniel and Will bore the brunt of the attack with his sword while Xavier and T-Rex searched for the projectile gun.
Pahvi slammed into my side and sent me sprawling to the floor. The impact didn’t do any damage, but it took me out of the fight for a few seconds. As I was about to get back on my feet, I saw T-Rex hold up Xavier’s gun triumphantly, the grappling hook sticking out of the end. I raised my hand and T-Rex threw it to me. I took off the safety and spun toward where the fight raged. Daniel and Will were barely holding on against Pahvi. He was just too good.
I jumped up on the wood scaffolding and climbed up as fast as I could. I reached the spot I was looking for and turned just as I heard Will cry out.
His sword skittered across the floor. He didn’t appear to be injured, but without his sword, that wouldn’t last long. Keeping Daniel at bay with his sword, Pahvi raised his dagger up to strike Will down. I took aim with the gun, exhaled to steady myself, and fired.
The projectile flew through the air, a thin wire trailing behind it. Pahvi cried out as it hit his right leg and shot all the way through. I passed the gun over the top of a heavy wood beam and locked the wire in place. Then, gripping it tightly, I jumped.
Down below, the wire pulled back through Pahvi’s leg and the projectile grabbed hold of him like a meat hook. The force of my body weight ripped him off the floor and dragged him airborne hanging upside-down. The surprise was so total that both of his weapons flew in different directions. He jerked and twisted trying to break free.
I landed on the floor and wrapped the gun connected to the wire around another beam to keep the tension on it. By the time I did, Daniel, Will, T-Rex, and even Xavier, who had recovered the vampire’s dagger, had the struggling Pahvi surrounded. The vampire thrashed around, but it was useless. We had him.
“Pahvi!” I bellowed.
The vampire stopped. He slowly relaxed, uncurling his body until he hung loosely upside-down, his arms over his head. A wet bloodstain surrounded the injury on his leg. I walked up to him, the point of my sword aimed at his throat.
“Agree to be my prisoner, or I’ll have Daniel here cut off your head,” I said.
Pahvi closed his eyes. A chuckle came from deep inside him. Soft at first, like he might have been trying to clear something from his throat. But then louder until he was laughing out loud at us.
Daniel gave him a push and the vampire swayed to and fro on the wire, the projectile digging into his leg and adding an edge to his laugh. “Shut up, Creach,” Daniel barked.
“You’re in a pretty good mood for a bloodsucker who’s had his last meal,” said Will.
“I just find it funny,” Pahvi said. “You all still think you can save her, don’t you?”
“What are we waiting for?” Daniel said. “Let’s just kill him.”
“She’s already as good as dead,” Pahvi laughed. “She belongs to Shakra now. You’re too late.”
I raised my sword. “Last chance. Agree on your honor as a Romani to be my prisoner or die.”
Pahvi turned serious, looking at each of us in turn. Unbelievably, I got the sense he was still calculating his odds of fighting his way through us. Finally, he nodded his acquiescence.
“I accept and agree to be bound as a prisoner,” Pahvi said. “But if you think Shakra will bargain my life for that of your hunter Eva, then you are a greater fool than I thought.”
“We’ll see,” I said. “Let him down but keep a sword on him.” Pahvi looked insulted. “Not that we don’t trust you…”
“…it’s just that we don’t trust you,” Will said.
We lowered Pahvi and wrapped his arms and legs with chains Xavier found in a supply shed in the tower. We covered these with his cloak so we could transport him back to the hotel.
Even with the storm outside, we’d caused a commotion, especially by ringing the bells. I wasn’t sure what we would do if the authorities turned up demanding to know what had happened. Explaining that we were doing battle with vampires while chasing down an ancient weapon hidden in the top of the spire probably wouldn’t get very far. Especially once they saw the mess in the bell tower, not to mention the rooftop covered with shattered gargoyles and shredded bronze statues.
No, it was better for us to get out of there as soon as possible.
As we made our way out of the tower and into the driving rain, I tried to figure out how I was going to get Pahvi to help me save Eva. Slowly, a plan took form in my mind. The only problem was that it was incredibly dangerous, probably wouldn’t work, and had a good chance of leaving me dead.
I couldn’t wait to get started.
Chapter Twenty
It felt good to be dry again. We were back in the hotel, taking turns guarding Pahvi. He sat on the floor, his chains now wrapped around both his chest and an old-fashioned floor radiator. I wondered if it would be strong enough to hold him and hoped his sworn oath to be my prisoner was stronger than the iron we were using to tie him down.
Removing the barbed projectile had been easy enough after we cut the wire using some special cutters from Xavier’s toolbox and pulled it through. Pahvi barely winced and the wound sealed itself quickly. Ten minutes later the bloodstain on his clothes remained, but he showed no other sign of injury. Being a vampire had its upsides.
With Pahvi secured, I went to the other room and placed the cylinder on the table, excited to finally inspect it. Will and T-Rex joined me while Daniel and Xavier took first watch guarding our vampire prisoner.
I inspected the outside of the cylinder first. It was a little less than a foot long and about as wide as a tennis ball. The metal was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. It had a luster to it that picked up the light in the room almost like liquid mercury would. The surface had felt smooth in the rain, but now I saw etchings covering it. They appeared to be just swirls of decoration. I ran my finger over them and they moved. I pulled my hand back and looked at Will and T-Rex.
“Did you see that?” I whispered.
“See what?” Will asked.
I reached out and slid my finger over the surface again. The etched lines moved around the surface like metal filings reacting to a strong magnet. They bounced off each other like they were floating in water before settling back down into a new shape.
“You had to see that,” I exclaimed.
T-Rex looked at Will strangely, then back at me. “Are you feeling okay?” he asked.
“The etchings. They move when you touch them,” I said. “You can’t see that?”
They shook their heads, but I could see they believed me. If this had been a few months ago when we were regular students at Sunnyvale Middle School, they would have thought I was nuts. But since we had an ancient gypsy vampire tied up in the room next to us, they were a little more open to finding strange, unexplainable things in the world.
I pushed the etchings around a little more, but it was a novelty, nothing more. I went back to looking for a way to open the cylinder. Neither end showed any sign of a clasp or lock. I tried to twist both ends, hoping they would unscrew like a jar lid. Nothing. After several minutes, I handed the cylinder to Will to try.
“Whoa,” he said once he grabbed hold of it. “Look at the lines move around.”
I watched his fingers trace the surface just as I had done, but the etchings looked like they remained in place. I thought he was making fun of me. “C’mon, this is no time to be messing around.”
Will looked at me oddly. “You can’t see that?” He rubbed his finger back and forth across the cylinder but nothing moved.
“Let me see,” T-Rex said.
He grabbed the
cylinder and his eyes went wide. Even though the etchings didn’t move as I watched him move his fingers across the surface, I could see from T-Rex’s expression that they were moving for him. “So cool,” T-Rex said. “I thought you were losing your marbles.”
He handed it back to me and the etchings danced across the surface.
“I guess only the person holding it can see the lines move around,” I said. “Is that right?”
As soon as I asked the question, the lines swirled and roiled on the surface by themselves. I watched in amazement as they formed into a dense shape, organizing themselves into letters. V…E…R…I…T…A…S
“Veritas,” I mumbled. “The lines…they spelled veritas. What does that mean?”
“It’s Latin. It means truth,” Daniel said from behind us. We spun around and saw him standing in the doorway. He saw the concern on my face. “Don’t worry, Xavier is staying with our vampire friend, and I rechecked the chains myself. He’s not going anywhere.” He nodded to the cylinder. “That’s a Revealer. I’ve read about them before but never seen one. Xavier is going to go nuts trying to figure out how it works.”
“What does it do?” T-Rex asked.
“From what I’ve read, it answers either questions it knows from experience or answers what it knows a person believes is true,” Daniel said. He could see we were confused. “Ask it if we are in Paris.”
I felt a little stupid speaking to the metal cylinder, but I did it. “Are we in Paris?” I asked.
The etchings scrambled and swirled, settling back into the word Veritas. “It says true,” I said.
“Because it knows from its experience that it is in Paris,” Daniel explained. “Now ask if Master Aquinas is in France.”
I did so and the lines scattered back across the surface, moving around and around until settling into a new word. F…A…L…S…U…M. I told the others what it said.
“Obviously, that means false in Latin,” Daniel said. “But here’s where things get tricky. It can only answer veritas or falsum when asked a question.”
“What? There’s no ‘Not Yet’ or ‘Maybe Later’ like in a Magic 8-Ball?” T-Rex joked.
Daniel shook his head. “It’s what makes a Revealer complicated…and dangerous. It’s why most of them were destroyed. These have started wars and caused many problems over the centuries.”
“I still don’t get it,” Will said. “How does it know where Master Aquinas is?”
“That’s just it,” Daniel said. “By answering falsum, it doesn’t necessarily mean it knows that Aquinas isn’t in France. It could mean that. Or it could mean that it just doesn’t have a clue. Or it could mean that it’s inferring from the three of you who touched it that you don’t believe she’s in France.”
“That thing read our minds when we held it?” T-Rex asked. “That’s kind of creepy, isn’t it?”
“But just because you believe something doesn’t make it true,” I challenged. “Even if the three of us believed she was in Germany, she could actually be just down the street, right?”
“Now you see the problem,” Daniel said. “People want certainty and sometimes they’re willing to see things in black and white when actually there are more greys. That’s why Revealers have caused so many problems. So this must be used with care.”
“Ask it whether the cylinder can be opened,” Will offered.
“Great idea,” I said. “Can you be opened?” I asked.
Veritas.
Is there something inside of you?” I asked.
Veritas.
“Do I need a key?”
Falsum.
“Careful,” Daniel warned when I told him what the Revealer said. “You have to be very specific with each question. ‘Do I need a key?’ is too general. Do you need a key to live? You don’t, so it answered falsum.”
I nodded, getting how the Revealer worked. “Do I need a key to open this cylinder?”
Veritas.
Will clapped Daniel on the back excitedly. “Good catch,” he said.
“Yeah, if only we had a key,” he replied. “Did you find anything else while you were up there on the spire?”
I shook my head, turning the cylinder over in my hands and hoping there was a something I’d missed. Maybe a key to slide out from a secret compartment. I realized I was wasting my time looking for one. I just had to ask. “Is the key hidden somewhere on you?”
Falsum
“Is the key that will open you somewhere in this room?”
Veritas
We all breathed a sigh of relief followed by confusion. We searched the room over, looking for anything we’d brought with us from the cathedral. Finally, I thought of a better question. “Do I have the key with me right now?”
Veritas
“Empty your pockets,” Will said. “There must be something.”
“Maybe the Templar Ring,” T-Rex suggested.
Of course, the Templar Ring had opened doors for me before. I placed it near the cylinder, expecting to feel the heat surge from it like it had before. But nothing happened. I placed it near each end. Still nothing.
“Is the Templar Ring the key to open you?” I asked the Revealer.
Falsum
We all groaned. Daniel stood up. “Let me go ask Xavier. He’s good at these sorts of things.” He left the room to grab him.
As he did, I thought back to Gregor and all the advice he’d given me. So much of it had seemed cryptic at the time, but one by one, the advice had proven important to our success. I rifled through the last moments with him to think of anything that might apply here.
Then it came to me. He’d said, Your Templar blood will prove essential to your success. It is everything. It is the key. What if his use of the word key wasn’t coincidental? What if my blood was the key? With a Revealer, I realized I didn’t have to guess.
“Is my blood the key to opening you?”
Falsum
I sank back into my chair. Will shook his head. “Ask a better question,” he said. “You said the key.”
“So?” I asked.
“Well, what if your blood is just one of many keys that could open it? If you asked if your blood was the key, as in the only key, then the answer would be Falsum even if your blood would open it.”
I sat back up in my chair, appreciating how the Revealer could mislead if you misused it. “Is my blood a key to opening you?” I asked.
The lines moved and shifted and swirled.
Veritas
We cheered and high-fived each other. Daniel walked back into the room when he heard the excitement.
After we calmed down, T-Rex said, “I hope it doesn’t take too much of your blood.”
I swallowed hard and nodded. I took my dagger and sliced a small cut on my arm. A small bubble of blood rose up. I leaned over the cylinder and pressed the cut until a drop of blood dripped down onto it.
The etchings scattered from the site of impact and then rushed to it as if the tiny lines were living things feasting on food thrown into a tank. The drop of blood disappeared into the metal. Once it was gone, the lines moved back into position as ornamental etchings.
There was a click, and the round top of the cylinder popped up with a whoosh of pressurized air. The lid appeared to be connected to whatever was inside. Carefully, I grasped it with my hand and pulled. A dagger slid out from the cylinder, the top in my hand forming the butt of the weapon’s hilt. I rotated the blade in the light of the hotel room. One side glistened with a chrome-like reflective sheen. The word Veritas was etched into it. The other side of the blade was dull black metal that seemed to absorb the light. Carved here was the word Falsum. Will, T-Rex and Daniel took turns holding the dagger.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Daniel said. “Did Gregor tell you how to use it?”
“He told me what it does. It makes the vampires feel all the pain and suffering of every victim,” I said.
“It shows them the truth of what they have done,” Daniel whisp
ered.
“And that kills them?” T-Rex asked.
“I suppose it’s like dying over and over again,” I said. “Gregor said the older the vampire, the more horrific the death is.”
“How can we be sure it works?” Will asked.
“I know one way to find out,” Daniel replied menacingly, indicating the other room where Pahvi was tied up.
I shook my head. “No, we need him to lead us to Eva,” I said.
“Then I say we use this new weapon and we make him talk,” Daniel snarled. “Every minute we wait and play nice is time better spent looking for Eva.”
“You mean torture him?” T-Rex said. “We can’t do that.” He looked at Will and me. “I mean, it’s not right, is it?”
Will stared at the ground, unwilling to meet T-Rex eye-to-eye. Daniel grunted in disgust. “He’s a vampire. A Creach monster. Do you think for a second he wouldn’t torture one of us to get what he wanted? As far as we know, they’re torturing Eva right now to find out what she knows about our quest.” He pointed at me. “You said Ren Lucre himself told you that he tortured your father. This is a war!” he shouted. “Not some game with rules to play by!”
Xavier ran in from the next room. “Hey, keep it down. We can hear everything you guys are saying over here.”
This was the opportunity I’d been waiting for since my idea had come to me when we first captured Pahvi. Without even knowing it, Daniel and Xavier had set things up perfectly. My plan was reckless, even borderline insane. And just crazy enough that it might work.
I put my hand on T-Rex’s shoulder and said, “I’m sorry T-Rex, these guys are right. We need to find Eva and the Jerusalem Stones. Nothing else matters.” T-Rex looked crushed. I turned to the others. “You guys stay here. I’m going to do this alone.”
Before I left the room, I scribbled something on a piece of paper and handed it to T-Rex. He immediately broke out in a wide grin and gave me a hug. After, he turned very serious as if just realizing something. He was about to speak, but I put my hand over his mouth and put my fingers to my lips. I handed the piece of paper to the others and, without waiting for them to read it, walked over to the other room.
