“Especially the doctor,” Mike said.
“Right,” Rhiannon agreed.
“Okay,” Rob said, “but be careful.” He turned to Galen. “Are you ready? The moon’s starting to rise.” When Galen hesitated, Rob put a hand on his back. “Galen?”
“I’m ready.” He looked at Rob, trying to ignore the growing tingle of darkness simmering beneath his feet.
“What?” Rob asked.
“Nothing.” Galen walked towards the circle, memories of the ritual playing in front of his eyes. He stopped at the mark the Old One made when it fell. Darkness flowed out of the ground, running up his legs, exploding in his chest. He felt the impact with the ground as his knees slammed into the earth.
“Galen!” Rob’s hand was on his arm, supporting him.
“It’s okay.”
“No, no, it’s not. This was a mistake. Rhiannon!”
“No, Rob. Help me up. We have to cleanse this place. If we don’t…” Galen broke off, wondering if he should tell his brother what was left lurking under the blackened soil. “Help me up.” Rob pulled him to his feet and left a steadying hand under his elbow. “I need the herbs.” Galen held out his hand before his brother could object.
“Okay.” Rob acquiesced too easily. Galen looked at his brother for a long moment. “I heard you, Galen. About what’s left,” Rob said softly. “I’m not sure you can keep stuff like that from me.”
“That might be a pain in the ass,” Galen grumbled. He took the black velvet bag of herbs from Rob. Galen carefully sprinkled the area where the Old One had died, then walked to the altar. The vision of his hands sinking into Rob’s chest was suddenly before his eyes. His hands started shaking as a sense memory—warm liquid, the resistance of Rob’s ribs—crept into his awareness. He took a deep breath and covered the altar with herbs.
“I have the candles. I already lit them at the place where It died.” Rob carefully put the candles onto the altar. He lit them and turned to Galen. “Are you sure?” He smiled. “Of course you are. I’m ready.”
Galen placed his hands on his sword, right hand on the hilt, left holding the blade. He stopped. “I’ve never done this before, Rob,” he admitted.
“Have you ever raised an army of the dead before?” Rob clapped him on the back. “Just start. I’m sure it’ll be like the other.”
“How will you know…”
“What to do?” Rob finished for him. “I’ve read the ritual. Remember I planned to do this by myself. I’ll follow your lead, Galen.”
“As will we,” Parry’s form shimmered into existence beside them, joined an instant later by Bobby and a third man. Galen recognized him—the First Emrys.
“Thank you,” Galen said. He took a deep breath and tightened his hand on the hilt of the sword. He let his eyes close, aware of the pulsing of dark evil under his feet, slowly filling the circle again. With another breath he began to sing, the song flowing out of him as if it were part of him. Reality wavered, the song grew in intensity.
He felt Rob’s hand on his shoulder, heard his brother’s voice join his. Power surged through him, light began to pool at his feet, he heard other voices, a counterpoint to the song he and Rob were singing. The power began to build, the light slowly engulfing him. The darkness was pushing in on him trying to reach him through the light. A single cold claw of the dark touched him, he thought he felt himself fall, but he wasn’t aware of his body. The song filled him completely, surrounded him.
Galen continued, waiting for the moment, and it was suddenly there. He let the song change, and the power that had been gathering exploded outwards, washing the circle in a huge wave of light, chasing the darkness away, from the shadows of the stones, from the dark place where the Old One had died. Galen felt a shriek echo out of the earth, a final strand of something lashed out, wrapping him briefly in the dark, then disappeared into the night.
“What are you doing? Check on Galen first,” Rob’s voice was harsh. “Help me up.”
“He’s alive, Rob,” Mike answered. “Galen?”
“I know he’s alive,” Rob snapped. “Galen?” he said gently. Galen felt his brother drop down beside him, then Rob’s hand on his head and chest a moment later. White light flowed out, touching the spots of darkness lingering in his body. The light increased. “Thanks for the help, Dad, Emrys,” Rob said. Galen let the healing flow through him, floating a little as it took away the ache in his head and chest. “Galen?”
“Here,” Galen said, opening his eyes. “You have blood on your face.”
“I got hit by a piece of the altar,” Rob said with a grin.
“What?” Galen held out his hand, Rob helped him sit up. He looked around. “What happened?” Galen asked, looking over at Flash. His friend was sitting on the ground, shaking his head.
“You… You just… I mean, I knew… I saw during the other ritual… But I never thought…” Flash stopped every few words, Galen wondered if his friend thought he was finishing the sentences.
“Flash?”
“Holy living fuck, Galen,” Flash said, focusing on him.
“I’d like to agree with that,” Rhiannon said, crouching down beside Galen.
“What?” Galen looked at his brother, Rob quirked an eyebrow at him. “Well, Brat? What?”
“Galen, I never… And I was…” Flash continued.
“Did he get hit on the head?” Galen asked the group at large.
“We all did,” Mike said. Galen noticed cuts on the doctor’s forearm.
“I just don’t… I mean… It fucking exploded.” Flash was shaking his head again.
“What exploded?” Galen said quietly, suppressing the urge to shout at them. “Rob?” His brother pulled him to his feet.
“The altar and the stones, Galen.”
“They what?” Galen looked over where the altar had been, nothing was left but an indentation in the ground. The circle of stones was gone, the clearing scattered with bits of broken rock.
“Exploded,” Rob said.
“Exploded?” Galen walked to the indentation, the echoes of darkness were gone from the place. He felt a tiny whisper of something, then it was gone, slipping through the night.
“Exploded. Blasted apart like you’d filled them with dynamite,” Rhiannon said, walking up. “You did it.”
“No, Rob, Dad, Bobby and Emrys did it.” Galen put his arm around her and gave her shoulders a squeeze.
“No, Galen Emrys. You did this. You did what I couldn’t, what none of us could.” The First Emrys was there in front of him. “We helped, but you did this. You and your brother.” He reached out and laid a shimmering hand on Galen’s shoulder. “We will wait until you call us to serve again.” He slowly disappeared, his form blending with cloud-muted stars.
“He’s right, Galen,” Rob said quietly.
“He is indeed. We’ll see you at home,” Bobby said, Parry nodded.
The whisper touched him again. Galen closed his eyes and focused on it. It was connected to the place, somehow, but the echo was faint. He concentrated, reaching out along the line of the connection, feeling his way.
“The first clearing,” Rob suddenly said.
“What?” Galen opened his eyes and glanced at his brother.
“The first ritual, the very first, Galen. There’s something still there.”
“Dad and Bobby cleansed the place,” Galen said, shaking his head. “And you’d think if there was anything left, it would be at the farmhouse, at the place of the second ritual.”
“We need to go back,” Rob said quietly. “If we go now, we can be there by tomorrow moonrise. Maybe a little sooner, depending on speed limits.” He grinned at Galen. “You can sleep in the car.”
“I don’t need to sleep, Rob. I’m fine.”
“Well, I’m not,” Flash said from behind them. “You don’t think you two are going anywhere without us, do you?”
“We can handle this,” Rob said.
“I’m sure you can, doesn’t mean we aren’t going,” Rhia
nnon said, frowning at them.
“Thank you,” Galen said quietly, looking at their friends, a rush a of gratitude warming him. “We need to do this alone.”
“Galen…” Flash met his eyes for a long moment. “Okay, Rhiannon can drop me off and I’m going to go get drunk. Really, really stinking drunk. I’ll see you in a couple of days, assuming I’m not in an alcohol-induced coma.”
“Flash?” Galen looked at his friend.
“It’s okay. I’ll be fine by the third shot.” He walked over and gave Galen a brief hug. “I’ll make sure the shop’s open at ten tomorrow morning.”
“Thanks.” Galen watched Flash walk towards Rhiannon’s car. “I’m okay,” he said to Mike as the doctor pulled a stethoscope out of his pocket. “Go with Flash.”
“Galen? Are you sure?” Mike was peering at him.
“Yeah, I’m sure.” He smiled and waited as the doctor followed Flash.
“I’ll see you later, honey,” Rhiannon said. She pulled out her keys and walked away.
“Do you think they’re heading home?” Rob asked.
“I think they’re going to wait about half an hour and follow us, actually. Rhiannon knows where it is.” The whisper was back, pulling at him. “We need to go, you’re right,” he said to Rob. His brother nodded. Galen picked up his sword, looking at the blood on the blade. “Where did that come from?”
Rob shook his head, laughing. “Your hand, genius.” Galen looked down in surprise at the slice in his hand. The wound was already healing.
“You’re getting good at fixing things like that,” Galen said as they walked to the car. He put his sword in the back and dropped into the passenger seat with a sigh. “Do you want me to drive?”
“I’m fine, you get some sleep.”
“I don’t need to sleep,” Galen grumbled, the words were hardly out of his mouth before he heard a soft snore. Was that me?
Sunlight on his face woke him. Galen looked out the window, forest was slipping by, broken occasionally by a single house or pasture. “Hey,” he said quietly.
“Welcome back.” Rob looked over with a grin. “There’s coffee in the thermos.”
“Thanks.” Galen poured himself a cup. “When did we get coffee? And a thermos?”
“I always have a thermos. I stopped for coffee about an hour ago. I figured you’d have to get up soon.”
“What time is it?”
“Just after noon. We can stop and eat if you want.”
“Let me have some coffee first,” Galen said, sipping the hot liquid. “Not bad.”
“Truck stop coffee’s always good. How do you feel?”
“Good. A little headache, but that’s all.” He smiled at his brother. “How are you?”
“Hungry.” Rob grinned. “But other than that, good. So, are we asking as a matter of form?”
“What?” Galen grinned back, knowing what his brother meant. He could feel the connection with Rob, stronger than it had been in the past, stronger than it had been even the day before. They were quiet for a long time. “Rob?”
“Yeah?”
“Why did you think it had to be at the first clearing? Not where the second ritual was? Dad and Bobby cleansed both places.”
“I know.” Rob glanced over at him. “The second place…” He trailed off, his face sad.
“Rob? What?”
“I…” His brother reached over and laid his hand on Galen’s arm. He felt the connection alter like it had in his garden, the world shifted and he knew he was seeing through Rob’s eyes. A memory unfolded. It was dark when he arrived, the place still had the stink of the fire there, the one Galen had lit, the one the bearded man had died in. The remembered stench of burning flesh filling his lungs as he walked towards the altar place. Rob paused, looking around, it hadn’t changed much in ten years, really. The last vague echo of the darkness that had touched the place was still there. Tears filled his eyes, his chest was aching. It had taken his brother, Galen had died in his stead. Rob began chanting, the darkness shifted beneath him. It moved away from the place, moved to where It, the thing that had killed Galen, now resided. It was time for it to end. Rob was weeping as he destroyed the last physical evidence of the ritual, of the place where so much had ended.
“Gods, Rob,” Galen said, coming back to himself, tears on his face. He looked over at his brother. “You destroyed it, but not the first clearing?”
“I couldn’t, once I was there. I just couldn’t bring myself to walk down the path, knowing it was the place where it all began, where my life ended, really.”
“Rob,” Galen began, but didn’t know what to say. The grief from the vision was still there, pressing against his heart. He laid his hand over Rob’s and let the healing light flow into his brother.
“Thank you,” Rob said quietly. “I didn’t know how to tell you.”
“There’s less of a chance for misunderstanding when you do it that way. That’s a trick you’ll have to show me.”
“I will, and you’ll have to show me how to make stones explode.” Rob laughed, the bright carefree laugh Galen remembered from when they were young. “That bitch! I thought I lost her.”
“What?” Galen turned around, Rhiannon’s car was behind them.
“You were right, they followed us, but I thought I ditched them.”
“You didn’t really think we’d lose her for long, did you?”
“I tried,” Rob sighed. “She seems to be part bloodhound though, or something.” He looked at Galen. “Should we just invite them to eat with us?”
“It would save them hiding behind menus.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Rob turned on the blinker to let Rhiannon know they were exiting. She followed them to the restaurant parking lot, and their friends met them at the door.
“You weren’t planning on sabotaging my car while we ate?” she asked, grinning at Rob.
“No. I already tried that.”
“You what?” Galen asked his brother.
“He took a couple of sparkplug wires while I was in the bathroom.” She scowled at Rob. “Flash and Mike were asleep at their posts or something. I come out, no wires and these two sipping coffee.”
“Luckily, she had an extra set,” Flash said with a grin.
“I’m beginning to think you have a whole engine in your trunk.” Rob held the door.
“Yeah,” Rhiannon said distractedly.
“Rhiannon?” Galen put his hand on her shoulder, bracing himself against the wave a grief. “What is it?”
“Megan…” She trailed off and cleared her throat. When she looked up at Galen her eyes were bright. “We stopped here, ten years ago, the day before she was taken.” Mike put an arm over her shoulders.
“We can go someplace else,” Rob said, turning back towards the door.
“No, it’s okay.” Rhiannon shook herself. “I’m okay, let’s eat.” They followed the hostess to a booth. Galen trailed behind, aware of a sudden tension in his brother. Rob was all smiles, teasing both Galen and Rhiannon as they ate and joining in with Flash and Mike on an assessment of the women in the diner. Galen watched his brother, for all the joking the other emotion was there the whole time.
“Rob?” Galen said after the meal, when they were alone in the jeep.
“Yeah?”
“What is it?” He looked over at his brother, there was a tightness around Rob’s mouth.
“Going back. I never realized it would be…”
“This hard?” Galen finished for him. Rob looked over with a frown. “I know.”
“It all ended there, Galen. If that hadn’t happened, if I hadn’t let myself get taken, we could have been serving all these years. We could have been together.” A tear found its way down Rob’s cheek.
“I’m sorry,” Galen said softly. And that makes a thousand, I think. Seeing his brother so broken, still aching from the wounds of the past, tore at Galen. “I thought…”
“You thought you were doing what was best, I know that,
Galen. I don’t blame you.” Rob looked out the windshield, frowning.
Galen reached across the car and put his hand on Rob’s arm, letting his brother’s emotion flow through the contact. Something was there, something that had been there all along. Under the grief, under everything was guilt, soul-killing in its intensity. “No!” Galen said. “Rob, no!”
“You keep saying you’re sorry, asking me to forgive you, but it’s me, Galen.”
“No!”
“How can you ever forgive me?”
“There’s nothing to forgive, Rob.”
“I let myself get taken.”
“I failed you that night. They took you, I should have stopped them,” Galen said quickly. He knew his brother didn’t hear his words.
“And then you died for me. For me, Galen. I know you were trying to stop the Legacy, but Galen…” Another tear wound its way down Rob’s cheek.
“Rob…” Galen was at a loss for words. He looked over at his brother, Rob was focused away from him. Galen was silent.
They arrived at their destination four hours later. Rob had been silent, lost somewhere Galen couldn’t go. He’d tried to reach his brother every way he could think of, even turning the radio to an all easy-listening station. Nothing would shake Rob out of the mood that had descended on him. His brother parked the jeep and opened his door without saying anything to Galen. He walked to the back and pulled out their swords.
Galen sighed and got out of the car. The forest was quiet. It smelled warm, living. He took a deep breath and walked to where his brother was standing, staring at the forest with unseeing eyes. “You sure you want to come, Rob?”
Rob was silent for so long, Galen wasn’t sure he was going to answer. Then Rob looked over at him, meeting his eyes. “Yeah, Galen. I need to,” he said. “I’m sorry. Shutting you out wasn’t helping.” Rob’s eyes looked old. This experience, no matter what’s happened now, what we’ve done, it's taken something from him. Rob smiled at him. “You need help and I need to help.”
“Now what?” Flash said, getting out of Rhiannon’s car. She’d parked beside the jeep and the three of them got out and walked over to Galen and Rob.
“This way.” Rhiannon turned onto the path that led to the clearing. She led the way as the trail wound around through the trees. They stopped at the first clearing, where Megan had been found all those years before.
The Legacy: A Custodes Noctis Book Page 30
