Ms. Janeth, the play director/math teacher, clapped along with a few other drama students. Claire smiled and went to the wings, where Jim and Toby tried to hide behind the stage curtains. She was about to ask Jim what he was doing outside of her house last night, when she noticed his suit of armor.
“And here I thought you didn’t like Shakespeare,” Claire said to Jim.
“Oh, no, he’s my favorite,” Jim answered. “I totally love him.”
“That costume is incredible,” said Claire, eyeing the armor and the Daylight sword on Jim’s back. “Did you make it?”
“No, he found a magical Amulet that makes it,” Toby blurted out.
“You’re funny,” Claire said with the sweetest laugh Jim had ever heard.
“Yeah, you’re a real comedian, aren’t you?” muttered Jim between clenched teeth.
“Next,” called Ms. Janeth from the audience.
Claire stepped aside, gestured to the stage, and said, “I think that’s your cue.”
Jim swallowed hard. Is this what it had come to? Humiliating himself just to cover up some secret destiny that he didn’t even want in the first place?
“Break a leg,” Claire said.
“I’d prefer that,” said Jim as he took the stage.
The drama kids gaped at Jim’s gleaming armor. In the front row Eli Pepperjack looked down at his own homemade cardboard costume and suddenly felt very underdressed.
“Who are you?” asked Ms. Janeth.
Jim wondered why his math teacher didn’t recognize him, especially since he sat at the front of her class. Then he remembered her terrible eyesight and how crazy he must look in his armor right now.
“James Lake Jr.,” Jim said in a small voice.
“And what are you trying out for?” said Ms. Janeth.
Jim guessed it didn’t really matter, since he didn’t know the first thing about this play anyway. But then he figured that if Claire was going to get the part of Juliet (and how couldn’t she after that amazing audition?), then being Romeo might lead to more time with her on—and off—the stage. Provided he didn’t die from embarrassment or a Troll mauling before that.
“Uh, Romeo,” Jim said.
“Well, we are all ears,” said Ms. Janeth.
The auditorium fell into silence, although Jim heard a few drama students whisper about his armor. To drown out their comments, he just started talking.
“Uh, destiny,” Jim began.
He looked to the side of the stage, expecting Claire to be texting on her phone or rolling her eyes. But Claire was smiling at Jim, her eyes full of encouragement.
“Destiny is a gift,” Jim continued, energized by Claire’s smile.
The Amulet shone brighter on his chest, and Blinky’s words flowed through Jim’s mind as clearly as they had the night before.
“Some go their entire lives living existences of quiet desperation, never learning the truth,” he said, his voice building. “That what feels as though a burden pushing down upon our shoulders is actually the sense of purpose that lifts us to greater heights.”
Jim removed Daylight from his back and held it high in the air. The audience gasped as the stage lights reflected off the shimmering sword.
“Never forget that fear is but the precursor to valor,” Jim went on, his words carrying across the entire auditorium. “That to strive and triumph in the face of fear is what it means to be a hero.”
Claire worked her way from backstage to a front seat in the crowd, never taking her eyes from Jim. He looked so confident up there, yet still reminded Claire of the nice boy who’d danced with his mom at that party.
“Don’t think,” said Jim.
He twirled Daylight through the air and returned it to his back with a flourish.
“Become.”
The audience detonated with cheers, giving Jim a standing ovation. Toby beamed from the wings, while Strickler glowered from a recessed corner.
Claire approached the stage, and Jim kneeled before her like her knight in shining armor.
“Jim, that was remarkable,” said Claire.
“Really?” Jim asked. “I didn’t even think. I just sort of said it.”
Claire laughed, touched his armored arm, and said, “That’s acting!”
Jim knew two things to be true in that very moment. One, he would never polish the part of the armor that Claire had just touched. He wanted to see her perfect fingerprints there until the day he died. Which was probably going to be today. And two, this felt like much more than acting to Jim. This felt like the freedom he experienced when he let go of his bike’s handlebars or he’d summoned his armor for the first time.
By getting out of his own head for a change, Jim stopped thinking and became the guy he’d always wanted to be.
CHAPTER 14
WATCH FOR FALLING TRUCKS
“Dude! That was amazing!” said Toby to Jim as they biked home. “You were amazing! I’m amazed at how amazing you were!”
“I can’t believe that just happened,” Jim replied.
Everything after his audition seemed like a dream to Jim now. Waving good-bye to Claire as her dad picked her up from school, privately removing the armor in a men’s room stall, even pedaling down quiet Main Street with Toby was just one big blur. Jim could not have been happier.
If only he knew that Bular stalked him from one block away. The evil Troll kept to the elongated shadows made by the setting sun. Prowling the alleys behind Arcadia Oaks’s storefronts, Bular kept his burning eyes on the human child. He didn’t care what Strickler said. The son of Gunmar had endured enough waiting—centuries of it, in fact. He wanted that Amulet. And he wanted it now.
Bular watched “the Trollhunter” and his tasty-looking friend turn and take a shortcut through an empty construction zone. This was his time to strike. Bular could feel it in his horns. He stepped onto the shadowed street, his heavy footfalls alerting the two small humans to Bular’s arrival. He sneered at the fear in their bulging eyes.
“Trollhunter,” Bular announced. “Merlin’s creation. Gunmar’s bane.”
Jim and Toby braked hard at the sight of the biggest, ugliest Troll they had ever seen. This had to be Bular. They looked around for help, but Main Street was empty, all its shops closed for the day.
“I think he’s talking to you,” Toby muttered.
Bular roared and pounded the pavement with his fists. This was his typical war dance before fighting an enemy to the death. He took a swipe in Jim’s direction, only to pull back his sizzling hand in pain.
A thin ray of sunlight separated Bular from the humans. And it grew thinner by the second as the sun set behind them. Bular watched the sunlight anxiously.
“Look!” said Jim. “He’s afraid of the sun!”
Toby noticed how dark the sky was getting and said, “Not for long!”
“The Amulet,” snarled Bular. “Surrender it and I will give you a speedy death.”
Jim and Toby turned their bikes around and took off in the opposite direction.
“Doesn’t know how to negotiate, this guy!” said Toby. “Go! Go! Go!”
Bular barreled down a parallel street and followed them. Getting ahead of the humans, Bular cut them off at the end of the block . . . only to find the street empty. His prey had somehow evaded him. With the sun now fully set, Bular marched down the block, hunting for the Trollhunter.
A few car lengths ahead of Bular, Jim and Toby ducked between two large construction trucks, trying to get the Amulet to work.
“Armor up, armor up, armor up!” Toby whispered in a frenzy. “Please, now! Faster!”
Jim tried clearing his mind and concentrating. But that was kind of tough, with Bular half a block away, smashing everything in his path.
“Okay,” Jim whispered. “For the glory of Merlin, Daylight is mine to command.”
He closed his eyes, awaiting the feel of the armor around his body. Nothing happened.
“It’s not working!” Jim said in alarm.
Bular l
urched closer. He could smell the boys’ terror in the air.
“For the glory of Merlin, Daylight is mine to command!” Jim tried again, to no effect. “Seriously! It’s mine to command. I’m commanding here!”
The truck behind Jim and Toby suddenly groaned and rose ten feet in the air. Bular held it there. He glared down upon them like they were two bugs hiding under a rock.
“Centuries of Trollhunters,” Bular said, “and I will have killed two in almost as many days.”
The humans uttered something in fear, but their pathetic language did not matter to Bular. Only the Amulet—and how it could restore his long-lost father to power—mattered to the son of Gunmar. He hurled the truck at the two fleeing boys.
Pumping his legs as fast as he could, Jim looked over his shoulder. He saw the truck plummeting toward them and cried, “Flying truck!”
“Incoming!” Toby shouted.
He and Jim turned their bikes hard at a corner, narrowly missing the crash. Toby screamed when another truck landed a few feet away.
Bular now pursued them, running on all fours like a bloodthirsty gorilla. He ducked into an open construction trench on the sidewalk, disappearing underground.
“I think we lost him!” said Toby when he saw the coast was clear.
“Oh, right, because my luck has been great this week!” said Jim in full-on sarcasm mode.
Directly below them Bular bounded along in the sewers, splashing through foul water and waste. He looked up and tracked Jim and Toby’s shadows through the slits in the storm drains. Bular jumped and punched the sewer ceiling.
The impact sent a manhole cover rocketing up directly in front of Jim, nearly cutting him in two.
“See?” cried Jim.
“Maybe it was just an exploding pocket of sewer gas!” guessed Toby, trying to sound hopeful. “Or it could have been someone’s pet alligator! Those things get flushed down the toilet all the time as babies, then grow into—”
Another manhole cover shot into the sky, whizzing right past Toby’s head.
“You know what? You’re right,” Toby whimpered. “Your luck sucks.”
Bular burst through another open trench, flattening barricades and overturning an unmanned bulldozer.
“I’ll flay the flesh from your bones!” Bular promised.
“I like my bones the way they are, thanks!” said Toby.
Bular leaped in the air and came thundering down directly in front of them, still reeking of the sewer. Jim and Toby swerved on their bikes, barely avoiding his slashing claws. His heart racing, Jim looked around the block, recognizing it.
“Head down Delancy,” he said to Toby. “Behind Stuart Electronics!”
They rode faster, faster, but Bular still gained on them, tearing up the road with his hooves as he ran, snarling at Jim and Toby all the way.
“You know I can’t fit there!” Toby said.
“You can fit!” Jim yelled, remembering how he and little Toby used to play behind the electronics store as kids while their families shopped inside.
With Bular right behind them, Jim turned and shot down the narrow alley behind Stuart Electronics. It was so tight, Jim’s knees brushed against the brick walls on either side. Toby followed his best friend, only to get stuck halfway through the alley.
“I can’t fit! I can’t fit!” Toby wailed, his body sandwiched between the brick walls like so much meat loaf.
But when Bular reached into the alley behind him, Toby’s mind changed. He sucked in his belly and pedaled faster. All of a sudden his body budged. Toby started moving forward, putting distance between his back and Bular’s claws.
“I can fit,” Toby announced. “I can fit! I can fit! Look, Jim, I fit! Awesomesauce!”
Toby made it through to the other end of the alley, reuniting with Jim.
“You did it!” Jim said while hugging his friend.
Bular roared in outrage. All the alleys on this block were that narrow. There was no way for the evil Troll to reach the humans. He punched at the buildings, shattering their windows but bringing him no closer to Jim and Toby.
The guys took that as a good sign to keep moving. They sped off on their bikes, away from Main Street and away from Bular.
“Man, all of this running for my life is making me hungry,” Toby said. “I’m starving!”
“If we live through this, I’ll make you sandwiches twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week!” said Jim in return.
CHAPTER 15
FIGHT OR FLIGHT
An hour before the sun set, ambulances brought three gravely injured construction workers to Arcadia Oaks Hospital. As doctors and nurses rushed their battered bodies to the emergency room, the workers raved about being ambushed by some sort of wild animal inside the open sewer trench off Delancy Street. They said it almost looked like a giant black bear, but with horns on its head like a bull. These three workers had managed to escape. Unfortunately, the fourth man in their crew wasn’t as lucky.
Doctor Barbara Lake administered anesthesia to all three construction workers and began resetting their broken bones. She focused on healing these poor men, but something they said still bothered her. Delancy Street . . . wasn’t that the way Jim and Toby biked home from school?
“Marc, would you mind taking over?” Barbara asked the other ER specialist working beside her. “I . . . I need to check on my son.”
“Of course,” said Doctor Gilberg, moving over to Barbara’s patients. “Everything okay?”
“I don’t know,” Barbara said, before exiting the emergency room and sprinting to her office to grab her car keys.
• • •
“Jim?” Claire called out. “Where are you?”
She had been standing on his front porch for five minutes, ringing the doorbell and peeking between the curtains to see if anyone was home. At first she felt a little guilty about snooping. But, hey, if Jim could hang out outside her house last night, then Claire should be allowed to do the same thing now, right?
Getting impatient, Claire left the porch and circled around the side of the house to the backyard.
“Jim? It’s Claire. From . . . um, school?” she said.
Now that the sun had set, darkness covered much of the backyard.
“Are you back here?” Claire asked. “I have some good news I wanted to tell . . . you. . . .”
Claire trailed off when she saw the boulders in the yard. Faint moonlight glinted off them, revealing a couple of deep cuts in each rock. Kneeling down, Claire ran her fingers along the gouges. They looked wide enough to have been made by that fake sword Jim had used as a prop in his audition. At least, Claire thought it was a prop. But if the sword could slice though solid stone, then maybe it wasn’t a fake after all. And maybe Jim wasn’t all he seemed to be either.
“Who are you?” said a voice behind Claire.
She jumped and saw Jim’s mom standing at the door leading from the kitchen to the backyard, a worried look on her face.
“Oh, I recognize you,” Barbara said, now that she could see Claire’s face. “You’re Councilwoman Nuñez’s daughter.”
“Hi, Doctor Lake,” Claire said with an embarrassed wave. “Sorry for, um, trespassing, but I wanted to deliver some good news to Jim in person. He got the part!”
“Part? What part?” asked Doctor Lake.
“Oh, didn’t he tell you?” Claire said. “He’s going to be Romeo in our school play. Ms. Janeth was totally blown away by Jim’s audition. We all were!”
“Wait, wait, wait,” said Barbara. “My son was . . . acting?”
“Like a pro,” Claire said. “I don’t know where you took him for drama lessons, but they really paid off. And that cosplay armor he whipped up for the tryouts—it was so rad.”
“Drama lessons? Cosplay?” said Barbara. “Are we talking about the same Jim?”
“Ay, Dios mío,” Claire said, slapping her forehead so hard, her shock of blue hair slipped over her eye. “Jim must’ve been trying to surprise you abou
t being cast in Romeo and Juliet. And my big mouth just ruined it. Nice, Nuñez. Real nice.”
“Oh, that’s okay!” said Barbara, suddenly relieved. “When Jim brings it up, I’ll pretend I don’t know anything about the play.”
“Seriously?” Claire asked while tucking her blue streak behind her ear. “That’d be fantastic, Doctor Lake. Thanks.”
“No, thank you, Claire,” said Barbara. “I sped over here from the hospital like a maniac looking for my son! He wasn’t at school, Delancy Street’s a disaster area, and when I came home and only found you here . . . Well, it doesn’t matter now. I’m sure Jim is probably off practicing his lines with Toby, safe and sound.”
• • •
Jim figured he was about thirty seconds away from dying.
Where’s Daylight and the armor? Jim’s mind raced as fast as his bicycle. Why isn’t the Amulet working? And where can Tobes and I possibly hide that’ll be safe from the wrath of Bular? My house? Toby’s? Mom’s hospital? The Pentagon?
All these questions cycled through Jim’s head as he and Toby stopped just shy of the entrance to their neighborhood. Exhausted and panting after miles of biking at top speed, they needed a moment to catch their breath and think.
“Look at me,” wheezed Toby. “Look at me. We’re not dead, right?”
Before Jim could answer, he heard movement nearby. Had Bular actually beaten them here?
“Master Jim!” Blinky said in greeting as he emerged from the bushes.
Behind him, AAARRRGGHH!!! tried to camouflage himself with a few leafy branches that barely covered his enormous form.
“Bular’s trying to kill us!” said Jim, his throat dry. “He chased us all over town!”
“And you’re still alive!” Blinky said. “I knew you had potential, Master Jim.”
Jim threw his hands in the air in frustration. Kinda missing the point here, Troll!
“You have a sweet voice,” said Toby to Blinky. “But you bring death with you!”
Jim watched as AAARRRGGHH!!! dropped the branches, his muscular body illuminated by the moonlight. He felt a glimmer of hope.
“You guys can fight him, right?” said Jim to the Trolls.
The Adventure Begins Page 7
