Hunter Brown and the Eye of Ends

by Chris Miller

  After two minutes of intense struggling, I managed to break my way out of the crack and onto the other side. There was no way Dad was going to make it without a little help. Using my Veritas Sword, I enlarged the hole so Dad could fit through.

  We followed the flittering moths as fast as we could as they navigated through a seemingly never-ending series of twists and turns. As we continued in our pursuit of the moths, the light radiating from the pillar of fire became noticeably brighter and more intense. It was an encouraging sign that we were moving closer and closer to the center of the maze. But the knowledge that Tonomis was most likely still roaming the maze overshadowed any excitement with a looming sense of doom.

  Then, all at once, the corridor turned and opened into a wide circular courtyard crowned wth a towering pillar of swirling flame. It was the center of the Eye of Ends. We had reached the Inmost Circle.

  Chapter 28

  The Inmost Circle

  The mesmerizing swirl of light and fire that rose from the center of the Maze now stood directly in front of us, coming to rest atop a stair-stepped pyramid of black stone. An inexplicable sense of awe fell over me. I was in the presence of something great, something far more powerful than I. The cyclone of fire was as wide as a house at the top and as narrow as a finger at the base where it met with the pyramid’s tip. Surrounding all sides of the structure was a pit of indeterminable depth, which gave the impression of a fortress’ moat. Only a slim stone pathway, no wider than a balance beam, crossed from our side of the pit to the pyramid in its center, a design that was hardly meant to be forgiving of missteps.

  Encircling the moat, seven jagged-cut boulders, twice the size of a full-grown man, were erected as monuments, watching over the scene like silent guardians.

  As we stepped into the circle of the sacred flame, a powerful gust of wind blew out from the center of the room toward us. Bits of rock and sand rippled outward across the floor toward our feet. It served as a warning that our presence here was known.

  The whole space carried an emotional weight with it, a feeling of reverence. Somewhere deep inside, I knew I didn’t deserve to be here. I wasn’t meant to see this place. I was trespassing, and I felt very afraid. Dad, on the other hand, seemed to be unaffected by the scene. Whatever knowledge he had about the Author and his ways had not been allowed to leave his mind and reach his heart. He saw only the science of it—the miraculous was not an option.

  The pungent, sulfuric smell of the Maze was suddenly laced with a sweeter smell, a familiar scent that I couldn’t quite place. I didn’t know why exactly but all at once my excitement faded away. Something was wrong.

  “We shouldn’t be here,” I said, my voice rife with awestruck wonder.

  “Don’t be silly,” Dad replied. “This is why we’ve come. It is time to seize the prize. The end is within our grasp.”

  “That’s kind of what I’m afraid of,” I confessed, backing away a couple of steps.

  “Look, there it is! Just like I told you,” Dad shouted, pointing toward the tip of the pyramid. Hovering and spinning just below the tip of the fire was a crimson red stone. I knew in a heartbeat it was the Bloodstone—the dreaded stone that had caused so much chaos was dangling and spinning in the fingertips of the flame. In a way the flame itself looked like a giant pen tip, writing its story into the very heart of the Bloodstone.

  “Don’t do it,” I said nervously. I was growing more and more uncomfortable with the plan. Dad looked over at me and I could see it in his eyes. He was hungry for the power of the Bloodstone again. I too had once felt that hunger before I realized that it was the lust for the Bloodstone that had kept me in bondage to the Shadow…to Sceleris and his ways. Now, seeing that same greed mirrored in my father’s expression brought a sudden clarity to this entire mission. We were not supposed to be here at all.

  “Hunter, what are you talking about? If we don’t recover the Bloodstone, Tonomis most certainly will and we will all be doomed. We have to take matters into our own hands. We have to get the stone before him.”

  All at once things became clear to me; I had brought my father on the wrong mission.

  “No, Dad, we don’t. We should be looking for Aviad, not the Bloodstone. I made this mistake before, trust me. We don’t need the Bloodstone, or the Eye or anything like that. We just need to find Aviad.”

  “Bah! He can’t help us,” Dad dismissed my anxieties. “Tonomis is probably in the Maze right now making his way here. It’s a wonder he didn’t beat us to it. If it’s a sign from the Author you want, that’s it!”

  “I don’t know,” I said, still unable to shake the uncertainty.

  Dad had heard enough. His patience was wearing thin.

  “Fine. If you won’t go with me, then I’ll go alone,” he said. “Just stay here and keep an eye out for Tonomis, will ya?” With that, he headed toward the narrow bridge.

  The width of the bridge couldn’t have been more than four inches at its thickest point. Dad slid his right foot out onto it and gently pressed his weight down on it. He spread his arms out on both sides to balance himself as he raised his left foot and placed it on the narrow way. Once he was sure his body weight was centered over his left foot, he lifted his right foot and continued forward like a slow-moving gymnast. Twice he nearly lost his balance and quickly countered his fall with the circular movements of his arms. Despite the close call, he continued forward, undeterred by his brush with death.

  After several painful moments of suspense, he set foot on the far side of the pit with a triumphant hop. He flashed a nervous smile my way and gave a thumbs-up before scaling the twelve steps that led to the top of the pyramid. Each of the steps (if you can call them that) were waist high and required Dad to hoist himself up the steps one at a time. When at last he reached the top, I held my breath as he stood before the spinning Bloodstone in the clutches of the flame.

  He approached the stone as if it were merely a trinket to be had or something of interest he collected on his travels. It wasn’t that he was oblivious to its power; he had created an entire world with it. No, he knew what it was capable of, but he had lost his fear of it. The object itself was of no consequence to him anymore…it was just a means to an end. For that matter, he seemed completely unfazed by the power of the raging whirlwind of fire, which rose over his head and held the Bloodstone.

  Despite the fact that Dad was standing only a foot away from the fiery blaze, he seemed to feel no heat. Clearly, this was no ordinary fire.

  With eager hands he reached out and grasped the stone. I looked away as he touched it. Part of me expected something powerful to happen, a surge of light maybe or a smoldering heat that burned in my father’s grasp…something dramatic. There was nothing.

  Dad smiled. I sighed in relief.

  He stepped down from the pyramid, and crossed the chasm with incredible speed and confidence. With the Bloodstone in hand he felt almost invincible.

  “We’ve done it, Hunter!” Dad said excitedly, as he raised the stone between us. “The power to defeat Tonomis is back in my hands.”

  Before I could reply, a wiry, grey-haired man with a hooded cloak stepped out from the shadow of his hiding place behind one of the boulders. A black pipe hung from the corner of his mouth. “Then what are you waiting for?” the man asked. “I am here, and I have been waiting for this moment for a long…long time.”

  All at once it came to me. The scent I had smelled earlier was Tonomis’ pipe. The smell of juniper hung sweetly in the air just as it had the day of our first meeting in his office long ago. Of course, back then I knew him simply as Simon. Now I knew he was so much more than that. He was a deceiver, a traitor to the Author himself and an ally of Sceleris, who was plotting to unravel the very fabric of Solandria.

  “Tonomis!” my father growled. The old man blew a ring of smoke and lowered his hood to reveal the face I had known as Simon, only now it looked d
ifferent. His eyes were dark and his smile was twisted.

  “Yes, Caleb,” Tonomis replied. “You have done well. I couldn’t have found the Bloodstone without your help. You are to be commended for a job well done. You have made a most excellent student.”

  My father didn’t look too convinced.

  “You’re losing your grip, old man,” Dad replied. “I’m not your student anymore. I’m my own man.”

  “It doesn’t work like that, I’m afraid. You see, as the guardian of the Eye, it is my job to protect its power and see that it does not fall into the wrong hands—hands that would keep the Author’s future—my future—from coming true.”

  His statement shocked me. Did Tonomis actually think he was the Author?

  “I’ve seen your idea of a future, and I’m not interested,” Dad challenged, holding his palm out toward the man who seemed unfazed by the threat. “I’ve escaped from you before, and I can do it again.”

  “Yes, you did and you could, but you won’t…not this time.”

  Dad looked dumbfounded by the man’s boldness. Tonomis was calm and in perfect control. His hands were tucked behind his back and he rocked back and forth on his heels.

  “We are not so different, you and I,” Tonomis chuckled. “Deep inside, you believe what I believe.”

  “No, I don’t,” Dad said, locking eyes with the man.

  “Ahhh, but you do. Like me, you doubt the Author’s purpose. You believe you can do better and you are willing to do anything…and I do mean anything…to get what you want...even at the cost of your family.”

  Dad shook his head, “That’s where you’re wrong. I would never do anything to hurt them.”

  “You already have, and you will do it again.”

  Dad couldn’t find the words to disprove what Tonomis had just claimed. He looked at me, and then back to his accuser.

  “Perhaps a demonstration is in order,” Tonomis said. With a snap of his fingers, Desi stepped out from behind one of the other stones that surrounded the pyramid, followed by two guards on opposite sides of the pit. They were the same guards that had monitored the entrance to Simon’s secret lair: a man and a woman, the Black-Eyes. This time the effects of the Quell had been removed; I recognized them as the medics who had captured me after the school fire. Tonomis must have been the one who sent them to find me. He had been searching for me. Once he knew I was Dad’s son, he probably planted the Quell to make me forget what he had done.

  But it wasn’t Desi or the black-eyed thugs that I was most interested in. It was the pair of prisoners that were being held in front of them. The prisoners’ heads were hidden under black bags, and their hands were bound, but even before the bags were removed I knew who they were….

  “Watch it, buddy!” the girl beneath one of the bags said, as the guard pushed her forward. “I don’t know who you think you are, but if I’m so much as five minutes late for my track meet you’ll be sorry you ever laid hands on me. I’ve never been late for anything in my life and...I’m not about to…oomph…ouch…hey!”

  “Easy there, princess,” the male guard said, handling her a bit more roughly in response to her struggle.

  The guards removed the prisoners’ masks, revealing the perplexed faces of my mom and sister, Emily. The adjustment from complete darkness to light was blinding; their faces were all scrunched up to protect their eyes from the brilliant light of the fire.

  “Janet? Em? What are you doing here?” My father’s voice cracked when he saw them. Mom couldn’t bring herself to say anything in reply. She just stared at my father…or rather, glared at him. I could tell she was upset. In her mind she had already painted him as the villain. He was to blame for all of this. Dad knew the look all too well; he looked away.

  “Daddy!” Emily’s face brightened. “Daddy, I can’t believe it’s really you! Tell these…these…brutes to get their meat hooks off of me.”

  “Hang on, sweetie,” Dad said to her. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

  “You already have,” Mom muttered under her breath. I could tell by the pained expression on my father’s face that he had heard her too.

  “It wasn’t supposed to be like this, Janet,” Dad said. He searched her eyes for sympathy, but found none. “I was trying to make a better life for you…for our family.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m glad it’s working out…for you.”

  Her last words embedded themselves in his heart like a dagger. For the first time Dad was seeing the pain his decisions caused. His family was in trouble, and it was his fault.

  The guards covered both Emily’s and Mom’s mouths with their hands. Emily squirmed and tried to yell at the guard from under his smothering grasp but it just sounded like mmph, mmph mmm mmph to me.

  “Let them go, Tonomis,” Dad said. “They have nothing to do with this…. This is between you and me.”

  “Actually,” Tonomis said coldly, “I can’t do that. You made a deal with me, remember? We were going to change the world…together. You and I were going to rewrite the future, to create a better ending.”

  Dad’s face paled. “That was before I realized who you really were and what you were capable of. You want to destroy Solandria and everything in it…. I’ve seen it.”

  “A necessary means to a greater end. Don’t be so short-sighted, Caleb. You and I both know this story is not worth saving. We can do better. Together…we will make all things new.”

  “But my family…they’ll die.”

  “A temporary problem,” Tonomis said, “but we can rewrite them in our new world. You can do whatever you want. Without my immortality, you will never unlock the full potential of the Bloodstone. You will die like the rest, just another pawn in the almighty Author’s game. Is that what you want?”

  Dad didn’t reply, just hung his head and sighed. Was he actually considering Tonomis’ words?

  “You can’t do this on your own, Caleb. You need me to control the Bloodstone, just like I need you to hold it. We were meant to do this…together, as one life force. This is the way it must be.”

  “Let them go, Tonomis!” Dad demanded a second time.

  “Oh, I intend to,” Tonomis replied, “but only after you hold up your end of the bargain. Allow me to unite with you in the Bloodstone, and there will be nothing that can stop us. Together we will write a new beginning…a new story.”

  “And if I don’t?”

  Tonomis nodded to the Black-Eyes and they forced Mom and Emily to the very edge of the bottomless pit. Emily’s eyes widened with fear as loose gravel cascaded over the side. We never heard it hit the bottom. Emily screamed beneath the smothering hand of her captor.

  “I believe this is what you call a checkmate, Mr. Brown. So, what will it be? Allow me to make you the Author you were born to be and save your family from the end of this world, or selfishly try to horde the power for yourself and they die?”

  Dad pondered his options in silence. I could only imagine what he might be thinking at the moment. In a way, it was not unlike my own fight with the Bloodstone. Venator had offered me the world on a platter.

  “The Bloodstone will never bring you what you want, Dad,” I said before he could speak his mind. “It’s nothing but trouble, trust me. Put it down; you don’t want it…you don’t need it. You just need to trust the Author.”

  “I’m sorry, Hunter. But I…can’t,” Dad said. “Tonomis is right; the only way to save my family is to work with him. I have to write my own ending to the story.”

  Before I could object, he walked toward Tonomis and held the Bloodstone out between them. Tonomis greedily reached out but Dad pulled it away before he could grasp it.

  “Let them go first,” Dad said. “I don’t want them to see what happens.”

  Tonomis motioned for the guards to release the prisoners. They obeyed, stepping away from the pit and letting Mo
m and Emily go free.

  “Get them out of here, Hunter,” Dad said. “Go, and don’t look back, no matter what happens.”

  “But Dad…what about you?”

  “Forget about me. Sometimes sacrifices must be made…for the greater good.”

  “Dad, I….”

  “I said, go!” Dad shouted angrily. “I’m still your father! Take your mother and Emily and get them out of here, now! That’s an order!”

  The look he gave me sent shivers down my spine. He looked more like the monster I had seen in Belac than the friend I had come to trust in the tunnels of the Maze.

  “Yes, sir,” I said, but I wasn’t doing it because he told me. I was doing it because I realized he was not the father I had once thought him to be. A real father wouldn’t abandon his family like this…no matter what the cost. I locked my jaw and started to turn away.

  “Don’t take it so hard, son,” Tonomis chuckled. “Your father is doing the right thing. He’s a very brave man.”

  “That’s funny,” I said. “All I see is a coward who won’t stand up for what he knows is right.”

  “Hunter, I…I don’t have a choice….”

  “Yes, you do, Dad. We always have a choice. We may not be able to change the future, but we can choose who we spend it with, and who we trust with it. You made your choice…you only trust yourself. You’re no better than he is…. You and Tonomis are the same.”

  Dad had nothing left to say, and neither did I. I turned my back on him and led Mom and Emily out of the circle and back into the Maze. After all of this adventure, I couldn’t believe it was ending like this. I was still the boy without a father; we were still a broken family. I had failed. What’s worse, Trista was still gone and I had nothing to show for it but a futile quest. At the moment my life felt like…a dead-end.

  “Hunter, where are we going?” Emily asked, as we zigzagged through the Maze.

  “Home, Em. I’m going to find our way back home.”