The Keepers Of The Light (God Stone Book 2)

by Andrew Schafer

  Balor looked down at Apep, who was shouting at the giant and holding out his hand. The giant said something with unflinching finality. He did not give the Sound Eye back to Apep.

  The next words Garrett understood as they were in English.

  “After what I went through to wake you! You would dare to betray me?!” Then came the words of power, “Rayesh ak eshmue, Esh akoz oz flahmue!”

  Balor turned on Apep, hammering his big fist downward to try and crush the elf before he could cast. But Apep was too fast, lurching out of the way and nearly yanking Breanne’s arm out of its socket in the process.

  The spell hit Balor, freezing the water around his feet. Garrett saw it, but the giant didn’t realize it until he tried to take a step. He fell forward off balance, instinctively reaching out with his hands…

  The Sound Eye dropped onto the slab as Balor flailed, the ice now climbing up his legs.

  Garrett waded forward. This was his chance. The giant was trapped. He had to get the Sound Eye before Apep, then he could rescue Bre.

  In the tunnel, Paul grabbed Lenny by the arm. “No, Lenny, we can’t… leave without them!”

  “Right now, I got to get you out of here! I promised Garrett,” Lenny said, dragging Paul forward through the thigh-deep water.

  “And didn’t you promise…” Paul struggled to get the words out. “You promised Mr. B you would take care of him… Lenny, you have to go back and help him save my sister.”

  David was holding Lenny’s staff and flailing it wildly. “We’re out of time. If we don’t go now, we won’t make it. That wall is going!” His voice was high and panicked. “And when it does, we’re screwed. I don’t want to drown! Lake Petersburg is over sixty feet deep. I know, I’ve fished it plenty with my dad. Do you even realize how much pressure that is?!”

  Paul continued to hold Lenny’s gaze as water rushed past them. Away from the fire-lit chamber, the only light was coming from Paul’s headlamp. Finally, he tried to speak again. “I can’t do it, Lenny. My head is messed up… and my body isn’t working right. I need you. Garrett and Bre need you! Jesus, Lenny, if I lose my sister…” He swallowed before continuing, “You know it’s more though – if we lose Garrett, I think I lose my pops, but I also think the whole world loses.”

  Lenny turned to David and Pete. “Get him out of here.”

  “What? You’re actually going back?” David said.

  “I was always going back, David, but I told Garrett I would get you guys out. Garrett didn’t say out of what. You’re out of the chamber. Now you two take it from here and get him the rest of the way.”

  “Going back in there is suicide for sure,” David shouted. “But fine! If that’s how you want it, Lenny, just… Fine!”

  Lenny could see David’s mustache twitch in the dim light of Paul’s headlamp.

  David spun, shoving the staff into Lenny’s hands. “I should have known I was going to die in this rotten place! Not enough I nearly fell in the river getting in, then almost fell in that death trap of a pit when I was attacked by that disgusting bat! Son of bitch, Lenny! Not enough a rat nearly ate my face!”

  “Ate your face—?”

  “Shut up!” David shouted. “That’s right! My face! Not enough I stabbed a freaking dragon to save your ass! No!” David pointed at Lenny. “Now, I finally get to leave, and I find out we got to go back in!”

  “David, you can wait here until I get—”

  “Shut up, Lenny! Just you shut up right now! After what happened to Janis! I got to go back in! Shit’s sake, Lenny, I gotta make sure you don’t die! Make sure Garrett and Bre don’t die!” David turned and started marching back into the chamber. “The truth is we’re probably all going to die in this rotten place, Lenny! So, come on! Let’s go die… you dick!”

  Lenny raised both eyebrows and looked at Pete.

  “Whatever. Let’s just get this over with,” Pete said, turning to follow David.

  Paul handed Lenny his headlamp, then leaned up against the side of the tunnel, bracing himself against the rising water. “Just get them out, Lenny. Just get them out.”

  The Sound Eye was much closer to Apep than it was to Garrett but in a split-second decision Garrett launched himself headfirst, hoping against hope he could close the gap by making the first move.

  Apep released his grip on Breanne and lunged, landing hard on his stomach. The lanky elf sprawled across the slab, frantically trying to grab the Sound Eye before it slid off.

  Garrett scrambled on his belly too, stretching out only inches away. He was almost there when long blue-grey fingers filled his vision and a sharp elbow collided with his eye.

  Apep quickly scooped up the Sound Eye with both hands. He stood, raising the round object high above his head triumphantly. Then he began laughing, like a child who had just been given a ticket to an amusement park. His laughter quickly turned into a different sound full of gluttonous avidity, the sound of unbearable thirst being quenched. “Ah! Finally, it’s mine!”

  “Bre! Run!” Garrett shouted. But she didn’t run. She didn’t move. What the hell was wrong with her? Apep stood between them, still goggling the Sound Eye, still laughing. Garrett felt like he had been gut punched, but it was the sound of fracturing ice that startled him from his misery. The giant was nearly free of the ice spell.

  Apep spun.

  Balor smashed frantically at his one remaining foot still frozen in place.

  “Garrett!” came a rasping voice from behind him.

  Garrett turned, looking for the source of the voice.

  Down on the chamber floor, propped against one of the columns Janis had conjured, was Coach. He was somehow still alive! But only barely, his blue skin an ashen grey in the firelight.

  “Garrett, run! Run now!” Syldan ordered.

  “But, Coach! Apep has the stones and Bre!”

  Apep had taken Breanne by the upper arm and was backing away toward the opposite end of the slab, closer to the source of the water.

  “Goddammit, brick, you got no time. Get out of here before you can’t!”

  “But… the old one, Apep. We can’t let them escape! I have to stop them.”

  “Listen to me. You did exactly what you were supposed to do. You came in the tomb and Apep is leaving with the stones. I’m trying to save you from the next part! The next part will be the worst of it! But maybe… if you just go!”

  He isn’t making any damn sense, Garrett thought.

  From the opening to the chamber the light from a headlamp bounced toward him. It was Lenny, David, and Pete.

  “What the hell are you guys doing back?” Garrett asked, glancing back to see Apep tugging Bre along. She wasn’t even resisting. He must have her in some kind of trance, Garrett thought.

  “Coach?” Lenny asked in surprise.

  “Lenny, you were supposed to get them out!” Garrett said, wading away from them and toward the slab.

  “We’re not leaving without you!” Lenny said.

  “And I’m not leaving without her!” Garrett said.

  With a final grunt the last of the ice holding Balor shattered, freeing the giant’s foot from its frozen shackle.

  “You guys, figure this shit out, would you? I got Coach!” David shouted as he grabbed Coach by the wrist and started pulling.

  “Dammit, brick, get your head on straight! You can’t save me, there’s no time and there’s no point! Just go,” the elvish coach protested as he tried unsuccessfully to pull his arm back.

  David continued to slosh forward, ignoring the strange pointy-eared elf barking at him like a drill sergeant.

  As Syldan’s body stretched out, he made a horrible groan then muttered, “Jesus H. Christ,” and passed out.

  “What’s the move, Garrett?” Lenny said.

  Apep began chanting at the wall. He held the round Sound Eye out in front, and it began to glow.

  “The giant’s loose and he looks pissed!” Garrett pointed at Balor.

  “I bet he goes after Apep!”
Lenny shouted back.

  Garrett nodded. “Yeah, and when he does you grab Bre, I’ll grab the Sound Eye, and we bail.”

  But Balor didn’t attack Apep. Instead he turned toward them and ran like hell toward the exit – the exit that was on the other side of Garrett and Lenny. The space between the slab and the wall wasn’t necessarily narrow, but with a thirty-foot giant running toward him it seemed to close in really quick.

  “Garrett!” Lenny shouted, falling into a fighting stance.

  “This is bad!” Garrett shouted through gritted teeth as he drew his sword.

  “You think!” Lenny said.

  “It’s freaking out! I think it’s trying to make a run for it!”

  “It can’t fit through the tunnel!”

  “It doesn’t know that!” As Garrett watched the giant advance, a suicidal plan blossomed from a single thought. Although it was not human, it had legs and feet, just bigger, so it was reasonable to assume it had an Achilles tendon running down the back of its foot as well.

  Suicidal is fine for me but not Lenny. But Garrett knew Lenny wouldn’t leave him. “Run, Lenny, I’m right behind you! Go! Go! Go!” he shouted, slapping his hands against the water, and with that Lenny took off.

  Garrett turned back to the giant as it bore down on him. With only three long strides the giant was on him. Every ounce of Garrett’s being told him to move, but he tightened his grip on his sword, set his jaw, and held fast.

  The giant’s foot descended overhead.

  Just a half second more.

  When Garrett felt the wind off the giant’s foot, he made his move, spinning away as the foot splashed down. He swung the sword blindly through an explosion of erupting water. The long sweeping arc of the blade encountered very little resistance as it bit deep into the back of Balor’s foot, cutting through the flesh and tendon, until finally scraping across bone.

  Although Garrett felt all of it through the hilt of his sword, he knew beyond doubt his strike had been true when the giant’s slack foot rose from the water. He had severed the giant’s Achilles tendon. The big beast’s foot came back down, landing toes first and then rolling unnaturally with an audible crunch.

  The giant fell hard, face-planting into the water.

  On top of the slab, Breanne blinked away the past to find herself in the very real present, consumed instantly in heartache and loss. Paul was dead. His heart had stopped beating, and even David couldn’t fix him. Sobs came and through them she heard Apep’s voice chanting a strange combination of syllables. This was the language of the God Stones. Even with Janis’s spell, she couldn’t understand it. She felt Apep’s hand under her arm, yanking it awkwardly like a parent snatching up a child about to get into trouble. His grip was painful as he pulled her, but she deserved it. She deserved whatever came next because she knew this was all her fault. She dragged her brother here to this town, to this impossible place deep under the ground. Earlier he told her she couldn’t keep blaming herself and that what happened to her mother wasn’t her fault. But wasn’t it? Wasn’t it also her fault she couldn’t stop her father from opening that damned chest, and look what happened? So many people were dead! Now Paul was dead! God, not Paul! Her father… Jesus, her father would probably die! She looked across the chamber. The giant was running and then falling. She saw Garrett and from the looks of it he would be dead soon enough. Suddenly she knew what she had to do.

  As soon as the giant hit the water, Garrett went into motion, finding the back of its other foot. He swallowed hard, rearing back to hack just above the thing’s heel. He chopped down as hard as he could, as if he were trying to split wood with a sword. This time he had leverage and when the sword bit in, it sank deeper than he thought possible.

  Balor bellowed something incomprehensible and pulled his legs beneath him. He tried to stand but failed, letting out a cry of rage and falling back on his ass. He searched for the source of his agony and reached for Garrett with his good hand, the one with all six fingers still working.

  From across the chamber Breanne screamed his name and Garrett froze, his heart knotted. He had to get to her. He tried to dodge the hand, back-pedaling in the waist-deep water, but he wasn’t fast enough. “Kiai!” Garrett yelled, slashing with his sword.

  Balor yanked his hand back too slowly, costing him the tips of three of his fingers.

  Garrett shuffled back.

  The enraged giant’s eye went wide with fear as his attention shifted to something beyond Garrett. He pushed himself away, dragging himself backward toward the chamber’s opening.

  Despite the pain Garrett had inflicted, he realized the giant didn’t fear him – it was Apep’s chant he feared. Garrett turned back to the slab and climbed. “I’m coming!”

  Breanne held out her hand and shook her head. “No, Garrett! No! Get out now!”

  Garrett froze, confused. He was at the opposite end, still a good thirty feet away.

  “Just run, Garrett!”

  “No! Apep, listen to me. Take the stones! You can have them! Just please, let her go!” Garrett’s eyes welled and threatened to spill over. The bastard killed Mr. B and Phillip. He felt the rage pushing him to the brink of losing himself. He wanted to attack, but what if Apep killed her? He couldn’t lose Bre too… he couldn’t. He knew it then and there. The God Stones, Apep – damn it all to hell. He just didn’t want to lose Bre. “Just leave, Apep! Take the stupid stones and go! Just go!” he commanded.

  The air between them hummed with an electric energy.

  Thirty feet away Apep fell one word short of completing the cast. He placed the Sound Eye on his head like a crown, smiled at Garrett, then laughed. He narrowed his eyes as his voice turned serious. “You dare to command me?” His voice rose again as he pointed at Garrett, “You get nothing! You lose!”

  Breanne’s face was a tearful grimace as the bastard squeezed her arm too tight. It was too much. Garrett squeezed the hilt of his sword so tight his fingers ached. Her eyes still told him to run, but he only wanted to run to her.

  Apep sucked a calming breath between bloody lips. “But I will leave you with this thought. You won’t find this one in The Art of War, Garrett. Another way to subdue the enemy is to offer them a gift. One thing about humans – giants love to eat them… alive.” His smirk returned. “Something for you to ponder while you sulk in your final moments.”

  “No!” Garrett screamed and bolted forward, raising his sword high to strike.

  Twenty-five feet.

  “So long, my boy.” With a flourish of his free hand he spoke the final word.

  Twenty feet.

  Garrett had to shield his eyes as the energy around him coalesced into a blinding glow encompassing both Apep and Breanne in a perfect sphere. Still he ran.

  Ten feet.

  As the light intensified, heat radiated out from the sphere in a wave so strong his eyebrows singed. But it didn’t matter – he would run blind through fire if he had to.

  “Breanne!” Garrett screamed, the heat filling his mouth and throat as he pulled in a breath. He had to be close to her. Had to be! There! He could hear her in front of him.

  “Gar… rett!”

  Five feet.

  Then the light was gone along with Apep – and Breanne.

  “No!” Garrett screamed, dropping to his knees. “No!”

  For a single heartbeat, the chamber fell silent and Garrett wanted to die. Despite the insanity of it, until this moment he’d had hope and that hope fueled him to fight. But hope was truly lost, and it twisted his insides.

  Somewhere in the darkness a rat squeaked.

  Another breath and another heartbeat passed before it came, but it came and when it did it was deafening. A loud crack that vibrated through his bones. He raised his head and blinked away the bright spots still floating across his corneas.

  His vision returned just in time to see the entire back wall of the ancient tomb collapse.

  37

  ¡Eres el Amor de Mi Vida!

&nb
sp; Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones Day 1

  Rural Chiapas State, Mexico

  Gabi didn’t look back. She couldn’t. Her mother’s scream and Fredy’s pleas told her everything. Oh god, please! María Purísima, please! Please, no! The heat of grotesque fire too close warmed her back, but she did not look. To look was to die. She made the corner for the second time.

  A split-second later, Itzel and Sarah rounded the sculptured corner just as the flames passed.

  Itzel fell into Gabi’s arms as both collapsed in a heap, stunned and sobbing. “I think Andrés made it to the water! María Purísima! I saw him catch fire, but I know he went into the water!” Itzel screamed in near hysteria as she pushed herself up.

  “No, Itzel! You can’t!” Sarah said.

  Itzel reached beneath her shirt, pulled out the necklace Sarah had given her, and yanked it free from her neck. Her eyes were wild with terror as she tried to force a final smile. She shoved the ring and necklace into her daughter’s hand. “I love you, Gabriela. You are noconetzin.” She turned to Sarah. “Please! Get my daughter out of here, Sarah! Promise me!”

  “I… I promise,” Sarah said, grabbing her arm. “But Itzel, please.”

  Itzel wrestled her arm free of Sarah’s grasp and was gone.

  “Mamá, no!”

  Back in the large chamber, Andrés poked his head above the water in time to see the dragon, which was standing right next to him, let out a last hateful gush of flame toward the giant. As flame gave chase, the giant ran past the broken platform, where the water deepened. When the giant was nearly waist deep, it spared a glance over its shoulder, gasped in a deep breath, and disappeared under the water for a final time.