Jack Templar and the Lord of the Werewolves (Book #4 of the Templar Chronicles)

by Jeff Gunhus

  I took the truthsayer from her and paused. “Should I ask what you know about what really happened to my mother and father?” I asked.

  Aquinas didn’t betray any emotion. She stood silently, waiting for me to make my next move. I held up the truthsayer. “Do you know what happened to my mother?”

  Aquinas nodded. I looked down, and the surface of the truthsayer swirled like liquid mercury. Small dots floated across the surface, organizing into a single word, FACTUM. She was telling the truth. I felt my heart beat harder.

  “Tell me,” I said. It didn’t come out as a question, but as a command.

  Aquinas shook her head. “No. Not yet.”

  “Why not?” I pleaded. “Certainly I’ve earned the right to know.”

  Aquinas put a quivering hand on my arm. “You have at that, Jack,” she said. “But not now. Not yet.”

  “Why?” I demanded.

  “I will tell you, I promise. Just not yet,” she said. “It’s for your own protection.”

  I looked down at the truthsayer, and the surface danced again until the surface formed into a different word. FALSUM. She was lying. When I looked up at her, I knew she could tell from my expression the word I’d seen.

  “All right,” she said. “It’s to protect the rest of us. And that’s all I’m saying.”

  She walked away from me, leaving the truthsayer in my hand, the word FACTUM across its front.

  I pocketed the device and followed behind the old woman, trying to imagine what could possibly have happened to my mother that the truth could put the Black Guard at risk. It was another mystery layered onto my already confusing journey through this world of monsters and hunters. I wondered if I would ever figure things out. I wondered if I would ever really belong.

  We walked the rest of the way to the house in silence. The faint sounds of music floated to us on the evening breeze. Behind the building, we found dozens of young hunters gathered around the campfire. The night air wasn’t cool enough to need a fire. It was there for a more basic reason. The light pushed back the darkness, the flames giving off calming warmth and a pleasant smell that recalled better days.

  The music was a single girl playing a violin. I recognized Kelsey, the girl who had ridden Saladin. Her brown hair was out of the tight braid and hung loose over her shoulders. Her suntanned skin took on the glow from the fire, almost giving her the look of a gypsy.

  She played a slow mournful song, her eyes closed as if she were alone in the world. Her sister, Emmy, sat beside her, staring into the fire. Then she began to sing in a voice that was so clear and innocent, it caused tears to spring to my eyes. Not only was her singing beautiful, but it was laced with the same terrible sadness as the violin.

  Whatever events these sisters had endured together were too painful for words, so they put it into their music. The younger sister sang in a language I didn’t know, yet I knew exactly what she sang about –loss and sadness.

  I looked around the campfire and spotted Will, T-Rex, and Xavier sitting together watching the girls perform. Daniel was there too, but farther away, on the outskirts of the group. He seemed to be trying hard not to listen to the song, poking the ground with his knife.

  The music took a turn. Both the violin and the vocals became defiant, the sadness overwhelmed by bitterness and anger. Faster and faster the song went. The bow became a blur across the strings. I realized my hands were knotted in fists.

  Then in one final achingly pure note, the voice and violin combined perfectly, each complementing the other, stretching out for an impossible length. Then, the sisters let the note slowly dissolve into the night air until it was gone.

  No one moved at first, so taken with the music. Finally, someone clapped, and the rest of the group followed suit. But it was a reserved response. Not because the performance wasn’t brilliant – it was – but because we’d all felt the same way. This was a personal song for the two sisters, but it was a song for the new Black Guard as well. Built upon the foundation of terrible sadness was a defiance that would never end.

  “They all feel it,” Aquinas whispered to me. “The war is coming.”

  “They’re ready to fight,” I said, not quite believing it.

  “Maybe. Are you?” Aquinas asked.

  I looked at my friends sitting by the fire, laughing with the others, enjoying a well-deserved break. I knew it would be pointless to try to get them to stay here and let me go alone on this next part of my journey. Not only that, but I knew now that I needed them and couldn’t do this thing without their help.

  I looked over to Aquinas and saw her searching my face for the real answer. It was impossible to lie to her, so I just told her the truth.

  “I’m scared. I’m scared that my friends might get killed. I’m scared I might be killed. I’m scared that I’ll fail and Ren Lucre will win and I’ll let everyone down, including my dad and now Eva too.” I took a deep steadying breath. “But to answer your question, yeah, I’m ready to fight. I swore to do my duty, come what may, and that’s exactly what I plan to do.”

  It sounded good at the time, brave even. But the truth was that I had no idea how we could win this fight. The odds were stacked against us, our enemy had every advantage, and we’d lost Eva, our best fighter. I didn’t know whether we would ever get to all the Creach lords, let alone find the Lord of the Werewolves, but I knew we had to try.

  Sometimes trying is all you can do.

  I just wasn’t sure if it was going to be enough this time.

  Chapter 7

  I was right. There was no discussion about whether the guys were going to join me or not on this next leg of our journey. I tried to push on T-Rex a little, arguing that Bocho could really use the help at the house. He laughed and told me he was coming whether I wanted him to or not.

  So were Will, T-Rex, and Daniel. But yours truly had stitched together Xavier’s wound from the pincher crab. While I’m pretty good with a sword, it turns out I’m not so hot with little needles, and the wound needed a little tender loving care from the people in the infirmary. He was disappointed, but I could tell he was looking forward to tinkering in Aquinas’s new lab to create some new inventions. He promised a new explosive tip for a crossbow bolt that could take care of the vilest Creach out there.

  Xavier also knew there were going to be two stages to our next adventure. One to find the location of Kaeden, the Lord of the Werewolves, and a second to track down the Creach Lord and capture the Jerusalem Stone he kept. Xavier made me promise to contact him somehow so he could join up with us on the second part of our adventure. I appreciated how sure he sounded that there would be a stage two. As the train whisked through the countryside, I wished I felt the same confidence.

  It was the first time we’d embarked on a quest without Eva. I shuddered thinking of the last time we’d all seen her. Against Aquinas’s wishes, we stopped by the barn where Eva was imprisoned to say goodbye and give her spirits a little boost.

  The others had not been in the barn yet, so they didn’t know what to expect. When we entered, Eva was crouched in the corner of her cell, arms wrapped around herself in a self-comforting hug. She rocked back and forth, muttering like a crazy person. When she finally noticed us, she hissed at us like a cat and pushed herself farther back from us.

  “It’s okay, Eva,” I said. “It’s just us. Jack, Daniel, Will, and T-Rex. We’re not going to hurt you.”

  Nothing in her eyes told me she had any idea who I was. It was like looking into the eyes of a terrified wild creature. I couldn’t help but wonder whether her mind was too far gone for her ever to return. I could see from the expressions on the other guys’ faces that they were wondering the same thing.

  “Eva,” T-Rex said sweetly, pushing a chunk of bread wrapped in a thin cloth. “The Ratlings made some corn bread today. It’s really good, and I know how you like… how you used to like…” His voice cracked and then trailed off as he started to cry. “We’ll miss you,” he sputtered and tore through us to get
back outside.

  The rest of us said our goodbyes, but it wasn’t Eva in the cage, not really. It was a creature none of us knew. And that broke my heart. If Aquinas hadn’t sworn she would try everything in her power to bring her back, I never would have left her like that. Even so, I couldn’t fight a nagging sense that I’d let her down by leaving her behind.

  Will rolled onto his side in the seat next to me, snoring away, a little bit of drool hanging from the corner of his mouth. I looked back and saw Daniel sitting in his seat, staring out of the window. Things had been tense between us since the catacombs. He’d kept his distance from me and answered my questions in as short a way as possible. If we were to be an effective fighting team, we needed to clear the air. I jumped out of my seat and slid into the empty one next to him. He looked at me oddly.

  “What’s wrong with your seat?” he asked.

  “Will’s snoring sounds like a mating call for a mugwump,” I said, happy to see Daniel crack a smile. “Besides, I thought we should talk.” The smile disappeared.

  “Okay, you want to talk?” Daniel asked. “How about you tell me everything about where we’re going?”

  “I did already. I swear it.”

  “Yeah, just like in Morocco, right?” Daniel said. “Or your private conversation with Gregor. Or the plan you made up with Pahvi in Paris?”

  I knew all those things bothered Daniel, but each one of them was necessary to accomplish the mission. “Look, I get why those things upset you, but I’ve told you everything I know. I promise.”

  Daniel stared me down. He sniffed at me, which made a weird sound because of the fake nose worn over where his nose had once been. “So, we’re traveling across three countries, exposing ourselves to all this risk, and the only thing we have to go on is that the Lord of the Vampires, the one that tried to kill all of us, gave you a ridiculous riddle, the answer to which we’re just guessing?”

  “Well, when you put it that way, it just sounds crazy,” I said with a grin, trying to lighten the mood. It didn’t help much.

  “There’s nothing else?” he asked.

  “No, I’ve told you a dozen times. All she said was, “Go to Omphalos, the navel of Earth. Justice and mercy establish your worth. Nothing else.”

  Daniel looked down his fake nose at me. “And like I said before, different religions say the navel’s in a different place.”

  Xavier says it has to be the Greek navel because of all the Creach activity at Delphi,” piped in T-Rex from the seat in front of us. He turned in his seat and propped himself up on his knees so he was looking at us. “And he’s super-smart.”

  “I’m not saying he isn’t,” Daniel said. “I don’t know why people can’t just speak in plain English. All these riddles are driving me crazy.”

  “What’d I miss?” Will said, joining us.

  “Just reviewing the riddle and what it means,” I said.

  “I thought Xavier already told us,” Will said. “The legend of Delphi says that the Greek god Zeus wanted to find the center of the earth so he let go of two sparrows, one from the east and one from the west. The spot they crossed paths became Delphi, the navel of mother earth.”

  “That’d be cool if there was an actual belly-button there,” T-Rex said.

  “I doubt there’s a belly button,” I said. “But hopefully there’s someone there who can tell us where we can find Kaeden’s lair.”

  Daniel still wasn’t satisfied. “You know, Xavier told me there hasn’t been an Oracle at Delphi in like a thousand years.”

  “Almost two thousand, actually,” I said.

  “So what makes you think there’s going to be anyone there to help us?” Daniel asked.

  T-Rex and Will nodded as they considered this.

  “Not only that,” Daniel continued, “but justice and mercy establish your worth sounds like a trial or something, doesn’t it? Maybe a battle?”

  Daniel was right. I hadn’t really thought of it that way, but I should have. . “So, what are you suggesting?” I asked.

  “Just that we go in with the assumption that this is a Creach trap. We go in on our toes, weapons in hand, ready for anything.”

  “You’re right. We go in like hunters, not tourists,” I said. The train shuddered as the brakes were applied. We looked out the window and saw the world that had been streaking past us slow down. “We’re here.”

  We hurried off the train. I immediately tasted the salt from the ocean on my lips and smelled jasmine and olive trees in the air. To our right, the Aegean Sea stretched out from the small rocky port shaped like a half moon. Brightly painted fishing boats moored there probably looked about the same as they did a thousand years earlier. Smoke wafted toward us from a nearby restaurant. The unmistakable smell of chicken cooking over charcoal carried hints of lemon and rosemary.

  T-Rex walked toward the smoke like it was a leash pulling him. “This place seems great. Maybe we should get a bite to eat first.”

  I pulled him back. “Sorry, T-Rex, but we need to get to the Oracle as fast as we can.”

  “I admit it smells pretty good,” Will said. “C’mon, Jack. We’ve had nothing but that horrible food of the train for two days. I want something that’s not processed or fried. Besides, how far can we be from this place?”

  I turned and pointed to the snow-covered mountain looming behind up behind us. “That’s Mt. Parnassus. And that’s where we’re going.”

  Daniel eyes searched the train station on hyper-alert. I’d scanned the area too and hadn’t turned up any Creach, but I knew Daniel had a better radar for them than I did. He noticed me watching him.

  “Looks clear to me,” he said. “For now.”

  “Okay, let’s grab some chicken… for the road though,” I added. “We’ll eat while we hike.”

  Minutes later, I couldn’t have been happier that Will and T-Rex had asked to grab some food. The dish was called souvlaki, big chunks of marinated chicken with spices, grilled over an open flame. It came with fresh bread cooked in a traditional stone oven. We ate as we walked through the small town, taking in the sights.

  Rows of two-story colored houses lined each side of the steep cobblestoned streets. There were cars in the town, but not very many, and most of those were rusted with faded paint. Several of the upper floors had balconies decorated with flowers in hanging planters and sheets of cloth held out on poles so they billowed in the wind like flags.

  “Pretty secretive location, huh?” Will said, jabbing a finger at a sign pointing the way with Oracle of Delphi written in about ten different languages.

  “I guess looking like tourists is a good thing,” T-Rex said.

  A bus stopped near us and off-loaded dozens of new arrivals. They stretched and groaned as they shook off the bus ride from their bones. Many snapped pictures with their cameras. I pulled Daniel’s arm. “C’mon, let’s join that group. We’ll stand out less that way.”

  Daniel scanned the new group for potential threats. As he did, I noticed a little girl, a local by the looks of her, working her way through the new arrivals, her hand out asking for money. The tourists ignored her as if she wasn’t even there.

  “Yeah, I think you’re right,” Daniel replied. His words distracted me, and when I looked back, the little girl was lost in the crowd.

  The group was large enough that nobody noticed four teenagers joining in. As we hiked upward, the guide in the front did his tour-guide thing and pointed out the sites along the way.

  Since we’d committed to being with the group, I decided to make the most of it and listen to the guide to see if there was anything in his presentation for us to learn. Unfortunately, it turned out to be in German.

  I noticed Daniel listening intently. “You speak German?”

  “Sure. Don’t you?” Daniel asked.

  I shook my head and he shrugged.

  “He’s just covering the basics right now, nothing we don’t already know. Zeus. Swallows. Gaia’s navel.”

  “Gaia?” T-Rex
asked. “Who’s that?”

  “It’s the old Greek name for Mother Earth,” Will said. I was always amazed how Will, who was failing out of middle school back home, knew so much about so many things. Will had always said he was a genius and just bored with school. I thought it was just an excuse to get bad grades, but since our adventures had started, I wondered if he’d been telling the truth.

  The tour guide’s voice rose and fell dramatically, and the German crowd oohed and ahhed. Even Daniel looked entertained, a wide grin on his face.

  “What is it?” T-Rex asked.

  “Yeah, what he’d say?” Will added.

  “Turns out there’s another story about how this place started. The god Apollo faced a dragon here named Python. After a furious battle, Apollo defeated the dragon and threw him down a hole in the ground. It’s said that the dragon’s decaying flesh produces a smoke or vapor that gives the Oracle the power to see the future. Pretty sweet, right?”

  “Sounds like Apollo may have been an original monster hunter,” Will said.

  “This place is going to be awesome,” T-Rex said.

  Then we crested the hill, and T-Rex looked like someone had just taken away his ice cream cone. The ancient ruins of Delphi spread in front of us, but it was mostly just piles of stone.

  A couple of small sections of crumbling walls outlined where buildings had stood ages ago. A few miscellaneous pillars stuck up into the sky.

  In the center, the Temple of the Oracle lay in ruins, a circular stone base with only five pillars remaining. Each was a different size, and none of them connected to a wall or ceiling. Basically, there was nothing left of it.

  This was going to be harder than I thought.

  Chapter 8

  We worked our way down through the ruins toward the temple. While the complex was larger than I thought it would be, with ruins sprawled along terraces cut into the mountainside, the temple itself was much smaller. In fact, I had Daniel use his German to double-check with the guide that the small circle of stones was the right place. He assured us that it was, shooting us a disdainful look, maybe for not appreciating the beauty of the place.