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

by Jeff Gunhus

  “It almost seems too obvious,” Will said.

  “Did you know what it meant when you heard it?” Xavier asked with narrowed eyes.

  “Well… no,” Will sputtered. “Jack knew the Teutonic Knights were German. After I Googled it, I figured out where they lived.”

  Xavier looked disappointed. “Google’s overrated,” he said.

  “Will has a point, though,” I said. “Think about the riddle. Go into the darkest, most ancient of woods. Where the knights of the Teutons lay rusting. That seems pretty on the nose as being the Black Forest.”

  “And, Defeat ye the lord through his champion beast. Yet in victory never be trusting,” T-Rex added, “… is just saying the way to beat Ren Lucre is through his champion, Kaeden the Lord of the Werewolves, right?”

  “It does feel a little too easy,” Daniel agreed. “She might as well have just said Go to the Black Forest in Germany and kill the Lord of the Werewolves to get the Jerusalem Stone. I mean, what’s the point of speaking in riddles if it’s so obvious?”

  I remembered Daniel had complained about how complicated the riddle was when we first got it, but I bit my tongue.

  “Maybe she adjusts her riddles based on how smart the person is she’s giving them to,” Will said, straight faced.

  “Yeah, one look at Jack and she must have taken pity,” Daniel added, snickering.

  I threw my backpack at him and he broke out in a laugh.

  “She probably would have drawn you a picture in crayon,” I said, happy to be joking with Daniel. Things had been a little tense between us, and this felt normal again.

  “Pointed you in the right direction and just given you a good shove,” Will chimed in.

  Xavier unfurled a parchment scroll and laid it on the small table between the two facing rows of seats. It was a map but unlike anything I’d ever seen in any of my geography classes back in Sunnyvale.

  It was hand-drawn and looked ancient. The scale made it hard to identify at first, but I slowly picked out shapes I recognized. It was Western Europe but without lines for borders. I got the sense that this was probably because very few borders existed when the map was created. Still, I picked out where Germany and France filled most of the paper. There were intricate drawings of rivers, mountains, castles, and villages scattered throughout. Faint lines connected different features, some of them dotted and others solid.

  Xavier pointed to an area just off the center of the map where many lines converged. “This is it,” he said, tracing the lines with his fingers. “The reported wanderings of the Lord of the Werewolves as tracked and reported by the monk, Benedictine, nearly five hundred years ago.”

  We all leaned over to study the details. I looked more closely at the drawings and noticed that each of them contained a grisly scene. A headless man in one village. A man with no arms running in another. In each one, there was a drawing of a wolf walking upright like a man.

  “Eww,” T-Rex said, pointing to a drawing of a wolf with a man and a woman sticking out of its massive mouth. “That’s pretty gross.”

  “How did you get this?” I asked. “Aquinas’s library burned down when the dragons attacked.”

  “Only part of her collection was up there. A lot of it was hidden in the caves,” Xavier explained.

  “Nice timing, Xavier. We could have just used this map and saved ourselves a long train ride to Greece,” Will said.

  “Not to mention a meeting with a particularly nasty dragon made out of marble,” I said.

  “No, no,” Xavier hurried to explain. “This makes no mention of Kaeden, only that it was a werewolf. The archives are filled with this kind of stuff from the old days. It only became significant once you had the clue from the Oracle.”

  “Let me get this right,” Will said. “This map shows a werewolf tracked by a monk five hundred years ago?”

  “Four hundred and eighty-two years ago,” Xavier said.

  “Like I said, around five hundred years ago. But this could have been any werewolf, not necessarily our guy?”

  “Right,” Xavier replied. “But with the Oracle pointing to the Black Forest, there’s a chance it is.”

  “And how big is this forest?” I asked.

  Xavier closed his eyes for a second, then answered. “About the size of Vermont.”

  “Vermont? You meant like the state?” Will groaned.

  “Vermont reminds me of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream,” T-Rex said, rubbing his stomach. “They should do a flavor just for us. Monster Mash.”

  Daniel and I made eye contact, and I knew we were thinking the same thing. It wasn’t what ingredients should go into T-Rex’s Monster Mash ice cream. If Xavier’s hunch about the map wasn’t right, then it was going to be a long slog to find the Lord of the Werewolves. And the trick was going to be to find him before he found us.

  “How sure are you that this map is pointing us in the right direction?” I asked.

  “I estimate at least a twenty five percent chance I’m right,” he replied without hesitation. “That’s not bad considering all the variables at work.”

  Daniel and I leaned back in our chairs. I expected Will to groan again, but instead he chuckled at Xavier’s level of precision. “Well, that means there’s a seventy five percent chance we get to be tourists for a day.”

  Xavier nodded. “Isn’t that great? I’ve wanted to go to the Black Forest for years to study it, but Aquinas would never let me,” he said.

  “Why wouldn’t she let you go?” T-Rex asked, his brows drawn together.

  Xavier laughed. “It’s way too dangerous,” he said. “There are Creach hiding out everywhere in that place. Old ones too. There’s one in particular –”

  “Right,” Daniel said, cutting him off. “I remember now. You have a weird thing for the Boros.”

  “It’s not a weird thing,” Xavier said defensively. “It’s a scientific study.”

  “Bordering on obsession,” Daniel muttered. He apologized after glancing at Xavier’s hurt look. “Sorry, Xavier. I don’t know how you can believe those old stories. They’re just bedtime tales told to keep young hunters in their beds. I’ve made some of them up myself.”

  Will, T-Rex, and I shared the same confused look.

  Daniel shrugged. “C’mon, you guys have heard about the Boros, haven’t you?” he asked.

  “No. I’m not sure I want to,” T-Rex said.

  “You tell it, Xavier,” Daniel said. “You’re the expert.”

  Xavier looked offended. “I don’t believe in it, not necessarily. But I believe in science. There’s reference to the Boros in every millennia for the last two thousand years. A massive creature that feeds off the heat of the Earth’s core, that burrows through rock like a worm through soft dirt, that has two heads, possibly three, and that –”

  “– can swallow little hunters who don’t listen to their instructors in one bite,” Daniel cut in. “It’s a boogeyman. Nothing more.”

  “And he’s supposed to live in the Black Forest?” T-Rex asked, nostrils twitching.

  Xavier nodded.

  Will looked up from the map. “How does any of this help us get the Jerusalem Stone from the Lord of the Werewolves?”

  Xavier raised a finger. “I’m glad you asked. The mythology of the werewolf and the mythology of the Boros do have a link. I knew about this particular map because I’d come across it in my studies. Look here.” Xavier pointed at a section of the map. The werewolf walking upright snarled at a blob of ink with the word carefully scrawled beneath it. BOROS. What looked like a linked chain connected the two images.

  “Okay,” I said, “so, what’s the link?” I asked.

  Xavier frowned. “I’m still trying to figure that out. There’s nothing in the archives.”

  Daniel groaned, but I noticed that T-Rex still looked worried. The Oracle’s prediction that one of our group wouldn’t make it back from this adventure alive must have hit him harder than he admitted. I made a mental note to stay close to him.


  “Come on,” I said. “Let’s all get some sleep. We’ll be there in half an hour. It might be the last chance for a while to grab a little shuteye.”

  No one needed to be asked twice. We were all tired, both emotionally and physically. I wasn’t sure what lay ahead of us, but I knew it would likely take all of our strength and test us in ways we hadn’t yet imagined.

  I stood to leave the compartment as the others made themselves as comfortable as possible. I signaled Xavier to follow me out into the hallway. Once there, I slid the door behind us.

  “How’s Eva?” I asked him.

  “I told you earlier,” Xavier said. “Aquinas said she’s progressing as well as can be expected.”

  “Yeah, but that sounds like what Aquinas told you to say,” I muttered. “I know you, Xavier. I know you couldn’t have resisted trying to understand the science of what Aquinas was doing to try to save her. What did you see?”

  He stared out of the window and then at his feet. “Nothing. I didn’t see anything.”

  I laughed. “You’re not just a terrible liar. You might be the worst I’ve ever seen.” Xavier flushed red. I put a hand on his shoulder. “If you think about it, it’s a compliment. Lying isn’t something you really want to be good at.”

  “It’s just that Aquinas made me promise….”

  I felt a lump form in my throat as the worst-case scenarios built up in my mind. Eva had turned insane, unable to handle the transition. She’d attacked Aquinas. She was dead. Not knowing was worse than anything.

  “Is she… is she…,” I stumbled.

  Xavier broke in. “No, nothing like that.” He sighed heavily and cast a quick look up and down the hallway where were stood as if Aquinas herself might be lingering in one of the shadows. “Okay, yes, I snuck into the barn to watch Aquinas. She caught me, of course. She always does. But she decided to let me watch.”

  “And?”

  “And… it was terrible.” Xavier shuddered. “Eva was in a cage; you saw it. She got worse at first. Like she had a terrible fever. And she prowled back and forth like a hungry cat. You could see it in her eyes. The way she wanted to… you know… feed.”

  “Has she gotten better or worse?”

  “It was bad at the beginning. Aquinas went in the cage with her, but I couldn’t hear what they talked about. Aquinas did all the talking. For hours and hours. One time, Eva lashed out at her, and Aquinas had to raise her cane, like she was going to hit Eva. But she didn’t. She just kept talking to her.”

  “Did it work?”

  “It seemed like it,” Xavier continued. “Eva calmed down. Stopped pacing eventually and crouched in the corner of the cage, panting like she was thirsty. I guess she was now that I think about it.”

  I grabbed his arm. “She’s still Eva. She wouldn’t hurt any of us. Don’t forget that.”

  Xavier nodded but didn’t seem convinced.

  “But she’s still safe?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” Xavier said.

  “What do you mean you don’t know?” I asked.

  “Well, the thing is… the thing I’m not supposed to tell you…”

  “Just spit is out, Xavier.”

  “Eva escaped,” Xavier blurted. “Two days ago. And no one knows where she is.”

  Chapter 14

  We were all back together in the compartment and everyone was wide-awake.

  “I can’t believe you didn’t tell us, you little weasel,” Daniel said.

  “Leave him alone,” I said. “Aquinas made him promise. Made him give an oath as a hunter.”

  “Technically, I’m not a full hunter yet,” Xavier clarified. “So I did have some wiggle room.”

  I shook my head, hoping Xavier would stop trying to help himself.

  “Poor Eva,” T-Rex said. “I wonder where she is.”

  “From the sound of it, they’re lucky she didn’t… you know.” Will bit the air.

  “Will, really?” I asked.

  “I’m serious,” Will said. “We all saw her on the boat. She barely controlled it.”

  A German voice belched out of the loud speakers in the compartment. I stood, gathered my bags, and unfolded a small paper map.

  “What are you doing?” Daniel asked.

  “Looking at the route map. This train’s ahead of schedule. We’ll be there in five minutes.” I held out the map in my hand. “There’s another train a half hour from now heading south.”

  “We’re not heading south,” Daniel said softly.

  Normally, I could read Daniel well, but it seemed he was speaking a different language. “What do you mean? We’re going back to look for her, right?”

  “You know we can’t do that,” he said, his overly calm tone really starting to annoy me.

  “You can’t be serious,” I said. “She needs our help.”

  “The most help we can give her is to gather the Jerusalem Stones so we can return her to normal,” Daniel said. “Besides, it would be like tracking a ghost with two days head start on us. Three by the time we got back there. Even I wouldn’t be able to track her.”

  “I can track pretty well,” I said.

  Will shook his head. “Sorry, Jack. Eva was probably good enough to lose you before she gained her vampire powers. Now? You don’t stand a chance.”

  “Wait,” I said. “You’re on his side?”

  “It’s not about sides,” Daniel said. “It’s about what’s right. Besides, she probably doesn’t want to be found. Especially by us.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I snapped.

  “Think about it. We brought her to Aquinas and she ended up in a cage,” Daniel said.

  “It looked terrible,” T-Rex mumbled. “Her all curled up like an animal.”

  I shot him a look. “I don’t believe this,” I said. “None of you are willing to go?”

  The others turned away from me, unable to meet my stare. I felt guilty, probably guiltier than anyone else since I was the one responsible for her becoming a vampire. Part of me wondered if this was clouding my judgment, but mostly I just wanted to fight and make them see things my way.

  “Where did Aquinas think she might have gone?” I asked Xavier. “She must have had some ideas.”

  “We sent out search parties,” Xavier said. “Aquinas thought she might have gone after the livestock on the farms nearby. You know… because she was probably hungry.”

  Even though I ate hamburgers and chicken sandwiches all the time, the mental image of Eva going to a local farm to eat part of a cow or a whole chicken raw made me sick to my stomach. Maybe it was because I knew she was going there not for the meat but for the blood. I don’t know why it made such a difference, but it did.

  “Did she go there?” T-Rex asked.

  “No,” Xavier said. “There were no reports of missing animals or anything, so we looked in the forests. Down at the river. But she was just gone. Vanished.”

  A heavy silence fell over us, each of us imagining our own version of Eva out in the world, lost, confused by her new powers, trying her best to control her thirst for blood.

  “Why didn’t Aquinas want us to know?” I asked, the anger burning with every word.

  “For exactly this reason,” Daniel whispered. “She knew our impulse would be to go look for her.”

  “Maybe we should,” Will said. Daniel looked at him sharply, and he looked sheepish. He avoided Daniel’s gaze. “Maybe you’re right, Jack. If she’s out there, then she needs our help. Maybe we should we at least try?”

  I nodded, feeling the tide turn my way. “Exactly. What if we don’t try and she dies out there? What if Ren Lucre captures her?”

  Daniel spoke quietly, staring at his hands. “It’s taking everything I have to fight back the urge to just agree with you, to grab my gear, head for the nearest door, pry it open and jump out into the night. I want nothing more than to go look for her. To at least try even if it is an impossible task.” He drew in a long, shuddering breath, then looked up at
me, eye to eye. “But our responsibility is greater than just one person. It always has been. Even if that one person is Eva.”

  “I don’t think ¬¬–”

  “If she were here, Jack,” Daniel said. “What would she tell us to do? I think we all know.”

  No one spoke because each of us did know the answer to that question.

  Will finally broke the silence. “She’d tell us to do our duty, come what may.”

  “And our duty is to the millions of people who might die if we fail,” Daniel said. “Ren Lucre is too strong. He will destroy everything. We cannot fail. Period.”

  As he spoke, I remembered the moment I had with Eva in Spain the night after we had fled from the djinn in Marrakesh. Standing up high on a cliff, staring out together into the dark seas, she’d said many of the same things to me about our duty and our responsibility. I shook my head to clear away the memory, still not convinced.

  “But this is Eva,” I said. To me that was enough of an argument to counter everything he’d just said.

  “We need to stay the course,” he replied. “There’s too much at stake here. Eva would have told us to keep going. She would have reminded us of all the people who had sacrificed to get us this far. She would have told us to think about your Aunt Sophie. To think of Hester. Gregor. My family. Her family. All the others who sacrificed for us. When it’s my turn, if there’s a choice to make, I will sacrifice everything to this cause. It is simply that important.”

  The train conductor hit the brakes as the train hit a rough section of track and jostled the carriage. The overhead lights flickered on and off, and the sound from the wheels masked the sound of the compartment door as I flung it open.

  I raced down the hall. I had to get off this train as soon as I could. The air itself felt like it would suffocate me if I stayed a minute longer.

  At the end of the hall, I wrestled the door open as we pulled into our station. The wind from the rushing train blew around me.