Joshua and the Lightning Road

by Donna Galanti

  “Did my mom really die?” Time pressed down on me as I needed the truth.

  The drip-drip slowed as my breaths came faster, and I scraped my fingers alongside the slab, trying to hold on to it.

  Finally, Bo Chez bowed his head and said the words I didn’t want to hear. “Yes.”

  Hope fled as quickly as it came. “Because of me.”

  Bo Chez jerked his head up. “No. There were other … things.”

  “Tell me.”

  Was it fever or confusion? Bo Chez’s figure blurred again. Stay awake!

  But that was it—as if Leandro’s cloak had been drawn over my head, I slipped into complete darkness, half-hearing these final words: “You are my grandson.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Bo Chez shook me awake as Charlie bounded into the cave, Leandro close behind.

  “I’ve found the one Moria plant,” Leandro said, catching his breath. “We broke into the greenhouse. There were only two guards out front. The majority of the army must be with Hekate.”

  “The kernitians finally came out of hiding. We ‘hitched a ride,’ as you Americans say, all the way back here,” Charlie said, talking fast. “Stole some bong bongs, too.” He threw a bag of them onto my slab. Bo Chez handed me one, and it took all my effort to get the dry biscuit down, but my body craved food even though my tongue tasted like sandpaper. I ate another, drank water, and fell back on the slab, buried under the cloak, only able to move now from my waist up as numbness seized my legs.

  “Bo Chez,” I whispered. “My legs.” He squeezed my hand. I felt like I was dying, inch-by-inch, like Sam. He was still curled up on his side, so still.

  Leandro plucked a few leaves off the small plant, crushed them, and moved toward me.

  “Sam,” I wheezed out. “Give it to him first.”

  Leandro nodded and placed some under Sam’s tongue then mine. It was bitter and made me gag. He then pushed some right into my wounds. I moaned, and he mumbled an apology, looking at me with concern, his fingers pressing softer on my wound. Then he plucked the few remaining leaves and hid them in his satchel.

  I peered up at Leandro, my tongue thick, my question on my face.

  “If it’s going to work, it will do so in minutes,” he said.

  Seconds ticked by with the drip of the water. The fever left me with each stride of Bo Chez’s pacing. My legs, once numb, prickled back to life. My foot twitched, and Charlie whooped as if I’d flown. I glanced at Sam, wanting to share this good news with him, but he didn’t move.

  Leandro moved toward him, knife in hand. In a slash, Leandro cut a lock of Sam’s hair and placed it on a slab. Bo Chez then flicked his finger, and a spiral of light streaked out. Poof. The hair burned bright and turned to ash. Its smell lingered in the air. Leandro scooped it up and tied it in a small bag he pulled from under his cloak, then he handed it to me.

  “Keep this safe for your friend.”

  I paused—still in awe of what Bo Chez could do—and slid the bag in my pocket as I slowly stood.

  Charlie grabbed me in a hug. “Joshua!”

  “You saved me,” I said.

  Charlie shrugged. “I just followed Leandro.”

  “Pretty brave and cool of you.”

  Charlie’s face split open in a huge grin and he chewed on a finger, shifting his feet about.

  With new strength, I pushed Bo Chez about the one thing he had kept from me. “Tell me now. How did my mother really die?”

  His face bunched up and he twisted his hands together, then finally spoke. “I’m sorry.”

  “About what?” I said.

  “I lied to you about your mother.”

  I waited, still as stone. Even Charlie stopped chewing on his finger. The pling-pling of the water rang in rhythm with the breaths of my friends: Sam’s slow and steady, Charlie’s fast and anxious, Leandro’s deep and calming. And that’s when Bo Chez said, “She didn’t die when you were born.”

  My brain felt like it was being squeezed in half. “W-what?”

  “You saw her die. But you wouldn’t remember. You were only two,” Bo Chez said.

  Panic blazed through me, as if lightning had struck.

  “Stop.” Damp air wrapped around my throat threatening to choke me.

  Bo Chez gripped my arms. “You need to know, Joshua.”

  “So … dizzy.” I closed my eyes.

  “Hold onto me.”

  I squeezed his arms. “My chest hurts.”

  “Open your eyes, Joshua.”

  No!

  “It’s time you knew the truth.”

  So much had been taken from me. I couldn’t stand for any more to be.

  I opened my eyes, and looked at the face of the only family I’d ever known. “What did I see?”

  “The Child Collector vaporizing your mother.”

  Charlie gasped, and Leandro growled. My hands fell away, but Bo Chez held me tighter.

  The Child Collector killed my mother.

  Something inside me silently broke.

  I managed one word. “Why?”

  “Part of a Child Collector’s job is to kill escapees, but the list is long, and their resources limited. That’s probably why it took so long for your mother to be found. I heard your mother scream one night. I grabbed the lightning orb and ran into her room. He stood there, laughing, his vape aimed at her. I tried to use my storm power, long abandoned, but it didn’t work, and before I could throw the orb, he blasted her with you right there in the bed where she’d been sleeping next to you. And then she was gone. Like that.”

  The awfulness of that—for him, for me—struck hard. “I don’t remember. My own mother … and I don’t remember.”

  Bo Chez let go of my arms and nodded, along with Charlie who was speechless for once.

  “That’s a blessing,” Leandro said, as if he understood that loss in not remembering his wife’s face. He took a quick step toward me, his jaw clenched, and his hand stretched out as if he wanted to comfort me, but then he fisted it and placed it on his knife, the blade’s edge gleaming from the top of its holder.

  And in that glint, a seed of memory sparked in me. A bright flash. Zap. Zap. I flinched as if struck.

  “What’s wrong?” Bo Chez said.

  “It was so bright. A lightning bolt in my room. And so loud. I was so scared. There’s the Child Collector’s face! But where’s hers?” I reached inside my pants pocket and pulled out my mother’s photo, tracing her face, and Bo Chez touched mine.

  “You remind me of her,” he said.

  I so badly wanted to remember being with her.

  “That’s why lightning terrifies you,” he said. “I never realized … .”

  Lightning took my mother from me, took my friend, and took me. But it saved my life with the orb and it brought Bo Chez here. It could bring us home.

  I put her photo away, my fingers trembling with so many emotions flooding through me. “What did you do, Bo Chez?”

  “I grabbed you and threw my orb at him. He blocked it with his vape, but it still sheared off half his face.”

  “You made him a monster.”

  “He already was a monster,” Bo Chez said in a flat tone, with an ugly twist to his mouth.

  “Then what happened?” I said.

  “He disappeared. Took the Lightning Road back, I assume. You and I left that night. If I’d gotten to your mother sooner—”

  “Not your fault.” I wanted to believe it, wanted to feel like he was still my grandfather, but he was a stranger now and always had been.

  “We kept moving after that,” Bo Chez said. “I couldn’t take a chance of losing you, too.”

  Chapter Thirty

  “What’s going on?” Sam’s voice rang hoarse through the cave, startling us all awake after we had finally fallen asleep once more, desperate for rest. My third night on this world. How many more would I count? Sam sat up, his face was still an old man’s, but the M
oria plant was working!

  And then a sugary voice sent goose bumps along my arms.

  “Come up, my little Reekers, I know you’re down there.”

  “Hekate!” Sam stood onto shaky legs. I held his bony body steady as my heart hopped like a cricket.

  “I’m not used to waiting.” Hekate’s creepy voice echoed down into our cold pit. “My army is up here. I just want the Oracle. The trail of his smell has finally betrayed him.”

  How could she know about me? I barely knew about me.

  Bo Chez gathered us near him. “I’m going to blast us out of here to the woods. My powers only work a certain distance the more I transport, but if we can lure them to a field I can create a storm to trap them there.”

  “We know you’re down there, ignorant Barbaros,” another hateful voice barked. “Come up now, or I’ll give you a nasty bite.”

  Bo Chez threw his arms overhead. Fire blazed in a snake of light and lassoed us. Rock crashed down. I breathed in dust and grime, and a second of black took the world away. When it reappeared, we were crouched on the ground, back in the woods where smoke blew thick.

  Charlie stood up and stumbled, but I pulled him back down. Trumpets and shouts burst out. Through the smoke, ghostly horses pawed the ground and spears poked through the mist—Hekate’s army. We must have slept all night, for the dim blue sun hung over us, and the light of day made it harder to hide.

  Leandro leaned in. “We’ve got to call the kernitians.”

  “But you said they wouldn’t come if they fear a battle,” I said.

  “Everyone fears a battle, Joshua,” Leandro whispered back. “But a good leader will convince his troops that when what we’re fighting for is right, fear should not stop us.”

  I didn’t know how to get home and much less about how to save a whole world, but something in Leandro’s speech inspired me. He believed I could make a difference, and in his belief, I found mine.

  Bo Chez’s face offered no answers. This was my decision.

  I summoned what confidence I could and called the kernitians into action.

  Leandro raised his head and added his voice to mine. We pleaded with them for help to win our battle. And then feet moved like wings through the air above us. The kernitians answered our call to help, and we swung up on them. Across the sneaking fog and smoke, red eyes glared at me and snarls filled the air. Our enemy found us.

  “Get the Reekers!” Hekate reined in her horse and beside her, the Child Collector shook a vape at us. Bo Chez flung his hands out and sheets of rain poured down on our enemy. The soldiers’ horses reared and pawed at the air as a river pushed fast behind and swept them along between the trees. They swam fast against the strong current, Hekate in the lead.

  A few cadmean beasts leapt high, missing the raging torrent—but were no match for our kernitians that pushed upward as jaws lunged at our feet. Teeth, sharp as razors, snapped at me. Charlie kicked a cadmean beast in the snout. It barked in pain and fell, swirling away in the roaring water. Leandro led the way over the trees, their branches seeming to hold us up in their thorny palms, and rising up from the foggy forest the soft purple light from The Great Beyond grew before us. Below, the water receded as quickly as it came, and soldiers stampeded around trees, following Hekate’s emerald streak.

  Arrows shot past our heads as we moved up higher, and I dodged one just in time. Bo Chez flung his arm down, zapping bolts from his fingers. Light blazed. Screams rang out from the forest floor.

  “Joshua, catch!” Leandro pulled his son’s bow out of his satchel and threw it to me.

  Newfound strength raced through me. The Moria plant had done its job and more. Leandro then threw a sack of arrows and it hit my chest with a thud.

  He pulled out his bow. “Shoot, Joshua! Just pull back and aim. See?” Leandro fired more arrows. They must have found their mark because far below, guards toppled from their horses. Some got caught in their stirrups and were dragged along. They looked like toy soldiers.

  “Get them good, Joshua!” Charlie said, his eyes round with fear.

  I had never used a bow and arrow in my life, but found myself calmly putting an arrow to my bow and aiming it at the enemy below.

  “Now, Joshua!” cried Leandro. I drew back the bow with steady fingers, my arms burning with the effort, and picked a point ahead of the army—then released the arrow. It sped off like a rocket and struck a cadmean beast. The beast shrieked, smashed into a tree, and lay still. My heart raced as I drew back another arrow, and another, alongside Leandro. Two bows, working together. One giant, one not-so-grown-up-sized.

  Leandro turned to throw me more arrows when a spear of blue light pierced my hand. Sparks ripped across my fingers. Pain launched through me, and I screamed. A shrill laugh pealed out from below. I tucked my hand under my arm with the bow and slid sideways on my kernitian. Everyone around me spun in circles. Arrows whizzed past my face.

  “Joshua!” Bo Chez turned his kernitian toward me, his eyes and mouth wide open in a mask of fear.

  I slipped further. My good hand clutched my kernitian’s mane. So soft. It slid through my grip.

  “Hang on!” Charlie and Sam yelled. Leandro’s cloak billowed across my face along with the scent of earth and chocolate.

  I fell.

  Someone grabbed me.

  And then the world disappeared.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Wind cut cool across my face, but the rest of me was warm. Leandro held me to his chest, urging his kernitian on, his heart pumping fast against mine.

  My hand throbbed, wrapped in a rag, and Leandro’s hair fell around me like a tent.

  “Hekate struck you,” Leandro said. “I still had some of the Moria plant in my bag and put the last of it on your hand.”

  “You caught me.” It came out a whisper, but Leandro heard me and nodded.

  Down below, Hekate and her army still raced along. They were dark shadows in the fog, stealing in and out of the mist. Arrows shot up toward us but fell short. We were too high for them to reach us now. Then they disappeared, and we flew for a long while as lavender light spread out soft on the horizon toward The Great Beyond.

  “There.” Bo Chez pointed to an opening ahead with a grim face. “I’m setting down in that field.”

  “But we’re safe up here,” I said.

  “I’ll hold them off with my storm power while you all fly to the power mill and find Finn.”

  “No! We all keep flying and get Finn.”

  “Do what I say, Joshua!” He flashed me a look that told me I’d better obey.

  A trumpet rang out, strong and forceful. “Wait, do you hear that?” I said.

  Behind me, the fog parted and our enemy was outlined clearly, rushing toward us again. The army drew closer with Hekate still in the lead. She kicked her horse on even faster. Flames streaked out of the cadmean beasts’ mouths as they raced along. The Child Collector leaned over his horse, whipping him, and the vapes spat out their deadly tongues.

  “Bo Chez, I came here to get Finn and that’s what we’re doing—together! We can’t get separated again.” I strained to see the power mill on the horizon and gripped my kernitian’s fur tighter.

  “I will find you,” Bo Chez said.

  “No!”

  “Look.” He pointed down at Hekate. “There’s no time! Do you want to get us all killed?”

  “I survived so far without you telling me what to do. Trust me, Bo Chez. Please!”

  He shook his head, his jaw pulsed in a hard line. “You’re just a boy!”

  “I’m not just a boy, and what about you? Trust you? You lied to me my whole life about everything!”

  “I had to protect you.”

  “I know I’m not your grandson, but stay with me.” I was pleading now, terrified of never seeing him again.

  “You are my grandson.”

  “No. I’m not.”

  “In my heart you are.”

&nb
sp; “If I was, then you wouldn’t be leaving me now!” All my suffering exploded through me. “I don’t belong on Earth. I don’t belong here. And I don’t belong with you!”

  “Enough!” Bo Chez’s voice shook like thunder, his eyebrows jagged points.

  In a small voice, Charlie said, “Joshua, let’s just do what he says.”

  But it made me madder and madder that Bo Chez wanted to leave me. It hurt bad. “Your lightning orb probably led the Child Collector to our house. He could have gone somewhere else. Stolen some other kids!”

  Leandro crushed his hand into my shoulder and I winced. “Joshua, if you didn’t have the orb you would be dead. The Child Collector could have taken your friend by chance like hundreds of kids are taken every year.”

  Sam and Charlie remained curiously silent.

  “There’s no time for this, Joshua,” Bo Chez said, dismissing me as he turned to zoom down. “Hurry, all of you!”

  There was no holding back my growing anger or my hurtful words. This place and its myths had taken everything from me. My world. My home. My mother. My best friend. My grandfather. Even my sense of who I was.

  “You let my mother die.” I said it quietly, but he heard me.

  Bo Chez’s face crumpled. He opened his mouth to say something, but Leandro cut him off. “We’ll all go down. You trap them first, sir, and we’ll help fight until you contain them. Then the rest of us will get Finn.” There was no time to respond. Leandro directed the kernitians, and we charged down as I wished this all to be over.

  Wished I could disappear.

  Wished I wouldn’t die with those last awful words to Bo Chez on my tongue.

  Bo Chez landed first and jumped off his kernitian into the open field. His thick arms swung through the air. Hail as big as baseballs crashed down on Hekate and her army. Horses buckled to the ground. Cadmean beasts howled. Soldiers screamed as their mounts crushed them. But still they kept coming.