Joshua and the Lightning Road

by Donna Galanti

  “First, we use him, then you can have him,” Hekate said. “He’ll be an asset in battle.”

  Bo Chez raised his head and finally spoke. “I’ll never fight for you, Ancient Evil One.” He straightened up, his Titanic body expanding the space it once hid in. In that instant he didn’t look defeated at all. He looked angry and strong and full of power. “I’ll defeat you again.”

  Hekate twirled in a circle around him. She stumbled and regained her balance, facing him, fingers frozen in the air. “Aha! You’ve aged, Storm Master. So this is the one who injured you, Cronag?”

  “Yes.” The Child Collector grunted, tugging his hat down lower over his face. Hekate glided to him and took his hand. She held it to her face, then pressed her other hand to his scarred cheek. He leaned his head in to hers, and for a moment only their deep synchronized breathing filled the quiet of the arena. I darted my eyes to Bo Chez for answers, but his eyes were focused on the two siblings. I pulled away from Leandro but choked as he ripped me back by the neck of my T-shirt. I kicked his leg, but he didn’t move, just knotted my shirt tighter. I gasped for air and he loosened his hold enough to breathe while every muscle in me wanted to kill him.

  Hekate broke the silence. “Then we shall have the pleasure of killing him, brother. And you shall have his body in place of the one he ruined.”

  A slow smile cracked along the good side of his face. “No better revenge than to use the very body that hurt me, and what a bonus to command his storm power as my own.”

  No! My stomach flopped and a sick taste swelled in my throat at the thought of the Child Collector possessing my grandfather’s body. Let me be dead before that happens.

  “Only for you, Cronag,” Hekate said, and raised her hands.

  Blue sparks crackled along her fingertips, poised to kill, and she cast her hands out. The horses twitched and the soldiers pulled at their reins as skittish hooves bit the arena floor. I lunged for Bo Chez, but Leandro held me back once again. I kicked his leg harder. He groaned this time but wouldn’t let go.

  Leandro yanked on Bo Chez’s rope and his neck muscles bulged—then the rope snapped in two. Bo Chez swung his arms in the air and a storm cloud burst above him. Horses screeched. Leandro knocked me down and fell on me just as lightning streaked the air. We slammed into the ground, the breath knocked out of me.

  “Bo Chez!” I rasped out. Leandro dragged me up and along the dirt, away from the firing zone, but Bo Chez stood his ground, a giant wielding his power. Hail and vape fire rained down.

  Blast! Blast!

  Bo Chez’s body twisted as he was struck, again and again. He swayed but didn’t fall. The cloud grew bigger. He swung his hands in an arc.

  Hekate’s pale hand thrust itself through the smoke. The orb pulsed blue in her fingers. I struggled to get out from under Leandro, but his hand pressed into me hard.

  “Stay,” he grunted in my ear.

  Hekate drew her hand back.

  “No!” I ripped into the dirt to pull myself out from under Leandro but couldn’t break free.

  Hekate let go. The orb rocketed toward Bo Chez. It sailed on blue vape fire, aimed to kill.

  Boom! It raced around Bo Chez in a lightning lasso.

  Light blazed. Smoke bit the air.

  His storm cloud vanished, and Bo Chez fell to the ground.

  He didn’t get up.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  The smoke cleared. Bo Chez lay on his side. Get up! But he didn’t. The orb sailed back to Hekate, and she plucked it from the air and slid it away.

  “Take the body and place it in the ice cellar until we can use it later,” Hekate ordered two soldiers. They nodded and dragged Bo Chez up.

  “Bo Chez!” I began to sob and couldn’t stop, falling to my knees as Leandro let me go. I crawled along the dirt pit, but a soldier kicked me to a stop. I lay there, gasping with tears and pain as the only family I knew was dragged off, his power and goodness hauled away like garbage.

  Leandro picked me up and shoved the soldier who kicked me. “He’s my property now. I don’t want him damaged and costing me money, you brainless thug.”

  The soldier pulled out his knife, but Hekate shushed him. “Now, now. No fighting, boys.”

  The Child Collector strode to me and lifted my chin up as I hung in Leandro’s arms. I had no choice but to stare into his one eye that crinkled with satisfaction. “Feel the pain. Own it. It’s yours now, as mine was.” He squeezed my chin hard, his scars flaring at me with rage. Dizziness overcame me, and the arena tilted. Then he thrust me back into Leandro. “Take this Reeker out of my sight, but watch out. He likes to bite.”

  Leandro gripped both my arms to my sides, and I let him hold me up as the Child Collector took his place next to his sister, putting an arm around her shoulder. This evil, unstoppable pair had taken away my everything.

  “To the Lightning Gate and the Arrow Realm.” And with Hekate’s orders, Leandro pulled me to his horse and pushed me up on it.

  “Let me go.” I punched at him, but he forced me down in front of him. Hard leather slapped my cheek as I bounced off his saddle horn. There was no breaking away from his strength. Mine had left me. Bo Chez had left me—again. It was too much to hold inside. I looked behind us at Bo Chez’s body being carted away by horse. He grew smaller and smaller as we left the armory, and tears stung my eyes, blurring the sight of the giant man who’d raised me, loved me … rescued me. I twisted my head back around, not wanting Leandro to see me cry. With each sob I breathed in bitter air, tangy leather, and Leandro’s spice. I swallowed each breath with hate.

  The rain slowed and stopped as we followed Hekate and her men back down the wood’s path, taking up the rear. Behind me, Bo Chez remained, his power silenced. I wanted to run back, shake his big shoulders, and tell him it was time to go home.

  “You got him killed,” I whispered as exhaustion filled my empty insides. Leandro didn’t answer, but for a brief second his hand touched my shoulder. Then he snapped his reins to attention and dug his boots into the horse. Hooves beat into my head as the gray world of the Lost Realm threatened to lose me forever.

  Leandro was a traitor.

  My friends may not have made it out alive.

  The lightning orb was gone.

  Bo Chez was really dead.

  My awful words to my grandfather stung my thoughts. You let my mother die.

  I watched the ground fly by as we headed to the gate that would steal me away to yet another land. Then a silver speck caught my eye. It shone from the top of Leandro’s boots. A hidden knife tucked inside.

  And then Bo Chez’s words came to me. You must use the talents you were born with for all the good, no matter the cost.

  My friends might still need me. I couldn’t abandon them.

  I tried to lean down, but Leandro gripped me tighter.

  “Just let me rest,” I said. He hesitated, then freed me to lie on the back of the horse as we bounced up and down. Its wet mane chilled my cheek. My right arm hung down and my fingers grazed the top of Leandro’s boot. We jerked left, avoiding a boulder in the path. Up we flew. Down we came, and in that second I gripped the knife’s handle and pulled it out. It fit in my palm, tiny and deadly, and my only weapon now that the orb had a new owner. My heart thumped in rhythm with the horse hooves.

  Two questions loomed. Who would I use it on, and could I?

  We reached the meadow. I sat up, tightening my fist around the tiny dagger. Its sharp edge cut painfully into my palm.

  Hekate’s army galloped along single file. She led the way, her green robe soaring in and out of the fog like an evil magic carpet, and her brother rode just behind her, his fat body obscuring most of the view. Our horse leapt forward, its feet not seeming to touch the ground, and I held on to the saddle horn in terror as my hidden knife slit my skin. Don’t cry out!

  Then Hekate whipped her horse in a furious frenzy. “Get them! They can’t get through!”


  The Child Collector’s horse turned left, freeing our view. A meadow opened up before us, and a tall structure unlike anything I’d ever seen before rose from the ground through the blowing mist. The army barreled toward it, leaving me and Leandro behind.

  The Lightning Gate.

  And at the foot of it, my friends were fighting for their lives.

  The massive portal engulfed an area almost as wide as the field and gleamed like a bronze coin, tarnished green in spots. It stood on round stone blocks, an awesome giant with the power to take me home. Its two standing columns were like the Greek Coliseum, and the column linked between them overhead appeared twice as thick around. Strange symbols and animals were etched in its metal like the ones from the cave: curly cues, scrolls, horned animals, monsters, figures with arms outstretched. They seemed to move along the columns as if trapped in a machine they couldn’t leave, and the smell of scorched metal blew off the gate.

  Across the top column in giant letters marched the words: Honor the fire of Zeus that sparks your journey. Adversity breeds true power. Bow to the gods!

  This Lightning Gate had stood here for thousands of years, created from old magic. It held technology that didn’t belong on this world. Its golden doorway pulsed with ancient power that had transported mortals and gods for centuries. It had stolen me away on a ribbon of cold fire and was the most amazing and beautiful thing I’d ever seen, but it didn’t belong here. It belonged in a museum where it couldn’t steal people.

  Leandro rode off to the right, away from Hekate’s army, and headed toward the woods.

  I sat up straighter. “Where are you going?”

  Light flashed at the gate, and it looked like the gate itself shot bolts of lightning. Soldiers on foot fired at a mass of kids under the giant structure. A tall boy blasted back with a vape. Charlie! And there stood King Apollo. And Sam herded the kids to safety behind the columns on either side. Could Finn be one of them?

  We had come so far. Bo Chez was dead, but Hekate couldn’t win. It wasn’t fair.

  I grabbed the reins, trying to lead the horse back to the battle but Leandro jerked them back. “My friends!”

  “I’m trying to save them,” Leandro said as he took us deeper into the woods.

  “Where are you going?” I yelled. “Go back!”

  Behind us the trees closed in, and the meadow and Lightning Gate vanished.

  Leandro pulled us to a stop and leapt off the horse, holding onto the reins with one hand. Behind a boulder he lifted up his satchel and bow and arrows. He threw his satchel across his shoulder, swung his bow onto his back, and stuffed his arrows into his leg holder.

  “You’re a liar!” He would kill my friends and had to be stopped.

  The horse snorted and jigged, and I tried to grab the reins again, punching the air at Leandro with his own knife, but he wouldn’t let go. I kicked the horse hard. It shook its head and with a great roar sped off back to the meadow with me hanging on for my life. I had to finish this mission—even though the sorrow of losing Bo Chez weighed me down. Clutching the horse’s mane, terror raced through my very veins as we streaked toward the gate. Leandro dragged along the ground beside me.

  “Let go!” I kicked at him with my right foot, but he held on to the reins, shouting at me to stop.

  We broke through the woods. I strained my eyes through the thickening mist to find Hekate’s green robe. She had reached the Lightning Gate and raced back and forth, shooting with deadly fingers, her blue sparks flying against the glimmering bronze gate. In the midst of new events, it seemed she had forgotten about me and Leandro.

  The Child Collector trotted off to the side, giving orders. The two dozen remaining soldiers formed a battlefront and, like a row of cannons, fired their vapes down the line. But the gate fired back. Arrows of light exploded from its metal, and soldiers fell, one by one.

  Lather foamed at my horse’s mouth, spattering on me as we raced toward the bloodshed. I focused on that green robe and headed for it. Leandro tried to hoist himself up on the horse, but I gave him another good kick and he fell back to the ground with a loud groan. Mud spit up from dragging him along.

  “By the gods, boy, stop!” Leandro pleaded with me.

  But I couldn’t stop.

  Closer. Closer.

  Hekate’s robe flew behind her, a flag I was determined to take down.

  Leandro still clung to my horse as we raced toward the witch. Hekate toggled her head around, her mouth a surprised ‘O’ at seeing us. She yelled something to her men, bent over her horse, and cantered our way.

  I faced her head on. Her fingers fired at me. I tugged my horse’s reins to the left, then the right, the muscles in my arms screaming for relief. Leandro kept yelling at me to stop the horse, and then he was gone, rolling away behind me.

  Closer. Closer.

  She smiled at me, those blue teeth shining through malicious red lips and her bruise dark upon her face, marring her beauty that I’d so feared.

  Hate drove me on.

  I bashed into her, grabbed her robe, and we fell together.

  Hooves threatened to trample me.

  I slammed on top of her—a moment of doubt coursed through me—and shoved the knife deep within her flesh. She shrieked, her rose stench overpowering, and I pulled the dagger out. No blood! She grabbed my hand. Her icy fingers shocked me into loosening my hand on the dagger, and she tore it away, thrusting it in my face. “It will be fun to kill you like this, boy.”

  I knocked it out of her hands before she got the chance, and two arrows struck her shoulder. She fell backward, clutching at the arrows, and convulsed on the ground. With that opportunity, I scrambled through her robe pockets, ripping the gold-threaded quilt, and pulled out the lightning orb. Then her hand clenched my wrist.

  “Let go!” As I struggled against her, my pencil poked into my leg. I ripped it out with my free hand and stabbed her in the chest with all my force. Draw that!

  She flopped on the ground, aiming a shaky finger at me. It crackled with blue sparks.

  I jerked left, just missing her lightning bullets, and drew back the orb. “Your turn to die!”

  But Leandro snatched me up onto his horse, swinging himself up behind me. He grabbed the reins of Hekate’s horse, towing it behind us, and we flew toward the army that abandoned their fight at the Lightning Gate and now charged us.

  I beat at Leandro with my fists, and headed toward my death.

  Chapter Forty

  “Get down.” Leandro pushed me down hard onto the horse’s back.

  I finally gave in and held on tight. He drew back his bow and shot at the oncoming army. Arrows spun out in a blur. Men fell. Again and again.

  “What are you doing?” I tried to sit up, but he shoved me down again.

  “Trying to not get us killed.”

  What?

  Before I could argue, he said, “Use the lightning orb!”

  I couldn’t argue with that.

  We rocketed toward the soldiers, firing on them.

  The roar of the fight pounded in my ears: the cries of men struck by the gate’s power, the screams of horses slamming into the ground, the blasts of lightning exploding like fireworks in the smoldering air.

  Charlie and Sam stood under the Lightning Gate, gunning their vapes at the two soldiers that remained behind. The cries of scared kids huddling behind the gate filled the air. King Apollo stood off to the side, his hands moving back and forth on a panel. Was he manning the Lightning Gate’s guns? Then the gate unleashed more storm power. White light blasted from its bronze columns and struck the two soldiers. They fell off their horses and didn’t get up.

  A glance behind revealed Hekate shoving a soldier off his horse to hoist herself up on it. She slumped over the saddle horn, then joined her army and her brother. The enemy circled around us from the rear as we neared the gate. They were closing us in!

  We galloped between the dead, their faces of agony stuck
in their final moments. The scent of blood and mud and sweat rose from the fresh graveyard, and there was no escaping it. Hekate’s horse ran fast beside us, leaping over bodies. Charlie and Sam jumped up and down under the gate, and the group of kids screamed. Finn’s face popped up, then vanished behind the sea of kids.

  Leandro whirled around and fired his bow. One. Two. Three. More soldiers disappeared behind us.

  The Lightning Gate rose up fast. Leandro steered our horse left and we dashed alongside the massive metal sculpture. Sam grabbed Charlie and they ducked behind the gate as we passed it. Our eyes met briefly, and my heart clenched like a fist. My shoulders tightened and my lungs burned, ready to give up. Not yet!

  Soldiers came at us, but their horses reared up when the gate fired at them, tossing the men in the air. Lightning cracked like a whip to their chests, and they crashed onto the ground. Only a few stumbled up. Leandro aimed his vape at them and they snatched up their vapes. Too late. Zap. Zap. Zap. They were gone, too. Their horses trotted about and then stood still, as if waiting for their owners.

  The trees swayed in and out with deep angry breaths, and then a great creaking of wood screeched around us. Our horse bolted up in terror as giant tree limbs that had grown down and burrowed in the ground came to life and ripped themselves from the earth. They swung in the air like great elephant trunks and reached up—as if the dead spell on them fell away—and tore their pointed branches off with gnarled root fingers. The tree army shot their weapons at Hekate and her men, the jagged daggers hitting their mark again and again as the soldiers dropped on the field, leaving their horses to run off.

  But Hekate and her few remaining men kept coming, out of the way of the tree soldiers. The weapons of the woods fell short and tree arms, once buried in the ground, froze in the air.

  And then a figure on a horse punched through the mist.

  He launched through the air, a hero of giant proportions.

  Bo Chez!