Joshua and the Lightning Road

by Donna Galanti

  “He hit a tree so hard he should have died.”

  “Why didn’t he?”

  Leandro just looked at me, as if deciding what to tell me. “I knew what he was then.”

  “What is he?” I said, the blood throbbing in my ears.

  “He carries the great name of Patrok, a hero of the Trojan war. And he is what you had hoped for, Joshua,” Leandro said solemnly.

  “What do you mean?”

  Leandro put a hand on my arm as if to prepare me, the throb in my ears pounding faster alongside the pulse from his fingertips.

  “Your grandfather is an immortal Ancient One. He’s been around since the early days, right after the Olympians left Mount Olympus for good.”

  “Like Hekate?” I could barely find my voice, and Sam’s eyes widened. That’s why she’d said she’d seen Bo Chez before!

  “Yes, but a good immortal Ancient One,” Leandro said.

  “He can’t die?”

  “A curse can kill him, but there are ways to come back.”

  “Like Hekate could,” I said.

  “Yes, but he told me he’s thwarted her before on Nostos as a young man, and he’ll do it again.”

  It all started to make sense now. “And you and Bo Chez tricked Hekate into believing you were undercover and he was your prisoner so you could rescue me?”

  Leandro nodded. If my world had turned upside down before, it did again. Bo Chez had lived for thousands of years. He could live for thousands more. It was hard to grasp, that like the infinite space of the universe, my grandfather was infinite too.

  “And Hekate’s brother was immortal too?”

  Sam shook his head. “Not exactly. She’s been spinning ancient magic and using the bodies of others for centuries to keep his soul alive.”

  “So what happens now that he’s vaporized?” I looked to both of them for answers.

  “Let’s hope his soul is gone now that it has no body to attach to,” Leandro said, and Sam nodded.

  “I don’t understand though. If Bo Chez is immortal, why didn’t he stay young like Hekate?”

  “He told me he lost his power of immortality when he went to Earth,” Leandro said. “He began aging there, although at a slower rate than mortals. And it’s why Hekate didn’t recognize him at first.”

  “So he’ll live forever here but die on Earth?”

  “Yes.”

  So going home would save me, but kill Bo Chez. He would someday die there, like me. But here, he would never die unless a bad curse killed him. He must have really wanted a new life to give up immortality and choose a new world.

  Sam cut through my thoughts. “Where’s my father—King Apollo?” He jerked his head about.

  “I thought I saw him follow Joshua’s grandfather.” Leandro’s energy had already returned to the point that he jumped around. “Over here!”

  Sam and I followed him through the grass toward the woods. The disappearing fog barely camouflaged the dead soldiers we ran past, and there, slumped against a tree, sprawled King Apollo. Leandro helped me roll him over. The king bled from a bad cut to his head and gasped for air.

  Leandro knelt behind him and put the king’s head on his knees. “Joshua, you must have found more Moria plant … ”

  “You’re only alive because I found the last of it hidden in your bag,” I said. “It’s all gone.”

  The king opened his eyes. “Don’t guess I’ll get my kingdom back now, will I?”

  Leandro bowed his head. “If it soothes your soul, sire, Hekate won’t be ruling either. Sam killed her.”

  The king wheezed. “Good.”

  Sam knelt by his side. “I’m sorry about all this, Father.”

  “Not your fault, my boy. If I’d treated you better—if I’d treated everyone better—it never would have come to this. I should have worked to find a better energy solution for the Lost Realm.”

  “We can now. It’s never too late for a new beginning,” Sam said, and reached his hand out. He hesitated, then placed it on the king’s chest, and the king placed his own hand over it.

  “I really did love your mother, Sam.”

  “I know,” Sam whispered.

  “But I closed my heart to her, and all our people. I’m so sorry.” A fat tear rolled down the king’s cheek.

  “Your heart is open now, Father.”

  The king touched Sam’s face, and then his arm fell to his side.

  Leandro folded his cloak and placed it beneath the king’s head. “Sire, I want you to know, I’ll travel across Nostos to find help for the Lost Realm.”

  “Not if there’s a warrant out for your arrest.” The king’s breath came in long gasps. “Need to pardon you.” He coughed a horrible sound like wet paper being crushed in his lungs. “Paper … my handwriting can be verified. With my … ” He turned to Sam. “My son as witness, it will be good throughout Nostos.”

  Leandro was already pulling paper and pen from a buckled pocket on the front of his satchel. The king wrote for a minute with a shaky hand, then handed the sheet to Leandro. “I’ve recommended you for higher service to Queen Artemis as well.” He turned to Sam. “Here, Son, take this.” He removed his pinkie ring. “You’ve proved yourself to lead. I choose you to take my place. Band with Leandro to help you. All shall now know that you can act on my behalf to lead the Lost Realm. You’ve lived with mortals. You’ll be the most sympathetic to their plight. Carry on the legacy I never could … ”

  Sam bent over and took the ring, pushing it down onto his thumb. “I will, Father.”

  “One more thing you must do.”

  Sam leaned in closer.

  “Go to Earth. Find your mother. Tell her … tell her I’m sorry.”

  The king closed his eyes and didn’t move again. Sam put his head on the chest of his king, his father. Leandro and I were quiet as Sam said goodbye. We then covered the king with branches.

  “There’s nothing more we can do here. Let’s go get your grandfather, Joshua,” Leandro finally said. Sam wiped his face and nodded. My sadness for him mixed with my own, fearful Bo Chez had suffered the same fate. I pushed that thought away as Leandro and I called to the kernitians, in the hope they would return to transport us again. They did.

  As we flew up to the treetops in the growing light toward The Great Beyond, the king’s body grew smaller and smaller. Then, with a drift of the fading mist, he disappeared.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  “There,” Leandro pointed below. A man on a horse raced between the trees. Bo Chez! We zoomed down, yelling at him to stop. Just seeing him made the knots in my chest unravel, and I practically fell off my kernitian to get to him. He dismounted and hugged me tight, his thick arms gripping me, alive and magical as ever.

  “I don’t blame you for my mother dying, Bo Chez.” My heart thumped inside me with gladness that he was okay, and that I had the chance to take back those words. I swore I would make it up to Bo Chez for the rest of my life, if not his.

  “I know,” he said softly.

  “I was just so angry that the Child Collector killed her.”

  Then it hit me. Family wasn’t made by blood—it was made by love. And love was stronger than fear. Bo Chez might not be my true blood, but we were connected to this world, and that connected us, stronger than ever.

  “Leandro told me everything,” I said.

  “So now you understand.” His eyes pierced me in a new way, as if I had become an equal in his adventures and now must pass the final test.

  I slowly nodded. “But, you’ve really been around forever?”

  Then Bo Chez laughed. His face cracked open, and he once again became my grandfather. “Not forever, but some time, yes.”

  “You said you’d always come for me.”

  “And I will.”

  And that was all I needed to make sense of, for now.

  “Good to have you back with us, Patrok,” Leandro said, breaking the silence with my gr
andfather’s real name, reminding me of the true hero he had become to all of us.

  “So, what did you do with the army, Bo Chez?” I said.

  “Did you send them into The Great Beyond?” Sam wanted to know.

  “On the way to The Edge, they had a change of heart. One minute they were angry warriors and the next they were simple men, begging for their lives. So, I let them go and they ran off.”

  “Hekate is dead,” Sam said, dismounting from his kernitian. “For now, anyway. I gave her my Old World Curse.”

  Bo Chez studied Sam for a few moments. “You must be Sam, then.”

  Sam nodded.

  “That would explain it—Hekate probably enchanted the soldiers, and her power died with her, perhaps the fog as well that she most likely created. And now the sky grows lighter. The sun is finally reaching the Lost Realm for the first time. Let’s hope she doesn’t find magic to come back.” Bo Chez tilted his head. “But why the long face, Sam? We’ve destroyed an enemy, and your youth has been restored—”

  “My father … ”

  “The king is dead,” I filled in, when it looked as if Sam couldn’t continue speaking.

  Bo Chez put a hand on Sam’s shoulder. “I’m very sorry for your loss, Sam.”

  I now kind of understood how confusing family love could be. When it came to my own family, love and anger had a pretty rickety fence between them.

  “And—” I didn’t think the words would come, but the thrill of revenge brought them out. “And I blasted the Child Collector.”

  Bo Chez blew out a big breath. “Are you okay, Joshua?”

  I nodded, then shook my head, not knowing how to feel about it. But I’d erased the Child Collector, and his smell, forever. No more nightmares.

  “Taking a man’s life—even an evil man’s—is never easy, even for an old warrior like me. Nostos is a better place without him. Now it would seem there’s only one thing left to do.”

  “What’s that, Bo Chez?”

  He cocked his head at me, his jagged hair shining with the last of the mist. He might be from another world with magical powers, but—hey, so was I.

  He put his thick arms around me and hugged me tight. “Why, we go home, Joshua.” Finn might have a whole family to share, but Bo Chez and I shared a whole world.

  “Finn’s already home.” I couldn’t stop smiling now. “And Sam. Can he come home with us? We’ll help him find his mother.”

  Bo Chez nodded and took Sam into our hug.

  Then Sam and Leandro flew back to the Lightning Gate while Bo Chez and I galloped back on his horse through the woods no longer shrouded in mist. White cloud patches painted over the purple the sky, like an artist creating a new picture on an old, dingy canvas. Even the dead trees looked alive to me now, and they moved their branches apart to welcome our passage. Maybe Hekate’s death did give them new life.

  We finally stood before the Lightning Gate, where all that remained of Hekate and her brother was a green robe and a cloak. Bo Chez kicked them to make sure they were empty. A spark flashed and, just like that, they burst into flames. We watched them burn and crumble into ash.

  My excitement over them being gone faded to waves of exhaustion. “I just want be a kid again.”

  “And you shall, Joshua,” Leandro said. “But I have the feeling you’ll be back. For now, the Lost Realm folk must figure out their own problems.”

  “But they fixed their problems before by doing bad things,” I said.

  “This time they’ll do good things to survive. I’ll make sure,” Leandro said.

  “And so will I,” Sam said.

  “Perhaps we’ll call on you for help another time,” Leandro said.

  “But not now.” Bo Chez put a protective arm around my shoulder, and I had the feeling Leandro was right—this would not be my last Nostos adventure.

  “How will you find me, Leandro?” I said. “We move a lot.”

  “Not anymore, Joshua,” Bo Chez said, and gave Leandro our address.

  “Really?” I said.

  “Really.”

  We all stood there, safe for the first time in days. And the word home floated in my head like a gift waiting to be unwrapped. A gift that held everything now.

  “Time for me to go, too,” Leandro finally said.

  It hit me hard. Leandro was actually leaving us? After all we’d been through?

  I looked into his eyes, that stormy mix of color, not wanting to forget him. “Which land are you going to?”

  He placed his hands on his hips and thrust his chin upward, his long roped hair swaying with the thickest white streak like a lifeline. “To the Arrow Realm. It’s my land, and Artemis may be the best leader for me to appeal to for finding a new source of power for the Lost Realm—and to stop stealing mortal children for Nostos. Perhaps she’ll consider looking to her own people for answers and appeal to Zeus to change all of our world.”

  Sam pushed the key into the gate and unfurled the scroll of codes. He then punched in the combination that would connect with the Arrow Realm.

  When all was set, Leandro looked at us one by one, and my joy of going home fizzled at the thought that I might never see him again. He grasped both my forearms. A warrior’s goodbye. I gripped him back, and looked up to him one last time.

  “Young Joshua, I don’t think this is your final victory. You have other battles to win—on Earth or here.”

  I cleared my throat. “They were wrong about you. You’re not a broken arrow.”

  He smiled at that, his eyes sparkling in the brightening sun. “Perhaps. Marks on the outside do not always make the man on the inside. Remember to believe in yourself and you will have the power to be whatever destiny drives you to be.”

  “I’ll never see you again.” I didn’t want to believe my words. Our connection had grown fierce.

  “Yes you will.” Leandro grasped my arms harder, then let go and put a fist to his chest. “I feel it.” From his satchel he pulled out the small bow he had made and handed it to me.

  “But this is for your son.” I held it tight in my hands.

  “I want you to have it.”

  Thank you didn’t begin to cover it, but that’s all I could mumble.

  “If I ever find my son, he will have outgrown it anyway.”

  “Maybe he is the Oracle waiting to happen, Leandro.”

  “Or maybe you are after all. Maybe there is more to the myth than we know.”

  No one spoke. The idea of being the Oracle twisted uncomfortably up inside me.

  Leandro turned and shook hands with Bo Chez and Sam, then walked into the Lightning Gate. It was a quiet moment with just us here, the sounds of battle gone, and a silent bronze giant that stood as a doorway between realms–and worlds.

  “Wait, Leandro,” I said. “We have your gate key. How will you travel between lands to keep looking for your family and then take them to Earth?”

  “I won’t need it to travel undercover now. I’m a pardoned man.” He drew out King Apollo’s letter. “Although, I’ll keep my traveling belt, just in case. And I now have hope that our world can change in time. Perhaps we can make a life here. Or perhaps someday we will be free to go to Earth if we choose.” He then nodded at Sam who pushed the key into the gate. The ancient metal glowed, and a golden halo radiated around Leandro.

  I pulled out the orb, pressed it to my chest, and then held it up to him in goodbye. He lifted his hand, and with a flash of light was gone.

  I slid the orb into my pocket with little enthusiasm for our own journey home, and looked over at Sam. He gave me that same little knowing smile he’d given me when first holding that clipboard. And now he’d be like a brother to me for a while, back on Earth, where we would help him find his mother. A new adventure was about to unfold.

  I tapped Sam on the back. “Ready for Earth?” He hesitated, then punched in the code, placed the key in its place, and accompanied us into the Lightning Gate.
>
  But before heading under its thick columns I needed to read its inscription aloud, to defy it. “Honor the fire of Zeus that sparks your journey. Adversity breeds true power. Bow to the gods.”

  “You can read Greek?” Sam said with wide eyes.

  Greek, huh. “Doesn’t surprise me in this place,” I half-joked.

  “Me either, especially with your evident power here,” Bo Chez said. “But no more bowing to the gods now, Joshua.”

  Sam nodded in agreement. Then I stepped into the powerful machine beside him to go home.

  I sucked in a whiff of electric fire. Sparks started to fly around my belly. The lightning filled me up with strength, not fear.

  That’s when something unexpected happened.

  Sam pulled out the key and stepped back from the gate.

  “Light of Sol go with you, my friends,” he said.

  “What?” I looked at Bo Chez and back at Sam. The sparks in my belly traveled out into my arms and buzzed through my hands, tugging on my nerves. “Sam, your mother. We can find her now. You can find a way back later.”

  “Perhaps.” He fingered the royal ring on his thumb. “But my people here need me right now even more than I need a lost mother. That’s for certain. This is my home. I can help the people of the Lost Realm find a better energy solution and lead them into a better life.”

  Sam may have looked like a kid again, but as he stood with his feet wide apart, his chest out, and his head held high he looked wise, courageous, and every bit a king. His mother was lost to him, his father now dead, and he’d been an outcast in his own family, but he was still willing to sacrifice to make a difference beyond his own needs. I had to follow my quest, now he chose his. I couldn’t argue with him. I wanted a brother, but he had a whole kingdom to save.

  “Wherever you come from, Joshua, know this: you are a true light bringer,” Sam said in a strong voice. “Your getting stolen away to our world gave us the light of hope, the strongest light of all.”

  The sky broke open, covering us in a jeweled violet, pushing the dark away. I blinked from the brightness and raised my hand. “Light of Sol go with you, too.”

  And with that, Sam pushed the key back into the gate.