Scarlet and the Keepers of Light

by Brandon Charles West

  “We should rest for now,” Dakota said. “Perhaps in the morning things will look different.”

  There was no argument from Scarlet or Delfi. They found places on the musty carpet and prepared for what was sure to be a sleepless night.

  “I should ask the roots to close the doorway again, just in case. That way nobody else can get in,” Scarlet said.

  Dakota nodded. “Be quick, and be careful.”

  Scarlet returned to the school’s main entrance and whispered to the willow. The branches quivered at the sound of her voice, and in less than a minute the entrance was again sealed. On her way back to the classroom, Scarlet noticed something she hadn’t before: a flyer, hastily taped on every classroom door. She took one down and looked at it. A few lines of what looked like verse followed a short note:

  Dear Students,

  This letter is to tell you where to find us. It’s in a riddle in the hope that the monsters won’t understand and be able to find us. I have no idea how intelligent they are. The school is no longer safe. Leave as soon as you can, and follow the clues in the riddle. Be careful, and good luck.

  —Ms. Thandiwe

  A presidential donation, given forth, the citizens to enlight.

  The 3rd’s great love, kept safe behind vaulted doors.

  A mighty building, we hide in plain sight.

  Where the 2nd and 4th are our neighbors.

  Scarlet wasted no time. She went immediately to the library; the thought of finding Ms. Thandiwe, an adult who she trusted and could help explain what had happened, was too much to pass up. The library was dark and wild. Many plants had invaded through the numerous windows. Scarlet sent several spheres of light into the cavernous room and began looking for books on US government. The riddle had mentioned a president, so books about the government seemed like a good place to start. She got history books, assuming that since the riddle mentioned the third, it would be about older presidents.

  Scarlet gathered together a stack of books and was about to leave when she stopped to pick up a book about Washington, DC, as well. She then hurried back to Ms. Thandiwe’s classroom, where Dakota was about to leave to find her.

  “Where have you been?” he asked, deep concern in his voice.

  “I found this,” Scarlet answered, showing the flyer to Dakota, who read it quickly. Delfi came over and read it as well.

  “What does it mean?” Delfi asked.

  “Ms. Thandiwe was one of my teachers in school. She’s obviously found a safe place, but she didn’t want to give it away to whatever has come over. It’s a riddle.” Scarlet sat down on the floor and began flipping through her books. Delfi picked one of them up as well, although he had no idea what he was looking at.

  “First we have to go to school on my first visit to your world, and now we have homework,” Delfi jibbed.

  Scarlet smiled but ignored his joking.

  “The third president was Thomas Jefferson,” Scarlet read, although she had been pretty sure of that before reading it. “Now we have to figure out what he donated.”

  Delfi had found Thomas Jefferson in his book as well. “It says he wrote the American Declaration of Independence,” Delfi offered.

  “We saw the Declaration of Independence once when we went to DC. It’s in the . . . National Archives Museum, I think.” She turned to the map in the book about DC. “Here it is, she said pointing to the Archives on the map. “DC isn’t that far away, either. It used to be only a thirty-minute trip by car. Without traffic, that is.”

  “What’s a car?” Delfi asked.

  “It’s a . . . a . . . machine . . . that can move people around faster,” Scarlet explained.

  “What else is in the Archives?” Dakota asked. “What are the neighbors being the second and fourth?”

  Scarlet turned in the book about DC to the section about the National Archives Museum. She didn’t see anything that she thought might have anything to do with second or fourth. There was also the section in the riddle about Thomas Jefferson’s great love. Surely he loved the United States, but was the Declaration of Independence enough of a connection to explain that part of the riddle?

  Scarlet looked up at Delfi. “Who does it say in your book that Thomas Jefferson was married to?”

  “It says Martha, but she died before he became president. Wow!” Delfi exclaimed.

  “What?” Scarlet asked.

  “Only two of their children survived to grow up, and they had five. That is so sad.” The Tounder lived remarkably long lives, and to hear that a couple’s children could almost all die was deeply disturbing to Delfi, who’d had never heard of a Tounder child passing away.

  Scarlet and Delfi continued reading for a while before the answer presented itself to them. Scarlet found the answer first in a minor sentence in one of the books, but from there the riddle began to unfold quickly. Thomas Jefferson was a great lover of books and had donated his extensive library to the people of the United States of America. A little investigation revealed that his books were held in the Thomas Jefferson Building in the Library of Congress, whose other buildings were the Adams and Madison Buildings, named after the second and fourth presidents of the United States.

  The only question now was how they would get there.

  “The problem is, we have no idea what’s out there,” said Dakota.

  “But that’s why we should go and find Ms. Thandiwe. She can tell us more about what’s happened here,” said Scarlet.

  Dakota was pacing the room, obviously conflicted about what to do. They seemed safe for the time being, talking shelter in the brick school building, which was surrounded by protective trees and vines. Nevertheless, the danger of the prince’s rise to power was not gone just because they found themselves in Scarlet’s home world, and they could do nothing to stop him while they were hiding out in a school. They needed a new plan to develop Scarlet’s magical abilities. They couldn’t afford to hide.

  Eventually Dakota stopped pacing, having made his decision. “We’ll need to try and make it to this library in one day, if we can. I have no idea how dangerous it is out there or what other shelter we might be able to find along the way.”

  “We can do it,” Scarlet said, feeling a stir of hope and excitement.

  “Tomorrow morning then,” Dakota announced. “first thing.”

  24

  New Friends

  Brennan woke in a tangle of brush, surrounded by trees. It was dark, and he had no idea how long he had been unconscious. Cautiously he pulled himself up and tried to gain some familiarity with his surroundings. The area was not like any forest he had ever seen; just a short distance away, he could see a series of strange dilapidated buildings that had been overrun by plants, almost as if the forest had swallowed a village.

  He tested his legs and feet. Apart from being a little sore, and having a good-size lump on the back of his head, he found no apparent injuries. The first thing he needed to do was find the girl, and after that . . . well, he wasn’t sure. He had no idea what had happened to him, where he was, or when Chosen would find him, if he ever did at all. Searching the area for any signs of the girl or her companions, he was able to find signs of disturbance in the brush, leading to a clearing behind a stone pit about the size of the other buildings. Beyond the clearing, though, he had no idea where they had gone.

  Brennan tried to put himself in their shoes. A young girl, a boy, and a wolf. What would be the first thing they’d want to do after waking up in this awful place? With night falling, they’d definitely want to seek shelter. Brennan looked around at the buildings in the area. None of them appeared to be suitable to take refuge in; hiding in any of them looked more dangerous than staying in the open. Deciding that they would not have gone back into the trees, either, Brennan headed out toward the road, which to his amazement proved to be made entirely of one long piece of black stone.r />
  He had been traveling about ten minutes when he heard sounds that made his blood run cold; in the distance, hopefully a long way behind him, came the unmistakable roars of tiranthropes. It was a sound he would never forget as long as he lived. Having no desire for another run-in with one of those creatures, let alone what sounded like several, Brennan quickened his pace, now searching with a degree of panic for somewhere to take shelter.

  If there was one thing Brennan’s time with Chosen had done for him, it had turned him into a proficient long-distance runner. He quickly covered the distance on the open road, coming to a large building made of red stone and covered with roots and plants. Unlike the taller buildings he had seen, this one was single story and looked to be fairly intact.

  Brennan circled the building several times, finding all obvious entrances completely blocked by thick roots and foliage. There was no way for the girl and her companions to have gotten inside—at least, not that he could see. He wished Chosen had told him something about where he was being sent. He wished Chosen had told him anything useful.

  A light flickered in the corner of Brennan’s eye, catching his attention. He turned to look at it, but it was already gone. For a moment he thought it had been his imagination, and he was about to ignore it when it happened again. It came from the cracks in the foliage entwining one of the windows. It then reappeared several windows down, moving in the direction of the largest entrance to the school, the one covered by the entwined thick roots of a tree.

  Brennan hid himself behind a bush where he could still view the building. The sun was just beginning to peek out over the roofline. Suddenly the roots from the front door began to writhe, recoiling back toward the tree to leave the door exposed. Brennan steeled himself for a fight; he had no idea what might emerge from the building. His only hope was that it was the girl.

  The first figure to emerge was the strange wolf, followed by the girl and boy. Brennan let out a sigh of relief. Luck, it seemed, had turned in his direction. Then came the growl, and this time it was definitely not far off in the distance. It was close. Too close.

  Only the wolf had time to react as the tiranthrope came bounding around the far corner of the building, on top of the group before the girl and boy could respond. Having little option, the wolf threw himself at the tiranthrope, the two crashing in midair as they leaped toward each other. The sounds of the two animals attacking one another was ferocious, almost blocking out the screams from the girl.

  If the wolf wasn’t able to beat the tiranthrope, the girl would be killed in seconds as it turned to its next victim. Brennan couldn’t let that happen. He didn’t feel the warm tingling in his muscles that signaled the onset of the Tempest and had enabled him to beat the tiranthrope before. Maybe though, if he and the wolf attacked together—

  Brennan darted from his hiding place behind the bush, running silently, straight at the tumbling tangle that was the fighting tiranthrope and wolf. There was a yelp from the wolf, just as Brennan reached them. The tiranthrope tossed the wolf aside and turned to the girl, taking no notice of Brennan, who threw his shoulder into its midsection, sending them both to the ground. Brennan landed hard on top of the huge snarling creature, sprang up before the tiranthrope could get hold of him, and stepped back, ready to defend himself against the next attack.

  The girl had gone to the wolf. She was crying, but the wolf was rising to its feet. The boy was still behind Brennan.

  The tiranthrope got up slowly and let out a horrific roar. “You are going to die for that,” it cried.

  “I don’t think so,” Brennan said coldly, his voice sounding much more brave than he felt. He could feel the boy coming around from behind him. “Stay back, boy!”

  “My name is Delfi,” the boy said, anger in his voice. “Those are my friends it attacked.”

  Without another word, the boy sent a beam of solid light directly into the tiranthrope’s face. The reaction was immediate, strange, and disturbing. The tiranthrope began to flail and clutch at its eyes, screaming in pain as it backed away from Brennan and Delfi. Brennan turned to glance at Delfi, unsure of what had just happened.

  “Scarlet!” Delfi cried, “it can’t take the light. There’s something about the light!”

  Scarlet didn’t need any further explanation. Furious that her beloved Dakota had been injured, and tired of being afraid, she rose to her feet, summoned the light within, and sent a beam of light, more powerful than she had ever produced before, streaming into the tiranthrope. Knocked off its feet, the creature slammed into a brick wall several feet away and slumped to the ground, where it lay motionless.

  Brennan looked from Scarlet to Delfi, who appeared somewhat shell-shocked—much as Brennan imagined he must have looked the first time he encountered a tiranthrope. The wolf was staring at him with suspicious glowing

  blue eyes. Brennan walked cautiously over to the tiranthrope and prodded it with his foot. It didn’t move.

  “We should go back inside,” Brennan said, turning back to the group.

  “We aren’t doing anything until you explain who you are,” Dakota snarled.

  “Dakota, he saved our lives,” Scarlet pleaded.

  “I don’t care,” Dakota snapped. “We can’t afford to be trusting.”

  Brennan looked around, concerned that there might be more tiranthropes. How was he going to explain what he didn’t really understand himself? Brennan decided a quick version of what had happened to him would have to suffice.

  “I was in a slave prison,” he started, “and this strange man came and rescued me. He said that he needed me to protect a girl he was searching for, and we traveled across the whole of Satorium to find her . . . to find you,” Brennan said, nodding toward Scarlet. “Look . . . we don’t have time for this.”

  “We are going to have to make time,” Dakota snarled.

  “Except, when we got to you . . . well, the man I was with, he said time was running out. There was a black cloud descending on you, and he said he was going to send me to you, and I was to protect you until he found us.”

  “How exactly did he send you to us?” Dakota asked suspiciously.

  “I don’t know exactly. He did some kind of magic, and the next thing I knew, I was flying through the black cloud. I woke up in some trees here—wherever here is.”

  Scarlet supposed that Dakota had good reason to be suspicious, but it was hard for her to feel the same way. After all, the young man had risked his life to save them from the monstrous cat thing. She took a moment to look over the man, trying her best to get an impression of him. He was by far the largest man Scarlet had ever met, like she imagined a football player or a basketball player might be, only even taller. He wasn’t skinny like a basketball player, though. He was very broad, and his arms were thick and very muscular. He had kind marble-like eyes, shoulder-length blond hair, and his face, although weathered by the sun and strained from hardship, was young and slightly wild.

  “What’s your name?” Scarlet asked.

  “Brennan. I’m the last of my people, the Conquered—the Satorians.”

  At these words, Dakota’s ears perked up. He walked closer to Brennan, his nose in the air, as if trying to sniff out the truth of Brennan’s statement.

  “You are the last Satorian?” Dakota said, a hint of intrigue in his tone.

  “As far as I know, my mother and I were the last. She was killed when the slavers found us,” Brennan said.

  “That’s awful!” Scarlet cried.

  Something about the mention of Satorians had seemed to put Dakota at ease. At least his voice showed a little compassion the next time he spoke to Brennan.

  “What do you know about the man you were traveling with?” Dakota asked.

  Brennan lowered his head and was silent for a moment before he answered. “I don’t think he’s a good man,” Brennan confessed. “We fought several groups of . . . of
Mortada, he said they were, on our travels, but I think—in fact, I’m sure—that he was one of them.” Dakota’s hackles rose. “Listen, though, I’m not with him. He just saved me from the jail, and I had nowhere else to go. I didn’t have many options.”

  “You are here under his bidding,” Dakota snarled.

  “I swore that I would protect the girl. I have no home or place to go and no purpose anymore. I spent my whole life running with my mother, and now she’s gone. I decided that if a young girl was in danger . . . well, then that was as good a purpose as any. I swore to myself that I would protect her, even from him if necessary. In that way, I would give what my mother did . . . It would be like honoring her.”

  Scarlet could not take her eyes off Brennan’s face, contorted with a grief he was trying gallantly to hide. His eyes glistened with tears that he was not allowing to fall. A long, uncomfortable silence followed.

  “I believe you,” Dakota said finally, releasing the tension. “And I am very sorry for your loss,” he added solemnly.

  “I think we should go inside your fortress,” Brennan said, pointing at the school. “I heard more of the tiranthropes on my way here.”

  “No,” Dakota said firmly. “We need answers, and Scarlet still has a job to do. We have to get to a place that might give us both answers and safety. We think it’s about a day’s walk, and we haven’t any time to lose. If you truly mean to protect her,” he added with a hint of reluctance, “then you can come with us.”

  Brennan didn’t argue. He simply nodded and said that he was ready to go whenever they were.

  “My name—” Dakota paused for a moment, as if unsure of which name to give. He had not had to introduce himself in so long, and had spent so much time ashamed of the honor his original name bestowed, that he was at a loss. Then he decided, and it brought him a great deal of peace to be proud of the name he gave. “My name is Dakota. This is Delfi of the Tounder, and this is Scarlet. If you mean what you said, truly, then for now I will just tell you that she is the most important person in all of Satorium—and in this world, for that matter. Her life is worth all of ours.”