by Edward Shawn
“James! Get away from there! Don’t let it touch you!” Micah shouted.
But James failed to respond. Looking at his mother lying prone on the ground, he found it excruciatingly hard to leave her side.
Grabbing him by the shoulders, Micah pulled him from the temple.
“No! Let me go!” James resisted each step they retreated.
As Kay resurrected her protective sphere and cut James off from Susan, the seething mass of darkness enveloped his mother, and then it, along with the injured Jeremiah, the medallion and Susan rose into the night, the continuing rainfall obscuring them from view soon after.
Dropping to his knees, James buried his face in his hands.
39
After rejecting Jeremiah’s offer, Evelynn and Marcus were allowed to go free. It seemed he didn’t consider them much of a threat, or perhaps there were soft spots in his hardened heart for his granddaughter and closest friend. Evelynn had no way of knowing; Jeremiah left them in the chamber without saying another word.
Evelynn had followed Marcus through a hidden passageway leading out of the temple. Crouched in the jungle, they watched what occurred during the last few minutes. She saw Jeremiah suffer injuries at the hands of the boy, but her days of caring about him were now in the past. He walked arm in arm with something sinister–something palpably evil–and she intended to dismantle everything he owned before he could implement his plans to, as he so eloquently put it–inherit the Earth.
He was insane, of that she had no doubt, but he also had the money and resources to see his plans through. With the aid of that creature and the power of the medallions, he might very well succeed in taking the world for his own, or destroy it in the process.
She felt like a fool for following him so blindly. She delivered these magical artifacts to him and never thought to ask a single critical question, even after witnessing their power firsthand. But those days were over. From this moment on she would work against Jeremiah and prevent him from achieving anything substantial ever again.
Hidden in the jungle, she saw the thing called Ebondust take to the skies with its partners and a medallion secure in its embrace. Evelynn had been surprised to learn the true identity of the woman named Susan; there seemed to be no end to Jeremiah’s machinations. It was clear the boy was distraught seeing his mother injured and then taken from him. Evelynn shouldered some of the blame, but this wasn’t the time to make amends with James, not when emotions were still so raw.
Evelynn had to wait for James and his companions to leave before she could take one of the jeeps and return to civilization. She watched the young girl try to console the heartbroken boy, the man standing over them and gazing at the trees.
Bursting out from the jungle, twin nightmarish, pale green visions charged to the man’s side. Evelynn had seen them before in the forests of British Columbia. The strange trio mounted the ghostly beasts, the man on one while James and the girl shared the other. The apparitions galloped off, a ball of orange light suddenly appearing and leading the way into the jungle depths.
Evelynn breathed in deeply, her stress leveling out as a quiet moment settled in around her. Checking for any serious injuries, she felt lucky coming away with only superficial scratches.
“Evey,” Marcus whispered, “Do you know who those people were?”
“They’re Jeremiah’s enemies. I guess that makes them the good guys.” Evelynn shook her head and sighed. “Poor Sandra. She sacrificed herself and unknowingly saved the life of a monster.”
“This is all so crazy.” Getting to his feet, Marcus looked around as if expecting to see creatures lurking nearby. “You’d better get going before the locals return. They won’t be happy to find some of their people dead.”
“You’re not coming?” she asked. “But what about Jeremiah?”
“I can’t think about that right now. I have to sort things out–see if I can make sense of what happened. Besides, I still have business here that I need to take care of. I can’t afford to have a bad reputation with the locals, especially when I’ll need their help on future excavations. I am an archaeologist, after all.” Marcus extended his hand. “Good luck, Evey. You have my number. Call if you need anything.”
Marcus returned to the clearing and knelt beside one of the deceased mercenaries.
Evelynn found the jeep with her leather coat stored in back. The key in the ignition, she started it up, then drove off through the jungle.
***
The rain had stopped as they followed the orb. James lost track of time, his mind preoccupied by somber reflection. His arms around Kay’s slender waist, she firmly held onto the horse’s mane.
His mother’s face, a vision twisted by unreasoned anger, haunted his thoughts. And even though they had accomplished what they set out to do and acquired another medallion, he was left with a sense of losing something infinitely more valuable.
No one spoke, and after some time, they arrived back at the totem pole.
Micah thanked the horses before dismissing them. After distributing pieces of the Bird-Rock fruit, he placed a hand on James’s slouching shoulders. “I swear to you, I will do everything I can to free your mother and return her to you as she was. You will be a family again. Until that time, I offer you my home. You can stay with us for as long as you wish.”
James hugged the man tightly. “Thank you.”
“But I do have expectations of you,” Micah said as James let go. “Your training remains unfinished. There are secrets within the medallion you have yet to discover.”
The sky filled with an overwhelming green light. Shielding his eyes, James saw the shooting star touch down near the waterfall. As the light faded away, the ghostly form of a German shepherd remained behind.
“I’ll be right back,” James said.
Kay stepped forward. “I’ll go with you.”
Micah touched her arm. “Let him do this. It’s a private matter.”
Crossing the stream, James approached the flickering green form of his faithful friend. Castle’s tail swayed rapidly as he knelt down before the dog. Attempting to hug his loyal companion, his arms passed through the spectral image. “Oh, Castle, I am so sorry. I didn’t mean for you to...”
Castle barked, though it sounded from a great distance away.
“I should never have brought you with me. I should have been smarter and left you with Danny. We may not have been together, but you’d still be alive.” Wiping tears away, James stared at the ground. “I hope you can forgive me.”
Sitting back on his hind legs, Castle extended a front paw and placed it over James’s hand. Though he couldn’t feel it, the boy understood the gesture.
Castle’s ghostly appearance began to fluctuate and then an intense haze of greenish-white light enveloped the dog. Rising above the trees, James watched the emerald glow streak across the night sky before vanishing amongst the countless stars.
“Goodbye, my friend.” Retracing his steps, James returned to his companions.
“Are you okay?” Kay asked.
“Not really. But at least I know things can’t get much worse,” he said with a slight smile. Eating his piece of dried fruit, James followed his companions to the front of the totem pole. “I guess we don’t need to worry about Galen.”
“No, we do not,” Micah said. “Spirits are extremely resilient. Regardless of what happened to him in the temple, we will see Galen again.”
“Hurting Galen is another reason to destroy that old man and his black dust cloud,” Kay said.
“I agree.” Micah held his granddaughter’s shoulders. “I’m glad you are here, Kayshawni Warm-Feather. You are a strong and capable young woman and I am proud to have you as my granddaughter. If you had not joined us, had not spoken up and offered your help, I have no doubt we would have failed and lost everything to what opposes us.”
Kay smiled, her eyes shining brightly as love filled them up. Hugging her grandfather, she looked at James.
He nodde
d in silent agreement.
The properties of the fruit took hold, the portal coming into view. As James watched his friends enter the energy vortex, he silently vowed to return and finish what the old man and his black cloud started here tonight.
Epilogue
Four days had come and gone since James disappeared. The police were relentless in their questioning, and even though Danny stuck to his story of being knocked unconscious during his friend’s disappearance, he knew they weren’t entirely convinced of his honesty. But no matter how hard they tried to get him to reveal what he knew of what happened to James, they couldn’t get information from him regarding something he didn’t know anything about.
And now, during this round of questioning, they dropped a bombshell on him: James wasn’t the only member of the Mason family to go missing; Susan had also vanished around the same period of time. Of course, Danny wasn’t aware of this and his reaction must have shown that; they finished up their questioning shortly thereafter.
Danny exited the station, the police finished with him for the moment. The beautiful day in late June escaped his notice as he absorbed this new and somewhat ominous revelation. The fact both James and his mother disappeared couldn’t be a coincidence, but he also couldn’t see a connection, at least not yet.
Lost in thought, he descended the stairs to the parking spots lining the front of the station. Reaching his car, he heard his name over the din of the outside world.
“Danny. Hey, Danny. Can I speak with you?”
He glanced in the direction of the voice and was surprised to find James’s father standing on the sidewalk.
“Mr. Mason?”
“Hello, Danny. Can we talk?”
“Sure.” Danny thought the man looked different. His eyes were clear and sharp, his hair shorter than usual. Wearing a well-tailored suit and black shoes, he approached Danny with his hand extended.
“I need your help,” Mr. Mason said as they shook hands. “Can you help me find my wife and son?”
Look for the second installment of The Maiden Medallions saga coming early 2018.
But first, Evelynn’s adventure in Paris is revealed. Thieves in Paris – a novella, fall 2017.
Visit www.themaidenmedallions.com for release date info.
Contact Edward Shawn at [email protected]
Twitter: @EdwardShawnTMM
