“War,” the Biblical Horseman said, stretching his arms wide as he began to spin in a slow circle, looking like he was about to break out into a heartfelt musical number.
“And Peace,” Alucard added with an amused grin, pointing his finger up at the ceiling.
I hesitantly took a few more steps towards the darkness, and was almost instantly rewarded with more blue flames crackling to life. Just like before, a metallic clang reverberated from beneath newly illuminated statues, birthing new streams to flow into the center channel.
I pressed on towards the cavern’s entrance, choosing to take only cursory glances at the statues that emerged with each flare of light and clang of opening floodgates. The center channel grew wilder and louder with each step I took until all I could hear was the roar of a raging river that grew stronger with the unveiling of each new Temple ancestor. And I suddenly saw the symbolism in the cavern’s design. The blood—or stream—of each ancestor merging together until there was a singular, unstoppable force screaming out to reach the light—the open sky.
It was both chilling and inspiring.
Each statue revealed a similar fight or battle pose, but the armor or clothing would change depending on the historical and geographical fashions of their day. I saw ancestors who I recognized and many who I did not.
Those who I didn’t recognize could have stemmed from our origins in Europe. But even when I didn’t know their faces from the statues up in the mausoleum, I recognized their names from the roots of the family tree.
Roots, I thought to myself.
The answer had been right in front of me. Our names were on the roots, not the branches—in this cavern, not the mausoleum. Real strength came from your roots, not your accomplishments.
Accomplishments were the rewards, the trophies.
The roots were what earned you those accolades.
I shook my head as I continued to walk, realizing that I was grinning proudly.
The stream was now a deep, frothing, unstoppable force, seeming to shine like mercury in the glow from the blue torches. Where was all this water coming from, and why hadn’t the water from the pool in the mausoleum run dry yet? Opening up the slide must have unlocked another floodgate.
We were almost at the cavern’s entrance, and I could feel waves of heat from the open sky.
And that’s when I saw the statue of my parents. I skidded to a halt and stared, not having really thought about my parents being a part of this experience, even though it made obvious sense. They were standing back-to-back in front of a startlingly familiar cave in the Land of the Fae. They were cut and bleeding, screaming defiantly at unseen foes. They each held balls of flame in one hand and a sword in the other. A Fae arrow pierced my mother’s thigh, but you wouldn’t have known it from the ecstatic look on her face.
I was unable to move as I studied every feature of their faces. The cave in Fae behind them was perfectly accurate, not a boulder out of place. The cave where I had been born.
I saw the Hourglass hanging from my mother’s belt, and my knees suddenly felt weak. They had stolen it from the Fae Queens. But if the Hourglass was full of bone dust from our ancestors…
How did the queens ever get a hold of it?
My parents hadn’t been stealing it. They’d been retrieving it!
Holy shit. How did nobody know that?
War and Alucard stepped up beside me, staring at the statue in respectful silence.
“From nothing to nobility,” Alucard said, pointing at the wall behind my parents. The words were carved into the stone, and the Temple Crest stood just above it. I’d been so transfixed with the statue that I hadn’t even noticed the message.
I turned to look at the statue on the opposite side of the tunnel and saw another Crest with different words below.
“From Alpha to Omega,” I said, reading it out loud.
Seeing that we practically stood at the entrance, I walked towards the sky, eager to see where we were. The onslaught of water roared past me right over the edge of the cliff, forming a new waterfall.
I stared outward, shaking my head wondrously. We were on top of a huge mountain overlooking a valley of sizzling stone. Luckily, we were facing west with the rising sun on the opposite side of our mountain. Even still, it was hot enough to make my throat feel dry. I couldn’t imagine how it would feel in direct sunlight.
The waterfall I had accidentally birthed appeared to be the only water for miles in any direction. Perhaps even hundreds of miles.
As I stared down at the valley far below, I saw what looked like dozens of tiny figures pointing up at the waterfall, but it was hard to tell what they looked like since they stood in the shadow of the mountain.
I noticed movement and realized that just as many figures appeared to be fleeing from the new waterfall—
“Fucking Carl!” Alucard suddenly hissed, grabbing my shoulder and spinning me to the left.
Chapter 29
The ledge extended around the side of the mountain in a dusty, rocky, boulder-strewn path that gradually led down to the valley below. And sure enough…
Carl was no more than twenty feet away from us, dozing before…a giant white tree, like the one at Chateau Falco. Its roots clutched onto the side of the mountain like desperate fingers, refusing to let go for fear of plummeting down into the valley.
“Your family is seriously fucked up, Nate,” Alucard said, frowning at Carl. “Why isn’t he moving?” he asked uneasily.
A pit of dread settled in my stomach as I sprinted over to him. I knelt a safe distance away so that he didn’t kill me on instinct the moment he woke up and found a wizard looming over him. “Carl,” I murmured, wincing at the bloody bandages wrapped around his forearms. They weren’t a little bloody. They were a lot bloody, and the claws on his hand looked chipped and gouged, as if he’d used them to climb up the mountain. But he was breathing steadily through his nostrils—
I froze in horror. His mouth was sewn shut with what looked like silver wire. “What the fuck?” Alucard whispered, grimacing.
War had wisely taken up a defensive position, glaring down the path in case anyone else tried to join our party. Like all those people we had seen in the valley. Except I now realized that they hadn’t been people. They had been Elders. The Elder realm had been sitting under the Temple Mausoleum all this time, and I had never known.
I used my sleeve to wipe the sudden sweat from my brow, feeling like I was in a desert. The puncture wounds from the silver wire over Carl’s mouth didn’t look infected, and there was no fresh blood to speak of, so it wasn’t recent. “Carl,” I urged, cautiously shaking his clawed foot, wondering why he wasn’t waking up. How much blood had he lost, and why was he up here all alone?
I glanced over his shoulder at the tree and I blinked to see a familiar, bleeding hole in the trunk. A dozen broken blades littered the ground around him, looking like they’d been used to inflict the damage on the tree. I even noticed a few jagged, ivory splinters in the hole itself.
“Carl!” I hissed, louder, and I leaned closer to shake his shoulder. His eyes fluttered open dazedly and his nostrils abruptly flared.
I swiftly leaned away so as not to threaten him, and I let out a relieved gasp. He blinked rapidly, staring at me in bewilderment before suddenly averting his eyes from mine.
“It’s me, Carl. I found you.”
His shoulders trembled violently, and I realized he was overcome with emotion, but unable to open his mouth to speak. Instead, he let out a deep breath through his nostrils, his shoulders going slack as he sagged against the tree in a sign of exhausted victory.
And I watched a tear rolled down his scaled cheek.
“What happened, Carl?” Alucard whispered, pointing at his bandaged arms. “Are you okay?”
Carl nodded wearily. He clasped his palms together and held them to the side of his head like a pillow, closing his eyes theatrically. “Tired? You’re tired?” I asked.
He nodded firmly, lowering
his hands.
I slowly reached my hand up towards his face, speaking calmly, “I’m going take this crap off, Carl. You don’t have to be scared. We’ll get you out of here—”
He ducked his head and rapidly scooted away from my touch before climbing to his feet and holding out his hands in a panicked gesture that said stop. Seeing that we had understood, Carl shook his head and clapped his fist to his heart like a salute. Then he tapped his lips and nodded firmly.
I blinked at him, not understanding his explanation. The don’t touch my kickass braces message was loud and clear, though.
Carl’s chest, I suddenly realized, was also decorated with over a dozen shallow gashes, all looking old enough to have begun healing over with fresh white scales. He’d taken a beating recently, but he was still here. “Are you being punished?” I asked, confused. “Is that why you’re up here?”
His nostrils flared and his eyes narrowed dangerously as he stared at the ground. Then he clapped his fist to his chest even harder, like some kind of military salute.
“He feels honored,” War suddenly said, cocking his head thoughtfully. “I think he considers this a duty. Or a traditional penance?” he added, finally shrugging. “I’m just guessing here.”
Carl thought about that for a moment and then shook his head, obviously frustrated. I had a sudden thought. “Is there some other way you can communicate with us? Through my mind, maybe?” I asked, remembering his people had an affinity for mind magic of some flavor.
He nodded uneasily, so I stepped forward, motioning for him to try. He stepped back, making me halt. Then he slowly lifted a claw to point in my general direction, and shook his head.
Why wasn’t he making eye contact with me?
Alucard stepped up. “I volunteer as tribute,” he said with mock solemnity, quoting the girl from The Hunger Games.
Carl whipped out a bone sword I hadn’t noticed hanging from his belt, and he did it faster than I’ve ever seen, lifting it high overhead as if to decapitate Alucard—who suddenly looked like he’d dropped some cargo in his pants, jumping back with a panicked shout and a feral hiss.
I quickly lunged between them, holding up my hand. “Stop, Carl! It was an expression,” I explained.
The moment I jumped between them, Carl had dropped his sword and darted back from me, crouching and dropping his gaze in shame. What the hell was wrong with him?
I blinked down at him and then risked a look at War. He was scratching his head in confusion. “Is he always like this?”
“No,” I said—at the same time that Alucard said, “Yes!”
War looked from me to Alucard, even more confused. “Your team needs to learn some Yoga or something. You guys need to calm the fuck down every once in a while, if this kind of shit is normal.”
I sighed before turning back to the Elder. “It’s okay, Carl. Alucard was offering to let you communicate with him—”
“Not the fuck anymore!” Alucard snapped. “The lizard just tried to kill me!”
Carl’s tail began to whip back and forth, not appreciating Alucard’s tone.
“See what I mean?” War suggested helpfully. “Yoga.”
I ignored him, crouching down before Carl. His body went rigid and I could tell that he wanted nothing more than to get away from me. I used two fingers to gently lift his chin, but he kept his eyes averted, his nostrils flaring like a panicked horse. It was almost as if he’d lost what little domestication he’d gained from me over the years. “Hey. It’s only us, buddy,” I said soothingly, hoping to calm him down. “I don’t know what you’ve been going through since you left, but we’re here now. Why don’t you try talking to Alucard? I’ve gone through some…changes recently,” I explained. “The whole mind-talk thing doesn’t work on me like it used to.”
Carl nodded stiffly, still refusing to make eye contact with me. I straightened and took a few steps back, gesturing with my hand for him to proceed. “Thank you, Alucard,” I said in a tight, warning tone. “It is so helpful of you to do this.”
War chuckled at the dark look Alucard shot my way. “No swords this time,” he demanded.
Carl stretched to his full height and approached Alucard with his sharp claws outstretched, showing no timidity as he locked eyes with the vampire. Alucard looked suddenly less certain about his decision, but he stood his ground as Carl set his claw on Alucard’s shoulder, staring deep into his eyes.
Alucard’s face suddenly went slack and he sucked in a sharp breath. Carl simply stepped back, dipping his chin at Alucard and clasping his hands behind his back.
Alucard blinked several times, staring at Carl as if at a ghost.
Then he slowly turned to me. “Um. I…can hear him now. For a second there, it felt like he was scraping a claw across my brain, but…it didn’t hurt,” he tried to explain, shaking his head. “I think he established some kind of bond.”
Carl nodded.
Alucard turned to look at him thoughtfully before turning back to me. “He doesn’t want to talk about it, but he’s adamant about joining our party.”
War grunted. “Party,” he said flatly.
“What do you mean he doesn’t want to talk about it? About his wounds? What he’s been doing since he left? His parents? Why he’s bleeding, or why his mouth is sewn shut?” I demanded, listing a handful of topics that we definitely should be talking about. “Which one does he not want to talk about?”
Alucard licked his lips uncertainly. “Yes. All of that,” he said. “Look, I’m just the messenger. I can’t read his mind or anything. He’s like a voice in my ear or something.”
I studied Carl, folding my arms, assessing the whole situation. Starlight had said the Elders were at the bottom of a well, praying. That they had answers but were scared of the questions. Had he been referring to this? Because it was obvious that Carl didn’t want to hear questions, and the pool that had brought me here was kind of like a well…
The rest of Starlight’s comment whispered in my ears.
Chains gave them freedom. Independence gave them banishment. Their temples grew dark and drafty, their prayers unanswered when their masters abandoned them.
Was that what the wire on his lips represented? Some kind of figurative symbol?
Because the Elders sure seemed to know my ancestors, even placed a shrine on the top of their mountain to worship them. And that cavern of Temple ancestors had definitely been dark and abandoned. And Carl looked like he had been working on some kind of ritual here by the tree, or maybe standing guard for something.
“Were you waiting for me?” I asked Carl.
He nodded slowly, keeping his eyes lowered.
“He’s scared to talk to you,” Alucard said uneasily. “He’s been waiting for a while. He saw Thor break the tree,” he explained, “but he couldn’t reach through the hole to help,” Alucard said, pointing at the bloody hole in the tree.
I blinked incredulously. “It’s the same tree?”
Alucard was silent for a moment. “It’s an anchor. A Gateway of some kind, but it’s not active. They’ve been waiting for the waterfall to come back. It’s very, very important, but he won’t explain why,” Alucard said, glancing over his shoulder. He turned back and smirked crookedly. “And that’s all from the Fucking Carl podcast. No more questions.”
I muttered under my breath. “Grab your weapons, Carl. We were about to go pick a fight. Maybe that will snap you out of…whatever this is.”
“Oh, he liked that,” Alucard said, shuddering. “Too much, in my opinion.
Carl, for his part, had shown absolutely no emotional reaction to my words. Instead, he walked over towards a nearby boulder and pointed behind it.
“Um. You need to hand them to him,” Alucard said, frowning in confusion.
“What?”
“He won’t touch them until you do,” Alucard said. “You have to give them to him.”
“He had no problem holding a sword a minute ago,” I muttered.
Alucard sho
ok his head. “That was different. That was intended for the tree. He only raised it against me because he thought I wanted him to—” he scowled incredulously at Carl. “What the fuck, Carl? You thought I wanted you to decapitate me?” he demanded.
Carl nodded, shrugging his shoulders. War burst out laughing.
Alucard folded his arms, shaking his head. “Whatever,” he muttered. “Anyway, the weapons back there are for murder. Only murder. They are weapons of war.”
I sighed, deciding that it was easier to just go along with it. I walked over and glanced behind the boulder. Sure enough, I found a belt loaded with blades and two long swords—as well as a shoulder harness carrying a ridiculously large number of daggers. They had been back there for quite some time, judging by the thick coating of dust. Carl hadn’t worn them for…months, it looked like.
I scooped them up and unceremoniously tossed them to Carl, feeling ridiculous. “Prepare for war, Carl.” Even though he was unable to speak, I suddenly recalled how absolutely terrified most gods were of him. He was ruthless with his blades as well, so this accidental detour might have made my negotiations with Loki a lot simpler.
Carl dipped his head, his tail twitching back and forth like a dog wagging his tail after thinking he heard the word walk. He strapped on his belt and harness with swift familiarity and a hungry sigh of anticipation.
I turned to Alucard, shaking my head and wiping more sweat from my brow. “Remember when we used to call you Alu-Carl?” I asked, smirking. “Good luck ever getting rid of that nickname now.”
I heard him muttering darkly under his breath as I walked past him towards the cavern.
“We’re leaving?” War asked, sounding surprised.
I didn’t turn to look as I continued on, nearing the waterfall. “Nope. We’re going down to the valley,” I said sarcastically. “I just want to ride the waterfall because it looks faster.”
“Maybe we should explore!” War argued, not appreciating my tone.
“Carl says that the valley is certain death,” Alucard cut in. “The sun here would burn us alive. Literally. And judging by how much Nate is already sweating, I don’t doubt it.”
Ascension: Nate Temple Series Book 13 Page 18
