Guardian: Darkness Rising (13 page)

*

Samira and Thomas had left the
Dark Castle in such a rush, that they hadn’t considered in which
direction they were actually headed – but apparently, they were
headed the right way, as they ran into Bella, Antonio and the three
remaining Spirits not too far from where they’d left off. They
seemed rather shaken by the sudden change the Land of Light had
undergone.

“
What happened?” Bella said
worriedly as she saw the trio approaching. “The Land of Light has
gone dark again. Were you guys at the Dark Castle? What did you
find?”

“
I think it’s better if we ask one
question at a time,” Aharnish said. “And... I think we’d better
save them for when we get back to our own safe haven. It’s not safe
out here.”

“
But what about James?” Antonio
protested. He noticed that Samira took a step back, shaking her
head. “What’s wrong, Sam?”

“
He won’t... he... won’t...”
Samira whispered, trying to admit the fact that her brother had
been overtaken by evil, but she simply couldn’t. She turned to her
left and buried her face in her husband’s chest.

“
...James won’t be coming,” Thomas
said quietly. “The Master got him. There’s nothing we can do for
him now.

“
As for Luke, he got critically
hurt, so we had Akilah and Ince rush him back to the Light
Castle.”

Aoife gave Samira and Thomas a sad, yet
encouraging smile. “We’ll see about that,” she said softly. “We’re
more powerful than you think... despite having our limits. But,
Aharnish is right: before we take any actions, we should get back
to the others. They’re probably worried.”

Aoife wasn’t wrong. When the group returned to
the Castle of Light, they found Violina in a frantic situation –
and not just because the Land of Light had gone dark.

“
Oh, I’m so glad you came back,”
the lady Fixie said to Aharnish, her face looking flushed and
worried. “Luke’s doing fine, his wound has stopped bleeding – but
Mari really needs your help.”

Antonio’s expression instantly turned. “Take
me to her,” he said. “What happened to her?”

Violina shook her head. “I wish I knew,” she
said.

Antonio rushed after Violina,
followed closely by the three Spirits. Something had happened to
Mari, obviously something bad – but
what
?

Violina led them into the room Mari had
resided for the past day, where the girl lay still in her
bed.

The sight was horrifying; Mari’s brown hair
was tangly and messy, her face pale. Black veins had started to
spread to the sides of her head. Felicity and Daisy were sitting on
chairs at each sides of the bed with worried faces. Marco and
Anthony were sitting in the back of the room.

“
What happened to her?” Antonio
said, as he sat down on his daughter’s bedside.

“
I wish I knew,” Violina said. Her
eyes were lowered and her hands rested on her stomach. “There was
nothing I could do.”

“
There’s nothing much you could’ve
done,” Aine said quietly while carefully examining Mari. “The
sudden change of the atmosphere in the Land of Light has allowed
the darkness inside Mari to spread too fast. We need to get her
away from this place first before we can begin healing
her.”

“
I’m afraid we won’t be
accompanying the Guardians in that mission, Aine,” Aoife, who had
been looking out the window, suddenly said. “The barrier won’t hold
much longer.” She turned around and beckoned her brother.
“Aharnish, we must do something.”

Aharnish nodded at his sister; he
knew exactly what she meant. The darkness would eventually manage
to slip through the cracks, causing it to get out of control and
leaving Lunaria lost once again.

“
Very well,” Aarnish said,
indicating that all Guardians had to listen. “This is the plan:
Aoife, Aine and I will go with you to the edge of the Land of
Light, where you will go on and we will stay behind to strengthen
the barrier.”

“
But where should we go?” Samira
said as she nervously tapped her feet. “Where does Mari have the
best chance of survival?”

“
Aside from the Land of Light,
magic is the strongest in the Silver Valley,” Violina suggested.
“But I doubt that we can make it there in time.”

“
We’ll just have to risk it,” Luke
insisted; nobody had noticed him stumbling into the room until he
spoke. His head was bandaged. “Mari needs help; we can’t let her
waste away like this.”

“
Luke,” the redhead heard Marco
say, “dude, let’s put this whole thing realistically. That Dark
Lord out there wants us dead – I doubt we’d make it out of here in
one piece, even if we tried.”

Daisy gave Marco a sideways glance, but then
looked Thomas dead in the eye. “They did,” she said, referring to
the four confused adults in front of her. “Twenty-five-years ago.
So... why couldn’t we do it again?”

“
We
, huh, kid?” Antonio let out a sad
chuckle. “Yeah... about that. Things were different back then,
Daisy. I hate to break it to you, but let’s face it: you don’t know
the slightest thing about the way things work in this world. At
least we had two weeks to figure it out before we ended up
here.”

“
Does it really matter?” Anthony
suddenly said as he stood up; his blue eyes met his father’s, but
he ignored Thomas and kept on talking anyway. “You guys will be by
our side when we’re out there at all times. You can teach us about
the dangers that lurk out there. We’re stuck here until the Master
is defeated anyway; so we might as well just help out as much as we
can.”

Felicity’s head turned into her little
brother’s direction as he spoke; he hadn’t thought Tony would ever
be able to stand up like that, and she felt proud at him for doing
so.

“
I must say that I have to agree
with Tony,” Violina said. Her silverish-blue eyes had a mischievous
sparkle due to the rather peculiar lightning. Both her hands rested
on her hips. “I can stand in for James. The ten of us can take Mari
to the Silver Valley. What’s important right now, is that we stay
together.”

Thomas looked at his friends to see what their
opinions on the situation were, when he suddenly felt a slender
hand touching his shoulder.

“
I think we should just do it,”
Samira said. She gave her husband an encouraging smile, which
apparently hit its target.

“
Fine, then,”
Thomas decided. “But the five of you stay close to us at all times,
and you do exactly
what
we tell you to,
when
we tell you
to.”

The faces of the five teenagers lit up. “Don’t
worry,” Tony said, “we’ll do anything you say.”

“
Well then, what are we waiting
for?” Aine said. “We’ve got to hurry.”

Antonio and Luke helped Mari to get to her
feet while Aoife, Aine and Aharnish went ahead. If they left now,
there was a slight chance that the entire Bond of Light would make
it out of the Land of Light by sunrise. Timing was critical at this
moment.

However, the Bond of Light had hardly set foot
outside the castle before finding themselves surrounded.

Pitch black, seemingly human mist
creatures with soulless, blood red eyes floated around the Bond of
Light, staring at them in an eerie fashion.

“
What are those?” Luke asked his
aunt and uncle, who both shook their heads; these were shadow
creatures they’d thus far been yet to encounter.

“
These are Night
Stalkers, a personal creation of mine,” a surprisingly cold, yet
familiar voice said. “I remember these creatures once being
mentioned to me, but I have never actually
seen
one... So, I thought, why not
make them myself?”

It was James. The Stalkers floated aside,
allowing the red-haired man to become visible to the Bond of Light.
Two Shadow Walkers accompanied him in wolf form.

“
Hello, Guardians,” James spoke,
all emotion absent from his voice. “It’s nice to finally meet
you.”

“
James!?” Bella exclaimed. “What
happened to you?”

“
I’ve been meaning to tell you...”
Samira said quietly, but James interrupted her.

“
Do we know each other?” he
insinuated. “I am sorry, Ma’am, but you appear to have mistaken me
for someone else.” He stroke the head of one of the Shadow Walkers
that was standing beside him as he spoke.

“
You’re playing
with us, right, mate?” Antonio said, with an anxious chuckle
hinting about in the tone of his voice. “You
do
remember us, but you just hate us
because of what that emo wizard did to you.”

“
Hate is such a strong emotion,”
James stated, “of which I feel very little. I remember none of your
faces, nor do I feel anything but apathy regarding you. I’m just
simply doing as I was told.”

“
That doesn’t sound like the James
we know,” Thomas said slowly, but James didn’t respond in any way
other than with a teasing smile.

“
Then perhaps I’m not the James
you all seem to be taking me for.”

Thomas crossed his arms. “I doubt
it,” he said “The Master just
really
did a number on you this
time, that’s all.”

“
As I already told you,” James
said, slightly spreading his arms, “I am just doing as I was told.
And I was told to keep you from crossing the border to the other
Realms – and to collect her.”

James pointed at Mari, who was
leaning on Luke. The Stalkers instantly took her from Luke’s side,
but Luke responded by pulling out his glowing sword and angrily
cutting – or, well, as close as it came to cutting – the Stalker
that had grabbed his friend to bits.

“
Mr Bellucci,” Luke insisted,
“please keep her safe. They’ll keep coming for her.”

Antonio, who had been insisting on carrying
his daughter all along (but hadn’t been allowed to do so by
Aharnish and Thomas because they’d probably need him in a fight if
it came to it), agreed more than happily. He allowed Mari to lean
on him as he shielded her with both his body and glaive. There was
no way these monsters would be taking his daughter from him
again.

“
Dad, why are you doing this!?”
Luke yelled at his father. “Please, stop!”

“
What did you
call me?” James said, seemingly pitying Luke. “You think I’m
your
father
?

“
Oh, you silly boy.”

As James continued to speak, Luke
couldn’t believe his ears; he felt his heart break as he heard the
man in front of him, the man he’d called his father just a moment
ago, say without any sign of emotion in his voice, “I don’t
have
a son. If I did, I
think I would’ve been able to remember him, now don’t you
think?”

Luke didn’t know what to say. He
just stared at his father, completely baffled. What
was
he supposed to say,
after all? His own
father
had just denied that he knew him.

Luke wouldn’t allow it to affect
him
too
much,
however; this wasn’t his father talking about him. This was the
darkness that had overtaken him.

“
This isn’t you,
James,” Samira said, somehow completely in sync with Luke’s
thoughts. “Don’t you recognize us?
Any
of us?”

James sighed in exasperation. “You’re wasting
both our time, lady.” He commanded the Stalkers to separate Mari
and Antonio from the group; at that exact moment, Thomas decided it
was enough.

He drew his sword and lashed out at the
Stalkers that were standing between him and Antonio, causing them
to dissolve as soon as the glowing blade passed through
them.

“
JAMES!” Thomas
bellowed, while pointing his sword at his former friend’s throat.
“That’s enough. You’re either or letting us pass, or I’ll
make
you let us
pass.”

“
Are you
threatening
me?” James
said slowly, the tone of his voice drastically changing as he
spoke.

Thomas shrugged, without lowering
his sword. “Yeah,” he said. “Maybe I
am
.”

“
Very well,”
James said slowly, while reaching for his sword. But, to everyone’s
surprise, the blade wasn’t glowing as James took it out of its
scabbard - but black smoke seemed to be coming from the now jet
black blade. “Let’s
dance
, Guardian.”

James charged forward; Thomas
dodged his opponent’s sword agilely, while yelling at the others to
get back somewhere safe.

He had no intention of killing James, but if
he had to, he wouldn’t hesitate to do so. He felt stings of anger
toward himself as soon as the thought came up in his head, but he
had to think of his family first – the family that wasn’t on the
Master’s side.

Clang.
The sound of two metal blades meeting was heard several times
– Thomas thought back of the time when he and James had fought,
trying to figure out a way to defeat him – and suddenly realised
that this was the
exact same place
as back then.