Guardian: Darkness Rising (14 page)

This revelation distracted Thomas
for a second, causing James’s sword to make contact with his chest
– luckily, the blade bounced off on Thomas’s metal chest armour,
but still came down hard enough to send the Brit staggering
backward a few steps.

“
If this is how you want to play
it, then so be it,” Thomas grunted through gritted teeth and
charged for his first attack; James dodged the first swing of
Thomas’s blade, but the second sliced the fabric of his dark blue
tunic, missing the skin by less than half a centimetre or
so.

Thomas dodged and caught James’s attack with
his own sword; he used the same technique as he’d always done back
when he had fencing practice with his father. He flicked his wrist
and turned his sword, basically forcing James to drop his
own.

Thomas struck. The blade found flesh, piercing
James’s side; he dropped to his knees, tried to stand, but had to
drop down again.

“
I hope that next time, you’ll
think twice before attacking me,” Thomas said, his blade lifting up
James’s head by the chin. The pointy end of the blade pricked James
in the throat; this was clearly an uncomfortable
feeling.

The expression in James’s red eyes had
changed; apathy had made way for hatred. “Don’t worry,” he coughed.
“I will. Next time, I’ll attack when you don’t see me
coming.”

“
Then I will be waiting,” Thomas
said, withdrawing his blade and disregarding James. “Come on,” he
said to his friends. “We’re wasting our time here.”

“
Then what can we do to make this
visit worth your while?” a voice asked, causing Thomas and the
other Guardians to instantly spin on their heels.

While the Guardians were attending to James,
the Master had appeared behind them. The adult Guardians instantly
got into a defensive stance, raising their weapons, ready to
attack, but the Master didn’t seem impressed.

“
Oh, please,” he sighed. “Make
yourself no illusions. You know those weapons won’t do
anything.”

“
Perhaps we can’t kill you, but at
least we can hurt you plenty,” Antonio spat, “which is almost just
as good.”

“
Now now, Antonio,” the Master
said, “I was hoping to have a friendly conversation with you.
But...” he grinned. “I guess I was wrong.”

In the meantime, James had got back up on his
feet, and was now standing directly behind the Guardians. His side
was still bleeding, and the red glow in his eyes was burning with
anger.

But as soon as James raised his
sword, preparing to attack, the Master raised his hand. “James,
here,” he commanded. James did as he was told; the Guardians let
him pass by them without doing anything. Thomas threw the Master an
angry glare.

“
The fact that
you’re using James like this only proves your cowardice,” Thomas
spat. “You’re too
afraid
to face us head-on.”

“
Am I?” the Master said, his grin
growing broader. He then spread his arms, saying, “come on,
Bennett. Do your worst.”

The Master didn’t have to tell Thomas twice.
He dove forward, intending to attack the Master, but was caught
off-guard the loud CLANG of metal against metal. James had
intervened.

“
James-!” Thomas shouted,
wrinkling his nose. “You’re only proving my point. Your master is a
coward for using you as a shield!”

The Master laughed, and pushed
James aside; this happened with such a force that the sword James
was holding got flung out of his hands. The man himself ended up
beside it, missing the blade’s sharp edge by a
centimetre.

“
It’s just you and me, then,”
Thomas growled at the Master.

But the Master had other plans.

The Master aimed his staff at Thomas, just as
he was lashing out at the Master again. A burst of red light shot
out of the staff’s orb, freezing both Thomas and his blade just
before impact.

“
Oops,” the
Master said. “And now I’m only proving my point. Your weapons. You.
Nothing can hurt or defeat me, because you can’t even come close
enough to do so much as
touc
h me.” He flashed a dangerous
grin. “But what happens when
I
touch
you
, Bennett?”

The Master took a step forward, and touched
Thomas’s hands, which were still holding the sword floating in
mid-air. As soon as the Master touched them, they turned to stone –
and so did the rest of Thomas.

The Guardians made protesting sounds – Antonio
even had to pull Samira back into place – but the Master paid them
no mind. Instead, he turned to face James. “Get up,” he commanded.
“Go do what I told you to.”

James quickly got up, grabbed his sword, bowed
at the Master and dissolved into the shadows of the night. He was
gone.

“
Well, that’s that,” the Master
said. “As for me... Before I leave and see to it that James is
performing the task I gave him correctly, I must do
something.”

The Master followed the lines of
Thomas’s stone shoulders with his fingertips. “Remember what I
said, twenty-five years ago? That I’d keep the lot of you as stone
trophies?”

He flashed a grin. “That’s exactly what I’m
about to do now.”

One pound on the ground with his staff was
enough. Samira, Bella, and Antonio turned to stone within moments.
“I can’t have the lot of you stand in my way again.”

The six teenagers that remained, were shocked.
What were they supposed to do?

“
Let that be a lesson,” the Master
taunted the teenagers. “Don’t stand in my way. This is not a game
for children.”

The Master then disappeared, and
so did the four Guardians’ statues.

Luke disagreed with the Master. This was
certainly their game – because they weren’t children. The game was
on, and Luke and his friends were ready to play.

II

The
Game

The
Flight

The Bond of Light had to flee the Land of
Light as fast as possible. The quicker they’d be gone, the bigger
their chance to get to the Silver Valley unharmed would
be.

As soon as the teenagers caught up
with the three remaining Spirits and told them what had happened,
the Spirits promised they’d guide the Guardians to the border of
the Land of Light without leaving their side.

“
Just one question,” Felicity said
after a while. “Why didn’t we just go back and perform the Ritual?
We could’ve done it easily.”

“
When are you
kids going to listen?” Aharnish said, slightly irritated. “You lot
haven’t had any kind of training or experience, and your
parents
are missing
– which leaves us without anyone who can perform the
Ritual.”

“
I disagree,” Luke said. “We
could’ve done it. The five – or six – of us.”

“
No,” Aine said. “Aharnish is
right; you couldn’t have. The five of you might be the new
Generation, but you only have a quarter of your parents’
magic.”

“
So you’re
telling us the book needs to...
recharge
magic?” Tony said,
chuckling silently at how stupid that actually
sounded.

Aharnish shrugged. “Its energy drains,” he
said. “Listen. We’re new to this too. We’ve never had two
generations within the same century.”

“
We understand,” Marco nodded.
Aharnish smiled.

“
We just have to figure out what
the deal is with you lot, I guess.”

“
The ‘deal’?” Tony said. “What do
you mean?”

“
The ‘deal’ is whether you’ve got
magical abilities or not,” Aoife said, before her brother could say
anything. “We still haven’t had any opportunity to test
that.”

“
We had plenty
of opportunity,” Luke said. “But no one thought of it until now.
And now we
don’t
have time.”

“
...Exactly,” Aharnish said, while
scratching the back of his neck. “That’s another way you can put
it, I guess.”

“
My sister and I
can help you with your training,” Violina said, “but in order to do
that, we’ll have to get there first.
Safely.

“
And...”

“
And what?” Felicity
said.

“
My sister and I haven’t spoken in
a while,” Violina said. “I believe I mentioned it earlier – she’s
fallen under a spell. I had to flee the kingdom.”

Daisy placed a hand on Violina’s
shoulder. “Don’t worry,” she said, “we’ll help you lift that curse.
No matter what.”

Violina looked at her and
chuckled. “You’ll have to,” she said with a teasing smile. “We’re
going to need my sister’s help if we want Mari’s condition to
better again.”

“
Speaking of Mari,” Daisy said,
“how are you?”

“
Fine, I guess,” Mari mumbled. She
was leaning on Luke’s shoulder as they walked – after all, her
father was no longer there to carry her. Her face was pale,
contrasting greatly with the dark, black veins that peeked from the
sides of her face. “I’m just feeling a little – dizzy. But I’ll
manage.”

“
How are we going to get to the
Silver Valley, actually?” Luke said, giving Mari a worried glance.
“I don’t see her walking all the way.”

“
We don’t have to,” Violina said;
they’d arrived at the bridge near the Land of Light’s border.
Violina clapped her hands, causing a small whistle to appear; as
she blew it, no sound seemed to come out.

“
What was the point in that,
exactly?” Daisy said. Violina raised her hand, indicating that she
had to be quiet.

“
Just watch.”

And they didn’t have to wait long;
they had been standing there hardly two minutes when suddenly, four
silver shapes appeared in the sky.

“
Glimmer!” Violina said proudly.
And it was indeed the silver dragon, now all grown-up (for as
‘grown up’ a dragon can become, at least).

...Which meant that she was now nearly twice
as big as she had always been before.

She had brought along three other dragons that
looked similfar to her – they were probably her new
family.

“
There’s our ride,” Violina said,
as she walked forward to pet Glimmer. “Don’t worry. They know
exactly where to take us.”

“
I hope so,”
Marco said, obviously unsure of whether riding a dragon would be a
good idea or not – despite the fact that the idea of doing
so
did
quite
intrigue him.

“
Don’t worry, Marco,” Aharnish
said, “these dragons can be trusted. Aine, Aoife and I will go on
to the barrier by foot – I suggest the lot of you fly to the top of
the mountain and solve things out from there – heading straight to
the Silver Valley might be dangerous.”

Luke nodded. “Got it.”

Obviously, the teenagers had their doubt about
getting on these dragon’s backs. However, after considering that
one of the dragons had helped their parents (and thus didn’t eat
any of them), getting on seemed to become easier.

At last, everyone had found seat on either of
the four dragons’ backs, and they were ready to take
off.

“
Alright, Glimmer,” Violina said,
“just follow me; I’ll lead the way.” She’d hardly even finished her
sentence before launching off into the night sky – despite the fact
that it was impossible to tell it was night-time due to the dark
clouds hanging overhead.

*

“
My Lord, I would like to
apologise for my failure earlier.”

James had returned to the Master’s
castle and reported that he had succeeded in placing the curse. The
Master didn’t appear to mind the fact that the redhead had let the
Guardians initially slip through his fingers too much, however,
which seemed to mildly surprise his servant.

“
It was merely a
case of bad luck,” the Master said slowly. “
Very
unfortunate,
indeed.”

“
What are you thinking about, My
Lord?” James said as he got up from his kneeling position. “You
sound as if you’re up to something.”

“
I am, James,” the Master said.
“Indeed, I am. You’re a clever man.”

James didn’t make a remark
regarding that compliment – probably because he wasn’t sure whether
it was truly heartfelt or not -, but made a suggestion
instead.

“
Would you like me to go after
them, My Lord?”

The Master raised his hand. “No,”
he said. “Leave them. They’re only children. Just let them go and
do their... business.

“
I can deal with them myself
later. Without anyone but the Fixie girl to guide them, they’ll be
an easy prey.”

James refused to take ‘no’ for an
answer; at least, not without at least
some
kind of explanation. “But why
won’t you let
me
take care of them, My Lord?” he said, trying to pry
information from his master. “Are you afraid I will fail you
again?”