Jack Templar and the Lord of the Demons (The Jack Templar Chronicles Book 5) (16 page)

“
T
est
?” I asked. “What do you mean?”

“All new arrivals to the Underworld face their greatest moment of guilt when they get here. It’s called the Sisyphean Test.”

A memory stirred of a classroom – what seemed like a million years earlier – when Mr. Yost had told us about the myth of Sisyphus.

“He’s the guy who has to roll the giant rock uphill. But every time he gets to the top, it rolls back down to the bottom and he has to do it all over again.”

“Forever,” Aunt Sophie said. “He has to do it over and over forever.”

I thought about how many times I’d tried to save Aunt Sophie only to be put back at the start when I failed.

“Why did you stop?” Aunt Sophie asked.

I met her eye. “Because I did the right thing,” I said. “You sacrificed yourself for me so that I could live and save others. I had to let go of the guilt. I had to forgive myself.”

Aunt Sophie opened her arms to me, and I stepped forward and hugged her. I didn’t care if it was some kind of dream or simulation or mind game, I hugged her as tight as I could, tears pouring down my cheeks.

“It’s really you, right?” I asked, choking back a sob.

“It’s really me,” she said. “As real as anything is in this place anyway.”

“But how? Are you trapped here?”

Aunt Sophie shook her head. “Not trapped,” she said. “I’m here by choice. A kindness from the Lord of the Demons.”

“I don’t understand,” I said.

“When Ren Lucre tried to destroy me, my Lord took it as an insult. He rescued the small part of me that remained, the demon-wolf who was born from this realm long before I learned to make chocolate chip cookies for movie night in Sunnyvale.” She looked at me seriously. “It was you who almost became trapped here. It is you who may come to be trapped here still if you aren’t careful.”

I looked around. It all looked so real. Everything was just as it had been in Sunnyvale. At the mention of chocolate chip cookies, the air filled with the toasty smell of a new batch baking in the oven.

After a few moments, she held me at arm’s length, tears on her own cheeks. “You can stay here if you want,” she said. “With me. In this house. It will feel odd at first, but your memory will build the world back around us. Eventually, you will forget it’s just an imitation. You’ll forget about monsters. About the Black Guard. About your quest for the Jerusalem Stones.”

I allowed myself a minute of imagining how it would be to erase the last year of my life and go back to a more simple time. Instead of fighting monsters and saving the world, my biggest worry would be making the sports team I wanted or getting the girl I liked to notice me. I could go back to how things had been before.

But I knew in my heart that it wasn’t even a consideration. Staying here meant leaving my friends to fend for themselves. It meant letting Ren Lucre win.

That wasn’t acceptable.

I looked at my Aunt Sophie, believing it was truly her. I looked right into her eyes and broke her heart by shaking my head no.

She smiled and wiped the tears from my cheeks. Then she pulled me into another hug. With her lips right next to my ear, she whispered quickly, “You can’t kill him, but a blow to the heart will stun him long enough for you to recover the Stone.”

I stiffened and pulled back from her, but she clutched me to her.

“Don’t react. There are eyes and ears everywhere. Just listen,” she said.

I nodded.

“If you’re successful,” she said quickly, her lips nearly touching my ear, “you’ll find the Stone in a small hidden drawer in the base of his throne. After that, you do whatever it takes to escape and fast, because Shaitan will come after you.”

She finally let me go, her kind face giving no indication she’d shared anything with me.

“Now go,” she said. “Find your friends and face your destiny.”

I squeezed her hand. “Thank you,” I said. “For everything. You were a great mom.”

I turned and walked away, afraid that if I stayed too long I would change my mind and never leave. As I walked toward the back of the yard, down by the pine trees, a door appeared out of nowhere. It opened on its own, and brilliant white light shone from it. Aunt Sophie called out from behind me.

“Good luck, Jack,” she said. “You’ll always be my little boy.”

I turned and waved, then walked down to the door and stepped into the light and right into …

… a dingy circular cave lit with torches. I spun around and saw a metal door behind me. I must have just stepped from it. There were five other doors. I considered that a good sign since I was missing five friends who I really wanted to see again.

One of the doors opened and T-Rex staggered out. He saw me and immediately ran over and tackled me. Two more doors opened, and Will and Xavier tumbled into the cave. They joined us, high-fiving and hugging. Xavier rifled through his backpack to make sure he hadn’t lost anything. We turned and looked at the last two doors, expecting Eva and Daniel to show up at any second.

A minute passed. Then another. As we waited, we shared our stories with each other. We’d all faced the same trial of reliving our most guilt-ridden moment and the same temptation to stay in a false world without the horrible event having ever happened.

T-Rex teared up as he talked about watching his grandmother being taken to a home the night he left for the Academy. But it was for her own safety, and he’d released himself from the guilt. Will talked about a time before his father lost his job and turned his anger at the world toward his own family. Will had lived for years thinking it was his fault somehow, but it just wasn’t true. He realized that now. Xavier shared the story of the night his parents were killed in a fire set by goblins. Nothing he could do would have saved them, and reliving it over and over proved that.

All of them had battled the offer to stay in the false world and relive a life without the tragedy. And each had felt the pull of duty that made him choose to leave and rejoin the group.

As we waited longer and longer for Daniel and Eva to appear, I finally voiced the fear all of us felt.

“Maybe they’re not coming,” I said softly, staring at the doors. I thought I knew the scene each of them would be reliving. Daniel’s would be the day Ren Lucre’s slave-werewolves tracked Daniel and his father and twin brothers down. Daniel escaped but the others did not. And Eva. There could only be one thing for her. It had to be the night that –

One of the doors opened slowly, the hinge creaking like a complaint. We all craned our necks to see who it was, to see who had made it through.

Eva walked out, tears streaming down her face. I ran up to her and hugged her.

“I couldn’t save them,” she cried. “I tried and tried.”

“I know,” I said. “It’s okay.”

“I didn’t want to leave,” she said. “I wanted to stay. I think I made a mistake.”

“It wasn’t a mistake. Because that wasn’t real, Eva. This is real,” I said.

She took a step back and said eight words that would stay with me forever.

“How do we know this world is real?” she asked.

I started to answer her, but the words didn’t come. I looked from face to face around the rest of our group for someone to give her the simple answer, but they each looked as confounded as I was.

We all startled as someone cleared his throat behind us. We turned, all of us still miraculously in possession of our weapons. It was a tall, lanky demon with pale skin and an elongated face that appeared permanently stretched into a scream. The really creepy thing was his glowing red eyes that seemed to float in their sockets. It was a demon-ghoul.

“The Lord of the Demons will see you know,” the demon-ghoul said formally.

I pointed back to the remaining door. “No, we’re waiting for one more.”

The demon-ghoul shook his head. “Daniel of the Northern Realm has made his choice. He will not be joining us. Please come this way.”

The demon-ghoul indicated a passageway behind him.

I hesitated, imagining Daniel back with his family. Seeing his younger brothers grow up into young men. Hunting with his father. Making a life. None of it was real, but it would be real to him. Eva’s words came back at me.

How do we know this world is real?

My impulse was to run to the door Daniel ought to have come from and pound on it, yelling his name, trying to force it open. But what gave me the right? Daniel had made his own decision. I had to respect it. Besides, who was I to say that perhaps I hadn’t made the same decision at some point and the world I was living in now wasn’t just a recreated fantasy?

How do we know this world is real?

I turned to the ghoul-demon and gave him a nod. “Show us the way. It’s time the Lord of the Demons and I finally met.”

T
he demon-ghoul
guided us through a twisting labyrinth of caves. I tried to keep track of the turns we took, but I soon lost count. A quick glance over my shoulder though, and I saw Xavier and Will each make a small mark on the wall at the intersection. It was a good sign that they were still thinking of this as a round trip adventure. I hoped we would have a need for their escape plan.

Finally, that passageway opened into a huge cavern unlike anything I’d ever seen before. The sheer scale, just like that of the gate and the Gatekeeper creach, made me feel like my brain was folding in on itself. The ceiling was hundreds of feet up and obscured by churning red clouds that flashed with sheet lightning almost continuously, making the clouds glow from inside. Thick columns of stone rose up from the floor all the way into this cloud layer like columns supporting the roof of a cathedral. Only this cathedral had no end, not one that I could see with my human eyes in any case. It just went on and on until the horizon curved away out of sight the way the ocean does on the high seas.

On the floor of the cavern, giant craters of molten lava glowed, illuminating the red dust that floated like mist, lighting the air but making it hard to breathe. In some places, small geysers of fire spouted from the floor, belching out with a sick sulfurous smell like a thousand rotten eggs.

Then there were the inhabitants of this miserable realm – demons of all kinds and shapes. Hundreds of them clustered right over our heads, floating in the air, their bodies semi-transparent. Others clung to the rock pillars like bats huddled together in a cave. These had long, gangly limbs but wrapped themselves in leathery wings. They opened their eyes as we passed, their red orbs burning with hate. Or maybe it was hunger? Either way, it made my skin crawl.

Others gathered near the lava pools in human form, wearing clothing from widely spread parts of human history. I saw a Roman soldier in full battle armor talking to a man in a three-piece business suit and a Zulu warrior. All of them looked caked with dried dirt, their human costumes torn and disheveled. As we passed, they turned to us, their eyes turning red as they bore into us.

It was interesting that we weren’t creating too much of a disturbance, not the way we had on entering the lair of the Lord of the Vampires or Werewolves. I guessed this place was somewhat used to new arrivals, creatures delivered to the Underworld for various reasons, both by choice and for punishment. Still, every demon we passed smoldered with hate and resentment as we passed. Then again, I didn’t exactly expect to find a welcome wagon waiting for us.

Then we heard muffled screams rising in the distance, carried to us over the stagnant air. It was a good reminder that this whole adventure could end badly. There wasn’t much time to dwell on that. As the demon-ghoul guided us around one of the largest pillars, we got our first view of the Lord of the Demons.

He stood with his back to us, but something unmistakably marked him as the lord of this realm. He turned as we approached and watched us closely.

The Lord of the Demons was in human form, although my experience with my Aunt Sophie was that demons were able to change their appearances as they wanted. The demon appeared to us wearing a simple armor made up of a breastplate, tunic, and covers that only went down to half his upper arm. He wore a helmet that was rounded on top and rose to a point, giving it a Far East look, as if he’d taken fashion tips from a samurai. Where the armor didn’t cover, the demon’s body was an odd mix of pale flesh and bone. On first look, I took him to be only a skeleton, but on closer look, I saw skin and meat on his body, but shrunken like he’d been dried out in the sun. His skin was the color of old bone.

The same was true of his face. Again, I thought I was looking at a skeleton at first, but there was more to him than just bone. If barely. The skin on his face was pulled and tight as if every bit of moisture had been drawn out. The facial bones stuck out, giving him a severe look. His nose was malformed, the cartilage there but unable to keep its proper shape.

Despite all this, the demon exuded strength. While there might not have been much in the way of muscle under the dried skin, his posture and movements showed smooth control of this body. I had a feeling he could have decided to appear before us with thick arms and glistening tan skin, but this creature felt no need to display power. He
was
power.

This was most apparent in the demon’s eyes. They glowed red, but not with the same glaring intensity that had greeted us so far on our walk through the Underworld. The Lord of the Demons regarded us with a softer light in his eyes, but light that pulsed with energy. I felt like I was standing next to an electric generator or next to some giant machine humming with ruthless efficiency. I knew from looking at those eyes that the Lord of the Demons would not be an easy adversary to overcome.

“Jack Templar,” Shaitan purred, his words rolling off his tongue. “I’ve been watching your exploits. I wondered when my turn would come for a visit.”

“If I knew you were waiting, I would have come sooner,” I said, going all in on the brave and cocky routine. Secretly, my legs were shaking so hard that I worried they might buckle.

Shaitan laughed. “I never met your father, but I heard he was brash and arrogant and had a habit of getting his friends killed.” His voice turned harsh. “I wonder if he’s still that way after thirteen years in Ren Lucre’s dungeon. I wonder if you will be after thirteen years in mine.”

“You’re not going to put me in your dungeon,” I said, trying to ignore the trickle of sweat dripping from my armpits. “Let’s not waste each other’s time with threats we don’t mean to keep.”

Shaitan’s eyes glowed brighter. “Careful with your tone, boy. This is my realm. My rules. I’ll do whatever my whim tells me.”

“And maybe that’s why you’re trapped down here,” I said. “It seems doing things on your whim has cost you your freedom.”

All I felt was a breeze against my face and suddenly Shaitan was behind me, his mouth pressed up against my ear. One of his bony hands grabbed my upper arm, locked onto it with the strength of a vice. “Who says I’m trapped here?” he snarled. “I ought to rip you limb from limb for the insult.”

“Or send me to Ren Lucre as he commanded you to do if I came here,” I said. “You know, follow your master’s orders.”

I winced from pain as his fingers dug into my skin. A chill spread up my arm toward my chest. The pain, the goosebumps, everything felt real. Telling myself that he couldn’t hurt me because my real body was stuck in that red lake didn’t help. I knew in my bones that any damage done to this body was as real as it needed to be. As if to hammer the point home, he squeezed tighter and I cried out in agony.

“You’re just a pathetic boy playing in a world more complicated and more powerful than anything you could possibly imagine,” Shaitan said. “It’s time to end this charade and put you and your friends out of your misery.”

The cold reached my chest. It was unlike anything I’d experienced before. It wasn’t exactly cold, not in temperature anyway, but it was like pure dread filling me, seeping into my bloodstream. Somehow I knew that once that terrible chill reached my heart, it would be something from which I would never recover. Instinct told me that if this body died, none of me would survive, not even my spirit.

“You could help me,” I whispered. “A world without Ren Lucre is a world you could rule.”

The chill stopped its advance. Shaitan moved slightly in front of me so that his glowing eyes hovered right before me. “I rule a world already.”

I saw Eva and Will poised to attack, but I held up my hand to still them. I knew it would do no good, even get them killed if they tried. No, the only way to get through this was going to be with our brains. Given that I was relying on my own smarts, I gave us a low chance of pulling it off. Still, it was our best and only shot.

“Yes, but someone of your power shouldn’t be locked away and told what to do even if you have been given all this to control.” I indicated the vast cavern of lava, fire, and red glowing clouds around us. “There shouldn’t be any limits to your glory.”

Shaitan released my arm, and I felt the chill withdraw from my body like a knife being pulled out from my skin.

“And why would you help me?” Shaitan asked. “You’re the last Templar. The Chosen One.” He laughed, clearly finding the idea ridiculous.

“I’ve been told that in a time long ago, an ancient time before there even was a Black Guard, before there was a war between man and monsters, that you were created and sent here,” I said.

“Not created,” Shaitan snapped. “I came into being because I willed it to be so.”

I bowed slightly. “Of course. But isn’t it true that a bargain was struck that gave you control of this realm, that you could send your demons to the surface, but that you yourself could not go there? This doesn’t seem fair for one as powerful as you.”

Shaitan turned his back to us and walked up to his throne. He took the steps up to the wide chair carved out of volcanic rock. It looked too large for his current form and reinforced my guess that he could choose how he appeared at will. He sat on the throne, his feet barely touching the ground.

“It’s true that I am more powerful and ancient than the others,” he said. “That I come from a power and a place beyond the comprehension of the likes of Ren Lucre or the other Creach Lords. Lords!” he spat. “That they give themselves such a title makes me want to crush them under my foot.”

In his anger, the demon’s legs grew longer, and he stamped the ground with his foot. It rumbled like thunder throughout the cavern.

I shared a look with Will, Eva, T-Rex, and Xavier. We all knew we were in real trouble. Shaitan was a force of nature. Escaping from this wasn’t going to be easy. Escaping with the Jerusalem Stone and getting back to our bodies frozen in the red lake seemed impossible.

“At least it can’t get much worse,” I whispered to my friends.

Then three figures stepped out from behind the throne, walked forward and took positions around their master. We all gasped in surprise when we recognized who they were.

“You were saying, Jack?” Will said.

He was right. Impossibly, things had suddenly gotten a lot worse.