Joshua and the Lightning Road (14 page)

“If only what?”

“If only I’d inherited my mother’s talent.” He put the instrument to his lips and blew a horrid squeak that rattled my insides. Then he handed me the flute. “It seems part of you is from this world. Would you just try?”

He seemed so sad there was no way to tell him that I couldn’t play an instrument. Maybe my equally awful squawk would lighten the moment.

So, for Sam—and for Charlie’s continued entertainment—I took the flute and blew across its tubes. No one was more surprised than me when a melody flew out. A new force filled me up and pushed my fear and anxiety away. My lips raced back and forth on the smooth wood, changing the pitch, playing an unfamiliar song. Yellow butterflies floated down through the mist. One landed on the flute, and I quickly handed it back at Sam, who had a tear running down his face.

“You called to them, Joshua. They hide in the treetops. They only come out when a flute player calls them. Like my mom could.”

“Perhaps you have two relatives from different Nostos realms, Joshua. The Lost Realm and the Arrow Realm,” Leandro said. “They could have carried both their land’s ancient power and passed them on to you. Your grandfather has some connection to our world. It seems you do, too.” Then he added in a more serious tone. “And I would keep that a secret here.”

“Why?” I said.

“If Hekate finds out, she may target you for more than an energy slave. She may want to use your double power for evil.”

Sam nodded. “She thrives on power, hers and others.”

Power didn’t call me. Home did. And that brought with it a memory. “When the Child Collector took me, he smelled familiar, and I don’t know why.”

“Maybe he tried to take you as a young child and you don’t remember,” Sam said.

My heart seemed to clench itself and release with Sam’s words. If the Child Collector had tried to kidnap me before, then why didn’t he succeed?

We needed to move on, but all this information swelled in my head and I still needed more to survive here. “I bet you’re sorry for following me, right, Charlie?” I said, banging a fist to a tree trunk so hard its bark chipped off.

“
Non
.” He shook his head fast, black bangs flopping back and forth. “I could have died in that pit or at the power mill. You got me out of there. Like some kind of hero. The only one I’m a hero to is my brother. Everyone else thinks I’m uncool.”

“Not me.”

“Yeah, well even my dad doesn’t think I’m cool.” He picked at a hole in his shirt.

“You faced all this danger to get back to your brother. That’s heroic and pretty cool. Your dad would think so.”

He shook his head again and looked at his feet, but a smile flickered across his face, and all those times I’d wanted so badly to fit in with the cool kids didn’t seem important. Being kind and a good friend and a good brother was way more cool.

And with that thought, something else occurred to me. “Leandro, your wife was from Earth, so your son could be the Oracle.”

He inhaled sharply. “I’ve carried that hope in my heart, and along with it the belief that someone powerful sensed he was the Oracle and took him, to use him or … ”

“To stop him?” Sam said.

Leandro swallowed hard with a small nod. “Someone who didn’t want the gods to have their power back.”

“Like Hekate?” I said.

“Yes. Someone like her wants all the power for herself.” And fear filled me in knowing that having such abilities not only came with great power, but with great duty and danger. “No Oracles have been recorded in history. I suspect there were some, but they, too, disappeared. Perhaps by a royal.”

“Why?” I looked at Leandro.

“Royalty doesn’t want competition; royalty wants power—like Hekate. Or the Nostos rulers. They may think the Oracle will take over all Nostos and not bring back their ancestors’ powers.”

Sam nodded in agreement. “Kings like to control their legacy. King Apollo banished my mother to Earth for not producing an heir. Her first baby died when it was still in the crib, and he didn’t realize she was already pregnant with me. She gave me a better life on Earth for six years until a Child Collector stole me. My royal lineage was discovered then”—Sam rolled up his sleeve and revealed a sun tattoo with a fancy ‘A’ in the middle of it on the inside of his wrist, his sun a brilliant yellow to my black one—“and I was sent to the castle to be raised with the other royal children. Not so the king and I could be reunited, but because I belonged to him. They never did find my mother, so he took his anger out on me. Since being raised amongst Reekers, I’ve been a disgrace to the family.”

He jerked his sleeve down, ripping it in the process. And I realized, like all of us, he was marked, none of his family wanted him, and his mother, the one person that loved him, was missing.

“This world needs the Oracle,” Sam said.

“Well, it’s not me,” I burst out.

“And be thankful about that,” Leandro said in an even tone.

But even though his expectations of me quickly left, there was no going back to the old Joshua, and so the new Joshua took charge. “Time to get to the castle and find Finn. And get the Lightning Gate codes.”

I pulled on the ropes binding my wrists. They were snug and scratched my skin, but there was enough room to wiggle my way out.

Leandro tugged on the cords. “Not too tight, boys?” Charlie and I both shook our heads. “Good. Now if this plan only works.”

A trumpet blared through Cypress Woods, ringing like a battle cry and different from the other horn we’d heard. With that call, every sound grated on my nerves. The breeze roaring in my ears. The twigs crackling beneath my feet. And the breaths of my friends heaving in and out, like the very mountain itself was breathing us in with a great groan.

“What’s happening?” The shadows revealed nothing, but grew bigger as if stalking us too.

“It’s Hekate’s horn,” Sam said. “It always brings trouble.”

“And vapes,” Charlie said. “Lots of vapes.”

I gulped hard, then I remembered. “In the power mill I heard her say the word ‘tomorrow’ to the Child Collector, like she had something planned,” I said.

“And tomorrow is here,” Leandro said. “Let’s hope for more tomorrows.” He scanned the sky that held the cold blue sun high over our heads, pale against the purple background. All of our eyes followed his, watchful for more threats, and then I looked at my friends across the blowing fog. One tall, dark, and loyal. One short, pale, and daring. One strong, battle-scarred, and determined. How did they see me?

“Sam, come with us,” I urged, a growing anxiety filling me for what we were about to do.

“No. I told you I’ll be recognized in the castle,” Sam said.

“What if we can’t get the codes?” I said.

“Do as I told you and you will.”

Reluctantly, I nodded.

“Light of Sol go with you, Joshua,” Sam reassured me.

“Ahh,
soliel
,” Charlie said with a tired smile. “It means sun in my French.”

“For us too,” Sam said.

Leandro pulled us along. “Be safe, Sam.”

I turned and looked back as we trotted behind Leandro toward the castle. Sam held his hand up in goodbye. Would it be the last time we saw him? The trumpet sounded again, and we ran faster. I shot a final glance back, but Sam was already gone.

***

The castle had seemed so near when its towers first poked through the treetops, but it wasn’t. Charlie tripped at times, and I quickly helped him up. He shot me grateful glances as the trumpet called again but more faintly. Soon enough the woods thinned out and the road was easy to see between the trees. We stepped out on to it, the dirt hard beneath my feet after the forest moss. Out in the open I imagined fire-breathing cadmean beasts, ready to toss us up in the air as a snack.

Leandro stopped and pulled us off the road and down behind a bush. The castle stood before us, a desolate monster of crumbling torch-lit stone shrouded in mist. Its two wooden doors rose as tall as my house and a giant shield with a sun was etched into them, while a thick iron bar twisted across the sun, slicing it in two. Torches lined the front, spitting smoke that curled like fingers in the mist. Windows cut deep into the castle rock, their sightless, black holes watching us as craggy spires hovered above. The whole castle hunched over, broken and abandoned looking.

Four guards paced before giant doors with vapes held tight, pointing them outward as if expecting an attack.

“Put your heads down and don’t speak,” Leandro said in a low voice. His long hair grazed my face as he leaned in, smelling of pine and leather. Then he stepped out from behind a bush and tugged us out on the road. “Come along, you nasty Reekers!”

I lifted my head enough to see the guards stop pacing. They pointed their vapes at us. “Who are you, and what filth are you dragging along there?” The ugliest guard sneered at us.

“Name’s Evander,” Leandro said. “I’m a Child Collector from the Arrow Realm and got a request from the castle for two Reekers.”

He shoved us toward the ugly guard who twitched his head at Leandro. “Show me your gate key.”

Leandro pulled out the Lightning Gate key and popped it open.

“Getting a lot of these buggers in today.” The guard grunted with a nod. He leaned into Leandro and spoke in a low voice. “Heard anything about a threat to the king?”

I snuck a look at the guard. His bumpy, red nose dripped with snot and I nearly choked from his stinky-meat breath.

“Only that Hekate is unhappy with the way things are going here in the Lost Realm,” Leandro said, sliding his flattened gate key away and shoving me and Charlie together. Our heads cracked painfully into each other.

“Humph, aren’t we all?” The guard leaned further in. “She says she can drive the mist away and bring the bright sun back to our land.”

“I’m all for that. Then I won’t have to grab these Reekers for a living anymore,” Leandro said.

“Ha, I hear you there. Hate relying on these stinkers, eh?”

Leandro jolted our ropes hard. “That’s the truth. But can Hekate do it?”

“She’s wily,” the guard said. “Some say she’s an Ancient One with magic in her fingers. Maybe she’s got a spell in there to fix things.”

“Maybe.”

“And there’s rumors the Oracle lurks here.”

Charlie and I glanced at each other.
Not me
, I mouthed.

“Eh, the Oracle is just a myth,” Leandro said with a shrug.

“Hekate sensed it, they say. She would know.”

“Guess we’ll have to wait and see.”

The guard clapped Leandro on the shoulder with a great snort and turned to the other guards. “Open the gates, boys. Another two for the king.”

The gates creaked open.

“Move it, Reekers,” Leandro snarled at us and yanked us along then knuckled me on the head. Did he really have to do that? He grinned out of the corner of his mouth, obviously enjoying this.

“Stupid Reekers, aren’t they?” The red-nose guard roared with laughter.

“Indeed, of the most ignorant Barbaros kind,” Leandro agreed.

I tilted my head as we passed into the castle to read the large letters over the door:
To enter these doors is to gift thyself to the great King Apollo and regard him with splendor of the sun. Be steadfast in the dark and seek glory in the light that cometh soon.

Anger boiled inside me.
Yeah, well. I’m no gift, and I’ll seek glory in my own freedom, thanks very much.

Past the guards, we entered a dimly lit hall, and the stone walls closed further in on us. Wall torches spewed smoke, and its bitterness stung my tongue when I sucked it in. With a tug, Leandro turned us around with him and called back, “I can’t wait to be rid of these stinkers and get me a pint of bacon beer.”

“You got that right, my friend.” The guard laughed again. “When you dump them off, go find the kitchen for some. There’s a pretty maid there who’ll give you all you need.” He winked at Leandro and they laughed together.

Then the guard pointed down the hall. “Turn right at the bend, follow that a bit, and you’ll find yourself in the grand hall. King Apollo’s throne is there.”

Leandro nodded and pulled us along through the drafty corridor.

“We’re in, boys,” Leandro said, tucking the rope around his hand.

I jerked it back. “So when do I get to smack you in the head?”

“If that happens, I’ll be dead and this will have all been for nothing,” he said with serious humor.

“Not if you find your family first,” I said.

“Yes … but who will I be by then? And what purpose will I have?” He said it under his breath as his feet slowed, and it seemed more like spoken thoughts to himself rather than to us, so I left it alone.

A huge clang echoed behind us as the doors slammed shut, and Leandro picked up his step again. Bolts clicked into place. Shadows loomed all around us. We were locked in.

“Joshua, keep that lightning orb on hand,” Leandro said. “Surprise may save us.”

I was way ahead of him on that.

We followed him past the bend. Swirly things slithered on the walls in the shadows and beady eyes followed us. I stuck close to Leandro, begging for nothing squirmy to drop down on me, when light spilled from a wide doorway before us with two guards posted at the entrance. Their vapes hissed as we approached.

One guard stepped forward. “Announce yourself.”

“Evander. Child Collector with a delivery of Reekers.”

The guard looked us over. I dropped my gaze to his dirty black boots. For one terrifying moment, it seemed we were done for and our lie was found out. Then he waved us in.

Leandro dragged us into the hall. A snake head lunged at me as we passed the guards. It bared its fangs and zapped out its tongue. I jumped and looked away at the brightly lit hall spread before me that was as long as the soccer field at my old school. It was a welcome warm from the dark chill we’d stepped out from, and so were the rich smells of wood smoke and roasting meat that blew over me.

We walked under giant portraits of what must have been the first Apollo: a blond giant with the sun rising bright behind him, a small harp in his hand and a bow in the other. In another he stood in a white chariot, whipping his horses on. Below the pictures, guards and boys lined the walls on both sides. Four giant chandeliers hovered with candles burning a brilliant yellow, while great logs blazed in a fireplace tall enough to stand in. A chariot covered in black grime sat like a piece of junk next to a pavilion surrounded by more guards and boys. And there, sitting on his throne, was the newest Apollo, except he was like no Olympic god I’d ever imagined. He had a pasty-potato look to him, and he spit crumbs onto his beard as he ate greedily, while servants brought him steaming platters of food.