The Legacy: A Custodes Noctis Book (39 page)

“What time is it?”

“Just after noon. We can stop and eat if you want.”

“Let me have some coffee first,” Galen said, sipping the hot liquid. “Not bad.”

“Truck stop coffee’s always good. How do you feel?”

“Good. A little headache, but that’s all.” He smiled at his brother. “How are you?”

“Hungry.” Rob grinned. “But other than that, good. So, are we asking as a matter of form?”

“What?” Galen grinned back, knowing what his brother meant. He could feel the connection with Rob, stronger than it had been in the past, stronger than it had been even the day before.  They were quiet for a long time. “Rob?”

“Yeah?”

“Why did you think it had to be at the first clearing? Not where the second ritual was? Dad and Bobby cleansed both places.”

“I know.” Rob glanced over at him. “The second place…” He trailed off, his face sad.

“Rob? What?”

“I…” His brother reached over and laid his hand on Galen’s arm. He felt the connection alter like it had in his garden, the world shifted and he knew he was seeing through Rob’s eyes. A memory unfolded.
It was dark when he arrived, the place still had the stink of the fire there, the one Galen had lit, the one the bearded man had died in. The remembered stench of burning flesh filling his lungs as he walked towards the altar place. Rob paused, looking around, it hadn’t changed much in ten years, really. The last vague echo of the darkness that had touched the place was still there. Tears filled his eyes, his chest was aching. It had taken his brother, Galen had died in his stead. Rob began chanting, the darkness shifted beneath him. It moved away from the place, moved to where It, the thing that had killed Galen, now resided. It was time for it to end. Rob was weeping as he destroyed the last physical evidence of the ritual, of the place where so much had ended.

“Gods, Rob,” Galen said, coming back to himself, tears on his face. He looked over at his brother. “You destroyed it, but not the first clearing?”

“I couldn’t, once I was there. I just couldn’t bring myself to walk down the path, knowing it was the place where it all began, where my life ended, really.”

“Rob,” Galen began, but didn’t know what to say. The grief from the vision was still there, pressing against his heart. He laid his hand over Rob’s and let the healing light flow into his brother.

“Thank you,” Rob said quietly. “I didn’t know how to tell you.”

“There’s less of a chance for misunderstanding when you do it that way. That’s a trick you’ll have to show me.”

“I will, and you’ll have to show me how to make stones explode.” Rob laughed, the bright carefree laugh Galen remembered from when they were young. “That bitch! I thought I lost her.”

“What?” Galen turned around, Rhiannon’s car was behind them.

“You were right, they followed us, but I thought I ditched them.”

“You didn’t really think we’d lose her for long, did you?”

“I tried,” Rob sighed. “She seems to be part bloodhound though, or something.” He looked at Galen. “Should we just invite them to eat with us?”

“It would save them hiding behind menus.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Rob turned on the blinker to let Rhiannon know they were exiting. She followed them to the restaurant parking lot, and their friends met them at the door.

“You weren’t planning on sabotaging my car while we ate?” she asked, grinning at Rob.

“No. I already tried that.”

“You what?” Galen asked his brother.

“He took a couple of sparkplug wires while I was in the bathroom.” She scowled at Rob. “Flash and Mike were asleep at their posts or something. I come out, no wires and these two sipping coffee.”

“Luckily, she had an extra set,” Flash said with a grin.

“I’m beginning to think you have a whole engine in your trunk.” Rob held the door.

“Yeah,” Rhiannon said distractedly.

“Rhiannon?” Galen put his hand on her shoulder, bracing himself against the wave a grief. “What is it?”

“Megan…” She trailed off and cleared her throat. When she looked up at Galen her eyes were bright. “We stopped here, ten years ago, the day before she was taken.” Mike put an arm over her shoulders.

“We can go someplace else,” Rob said, turning back towards the door.

“No, it’s okay.” Rhiannon shook herself. “I’m okay, let’s eat.” They followed the hostess to a booth. Galen trailed behind, aware of a sudden tension in his brother. Rob was all smiles, teasing both Galen and Rhiannon as they ate and joining in with Flash and Mike on an assessment of the women in the diner. Galen watched his brother, for all the joking the other emotion was there the whole time.

“Rob?” Galen said after the meal, when they were alone in the jeep.

“Yeah?”

“What is it?” He looked over at his brother, there was a tightness around Rob’s mouth.

“Going back. I never realized it would be…”

“This hard?” Galen finished for him. Rob looked over with a frown. “I know.”

“It all ended there, Galen. If that hadn’t happened, if I hadn’t let myself get taken, we could have been serving all these years. We could have been together.” A tear found its way down Rob’s cheek.

“I’m sorry,” Galen said softly.
And that makes a thousand, I think.
Seeing his brother so broken, still aching from the wounds of the past, tore at Galen. “I thought…”

“You thought you were doing what was best, I know that, Galen. I don’t blame you.” Rob looked out the windshield, frowning.

Galen reached across the car and put his hand on Rob’s arm, letting his brother’s emotion flow through the contact. Something was there, something that had been there all along. Under the grief, under everything was guilt, soul-killing in its intensity. “No!” Galen said. “Rob, no!”

“You keep saying you’re sorry, asking me to forgive you, but it’s me, Galen.”

“No!”

“How can you ever forgive me?”

“There’s nothing to forgive, Rob.”

“I let myself get taken.”

“I failed you that night. They took you, I should have stopped them,” Galen said quickly. He knew his brother didn’t hear his words.

“And then you died for me. For me, Galen. I know you were trying to stop the Legacy, but Galen…” Another tear wound its way down Rob’s cheek.

“Rob…” Galen was at a loss for words. He looked over at his brother, Rob was focused away from him. Galen was silent.

They arrived at their destination four hours later. Rob had been silent, lost somewhere Galen couldn’t go. He’d tried to reach his brother every way he could think of, even turning the radio to an all easy-listening station. Nothing would shake Rob out of the mood that had descended on him. His brother parked the jeep and opened his door without saying anything to Galen. He walked to the back and pulled out their swords.

Galen sighed and got out of the car. The forest was quiet. It smelled warm, living. He took a deep breath and walked to where his brother was standing, staring at the forest with unseeing eyes. “You sure you want to come, Rob?”

Rob was silent for so long, Galen wasn’t sure he was going to answer. Then Rob looked over at him, meeting his eyes. “Yeah, Galen. I need to,” he said. “I’m sorry. Shutting you out wasn’t helping.” Rob’s eyes looked old.
This experience, no matter what’s happened now, what we’ve done, it’s taken something from him.
Rob smiled at him. “You need help and I need to help.”

“Now what?” Flash said, getting out of Rhiannon’s car. She’d parked beside the jeep and the three of them got out and walked over to Galen and Rob.

“This way.” Rhiannon turned onto the path that led to the clearing. She led the way as the trail wound around through the trees. They stopped at the first clearing, where Megan had been found all those years before.

“I never thought I could let her go, never thought I could get beyond this place,” she said softly. She looked at Galen. “I think I finally can, because of the two of you.” She stood on her tip toes and kissed each of them lightly on the lips, then turned away. She put a small offering—flowers, a small plush kitten—down on a flat stone.

“I can finally walk away from here, Megan is at peace. I can be too.” Rhiannon was silent for several minutes. They stood with her, Flash put an arm over her shoulders. She smiled at Galen, tears running down her cheeks. 

Galen noticed when his brother moved closer and leaned against him. He glanced at Rob, his brother’s face was tight with grief. Galen gently nudged Rob with his shoulder. “We need to go,” he said softly.

“We’ll wait here,” Rhiannon said, looking at them then frowning at Mike and Flash daring them to defy her.

“Fine, we’ll wait here, but if we hear anything that sounds bad, we’ll come running,” Mike said.

“One peep and we come running,” Flash confirmed. “Got it?”

“Got it.” Galen looked at them. “Thank you, having you here—it means a lot.”

“Yeah, it does,” Rob said quietly. “Let’s go.”

Galen took the lead, following the path as it brought them to the clearing where the ritual had taken place. As they got closer, Galen could sense the tension in his brother. They walked out into the ritual clearing. Rob stopped, looking around, swallowing.

“Rob?” Galen said softly.

“I…it’ll be okay, Galen.” He walked over and put his hand on the tree that Galen had found him hanging from. Rob looked up at the branch, part of the rope still dangled there, frayed broken and weather-worn, but still there. He looked over. “Galen?”

“We’re here together, Rob,” Galen said softly, hoping to reassure his brother. It was as if the thirteen-year-old was standing there, too. The pain in his brother was almost too much to bear.

“I…” Rob looked away. “It’s still there,” he said, walking towards the stone altar that stood in the center of the clearing. Galen felt the whisper of darkness again. It was trapped there, in that clearing, in the stones and earth. The thing that had taken Rob, the wood hag, part of it still echoed there. Rob stopped before the altar then pushed at it, harder, and harder, a desperate, frantic motion. Galen started moving towards his brother as the depth of Rob’s emotion hit him. He got to the altar faster than he thought he could. Rob was crying, shoving at it. He looked up at Galen. “I can’t move it. I have to destroy it!” Rob’s voice was determined, but under that Galen could hear the younger Rob, frightened, full of panic. “Can you help me?”

“Of course.” Galen put his weight against the stones. They didn’t move for a moment, then slowly, slowly began to shift. The stones fell, breaking apart with a sharp sound that echoed over the forest.

Galen listened to the echo, remembering—he looked around the clearing, seeing it not as it was at that instant, but the place as it had been. Empty, with Rob’s shirt and blood on the now destroyed altar. Empty except for the sound of his brother’s scream. Empty except for the vision of his brother hanging from the tree.

“Galen?” Rob said from beside him. “I’m sorry.”

“No sorry needed,” he said quietly, feeling the truth of that settle in his own heart. “No blame, no apologies. It had to happen the way it did.”

Rob looked at him for a long moment. Galen felt the steady hum of their connection, Rob nodded. “You’re right. It had to happen so we could stand here, so we could serve together as who we were meant to be,” Rob said quietly.

“It did.”

“Do you want to start?” Rob asked, handing Galen his sword.

“Together this time, I think, Rob.”

 “Are you sure?” Rob looked at him.

“Very sure.” Galen took a deep breath and let the song rise in him. The clearing was filled with the sound of their voices, with the hum of the swords and the light, twisting around them, touching the forest. There was no explosion this time, just the light touching the edges of the dead trees ringing the circle. A small fire began. Galen knew that it would only burn those parts of the circle touched by darkness.

The song wound to its end. Rob looked over and smiled. “Can you get that down?” He pointed up at the rope.

“I think you can reach it,” Galen said softly.

“I know I can, but I think you need to,” Rob said, his voice sure, the hint of sadness, of grief and guilt that had been there gone.

“You’re right.” Galen pulled on the rope and broke the end of the branch off with it. He reached in his pocket and handed Rob his lighter. “You burn it.”

“Thanks, Galen.” Rob lit the end of the rope, watching it burn. Then, turning to Galen, he smiled. “This is the last of it. It’s finished.”

Somehow Galen wasn’t sure this would finish it, the small whisper of darkness was still there, nearly gone, just a tiny echo in the sounds of the earth. He wondered if it was always there, that whisper, that voice of the things the night feared. That sound of the things he lived to stop. For the moment he let it pass, instead drinking in the healing that was needed for his brother. For himself.

“It all ended here,” Rob said softly, looking at him, his eyes bright in the flames as the clearing burned around them.

“It all begins here, too,” Galen said.

“
Custodes Noctis.”
Rob was smiling at him, an open candid smile.