Jack Templar Monster Hunter (13 page)

Twenty minutes later, that laughter felt a million miles away as we slid into position behind a huge oak tree at the edge of the clearing that I had seen.

Only now it looked different. Most of it was the same: the clearing, the churning rapids, the roar of Swallow Falls downriver . I could see Cindy sitting in the same place, hugging her knees to her chest, rocking as she cried. While the moon would have been enough light to see by, the Creach had lit dozens of torches along the edge of the river. With so much light, the forest glowed like it was day. This made what was in front of us even harder to believe.

All the Creach were gone.

Only Cindy remained, looking small and frightened.

I peered into the edge of the forest outside of the reach of the flaming torches. Even there, I couldn’t see any movement.

“What happened?” I whispered to Eva. “Is it possible something chased them off?”

Eva shook her head. “It’s a trap. It has to be.”

“What are you talking about?” Will said. “There’s no-one here .”

“I think Eva’s right,” I said. “We need to stick to the trees and move around the outside. See if we can find them first.”

Eva nodded her agreement but Will huffed in frustration. We moved to the right. I should have paid more attention, but it never occurred to me that Will would decide to do his own thing.

Eva and I climbed silently from one tree to the next, careful to scout the area below the tree first to check for Creach monsters hiding in the shadows. We were three trees over before I heard Eva hiss under her breath. I glanced over at her and she pointed to the clearing.

Will was already at the rock, trying to untie Cindy’s ropes.

“Will, no,” I said. But it was too late.

From every direction around the clearing, and rising up from the water right next to Cindy, Creach monsters closed in on Will. He held up the short sword that Hester had given him, but a harpy flew at him and easily snatched it out of his hands.

The Creach howled and screeched, many pawing the ground.

Then they fell silent. Ren Lucre strode out of the woods, flanked on either side by his personal guard of minotaurs . The Creach parted to allow a path to the new prisoner. When Cindy looked up and saw Ren Lucre, she looked terrified.

I knew how she felt. Seeing Ren Lucre brought back the same paralyzing fear I had felt before. My mouth was dry and my body shook at the sight of him.

I glanced over to Eva and saw that she was also frozen in place. She stared at Ren Lucre, her lower lip quivering. At first I thought it was fear, and that for all the talk of wanting to face Ren Lucre, she felt the same way I did. But when she turned to me, even though she had tears in her eyes, I had no doubt that what she was feeling was not the fear that gripped me. It was rage. Pure and simple rage. Whatever she felt toward Ren Lucre, it was personal and it was intense. I wondered what had happened to her to cause such pain.

Down below, Ren Lucre reached Will. An ogre had forced Will to his knees and kept his head down to the ground so that he bowed to Ren Lucre as he approached.

“So, you are the last Templar?” Ren Lucre said. “I’ve waited a long time for this moment. And not a Jerusalem Stone in sight.”

“He thinks it’s me,” I whispered. “What’s a Jerusalem Stone?” Eva ignored me and continued to stare at the scene playing out by the river.

Will shook off the ogre holding him and stood, moving in front of Cindy, his shoulders squared. Although I was scared to death for him, I felt a surge of pride at his bravery.

Ren Lucre looked at Will in confusion. “You’re not the Templar boy. How can this be?”

“Not what you expected?” Will said. “I feel the same way about you. I kinda thought you’d be taller. Maybe not so scrawny.”

The Creach grunted and squawked at this insolence. A goblin laughed hysterically, only to have a minotaur draw its sword and lop off its head. The Creach fell silent.

Ren Lucre shook his head and spun around to look at the trees.

“He knows we’re here,” whispered Eva.

“Templar!” Ren Lucre shouted. “Where are you?” Ren Lucre grabbed the sword from his minotaur bodyguard and grabbed Will, holding the sword to his throat. “Is this what your bloodline has become? That you send a boy to die for you while you hide? Can it be that you are such a coward?”

I wish I could tell you that this was when I turned brave and heroic. That I jumped out of the tree and charged into the Creach horde with my sword raised over my head, yelling a battle cry at the top of my lungs.

But that’s not what happened. In reality, I froze. I was so scared that I couldn’t move. I watched Ren Lucre hold the sword to Will’s throat; my entire body shook and I felt like I might throw up. I felt completely helpless. Worse, I felt that maybe he was right. Maybe I was a coward.

Ren Lucre spun in a circle, looking at the tree line. “He is of age!” Ren Lucre shouted. “I can feel his life force in my hands.” He grabbed Cindy and held both of them. “Come to me, Templar, or I will slit his throat and then feast on the girl.”

“We can’t just stay here,” Eva hissed. “We have to help them.”

I looked at her, the fear overwhelming now. I shook my head and looked down, embarrassed.

“Great,” Eva said, the disappointment clear in her voice. “That’s just great. OK, you can stay here. I’m going to—”

The tree all around us exploded in furious movement. Giant spiders with hairy legs and foot-long pinchers attacked us from every direction. Eva sliced one open with her sword and yellow goo poured out.

But the attack was too fast. The spiders wrapped both of us up in thick, sticky webs, and in less than a minute, we were both immobilized in cocoons with only our faces showing.

“There you are. I’ve been looking for you,” Mrs. Fitcher said from far below us. I looked down and saw her climbing up the tree, the hooks on her wings grabbing hold as she climbed, looking more like a bat than ever. She reached us and smiled. “My master will be so pleased.”

The spiders lowered us to the ground on thick strands of web. They dropped us unceremoniously from a few feet off the forest floor, so we hit hard with a thump. The spiders climbed down, lifted us up and carried us forward.

Mrs. Fitcher walked triumphantly in front of the procession of spiders toward the torch-lit circle, waving her wings in the air. She pushed her way through the monsters to the center of the circle, where the spiders dumped us in a pile at Ren Lucre’s feet. “A gift, sire,” Mrs. Fitcher said, bowing low.

Ren Lucre pushed Will and Cindy aside. The minotaur guard grabbed them roughly.

I struggled against the webbing, but it was pointless. It was too strong. Ren Lucre looked us over. “Stand them up.”

Three ogres and a rock troll lifted us up and balanced our cocoon bodies vertically. The Creach bellowed and squealed. Ren Lucre held up his hand and the clearing fell silent once again.

Silent except for the sound of my own heart hammering in my chest.

Ren Lucre took a massive sword from one of his minotaur guards and walked around us in a circle, studying us.

Suddenly, he lunged forward and slashed at both Eva and me with a few fast movements of his sword. Then stepped back. The spider cocoons that held us prisoner peeled away and fell to the ground. Amazingly, he had cut through them perfectly, right next to our skins. We were free.

Well, we were still standing in the center of a circle of over a hundred monsters, facing the Lord of Darkness himself, but at least we were out of the cocoons. And we still had our weapons.

Eva wasted no time.

In a blur of motion, she pulled knives from her suit and threw them at Ren Lucre.

Almost effortlessly, Ren Lucre knocked the knives out of the air with his sword.

Eva launched herself at Ren Lucre, aiming a kick at his chest. Again, he effortlessly deflected her attack and dropped her to the ground in a heap. A thickly, muscled minotaur grabbed her by the arms and held her tightly.

Ren Lucre smiled. “Did you really think it was going to be that easy? That you could avenge your family with the flick of a knife?”

Eva struggled against the minotaur, but it was too strong.

“Oh yes, I know who you are. I remember the taste of your mother. Your father. Your brothers and sisters. When I saw you cut off your own hand to escape your bindings, I thought to myself: there is a hunter with the proper spirit. That’s why I let you go.” He leaned into Eva. “What’s your next trick? Are you going to cut off a foot?”

Ren Lucre gave a nod to the minotaur and it threw Eva to the ground. The Creach horde erupted in cheers, eager for bloodshed.

Eva picked herself up and stood next to me. The minotaur had taken her sword. Unarmed, she stared Ren Lucre in the eye. “No, I was thinking more of cutting your heart out,” Eva said.

Behind us, I heard Cindy’s voice call my name. I turned as she and Will ran up to us. To my surprise, Cindy hugged me. I have to admit, even with everything going on, even with certain death around the corner, I still felt a little jolt of electricity go through me from her touch. That is, until I realized she was sobbing in my arms.

“Shhh…you’re going to be OK,” I lied. “You’ll see.”

“That’s not it, Jack,” Cindy sobbed. “I know what it means that you’re here. It means you’re going to die.”

Eva was right next to me. I looked at her, but her eyes were fixed ahead of her. Her breathing was quick and shallow.

“Turn around, boy. Let me see you,” Ren Lucre said.

I pushed Cindy over to Will. As I did, Will mouthed the words “I’m sorry” to me. I nodded, then turned and found myself facing Ren Lucre.

“So, are you really Henry Templar’s son? Or are you just a decoy?” Ren Lucre intoned, searching my face. “I see the resemblance to your father. The same arrogance in the way you stand. The same stupidity in your eyes. Not to mention, the same innocent Creach blood on your hands,” Ren Lucre said.

I trembled as I stood there. I tried to think of something brave to say in return, but my throat was too tight. I just stood there.

“What?” Ren Lucre said. “You have nothing to say? I’ve been waiting for this moment for twelve years and you just stand there and stare? Say something. Let me know I have finally found my vengeance.”

“I’ll say something,” Eva said. “Die, die a thousand deaths, you monster.”

Eva kicked the minotaur holding her between the legs, grabbed her sword and swung as hard as she could at Ren Lucre.

Without taking his eyes off me, he raised his own sword and easily blocked her blow. The Creach screamed at her from every direction as she swung her sword again.

“You let your friends fight for you, Templar? Could it be that the devil-werewolf was right after all? Maybe you are not who I thought you were. Maybe you are not the One,” Ren Lucre said. “Or are you simply the end of a bloodline that has been marked by cowardice all along? Your friends have courage, even though you do not. Now, watch them die for you.”

Ren Lucre turned his attention to Eva and easily parried a series of blows from her. There was no form to her attack. She was fighting with pure rage, as if she could strike him down by somehow cutting through his sword.

“Back up to the river,” she yelled at me.

As if waking from a dream state, I pulled my sword and herded Will and Cindy back to the water’s edge. We climbed onto a large, flat rock that extended out into the fastflowing rapids.

Ren Lucre was now on the offensive, clearly playing with Eva who could barely keep up with his powerful thrusts. Finally, she turned and jumped up onto the rock next to us.

Eva, Will and I stood next to each other, swords in hand. Ren Lucre turned to the Creach horde, arms raised, basking in their cheers.

Eva looked behind us into the raging, black waters and down at the edge of Swallow Falls. She looked me in the eyes. “You have to believe in yourself. You’re our greatest hope. There’s more riding on your shoulders than you know. More than you’ve been told.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I‘m so sorry.”

“There’s no time for that now,” Eva said. “Next time you will find the strength to fight him. I know you will.”

“Next time?” I said.

“Can you swim?” Eva asked.

”Yeah, of course.”

“Good luck, Jack,” Eva said. She thumped her fist to her chest. “Do your duty, come what may.”

With that, Eva shoved me hard in the chest, pushing me off the rock and into the icy cold, black waters of the river rushing below us.

I tumbled under the water for several long seconds before I was able to claw my way to the surface. The ice-cold water took my breath away and I was moving so fast through the rapids that it was hard to get my bearings.

I looked back toward the light of the torches and saw the shadowed outline of Eva and Will fighting a wall of creatures. I saw the unmistakable figure of Ren Lucre swinging a sword over his head.

Then, the current sucked me back under. I curled up with my arms around my head, trying to protect myself as I bounced off the rocks. I still had my sword and the thought crossed my mind that I might accidentally stab myself with it unless I was careful.

Somehow, I grabbed hold of a rock for a few seconds and slid my sword back into its sheath at my side. The water ripped me from the rock and I went tumbling again.

The water carried me faster and faster. Even though I was half-drowned, I remembered that Swallow Falls was just ahead of me. I knew that if I went over the falls, I was dead.

I clawed at the rocks as the current dragged me downriver. It was impossible. There was no way to stop.

I felt the water calm for just a second and I knew that I was at the edge. I kicked and raised my head out of the water and took a giant gulp of air. The last thought as I spilled over was shame that I had been too scared to help my friends when they needed me most. Now it was something that I would never be able to fix.

Down, down, down I fell. Then I hit the water. Every nerve in my body screamed from the shock. I felt my head smack against a rock and there was an explosion of light from the pain. My body went slack. Everything stopped working. I couldn’t move. My mouth opened and water slowly filled my lungs.