Red Leaves and the Living Token (21 page)

His burnt hand still clutched his new prize firmly. Free of the basin, the Crown was no longer gold with purple felt trim. Instead, it seemed to be composed of the very acid from which he'd just removed it. His hand burned where he held it, but it was still solid enough to hold.

Then he noticed the basin. A flood of liquid poured out of decorated spouts all around the bottom of the basin, splashing onto the wood floor.

He pulled himself up onto the stone floor quickly to avoid the flood of acid. It appeared that there was some sort of drain below the Crown that fed the decorated spouts. Removing the Crown unplugged that drain.

The room started to shake. The floor boards groaned, then a loud crack shot out as several of them split. Then, in an eruption of splintering wood, a large section of the floor beneath the basin gave way, tipping the massive stone bowl down halfway into the floor.

Cradling his arm, Handers backed away further up the stadium steps.

The rest of the slatted wood floor snapped with a cloud of acid and debris, swallowing the basin into a black abyss below.

The room shook like a volcano about to explode. Then, from deep within the abyss something howled and moaned, growing louder, echoing off the stone around him. Louder. Then without warning, it exploded into an ear bursting screech, like a million voices screaming.

He covered his ears and ran as fast as his adrenalin pumped body would carry him.

A moment later he burst out of the wide temple entry way and raced down the long stone steps that prefaced the building. The structure shook behind him as he charged full speed across the soft meadow grass.

The white stone of the tall spires fractured sending the enormous mass toppling forward into the meadow. The fractures continued deeper into the temple’s core. The great walls started to implode. Then, the earth shook, the temple exploded. A storm blast of giant stone and debris billowed into the air. A shock wave of compressed air knocked Handers off his feet.

Then a second eruption. A jet of black liquid shot straight up into the air accompanied by the same mind breaking screams. The ground shook with the violence of the erupting liquid.

The third token fragment, the plant portion, that was left in the room after the fight, twirled through the air and landed in the forest down the mountainside.

Handers rolled over, semi conscious. He watched the jet of black liquid shooting in a power stream into the sky. High above him, it had already started forming into a thick black cloud.

The horrific scream continued but had diminished with distance up in the high cloud. In its place a roaring wind had picked up.

Lighting flashed in the storm above. The clouds twisted and swirled in an unnatural way. Hard shapes seemed to phase in and out as though something was swimming behind the clouds.

Handers looked up in horror as one of the twisting shapes in the center of the mass took the solid unmistakable form of a face. Its eyes opened and stared down at Handers. Great black arms shot out on both sides of the face reaching out to him.

With that, his overwhelmed mind slipped into unconsciousness.

H
anders awoke to the repeating jab of a foot hitting his side. He looked up.

"Welcome back." Lord Valance grunted, standing over him with his arms crossed, obviously irritated. "Didn't Rinacht specifically warn you not to take the Crown?"

Handers shifted his focus to sky behind Valance. Lighting flashed in the dark purple storm clouds overshadowing the mountain top. He searched for the nightmarish face that he'd seen earlier, hoping that somehow he'd dreamt the whole thing.

But then it appeared in the center of the darkness. A shapeless form that stretched and twisted past the surface of the clouds, solidifying into the distinct features of a face before dissipating back into the surrounding clouds. His heart sank. The weight of what he'd done returned from its momentary reprieve.

"If I'd know you were that stupid I never would've let you go in." Valance shook his head in frustration. "All you had to do was take one of the weapons, and you could've gone merrily on your way to retrieve your son. With that advantage you would've succeeded without a doubt. But now," Valance turned and looked up into the sky behind him, "the situation has changed."

"What is that?" Handers pointed at the sky.

"Now that would've been a good question to ask before you violated his sanctuary!"

"I..." Handers thought about trying to explain. He could tell Lord Valance it was a mistake. Or that it was a reasonable course of action given the promise he saw of his son. But then why was Lord Valance here? What did he want? Then he remembered what Rinacth had said before he left. Lord Valance must’ve been who Rinacht was talking about, who he conspired with. Of course, he thought. It all made sense, the coincidence of being found in the swamp, Bedic’s book on his desk.

Then, another piece of the puzzle fit together in his mind. Valance didn’t want the Token. He could’ve taken it at any moment. And that explained why he didn’t. Lord Valance wanted Handers to use the Token, so that he could follow him here.

"Let me explain what’s going to happen now." Valance crouched down next to him. "In two or three hours the Lord Prince," he pointed up at the face loosely formed in the clouds, "will solidify in form enough to regain his senses. He'll wake up. And when he does he's going to want this back." Valance opened the top of a large velvet sack showing Handers the Royal Crown inside.

"And rest assured when he finds his crown he'll obliterate anyone anywhere near it. The next thing he'll be looking for is the Token. Because you have a boy to look after, I'm going to overlook this trespass. "He turned back to the Temple in ruins behind him. "I'm going to spare your life. I'm going to take the Crown and Token and hide them away.

"Once you're off the mountain he'll have no more reason to pursue you."

Handers stared back at him, not sure how to respond. The Crown meant his son. The Token was the link that lead him here. He couldn't part with either and hope to see his son again. Could he?

"As you can see I have the Crown, but you still have the Token." He opened his palm towards Handers.

"I can't!" Handers answered.

Valance stood up. He glanced up at the ominous sky then walked away. "Suit yourself."

Lighting flashed followed by a boom of thunder. The flash revealed an enormous skeletal structure forming in the cloud. Hideous arms shot out and clawed aimlessly in the air before dissolving into wisps of vapor.

Handers sat forward determined. "Wait!"

Lord Valance kept walking.

"Wait!" Handers yelled.

Finally, Lord Valance stopped then doubled back.

Handers stared up at him. "The Crown. It's mine!"

Valance laughed. Lighting flashed again, turning Valance into a black silhouette. "A fool is one who persists in a direction that has proven futile. The Crown will not be returned and you have no hope in obtaining it by force. Further, I would suggest you surrender the Token voluntarily while that option is still offered. If you do not I can't guarantee your life. It's your choice.”

Handers struggled to his feet. "The Crown!" He glared at Valance, trying to make as much of a threatening appearance as he could. But his body was not with him. A stabbing pain shot through his right leg and ribs as he tried to hold his weight. He fell back awkwardly.

"Your stubbornness won't help your son." He unsheathed his sword. The blade swirled and shifted, made of the same dark purple liquid as the Crown. The edge dripped as Valance lifted the blade. "The Token, I insist."

Handers scooted back from the weapon. He checked his outer pockets as well as the inside pocket he kept it before. What happened to it? He tried to remember. "I had it in my hand when I ran from the Temple."

Valance lifted up a small velvet pouch from his pocket. "Yes we found that piece. Where's the rest of it?"

Handers stammered. "I don't know. That's all I had."

"Come now, that's not very helpful," Valance reproached.

Lord Barnus rushed up behind Valance carrying a bundle of black handled swords. "We've found most everything."

Valance frowned. "Most? What's missing."

"We can't find any more of the Token."

The Valance turned back to Handers. "Time's up." He put the tip of his sword to Handers neck. "Where is the rest?"

Handers squeaked out the answer. "Rinacht tried to steal it from me and broke it apart. He has the other piece."

"And where is he?"

Handers stammered, "I don't know. He attacked me and ran."

"Two pieces? It broke into just two pieces?"

Handers nodded.

"Are you sure?" He pressed the sword down harder. Black liquid from the tip of the sword dripped down the sides of his fury neck.

Handers didn't react in pain the way Valance anticipated. So he scowled and pushed down harder. The tip of his sword seems to melt around Handers neck instead of pushing into him. He withdrew the sword and inspected the tip. "What is..." The liquid sword appeared intact.

Without warning, he whipped the sword into the air and in a blur of movement brought it down to strike Handers.

"Aah!" Handers screamed and tried to pull away. But he wasn't fast enough. The sword struck his arm with a clank. But to his surprise his arm was still intact. He lifted his arm up through the blade, completely unaffected.

"Impossible!" He lifted the blade and swished it through a bush next to him, toppling the plant and setting it on fire at he same time.

Handers's eyes darted from the bush back to Valance Then he noticed something in the sky out of his peripheral. The clouds were swirling around a center point creating a distinct funnel shape. The funnel was dropping directly towards them.

Valance noticed the look of dread on Handers' face and turned to look behind him. "He's early!" He muttered to himself.

Lord Whitting and Barnus ran up behind Valance and ushered their master out of harms way. "Time to go!" Barus yelled over the noise of the roaring wind.

The earth exploded in a deafening crash a few yards to the right of them. After regaining his composure, Handers looked over to see the cause of the explosion. He saw a giant black foot rising up out of the ground. He traced the source of the leg up into the sky. It had formed out of the funnel cloud.

Another leg took formed out of another stream of twisting vapor. It descended towards them. The ground shook with another horrible impact, sending dirt clumps into the air.

"I warned you!" Valance yelled at Handers before he disappeared into the trees beyond the meadow of the Temple.

Handers was alone.

-

Sinesh held a large rock high above her head and dropped it down onto the carriage door handle. It landed with a spark and loud metallic clank.

Good. That was good. Do it again just like that." Her Grandpa coached. She'd wondered what he had been doing rocking back and forth up against the side of the carriage all that time until he came back forward in his rocking motion with his hands free. He had worn right through that rope. She remembered he could be very persistent.

Again she lifted the rock above her head and brought it down as hard as she could onto the door handle. It landed with a low metal clang, and the door handle fell right off.

"You did it my girl! Now hop down."

She did. Suddenly both back doors to the carriage burst open with a cloud of splinters. Her Grandpa climbed down carefully. "Lets be as quiet as possible. Stay with me." He held out his hand to her.

She took his hand. Then he looked up into the sky. Lighting flickered across dark purple storm clouds.

“Looks like we might get a little wet,” she said.

He didn't say anything, he just looked at the forest around them then dragged her away into the trees. Her grandpa held his back as he walked, half bent over. He looked funny, she thought.

The forest ended a little ways ahead of them. "Stay here for just a moment, dear." He rubbed her head then stepped as quietly as he could towards the edge of the forest.

Beyond the trees she could see some people. There was a tall man standing over another who was laying on the ground holding his side. Then there were two more running all over the place like they were looking for something.

Grandpa kept staring up into the sky. She found a place where she could see up through the trees to see what he was staring at. The clouds were swirling into a big tube shape that was dropping down out of the sky.