Talisman of El (28 page)

‘Don’t move,’ Ash hissed. The command was unwarranted. The boys were so stiff with terror neither one could move even if they wanted to. Ash and Oren exchanged glances.

‘You have not fully regained your strength,’ Oren objected. ‘You will not be able to control it.’

‘What better way to recover,’ Ash replied, ‘than with fire.’ He crouched down and braced his hand against the ground. In that instant, a stream of fire burst out of the earth, rising higher as it formed a barrier around them.

Temporary relief coursed through Charlie as the wolves backed off. Ash got up and stumbled back, digging his sword into the ground to stop him falling.

The fire was spreading, the heat intensifying as smoke shot into the air.

A shadow flitted at the edge of Charlie’s vision, and he turned in time to see a brown wolf leap through the barrier, landing with a heavy thud. It rolled across the ground to out the fire on its fur. Seconds later, another wolf broke through the wall of fire.

The first wolf and Oren charged at each other. As it swiped at her, Oren did a twisting leap into the air, landing behind it. She sank her steel claws into its side, and it howled.

‘Get back,’ Oren shouted. No sooner had she spoken than the wolf knocked her aside with its hind legs. Just as the boys retreated backwards, fire blazing on either side of them, the second wolf growled, baring sharp, wet fangs as it lunged towards them.

Richmond stumbled backwards, knocking into Charlie, and the two of them fell back onto the ground.

The wolf leaped into the air, about to pounce on them, but its body diverted, hurling to the side as if some invisible force had collided into it. It let out a wailing howl, and before it hit the ground, it burst into black dust.

Charlie spotted Ash’s sword where the creature had disintegrated, the blade stabbed into the ground. His gaze locked on Ash, who had dropped to one knee. He had saved their lives, yet not one ounce of smugness graced his face.

‘Ash,’ called Oren, who was still fighting the limping wolf. ‘Send out the signal.’

Charlie’s heart sank. Once Ash sent for help, their journey would be over. The symbol of fire imprinted on the back of Ash’s neck allowed him to contact Aeons and Lightworkers of the fire kingdom. No doubt, Avaran’s mark would be tingling any second, and it would only be a matter of minutes before he found them.

A shrill cry ripped through the forest. It was nothing like the sounds that had emitted from the monsters.

It was human.

It was Alex.

Charlie and Richmond’s eyes met. ‘Stay here,’ Charlie instructed. He jumped up and raced off through the burning forest.

‘Charlie!’ Richmond called after him, but he kept going.

Thick black smoke filled Charlie’s lungs as he made his way through the forest. Each breath seared his throat. He made it out of the blaze and bent forward in a coughing fit. ‘Alex,’ he croaked.
Please be okay.
He heard her scream again and followed her voice.

‘Charlie!’ He was getting closer.

When he found her, he saw her up in a tree, screaming for dear life. How she’d managed to get so high up, he had no idea. He couldn’t understand why she was screaming since she was nowhere near the fire. Then he saw the wolf, and he hid behind the nearest tree.

Panicked, Charlie wiped his sweaty palms in his jeans and felt something hard inside his pocket. He paused and glanced down. Digging into his pocket, he withdrew Derkein’s pocketknife. Poking his head around the tree, he waved his hand up and down in an attempt to grab Alex’s attention.

At last, she looked his way. She smiled, and then a frown appeared on her face. He knew she was wondering why he was alone.

The wolf started clawing at the tree trunk, low growls emitting from its throat. Charlie knew it could climb up if it wanted to, but it was playing with her, relishing her fear.

Pulling the knife blades out, he took a deep breath and came out from behind the tree. ‘Hey,’ he yelled, ‘get away from her.’

The wolf turned its attention to him. Glaring at him, its mouth watering, it inched away from the tree, its claws digging into the ground.

Charlie swallowed hard, his pulse quickening.

‘Charlie, don’t,’ Alex cried. He could tell from the look in her eyes that she wanted to scream at him. It pained him to see her in such a state, and he wondered for a second if she blamed him for what was happening, for putting her life in danger –

The wolf stood on its hind legs and howled.

‘Charlie, run!’ Alex screamed.

He didn’t need telling twice. With one last look at Alex, he took off, and just as he had thought, the wolf pursued him. He ran towards the fire, his legs moving like a fully charged turbine.

Glancing behind him, he saw the gap closing between him and the wolf. Although he was a fast runner, he knew he couldn’t outrun a four-legged beast for long.

The fire had blocked off the way he had come, so he had to detour around it. He felt weak and tired, but he was alert enough to realise the only sounds he could hear were his own footsteps and the crackling of the fire.

Glancing around, he saw that the wolf had vanished, but he didn’t stop. Then a sudden thought entered his mind: Had it gone after Alex? Fear gripped his heart, and he looked ahead –

Whoa!

Charlie skidded to a stop near the edge of a cliff. He glanced down at the water. The fall had to be more than two hundred feet. As he stepped back from the edge, he heard the others calling him, and he headed back through the forest.

He got about twenty yards before he stopped dead, staring at the wolf in front of him.

The creature snarled, snapping its jaws. It stood on its hind legs, and a loud howl erupted from its mouth. Then it dropped down on all fours, and as Charlie turned to run in the opposite direction, back towards the cliff, it dashed after him.

It wasn’t long before Charlie spotted the cliff ahead. When he looked round and saw the gap between him and the wolf, he realised he wasn’t going to make it that far. Even if he did make it to the cliff, what was he to do? he wondered. Jump? He only had one other option.

Holding a firmer grip on the knife, he stopped and turned to the wolf. His heart felt as if it was going to burst out of his chest.

The wolf reared as it came in for the attack, its right paw up above its head, jaw extended –

BOOM!

Charlie saw a bright white light before him, followed by a loud bang, and then he was flying backwards. He landed on the ground with a hard thud.

Everything went black.

When he came to, the world around him was spinning. For a moment, he thought he had died, but a sharp pain in the back of his head snapped him back to reality. Feeling warm blood trickle down his face, he wiped it away with his sleeve. He was still holding the pocketknife in a tight grip. Turning onto his stomach, he saw the half-burnt body of a man, dressed in black trousers and a blue t-shirt, lying motionless near him. The foul smell of burnt flesh made him gag. Slowly, the body started to disintegrate to dust.

‘Charlie!’ Alex’s frantic voice called. He pocketed the knife and tried to get up but stumbled as the earth shifted.

The blast had severed the ground, causing a deep rip that divided the part he was lying on from the rest of the earth. It wasn’t until he looked around that he realised he was lying near the cliff edge.

He tried moving again, but that only widened the gap. He crawled against the ground, moving up towards the gap, but that made it worse still, and he slid down, heading for the edge. Gripping his fingers into a hump poking out of the ground, he cried out.

Charlie’s hands soon started to sweat, and before long, he lost his grip and slid over the edge.

He screamed as he fell through the air at a fast speed, his eyes watering. When he saw the boulders of large rocks protruding through the water below, his breath caught in his throat, stifling his scream, and he closed his eyes.

Just then, a noise reached him – a flapping sound that came and went like a passing vehicle. Charlie opened his eyes and saw a white winged horse below him. He landed hard on top of the horse, grabbing hold of its neck. Strapping his legs around the horse’s back, his breath coming back to him, he glanced down as the horse flew across the surface of the water. Seeing his reflection in the water, he thought,
I’m riding Pegasus,
but, of course, he knew it was a shifter. The horse flew higher, heading away from the fire.

‘Wait,’ Charlie shouted, ‘we have to go back.’

Don’t worry, your friends are safe,
said a soft, familiar voice inside his head. It was Candra. As she descended towards the forest, her wings extended to great lengths, Charlie felt his stomach rise to his throat as Candra came in for a hard landing.

Charlie dismounted and looked up at the huge green eyes fixed on him. Then she transformed. It was quicker and less scary than Ash’s transformation. Candra stood before him in an emerald cloak, the hood covering her head.

‘You know, I’m getting real tired of your disappearing act,’ Charlie complained. ‘What do you want from me?’ He didn’t wait for a response. ‘I mean, you show up talking about some talisman – which, by the way, you forgot to mention is the most powerful device on Earth – then you practically lead me to the gateway and dump me here. Why don’t you just kill me already?’

‘Are you done?’ asked Candra, her tone calm.

Charlie felt his face heat up. ‘Am I done? Are you kidding me?’

‘No, I do not kid.’

Charlie regarded her with honest bewilderment. ‘Who
are
you?’

Candra pulled the hood off her head. The first time he had seen her scarred face, it had terrified him, but he knew behind the wall of terror was an exquisite beauty. What had happened to her?

‘I was hoping you would have realised who I was by now.’ Charlie sensed a hint of disappointment in Candra’s voice. ‘That is why I sent you here.’

‘Okay, look, you might have helped me along the way, but you didn’t send me here. I chose to come. Did it ever occur to you that you could have just told me about Arcadia instead of all the riddles?’

‘Would you have believed me?’

No.
‘Maybe.’ Candra didn’t look convinced. ‘If you really wanted to help me, why didn’t you just take me to Eden?’

‘Ardenen is the safest place for you.’

Charlie grunted. The only thing he would consider remotely safe about Ardenen was that he could walk around naked without getting sunburnt since the sun was a giant crystal ball.

‘The plan to send you here was never about Eden, Charlie,’ Candra went on.

Charlie furrowed his brow. Why else would his mother have wanted him to come to Arcadia other than to find the garden?

‘I knew if I had told you the truth, you would never have believed me,’ Candra said. ‘You had to come here to learn the truth for yourself.’ Her gaze drifted around the forest, and her mind seemed to stray. She looked like a prisoner seeing the outside world for the first time in years. Again, he found himself wondering what had happened to her.

Candra walked around him. ‘Look around you, Charlie. Does anything seem familiar?’ She stopped behind him and whispered in his ear, ‘Arcadia awaits your return.’

Arcadia awaits your return
– the words his mother had written in her letter. ‘What’s that supposed to mean? I’ve never been here before.’ He noted the strange sound of his voice, as if he had just listened to a tape recording that might have sounded like him but someone else at the same time.

Candra was now standing in front of him. ‘But you have. Of course, you weren’t always this’ – she gave him the once over – ‘human.’

At that point, Charlie was at a complete loss.

Candra’s eyes shifted to the side. ‘Avaran,’ she said. She stepped aside, and Charlie saw the Guardian in his spirit form.

‘Candra,’ Avaran said. Charlie couldn’t see his face, but there was no mistaking the shock and contempt in his voice. There was also the fact he was emitting electric sparks.

‘I am not here to fight you,’ Candra assured him. ‘We are on the same side.’

‘To hell we are.’ Avaran’s voice was calm but fierce.

‘What’s going on?’ Charlie enquired, his eyes flitting between the two. He didn’t understand why Avaran was so angry. Candra had just saved his life.

Avaran addressed Charlie. ‘Candra was once Guardian of the earth kingdom.’

It took Charlie a moment to realise his point. He remembered Avaran having said the talisman had destroyed three people: Sol, Gaddis and the Guardian – no, the
former
Guardian of the earth kingdom. If Candra had joined sides with Gaddis then that meant –

‘She is an Archon, Charlie,’ Avaran finished his thought.

Stunned, Charlie turned to Candra, who was looking at him, her expression unreadable. ‘Alex was right,’ he muttered. ‘You
are
after the talisman.’ He started walking backwards towards Avaran. He no longer needed to wonder about her scarred face for he knew there was only one place fallen angels went after death: Tartarus. Now he understood that look he had seen on Candra’s face. She had been in a place far worse than prison, and he couldn’t help but feel sorry for her.

He shook his head to reorient himself. She was a demon, and demons couldn’t be trusted.

‘How is it possible that you stand here before me?’ Avaran asked Candra. Charlie was standing beside him now. ‘It is not possible to escape Tartarus.’

‘Gabriel released me,’ Candra replied.

‘You are here on God’s orders?’

‘That is correct.’

‘The Creator would never turn to a fallen.’ Avaran sounded matter-of-fact.

Candra regarded Charlie. The look on her face made him quiver, despite the tepid climate. He remembered what she had said about it not being the first time he had been to Arcadia and something about him not being so … human. He became aware of Avaran’s gaze on him and had to swallow a few times to dampen his dry throat.

‘I am here on the behalf of my king,’ Candra said.

‘Neither you nor your king have any authority in this land–’ Avaran began.