*
As soon as they returned to the house where the five had lunch earlier that afternoon, they found James there.
He was talking to a familiar... someone.
Sabrina.
As soon as they got within hearing distance, Thomas could hear what they were saying.
“...You should be more frugal when it comes to your Magic. That trick with the glowing path? Really cute, but it drained your energy.”
“You were the one who sent me on there.”
“But I didn’t tell you to let it glow, did I?”
“No, you didn’t... But still.”
“Shape up. You’re going to need that Magic once you’re getting closer to the Lands of Void, kiddo.”
And in a flash, she was gone. Disappeared into thin air, as if she’d never even been there.
James sighed. But his face cleared up as soon as he heard his friends calling his name.
“I told you we’d be back in a minute!” Thomas shouted, as they approached James.
“Yeah, you did,” James said. “And? Anything interesting?”
“Kind of,” Thomas said. “What she told you, bla bla bla, back story stuff.”
“All right then,” James said. “So, what’s next?”
“Next stop, Imber Lake!” Thomas said, pulling out the map in all its magical glory.
“But...” Antonio mumbled. “We don’t have a boat. How are we ever going to cross that lake? Swimming?” He sounded rather sarcastically.
Aubry smiled. “There’s a fisherman in our village. He can help you get a boat which will make it to your destination,” she said.
“Thank you so much, Miss Aubry!” James said. “We can’t ever thank you enough for all you guys have done for us.”
“You can thank me – and the rest of this world, too – by saving our world and returning home to your own safely, young Guardian,” Aubry replied, still with a smile on her face.
“That’s all we really need, after all.”
Don’t Go Swimming
It was around midday when the Bond of Light was finally ready to leave Linmor village – the town’s official name, which Bella had been able to inform her friends about after seeing it on the map – Aubry told them it’d be only visible while they were inside the village, though.
Neither of the five really knew what it meant, nor did it actually matter.
“Thank you so much for helping us out by letting us stay here,” Samira said, while thanking Aubry. “But I think it’s about time we’d set sailing. Literally.” She smiled at her own pun.
Aubry nodded. “Take care of yourself, children. You’ve got a long way to go; don’t be fooled by anything others might tell you.”
“About sailing, lads; have you seen yer fine new ship yet?”
The Bond was surprised by hearing the sound of a man’s voice. Overpowered by curiosity, they turned around, watching a strong-looking man approach them.
The man had a black beard and short hair. And despite the muscles, due to his facial appearance, he seemed to be in his mid-forties. His toned muscles were well-visible, due to the fact that neither his leather vest nor linen tunic had any sleeves. You could guess from the way he spoke that he was a man from the sea- a sailor, perhaps even a pirate.
A nervous smile played about James’ lips, unsure what to expect from this man. The townspeople he’d met earlier had all been very nice, but James found it was always better to be safe and sorry when it came to accidentally picking fights.
“Actually, we haven’t seen our ship yet, sir,” he said, in an as polite fashion as he possibly could.
Luckily for James, the sailor noticed that the boy wasn’t sure what to do and say, and gave him a firm pat on the back.
“Don’t ye be worried, lad! It’s all right. I’ve built ya lassies the best vessel you could wish! And a darned pretty one she is, too!”
James found the ability to squeeze out a laugh. Still a tad nervous, yet less nervous than he had been before.
This man had reassured him of one thing: everyone in this village was on their side; nobody meant any harm.
And that was truly a reassurance. Since at least half the inhabitants of each Realm they’d travelled through before had been trying to kill them.
The ones that had helped them really were helpful, though. Rikki, who had helped them on their way, Akilah, who’d got them their information, and Madeleine, the Keeper of Guidance, who had given them their map and clothes, Gabriel, Keeper of the Woods, who had given them weapons, Violina, Princess of the Fairy Realm, and her sister, Queen Eloine of the Fairy Realm, who had healed James’ sickness and helped Samira lift her curse, Fiyara, Princess of Snow... And then there was Sabrina...
James still wasn’t sure whether Sabrina had been there to help them or she had set up a plan that had failed.
Nevertheless, there were Aubry and the other Linmor villagers.
There had been plenty of people helping them, and without them, they never would’ve made it all the way through.
They really had to be thankful for all what these people had done for them. Yet, the people were thankful to them.
What had they really done, so far? Nothing, right?
Not really.
And yet, the people saw them as their heroes.
James woke up from his train of thoughts and returned to the real world.
He could hear Samira ask the sailor a question from the distance, but since he was more focused on his own thoughts than what she was saying, he didn’t really pick it up.
“If I may ask... Where is i- I mean- she?” Samira asked the sailor, “she” referring to the ship.
“It’s good ye’re askin’, lass!” the sailor said, wearing a big grin on his face. “We don’t have quite a harbour anymore ‘round here, since it was destroyed a ‘couple hundred years ago, right? So I’ve put it at the edge of the lake for you lads. It should be safe out there, though I’d recommend ye’d hurry to get it.
Perhaps someone would be interested in a fine ship. I don’t know.”
“Well, I guess that’s all we need,” Samira said. “Once again: thank you all so much-!”
“Yeah, yeah, lassie!” the sailor shooed her and the others toward the Village Gate. “It’s fine! Now go! Save the world, be heroes! Make us proud!”
The teenagers left the village, heading for Imber Lake. It was quite a big lake, ending in two rivers on each side. Six hours, at least if they wanted to end up at the safest spot to get off.
Lots of people living in Lunaria saw the Mountains as the big border between the dangerous Realms and the safer ones to stay, yet Imber Lake proved them wrong.
After they’d cross the lake, everything would get a lot more dangerous. Not quite the place where you’d like to celebrate a holiday.
James and Thomas both closely inspected the rowboat’s hull for any sabotage – not saying the sailor would’ve sabotaged it, but there were certain passers-by who could’ve. Just to be better safe than sorry.
The sailor hadn’t bragged a single word; the boat was one chunk of total craftsmanship. And it was big enough to transport five people without getting awkwardly tight, which added another plus to the list of pros.
After a few minutes, the boat had been packed and launched into the water, the passengers had entered and they were on their way.
Antonio had decided to take the first turn to row; they’d switch clockwise every twenty minutes. It had been an averagely peaceful day, but James knew it wasn’t going to stay that way. There were creatures in the water, yet they didn’t know what kind.
But sooner or later, they would... And the encounter sure wasn’t going to be pleasant. Except if the creatures turned out to be friendly, of course.
Unfortunately, the creatures they’d meet weren’t quite friendly. At all.
It was Samira’s turn to row, and Thomas sat in the back of the boat, staring into the water, as he noticed something staring back at him, swimming just un
derneath the water’s surface.
At first, he wasn’t sure whether to look away or keep looking at first, but as soon as the sound of a beautiful voice singing filled his ears, he was sold.
A siren.
He wanted to keep looking at the woman who sang for him, never leave her side again. She had him hypnotized, completely mesmerized.
Thomas bent over the edge of the ship’s hull, as the woman stretched out her arms to pull him underwater...
“What the hell do you think you’re doing!?”
It was Antonio who pulled Thomas out of his trance, by pulling him up by the hood of his cloak just in time before the siren could grab him.
The monster wearing the face of a woman hissed angrily at the brown-haired teenager, before disappearing under the water again.
“Thomas! Those are sirens! Don’t look at them and cover your ears! Or else they’ll mesmerize and take you!” James said.
“Oh, but we don’t just take people when they’re mesmerized,” one of the sirens said with a hiss, while rising out of the water. “We just like drowning you foolish Guardians!”
And then, she made the jump and grabbed Thomas, pulling him out of the boat. He disappeared underwater before you could blink with your eyes.
“THOMAS!” James shouted, as he climbed to the other edge of the boat and jumped after Thomas before Antonio could stop him.
James swam after the siren who’d taken Thomas, yet unfortunately enough, she could swim way faster than he could.
The sun side of the story was that Thomas didn’t quite agree with the siren taking him underwater without his permission, and started to struggle and kick the creature with all his might, making it hard for her to hold him.
Once he’d kicked her off, Thomas wanted to reach for James. As they had almost reached each other, something jerked at James’ leg, pulling him down at rushing speed. The redhead let out a yell, before realizing he was underwater.
Luckily, the siren’s grip on James’s leg wasn’t too strong, so he could easily kick her off.
Thomas pulled the redhead up to the surface as fast as he could as soon as he noticed James was about to drown.
Gasping for air, the duo climbed back on the wooden boat, welcomed by three worried glares.
“God, am I glad to see you two again,” Bella sighed.
“Yeah, yeah, good times, it was really fun down there,” Thomas gasped. “Let’s keep going. I don’t want to meet these things again.”
After having said those words, he took the paddles from Samira and started to row as fast as he could.
Nowhere in this world was safe. Absolutely nowhere.
And most definitely not if they were the ones to be hunted all the time.
It might have been plain luck, but apart from the first attack, the Bond of Light had been clear from any others.
The other edge of Imber Lake was coming closer and closer, as were the dangers of the Land of Void.
After leaving the Lake, they wouldn’t be in the Land of Void immediately yet, but they would arrive at “The Edge.”
The Edge was the common name for the last Realm of Lunaria which was still less corrupted than the Land of Void.
The Edge was a Realm, which had been corrupted by Magic strongly enough to even make the ground cave in, revealing deep lava pits which had been hiding under the surface.
Whatever was left of the ground was rather dry and unstable; anyone treading an careless step was sure to find immediate death.
The Realm’s corruptcy also allowed attacks coming from beings controlled by Black Magic to become more powerful and more frequent.
There was a slight chance the Shadow Walkers would also reappear due to the same reason, the Dark Magic making them strong enough to appear there, broad daylight or not. But what was for sure was that there would be plenty of fire-based monsters hiding in the lava, ready to surprise the five teenagers.
While James preferred - and secretly also wanted - to just sprint and rush through that burning lava pit, the better idea was to absolutely not to.
The ground, however would be strong enough to carry the five of them at once, as long as they’d walk slowly and carefully.
As long as neither of them made any sudden moves – especially Antonio deciding to jump wouldn’t be a good idea - they would be safe.
Somewhere unknown
“Sabrina, you’ve made a huge mistake.”
“Why?” the blonde-haired girl said, clearly showing no respect toward her – well, at least former - best friend. “I’m not the one who’s been hiding underneath a dark hood for the past thousand years, Maddy.”
Madeleine, trying to reason with her friend, nervously plucked at her dark green robe, while brushing some of her jet black hair off her shoulder. She then looked back at Sabrina, with concerned eyes.
“The Spirits of Light did what they could to save us, Sabrina,” Madeleine said. “It’s just easier for Akilah to communicate with the Guardians if she -”
“So you’re saying that one of the most powerful Spirits of all time is a coward?” Sabrina said, without even letting Madeleine finish. Her face showed a hateful grin, obviously amused at the thought she’d just mentioned.
“She’s not,” Madeleine growled. There was a dangerous tone in her voice. “The Light Spirits wanted to save you too... You know that. We couldn’t find you anywhere, and we ran out of time...”
“Don’t you get it?” Sabrina said, while shaking her head. Her blonde locks flew around her head. “You never wanted to save me in the first place. If you would’ve, then why didn’t you save me when I needed your help most? Didn’t you see me there, crying, begging for you to help me? You stared at me, you knew I was there. You saw me. You could’ve saved me...
Yet you didn’t.”
“Oh, for God’s sake, Sabrina!” Madeleine cried, without even realizing she’d made a slip of the tongue. Tears started to stream down her pale cheeks as she continued to speak. “That’s a lie, and you know it! You know that’s not really what happened! Whatever he’s told you, he’s altered your memories! They’re not real!”
The look on Sabrina’s face was rather unpleased. “He?” she snapped. “You mean Lord Asura, the Master, King of Fear? The one who gave me a new life, another chance?”
Sabrina took a rather hostile position, as if she were to attack Madeleine.
“If it weren’t for him, I would’ve never returned! Not even to this world! The only price to pay for my life was that I’m now trapped here, together with the lot of you! But you were the ones who refused to save me, while he did!”
“Sabrina, I’ve been trying to tell you: WE TRIED TO SAVE YOU!” Madeleine cried. “Why won’t you believe me? We had no idea where you were! Until you suddenly showed up weeks ago! That’s been the first time in nearly a thousand years since I’ve seen you!” She flung her arms forward, looking hopeless and in despair.
“We brought you to Linmor Village, remember? One of the five hundred villages you destroyed! Aubrey tried to save you!”
“Lies,” Sabrina breathed. “The witch is still alive. Boy, do those darned women age slow... It’s rather impossible that they were all still alive, the entire village – considering the state the village seems to be in from the outside... But I made a discovery a few weeks ago, and that’s why I sent Riverdale there, hoping to be able to get rid of him together with the entire village at once... But then apparently his friends needed to find him - again.”
The way she spoke about James and his friends was rather annoyed. Obviously, she didn’t like them.
“If you would’ve killed the boy, you know you would’ve disobeyed and angered your master,” Madeleine said. “Is that really what you would’ve wanted?”
She crossed her arms, a slight smug grin hinting about her lips.
“Were you truly willing enough to risk your own life, just to fulfil some personal vendetta? Really, Sabrina? Were you?”
Sabrina bared her teeth. ?
??No personal vendetta, Maddy,” she growled, “but business. All I intended on doing, was making the boy completely harmless by draining his power. It’d be easier that way to take him to Master Asura, who then would proceed with his plan for Riverdale without any further interference. The vendetta you’re mentioning has nothing to do with Riverdale’s death, nor of any of the Guardians. But with yours. Trust me on my very word, Madeleine: I’m going to kill you all. And then it’s the turn for the Guardians.”
“So he’s got a plan with James?” Madeleine said, completely ignoring Sabrina’s threats concerning her and her fellow Keepers’ lives. “And what about the other one? With the brown hair?”
“Bennett?” Sabrina said, letting out a small snort, while a vampire grin grew on her face. “Oh. Thomas’s an exceptional story... but then again, that girl, Samira... I’m sure she’ll break pretty easy as soon as Master Asura has finished business with her little brother.”
Madeleine’s eyes widened in surprise, as her jaw dropped a couple centimetres. “What?” she stammered.
“Oh, you didn’t know?” Sabrina said. “Your beloved Light Spirit has broken her oath. And for what? This so-called prophecy, the Last Generation of Hope?” She snorted again, obviously amused.
“She’s using you, Maddy. And the boy. All of them.”
“They’re this world’s Last Hope, Sabrina,” Madeleine objected. “The Prophecy... It’s been foretold. He’s the Last One to have the ability to connect with the Golden Wing.
...And you were the first.”
“Yeah, sure,” Sabrina said. “But consider this: what if the boy fails? What if it turns out he isn’t able to connect with the Golden Wing after all? What if they’re all lost, and they don’t even know it yet?”
“He has to, Sab. He’s got the Three Topazes.”
“Not if we get him first.”
“Sabrina-” Madeleine started, but Sabrina interrupted her.
“They’re fighting for a lost cause...” she mumbled. She then continued on an unpleasantly threatening tone:
“You better assemble your Keepers, Wise one. There’s a storm coming.”
Madeleine’s emerald green eyes darkened as she replied to Sabrina’s threat. “Fine. So be it. But be ready, because we’re not going down without a fight.”
Sabrina showed Madeleine a threatening crooked grin. “I wouldn’t expect anything different. But I’m afraid you’ve got no chance of winning. We’ve got more trumps to play... This was certainly not our last.”
The Edge
“How big is this lake, actually? It feels like we’ve been sailing forever!”
Antonio was rowing the boat, while complaining about the length of time they had spent on Imber Lake all the time.
It was obvious that he didn’t like water; or perhaps he just wanted to get the journey done as quickly as possible, since the end of the line was slowly coming in sight.
Samira could partially understand Antonio’s rush; he wanted to go home. She did, too, but what was ahead of them scared her too much to be in a hurry.
She obviously didn’t know what exactly was ahead, but she knew that it could never be good. And the sky in the distance, which was getting darker and darker as it went further into the distance, told her enough.
Wherever they had been earlier, nothing had been as dangerous as what was about to come.
Samira was pretty sure Antonio was aware of that, too, but he was just too stubborn to admit he was scared.
She could’ve asked him if he was all right, or could’ve told him that it was for the better if they’d stay on the – more or less, save the sirens and other water monsters – safe lake for just a little longer.
“Antonio, please stop complaining,” she decided to say instead. “We’ll get there when we get there. For now, we should enjoy our last few minutes in “safety”.” She made sure to use quotation marks as she said that last word.
“Samira’s right,” Bella said. “We have no idea what will happen once we arrive at The Edge. But I do know what it can’t be good.”
“Actually, I’ve been wondering...” James suddenly spoke. “What about that last Keeper? You know, number five? Number one was Rikki, two was Madeleine, three was Gabriel, four was Violina, since one of the Guardians is out of business... So there should be a number five as well, shouldn’t there?” he said, while counting the number of Keepers they’d met thus far on the fingers of his right hand.
“I don’t recall Akilah mentioning five Keepers specifically,” Bella said. “But you’ve got a point.”
Thomas nodded. “But that would mean that they would be hiding somewhere around the Edge, right? I wouldn’t expect any kind of pure being to be able to stay in the Land of Void for longer than a day.”
“And yet we’re going to do it,” James joked. Thomas rolled with his eyes, but couldn’t hide the obvious grin on his face.
“Theoretically speaking,” Thomas said. “Oh well. I’m sure we’ll-” His sentence was interrupted by thick fog, which seemed to kick in almost immediately.
...Black fog.
“Eh...?” the British teenager let out a nervous squeak.
“I’ve got a feeling this ain’t no good!” Antonio shouted, completely disregarding his grammar, and started to row as fast as he could.
“But we’re on the middle of a lake, for Heaven’s sake!” Bella complained. “How could they possibly appear at broad daylight, on water!?”
“I don’t know, Bella,” Antonio gasped between firm rowing movements, “but let’s just get the hell out of here instead of waiting to find out!”
And that was the right thing to do indeed. Whatever was planning on attacking the Bond of Light from the black fog, it wasn’t anything good. They weren’t exactly in the position to fight; a fairly small boat, which could capsize quickly and drop them all into deep water filled with more hostile creatures.
Antonio managed to get them out of trouble fairly quick, as after barely five hundred metres the boat rammed against the shore.
“All right guys, this is it... Exit safety,” James said, as the five teenagers stood up, getting ready to leave the boat.
No word had been too much about The Edge.
Everywhere they looked, the ground was made of either dry soil and gravel or some kind of red-and-black stone. Granite.
And it looked neither pleasant nor safe to walk on.
“Do we – have to do this? As in – can’t we just take the boat, row around until we find somewhere safer?” Bella mumbled.
“Unfortunately not, Bella,” James said. “I’ve looked at The Edge on the map a couple of times. This is the only way we can access the Land of Void... this place was made to keep people away from there.”
He could hear Bella swallow next to him.
“Oh-” she mumbled, while small drops of cold sweat started to glimmer on her forehead. “Well- then I guess... If it’s really the only way... I’d say we should tread carefully.” Bella had normally always been brave, but she’d changed quickly in the past few days. She’d become more careful – more scared sometimes, even. James was sad to see that Lunaria had such a devastating effect on a strong girl like Bella.
“Well, how about before you do that, we have a little chat first?”
A boy approached the five teenagers, not much older than them. He had blond curls and grey, friendly eyes. “I believe we haven’t met before.”
James smiled back at the boy. “No, we haven’t,” he said.
“Well, let me introduce myself,” the boy replied, while shaking James’ hand. “My name is Timothy, and I am the Keeper of Hope. You must be the Bond of Light.”
“Yes, we are,” James said. “Nice to meet you, Timothy.”
“Same to you, my boy,” Timothy said. He then moved his head around, nodding at the others.
“You all must be tired. And hungry. Or maybe both?”
“Well, make that both,” Antonio said, patting his grumbling stomach.
“Antonio, don’t exaggerate it too much,” Samira said. “You’ve had lunch hardly three hours ago!”
Antonio shrugged in response. “I know,” he said, “but the rowing of the boat was very intensive,” he said. “Especially that last bit. And... I just get hungry really quickly.”
Timothy laughed. “All right then,” he said. “I suggest you all pay a visit to my hideout, where we can get to know each other more and also talk a little.”
He then turned around, gesturing at the teenagers to follow him. “I’m sure you’ve got a lot of questions, and I’m sure I can answer them.”