Chartile: Prophecy (4 page)

“
Outland Post is the last
to still follow the ways of King Aramor and not the tyranny of his
daughter. We pay only the taxes and portions of food that are
dictated in the law as set forth by the King. The elven palace has
very little farmable land. Each town is expected to produce a
certain amount of food to be given to the palace as part of our
taxes. However, since Taraniz has decided she does not wish to wait
for her father to die in order to take his place on the throne
naturally, she has been attempting to change the laws on her own,
which she has no right to do. The other cities obey her out of
fear. I hear rumors she has killed hundreds of people, and taken
many prisoners on petty crimes or actions. But she won’t touch this
place. She fears me.”

Piper drank from her water skin, and cast
each boy a glance before returning her gaze to the fire. Jayson,
Jack and Leo remained silent. None of what Piper had said reminded
them of any video games they had ever played. They still held onto
the hope that they were dreaming.

“
What I can’t understand
is how you three fit into this,” said Piper looking at them all
again. “I find myself wondering why. Why today? Why can’t I get the
old stories out of my mind? Fairy tales about a prophecy. A fairy
tale I haven’t remembered in over ten years, until now.”

Jack and Leo looked at each other confused
as someone began to laugh.

“
Us? A fairy tale?” Jayson
sat between his friends, smiling. His laughter sounded like small
hiccups as he tried to contain them. “Let me guess. We’re some
figment of your imagination and everything that has happened in my
life up until this point was all part of a prophecy? I suppose
there’s some mystical reason I got a D on my last math test
right?”

“
You got a D on Mr.
Harmon’s math test?” asked Leo, furrowing his brow at the boy
beside him.

“
Jayson, stop it.” Jack
glared at his friend as Jayson continued to laugh.

“
No, I’m done with this,”
Jayson said and rose to his feet. Jack and Leo stood and watched as
he headed for the mouth of the cave. “Thank you for dinner, Piper,
right? But I’m out. Peace, man.” Jayson waved at the girl still
sitting beside the fire before slipping out the entrance. Jack and
Leo followed. They gave Piper an apologetic look as they hurried
after their friend.

“
What the heck are you
doing?” Jack asked, running to catch up. Jayson was walking
incredibly fast along one of the path, staring at the ground
beneath his feet. Neither Jack nor Leo knew where he was going, and
they suspected Jayson didn’t have a clue either.

“
If I don’t give into
their test, they’ll have to send us back,” said Jayson.

“
What are you talking
about, dude?” asked Leo. He was already panting and out of
breath.

“
The government, the
military and the conspiracy, remember? If I refuse to give in to
this world they’ve created, they’ll have to send us
back.”

“
Back? What do you mean
back? Jayson, there is no back, just —” Jack stepped in front of
Jayson. He grabbed his shoulders, stopping him short and pinched
Jayson hard on the arm.

“
Ow! What the —” cried
Jayson and rubbed his arm. The sun was setting quickly, but even in
the dim light of dusk, he could see the stern look Jack was giving
him.

“
This isn’t a game,
Jayson,” said Jack “You’re acting so bunk right now, it’s not cool.
Does that valley look like a made up conspiracy world? Or Piper?
She was helping us, and you totally walked out on her! Not cool,
man. Now what are we supposed to do?”

“
Well I’m not going to lie
down and accept it, if that’s what they think!” cried Jayson, “Give
me proof!”

“
Proof?” Leo shouted
throwing his arms into the air. A deafening roar broke through the
darkness somewhere above them. The boys huddled together and stared
up at the strangest creature they had ever seen.

Hunched as it was, it was taller even than
Jack. Its front arms hung long like a gorilla’s though the only fur
it had was a small patch on the top of its head. Its entire body
was covered in a thick, dark gray hide, and its orange eyes bulged
out of their sockets. It stood to roar at them again, and the boys
huddled even closer.

Leo whispered, “How much more proof do you
need?”

“
Shut up!” said Jayson. He
edged toward the underside of the ledge the creature stood on. It
roared again, and banged its fists on the ground. Jack and Leo
pulled Jayson back, but he had managed to grab a large
stick.

“
I’ll distract it. You go
to the village and get help.” Jayson whispered as the creature
began edging its way down to them.

“
Come on, man, enough with
the hero crap. Let’s just run!” said Jack. He gave a longing look
back up the path toward Piper’s cave.

“
And what if it catches
all of us? Better one dead than three,” said Jayson.

“
This isn’t a game —” Leo
stopped short, and gave a high-pitched scream as the creature leapt
from the ledge onto the path directly in front of them. It lunged
for them, swinging its long arms back and forth.

Jayson swung his stick and hit the creature
squarely in the head. The creature shook its head and retreated a
few steps back. Jack, Leo and Jayson began to inch back slowly when
the creature let out a different sort of cry. It was louder, but
still just as terrifying. Dozens of orange eyes glowed out of the
darkness around them as more of the creatures emerged from the
shadows.

The first creature lunged again. It pushed
Jack and Leo to the ground with one swipe of its massive hand and
grabbed Jayson by the collar of his shirt. Jayson screamed and
struggled to break free from the creature’s grasp as it turned,
dragging him off into the darkness. The other creatures closed in
around Jack and Leo. They watched from where they lay on the ground
as Jayson disappeared from sight. They clung to each other as the
other creatures shuffled closer, Jayson’s desperate cries for help
growing more distant by the minute.

Fire blazed into view high above them, and a
figure stood silhouetted against the flame.

“
Up here!” It was Piper.
She tossed a sword and bow staff into the middle of the throng of
creatures that had momentarily stopped at her call. Jack and Leo
caught the weapons, and a pulse of warm, tingling energy flowed up
their arms and through their bodies. Leo cocked his body into a box
frame. He had never done this before, but it felt instinctual. Jack
twirled the staff in front of him, opting for the flurry of an
intimidation factor. He wondered where he had gotten the idea, but
dismissed it. They couldn’t place why, but the boys felt a strength
and understanding as they handled the weapons. There were instincts
and distant memories they were unsure were their own.

Piper had disappeared in her quest to rescue
Jayson. Having made the advancing creatures retreat with a few
well-placed attacks, Jack and Leo took off in the direction they
had last seen her. They slid down a steep embankment and landed on
an outcrop. They looked down to see Piper advancing on the creature
carrying Jayson. It dropped Jayson and turned to face its new
adversary with a snarl. Jayson rolled down the mountainside several
yards before hitting a boulder. His eyes fluttered and then
closed.

More orange eyes appeared out of the
darkness around them. Jack and Leo leapt off the outcrop and
hoisted Jayson up between them.

“
Piper!” Jack cried,
“Let’s get out of here!”

Piper took a deep breath and closed her
eyes. A ring of fire sprang up around them. It was close enough
they could feel the sudden blast of heat, but it did not burn them.
The creatures were blinded by the flash of fire light, and they
fled with angry screams and roars. Piper grabbed Leo’s sleeve and
ran toward the fire. She held out her hand and flames parted before
them.

Leo and Jack somehow remembered Piper’s home
being much closer when they weren’t supporting the entire weight of
Jayson between them. They were relieved when they finally ducked
inside the dark cave. The blood rushed in their bodies and pounded
in their ears, making the stillness of Piper’s home deafening.

“
Put him over there,”
Piper said, pointing to her bed.

Jack and Leo carried Jayson to the bed while
Piper began rummaging through her rucksacks for linen strips and
clean water.

It felt too long before Piper, Leo and Jack
sat staring into the flames of a newly roaring fire once more.
Jayson lay behind them on Piper’s bed, bandaged, cleaned and
resting. The cut on his forehead was the least of their concerns.
The bruise rising around his ribs had them all worried. Jack
glanced at the weapons in the corner as he chewed a piece of bread.
The sword and bow staff he and Leo had used once more among them.
He looked back to see Piper staring at him.

“
You never finished
telling us about that prophecy,” he said to her.

Piper looked away, shaking her head. “It is
nothing. A children’s tale. A superstition. There is no historical
indication it ever occurred.”

“
I don’t know what
happened back there, but when I held that sword in my hand,” Leo
pointed to the blade leaning against the side of the stone wall,
“and I — I, like, wielded it, or something. It was like I had done
it before. I don’t know if I’ve ever believed in prophecies and
stuff like that. Things like that only happen in movies, ya know?
But it’s got me wondering what this prophecy is, and what it’s got
to do with us.”

The fire crackled and popped loudly in the
silence that followed. Piper would not look at Jack or Leo. Her
eyes had found their way back to the flames and to a distant memory
only she knew. She rose and headed for Jayson who still lay
unconscious. She knelt beside him and murmured.

“
In times of
old,

Of magic told,

When dragons ruled the skies,

Four kings there lived,

Four cardinal winds,

And peace on lands did lie.”

She stood and frowned at the sleeping boy.
“That is the beginning of a poem, a story allegedly of the history
of Chartile, and the prophecy. I do not remember it all, but…”

She closed her eyes, wrapping her arms
around herself and sighed.

“
King
Pasalphathe

Of Kingdom South

With courage of the Fire Sword,

King Florine

Of Kingdom East,

Who brought us law and word,

King Jenemar,

Of West Wood far,

Whose love brought peace to all,

King Kasmalin,

Of Northern Wind,

The high king great of all.”

Piper turned back to Leo and Jack, but she
would not meet their gaze. “It tells of how the four kings were
fulfilling a prophecy of their own. Their ancestors had created
Chartile, and they were to bring peace to the land once more. It
tells of a world with unicorns and centaurs, and,” she swallowed
hard, “and magic. All the races of Chartile had their own unique
magic. Then, one of the kings’ brothers became hungry for more
power. He felt the rule of Chartile should belong to one person
alone, and it should be the person with the greatest power: him.
All races should heed him, for his magic was so great, he was
nearly a God himself.

“
Great battles
fought,

And bloodshed wrought,

Their magic failed us in the end,

And ere too long,

Their magic gone,

We wait and wonder when.

“
Some say their magic
simply dried up. Others say the Gods took their magic from them.
Either way, the kings perished and Chartile was left in
ruin.

“
From stranger
lands,

Return again,

Bringing to right the wrongs,

And then in kin,

Come back again,

Joining two worlds as one.

“
Legends claim the lost
descendants from the great kings would return to Chartile one day,
guided by the spirits of the kings. They would bring peace and
magic back to us.” Piper bit her lip and swallowed again. “But
there is no magic, and there are only three of you, not four. It is
a story.” She sighed and moved toward the entrance of the cave.
Jayson caught her by the wrist.

“
You,” he
whispered.

“
What?” asked
Piper.

“
You,” said Jayson again,
“Fire… you’ve been… secrets…magic.” He released her arm and slipped
back into unconsciousness.

Piper stood frozen, staring down at Jayson.
She turned, and took off for the mouth of the cave. Jack hurried
after her and Leo stood to attend Jayson.

Chapter Four

Gran

Jack followed Piper and found her sitting
quietly atop the overhang of the cave entrance. She gazed at the
stars and paid little attention to him joining her.

“
Do you see that
constellation there?” she finally asked after several long minutes
of silence, pointing to the sky. “Those four stars in a line, then
those six that look like a hilt? That’s called Pasalphathe’s
Courage.” Jack could hear her steady, controlled breathing as she
worked to keep tears at bay. “Jack, I —”

He could hear the strain in her voice. She
fell silent, staring into the palm of her hand. Slowly, a soft,
yellow glow formed in the center of her hand. Jack watched in
wonder as a small flame danced in the light of the newly risen
crescent moon. She closed her hand and the flame disappeared.