Guardian: Darkness Rising (15 page)

The Master responded sounding genuinely
surprised. “Oh, no, it’s no such thing,” he assured James. “I would
just like to keep you here, where you’re... at your
best.”

James tilted his head, and decided to react on
that last comment this time. “At my best, My Lord?” he repeated
questioningly.

The Master looked at his servant for a short
moment, as if he was puzzled by the fact that his authority was
being questioned – as if he didn’t know how to respond.

“
Your powers are the strongest in
my presence, James,” the Master said. “That’s why you can’t leave
this realm.”

James had no need of knowing the truth.
Obviously, if James were to leave the Land of ‘Light’, he’d end up
in a balanced Realm – at least, for now – and that’d mean the
energy in his soul would become balanced, too. And the Master
didn’t want James to go running back to his friends just
yet.

James would be able to go and destroy them
soon enough, though – the Master just needed to find a way to keep
him dark. Otherwise, James would be of no use.

But the Master had already thought of a way to
keep James under his control. He just needed to test his method on
the guinea pig he’d chosen; if this curse would work on Mari, it
would do the same for James. All it would take was getting Mari
cursed and watching the effects unfold – and then, it’d be James’s
turn.

Of course, the Master was willing to use the
curse on James if he failed to reach Mari – but those matters were
of later concern.

*

As they flew over the realm that had once been
known as the Edge, it was clear to see how the Light had changed
the realm. The cracks had closed, forming one solid landscape that
consisted of grassy and flowery hills.

“
Just look at this,” Mari said to
Luke, pointing at the sea of green below them; she heard him let
out an awestruck gasp.

“
Wow,” Luke said.
“Amazing.”

The sight was utterly breathtaking. The lava
streams and dangerous geysers had made way for a seemingly endless
patch of green and flowers.

Luke and Mari looked at each other; this was
exactly what they had to protect. They couldn’t let the Master ruin
all of this again.

“
Before this place became the
Edge, we called it Louloudia,” Violina, who had suddenly appeared
and was now flying beside Luke and Mari, said. “It... means
‘Flowers’ in Earth’s Greek language.” She smiled as she looked at
the sea of flowers below her. A sea indeed.

“
It’s beautiful,” Daisy said. She
was sitting behind Luke and Mari, and had been studying the
colourful realm down below as well. “I didn’t know there was a
place like this in any universe.”

“
Aren’t you happy you know now,
then?” Violina smiled.

As soon as they reached the
mountains, the dragons landed on a plateau near the top of the
mountain. The dragons were too big to be able to land in the
forest, which had its borders directly at the foot of the mountain,
and therefore, the Guardians had to continue without
them.

“
Actually, it’s a good idea to go
on afoot,” Marco said, as he jumped off the dragon he’d been
riding. “This way, we can secure the safety of our group as a
whole. It’s easier to disappear when you’re afoot than when you’re
flying a six metre-tall reptile.”

“
It might not be the best idea,”
Luke offered, scratching his neck, but not getting off the dragon
he was sitting on, “but it’s our best chance. Which means we have
no choice but to take it.”

The hesitation was obvious, and so were the
reasons why. But Marco was right: just for this once, going afoot
would be a safer solution than risking airborne assault.

After all, the dragons were much larger
targets, and therefore, they were easier to hit.

And so, eventually, after some more arguing,
the Bond of Light, accompanied by Violina, began to climb the
mountain.

By the time they’d reached the top, the sun
was rising, and heavy snow had started to fall.

The Bond of Light had to hurry: it had never
been their intention to go the rest of the way afoot – quite the
opposite, actually – but their current situation had forced them to
do so. Mari needed help, and the most efficient way to get her to
the Valley was by simply creating a diversion.

Glimmer and her family would go
flying
over
the
forest, hopefully tricking James and the Master into thinking that
that was where the Bond of Light was headed.

Without the Spirits’ aid, there was nothing
much more they could do.

Luke regularly checked behind him to see if
his friends were still there, silently thanking the Heavens
whenever he saw that they were still keeping up. He made sure that
Mari remained close by his side at all times, however.

Meanwhile, Mari wondered how long it’d take
before James would find them. After all, it wasn’t quite difficult
to realise that the dragons weren’t carrying anyone; James would
probably be quick to figure it out.

And it turned out that Mari wasn’t wrong. It
didn’t take long before the already chilly air got that familiar,
extra unsettling touch, and the white flakes that were falling from
the sky turned pitch black.

James was approaching.

Luke could feel his heartbeat rising as the
dark creatures rose from the dark snow, and started to swirl around
the group of four. James, however, remained nowhere to be
seen.

Not knowing what to expect, Luke and his
friends agreed to stay still, as the Stalkers silently circled
around them and black snow proceeded to fall. And yet, James still
didn’t show.

Growing impatient, Luke decided it was safe
enough to attack the Stalkers. His friends instinctively did the
same, reaching out for their weapons, save Mari, since she was the
only one without a weapon – she decided to make work of that as
soon as she and her friends would reach the Silver
Valley.

Violina rose into the sky ready to
attack.

As Luke pulled his sword from its scabbard, he
decided to try and intimidate the Stalkers as much as he could. “We
are the Bond of Light,” he stated, loudly and clearly. “We will not
be intimidated by you.”

One of the more humanoid shadows floating near
Luke came closer. Its red eyes were glowing brightly, and its voice
was a low, distorted growl.

“
We were
summoned to do one thing, Guardian,” the Stalker growled. “And
that, frankly, we weren’t summoned to intimidate you.” If the
Stalker had a mouth, it would’ve grinned broadly. “We were summoned
to
finish
you.”

“
GUYS, NOW!” Luke yelped. But the
Stalkers, already knowing they were about to be attacked, beat the
Guardians to it.

They dissolved into smoke and dove to the
ground, where they slithered underneath the teenagers’ feet like
dark snakes. Luke ordered his friends to run, but the Stalkers were
too quick.

In a matter of seconds, an entire patch of
snow twice as big as the ground the teenagers covered fell apart
and began sliding down the mountain, causing an avalanche to occur
that knocked the Guardians off their feet. Luke tried to call out
for his friends, and he could hear them do the same, all while
trying to stay afloat – but soon, the world went white – and then
pitch black.

The snow took them along on its
path of destruction, until it finally came to a stop half-way down
the mountain.

It was dark and cold underneath the snow.
After a while, Luke could hear his friends shout his name above
ground. Luke managed to respond only by digging away just enough
snow to be able to stick his hand above the thick, white layer;
luckily, his friends were quick to get a hold of him, and had freed
him from the cold, white prison within minutes.

“
Thanks, guys,” Luke shivered,
rubbing his arms trying to warm up. He then proceeded to look
around; someone of their team was missing. “But – where’s
Felicity?”

“
The avalanche separated us,”
Marco said gravely, “and further away than we’d expected. We – we
can’t find her.

“
Honestly, I
thought we were lucky to have found
you
. Violina managed to dig up the
four of us-” he pointed at Mari, Daisy and Tony, who looked
exhausted- “but she couldn’t find you. And now, we can’t find
Felicity.”

“
Then for God’s sake, start
digging!” Luke yelled. “We can’t let her die down
there!”

Luke didn’t have to tell his friends twice.
They started digging around; they might’ve been lucky not to have
been buried too deep, but perhaps Felicity wasn’t that
lucky.

Tony was crying. Daisy’s breath was loud and
shaky. Everyone was calling out Felicity’s name – this couldn’t be
the end for her.

The moment the Bond of Light left the Land of
Light, Luke had set one goal; complete their mission and make it
back together.

No one would be left behind, and Luke would
make sure of that.

Eventually, someone found Felicity. She hadn’t
been buried deeply, but the reason her friends hadn’t been able to
find her was that she’d been rendered unconscious; Felicity had hit
her head on a rock.

“
Felicity?” Marco said, gently
shaking the girl in attempt to wake her. “Felicity, can you hear
me?”

“
She’s bleeding, Marco,” Daisy
said, looking at the back of Felicity’s head. “And... by the looks
of her ear, she’s got frostnip.”

“
Doesn’t that develop into
frostbite?” Tony said. Daisy nodded, biting her lip. She then
looked up at Luke.

“
We’ve got to get Felicity out of
here to somewhere she can warm up,” Daisy said, “and
fast.”

Luke stared at his unconscious
cousin. “Take off her armour,” he then commanded. “It radiates the
cold. When her armour is off, take off your cloaks and wrap them
around her – I’ll carry her down the rest of the way.”

Luke’s friends agreed silently and
followed his commands.

“
We’ve got to hurry,” Luke said,
shoving his sword back into the scabbard. “Felicity’s life as well
as Mari’s depends on it now.”

Broken
Curse

But it wasn’t James who’d been the
one to deploy the Stalkers. It had all been the Master’s doing. He
was in a hurry, and had successfully managed to locate the
teenagers.

The Master was very well aware of
the fact that these children were the children of another
generation of Guardians, which made them a threat to his victory.
And, aside from that, they moved fast. Too fast. And thus, the
Master decided to get rid of them. It was too bad he had to give up
his initial plan, which had been to capture Mari and test the curse
on her whilst she was alive, but the Guardians were in a perfect
position for the Master to take them all out at once.

An opportunity he most certainly couldn’t
afford to miss. And that meant that the Master would have to do the
same to Mari as he’d done to Sabrina so long ago – resurrect her
with Dark Magic.

James kept insisting that
he
had to be the one to
go out and collect Mari’s body, but the Master kept refusing his
offers without offering any kind of explanation in return – this
seemed to frustrate James, but the Master didn’t regard James’s
frustration as a threat.

James, however, took that
differently. He was frustrated with the Master and his ways; the
Master refused to give any logical reason as to why James wasn’t
allowed to redeem his previous mistake and had to stay inside the
castle instead.

Unfortunately for the Master,
James wouldn’t get discouraged – quite the opposite, actually. The
curse that James had fallen under apparently didn’t have the effect
the Master had expected. James’s free will was somehow still
stronger than his desire to serve the Master, which made James
vulnerable to the exact thing he was about to do;
run away
.

James came up with an excuse as to why he was
leaving the castle; it was a poor excuse, but for some reason, the
Master fell for it. James told his master he was going to check if
the Spirits had returned to their castle.

But the truth was that James wanted to prove
himself. And, aside from that, James wanted revenge. That Guardian
had humiliated James, and thus he had to pay. And since Thomas was
no longer around, the children had to suffer in his
place.

James quickly made his way to the border of
the Land of Light, stopping at the barrier. The Spirits, who had
gone to the barrier to strengthen it, were nowhere to be seen – but
James could feel their strength flowing through the barrier as he
touched it.

“
This barrier is the only thing
that’s keeping us back, My Lord,” James said. “It must be
destroyed... but you’ve been waiting too long. I shall prove to you
that we can win this... it’ll only be a matter of time.”

And after speaking those words, he crossed the
border between the Land of Light and the Edge.