Guardian: Protectors of Light (31 page)

“
RUN!
NOW!”

The five teenagers didn’t
think twice before getting on all fours and starting to run, in the
same direction as where they’d come from.
But, of course, it didn’t take too long before the Warlock Spirits
noticed and ordered each other to go after them. “Get them! Don’t
let them escape!”

And so the hunt was
on.

They were running again,
like they had been doing all week, ever since they came here. It
hadn’t mattered; they had to run due to their own actions,
creatures trying to kill them or other people telling them to do
so.

All they had been doing
in the past week was running. Especially when speaking of running
away from the truth.

In fact, everything they
had been running from was the truth. Reality.
“Everyone okay?” James panted. He was quite a sporty guy, but he
wasn’t an athlete. He wasn’t prepared for running this much, every
day over and over again. He felt like he was about to have a
burn-out, and would just break down to the ground.

But apart from that, he
didn’t understand what the Warlock Spirits wanted. They had
obviously been summoned by the Niveluae. But still...

A couple of days ago, they wanted James to turn himself in,
which he didn’t do, of course.
And now, all of the sudden, they were after Thomas. Were they
trying to figure out who was the leader? What made them so special
that the Master wanted them specifically?
He didn’t get too much time to think about it, nor did he allow
himself. He had to stay concentrated, or else he or his friends
would get in trouble.
More
 trouble.
“Make sure to stay close to each other, guys,” he heard Thomas say
right next to him. “Make sure we don’t get separated.”

His friends followed his
orders. In fact, Samira grabbed James’ wrist to “make sure her
little brother wouldn’t get lost.”

Still, it was as if
Thomas had barely spoken the words before it all went terribly
wrong.
One of the Warlocks pulled out something which looked like a
sceptre, with a bright red glowing orb at its end.

He pointed it toward
Thomas, and a red beam of light shot out of it. Unfortunately
enough, James noticed the beam of light before Thomas
did.

“
THOMAS!”
James shouted. He let go of Samira’s hand, and ran toward Thomas,
to get between him and the red light.

Black shadows with a deep
red glow wrapped themselves around the redhead’s middle, and pulled
him toward the Warlock like a tractor beam.

“
JAMES!” Thomas yelled. But when he tried to run after
James, another Warlock did the same to him, and both boys were
forcefully pulled toward the four Warlock Spirits.
“Two birds in one stone,” one of the Warlock Spirits said. “This is
just too easy.”
James struggled all he could, and even tried to escape using his
Magic, but couldn’t. All he could do was shout at the others: “RUN,
GUYS! RUN! BEFORE THEY GET YOU TOO! RUN!”
Samira and Bella just stood there in shock, frozen in place. But
eventually, Antonio yanked them along.

“
Haven’t you
heard the guy? Run!” he shouted.

“
But we can’t
just leave them behind!” Samira protested.

“
There’s
nothing you can do when you’re captured, Samira! We must find
Fiyara and figure out how to save them! But right now, all we can
do is do what they told us to do: and that is run! Run back to
Fiyara as fast as we can! She knows everything about these
mountains, so she might as well be the only person that could
possibly help us now!”

Samira looked back, and
saw how the two boys still struggled to get away from the
Warlocks.
Thomas’s hands and feet had been tied together by the shadows, but
was also being dragged forward at his middle.

James’ torso was
completely covered in the dark stuff; he tried to dig his feet into
the ground, but failed to do so, since all there was to dig in was
powder snow.

“
Please be
strong, guys...” she whispered. “Please find a way to escape. Like
you’d always do.”

It didn’t last long
before Bella, Samira and Antonio ran into Fiyara again.

Fiyara reacted shocked
upon seeing the fear in the eyes of the three teenagers who were
standing in front of her, while panting loudly.

All around them lay
massive heaps of snow, and – strangely enough, considering the
temperature was beneath zero degrees Celsius on the top of the
mountains – melting icicles; the remains of the Niveluae Fiyara had
managed to defeat.
“Guardians!” Fiyara shouted. “What happened? Where are the your
friends?”

“
James and
Thomas- they were captured... By Warlock Spirits,” Samira panted,
still in shock. “They told us- to run, so we did- and we decided-
to come to you, hoping you- could help us or at least tell us-
about the Shadow Creatures’ ways...”
Fiyara sighed. “I tried everything I could to stop them. I really
did.
But one of them managed to get away and summoned your friends’
captors.” She lowered her head, staring at the
floor. 

“
I’m terribly
sorry. This is my fault.”

“
Of course it
isn’t, Fiyara,” Bella said. “Those monsters were immensely huge.
It’s not your fault. We couldn’t have stopped them either and we
were with five.”

Fiyara looked up at the
sixteen-year-old and offered him a weak smile.

“
I appreciate
you saying that, Guardian, I really do. But part of this is my
responsibility, and I am willing to accept the consequences. I
shall do whatever I can do to help you rescue your friends.” She
turned around, and looked at the night sky. “I might as well know
something which could help us track them down before they leave the
mountain...”

“
What do you
mean?” Antonio asked. He walked a few steps forward. “Since you’ve
got me quite curious right here...” He kicked some of the fluffy
snow up, causing his reddish leather booths to be covered in white
specks. 

Antonio looked very
careless and nonchalant at first sight, with his hands in the
pockets of the furry beige XL snow coat, kicking up the snow as if
nothing mattered.
But when you looked closer, you could notice the worry in his eyes.
James and Thomas were smart guys, but they had never actually dealt
with anything like this.

These guys truly implied
on killing them. Plus, they had way more dangerous weapons. And
Dark Magic.

Especially the Dark Magic part was horrifying. They had
nothing to defend themselves with if it came to that part. Even
Samira couldn’t heal wounds or anything caused by Dark
Magic...
So if anything happened to James and Thomas that would involve Dark
Magic, it would mean serious bad news.

Treacherous
Ally

A soft wind blew across
the mountain, causing Fiyara’s dress to glitter in the moonlight.
She threw her long, white hair back over her shoulders and crossed
her arms.

“
I know what
the Warlock Spirits do when they take captives on the Mountains of
Pruina, since I’ve seen it happening before,” she said. “I know
what route they take. All we need is to track them down and catch
them somehow.”

She turned around,
floating above the ground. “Could you show me where they were
caught?”

Samira nodded. “Of
course, just follow us. Our footsteps will lead us straight
there...” Suddenly, the teenage girl gasped in surprise.

“
What?”
Antonio asked.
“That’s it! Footprints! We can just simply follow the footprints of
the Warlock Spirits!”

“
Samira! What
a marvellous idea!” Bella cheered. “You’re absolutely
brilliant!”
“No need to remind me,” Samira said teasingly, and flipped back her
hair, that was still tied up in the same braid as how she’d done it
back at Queen Eloine’s palace.

Fiyara smiled sadly. “Samira, I am terribly sorry,” she
said. “But... Warlock Spirits don’t
have
any
footprints...”

Worry struck the
eighteen-year-old’s blue eyes. “What!?” Samira shouted. “But- how
are we supposed to track them, then?”

“
Don’t worry,
dear, we will find them,” Fiyara replied. “Just leave it to
me.”

*

The foursome followed the
footprints all the way back to where the ambush had taken
place.

The Warlock Spirits were
gone, and so were James and Thomas.

In the pale moonlight,
signs of struggle and dragging across the snow were clearly
visible.

James had been trying to
dig the tips of his feet in the ground all the time, which had
resulted into two deep lines being drawn across the floor, leaving
two heaps of snow behind at the end of the tracks.

The place where Thomas
had been dragged away looked different. Since he’d been tied to
hand and feet, Thomas couldn’t do anything. But the drag was
clearly visible.
Samira also noticed something lying on the ground.

Something
brown.

“
Thom’s
shoulder bag!” she said, while walking toward the leather bag. She
picked it up and wiped the snow off the surface of the sealed
bag.

“
Thomas
must’ve wriggled himself out of it. As if he didn’t want the
Warlock Spirits to have it.”

“
I’m not
surprised he didn’t, since it contains our food and the map,” Bella
replied. “He hoped we’d find it later on and took it.”

Samira hugged the bag.
“Poor Thomas,” she whispered. “You’re so brave...”

“
Samira, 
please
 don’t
drift off,” Bella said. “We need you right here, right
now.”

Samira looked at her. Her eyes clearly
said: ”
How do you
know!?”
, but Bella decided
not to

continue talking about
it.

They had a job to do, and
that was saving their friends.

*

James was hanging upside
down from the ceiling, still trapped in the shadow-stuff. He didn’t
know where he was; the room was far too dark to see,
anyway.

“
Ah. I see
you’re awake.”
A deep, raspy voice with a dangerous tone spoke to James; however,
he had no idea where the voice was coming from, as the room around
him was all dark. But the mysterious speaker revealed himself
shortly to James; two glowing eyes appeared in the dark. James
first thought it was another Warlock Spirit, but it couldn’t be, as
one eye had a cat-like pupil, and the other didn’t, as if the other
eye was blind.

The man spoke while
remaining in the dark, as if he didn’t want James to know what he
looked like. “Welcome, young Guardian. I have been expecting you;
you may call me Master Asura.”

“
Easy for you
to say,” James said, while struggling to get himself free. The
blood was rushing to his head, and his head started to ache. “You
were the one who sent out those monsters to capture me and...” He
started. “Thomas...” he whispered. “Where is Thomas!? What have you
done to him!?”

The Master laughed. “Stop
yelling, dear boy,” he said. “That’s just the blood rushing to your
head talking. Your friend is safe, behind me. He’s still...
asleep.”

“
If he dies,
I swear to you I’ll make sure the same thing happens to you!” James
yelled, fuelled with hatred for the being, who though he had the
right to appear in the form of a man. “I won’t let you hurt my
friends!”

The Master laughed even harder; he was mocking James. “I
like that attitude, my boy,” he said. “There’s so much hate burning
inside your innocent little soul... You’ll probably hate me even
more when I tell you the
truth
about the
Spirits of Light.” The tone of his voice darkened, and James became
slightly pale underneath the reddish colour on his
cheeks.

“
What are you talking about?” he asked carefully, but
quickly added, “you don’t expect me to actually
believe
anything you say, right?”

The Master let out a
small chuckle. “They didn’t tell you?” he said. “Of course they
didn’t.”

His eyes moved upward, looking James straight in the eye.
“They want you dead, my boy. All five of you. It’s not
me
who’s being the villain here. Of course, I have my...
ah...
quirks
,” he chuckled
at the sound of the word, “but I’m not the one who’s brought you
here, right? Put you on this dangerous quest? You’re just a boy.
And you won’t make it out of here alive, whether I kill you or the
Ritual.”

“
Just get to
your point!” James shouted; worry had begun to layer his voice.
“Just tell me what you want to!”

“
All you need to know is that the Ritual is a trick,” the
Master said. “The Spirits will use your life force to relight this
world. Don’t you get it, boy?
They require your death.
Just to get their precious little kingdom back.”

“
I don’t
believe you,” James spewed. “I bet your monsters are after my
friends right now... I swear, if I get out of here and find out my
friends have been harmed-!”

The Master raised an to James invisible hand and laughed.
“Oh, don’t worry, my boy,” he said mockingly. “Your friends won’t
be harmed... by
me
.” James couldn’t
see the outstretched hand that pointed towards him, ready to cast a
curse.