Guardian: Protectors of Light (37 page)

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
underneath 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?”