The Marked Son (Keepers of Life) (26 page)

Not Forgotten

I keep my eyes shut, preferring not to see my end coming. I can smell my own fear, even above the stench of the dungeons. My muscles clench, preparing for the touch of a blade. Seconds feel like minutes. What is Sidon waiting for? An invitation to torture me?

A sharp smack lands on my cheek. The unexpectedness of it makes my eyes fly open. Jason’s standing beside the table, a wide grin on his face. “This is no time to fall asleep. We’ve got a torturer to tie up, a girl to save, an evil empire to destroy…”

Behind him, Leo and Bodog lay an unconscious Sidon on the ground. Leo hurries back to me. I’m alive, and humbled that anyone cared enough to find me. I throw a crooked smile their way, and fight to keep my eyes open. “Good to see you,” I slur.

Leo takes a good look at me and frowns. “What’s wrong with you?”

“He’s strapped,” Bodog says, glancing up from the rope he’s using to tie up Sidon. “Iron poisons his kind.”

Jason shoves Leo back. “Hang on, Superboy. We’ll get you away from your kryptonite.” As he manhandles the straps off me, his eyes light up. “I gotta tell you, hands down, this is the awesomest thing I’ve ever done. Did you see that thing that came after us? Two heads! I wish my phone had a camera, but my dad wouldn’t get me one. Thinks I’m gonna strip, click, and send.” He laughs. “Like a picture can do me justice.”

With the straps off, Jason helps me sit up. Once freed, my arms slip to my sides. A bright red rash of blisters and swollen skin rings my wrists. I can barely move. I feel empty and loose and confused. “How did you guys get in here?”

Leo motions toward Bodog. “It was all him. Did you know there’s a tunnel under this place?”

A soft, wheezy laugh escapes me. I should’ve known. Jason and Leo heft me between them, and I glance at Bodog. “Thank you.”

With his large hands, Bodog easily pushes the heavy grate in the middle of the room to the side. His face isn’t exactly smiling, but he looks smug, standing beside his escape tunnel. “Bodog make sure the King’s court never imprisons him again.”

Jason jumps into the hole, no sign of claustrophobia, and my other friends drop me in after him. When I fall, Jason breaks my landing, but my legs are still too weak to hold me upright, and I crumble to my knees in a pit of slushy, watery waste. The stink is terrible.

Leo lands beside me, and with help, I struggle to my feet. Above us, Bodog hangs from his fingertips along the rim and pulls the grate back in place. He lets go and splashes into the pit that stretches out into a narrowing tunnel. No one can fit through the far opening except for maybe a
pux
. There has to be another way out.

A head peeks out of another opening. Pop frowns. “You’re making a racket.” When he spies me, a shadow of a smile emerges. “I was beginning to wonder if they’d done you in.”

I shoot a shocked glance at Leo. “He can talk?”

“Our odd new friend healed him. Apparently Pop was cursed by the
pux
years ago. And now he’s making my life miserable because of it.” The pitch of his voice grows higher. “Did you hear that, Leo? It’s my footsteps. Did you hear that, Leo? I can hear myself breathe,” he mimics. “Curses these days. They don’t even last a lifetime.”

Pop’s smile stretches wider before he disappears.

Bodog rushes by and darts into the opening ahead of us. “Shhhh,” he hisses. “Ears are everywhere in these parts.”

I stare after him as he quickly disappears, startled by the eerie, pale light emanating from him.

Jason leans close and whispers, “If I were Pop, I wouldn’t have eaten anything
he
touched, even if it gave me the power to fly. Nasty goop. The stuff made me want to throw up just looking at it.”

“Yeah,” I say automatically, more interested in Bodog, “but when did Bodog become a glowworm?”

Leo tucks his shoulder more firmly under my arm. “The mushrooms. He rubbed himself with them and then whamo! Grumpy glows. He wouldn’t come anywhere near this place without his mushroom rubdown, and let me tell you, that was disturbing to watch. The sounds he made, his face…” Leo shuddered. “He really needs to do that in private.”

They help me slip into a small crevice hidden in the darkened pit. I stumble over a natural step that keeps the majority of the water at bay, but not totally out of Bodog’s escape tunnel. As we move forward, a feeling of dread splinters my nerves. I try to shake the sound of buzzing from my ears. It won’t stop. Before we round the first bend, I glance back and see a pair of bright lights dart into the pit and hover near our tunnel opening.

“
Pux
,” I manage to say.

Everyone spins around and stares at the twin dots of light.

“Get them,” Bodog hisses at me.

I stretch out my hand and try and pull the power into me, but I’m still too weak. A dozen more lights suddenly buzz into view. Leo and Jason tense beside me. The last time they met with the
pux
, Leo barely escaped being enslaved.

Bodog pushes us forward, his craggy voice urging us on. We all sprint down the tunnel, Pop in the lead. Flashes of light shatter against the walls. It takes me a moment to realize the
pux
are flinging their dust and missing, only because Bodog is using his body to block their aim.

Leo and Jason’s grips loosen as the tunnel twists and turns on itself. I push them ahead. “Go on. I’m fine,” I assure them. I’m not nearly as wobbly as I was a few minutes ago. Neither guy needs more encouragement, and they charge past Pop. The buzz grows. We’re running out of time. The
pux
are far more adept at maneuvering in the tunnel’s tight space.

I search out my power again, feel it surging towards me, and when it floods my body, I gasp. With its strength infusing me, I turn and stand in the center of the tunnel. Arms held out, I call for the nearest tool I can see to defend us. Bodog stumbles to a stop, his back pocked with welts where the
pux
have used their magic on him. “Go on,” I yell over the rising buzz.

A loud roar overtakes the buzzing, and a collective high-pitched scream sounds. Everyone stops and turns to see a huge wave of stinking water crash over the pux. It smashes them to the ground, dampening their light. They fight against the current as it sweeps them back toward the pit.

Whoops of joy rise from my friends. Pop laughs, overcome with relief. He sags against the wall and wipes the sweat from his eyes. Only Bodog refrains from celebrating and shakes his head. “They’ll be back.”

He’s right. “Sorry to do this, but we don’t have a choice.”

Starting at the tips of my fingers, I press my hands together until my palms are firmly united. The walls rumble and slam together, stopping with a whoosh only inches from my feet.

Jason slaps my back as the dust I’ve stirred up with my trick swirls all around us. “It’s good to see you’re back to normal. Well, as normal as doing that sort of thing is. Can we get out of here now?”

Bodog scratches and knocks at the newly joined walls and grunts. “A fortnight’s worth of work gone.”

Knock and scratch. Knock and scratch.

“A vein of granite. Four weeks to dig it out again.” He casts a displeased frown my way, and grumbles nonstop as he leads us back to his underground home beneath Faldon’s house.

No
thank-you-for-saving-my-skin
from the cranky little mushroom guy.

I turn to follow, but Pop grabs my arm and stops me. “You okay?”

It’s so odd to hear him speak. Even though I’ve known him only a short time, I’ve gotten used to his hand motions. As we trudge after the others, I nod. “Yeah. How much time did we lose?”

“Six hours. Bodog says you’re lucky the quills didn’t kill you.”

If he only knew how close I’d come to dying. I don’t want to think about it. My mind—finally clear of the poisonous dungeon—speeds onto what we’ll need to do to get Kera back to my world. I can only hope she’s at Faldon’s, waiting for me.

“Maybe you should slow down,” he continues. “Take a step back until your strength returns.”

Pop’s interest in my welfare makes me pause. Is he angling for a heart-to-heart about leaving this place before we find her?

That will
never
happen.

With my spine bullet straight, I glare down at him. “I’m fine, and I’m not going back until I get Kera. You can leave if you’ve changed your mind, but I won’t go.”

The wrinkles etched into Pop’s leathery face are exaggerated by the faint light cast by the glow of the mushrooms lining the walls. “I won’t lie and say I’m not scared. This is bigger than even I imagined. Someone is causing them to act out.”

“Navar.” Remembering the man’s attitude only makes me more determined to succeed. “It’s all him. Bodog says he’s been itching to be king ever since the last one disappeared.”

“They’re leaderless? That explains a lot. They take on the attitude of their leader once they swear allegiance. They’re splintering under the pressure. Taking sides.”

“Let them. When Kera and I are gone—”

Pop shakes his head, his eyes full of pity. “This affects us all. They’ve declared war.”

“On
me
,” I remind him. “When I’m gone, they won’t have a reason to bother anyone else.”

He lifts a bushy eyebrow, his skepticism clearly written on his face. “You’re pretty sure of yourself there.”

“I’m the one with the tainted blood. I’m the rogue factor. They want
me
.” I jerk my arm free. “Everything else is incidental.”

“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.” His face darkens; his eyes bore into mine. “I didn’t come for you—I’m here for Leo. I won’t let you sacrifice him because of your obsession with a girl. I know how you people get.”

He acts like I’m some sort of biology project he’s been studying. “I’m not like all the other ones, or haven’t you noticed?”

His eyes rake me. “That’s the problem. I
haven’t
noticed a difference. Your kind is all about self. You may not mean to hurt others, but you always do.”

The insult hits its mark. I grit my teeth, muting the angry words that want to come out. I
am
different. I’m not like the
firsts
.

But then the memory of my grandparents’ burning house slices through me like a jagged blade, and my confidence falters. The fear in Reggie’s eyes when he accused me of trying to kill Grandpa, Faldon’s shattered windows, how easily my mind wrote off my friends’ lives because Kera is all that matters...

My weakness. My burning flaw.

My obsessive nature.

I’m
exactly
like the
firsts
.

Irresistible Pull

Twenty minutes later, we climb up from the bowels of the tunnel and into Faldon’s house. Bodog drops the trap door, the sound a boom of warning in the eerie quiet. Pop, Leo, and Jason grip their rifles tightly, but the only sound comes from the tiny dragon dozing near the heat of the kitchen fire and a soft mewling from a fluffy, white cat whose head rises off its paws when we appear. There’s an uneasy emptiness to the house, like it’s unhappy to shelter me again.

I don’t blame it.

“Where are they?” A wave of abandonment swells within me, and I quickly tamp it down. I expected Kera to be back by now. Turning toward Bodog, I ask, “You gave her the message I gave you, didn’t you?”

His big ears wiggle. “Faldon took it.”

“Faldon? Perfect.” His says he’s on her side, but he’s clearly not on mine. “Something’s not right here.”

Bodog’s large eyes sweep the area and rise toward the stairs. “Stay.” He points to Pop and motions him to the window. “Watch.”

While the two older men scout the area, the cat stands and trots directly toward Leo, the bell hanging around its neck a warning of its intent. It rubs against Leo’s legs, purring and weaving between his feet. Basically, being a nuisance.

Jason pulls a distasteful face and cracks his knuckles. “Better you than me. I hate cats.”

“Really? I kinda like ’em. Hey, Pop. She’s a beauty, isn’t she?”

“Shh.” I wave them quiet. The fire colors the room with flickering light, slapping at the shadows and making them dance. The stillness of the night rakes along my nerves. If Kera hasn’t made it back, at least Faldon should be here. It’s what Bodog expects. So, where is the old man?

The cat’s purr grows louder. Leo slips his rifle over his shoulder and picks it up, stroking its tummy and tickling it under its chin. The bell tinkles sharply in the quiet.

Pop frowns at his grandson. “Maybe you shouldn’t—”

One moment Leo’s holding a cat, the next he’s cradling a naked girl with long, flowing, snow-white hair, and startling green eyes. Leo yelps and nearly drops her. She giggles and tucks her head under his chin, rubbing her cheek on his chest. Her pink choker with its tiny bell tinkles cheerfully with every move. Though Jason ogles her freely, Leo refuses to look at her. He spins this way and that, searching for a place to put her, but she hangs on even tighter, refusing to be put down.

Bodog rushes back into the room, and Leo whirls in his direction. Catgirl doesn’t acknowledge the little man. She kicks her pale, bare legs playfully as they dangle over Leo’s forearm and wraps her slender arms around his neck to better tease his hair.

Bodog pulls the girl from Leo’s arms. “No playing, Lucinda. Where is Faldon?”

Lucinda pouts and cuddles into Leo’s side, grinning up at him coyly. “Summoned. By Navar.”

That can’t be good. “Why?”

She doesn’t even glance my way, but walks her fingers up Leo’s chest. He blushes, making it clear he’d rather be anywhere than under Catgirl’s paws.

“It’s your lucky day, Leo,” Jason says with an amused smirk. “I think she likes you.”

I don’t have time for this. I grab her arm and turn her to face me. “Why did Navar want him?”

“Give an answer, true and honest,” Bodog encourages her.

“I will if I want.” She flicks her almond-shaped eyes over me and shrugs. “The ceremony has begun.”

Bodog throws her a heated look. “Duplicitous devil. You let Faldon go?”

She lifts her chin high and glares down at Bodog. “I saw no need to interfere. What do I care about a silly ceremony?”

My voice grows firmer as my fingers tighten on her arm. “The wedding? It’s begun?”

“Nay, the cleansing.” She frowns and tries to pull away.

“Let her go,” Bodog says carefully.

No way. I’ve got someone who knows where Kera is. “What’s a cleansing? Where is she?”

A hint of anger flashes in the green eyes.

“Let her go,” Bodog repeats, and this time the hint of warning in his voice is clear.

Her struggles stop. The dark pupils of her angled cat eyes enlarge, covering nearly the whole of her glassy, green irises. A strange energy tingles beneath my fingers, but I won’t let go. Her long, white hair begins to crackle and fly about her like flashes of lightning. Slowly, she rises off the floor. Everyone else takes a step back, everyone except Bodog, who rushes forward and hooks onto my other arm.

“Release her,” he demands.

Not likely. I tighten my hold, unafraid. I’m past worrying about me. “Catgirl seems to know more about what’s going on than anyone else.”

I shake Bodog off, but he’s very insistent. Lucinda smiles that creepy smile all crazy chicks seem to possess. Bodog’s large hands grab me about my waist and yank. I fall backward, and my fingers slip off her arm. When I hit the floor, Lucinda disappears.

“Whoa.” Jason flinches, startled by her now-she’s-here-now-she’s-not routine. “Tell me that wasn’t for real.”

I turn on Bodog, my face flushed with anger. “What are you doing? Why’d you let her go? She knows what’s going on. I could feel it.”

Bodog’s face is far paler than I’ve ever seen it. Fear emanates from his large eyes, and he whispers roughly, “Never hold a
lutine
captive. They will drag you instantly into the depths of the sea. Abandon you across the universe. Danger follows her. Never trust, ever.” He nods toward Leo. “The one’s they like, they love to death.”

Leo looks ready to faint. “For the record, I don’t like cats anymore.”

Jason shifts his gun and pats Leo on the back. “But she was
hot
. Seriously. I could dig being loved by her.” A strange expression crosses his face. “I wonder if she has a sandpaper tongue?”

Leo shrugs off his hand. “Shut up.”

“Hey, it’s a legit question. You know you were thinking it.”

Bodog struggles to his feet.

I’m seething inside, swamped with hatred for myself and something worse. I can
feel
Kera’s distress. It’s killing me, and my best chance at knowing exactly where to find her just vanished. I get up and stare the little guy down, my chest heaving. “You’d better know where this ceremony is.”

Why do I think I can intimidate him? He points his finger at me and snarls. “The time for anger has passed. Use your head.” He stomps over to the hatch and opens it.

No way. He isn’t doing what I think he’s doing.

“Hey,” I shout, as he descends toward his underground home. “Where’re you going?”

The hatch bangs shut after him, cutting off any more questions. I close my eyes and battle the frustration that’s rising within me. My ribs receive a sharp nudge. I open my eye to see Jason glancing at the trap door. His lips have grown firm and white along the edges. “You know, your new friend’s a weird, little guy, but correct me if I’m wrong—we need him, don’t we?”

“Boys.” Pop waves us over to the window where he’s standing and jabs his finger toward the east. “I think I know where the ceremony is.”

Beyond the darkness of the cottages, a rising glow lightens the sky not more than a mile outside the village wall. That strange pull I felt the first time Kera touched me returns. “That’s it. That’s where she is.”

“We can’t go now.” Pop faces us. “It’s one thing to find her here. It’s another thing to steal her from a ceremony. The word implies people. Lots of people. They’re not going to let us waltz in there, glad hand everyone, and leave with her.”

A loud bang sounds from behind us. We turn, my hands glowing, the guys’ guns pointed and ready to fire. Bodog emerges from the hatch, hefting a large pickax over his right shoulder and a leather bag over his left. He lumbers over to the tables and spills the contents onto it—daggers, short swords, brass knuckles, and tiny, polished silver throwing balls. Curious, we congregate around the table. Bodog hands each of us a few medieval weapons.

Leo palms one of the balls. “Interesting collection. I can see this hurting but not much else. We are supposed to win, right?”

Our little friend picks up a similar ball and rotates it. A high-pitched hum sounds, and about ten seconds later, evil-looking pointy bits spring out. He gingerly rotates it back and the points disappear. He tosses it back to Leo. “Once it sticks, it explodes.”

“Nice, in a sick kind of way,” Leo says, “but I’m not exactly what you’d call athletic, I mean, I can throw, but—”

Bodog tosses him a mechanical sling and a bag filled with more silver balls.

“Sweet. Just point me toward Goliath.”

I sift through the weapons, noticing they’ve been adapted with their own special kind of magic. The ax, Bodog tells us, will send out a shock wave that shakes the enemy to their knees when hit on the ground. I find another sword and a black bag holding a substance that, when spit on, turns to thick, lung-choking smoke.

Jason inspects each weapon, but in the end, doesn’t choose one. “I’ll stick with my gun.”

“The
lutine
would have been nice,” Bodog mutters. “Formidable in battle, but not reliable.”

“Wait one minute.” Pop glares at all of us. “What’s going on here? This was supposed to be a quick grab and go. Dylan’s girl isn’t here, and for all we know, she never was. Now look at us. Are we seriously going into battle?”

We all stare at him, and my chest tightens. I’ve brought this onto them. It’s my battle, not theirs. How can I explain the connection Kera and I have? I know she’s in trouble, that something really bad is about to happen. I felt it in the tunnels, after we left the dungeons, but I ignored it, pinning it on the residual effects of my imprisonment, but it was more than that. Kera is being held against her will, and whether she knows it or not, she’s calling out to me for help. I need to go. I don’t have a choice.

But they do.

Indecision rages within me. Before I can begin to explain, Leo faces his grandfather. That smooth voice turns cold and his features harden. “Yeah. It’s a war. You knew that before we came. You knew it could get bad. We all did.”

Pop shakes his head. “Your father would kill me if he knew where we were. What we’re about to do.”

“Do you have a better idea?” Jason challenges.

“They want Dylan. I say, give them what they want and stop all of this now.”

All eyes turn to me. I don’t blame Pop for offering up my life so quickly. It’s the most logical solution. I’m just surprised no one else thought of it first. “I-if you want to, I-I’m willing.”

Disgust flares across Pop’s face, and he waves his hand at me before looking away. “No. I don’t know why I said that.”

“Bodog does,” the little guy says. “Your scars are showing.”

“What does that mean?” I ask.

“He fought before. Lost. His heart is weary. His mind soft.”

“That’s not—” Pop begins and then stops. His face reddens, and he bows his head.

Leo steps closer to his grandfather. “You don’t think we’ll win. That we don’t even have a chance. Why’d you come along?”

“To save you.”

“From what?”

“Him,” he says, pointing toward me.

Pop’s assertion is so powerful, it vibrates the air, snatching all sound into its echo. When it stills, the quiet deepens until the fire snaps and a log cracks in two. The dragon stretches and spreads his diaphanous wings, beating them.
Whoop. Whoop. Whoop
. He settles back down.

“I get that the plan’s changed,” Jason finally says. “That something odd is going down, but this isn’t going to stop. We’ve got to grab the girl and take out the bad guy, Chuck Norris style.”

Pop sweeps his hand down his face and glares at Jason. “Do you hear yourself? This isn’t an action movie you’re in. Somebody’s going to die. Hell, we could all die.
Dylan
nearly did.”

Everyone stares at the brand that marks me as an undesirable, seared into my shoulder. I can’t ask any more of them. Can’t let my obsession destroy anyone else. “He’s right. You all rescued me. I’ll take it from here.”

I snatch up my things and turn to go, but Leo stops me—physically grabs my arm—his body stiff with anger. “I’m not leaving you to do this alone. I don’t care what Pop says.”