Guardian: Protectors of Light (39 page)

Even though all of this,
he had to admit he’d never went to the Land of Void, so he knew
pretty much about that place.

And who could blame him
for that? At least James and the others didn’t. They could
understand that after Timothy had returned to his own Realm, he
didn’t have energy – or courage, for that matter – left at all to
pay a visit to the Land of Void.

“
I shall be
your guide through the Edge, and the Land of Void,” Timothy said.
“It’s about time I got to learn all the secrets to the last Realm.
Just to complete my collection of knowledge and get you guys to the
end of the line safely, of course.”

“
But I
thought you weren’t allowed to leave the Realm you were chosen to
protect for too long,” Samira said. “What happened to that
rule?”

“
Ah, yes,”
Timothy said, understanding Samira’s confusion. “This particular
rule is only in effect when we are off-duty. But when we are
guiding the Bond of Light,” he took a second to gesture at the five
teens sitting around him at the table, “we’re doing our duty, so
that means we’re allowed to leave our Realm temporarily, as long as
we return to our Realm after our duty’s been done.”

He smiled through his
grey eyes at Samira. “I am allowed to stay with you five until I’ve
fulfilled my duty and I know for sure you’re all safe.”

“
That’s good
to hear.” Samira smiled back at him.

“
Uh- so- is
there anything else we should know?” James interrupted the two,
clearly uncomfortable seeing how well Timothy seemed to get along
with Samira. Thomas let out a small snort hidden behind his
hand.

“
That’s my
sister, you pervert,” James muttered behind his teeth.

Timothy either pretended
like he hadn’t heard what James had muttered, or just really hadn’t
heard, because he smiled at the redheaded sixteen-year-old while
speaking.

“
Well,
there’s one thing I could help you with...” he said. The next
moment, he stood up from his chair and walked off into the
room.

James turned his head to
follow Timothy around the room with his eyes, and saw that Timothy
had picked up the mysterious object James himself had been staring
at earlier.

As Timothy sat back down
in his chair and put the brown, rectangle object on the table,
James finally knew what it was.

A book. A big, brown
book.

“
This book,” Timothy said, “is called
A Guardian’s Guide to the
Light
. It contains
information of every single Realm from a Guardian’s point of view.
I’ve been writing this for over nine-hundred years.”

“
Oh, and
that’s why you travelled so much! To get information for the
book!”

“
Yes, that’s
why,” Timothy said. “I wrote down everything I’d learned from our
journey in Lunaria as Guardians first, then started adding
information from my travels. This book might come in handy if you
need to save yourself out of nasty situations.”

He shoved the book across
the table toward James. It didn’t make it all the way, but James
got the hint. He took the book and placed it inside his leather
sac.

“
Read it as
often as you can,” Timothy said. “Whenever time allows
it.”

James nodded. “Got
it.”

“
You see,”
Timothy said, “it contains more information than what any other
Keeper has told you before. Of course Madeleine, Gabriel and Rikki
know almost as much as I do – since they went everywhere I went.
Except for Rikki and Gabriel... Since, you know – Rikki was killed
on Imber Lake by – some kind of shadow monsters, which seemed to
come from underwater. Did you encounter them?”

“
Almost,”
Thomas said. “We got out of there as soon as we saw
fog.”

“
Good,”
Timothy said. “You’re vulnerable out on the water. One of you
could’ve died like Rikki did... And Gabriel lost it after she did.
He committed some heroic suicide...”

Timothy paused for a
second and swallowed. “At the end of the Edge, there’s a ravine to
prevent Lunariae to cross to the Land of Void. Sabrina had gone
missing just after we’d left Linmor Village, and we had to get to
the other side of the Ravine...Gabriel had climbed down the ravine
and had tied a rope tied to a rock... He then jumped, still holding
the rope, and it seemed as if he’d climbed back up to a higher spot
in the ravine and somehow managed to tie the rope around another
rock without getting hurt... But he didn’t really.

The last we saw of him,
was when Madeleine and I had climbed to the other side by using the
rope, and he said: ‘I wish you both good luck, and I hope you find
a way out of this hell... But it’s too late for me.’”

Timothy paused again.
Telling this tale was the hardest so far. “He... Then...We noticed
the blood stain... He’d got hit by one of the rocks while taking
the rope to the other side – it looked really severe, and – he then
just fell backward into the ravine...”

He buried his face in his
hands for a few seconds. “That was the worst thing I’d ever
seen.”

The Bond of Light just
sat there, in complete silence. “We had no idea...” Samira mumbled.
She looked at Bella, then at Antonio, then at James.
“So...”

“
Madeleine
and I tried to keep our promise to Gabriel that we’d find a way
out, and we made it to the end of the Void... But... We never got
out. We didn’t save Lunaria,” Timothy said.

“
But we are,”
James said. He noticed that he’d stood up as he spoke. “We’ve come
this far, we’re still all in one piece, and I’m not giving
up.”

Thomas looked at him and
stood up as well. “I’m with you.”

Samira looked at the duo
and smiled before standing up as well. “I’m with you two, too.
We’ve got to do this.”

Antonio now stood up as
well. “If we stay together, we can do it,” he said.

Finally, Bella rose to
his feet too. “Indeed,” he said. “We’ve got plenty of brain and
brawl, we should be able to do this. It won’t be easy, but we just
have to believe in ourselves.”

The five teens looked at
Timothy. “And you, Timothy? Are you with us?” James
asked.

Timothy lowered his eyes
and sighed, but then smiled as he rose from the chair. “Of course I
am,” he said. “Why wouldn’t I be? Payback time for the guy that had
to ruin millions of lives? Always.”

“
All right
then!” James cheered, before letting out a yawn. “We’d better catch
some sleep... I don’t think we’ll be able to sleep during the night
safely when we’re in The Edge. Due to the Dark Magic, even the Day
isn’t completely safe around there.”

“
He’s right,”
Timothy said. “You better go spike up your energy levels before we
leave this place. It’s about the safest place we’re going to have
from this moment on. I’ll wake you up; we’ll leave at
sunset.”

And so they did. Timothy
showed them the bedroom as the Bond of Light got rid of unnecessary
and/or uncomfortable clothing and accessories and lay
down.

Fire and
Water

While his friends spent
their time asleep, James spent most of it reading the Guardian’s
Guide to the Light Timothy had given to him.

It contained information about literally everything in
Lunaria, from its creatures (A short bit of what Timothy had
written on Fairies:
Most
Fairies are cute and adorable and are not bigger than a hand, but
some of them, known as either Warrior Fairies or Dark Fairies, are
as big as a normal human and have been created by a curse, and are
meant to attack any creature that enters the Fairy Woods in the
Fantasy Valley
.) to different
types of eyes (
Each creature
has their own kind of eye. But the Cursed Eye is always the same;
an orange glow, and a cat-like pupil. Some Cursed Spirits have the
ability to hide their eyes, so always be careful whenever someone’s
acting strangely!
Side note:
Cursed Eyes are the same eyes as those of Shadow
Creatures.
)

Timothy sure had gathered
an impressive amount of useful and interesting information, and he
had written it in such a fashion which made James enjoy reading it,
despite of the obvious old-English fashion the writings had to
them. Maybe Timothy knew something, a solution, which would prevent
the scary fate the Master had mentioned after they completed the
Ritual. Keeping that thought in mind, James closed his
eyes.

He must’ve fallen asleep
as the afternoon went on, because the sun was setting when he was
awakened by Samira, telling him it was time to go.

James packed the heavy
book in his leather sac and put his cape back on before joining the
others.

Before leaving, the five
teenagers ate whatever was left of the food they had received from
Queen Eloine. They had barely eaten anything in the past few days,
with the lunch in Linmor Village being an exception, so they were
grateful for the given time to eat the leftovers of that
lunch.

Timothy advised them to
fill their water sacs at the Lake’s edge before leaving, which they
did. The Edge was very hot (hence the lava pits), and water would
probably be more precious than food there.

After all the water sacs
had been filled, there was no more reason for procrastination. It
was truly time to go. Off into the unknown, leaving the safety of
Lunaria all behind, to finally end this journey and free Lunaria’s
inhabitants from their tyrant.

Timothy’s house had truly
been at the absolute edge of The Edge (pun intended), since there
seemed to be a tiny stream of lava with some sort of stone “bridge”
separating the island his house was on from the true dangers of The
Edge.

It was obvious that no
Lunarian dared to tread there; as James looked up to the sky
further in the horizon, he could see the clouds pack together,
turning darker and darker every kilometre. He could almost see the
blackest clouds above the Land of Void, and shuddered.

They were coming very
close to the end now. Too close. He remembered the Prophecy... And
the weird dreams he’d had over the past weeks...

What if all of that was
true? He’d tried not to think about them, but as they got closer to
the finish line, the thought of everything being true crept up to
him more and more.

He heard Timothy explain
something to his friends in the distance, and it sounded rather
important, but James couldn’t listen to what he had to say right
now. He was too busy thinking about the future, the dark shadow
that awaited the five of them.

It also reminded him of
something Sabrina had told him while Thomas and the others had been
talking to Aubrey. Something which caused him to question
everything he’d seen and done so far.

“
One of the
Keepers around here in Lunaria is not what they seem. Keep your
eyes open, or else you might wind up in some serious trouble. Don’t
let them trick you. Especially not in over-using your Magic... Like
you did yesterday, that’s wrong. It’ll cause you to end up
completely drained from all of your energy. You should be more
frugal when it comes to your Magic. That trick with the glowing
path? Really cute, but it drained your energy.”

One of the Keepers is not
what they seem... What did she mean by that?

“
James?”

James turned his head
toward the direction his name had been called from, and he
discovered that he’d somehow turned away from his friends and had
been staring into nothing for nearly five minutes
straight.

“
James? Are
you all right? Is there something wrong?” Timothy said.

James shook his head
heavily, his slightly curly red hair flapping around his head. The
gel in his hair had become nonexistent in the past few days,
causing his hair to curl more.

“
No,” he
said. “I’m all right. I was just thinking.”

“
About what
then, silly?” Samira asked on a teasing tone. “Timothy just
explained how careful we’ve got to be in The Edge. Thomas even has
to wear the hood on his cape.”

Thomas nodded at James.
He was wearing the hood of which James had always wondered what
it’d be useful for.

“
Huh?” James
mumbled, realising how stupid he sounded. “What’s the hood
for?”

“
Huh?” Antonio mimicked James in a slow voice. “That’s
exactly why you should’ve listened while Timothy was
explaining
why, Jiminy Cricket.”

Timothy chuckled. “It’s
all right guys,” he said. “I’ll explain it again. You see, James,
Thomas’s sceptre has the ability to read thoughts, minds and
feelings of all sorts of creatures, but it also makes it easier for
the creatures to attack him – or us - by sending him false
information. This hood protects his mind from anything which is
sent out purposely.”

“
Sweet,”
James replied with a smile. “Anything for us we need to
do?”

“
Not that I
can remember, no,” Timothy said. “I think that that’s practically
all. We’re good to go now.”

“
Well, then
what are we waiting for?” James said. “Let’s go kick some
butt.”