Guardian: Protectors of Light (42 page)

“
You’re
thirteen!” Gabriel shouted. “I don’t want to lose you, Rikki! Not
again!”

“
You won’t,
Gabriel,” Rikki said. “I promise.”

Gabriel grunted. “I can’t
believe I’m going to say this,” he said, “but all right. You can
come.”

He then looked at
Madeleine. “How about Timothy? Don’t we need to get him
too?”

Madeleine shook her head.
“No,” she said. “He’s guiding the Guardians to the Land of Void. We
can’t risk anything happening to them there now.”

Gabriel nodded.
“Understood.”

“
Well then,
Gabriel,” Madeleine asked, “are you with us?”

“
Yes,”
Gabriel said, while nodding again. “I’m with you. Always. Just like
I was a thousand years ago.”

*

After a quick nap, the
six teenagers decided to take the remaining time of the day by
resting in the more comfortable climate for just a little
longer.
Timothy hadn’t exaggerated a single word: Ahead of them lied a
ravine of at least 10 metres deep and perhaps 50 or 100 metres
wide, splitting the two “continents” apart.
Down in the ravine streamed a small stream. A river.
“So... How are we supposed to get past here?” James asked. “I mean
– without falling to our death? We can’t just jump in, nor can we
climb to the other side. So how are we going to get to the other
side?”

Thomas gave him a confused look. “What’s the rush?” he
asked. “I’m not exactly feeling 
that
 excited to
go there.” He gave a small not at the foggy, hidden mystery that
laid across the ravine.

“
I’m not really in 
that
 kind of a
rush, don’t get me wrong,” James defended himself. “But I do wish
to finally go home.”

The others responded by
giving him a small, understanding nod. They got it. They wanted to
go home too.

“
Well, I
wouldn’t advise you to do it the same way as Gabriel did,” Timothy
said.

“
It appears
as if the ravine dividing this land from the Land of Void has grown
larger in the past thousand years.”

Samira walked over to the
edge of the ravine and looked down.

“
Careful,
Samira!” James warned her. Samira more or less ignored
him. 

“
That’s quite
a deep drop,” she noted as she looked down. “We’ve got to be
careful.”

“
We sure do,”
Antonio said. “it’s easy to lose someone here if we’re not
careful.”

He looked around, perhaps
looking for any anchor points to tie a rope to. 

Unfortunately, as there
were no trees, and the tiny rocks scattered around the ravine’s
edge were too small to carry one person’s weight, let alone six
before it’d slip over the edge, there were none.

“
So... Actually, I suppose James is right,” he said. “What
exactly 
are
 we going to
do about the ravine?”

Timothy shook his head.
“I have no idea,” he said. “It’s changed a lot around
here...”

“
Yeah,”
Antonio replied, sarcasm hinting through his way of speaking.
“You’ve mentioned it a couple times before.”

Suddenly, James gasped.
“Samira! I know what to do!” he exclaimed, as he rose a fist in the
air.

“
What’s it,
James?” Samira said. “Have you got an idea?”

“
I sure do,”
James replied triumphantly, as he walked over toward the ravine’s
edge.

“
What if I
tried to use a little bit of my Magic to build us a fine hanging
bridge?”

“
James, no-”
Samira objected while raising her palms, but James completely
ignored his sister’s objections.

“
Remember
what happened last time, James?” Samira objected.

“
So what?”
James shrugged. “All I’ll need afterwards is a bit of sleep, and
then I’ll be fine, Sam.”

Samira grunted, clearly
irritated by her brother’s naivety. “Please, James! It’s the Land
of Void! What if something bad happens?”

“
Samira!”
James moaned, in the same, irritated tone. “I am not ten! I am
sixteen years old, and very capable to take care of
myself!”

“
Well,” Samira replied, more or less angered now, “I’m not
sure if you noticed, but whether you’re ten or sixteen, you’re
still 
my
 little
brother, and 
I
 feel
responsible of taking care of you!”

The two hadn’t realized
until now that they’d ended up standing nose-to-nose with each
other. The others stood in the background, silently staring at the
seemingly escalating argument between brother and
sister.

The two teens slowly
walked a few steps backward, both showing embarrassed expressions
on their faces.

“
Sorry. I
didn’t mean to shout,” Samira mumbled.

“
It’s okay,”
James assured her. “I started this by bringing up the idea. But I
just really want to do this. To test myself just a little more,
see?”

Samira smiled and nodded.
“Then you should do it.”

“
Really?”
James asked. “Are you sure?”

Samira responded by a
simple nod.
James made a jump in the air, while punching it with a fist.
“Wicked! Well, I better get started then!”

Samira slowly walked
toward Thomas.

“
Are you sure
this is a good idea, Samira?” the Brit whispered, while looking at
James, who was concentrating on bringing the bridge to
life.

Samira shrugged. “We’ve
got to trust him,” she said, also with her eyes fixed on James.
“He’s right; he’s not ten years old anymore. He should be able to
take care of himself and make his own decisions by now.”

Meanwhile, James was busy
trying to create that hanging bridge.

This was going to be a
lot harder than just “summoning” water from a dried-up well. But if
he concentrated hard enough, he could do it.

He visualized the bridge
coming to life, hanging by its ropes in the ravine front of him. A
bridge steady enough to walk on.

James peeked at whatever
waited in front of him through his eyelashes, and he was delighted
to see a bridge was forming.

Blue sparkles floated
around as they were crating the wood and ropes. His plan was
working.
Unfortunately enough for him, he was focusing on the bridge too
hard to even notice the disaster going on behind him.

The Dark Magic corrupting
the Edge was strong enough to allow four Warlock Spirits to walk
during the day, in bright daylight, accompanied by three Shadow
Walkers in wolf form.

“
Hello, young
Guardians,” one of the Spirits growled. They all sounded awkwardly
the same.

“
At long
last, we meet again.”

“
Should’ve
stayed away,” Thomas grunted, while reaching for his sword. But the
Warlock Spirit was faster, flinging the sword out of his hands by
the flick of a wrist.

“
Hold on a
second, young man,” the Evil Spirit hissed dangerously.

“
You wouldn’t
want to start a fight with Samira’s dear brother’s life at stake,
now would you?”
A thousand thoughts shot through Samira’s head at a
time.

How did they
know? How did they find out? Who told them?

But only one thought made
it through. The only thought which truly mattered to her. And that
was the thought she yelled out loud as she turned around:
“JAMES!”
But it was too late. James, who had just finished the bridge, had
turned around to call his friends and move on, only to be lifted a
metre off the ground.

Samira jumped at the
Spirit keeping her brother captive, but the Spirit swiftly moved
away, causing Samira to end up smacking her chin on the
ground.

“
Careful, my
darling,” the Spirit threatened her. “If you cause me to lose my
concentration, I might just... drop him.”

And, just to prove he
wasn’t bluffing, the Warlock Spirit loosened his grip on the
invisible force which held the boy up, letting him fall for a split
second before grabbing him again.

“
If you hurt
one hair on his head, I swear I’ll-!” Samira growled.

“
What?” the
Spirit asked, slightly tilting its head, clearly unimpressed by
Samira’s threats.

“
You’ll do
what? Attack us, with your tiny little bow and arrow, while your
poor brother plummets to his death? Is that what you want,
Guardian?” 

The look in Samira’s eyes
remained filled with anger and hatred for a second, to make place
for a different expression, which filled both her eyes and heart.
Fear.

It was true. He was
powerless against this. If she’d make a single wrong move, the
Warlock Spirit would drop James in the ravine without showing any
kind of mercy or hesitation.

“
Samira,”
James shouted. “Just go! I’ll catch up with you guys later! Just
cross the bridge and go!”

“
Are you out
of your mind?” Samira shouted. “We’re not leaving you behind,
James!”

“
Oh, come on,
Samira,” James said, while letting out a sad chuckle. “Look at me,
then. I’m hanging just about a metre above an eleven
metre-drop. 

I don’t think we’re
really in a position to demand anything right now.”

“
Don’t worry,
James!” Timothy shouted. “We’re called Keepers for a reason, you
know!”
All eyes were pointed at Timothy after he’d said that. As if it’d
appeared out of thin air (which was most likely what it’d done), he
was suddenly wearing a royal purple-coloured cloak, and he held two
katana sword. One in each hand.

But these were no
ordinary swords; they glowed brightly, as if they were stars in the
night.

Even during broad
daylight, their bright glow was clearly visible. The blades glowed,
just as those of the Bond of Light.

Timothy took advantage of
the confusion wisely. Within the blink of an eye, he’d slit two of
the four Warlock Spirits in half, causing them to dissolve into
black fog.

Unfortunately enough, the
Shadow Walkers didn’t like it that their owners were slaughtered.
One of them dissolved and shifted its shape from a wolf to a
grizzly bear, the other two attacked in their wolf form.
Thomas took the chance to retrieve his sword in the same
confusion. 

“
Thomas,
don’t!” James yelled, but Thomas ignored him.
He pointed his sword at the Warlock Spirit.

“
Let him go,
Spirit,” he said dangerously. “Put. Him. Down.”

The look in the Warlock
Spirit’s glowing, blood red eyes changed. They got something of
amusement. The dangerous kind.

“
Put him down?” he hissed. “If you 
insist...”
It all happened too fast for anyone to comprehend.

The Warlock Spirit
unleashed its grip. James fell down, while Samira leapt forward in
an attempt to grab him...

Love and
Hatred

Lucy had successfully
managed to convince her mother and David to have dinner at
Cheyenne’s; but Cheyenne had decided that it would be better if she
took the lot out to dinner. They didn’t go to anything too fancy
though; after a short discussion, they settled on Macy’s, a family
diner not too far from Cheyenne’s house.

It wouldn’t be a good
idea to discuss too many private subjects in a public area, but as
long as they’d keep it down and not talk about Magic and other
worlds too much, they’d be fine. And, of course, there was the
“disappeared teenagers”-part that nobody was supposed to
hear.

The group of six (David’s
wife Camilla had come along too) took a table in the back of the
restaurant, as far away from the other dining people as
possible.

Not much was discussed
that evening, though. They were mostly talking about Camilla and
David, who were considering adopting a boy – Camilla had always
been infertile, but she truly wanted children.

The boy’s name was Finn,
and he was twelve years old and eager to join his new
family.

Talking about this young
boy getting parents that loved him made Cheyenne feel happy inside;
it allowed her mind to drift off from all personal trouble for a
bit. But her heart still was with her own children all
evening.

The
Edge

“
JAMES!”

“
SAMIRA!”

Two hands, trying desperately to reach
each other, to grab each other. One, falling rapidly, gloved by a
blue, fingerless glove. The other by a black, with a bronze plate
covering the back of the hand wearing it.

The hands reached for each other, but
the falling hand fell too fast to grab the reaching
hand.

They missed.

James fell.

Samira
watched James
as he disappeared in the darkness, while hanging over the edge of
the ravine, one hand stuck out into the depths. The hand which had
attempted to grab James’s.

“
James!” Samira shouted.
“JAMES!”