Jack Templar and the Lord of the Werewolves (Book #4 of the Templar Chronicles) (9 page)

I needed to finish this fight. Fast.

I did the thing I knew no one expected me to do. I attacked the other set of statues.

With a yell, I sprinted across the courtyard, jumping over a swipe of the dragon’s barbed tail. I ran straight at a white marble Minotaur, a monster with a muscular human body and a massive bull’s head. The beast’s eyes opened wide. It raised its shield and spear as I launched myself at it. But the Minotaur was too slow. My feet hit its chest with a brutal kick that sent it stumbling backward. Most important, it dropped its shield and spear. Those were what I wanted.

I grabbed them, grunting from their weight, and turned back to the approaching dragon.

Just as I feared, the creature’s chest was puffed up as if it’d taken in a huge breath. I knew what was coming next. Fire.

I crouched behind the Minotaur’s shield as blue flames shot from the dragon’s mouth. They hit the shield and streamed around it. The shield grew hot in my hands, almost too much to bear. Finally, the chance I needed showed up.

The flames stopped, and I heard the dragon suck in another breath. Yelling, I heaved the shield up in the air so it flew over the dragon’s head. The ploy worked, and the creature’s instinct was to watch the shield, raising its head and exposing its throat.

I charged, grasping the Minotaur’s spear with both hands. Reaching the dragon, I rammed the spear into its throat. A grinding sound filled the air, stone sliding against stone. The dragon roared, turning toward me with a claw raised over its head to strike me. I was totally exposed without a shield or anywhere to hide. Hoping to absorb some of the blow, I raised my arms even though I knew it wouldn’t do much good.

But the blow never came.

The roar stopped too.

Cautiously, I raised my head to see what had happened.

The dragon was frozen back into solid stone, the Minotaur’s sword sticking from its chest now part of the statue. The rest of the statue creatures slowly retreated from their spots behind the pillars and moved back into the entry room.

An odd sound filled the air – Pythia slowly clapping for me.

“Well done, monster hunter,” she said. “Perhaps you are the One after all. You have given me hope. This is a thing of great value.”

I didn’t want to tell her that I didn’t think I was the One from the prophecy. Heck, I kind of hoped I wasn’t. No one ever gave me a straight answer, but I got the feeling that the prophecy didn’t end well for whoever turned out to be this magical One person. I decided to play it safe and keep my own doubts to myself. “Then I’ve kept my side of the bargain. Now will you tell me where I can find the Lord of the Werewolves and whether we can defeat him?”

Pythia closed her eyes and swayed gently from side to side. “I only see probable outcomes. You must do the rest. But most men are heathens. It’s simple to predict their behavior even without the gift of sight.”

“So can you or can’t you tell me where to find Kaeden?”

Pythia closed her eyes for a long count and then reopened them. “I know where he is. Whether you can find him is a different matter.”

“I don’t understand.”

“One can tell the lazy man how to become wealthy through hard work, but will it make a difference? Likely not,” Pythia said.

“I’m not lazy.”

“No, but you are reckless and consider it bravery. Will a reckless hunter be able to find Kaeden even if I give him a location?” Pythia closed her eyes for several long seconds. I was close enough to see her eyes moving behind her eyelids as if she was having a dream.

Finally, she cried out, and her eyes shot open. They tore through me and I thought I saw fear in them.

“You have many paths, more than I have seen in eons. In most, you and your friends all perish. In others, you simply fail and see the world crumble around you.”

I swallowed hard. “Isn’t there a path where I succeed?”

Pythia nodded. “Very few. Even in these successes, nearly all of them end with most of your friends dying. For you to succeed on your quest, you must walk a razor’s edge at all times. Every little mistake sends an earthquake into the future, taking away more paths until only the terrible ones remain.”

“Are you always this cheery?” I asked.

Pythia gave me a genuine smile. “There is a path where all your friends will live. If you leave here without knowing the location of Kaeden’s lair, you will never find it on your own, and you’ll be safe.”

“But Ren Lucre will win,” I said. “He will destroy the world.”

“Yes,” Pythia replied. “And if I tell you and you go and seek the lair, either you or one of your party traveling with you will surely die. All paths point to this fate – no matter what you do.”

A pit formed in my stomach as I realized the choice Pythia had just given me. Turn and walk away, and my friends would live, but Ren Lucre’s army would sweep through the world. Or find the Lord of the Werewolf’s location and ensure the death of one of my team.

“Choose, Templar,” Pythia hissed. “Choose now.”

Chapter 12

I trudged back to the restaurant. I’d been gone for about thirty minutes, so I figured the guys would have started to worry about me, wondering whether I’d fallen into the toilet or something. But I couldn’t bring myself to jog or run back. My stomach felt upside-down, and I could barely stay on my feet because of the nausea. My mind reeled from what had just happened. I beat myself up for the decision I’d made.

I saw Will in the alley behind the restaurant. On seeing me, he scowled at me like a puppy who’d run off without permission. He called back over his shoulder and yelled, “He’s over here.”

A few seconds later, Daniel and T-Rex ran into the alley. I made my way to them, my hands up in apology.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to worry anyone,” I said.

“Where’d you go?” Daniel demanded.

I told them what had just happened, and they stared at me with open mouths.

When I got to the Oracle’s prediction, I stammered. I don’t know why, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell them the whole truth. I wasn’t ready to tell them the terrible choice I’d had to make – either let Ren Lucre win or accept that one of us would die chasing after the Jerusalem stone. It was one of the hardest choices I’d ever made.

“So?” Will said, “Did she tell you where to find him?”

I looked them each in the eye, one by one, and then nodded.

“Yes,” I said, “I asked her to… and she told me.”

They high-fived one another and thumped me on the back.

“So, where is he?” T-Rex asked.

“Here’s what she said.

‘Go into the darkest, most ancient of woods,

Where the knights of the Teutons lay rusting
.

Defeat ye the lord through his champion beast.

Yet, in victory never be trusting.’
”

“Ugh, I’m so tired of these riddles,” Daniel groused. “Why can’t these Creach just say it? I mean, why can’t we get a simple ‘head over ten miles south of such-and-such town, take a right at the big red barn, third spooky castle on the left’ or something like that?”

“That would be nice,” I said, only half-listening. I had to tell them how much this information had cost, but I didn’t know how. I guess I was afraid they would be angry. They had a right to be. What business did I have making that kind of decision without asking them?

But it wasn’t a true choice. Not really.

I’d fought against Ren Lucre before. I’d seen his power for myself, both in person and in a battle against a goblin army that was tiny compared to the coordinated attack he prepared against the entre human world. Aquinas’s worry about him taking over the world wasn’t some idle threat. He had Creach secretly positioned everywhere. In the police of every country. The armies. The governments. His Creach minions had infiltrated every seat of power, and all waited for his signal.

I couldn’t just walk away and let that happen, right?

I noticed too late that Daniel was studying my face. By the time I caught him, he’d already seen the flash of emotion.

“What else did the Oracle say?” he asked.

I shrugged. “Not much.”

T-Rex looked up expectedly. “Did she say anything about my grandma?” T-Rex had come with us only after his grandma had been taken away with dementia. He worried about her more than he let on.

“No, I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t have time to ask her.”

T-Rex’s shoulders sagged in disappointment.

Will put a comforting hand on his friend’s shoulder, but shot me a look. “She told you something though,” Will said. “Something you don’t want to tell us.”

I nodded. Even as I made the choice, I knew I’d eventually have to tell them. They deserved to know. I guess I’d just hoped they wouldn’t force me to do it this quickly.

“Out with it, Templar,” Daniel said. “It can’t be that bad.”

“Oh, you’d be surprised,” I said. “Okay, here it is. She told me that if she gave me Kaeden’s location, it would send us on a path where one of us or all of us would die.”

All three of them took the news in different ways. Daniel squared his shoulders. To him, death was just another adversary to defeat in battle. T-Rex sucked in his lower lip and chewed on it softly while he stared at the ground. It was Will’s reaction that caught me off-guard.

After a few seconds, he burst out laughing.

We all looked at him like he was nuts, but he couldn’t stop himself. He was red-faced, and snot bubbles kept appearing under his nose.

“What are you laughing at?” I asked. His laughter was so uncontrolled that it was infectious. Despite how terrible I felt, I found myself laughing with him. Soon, Daniel and T-Rex were too, although none of us could quite say why.

“Oh, my side hurts,” Will said.

“Then stop laughing like an idiot,” I said. “What’s so funny?”

“You are,” Will said, wiping tears from his eyes. “You were so serious and stuff.”

I still didn’t get it. “It is serious, Will. One of us, maybe more than one of us, is going to die if we keep going.”

Will smacked me on the shoulder. “We all knew that when we signed up for this trip,” he said. “It sounds like you’re just figuring it out. You’ve got to admit that’s kind of funny.”

I looked around at their grinning faces. Will was right. We all knew from the beginning that this was ridiculously dangerous. We were lucky we hadn’t all died three or four times apiece in the last couple of months. Still, part of me had started to believe we’d made it this far because we were somehow destined to make it through. That we were somehow invincible. Then again, Eva hadn’t been so lucky.

The Oracle’s prophecy made the danger feel all the more real. Like our lucky streak wasn’t only likely to run out, but was guaranteed to. I frowned.

Daniel put a hand on each of my shoulders.

“If you’re feeling bad that you made the decision without talking to us, just don’t,” he said. “If I was there, I would have done the same. All of us would.”

“Absolutely,” Will said, finally over his laughing fit.

Daniel and Will looked over to T-Rex, who jerked up a little when he realized it was his turn to say something. “Oh yeah, sure.”

“Thanks, guys, I appreciate it,” I said, really meaning it.

“Uhh… is there a chance that she was wrong?” T-Rex asked. “I mean, nobody’s perfect, right? She could be wrong.”

“Let’s make her wrong,” I said. “Let’s go face down the Lord of the Werewolves and show him what it’s like to go up against hunters of the Black Guard.”

“Now you’re talking,” Will said.

“So, where is he?” Daniel asked. “Where has the mighty Kaeden built his lair?”

“Well,” I replied. “There’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that we have another long train ride ahead of us.”

“What’s the good news?” Will asked.

I pointed at Daniel. “Unless I’m wrong about the Knights of the Teutons in the riddle being the Teutonic Knights, I’m pretty sure you get to use more of your German.”

Chapter 13

“The Black Forest is in the southwest corner of Germany. It’s been the site for dozens of major Creach battles,” Xavier gushed. “It has to be what the Oracle’s riddle means.”

He sat in the train compartment with the rest of us. He still moved a little stiffly on his right side, but he looked a lot better than when we’d left him five days earlier. Just as we promised, we’d sent him a coded message about where to meet us after the Oracle gave us a location. He’d met us at the train station in Austria loaded up with a backpack of inventions. These included crossbow bolts with enormous bulbs on the end of the shafts where the arrowheads usually went. Judging by the careful way he handled them, I guess they were the explosive tips he’d promised back at the farm.

“It almost seems too obvious,” Will said.

“Did you know what it meant when you heard it?” Xavier asked with narrowed eyes.

“Well… no,” Will sputtered. “Jack knew the Teutonic Knights were German. After I Googled it, I figured out where they lived.”

Xavier looked disappointed. “Google’s overrated,” he said.

“Will has a point, though,” I said. “Think about the riddle.
Go into the darkest, most ancient of woods. Where the knights of the Teutons lay rusting
. That seems pretty on the nose as being the Black Forest.”

“And,
Defeat ye the lord through his champion beast. Yet in victory never be trusting
,” T-Rex added, “… is just saying the way to beat Ren Lucre is through his champion, Kaeden the Lord of the Werewolves, right?”

“It does feel a little too easy,” Daniel agreed. “She might as well have just said
Go to the Black Forest in Germany and kill the Lord of the Werewolves to get the Jerusalem Stone
. I mean, what’s the point of speaking in riddles if it’s so obvious?”

I remembered Daniel had complained about how complicated the riddle was when we first got it, but I bit my tongue.

“Maybe she adjusts her riddles based on how smart the person is she’s giving them to,” Will said, straight faced.

“Yeah, one look at Jack and she must have taken pity,” Daniel added, snickering.

I threw my backpack at him and he broke out in a laugh.

“She probably would have drawn you a picture in crayon,” I said, happy to be joking with Daniel. Things had been a little tense between us, and this felt normal again.