Joshua and the Lightning Road (10 page)

“Joshua, look.” Sam pointed behind me.

The orb came into view just beyond The Edge. It moved through the air in a direct path back to me. It fell onto my palm, its blue glow comforting me.

Leandro put his warm hand over mine, so many questions in his eyes. Was he going to steal the orb? I looked up at him, eager for him to be what I wanted him to be.

“Better put that away for now, Joshua. You can tell me another time how it came to be in your possession.”

I did as he said and slid it deep into my pocket.

“It’s best we keep moving,” Leandro said. “There could be others.” Sam, Charlie, and I just stood there, too shook up to move. Three horns blew again. Staying here was not an option.

Leandro studied us for a moment. “I think it’s time to try for some different transport, don’t you, boys?”

Leandro called to the sky, “We need your help, great golden ones.” Through the treetops, shadowy figures headed toward us. They moved silently, floating down. Four brown stags riding the air. They flattened their hooves and landed before us with antlers of sparkling gold.

Leandro bent his head toward the deer.

“Kernitians,” Sam said knowingly. “They’re wild and unpredictable, but can help folks in need.” He smiled at Leandro for the first time. The man could conjure animals from thin air. Impressive.

Leandro pulled us toward the deer. “Quickly.”

“We’re supposed to ride these … ker-nee-chins?” Charlie squinted at the giant antlers that spun like glittery fingers from the creature’s heads.

“Would you rather walk with what’s on land?” Leandro looked at Charlie, hands on his hips. He wasn’t a big man, but his mass seemed to fill the space between the trees. We all shook our heads. “We’ll have to fly high so we aren’t seen.”

A kernitian grunted “hello” at me.
These kernitians could talk to me too?

It bent its head. I placed my hand on its smooth neck and swung up onto its back. It wasn’t as tall as a horse, but large muscles rippled down its back and flanks. I hugged its neck, breathing in its lemon-pepper smell. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” it said, and I understood it perfectly.

Leandro watched me with narrowed eyes, but there was no explanation to give him. Charlie, Sam, and Leandro mounted their kernitians as well.

Then Leandro leaned in and said something to his ride that whinnied back to him. “He agrees with me.”

I shrugged. “About what?”

“That you could be one of us, malumpus-boy,” Leandro said.

Anger and exhaustion rolled through me, wanting to just go to sleep and wake up at home. “I’m just a Reeker,
remember? An ignorant Barbaros! And one you were about to have tossed off The Edge!”

I glared at Leandro, but he just laughed. “Better than being a Taker at the moment.”

And with that we lifted off the ground. A steady breeze pumped over us, and I drew warmth from my ride as shapes moved below us in the woods. Cadmean beasts or more Takers to attack us? It didn’t matter now as the safety of the sky surrounded us. The setting blue sun glowed sadly in the purple distance, then fell away. Up here it was clear of mist, and stars twinkled and grew bright as the orange moon peeked higher.

“Who are these Takers, and how’d they get here?” I asked Leandro.

“Misguided Earth folks who lurk in the Perimeter Lands and have discovered what we do. They’ve banded together to lure Child Collectors on Earth, kill them, and use their travel belts to come here and find their missing children—and continue killing.”

“They’re known across the Perimeter Lands of Nostos,” Sam said. “Each realm can be two- to three-days’ ride by horse from each other, and in between are miles and miles of empty woods, jungle, tundra, or desert, so plenty of room to hide. Zeus orders each realm to empty out the Perimeter Lands once a year and toss vagrants off The Edge.”

“But he can’t catch them all,” Charlie said, with hope, and Sam shook his head.

We had heroes on our side. “So they’re good guys too?”

“For your purposes, mostly,” Leandro said. “But some have crossed over into crazed lawlessness and are dangerous to all, mortal or not. As you can see, they did not believe you were mortals and would have slit your throats as readily as mine.”

Nothing was as it seemed here, not even people from my own world. “Is that what you are then?” He didn’t answer, but I kept at him. “You’re not a Child Collector either are you, Leandro?”

He kept quiet, guarding his secret.

We rose up to the treetops and beyond. Far away, mountains poked up from the trees as we flew over scattered cottages. No people appeared, only a few wisps of smoke curling from chimneys in this medieval world that held castles, kings, and slaves.

Up ahead, Leandro led the way. His cloak flew around him like a great warrior riding his horse into an unknown battle.

But could he help us win this fight?

We pushed on up to the top of Mount Parnassus as our kernitians air-galloped along. I dared not relax for fear of falling asleep and letting go. The trees would be a hard landing in this twilight zone where the light never changed. It was dim and colorless, like the time of day back home after the sun sets, when the stars pop out. The sky’s purple deepened as night claimed us again. My second one on Nostos.

Every few seconds, the fog below would clear and reveal the ground far beneath us. Cottages popped up here and there, and a dirt road snaked through the woods up and over the mountain on our left. It curved along a creek and dark things moved along it. Things with tails. The cadmean beast patrol.

Sam and Charlie rested on their kernitians, but not Leandro. He leaned forward as if urging his ride to go faster, and then a dark cloud swelled in the distance. A swarm of black wings moved up and down. Korax—heading right for us.

“Leandro!” I called to warn him. He saw, too, and turned his kernitian down toward the treetops. Our stags followed, and I gripped the rough fur of mine as we fell through the mist that veiled my skin with a chilled glaze.

“The sky is no longer safe,” Leandro said.

Neither is the ground
.

Words came to me on the wind in a cackle.
Oracle. Oracle
. It echoed over across the treetops and into the purple sky, growing louder as the mass drew closer. Leandro looked at me with an expression I hadn’t seen before, as if I knew what these monster birds meant by their chanting. Sam also gave me a questioning look, but there was no time to wonder.

We ducked beneath the canopy and the treetops blocked the swarm from view. We dove down fast between tree trunks, and branches stung my legs and arms as we blew past them. Leandro brought his mount to rest on the ground. We landed beside him and I eased myself off my kernitian, stiff from the long ride. We stood before Leandro, awaiting his instruction. Even Sam and Charlie were silent. We were just too tired to make a decision anymore, or rescue anyone.

“Thank you, my golden friends,” Leandro said. My kernitian stamped its foot and whinnied, pushing into me with warm bristles. Then the animals departed, rising and gliding through the woods, moving their strong legs in unison as they rode the air. They soon disappeared in the unending mist.

Sam, Charlie, and I yawned at the same time. Leandro looked sharply at us. “We must go underground. And we need rest.”

There was no argument with that. He swung around and strode off. None of us spoke, just followed Leandro in fuzzy obedience, hoping he would lead us to a safe, dark place to crash.

“Where are we?” I peered around in the gloom, making sure no fire-red eyes glowed back or Takers poised to jump us.

“We are just over the top of Mount Parnassus. Going down will be easier on foot. Just one Acheron creek remains between us and the bakehouse.”

“What about the korax? Do you think they saw us?”

Leandro shook his head. “We only saw them because of their number.” The woods grew thick and he started bushwhacking to forge a new trail. I grabbed the bushes to help, my arms aching with exhaustion, and branches pricked me awake.

“What were those birds saying?” I said.

“Oracle,” Sam said.

“What’s that?”

“Not what, a who,” Leandro said, using his knife to chop our way to safety. “The Ancient Ones prophesied that one would be born that was mixed mortal. Part Earth, part Nostos, and part Olympian.”

“Another god?” Charlie said.

“Not exactly,” Sam said with a tired sigh. “This being would possess the ancient powers of all the original Olympians combined. And he would know how to re-instate the powers of the twelve gods to their heirs, and immortality would be theirs again.”

“A myth some hope to be true,” Leandro said between breaths. Sweat shone on his forehead and I wiped my own away, leaving behind goose bumps.

“Your myths seem awful real here,” I said, tired of the history of this place where fiction came alive.

“As this one could be,” Sam said, forcing a branch away, but it snapped back across his face, leaving a red welt. He rubbed his cheek, then went on. “If the Oracle brings powers to the Olympian heirs then they are called to use them for good or lose them, and the Lightning Road to Earth will be shut down forever.”

“
Bonne!
A good myth to be real,” Charlie said, parting leaves above his head. Leandro didn’t answer and, just as I wondered where the heck he was leading us, the reason for his effort became clear. When the bush branches were parted, they revealed a tall entrance cut into rock. A cave. Leandro pulled a glass tube from his satchel and shook it. It glowed neon green like the glow sticks we got back home for trick-or-treating, only brighter. Tiny bugs ran around inside its walls.

“Cadmean beasts.” Sam sniffed the air. “If we get below ground they can’t track our scent as easy.”

I sniffed too, but just got a whiff of wet rock and moss–no monster fox. Leandro quickly moved down into the cool blackness. Sam followed, and then Charlie, muttering about how he would not be dinner for a bunch of
stupide
les renards.

Down we went into the chilly hideaway. Leandro strode ahead, his height casting shadows from the glow stick. A musty draft wafted over me as we entered a large cavern. The walls gleamed with light in a starry dance, and soon my eyes adjusted, and the room became brighter. Pictures colored one wall in red and black with strange figures and events. My tired vision gave up trying to decipher them. Slabs stuck out from the wall, a couple of feet above the floor. I dropped down on one and its cold seeped into my bones. Water dripped in a steady beat.

“Sit down, my weary travelers,” Leandro said. “It’s been a while since I holed up here.”

It would be nice to know when and why exactly that was, but I was too tired to ask. Charlie and Sam plopped down on slabs, too.

Charlie put his head in his hands and his shoulders shook. No words could make him feel better. Then, from under his hands, he said in a muffled voice, “How long since we left the auction pit?”

“Umm, yesterday,” I guessed.

“I hope my brother was okay alone.”

“I’m sure he was,” I said. “He could have asked a neighbor for help or called your mom, if he knew how.”

He wiped his blotchy face. “You’d be a good brother, Joshua.”

“Thanks.” His words made me wish harder to find Finn. As the days added up, it seemed less and less likely that we would.

Leandro pulled something from his satchel and handed us each a square bar. “This will fill you up like a meal.”

I ate the granola-tasting bar greedily, sick of bong bongs and slug dogs, and gulped from the leather bag he handed me. The water tasted of honey, like the Spring of Galene.

He peered down his sharp nose at me, then pulled the bag away. “Not so fast, young Joshua. You don’t want to make yourself sick.” He gave me back the water and I drank slower this time.

Sam was already asleep and Charlie curled up on his side away from me, his shoulders shaking again. Then, with a final sob, he was quiet. Both he and Sam soon snored away on their slabs. Leandro plucked a thin blanket from his bag and placed it over me. He tucked it around my legs and chest, driving some of the cold away. Weariness enveloped me and my eyes closed. The last thing I felt was a rough hand on my head. It stroked my hair, and then was gone.

I woke up cold and sore. Charlie and Sam still slept, and at the cave entrance Leandro was spread out on the floor, his cloak wrapped around him. He breathed even and deep. Next to him, his bag rested against the cave wall that shed soft light. Now was the time to find out who he really was.

I carried his heavy bag back to my slab, wondering how he traveled with such a load, and pulled out the first thing that poked out. A book. It was wrapped in a worn leather cover and filled with stained pages of scroll-y writing. Leandro’s journal. I made sure his chest rose up and down in the steady rhythm of sleep, then moved closer to the rock wall for more light and read the first entry.

History of Our People

By Leandro of the Arrow Realm, as handed down to me by my father, Mortimer the Steel Twister

Long ago, the Greek gods fell from power. They were real and all mighty until the rise of other people questioned their rule—the Romans and then the Christians. And so, Zeus, the king of the gods, commanded his family to leave Mount Olympus and conquer a new world before their powers drained completely. They called our new world Nostos and took over rule of the primitive folk that dwelled here. On Nostos, the twelve Olympians would come to each rule a land with Zeus leading as their great king. Zeus ensured they would have a way to plunder Earth for their own use and, with his dying thunderbolt, created a Lightning Gate for each realm and a Lightning Road to travel between our lands—and between Earth and our new world. And so the Greek gods left their home, never to return or be immortal again. Or so we new people thought.

The Greek god’s super powers faded forever, and over the years the powerless heirs of the original twelve Olympians squabbled amongst themselves while the lesser Greek gods blended in with the conquered people and quickly became lost in our new culture on Nostos. A select few of mixed blood held ancient powers and immortality and were forced to serve the heirs in any capacity. Many of these few came to hide their powers to remain free from enslavement. Chaos soon reigned across Nostos, and our land was plunged into the darkest of ages, leaving thousands starving and dead. The Olympian heirs believed their time had come to an end, when one discovered that mortal children of Earth had powers to fuel their world. And so began the stealing of these children for vile purposes. In time, a deep hatred of these mortals grew inside the Olympian heirs, for these Earth beings held power they now needed to survive.