Kilenya Series Books One, Two, and Three (90 page)

He waited longer. The Cerpire still didn’t do anything. It could probably smell its visitors, though, right? If it was hungry, why didn’t it attack? Or . . . maybe its only job was to keep people from going to the fortress. Did that mean if they turned around now, they would be safe?

Jacob pushed that idea away and frowned, concentrating. He needed to come up with a plan, and fast. His first priority was to live—for all of them to make it. And he wasn’t completely helpless like he’d thought he’d be. He was able to sense the magic of the dinosaur. He could see its outline. He could see its emotions. And Early would help wherever possible—he knew it.

Turning back was pointless. They’d just have to make the entire trip again. No, he had to get them all to the fortress. In addition to being safe, they’d also have their senses returned and would be able to fight with him against the Cerpire. They only had twenty-five feet to go, and the traps ended
before
the fortress started.

But how to do it safely?

Jacob watched the dinosaur, sifting through his memory of every movie and book he’d read, trying to think of something that would help. He wished Aldo and Early could communicate with him.

Then he remembered another ability he’d recently discovered—the ability to mold air, like he’d done in the tunnel with the Ember Gods. Would that work now? Could he do that and create a shield to protect himself and his friends long enough to get to the fortress?

Moving slowly, keeping his eyes on the beast and hoping the others wouldn’t do something stupid, he faced his hands forward, raised them a few inches, and concentrated on molding the air in front of him. He nearly jumped in surprise when he felt his palms heat up. Of course he’d feel it! It was magical warmth, after all.

But nothing else happened. At least, he didn’t think so.

Suddenly, a spot on his back heated up. Early and Aldo must have figured out what he was doing! He sensed Early’s energy rush through his hands and felt the heat bursting from his fingertips.

A sheen appeared in front of him—sparkly and milky white. He could see it! He couldn’t help but smile in excitement. This would work!

Jacob concentrated all his energy into the thing, watching it start to grow, turning into a shield that stretched farther and farther.

When it was tall enough to protect him if the Cerpire attacked, he glanced back to judge how far it would need to go to cover the rest of the group. Only a few feet longer. He exerted as much energetic pressure as he could until the sheen had grown to completely cover everyone’s emotions.

Okay. Ready.

Trusting Early, his instincts, and his abilities, he raised the shield higher, careful to keep the others and the Cerpire in sight. He stepped to the right.

Nothing happened.

Then the dinosaur attacked fast and hard, knocking Jacob to the ground, momentarily exposing the rest of the group. Jacob jumped up, putting the sheen over his friends again. Had they been injured? No way to know. He continued walking, bracing himself for the next attack.

It came swiftly, followed by several shorter, smaller attacks. Jacob fell to the ground again, doing his best to keep the sheen in place as the dinosaur repeatedly hit the shield, biting, then swiping it with what appeared to be its forearms.

Jacob shook his head. The slow-and-sure method wasn’t working. He needed to get himself and the others to the fortress as quickly as possible.

He sprang to his feet, then lurched hard toward the fortress, straining against what he assumed was the rope, holding the shield between his group and the dinosaur. He kept his legs bent and crouched over so that when the next burst of attacks came, he would be ready.

The attack didn’t come, though, and like a pop of electricity, Jacob burst through the end of the trap, his body flooded with sensation—light, sound, touch. The sun burned his eyes, and he instinctively raised his hand to block the brightness. His shield disappeared with his concentration.

Remembering the group, he whirled in time to see Gallus fall. The Cerpire was no longer in view. Had it left? Putting aside his surprise that he could see into the traps, Jacob pulled hard on the rope, yanking Akeno forward.

The Makalo gasped as he came through the end of the traps, then turned to help Jacob pull the rest of the group through. The others stumbled out, crying with surprise when the sunlight hit them. Gallus was the hardest to pull, and Jacob felt bad about dragging the man on his knees—his poor knees.

The group took stock of themselves. Miraculously, only Gallus had been injured. Akeno and Aloren jumped to help him.

Jacob hesitated, though. Where had the dinosaur gone? He couldn’t even see its emotions anymore. Then a slight movement to the right alerted him to a creature there, stepping out of the trap. Jacob shook his head. How could this be the Cerpire? It was much, much smaller than he’d seen in the traps—barely five feet tall. It looked like a miniature Allosaurus—one of Jacob’s favorite dinosaurs—only, its forearms were much longer and were lined with spikes. Like the Allosaurus, it stood on its hind legs. Fur and scales covered its body in randomly placed patches.

The creature didn’t let its size deter it. It burst forward, incredibly fast, roaring the roar of a huge monster, knocking Jacob back. He stared at it in shock. It sounded like something forty feet tall. But it wasn’t.

“
That’s
the Cerpire?” Sweet Pea said. “I could crush that tiny thing with just my beard!”

The creature jumped forward to attack Gallus, Aloren, and Akeno. Sweet Pea lunged at it, sword in hand, shrieking.

Momentarily distracted, the dinosaur turned to Sweet Pea, who danced away, dodging attacks, leading the creature to the side of the fortress.

Jacob dropped his bag near Gallus. “How’s he doing?” he asked Aloren. He jumped in surprise when Sweet Pea screamed.

“Something’s wrong! I stab it and it keeps going!”

“We’re coming!” Matt yelled. He, Jacob, and Akeno pulled their swords out and dashed to join the fight.

Then Sweet Pea fell silently to the ground, even though the dinosaur hadn’t made a visible movement.

Lure it back into the traps.

Jacob stopped, almost dropping his sword, confused by the sensation of foreign thoughts invading his mind. The last time this had happened was in the Lorkon castle, when he hadn’t known where to go to find the Key.

Shaking his head to clear his thinking, he jumped forward, swinging his sword at the dinosaur. Just like Sweet Pea said, though, it didn’t feel right when his weapon connected with the dinosaur’s side. It felt off, but he couldn’t figure out why.

Lure it back into the traps!

The idea hit him so strongly, he was absolutely positive it hadn’t come from himself. But no way was he going to obey the thought! He’d stay out here where he could see, thank you very much. He kept fighting and cried out when Akeno fell to the ground. He and Matt jumped together, ready to defend each other to the death, if need be.

Trust your abilities.

Who was talking to him? He looked up at the fortress. The emotions were so close, he felt he could reach up and touch them. The Shiengols had to be just on the other side of the wall.

Go
.

Were the thoughts coming from the Shiengols? Were they somehow able to communicate with him? Should he obey?

Jacob parried with the beast, frustrated when it didn’t seem to get hurt. The creature roared again, and he had to resist the urge to cover his ears. He should obey the thoughts—he hadn’t been led astray before.

Trust
.

So he did. “Matt, help Gallus—I have to fight this thing by myself!”

“No! I’m with you!”

Scanning the air, Jacob searched for Early as he dodged the Cerpire, running around it in circles, trying to avoid being struck himself. “Early! Come to me now!”

She flitted to his side, her colors showing she was both hysterical and excited.

“Help me like last time—give me power!”

She disappeared, and he felt the familiar sense of warmth spread through him from behind.

“No, Jacob! You can’t!”

Jacob ignored his older brother and jumped away from the dinosaur, entering the traps.

His world fell down around him. The feeling of numbness was just as powerful as the return of sensation, if not more so. His body now sluggish, he almost froze in a stupor of thought. Another burst of warmth flooded over him—Early must have given him extra juice—and his thoughts became crisp again.

The outline of the dinosaur reappeared—much,
much
larger than what he and his friends had been fighting. Jacob looked up. The bright red emotion was twenty feet, at least, in the air. Why had it looked so short and weak before?

Then it dawned on him—there were six traps, not five, and the very last trap wasn’t the loss of hearing. It was an optical illusion of sorts. Yes, their senses were returned, but the Cerpire’s true form had been distorted, giving Jacob and his friends a false sense of superiority and in turn, making them much more vulnerable.

The dinosaur advanced on him and he backed up quickly. The sensation of falling hit him—he must have walked into a pit of some sort. He felt it when he landed—he was no longer standing. Jumping to his feet again, he hefted his arms—his right was heavier than the left. Good. He still had his sword. He drew a little power from Early—not too much—and molded the air around him with his left hand, creating another shield.

The dinosaur pounced at him, pushing him to the ground with the force of the strike.

“How do I defeat it?” he yelled, getting to his feet and dodging the next attack.

The emotions of the Shiengols in the fortress didn’t change, and there was no response.

Jacob swung his sword at the Cerpire’s leg. As expected, it didn’t do anything to the beast. “Come on, Shiengols! I know it was you!”

One of the colors burned redder.

“Oh, sure!
You
can get angry about this? How ridiculous is that!”

Several of the other emotions changed to a bright red.

He backed away from the Cerpire, holding the shield in place, repairing the damage the beast had done to it. He was careful with the amount of power he pulled from Early. He couldn’t have her go unconscious—that would be really bad.

The dinosaur lunged, and Jacob barely got out of the way. It was so tall, it hurt his neck to look up at it, and he had to keep an eye on the long forearms as well as the huge jaws.

The Cerpire bit at the shield again. Jacob repaired it. He couldn’t do this forever. He ran between the creature’s legs, banged into something hard—probably a wall—and fell to the ground, then rolled to avoid being hit by the long tail he could barely see.

Jacob jumped up, whirling to face the Cerpire.

He decided to try a different tactic with the Shiengols.

“You obviously want out of the fortress—otherwise, you wouldn’t have helped me earlier. I’m the
only one
who can get you out. So, I ask again. How do I defeat the Cerpire?”

No response, then finally,
The side, below the arm, is the soft place
.

Relief—along with some irritation at how petty the Shiengols were—flooded over Jacob. “Thank you!”

He realized this would probably be the only help he’d receive from the temperamental creatures, so he put them out of his mind and concentrated on the task at hand. The spot they’d mentioned was fifteen feet high. How would he get up there, especially without his vision and the sense of touch?

The Cerpire batted him with its long arms, and Jacob again dodged the attacks.

He raised his sword and charged the dinosaur, running between its legs at the last minute. Knowing it wouldn’t work again if he failed this time, he let the shield flick away and grabbed the creature’s tail, then pulled himself up. He hung on as the beast whipped around, trying to find him. He couldn’t feel his sword in his hand, but knew it was still there by the weight on his arm.

Jacob climbed, making sure he kept the fingers of his right hand tight, hopefully around the sword’s handle.

The Cerpire figured out where he’d gone and flipped its tail back and forth, but by then, Jacob had already reached the beast’s mid-section. He held on as tightly as possible, inching farther whenever he could.

Finally, he made it high enough. His first attempt to stab the Cerpire failed, and he nearly dropped the sword. The creature tried to knock him away, but he held on. The dinosaur’s emotions were so bright, Jacob would have shut his eyes if he’d had his normal vision. The red swirled around, confusing him.

A spot on his shoulder heated up—Early! Yes! He didn’t even realize she’d released her magic from earlier.

A violent tremor passed through the creature. Had it just roared? Jacob didn’t know, but he was glad he couldn’t hear.

He told his left fingers to hold on to whatever they could find. It was impossible to know if they’d grabbed anything, but he didn’t fall, so they probably had. He swung the sword as hard as he could with his other arm. It met some resistance at first, then a sucking sensation reverberated through the handle to Jacob’s arm, and the sword drove faster for a moment before abruptly stopping. Jacob knew he’d reached his mark, and he cringed at the idea.

Nothing happened.

Then suddenly, Jacob felt himself falling. The Cerpire flickered in and out of view below him. An immense jolt shocked him through—they’d hit the ground. He tried to move, but didn’t feel his limbs obey. Had he been trapped?

Panic flooded through his mind—he’d be stuck there forever! No one would be able to find him! He pushed the hysteria away when he noticed something about the Cerpire below. With fascination, he watched as its emotions faded slowly. The creature’s outline dissolved along with the bright red, then both disappeared completely. It was dead! It was dead!
Yes
!

He struggled even harder to move, but something about his position wouldn’t allow him to do so. Suddenly, all of his sensations were returned with a rush—sight, sound, smell, touch.

Jacob screamed when the pain hit him. It flooded over his whole body, enveloping him like scalding bath water.