As one of the regiments marched east around the perimeter of the Howling Forests, the sky ahead of them exploded in a haze of green light. Although they were some four miles away the earth beneath them vibrated. They came to a halt, their swordsticks thundering into the hard packed ground of the desert. The lead Guardian screwed his red bleeding eyes together and looked at the light that illuminated the sky like a flare. With the back of one iron clad hand, he wiped away the red tears that leaked from his eye sockets.
‘We have him,’ he whispered, his fleshy lips rolling back like a snarling dog.
The lead Guardian held its swordstick above its elongated skull and roared, ‘CHARGE!’
On his command the regiment raced towards the light. Their boots sounding like thunder-claps rolling across the desert floor.
The last of the debris sent flying through the air by the exploding inferno berry rocketed over their heads as they hid behind a giant slab of granite stone. The green light faded and the aftershock rippled away.
‘Your dad wasn’t kidding when he warned us about those berries,’ Neanna whispered wide-eyed.
‘He’s full of surprises,’ William said, peering over the edge of the rock. ‘Those berries seemed to have done the trick.’
Joining him, Zach looked into the distance as the rain sliced through the darkness all around them.
‘I don’t think we’re out of trouble yet,’ he warned, seeing the apparitions of the Knights coil up from beneath the ground again. Without thinking, he reached down for his crossbows. Sliding them from their holsters, Zach gripped them in his fists.
Neanna noticed this fluid movement and grinning she said, ‘Whoa, check-out the peacekeeper.’
Glancing at the crossbows, then back at Neanna, he whispered, ‘how did they get there?’ Trying to mask his surprise, Zach winked at her as if he were ready for anything.
Soaring towards them again, the Knights faces were engraved with looks of anger and mistrust. Getting to his feet, Zach thrust both arms out, his elbows locking as he pointed his crossbows at the Knights. He reasoned that as they had been so scared by the explosion, then perhaps they could be destroyed after all. He could still feel his throat stinging from the sword that had been held to it. Although Zach was new to this world and this was his first encounter with a ghost, even he could work out that however transparent they looked, if they could harm him, then they could be harmed too.
‘Stay where you are!’ he ordered the Knights, and the firmness of his voice surprised even him.
Hearing the boldness in their friend’s voice, William and Neanna both looked at one another and shrugged.
Eyeing Zach, the Cathedral Knights circled the three of them from a short distance away, wary now and not wanting to come too close.
‘Sorcerer!’ the bearded Knight spat.
‘I’m no sorcerer Cathedral Knight, but I am a teenager on the edge. So keep back!’ Zach ordered.
‘You lie,’ one of the other Knights groaned, ‘we know the name Black. One of you came before.’
‘Fandel was his name,’ added another. ‘He came with the Throat and cursed us. They cursed all of us!’
‘That wasn’t me!’ Zach insisted, his crossbows trained on them as the Knights continued to circle him and his friends. ‘That was my uncle and I am nothing like him.’
‘I knew it!’ the bearded Knight wailed, his beard flapping like tissue on the wind, ‘they’re sorcerers and come with magic to finish us.’
‘Listen to my friend!’ Neanna shouted. ‘He can save us all! He will be able to lift your curse!’
The Knights swooped around and around their heads and Zach followed them, not taking his eyes off them for one moment.
‘You lie!’ the Knight roared. ‘How can this mere boy save us?’
‘Zach Black’s sister is our Queen’s replica – she is her reflection!’ William howled, the hair covering his cheeks whipping about his head in the wind and the rain. ‘We are looking for the Heart of Endra…’
Hearing this, the bearded Knight raced towards William and thrust the tip of his sword against his throat.
‘And that’s how I know you lie, Noxas. No one knows what the heart looks like. No one has seen inside the box. How could you search for something that no one has ever seen?’
Spinning round, Zach placed the tip of one of the crossbows against the Knights head. ‘Put the sword down,’ he commanded.
The Knight didn’t move, so Zach cocked the crossbow by rolling the hammer back with his thumb. ‘Put it down,’ he whispered.
Feeling a dull pain in his side, Zach looked to his left to see that one of the Knights had crept up on him and was now digging at him with his sword. Blinking, Neanna appeared behind this Knight and aimed her loaded catapult at him.
‘We have a stand-off,’ she smiled.
Hearing this, the remaining five Knights whooshed down and circled them.
‘You can’t win,’ the bearded Knight chuckled. ‘Now put down your weapons.’
‘You first,’ Zach whispered in his ear.
The Knight pushed his sword against William’s throat.
‘I know what the Heart of Endra looks like!’ William said.
‘Impossible!’ The Knight jeered. ‘You lie to save your scrawny neck.’
Tearing the peculiar-looking spectacles from his face, William barked, ‘I’ve seen inside the box. I’ve seen the heart of Endra!’
Chapter 15
Staring at William, Zach knew it would be the first time he would’ve seen into his friend’s eyes without looking through those bulbous lenses.
Keeping his eyes shut, William tilted his head back and then released a gut-wrenching howl. He sounded as if he were in absolute agony. Flinging his eyes open, tendrils of light oozed like serpents up into the night.
Seeing the rays of light streaming from his eyes, all of them forgot the stand-off, lowered their weapons and moved away. Their mouths hung open in shook and awe.
‘I’ve seen inside the box!’ William howled like an animal, the wispy tendrils of light licking about his face. ‘I know what the Heart of Endra looks like!’
The Cathedral Knights looked at one another in total shock and confusion. Blinking, Neanna appeared by Zach’s side. Looking at William, Zach now understood why his friend had to wear those glasses. He remembered looking into those magnified eyes and thinking how much they had glowed like burning coals. But this was something more. This looked as if William’s brain was on fire inside his skull and the flames had now been set free.
As if reading his thoughts, Neanna said, ‘that’s why he wears the glasses. It keeps the light from seeping from his eyes. It’s the only way he is able to see. Otherwise he would be blind like his…’
Before Neanna had a chance to finish, William had pulled the spectacles back over his eyes, trapping the leaking flames within his skull. The last of the thin wispy lengths of white light were snatched away on the wind and gone forever.
As the tendrils of light from William’s eyes reached up into the night sky like vines, far away in their beds, both the Queen of Endra and Anna Black sat bolt upright. They sat rigid, sweat glistening on their brows. Their hearts raced beneath their narrow chests and their heads pounded.
When William replaced his spectacles and the light vanished, both the Queen and her reflection flopped back onto their beds and sleep curled its dark fingers around them once again.
Looking at the Knights through those lenses, William’s eyes looked like massive plates once again.
‘We can find the box,’ he told them, sounding as if he needed to catch his breath. ‘And when we do, we’ll return and with it remove the curse that Throat has laid upon you.’
Eyeballing him, Henry the lead Knight said, ‘how do we know you’ll keep your promise…’
‘Shhh!’ William said, sniffing at the air.
‘What is it? What can you smell?’ Neanna asked him.
‘Trouble!’
Then the rumbling started and it sounded as if an entire army was heading straight towards them. The ground began to quake and the large granite slabs of rock started to wobble like decaying teeth in rotting gums. Sweeping into the air, the Cathedral Knights looked across the Grey-yard. The wrinkles between their eyes knotted as they peered through the rain and into the distance.
‘The Demonic Guardians!’ Henry shouted.
‘But what can they want?’ another of the knights asked. ‘They’ve already destroyed our Cathedral and cursed…’
‘It’s not us they want this time,’ Henry seethed. ‘It’s Zach Black they’ve come to destroy!’
Twisting in the air the Knights raced back towards the ground.
‘What’s happening?’ Zach demanded, his crossbows gripped in his fists.
‘Go! Go !Go!’ Henry roared, drawing his sword.
Seeing the fear in his ghostlike eyes, William and Neanna armed themselves.
The ground tilted and trembled beneath them. Then they saw what it was that had panicked the Knights so much. Over the brow of the Grey-yard an army approached. Their armor glistened like broken glass beneath the moonlight.
‘Demonic Guardians!’ William barked, aiming his catapult.
‘Demonic what?’ Zach bellowed over the sound of the marching feet.
‘Throat’s army. That’s what they are!’ Neanna said, blinking to stand side-by-side with her friends.
The Guardians raced towards them, their eyes gleaming crimson in the dark. They approached in a solid formation and didn’t once stop to navigate the razor-like rocks before them. Instead they smashed and trampled over them as if they were made of papier-mâché.
‘Zach Black!’ They screeched as one, their many voices floating on the air like a tidal wave.
‘Go now!’ Henry ordered one last time. ‘We will fight this battle for you!’
‘But there’s hundreds of them and seven of you,’ Zach shouted over the thunder of the approaching army. ‘We will stay and fight with you!’