Jack had been listening to
the roar of T-Rex nearby and feeling the ground shake from their
footsteps. Being eaten was a very real concern---but
Jack had been more worried about whether Romana had been able to pluck Karl
from the river. He was frantically pacing along the riverbank by the time
Pterra returned with the two riders.
“Karl!” Jack ran to meet him. To
the boy’s great relief, Karl had the faith stone firmly in his hand. He still didn’t look happy though. “Are you
all right?”
“No.” The word came out harsher than he’d intended
due to the skybax rider’s frustration.
They had the faith stone, but Payden still had slipped away with the key
to the shackle. Jack paled a bit,
thinking the anger was directed at him for screwing up and letting Payden steal
the stone. Reading that fear on the
boy’s face, Karl caught him in a one-armed hug. “Am I all right? What the hell are you doing here? Not that I’m not grateful.”
Jack grinned. “What am I doing here? Saving your butt! Ew, you’re really soaking me here, bro.” The boy pulled back from the soaking wet
rider as freezing cold river water seeped into his own shirt.
“Who saved who here? I’m
the one who knocked Payden into the river.”
“Yeah and who let Ro out of
the net so she could save you? And who
brought you the faith stone?”
Karl stared at the meteorite, then turned to look Jack in the eye. Jack had brought the Tohma Faiere. Did that mean he was okay with switching back? “You’re sure about this?” Karl asked him.
Jack nodded. “Don’t make me think about it, I might
change my mind. What about Frank and
David? Are they all right?”
Karl’s expression was
grim. That look in his eyes was scaring
Jack to death. “No, they’re not. We have to get back to the pit---”
The T-Rex bellowed from very
close by---from the path. Karl, Romana,
and Jack turned to see trees sway from the jolt of its footsteps and the first
hint of its shadow in the moonlight. It
was coming their way. Coming from the direction of the pit,
Karl noted miserably. Dad and David…
The trio backed to the
water’s edge. Karl and Romana searched
for a means of escape, both coming to the same conclusion: The only avenue of escape from the predator
was Pterra. Pterra could only carry two
passengers. Karl didn’t know if the
skybax could manage to lift him with its claws while carrying both Romana and
Jack on its back. “Oh great…Romana, you
have to get Jack out of here,” Karl said.
Romana shook her head. “I’m not leaving you here, Scott.”
Jack protested: “What kind of plan is that?”
“Jack, will you listen to
me---?” Karl started to yell. However,
it was too late for debating. The words
were barely out when the T-Rex appeared on the trail. It spied the trio and roared.
A beam of sunstone light cut
through the air and hit the T-Rex directly in its face as if sent by Divine
intervention. The carnosaur halted in
place, shying away from the repellent light.
Dumbfounded, the riders and
the boy searched out the source of the beam.
A flash of albino pterosaur skin streaked down from the sky. Next thing they knew, David’s skybax had
placed itself between them and the T-Rex.
A blonde Outsider was wielding Marion’s sunstone medallion at the T-Rex
like a cross warding off a vampire. The
sunstone reacted to the presence of the carnosaur by glowing with its full
radiance. The T-Rex let out another cry
of distress and took a few steps backwards, trying to escape from the glow.
“Back!” the blonde Outsider
roared at the predator. The pterosaur reinforced this command by beating its
wings at the T-Rex and keened a threat at the larger dinosaur. Under the force of the sunstone, the
carnosaur had no choice but to retreat.
It uttered one last unhappy cry and vanished into the forest. More cries of distress filled the night as
the beams sought out the unseen pteranodons, T-Rex, and other threats in the
forest and chased them away. When the
last flutter of wings and pounding of feet faded away, the sunstone light
abated. The albino pterosaur alighted
on the beach and turned its massive head towards Karl, Romana, and Jack while
the blonde rider slipped off its back.
“Alano!” Karl remembered the
blonde from the real timeline. “You
know how to make an entrance.”
Romana watched the Outsider
suspiciously. “Another one from the
real timeline?”
“Yeah, but he’s a good guy,”
Karl answered.
“You’re sure?” Jack ducked behind
Karl as the blonde Outsider advanced on the riders.
“Where’s Payden Borale? Where’s David Barrett?! He’d better be alive or I’ll---” Alano lifted a hand to point a warning
finger at Karl, but missed when the skybax rider suddenly ran for the trail. Alano ended up landing his finger on Jack’s
chest.
“David! Dad! Jack, come on!” Karl called back to
them. Jack shrugged amiably at the
Outsider and ran after his brother.
*
When he ran into the clearing, the first thing Karl noticed was that the chain lay discarded on the ground and the pit’s gate was locked tight. For an awful moment, he was afraid that the T-Rex had already killed David…but some part of his mind that was still rational noted that, if David had been devoured by the predator there would be gruesome evidence of that fact all over the clearing. The very thought made him want to vomit. There were no such signs---there was the stain of blood from before, but nothing else. The shackle had been popped open as if someone had unlocked it and the gate was shut tight. The trigger had been moved to the ‘lock’ position. Maybe, just maybe…. Karl fell to his knees beside the pit: “Dad! David!”
“Karl!?” Frank’s voice answered.
Karl felt himself shaking and didn’t know if it was the cold or gratitude to the angels for that miracle. He didn’t know how it had happened, how they’d got David out of that chain or locked the gate, but he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He squinted into the darkness of the pit, impatiently willing his eyes to adjust to the gloom. “Are you all right?” he asked.
“We’re fine. Don’t ever run off like that again. You scared me to death.”
“What the…” Jack had followed Karl into the clearing. The first thing he saw was the hunting pit and shackle. Then he saw the small but distinct bloodstain on the ground. He kneeled next to Karl by the gate. When his eyes adjusted, he saw Frank and David at the bottom of the pit. Frank had one arm firmly supporting the younger man. His other hand was holding a cloth stained with blood to Barrett’s shoulder. Jack blanched. He didn’t know David was hurt, but he knew one thing for sure: When they switched back and Frank found out this entire mess was basically Jack’s fault, the tavern owner was going to kill him. “Oh man…Karl, I’m sorry…”
“Not your fault, Jack,” Karl reassured him.
Frank saw the boy crouched beside Karl. “Jack? Are you boys all right?”
“Dad? How’d you open that lock?” Karl asked.
“I
picked it. Your old man wasn’t exactly
a saint in his youth, you know,” his father answered.
“Can
I remind him he said that after the switch?” Jack quietly asked Karl.
“I
wouldn’t.” Karl rose and hurried to
unlock the gate.
Alano
and Romana stepped into the clearing. The
skybax rider was keeping a careful eye on the Outsider. Alano took in the situation in a single
glance: A dwindling fire to attract
predators, the scattered powders, the pit where Dane had lost most of his hand,
a leg iron, and blood. He stepped over
to check the pit and scowled dangerously at the sight that greeted him. “Who did that?” he demanded of Karl,
indicating his injured friend.
“Two
guesses,” Karl said.
David
opened his eyes a slit. “Al? Where’d you come from?”
Alano
gave a grim salute for hello. “Le Sage
and me intercepted a birdie from Payden.
Would have been here sooner, ‘cept Le Sage and me had a word with our
friend Dane. He’d be here, too, if he
wasn’t chained to a dock. Freefall
helped me find you. He always knows
where you are.” From its perch on the
rocks with Pterra, the albino pterosaur whuffed in agreement.
Barrett’s
mouth twitched in something like a smile.
“Did you unchain Dane before high tide?”
Aanol
snickered, “Oops.”
Karl
moved the trigger and Jack pushed the gate open. He followed as the skybax rider jumped into the pit. Romana and Alano stayed above to help when
they were ready to climb out. Seeing
David and his injury, Romana’s scowl matched Alano and Karl’s.
“How
ya doing, bro?” Karl moved directly to David’s side, seeing for himself that
his brother was still alive. David was
working with all his might to keep his eyes open. He was pleased to see that the T-Rex hadn’t eaten Karl, but he
wasn’t going to waste his energy dignifying such a ridiculous question with an
answer. Instead, he managed a small
smile in reply.
“We
have to get him back to Waterfall City,” Frank said.
Karl
disagreed, “No.” Frank glowered at
that, about to argue until his son added:
“We have to switch back first.”
David
looked startled at that. He turned his
head just a bit, noticing Jack’s presence in the pit for the first time. The boy meekly nodded to Barrett and passed
the Tohma Faiere to Karl. “You sure?”
David asked Jack.
Jack
was wide-eyed for nervousness.
“Yeah---well, wait, just a couple of things first…” He looked at Frank
Scott. “If you remember any of this
after we switch back, please don’t kill me.”
Frank
was still clueless as to what was going on.
David hadn’t been lucid enough to fill him in on the events at the
Sanctuary and Karl hadn’t had time.
“What are you talking about?”
“Just
promise,” Jack answered. Then he
glanced from David to Romana and back.
“And when you’re a skybax rider and I’m an Outsider again, do you think you
can give me a break? Once in awhile?”
David
and Romana answered in unison: “Not a
chance.” Jack gulped and Karl saw just
a hint of a smile from David indicating that his brother had been teasing the
boy.
“I
knew you’d say that,” Jack grumbled. He turned his attention to Karl and the faith stone. “I saw in that---vision—we were all three
touching the freaky rock and David read that inscription.”
“Noree
said we have to repeat it exactly the way we did the first time. Are you sure it was only David who said the
incantation?” Karl asked.
“I’m
sure,” Jack said. He put his hand on
the faith stone in Karl’s palm and braced himself. Blue light started to fill
his mind.
Karl took David’s arm and wrapped both his hand and David’s around Jack’s hand. Karl knew what had to be done, he only hoped David could do it. His brother’s eyes had drifted shut. Karl called: “David? David!” When his brother woke again, Karl continued, “You have to say the prayer on the stone.”
David glimpsed the footprint
language on the stone. It would have
been gibberish even if he had been lucid.
“Can’t read that…”
Karl remembered the
incantation Noree had made at the temple when she had attempted to undo the
meteorite’s spell. He repeated it for
David as best he could: “Anghara
pharneilos tharmha tohma faiere.
Say it, David.” The stone didn’t
so much as wink when Karl said the words. Please
work, Karl begged the angels who had gotten them this far.
“Come on, David,” Romana
added her encouragement from above.
David had to concentrate
against blue light and images that were trying to take hold of him. “Anghara pharneilos tharmha tohma faiere…”
The blue light engulfed Jack
first, then its rays shot out like laser beams to Karl and the semiconscious
David as well.
Karl had shut his eyes
against the blinding glare of the faith stone and the onslaught of the visions
it produced. The blue visions may have
ceased, but now memories were resurfacing in him like pieces of a dream bubbling
to the waking mind…memories Karl were sure were true memories: The trip to
Mexico, many plane rides, softball games, the Super Bowl fiasco, camping, dad’s
“adventures”, stealing dad’s prized (if horrible tasting) liquor and being
quite ill after drinking it, the crash that stranded them on the island,
Twenty-Six, the tavern, more quarrels with his brother David than Karl would
like to admit to---his real brother,
David.
Then images had played
themselves out. Abruptly, the light of
the Tohma Faiere flickered and faded.