The Marenon Chronicles Collection

Chapter Thirteen





Silas pushed himself up off the floor with his staff after the earthquake had knocked him over.

Where did that come from?

He ran down the dark hallway surprised that he hadn’t encountered any Stühocs.

Jekyll Rock had become a home to him over the past few months and it pained him to see it overrun as it had been this night. He didn’t necessarily agree with Kaden about running to the underground shelter, but part of him knew that the man was right.

If Silas was the only person with the potential to take down Anithistor, he’d have to stay away from the battle. He was no coward, but he wasn’t a fool either. Garland would have made the same call.

When he came to the statue of King Harold he hesitated.

What am I doing? The Meshulan shouldn’t run!

But then he thought about all it had taken to get him here. People had sacrificed so much. Some had died. His grandfather had been killed. It would be selfish of him to risk his life any further. The people deserved hope. If Silas died, it needed to be at the hands of Anithistor while he was doing everything he could to destroy the Stühoc king.

He bent down to the statue’s feet and muttered his dead mother’s name.

The entrance toward Marenon’s Map opened smoothly and Silas walked through the opening and down the stairs.

He came to the next door at the bottom and opened it. He immediately noticed a light glowing around the door’s edge at the other end of the large room.

Is someone else here?

His next steps were more hesitant as he moved forward. The staff in his right hand hadn’t changed into a weapon so there was no danger. The staff had never steered him wrong before, though that didn’t mean it wouldn’t someday.

He came to the small door and peeked through the open crack. He could see someone standing in front of the completely illuminated map.

But that could only mean…

Without warning, the door swung open causing Silas to jump. He had not expected to see the girl he had left behind in Elysium…the one he hadn’t expected to ever see again…the one he loved…Inga.

Her face brightened when she recognized Silas. Without a word, she hugged him tightly as tears formed in her eyes.

“I thought they took you!” she said, squeezing tightly. “I thought they would kill you.”

“It’s a long story,” Silas explained, “but I will tell you everything soon, I promise.”

The person who had been standing in front of the pedestal had released his grip on the magic and turned to face Inga and Silas.

Julian.

He, too, seemed surprised to see Silas.

“I hope you don’t mind that I used the medallions first,” he said. “Didn’t have anyone around to ask permission.”

“What exactly are you doing?”

“You didn’t see?” Inga asked him as she gripped his hand firmly. Silas didn’t want her to let go. “Julian used the map to stop the battle. We have all the medallions! The Stühocs are finished. This is exactly what Silandrin told us to do!”

Silas’ jaw dropped. “We knew you had the other four, Julian, but how did you get the green medallion from the Erellens?”

Julian looked at Inga with a slight smile then back to Silas. “We figured out a way.”

Silas couldn’t believe it. This must have been what caused the earthquake. Julian had been using Marenon’s Map as a weapon to help the Dunarians. Silas was glad that someone had been able to help.

Julian looked at the map and zoomed out on an aerial view for Silas to see what Jekyll Rock now looked like. A whole section of wall had been taken out of the side of the stronghold, and the ground was covered with blackened lava and deep crevices in every direction. The city looked utterly destroyed, but Julian had saved their lives. He had saved them all from annihilation.

“Amazing,” Silas said.

Echoes reverberated outside the door and each of them stiffened at the sound of approaching footsteps.

“Silas!” the voice of Kaden Osric sounded through the bunker. “Silas, the battle is finished. We…” After he stepped through the door into the room, he stopped abruptly. His eyes darkened when they fell on Julian. At a loss for words, the mentor waited.

Julian spoke first. “Kaden, I would have tried to look for you to give you the medallions, but I thought it would be impossible with the battle going on. So, I came down here myself.”

“I don’t really know what to say, Julian.”

Julian took a deep breath while several moments passed with an awkward silence filling the air. “I’m sorry, Kaden,” Julian finally spoke. “I’m so sorry for what happened with the council members. I know what I did was unforgivable.”

“Helping us today doesn’t undo your mistake,” Kaden said coldly.

“I know it doesn’t. I want you to know that I’m not against you.”

“I know you aren’t, but others will never see it that way. Darius wants your blood, and he’s not the only one.”

“I didn’t think he would be,” Julian said.

Kaden motioned behind them. “I’ve already instructed Darius to meet me down here. Maybe you should leave before he comes.”

Julian shook his head. “I’m not going to run from anyone. I have always done what I believed to be right. I made a grave mistake and I will face the consequences for my actions.”

After a moment, the sound of footsteps echoed from the other end of the bunker as they made their way down.

“Looks like it’s too late anyway,” Julian said absently.

He was right. Darius entered the room with three soldiers standing next to him. They were all drenched from the earlier rain, and Darius, shirtless, had a fresh bandage across his back from the Stühoc assault.

His mood turned from complacent to an angry rage in a half second.

Despite the cut across his back, Darius pulled out his sword and stormed toward Julian with death on his mind. That’s when Inga jumped in.

“No!” she yelled as her magical force slammed Darius and his three soldiers against the back wall.

“There will be no more killing today!” Kaden said.

“The man’s a traitor. A murderer!” Darius spat.

“Regardless, you will not kill him,” Kaden said as he moved toward Darius. He lowered his voice when he came near. “I will tell Inga to release you when you promise me you won’t touch him.”

Darius’ eyes darted between Julian and Kaden.

Silas held his breath, wondering what the commander would do. He knew the man had reason to be angry, but what Darius didn’t know is that Julian had saved their lives today.

“I want him arrested,” Darius said. “I want him thrown into the dungeons. Let the Dunarians decide what to do with him.”

Kaden turned to Inga and nodded. She released the hold on the four men and they fell to the ground. Darius winced as he stood. The bandage across his back was stained with fresh blood.

“I’ll submit to the Dunarian’s will,” Julian said.

“Wait a second,” Inga said as she stepped forward. “None of this matters right now.”

Everyone in the room stared at her as she paced among them.

“Silandrin has instructed Silas in what he must do next,” she said. “Now that we have all the medallions, we can finish what we started.”

“And what exactly comes next?” Kaden asked, looking at Silas.

Silas sighed deeply. Everyone looked for an answer that he wasn’t sure he was ready to give. The Gatekeeper had told them so much, but the hardest part of it now seemed to be finished thanks to Julian.

Silas took the next few minutes to explain to them that once he had all the medallions, he was supposed to use the pedestal in front of Marenon’s Map to obtain the power of the Gatekeeper.

After gaining this new power, it was up to him to destroy the remaining gates and medallions, but the only way he could destroy the Red Gate in Mudavé would be to become that gate’s keeper. Anithistor held the title of Gatekeeper over the Red Gate. In order for Silas to take that role, Anithistor would have to die.

Silas’ explanation to the others was sobering. It made their victory feel slightly insignificant, for even if they had the power of Marenon’s Map, Silas would still have to face Anithistor alone.

“So, what do you have to do?” Kaden asked.

Silas shrugged. “Somehow I have to use this pedestal.”

Julian stepped out of the way, allowing the others an unobstructed view.

“To use Marenon’s Map as a weapon all I had to do was hold on to the pedestal with both hands,” he said. “Maybe it will work the same for you.”

Silas nodded his thanks, and moved forward to the stand that held all six medallions of magic. So much work had gone into creating these artifacts. So much magic and mystery surrounded them. Now he was to use them for himself.

A flood of doubt washed into Silas’ mind as he thought about what should happen next. What if it didn’t work? What if he was one giant disappointment? What if this power wasn’t enough to destroy the gates or defeat Anithistor? What did they need his power for anyway? Julian had been tremendous with his supernatural control over nature.

Inga must have sensed his uncertainty because she stood next to him and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

“Silandrin was sure about you,” she said. “I’m sure about you, too.”

Silas reached his hand to hers and clutched it in appreciation of her support.

She squeezed in return and stepped away from him, taking his staff in the process.

His right hand touched the side of the pedestal as he faced the glowing map in front of him. The view of Jekyll Rock showed nothing but smoke and steam from the rain as it extinguished the flames of destruction.

The map quickly moved back to show all of Marenon in slumbering twilight. The smoke from Jekyll Rock was so small from this height. He took a deep breath as he soaked in the view. His job was to rescue all of this.

Silas placed his left hand on the other side of the pedestal as Julian had instructed. It began to vibrate under his grip, and the floor beneath them shook.

The radiant light of Marenon’s Map vanished into a stream that flowed to each of the medallion’s jewels. After a minute, the streams were spent and the jewels glowed at the center, casting a shimmering rainbow of colors all along the room’s walls. The lights shined from the medallion’s centers, on and off, one at a time. Somehow the medallions created a sound like a beating timpani that seemed to be synchronized to the rhythm of Silas’ heartbeat.

The magic was testing the Human standing before it and Silas was deemed worthy.

The rivers of light that had flowed into the medallions now shot into his eyes, blinding him with a white-hot illumination.

He tried to scream out, but the magic held on to him, paralyzing him as it held him suspended in the air. He had no control over his movements, but he could feel that something very powerful had entered his body.

He lost all sense of anyone present in the room. In fact, he had lost all sense of the room itself. Time seemed to stop as the pounding ceased and his vision returned, though he did not see a room full of onlookers. He was alone.

Silas felt a serenity he had lacked throughout his entire life in Marenon and even on Earth. He looked at his hands and his feet. Both were bare. A white robe that felt softer than silk covered him.

He was standing, though he saw no ground beneath his toes, nor did he feel a surface under his feet.

He had only ever felt this kind of weightless absence from the body when he had died on Earth, only this time he wasn’t staring at a bleeding body surrounded by Stühocs.

Am I dead?

“No,” a voice sounded from behind him. “You are not dead.” The being had appeared out of thin air, wearing the same white robe that Silas now wore. The face shined behind a mask of blurred magic. It looked like the same apparition that the Gatekeeper had left for him on more than one occasion, but the voice was different.

“Are you Silandrin’s apparition?” Silas asked. “You’re one of them anyway. I’ve seen your kind before.”

“I am not, Master Gatekeeper. I am your apparition.”

“Mine?”

“A servant. A tool to be used as you see fit. As long as you live, you have a limitless supply of apparitions like me. In essence, I am you, or at least part of who you are.”

“So you carry no message for me?” Silas asked.

“Actually I do. Though I am your servant, I was placed here by Silandrin to encourage you. After this moment, you are to become the most powerful being in all of Marenon. You must now destroy the gates and make your people a true part of this world.”

“I’m afraid,” Silas said, looking down at his feet.

“A person with any wisdom would be. Prophecies are not fulfilled by the fearless.”

“How do I move forward?”

“You move as you have been instructed, and do whatever you deem to be the best course of action.”

“That tells me nothing.”

“I wasn’t sent here to tell you what to do. You already know what to do.”

“Destroy the gates, then it’s all over,” Silas said.

“No. Destroy the gates then take your place as Watchman over Marenon.”

Silas had nearly forgotten about the title of Watchman. Silandrin had told him that before there were gates, before there were Stühocs or even Humans, he hadn’t been the Gatekeeper, he had been the Watchman, the protector over Marenon. But with the creation of the gates, he had come to be known as the Gatekeeper.

If all went according to plan, Silas would become the Keeper of all three gates, destroy them, then take his place as Watchman to protect and guide Marenon for thousands of years to come. But only if he wasn’t killed first.

“If you’re my apparition, then how did Silandrin send you to me?”

“You have met the Gatekeeper, Silandrin, in the past, have you not?”

The only time had been when Silas was a baby – when his grandfather Garland took Silas through the Blue Gate to Earth.

“When he first met you, Silandrin used your spirit to create me and placed me in the pedestal as a message to you. Now you possess the power to use my likeness to speak with whom you wish.”

“I don’t feel much different,” Silas said. “I don’t feel all-powerful.”

“Many changes are coming to you, Silas. Embrace them. Learn to use your new abilities and you will be a great Watchman.”

Neither of them said it, but Silas knew this was the end of their conversation. What more could be said? He turned from his apparition. He knew when he went back to the others that time would not have passed for them.

Silas delayed a long moment. He felt like he needed to collect his thoughts, but in truth, his mind was clear. There were no more questions, no more answers to be found. It was time to take action.

“I’m ready,” he finally said.

“Then I have fulfilled my duty to you. Thank you, Gatekeeper. May magic always serve you for the betterment of Marenon.”

The next sensation Silas had was falling heavily to the floor. Inga and Kaden instantly rushed to his side.

“Did it work?” they asked him.

Silas didn’t answer, but he saw the look of horror on Julian’s face. The group followed his line of sight and saw the pedestal behind them – or what was left of the pedestal. The medallions lay in the crumbled remains of what once stood as the source of power for Marenon’s Map.

Julian walked to the pile of rocks and knelt beside it. “The weapon is gone,” he muttered. “How are we supposed to fight without the weapon?”

“We have Silas,” Kaden said.

“But using the weapon was the plan from the beginning,” Julian argued. “Now we don’t have the Map’s power to take on the rest of the Stühocs and Nestorians.”

“That’s no longer your concern,” Darius snapped from the other side of the room. “I want Julian placed under arrest.”

Kaden held up a hand. “Let’s not be so hasty.”

“Hasty? Do you remember what this man did to us? What he tried to do to me?”

Kaden sighed and looked from Julian to Silas, and back to Julian.

Silas wasn’t sure what was to be done in this situation. He had just undergone the most surreal transformation imaginable, and the anger of Darius Umar was far from his mind.

Kaden decided to let the guards take Julian to the outside jail cells located near the northern end of Jekyll Rock. Julian didn’t protest, but walked quietly with the guards. When he was gone, Kaden, Inga and Darius focused all their attention on Silas.

“What happens next, Silas?” Kaden asked.

Silas took one look at Inga and nodded. She had been there when the Gatekeeper had given him his instructions. A grin formed at the side of her mouth when she gripped his hand. He knew she could feel the new energy that pulsed through his veins. He was the Gatekeeper now. He had a new responsibility.

“Next, we destroy the Blue and Green Gates,” Silas answered. “Then we attack Mudavé.”