The Legacy: A Custodes Noctis Book (11 page)

“What are you talking about?” Mike demanded. “He had a seizure.”

“I’m so sorry, Galen. I should have stopped you. Are you okay? Did It hurt you?”

“I’m not sure.” Galen paused, something was different. “Something happened. It might have just been letting me know it was there.” He tried to sit up, but dropped back on the bed as the room spun.

“You aren’t going anywhere for awhile.” Mike put a hand on his arm.

“You suspected something, didn’t you?” Galen looked at his brother.

“I had to ‘see’ her to know for sure.”

“Hello? You two want to let me in on this? My patient had a seizure and damn near coded, you want to tell me what’s going on?” Mike’s tone was snarky.

Rob didn’t move. “Rob? What did you need to see?”

“If she had…”

 “Rob?”

Rob met his eyes. “I had to know, Galen. I had to know if this was the beginning. If she was like me.”

Past

Ten Years Before

Day Two-Rob

It smelled wet, dank and moldy. That was the first thing that occurred to Rob. It was also very dark.
Where am I?
“Galen?” he called out, unsure. He was answered only by a far-off drip. He opened his eyes, it was very dark, a tiny sliver of light came from one side of the room. Rob sat up carefully and let his eyes adjust, breathing deeply like Galen had showed him, to help stop the fear pounding in his chest. He looked around, he was in a small room. There was a large wooden door, the light was coming under the door and through the keyhole. He was alone.

“Galen?” he called again. Nothing. He remembered the fight on the road. Galen had been hurt even before they had been stopped. He hadn’t wanted to run, but Galen looked so desperate when he told him to escape. So he had run, from the fight, from his brother.
That was a big mistake.
He was hurt, there was so much blood.
Rob closed his eyes for a minute, trying to get a sense of his brother through the bond they had as Keepers. He thought he felt him for a moment, just a flash, and then an odd darkness where the flash had been. “
Galen? What’s going on? Are you okay? Please be okay. I’ll find you, okay? You just be okay till I get there.” 
He sighed.
Now what? What would Galen want me to do? He’d say we’re Keepers—try and escape. Okay, Galen, let me see if I can.

He walked over to look at the door. It had an old-fashioned skeleton key lock. He dug through his pockets. They’d taken his pocket-knife, but he still had some odds and ends. Rob smiled. Galen had showed him how to pick locks the summer before. It was supposedly a forbidden activity, but Galen had taken pleasure in showing him and now he was better than Galen at it. In fact, he often teased his big brother about it, telling him of his exploits with various locks. Galen would look at him with disgust, shake his head and say he regretted the day he had taught him that particular skill. Rob just laughed at him and would boast he could pick a lock. Any lock.
Okay, almost any lock, but I bet given a little time I can open any lock, anywhere, anytime.
Rob comforted himself imagining his brother’s response to that statement.
“Better not, Brat,”
Galen would say and nudge him with a shoulder or lightly punch him in the arm. Comforted and feeling confident, Rob set to work, gently testing the lock. Within a couple of minutes he was rewarded by a loud click.
Ha, gotcha.
He gently pulled the door open.

There was a hallway, lit by a lone naked light bulb. Rob cautiously looked down the hall, there were stairs about forty feet from him. The room he was in was at the end of the hallway, there were three other doors along it. He slipped silently out of the room toward the stairs. As he walked down the hall, he opened the doors.
Galen might be here. I have to find him, if he’s hurt he’ll need my help. I can’t “feel” him, though. I wonder if that means he isn’t here? Or if he is unconscious.
That thought caused a ripple of panic to run up his spine. As he opened the last door he smelled something odd, a coppery smell. His brain sought to identify it, but not before he saw what was in the room. He slammed the door as the gruesome sight registered in his brain. Rob resisted the urge to run and stopped at the bottom step. There was another closed door at the top, it didn’t look like it had a lock. He crept up the stairs and eased the door open. The room was empty and, across from Rob, was a door that went out of the building.

He paused, listening. He could hear someone talking, but it was muffled, coming from another room. Rob stopped for a moment, trying to hear Galen’s voice, reaching out trying to sense his  presence. Not hearing his brother’s voice, he took a step, moving silently.
Maybe all that time Galen and I spent sneaking up on each other was a good thing.
The door was so close. He moved towards it and turned the knob. It was unlocked. He peeked out the door, making sure no one was around, slipped outside and stopped to get his bearings.

The building, it might be an old farmhouse, was bordered by forest. There was a large clearing surrounding the house that he would need to cross before he was safely in the cover of the trees. It would be a long dash. He was fairly fast these days, even though he couldn’t run as fast as Galen, but his brother was tall, with legs to match. His brother assured him he’d be equally as tall, but at times like this Rob wished his growth spurt had already caught up with him. He measured the distance to the trees, wondering how fast he could cross the open space.

He paused, wondering what to do. If Galen were there, he was probably hurt, he’d need help, but Rob was pretty sure he wouldn’t be enough help to rescue his brother. He thought about it for a precious minute. He wasn’t sure Galen was there. And he knew what his brother would say if he didn’t go. He shook his head. Galen would tell him to run, get help and come back.

Rob took a deep breath and ran for the trees. About halfway across the clearing, he heard someone shout an alarm. He thought he heard someone behind him and ran faster, it didn’t work, before he got to the forest he was tackled and tackled hard. He went down, stunned.

“No you don’t, kid, you’re not going anywhere.” A man with a thick beard pulled him to his feet. He held Rob’s arm in a tight grip. Rob looked at him and what he saw caused him to panic. He struck out at the man, the way Galen had shown him, the man ducked, then yanked Rob’s arm behind him, applying pressure until Rob stopped struggling. He was forced back into the house and down the stairs. The man stopped at a high shelf in the hallway and pulled down a rope. Shoving Rob back into the room he had escaped from, the man tied Rob’s hands behind him and pushed him down on the floor.

“Don’t worry, kid. You won’t be in here all that long. The ritual will begin soon. The Other will be in here with you shortly, to spend time with you before it starts.” He smiled, there was something in his smile, in his eyes, that terrified Rob.

Taking a deep breath Rob “looked” at him, using the Sight, bracing himself for what was there. The man was surrounded by a dirty black ring, tinged with the red of ancient blood. The colors, the way they looked, formed in Rob’s brain not only as a visual presence, but as a smell as well. It was the smell of death. Rob recognized it, he had found a dead opossum on the road once. The man laughed at Rob’s look. When he closed the door Rob heard the key turn in the lock.

Once he was alone, Rob pulled against the rope binding his hands, testing to see if he could work it loose. He struggled with it for what seemed like a long time before the hopelessness of the situation caught up with him. Determination began to give way to despair. He felt like crying. The fact that he couldn’t sense his brother at all was beginning to wear on him. He’d always been aware of Galen, and this silence disturbed him enough to cause a seed of worry to start growing. Rob knew they weren’t as close as their father and uncle, but still, Galen had always been there.
 

The key turned in the lock. A man in white pants and a bright purple shirt came in and sat down beside Rob. “I am Other.”

“That’s your name? What a dumb name.” Rob said, trying to quell his fear. What he saw in the man caused his heart to race. He had black spots like the waitress did, but something else was there. The man had a red ring around him and a black place on his chest. Rob took another breath, calming himself, hiding what he had seen.

“I had another name, as did you Chosen.”

“That’s not my name. It’s Rob, not chosen.”

“Yes, it is now. You are Chosen and I am Other. It is the way. You will be thirteen, the Chosen age, and I will be three times thirteen, the Other age.”

“What? That doesn’t make sense. You know what? It’s stupid.”

“That is the way it is. That is how it works. I am Willing and you are Unwilling. It is the way. We get to begin with the Earth ritual in a while.”

“What’s that?” Rob asked, curious even though he was beginning to get freaked out.

“It will mark the Beginning. We will be bled and blessed and then we will be placed within the Earth for thirteen hours.”

“What? What do you mean put in the earth?” Rob asked, terrified.

“In the ritual place and then we will be covered and will rest there for thirteen hours before the other rituals can begin.”

“Do you mean we’ll be buried?” He could feel his heart pounding against his ribcage. “Alive?”

“Yes, isn’t it glorious?”

“Not really, no.” He tried to reach out to his brother, fear making his mouth dry. Just for an instant he thought he sensed him. “
Galen, where are you? Galen? Are you alive?”
Rob reached out, trying to communicate all that to his brother.
“There is something wrong with these people. They look like death. I think they look like my death. I’m frightened. Galen?”
For just a moment he thought he heard his brother answer.

“It is a very marvelous thing to be Chosen for this ritual.”

“Don’t take this wrong, but I think you’re nuts,” Rob said, comforting himself with the image of Galen saying it.

“You will see. You will embrace it.”

“My brother is coming to get me. He’ll find me.”

“He won’t find you. Don’t worry about that. I hear them. It is time.” Other stood and opened the door. The man with the beard came in with a white shirt and purple pants. He dropped them on the floor and cut the rope binding Rob’s hands.

“Put those on. We’ll be just outside, so don’t try anything funny.”

“No.”

“You do it or we will. You don’t have any choice,” the man said. The black ring around him vibrated. Rob swallowed. “Okay.” He stood and picked up the clothes, waiting until they left before changing as quickly as possible. His mouth was dry, fear making his heart pound.

They came back in and placed two braziers and two golden cups on the floor. The incense smelled weird to Rob and he started feeling a little sick to his stomach. After they’d chanted something in an unfamiliar language, they stood by the brazier for a moment, wafting the smoke around themselves. The one who called himself Other picked up one of the golden cups, then held his left arm over the cup. The bearded man had a bright silver knife. He cut Other’s arm and they watched as his blood flowed into the cup.

When they finished, they put that cup on the floor and picked up the second one. Before Rob could react, they had grabbed his arm and sliced deeply, holding it over the cup. He watched, fascinated, as his blood ran into the cup.
There’s something strange in the incense.
It’s affecting my Sight. I can’t see them as clearly now, I wonder what’s in it. Galen will know. I’ll ask him.
The thought of his brother comforted him. He was starting to get faint. They bound a purple and red cloth over the wound, picked up the cups and the braziers and led him from the room.

They took him out of the house and across the clearing. Rob noticed a small hill at the back of the house, they were leading him towards it. As they reached the bottom, they stopped and chanted, forcing Rob onto his knees for a moment before pulling him up and dragging him up the incline. Rob could see the sun setting, blood-red, over the trees. When they reached the top and Rob saw what was there, once he saw what was going to happen, he pulled violently away from them and ran. Sheer terror gave him strength to break the hold the incense had over him, his head was suddenly clear and he made a dash to escape, but was stopped before he got far. There were other people waiting along the edge of the hill, and they grabbed him and forced him back, holding him by one of two large holes dug in the ground.

“No, please, I won’t try and escape again,” he said desperately, tears running down his face.

He saw Other climb down into one of the holes. The bearded man put one of the braziers into it and then dragged a board over. Some of the people gathered there, all wearing red robes, began piling rocks and shoveling dirt onto the board. There was a small opening in it. Rob could see smoke curling out.

“No, please,” Rob said again. “Please, don’t put me down there. Please.”

The bearded man pushed him down into a seated position and bound his hands behind him, carefully counting thirteen wraps before tying it off. Rob struggled against the man, against the bonds, until the man put his large hand around Rob’s neck. “Hold still,” he said, his voice barely more than a whisper. Rob immediately obeyed, terrified by the look in the man’s eyes.
My Sight isn’t right. Will it come back? If it doesn’t, can I still be a Keeper? 
The man did the same to Rob’s legs, wrapping them from his knees to his ankles. Then he was lifted and put in the large hole. They carefully placed the brazier in with him.