The Eye of the Stone (11 page)

Jackson stared in a daze at his tingling, quivering fingers as—despite all reason—the rumbling echo grew louder, vibrated deeper, as if sinking into the earth beneath the bridge.

Or as if coming from the earth itself.

The notion felt disturbingly familiar to Jackson, yet he couldn't remember why. He tried to wipe away the haze that clouded his mind, but with no success. He felt as if he were standing in a dark dream, awake and yet unable to move out of it and into the light, unable to see what would normally be clear.

“Jackson Cooper!” The voice was full of awe. Jackson turned to see Radnor. “Your magic—the power of Zallis—is great indeed!”

“Yes!” Now Yed was before him, a wide grin on his face. “Look, they're shaking with fear!”

Jackson looked to where Yed pointed. On the other side of the river, the Yakonan had retreated to the edge of the tall grass, many on their knees as if begging for mercy.

Only their chieftess, Beromed, had rushed forward and was pulling Dedron off the bridge and back to his people, even as he resisted.

“Dedron!” Tessa cried out from the bonds of Radnor's arms. Tears spilled down her cheeks. “Dedron!”

Arnica started to cry, too. “What is happening?” she begged. “I'm scared!”

Radnor clutched his daughters even tighter to him. “Don't worry. The evil spell will wear off soon. Look at the Yakonan. They know their false magic is defeated. Jackson Cooper has captured their heathen relic. They're afraid. They're cowards.” Eyes mocking, he jeered at Dedron and Beromed. “Yes, fear the Steadfast Order and all Timmran! Fear Jackson Cooper. Fear the power of Zallis as it poises to destroy you!”

“Three cheers for Jackson Cooper!” Yed shouted.

“Yes, three cheers!” Radnor commanded.

The soldiers of the Steadfast Order moved in close around Jackson, weapons raised, pumping them in the air, shaking them at the Yakonan.

“Jackson Cooper!”

Their faces swam before Jackson's eyes.

“Jackson Cooper! Jackson Cooper!”

More joined in, until it became a chant.

“Jackson Cooper! Jackson Cooper! Jackson Cooper!”

Jackson turned in a slow circle, the cheers for a moment drowning out the rumbling echo under the bridge.

“Lead us, Liberator!” Radnor said. “Lead us to victory!”

Jackson blinked, then blinked again. Did this mean …? Yes, he'd done it. He'd been afraid but hadn't run. Instead, he'd stood his ground and fought—
really
fought—for what was right, and he'd won. He gripped the pendant where it hung from the necklace, now snug around his neck, and felt yet another surge of power pass from it into his pulsing hands.

“Jackson Cooper! Jackson Cooper! Jackson Cooper!”

A smile slowly worked its way onto Jackson's face. They wanted him. Him, Jackson Cooper, the Liberator, sent by Zallis, whose name they chanted. They wanted him to lead them to victory. Then surely the spell the Yakonan had put on Tessa would break and she'd see him for what he truly was—a hero, just like he'd dreamed of being. He lifted his hands—his powerful, magic hands—over his head.

“Forward!” Jackson shouted his battle cry. “In the name of Zallis, fight for Timmra, fight for what is—”

A great thundering roar came from under the bridge. Jackson looked down to see the river churning in frenzied whitecaps beneath them, the mud quivering. The timbers of the bridge creaked and groaned, then trembled.

Fear flickered in Yed's eyes. “The earth is shaking again!”

“Everyone off the bridge!” Radnor ordered, picking up his daughters, one under each massive arm.

Tessa fought to break free. “Dedron!” she called again. “Dedron!”

Yed grabbed Jackson's elbow. “Come on, Jackson Cooper,” he urged. He pulled Jackson with him as he followed his father and the soldiers of the Steadfast Order back off the bridge on the Timmran side. “Stay with me.”

The roar came again, even louder than before, building in volume, swelling. The earth under Jackson's feet shuddered, and he was knocked to his knees.

The bridge convulsed and heaved upward. With a huge splintering crack it shattered, then fell down into a great fissure that was opening beneath it in the center of the river. The water rushed in after the timbers and boards, sending billowing clouds of harsh, sulfurous steam into the air.

Jackson staggered to his feet and stumbled back, coughing and covering his nose and mouth as a hot fog engulfed him, burning in his nostrils. “What—What is happening?”

But no one answered. All were retreating from the riverside, even Radnor. He sheltered his daughters with his cloak, though Tessa still struggled to escape.

“Dedron! Dedron!” she screamed.

With a deafening boom the fissure in the river grew into a gaping abyss. From the chaos of breaking stone, raging water, and billowing steam came a terrible, cavernous roar so wild and fierce it made the hair come up on the back of Jackson's neck. He stared in helpless horror as out of the abyss climbed a huge beast, dreadful beyond imagination.

16. The Baen

Leather-skinned like a lizard, yet with the maned head of a lion, the monstrous creature rose up on powerful back legs to twice the height of a grown man. The hooked claws of its toes sliced into the hard earth like knives into butter. It glared around with blazing red eyes.

“The Baen!” Tessa cried at Jackson. “You've freed the beast!”

“No!” Radnor shouted as the creature whipped its long spiked tail about behind it. “It's Yakonan evil. They conjured this up. Kill it, Jackson Cooper! Kill it with the gun of Zallis!”

“Kill it!” Yed said, backing away, his eyes wide with fear. “Kill it
now
!”

The beast unfolded sinewy fingers, each tipped with a hideous, curled, daggerlike talon. In his mind Jackson ordered his hands to do as Radnor commanded—to use the power of the pendant to send a bolt of lightning crackling from his fingertips, slamming it into the beast's chest, crumpling this nightmare into a smoking cinder and saving the day once more.
Be a hero.

“Kill!” Radnor shouted again. “I command you!”

But Jackson's body would not respond. He stood petrified with fear, unable to move, his hands hanging limp at his sides.

Radnor shoved Tessa and Arnica at Yed. “Hold them!” He yanked his bow from his shoulder and shook it in front of Jackson. “It shoots only arrows!” he said. “See?” In one swift movement he fit an arrow to the string, aimed, and released. It zipped through the air and buried itself deep in the beast's shoulder.

With a snarl the beast wrenched the arrow free and threw it to the ground.

“We need the fire of Zallis!” Radnor said. “We need it now!”

Still, Jackson could only stand and stare.

Radnor spit in disgust, then fit another arrow to his bowstring. “To arms, soldiers of the Steadfast Order!” he commanded. “Kill the Yako beast! Kill it and defeat the Yakonan forever!”

Arrows and spears filled the air. One struck the bone above the beast's right eye, the shaft splintering. Most bounced harmlessly off the beast's armor-like hide.

Radnor threw his bow to the ground and drew his sword. “Blades and spears!” he yelled above the confusion. “Surround it. Attack!”

With a wild battle cry Radnor charged, a wave of soldiers rushing behind him. The beast roared. Its muscles rippled into tight bands. It slashed out at Radnor. He leaped to the side, barely escaping the cruel talons. Whirling, he brought his sword down, hacking off one of the beast's fingers, leaving it wriggling on the ground in a pool of black blood. The Baen screeched in pain.

Radnor shook his sword in the air. “We've got it! Kill!”

The soldiers of the Steadfast Order swarmed in. One thrust his spear at the beast's underbelly. With a blinding swipe the monster broke the spear shaft as if it were a toothpick and raked the man's chest with its claws. The man fell back screaming, bright red with blood. An instant later another soldier was pulled into the beast's grasp, his shriek of terror coming to an abrupt end as the beast bit down on his neck with jagged yellow fangs.

Jackson shook his head, trying to clear away the shock of violence in which he found himself swimming. Another wave of soldiers surged forward, slashing with their swords, thrusting with spears, hacking wildly with battle-axes.

Snarling, roaring, the beast lashed out again with its great claws and spiked tail. Men spun and fell, twirling partners in a dance with death. The ground turned crimson with blood.

“Deliver us!”

Jackson turned to see Yed release Tessa and Arnica and drop to his knees. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he bowed his head and clamped his hand over his eyes, then drew it away. “In the name of all that is Steadfast, I beseech thee, Zallis.…”

At first Tessa seemed not to notice she'd been freed. She was squinting into the foggy melee, a look of anguish on her face. For there was Dedron, moving like a cat across a sagging beam that had wedged into the top of the abyss when the bridge had collapsed. He scrambled up onto the Timmran side, grabbed a fallen spear from the ground, and began fighting the beast alongside his enemies.

“Dedron!” Tessa cried, and ran toward him.

“Tessa!” Arnica sprinted after her sister. “Don't leave me!”

Tessa scooped up a sword. Together she and Dedron lunged at the beast, stabbing at its side. The beast whirled on them, its tail whipping across the earth like a giant club. It caught Arnica right across the chest. Her piercing scream stopped mid-breath as she was slammed to the earth.

“Arnica!” Radnor's fierce cry seemed to break Yed's trancelike prayer. He sprang to his feet, dagger drawn, and charged forward, flinging himself onto the beast's back just as his father did the same. Both drove their weapons in deep. Dedron leaped up beside them, now jabbing with only a splintered spear as a weapon.

The beast screeched and slashed at its tormentors. In a split second all three lay crumpled on the ground. Tessa rushed to them. The beast reared up and glared down at her with evil red eyes.

“No!” With all his might Jackson concentrated his power on the beast, aiming at its underbelly. A crackling blast echoed above the clash of battle, ringing in his ears as lightning flashed from his fingertips.

In the instant of that flash, Jackson was knocked to the ground as if struck by a huge fist. His chest stung like fire. Around his neck, the chain gripped him in a stranglehold. He reached up, groping for the pendant. The necklace broke and fell into his hand, no longer a chain of gold, but now a snake coiling through the eye of the stone. It hissed at him and flicked its tongue over the etched drawing—no longer a lion, nor a dragon, but now the perfect likeness of the beast.

Jackson gasped and dropped them both. They hit the ground and exploded into tiny shards. The power drained out of Jackson's hands and body like water out of a sieve. “But—” Jackson whimpered, a deep chill rushing in where strength had been before. “But I thought—”

The beast snarled. Jackson jerked his head up to see it still standing, ready to attack. Only now it had turned its blazing gaze on him. It stalked toward him with murder in its eyes.

Terror gripped Jackson like an iron fist. “Help!” he cried, scooting backward on the ground.

“The Shaw-Mara!” Tessa screamed. “It has to be—”

The beast roared, drowning out the rest of Tessa's words.

But Jackson had heard enough. The Shaw-Mara. Tessa and Dedron had said it had to be blown in order to keep the Baen away, that he could somehow fix it. He had thought it was a Yakonan lie, but now … He fumbled desperately in his jacket pocket for the twin flutes he had taken from Dedron. He yanked them into the open.

The Baen roared so loudly at the sight of the Shaw-Mara that Jackson was sent sprawling again. He rolled to his knees, raised the Shaw-Mara to his lips, and blew. Nothing happened. Not even a hint of a note came out. Frantically, he whacked it against the ground as if he could beat notes out of it. Then he blew again and again with all his might.

Nothing.

Looming over him, the Baen rose up for the kill, talons dripping blood, great fangs glistening. Blind with fear, Jackson spun and scrambled to his feet, only to trip over a fallen soldier. The Shaw-Mara flew from his hand and sailed through the air in a terrible, graceful arc.

“No!” Tessa screamed. “Save it!”

But the Shaw-Mara had vanished over the edge of the abyss.

The Baen roared in fury, then leaped. With a shriek of raw horror, Jackson clamped his hands over his eyes and cowered on the bloody ground. Trembling violently, he waited the unendurable moment before the first white-hot flash of agony, the cruel beginning of what would surely be his gruesome end.

17. Into the Abyss

As abruptly as it had begun, the chaos of thundering violence ended. Jackson opened his eyes and looked down at his body. No blood, no great gashes, no broken bones. For some reason he could not fathom he was untouched. The Baen was gone.

“Thank God!” His breath came in a great rush of relief. He jumped up. “It didn't get me! I'm—”

Jackson's words of celebration caught in his throat. Bloody soldiers littered the ground, some pleading for help, others lying still—too still—eyes open and unmoving. He turned away from their glassy stares, only to see Tessa hovering over Dedron, then Arnica, then Yed, then her father.

“No!” she wailed. “No!”

Dedron lay moaning, blood at the corner of his mouth, on his forehead, coming from his nose, smeared across his cheek. Beside him Arnica curled limp like a worn and discarded doll, her chest jerking with ragged little breaths. But it was Yed and Radnor who looked the worst, their shirts red with blood, their faces ashen.

“No!” Tessa yanked her cloak from her shoulders and pressed it over her father's chest, then her brother's. The blood soaked through in seconds. Yed trembled, then went slack. “Please, no!” she cried. Radnor began to thrash about. “
Please!
”