Chapter Twenty-Two
The Three Sisters of Death

Amazingly enough, Brendan had arrived through the megaliths unnoticed by everyone. All eyes were on the Banshees and the insane electricity that was emanating from the stone boxes below them. Brendan peeled his eyes away from the light show and searched for his father. The Ruas in the area were transfixed on the lights, and a large dragon-like beast circled the air overhead. Brendan assumed it was the Niseag that Ken had texted about. The man standing near the Banshees had to be Elathan. He wore a long, black coat and had golden energy dancing on his fingertips, adding to the electricity in the air. Finally, Brendan spotted his dad standing near Conchar.

Brendan skirted the edge of the light that was being cast and stuck to the shadows as he tried to move closer behind his father and Conchar. He wanted to be as stealthy as he could, so he stalked forward as slowly as possible. He glanced around and was satisfied that he was still unnoticed. He crept forward, stepping over the weeds as carefully as he could. He came within a few feet of Oscar and Conchar before he stepped on a stick. The stick broke under Brendan’s foot and sounded like a shotgun firing in his ears. Conchar turned around and stared directly at Brendan, surprise written all over his face.

“So much for stealth,” Brendan said before delivering a right cross directly into Conchar’s face. The wizard was thrown a dozen yards and landed at the feet of Elathan. “Ah, man! Let’s go, Dad!” Brendan grabbed his father’s arm and began to run, pulling Oscar along behind him.

Elathan’s eyes flared over with gold. “Kill the boy! Bring me the Seeker!”

…

Dorian strolled with Lizzie through Corways examining the damage that had been done. They passed by fatigued Leprechauns working side by side with Gnomes, Frank, Brett, and Vivian. They went inside Dorian’s house and began picking up some of the debris. Dorian had refused to have her house cleaned up first, insisting that her fellow Leprechauns be assisted instead.

“I’m sorry this happened here, Dorian,” Lizzie stated, picking up a chair leg.

“Me too, Liz,” Dorian agreed. “My heart’s breaking that we weren’t able to get Oscar back.”

“Brendan and I were talking about it a little bit ago. Neither of us could come up with something to do.”

Dorian scowled. “Where is Brendan? I haven’t seen him in awhile.”

“Call him,” Lizzie suggested.

Dorian pulled out her cell phone and dialed his number. She held the phone up to her ear but was surprised that a phone started ringing in the room. “That’s weird.”

Lizzie leaned over and tossed a broken table piece aside and picked up the phone. “It’s Brendan’s phone.”

“Why would he leave it here on the floor? That doesn’t make sense.”

Lizzie hit the power button and the cell phone came out of sleep mode. She unlocked the device and read the screen. “Look at this text from Ken. Can you make anything out of it?”

Dorian’s eyes showed that she did understand. “I don’t know why he left his phone, but I do know where he is.”

…

All of the Ruas converged on Brendan and Oscar at once. This breed of Ruas was fierce, powerful, and ravenous. One of them sprung onto Brendan’s back and bit him on the shoulder. The bite felt like fire to Brendan, but with one hand pulling on Oscar that only left him one to defend himself. He reached over his head and grabbed the Rua by the back of the neck and pulled. The red-eye’s teeth raked across Brendan’s skin and drew blood, but he had yanked hard enough to free himself of the tenacious Rua. He flung the attacker into a pair that was bounding towards him on all four limbs.

The Niseag roared into the darkening sky and angled its body to dive down at Brendan. Brendan tugged Oscar behind a tree as the Loch Ness monster raced towards its target. The creature let loose with a freezing stream of air just as Brendan and Oscar ducked behind the tree. Instantly, the tree was frozen solid.

“Wow!” Brendan exclaimed. “Note to self, do not let that thing breathe on you!”

Brendan began to exit the trees, intent on making it back to the old megaliths, but Oscar was dragging his feet. After a few moments, he actually tried to pull away from Brendan. “Why are you fighting me?” Then Brendan got it. Conchar was controlling him.

He didn’t have too much time to think since a Rua smashed through the frozen tree like he had run through a window, sending jagged shards all over the place. Brendan executed a front kick to the center of the Rua’s chest, causing it to explode on impact.

“That’s enough,” declared Elathan and all of his Ruas quickly backed away. “Have you come to protect the Earth, O’Neal?”

Brendan pulled his dad back into a patch of trees obstructing Elathan’s view of them. “Snap out of it, Dad,” Brendan pleaded.

Oscar blankly looked towards Conchar, his puppet master. He tried to pull away from Brendan again, and Brendan had to make a decision. He gave his father a quick chop to the back of the neck, rendering him unconscious. “Sorry, Dad, but I can’t hang on to you and fight well enough to get us out of here.”

“You are too late, Protector,” Elathan stated coolly. “You cannot stop what is to come.”

Brendan took a few deep breaths to calm his nerves and then he stepped out of the woods and stood before the Bringer of Death. “I came for my father. That’s it.”

Elathan cocked his head and looked over. “I’m not finished with him yet.”

Brendan sighed. “I was afraid you’d say that.”

…

Dorian and Lizzie rounded up Frank, Garnash, Rory, Biddy, Griffin, and the Blanchs and led them to the obsidian megaliths in the center of Corways.

“Brendan got a message about where Dad was and he went there, alone,” added Lizzie. “He somehow figured out how to use the megaliths.”

“Where is he?” Frank asked.

“New York,” Dorian responded. “Garnash, I need you to take me and Lizzie to that old Wampanoag site. Can you do that?”

“Wait,” Rory interjected. “Why only the two of you?”

Lizzie and Dorian shared a look. “We discussed it and we can’t ask you to come,” Lizzie said. “We’re pretty sure Elathan is there and that means there’s a good chance that we won’t be coming back.”

“Well, you’re not going without me,” Rory protested.

“Make that us, lad,” Biddy agreed.

Brett and Vivian exchanged worried looks, but Dorian put their minds to rest. “Since Rory and Biddy are going, I wanted to ask you to stay and help look after Corways.”

“Of course, your highness,” Vivian beamed.

“Well, you know I’m in,” Garnash declared with confidence. “I’ve got to see this thing through to the end —no matter what.”

Dorian led her small group into the middle of the megaliths and Garnash began his chant.

“God speed,” Brett said as the group vanished from sight.

…

Elathan stalked forward, but Brendan wasn’t going to wait to be attacked. The young hero began to trot but picked up his speed so that he was running at an inhuman rate as he plunged himself like a missile directly into the golden god’s midsection. Elathan didn’t even stagger, but Brendan fell to his knees and grabbed his shoulder since the impact had just dislocated it. Elathan growled, brought his clutched hands above his head, and dropped a heavy double-axe-handle blow on Brendan’s back, pounding him into the ground. He grabbed the boy by the hair and brought his knee directly into Brendan’s face and sent the boy flying some thirty feet, sprawling on his back.

Brendan’s lungs were pleading for air as he rolled onto his side and spit out a mouthful of blood. The one good thing about being tossed onto the ground was that his shoulder was forced back into its socket. It was excruciating, but his whole body was in pain at that moment. He shook the cobwebs from his head and glanced up in time to see Elathan leap into the air, intent on stomping him into dust. Brendan put his hands behind his head and flipped backwards away from the powerful god’s feet. He landed on the ground and then immediately hopped into a drop kick, which he planted directly in Elathan’s face. The Bringer of Death stumbled back a little. He reached up and felt his lip since it was moist with a drop of blood. He glared at the Protector.

They both stepped forward ready to stand toe to toe. Brendan threw his strikes as fast as he possibly could, but Elathan blocked them as if Brendan was fighting in slow motion. Brendan threw a jab that Elathan blocked and held. The golden god brought his knee into Brendan’s midsection, doubling the teen over. He backhanded the boy across the face, sending sparks of gold and silver flying, causing Brendan to stumble. The golden god threw a right cross and a left jab, each connecting on the sides of Brendan’s head. He thrust his fist into Brendan’s gut and then followed it with an uppercut and made Brendan stand straight up. Brendan was nearly out on his feet and took a few steps away from Elathan. The Bringer of Death strolled towards Brendan and unleashed an open-palm punch directly in the middle of the boy’s chest. Brendan hit the ground and rolled until he slammed into a maple tree, uprooting it. Brendan tried to pull himself out of the tangled roots and mounds of dirt but lost his balance and fell down with his back against a huge clod of dirt.

“Pathetic,” Elathan said, stalking forward. “Nuada would be so disappointed.”

Brendan’s head was ringing and his vision was blurry, but he understood that this was probably the end for him. Elathan pulled his sword from its sheath and held it loosely at his side. Through the haze, Brendan thought he recognized the sword, but he absently wondered how the obsidian dagger had grown in length.

“You came seeking your father, Brendan O’Neal, but all you found was death.”

The golden god screamed and accelerated his sword directly at Brendan’s head, but all his blade found was dirt which exploded upon contact. Elathan glanced over and smirked.

“We’ve got you, Brendan!” Lizzie said with dangerous purple eyes. Her staff was still affixed to his arm, but she managed to free it on the second try.

Lizzie stood up with her staff in hand, shoulder to shoulder with Dorian and her glowing red hands, Frank with a purple staff of his own, Garnash with electric magic dancing between his palms, Rory and his blue bow, and Biddy flapping her orange wings over the group.

“There is no way I let you kill my brother today, freak,” Lizzie stated plainly.

Elathan snarled and began to step toward them when a sonic boom sounded from the circle and he stopped to observe. The electricity intensified all around the Three Sisters of Death as the stone coffers shook violently. The symbols moved without pause, and as they did, the stone coffers began to grow. They shot twenty-five feet into the air, forming a three megalith structure. It was like three miniature Washington Monuments had been placed in rural New York.

Elathan ignored the small band of latecomers and walked away to watch the megalith union come to fruition. “Kill them,” he called out over his shoulder to the Ruas.

…

Meghan, Farron, and Isobel were in their full Banshee forms as they hovered at the tiptop of the megalithic structures. Their eyes were pools of white with tiny golden lightning bolts streaking in every direction as if there were thunderstorms behind their eyes.

They chanted the language of Tech Duinn, relying on the language of the Realm of the Dead to open the tether to Otherworld. The runes on the newly-formed megaliths sizzled and glowed until a beam of golden light the circumference of the circle over which they hovered erupted from the sky. The beam shot straight down and encompassed the entirety of the megaliths from the outer edge to all points in between. Instantly, the Three Sisters of Death vanished, transported away from the Earth.

…

Frank shielded his eyes from the massive beam of light. “What is going on?”

“I don’t believe it,” Garnash said in astonishment. “I think they have opened a tether to Otherworld.”

“Let’s close it down!” Dorian ordered.

Before they got very far, ten Ruas surrounded them, and with Brendan still groggy on the ground, they were in for the fight of their lives.

…

Conchar stood next to Elathan and watched the beauty of the megalith union. It was like nothing that the wizard had ever seen before.

“Where’s the Seeker?” Elathan asked.

Conchar looked back to the patch of trees and concentrated on Oscar’s consciousness. “He comes now.”

Oscar ambled out from behind the trees and began walking towards the puppet master.

“The tether will remain open until I enter it,” Elathan began. He glanced up at his Niseag that had been content to hover over the area until it was called upon. Elathan mentally ordered it to fly into the tether, and it vanished in the light. “Go.”

Conchar bowed and walked into the golden beam, no questions asked.

…

Lizzie thwacked! a Rua’s head so hard that she thought it was going to fly off of the thing’s neck. Instead, the former human collapsed in a pile of dust and blood. She glanced up and spotted her father slowly walking towards Elathan and the golden beam of light from the megaliths. She couldn’t let that happen and sprinted to get in between the golden god and Oscar.

“No way,” she proclaimed, her staff poised to strike.

Elathan released a primal, guttural scream. “Fools!” He looked at all of his opponents. He closed his eyelids and his muscles began to contract. He screamed again, only this time sparks of gold started to burst from his pores, giving him the appearance of a living firework. “Now you all die!”

…

Brendan pulled out of the fogginess but felt like his brain had been kicked around the world, twice. He most definitely had a concussion or five, but he couldn’t worry about that now. He tried to stand but fell back to his knees. The lights in the area were bright and the sounds were muffled as if he was wearing ear plugs. He looked at Dorian and was surprised to see her there. She was pointing at something.

He followed her finger and saw Lizzie standing between Elathan and his father. Elathan wasn’t attacking, but what was he doing? It was hard to think with his mind so groggy. One thing was clear —he had to pull Lizzie and Oscar away from Elathan. Brendan reached out with his mind and his power and pulled Lizzie and Oscar straight back to the group.

Brendan tried to wrap them both in a hug, but just before he could grab Oscar, his father was snatched away by Elathan’s power. The golden god flung Oscar into the golden beam and sent him away from Earth and away from Brendan and Lizzie.

Lizzie screamed and tried to go after him but Brendan reeled her back to him. Elathan’s death stroke would be coming next.

Elathan sent a massive pulse out from his core in all directions. Brendan saw grass and Ruas who were hit by the pulse disintegrate, and he couldn’t let that happen to his friends. He felt so weak, so defeated, but he had to give it a try. He concentrated as hard as he could and released a silver dome that stood between the golden god and his friends. When the two energies met, there was a huge explosion and Brendan and his group were thrown backwards into the stream where Elathan left them for dead.

…

The Bringer of Death looked around at the desolated area, satisfied that he had eliminated Earth’s Protectors with a single pulse. No living thing had survived, not even the grass, the weeds, the trees, or his Ruas. Only his new tether to Otherworld remained. He strode proudly into the megalith union, sparing no thought for Brendan O’Neal or his friends.

The enormous column of golden light ceased to connect Otherworld. Earth and Elathan and his brood had gone. There was only an eerie silence left behind—Elathan’s silent promise of destruction upon his return.