upper arm.
The golden apple fell in front of me.
Above me, the sky flared with a rainbow of fire.
I reached out to take the apple. Blood ran from my hand down my fingers.
Out of the night, two hooded figures rode from opposite sides of the burning circle of nine stones. On top of saddled horses, they came together in front of me and blocked the path to the apple. One rode a white horse. One rode a black horse. Both wore brown, shrouded robes.
I recognized the animals—the same ones from limbo. Forever ago, it seemed.
The white horseman started to glow. From around us, an aria filled the air. The buried stones from the circle rose out of the dirt and came together. The white horseman made a structure. Two vertical slabs and one horizontal one, melded together to make a trilithon.
Then he turned. He extended his hand. I took a tentative step towards him. The other horse snorted in protest, blowing musky hot breath in the air. His rider trotted the black horse forward. He jumped down and picked up the apple.
Nothing happened. He walked closer to me. He held out the apple.
I took it.
Blood ran over the apple’s gold metal skin. The apple rose in the air. Sparkles of bright lights, tiny stars, glowed inside its dark interior. They bobbed excitedly, becoming charged. Beside me, Excalibur shuddered. The black horseman gestured me to touch the blade. I put my hand tentatively back on Excalibur. Another shot of electricity went through me. I cried out and tried to pull away, but the black horseman grabbed me and held my hand to the burning sword.
The sword absorbed the apple’s energy and emitted a blinding beam in return, a lighthouse beacon taming the chaos of the flames around it. It hit the trilithon in front of me, and the structure lit up. White light shone and a rectangular doorway opened.
Inside the doorway, I saw a curved wooden bridge over a thin crisp blue river.
Next to me, the black horseman held out his hand, but not to offer it to me. He reached for the apple. I shied away. Stumbling back, I fell against Excalibur. I pulled the blade and it came out easily from the stone. I held it in a battle stance in front of me. The horsemen threw back his hood. It was Matt. The black horseman was Matt.
The white horseman revealed himself. Vane.
Vane jumped off the horse. In one move, he leapt down. The hilt of a sword gleamed above the belt tied against his left hip. He held out his hand. For me or for the apple, I couldn’t tell.
There was only one thing to do. I tucked the apple close to me in a football hold and sprinted past Matt. I tossed Excalibur at Vane. He instinctively reached out to catch it and I used the distraction to leap into the open gateway of the trilithon.
I ran into the mist.
***
I tumbled out, landing facedown in a field of freshly cut grass. Soft earth kissed my lips. I lifted my head. In the distance, a familiar bridge came into focus. The world lay eerily dark. Moonlight reflected off the water. Surrounded by dark, shadowy trees, the shallow river ran under a curved wooden structure. The Old North Bridge.
An unlit lamppost on the bridge, a failed beacon in the darkness, sat silent and without any power. In the distance, nestled between two tree trunks, under another patch of moonlight, the bronze statue of a Minute Man marked the site of the first battle of the American Revolution. Concord, Massachusetts. Wearing a trim waistcoat and holding a musket at his side, the silent soldier welcomed me home.
I pushed myself up on my knees. The apple fell from my hands onto the flat clearing. In front of me, Matt lay on his back on the ground. I started to crawl to him, but a sharp pain made my stomach spasm. Clutching my middle, it rumbled as if a war raged inside. The taste of sharp metal coated my tongue and tainted the saliva. Taking shallow breaths, I rolled over on my back and tried not to pass out. The sky darkened into evening as this side of Earth turned away from the bright gaze of the sun. Stars winked down from a quiet sky.
The Dragon’s Eye warmed around my neck.
“Where have you been?” Vane’s voice pounded in my head.
His words hammered my brain, a pounding beat against my temples. I couldn’t work