Thados if I am there. He owes the pack a favor,” Grandpa explained. He didn’t go into detail about why Thados owed the pack. I didn’t care as long as we could get what we needed from him.
“Thank you, Grandpa.” Grandpa called the car around on his cell as we headed for the foyer. Jenna was already there. Within a couple minutes Matt and Ava hurried down the stairs to join us. We piled in the huge black limo and headed for the front gate. We drove through little rock and headed out of town. Once we headed out of town I noticed that we were entering more mountainous terrain. We drove another half hour or so down very narrow and curvy roads before the car slowed down and made a turn onto a gravel road.
As soon as we made the turn onto the gravel I got a very odd feeling all of a sudden. I remembered that same feeling once before in the garden with Ava’s mom. It was the same vibrating feeling I had when we did the ritual for Ava to obtain her power.
“Does anyone else feel a little weird?” I asked.
“We crossed through some very powerful magic just now,” Ava said. She answered knowing exactly what “feeling” I was referring to.
Now that we had turned off the main road we were winding our way up into the mountains. The road got narrower and the forest seemed to close in around us as we climbed higher. Grandpa explained to us that Thados, much like his brother, had tapped into dark magic in order to stay alive for so long. He told us that while Nhados chose to use the dark magic for evil, Thados only used dark magic to survive. He said Nhados had been trying for many years to talk Thados into joining him. Many years ago Nhados declared war against Thados and his coven. There was a great battle between the brothers, and with the help of our pack, Thados drove his brother away. Thados swore his allegiance to the pack at that time.
As Grandpa continued to explain to us about Thados, we crossed through an iron gate into a little clearing in the forest. The car stopped and we got out. The house we were now standing in front of was spooky to say the least. It looked like one of those old haunted estates you see in so many horror movies. The hair on my neck pricked up as I thought about all the crazy people in scary movies. The people you try to yell at through the TV to “don’t go in there,” but they never listen. The house was so old and run down looking that I couldn’t imagine a powerful wizard would ever want to live here. The yard was grown up and seemed as though nobody had touched it in years.
“Are you sure someone lives here?” Matt asked as we stared at the old house.
“Don’t let the outside deceive you,” Grandpa said. Grandpa walked up the old steps onto the front porch and we all slowly followed behind him. I noticed a single security camera over the door following us as we made our way up. Grandpa reached the front door and pushed the doorbell and we waited for someone to answer. Just as grandpa started to push the bell again we heard the door click and slowly creaked open.
A young boy that couldn’t have been much younger than me stood in the doorway looking out at us. The boy wore a long flowing dark blue hooded cloak that touched the floor all around him. The hood was down and I could see that he had blonde hair. He had a very serious look on his face but my attention was focused on his piercing blue eyes that reflected the color of the cloak he was wearing as he asked us,
“Can I help you?”
“We are here to see your master,” Grandpa said to the boy.
“Master is not expecting any visitors today,” the boy replied.
“Tell him Samuel Carrington is here on very important business. We must see him immediately,” Grandpa explained. The door slammed in front of us and we looked at Grandpa very confused.
“I never understood why Thados would choose trolls to serve him,” Grandpa said with a smile.
“Trolls?” we asked curiously together. Grandpa just nodded his head as he continued to smile and turned back toward the door. We waited there for several minutes before the door opened again very slowly.
The boy had returned and now motioned for us to enter. We followed Grandpa into the old house. We looked around in awe at the room surrounding us. I now realized what Grandpa meant about the outside deceiving us. The inside of the house was immaculate. We all turned in circles as we took in the room around us.
“If you will follow me, Master will see you now,” the boy spat out at us. I couldn’t believe how rude he was being. I noticed someone coming down the stairs as we started to follow the boy. I did a double take as I realized the person coming down the stairs looked identical to the one that let us in the front door. We followed the boy into the next room. He told us to sit down. We all did as he asked.
“Master will join you shortly,” he said as he walked over to a door on the other side of the room. He stood next to the door with his hands clasped together behind him as if he were standing guard over it.
The room we were now sitting in appeared to be the living room. It looked like any other normal living room. There were several doors that led out of this room. The one we came in and the one the boy stood beside. There was also a third door, and we all turned as it opened. We watched in amazement as three more of the little blonde boys walked in.
“Ok, this is really weird,” said Jenna.
“I second that,” said Ava.
“Not everything is as it appears. They are trolls, and they have an appearance spell on them to hide their true nature. Trolls are quite odd looking. Thados changes their appearance for the comfort of his guests,” Grandpa explained.
The three new trolls took up posts around the room as they entered. After a few more minutes of waiting the first one opened the door and in walked a much older man. He was wearing a dark blue suit and tie that was the same color as the cloaks the trolls were wearing. Grandpa stood up as he entered and the man walked straight up to him with a warm smile. He reached out to shake Grandpas’ hand.
“To what do I owe the honor of your visit?” asked Thados as he and Grandpa both took a seat.
“I hate to say it, but I believe the time has come,” replied Grandpa. I watched as Thados’ smile faded and was instantly replaced with fear.
“These must be the soldiers that you told me about, Samuel,” Thados said, “And you must be Lucas,” he added as he motioned toward me. I wondered silently how Thados knew my name. It didn’t occur to me that he probably knew more about the prophecies than I did.
“That is correct. These are the Silent Soldiers minus one that was not able to join us today. I have to admit that they are greatly exceeding our expectations. They have learned as much on their own in the past few months as my team and I have learned over the past 14 years. They also have devised a plan to defeat your brother, which leads us to the reason for our visit. I promised Luke I would not interfere, and so I will turn the rest over to him. I just want you to know he has my full support. Thados acknowledged my grandfather and turned his worried gaze toward me.
“Mr. Thados, sir, we believe we know how to stop Nhados,” I began.
“I am guessing you need my assistance with something. That is the reason you are here I do believe. Tell me what I can do to help. I will tell you now that I will not stand against my brother again. I have defeated him once with the help of your grandfather. I am much too old now. He is far more powerful than I will ever be,” Thados replied.
“We don’t require you to fight with us. We believe we have devised a plan to bind his powers in order to defeat him. We only need you to help us with the spell that we will use to accomplish this,” I explained.
“A binding spell, very interesting,” said Thados. “It will take great magic to produce a spell strong enough to bind the powers of my brother Mr. Stallings.” Thados added. I noted his addressing me as though I was his equal. I suddenly had great respect for him. I couldn’t imagine going against my own brother, if I had one that is.
“Yes, that is what we have come up with. We only require that you allow us to use some of your blood to produce the spell. There is obviously no way we could obtain blood di
rectly from your brother. We believe that since you both share the same blood, being twins, that it should work just the same,” I said.
“Your grandson is definitely a very intelligent boy,” Thados said to Grandpa.
“Actually, Ava is the one that came up with the idea,” I told him. Thados turned his attention to Ava. He looked at her for several minutes before he spoke.
“I sense great power within you, child,” Thados said to Ava, “I only have one question for you. How do you plan to perform such an intricate spell against someone as powerful as my brother?”
“Ava, in fact, has devised a way to harness spells into objects. She will harness the binding spell into a small glass orb. By doing this, anyone can use the power of the spell against Nhados. I plan to be the one that will get close enough to him to cast the spell and bring him down once and for all,” I confidently told Thados.
Just then another of Thados’ “troll boys” rushed into the room unexpectedly. We all noticed the very startled expression as he sped to his master’s side.
“Master, we have a situation that must be addressed immediately. Someone has crossed the protection barrier onto the property from the North side of the house. “Someone followed you here,” the boy snarled at Grandpa.
“Silence!” Thados shouted at the boy. “Gather your brothers