“Look at this, Henry.” He held out the hand wearing the quartz ring. Black tendrils writhed angrily in their crystal cage. “This is a single moonbeam reduced to its essence. Can you even begin to imagine what will be released when the moon unloads everything it has stored up?” The lines on his face hardened. “My instincts tell me it will affect millions, if not billions, of people. And we simply cannot allow that to happen.”

Henry shifted uncomfortably. Having come to the decision to fight against evil, he suddenly had the feeling he was in way over his head. “What am I supposed to do?”

Coralis carefully considered his reply. “Henry, you are not just a boy. These are not tricks, they are abilities. You are now a Wandbearer! And anyone who assumes that responsibility must act with confidence and without hesitation for the good of mankind. It is not something to be taken lightly, and if I didn’t think you had it in you, you wouldn’t be here with me.”

He leaned forward and grasped Henry’s hands. “It’s in your blood, my boy. You are just awakening your powers, but I can sense that those powers are very special indeed. Fortunately, Randall could sense this as well, or we might have met under more dire circumstances.” Coralis stared into the face of a very frightened young man. He smiled. “You, your sister, your mother, myself, we are not alone in this fight.”

“Do you mean Randall? How could Mom possibly know about Randall?”

“Yes, Randall is on our side, but there are others. And when the time comes, our combined power will be exponentially greater than the sum of the individuals.”

Coralis’s words gave him confidence. He began to relax a little, knowing the burden did not fall entirely on his shoulders. But there was still something nagging at his subconscious. “Where has Randall gone?”

Coralis sat back once more. Grave concern lined the creases of his eyes. “I don’t know, Henry. But I hope wherever he is, he is exercising extreme caution. If some harm had come to him, I would have felt it. But that doesn’t mean he’s not in harm’s way. The boy could be reckless at times. For his sake—and ours—let’s hope he’s keeping himself out of trouble.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

To avoid complications, Dai She and Markhor decided to bind and gag the security guard. The other option was to give him an herbal haze that would immobilize him, but he was old and frail. There was a chance that his bodily functions would permanently shut down if he was kept under the spell for more than a few hours.