The Key of Kilenya

by Andrea Pearson

  Jacob opened his eyes. He couldn’t see anything. It took several seconds for him to realize he really was awake. Afraid to move, he concentrated as air rushed in and out of his lungs. No pain! He took a deep breath, and a sweet maple fragrance entered his nose.

  After a moment, he decided he needed to test for broken bones. He started with his toes, flexing them, then moved to his fingers and hands, stretching and flexing them as well. He lifted his arms and legs one at a time and bent them, tightening the muscles. Still no pain. He stretched his arms over his head and pushed against the cushions that surrounded him.

  Jacob touched his face and traced the outlines of his eyes, then checked his ears. Nothing was out of the ordinary. He stretched his hands, bumping them into the same soft fabric that covered the surface where he lay. Wiggling around, he found four corners and realized he was in a box of sorts.

  “Oh my gosh, am I in a coffin?”

  Trying not to panic, he pushed with his might against the surface in front of him. Light rushed into the box, momentarily blinding him, and he let the top fall shut again.

  At least it wasn’t sealed. Jacob waited for a moment before trying to open the box again, this time much more slowly so his eyes could adjust. Finally, after several seconds of short movements, his eyes grew accustomed to the light, and he pushed the lid all the way open.

  An extremely large Akeno stared down at him with a big grin on his face.

  Jacob yelled and backed into a corner as fast as he could.

  “Calm down, Jacob,” Akeno said. “Oh, wait, sorry. Let me explain what happened.”

  “What did you do? Did you shrink me?”

  “It was the only thing we could do.”

  “‘We’? ‘We’ who?” Jacob looked around frantically, still trying to get away from Akeno’s large face, but not wanting to fall out of the box.

  “Us, of course!” a voice said.

  Jacob flinched when Early appeared out of nowhere to stand right next to him. She was enormous! Well, by comparison to how she looked before, anyway. He realized that she was still smaller than he, but not by a whole lot.

  “Oh, wow . . .”

  She was exquisite. Every minute detail was perfect. Her skin was the color of a pale pink flower, as delicate and fragile-looking as a petal. There were patterns on the skin of her upper arms that were like green vine tendrils. Her hair, also green, fell to her shoulders and had a soft, pretty wave to it. Her eyes were green too, but very sparkly.

  Her beauty caught him off guard, and he had to remind himself to close his mouth and stop staring. She laughed at him, making him feel self-conscious.

  September flew up behind Early, and Jacob, looking at him, wondered why he’d paid so little attention to either of them before. September had the same vine tendril designs on his arms, but his were darker than Early’s. His hair was dark green—so dark that it looked almost black—and his eyes were the same shade as his hair.

  “Wow,” Jacob said. “You guys are amazing.”

  “Thank you!” Early said, curtsying.

  “Wait a second. How big am I?”

  “About two and a half inches tall,” Akeno said. “Only half an inch taller than the Minyas.”

  “That’s so cool!” He stood and faced Akeno. “Didn’t you break a whole ton of rules by doing this?”

  Akeno nodded. “Here, let’s put you back to normal. I want to make sure I didn’t do any more damage when I shrank you than what had happened when you fell, and we won’t know until you’re bigger again.”

  Jacob thought for a minute, weighing the options of asking Akeno to let him stay small for a while longer so he could explore the world as a two-and-a-half-inch person, or getting back on task. He decided he could have Akeno shrink him again later. Getting the Key as fast as possible was more important.

  “Okay,” he said. “Tell me what to do.”

  “Nothing. Just don’t panic. I have to pick you up. I’ll try to be careful, but it’s difficult to tell if I’m squeezing too hard or not.” Akeno reached his hand toward Jacob, but stopped. “Oh, wait, I’d better check to make sure everything is clear outside.”

  Jacob hadn’t noticed they weren’t under the sky. It had been so bright when he first opened the box that he’d just assumed they were out in the open. He looked up, recognizing tree branches forming a light shelter around them. Akeno put his hand on one of the bigger branches, and a few seconds later they folded away, letting Akeno step out of the shade and into the sun.

  The sky was deep blue and the sun was overhead, making Jacob squint. He noticed that at this size, everything was so out of proportion that he couldn’t distinguish anything around them, except for the tree right behind him and the mountain in the distance.

  Akeno came back and reached to pick Jacob up. Jacob braced himself, closing his eyes. He felt a tight pinch around his waist and ribs, nearly knocking the air out of him, and opened his eyes again. Akeno held him out at arm’s length. There was a whoosh of wind and then solid earth under Jacob’s feet. He looked around—he stood at least thirty or forty feet away from Akeno. His body felt normal again, and he could tell he was back to his right size.

  “That was so cool!” Jacob yelled, jogging back to Akeno. “And I’m surprised it didn’t hurt more. But, you know, after having fallen so far being shrunk wouldn’t have caused much extra damage.”

  “Yeah. You should have died from that fall.”

  Jacob picked up the box where he’d slept. It was solid silver with flower imprints on it, and the inside was lined with soft material.

  “That’s September’s,” Akeno said. “It’s saturated in Kaede Sap and heals Minyas if they ever get hurt—which almost never happens. I wasn’t sure it would work on you, but thank goodness it did.”

  Akeno grabbed his bag and tossed it to Jacob. “Here, eat. It’s been too long since you had food.”

  They both sat.

  “While you were unconscious,” Akeno said, “we ran out of food, and Brojan and my father shrank more and sent it to us with the Minyas.”

  Jacob examined his chunk of beef jerky. It looked the way jerky always looked. “And you made it big again.” He popped the piece in his mouth and glanced at Akeno. “You can both shrink and enlarge things. Isn’t that rare?”

  “A little, yeah. Normally, a Makalo can either shrink or make something big again. I think one of the main reasons they had me come with you is that I’m able to do both.”

  “After we get the Key, you should shrink me again,” Jacob said, then smiled. “I’m going to pull some amazing pranks on Matt!”

  Akeno laughed. “That would be fun, but we don’t really know what happens to the actual cells of things that have shrunk. That’s why we have rules.”

  “Well, I’m glad it worked.”

  “I thought you were dead when I looked over the edge, Jacob. You had fallen so far down—I can’t believe it didn’t kill you. It was September’s idea to put you in the box. After I did, I grabbed your bag and ran over the bubbles as fast as I could.”

  “And no other problems?”

  “None—I’m lighter than you. The wolves did catch up after I made camp, though. They sat and watched me. I finally yelled that we wouldn’t be going anywhere until you were better. I think they understood because they got up and left.”

  Jacob ate a handful of carrot sticks. “I really can’t believe I’m healed now. I’m sure I broke several bones. Did you get a good look at me?”

  “I didn’t look at anything. I was trying to put you in the box without killing you in the process.”

  “Oh, too bad. It would have been cool to know how many broken bones there were.”

  “That’s really weird, Jacob.” Akeno began putting things back into his bag.

  “Nah, it would have been cool.”

  “Being healed so quickly is cool enough. You should be happy with that.” He sighed. “Do you have any other questions? We should probably get on our way.”
>
  “How long was I out of it?”

  Akeno paused, then focused on the dirt. “Well, the healing isn’t instantaneous.”

  “Yeah, I figure it was several hours at least, based on how long it took Jaegar.”

  “And you were a lot more wounded than he was, so naturally it took a few more hours for you.” Akeno glanced at Jacob, looking quickly away.

  Jacob frowned—why was Akeno avoiding his question? “How many hours?”

  Akeno rubbed his nose, then fidgeted with the strap on his bag. “You were unconscious for four days.”

  It took a second for that to register in Jacob’s mind. “Holy cow! Four days? What about getting the Key? What about the Lorkon and the wolves? Is everything ruined now?”

  “I’m not sure, actually.”

  “You should’ve gone ahead. I would’ve been fine in the box in your bag.”

  Akeno shook his head. “Not a good idea.”

  Jacob scoffed at himself. Obviously Akeno couldn’t go on without his help—they worked as a team, and if Akeno had come across another diseased forest, he wouldn’t have been able to get through it on his own.

  “Brojan and my father want us to get to the nearest city, where we’ll be able to hide. Then they want me to shrink you again and have one of the Minyas take you back to Taga so they can talk to you.”

  “The Minyas can carry me?”

  “They’ve been carrying food for us, and if you’ve been shrunk, they won’t have any problem with your size. It’s faster than having you run back to the village.”

  Jacob thought about this for a moment. “Should I be nervous that they want to talk to me?” He couldn’t imagine anything they’d say that would surprise him more than what he’d already learned since coming to Eklaron. He could be wrong, but he hoped not.

  “I don’t think so . . . but I’m not sure.”

  “All right, let’s do it.”

  They packed up what was left of camp and started down the trail. It led them through a section of massive granite rocks that had fallen from the mountain above and into a beautiful little valley with rolling, flower-covered hills.

  Jacob heard a sigh behind him and figured Akeno was enjoying the scenery. With the mountains looming up to the right of them and the pretty valley on the left, Jacob could understand why.

  They continued walking in silence. The Minyas rode on Akeno’s shoulder, sitting in one spot for once, and not talking or goofing off.

  As they neared a turn in the path, Jacob was startled when a negative feeling passed over him. A few steps later, he felt it again. He looked around, sure it hadn’t come from inside him. What was bothering him? Was it the valley? That didn’t make sense.

  Akeno seemed unaffected, but the feeling intensified until Jacob paused, not sure if it was a warning to leave, or a warning to get off the path. Akeno ran into Jacob, apparently caught off guard by the sudden stop.

  “Sorry, I need to figure something out,” Jacob said. “Do you feel that?”

  “What?”

  “The—the negative stuff.”

  “No . . . I don’t.”

  After standing still for a moment or two longer, the discomfort increased. A gross feeling now came with it, making Jacob want to wash his hands, and all he could think about was getting out of the valley. He walked briskly along the trail and heard Akeno follow.

  The path entered a little canyon, and Jacob felt the negativity leave him. Breathing a sigh of relief, he slowed down again.

  “That was weird.” It reminded him of the way he felt whenever he did something wrong. Guilt, almost, as though he’d just finished swearing up a storm at his mom or Amberly. Not good to experience.

  “It affected you this time, and not me,” Akeno said.

  “Yeah, and I wonder why.”

  Several feet later, the trail took them right and down into a difficult section. Jacob had to pick his way over the rocks and boulders that jutted up through the earth.

  The silence was refreshing, being one of the only times on the trip when they hadn’t talked while walking. Jacob recognized, however, that for Akeno it might not have been so easy, since he’d been alone four days in a row. The Minyas really weren’t a good form of companionship, and chances that Akeno had an intelligent conversation with them were pretty slim. Jacob felt a pang of regret when he realized he just didn’t want to talk.

  He looked up from the trail and gasped. “Wow.”

  The trail sloped downward. It had just exited the short canyon and led them around the mountains, opening up to a huge valley almost completely framed by large mountains, including those by which Jacob and Akeno had been hiking. Near the middle was one of the largest lakes Jacob had ever seen, and the mountains on its left rose sharply with no gradual incline, making the scenery even more dramatic. He remembered seeing pictures of the fjords in Norway, but they didn’t compare to this.

  There were three cities visible: one on this end of the lake, one to the right, and one—difficult to see—on the far side.

  Jacob studied that far city, noticing it had a weird look to it. It was dirty and smudged, as though there was a cloud hanging over it, even though the sky was cloudless. The outline of a large, dark castle was visible. A nervous feeling hit Jacob in the pit of the stomach and he realized he was probably looking at the castle where the Lorkon lived. His palms started sweating when he thought about what could happen. How was he going to find the Key and get out of the castle?

  He looked back at the city closest to them. It also had a castle, but it seemed desolate and war-ravaged. So did the whole city, actually. He frowned as he started walking again, wondering what it had been like in its prime.

  Akeno interrupted his thoughts. “We should set up camp.”

  Jacob was surprised that the sun was nearly down. It was later than he’d realized. “Yeah, I think you’re right.”

  “We’ll probably head into the city first thing in the morning.”

  Together they set up camp, then Akeno cooked dinner.

  “So how’d you end up as cook for our trip?” Jacob asked.

  “You’re the guest, so I just felt like I should do it.”

  “Well, if you show me how to make those potatoes you made yesterday, I’ll do it next time.”

  “Yesterday?” Akeno said, smiling. “You mean five days ago?”

  Jacob laughed. “Oh, yeah.”