Colby looked longingly back toward the velvet bag, now currently being taken by Ivan Crane as the group battled the goblins.
“What’s inside?” asked Meghan.
“A weapon. A magnificent weapon.”
“I don’t know as I’ve ever heard the words magnificent and weapon used in the same sentence. If it’s so great, why did Juliska let it out of her sight?”
“Dad gave it to her because she needed a way to silence that Flummer girl! She’s a trouble maker if I ever saw one. So Juliska was given a weapon to make that happen. Once I learned that Eidolon had stolen it, I came up with the clever idea to pretend to tell him what it did if he helped me steal Colin’s book. Especially after I spied Colin wandering into the valley in search of the Flummer girl. I thought it would be a nice, easy way to get the book and also steal back the stone...” he stopped, biting his tongue.
“Stone? That’s what’s in the bag, a stone?”
“Not just any stone,” he continued. “One that can do wicked things, if in the right hands.”
“Perfect, and Juliska has it now.”
“She probably doesn’t even know what it is and what it’s truly capable of. From what I heard about her reaction from Karnavan when they were in that meadow...”
Suddenly the scene around them changed again.
Sucked into a new memory.
“I think I’m getting better at this,” said Colby. “This is exactly where I wanted to go.”
They were back in the meadow with the field of pyres. Karnavan and Juliska were speaking closely. She was upset over a special weapon that Karnavan had been given.
“I don’t think she knew what she had that whole time,” said Colby. “That might have changed by now.”
Meghan worried about everyone still on the island. What had happened after Jae had thrown himself to his death? They had fled the island thanks to Sebastien and her mother’s candle.
Had everything just gone back to the way it was before Jae had jumped? Or was something much, much worse happening now?
She also worried about being in this memory, as she did not want to relive her betrayal to Colin. Her eyes widened. Oh no. If this memory goes on for too long, Colby will find out he’s the... she hoped she had hidden the thought from him, but nothing worked right in this bad memory trip. He at least didn’t act like he had picked up on her thoughts.
He started laughing. Shaking his head.
“You think I don’t know. You really are a stupid girl, sister or not.”
She bit her lip, hoping it wasn’t what she feared.
“I already know your dear non-brother, Colin is the Projector. I tracked him. Killed his teacher, that’s how I got this scar.” He pointed to his chest.
Meghan backed away, the look of horror on her face.
“This is what makes you a bad person, Colby. You killed someone.”
As horrified as she was by this she wanted to burst out and ask if her brother was okay. And Catrina, was she okay too? What had happened to them? And her brother had a teacher? How? And what was he being taught?
“I do what I am ordered to do,” Colby said firmly.
“You’re just a puppet. Nothing more.”
“An invincible puppet that can do anything I want to. No one can stop me. Not even my father!” His voice frightened her.
She turned and ran. She didn’t know why. It wasn’t like she could hide inside their memories.
“Where are you going, Sister? You can’t hide from me in here!”
She stopped and shouted, “You will never be my brother! Never! I will never work alongside of you! Colin, true brother or not, will be more of a family to me than you will ever be!”
“But I haven’t even told you the best part yet,” said Colby, as the memory changed yet again. They were on a wooden boat. This was not one of her memories, this had to one of Colby’s.
Meghan gasped as she watched Colby shove a blade through the body of an elderly looking man. A man it took her a moment to recognize.
“Jasper Thorndike.”
“Otherwise known as the last living Projector, until your brother came along. We thought Jasper had died years ago. Hid very well. But he made the mistake of taking in a student who was stupid. Careless.” There was no compassion in Colby’s voice.
“He was helping Colin,” Meghan muttered.
“If you can call it that. I took him out pretty easily so I don’t know what good he could have done, or how he stayed alive all these years.”
Somehow, this Jasper had known what Colin was long before anyone else, and he had sacrificed his life trying to help him.
They did not stay on the boat long. Meghan closed her eyes, for a moment thankful to know that Colin hadn’t just been on the run and in hiding and afraid. He had not been alone. When she opened her eyes, they were in a new place. A vast estate nestled at the top of a hillside.
“And where are we now?” she asked wearily. “I know we are no longer in my memories.”
“This is my home. A home you could share with me.”
She shook her head.
“You might just change your mind one day, Sis. If you haven’t realized it yet, you’re going to live a lot longer than the average person. Once all your friends are old and dead, me and Dad, we’re all you’ll have left.”
“I’ll still have Colin,” she told him.
“Do you know how many people are hunting him down as we speak? He won’t make it to his next birthday.”
Meghan hoped desperately that it wasn’t true. She gasped quite suddenly as a startling sight caught her off guard. Jurekai Fazendiin was walking towards them. He towered over both of them, his stare penetrating, almost as if he could really see her even though this was just a memory. But he walked straight through and past them.
Colby, as if it were just another regular day, started to walk toward the palatial home. “Would you like a tour of your future home?”
She wondered if she threw up in this memory if she threw up for real...
##
A long, jagged crack slit across the mirror belonging to Romul Vaskvol, the sixth Grosvenor to be created, now dead. Freyne Rothrock summoned the remaining immortals, and one by one the other six materialized. They were not surprised to see the crack in Voskvol’s mirror.
“It is done then?” questioned Narona Fentress. “I gather the stones I gave you permitted you to drain Voskvol?”
“My dear Narona, it’s lovely to see you too,” said Freyne.
“Since when did we ever exchange pleasantries?”
“Business then,” he agreed. “Yes, the deed is done. He is gone. His powers are now in the stones.”
“Do what we came here to do then,” another voice mumbled. “Let us be done with it.”
“Once done, it cannot be undone,” Freyne spoke expeditiously.
“Fazendiin betrayed us,” Narona responded.
“Very well.”
From out of Freyne’s mirror, a pasty, thin-skinned arm stretched forward, reaching towards the empty mirror of Jurekai Fazendiin. A fine mist emanated from the outstretched arm, forming into a thick smoky cloud, which covered the mirror. The outstretched arm retreated into Freyne’s mirror as Fazendiin’s began to shake violently. A moment later, it shattered, spewing shards of glass throughout the cave.
“It is done,” said Freyne. “Fazendiin’s connection with us is broken.”
Snarls of sickly celebration resounded from the remaining Grosvenor.
“Now that the connection is broken, we can speak freely. What is our next move?” asked Narona.
“We need more stones, more power,” said one of the ghostly mirror faces.
“Yes!” agreed another.
“The problem is, there are few remaining. We will never collect enough to recreate the Immortality Stone,” said Freyne.
“Then what do you suggest?” asked Narona.
“The boy. Fazendiin’s precious offspring.”
“What ab
out him?”
“We find him. Take away Fazendiin’s edge.”
“But the boy is not killable! He was born immortal.”
“Did I say kill him?” spouted Freyne. “No! We take him and we turn him! Use him against his own father.”
“I don’t see how this will be possible.”
“I will see to it myself,” said Freyne. “I’ve devised a plan.”
“If you capture the boy and prove that you can hold him prisoner, then and only then will I agree to try this,” said Narona. The others agreed with her.
“He will prove too powerful to control,” a voice called out in warning.
“Just leave it to me.” Freyne’s figure dissolved, followed soon by the rest. He reached into his cloak and pulled out a vial filled with thick red liquid.
“A drop or two of Fazendiin’s blood should do,” he said, his eyes wild. He stepped towards two rocks seeping up through the ground in craggy mounds and gently tapped one drop of the red liquid onto each one. He put the vial safely back into his pocket and raised his arms over the rocks. They began to pull out of the ground and as they did, they came to life, forming a head, arms, torso and legs. A crack sliced across each head forming a mouth with teeth that protruded outward, moving in a motion meant for cutting and digging.
The stood before Freyne.
“Find the boy. His father’s blood formed your bodies. Go. Hunt. Find him!” Freyne ordered, his voice holding an edge of frenzy. The rock creatures sank into the ground, burrowing their way toward the scent of Fazendiin’s son.
##
“How long have they been gone now?” asked Sebastien.
“About five minutes longer than the last time you asked,” retorted Ivan.
“It’s been over a day!” said Nona. There was urgency in her voice.
“Nona, it’s going to be okay,” insisted Ivan. He felt bad for her. He couldn’t imagine how lost she felt. Even Elisha was showing signs of breaking down, having had no contact with Colby.
“We are getting nowhere. We have walked around for hours and we are no closer to finding them than we were!” Elisha exclaimed.
“Quite aware,” noted Sebastien, dryly. “It feels like we are just walking in circles. We have no idea how to track them. And if their own Catawitch’s cannot sense them... wow! We are literally walking in circles.”
“We are back at the cave,” mumbled Ivan, his shoulders dropping in disappointment. “I cannot believe this is the best we can do!”
“You’re up against magic you don’t understand,” reminded Nona. She shuddered, thinking of Meghan stuck with Colby. “If he so much as harms...”
“Oh please stop your incessant disapproval of my master,” Elisha raved. “If you so much as diss him one more time...”
“Enough!” said Ivan coolly. “We need to work together if we’re going to save Meghan... and Colby.”
“Right, but we are clearly not getting anywhere,” said Sebastien. “And I agree with Nona’s sentiments... if he hurts her...”
Elisha hissed. Ivan motioned for Sebastien to cool it, as like it or not they needed Elisha’s help. Sebastien frowned.
“Hey, what’s that?” Nona blurted, pointing with her head. It was a lump on the ground where Meghan and Colby had been standing a day earlier.
“I swear that was not there before,” said Sebastien, running over. “It’s her bag.”
“Maybe they came back!” Elisha chimed eagerly. She hunted the area for any sign of her master’s presence. Nona joined. But after a minute, they had found nothing new, save Meghan’s bag.
“Perhaps we somehow missed it from before?” Ivan suggested.
“I don’t see how, but if they didn’t come back then...” Sebastien stopped, eyeing Meghan’s bag cautiously. “Did her bag just move?”
They watched her bag closely and jumped in unison as it did indeed move. They stepped carefully toward it. Ivan daringly bent over and unzipped it. He jumped back a second time as something bounced out of her bag landing on the ground.
“It’s that book!” Ivan exclaimed, relieved. His eyes met Sebastien’s and he lifted his eyebrows.
“It got them out of a lot of jams...” Sebastien agreed, answering Ivan before he’d even asked.
Ivan leaned over and picked it up, flipping it open. The book’s snide voice called out, “Hide! You idiots!” The voice continued shouting insults as the foursome looked at each other and then proceeded to heed the warning. They fled into the woods, finding cover. And not a moment too soon.
Back on the spot where Meghan’s bag still lay, the ground began to quiver. Dirt suddenly spurted into the air, the ground breaking apart.
“What is that?” Nona asked, her cattish voice small and petrified.
Two stone bodies pulled themselves out of the earth and hit the ground with a thunderous thud. They had no eyes but they turned their heads in thick turns as if they could see. The rotating teeth in their mouths didn’t stop turning; bits of dirt and root spitting out.
“Trackers,” the book informed them, in a low voice.
Ivan and Sebastien exchanged a glance. Was it possible for their situation to get any more desperate? Colby and Meghan were being tracked by... they didn’t even know what to call these things.
They were monstrous, hard-bodied hunters with teeth that looked they could reach out and cut through anything!
They kept silent and hidden. They had no clue how to fight a creature such as this.
When the Trackers were satisfied that what they were looking for was no longer there, they threaded their way back into the ground and vanished.
“It would appear that those Trackers know where they’re going,” said Ivan tensely.
“And we still don’t,” Sebastien said.
“I wonder who sent those things?” Nona said.
“Never seen anything like those before,” Elisha claimed. “Not his father’s. These belong to someone else.”
“You do not want to mess with those creatures,” the book’s voice spoke, “and if you’d just ask me, I could help you track your friends.”
“Please,” begged Sebastien, astounded. “We need any help we can get!”
“How can you help?” asked Ivan.
“I hold the magic of the ancient Projectors. Colby is a Projector, like the boy, Colin. I can track Projector magic... but...”
“What?” asked everyone at the same moment.
“It will require time and patience.”
“We don’t have a lot of time,” said Sebastien, worried this plan would be no better than what they had been doing.
“We’ll do it,” insisted Ivan. “What?” he aimed as Sebastien. “Have you come up with any better ideas than walking in circles?”
Sebastien conceded.
“If you’re all decided then,” the book said. “Take hold and hold tight!”
They each touched the Magicante and instantly found themselves transported to a small clearing, surrounded by granite walls on two sides of them and thick trees on the other two.
“So when were they here?” asked Sebastien eagerly.
“They were not here,” the book responded.
“Why did you bring us here then?” asked Elisha crossly.
“It’s a safe place to wait.”
“Wait for what?” asked Ivan.
“For Colby to show himself. Right now, his powers have he and Meghan cloaked. They cannot be found, even by the Trackers. He must have a moment of weakness, or choose to voluntarily return to this world for me to trace them. I will know the moment this happens.”
“So what do we do now?” asked Sebastien. “That could take days, maybe even weeks!”
“In the case of Jasper Thorndike,” said Elisha, “it took years.”
Ivan sank to the ground, exasperated. “I believe what he’s trying to say is that this is the time and patience part.”
The book closed itself and the rest plunked down helplessly near Ivan, just sitting and waitin
g.
Chapter 5
“We should go,” said Kanda Macawi, with a slight pause between her words. “It is time to return to my people.”
Colin’s display of losing control had astonished her, and his Uncle Arnon. Nevertheless, it seemed that at least for now, they were still allowing him to join them on their journey.
Arnon followed Kanda out of her home.
Colin and Catrina followed Arnon and Kanda. He kept the protective cloak over them as they walked.
Once outside, they headed toward the lake, the same lake in which Colin had had a run in with a moose. They hopped into Kanda’s canoe, wondering where exactly she was taking them. She and Arnon paddled to an inlet not too far away, where a trellis made out of bent tree limbs straddled the inlet. It was not deep enough for a boat or canoe. Regardless, Kanda aimed the canoe toward the inlet and paddled underneath the tree limb trellis. For a moment everything went dark and then just as fast, they paddled out into the light, continuing on a river that flowed slowly down a winding path.
“Oh my,” whispered Catrina wondrously.
It took Colin a few moments to take it all in; they were no longer in the campground in Cobbscott, Maine. “It’s like we’ve gone back in time,” he muttered in disbelief.
Arnon caught Kanda’s bright smile and said, “Good to be home?”
She nodded. “It gets more beautiful every day I’m gone.”
“This place is...” Catrina started to say, but could not find a word to describe the landscape. In their world, winter was nearing and the landscape was empty and dreary. But here it was lush and green, with vast, hilly fields spreading as far as the eye could see.
“We have been living here, as our ancestors lived, for hundreds of years,” Kanda explained. “We did live in your world, but when the early settlers arrived, trouble started. Over the years, we were forced out of our homelands and many of my people lost their lives. If not by war then to illnesses brought by the settlers; illnesses we did not know how to heal, even with magic. This is how we met the Svoda. You see, they were relocating to their island and needed help. We gladly did so, showing them how to live off the land. In return, they helped us cure the illnesses brought by those early settlers and also, helped us create this haven.”
Taken (Book Six) (Fated Saga Fantasy Series) Page 6
