The Watcher Key

by Troy Hooker

  “Successful wave. Who’s next?” she said cheerfully.

  Judging from the terrified looks in their eyes, neither of the girls was ready to be the next guinea pig in Boggle’s contraption, so Sam volunteered to get it over with.

  “This thing isn’t going to turn me into a piece of toast, is it?” he chuckled as he picked up his backpack and headed toward the opening in the tube.

  “It’s as safe as getting married,” Miss Karpatch winked at him.

  He climbed into the humming metal barrel facing into the clouds and the mountains distantly in front of him, feeling oddly like a bullet in a rifle. He slipped easily into the seat of the tube, which looked as though it was made to eject the person once the wave began. Swinging his backpack around in front of him, he waited, heart pounding, for Miss Karpatch to push the button.

  In front of him was the end of the tube and the open sky, now deep with the color of the oncoming night. The mountains were barely visible, but their outline could still mostly be seen, the white of the snow-covered peaks contrasting against the darkened sky.

  His pulse quickened even further as Miss Karpatch shut the door and smiled at him through the glass. He was about to be shot out of a cannon like a circus performer. Although he put full trust in his history teacher, he couldn’t help but think of the worst of possibilities.

  As the hum of the Lightway steadily increased, for the first time in his life, Sam wished he knew how to pray.

  Suddenly, a brilliant blue flash engulfed his entire body, and the metal tube was gone. Instead, he was sailing hundreds of feet above the treetops in a cylinder of pulsing translucent light. He was moving fast, but not so fast that he couldn’t make out the outlines of the forest floor below, or feel the cool air rushing past him. It was an amazing, dreamlike experience—silent and exhilarating.

  In less than the time it took him to brush his teeth, Sam was rapidly approaching a tower on top of the mountain, its outline standing out black against the snow surrounding it.

  Below him, the forest changed to steep inclines and rock faces, then to all snow, the occasional tree still poking out among the frozen white.

  He watched the as the tower grew larger in front of him, then burst into bright blue as the second wave from the Mount Halpa tower rushed out to slow down the first. There was a sudden shudder, then the wave slowed quickly, forcing Sam to clutch tighter to his backpack from the momentum. Seconds later, the light wave drifted him into the elongated tube of the Lightbase, his body finally coming to a gentle stop opposite the way he left.

  The door to the base was suddenly flung open, a plump boy with fogged glasses there to greet him.

  “Best thing you’ve ever done, just admit it!” he said excitedly, nearly pulling Sam out of the base.

  He couldn’t deny—it was a spectacular experience that left his hands shaking and his brain swimming, and as he stepped out of the base, it took a few moments for his eyes to adjust to his surroundings. Blinking, he realized it was identical to the tower in Lior, except for one thing—it was cold.

  Sam’s eyes adjusted just in time to see Gus gnawing into a huge turkey leg, a steaming cup of coffee at his side.

  “Is there a restaurant here or something?” Sam asked, still rubbing his eyes, and glad the tower room was rather dark.

  “Sort of. Rather it’s the caretaker that runs the tower. He’s got quite a bit of turkey down there if you’re hungry,” Gus said between mouthfuls.

  “Just some coffee, maybe.”

  Sam headed toward the little window that was puffing out clouds of steam. He saw a small girl tugging on the apron of a heavy-set, middle-aged woman, who was fluffing a large bowl of rice with a fork. She turned at the sight of Sam in the window and shooed the little girl toward the window. The girl scowled at her mother’s request but then stomped over to the window.

  “Would yeh like somethin’ from the kitchen?” she spoke in an annoyed mouse-like voice.

  Sam couldn’t help but stare at her, at her dingy looking clothes, neat but plain brown hair and fiery blue eyes.

  “Uh, sure. Coffee please,” he requested.

  Without a word, she turned and took down a large mug from the cupboard and filled it from a large kettle from the small fireplace in the kitchen.

  He accepted the cup and thanked her, but she didn’t acknowledge his thanks.

  “Who are they?” Sam asked Gus after wandering over to a small table that he had occupied next to a roaring fireplace.

  “Natori. Outsiders,” he said. “They are technically Descendants, but with less of the Light gifts than Descendants have.”

  Sam looked back at the girl who was twirling her apron around her finger behind her mother.

  “Do some live in Lior City?”

  “A few. Most of them deny the ancestry, but some still want to be Descendants of Light.”

  “Why can’t they be?” Sam pressed Gus while sipping the strong coffee.

  Gus put down the turkey leg, hearing the sound of the Lightbase beginning to hum.

  “There are some areas of Lior that want more pure Light ancestry—those that have full Light abilities,” he said, standing, “but some don’t have full gifts, if any at all. They lost the Descendant blood through continuous marriage with humans long ago.”

  “What about them?” Sam asked, glancing toward the woman and the little girl who were wiping off gleaming white dishes. They looked like everyone else in Lior, but then again, so did everyone else in White Pine. He wondered why having more human blood in them made them so undesirable.

  Gus stood as the humming of the base increased—no doubt indicating another traveler was about to arrive.

  “They work for the Lior government, but would rather stay out of public life.”

  There was another flash of light that instantaneously illuminated the otherwise dark tower, and a beam of light shot from the barrel of the Lightbase to meet with the oncoming wave.

  When the Lightbase stopped humming, an open-mouthed wide-eyed Emma stepped from the tube and immediately clung to Sam for support.

  “That … was … incredible!” she squealed through her quivering lips.

  They led her over to the little table, and Sam handed her his coffee cup, which was now beginning to cool down.

  “I’ve n-never done anything like that before—I have always imagined it, but I never thought it would be like this,” she said, accepting the coffee.

  “We know,” he smiled at her.

  A few minutes later, Lillia arrived through the Lightway looking very unlike her normal moody self. She was smiling from ear to ear and stumbled out of the base, falling flat on the floor in a laughing fit.

  “Guess she enjoyed it too,” Gus smirked.

  While they looked over Miss Karpatch’s instructions, Lillia, Sam, and Gus drank coffee and huddled around the fireplace to warm up. Emma, on the other hand, immediately welcomed herself into the kitchen area and was exchanging recipes for root cakes and cream pies.

  “She always does this,” Lillia answered Sam without so much as a questioning glance from him toward the kitchen.

  “She is not shy, that’s for sure,” Gus wrinkled his nose and stared down at his empty coffee cup. “I remember once my father told me that when she was younger, she walked into a Council meeting with Mr. Sterling and told them all they needed to quit arguing and start being better friends.”

  Sam laughed. It was so like her to be that bold. Even though he had only known her a short time, it seemed like longer. She was the complete opposite from him—outgoing, emotional, and trusting. He was reserved, cold, and trusted no one. It was amazing she liked him at all.

  As they studied the instructions, a small folded paper dropped out from between the maps.

  I am sorry there are no instructions on how to return back to Lior. For reasons I cannot say, you must
use what you have to find your way home. Please know I have confidence in all of you, and I know you will find what you are looking for. Do not fear, for it is your greatest enemy. Fear is your greatest weakness. Don’t let it consume you. Others will use it against you. You must trust one another, though even they may fail you.

  Remember—the road to knowledge is only found in the Creator.

  Sarah

  ***********************

  “Are you kidding? We can’t just take the Lightway back to the City?” Emma nearly shouted as she read the note for the first time.

  “I think the recipe swapping has melted your brain,” Lillia said sharply, thrusting the note back into Gus’s hands. “You don’t remember her telling us we can’t get back to the City through the Lightway?”

  “If I would have known, I wouldn’t have asked!” Emma tried her best to control herself, but was losing the battle.

  “She told us it has failsafe codes,” Sam told them.

  Emma snatched the note from Gus, walked over to the table and sat down, reading it over and over.

  “How are we supposed to get back?” she said, nearing tears. “What is happening in Lior?”

  “What do you think, Em?” Lillia said quickly. “It’s not like it can always be perfect, you know.”

  “We know the Council has spies,” Gus said. “Mr. Sterling all but told us that. I think Miss Karpatch didn’t tell us because she wanted us to have the best chance of keeping it quiet.”

  “We should go back,” Emma said, unsure of herself suddenly.

  “Run to the problem. Great idea, Em’.”

  Emma scowled, her face showing instant anger.

  “Well, at least I have someone to trust.”

  At these words, Lillia retreated to her dormant self and stared out of the tower window, obviously done with giving her input into the conversation. Sam wished he could join her.

  Then, the little girl from the kitchen walked out into the tower room holding a large bundle of napkin-wrapped items and handed them to Emma.

  “This is for your journey,” she said, then turned on her heels and ran back into the kitchen.

  Emma stood open-mouthed, torn between her anger and the generosity of the little girl. She dropped her backpack to the floor and stuffed the bundle into her pack, then plopped down at the table with Gus and looked over the note with him.

  “It says that we will have to program the Lightway to cut the wave off halfway through the transfer,” she said, suddenly having changed her tone. “The Light from the Lazuli pool will connect with the wave and slow our descent … if we do it right.”

  Without another word, the three friends seemed to understand what had happened. Emma had changed her mind because the little girl had given her permission to go. It was, in essence, the Creator giving her permission as well. Her faith in the journey as well as in their ability to complete the task had been renewed by a simple gift from an Outsider.

  “Right,” Gus looked sideways at Emma, unsure of how to proceed. “The note said we will have to engage the secondary override system on the base here before we go.”

  Below Miss Karpatch’s note, the instructions and the coordinates were laid out in detail. They would be cut off of the wave just over the Pool of Garis—and according to Gus, would experience a bit of turbulence near the end of the wave. Once they exited Mount Halpa tower, they would sail directly over the pool, which, having its own source of Lazuli light, would help them descend from the wave to jump into the pool below. The last part of the note she had starred and traced over a few more times for emphasis. It read:

  Fear is your greatest weakness. Don’t let it consume you. Others will use it against you. You must trust one another, though even they may fail you.

  Emma stood.

  “We can do this,” she said suddenly, confidently. Then reaching out her hand toward Lillia, said, “I’m sorry. It was wrong of me to say that.”

  Lillia took Emma’s hand and, with a strange turn of mood, smiled at her.

  “No worries, Em’.”

  Gus stood and walked over to the base, holding the note out in front of him.

  “I agree. We can do this. The directions aren’t as difficult as I thought,” he said, oblivious to both Emma’s and Lillia’s exaggerated eye-rolling.

  “I’m just glad we don’t have to sit through another Kolar game,” Lillia said. “They can make you incredibly dizzy.”

  Their spirits lifted in the room even though it was getting colder in the tower as night progressed. The woman wandered out of the kitchen to stoke the fire in the main tower room, and while Gus and Sam poured over the directions in the note, Emma and Lillia helped her bring in wood. The girls also repacked all of the backpacks with special waterproof linings Miss Karpatch had them take while back in the City.

  In a short time, Gus was sure he had figured out the coordinates. Sam was confident in his abilities, having seen him at work in the library memorizing full passages of text within a book and then moving on to the next, but the thought of going into unknown and potentially dangerous territory without any weapons or ability to defend himself left him uneasy. He knew Emma and Lillia could produce a little Light because of their secret practicing, but he didn’t know how well. Gus still had trouble producing the Light, having mastered the concept of how to do it properly, but he hadn’t been successful in actually using the gift.

  Sam personally had only fired a gun once with Phillip’s brother Arthur, and it was under duress. Not that he was afraid of them, but Uncle Arthur wasn’t the best—or safest—teacher to be learning from. He insisted that his finger was to be kept on the trigger at all times in order to “get the feel of it,” which ended up with Arthur almost shooting his own foot off while trying to help Sam steady his gun. Luckily, the bullet missed within inches and only sprayed dirt up into his eyes.

  “Was there anything about how to defend ourselves in that note?” he asked Gus as he finished up the base preparation.

  “I didn’t see any,” Gus responded, adding sudden concern to his already perplexed face.

  “How does she expect us to defend ourselves out there? I mean, aren’t there a few things—people or animals—that we should worry about?”

  Gus’s eyes searched the night toward where the newly positioned Lightbase was pointing.

  “There are quite a few things we should be worried about out there—but the Metim, hopefully, will not be one of them. There hasn’t been Metim out there for—”

  “Fifty years, I heard,” Sam cut him off. “But what about Mr. Sterling talking about the Metim on the move again? And Chivler being taken? Shouldn’t we be a little worried?”

  Gus didn’t take his eyes off the dark valley in front of him.

  “I suppose. To tell you the truth, I am not sure what to think at this point. Lior has always been a safe place to me.”

  “Don’t worry, I will take care of them with these,” Emma pointed to her flexed arms.

  “Ha. We would just toss you off to them. They would give the princess back before the day was over,” Lillia joked.

  Emma snorted.

  “Thanks. I suppose I can’t count on you to back me up,” she retorted.

  Both girls had their backpacks slung over their shoulders and were wearing knitted hats that Sam didn’t notice before.

  “Aren’t they pretty?” Emma said after seeing that he had noticed them. “The little girl made them.”

  Sam nodded. It was convenient too. The note, the food, and the hats—everything seemed like it had been set up in their favor. He hoped their trust had not been misplaced.

  Something, however, was prying at him as they prepared to leave. He was thinking suddenly about the Creator they all talked about, and Lior. None of this was a coincidence, and he was now certain it wasn’t a dream. It was real, and he had been stuck in
a realm of disbelief for too long. He felt a pulling deep within himself, but it all seemed to pull toward something. Perhaps, maybe, this Creator was the God that he had never been looking for but knew he needed.

  Despite Gus and Emma’s protests, Sam convinced them to play Dove-Count-Six—a game of Emma’s to determine who would ride first in the Lightway—and he was chosen to go first, with Emma second.

  Sam climbed into the chamber once again and settled himself with his backpack the best he could into the tube. Miss Karpatch had warned them to lay back even more when skimming, so he obeyed. He was unsure what would happen if he didn’t, but he didn’t want to find out.

  The hum of the base began to grow louder and Sam looked out into the night air. He wasn’t facing the distant glowing spires of the City anymore, only thick darkness and the unknown. He clutched his pack, waiting for the immense light pulse. With a quick glance out the small glass window, he saw the three friends huddled together watching him with anticipation.

  With an enormous flash, the Lightway sprung to life once again and sent Sam out into the night. He leaned back uncomfortably, but knew that it would be just over three minutes of travel time before he would drop out of the wave into the pool. He felt the cool mountain air rush past him, stinging his face with its chill. The night spread out in front of him like a blanket of black, the only light coming from the iridescent blue tint of the wave he was riding. He loved the feeling, but still his nerves knotted up his insides, making him feel like a rag that was being wrung out.

  Then a glance at his watch told him the three minutes were just about up. The air was beginning to change from cool to balmy, but since he was still chilled from the mountain, it felt good.

  Suddenly the timer on his watch went off as Gus had programmed it to, and seconds later the wave disappeared. Just ahead, a thick cloud of Light illuminated the sky, which immediately caught Sam in its grasp as he sped forward in the darkness, and for a moment he was suspended in the brilliant blue cloud, his body tilting precariously in the Light. He felt himself descending slowly through the cloud at first, then faster until he was almost free fall plummeting toward the faint blue pool below.