by P. J. Hoover
“Yeah, I guess you’re right, but I am sorry about your parents,” Benjamin said.
“Thank you,” Mr. Burton said. “I appreciate that, Benjamin.”
“And it’s good to see you again,” Andy said. “Even though summer school is way cool and all, I still miss home and seeing you reminds me of it.”
“Yes, well just keep in mind I won’t be cutting you two any slack next year in science class,” Mr. Burton said. “I expect you to be both the best and the worst students. I’ll be keeping a close watch on you.”
By the time they reached the boy’s dorms, Benjamin felt like the only reason his eyelids were still open was because he didn’t have the energy to shut them. Gary entered their room first, ready to throw himself down on the bed. He walked into the room and stopped. “Uh oh,” he said.
“Uh oh, what?” Andy asked.
“You guys need to take a look at this,” Gary said. Benjamin and Andy walked in behind him, immediately stopping as Gary had done.
The entire room was trashed. Books were everywhere. Clothes were scattered about. The wardrobes had all been forced open and all the contents removed. Sheets had been torn off the beds, and their desks were upturned.
“Whoa, what happened in here?” Benjamin asked.
“Looks like someone broke in while we were at the lecture,” Gary said.
“Iva’s not gonna be happy about this,” Andy said. “Is anything missing? Are they missing? Are you still keeping them with you?” he asked Benjamin.
Benjamin put his hands in his pockets, feeling the carved keys under his palms. “They’re safe. I have them right here. You really think someone broke in looking for the keys?” he asked.
“Why else would someone ransack our whole room?” Andy replied.
“Not my books,” Gary said, picking up the treasured books he’d brought with him. “Man, I hope they didn’t tear any of the pages. Do you think we should tell someone?”
“Who would we tell?” Benjamin said. “Nobody knows what we’re doing, and, anyway, who could we trust?”
“I don’t know,” Gary said. “Maybe Proteus Ajax. Or Mr. Burton. Or even Morpheus Midas or The Panther or someone. I mean, someone broke into our room and trashed it. What if it’s that telegen from the chess tournament? Morpheus should know.”
“No, I agree with Benjamin,” Andy said. “We don’t tell anyone except Heidi and Iva. We can’t trust anyone. I mean, for all we know, Morpheus Midas could have been the one who broke in here while we were in lecture.”
“I don’t think Morpheus would do that,” Gary said.
“Well, I don’t either,” Andy said, “but all I’m trying to say is that nobody is above suspicion.”
“Nobody except us that is,” Benjamin said.
“That’s right,” Andy agreed. “Nobody except us.”
CHAPTER 29
Benjamin Shows Off
The ability tests were unbiased—at least as unbiased as any test could be. In addition to a grader, a skill catcher was given to each student to measure skill levels inside the body while different tasks were performed. Benjamin had no idea how this was done, and even after Jack had tried to explain how electrical currents were measured or something, it still didn’t make much sense.
To prevent cheating, no telemagnifiers of any type were allowed while testing was going on. Homeroom teachers collected all the telemagnifiers the students had acquired over the summer; it seemed like everyone had at least one. Heidi had given her moonstone ring over to Proteus Ajax, and Iva had also turned in her Ammolite pendant.
The collection of the telemagnifiers posed a problem for Benjamin. The first two keys of Shambhala were powerful telemagnifiers; that would have been obvious to a rock wall. He wasn’t about to place them in some bin and hand them over to Proteus Ajax, so when Proteus had come around the room with a large basket asking for all telemagnifiers to be put inside it, Benjamin obviously didn’t put the keys in.
This seemed like an easy enough solution until Jack had told him there would be telepathic screeners in place to ensure that no one snuck telemagnifiers into the rooms. If this were really true, Benjamin wouldn’t be able to keep the keys in his pocket during his ability tests. After the dorm room ransacking a week earlier, leaving the keys in the room wasn’t an option. The guardian knew he had them and was trying to get them. And having Gary, Andy, Heidi, or Iva hold them while he tested wasn’t an option either. Their testing schedules didn’t leave enough time for the keys to be exchanged.
Benjamin considered finding a good hiding place somewhere in the school and leaving the keys there, but Iva’s words of doom canceled out this idea. She pointed out (validly of course) that if she were able to find objects hidden around the school, then someone else would be able to do the same. The more Benjamin thought about it, the more he figured he might just have to skip all his exams.
Finally, it was Jack, the Nogical, who came up with a solution. Besides the members of the Alliance, the only person Benjamin had come to know and trust above all others was the small green man—if he could be considered a person.
“Why don’t you let me take care of the keys for you while you’re in the tests?” Jack asked Benjamin the day before the exams were supposed to start.
“You?” Benjamin exclaimed. “Where would you keep them? I mean, they’re as big as you are.” This was of course a slight exaggeration, but the infeasibility of Jack walking around carrying the keys was still sound.
“I’ll keep them in my mind, of course,” Jack replied.
“In your mind? How?” Benjamin asked.
Jack threw up his arms. “You’re hopeless. Haven’t you learned anything in Teleportation? When we teleport an object, where does it go?”
“It goes where we want it to go,” Benjamin answered.
“Yes, but remember, what route does it take?” Jack asked, waving his small arms at Benjamin.
Benjamin thought for a second, then replied. “It goes through our mind.”
“Right,” Jack said. “So, what happens if we just keep it around in our minds for a little bit?”
“We can do that?” Benjamin asked.
“Of course we can do that. If it’s in your mind for a second, it can be in your mind for an hour. Or two. Or all day. Or for a year,” Jack replied. “The mind is a great place for storing all sorts of things you might otherwise misplace.”
“You mean, if I was able to teleport the keys myself, I could just hold them in my mind during the tests?” Benjamin asked.
“Theoretically yes,” Jack replied. “But it might fill your mind and make you not do very well on your ability tests. You might have to end up repeating all your year one courses. Anyway, I’m not sure if they would get past the telepathic screeners.” He scrunched up his little green face. “That would be an interesting experiment though. But, another time, I suppose.”
And so it was decided. Jack would accompany Benjamin to all his exams, keep the keys in his mind while he waited outside the room, and then give the keys back. The thought of leaving the keys for even this small time made Benjamin’s stomach queasy, but, really, what alternative was there?
Monday morning came too soon and too early. Benjamin and Gary had morning exams, but Andy didn’t. Benjamin slammed the wardrobe door and turned on the lights, hoping to wake Andy, but had no luck and so hurried to the dining hall instead.
Telepathy was Benjamin’s first exam, and even though he ranked in the top ten people in the class, he still felt butterflies in his stomach. Heidi’s telepathic abilities so completely overshadowed the rest of theirs, he sometimes wondered why he bothered going.
Benjamin, Gary, and Iva ate breakfast in near total silence. The closer the exam got, the faster the butterflies in his stomach moved. Did anyone ever have to repeat a year? Would it be possible to be a Year Two Denarian in Year One classes?
Jack appeared on the breakfast table beside Benjamin’s plate. “I don’t know what you’re worrying about,” Jack
thought. “You’re really not bad at telepathy at all.”
“Yes, but tests make me nervous,” Benjamin thought back. “Especially since I’ll probably be in the front of the room with the grader scrutinizing everything I do.”
“So, think of it as your special opportunity to show off for a change—you know, just like when you recited the poem,” Jack said. Benjamin had told Jack his story of reciting The Rime of the Ancient Mariner to impress a girl, causing the Nogical to howl with laughter.
Benjamin hadn’t thought of it that way. It was true though. He’d always been told to talk with his mouth, lift with his hands, and see with his eyes—at least up until this summer. His parents had always cautioned him against being too good at anything for fear he would stand out from the other kids. He’d spent all his time in public doing as he should, and all his private time practicing his abilities. Yet, now, Benjamin was no longer confined by these strict rules, at least not here in Lemuria. Here he could do as much as he wanted to. He should do as much as he wanted to. That was his purpose for being here.
Benjamin’s thoughts drifted back to the beginning of summer when they’d attended the Ability Trials. People had gotten up in front of the entire crowd to show off. The ability tests he was about to take were much like his own personal version of the Ability Trials, except that his crowd was only one person—the grader.
And then it was weird, because the butterflies in his stomach either settled down or disappeared; he shoved his chair out and stood up from the table. “You know what Jack? You’re right.” Benjamin started for the door. He looked back over his shoulder at Jack, Gary, and Iva. “Are you guys coming or what? The exams start soon.”
After breezing through his telepathy exam, Benjamin realized he had nothing to worry about. If he’d done fine in telepathy, teleportation should be no problem. He was the best in his class. Whereas most of the students hadn’t been able to move even the smallest marble, Benjamin could now accurately move marbles from one location to another. He teleported blocks, though the destinations remained erratic. This had become a constant source of taunting from Ryan and Jonathan, although neither of them could move a block at all.
After a quick lunch on Tuesday, Benjamin set off for the fifteen story climb to his teleportation exam. At the top of the stairs, he sat down on a bench to catch his breath. Jack appeared beside him.
“You really need to get more exercise,” Jack said. “Look at you. You’re totally winded. That was only fifteen flights of stairs. What happens next year when you visit Wondersky City?”
“I guess I’ll hope they have elevators or something,” Benjamin replied. He couldn’t imagine people levitating themselves to the top of skyscrapers, and teleporting himself seemed years away.
“Well, let’s go find the room,” Jack said. They set off down the hall, checking room numbers until they came to room forty-eight. “Here we are.”
“Okay, you can take…” Benjamin started, but stopped when he felt the weight of the keys disappear from his pockets. “I guess you just did.”
“Good,” Jack said. “You should be watching out for that. Unless you learn to better protect them, theoretically, anyone could come along and teleport the keys away.”
“I never thought about that,” Benjamin said.
“Well, now’s not the time to start worrying,” Jack replied.
There were actually times during the two hours teleportation test when Benjamin thought he might fall asleep. It was way more theoretical than he could have ever imagined. All the formulas Asia had been going over all summer were reviewed. What variables must be taken into account when picking a destination? How do you account for the rotation of the Earth while teleporting? What effect does the force of the Moon’s gravity have on teleportation? How about the gravity of Venus? Of Jupiter? Benjamin began to think the entire exam would be nothing but written questions. It was only in the last ten minutes of the exam that the grader actually asked Benjamin to try to teleport anything. After marbles, he moved on to blocks, and to his pleasant surprise, he teleported the blocks to the designated destinations with no errors. He was so elated with his success he wasn’t even fazed when the grader asked him to teleport a mouse. And so he did.
It took him so long to locate the mouse, Benjamin was afraid it would get lost in his mind. Yet finally it reappeared on the table, quickly scurrying under the grader’s desk.
“Man, I did great in teleportation,” Benjamin declared Tuesday night at dinner. “I teleported a mouse.”
“You did not,” Andy said. “A mouse?”
There was the hint of jealousy again in the Alliance bond. But Benjamin didn’t care; teleporting a living animal—and keeping it alive—was a big deal.
“Yep, it’s true,” Benjamin replied. “I feel like I can teleport anything. Watch this.” He looked directly at Julie Macfarlane’s plate on the next table. Without saying a word, he teleported the pizza off her plate. It reappeared on Ryan Jordan’s plate a few seats down from her.
“Ryan!” Julie exclaimed. “Did you steal my food?”
“What are you talking about?” Ryan asked.
“You just took my pizza,” Julie said.
Ryan looked down at his plate, now containing two pieces of pizza. “I swear it wasn’t me.”
“That’s actually pretty impressive, Benjamin,” Heidi said.
Suneeta reached over and grabbed the pizza off the plate, putting it back on Julie’s plate. Andy, Benjamin, and Gary busted out laughing.
“Did you do that, Benjamin?” Ryan called over, apparently noticing them laughing.
“What are you talking about?” Benjamin replied.
Ryan only responded with a dirty look which Jonathan mirrored.
“Those guys are so annoying,” Iva said. “I saw Jonathan after my Telegnosis test. He was going in for his. You can’t believe how rude he was to me.”
“What did he say?” Andy asked quickly.
“He told me that I was no good at telegnosis, and the only reason I thought I was doing so well all summer is because I was the teacher’s pet,” Iva said. “He said that he was ten times the telegnostic that I am.” She sniffed.
Andy started laughing. “Oh, I thought it might have been something serious. I mean come on—Jonathan’s no where near as good as you.”
Iva gave Andy an award-winning smile, and he beamed back. “You really think I’m better?” she asked.
“There’s no doubt,” Andy replied.
“Actually, if you factor in that Jonathan’s a guy, it does make his telegnosis abilities pretty impressive,” Gary said.
Iva glared at Gary. “Well, he’s still a total jerk,” she said. “I wonder how he did on his exam.”
“How’d you do?” Andy asked.
“I think I did rather well,” Iva replied. “The grader was highly impressed. In fact, she said that she would be checking in on my progress over the next few years.”
CHAPTER 30
Benjamin Breaks His Leg
It was already Wednesday and having Jack hold onto the keys of Shambhala had worked out well so far; it left Benjamin not having to worry about someone else finding them. Benjamin tried not to think too much about the location of the third key during the week. He figured he had enough to occupy his mind, what with tests every day and night. The problem was that on Sunday they would all be heading home and wouldn’t be back in Lemuria until the following summer. Benjamin had no idea if he’d be able to continue looking for the third key once he’d left the sunken continent.
Benjamin and Jack found the telegnosis exam at the end of a long hallway. There wasn’t much activity around, but then there never seemed to be on the telegnosis floors. Jack transferred the keys from Benjamin, and Benjamin was just about to walk into the open door, when he caught someone out of the corner of his eye. It was a man with dark hair and a full beard, and Benjamin had never seen him before. The man looked directly at Benjamin and then walked around the corner.
“Who was that?” Benjamin asked Jack.
“I didn’t see anyone.” Jack said. “Do you want me to go look?”
Benjamin didn’t even need to think about it. “No, I want you to stay here and wait for me. Whoever it was is gone now.”
Jack studied the corner of the hallway, but nobody reappeared. “Okay. Good luck on Telegnosis. Do you know how you did on it?”
“How would I know how I did on it?” Benjamin asked, still thinking about the man.
“Well, I just figured if you knew how you did on your Telegnosis test, then you would have done well, right?” Jack said.
Benjamin gave him a confused look, and Jack laughed. “You know, you’d be able to see into the future. Come on,” Jack said snapping his small fingers in Benjamin’s face. “Get with it. That was supposed to be a joke.”
The Telegnosis exam passed, and the rest of the day progressed normally. Benjamin decided not to mention the man he’d seen in the hallway to his friends; he’d probably just been one of the graders. Andy would be sure to think he was just being paranoid.
Thursday morning Benjamin woke up bright and too early for his Science Ability Test. Iva had her Telepathy test also in the morning, so she and Benjamin ate a quick breakfast.
“I’m sure I’ll do fine on my telepathy test,” Iva said. “I mean, it’s got to be similar to the telegnosis test, right?”
“I don’t even think my telegnosis exam was a test,” Benjamin replied. “All my grader did was talk to me. And she was really young.”
