by Obert Skye
Leven sat up.
Once through the window, the patch stood and slunk along the wall as if it were hiding. But the small amount of moonlight gave it definition.
“What are—”
Leven stopped talking because the whispered secret was tiptoeing closer, unaware that Leven could see it.
Leven was foolish not to act.
The secret stepped closer and stared Leven directly in the eyes.
He had been recognized.
Any calm Leven had previously felt was now gone. The secret lunged at Leven, knocking him in the chest and sending him flying backward off the bed. The secret banged in and out of his ears and through his brain like a metal stake.
Leven grabbed at his head and screamed in pain.
He tried to fight it, but there was nothing to grab. He knocked a water basin from a small table and sent it crashing to the floor. The once-buried secret moved off Leven and howled joyfully. Then it whipped around the room and began to slip out the window.
Leven sat there trembling.
Suddenly the door to his room opened, and there stood Geth. He looked around the room and spotted the secret slipping out. Without saying anything, Geth lunged for the window and grabbed hold of the secret’s feet. The whispering secret hissed and kicked itself free, pushing all the way out of the house.
Empty-handed, Geth turned to Leven.
“Are you okay?”
“I think so,” Leven replied, still shaken by the experience.
“You released a secret?” Geth demanded.
“By accident,” Leven said. “I dug it up in the forest, days ago.”
“Has it been following you?” Geth panicked.
“Clover had been keeping an eye on it,” Leven said in a daze and feeling more frightened than he ever had before. “I didn’t realize what it really was.”
“What was it hiding?” Geth demanded. “What did it tell you?”
“I can’t say,” Leven said. He was trembling all over. “I can’t tell you.”
“Of course you can,” Geth insisted. “The whole of Foo will know in a matter of days. Once a secret informs the soul who dug it up, it’s under no obligation to keep it to itself. And a secret that strong will tell anyone who will listen.”
Leven stood in a panic. “We have to find Clover,” he insisted. “Now!”
“Why?” Geth asked.
“Because,” Leven moaned, “in a few hours all of Foo is going to know how to get rid of sycophants.”
“Sit,” Geth insisted, pushing Leven’s shoulders down. “You know how sycophants die?”
“I think so. We have to find Clover.”
“You couldn’t possibly know,” Geth said. “That secret is untouchable. It can’t get out. If sycophants could be killed, then their lands could be captured. And their lands hide some of the most important tools in Foo.”
“Then what was that secret?” Leven asked, still shaking and pointing toward the window it had escaped through.
“It must have been a decoy,” Geth said calmly.
“How can you tell?”
“The real secret is locked by key,” Geth said. “There’s no way it could get out unless you had used the key.”
Leven’s face went pale. He reached down his shirt and withdrew the key that had been hanging around his neck.
Not since Geth had been pulled from Clover’s void had he looked so frightened. Geth touched the key carefully.
“How?”
“It was an accident,” Leven said. “We were in the forest.”
“The Want must be told,” Geth declared. “Tonight.”
“And we have to find Clover.”
Geth looked down at Leven. “Of course,” he said.
Leven stood and glanced at the soft bed he was leaving. It didn’t matter; he could think of nothing but Clover. Leven threw on his dark robe and let his eyes burn gold.
He had a secret to stop.
Glossary
Who’s Who in Foo
Leven Thumps
Leven is fourteen years old and is the grandson of Hector Thumps, the builder of the gateway. Leven originally knew nothing of Foo or of his heritage. He eventually discovered his true identity: He is an offing who can see and manipulate the future. Leven’s brown eyes burn gold whenever his gift kicks in.
Winter Frore
Winter is thirteen, with white-blonde hair and deep evergreen eyes. Her pale skin and willowy clothes give her the appearance of a shy spirit. Like Sabine, she is a nit and has the ability to freeze whatever she wishes. She was born in Foo, but her thoughts and memories of her previous life are gone. Winter struggles just to figure out what her purpose is.
Geth
Geth has existed for hundreds of years. In Foo he was one of the strongest and most respected beings, a powerful lithen. Geth is the head token of the Council of Wonder and the heir to the throne of Foo. Eternally optimistic, Geth is also the most outspoken against the wishes of Sabine. To silence Geth, Sabine trapped Geth’s soul in the seed of a fantrum tree and left him for the birds. Fate rescued Geth, and in the dying hands of his loyal friend Antsel he was taken through the gateway, out of Foo, and planted in Reality. He was brought back to Foo by Leven and Winter.
Sabine (suh-biné)
Sabine is the darkest and most selfish being in Foo. Snatched from Reality at the age of nine, he is now a nit with the ability to freeze whatever he wishes. Sabine thirsts to rebuild the gateway because he believes if he can move freely between Foo and Reality he can rule them both. So evil and selfish are his desires that the very shadows he casts seek to flee him, giving him the ability to send his dark castoffs down through the dreams of men so he can view and mess with Reality.
Antsel
Antsel was an aged member of the Council of Wonder. He was fiercely devoted to the philosophy of Foo and to preserving the dreams of men. He was Geth’s greatest supporter, and he was deeply loyal to the Council. Snatched from Reality many years ago, he was a nit who had the ability to see perfectly underground. He was a true Foo-fighter who perished for the cause.
Clover Ernest
Clover is a sycophant from Foo assigned to look after Leven. He is about twelve inches tall and furry all over except for his face, knees, and elbows. He wears a shimmering robe that renders him completely invisible if the hood is up. He is incredibly curious and mischievous to a fault. His previous burn was Antsel.
Jamoon
Jamoon is Sabine’s right-hand man as well as a rant. Because he is a rant, half of his body is unstable, transformed continually into the form of the dreams being entertained by humans. He is totally obedient to Sabine’s wishes. Jamoon believes Sabine’s promise that if he and his kind can get into Reality, the rants’ unusual condition will be healed.
Hector Thumps
Hector Thumps is Leven’s grandfather and the creator of the gateway. When fate snatched him into Foo, he fought to find a way back to the girl he loved in Reality. His quest nearly drove him mad.
Amelia Thumps
Amelia is the woman Hector Thumps married after he returned to Foo a second time. She is Leven’s grandmother and lives between Morfit and the Fundrals of Foo. She was the protector of the gateway to Foo.
Tim Tuttle
Tim is a garbage man and a kindly neighbor of Winter. In Reality, Tim and his wife, Wendy, looked after Winter after being instructed to do so by Amelia. When Winter goes missing, Tim sets out to find her.
Dennis Wood
Dennis is a janitor whom fate has picked to carry out a great task. He leads a lonely life and has never dreamed.
Janet Frore
Janet is a woman who believes she is Winter’s mother but has no concern that Winter is missing. She has spent her life caring only for herself.
Terry and Addy Graph
Terry and Addy were Leven’s horrible-care givers in Reality.
The Order of Things
Children of the Sewn
The Children of the Sewn live
beneath and amongst the roots of the Red Grove. They are patched together from dreams and imaginations. They are the only framers in Foo. Their task is to frame the strong dreams so that they can be focused on and achieved, and to frame the darkest dreams so that they are contained and stopped.
Cogs
Cogs are the ungifted offspring of nits. They possess no great single talent, yet they can manipulate and enhance dreams.
Eggmen
The Eggmen live beneath the Devil’s Spiral and are master candy makers. They are egg-shaped and fragile, but dedicated believers in Foo.
Fissure Gorge
Fissure Gorge is a terrific gorge that runs from the top of Foo to the Veil Sea. At its base is a burning, iridescent glow that creates a great mist when it meets with the sea. The heat also shifts and changes the hard, mazelike air that fills the gorge.
Gifts
There are twelve gifts in Foo. Every nit can take on a single gift to help him or her enhance dreams. The gifts are:
See through soil
Run like the wind
Freeze things
Breathe fire
Levitate objects
Burrow
See through stone
Shrink
Throw lightning
Fade in and out
Push and bind dreams
Fly
Lithens (lié-thuns)
Lithens were the original dwellers of Foo, placed in the realm by fate. They are committed to the sacred task of preserving the true Foo. Lithens live and travel by fate, and they fear almost nothing. They are honest and are believed to be incorruptible. Geth is a lithen.
Lore Coil
Lore Coils are created when something of great passion or energy happens in Foo. The energy drifts out in a growing circle across Foo, giving information or showing static-like images to those it passes over. When the Lore Coil reaches the borders of Foo, it bounces back to where it came from. It can bounce back and forth for many years. Most do not hear it after the second pass.
Nihils (nills)
Nihils are black scavenger birds that pick at the leaves and bark of trees, searching for and eating small bits of leftover dreams that have settled in the trees. They are aggressive and a nuisance.
Nits
Niteons—or nits, as they are referred to—are humans who were once on earth and were brought to Foo by fate. Nits are the working class of Foo. They are the most stable and the best dream enhancers. Each is given a powerful gift soon after he or she arrives in Foo. A number of nits can control fire or water or ice. Some can see in the pitch dark or walk through walls and rock. Some can levitate and change shape. Nits are usually loyal and honest. Both Winter Frore and Sabine are nits.
Offings
Offings are rare and powerful. Unlike others who might be given only one gift, offings can see and manipulate the future as well as learn other gifts. Offings are the most trusted confidants of the Want. Leven Thumps is an offing.
Palehi (palé-hie)
The palehi are a group of beings who refuse to take sides. They escort people through the Swollen Forest. They are pale from all the frightening things they have seen. Their arms are marked with stripes that keep count of how many trips through the forest they have made.
Rants
Rants are nit offspring that are born with too little character to successfully manipulate dreams. They are constantly in a state of instability and chaos. As dreams catch them, half of their bodies become the image of what someone in Reality is dreaming at the moment. Rants are usually dressed in long robes to hide their odd, unstable forms. Jamoon is a rant.
Rings of Plague
The Rings of Plague were created by Sabine. There were originally two, but Geth defeated one of them. The remaining Ring consists of eleven nits plus Sabine, each possessing one of the different gifts of Foo. Collectively having all the gifts, they are a threat to most.
Rovens
Rovens are large, colorful, winged creatures that are raised in large farms in the dark caves beneath Morfit. They are used for transportation and are sought after because of their unbreakable talons. Unlike most in Foo, rovens can be killed. They are fierce diggers and can create rips in the very soil of Foo. When they shed their hair, it can live for a short while. They often shed their hair and let it do their dirty work.
Sarus
The sarus are thick, fuzzy bugs who can fly. They swarm their victims and carry them off by biting down and lifting as a group. They can communicate only through the vibration of water. They are in control of the gaze and in charge of creating gigantic trees.
Siids
There were originally seven siids—humongous, mountain-sized beasts whose weight helped balance the landscape of Foo. Siids have the gift of killing and in turn can be killed. Years ago some siids were hunted and killed off, and now many in Foo feel that the unbalance and darkening of Foo are somehow connected to their absence.
Sochemists
The Sochemists of Morfit are a group of twenty-four aged beings who listen for Lore Coils and explain what they hear. They are constantly fighting over what they believe they have heard. They communicate what they know to the rest of Foo by using locusts.
Sycophants (sick´-o-funts)
Sycophants are assigned to serve those who are snatched into Foo. Their job is to help those new residents of Foo understand and adjust to a whole different existence. They spend their entire lives serving the people to whom they are assigned, called their “burns.” There is only one way for sycophants to die, but nobody aside from the sycophants knows what that is.
Tharms
Tharms are short, smelly creatures who populate the Swollen Forest. They have a third arm where a tail would be. They are mysterious and love to capture and bury things in the forest. They also like to ransom those they have caught for favors.
The Turrets
The turrets of Foo are a large circle of stone turrets that surround a mile-high pillar of restoring flame. The turrets sit on a large area of Niteon and are surrounded by a high fence. The main way to the flame is through the gatehouse that sits miles away.
The Want
The Want is the virtually unseen but constantly felt sage of Foo. He lives on the island of Lith and can see every dream that comes in. He is prophetic and a bit mad from all the visions he has had.
The Waves of the Lime Sea
The Waves of the Lime Sea are a mysterious and misunderstood group of beings who guard the island of Alder. Their loyalty is to the oldest tree that grows on the island.
Whisps
Whisps are the sad images of beings who were only partially snatched from Reality into Foo. They have no physical bodies, but they can think and reason. They are sought after for their ideas, but miserable because they can’t feel or touch anything.
Leven Thumps and the Eyes of the Want
Visit us at leventhumps.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Skye, Obert.
Leven Thumps and the eyes of the Want / Obert Skye ; illustrated by Ben Sowards.
p. cm.
Summary: Leven is summoned to the abode of the Want, not knowing whether that leader’s intentions are to harm or to help Foo, and soon Leven is separated from his good friends as he continues his battle to save that mythical land.
ISBN 978-1-59038-800-6 (hardback : alk. paper)
eISBN 1-60641-674-x (eletronic)
[1. Fantasy.] I. Sowards, Ben, ill. II. Title.
PZ7.S62877Ldr 2007
[Fic]—dc22 2007016995
Printed in the United States of America
R. R. Donnelley and Sons, Crawfordsville, IN
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To all of those who have fought valiantly for Foo but no longer recall it
Dreams linger because of you
Chapter One
A Stern Warming
The Red Grove moaned softly, releasing the last bit of warmth it had held onto from the day. Th
e thin veins of heat were smothered quickly by the cold. Trees shook, and their leaves curled like startled snails as a light wind drifted cautiously through the chill.
The air thinned.
All manner of creatures and beings looked for shelter beneath the roots of trees or in holes hidden in the tall cliff walls. The Tea birds remained in their nests, afraid to fly for fear of their shadows freezing and leaving them stuck in the air.
The night blackened.
The rambling forest of the Red Grove was circled by tall, jagged cliffs from which the dark night had stolen all outline and definition. A weathered cottage squatted at the edge of the valley. The tavern’s tiny windows glowed from the activity inside as a small wisp of smoke oozed up from the chimney. When the smoke rose high enough, greedy plum trees reached out to pull and twist it in their branches like taffy.
Beneath the trees’ canopy, a rough stone trail ran from back to over across the dark valley. The sound of hooves echoed off the rock walls as three onicks raced closer. The onicks stopped in a clearing a hundred yards away from the tavern.
“Easy,” Geth whispered to his onick. “Calm yourself.”
“Is that it?” Leven asked, pointing to the cottage.
“Should be,” Geth answered softly. “If our contact in Cusp was telling us the truth.”
“At least it looks warm in there,” Winter shivered. “I never knew it could be so cold.”
“Your gift kept you warm,” Geth said, his long hair hiding his eyes. “Now you must feel the elements of winter just like everyone else.”
“I feel like half a person without it,” Winter said. “I can’t shake the feeling of being incomplete.”
“You look whole,” Leven joked. “Don’t worry—if Jamoon was able to steal your gift, there must be a way to recover it.”
The onicks they were sitting on shifted.
