by Jason Letts
“Thanks for coming,” she said, and Will jumped.
“Whoa, what is this all about? You said my life is in danger.”
“That was a joke. Your life’s not in danger. You’re totally fine. Aren’t you relieved?”
“That’s not cool at all. I got worried. Why would you do that?” he said, pursing his lips.
“I just needed to get you to come here. I’m sorry about that. But, in a way, I just saved your life.”
Will shook his head, spat, and then turned to leave.
“No, wait! Please don’t go. I need your help with something.”
Impatiently, Will turned around and gave Mira a hard look.
“It’s about your Makara dice. Can I please see them?” she asked.
“What do you want to see them for?”
Mira didn’t want to tell him why she wanted to see them, but she knew he would figure it out once he saw the invitations. The only problem would be if he told everyone about it and ruined the surprise. But he didn’t seem like a mean-spirited boy to her, not like Jeremy.
“Can you keep a secret? My birthday is coming up and I’m going to have a party. I want to use the dice to make invitations. Don’t worry, you’ll get one too, and it’s OK if you don’t want to come.”
Will took a few steps toward her and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a small pouch and jingled it in front of her. She could hear the dice clattering inside.
“Sounds like an interesting party,” he said. “But do your parents know about this?”
Will’s question made Mira think of what her mother said. Mira hadn’t been sure what she meant at the time, but now seemed like a good opportunity to find out.
“Oh, no, they don’t know about this. They know I’m going to have a party and make invitations, but they don’t know I want to do this. It wouldn’t be cool if my parents found out about this, right?”
“That’s funny you say that because you didn’t seem interested in it before. But, yeah, some people think it’s all bad and they don’t really know what it’s about.”
Will loosened the drawstring on the pouch and dumped the dice into Mira’s cupped hands. Seven dice of various sizes and shapes spilled out. Some were polished and some dull; some were made of wood and others made of bone.
“Wow, they’re beautiful. Where did you get them?”
“Most of them I made myself. I saw a kid playing Makara in Darmen one time. I guess you can buy the dice in shops there, but he showed me his and I started to copy them.”
She examined the images that appeared on the sides of the dice. She saw an arrow, a fork, swans, a hand, fish, a knife, a wheel, a key, a tree, a man, a woman, a chair, a nose, a spider, a gust of wind, a book, water, a question mark, the number three, fireworks, lightning, a heart, a star, and a mouth. There were other shapes that Mira couldn’t easily identify, and some of the sides of the dice had nothing on them.
Will seemed pleased that she admired his work, enough to let her take her time with them.
“So how exactly do you use them?”
Will chuckled and shook his head.
“There’s only one way to find out,” he said, motioning to take back his dice.
“Wait a second, just one thing.” She moved to the healer’s steps and began rummaging in her bag for something. Pulling out some paper and a small wooden case, she removed the cover of the case and revealed an inky sponge. She rubbed the side of one of the dice against the ink and then stamped it onto a piece of paper. Pulling away the stamp revealed a blue mark with an image of fireworks, identical to that of the dice. She repeated the process with a few other images returned the dice to Will’s pouch.
“Thank you very much for this.”
“No problem. I hope your party is a success. Maybe I’ll live long enough to see it.”
Mira left with a smile on her face because it seemed like at least one of her classmates would attend her party. She returned home to find her mother hard at work in the kitchen.
“I’ve got it. I’m all set to make the invitations. What are you making?” Mira asked.
“You’re going to have some cookies to go along with them,” Jeana replied. She mixed a bowl full of batter with a big wooden spoon.
“Great! Thanks so much. I’ve got a good feeling that everything is going to work out perfectly.”
A miserable feeling that things were going drastically wrong turned in Kevin’s stomach. A dusky light cast long shadows that stretched across the road on the way to the outpost. He wondered how much of his shame he would have to reveal in order to do what needed to be done.
Entering the outpost, Kevin saw that the crowds had cleared out and the stands had already closed for the day. Still, after only a few steps he got the feeling that someone was following him. He resisted the urge to look back and instead kept walking to the staircase. Once he could no longer see the courtyard and had dropped down a few steps into the shadows, he stopped abruptly and waited.
“What’s the plan here?” a hushed voice asked from behind him. Kevin turned to see Yannick against the wall on the stairs. It looked more like he was hiding than lurking. Preferring not to look at him, Kevin returned his eyes to the steps before him.
“It’s simple. We request an audience with Corey and hope he grants it. If he does, we make our case to have access to the prisoner. We cooperate fully at all times and respond honestly about our intentions. Is that clear?”
Yannick didn’t answer, which Kevin preferred to disagreement. Kevin led the way down to Corey’s office. Unsure of what he would find on the other side, he cracked open the door. Only a dim light trickled through. Entering, he saw that only one woman, Corey’s personal assistant, occupied the office. She sat at an empty desk, obviously waiting for his arrival.
Before letting go of the door, he motioned for Yannick to enter. He hesitantly peeked through, and showed no small degree of relief at finding a nearly empty room.
Kevin approached the young woman.
“Good evening. May I help you?” she said with a professional demeanor.
“Good evening, Natalie. We would like to make an appearance before Corey.”
Natalie nodded.
“What is the purpose of your visit?”
Kevin broached a wry smile. She knew exactly why they were there and he wanted to call her out on it. He checked this impulse and went along with the formalities.
“It’s important that I speak with him concerning the recent breach of my home.”
Nodding again, she rose from her desk. “I’ll take you to a room where you can wait until I can communicate your request to him. Please follow me.”
She led Kevin to a door in the opposite corner of the office from where he entered. Yannick stealthily maneuvered his way behind them. Natalie removed a large, old key and unlocked the door. She pulled it open, allowing Yannick to enter after Kevin unseen.
They entered a room with earthen walls held together by thick roots. Candles burned on stands in the corners, shedding light on a long table and chairs in the center of the room. It had a musky, gritty smell to it.
The door closed behind them, and they heard the key turn the lock. Yannick gave Kevin a hard, uneasy look. They approached the table and noticed a wooden, locked case at the far end. After a moment, the case rattled. Was it bait? He felt the pain of the memories it meant to extract.
Yannick couldn’t contain his interest in the wooden case. He crept forward eagerly. The case hopped and fell back onto the table with a thud.
“Is this really it? There’s a living foot inside that’s not attached to a body? I have to admit, I’ve tracked down many people but never like this.”
He reached for the box, but Kevin halted him.
“Don’t touch that! We don’t have permission from Corey. Just take a seat and try not to let it tempt you. It used to be a hand. There’s no telling what it’ll change to next.”
Kevin felt like he had a good understanding of his present situa
tion. Natalie would not return with a decision about whether or not Corey would grant them an audience. Instead, they were already meeting with him.
“Corey,” Kevin called out into the air. “I’ve devised a plan, involving Yannick, to track down the assailant who violated the sanctity of my home and attempted to take the life of my daughter. You yourself said this ordeal is far from over and my family will remain in danger until it is. This is our opportunity to fight back.”
A thundering, rumbling voice resonated through the floor. The sound seemed to come from a colossal being positioned right below their feet and poised to swallow them whole.
“You don’t realize what you’re asking. Will I ignore the chain of command and allow you to take this matter into your own hands? That’s not a request to be made lightly.”
“I’m well aware,” Kevin responded. “But this could be our only chance to find out who is doing this and what they want. Who is Pyrenee? The answers will not come to us if we simply send the prisoner away. All we need to do is give Yannick something he can use to track the assassin.”
A bass rumbling came through the floor, a perverse kind of laughter.
“And who are we entrusting our sacred mission to? You do realize your stay in our village hangs from a rope tied to a string tied to a hair. You may be beyond the location of your crime, but the knowledge of it exceeds you. I know you avoid me, and the rhythm of your beating heart tells me of your present discomfort.”
Yannick wrung his hands. His eyes drifted toward the rattling box and he spoke up, defensive. “I’ve made mistakes in my time, but I’m just trying to live my life and make my own way. Just because someone’s done something in the past doesn’t mean they aren’t worth anything now. I can do this job for you. There’s nobody else who can.”
“Ah, determination. We’ll see how long that lasts,” Corey grumbled. “Mr. Ipswich, what you’re asking for is substantial, but I can’t justify it because you’ve given me so little. Are you sure there isn’t anything you could say that might bolster your case?”
Kevin sighed and leaned forward, putting his face into his hands. “You want to know, don’t you? Is that what it takes? I just have to satisfy your selfish desire for information and then you’ll grant me the freedom to try to keep my family alive? How merciful! It seems like the things that shouldn’t be dredged up are the only ones that ever are. Fine, I’ll tell you, so listen close.
“When I came back to this village almost sixteen years ago with Jeana and Mira, it was not by choice and not by accident. Jeana and I had a home in a mountain village north of Darmen. It was a safe, quiet, sleepy town, and we loved it. But all at once our dreamy life met a dark turn.
“In my life I can see a sharp divide, everything before and everything after. To our delight and surprise, Jeana gave birth to twin girls, Mira and Clara, and we were ready to relish in the joys and pains of parenthood. But Jeana wouldn’t recover after childbirth. Some kind of sickness had found its way into her, and nothing our trusted doctor did could change that. Fearing for the babies’ safety, we had to separate them from their mother. I could tell you at length how terrible that was for all of us to bear.
“For a short time, we lived as a strained, fragile family, until an unwelcome visitor drastically changed our lives. I was out in the backyard chopping firewood at dusk. It was spring but the nights were still cool. Wiping my brow, I glanced at our house and noticed a window open. Jeana hadn’t been down to the ground floor in a week, and the babies certainly didn’t come up from the basement. I raced inside the house and ran straight to the nursery.
“I saw him there, an unkempt man. He stood over one of the girls with the other in his arms. I shouted when I saw him, and he flew toward the only exit, which I blocked. Mindlessly, I motioned to detain him, but there was some kind of spark that ignited the walls and turned my vapor to steam. He charged at me and knocked me down. Never before and never since has my power fizzled on me like that. The fire was already spreading along the ceiling, and I scrambled for my child, the one he left. The fire had engulfed the better portion of the house, and Jeana was still inside.
With Mira in my arms, I hurtled the stairs to Jeana’s chamber. I could feel the warmth through the floor but the fire had not yet spread to the upper level. I roused Jeana and pulled her onto my shoulder; all she would say was that she was sick and shouldn’t be near the baby.
“The whole building became engulfed by fire and smoke. I carried them out, and we collapsed on the grass a safe distance away. Amidst Mira’s cries, we watched the flames swallow our home. While we were relatively fine, I shudder to think of how Clara met her end after she was taken from us. But it turned out that was not the full extent of the horrors inflicted upon us that night. We didn’t think of it at first, but then we became suspicious when Mira’s power didn’t show. He took it somehow. We checked every inch of her and couldn’t find any evidence that something had happened, but something must have happened. No one is born without a power.
“Everyone looked and searched tirelessly, but not a trace of that man was ever found. Realizing we had nothing but ourselves, we decided to go somewhere far away where they couldn’t ever find us again. But he did find us again, and it wasn’t so different from the first time. Looks like they wanted to finish the job they started, and I get the impression they won’t stop until it is finished.
“Maybe now you understand why this is important to me, as if the recent attempt on my daughter’s life by the thing in this box wasn’t enough. Now I’m begging you, Corey. Please let us move forward with this.”
Exhausted and teary-eyed, Kevin closed his eyes and retreated inward to that truth that can never be communicated. His lip quivered as his mind grasped at the memories and his heart echoed the feelings.
He concentrated on the floor so hard that it startled him when a knock came at the door. Yannick got up from his seat. He heard the door unlock and then pulled it open.
“I forgot to give you this,” Natalie said, offering a small tray with a key on it. Yannick took the tray and closed the door. It did not lock. Returning to the table, he placed the tray between his seat and Kevin’s.
“If you need a moment, that’s fine. We can do this whenever you’re ready,” Yannick said. Kevin pulled himself together.
“What do we do?” he asked.
“If it’s a hand or a foot, all I need is to clip a nail. That should be enough. If you can hold him in place, I’ll do the rest.”
Kevin nodded. He sealed the foot, Yannick opened the case, and soon a part of a nail was in his possession. They locked the prisoner back in the box, and Yannick turned his attention to the toenail clipping.
He rolled it in his fingers and slipped into a trance-like sensing. He turned his head, as if trying to pick up information. He squinted, cringed, and then his eyes ballooned.
“What? What it is?” Kevin asked.
“This is scary. There are so many parts to this man spread out in so many places. When the parts switch, there’s an instant when there’s nothing there. It took me a while to figure out the source, the core, the one part out there at the center of this being. I figured out where it is, but I’ve got some bad news for you.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s behind enemy lines. We’re talking about ground controlled by the Sunfighters far to the northeast. This guy could be involved with them. He could be in the middle of a military base. That’s the one place I can’t get to, Mr. Ipswich. I’m sorry.”
“Why can’t you get there? What’s the problem?”
“The problem is that my power is to find like things. I don’t have a fighting power or a hiding power. Assuming I can even make it all the way around the front lines, if I get caught over there it will be my end.”
“But you’re better than that, right?” Kevin argued. A pleading desperation crept into his voice. “You’re stealthy, and you’re a better spy than even this guy. Is this about money? Are you trying to drive up y
our price?”
“Man, cut that out. I heard your story, and I feel for you. I want to help, but this is more than I can handle.”
Kevin felt a painful hollowness in the pit of his stomach. He didn’t have anything left to say.
Corey’s voice came through the floor, bouncing off the walls. “Yannick, we understand the danger this journey entails, and rest assured that performing this selfless service will do much to wash away your prior wrongs. Your crime was to steal from a wealthy patron of our state, and those indebted to him vilified you as a result. Our village could be a sanctuary from their wrath, rather than the punishment of the exile. All we ask in return is that you make an attempt to uncover this plot against the Ipswiches.”
Kevin looked at Yannick with the last-ditch resolve of a broken man offering his final plea. “This is your chance, kid. If you’ve ever wanted to be someone’s savior, now’s your chance.”
Yannick took on an expression of solemn resolve. “I’m going to do this. They’re going to find out exactly what I can do, and they aren’t ever gonna know it.”
“Yannick,” Corey’s voice interjected. “Make your preparations and leave as soon as possible. The prisoner will be transported tomorrow. And as for you, Mr. Ipswich, you keep a close eye on your family, and may you find peace with the terrors you’ve known.”
Chapter 10: The Birthday Party
Mira stood in the slushy snow outside the schoolhouse early Monday morning. She pretended to be examining the rivulets of water streaming along the ground, but her thoughts were glued to her latest snare. On each desk, a colorful invitation with an intricate design waited with a cookie. She tried to predict how each student would react, and she pondered how many of them would let her know they wanted to come.
Her classmates began showing up, and Mira cordially greeted each one of them. She restrained from peeking inside to see their reactions, but she did listen for any signs of surprise or excitement. She heard neither approval nor mockery coming from the classroom, and she feared that she would discover fourteen invitations and cookies piled on her desk. But when Aoi exited the schoolhouse and began to approach, Mira felt some relief.
