by Sharon Sant
‘We let you go because you’d had such a terrible year and we thought it would be good for you. We never expected you to stay there for so long, but you’re home now and it’s time to start growing up.’
She stood back and waited for his response. He brooded on her words. The son she wanted wasn’t him. When he left again, it would break her heart. He couldn’t save his dad, couldn’t even stay around to support him in the low times that his illness would bring. For all these things he was more sorry than he could say. But he had others to think of too, a destiny that had been written for him before he was born, responsibilities that weighed heavily on him. People had died because he hadn’t been there for them. More still might if he didn’t find Makash and stop him for good this time.
Traumatised by the night’s events and tired from his fitful sleep, his thoughts were muddled. This was not the time to be confronting his mother with the sort of necessary decisions that were bound to make her angry. Scraping his chair away from the table, he stood up.
‘I’m going back to bed.’
Having managed a few hours sleep in the cool of the new morning, Jacob returned downstairs showered and dressed and feeling more capable of dealing with his mum’s verbal assault.
‘You feeling a bit more awake now?’ she asked, eyeing him warily as he entered the sitting room. He was glad to see that she seemed calmer herself and nodded. ‘You want something to eat?’
Jacob suppressed a wry smile. Food was his mum’s failsafe. Whenever she found herself on rocky ground, or in a stressful situation, or even just to fill an awkward gap in conversation, she could always rely on food to make it better. Jacob found, to his surprise, that now she had mentioned it he was ravenous.
‘Maybe a sandwich,’ he replied, flopping on the sofa.
Across on the armchair his dad was still ploughing through the same mound of Sunday papers and supplements he had been reading first thing. Phil peered over the edge of a page as his wife left the room.
‘Don’t be upset with her. She’s uptight because she’s worried about you.’ He folded his paper and placed it in his lap. ‘After all, you’re practically middle-aged; you ought to be half way to your first million by now.’ He grinned and Jacob relaxed, the storm in his eyes clearing.
‘I know, Dad. I just don’t think college is for me… at least, not yet. There are things I need to do first before I can think of anything like that.’
‘Oh? Sounds serious.’
‘I wish I could explain…’
‘Listen, you don’t have to explain anything to me. Whatever you decide, despite what your mum says, we’ll always be here for you.’
A hard knot of emotion rose in Jacob’s throat. He wanted to thank his dad, but the words might squeak out as a sob. He nodded gratefully. ‘Although…’ his dad added, ‘she might actually have a point.’
Jacob couldn’t deny that she did. It was what he would have wanted for himself if he could have chosen. But his life was no longer his to live - it belonged to others now. ‘I know she does, Dad.’
‘So will you at least pick up a prospectus and have a think about it?’
Maggie returned with a plate of sandwiches and salad. ‘What was that?’ she asked.
‘Jacob was just saying that he might go down to the college tomorrow, pick up a prospectus…weren’t you?’ his dad stressed the words meaningfully.
Jacob nodded.
‘That’s brilliant!’ Maggie beamed.
‘I haven’t decided yet, though,’ Jacob replied carefully. Despite his father’s good intentions to keep the peace, knowing how his mum would hold him to it, he didn’t want to give her false hope for something that was unlikely to happen.
‘We’ll have a look through together,’ Maggie said, skilfully ignoring his warning.
Jacob looked to his dad for support, but Phil had tactfully returned his attention to his papers. When the time came that Jacob would have to leave again, his mum was not going to be happy, not one bit.
Just after lunch Ellen and Luca arrived together to find Jacob in the old parlour watching TV. Mostly, he had bolted to his second favourite room to avoid any more difficult conversations with his mum. But he was still tired and fractious from the drama of the previous night and craved a welcome diversion, something that wouldn’t demand too much brain power. TV seemed to be the best solution.
He had not seen television for the two years he had been away. The experience of switching it on again after so long was a jarring one. The pictures seemed a bit too bright, too sharp, the sound too loud. But Jacob stared at it like the first man must have stared at fire and shortly after the initial weird exposure, he was hooked. When his friends arrived, he was so engrossed in a documentary about the life-cycle of penguins that he didn’t hear them come in.
‘Don’t they have telly in space?’ Luca grinned.
Jacob looked up ready to shush him, but seeing that his mum had not followed them into the room, relaxed and returned the grin.
‘I can’t tell you how weird it is to be seeing this after so long. You know when we used to go camping, and then you’d get home and telly would look really massive? It’s like that, only off-the-scale weirder. Astraens make their own entertainment, not that it’s up to much, to be honest. They’ve got nothing like this.’
‘Forget it. I don’t want to go there,’ Luca quipped.
‘You’d hate it,’ Jacob agreed, crossing the room to switch the TV off.
Ellen took a seat on the sofa and Luca pulled up an old dining chair, flipping it round so he could straddle the seat and lean on the back.
‘We were talking on the way here,’ Ellen began, ‘and we think we might have an idea about where to start looking for your other one.’
‘It was Ellen’s idea really,’ Luca admitted gallantly.
She threw him a grateful smile before continuing. ‘When I… shared your memories in the fields that day…’ she seemed to shudder slightly at the recollection of the day they had found Jacob close to death at Makash’s hand. ‘I saw a bit of a conversation between you and Dae,’ she continued. Something about Dae leaving you on Earth because it was noisy and confused and would easily hide you. Do you remember?’
Jacob recalled his real father’s words only too well. Not a day passed when he didn’t ruminate over each and every utterance from that brief time they had been reunited and wish that he could still call on that wisdom.
‘That does strengthen my original argument, that the most likely place to find them is on Earth. But Earth is still a big place to search,’ Jacob said.
Ellen continued, unperturbed. ‘Your parents lived in London, didn’t they, when they first adopted you, and then you moved here later?’
‘Yes…’ Jacob replied, unsure of where her reasoning was taking them.
‘London is a very busy capital city.’ Jacob looked at her blankly but she ignored him and continued. ‘Full of noise and confusion, lots of people’s thoughts to crowd out signals. Maybe your real father left you in London for that reason. So wouldn’t it make sense that the other one could be in London?’
‘Maybe,’ he replied thoughtfully, now running with her argument. ‘If my sister is actually the other one. She might not be.’
‘One thing…’ Luca cut in. ‘That could be true of any capital city. Or any big city, for that matter.’
Ellen frowned. ‘I suppose so.’
‘The other one, whoever it is, might be somewhere else because I had been left in London. So that we wouldn’t be close together; to make it harder for someone to get to us both.’
‘Whose stupid idea was it to have two Successors anyway?’ Ellen pouted at their apparent dead end.
Jacob shrugged. ‘It never happened before Dae and Makash, and then… bam! Two lots. It feels like it should be significant, but whatever that significance is, it seems to be lost on the Astraen Council.’ He paused. ‘There’s something else. Last night, the Elder who gave me the information about my sister was murde
red.’
Ellen’s eyes widened. ‘Murdered? You don’t think it was –’
‘Makash.’ Jacob finished her sentence.
The three fell silent for a moment, staring at each other as the full implications of this information sank in.
‘Do you think he’ll come here?’ Luca finally asked.
‘I don’t know,’ Jacob admitted. ‘I shouldn’t have come home; I might have put you all in danger again.’ He rubbed a hand through his hair. ‘I don’t sense any menace nearby but he’s sneaky, he’s got past my defences before. My hunch is that he’ll be looking for my sister, with the same idea that she is the other Successor. There’s no way I can know exactly what Kaleb told him, though, and whether he’ll think it’s easier to come after me again.’
‘Can’t your powers tell you?’ Luca asked with a hint of disbelief in his voice.
Jacob shook his head. ‘Not this time. Kaleb was dead by the time I felt anything; it was too late to communicate with his consciousness by then.’
‘But if you can’t find her with your powers, then surely Makash can’t either?’
‘He found me, though,’ Jacob reminded them, ‘before I knew who I was and before Dae could reach me.’
Luca sighed. ‘So where do we start?’
Jacob collected his thoughts. ‘Internet: social security, adoption records, newspaper reports, health organisations, police records… there’s loads of stuff to go through that might give us clues.’
‘We start in England?’ Ellen asked doubtfully.
‘Something tells me we’re not going to find her that close, but it’s as good a place as any, considering we have no concrete ideas about where she might actually be,’ Jacob said.
‘Do you think it is your sister? The other Successor, I mean?’
‘There’s something telling me yes. Why would they remove her from Astrae at the same time as me otherwise?’
‘Are you sure your powers can’t tell you anything?’ Luca cut in.
‘I’ve tried. Before Makash came to me that first time, I had no idea who I really was. There were signs and, looking back, my unconscious self knew, but that’s part of the camouflage. If you don’t know, how is anyone else going to? And it wasn’t until Dae unlocked Ioh that I finally realised. I think it will be the same for her.’
‘Will Makash be able to set her powers free?’ Ellen asked.
‘I’m not sure. He shouldn’t be able to; only a Watcher should be able to do that. But that was the old rules, and Makash does a lot of things he shouldn’t be able to do. He trained as a Watcher, don’t forget, so he has more ability than an ordinary Astraen would have.’
‘It would be bad news for us if he did get to her first and unlock her Astraen consciousness, wouldn’t it?’ Ellen guessed intuitively.
Jacob nodded. ‘Very bad indeed.’
‘Lucky I’ve brought my laptop, then,’ Luca said with a grimace, ‘it’s going to be a long afternoon.’
Jacob had gone to bed that night with a headache and lay awake mulling over the day’s events. He, Ellen and Luca had spent all afternoon and a good part of the evening, much to the annoyance of his mum, trawling the internet and discussing different ideas and were no better off at the end than when they had started. It had been easy enough for Jacob to crack the codes and passwords that would let them obtain classified records but, frustratingly, they yielded nothing of worth when he did.
Once his friends had left, his mum had cornered him to continue to fight her case for Jacob’s return to education. In the end he decided to go to bed before he said something that he wouldn’t be able to fix.
Something else bothered him too. When Dae died Jacob had a vision, a chronicle of his early life shown to him, something put in place by Dae for when the time was right and it was needed. But there was no sister in this vision. Why? It didn’t make any sense; it only strengthened the accusation that Makash had once made that Dae had manipulated Jacob. The idea that Makash wasn’t entirely the bad guy, and that Dae wasn’t entirely a good guy was unnerving. Jacob had doubted Dae before, but as time passed he had learned to push those doubts aside. Why would Dae keep something this important from him? Perhaps Makash had a point. His hand crept to the amulet lying on his chest and he closed his eyes, slipping easily now into Ioh’s consciousness for answers, as he had done so many times over the past two years. Once again, the effort left him frustrated and no wiser. There was no sign of a sister. Was Kaleb mistaken after all? Who was telling the truth and who was lying? And if he was this all-powerful Watcher, why couldn’t he see it?
Three weeks saw them no nearer their goal, despite Jacob spending the majority of his days glued to the laptop. Luca and Ellen helped when they could; coming around after college and at weekends. Under pressure, Jacob went to enrol on some courses to start the following September. Not in the least interested in what they were, and with no intention of ever turning up for a class, he had let Maggie dictate his choices and could barely even remember what he had signed up for.
The term ended for Ellen and Luca, and Ellen called around early on the first Saturday after they had finished college to see Jacob. He had only just dressed and his hair was still unkempt, eyes bleary with sleep. Ellen, on the other hand, looked as though she had been up for hours - bright and perfectly turned out. But concern was etched into her features. Jacob immediately sensed her unease.
‘What’s wrong?’ he asked, leading her into the old parlour, away from the kitchen where his mother would no doubt be trying to eavesdrop.
‘I was going to text you, but it was too complicated…’
‘What?’
‘It might be nothing…’
He took a place on the sofa and pulled her by the hand to sit next to him. ‘Tell me. With you, it’s never nothing.’
She smiled thinly. ‘I don’t know what it means… but I had a dream last night about Makash. I dreamt about him loads after you left… I was scared, I suppose. But I haven’t had one in ages. You know how we’re… connected?’ He nodded for her to continue. ‘Do you think it was a warning? That he’s coming back for us?’
‘I didn’t dream anything,’ Jacob said. ‘I think I would have had it too.’
‘I was so scared.’
Jacob leaned closer and covered her hand with his. ‘I know. But I won’t let anything happen to you.’ He looked into her eyes. Trust, he saw trust there. Unable to fight the compulsion any longer, he took her face in his hands and kissed her. She fell onto his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his neck.
‘I can’t lose you again,’ she whispered.
He wanted to tell her that she wouldn’t, but it would be a lie. He held her close, guilt gnawing at him. He wanted her more than anything but he could not offer the one small thing she had asked for in return. She knew it, and yet she had still asked. He knew it, and yet he still took. It was a partnership of willing deceit. He stroked her hair as she lay against him.
‘You want to tell me a bit more about the dream?’ he asked, not because he thought there would be any significance to it, but because he thought it would help her to talk.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ she said softly.
Jacob lifted her away from him and gently tipped her face to his. ‘Of course it matters,’ he insisted.
‘Ok,’ she said, casting her eyes down at her hands. ‘It’s not all that clear, but I saw him walking somewhere hot and sunny.’ She paused and looked up at him.
‘Is that it?’ Jacob asked, more sharply than he had meant.
‘No, it’s just a bit jumbled. It was somewhere really busy, like, cars everywhere. I saw him talk to a girl who looked exactly like you.’
Jacob sat up straighter. ‘What were they talking about?’
She shook her head. ‘I couldn’t hear them.’
They sat in silence for a moment.
‘Maybe it’s because we’ve been so obsessed by them both for the past few weeks; that’s why I’ve dreamt about them,’ Ellen said fin
ally.
‘Maybe,’ Jacob replied, his expression pensive. ‘Ellen, before I opened the connection, did you ever dream stuff that came true?’
She thought for a moment. ‘I can’t remember. I used to get, sort of, feelings about things, though, and then they would happen. Like when my cat got knocked down, there was a knock at the front door and I knew before I answered it that it would be someone coming to tell me she was dead.’
‘Can you remember any more details about the dream you had last night?’
‘Um, there were palm trees, people busking on street corners… a beach. Everyone was all bright and shiny, like they wanted desperately to be noticed.’ She laughed shakily. ‘I have no idea what that last bit means.’
Jacob pulled her close again and she didn’t resist. He was calculating possibilities. Perhaps Ellen’s dream meant something after all. With no other lead to go on and time running out, it was worth a shot.
Four: The Sword of Damocles
Ellen’s phone bleeped. She pulled gently from Jacob’s embrace and fished in her pocket.
‘Luca,’ she said, tapping a reply.
‘Is he coming over?’
‘This afternoon. I should go and come back when he does,’ Ellen said. ‘Give you a chance to wake yourself up.’ She ruffled his hair playfully.
‘Stay for a bit.’ Jacob reached to pull her back into his arms.
‘And where would that get us?’ she asked, serious again as she twisted from his grip.
‘But…’
‘I shouldn’t have let you kiss me like that. I shouldn’t have come, it was pathetic of me.’
‘Ellen, please…’
‘It’s hard enough as it is, seeing you and not being able to have you.’
‘But you can have me.’
‘Not in the way I want.’
Jacob sighed. ‘I don’t have much time. We don’t know what is going to happen… what’s wrong with living for the moment?’
‘You don’t have to deal with the aftermath, that’s what.’
‘You think I don’t miss you? You think it’s easy, all this responsibility, being kept from what you really want, living your life for others and not for yourself? What do you think this search is about? What would I care if there was another Successor out there, why not leave them in ignorance, what harm would it do? But finding them is the only chance I have of coming home so I’m breaking my back to do that…’ he paused. ‘Because I love you…’
