The Trojan Horse Traitor

by Amy C. Blake

  Levi swallowed hard. That was exactly how he felt. Weak, confused, and out of control.

  Mr. Dominic’s lips curved in a compassionate smile. “Believe it or not, the one and only Ruler of the entire universe understands exactly how you feel. In fact, he loves to use the weakest of all to accomplish his will.”

  “God must really want to use Levi.” Hunter’s mock-whisper and the accompanying snickers—one snort sounded like Trevor’s—burned Levi’s ears.

  Though Sara cast him a sympathetic glance, Mr. Dominic continued, apparently unaware of the comment. “He loves to work in us when we’re at our most fragile because then we’re also at our most humble. We know we can’t possibly accomplish the big task before us. We know our only hope is in Christ alone. He is the only one strong enough to carry us through.”

  Mr. Dominic picked up a worn Bible. “Let’s look at First Samuel seventeen for the story of a weak boy named David who defeated a giant Philistine named Goliath.” After reading the passage aloud, he looked up. “Many think this is simply another heartwarming story in which the underdog defeats the well-armed giant with only a slingshot and a few stones.” His eyes roamed the campers. “But this story isn’t really about David.”

  Levi frowned. It wasn’t?

  “It’s about the Lord God of Israel, who worked through David’s weakness to shame his enemies and proclaim his glory before the nations. He chose a shepherd boy to defeat a giant and ultimately become king. Just like he chose insignificant Bethlehem to become the birthplace of King Jesus, a baby who became a man, the one who died and rose again to save us from our sins.

  “If you find yourself tempted to despair because of your weakness in the face of strong enemies, even if those enemies are merely homework and training sessions”—Mr. Dominic smiled—“take heart. Throughout the Bible, God shows us how he uses the weak things of this world to confound the strong. All to bring glory to his name.”

  Mr. Dominic closed with prayer, thanking the “Emperor Father” for governing the universe and for sending “High King Jesus” to save his people.

  Levi rose with the rest of the group, thinking about the director’s curious names for God. Clearly God’s kingship was important to him.

  “Excuse me.” Mr. Dominic’s voice interrupted the shuffles of those preparing to leave the chapel. “I forgot one announcement. If you’ll recall, we promised you an opportunity to call home each Sunday afternoon. I regret that you’ll be unable to do so today.”

  Complaints broke out. Mr. Dominic raised a hand for silence. “I truly am sorry, but the storm knocked out the phone lines to the island. Mr. Drake took the ferry over to the mainland to request service, but due to outages in more populous places, repairmen haven’t been able to come here yet.”

  One girl raised her hand. “Our parents are expecting us to call. They’ll be worried when we don’t.”

  Mr. Dominic nodded. “I understand. I asked Mr. Drake to contact your families via computer while he was on the mainland, informing them of the outage in case service wasn’t restored before today.” Mr. Dominic waited a moment. When no one else spoke, he continued. “I know you want to talk to your parents, and I feel sure phone service will be restored by next Sunday. Until then, know your families are aware of your well-being. Please feel free to write letters. Mr. Drake will take them to the post office when he next goes across. For now, let’s enjoy lunch and rest this afternoon.”

  Levi watched the director gather his things as the others exited the chapel. He’d really wanted to call home.

  After a moment, Mr. Dominic nodded to Levi, the only one still seated, reminding Levi of the man’s strange wink before the camping trip. Levi managed a return nod, but queasiness slithered into his gut.

  Was the phone really out of service?

  Could Mr. Dominic, a man who had just preached the truth, be lying?

  Chapter 12

  Hunter

  Later that week, Levi stood on the bank of a surprisingly deep river that cut through the woods north of the castle. He gripped the lead rope of the canoe he was to share with Hunter. Levi knew the canoe trip would most likely not turn out great for him, not with Hunter as his partner, but Mr. Drake and Miss Althea, a niece of the tiny camp cook who also taught Levi’s art class, had paired the campers according to who had experience boating, and Levi—“never done this”—found himself paired with Hunter—“I’ve canoed thousands of times.”

  When Hunter flashed him a sadistic smile, Levi nearly begged off. But he didn’t want to look like a baby. Going against every lick of common sense he had, Levi climbed into the front of the canoe.

  He glanced around at Sara, who was paired with Suzanne, the skinny, snooty-looking girl he’d seen hanging around Hunter’s husky friend Jacqueline. Sara looked comfortable with everything about her boat, except the other occupant. Monica sat in a canoe with Trevor, who’d claimed to be great with boats. Trevor looked a little nervous, and Monica looked terrified. Maybe Trevor had exaggerated a little. They’d probably end up tasting river water.

  Levi didn’t have much time to worry about his friends, though. Before Mr. Drake gave the word, Hunter took off, paddling farther and farther from the group.

  “Hey, stop,” Levi yelled. It was all he could do to hold on as they whipped down the river.

  Mr. Drake and Miss Althea hollered for them to wait, but Levi was too scared of falling in to look back. Hunter laughed in his ear, sending a shiver up his neck. Where was this maniac taking him? Why had Levi gotten into the boat with Hunter in the first place? Levi glanced at his chest, reassuring himself that his orange life vest was secure.

  Think, Levi! Should he whack Hunter with his paddle and wait for the others to rescue him? Try to paddle backwards? That might slow them down. But what if he tipped the canoe? He glanced around. They were in the middle of the river now, pretty far from the bank, which whipped past at a dizzying rate. Was it his imagination or was the water getting rougher?

  “God, help me,” he squeaked out.

  Hunter cackled. “Your precious ‘Emperor God’ can’t help you. I’m the one in control out here.”

  Shocked, Levi twisted to look back. Hunter’s eyes glowed like molten metal.

  “Stop right now, boys!”

  Levi peeked behind Hunter. Miss Althea rapidly closed the gap between her canoe and theirs. Steve sat in front of her with his oar on his lap and his eyes huge.

  “I said stop, Hunter!”

  Her tone would’ve made Levi halt instantly, but Hunter, face twisted, paddled harder.

  “I mean it, Hunter Jacobson. I know who you are.”

  Hunter’s oar stilled as his cheeks paled.

  As Miss Althea approached their craft and guided them to shore, her eyes were fierce. She beached both crafts, and with a strength that surprised Levi, pulled him from the boat and plopped him on the sand.

  Next, she yanked Hunter out. “Shame on you.” She glared up at him, her fists clenched, her rage making Levi glad he wasn’t Hunter.

  When she turned on Levi, he flinched. Thankfully, her voice and eyes softened. “Are you okay?”

  At his nod, Miss Althea rounded on Hunter again, her hair slapping Levi’s belly as she whipped around. “You will never, ever behave in such a way again.” Even though she only came to Hunter’s stomach, she clearly had the upper hand. “Your forebears would be ashamed of you.”

  Steve, who’d climbed out of the canoe on his own, flashed Levi a questioning look. Shrugging, Levi waited for Hunter’s reaction.

  Face red, Hunter opened his mouth as if to talk back, but closed it when Mr. Drake canoed around a bend and called, “Is everybody all right, Althea?”

  She speared Hunter with one more glare before calling back, “Fine, Janus. Are the other kids okay?”

  Mr. Drake glanced at the canoes trailing his. “Everybody’s accounted for. What happened?”

  “We’ll need to discuss that later.” She cocked her head at Hunter. “With Mr. Dominic.”


  Mr. Drake’s brows lifted, but he only nodded.

  “We’ll have to change up.” Miss Althea looked at Levi. “Hunter needs to ride with me.”

  “It was a joke.” Hunter folded his arms over his chest. “The little coward needs to grow a backbone.”

  Levi cast him a dirty look and climbed into his canoe. As soon as he got settled, his mind flitted from Hunter to what he’d seen when Miss Althea’s hair slapped him—another view of pointy-tipped ears.

  Those ears sure didn’t help him with his ignore-the-weird-stuff plan.

  On Sunday afternoon, Levi clutched the telephone receiver to his cheek and hunkered into the rickety chair, his face close to the battered desktop.

  “Dad.” He fought the tears threatening to steal his voice and glanced around. The rest of the campers paid him no attention. On his left, Luke used a clunky black rotary phone, and on his right, Gabrielle chattered into a white rotary phone, her finger twisting the cord. The other campers whispered to each other while waiting their turn.

  “You okay, son?” His dad’s voice soothed the lump from Levi’s throat.

  Levi pressed the phone closer. “Yeah, I’m okay now.” And he was. He’d spoken briefly with each of his siblings and with his mom—she’d cried and then laughed when he’d asked her to send ear plugs—but it was this talk with his dad he really needed.

  “How’s camp? You fitting in okay?”

  Before the word fine popped out, Levi hesitated. He wanted to be straight with his dad about how things really were. Memories of the past couple weeks flitted through his mind . . . the disappearing castle, Hunter, pointy ears, Hunter, his roommates, Hunter, lessons, Hunter—

  “There’s this guy here who pretty much hates my guts.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. Really, I don’t.” He heard the defensiveness in his voice and tried to tone it down. “He’s just hated me from the first day. He’s kind of a bully to everybody.”

  “Have you spoken with the staff about this?”

  Levi snorted. “No way. I’m not tattling.”

  A sigh filtered across the phone line. “Yeah, I can kind of see why you’d say that.” Silence, then, “If he does anything really nasty, though, go to the director. Bullying isn’t acceptable.”

  “Okay, Dad.” It would have to be really bad for him to snitch. Besides, Hunter had gotten a week of dishwashing duty after the canoe incident. Maybe now he’d stop tormenting Levi. Yeah, right. That was gonna happen.

  “You have to use your own judgment, son. I’m not there to decide for you.”

  “I know.” He ran a finger along the scarred desktop.

  “What about the rest of the kids?” Dad’s voice sounded more upbeat. “Made any friends?”

  “Yeah, some. My roommates remind me of Zeke and Jer, though. Kind of messy and loud, you know?”

  Dad laughed. “Well, you ought to feel right at home then.” He paused, his tone more serious. “Don’t try to boss them around, Levi. That’s not the way to make friends, not even with your little brothers.”

  Levi squirmed in the hard wooden seat. “Got it.”

  “Okay.” Dad grew quiet again, making Levi think he had more to say on the subject. Instead he said, “How’s everything else? You said roommates—don’t you mean cabin mates? Has your bunkmate flattened you yet?” He chuckled.

  Levi smiled. “No, we actually moved to the other side of the island when that storm hit. Had to go to a stronger building, so we’re living in a castle.”

  “You’re joking.”

  “No, it’s a real live stone castle, and it’s cool.” Should he mention the disappearing cliff thing? Nah. His parents would stick him in an asylum. “I’m on the fourth floor.”

  “You? Doesn’t being up that high scare you?”

  Levi thought a moment. His phobia about heights hadn’t bothered him that much this summer. “Maybe I’m growing out of it.”

  “Maybe.”

  At a tap on his shoulder, Levi turned. Mrs. Drake pointed at the wall clock and held up one finger. Levi nodded.

  “I’ve gotta go, Dad. It’s the next guy’s turn. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

  “Sure, Levi. We love you and pray for you every day.”

  “Thanks. I love you too.”

  “Don’t forget whose you are, son. You’ll be fine if you remember that.”

  Chapter 13

  Heat

  Levi and his roommates sat at the back of Science class trying to listen to Mrs. Austin’s lecture on the human skeleton. June was drawing to a close, and the classroom was hot and stuffy, even with the windows thrown wide.

  Levi stifled a yawn. Hoping more oxygen would help him fight off sleepiness, he inhaled deeply through his nose—and wished he hadn’t. Something stank. Bad. He looked around for the source of the smell but didn’t see any likely suspects. He even sniffed his own pits just in case.

  Gabrielle grimaced over her shoulder. “Ew, what’s that smell?”

  Levi shrugged and tried not to look guilty.

  Snuffling sounds turned Levi’s head. Tommy hung across the aisle sniffing the air. “Steve, is that you I smell?”

  For answer, Steve’s face turned hot pink.

  Trevor looked at Steve, nose wrinkled. “Why do you stink so bad? I know you took a shower this morning when Mr. Sylvester said we had to.”

  Steve huffed out a breath. “I missed laundry day, okay? Sorry.”

  Levi opened his mouth as Mrs. Austin leveled a glare on him. Levi snapped his mouth shut. Mrs. Austin was normally a nice lady, but she took her class seriously and expected the campers to do the same. When she finally turned back to the board, Levi dared a whisper. “Haven’t you ever heard of washing your stuff in the bathroom sink?”

  Steve’s face brightened. “I never thought of that.”

  Whipping around, the teacher fixed Steve in a glare. Steve slapped a hand over his mouth.

  She scowled at him a second longer before asking the class, “Who can tell me how cartilage is different from bone?”

  While Monica rattled off a dictionary definition of cartilage, Steve whispered, “I’ll try that during break later.” He beamed at Levi. “Then I’ll hang my stuff out in the bathroom to dry. That’s a great idea. Thanks.”

  Levi managed not to roll his eyes.

  “Yeah, that’s a great idea.” Tommy pinched his nose. “But what about right now? You smell horrendous.”

  Steve shrugged.

  Trevor sighed. “You can borrow some of my stuff after class.”

  “Thanks, Trevor,” Steve said too loudly.

  “Boys.” Mrs. Austin gave them the evil eye. “I’ll thank you to stop talking during lessons.”

  Levi scrunched down in his seat.

  She planted both fists on her hips. “Since you gentlemen want to wag your tongues, who can tell me which parts of the human body are made up of cartilage?”

  Levi and his roommates were silent.

  Though Monica and a few others raised their hands, Mrs. Austin ignored them. “Levi Prince?”

  Levi met her eyes. He’d told himself he would let it go, stick to the fun-summer plan, but . . . “Ears,” he blurted.

  Mrs. Austin’s stubby hands grew still.

  Levi ran his forefingers along the cartilage on his ears. “The parts on top.” He waited. What would she say to that?

  The teacher’s face reddened as she flattened the hair over her ears. “Um, yes, ears are made up, in part, of cartilage.” She turned abruptly back to the board.

  Ha! I knew something was going on here. Levi’s triumph seeped away with his breath. Mrs. Austin’s self-conscious reaction was not good. It most definitely did not fit in with his ignore-the-weird-stuff plan.

  July arrived. With it came sand flies, and Albert. Levi couldn’t decide which was worse. He used the gauzy white curtain around his bed to keep the insects from disrupting his sleep, but it wasn’t so simple to keep Albert away.

  Mr. D
ominic gave Albert permission to sleep in the empty room next to Levi’s because, according to Albert, “My brothers were about to drive me nuts.” Now Albert constantly dropped into Levi’s room, parked it on one bed or another, and chattered away for hours. It was nearly impossible to get homework done or even have a quiet moment to think.

  One muggy afternoon, Levi sat on his bunk doing Latin homework while his roommates played flag football in the courtyard.

  Albert came in, climbed onto Tommy’s bed, and started a monologue, which Levi tried to ignore. “There was this one time when I was cuttin’ firewood out north, and don’t you know that ornery Deceptor tried to trick me. He was pretending to be a—”

  Pen drooping, Levi stared at the little man.

  Albert stared back. “What?”

  “What did you say?”

  Albert’s eyes widened, then his face blanked. “Nothing.”

  “You mentioned somebody called Deceptor. Who’s that?”

  Albert stood up fast. “Nobody. Not supposed to say nothing. Gotta go.”

  He rushed to the door, paused, turned back. “Things is different here. You’ll see stuff you ain’t used to seeing. If you pay attention.”

  He lifted both hands and tucked his wild mane behind his ears.

  Levi’s jaw dropped. But Albert was gone, leaving Levi with more unanswered questions—and another view of pointy-tipped ears.

  “What in the world does it all mean?” he asked the empty room.

  Chapter 14

  The Cliff Returns

  In archery class that week, Levi chose a bow and quiver from the rack, turned, and walked straight into Hunter, who was about to discharge an arrow.

  “Sorry,” Levi said.

  Hunter whirled around, sharp arrow tip an inch from Levi’s chin. “Watch it, Prince.”

  Heart thudding, Levi stepped back. He’d avoided Hunter since the canoeing fiasco, but now he’d managed to get himself on the wrong end of the creep’s arrow. Why hadn’t Levi looked where he was going?

  Hunter cut his eyes meaningfully toward Sara, Monica, and Trevor, who stood nearby. “Never can tell who might get hurt with these sharp tips.” He touched the arrow point. “Accidentally, of course.”