The Tellers waited for the chaos in the connection to settle before starting in on their next rule.
“Rule number two relates to the things that were left behind by the minders and the teachers, and all of the buildings that are not family-houses. The only people permitted to enter these buildings or handle those items that require magic that you have not been trained to use are the Keepers. That is part of their purpose, to maintain these things for possible future use.”
Another wave of shock and confusion ran through the connection. Sam and Nathan had already broken this rule unwittingly, and Sam was startled at the realization that Francis had not corrected him – had even encouraged him at the time. Of course, he had entered the storehouse out of necessity, and Fiona had not been with him when he had gone in, in search of food. He suspected based on the general reaction out there, that they had not been the only ones.
“But what if I need to find things...?” Sam questioned.
“I think once you know where they are, you’ll have to depend on Fiona to get them for us from now on. That is, if they’re not out in the open,” Sarah offered quietly.
“Great,” Sam grumbled. He had been thinking he had a valuable gift, but now it seemed less significant. He didn’t like the idea of enforced co-dependency, be it in the form of having Fiona play fetcher to his finding, or having to rely on Nathan for protection from Royce.
“Rule number three, once everyone has their controls for the connection in place, you will always knock before proceeding into someone else’s space. You will only be permitted to push though without knocking if there is an emergency. The Directives outline what qualifies as an emergency. Your Teller will brief you on that. We know that this may seem difficult to believe, but we understand your need for privacy, and that need will be respected. All of these rules will apply to the Tellers just as they apply to everyone else,” the Tellers continued.
The connection had now become uncomfortably quiet, and Sam could not help but wonder who had really organized all of this and why, especially if the Tellers had to live by the same rules as everyone else did. Who would steal away their normalcy and throw them into this bizarre, adult-less chaos, and why?
“And we feel it important to let you know that the laws of the island still apply. Just because the minders and the teachers are gone, doesn’t mean that you can behave however you choose. Those laws will be enforced,” the Tellers affirmed. They did not explain how, or by whom, but the children trusted enough in the truth of the connection that they did not doubt them.
“Your Tellers will now return to you. They will provide you with the basics on how to develop the tools that you will need to deal with the connection, and after you feel sufficiently prepared, you may fetch the keys and directions to your family-house and make your way there. When we are satisfied that you have the proper controls in place, other changes will come. Until then, play the part of your designated role within your talent group, practice your controls, and try to live harmoniously with the other members of your house-family. Make your gifts and the connection work for you. If you want more information then that is the first step that you must take.” That seemed to bring an end to their commands as a group.
Sam felt a rush of relief as he saw the Tellers begin to disperse, and then caught sight of Francis returning to them through the crowd. For some reason, he felt as though the blond boy were his only real link between the present and the past.
Francis led the five of them to a quieter spot at the back of the hall, and then proceeded to show them the basics of blocking others out of their thoughts – all of them but Royce, that is. The black haired boy watched them impatiently, wearing a disgruntled expression as he paced and fidgeted. More than once Sam turned to find Royce’s eyes glued to him with an intensity and a bitterness that Sam just could not comprehend. It was distracting, and made a difficult task even more difficult.
By the end of Francis’s little introductory session, Sam could manage walls that were as effective as tissue paper, when they would stay up at all, and the others were not faring any better. He could see why after two years of practice, with his more limited strength, Francis had only succeeded in reinforcing his walls to the equivalent of mental pressboard. It was going to take a lot of practice – a proper investment of time and effort. On the other hand, Sam suspected that the newly Connected would have more incentive than the Tellers had to put up their walls. If Sam had it figured correctly, with only fifty fairly weak Tellers making up the connection to begin with, all of whom having at least an inkling of what was going on, it would not have been nearly as noisy in their heads as it currently was in his. He figured if he could concentrate more than he was able to at the moment, it would have made things a lot easier.
“That’s all that I can show you for now,” Francis insisted. “It’s up to you to practice, and work at developing them more so that they really work. Once you can effectively block out the others, then I’ll show you how to make a door to let them in again when you want to. You’ll all have to learn how to knock, too, and push in emergencies, just like the Directives instruct.”
“And you know how to do all of these things?” Fiona asked.
“In theory, and I have been practicing, but as you are all aware now, I’m still not perfect either. Now come on, let’s go get our keys and head for home. We’ll be right on the coast, so I’m afraid it’s going to be a long trip. Until we get close enough, we have to look for it the old fashion way. There’s no one waiting for us there to guide our Finder,” the Teller advised.
The five others followed him to the designated area where the things that they needed to get them into their new home were located. Then they allowed their Teller to lead them away, feeling as lost as ever.
* - * - *
Sam awoke groggily to gentle shaking and a familiar whisper in his head. They had been forced to sleep outside, still days away from their house. It was a little cool out, but least it had not been raining.
“Wake up, Sam. Remember our promise – special friends? There’s so much to talk about. I made sure the others were all asleep. Then I had to make sure that I found you and wasn’t trying to shake someone else awake. I’m still not used to not being able to see. It’s really difficult to tell the difference between people by touch alone. If you weren’t smaller than everyone else, I’m not sure that I would have gotten it right.”
“Sarah?”
Shrugging away his drowsiness, Sam glanced up at his small friend, who was kneeling next to him with her hand on his arm. He tentatively reached out through the connection to make sure that she wasn’t mistaken. She was right – Nathan, Francis, and Fiona were all unavailable.
“What about Royce?”
“I’m not sure which one of the others is him, but even if he’s awake, at least he won’t be able to hear us. I’ll lie down right here. If we keep our eyes closed, he won’t be able to tell that we’re awake,” the wisp of a girl replied softly.
“He doesn’t like me,” Sam sighed inside as he lay back and shut his eyes again. “In fact, I think he hates me. I don’t know why. I haven’t been able to talk to him. I don’t know how I could have offended him.”
“I think that I know why,” Sarah confessed. Sam enjoyed talking to her through the connection, all alone like this. Even though she had such strength, her thoughts were always so gentle. Sort of like an elephant tiptoeing through the jungle.
“You were distracted at the time, but I wasn’t, and I could hear all of their inside thoughts – the deep ones that were supposed to be hidden. Even from Francis. He was thinking that Royce was jealous, that he blamed you for him being a Control, and not one of the Connected. Apparently, until they decided that they wanted the Controls, until they actually made the Littles to fill the gaps, Royce was supposed to be a Finder. Francis believes that Royce sees it as your fault that he is as deaf to the connection as you are to the rest of the world. Francis is worried that he’s going to try and take
that out on you somehow, especially after what happened at the Gathering today.”
“Oh,” was all that Sam could manage in response to this, as his stomach churned and his heart rate elevated.
This was nothing that he had actually done, nor was there anything that he could possibly change to mend fences with the black-haired boy. It was all a matter of perspective, Royce’s perspective, and not even Francis had the ability to influence that. It wasn’t even the case of Royce being a typical bully. The Control was under the impression that he had good reason to despise Sam, and perhaps all of the Littles. There was resentment there. It was not some minor insecurity that could be erased with an offer of goodwill, and Sam wondered if all the Controls shared Royce’s point of view.
“I’m sorry, Sam. I wish that I could fix this, but I can’t,” Sarah murmured in his mind. “To be honest with you, I think that Francis is scared, even if he hides it well. He was expecting some irritation, but he didn’t think that Royce would be this hostile about it. Francis knows that if Royce chooses to ignore the rules, there’s nothing that he can do about it. The ones who left the Directives had a solution in case the Tellers abused their power, that’s one of the reasons why they created the Controls in the first place, but who is there to handle the Controls if they don’t stick to the plan?”
“At least Nathan seems to be on my side,” Sam mumbled.
“He won’t always be able to watch out for you,” Sarah warned. “He has his own needs, just as we have. You need to find, I need to fix and he needs to watch, but it won’t always be you that he’s watching. I’m guessing, from what I got from Francis, that he has a specific area he has to cover. He’s not just watching for our sake – he’s watching for them, the ones who came up with the Directives, and the ones who set this all up. Francis was thinking that while you were looking for Nathan.”
“He said that it would be hard to test his gift. Maybe that’s why. If it’s something he just does, maybe there aren’t a lot of ways to tell if he’s actually doing it, just like with Fiona.”
“She may be hiding it better, but she seems to be almost as angry as Royce is, and she blames Francis for her troubles. She wants everything back the way that it was, and I don’t think anyone’s going to be able to change her mind about that. She doesn’t like either of us, but at least she doesn’t hold us at fault. She doesn’t actually hate us, but she believes that she’s going to be expected to play the part of substitute minder for us, and she’s not happy about that. She considers us a nuisance,” Sarah explained, trying to keep her thoughts quiet, and directed completely at Sam.
“You heard all of this through the connection – these things that I wasn’t aware of, these things that they didn’t want you to know?”
Sam was starting to understand how poor Royce felt. He had been convinced that the small glimpses he had gotten on occasion from the others, the ones that they had been hoping would remain secret, were something that had given him an edge, but he’d had to be particularly attentive and listen very carefully to pick up on those inner most thoughts. He also had to be extra careful when considering those thoughts, or others in turn would know that he had heard them. From the sounds of it, the other Little in his house-family could access these secreted ideas much more easily than he could. Then again, Sarah had always felt that much stronger than him.
“Like I said, you were distracted, either looking for Nathan and Fiona, or being interfered with by Royce,” she assured him. “I’ve noticed how it works. If you are panicky, or focussed on something that takes extra concentration, then you can’t hear the mind whispers over your own louder thoughts. Once everyone has their walls set up properly, we probably won’t be able to hear them at all anymore.”
Suddenly she went quiet. After a few seconds of feeling around in the connection to see if the others were awake, and finding nothing, Sam realised that something was wrong. He had felt a slight vibration in the ground upon which he lay.
Sam opened his eyes. Royce was standing over him, and was giving him a menacing glare. It intimidated Sam as much as Royce had intended it to and Sam reached out and mentally nudged Nathan, who stirred almost immediately. The Watcher sat up, rubbing at his eyes.
“G-go back to b-bed, Royce,” the broad-shouldered boy muttered quietly. Sam saw the black-haired boy’s lips move, but had no idea what he had said in response. He was grateful, however, to see Royce return to the place where he had been sleeping.
Sarah touched Sam’s mind one last time before returning to sleep. It was a sad whisper.
“Royce said he thought he heard a rat.”
Sam shuddered, and was ready to try to fight off his anxiety and attempt sleep again himself, when he noticed some movement. Nathan rose and shifted much closer to him, on the side opposite to Sarah. Sandwiched between the two of them, Sam felt surprisingly secure, despite the fact that Royce lay only a few feet away. Exhaling softly, and brushing both of their minds with the gentleness of a feather, he closed his eyes and went back to sleep.
New Routines
The house was not anything special, in Sam’s opinion. It was much like any other house on Fervor, dull-coloured and featureless, only three times bigger than what he was used to. There was no disputing who got what room, since nobody really cared. They all settled in, got used to their surroundings, and eventually, they all fell into a routine, as per Francis’s directions.
Sarah tended to keep to the house, still unaccustomed to functioning with her blindness. If she wanted to go out she needed someone to accompany her, and mostly relied on Francis or Nathan to be her eyes. She would fix anything that was brought to her, for the most part items found by Sam or retrieved by Fiona, and she also fixed any injuries for the people in the house, more commonly Nathan than anyone else. His lack of sensory input from touch often led to small scrapes and cuts that he wasn’t aware of. And every time he returned from his outings, Sarah would have to check him over carefully to make sure that he had not done himself any serious damage that might result in infection if not fixed.
Sometimes Sam would observe these little fixing sessions and felt envious of the attention Nathan was receiving. Maria had been a fairly affectionate minder, prone to hugs and cuddles, and he missed that human contact more than anything else. Of course, he realized that Nathan was not actually feeling Sarah’s tiny hands brushing over his skin, so wishing that he could switch places was kind of pointless for Sam. The only thing that Nathan seemed to acknowledge was firm pressure. Besides, Sam had seen a couple of the more nasty gouges that Nathan had unwittingly come home with, and that much he did not want. Not being able to hear was not that bad in comparison.
Sometimes, Sarah would glance Sam’s way, aware that he was there even though she could not see him. She’d had more time to practice her skills with the connection, and she had been stronger than everyone else to begin with. A couple of months in, and her walls were almost as strong as Francis’s had been in the beginning. She was also getting much better at using other people’s images projected through the connection as her eyes.
As her confidence grew, and her feeling of purpose as a Fixer developed, her sadness in response to all of the changes was fading, although her timidity did not. She had not been as close to her minder as Sam had been to his. She had also been growing stronger bonds with the Bigs in the house than Sam had managed. Fiona saw her skills as useful, and for the most part Sarah kept out of the older girl’s hair, so the Keeper considered her more of a help than a hindrance. Francis was using Sarah’s assistance to strengthen his own connection tools since she was the most capable of the five of them to get around any blocks that he put up. Seeing if she could get past them was the best test that he had to check on how well that they were working. All but Royce was invested in some way in their Fixer – since she could not help him.
Fiona was also a bit of a homebody, but for different reasons. She was the only one of them who could make any of the more complex appliances work, and a
s much as she had seemed reluctant to do so in the beginning, she settled into a role similar to that of the minders after only a couple of weeks. Sam was starting to relate to the older girl better as well. She was often a necessary component in his finding if his searches took him to one of the abandoned buildings on the island. They would often talk on those occasions, and Sam thought he was starting to grow on Fiona. He would even have guessed that she was starting to consider him a friend.
Fiona fussed over Nathan much more than she ever did anyone else, but Sam attributed this to the same issues that prompted Sarah’s attentions, the fact that he often came home looking tattered around the edges. Nathan was fairly nonchalant about the whole thing. He was an easy going boy, and fairly pleasant natured. He tolerated her ministrations with his endearing lop-sided smile, despite the fact that if Royce were present he would tease Nathan about being “Keeper’s pet”, and if Francis were around he would give him a mocking stare.
Unlike her response to the Littles and Nathan, Fiona seemed to go out of her way to avoid Royce and Francis. Sam knew that it was because she still bore a grudge against the two older boys. They had known about the coming of the second exodus and the introduction of the remainder of the children of Fervor to the connection, and they had tolerated the fact that it would come as a traumatic surprise to everyone but the Tellers and the Controls.
Fervor Page 5
