“Why?” Sam demanded. “Why have you been at that point? I know why Royce is the way that he is, and it all has to do with being excluded from the connection and being denied the opportunity to be a Finder. How can you possibly suggest that you know what someone like Royce is feeling? You said that you were helping us because you knew what the scholars were doing was wrong. That wasn’t the only reason, was it, Elliot? There was something more, another thing that you haven’t been willing to share with us.”
Elliot stared at him, scratching at his forehead a little, and then rubbing at his chin.
“You didn’t believe that my finding you and offering to help you was merely a happy accident, did you Sam?”
Sam shook his head. He had always suspected that there was more to Elliot’s story than he had been telling them, and now he was also puzzled by the fact that the technician felt he could identify with Royce and his anger. Sam found that difficult to believe. He had never seen the kind of hatred in Elliot’s eyes that was perpetually threatening to boil over in Royce’s, even when Francis had knocked heads with him.
“No surprises there. You always were the clever one,” Elliot said with a smile.
He reached over and mussed Sam’s hair, a friendly gesture much more appropriate for a younger child, but Elliot had never seemed all that clear on how he should treat the Bigs or the Littles.
“Truthfully? I was looking for you and the rest of Fervor long before I stumbled upon Fiona’s impressive and impulsive outburst. Because of my work with the scholars, I knew that Fervor existed, but I didn’t know where, and as I’ve told you before, I had no one else to assist me, not with that anyway. I actually had constructed a locater, so that I could find you – not you specifically, but Fervor as a whole. I just needed a reading, only a brief one, and your Keeper thankfully obliged. It allowed me to gain the coordinates to the island that I so desperately needed. That’s how I managed to guide my messages to you. Once I had those coordinates, I had hope.”
It was Fiona’s turn to speak.
“Hope for what? What were you looking for exactly? Why were you looking for Fervor in the first place, since you weren’t looking specifically for us?”
“Whatever it was, he hasn’t found it yet. Have you, Elliot? That’s another reason why you are willing to stay behind,” Sam added. The pieces were finally starting to come together. “Did they take something from you, just like they did with Royce? Is that why you feel like you understand him? Is that why you were so angry with them? That would explain why you feel the need to do this.”
The technician leaned away from Sam, not meeting the boy’s inquisitive gaze.
“You could say that, yes. I think I fought through the worst of my frustration long before I made contact with you. It had been years since I had suffered my loss, or felt the worst of it, anyway. I had chosen by the time I found you to channel my anger into purpose. You may not believe it based on what you recently saw, but it’s not too late for Royce to do that as well, with the right guidance – the right influence. Once he acknowledges that he can fight the scholars by trying to make a positive difference, I trust that he’ll stop lashing out, and that he’ll see that he can thwart them strategically rather than just trying to wound them with brute force. If he sets his mind to it, he can work wonders. He’s almost as clever as you are, Sam.”
There were some derisive snorts and giggles from the Controls in the back, implying that they thought that the suggestion that Sam could be smarter than Royce was absurd. Elliot cocked an eyebrow, and shot a look of disapproval at them over his shoulder. The gesture silenced them fairly quickly; they weren’t as cocky or as confident without their ringleader.
Dealing with their continuing presence would be awkward, but Sam was willing to adapt, for Elliot’s sake, just as they had at the house. He doubted that Royce would be making an appearance to say goodbye and he was thankful for that. The Control would not deem it necessary, and considering the way that he probably still looked after his brutal run-in with the investigators, it was no doubt for the best. Sam did not need any reminders of the trouble that they had just faced, and he had no great urge to see Royce one last time.
“What did they take from you?” Fiona asked quietly, breaking the uncomfortable silence. “Tell me. I want to know, Elliot, and I think this is important to you. I want to be able to remember everything about you, in case we never see you again. Why does all of this matter so much to you?”
“I’m a latent...as I’ve discussed with Sam and Sarah before, it’s a genetic trait. That fact is knowledge that the scholars have used to arrive at all of you. You wouldn’t be who you are without their careful...” He paused and eyed the Littles. “Or in some cases, not so careful, manipulation. I was fortunate that I wasn’t strong enough for them to notice me and conscript me. Otherwise, I would have been amongst those who parented you and paid for the experimentation with my life as your parents did. I wasn’t strong enough for them to weed me out because that kind of strength wasn’t in my genes – not to the extent that they were looking for, fortunately for me. But I got my weak telepathic ability from my mother, and I wasn’t alone in that. I was her first child, but she chose not to stay with my father. She chose not to stay with me either, leaving me with him, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. She found someone more suited to who she was. Latents tend to be attracted to one another. It’s easier to trust someone when you know what your partner is thinking.”
Elliot’s gaze drifted over to Nathan and Fiona, and Sam thought he detected some envy in the man’s expression. Sam wondered if this had anything to do with why Elliot had neither a mate of his own, nor any children.
“My mother left with another man who happened to also be a latent, and they had a child, my half-sister, Amelia. She wasn’t as strong as any of you telepathically, but she was definitely stronger than me.”
“They conscripted her. They conscripted Amelia,” Nathan deduced, starting to see where this was going.
“She was one of them – one of the Bigs’ parents,” Sam exclaimed.
“Amelia...I don’t think my mother’s name was Amelia. That’s not what I remember,” Fiona declared. “She was somebody’s mother, though. It wasn’t somebody here, one of us, was it?”
Elliot shook his head and grimaced. “I couldn’t be that lucky, that while grasping wildly at straws, I would draw the one that I wanted? No, but I did manage to find out his name. It’s Malcolm, and I know that he’s a Watcher somewhere on Fervor. That’s as much information as the records on the mainland provided. I was hoping I might find something here, maybe what house number my nephew had, so that I would know where to look for him...”
“That’s why you wanted to know if there were any documents left at the High Barrens,” Sam interrupted. It normally was difficult to interrupt in the connection. The thoughts would just blend together and become incoherent, but because Elliot’s presence was so faint in the connection, it was easy to overpower him, and for Sam to make his own thoughts heard over the technician’s. Sam didn’t mean to be rude, he was just excited that things were finally starting to make sense for him. “You were hoping that I had found something that might point you in the right direction. You were anticipating that I could give you more answers.”
This tidbit of information actually generated some interest from the Controls, who had stayed out of the conversation for the most part until that point.
“The Hub,” Paul, the most out-spoken of the Controls offered. The other three nodded in agreement. “If you’re going to look for that kind of information, that’s where you’ll find it. The Tellers needed those kinds of details for the Gathering so they could make sure that we were organized into the proper house-families, and I doubt that they would have destroyed the records. They still meet there every three months, and they tend to be a little excessive when it comes to organization and control of affairs. You should be able to find lists that outline all of the house-families there.”<
br />
Sam, Fiona, and Nathan agreed with this as well.
“Your timing would be okay for that,” Nathan thought. “Francis wasn’t due to go back for more than a month. You and Royce could avoid the Teller meeting if you go now. You ought to be safe.”
“No, not necessarily,” Fiona objected. “Francis mentioned once that a couple of the Tellers visited the Hub regularly. The ones that lived nearby…that Bryan fellow for example… might be there. You don’t want him catching you off-guard. He wasn’t one of the more forgiving Tellers, and Sam won’t be able to come to your rescue with the Languorite if Bryan catches you and orders you to stop. Not once we’re gone.”
“We’ll take all of that under advisement before Royce and I come up with plans of our own,” Elliot replied with a half-grin, albeit a slightly melancholic one. “I want promises from all of you. No more worrying about us, and no attempts to make contact with us either. That would just make things all the more dangerous for everyone involved. Royce and I, we’ll make things work, and I’m sure we’ll meet up with you again someday. What I need for you to do is to focus your energies on re-establishing, and perhaps even laying the groundwork for the others to follow. You’ll be able to create your own connection somewhere on the mainland, preferably far away from prying minds”
Fiona crossed her arms and scowled, pivoting away from him. This was just another unpleasant deviation from the anticipated that she was unwilling to accept. Nathan gave Elliot a sympathetic look. He had gotten used to Fiona’s way of looking at things.
“I expect you to take good care of these three,” Elliot stated firmly to the Watcher, his eyes dancing good-naturedly. “You promised if I took away your gift, that it wouldn’t change anything with regards to them. I’m going to hold you to that.”
“Don’t worry,” Nathan laughed. “Now that I can actually look at them again, I’m not going to let them out of my sight.”
“I’m depending on that. You need to remember that you’ll be each other’s best means of protection. As I said before, you’d do best to stick together.” The technician shot a look at the Controls. “All of you.”
With that Elliot slid back out through the open door.
“Time to go,” he concluded. “It’s not a short trip, but I suspect it will go better for you than it did for me my first time across. Nobody will suddenly come barrelling through your heads – a few quiet whispers, maybe, but nothing that your walls can’t handle. The first person you will likely see is called Elaine. Say hello for me, and tell her that I’ll see her soon.”
He moved to step away, but then his eyes settled upon Sarah, who made quiet sleepy sounds, but otherwise did not stir.
“Tell her the same.” He gestured at Sarah. “And tell her I still owe her one for fixing me, so I’ll have to make sure that I track her down again to make good on that.”
With that, Elliot closed the hover door.
At first it was as quiet as death in the hover. The Control that had been introduced to them as Katrina stared at the door, looking almost as upset as Fiona did. The others looked away, trying to find something to serve as a distraction.
“You heard the man,” Paul said, finally breaking the silence and directing the remark at Nathan authoritatively. “Time to go.”
The Watcher took one last look at the door and then turned back to the hover console. Giving Fiona’s hand a squeeze…that she returned encouragingly…he focused on the device. Everyone held their breath as they waited, hoping that Elliot’s tutelage had been successful. Nathan broke into his usual broad grin as the vehicle relented to his efforts and began to hum slightly. The sound intensified to a higher pitched whine, occasionally disrupted by a noticeable popping noise. Moments later, the hover lifted from the sand, and began to move forward across the water.
Sam stared out of the window, watching the island and Elliot get more distant. There was a louder than usual “pop” that succeeded in startling Sarah out of her slumber. Sam was equally startled as she almost leapt to her feet, lurching forward at the sound. It took her a few seconds to realize where she was and what was going on. It took another couple of seconds to notice that Elliot was not with them. She looked like she was about to start panicking again, so Sam put his hand on her arm to calm her.
“We’re leaving. We’re leaving Fervor. Where’s Elliot?” she asked in dismay.
“Doing what he needs to do. Doing his own kind of fixing,” Sam assured her. “Don’t worry, he’ll find us again.”
And as Sam watched Fervor fade from sight, he truly believed that.
Don’t forget to pick up book two in the series
Elevation
About the Author and Illustrator
Chantal Boudreau is an accountant by day and an author/illustrator on evenings and weekends. She lives by the ocean in beautiful Nova Scotia, Canada with her husband and two children. In addition to being a CMA-MBA, she has a BA with a major in English from Dalhousie University. She writes and illustrates predominantly horror, dark fantasy and fantasy and has had several of her short stories published, including her zombie tales “Palliative” and “Just Another Day” appearing in horror anthologies, and her e-novelette “Shear Terror”. Fervor is her first novel.
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