Freakling (22 page)

Taemon used clairvoyance to look deeper into Moke’s body, toward his heart. It wasn’t beating. He was gone.

Gone.

Taemon dropped his chin to his chest.

Someone yanked him up from behind with psi. His arms were pulled behind his back. Cuffs closed over his wrists.

“The serum,” a voice said. “For both of them.”

Taemon felt a prick on the back of his neck. A strange sensation overtook him. First numbness, then dizziness. His clairvoyance seemed to come unbidden now and Taemon became aware of what was happening in his body. He sensed the fluid they’d injected him with. He saw it coursing through his blood vessels, confusing his nerves and mixing up the messages to his brain. Did it even matter anymore?

“Moke,” he whispered.

Then he blacked out.

Taemon woke up with a crick in his neck. His hands were still cuffed behind his back. He didn’t move, but opened his eyes and stared at the burgundy-carpeted floor on which he lay. The place smelled musky, and he knew the scent. He’d been here only a few times before for family weddings and funerals, but that scent was unmistakable. He was inside the temple.

When he tried to sit up, even lifting his head off the floor made him woozy. He groaned.

He heard an unfamiliar voice somewhere in the room, but his head was spinning and he couldn’t tell where the speaker was. “He’s awake. Go get Elder Naseph.”

Then he remembered everything. Moke was gone. A flood of grief washed over him. Was it over? Had they failed?

He wasn’t eager to try lifting his head again, so he scanned the room moving only his eyes. It looked like an office of some kind. A desk. Chairs. Shelves on the walls with scrolls and boxes and baskets. He looked to his right. Amma lay on the floor next to him.

She was unconscious, but he could see that she was still breathing. Her nose had some blood on it, and her chin was scratched. Her face was relaxed and still; a few strands of hair fell across her cheek. He hadn’t lost Amma. Yet.

He continued to stare at her. Once again he had the niggling feeling that he’d seen her somewhere before he had come to the colony.

And this time he remembered: he’d seen her in an image, a flash of vision when he’d almost killed Yens.

Yens looking down at the dead body of a pretty girl. Amma.

Yens pulling down the walls of a building. Amma’s house.

Yens ordering armies into battle — that had been the third image. Skies above, Taemon could not let this happen. But how could he stop it?

As he watched her, Amma’s eyelids flickered open. Her eyes were unfocused, and she moaned.

The door opened, and Taemon heard several people walk in.

Someone manhandled him into a sitting position. The humiliation of it barely registered as his head swam and he had to turn to the side and vomit. He hung his head until the spinning slowed, then looked up.

It was Yens. He sneered down at Taemon. “Is that any way to greet your long-lost brother?” He let go of Taemon’s shoulders and turned to Amma. “Ah, I remember you.”

“Leave her alone,” said Taemon. He struggled to stand, but it was useless. He threw up again.

Yens shook Amma’s shoulder. “Hello? Are we awake yet?”

Amma was unresponsive. Her eyes were closed. Taemon thought he’d seen her awake a minute ago, but either he’d been mistaken or she was out again.

“Leave her alone,” Taemon repeated. “I’m the one you want.”

Yens laughed. “Actually, it’s you I
don’t
want. But her, I might want.”

“What are you going to do?” asked Taemon.

“The high priest has big plans for me, little brother. We’re teaming up with the Republik to fight a war. After that, the psi wielders will take their place as true leaders of nations. Here’s the best part: I get to lead the army. We’ve got psi weapons, and let me tell you, they are flaming incredible! Like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Those books we brought back from the colony — they had some powerful knowledge in them. Stuff not even the high priest knew existed! Now we can make more weapons, more powerful than before. When this war is over, Deliverance will take its rightful place in the world. There’s no stopping the new Cycle of Power. And I’m the center of it.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Taemon saw Amma stir. He needed to distract Yens, to keep Yens’s focus on him and not Amma.

“Do you really think Elder Naseph gives a fig about the True Son, Yens?” he asked, his words heavy with contempt. “You’re just a figurehead to him. Someone he can use to excite the people of Deliverance and convince them that this war is a holy war.”

Yens sniffed. “You’ve always been jealous of me. Admit it. When the high priest came to get me, a part of you wished he had come for you.”

“Set aside your pride and think for a minute. The high priest is sending you to the Republik, right? Do you think he cares one squinch if you come back or not? Do you think anyone in the Republik cares? You’re walking into a trap, Yens. A trap that gives Elder Naseph power over the Republik.”

Yens’s smirk faded just a little. Was Taemon actually getting through?

“You don’t know that. How can you possibly know that?” Yens said.

“The woman that spoke to you in the colony — that was Challis. She’s Mam’s sister, the one that everyone thought had died. She can see the future, Yens. See what happens to you. You can’t go to the Republik. You have to get away from the priests.”

Yens took a step back. “Mam’s dead sister sees the future? Listen to yourself, Taemon. That’s nothing but klonk. The colonists have brainwashed you.”

“It’s not too late,” Taemon pleaded. “You can do it. You can save your own life and countless others.”

“I’ve heard enough,” Yens said.

One of the temple guards stepped forward. “Should I give him another dose of the serum? Once they wake up, they need the second dose.”

Taemon did feel a little stronger now that the room wasn’t spinning and tilting so much.

“Don’t waste any more serum on him. My brother’s as powerless as a pebble.”

“But Elder Naseph said —”

“I know what he said!” Yens yelled. “I’ll take care of him. You’re dismissed. All of you.” He waved off all the temple guards, and they filed out of the room.

“What did Elder Naseph say?” Taemon asked.

Yens spat on the floor. “Naseph doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He thinks that he has a weird kind of psi called precognition. Klonkiest thing I’ve ever heard. He claims he had a vision of you getting your psi back and frustrating our plan somehow.” Yens snorted. “The crazy old goat would only agree to leave me alone with you if I promised to get rid of you for good.”

Despite Yens’s dire warning, a tiny spark of hope flashed in Taemon’s mind. If Elder Naseph had seen him getting his psi back, then somehow it had to be possible. He could stop this terrible war. He could put things right. But how? How could he get his psi back?

Ask and you shall receive.

Holy Skies above! The voice was back!

Yens paced the room. “Did you know there are seventeen ways to instantly kill a person with psi? The priests have taught me all of them. We practiced. First on cadavers, then on the innocents. It was amazing.”

Taemon fought to keep the horror from showing on his face. He needed to stop Yens. He needed his psi back. But the voice still troubled him. It couldn’t be Challis. It didn’t sound like her at all. But what was it? Was it evil? Was it good? Was it insanity? He had to know.

Ask and it shall be answered.

Yens continued his rant. “And speaking of prisoners, did you know that Mam and Da were taken to the asylum? Mam lost her wits when you were taken away, and Da started speaking up during church services. They were menaces to society, both of them.”

Anxiety clogged Taemon’s thoughts, but he pushed it away. This information only increased the need to get his psi back. And that meant he had to focus.

Who are you?
Taemon asked the voice.

I am the Heart of the Earth. The spirit of the planet. The consciousness that connects all living things.

Taemon was awestruck. Either he had a direct connection with the deity of his fathers or he was going loopy. Right now, he had to believe it was the former.

Which meant he could get his psi back. The idea flared and leaped like a fire in his mind.

Consider carefully. You cannot request a gift only to discard it at will. If you ask me to restore your power, the restoration will be permanent.

Yens paced back and forth, rubbing his chin. “So what will it be? Stop the heart? Sever the brain stem?” He stopped. “I know.” A slow smile curled his lips. “Suffocation. As I recall, you were rather fond of that one.”

Before Yens could blink, a chair flew across the room, tripping Yens and then pinning him down.

Taemon looked at Amma. She was fully awake now, sitting up and glaring at Yens.

Yens laughed. “Oh, good. This will be more fun. I won’t even give you another dose of the serum. Very sporting of me, don’t you think?” He heaved the chair upward with psi, smashing it against the wall. He stood up.

Amma’s neck and arms looked strained, as if she was trying to move but couldn’t. Yens must be keeping her in place with his psi.

“Now I understand why you didn’t want people to know about your brother,” Amma said to Taemon. “He’s a monster.”

Yens yanked Taemon and Amma up. Taemon felt his throat constricting. He was dangling, his toes only barely touching the floor. If he had to die, thought Taemon, at least he would die the same way Moke did.

But only if he had to. It was time to ask.
Can you give me psi?
thought Taemon.

You have been prepared for this task. You must act with great care, for your choices will determine the nature of the next Great Cycle.
You
are the True Son.

Yens looked at Taemon. “I could kill the girl. Then you could watch her die. Or maybe she should watch you die.” Yens lifted Amma a few inches, then Taemon, as though literally weighing his options.

I will. Please! Give me psi!

Be it so.

A tremendous power came to him immediately, waiting to be directed. Taemon used it to push Yens against the wall and hold him there.

“What?” Yens shouted. The break in Yens’s concentration allowed Taemon and Amma to breathe deeply. Next, Taemon mind-wandered into the lock on the psi cuffs, sensed how it worked, and unlocked both his and Amma’s restraints at the same time. It was all done in an instant.

Taemon could sense Yens’s psi opposing his own. He had to use every bit of concentration to keep Yens pinned against the wall.

Amma stared at him, her eyes wide and her mouth open. “How . . . ?”

“Find the serum,” Taemon told Amma.

She snapped out of her daze and searched the room, rifling through the drawers, searching the shelves, even upending a fruit basket. “I can’t find anything that looks right!”

A plum rolled across the floor and knocked against Taemon’s foot. “Keep looking.” He used psi to pull Yens’s hands into a pair of cuffs. But cuffs didn’t do anything to impair psi. They needed the serum for that.

He tried to find the serum with mind wandering, but it didn’t seem to be in the room anywhere, and wandering any farther out would weaken his ability to keep Yens subdued.

Yens tugged harder with psi. Taemon knew he couldn’t keep this up forever.

There was one thing he could try. He sent his mind wandering into Yens’s body. He recalled what the serum had done to him — sent the wrong messages to the brain, confused the nerves — and he worked to do the same things inside Yens’s body.

Yens’s eyes glazed over, and his chin dropped to his chest.

He couldn’t believe that it had worked! Taemon wiped the sweat from his face.

Amma looked at Yens, collapsed on the floor. “Did you kill him?” she whispered.

“No!” Taemon said. “Do you really think I would do that? He’s unconscious, but I don’t know for how long.”

“We should lock the door,” Amma said.

“No, they’ll know how to unlock it.”

“Then we run? Go back to the colony?” Amma looked to him for an answer, but he had none.