Kilenya Series Books One, Two, and Three (45 page)

Jacob laughed. “And not like Sammy? Boy, what would she say if she found out you value football over her?”

Matt flushed. “Oh, she already knows. I mean . . . uh . . . she has to. I, uh. It’s all I talk about.”

Jacob snorted. “Whatever,” he said, smiling. “I still don’t smell anything here.”

They continued forward, approaching the man Jacob and Akeno had seen over a week before—still staring vacantly off into the distance, a smile on his lips.

“That’s all sorts of wrong,” Matt said. “You said they didn’t respond when you touched them?”

“Well, the one guy did sort of answer, but he didn’t seem to care that I’d poked him.”

“Hmmm . . . I’m going to take a look around.” Matt wandered off and Jacob turned to Akeno, about to say something when a weird feeling—like they were being watched—came over him.

“Can you feel that?” He didn’t wait for Akeno’s response, but turned to the forest. “Something’s in the trees.”

Fear crossed Akeno’s face and he started shaking. “What? What is it? A Lorkon? Please, oh, please no!”

“I hope not . . .” Jacob crouched and ran to a large tree near the edge of the scented air. He stared intently at the forest twenty feet away.

“See anything?”

“No—wait—there.” He pointed.

“I see it!”

Dismay hit Jacob. “A Dust. Great.”

There was a flash of blue eyes and a bright blue cloak, then the creature disappeared from view.

Akeno grabbed Jacob’s arm, a huge smile spreading across his face as he stared into the forest. “Whoa!”

“Now it’s going to alert the Lorkon,” Jacob said. “We’d better get out of here.”

Akeno looked at Jacob. “That wasn’t a Dust! It was a Wurby!”

Jacob tilted his head. “Are you sure?”

“Positive! How awesome! I just saw a Wurby!” Akeno turned back to the forest, probably trying to catch another glimpse of the Wurby.

“I don’t know, Akeno. I mean, you could be wrong.”

“You saw the blue robes, right? And the blue eyes? Only Wurbies have eyes like that.”

Jacob turned to Akeno. “But couldn’t a Dust be dressed like a Wurby
and
have blue eyes?”

Akeno shook his head. “If a Wurby turns evil, his eyes go dark. If a Dust turns good, his eyes become blue. That’s just how their species works. And there’s no way a Dust would wear blue. It’s like you wearing something with the Nazi Swastika on it.” Akeno turned back to the forest. “I can’t
believe
we just saw a Wurby! How lucky!”

“I don’t understand why this is so exciting.”

“Gallus told my parents that all the Wurbies had been hunted down and killed. A Wurby hasn’t been seen here since around the time Dmitri—well, since the Makalos hid in Taga.” He turned back to Jacob. “This means they’re not all gone like we’d thought. Which also means they’d be able to help us.”

“We need all the help we can get.” Jacob sighed. “We’ve got work to do for now. We should still keep our eyes open for Dusts and the Lorkon, just in case.”

He ran his hand through his hair, then turned toward the people in the scented air. A grin spread across his face when he saw what Matt had done. What he was
still
doing. Jacob couldn’t help but laugh even as he yelled, “Knock it off, Matt!”

Matt had gone around and rearranged the positions of many of the people.

The man closest to Jacob now looked like he was about to dive into a pool. A woman near him had her nose plugged and one arm stretched straight above her, fingers forming the “peace” sign. Another man stood like he was holding a rifle, his shoulders scrunched up, head slightly tilted as if looking down a barrel, which would’ve been pointing at a person not far away, if the gun existed. That person’s hands were in the air, surrendering. The only thing that hadn’t changed was their odd smiles—but that just added to the hilarity of the situation.

Jacob jogged toward Matt, laughing. “I’m serious! Stop!”

“Just one more? Please?” Matt jumped to a man, pulled his hands out, and made it look like he was dancing the Macarena.

Jacob laughed again, finally catching up to Matt, and dragged him away. “They’re alive—what if you’re hurting them? And what if they remember? You need to have more respect for people!”

Matt wiped laughter tears from his face. “Oh, come on. There’s no way they’ll remember this.”

Jacob shook his head, then turned to gaze at the people, allowing another smile to cross his features. “Well, it
is
funny.”

“I know! It’s awesome!” Matt wiped his hands on his pants. “But some of them are pretty sweaty.”

“That’s because it’s summer here.”

“Oh, really?” Matt said with sarcasm. “I didn’t notice.”

“Okay, okay,” Akeno said. “Let’s get started.”

They decided it would be easiest if they stuck together, going through the people. Whenever they found someone wearing ragged clothes, Akeno would stay in that spot, like a bookmark to show where they left off, while Matt and Jacob pulled the person to Sweet Pea.

The first person they found, a man with long, scraggly, dirty hair, looked like this was the first happiness he’d experienced in a long while. Jacob almost regretted having to wake him up.

After trying to get the man to walk, the brothers finally each grabbed one arm and dragged him backward through the people. The man’s arms and legs started jerking as the scented air thinned. When they reached Sweet Pea, the straggler steadied himself. The vacant smile remained on his face, and he didn’t respond when they spoke to him. But Sweet Pea was able to lead him along the path toward the Fat Lady’s house. Jacob and Matt returned to Akeno, continuing the process.

After nearly an hour, they’d only managed to get three people out. The first man proved to be the easiest—he’d been fairly small, and his clothing wasn’t heavy.

Matt almost dropped one woman in disgust when she drooled on his arm.

“How are we supposed to get everyone?” he asked while they took a break.

Jacob wiped sweat off his face. “Don’t know. Doesn’t seem possible.”

Just then Early zoomed to Jacob’s side with a message. “Kenji says ‘Hi!’” she said, doing a flip and waving at Matt, who grunted in response.

“That’s all?” Jacob asked. He found it hard to believe Kenji would send a Minya just to say hi.

“Um . . . no. I didn’t hear the rest of his message.” She disappeared, then reappeared a moment later. “He’s also afraid Lirone might be coming ‘cause the storm is getting darker. You have time to get one more person, and then you need to return to the Fat Lady’s cabin.”

Matt scrambled to his feet when he saw the expressions on Jacob and Akeno’s faces. “Who’s Lirone? Sounds bad.”

Jacob only nodded. There wasn’t time to explain.

They hurried to find the next person—a teenager, maybe seventeen years old—and pulled him toward Sweet Pea, urgency in their steps this time. Jacob had no desire to deal with Lirone again. Luckily, the teenager wasn’t difficult to haul off—he was shorter than Jacob by a couple of inches, and couldn’t have weighed more than 110 pounds. It was a wonder the kid was even alive, he was so skinny.

The brothers and Akeno reached Sweet Pea, who followed them to Gallus and then Kenji, who was with the Fat Lady. Kenji dumped a bucket of water over the teen’s face. He didn’t sputter or try to wipe it off, but moaned, the smile disappearing.

“How long does it take?” Jacob asked.

“Oh, about five minutes,” Kenji said. “But that’s only until the light comes back into their eyes. The first man you brought to us still hasn’t spoken, and it’s been over an hour.”

The teenager looked around, confused, and moaned again, slipping to the ground where Kenji let him stay.

“The Fat Lady thinks the length of time they spent in the scented air will affect how long it takes them to come out of the trance.”

“Makes sense,” Jacob said. “Now what?”

“We take them to Taga Village.”

Jacob followed Gallus and Kenji inside as they pulled the teenager up the two steps to the Fat Lady’s cabin. He Keyed to the tree in the village, leaving the door open, then turned to help drag the people through the door. It took them a couple of minutes—the woman was the most alert, but she didn’t want to be touched, and swatted at anyone who got close. Luckily the Fat Lady was there. Either the woman felt better about having another woman help her, or she was so scared by the Fat Lady that she was frightened into submission.

Ebony had cleared the shelves, tables, and chairs out of the way in the tree and laid blankets on the floor. Kenji had decided it would be too difficult to carry everyone upstairs to the third floor where the beds were located.

“Only four?” she asked.

“Yeah, and those four were dang hard to get!” Matt said.

Gallus laid the teenager on one of the blankets, then straightened, wiping his brow. “Next time, why don’t we completely skip taking the people into the Fat Lady’s place and just leave her door open, linking to the village?”

“Yes, let’s try that,” Kenji said. “Anything to skip a step or two would be good. If we keep our eyes open for the Lorkon and their . . . their
employees
, it shouldn’t be a problem. We don’t want anyone gaining access to Taga Village.”

Ebony handed out glasses of water once everything was arranged, and the group sat at the table, discussing the events of the day. Jacob mentioned that he and Akeno had seen a Wurby.

Kenji frowned. “That’s not possible—Wurbies are extinct.”

Gallus shook his head. “A few have been spotted recently. I’m not sure why, but I think it has something to do with . . .” He glanced at Jacob. “The Lorkon aren’t the only ones who know about
him
, you know.”

Jacob perked up. “What do you mean? Who else knows about me?”

Sweet Pea shook his head. “Who
doesn’t
know about you? Practically everyone on this planet has heard of you since they were born.”

“That’s what Akeno told me the other day. Why, though?”

Sweet Pea looked to the adults in the room, and Jacob did the same.

Kenji folded his arms. “Things will all make sense soon enough, Jacob. It’s not our story to tell, and the person who knows it isn’t here right now.” He leaned forward. “How is your journal reading going?”

“Fine. I just got it from my teacher.”

Sweet Pea put his cup down and stretched. “All right, how about we start your training?”

“Now?” Jacob asked. “We just got back. And I’m exhausted!” Not to mention the conversation was really interesting right then.

“Oh, come on. Don’t be a wimp.” Sweet Pea got up and jumped back and forth in front of Jacob, playfully trying to punch him.

Jacob whacked the Makalo’s hands away. “Stop that.”

Sweet Pea turned to Kenji. “Where should we practice?”

“How about in the meadow? There’s plen—”

“No!” Jacob said, then blushed when everyone looked at him. “Can we please go somewhere more . . . private?” This was going to be hard enough without every single Makalo turning his lessons into a spectator sport.

“Well, I suppose you could probably use the fourth floor of this tree—there’s nothing up there but the telescope. Just move it aside.”

“We’ll do it,” Jacob said, not waiting to see what Sweet Pea would say.

Sweet Pea laughed, shaking his head. “Whatever, Human Boy. We’ll teach you not to be ashamed of your abilities.”

Jacob Keyed home to change his clothes and drop Matt off so Matt could hang out with Sammy.

Back in the tree, Sweet Pea had Jacob face him, then he showed him a few defensive moves. They practiced those moves for almost an hour—over and over again until Jacob was sure he’d have permanent bruises on his arms and wrists. He couldn’t seem to get one of them right, and they practiced that one the longest.

Finally, when Jacob was sure his body couldn’t take anymore, Sweet Pea called it quits.

“Where’d you learn all this?” Jacob asked, panting, hands on knees.

Sweet Pea chuckled. “Ebony, actually.”

Jacob straightened, shocked. “What? Are you serious?”

“Stretch out—I don’t want you whining because you’re sore.” Sweet Pea bent to touch his toes. Jacob was surprised the Makalo could actually reach them. “She’s an amazing fighter—that was her specialty. And sneaking around.”

“Wow. I never would’ve guessed it.”

“She didn’t want you to feel uncomfortable, so she had me do the teaching.”

Jacob shook his head. “And here I thought Makalos were helpless, physically.”

“We are—well, the older generation is, at least. Except Ebony. She joined the original group at the age of ten, so she’s much younger than everyone, including Kenji.”

“But if Ebony could’ve trained me herself, why didn’t
she
go get the Key?”

“Well, duh. She has people here who need her. Like a baby. Plus, you’re the hero now—you’re the one ‘destiny,’ or whatever you want to call it, chose.”

They finished stretching, and Jacob Keyed home.