Kilenya Series Books One, Two, and Three (88 page)

Jacob felt a pinch on his pant leg. He jerked free.

A moment later, sight suddenly returned. The light from the moon nearly blinded him and he shaded his eyes with his free hand. The edge of the Argots wasn’t far, but Early led him away from it.

“Early! The forest is right there!”

“Ignore it! Obey me!”

He took a deep breath and continued running, following her directions. She’d kept them alive this long and deserved his trust.

Akeno screamed, but Jacob didn’t risk looking back, preparing instead to follow his instincts and jump to safety in a spot between some pink shrubbery and yellow boulders.

“No, Jacob! It’s dangerous there! This way!”

Irritation flooded over him and he growled in frustration, but he continued following her anyway. After a moment, he saw the wisdom in Early’s choice. Several jaws opened in the crevice he’d been running toward, and it quickly became apparent that the Argots exploited the self-preservation instincts of their prey.

Then something else dawned on Jacob as he paid closer attention to Early’s directions. Yes, she took him much farther from the edge of the forest than was comfortable, but she wasn’t choosing the path arbitrarily. She was having him follow the brightest of the faint white lines. And as he watched, he quickly figured out they marked where each Argot started and ended, like boundary lines.

Panting in exhaustion, he said, “Brilliant!” And even though he’d been running for five minutes at least, if not longer, he smiled in excitement. “I see! I see where you’re leading us!”

“Good!” Early cried. “Keep running.”

A new burst of energy slammed into Jacob and he dashed forward, following the biggest of the lines, no longer needing Early’s directions.

“I’m going to warn the Makalos!” she said after making sure Jacob was really going the right way. She disappeared with a flash.

“No! Early!” Akeno screamed. “We need her!”

“It’s fine! I can see where to run!” Jacob dodged some rocks, then jumped around a little tree.

“How?”

“The lines!”

“What lines?”

“Never mind.” Jacob focused on running and skirting obstacles.

The line led him along a haphazard path—taking him in a ridiculous course around bushes and brambles and rocks. The springy ground under his feet continued rumbling and shifting, and except for a couple of times when his pant legs got snagged, he remained clear of the sharp teeth.

Finally, they reached the edge of the forest, and he stumbled to the ground when his feet met solid earth once more. He released Akeno, gasping, trying to catch his breath.

“Jacob? Jacob!” Aloren’s voice called through the megaphone.

Jacob got to his feet and yelled back as loudly as he could, “We’re fine! We made it! We made it!”

He heard faint cheering and grinned. He’d done it!

Early reappeared, reminding Jacob that they still had a mission to accomplish. “They’re waiting!”

“Let’s go! And help us find the door.”

“Yes! Yes!”

The two boys took off at a run, following Early through the forest.

They reached the door and Jacob Keyed them to Taga Village, where the Makalos waited anxiously on the other side.

The sudden increase of sensation nearly knocked Jacob over. The smell of roast beef and potatoes assailed him, and his mouth instantly watered. The light burned his eyes and he covered his face. Ebony shoved Kaede Sap packages into their bags, which, thankfully, hadn’t gotten lost when the boys fell.

“You’re ready,” Ebony said a moment later. “Did you set up a door near the arch?”

“No,” Jacob said. “Akeno can’t see, so he wouldn’t be able to enlarge anything.”

Ebony nodded, then turned to Akeno. “Do you still have your potted plant?”

He shook his head. “I think I lost it when we fell off the board.”

“I’ll get him another one,” Kenji said, stepping into the back room. A moment later he returned, holding a bright blue pot with a scraggly plant in it, around four inches tall.

“Are you sure that’s going to make it through the entire trip?” Jacob asked. “It looks like it’s about to die.”

Ebony chuckled. “It’ll be fine. It’s a type of evergreen—though it doesn’t look it. They’re hardy little things.” She put it in Akeno’s bag.

Jacob nodded, putting his arms through the straps of his backpack. “We’ll send Early later when we’ve finished working on Gallus.”

They said goodbye, then Keyed back to the door and crossed the board with no problems. They dropped to the ground under the arch and Jacob pulled a package out of his backpack, giving it to Akeno to put together.

Jacob got to his knees. “Can we use Gallus’s pant leg instead of the cloth in the package?”

“No,” Akeno said. “It has to be completely clean.”

“Well, we can’t afford to cut his pants.” Jacob carefully inched up to Gallus, making sure not to bump the man. “It’s too cold for him to walk around in shorts. And it’ll be too painful to take them off.”

“Let’s roll up his pant leg as far as it’ll go,” Aloren said. “Then reach up the rest of the way.”

Jacob agreed, and he and Aloren soaked the cloth strips in the mixture while Akeno and Matt readied Gallus. It was oddly comforting, being this near the people he cared for most. His hand brushed against Aloren’s several times and he thought over the kiss she’d given him on the cheek earlier. He sighed—she’d obviously done it as a way to say thanks and nothing more. She wasn’t the type of person to cheat, and he knew she really cared for Kevin.

Jacob turned his thoughts back to the task at hand, finding it required more concentration when he couldn’t see what he was doing.

Within a couple of minutes, Gallus’s knee was covered, and the man’s moans had stopped.

“Thanks, Jacob,” Gallus murmured.

“We need to get you to shelter. It’s too cold for us to be out in the open.”

“Tent. In my bag.”

Jacob pulled the bag out from under Gallus and rummaged through it, trying to figure out what everything was. “Gallus, I don’t know—”

Someone took the bag from him. Either Aloren or Akeno—he couldn’t tell.

“Here,” Aloren said.

Something heavy was placed in Jacob’s hands. “Push this button when you’re ready to open the tent.”

Gallus sighed. “It’s large—you’ll need space.” He took a deep breath. “Put it closer to the fortress than to the Argots.”

Jacob got to his feet and helped everyone move to the other side of Gallus. After they were safely out of the way, Jacob put the folded fabric on the ground, making sure the opening was nearest him. He pushed the button and jumped back.

A
whoosh
rushed through the air, followed by several clicks and the sounds of cloth being tightened quickly. When everything was quiet again, Jacob stepped forward and found the door of the tent.

“Okay. Aloren, you first. We’ll give you the far corner.”

He grabbed her hand, leading her around Gallus, then helped her into the tent. Good—her emotions were visible through the thick material. This meant that others’ emotions would also be visible through the tent, which would come in handy in case they had visitors during the night. Jacob shuddered at the thought.

“Matt, Sweet Pea, Akeno—I’ll need all of you to help me pull Gallus inside.” He guided them to Gallus’s shoulders and feet, then on the count of three, they half lifted, half dragged the nearly unconscious man into the tent.

After she was finished delivering messages, Early said she’d spend the night at the foot of Jacob’s sleeping bag, which was fine with him. He found his sword, pulled it into the tent with him, then closed the flap.

“Aldo said we wouldn’t be bothered by animals, right?” he asked.

Early didn’t respond, and Gallus only sighed. Jacob didn’t press either of them. They both needed sleep after the busy day.

Sometime in the middle of the night, or what Jacob assumed to be the middle of the night, he was awakened by something shuffling outside the tent.

He bolted upright in his sleeping bag and grabbed the tent zipper, holding it down.

The shuffling stopped. Jacob couldn’t see any emotions through the fabric, so whatever it was must not have been intelligent. He didn’t know if this made him feel better or worse.

A moment later, the shuffling started up again and gradually got quieter until it disappeared.

Jacob waited several minutes longer, still holding the zipper. No one else had been disturbed by the sound, so why had it awakened him? He finally snuggled back into his sleeping bag, completely exhausted, but so wired he doubted he’d be able to fall asleep.

Sure enough, after what seemed like an hour of trying, he gave up. He decided to use the opportunity to practice Time-Seeing into August Township. Maybe his ability would allow him to see through the Lorkon traps.

He’d found a while ago that it worked best when he unfocused his eyes and told his body where to go and when. He did that now.

At first, he couldn’t see anything, so he concentrated, ignoring the chest pains that started. It seemed like he was standing near a tall wall, but he couldn’t be sure. A bit of light appeared to the side of him. He focused on that—it looked like the sun was rising. Excited, he turned back to the city, eager for the light to brighten the mass in front of him. But everything was so smudged and incredibly, unnaturally hazy, he couldn’t make out any shapes. Nothing at all. He wasn’t even sure if the mess of rock and wall in front of him was part of the actual city. He frowned, perplexed. Had the Lorkon figured out his ability? Did they do something to make him unable to Time-See? Or were the traps powerful enough that he couldn’t pierce them?

The pain in his chest increased until he couldn’t ignore it anymore, and his body jerked him back to the present like a rubber band.

He fell asleep quickly after that.

Aloren’s voice pulled Jacob out of his dreamless sleep.

“All right, everyone.
Get up
. I’m tired of waiting.” A smile tainted her rushed words, and the emotions surrounding her were impatience and excitement. Jacob also thought he detected a bit of gratitude, then realized she probably didn’t think they’d make it through the night. “It’s morning now,” she said. “Let’s go.”

“How can you tell it’s morning?” The question came from Matt, his usual color of happiness, which was green, was tinged with a slight yellow—suspicion.

“My body says it is. We need to eat and get our things together.”

Matt sighed in exasperation, his green turning to a light pink. “Who died and made
you
queen?”

Jacob laughed, then jerked to a sitting position when the word “died” entered his brain. “Gallus? Are you awake?”

Gallus chuckled, probably at the panic in Jacob’s voice. “I am.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Much better—completely back to normal.”

Jacob breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, good.”

“Yes, I’m pretty relieved myself. Thank you for what you did last night.”

Jacob felt his cheeks flush and he turned to roll up his sleeping bag, nearly forgetting that Gallus couldn’t see his face anyway. He smiled at himself—those habits wouldn’t go away so easily.

He shoved his bag into the largest pocket of his backpack, hearing the others cleaning up as well. His thoughts turned to the upcoming traps. Loss of hearing and loss of touch. How long would the traps last, and would they be all-encompassing?

Jacob decided to voice what was on his mind. “I can’t help but wonder how much losing our sense of touch will affect us. I mean, the more I think about it, the more I realize I depend a lot on what I can feel. I know I’m kneeling now because my shins feel the ground beneath me, and the skin on the back of my knees is pinched. I know what my hands and arms are doing—also thanks to the sense of touch.”

Silence for a moment. The colors swirling around the others changed to an orange-yellow for concern, and for a moment, Jacob felt bad for having brought up something that would potentially worry or depress them. But he recognized it was important to consider these things.

Gallus let out a long breath. “Yes, I’ve been pondering similar points.” His color moved to the tent door, and Jacob backed away. “And I don’t have an answer. The best we can do is be ready for anything. We’ll have to figure things out as they come.” He paused. “Luckily, the sense of hearing will be last to go. We’ll be able to communicate even after we’ve lost the sensation of touch.”