Prime, p.5
Prime, page 5
Back in his native accent, “There is no way someone jumped yer mother.”
“Why not?” Toby said.
“I can’t explain now, but trust me, very few people could attack her and live.”
What?
Dad leaned closer to Chase and said, “There are only two Travel Amulets/”
Chase nodded, “And Raymond has the other.”
The two of them looked at each other, wide-eyed.
“What are you talking about?”
“Not now.”
Toby snorted and walked back into the waiting room. Let them have their little secret code and stupid stuff.
He pictured his mother lying on the kitchen floor. His eyes burned again.
“Hey,” said a voice next to him.
Toby looked up and jumped to his feet. “What...”
Raymond was looking at Dad and Chase.
Toby hissed. “Get out of here!”
Dad and Chase greeted Raymond like a family friend. The three of them sat together and started talking in hushed tones.
Toby stood, mouth agape. If they thought he would sit with that piece of filth, especially today-
“Toby, sit down,” Dad said.
“But...”
“Sit - down.”
The three of them started their hushed tones again.
Toby chose a chair across the room. The three of them were nodding and mumbling.
Raymond reached his stubby fingers into his pocket and pulled out a small, cross-shaped, pendant-looking thing, about the size of a dollar coin with a sparkling yellow stone in the center.
“Lela and Father had it this morning,” Raymond said. “They are trying to make another.”
“Success?” Dad asked.
Raymond shook his head. “What happened?”
A few minutes later, a doctor came in and spoke about too many words, but Toby understood one: ‘stable.’
They sat in silence for a moment.
Dad said, “Toby, call the Prime.”
“What?”
“Quickly.”
Toby’s mind was blank.
“Now.”
Toby sat back. His thoughts came in clusters, flying so fast he only perceived a part of each one. He thought about Mom, school, Raymond.
“Concentrate.”
Toby closed his eyes and shook his head. He thought of the Amulet, the warmth, the heft, the flash of the stones, and he wondered how to call...
His pocket grew heavy.
Eyes wide, he reached-.
Dad grabbed his arm, “Leave it.”
Dad and Chase stood up and walked toward the door. The three walked through the hospital with Chase bringing up the rear. Toby looked around to see if Raymond was joining them. “Where’s Raymond?”
“Keep walking.”
Mind a blur. Nothing made sense, but too many things fit together.
Now in the car, Dad said, “Raymond shifted back to Dúnbarnaugh. Sorry to keep snapping at ye like that.”
Dad pulled out of the parking lot and into traffic, and they rode toward home in silence; Toby looked out the window, more confused than ever. At some point, he realized Dad and Chase were talking.
Dad asked Chase, “Did she say anything?”
“Her attacker wore a mask and used a sword. Mom could barely speak, but the attacker demanded the Prime.”
Toby felt his chest freeze. His hand slipped into his pocket and gripped the warmth. “They attacked Mom because of this?”
Chase said to Dad, “You think the One is here?”
Dad shook his head. “He’d leave charred husks everywhere.”
“What are you talking about?”
Dad said to Chase, “You ever heard of another travel amulet?”
Chase shook his head.
“That thing Raymond had?”
Dad nodded.
“How many amulets are there?”
“Several.”
Toby tried to absorb this nightmare.
“Raymond’s amulet, well, it isn’t his. It comes with the job. The Prime is also a travel amulet, but with many other functions.”
Toby nodded, but it was all far too much, way too fast.
Dad continued, “With a travel amulet, people can shift between dimensions or in the same dimension.”
“I can shift here?”
“Stop!” said Dad and Chase.
“What?”
“Be careful,” Chase said.
Dad looked at Toby through the rearview. “If ye think about someplace in the right way, ye will go there.”
Toby edited the Grand Canyon from his mind.
“I know ye have questions, but ye need to know about the One.”
Toby’s mind grew quiet.
“I don’t have time to tell everything. We have conflicting stories and someone stole or burned all the important books. There was a king to the north. He tried to make an amulet, maybe another Prime, but something went wrong, making him evil. Grotesque.”
Dad stopped for a second. “It calls itself the One. It attacked over two centuries ago, killed their Teacher, Keeper, and King. It nearly destroyed everything, and the last Messenger, yer multi-great grandfather Tobias, sacrificed himself to stop it.”
So that’s why Lela and Teacher acted so weird about his name. “Lela said something about the One attacking every night.”
“Those blasts you heard the first night.”
“When Tobias sacrificed himself,” Chase said, “he created the Barrier. The One can’t cross it or destroy it, so he attacks every night.”
“For two centuries?”
Dad stopped the car for a red light and sat perfectly straight. After a moment, he casually adjusted the rearview mirror.
Toby turned around when Dad said, “Don’t.”
Toby froze in his seat, but his gaze darted back and forth.
“What is it?”
“Unmarked police car,” Chase said. He looked off to the right like everything was so cool.
The traffic light turned green, and as always, Dad gently sped up to his usual four mph below the posted speed limit.
Neither Dad nor Chase acted differently nor looked scared, but Toby could smell fear.
The police car passed, and the tension melted.
“How did you know?” Toby asked his brother.
“The driver looked around like a hunter. You need to learn how to look relaxed.”
Has it always been this way?
They rolled past the once ordinary scenery: houses, a strip mall, a bank, a couple of service stations. People doing everyday things, all blissfully unaware...
“Do ye have questions?” Dad asked.
Millions, but Toby didn’t know where to start.
“Can many people,” he searched for the right word, “hear it?”
“No.”
“Can you?”
They both gave a slight nod.
“Now?”
They nodded.
“Must be weird.”
Neither answered. Chase’s sullen expression grew darker.
“A few can create a small beam,” Dad said. “My first try was weak, but Chase nearly put his Tester in the hospital.”
“Raymond?”
Dad said no. Chase clenched his teeth.
“Did I say something wrong?”
Dad shook his head.
Chase looked out the window.
“Ye will go to Dúnbarnaugh,” Dad said, “and start several months of training.”
Training? “Wait. Months?”
“Yes.”
“What about school?”
“Don’t worry about that.”
“I don’t graduate?”
“Don’t worry about that now.”
“Okay. What happens next?”
“Ye will take many tests, but three are most important. If you pass, you will be Messenger.”
“Which means?”
“Many things, but ye will use the Orb to receive messages.”
He remembered that golden floating ball with lethal-looking blades.
“Messages? Who sends the messages?”
Dad turned a corner and drove into their subdivision. “No one knows.”
“What do you know?”
“I know this is all new, but watch the tone.”
“What are the three tests?”
Dad and Chase shared a look.
“We can’t say,” Chase said. “Yours might be different, and ye don’t talk about the tests with anyone. Ever.”
Dad pulled into their driveway. “I think that’s enough for one night. Teacher will explain the rest.”
A small strip of crime scene tape hung from the garage door frame. Toby could see more of the yellow stuff hanging out of the garage.
That police officer came out of the garage.
Were they caught already?
Dad dropped back into the character of ‘ordinary man with sick wife.’
He shook the officer’s hand.
Toby did his best to look like a worried kid, not the son of fugitives wanted on two planets.
“We’re just finishing up,” said the officer, and he went back inside.
Dad turned around, “Toby, if yer mother isn’t safe here, no one is.” Dad took a moment; his eyes never wavered. “Ye have to go. Now.”
4
What? “But Mom’s-”
“Ye must go.”
“I can’t leave now.
“It’s decided.”
“But-”
Toby had plenty to say, but the officer came out, followed by a crew of two men and a woman in plastic coveralls, gloves, and shoe covers.
“Hope your wife will be okay,” said the officer.
“Thank you.”
Dad entered the kitchen. Blood on the floor. Gouges in the sheetrock. Red fingerprint dust on every knob and surface.
Dad walked past all that, up the stairs and into Toby’s room. He dumped out Toby’s school backpack. A book bounced on the bed; papers fluttered to the floor.
“Hey.”
“You won’t need that stuff.”
Dad started stuffing clothes into the bag.
“Wait.”
Dad kept packing.
“You have a criminal record. They’ll find you escaped.”
Dad shook his head. “The fingerprints on file are not mine.”
“How?”
“I don’t have time to explain everything.”
“Please?”
He sighed. “I discovered we are not the only people here from Conaeron. I found a man with connections, and, for a lot of money, he made my fingerprints go away.”
“He’s a criminal.”
His jaw muscled clenched several times. “Time to go.”
Chase limped up the hall.
Toby pointed at his brother. “How can you want me to go after what happened to Chase?”
“Now, son.”
“Answer me.”
“Ye have to trust me.”
Toby locked eyes with his father, whose eyes were welling up.
Toby wanted to scream.
Dad said, “If the Prime is here, the attackers will come back. Without yer mother here, we will die.”
“Then I should stay.”
“You’d be dead in seconds. If the Prime is in Dúnbarnaugh, they will leave us alone.”
“How do you know that?”
Dad handed Toby his book bag. “I don’t.”
“Dad.”
“Time to go.”
Toby searched his father’s face, looking for some weakness in his resolve.
“Now.”
He pulled the Amulet out of his pocket. “How do I make this–thing–work?”
Chase stared at the Amulet again.
Dad handed Toby a chain that looked like the same metal as the Amulet. “This might make it easier.”
Dad slipped the Prime on the chain.
“There is no clasp,” Toby said.
“Put the chain around yer neck and touch the ends together.”
Toby did, and the chain became continuous.
Dad breathed a sigh of relief.
“What?”
“If the chain hadn’t closed, ye don’t test. If it ever opens, yer done.”
Toby wanted to ask why they hadn’t done that first, but he was reeling.
Dad said, “To shift, focus your thoughts on the diamond.”
“Diamond?”
Dad pointed at the green, blue, red, and yellow stones. “Emerald, Sapphire, Ruby, Diamond. We’re told the base is part alloy, part amalgam, of several metals laid down in harder and softer layers. Feels warm, right?”
“Yeah.”
“It always does.
“Why?”
“No one knows. Concentrate on the diamond and think of the place ye want to be.”
“That’s it?”
“Be specific. When and where ye want to land? Picture the place like a photograph in yer mind, so ye don’t materialize into the middle of something.”
“That sounds painful.”
Chase rubbed that weird oval scar on his left arm.
“Ye also don’t want two of ye in the same dimension at the same time.”
“Why?”
“The last guy died, and no, we don’t know why.”
“If this amulet is so important, and that stupid bird wants it, why did I find it in a mud puddle?”
“I put it there,” said Dad.
Toby waited for some explanation.
“It can’t be a gift,” Chase said. “Only proper candidates will hear the Call and seek it out. I messed with your alarm clock so you’d missed the bus.”
Dad said, “I placed the Amulet at the construction site before ye arrived, and I waited to make sure nothing else came along.”
“Like that stupid bird?”
Dad only nodded.
“You saw it come after me?”
“I couldn’t intervene. If ye can’t protect the Amulet from a bird, ye shouldn’t test for Messenger.”
“I don’t want to test at all.”
Dad’s expression didn’t budge.
“What if the bird stole it?”
“I would have called it back, like ye did at the hospital.”
Toby looked at the Amulet, and he found another question. “If I need the Amulet to travel–”
“It’s called shifting, and when ye get there, ye will notice some changes. Anything synthetic either won’t shift or gets changed.”
“Changed into what?”
“Well,” he picked up the book bag, “this nylon will be cloth or leather.”
“Anything else?”
“Ye’ll see. Ye landed in the room with lots of weapons. It’s the Keeper’s Room.”
“Okay.”
“Ye were born there.”
Confused again.
“Lela is Keeper of Arms. That room is the Keeper’s room in Dúnbarnaugh Castle. Yer mother was Keeper, went into labor, thought she had some time, and ye were in a hurry.”
Toby tried not to imagine too much else.
“Being Keeper means what again?”
“She graduated from the Keeper’s school, became one of the top troopers, and earned the Tri-knot.”
“What’s that?”
“Kind of like a Ranger patch in the Army. When the current Keeper dies or retires, they tap the top five Tri-knots to compete. The Keeper commands the Keeper’s Guard, goes on missions and trains Messenger Candidates.”
“Train for what?”
“Battle.”
“Mom is a warrior?”
“One of the very best.”
“When I shot Raymond, I had terrible chest pains.”
“It’s part of the red and blue beams. We don’t know why.”
“The first time Raymond... tested me, I had chest pain then, too.”
“He had the Prime in his pocket.”
The three grew quiet.
“Time to go.”
“But-”
He shook his head. “Now. Yer mother is even more vulnerable now.”
Toby nodded. Get this over with, come home, and get back to normal.
Normal. What did that even mean?
“Be careful.” Dad hugged Toby for the first time in many years.
Toby surprised himself as he hugged back. He felt his eyes grow warm but quickly thought of other things.
“Good luck,” Chase said and shook his hand.
Toby nodded to his brother, picked up his bag, and concentrated on the one place he knew the best. He put his hand to the Amulet, focused on the diamond, and closed his eyes.
The image of Lela’s room; him standing by the big chair, candles, and tapestry. Night.
Wait. Was it day or night the last time?
Day time.
He focused.
Nothing happened.
“Don’t hold your breath,” Chase said.
He peeked at the Amulet and wondered what...
V
Just like in the dream, Toby felt like something squeezed his guts through a keyhole.
The room spun. Threw up a little.
Clammy.
Needed to sit.
As his heart rate seemed to pick up, his brain picked up details, like the sun shining and the icy wind pushing past the large tapestry.
He wore that scratchy fabric he remembered from the dream.
Not a dream.
He stood, and the breeches attacked an inconvenient spot.
He adjusted the fabric away from this vulnerable anatomy and took stock: his tee-shirt was now a long-sleeved tunic made of something like burlap. Jeans were now long braies, socks were stockings, and running shoes were hobnail boots.
An icy wind came around the tapestry covering the window, so he pulled on the musty cloak on the chair.
The book bag, now tanned leather, smelled like shoe polish, and creaked when he put it down.
“Hallo, Tobias,” said Lela.
He continued staring at the chestnut brown leather. “Oh, sorry. Good... is it morning?”
“Aye, and I can assume yer stayin’ this time?” Her eye glanced down at the bag.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Do not call me ma’am.” She turned back to the table and started sharpening the point of an arrow.
He picked up his bag and looked for the zipper, but found a series of leather strips tanned into soft strands.
Once untied, he looked to see what else survived the trip.
A note for Teacher Sklavos from Dad and a message for Lela from Chase, both on yellow parchment.
