by Travis Pond
Seth moved to the doorway again and slid the blanket just enough to let in some light. They looked around the room where they had been sitting the past hour. There were papers strewn about the floor and several stacks of crates along one wall. In the far corner of the room was a pile of something. Tureis moved over and examined the pile. “It’s bits of fabric and blankets,” he said.
“Anything we can use to hide our faces?” Seth asked.
“Hold on….I’m looking,” said Tureis.
Tureis held up a two small brightly colored blankets. Seth took the larger of the blankets and loosely rolled it up lengthwise. He placed it behind his neck and wrapped it under his arms. Then he pulled the middle of the blanket over his shoulders and fashioned a sort of hood. He pulled the hood up and draped it over his forehead covering his eyes.
Tureis took the other blanket and tucked it into the back of his shirt. He then removed one corner and pulled it over his head, again covering his eyes. “Just keep looking down,” said Tureis. “Hopefully we won’t be recognized.”
Cautiously, they made their way out of the room and into the alley. Looking up and down the alley they saw no one. “How do we get out of here?” Seth asked with just a hint of fear in his voice.
Again, Tureis reached into the small inner pocket and held the sphere. As he did so, warmth enveloped his hand and a path opened up in is mind. He could clearly see the direction they needed to go to get back to the road leading to Darish.
“Through that door,” said Tureis.
“What door?” Seth asked a little apprehensively.
Tureis pointed and said, “That door straight ahead of us. The one leading into the back of that store.”
“Do you know what store that is?” asked Seth still a little skeptical.
“No,” said Tureis matter of factly.
“Then how do you know we can get through?”
Tureis thought about this question for a second and shook his head. This really wasn’t the time or the place to explain how he knew where to go or what to do. At some point he would have to tell Seth about the sphere and what it could do, but for now, they just needed to get going.
“I just have a feeling about that door,” said Tureis, hoping that would be enough to get them moving.
Just then, someone came out of one of the buildings. They turned, ready to run, when they saw a young girl wearing a blanket around her shoulders, coming out of a door a short distance up the alley. When she saw them she stood there frozen and stared at them. Before the young girl could sound an alarm, Tureis grabbed Seth by the arm and pulled him toward the door. “Come on. Let’s go,” he said.
They went through the unlocked door and entered the store. It was empty. Nothing but a few wooden crates and some garbage on the floor. An old broom stood against the wall close to the front door.
They walked over to the front door and turned the knob. It opened easily. Quietly cracking open the door, Seth looked both ways and saw a lot of people just milling around. The shops were all closing up for the night and people were heading for home. Everyone seemed preoccupied, hurrying to and fro, hoping to get home before dark.
Tureis pulled Seth back into the room. With his hand in his pocket, Tureis looked directly at Seth and said, “After we exit the door we need to go left up the street. At the end of the street is the town square. The road back to Darish is the road to the right as we enter the square.” Seth nodded his understanding.
Quickly, they slid through the door and closed it behind them. They both pulled their makeshift hoods over their heads and lowered their gaze to the street. They walked up the street, into the town square and turned right onto the road to Darish. No one even looked in their direction.
Nearly two hours later they ducked into the small empty yard behind the bookstore. Since the bookstore was located on a street corner, the backs of the other stores were all connected, creating a small empty yard. There was a narrow alley between two shops that led to the empty yard from the street. Rarely did anyone ever enter the yard, so Seth and Tureis had staked their claim and called it their own.
The yard was small, about fifteen feet wide and twenty feet long, and contained hard packed dirt and some old wooden crates tipped up on end that were used to sit on. Tureis had the crates and an old broken table set up in the corner, against the back wall to the bookshop. They both sat down very heavily. Seth asked, “What did you take from that shop?”
“It’s a book about objects of power, and I didn’t mean to take it,” Tureis replied, defensively. “I really don’t know how it ended up in my pocket.”
Tureis removed the book from his pocket and rubbed his hand across the leather cover. It was a small book, about as large as a man’s hand, and it had a very ornate hard leather cover. Tureis opened the book and scanned some of the pages. “ I can’t wait to sit and read this book,” he said with a little anticipation in his voice.
Tureis had been looking for information about his silver sphere. He wanted to know what it was and what it could do. So far, in all his reading, he had never found a single mention of a silver sphere in any book. He really hoped this book would have the information he wanted.
He closed the book and laid it on the table. Pointing at Seth’s bulging pocket he said, “After you turned over the table, I saw you holding something in your hands as we ran out of the store.”
Seth chuckled, “Yeah. I wanted to get his attention onto me so you would be able to run.”
“So what did you take?” asked Tureis.
Seth reached into his pocket and placed a six inch carved wooden statue of a frog standing on what looked like an oversized lily pad onto the table. The frog was standing on his rear legs and looking up toward the sky.
Tureis laughed, “A frog?”
“Yep...a frog,” Seth said with a big grin.
“What are you going to do with it?” asked Tureis.
Seth shrugged his shoulders and said, “Nothing. I don’t want it. I just figured if I distracted the guy you could escape. That guy was coming at you pretty fast. I figured if I took something he would be more likely to follow me instead.”
“Well it worked and we both got out. Thanks for the fast thinking, it saved us from being caught,” Tureis replied. He held up the frog, examining it closely and asked, “Do you mind if I take it?”
“No, go ahead,” said Seth.
Tureis lifted the carved frog up to his eyes to see the details more clearly. As he looked closer he could swear the frog was laughing. Tureis sighed and let his smile fade as he set the frog down on the book. “You know what this makes us Seth?” he asked.
“What?”
Tureis stared at the book, ran a finger down the hard leather spine and whispered, “Thieves.”
Chapter 2
- Remembering -
As he approached the large bush standing as sentinel in front of the slot canyon, Tureis looked over his shoulder, making sure he was alone. Seeing no one, he carefully made his way around the right side of the bush, under the ledge and into the slot canyon. He arrived at the two large pine trees growing out of the rock face and went around the left side onto the rocks. From here he gained access to the rock pathway and ascended up the path to the cave entrance.
He entered the cave and lit the small oil lamp he kept inside and walked to the back of the room. He had just come from Freb with Seth and it was late. He was very tired but he wanted to visit the cave before heading home.
Occasionally, his father would stay at the castle while working in the royal vaults. This week his father was working in the vaults, so he was home alone. He could stay here all night or even all week if he wanted. It wasn’t uncommon for Tureis to stay in the cave for days when his father left. This cave was the one place he felt the safest. No one knew about the cave, and when h
e was here, he didn’t worry anyone would find him.
He set the lamp down on a small table. In the four years since he’d found the cave, he’d brought in some furnishings to make it more comfortable. In the corner of the room was a small table with two chairs. Against the far wall was a small bed. A couple of old wooden crates sitting up longways and stacked on top of each other sat under the stone shelf along the adjacent wall. These crates held his book collection, along with other trinkets and things. Tureis didn’t have many books, about a half dozen in total, but he’d read them many times and knew every detail contained in their pages.
Tureis sat down on a chair and placed his new book on the table. The book was small, about four inches wide and six inches tall and contained about fifty thick pages. The cover was very ornate and the binding was made of hard leather. The title of the book was simple; it just said “Objects.” This was common with these types of books. The titles were often simple words or odd phrases, designed to steer people whose power hadn’t been awakened away from the books. But to those who had experienced an awakening of their power, the books had an energy about them that could be felt. No matter where Tureis journeyed, these books seemed to call to him.
He rubbed the binding of the book, feeling the power it contained and smiled. He looked around the cave remembering four years ago when his own power had been awakened. Since then, Tureis had read many books about the power and what had happened to him. The more he learned, the more he wanted to know.
The power, Tureis had learned, was called the Matya. Through his study, he’d learned that Matya meant divine energy in an ancient language. The Matya was a power that every person possessed from birth and at a given time between the ages of twelve and sixteen could be awakened and become active. After the age of sixteen it was rare for a person to have their Matya awakened.
He had often wondered why his Matya was awakened when he was only eight years old. After all the study he’d done, he’d never come across an account of a person whose Matya had been awakened at such a young age. Since that day he’d felt driven to learn all he could about the Matya. He’d read and reread countless books, increasing his knowledge of this divine power. The Matya was present in everyone at birth, but the power lied dormant waiting to be awakened and set free.
There were some who accepted the Matya but had no desire to have it awakened. There were a few that felt drawn to it and hoped it would awaken inside them. But there were many that feared the Matya and the power and strength it could give a person. In their minds everyone who possessed the Matya was evil and would use their power to enslave others. There were still others that chose to ignore it and pretend it didn’t exist, hoping by not recognizing it, that it would fade away into nothing more than stories and folklore.
The power of the Matya was directly linked to a person’s knowledge of it and their willingness to use it. A person could use it to help oneself in a variety of situations, but the real power became evident when a person used the Matya to help others. The opposite was also true; if a person had their Matya awakened and they chose to hide it, never using it, the power would go dormant. Once this happened the person would not be able to reawaken it without significant effort.
As he opened the book and looked at the pages, Tureis saw that many of the pages contained pictures of objects. Under the pictures, things were written explaining the different objects and the powers they were supposed to possess. Objects of power existed when people transferred portions of their Matya into the object. The person gave the object specific powers they desired the object to possess and the objects were limited to only the powers they were given.
He scanned through the book, perusing the pictures hoping to find the sphere he carried in his pocket. He’d been searching a long time for any reference to the sphere he carried but so far he hadn’t found a single piece of information. He’d figured out some of the powers it contained on his own, but he really wanted to know everything it could do.
The first section of the book discussed various metals and the properties that were best for making objects of power. It was interesting for him to learn that pure silver is the best metal to use for an object of power. The high quality of the metal will store the Matya indefinitely.
After searching the remainder of the book unsuccessfully, he closed it and sighed in disappointment. He got up and walked over to the stone shelf and placed the sphere in the center.
Also on the shelf, to the left of the sphere, sat a battle helmet from the King’s Guard with the left side nearly crushed. Next to the helmet sat a woman’s hair pin that was bent in the middle and next to that was one half of a wooden cup. On the floor, under the shelf, sat a large coil of rope. Tureis took the statue of the frog out of his pocket and placed it on the shelf next to the wooden cup.
He displayed these seemingly random things to help him remember times when he had used his Matya. Each object reminded Tureis of an experience, a time of learning, when he’d used the power inside him. His eyes lingered on the carved wooden frog obtained in Freb today. The thought of this object brought disappointment into his heart as he thought how he had dishonored his family when he’d stolen the book. He knew he needed to make this right, but had no idea how he would be able to do it. Silently he promised himself that someday he would repay the store owner for the book and make things right.
Tureis sat back down at the table, and ran his hands over the cover of the book. He slid the book aside and noticed two halves of a broken arrow lying in the middle of the table. He picked up the pieces of the broken arrow, and remembered.
It was last summer. Early one morning Tureis was walking down the road on his way to the center of town to do some shopping for his father. As he walked down the road this particular day, he heard some happy voices across the road in a field. Two young boys about eight years old were laughing and playing.
As he rounded the corner and saw the boys, he realized they weren’t playing, but were actually hunting rabbits. He stopped at the roadside and watched. Each boy had a small long bow with an arrow in place ready to shoot. They were slowly walking through the field about ten feet apart, trying to flush the rabbits from their hiding places.
As the rabbits would bolt from their places of cover, the boys would scream and shoot their arrows. Often the arrows would hit a bush or a tree and both boys would laugh. The best shot came at the rabbit that wasn’t a rabbit at all. Thinking he saw a rabbit, one of the boys carefully took aim and let his arrow fly. The arrow hit its target, a large rock, square in the middle and the arrow shattered. Their laughter was uncontrolled as they rolled in grass.
After a minute the first boy got up and retrieved his bow and arrow. The second boy was sitting on his knees facing away. As the first boy placed his arrow in the string and turned around he saw a rabbit nibbling on some grass about twenty feet away. Slowly, he pulled back his arrow taking aim and preparing to shoot.
Tureis continued to watch and saw that the boy was pointing the arrow directly at the rabbit. Suddenly he realized that the second boy was sitting just past the rabbit. If the first boy missed the rabbit, the arrow would likely hit the other boy.
“Stop!” Tureis shouted. They didn’t hear the shouted warning and the first boy continued drawing back the bow.
Tureis ran toward the boys and at the same time wondered what he could do. He was still too far away to physically stop the boy and they didn’t seem to hear his shouting. He could feel the disaster about to happen. If he did nothing this boy would shoot his best friend.
Then he remembered something he had read in one of his books about using the Matya to help others. Normally, the Matya was strongest the closer you were to the person you were helping. But at this distance, and with a lot of focus, it was still possible to have an effect.
Now the bow was at a full draw and the boy was carefully taking aim at the rabbit. The s
econd boy was still on his knees, bent over looking at some wild flowers. Tureis stopped running,placed one hand to the side of his head and closed his eyes. He focused on the scene across the field. The distance to the boys was so far that focusing on them was very difficult. He thought that to make this work he needed to make it simple. He took some deep breaths and focused his mind solely on the second boy. Finally, everything around him seemed to fade and he could see the second boy in his mind.
The second boy just needed to move a little to get out of the way so the arrow wouldn’t hit him. Tureis wondered how he could do this. How could he make the boy move out of the way? He changed his perspective to see the scene around him. Then he saw it. He knew what he needed to do.
Things happened very fast. The first boy let go of the string and the arrow shot forward toward the rabbit. The arrow missed the rabbit completely and glanced off a rock in the grass, changing direction slightly flying straight toward the second boy. It was at this moment, his focus included a thought. Inside his head, Tureis heard a voice say, “Pick the flower.”
Tureis passed this idea to the boys mind but from this distance he didn’t know if the boy would understand the thought. He focused and passed the thought again and again hoping it would get through.
The arrow continued on a straight course directly for the boy. At this exact moment, seemingly out of nowhere, the boy leaned forward, stretching out his arms, laying completely on the ground and picked a flower. The arrow flew over the boy hitting a tree breaking into two pieces.
Surprised, the second boy jumped up looking at the broken arrow just feet away from him. He looked at the other boy with a questioning look on his face. After a moment he looked down at the flower in his hand and both boys started laughing again. They picked up their bows and ran off towards a house at the other end of the field. Tureis put his hand down and felt relief.