“A ‘good friend’ wouldn’t let their friends die,” Tom shot at him.
“Thomas Ayamo Jones!” Gabrielle exclaimed, outraged. She brushed her choppy red hair out of her face and wiped the tears from her eyes. “You know it wasn’t Felix’s fault! It wasn’t any of our faults!”
“That doesn’t change the fact that Parker is dead!” Tom thundered.
“Neither does your attitude and violence toward Felix!” I shot back, springing to my feet. “I was there, Tom! Felix couldn’t have stopped it!”
“Oh yeah?” Tom challenged. “I should have known you would try to defend him, Smith. You can’t put your personal feelings aside! You’re going to get yourself killed that way, Magenta!”
Tom shoved Felix to the ground and leered over him. “As for you, maybe this will sober you up.” He raised his fist. Felix closed his eyes, waiting for the blow.
I intercepted it, grabbing Tom’s fist with flaming hands. He yelped and jumped back. He gaped at me with wide eyes. Then, he glanced between me and his burned hands.
“I can put my personal feelings aside just fine,” I said coolly, extinguishing my flames. “I’d be more worried about those who are stupid enough to mess with my friends.”
Felix opened his eyes. “Thanks,” he croaked.
“No problem, Potato Brain,” I told him, offering him my hand, now cooled off. He took it, and I helped him to his feet. He had lots of cuts and bruises, but was otherwise fine.
“What has gotten into you?” Gabrielle demanded, turning to Tom. “I’m perfectly aware that you dislike Felix, but that is no excuse for your actions!”
“He could have saved her!” Tom insisted.
With a calmness I didn’t know was achievable, Gabrielle shook her head. “If he could have, he would have, Tom. Somewhere deep inside your heart, you know that.”
Emotionally exhausted, Tom sat down next to Gabrielle and buried his face in his hands. “You’re right,” he said, barely audible. “I can’t believe I did that.”
Gabrielle put an arm around him and whispered something in his ear. His expression changed from angry to surprised, finally softening once the surprise was gone.
He looked at Felix with sincere remorse in his eyes. “I’m sorry, Wilson, for beating you up and blaming Parker’s death on you. I know it wasn’t your fault, and I never should have thought to blame you.”
I was shocked. Tom’s attitude had just done an astonishing one-eighty flip.
“I appreciate the apology, Tom,” Felix said, putting direct pressure on one of his bigger cuts, which was gushing blood. “I really do. Even so, something needs to change. Your mood swings hurt me more than actual battles.”
“I need to change,” Tom summed up. “I need to control myself better and not beat you up every time I get angry.”
Felix nodded, grimacing. He had a cut on the back of his neck. “Yeah. Pretty much.”
Gabrielle reached into a chest in the corner of the room and grabbed a first aid kit. She handed it to me. “I need to talk to Tom. Can you help Felix with his injuries?”
I nodded. “Sure.”
Gabrielle led Tom away, so I turned to Felix.
“Okay, Potato Brain,” I said, opening the first aid kit, “what should we treat first?”
Chapter 31
Felix’s injuries were worse than I’d initially thought. Remember the cuts on his neck, shoulders, and arms? There were a lot of tiny specks of dirt and rock in those. It took me much longer than it should have to clean them out thoroughly, and I cringed with every sharp intake of breath from Felix. I knew it was a painful, but necessary, process.
“Are you okay?” I asked him after cleaning out and bandaging most of the cuts.
“Sure,” he responded sarcastically, visibly tensing when I started cleaning out a big cut on the back of his arm, right by his shoulders.
“So you aren’t okay.”
“Define ‘okay’.”
I smiled. “Okay is defined as ‘satisfactory, but not exceptionally or especially good’. Well, when it’s used as an adjective, anyway.”
He gave a small half-laugh. “And why do you know that?”
I shrugged. “When I would ask my friends if they were okay, they would tell me to define ‘okay’. I looked it up on the internet and memorized it just so I could.”
“Only you, Miss Magenta,” he sighed. “Only you.”
“You have an obsession with potatoes and I have an obsession with words,” I summed up. “You are just as crazy as I am.”
“Touché,” he said.
I cleaned and bandaged the rest of his cuts and put some of Gabrielle’s homemade, medicinal goopy stuff on his bruises. “That should do it,” I said.
He made a face as the goopy stuff ran down his cheek. “Yuck,” he remarked, wiping it off with his hand. “Bleh.”
I handed him a damp washcloth from the basin in the kitchen. He wiped his hands with it, then his face. He looked like he was ready to drop. He had stayed up all night and gotten caught up in emotional turmoil with the rest of us, not to mention Tom beating him up. It was enough to take the energy from anyone.
“You should get some rest,” I suggested, packing up the first aid kit and returning it to the chest. “It’s been a long night.”
“We have four days left until the battle,” Felix said, a look of absolute determination on his face. “I can’t nap knowing that it could cost us the Dimensions.”
“We still need to make preparations,” I told him. “We can take care of it while you sleep. We’ll wake you when we’re ready to go meet the Eikosi Tessera.”
He shook his head. “You’re going to need all the help you can get. We need speed.”
“Not as much as you need sleep,” I insisted. “You won’t be much good in a fight if you’re fighting to keep your eyes open. You’ll thank me later.”
“But—” Felix protested.
“No,” I interrupted. “Go to sleep.”
He scowled, but trudged over to his section of headquarters. When I went to check on him later, he was sound asleep. Gabrielle, Tom, and I completed preparations without him, and, true to my word, woke him when it was time to go.
“Wake up, Potato Brain,” I said, not daring to shake his injured shoulders.
He grunted, still asleep, and muttered, “Potaters.”
“It’s time to go.” I gingerly touched one of the bandages on his arm. He flinched and opened his eyes.
“Time to go?” he asked groggily.
I nodded. He sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
“Okay,” he said, slipping on his shoes. “Let’s go see the Eikosi Tessera.”
The moment we walked out of the cave opening, we were greeted by Agents Lambda and Delta.
“We meet again, Legendary Keepers,” Lambda declared dramatically. He wore a forest green cloak and mask. The Greek letter lambda was stitched on the sleeves. “Are you ready for us?”
“Lambda,” Delta sighed. “You’re insufferable. Calm down on the drama.”
“Where are the rest?” Felix asked. “I thought there were twenty-four of you.”
“There are,” Delta confirmed. “Upsilon, Pi, and Omicron are on a special mission. Theta, Epsilon, and Gamma are leading the other Eikosi Tessera on the other missions. Kappa is with them. Oh yeah, let’s not forget that Beta and Sigma decided that this wasn’t worth their time.”
“That’s enough, Delta,” a voice from the treetops called. A tall boy, who looked older than me by a couple years, joined us on the ground. “Beta and Sigma have other matters to attend to.” The boy, masked and cloaked like the other two Eikosi Tessera, turned to us. “I am Agent Alpha, the head of the Eikosi Tessera. I’m prepared to negotiate an alliance.”
“As are we,” I said. “Let’s negotiate.”
Immediately following my words was an awkward silence that seemed to stretch on forever. Awkward glances were exchanged, complete with eye-shifting and lip-biting.
Finally, Lambda clea
red his throat. “So, um,” he said awkwardly. “Negotiations?”
“Right,” Alpha said, straightening and placing his hands behind his back. “We—the Eikosi Tessera—are an elite force, skilled and talented in the necessary areas to help you. We can offer equipment, highly-trained agents, and important information from our other sources. In creating this alliance, what would we get in return for our offered resources?”
My eyes narrowed. “A chance to take the Attackers down. Once and for all.”
Alpha’s hazel eyes locked on mine. “Tempting as it sounds, I’m not hearing anything promising.”
Fiery determination sparked and burst into flame inside of me. “I’m Magenta Valida Smith, the legendary protector of the Dimensions. I have unique abilities that can help us.”
“That changes nothing,” Alpha informed me. “Magentas have failed before, unique abilities and all.”
“So have Eikosi Tessera agents!” Tom shot back.
Eye contact broke between Alpha and me when I shot Tom a glare. “That’s enough, Tom. Agent Alpha proves a perfectly good point; there is no need to get fired up about it.”
“Thank you, Magenta, but if you want this alliance, you will need to offer something more promising.”
“Understood,” I assured Alpha. “I admit it; we don’t have much to offer. Even so, I’m sure there is something we have that you want.”
After a moment of thought, Alpha said, “No, you don’t.”
“Well, won’t that do us a lot of good?” I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. “Clearly, you don’t want to work with us.”
“It isn’t that,” Alpha insisted. “Listen, I’m not going to put my agents in danger for a group of rebels that think they can take down the biggest dark force in the Dimensions, which created by Zykno himself and passed down for generations.”
“Your concern is legitimate. I understand that,” I said. “Even so, we need to take the Attackers down. Mallum Frond has officially challenged me to a battle on Ayaklo Half-Season, in four days. If we’re going to overthrow him and the Attackers, we’re going to need the Eikosi Tessera.”
“You sound desperate.”
“In times like these,” Gabrielle cut in, “aren’t we all desperate? We’re all desperate for something.”
Alpha was not swayed. “Desperation for death isn’t something I’m signing up for.”
“And that isn’t what we’re proposing,” I said. Alpha had made some good points, but I wasn’t going to let that scare me. “We’re proposing an alliance to help us take down the Attackers. We want to take down the organization that destroyed Lythacan.”
“We want to take down the darkest force that plagues and threatens the Dimensions,” Tom added. “Isn’t that what the Eikosi Tessera work toward?”
“I remain unconvinced,” Alpha stated flatly.
“Alpha, please,” Lambda pleaded. “You know we need to help them. Don’t you remember what Lena—”
“Silence, Lambda!” Alpha ordered. “That isn’t relevant right now!”
“Well, you seem rather heated up about it,” Lambda observed aloud. “Perhaps it’s a little too relevant.”
Even though Alpha still wore his mask, I could see the anger in the exposed, top half of his face.
“Don’t push it, Lambda,” Alpha growled. “You are definitely not my favorite agent at the moment.”
Lambda straightened, looking Alpha dead in the eye. “Remember what Lena said? It’s time to start making sacrifices for the greater good. That, or the Dimensions fall.”
Alpha’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve given up everything: my family, my friends, my lifestyle, my possessions. What more must I give up?”
“How about your pride?” Lambda suggested heatedly. “Or perhaps your cowardice? Your ‘all work and no play’ policy would be a joy to lose, as well.”
“You’ve gone too far!” Alpha growled. “You don’t understand half of the stuff I’ve been through! How dare—”
“Maybe I’d have a better chance of understanding if you would actually tell us what you’ve been through!” Lambda interrupted. “We’ve gone through terrible things, too, Alpha! This is war! But at least we’re trying to put a stop to it!”
“THAT IS ENOUGH!”
We all jumped at the sound of Gabrielle’s voice raised. Her face was flushed and her fists clenched. Gabrielle rarely showed negative emotions, let alone negative emotions as strong and hard-to-control as anger. In my opinion, the anger of those who do not anger easily is much more dangerous than the anger of those easily angered.
“This isn’t getting us anywhere!” she continued. Her voice had returned to normal volume, but it still had every bit—maybe more—of exasperation from her initial statement. “The Eikosi Tessera have every right to decline an alliance, and that is understandable. But this is the place for diplomacy, not confrontation. Please be civilized about these things and settle this with patience and words, rather than accusations and screaming.”
Alpha and Lambda muttered indistinct apologies and fell silent, their faces red with embarrassment.
“Well,” I started, hoping to spare them the long silence that was sure to follow, “shall we proceed, then?”
Alpha regained his composure. “There is nothing more to say. The Eikosi Tessera will not be joining you in an alliance. You’re on your own.”
“Nothing will change your mind?” I asked.
“Nothing will change my mind,” Alpha confirmed. “Akevul, Legendary Keepers. I wish you the best of luck.”
He turned and started to return to the dense forest, but Lambda spoke, stopping him in his tracks.
“I want to help them.” Lambda piped up. He shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably. “Even...even if I’m the only agent who does. Please, Alpha,” he begged, “this is important. Let me do this.”
Alpha didn’t even turn around. “I will not allow division in the agency. I forbid it. Return to headquarters with Agent Delta and speak of this to no one. That’s an order. I will meet you there.”
Alpha continued walking away from us, eventually disappearing in the trees. Lambda watched, a look of utter betrayal in his eyes.
“You swore you’d do whatever it took to save the Dimensions,” he said under his breath, barely audible. “You promised to do whatever it takes.” He scoffed. “Not much of a promise.”
“Let’s go,” Delta said half-heartedly, glancing to where Alpha had been just a few moments ago.
Lambda shook his head. “This isn’t what I signed up for. I’m not going back.”
For once, Delta didn’t even protest. In fact, he did the opposite. “For once, Lambda, I agree with you. I think it’s time to go rogue.” He turned to us. “Do you mind if we join you?”
“Not at all,” I answered. “Welcome to the Legendary Keepers.”
Chapter 32
On our way back to headquarters, Lambda motioned to Gabrielle's choppy, shoulder-length red hair and asked, “Who do you mourn?”
With a heavy sadness in her voice and tears in her eyes, Gabrielle answered, “My cousin, Regina, was killed by a manticore last night. There was nothing we could do to save her.”
“Oh.” Lambda’s tone grew more mournful. “My condolences. Regina will be greatly missed.”
Next to me, Tom muttered, “You have no idea.”
I slowed until I was next to Felix, then fell in step with him. “Are you still holding up okay?”
“No need to worry about me so much, Miss Magenta. I'm fine,” he assured me as his arm hit a tree branch. He winced.
“Uh huh,” I responded skeptically.
He sighed. “Okay, I could be in better condition, but I'll live. It isn't the first time I've been caught in one of Tom's rages.”
“Speaking of which,” I said, “why does Tom specifically target you during his rages? I know he doesn't like you and all, but he doesn't seem to have a reason for it.”
“He doesn't think I can take things seriously,” Felix
told me. “He sees my sense of humor as actual stupidity, rather than a way of bringing some joy into a depressing time. I don't think it would do is much good if we felt down all the time, but he doesn't get it.”
Delta joined us in the back of the group, leaving Gabrielle alone in the front, leading the way. “So,” he began, “what's our next move? I know we're briefing at headquarters, but I don't know if I can wait.”
I handed him the note from the Classified Comrade, which I'd placed in my pocket before coming. Delta read it silently.
“The next thing we need to do is find as many of the Rebels of Emparadroy, especially since the rest of Eikosi Tessera won't be joining us. Unfortunately, I don't know where any of them are located,” I admitted.
Delta handed the note back to me. “Luckily, for you, I know the location of a few Rebels. And a few potential allies.”
“Good,” I said. “We’re going to need all the help we can get.”
◆◆◆
During the briefing at headquarters, Tom was the first to stand and speak. “According to the Classified Comrade, we need the find and recruit as many of the remaining Rebels of Emparadroy as possible. To do that, we need to know locations. I know the location of my mother, Teresa Jones, formerly Teresa Roberts. My father went missing without a trace two years ago.”
“Both of my parents, Aydiro Lynn and Cheryl Newman, drowned on the Ayam Laka four years ago,” Gabrielle said, standing. “My only brother, Landon, was killed in battle a year later. However, I do know the location of the dungeon where Valida’s parents, Roy Smith and Cynthia West, are being held. My sources told me that they are being held in the lowest dungeon of the palace in Emparadroy.”
“Actually, I already rescued my parents,” I said. “They returned to Earth.”
“That’s progress,” Tom acknowledged. “Anyone else?”
“Are you serious?” Lambda sprang from his seat. “Tom, Valida just rescued her parents on her own—”
“Actually, I had help from some friends,” I interjected. Not that Lambda paid any attention to me.
“—and all you can say is ‘that’s progress’?” Lambda looked flabbergasted. “Don’t you even want to hear that story? I know I do.”
The Magenta (The Legendary Keepers Book 1) Page 14