Merrick shuffled awkwardly behind them.
“What was I supposed to do?” Merrick shouted out to Fenton.
Fenton stopped and waited for Merrick and Balach to catch up to him. He looked Merrick squarely in the eyes.
“You were supposed to have a nice conversation with the rocks and the dirt and then wait for us to come back. You’ll have to do a lot worse than hurt a bunch of moss before I leave you to die. You should’ve known that and trusted me.”
“I just freaked out back there.”
“You’ve gotta stop doin’ that, or someone’s gonna get hurt so bad one time that you won’t be able to take things back. Now, let’s get home. You’ll be having a busy day with Balach tomorrow.”
“What’s special about tomorrow?”
“Time for you to go to school,” Fenton said.
Balach only partially tried to hide his laughter.
#
The sudden cracks of lightning startled Heinin and his dog, Bitsy. First the earthquake a few days ago, and then this. Heinin wasn’t superstitious, but he was beginning to feel like there was some kind of a curse on the land that he thought he knew so well. In all his years living here with his mother and father, he had never seen the weather act so strangely.
It was hard to tell exactly where the lightning had struck, but it was somewhere on the mountainside, near where he had seen that woman earlier. He watched the moonlit horizon for black smoke, just in case the lightning had started a fire. He saw none, and made his way back to the house. His mother and father would just be getting ready to go to sleep. They always did so around eight o’clock, leaving Heinin to stay up and read and dream of the world he would one day see for himself.
When he arrived home, he walked in and saw his mother and father sitting at the dining table whispering to each other. When they saw him, they stopped talking, like conspirators caught in some devious act.
“Did you hear the lightning a few minutes ago?” Heinin said. “There were two or three really loud cracks of thunder and then I saw lightning coming out of the sky all of a sudden. I think it hit over by the mountain.”
Heinin knew that he shouldn’t have mentioned the lightning to his mother. All during his childhood, she had pointed out omens and strange occurrences in nature and then referred back to them whenever anything significant happened, whether good or bad. Already, he could see the fear in his mother’s eyes and the impatience in his father’s tapping foot.
“Aye, we heard the thunder. You shouldn’t be out so late with all that’s been going on out there. Promise your mother you’ll stay inside tonight and not go wandering around so she can stop worrying and I can get myself to sleep.”
Heinin nodded and walked over to their couch where his book awaited.
“There’s one more thing, son. We were supposed to be visiting your aunt tomorrow, but we think it’d be best if we not go. I have a lot of work to do, and mother saw her sister just last month.”
He didn’t want them to stay. The only time he truly had the house to himself and felt like an adult was when they went to visit his aunt.
“I can take care of everything,” he said. “I’m seventeen, you know. Go on and have a good visit, and I promise I’ll stay inside at night and go to bed early so I can be well rested for work in the morning.”
His mother gripped his father’s sleeve, her knuckles white.
“Go on to bed now, son. Your mother and I need to talk this over.”
Heinin ambled off to his bedroom, certain that his parents had already made their minds up to stay.
CHAPTER 19
MERRICK BARELY SLEPT during the night, lying awake in his makeshift cot shoved into the corner of Balach’s room. The accommodations were comfortable enough, but he couldn’t stop thinking about Ohman, Cara, Mona, and the failure of his first training session earlier that day. After he finally fell asleep, it seemed that he woke up only minutes later, although the sunlight was creeping through the windows and he knew it was time to get up.
His stomach was sickly sour and his jaw ached from grinding his teeth. As Fenton had predicted, his limbs and back were stiffer than normal and he felt a little older all around.
Merrick and Balach left for school after a quick breakfast from Adriana. Everything outside looked and smelled exactly like a normal morning in the outside world. The only thing that destroyed the illusion was the ceiling high above crisscrossed with barely visible elliptical grooves cut into the rock. Merrick guessed that they had something to do with the movement of the artificial light that seemed to come from nowhere, perfectly simulating the natural progression of sunlight throughout the day.
He and Balach became part of a growing crowd of young Drayoom all heading in the same direction. He was anxious about going to school with Balach because he knew that he would be much older than most of the students at Balach’s level. He was also nervous because he had not grown up around magic, and he was afraid of embarrassing himself or Fenton’s family.
Merrick increased his pace to match that of the other students, despite the stiffness in his bones. The children walked as if going somewhere with purpose, but their gaits were different than the ones he was used to seeing back home in Northern Virginia. For one thing, none of the Drayoom looked particularly stressed. In fact, many of them were smiling as they sped along.
Merrick leaned over towards Balach.
“Why do all these kids look so happy, especially since they’re going to school?”
“Why wouldn’t we be happy?” answered Balach.
“Fair enough,” he said, remembering the carefree days of his own youth. “Wait until you have to get a job and go to work every day. See how fast you walk to work then.”
Balach looked up at him and cocked his head, like he was trying to understand someone speaking a foreign language.
“I’m not sure what you mean by job, but as long as we try to contribute, we also benefit from other people’s efforts. When I want a new belt, I tan the leather myself, but I might ask the silversmith to make me a buckle when he has the time.”
“That wouldn’t work where I come from. Too many people wouldn’t work hard if they didn’t have to.”
“People don’t have to work hard here either. We do work hard, but we all have our own unique roles, depending on what we’re good at. Just like we all have our own names. When you’re just being who you are, it isn’t really work at all.”
Merrick laughed. It sounded simple enough, but he didn’t think their system would be realistic on a larger scale.
Balach grinned, like he had just thought of something evil and funny.
“My father wanted me to ask you what kind of service you could provide while you’re staying with us.”
Merrick was silent for a moment.
“I’m not sure what I could do to add value to the Earth Clan,” he said.
“There are lots of things you could do. We just need to find out what you’re really good at, and then let you do that.”
Merrick could do his own form of magic with computers, but he guessed that there weren’t any of those here. He could probably help with some manual labor like gardening or maybe hunting, but he was pretty sure that he wouldn’t be very good at those things either.
“Most of my skills only make sense in my world. What do you need here? Could I teach a class? No one in the clan can be better qualified to teach a class about the outside world than me. It could be like an anthropology course.”
“They might go for that. We can talk to the teacher after class and see what she thinks. Anything else you can think of?”
“Not really. I like books. Do you need librarians?”
“We have a single library in the center of the city. You can go there and read about our history and learn how to do things. Maybe we should go there sometime and you can learn how to do something of value.”
“Does your library have books about the dragons and their languages? Maybe if I could check one of t
hose out, I could learn quicker about who I am. I’d like to take a look at this prophecy that I’m supposed to be a part of as well.”
Balach skipped over a small stick in the middle of the road.
“You can read about some of the dragon parables, but there aren’t any books about the dragon tongues. My father says that their languages are too dangerous to write down, so they just memorize them.”
“Who memorizes them?”
“The Keepers. Your father was a Keeper you know—he was the Master Keeper before he became Ard Righ. The Keepers memorize all the creation names of every follower of Terrada who has ever existed, even from back before the families split up. Their memories are our greatest treasure and source of power. No one but the Keepers and the Queen probably knows how many words they have in their brains, but it’s a lot. My father says that they know many more words than he does but that not even they know how many more words are left in Terrada’s creation language. The Queen’s Seer thinks that it won’t be very long before we have the entire language again.”
“That’s pretty impressive. Seems like you father knows a lot of words.”
“Compared to most people, he does, but the Keepers and the Queen keep most of the words a secret to protect us. A lot of the words they store in their heads could cause serious trouble if they were spoken by someone who was careless or who didn’t know how to do it right.”
Balach checked to make sure no one was too close to them.
“Can you keep a secret, Merrick?”
“Is it about that girl we saw yesterday?”
Balach’s silence and his blushing face were his answer.
“What’s she like?”
“Beautiful. When I’m with her, my stomach tickles, and I get short of breath, and I feel like I can do anything.”
“Sounds serious. Does Fenton know you have a girlfriend?”
Balach stopped and looked at Merrick as a crowd of students walked past.
“My father wouldn’t approve if he knew about her—not yet. He’ll find out when the Keepers do—when I have my naming ceremony. I remembered my name the first day I met her, you know? I’m sure of it—that the meaning is correct. But I’m still nervous. I told him that I’m ready for my naming ceremony, but just between you and me, sometimes I’m not sure. What if somehow, my name’s the wrong one? It’s so hard to think clearly when I’m around her.”
“Well, what does your name mean. Maybe I can help somehow.”
Balach started walking again and Merrick followed.
“I can’t tell you, and you can’t hear it by asking for it. I have to offer it to you. If you knew my creation name, you would know everything about me, and you’d have complete control over me. It’s not that I don’t trust you, but it’s dangerous to give it out. Besides, I can’t tell anyone yet, because I haven’t had my ceremony yet. Not even my father can know yet. After the Keepers confirm the truth of my name and I’ve given its power to the Earth Clan, I promise that I’ll tell it to you in Terrada’s tongue.”
Merrick shrugged. It was no problem with him if Balach couldn’t divulge his name yet.
“Although, I guess it couldn’t hurt to tell you what my name means in the common tongue. You could repeat it in English as much as you wanted, and it still wouldn’t do anything special. I know it sounds stupid, but…my name is the Earth Dragon word for true love.”
Merrick wanted to ask Balach more about his name, but they arrived at the steps of a large one story stone building and Balach and fell in behind a line of young people heading through a large arched entranceway.
They walked down the hall until they found Balach’s classroom, already filled with young Drayoom talking amongst themselves. When Merrick entered the room, everyone went silent, including the teacher who stood at the front of the class staring at him as if struck with paralyzing fear.
#
Firefly hid in the bushes and watched through the back classroom window as Balach and the man who looked like Eudroch walked into the room. Eudroch had told her to gather intelligence on his twin, but until she had seen him that first day when he arrived from the outside world, she hadn’t believed the resemblance could be so uncanny. She also couldn’t believe her luck—Eudroch’s twin was living with Balach, the same person she had chosen to seduce into helping her.
Sweet innocent Balach had been an easy win, but she was good at making all boys and men do all sorts of things she wanted them to do. She could have any man she wanted even back in her own tribe where the men were used to women with passion burning hot inside them. Here, in the enemy’s camp, Balach had been a logical choice. His father was the head of the Queen’s Fianna, and his family lived just inside the officially designated royal area of the city, so Firefly always had somewhere to hide and someone to trust as she spied on the royals, waiting for Merrick to show himself.
All of her preparation, and her building trust with Balach, would now pay off. Just knowing the details of Merrick’s location would be enough for Eudroch to reward her handsomely. But she wanted more. She wanted to grow up to be great among her own people and to sit by Eudroch’s side one day as his Queen. She would do more than return home with news about Merrick. She would actually deposit him at Eudroch’s feet.
Balach would be heartbroken when he realized that she and Merrick had run off together, but he would survive. Even though Balach’s fawning sometimes annoyed her, she had grown attached to him in a strange way. His dedication to her and his declarations of love sometimes touched a part of her own heart that was not often exposed.
Regardless, now that Merrick was in play, she’d start working on him as soon as she could get him alone. Merrick was a bit older than her, just like Eudroch, but he was still a man…and she knew how to light men’s souls, no matter what their age.
Satisfied that Merrick wasn’t going anywhere for a while, she eased herself down from the outside window ledge and looked down at her jar of fireflies. Their bodies lit up and went dark again randomly. She wondered if all of life was like that, or if some kind of pattern existed to it all that remained hidden to her.
CHAPTER 20
RUNE CORP WAS ON a Level 1 Alert. Attack by a hostile Drayoom force was inevitable. All employees had been tested and drilled on the appropriate security procedures, but no one had actually been on a real Level 1 Alert before.
Even as Cara descended to the subterranean testing facility, Rune Corp was being locked down. No one was allowed to leave or enter without her permission as acting Rune Corp President. No one was going home until the Eudroch affair was over. There was plenty of food and drink stockpiled in the company cafeteria, full shower facilities in the gym, and each office was equipped with a fold-down cot, although sleeping would only occur in shifts.
As per procedure, a full head count and cube inventory was also underway and everyone’s badges were replaced with freshly imaged ones complete with new wards for the employees’ personal safety. Some of these precautions seemed a bit excessive even to Cara, but she had to be sure that Eudroch had not stolen any of their cubes containing their work reassembling Terrada’s tongue. Maybe Eudroch hadn’t had the time or the inclination to do so when he had killed her father, but she had to be certain.
The elevator doors swooshed open and she hurried down the underground hall to the testing lab. She was sure she would find Chris working by himself on getting the new construct for the cubes ready for action.
As she reached the door to the lab, she took a deep breath and stretched her neck. The twenty-minute nap she had managed in her office had not been nearly enough. She was still so tired that her mind felt like it was covered with clingy, wet gauze, making her sluggish and irritable. She had already checked on everyone above ground, and as soon as she was finished talking to Chris, she would force herself to get a few more hours of sleep.
Unfortunately, the conversation she was about to have was probably going to go longer than she would like.
She knocked on the lab
door and heard Chris’s irritated reply from within. She opened the door and was stunned by what she saw.
Chris was sitting in the testing chair, sealed off from the rest of the lab by soundproof, transparent plastic walls. The entire room was littered with broken pieces of all sorts of materials, both natural and man-made. Shards of boards hung from the ceiling, and the place smelled of burnt grass, dirt, and steam. It looked like a natural disaster had struck.
Chris glanced back at Cara as she stepped into the lab. He motioned for her to stay where she was. He turned back to face the far end of the room where a short, wide candle sat undamaged and still lit on top of a stool. Its flame danced chaotically.
As she watched, Chris opened his mouth. On his side of the soundproof barrier, the sound of a word from the Earth Dragon tongue was heard, and the candle flame disappeared. She understood the noteworthiness in what he had just accomplished. He had snuffed out a fire element using Earth Magic, but a tiny flame was much different than the magnitude of power Eudroch would wield. As if sensing her doubt, Chris smiled and opened his mouth again several times in succession.
With each word, a different object in the room burst into pieces. First, the candle exploded, hot wax slamming into the plastic shielding that separated them. Then, a block of wood nailed to the far wall turned into saw dust and fell into a pile on the floor. Finally, a glass of water sitting on another stool shattered, and all the water inside turned to mist as the glass fragments bounced across the floor.
Chris hit the button to raise the plastic shield. He took off his gear and stood up.
“What do you think?” he said. “Not too bad for only a couple days of work.”
She had to agree. Chris was good at what he did, and had taken her direction of turning the cubes into weapons seriously. She doubted that his counterpart, Melanie, would have produced these kinds of results in such a short time. However, she still wanted Chris and Melanie working together on the construct. He was great at inventing but was terrible at documenting and teaching his unorthodox methodologies to others.
The Conservation of Magic Page 17