“Yes, Father,” was all Colby could respond.
“I will make you a King. An Immortal ruler of all magical or non-magical, worlds. You will become my greatest achievement.”
Colby wondered what passing out felt like.
He was sure he might be about to.
CHAPTER 13
Dew blanketed the clearing, casting glistening shadows upon the trees as the sun sneaked out and beamed down. A full day had passed since the Stripers had arrived and made their claim that a child Projector was somewhere nearby.
Meghan met up with Colin and Catrina and headed for breakfast. On their way, she described a vivid dream she’d had the night before.
“I think I was hearing Colby’s thought’s,” she said after a minute. “Or maybe I was seeing bits of his dreams. I still don’t know why I can do that, but it’s so strange that the subject of my dream was the Grosvenor, and Projectors, and we are now possibly dealing with one. Plus, he is not giving up his quest for your book, Colin. I wish my dream would have told me why!” she added in frustration. “Of course, I don’t even know if what I dreamt is actually real.”
Colin leaned into Catrina, whose voice only he could hear.
“Really?” said Colin. “That is definitely strange.”
“What?” Meghan demanded, annoyed. She wondered if this was how she and Colin had always come across when they would have secret conversations around Sebastien. She now understood why he would get irritated when they did it.
“Catrina says the details in your dream, regarding how the Grosvenor came to be, are accurate according to what she has heard.”
“How would she know? In my dream, this seemed like very privileged information,” Meghan relayed to her brother. She also recalled reading in a schoolbook that it was only speculation as to how the Grosvenor came to be. She did not get an answer as Jae came running up to them, appearing distressed.
“You guys haven’t seen Corny have you?”
“Corny? No,” said Colin.
“Thought he never came out of the dark?” quipped Meghan.
“Usually doesn’t. I went to give him breakfast this morning and he wasn’t in his room. Mom’s worried, so I told her I’d look around.”
“We can help if you want,” offered Meghan. “I hope he didn’t get confused and wander off into the woods.”
“If he did, we’ll never find him,” worried Jae.
“Um. Guys. Search over.” Colin pointed.
Corny (Cornell) Tibbit shuffled his way into the camp cantina. Clothes clean, but hair wild, eyes frantically searching for something like he was almost out of time. His gaze landed hard on Colin Jacoby. His legs started working to get over to him. He ignored both Jae and Meghan.
His grizzled face looked pale, even underneath the jungle of tangled facial hair. Next, to the utter shock of everyone, Corny did something he had not done in many a long year. He spoke.
“I just wanted to see… one time… for myself.” His gaze wandered to the empty space next to Colin, in which the invisible Catrina Flummer stood.
Colin panicked.
Can he see her? Is the spell not working?
Corny took hold of Colin’s shoulders, his eyes casting between him and the invisible Catrina.
“Hope, or death?” Corny pondered in a whisper only they could hear. “She thinks I don’t remember. I do.” He pointed to his head. “I do. You are hers.”
Colin did not respond. His mouth fell open as if to try, but nothing came out. What did he mean? Was it just ravings of a madman? He glanced sideways at Catrina. She shrugged, having never seen Corny before.
“Do not trust anyone,” he warned them roughly. “Run. Both of you. While you still can.”
Colin’s brow furrowed in terror. Somehow, Corny saw Catrina. He did. But Corny had only ever helped him. The grizzled man released Colin and backed up a few steps.
“My part in this play is now finished. Oh…” he stared downward, his finger trembling and pointing at Colin like some important thought had just dawned on him. “Tell Arnon hello, from his old friend. If you ever see him again. Tell him, it wasn’t all in vain. And we were right.”
His uncle! What?
How the heck did Corny know his uncle?
They didn’t even know if Arnon was still alive.
This was getting more confusing by the minute.
And they were right about what?
Corny looked around at everyone, his head nodding, and shaking.
“Goodbye.”
The man closed his eyes and slumped to the ground.
Dead.
Gone.
Not as gasp or movement toward him. Everyone, in shock.
He couldn’t have died, not just like that.
Colin, Catrina, Meghan, and Jae just stared at his body in disbelief, almost expecting him to get back up again. Surely, this had not just happened.
Life screeched back in, a crowd huddling around the man who had once been a respected member of the community.
Corny had no actual family to contact. The Mochries were the closest thing he had. In just minutes, Balaton arrived to file a report on what had happened. A few minutes after, Juliska Blackwell arrived. Colin noted something unsavory in her review of the man’s sudden death. Or maybe that’s what he wanted to see. He didn’t know anymore.
The Banon spoke with the Balaton and left swiftly.
Minutes later they were covering the body, taking him away.
“Poor, crazy old man,” one of the Balaton spoke. “I knew him many years ago when I was just a young man starting out my training as a Balaton. Before he lost his mind. He was head of the Balaton once, didn’t keep the position long. He was one heck of a tracker.”
“Corny?” clarified Colin.
“Yeah. Hard to believe it by the looks of him these last years. He was a great man. Good at his job. The best. You should have seen the magical tracking system he…” the Balaton shook his head. “Excuse my rambling. Stories from another time. Another world. One that doesn’t exist any longer.”
Colin was instantly wondering if maybe the man, Cornell Tibbit, had been too good at his job.
“If I could ask, how did Corny go mad?”
Meghan waited, wondering why her brother wanted to know all this. She had not overhead the old man’s whisperings and Colin had kept his mind block in place.
“That’s the sad part, isn’t it? No one really knows,” the Balaton explained. “It was back when we still lived on our island. Not too long before our exodus. He was found in his home, had lost his mind, never to recover. His friend, the current head officer of the Balaton at the time, kept vigil day and night for weeks. But Cornell never came out of it. Some thought it was the losses of his family. The pressure of the war brewing on the island at the time. That he just, snapped.”
“What…” Colin cleared his throat. “What was his friend’s name?” He had a sinking feeling about that answer.
“Arnon Jacoby.”
Meghan held in her gasp, noting Colin’s complete lack of surprise.
“Not with us anymore, I’m afraid. Killed during said battle before our exodus. Another shame. Good man, he was. Missed. Well, enough thinking about the old days. You all try to have a nice rest of your morning now. Corny’s finally at peace. We can find comfort in that, I believe.” He bade them goodbye and tore off after the Balaton carrying away Corny.
Colin strode away without any words to anyone. Catrina was at his heels, with Meghan and Jae tossing a confused look between them before following. Colin did not stop until he was inside the safety of his room at Billie’s. She was not home.
“What’s going on?” demanded Meghan.
Colin removed Catrina’s spell so they could all see her. She was next to Colin, concerned etched in her features.
“I don’t really know.” And he did not want to share what Corny had told him with someone so close to Juliska Blackwell, even if that someone was his sister.
“Did tha
t man just pretty much tell us our uncle, Arnon Jacoby, was once Svoda? He lived on the island, and was a Balaton?”
“Yeah, I think that’s exactly what happened,” stated Jae. “Sorry, wish I’d been older back then. Maybe I would have known that.”
“It’s not your fault, Jae.” Meghan’s hands went to her hips. “We never told anyone who our uncle was. Another secret that was probably good to keep.”
Actually, they had told a few people. The first day they’d come to live with the Svoda. They’d told the Viancourt, and Juliska Blackwell, who their uncle was. Apparently, Meghan had forgotten, and Colin left it so. This only added even more questions to the mountain of unanswered things that made no sense, and were not adding up. And all leading back to Juliska Blackwell. Surely, they would have recalled the man who was once a leader of the island’s police force? They were all old enough to remember that.
Meghan was still ranting.
“How much stranger is this all going to get? And why do they think Arnon dead?”
“My guess,” offered Catrina, “he wanted them to think so.”
“But why?” Colin replied.
“You?” Catrina guessed. “You told me yourself, he raised you both. Kept you in the dark about magic, and yet seemed to know about it in the end.”
“Definitely getting stranger. We’ll just have to add this to the ever-growing list of unanswered craziness. Sorry,” said Meghan. “I have to go. Juliska is expecting me soon.”
“Yeah. Okay. Bye, Sis.” Colin wasn’t going to keep her, he was eager to be alone with Catrina.
Jae nodded his goodbye too. “I’d better go find my parents. If they somehow haven’t heard already… news travels fast…” he sped off.
Colin plunked down on the bed, Catrina joined him landing on the edge softly. Guilt consumed him, he’d never made good on his promise to do something nice for Corny. In addition, he worried that he had lost an ally. A crazy ally who was obviously much smarter and more in tune with daily happenings than anyone suspected. Though obviously, some terrible thing had happened to him.
And his Uncle Arnon had been his friend.
“I’m sorry about Corny,” Catrina whispered in comfort. “It’s obvious you respected him.”
“He helped me a lot. Heck, he helped me find you.”
Colin explained all the things Corny had done for him, and explained the part where they’d told the Viancourt and Juliska about Arnon, and that Meghan had forgotten. Catrina agreed it was only adding to the questions.
He raked his hand through his hair just as footsteps shuffled into the tent. Billie.
He got up to meet her and explain about Corny, but the look on her face said she’d already heard. Catrina remained on the bed.
“Gonna be a funeral tonight. A hastily planned one, but we don’t know how long we’ll be here. He might have been crazy when he died, but he deserves a proper memorial just the same.”
Colin nodded. Said nothing and returned to his room.
He’d come close to asking her if she’d known a man named Arnon Jacoby, but held his tongue. It wasn’t a subject he wanted to stir up. Even with Billie.
Catrina remained silent, allowing him some time to process all his thoughts. He planted himself on the ground next to the bed, leaning against it. Catrina joined him there, sitting side by side.
A numbness crept through him.
He stared at the tent wall, into nothing, thoughts disappearing into some dark void; he hoped it took them all far away from his brain.
Seemingly minutes later, evening had arrived. How long had he been sitting here staring at nothing? Catrina’s head was on his shoulder, she was asleep.
It was time for Corny’s funeral so he woke her, gently, and they went. Sticking to the outside of the gathering, which mean they didn’t see much being so much shorter than most anyone else in attendance.
Colin was surprised at how many people had known Corny before he had ended up a hermit who preferred to live in cramped, dark, dank sorts of places.
The funeral only dampened the group’s already dulled spirits. Because regardless of his last few years, Corny’s life and death were just another grim reminder of the toll this life took on them all.
Meghan rushed off as soon as the funeral was completed.
Jae stayed by his parents’ side, accepting condolences for Corny’s passing. Most people just praised the Mochries for taking him in and caring for him. Colin heard comment after comment saying things like, “I don’t know how you did it these last few years…” or “What patient people you must be…” and “You really made a difference in his life, gave him a reason to live.”
For some reason, all of these comments bothered Colin. Churned like thick sour batter inside him. That void where all his thoughts had been hiding, all afternoon, collapsed and released all at once. Somehow, this was some final straw that just became too much.
“What’s wrong?” begged Catrina, seeing the obvious struggle.
Colin could not express his thoughts clearly and just shook his head.
“Um, what is that?” Catrina suddenly asked him, pointing at something not far away.
Colin jerked his head to look where she pointed just as an eight-legged shadow vanished behind some nearby bushes.
Pajak. Juliska’s pet. Spy, more like.
It’s hideous glass eyes were staring right at Catrina. “I think it can see me.”
Colin did not reply. Was it safe to? Was his every move being watched? Did they know about Catrina? Did they know that Corny had somehow helped him, even in his seemingly crazed state of mind?
“I need to get out of here!” Colin suddenly bleated breathlessly. “I feel like I can’t… I can’t… breathe.”
“Let’s go then,” Catrina insisted.
“I can’t go back to Billie’s.” It would suffocate him.
“It’s not safe to leave the clearing,” Catrina whispered worriedly. “Wait, maybe your book can help us with that.”
“Actually… you’re right,” he exclaimed. “If I can make you invisible, why not myself too.” He’d joked about it, but now, why not? He proceeded to use the same spell on himself as he did on Catrina and they rushed hand in hand out of the clearing and into the woods. He was sure to add the Abdo before using the spell, to keep the traces of magic hidden from anyone who might be tracking it. Oddly enough, the job Corny used to do. Maybe that’s how he’d helped him. Even though he’d lost his mind, perhaps he’d not lost everything.
“We could have just stayed in the clearing,” Catrina pointed out after a short walk into the dense forest.
“And chance Pajak seeing us? I needed to get away from there.”
And seeing as they were alone and in the dark woods, he removed the cloaking spell.
“Sad, about Corny?”
“Sad. Confused. Torn. About Corny, about…” he paused, sitting on a fallen log. “Catrina, I need to know. I’m sorry. I promised not to push and that I was okay with it, but I need to ask you… do you know who left you in the cave?”
She sighed. “I have my suspicions. Strong suspicions.”
“Juliska Blackwell,” he confirmed.
“Yes. But not just her, there were others, too. I don’t think she acted alone.”
“But why? Why would they do that to you? You’re harmless!”
“Not everyone might agree with that Colin.”
He stood and took her hand.
“You can trust me with anything,” he promised. “If they think you’re the Projector, I will prove them wrong.”
Catrina’s eyes began to moisten.
“Oh, Colin. I…”
A branch snapped nearby. Instinctively, Colin grasped Catrina and started running.
They stopped only once they had run so far that they began to fear they might get lost. Colin wondered if maybe getting lost wouldn’t actually be a good thing. Especially considering Corny’s warning.
“It’s pretty dark in here,” noted Catrina
.
“We’ll be okay,” assured Colin. “I’ll find the way back.”
A rustling in the tree above his head startled him.
“Bird!” He let out a gasp. The mysterious bird human rested on a branch, in bird form. It nodded hello and flew down to them. “I guess I should stop being surprised when you pop in to visit.” What a relief though. It wasn’t the Stripers.
Bird chirped his response in a manner that Colin somehow understood meant he was trying to tell him something.
“You could just transform,” Colin suggested. To his and Catrina’s surprise, Bird did transform, but at a distance and behind a tree.
“Sorry. I can’t let you see me,” he spoke. “But there’s something I need to show you right away.”
“Okay. Lead the way,” Colin encouraged him.
“You should re-cloak yourselves,” Bird first warned, with a light chuckle. “I was trying to find you but couldn’t until you released the spell. What I’m about to show you, though,” he got serious. “No matter what, do not show yourselves.”
The flapping of wings overhead indicated that Bird had transformed back into his flying form. He flapped, and pointed his beak, motioning for them to follow.
They trudged carefully through the woods, following. They did not follow a path, so progress was at times slow. Eventually, however, the forest began to lighten. Bird flew to a low tree branch, next to Colin’s face. He pointed his beak toward the light, chirping softly.
Catrina smiled.
“What?” questioned Colin.
“His chirping is musical. I’m starting to understand what he’s saying,” she said.
“How?” asked Colin.
Before she could answer, voices filtered into the forest.
“He is warning us again, to remain cloaked,” whispered Catrina, “as we are not alone.”
They crept cautiously ahead.
“A meadow,” Colin noted.
“Stripers,” Catrina added. “What are they building?”
“I can’t tell from here. Let’s get a little closer.”
They crawled as close to the edge as they dared, being careful not to snap any branches or rustle any bushes. They might be invisible, but so could be the chameleon-like Stripers, and now that they knew the invisibility spell had limitations, they knew they should not take unnecessary chances. After all, the Stripers were more than human so it might not work on them.
Broken (The Stones, The Vampyres, and The Cursed Child) (A Fated Fantasy Quest Adventure Book 4) Page 11