Jack James and the Call of the Tanakee

by J. Joseph Wright

  “The Call?” Takota repeated.

  “We Tanakee have been put here for one reason and one reason only—to protect the Children of the Blue Crystal. Each of us is assigned our own child, and each of us must come to the aid of that child when the time comes,” he lowered his head, keeping his eyes on the young ones. “That time is now.”

  “But Orzabal,” Takota begged. “How are we to know who our true charge is?”

  “You will feel it,” Orzabal spoke automatically, his tenor low, his emotions steady. “When your child is in danger, the Call is unmistakable.”

  “What happens if I feel the Call for more than one child?” Takota asked. Orzabal’s face went blank. He tilted his head one way, then the other.

  “Then that would present a problem, indeed,” Orzabal confirmed Takota’s worst fear. “In that case, it must be up to you to decide which child to protect. All I can say to you, Takota, is that you have been chosen to protect the True Soul.”

  “That’s just it,” Takota felt like ripping out his own fur. “I thought the True Soul was Jack. So did everyone else. Now they’re telling me it’s this other boy, Argus Cole.”

  “Argus Cole,” Orzabal muttered under his breath, almost as if he recognized the name. “Argus Cole,” he looked at Takota. “And you feel a connection with this Argus?”

  “Yes,” Takota admitted. He scanned the faces of his friends and let his eyes sink to the forest floor.

  “And you feel the same with Jack?”

  “I-I think so. Things are so clouded. I get the same feeling from both boys.”

  Orzabal stared into the clouds. Puffy white against a deep blue canvas.

  “I knew this wasn’t going to be easy,” he closed his eyes and clapped once. In the time it took for his hands to come together, he separated into ten duplicates. Then those ten each separated into ten more. All in the snap of a finger, one hundred Orzabals formed a ring around the young Tanakee, who stood stupefied at the sudden change. Takota looked up, and his confusion boiled over into shock. The sky had turned dark with thin, sinewy streaks of black that glinted in the reflected sun. Instantly, his mind went to the battle on planet La’oon.

  “The Nagas!” Pud shouted.

  “How’d they find this place!” Cheyton demanded of no one in particular. “Wind Whisper Woods is the one place in the world they weren’t supposed to find!”

  “That matters not!” one of the Orzabal copies spoke while the others fended off the Nagas attack, repelling them with ferocity. The black flying serpents shrieked and howled, then, in one great dark wave, turned in formation and whipped through the gorge, along the open tree line, and out of sight. The Tanakee master regrouped into one solitary figure again, his dimensional duplicates collapsing into him like fine layers of smoke. “What matters now is that they’re here, and they’re going to find the rest of the Tanakee if we don’t do something.”

  “The village!” Takota clenched his fists and concentrated on his old home. As soon as he got there, he knew things were amiss. The Tanakee settlement was a ghost town. Every one of the small caves, hollowed out from the side of a tall rock cliff, was empty. His own home looked deserted, his mother and father and young sister gone.

  “We’re too late,” he told the others after they’d appeared at his sides, each in brilliant, colorful flashes. He assumed they’d beaten Orzabal there, but realized the foolishness of that thinking when the ancient one stepped from one of the small dwellings with a dire look on his face.

  “Takota is right, but only partially. We’re too late to stop the village from being evacuated, but not too late to save our loved ones.”

  “So the other Tanakee?” Takota asked. “They’re okay?”

  “They’ve moved to safer places. Scattered like the wind.”

  “Like the lost tribes,” Ayita whispered. “Now we’re all lost.”

  High above their heads, a great clamor of clicking and clacking commanded the Tanakee’s attention. Takota’s heart fluttered at the sight of so many Nagas, knowing full well what would come next.

  “If we don’t know where the other Tanakee went, how can we use Eteea to get there to help?”

  “We don’t,” Orzabal answered. “I do.”

  “But my family,” said Takota. “My old friends from the village. How can I be sure they’re safe?”

  “You and your friends have important jobs to do. You must protect the humans. It’s my responsibility to watch over the Tanakee villagers. Do not trouble yourselves over such matters. Now go, protect the Children of the Blue Crystal.”

  “But Orzabal, what about Jack and Argus? Who am I supposed to protect? Who’s really the True Soul?”

  Orzabal regarded Takota with a keen eye.

  “Takota, you must trust yourself,” with one casual step, the sage old Tanakee strode into the invisible realm between dimensions, vanishing from sight, although he could still be heard. “Trust yourself, for Eteea trusts you.”

  TWENTY

  AMELIA TOSSED AND FUSSED in her bunk. She was eager for a comfortable position on the unfamiliar mattress, her head angled on an unforgiving and uncomfortable pillow, her skin chafed by the foreign and altogether unappealing sheets. Oh how she wished her dad would have brought some linens from home. It would have made her abrupt move to the Black Pyramid at least a little less jarring, though, by now, she’d grown accustomed to uprooting her life and changing zip codes.

  As tired as she was, she just couldn’t keep her mind from racing, or her body from shifting and fidgeting. So many changes. So many new developments. So much more to learn and understand. What was this place, this Black Pyramid? It seemed so large and forbidding. And who really were these people called the Eteeans? She knew her own father was in charge of them, but could they really be trusted? Could her father be trusted, for that matter? After learning of his secrets, that was a tough call.

  All of it paled in comparison to what was happening to Jack, and Amelia felt the most emotional turmoil over that. It affected Amelia. It hurt her to see Jack so hurt. But she knew she couldn’t do anything about it. Not yet. It still wasn’t the time to reveal what she knew, and even thinking about it approached a dangerous line she would rather not cross.

  These concerns she kept mulling over and over, an unrelenting assault on her psyche, wearing her down yet at the same time preventing any sort of slumber, not even one second.

  Frustrated and fatigued, she was moments from giving up and getting up when a tiny seismic shock compelled her to stay still. She felt it again, a rumble deep beneath her. Barely perceptible, yet real. Boy was it real. Suddenly her bed rocked uncontrollably, left to right, side to side, corner to corner. Her only instinct was to get up and run, find a safe place to ride out the earthquake. That’s when she realized she was paralyzed. Not one muscle could she manipulate. Arms and legs frozen. Neck unable to pivot. Jaw unable to open. Eyes unable to close.

  Then, something she’d been dreading all along. Something she’d experienced a hundred times before, yet would never, ever get used to. Heaviness on her chest. Unbearable weight on her sternum, pressing the breath out of her and squeezing her lungs dry of every last oxygen atom. At first she saw nothing unusual. She knew that would change. It always did. She always got a glimpse of her nocturnal intruder, the phantom who lived in this recurring nightmare of hers.

  Her pulse pounded in her ears when she saw the shadows coalesce into the shape of a face. A woman’s face. Beautiful, but in a cruel way. Skin so pale, and eyes even paler. A harsh smile when she spoke.

  “Amelia,” the breathy words floated in the sudden silence as the rumblings under the earth died down. “Sweet, intelligent, gifted Amelia.”

  Amelia fought against her paralysis, straining and pushing and doing everything in her power to be released from whatever had her pinned down. Nothing worked, and that drove her further into panic, though on the outside she couldn’t show it. Couldn’t shout out for help. Couldn’t do a thing but lie there and listen t
o this malevolent being’s horrible voice.

  “Do not fear me, Amelia. I’m here to help you…you and Argus. Together you will both do great, great things, Amelia. You will not disappoint me.”

  What could she mean? What could this demon of her bad dreams possibly be talking about? Laughter. Loud and harsh, flooding the cavernous barracks. Amelia wanted to cover her ears and shield herself from the terrible chortles, but she was unable to move a muscle. She tried anyway, and the laughter grew even louder, more vulgar, more malicious. The earth quaked again, this time even stronger, shaking the floor, walls, and bunk after bunk after bunk. She thought the ceiling was going to crash on top of her, and that the ground would heave upward at the same time. Yet she kept willing herself back, determined to regain control of her own body.

  Summoning every ounce of strength, every shred of resolve, she surged forward and belted out forcefully:

  “NOOO!”

  And the intruder was gone. The dormitory was still. Not a thing out of place. Not a sound to be heard. Amelia sat straight and held her hand to her chest, where her eagle feather hung on its beaded necklace. She hoped to gain a quick insight from Eteea, some clue as to who was visiting her in such an unwelcomed and vicious way. However, what she felt gave her the shock of her life. The feather. It was gone, and with it her intuition, her connection to all that is in the universe, and her very sense of self.

  The sudden loss filled her with grief, almost to the point of falling back to the bed and weeping in despair. Through her tears, she refused to give in, and buoyed her spirits with the possibility she may have lost the feather somewhere. But her self-delusion wouldn’t last. She knew she’d had her feather on her neck just before she’d laid down for a nap. And now it was gone, taken by that-that thing.

  Now she was angry, and jumped out of her bunk revived with a self-imposed mission. She had to find Jack, and find him fast. Only she hoped she wasn’t already too late.

  TWENTY-ONE

  HIGH ATOP HER CLOUD FORTRESS, tucked away in a giant storm front in the skies above Earth, the Nagas Queen opened her eyes suddenly. She laid her hands on her son’s shoulders as the human witches grew louder in their invocation, repeating the same esoteric refrain over and over while swinging the thick iron shackles around their wrists.

  “Good, my son,” she whispered to the young one. He clenched his eyes tight, breathing deeply, nodding and rocking with the power of the black magic. “Your mission is nearly complete. Now for your next task. You must call for your Tanakee protector. You can do it, my son. Call him while my warriors take care of those pesky friends of his.”

  Argus breathed deep and pressed firmly on the powerful and wondrous device in his hands. The device that made him feel omnipotent. The device he never again wanted to be without. Lowering his head, he held onto the O/A and thought deeply.

  “Takota!” he shouted inside his mind. “Takota, where are you? It’s me…it’s Argus! I’m in trouble, Takota! Takota, where are you!”

  The queen stood straight and allowed her head to fall back slowly, extending her long, jet-black hair.

  “Davos!” she beckoned, and out of the fogginess he stepped, his dreadlocks swaying eagerly on his head. “We need a distraction. Send the fighters back to Wind Whisper Woods, quickly!”

  AFTER SOME CONSIDERABLE debate among the five Tanakee, it was decided they would return to the Black Pyramid and watch over their human friends. Though Ayita and Enola had advised against it, Pud and Cheyton wanted to follow Orzabal and help defend their fellow Tanakee from the Nagas. They argued heavily on that account. And Takota, swayed by their reasoning, had almost agreed with them. Almost. No matter how much he feared for his own mother, father, little sister, and all of the others from the cliff village, his real burning desire was to protect the True Soul. Whether that was Jack or Argus, he still couldn’t be sure.

  “Takota! Watch out!” Ayita shouted, although her warning wasn’t needed. Takota saw the attack in his mind a split second before it actually happened, just enough time to scramble out of the way from a barrage of soaring serpents. Their sheer mass would have crushed him, and their pointed talons would have shredded him to bits. He had no time to worry about his own fate, though. He didn’t even have the time to help his friends, who’d become the victims of a Nagas ambush.

  From all sides the bombardment came. Slender, murky creatures sleeking through the air, twisting and turning with skill that would have been impressive had it not been so terrifying. Takota bounced to his feet, holding his breath as the serpents attacked Pud and Cheyton. Both Tanakee separated into dozens of duplicates each, swatting and kicking furiously, snatching individual flying snakes and bringing them to the ground. With the defenders’ success, the swarm circled more furiously. Then a drove of dark devils descended on Ayita and Enola as they rushed to help, a sudden surge from nowhere, catching them off guard and tripping them both to their knees.

  Takota’s heart tugged at him. He fought against his own will. Every shred of his being told him to save his friends. But he couldn’t. A deeper drive took over. A feeling so profound, it virtually tore him from his own skin. A voice. A signal of distress and pain. A distant plea for help. He saw Argus suddenly, after the fog had lifted and revealed the true nature of the message. Argus was in terrible danger and needed Takota’s help immediately.

  Despite every instinct telling him to stay with his friends, he had to answer the Call. He had to help the True Soul, no matter what. So, in less than the flutter of a bee’s wings, he allowed his physical form to take the shape of the wind and of the air. He still didn’t really like dimensional travel. His accuracy wasn’t always one hundred percent correct yet. Not like Orzabal. And, when he flashed back into existence from the mist of time and space, he at first thought he must have missed the mark. He didn’t know how such a mistake could have been made. All he did was follow the Call to where he was supposed to go. But when he looked around, he knew something wasn’t right.

  TWENTY-TWO

  “DAD!” JACK RUSHED into the lab and found his mom and sister watching Ben toil on an Eteea machine. Jack had Amelia with him, and stewed with anxiety over her recent mysterious behavior. “Dad! Have you seen Argus?”

  “Just a little more Quantum Foam over here,” Ben motioned to one of the many white-coated technicians working with him. “Thanks, guys. This machine’ll be on-line in no—”

  “DAD!” Jack shouted, and everyone stopped what they were doing. “Where’s Argus?”

  Ben blinked as if Jack spoke a foreign language. Then one of the techs piped up.

  “He was in here earlier. Took the O/A and said he was doing some discovering or something.”

  “He’s not discovering,” Amelia said. She closed her eyes, held her own shoulders, and breathed deeply. “Something’s really wrong. I can feel it.”

  “Amelia, are you hurt or something?” Jack had to ask. “It looks like you’re in agony.”

  “I’m okay, really, I just,” she jolted and doubled over, then jolted straight up again, fluttering her eyes. “Everything’s coming at me so fast.”

  Commander Klein stood at the door, the two guards by his side.

  “Amelia? What’s wrong?”

  “Where’s Argus?” Amelia shouted. “He just gets to take the O/A without as much as a peep?”

  “Argus is the True Soul,” the commander said. “If he took the O/A, then he has a reason for it. I trust him.”

  “Do you trust your own daughter, Commander?” Jack said. “Because she’s starting to have doubts about Argus. Aren’t you, Amelia?”

  “I just…” she stammered. “I don’t know. I just know we need to find him.”

  “Jack, you’ve been gunning for Argus the whole time you’ve been here,” the commander said.

  “I have not,” Jack contested. “Argus has been gunning for me. He’s taken everything from me…He’s become me!”

  “Honey,” Liz stood next to him and placed her hand on his shoulder.<
br />
  “No!” he pulled away. “It’s time I said this,” he directed his comments at the commander. “It’s time to get this all out in the open. I’m the True Soul! Me!”

  “Jack, my boy,” Ben tried to console him. “We’ve been over this…”

  “No we haven’t,” Jack said. “Not really. We’ve just taken the commander’s word for it. That’s all,” he looked at the commander again. “You haven’t even told us why you think he’s the True Soul and not me.”

  Commander Klein folded his arms.

  “That’s highly sensitive, highly classified information.”

  “Don’t give us classified,” Amelia sounded disgusted. “You’d better start giving us some answers. And I mean the truth. Starting with why you used me without telling me?”

  The commander sighed, letting a tiny crack of weakness show through his rough and tough façade.

  “Honey, I—“

  “Daddy,” she narrowed her stern stare. “The truth.”

  “I had to, Amelia.”

  Jack sensed Amelia’s anguish after the commander’s admission. It wasn’t anything she said or did. In fact, on the outside, she maintained a tough composure, usually reserved for the dead.

  “That’s it? You had to?” her tone was flat and calm. Too flat, too calm. Jack felt her ready to explode at any moment. The commander must have felt it too.

  “Please don’t be angry with me, honey,” he bent to her height, taking her hand. She jerked away. “Amelia, please don’t be like that.”