Colin and The Rise of The House of Horwood
Page 48
Chapter Eighteen: Jaeger
Indistinct images of faces and colors swirled about his head. As well, he heard voices but, like the images, he was unable to make sense of them. The faces were focused on him, staring down at him from what seemed to be the top of a deep well. He tried to get a grip on the sides of the rough cylindrical brick wall, but dark hands held him fast. It was hard for him to breathe. Panic tightened in his chest. Then, from where the faces and voices were, a flash of light blazed down into the well causing the shadows that held him down to screech in pain and flee. Freed from their grasp, he felt himself rising effortlessly, buoyantly, to the top. He awoke.
Colin rubbed his eyes as he focused on the concerned faces of Spike, Rhea, and Maestro … and someone else, someone who had been there, but was not there now. He caught a flicker of movement from the corner of his eye as someone left the caravan he was in, and recognized it as the form of his aunt.
Maestro’s caravan was a garden, perfectly arranged to give the greatest effect. It was as though an artist had been given living things, instead of paints, and told to create peace and harmony. The result exuded a feeling of sense and purpose. A small waterfall gurgled and tinkled melodically in the background, filling a tiny pond whose surface was festooned with lily pads, and its depths flashed brilliantly with gold, orange, and white fish, their long fantails beckoning in the water. There was a little white bridge that crossed the stream to a small island that the pond surrounded. Miniature trees kept small through exact pruning had taken on shapes that gave the eyes a soothing caress. From where he lay on a small bamboo mat, Colin let his hand touch one of the paving stones beneath him. It was cool. He noticed that all the stones were matched with a complimentary theme: the rough beside the smooth, the dark beside the light. Each unique part of the garden added to the whole to create an entire calmness that helped chase away his bad dream … almost. The hands were still lurking, just on the edge of the garden’s influence.
“What’s the sense,” said Colin groggily, blinking his eyes to get rid of the sleep there.
“Excuse me?” Maestro chuckled, his deep rich voice seeming to be part of the garden itself.
“You’re blind,” he said. “You can’t see any of this, so what’s the point?” With a great effort, Colin sat up. Even though the hands were no longer holding him, a miserable feeling was still inside him.
“Whether I can see or not isn’t the point,” he responded kindly, patiently. “The point is: I can feel, I can smell, and I can tell when things are in harmony and when things are in discord,” he said, turning his scarred face to him as though he could see. Maestro dismissed Spike and Rhea, gesturing them towards the door and quietly saying as he pointed from Colin to himself, “He and I need to talk.”
A feeling of restlessness, resentment, sprang to life in Colin. Normally, he would have acquiesced to Maestro’s authority, but not this time. It was as though the voice that had whispered to him had somehow become part of him; it was almost indiscernible from whom he was. He shook his head. “No, I have no secrets from my friends. I want them to stay.”
Maestro hesitated and then nodded. “As you wish,” and turning to Rhea, he continued, “I was going to tell you this separately, because things concerning guardian spirits are of a personal nature. Rhea, Colin, the reason I have strongly advised you not to employ your guardians is because they are too strong to be handled merely by personality. They contain, especially the Phoenix and yours, Colin, too much energy. That’s why you have the phoenix tear necklace, Rhea. When you described what happened, its purpose became clear. Your necklace is what I would call a ‘step down’ transformer. In your battle with the Nixes beneath the aerie, your guardian came to your aid and entered into your necklace. You can now safely call on your guardian for protection because the necklace acts to mitigate the full force of the Phoenix.”
Colin felt an odd resentment rising in him. After the encounter with himself in the mirror, he had felt wary of Maestro, but this emotion was different. It was much more intense. It was malevolent, selfish, and contentious.
“What about Spike and Melissa? They don’t need anything to help with their spirits.”
Maestro paused. “Yes, that is true. They come from a different culture, a culture that is still close to the energy that forms the guardians. You could say they are their own amulets. You and Rhea, on the other hand, are different.”
“What about me?” said Colin, the resentment inside him turning into anxious energy. He suddenly wanted to escape from everyone and everything. “It wants out, so why can’t I just let it out?”
“Because, right now, it would kill you! Inadvertently of course, but it would still kill you. I know! Remember what my guardian did to me?”
“So, what am I to do?” asked Colin feeling bewildered.
“Your amulet will come to you, in the moment of your greatest need, and then you’ll be ready to call your guardian forth. Until then, you must continue to fight the urge to use it. I tell you this because, with the impending performance, and Zuhayer’s return, the temptation will be great, but right now, that’s the least of our worries.”
Colin could feel the air around them become thick with anticipatory tension, so thick that it was almost impossible to move. “What do you mean?”
“Beneath the aerie, you touched, or one of the Shadow Nixes, touched you. Do you know what that means?”
Colin shook his head. “I know only what Grandfather Thunder told us.” The disagreeable part of him was now crouched down in some corner in his head trying to be invisible, gnashing its teeth.
“And what did he tell you?”
“Never to let a Shadow Nix touch you because they can make you very unhappy.”
Maestro nodded. “He only told you part of it. You’re still young and he probably didn’t want to frighten you with the whole truth. When people die naturally--not like Zuhayer--they go to another place and continue their existence; however, the ones who do terrible things while they are alive, never truly leave. They become …,”
“Shadow Nixes,” finished Rhea, “but why do they want to touch us?”
“Because, they want to live again, and they can only imitate life again by becoming parasites, by taking over the body of those they touch. Unfortunately, Colin, right now, you have a Nix inside you.”
The Nix inside him started to scream silently, furious at being revealed.
“Can’t you get it out?”
“It depends on how strong the Nix is, or was. The one inside you is very strong, and it will try to take over your personality. I’m afraid you’re in for a bit of a fight, but if you can win the fight, the Nix will leave. It will try to find somebody weaker.”
“So, what do I do now?” asked Colin, his panic rising again. “I mean, how do I fight it?”
“Don’t listen to it, learn to differentiate its thoughts from your own, and be positive. Think of good things, things that make you happy. Shadow Nixes hate that. Not to worry, I have a good feeling that the Nix will be out of your system in the next two days.”
“The next two days?”
“Yes, events of strong import seem to accelerate the process. Rhea tells me that tonight you have a big game?”
Rhea, who had been absorbed in what Maestro had been saying, broke out of her pensive trance. “Oh, of course! We’re playing the Terminators for the indoor championship.”
“Well, I suggest you get ready,” said Maestro.
“That’s it? I just go about my routine? I just go and play soccer like nothing else is going on?”
“Why, yes, I think so,” but then he leaned in close and whispered into his ear, “but beware the voice, and those hands trying to hold you back. You’ll be doing battle on more than one level: You will fight against the Nix within…and the Nix in others.”