One is Come

by C. H. MacLean

  Chapter 5

  Failed Test

  Crystyn pounced on Abrennin the instant he came in the front door. He caught a glimpse of his daughter lost in a book, like usual, but not much else. The light in his wife’s eyes, and her steely grip on his arm, convinced him to follow her without protest into the office. She let go of him and waited for him to sit down at his desk. She remained standing in the spot she usually stood during their discussions.

  “Yes, sweetie? How was the day with Hayl?” he asked. “Did you find out her friends' last names?”

  She waved off his questions. “We have a problem. I think we have to move,” she said.

  He blinked. He wasn’t done with his current contract, wasn’t even close. She talked to Haylwen, didn't find out names, and now we have to move? Possibilities clicked into place and his surprise vaporized. “Oh?” he said.

  “Haylwen got her period yesterday.” She paused, waiting to see if he would say anything. Her period, he thought. That might mean something, but might not. He didn’t say anything, just raised an eyebrow.

  “And…” she said as she answered the implied question, her voice dropping to a whisper, “she broke me in a Gaze Challenge.”

  Not many things surprised Abrennin Rightad, and he never let his surprise show. Almost never. This time, his jaw dropped wide open. Crystyn crossed her arms, conflicting expressions of pain and pride made war across her face as Abrennin recovered.

  “They were Tested. Twice, right?” he said flatly. It wasn’t a question and not really an accusation.

  “They failed both times, and neither Cadarn nor Haylwen have shown a single sign since,” she agreed. Neither voiced what they were thinking. “Have you felt anything from them?” she finished.

  “Not my place,” he said gently enough to defuse a bit of her defensiveness, “but, no. She broke you…” he continued slowly. “So she did cause that explosion?” This was also not an accusation.

  “Moving won’t solve anything once she fully Awakens, especially if she is that powerful,” she said.

  He nodded, slowly, his mind busy in a far-off gaze.

  “But it might buy us some time,” she finished reluctantly.

  “Yes, I think we need to take steps to give the kids some transition time and enough room to cover our tracks,” he said, his gaze still far away. “Yes, we can move, for starters. I'll have to do all the fieldwork up front, sort the data later... it will be messy and take a lot more time. We'll have to tighten our belts until I can find new work... if I can ever go back.” He shook his head and looked at his wife. “But it won't matter if they catch her using magic. And there is only one way to even suppress a magic user.” He gave her a rueful smile. “Short of an Oath, that is.”

  She sighed. “I know we discussed it in theory, but does it make sense? Now that I know, I can cloak her energy. We don't really need to poison our own child, do we?”

  Abrennin's eyes snapped back to his wife's face. “It’s not poison, just suppresses a part of her energy. It doesn’t cause any permanent damage, and you know it. And… there is no way you would be able to keep the cloak on without being near her at all times.” He tried and failed to keep his fear from sounding like anger. “Let’s suppose it was possible for me to reestablish contact with the Rogues. They could protect us.” He knew it was a sore point, but he had to try.

  Her only response to the unasked question was to tighten her lips.

  “Well then, until we are ready to risk having our daughter taken away from us, we can’t chance the Conclave' monitors sensing her,” he said. “What choice do we have?”

  “I know, we talked about this, but it seemed so far away, and after they failed Testing, I thought we were safe,” Crystyn said hesitantly. She shook her head. “It’s going to take me a while to find the ingredients, and you will need to Cast them, and we have to figure out how to get the poison, I mean, potion into her. It is going to take some effort...”

  “I know.” Abrennin slumped a little, and rubbed the back of his neck. “I can cast them in the middle of the night, and for starters, we'll put it in tomato sauce. Her first dose can be in one of your special lasagnas that she loves so much. She'll never know.” He let his hand slide forward, along his jaw and then fall limply. “We’ll all eat it. Even though Cadarn isn’t showing signs, it’s not a bad thing for him, just in case. You and I can take the counter-potion right after eating.”

  She nodded, hesitated, then asked, “It won't last forever, and we can't keep doing this. What is our long-term plan? Are you sure it’s better this way?”

  His eyes never wavered, but his voice did. “I don’t know.”

  “If you want me to consider going to the Rogues, maybe you should consider…”

  The doorbell startled them into silence. A moment later, a familiar voice sprang their eyes wide. They scrambled for the office door, their look to each other exchanging the same question and answer. Did you know? I didn’t know.

  Crystyn made it out of the door first. Looking past his wife, Abrennin saw Haylwen standing there, holding the front door partially open.

  “Chuck!” Crystyn rushed forward and scooted Haylwen aside. “Chuck, come in, what a surprise!” She stood on her tiptoes to give him a quick hug, careful to not wrinkle his expensive suit.

  “Yes, I was just in the neighborhood and thought I would pop in,” he said, still in the doorway. “My, my, Haylwen, you have grown!”

  “Of course you remember your Uncle Chuck,” Crystyn supplied for Haylwen, turning to further move her aside. Noticing him as his head popped out the door, she included Cadarn. She gestured for him to come out, but he was already on his way. His door left open, his music became a pounding background noise.

  “Uncle Chuck!” Cadarn ran forward and slapped Chuck’s offered palm.

  “Yep, that’s a zinger,” Chuck said, pretending to be in pain and shaking his hand.

  “What brings you by?” Abrennin asked, leaning against the office door frame, arms crossed.

  “As I said, I was just in the neighborhood. It’s been a long time, and I thought I would bring Cadarn’s birthday present myself this year. You don’t mind that it’s a bit early, do you?” he said, turning to Cadarn.

  “No way!” Cadarn said, eyes gleaming.

  Chuck disappeared into the hall as he bent to pick up something from just outside the door, reemerging with two large boxes. “Of course, I brought a little something for my little Hay bale, too.”

  Ushered in by Crystyn, he looked around the small apartment for somewhere to put the boxes. Abrennin shut the office door and stepped forward to take the boxes from him. He led the several steps into the living room, putting the boxes on the table in front of the couch.

  “Can I get you anything?” Crystyn asked.

  “No, thank you,” Chuck replied, his smile thinning as it went from Crystyn to Abrennin. “I can’t stay long. Even private jets have to answer to air traffic control.”

  Cadarn and Haylwen sat next to each other on the couch. Cadarn, having unstacked the boxes and finding out which was his, looked expectantly from his parents to Uncle Chuck. Chuck, all smiles, nodded and motioned to go ahead. Cadarn didn’t need more, and ripped open the wrapping paper and into the plain brown box. Packing peanuts spilled as he rummaged in the box. Cadarn’s fervor erupted in a little ‘ooh’ as he carefully pulled out the prize, a black cylinder. It was a bit longer but thinner than a roll of paper towels. It looked heavy from the way Cadarn was moving it, trying to figure out what it was.

  Haylwen opened hers, immediately revealing a large doll with blond pigtails. Its opened- eyes moved, found Haylwen’s face, and a smile slid onto its face. Haylwen quickly put the doll on the table and sat back. Haylwen’s doll took that momentary silence to speak. “Hi, Haylwen. Would you like to have a tea party?”

  Haylwen just looked at it.

  “Or would you like to hear a story? I have a full library.”

  Chuck took the black cyl
inder from Cadarn. “It’s the latest prototype from my portable division.” He set it on the table, on its long side, pulling on two recessed tabs. From each side he pulled a thin flat panel, the one extending up twice as long as the one lying on the table. A row of red lights lit up between them. “Full screen monitor and keyboard. Three cubic processors,” he paused, checking to be sure Cadarn was lost. “A cubic processor has more processing power than nine standard CPUs.” When Cadarn’s eyes widened, Chuck rattled on.

  Haylwen’s doll stood up and reached out its arms. “Would you like a hug?” it said.

  “Um, how do you turn it off?” Haylwen asked, backing even more into the couch.

  Without looking, Chuck said quickly, “Go to sleep.” The doll lay on its side and closed its eyes.

  Chuck reached the end of his demonstration. “And it uses quad-compressed WiFi for connectivity,” he paused again, but Cadarn looked sad instead of confused. “What?” Chuck said.

  “No WiFi.”

  “Oh. Well. You can link to your mobile carrier, but that slows it down to T1…”

  “No mobile,” Cadarn said sadly.

  Chuck’s look of shock and dismay was as if Cadarn said he wasn’t being given water. “Well, that is something I can quickly remedy…”

  “We can manage that, thank you,” Abrennin cut in. He immediately continued to Cadarn, “we will discuss it,” with a look that meant not now. Cadarn’s mouth closed and his brows sank. Abrennin crossed his arms and didn’t uncross them until Chuck had finished his visit, accepted hugs from his sister, Haylwen, and Cadarn, and then left. The smell of his expensive cologne followed Abrennin into his office. It goaded him to keep working furiously late into the night, doing all he could to try to protect his beautiful wife and children.