by P. T. Hylton
CHAPTER NINE: THE LOCK WITHOUT A KEY
1.
“Frank,” Zed said. “Run. Run and never come back.”
Frank stood perfectly still. He carefully controlled his breathing even though any sound he made was hidden by the lock. He clutched the book in his hand. Zed clearly expected him to do something. Did he really want Frank to run?
Wilm looked around the room, her eyes wide. “How? What did you do?”
Zed chuckled. “Frank’s been a thorn in my side for a long time now. I thought it was time you felt the pain.”
Wilm looked at San. “Can you push through?”
San hesitated. “No. Whatever power he’s using, it isn’t ours.”
“Smells familiar, though,” Vee said. “There’s a stink to it.”
“Yes,” Wilm said.
Frank’s mind was still reeling from the memory of the quarry. Was that why he had the power to make the locks? Because of whatever it was he’d absorbed from the book? And was it that same power that had locked the memories away, even from himself?
And what exactly was he supposed to do with this book? He could destroy it like he had the Rook Mountain book. He had the knife, after all. But what would that do to him? The Rook Mountain book had clearly messed with his head. Would his mind be able to hold another huge helping of that power?
Or maybe he wasn’t supposed to destroy it. It was, after all, their only weapon against Wilm and the others. Not that he knew how to use it.
He needed to understand more about the book.
Wilm and the others were still distracted, trying to figure out what had happened to him. He reached out and touched Alice on the arm.
She let out a yelp of surprise as he suddenly became visible to her.
“It’s okay,” he said. “I’ve locked you away with me. They can’t hear or see you.”
“How are you doing this?” She spoke in a whisper. Frank understood. It was difficult to wrap your mind around the fact that you could speak openly in front of someone without them hearing you.
“I make these locks.” He didn’t have time to explain. “Look, you spent the last seven years with them, right? I need to understand more about the books. Zed said they’re like batteries. What’s this power they’re trying to collect?”
She looked at Wilm for a long moment before answering. “Can we go outside?”
Frank suddenly realized the girl was terrified of Wilm. And who could blame her? She’d been kidnapped by the woman, after all. Frank nodded, and they slipped out the door.
The people of King’s Crossing were chattering, confused.
Alice glanced up at the faces around them. “They can’t see or hear us, either?”
Frank shook his head. “So you know about the books?”
Alice nodded weakly. “I know what I saw. And what they told me. They talked a lot about Zed and what he was trying to do. The way I understand it, the books are absorbing some kind of potential energy from the town. Or the people. And when the Exiles harvest the energy, it destroys the town. And if they don’t harvest it, it slowly begins to decay, eventually destroying the town anyway, like what happened back in Sugar Plains, Illinois. That’s what Zed was trying to do. Take the towns out of time so the batteries would eventually decay.”
“And that’s what he was trying to do with Rook Mountain,” Frank said. Zed must not have known Frank had already absorbed the power from the book.
A thought occurred to him: the town hadn’t been destroyed when he stabbed the book.
“Listen,” Frank said, taking Alice by the shoulders. “I think I know a way to make it so they can’t get their hands on the book. They’ll never be able to get their hands on it.”
“What are you gonna do?” she asked.
“I’m gonna destroy the book.” He held up a hand before she could object. “I can do it without hurting the town. But is there anything we can do with the book? Any way we could use it to our advantage?”
She shook her head. “Not that I know of. Do your thing. Now.”
He took a deep breath. “Hey, there’s a chance this might not…I might not make it through this. I don’t have time to say goodbye to Sophie.”
Alice nodded quickly. “Yeah, I’ll tell her you said all kinds of mushy stuff. Get on with it.”
Frank gripped the knife and raised it over the book.
Before he could bring down the knife, a sudden shooting pain in his head sent him reeling.
A booming voice filled the air.
“That smell. I recognize that smell.” It was San, the statuesque woman with black hair. She was floating over the crowd, searching it with her eyes. The people of King’s Crossing stared up at her, frozen with fear and awe.
Another shockwave hit Frank’s brain and he doubled over and let the book slip from his fingers. It felt like a wrecking ball hitting his skull from the inside. He realized he was lying on his back on the ground now, though he hadn’t felt himself fall.
“It’s a book,” San said. “You’re using the power from a book. But how?”
The pounding came again, now from another direction. Frank squinted up into the sky and saw Vee floating to his left. “We will break down the walls. You are like a child. You might be holding power, but you have no idea how to use it.”
Frank wanted to say that the use of power assaulting him wasn’t exactly subtle either, but he didn’t think he currently had the power of speech. Another impact slammed into his head and drove him to his knees.
“You’re somehow using the power to mask yourself from us,” San said. “If I didn’t recognize the taste of that power, I wouldn’t have been able to find you at all. Despite what my brother Vee says, it’s actually very nicely done.”
Frank felt a cool hand on his shoulder. He turned his head, nausea rolling through him as he moved, and looked up, expecting to see Alice. Instead, he saw Wilm looking down at him.
“I’m very curious where you got that power,” Wilm said.
A wave of pain rocked Frank, putting everything he’d felt before it to shame. He lost the ability to even open his eyes. It felt like his mind was a gaping hole. He could barely hold a thought.
“Ah,” Wilm said. “That’s better. We can see you now.”
“My guess is he was doing it instinctively,” San said. “Probably didn’t even realize how he was doing it. More the power protecting itself than him using it.”
“And you, my dear Alice,” Wilm said. “After everything we’ve done for you? I must say, I’m rather disappointed.”
Frank still couldn’t open his eyes. The world was dark, but he heard a squeal of pain or maybe terror that could only be Alice.
“Shall I burn out her mind?” That was Vee speaking, his distinctive low rumbling voice banging around in Frank’s head like a gong.
“I hardly see the point,” Wilm said. “She’ll be dead in a few moments. They’ll all be dead.”
Frank let out a tiny moan. He managed to roll onto his side. A major accomplishment, as far as he was concerned. Maybe he should celebrate by resting for a moment or two.
“Ah,” Wilm said. “The broken man.”
She must be holding the book now, Frank realized. Soon this would all be over. The thought terrified him, but there was something sweet about it, too. An end to the pain. Not just his, but everyone’s.
Wilm continued. “Did you know, Alice, that the symbols on these books represent the great families of our home? The icon of a lone man was the symbol of a proud family of warlords. I was briefly engaged to their second eldest son. They’re long dead, of course. That’s what the crack means. The family is no more. Jorrick, our old friend who built the books, did it as a way to honor the old families.”
Alice yelped again. Frank wished he knew what they were doing to her. Or maybe he didn’t.
“My husband’s family symbol was the clock. They were a quirky bunch. Rayd’s symbol was the mountain. So many families. So much history. All lost forever.” She si
ghed.
“I can’t wait to see what your symbol is,” Alice said in a strained voice. “I’m gonna use your bones to make a plunger. I’ll think of you every time I use it.”
Wilm made a tsking noise. “Shall we?”
Frank forced his eyes open.
Wilm held the book. Her hand rested on the cover. San was reaching toward it. A silver, shimmering construct of an arm suddenly appeared on Vee’s right side, and the hand reached toward the book.
Frank wanted nothing more than to close his eyes and wait for the end. He didn’t know if it would be painful, but he was pretty sure it would be fast. And that was all he wanted. For it to be over fast.
He’d been through so much. So much pain. So much loneliness. And now it would be over.
Then he felt the heavy, cold weight of the knife in his hand. He remembered Christine and Will and Trevor risking everything to try to save him the day he was sent Away. He remembered Jake fighting to the death to turn Vee into a tree back in Sanctuary. He remembered Alice battling her way back here to warn them about Wilm. He remembered Sophie standing up to Taylor, the man who’d killed her sister.
He couldn’t let this happen. Not while there was even the sliver of a chance left. His friends trusted him. Against all odds, even Zed trusted him.
And trust was a must, yes. But even more important was what you did with the trust people gave you. It was a gift. That’s what Zed never understood. He asked for the people’s trust in Rook Mountain, and when they gave it to him, he betrayed it. He took that most precious of gifts and he sold it to buy another chance at the power he so coveted.
Frank wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t be like Zed. He would give their trust the respect and the honor it deserved.
He’d do this one thing, and then he’d finally be able to rest.
Frank struggled to his feet, the world spinning around him. Wilm and the others didn’t notice. Their eyes were locked on the book, on the power they were about to drink. Frank gritted his teeth and raised the knife.
Vee’s hand touched down on the cover of the book, the final one of the three, and they all opened their eyes wide, looks of ecstasy on their faces.
The color seemed to drain out of the world. Sounds grew faint. The town was fading.
Frank buried the knife deep into the book and fire poured into his mind.
It was worse than it had been with the Rook Mountain book, so much worse. If the Rook Mountain book had been like drinking from a fountain, then this was drinking from a fire hose. He didn’t know if the screaming he heard was coming from him, Wilm, Vee, San, or all four of them.
Through the haze of pain he saw the three Exiles, their looks of ecstasy now replaced with expressions of terror.
Frank realized he wasn’t just sucking the power out of the book. He was sucking the power out of them. Somehow, he was draining their power.
The three godlike beings in front of him seemed to be diminishing. They looked gaunt, like they’d gone weeks without eating. A moment later, they were inhumanly thin, skeletons with paper-like skin.
And then, they were gone. All that remained were three shimmering pools of metallic liquid on the ground at his feet.
The book burst into flame, but just like with the Rook Mountain book, he didn’t feel it. Or maybe he did feel it and he just couldn’t distinguish it from the agonizing fire burning inside him.
He looked down and, to his surprise, he saw the people of King’s Crossing looking up at him. He was thirty feet in the air.
There was Matt, Alice’s dad, his eyes wide. Frank realized he could hear the man’s thoughts. Please let my daughter be okay. If Frank has to die to make that happen—
Frank stopped listening. Maybe he didn’t want to hear it.
There was Joe, fearless leader of the Rough-Shod Readers. His thoughts were full of quotes from Milton’s Paradise Lost.
And there was old enemy stepping out of the shed. Zed’s thoughts…they were different than everyone else’s. He wasn’t thinking in words at all. As he stared up at Frank, Zed’s thoughts were only of a terrible hunger. Zed bent down and picked up something off the ground, but Frank didn’t notice what it was. Because his friends and family were coming out of the shed now, and Frank was overwhelmed with love for them.
He looked down at his hands and saw they were glowing. No, not just his hands. All of him. The fire, Frank thought. It was seeping out through his skin.
Frank took one last look down at the people of King’s Crossing. The people who’d taken him in over the past seven years and given him a home. The people he’d saved. The people who’d saved him.
And he smiled.
The world went dark, and Frank tumbled out of the sky.
2.
Sophie stumbled out of the shed and saw Frank floating in the sky. His skin was glowing. It was the strangest, most terrifying, most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. God, how she loved him.
Then he fell from the sky and landed with a loud thud.
They’d waited in the shed for a while, Sophie, Zed, Jake, Christine, Will, and Mason. They hadn’t believed Wilm and her friends would be able to find Frank. No one could see through Frank’s locks, not even the Exiles.
So they’d been shocked when they saw the world beginning to fade. It felt to Sophie like all the air was being sucked out of her lungs. Something pulled at her. It was like an undertow, and she knew that in a few moments she and everything else in this town would be washed away.
Then, suddenly, it had stopped. It was as if the world were even brighter and more alive than it had been before. It was like the wave crashing, pushing her back onto the shore. Then, there was screaming. And a ball of light, like fire, flashed through the air.
They’d followed Zed outside. And she’d seen Frank, shining like a light in the sky.
She ran to where he lay on the pavement. He didn’t seem to be injured, not visibly anyway. There was no blood. That didn’t mean anything, though. He could have a broken neck, or a broken back, or internal bleeding, or who-the-hell knew what.
His skin still glowed. She reached out and caressed his cheek. It was cold.
He was breathing, but his breaths were shallow with long pauses between them.
She looked up at the others around her. She saw Alice hugging her dad, her golden sword on the ground at her feet. Jake, Christine, and Will all looked down at Frank with troubled stares.
“What’s wrong with him?” Sophie asked.
No one answered.
Zed stood apart from the rest of them. “He did it. I don’t believe it. He actually did it.” He touched Alice’s arm. “Tell me exactly what happened.”
Sophie saw the sunlight glint off something in Zed’s hand. It was the knife. Somehow he’d gotten ahold of Christine’s knife.
Alice shook her head. “I don’t know. It was all so fast.”
“Just tell me what you saw. Anything you can remember.”
Her voice quivered as she spoke. “Wilm was holding the book. They all touched it the way they do when they devour a town. Then things went all swirly like usual. Except this time was different. I wasn’t just watching. I felt like I was being sucked in too.”
“That’s because you’re part of this town,” Zed said. “You weren’t an outside observer. This is your town. Tell me what happened next.”
“Okay. Frank was lying on the ground. Then he got up and stabbed the book with that knife. Then everything changed. I didn’t feel like I was being sucked in anymore. Frank started glowing and the rest of them…” She trailed off and waved a hand toward other metallic pools of liquid on the ground. “Then the book caught on fire and Frank floated into the sky. You saw the rest. He fell.”
Zed’s eyes were lit up. “Of course. The only thing that can draw the power from a book is one of the Exiles. And the Tools are made from their remains. Stabbing the book with the knife drains the power from the book, same as when the Exiles touch it.”
It suddenly struck Sophie
that they may have just wiped out an entire alien race. But now, with her husband lying half dead on the ground, she found it hard to care about that. They were trying to destroy the Earth, after all.
Zed crouched down next to Frank. “I should have known. Back in Rook Mountain, I knew the power was still there and it was still building. But I couldn’t find the book. That’s because there was no book. His mind became the trap for the power. All the power of Rook Mountain was hiding inside him all along.”
Zed laughed, and Sophie felt a chill run down her spine. She’d heard Zed laugh before, but never like this. Never like he was so close to losing control. “Do you know why Jorrick put the books where he did? Wilm had a theory. She told me once a long time ago. She said Jorrick hid the books centuries ago at the sites that were destined to become the greatest cities in our world. They were supposed to be places of great learning, great innovation. Rook Mountain, Sugar Plains, King’s Crossing. All these places should have been centers of earthly culture and the birthplaces of humankind’s greatest achievements. But the books gathered the potential of these places and trapped it. All that power in one place attracted strange things like the Unfeathered and the Ones Who Sing. After Wilm and her people consumed the potential from the book, it would be as if the town never existed.”
He tapped Frank’s forehead. “It seems there’s a more perfect storage device.” He looked up at the rest of them, his eyes wild with excitement. “Can you imagine it? Inside his head is the potential of two cities plus the energy Wilm, San, and Vee were carrying. No wonder he’s out cold! He has no idea how to use it! How to even deal with it.”
Zed was holding the knife so tightly the tendons on his arm were standing out and his knuckles were white.
“He has no idea how to use the power,” he said, “but I do. I’ve tasted it. I practiced using it for a thousand years! Albeit in a smaller dosage.” He gently rested the blade of the knife against Frank’s forehead. “Imagine what I could do with that power.”
Sophie couldn’t breathe. Zed had a knife against her husband’s head. A man who destroyed countless lives. There was no question in Sophie’s mind Zed would kill Frank to get to that power. He’d kill all of them if he had to.