by Jeff Hook
The voice was so close, so incredibly close.
But there was another noise, off to his right, from the direction of the farms.
“That’s right!” yelled Ishū. “Get 'em!”
A giant thunderbeast rolled into view. It was curled up in a ball with its tail covering its head, turning it into a huge spiked wheel that cut divots in the ground as it rolled toward them. Any other day and Hishano would have been angry at the destruction of order — there weren’t supposed to be holes in the ground here! — but today he was thankful. The thunderbeast sped toward the devils, its scaly hide glimmering in the sun.
When it reached them it unrolled itself violently, its tail hitting the ground with a boom.
“Now this?” complained Freddy.
Hishano allowed himself to turn and watch, in case the thunderbeast needed his help. Freddy slammed his long knife into the beast and it bounced off, sparking.
“Our cutlasses don’t work,” said Freddy.
“Thanks for narrating,” said Jack.
The thunderbeast swung its tail and slammed it into Freddy, knocking him several feet back.
“So cool,” said Karugo, who had also turned to watch. Why did Karugo look excited? This was no cause for excitement. What if the thunderbeast was corrupted by this violent act? What if it turned into a devil? “I always knew Ishū was awesome.”
Jack dropped to a crouch, holding his long knife in front of him. “I know you got a weakness somewhere. Let me see it.” The thunderbeast swung its tail again and Jack leapt back. “Come on, you overgrown lizard. Let’s dance.”
Jack feinted forward. Freddy picked himself up and circled to the back of the thunderbeast, making it divide its attention.
This was what the outer devils were like. This was what had destroyed the world.
Ishū’s face grew worried. “Kids, run!” he said. “We can’t hold them forever!”
“Hear that?” said Jack. “It does have a weakness!”
Suddenly Hishano felt an overwhelming sense of calm. Everything would be okay. He needed to follow the rules of Tandoku Island and everything would be all right.
“Where’s my fire?” asked Karugo sadly. “Why is everything back to normal?”
Karugo wore a mournful expression, but there was something even stranger about him: his hair was flat.
Two Elders walked toward them. The one in the lead carried a ten-foot-long stick with a crystal contraption on the end of it: within a lantern-like enclosure of frosted glass hung two yellow crystals and a blue crystal, each carved into a crescent shape.
Hishano’s shoulder wound started to bleed again.
As the Elders and their device drew closer, the devils sheathed their cutlasses and the thunderbeast relaxed.
“All is well,” said the Elder. “All will be well.”
5
Creating Trouble
Karugo was disappointed that the excitement was over. Clashing with the devils, seeing the thunderbeast do more than just plow the fields... it had all been so exciting!
But the Elders would “fix” that. It was their job to “fix” any excitement that threatened to occur.
Ishū motioned to his thunderbeast. It rolled up and went back to the farms, putting another row of holes in the ground with the plates on its back.
One Elder gripped the ten-foot stick with both hands, holding the crystal contraption close to the devils. The other Elder approached them. “Come with us,” she said.
The devils looked so placid now, so calm. If not for their weird skin color and the cutlasses hanging at their sides, Karugo could almost believe them to be Tandoku.
“You’re safe now,” said the Elder holding the stick. “All will be well.”
Karugo couldn’t help but feel disappointed.
The Elders walked away with the devils. One turned back, almost as an afterthought, to give instructions. “Hishano, go help the school. That’s what we came to do, but handling this is more important.” Then she fixed her stare on Karugo. “Don’t follow us.”
The crystal was far enough away that he could think clearly again, far enough that he could feel a little bit of the life flowing back through him. Don’t follow? That sounded like a challenge.
“Well, guess I better head for home,” said Karugo.
“You’re going to follow them, aren’t you?”
Couldn’t Hishano stop meddling for just one second? “You should go check on the kids in the school, like the Elders said. You wouldn’t want to disobey them, would you?”
Hishano sighed and walked back toward the school. There wasn’t much of it left standing; if they were lucky, they might not have school for weeks!
As soon as Hishano stopped looking back, Karugo set about following the Elders. He had to stay out of the range of that crystal contraption on a stick, and not get caught, but not getting caught was usually pretty easy. It was as if no one in town except the Elders and Karugo could comprehend someone breaking the rules on purpose... and even then, most of the Elders only seemed to understand it through watching Karugo.
He took a diagonal path, one that brought him closer to the city but could also be construed as walking home. Once the Elders disappeared into the buildings he turned toward the city and started sprinting.
He knew where they would go, so he followed along a parallel street. As long as he moved at a quick walk he could get to the House of Elders before them, sneak in, and see what was happening. All he had to do along the way was not look suspicious.
It was easier than he expected because the entire town was disorderly... in a way that bothered even him. A couple of houses were damaged and there were several people crying. A mother held her baby and wailed, a shocking display that chilled Karugo. Later, he saw another pair of Elders with a second crystal contraption on a stick; they were near a set of houses that were completely demolished, their stone walls scattered all over the street. Something worse than the expanding boy had happened there.
The incident seemed to affect everyone differently, but it had affected a lot of people.
When he got closer to the House of Elders he got more explicitly sneaky. Being caught anywhere around here would be suspicious, so his only hope was to not be seen. His heart thrilled — having a mission like this, a purpose, was almost as good as being on fire or fighting the devils.
He heard footfalls and ducked behind a building and peeked out from behind a corner. It was the devils and the Elders. The rod holding the suppression device had transformed into a tall walking stick, one that held the crystal contraption a foot above the head of the carrier. Karugo was close enough that he could hear them talk but far enough that his feelings weren’t dominated by the suppression device.
“I repeat — again — you’re not to speak to anyone outside of this building. Your presence is a disturbance, and our people do not like disturbances.”
“Are they all as dull as you?” asked Jack.
“Patience,” said Freddy. “Things could be going worse.”
“My clothes are damp,” complained Jack. “Practically soggy. If we can’t unblock our powers soon I’m going to go crazy.”
They’d been fighting moments before and now they were complaining about moisture? What kind of people were these devils? Did they fight so much that it didn’t bother them? Karugo needed to know more. If there were other lands where excitement like this happened every day then he wanted to go there as soon as possible.
“You are not to attempt using your powers here!” said an Elder sternly. “You can call upon your devils as much as you like once we ship you outside of our sphere, but until then you are our guests and you are not to disturb this island’s harmony any more than you already have. Is that clear?”
“Yes, that is very clear,” said Freddy respectfully.
“Yeah, yeah,” said Jack. “You know, if you control the climate you could at least make your island less humid.”
“And support fewer people?” asked the El
der rhetorically. “We must be careful touching the weather. It always has secondary effects that surprise us.”
“You’re telling them too much. Don’t endanger the island,” said the other Elder.
“Look at them,” said the first Elder. “They’re not nearly as bad as the stories say.”
“That’s because—” The Elder motioned to the suppression device with his head in what he probably thought was a subtle gesture.
The group moved on, past where Karugo could hear them. They passed through the gates of the House of Elders, then through the front door, and when the coast was clear Karugo followed.
There was no one near the door — Tandoku didn’t sneak around, so why bother guarding it? — and he entered without challenge. The hallways were a bit harder to navigate. Everyone who was allowed in here was in their time of fading, but there were plenty who had just started the process and still had the sharpness of a younger person... and the group he was trying to follow had disappeared.
He listened in at each door, trying to find where the devils had gone. Most doors had no sound coming from them, but behind one he heard a voice he recognized... not the devils, not the Elders that had fetched them, but Grandpa Toraburu.
His grandpa! In the House of Elders! In the last sixteen years, Karugo had snuck in here only four times, and that was still more visits than Grandpa had made.
Whatever was happening today, it was a big deal if they’d allowed Grandpa back in here.
From the sounds of it, he was having an argument with another Elder.
Karugo needed to find a way to listen in — a way that, unlike standing around in the hallway, wouldn’t get him caught. If he could get into a nearby room, he could listen from there.
He put his ear to the next door and didn’t hear anything. Carefully he opened it and peeked in, his heart pounding eagerly in anticipation, and it was a relief when the room was empty. He closed the door and went to the adjoining wall to listen.
His grandpa was yelling. “Don’t you try to blame this on my boy!
Whoever he was yelling at harrumphed. “I can see where he gets it from.”
“It happened sooner than I predicted, thanks to those two that crashed through it, but it happened.”
“And the suppressor field must still not be working right, if you can work up this much anger. Are you going to burst into flames too?”
“You can’t stall me forever; I will speak to the Council. I was right to create that boy, and if we throw away—”
Karugo’s mind spun in circles, missing the rest of the sentence. He was… created? Planned?
“You had no right to vandalize our breeding charts. You got your little monster, but what else did you screw up? We’ll be feeling the repercussions of this for centuries. You’re a disgrace,” spat the other Elder, “and we will see to it that your line ends.”
“Then we’ll all die,” said Grandpa Toraburu. “That wall has held off the reckoning for centuries, but soon you’ll see what happens to a society that kills its heroes.”
6
Recovery
Guffy regained consciousness with fish nibbling at his toes. His body was pressed against the side of the boat just low enough that his feet dangled in the water. His arms stretched all the way up, over the railing, where they were tied in a knot around the larger of the schooner’s two masts.
It was a good stretch, and the water felt nice.
Then he remembered… the battle! Cobblesticks on a plate! He had to help them finish the battle!
Aaaaah!
He’d thrown Sam, then used the last of his consciousness to secure himself to the mast to keep from being blown away. What had happened after that?
He snapped his arms to a shorter length as quickly as he could without activating his super. That brought him flying above the railing, enjoying a full second of free-floating weightlessness before slamming face-first into the mast. He crumpled onto the deck, lying dazed for a second before jumping up and shaking himself out.
That was some knot he’d tied in his arms! After hanging on his arms for however long he’d been passed out, the knot was pulled tight as a drumhead on a cold day.
“Guess who’s up,” said Syldris. “It’s Mr. Cheki-toon. Miss Edna Fry. Mr. Tony —”
“What?”
“She’s listing famous blind people,” explained one of the swordsmen. “Because you missed your shot so bad.”
Guffy briefly forgot all about the knot in his arms and spun around looking for the captain. He ended up wrapped up in his own arms twice over. “Where’s Sink 'em Sam?”
“Safe, no thanks to you,” said Syldris. “You threw him so hard, Ezra had to get a shark to ferry him up to the surface before he ran out of breath. If you’d hit the ship with him it might have been even worse! At least for Sam. The rest of us would’ve gotten paid.”
“Are all my other friends safe?” Guffy spun again, the same way as before, wrapping himself even further with his stretchy extensible arms.
“Someone’s gotta tell this guy how pirating works,” muttered one of the swordsmen.
“The other two annoying ones are gone,” said Ezra. “While I’m glad for the peace and quiet, it does mean we’ve completely lost track of Evyleen and we have no chance of catching her. Without Freddy we can’t see where she is, and without Jack we’re going half the speed we were. The big cannonball holes we had to patch don’t help either.”
Guffy had a great idea. “What if I help paddle?” He made a doggy-paddle motion with his hands, which were still tied in a knot around the mast. He tried to shorten his arms and that set him to spinning. Once the loops he’d put himself in were completely unwound he collapsed to the deck, dizzy. His arms were still knotted around the mast.
A door slammed open, wood crashing against wood, and Sink 'em Sam stepped through. “You’re back. Guess there’s only one thing to do now.”
“Flog 'im?” suggested Syldris.
“Turn back and give up?” suggested a swordsman.
“Pillage a town?” suggested another.
Haha, what a bunch of jokers. Guffy was glad to be part of such a good-natured group of friends.
“No!” shouted Sam. He then moderated his voice. “We do not abandon our crew so easily. We know what direction the wind blew and it’s only been a couple hours. They’ll be swimming hard, hoping we come to find them. Let’s not disappoint.”
7
Undampened
Karugo couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He was bred to be a hero, and that was the reason his grandpa had been kicked out of the Elder Council. It was exciting!
But now the rest of the village was going to kill them? It didn’t make sense. Killing someone before their fading? Like an animal? Even Karugo, the wildest on the island, could hardly contemplate the thought without revulsion.
“We don’t ‘kill heroes’…” said the other Elder distastefully. Whew. That was a relief. “We breed disturbances out of existence. They cause so much trouble, and the wall protects us... Why should we keep them around? The answer is simple. We shouldn’t.”
“The crystal is cracked,” said Grandpa Toraburu in a calm but urgent voice. “The shield wall won’t last. You have to understand that.”
“We’ll fix it. We always do. Now if you’ll excuse me, the Council wants to meet with me.” The man’s voice dripped with condescension. “A shame you didn’t get the same invitation.”
There was a faint opening and closing of a door, and then an impact on the wall that made Karugo jump. The wall shook several times, the pounding accompanied by a distressed cry from his grandpa. That was enough to scare Karugo and knock him out of the excitement of the moment. His grandpa, losing composure? Were things really that bad?
His grandpa coughed a few times, hummed, and then started speaking to an empty room.
“Our time has come!” he began.
Silence. The sound of pacing.
“Death is upon us! For too long we h
ave…” He trailed off, leaving once again only the sound of his feet going back and forth upon the wooden floor. This repeated about a dozen times, each time the speech getting longer and more sure. After the last, which took about thirty seconds to get through, Karugo heard a door open and slam shut, then the sound of running.
Karugo sat stunned for a long while. His brain kept looping one idea through his head over and over again.
He was bred to be a hero.
He was bred to be a hero.
His grandfather wanted someone like him so much that he gave his only son in marriage for just that purpose.
He was bred to be a hero.
But what did that even mean?
Some time later he heard more people speaking in the adjoining room. When had they entered? He needed to keep his wits about him; he was still in the forbidden House of Elders, and getting caught would… well, no one would really think worse of him, since there wasn’t that much farther down to go, but he didn’t want to bring more shame upon his grandfather.
“Can you believe that Toraburu?” said one Elder.
“It’s just like him,” said another. The same one from before. “Look. He even punched the wall. I knew he couldn’t just walk in calm like that without releasing somewhere else. And that speech! It took him from the time I left until the time he entered to come up with that stupid thirty second speech. As if it was anything different than the same grandiose speeches he’s been giving for years!”
“But the Council ate it up. The breach has them scared.”
“The crack in the crystal has them scared. The power dampening is back in full effect, and the shield wall is repaired, but the emotional dampening hasn’t been fully restored. Trust me, once the crystal is fully restored we’ll all be happy, complacent, and peaceful again. Not even Toraburu or his sniveling idiot grandson will punch walls.”
“Language!”
“I… I apologize. The cracking of the crystal has affected me in its own way.”