The brothers sat on Jacob’s bed, facing Aloren’s bag.
“I think you should open it,” Jacob said.
“Heck, no! She’s your friend! You do it.”Matt pulled out his pocket knife. “I’ll stand guard in case something tries to attack you.”
Jacob snorted. “It’s been in my room for several days. Anything living in the bag would’ve escaped or even killed me already, if that’s what it meant to do.” He paused. “I only want to make sure there’s nothing gross in there that needs to be thrown away.”
“Yeah, right. You just need to hold something that smells like her. Admit it!”
“Whatever. That’s stupid.” Jacob leaned forward, his hands surrounding, but not touching, the bag. “Okay, here goes.”
He lifted the flap, careful to stay a full arm’s length away. With one quick motion, he dumped the contents on the desktop.
A moldy, half-eaten apple rolled onto the floor, and Jacob jerked away from it.
Matt doubled over, laughing. “You girl! You scared of an apple?”
“Knock it off,” Jacob said, punching Matt’s arm. He couldn’t help but smile too, at his edginess.
He stared at the desk, making sure nothing else was moving, then quickly glanced over the other things that had come out. A wooden comb—at least it didn’t have any hair on it. A silver box. A few strings—probably to tie Aloren’s hair back. An old skeleton key, and a piece of parchment with browned writing on it.
“Okay, nothing here that’s going to rot,” Jacob said, backing away from the items on the desk. He didn’t want to snoop too much.
“Except the apple.”
“Yeah. Good thing we opened the bag.”
A rap at the window alerted them to Early’s presence, and Jacob let her in. Her agitated behavior spoke volumes.
“An emergency?” Jacob asked.
“Yes. Dusts and Molgs are approaching Aldo’s cabin. You must come now to get him. Go to Kenji’s house.”
“Okay.” Jacob glanced at Matt. “Coming?”
“Heck, yeah!”
Jacob briefly considered heading straight to Aldo’s place, but decided against it—there must be special instructions if the Makalos wanted him to go to the village first. He made sure the Key was in his pocket, then called out to their mom as they raced to the front room. “Makalo emergency! We’ll try to be back before Coach comes.”
“Be careful!” his mom called from her study.
Jacob and Matt stepped onto the porch, closing the front door behind them. Jacob turned, fumbling in his pocket for the Key.
Matt eyeballed the door. “This door has a lock. How does it work when there isn’t one?”
“We’ll mess around with it later—don’t have time now.” Jacob thrust the Key into the lock, saying, “Kenji’s house.”
They stepped through the jamb and entered Kenji’s front room.
“Madness” would’ve described what greeted them. Ebony and Kenji were arguing, Kaiya—Akeno’s little sister—was running between everyone, singing loudly, Echo, the baby, was crying in a corner, Brojan was poring over books and maps, talking to an older Makalo man, Jaegar was grabbing things and shoving them in a bag, and Akeno was digging through boxes, tossing stuff out of his way.
“Wow,” Matt said, verbalizing Jacob’s thoughts.
Ebony and Kenji turned when the door shut behind the brothers. “Jacob,” Kenji said. “Another army is on its way to attack Aldo. At least that’s what we’re led to believe—they left Fornchall not long ago and are heading toward his cabin. We’re trying to coordinate things and plan the best way to get him out of there alive, in case that’s where they’re going.”
“Why are they attacking him?” Jacob asked. “What’s the point of that?”
“They must have figured out who—and I’m sure the Lorkon want to interrogate him. That, and they understand how important he is to us.”
“Why not just grab him and run?” Jacob asked.
“See?” Ebony said. “I told you he’d feel that way.”
“No, no, we cannot rush into this,” Brojan said from the table. “There are too many variables, too many unanswered questions. If we could just find what he did to himself to lose his mind . . . This can’t be a permanent situation.” He pulled a book out of a box and flipped through the pages, then handed it to the man with him. “We might be able to put things right and give him the opportunity to defend himself.”
Ebony shook her head in short, abrupt movements. “Not now! Later—when he’s here and safe!”
“If there are any Bald Henries, Jacob requires advance warning,” Kenji said.
“What’s a Bald Henry?” Matt asked.
Brojan ignored Matt’s question and nodded at Kenji. “Besides, Aldo needs to be given the choice.”
“No, he doesn’t,” Ebony said. “Not in this situation, where he can’t even make those decisions!”
Kenji started arguing with Ebony again, Brojan giving his opinion loudly from the table. Jacob and Matt were forgotten momentarily.
“Do you know what a Bald Henry is?” Matt asked Jacob, whispering.
Jacob shook his head. “No, And Makalos are not like this ever—usually they’re very calm and rational.”
“Let’s just go. You know where he lives, right?”
“Yeah. Shouldn’t be too hard with the Key, if the army hasn’t arrived yet.”
Jacob nodded, then put the Key in the lock, whispering, “Aldo’s cabin.”
He shut the door behind them, but not before Jaegar dashed through, following the brothers.
Kilenya Series Books 1, 2, and 3 Page 53