The Cyrun

by Janilise Lloyd

  I laughed. “You got that right.” I reached for the spoon and filled the paper bowl Elsie handed to me.

  Either my dad was really bad at making oatmeal or Elsie had some powers related to cooking because this was twenty times better than any oatmeal I’d ever had. “This is amazing, Elsie.”

  She shrugged. “Like I said, nothing special. But thanks. Eat fast, the meeting is going to be starting. Hopefully somebody else has interrupted the make out sesh by now.”

  Someone did—me—knocking over a dang lamp. I wasn’t about to admit that to Elsie though. I gave a breathy laugh, “Yeah, hopefully,” and then followed her back into the game room.

  The room was a mixture of familiar and unfamiliar faces. Trent and Meraki sat together on the short couch. I tried not to gag and avoided their eyes. Warren leaned casually against a stool at what I assumed was the front of the room since everyone seemed to be facing him. Jameson sat to his right in an armchair. Katherine sat on the long couch next to a red haired girl whose build was sturdy. It was obvious she was well muscled and had a face I didn’t want to cross. On her other side sat a scrawny boy with mousy black hair. On the blue couch pushed up against the wall, a friendly looking boy with brown, short hair sat with his arms crossed. He gave a brief smile as I glanced his way. On the opposite side of the couch from him was a blonde haired, blue eyed boy who looked pleasant but bored by the fact that he had to be here.

  “Hurry, let’s grab a seat,” Elsie whispered, cowering slightly at the glare Warren gave. She pulled me over to the blue couch with the two boys and plopped us down between them. Both scooted to the edges to try and make room for us, but it was still a tight fit.

  “I thought I said 7:00 sharp,” Warren said, looking at me intently.

  I glanced down at my wristwatch. It was 7:02. “Sheesh, lighten up. We’re only two minutes late,” I replied. There were a few uncomfortable chuckles around the room. From the look on Warren’s face, I gathered he wasn’t accustomed to being talked to that way. Jameson gave me a thumbs up behind Warren’s back.

  Apparently, Warren thought better of replying and began speaking to the group.

  “Hi, I’m Trevor,” the brown-haired boy sitting next to me whispered. He extended a hand to me.

  “I’m Ava.” I took his hand. “Why are we whispering?”

  “Warren doesn’t do too well with interruptions. Better listen now, but we should introduce ourselves better later,” Trevor winked at me. My face grew hot. I chanced a glance at Trent who was watching us. His lips tightened into a straight line. I snapped my eyes back to Warren, giving him my attention.

  “—had three new recruits added to our ranks yesterday,” Warren stated authoritatively. I sensed he very much enjoyed his leadership position. “They are Ava, Trent, and Meraki,” Warren motioned to the three of us in turn. “Each is a great asset to our team, and I expect you to show them the same respect you give all of us.” Warren seemed to look at the red haired girl in particular.

  “As such, I have needed to make adjustments to our training, eating, and reconnaissance schedules. Those schedules will be posted after this meeting is adjourned. For our new recruits, you are expected to be wherever the schedule dictates on time each and every day. If you are assigned to train, you meet in the practice room. If you’re sent on a recon mission, you’ll meet your partner or group at the main entrance before you depart. And if you are on kitchen duty, you are responsible for making dinner as well as kitchen clean-up for the day. Breakfast and lunch are on your own. Dinner is to be ready at 7:00 pm, but you can come eat whenever you’d like.

  “Also, for those who haven’t already heard, Trent here is a Traveler. Each person is to arrange a time with him to Travel to the human realm at least once a week to maintain your resistance to Praesidium. Trent, because this will likely keep you rather busy, you have slightly fewer reconnaissance assignments than the rest of us. Any questions?” Warren looked at us with an expression that made it obvious he didn’t actually want us to ask questions. I raised my hand anyway.

  “Yes, Ava,” Warren exhaled with frustration.

  “I still have places I need to be in the human realm. Like school. Otherwise, they’re going to call my dad and he’s going to completely flip out. Have you left time in the schedule for that?”

  “Yes, your schedule is clear every weekday for you to maintain your presence there,” Warren breathed as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

  “I also have to help my parents in their shop every day,” Meraki’s perfect voice chimed in. “Will that be an issue?”

  “Oh, uh, I didn’t realize that was the case.” Warren’s face was suddenly the warmest I’d seen it yet. He looked at Meraki with total fascination, his mouth gaping open. I glanced around the room. All of the guys were watching her with dazed expressions. She must be using her abilities. I rolled my eyes.

  “I’ll rework the schedule if you can give me the times you need to be available to help your parents,” Warren said.

  Meraki flashed her eyes flirtatiously at him. “Thanks. That is very kind of you.”

  “No problem,” Warren chuckled, straightening his shirt nervously.

  I caught Elsie’s eye. She looked at me with raised eyebrows. I nodded knowingly then cleared my throat loudly, hoping to break the spell every male in the room seemed to be under.

  Warren jumped slightly. “Right, well, umm, next item of business then.” He paced at the front of the room for a moment. “I suppose we should explain to our newbies exactly what we’re after. As the best fighter in the group, Jameson takes point on training schedules and our planned attacks. Fill them in, Jameson?”

  “Sure thing,” Jameson said energetically as he stood from his chair and joined Warren up front. “As Ava pointed out yesterday, we’d be crazy to think we’d be able to successfully take on Tenebris and his guys. I mean seriously, nobody wants a repeat of the French Revolution, right? Didn’t end so well for anybody.”

  “Jameson’s sort of a history nerd. Human history, I mean,” Trevor whispered through the side of his mouth. “Though I think he makes a lot of it up. He once told me about a German brigade that won a war armed with nothing but blow horns.”

  “I think he stole that one from the bible,” I whispered. Trevor and I laughed quietly together. Trent looked over at the two of us again, his eyes narrowing slightly.

  “So our plan,” Jameson continued at the front of the room, “is not to attack the palace or the guards surrounding it—that would be a suicide mission. Instead, we need to find a way to draw the king to us at which point we go for Praesidium. As soon as we steal the necklace, Tenebris will no longer have control over the people of Cyrus and bada-bing! We let the chips fall where they may once the people have their own say.”

  I raised my hand.

  “Ava, m’lady?” Jameson bowed.

  “Umm… I know I’m the new kid and all, but that plan sounded just a smidge too simplistic. I mean, if it was really that easy, wouldn’t someone have done this already? Wouldn’t you all have done this already?” I gestured to the room.

  “Ten points for Gryffin-puff!” Jameson shouted.

  “What?” Meraki asked.

  “It’s a human thing,” Trent answered.

  “You’re absolutely right, dear Ava, for two reasons,” Jameson explained, plopping down on Warren’s stool. Warren glared at him and Jameson jumped to his feet again. “First, the king very, very rarely leaves his palace. The little display you saw in Magia yesterday was unique, to say the least. That has been one of our biggest challenges. We need to find something to draw him out, or at least a better way to guess where he’ll be and when. Second, Praesidium appears to be enchanted. No power—magic or otherwise—can remove the object from Tenebris’ neck. Not telekinesis, not the ability to make objects disappear, and you certainly couldn’t physically remove it from him. We’ve actually tried a couple of times with our various abilities and nobody has been able to come close to removing Praesidiu
m.”

  “So isn’t this whole Miners group rather pointless?” Trent asked the obvious. “If Praesidium can’t be removed, why are we trying? What is it you’re all doing here every day? Seems like a massive waste of time.”

  “There are exceptions to every magical law and weaknesses in every magical defense,” Warren said, straightening up from his casual stance and walking forward. “We observe to track movement of the guards as well as the king. We also observe to find the weakness; there is something out there that will allow us to seize Praesidium. We just don’t know what that is yet. We train so that we’re ready for when that day comes. Though we intend to draw the king away from the palace when we attack, we know he will not be alone. He is never left alone. We must be prepared to fight. This is the work of the Miners. You’re either in or you’re out.”

  “Hold up, hold up, hold up,” Jameson said, cocking his head to the side and raising his right hand. “Did you just call us ‘the Miners’?” An enormous smile spread across his face.

  Warren’s face darkened with embarrassment at the slip. “Okay, fine, yeah, your stupid nickname slipped out. It doesn’t mean anything.”

  Jameson punched Warren’s bicep. “You just called us the Miners! It’s official, y’all. From this day forward, we are,” he hopped onto the barstool and placed his hands on his hips majestically, “the Miners!”

  The room erupted in laughs. “It’s true, man,” the blonde boy next to Elsie smiled at Warren. “You called us the Miners. There’s no way you’ll reign in Jameson now. Might as well embrace it.”

  “Okay, okay, can everyone please calm down and be serious for a minute? Geez, you have the attention span of five year olds,” Warren shook his head. “This is serious. Trent, Ava, and Meraki, if you don’t agree with our methods and what we do here, now is the time to walk. There’s no going back later.”

  For the first time today, I looked directly at Trent who met my eyes. I’d shared my vision with him. We both knew there was more to the story than Warren was sharing. We also now knew that targeting Praesidium was going to be a lot harder than we envisioned. Regardless, would I be able to walk away from all of this? It would mean Trent was doomed to life as a Zero—homeless and hungry. Even if the way ahead wasn’t clear, I wanted to stay and work it out. There had to be a way to bring down Tenebris.

  “I’m in,” I said, standing up.

  Trent also stood. “Same here. I think you’re all crazy, but I guess I am too.”

  Meraki didn’t stand, but said, “I’m with Trent.”

  Yeah. Way to state the obvious.

  Warren took our answers as good enough. “Excellent. The new schedule is already out on the kitchen table. Look it over and get to work!”

  Chapter 18

  Nervous Would be an Understatement

  There was something different about a Cyrun sunrise. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but the colors seemed even more vibrant than they had in the human realm, as if they glimmered with the magic of this world. The sight was breathtaking, though I didn’t need any help in that department today. It seemed like no matter what I did to try and calm myself, my breaths came in hurried gasps, my heart thumping.

  “I thought I might find you out here,” Trent laughed as he emerged from behind a tree trunk in the thick woods. “What’s with you and this tree?” He skipped over to where I sat on one of the lower branches and looked up at me with those hypnotic eyes.

  I was surprised he’d noticed. I’d run to this tree in the forest near the top of our mountain anytime I needed a break from the bustle of the caves. Over the past three weeks of being a Miner, I’d come here maybe five or six times, but I didn’t think anybody knew where I was going.

  “What do you mean? Have you been following me again? I thought your stalker days were behind you.”

  Trent shrugged. “I saw you head out of the caves a couple weeks ago and was worried about you. I followed you the best that I could until I found you up here. You’re sure fast, though—it took a while before I found you. You looked deep in thought, so I decided not to bother you.”

  “And why’s today any different?” I asked, a touch of annoyance in my voice. I knew it wasn’t deserved—I was testy today and it had nothing to do with Trent.

  Trent ignored my bothered tone and jumped for the branch I sat on. He hauled himself up in one easy pull. I tried to hide the fact that I was staring at his biceps, but I think I lingered a second too long. He smirked knowingly as he sat next to me on the thick branch. I averted my eyes.

  “Today’s different because I know what’s bothering you, and I want to try and help. Everything is going to be fine, you know. I think you’ll be relieved to finally have these secrets out in the open between you and your dad. The conversation might be a bit rocky, but it’ll work out, you’ll see,” he said, leaning in to nudge my shoulder. I pushed back the butterflies that accompanied his casual touch.

  “Easy for you to say,” I mumbled. Today was going to be Dad’s first day back from his trip. I was terrified to tell him that I not only knew the truth about Cyrus, but that I’d been practically living here for the past three weeks, with the exception of the seven hours a day that were necessary for attending school. I’d likely caused irreparable damage to my friendship with Lana by always being gone, and I’d quit the track team. But most of all, I was worried about his reaction as I accused him of lying to me for all these years. And I was scared to hear his reasoning for it. No matter how I spun it, today was bound to be awkward and life-altering. I enjoyed my relationship with my dad. I didn’t want it to change.

  “Well, you still have a little time before your dad gets back,” Trent said. “And you are due for a training session in about fifteen minutes. Warren will freak out if you miss another one.”

  That was true—Warren was a bit anal about everyone keeping to the schedule. I’d already missed a session last Thursday because I’d had to stay after school to redo a calculus assignment.

  “Here, I brought you a sticky bun,” Trent said, fishing in his pocket as he pulled out a roll inside a plastic baggy. “Elsie made them this morning.”

  “You brought me a sticky bun in your pocket?” I laughed, shaking my head.

  Trent laughed too, his hazel eyes crinkling with his handsome smile. “What’s wrong with that?”

  “I dunno. Just a little weird.” I took the pastry from Trent gratefully. Elsie’s cooking was the best. Warren didn’t consider her magical ability to speak with animals or her telekinesis to be all that useful to our cause, but she was definitely worth keeping around for none other reason than her phenomenal cooking skills. “Thanks for this.”

  “You’re welcome,” Trent said, settling in so that his arm touched mine. My heart pounded in my chest. Unfortunately, my attraction to Trent had only grown stronger over the past three weeks, though he hadn’t made any indication he felt the same since the day he tried to kiss me.

  We sat in silence as I ate and watched the sun continue its rise.

  “It’s so beautiful out here. I can see why you chose this tree. It gives a good vantage point of the valley.”

  I simply smiled in response. Trent extended his hand, reaching for the empty plastic bag I held in mine. “Here, I can take that.”

  The charm on the necklace he wore grazed my bare shoulder as he leaned forward. Suddenly, I was thrown into a vision of Trent’s past—a sensation I was beginning to grow accustomed to.

  I stood on a cobblestone street where I could see a slightly younger Trent walking toward me in the distance. He was leaving a small town center and heading out into a rural area. He wore tattered jeans, a faded red t-shirt, and held two books in his hands. Behind him, a group of three boys whispered to each other and snickered.

  “Hey, Cavanaugh!” a thick boy from the group called out. He wore a tan shirt and black pants. “How’s life at the Zero farm?”

  Trent’s eyes flashed but he otherwise ignored the comment and continued his walk. The gro
up of boys sped up until they were directly behind Trent.

  “Cavanaugh,” the thick boy growled, grabbing Trent by the shoulder as he spun him around. “I don’t like being ignored by a Zero. You should show the proper respect to your superiors.” The other two boys who were smaller than their ring leader laughed appreciatively. One had light hair that was almost white, the other a dull brown.

  “Just shut up, Parker,” Trent said as he ripped his shoulder free from Parker’s grasp.

  “Shut up? Oooo,” the boy named Parker taunted. “Mommy didn’t teach you to play very nice, did she? Is this a gift from your precious mommy, Cavanaugh?” He ripped the leather string from Trent’s neck that contained the small charm which had cued the memory. Trent jerked back, the unexpected pull choking him until the string snapped.

  “Give that back!” Trent growled, reaching for the necklace. Parker swiftly moved it out of the way and punched Trent in the gut. Stupidly, I lunged for the thick boy, eager to take down the bully, but I passed right through him as if I were a ghost. Meanwhile, Trent stood hunched over, catching his breath. The three cronies laughed at his pain.

  “That’ll teach you to mess with Twos. You’re nothing, Cavanaugh—a Zero. I don’t know why your parents keep throwing away good money on your education when you’re completely worthless. It’s obvious they don’t have the money to spare. Just look at those rags you’re wearing.”

  Trent’s eyes flickered with anger as he lunged for the necklace again. This time, the white haired boy punched Trent in the face as he moved forward. The impact sent Trent backwards, reeling in pain. I ran to his side, desperate to see that he was okay. Blood poured from Trent’s nose. Before he had time to recover, the boy with brown hair kicked Trent in the side, sending him falling to the ground. He aimed another three kicks at Trent’s gut as he lay curled up on the ground.

  “Oh come on now, boys,” Parker’s greasy voice taunted. “We don’t want to kill the poor fella. School won’t even be worth going to if we don’t have this guy around. What would we do with all our free time?” Parker crouched down beside Trent who was gasping for air. “Here’s your precious charm necklace.” He dropped the charm on Trent’s bloodied face. “We’ll see you tomorrow, Zero.” Parker shoved Trent’s face into the ground as he stood up. He laughed as he and his two friends walked back toward the city.