by K. Manna
What the heck is she drawing? Seriously, I have no clue.
Lottie sighed. “Just guess. Come on. I drew it over three times now.”
I shook my head. “I have no freakin’ clue.”
“Ugh, it’s the Zyon holding the gate open for you. Hello again, Go-Go,” Lottie said teasingly, using a low voice to impersonate the Zyon.
I rolled off of Lottie’s bed and jumped into mine. Turning away from Lottie, I pulled the covers over my head. “I’m not listening. Going to bed. Night.”
Lottie laughed. “Well, I can’t help it. It was just the way that he said it.”
“Uh-huh, night,” I said again, not wanting to hear about it.
“Oh, poo on you then,” Lottie muttered.
My hand gripped the jade stone underneath the pillow, letting myself drift off to another incredible dream world.
CHAPTER NINE
SILVER PLATTERS APLENTY
I watched as young Gage and chubby little me sat together on a large rock, each unwrapping our lollipops. After Gage’s sucker was wrapper-free, he threw the wrapper on the ground.
I pointed to the wrapper. “Pick it up, hurry. If Mom finds out, she will be so mad at you.”
Shrugging his shoulders, Gage said, “Fine.”
He slid off of the rock, picked up the crumpled wrapper, and shoved it into his pants pocket. Then he climbed back onto the rock beside me.
We held our bright-red lollipops in front of us and started counting out loud together. “One, two, three!” Popping the suckers into our mouths, we began sucking away.
I suddenly pulled the sucker from my mouth and squealed. “Oh, I forgot something.”
Gage’s eyes grew wide with wonder. “What? What do you have?”
I pulled a small white packet from my pocket and shook it.
“What is it?” he asked again, too impatient to wait for an answer.
I tore one end of the white packet with my teeth. “Sugar!”
“Mmm, more sugar. I love sugar.” Gage smiled, staring at the packet in my chubby little hand.
I sprinkled sugar over both of the already-wet lollipops and giggled. “Mom always says that her chocolate sweets taste just like heaven, but I think this will taste even more like heaven.”
Look, the sugar specks are expanding into little crystals. How cool is that?
Our eyes watched as the tiny sugar specks grew into little sparkly diamonds on the wet suckers.
Once again, we popped the sugary treats into our mouths.
“Mmm.” Gage smiled with a sigh of total satisfaction.
With the sucker in my mouth, I mumbled, “Don’t ya think I’m right?”
He nodded. “Yeah, tastes just like heaven.”
Both Lottie and I couldn’t believe that the big event was in only one week. For most of us, our time at the palace was half over. Only those of us who won the Royals Rise events would stay. The time here had flown by so fast. The next week would go by just as fast, maybe faster, but we tried to stay positive. Even if we were sent packing, it had been one heck of a vacation.
Holding hands with me, Lottie said, “I made something up for us. A little saying for good luck. Here, repeat after me. We are strong.”
“We are strong,” I repeated.
“We are brave,” Lottie went on.
“We are brave.”
Lottie gave a little smile. “We will win the Royals Rise no matter what it takes.”
“We will win the Royals Rise no matter what it takes.”
“Good. Then we bump our sister bracelets together. Let’s repeat it three times and do this every day until the Royals Rise,” Lottie said, giving me a hug.
“For sure.”
Lottie pulled away with a slightly worried look on her face.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” I asked.
She sighed. “I’m going to need all the luck I can get. Anton and Onnika are doing so much better than me. I feel like I don’t have a chance.” Tears began to well up in her eyes.
“Don’t say that, Lottie. I saw what you can do, and you’re awesome. Plus, we still have a week left to practice. We all know how fast things can change. Take me, for instance. In those first few days, I couldn’t heal a dang thing, and then suddenly it just happened.” I squeezed her hand tightly. “You know what I mean?”
Lottie nodded. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”
“Now, come on, little sister. I’m starving.” I pulled her toward the door.
Lottie asked, “Hey, how do you know if I’m your little sis? I might be older than you.”
I knew that I had to be older. “What time were you born then?”
“I don’t know the exact minute, but I was born at one something in the morning.”
“All righty, I am your big sister then. I was born at 12:03 in the morning. Just think, if it had been four minutes sooner, I wouldn’t even be here right now,” I pointed out.
“Oh, you got lucky, girl,” Lottie said.
Opening the door so we could head down for breakfast, I smiled back at Lottie. “I know I did.”
“Take a deep breath in through your nose. Now, slowly blow it out through your mouth and relax. As you all know, this is your final week of training before the big event. This week will also be the most challenging. It is up to each of you to practice often. If you work hard and try your best, no matter the outcome, you should be proud of yourselves. This is anybody’s game. Changes can happen within the blink of an eye. Never be too sure of yourself or of anyone else.” Eugene took a moment to look at each of us and went on. “Today, all of you will be working on healing your wound, while also removing the object within your skin.”
“What do you mean?” Indee asked.
Eugene grabbed a black tool from his bag. “This is a staple gun that we will begin with. When a foreign object is stuck in our skin, our first instinct is to pull it out, but I want you to refrain from doing this. Sometimes removing an object can create more damage, depending on the situation. Today, when healing, you will see that the damaged tissue will actually be healing from the inside out. So instead of pulling the object out with your fingers, you will rely on your body’s healing to push it out naturally, like a sliver in your skin coming to the surface on its own.”
Indee shook his head. “You are something crazy, Eugene.”
“Aren’t we all,” I teased. After all, how else could you explain our willingness to burn, slice, poke, and otherwise harm ourselves.
Eugene looked at Indee and smiled. “You may go first today, Indee.”
“I went first yesterday,” Indee complained. “Besides, ladies first.”
Eugene looked at Indee with an expression reading “really dude?”
Indee shrugged his shoulders. “Fine, I will go first, again.”
Bree reached for the staple gun, assuming that she would be the shooter.
Eugene pulled the gun toward himself, shaking his head. “Uh-uh, I’m going to handle this.”
“Don’t you trust me?” Bree asked.
“Yes and no, but I feel more comfortable performing the job myself. Nothing personal, Maybree.”
Bree threw her hands up. “Okay, fine. You do it then.”
Eugene took the loaded staple gun, scooting closer toward Indee. “Where would you like to be shot?”
“Jeez, you make it sound like no big thang. Mmm, do it here, I guess.” Indee picked up his shirt and pointed to the right of his belly button.
Eugene said, “Maybe, it would be better if you lie down.”
Indee shook his head. “Naw, just shoot me and get it over with.”
Indee squeezed his eyes shut tightly, taking in deep breaths. Eugene placed the staple gun over the skin on his flat belly.
CLICK!
Indee’s face scrunched in p
ain. “Ah!”
Eugene pulled the staple gun away from Indee’s tummy, and I peered at the silver staple clamped into his skin. This was no little staple used for stapling papers together, but a strong, thick staple used for objects like wood. I looked away immediately after seeing the staple and blood seeping around the piece of metal.
Indee’s hands flew over his abdomen. He crouched over in pain, growling and gasping. It took a couple of minutes before he began an awkward rolling dance with his head and shoulders. Little humming sounds from his mouth grew louder as he rocked back in forth. When his body stopped moving and the humming quieted, Indee pulled his hands away, revealing the staple still stuck in his skin, but not as deep. It had lifted slightly through the surfaced skin.
“You are doing great. Keep working on it, Indee. These foreign objects are very difficult to remove naturally, but as we can all see, the staple has begun to remove itself. There is movement here, and that is what we want to happen,” Eugene explained, with a hopeful expression.
While Indee continued to work on removing the staple in his skin, Eugene turned to me.
Oh no, it’s my turn.
I cringed at the thought of the excruciating pain.
Let’s see, where should I choose to be cruelly stapled together? The spot has to be somewhere with a little meat on it.
I pointed to my lower left leg, inside, on the meaty inner part of my calf. While leaning onto my left side and straightening my leg, I clenched the grass in front of me with my fingers. The cold touch of the staple gun against my skin caused me to jerk.
Try and relax. Try and relax. It will all be over soon.
CLICK!
“Ughhh!” I moaned loudly.
Oh, the pain. It radiated up through my knee and down into my ankle. No, I didn’t even want to see the giant silver staple that had been shot into my flesh. Rolling back over, I clenched my throbbing leg. Maybe squeezing my leg wasn’t the best thing to do at that very moment, but could the pain really have gotten much worse? It could have, actually. I started concentrating on gathering my healing light. I could feel every movement of the staple as my body pushed it out one tiny movement at a time. It seemed to take forever. And once the staple was nearly out of my bloodied leg, it took all of my restraint not to yank that sucker out.
Indee and I both struggled beside each other while Eugene went ahead to staple Bree’s arm. Of course, I was too busy rolling in agony to watch. The only reason that I knew that she’d gotten hers was from all the cursing flying out of her mouth.
“I did it! I finally got the damn staple out!” Indee screamed.
He crawled in front of me, holding his shirt up for me to see. My pain had now started to fade, so I took a moment to check out Indee’s success. Not one mark was visible, only splotches of blood. Indee flicked the bloody staple into the grass, clearly not wanting to save it as a souvenir.
“You should pick that up. Someone could step on it,” I said, nodding toward Bree. “She’s barefoot. And if she happens to step on it, she’ll give you a good smack because I will have to tell her it’s your fault. We don’t need any more pain than we already have to endure.”
Indee just sat there, pretending not to care. I focused my attention back on the staple in my leg. When I closed my eyes, I could hear Indee crawling around in the grass. I peeked and, sure enough, he scrambled through the grass in search of the staple he had flung.
That’s right. You find that staple, boy. What is it with boys carelessly throwing stuff? There was little boy Gage in my dream and now Indee.
Bree joined me as we worked the staples energetically out of our skin. Eugene and Indee moved farther away from us and began to work with some other object, but I couldn’t quite make out what they were practicing with.
It doesn’t hurt much anymore. I wonder what it looks like now.
I raised my hand a couple of inches and saw the staple poking up from the swollen red skin surrounding it. A small stream of blood trickled down the side of my leg. My healing heat continued to radiate from my hands into my leg, even from a farther distance. I watched very closely, still imagining bold-purple light healing my wound and forcing the staple out.
Did the staple just move? I swear that it just wiggled a little bit.
Bending down to watch more closely, I saw the staple wiggle right in front of my eyes. It moved so slightly that I wondered if I’d only imagined it. Then it did it again, just a little shudder. I concentrated harder, encouraged by this performance, before the staple moved more dramatically and fell flat against my leg.
“That is so awesome. Did you see that, Bree?”
When I turned my head to look at her, her eyes were staring off into the sky, totally entranced.
Taking a seat next to Indee and Eugene, I asked, “What are you working on now?”
Eugene pulled out a clear container filled with small pieces. “Glass. Here, watch.”
Indee turned his head, not wanting to watch, while Eugene took a small shard of glass from the container. Eugene placed the pointy end near the crease inside of Indee’s elbow. With his free hand, Eugene picked up a small metal hammer and firmly tapped the piece of glass into Indee’s skin. And not just partially. The entire shard had been forced below the surface of his skin.
Yow!
“Ouch!” Indee screamed, covering the slit of skin with his hand and breathing heavily through clenched teeth.
A few minutes passed then Indee lifted his hand from his elbow to check out his progress. We all watched curiously, seeing a tiny bit of glass poking through the top of his skin.
“Hey, Indee, leave your hand a little bit away from your elbow so that we can watch the glass move,” I said.
Indee withdrew his hand while the rest of us crouched closer to get a better view. Very, very slowly, the glass piece wiggled back and forth. Bree sat down to join us, poking her head between ours to check out what we were all so mesmerized by. We watched in awe as the glass continued to move ever so slightly, surfacing until it stood straight up from Indee’s inner elbow and fell sideways. With the glass out from underneath his skin, the skin stitched itself together, finishing the job.
“You kick some major ass.” I gave Indee a high-five.
Bree looked surprised and a bit frustrated. “You must be practicing like a madman or something. You’re doing better than me today, Indee.”
“Yup, I am. I knew I would get better,” Indee said proudly.
Bree sighed, looking at Eugene. “I want to go next.”
“You sound like you actually want to do this,” I said, surprised.
Bree whispered into my ear. “I’m not letting Indee show me up. I’ll show him.”
Overall, I didn’t consider myself a very competitive person. Especially when dealing with nice, decent people like Bree and Indee. But I could feel some competitive tension brewing within Bree, now that Indee had healed more quickly than she had … and than I had, too.
Eugene tapped a pointy shard of glass into Bree’s leg, right above her knee. More swear words flew out of her potty mouth. When she settled down enough so that she could focus on forcing the glass from her skin, her eyes rolled back into head as her lip twitched, and her eyebrows began to furrow and relax repeatedly. It looked as if she was having a hard time focusing. When she stopped to take a peek beneath her hand, she scowled. No change. Glass could still be seen in the small opening in her bloody skin. Bree growled in frustration.
Oh no, watch out. Bree is not a happy healer.
Eugene gave a little pat to Bree’s shoulder. “Settle down and keep working at it, Maybree. It will happen. Just be patient.” He looked at me. “We can get started on you, Margo.”
Oh, yippy, just what I’ve always wanted. Not!
I told Eugene to hammer the piece of glass into my right hand, the spongy area between the thumb and pointer finger. He c
hose a little piece of glass that appeared longer and thinner than Indee and Bree’s and set it on top of my hand. I bit my lower lip, squeezing the jade stone in my left pocket.
Okay, any day now, Eugene. Hurry it up.
If I crinkled my forehead any longer, I was sure to get a raging headache.
TAP!
Glass slid inside my flesh so quickly that it caused a massive, sharp pain to shoot through my entire hand.
“Holy mother!” I yelled.
The pain will go away. Focus on healing. C’mon, concentrate. It will all be over soon. This excruciating pain will go away. Oh, but will it? Damn, it hurts so freakin’ bad.
Setting my good hand over the bad, I tried to heal the horrible pain away as fast as possible.
OMG, I can’t move my right hand. It’s totally stiff. What is wrong with it? OMG, what if it stays this way? What if I can’t heal it? Holy fuck, what if it is paralyzed for life?
Paranoia struck, and it struck hard. A pulsing sensation ran through my unmovable hand and trickled down past my wrist. The heat from my good hand collided with my purple healing light.
Please, please, pain go away. Purple light, please save me.
After what seemed like an eternity, I lifted my hand, revealing a small, clear speck of glass poking out of my skin.
“Dammit. The pain isn’t getting better like it normally does. Eugene, something’s wrong. Seriously, I can’t move my hand,” I complained.
Eugene held my stiff hand in his, taking a closer look at the blood-red wound. “It must be a nerve or something of that sort. Do you want to continue to try and heal it yourself?”
I shook my head. “No, you do it. Please, make the pain stop.”
“Margo, I am not able to heal others, remember? Bree or Indee might be able to help.”
Bree looked over at us, shaking her head. “I haven’t gotten my own glass out yet. There is no way I will be able to heal yours right now.”
We all turned toward Indee, but he was no longer sitting beside us.
“Oh, Indee said that he had to go to the bathroom. Shoot. We will have to go and see Sonya. Come on, let’s hurry,” Eugene said.