by Kealohilani
“If you don’t care about me, why don’t you just say so and get it over with?” Lani stated more than asked. “I’m a big girl and I’ve taken a lot worse. Why don’t you just tell me?”
Jharate did nothing. She could feel stinging tears forming in her eyes but blinked purposefully to prevent them from coming. A dizzying sensation came once again and she closed her eyes— hoping that if she couldn’t see that maybe the world would stop spinning.
When the vertigo ceased, she opened her eyes one more time to see if maybe Jharate had snapped out of whatever his problem was. But he was still lying on his back, staring up at the ceiling, with that same flat expression and wholly-unworried eyes.
How dare he do this to me?
“Never mind, Jharate— just never mind!”
She rolled over on the hammock and slammed her eyes shut in an effort to keep the threat of tears at bay. Because of her fatigue and the near-perfect comfort of her surroundings, she fell asleep instantly.
In a different chamber of the cave, Kendra laughed merrily as she played with her newfound ability. One of the greatest mysteries in her life had now been explained.
When she was eight years old she had been playing outside and had ended up in a driveway— just as a car was backing out. It knocked her down and the back tire rolled completely over her chest. But when the frantic people responsible for the accident got out to see what had happened— there wasn’t even a bruise to be found on her.
Her mother had looked up from the dishes she had been washing and out through the kitchen window just in time to see the incident from across the cul-de-sac. She dropped the glass casserole dish she was drying in her rush to run to Kendra’s side.
She was just as shocked as everyone else to find her unharmed— but was so happy that Kendra was okay that she didn’t question why or how. She just thanked Heaven above for protecting her little girl.
She also had a long talk with Kendra about staying inside the fenced backyard or in the house whenever she was playing from now on— unless one of her big brothers was with her to keep her out of harm’s way. Kendra’s brothers were subject to a much longer talk. Kendra was now sure that she had somehow activated her shield without realizing it.
The space Kendra had chosen for her practice room was huge and perfect for what she wanted to do. She just needed one more thing. There were quite a number of stones near the entrance of the main cave— arranged artistically in a little stream that wound throughout the cave, sometimes under small bridges— like a ribbon of color or an underwater rock garden.
Each stone was different from the rest. There were multiple shades of green, grey, rose, and blue. Some rocks had all four colors while others had rings of white around them or little starburst patterns. They were different shapes and sizes but they were all extraordinarily smooth.
“Justin, Raoul— grab some of those rocks and bring them over here for me!”
“What’s the magic word?”
“Grow up, Justin!”
“Wrong!”
“Now!”
“That’ll work. But just this once.”
Justin and Raoul did as she commanded, and came back with a huge pile of rocks.
“Okay, so Justin, I want you to throw those rocks at me, as hard as you can, and I’ll deflect them.”
“I thought you’d never ask!”
Justin laughed maniacally as he chucked each rock as hard as he could in her direction. He aimed for places that wouldn’t hurt too much if she failed to protect herself— but he was not holding back on speed at all. Every time he ran out of rocks to throw— he quickly dashed around to pick up some of the deflected ones, and re-launched them immediately.
Erik and some of the other rebels watched them from the main room near the entrance of the cave— safely out of the way.
“Faster!” Kendra ordered gleefully. “Faster!”
“I’m going as fast as I can, Kendra!”
Justin ran quickly for one of the rocks that had just ricocheted off of her shield and had landed about twenty feet away.
“It’s kinda hard playing fetch with twenty rocks at a time you know.”
“Use the Force, you must!” Raoul chimed in, in his best Yoda impersonation. “Not ready, are you.”
Raoul burst out laughing as Justin ducked to avoid one of the five rocks he had just chucked all at once at Kendra, as the other four whizzed off fifty feet in every direction— one of which smashed a crystal goblet out in the main chamber of the cave. The broken goblet and its innumerable shards instantly vanished and a new one appeared in its place.
Raoul started doing his pinky/thumb trick quickly and moving his shoulders from side to side with a motion that only made him laugh harder, until he couldn’t do it anymore.
“You could help, you know!” Justin snapped as he shot Raoul a pointed look.
Raoul was laughing too hard to answer, let alone move.
“Well?” Kendra demanded impatiently. “Go get them!”
“As you wish, My Lady,” Justin simpered, faking a curtsy.
Justin didn’t have any intention of giving her the satisfaction of running after those stupid rocks again. Instead he stood there and closed his eyes with his best imitation of Luke Skywalker trying to raise the X-wing fighter out of the swamplands of Dagobah.
Raoul erupted with a renewed fit of laughter— louder and longer than his last. Justin had seen that movie one too many times. The imitation was almost perfect— with one minor exception… Luke had failed.
Five small rocks came floating gracefully back to Justin and landed at his feet. Justin opened his eyes and looked down. He leapt back in surprise.
“WHOA! Did I—? How did—? Really?! ARE YOU SERIOUS?!”
Justin jumped up and down for joy and punched the air triumphantly.
“I’m telekinetic! Wahooooo! The only thing that could top this would be having the Force for realz! Ye-ah!”
As Justin stopped jumping, he tried to make the rocks move again— on purpose this time— and laughed exuberantly as he began to master this unexpected gift by revolving a solitary rock through the air.
“Yeah baby! Look at me and my rad self! Uh-huh, uh-huh! Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh! YE-AH!”
Raoul and Kendra stared at him open-mouthed. They had never seen any hint of this new gift before in all of the time that they had known him.
Neither had Justin. Unlike Kendra and Raoul, there were no unexplainable mysteries in his life. He had progressed to this point quite free of anything supernatural or extraordinary.
“Great!” Erik muttered bitterly. “Now I’m the only one without some special ability.”
Erik had been secretly trying to activate some kind of power for days— any kind of power. He knew about Lani because he had been there when she received her vision on the ship. He knew about Raoul because of the healings he had done. Kendra had been obvious about her gift. And now Justin had one! He felt completely, cruelly, and cosmically left out.
“That’s okay,” Justin consoled. “You still have your super-brooding power.”
“Justin!” Kendra shot back sharply.
“Sorry, Mom!” Justin said, giving Kendra a teenage boy look. “Erik, I really am sorry, man— that wasn’t nice of me. We cool?”
Justin smacked Erik hard on the back.
“Yeah. I just wish I had something special too, you know?”
“Well, you’re crazy good with that sword. I mean you haven’t hurt yourself yet— just other people. So that’s good, right?”
Erik smiled faintly. He turned to look at Arante and sighed. She was so beautiful— sitting there letting her gorgeous legs dangle into the fishpond. She had been on his mind nonstop since the first time he had laid eyes on her— but she always seemed just out of reach.
“Why don’t you just go over there and talk to her?” Kendra prodded.
“What?” Erik panicked, snapping out of his reverie. “No! I mean… Her? She’s so out of my league.”
<
br /> “Yes, I see your point,” agreed Justin, oh-so-helpfully. “But you know, some girls don’t mind dating down. You seem like a decent enough fellow to settle for. She probably wouldn’t regret her decision for at least five or ten years after your wedding.”
“Justin, you’re an idiot.” Kendra gave Justin a dirty look.
Justin stuck his tongue out at her, but kept quiet.
“No, really, Erik,” Kendra insisted, shooting one more warning look at Justin before continuing. “Justin is an idiot. Go talk to her. You’re a great guy and I think I’ve seen her looking at you more than once.”
“Really?”
“Yep.”
Kendra shoved him off in Arante’s direction.
“Now go! Get lost! And get your woman!”
Erik straightened up, puffed out his chest and threw his shoulders back— but his footsteps were careful and tentative as he slowly approached Arante.
“Arante?”
“Yes?” Arante replied, slightly softer than usual. She looked up at him, doe-eyed, and gently batted her eyelashes twice as her full lips curled into a slight smile.
“G-Good job out there. I mean, today, ah-hem— in the battle.”
Erik was kicking himself on the inside. He wanted to throw his head back and rip his hands through his hair— and then maybe throw himself face-down-in-the-pond-sucking-water. But he resisted the urge.
He felt so stupid. He couldn’t talk to her. He had been an idiot for even trying. He turned to go find a hole to crawl into and die in— when Arante spoke.
“No, wait! Don’t go.”
Erik stopped dead in his tracks and slowly swiveled back to look at her— his eyes wide and his mouth slightly ajar. Had he heard what he just thought he had heard? Had the most gorgeous woman in the world— make that both worlds, actually— just asked him to stay?
“Really?”
“Yes. Sit down. Tell me of your world. What is it like?”
“Well, it’s different, that’s for sure.”
Arante giggled and batted her eyelashes at him again.
“You’re really pretty,” Erik said— with a dazed Disney-animal sort of look in his eyes— before he could stop himself.
“Thank you! You’re not so bad yourself.”
Erik grinned so widely that he thought his face would break if his smile were to stretch any further.
“YUCK!” Justin exclaimed from a distance.
Neither Erik nor Arante heard him. Kendra, however, slapped him on the back of his head.
“Ow!”
“SHHHHHHH! Let them have their time! You left Lani and Jharate alone.”
“Yeah well that’s different! She— He— They just— I don’t know, they just don’t bother me as much.”
“Excellent defense.”
“Whatever. How come you’re okay with it? We all know how little you think of Arante. How come it doesn’t bother you?”
“Probably because I never liked Erik that much either. Sometimes I can’t even with that boy. They belong together.”
Kendra was only half kidding. She liked Erik when he was happy— but whenever he felt stressed or depressed he was too much of a whiner for her taste.
“Mmmkay…” Justin said, sighing with a mischievous look in his eyes. “Who cares about them anyway? Let’s get talking about you and me, Kendra.”
Justin slid up next to her as she moved to put more space between them.
“What do you mean you and me?”
Justin closed the distance between them once again. He continued advancing until he had her backed up against a wall. He leaned against the wall with his right arm above Kendra and put his left hand on her waist.
Kendra’s eyes flew wide open with fear and her throat constricted. He leaned in like he was going to kiss her but swerved suddenly to whisper in her ear— simultaneously smoothing a bit of her hair behind her ear with his left hand.
“Don’t you know? Can’t you tell? I mean the way we always argue all the time. The way I’m always teasing you?
“Don’t tell me you could have misread the signs. My heart belongs to you, Kendra. Don’t break it— just take it and kiss me. Kiss me, Kendra!”
He closed his eyes and puckered up his already full lips, a mere two inches away from hers.
“Oh brother!” Raoul said, rolling his eyes.
“WHAT?” Kendra shouted, shaking her head nervously. “No way, no, uh-uh! Never ever! We’re just friends and that is how it is going to stay forever! Not even if you were the last man on Earth would I ev—”
“Ah, but we aren’t on Earth now, are we?” Justin asked as he opened his eyes back up with a crooked smirk on his face.
“Oh grow up!”
Kendra had finally caught on. She shoved him away from her.
“You’re so stupid sometimes, Justin.”
“I know. It’s a gift,” he shrugged. “Let’s see… that is one for Justin…” he crowed, drawing an invisible tally mark in the air “… and, oh I’m so sorry, none for Kendra— but thanks for playing! We have some lovely consolation prizes!”
Kendra punched Justin in the shoulder hard enough to leave an impression that he had better not push her any farther, but soft enough to let him know she was still just playing with him.
“OW, ow, ow!”
Justin fell to the ground as if she had really hurt him, grabbing his shoulder in agony.
“Oh the pain! I see a light at the end of the tunnel. Grandma? Grandma, is that you? I’m coming, Grandma! Wait! Don’t go! I brought sushi!”
Kendra sighed in frustration and gently kicked him as she turned and walked away to go get some food. She could smell the heavenly aroma of some sort of fish cooking in the fire pit.
Justin burst into hysterical laughter as she left, rolling from side to side on the ground. He laughed so hard his sides ached. Raoul couldn’t help but laugh too. He always tried super hard not to laugh when Justin got really immature— but he rarely succeeded.
Undetected
Chapter Twenty-Three
Outside the sanctuary, Drakne stormed out of the entrance tunnel. He knew that the rebels would be in there for a while. And he also knew he needed to leave so that the sanctuary would believe the occupants were safe enough to allow them to exit. The sooner he was out of range, the less time he would have to wait for them.
Drakne made his way back to the opening of the pass and walked between two of his guards— who were in a line facing away from him toward the valley in the northeast, as ordered. He strode through without a word— unaware that he was being observed by anyone other than his own men. He continued further past the guards and back through the trees, into the area where the battle had just taken place.
The pair of glittering green eyes, which had been following the rebels since the Forest of Kar, watched him leave. This time, however, the mystical green eyes were not alone. A pair of glittering brown eyes was close-by. And now, two pairs of eyes watched as Drakne disappeared around the corner of the entrance to the pass. With one last glance at the Pure of Heart Sanctuary, the two spies disappeared into the mountains.
Once outside of the pass and away from his men, Drakne muttered a few ancient and powerful words to himself. The light bent around him— starting at his head— and flowed down his body until it disappeared into the ground.
He looked at his hands and, as expected, they were still visible to his eyes. He needed to be sure. Anything less than perfection in this spell would lead to disastrous consequences for his plan.
He walked back to where his men were guarding the entrance to the mountain pass. They were spaced evenly apart to cover the width of it. Nothing could get past them unseen.
He approached the soldiers quietly and stopped in front of one of them. Drakne acted as if he were ready to throw a spell ball. The guard did not flinch or make any sign of having seen him. Drakne took several strides to his left and stopped just short of punching another of his men in the face. Again, there was no
reaction.
“Perfect,” Drakne whispered to himself.
The second guard looked around as though he might have heard something. Drakne froze— remaining perfectly still and silent— until the guard who had heard him shrugged off the sound and stopped looking for its source.
I should have you killed for that incompetence, Drakne thought. But he would have to reveal himself in order to order the execution. Your lucky day, Javroth.
Satisfied that he was, in fact, invisible— Drakne quietly crept through one of the spaces between the rest of his guards and back into the mountain pass with a smile on his face.
No one would be able to see him until he undid this magic— not even the cave itself would be able to detect him with this enchantment. At least, not at a distance. At least he didn’t think it could…
And it was obvious from Jharate’s actions that he was in love with that girl. So— although the former prince was well known for his gift of vision— Drakne doubted that Jharate would be able to sense anything once the spell truly did its work and the delicious chaos ensued.
Drakne thought about cloaking his sound as an extra measure— but there would be no fun if there were no danger in the game. Rather than entering the manmade tunnel of the sanctuary, he sat on a boulder across from the entrance to wait. They couldn’t stay in there forever.
“Okay, listen up, everybody!” Arante’s voice rang out. “I’m sure that Drakne is well versed in the lore surrounding the Pure of Heart Sanctuary and knows that it will protect us until it is safe outside. That means that Drakne will have no choice but to pull his men off at some point. He is not a man known for his patience. So, he has more than likely already sent his men away— making it so that we can leave at any moment now.
“But— obviously— he isn’t going to let us take the easy way back through the valley to Destavnia. He will be sure to post guards to block our way there and force us to make our way south through the mountain pass into Zenastra, which will take weeks— maybe even a month or more.