Age of Mystics (Saga of Mystics Book 1) (15 page)

Cal felt prepared. He had felt that way most of his life. His ability to predict the behavior of others and future events by strict analysis of patterns and past events had always come in handy. The situation he now found his family and himself in was no exception. But, what he was seeing, what he was deducing was just crazy. Being with his family these last couple of days had given him the calm he needed to make sure he was not going crazy, but it was still hard to believe.

As his group headed toward the west, an oddly safer destination than staying home, he knew he would have to be a strong and steady anchor for the things they would discover. He couldn’t be positive at the moment, but something had changed the fundamental basis of reality and Cal would need to figure it out so that his family could survive. Walking down this long road was only a part of it. The strange powers that his family members were exhibiting were a wrinkle in any theory he could compose. Why the youngest? The abilities seemed to be showing from youngest to oldest. This would only prove itself if Beth were the last to exhibit and that might take days.

Kyle had exhibited something in the high school. Cal was pretty sure he had inadvertently discovered the ability to make light, though he would have to help his son test that when it got dark. His meditative katas opened him to something also, and it seemed to do the same to Ted, so maybe age had nothing to do with it. He looked around and saw Max walking with one of her dogs, the whole pack thing was amazing. Did their group really understand what that meant? Did they get that Max could see farther, spy better and defend better than all of them combined at the moment? Did Max? He shook his head in amazement.

“What is it honey?” Kate walked up next to him. She was the best thing to ever happen to him and he was so glad to have her at his side again.

“I was just contemplating the strangeness of our current situation.” Kate looked down, just listening to her husband. Cal continued, “Have you exhibited any strange ability or anything like that?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think so, though they all seem kind of surprised when it happens. Well, except Max.” They both looked in the direction of their niece, who was picking up stones at the side of the road that looked like hearts and showing them to her mother. “Just normal Kate for now.”

“Yeah,” said Cal looking over at Maxine, “I have been thinking about that. Young people dream easier, create easier, and don’t have as many blocks. Maybe that is the deal with the abilities. Maybe they are just not yet encultured to reject the metaphysical.”

“Maybe,” Kate replied, “So you think we can all do this stuff?”

“It makes sense to me,” Cal responded. They walked on in silence for a while and Kate dropped back to where her mother was walking. Beth was having a hard time with this hike, and they all knew it would be slower due to the pace she needed to walk. Up ahead, he saw Natalee looking off through the trees and she stopped and looked his way. Cal held up his hand, temporarily forgetting that most of the group didn’t know the hand signal for stop.

“What is it, Nat?” he said, drawing close to her.

“House off through the trees,” she started, “there are people moving around. They look a little frantic.”

“Shall we help them?” Cal smiled at his little girl, who was doing a fantastic job on point.

“Well, we can check it out.” She was ready to go and Cal sent Natalee and Kyle through the trees to the house to talk to the people.

A few moments later, Kyle ran back through the trees. “Pop, Adam, I think we need you in here.”

Adam took off at once, Cal called back before following, “Everyone take a rest. We will be right back.” Cal noticed Erica running through the trees with Adam and just let it go. He made his way to the opening, where a family of four was on their porch, next to an old man lying on a bench. Having already arrived, Adam was leaning in close and listening to the man.

“Hello, sir.” Adam said with his best reassuring voice. Cal could see the blood on the man’s hip and the way his foot was turned in an awkward position. After a few minutes, Adam came back to Cal.

“He has a broken femur. There isn’t a lot I can do, but I can set it. It is going to be super painful.” Adam was looking for approval for something.

“What about the blood?” Cal asked.

“He has some mild blood loss, but the way the break is, there is a risk of tearing the artery, which is laying against the break at the moment.” Adam’s words surprised Cal, there was no way without an MRI, or something, that Adam would know what he was saying.

“How could you know that?” Cal asked him.

A look of surprise came over Adam’s face as he looked up into his old friend’s face. “I don’t know. I shouldn’t know that, but I do.”

“Okay,” Cal said after a short thought, “I need to ask you to do something, and I need you to trust me, because it is going to sound weird.” Cal knew that he was about to give the strangest command he ever had, and that was saying something. Adam nodded. “I want you to concentrate on the injury and picture what it would take to fix it. See if you get any answers.”

Adam gave Cal a strange look, but didn’t reply. He went back and kneeled next to the man and put his hand on the leg near the wound. As Cal watched, he saw something that the lack of reaction on everyone else told him they did not see. Adam’s hands glowed for a moment and the man yelled out. Adam kept his concentration and the man’s foot slowly turned back to the correct position. After this there was an audible click and the man sat jolt upright.

Adam sort of fell back against Erica, seemingly exhausted, and she stroked his hair as he rested there. Just before turning to look at the family, Cal saw a very slight glow coming from Erica and falling over Adam. Adam’s body visibly relaxed. The man was putting a little pressure on the leg that Adam had just been working on. In a few minutes, he was standing on it gingerly.

A younger woman looked at Adam and then at Cal as he walked toward them. “What just happened?”

“I don’t know,” Cal replied, “but it looks like it helped.”

The entire family were now surrounding Adam and thanking him as he said over and over that he didn’t really do anything. Cal talked with the family for a bit, asking if they needed anything else. He looked up to see two of Max’s dogs just staring at them all out of the woods. It was a little creepy, but he was sure that Max was now telling everyone that all was well. Adam was getting back to his feet, so they said their goodbyes and told the family where they were headed, just in case it became necessary to look for them.

The five of them made their way back to the road, flanked on each side by dogs. Cal reminded himself at that moment that he was never alone, he always had the eyes of a ten-year-old girl watching him.

Back at the road, he turned to Adam and Erica, “Do you two understand what happened?”

“Yeah,” Erica exclaimed, “Adam healed that old guy.”

“Do you know what you did?” Cal continued pressing.

“Me?” she asked, “I didn’t do anything.”

“Adam healed the man, and you restored Adam’s strength.” Cal said. Adam was looking right up at Erica. He really had avoided the obvious attraction they shared up until now, but something about Cal’s statement seemed to wake him up.

“You did that?” Adam asked.

“Did I?” Erica questioned, seeming a little confused.

Cal nodded, “You did. I think we need to talk with the group. I think I know a little more about our new world.”

They walked forward, and though he was excited with the possibilities, he wasn’t sure everyone had the energy to talk about it. “Everyone?” He called out, and all of the group turned to listen. “We have some things to discuss, but I have no idea if discussing it in the middle of the road when a storm is coming,” he pointed to the clouds that were gathering over the front range, “is really the best time and place. I need a vote, who wants to discuss things now and who wants to wait? If now, raise your hands.” Only Erica, Adam and Nat raised their hands. “Later?” Everyone else raised their hands. Cal shrugged, “Okay, later it is. Let’s all head down the road. Adam are you good to travel?”

“Yep,” Adam said and he and Erica started walking.

They all walked the miles to the country highway, all the while Cal was searching his considerable intellect to wrap his head around the ramifications of what it would mean if he was right. If they were now in a magical world, instead of one that had the known scientific structure, the conclusions would be profound. He found himself so deep in thought that he needed his daughter to yell out a second time. He looked up and realized everyone else had stopped and he was a few yards ahead of them. He had almost walked right over the edge of the road where it had washed out.

Looking down over the crevasse, it wasn’t that far, maybe twenty feet. But, the torrent of water that had once been an almost empty creek and was now a raging river stood between his group and the other side. They needed to get to the other side in order to achieve their objective. Cal looked north; there was no crossing that he could see. He looked south and far off, it looked like most or all of another crossing was intact. He could take the group that way.

Cal turned to tell the group and saw his fatal mistake. There was a widening crack in the pavement upon which he was standing. He was the only one to notice it. He looked around for something to grab.

“No one come over here,” he said as he felt the weight under him start to shift. “Kyle, take the rope out of your backpack.” He watched as Kyle did it and saw the look of horror on everyone’s faces as they watched the crack grow wider and wider. Kyle had the rope out and tossed it to his Dad. As Cal reached for it, he felt the ground beneath him slip. He hit his head hard against the asphalt as the road crumbled underneath him. He was never close enough to the rope to get it, but he reached wildly out for any handhold as he fell.

A piece of the road that had crumbled previously had a bar sticking out of it and Cal was able to grab ahold of it. The water rushed so furiously by that it was loud, but he could hear the yells of his family above him as he pulled himself toward dry land. He looked up and saw the rope being lowered at the same moment he felt the soft earth give way under his anchor. He fought against it, but the mud was too wet and slippery and he slowly sank into the river and its incredible current. He held on for dear life, but the current began to tug at him as more of his body sunk into it. His arms burned with the strain of holding on and in this short time, he almost couldn’t feel his fingers any more.

He couldn’t hold on and fell into the river, which quickly carried him downstream. He tried to call out, but swallowed a huge amount of water. He was just able to see the pipes that led to the underground portion of this. Maybe he could grab the side. It would probably rip his hand apart, but maybe he could hold on long enough for the family to get there. He reached out, but missed it and the effort brought him right into the path of a branch that hit him hard on the head. As he faded out, he wondered how everyone else would survive. He said a silent prayer to a god or gods he had long since forgotten as his vision faded to black, and Calvin Ward faded from this life.

Cliff Ko was an intelligent boy, a bit of a geek really. He liked all things mystical and magical, and had generally been ostracized by others his age for being weird. Most people today think kids embrace nerdiness, but it has never been quite so simple. Kids find a way to categorize those that are not like everyone else, they always have. Maybe they always will. He had lived all twelve years of his life in Colorado Springs with his father and his brother, his mother having died when he was very young. The change from one existence to the next was taken as a real positive by Cliff. He had been at the Target pharmacy with his Dad when the power had gone out, and shortly after that they had walked home. It wasn’t too far, and Cliff got to spend time with his Dad. Cliff had gone to his room to begin planning the next RPG game he would try to get introduced into the Middle School’s gaming club.

When it got dark that first night, and the rain started pouring down, he wasn’t able to see much and became a little frustrated. In his mind, Cliff had been making patterns he could use in the maps for the game and one in particular that was basically concentric circles, when he wished he had light in the room to read. He just wished it, and it happened. It was low, and had come out of his hands, and went out as soon as he started reading. He played with that light all night, not telling his father about it. He really wished he had. He wished that he could have helped his father, but those wishes never came true.

On the second day, Cliff’s father had grown steadily more ill. He said his heart medication wasn’t working. Late in the afternoon, he didn’t wake up from his nap. Cliff had tried to push the light into his father, trying to give him energy, but apparently the magic didn’t work that way. On the third day, he wrapped his Dad in a sheet and left him in the living room. The smell was horrific now, and Cliff mostly stayed in his room upstairs. He had rung doorbells nearby, but no one seemed to be home anymore. Now, with six or seven days having passed since the world changed, with no sight of his brother in all that time, and with his food reserves down to a few fruit rolls and some granola bars, Cliff wanted to get out and see if he could find people. There were two problems with this.

One problem was that there were people Cliff had seen in the last couple of days, since the rain stopped. There was a group of five or six boys, high-schoolers, who were roaming the streets, breaking into houses and taking food and pretty much whatever they wanted. They hadn’t come to Cliff’s house yet, but he knew they would get here eventually, based on their pace, probably today.

The other problem was that Cliff was afraid of the other way out of the house, the back way. There was a creek back there, that now was a river, but that wasn’t the problem. Since he was a little boy, he had always heard the rumors of the Hermit. A local bogeyman of rumor, the Hermit was one of the scariest ideas Cliff could imagine. He didn’t even like exiting his house in that direction. His older brother, Kin, always got mad at him for this fear, but Cliff knew the Hermit was real. The story went that a homeless man lived in a cave down by the creek. He was crazy and abducted and killed small children. Cliff had thought he had seen him once in another part of town. He was a tall man with mud smeared all over his clothes, and he had looked at Cliff straight in the eyes when he, his father, and Kin had been at the park downtown some months ago. The dull stare in his eyes were enough to frighten Cliff forever. Cliff stared out his bedroom window, looking for any sign of the Hermit. He thought he saw movement in the trees near the creek, just off their property. It was growing dark, and he couldn’t be sure.

The sound of breaking glass brought Cliff to his senses. He heard voices downstairs.

“Oh, shit, man. Is that a corpse?”

“Go check.” Said a second voice.

“I ain’t checking, you check.” The first voice replied.

“You guys are such pussies!” chimed in a third voice, “Yeah it is a body, and someone wrapped him up.” Cliff was about to sneak out to see who it was, but stopped short when he heard, “let’s check the house. Load anything worthwhile on to the patio and we will take it with us, Jay, go downstairs and check the basement.”

“It’s always flooded in the basement,” the man named Jay whined aloud.

“Just do it,” said the voice of the man who was obviously the leader, “I will check upstairs.”

Cliff had heard enough, he loaded his DM guide, his player’s handbook and his book of game magic all into his backpack with the little food items he had left and crawled out his window onto the small roof area. There was a lattice he his brother had used to sneak into the house when he had been in school, and had stayed out later than his father had wanted. Cliff crept over to it, just as he heard the door to his bedroom open. Cliff was just beginning to ease himself down the lattice work, when the man shouted out the window.

“Hey, there he is. It is some kid.” Cliff looked up to see the teen (which is what he really was) climb out onto the roof. He heard the lumbering feet of another running across his hardwood floors and Cliff made a leap for the ground and took off running toward the woods and the creek. The young men were on his track in less than a minute and Cliff ran through the trees, only slowed by the overwhelming fear of the direction he was headed. He saw the swollen creek and knew he didn’t have far to run, so he tried to hide behind a tree. He heard the men moving through the small brush.

“We know you are here kid.” Said the first voice, “just come out so we can talk about the body. You kill that guy?”

Did he kill his own father? The question really upset him, he stood and walked around the tree, to where three young men stood. A fourth was just running into the wooded area at that moment.

“No, I did not kill my father,” Cliff began indignantly, “he died of heart problems a couple of days ago. Now, you leave our property.”

“Or what?” came the leader’s response.

“Or the Hermit will get you.” Cliff replied, his fear growing greater every second.

“Kid, that story is older than me. Now get over here, and we will decide if you live or die.” The man started walking forward, and Cliff was certain he was at least about to get hurt. But, the leader stopped up short, his eyes wide. He was staring, not at Cliff, but behind him. Cliff turned to look behind him, but was shoved roughly aside by a man walking by. His head hit the tree he was standing next to and he fell down, dazed. When he could regain his thoughts, he looked up to see the man who had walked by. It was the Hermit, with the mud-covered clothes and skin, exactly as Cliff imagined. He shrank back against the tree, because around the Hermit lay the four bodies of the young men who had wanted to kill or hurt Cliff.

The Hermit paid no mind to Cliff, he rifled over the men’s bodies, looking for something. Cliff saw him rip a diamond stud earring from one of the boys’ ears. The Hermit’s back was to Cliff the whole time. The man stood, looked down at the bodies for a moment and started walking off parallel to the creek.

Cliff called out, “Sir?” to no response.

The man kept walking and cliff followed him and called out again, “Are you the Hermit?”

At this the man turned. Cliff fully expected to see those dead, scary eyes, but what he saw was something quite different. The Hermit’s eyes sparkled with power, like there was something shiny inside his head. He said nothing, but Cliff was suddenly overwhelmed with fear and he shrunk down as the man turned to leave. As fearful as he was, the man had saved him. So, cowering on the ground, he yelled out one more thing, “Thank you for saving me.”

The Hermit turned once again, considered Cliff for a moment, and then turned back and continued his fast paced walk away. The fear immediately left Cliff, like someone had drawn a curtain back. It was an odd sensation. Cliff threw his backpack over a shoulder and followed after the man at a distance, never getting close enough to incur his wrath, but every once in a while, Cliff would see him turn and look and shake his head.