Eyes of the Sun (22 page)

Pretty soon, Sweet Pea had been laid on several clean blankets, she’d cleansed his stub, numbed it, then using a long-stemmed lighter, cauterized it. Sweet Pea was unconscious through most of the procedure, thank goodness.

An hour after starting, Ebony put a blanket over him then had Akeno watch the Makalo and get him anything he needed when he woke up.

After everyone made sure Sweet Pea would be okay, Jacob brought up Myler’s situation with Dad.

Dad looked troubled, however. “This is very suspicious, you realize.”

“Why? He saved lives! He fought against the Lorkon!”

Dad shook his head. “Still—how did he know?”

Jacob bit down his retort. Would nothing convince these people that Myler was on their side? “We need to have a meeting. And soon.”

Dad sighed, straightening. “Agreed. Go get Mom and Matt. Then bring everyone here.”

Jacob looked around, about to ask why they weren’t going to be meeting at Kenji’s house. But the entire village in the canyon crevices was smoldering and smoking. Jacob’s shoulders slumped. So many memories in this place. He clenched his fist and took a deep breath. The Lorkon would pay for it.

Dad grabbed his shoulder. “There’ll be time for those emotions later. Get going.”

Jacob nodded, took another deep breath, then left. Minutes later, everyone stood in awkward circles around Gallus and Sweet Pea. Sweet Pea was no longer unconscious, but was now sleeping, and Gallus had dragged himself until he was leaning against the outside of the tree.

Mom put her hand to her mouth, tears welling up in her eyes. “So much death. So much destruction.”

Dad opened his arms and Mom stepped into them.

Aldo took a deep breath, turning to Kenji. “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” Kenji said, shaking his head. “I was washing dishes when the alarm bells sounded.”

“How many Makalos have been killed?” Dad asked, a worried expression on his face.

“About thirty.”

Mom gasped, backing out of Dad’s arms. “No. Oh, that’s horrible.”

Kenji looked down, picking at the bandages Ebony had used to cover his wounds. “It seems like this might be the end of the Makalo race. There are only fifty remaining Makalos, most of whom are elderly or too young to defend themselves.”

Ebony patted his arm. “We might survive yet.”

“But without the protection on the entrance?” Kenji rubbed his face. “We’re doomed.”

Jacob had never seen such despair in a Makalo before. It hurt his already aching heart. And he couldn’t even imagine his life without Makalos in it. He refused to acknowledge that. He looked at Sweet Pea, who’d awakened again and was grimacing from what Jacob imagined was a ton of pain.

Jacob looked on, ignoring the stinging at the back of his eyes. This was a serious blow—so many Makalos dead, and Sweet Pea being one of the only true fighters. How would they survive another attack without him?

Sweet Pea must’ve felt Jacob’s eyes on him. “I’ll be fine—it’ll grow back.”

Jacob knew it wouldn’t, but he did have an idea. He looked at Azuriah. “Is it possible for me to take Sweet Pea to the past with me—to Onyev’s time—and have him get healed there?”

“Theoretically, yes, but transporting him would probably kill him. It’s never advisable to take an injured person back and forth.”

“But I did it with Matt and Aloren.”

“And they were injured in the process.”

“No, they were—”

Mom put her hand on Jacob’s arm. “We didn’t tell you—we didn’t want you to feel bad. But the reason they were in the hospital so long
was
because of your ability. They would’ve been released after two or so days otherwise.”

Jacob’s mouth popped open. “You should have told me! Why didn’t you?”

“Because you were already so very upset, and what you were doing was more important. We couldn’t risk you losing focus.”

Jacob glared at the ground. “That’s stupid.”

The Fat Lady cleared her throat. “Regardless of what’s stupid and not, we need to decide what we’re going to do about everyone who’s been injured.”

Kenji took a deep breath. “We’ll use the rest of the Kaede Sap.”

The Fat Lady shook her head. “What if it’s required to cleanse the trees of the Lorkon insects?”

Kenji shrugged. “Then we won’t have any more sap.”

Jacob stood. “No. Onyev said he was sure there would be an antidote of some sort to use against the Lorkon. It’ll work on the trees.”

Kenji smiled, a little light entering his eyes. “If Onyev thinks that could work, then I’m sure it will.”

Jacob nodded. He didn’t want to say that Onyev hadn’t even mentioned the bugs where the antidote was concerned, but that didn’t matter. He was positive his theory was correct. Once they found the Lorkon antidote, they’d be able to use it on the bugs and trees.

“Okay, so let’s heal everyone, then,” Aldo said. “We simply can’t afford to have our entire army die.”

Kenji motioned a Makalo over and had him go to the Kaede Sap storage area and bring everything out. While waiting, Ebony checked the bandages on Sweet Pea’s leg stump.

Jacob paced. “We have to keep this from happening ever again. I’ll reseal the entrance. We’ll do everything we can to protect the Makalos.” He looked down at Sweet Pea. “Especially since so many of our fighters are injured.”

Ebony chuckled bitterly. “There were only a few of us in the first place. Makalos always relied on their magic to protect themselves. We’re not strong, physically. And we don’t have time to train those who remain.”

“Which makes having a sealed entrance even more important,” Jacob said.

Azuriah shook his head. “Won’t work.”

“Why not?” Jacob demanded.

“Because they already know how to break through your magic.”

“Azuriah is correct,” Dad said. “We can’t protect the village that way anymore.”

“Then how are we going to defend ourselves?” Akeno asked.

Kenji looked at his son. “We fall back.”

“Where?” Akeno asked. “There isn’t anywhere to fall back to. Can’t we rebuild the village?”

Kenji made sweeping motions with his arms. “No, we can’t. We’ll retreat to Earth.”

Dad looked at Kenji. “Earth? How would you keep yourselves hidden?”

Kenji half smiled. “Simple. We were tree dwellers before, and tree dwellers we’ll become again.”

“I don’t know how I feel about that,” Mom said.

Jacob could tell she was thinking about offering their house, but there wasn’t any way every single Makalo could live there.

Kenji put up his hand. “We can’t possibly rebuild Taga Village. We don’t have the strength to do both that and maintain this link.” He motioned to the forest that led to Mendon.

“What do you mean?” Matt asked. “I thought it took hardly any powers to keep the link closed.”

Kenji shook his head. “On the contrary. Most of our energies are taken up by harvesting food and keeping Earth and Eklaron safe from unwanted visitors. In order to protect Earth from the Lorkon, we’ll need to focus all of our remaining energy on the link.”

“But what about the gardens?” Mom asked.

Kenji didn’t respond, but stared at his feet.

Dad nodded, looking at Kenji. “I understand. The gardens don’t matter. Right now, our main concern is finding out how to get rid of the Lorkon.”

Azuriah stepped forward. “And along with that, we must rid this land of Lirone!”

“What happened, anyway?” Jacob asked at the same
time
that Dad said, “We don’t need to worry about Lirone anymore.”

Azuriah chose to respond to Dad. “Yes, we do. Lirone only stays where he is because the Lorkon want him there. They’ve obviously had their attention elsewhere. But now that they know we’re intent on getting rid of him, they’re going to want to move him. And what happens if they move him here? If they break through the link and station him over America?”

Mom gasped. “Is that even possible? Could he fit through the link?”

“The link isn’t about size,” Azuriah said. “It’s about access. Any being can cross the gateway, as long as they have access. Once the Lorkon figure this out, they’ll do anything to cause as much damage as possible.”

“But if we get rid of Lirone, won’t they just bring him back?” Matt asked.

“We’ll send him far enough away so that persuading him to return will become too great of a task. Shiengols can move a sky dweller in hours. But the Lorkon must resort to manipulation, bribery, and force. It takes cunning and time to convince a sky dweller to do your bidding.”

Azuriah sat on the ground near Britt, his youngest child. She’d been wounded slightly and was resting. “We must rid Gevkan of Lirone as soon as we can.”

“So . . .” Jacob hesitated bringing it up again. “What happened? Why weren’t we successful?”

Azuriah grabbed a stone and threw it across the meadow. “It should have worked. Nothing clicked as it usually would. It was like we didn’t have enough strength—couldn’t gather enough.”

“Why was that?” Kenji asked. “You couldn’t have predicted it, right?”

Jacob knew Kenji was trying to assist—possibly by helping Azuriah think through the situation. But Jacob knew Azuriah better than that. He cringed, waiting for the outburst, and wasn’t disappointed.

Azuriah jumped to his feet and glared at Kenji, his red robes swirling, dark hair mingling with the robes. Jacob’s breath choked in his throat. This Shiengol was formidable. And scary. Especially right at that moment.

“Don’t you think I would’ve resolved the issue ahead of time if I’d known what it was? Do you really think I’m that stupid, Makalo?”

Kenji’s exterior didn’t change, but by the colors swirling around him, Jacob knew he’d been frightened. He hid it well and Jacob was proud of him for not showing fear.

Obviously, Azuriah was impressed, because the muscles in his face relaxed. “It should have worked,” he repeated. “This is ridiculous.”

Jacob had never seen Azuriah so stumped before. He decided to start leading the conversation. He would get in trouble the same as Kenji, but at least he was used to it. “How do you know only Shiengols can get rid of Lirone?”

Azuriah glared. “Because only Shiengols carry the light and power of the sun. Lirone is dark matter. The sun is the only thing that can clear a storm and dry the water.” Azuriah strode to his wife’s side and checked on one of their sons who’d also been injured. His hair waved in the breeze and he closed his eyes. At least Azuriah hadn’t lashed out at Jacob.

“So . . . you’d need a lot of power to do something like that with Lirone. One or two Shiengols wouldn’t be enough.”

“Obviously.” Azuriah didn’t turn around.

“How many Shiengols would you need?”

“All of them. Every single Shiengol alive must be present for it to work.”

Jacob raised his eyebrows. That was quite the task. Getting
all
of them together? That seemed impossible. “How do you know where all the Shiengols are?”

Azuriah turned then and stared at Jacob. “Have you learned nothing from your studies with me?”

Jacob was aware that everyone was watching him. He didn’t look away from Azuriah, though. The Shiengol’s eyes were still bright from staring at the sun earlier and hadn’t yet faded to their usual level of intensity, But Jacob didn’t care.

Azuriah continued. “Shiengols are connected to each other. Always. We know where the other Shiengols are at all times.”

“That’s creepy,” Matt said.

Azuriah ignored him. “Because we’re connected, I knew where to get the others.”

“Is it possible that one of your people—or a group of them—might not be connected anymore?”

Azuriah didn’t respond at first. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, rolled back on his heels, and raised his face. After several moments, he said, “Yes. That is possible. There is one Shiengol, one who disappeared from our sight years ago. We assumed she was dead. But her death wasn’t like the others. She drifted to and from our consciousness over the course of several minutes. Usually, when a Shiengol dies, we’re very aware of the exact moment they’re no longer living. Death doesn’t just come and go.”

He stared down into Jacob’s eyes. “It’s your grandmother, Ara Liese. You must find her.”

Mom and Dad gasped—they’d obviously not been expecting Azuriah to say that.

“Is it possible?” Mom said. “Is she still alive?” Her eyes filled with tears for the second time that day.

“Haven’t you already tried to find her?” Kenji asked.

Azuriah scowled at Kenji, his emotion colors showing embarrassment and irritation. “Yes. But at the point where she ‘dies,’ we’re unable to follow her any longer. Something happened to her body that has prevented us from Time-Seeing even to figure out where she was buried.”

Jacob frowned at what Azuriah was asking him to do. “If
you
couldn’t figure it out, how am
I
supposed to?”

Azuriah shrugged. “About that, I’m not sure. You’ll find a way.” He motioned to the others around them. “And they can probably help.” He sighed and turned to face the meadow. “I’ve got work to do with the injured Shiengols. They’re upset, and we can’t risk having anyone leave until we resolve the Lirone dilemma.”

Azuriah started walking through the people now lying on the ground, and Kenji and Ebony turned their attention to the pile of Kaede Sap packages the Makalo Kenji sent had brought. Jacob couldn’t believe it—there were only eight or nine left. Kenji was right—they would have to use all of it to heal the injuries sustained that day.

Chapter Fourteen: Distractions

Jacob decided to try Time-Seeing first, following Ara Liese as much as he could. There was a slight chance he’d be able to figure things out that Azuriah and the other Shiengols hadn’t. He really wasn’t sure, but at that point, he was willing to do whatever was necessary.

Jacob opened a permanent link from the tree in Taga to his home in Mendon. A guard was stationed on either side. This made it so he wouldn’t have to run people back and forth. He was glad when Dad suggested it—he needed to focus.

He paced his room, pausing occasionally to look out his window to the forest. The Makalos were there, showing Akeno where they wanted their tree huts. Akeno had volunteered to try to re-build the stone dwellings in the village, but since he couldn’t control stone, everyone had agreed that his strength would better serve the Makalos by constructing dwellings using living plants instead.