Kilenya Series Books One, Two, and Three (52 page)

The Makalos were never the strong, bright colors, since they rarely experienced the associated emotions, which were also strong. They were usually closer to pastels and medium-hued colors.

After he found the patterns, Jacob stopped approaching people. At first it was really hard to stop—if there was something he could do to help, he wanted to do it. But he resisted because people were starting to treat him like there was something wrong, or something very special, about him. He couldn’t stand either.

Most everyone figured out he could sense other people’s emotions, and now girls—why was it always girls?—asked him for help with their relationships. “Is he still mad at me? Does he like me? What’s he thinking now?”

The worst was when a girl approached him and asked what she was feeling toward him. He blushed and walked away. It had been many different colors—the ones that equaled infatuation.

It didn’t matter that he’d stopped asking other students how they felt. Word spread, and he was constantly stopped by new people as he went to and from classes.

The one time when this ability helped Jacob was on the court during lunch. He could always tell when people were distracted by strong emotions—fear, anger, love. He didn’t feel bad for zipping past players who weren’t really into the game.

Tani, Josh, and Gus spent a lot of time finding the fastest way from one room to another—sometimes even using the windows. The busier the hallway, the more difficult it was to get through.

Gradually, though, things went back to normal. As normal as possible, of course, since Jacob still had a large group of “fans” showing up for the lunchtime games.

The only breaks he got from all of this were while he was at home with his family, or with the Makalos, who seemed to think everything going on at school was incredibly funny. Sweet Pea, especially. Jacob got the feeling that the Makalo was dying to leave Eklaron and go to Mountain Crest to egg the students on.

Jacob tossed the ball to Kevin, who threw it in from the three-point line. Those supporting Jacob and Kevin’s team cheered. A smattering of boos came from the students for the other team.

He smiled with relief. He always felt his best when playing. Matt rebounded the ball and tossed it to Jacob, who grinned, remembering how everyone had reacted when Matt announced he was going to play. They had no problem with it—they were excited to see how the captain of the football team would do on the court.

Jacob tried to find an open teammate. Things looked blurry—he’d had nightmares about Aloren and hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep last night. He blinked, trying to get his eyes to focus, and wiped his arm across them.

The air around him suddenly smelled like earth, and a breeze blew gently against his face. He jerked his hand away from his eyes. Instead of the orange gym, acres and acres of green grass stretched in all directions around him.

What was going on? Was he dreaming? He looked down—he still held the basketball. The sound of rushing feet returned, and Kevin called to him to toss the ball. Glancing about, relief poured over him when he saw he was back in the gym. He must’ve been imagining things. He took a deep breath, ran down the court, ignored Kevin, and put the ball through the hoop.

Jacob paused, hesitating to follow the other team to their side. He was tired of his body doing unpredictable things. Maybe he should sit out the rest of lunch period. He watched his teammates, trying to decide what to do.

All of a sudden, after a bright flash of light, the room around him was replaced with a similar field to the one he’d seen earlier. This one, however, had a train track cutting through the grass, stretching as far as he could see in either direction. The strong smell of sun-warmed earth assailed him, and a pleasant breeze cooled the sweat on his head.

He shut his eyes hard and opened them. The field was still there. Was he in Eklaron? He didn’t recognize this place. He stood near the tracks. The air felt fresh—like early morning—and the sun peeked over the edge of the world. He’d never been in such a flat place before.

Another flash and the gym returned. Coach Birmingham was jogging toward him, a concerned expression on his face.

A third flash. This time the sun was just setting. Jacob was again near the track. He heard a high-pitched whistle and whipped around in time to see a huge train come barreling down the track toward him. Jacob tripped over the railroad ties and flung himself over the track closest to him. He rolled away as quickly as he could, and just in time. The train zoomed past him, faster than anything he’d ever seen before.

Suddenly, the gym surrounded him again. Several people were screaming, and Coach yelled for someone to call 911. Jacob lay on the gym floor, and when he tried to get up, Matt pushed him back down.

“Don’t move.”

“I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not. You yelled and freaked out and flopped all over the floor.”

Jacob flushed. Tani and Gus bent over him with worried expressions on their faces. Most everyone else looked embarrassed, uncomfortable, or nervous. What happened? His body felt weird—like he’d just run five miles, but without the muscle soreness. He was out of breath and was tired. Really tired.

The school nurse arrived and started checking him. Soon after, the gym flooded with paramedics. Mr. Williams, the principal, ordered everyone to their classes.

Despite his protests that he was fine, the paramedics strapped Jacob to a gurney and wheeled him out of the room, Matt following close.

Jacob had never ridden in an ambulance before. He didn’t remember the whole ride, though, because the weariness kept hitting him really hard, and he dozed off several times. He couldn’t control it. When they pulled up at the Logan hospital, his parents were there to meet him. Mom freaked out, and Dad started asking questions.

The doctor submitted him to a series of tests—an MRI, a CT scan, blood tests, everything. Finally, after hours of being poked and prodded, the doctor said Jacob was over-exhausted, had hallucinated, and that he needed to spend the night in the hospital to be sure nothing more was wrong. Apparently, he was under too much stress, that someone his age and health shouldn’t be having episodes like this.

Jacob groaned and whined about it, but secretly was glad he would be watched by doctors and nurses. What if something was wrong? He
knew
he hadn’t been hallucinating. The wind and grass were as real as the bed he lay on now.

The night passed without incident, though. Hazel stayed with him to keep him company until he fell asleep—being careful not to let someone see her—and the doctor released him the next day.

Jacob’s mom had him stay home from Eklaron and school for a couple of days, but all too soon he had to return to pulling people from the scented air, combat training, and class. He dreaded the attention he would get in school. News had spread through the entire student body, no doubt.

The attention only lasted a couple of days, though, then things mostly went back to what they’d been before his “episode.”

The Makalos gave him occasional updates on the Fat Lady’s potion—there hadn’t been a lot of progress lately. It really worried him, but he knew there wasn’t anything he could do about it. His combat training with Sweet Pea was going well now, and he still helped pull people from the scented air. School was too pressing for Jacob to spend much time with the Makalos for pleasure. Plus, his nightmares were worse than ever, and always involved Aloren being murdered in a gruesome, upsetting way.

She’d been in Maivoryl City for over two months now—two months! Was she even still alive? Without having a way to get in touch with her, he thought he’d go crazy.

Then he had an interesting conversation with Mr. Coolidge before math one day.

“Jacob,” Mr. Coolidge said, handing Jacob some papers. The color around his face was a light yellow-green—he was intrigued by something. “You have a unique ability to understand things just by looking at them. Are either of your parents like this?”

Jacob shrugged. He’d never noticed anything special about his “understanding” abilities. He looked at the paper—conics—and pulled out his pencil and leaned forward, working over the problems. After several minutes, he looked up again. Mr. Coolidge’s eyes were still on him.

“That journal you had in class on the first day—whose was it?”

Jacob sat upright—Mr. Coolidge had opened the book? “Sir?”

“I flipped through it and noticed it was empty. All but the first page . . . but then the rest of the words just
appeared
the more I read. It’s a very interesting journal, and I’d like to finish it.”

Jacob’s jaw dropped.

“You aren’t the type to read your own diary in class. It isn’t yours. Whose is it?”

“Just . . . just some guy’s.”

“Who wrote it? Which fairytale is it based on? I’ve searched everywhere and can’t find it.”

Jacob shook his head. “Don’t worry about it—you won’t . . . you won’t find anything on it.”

“I’d like to borrow it from you, if that’s all right.”

“No!”

Jacob backpedaled when he saw the surprise in Coolidge’s eyes. The green disappeared, replaced completely with light yellow—surprise. “I mean, I need to read the rest of it. It doesn’t belong to me—I borrowed it from a . . . from a friend, and have to give it back soon.”

He refused to look at Mr. Coolidge the rest of their time together. He knew he’d lied and hated it. Resolving to turn his lie into a truth, he decided to finish reading the journal as soon as he could. When the bell finally rang, signaling the start of math, he sighed in relief, rubbing his eyes.

Jacob got home after basketball practice—which had gone so well, he was still smiling—and fell onto the couch. For once, he didn’t have anything to do that night with the Makalos—they’d decided to give him some time off. The Fat Lady’s potion, according to Kenji, should be finished in another week.

Jacob rolled onto his stomach, trying to decide what to do. He really wished he could help Aloren. The dreams had gotten so bad lately. Were they somehow warning him of her condition?

The garage door opened and Matt entered the house, Sammy on his heels. They plopped onto the couch across from Jacob.

“Hey,” Matt said. “Mom and Dad are at Amberly’s dance rehearsal. Wanna come to Sammy’s house and watch a movie?”

“Which one?”

“Probably
Wolverine
or something.”

Jacob shrugged—he’d just watched it a couple of weeks ago, and wasn’t in the mood to see it again. Then he remembered his promise to himself to read Dmitri’s book. “Nah, I think I’m going to read the journal.”

Matt and Sammy grabbed a bunch of DVDs and left, and Jacob pulled the leather book from his backpack where he always kept it.

Through all the stress of having a kingdom and its people resting on my shoulders, there is one bright thing—my family: Arien and the babe. And yet, even with them there is bad news. The baby is sick and steadily getting worse, and we do not know what is wrong. He reacts strangely to many things—at times he is lucid, but at others it’s as if he’s not with us. During these episodes his eyes are open, but he’s unresponsive to anything we do. And he is burning up—constantly feverish. Aldo suggested we take him to the Fat Lady’s right away, and so that is what we are doing. We leave in half an hour—we’ll use the Key to get there.