Kilenya Series Books One, Two, and Three (56 page)

“I’ll do it,” Akeno said quietly.

Every head turned to him.

“It’s worth it to me.” The colors surrounding his face were many—deep yellow, a bit of dark blue, even some light green. His emotions were conflicted. “In my current condition, I’ll have a really bad limp for the rest of my life. It’ll prevent me from doing
anything
. I don’t want to live that way. I want to be normal again.”

“Son, are you sure?” Ebony asked.

Akeno nodded.

Everyone looked back to the Fat Lady, who had a hard time keeping a grin from spreading across her face. “Excellent,” she said. “I’m ready whenever you are. Oh, but I do need those syringes.” She looked at Jacob. “Can you get some for me?”

“Sure,” Jacob said, though he had no idea where to find any. “I’ll ask my mom and dad.”

“Wonderful!” she said. “We’ll be ready to go as soon as you come back.”

Brojan nodded at Jacob. “Find some and return here in two hours. We’ll talk then about your privileges with the Key. Go.”

The finality in the patriarch’s voice left no doubt in Jacob’s mind. He jumped to his feet, not sure how he was supposed to locate syringes in only a couple of hours.

Jacob Keyed home, deciding to ask his mom first. He felt a little timid approaching her about the Makalos’ request, and she was very hesitant at first, but then even offered to ask Ida Mae, their neighbor who was diabetic, if they could buy some of hers.

Ida Mae agreed. Apparently she had a whole box of them—they came in packages of ten, and her insurance paid for a large portion. Jacob’s mom didn’t tell her what they’d be used for, which came as a relief to Jacob. He still hadn’t even told his best friends about Eklaron, and wasn’t sure he would. He felt different enough as it was.

Jacob got Matt to drive him to pick up the syringes, rather than using the Key. On Earth, just walking through another person’s front door was inappropriate—so was showing up without transportation of some sort.

Ida Mae answered the door, a smile on her face. She was an elderly British woman with plenty of zest and energy left over from years of raising ten children. She reached for the brothers and pulled them in for a tight hug, her old-lady perfume burning Jacob’s nose.

The box of syringes waited on the counter in the kitchen and she pulled several out, put them in a bag, and gave them to Matt.

“Would you like some gum while you’re here?” she asked in her strong English accent.

Jacob smiled—she’d been known as “the gum lady” for as long as he could remember, always giving out gum and candy to the neighbor kids.

“You bet!” Matt said.

Ida Mae laughed and brought down the gumball machine from the top of the fridge. She put a penny in, held the lever down, and Matt put his hand under the spout, eagerly watching as several multi-colored balls fell out.

Jacob took some as well—he’d never been a gum-chewer, but Ida Mae was so happy about giving it away that he always accepted when she offered.

“Give my regards to your mum,” she said as Jacob and Matt left her house.

Once home, they passed Ida Mae’s message on to their mom, then Jacob made sure Hazel was safe in his room—the operation might upset her. Then he and Matt Keyed back to Kenji’s place.

“Wow,” Ebony said, jumping when they entered the room. “That was much faster than we’d thought it would be.”

Jacob nodded. “Our neighbor has tons of syringes. She’s diabetic.”

“All right, the Fat Lady and I will be working on Akeno. You’re welcome to stay to help.”

Jacob hesitated—he didn’t want to see Akeno in any more pain, but he felt it was partially his fault the Makalo had ended up this way. “I’m staying.”

The Fat Lady requested that Akeno be strapped to the table. Ebony made sure there were plenty of blankets and sheets under him to help him stay comfortable. She and the Fat Lady had their instruments around Akeno’s feet, ready to go.

The entire counsel came to wish Akeno luck—Brojan, Gallus, Sweet Pea, and a few older Makalos Jacob hadn’t met yet. The whole room was very light yellow mixed with light orange—the colors for apprehension and nervousness. Jaegar brought Kaiya and the baby, Echo, to give Akeno hugs before taking them to a neighbor’s house, where he’d tend them. Brojan and Sweet Pea left, but Kenji sat near the door, wanting to be in the room, but not close enough to see everything.

“I’m going to need Matt and Jacob’s help for the operation,” the Fat Lady said. “They’ll need to hold Akeno down, in case the straps aren’t enough.”

Matt sat on one side of Akeno, and Jacob on the other.

“All right, we’re ready,” the Fat Lady said. “First, by mouth.” She held the purple potion out to Akeno. “Only drink a tiny bit. It shouldn’t taste too bad.”

He lifted his head, tilting the vial to his lips, and swallowed a little. His shoulders relaxed. “That was
much
better than I expected,” he said, giving the vial back to the Fat Lady.

“Next, by blood.” She took out one of the syringes, dipped the end into the potion, and drew with the plunger until a few drops entered the barrel.

She approached Akeno with a slight frown on her face. “I’m actually not sure . . .”

Matt stood, and Jacob wasn’t surprised. His older brother was obsessed with doctor-type TV shows. “You can’t just poke it in him. You have to find a vein. Here, on the inside of his elbow.” He pointed to the little blue vein visible there. “And you have to strap his upper arm, though I don’t know why.”

He took a piece of cloth and tied it around Akeno’s arm tightly.

“Next, you have to make sure there aren’t any air bubbles in the potion. Give me the syringe.” He held out his hand. The Fat Lady gave it to him and he tapped it on the table, the way they do in the movies, then held it needle-side-up and squirted just a tiny bit of the potion out.

“Okay, it’s ready.”

He showed the Fat Lady how to find the vein. “I’m not going to do that part—you have to,” he said.

Akeno shut his eyes and turned away. Jacob found himself so fascinated, he had to watch.

The Fat Lady poked the needle into the inside of Akeno’s elbow and looked at Matt.

“Uh . . .” Matt said. “That should be good.”

She pushed the plunger, injecting the potion into Akeno, then pulled the needle out.

Akeno opened his eyes. “Done?”

The Fat Lady nodded. Sweat dripped off her forehead.

“Oh, good,” Akeno said. “I barely felt anything.”

“That has to mean something, right?” Jacob asked.

Matt nodded. “I think so.”

The Fat Lady sat for a moment, wiping her face, and motioned to Jacob and Matt. “We need to bind Akeno’s arms down now.”

Jacob grabbed one of the straps and tied Akeno’s right arm while Matt did the left. They looked up at her expectantly.

“And that’s it. Everything’s almost ready.” She rested for a moment longer, making sure Ebony had Kaede Sap nearby. The two women started cutting strips of clean cloth.

Jacob sat near Akeno’s head, wanting to watch the operation, but not wanting to at the same time. He was afraid he’d be unable to look away, like with the needle. Would the procedure give him nightmares?

Akeno stared at the ceiling. Sweat was building up on his forehead, but his face was calm.

“You going to be okay?” Jacob asked, realizing it was a stupid question right as it came out.

Akeno shrugged. “Never done this before.” He laughed. “It hasn’t even started yet, and I already hope I won’t have to do it again.”

Jacob smiled. “I won’t let it happen again, if I have any control over that.”

Akeno sighed. “I know. Thanks for being my friend.”

“No, thank you—”

“Oh, stop it!” Matt said, laughing. “You guys should go into the Hallmark-card-making business!”

Jacob playfully punched his brother’s shoulder. “Whatever, dude.”

“Seriously, though,” Matt said, addressing Akeno. “Do you want anything to help keep you distracted?”

“I’d love a movie right now,” Akeno said.

“Anything you’d like!” Matt paused. “Uh . . . how do you watch movies here?”

“We use that outlet over there,” Akeno pointed, “and the TV in the back room can be rolled here.”

Jacob stared at the outlet in wonder. How’d he never noticed it before? He’d been here tons of times! “Where do you get the power?”

“Rezend—we can control electricity, to an extent.”

Jacob nodded. He remembered Akeno saying this. “All right, where are the movies?”

“I’ll grab them,” Kenji said, jumping to his feet and rushing out of the room. Jacob had nearly forgotten he was there. A moment later, Kenji returned, pushing an old, ugly TV on a cart. “I wasn’t sure which movie you wanted to—”

“Any of the
X-Men
,” Akeno said quickly. “They’re my favorites.” He smiled sheepishly at Matt and Jacob.

Kenji got everything hooked up.

The movie began and the Fat Lady and Ebony finished the cloth strips, then started the surgery.

Jacob slumped into a chair. The operation hadn’t been nearly as long as he’d expected, but it wasn’t easy, either. Akeno had screamed through most of it, and everyone in the room had needed a break at one point or another. Jacob felt like pulling his hair out or crying for the Makalo. Luckily, he’d been able to control his emotions and be the support Akeno needed.

He pushed his fists into his eyes, trying to wipe away the exhaustion he felt. Akeno had been put in his room to continue the healing process, with Ebony and the Fat Lady taking turns watching over him. Frequent cries of pain came from his room. The Fat Lady said this was normal and would last a few hours.

Brojan returned to see how things had gone. After he visited with Akeno for a moment, he approached Kenji, Matt, the Fat Lady, Sweet Pea—who’d also come back—and Jacob. They were seated at the table, which had been cleaned and sterilized.

Brojan turned to the Fat Lady. “How many potions did you say you’d be able to make?”

“Which potion?”

“Malono. The one to help get Aloren.”

“Five. I didn’t think you’d be using them all, though.”

Brojan shook his head. “We still haven’t decided who will be going. But now that Jacob has finished the journal, as soon as those potions are done, we’ll be ready to go.” He looked at Jacob. “You have completed the reading, correct?”

“Uh . . . no, I haven’t—”

Kenji saved him. “We decided to give him a break from reading for a couple of weeks. He needed to focus on too many other things.”

“What else could there
be
?”

Jacob leaned forward. “Let’s see. Fighting lessons with him,” he motioned to Sweet Pea, “homework, basketball practice, pulling people out of the scented air. Getting to math forty-five minutes early in the morning. Dealing with a new ability. Hallucinating.” He shrugged. “My life isn’t exactly simple.”

“Then it’s time for you to stop focusing on those things.”

“I can’t. I
have
to play basketball. I’ve worked so hard to get to this point. And I can’t just stop doing homework—I still have to graduate from high school. My mom would kill me if I didn’t.”

“Dude!” Sweet Pea said. “Listen to Brojan, for crying out loud. The journal was
written
for
you
.”

Everyone stared at Sweet Pea, and he flushed.

Jacob stuttered. “W—what? What are you—impossible. No way.”

“There’s a reason for everything—for why we want you to read that book. It will answer
so
many things for you—he left it behind so you’d eventually read it.”

Brojan put his hand up, stopping Sweet Pea from saying anything more and stopping Jacob’s forthcoming questions. He scowled at Sweet Pea, a bright pink filling the air around him—the color for irritation, and one Jacob hadn’t seen on a Makalo before. “It isn’t your business to tell Jacob.” He turned his scowl on Jacob. “How seriously are you taking this?”

“What’s Sweet Pea talking—”

Brojan shook his head. “How seriously are you taking this journal?”

Jacob sighed in exasperation. “Very. But with everything else going on, I just haven’t had time. I’m not Superman.”

Brojan pulled on a curl in his beard, watching Jacob for a few moments before answering. The silence in the room made Jacob want to disappear.