Knowledge: The Fifth Division Saga: Book 1 (8 page)

It seemed like an odd question, but then again, everything that had happened in the last few hours had been odd, “Yeah,” I racked my brain, searching for the number, “I think 11:52pm…yeah I’m sure of it, because Caspian was born at 11:45 and he never lets me forget that he’s seven minutes older.” I grinned at the thought of the lifelong rivalry with my brother about who was superior and why. But thinking about Caspian made my heart ache, and I desperately hoped he was alright, Bram too.

“Wait, you have a twin?” I nodded. “Oh, wow. Okay, so you only have about an hour and a half until you receive your Knowledge.” Ash mused. He scanned me up and down and I felt the urge to put a paper bag over my head. I’m generally a pretty confident person, never before have I felt so insecure and nervous when someone looked at me. But as Ash’s scrutinizing eyes raked over me in a most objective way, I could not help but want to hide. I was suddenly achingly aware of how ratty my hair was and how my torn up clothes draped over me unattractively. I knew that over the course of the night, I had become dirty and disheveled.
Since when do I care this much?

“What?” I said finally, wishing he would stop looking at me.

“It’s just that I can’t identify what your Knowledge will be.” he muttered and he looked away. I was able to breathe again and I swiftly combed my grubby fingers through my long tangles in a desperate attempt to tame them. “Normally you can tell by the eyes or sometimes there is a tint to the hair. But I have never seen anyone like you.”  I felt my cheeks burn red, a rare occurrence for me.

“Knowledge?” I asked, unsure if I really wanted to know.

“It’s like…” He seemed to be searching for the right term, “your magical talent, I suppose.”

“Magical talent?” I snorted. I waited for him to laugh with me and admit to his jest, but he remained silent and serious. My chuckles faded into the empty night air, lost whispers in the wind. I felt my heart beating unevenly in my chest. “You’re crazy.”

The corner of his mouth twitched upwards, “Most likely. I guess you’ll see soon enough.”

*

Caspian stared back at his mother and Bram, waiting for further explanation. But to his extreme annoyance, they remained resolute in their decision to refrain from giving him all the information until their arrival in this foreign land they called Nostos. It took all of Caspian’s restraint of temper to keep from screaming in frustration.

Time ticked steadily on and he still had no idea what was going on or where Wiley had taken Mira. According to Bram, the Legion would have no trouble finding and retrieving her; but this fact did little to ease the tension that slowly built in the pit of Caspian’s gut over the course of the evening. Danny had already tried to call and ask about the sudden conclusion of the party and it was more than difficult for Caspian to convince his best friend that everything was alright when, in fact, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. His phone alerted him for the fifth time that he had missed a call from Danny. Caspian sighed and tossed his phone to the side. Caspian had never flat out lied. Ever. Sure, the occasional white lie to make someone happy, but never anything that withheld important truth. When he explained to Danny over text not to worry, that Bram just thought it was getting late and that’s why the party had been shut down, the words tasted like desert sand in Caspian’s mouth and forcing his fingers to type out the words caused physical soreness. But it had to be done, because the truth was insanity, and he hardly even understood the truth at all. Danny would never buy the lame excuse given to him,  but it would just have to make due for now.

The only further information his parents had managed to leak to him was that a small group from the Legion had been notified to retrieve the three of them from their house at exactly eleven o’clock, that something drastic would occur at 11:45pm tonight, and that his heritage made him something called an Elemental. They failed to explain what the heck that meant. They told him he would find out soon enough.

Well soon enough isn’t soon enough
, he thought.

A quick glance at the old kitchen clock alerted him of the time: 10:59pm. Any minute, now the Legion would be arriving to take them to Nostos, an unknown place that held a certain unexplainable fascination for Caspian. The thought of traveling with this mysterious task force sent nervous shivers down his back. He ran his fingers through his hair; it had gotten unruly and long; he made himself a mental promise to trim it when possible. As a distraction, he pictured himself with a Tarzan haircut, wondering if he could pull it off. 

The minute hand closed the final distance and the bell began to chime eleven times.

A knock rapped at the door.

Rain Daily stood briskly to her feet, her face a mask of worry as she absently brushed herself off and strode to the front door. Bram pushed off from the wall where he had been leaning and went to join his wife, motioning for Caspian to follow. After a brief hesitation, he did.

Caspian turned the sharp corner that led into the foyer and saw the doorway crowded with three stern yet beautiful faces. Two of the visitors were guys with set expressions, both with brown eyes. But the third person really caught Caspian’s attention. Standing between the two boys, the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Her silky, chocolate hair pulled into a loose ponytail and he swore he could see green streaks running through it here and there. Her emerald eyes shone in the silvery moonlight. Her face set in a fierce expression, but something in the soft curve of her eyes and the way she tilted her chin upwards to appear taller that allowed Caspian to believe more might be hidden in this girl than just being a soldier…or whatever her title was. All three of them wore black tank tops with sturdy looking pants colored forest green. But the most shocking characteristic of their appearance were the wings that loomed above each of their shoulders. Each of the men had a pair of brown feathered wings that reminded Caspian of eagles. The girl, on the other hand, wore a more delicate pair, more like an emerald butterfly. Caspian blinked in shock, sure he imagined them. He felt his jaw drop to form an “o” and he hurried to shut it.

“This is the residence of Bram Gale and Rain Durrant, am I correct?” the girl said in an accented voice. Caspian couldn’t tell what accent she had but it sounded as if she spoke in cursive, a lovely lilting of the voice. It barely registered to him that the girl had given the wrong last name for his mother. He prepared to tell her that their last name was actually “Daily” but his mother answered before he could get a single word out. 

“Yes.” His mother responded.

“Come,” the green-eyed girl nodded out towards the front lawn, “the Courts are expecting you.”

*

When Erion reentered the clearing with a small pile of dry firewood in arm, Ash bounced to his feet, but not before grabbing my hand to pull me up with him. I stumbled awkwardly with the exertion before regaining my balance.

“Well, you took your dear sweet time! C’mon, chap,” Ash released his hold on me and trotted forward without glancing back to see if he was being followed, “time is of the essence.”

“But I just gathered all this tinder!” Erion exclaimed, throwing his stack up into the air with frustration. The pieces fell around him like splintery rain. His light blue eyes narrowed with the type of exasperation that only a close companion can cause someone.

Ash paused momentarily to look back at his friend, fake sympathy lighting his eyes, “Yes, yes, we appreciate the immense effort you put forth in picking up those three sticks. But Mira here is going to gain her Knowledge in less than an hour. Therefore, there is no time to dawdle. We must get her to the Courts.”

“Less than an hour?”

“This has been clarified. Yes, less than an hour.” I could almost see the impatience rolling off Ash in burning waves as he shifted his weight from one foot to another. He gestured for me to come with him into the thickness of the woods. “Now let’s
go.
”

“Saying ‘please’ never hurts.” I muttered softly enough that neither of them could hear and trailed after Ash with Erion closely behind. I noticed that this must be a common formation for these two: Ash in the lead with their retrieved person in the middle and Erion pulling up the rear. Although I had only been in their company for a short amount of time, a strange feeling of security washed over me as I fell into step between them. They seemed to be well trained and accustomed to the type of scenarios I had experienced today. This wasn’t their first rodeo.  

“So,” I started, unable to handle silence for long, “where is this Nostos of which you speak?”

“It’s not on human maps,” Ash replied, not turning his head to call back to me. He had out a twig-like knife, much like the ones Bram had wielded against Rezza and Wiley, and whacked his way through the dense undergrowth of the forest. The strange knives turned out to be oddly effective, despite their appearance, and we made strangely good time. The night air had fallen to its darkest by now and the only source of light came from the luminescent moon. I thanked God that tonight blessed us with clear skies and allowed the silvery light to shine our way through the trees. As we moved, I was awestruck by the weightless way in which the boys floated through the woods; as if their feet never even touched the ground. I, on the other hand, trudged clumsily in comparison. My feet stomped on small shrubs and broke the millions of twigs scattered across the forest floor. I winced with every step I took, hearing the deafening crunch of dead leaves break beneath my shoes. I hoped no predatory animals happened to be stalking this part of the woods, because by the way I was walking, I might as well have held a blinking neon sign over my head that announce
d
EAT HER
E
.

“We need to get to a wide open clearing in order to travel,” Erion supplied from behind, “portals take quite a bit of space.”

“Portals?” I scoffed, although it didn’t sound too out of place among the other things Ash had explained to me earlier, “I’m actually unimpressed.”

“Unimpressed?” Ash blanched.

“Yeah, I was expecting a unicorn ride or, better yet, a dragon.”

“Sarcasm is unbecoming,” Erion murmured.

But Ash burst out laughing, “I’m sorry that our mode of magical transportation doesn’t live up to your expectations. I’m sure we can find a way to get you that dragon ride some other time though, if it would please you?”

“I suppose that’ll do.”

Erion snorted.

Ash cleared the way with surprising speed, allowing us to cover more ground in a shorter amount of time than I thought possible. Part of me remained paranoid that someone was following us through the forest and that Wiley would step out from behind a tree at any moment and kidnap me again. I glanced back at Erion and saw him holding a wooden weapon of his own, raised and eyes wary. Nothing would be getting past these two, even though they might be odder than your average person.

Fifteen minutes later, we emerged from the tree line and into a wide, open meadow, a sizable break in the dense forest. The clearing formed an almost perfect circle, the grass clad ground flat and without shrubbery. The night sky glistened with thousands of stars that shone like diamonds in charcoal. The ocean air whipped lightly against my goose bump covered flesh, the chill causing me to rub my hands up and down my bare arms. I was still very aware of the fact that I still wore my thin party dress which was now filthy and torn from running all over town and then stomping through the woods. My birthday party seemed like years ago even though it had really been only hours.

Ash and I stood side by side as Erion jogged to the center of the clearing. He knelt down and pulled a small object out of his back jeans pocket. He pinched it between his fingers for a moment, giving me a chance to observe more closely. The item was a small sphere, with a texture similar to marble. The color indistinct and a sort of murky fog slithered along the surface. Erion placed the ball into the grass and whispered something so softly that I couldn’t hear him. He then dashed back over to where we stood.

I had been so entranced by the scene with Erion that I didn’t notice that Ash had leaned over to whisper into my ear, “Watch this. The next part is when it gets interesting.” I was about to reply that I was already watching but then the center of the clearing exploded. A shimmering dome erupted from the spot where Erion had placed the marble-like object, spanning about fifty feet wide in diameter. I gazed up in awe at the expanded version of the unclear sphere Erion had just carried in his hand merely moments before. The murky surface began to form into more distinct shapes, and I watched as a lovely picture painted itself before my eyes. Soon, the fog dissipated and, presented now before us, lied the scenery of a land of rolling hills and flowing streams. The picture tinged with an electric blue, the same color that Wiley’s eyes flashed when he blinded Caspian and Bram back at my house. The moon shone across the alien place the portal displayed, casting elegant shadows across the entire scene. I could see an ancient castle in the distance, overlooking the land regally, like watching something on television. Intense longing tugged at my heart, urging me to step through the portal and enter the magical land that waited only feet away from where I stood. I tensed, ready to take that first step when a strong hand rested on my upper arm. I glanced up to see Ash staring stoically at the portal. A distinct look of importance crossed his gaze, letting me know that he knew exactly what he was doing.