Rising (48 page)

“Okay,” said Jeremy, “you’ve got my
attention.
 
What’s this, Homer?”

“Glad you asked, Jeremy, my boy,” he
said, clapping him on the shoulder.
 
“This, my friends, is our battle zone.”

“Sweet,” said Jeremy.

“How do you mean?” asked Gabe.

“Clara.
 
Come here, dear,” he said, taking my hand and guiding me to the center
of the bright yellow circle.

Once there, I glanced around at
everybody staring at me, waiting for me to do something.
 
I shrugged.

“I don’t know what’s going on any more
than you do.”

“Let me explain,” said Homer. “I
thought it best that we have a strategy to work together.
 
Setti
are most
effective and the safest, mind you, when they fight as one. Clara, here, is our
anchor.
 
If anyone strays from her shield
they become vulnerable, and I don’t think I have to explain that tonight we’ll
be fighting a great force that will take advantage of any weaknesses.”

Uh, no you don’t, Homer, now that we
know we’re outnumbered by like seven to one.
 
Thanks for the terrifying reality check.

“What are the painted circles for?”
asked Ben, standing on the red line.

“Well, I’m not sure if you are aware of
this or not, Clara,” he said with his twinkling eyes on me, “but you have the
ability to enlarge your shield at will.”

“Yes,” I said, “I was able to do it at
Jessie’s house, but then later, something happened at my house.
 
I couldn’t keep it up.”

That nauseating emptiness filled me up,
remembering how I couldn’t push the shield out to protect my mother.
 
Then my eyes started to sting.

“Your personal grief caused you to lose
focus,” said Homer sympathetically.
 
“And, I am terribly sorry for your loss.”

He paused a minute, giving me the most
tender smile I think I’d ever seen.
 
I
looked at the ground as a tear slid down my cheek.
 
Mel reached out and touched my shoulder to
comfort me.

“Try it now, Melanie,” said Homer.

I looked up confused. Mel’s hands
shimmered a vibrant blue on my shoulder.
 
That high-pitched sound I’d heard before at the cabin outside my door
came and went, and so did that sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach.
 
I felt perfectly calm and steady though the
sadness was lingering far away.

“What just happened?” I asked Mel.

She smiled.

“Homer explained on the way over that
my healing ability can extend beyond the physical.
 
Of course, just like I can’t take away the
scars from physical injuries, I can’t completely erase emotional wounds
either.
 
I can only soothe the pain,
temporarily,” said Mel, glancing at Homer.
 
“He told me that my purpose during the fight would be to help you
maintain control and stay calm, because the reapers would find ways to weaken
you.”

“I’m sorry, Clara.
 
I didn’t intend to upset you right now.
 
I know that the reapers will try,” said
Homer.
 
“You will need Mel close by your
side tonight, because they gain a sick pleasure from taunting their
enemies.
 
They will seek out the weakness
in all of you in order to defeat us.”

“Thanks for the pep talk, Homer,” said
Jeremy, “don’t try to lift our spirits too high now.
 
I mean, Gabe and I were almost killed by just
two of them last night.
 
Hell, forty-four
oughta
be a piece of cake, right?”

Jeremy’s solid orange aura was waving
crazily around him.
 
Homer smiled in his
nice, but dismissive way.

“I know that it sounds bleak, but the
truth is that we can defeat forty-four just as easily as we can defeat
four.
 
That is, as long as we keep together.
 
I know that you’re just discovering your
power, but it’s as old as time, unending through the lines of your families and
far beyond.
 
Don’t fear their
numbers.
 
Just be wary of their
cleverness.”
 

I glanced at Gabe whose eyes were fixed
on me.
 
His aura had faded entirely
blue.
 
I couldn’t tell if he was worried
about me because of my constant despair about my mom or if he was worried about
all of us tonight.
 
His steady gaze made
me shiver.
 
I finally looked away.
 
Homer walked to stand next to Ben on the red
line.

“Now, back to the plan. Clara will stay
in the center yellow circle.
 
Mel will
stay next to her in the red circle in case Clara needs her healing
assistance.
 
If any of you are hurt
somehow during the fight, Mel will come to you or you to her, whichever is
easiest.”

“But, why would we get hurt if we stay
close to Clara under the shield?” asked Ben.

“You shouldn’t, but what my visions of
past battles and even the one Gabe showed me about Freya is to expect the
unexpected with these creatures.
 
I will
watch all sides from the blue circle and give you guidance.
 
Ben, you should stay in the blue as well.”

“What do I do?” asked Ben.

“It will come to you naturally.
 
As soon as Jeremy breaks their shields,
you’ll be able to feel their energy in the air.
 
Take away as much as you can from them.”

“And me?” asked Jeremy.

“You and Gabe will fight from the green
circle.
 
It’s best that you’re the
closest to them and that we stay out of the way behind you, but watch the
line.
 
Don’t stray too close.
 
The shadow scouts are known to cross into a
shield to get to a
Setti
.”

Homer glanced at Gabe who seemed
unmoved by the comment, yet his aura was rippling like sloshing water.

“I suppose, Homer, that you want me to
keep my shield pushed out to the green line,” I said.

“Oh, yes.
 
Sorry, I forgot to explain that.
 
Now, this is important.
 
We have to be prepared that we’re up against
a great force.”

“I don’t think you have to explain
that,” said Jeremy.

“There is a possibility that Clara’s
shield may fall back.
 
It’s not that I
don’t trust your abilities, thinking that your shield may shrink,” Homer said
to me, “I just know that they’ll be crafty and may find a way to try and weaken
us.
 
If that happens, I’ll tell you all
to move back to a certain line, whichever the shield shrinks to.
 
Of course, you’ll probably see it yourselves,
but you might be a little distracted to notice, so I’ll keep watch.
 
Any questions?”

“Yeah,” said Ben, “have you got any
food?
 
I’m starving.”

Mel laughed.

“Actually, I do.
 
Why don’t we go inside,” he replied.

“I’m gonna do a little target
practice,” said Jeremy, hiking his backpack up on his shoulder and heading to
the back by the shed.

The rest of us followed Homer into his
little house.
 
It was so nice and cozy
that for a little while, I actually felt at ease.
 
I curled up on the couch with a quilt.
 
Mel and Ben disappeared into the kitchen.
Gabe wandered over to the coffee table where the newspaper clipping of Ben
still sat.
 
Gabe picked it up, scanned
over it, put it down, then came over and sat on the couch really close to
me.
 
He folded my hand into his, but
still didn’t say anything.

“Would y’all like some cake and
coffee?
 
The cake is store bought from a
few days ago, but Homer says it’s still good,” asked Mel from the doorway to
the kitchen.

“Sure,” I said, “lots of cream and
sugar, please.”

Gabe shook his head then Mel
disappeared back into the kitchen.

“So, what’s on your mind?” I asked as
casually as possible.

He shrugged.

“Gabe.
 
Please talk to me.”

He looked at me then.
 
His dark brown eyes were so intense staring
into mine then his eyes wandered to the scar.
 
Self-consciously, I turned away.

“I’m afraid, Clara.
 
Not of the reapers, but of anything happening
to us,” he said in a low voice, pulling my hand into his lap and studying my
palm, “especially to you.”

“Don’t worry so much,” I said, using my
best acting skills possible, “we’ll be fine.
 
Homer has faith in us.”

“Yes, but Homer has his doubts,
too.
 
I can sense it even if he’s not
letting on to us.
 
And after this then
what?
 
We know what these creatures are
doing, spreading around the country and killing people.
 
Do we just sit back here and let it
happen?
 
I don’t think so.”

Then Mel walked in carrying a plate
with a slice of carrot cake and a rich-smelling cup of coffee in an over-sized
green mug.
 
Ben took a seat with two
slices on his plate and started shoveling it in before his butt hit the
cushion.
 
Homer walked up with a plate
and cup, handing it to Gabe.

“I know you didn’t want any, but I
think some caffeine and sugar will do you good.”

As Gabe took the refreshments, I saw
him staring intently at Homer’s arm, whose sleeve was riding up.

“What’s that, Homer?”

Homer sat into his cushy chair, smiling
with a twinkle in his eye.
 
He flipped
over his arm and pulled his sleeve up to his bicep.
 
There was a black tattoo, a swirling pattern
of interlacing knots weaving up his forearm and around a sword crossing a
shield.
 
From behind the shield a dragon
roared whose face was turned upward with its mouth agape as if it were in
pain.
 
The interlacing knots closed
around the dragon’s head then swirled farther up and disappeared beyond Homer’s
shirt sleeve.

“That’s the tattoo I saw on Freya and
Blyn
in my vision,” said Gabe.

“Yes,” said Homer, “I’ve had several
visions of their clan in the past.
 
I
suppose it’s because we are descended from them and they were the last to
battle the reapers before us.
 
When they
came together, they branded themselves as a show of unity.
 
I’d seen it so often that I finally sketched
it then got the tattoo.
 
I think I needed
to feel that it was all real, not just in my head.
 
For a while, I was a little crazy, I think,
wondering if what I saw was real or not.
 
The tattoo helped me ground myself.”

“Yeah,” said Ben through a mouthful,
“the librarian at our school thinks you’re totally nuts.”

Mel shushed Ben.
 
He gave her the ‘what’ look then kept on
eating.

“It’s okay,” said Homer, “I understand
what others think of me.
 
It doesn’t
matter, especially not now.”

“Homer,” I said quietly after a sip of
coffee, which was really good and warm.
 
I wanted to know something that I knew no one else would bring up. “What
can you tell us about the shadow scouts, about how they’re made?”

Tension filled the small space of the
room.
 
Homer’s features went dark.

“I know why you’re asking, Clara, and
again I am sorry for your cousin, Jessie.”

The mere mention of her name made the
whole tragedy more real.
 
I shifted
anxiously in my seat, feeling Gabe’s eyes on me again.

“Apparently, the shadow scouts are all
former humans.
 
I don’t know anything
about how the reapers do it.
 
I’ve seen
that in the past some humans don’t even survive the process.”

“How can they have shadow scouts who
have been here for so many years now, watching us, when the reapers just came
into our world?” asked Mel.

“The shadow scouts who’ve been here and
who are serving them are those they captured and changed the last time they
were here on earth.”

“Over a thousand years ago?” I
asked.
 
“But how can they live that
long?
 
Humans aren’t immortal.”

“They no longer need food or water or
anything that humans need,” said Homer soberly, “they survive on the dark energy
that the reapers give them.
 
The shadow
scouts depend on the reapers for it, and so they do whatever is required of
them.”