The Sphere (The Magi Series #2) (12 page)

“Did he ever come back?” Elijah asked.

“Hm?  Oh.  Phil?  Yeah, he came back all right.  We didn’t
let him tag along after that whenever we cut school.”  Uncle Stan snorted. 
“It’s been a long time since I’ve thought of that.”

Elijah tried to picture the story the way his uncle
presented it.  William Hawk had never been the type to cut corners or break
rules.  At least, not that Elijah knew of.  So hearing about his dad this way
was new.  Elijah missed him.  There were so many things that he wished he could
talk to his father about right then.  So much had changed, and he wished he
could have just one hour with him.  He thought about all the chances he had to
talk with his father when he was alive and wasted it.  Did he know how much he
meant to Elijah?  Did he know how much Elijah would miss him?

Uncle Stan patted Elijah on the head and walked out of the
room.  They both, it seemed, fell into their own trance and wanted to be alone
in it, so they didn’t say anything to each other for the rest of the night.

The following morning, Uncle Stan drove Elijah back to the
train station.  They left before the sun rose.  It wasn’t long before Uncle
Stan was sound asleep, snoring almost as loud as the sound of the train.  It
also wasn’t long before Elijah began thinking about the book he planned on
reading during the trip.  He just needed to do it inconspicuously, which with Uncle
Stan dead to the world would be a cinch.  Overnight, Elijah had convinced
himself not to feel guilty about reading a small part of the book.  It belonged
to him, after all.  He carefully opened it up and looked through the pages, not
reading anything word for word, but just taking it all in.

His heart hammered.  A part of him loathed himself for his
defiance, but another part got a thrill from it.  It was as though he was
caught in a battle with himself, and the defiant part was winning.

The book smelled ancient and musty.  The pages were
weathered and yellow.  Some were hard to read because the pen marks were faded,
but as he turned the pages, the writing became darker and clearer.  It was
written almost like a journal, with the oldest writing at the beginning and the
newer entries at the end.  In fact, the ink on the last pages, written in red,
looked downright new!  There were no quill drippings or fountain pen smudges
like those at the beginning of the book, and the handwriting looked like it
changed every few pages.

Elijah continued to thumb through the book quickly until
finally deciding arbitrarily to stop and read a page.  It said:

 “I’ve discovered a letter written by
Maliphist’s mentor, named Simeon.  I don’t know anything more than what is
here, and I’m not even sure it helps our mission, but I find it fascinating. 
This was written to the trustees of the local Magi council many years ago, and
I will copy it as I know it.

‘I am writing to inform you of some concerns I
have about a young boy named Maliphist.  I have never seen a youth that can do
what he can do.  Most children his age aren’t even close to training, but he
uses the elements like he was an elder.  However, I have a concern with his
mind.  He informed me the other day that he wished for me to leave him alone
and let him work with the elements on his own.  What makes me the most nervous
is that when I’m around him, I want to give in and let him.  Please advise.’”

-Simeon (about 1050 AD)

Elijah read and reread the letter.  Every time he read the
part where it said the young Maliphist wanted to be left alone, he shuddered. 
Elijah remembered being told that Maliphist was a normal boy who became drunk
with power and later became the most destructive force the world has ever
known.  And yet, here was the simplest of warnings about a young boy who just
wanted to be alone.  It was hard for Elijah not to draw connections to his own
desire to be alone.  He immediately closed the book and tried to think about
other things, but for the entire ride home, his decision to read the book haunted
him.

The local marshals were there to pick him up at the station,
just as Uncle Stan had said.  Elijah and Uncle Stan said their goodbyes, and
the marshals took Elijah back to Savenridge, riding through the night and into
the next day.  The marshals dropped him off at the Southern Gates, and he went
straight to the Roddicks’ cottage.

Elijah entered the house quietly.  The girls had gone to
bed, but Mrs. Roddick was still up, reading a book in the front room.

“Hello, Elijah,” she said without looking up from her book. 
“If you’re hungry, there’s some food in the kitchen already prepared.”

“Thank you,” Elijah said tentatively.  He tried to position
the large book behind his body so she couldn’t see it if she turned around. 
But she remained fixated on her own book.  The lack of questioning by Mrs.
Roddick, though promised by Olivia, was out of place.  “Is everything okay?”
Elijah asked.

“Just fine, thank you.  The girls have been asking about
you.  They’ll be happy to see you tomorrow morning.”

“What did you tell them?” Elijah asked.

“That you would be back soon.  And I appreciate you not
making me a liar.”  She looked up and smiled faintly.  Her expression was
enough to let Elijah know that his absence was painful for her.

“Well, I’m glad I’m back.”  He stifled a hacking cough.  He
had been coughing every few minutes since breathing in so much smoke at the
fire.

“Me too,” Mrs. Roddick stated.  “You have a letter from the
barracks waiting for you in the kitchen.  And I’m supposed to tell you that you
need to go see Walter as soon as you’re in.”

“Okay,” Elijah said.  “Thank you.”

“Of course,” she said.  Now give me a hug and go to bed.”

Elijah squeezed Mrs. Roddick tightly.  He wondered if she
could feel the guilt dripping from him.

Elijah woke up early and went into town.  He didn’t sleep
well that night, so he decided to see Walter about his watch first thing to
keep his mind busy.

He zigged and zagged around the aspen trees and jogged into
the marketplace.  Walter was working on one of the clocks hanging on the wall
when he walked in.

“Well, hello young man!” he said.  Elijah closed the door
behind him.  “It’s about time you came in.”  Walter wrung his rough hands on a
rag and paced over to the counter, pulling up his pants as he walked.

“I’m sorry,” Elijah muttered.  “I’ve been away.”

“So I’ve been told.  C’mere.  I want to talk with you.” 
Walter walked Elijah back into one of the small workrooms and sat down.  Elijah
sat across from him and looked around.

“Is everything okay?” Elijah asked.

“You tell me.”  Walter lowered his voice, asking softly but
curiously, “Where’d you get this watch?”

“It was left to me.  By my father.”

“Where’d your father get the watch?”

“I’m not sure.  He said it was in the family.”  Elijah
chuckled.  “He told me it had powers inside it.”

“I can tell you for certain that it doesn’t,” Walter said.

Elijah stiffened.

“Oh, I don’t mean any offense,” Walter replied.  “It’s just
that I can tell you
exactly
where this came from.”

“Where?”

“From me.”

“What?”  Elijah shook his head in disbelief.

“
I
made this watch, and whatever power is inside
isn’t working anymore ‘cause it’s catching on something.”

Elijah took the watch and inspected it.  His father’s
initials glinted from the sun coming through the window.  “Well, then did you
make it for him?  It has his initials engraved inside.”

“Son, those are
my
initials.  I’m sorry to disappoint
you, but this wasn’t made special for nobody.  Look around.”

Elijah glanced at all the clocks around the room.  Why
hadn’t he noticed it before?  Every one of them had the same engraved initials
somewhere on them.  He even owned a clock Walter gave him last year.  He just
never noticed.  The W.H. was for Walter Henderson’s and had never been for William
Hawk like he had always believed.  Elijah looked down at the ground, and tears
began to well up inside his eyes.

“Oh, come now,” Walter said, looking uncomfortable.  “It’s
an honest mistake.  The good news is that I can fix it.  I just need your
permission first.  It’s pretty delicate and risky.  I didn’t want to mess with
it until I got your okay.  May I?”

Elijah nodded and wiped his eyes, embarrassed, and watched
as Walter took a small metal object from a nearby drawer and clicked it inside
the pocket watch.  He fidgeted with it for a while with steady, patient fingers
until it popped open, revealing the inner workings.

“Hand me that pair of tweezers there, wouldya,” Walter said,
pointing toward the workbench to the smallest pair of tweezers Elijah had ever
seen.  “This watch may not be supernatural, but it does have something inside.”

Elijah peered over as Walter carefully pulled out a tiny
piece of paper.  “Well, I’ll be,” Walter said.  “No wonder it hasn’t been
working.  Who the heck put this in here?”

“What is it?” Elijah asked.

“Don’t know.  It’s got writing on it, though, and it’s small
as heck.  It’s yers, whatever it is.  Grab a pair of double eye glasses and
read it.”

Elijah took Walter’s headset and read the tiny inscription
on the piece of paper.  The words were carefully written in neat, organized
lines like a poem.  It read:

Where the nameless reside

Where history and knowledge hide

On the place where two decide

Lies the path to a gem inside

“Sounds like some kind of riddle to me,” Walter said when
Elijah read it aloud.  “Some joker’s probably trying to get in your head.  Or
your dad’s head, at least.  Heck if I know how, but one thing’s for sure.  You
got a working watch now.”

Elijah wrote it down on another piece of paper and stared at
it for the rest of the morning, even after he returned to the Roddicks’ house. 
His father had told him for years that the watch had a power inside it.  In
fact, Elijah distinctly remembered his father saying that he needed to search
for this power.  Was that just nonsense he was telling him, or was it an actual
message?

Chapter
6:

MIRANDA RODDICK’S SECOND-MOST SHAMEFUL ACT

The rooms in the Roddick home stirred well before nine
o’clock the following morning.  Mrs. Roddick hadn’t had to light the fire in
the fireplace for the past few weeks because the sun shone down on the house
throughout the day, warming it to a very comfortable temperature at night.  In
fact, she had been opening the windows to let the cool, morning air blow
through before it became too hot.

Tirzah and Lizzy were galloping around the house playing
chase and tag and any other rowdy games that they could think of.  Mrs.
Roddick, though normally quite cheerful, had an extra spring in her step and
hummed around the house while doing her morning chores.  Even the wildlife
around the house seemed to pulse with excitement.

Elijah, on the other hand, remained in bed.  He pulled the
covers over his head trying to make it as dark as possible.  Whatever cheerful
bug had infected the rest of the house hadn’t bitten him yet, and he was
perfectly happy to keep it that way.  He continued dozing, and each time he
woke up, he flipped over for the next snooze.  Each nap was shorter than the
last, and before long, he couldn’t sleep a minute more, so he just laid in the
bed, staring off into space.

Once his brain decided to become engaged with reality, he
reached over on his nightstand for the poem he had read a hundred times.  It
still made little to no sense to him.

Where the nameless reside

Where history and knowledge hide

On the place where two decide

Lies the path to a gem inside

The only headway he made was deciding that this was a clue
to the location of a valuable object.  Was this gem actually a stone or did
“gem” mean something that was priceless?  An even more tormenting question was
how his father fit into all of this.  Elijah couldn’t see how this was not from
his father.  “You must search for the answers inside.”  That’s what his father
had said about the watch, ever since he could remember.  And now, inside the
watch was a poem that sounded like a riddle.  If this was a message, why the
riddle?  Why not just come out and say what he wanted?  Was this another hint
at Elijah’s ties to the Magi?  Was he the gem?  Last year, his father had told
him that there was a plan, and for an entire year, his father’s words tortured
him because he wasn’t able to figure out the plan.  That was, until he talked
to his uncle and discovered that Elijah was the plan.  So was this just another
extension in case he didn’t find out what the “plan” was, or was this something
new?

Elijah placed the written poem inside the book and then got
up.  He staggered for the door.

“It’s about time!” said Mrs. Roddick, still cheerful.  “Any
longer and I would be having to make you dinner.  Or were you just on your way
back to bed?”

“I’m up, I’m up,” Elijah said, feeling rather grumpy.

“Well, congratulations on that magnificent feat!  Now, I
don’t want to wear you out or anything, but there’s some eggs and sausage for
you when you get out.”  Mrs. Roddick winked at Elijah and turned to pick up
after the girls, who had decided that getting dressed meant trying on every
item of clothing in the house and then throwing it aside.

After breakfast, Elijah continued reading the note over and
over.  He thought maybe the repetition would eventually produce some results. 
However, it was soon apparent that he wasn’t going to make sense of it.  It was
maddening.  He put the riddle aside.

To keep from going completely insane, Elijah picked up the
letter from the training barracks and looked it over.  It was a welcome back
letter for the first week of school, handwritten from Mr. Button, the barracks’
supervisor.  It said: