The Golden Symbol (23 page)

Jacob shook his head slowly. “This is so cool.” Then the other part of what Kenji said entered his brain. “And yay! You’re going to be back in the village again!”

Akeno, whose emotion colors showed he was still somewhat nervous about the Kaede Sap conversation, sat at the table by Kenji. “Guess what else?” he asked Jacob, then glanced down at his hands. Red flushed over his cheeks. “Um . . .” He cleared his throat. “They, uh, have a lot of Makalo youth my age. Girls, even.”

Jacob pumped his fist in the air. “Yeah! That’s fantastic!”

“It really is.”

Jacob bit his lip, thinking. “But who’s going to be patriarch?”

Kenji rubbed his face, suddenly looking exhausted. “I will. They don’t have one—haven’t for many years. They said they were waiting for Letist, a former patriarch, to return. They had no idea three patriarchs had died in the time since Letist left to fight the war.”

Ebony put her hand on Kenji’s arm. “But they accepted Kenji without any hesitation.”

He blew out a breath of air and swallowed. “And so . . . you can see why this topic of introducing sap into the blood of Makalos again is such a delicate one.” He looked at Ebony. “We’d have to bring it up with the new Makalos after they come—not before.”

She nodded. “And we don’t want to force it upon anyone, nor do we want to become rulers over Eklaron again.”

Kenji took a drink from his cup, then held it with both hands, staring at the wall. “If we make it optional, then ask that families stay together, we think it’ll work.”

Akeno tried to hide his emotions, but Jacob knew better. He was relieved. Akeno looked at his parents. “Should we ask Onyev about it?”

Kenji and Ebony both shook their heads.

“Why not?” Akeno asked.

“Because it isn’t his choice to make,” Kenji said. “This is a problem
of
our time,
for
our time. He isn’t our patriarch, and his decision wouldn’t affect us in the here and now. Not only that, but he’s already biased, based off his own experiences.”

“So we don’t tell him at all?” Jacob asked.

“I vote no,” Ebony said. “You don’t even know if you’ll be able to bring it up, anyway.”

Jacob nodded, and a part of him was relieved. He didn’t want to let Onyev down. The patriarch was a very understanding person, but Jacob felt he wouldn’t understand this decision.

Akeno got to his feet. “Should we begin? I think we should.”

Kenji raised an eyebrow. “This brings up another point. We don’t have untainted Kaede Trees—we wouldn’t even have enough sap now, let alone before the Lorkon arrive.”

A mischievous smile spread across Akeno’s face. “
You
don’t have enough Kaede Trees, but
I
do.”

Ebony put her hand on Akeno’s shoulder. “Are you serious?”

“Yup!” Akeno opened the door. “Follow me, and I’ll show you.”

His parents eagerly went with their son and Jacob trailed behind, not wanting to interrupt their moment together, but wanting to be around in case he was needed.

Akeno’s trees had grown to nearly ten feet, surprising Jacob. Hadn’t he said they’d need at least twenty years to become mature? The adult Kaede Trees he’d seen weren’t much taller than these.

Akeno showed his parents around the orchard, a huge grin on his face. Jacob was content to sit near the mouth of the garden and stare in awe at the trees. How had they grown so tall so fast?

After a few minutes, the Makalos finished exploring the grove and returned to the entrance where Jacob waited.

“How long until we can use the sap?” Kenji asked.

“We can use it tonight, but only a tiny bit,” Akeno said. “The trees won’t reach maturity for many more years—”

“Wait,” Jacob said, holding up his hand. “They’re huge already. Do you mean they’ll be bigger than this?”

Akeno shook his head. “Not by much. They grow quickly during the first few weeks, especially when encouraged by a Makalo. But then they build exterior defenses—extra-thick bark and trunks and many more branches and roots.” He turned to his parents. “I planted enough for every Makalo alive, with several extra. So long as each Makalo picks his or her own tree, and we only give them the sap from that tree, we’ll have enough to get things started.”

Kenji’s eyes filled with tears and he put his arm around his son’s shoulders. “I’m proud of how much you’ve learned, Akeno, and of how well you’ve applied yourself.”

Akeno didn’t say anything, but just nodded, and Ebony hugged him.

Kenji coughed and wiped his face, then turned to Jacob. “Is your Minya nearby?”

Jacob nodded. She’d returned from trying to avoid the Eetu fish not long ago, saying it was one of the most fun times she’d ever had. Jacob smiled, thinking about how excited she’d been.

“Good. Have her start at the other end of the forest and tell all the Makalos to come this way. We’ll do the same with Brojan’s Minya.”

Kenji and Ebony left, and Jacob raised an eyebrow at Akeno. “Brojan’s Minya? Don’t Minyas usually choose another owner after theirs dies?”

Akeno chuckled. “Yes, usually, but this one is extra stubborn. He hardly ever leaves Brojan’s grave—it gets annoying, actually. At least he’s willing to help out sometimes. It’s more than I can say about September.”

“Where has September been, anyway?”

Akeno shook his head. “We don’t know. He was always very particular, but he felt betrayed by my dad asking him to go with us when we stole back the Key. He’s never gotten over it. Really stupid, actually.”

“Yeah, no kidding.” Jacob pulled his backpack off his shoulders—it felt like it was a permanent addition to his body—and got out his seeds.

Early appeared five minutes later, sucking honey off her fingers. She was still excited about “playing” with the Eetu fish.

“It never even came close to me!” she said. Then she noticed Akeno and landed on his head, messing around in his hair.

Jacob laughed—she hadn’t done that in a long time. “Early, I don’t think Akeno wants honey in his hair.”

“He doesn’t?” She looked concerned, like there was something wrong with him.

Akeno laughed. “No, I don’t.”

She flitted out of his hair and hovered in the air, staring at him in shock.

Jacob grinned, then explained the details of this next assignment. His Minya was the best ever.

She disappeared with a flash and Akeno and Jacob sat down, waiting for the Makalos to start coming.

Chapter Fifteen: The Manor

They arrived in families—the men looking over their shoulders frequently, the women holding on to their small children like they would never see them again. There were only a handful of the very elderly. Akeno nodded when Jacob pointed this out.

“They’re scared to do this. They probably think it’s the worst thing they’ve ever heard.”

Jacob understood that. He tried to think of a law in his country that was as important to his people as this law was to the Makalos. Maybe murder? He didn’t know—he’d never really felt the things the Makalos did, so he couldn’t fully understand.

As soon as they stopped trickling in, Kenji decided it was time to begin. He’d only asked the Minyas to mention that they’d be addressing the law, not what the decision had been, so as he presented the idea, many of the Makalos had questions.

Jacob and Akeno listened, neither interrupting nor adding to the meeting. It was interesting to see how the Makalos addressed their concerns—in a very orderly, top-to-bottom fashion. He smiled, thinking about how OCD Akeno was. This compulsiveness was definitely an inherited trait. The Makalo had been learning to hide it, especially from Matt and Sweet Pea, but Jacob knew better.

Finally, Kenji told everyone the choice he’d made, then invited those who’d like to proceed with that decision to step forward and the rest to return to their huts. He let them know that there would be no backlash, regardless of the decision they made.

That definitely calmed a lot of fears, and the majority of people ended up staying.

Jacob frowned. The majority was so much smaller now than it had been a year ago. Thank goodness for Akeno and his idea! This would help them out so much.

Kenji, with Ebony and Akeno’s help, would be administering the sap. Only a small amount would be introduced to their blood—Akeno was worried about permanent damage to their circulatory system if they gave them too much.

The group started at the beginning of the orchard and made its way through as each person was introduced to his or her new tree.

Jacob noticed that Akeno had already transplanted the trees apart from each other—originally, they’d grown really close together. Kaede trees now filled a large section of the forest around Jacob’s home in Mendon. This made him happy—he would always have Makalos as a part of his world.

Akeno harvested a tiny amount of sap from each tree, Kenji put the sap into the Makalos’ left ring fingers, and Ebony bandaged their fingers.

The moment the Kaede Sap went into the Makalos’ blood, Jacob sensed their powers strengthen. The first time it happened, it made him gasp, and several Makalos looked at him.

He apologized, wondering what was going on. Then he remembered that he had the symbol on his face. It had to be strengthening his ability to sense power in other creatures. So cool!

It took several hours to get through all the willing Makalos. Akeno asked Jacob if he wanted to go home and to bed, but he didn’t want to miss such an important part of Makalo history. This decision would affect generations and generations of Makalos, just as Onyev’s had. It was pretty awesome to be a part of something so huge.

Sweet Pea insisted on being the last Makalo through the line—wanting to let others have the opportunity first. Only moments after Kenji put the sap in his finger, Sweet Pea’s eyes widened in wonder.

“My leg!” He looked down. “It doesn’t hurt anymore!”

Akeno smiled. “That’s wonderful. Kaede Sap does heal.”

Sweet Pea nodded. “It’s not going to hurt to walk anymore.” He lifted his pant leg, and Akeno and Kenji who were nearest him, gasped in surprise.

“Whoa!” Sweet Pea said.

Jacob jumped to his feet to get closer. “What’s going on?”

Sweet Pea pointed, and Jacob looked closer. His eyes popped open. It looked like the wooden leg was melding with Sweet Pea’s stump, becoming a part of him.

Sweet Pea dropped his crutch and stood on the wooden leg without support. “No pain!” He took a step forward, and to everyone’s delight, he didn’t limp.

Without warning and making everyone jump, Sweet Pea ran to Akeno and tackled him to the ground with a huge hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

Akeno laughed and struggled to get out from under Sweet Pea’s much larger frame. With Jacob’s help, the two Makalos stood, huge grins on their faces.

“Just wait until Juri sees this!” Sweet Pea said. Then his grin fell. “Except . . . she and her family decided not to come.”

The light mood went somber and no one said anything. Finally, Sweet Pea, picking up his crutch again, said, “Well, she might come around someday. You never know.”

“That’s right,” Kenji said. “And we’ll be ready for her when she does.”

***

Jacob felt like he’d only been asleep for an hour when someone pounded on his door. He dragged himself from his bed and opened—it was Dad.

“Aldo and the Fat Lady have finished the antidote!” Dad rushed into the room. “Where’s your Minya? We need to spread the word and have Akeno bring Queen Ara Liese. We’ve got some testing to do!”

Jacob’s heart raced and he sank onto his bed. “Done? Already? Wow.” He looked at his clock—it was four thirty in the morning. He’d only been asleep for two hours. “Early is . . .” He couldn’t remember where.

“In her container?” Dad asked. He opened it, revealing the little sleeping Minya. “Oh, sorry, Early. We need your help.”

Early rubbed her eyes, looking back and forth between Jacob and Dad. “What’s going on?”

Jacob got up and took the container from Dad. “The antidote for the Lorkon is ready—go tell Akeno and his parents. Then have them start spreading the word. After that, you can come and go back to sleep.”

She nodded and flitted through the window that Jacob kept cracked open.

Dad rubbed his hands together, a huge grin on his face. “Mom is in the kitchen, making breakfast. Go wake up Matt, then we’ll have you get the Fat Lady and Aldo. We’ll all eat breakfast together while waiting for Akeno to bring Ara Liese.”

“Why do we need her?”

Dad was already leaving the room, but he poked his head back in. “We have to test the stuff on someone, and she’s the only Lorkon we have access to.”

Jacob dressed as soon as Dad was gone, got Matt up, then Keyed himself to the Fat Lady’s cabin.

He wasn’t ready for the amount of celebrating going on there.

All the lights were on, and every candle the Fat Lady owned was lit. The place was blazing white, and Jacob had to shield his tired eyes from the brightness. Aldo and the Fat Lady were dancing in the main room, where the center was cleared and all the junk pushed to the edges.

Jacob covered his ears from the horrendous sound of their singing.

The Fat Lady grabbed him the moment she saw him. “Come! Dance! We’re going to be free soon!”

She whirled him around by the shoulder, nearly dislocating it, then spun him off. He slammed into the wall and fell to the ground. The Fat Lady laughed and dragged him to his feet. “Come on, Jacob! Have some fun.”

He peered up at her. Her eyes were bloodshot and wild-looking. “How long has it been since you guys slept?”

She looked at Aldo, who was shaking his hips and arms, feet staying in one spot, eyes shut. She turned back to Jacob. “Don’t know—maybe two days?”

Aldo didn’t open his eyes. “Three.”

Jacob shook his head. “You need to sleep.” He shrugged himself from the Fat Lady’s grasp. “Come on—let’s go eat breakfast and get the antidote tested.”

The two became serious at once. Aldo pointed to the Fat Lady’s counter in the adjoining kitchen area. “You’re going to need to carry it,” he said. “We both almost dropped it several times. We’re losing control over our bodies from lack of sleep.”