Freakling (17 page)

When he reached in his pocket for his journal, he felt nothing. Maybe the other pocket? It wasn’t there either. A quick search of his room yielded nothing. Had it fallen out on the way home yesterday? Skies, now he had two things to confess to Amma: one, that he had a strange form of psi called clairvoyance. And two, that he’d drawn her family’s psi lock but had lost the drawing somewhere in town!

Taemon started off toward Amma’s house. If he was able to convince her that he had clairvoyance, perhaps she would help him look for the journal. Thankfully, anyone who found it wouldn’t be able to make head or tail of his sketches and notes. Not without psi.

Standing at the front door, Taemon hesitated. He knew how hard it had been for Amma’s da to trust him. How much harder would it be once he heard what Taemon had to tell him?

Taemon raised his hand to knock, which was a rather painful thing psiless people had to do when they wanted to enter someone else’s home. But before he could knock, Amma opened the door.

She looked worried. “I was just going to get you,” she said.

Behind her came the sound of loud voices. Upset voices.

“Why?” Taemon asked. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s Vangie. She’s run away.”

Amma led Taemon into the kitchen, where her parents, Vangie’s parents, and Hannova sat around the table. They all looked tense and worried.

Vangie’s mother wrung her hands. “She’s obsessed with psi — psi fashion, psiball, temple gossip. She wanted to be an innocent in the temple with her cousin, but I wouldn’t let her. I’m sure she’s gone to the city.”

“If that’s true,” Hannova said, “we should be able to find her. I can talk to the priests. We can bring her back.”

Amma frowned. “She’s talked about running away before. I never thought she was serious. Why would she leave now?”

“Our little Flower,” said Vangie’s mother. “Skies watch over her.”

Hannova put her arm around Vangie’s mother. “I’ll send a runner. We’ll set up a meeting with the priests. Temple innocents are required to get parental permission. And there are fees for room and board. They won’t take her in without that. Did she take anything valuable with her?”

“No,” Vangie’s father said. “Not that I can tell.”

A terrible thought was forming in Taemon’s head. What if his journal hadn’t fallen out of his pocket after all? He recalled Vangie grabbing his journal from him, flipping through the pages with obvious interest. Staring at his drawing of the lock . . .

Taemon spoke up. “Did Vangie know about the —?” He stopped. Mr. Parvel was glaring intently at him. He realized that Vangie’s parents were not supposed to know about the library.

“About the what?” Vangie’s father asked.

Taemon hesitated. “About the pain she would cause everyone by leaving?” he finished lamely. Mr. Parvel relaxed slightly, and Vangie’s mother burst into tears. Mrs. Parvel tried to comfort her, while Vangie’s father started ranting about city life and the allure it held for impressionable young kids.

Taemon took advantage of the chaos to slip off his stool and whisper in Amma’s ear: “Can I talk to you outside?”

“What?” Amma whispered. “You still have psi and you didn’t tell me? How could you?”

“It’s not
real
psi. Not the useful kind. And I was going to tell you. I just —”

Amma paced a few steps away, then turned and came back. “Let me get this straight. You actually drew pictures of the psi door and its lock? Holy Mother Mountain, Taemon! What were you thinking?”

He wished there was some way to explain why he’d done it. Nothing he could think of sounded logical. “It’s just something that I —”

“My da’s going to kill me. Then you. Skies, if I’d known you had psi, I never would have . . . My da’s going to kill me.”

“This is exactly why I didn’t want to tell you,” Taemon said. “I was afraid you’d treat me differently if you knew I had psi. And I was right, wasn’t I? You think of me completely differently now.”

“That’s not the point. You should have told me.” Amma said. “Okay, let’s think. Just because the journal is missing doesn’t mean Vangie has it. And even if she does have it, maybe they’ll find her before she shows it to anyone. Maybe it will be okay.”

“Maybe. But we should still tell your da.” Taemon tried to look her in the eye but she wouldn’t meet his gaze. “Do you want me to go with you?”

“No,” Amma said. “The library is my responsibility. Mine and my family’s. And we’ll honor it.”

Taemon watched her walk back into the house.

After a miserable day and a restless night, Taemon had finally fallen asleep, only to be caught up in a nightmare. He was in the middle of an earthquake, and it wouldn’t stop. He heard rumbling all around him. The ground trembled. He started awake, only to realize that the trembling wasn’t part of a dream at all.

He threw on some clothes and ran in his bare feet through the tinker’s shop and out the door. He saw Drigg standing in the street and stopped next to him.

“What is it? An earthquake?” Taemon asked.

“No. Haulers. Very large haulers,” Drigg said, as if in a daze.

Half a dozen large vehicles were being driven into the colony. Much too large for the colony’s small streets, they barreled over mailboxes, flowerbeds, bicycles — anything too close to the edge of the street.

“Why are they here? Are we being invaded?”

Drigg said nothing. He wouldn’t even look at Taemon, but kept his eyes on the road.

“Shouldn’t somebody do something?” Taemon said. He and Drigg were some of the only people on the street. Everyone else seemed to be hiding in their houses.

Drigg shook his head. “Do what? It would take an army to stop those haulers. We don’t even have any authority officers.”

The haulers were headed toward the square, away from the tinker’s shop. Taemon turned back to get his shoes. “I have to find out what’s going on.”

Drigg grabbed his arm. “No, you don’t. Best let them do what they came to do and get back to where they came from. Nothing you or I can do about it.”

“You don’t know that.” Taemon yanked his arm free. “If it runs, don’t fix it. Isn’t that what you say? Well, something’s broken. And maybe we can fix it.”

Drigg took off his cap and rubbed his bald spot. “Blazes! A man can’t argue with his own motto. C’mon. I’ll go with you.”

After putting their shoes on, they ran toward the square. The haulers had plowed right over the fountain, destroying the pipes and ripping up the concrete benches around it. Water spilled over gouged and scattered cobblestones, making it hard to run. By the time Taemon and Drigg caught up to them, the haulers had stopped. Apparently they’d reached their destination. Taemon craned his neck to see what lay beyond them.

Skies! They were lined up in front of Amma’s house!

In an instant, dozens of temple guards were climbing out of the haulers. What the blazes was going on?

Out of the darkness, Hannova emerged. She was dressed in her nightclothes, her robe billowing out behind her. She strode up to a guard near the front. “You will explain this act of —?” As if a switch had been thrown, Hannova collapsed. Had they killed her?

“She is alive,” said a voice that had been amplified with psi — a voice that Taemon would recognize anywhere. It was Elder Naseph. “But she will remain unconscious until we are finished here. We will not harm anyone who does not interfere with our mission. People of the colony, come forward! This is a historic occasion! We are here to claim this property in the name of the True Son, to benefit the New Cycle of Power! Your humble colony shall influence the course of history though its generous donation of knowledge!”

Skies! They were here for the library! Where was Amma and her family? He peered through the shadows, hoping to spot a familiar face.

Slowly, people made their way out of their houses and into the streets. Still, no one dared get too close to the large haulers or the fifty-odd burly temple guards surrounding Amma’s house. The guards on the outside faced the crowd, watching for any sign of resistance. Taemon got as close as he dared, until he could see Elder Naseph. And beside him stood Yens.

A few guards burst out of the house, each one using psi to drag a prisoner with them. The Parvels. Their hands had been cuffed. The guards lined them up in front of the porch.

Elder Naseph turned to Yens. “Let’s begin.”

Yens nodded.

Five syringes came flying like darts from skies-knew-where. The serum. Each member of the Parvel family got stuck in the neck.

“Yes,” said Yens, “we know your little secret. It won’t change anything. Don’t worry, I made sure you got a small dose. I want you to be conscious. So you can watch.”

“You . . . have no right . . . to be here,” Mr. Parvel said, his speech coming slowly, his body swaying. All of Amma’s family looked like they were having trouble staying upright. “This property belongs to the colony.”

“Not anymore,” Yens said. “Brand-new cycle. Brand-new rules. Now, let’s get busy.”

He turned and stared at Amma’s house. Suddenly the porch began ripping itself apart. Boards tore away from the frame. Shelves and all their ceramic contents crashed into piles of rubble. Cries and gasps came from the small crowd watching.

The piece-by-piece destruction of Amma’s house happened at an alarming rate. The stucco walls crumbed into dust. The wooden framework pulled itself apart. They were after the library. No doubt.

Furniture and linens and dishes and musical instruments flung themselves into the heaps of rubbish. Stuff, Taemon reminded himself. It was just stuff. As long as the psi door held. And he was sure it would.

The house was completely gone now, the rocky slope of the hillside lay bare under the morning sun. Mrs. Parvel’s sobs echoed in the sudden silence. Only the psi door stood between Yens and the library. Yens grinned.

“You’ll never . . . crack . . . the lock,” said Mr. Parvel.

“We’ll see,” Yens said.

He wouldn’t be able to do it. The lock was the most complicated thing Taemon had ever seen. And that door was solid. Taemon let his mind wander into the door just to assure himself that everything was in place. Yes, that door was tight as a —

Skies! The pins were beginning to drop inside the lock. Taemon stood stunned as one by one each wheel turned and each bolt retracted.

The door swung open.

Taemon ran forward. “Yens!”

One of the temple guards grabbed him and pinned him in place with psi. Yens turned around to face Taemon.

“I was hoping I’d get to see you on this trip. My dear younger brother.”

Mr. Parvel gasped. “Brother?”

Amma groaned.

Her father turned with great effort to look at his daughter. “You . . . knew?”

She nodded. “I . . . never . . . thought . . . I’m so . . . sorry, Da.”

Vangie. It had to be Vangie who had stolen his journal and taken it to the city. How it ended up in Yens’s hands was anybody’s guess.

Taemon tried to explain, but someone was holding his jaw shut with psi. He struggled against the psi that held him, but he could do nothing more than wriggle and murmur.

He watched the agony on Mr. Parvel’s face as Yens strolled into the library.

The books started flying out of the door and into the haulers. Book after book. Stack after stack. A continuous stream of books disappeared into the haulers. And there was nothing anyone could do.

After a long, torturous half hour, Yens emerged from the cave that once held the library.

Elder Naseph, who had been content to let Yens do the dirty work until now, stepped forward and addressed the crowd. “Thank you so much for your donation to the cause. Now, we have one last order of business. One family here did not cooperate. That cannot go unpunished.” He stared at the piles of rubble off to the side. Everything the Parvels owned lay in those heaps. Suddenly, flames erupted in each pile.

Elder Naseph turned his back on the destruction and climbed aboard one of the haulers. The burly temple guards all did the same. Yens had one foot on a hauler’s running board when Challis showed up out of nowhere. “Do not go with these men, nephew,” she said, looking directly at Yens. “They will betray you.”

Yens stood perfectly still. Somehow Challis commanded his attention and no one moved to stop her. She grabbed hold of Yens’s arm. Taemon saw him cringe, but, miraculously, he didn’t pull away.

“I see things. I know what they’re up to. Making psi weapons for the Republik. They’re going to sell my nephew to the Republik right along with those weapons. That’s a good way to get rid of him, isn’t it? Sacrifice, they’ll call it. The True Son sacrifices himself for the good of the true people.” Challis shook a finger right in front of Yens’s face. “Don’t you do it!”

Yens paled.

Elder Naseph materialized. “Silence, woman!” Challis wilted and collapsed on the ground. He ordered Yens into the hauler, and in seconds they were rumbling off the way they had come.

With the haulers gone, the colonists jumped into action. There were flames to put out. People to care for. Drigg and Taemon hurried to check on the Parvels, who were sitting on the ground in a daze.

The cuffs had been unlocked, and the drugs were starting to wear off.