Token (Token Chronicles) (21 page)

“Well, so much for Ollie’s clothes,” I say laughing as I reveal the large rip in the shirt that happened while I was sliding.

“Eh, he will get over it.”

She splashes water in my face, and begins to swim off immediately. I give chase to her, but she is much faster than me. When I reach the side of the pool, she is already out and has climbed on top of the large rock holding a vine in one hand with her other hand placed on her hip.

“You are going to have to be faster than that if you want to catch me.”

She jumps off the ledge with both hands and legs wrapped tightly around the vine. She lets go in mid flight and does a flip in the air before she hits the water. When she comes back up, she shouts at me to try it.

I climb up the same rock, grab the swinging vine, and leap off. The adrenaline rush fills me. Briel and I keep taking turns swinging on the vine. For a moment, I feel like a kid with no worries. A kid who doesn’t have the entire Rebellion’s success resting solely on his shoulders. A kid whose friends aren’t being forced to fight to the death. A kid who hasn’t lost his true love. I feel guilty because of my self-indulgence. Because it was the first time I have had fun in months.

I am treading out in the middle of the pool when Briel swims over.

“Everything okay?” she asks me.

“Yes,” I lie.

“I have been meaning to ask you, what was it like growing up on the Islands? I have only ever been in here in Edena and the forests outside.”

“Edena?” I ask.

“It’s what my father calls the caverns. Our own little slice of heaven in this terrible world.”

“Well, the Islands were a beautiful place surrounded by despair and mistreatment. As long as we did our jobs and didn’t cause any trouble, everything was okay. We got by the best we could one day at a time, but the only thing that made it bearable was the friendships. We were a family, which is why this whole system appalls me. It is why I agreed to help the Rebellion. I don’t want this to keep happening to anyone else. To have to watch innocent people die in the Elitists’ sick games. It isn’t fair.”

“Did you lose someone?”

“I don’t even know yet. It’s the worst part, not knowing. When you found me out in the woods, I was just trying to get away. I honestly did not want to know. Because one of my friends was going to die, or Hadley was going continue to suffer where she was as a prisoner, and there was nothing I was going to be able to do about it. Not until I develop my abilities, anyways.”

Briel just stares back at me with her eyes welling up with water. Before I know it, she has her arms wrapped around me embracing me in a hug. We are basically strangers, but it doesn’t feel that way in the least bit.

She puts her hands on my shoulders and tells me, “I am so sorry Kincaid. This may be unfair, but there is a force of good I can see in you that I think you are underestimating. You are destined for great things; you just need to believe in yourself. Abilities or not, you are capable of anything.”

She is only a few inches away from my face, both of us still treading water, with her eyes locked into mine. This is probably the closest I have ever been to another woman other than Hadley. For some reason, her words are sincere and strike me to the core. I believe her because I think she actually believes in me.

From a distance, I hear someone yelling, “Briel, are you down here?”

I look above the large rock we climbed and see a door I didn’t notice before open. Aunt Nilly appears and says, “It’s time for the dinner. Did you forget?”

“No, Aunt Nilly. I guess we just lost track of time,” she replies.

We both begin to swim to the ledge of the pool so we can climb out. When we are both out trying to dry off, I ask, “There was a door the whole time. Why didn’t we use it the first time?”

“What fun would there be in that?” she says playfully.

When we get out into the hallway, she suggests I go back to my room and change into my old clothes.

After I am all changed, I head back towards the main floor for dinner. She once again has already beaten me there dressed in new clean clothes with her hair completely dry. No evidence at all she had just been swimming. The whole community is sitting at a long table with one open seat across from Briel next to the head of table where Magnus is sitting.

“Please have a seat,” Magnus says as I walk up.

Everyone else just stares at me in confusion. When I sit down, Briel, while laughing, says “Late to your own party. What a shame.”

Magnus clanks his spoon several times against his large wooden mug. I pick my mug up and examine the contents finding it to be filled with water.

“I have gathered us all here today for this feast to celebrate our new guest. I will admit, we may have gotten off to a bit of a rocky start, but he is a special guest we are very fortunate to have. For tonight, in our presence, we have the long lost son of Jackson and Rhetta Maddox, Kincaid Maddox.”

Maddox. It is the first time I have ever heard my name like that, with my father’s surname. I like the sound of it. There are several gasps continuing to circulate around the table and the faces of the older people continue to display shock and amazement. They must all be familiar with my parents.

“I want you to make Kincaid feel at home here during the duration of his stay,” Magnus continues over the sounds of small chatter. “Let us join hands so we may bless him and the daunting task that has been placed on him.”

Magnus extends his hand out to me which I take while my other hand is taken by Nilly.

“We are so very thankful and blessed enough to be able to gather tonight in good health and harmony, to have food on our tables and family by our sides. We ask that you continue to guard us and guide us in the best way you know how. But tonight, we pray that you please give our new young visitor the strength and courage to see him through his task. To give him the power to get through his time of trial, and allow him to become the man he is destined to be. To become a gateway to a New World. To become the Savior of Knav. Amen.”

After the prayer, everyone continues to chat and come up to meet me asking to hear my story. I try to indulge as many of them as possible, but I am out of sorts. My body is there, but my mind is not. Those words keep reverberating through me. The Savior of Knav. My destiny.

Chapter 14

There is a light tapping at my door. I hear a voice softly from the other side gently repeat my name. I quickly rise and go to open the door. Briel is standing there waiting on the other side.

“My father sent me to get you for breakfast. Sorry for waking you so early. He just thought it might be best if you wake before everyone else so there is not a big commotion like last night. Meet us on the main floor in ten minutes.”

“Okay,” I reply.

She didn’t wake me. Sleep managed to elude me all night. They see me as the Savior of Knav. I cannot let these people down. I cannot let anyone down. I have to learn how to control my abilities. But I’m worried everyone is wrong. What if I’m not who they say I am? What if I do not have any abilities? I have already supposedly had my sixteenth birthday, but I don’t feel any different.

I leave my room and try my best to leave my doubts behind, as well. I need to be optimistic. For Magnus to help me, I need to be fully committed. I walk down the steps to the main floor, and there are only three people there. Magnus, Briel, and Nilly.

“Good morning,” Nilly brightly exclaims. “Do you like eggs?”

“I have never had them,” I reply.

“Well you are in for a treat. Have a seat, and I will bring them right over to you.”

“Thank you.”

I walk over to the same table from the festivity last night. Magnus and Briel are seated in the same position so I also take my same seat.

“Sorry for the early start, but I was guessing you didn’t want a repeat of last night,” Magnus says. “I apologize for the uproar, but you have to realize, your father and mother were heroes to a lot of people. You being here is quite the surprise.”

“It’s okay. It was nice to meet everyone.”

Nilly walks over with several plates of food. She places one in front of me with several foods I have never seen before, but the smell is quite pleasant.

“Eat up, son. We have a long day ahead of us,” Magnus says.

I thank Nilly for the food as she walks back to the cooking area.

“What exactly will we be doing?” I ask Magnus.

“It’s best for you to just wait and see. I don’t want you over thinking this. Just try and clear your mind.”

I nod my head and begin to scoff down the eggs Nilly gave me. They are quite scrumptious, so I accept her offer for seconds when I finish. After we are done eating, Magnus instructs me to follow him. As we begin to leave, I ask Briel, “Will you be coming with us?”

Magnus interrupts before she has a chance to answer.

“No, not today, Kincaid.”

“I am sorry, but father thinks it may be too dangerous for me to be in there. He said you might be unpredictable. But good luck. Come find me afterwards.”

“Okay.”

I follow Magnus out of the main floor and look back to see Briel still intently staring at us as we leave. We are heading down another hallway I am not quite familiar with. There are no doors. We just continue heading until we emerge from the other side. We are in a large open room. There are weapons everywhere. Swords. Axes. Bows.

“This room is normally where we train our foragers. Since they have to leave the confines of Edena, they need to be trained to defend themselves should they run into trouble.”

“So Briel has been trained?”

“Quite extensively. She is good with all the weapons, but knives are her favorite. I would suggest you not get on her bad side,” he says laughing.

“But today,” he continues, “this will be our private room. No one else is allowed in. Just you and me.”

We walk to the center of the room where two large circular stone tubs are supported on wide-based columns.

“In these tubs, one is filled with water, the other filled with petrol.”

He strikes a match against the edge of the stone and tosses it in the petrol. A large flame erupts and the fire continues to steadily burn from the tub.

“Is this all we are going to need? A tub of water and fire?”

“This is it for now. With your abilities, all you need is a source to work with. A little bit of water. A little bit of fire. You can multiply, control the molecules. You can use the flame of a match to create a fireball the size of this room if you were able to concentrate deeply enough.”

“Is it possible for me to create lightning strikes out of thin air?”

“I suppose it is a possibility. Lightning is an element created from nature. Why?”

“That’s the reason your daughter found me out in the woods. I was struck by lightning.”

“Before you were struck, explain to me what you were thinking, what you were feeling.”

“Well, I was thinking about how unfair of a situation my friends have been put in. My friend was sent to the Melee to fight to the death. My girlfriend was being kept prisoner as a Token with no telling what was happening to her. I was angry.”

“Precisely. Anger is the key to the abilities you possess. It is in our nature as humans to get angry. But anger is uncontrollable, unpredictable. Thus, your ancestors who used these powers grew more powerful with the more anger they held in their hearts. They were never able to fully control themselves or their abilities. They just caused destruction and death. The exact reason your father ignored the abilities. He didn’t want innocent people to suffer because of him. The reason so many people loved your father was because he was a man of reason and logic. He always thought of others before himself. He didn’t let his emotions control him.”

“So how am I supposed to access my abilities without using anger?”

“It was your father’s belief that you could train your mind to think differently. A way to link your abilities to an emotion even more powerful than anger, love. If we are able to do this, theoretically, you would be able to maintain more control.”

“How would I be able to do that exactly?”

“Every time you use your abilities, there needs to be a common thought. A precursor for every single time. If anger is the key to using them, then you also need to think of the ones you love during these thoughts. Your father’s thought was that eventually you could phase out the anger part and still be able to use your abilities, but with more control because your mind would not be clouded with rage.”

“If my father thought this was a possibility, why didn’t he do it?”

“He spent so many years suppressing his abilities, controlling his emotions, it was too late by the time he realized it was the only way we would win the war. If you are going to trust anybody, trust in him. If you learn now, from the beginning how to control every aspect of your abilities, think of the good you will be able to accomplish. Think of all the innocent lives you will save.”

“Alright. Let’s get started. What do you want me to do?”

“We need to trigger your abilities. Take a seat and close your eyes. I want you to concentrate on the tub of water first. Now I need you to get angry about something, but you need to be thinking about someone you care about at the same time. You said you had a girlfriend and a friend who was fighting in the Melee. Think about them. Get angry about what is happening to them. Concentrate on the water in your mind.”

I am deep in my mind. Trying to envision what I want to make the water from the tub do. Trying to think about Hadley and Benja and what horrible things have happened to them. But it is hard for me to feel love. All I feel is anger. All I feel is my desire for vengeance.

“Whatever you’re thinking Kincaid. Stop right now!” Magnus yells.

I open my eyes to find the tub of fire had grown five times in size. As soon as I quit concentrating, however, the fire began to recede and go back to normal.

“It’s a start. But we have a lot more work to do. Let’s try again. This time, make sure you’re only concentrating on the water. You just need the anger to kick-start your power, use your other emotions to control the elements. You are going to have to concentrate.”