A Chosen Life (10 page)

Tolen stepped around Macy, no longer willing to be ignored. “What’s going on?”

Bastian paused and met Macy’s eyes. They were dilating and shifting like Tolen’s did sometimes.

“We’re not going to escape without a fight.” Macy whispered.

Tolen glanced between the two, his heart hammering.

“No.” Bastian met her stare with a worried expression.

“Someone please tell me what is going on.” Tolen pushed the rocking chair out of the way and stalked over to his mother’s side.

Macy ignored him, still focused only on Bastian. “The shift is strong . . . What
exactly
is coming?” Her hands trembled and she shoved them in her pockets.

Bastian closed his eyes and massaged his temple. “Everything.”

Chapter Seven

Run

Tolen rushed to the kitchen, his packed duffle dangling from his fist, the anger he’d felt earlier now buried beneath purpose. He still wanted answers, but the strange being-watched feeling was getting stronger, closer, and the seriousness he sensed from Bastian had him doing what he was told . . . for the moment.

His mother stood with her hands on her hips. “This is completely ridiculous!” The scorching afternoon sun beating through the open window couldn’t compete with the heat of her anger. She wasn’t an angry person by nature, unless she was really, really scared. Tolen could feel the fear coming off her in waves.

Macy wasn’t responding to Areen’s shouts, her movements were harried and her face tight with stress as she pulled out bags of herbs from their spice cupboard and stuffed them into a small leather satchel attached to her belt.

“What’s going on?” Tolen asked, but Macy ignored him too.

“I’ll tell you what’s going on. These two,” his mother gestured to Macy, and out the window where Bastian was pacing, “seem to think waiting for the Dark to catch up is a
good
idea!”

His own anger smoldered and he spoke without thinking. “Well, maybe if you would have told me what I am we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

His mother glanced up and the look in her eyes made him regret his words at once. He’d never seen so much pain on her face. Before he could take it back, she swept from the room, angry tears spilling from her eyes.

Macy paused in her search of the cabinets and cast a half glance over her shoulder, but before he could meet her eyes she went back to what she was doing.

Dane appeared at Tolen’s elbow, making him jump.

“Should we take that out to the truck?” Dane pointed to Tolen’s pack, his eyes pleading. Tolen could tell Dane wanted an excuse to talk alone in order to see where their friendship stood. He looked into Dane’s earnest face and found no malice for his friend’s deception. Dane may have kept things from Tolen, but he knew deep inside their friendship had been genuine. No matter what happened, Tolen would always be grateful for Dane’s influence.

Tolen met Dane’s eyes, nodded with a tiny smile, and followed him out the kitchen door.

Dane opened the truck door and Tolen threw his bag in the back. “What was my mom talking about? I thought we were in a hurry. We’re not really waiting for the bad guys to catch up, are we?”

Dane took a deep breath. “It sounds like a nice idea, run as fast as we can, right?”

“Obviously.”

“I thought so too, at first. High tail it out of here before the Dark shows up. That’d be great
if
there was only one group of Dark servants coming. But Bastian said there are
legions
moving in from every direction. We are literally being surrounded. No matter where we go, we will encounter something evil.” Dane rubbed a hand over his eyes. “I just got back from talking to my father; he knows how to track the Dark. Bastian asked him to check our route and my father saw the evidence. Dark servants are everywhere.

“I’m sorry Tolen, but the Watcher is right, and whether your mom wants to admit it or not, our safest bet is to allow the weakest legion of creatures to almost catch up and lure them into a place that’s to our advantage. If we escape them, we have a greater chance of getting ahead of the others.”

Tolen looked over Dane’s head at the horizon, trying to imagine what was coming, but failing. How could you be afraid of monsters when you’d been taught your whole life they weren’t real? What exactly was the
Dark
anyway? He looked back at Dane. “What makes the group we’re heading toward weaker?”

“They’re mostly Reconns and Raksasha—scouts and blood-trackers. Raksasha are lethal but they’re also stupid and easily outwitted. The Reconns will be more difficult because they are the ultimate chameleons. When they hold still they’re literally invisible, but get them to move and they flicker, making them easier to pick off.”

Tolen shook his head. “Okay, that made a lot of no sense.” He rubbed his forehead. He’d given up the hope that he’d wake up from this nightmare in his own bed, but it still felt unreal, unbelievable.

He looked back at his home and felt the fear and doubt closing in until it seemed as suffocating as the dry desert air. It was so strange. This house, only days before, had felt safer to him than the world outside. Now they were leaving it and heading into an unknown he never could have imagined, and running from something far more sinister than he ever could have dreamed.

So many places they had packed up and left, but it had never felt like this.

The posters on the walls, the books on the shelves, his bedding—everything would stay behind. He wondered idly what the owners would think when they finally showed up and found their final rent check stuck to the fridge and the house full of furniture. What would the stories be? The corner of his mouth twitched. The whole town would love the scandal. It’d give them more entertainment than they’d seen in years; add in the story Jeff would likely come up with, and maybe they’d get some news coverage from a desperate local reporter.

His skin prickled. Deep down, he’d always known that whatever they were running from would eventually catch up to them, but he’d never imagined it’d be something like this. Evil had marked him, an evil that had already captured his father.

Dane coughed nervously and glanced around. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be there for you as much as you needed me through all this Tolen. I had to follow your mother’s wishes. I’m not allowed to interfere with Blood-Bonds.”

Tolen caught a glimpse of his mother through the kitchen window, pulling food out of the cupboards and a muscle in his cheek twitched. He wasn’t angry with Dane, but his mother? Yes. She’d betrayed him with her secrecy. He didn’t want to hurt her, but how could she keep something this big from him?

“She kept everything from me. What I really am, the truth about my father, everything. I thought my dad was a worthless creep who wanted nothing to do with his family. You guessed that my nightmares were about him and yet, because of her, you couldn’t tell me. I want to find him, but because of her I have no idea how, or even why he ended up in that prison in the first place. I’ve been so scared for her health, worrying every day that I might lose her, and all along if she would have told me what I am I could have learned how to protect us from whatever is out there.” He leaned against his mother’s rusty, broken down Honda and propped his feet on the Scout’s bumper. He felt grateful he could finally vent his frustrations to his best friend, but knew he couldn’t feed the anger.

He took a slow breath. “I’m supposed to be afraid of what’s out there but I’m so frustrated I can’t feel anything else. I can’t get my head straight. I’ve always known I was different, no matter what I have or haven’t been told, but this?” He shook his head and waved a hand through the air. “This is
nuts.
This is fantasy. You’re some dwarf from a Tolkien book, and me? I’m supposed to be some sort of
Chosen
one
that has to protect unsuspecting humans from monsters, when I’m nearly just as clueless as they are—”

“Technically I’m not a dwarf. I’m a Doogar—big difference. Very few humans ever get it right.” Dane glanced at Tolen’s clenched fists, seemed to sense his need for solid answers, and gave Tolen what he could. “Sorry, it’s not a good time to joke. My people have been here since this world began. Some of us have Hidden gifts like you. Some of us are simply skilled with our hands. Most of my kind lives in underground settlements. We only come
above
when our services are needed. I guess that’s where the dwarf comparisons come from.”

Dane ran a chubby hand over his face. “I’m sorry, Tolen. I wish things could be different. I wish for your sake that you could go to sleep, wake up, and find all this really is another nightmare or just one of our video games. But you can’t. Everything you’ve been told by Bastian is real. The sooner you start to believe it, the easier it’ll get, not to mention it will help you with your gifts. Now that you no longer have to hold them back, they will be a great asset to you. The Chosen are held in very high regard by the Hidden. It’s actually a great honor to be selected by the Light.” He sighed. “It will get easier with time. I promise.”

Tolen ran a hand through his hair. He didn’t want to offend his friend, but at this moment he disagreed.

Macy rushed out of the house with a look of deep concentration on her face. Ignoring the two of them, she began scouring the overgrown weeds in their pitiful garden, occasionally pulling something up to stuff it in one of her many pockets and pouches.

A few seconds later, Bastian and Areen came out and started helping her.

Dane nudged Tolen’s arm and nodded toward the others. “I know you’re mad at your mom, but I really believe she was trying to protect you. She loves you so much she has given her life to keep you safe. To live in the Hidden world is dangerous. She was trying to do what she thought was best.”

“And Bastian, well he’s actually not so bad.” Dane bobbed his head. “Macy’s got a rotten attitude but she seems to be pretty skilled. Truthfully, if I had to pick who to run with, I don’t think we’ve faired too badly. The guy’s a Watcher so he’s the best suited to protect you, and since Macy’s a Chosen she will be able to help you learn your responsibilities.”

Tolen blew out a loud breath. “Responsibilities I didn’t ask for.” He watched Macy force a rusty shovel into the hard dirt, dislodge a huge clump of something, toss it over her shoulder, reach down into the hole, rip out a bunch of stringy roots, and stuff them into the same satchel she’d put the herbs into. He shook his head. “I don’t think I’ll be asking Macy for lessons anytime soon. She’d probably strangle me like she did those crows, just for breathing wrong.”

Dane sighed, “It does seem she doesn’t like you much. Just jealous, if you ask me.”

Bastian stood up, handed Macy something else for her bag and then the three of them walked over to Tolen and Dane. He tossed another duffle bag into the back. “We are nearly ready.”

“Where will we go if we escape?” Tolen tried not to think about how everyone kept saying
if
.

Dane answered. “California, to the Binithan—my
real
home. The power of my people should shield us until we decide where to go from there.”

Tolen glanced between Dane and Bastian. “If we’ll be protected there, why not stay?”

“Um, lots of reasons.” Dane wouldn’t meet his eyes. “Bastian, my father has scouted the route. He said we should be able to draw the legion right to where you wanted as long as we get there before dusk. If we’re later than that, they might head us off. They got pretty far last night.”

Tolen glanced around. No one seemed to want to look directly at him. Bastian and Dane were facing each other. Macy stood behind them picking dirt out of her fingernails, a sucker sticking out of her mouth. His mother had her arms folded and stared at the ground. If not for the fact that no one would look right at him, he would believe she was just still offended by what he’d said. But that wasn’t it at all. They were hiding something from him.

“I still think you guys are nuts.” Macy pulled the sucker from her mouth with a loud pop. “We’re not going to outrun the Dark with the kid’s life force acting like a friggin’ beacon the whole way.”

Tolen clenched his teeth. “You know, I am right here.”

Macy rolled her eyes but otherwise ignored him.

“We will break through the western line and head for the Binithan.” Bastian gave Macy a hard look. “We will deal with whatever follows, accordingly.” He looked at Tolen and his pale eyes dilated and contracted so fast it was dizzying. “Are your injuries bothering you at all?”

Tolen touched the bruise under his eye. He’d actually forgotten all about them. “No, I feel fine.”

Bastian gave him another once over and turned to Tolen’s mother. “He knows no combat skills, correct?”

“No.”

Macy snorted.

Bastian put a hand on Macy’s shoulder. “Make sure you have everything. We leave in five minutes.”

Tolen looked at his mother. “So, I’m supposed to fight?”

Moisture gathered at the corners of his mother’s eyes, but she kept her head down. “No, just stay behind us.”

Frustration leaked into his tone. “And if something gets past you?”

“Nothing will.” Dane twisted a small dagger in his hands. The strange blade glinted ominously in the sunlight.

Tolen bounced uncomfortably in the back of Bastian’s ancient truck. Mashed in-between Macy and Dane, he felt like a sardine trapped in a tin being tossed around in a rock tumbler. Every stone in the road seemed to jump right through the seat and slam into his backside.

Bastian swerved to miss an antelope and Tolen’s head knocked into Macy’s.

“Ouch! Watch it kid!” She threw him an angry glare and rubbed the side of her head.

“Sorry,” Tolen muttered.

“How much farther to the canyon, Bastian?” Macy continued to massage her head dramatically.

Bastian’s eyes flashed in the rear view mirror. “Not long now. You know what to do.”

Bouncing along the highway, Macy pulled various pouches from her belt.

“Here, make yourself useful. Hold these.” She handed Tolen three small leather pouches blackened with age.

Tolen twisted the pouches with interest and Macy slapped his hand.

“Don’t spill anything unless you want to lose your legs. TNT, get it?”

He held the strings at the top and let them dangle from his fist, fighting the urge to throw them back at her.

She set several flat squares of some sort of woven material on her legs. From each of the pouches she pulled out bits of multi-colored dirt and crushed leaves, and sprinkled them on top of the material. Then she removed one of his mother’s herb bags from her satchel and added a pinch to the top of each pile.

He watched in resentful amazement as Macy worked. She moved her hands furiously fast, and yet they remained steady despite the constant rocking of the truck. She seemed to have good reason for her arrogance, but it didn’t stop it from being annoying.