Bakkian Chronicles, Book I - The Prophecy (13 page)

“
Yeah, just trying to catch my breath.”

“
Here, take this!” Steve hoisted the pack up into the opening. Sarah took it and placed it next to her.

From below, Steve clambered onto the top of the wooden crates. Being a full ten inches taller than Sarah, he was easily able to grab the edge of the opening. However, upper-body strength was not one of his strong suits. With arms shaking more than saplings swaying in a hurricane, Steve finally pulled himself out of the cellar to lie next to Sarah.

“
I swear, when we finally do make it home, I’m joining a damn gym.”

Sarah laughed and sat up. “C’mon, let’s get going. I want to get out of this place.”

They both scrambled to their feet and made for the door. The sun was shining brightly outside, only a few wispy clouds were visible just above the western horizon. Now that they were not prisoners, they took a little time to look around.

The cottage was sitting in a small clearing with the forest surrounding them on all sides. A small fire pit had been dug about ten feet from the house. Used regularly, from the looks o
f the refuse scattered about. Several recent kills were still hanging upside down from a branch from the closest tree. Looks like large squirrels, Steve thought.

“
We came from that direction, right?” He pointed to the northwest. A tiny, overgrown footpath ambled off in that general direction. “Do we head off that way and risk running into that guy on his way back? Or should we head in a different direction altogether?”

“
Well, as much as I don’t want to take the same path as that other guy did, I really don’t want to go wandering through the forest blindly. It took us several hours to get from where we were captured to get here, and we’re still ahead of when he told us he’d be back. I say we take this same path back and hope we can find the enchanted road.”

“
I’ll go along with that. At any rate, we need to hurry and we need to be quiet. If for some reason he decides to come back early, I don’t want him catching us off guard.”

Steve opened the pack, took out several strips of dried meat, and handed one to Sarah. He bit off nearly half of the strip, hoisted the pack back onto his shoulder, grabbed Sarah’s hand, and took off down the path at a healthy clip. It wasn’t until they were well away from that run-down cottage that both of them were able to relax.

“
I am SO glad to be out of that house!” Sarah bit off a piece of her meat. “I was starting to have serious doubts that we were not going to find a way out of that mess.”

Steve had finally slowed their pace. A little. He wanted to put as much distance as possible between the house and themselves. Did Sarah just say something? She hated it when he didn’t pay attention. Something about doubts and messes. Doubts about getting out of the mess they were in? Well, Steve thought, I have a fifty-fifty shot at this.

“
Yeah, me too. I’m so glad we’re out of there.” He waited, watching Sarah for the imminent danger signs.

“
So what do you think happened in there? Where’d the trapdoor go to?”

Oh, thank God. Got it right for once.

“
I still think that something we did, whether intentionally or unintentionally, made that door go away.”

“
Okay, but what?”

Steve shook his head. “I wish I knew. ‘Cause whatever we apparently did, I’d like to learn how to do it again. That will definitely come in handy.”

“
I’m impressed! This coming from someone who had difficulty believing in magic yesterday. What convinced you?”

“
Well, think about it, babe.” Steve counted off on his fingers. “First, the jorii, the crystal disc, and the coin that were in your purse up and vanished when the thief wanted to steal it. Second, all three items were back safely in your purse when you checked. And thirdly, that trapdoor flat-out disappeared. I think we would have heard someone remove it in the middle of the night.”

“
I was thinking that, too. I think one of our jhoruns manifested itself last night. I just don’t know if it was yours or mine.”

“
Okay, let’s find out. I tried using the jorii for a little bit. You took it so that you could try. I fell asleep. Honestly now, how long did you work on it?”

“
Ummm, well, most the night if you want to know.”

Steve stared at his wife in shock. “All night? You were up for practically the entire night trying to get that door open?”

Sarah grinned guiltily. “I really thought I could do it.”

Steve had stopped walking and was holding his wife by the shoulders.

“
Then it has to be you! You did something to that door. You made it go away. What did you do?”

“
Clearly, if I knew that, then we wouldn’t be having this discussion.”

“
The jorii disappeared from your purse. The door vanished as well.”

“
But the jorii came back! You’re telling me that
I’m
responsible for making the jorii disappear so it wouldn’t be discovered, then reappear when the coast is clear? Not to mention making that trapdoor completely disappear?”

Steve snapped his fingers. “I got it. It’s triggered by fear, or maybe by some intense emotions. Has to be. That’s the only common denominator I can think of in the two situations we’ve seen it work.”

Sarah was silent, deep in thought. Steve continued.

“
You were worried. You didn’t want that jackass to find the jorii, or anything else, did you? So without realizing it, you made it disappear so that our friend back there couldn’t find it.”

Sarah was still silent. Was he right? Did she make those things disappear? But how? How could she have done something without realizing she did it? Could she test it? Is there some way to find out if she has a jhorun here in Lentari?

“
Maybe you’re right, sweetie. Maybe something I inadvertently did caused those things to disappear.” She took a deep breath. “Can we test this? I want to know if I did it, how I did it, and how to do it again.”

“
Yeah, sure. I want to know, too.”

They stopped by one of the massive oak trees. Steve shrugged off the pack, reached in and pulled out his wife’s purse.

“
Okay, try this. You did it once, you should be able to do this again. Is the jorii still in the change purse?”

Sarah nodded.

“
Okay, then, try to make it vanish again.”

“
How? How do I do that?”

“
Well, just pretend that a whole gang of thieves are hot on our trail and are about to overtake us, and we know that the jorii can’t fall into the hands of someone like that.”

Sarah let out a nervous chuckle. “That shouldn’t be too difficult to imagine. I’m already halfway there.” She clenched her fists. “What do I do? Try and make a mental picture of the jorii vanishing?”

Steve shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know, babe. Ummm, that’d be a good first start.”

Sarah conjured up a mental picture of the jorii sitting in her change purse. She imagined it disappearing, tried to imagine what the change purse would feel like empty. She looked at Steve. “Any luck?”

“
With what?”

“
I’m trying to make the freakin’ thing disappear! See if it’s gone!”

“
Oh! Sorry, I’ll check.” Steve opened her purse, fetched out her change purse and felt it. “Nope, still there.”

“
Damn. Okay, how about…” Sarah brought up a picture of the jorii and imagined a hole appearing in her purse leading to who knows where. She pictured the jorii falling into the hole.

“
What about now?”

Steve reached back into the purse and felt the small purse again.

“
Nope, sorry. Remember, pretend you’re in a serious dilemma and that you’re scared.”

“
Scared. Got it.” Sarah concentrated, imagining the thief was rapidly gaining on them, about to overtake them at any moment. She must not let the jorii fall into the wrong hands. She couldn’t let it. Why, if it did, then who knows what would happen to this beautiful land and –

“
What the hell?”

Sarah snapped back to the present and looked at her husband.

“
What is it?”

“
Your change purse. It’s gone. I know I put it back in your purse.”

“
Are you serious? It worked??”

Steve’s eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. “You did it! What did you do? What did you do differently from last time?”

“
It’s triggered by emotions! I really got into the moment there and pretended that he was about to find us. I knew that if it fell into the wrong hands then we’d be in deep crap.”

Steve snorted. “Ain’t that the truth.” He reached inside the purse again. “Umm, how do you reverse it? Can you make it come back?”

Sarah blinked. She hadn’t thought of that. How does she make it come back? Obviously she knew that the thief wasn’t closing in on them. She’s relaxed now, isn’t she? Why didn’t it come back?

“
Uh, I’m not sure. I just assumed that once I stopped thinking about it, and those intense feelings had passed, then things would revert back to normal.”

He felt inside for the small purse again. It still hadn’t reappeared. Better double-check. He pushed aside her brush, keys, emergency makeup kit. No, it doesn’t appear that… Wait, there it was! He had just checked the far right of the purse. It wasn’t there a second ago!

He pulled out the change purse triumphantly.

“
It’s back! Nicely done, babe!!”

“
But why did it take so long to come back? Does the magic have to wear off or something?”

“
Let’s do this.” Steve opened her purse, pulled out the tube of her lip balm, and held it in his open palm. He looked at Sarah. “Can you make this vanish?”

“
My chapstick isn’t as important as the jorii. I don’t know.”

“
It’s worth a try. Wouldn’t you like to know if it’ll work on non-essential stuff?”

Sarah concentrated, bringing back the feelings of pursuit, of being scared and not knowing if or when she’d be caught next. She didn’t want her things to be found, not by that scumbag. As a matter of fact, nothing she owned would ever fall into his hands again if she had anything to say about –

The small circular tube that was sitting on Steve’s palm vanished. As did the jorii, change purse, purse, and their pack, with all their supplies in it.

“
Holy crap, babe! I was just talking about the balm!”

Sarah didn’t respond.

“
Hey! Are you okay? Come on, snap out of it!”

Sarah gave a little jerk and her eyes snapped open.

“
What happened?”

“
Not only did you make the chapstick disappear, you made your purse and all of its contents vanish as well. Not to mention our pack.”

“
What?! I made it all disappear?”

“
That you did, babe! You must have really conjured up some scary feelings!”

“
All I have to do is pretend that that mugger is behind us, coming after us. It’s not hard to do. Only thing is,” she paused a moment, “every time I think about it, it’s like I’m back in that cellar again. I can still smell that dank odor, feel the straw under my feet.”

Steve took her hand and pulled her close. “I won’t let him touch you, babe. That’s a promise.”

Just like that, Steve was holding Sarah’s chapstick again. Down by his feet, the pack materialized back into existence. The purse followed a moment later, both sitting on the ground as though they had been there all along.

“
Whoa! That’s cool!” Sarah picked up her purse and rifled through it. She pulled out her change purse and felt for the jorii. Yep, still there.