The Golden Symbol (22 page)

***

Jacob sat down in front of Pambri’s mirror two hours later. His stomach was full, he’d had his shower, and his hand wasn’t hurting as badly. He took a deep breath, then asked the question that had most been on his mind over the past two hours. “How much does it burn?”

“First, it stings,” Pambri said. “The ingredients that cool the metal without making it go solid don’t react well with skin. But after the stinging goes away . . . yes, it does burn. Enough to make your eyes water.”

Jacob nodded, clenching his teeth. “I’m ready.”

“Are you sure?” she asked.

Azuriah rolled his eyes. “Stop pampering him. You chose to teach him all this—you need to follow through.”

She ignored him. “Take up your brush. Dip it in the metal. And follow me.”

Jacob did so, only hesitating for a moment before placing the stuff on his skin. And Pambri was right—it stung. A
lot
. His eyes started watering and he had to tilt his head to keep the tears from running with the paint. He couldn’t believe he was doing this to himself! But he did his best to swallow the pain and keep going. The faster he learned to do it, the faster the irritation would go away. He hoped. And he was bound and determined to learn it before the Lorkon came.

The stinging went away. And the burning started.

If Jacob thought his eyes were watering before, he was wrong. Tears poured down his cheeks and splashed on the counter below him. He couldn’t tell which was stronger—the burning or the resulting itching. His hand shook as he tried to control the urge to scratch and rub the paint off his skin.

Neither Shiengol acknowledged his discomfort. They simply continued coaching him, helping him correct mistakes. It was hard to paint while looking in the mirror, but Jacob was grateful to learn that Pambri had taught him the symbol backwards so he’d find it easier to paint while looking in the mirror.

The symbol started taking shape around his eye—above, below, and to the side. The tiny trident and sun were there, visible, as part of the whole design.

Finally, after scrubbing sections of the paint off when one of the Shiengols complained it wasn’t perfect enough, Jacob mastered the design. It wasn’t too difficult—if it hadn’t been for the pain, he would’ve caught on much earlier.

Pambri and Azuriah both had to “sign off” on Jacob’s work—naturally, Azuriah was harder to please. He judged and corrected and insulted his way through to a grudging acceptance that Jacob had done fine.

“Go home. Sleep,” Pambri said. “Come back first thing in the morning. If your symbol is still intact and not fading into your skin, you’ll know you did it well.”

Jacob was grateful for another break from the two Shiengols. He liked both of them, but separate from each other. They argued like little old women! It made him wonder how long they’d been married. Shouldn’t they have gotten used to their differences by now? Or did couples argue more the longer they were married?

He quickly forgot his question the moment he stepped out of the fortress. Whoa! The sunlight was bright, making him squint until he adjusted. The emotion colors of everyone surrounding him—even Makalos on the far side of the village—were so much brighter! He couldn’t believe the distance his emotion-seeing ability had now reached. And his shields! Molding the air took only a couple of seconds and he jumped back in shock when the shield sprang from his hands, nearly double in size.

He was going to have so much fun with this.

One thing Azuriah had stressed, though, was the fact that Jacob’s Shiengol abilities would be magnified, and nothing more. Since Jacob didn’t know how to fight, he still wouldn’t be a very good fighter. That was a disappointment. But it would be really nice not to have to use Early every time he needed to do something. He’d almost killed her so many times already.

Jacob saw Akeno’s emotions long before he could even tell who the Makalo coming toward him was.

“What’s on your mind, Akeno?” he asked when Akeno neared him.

“A lot. And I’ve been looking for you. I need to tell you an idea I’ve had, and then have you help me decide who to talk to about it first.”

Jacob put his shield away and turned his full attention to his friend. “Okay.”

“Can we go somewhere else? Maybe to the graveyard or something?”

Jacob nodded, then followed as Akeno led the way. Why would the Makalo want to go there? It definitely wasn’t the favorite place to hang out and talk.

“What’s on your face?” Akeno asked.

Jacob instinctively reached up to touch the symbol, but dropped his hand, not wanting to smudge it. He didn’t know how long it would take to dry, or if it even could smudge, being metal. “It’s the design the Shiengols draw on themselves.”

Akeno nodded. “I thought so. What does it do?”

“Gives me extra powers. Or, actually, strengthens what I already have.”

Akeno grinned. “That’s awesome.” The smile left his face and he stared ahead, hiking through the forest, his mood sober again.

“What’s going on, Akeno? Why are you acting like this?”

The Makalo shrugged. “I’ve got a lot on my mind. And . . . I might just get banned from the Makalo community for suggesting what I’m thinking about.”

That seemed a bit extreme. “What’s that?”

“Just a minute—we’re almost there.”

They’d entered the cemetery, and Akeno led Jacob up the hill to where the Patriarchs were buried. “I wanted to be here, next to Brojan, when I told you my idea.” He took a deep breath and looked up at Jacob, but still didn’t say anything. Then he stared at the mound of earth over Brojan’s grave for several long moments.

What could possibly be on Akeno’s mind that made him this serious? Jacob’s hands started sweating as he wondered what Akeno would bring up.

“Okay, I’ll just tell you.” The Makalo took another deep breath. “I need to take my idea to either Onyev or my dad, but . . . I think it might freak them out or make them mad. I can’t risk losing Onyev’s help right now, and I definitely can’t risk having my dad upset. We’ve got too much at stake, with the Lorkon coming in four and a half days.”

Jacob nodded. “Yeah, no kidding.”

Akeno gazed at Brojan’s grave again. “I’ve been thinking a lot about Brojan lately. About—about what he did to me. And I think he had the right idea.” Akeno glanced up at Jacob. “I think he was right to put the Kaede Sap into my body.”

Jacob didn’t say anything—he wasn’t totally shocked, as Akeno probably expected him to be, but this wasn’t his argument, and he didn’t fully understand and feel the implications like a Makalo would.

“Man, it’s really hard to say this,” Akeno said.

“Then just spit it out.”

“All right. I will.” Akeno bit his lip, then blurted, “I want to put Kaede Sap into the blood of all the living Makalos. Right now. Tonight, if possible.”

Jacob raised his eyebrows. “Are you serious? Wouldn’t that . . . get you—”

“Kicked out of the village? In a lot of trouble? Yes. It’s been against the law for so long that I don’t know if any living Makalo would be okay with even
discussing
the idea. And Onyev . . . Onyev was the one who stopped the procedure in the first place. Do you see my dilemma?”

Jacob sat on the grass next to Brojan’s grave. “Let’s talk this through. Why do you want to do it?”

Akeno also sat, but then got to his feet again and paced. “The Makalos are a burden—all of them. I’m running everywhere, trying to make up for where they lack.” He turned to Jacob. “Since training with Onyev, I’ve been surprised several times at how far we’ve fallen.” He gazed down at his left hand. “The power I feel inside me is absolutely amazing. If all the Makalos shared it—if every one of us was able to help in the war—we wouldn’t be a burden. We’d be an asset.”

Jacob nodded. “I agree.”

Relief flooded the air around Akeno and his shoulders slumped in relief. “You do? Oh, Jacob, that makes me feel so much better.”

“But would it work? Wouldn’t they need a lot more time to learn things?”

Akeno nodded. “They’d never be as strong as me, not having had the sap in their blood since birth. And only four days doesn’t give them much time to learn. But they’d still be stronger than they are now. And then I wouldn’t have to carry the burden all on my own.”

“I can see your problem—who to talk to about it first. What are you thinking?”

“I think . . . I think I want to go to my father. He’s
my
patriarch. And he’s my father. He loves me and would probably be more forgiving than Onyev, depending on how I present the idea.”

“Do you want me to come with you?”

“Would you please? It would help, knowing someone was on my side.”

“Of course.” Jacob got to his feet. “Should I say anything, or just listen?”

“If something pops in your head to help smooth things out, then go ahead and say it.”

Jacob agreed, and they left Brojan’s grave and headed to the forest near Mendon, where Kenji and his family now lived.

It took twenty minutes to walk there, and Jacob didn’t need to see Akeno’s emotions to know the Makalo was seriously nervous. It worsened the closer they got to Kenji’s hut.

Kenji and Ebony were the only ones there—Jaegar and Kaiya were playing with Amberly.

Akeno stared at his feet, not talking, so Jacob spoke instead. “We need to discuss an idea Akeno has that is potentially dangerous and
definitely
against Makalo law.”

Akeno stared at Jacob, mouth open, for several seconds.

Jacob nudged him. “Just tell them what you’re thinking. You don’t need to preface it with all the stuff you gave me.”

Akeno nodded and cleared his throat. “Father, I wanted to see what you would think about breaking the law to help fight the Lorkon.”

Kenji frowned. “In what way?”

“By . . .” He bit his lips, then continued. “By putting Kaede Sap into the blood of all of the Makalos.”

Neither Kenji nor Ebony said anything. Their eyes were huge, and the emotion colors flitting through the air didn’t show which emotion they were experiencing the most—anger, curiosity, surprise, shock, excitement, or disappointment.

Luckily, Kenji pushed aside his negative emotions and had Akeno explain his idea further, including his reasons for thinking it up in the first place.

“Have you talked to Onyev about this?” Kenji asked when Akeno finished.

Akeno shook his head. “I wanted to see what you thought first.”

Kenji rubbed his face, and Jacob wondered if he’d be pulling on curls in his beard if he had one. Brojan always did that. “Well . . . I need to talk with your mother before we make any decisions. Alone. Please wait where you can’t hear us.”

Akeno and Jacob left the hut and walked around the forest. Akeno tried to show Jacob some of the traps he’d made, but his mind wasn’t in it, and when they’d finished, Jacob had no idea how the traps actually worked. They just looked like a mess of vines, twigs, and spiky things.

After some time, a Minya flitted to Akeno and told him his parents were ready to speak with him.

They returned to the hut and went inside.

Akeno had designed all of the huts to be tall enough for humans to stand comfortably, and Jacob was grateful for that. He leaned against the door frame until Ebony offered him a seat at their table. The wood on it was rough, and it looked like they’d thrown it together quickly. They probably had, since almost everything the Makalos owned had been destroyed when the Lorkon attacked several weeks earlier.

Kenji got up from his spot at the head of the table and began pacing. There’d been a lot of pacing lately, but Jacob didn’t blame any of them for doing it.

“Akeno, while we’re not opposed to your idea—we do believe we’ve come to a point where this sort of thing may be necessary—we don’t know that you’ve thought through all of the possible consequences.”

Akeno didn’t say anything, and Kenji continued.

“For example, Onyev changed our laws in the first place because Makalos were taking too much onto themselves, and instead of focusing on their families, they were worried about ruling everyone else.”

Ebony nodded. “Before we can even consider making the change, there would need to be some serious boundaries set in place.”

Jacob bit his tongue, not wanting to interrupt, but would they have time to set and learn boundaries before the Lorkon came? He didn’t think so.

“This is, of course, assuming the Makalos survive the war,” Kenji said.

Jacob started at the negative tone in Kenji’s voice. “But that’s just the thing.” He couldn’t help it—he wanted them to see things from the right perspective. “None of us wants the Makalos to die—it would be horrible if that happened. By doing this, you won’t be as helpless. You’ll be stronger. You’ll be able to fight for yourselves.”

“Yes, we’ve considered this.” Kenji sat down with a sigh and put his head in his hands for a moment. “We’re leaning toward saying yes . . . but to make it a personal choice.” He looked at Akeno. “You need to understand that this will not only be difficult for
us
to digest, but we don’t even know how the
new
Makalos will feel—”

“New Makalos?” Jacob asked, head tilted. Had he heard Kenji correctly?

Kenji and Ebony grinned, and Jacob was shocked when their thoughtful, contemplative emotions switched drastically to excitement.

“He hasn’t heard,” Kenji said.

Ebony’s smile broadened even farther. “It makes sense—he was gone when Trunt told us.”

Jacob held up his hands. “Okay, okay. When Trunt told you
what
?”

Ebony turned to Jacob, her eyes shining. “We’re not the only remaining Makalos.”

Jacob’s jaw dropped. He blinked several times. “Wha—How—” A proper question refused to assemble itself in his mind.

“He’s speechless!” Kenji laughed.

Ebony patted her husband on the shoulder. “So were you, if you’ll recall.” She sighed happily, then looked at Jacob again. “Trunt told us about a group of Makalos he found a few years ago living about two hours away from Tadrys.”

Wow! “You’re absolutely serious? This is so awesome!”

Kenji nodded excitedly—this was the happiest Jacob had seen him in a long time. “We contacted them right away via Minya, and they want to join us! They want to come live in Taga Village! As soon as Dmitri is crowned and we clean up the village and make it livable, we’re setting off for Tadrys to bring them back.”