The Sphere (The Magi Series #2) (53 page)

“Now,” Olivia said once they were all honored.  “Let’s
celebrate your safety and return.  Eat up everyone.”  This received a loud
applause as well, and soon, everyone was gorging themselves with more food that
any one person should eat in a sitting.

During the meal, Olivia got Elijah’s attention and summoned
him into the house for a chat.  Elijah wondered if she was going to talk to him
about Mr. Button.

She sat down on the couch and invited Elijah to sit with
her.  The sounds of celebration and conversation outside were cheerful.  Loud
laughter from the men could be heard along with the clanking of plates and
silverware as they continued eating.

“Elijah, I have some rather big news I wanted to share with
you first before I make it known to the barracks,” Olivia said.  “Next year, I
am going to step down as your mentor.”

Elijah’s heart suddenly dropped.

“I’m afraid Phinneas is not doing well and I need to put my
focus on him.  Plus, there’s something coming up next year that might be a
conflict with my role as your mentor.  You need someone more consistent than
me.  Your talent is too good to be wasted on a mentor who will only be able to
meet with you on occasion.”

“What’s coming up next year?” Elijah asked.

“I can tell you later about that.  It’s nothing to be
concerned with now.”

“I don’t want anyone else as a mentor,” Elijah said
stubbornly.  “Why do I need someone else?  You’ve helped me get to where I am.”

“I’ve just helped you realize your potential,” Olivia said. 
“That’s all.  And that’s another thing I need to talk with you about.  You have
shown me that you are ready to take on more than I thought you capable of at
the beginning of this year.  That is why, as of today, I am putting you in
charge of the quest for the remaining cubes.”

Elijah’s head continued to spin.  “What?!?  Wait…no…why?”

“Because I can’t,” Olivia stated.  “I’m old, Elijah.  And
old leaders need to find younger replacements. I’ve found my replacement. 
You.”

“I’m no replacement!”  Elijah became frustrated.  Once
again, he was being thought of as more than he was and he didn’t know why. 
“How could I possibly replace you?”

“You already have,” Olivia said.  “What did you need me for
while you searched for the cube?”

“Well…I…
You
found the location of the cube.  I only
knew where to look because you told me,” he finally said.  “And I didn’t do
anything without help.”

“And now you know where to look for the others,” Olivia
stated.  “So you don’t need me for that.”  Elijah huffed aggressively.  “I’m
not stepping away entirely,” Olivia continued.  “I will be there with you every
step.  But the details, I leave for you.  Think about what you did, Elijah. 
You took responsibility.  You assembled a team.  You knew who you could count
on and who you needed to be wary of.  You found the city.  The cube. 
Everything.  Give yourself some credit, Elijah.  Sure you had help, but so did
I.  Everyone needs help.  Being a leader doesn’t mean doing everything yourself. 
Being a leader means empowering others, inspiring others, uniting others so
that together you can accomplish something.  That’s what you did!  And that’s
what you will continue to do.”

“So you’ll be helping me with the other cubes?” Elijah
asked.

“I will help you any way I can,” Olivia said.  “But I have
some other responsibilities to take care of.  Some you know of, and some I’m
afraid I can’t tell you.”

“Of course you can’t,” Elijah said smartly.

Olivia gave him a stern look.

“I’m sorry,” Elijah said.  He took in a deep breath, feeling
like a lead weight.

“Of course,” Olivia said.  “And there is something else. 
Another reason I must leave you to lead our mission.  I’m afraid there are some
among us who I can no longer trust.  They know where to find me because I’m in
too deep with them.”

“Who?” Elijah asked.

“There are some I suspect,” Olivia said.  “But there are
others I’m sure I don’t know about.  That’s another reason why it’s important
for me to hand this to you.  You don’t have any ties.  And from what I’ve
observed, you’re a much better judge of character than I am.  I believe some of
the people I’ve trusted the most over the years may not be who I think they
are.  Times are changing here, Elijah.  And one small mistake on my part could
mean the end of our mission.  The farther away I am from it all, the farther
away I pull the people who are tracking my every move.”

“Bernard,” Elijah said suddenly.  “He delivered us the
message about the sphere saying it was from Master Riley.  And then he gets
caught trying to help the Maliphists break into the barracks.  And then he
blames the council.  And then the council sends him away to Valcore without
hearing his defense.”

“Very curious indeed,” Olivia said.  “Believe me, Riley is
one of the people I’m keeping my eye on.  He used to be a foreign marshal, and I’m
almost positive he has been in contact with Luther Cain.  The assumption is
that he has been in peace talks with Cain to keep him from gaining too much
power in Malpetra, but I’m not so sure.”

“So you want me to pick up where we left off?” Elijah asked.

“Yes.”

“When should I start up again?”

“That will be entirely up to you.”

Elijah sighed.  “I have to admit, I think I’m in over my
head.”

Olivia smiled.  “We all are.  But that doesn’t mean you can’t
do it.”  Elijah sighed again.  “Now come on.  Let’s not miss this celebration.”

Elijah stood up and felt a hundred pounds heavier.  He
needed to talk with his friends about everything.  They were no longer just a
new council.  Elijah was now in charge of creating his own society.  An army. 
He wondered if the isolation he felt earlier in the year when his friends
wouldn’t talk to him was just the beginning.  He hoped not.  He couldn’t do
this alone.  Elijah picked up a plate, and instead of wallowing in his own
stress, he ate nine pieces of garlic-buttered chicken.

Chapter
25:

THE RESURRECTION OF WILLIAM HAWK

Each of Elijah’s friends received a note from him the
following day saying that he wanted to have a secret meeting in Mr. Button’s
headquarters that evening.  The problem was, Elijah hadn’t yet asked Mr. Button
if it was okay, but that was the only place he could think of private enough
for a secret meeting.  Early in the afternoon, after Elijah had slept off an
upset stomach and finished training, he knocked on Mr. Button’s door, hoping he
was in.

“May I help you?” Mr. Button said.  “Oh.  Hello, Elijah.”

Mr. Button looked better than Elijah had ever seen him.  He
didn’t have the nervous twitch like most times, and he had lost the frazzled
look he seemed to carry with him wherever he went.

“I was wondering, sir, if we could use your quarters this
evening.  It’s for a meeting on behalf of Olivia.”  Elijah figured dropping
Olivia’s name was going to be more likely to get the answer he wanted than just
saying he wanted to meet on his own decision.

Mr. Button squinted his eyes.  “You’re free to use my office
this evening, Elijah, but may I ask why not just meet by the fire pit or the
dining hall?”

“Privacy,” Elijah answered.

“I see,” said Mr. Button.  Then he got a funny smirk on his
face and turned around.  He walked back to his desk, opened one of his drawers
with about a thousand keys and picked one out.  He gave it to Elijah.  “There’s
a classroom inside the arena that’s a little smaller than my office.  It’s the
classroom we reserve for meetings with parents or if a teacher needs to talk
with a student, so it’s only designed to hold a few people.  I would imagine
that would be perfect?”

Elijah lit up.  “Yes!  This is exactly what we need.  Thank
you.”

“You can thank me by never getting caught and never ever
telling anyone else that you got this key from me,” Mr. Button said.  “I’d hate
for anyone to think any less of me, eh?”  He gave Elijah a wink, which made
Elijah feel happy and sad at the same time.  He still couldn’t believe Mr.
Button was being asked to resign.  Even though Button was in good spirits,
Elijah knew he was basically being asked to leave his home.

When Elijah led his friends from Mr. Button’s quarters to the
small classroom, Paul couldn’t help smarting off.

“So you tell us to meet at Button’s and then you walk us
down the hall?  Why not just have us meet here?”

“Just to irritate you,” Becca snapped back.

“Well, it worked,” Paul retorted.

“I got this from Mr. Button just now,” Elijah said, holding
out the key before he unlocked the door.  “But don’t say anything about it.  He
made me promise not to tell anyone, which I hope was excluding you guys.”

“Hey, I’ve been in here,” Hannah said.  “My parents met with
my brother last year during the holiday, and I came along.  We met in this
room.  Kind of smells funny.”

“It smells like the door hasn’t been opened in years!” Paul
said, crinkling his nose.

“I love it,” Elijah said.  “This will be our new meeting
place.”

“Our new meeting place?” Becca questioned.  “I wasn’t aware
we had an old meeting place.”

“Sit down,” Elijah said.  “I have something kind of
important to talk with you guys about.”

The room had a small circular table and only four chairs, so
Elijah stood and Adam took a seat on the floor even though he was offered a
seat by everyone.  There was no chalkboard or anything hanging on the walls. 
The room was completely bare, so it had a weird echo.

“Olivia talked with me when we had our celebration yesterday,”
Elijah began.  “And she told me that she was giving me responsibility of the
hunt for the other two cubes to the sphere.”  He paused, half-expecting someone
to voice their disapproval, but no one said anything.  “I have to be honest,
I’m not quite sure why she did that, but either way I guess I’m in charge now.”

Elijah straightened up as he said the words out loud.  That
said it all.  He was in charge either way.  “So…I’ve called you here to discuss
my plans for carrying on.  I know I asked you earlier if you were willing to go
all in with me, but since that was a long time ago and we’ve all had a taste of
what this quest will be like, I wanted to make sure you’re still willing to
carry on with me.”

“Elijah, have a little faith in us,” Becca said.  “We made a
promise.  Now get on with it.”

“All right then,” Elijah said.  “I’ve decided to hold off on
looking for the next cube.  I think we’ve got targets on our backs right now
because of Bernard and everything.  I think if we wait we’ll have a better
chance at leaving unnoticed, when that time comes.”

“What about the Maliphists?” Paul asked.  “Aren’t they
looking for the cubes too?”

“I don’t think they know about the cubes,” Elijah said.

“Then why did they attack us when we were searching in
Orphea?” Becca argued.  “They had to be searching for something.  They knew
where to find it.”

Elijah shook his head.  “I think they knew where to find
Olivia
. 
Which is why she’s stepping back, I think.  Their sphere doesn’t work, so
they’re on watch.  They’re looking for answers and they think Olivia’s got
them.”

“Well, they’d be right,” Paul said.

“That’s my point,” Elijah continued.  “They’re waiting for
our move.  They don’t have a move themselves.  If we move now, they’re more
likely to follow.  I say we wait.”

“Okay then,” Paul said.  “We’ll wait.  Then what?”

“We need to assemble a team,” Elijah said.  “We’re not going
to be able to do this alone.  We’re going to need more people we trust.”

“When you say team, what exactly do you mean?” Becca asked.

“I’m not sure,” Elijah answered.  “Olivia said that
Savenridge isn’t as safe on the inside.  That there are traitors among us.  But
if we’re going to continue on our mission, we need to have people we can trust
on our side.  At some point everyone’s going to have to pick sides between the
good guys and the bad guys, and it’ll be better to at least know who the good
guys are when that happens.  Just think about others you trust.  I don’t want
to do anything until later, but just think about it.”

“Are you talking about our family or just kids at the
barracks?” Hannah asked.

“Both,” said Elijah.  “I think your family is a good place
to start.  We need a list.  We need to start building an army.”

“Whoa,” Paul said.  “Slow down, man.  You’re talking a bit
drastic there.”

“Am I?” Elijah asked very seriously.  “You know as well as I
do that we’re headed for a war with the Maliphists at some point, right?”  No
one spoke.  They didn’t want to admit what they knew was true.  It was easier
to just ignore what they were seeing.  “We’re more powerful when we’re united. 
And if the Maliphists are among us, if they end up being people everyone has
trusted for years, how can we possibly unite?  They’re dividing us by creating
doubt and fear and we don’t even know it.”

“But how do we know who we can trust?”

“We’re going to find that out,” Elijah said.  “As the
leader, I’m giving you each a responsibility.  Our first job is to find the
cubes.  We’re going to need to plan each of our journeys for the cubes.  Becca,
you’re going to be in charge of figuring out where we need to go.  Isaac,
you’re going to be in charge of getting us there.  You’ve got a lot to learn
about the common world, Isaac, so I’m putting that on you this summer.  Work
with Becca.  Once she figures out where we’re going and all of that, you’ll
take over on how we can get there.”

Paul looked like he was ready to run across the arena
waiting for his job.

“Hannah, you are in charge of supplies.  Once Becca and
Isaac have our travel figured out, you work on getting the things we need ready
so we have adequate supplies.  Adam, you’re in charge of our finances.  Your
guardians are bankers, right?”