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Toby did not remember sitting down. “What did you say?”
Mom looked at Dad.
Both shrugged.
“That name.”
“Sklavos?”
He stood up. “How do you know that name?”
“Sit down,” Dad said.
Toby looked at Chase. “You heard me talking in my sleep.”
Chase shook his head.
“It was a dream!”
“What did ye tell him?” Mom said to Dad.
“Me? Ye told him.”
“We talked about this.”
“I know,” Dad said. “A year ago. Ye said ye’d talk to him.”
“About what?” Toby said.
“Oh, my Lord,” Mom said. “N’wonder he’s in a fankle.”
“What — are you saying?” Toby said.
“Ye went to Dúnbarnaugh.”
What?
“Chase and I took you,” Dad said. “Now ye can shift there yerself.”
Shift?
Mom said, “None o’ this sounds familiar?”
“No.”
Mom looked at Dad. “We told him nothing?”
Small shake of his head.
Mom leaned on the table. “I’m sorry, sweetie. Toby, we were born there but had to come here.”
He shook his head.
“Just listen. We had to keep ye and Chase safe.”
Toby studied her face. Wait for it.
She’s about to blow the punch line, just like always.
But her gaze never wavered.
He played along. “Safe from what?”
“That’s complicated,” Dad said. He took a moment and seemed to collect his thoughts. “Ye have the Prime.”
It suddenly felt heavier in his pocket.
Chase fidgeted in his chair.
Mom touched Toby’s arm, “And it’s yer turn.”
“For what?”
“To test for...” Her voice broke.
“For what?”
“Messenger.”
“Okay, this isn’t funny. Why are we down here?”
“We’re not joking,” Dad said.
Toby’s gaze danced from parent to parent. “All of this is I’ll get a job? As a delivery boy?”
Mom’s face hardened. “This is a great honor.”
He stood up. “What - are you talking about?”
Mom’s eyes flared. “Sit down, Toby.”
The chest pain came back. “I don’t want to sit down!”
“Calm down.”
The crushing pain matched the expanding pain. “No!”
She slammed her hand on the table. “Sit!”
His backside hit the chair. No one, especially not his mother, ever spoke to him like that.
The pain slowly subsided.
She leaned forward. Her eyes narrowed, and her brogue grew thicker. “Ye carry — the Prime.”
Her expression shut his mouth. His hand found the warmth of the Amulet.
“Control yerself, or ye could hurt someone.” She stared deeper into his eyes. “Like Raymond.”
Toby’s mind raced. “You know about him?”
“He’s the Tester. It’s his job.”
“His - what?”
They all looked at the floor.
Was this some kind of group insanity? “What’s his job?”
“To see if ye can use the Prime.”
“It’s the only way,” Dad said.
“You know what he’s been doing to me?”
No one spoke.
Toby’s mind lost the power of thought.
He pulled out the Amulet.
Dad and Chase locked gaze on the sparkling glass.
Toby closed his hand and pulled the Amulet closer.
Chase turned pale and said nothing. He had to clear his throat. He looked out the window, then back to Toby, and said, “Now it’s your turn.”
He shook his head. “It was a dream!”
Dad shook his head. “The first night, ye were already asleep. I shook you. You opened yer eyes. I said, ‘It’s time.’ Ye nodded, and I shifted us to the Keeper’s room. Ye turned pale when we landed, and ye may have passed out.”
“What?”
“Like ye did a few years ago, remember? Ye had some stomach bug, throwing up bad, and he had that fainting spell. Doctor called it... vagal spells? Eyes rolled back, I caught ye, and sat ye in the chair. Ye came around in a second, so I left ye there with Lela. Ye was on the way to Teacher but a guard saw me.”
Toby played along. “Why is that bad?”
“The Ruling Council is...” Shaking his head, said. “A story for later. I shifted ye home, and ye got wobbly again. I helped ye down on yer bed. I thought being back in Dúnbarnaugh was too much for ye, but ye seemed better in a minute.”
Dad looked at Chase, who said, “The next night, I came into your room about 6am, so we’d be there in daylight. I asked if you were ready, and I thought you said sure. I got you to stand up, shifted, you staggered, and I helped you into the chair. When I shifted us back, you staggered again, so I helped you sit down. I don’t think you fainted.”
“Toby,” Mom said, “we thought ye knew what was going on. I’m so sorry.”
Toby sat in silence for a minute. He looked at Mom. “Dad and Chase are both this — Messenger thing?”
She looked down.
Neither Dad nor Chase would look Toby in the eye.
Mom said. “There is only Messenger at a time.”
“Who is it now?”
“The last one died nearly two centuries ago,” Dad said.
“And they’ve been trying ever since?”
Dad nodded.
“If everyone fails, why are they still trying? What makes you think I have a chance?”
“We won’t know until ye test,” Mom said.
Toby glanced between Dad and Chase.
Dad seemed proud. Chase fidgeted like his skin didn’t fit. “What if I don’t want to be — Messenger?”
“What?” Chase said.
“Chase,” Mom reached toward him.
He jerked his arm back. Chase pointed at Toby. “Not want... Are you insane?” Chase leaned closer to Toby and said in a jaw-clenched whisper, “I wanted nothing else–”
“Calm down,” Dad said.
Chase pointed at the Amulet, “I wanted it, even after Griffin...”
“What’s he talking about?”
“We don’t have time to explain everything. It’s your turn.”
“Wait. You say the guards are after you. Why?”
Dad said, “A couple of your cousins died–”
“Did didn’t...”
“No.” Dad didn’t speak for a second. “Just listen. Two died during testing. The first seemed an accident, but after the second, we suspected foul play. Then two cousins disappeared right before testing. Chase was next, but too young. We asked for permission to leave. I planned to use the Prime to sight shift us south. We’re told the weather is warmer and there is an ocean.”
“Ye don’t know?”
“No one has been there in centuries. The Council said no, so we came here to keep you safe, and they declared us outlaws.”
“Why?”
“They said we stole the Prime.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No. They confiscated everything and split it up among themselves. Even after Teacher proved we were not thieves, they couldn’t drop the charges and keep everything for themselves.”
Toby wondered why they’d want clothes and furniture, but said, “You just packed up moved here?”
“Not exactly,” Mom said.
Dad took in a slow, deep breath and searched for some words. “It’s been,” Mom and Dad exchanged a glance, “hard.”
Dad said, “We lived in a car for a while. A homeless shelter one winter. Many hotels—”
“But I did the training,” Chase said a sneer as he pounded his index finger into the table.
“Chase,” Mom said.
She reached out toward him, but he limped back, shook his head.
His eyes locked on the Amulet, Chase licked his lips, as if ready to pounce.
Toby moved the Amulet under the table.
Mom stepped in front of Chase. “Step back.”
For a tense second, no one breathed.
Chase blinked. He hung his head and sat over by the stairs.
Toby’s mind rang with questions.
They can’t expect him to believe this garbage.
“Dad, you’re saying we magically appeared here?”
“Not magically, but yes, from Conaeron.”
“No. Mom said a ‘d’ word.”
“Dúnbarnaugh is a city. Conaeron is a planet.”
Toby laughed. “Planet.”
“Yes.”
Toby rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say, Dad.”
“I’m serious.”
“We’re space aliens. Who came here with no money or anything?”
Dad became quiet.
“If we had no money, how did you get a car?”
Dad looked down at the table.
After an awkward silence, Mom said, “Ye was just a baby.”
“You... stole it? That’s why do we move so much?”
“No,” Mom said. “Well, part of it.”
“We’ve been hiding from the police?”
Now so much made sense. The frequent moves, Chase’s weird behavior in the car.
“I bought some fake papers for yer mother,” Dad said. “The plan was working pretty well, but then I got arrested again.”
Toby’s mind was blank.
“I escaped, and that’s when we changed names.”
“Changed... wait,” said Tobias Aeron Caldae Peoples. “My name’s not Toby?”
“Our family name is Caldae. Yer mother’s family name is Aeron.”
Mom said, “I liked the name Peoples because, well, we’re people.”
Mom leaned forward. “I used the papers to get that job in the government office. It took years, but I slowly created a paper trail for all of us. That’s how yer father got his job at the construction company, how Chase got into college, and why,” she raised her hands toward the ceiling, “we finally have a home.”
No. This is a joke.
Something started banging on the basement window; it was one of those stupid birds.
“That’s Hermes,” Dad said.
“It has a name?”
Dad nodded. “He’s not from around here.”
“You think?”
Dad’s expression told Toby to watch it.
“Sorry.” Toby looked at the insane bird and realized something. “What is it?”
“Not sure. It’s probably a bird, but it belongs to the One.”
Teacher mentioned something like that.
“Toby,” Dad said, “I know this is confusing, but it’s time for ye to test.”
“Wait.” Toby stood up and walked across the kitchen. He could not look at his parents. “Everyone, just wait.”
No.
He held the Amulet in his hand. The warmth, once so reassuring, now foreign. Strange.
He held out the Amulet. “I don’t want any of this.” When no one would take it, he let go.
The Amulet clanked on the table, and he walked away.
“Come back here.”
Toby kept walking.
“Ye have no choice!”
He spun around. “You can’t make me take stupid tests.”
“No one else can test until yer finished.”
“So?”
“It’s yer duty.”
“No.”
“Ye must.”
This was getting beyond stupid. “Then I’ll just fail.”
“Ye can’t do that either,” Mom said.
What?
She sighed. “Some Candidates didn’t try, but no one else could test until they gave their best effort.”
“Did they become Messenger?”
Mom looked at the table. “No.”
“Are you listening to yourselves?”
His parents looked down.
“I have school.”
They said nothing.
“Your cousins died.”
No answer.
“You don’t know who killed them?”
Dad gave a small shake of his head.
“I could die.”
Nothing.
“For a job I don’t want?”
Neither spoke.
Toby headed for the door.
“Come back here!” Dad said.
“Let him go,” Mom said.
***
The sound of their escalating discussion followed him up the stairs.
Toby had to clear his mind.
They lay out a stinking pile of garbage and he’s supposed to devour it like red velvet cake?
No one is that stupid.
He flopped on his bed, feeling incomplete. The feeling increased - like he’d been underwater too long.
He ignored the feeling.
Didn’t need some stupid broach.
His parent’s voices grew louder; they were in the living room now; his name filtered up repeatedly.
He heard Dad go into his bedroom. Something metallic clicked. Seconds later, something slammed, and Dad went back downstairs.
Toby turned to his electronic friends to drown out the yelling and intrusive thoughts.
He turned the volume louder.
Louder.
Ripped out his earbuds and focused on his computer screen...
Tried a video game and died on the first level - four times.
This is insane.
For a brief instant, just to clear his mind, he half wished that stupid trinket was with him.
He slid over in his bed, and something brushed his leg.
He jumped as if it were a hairy, red-legged spider. He grabbed a shoe to smash the offender, but the Amulet flashed in the lamplight.
He picked it up and looked around the room.
He opened his door. “Dad!”
Chase walked out of his bedroom. “Quiet, doofus.”
“I said I don’t want this thing.” He extended his hand toward Chase.
Chase’s face became a mixture of emotions.
He hesitated, licked his lips, and reached out with shaking hands.
“Chase,” Dad gave a slight shake of the head.
For a moment, it looked like Chase would snatch the Amulet, but he let his arms fall to his side.
Toby tried to hand the Amulet to Dad and noticed how both men looked at the Amulet. For Chase, it was like looking at the girl who broke his heart yesterday. Dad’s look was older, nostalgic: she broke his heart, but long ago.
“Not bad,” Dad said.
“What?”
“I put the Amulet in the safe.”
“Then how did it get in here?”
Toby heard his tone. He was pushing it, but he couldn’t stop himself.
“Ye called it.”
“Right.”
“It’s one test. One of the most important.”
Every fiber of his mind screamed, ‘Enough!’ “Take it.”
Dad didn’t move.
He cocked his arm and aimed, “Or I’ll throw it out the window.”
His father said nothing. With teeth clenched and nostrils flaring, he took the Amulet and walked out of the room.
Mom and Dad argued again.