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They sat in the squad car, and the officer cleared his throat.
“There is no easy way to say this, but something happened to your mother. She’s in the hospital and I am going to take you there now.”
“What happened?”
“We’re not sure, but we think someone broke into your house.”
“Is she okay?”
The officer didn’t answer.
“Will she be okay?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is she alive?”
“That’s what I heard.”
The ride was both slow and a blur. The officer asked dozens of questions: did Mom have enemies, problems with the marriage, financial trouble. Was Dad a drinker. Did Chase do drugs?
***
Toby and his family had driven past the hospital a few times, so why did it look like a large headstone today?
The officer chose a parking space; Toby jumped out but didn’t know where to go.
He followed the officer through the maze of corridors.
Without a word, they waited for the elevator, then stepped inside.
Toby glanced at the officer’s gun several times.
The officer put his hand on the gun. “Is there a problem?”
“Um, no.” He looked away. “No, sir.”
The door opened, and the officer walked up the hall, crowded with workers, visitors, and patients.
Toby found a sign: Surgical Waiting Room. The arrow pointed up the hall.
Chase was walking into the waiting room. Dad was by himself on the other side of the room. Toby walked across the room; he wanted to run into his dad’s arms like when he was three.
“Anything?” Chase said.
Dad shook his head. “She’s still in surgery. One nurse said things were going as expected.”
Toby nodded, as if that meant something. The three of them looked at each other for a moment and sat down.
Officer Singletary came back. “Excuse me. The detectives asked me to follow up on some questions.”
Dad nodded.
“Who found her?”
“I did,” Chase said.
“Did she say anything?”
He shook his head.
Toby watched Chase’s eyes. He only does his ‘I’m cool’ act when he’s hiding something.
“Try to remember. Anything might be helpful.”
“She sent me to the store.”
“Can you prove it?”
“You think I did this?” Chase said. Toby could tell he was acting.
“Just doing my job.”
Dad said, “The receipt?”
Chase nodded. He pulled the receipt from his wallet. “I checked out at,” he pointed, “at 9:33. It takes ten minutes to get home. I found her and called 911.”
The officer said, “At 10:34. Anything else?”
“I tried to stop the bleeding, and the ambulance got there seconds before the police.”
The officer waited as if he was expecting Chase to say more.
Chase’s expression didn’t change, but he smelled nervous.
The cop to Dad. “Do you know of anyone who might want to hurt her?”
“No, sir,” in his American accent, now more southern than Toby remembered.
“Anything taken?”
“I haven’t looked yet.”
“Our crime scene team has found a safe in one bedroom. Whose room is that?”
“Mine. Jennifer and mine.”
Toby watched his father. Before yesterday, Toby had seen nothing suspicious, but now Toby could tell; Dad was hiding in plain sight.
“The intruder didn’t get the safe open, but it looks like they tried to pry it open with something heavy. The lab team also found blood in the gouges.”
As if they used the same weapon on Mom.
Dad looked at the floor.
The officer sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean... Any idea what they were after?”
“That’s our fire safe. Important papers, but that’s all.”
The officer looked down to make some notes. Toby looked at Dad, hoping to get a clue. Dad narrowed his eyes and shook his head.
“I can show you the contents.”
The officer nodded as he rechecked his notes.
“Is our house still a... What do you call it?”
“A crime scene?”
Dad winced. “Right. When can we go back home?”
“The team should finish soon.”
Dad nodded, and Toby shivered.
The officer stood up. “We have you cell number. We’ll call when you can go back in.”
They watched the officer go, and after a moment, Dad stood up and motioned for the boys to follow to a quiet corner of a hallway.
Back in his native accent, “There is no way someone jumped yer mother.”
“Why not?” Toby said.
“I can’t explain now, but trust me, very few people could attack her and live.”
What?
Dad leaned closer to Chase and said, “There are only two Travel Amulets/”
Chase nodded, “And Raymond has the other.”
The two of them looked at each other, wide-eyed.
“What are you talking about?”
“Not now.”
Toby snorted and walked back into the waiting room. Let them have their little secret code and stupid stuff.
He pictured his mother lying on the kitchen floor. His eyes burned again.
“Hey,” said a voice next to him.
Toby looked up and jumped to his feet. “What...”
Raymond was looking at Dad and Chase.
Toby hissed. “Get out of here!”
Dad and Chase greeted Raymond like a family friend. The three of them sat together and started talking in hushed tones.
Toby stood, mouth agape. If they thought he would sit with that piece of filth, especially today-
“Toby, sit down,” Dad said.
“But...”
“Sit - down.”
The three of them started their hushed tones again.
Toby chose a chair across the room. The three of them were nodding and mumbling.
Raymond reached his stubby fingers into his pocket and pulled out a small, cross-shaped, pendant-looking thing, about the size of a dollar coin with a sparkling yellow stone in the center.
“Lela and Father had it this morning,” Raymond said. “They are trying to make another.”
“Success?” Dad asked.
Raymond shook his head. “What happened?”
***
A few minutes later, a doctor came in and spoke about too many words, but Toby understood one: ‘stable.’
They sat in silence for a moment.
Dad said, “Toby, call the Prime.”
“What?”
“Quickly.”
Toby’s mind was blank.
“Now.”
Toby sat back. His thoughts came in clusters, flying so fast he only perceived a part of each one. He thought about Mom, school, Raymond.
“Concentrate.”
Toby closed his eyes and shook his head. He thought of the Amulet, the warmth, the heft, the flash of the stones, and he wondered how to call...
His pocket grew heavy.
Eyes wide, he reached-.
Dad grabbed his arm, “Leave it.”
Dad and Chase stood up and walked toward the door. The three walked through the hospital with Chase bringing up the rear. Toby looked around to see if Raymond was joining them. “Where’s Raymond?”
“Keep walking.”
Mind a blur. Nothing made sense, but too many things fit together.
Now in the car, Dad said, “Raymond shifted back to Dúnbarnaugh. Sorry to keep snapping at ye like that.”
Dad pulled out of the parking lot and into traffic, and they rode toward home in silence; Toby looked out the window, more confused than ever. At some point, he realized Dad and Chase were talking.
Dad asked Chase, “Did she say anything?”
“Her attacker wore a mask and used a sword. Mom could barely speak, but the attacker demanded the Prime.”
Toby felt his chest freeze. His hand slipped into his pocket and gripped the warmth. “They attacked Mom because of this?”
Chase said to Dad, “You think the One is here?”
Dad shook his head. “He’d leave charred husks everywhere.”
“What are you talking about?”
Dad said to Chase, “You ever heard of another travel amulet?”
Chase shook his head.
“That thing Raymond had?”
Dad nodded.
“How many amulets are there?”
“Several.”
Toby tried to absorb this nightmare.
“Raymond’s amulet, well, it isn’t his. It comes with the job. The Prime is also a travel amulet, but with many other functions.”
Toby nodded, but it was all far too much, way too fast.
Dad continued, “With a travel amulet, people can shift between dimensions or in the same dimension.”
“I can shift here?”
“Stop!” said Dad and Chase.
“What?”
“Be careful,” Chase said.
Dad looked at Toby through the rearview. “If ye think about someplace in the right way, ye will go there.”
Toby edited the Grand Canyon from his mind.
“I know ye have questions, but ye need to know about the One.”
Toby’s mind grew quiet.
“I don’t have time to tell everything. We have conflicting stories and someone stole or burned all the important books. There was a king to the north. He tried to make an amulet, maybe another Prime, but something went wrong, making him evil. Grotesque.”
Dad stopped for a second. “It calls itself the One. It attacked over two centuries ago, killed their Teacher, Keeper, and King. It nearly destroyed everything, and the last Messenger, yer multi-great grandfather Tobias, sacrificed himself to stop it.”
So that’s why Lela and Teacher acted so weird about his name. “Lela said something about the One attacking every night.”
“Those blasts you heard the first night.”
“When Tobias sacrificed himself,” Chase said, “he created the Barrier. The One can’t cross it or destroy it, so he attacks every night.”
“For two centuries?”
Dad stopped the car for a red light and sat perfectly straight. After a moment, he casually adjusted the rearview mirror.
Toby turned around when Dad said, “Don’t.”
Toby froze in his seat, but his gaze darted back and forth.
“What is it?”
“Unmarked police car,” Chase said. He looked off to the right like everything was so cool.
The traffic light turned green, and as always, Dad gently sped up to his usual four mph below the posted speed limit.
Neither Dad nor Chase acted differently nor looked scared, but Toby could smell fear.
The police car passed, and the tension melted.
“How did you know?” Toby asked his brother.
“The driver looked around like a hunter. You need to learn how to look relaxed.”
Has it always been this way?
They rolled past the once ordinary scenery: houses, a strip mall, a bank, a couple of service stations. People doing everyday things, all blissfully unaware...
“Do ye have questions?” Dad asked.
Millions, but Toby didn’t know where to start.
“Can many people,” he searched for the right word, “hear it?”
“No.”
“Can you?”
They both gave a slight nod.
“Now?”
They nodded.
“Must be weird.”
Neither answered. Chase’s sullen expression grew darker.
“A few can create a small beam,” Dad said. “My first try was weak, but Chase nearly put his Tester in the hospital.”
“Raymond?”
Dad said no. Chase clenched his teeth.
“Did I say something wrong?”
Dad shook his head.
Chase looked out the window.
“Ye will go to Dúnbarnaugh,” Dad said, “and start several months of training.”
Training? “Wait. Months?”
“Yes.”
“What about school?”
“Don’t worry about that.”
“I don’t graduate?”
“Don’t worry about that now.”
“Okay. What happens next?”
“Ye will take many tests, but three are most important. If you pass, you will be Messenger.”
“Which means?”
“Many things, but ye will use the Orb to receive messages.”
He remembered that golden floating ball with lethal-looking blades.
“Messages? Who sends the messages?”
Dad turned a corner and drove into their subdivision. “No one knows.”
“What do you know?”
“I know this is all new, but watch the tone.”
“What are the three tests?”
Dad and Chase shared a look.
“We can’t say,” Chase said. “Yours might be different, and ye don’t talk about the tests with anyone. Ever.”
Dad pulled into their driveway. “I think that’s enough for one night. Teacher will explain the rest.”
A small strip of crime scene tape hung from the garage door frame. Toby could see more of the yellow stuff hanging out of the garage.
That police officer came out of the garage.
Were they caught already?
Dad dropped back into the character of ‘ordinary man with sick wife.’
He shook the officer’s hand.
Toby did his best to look like a worried kid, not the son of fugitives wanted on two planets.
“We’re just finishing up,” said the officer, and he went back inside.
Dad turned around, “Toby, if yer mother isn’t safe here, no one is.” Dad took a moment; his eyes never wavered. “Ye have to go. Now.”