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What? “But Mom’s-”
“Ye must go.”
“I can’t leave now.
“It’s decided.”
“But-”
Toby had plenty to say, but the officer came out, followed by a crew of two men and a woman in plastic coveralls, gloves, and shoe covers.
“Hope your wife will be okay,” said the officer.
“Thank you.”
Dad entered the kitchen. Blood on the floor. Gouges in the sheetrock. Red fingerprint dust on every knob and surface.
Dad walked past all that, up the stairs and into Toby’s room. He dumped out Toby’s school backpack. A book bounced on the bed; papers fluttered to the floor.
“Hey.”
“You won’t need that stuff.”
Dad started stuffing clothes into the bag.
“Wait.”
Dad kept packing.
“You have a criminal record. They’ll find you escaped.”
Dad shook his head. “The fingerprints on file are not mine.”
“How?”
“I don’t have time to explain everything.”
“Please?”
He sighed. “I discovered we are not the only people here from Conaeron. I found a man with connections, and, for a lot of money, he made my fingerprints go away.”
“He’s a criminal.”
His jaw muscled clenched several times. “Time to go.”
Chase limped up the hall.
Toby pointed at his brother. “How can you want me to go after what happened to Chase?”
“Now, son.”
“Answer me.”
“Ye have to trust me.”
Toby locked eyes with his father, whose eyes were welling up.
Toby wanted to scream.
Dad said, “If the Prime is here, the attackers will come back. Without yer mother here, we will die.”
“Then I should stay.”
“You’d be dead in seconds. If the Prime is in Dúnbarnaugh, they will leave us alone.”
“How do you know that?”
Dad handed Toby his book bag. “I don’t.”
“Dad.”
“Time to go.”
Toby searched his father’s face, looking for some weakness in his resolve.
“Now.”
He pulled the Amulet out of his pocket. “How do I make this–thing–work?”
Chase stared at the Amulet again.
Dad handed Toby a chain that looked like the same metal as the Amulet. “This might make it easier.”
Dad slipped the Prime on the chain.
“There is no clasp,” Toby said.
“Put the chain around yer neck and touch the ends together.”
Toby did, and the chain became continuous.
Dad breathed a sigh of relief.
“What?”
“If the chain hadn’t closed, ye don’t test. If it ever opens, yer done.”
Toby wanted to ask why they hadn’t done that first, but he was reeling.
Dad said, “To shift, focus your thoughts on the diamond.”
“Diamond?”
Dad pointed at the green, blue, red, and yellow stones. “Emerald, Sapphire, Ruby, Diamond. We’re told the base is part alloy, part amalgam, of several metals laid down in harder and softer layers. Feels warm, right?”
“Yeah.”
“It always does.
“Why?”
“No one knows. Concentrate on the diamond and think of the place ye want to be.”
“That’s it?”
“Be specific. When and where ye want to land? Picture the place like a photograph in yer mind, so ye don’t materialize into the middle of something.”
“That sounds painful.”
Chase rubbed that weird oval scar on his left arm.
“Ye also don’t want two of ye in the same dimension at the same time.”
“Why?”
“The last guy died, and no, we don’t know why.”
“If this amulet is so important, and that stupid bird wants it, why did I find it in a mud puddle?”
“I put it there,” said Dad.
Toby waited for some explanation.
“It can’t be a gift,” Chase said. “Only proper candidates will hear the Call and seek it out. I messed with your alarm clock so you’d missed the bus.”
Dad said, “I placed the Amulet at the construction site before ye arrived, and I waited to make sure nothing else came along.”
“Like that stupid bird?”
Dad only nodded.
“You saw it come after me?”
“I couldn’t intervene. If ye can’t protect the Amulet from a bird, ye shouldn’t test for Messenger.”
“I don’t want to test at all.”
Dad’s expression didn’t budge.
“What if the bird stole it?”
“I would have called it back, like ye did at the hospital.”
Toby looked at the Amulet, and he found another question. “If I need the Amulet to travel–”
“It’s called shifting, and when ye get there, ye will notice some changes. Anything synthetic either won’t shift or gets changed.”
“Changed into what?”
“Well,” he picked up the book bag, “this nylon will be cloth or leather.”
“Anything else?”
“Ye’ll see. Ye landed in the room with lots of weapons. It’s the Keeper’s Room.”
“Okay.”
“Ye were born there.”
Confused again.
“Lela is Keeper of Arms. That room is the Keeper’s room in Dúnbarnaugh Castle. Yer mother was Keeper, went into labor, thought she had some time, and ye were in a hurry.”
Toby tried not to imagine too much else.
“Being Keeper means what again?”
“She graduated from the Keeper’s school, became one of the top troopers, and earned the Tri-knot.”
“What’s that?”
“Kind of like a Ranger patch in the Army. When the current Keeper dies or retires, they tap the top five Tri-knots to compete. The Keeper commands the Keeper’s Guard, goes on missions and trains Messenger Candidates.”
“Train for what?”
“Battle.”
“Mom is a warrior?”
“One of the very best.”
“When I shot Raymond, I had terrible chest pains.”
“It’s part of the red and blue beams. We don’t know why.”
“The first time Raymond... tested me, I had chest pain then, too.”
“He had the Prime in his pocket.”
The three grew quiet.
“Time to go.”
“But-”
He shook his head. “Now. Yer mother is even more vulnerable now.”
Toby nodded. Get this over with, come home, and get back to normal.
Normal. What did that even mean?
“Be careful.” Dad hugged Toby for the first time in many years.
Toby surprised himself as he hugged back. He felt his eyes grow warm but quickly thought of other things.
“Good luck,” Chase said and shook his hand.
Toby nodded to his brother, picked up his bag, and concentrated on the one place he knew the best. He put his hand to the Amulet, focused on the diamond, and closed his eyes.
The image of Lela’s room; him standing by the big chair, candles, and tapestry. Night.
Wait. Was it day or night the last time?
Day time.
He focused.
Nothing happened.
“Don’t hold your breath,” Chase said.
He peeked at the Amulet and wondered what...