Jacob leaned back from the table and patted his stomach, completely satisfied for the first time in days. And not only because he’d just eaten a delicious meal, but also because he was back home, with all the people he loved most. He sighed. Everyone—the entire group—was waiting in the next room.
“Ready, son?” Dad asked from the kitchen doorway.
Jacob nodded.
“All right. Let’s get the meeting started.”
After Jacob escaped the fortress, Mom and Ebony insisted that Akeno shrink Jacob and put him in a Minya container. It took him a little over a day to heal. He’d only been awake for an hour, and everyone had been hanging around, impatiently waiting to hear what had happened.
Apparently, Early was unable to deliver messages once Jacob got the window worked out of its frame. He’d kept her too busy. Jacob felt bad—his family must’ve gone completely crazy with worry. He could only imagine how stressful it had been for them—unable to do anything, not knowing what was going on.
And speaking of Early—he hadn’t seen her since coming back. How was she? Where had she gone? Probably off to take a break from being ordered around. He smiled to himself. The poor Minya.
He got up from the table and entered the living room, aware of all eyes on him. He felt a flush race across his cheeks and took his seat next to Dad and Mom.
“Start from where you were separated from the group,” Dad said.
Jacob explained being knocked unconscious and Keitus trying to force him to find the Key of Ayunli. He briefly described escaping. Aloren interrupted to say he was crazy for going back to get his sword, but Dad laughed. He’d have done the same thing. Jacob then filled them in on everything he’d learned, deciding not to tell them he’d almost joined Keitus.
Mom gasped when she heard about Keitus trying to turn Jacob into a Lorkon. “We would never have known!”
The Fat Lady, who had been quiet up until this point, nodded. “The process is very painful and takes a long time.” She looked at Kenji and Brojan. “It’s a good thing both of you had the idea to put Rezend in him. Sounds like that really fouled Keitus’s plans.”
Brojan nodded. “Yes, it’s a huge relief to know this, actually.”
Jacob glanced at his dad. “Is it all right if I ask a bunch of questions?”
“Of course. And we’ll answer the ones we can.”
“Azuriah said I inherited things that didn’t come from Rezend or the Lorkon. What did he mean?”
Dad laughed. “You ask the question we can’t answer without permission from Azuriah.” He settled into his chair. “What did he tell you?”
“That the abilities were more pure, more intelligent or something.”
Dad nodded. “And he’s right. We can’t expand beyond that, however. You’ll have to wait until Azuriah deems it appropriate for you to know.”
Jacob rolled his eyes. “Which means I might not ever find out. He’s super, super temperamental.”
“Yes, he can be difficult—but you’ll get used to that. I’m sure he plans to teach you everything eventually. Next question?”
“What happens now with the Shiengols?”
Aldo motioned out the window with his hand. “They’ve already left to recruit more of their kind from the other parts of Eklaron. They plan to come back and help us fix things here.”
“Not Azuriah, though,” Mom said to Jacob. “He’s going to be training you when he returns.”
Jacob wrinkled his nose. He wasn’t sure he’d enjoy those training sessions. “Oh, speaking of recruiting, have we heard from the Wurbies yet?”
Gallus shook his head. “No, not yet. We’ll touch bases with Fubble over the next few days.”
“And what happens now? With the Lorkon?” Jacob hesitated. “Do you think they’ll keep trying to get at me?”
Mom took a long breath. “We’ve been worried about this.”
“The short answer is yes,” Ebony said. “We feel Keitus was bluffing about destroying you.”
Jacob snorted. “He sure made it believable.”
“Well, of course he would. He needed you to think he was telling the truth.”
“The point is,” the Fat Lady said, “until Keitus gets his hands on the Key of Ayunli or Key of Kilenya—both of which require your help—he’s pretty much stuck.”
“Unless he finds a way to get the Key of Ayunli without Jacob,” Aloren said quietly.
Jacob shivered at that thought. “Is that a possibility?”
Aldo nodded. “Of course. I was unsuccessful at finding the key, but that doesn’t mean Keitus will be. For all we know, he has access to a lot more information than we do.”
Jacob rubbed his face. “Okay, what happens now?”
“We prepare to defend ourselves—the Lorkon are on the offense, and they’re not going to wait for us. They’ll do everything they can to move forward with their plans.”
Dad made a steeple with his fingers, tapping them on each other. “We need to figure out what our plan will be.”
Aldo nodded. “Azuriah’s instructions were explicit. Jacob must finish learning his abilities. He’ll have to act as spy for us, and if he isn’t in complete control, he’ll put all of us in unnecessary danger.” He smiled apologetically at Jacob, then continued. “Also, we need to find out what’s going on in Fornchall. We can save that topic for a later time.” He turned to Dad. “Have we discussed everything on the agenda?”
“Yes, we’re about finished here.”
“Good. ‘Cause it’s about time I got home.”
Dad chuckled. “What’s left of your home, you mean?”
“Oh, no. I’ve moved into the Makalos’ farming area to oversee the humans there. Many of them will be ready soon for the upcoming war.”
Aloren wrinkled her nose. “And we’re sure there has to be one?”
Gallus knitted his eyebrows, looking at Aloren. “Not unless you can see another way to get rid of the Lorkon.”
She shook her head. “No, not really.”
“The Lorkon won’t go away peacefully. I’m afraid things will be ugly.”
Dad took a deep breath. “Well, this meeting is adjourned. Jacob, go ahead and take everyone home.”
Jacob stood up, motioning for the rest to follow. He took Gallus and the Fat Lady back first, then Aldo and the Makalos. He was about to return home when Kenji stopped him.
“Ebony and I need to talk to you about something.”
“Oh? Okay.”
Jacob looked at Kenji, but couldn’t tell by the Makalo’s emotion colors what he was thinking. He keyed them from the tree to their house. It was dark inside and Kenji touched the wall, lighting up the stream of silver in the stone. The Makalos motioned for Jacob to have a seat at the table. They joined him, colors finally starting to swirl around them. They were nervous. Why?
Kenji leaned forward, clasping his hands. “We’ve spent a great deal of time over the past little while discussing something with Early.”
Jacob raised an eyebrow. “Yeah?”
“We were hesitant to bring it up with you at first, knowing how your father feels about Minyas, but Early was very insistent.”
Ebony laughed. “And persuasive.”
“How does my father feel about Minyas?”
“He doesn’t like them,” Ebony said, “and they don’t like him. Anyway, she doesn’t want to belong to the Makalos anymore. She wants you to be her owner now.”
Jacob’s mouth popped open. “Really?”
Kenji nodded. “And once a Minya has chosen an owner, you can’t change their mind.”
Ebony hurriedly put her hand on Jacob’s arm, and her words rushed out. “Do you want to keep her? You don’t have to if you don’t want to. We told her not to expect anything. And she won’t be too much of a bother—we made her promise not to annoy you—”
“Of course I want to keep her! It would be so awesome! How cool!”
Ebony’s eyes widened. “Really?”
“Yeah! I mean, she’s been like my best friend for the past several days and all. I wouldn’t have survived if it hadn’t been for her.”
“So, that settles it, then,” Kenji said. A grin spread across his face. “She’s yours to keep.”
Just then, something zipped through the air so fast, Jacob wasn’t sure what it was until it hit him in the side of the head. Early, of course.
“Oh, Jacob!” she said. “Thank you, thank you! I have a new owner! I get to stay with you forever!”
Jacob beamed at her exuberance. He could see her extreme colors of happiness out of the corner of his eye as the Minya hugged his face.
She stopped. “I’m gonna go tell September. He didn’t think you’d want me!” With a flash, she disappeared.
Jacob laughed. “Wow.”
He couldn’t believe his luck—he had his very own Minya!
Kenji and Ebony grinned.
Jacob stopped smiling, realizing something. He couldn’t take care of another pet—Tito and the chickens were hard enough as it was. “What does this mean, though?” he asked. “How do I take care of her?”
Kenji shrugged. “It’s not hard. She’ll feed and entertain herself. It just means she most likely won’t answer so quickly when we call for her, but that she’ll check up on you all the time—it might even get annoying with how frequently.” He stood. “Like Aloren’s Hazel, Early may choose to have a permanent Minya container placed in your room for her to sleep in. She’ll go everywhere with you, unless she wants to do something else.”
Jacob nodded, his smile broadening again.
Early flitted back to him and nestled in his hair. Kenji chuckled, and Ebony gave Jacob a hug goodbye. Jacob let himself out, deciding to walk to the tree and key home from there.