Chapter Twenty-One
John
Crayton leads us to the forest again, near a lake somewhere halfway to West Virginia. We've set our camp site near the lake shore for about thirty minutes, and since then Nine, Meredith and the Cêpans began talking about battle strategies whereas Ella, Marina, Cole and the Chimæras were training. Cole is sparring with Marina, laughing their heads off as they hit each other playfully. At one time, I saw Cole kiss Marina full on the lips, but they reminded me too much of the times Six and I practiced that I had to look away. Cole and Marina were bonded to each other, as their pendants transformed about an hour after Six was taken.
I, however, was sulking near the edge of the lake, hugging my knees with Six's Chest beside me, shut off to the rest of the world. Night was coming; the sky was a shade of dark blue colliding with a little bright orange, with few of the stars peeking out. I stare wistfully at my reflection on the clear, glassy surface of the lake. I feel like a dead man. Six is only taken from me for five and a half hours, yet I feel like it's been a lifetime. I haven't spoken since we left the motel. I was in the news from the radio in the car after that, where the reporter said, and I quote, "successfully killing the inn keeper, blowing up two cars, killing three people in the process. The people who survived the accident were taken into the asylum, since they tried to convince the police that there was a whirlpool rising up to the sky from the motel". I mostly kept to myself when we drove here, keeping Six's Chest close to me. It's the only thing left, aside from my premonitions, that keeps me reassured that she's still alive. So here I am, feeling empty without her by my side. I want to hold her hand, feel the warmth of her body pressed against mine. I want to caress her cheeks with my lips while she plays with our interlocked fingers. But I know that the only way for my daydreams to come true is not to think negative and save her.
"What are you looking at?" someone asks, and the shift of pebbles and rocks fill my ears. Ella squats beside me, three puppies by her side. She looks at me questioningly, and then follows my gaze at the water. "Nothing. It's just that, what if we don't get there in time? What if she dies?" I say miserably, not looking at Ella because it reminds me too much of Six's soft side. I clutch my head in my hands in a desperate gesture. Ella pats my shoulder reassuringly. You can call me "over-reacting" but who wouldn't worry this much about the one you love if you knew they were in the midst of danger?
"We'll get her back, Four. But you know, you shouldn't give up hope. At least, Six wouldn't, if it was you who was kidnapped," Ella says encouragingly, rubbing a puppy's belly. An old memory resurfaces in my malfunctioning brain, something about what Henri had said about hope. There is always hope, John, he seems to say in my mind, No. Don't just give up hope yet. It's the last thing to go. When you have lost hope, you have lost everything. And when you think all is lost, when all is dire and bleak, there is always hope.
"Papa wants to talk to you, but if you don't want to, then I'll just tell him," Ella says, and whistles softly as she walks away, the puppies jogging in her wake. I sigh and pick up a pebble from the shore with telekinesis, throwing across the surface of the lake. It bounces off the surface about six times before sinking under the water. With one last look at the lake, which was now active with little waves on the surface, I walk over to where Crayton sits.
"John, in your Chest, do you have a little gem that looks like an amber rain drop?" he asks the minute he hears my footfalls. In fact I do have one, but I don't know why he'd want to use it. Besides, it affects only me, like the things in Six's Chest are. I summon my Chest with telekinesis, floating towards me in the air. Bernie Kosar and Elizabeth were fighting over something I can't see. Nine, Meredith and Rebecca were talking, huddled in a circle. Cole and Marina, along with Ella and the Chimæra family, are sparring in the field. As the Chest floats into my hands, I unlock it and hold up the stone Crayton was telling me about. He doesn't touch it though. "That's called 'Oniro'. For Lorics with the Legacy of Premonition and Telepathy, this is a common stone to them. They use it for sending messages to others, particularly in dream form for future-seeing Lorics and in thought form for the telepaths. But you and the receiver of the message should be asleep at the same time for the connection to remain intact since you have the Legacy of Premonition. If you or the other wakes up, the connection with be severed," he says. I let everything he said sink in, and nod for him to continue. Rebecca walks over to us and says, "He means that if you and Six fall asleep at the same time, you'll make a connection and will be able to send messages to each other." It's the first time I heard her speak to me since Nick's death. I now ponder at the thought, wondering if there was something between them none of us knew.
"Well, obviously you guys are up to something, so what will I tell her?" I say. Meredith and Nine are practice-fighting alongside Marina and, to my surprise, Ella. She's swift, bouncing lightly on the balls of her feet, her hair flipping as she lunged at Marina, reminding me so much of—
The impact of seeing Ella spar with Marina hits me hard in the chest. One moment, it was Ella I was seeing, and then it was Six, with her golden curls tied neatly in a ponytail. I mentally shake my head and focus on the ground while I listen to whatever Crayton was explaining.
So, our plan is to travel all the way to West Virginia under a flag of truce. Crayton says that whenever there's a flag of truce, Mogadorians accept only one into their turf. I'm going to be the one who goes in and comes out with three others, with a force field-powered Xitharis in my pocket. The purpose of the dream-messaging is that I have to tell Six that she will have to stall the Mogadorians until we get there. After that, when I'm in their territory, I have to convince Setrákus to release Six, Sam and Malcolm. Once he does that, though I doubt he will, I'll use Meredith's force field to bust us out of there. The plan sounds so prefect yet a hundred million things can go wrong, maybe all at once, considering the vision of Six and the death ball…
"Crayton, what do I do about that damned stone? There's a hundred percent chance that the stone will be near, if not, on top of Six to keep her weak," I say.
"Do you remember the cylinder they kept it in?" Rebecca asks, and I nod. A slight shiver runs down the entire length of my body as a gust of wind blows past, and I wish Six was here to warm the temperature up. I nod my head in agreement and Rebecca continues, "That cylinder is made from a material found in Mogadore. It's like solid Loricyde. Nothing here on Earth, or on Lorien, can penetrate it. As it blocks from the outside, it also blocks from within, which means that the stone should be inside the cylinder when you're there in order to block its powers."
"Okay, is there anything else?" I ask. Crayton tosses me a sleeping bag and replies, "Start sleeping. Focus your thoughts to Six, like you're sending them to her. You'll be able to send her a message by then, if we have the luck." I walk away with the sleeping bag slung over my shoulder. This is the same sleeping bag Six and I shared what seems like a lifetime ago, as I can smell her scent on the fabric. I pick a spot on the forest floor and clutch the Onrio tightly in my fist. As I slip inside, my thoughts wander to Six. I pull my phone out of my pocket and look at the time on the screen. It read 7:30. I think that the odds aren't exactly in my favor today. Don't give up hope, I tell myself, but I'm beginning to worry that she isn't asleep at this time, given that it's still early and the Mogs might be torturing her…
I shake my head and think about her beautiful smiling face, as Crayton had instructed me to do. After that I yawn and close my eyes, feeling myself drift away as soon as I lose consciousness. I'm floating, so to speak. It feel like the times Henri used the Loric Crystal to spread the Lumen from my hands to every part of my body. In the dream, I open my eyes and find myself in darkness. It wasn't a vision; I can feel it. I walk around, looking for any signs of Six in my dream. As I take another step, I feel myself get whisked away by something fast and powerful. I'm travelling by the speed of light, and before I know it, I'm back on Lorien. Like my visions before, the familiar blue sky was there, spotless of clouds. The bright grass here reaches up to my knees. The wind picks up again, and this time it brings along a beautiful girl with Caucasian skin and curly blond hair. She looks up at me with her curious, electric blue eyes that widen in an instant.
"John?" Six asks.
It worked. I guess the odds are in my favor after all.