The Book of Sight Read online

  “I know,” said Alex. “But we really need to talk somewhere else.”

  “Why is this…”

  “Listen,” Adam interrupted her. “If Alex has a feeling about this, we should listen to her. Remember what happened when I went after the sword. It’s better to be safe than sorry.”

  Sorry about what? thought Eve, but she didn’t make any more objections. Her house was only about three blocks away, and there was no good reason for refusing to go there that didn’t make her sound like a spoiled brat. They had traded basic information about their families, but no one had gone into much detail, so there was no way for anyone to know what they were dealing with when it came to her mom. Oh well, she internally shrugged. It’s not like this would be the first time she had to talk her way around her mom. And hey, maybe she’d get lucky and her mom would be out running errands or something.

  • • • • •

  Eve didn’t get lucky.

  Not only was her mom home, but she was out front, watering her roses (perfect nozzle set to the perfect spray at the perfect distance) and watching them as they walked up the street.

  “Well, hello there,” she said in a cheery voice that didn’t deceive Eve a bit. “I thought you kids were going to be rehearsing again this morning.”

  “We are,” said Eve, hoping desperately that none of the other kids felt the need to speak up, “but Adam’s mom wasn’t going to be home, so we decided to come over here and do it. We’ll just be in my room and won’t bother anyone.”

  “Of course you won’t! But you don’t need to hide away, either. I’d enjoy watching you work on your little play.”

  “Come on, Mom, we don’t really want an audience yet.”

  “I don’t think I really count as an audience.”

  “You would if you were watching us.”

  Eve saw that dangerous flicker in her mom’s eyes at the tone of her voice, but she was still keeping the kind, motherly smile in place for the benefit of the other kids.

  “I’d be real quiet, you know.”

  “It’s just that some of us are kind of shy, Mrs. Sloane,” said Adam suddenly. “We might be too self-conscious to make much progress with someone watching, until we’re more ready, you know?”

  Eve didn’t think she’d ever been so surprised and grateful at the same time.

  “Of course, dear, of course.” Her mom looked like a dog who had been denied a bone. “I won’t tease any more. You kids just run upstairs then. But wouldn’t you like some lemonade or snacks or something before you get started?”

  “No, thank you,” they all repeated.

  “All right then, but you take a break after awhile and we’ll reconsider the snacks, okay?”

  With a few mumbled assents, they finally made their escape. In Eve’s room, the others immediately turned to her, questions on their faces. Well, this was inevitable. Anyway, it wasn’t like she was the first person who ever lied to her mother. Once they got to know her, they’d understand perfectly. The sweet friendly mom act wouldn’t hold up for five seconds if she knew what they were doing.

  “So what exactly are we supposed to be rehearsing?” asked Adam.

  “I know, I know, right? But after I introduced you guys that first day and we went to see the Gylf, she wouldn’t let up with the questions. How did I meet you guys, who you were, and what we were doing all day. I tried to be vague, but once she’s onto something, she can be relentless. I think…okay it’s a little embarrassing, but we are boy-girl, boy-girl, you know? I think she was worried it was some sort of dating thing. Anyway, I knew I was going to have to come up with something good, and the truth was clearly not going to fly. I told you how she reacted to the book in the first place, and if I told her the rest she’d probably have me locked up or something. She’s not exactly what you’d call open-minded.” Eve realized that she was talking too much and too fast, so she took a deep breath. “So, yeah, I told her that you guys had been in the drama groups in middle school and that there was a special play that Mrs. Harris (she’s the drama teacher at Dunmore High) wanted the four of us to do at the start of school and we’d be rehearsing it this summer. I know it sounds lame, but it had to be something that would explain why I didn’t really know anything about you guys, but we were still going to spend so much time together. Anyway, thanks for not blowing my cover.”

  “It’s all right,” shrugged Adam. “I know how it is. My mom can be a head case sometimes, too.”

  Eve was relieved that no one was going to get self-righteous about it. She hadn’t realized until now how much she wanted them to think well of her, and she hated the sound of the nervous giggle that came out of her mouth. “You can be glad you don’t have a mom to worry about, Alex.”

  As soon as she said it, she realized what an awful thing it was to say. “Oh Alex, I’m sorry. I didn’t…”

  “I know,” Alex stopped her. “I know you didn’t mean that. But for the record, it’s not true. A crazy mom is a lot better than no mom at all.”

  “Of course…I have no idea why I said that. I’m a complete jerk.”

  “You must really miss your mom,” said Logan in that way he had.

  “Yes. At least I miss having a mom. The truth is that I only have a few memories of her. I was only four when she died.”

  “That’s so young…it must have been so hard for you,” said Eve.

  “At the time it wasn’t that bad. I mean, I was so little I didn’t really understand what had happened. All I can remember of the time around the funeral is that people kept giving me candy. I think I actually thought it was kind of fun. It wasn’t until later that I missed my mom. When she wasn’t there to play games with me. When a little girl in kindergarten made fun of the tangles in my hair that my dad didn’t think to comb out. When all the other kids were buying school clothes with their moms or having their moms pack their lunches with healthy food. I would trade my Twinkies for their apples, and I know they thought I was crazy. But I always thought they were lucky to have someone who worried about that sort of thing. My dad is awesome, but there are a lot of things that dads just don’t think of, you know? I think it was even harder for him than it was for me. But he always tried to make things fun for me. He still does.”

  Must be nice, thought Eve, but not wanting to stick her foot in her mouth again, she didn’t say anything.

  “I thought about telling him about the book actually,” Alex went on. “But I decided against it for now. I may tell him later when we know more. He’ll be lost to the world until he finishes his next edition anyway. Would you guys ever say anything to your parents?”

  “No way,” said Adam. “I’m with Eve. Mine are not the understanding type.”

  Logan absently ran his thumb over the cover of the sketchpad that he had taken from his backpack. “I don’t know. My mom is gone at work most of the time, and when she’s home she’s so tired; I can’t really picture myself having this conversation with her. But if I ever needed to for some reason, I don’t think she’d freak out or anything. I don’t know if she’d believe it, but… she surprises me sometimes.”

  After a brief pause, Adam brought them back to the matter at hand, and they looked at the flyers that Logan had drawn up. He’d made a few different styles, but it only took one look for everyone to cast their vote. It was a simple layout with the symbol from the Redoubt, a circle within a circle within a circle. Underneath he had written the date and time and place of the meeting and the single phrase in large lettering: gendel sea.

  10

  An Invisible Hand

  The pounding on the door brought Alex awake with a jerk. For two dark seconds, she thought she’d gone blind, but then the digital numbers on her clock swam into focus: 5:03. She wasn’t blind; it was still night.

  More pounding. Who would be here at this hour?

  The bathroom across the hall had a window that looked out on the front lawn. She quickly pulled away the blinds and looked down. It was Adam, and he was looking around a
nxiously. Alex’s initial confusion was instantly drowned by fear.

  Pulling a sweatshirt over her head, she sprinted for the door and yanked it open just as he was about to start pounding again. He stopped short so quickly he almost fell over.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m sorry, I need to see your book. Do you have your book?”

  “What?”

  “The Book of Sight. I need to see it.”

  “You’re pounding on my door at five in the morning for that? What’s wrong with your own book? Or your phone?”

  “Can I come inside?”

  Without replying, she stood back and let him in.

  “I’m sorry I was so loud. I hope I didn’t wake your dad up.”

  “No, he’s sleeping out back. He sleeps like the dead anyway.”

  “Good. I mean, I’m glad I didn’t bother him. I just had to see your book for myself. To make sure.”

  “To make sure of what? What’s wrong with you?”

  “My book is gone.”

  It was a simple enough statement, but it failed to connect in Alex’s brain.

  “What?”

  “My book is gone. Remember how I said yesterday that I left it at home on the table? Well, it wasn’t there when I got home last night. I figured it was no big deal, maybe I left it someplace else or my mom put it in my room when she was picking up. But it wasn’t in my room, either. I looked everywhere, and I can’t find it.”

  “Well, if your mom moved it, maybe she just put it somewhere else.”

  “I asked her. She says she didn’t clean the house yesterday and she didn’t see any book on the table. And I searched the whole house, not just my room.”

  “Yeah, but sometimes you just overlook something. My dad loses his keys pretty much every time he uses them, and we’ve turned the house upside down until we give up only to discover them in a pile of newspapers the next morning when we aren’t even looking.”

  “I know,” Adam nodded. “I know…but that book is a lot bigger than a set of keys. And I’m telling you, it’s just not there.”

  “Are you sure that James didn’t take it back when he left?”

  Adam’s lip curled. “I’m sure. He didn’t want anything to do with it, remember? Besides, I distinctly remember that I thought about throwing it at his head as he was closing the door. No, it was there when I left and gone when I came home last night.”

  “So what are you saying? That someone stole it?”

  “I don’t know. I mean, maybe you’re right. Maybe it’s just misplaced and I missed it when I was looking. That’s what I figured when I went to bed. But I couldn’t sleep. And then all of a sudden I thought about what the Dund told us those men had said: ‘We have to get back what he took from us.’ What if someone stole the book from them? What if that same person stole my book? All of a sudden I was totally freaked out, and I had to come over and see if yours was still here.”

  Alex’s backpack was on the dining room table where she’d slung it when she got home from a long afternoon of hanging up flyers. Even though she knew the book was inside, she found that she was fumbling with the zipper in her haste to open it.

  The book was there.

  She held it out to Adam, and he let out a sigh.

  The ornately traced red cover felt good in her hands. Safe. Alex knew that it was only logical to think that Adam had simply misplaced his book, but something inside her was saying that the instinct that brought him over here at five in the morning was truer than logic. It was the same little voice that had told her they were being watched yesterday morning.

  That thought clicked something into place.

  “You said it was sitting on the table.”

  “Yeah, but it’s not there, trust me, I looked…” he broke off at the look on her face. “What?”

  “There was someone watching us. I know it. And they would have heard you say that.”

  “Oh…no way…I didn’t even think of that.” Adam’s face was a study of combined awe and anger. “Who would do that?”

  “I don’t know. I really don’t. But think about it…a book that can make you see things that no one else sees? That’s a really big deal. There’s obviously someone who wants people to have it and use it, someone who sent it to us. But maybe there is also someone who doesn’t want people to have it.”

  “And that person must be pretty good at keeping it a secret because no one knows about it.”

  Alex felt a tingle of fear run up her spine. “So they find out who received the books and steal them? And they must know about the Redoubt because they knew to spy on us there.”

  “But how were they spying? There wasn’t anyone there.”

  “No one that we could see. But, come on, after all we’ve seen and done in the last couple of weeks, it’s not that hard to imagine there being someone there that was…invisible or something.”

  “Someone…or some thing.”

  Alex shivered.

  “So what are we supposed to do?” asked Adam. “We know the Redoubt probably isn’t safe any more, but we don’t have any idea why. I mean,” he ran a frustrated hand through his hair, making bits of it stand on end, “we don’t even know who sent us the books much less who might want to steal them.”

  “Gendel sea,” said Alex. “We just keep going on. We have the meeting tomorrow night, or tonight I guess it is now, and we see who comes. Then we take it from there. None of us asked to have the book sent to us. But it was, and I’m glad. You are, too, right? Whatever this is, it’s huge, and I wouldn’t want to never know about it.”

  “You’re right. Obviously.” Adam gave her a half smile. “But I sure hope someone comes to this meeting. Someone who knows something, ‘cause not knowing anything is really starting to get to me. I wonder why the person who sent the books couldn’t just send a letter with it, a note, anything. I mean, would it have killed them to write their name and a return address?”

  “Maybe it would have,” said Alex quietly.

  Adam looked like he couldn’t tell if she was joking or not.

  She wasn’t.

  He laughed nervously. “I am really hoping that this is not that serious. And did you ever think that we don’t even know who the good guys are? I mean, what if the person sending out the books is the bad guy and the other ones are trying to save us?”

  “They aren’t.”

  “But how do you know that?”

  “I just do.” Alex held up the book. “This is good. I think we all know that. Anyone who is trying to keep it a secret is trying to cover up something really good.”

  Adam was silent, but Alex knew he agreed with her. He reached out a finger and touched the red cover in her hands.

  “Can I see this for a minute?” He thumbed through the pages. “I want to see if it says gendel sea in any of the other stories. I thought of that earlier. That was what first made me look for my book tonight before bed. Yes! Here it is in the second chapter. It’s repeated several times.”

  Alex looked over his shoulder and began to read. Began to read the words on the page he had pointed out.

  The story made sense.

  Hot and cold chills passed over her body.

  Adam let out his breath in a hiss.

  “Can you understand it?”

  “Yes. You?”

  “Yes.”

  He turned back two pages to where the second chapter started. Fifty times Alex had tried to read this page and it had always remained a stubborn sequence of nonsense words and random letters. But she could tell before she even started that this time was going to be different. The words seemed to jump off the page at her, waving as if greeting an old friend, and beckoning her in to where the beautiful pictures would fill her mind. For just a second, she raised her head and caught Adam’s eye. He gave a tiny nod, and they both turned and lost themselves to the story.

  This time Alex found herself looking out through the eyes of a young man, a prince…

  She felt his agony
as he heard of the betrayal of his brother, his guilt over his part in pushing his brother to such an extremity. She tasted his disgust on her lips as he spoke the necessary words of banishment and smiled in grim satisfaction as she made arrangements to follow her brother into exile. If her brother must be lost, she would go with him, protect him, redeem him if she could. It seemed to Alex that she lived years of wanderings, of dangers, of discomfort, but also of fleeting joys and chance meetings of hope. She followed her brother’s aimless path and did what she could to repay his debts, repair that which he broke, give aid to those he turned away. And each place she went, she left behind a token, an eagle carved by hand from bits of wood in remembrance of her family crest. At times, she lost hope, but always there was someone who came with the right words. Gendel sea. She carried on. Time and time again her brother sought his own destruction in bad company and evil living, and time and time again she was able to save him at the final moment. Until one day she could not. She arrived too late, her brother already falling before her eyes at the hand of his own ill companions. Her years of sacrifice in vain, Alex despaired utterly. She charged her brother’s attackers in blind rage, only to find herself overpowered. Soon she was facing her own death, accepting the cold clear-headedness that came with it, conscious only of a sense of loss, of life wasted, of noble purpose thwarted by petty ugliness. Her point of view shifted. She rose above the young man’s lifeless body, watching as the brigands left him and he was carried by some peasants to the top of the hill. Men and women came from miles around to lay tiny carved eagles on his grave, raising a mound high enough to be seen from the valley below, a wordless epitaph silhouetted against the sky.

  11

  Gendel Sea

  Adam had a brother, but he had never felt much of a brotherly bond. Living in the same house for fifteen years had given them a lot of the same memories, but it hadn’t made them understand each other.