Out of Nowhere, page 4
Inside, he found a rock. It looked ordinary, just a smooth black river rock. But his grandfather did nothing without a purpose, so he slipped it back in, knowing the reason for it being there would reveal itself in time.
A few miles later, Pax felt a breeze blow through his hair, and he looked up. Ceya was following him. He smiled up at the red-tailed hawk who had watched over him for as long as he could remember. He wasn't alone, after all.
When he heard, "You never were," he smiled and nodded at the trees and lifted his eyes to the clouds, and placed his hand on his heart. Whatever happened, he would do his best. He hoped it would be enough.
NINE
The High Priestess known as Isira lowered her head and smiled at the young man standing in front of her. Akotas had told her to call Pax when it was time to prepare him for his journey, and he had answered her call.
Isira wasn’t sure she was the right person for the job, but Akotas had assured her that Pax was sturdier than he looked and would listen to her instruction. Isira tried to tell Akotas that the boy wasn’t the problem. She was.
“One failure doesn’t make you a failure,” Akotas said.
“Perhaps not. But it doesn’t bode well for success either.”
They argued for days and finally came up with a solution. Akotas would do his part with Pax, leaving only the last part of the training to her. And because Isira still wasn’t sure it was enough, Akotas agreed to do one more thing. He would provide Pax with a guardian for his journey.
Isira yielded, and Akotas returned to the forest to tell Pax of his destiny. It wouldn’t be the entire truth, but it would be close enough that Pax would have to develop enough courage to step into his future. No, Pax was not a warrior. But he could change a mistake made before his time. One he and Isira had let happen. Not let happen—didn’t stop from happening.
Isira smiled at Pax. He was a beautiful young man. That wasn’t surprising, considering his lineage. Now that Pax stood before her, Isira understood why Akotas had believed that Pax could fix what they had broken.
However, the light that shown out of him needed to be hidden. Where he was going, people didn’t shine like that.
Now Isira understood what Akotas wanted her to teach Pax. He needed to learn how to look and act ordinary. She had taught others, including herself. The hardest part was not learning how to hide the light, but remembering how to bring it back. That had been one part of her failure. Perhaps she could stop that from happening to Pax.
She and Akotas had agreed she would be the one to tell Pax that Akotas was not his actual grandfather. She shook her head and wished that the past had never happened. But it had. And it was up to Pax to fix it.
Every day, Pax wished he could go back to his tree and hide. Isira’s training was so much more challenging than Akotas’ had been.
In the woods, he had learned about the trees and the community of nature, and how to be one with it. Isira tried to teach him how to be part of the community of the village. Pax found people much harder to understand than the animals and plants of the woods.
He hated the way they stared, looked away, and whispered to each other. Isira said it was because he was a stranger, and they were curious, but that made little sense to him. No animal ever pointed at him and then laughed behind his back. It didn’t help that he looked nothing like the people in the village.
Their skin and hair were dark, their eyes deep brown like the bark on a tree. His skin was dark too, but only where the sun touched it. His hair was almost white. But it was his eyes that people stared at the most. He didn’t know that his eyes were pale blue like a light-filled sky until Akotas told him, and he didn’t realize that it mattered until he came to the village.
One night by the fire, he asked Isira to tell him the truth.
“What truth is that, Pax?”
“Am I grandfather’s grandson?”
Isira paused and looked away. When she didn’t answer, Pax rose, ready to go back to the woods and never return, when she finally answered.
“No. Not that way.”
“In what way, then?”
“You are a descendant of the man who climbed the cliff. Each generation after him looked like our people, like the people of the woman he married. When you were born, your parents were afraid, not understanding why their child looked so different.
“They brought you to me and Akotas and asked for help. We agreed to because we believed we knew why you looked like the original peacemaker. Not long after that, the Satoka raided the village, and your parents died fighting to save many of our people and your life. They managed to get you to Akotas, and he kept you in the woods with him.
“That’s why people point at you. You came from the woods. Akotas trained you. And yes, you don’t look like them, and so they stare. But more than that, they wonder how you could be another peacemaker. If the Sakota attack again, you don’t appear to be a warrior or a leader like Akotas was so how can you help them?
“Where is Pax’s power, they ask themselves? Does Pax have any magic at all?
“And the more you retreat from them, the more worried they are. The only reason the people have some belief that you will help them is they see the light in you.”
After absorbing and accepting what Isira told him, Pax made progress. He practiced listening to the people the same way he listened to the trees, plants, and animals of the woods. He stopped thinking about how strange they were and tried to understand what made them happy. He stopped caring how they felt about him.
Pax saved the village more than once when he felt the presence of the remaining Satoka and warned the village of the danger. In time, the people accepted him and believed that he might truly be the descendant of William Sky.
When Isira saw Pax comfortable among the people, she told him that soon he would leave to go to another world, where he would find people who didn’t live as they did, and he would need to adjust to them quickly. His listening skills would serve him well.
She told him that while he was in the other world, Pax would meet Akotas’ wife and child. He would rescue them and bring them back to Crann, and defeat Dradon.
Pax stared at Isira and started laughing. “Defeat Dradon? Seriously?”
When Isira didn’t respond to his laughing, he did what Akotas had done years before. He got up and walked away.
Two weeks later, he returned.
“Tell me what I need to do,” he said.
TEN
Stepping off the cliff was the scariest thing Pax ever did. But Isira had told him repeatedly he would not hit the ground. He would be in another world. Yes, she had been there. Do what she and Akotas had taught him to do. Listen. Yes, Ceya would come with him. She was looking forward to it.
But still. The idea of falling into space terrified Pax. Yes, he lived in a tree in the clouds. But this was going down, not up. However, he had made his choice. He needed to put away what he wanted, which was to return to the woods. He had to do what everyone told him was his purpose in life.
That he couldn't see what others saw didn't matter. There was no point in arguing. It was best to agree to what everyone wanted. That he was afraid—no, terrified—didn't matter. Besides, he was sure Isira knew he was afraid. After all, it would be hard to miss his trembling hand as Ceya perched on his arm. Ceya didn't seem afraid at all, so Pax tried to take courage from that.
Once he arrived in the other world and oriented himself, he would go to the address Isira gave him. Isira assured him he would understand the idea of addresses once he arrived. The land would look vaguely familiar. It was hard to hide three rivers. The difference would be buildings and roads and very few trees.
"So it's not another place?" Pax asked, still confused.
"No, same place. Another world. We've gone over this before, Pax. There are many other worlds, but this cliff only takes you to one. And yes, it has the same sun, the same stars, and yes, it is within the same time in the universe as this one. But there are many, many more people. It's crowded, Pax."
Pax looked across the vastness of the world they lived in, one where the villages nestled in the land's natural habitat, and couldn't imagine not living like that. If Dradon hadn't started fighting to become the one and only ruler of every village and every clan, they would have known nothing but peaceful cooperation. After Dradon left, the few remaining Satoka’s rarely raided, and the peace Crann had always known was once more present.
“Not always, Pax,” Isira said, reading his thoughts. "You know, it was your ancestor who brought peace to this world. Before then, there were more men like Dradon."
Pax had heard the story many times—how William Sky climbed the cliff and changed everything. That he was the descendant of that man gave him courage. But he wasn't climbing a cliff. He was falling off one. On purpose.
Once he arrived in the other world, he understood what his two jobs would be. Neither of which seemed possible, especially for someone like him. He was still processing that Isira and Akotas once lived in that world. Isira and Akotas had returned. Dradon had not. Isira said it was because Dradon liked the other world. More people to control. More power to gather. She could not make Dradon return. Pax would be the one to fix her mistake.
She and Akotas returned to take care of their people, although Akotas had not wanted to come back either. He had fallen in love. But Akotas had known his duty then, as Pax recognized his duty now.
When Pax learned that the man he called grandfather had a wife in another world, it answered something that Pax often wondered. In the past, when he asked Akotas about his wife, Akotas would always direct the question away.
Now he understood why. He wasn't Akotas' grandson, and Akotas' wife lived in another world.
"Why didn't he bring her back with him?" Pax asked.
"He did. Maya lived with us until their daughter was born, but Maya missed her world, and so they separated."
One last time, standing on the edge of the cliff, Pax asked again, "Why not leave them all alone? Since Dradon left, we have lived in peace."
Isira turned to look at Pax, her dark brown eyes glittering with tears. Pax felt her hands tremble on his shoulders, and he didn't know if that made him feel more loved or more afraid.
"Dradon has brought his evil ways to their world, which already had men like Dradon. We can't leave him there. It's only making it worse. It would be wrong for us to ignore what he is doing. He's from our world, after all. And we need someone to rule after I am gone. That would be Akotas' daughter."
Pax lowered his head to hide his tears, and without meaning to say it out loud, whimpered, "Why me?"
Isira pulled him close and whispered, "It's not just for these two worlds, Pax. It's for you, too. Trust me."
Pax raised his head and nodded and asked again, "How will I know Akotas' wife and daughter?"
Isira smiled then, put her hand on his arm, and looked him in the eye. She was almost as tall as him, which wasn't saying much since his short stature was another reason the villagers had first stared at him. Weren't warriors supposed to be tall and strong?
"But Pax isn't a warrior," Isira reminded them. "He has another role in life." But to Pax, she said he was a warrior, just a different kind of one. One that would require just as much courage, but much more than that. He would need the wisdom he learned in the woods from Akotas and in the village from her.
"There will be no doubt in your mind who they are. Besides, Ceya knows them."
Isira held up her hand as he started to ask how Ceya knew them, and Pax understood it was for Ceya to tell him.
"When you find them, take them to the address I gave you. There will be people there who can help you. People that know of more than one world and one time."
"What if they don't want to go?"
"Convince them," she said. "The mother will be the easiest. Once you have done that, the daughter will follow."
"And Dradon?"
"Once you have Maya and Ginny, Dradon will follow them because they have the power he wants. Let the people at that address help you. But it is up to you to make sure he returns so we can stop him."
Isira almost added, “Or you will have to destroy him,” but she didn’t. She trusted Pax to know what to do when the time came.
Smiling at Pax with tears still in her eyes, she added, "Your gift of listening will serve you well, but use your other gifts too when necessary."
Pax nodded. What else could he do? He heard Isira's heart breaking, her worried thoughts that she hadn't done enough for him, her fear he would fail.
He understood it embarrassed Isira that Pax saw her weakness. But she was also proud of him. And that was what he was going to hold on to, to get him through what came next.
Isira reached out and hugged him again as hard as she could, and when he turned back to the cliff, she gave him the slightest nudge, for which he was grateful. The nudge tilted him off the cliff and took away the moment of indecision. There was nothing left to do but fall and trust.
ELEVEN
Valerie Price looked out her front window and sighed with happiness. She loved living in the very center of the village of Doveland. Across the street, a beam of sunlight glanced off the roof of the gazebo. The dew on the grass sparkled, and daffodils and tulips filled the flower beds. Valerie thought everything about the park was perfect. It was both beautiful and functional.
The street that went around the park branched off in four directions like arrows of the compass. Everyone coming or leaving town eventually passed by her house.
She realized some people might not enjoy having so much activity going by their house, but Valerie did. For her, it was like living within the heart of the town, filled with people she loved. Valerie recognized almost everyone who lived in Doveland. For years she had been the high school principal. And she had run the town council until last fall when she decided it was time for someone else to be in charge.
The front windows of her home were the perfect lookout for friends and even for the rare stranger that passed through. Doveland was far away from any main road which kept it a quiet place to live. Strangers didn't usually just pass through Doveland. They came for a reason.
But it wasn't just cars that circled the park. The traffic included bikes and runners and parents with strollers. Recently the town had added to the bike and walking paths that ran from the center of town west towards the village of Concourse. And now, both the walking and bike paths were being extended in the other three directions.
Valerie knew her friends were the ones extending the paths. Ava and her husband, Evan, supplied the funds, and Ava's uncle Hank provided the labor, assisted by the group of youngsters he and others in the village mentored. Her sons, Johnny and Lex, were recipients of the mentoring group, a fact for which she would remain forever grateful.
That was one reason checking out the town outside her window brought her so much pleasure. She watched over them as they watched over her. Valerie sighed again with happiness when she heard her husband Craig coming down the stairs. He had been out late delivering yet another child, but that wouldn't stop him from being at the town's clinic all day as Doveland's doctor. Craig remained one of the main reasons for her continued happiness. He was part of the group of friends who had come to Doveland a few years before and changed the village and her life forever.
Valerie leaned back into Craig's arms, and he rested his chin on the top of her head as they observed the town come awake. Their youngest son, Lex, was in the kitchen making them breakfast before heading off to school. He loved to cook. He practiced by either cooking for them or helping Pete and his wife Barbara at the Diner that stood on the north side of the roundabout.
On the other side of the street from the Diner lay the coffee shop, Your Second Home. The Diner and coffee shop were favorite meeting places for everyone in town.
Craig and Valerie waved at the owner of the coffee shop as she stepped onto the sidewalk to water the pot of pansies that stood by the front door. Grace Strong waved back, pointed inside, and Valerie nodded. Both of them understood that meant Grace wanted to talk when Valerie had time. If it were urgent, Grace would have texted, but the pointing meant, "come over when you can."
Lex called from the kitchen to come to breakfast. He had made blueberry pancakes and was already tucking into his stack by the time they reached the booth in the kitchen. Valerie smiled at her son and thanked him for breakfast. With a mouth full of pancakes, Lex gave his mother the thumbs-up sign.
Their house used to be a bed-and-breakfast, but after Valerie's first husband died, she and her friend Mindy had renovated the house and turned the back half of the lower floor into a design studio. However, when Mindy moved away with her husband, Tom, Valerie had moved the studio online. Instead of redesigning houses, Mindy's strength, Valerie now sold things the townspeople made to buyers worldwide. Her other son Johnny built and ran the site while finishing up his schooling at Penn State.
Yes, Valerie thought, I am well taken care of.
However, as Valerie listened to Lex talk about school, she realized something kept niggling at her. She wasn't sure if it was fear or anticipation. Because even though Grace had seemed casual about their meeting, she thought it was something more.
Not enough that it was urgent. Yet. But given their history, most likely someone was coming to Doveland who would need their help. The question always was, what kind of help, and how dangerous was it?
"Something on your mind, Valerie?" Craig asked.
"Hum. Not sure."
Without thinking about it, they both turned to look at Lex.
"Nope. Don't have a clue," he said, tucking back into the last few bites on his plate. Then kissing his mom on the head and high-fiving Craig, he grabbed his backpack and flew out the door, just in time to catch the school bus as it came around the circle.
