The Sankari Legends Book One: The Scars We Hide
Chapter One: Alec

The summons came early one morning. I was on my way from breakfastto my first training session when one of the senior drill leaders, named ofPeter, stopped me in the hallway. His mouth was set in a rigid line, somethingthat was unusual for him. Peter was in his early twenties, and was tall enoughthat I saw his regulation cut brown hair bobbing over everyone’s head as hemade his way to me. He quickly told me that I’d been called into CommanderMecah’s office. When I asked if he knew why I had been called to theCommander’s office, Peter responded that he didn’t know why, only that I neededto go immediately.

I admit I was a little anxious as I followed Peter down thehallways. I’d never had a summons like this before in my three years oftraining at Edil Academy, and I didn’t know what to expect. At the same time, Iwasn’t entirely surprised. I was only a month away from graduation, but beforeI would be allowed to graduate I was required to successfully complete amission in the field. I figured that might be what this summons was about…except that I had heard from others in my class who had already completed theirmission that they weren’t given their missions by any of the SupremeCommanders. They were just given missions by senior drill leaders.

Peter led me through the hallways until we finally reached a largewooden door with a golden plaque on it that read “Commander Horus Mecah” in bigbold letters. Peter opened the door and stood back to allow me to walk through.As I entered the room, the first thing I noticed was that the office wasn’t asbig as I had expected. It was square shaped, with bookshelves lining the leftand right walls. The back wall was entirely made of windows that looked outonto the training quad. Commander Mecah’s large oak desk was meticulouslyorganized, with the papers and books neatly stacked around the edges and alarge cleared space in the middle for working. I was slightly shocked todiscover that he wasn’t in the room and that shock turned to confusion when Inoticed the other two people who were.

Sitting down in one of the couches in the center of the room was aboy about my age—either seventeen or eighteen—with long black hair that hung afew inches above chin length. I wondered offhandedly how his hair wasregulation, since I had been told to cut mine above my ears. The boy waswearing the required uniform: polished boots, black pants, and a long sleevebutton down dress shirt in the color of whatever specialization he was. Hisshirt was dark green, which I recognized as the color of drill leader recruitsand commanding officer recruits. When I walked in, he looked up at me with askeptical expression on his face. After one quick glance, he went back tostudying the drill manual lying in his lap. It took me a few seconds, but Irealized I recognized the guy. His name was Sabin Raider. We’d been neighborswhen we were younger, before… well, before I moved away when I was ten. Ihadn’t seen him since then until last year, when we worked together on aproject. While I wasn’t opposed to him being here, I still wondered whatbusiness an officer recruit had here.

Worryabout that later, Alec, Ithought, shaking my head before turning to the only other person in the room.

She was standing at one of the bookshelves with her back turned tome, so the only defining features I could see of her was her mass of curlyblonde hair pulled back in a ponytail. She was wearing a light blue shirt,which told me she was an Intelligence Gathering Specialist, or IGS. She didn’tseem to notice when I walked in, but instead appeared to be pretty contentscanning the titles on the Commander’s shelf.

“The Commander will be with you shortly,” Peter said from thedoorway. With that, he left, closing the door behind him.

At the sound of the door closing, the blonde girl turned around.She looked me square in the face and I saw her blue eyes widen with surprisebehind her glasses at the sight of me. She was a good half foot shorter thanme, though that would still put her at close to five foot eight. I was confusedat the fact that she also looked really familiar, but I couldn’t figure outwhere I might have seen her.

“No way,” she said in an awed sort of whisper. “You can’tpossibly… no, wait, of course you could.”

“Uh, I’m sorry, do I…” I started, but the girl cut me off.

“Know me?” she finished. “No, I don’t suppose you do.”

Our other companion snorted and she turned with narrowed eyes athim.

“Shut it, Raider,” she snapped.

I turned to Sabin.

“What are you doing here anyway, Sabin?” I asked. “Didn’t yougraduate last year?”

He grunted and set his manual down on the glass-topped table infront of him before looking up at me. “Yes, I did. I’m a leader recruit now,training to become a mission leader.”

“And he’s the leader for this mission as well,” the girl said,leaning forward on the back of the couch across from him.

I turned to her, still put off by how familiar she looked. I’dbeen right about Sabin, but I doubted I could also be right about this girl,because the person she reminded me of had never struck me as the kind of personto come to the academy. “Do you know what it is?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Nope. I was only given a notice on who themembers of the mission team were.”

“That’s more than I got,” I muttered. “I was just told to show uphere this morning.” I paused before speaking again. “You said you knew who waspart of this mission… who else is on it?”

“Well, there are us three, and one other. She’s a power-combatspecialist. Her squadron was currently doing a field exercise in the lowerfields, close to the river, and Mecah had to go retrieve her. They should begetting back shortly.”

Just then, right on cue, the door opened and Commander Mecahwalked in followed closely behind by a tall, slender girl. She wore the deeproyal purple shirt of the power-combat specialists and had her long brown hairpulled into a braid that reached to at least her mid-back. As soon as shewalked in the door, my heart stopped. I recognized her.

It wasn’t the fleeting familiarity that I felt from the girl, andit wasn’t the delayed recognition I’d had with Sabin. With this girl, I was onehundred percent positive of who she was.

“Alia?” I asked in disbelief.

She turned towards me, her brown eyes blazing angrily at therecognition of my voice. Before I could say anything else, however, I wasthrown across the room and into the bookshelf the blonde girl had been browsingearlier. My back pressed painfully into the shelves as I was held with my feeta good foot above the floor. The odd thing was though that there was no oneholding me there, nor had anyone actually touched me when I was thrown acrossthe room. I looked at Alia in disbelief as she glared at me from where she wasstill standing in the doorway. Her arm was outstretched in my direction, herhand positioned as if she were tightly gripping someone’s shoulder. I realizedwith a shock that she was the oneholding me against the bookshelf.

“Please, Miss Parker, let him down,” Commander Mecah said calmlyfrom her side.

Alia dutifully dropped her arm, and me with it. I barely managed apartially graceful landing on my feet in a crouch. I took a few seconds toregain composure over my surprise of seeing Alia before standing back up. Theblonde girl stood a few feet away from me, her eyes wide with—was that anticipation?Behind her, Sabin Raider had stood from his seat with the arrival of theCommander. He looked completely unfazed by the sudden display of Alia’s powers.Alia herself had walked swiftly to the other end of Sabin’s couch and stoodrespectfully awaiting permission from Mecah to sit.

“I take it no one gave you a warning that Alia and you will haveto work together, did they?” Commander Mecah asked, addressing me.

I turned to him and shook my head.

“No sir. I haven’t been given much information about this missionat all, except from what she mentioned,” I explained, gesturing to the blonde.“I’m sorry, I don’t think I got your name...”

I left out that I had an idea of who she was, mostly because I couldn’thonestly believe it was her. There was no way it would be the two of us withAlia and Sabin on this mission.

She grinned brightly. That’s when I realized she was exactly who Ithought she was, even before she confirmed it. What was worse, I could tell sheknew I hadn’t recognized her atfirst.

“No, you didn’t. I haven’t introduced myself yet.” She stuck outher hand, which I took. “First Zeta Megan O’Carroll, IGS. Undeveloped.”

Megan. I wasn’t sure why, but the sound of her name and the mischievous smileshe gave me sent a wave of nostalgia through me. Like Megan had grown up in thesame town as me. I’d known her since I was young, but like Sabin, hadn’t seenher in nearly seven years. I didn’t really have a reason to feel nostalgic about what few childhoodmemories I had, so this feeling now was strange and even unwelcome.

I didn’t reveal any of those thoughts though. Instead, I raised aneyebrow at her blunt introduction, complete with ranking, specialization, andpower, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt me to follow suit. One thing I hadlearned in my years of training here is that IGS’s are masters when it comes toknowing correct procedures.

“Second Kappa Alec Parker, Situational Specialist. Elementest,” Ireplied.

Megan smirked, most likely having already guessed it was me beforeturning to the other two. “I suppose you already know them,” she said.

I glanced at Alia, who was refusing to meet my eye.

“Sort of,” I answered. “It’s been a long time since I’ve reallytalked to either of them. I worked a little with Sabin last year, but I haven’tseen Alia in well… in seven years.” I paused for a second, gathering myself.“It’s good to see you again Als.”

Her head shot up and she glared at me. I was scared she wouldthrow me into a wall again, but instead she slowly walked over and stretchedher hand over the couch between us. I reluctantly took it, studying herexpression for any sort of tell. She gave none, of course.

“First Kappa Alia Parker, PCS. Telekinetic,” she said while givingmy hand a quick shake before adding: “I wish I could say the same, Alec.” Thenshe turned on her heels and walked back to her position on the opposite couch,where Sabin had just left to follow her lead of shaking my hand.

“Delta Sabin Raider, OR. Shape-shifter,” he said firmly, using theabbreviated name for his specialty like both Alia and Megan. I had always had apetty jealousy of the specialties that had abbreviations, sincemine—Situational Specialists—didn’t.

As Sabin walked back to his seat, Commander Mecah spoke up frombehind his desk.

“Now, if you are all acquainted,” he said, “Or I suppose, in yourcase, reacquainted, come forward.”

We all quickly moved to stand in front of his desk. Sabin andMegan expertly arranged it to where they stood in the middle—between Alia andI. How they managed that without even speaking didn’t surprise me. I was toopreoccupied by the realization that all three of them outranked me. Sabin,being a Delta, followed by Megan the First Zeta, gave our team two officers.Alia and I were both Kappa’s, but since she was First Kappa and I was Second,she outranked me.

“I’m sure you have all come to you own conclusions as to why youare here,” Mecah began. “And I’m sure you’ve all guessed correctly that you arehere because the four of you have been chosen as a team for a very specialmission.”

“What is that mission, sir?” Alia asked boldly.

Mecah fixed her with a look for a second before scanning each ofus.

“It’s a specific reconnaissance mission. From what we know, thereis a basecamp for the konna about a three-day journey from here. Your job is toconfirm the exact location of this camp, and gather as much information thatyou can about their numbers and how big of a threat they would pose if theywere to attack.”

“Will we need to infiltrate the borders of the camp, sir?” Meganasked.

The Commander shook his head. “Not if you don’t have to. Thismission is dangerous enough for a first mission without having to infiltrate amajor Konna basecamp. No you just need to get the numbers and get out.”

I frowned slightly. Something about this didn’t set right with me.“Sir, if this mission is so dangerous, then why were we chosen to go?”

My eyes didn’t leave the Commander, but I could feel the otherthree looking at me. I suspected Megan giving me a shocked/partially confusedglance mixed with agreement. Sabin was probably wearing a suspicious expressionat why I would be asking something like that combined also with a undertone ofwhy he didn’t think of it first. Alia, of course, would be glaring at me withraging hatred and supreme annoyance.

Commander Mecah didn’t even really seem to have time to considermy question before answering.

“The other Commanders and I all believe you four are more thancapable of doing extraordinarily well on this mission. All four of you are thetop of your respective specialties, which also happen to be the specialties weneed most for this mission. It only seems right to allow you to be able toprove yourselves worthy of graduation—or in Mr. Raider’s case, prove himselfworthy of leading more dangerous missions in the future.”

Sabin looked pretty content with that and I could tell Megan andAlia were pretty eager about the possibility of graduation. I nodded inresponse, but I still wasn’t satisfied. There had to be a reason that the fourof us were chosen for this mission other than the fact that we were a good fit.Most people would call it a coincidence, but I wasn’t really one to believe inthings like that.

“Miss O’Carroll, I’ve sent further details to your brother. Todayyou will travel to where he is stationed in the Inon territory. He’ll provideyou with further instructions as well as supplies. We’ll provide you withtransportation to get as far as your brother’s house.”

He paused for a brief moment while looking each of us in the eye,meeting Sabin’s gaze last.

“Mr. Raider, you of course are going to be the mission leader forthis mission. Miss O’Carroll, because you are the IGS as well as the secondhighest ranking, you will be second in command. I’m also charging you with theresponsibility of gathering the information we need once you reach yourdestination. Mr. and Miss Parker, as the designated combatants for thismission, I trust you two will cooperate? And also listen to Raider andO’Carroll’s orders?”

I nodded my head and spared a glance at Alia. At the same time sheshot a glare at me. This would be fun.

“Good,” Mecah said. “The two of you will be more than vital inwhatever struggles you may come across. Now go and pack. You will need to leavepromptly at sixteen-hundred hours.”

Later that day, we gathered in the stables. We each had our ownduffel bags that loaded easily onto our horses’ backs.

Megan was tightening the straps on her palomino mare when I walkedup.

“Horses?” I asked.

She nodded without looking at me.

“It’s the fastest stealth mode of transportation we have,” sheexplained. “Well, besides teleporting, but the mass teleport station in theInon territory is offline and hasn’t been repaired yet, so we can’t use that.”

“Oh,” I said. “Right.”

“Anyway,” Megan continued, “We’ll be taking the horses down to theriver, where we’ll be boarding a ferry to take us downriver to Inon. With anyluck, we’ll be there by sundown.”

A stable boy handed me the reigns of a dark chestnut stallion witha white mark on his face.

“This is Pyralis,” the boy said. “He’s a good horse. Just becareful not to get him around fire. It makes him skittish.”

The boy walked away as I stared at him in shock. Beside me, Megansnickered.

“What?” I asked.

“Oh, nothing. It’s just that Pyralis… the name means ‘of fire’,”she said.

I looked at the horse with an exasperated expression. “You’ve gotto be kidding me.”

Megan laughed. “Aren’t you a fire elementest?” she asked.

I nodded. “Yeah… it’s my main element. I can control the otherthree, but fire is the one I depend on the most.”

“Well then this should be interesting,” Megan said with anotherlaugh. She pulled herself up into her saddle and looked out towards thesouthern gate. “It’ll be good to see Zig again.”

“Zig? Isn’t he…?”

“My brother,” she said, nodding in agreement with what I was aboutto say. “I haven’t seen him since he was transferred a year ago.”

“Was he assigned here before that?” I asked as I tightened my bagdown onto Pyralis’ back.

Megan nodded. “Yeah, he used to be one of the senior drillleaders. But then they transferred him to Inon.” She took in a breath. “It wasa huge honor for him to be assigned there, but it was…”

She stopped talking and looked at me with a small smile.

“I’m sorry. I don’t suppose you want to hear all of this, do you?”

By this point I swung myself up into my own saddle so I wasactually level with her.

“No it’s okay,” I said. “And don’t worry about me being confusedwith the different territory names. Despite the fact I grew up in Einoth, Iremember them talking about the different territories in training. As well as…well you know. Inon is one of the few that isn’t open to the public, right?”

“Yeah. It, Edil, of course, and Ligtas. Those are the threemilitary territories. They’re also the smallest. The public territories, I’msure you know, are Bundok, Valta, and the biggest territory Suba. Then ofcourse the capitol city, Aelston.”

I nodded. All she had just said was basic geography training. Ihad been born in Satama and had spent the first ten years of my life there, butI had never learned much about the different territories there. I’d moved toEinoth, Sankruus’ neighboring realm, when I was ten, so of course there wasn’tany need for me to know about the Sankruus territories there. All I knew aboutthe territories came from what I’d learned during training.

“So, where did you move, after…” I started to ask Megan as wereined our horses in the direction of the gate where Alia and Sabin werealready waiting for us.

“I’m from the river-bend sector of Suba,” she answered. “I’velived there since… since moving from Satama seven years ago. My mom’s familylives in Suba, so that’s where we went. I lived there until I was old enough tojoin the Academy.”

“Why did you?” I asked. “Join the Academy, I mean.”

“I…”

“Hey, let’s move! I would like to reach our destination before Idie!” Alia shouted, even though by this time Megan and I had reached the gate.

Megan gave me an apologetic look before rolling her eyes andresponding.

“Fine Alia,” she said, gesturing towards the gate. “Lead the way.”

Alia huffed and steered her black stallion southwards.

“Let’s go, Ace,” she said to him, and the stallion took off.Megan, Sabin, and I all followed suit with our own horses and soon the four ofus were on our way.

Gettingto the river was the easy part. Getting the horses loaded onto the ferry was alittle more difficult, but turns out Sabin could communicate with animals (aside-effect of his shifting abilities, he explained), so eventually we wereable to get them on board and into the horse stalls positioned at the very rearof the deck. Then we set off down river.

Ofcourse, the academy hadn’t thought to provide anyone to pilot the boat, so thatduty went to me as I was the one who could control water. I didn’t complain, asit wasn’t a very difficult job and we’d all been trained in how to pilot theacademy boats. Still, it was frustrating that the other three were able tolounge leisurely in front while I sat alone steering in the back.

We hadbeen on the river for three hours before Megan came back to report we would beentering Inon’s waterways soon.

“Weprobably need to slow down some,” she said. “The gate shouldn’t be too farahead.”

“We’dhave to stop for the gate anyway,” I said. “Why slow down now?”

“Theborder patrol has orders to shoot anything moving too fast,” Megan replied.“Inon is a military territory, meaning it’s ridiculously secure. Also the factthat security is tighter at night, and it’ll be getting dark soon.”

I glancedat the sun slowly dipping towards the horizon. She wasn’t wrong there.

“Have youever been to Inon?” I asked.

Meganshook her head. “No. I wanted to come see Zig, but my security clearance wasn’thigh enough.”

“Well,apparently it is now,” Sabin said, as he and Alia joined the two of us. Aliastill refused to meet my eyes.

“That’swhat I don’t understand,” Megan said. “We…” she gestured to herself, Alia, andI “haven’t even graduated yet. They’re not officers, and I’m only a Zeta. Weshouldn’t be allowed clearance to go into Inon. Even you shouldn’t be able to,Sabin, since you’re just a Delta.”

“There issomething odd about this mission,” I commented. “I mean, how often do the sendthree graduation candidates and a leader recruit on a mission like this?”

“You dorealize that Sankruus has been on the verge of war since our grandparents wereour age, don’t you Alec?” Alia asked sharply. “Have you ever stopped toconsider that maybe we were called out on this mission because things havefinally gotten bad enough that they don’t have the luxury of waiting untilwe’ve completed our training?”

I startedto respond, but she huffed and walked across the deck before I go the chanceto. Sabin gave me a partially sympathetic glance before joining her. Beside me,Megan sighed.

“You twoare going to need to figure a way to get along,” she said. “Otherwise thiswhole mission will go up in smoke.”

“I know,”I muttered. “I just… I don’t know what to do to fix it.”

“Well,we’ll be stopped at Zig’s for the evening. Sabin will have to report to thecommanding officer of Inon for mission details, and I’m going to have to gomeet with the head IGS there to replace out just how much information they alreadyhave… maybe you two could talk then?”

I lookedup at Alia.

“Maybe,”I said quietly, not really believing the word myself.

Meganlooked like she was about to say something else, but right as she opened hermouth, her horse whinnied and drew Megan’s attention to behind us.

“Anaia,what is it girl?” Megan asked, reaching out to rub the mare’s neck.

“What’sgoing on?” Sabin asked as he rejoined us.

“Anaia’sspooked over something,” Megan answered. She scanned our surroundings with afrustrated gaze. “I’m not sure over what though.”

Sabinplaced his hand gently on Anaia’s nose and focused on the horse’s face. We’dalready seen him do his horse-whispering trick earlier, but I still admired thecoolness factor of it. Shifting, especially the kind of shifting Sabin did,wasn’t a necessarily common ability, though it wasn’t one of the rarest either.But being able to communicate with animals while not shifted… that wasextremely rare.

“She’ssays there’s something – or someone – trailing us,” Sabin said after a fewbrief seconds. He dropped his hand and ran across the deck to get a better lookat the banks on either side of the river.

“Stillnot over the fact you can talk to horses,” Alia muttered.

“It’s arare talent,” Sabin admitted. “And not one I like to broadcast, but I figuredif we’re all going to be working together on this mission, we should know eachother’s strengths and weaknesses.”

“Uh,right,” Megan said, her face turning slightly pale. I raised an eyebrow at herbut she didn’t notice. “But what…”

“Shh!”Alia hissed, cutting Megan off. “There’s something coming.”

It allhappened at once. Something very fast blew past us while at the same time Sabinwas yanked from the deck by a long green vine.

“Konna!”Alia yelled. She reached for one of the throwing knives at her belt, but didn’tget a chance to use it as a sharp breeze flew past her, knocking her from thedeck and into the river. She came up a few seconds later with a long string ofcurses. Fortunately, Alia was a strong swimmer, and in no time was standing onthe riverbank, shouting more profanities and sending her knives flying in multipledirections.

“Arunner,” Megan breathed. She quickly moved to unlatch the doors on the horses’stalls so that they could get out if the boat were to be attacked. Finishingthat, she grabbed a gun from the holster on her hip. “Not good. Not good atall.”

I grippedthe wheel tightly as the sounds of fighting started to fill my ears. Anabundance of swears came from Sabin as he tried to break free of the vines thatnow entangled his body. He was constantly changing his shape, but that wasn’tworking. No matter what form he took, the vines would just adjust. A ways awaydown river, Alia was shouting her own choice of profanities while she struggledto stay on her feet. Apparently, the runner kept knocking her off balance, andevery time she managed to get upright, he would knock her down again.

“Alec!”Megan shouted. “Get us over there!”

With onlya slight hesitation, I grabbed Megan around the waist and jumped over theboat’s railing, while at the same time summoning a wave to catch us and push usto the bank where Alia and Sabin we’re fighting. Unfortunately, we weren’tsaved from getting drenched in the process.

Meganchecked her guns to make sure they would still fire as I used the water to pullthe boat over to the bank as well.

“I’mgoing to help Sabin,” Megan said. “You help your sister.”

The wordshit me like a ton of bricks, and I didn’t even take notice of Megan shootingher gun at something off in the distance. The shouting quieted as blood rushedinto my ears.

Help your sister.

Thosewere words I hadn’t heard in ten years. Not since that night… the night wheneverything went wrong. Since then, the fact that I even had a sister hadn’tbeen something that was commonly brought up. That is, until earlier today, whenshe reappeared in my life with the force of a hurricane.

Alia’sscream broke me out of my thoughts. My head snapped up in her direction as shegrabbed her arm.

“Youfreaking…” she started, just as the runner made another pass at her. He slowedjust enough for me to see that he was holding a foot long knife, whichapparently he had already landed one blow on Alia with.

Aliamanaged to dodge the knife at the last minute by dropping to the ground androlling out of the way. She jumped to her feet and yelled a few more swearwords at him before thrusting out her good hand—which was now covered in bloodfrom her arm. Knives flew from her belt and shot after the runner, but itdidn’t seem like any were actually hitting their mark.

I tookoff running towards Alia. As I did, I concentrated on the ground below my feet,trying to sense where the runner was and where he would be next. It wasdifficult to do, since he was running so fast, but by the time I reached Alia,I had a decent trace on him.

“Alia,hold your knives steady for a second,” I said.

“What?”she demanded. “Can’t you see I’m trying to pincushion this jerk?”

“Just trustme!” I shouted back. I felt through the earth again, and this time I was ableto pinpoint exactly where the runner was. In one fluid motion of my arms andlegs, I concentrated on creating a barrier around him. The ground shook asthree solid walls erupted from the earth, trapping the runner with only oneexit… the one that was now blocked by Alia and me.

Alia’seyes widened as she looked from me to the runner, who, now that he was stopped,I could easily see. He was dark skinned, with dark hair and eyes, like peoplefrom the Valta territory tended to be. Like most runners typically were, he wasleanly built, but he wasn’t extremely blessed with height.

“Who areyou?” I demanded.

The guyhad the nerve to laugh. “You wish you knew, Parker boy,” he said.

Before Ihad a chance to respond, he vanished right before my eyes. Alia and I bothshouted and braced ourselves, expecting him to try and run past us. It didn’tmake any sense though. Runners didn’t have invisibility powers. Everyone—konnaand sankrin alike—only had one power each. Sure, there were those rare—and byrare I mean once every millennium rare—occurrences where someone might have twopowers, but if that ever happened, the powers were always very simple. Twopowers as dangerous as invisibility and running at super speeds would never becombined. Which could only mean…

“There’ssomeone else,” Alia said. Then she let lose another batch of colorful language.“How could we have been so blind?!”

“Als…”

“Shut up,Alec!” she shouted at me. “I don’t want to hear another word from you,understand? Not unless we absolutely have to. We finish this mission, then wenever see each other again, got it?”

Shestormed away then, flipping her long braid into my face as she did. I was leftstunned for a few seconds before I realized I wasn’t alone.

I tensedthen wheeled around, aiming a punch as I did. The other person was readythough, and caught my punch expertly in his hand. I looked up into his facewith more anger than shock.

“Who areyou?” I snarled.

“Thename’s Tyrone,” he said with a smirk. “And I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot ofmore of each other, Alec. But right now, someone else wants to see you.”

“Who…” Istopped as an immense pain sparked in my fist that Tyrone still had in hisgrip. With complete shock, I saw that a black cloud of energy—or anti-energy, Irealized—was moving down my arm, and along with it, the horrible burning pain,like if my very existence was being burned out of me.

“Enjoydreamland, Parker,” Tyrone said, just as the black cloud reached my shoulder.It spread towards my chest and my head and suddenly I felt everything in myworld going black. Tyrone dropped my hand and my knees gave out. I fell to theground as my consciousness slowly faded. I remember hearing Megan and Aliashouting, and horses riding towards me, and Tyrone’s cold hard laugh. Then,everything went dark.