Aqua Jewel

Chapter 7 - The Deal

I collapsed against the hedge as soon as I knew we were safe. I could hear King Trub yelling at us from the other side, but I didn't care. There was no way I would be going back there any time soon.

I just wanted to stand there and catch my breath. I felt so angry I wanted to cry, but I didn't. I couldn't. Not this time. I'd already shown my friends enough weakness by crying. I had to be strong.

I felt a frantic tapping on my shoulder. I looked up to see Lae gesturing dramatically for me to follow her. She wanted to talk, and we could not do that in an area where Trub could hear us. I felt the heat from the early afternoon sun suddenly vanish from my back as we disappeared into the shadows of the trees.

Stress. Confusion. Frustration. Nothing made sense. My thoughts gathered in my eyes in the form of tears that threatened to fall.

It's going to be fine, I told myself. We'll figure it out. Slowly, the tears backed away.

We followed Lae through the forest until I could no longer hear the sounds of the Mencian farm. Lae turned to face us, her expression serious. She meant business.

"We need to talk." She spoke like a mother addressing her young children.

Well, obviously. The king of Mencia was mad and greedy. He clearly hated the untalented and wouldn't be helping Jesburgon any time soon. Now we had to go back empty-handed. I could already see the disappointment in Lia's eyes – only her eyes because her face never showed any emotion. I could already feel the shame. I hated the feeling. But what troubled me the most were the things Trub's mirror had shown me.

I could still see it all. My friends abandoning me, the man holding my necklace, my mother with a dagger flying at her heart. I made a decision then that I would never tell the others what I'd seen. It would just distract them from more important things ... like it was doing to me.

Lae picked up the green jewel of her necklace and placed it in the palm of her hand for all of us to see.

"This is no ordinary jewellery. All of our necklaces seem to be giving us special talents – unlike any I've ever seen before.

I nodded, not wanting to speak for fear that I would burst into tears.

"I've had this since my parents gave it to me on my tenth birthday, but it didn't start glowing until recently," argued Nika.

Lae thought about it. Her eyes darted around as if she were visually connecting the dots. After a minute of silence, except for the leaves rustling in the light breeze, Lae replied.

"Remember back on the train? The necklaces kind of connected ... like magnets. That must have activated them or something."

I nodded again. I hadn't done any thinking, but she was right.

"Wait," said Nika. She set Tweep on the ground as she spoke. "The Globe of Tarahabi said we were all untalented. The Globe has never been wrong before."

"She's right," put in Rennoc.

I looked to Lae for an answer but Haras spoke instead.

"These aren't our talents," he realized. They belong to our necklaces. That's why the pendants glow whenever we use them."

A dreadful silence followed those words.

That must have been why King Trub wanted the necklaces so badly. They contained extraordinary talents. If one possessed them all, they would quite possibly have more power than the Seers. I promised myself that I would do everything I could to keep my beautiful blue necklace from falling into the wrong hands.