The Wishing Tree - Book Two [Completed]

Giant Obstacles - Part 17

I pull the list out of my dress for the third time that day. When I asked Mason where we were headed, he continued to pack up and merely said, "Around." They accumulated more weapons in the months that I was out of it, but none of them are keen to explain. When I offered to carry some, they all balked at the suggestion. We were walking at a slow and steady pace for a few hours when Mason stopped near a fresh water stream.

"We'll stop here to bathe and to have a brief rest. We need to keep moving."

I roll my eyes. "Why? Why do we need to keep moving? There is no plan. There is no quest without the sequence. Now, it really is aimless."

"Yesterday, I felt sorry for you. Today, you're pissing me off. We're moving because there are an increasing number of people and beasts that are looking for you. While you might be ready to give it all up and start over, Ryan is still struggling to clean up his father's mess. And your mess." He gives me a pointed look and drops his pack to the ground.

My mouth goes dry. "How do you know that there are more people here looking for me?"

Rocco leans against a nearby tree and drops his pack onto the grass. "No one knows that Riven and I are traveling with you. While you were unconscious, we used to go to the friendlier tribal villages to get supplies and to find out information." He shakes his head and glances at Mason, who seems to be watching Rocco closely. "They've started killing babies, elders, pets, whatever matters to people to extract information."

"How can the rebels do that? From my experience, realm jumping is hard, isn't it? How do you gather an army on another realm?" I look at each of them, trying to figure out what I'm missing. There's something they aren't telling me; that look between Rocco and Mason had 'warning' written all over it.

Rocco gives me a dark look and says, "There are ways."

Riven sits on his pack and rubs his arms up and down. "We have a theory, but we don't understand it all. Mason says there used to be a group of people who could jump realms at will."

I frown. "I've never heard of such a thing."

Mason puts his hands on his hips, sighs and starts to explain. "It was a skill passed down from generation to generation. People had to be taught how to do it. It wasn't the only skill these people possessed. They could will things into existence." Mason says, his head down, avoiding my gaze. "Some of their skills weren't realm specific." He moves over to a nearby tree and plucks a leaf from a lower branch, twisting it in his fingers. "Their existence was short lived. Once Grayson took power, he had them all over for dinner, closed the portal that allowed them to travel freely and banished them all."

"All of them?"

"You know the huts?"

"On the Third Realm?"

Mason nods. "There used to be a colony there called the Journeyers. It was a running joke that if you were a Journeyer you were adept at all skills and master of none. But, at some point, they started to become masters of everything they tried. Grayson put a stop to it. I suppose you could call it a holocaust of a sorts, he wiped them clean. That line of people no longer exists."

"Why?"

"They threatened the order of things for Grayson, I suppose. If they could adapt to become more powerful than the ruler chosen by the keepers and the counsel, then what?" He plucks another leaf, still not meeting my eyes.

"Do you think the keepers and the counsel supported Grayson exiling them all?"

"That would make sense - if they didn't support it, they didn't stop it. It's almost the same thing. They didn't oust him then; it was only once Grayson lost control that they made any move to step in. Even then, it took a push from you and Ryan."