* * *
Meanwhile, back in Kyhawn’s home town, Earron and Coita were at the docks. They sat at one of the many tables of the Do-Eats seafood café enjoying some fried baby sea slugs. Earron stared out the window wondering about Kyhawn’s dreams. He turned to Coita. “A ship sailing through a window. What do you think?”
“If you’re talking about Kyhawn’s dreams … they’re weird. He’s weird. His dreams are even weirder. That’s what I think.” He chewed on a fried potato stuffed with fish eggs.
Shortly after, they left the restaurant to help Rembrant, the owner of Omakohak’s famous fish market. When they arrived, old Rembrant was preparing some of his famous smoked fish. The flames grew strong in his smokehouse pit. Rembrant closed the hatch. “You lads ready to work?” He tossed them each an apron.
They enjoyed working for Rembrant. The pay wasn’t much, but he was a friendly old gent. When they finished later that evening, they headed to Emaya’s cottage on the edge of town where many castles stood tall beyond her backyard. It was a place where for the most part, the old city was in ruins. It was also a place where Kyhawn and Earron had once played when they were younger.
But for the moment, Earron and Coita were standing on the small front porch of Emaya’s cottage in hopes of better understanding Kyhawn’s dreams. This time there was a light on inside the cottage. Earron knocked. Moments later the short, thin Emaya opened her door and welcomed them, clearly already knowing what they wanted.
Earron had begun to explain the situation when she gave him an understanding look. “I know what you’re here for—Kyhawn’s dreams. But my nurse is here, so we’ll have to make our visit brief.” She reached for her shawl draped over a kitchen chair behind her and stepped out onto the front porch, closing the octagon shape double doors behind her.
Earron and Coita looked at each other strangely. Coita whispered. “How did she know why we came?”
“I don’t know.” Earron’s dark orange eyes stared at Emaya in hope of answers.
Emaya pulled the shawl around her. It was one she’d carried with her from her homeland of Togmon, the land of meditation and prayer. When she lit the porch lantern, the light exposed the lines on her green, ageless face. “Every time I get an image of a ship in my mind, I see it sailing directly into this window and disappearing. I know I have told you this before. And I wish I could tell you what this means, but the Lords of the Universe will not reveal its meaning to me.”
The door opened. She turned and followed Earron’s stare, glancing over her shoulder at the nurse standing behind her. “This is very important,” she said sharply. “I won’t be long.”
She turned back to Earron and Coita. “The gray birds in Kyhawn’s dreams are an evil sign.” She reached into her pocket. “You lads will have to leave. But take these three crystals with you.” She drew close and embraced them. “You’ll need them. You are a part of his dreams.” She brushed back her long gray hair with a hand. “Though Kyhawn does not realize it, there’s something both of you possess that he needs. It’s nothing you can hold or touch.” She reached out and put her hands on each of their hearts. “It’s inside of you. A part of who you are. A part he does not yet understand about himself. He will need your help.”
She coughed, then cleared her throat, giving them a hopeful look as she opened a small leather pouch. “Each of these crystals possesses a spell that will work upon your enemies.” She held the three crystals out to them. “This amber crystal will blind your enemy, but only for a short while. This violet crystal will cause your enemy to become confused.” She pointed at the third crystal. “Be very careful with this green crystal, and use it wisely.”
“Why?” Coita asked her. “And how are we going to remember which one does what?”
Earron nudged Coita. “Let her finish.”
“As I was saying, be very careful with this green crystal. Only use it in dire need. When you slam it against a solid object, Sydallons will appear and do whatever you ask them to do. But there is no need to tell them, they will know what you’re thinking. The other two crystals work in the same manner. You want to thrust them against a hard surface. However, remember that none of the effects last for longer than a few minutes, including the Sydallons.” She took a piece of parchment from the pouch. “This will remind you what all three crystals will do for you.” She shook the pouch at them. “Don’t forget to say E-no-moa-tos-ess. You have to say E-no-moa-tos-ess after you slam the crystal on a hard surface or the spell will not work. If you forget, the word is also written on the parchment.”
Earron stuffed the pouch in his pocket. “What about Kyhawn’s dreams?”
Emaya’s nurse placed a hand on Emaya’s shoulder. She brushed it off and pulled her shawl tightly around her slim green body. “Besides those gray birds being an evil sign, the rest of his dreams tell me that everyone aboard that ship is in grave danger.”
Earron’s eyes widened with alarm. “Kyhawn’s in danger, you mean.”
She nodded in agreement with sadness in her eyes. There was much she wanted to tell them, but the Lords of the Universe wouldn’t permit her. As if she was, within herself, a part of endless time. She knew deep down that a window in time had opened. And this window in the water was indeed the same window, which would allow either good or evil to take hold and rule the world. She also knew they couldn’t kill the evil, only contain its power. She coughed again, and her nurse said abruptly that she needed her rest.
She embraced them, then took a deep breath. “I’m not well. You lads run along. My nurse doesn’t want me getting worked up over dreams any more.”
Earron glanced at Coita. “Thanks, Emaya.” He grabbed Coita’s arm. “Come on.”
“Wait.” She unfastened a bracelet from her wrist and handed it to Earron. “Please give this to Kyhawn.”
Earron and Coita looked at the bracelet oddly. It was only a chain attached at both ends of an ordinary, but small key, and the end that fastened was at the flat head of the key. “I’ll make sure he gets it,” Earron said as he fastened it around his wrist.
“What’s it for?” Coita asked.
“I can only tell you that he’ll need it some day.” Emaya turned out the lantern. “I’m not sure how just yet, but you lads will be seeing him very soon. And when you do please make sure you give that bracelet to him,” she pointed at Earron’s wrist.
Just then her nurse stepped out on to the porch. “You young Zacs can come back when you have something nicer to talk about.” She waved them on as if she was trying to get rid of flies. She turned to Emaya. “Unless you wish to take another trip to Chamquinil, please come inside before you become ill again.”
Shortly after Earron and Coita returned to the cobblestone road. Before long they’d reached the docks.
Coita nudged Earron’s shoulder. “What now? She left us with more questions than answers. What about those colored stones she gave us? Didn’t Kyhawn say he saw some in his dreams?”
Earron kicked a twig. “He did, but if they were the same, Emaya would have told us. Besides, he saw stones. These are crystals. There’s a big difference between the two. She must know Kyhawn’s in danger or she wouldn’t have given them to us.” He pointed, “There’s Werdna and Nevets’s fishing boat. Hopefully they’re inside the Do-Eats.”
He stopped just outside the restaurant door and turned to Coita. “Don’t say a word about these crystals. Emaya’s not one to play games. Neither am I when it comes to Kyhawn’s safety. Besides, the lives of many others could be on the line.” He stared at Coita as he concealed the bracelet. “Say nothing about this bracelet either.”
“Okay. But tell me, what are Sydallons?”
“They’re hard to describe. Bugs might be one way. They’re eight-to-ten feet tall and always appear in … in kind of the … same form as the closest living bug to where one throws a green crystal. But not just any green crystal—it has to be a crystal holding a spell created by a wizard, or someo
ne like her.”
Coita nodded but with a baffled look on his round face. “They sound awfully scary.”
“They are, when you’re the one they’re after.” Earron turned to him. “You should learn how to read, Coita. That’s how I found out about them. And whether we like it or not, we’re going to have to ask Werdna and Nevets to take us out and search for the Sealander. If they do that for us, we’ll tell them about the crystals, but not until then.”
“I can keep a secret. But that Emaya—she’s weird. She’s green with big ears, and very old. What does she know? Plus she listens to that pushy nurse who tells her what she can or can’t do.” He shook his head. All Coita wanted was to fish and continue to fish without any interference. As far as he was concerned, Kyhawn was leading Earron down a fool’s path. He looked at his best friend, his hands pressed to his hips. “I refuse to ask Werdna and his brother for help again.” Coita took his fishing cap from his back pocket. “Work’s one thing, but don’t ask them about helping us again, please. Occton fishing season isn’t even over for another week. Until then no one’s going to want to go anywhere or do anything but fish.”
Earron opened the door to the Do-Eats Restaurant, but then turned toward the ocean.
Coita glanced at him. “Aren’t you thirsty?”
“What? Yeah, sure.” However, Earron continued to stare at the ocean. They’re out there, and somehow we’re going to find them. Tomorrow morning it will be three days since they’ve been gone. Finally he entered.
As the door closed to the Do-Eats, board the Sealander, the door next to Room 4 opened. Kyhawn and Washburrn heard laughter. But for the moment Kyhawn was angry with himself because he hadn’t succeeded in completely unlocking the chest. He got to his feet and went to the window. He glanced at Washburrn who seemed too involved in his book that he didn’t care about anything else.
More laugher filled the air as Kyhawn watched a parade of Zacs going to the costume party in the dining and entertainment rooms. There were red Zacs, green Zacs, blue Zacs, orange Zacs, yellow Zacs, a few silverish-blue Zacs, and even a mixed-colored red and green Zac with purple hair. Or at least it looked purple under the lanterns light, he thought as they strolled by, decked out in historical costumes of all colors, fashions, shapes, and sizes. It looked like a lot of fun he thought.
Washburrn laid his book on his lap, “Sounds as though that costume dance is about to begin.” He lowered his glasses. “The window, Kyhawn—please close the curtain.”
Kyhawn nodded, feeling a little ill as he realized it was beginning to rain. He remembered the costume party had something to do with his dreams. He shook off the thought, recalling the violence with which he’d ripped his drawings off his bedroom wall. Once again, he decided to ignore his dreams. I can’t figure them out, so why pay any attention to them?
Lighting zipped through the sky. Washburrn glanced at Kyhawn. “Appears we’re in for an early storm. It’s not even winter.”
“Yes,” Kyhawn agreed as he went to the bathroom. After flushing the toilet, he looked at himself in the mirror. Maybe I should have been a fisher-Zac like my father, he thought as he brushed his teeth, then used his fingers to brush his hair. At first he swept his bangs to the side of his face. Then with a flick of his long silverish-blue fingers, he let them hang over his eyes again. Did he like having hair in his eyes, or did a part of him just like hiding behind it? Either way, when he took off his shirt his hair touched his shoulders.
He decided to take advantage of the moment to clean up. He tucked his hair behind his ears and washed his upper body. “That felt great,” he said as he slipped his baggy wheat-colored shirt over his head, then his arms through the long sleeves. Flicking his hair away from his eyes again, he came out and noticed that Washburrn had dozed off. Not thinking much about it, he returned to the chest feeling fresh and ready to defeat its mysterious locking system.