I stared at my brother wide-eyed, my jaw dropping, "We have to go back and warn the others. They need to know who he really is."
Karl picked up the book and passed it to me. As I held it in my hands, I examined it and noticed that it was a small silver book with our tribal symbol (a fist engulfed in flame) carved onto the leathery cover.
"I managed to get my hands on Sios' spell book and learned some easy spells. Chester, since you too were on his list of rivals, I assume that you'll be able to use them as well.
'The defense spells come first, then the attack ones and the non – verbal spells come towards the end."
Chester nodded and I opened the book. On some of the thick white pages, we could see the familiar scribbly handwriting of the man we once called Chief.
"He stole it from Father after killing him," Karl explained. "I stole it back the day before he left me to die."
I flipped through the soft pages. There were spells and incantations written in beautiful gold and blue ink, in small, cursive handwriting.
My brother then turned to Morgan, Tula and me, "I assume you remember the way back." He said, his voice having turned monotone. Morgan and I nodded, Tula thought for a second then nodded as well. "Ok, let's get going," Karl began, "The sooner Chester and I get back to the village, the better." Chester nodded, a look of fear in his eyes. I tried to give him an encouraging pat on the shoulder, but he shook me off.
We packed all our things and made our way out of the cave in single file, with Morgan at the lead and Chester at the back. We followed the winding path back to the riverside, and we followed the river north until we found the small cavern in which we had left our boat.
As Morgan and I led the way back, I could hear Karl telling Chester how to use the spells in the book and why he had been chosen and put on Chief's list. "He knows if you have the gift when you're born," I heard him say, "He can see it in the eyes. You and I, we're different. Our eyes are paler than usual, and our hair is golden. The rest of the villagers don't see it as something important, but 'Father' knows better."
"But what about your sister?" Chester asked. I knew that he was talking about my telepathy.
"She's different. I read somewhere that long ago, when 'Father' first became our chief, he had enemies. They had similar abilities to my sister's and they were the only ones who could take away his magic by going into is mind and erasing his memory of it."
Hearing this, I stopped. "I can do that?" I asked, turning to face Karl, "I can take away his magic? I can take away memories?" I never knew how strong my powers were, I thought it was just mind reading, but it was much more than that. It was baffling. "I don't know what you can do," Karl began, a thought creeping into his mind, "You might be able to do much more. You might..."
"Might what?" I demanded.
"Well, it is said that the people of old were able to kill with just a thought, I don't know for sure, but you might be able to do that, too."
"No way," Tula said suddenly, "Not Sela, she's too pure, too young an innocent to kill."
Everything swirled around me. I thought that my telepathy was just something small, just a bit of mind games, but I was so wrong. I shivered at the thought of having the ability to kill someone by thinking about it. I didn't want to use that power, I didn't want to kill.
"But," said a voice in my head, "If it's that man, the man you once called chief, the man that cheated us all, would you?"
"If it's the chief I must kill, then so be it. He nearly killed my brother, he killed my father, he killed countless other fathers and sons before them. If that's the only way to save the village, then I will."
I thought I said that in my head but the looks of horror on my companions' faces made me think otherwise. "I said all that aloud, didn't I?" I asked, already knowing the answer. No one said anything, but the murmurs and simultaneous nodding confirmed my thought. I hung my head and turned around, and without looking back I motioned for the others to follow me.
The journey back to the boat was a quiet one. Since I said what I said, no one would speak to me, they looked at me with doubt and I knew that they were afraid of me. "Karl," I began, "Does he have anything other than magic to defend himself with?"
"Well," Karl replied, "he has these.... Things. These creatures that take the form of your greatest fear. They feed on fear, so the more scared you are, the worse it gets."
I took a deep breath. There was still such a long way to go, we were still so far from the end. We found Karl, but that wasn't even half of our quest yet.
"If we're going to do this," I began, "I'm going to need you to trust me. I don't want to work with people who only put up with me because they're scared not to. Just because I might be able to kill one human, doesn't mean I want to."
I looked at my companions, they seemed more relaxed, however, they still seemed unsure about being near me, for they kept their distance. After what seemed like an eternity of silence, Morgan finally spoke. "I trust you, Sela," She said, "I know you would never intentionally hurt anyone."
I nodded, Morgan knew me well, I couldn't help but smile a little. I looked over to Chester, Tula and Matt, who all seemed to agree with what Morgan had said. "Well then," I said with a grin, "Chester, Tula, set sail for the village. We're going to save our people." Almost instantly, everyone raced to their stations, and we were on our way home.