The Acolytes of Crane (Theodore Crane, #1)(89)

“I have not always been as strong as I’d like to be. Just as the crushing pressure was starting to make me buckle down even more to the floor, he waved his hand in the air. Suddenly, I was free.”

King Trazuline gazed at me admiringly and said, ‘You have fight within you, but you lack the patience to make it work. I am your last hope in the multiverse. Can't you see that?’

‘Yes, your majesty,’ I said. As if I had a choice of words.

To my surprise, the king’s features softened as he stared at me. He clapped his hands and motioned for the guards to take the boys away. ‘Take them to their rooms!’

The boys twisted their heads around with pleading eyes as I saw them leaving, my heart sinking. What did Trazuline want with me? Was he trying to isolate me? Why?

The king looked at me in the eyes for a few more seconds, and he turned to the doors to ensure that everyone was gone. He mouthed the words, ‘I want to speak to you alone.’

Nodding, I say nothing. I sense he doesn’t want me to speak. He seemed worried about being overheard.

‘Follow me,’ the king mouthed to me as he beckoned at me. I walked in lock-step behind him as he led me to a secret door in the room. ‘Step inside.’


I did.

The door shut electronically. He breathed a sigh of relief, and said, ‘This room is powered by magnetism. The electromagnetic field around this chamber keeps Dietons outside. What we say in this room, stays in this room.’

My heart beat as I realized his apparent change of heart—or his well-crafted plan. ‘Why would someone create a room to keep Dietons away?’

The king’s eyes took on an appearance of innocence. What a change from that brash display in the strategy room. ‘Could you imagine living in your house on Earth with absolutely no privacy? Imagine going to the bathroom, while cameras watch you and document every move you make. How would that make you feel?’

It was an easy answer. ‘Vulnerable.’

‘Precisely. We are in an age of peril, Mariah. No one to trust.’

‘Why should we trust you?’ I asked. I’d had enough of Zane. We trusted him, and look how far it got us.

The king held his hands up in the air, temporarily lifting his robes off the floor. He turned his back to me. ‘I have given you a purpose. Zane was deathly afraid of you all staying on his ship because of your unbridled spirit. I was the one who seized the opportunity to solve Zane’s problem and make him happy. But he doesn’t know everything.’

He cackled at me. ‘Mariah, I know Theodore is alive. His ship crashed on another planet.’

My blood chilled. ‘What! How do you know that?’

He whispered to me, ‘Because I helped him escape.’

I stood stunned. This powerful discipline of Zane, standing right before me, was admitting to something that could cost him his life— treason. His pungent stench was also starting to overpower me again. It was hard to think straight.

‘Where is Ted?’ I demanded, furious that he’d been hiding a secret from us.

‘I can’t tell you. We have to work together.’

‘Wait a minute,’ I said, stepping back from him. ‘You know where he is, and you’re not telling us? How can we work together if you don’t tell us?’

‘Please understand,’ he asserted. ‘It could endanger all of us to have such valuable information. Zane could crush you all, and I would be powerless to stop him.’

‘Where is Ted?’ I insisted.

‘Work with me. I will tell you.’

I gazed at him, furiously thinking. Why was he speaking to me alone? Was he trying to pry our team apart, one by one? Aha, I thought. We were the key to getting Ted back, and Trazuline was pretending to be the good cop. After Ted reached out to us, and Zane captured him, Zane would just terminate us all and amply reward his loyal subject Trazuline for luring us. I had to play my hand carefully.

‘It makes perfect sense,’ I lied through my teeth. ‘I need to discuss this with my team.’

Trazuline visibly relaxed at my apparent change of heart. ‘That's fine. Just think about what I have said. We could rescue Theodore together.’

‘Thank you very much for giving us this valuable information. You have given us fresh new hope.’ I left the chamber, shaking over the revelation about Ted still being alive.

“Before I exited, Trazuline whispered. ‘Be very careful how you tell your team. Everywhere, Zane’s spies may be eavesdropping on you.’”

“This sounds like something straight out of a spy story. What did you do?” the warden asks, flashing his teeth.

“I took control of the team, because someone had to. When I caught up to the boys, I said, ‘Wait up, you guys. Listen to me for a second. Let's all meet in the recreational lounge, after we put up our stuff.’”

We requested for the guards to let us mingle by ourselves in one of the lounges. It was a huge lounge, and we positioned ourselves inside the center, playing a game of electronic shuffleboard. The magnetic disks sailed along with ease on the marble floor as we babbled to each other, holding our electronic shuffleboard paddles straight up as if they were walking sticks. The guards were far away, taking our activity as a sign that they could ease up. They appeared bored, and reveled in the opportunity to gossip among themselves.