I nod my head slightly but add, “But I don’t know how to use it. I don’t think I’m doing it right.”
“Here,” he says, pulling out a small gold coin. “Picture this coin sliding around my hand.” I think about the coin moving but nothing happens. “Concentrate. To make your gift work to its best ability, you need to block everything out except the object you want to control. Don’t just picture it moving, but tell it to move in your head. You can do it.”
I clench my fists, hold my breath, and focus on the gold coin in his hand and see nothing else. In my mind, I tell the coin to slide forward on his hand. “Slide forward,” I tell the coin and watch as it slowly but surely moves across his hand. I let out my breath and look to him for a response.
“That was good. This is an easy exercise you should do to help you get better at controlling it. I have one more thing I need to teach you. It seems more difficult, but it actually can be a lot easier. Picture the coin out there,” he pauses, glancing out the window, “but don’t just move it. You have to see it there and it will teleport.”
I look from the gold coin to the ground outside the window. I stare into the ground and imagine the coin lying there until it finally appears. I blink hard amazed by what I see.
“Good, now you need to go,” he pushes.
“Why are you helping me?” I say forcefully and turn to him.
He’s quiet for a minute as if he were looking for the right words, “Because you are meant for more,” he says strongly, holding my stare. “Now go.”
I close my eyes tight and try to picture myself outside as I did with the coin. Suddenly I’m overcome by a cold wind. I open my eyes and now I’m on the outside. The sun has just fallen below the edge of the forest and darkness masks the world. I look up and see the millions of stars scattered in the sky, and I can’t help but smile. I haven’t seen stars in seven years.
I look up to the window where I was just at seconds ago and can make out the man’s face through the bars. I realize I don’t even know his name. I will never know the name of the man who saved my life. He gives me a small nod and then sinks away from the window.
A glint of light from the ground catches my eye and I notice it’s the gold coin. I bend down and pick it up. I hold it between my thumb and finger examining it. On one side there’s a beautiful engraving of the castle with the words Dather stamped under it. On the other side is an engraving of a tree with the words Freedom Islands stamped above it and A Nation Reborn stamped below it. I take in a sharp breath when I recognize the resemblance this side of the coin has to the tree painting back in the castle. Tears threaten to fill my eyes, but I can’t stop now.
I put the coin inside the pocket of my shirt. Then, the quiet cool night bursts into commotion. The main castle doors fly open and I whip around raising my hand just in time to see a large, much more muscular, guard. I’ve only ever seen him once before in my life. His name is Paylon. He is 18 years old but is already the captain of all of our nation’s guards.
I think of him freezing just like I did to the others, except he doesn’t freeze. I realize, almost too late, that somehow he may be immune to my gift because it doesn’t seem to affect him at all. Shock and numbness surge through my body, but I am already so close. Guard after guard starts pouring out of the castle behind him. I turn and run down the rocky road into the maze, and I can hear the guards pick up their pace behind me.
I lift my hand and just picture the bushes splitting apart. The cuts in the bushes aren’t clean, but it’s enough to get me through it. Once I’m through a section I make sure to try my best to close it off behind me so Paylon can’t proceed through it. I make it through the last section in no time and I can see the stretch of forest just a few paces ahead, but what I don’t see is the inconsistency of the rest of the path. I miss my step and drive my head straight into the rocks.
My vision starts to blur and I can’t make my body move. Everything starts to hurt. I can feel my blood trickle down my face. Then I hear the footsteps getting closer to me. At first, I think it’s Paylon, and that he’s finally caught up to me. Then I realize that the footsteps are coming from in front of me.
This is the end. I can feel it, but what I feel instead of a sword being driven through me is the feeling of the guard’s hands lifting me into his arms.
He runs, not toward the castle, but away from it into the woods, and that’s when I lose consciousness. My world is filled with black, but my mind seems to move
