The Quest (47 page)

Authors: Adrian Howell

Tags: #Science Fiction & Fantasy, #Fantasy, #Paranormal & Urban, #Teen & Young Adult

I bowed silently. There was nothing more to say.

Finally, Alia. The Historian looked up into her face with kind pity. “Alia Gifford, I wasn’t thinking of your feelings this morning when I told Adrian about his past. It was not something you needed to hear at your age, and I do apologize.”

Alia smiled at him and said, “It’s okay, Mr. Historian. Besides, not even you are right all the time.”

“How very true,” said the Historian, bowing his head slightly.

“How are we going home?” asked Alia.

The Historian looked up at Alia again, asking, “Have you ever seen the movie,
The Wizard of Oz?”

“No, but Addy read the picture book to me like ten times.”

“At least ten times,” I confirmed.

The Historian chuckled. “Then you already know where this is going, dear Alia. Close your eyes.”

Alia did, and then the Historian said to the rest of us, “Maybe you all want to close your eyes. It will make this slightly less painful.”

I looked once more at Havel, the old man with whom I shared a distant ancestor. He smiled as our eyes met, and then bowed his head, saying, “The wise Historian believes it is meaningless to wish you good luck, Master Howell, but I am not as learned in these matters. I wish you the best of luck. Godspeed your way.”

I returned the bow, and then closed my eyes.

My temperature dropped to zero. It felt like a billion tiny needles piercing every cell in my body, but when I tried to scream, the pain was already gone.

Opening my eyes, I found the five of us standing in the quiet white light of a nearly full moon, at the top of a lonely, grassy hill that overlooked a small farmhouse in the distance.

“Where are we?” asked James, gasping for breath.

“It was only a little past lunch when we left,” said Ed Regis, looking up at the clear night sky. “I’m guessing that we’re on the other side of the world now.”

Looking around, Alia said unhappily, “For a minute, I thought he was really going to send us home. I forgot we didn’t have one.”

“Home is where you make it,” Terry reminded her. “We’ll find a place somewhere.” Then she frowned at her left stump. “He could’ve at least let me go get my hook before sending us away.”

“Nothing but the clothes on our backs,” I said, touching my amethyst to make sure that I still had it. “So this is how it begins.”

I was just as surprised as the Historian at how quickly I had come to terms with his information and what had to be done to restore the balance of power. It was only this morning that we had learned the true name of the last Angel master, but our meeting with the 3000-year-old boy felt like ancient history to me. Out of his mountain, back in my own familiar side of the world, I now felt the crushing weight of what I had promised him, and more importantly, what I had promised myself.

It wasn’t a choice. Or, if it was, it was a choice that I had made long ago, back when Cat and I were still children innocently playing with our powers, trying them out on each other without knowing where they would lead us. Back then, I was her brother, and she was my sister. We were family. Now, years later, as we stood on opposite sides of a raging river, I knew that nothing had really changed but the weather.

How would I find her? How would I kill her? How would I live with it? I had no answers. I didn’t even know what day of the week it was. But I knew what had to be done now. I had to put one foot forward and start the journey.

“So, um, where do we go from here?” asked James.

“Let’s just walk down this slope a bit,” I replied quietly, taking Alia’s hand. “I’m sure we’ll find something.”

This pentalogy will conclude in

PSIONIC Book Five: Guardian Angel

About the Author

Born of a Japanese mother and American father, Adrian Howell (pen name) was raised for a time in California and currently lives a quiet life in Japan where he teaches English to small groups of children and adults. Aside from reading and writing fiction, his hobbies include recumbent cycling, skiing, medium-distance trekking, sketching and oversleeping.

Send comments and questions to the author at:

[email protected]

Introducing Lester Smith’s D6xD6 Role-Playing Game

Adventure in the World of the Psionic Pentalogy

Come adventure in Adrian Howell’s Psionic Pentalogy world as your own unique character, with the D6xD6 Role-Playing Game! If you’re new to role-playing, you’ll find the game a quick-and-easy way to get started: Character creation takes only five minutes. If you’re an old hand at the hobby, you’ll find surprising depth to the system, which one reviewer called “the haiku of role-playing games.” Created by four-time Origins award-winning game designer Lester Smith, the D6xD6 Role-Playing Game is simple but elegant, a marriage of equality between storytelling and game mechanics. It features two dozen different worlds of adventure by professional authors, with new ones being added regularly. So join the secret psionic war in which young Adrian and his friends have become embroiled, and explore countless other worlds besides. To learn more, visit
www.D6xD6.com
.

A Plea for Word-of-Mouth

Thank you for reading
PSIONIC Book Four: The Quest.
The
Psionic Pentalogy
is an independently published work. Consequently, it does not have the big financial support of traditional publishing houses to promote the books, and instead relies much more heavily on reviews and word-of-mouth by readers such as yourself. If you have enjoyed this book, please tell your friends about it. Please give it a mention on any social networking sites you use such as Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. Please also consider leaving a review on your online bookseller’s site. Even if it’s only a sentence or two, it would make all the difference and would be very much appreciated.

Psionic Pentalogy Book Review and Store Links

Follow these links to review this book and get the next in the series:

Amazon.com Review Link for
The Quest

http://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/B00B26LDCU

Amazon Store Links for
Guardian Angel

USA (Amazon.com):

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B7OHHXQ

UK (Amazon.co.uk):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00B7OHHXQ

Canada (Amazon.ca):

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00B7OHHXQ

Australia (Amazon.com.au):