Prologue
“How sad, it is, when youths such as these are unbefitting there post. It is ever sad.”
“Why sad? Who are unfit?”
“You know the ones. Ever so sad, they were both so young and promising, each with their own strength that could have been so beneficial for us all, but now . . .”
“What’s wrong with them? They are a wonderful pair of –“
“No, not a wonderful pair. You need to understand that the strength of an individual Cydarien must grow when connected to their rightful match. It was not so for these two; they were a flawed match.”
“How are you sure?”
“My friend, you are still too young to understand the delicacies of a Cydarien pairing; it is something delicately handled, not something left up to happenstance. This matching was false.”
“What are you saying . . . ?”
“They are a defected pair.”
Chapter One
“It’s the wand that chooses the wizard, Harry. It’s not always clear why –” The rest of John Hurt’s worlds were lost as the subway came roaring down the tunnel and came to a screeching halt in the station. Gabriel Nelson pulled his ear-buds out and wrapped them around his iPod once he paused the movie. Moving around the human herd lumbered off the subway, the lanky boy slipped into one of the now empty subway cars. No one would be taking the ride from the city center to the suburbs at seven in the morning. He knew he would be one of the only ones. He dropped his rucksack in the seat next to him and leaned his head against the window.
The subway rumbled and roared through long stretches of black tunnels coming to another stop. Gabe looked over his shoulder across the track. There was a crowd waiting for the train going in the other direction, but on his side the platform was empty. He leaned back and closed his eyes as the subway pulled out of the little station. It disappeared back into one of the tunnels, plunging Gabe back into the cocoon of noise. Then he heard it open; a subway’s sound has a specific closeness when in the tunnels, but in the open air, that sound is swept away by the wind not bounced back by concrete walls.
When Gabe heard this change he opened his eyes and smiled at the view outside the subway windows. The sun was rising at his back and shedding its warm dawn light over the river and the town. It wasn’t a town of little white houses and neat gardens, but of warehoused and ship docks. The cranes that laded the ships towered over the squat brick warehouses, already active in the early morning, they stretched on for miles along the broad river, standing life the skeletons of some prehistoric creatures in the slowly lifting fog. Even over the sounds of the subway train Gabe could hear the low bellow of a barge horn as it slid slowly under the suspended train tracks.
The train swept past the river and ran over the tops of streets and buildings. The scenery began to change from warehouses to office buildings, and then to shops and apartment complexes. They all bore a similar dankness and ruddiness as if they had all had the same mix of dirt and ash smeared over their walls. The vividly colored graffiti was the only things that was bright and fresh. This morning, though, the golden sunlight flushed new color into the pallid facades and made the dirty and dark windows glow. The view was lost when the train was enveloped by another tunnel. It came into another station, this one closed in by rough brick walls, but an open ceiling criss-crossed with bare I beams and wire. The platform was almost empty save for a wizened old woman with her head bowed and her back bent with the weight of the bags in her hands. When the subway stopped she shuffled into one of the cars.
They were soon underway again. Dark tunnels of concrete and graffiti adorned complexes began to give way to hedges and suburbs. The next stop was as empty as the last save for a girl about Gabe’s age. She stepped into his car and sat across from him with her legs crossed. She wore a headscarf and a skirt down to her ankles, and though it was spring and already starting to get warm, her blouse sleeves reached her thin wrists. He gave her a smile hello, and a nod. She gave the same back, if much more shyly. He could tell from the blue-plaid of her skirt and the crest on the sweater in her lap that she was from one of the other private schools, but he didn’t mind. Unlike many of the other members of his school he wasn’t as fiercely competitive against the other two in the area. It just wasn’t his nature.
Arriving at their stop, Gabe and the girl got off the subway and walked out of the station. When they arrived at the street they walked in separate directions. While walking he paused at a street corner to tuck his shirt in to his khakis before he crossed the street and went in the front gate.
Saint Blasius School for Boys actually wasn’t a religious school despite its name. Its school colors were red and white, and it’s crest bore two crossed candles, and there was no way of mistaking it because the school was always smothered with team regalia. The parallel all-girls school was Saint Catherine’s. Normally Gabe would have walked across the grounds of St. Blasius to the back fence which faced the back of St. Catherine, but with Melody still away, there was no point. Instead he took out his cell phone and texted her.
Morning Melody,
Hope u slept well,
Luv u,
-Gabe
With a smile he walked up the front stoop past some other boys waiting for the doors to open. He took a tie out of his rucksack and tied it in front of his reflection in the double-door’s glass panes.
“Man, you ever come dressed right?” one of his friends came up behind him. Kyle was a big, rough-voiced New Yorker who had moved into the area the year before. He looked like the usual image of a black thug, but Gabe had learned the first day of school that year that he was the sweetest most considerate guy in St. Blasius. “Here, let me help you with that.” He took Gabe’s tie and straitened it neatly against his neck. Gabe smiled and the two walked in together as the bell rang.
The school day went by with the usual sluggishness of a Monday. Just because it was an expensive private school didn’t mean its student’s felt that much different than any place else. Gabe found that even these rich uppity kids still did the little silly things some of the public school kids did. To his dismay one of those things landed right in front of his as he was about to fall asleep and slip out of his hand, the one thing keeping his head up.
“Folding paper airplanes, Mr. Nelson?” His English teacher asked threateningly as she plucked the offending object from in front of him. He looked up surprise, but she didn’t wait for a response so he didn’t offer one. He glared down the line of desks when he heard some snickering, but when one of the boys mouthed an apology he waved it away.
The next class was even less eventful. Gabe sat staring out the window at the Victorian spires of St. Catherine. He missed her so much. The image of the gentle smile floated back to him and he imagined her in California on the beach with her family. She would probably have started to tan by now. Gabe imagined her with her rich dark hair hanging around her shoulders, her dark eyes glittering as she grinned. What kind of bathing suit would she be wearing? His mind dressed her in a frilly yellow one-piece; it was something she would have liked. He then considered one more sexy and found himself in his mind’s eye standing behind her as she tied the neck of a sky-blue string bikini and his heart fluttered as he imagined seeing her bare shoulders in the light of a sunset over the water.
“Will you grace us with your presence this morning, Mr. Nelson.” Gabe turned abruptly back to his teacher, blushing as though he could read his thoughts. “That’s better,” his Physics teacher smiled going back to what he was writing on the board. Being a favored student had kept Gabe on the good side of most of his teachers, to his good fortune. But even as he stared at the board and listened to Mr. Collin’s explanation of electromagnetic waves, his mind was on the beach kissing Melody’s neck and holding those perfect shoulders.
“Wake up, Gabe, where’ve you been?” Kyle asked as they gathered their lunch.
“Physics class, same as you.”Gabe grinned as he plucked up a plate of chicken breast.
“No, man, I’m talking about where you’re head’s been.”
“Guess what’s happening tomorrow.” He said excitedly, completely ignoring Kyle’s statement. The guy gave a sigh befitting his large stature, “I don’t know,” Kyle said sarcastically as if he hadn’t already heard Gabe tell him every day for the last two weeks, “You’re getting a puppy?” He had run out of inventive statements last Thursday.
“Mel-Mel’s coming home!” Gabe said it with such a wide and cheerful grin that Kyle couldn’t help but smile with him.
“Alright, lover-boy, let’s see if we can find a place to eat.”
“Oh, come now,” Gabe put on something like a mock-Shakespearian air, “How can thou think of food over the thought of our love returning to us?”
“Your love, Gabe, not mine.” Kyle sat at one of the cafeteria tables, “My girl’s at collage; I’m not going to get to see her till the weekend.”
“If I’m lucky I’ll get to see her after school tomorrow!” Gabe said excitedly sitting across from his friend. Kyle laughed softly to himself, shaking his head as he began to poke at his green beans. He chose to describe himself with two words; “Is ignored.”
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