Phenomena (Chapter 17)

Jepp knelt in front of April and spoke to her in a calm voice. "April, talk to me."1

She tore her eyes away from Cy and looked at Jepp. Doubt chased fear as emotions played on her face, and latent tears glistened in her eyes as the lamplight shone in them. Jepp searched April's eyes as if looking for an explanation, then he turned and looked at Cy and said with a grimace, "Well, it seems like Cy's gotten us into more trouble."2

He turned back to April and asked, "How did you meet Cy?"3

April looked at away for a moment then back to Jepp, and she began to explain, from her recent memory, how Cy had found her in the clearing in the forest. She told him of her memory loss and all that Cy had related to her of her sudden appearance. She hesitated for a second before telling him about the trance that seemed to overtake her at sunset and what Cy had experienced when she was in the trance. All the while Jepp sat quietly listening to all she related. When she finished, Jepp asked her, "You still don't remember anything about yourself?"4

"Nothing," said April. "At least nothing that's really clear. It's like there's a cloud over all my memories. The memories are there, but they're too hazy to make sense out of them."5

Jepp nodded then said, "I don't know what Cy has told you, but he's not just a hermit hiding himself in the woods. He's much more than that."6

April looked quizically at him, and Jepp sighed, a long, deep sigh borne of frustration. "April, you need to know the truth," he said softly.7

"Cy is a very special person," Jepp told her.8

He squatted on his heels on the floor, and began to tell the story of how he and Cy had met and become friends.9

"Cara and Celaine and Cy had all known each other since they were tots. My folks moved here when I was near about grown."10

"You were twelve, Jepp," Cara offered sarcastically from the other side of the room.11

Ignoring Cara, Jepp continued, "I got to know Cy because of Cara and Celaine. Even back then something about Cy marked him as different. He wasn't exactly a loner, but he spent a lot of time off by himself, out in the wildest parts of Marntz and Stell's Reach. He used to tell us stories, fantasies I called 'em, but only for a while."12

"One day, oh, I'd say more than 30 years ago it was, a man and his wife were killed, horribly mutilated, by members of the Obsidian Order. They botched the job, though. They failed to detect the man's young son hiding in the grate beneath the fireplace. The child witnessed the murder of his parents, and he had seen the faces and heard the names of the men who had done it."13

"The four men responsible for the killing fled the city, heading for the hills and Stell's Reach, then for Breach Pass and the lands of Hosha. The four made a mistake, though, of picking the house where Cy and his parent's lived as the one they would take over for the night. Cy's father told the story later of how the men had said they wanted to 'entertain' themselves for the night."14

Jepp looked at his hands and paused for a second or two, then looked back at April.15

"Cy's father said the two of them, he and his wife, having fed the men, were standing in the kitchen when Cy walked in from visiting Celaine that night. His father told us how when Cy opened the door all four of the men turned to look, and how Cy began to shimmer and then disappeared. Almost immediately after Cy vanished, the four men all fell to the ground, dead, cut to ribbons in an instant, and Cy was nowhere to be found."16

"About an hour later Celaine showed up with Cy. He complained of a terrible headache, and went to lie down while Celaine sat there and explained to Cy's father how Cy had knocked on her window and begged her to run away with him. She had pushed him away, but when she did she felt how feverishly hot he was. When she touched his forehead to be certain, she knew he was very sick."17

Jepp looked down and said, "From that day on, I never heard Cy or his parent's say anything else about what had happened that night."18

Jepp paused again, longer this time, as if to compose what he had to say next.19

"That's not the only time strange things have happened around Cy, either. I could tell you a dozen tales that would raise your hair on end. I can't tell you how Cy does it or why he has this incredible power, but I can tell you I know that Cy is a good man, a better man than I am, I'm not afraid to admit. I've seen it too many times and shown in too many ways."20

A noise from Cy caught Jepp's attention. He stood up and moved toward Cy when the door suddenly burst off its hinges, knocking him down. Black robes began to fill the room as men from the Obsidian Order swarmed inside, and Cy began to shimmer.