The Shadow Mask Read online

  “There are no limits to your potential,” Mr. Singh said, lowering his voice to a barely audible whisper. “The inner worlds are real. The universe is nothing but the Mind. I can teach you the occult arts — bilocation, astral travel, necromancy. All are possible.”

  “Necromancy?” I mumbled. My head was spinning, and nothing seemed real. It was all I could do to repeat Mr. Singh.

  “Yes, necromancy. Communication with the dead. That is very possible, Leo. It was Madam Marie Rathbone’s specialty.”

  “That is how my mother and your grandfather met,” Crane chimed in. “She helped your grandfather Tiberius communicate with his dead wife. My beloved mother established a channel between Tiberius and your late grandmother Pearl, who told him to accept my mother’s love. So you see, Leo, this is your true family history. This is who you are. You cannot hide the truth of your life from me anymore. I believe in you.”

  The ground was shaky under my feet, almost nonexistent. I had no idea what was keeping me from falling through the floor. I could barely recognize anything around me. Not the tent, not Crane, not Mr. Singh.

  “I feel … sick … dizzy….”

  “Of course you do, Leo. You are unrooted, without footing. You have tried to have it both ways. You have tried to live two lives, and now both are dissolving. It is time to choose a side — either be a normal boy who goes to school and accepts the normal rules or become so much more than that. You will know the secrets and be able to hold Truth in your hand. The choice is yours. Now, pick up the mask, Leo, and show us what you can do.”

  Crane picked up the twin mask and held it out to me. I stayed perfectly still for a long time, looking at it, at Crane, at Mr. Singh, trying to find something real, something solid to hang on to. Finally, I took a deep breath and looked Crane in the eye.

  “Maybe I do have a power, Crane,” I said, feeling a smile not my own spread across my face. “And maybe I don’t. But if I did, it’d take a lot more than a Sikh knife to get me to perform for you.”

  Crane threw his head back and let out a belly laugh. Then he put the mask back into the suitcase and slid it off the desk. Mr. Singh nodded at Crane. “Have it your way, Leo. The time will come. Now run off to bed. You’ll need your sleep for tomorrow.”

  As soon as I left Crane’s tent, my mind began reeling and swarming with questions. Was it a bluff, or did he and Mr. Singh really know about my power? And what about everything Mr. Singh was saying about the occult arts, like necromancy? And what about my father’s warning, the words he wrote me in the letter I opened on my thirteenth birthday, only a month before, when he told me of my birth on an uncharted island and left me that blue disc that awakened my power? His words rang in my mind: Always keep this a secret. Tell no one about your history. It is for you and you alone.

  Was he warning me, telling me how deal with men like Crane? Or had he somehow foreseen that Crane, with his scheming ways, would bribe me into his service and then trap me into revealing what I’d been warned never to reveal? Had I revealed too much? Was this all a test? I had no answers.

  I staggered around the campsite in a daze. Nothing was as it seemed. Everything around me seemed alive and moving, thinking and plotting. The trees swaying in the wind weren’t really trees, and the wind was like the breath of an alien. At one point, I drew my kirpan, the metal swooshing as I held the blade in the air and growled at the dark wall of jungle, “Who’s there? Show yourself!”

  Far before sunrise, the entire camp was awakened by a horrible shrieking. Everyone rushed out of their tents, bleary-eyed and in varying stages of undress, to find Crane’s driver, Lim Sum, wailing and trembling on the jungle floor by the river. Some of the other porters tried to calm him, but it was no use. Dr. Haga interpreted.

  “Lim Sum has had a terrible nightmare,” he said, leaning over his shaking and sobbing body. “He claims an evil mountain toh is following our party. The mission is cursed.”

  The sun was still an hour from rising, but all of the stars were blocked by thick, dark clouds. A warm wind was blowing from the northeast, rattling all the thousands of leaves in the jungle.

  “Well, Lim Sum,” Crane said. “That was a rather rude awakening, but now that we are all up, I suggest we depart at once. We are within twenty miles of the fork, and if we leave now, we could arrive by early afternoon.”

  “Mr. Rathbone,” Dr. Haga said, still tending to Lim Sum. “Have you looked to the skies? It seems the weather will be most extreme today. I’m certain many of the porters would agree we should not break camp.”

  “What do you suggest we do, Leo?” Crane said, gazing across everyone at me. “The expedition will follow your lead.”

  I felt everyone looking at me, especially Diana and Dr. Reed, but I didn’t return their gazes or ponder the question for a second. “We should leave now,” I said.

  “Are you certain, Leo?” Dr. Reed asked. “We’re still in the tail-end of monsoon season, and —”

  “And why are you in such a hurry, Leo?” Diana asked, stunned and deflated.

  “Come now, everyone, what’s a little weather?” Crane said. “We’re human beings, not animals. We tame nature, we tower over it. We don’t run from a little rain.”

  “But, Mr. Rathbone —” Dr. Haga started.

  “I’ll hear no more of it,” Crane said. “Leo is my voice in this matter, so if you wish to question his judgment, realize that you are also questioning mine. We leave in twenty minutes.”

  “You heard the boss,” Klevko said, clapping his hands. “Let’s go now. Move.”

  “Wait a moment,” Dr. Haga said. “We are missing two of the porters, Kavi and Cyril. And a boat is missing, as well.”

  “I sent them downriver last night, to search for …” Crane said, trailing off.

  “Why wasn’t I informed?” Dr. Haga asked.

  “Because I am their boss, Haga. Now back to work, everyone, and no more questions.”

  As Hollis and I went to our tent to pack up our gear, he let out a long sigh.

  “I’m sick of that longboat. I’m sick of talking about tohs and evil spirits. And why are you in such a rush, when we could just take a day off and hang out here with Diana and Dr. Reed? I really like them.”

  “I like them, too,” I said. “They’ll be back in New York in six months.”

  “I just hate to say good-bye, that’s all.”

  “Me too. But the faster we say good-bye, the faster we find the mask and go home. And then, we’ll be back at the same school. If you want, Hollis, I’ll call everybody from Mom’s old quartet to help you find a new music teacher.” I didn’t mention that I was also planning to ask them as many questions about Antarctica as I could, to help prepare for my fact-finding mission. They’d been with my parents on the trip, and were the last ones to see them before they took a small plane out to look at glaciers … and never returned.

  “I’m still deciding about that,” Hollis said. “I’m not really sure what to do.”

  “Well, get packed up for now, and we can talk about it on the river.”

  I put The Immortal Underground in my bag, zipped it up, and moved on to Hollis’s bag, shoving everything of his in as fast as possible.

  “Hey, Leo, last night I was reading that Borneo book you’re so obsessed with,” Hollis said.

  “Really?” I said, avoiding his eyes and pretending that it took all my concentration to pack his bag, as I tried to figure out exactly what he knew and how to respond. The truth? Partial truth? Lies? My mind raced through all of them, but I took the easiest way: stony silence.

  “Yeah, it was really weird,” he continued. “Just a bunch of boring stuff about glaciers and rock layers.”

  I laughed. “I have to admit, it was pretty boring at first, but the author was just providing a very thorough history … of Borneo. She has some interesting ideas.”

  Dr. Reed stuck her head in our tent.

  “Leo, can I steal you for a moment? I need to talk to you.”

  “I�
��m not finished packing yet, Dr. Reed. Can it wait?”

  “Till when, Leo? We’ll go our different ways in a matter of hours.”

  She was upset, and I couldn’t blame her. I’d been avoiding just this conversation the whole trip. She had to know by now that this was not merely a pleasure cruise. She was too smart not to figure out something was off. I didn’t know what she knew, but I didn’t want to find out. Cornered as I was in my tent with my web of deceit, I stayed silent.

  Thankfully, I was saved when Klevko trotted up to the tent.

  “You look very beautiful this morning,” he said to Dr. Reed, who had pulled her head out to face him. “Come with me. Crane waits for the lovely lady.”

  “For what?” she said.

  “To talk to you. You must. It concerns your transportation to the Kayan village after we drop you at the fork. There is some problem.”

  Dr. Reed sighed loudly and stomped away, saying she’d be right back. Klevko popped his head inside the tent.

  “We leave, five minutes,” he said, and gave me a knowing nod. Klevko to the rescue!

  I’d dodged that bullet, but I didn’t know how much more of this I could take. I just wanted to get on the boat as fast as possible and get our mission done, without having to explain myself to anyone. So as soon as I had Hollis’s bag packed, I left the tent and found a hidden spot on the riverbank to wait it out until we were ready to go. I watched as all the tents were taken down, the bags packed and loaded, and the campfire buried. I saw Dmitri stuff his duffel of stolen goods under another larger bag of supplies. I also watched Diana wander around the campsite without a course, as if she were lost. Maybe she was just looking for me. At least, that’s what I hoped.

  When the expedition was ready, I abandoned my hiding spot and crept through the dusky shadows to Hollis, Tamon Dong, and our waiting boat. As I approached the embankment, Diana and I made eye contact. She looked at me with a puzzled expression, almost identical to the face Hollis had made when I told him about my power. She opened her mouth to say something but then stopped and looked over my shoulder.

  “Would you mind, Hollis, if I rode with your brother today?” I spun around to find Mr. Singh standing there, cane in hand. “Leo and I have important things to discuss.”

  Hollis was already in the back of the boat with his gedang between his knees. “Yeah, I do mind, Mr. Sting. I mind a lot.”

  “The name is Singh,” he said. “There is no t.”

  “Actually, Hollis,” I said. “Um … Mr. Singh and I have some plans to go over. Could you maybe ride with —”

  “Are you kidding me, Leo?” he said much too loud. And at that, Dr. Reed headed over to check out the problem.

  Quickly, I huddled with Hollis and whispered to him.

  “Chief, it’s about the … you know … thing we’re going to find. It’s really important. Can you just play along? Just for today. And not a word to anyone, right?”

  He rolled his eyes, but I could trust him not to talk.

  “What’s going on, Leo?” Diana asked, and by the look in her eyes, I knew it was a question with about four different meanings. I chose to answer it as superficially as possible.

  “We’re just switching up boat assignments,” I said. “Can Hollis ride with one of you today?”

  “Of course,” Dr. Reed said. “You want to come with me, sweetie?”

  He nodded.

  “Hurry up, you laggards,” Crane screamed from his boat, which had just pushed out onto the river. He was riding with Klevko today. “Let’s move at once!”

  Dr. Reed took Hollis to her boat, and that left Diana alone.

  “Hey, babe,” Dmitri said, walking up to her and stretching his arms over his head, showing her a touch of his ever-present armpit. “I guess there’s only my boat left. You’re a lucky girl.”

  Diana stared right at me and snarled, so angry she couldn’t even speak.

  “I’ll explain it all —” I began.

  “You’re a jerk, Leo,” she snapped. She stomped her feet and turned away. “A real jerk.”

  “Come on, babe,” Dmitri said, and tried to grab her arm.

  “Get away from me, you creep.”

  “I’m just being friendly. I’m just like Leo, only more fun.”

  “If I catch you staring at me with those little beady eyes, I’ll poke ’em out with my …” she said, her voice fading as they walked away.

  I glanced over at Dr. Reed’s boat and caught Hollis’s eye for a moment. I put my finger up to my lips. He nodded. Turning to my own boat, I found Mr. Singh in the back, legs crossed, hand in his chin, his dark eyes studying me.

  “Quite a bit of excitement,” he said.

  Except for the grinding motor and Hollis’s thumping drum from far ahead of us, Mr. Singh and I rode in silence until long after the sun rose. I kept waiting for him to talk. I knew he would try to find out more about my power. When I couldn’t wait any longer, I broke the silence.

  “How come you wanted to ride with me, Mr. Singh, even though I refused to give you a demonstration last night?”

  “That did not concern me, Leo. In fact I was impressed with your fortitude. Had you tried to touch the mask, I am certain nothing would have happened.”

  “Why?”

  “Without training, psionic powers such as yours only operate when they are needed, when normal forms of communication are unavailable. For instance, those who are isolated, imprisoned, or nearing death — those in great pain — are often able to transmit a psychic message or gain psionic powers.”

  I kind of understood what he was talking about. Trevor and I had tried to really study how my power worked, but anytime we set up an experiment, it never activated.

  “Let’s say I had this so-called power,” I asked him. “Why do you think that touching isn’t necessary?”

  “Leo,” he said, and paused, letting river sounds into the conversation. “The hand grasps, but only the Mind touches.”

  “I don’t get it. You mean I can touch things with my brain. I’m —”

  “You are too eager for answers, Leo. Have patience. When I say Mind, I do not mean the miniscule chunk of brain inside your skull.”

  “Hey, my brain isn’t miniscule.”

  “Compared to Mind, which is infinite, it is. Soon, you will understand that there is only Mind. Tell me, Leo, where do you suppose you are right now?”

  “I’m in a boat with you. We’re in Borneo.”

  Mr. Singh sighed loudly. “You are certain?”

  “Sure.”

  “What makes you so certain?”

  “Because I’m in a boat with you,” I said, and knocked my knuckle against the side. “Is this a trick question?”

  “Your senses tell you that you are here, yes? You can see the water, hear the motor and my voice, knock your knuckle against the hull, and so on. Now I want you to concentrate on what I have to tell you. Listen only to the sound of my voice. If you concentrate and relax, you will begin to understand.”

  Mr. Singh’s voice seemed to get louder and closer, or were my ears playing tricks on me? But I wanted to hear what he had to say. I was positive he knew about many mysterious things and that he could help me with my own mystery.

  “You have no doubt heard many frogs on this expedition,” he continued, his voice drowning out the motor, filling my mind. “Now, consider the eye of the frog. A frog’s eye is only sensitive to four attributes: to light and darkness, to sudden moving outlines, to sudden decreases in light, and finally, to small moving objects. A frog sees just enough so that it may sleep safely, avoid predators, and catch flies. So you see, a frog is quite blind. And we are not so different from frogs.”

  My mind flashed to that little frog that lived in the pitcher plant, and I tried to imagine what it saw. Things were getting a little woozy. The river and the jungle were blurry, without hard edges.

  “Are you still certain you are in the boat?” Mr. Singh asked.

  “No …”

  “Y
ou are starting to understand the concepts, Leo. Our senses do not give us the whole picture. Your training will be entirely mental. We will begin by breaking down many of your old beliefs, about what is real and what is not. This will take years. When you truly believe that there is only Mind and that Mind is infinite, you will discover that your potential is also infinite. You will no longer need to touch.”

  “When do I begin my training?”

  “You already have. Are you ready for your first lesson?”

  I confess, I had little idea what he was talking about. But he seemed to know, so I decided to give it a shot. “I am.”

  “Very well. Now take a good look at your surroundings, Leo. Examine everything. And when you are done, place this blindfold over your eyes.” Mr. Singh handed me one of the eye masks from the Sultan’s plane.

  I looked all around, then put on the blindfold and listened to the jungle soundscape. Back in New York, I’d often close my eyes and just listen. It was amazing to discover all the sounds you could hear when you weren’t looking at things. This was no different. While previously I’d only heard Mr. Singh talking and the engine grinding, now I could hear my Windbreaker rustling, Tamon Dong sniffling, the high buzz of insects in the jungle, the leaves and branches rattling in the wind, and far upriver, Hollis’s gedang drum.

  “Now, Leo, try to recreate what you saw a moment ago. Create it all in your mind’s eye.”

  Amazingly, I could. I could see everything in my imagination. It was easy, really easy. I could see my legs in front of me, even the folds in my cargo shorts. I saw my shoes — one of them was untied — and I made a mental note to tie it later. Then it dawned on me that I was looking at my shoe from only inches away. I had gotten smaller. “I” was no longer inside of my head — I had moved down near my feet. And with this thought, I realized that I could control where I moved in my imagination. I saw myself from the side, saw the blindfold and my body sitting still. Then I went behind me and looked at Mr. Singh, even honing into little details of his knotted old cane.

  “It is quite easy, yes?” Mr. Singh said, and I could see his lips moving. “You can see my mouth moving now, yes? Do you believe this is real?”