Free From Light to Dark by Irene L. Pynn Page B

the Safety?’”
    Caer stiffened next to him. “He said the Safety?”
    “Yeah, and when the teacher ignored him, Rinelest said, ‘I’ve heard about the Safety, instructor. Why won’t you teach us that? Why can’t we know how to escape Light World?’”
    “He knew about the Safety!”
    “No,” Eref said. “Rinelest was just crazy. They found him hanging from a tree the next day, wearing a blindfold.”
    Caer gasped. “Someone killed him?”
    “He killed himself. He’d always been a weird kid. After that, all the instructors told us we should look forward to the Eighteener Entrance, when we could finally be rid of dangerous dreams and ambitions like the ones that got to Rinelest.”
    “I wouldn’t be so sure,” Caer said.
    “Of what?”
    “I wouldn’t be so sure your friend killed himself.”
    “He wasn’t my friend. Just a kid at the Learning.”
    “Either way,” Caer said. “I think someone may have wanted to shut him up and make an example of him.”
    Eref thought about this for a moment. “I can see that. Light People can get pretty intense. But why would that story upset them in particular?”
    She paused. “I think because the Safety is real.”
    He had to be sure he’d heard her properly. “Real? What do you mean?”
    “Listen,” Caer said earnestly. “Our nanny at the Gestator used to catch us telling stories. We weren’t supposed to, but she’d let us do it anyway. She was the nicest person—very young and pretty. Everyone adored her.
    “One day, Vul and I were arguing about the Eighteener Entrance. Vul was upset because she would have to go before me, and she didn’t want us to do anything apart. I kept insisting it wasn’t a big deal and they’d probably just let me do mine early with her.”
    Caer took a deep, forlorn breath. “We didn’t know much back then. We were only eight.”
    Eref thought back to the day Balor had cried about nearly the same thing. His stomach twisted at the memory.
    “Our nanny overheard us as we started to yell at each other. Vul—you know how she can be—well, said she didn’t want me to come with her to the Eighteener Entrance anyway. She said I was too stupid to know what was going to happen. She said we’d forget each other after that and never be friends again. Of course, that made me cry. So the nanny came to calm us down.
    “But instead of telling us not to fight, she pulled up a chair and put us in her lap for a story.
    “‘Let me tell you two about the Safety,’ she said. I can’t remember her exact words, but when she told us the story, it was so mysterious and exciting.”
    “What did she say?”
    “It was something about how the Safety is the place in between Light and Dark worlds, where Light People and Dark People can live together in harmony. Apparently it’s a beautiful place filled with a harmless, glowing light that even the most sensitive Dark Person can see without trouble.”
    Caer paused, and Eref thought of the light that had appeared when they held hands.
    She went on, “Long ago, our nanny told us, a few evil people captured the last remaining piece of real magic and controlled it to feed their greed. Light and Dark people had to exist in separate worlds and live shortened lives. But, she said, eventually greed will fail. The magic will come back to save its people, and everyone will return to the Safety.”
    Eref listened to Caer’s story in disbelief. No one in Light World would have dared make up something like that for fear of execution.
    Caer didn’t say anything for a moment, and then she added, “Our nanny told us we should never forget that story as long as we lived. She said when we were sad, we should think of the magic that would save us all someday.”
    “I wonder how Rinelest heard about the Safety,” Eref said.
    “Who knows,” Caer said. “Legends have a way of surviving even when people try to stamp them out. But I don’t think this was just a story.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because the