Kaianan

  “Who’s he?” Caidus chimed in again.

  “He’s the Conductor of Earth.” Julius said. “He is going to get us out of here.”

  “Native fellow, too. Aboriginal descent. Been here for years.”

  “Jax is that you?” Julius asked the person in the suit speaking to them, who shrugged and started whistling.

  “Ruby,” Rashid said and despite his scary appearance, Kaianan thought the sound of his voice was somewhat peaceful. “For you and the Underworld to destroy my world—I need to stop this.”

  “I’d like to see you try! MORPHS!” Ruby pointed forward.

  And then everything got loud. Streaming past her, the rebelling Underworld ran at them. The Ministry began pulling out some type of secular device and Kaianan was horrified as they started blasting the Morphs, with blue beams, away.

  In the ensuing seconds, everything slowed right down and Kaianan wasn’t sure if it was because of her fading heartbeat from the blood loss or because she was actually that hopeless, but Ruby had managed to appear in her vicinity and managed to get her hands around Kaianan’s neck again.

  “Rashid!” Ruby shouted in between Kaianan’s splutters.

  “Don’t touch her!” Julius’s voice echoed through the station and all the loud sounds of blasts, growls and hisses ceased, bringing their eyes to Ruby and Kaianan.

  Caidus had to restrain Julius. “Damsel is clearly distressing us all.”

  “Isn’t this a perfect predicament? Here is our bargaining chip.” Ruby shook the feeble body of Kaianan and the Ministry, Underworld and Outerworlders all began looking to the Conductor. “Rashid, we want access to that Euclidean Vector. If you give us one, you can have the Rivalex Mark!”

  Rashid slowly walked toward them; breathing heavy, Kaianan, saw no fear in his eyes. “No,” he said sternly, and then looked down at Kaianan and winked.

  “For all you’ve brought to our world,” Ruby said, looking at the three foreigners—Julius, Caidus and Kaianan, “and the others you try to keep hidden, you won’t give us the option of venturing out, to make our own discoveries. You can’t keep us locked here forever. Who do you think you are? The Vector is reopened and we demand travel!”

  “Listen to me Ruby—” Rashid began but Kaianan had closed her eyes and heard no more, concentrating only on the screeching of the early morning trains pulling into the dark platforms below. The sound hypnotised her and in an instant, a swift swirling feeling swayed in her stomach.

  And then – nothing.

  She reopened her eyes to an overbearing toot that bled in her ears. She was sitting on the ledge of platform four. She drew her legs up just before they were crushed by the oncoming train.

  “Again?” she said, watching the purple mist seep into her skin. “I think I’m getting better at this at whole ‘porting thing.” The departing preform passengers started to scream at her. “Maybe. Perhaps a little irrational also.”

  Looking right and left, through the mass of irate humans, Kaianan considered her options. She could go back up there and fight. Or she could work out how to get out of here. What about Julius?

  Fear was building within her; her heart was thumping. All she could think of was how not calm she was, how powerless she’d become and the fact she was being used as bait by an Underworld that wanted to escape its own planet. How had it come to this? Where was her strength when she needed it? Where was Julius?

  Nothing was forming in her mind as anything but confusion, and to run. Run, that was it. She somehow got her body up and made her way south along the white-tiled platform in an incoherent jog, her wounded leg leaving a trail of fresh blood in her wake. The trains had departed and everything was silent, but chances were, with a blood-soaked track for the Underworld to follow, it wasn’t going to stay that way for long. And in the next moment, it didn’t.

  A distant fluttering sound had reached her ears. She caught sight of the oncoming arrow in her peripheral vision and before it struck her, she jumped out of the way, falling to the tiles and grazing her knees in the process.

  “That was a neat trick,” Ruby said, flapping her wings to a descent on platform four. “Lucky for you I can catch up.”

  Kaianan, with bleeding palms and leg, slowly stood. She took out her blade and titled her head sideways. “What do you want from me?”

  “Come now Princess, you’ve reopened Earth’s Vector. We want to explore your planet. Where are you from? How about you get your beloved Rashid to take us all? Shall we?” Ruby’s eyes were full of malice. “Maybe we could destroy your pathetic race for its incompetent knowledge of Earth. Perhaps kill your family? Are you not looking for your sister?”

  Kaianan’s heart beat in her ears. Chituma.

  She breathed out her anger and her body reacted with hateful emotion; her green aura blast through and around her body like a flaming forcefield in the Siliou. Her Gorgon tail shot out from her legs so quickly it smacked the Morph sideways. Scales emerged through her preform flesh. Her gold chestplate latched around her breasts, ripping her top apart. Serpents shot out of her scalp, crushing the pillar and roof of the station above and Kaianan felt her head ache. Then, as a common occurrence that she couldn’t control, she found herself roaring in anger.

  “The beast is out,” Ruby whispered on the ground in amusement amid the falling rubble raining down on them. Frightened preform passengers from another arriving train shot to the exits in noisy panic. The growling of the Gorgon Princess echoed through the entire station and humans and Morphs widened their eyes in fear.

  Kaianan clutched the hilt of her blade trying unsuccessfully to calm her rage. “I’ve really got to stop getting angry.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three: The Introduction of Arlise

  “Kaia!” Kaianan twisted her torso to scrutinise the person yelling at her and spotted Julius running down the stairs to platform four, pushing ascending humans aside. When she felt a sudden, painful, and jaw-breaking impact on the side of her head, her tail flopped under her and everything went blank.

  “… oh, Princess… wakey, wakey …”

  Kaianan rolled against the tiles and tasted a huge amount of blood in her mouth. All she could do was spread her lips and let it gush out. She tried to gage her surroundings. She didn’t have a hope in holom, her eyesight was blurry, she was stuck in Gorgon form and she wasn’t sure how capable she was to maintain it in this state, let alone fight back. How was it she was even still alive? Still breathing? Did she have an ability to survive in these conditions? If so, where the holom had it come from? Xandou never trained her that hard.

  “How long can you keep this up?” Ruby wiped her upper lip of sweat. It was a question Kaianan even surprised herself with—how long could she keep it up? She managed to balance on her severely battered tail and raise her blade.

  Ruby frowned and after a while snorted, “You’re really that thick in the skull?” The Morph jumped up and with no sense of bearings, Kaianan was easily punched in the jaw again and sent flying. Her huge Gorgon body toppled over, she landed awkwardly on her wrist and hips, and it crossed her mind having a thick skull was paying off.

  “You think I want this?” Ruby said, strolling closer and flipping Kaianan on her back, placing her blade at the Gorgon’s chest. “Open the damn Vector. Don’t you see we want to get out of here? We don’t belong.”

  Kaianan stared at Ruby in disbelief, her serpents were barely moving and she could narrowly hear the faint calling of her name behind her.

  “Ah, the hell with you.” Ruby used her palm and the hilt of her blade to hit the Gorgon in the face and Kaianan sputtered out more blood, this time it was black in colour. The next thing she knew, Ruby jerked backward at Kaianan’s body shuddering violently on the tiles. Without initiating a change, bushy brown strands suddenly replaced Kaianan’s serpents and covered her now half-naked and bloodied preform body. A broken gold chestplate and ripped pieces of fabric clung to her. She shivered. Then Julius was there, next to her, throwing Caidus’s robe at her
.

  “Don’t come any closer!” Ruby screamed. She clutched her fingers under Kaianan’s neck, pulled her backward and lifted her blade in the direction of Julius. Instinctively, he dropped his blade and lifted his hands in the air.

  “Don’t hurt her.” His voice was clipped and he held in his breath. She didn’t answer. Julius could see Ruby wasn’t even looking in his direction but off in the distance, toward Ministry and Morphs filtering down the stairs and escalators behind him, no longer fighting. They were stationary when they reached the long platform, but that didn’t stop his chest from tightening. “Stay back!” he ordered them.

  Rashid walked right past him. Julius nervously darted his eyes back to Ruby, who was still clawing into Kaianan’s neck.

  “Let us leave!” she begged to Rashid.

  “Ruby,” the Conductor said leniently, “let her—”

  Before he could finish, a shockwave rippled through the tiles in the platform. Julius looked down to his feet, inch by inch the tiles cracked underneath him. He held onto his scabbard and blade against his combat attire and jumped sideways as the Earth rose and splintered around him. He could not believe this was a quake, right here, right now. Then, at last instant, a massive explosion rocked the station.

  “It’s the train!” He heard someone yell. He scanned the flames and debris, and the Morphs and Ministry running for their lives. Then something blinded him and he heard another scream. A luminescent white light was orbing right in the middle of the platform. He shielded his eyes with his arm. Slowly the light began to fade and he could see, on one small section of platform, Ruby, horizontal, floating in mid-air above the light… and lastly, Kaianan at her feet.

  “Kaia,” he called metres away.

  Kaianan snapped her eyes open.

  “Let me go,” Ruby screamed at the light underneath her.

  Kaianan crawled away quickly, shoving her arms in Caidus’s robe as she did. Blurry blackness consumed her, she stumbled around on her hands and knees, feeling for her fallen blade—tapping in front of her in desperation, and after a few seconds, it touched her fingertips. She smiled and grasped the hilt tight. The light became a figure—a person. Kaianan, having her vision come back to her, watched on in horror as Ruby was thrown through the air in a reckless flight of pink wings, blonde hair and screams.

  “Show yourself, intruder!” Kaianan held onto her blade, shaking, and rising to her feet.

  “Be calm, young girl,” he said lightly, then added with more conviction: “I’m here to assist you home.”

  “Show yourself!” she demanded, lifting her blade. The white aura around the figure dispersed. Standing in front of her was a fragile, fresh-faced young man with lengthy brown hair covering his glowing golden eyes. He was very tall, but also lanky and skinny, like he hadn’t eaten in a while; his thin pale chest and arms were riddled with light circular tattoos. He had on black slacks and was barefoot. His cheekbones stuck out of his face when for some unknown reason, he decided to smile at her.

  “Who are you?” Kaianan asked, with hostility.

  “My name is Arlise. I am your destiny,” he sniggered, “or so I’m told.”

  Kaianan shifted uneasily. “I don’t think so.”

  “Sorry. You’ve got no choice. You must come with me; your people are dying,” he continued, offering his hand to her with a face of contempt. She looked away from him, around the platform and saw many wounded. But where was Julius? Was he okay? Something made her turn again: on another stretch of platform she identified an unconscious Caidus and the stirring eyes of Julius almost on top of him. This, undeniably, relaxed her a little.

  “I’m staying with Julius,” she said.

  Arlise’s expression turned to puzzlement. He dropped his hand and looked up to the sky, now changing shades. “Well. My presence hasn’t gone unnoticed, so …” he said taking a few steps toward her, “… cover your ears and duck.”

  “Wha—” Kaianan barely had time to register what he said before the platform was completely concealed by grey clouds and darkness. Lightning struck and she cowered in fear. Two spiralling cyclones—one black and one white—whipped through the station, and the rain began to pour: heavier than anything Kaianan had ever seen on Rivalex. “What is go—” she tried to say but was winded by the weight of the air coming at her.

  The black cyclone spun one final time in front of her and at that moment Varrid appeared and the weather recovered.

  “What do we have here?” The leader of Night raised his eyebrows at Arlise as the white whirlwind diminished and Ulysus appeared and added: “Indeed, what do we?”

  “I am Ar—” he began but Varrid cut across him.

  “Boy, you are not supposed to be on this planet.” The leader of Night clenched his staff. “You have travelled here by means unknown to us and are invoking treason in our very territory,” Varrid growled. “Rashid gave only one Euclidean Vector opening. You are in transgression.”

  Arlise shrugged. “My good leaders of Night and Day, please, keep the mercury tipped staffs back. I do believe I owe you a formal introduction. Not that I like giving them … anyway, time was not on my side, I’m afraid. You must see my dilemma in saving the Princess,” he said, while his eyes started to flicker.

  “This is not for you to decide, boy.” Ulysus said. “We have regulations in place to prevent planet roamers. You must come with us now.”

  “The girl must be seized.” Varrid said abruptly. “You’re mine, boy,” he pounced forward. Arlise raised his elbow and sent him flying backward with ease. He yanked Kaianan toward him and swirled his right hand around. An incision in the Siliou suddenly opened. It all happened so quickly, Kaianan didn’t even have time to breathe while the smoky Euclidean Vector generated in front of her. He was a Conductor? She was in utter disbelief.

  “What are you—” she tried to say, but unexpectedly his hands gripped onto her so firmly she couldn’t move. Then, with a hard tug around her midriff, she was thrown –

  “It’s all up …” He started to say, but all Kaianan could feel was the icy rush filtering through her body on the smoke cloud inside the Vector she had just crashed landed in. When she turned back to question him, she was horrified to see a huge staff poking through Arlise’s abdomen, blood dripping down his stomach and slacks. “… up to you now.” He managed to finish, breathing out one last time. Kaianan’s jaw dropped as the entry closed, sucking his bloodied body back to Earth and leaving her—in complete shock—amid a spinning Euclidean Vector on its way to holom knows where.

  Chapter Twenty-Four: Necromancers in Layos

  Kaianan stood, her legs shaking as the stars whipped by around her. One step, two steps, go forward. She kept counting. Walking. How was she going to get out?

  She remembered what Xandou did, remembered how he divided the Siliou. Kaianan stuck both her hands out in front of her and closed her eyes in concentration. She pushed her palms apart and heard a swish. She snapped her eyes open. It worked. Bright white light flooded to her. The incision was splitting horizontally. Without thinking, Kaianan stepped forward.

  She came crashing down to the surface of the planet, holding her shoulders in to stop the freefall from making her sick. She controlled it. Her feet landed with stability in the grass.

  A prickling ran down her spine, the two suns were rising to the west. She sniffed the air. Her heart was racing in recognition. She knew the smell. She knew this place. She was suddenly running, in more of a hobbled jog, she didn’t care about the pain stabbing in her wounded leg and body. She kept going, the wind pushing her hair back until she came to a stop.

  Her jaw dropped. Layos was on the horizon.

  It was a sight that would burn her eyes for the rest of her life.

  Flames and smoke billowed from burnt houses. Kaianan looked out to a few areas where nothing but ash remained on the burnt grass. Tears were streaming down her face. The homes were destroyed. She watched the ashes lingering in the air. Further along, the Manor still stood, mi
ssing chunks of wall.

  But she could see Gorgon and Giliou on the Manor lawns. Was that Xandou standing across from the broken Wall of Many Mirrors?

  If the shock of what she was seeing hadn’t killed her, the noise that was screeching past her in the sky could have blown her eardrums.

  It had been years since Kaianan had last seen a Bone, in fact it was twelve years ago at the Battle of Middle Forsda she had first witnessed the notorious flying animal of the Niek Jungle in combat.

  She was a child then, escaping the bailey hold of the Manor to get a dose of the civil war between the Giliou and Gorgon, and the Necromancers. She remembered streaming out of her hiding place with Xandou in the Valley Woods.

  The Necromancer Bone soared effortlessly through the Rivalex night sky that day and Kaianan had gasped in wonder. The moonlight exposed the enormous four-legged skeleton figure with huge horizontal, outstretched wings coming out its sides, but what really defined the beast—it was ignited head to toe in flaming fire and swirling black smoke. A long bone face with two red pupils were the only constant visible part of the creature, who then was letting out the most intense form of aggression Kaianan had ever observed—blowing flames across the Middle Forsda castle and setting the whole place alight.

  It was dawn now, but that didn’t take away from the fear Kaianan had when several red-capped Bone Riders commandeered their Bones into the city, over the bailey wall and onto the Manor lawn, directly landing in front of the Gorgon and Giliou who were, blades out, ready to defend her Manor.

  With a gasp, Kaianan ran.

  “Where are your loyalties, Shielder?”

  Kaianan had lodged herself in-between a broken section of the bailey wall to hide and heard the red-faced Bone Rider, someone who she’d met before, question a blonde-haired Giliou man, in an azure robe, who was facing the Manor and his Giliou Shielders.

  “General Krivta,” he said and Kaianan recognised the voice before the Shielder turned around. Aside from all the lies and deceit, the blood in Kaianan’s body grew warm when she laid eyes on him.