by Cara Violet
Rashid’s eyes seared at her with rage. “We are doing our best with what we have,” he said through gritted teeth and Kaianan felt like this man was the furthest thing from honest. “We have no time.”
“Ah, hum …” Reddy cleared his throat. “A civil war? Between who? And you’re a Queen? Are you from the Avengers?”
“Your damn human friend now knows way more than he should,” Rashid said irritably.
“He has a lot going on … plays a contact sport; concussions are quite normal for him.” Kaianan offered a forced smile, trying not to let the guilt of Reddy’s exposure to outerworlders affect her demeanour. “I’m sure he will wake up tomorrow and forget everything.”
“Contact sport is good for physical health,” Reddy smiled in delight, “good for cardiovascular conditioning, strength, and endurance. It provides you with structure and skills, shows you how to consistently improve, and how to be a team player. Even improves self-image.”
All three of them gaped.
“What?” Reddy asked. Kaianan had the urge to strangle him.
“Ah, incompetent fools! Just follow me.” Rashid pushed past them back out into the elevator, then onto the busy street where a bulky black car waited.
“Can we trust him?” Kaianan whispered to Arlise, who shot his golden eyes her way and said nothing. Kaianan was at this stage thinking she couldn’t trust anyone.
Rashid looked back at the three unlikely individuals standing on the busy curb, and opened the back door. “Get in.”
They piled in and as soon as the door was shut, Rashid’s driver took off. With fierce handling and high speeds, the car sped away from the city.
“Why did you return, Kaianan?” Rashid sat directly in front of her; the seats in the back cabin of the car faced one another. It was like sitting around a table, without the table. “Xandou has done an extraordinary amount of work to keep you from harm, and you throw yourself back into it so willingly?”
Animosity for the Earth Conductor swept through her. Didn’t he see what state her body was in? Torn chestplate, bruised hands and knees, a hive for hair, bloodshot eyes and a sway of her head that kept her rather dizzy from all the falling down to Earth. Plus, who was he to ask, why did he want that information?
“I was sent here out of my control, Rashid. I was told I needed to save a life.” She glanced at Arlise, who was still bleeding heavily. “If it was for that vulgar fool, I will strangle that Giliou, Boku Jove, when I see him next,” she muttered under her breath.
“What do you need to heal?” Rashid spoke to Arlise, not having heard Kaianan.
“Frey leaves and Ravew seeds,” Arlise answered.
Rashid was silent for a few seconds. “Frey leaves I can get you. The Ravew seeds, on the other hand, are exclusive to Felrin, and extremely rare. You would have to travel to the Elixir Waterfall for those and look within the cave.”
Arlise nodded and mumbled something under his breath. Kaianan was sure it was something along the lines of: ‘all for that insolent, snooty-nosed good-for-nothing.’
She glowered at him.
Distracting her, Rashid picked up his preform mobile device and made a call about the Frey leaves.
Kaianan turned her blank gaze out the tinted window. She watched the view grow in size and magnitude as the car ascended a big bridge, west of the city. She looked out to the murky bay, to the industrial factories below. Earth was just like home, she thought, but with the pulsing anger still cutting into her, she had no further want to know more. If only she could strangle someone to relive the tension.
“So where are we going? How long until we get there?” Reddy piped up.
“Oh, my Giliou, are you still here?” Kaianan lashed out, thoroughly annoyed. You cannot strangle the boy.
“I’m sitting right next to you.”
“Rashid, please, do whatever you can within your power to keep him safe.”
“Ka – in – in,” Reddy said, as if discovering the word for the first, “you know, I prefer that name … can’t you stay here? On Earth?”
Kaianan moaned. Was he mad …? Yes, we have acknowledged this several times. Just one squeeze around the throat then? Absolutely not.
“There’s so much I want to know about you,” Reddy was a like a hungry Seevaar staring at her, “you know, about how you’re a green monster and also I want to show you some things too. About my life, where I’m living. You can meet my new foster family, they’re not like you though, like our family back at the dorms. You’re still my family though, right?”
Family. That word pierced into her heart like a sharp-edged knife. Kaianan had almost no-one left. Her parents were dead; killed by King Elli Nermordis right in the middle of her home. But she remembered Reddy had lost his parents too. How could she sulk about her own and hate him when he did such an admiral job of moving on with his own life in similar if not more dire circumstances. How old was he again?
“Reddy, I …” She wanted to explain how she felt, how to be included into something with him would mean beginning a relationship with him she knew she couldn’t have. He was human after all. “You shouldn’t know anything about …” Her words kept trailing off. Nothing about the sentences she was trying to construct made sense. She didn’t even know what she was trying to say. What was going on with her?
“Kaianan has a lot on her plate right now, Reddy, but she loves you and means to return.” Arlise finished what she couldn’t even start.
Kaianan did not speak to this though. She was angry at Arlise for speaking for her but he was right. Somewhere deep down within her, aside from wanting to strangle the little boy for the torment of worry he caused her, Arlise was right.
“Kate, Ka – in – in?” Reddy said.
“Close enough,” Kaianan ushered out.
“Can I say something?”
She nodded.
“I just … you know – thanks – for always looking out for me … you don’t really know how much it means—”
“I did nothing, so please don’t worry about it.” Prickles coursed through her body and she straightened in her seat. She felt Arlise’s eyes on her and remained unresponsive. In no way did she want to betray the feelings that were gripping her, that Reddy was someone she felt something for. Her stare continued on out of the glass and the suspicious eyes on her eventually fell away.
“We are not far now,” Rashid interjected. “I have layers of protective forces at the Twelve Apostles. It should be easy for me to give you a clean Euclidean Vector that won’t be traced.”
It was news that took her away from her stifled thoughts, and after a little longer, the car finally came to a halt.
“That felt odd,” Reddy said as he clenched his stomach.
“We have our moments with using the Siliou.” Rashid winked at Reddy.
The car window opened and Kaianan was hit by the chill air, but it was the sight that overwhelmed her; mountains and dense forestation, vast deep blue water pushing out past the horizon, and the waves crashing against pieces of abnormally large and craggy yellow rocks a small distance away from the shoreline had her transfixed. She remembered how beautiful the beach was, the penguins, the vast water. Earth was beautiful no matter how terrible the planet made her feel.
“You, human, stay in the car.” Rashid broke Kaianan’s daydream.
Reddy pulled a face at Rashid. “Bye, Ka – in – in,” he said and waved.
She opened the door and quickly scrambled out of the vehicle. “I’ll see you,” she muttered.
“Promise?” he said behind her.
Avoiding eye contact, she nodded, and let the door close behind her.
Another bulky black vehicle was waiting when they arrived. A gentleman got out of the car and handed a medium-sized black bag to Rashid.
“Thank you.” Rashid said. And as quick as it had arrived, the vehicle departed the parking lot that they had stopped in. “Here.” Rashid handed the bag of supplies, including the Frey leaves, to Arlise. “Keep the
m with you until you find the seeds.”
“Thank you,” Arlise said, “we cannot repay you enough.”
“No, I just want you both out of here. You are doing me a favour by leaving and I am doing Xandou a favour by getting you both out alive. I owe him and this is my payment to him.”
Kaianan nodded, unsure if she could trust him still. Yet all this indicated he wasn’t trying to kill her; he gave them a bag of supplies and helped Arlise with what he needed to heal. Maybe Kaianan had to bite her words? Maybe she was overthinking everything and it was the Underworld who had caught her on Earth and Rashid was actually trying to save her? “Thank you, Rashid,” she said.
He smiled at her. “Now go.”
“Where will this take us?” Arlise asked.
“You will be facing north toward the Roame Star System, so you have a few options as to your opening,” Rashid explained.
“What? I want to go to Croone,” Kaianan stated forcefully.
“That is out of the way, Kaianan. Why in the world would you want to go to that system? Go home, to Xandou, on Rivalex,” Rashid said, trying to convince her.
“I must find my sister, Rashid. Please, send me there,” she pleaded with him. There was no way she was going anywhere else. “Arlise can find his own way,” she added with spite.
Rashid took his time, and at last, with Arlise looking skyward and exhaling, nodded, “I will do my best to swing the Vector. We haven’t much time, you are being tracked.” He lifted his hands and motioned in the air. The gap in time appeared like a zip streaming down a dress and the temperature dropped as soon as it was created. Kaianan breathed out the chill of the black space in front of them. In one big step, she marched through the threshold alongside Arlise, and felt the cold trickle all over her skin like ice.
“Hold onto me—” Kaianan couldn’t hear the rest of Arlise’s words.
“The Underworld are here!” Rashid was screaming. “Go! Go now!”
Reddy? Kaianan tried to go back, tried to move her heavy boots that were under the shroud of clouded smoke, but she couldn’t. She could only take her eyes there. To Rashid and the fading scenery of Earth, and—what was that? Bright pink wings, fly-away blonde hair. That was Ruby!
“Reddy!” Kaianan screamed, but the view was gone, the Vector had systematically zapped shut behind them.
“Kaianan,” Arlise said with force. She fell into the unstable Vector on her hands and knees. “Get up,” he said, as if the image of her on all fours disturbed him and he yanked her by the arm and hoisted her to her feet.
They stumbled through the crusade of stars with little time—realising the flash of stars had stopped zooming forward and started dropping fast. “We must descend now.” Arlise said. “I think the Vector may be compromised. The Felrin may be behind it.”
She narrowed her eyes at him, a feeling of duplicity surging through her. “Or Rashid could be behind it,” she mumbled angrily. “Where will we go?”
“I’m not—” Arlise’s words were cut off. The stars around them were completely stationary. The smoke began vanishing from under her and Kaianan knew the Vector was fading, turning into a shooting star on its way to the Holom Galaxy.
“Hold tight,” Arlise said. While blood dripped down his leg and he hugged her body to his; he stuck his hand out and twisted his fingers round.
The chilly rush filtered through Kaianan’s body almost immediately. She felt herself being pulled sideways and thrown against a hard surface—the last thing she remembered was trying to breathe before passing out.
Chapter Nine: Felrin in all its Congress
“Kaianan wake up, Kaianan.”
She felt rough hands shake her until her eyes opened.
“Reddy …” Her senses were stinging and her lungs fought for air. Blistering and clammy, the atmosphere greeted her with malicious flair.
“Sit up if you can,” Arlise said, helping her upright. They were sitting in what seemed like dry heated soil. The ground beneath her was like dirt but riddled with purple specks. She glanced up. Streaks of the purple sun’s rays hit her body with a prickle of warmth.
“Is Reddy okay?” she asked breathlessly. “I saw … I saw …”
“Just drink this and stop talking,” he said, pouring water into her mouth from a small box he’d pulled out of the bag Rashid had handed him on Earth.
“Where are we?”
Arlise stood, squinting to the humid skyline. “We are on Felrin.”
She furrowed her brows in anger. “Felrin? How is that possible?”
“I have a feeling the Vector wasn’t as safe as Rashid had predicted and we may have been in someone else’s. The Felrin may have been oncoming.”
Kaianan couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Felrin? In the Felrin System? We are now in the complete wrong direction to Croone.”
“Calm down, Princess. We are lucky we were out in time otherwise we would be in Holom. If you didn’t already know that,” he said cynically, then bent down to cough.
She could see he was still badly wounded. Did she care? His blunt uncouthness had her reeling. And it was surprising; now they could make their way to the Elixir Waterfall and find the Ravew seeds, and she knew he could open a Euclidean Vector for her once healed. Couldn’t have worked out better if he had planned it. Had he planned it? That was the question.
“How would they have known …?” Kaianan started, trying to sound regal, “… known … known where we were? Where we were going? Is this the working of Rashid? Or you?”
“Listen to me, princess,” his voice lowered, “if my father didn’t ask me to come get you and tell me you had something to do with my destiny, do you think I’d be here?”
She didn’t care. Couldn’t he see that? “But… what about Reddy? Is Reddy okay?”
“Yes, I’m sure everything turned out okay. Don’t look at me like that …” he said, clenching his fists together. “I know what the kid means to you. And I know you don’t even know what he means to you.”
She sat silent. What the holom was going on? She rattled it all off in her brain; Earth, preforms, Underworld, more humans, Reddy and escape … Adding it all up, she believed Rashid had to be behind this. Something was going on. Did Arlise know about it?
“He had strong words for you back there …” Kaianan took her eyes to Arlise as he spoke, “even if you don’t know how to process it.”
“What would you know about caring for anyone? Your parents deserted you,” she said scathingly, still playing on the situation in front of her.
“My father asked me to come get you. I am doing as he ordered. Would you like me to leave?”
Kaianan stared at his angry face for a long moment, collating her thoughts, her anger and her premise. There was nothing she could do to convict him with blame. There was nothing tying Arlise specifically with the debacle on Earth but he must have known something about Rashid.
“Do you trust Rashid?” she finally said.
“Are you seriously asking me that question?”
“I’ve left a cherished person with him, and you won’t answer the question?”
“Yes, I trust him …” Arlise said indifferently, “as much as I trust the Felrin.”
“And what is that supposed to mean? What do you know? Is this all a ploy to kill me and the people I love?!”
“Kaianan are you even listening to yourself?” Arlise had become agitated. “Are you going to persecute me and indict me all in the one conversation? I’m here to help you. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to be your friend, I’m doing my job for my father because I believe in my family. That is one thing I would have expected you to understand.”
If Julius hadn’t mentioned Dersji Brikin was her Liege, she might not have believed Arlise. But with everything that was going on, trusting him was something she had no choice in. They’d made it this far together, he’d saved her twice, why couldn’t she just trust him now?
‘Ka, most people show their colours to you when you me
et them.’ Reddy’s voice came to her. Arlise had hardly spoken to her about what he wanted to do, but rather he just did them. It was different being around him than say Julius. Arlise was showing her who he was not telling her how he wanted to be.
“I’m sorry,” she finally said, “I just have difficulty trusting people.”
“I don’t care,” he said it so curtly, Kaianan swallowed in slight fear and guilt. “You need to reassess the way to speak to me. Do you understand? I’m not one of your subordinates. Stop treating me as such. I’ll tell you right now, I will not buckle under you.” She opened her mouth, but he silenced her. “Not ever, Kaianan,” he said sternly.
“I just don’t understand how one minute you’re dying and stuck in a cell, and the next you’re fighting off scores of humans and Morphs?” It was a weak attempt at interrogating him, but it needed to be asked. “If you could have departed Earth days ago, why didn’t you?”
“Listen to my words, Kaianan.” His voice was low and calm, “I’ll say it once more because you need the fine detail, but not again. I dislike repeating myself … I am dying and I can’t open a Euclidean Vector. Do you think if I broke out of the Underworld, Rashid would give me a Vector out? If he had any idea who I was, he wouldn’t.”
“Who are you then!?”
“You’re not listening.”
Kaianan felt her ears and cheeks burning. “Fine.”
He wiped his face of blood. “I was biding my time to see if Rashid would get word from Felrin that they wanted me home. If Rashid knew the Felrin required me, he would have had to have taken me from the Underworld. He never came though, so I’m assuming the Felrin might not know I survived after I escaped the Felrin cruiser they had me tied up in.”
“They tied you up?”
“I said to listen—”
“Sorry,” she muttered out frowning.
Arlise exhaled. “I worked out the Underworld were using me to lure you to Earth. That you were better leverage than what I was. The Underworld need Vectors out, they know Earth’s invasion is inevitable. And I was good bait to get you to Earth.”