by Cara Violet
“The young Princess … The last of the survivors.” Levon said to Humkar, grasping the scruff of the girl’s robe.
Dersji widened his eyes: Chituma. Survivors? And was that a Giliou robe on her? What had gone on since he had departed Rivalex? He knew Kaianan was somehow in the Milky Way Galaxy—last time he checked—stripped of their Liege and Menial bond, and the Giliou had organised her memory to be obliterated—thankfully they didn’t get his. Now her sister was on Croone wearing a Giliou robe … Hmm. Dersji tried to think about what King Reon and Lady Agantha were thinking. Did they send the Layos heirs into hiding? But why send them away from Rivalex, away from protection? And survivors? Surely, the Gorgon hadn’t been wiped out? Maybe the girls just went separate ways for safety reasons?
“What hour?” Humkar asked Levon, breaking Dersji from his thoughts.
“Should be by nightfall.” Levon confirmed, tossing the unconscious Gorgon Princess carelessly to the ground.
“Minions, fix her a box,” Humkar said.
Brikin looked anxiously from one to other. Speaking out of line once more he said, “Just clarifying … did you say survivors?”
“What did I say?” Levon grew agitated, “Keep your mouth shut immortal, or I’ll remove your tongue.”
“On the contrary,” he mumbled, “I deserve to know, as a Relic.” He smiled at Humkar, “Whatcha’ think?”
Levon drew his blade.
“Cease! We are trying to heal him.” Humkar thundered, seizing Levon’s elbow. Then his eyes darted to Dersji, “Be warned Felrin, I will not stop him the next time. Your son can come for your bones.”
Levon broke free of the Daem-Raal, and swiftly clocked his knee into Brikin’s already weakened abdomen as Dersji’s body twisted against the post, whilst the ties rubbed and burnt his wrists and ankles. Spluttering for air, he realised, quite quickly, his body was about to give way – then an onion came slowly rolling to his feet. He glanced sideways: Cuki was beaming at him and nodding.
Levon scooped the onion up, pretended to take a bite out of it, and tossed it through the air.
Dersji barely lifted his head to watch his favourite snack soar through the sky. “That worked out well,” he muttered.
Levon walked over and stopped an inch from Dersji’s cheek. “Watch your attitude, great Liege. I pride myself on exalted kills and I will be gratified when I can add you to the list.”
Dersji wanted to scoff, wanted to laugh at the ridiculous notion that a Sprite thought he could get the better of a Liege Shiek—but couldn’t. If Dersji’s mind was in battle right now he would have taken them all down, but mental fortitude alone wasn’t going to get him out of this mess. Even though he was devising multiple ways to take the imprudent creature down, all his physical body could do was sway, and sway again, until, after a few more sways, his head dropped in complete unconsciousness.
Chapter Eleven: Getting Caught Up
“How much further is it?” Kaianan asked. The purple Ferlin sun was so hot it was sending multiple pockets of sweat dripping down her body.
“Not too far,” Arlise replied, just as sweaty as her, “are you okay?”
“Why are you asking me that? You’re the one injured.”
“You could be thirsty. We have another water container in the bag.”
“I’m fine.” Kaianan said. She stared up at Arlise, confused. “I’m not sure if you’re the rudest person I’ve ever met, or the most sentimental? You a caring person normally?”
“You don’t really need to know who I am, do you?”
And there was that guard again. He was like a brick wall.
“Maybe one day you’ll just tell me without me asking,” she said.
She could see the corner of his mouth go up in a smile and felt a sense of triumph overcome her.
“Do you like visiting woods like this?” She said upbeat.
He stopped walking and faced her as the trees they’d past turned from yellow leaf masterpieces to small covered indigo hanging palms. Kaianan was still in amazement at the Woods Devine.
“Are you ever going to be quiet?” he said.
“Well, you said I don’t listen, but I ask so many questions, so maybe it’s you who actually doesn’t want to talk.”
“Did you compartmentalise everything I said to you?”
Was answering ‘yes’ bad? “Sort of.”
“Can you even hear yourself?” he laughed.
“Of course,” she said seriously, “you’ve been judging me on a few small encounters. You’ve saved my life twice, that may not mean much to you, or it means something to your dad, but it actually means something to me. I want you to see the real me. I care about people, and I’m not some reckless authoritative princess who doesn’t listen. What you did for me—”
“Are you serious?!” he said scathingly. “I don’t need your life story. I don’t care about you, or whatever the holom your people are going—”
Arlise had stopped talking. Kaianan shifted her head. She caught a soft buzzing sound off in the distance. “Do you hear it too?”
She was staring at Arlise who was turning and cocking his head to the right.
“It can’t be,” he whispered as the sound continued to get louder.
“What can’t be? Arlise?”
He didn’t say anything until the small steel machine with antennae came into view through the trees they’d past at least forty metres back.
“What is—”
“Kaianan, run!” Arlise shouted.
She was in sudden shock. Without warning, he grabbed her arm and sprinted them quickly through the Woods. She shrugged him off and paced faster, fearing for her life. What is going on? What in Holom’s name were they running from? They hit thicker and bushier trees. Kaianan couldn’t help but look around. This was a different section of woods. It was darker. Arlise’s voice was in her head about the animals living deeper, and from the growls and squawking she could tell some of them were wide awake.
At last instant, Arlise grasped her by the shoulder and pulled her behind a thick trunked tree. She looked up to the blue thick palms that sheltered them, some noise sounding from above.
“What animals are these?”
“Shh!” Arlise shook her. “I do this for my father …” he muttered to himself and then the electric sound was no longer audible. “Listen to me. Me. Me, here in front of you.”
She nodded, feeling like every time he did that—ask her to listen to him—she should probably salute him. “Good,” he said after gaining her attention. “Those are scouts, Kaianan, they patrol Felrin, but never out this far. Somehow I have a feeling we were sent here on purpose …”
She tried to keep up. “Come again? And you said Rashid would never.”
“We can’t be so sure. Please, switch on.” He looked back through the woods to the approaching devices. He continued, panting, “They work best in numbers, and they provide the Felrin surveillance. Their job is to stun their victim and render them unconscious. It takes a few of them to comatose a Felrin but they can do it. This scout has called others. What we are going to do now is run as fast as we can through the woods and straight into the water. They are programmed to never go near water. They have a high frequency of electric force running through them as they can communicate cross worlds. This will be our only vantage at this point.”
Kaianan arched her eyebrows at his bleeding stomach and dropped her chin to study her broken chestplate, and bruised body. “Do we have any other choice?”
“We need to go now!”
The buzzing suddenly grew in intensity. They sprinted through the large blue-leafed trees and multi-coloured shrubbery that looked somewhat like a rainbow. She could feel her feet burning in her boots every step she ran.
“Duck, Kaianan.” The stun whipped straight by her. The scouts were gaining on them. “Keep moving!”
Run harder, Kaianan, she heard a man’s voice in her head speak to her. She picked up her pace and dodged another stun.
&
nbsp; “Arlise,” she looked ahead only to see the end of the woods drop deeply.
“Just jump, Kaianan!”
“What?!”
“Trust me! Jump!”
She was sprinting as fast as she ever had. Did she trust him? Panic was setting in. The drop was nearing, a few more metres to go …
“Holy mother of Giliou!” Kaianan closed her eyes and flung herself into the open air like a bird, into freefall.
The wind swept past her. As soon as she looked down, she was piercing the water. She must have ‘ported the drop. Her body splashed under the water only a few metres down. She veered up, gasping for air at the surface, and just in time to see Arlise hurl himself into the air behind her. The stun came out of nowhere and she watched it slice into his right leg.
“Arlise!”
He spiralled down, tumbling through the sky and after a second his body slapped the water so hard a giant spray of water shot upward where he fell. Kaianan listened to the animal noises dying down and the lack of the scouts buzzing, but no Arlise.
She dived under the water in search of him. She looked furiously, left to right, through lime seaweed and fish of silver and purple, and back again. She finally saw his body being dragged by the current below. She swam hard to reach him. She latched her arms around his upper body and took them both to the surface, noticing the scouts had disappeared. Wrapping her arm under his armpit, Kaianan kicked their way closer to the cave under the waterfall. She breathlessly pulled his body up out of the water onto the rocky edge. He dropped his head to the side and remained still.
“Arlise, wake up. Arlise.” She panicked, clutching his forearms. He wasn’t moving, wasn’t breathing. She slapped him across the face.
For the love of Giliou the Wise, he’s stunned, Kaianan, find the Ravew seeds, the man in her head chided.
“Whoops, okay,” she said out loud, and ventured into the cave, carefully avoiding the decade-old ice particles hanging from the roof of the cave. “Pretty sure this place is still active.”
And I’m pretty sure he’s still dying.
“Ah, whatever, you. Let me concentrate.”
She could see smaller vibrant plants growing. Felrin had turned out to be somewhat beautiful after all, she thought. The water was even beautiful reflecting the purple sun off of it. Nothing like the Swamp Lands.
Mind the scenery for another time.
“Shhh,” she whispered, while reaching out to grab the lime plant a metre in front of her. She latched onto a leaf and analysed it. Inside each leaf were three Ravew seeds. She quickly took a dozen leaves and removed all the seeds from them—rushing straight back to Arlise. He lay motionless while she reached into his pocket and found the Frey leaves from the bag Rashid had given him earlier on Earth.
Quickly, Kaianan.
“I’m trying.”
She located a hollow rock nearby she could crush the seeds in and found a longer rock to mix it with. She blended the two ingredients together and gradually the seeds broke open, forming a dark sticky paste. She delicately ran her hands down his pale chest and lifted the bandage downward exposing the open wound around his lower abdomen. She placed the paste on his skinny torso and rubbed with caution watching the stillness of his eyes.
He remained immobile and she added more just to be sure.
After a few moments of studying the wound, it was apparent it had begun to heal. His skin was reforming right in front of her and her smile began to widen.
The Felrin night scooped over them swiftly and the longer she stared at Arlise, who was now breathing heavily, the more restless she became. She placed herself next to him and rested on his chest, listening to his soft heartbeat. She grinned at the sound and drifted off into a deep sleep.
The crashing softness of water awoke Kaianan to the tranquillity of the Elixir Waterfalls. She yawned. The smell of fish reached her and she noticed Arlise, bent over, on his knees, cooking. In all the madness around her, he was a breath of vibrancy and, oddly, hope. Yet she still wasn’t sure about him. Was he really just doing all of this because his father wanted him to? Why would he help her? What was in it for him? Nothing made sense. Reddy crossed her mind again; this time she took time to really think about Arlise.
‘People show you their true colours the first time you meet them. They don’t hide. My real mamma always told me the listener and questioner are the one who will believe in you. They will listen to your thoughts, and question you on your motives.’
Was Arlise a listener? And did Kaianan misread his intentions? Maybe he was here because he had good intentions with her? He wasn’t hiding who he was, was he?
He must have noticed her staring, because his eyes were on her.
“Fish for two?” he asked, lifting a fish from a small charcoal fire.
She rubbed her eyes. “Are you okay?”
“Aye, it’s time to eat.” He said and turned his back to look through the bag of supplies. Kaianan got herself up and made her way to him. “I’ve got—” He stopped as her shadow drew over him. When he turned around and looked up, he realised she was right above him. “I’m alright, you know.” He said seemingly uncomfortable.
She watched his throat move and his eyes wander. She was still working him out, piece by piece. He seemed different then, in those few seconds, less hostile, less … wanting to rip her head off.
“Do you have anything to say?” she soon said, referring to her rescue effort.
He blinked. “I’ve already been fishing this morning, dearest.”
And with that, she watched his eyes glaze over, back to the Arlise she’d previously met.
“So why are you doing this? What are your intentions with me?” She blurted out.
He chuckled and picking up half of his fish, sat down against a tree and began gnawing.
“You’re not going to answer me, are you?”
“Your fish is there,” he pointed.
She held her temper, sat near the heat of the fire and began eating in silence.
“Thank you,” she said ironically; taking another bite, and for the first time properly glancing around at the misty morning. No purple rays were glistening just yet, but the sun was on its ascent. The colourful trees and shrubbery just above in the Woods Devine kept her distracted. The forest was alive. She could feel it when she was in there.
“Many creatures live in the deep section of the Woods,” Arlise said, following her gaze.
“Are you talking about the actual trees?”
“Aye, both … it is a very big refuge for the Felrin native animals also. Ever since Congress banished animals from the capital, they have lived in numbers here… although the Felrin Dragon is now extinct.” He said, zoning out.
“Why would they do that? Hunt and banish animals?”
“Anything against authority is not to be tolerated.”
She didn’t agree with him about this reasoning, and thought it a lie, but was smart enough to keep her mouth shut.
“For someone that has come from a planet of civil unrest,” he said bemused, “I’m surprised you don’t know more about the lasting effects of war.”
Kaianan scowled. “What are you talking about?”
“Rivalex has its own limitations and restrictions on people.”
“What?” Kaianan’s voice was half-anger, half-desperation. “What do you know about Rivalex? How do you know what my people are going through?”
Arlise laughed. “I don’t know anything about your people. The Necromancers have always been persecuted for their differences on Rivalex. I’ve studied the planet’s culture in school. There is civil unrest—”
“What are you saying?!” she interrupted him fuming. “The Defeated King reawakened the Silkri aura and tried to wipe my people, the Gorgon people out, he even rescinded trade and removed Sile from all communication with Forsda and Layos. The Necromancers are still trying to wipe us out.”
Arlise snickered again and Kaianan’s face flushed in anger. “I know the real history su
rrounding the Defeated King—”
“What?” Kaianan’s jaw clenched. “What do you know?”
Arlise took a minute to look her up and down. “The Felrin account of it … King Warlowes of the Necromancers rebuked the Felrin and they hunted him down, one thousand years ago.”
“No, that’s not what was written, the Defeated King rebuked the Gorgon and Giliou trade rules, the Felrin intervened to assist.”
“Apparently not,” Arlise said casually. “King Warlowes was against the Universal Order and the Felrin Congress winning the elections every four years. The Gorgon and Giliou supported the Felrin who were trying to kill him … and apparently the only reason the Giliou were even on Rivalex is because a Giliou leader from Felderin followed a Gorgon woman there and decided to set up a new colony, just to protect her.”
“We call him the Defeated King.” Kaianan reminded him. “How do you know any of this?”
“I’ve lived in the Felrin capital for half my life, I’ve heard things when people have thought they were alone. I know more than what people think.”
“Did your father tell you this?”
Arlise sniggered. “No, he had always kept himself from rationally being a part of the Felrin. He plays his part, his role, pays way too much attention to my mother and doesn’t question the exploitation in front of him.”
“Why, if the Giliou followed a Gorgon to Rivalex, are the Necromancers there too?”
“That I couldn’t tell you. But the Felrin, after a tumultuous Quarter Summit, hunted that Necromancer King down. People just don’t speak out against the Felrin.”
“But this is a democracy. I’ve seen and heard plenty of candidates with good discussions that try and challenge the leadership.”
“Of course, but they never win.”