Kingdom

by Kyle West

  “We must go,” Isandru said, looking away from the ridge and toward the mist.

  I turned to looked. The mist, no longer restrained, was quickly advancing to rejoin the Crater.

  We ran to the ship.

  CHAPTER TEN

  WHEN WE WERE BACK ON board the Odin, everyone I’d told to remain on board was waiting in the wardroom. I couldn’t help but feel that their glances were accusing. Indeed, Ret and Samal, whose faces were usually cheerful, all but glowered.

  It occurred to me that they’d seen me take up arms against the others.

  Isandru stepped in to explain. “Isaru took control of Shanti’s mind.”

  “What?” Ret asked. “How is that possible?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “It happened when I was trying to do the same to him. The Xenofold is weak here but the Hyperfold is strong. Thankfully, no one was hurt from it.”

  “And now he’s escaped . . .” Samal said.

  “Unfortunately. Pursuing him into the Crater is probably suicide. We must wait for another chance . . . whenever that comes. I’m sorry to have let you all down by this . . .” I found I had nothing more to say on that subject.

  “You didn’t let us down,” Isandru said, defending me from myself. “We underestimated him. Next time, we will be more prepared.”

  Except next time he’d have an army of dragons with him.

  “We’ll be in Northold soon,” I said, pushing that thought from my mind. “From this day forward, there will be no more hiding who I am. I have declared myself to the Seekers’ Sanctum, so news is likely to reach everywhere within a few weeks, anyway. Better that Northold hears it from me directly rather than whatever rumors are twisting their way around the Wild.”

  “Whatever your decisions, we are here to support you,” Isandru said. “I might suggest one thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I’ve spoken to the mayor of Northold on several occasions. While a good and just man, he is a man of pride. He will not take well to someone who declares themselves to be Annara reborn, even if you have our support and the spaceship that she used. Be cautious in this matter. The world does not know who you are yet, and it must be introduced gently. A soft word goes further most times, but back those words up with power.”

  “And what power is that?”

  “You have the Elder Dragons on your side, along with the ship itself,” Tellor said. “While they cannot see the dragons, the fact that you have this ship should make people at least listen to you. We are still gathering power, and until you have the type of power that counts in politics, it is best to be soft-spoken.”

  “I won’t be meek,” I said, “nor will act like I run the place.”

  “There is a balance between the two,” Nabea said. “I grew up in Castle Tower, in Atlantea, and my father was always able to get things done by working together with people. There is no such thing as absolute power among people who can think for themselves.”

  “I’m not interested in assuming any sort of power,” I said. “Not yet. My number one priority is making sure the Northern Wild is safe. I fear the dragons, but the reversion will be spreading to the point where no one is safe. At the very least, they need a warning.”

  “As someone who calls the Northern Wild her home,” Isa said, “I don’t think any of your words will come as much of a shock. There are many people who say it’s only a matter of time before the North is overrun. It’s the minority—the majority will disagree, saying that they’ve lived here for centuries, all the while forgetting that the Northern Wild was all but depopulated during the time of the Mindless Wars. People have been warning for years that a second war is coming, and most believe it will come. The problem is . . . the majority believes they will never be the victim of the next cataclysm. Not until it happens.”

  “Human nature,” Tellor said. “Believing the end will come, but not believing it could ever happen to us.”

  “That’s a good point,” I said. “We have a responsibility to bring the news, even if we are not believed.”

  I owe it to these people to save themselves. Isa’s family is here, and even if it is just her family, I need to do this.

  “Let’s move, then,” I said. “Prepare for liftoff.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  HIGH ABOVE THE GRAY CLOUDS and fog, Ragnarok Crater seemed like a whole other world. Even if the sun was bright and shining, it did nothing to improve my mood. It was only a matter of time until Isaru was unleashed on the world, and all I could do was warn people that it was going to happen.

  Heavy clouds blanketed the entirety of the earth, save for a range of mountains in the distance. I didn’t know exactly where Northold was, which presented a problem. With the clouds, I was stuck with poking below the surface from time to time and seeing what I could see. Each time I did, it was a vision of blighted foothills, dark forests, and fields of decaying xen and trees. I’d traveled over this land just a month ago, and it was nowhere near this bad. It was another sign of the growing power of the Hyperfold and the weakening of the Xenofold.

  I knew that I had to pass a range of mountains, first—mountains that Isaru, Shara, Isa, and I struggled through for nearly two weeks—and then try to trace my steps backward to Northold from there.

  As soon as we were above the Red Mountains, I flipped on the intercom. “Isa, can you come up to the flight deck?”

  I had to wait but a minute for her to appear. Her hair was wet, as if she had just showered, and she was dressed in clean pants and a gray shirt like mine.

  “These clothes are horrible,” she said, her lower lip twisting in distaste.

  Pallos chuckled. “They are the traditional garb of the Collective Naval Forces.”

  Isa sighed. “Even worse.”

  Her eyes went to the windshield where she saw the entire layer of white clouds and pointed mountains spread out beneath her.

  “Whoa . . .”

  She grabbed onto my seat, as if doing so would keep her from falling right through the windshield. There were no other portholes on the craft, so this was the first time she would have seen the world from so high above.

  “I need your help,” I said. “I know the world looks a bit different from up here, but you’re from the Northern Wild, so it might at least look familiar to you.”

  Isa’s face was pale, and her eyes unfocused. “It all looks like clouds.”

  “Are you all right?”

  “I never had a fear of heights, but . . .”

  “Just look away,” I said. “It’ll help.”

  She nodded and looked straight at the deck. Her face only became slightly less green. “As I was saying, if I can’t even look outside, then I’m not sure how I’m supposed to . . .”

  “If you can’t, then you can’t,” I said. “Northold’s a big town on a hill. It won’t be hard to miss.”

  Isa nodded. “If anything, look for smoke, clearings . . .” she trailed off. “No. I’ll help you. If I can’t do this for you, then what good am I?”

  “Well, if you think you can help—”

  “She looks pale,” Pallos said.

  “She stays.” Then, I turned to her and gently said, “Just don’t throw up, okay?”

  Isa swallowed. “I’ll be fine.” She looked back up. “Looks like we’re almost over the mountains. After that, we should be flying over the Withering Waste. Then . . . you’ll find the Northern Forest. You’ll want to head west-southwest at that point. That should put you close enough to Northold, but of course, I can stay up here. Look for the Pilgrimage Road. I’m not sure if it’s wide enough to be visible, but it’s the only major trail heading east of Northold before it disappears after fifty miles.”

  “Good,” I said. “Thanks, Isa. If I need you again, I’ll call you up.”

  “Are you sure? I can stay if you need me.”

  “You did well. Try to get some rest before Northold. I’ll need you there, too.”

  She nodded. “Will do.”

&n
bsp; She left the flight deck hastily, leaving me alone with Pallos.

  “Brave girl,” he said.

  “It’s never easy to face your fears,” I said. “This ship belongs to another world.”

  “The Collective has its own airships, of course,” Pallos said. “However, they are nothing compared to this. The fastest airships still take several days to reach most parts of the world.”

  A strange thought crossed my head. If Shen was capable of everything he had let on in our conversation a few weeks ago, then he should be able to recreate this ship. After all, the Collective had the expertise to repair it, so rebuilding one in its entirety wasn’t a huge leap to make.

  “If the Collective knows how to repair this ship, why can’t it create new ones?”

  “You don’t know what you’re asking,” Pallos said. “Yes, the Collective is far more advanced than any other society on Earth. Yes, we have access to almost all the knowledge of the past through the information archived by the ancient Chinese. However, having that information and being able to use it are two entirely different things.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Repairing this ship was the first step. We know how to build it. It was mostly intact, most of the damage being to the chassis where it crashed into the glacier. The alloys it’s made from are no longer producible, not for decades at least. While the ship looks the same, it’s more fragile than it was in the past.”

  “Fragile? Is it safe to fly?”

  “Within Earth’s atmosphere, yes,” Pallos said. “I have no doubt that it can fly safely at any altitude below the Earth’s ionosphere.” At my look of confusion, he added, “That is, no more than forty miles up. There should be no reason to go any higher.”

  “This ship used to be capable of orbital spaceflight, and theoretically capable of advanced spaceflight away from orbital bodies. I don’t remember it ever being used for that purpose, though.”

  I almost did a double-take at that sentence. There were things that I, in a million years, would have never said. Anna’s expertise was showing again.

  “We replaced the missing parts of the hull with titanium, a very durable metal. That was no easy feat. We have no way to recreate the carbon hull used for the ship. Furthermore, there are a host of materials and products that simply don’t exist in today’s world that are not producible because the infrastructure no longer exists. While we are ahead in some ways compared to the ancients, in others, we are still way behind. It took years of study to even repair the fusion reactor. Looking back, I don’t even know how the hell I did it.”

  “Basically, you’re saying that the fusion reactor could blow at any moment.”

  Pallos had the audacity to chuckle. “I doubt that. She flies, and better than any of us could have hoped.”

  “I admit, this conversation hasn’t done much to inspire my confidence.”

  “We did the best we could with what we had. If this ship had crashed somewhere in China, closer to the factories and labs of New Beijing, it might have been disassembled and its schematics logged by the mechs for future reference. No doubt, the design might have even been improved. But, stuck where it was, a human was needed. That was where I came in.”

  “Well, even if it isn’t how it was before . . . it’s a remarkable achievement.”

  Pallos nodded. “I’ll agree with that. There were times where I didn’t believe it possible. I could see it flying in my head. Often, if you can see how things end up, you can see how to get there.”

  I looked over at him. He was staring through the windshield, but not at the clouds or mountains. He didn’t seem to see those, but something else entirely.

  “How do you think this will end, then?”

  Pallos’ eyes focused as he turned his attention to me. “What? You mean, this whole chase with Isaru? I’m a scientist. I don’t place any stock in prophecies or mysticism. The Xenofold is regarded too much as a god.”

  “That’s ironic, considering who you worship.”

  “You misunderstand,” Pallos said. “I am one of the select few who understands what Shen is. Or rather . . . who Shen is. Just because he’s an AI doesn’t mean he isn’t a being as much as you or me. In some ways, he is more.” Pallos gave a sheepish smile. “It’s more complicated than that, of course. It always is. I can at least understand where Shen came from. What I do not understand is the Xenofold. It is utterly alien.”

  “I’m surprised you know that about Shen,” I said. “In my audience with him, he let on that none did. Or at least, very few.”

  “Most regard him as a god. Most wouldn’t understand him as anything but that. For all practical purposes, he is, of course.”

  “The Xenofold and Shen are different, though. And that word you used, alien, is accurate. The Xenofold is not from Earth. This isn’t something I learned as myself, but it’s something I remember from being Anna, along with many other things that are confusing to me, because there are no words in our language to adequately express the concepts,” I paused to gauge his reaction. He was merely listening. “Anna knew far more things than I do. Such concepts no longer exist. If you told any person living in the Wild that the Xenofold came from another world, that their gods were once humans, that the Radaskim and Elekai were the same entity but still opposed . . . it wouldn’t even register. Where your people rediscovered the technology of the past through Shen, mine took a very different path. Through the influence of the Xenofold, through its powers, through its mythology even . . . we had no need to rebuild the past. The Xenofold, I think, gave us a different identity. Even the non-Elekai—the Annarans, the Novans—are shaped by the reality of the Xenofold.”

  Pallos listened quietly. I had no idea whether any of this was helping him understand.

  “It is quite different. America—I mean the continent, and not the ancient empire by the same name—has always been isolated. Shen has brought the entire world together. Of course, the different people, nations, and governments have a great deal of autonomy in most cases, but in the end, they all owe allegiance to one god. Shen. I had always wondered why Shen left America alone. When I learned about the Xenofold, I began to understand. When I met you, I understood more completely. The Xenofold and the Elekai must always remain an independent agent. Interference from outside could hinder its ability to stop the Radaskim invasion.”

  “Shen doesn’t want to mess with the Prophecy,” I said. “He understands that the Radaskim are a threat.”

  “Quite possibly, the Radaskim are the only threat to his supremacy.”

  I was about to answer when I saw something in the distance. The clouds were thinning, and the sky was slightly grayer behind a forested rise in the distance.

  “I think we’ve found our city.”

  Pallos gazed into the distance. “I believe you’re right.”

  “I’m going to put us down,” I said. “You’ll remain on board with Samal, Ret, and Nabea.”

  Pallos’ face tensed. I knew what he was thinking: he wasn’t doing a good job of being Shen’s eyes and ears if he couldn’t get information from me.

  That was my plan all along.

  “No,” he said. His whole demeanor was stern, as if I were an unruly child to be reprimanded. “You cannot leave me out of everything. I’m as much a part of the crew as anyone else. I even repaired this ship. Without me, you wouldn’t have it!”

  “You’re the co-pilot and Odin’s chief engineer. Nothing more.”

  “That’s not the deal. If I’m not to be a part of this . . . then I withdraw my services. Effective immediately.”

  I was about to tell him his services were no longer required, but I knew that was a lie. We needed Pallos, and not just as a backup pilot. If anything went wrong with the ship, he would be the only one to know how to fix it.

  He was only throwing a fit.

  “All right,” I said. “We’ll leave you here, at the mercy of the dragons. If you plan on leaving before they come, it’s more than a thousand miles back to
Shenshi. The Pilgrimage Road back to Haven is filled with bandits, especially this far north. But, if you can make it to Haven, then you can fight the desert tribes on your way to Colonia. After that, you can cross the Great Desert, about five hundred more miles, and then, maybe, you’ll reach Shenshi.”

  Pallos glowered in silence. Clearly, he hadn’t thought it through.

  “You want to come along? Come along, then. You’ll find out that it’s no place for someone who can’t draw a sword or wield a bow.”

  “I can do better,” he said. He opened his jacket, revealing a pistol.

  Instantly, my hand went to my katana. “What? Where’d you get that?”

  He smirked. “You’re not the only one trying to hide things, Shanti.” He hesitated a moment before continuing, letting go of his jacket and obscuring the gun again, “Shen is not the enemy, regardless of what you may think.”

  By sheer force of will, I made myself relax. “Perhaps he’s not the enemy. I should say, though, he told me something very interesting when I met him. Should we succeed in stopping the Radaskim, he wants to take direct control of the world. Those goals won’t go over well with the people here.”

  “I’m not at liberty to discuss it.”

  “What do you know about it?”

  He set his jaw stubbornly. “Much less than you, I’m sure.”

  “This is pointless,” I said. By now, we were about a mile away from the town. It was clearly visible on the hill below us. “Looks like there’s a good landing site below the south gate, by the road.”

  “I see it.”

  The following silence was tense. But something had to be said. “Perhaps you repaired this craft, Pallos, but you are here at my discretion.”

  Pallos gritted his teeth, then sharply shook his head. “No. I am a diplomat of the Shen Empire. For all intents and purposes, whether on this vessel or not, we are equals.”