Majesty

by Brooke Vinson

  Majesty

  Brooke Vinson

  Other Books by Brooke

  Ritsu The Cursed One

  Of Illusion

  Majesty

  Brooke Vinson

  Copyright © 2015 by Brooke N Vinson

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

  may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

  without the express written permission of the publisher

  except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Printed in the United States of America

  First Printing, 2014

  ISBN 978-1534862395

  Brookevinson94@gmail.com

  Cover Art

  Copyright © 2016 Elizabeth Lemley

  ealemley@gmail.com

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Cain

  Circus Train

  Song of the Sky

  Forever Loyal

  Enchantress

  Fall of Sodom

  In The Imperial Earth Guard

  Amica

  Skypia

  Road to Liberation

  Lost

  Goodbye

  On The Edge

  Expiration Date

  Excursion

  A Simple Crush

  Departure

  Land of the Falling Sky

  Epilogue

  For my brother and his love/hate relationship with my books. No, I’m not changing any of the endings.

  Prologue

  Ninety-five years have passed since the discovery of the Sky Empire and everything that started with honest, pure hope has fallen apart.

  The creatures who inhabited the foreign land invited the humans and taught them how to survive in the plantless world. Cloudland, the only clouds able to support human weight, was so scarce, however, it was not long before the humans became greedy. Ignoring the warnings that Skybone, though able to be crafted into buildings and objects, was not able to support its own weight, the humans built Manacle City.

  Two years later, Manacle city fell into the Stormsea. Realizing they were at a disadvantage, the humans did the one thing they knew: subjugate. Skypians were already being viewed as lower, dirty beings and the humans, ruled by fear, had no qualms about enslaving them.

  Almost undistinguishable from humans, Skypians fled and hid among their enemies. Skypian children were thrown in with human orphans to allow them a better existence. The humans of course tried everything to separate the Skypians from their own ranks, but at first they couldn’t. Years later they developed ‘Sky Print Paper’ that reacted to a chemical in Skypian blood and so the human world was purged.

  In only a year, the eleventh after Skypia’s discovery (SD), the Skypian race was completely enslaved. The resistance, however, was far from small or weak. They refused to give the humans access to the technology of their Skyskaters, able to fly even on the cloudless sky, forcing them to stay as close to Cloudland as possible. The humans were restricted to the two largest landmasses while the Skypians could travel freely to all pieces of Skycity.

  The resistance was shattered when the Queen of Skycity was executed. She had no heirs and their most powerful bloodline was lost. But, even with the crushing blow, the resistance refused to be stamped out of existence.

  Meanwhile on Earth, a fear of Skypians overtook human society. They had limited information about Skypians due to the Resistance’s efforts and the little knowledge they did have told only about the mystical horrors of the sky. The strange, intelligent creatures were everything they had ever feared; werewolves, vampires, monsters.

  All they knew for sure was the transportation change forced upon them. Airplane turbulence destroyed cloudland, car fumes disintegrated it and train smoke polluted the air of Skycity. The holorails soon became the only form of transportation. Trains traveled across the oceans, into cities, and even up into Skycity. In many ways, life for humans seemed to be progressing rapidly.

  Then came the plague. Like every ‘colonization’ the Skypians had diseases the humans’ immune systems couldn’t even begin to fight. The Quake Plague was one of the worst plagues in human history, spanning all eight continents and surpassing even the Bubonic Plague in the numbers of dead. Delighted by the humans diminishing numbers, exactly seventy days before the cure was found, the dying resistance launched Bose Bombs at the ground below. Bose-Einstein, the fifth state of matter, only occurred naturally in Skycity and never purposely came in contact with liquid or solids. The effects were catastrophic, but even worse was the reaction plant life had to the bombs.

  The humans barely had enough time to escape to their railroads and evacuate as many of their cities as possible before vegetation retook seventy percent of the world below. With both lands in recovery, it wasn’t until 60 SD that the Resistance once again rose up. The Skypians, however, having served with loyalty though not happily, where now treated as servants by many humans and Resistance urges were feared. Why upset my kind masters?

  But Skypians lived an average lifetime three times longer than humans and the Resistance knew if they could fabricate an heir, the Skypians would once again revolt and follow their Queen.

  Cain

  “I’m late!” My stepfather grumbled and I watched his frantic rushing, the picture of an overworked businessman. I took a sip of my coffee and smiled lightly behind the rim. He only worked as a landfill manager; he didn’t have much need of the mussed suit or crooked tie. “What are you looking at?”

  He ran out the door, slamming it shut. I did not like him; he abused my mother and hated my brother and me. She had been so desperate for a husband that she had eagerly run back to her old boyfriend after my father died. I looked up as my mom shambled down the stairs. Her blond hair was tussled and her murky blue eyes were half-closed.

  “Where’s Myrrh?” She asked, trying to start more coffee in her half-asleep state.

  “Rushing to work.” She started and turned to look at me.

  “It’s only six.” She looked at the clock and blinked in surprise.

  “I changed the time. You think he would realize by now that his small, annoying pranks just make me mad and lead to retaliation.” I sipped my coffee again. Even with my massive IQ, completing four months of homework takes time. The teachers had given up on my daily work and simply handed me homework packets to turn in at the end of the semester.

  “Morning!” Cain came marching down the stairs, dressed and ready for school. He was a morning person like his dad and only slightly less stupid. He had our mother’s hair, but his dad’s brown eyes and failed body-builder structure. He was older than me by only a year and while scoring below average in school, aspired to become a professional soccer player. “Where’s dad?”

  “Rushing to work. The clocks are wrong.” My mom explained and couldn’t help but giggle a little. I quirked my mouth in a small smile.

  I was nothing like my mom and all I had of my dad was a picture. When I was two, he died in a freak accident where the commanding officer’s gun misfired and hit him in the gut. They didn’t manage to stop the bleeding in time and he had died on the way to the hospital.

  I had short black hair that I kept slicked back, bright green eyes not unlike a cat's, a long sharp nose and absolutely no natural muscles. I was only average at six feet two inches, but I knew how to make myself imposing.

  However, from what I could tell, I didn’t really look like my biological dad either; he had brown hair, muscles, and a large pug nose. We were essentially strangers except for our amplified green eyes.

  “Okay.” Cain glanced at me, but didn’t say anything.

  “Dear God!” My mother exclaimed and I shifted my attention, pausing as I stood to refill my coffee cup.

  “It’s a letter from
General Capital University and… oh my freaking God!” The exclamation that was so unlike my softhearted mother startled me, but there was only one reason GCU was sending us a letter. I didn’t want to see her grow faint again because Cain received another invitation to college. Now would be the time to get dressed.

  I owned fourteen suits and two tuxedos because I refused to wear anything less than professional clothing, but I usually didn’t tuck the shirt in or button the outer jacket. Casual while still professional. I came back downstairs carrying the satchel I used to carry my school stuff.

  They both stared at me as I entered. “Yes? What is it?”

  “This is from Hesiod Memorial College, for you.” I glanced at the letter with growing unease. The best college on the whole continent for me versus the nicest local college for Cain. This would end badly. I grabbed it, scanned it, threw it on the table and tried to blow it off.

  “They’re offering me a full scholarship.” I didn’t have to wait for the squeal and hug from my mom.

  “You’re such an amazing son! To think, Hesiod!” I really didn’t care; my career plan didn’t involve attending a college taught by second rate professors, but Cain’s did. His face grew harder by the second; he was pissed. Hesiod wasn’t the best college for athletics and General Capital was close to the best for sports, maybe the best for soccer, but even the name Hesiod stopped breaths.

  “We have to go to school,” I said, pushing her away. The holotrain was thankfully late and we got on it just in time. Despite my escape from potential disaster, my day took a nosedive as my head began to pound in one of the few headaches I’d ever had.

  No one dared to sit beside me, but plenty of people felt the need to talk to me. They flocked to me, despite my attempts to run them away. My headache didn’t abate and my mood grew worse.

  The school was a disgrace to intelligent beings everywhere. It was architecturally sound and ornate, but the shape was disastrous and the teachers incompetent. What was the point of shaping a school in the likeness of an octopus when they could have conserved space and money, making a simple but effective rectangle?

  The headache did not help my mood as I entered the school. My normally pale skin had turned pasty and I didn't completely rule out fever as the cause. I felt abnormally hot despite the school being relatively cool. Whatever the reason, the holotrain wouldn’t run again until school let out and I was stuck in this mediocre hellhole.

  The sorry excuse for math my school taught bored me, but allowed me time to write. Normally I wrote petitions to whoever would take them about human stupidity, but today my hand itched without thought. The verse or song that kept repeating inside my head and through my hand, made no sense to me.

  La-and of the falling sky

  Home of those who cannot die

  They who flee across the sea

  Shall ne-er live past the morn

  Very odd, I didn’t remember ever hearing this song and the words were oddly directed. Maybe my mind had finally found the ‘creative outlet’ that everyone else praised and seemed to cling to. When the bell rang and I stood, my head started to spin. I was hungry, but more drastically, I was extremely thirsty. Maybe I was dehydrated, that could explain a lot.

  I paid for a water and a small bag of chips from the vending machines for lunch. I preferred not to attempt to eat the school’s ‘delicious fish patties.’ I suspected they bought the ‘meat’ they served from a factory in upper South America and they were known for adding any bugs that wandered too close during preparation into their meat. I refused to eat them.

  They quenched my hunger and thirst but not for long. I managed to skip out of Physical Education, claiming asthma that the teacher never questioned. The librarian knew my routine and didn't even ask for my pass as I wandered inside.

  I didn’t read for personal pleasure, finding books vague and full of ridiculous holes in meandering plots. If someone were to spend years of their life writing such nonsense, then everything should be perfect or as close to perfection as a human can come. Whatever the reason, I had no better way to spend my time than to read and on the odd occasion, I could find some new knowledge I did not already know. I searched among the gallery of nonfiction, looking for something mildly interesting.

  “Able?” I looked at her, sweet but homely with a deep crush on me stemming from her search for a rich future husband.

  “Yes?” I responded, glancing back at the bookshelf.

  “Can you help me with some homework, if you’re not too busy!?” She spoke progressively quicker and louder. I looked her over once more and considered ditching her, then thought of the benefits of having someone owe me a favor.

  “Fine, come here.”

  She looked almost spellbound as she tottered forward. I quickly held up my arms to stop her as a second wave of dizziness rolled over me. Her hair brushed my nose. I noticed she smelled nice, like lilies. I pulled her in closer and she didn’t pull back. I wanted to revel in her scent and I opened my mouth to soak it in.

  There was an aching in my gums as I moved to brush my lips over her quickening pulse. Some instinct, something carnal inside me pushed me to press down harder to make her feel the sting of my teeth in her flesh. As my surprisingly sharp teeth punctured her flesh and soaked up the blood beneath, my throat constricted in expectation for the wondrous moisture. I bit down deep and scraped with my fangs to give me a larger area to suck up the liquid.

  I seized her body in an almost deadly crushing hug as I sucked all I could from the bloody hickey I had bestowed upon her neck. When the dryness in my throat had abated, I managed to gather my senses and I loosened my bite immediately.

  The girl didn’t even manage to slacken my hold as she grabbed the bloody mess of her neck. Her eyes seemed to have sunk back in her head and her face was filled with fear. She opened her mouth to scream, but I stared her down.

  “You are not going to scream. You are not going to say a word about what happened. This might as well never have happened.” She didn’t nod, she didn’t move, she didn’t even breathe as I held her gaze with my own, but when I blinked, she swooned and walked shakily away.

  I grabbed my mouth as another aching began and moaned. I hated pain of any sorts and I was especially bad at dealing with it. I walked in an almost zombie-like manner to sit in one of the libraries reclining chairs. I felt tired, really tired and as I sat there looking up at the ceiling, I felt myself fall into a dreamless sleep.

  The siren that warned of the only incoming holotrain woke me and I glanced at the time in shock. I had to sprint to board the holotrain that would take us home and if not for Cain pitching a fit about leaving me, I would have been stuck at the school for the entire night. Cain tried to joke about me finally stooping to the level of the rest of ‘us commoners,’ but I refused to comment and settled on looking out at the shifting plants.

  I didn’t know what was going on, but I would figure it out. Mom had tried to set up a sort of make-shift party, but I walked right past her and slammed the door to my room. I set my stuff down and looked around the barren room with a critical eye. I never collected worldly possessions because I never had a reason for needing them. Nobody seemed to understand my rational, but it made perfect sense to me.

  I opened my door with only the flick of my wrist and yet the piece of wood still slammed against the wall with a dangerous thud. I stalked into our bathroom and closed the door quietly. I waited a minute to flick on the light, but when I did, I found someone new looking back from the mirror. My skin had taken on the sheen of a new born moon and my hair seemed to absorb any inkling of shadow in the room. Worst of all were my eyes, they no longer bore any resemblance to those of a humans; they looked purely like the eyes of a witch’s cat.

  I touched the mirror, but my throat started constricting again and the painful ache began again in my mouth. I opened it to try and seek out what had made me begin to ache and stared. I grabbed my lip and raised it to look at the enlarged shards that had sprouted from my
gums in place of my canine. It was almost like my canines had grown an extra casing around them, so skin tight I could barely feel the ridge where my original canines began.

  “Mr. Brain developed a cavity?” Cain burst into the bathroom without bothering to knock. I glared at him and dropped my lip back in place. “Or have you discovered the concept of vanity?”

  “Go to hell, Cain. You’re the vain imbecile in the family.” I grumbled and he flicked his hair with a small huff.

  “I have reason to be vain,” he said in a fake pompous, feminine voice.

  “Cain, just so you know, I will support you no matter what. When you’re ready to come out to mom, I’ll be right there beside you.” I twitched my lip in as much a smile as I ever did to show him I wasn’t serious.

  “You can go to hell too.” He pushed into the bathroom with a laugh. “Now seriously, get out.”

  “Cain,” I widened my eyes as he tried to squeeze past me but wound up brushing my butt. “I know we are only half-brothers, but this is still incest! I don’t even like men like you. I go for the innocent boy types.”

  Cain stared at me and my totally serious face then cracked up as my mouth twitched. “You had me going there for a minute, bro. Now please, let me take my shower before I miss the next holotrain to town.”

  I turned as I recognized his legitimate claim to the bathroom, but as I turned it hit me. I had stopped myself earlier; I had controlled the urge to drink more from the stupid girl. I wasn’t satisfied, far from it. I was parched and a fountain was waiting for me, beckoning me from only a few feet away. I grabbed Cain and pressed him against the wall with all the force in my body.

  “Hey! What are you doing? Get off. This joke is going a bit too far!” Normally he could break my rail thin grasp and overpower me easily, but something was different tonight. My grip was filled with a power that shouldn’t belong in my small body.