“Amica…” Siniste whispered his name and shook her head. “This could mean many things for him… but whatever you do, you can’t break him again. That boy has had enough pain for one lifetime.”
Enchantress
“Go to sleep Amica,” I grunted as I heard his breathing beside my bed. I heard him shuffle and felt the bed move before I reworded my request. “In your own bed, go to sleep.”
“But I just love being around you so much! Ever since you bit me, all I want to do is stay beside you. Can’t I sleep with you? In the same bed?” He was practically whimpering.
“Any other person in any other situation would take that the wrong way,” I grumbled, but cursed internally as I realized he would probably love to be involved with me romantically. “I’ll wake you when I awake, but until then, go sleep, alone in your own bed.”
“I won’t give up.” He touched my shoulder once before heading out and I felt the almost inaudible vibration of my room shifting out of the main hallway. He had really gone off the deep-end when I accidently linked our auras, but I didn’t know how or if I could fix it. I tried for a few minutes to think of some method or some document I could use to help research this phenomena, but my tired brain could only focus on how soft my sheets were and how pleasantly dark my room was.
I woke with the setting of the sun and the feeling of eyes upon my face. I opened and met the gaze of the now gaunt Amica with discomfort. “How long—”
“Only for an hour. I prepared you dinner exactly how you like and woke everybody so they can start on changing their schedule to match yours. If they stay up through the night, they have no choice but to sleep during the day.” I rolled out of bed and shepherded him out of the room while I changed. He was obsessed with me and everything I thought, said or believed.
“Where is he?” I asked as I entered the kitchen and looked upon the pissed, exhausted faces of my crew mates. “He isn’t polishing anything is he? Creating something for me again?”
“No, organizing the equipment room so you can find everything easier.” I didn’t even use the equipment room and I could tell by the tone in Dexter’s voice she was pissed. Dexter and Siniste practically lived in the engineering masterpiece of a train car. They knew exactly where everything was and used the things in that room to keep up their physical prowess and plan out the apparently ‘world renowned’ circus act. We had yet to put on a show since we were in full stock and there was enough money that we had no problem with the docking fees, but the others diligently practiced their routines.
“This has to stop, darling!” Poe snapped and I followed the prancing, peacock-wearing cross-dresser with a raised eyebrow in inquiry. He stopped at the entrance to the equipment room and glaring, pointed at the door. “Him! He just collapsed again! I helped the poor thing up, but he just went right back to what he was doing! You have to help him! He’s going to die.”
“He’s collapsing? Why haven’t I been informed about this?” I let my eyes flash dangerously as I passed my gaze over the four gathered. “I can understand Nihilo having taken a vow of silence, but I want to hear your excuses, now.”
“He begged us not to. Hell, I even saw tears. All because of you!” Dexter added something in some weird language that she spouted quicker than I could comprehend, but her sister shut her up with two clipped words
“I thought it would be passing. He seems to be getting better sometimes. He’ll think about other things, human, personal things, but then, every time, he comes back to you. He’s getting sicker and sicker. We have to stop somewhere and get him medical attention.” Siniste sighed tiredly. I couldn’t even respond as Amica came in with a wide smile stretching his small face.
“I’m not finished yet, but I’m reorganizing the equipment for you. I should be—”
“Amica,” I knew I didn’t have to flash my hypnotic gaze to get him to obey me, but I did anyway, hoping he would stay occupied for a long time, “can you watch the radar for me for a while? I have some routine checks to run and I need someone trustworthy to—”
He was moving before I finished talking and as the door slid shut, I stood to go think in silence, but Poe burst out angrily before I could escape. “We have to take him to the hospital. He doesn’t eat properly, he doesn’t stop working, he doesn’t even sleep! If we don’t find a way to fix this, he will die from exhaustion if not the anemia. He hasn’t even recovered from the bite. Two weeks, two weeks and the color still hasn’t returned to his face.”
“Time…” I muttered and opened the door to the equipment room. “I will make my decision before the night is over. I will have time to weigh the risks. If you haven’t realized, his affliction isn’t normal, isn’t human and we aren’t ideal to prove that it’s an anomaly rather than Skypian related. After all, as the moon becomes brighter in the sky, you’re growing in height, width. Your hair, your teeth, even your nails are all growing. What will happen when the full moon blooms in two days? Will you still be human?”
“We are never human,” Siniste grunted and left, having to bend her body slightly to avoid knocking her head.
“Whatever you decide, make it quick darling.” Poe had not put on his makeup or dress, but even as a man, he had a very feminine air about him. With his femininity, however, came a sort of motherly control of the situation that could almost stir my nearly extinct feeling of guilt. This was my fault, but I had not meant to harm, let alone addict Amica.
I paced around the room, coming to a stop by the meditating form of Nihilo. He opened his eyes and stood, looking down at me. “What do you think? Should I risk exposure to get Amica help or should I wait until we reach Skypia?”
He didn’t say anything and continued to stare at me, but the simple act of silence helped clear my mind. “Good idea. Thank you, Nihilo.”
The tall man nodded and followed me as I moved to the engine room. Amica nearly fell out of the chair he was sitting in to greet me and I winced as he swooned. “I watched it just like you said! There was a train that had to pull into a side bar, but there wasn’t a problem. Able.”
“What?” I asked as I pulled up the navigation board and searched for the closest town.
“I just wanted to say your name. Able, Able, Able, Able.” I couldn’t even look him in the face as I ordered Nihilo to restrain and put him to bed. It took a few minutes and eventually a medical emergency transmission to clear the rail, but we were only three hours away from Sodom. The city had some type of warning displayed, but I didn’t recognize the symbol on the screen. As I contacted the dock, I was slightly deterred by the fact that every one of their thirteen docks was empty without reservations.
I flinched a little as Nihilo appeared silently beside me. He pointed towards the door and sat down in the second pilot’s chair. I stood and sighed as I went to see what Amica had done that had overpowered Nihilo.
“Able.” I stared at Amica’s naked body with overwhelming fear and… whatever the hell the other emotion was. “I want to please you. I—”
“Amica, please get dressed.” I grabbed his clothes off the floor and practically shoved them towards his body.
“Why? Why can’t I please you? If it’s my gender, there are plenty of doctors who will help me fix it. I have money saved up; it’s not that expensive of an operation anymore. I can have it done and be ready to please you in only a couple of months.” I tried to stop him with my eyes, but in his fevered state, even my gaze couldn’t hypnotize him.
“Amica, you’re sick. Look at yourself.” I touched his skin hesitantly and jerked back at the extraordinary amount of heat radiating from it. He gasped and shuddered at my touch and I stared at the mess he had made of himself with growing unease. There was only one thing I could think to do so that I could restrain him without compromising my morals or his body.
“Amica,” I whispered and as I leaned forward and kissed him, pushed my power as hard as I could. With no distance separating us, he immediately fell.
I picked him up and tucked him
into his bed before going to get Nihilo. “Nihilo, watch him and makes sure he doesn’t leave the room before we reach Sodom.”
I rubbed my lips with a pang searing through my chest. I had wasted my first kiss and second kiss in order to save the life of a human brat. What had I been thinking? No… I had given my first kiss to save a comrade’s life. I had to be positive, even romanticism had its limits.
I looked at the clock and hissed softly as I calculated the time I had left before the sun came up and the time we had till we reached Sodom. Even if I increased our speed, I would be in my weakened state when I tried to seek medical attention for Amica. If it came down to a fight or even persuasion, I would be at a disadvantage. Nothing was going in my favor today.
When we pulled into the dock, I was starting to wane until finally the sun rose and I nearly staggered at the loss of power. Raven caught me as I nearly fell, but remained silent as we looked at the abandoned but beautifully constructed dock.
“This place gives me the willies. Let’s not stay long,” she whispered to me and I nodded motioning for Nihilo to grab our sick friend.
“Siniste, Dexter—”
“We’ll make sure no one touches the train.” Siniste nodded and Dexter added something a bit vulgar about how they were going to deal with trespassers.
We were met by a guard as we tried to enter the city, but instead of asking us for identification, he remained unmoving in front of the gate. There was no obvious way to sneak into the seemingly expansive, architectural beauty of a city since it was surrounded by a thirty foot steel, or possibly platinum, wall. We waited for a couple of minutes for someone to come and greet us but no one came.
“Excuse me, we seek medical attention inside your city.” I finally addressed the guard. He turned his head to look at us before returning to his unmoving position.
“No one is allowed inside without the Grand Cardinal’s permission. That includes any holotrain passengers, injured or not.”
“Then how do we get in touch with the Grand Cardinal?” I hid my impatience behind a fake smile.
“You don’t. The Grand Cardinal only accepts requests from high ranking Earth Guards. Now leave.” If it had only been a few hours earlier, I could have made the imbecile let us inside, but since I had no powers, we had no choice but to return to our ship.
“That was fast. What? Did you get some hot, raging drugs to pump him full of?” I glanced at Dexter wondering if she really meant what she was saying or if she was joking.
“He doesn’t look any better.” Siniste gave me a critical eye, but I couldn’t do anything about the situation.
“They won’t let us in the city.” I sat down and rubbed my aching head. “We’ll have to wait till sunset before I can get us inside to find a doctor.”
A banging drew us up from our seats and I headed to the door with Nihilo at my back. The noise came from a small, dirty child, bearing tattoos all along her face. She was rubbing at her arm and I nearly grabbed her as I recognized the track marks of aerocane running along her thin body. She looked at us with suspicion as if she wasn’t here under her own will.
“She said she wants to see ya injured guy.” The girl’s voice was coarse from the aerocane that was burning her body alive. “If ya coming, come. If not, I want payment for coming out here.”
She held out her hand, but only earned my chastening. “You shouldn’t be doing aerocane. The high may last longer than other drugs, but it literally burns you alive from the inside out. Now, answer me some questions and I might give you something for your trouble. Who is this she who wants to see our friend?”
“Lady Sky, that’s who. She got a real name, but no one remembers it. She’s the doctor for us poor folk. She keeps us ticking in the city. We don’t got those fancy doctors like the richies got.” So she was a doctor who worked outside the constraints of their society. She could potentially be the best doctor in town with the experience she was getting from treating the lower class citizens.
“And she ordered you to take us to her?”
“That’s what I done said,” she huffed and held out her hand again. “Now where’s my money.”
“I never said anything about money.” I muttered, grabbing an apple and handing it to her. “Lead us to her and she’ll give you a reward like she promised. I’m not a fool; you would never have come out here for anything but bribery.”
The girl looked pissed, but waited for us to grab Amica before leading us around the city perimeter and onto a small overgrown pathway. The pathway, despite being overrun by plants, was surprisingly safe and inactive as we walked down it. The plants didn’t even twitch and I wondered exactly what had been done to stop these powerful creatures.
We all stopped as the girl walked through a curtain of creepers and out of sight. Creepers were one of the most deadly types of plants on Earth and if you touched one, death was almost guaranteed. They were famous for pretending to be ‘asleep’ before strangling their prey and leaving them to hang as a warning as they rotted. After a moment the girl called back to us to hurry up and despite our reservations, Raven flaunted through with the rest of us following. I shivered lightly as the tendrils brushed me, but they remained inactive.
The house on the other side of the creepers was made out of stone with a thatched straw and mud roof. It was simple and looked relatively small, but as the girl led us through the door, the room seemed to expand into a full size house. I looked around the building suspiciously, taking in the medicines, beds and also the strange almost voodoo-like items littering some of the shelves.
“Sky Lady, I brought them, now give it to me!” The girl yelled and from around the main pillar that held up the large house walked a woman.
She was absolutely stunning to the point that even I had no words to describe her yet I still wished to try to explain her power. Her skin was like the night sky had swallowed the moon and stars to leave only perfectly solid darkness. Her hair was filled with bones and feathers woven into large braids that cascaded and jingled as she walked. Her face was strong, full of high cheekbones, a sharp nose and long arching eyebrows. Around the edges of her luscious full lips was a tattoo that formed wings in the characters of some language long dead. Her eyes were made to capture the gazes of men and women alike with their long, striking expanse, the color of faraway stars.
As she sauntered over to us, she was every bit a woman, but a woman who was in charge of her own destiny. She was scantily clothed with only small strips of burgundy silk holding her voluptuous breasts up and a jingling skirt of bones and stones hanging by strings around her silk waist. She had dark blue designs and tattoos coating her long, corded arms, but her cheetah like legs were bare down to her perfectly molded feet.
“Prince, I did not expect such a visit. Is this the young man you bit?” It took Raven answering her to clear my mind and allow me to regain my senses, but when I did, I felt my cheeks flare pink in shame. Over some broad I had lost all reason and the ability to think.
“Yes, this is Amica.” Raven glanced at me with a very obvious jerking towards her, but I only let out a slight smile at her worry.
“Do not worry, Raven. She is worthy of our trust. Lady of the sky, who are you?” She walked towards me and circled, making my average height look small next to her giant expanse.
“I should be asking you, prince, or is your title in the past tense?”
“You may call me whatever you wish, but I have no reason to believe I am a prince.” She threw back her head and laughed, revealing blue nearly black daggers of teeth.
“Touché old, new friend. My powers to you I lend.” She walked over to Nihilo and scooped Amica from his arms easily and toted him to one of her beds. “Though many a name I have had. Zuhara O Kande makes me most glad.”
“I am called Able.” She looked at me with some knowledge she shouldn’t have in her eyes, as if she seemed to recognize who I was.
“Able my love, you nearly sent him to heaven above! From his body you have ta
ken, his own will hath been forsaken. Many treatments will not work, the cure, if any, in shadows lurk.” She moved away out of our sight and rummaged in something before coming back with a tonic of which she dripped a few drops inside Amica’s mouth. “What he needs now is time, and maybe a little essence of thyme.”
I nodded as she grabbed a few more plants and started crushing them with a mortar and pistol. We waited in silence as she finally poured some water to chase the strange liquid into his mouth. “If his problem is as I thought, this should fix the damages wrought.”
“Why do you speak with rhyme? It is pleasant to hear but also strange and slightly unsettling.”
“From my ancestors and my actions I gain, powers and abilities, the humans’ bane.” I nodded as she finally sat down and motioned for us to grab one of her stools to sit. “Questions in your eyes I see, come and I shall answer them for thee.”
“Why were we denied entrance to the city?” My head was hurting, but now was the time for answers, not sleep.
“You are weak in time of day, questions later is what I say.” She nodded at the bed. “Feel free to sit in my home, though I must ask you not to roam. Many things reside near here, in anger and death they often rear.”
I didn’t need much prompting to fall into one of her beds and it was only seconds before I lost consciousness. When the sun finally set, I was fully awake and starving to bite someone. I looked over and found the enchantress giving medicine to children who all wore the signs of heavy drugs and worse things. “Careful, careful you must stay, for you to remain healthy and okay.”
“Yeah, yeah, Sky Lady.” One of the boys sneered. “You say that every time.”
Majesty Page 5