AWOL

by Traci Harding

  ‘Dear universe,’ Taren drew a deep breath. ‘I hate to imagine what she plans to do with that. But whatever it is, it’s going to be directed at Khalid. If he dies, there will be nothing for Satomi to aim her anger at.’

  Zeven was horrified by the reasoning, but was having difficulty gathering his argument.

  ‘There is us,’ Lucian pointed out. ‘I do recall her saying you were worse than both your parents put together —’

  ‘She said that?’ Zeven was shocked.

  ‘Which seems to imply —’ Lucian summed up.

  ‘An existing resentment towards my parents.’ Taren saw his point. ‘I informed my mother of Satomi’s resurrection, but I implied that she seemed a little delusional in the wake of it and anything she said was not to be believed without question.’

  ‘If she goes telling Phemorians that we freed and are abetting Khalid, everyone will turn against us, maybe even your father,’ Zeven feared.

  ‘So we have to get Khalid to somewhere, away from AMIE, where he cannot be found or located,’ Lucian concluded calmly. ‘The best place for him is Oceane.’

  ‘But he is not of our soul-group,’ Taren reasoned. ‘The presence of Azazèl-mindos-coomra-dorchi may not be able to shield or heal him.’

  ‘Well, if it cannot, we’ve risked nothing,’ Zeven seconded Lucian’s view. ‘Khalid will be dead.’

  Taren sank into a seat again, to re-examine the argument. ‘I need tea in the morning before I’m asked to —’

  Zeven was holding a cup in front of her before she had time to wish one up for herself.

  ‘Many thanks.’ She accepted it, and sipped it while she continued her silent musing.

  ‘I’ve had Telmo hide the coffer containing the curse on Oceane also,’ Zeven informed, but Taren looked to him wide-eyed and fit to freak. ‘But not even I know where it is or what it looks like. Telmo is the only one who can locate it.’

  ‘Good job,’ Lucian awarded, and the captain’s view calmed Taren a little.

  ‘My heart and my head are so conflicted on this.’ She placed her empty cup aside.

  ‘Then leave them out of it,’ Zeven suggested. ‘What does your gut tell you? And the amulet on your arm? When you think about allowing a repentant man to die.’

  Taren focused on this, holding her right hand over the armband that held the Juju stone pressed to the flesh of her left upper arm; her expression was pained.

  ‘Now think about saving him.’ Zeven watched as her torment turned to peace and he knew that the cosmos was with him on this.

  ‘The Juju rules in your favour,’ Taren admitted, feeling somewhat relieved to have had some guidance on the matter.

  ‘Yes!’ Zeven fisted the air. ‘I’d like my Juju back now, as Khalid is healed enough to stand in its presence. And I need one for Telmo, too.’

  ‘What are we to do about Satomi?’ Taren asked, as she materialised the said items and handed them to Zeven.

  ‘Well I dare say if you report to your mother and advise her that we suspect Satomi to have stolen away with the source of Khalid’s curse,’ Lucian suggested, ‘that would seem to support your claim that she’s gone a little loopy and is not to be trusted, which will raise the Qusay’s guard at least.’

  ‘The halfling of shadow they call him; I don’t know that anyone on Phemoria has pegged that halfling as Khalid, at least not openly.’ Taren had learned this from Zeven’s conversation with Jalila Lamus. ‘The acting prime minister should also be warned about Satomi.’

  ‘Mother has an accomplice on Phemoria, so beware,’ Zeven cautioned. ‘Someone helped bring Khalid’s curse about, and got Khalid out as a baby, so someone knows the truth of the matter.’

  ‘Satomi herself escaped Phemoria as a young girl.’ Taren considered the same person could have been aiding her now. ‘But who?

  ‘Whoever it was had no problem dealing with the curse at Dead Man Downs.’ Zeven imagined such a woman must be formidable, and even more so with his mother as an ally. ‘Those ghosts hate Phemorian women more than death itself, so she must have a means to keep them in line.’

  ‘And there seems to be something else you are overlooking.’ Lucian was loath to point it out. ‘Satomi is the elder daughter of the Phemorian line and the rightful heir.’

  ‘She abdicated,’ Taren argued.

  ‘Correct me if I am wrong,’ Lucian winced, ‘but your mother pardoned her the day we removed the cursed crown from her head — only at the time we all believed her dead and buried.’

  ‘Oh shit!’ Taren realised he was absolutely right. ‘We must both move quickly.’

  It had taken the Qusay-Sabah Clarona several days to recover her sensibilities following the ordeal that had seen the cursed crown of Phemoria finally lifted from her head, and she now felt ready to reassume her rightful place as head of state. As her daughter seemed most determined to end heretical rule on Phemoria, she considered it prudent that she work with the new acting prime minister to create a governing body worth abdicating for.

  In removing the cursed crown from her head, her daughter had not only ended the curse but overthrown her in a shadow rebellion. Now that she had regained her health and sensibilities, Clarona could declare war on her daughter and Sermetica, in a bid to reclaim her throne. Still, considering what she had allowed to transpire under the guidance of the Phemoray, she realised that individuals were not infallible, and that they were subject to manipulation — both supernatural and earthly. The judgement of a governing body would be far more difficult to undermine, and Clarona considered that it might be time to pursue a new form of governance for Phemoria.

  Funny that she felt not the slightest bit sentimental or defeated about the rule of the Phemorian royal line ending on her watch. On the contrary, she felt pride in the fact that all those daughters who would be born into her line in the future would never have to experience the curse of the Phemoray, or the pressure and loneliness of ruling as sole monarch.

  The thought of Jabez Anselm filled her chest with a warmth that took her breath away — her heart had been as ice for so long that the glowing sensation was a wonder to her now. Pride in her daughter added joy to the mix, and her eyes overflowed with tears, as they had been for days.

  ‘Not today.’ She brought her surging emotions into check as she dabbed the tears from her eyes with a lace cloth. ‘This is the first day of a new era for Phemoria, and not the occasion for tears, happy or sad.’ She’d never had the chance play the good Qusay before; Clarona wasn’t sure she knew how. ‘Just be yourself,’ she counselled her image in the mirror of her dressing room, although it was so long since she had been herself that even Clarona had to wonder what she was really like.

  She was about to find out, she supposed, as one of her dressers closed the clasp on her necklace and Clarona was ready to face her court.

  As usual, her day started with a private council with General Prochazka and Jalila Lamas.

  ‘General Prochazka. Prime Minister Lamas,’ Clarona greeted them from her throne as they entered side by side. ‘I trust all fares well with our affairs during my infirm.’

  Both her subjects bowed to her, although the general bowed more deeply than Jalila — perhaps she felt her new appointment put her above royal homage?

  ‘We do have one urgent matter to discuss.’ General Prochazka came forward, with a couple of documents in hand, which Clarona expected needed to be signed.

  But upon being presented with the first document, the Qusay realised it was one she’d penned herself and signed only days before. ‘This is the pardon for the Princess Satomi. What of it?’ she asked, even as it clicked in her mind that if Satomi was pardoned and again living and breathing, she was now a rightful claimant to the throne of Phemoria. Thankfully Clarona had not told anyone of Satomi’s resurrection.

  ‘Indulge me, Majesty.’ The general handed her the second document.

  Clarona opened it to find a summons for her own arrest. A metal device clamped around her ankle and before she cou
ld query it, the Qusay had been psychically restrained.

  ‘You are under arrest,’ Prochazka advised.

  ‘What are the charges? And on whose authority —?’

  ‘On my authority.’ Jalila shifted form into that of Clarona’s long-lost sister.

  ‘Satomi,’ Clarona gasped, having not seen her older sister since before their mother’s death. She had barely aged at all.

  ‘You are being arrested on the charge of conspiring with rebels who are harbouring our bastard brother!’ Satomi seethed.

  ‘No!’ Clarona denied the charges, and looked to the general. ‘Surely you do not believe this lie? My sister is not in her right mind.’

  ‘No … you are the one who is not in your right mind, little sister!’ Satomi asserted. ‘You have been tricked into believing your daughter and her father’s good intentions, and I almost was myself, but the truth is our families are poisonous snakes!’

  ‘How can you say that? You would not be alive but for their aid!’ Clarona stood to confront the challenge head on. ‘They are the Zagriata, appointed by creation itself! You shall be damned if you defy their efforts to unite the Star Systems and bring a lasting peace to all humanity.’

  ‘The Zagriata are a bedtime story!’ Satomi was angered by what she saw as ignorance. ‘They have just used this fallacy to suck you and everyone into their scheme!’

  ‘Their scheme?’ Clarona was baffled.

  ‘To rule the USS as a shadow government,’ Satomi concluded.

  ‘That’s ridiculous!’ Clarona objected. ‘They could have taken Phemoria easily, but they did not. They only freed us from the curse that you ran from and left me to deal with! And I would have suffered that curse my whole life but for their compassion. They forgave me my trespasses of the past, which were not of my choosing, and I wish nothing more than to follow that example. I forgive you, Satomi, for skirting your responsibilities to Phemoria and leaving a girl to do a woman’s job, but if you continue with this coup, forgiveness will not come so easily.’

  ‘Forgive our enemies, I will not! I will hunt Khalid down and anyone who gets in my way will die with him. Then I will teach Sermetica a harsh lesson about what happens to those who bring traitors into our midst.’

  ‘No!’ Clarona’s heart was breaking to think her rescue from the Phemoray was just a trick — but deep down she knew it had not been. ‘My family came for me once, and they will again. They will not allow you to start another war!’

  ‘It doesn’t matter what you think.’ Satomi approached to touch her sister’s cheek and then assumed the appearance of the Qusay-Sabah Clarona. ‘I am Qusay now.’

  ‘Traitor!’ Clarona had no idea her sister could shapeshift; no one would even know that she was missing.

  ‘Send her to the celestial city,’ Satomi instructed the general. ‘Even the Zagriata will have quite a time trying to free her from there.’

  ‘No!’ Clarona begged as Prochazka led her from the room of court. Without the Phemoray, or the curse being destroyed altogether, there was no way back to the Earth plane from the spirit city. ‘I have just got my family back, please don’t do this; banish me anywhere but there!’

  ‘I’m not asking you to make any sacrifice that I am not prepared to make myself.’ Satomi walked to the throne and took a seat. ‘I will oppose my family to redeem Phemoria in the eyes of our foremothers and so shall you.’

  ‘General Prochazka,’ Clarona appealed once they were alone in the waiting room beyond the room of court. ‘You have always been so faithful to me —’

  ‘I am faithful to Phemoria.’ The general turned to face her and placed Clarona’s hands in cuffs to escort her through the palace. ‘I serve the true Qusay of Phemoria, and the Qusay-Sabah Satomi is that true ruler — you made it so by your own hand. I don’t make the laws, I just see them carried out.’

  ‘Just promise me that you will never allow my sister, or anyone, to put the crown of the Phemoray on their head,’ Clarona appealed, as a hood was pulled over her own head to mask her identity.

  ‘I hate the Phemoray more than I hate Sermetic men,’ Prochazka spat. ‘You can rest assured that I shall see the crown of the Phemoray destroyed!’

  ‘No, you must not.’ Clarona panicked, having been advised by her daughter that that would be most unwise. ‘Unless you know how to reverse the curse, you will only —’

  The general grabbed her cuffs, and abruptly pulled her near. ‘Do I have to gag you?’

  ‘You’ll just release Phemoray to —’

  A muffling gag was crammed in her mouth and the outer adhesive grip stuck to her face.

  ‘Now walk with me, quietly,’ the general advised, ‘or you shall be unconscious a whole lot sooner.’ Prochazka grabbed her by the cuffs and led her to the holy of holies built by the Phemoray to protect Phemoria’s most gifted psychics from being corrupted by earthly pleasures and desires.

  At least that was the story the Phemoray spun. But in truth, these females were confined to a life in the celestial sphere to keep them under control and prevent them from rebelling against the Phemoray. The threat of their termination was also used by the Phemoray against the ruling Qusay; the notion of killing so many of her countrywomen ensured that the women through whom the Phemoray ruled always toed the line. The women in status in the vault beneath the royal palace spent their whole lives in spiritual service, isolation and celibacy, which was virtually how Clarona had spent her entire adult life to date. A few days of true freedom is not enough. She wept for the family life she had waited so long for, and for her sister who was making a grave mistake, but mostly her tears were for the inhabitants of the USS. For if the Phemoray were released there was no imagining the extent of their retribution that would no doubt begin with her own family.

  8

  KEY TO THE KINGDOM

  Where could she be? Aurora was in a panic; she’d searched the ship from one end to the other, she’d even summoned her daughter to the captain’s office over the ship intercom system, and still no sign of Ray. With little else for it she began her search over, and was greatly relieved to find Thurraya sitting on her bed.

  ‘Baby, where have you been? Why didn’t you answer my page?’

  When Ray looked in her direction, tears were streaming down her face — Aurora had never seen her so upset.

  ‘Ray … what’s happened?’ Aurora came to crouch before her as Ray attempted to brush the tears from her face with the long sleeves of her shirt.

  ‘Nothing … that I can tell you about,’ she replied.

  ‘Does this have something to do with why Grandma was angry?’ Aurora approached the situation indirectly.

  Ray nodded to confirm this. ‘I’ve done something really bad this time.’ ‘This time?’ Aurora suppressed her urge to be angry, lest Ray clammed up again. ‘You went to visit Daddy again, when the captain expressly forbid you to do so?’

  ‘Not exactly,’ Ray defended.

  Aurora, frustrated, took a breath to try again. ‘Sweetie, if something has upset you I need to know.’ She raised herself to sit by her daughter on the bed, and put an arm around her in comfort.

  ‘It’s very bad.’ Ray’s tears welled anew.

  ‘Maybe it isn’t as bad as you think,’ Aurora attempted to allay her daughter’s rising panic. ‘Please, tell Mummy what’s happened.’

  ‘A man is dying, and it should have been me, Mummy,’ she confessed, and the tears started tumbling. ‘He saved me from the cursed vampire monkey and now he is dying from his wounds.’

  ‘Who is dying?’ Her story sounded so outrageous that Aurora wondered if she’d just had a vivid nightmare.

  ‘Daddy’s friend, Top Secret,’ Ray replied. ‘I don’t know his real name. Daddy and Telmo got bit by the monkey and now they are sick too!’

  ‘Sick?’ Aurora wondered if this was why no one was allowed to visit, perhaps they were in quarantine? With that thought she grabbed Ray to inspect her for any sign of sickness.

  ‘I wasn’t bitten,
Mum.’ Ray objected to being handled and pulled away. ‘Top Secret saved me, and now he is suffering for it.’

  ‘Thurraya!’ Mythric walked in sounding relieved as he looked to Aurora. ‘You found her, I see?’ Then he noted the vibe in the room was not a happy one. ‘Where did you get to?’

  Ray merely looked to the floor in shame, tears still rolling down her cheeks.

  ‘It seems she caught a ride on one of your cuddles to see her father again,’ Aurora outlined.

  ‘What the hell is Zeven doing that everyone who returns from seeing him is completely distraught?’ Mythric’s slow simmering beef rose to the fore. ‘I’m getting a little tired of not being told what is going on in my own family, or even in my own world. I just found out on the news that Khalid escaped prison almost a week ago!’

  ‘Oh, my stars! We must tell Taren.’ Aurora rose.

  ‘You think she doesn’t know?’ Mythric challenged. ‘Her father is the chairman of the United Star Systems — she knows!’

  ‘Then why has no one mentioned this news to us?’ Aurora wondered. ‘Why are we not running a mission to recapture him?’

  ‘Precisely,’ Mythric seethed. ‘I have a good mind to quit this crew and go and find out what my son is really up to.’

  ‘No, Mythric, not you too,’ Aurora appealed. ‘The captain and our timekeeper have never steered us wrong in the past, we must trust —’

  ‘They have driven a wedge between my wife and my son. I have the right to know why! We have the right!’ He included her in the equation, gripping the spot on his left arm where his Juju stone was located; it was obviously paining him, meaning his thinking was not in tune with cosmic law.

  ‘Ray seems to think Zeven is unwell.’ Aurora was more concerned about this fact than what he was up to — she trusted her husband would always do the right thing by AMIE.

  ‘All the more reason,’ Mythric lowered his voice, ‘to sneak off and find out what is really going on.’

  ‘No,’ Ray insisted. ‘You shouldn’t break the rules. I did, and I’ve made an awful mess of things.’