The Royal Pursuit

by Ruth Ann Nordin

  “I’ll write my thoughts down before I forget.” Stacey ran out of the room to get her pen and paper, wondering what other discoveries she would make before their trip was over.

  ***

  In the Wilderness

  Planet: Lone

  Ann ran up the hill, ignoring the pain in her side from the arduous journey through the wilderness. She couldn’t keep up this pace much longer. Optima’s warning echoed through her mind, compelling her to keep moving. She had to keep going for the sake of her unborn child, and that meant she couldn’t stop until she came to a cave.

  The suns were quickly setting. Soon it would be dark, and she didn’t have a flashlight to search her way through the maze of trees. To make matters worse, the tree branches were already casting down eerie shadows around her. She tripped over a tree root and fell against one of the trees.

  She took a moment to regroup, wiping the sweat from her face. Leaning forward with her hands on her knees, she struggled to catch her breath. She was thirsty and hungry, but she didn’t have time to do anything about it. She had to find a cave. Then she could rest. She straightened up and studied her surroundings.

  Where was a cave? Optima told her there were many caves up here, so it stood to reason there should be one nearby. She squinted when she caught sight of a hole in the distance. It looked so far from where she was, but she knew it was the entrance of a cave. She turned in the direction she needed to go and pressed onward toward her goal, moving as fast as she could.

  Keep going, she thought. Don’t look back. The Nical had warned her to keep going. She had to keep moving.

  A half hour later, the suns had set for the night and darkness surrounded her. The muscles in her legs ached from running, and the muscles in her arms ached from the many times she had to pick herself up after falling down. The tree roots were her biggest obstacle. But even so, she was grateful a vicious animal hadn’t found her. At least, she assumed carnivorous animals existed on this planet.

  She stopped for a moment to catch her breath. She could still see the entrance to the cave in the moonlight. She groaned. The cave seemed so far away from her. Her eyes fell upon a hollow log lying on the ground. She wondered if she could fit in there. It would at least give her a place to hide while she gained enough energy to complete her journey to the cave.

  She crawled inside and collapsed, finally letting her body relax. The side of her face pressed against the rough log, but she didn’t notice how clammy and damp it was. She was too grateful to be alive to care.

  After what seemed like forever, her breathing calmed. She closed her eyes, taking comfort in the stillness of the night. Then, before she knew it, she drifted off to sleep.

  She wasn’t asleep for more than fifteen minutes when she felt something brush against her face. The sensation didn’t register in her mind right away. At first, she thought it was a breeze, but when it crept across her neck, her body went rigid. She screamed and quickly crawled out of the log.

  She gasped the cool night air, barely noticing her sore muscles, then sprinted for the cave. On her way, she tripped over a tree root and fell on the dirty ground. She spit the dirt out of her mouth, got up and kept running. She hated this. She just wanted to get to the cave so she could be safe for the rest of the night.

  By the time she reached the cave, she realized no one had been chasing her. The thing she’d felt on her face and neck was probably a harmless insect.

  She found a corner in the small cave and settled into it so she could face the entrance of the cave and see if anyone or anything was going to come in to hurt her at some point in the night.

  Shivering, she brought her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, trying to stay warm. There was no way she was going to build a fire. Hathor had shown her how to do that, but she was afraid she would alert the man in white to her location if she did. She couldn’t sleep, despite her fatigue. She just stared at the cave’s entrance, praying morning would soon come.

  ***

  Optima slowly regained consciousness. She didn’t think she would pass out as she had done. When she opened her eyes, she saw that she was surrounded by her companions, who looked worried about her well-being.

  Ruler Dour breathed a sigh of relief. “She will be alright. The stone not only gives us immortality. It also gives us healing from all ills.”

  The Nicals nodded, glad her wounds had been healed so it was as if she’d never been hurt.

  Sando smiled, his hair white with relief. “You’re safe now. The Queen of Raz will not harm you anymore.”

  She accepted his hand as he helped her sit up. She glanced around the room and saw that Athen, Jaz, and Falon were tied to their chairs.

  “Where is the man who came here?” She almost called him their protector, but that would not be an accurate statement.

  “He left a moment ago to visit our library,” Sando replied. “He said if our stone didn’t heal you, he needed to find a book that would tell us the remedy for your wounds. Fortunately, that was unnecessary.”

  She shook her head, not believing the man in white. She knew the man was talking to his friend, most likely discussing the queen’s escape. A shiver raced up her spine. Did he suspect she had set the queen free?

  Forcing aside her worries, she whispered, “How long will he be gone?”

  Sando and Dour leaned closer to her so they could hear her question.

  “I don’t know. He didn’t say,” Dour replied. “Is something wrong?”

  “Yes, but I couldn’t tell you before,” she said. “Can you send someone to stand guard at the front door of this building and another one to guard the door of this room? I need to tell you something important. It’s about what I overheard the man saying in the library.”

  Dour turned to Xan and Tan. “Xan, I need you to stand at the entrance of this building. Signal Tan when you see the man in white leaving the library. Tan, you will stand in the doorway of this room and tell us when Xan sends you the signal.”

  The Nicals looked startled at the command as they watched Xan and Tan hurry to obey Dour.

  Tan nodded in their direction, letting them know the man was still safely inside the library.

  Optima took a deep breath and scanned the people around her in the room. She wasn’t sure where to begin.

  “What is it, Optima?” Dour asked.

  “I think we’re pawns in that man’s plans,” she said. “When I went to tell him we were ready to capture the Razians and Palers, I overheard him talking to someone. The person he talked to wasn’t in the room. He was talking to someone through a device he held in his hand. I could hear the other person talking, but I couldn’t tell if the person was a man or a woman.”

  She noted Athen and the Palers were staring intently at her, just as interested in what she had to say as her companions were.

  “The person he was talking to said the queen was the one they were after,” she continued. “The other three captives aren’t of any interest to them. They want to kill the queen because she’s pregnant. That’s why I had to let her go. I made it look like she escaped.”

  “Are you sure she’s pregnant?” Athen asked.

  “Yes, though she didn’t know it until I told her.”

  Athen sighed heavily. “Hathor’s going to be upset when he finds out. He would have insisted on going in her place if he had known.” He said it to himself, but Optima was strangely curious about his comment and the care he seemed to feel for his friends.

  Sando interrupted her thoughts. “What do the man and his friend want with her child?”

  “Neither one said,” she replied. “I just know they will kill the queen when they know of her pregnancy.”

  “That child must be important,” Dour thoughtfully stated. “And it probably poses a threat to them.”

  Tan turned to them and waved.

  The group dropped the topic, and Tan and Xan ran into the room and sat with the other Nicals.

  “You’re looking good,
Optima,” Sando cheerfully said as he helped her off the table.

  “I feel well,” she replied.

  “You gave us quite a scare there,” Dour added. “We must be more careful in the future.”

  “Yes,” she agreed.

  “I have good news,” the man in white said as he entered the room. “We can still find the Queen of Raz. I will have to take a couple of you with me for this mission. She may no longer have her magic, but she wouldn’t have left Raz without a backup plan.”

  Optima examined the room. She couldn’t let her fears show in her hair color. She saw the other Nicals had successfully turned their focus onto other things for none of them had yellow hair.

  Some had blue hair since they were sad over the fact that this man who was to be their protector was using them. Most of the fifteen women had green hair for the same reason she had when she met the queen. They all wanted the ability to conceive and give birth, as it had been before. Most of the men had black hair in their determination to remain strong for the women. None of them had yellow hair. But they hadn’t released the queen, so they had no reason to think the man would suspect them of rebelling against him.

  She looked at the Razian named Athen, thinking that seeing him would turn her hair blue since she was saddened at the thought of him having to worry about the queen of his planet. But as she studied him, the thought occurred to her that he was attractive. Instead of her hair turning blue, it turned pink.

  “I suppose you know something of her whereabouts,” the man commented, staring at Athen. “After all, you did come from Raz.”

  “Ruler Dour,” the man began, “you should come with me this time. Perhaps you can keep an eye on Optima to ensure she doesn’t allow this Razian to escape.”

  Optima gasped.

  “Yes, you will be joining us,” the man told her. He tapped his white cane against Athen’s chains, which automatically fell apart.

  Athen took the opportunity to run to him and tried to knock him down, but the man’s reflexes were impressive. He dodged his attacker and tripped him with the cane.

  “Behave, Razian, or I’ll see to it that your queen dies,” the man warned, his voice cold.

  Athen was ready to attack again, and the Palers were unsuccessfully struggling to get out of their chains. Optima glanced at Dour, uncertain of the proper course of action now that he knew the truth of the queen’s escape.

  Dour took her cue. “Now is not the time to engage in combat. We can save that for later,” he said.

  She nodded with her companions, understanding his hidden message. They weren’t strong enough to defeat the man yet. They needed to make a plan.

  “Optima and I will go,” Dour said. “Athen will be our captive. Surely, the queen will be concerned about him and want to save him.”

  The man smiled in appreciation. “You speak wise words. Get up,” he ordered Athen, who grudgingly obeyed him.

  “Let me go, too,” Sando requested.

  “No, that is not necessary,” the man said.

  “Please. Three are better than two. There is strength in numbers,” he protested.

  “I said no. Don’t bother me anymore.”

  Optima gently touched her brother’s arm, grateful for his concern. “I’ll be alright. Dour is with me.”

  Sando frowned. “You’re all I have left.”

  Her hair turned blue as she recalled his wife and unborn child who had died due to the virus. Their parents and other relatives died shortly after that. She brushed her tears away at the reminder.

  “Come, Optima,” Dour softly said. “I will take care of you.”

  “What do you want us to do?” Xan asked Dour.

  “Xan, you will stand in my place as ruler while I am away,” Dour instructed. “If you must act, do so. Otherwise, wait for my return.”

  Xan agreed.

  Chapter Ten

  In the Wilderness

  Planet: Lone

  Hathor ran up the side of the hill, his steps carefully tracking where Ann had been an hour earlier. She hadn’t gone up the hill in a straight line. Her movements had been irregular, as if she purposely went in zigzags. He figured she’d been trying to lose her captors, which also made it more difficult for him to find her. If it hadn’t been for the ruby the Augurs had given him, finding her would have been impossible.

  The shadows from the trees created a dark environment, despite the bright moonlight beaming down from the sky. He hoped she wasn’t too scared. He knew she didn’t enjoy being by herself in these circumstances, especially at night.

  His mind was still reeling from the realization that she was pregnant with the next queen. They had talked about having another child, but it had taken them a couple months of trying before she conceived in the past. This time she conceived the first month they were trying. He shook his head. It would be right away this time, he thought in irritation. If he had expected she might even be pregnant, he would have gone in her place to Lone. Razian law allowed for the king to act on the queen’s behalf when she was pregnant since it was the planet’s first priority to ensure the survival of the beings living on it.

  If he’d had the Book of Spells, he could’ve sent her back to Raz and meet the Augurs by himself in the lake that they mentioned to him. Since he didn’t have the book and since she’d lost her magic, he would have to take her with him. He felt better knowing that at least he would be with her.

  He’d never realized how much he meant to her. Oh, he knew she loved him, but watching her reaction to his death made him aware of just how much she needed him, and that realization made him love her even more. Such a love was uncommon for the king to receive.

  He passed a hollow log. From the glow of the ruby, he knew she had been there. He didn’t bother to stop at it. The glow was faint. He grimaced. She must have been exhausted if she’d stopped there. He didn’t imagine she would stay there for long, considering the insects he saw crawling around it. She hated bugs.

  He continued to follow her trail. Looking ahead of him, it suddenly became clear she was going to the cave near the top of the hill. It was the one spot where the view wasn’t hindered by trees. Encouraged, he lifted the ruby and pointed it at the cave. It glowed brightly in the darkness.

  “Thank goodness,” he whispered.

  She was still there, and better yet, she was alive. He quickened his step and ran as fast as he could through the obstacle of tree roots that seemed to jump out from the ground. By the time he reached the entrance of the cave, he was out of breath.

  “Ann? Ann, where are you?” he asked.

  “Hathor?” someone whispered.

  He held the ruby up to the source of the voice. He smiled when it glowed. “Yes. It’s me.”

  He didn’t bother waiting for her response. He ran over to her and took her in his arms. “Are you hurt?” he asked.

  “No. Not really. I just have some scrapes from falling on the ground,” she replied, her voice shaky.

  He kissed her. He could taste her tears. She had been crying. He tightened his hold on her, his heart constricting at the thought of what she must have gone through out here by herself in unfamiliar territory.

  She returned his kiss, returning his passion. She pressed him close to her as he kissed her neck. Their lovemaking was intense and powerful. Afterwards, they clung to each other, silently grateful that they were together again.

  When Ann finally spoke, she told him everything that had happened since she left Raz. He tensed as she related the Nicals’ capture of her, Athen, Jaz, and Falon. He recalled how things would have turned out if he had been with them. He wouldn’t be here holding her now. He stroked her cheek, remembering how she had cried over his death.

  She continued her version of events, discussing how the female Nical had set her free. “I don’t know why she let me go,” she concluded. “All I can think of is that she took pity on me because that man wishes to kill me. For some reason, he doesn’t want our child to be born.”

  “Th
e Augurs told me about your pregnancy,” he interrupted. “Her name will be Amanda, and she is destined to be the next queen. Apparently, she will do something in her reign that will destroy what the man wearing white is trying to accomplish. The Augurs can see the future through a special mirror,” he quickly explained. “They said the man who instigated your kidnapping has seen Amanda defeat him.”

  “I don’t like finding out about the future before it happens.” She shivered. “It gives me a creepy feeling. I guess it shouldn’t. I mean, it’s good that Amanda wins.”

  “The Augurs saw my future, too, which is why they insisted I stay behind.” He paused. “They didn’t want me to come here until it was safe for me to do so. They even had me read through this boring thousand-page book to keep me on Raz.”

  She lifted her head off of his chest and looked at him. “What happened to you?”

  “I would have died,” he softly replied.

  She quietly laid her head back on his chest as she absorbed the information. One of her tears fell on his chest.

  “There’s no reason to cry,” he soothed, hugging her. “I’m here. The Augurs may have been obnoxious, but it was for my own good. Apparently, when they are uncompromising, it’s for a good reason. They just don’t like to divulge that reason until the timing is right.”

  They remained quiet for a few moments, listening to the animals and insects roaming outside the cave. He wondered why none of them entered the cave. He glanced around at the crystals lining the cave’s walls. Perhaps the crystals had something to do with it.

  “Did the Augurs say who the man wearing white is?” Ann asked.

  He frowned. “No. I assumed that they didn’t know him, but now that you mention it, it does sound like they do.”

  “You don’t think they set up a trap for us? I mean, they told you to find me as soon as I escaped.”

  “I trust them. The man in white is probably their enemy. They must know who he is.”