The Smuggler's Ascension

by Christopher Ingersoll

  “State you name for the record,” Subat ordered after signaling for a recording device to be activated.

  “Stephan Duranis, of House Duranis,” Stephan responded haltingly, still trying to fight the drugs that were forcing his cooperation.

  “Were you personally involved in any way in the plot to assassinate Queen Josephine?” Subat asked first, apparently wishing to give Sabine a little peace of mind about Stephan’s depth of betrayal.

  “I was only informed of the assassination plot in the same communique that informed me of her death,” Stephan replied. Sabine was glad that he had not betrayed her in that, at least. “I was also informed at that time of the greater plans of my House to seize power.”

  “And what were those plans, Stephan?” Sabine demanded before Subat could pose the questions. “How did your family plan to rob me of my birthright even as you robbed me of my mother?”

  “It was Grand Duke Michal that conceived of the plan to ally our house with the Clovani Empire in a bid to seize the throne,” Stephan said weakly, a tear falling from his eye. “The Empire was to invade the colonies to provide him with a pretext for bringing his ships to Purannis for the defense of the home world. Michal then conspired with your uncle, Salas, to sneak a group of Forcun assassins into the palace to kill the Queen and seem to lay the blame at the Clovani’s feet. Once she was dead, marshal law would fall until you returned to claim the throne. I was ordered to place a beacon aboard your ship to ensure the Clovani forces that had allied with Michal would stop you from returning. Once you were dead, Michal planned to put Salas Arctura on the throne as a puppet while he ruled from the shadows. The threat of the Clovani fleet was meant to pressure the rest of the ruling Houses into accepting Salas as the new King.”

  “Where is Salas Arctura now,” Subat asked, resuming control of the interrogation. “He has not been seen since shortly before Queen Josephine’s death.”

  “I do not know,” Stephan answered. “Michal is not one to let his pawns wander too far, though. Wherever you find Michal, you can almost be sure to find Salas, I believe.”

  “We found your beacon before we left the Sanctuary,” Kristof said suddenly. “And yet there were Duranis ships waiting for us when we exited the Devil’s Eyes, not Clovani ships. How did they know to look for us there?”

  “I made the beacon easy to find…I felt guilty. But once I was sure you did not intend to follow the known hyperspace routes to Purannis, I deduced that there were only a handful of options for you to choose relative to the Sanctuary’s location,” Stephan said weakly as his head sagged from the effort of fighting the drugs in his system. “I sent a coded message home with the list of possible routes, including the Devil’s Eyes, which I had learned of a few years ago from an overheard conversation between ship captains. Michal must have felt it was worth sending ships.”

  Stephan looked pleadingly at Sabine then.

  “Please forgive me, my queen,” Stephan pleaded, as tears began to flow from his eyes. “I had no choice. I was bound by honor to my family…”

  Sabine rose and went to the weeping seneschal and tilted his head back so she could look him in the yes.

  “Your honor should have been bound to me, and your honor died when you betrayed me,” Sabine said with a growl. “When the time comes for your execution, Stephan, I will pull the trigger myself.” Turning to a pair of nearby guards, she said “Get this piece of shit out of my sight.”

  “Yes, you Majesty,” they responded at once and took Stephan, chair and all, out of the room.

  “It saddens me that Salas has sunk so low as this,” Admiral Geoff Arctura said. “He was ever an embarrassment to the family and eager to take advantage of situations, but to betray the family this way…” he shook his head and fell silent.

  General Mannis, the newly appointed Supreme Military Commander by Sabine, stepped forward and stood at a podium at the end of the table opposite the Queen.

  “At the present time, the ‘why’ of all of this is mostly irrelevant now,” General Mannis said. “The House of Duranis has taken the ships under their command and joined the Clovani fleet at our border. They stand ready to strike at any moment, and we lack the strength to stop them, more so now that we have lost almost a third of our forces. We must either withdraw our forces here to make a stand, or sue for peace.”

  Sabine felt her anger rise at the General’s words, though she had reached a similar conclusion herself already. The Protectorate’s fleet strength had waned over the years under her mother’s rule. The thought of sacrificing the other worlds of the Protectorate in order to defend Purannis made her feel ill, as did the thought of suing for peace. Suing for peace from a position of weakness would hardly be any better for the Protectorate than open war, not with the Clovani dictating the terms. She remembered all too well the plight of the people on Bonibus.

  “Master Su’Tani,” Sabine said to Subat, hoping he would have an option none of them had considered. “What say you to our current dilemma? Do either you or the Elders have anything to say on the matter?”

  Subat stepped forward, once more in his customary black and grey fatigues.

  “I have had glimpses of possible futures, you Majesty, as have the Elders,” Subat responded with a short bow. He glances curiously at Kristof before adding, “They are possibilities perhaps best explored in private, I think, as they are not military in nature.”

  The assembled generals and admirals objected loudly at being dismissed. Sabine listened to all of their objections, and then as politely as she could manage told them all to clear the room. Her grandfather gave her a discreet smile and nod, clearly thrilled at her forcefulness, before he joined the end of the line of officers as they stormed from the war room until finally Sabine was alone with Kristof and Subat.

  “What possibilities have you and the Elders seen, Subat, that you felt it necessary for me to offend my commanders by not having them hear them?” Sabine asked pointedly.

  “As I told you yesterday, when I attempted to glimpse the future, I have seen Kristof onboard the ship of his father,” Subat said. “And then I saw nothing but light. At the time I did not know what to make of such a vision, until last night when Kristof was training with me.”

  “You’re talking about the flash of light at the end of my meditation, I assume,” Kristof said, his voice uncomfortable.

  “I am,” Subat answered. “I have never seen anything like it before, so I consulted the Elders of our order. There are legends regarding such a thing, but there are usually other signs associated with such legends, occurrences we have not yet seen other than your prolonged meditative trance and the manifestation of solid light.”

  “Last night your eyes glowed while we…” Sabine started to say, and then blushed furiously as she looked at Subat guiltily.

  Subat looked at the two of them intently, which made Sabine blush even harder. Kristof seemed to take it all in stride, however, and it made her want to kick him for being so calm while she was so embarrassed.

  “Tonight, under the full moon, there is a ritual we may perform which may guide us,” Subat said after a long silence. “At midnight, you two shall meet me in the Garden of Songs. Dress lightly, and do try to behave yourselves until then.” With that, Subat turned and left them even as Sabine blushed again for a record third time in as many minutes.

  “Why did he say to dress lightly, I wonder?” Sabine asked as she and Kristof made their way from the war room.

  “I had hoped you would know,” Kristof answered, linking his arm and hers as they walked. The Queen’s guards kept a respectful distance behind.

  Together, they went in search of Max, to see how the android had fared in search of a new paint job. Sabine found she missed the android, foul mouth and all. With everything that had happened since they’d crash landed on the station in orbit, she hadn’t had time to keep track of the android. It wasn’t as if he needed constant care, but she felt bad that she’d allowed him to slip by the wayside in her
thoughts.

  The android maintenance center in the Palace serviced mainly the palace’s security and service androids, along with the personal androids of several members of the noble houses who stayed at the Palace from time to time. Sabine had sent Max here to be repaired and reconditioned after their narrow escape from the Duranis blockade, with orders to the technicians to spare no expense in the repairs.

  Sabine asked the head technician, who had rushed to greet her, about Max and they were directed to a service area along the wall of the service center. At first she thought the tech had sent them to the wrong bay until she realized that Max had opted to switch up his coloring just a bit. When they had met, Max had sported a viscous black and red battle paint scheme. Now, the android had opted for an almost human looking head in its coloring though his eyes remained red. The black of his black body was a bit muted now, almost more a dark grey, with the red V-patterns now trimmed in silver filigrees of the Su’Tani Order.

  “Subat has informed me of your elevation in status to a member of the Su’Tani,” Max told Kristof by way of greeting as they approached the service bay. “I am told these markings are more suitable as a servant of a Su’Tani. How the fuck do I look?”

  “You look exceptional,” Kristof replied, clearly astonished. “Now we just need to get a tech to do something about that personality of yours.”

  Max shot Kristof the bird before turning to a giggling Sabine and bowing low.

  “Your Majesty,” Max greeted her with a flourish.

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Sabine said lightly to Kristof as Max rose back up to stand before them. “He seems just fine to me. You might even learn some things from him,” she said and winked at Max.

  “Her Majesty has impeccable taste in androids,” Max added happily. “She also said I looked sexy while you were in a coma.”

  The three of them laughed as they left the service area together and headed back into the palace. Max looked on, now having assumed the role as their personal bodyguard once more, as Sabine and Kristof shared a dinner and waited for the time when they would need to meet Subat in the Garden of Songs. Sabine felt at peace as they shared the time together and was reminded of the peace she’d felt on the journey they’d shared from the Sanctuary. She hoped the peaceful feeling would last, but she knew too much remained unfinished to count on it.

  Even so, Sabine found that it was very nice to have their little trio back together. The trip from the Sanctuary to Purannis has transformed her greatly, she knew. She was in love with Kristof despite what her society’s dictates called for, and she counted Max among her closest friends. For a brief time at least, things felt right with the universe for her, and she enjoyed that quiet dinner with Kristof more than any meal she’d eaten in years.

  ~*~

  ~33~

  Darkness had long since fallen outside the palace when Sabine led the way as she, Kristof, and Max made their way to the Garden of Songs. The Garden of Songs was a private garden reserved for the royal family. At the gate leading into the Garden, Max stopped and motioned them on.

  “I will ensure that you are not disturbed,” Max said as he set himself to block the only passage into the garden.

  Kristof took Sabine’s hand and together they entered the garden. Fountains had been placed at random throughout the garden that filled the air with the sound of tinkling waterfalls. The path they followed took a meandering course through a garden filled with trees, shrubs, and well-manicured lawns. Kristof found it somewhat surprising to find such a place in the very midst of the Palace. In time they found Subat waiting for them at the center of the garden.

  The center of the garden was home to a large rock garden. Under normal circumstance the sands of the rock garden were sculpted into various geometric patterns that the gardeners thought were soothing. Tonight, however, Subat had smoothed out the sand and drawn designs of his own. At the center of the rock garden was placed a large clear orb. Around the orb Subat had drawn a triangle, and at the tip of each point in the triangle was another orb; one white, one red, and one a cloudy smoke color. Each orb at the points was then connected to the orb at the center with another line drawn in the sand.

  Subat greeted Kristof and Sabine as they approached. He wore a plain white robe that, again shocking Kristof, was completely unlike anything Kristof had ever seen him in before and caused him to wonder at the change. Kristof himself had worn a pair of loose trousers and a shirt of tan silk, since Subat had said to dress lightly, and Sabine had worn a simple dress of white satin.

  “Good evening,” Subat said and greeted them each with a bow. “Tonight we three will conduct the Ritual of Tu’Laria as it is called in Old Su’Tanii’, or as it would translate now, simply the Summoning.”

  “And who, or what, are we summoning tonight?” Kristof asked uneasily.

  “There have been certain signs of late that lead the Elders and myself to believe that something extraordinary has happened,” Subat stated. “Ancient Su’Tani legends speak of a great warrior of immense power called the ak’Sun Su’Tani, the Lord Protector of Light. Ancient legends state that such a warrior could wield, for a time, the powers of the Gods in the defense of Purannis when times of great darkness threatened. Such an arising of the ak’Sun Su’Tani has not happened in over ten thousand years.”

  “And you somehow think this ak’Sun Su’Tani is me, I take it,” Kristof said, noting the shock that registered on Sabine’s face.

  Subat nodded and began lighting candles around the sand pit as the darkness deepen and the moon began to rise above the garden. Sabine moved to stand before Kristof and gave him a stern look.

  “What are these signs Subat is speaking of?” Sabine asked pointedly.

  “When I was training with Subat, something happened,” Kristof said, his mind drifting back to the memory. “First, my meditation trance went on for hours and contained forms that Subat had never seen before. And then, I don’t know what it was, but it seemed that light shot from my hand and burned a hole through the wall.”

  “It did not seem so,” Subat added, “It did in fact happen. I witnessed it with my own eyes and took it as the second sign.”

  Subat turned to Sabine then and added, “It was not until you told me of Kristof’s glowing eyes as you were intimate that I began to suspect the truth of what was happening. His glowing eyes were a sign of being in the presence of that which must be protected above all else, or so the legends tell us. Legends often speak in riddles, though.”

  Kristof could see Sabine’s blush even in the darkening garden at being reminded of her inadvertent admission of intimacy to her teacher. Subat pretended not to notice as he continued lighting candles. Once he was finished he went to stand before the white orb sitting at one point of the triangle in the sand.

  Sabine then gasped as Subat removed his robe and revealed himself to be nude beneath. The bald man tossed the robe aside and lowered himself to sit cross legged in the sand a few spaces away from the white orb.

  “The ritual is performed unclad,” Subat said simply, noticing Sabine’s discomfort. “One must shed their worldly selves entirely and be totally open to the ritual.”

  “But…” Sabine began to object, blushing furiously again.

  “Child,” Subat said with a twinge of amusement in his voice, “I have seen you run naked through this very same garden as a child, and I have trained you as you wore those body gloves of yours that did nothing to hide the woman you have become over the years. Your modesty is wasted on me. You are as a daughter to me, you have no need to for embarrassment at my seeing you now.”

  Sabine continued to blush furiously as she and Kristof began to disrobe. Kristof found her embarrassment to be rather amusing and endearing, but he wisely chose to remain silent. Once nude, Subat directed Sabine to sit before the red orb, and Kristof to sit before the clouded orb. Once they were all seated, the three orbs surrounding the center orb began to glow from within with their own light.

  “The orbs represent th
e pillars of who we are; mind, heart, and soul,” Subat began. “The white is the Orb of the Mind. I have been your teacher and passed on as much knowledge and wisdom as I could to you both. The red is the Orb of the Heart, as you Sabine have become the heart of those around you and given us strength, even when you knew not that you did so. The clouded orb is the Orb of the Soul. Through your being, Kristof, you have drawn together disparate people and ideas, and have become the focus now of great powers. If indeed you are the ak’Sun Su’Tani as I believe, then only you can deliver us from the coming darkness.”

  Subat then drew their attention to the large clear orb at the center of their triangle.

  “The Orb of the Veil,” Subat said quietly. “It is the window to the Afterlife that will allow the spirit world to speak to us here this night, beneath the full moon. Only one from beyond can confirm the identity and validity of the ak’Sun Su’Tani and thereby fully release the power. Now take my hands.”

  Subat raised his arms to either side towards them, and Kristof and Sabine each reached out to take his hands while instinctively reaching out to each other as well. Kristof felt a small tremble in Sabine’s hand, and he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. As their triangle closed, a sense of power began to build among them.

  “Now gaze into the Orb of the Veil and allow your thoughts to flow into it,” Subat instructed. “The orb will direct your thoughts, so do not resist it, but allow your thoughts to follow the flow.”

  Kristof suddenly felt his thoughts pulled down into the orb. Visions began swirling through his mind with blinding speed until they would pause, as if to examine one further, and then the swirling would begin again.

  Visions of his childhood came to him, the harshness of his father’s household as Kristof had struggled as a child, along with his brother and sister, to win his father’s affection and approval. And then he saw himself graduating the military academy, again hoping to see approval in his father’s eyes at last, only to again find the coldness that had been present his whole life. Next came the events of his discharge for striking a superior officer, his father’s cold dismissal as he sent him away even after saving him from prison, and then he saw Anasha as he’d seen her for the first time. Again he was struck by the resemblances that he saw in Sabine, their short athletic statures, their fiery eyes and dispositions, the heartbreaking beauty and the love he felt for them both.