Ice Phoenix

by Sulin Young

  “I had been thinking of that too,” said Kuldor, tapping his fingers lightly on the dashboard in front of him. “What are your thoughts on it? How did she do it?”

  Grandmaster Deitrux met Kuldor’s eyes. “I don’t know. We’d have to have been there to understand what she did. Lady Anrath told me earlier that the faars sensed something terrible and flew them out of harm’s way. They remember seeing the sky catch fire. It exploded into blue-green flames, they said. I’ve never heard anything like it.”

  Kuldor leaned back in his seat and sighed. “Perhaps, if we could solve how she did it, it would help towards explaining her ability to see things as they happen while she is asleep.”

  “There is a deep mystery surrounding her,” said Grandmaster Deitrux. “It was our mistake not to look into her background with more diligence. It is apparent to me now that someone was deliberately hiding her away in Sector Thirteen.”

  Grandmaster Deitrux could not look more troubled than he did now. He did not show it, but the death of the younger Imeldors and L-Masters had affected him deeply, and as head of the Imeldors, he would be in the firing line for questions from the L-Council and UWIB concerning the events at Si Ren Da. Terrana’s existence added a bigger problem to his plate and he contemplated whether or not to reveal her existence to UWIB and the lacers.

  “Now would be unwise,” said Kuldor, reading his thoughts. “We cannot risk focusing attention on her when we should be concentrating on the demons and pursuit of the pendant.”

  “Perhaps you are right, Kuldor. But I only hope, for everyone’s sake, that Terrana’s appearance in UWIB is not related to the demons, and that whoever had been hiding her in the Sector Thirteen will not decide to make an appearance now.”

  Kuldor’s eyes widened in surprise. He hadn’t thought of that.

  Beyond the cockpit, Terrana held onto Baneyon’s cold hand, her tears trickling into his open wounds. Her chest was so tight that she could barely breathe. She leaned in close to his ear, and choked as she tried to speak.

  “Baneyon, can you hear me? I’m here, Baneyon, on board the ship. I’m holding your hand right now. Can you feel it?”

  She watched him closely, hoping to feel him move or twitch, but he remained still. Using her sleeve, she reached out to wipe a smear of blood that had matted his hair along the forehead. She noticed the sorry state of her cardigan and realised that she was not wearing anything beneath. It was as if the cardigan had been the only garment worth saving.

  “Baneyon,” she whispered. “You can’t die, I forbid you! If you die, I won’t … I won’t forgive you.”

  Memories of their first encounter came back to her. There he was, on the water, carrying her after he rescued her from the fire. He was doing his best to shield her from the pain of her injuries while allowing her to say her final goodbyes to Puddy. He was by her side at the hospital, speaking to her kindly after she had woken up and screamed. He had dragged the mean counsellor away, and he had stayed with her every day after that, talking to her about nothing, about everything.

  She had been a lost cause, but Baneyon had never given up on her. He had done everything to make her feel at home, even trying to recreate the dishes she would normally eat back in Fiji.

  “Lunch is ready. This time it’s really good. I roasted a kantakry bug fish with caramelized root vegetables. You would like it.”

  He had understood her pain after losing her family, becoming the pillar she had needed.

  “You can cry you know. If it’s hurting you, just let it come out. No one person could keep all that grief in there without exploding.”

  Before she had known it, she was clinging to Baneyon and sobbing her soul out while he comforted her. But he couldn’t do that now. Instead, he was the one lying down and in pain, and she could not do anything to help him. She started to shake. Someone laid a coat over her shoulders. She looked up to find Quempa staring at her sadly.

  “We should close the capsule and allow him to rest,” he said.

  Terrana nodded and straightened. As she reached over to shut the lid of the capsule, she remembered something. She stooped over and kissed him gently on the forehead, remaining in that position for several seconds.

  “Just so you know,” she whispered so that no one else could hear, “I know you used Eliksha’s measurements for your credit pin. So, if you don’t wanna die broke, you better wake up soon.”

  Her hand reached out and slowly pulled the lid shut. Terrana turned around to look for the others, and spied Lorn and Prince Gil Ra Im across from her. The prince was seated by an open capsule while Lorn stood, watching her with steely eyes. Terrana reeled back in surprise — it was as though he hated her!

  She looked at the prince and was shocked to see how haggard and weak he appeared. Her next thought left her wondering who it was that lay in the open capsule. She walked towards them, but Quempa laid a hand on her shoulder and shook his head.

  “It’s better we leave them be,” he said. “The prince is under a lot of strain.”

  “Who’s in the capsule?” she asked.

  “His mother,” said Lorn. Terrana stiffened. Lorn had walked up to them quite suddenly. Terrana drew back from his angry gaze.

  “Is she going to be all right?”

  “Would you be if someone punched a hole through your stomach?” he snarled.

  Terrana blanched. “Did the demons do that to her?”

  Lorn looked stunned. “You don’t remember?”

  “Remember what?”

  “You broke through the barrier, Terrana. You turned into —”

  Lady Anrath cried out suddenly and they looked past her to see the prince keeling over into the capsule. Terrana dashed to him immediately.

  “That’s enough, Your Majesty! You cannot last much longer,” said Lady Anrath. She was pulling him back from the capsule, away from his mother.

  “Release me! My mother is dying! How can you tell me to stop?”

  Terrana reached his side and glanced into the capsule. Her chest tightened when she saw the nearly lifeless queen.

  “Prince,” she said softly. If he heard her, he did not acknowledge it. His eyes were filled with pain as he fought to break free from Lady Anrath’s iron grip.

  “Your mother would never forgive me if I allowed you to die with her!” said Lady Anrath. “You must live on, to inherit her will if she dies, do you understand? It is your duty.”

  “You speak as if my mother was dead already!” growled the prince.

  “No, Your Majesty. I speak as your mother still living, relaying what she would wish of you. Down to her very last breath, your mother is the queen of Swiva and ruler of Sector Six, and she would want to ensure the protection and safety of her people. Do not disrespect her by giving your life away too!”

  “If I don’t help her, she will die! SHE’S NOT DEAD YET!” His expression was just as pained and lost as Terrana’s had been earlier. He collapsed suddenly, and would have fallen to the floor had Lady Anrath not been holding him.

  “I can stand on my own!” He tried to push her away.

  “Your Majesty, anymore and you will die!” cried Lady Anrath. “You’ve done all that you can do. Now, you must be her son and stay by her side in her final moments.”

  Prince Gil Ra Im’s shoulders shook. He reached out towards his unmoving mother and wrapped his hand around her limp one. With his other hand, he stroked the side of her beautiful face, his expression anguished. When he spoke, his voice was raw and full of emotion. “Mother, you didn’t prepare me for this. I’m not ready to take your place.”

  Terrana watched him in silence, fresh tears coming to her eyes. Kuldor and Grandmaster Deitrux walked out of the cockpit, coming to stand on either side of the prince. The grandmaster laid a hand on the prince’s shoulder. They stood together around the capsule in a small group, watching over the queen. Queen Julere’s face, even when she died, was still as beautiful and commanding as ever.

  For a long while, everyone remained s
till as they struggled to come to terms with the queen’s passing. The silence was broken only when they heard a groan and the capsule next to them popped open. Raimus sat up, clutching a pli-gel bag to his chest. He took one look at the others before glancing into the queen’s capsule. His expression saddened. Tears filled his eyes.

  “Dartkala have mercy,” he said. “Why her?”

  He tried to get out of his capsule, and Quempa hobbled over to help him. When he stepped out, he glanced over at the other capsules, sensing the others inside. Then, he walked over to the queen and bowed low and long before her, even though the movement sent shards of searing pain through his body. Everyone except for the prince did the same.

  When they finally straightened, Raimus wiped his tears away. “At least, she has Baneyon with her,” he said. “May Dartkala forever watch over them.”

  He wondered if he had committed some terrible faux pas when everyone threw him horrified glances, including the young prince. He couldn’t have known; he had been unconscious when Terrana had transformed and killed the queen. He didn’t know that it had been Baneyon’s near death while fighting the demons that had triggered Terrana’s transformation.

  “What did you say? Baneyon is not dead!” Terrana growled, blackness flooding her eyes. Raimus gasped and stepped back. She advanced on him while everyone else moved away — the panic in their eyes was obvious as they tried to regroup behind her.

  A deafening noise suddenly struck the ship and it shuddered violently — they had struck something. Kuldor sprinted to the cockpit. The pressure in the hangar suddenly increased and strange whispering noises filled their heads, growing louder with each second.

  “Kuldor!” shouted Grandmaster Deitrux. They were all covering their ears to shut out the awful whispering. Even Terrana was snapped back to into herself, trying to stem the bleeding from her ears.

  Kuldor burst into the hangar, visibly shaken. “A gate’s appeared ahead of us!” he shouted. “We’re being sucked into it! Zip on your suits and prepare yourselves. We must not be pulled into that hole!”

  “How can that be?” Raimus shouted. “There are no gates in this part of the In-Between! Did you miscalculate our heading?”

  Kuldor’s expression was terrifying when he answered. “There’s been no miscalculation. It suddenly appeared in front of us. The gate belongs to Olden Kartath!”

  His words might as well have been a death sentence. Everyone paled. The same thoughts ran through their minds — madness and time flux.

  “Tell us this ship has protection from the nightmares!” Raimus cried, his puffy face even more swollen from fear.

  “We never planned to cross Olden Kartath,” replied Kuldor. “In fact, we shouldn’t be anywhere near Sector One. This ship has no sleep serum.”

  “We may be able to deal with the nightmares,” said Lady Anrath quickly. “As long as we avoid the time flux belt, we can locate the other gate and leave. We can induce a sleeping mind state and navigate our way through this.”

  Kuldor shook his head. “We don’t have a lock on our coordinates. This gate is not the registered gate our ships pass through. We could be in the time flux belt already!”

  The whispering in everyone’s heads grew louder as the ship came alive with vivid images. “What’s that?” Raimus pointed to the floor. A creature he had never seen before crawled through the steel grid panels. Its breath reeked of decaying corpses. No one else saw what he saw; they were trapped in their own visions of hell. Millions of voices flooded their minds. Help us, please help us! Please save us.

  The apparitions’ pleas were like knives to their brains, and everyone began to shriek, covering their ears to block out the voices. Visions bombarded them — races they had never seen before, their faces gaunt and terrified, crawled towards them. Fire and explosions ripped apart their planets. A dark cloud trailed the dying people, absorbing their qi. It turned them into shrivelled husks until they were stepped on and turned into dust.

  “NO MORE!” screamed Terrana. “PLEASE NO MORE!”

  Quite suddenly, a brilliant light appeared, bathing them in soothing tones. It washed away the images and whispers, and silence ensued. Terrana stumbled to her feet groggily. The light had washed the blood off her face and her head no longer felt like exploding. And they weren’t on the ship. And it was raining.

  She gasped as whatever shield that had been keeping her dry vanished and she was suddenly drenched in a downpour. The rain was warm. She took a step forwards and realised she was standing in a shallow stream under an open sky. Smooth pebbles poked her feet.

  Streams weaved in and out between white, smooth rocks and blue grass. Tall trees grew on the banks and, like the rocks, their trunks were white and polished with fine silver lines etched into the bark. Their branches spread out in a manner that Terrana had not seen before — they interwove with each other, forming large spherical structures at the top. Pale pink pods hung from these spheres.

  She looked towards the area where the streams converged into rapids and sucked in her breath. They must have been on very high ground because the rapids vanished into thin air, and up ahead she saw nothing but sky, and heard the majestic roar of waterfalls.

  Beyond the waterfalls, two planets loomed in the distance. They were so close that she could make out the mountains and rivers that marked their surfaces. She disliked the look of one of them though; it was covered in a red haze and reeked of death.

  “Where are we?” Lorn asked. He was standing behind her, and next to him was the prince. Kuldor, Quempa, Raimus, Lady Anrath, and the grandmaster were also standing in the stream close by, looking around in wonder. There was no sign of the capsules in which the queen and Baneyon lay.

  Terrana blinked, attempting to shake the rain off her face.

  “It appears that we have been transported to DalKal 7, the third planet of Olden Kartath’s galaxy,” said Lady Anrath.

  “How do you know this?” asked Raimus.

  “We learnt a few things from our last visit to Olden Kartath.” Lady Anrath pointed to the red planet. “That planet is Syrog where the tonien was kept, and the other is DalKal 2.”

  “The fair haired creature is correct. This is DalKal 7, and it is here that you must answer for your crimes!”

  35

  Revelations

  Everyone jumped. It was a multitude of voices speaking as one voice, and they seemed to emanate from everywhere. There was a gust of wind and the pods which hung from the treetops rustled, sending chills down everyone’s spines. A strange gravitational force acted as an unseen hand, forcing them to kneel in the flowing stream.

  “The pendant has been stolen, and you are responsible. Dark qi has been unleashed, and you are responsible. The demons flee to the Dream Walker, and you are responsible. This is a crime against all life and Dartkala. What you have done this day has only ensured the death of us all.”

  The voices were angry. The wind blew harder and the grass on the embankments rippled like waves on the sea. With a start, Terrana realised that the voices were the wind and somehow, she could understand them.

  Grandmaster Deitrux spoke. His voice was respectful, and he kept his head lowered. “Ancients of Olden Kartath, it is true what you say of the pendant and the demons. But, we are not the ones responsible. We tried to prevent the demons from fleeing with the pendant, but we could not.”

  “Fools!”

  Pain descended on them like a hurricane and they saw, once again, the images that had appeared on board the ship. Whispers of madness filled their heads and everyone covered their ears, falling into the water, writhing and groaning in pain.

  The voices spoke, full of scorn. “Why do you cry out in fear and pain of what you see? This is only a fraction of what we protect the worlds from. For thousands of years, we have kept the nightmares away from you. But you brazenly entered our sector and allowed the tonien and the pendant to be stolen. This is a crime that cannot go unpunished.”

  “WHAT CRIME?” screamed Prince
Gil Ra Im, writhing in the stream. “My mother gave up her life to stop the demons and none of you helped her! If you knew so much, if you were keeping the nightmares away, why didn’t you stop the demons? WHY COULDN’T YOU DO ANYTHING?”

  “It’s true!” Quempa shouted angrily. “We did everything we could to stop the demons from taking the tonien and the pendant. Good people lost their lives because we didn’t have enough information. But you did! You could have helped us!”

  The whispering in their heads faded, and a white light washed over them. The images vanished and a long silence ensued. During that time, not even the grass rippled. It was Grandmaster Deitrux who broke the silence.

  “We have some people on board our ship who are seriously injured. We humbly ask that you allow them access to your medical facilities. They fought valiantly against the demons.”

  The wind picked up again.

  “The half-breed woman, the one called Fless, is being seen to. She will recover,” said the mysterious voices.

  “There are more,” said Grandmaster Deitrux.

  “The dead cannot enter DalKal 7.” The voices were absolute.

  “Please,” pleaded the grandmaster. “The queen has not been dead more than a half hour. There is still a chance that you could re-”

  “The dead cannot enter DalKal 7. Their bodies disintegrate in the time flux belt. Do not waste our time discussing this.”

  The full implication of their words sunk in, and there were gasps of disbelief.

  “What are you saying?” snarled Prince Gil Ra Im. He struggled to his knees, his face a mask of dread. “My mother, she’s still on board the ship!”

  “There is only one body on your ship, and it is the half-breed.”

  The blood drained from the prince’s face, and he fell back into the stream. “No,” he whispered hoarsely. “How could you?”

  There was loud splash, and they all turned to see Terrana walking through the stream, looking like a zombie. She shouldn’t have been able to resist the unseen force that held them down, and yet, she managed to climb onto the embankment.