Ice Phoenix

by Sulin Young

  “She can’t control it then.”

  “No, she cannot.”

  Quempa came to a sudden stop and his heart climbed into his throat when he spotted Terrana’s limp, bloated form floating in the void.

  “Nooo!” he cried hoarsely. The propulsion jets on his boots flared up and he shot towards Terrana. Within seconds he was cradling her decompressed body, sobbing behind his helmet. “No, no, no, Terrana! You can’t die. You have to live!” Eliksha reached his side and he looked up at her with tearful eyes. “We’re too late. We’re too late.”

  Eliksha took one look at Terrana and would have fallen had gravity existed in the In-Between. “How could he?” Her voice was barely above a whisper. “How could he throw a defenceless child into the void?”

  Quempa wailed his anguish, and his thoughts and emotions were projected through the void, where they reached the grandmaster. The leader of the Imeldors closed his eyes briefly, the only sign of his grief. As soon as Quempa had left, Grandmaster Deitrux and the others had begun attacking Nashim. They were all inside the shield because, within its walls, they could use their qi.

  “I’m deactivating the shield!” Grandmaster Deitrux shouted.

  “That would be to my favour!” Lakara shouted back.

  Grandmaster Deitrux had to concur. Lakara was currently being incredible in her battle with Nashim, and with the shield removed, she would be able to use her unique suit to its full potential. She glided like a liquid knife in the In-Between, transforming into an iron butterfly to cut into the Valpuri with her wings and insectile legs.

  The soundless blasts from Nashim’s gun glanced off her casophynite armour harmlessly, and it was becoming clear that he was no match against Lakara’s natural attacking form combined with her superior armoured suit. Grandmaster Deitrux glanced towards L-Master Hadrick and Lady Skiss, and was relieved to find them both alive. L-Master Hadrick had lost his right tentacle and part of his abdomen to Nashim, and would have died had not Lady Skiss transformed into her natural form, plastering herself like jelly over his open wounds.

  Grandmaster Deitrux decided he needed to end this fight quickly. Without the shield, the others would not be able to weave or lace, but because he carried the pendant, that limitation did not apply to him. He deactivated the shield.

  He focused on an area close to Nashim, but as he tried to draw on his qi, something felt very wrong. No matter how much he tried, he could not weave a gravitational singularity. Seconds ticked by before he came to the horrifying conclusion that his qi was being drained. He emitted a low groan and slumped forwards. The others watched in horror, before they, too, collapsed.

  Down — they were all down and helpless. As the grandmaster lay floating on his side, he sensed Nashim approaching. “How?” he croaked when the demon finally reached him.

  Nashim did not answer as he leant forwards to pry Skra’s pendant from the grandmaster’s fingers. Then, he hurled the pendant into the darkness, and Grandmaster Deitrux watched in disbelief as it sped away through the void. It would have continued forever had it not collided into the piece of asteroid that was spinning above the Dream Walker’s gate.

  Grandmaster Deitrux forced his mouth to move. “I’ve told you already — there’s nothing you can do to free the Dream Walker. He’s sealed for all eternity.”

  Although his face was hidden by his helmet, Grandmaster Deitrux felt the cold gaze the demon sent his way.

  “I never said I wanted to free the Dream Walker. In fact, I allowed you to complete the sealing.” Nashim may as well have told the grandmaster that rocks were actually mushrooms. What he had just said did not make sense. Nashim smirked, clearly enjoying the grandmaster’s confusion.

  “Allow me to explain. All I wanted, besides the tonien and the pendant, was the girl. For a while, it suited my purpose that she remained at the school while I searched for the two things that would take me through the Voron Cloud. But, as you know, things didn’t go exactly to plan, and so I had to improvise along the way. You acquired both the pendant and the tonien, and I needed to bring the girl into the void. When you believed that I was trying to kill her, I was actually attempting to kidnap her. Eventually, I sent Meldogan to fetch her. If he failed to acquire her, I expected he would probably scare you into removing Terrana from Pa Gumpina. And that’s what happened. You played right into my hands. “

  “For what reason, Nashim?” gasped Grandmaster Deitrux. He was struggling against the invisible force that was draining his qi, but no matter what he did, it seemed to have the upper hand. Grandmaster Deitrux was helpless. “If you didn’t want the Dream Walker free, why did you assassinate all those Imeldors and L-Masters? What is your reason for bringing Terrana here other than to awaken him?”

  Nashim sighed and flew back several paces. “Several reasons. Had you discovered what my plan was, then, without a doubt, you would have organised the L-Masters and Imeldors to capture me. By eliminating the top ranks, I reduced potential headaches.

  “Secondly, the unravelling of the Dream Walker’s prison was really a problem. I had to drop clues here and there so that you would learn of the Dream Walker’s existence and his disintegrating prison. Killing off Imeldors and L-Masters was just a way of gaining your attention quickly, and it forced you to look deeper into the real history of UWIB.

  “Was I worried that I was killing off the only people capable of sealing the Dream Walker? No. The ten people who sealed the Dream Walker five thousand years ago weren’t Imeldors or L-Masters — they were just ordinary weavers and lacers who understood their powers well. Basically, anyone could have done the job – they don’t need a special ranking to qualify.”

  Grandmaster Deitrux still couldn’t make sense of what Nashim was telling him. “If you needed help sealing the Dream Walker’s prison, why didn’t you just tell us?”

  Nashim laughed. “You are so naïve, Grandmaster Deitrux. Why didn’t I tell you indeed? I did tell you, just not in the manner you would have expected. The Valpuri have a history with the citizens of UWIB — a violent one. We’ve always been the masters, and you the slaves. I merely used you to get what I wanted.”

  “You, used us?”

  “That’s right. I used you. All this time you believed you were chasing us, trying to stop us from retrieving the pendant to free the Dream Walker, but what you didn’t realise was that you were my backup team. If I failed to capture Terrana, your team would have been the next one to enter the arena. If you succeeded, then I merely had to take the prize off you.”

  Nashim leaned forwards. “Do you understand now? When we were fighting back in the city, you took the tonien from me. The truth was, I let you take it from me.”

  Grandmaster Deitrux felt as though he was in a dream — he couldn’t believe that Nashim was telling the truth.

  Nashim saw his expression and laughed. “Oh come now, Grandmaster Deitrux! How stupid do you think I am? Of course I knew the tonien was locked, and never in a million years would the Ancients of Olden Kartath have revealed the code to me. I am a Valpuri, and the Valpuri and Ancients are old enemies. The return of the Valpuri scared the Ancients — they truly believed I intended to free the Dream Walker and so —”

  “— they gave me the code for the tonien and I led you here,” finished the grandmaster, his voice sounding hollow. “But I still don’t understand why you don’t want the Dream Walker free. The Valpuri have a history with him too.”

  Nashim snorted and when he answered, his voice was full of disdain. “That’s true — we have a history with him. A most unpleasant one. Because of the Dream Walker, we were banished from the Thirteen Sectors, forbidden to wander their realms.”

  Grandmaster Deitrux frowned. “I don’t recall the Ancients mentioning anything about the Valpuri race being banished. You just disappeared. Did Skra’s power also extend to you when she sealed the Dream Walker?”

  “It’s logical to think that, but no. Skra didn’t banish us. Neither did the Ancients. I can see you are dying to know
more, but you will not learn anything about the Valpuris’ history from me.” Nashim seemed determined not to speak, and the grandmaster, scared that he would stop talking completely, changed the subject.

  “Then, what about Terrana? Why did you go through all the trouble of bringing her here, only to kill her?”

  Nashim leaned back and sighed. “Ahh Terrana. Yeah, unfortunately, she was one of the things that went wrong very early. You see, I was trying to hide her existence from you and the Imeldors, the L-Masters, and those fat Council members. Because of that, I decided to go after her first in Sector Thirteen, before embarking on my search for the pendant and the tonien.”

  Grandmaster Deitrux tried to raise his head and failed. Instead, he spoke in a calm, confident voice, as though he were in control of all his faculties and sitting in a meeting room, instead of being paralysed and floating in the In-Between. “But you failed miserably, didn’t you? You didn’t know that Terrana was appearing to us in her dreams. That’s how we discovered her, and sent someone to fetch her.”

  For the first time in the conversation, Grandmaster Deitrux sensed a change in Nashim’s mood. He could have been wrong, but he thought he had detected a flicker of fear. Grandmaster Deitrux found that most odd, and, determined to capitalise on the demon’s uncertainty, he empowered his mind to do what it did best — analyse.

  The cogs turned in his brain and the first conclusion Grandmaster Deitrux came to was that Nashim had known that Terrana was feiyed long before the Imeldors had discovered her. If that was truly the case, why hadn’t he taken her from Sector Thirteen sooner? Grandmaster Deitrux decided to work on a hunch.

  “You knew where she was all along, but you couldn’t take her, could you?” he said. “Were you responsible for the fire that killed her family? Powerful Valpuri such as yourself had no need to resort that low to take her. You murdered them all — innocent people.”

  Nashim’s shoulders straightened and the grandmaster felt the Valpuri’s anger seep through his spacesuit.

  “Our instructions were to take her at all costs!” hissed Nashim. “We didn’t realise how hard —” He snapped his mouth shut, realising he had said too much.

  Instructions. Grandmaster Deitrux had suspected as much. It had only been logical to assume that this Valpuri was working for the greater glory of his race, commanded by his own people to infiltrate the United Worlds of the In-Between. But, Grandmaster Deitrux felt the barest flicker of fear in Nashim again, and paused to reorganise his thoughts. Something didn’t seem quite right.

  Nashim was clearly afraid of something, and Grandmaster Deitrux didn’t think it was fear of his own people. If Nashim was really acting under orders from his government or leaders, then there was no reason to hide it. But, it was clear that Nashim had blurted out something he had not intended to reveal. This led the Imeldor to believe that Nashim was scared of a particular person.

  “Your intellect, without a doubt, is highly admirable,” said Nashim, watching the grandmaster closely. “That is why you must die. The same applied to the queen. Her power and intellect, combined with her incredible knack for searching out the truth, made her far too dangerous to be left alone. Her death was a stroke of luck for us since we failed to kill her the first time.”

  Grandmaster Deitrux did his best to remain calm in the face of provocation. He needed to find the truth — the reasons behind Nashim’s actions.

  “So, you admit you had trouble taking Terrana from Sector Thirteen?” he said, picking up on Nashim’s unfinished sentence. “I mean, you may as well tell me — I only have a few more minutes to live.”

  “Persistent, aren’t you? Fine, since you are going to die anyway, I see no harm in it. Yes, taking Terrana from her home was an issue. I had no idea she had a guardian — we never saw him, we never heard him, we didn’t feel him. But after three failed attempts to snatch her, Meldogan and I realised that Terrana had someone protecting her. The harder we tried to abduct her, the stronger the guardian became. I fear that we actually awoke it. Whoever her guardian was, he or she created a powerful barrier that prevented us from reaching her. We couldn’t set foot anywhere on the ground. So, we spent days trying to create a gap in that barrier, and we succeeded. This gap would give us a small window in which we could swoop in and grab Terrana, but, she would have to run out of the house before we could touch her.

  “We started the fire, expecting her to run out of the house but, instead, she nearly died that day. The stupid girl would not abandon her dead brother!

  “But, luckily, your Imeldor, Baneyon, arrived. For some unknown reason, he was able to walk into the house to save her. Although I had not wanted Terrana to end up in your hands, I decided that perhaps it wasn’t a bad idea after all. I could trust you to protect her while I chased after the pendant. “

  “THEN WHY, NASHIM? WHY DID YOU GO THROUGH ALL THAT TROUBLE OF CAPTURING HER ONLY TO KILL HER?” shouted Grandmaster Deitrux. The truth was within his clutches. Everything was becoming clearer now — Nashim had deliberately drawn their attentions to the Dream Walker to hide his true purpose. Grandmaster Deitrux didn’t know what it was yet, but he was close to finding out.

  Nashim glanced down at the paralysed Imeldor, his eyes glowing brightly behind his helmet.

  “Have you ever witnessed the power of a true born feiyed beast? And I’m not referring to those silly faars either.”

  47

  Survival of the fittest

  At the same time Nashim was speaking to the grandmaster about feiyed beasts, Eliksha crashed to the floor of the Dark Star’s outmost airlock. She scrambled to her feet, tears of terror streaming down her face. Her hands grasped desperately around the large wheel lock protruding from the door, and she threw all her strength into turning it.

  There was a crash from outside the ship and she screamed as Quempa’s broken body shot through the airlock. It happened so fast — he crashed into the wall, leaving a dent.

  “Please unlock!” she cried, pulling at the wheel. But it refused to budge; the exit door she had come through had been damaged beyond recognition, causing the ship’s system to lock down all remaining entry points.

  Large claws tore at the twisted wreckage of the outer door, and Eliksha released another terrified scream. She aimed her gun at what came through, firing off several shots. They were head-on shots but they failed to stop the horrific, fiery creature from coming inside. It stared at her with cruel eyes and radiated such an intense heat that Eliksha felt herself burning up. Flames erupted on her suit.

  She hammered on the door. “SOMEONE PLEASE! OPEN THE DOOR! OPEN THE DOOOOR!”

  The last thought that ran through her head was, Let my death be quick. That was before the door opened and a hand pulled her through to safety.

  The creature shrieked in surprise as the woman disappeared before its eyes. It tried to follow her, quickly burning a hole through the thick door, when a voice broke into its thoughts.

  You’re going the wrong way. Turn around and come back out.

  The creature looked around in confusion.

  That’s it. Come outside. Come to me.

  “FOR WHAT PURPOSE DID YOU BRING TERRANA HERE?” shouted Grandmaster Deitrux to Nashim.

  “Can’t you feel her, grandmaster? She’s coming,” laughed Nashim.

  “What are you talking about? Who’s coming?” Grandmaster Deitrux felt a ripple in the In-Between, and his eyes widened in horror as wild uncontrolled qi surged through the area. He, Lakara, L-Master Hadrick, Lady Skiss, and even Nashim were almost blown away as brutal power whipped around them like a tornado. The wiring in Grandmaster Deitrux’s suit short-circuited, destroying his entire communications system. He could no longer hear or speak through his intercom.

  In the silent heaviness of the In-Between, he sensed the terrified emotions of his team and heard the deafening sound of his own breathing. Seconds ticked by. Nashim floated over him. Judging from the inclined position of his head, the grandmaster knew he was saying something, bu
t he couldn’t hear it. The Valpuri reached down and knocked on his helmet several times before pointing towards the Dark Star.

  With a sickening heart, Grandmaster Deitrux turned his head to look at the ship. Fire met his eyes and caused him to tremble in fear. Impossible. It can’t be … what is that creature?

  Nashim nodded as though he could hear the grandmaster’s question, and he made several hand gestures before pointing to the creature again. Grandmaster Deitrux shook his head in disbelief. He didn’t want to, he couldn’t believe it, but he could sense that Nashim wasn’t lying. That fiery creature shooting towards them in the darkness was Terrana. But it wasn’t the same Terrana who killed the queen on Si Ren Da. It wasn’t T2. It was something else entirely.

  If the grandmaster thought he could spot any sign of humanity in her, he would only be fooling himself. The blazing white creature with two pools of darkness in its head where its eyes should have been contained no compassion, and certainly it did not show any signs of recognising him and the others. All Grandmaster Deitrux felt was destruction. He could see only oblivion heading towards them. Oblivion in the form of a once-human girl with the wings of a dragon and the eyes of death itself. By killing the human Terrana, Nashim had released the feiyed beast in her. The only hope they had of saving themselves was to use the pendant, but Nashim had thrown that away.

  Think, Deitrux, think! Why does Nashim no longer require the pendant? Why did he kill the human Terrana to unleash that creature? He doesn’t want the Dream Walker free, but he needs that creature for a reason! Find that reason, Deitrux, and you will find Nashim’s purpose.

  Grandmaster Deitrux felt he wasn’t looking deep enough. He wasn’t taking everything into consideration. Terrana was the key. If he could connect all the pieces surrounding her, he could figure this out — the only problem was, he didn’t know where to begin. He latched on to the first fact that came to him.

  Terrana has a guardian. Where did the guardian come from?

  Grandmaster Deitrux felt himself sinking deeper into a battle of wits he was fighting with himself. He knew the answer lay buried in his mind, that whatever there was to know, he had all the pieces. He wanted to scream, to kick himself, to pull his hair out because the frustration gnawed at him. He could have cried, he needed to. At last, he couldn’t hold it back any longer. He screamed in frustration.