by Zamil Akhtar
“This base is heavily fortified, for this very reason, just in case an attack would come from the south. It’s nothing like what you have on the frontlines, but I’m proud of what we’ve got here, and I’m certain the Haemian vessel won’t get passed this point.”
“Lovely, General,” Asha said. The mask floating on his shadowy form shimmered. “I noticed all of your toys. They really are spectacular.”
Shar took a deep breath, shook off all thoughts of the Magi, and decided to join the conversation. “How did they even contact us with demands? Do we have an open contact line?”
“No, we don’t,” the General replied. “They broadcasted the demand on a high frequency channel. It must’ve been received across Eden. We’ve sent out communications ordering them to identify themselves and leave our airspace — the standard.”
“What if we told them we accept their demand?” Shar said. “We could have more time to gather information about the enemy and prepare.”
The officers seemed miffed. The General folded his arms and nodded slowly. “A decent suggestion, but a waste of time. Instead, we’ll blow them out of the air here and now. We won’t give the Haemians anymore time.”
“You have all overlooked something very questionable,” Dahma said. “Haemians don’t make demands.”
“It means they’ve finally smartened up!” The pastry-faced lieutenant let out a galvanizing snort. “The bastards! They’ve not only equaled us, they’ve gone beyond our tech level!”
“A free-flying ship that can cloak itself, bigger than anything we have,” General Mehr said. “The only ship we have that matches its capability is the Hasht. The Magus ship. The ‘Eight Sides of Hell’, as some call it.”
“I wish we could bring the Hasht into play,” Asha said, “but we don’t know where it is.”
Pastry-face interjected, “Don’t know where it is? How’d you manage to lose a ship the size of a city!?”
“It happens.”
“No it doesn’t!”
Shar began to lose interest in the plotting and planning.
I ought to check on Kav.
He rose from the assembly and stared at Dahma as he walked to the exit.
“Where are you going?” Dahma said.
Shar looked at it: the same tin-masked Magus, the apparition he was sure he beheaded four years ago.
“You Magi ever piss?” He walked out the door and shut it.
Kav knew he was hallucinating. Did the Magus do this to him, or was it due to his “sickness?” Either way, it was like the air was filled with colorful patterns. He saw stained glass floating in the air, and moving paintings were painted on it. Even in this black room, even in absolute darkness, Kav saw these moving images. He even saw them when he closed his eyes.
A moving image played: it was from his earliest memory, of a woman who took him to the beach. She held his hand as they walked on the sand, shells crunching beneath their feet. The smell of salt almost made him sick. Often he would cry and the woman would hug him at her breast. After that, the smell didn’t seem so bad. He grew to love it; it brought him close to her.
Eventually, the woman left him. She couldn’t take him to the beach anymore.
Mother.
Kav opened his eyes to release her image. To forget about her. And yet, in the stained glass, there she was. Her figure was imprinted on the glass. Her white dress and ruddy hair blew in the wind.
He didn’t want to see it. He shut his eyes to get it out. He thought of something else, anything else.
Mezzin.
It had been a while since he thought of Mezzin. He saw Mezzin and everything about him on the glass. A moving painting appeared of another memory. Kav was alone, hiding in the corner of some sand field. Sand soaked his clothes and itched his scalp. And then he felt someone gently cleaning it off. His brother Mezzin, the first time they met.
I hope he’s dead. And in hell.
Kav opened his eyes and saw someone else. She made him quiver. Her azure hair fell to her waist, the way rain trails down a window.
Layla.
He reached out to touch her, to caress the glass, to go inside that soft hair.
But it all shattered. Her figure disintegrated as the glass broke apart, into a million billion pieces, into atoms, and even those atoms split — annihilation — burning everything.
I can’t picture her. What did she even look like? I don’t remember her face at all.
He felt his empty pocket. They’d taken the pouch with her bond before throwing him in here. He put his hand in his shirt and scratched the scar where his bond once was.
Once again, paintings began to appear in the stained glass. This time, he saw another familiar face.
It was Shar. He could barely see him smiling.
“Hey there.”
Kav looked in all directions. Where did the voice come from?
“Relax, it’s me.” The voice sounded like Shar.
I really am losing it. Now the faces are talking! “Are you really there, Shar?”
“Of course I’m here. I came to check on you. But keep it down.”
His voice came from the place where the door would open. But when had Shar come in? Kav had been awake for at least half an hour, and the door had stayed shut.
“Thought I’d dreamt you up,” Kav said. “I’m not even going to ask what you’re doing here, or how you’re mixed up in all this.”
“Good, ‘cause I ain’t gonna explain myself. All I’m here to tell you is, don’t fall for it.”
Kav felt needles in his throat. It had been sore for hours now. “Fall for what?”
“The lie that you’re the one who killed the Magus. I know you’re innocent. And I will get you out of here.”
“I’m not innocent. I did it. For Kerb. For Layla.”
Silence.
“Layla? Who’s that?”
“Someone close to me.”
“Well, what happened to her?”
“She died in Kerb.”
What had his mouth just uttered? How could he describe something like that? How could it be understood?
Shar remained silent.
“That’s why I want to kill them,” Kav said. “The Magi. All of them. How many are there? I got one, right? But now I see there are two more, or even three, and—”
“Kav, you’re not a killer. I am. But not you.”
“You’re wrong. I am what I am. I’ll do what must be done. It’s the only purpose I have.”
“You need to go on with your life, Kav. You have to move the hell on. Just don’t think about her. Find someone else, and you can be happy again and she’ll just be a memory.”
“You’re sounding just like Doc Reyta.”
“Doc Reyta?”
“Never mind.”
Shar rattled the steel bars, like he was checking their strength. “I’ll spring you loose soon enough.”
Rattle-rattle.
“How are you gonna get me passed the Magi?” Kav asked.
“I fooled ‘em once, I can fool ‘em again.”
Shar threw something; it landed near Kav. It sounded like tinfoil.
“You need to eat. Some bread and meat.”
Kav moved to find it. His joints stung, as if his body didn’t want to move. “Shar, my twicrys came out, and ever since, I’ve been in a lot of pain. It’s like my body is screaming.”
“I’ll have them send a doctor over. It’s not that uncommon for people to get a fever or something when they first remove their twicrys.”
“This is much worse than some fever.”
“Listen, stop worrying. I’ll take care of you,” Shar said. “Here, so you can see.”
A soft light glowed from Shar’s wrist. It made his eyes visible — hard green things. Tinfoil gleamed on the floor. Kav unwrapped the foil and bit the meat. Covered in fresh bread, it dripped with yogurt sauce. But in his mouth, it tasted like dust. Was this also because of the sickness?
Some yogurt dripped on his lower l
ip. Kav slurped it into his mouth. “There were people with me. Almarians, two girls and an old guy. Know what happened to them?”
“They brought an Almarian in with you. Young girl, red eyes, dark hair.”
“Please, check on her for me. And, they also took something that was mine.”
“Your only belonging was this pouch, containing a small jewel. I already swiped it.”
“Give it to me.”
“Now?” Shar scratched his head. “They might take it away again.”
“It doesn’t matter. I just want to hold it again. Please.”
Through the bars, the pouch flew and hit Kav in the stomach. He felt the heat of Layla’s bond through the leather. Like it wanted to be inside him.
“Before I go,” Shar said, “I have to tell you something. And what I tell you, you better take to heart. Don’t fall for it. The Magi are deceiving you.”
“Deceiving me?”
“It’s them, Kav. They’re the ones who are responsible for everyone’s misery, including yours. They are the mindwriters, the ones who change reality, who manipulate people, who make people think things that aren’t real. You didn’t do anything Kav, don’t believe it.”
But I did it.
He left; Kav was alone. Pain bounced against his skull. Shar’s last words swayed back and forth in his mind, making him sea sick. Not real?
The requisition officer took out an Almarian scimitar wrapped in a black cloth sheath. The hilt was black with red writing, which reminded Shar of a sword he’d seen in the possession of Brigadier General Aasad.
Shar unwrapped it out of the cloth. A pinkish hue shone from the blade — just like Aasad’s sword. Even the way it was curved, the heft, the overall look of it.
“So,” Shar said, “that little girl carried this big sword on her back?”
The officer gave a bored nod and grunted.
“How terrifying. I’ll hang on to this.” Shar wrapped it and clipped it to his belt, next to his own blade. The officer didn’t seem to care.
They kept her in a black room too. Caged this little girl as if she were a monster. It made some sense. She’d worn this big sword while in the company of a fugitive. Maybe she was dangerous?
Shar opened the door. The light from the hall hit the steel bars, casting shadows on the wall. The girl sat between the shadows, glass eyes staring at Shar as he walked in and shut the door.
It was dark once more.
“Holding up well enough?” Shar asked.
“Why am I in here? I’ve done nothing! And my family...I was with my cousin, uncle, and my friend. Where are they?”
Not much of a monster, more like a mouse. But her shouts echoed through the black room.
“It’s just you and Kav here.”
“Kav...is he okay? And where are the others?”
“Kav is doing just fine. As for the rest, I don’t care. I just got a question about that sword you had on you. Where’d you get it?”
“If you won’t tell me where my family is, why should I tell you anything?”
Shar played with its hilt in the darkness. “Hmm, Zulfiqar is its name, right?”
“How...how do you know?”
“I’ve seen it before. Or maybe, an identical one.”
The girl got up, stepped toward the bars, and hit them. Clang. “Where!?”
“Someone I know has the same sword.”
“Who? Can I meet him?”
“Ah, so, this has woken your curiosity,” Shar said. “Why don’t you tell me where you got it? Then I’ll tell you what I know.”
She hit the bars again. Clang. “You’d better, okay!?”
“Of course.”
“It’s my uncle’s weapon. And his younger brother, my dad, has one just like it. So if, like you say, you’ve seen it, you must know where my dad is!”
Holy shit.
Shar stepped back and opened the door. Light ambushed his eyes.
“Where...where are you going!?”
“I just remembered I have to check on something. We’ll continue this later.”
“Don’t go! No!”
Her shout echoed before he shut the door. But no sound could be heard once he did. The advantage of thick metal.
Could it really be? Then this all can’t be a coincidence.
The truth clicked in his mind. Brigadier General Aasad had said he got that sword from—
“It’s here!”
A wave of Continentals in blue uniform scurried through the hall.
“Battle stations!” The angst-filled cry had no discipline.
More Continentals ran through. Some held onto their hats, others their belts.
So it starts.
Shar walked to the exit of the Summit Complex. Shouts and clanking boots were the only sound. Outside, soldiers had gathered beneath a massive shadow. Shar gazed at the sky to see what made it.
A planet whale. It looked like those mythical creatures from old Necian drawings that lived deep on the ocean floor, said to be larger than the greatest levships.
“The bunker! We need to evacuate to the bunker, now! Get going!”
A whale in the sky.
The top commanders and their aides rushed out the Summit Complex onto anxious levships. Others ran into bunkers.
“Hurry up! They’re here!”
They’re here. In the greatest ship ever seen. The envy of the sun.
Shar felt the presence of Asha behind him. The shadow Magus gazed at heaven, blue dots on the slits of his eyeless sockets.
The whale crossed over the sky as a cloud rushed toward it. Like a cotton garb, it wore the cloud as it floated in the heavens.
Colors. Red, brown, and green shot out its belly, painting the clouds. An intricate design appeared in the sky, glowing like a projection of light.
Shar squinted to see it. It was a double palm tree with a red snake around it. “What is that, some kind of emblem?”
Laughter sounded behind him. Between each breath of laugh, a pause. It was Asha. “I was right,” he said.
“I’ve never seen a Magus laugh. What could be so funny?”
Magus Dahma appeared at Shar’s flank. “I haven’t seen that flag in some time. But now it makes so much sense.”
“So, they’re projecting their flag on the sky?” Shar said. “I don’t recall Haemians ever using flags.”
“That is not a flag of Haem,” Dahma said.
“Then? What is it?”
“Many years ago, before you were born, before the Haemians destroyed the northern Wall and invaded our continent, there was a city on the southern end of the Darya river. The people were mostly metalworkers, and they were a humble lot, diligent worshippers of Nur—”
“Listen Dahma,” Shar interrupted, “I don’t want a damn history lesson. Just tell me what that flag is.”
The whale stilled in the sky and arched upward, parallel with the emblem it created.
“Listen carefully,” Dahma said, “for you do not know who you are fighting.”
“Hurry up then.”
“It started with the War of the Poets. Back then, even the Almarian rivers had twicrys deposits, and the Almarians dominated the war. Until this Almarian city, to whom belongs that flag, was utterly annihilated by Ouroborus.”
“The city annihilated by Ouroborus! You mean the same city? That was the doing of you Magi, was it not?”
Dahma nodded. “We made a show of that city. Had we not, the war would never have ended, and the Haemians would have steamrolled our disunited continent.”
“Then that flag is—”
“The flag of Elkaria, City of Metal.”
Elkaria? “Why are Haemians displaying the Elkarian flag?”
Asha laughed his pause-filled laugh. “Because they are not Haemians. All this time, we were the ones tricked.”
Shar turned around, saw only air. Asha had vanished. “The hell?”
Forget them. I need to get Kav to safety.
Dahma stared at him with tin
eyes. “Since I know you’re interested, the prisoners are being transferred to the commander’s vessel. Surely the Shah’s representative will join us?”
One of the lev cannons suspended in the sky fired a heat blast at the whale. The fissure of heat arched through the heavens.
Direct hit.
Or at least, it looked like one, but there was no explosion. The whale ship shifted positions and descended. Continental lev cannons fired one after another.
From the belly of the whale came a torrent of light. It split the sky; an arrow of conduction radiated through the clouds. The light beam struck one of the levships. The falconesque thing exploded into a whirl of char, and it whined and incinerated as it hit the forest.
Little earthquakes shook the world. The battle for South Almaria had begun.
CHAPTER 7
ABBA
TRANSCRIPT 0138 BETWEEN MESSENGER 01 and PILOT 01
Merv: I hope it doesn’t hurt too much. The auxiliary guns will fire at the ships. You aim for the structures on the ground.
Zauri: But there are people there.
Merv: There are people in the ships too. People that want to kill us and all our kind.
Zauri: Are there really people in the ships? Maybe they’re not really there.
Merv: Aim for the ground and target their base. I told you, I’ll take the blame, I’ll suffer for you.
Zauri: You’re a liar. It’s always me that suffers.
Merv: Fire on the base. Now.
Zauri: The same people from that city are there. Please don’t make me.
Merv: Don’t make me say it again.
The last time Shar and that tin-masked tree man were on the same levship, only Shar stepped off alive. Today, it seemed neither would.
The command ship had pulled back to issue orders from the rear. A tiny cruiser, it was a smart choice for a battle in which big targets went down first. The skies were a charred crystal set on fire. Twenty minutes had passed since the first shot. Shar stood on the bridge, listening to the cries of battle.