by Mario Routi
Leylah froze for a second and then collapsed onto him. Alexander wrapped his arms around her and, with the picnic forgotten, they didn’t speak again, happy to just lay there contentedly until it was time to leave for Leylah’s house.
Larisa was waiting outside and watched as they approached. “It looks like you two had a good time,” she said as they came up to her. “Might I ask where you whisked her off to, Alexander?”
Alexander looked at her for a second before replying. “That’s none of your business, Larisa.”
The Amazon looked stunned as he walked straight past her and into the house. As soon as Alexander was out of view, her expression changed into one of glowering menace as she looked at Leylah.
Leylah coughed and edged past her into the house. “Would you like some iced water?” she asked blandly.
Larisa stormed in after her, coming to a halt when she realised that every member of the family had stopped what they were doing and was looking at her.
“Well, don’t we have a nice little gathering?” Adriana said, not bothering to stop working on a quilt she was knitting.
“Yes, Alexander came for dinner but I invited Larisa over as well, if that’s all right?”
Adriana shot Larisa a look of undisguised contempt before going back to her quilting, muttering under her breath.
“Larisa, why don’t we go to my room?” Leylah suggested.
Larisa broke her gaze from Adriana and nodded.
“Alex,” Leylah said, “we’ll be back in a little bit. Come on Larisa, let’s go talk.”
Larisa and Leylah set off together accompanied by what felt like a wave of tension. Once in her room, Leylah closed the door.
“Larisa, tell me right now: Did you mean it when you said you were sorry for attacking me like that?”
Larisa feigned a stunned look as she sat down on the bed. “Why would I pretend to have regrets about kicking your ass, little Princess?”
Leylah threw her hands up in the air. “Ugh! I don’t know, but we both know that apologies are not your style.”
Larisa shrugged. “Listen, I don’t like you - that’s true. I enjoyed beating you up and would gladly do it again anytime, anywhere. But it has nothing to do with me losing my temper. That was unforgivable for an Amazon to do and I am sorry for that.”
“Look, I don’t like you either and thanks for being honest with me. As for beating me again, you’ll get your chance soon enough, although it won’t be so easy next time. Even this time you got injured by a rookie, didn’t you?”
“Is there anything else you wanted to see me about, Princess?” Larisa asked, her lips curling with the sarcasm of her words.
“No. And if you don’t want to be here, then you are perfectly free to leave.”
Larisa picked herself up from Leylah’s bed. “I’ll see you at the training grounds in a month. I’m one of your instructors now,” she said and stalked out of the room and past the silent stares of the family outside.
33
When Leylah walked out of her bedroom the following morning, Gregory and Anna were standing at the breakfast table with Turgoth, Rebecca and her grandparents. “Honey, your things are already packed and the spaceship is waiting outside,” Rebecca said. “Everything has been arranged. You’ll be arriving in London before you even know it.”
“Have a great time on Earth,” said Turgoth, kissing his daughter proudly.
Startled by the suddenness of the departure, Leylah said goodbye to her family and followed her friends out to the spaceship, which had landed in front of their house. She turned her head for one last wave before stepping on board.
The interior took her breath away, overwhelming her senses and banishing any thoughts of missing her family and Bebi. Everything was made of sparkling crystal, sending a thousand reflections dancing before her eyes.
“Hey, Leylah,” the reassuring bulk of Bull waved at her from the cockpit of the ship.
“Bull! What are you doing here?” she asked, pleased to see her old friend amidst unfamiliar and dazzling surroundings.
Bull smiled at her. “How else will the spaceship get back?”
“Good point,” Leylah said as she looked at the instrument panel in front of him. “So, how does this thing work?”
“Well, there’ve been modifications made recently to all the spaceships and they pretty much fly themselves. There are now three buttons. One lifts the spaceship, another lands it, and the third makes the dimensional transfer after I enter the location of our destination right here into this computer. Of course, there’s a steering stick as well - for emergency protocol.”
Leylah realised that, despite the distraction of the glittering interior, she could still see the outside world through the crystal. She and her friends sat down on a row of white leather seats as her brain tried to make sense of the visual assault. Gregory and Anna sat quietly, smiling, seeming to understand that she needed time to take in the scale of the beauty all around them.
***
Within moments the scenery outside the crystal walls changed and Leylah found herself looking out at a blue globe from above. A few seconds later they were in a dark forest clearing.
“What happened?” she asked.
“We just arrived,” Bull said.
“You’re going to need this when you get outside,” Gregory said, offering his arm to her.
“We’re here already?”
He nodded and offered his arm again. She held it lightly as the doors opened and they walked out of the ship together. The moment they came out into the Earth’s atmosphere, her sense of balance deserted her. She became light headed and not entirely in control of her own legs. She felt herself toppling backwards but could do nothing to stop it. Anna had anticipated the problem and was there to catch her. Leylah lent heavily on Gregory’s arm as she straightened up.
“See?” he chuckled, “I told you you’d need it.”
“Wow!” Leylah steadied herself carefully and took a few tentative steps, as if walking on ice. “You were right. What was that?”
“When Orizons come to Earth for their first time ever, they need a few minutes to adjust to the planet’s gravity,” Bull explained. “It won’t take you long.”
As she paused, slowly taking in her surroundings and finding her balance, Leylah realised that the forest was dark because it was nighttime. “We left from Utopia in the early morning,” she said, peering up at the starry sky beyond the canopy of trees, “just a few minutes ago, and now... it’s night?”
“Time doesn’t work the same when changing dimensions,” Bull said. “You may leave in the morning and still arrive during the same morning, or you may leave in the morning and arrive at night. There’s no way of predicting it.”
“Come on!” Anna interrupted. “Are you okay now, Leylah? Time to go to the hotel that’s been booked for us.”
“Go now, dear. Have fun!” Bull smiled at her and went back into the spaceship.
“Okay,” Leylah said, still holding on to Gregory’s arm for safety until she was inside the waiting car, where she looked around and stroked the unfamiliar upholstery.
The Orizon driver knew exactly where they needed to go. They drove through endless suburbs and Leylah stared out the window during the entire trip, taking in every detail of the other cars that streaked past, the rows of houses and the industrial buildings. Forty minutes later they reached the grander architecture of central London, its pavements teeming with crowds despite the late hour.
As they walked up to the hotel entrance, Leylah lifted her hand to push on the glass door and shrieked as it slid open before she had even touched it.
“Magic!” she squealed.
Gregory burst out laughing. “That’s a sliding door. It’s not magic and it works electronically. Oh man, I can’t wait to take you out into the streets.
Anna, do you think we’ll need a leash?”
Anna punched Gregory on the shoulder. “Stop it! I can’t believe you would suggest such a thing. Poor Leylah.”
“Well, I mean, I just want to make sure she doesn’t get killed her first time here.”
Anna shot him a warning look but he still couldn’t stop giggling. They arrived at the elevator and Gregory turned to Leylah.
“Okay, Leylah,” he said, speaking slowly, as if to a small child. “This is called a lift. It works by using electricity and pulleys. It’s very safe and it will take us up to our room.”
Leylah was about to say something but burst into laughter instead. “Guys, really! I know what electricity is. Did you actually believe that I would think automatic doors were some kind of magic and that I wouldn’t know what a lift is? I was just messing with you. You’re forgetting what I told you during your first tour of Utopia - that we get to see movies from Earth and documentaries, so I’m not completely ignorant of the way things work down here. I’ve seen all of these things before in three-dimensional videos, read about them and discussed all of it both with our teachers and with others.”
Gregory and Anna exchanged embarrassed looks and Gregory pressed a button on the panel. Leylah, enjoying having the upper hand for a while, gave a theatrical little scream at the sudden jerk of the lift pulling them upwards, making them all laugh.
Once the elevator stopped, they made their way down a long white, thickly carpeted corridor. Gregory opened a door that led into a large apartment suite and Leylah walked in behind him. Anna ran to look at the view through the floor-to-ceiling windows. “Look Leylah! We’re more than five hundred feet off the ground,” she said. “They call this the balcony suite.”
“The television is in the living room,” Gregory reported, “and there is also a small kitchen. Your bedroom and private bathroom are down the hallway and mine and Anna’s are on the opposite side.”
Leylah prowled around the suite like a curious cat familiarising itself with alien territory. Anna grabbed her hand and pulled her into another room she had discovered off to the side. Leylah was expecting a bed but instead she saw a small swimming pool.
“Ta-da! Surprise!” Anna said. “Why don’t you try it?”
Before she could reply, she felt Anna’s hands on her chest and Leylah fell backwards into the pool. The cold water seemed to be both a relief and a shock, as it crashed over her, swallowing her up. She surfaced, gasping for breath, and swam a couple of lengths before climbing out, hugging her arms around herself and shivering.
“Too cold?” Anna laughed. “There are towels over there. I’m going to go take a shower and get some rest. You should do the same and we’ll see you in the morning.”
“But I only woke up a few hours ago,” Leylah complained, although strangely, she did feel a little sleepy. It’s probably due to the dimension travel via spaceship, she thought as Anna went off with a wave. Gregory also seemed to have disappeared into his room.
Wrapping herself in a towel, she peeled off her wet clothes and walked back into the living room. She rather liked being alone and having a chance to soak up the new experience in peace. She walked to a caged-in balcony - a warm glass cabin - and lay back on a low, comfortable armchair looking out over the lights of London.
As she lay there beneath the stars, her eyelids grew heavy and she let them drop. Tiredness felt the same as it did back home and that made her smile. Her last thought made her feel warm inside. No matter what world I’m in, there are people who are like me..., and with that she entered the dream world.
***
Leylah woke up with a slight pain in her legs as she moved them for the first time and remembered that she was still in the armchair. She grunted as she pulled herself up and was surprised to see a pile of what looked like clothes beside her. She lifted them and dropped the towel which was wrapped around her. She was still pulling the clothes on as she walked back into the living room, forcing Gregory to turn his head away and close his eyes.
“Is it safe to look yet?” he asked. “Anna put those clothes out for you.”
Leylah laughed. “Yes, I’m decent. You can look. Where are we going today?”
Gregory opened his eyes and went back to shoveling cereal into his mouth. “We’ll take you to see some sights - just to get you acquainted with the city - before we move on to your mother’s house.”
“Okay, sounds like fun,” Leylah said.
“The truth is we haven’t made any definite plans. I tend to believe in taking things as they come. My father always taught me that if you have a very specific plan in mind, then it’s almost certain that something will mess it up, so you would also need a back-up plan to deal with every possible thing that could go wrong. As a result, I’ve lived my life by only half planning everything, which leaves plenty of opportunity for surprises.”
“Interesting theory,” she laughed.
Anna came to sit next to them as Leylah felt her stomach growl.
“Is there any breakfast to make?” Leylah asked.
Anna pointed to Gregory’s bowl. “Do you want some cereal? It’s built to give mortals plenty of nutrition in the morning and it’s quite nicely flavored.”
Leylah watched as Anna filled a bowl from the centre of the table and placed it in front of her. She nervously scooped up a spoonful and put it in her mouth. The explosion of flavour shocked her and she was immediately suspicious.
“Why don’t we have this in Utopia?”
Gregory smiled. “That would be because it has the potential to be addictive. The sugar and oils inside the cereal are what make it addictive while the flavournoids kill your natural taste buds. It only seems like a blast of flavour because you’ve been eating natural foods all your life, not Sartani-made inventions.”
Leylah raised an eyebrow. “Sartani-made?”
Anna put a hand up to stop Gregory from continuing. “Gregory likes to indulge himself in conspiracy theories. Not everything here is controlled or made by the Sartani. So, all right, down to business. I understand that you know a lot about Earth, but the reality of central London in the middle of the day is still going to be a shock. There will be a lot of traffic and noise everywhere. You need to stick with us while you acclimatize; otherwise you run the risk of being swept away by the crowds.”
Leylah frowned, cautiously taking another mouthful of the delicious, dangerous foreign food. “No wonder Mum didn’t want me to live down here. You make it sound even more treacherous than Tartarus.”
“You will see that it has a pleasant side, too,” Gregory said and got up to put his bowl in the sink.
Anna followed Gregory into the kitchen. They seemed so comfortable with everything, while Leylah couldn’t help but feel out of place.
There was a knock at the door.
“Oh, that must be Mr. Icke, our driver,” Gregory said opening the door.
A tall, bald man with a distant look in his green eyes came into the room. He wore a long black coat and held a black top hat in his gloved hands. He looked like an actor who was costumed for a part.
“Leylah, this is Mr. Icke. He is a bodyguard as well as a trained driver. He has proven very helpful to other Orizons over the years.”
“Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Icke,” Leylah said.
“The honor and pleasure is all mine, young Princess,” he replied with a flamboyant bow. “I am sorry I couldn’t come to pick you up myself last night and had to send another Orizon instead, but something had come up - a small family problem. So, shall we be leaving? The traffic is beginning to build up in the streets.”
“All right guys, let’s go see London!” Anna said, leading the way to the door.
***
From the moment they left the hotel Leylah watched everything, taking in every detail - particularly the people - trying to work out
how the world functioned. There was so much to learn and understand. It seemed to her as though everyone worked only for themselves. After the tenth time of asking the others to stop so they could help out an old person sitting pitifully on the side of the street, Leylah came to understand that no matter how much she tried, there weren’t enough hours in the day for her to help everyone who needed it and she realised that all the other millions of people hurrying by had reached the same conclusion. The damage had already been done long before she was ever born and there was nothing she could do about it. The realisation left her with an empty feeling inside.
During next few hours, they went up the London Eye and Leylah was excited to see London from up high. They also went to Madame Tussaud’s museum, where she enjoyed seeing the wax effigies. In the London Dungeon, Leylah thought she was being attacked by an evil demon and she nearly hit the guy, but Anna immediately explained that he was just an actor scaring people for entertainment. When they went to the Tower of London, Leylah felt more at home and she enjoyed moving around the castle. They then headed to Hyde Park and sat down to eat.
Her thoughts drifted back to Utopia and, more specifically, to Alexander. His awkward friendship - or whatever it was - with Larisa still made her uneasy. The truth was that Alexander was liked by nearly every girl his age in the Land of the White Sun and Lord Leiko made things even worse by thrusting his son into situations where he was always in the spotlight and winning over new hearts. Alexander was apparently unaware of the effect he had on every female in the land, which broke the hearts of many who tried to catch his interest but made him even more of a challenge to someone like Larisa who never gave up once she had set her sights on a particular goal. Leylah was sure that Alexander still had no idea of how she really felt about him and she worried that he might always see her as the little sister he had grown up with. She was fully aware that there was no chance of him ever thinking of Larisa as a sister and she also realised the Amazon had been very clever in making her intentions perfectly clear to Alexander from the start.
Leylah looked at Gregory and Anna as they all sat together eating pancakes and wondered if it might be appropriate to discuss her feelings with them. After all, they hadn’t been around Alexander’s charm their whole lives and might be able to be more objective in their advice. Or could Anna have fallen for him already? Could she trust any woman with her true feelings about something so important? She decided to think about it a bit more before saying anything.