The Rathmore Chaos: The Tully Harper Series Book Two

by Adam Holt

  The Fifthers themselves wore red tunics with gold belts, and there were few of them. Those that we saw had servants to carry them, or they steered hovering chariots as the crowds dispersed in front of them. They scowled and shook their heads at the carnival scenes that were probably taking place in their front yards.

  In front of us, I saw the theater. On the red wall of the theater an image of Tabitha, smiling and waving, greeted us.

  “Welcome to the Fifth Step,” she repeated in several languages. “Please proceed to Red Storm Arena for a special announcement.”

  All I wanted to do was get into that theater and start our plan, but they always make you sit through something before the show starts.

  The Red Storm Arena loomed in the distance. Images of battle scrolled across the stones, Ascendants battling lions and bears—and each other—on the sandy floor inside the arena.

  “This is Rome,” said Janice.

  We filed through a massive black gate and saw a large stage on the sandy floor. The Ascendant sorted themselves out. Firsters, Seconders, and Thirders stood in the middle of the arena in front of the stage. Seats were reserved for Fourthers, Fifthers, and Seventhers.

  The crowd hushed and turned toward the newel, which we could see through the great entry gate. Then the newel rumbled. A black rectangle appeared on its side.

  “That looks like a door,” I whispered to my dad.

  “Yes,” he said. “I think it’s an elevator for troop transport, but there’s more to it. It has to reach far below the city.”

  It also held the Seventh Step hundreds of feet in the air. Could I make that jump even with my red powers? I wondered. The hair on my arms stood on end just looking at the size of it all.

  From the rectangle emerged an army. Thousands of troops marched in formation, chanting in unison, leaping occasionally and shooting purple sparks into the air with their black staffs. We could feel their footsteps. The crowd cheered as the black staffs approached the stadium. My heart thumped against my ribcage, watching them stream toward us, like a slow-moving but unstoppable tsunami. Once they reached the arena, we could see that, in the midst of them, was a hover chariot manned by the Lord Ascendant.

  The crowd went absolutely roasters.

  He wore black gloves and a purple tunic that left his muscular arms and legs completely bare. A long black cape pinned with a gold medallion cascaded from his neck and shoulders. Across his face scrolled those familiar tattoos, but they did not hide his features – black eyes, powerful jaw line, a long braid of hair. A scar crossed his cheek, more a complement than a flaw. He held a hand over his heart.

  “We are the Ascendant,” he said.

  “WE ALWAYS RISE!” we shouted in unison.

  He leaped onto the stage, waited for total silence, and then began to speak in a deep, smooth voice.

  “Greetings, children of Rathmore, the blessed of Europa. I speak to you today in English not because I enjoy it, but because it is one of the primary languages of your slaves. With this tongue you will command them. With this tongue you will claim your homes, your lands, your place in the universe.

  “Greetings to you all!

  “Firsters and Seconders, your hard work has made you strong. You have served us well, and you will soon be served.

  “Thirders and Fourthers, you have gathered skills. You will manage the Earth.

  “Fifthers, you hold us all together. You ascend and descend with beauty and grace.

  “Sixthers, I honor your memory. You were once majestic, but you came to a tragic end.”

  According to Ekphrasis, you created that tragedy, I thought. Why don’t you tell everyone the truth?

  “And those of you called to the Seventh, my dearest friends, you rule with honor and pride. You will be a blessing to the Earth as you have been to Rathmore.”

  The Lord Ascendant put his hands behind him and paced across the stage.

  “All of you know how hard I have worked, how much I have sacrificed to reclaim the Earth. Because of it, you worked hard for me. We became a family here, each one of us knowing our place upon the Steps. We made this moon our home, so far from the bright sun’s rays. Happy we were here for millennia.

  “But now we must face the sad truth—after thousands of years in hiding, the Earthers found us. Yes, and I went to meet with them near their Moon. With a brave and generous heart I tried my best to make peace. And what was the result of my generosity? After these many centuries, and with all of their advances, this is how they greeted me.”

  The Lord Ascendant raised his hand, and an image of the Lion’s Mane filled the entire arena. I remembered it well: the black sphere with a red tentacle that trapped the Adversity. Purple letters covered its exterior. But it was an absolute wreck. My dad was responsible for that. Of course, they had attacked us first. The Lord Ascendant left that out.

  “The wicked Commander Harper sent spies on board our ship,” he said, “planted a bomb, and stole back the ‘Harper Device.’ Yes, that’s what he called the Sacred. He named it after himself. What arrogance! A shameful man with no heart, and his son twice as bad, a defiler of the Sacred. He has stolen its power for himself.”

  The Ascendant gasped. I couldn’t believe my ears, but the Ascendant believed theirs. My blood boiled. I wanted to shout the truth: my dad found the Sacred on Mars. The Alliance named the Sacred after my dad! You attacked us! And the Sacred drew me to itself, you lying piece of Ascendant garbage! Janice reached for my hand. I tried to shrug her off but she held fast. Sunjay looked at me. Okay, okay, I’m fine, guys. I took a deep breath.

  Then images of Europa scrolled behind the Lord Ascendant. Exploding geysers, giant cracks in the city streets, dying fish in the ocean.

  “So the Earthers stole the Sacred. See what they have done to us? Without the Sacred, our oceans, once so full of life, are dying. The geysers burst forth, the ice moves, and our city crumbles. We have only to look to the Grand Newel to know this truth.”

  He gestured to where small bits of the Sixth Step still clung to the icy column. The propaganda just got thicker and thicker, but it started to make sense. I knew what he was going to say next.

  “I know you worry,” he continued, “and for good reason! Europa, our mother, can no longer support us. So we must do what children do: we must grow up and strike out on our own path. We must move or die.

  “The Earthers will not share the Earth with us. You see, they do not share it with each other! To them we are alien, foreign, evil. No, they would rather destroy us than help us.”

  “So what can we do, dear children of Rathmore. Run? To where? Another Moon? Without the Sacred, it would be hopeless. No, the time has come at last. As the prophecy foretold, great Zeus brought us to this moon, and now we will return to Earth once more to rule. We will bring with us the Ascendant ways of peace and law. For we are the Ascendant.”

  “WE ALWAYS RISE!” The crowd erupted and saluted.

  The Lord Ascendant held up his hand to still the crowd. Then one young Ascendant, just a few feet from me, leaped into the air. The crowd fell completely silent.

  LAWBREAKER

  He wore a white tunic, the first that I had seen. He glided easily into the air with his black hair flying wildly. Then, as he reached the peak of his jump, he opened his hands. The image of a golden dove flew high into the air above our heads. It fluttered above the crowd, who stared in awe. Then he spoke: “Do not believe these lies, brothers and sisters. To enslave an Earther is to enslave an Ascendant. We must rise above pride and hate. We are better than this.”

  He threw his arms out to his sides as he spoke, and he did not fall. I had no idea what I was seeing, this young Ascendant levitating high above us with outstretched arms. Is he flying? Is this Icarus? I wasn’t sure, but I knew one thing: he was the first I had seen challenge the Lord Ascendant.

  He wasn’t a magician though. Someone held him aloft. Onstage the Lord Ascendant raised his hands, clad in black gloves that glowed with purple light. His hands
are like black staffs! A cold fury flowed from his eyes.

  “What a lovely image,” he said. “My friends, is this who you want to be? You want to arrive on Earth unarmed, like beggars on the beach. And how do you think the Earthers will treat us if we come wearing white tunics and waving the white flag of surrender? Let me demonstrate.”

  He raised the young Ascendant higher in the air. The crowd cleared a spot in the middle of the arena.

  “I am prepared to die,” said the young challenger, “but I am not prepared to kill or make anyone else my slave. We are better than this! Icarus will show—”

  But before he could finish, the Lord Ascendant brought down his hands. The young Ascendant plummeted to the arena floor. I heard a sickening thud.

  A cold knot seized my guts. Janice went pale. Sunjay held her arm to steady her.

  The crowd, frozen with fear and surprise, burst into applause and cheers. Some around me had tears in their eyes, but for some reason they cheered the loudest.

  “We are Ascendant!” someone yelled.

  “We always rise!” everyone responded. They turned back toward the stage where their leader stood, looking untroubled, flexing his gloved hands. The crowd quieted.

  “What a waste,” he said and gestured toward the body. “You can take Icarus’s way. See how high your wings can take you. Or you can take mine, no, our way.”

  Once again the image of the Lion’s Mane appeared in the arena. Only now it gleamed in purple and black majesty.

  “Beneath Europa, our great ships wait to take us home. In three day’s time, we depart. Now, let us enjoy this evening’s entertainment.”

  The entire mob of Ascendant, maybe 200,000 in all, made their way toward the theater. We walked with them.

  Around us some of the Ascendant looked upset. They spoke to each other in low whispers about what happened in the Red Storm Arena. Some said that the young alien had not leaped—the Lord Ascendant sensed that he was evil, so he picked him up and made an example of him. Could the Lord Ascendant read someone’s mind? It certainly felt that way when he interrogated me in space. Either way, the young Ascendant had spoken against him. That was brave, insane, or both.

  “He threw him into the dust,” said Janice. “I don’t want to die.”

  “Courage,” my dad said, walking beside us. “You three stay together. Make for the theater. Stick to the plan.”

  FAMILIAR FACES

  The theater towered over us, a blood red marble building the size of a football stadium. How will everyone see the actors on the stage? Fortunately, the Thirders would have the closest view. That worked well for our plan.

  Inside, we found our place in front of a stage raised forty feet above ground level. Just like in the arena, each Step had an assigned section. The Thirders stood in front of the stage, while the Firsters and Seconders stood behind, and the higher Steps all had box seats above us and behind us. We split up and pushed our way as close to the stage as possible. Just as we planned.

  A high crimson curtain loomed above us with a spotlight on its center. The first words of Romeo and Juliet rotated above our heads in the shape of a globe, and they flipped from language to language....

  Two households, both alike in dignity,

  In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,

  From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

  Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

  “Neat trick,” Sunjay said to Janice, who looked dire pale.

  “I don’t want to die,” said Janice. “I can’t do this. I’m going to Stanford.”

  “Why don’t we all go to Stanford?” I told her. “It’s a good school.”

  That didn’t help very much. Sunjay whispered to her.

  “Queen Envy once told me, ‘If you can’t be anything else, be brave.’ We are going to be fine. Remember when Buckshot caught you before you fell? Well, this is our chance to catch Tabitha. She’s counting on us. That’s what matters, right?”

  Sunjay could empathize with Janice, so he kept talking to her. He should have talked to me. My heart tried to thump its way out of my chest. When that curtain parted, I would see Tabitha again. I had only seen one of her plays at the community theater. About fifty people attended. Now I waited with 200,000 aliens for the Earther to perform.

  The words above us disappeared.

  The lights dimmed.

  The crowd hushed.

  I clenched my teeth and squinted at the curtain, waiting for it to rise and show me my long-lost friend, my Tabitha.

  Janice tapped my shoulder. She looked composed again. “Tully, remember, Juliet won’t show up until Scene III.”

  My heart sank. I knew this. We discussed her delayed appearance in planning, but I hoped she would appear in front of us nonetheless. Nothing ever goes as planned.

  For instance, the red curtain did not part. It dissolved into thin air and revealed a wide stage with no actors. Dark structures rolled in from stage right and stage left. Squares, rectangles, triangles of various sizes populated the stage. The “set” was now in place, but it was a wasteland of obscure objects, a geometry teacher’s nightmare.

  “This is one of those stripped down sets,” said Janice. “No costumes, no set decoration.”

  She was wrong for once. The stage held secrets. The Ascendant actors came in from either side. They were dressed in plain black, but the stage changed that. With every step they took forward, the stage covered them in long flowing dresses, colorful pants, crowns, and flowing capes. Every step changed the dull space as well. Before long, the entire stage became a Renaissance town real enough to touch. I would have fallen out of my seat, but I was standing.

  The actors were magnified, too, seeming to stand twenty feet tall, their every move clear to us and easily seen from the back of the arena.

  “Holy holograms,” said Sunjay.

  The play began. It was ingenious, alien, and pretty well acted. The Montagues were tattooed Ascendants. The Capulets actors looked human, with no tattoos at all. I thought about those opening lines again. Two households both alike in dignity…from ancient grudge break to new mutiny…

  In the first scene, a Capulet started the “new mutiny.” He drew a black staff (instead of sword) against an alien Montague. The crowd booed the “human” Capulet. The two actors fought for a moment, battling much like we had in our training sessions, dodging stuns and fireballs, until an Ascendant actor broke up the fighting. He had my exact tattoos...or he looked like the Ascendant Lord. Same thing, I guess.

  Then the stage changed to an oceanfront scene. I could smell the saltwater and hear the waves. There we saw the Ascendant Romeo, writing poems and discussing his girl problems with himself. His friends dragged him to a party, so the scene changed again—this time, a fancy mansion. A second story appeared out of nowhere, and partiers in masks danced and ate and laughed. Still, alien Romeo moped around, leaned against a column and stared at the floor, but not for long. Without warning, he ripped off his mask, looked to the top of the stairs, and said:

  “Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight!

  For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.

  The entire crowd reacted the same way. Maybe they had seen true beauty, but most had never seen an Earther in person. They had never seen Tabitha Tirelli.

  There, at the top of the stairs, her curly hair and green eyes glittering in the spotlight, stood Tabitha, looking every bit like the girl that made me stumble over my words more times than I cared to admit. The Ascendant pointed and whispered at Tabitha, who radiated starlight. She gave them a moment to collect themselves before starting the scene. Like I said, she’s a good actress.

  The stage magnified her in every way. She loomed over us, twenty feet tall and looking twenty years old, in a gleaming white party dress. It was a masquerade, and she came as an angel, apparently. She held a mask in her hand. Wings fluttered on her back. A diamond necklace hung around her neck. Her face was as I remembered it. Not a single tattoo disguise
d the face of Juliet Capulet. She gazed on her admirers and then focused on young Romeo.

  Alien Romeo ascended the stairs, and Tabitha Capulet began her lines. That’s where all the Ascendant magic wore off and I came to my senses.

  “Oh, this sucks,” Janice whispered to me. “Sorry.”

  Their whole conversation revolved around kissing. First, Romeo kissed her hand. Then he went for the cheek. I knew how this ended and wondered how kissing an alien would work out. Do I need to say how much I hated this idea? When Alien Romeo awkwardly planted one on her, the crowd cheered. Tabitha smiled like she had just found Mr. Alien Right. I could have ripped his lips off his tattooed head.

  But there wasn’t time to dwell on alien kisses or holy holograms. Our time to take the stage was almost upon us.

  I surveyed our surroundings. There wasn’t much security. To our left and right were Ascendant guards. Two were posted at the side exits, two at each door in the back, but none near the stage. I looked back to scope out the balcony. The Fourthers sat on the highest level, the Fifthers in the middle, and the Seventhers had box seats, with the Ascendant Lord dead in the center of the theater in a booth that glowed with a soft purple light. And beside him I saw something else that took my breath away. No, that can’t be.

  COUNTDOWN AT INTERMISSION

  That rigid posture, perfectly combed hair, and glowing blue eyes brought back a floor of memories. I never thought I would see him again, in the flesh. Or whatever covered his Android body.

  Lincoln Sawyer.

  The last time I had seen him was our epic battle in the space lab. He had almost ended me with a black staff before I opened a portal and launched him into space.

  He should be halfway to Pluto by now, I thought, not watching Romeo and Juliet.