Light Speed

by Arkadie, Z. L.

  Chex kisses me before I can finish. He guides me onto my back and mounts me. Our kissing is making me giddy inside. He is hard against me but isn’t spreading my legs to slip it inside of me. Instead we roll on the grass. Our legs enfold each other and our hands grab at each other’s bodies.

  “Sorry about that,” he whispers, pinning his forehead against my chest. “I’m trying to practice restraint. “But I crave you, constantly.”

  “That’s very resilient of you,” I say, “to act against your impulses.”

  He lifts his face and is grinning, amused again. “Are you trying to make this difficult?”

  “No!” I say sincerely.

  “Ah, shit,” he mumbles, losing the battle against his will, he spreads my legs and now he’s inside of me—again.

  Chapter 12

  The Steal

  After taking a shower, I dress myself. Chex suggested that we shower alone. He decided to give self-restraint another go and keep his distance. I must say, I rather enjoy entering this shower contraption alone. The warm water slithering down my limbs is quite refreshing after the long day. My skin has changed since leaving Enu; grime is able to cling easily to me. My humanity is strengthened.

  I clothe myself in the same ensemble that I wore earlier—blue pants, shirt, and boots, and once I’m finished, I head to the portal where Na’ta is also wearing similar articles of clothing, except in black. This is the first time I’ve seen Chex since he gave me space to prepare for the next leg of our journey. He’s gazing at me as if he wants to strip my clothes off again. When I smile at him, he quickly turns away and tries to focus on Na’ta and Telman.

  “Ready?” he asks them.

  “Born ready,” Na’ta answers. She can hardly contain her enthusiasm.

  The portal is lit for us.

  “Wait. Do you have the medallion?” she asks me.

  I feel for it in my pant pockets. “I have it.”

  With that confirmed, we hurry through the portal to meet Magnificent Star in the hub. The wire tentacles are already attached to her head and Tetra is visible in the great beyond.

  “The Olligark have prepared to make a stand along their southeastern borders,” she says as soon as she’s aware of our presence and then narrows her eyes. “I find this odd. The Tarantula is in the northeast, five hundred and thirty-three krugs away, approximately the same as thirteen hundred miles.”

  “So that makes it easy for us?” Chex asks regarding her keenly.

  “Yes.”

  “And that didn’t happen by mistake?” he further asks.

  “I would say—no.”

  Each one of us searches the other’s expressions. I believe one name prevails in all of our thoughts. I consider our histories with this individual. Every face I see - except Magnificent Star’s - appears to have a plan for Lario Exgesis, including me. And, like me, none of us is willing to disclose our plots.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Telman says with a dismissive shrug. “We do what we have to do, and more if need be.” He turns to Na’ta for affirmation and by the look in her eyes—he receives it.

  “Now what?” Na’ta asks Magnificent Star.

  Magnificent Star walks to the podium and moves her finger around the glass screen. She points out toward Tetra. “See the tiny streak in the sky?”

  The tip of her finger leads my eyes to a small black slit in the muggy sky. It’s situated beneath Earth’s sun.

  “That’s the portal,” she tells us. “You will enter Ol through it.”

  “And Gia Scoralini and the Earth’s sun will follow us,” I mutter, pondering aloud because we have a problem. “What will be the one factor Lario Exgesis did not anticipate?” I ask her.

  A slow smile forms on her mouth. “He did not anticipate the sun returning to Earth.”

  We are all relieved to hear the possibility of having this advantage over him. And now his plan is even more lucid. That’s why he convinced the Olligark to prepare for attack so far away from where we’ll be.

  “Once in Ol, you’ll see the Tarantula. It’s a massive structure but the Scepter of Gant has a glare that can be seen from afar by those who have the eyes of light; there are four such people: Felix Benel, Adore, Chex…”

  “Me?” Chex asks very shocked.

  “The curse has left you.”

  He presses his lips together. I know him well enough now to recognize that this is his signal that no further discussion is desired. Chex loathes the fact that he had once been victimized by another force. It’s more than likely that he’s planning retribution.

  “And the fourth is Exgesis,” he says icily.

  Magnificent Star nods and then says, “You’ll see a glare as soon as you are inside of the Tarantula—follow it.”

  It’s time.

  Na’ta takes me from behind and Telman does the same to Chex. The mere power of light is a defiance of space and time. I never see the path we leave behind, but we are now here at the foot of the Tarantula. It’s true. This is a construct that is fashioned from bones. It’s an evil concept and is fitting for a place with creatures that thrive in a lightless environment. Ol is supposed to be dark, but the sun that followed us into the portal exposes a vast number of odd-shaped structures throughout a sandy terrain littered by loose, dry, and bloodied bones.

  “Open it,” Na’ta tells me. She’s restless. I am too. This universe chills my soul.

  I call the light to my eyes and immediately I see the slot that’s sized just right for the medallion. I slide the object out of my pocket and into the keyhole, turn it, take it out, and stuff it back into my pants pocket for safekeeping.

  Chex must have noticed how my hands shook because he sweeps down and takes one of mine into his. I can hardly bear the energy here. It’s squeezing me and is heavy on my shoulders.

  We all wait with bated breath, wondering what will happen next. But we do not have to wait long. Suddenly the Tarantula rises on eight legs, revealing a dark entrance within the smaller leg where I put the key.

  “Do you hear that?” Na’ta asks, gazing up into the dark hole above us.

  “I do,” I strain to whisper.

  The sound is similar to that of a strong waterfall, crashing against the rocks beneath it. Chex quickly kisses the back of my hand.

  “Like I said, keep moving forward and I’ll cover, understand?”

  I nod and it feels like my head is bobbing frantically on my shoulders.

  “Take the front, Chex. We got the back,” Telman says.

  Chex glances at me before he leaps up into the Tarantula’s leg, still holding my hand while making sure I remain behind him. Once we’re completely inside he lets go of my hand. “See it,” he shouts over his shoulder above the loud and constant crashing noise. It almost sounds like the Mtknv are in the vicinity, but the reverberation is too violent to be them.

  “Yes,” I yell back. I see the circular beam of light as I enter the center of the long hallway. It’s as if the rays stab through the heart of darkness.

  My feet still have not hit the surface, but I move with the speed of the wind up the corridor. The closer I get, the more I can hear them in front, behind, above, and below us. The Olligark are in here. That noise is the sound of their bones smashing against the floor.

  I keep advancing because that is what I’m supposed to do. I’m not supposed to fight, but how will I be able to avoid battle? I call the light to my fingers just in case. And oh how putrid the air is! There is more than the scent of death lingering in it. It holds a sharp gaseous substance that suddenly makes me cough and choke, forcing me to my knees.

  Don’t breathe, Na’ta cautions me within my conscious.

  I immediately stop inhaling and when the fogginess fades I notice that Chex has already swiped me up and is moving forward, carrying me easily with one arm.

  I shake his shoulder and when he turns to face me, I mouth, “I’m fine.”

  He sets me back down onto my feet and without debate.

  Suddenly we
are all stunned by what we see next. The floor vibrates with the steps of an Olligark creature who moves into full view at the end of the hallway behind us. It and we are frozen in a moment of scrutiny. The creature is ten times larger when it is this close. We are merely seeds and it’s the aged tree.

  “Give us light!” Na’ta quickly demands.

  I grab her and Telman by the forearms and inject them both with a hefty dose of the i’lek’u.

  “Now go get it Adore,” she shouts as the creature stomps toward us.

  My feet remain planted. The idea of leaving my sister behind to face this goliath of a being is making me ill. I simply cannot do it.

  “Go!” she shouts as it gets closer.

  The creature is not quick but it is powerful.

  I still have no intentions of leaving her, regardless of what she says or how loud she yells. But it’s Chex who yanks me by the arm, leading me forward.

  “Stop! Let go of me!” I strain and struggle against his grasp, halting our progress.

  He takes me sternly by the shoulders. “Ad’ru!” he shouts to get my attention. I’m looking into his eyes but it’s still hard to focus. “The longer we stay here, the more dangerous it gets. You do your job. She does her job. The quicker we get the hell out of here!”

  I’m antsy. Torn between my natural proclivity to protect Na’ta at any cost and parting from her to get what we came here for. But he’s right. I feel thankful that he reminded me of what’s important so I kiss his lips very quickly, then turn toward the glare of the Scepter and run as fast as I can.

  The pervading blackness still unsettles me, so I spray light out of my fingertips. The two energies battle: my light against Ol’s natural darkness. What’s created is a dim gray glow. We arrive at a point where the hallway splits into two directions. The Scepter leads me down one way but two Olligark creatures are stomping their massive bodies toward us in the opposite direction.

  Chex doesn’t need to tell me to continue running. I keep moving but he is no longer in front of me. He is behind me, throwing weapons at the creatures. Their deafening hisses grow louder. The sound is so piercing I have to squeeze my hands against my ears to minimize it. When I turn to see how far away from Chex I have gone, I can’t see him or anything else. The light has been defeated; all that’s left is the victorious darkness.

  As I turn to gaze forward, I suddenly smack right into a wall of strong bones. I hit it so hard that I’m thrown backward and only stop when I crash onto the floor. My head is spinning. I’m slightly dazed but not so much that I can’t see that I slammed into the chest of an Olligark. It is coming for me. I want to gasp but I have to remind myself not to breathe. The sockets of its eyes are fixed on me and, although the skeletal face has no expression, it’s clear that the creature is angry about finding me here.

  I’m too far ahead to allow fear to be my demise. I shake off the wooziness, rise to my feet, aim my palm at the creature’s head, and unleash the light. It jerks its head on impact. My power is strong enough to slow it down, but it doesn’t stop coming for me.

  I aim my other palm at its chest, where the heart of any creature lives. The light blasts another hole in it, and this time it wobbles, eventually convulses until it crashes onto the floor and explodes into bone dust.

  I stand stunned, hardly able to believe I, Ad’ru, just killed such a stalwart being with the power of light. But just when I thought I was out of immediate danger, here comes another, and another. Two of them!

  I’m outnumbered but there is no time to sulk about it. I repeat what I have just done. I shoot the light into the head and heart of one of them. As it convulses, the other one advances close enough to raise its arms above me. My heart sinks. It means to crush me until suddenly it jerks backwards once, then twice, until it topples over and hits the floor so hard it shakes beneath my feet.

  I take comfort in the familiarity of the body that’s pressing against my backside and the voice that asks desperately, “Are you okay?”

  I nod. He kisses the side of my face and turns me around to face him.

  “Listen, Baby, we’re faster. We see any more of those assholes, we don’t fight, we run right past them. Got it? Because the fighting is slowing us down and I think that’s what they’re here to do.”

  I nod again.

  We enfold our fingers and hold tightly to each other’s hands; then we dart off. I stay by his side as we turn down more corners and dash by more creatures when needed. It feels like it’s taking forever to reach the Scepter of Gant. But it’s near. The light is turning brighter the closer we get to it.

  And then suddenly we come to an abrupt stop. There are five Olligark creatures guarding a wide entrance where behind them I see it. The Scepter of Gant is a long rod and it’s suspended in mid-air.

  The guards are not budging. Instead, they watch us, dare in their hollow eyes.

  “We’re here!” Na’ta shouts as she comes to a stop on one side of me and Telman is on the other side of Chex. I’m gripped by relief. They’re safe.

  It takes the sight of all four of us to cajole the Olligark off their posts. They shift forward, advancing like one stealthy unit. If I weren’t so determined to reach the Scepter, I would be very intimidated.

  Suddenly I feel Chex’s hand against my lower back. “See the one in the middle? Slip right between his legs,” he instructs me.

  I focus on the triangular-sized space between the Olligark’s sinewy knees, which lines up with the lit Scepter beyond the threshold of the opening.

  “And there’s about fifty more on our ass!” Telman shouts, stabbing a thumb over his shoulder. “The sun must’ve already passed on or something!”

  That’s all Chex needs to hear before he strikes. He tosses six of the metal balls Na’ta gave him. Instead of standing here to see what happens when the balls make contact, I shoot off toward the triangular space.

  “Ad’ru!” Na’ta shrieks with fear.

  She doesn’t know our plan, but it’s too late to soothe her worry, I’m inside of the enormous, dark cubicle. This is strange. I can’t hear any of the fighting taking place beyond the threshold and I welcome the silence. But I know that I must do this quickly.

  I make haste toward the long metal rod. The first thing I notice is that there’s nothing fascinating about the Scepter of Gant. I thought it would be adorned with diamonds or rubies or maybe pearls, but no.

  But before I’m able to reach it, I’m stopped by two strong arms that wrap around me. My head is foggy and I’m trying to comprehend the fact that I’m being moved away from my destination. The body that’s against me is infusing me with warmth.

  “Lario Exgesis,” I say in a strained voice as I decide to wriggle out of his grasp.

  He squeezes me tighter and throws me down on the ground. Once I’m down he grabs me by my wrists as he lays himself on top of me with his knees squeezing my legs together so that I cannot move.

  “I can smell him all over you,” he hisses like a serpent. He smashes his lips against mine, trying to force me to kiss him but I turn my face.

  “Get off of me!” I scream.

  “Lost my advantage, I see,” he says wearing a sinister grin. “That’s too bad because I want you and that means I’m going to have you.”

  It dawns on me that the more I struggle, the more turned on he becomes. He’s hard against me.

  “What do you want?” I ask in a contained, calm voice.

  Lario Exgesis hesitates. “I want you to get up and take that Scepter off the stump for us.”

  “What do you mean, for us?” I snap.

  “You and me. I’m your bond, not that sewer dweller Chex. You want powerful? You want to rule the universes by the side of a king? Then take that Scepter and choose me.” His lips almost graze mine as he whispers again, “I want you Ad’ru.”

  “You said that already,” I say spitefully because his ambitions have angered me. “But I can never love you, Selell. You are too evil.”

  His eyes expan
d. He looks insane before he smashes his lips against mine and forces his tongue in my mouth. His mouth refuses to release mine and I’m forced to kiss him back until he stops.

  “None of your folks are going to survive, not Fawn or Clarity or Chex,” he growls. “You want to know why?”

  My eyes narrow to slits and my lips clamp together tightly. I will not let him kiss me again.

  His eyes blaze with insanity. “Because the Olligark are coming!” He sings, pushing his man part against my groin. “And so am I,” he breathes and then snickers. What a wicked sound he makes.

  Suddenly we are both distracted by sparks of light hitting the room’s entrance. It’s Chex, throwing himself against an invisible shield keeping him out. The light that sparks upon impact reveals his tortured face. Lario Exgesis looks even more pleased with himself. I must act.

  The Selell gazes down at me and before he can say another word, I press my lips to his. We’re kissing and he’s too consumed by me to realize what I’m doing to him. I shove the i’lek’u from the depths of my belly and into his mouth. It’s just not any light - it’s the light of recovery.

  Lario Exgesis rolls off of me to curl into a tight ball. The light is paining him because it’s attacking.

  Adore! Where are you! a desperate voice says in my consciousness as I leap up to stand on my feet and race toward the Scepter of Gant.

  “Cl’auta!” I call out loud as I desperately grasp the rod with my hands.

  She appears on the opposite side of me. I’m extremely relieved to see her. She has encased me and she’s not alone - the Selell Baron Ze Feldis now stands beside her. They both glare at Lario Exgesis who’s scooting toward us, still fighting the agony.

  “Are you on Earth?” I quickly ask her.

  “Yes, we are but where are we now?” Cl’auta replies; she looks terribly confused.

  “This is Ol. And has the sun returned to Earth?” I ask in a rush.

  “Yes, it has.”

  I’m gripped by a grave feeling. Suddenly the floor shakes violently under my feet. I lift off the ground. I am still unable to hear any sound outside of this room but I can see Na’ta, Telman and even Chex still fighting.