“But I’d like to go deeper than that, if I may. Investigate what happened in the build up to the mission, Mister Tucker. Who knows what clues we might find in those last precious hours you spent with Lord Truth before you left, eh?”
“Sure,” Tucker said, pointing to the two chairs by the mixing desk.
“And, Knight Six, perhaps afterwards?” Jon Way asked.
Six nodded tentatively.
Tucker sat opposite the magician and watched as he unhooked his spectacles. The apprentice had only met Jon Way a few times, and he’d certainly never seen him without his glasses. The magician’s eyes were pale, like a bleached grey sweater, white streaks beating a path towards his pupils. Caught in their spell, Tucker felt his own eyelids dropping before the magician’s thoughts washed over his mind like waves tumbling onto a seashore, words popping like bubbles in the salty air: “Just relax, just relax.”
The tide drew out, then in, out, then in, his breath accommodating its movements. Finally the waves withdrew to reveal his memories below them. Tucker dived in.
He landed in the middle of a parade.
It was the carnival to celebrate the beginning of their mission. The whole city had come out to see them off, a brass band following them from the castle through the streets of Albion. Everywhere he looked, Tucker saw smiling faces, his ears filled with the fanfare, people cheering, their banners raised and shouting:
“Long live Lord Truth! Long live Lord Truth!”
“Simon Starr – our Shepherd, our Saviour!”
“Save us Lord Truth! Save us!”
They had slept in the castle following a party in Lord Truth and his knight’s honour. Simon Starr – his original name – had been written above the great halls in sparkling crystal lights. But the event had done nothing to quell the city’s appetite for its hero.
“Don’t ever leave us Lord Truth! We love you Lord Truth!”
“Our Shepherd, our Saviour! Our Shepherd, our Saviour!”
They see him as an angel, a marvel or a God, Tucker thought. Chumps.
“Don’t let us down, you knights. You protect Mister Starr, you hear!”
The other Knights of Truth dawdled, waving and laughing with the crowd. They were all so full of themselves, Tucker thought, but even his cynicism was softened by the people’s fervour, his pride swelling as he walked at the back of the procession.
“Our Shepherd, our Saviour! Our Shepherd, our Saviour!”
“God bless you, you knights!”
Tucker could just make out Lord Truth’s tall frame at the front of the cavalcade. Flowers rained down on him as they passed the hospital and the old Salvino Hotel, young men already punching the air in victory, young girls blowing kisses. He pulled one of them aside and kissed her back lovingly on the lips.
“Long live Lord Truth, long live our Saviour!” the crowd screamed.
Carol Lee, Captain of the Kings Guards, stood waiting for them at the gates to the knights’ compound. Tucker grinned but she didn’t seem to notice him. She just stared at Lord Truth - Simon Starr, the Shepherd, the Saviour, the pain in Tucker’s arse.
I wonder if she’s sleeping with him again? Tucker thought as Lord Truth strolled past her and into the barracks, without even a glance. Guess not then.
Carol used to be their sergeant and Tucker wished she was still with them. Her face looked weary as she closed the gates behind them, locking herself and the people out of the small fort.
“Man, that was cool. Those guys LOVE me!” Knight Five started, her green eyes beaming below her thick blonde hair.
“And those ladies, they ALL wanna piece of me, I’m telling ya.” Knight Four pointed at his hulking frame.
“God knows there’s enough of you to go around,” Knight Three, shorter than all the others and with brown fluffy hair, replied under his breath as they sauntered through the courtyard.
Tucker chuckled. Knight Three - Eddie Stobbart - was Tucker’s closest friend besides Six. Not that that was saying very much. Tucker didn’t have many allies after all.
Knight Two grabbed Tucker in a headlock as they reached the wooden huts that served as the knights’ dormitories. “Yo, apprentice. How about you collect up all our ceremonial gear and go fetch our armour, huh?”
“Yeah, Tucks,” Knight Four bellowed, his shirt and tunic already dumped on the floor, leaving him bare-chested as he struggled to pull off his trousers. “Do your job.”
“Ow! I’m not your bag lady,” Tucker groaned as the wiry Knight Two held him tighter.
“Leave him alone, Two,” was all Eddie could say as he fiddled distractedly with the rucksack on his bunk. “Better do what he says though, Tucks,”
Knight Two released him with a few quick pats to the cheek, his long fringe hiding his eyes. “That’s right slap-prentice,” he chuckled. “You just do what you’re told.”
Tucker rubbed his neck. Just another day in paradise for everyone’s favourite bitch, he thought.
He had just dealt out all their armour and was heading back to the laundry room with an armful of clothes, when Knight One and Six walked past.
“You okay, Tucks?” Six said, catching his eye.
“Fine,” he answered, looking away before she could detect any of his embarrassment and throwing the load through the door.
Knight One was their new sergeant, and already sizing up the others with his deep brown eyes as he stood at the threshold of the boys’ room. “Look at you useless bunch of hicks. To think that our Saviour sought out the best and brightest in Albion, and you’re all we could come up with.”
“I think you’ll find the best and the brightest had already been chosen for those little Seekers, Serge,” Knight Two smiled. “We’re all that was left.”
Knight One shook his head wearily. “Okay, fun’s over people, outside, now,” he ordered as Tucker squeezed past. “Apprentice, why you not suited up yet? Get a move on, boy!”
By the time Tucker had joined the others in the courtyard, swinging his bow and a clasp of arrows over his shoulder, his sergeant was again in full flow. “Now, by the looks of you people, you’re acting like this mission’s a done deal already. Well, I got news for you boys and girls, it ain’t!”
Knight One stood with his hands on his hips on the compound steps. He was darker than Tucker and built like a boxer in his prime. “Besides, don’t you know that it’s exactly when the heroes get all cocky and such, that the bad guys come along and kick their collective butts? Ain’t you ever seen Star Trek?”
Oh my cheesy balls, Tucker smiled, shaking his head. He is such a geek.
“Oh, come on, Serge, what’s there to worry about?” Knight Five flashed her perfect white teeth as she looped her blonde locks through her comms unit. “We get into Parliament, crack open the safe, steal the antidote to the blood plague and get out. It’s a synch as long as Eddie’s got his intel right.”
Tucker stretched his limbs within his white armour. Each of them was wearing the plastic plates over their fatigues with an assortment of breathing apparatus strapped to their heads, their bright chain mail deemed too heavy for the mission.
“It’s right,” Eddie said simply as he clipped his computer pad to the back of his rucksack. They all had specialities. One was tactics, Two was the sharp-shooter, Three technical, Four heavy weapons, Five was the medic, Six was explosives. Tucker was reconnaissance – the scout.
“Don’t worry,” Eddie added, blowing his nose casually. He always had a cold, although he was looking a little more flushed than usual, Tucker thought, as he...
“Hey, Tucks, you good with those blueprints?” Tucker felt a hand clap him on the back and there she was again, Six. She looked beautiful, her crazy facemask hanging around the back of her neck.
“Huh?” was all he could say.
“The maps,” Six smiled, her blue eyes blinking in the sun as she motioned to Tucker’s hands where he was holding the schematics of Parliament Eddie had found.
“Oh, these?” Tucker nodd
ed. “Sure, sure,” he shrugged. “I’m cool.”
Maybe we’re all a bit nervous? he thought. Deep down at least, except maybe her. It was, after all, a mission like no other. A mission that, if successful, could save the world. What was left of it.
“Course you’re cool, Tucks,” she was saying. “You’re always cool. You’re the daddy of cool, you’re the...”
“I said ATTENTION, people!” Knight One barked as Lord Truth walked out onto the steps beside him, having first to duck under the awnings of his office.
Tucker looked up, and up, to see his master’s handsome face, shimmering silver and grey in the sunlight as he towered above them. He seemed to drink them all in, processing them like a super computer from behind his black sunglasses and beneath his tailored suit, before finally he nodded happily.
“At ease, my Knights of Truth,” his voice, like water flowing over gravel, recorded.
“Alright boys and girls let’s get into formation,” Knight One growled as he moved among them. “You know how this goes, we’ve trained for it enough. I want cameras mounted and headsets on, period, okay?”
“Serge, why haven’t we got any guns?” Knight Four was back to complaining as he ran his small camera’s lead through his armour and into the battery pack on his belt.
“I told you before this ain’t an assault mission, it’s strictly recovery. We get the goods, we get out. Weapons and armour light, so it’s swords and shin pads, okay?”
“Honestly, Knight Four,” Lord Truth looked down on them disapprovingly as he twisted gold cufflinks, each printed with the royal crest of Albion, under his pin- striped suit. “Sometimes I wonder whether you actually want to shoot somebody? We are harbingers of peace here, not mercenaries.”
“I’m sorry LT, it’s just I...” Knight Four’s freckles bloomed, his eyes locked on the dirt and sawdust floor.
“It’s alright, Four,” Lord Truth chuckled, raising the lapels of his jacket so they stood flushed against his neck. “I’m only kidding.”
Some of the others laughed as they formed a triangle behind Six, Knight One standing at the back, Tucker languishing alongside him.
Why are they all laughing? That wasn’t funny, he thought. They’re just sucking up to the boss.
“All right, my knights and, of course, our esteemed apprentice,” his master continued as Tucker glowered.
I hate him, I freakin’ hate him. He’s so freakin’ sure of himself, so sophisticated, so powerful and clever, and Six loves him so much. Everybody does. And yet he’s such a jerk!
“We all know why we’re here,” Lord Truth continued. “If you look to your right you will see the portal.”
His congregation turned to see the three steps in the middle of the courtyard, a white door suspended above them. It had been there for days, Jon Way helping Lord Truth calculate their route, scratching symbols and equations into its wooden frame.
“This door will take us to London, to Westminster to be exact, where we believe an antidote to the blood plague was discovered and, with luck,” his face looked momentarily solemn, his chin rigid, “can still be found.” His white hair danced atop his head. “We all know our roles I think, Sergeant?”
Knight One nodded and flashed his big homecoming grin. “You know it, boss. Word up, boys and girls, what’s our job?”
“We are the Knights, the Knights of Truth!” they all roared.
Knight One took a breath, circling his troops one last time. “I don’t hear you. Who are we?”
“We are the Knights, the Knights of Truth!” they all yelled.
“Good. Apprentice, you’re with me. “ Knight One reclaimed his position next to Lord Truth and Tucker followed, taking a moment to glance at Six one more time. She was running point on this mission, which pretty much made her second in command, and her face looked about as excited as Tucker had ever seen it.
“All right, my knights,” Lord Truth pushed the knot of his black tie higher up the neck of his crisp white shirt. “Let’s go.”
Tucker and the knights filed towards the door and, back in the broadcast tower, he felt his memories retreating, his thoughts swimming in and out with the tide of quickening breath, to Parliament and the bomb, and...
“Just relax, just relax,” John Way’s words echoed once more around his mind as the magician released him.
Tucker opened his eyes, his heart thumping so hard he could feel it beating against his t-shirt. “You know the rest,” he gasped.
“Yes, Mister Tucker, I do, and I thank you,” Jon Way breathed deeply. “That was very illuminating.”
Tucker looked away, his mind laced with guilt. That’s it? That’s all he wanted to know? That I hated Lord Truth?
But the magician had already turned to Six. She blushed almost immediately. “You know I can’t remember. I’m sorry, I just don’t see the point in this,” she started.
“Please, Knight Six,” Jon Way insisted. “There are no rights and wrongs here. If you would just open up your mind to me I may be able to dislodge those memories that seem lost.” The sorcerer unclasped his hands and beckoned her to the chair Tucker had just vacated. “Or, I may not.”
Hesitantly, Six nodded and sat before closing her eyes, her cheeks still pink and her bottom lip trembling. Tucker watched as Jon Way lowered his head, his palms flat against the table.
“Just relax,” he repeated.
Tucker ground his teeth. I wonder what he’ll see? he thought, what she’ll let him see? Will she tell him how much she loved him, our dead Saviour?
For a moment he was angry, even jealous, that the magician could be party to the thoughts of his best friend when he was not. He stared at her, her face already calmer, her chest rising in long, full breaths. He then turned back to her interrogator whose eyeballs seemed to be racing back and forth under the veils of his eyelids.
Is that a good thing? Tucker wondered as beads of sweat began forming at the magician’s brow, his fingers pressing harder and harder into the desk until it’s veneer began to...
“No,” the magician said with a grunt as his eyes flew open, “I’m sorry.”
Jon Way quickly reached for his glasses and fixed them to his face. “I cannot penetrate your mind. Something, something is...” but then he paused and smiled warmly. Tucker looked across to Six who was already standing with her arms folded, as if protecting herself.
“I’m sure when you’re feeling better, Knight Six, your memories will surface,” the magician recovered himself, reaching his feet. “Perhaps, right now, your emotions are just too raw to be read.”
Six nodded. “I’m so sorry.”
“No, no,” Jon Way grasped his jacket. “It is I who should apologise. I have pried too much into memories that are already too distressing to share. Thank you, thank you both for your help. I have learned a great deal.”
Tucker found himself squirming as he spoke. He watched as the peregrine falcon drifted past their window again, its eyes seemingly trained on them.
“Maybe soon I’ll remember?” Six was saying.
“Of course, of course you will. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must return to the castle,” Jon Way nodded politely.
He was halfway down the first flight of stairs before he looked back, his expression strained. “You know, Lord Truth, though many called him their Saviour, I called him my friend. I shall miss him greatly.”
“Thanks,” Six sniffed uneasily.
“Well I don’t miss him and now he freaking knows it,” Tucker said finally when he was sure the magician had gone. “I thought Lord Truth was a...”
It was then he noticed Six slipping something from her clenched fist into her jeans pocket. “Hey, what’s that?” he asked.
“What’s what?” she turned from him.
“Was that a crystal?”
“What?”
“A crystal, they dampen his powers don’t they, the red ones I mean? At least that’s what I heard.”
Six’s back was unusually straight. “I
don’t know what you’re talking about Tucks.”
“Yes you do,” Tucker rounded on her. “You were holding it the whole time, weren’t you? That’s why he couldn’t read your mind, isn’t it?”
Six shook her head, fuming as she walked away. “Shut up, Tucker, you just shut up right now!”
“You lied! You do remember what happened,” Tucker was incredulous. “You’ve known all along.”
“I can’t, Tucker, honestly I can’t. I...”
But Tucker sprang towards her, kicking over his chair and grabbing his sword before pointing the blade at her throat.
“Tell me what happened,” he demanded. “Tell me!”
Chapter Seven
NEON LEFT the bitter breeze of the city behind her and embraced the warmth of the farm’s enormous biodomes. The little girl closed her magenta eyes to stop the bright colours of the new vista burning yellows and greens into her retinas and ran to a nearby pear tree. There, hiding in its shade, she hung her coat on a knotted branch and breathed in the sweet scent of grass and flowers, before plunging into the heat.
It was springtime on this side of the farm. Autumn was waning outside of it but here birds sang with the joy of new awakenings and plants swelled under the gaze of ten thousand suns. Before her father had discovered the crystals the plastic-covered spheres had managed difficult harvests. Since their introduction, strapped to every diamond-point of the massive greenhouses’ steel frames, the farm had flourished.
Neon soon disappeared under acres of corn. She skipped through golden ears, swinging Brian the teddy bear cautiously from his good arm. The poor toy had suffered much during the earlier confrontation and tufts of stuffing still wept from his armpit. But Neon was happy. The blades of wheat and barley always cheered her, especially when the world outside was as dark as it had been today.
It had taken her a long while to recover from her duel with the other Seekers. Kids, the 11-year-old princess decided, could be cruel. Not to mention silly. Still, after an hour or so of shuffled glances and embarrassed looks she had caved in to their demands and stopped sulking. Besides, who could stay angry when there were so many games to play?
The Last Days Page 5