by Kae Bell
Aglaje stared up into the night. It had been a long journey and it looked like it was not yet over. She asked, “This ‘Star freak’. What’s its name?”
“Hyko. He goes by Hyko,” Flo said, sticking her pencil in her streaky blond hair.
Slumped down in his seat, Per glared at Flo.
“Thank you.” Aglaje pressed something cold and hard into Flo’s weathered hand, then hurried to the door.
Flo stared down at the odd rusty coin. She stuck it in her pocket and went back to work.
Chapter 5
Slowing from light speed, Hyko landed on a high rocky plateau that sat alone in space. The plateau was circular and about the size of roundabout. The sky was a brilliant blue overhead but all along the horizon, the blue faded to black. Black tendrils led the advance of night.
Hyko surveyed the plateau, which was empty, save for loose stones and space debris. A satellite from a distant planet had crashed there many years before and it lay in a mangled metal mess nearby.
Certain it was safe, Hyko unfurled the fronds of gaseous light in which he’d wrapped Wrangler and the Princess during the long journey. His passengers, slightly dazed by the journey, stepped forward.
Wrangler took off his hat, swatted it a couple times against his silver trousers and placed it back on his head, adjusting the hat’s angle. He let out a yelp, which made Princess Cressida jump in surprise and put her hand over her heart.
“Yowwee! Hyko, you never disappoint! What a ride! I haven’t had a thrill like that since I hitchhiked on Haley’s comet before it all burnt out.”
Hyko had dimmed his light to a faint blue glow and he brightened at the acknowledgement and praise. His black eyes reflected the sky above.
Freed from the confines of Hyko, Princess Cressida blinked up at the blue sky. It reminded her of home and in a wave of homesickness, she stepped back toward the plateau’s edge, kicking a few pebbles over the edge.
“Princess!” Wrangler yelled. Princess Cressida threw herself forward as the stones along the edge gave way to her weight of her feet. She lay still for a moment on the ground, her feet dangling over thin air, then crawled toward Wrangler, where she stood and brushed comet dust from her gown. Wrangler placed a hand lightly on Cressida’s shoulder then a moment later removed it. He stepped to the plateau’s edge and looked over into a black nothingness.
Turning to Hyko, he said, “The sky, I’ve never seen anything like it. What is this place?”
“This is The Kempt. It’s at the end of Breach, the divide between our world and the realm of the Dark Spectrum,” Hyko said.
“None of those sissy traders will follow us here. So we should be OK.”
“Yes. But you are on your own. This is as far as I can go. It's dangerous for me even to be here,” Hyko added.
Wrangler gave Hyko a half salute, half wave. “Understood. Well, again, we sure ‘preciate the save. You stay safe. Say ‘hi’ to your Momma for me.” Wrangler Zav winked at Hyko, a twinkle in his eye.
Hyko nodded, his light brightening to a blinding brilliance as he prepared to leave.
Princess Cressida watched in awe as Hyko, now a column of white fire, lifted up from the ground. Among the sparks and flames that twisted off in abandon, Cressida could see Hyko’s eyes smiling at her. In the next heartbeat, he was gone, arcing across the blue sky toward the black horizon, leaving a trail of light.
Wrangler and Princess Cressida stared after him.
“Wrangler, I’ve never met anyone like Hyko before. Who, or What, is he?”
Wrangler watched the sky. The black horizon was still creeping upward, swallowing the blue. Troubling. Wrangler turned at Princess Cressida’s question.
“That Hyko he’s a hoot, ain’t he? He’s what some people call a Hybrid. But the proper name for his kind is Astra Hominid. He’s half star, half human.”
“How on earth does THAT happen?” Princess crossed her arms and stared back at him, skeptical.
Wrangler tipped his hat. “Very careful-like. His mother was a real trail burner, a wild one. I had to rassle her back into place more than once. Seems one warm summer night, she took a liking to some handsome gent who made a wish upon her and well…Hyko was the result.”
Wrangler sighed. “But we have no time for such tales right now. We gotta get through the Breach.”
“Seems like we're more exposed than ever out here. Was this a good idea?” she asked.
“This was our best option, Princess. Them traders from Igneous will be looking for us. All their friends will be looking for us. For that Night Spectrum, worth a whole load of coinage. And we’re not exactly inconspicuous, so this place was our best bet,” Wrangler Zav said. “Only a damn fool will look in the Breach.”
“No one is looking here YET,” Princess Cressida corrected and crossed her arms. “But what about later, when they don’t find us anywhere else. I’m sure some enterprising trader will take a chance out here - none of those men seemed the fearful type. What do we do when they come this way? Not much out here, I’m guessing, only a few places to look. And here we are, stuck on this rock like a sore thumb. No Blaise, no Hyko to help us escape this time.”
Wrangler waggled his head in frustration. Women, he thought.
“We’re not stuck anywhere, with that silver bauble you got in your carpet bag.”
“The Night Prism? How can that possibly help us?”
“It’ll help us get off this rock, as you say.”
“And go where?”
“To see the Dark Spectrum.”
“You cannot be serious. Honestly, your ideas seem to go from bad to worse. We can’t just waltz into the Lair of the Dark Spectrum and expect to have an audience with him.”
“I agree. We’re not gonna waltz. We’re gonna sneak.” Wrangler scrunched up his nose, clearly looking forward to the prospect of a good sneaking.
“Sneak in…How?”
“Through the Night Prism.”
“That sounds crazy. And not just a little crazy but full-blown crazy.”
“If you'd prefer to wait for the Igneous traders and their friends, when they come a callin’ - and you’re right, they will - be my guest. By now, there's sure to be a mighty bounty on our heads.”
Princess Cressida rummaged around in her bag as if looking for her house keys. She came up empty. She shrugged, defeated. “Fine. We’ll do it your way.”
Wrangler Zav smiled and swatted his knee. “All righty then. Take out that there Night Prism and let’s see what we’ve got to work with.”
Princess Cressida reached again into her bag, this time to the very bottom, underneath all the other colors she’d collected. She knew the Night Prism now by feel, it was like rough raw silk, heavy and unfinished. She liked the feel of it in her hand. She pulled it forth.
The silver cloud billowed in the light wind, as the material wafted out of the bag. It seemed larger than the Princess remembered. It pulled away. She had to hang on tight to not lose hold of it.
Wrangler Zav admired the waving silvery material. “Don’t let go now. We lose that, we really are sunk.” He nodded, looking it over. “Mmmhmm. That is a fine example of engineering. A bit fancier than the one I’d seen all those years back.”
Princess Cressida held the material up by two ends, to look at it more fully. “It’s just a piece of silvery cloth. I don’t understand all the fuss.”
“Not quite, little lady. Now, watch how I do this and then do exactly what I do. And don’t let go of the Prism. No matter what happens. Even after.”
“After what?”
“You’ll see soon enough.”
Princess Cressida winced. “Will it hurt?” she asked.
“No, ma’am. But it sure will feel different. It’s easier if you don’t fight it.”
With that Wrangler Zav grabbed the Night Prism’s edge with his hands, placed the cloud on the ground and sat down square in its center. Seated, he reached out for each corner and gathered them all over his head.
From inside this life-size dumpling he said, “Grab this here and hang on,” waggling the collected corners.
Princess Cressida stepped forward and took hold of the gathered corners, holding the edges of the Night Prism together with her small hands. The Night Prism seemed to have a mind of its own and it waved and flapped in every direction, pulled by the call of other places and other names.
In a moment, the cloud’s edges had seamed together. Princess Cressida could no longer see Wrangler Zav inside. The cloud changed color, first a dark red, then black as night. It billowed from the inside as if wracked by an internal storm.
Princess Cressida held fast to the collected corners. She heard a surprised “Ahhhhaa” from Wrangler Zav and then nothing. The silver cloud expanded as if inhaling. The Princess could barely hold fast to its edges as it stretched farther and farther outward. Then it collapsed with a rapid exhale. The material lay limp in Cressida’s hands. She shook it. It was empty. Wrangler Zav was gone.
Cressida stood alone on the plateau. What light there had been was gone. She stood in the darkness. She took one deep breath and then another, building up courage.
Wrangler had said to do exactly the same. The Princess stood in his footsteps, outlined in silver stardust, and sat down on the Night Prism, wrapping herself in the wispy cloud. She waited.
*******
Princess Cressida had been on a ship once, as a child. It had been a long sea journey and she remembered most of all the rolling movement of the sea, as massive waves passed under the ship’s hull, shifting everything slowly to and fro. Each night, the undulation had rocked her to sleep, the ebb and flow of the ocean’s song.
As she had sat wrapped in the Night Prism, at first nothing had happened. She pulled the material closer. She felt it faintly at first, a foreign pulsing in her body that grew stronger with every passing second. Her heartbeat, that familiar corporeal sound, faded in volume as this other beat grew stronger.
Princess Cressida tried to find the source of the pulsing but realized it was everywhere she was. It was her skin that was pulsing, as if it were the skin of a beating drum, not the skin on her body. The sound grew louder still.
Then, it was not only her skin that was pulsing. It was her cells, sounding out a rhythmic beat. The cells in her bones and muscles, her blood and lymph, every cell in her body, polarized somehow by the Night Prism, the electrons shifting back and forth, back and forth, a rhythmic music.
Princess Cressida stopped fighting the pulsating rhythm and gave her body over to the Night Prism.
All of her that was living lifted through the Night Prism, her muscles and bones broken down into the resonance of ionic bonds, ever moving, electrons singing as they whirred in an endless circle. She was transported to the realm of the Dark Spectrum. No longer a Princess, but a song.
Chapter 6
It moved in slow easy waves, like the sea, rolling to the edges of the Confine. When it hit an edge of the infinite wall, it would turn, without hesitation, in the other direction, like a caged lion.
“8675309-eee-ine…”
“Why why, tell ‘em that it’s human nature, why, why?”
“Ninety-nine dreams I have had and everyone a red balloon. It’s all over and I’m standing pretty…”
A guard interrupted. “Your Excellency. Please pardon my intrusion. You said to come as soon as there was news. There has been a sighting of the Night Prism.”
“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt,” came the Dark Spectrum’s reply.
“Sir, the Star Wrangler brought a woman, a Princess, to the Igneous bar. She revealed the Night Prism in her satchel.”
“There is no terror in a bang, only in the anticipation of it,” said the Dark Spectrum.
“No, your Excellency. No one acquired it from her. Wrangler and the Princess escaped with the help of a Hybrid star.”
There was a long silence, during which the guard waited. He was anxious. He had heard that guards had been destroyed when they reported bad news to the Dark Spectrum. He pressed against the wall.
Finally, the Dark Spectrum replied: “Mother, did you have to build it SO high?”
The guard nodded and continued. “We don’t know sir, where they have gone. We do know that Star Wrangler has successfully used a Night Prism in the past.”
The guard waited for instructions. Then he heard:
“The night is calling, I have to go. The wolf is hungry, he runs the show. He's licking his lips, he's ready to win. On the hunt tonight for love at first sting…Here I am…Rock you like a hurricane…Here I am…Rock you like a hurricane…111000010001010001010001010000101111000…”
The guard turned and hurried away, relieved not to be punished for the bad news he had delivered. He needed to find the others and warn them. He had never heard the Dark Spectrum so angry.
*******
Chapter 7
Igneous was nearly empty. The traders had drunk their fill and returned to the Star Plume to ply their trade. Dim blue light shone from gas lamps lining the slate walls. Usually starlight lit the bar, but no more.
Flo collected glasses and cups from the bar, wiping the bar top with a dirty rag as she moved from one end to the other. She skirted around an overturned chair and headed to the back, her hands and arms full of dirty glassware.
Per stuck his foot out from his table as she walked by, nearly tripping her. She stopped in time, but one shot glass flew from her grip, smashing to the floor with a crash. Per spoke, his voice low with anger and want.
“Wrangler didn’t even know that girl had the Night Prism, did he? But he knew one was liberated. That’s why he was here, wasn’t it. Who was it told Wrangler about the Night Prism?”
Flo gave him a sour look. She was tired of Per and his brusque ways. But not many places would hire a woman like her. She adjusted the load in her arms. Amber liquid dribbled out of one half-empty glass, down her forearm. She nodded her head toward the bar, directing Per’s attention to a lone trader sitting in the shadows at the far end of the empty bar, slumped over, his head on the stone, snoring softly. Several empty glasses lined up along his head.
Per scowled. “Breen? What would he know about the Night Prism? He’s useless. Look at him, he’s addicted to Carbon Tablets.”
“I only know what I know,” Flo said, stepping over Per’s legs and continuing to the back.
Per lifted his significant weight from the metal chair, which creaked as he stood, and lumbered to the bar. He was a wide man, with a strong taste for sugar freight. A wide forehead and large dark eyes gave him an air of foreboding, which helped to keep the peace among the drunken Traders.
Reaching the bar, Per grabbed Breen by his not-insignificant shoulder and shook him awake.
“Wake up, you addict. What do you know about the Night Prism? How did that lady get a hold of it?”
Breen stopped snoring and he snuffled his discontent at the unexpected disturbance. His eyes squeezed more tightly shut. He’d been dreaming of naked flying Princesses and did not want to leave them unattended for even a moment. He tried to pull his cowl over his head but Per grabbed his hand and shook him again.
“Fool, wake up or this is the last time you drink in my bar.”
His face still flat against the bar, Breen opened his eyes to stare sideways at Per. Seeing Per’s glowering face above him, never a good sign on waking, Breen lifted his head. His eyes were bloodshot, his pupils wide from the Carbon Tablets he’d washed down with the several punches he had consumed. He cradled his head in his hands, his long dirty locks entwined in his thick fingers.
Breen mumbled something and Per, increasingly irritated, barked, “Speak up!”
Breen repeated, more clearly this time. “I had it, I had in my hands. Slippery little suckers, those…”
Per stepped backed. “YOU had the Night Prism? I don’t believe you.”
Breen blinked a few times, wiped his bleary eyes, and reached slowly into his ins
ide coat pocket. He felt around for a moment and pulled out a small metal snuff box, which he opened and held out.
Per peered at the contents. Inside, pinned to the bottom of the box, was frayed piece of silvery fabric, the length of a man’s pinkie finger. The fabric twisted and turned against the pin.
Per looked up at Breen, his scowl gone, a small but respectful grin in its place.
“You realize what someone would have paid for that? Where’d you find it?”
“Down the Liquid Mines.”
“Hmmm.” Doubt had crept onto Per’s face again, his eyebrows high, as if he might ask a question. But instead he stepped forward and studied the tin again. The proof was right there, the captured fabric scintillating, even in low light. He looked up at Breen.
“That’s not your regular route, is it? That’s Grainer’s territory. You better hope he doesn’t find out. What were you doing way over there?”
“I was doing a job.”
“What job would that be? Poaching another trader’s pieces?”
Breen shook his head defensively. “Someone asked me to stand guard. Watch and listen, they told me. Paid me upfront in Coin. Wasn’t doing nothing wrong.” The last sentence trailed off in mumbling. Breen was accustomed to being accused of wrong-doing.
“Watching and listening for what?” Per squinted, his eyes honing in on Breen’s mouth, which puckered and unpuckered grotesquely even when Breen was not speaking. Per winced as Breen licked his lips.
“Anyone or anything. Wasn’t no one supposed to be there. It was closed off, like, at the top. I had to climb down on this long metal ladder hammered into the stone. At the bottom, it was real quiet, just a lot of brush and even a few trees. I was alone down there. Hadn’t really thought about it, how dull it would be just to sit around. Nothing happening. So boring, watching and waiting. It was torture, after a while, all that sitting. I got to hoping something would happen. Make me feel like I earned that money. Anyway, in the end, no one came and no one went. But they’d told me, wait until someone comes to let you go. Like I said, they paid me upfront and I’m a man of my word, unlike a lot of traders out there. They knew my name, too, so I couldn’t walk off the job. I’m responsible you know.”