Michael could see a circular opening on the ground ahead of them and frowned. Ty’ere had pushed him down this slide when they were kids once, and he couldn’t recall it being a very fun ride.
Ty’ere had come up on the dark hole first and then disappeared into the blackness.
“Oh, hell...” Michael’s stomach dropped when Lennie shot into the hole after Ty’ere. He screamed at the top of his lungs as they flew through the dark tunnel, and it felt as if his body weight was going to pull Lennie off of the board, but he failed to realize that that wasn’t possible. The metal on the bottom of his boots became magnetic to the boards when they were in positions such as this one.
Lennie laughed over Michael’s screaming with tears building in the corner of his eyes. “You scream like a woman!”
“Shut it!” Michael screamed. He could hear Ty’ere laughing ahead of them.
Lennie curved along with the tunnel, memorizing its twists and turns. It was the best escape route, so they were taught to remember its lefts and rights.
The tunnel went up, and then dropped right back down towards the end. Michael was relieved that he could see the moonlight on the other end, but then his stomach turned when Lennie started spiraling.
“Lennie! Stop...stop this!” Michael grunted.
Lennie laughed all the way out of the tunnel and stopped next to Ty’ere who was stepping off of his board.
“You think they’ll follow us through there?” Lennie asked.
“Nah, the Knights are too scared to come to this part of the quarter. Too many rebels,” Ty’ere chuckled.
Michael stepped off of the board and then pushed Lennie off of it. “You know I hate that,” he laughed.
Lennie grabbed his board and clicked it against the holster on his back. “I think you truly enjoyed it at heart.”
Michael shook his head and clutched onto his bag of crystals.
“Don’t let anyone know about those crystals my friend,” Ty’ere warned. “They’ll take your life to get their hands on one of those.”
“I’m fully aware of that. I’m going to head to the blacksmith first thing in the morning,” Michael yawned, rubbing that back of his neck.
Lennie laughed, “The blacksmith might try to kill you too.”
Ty’ere slipped his gun back into its holster. “Alright boys, I’m heading home. You two better do the same.” He started walking down the road.
Lennie’s staff shifted back into a green ball, then he slipped it deep into his pocket and headed for the bar with Michael following behind him.
Michael couldn’t wait until tomorrow.
~*~
Michael woke up early the next morning. He threw on his sheer black long sleeved shirt and black pants, then he pulled his necklace out to hang against his chest. People knew that fighting Michael for this crystal was a bad idea because he had made it a point that he would hurt anyone who ever tried to take it from him. Even though he had no memory of ever meeting the Princess, he still felt attached to the little rock. He felt like it was special for some reason, besides the fact that it could make him filthy rich.
Michael ran out of his room and down the stairs to the bar. As usual, Lennie made it downstairs before him to eat breakfast, and most likely ate Michael’s share. Michael stepped up behind Lennie and pulled at one of his pointy ears.
“Ah!” Lennie pulled away.
“That’s for flipping around on the board last night.” He sat down at the bar next to Lennie.
“Shhh, someone might hear you,” Lennie whispered.
“Someone might hear what?” Tayen slid Michael a bowl of soup mixed with meats and vegetables with a slight smile on her face.
Michael swallowed and slid his spoon into his soup, and Lennie just stared into his bowl. Everyone knew that when Tayen smiled like that, she was angry about something, and she was the last person that you would ever want mad at you. For five years Tayen and Joctus raised Michael, Lennie, and Ty’ere as their own, so in a way Michael saw her as an older sister. The thing with having sisters though, was that one could tell when their sister was upset, and Michael knew that Tayen wasn’t as happy as she looked.
“Oh, umm nothing,” Michael shrugged with a forced smile.
Tayen sighed and rested both of her hands on top of the bar. At twenty-five years old her appearance hadn’t changed. The only thing that changed was her kind attitude. Tayen was a kind and loving person, but she turned hard when she had to. It was hard to raise three boys at such a young age, and now that they were growing into men they felt as if they could do what they wanted. She always had to make sure that they still knew who the boss was. Even if she had to throw them across the room to prove it.
Lennie was actually starting to sweat next to Michael. He hoped that Tayen didn’t think he had any part in grabbing the jewels and that she only suspected Michael. There was no way that he was going to survive another one of her electric punches.
Tayen looked from Michael to Lennie, then sighed again. She knew all about what happened last night. Michael had been talking about a crystal staff for a while now, so this was no surprise. She was angry about him going behind her back after she told him not to, but then again, this was something that he would be doing soon anyways. Besides, he would suffer the consequences later on tonight, so why even bother throttling him across the room?
“Ok,” Tayen smiled. “Well, you finish your soup and go get your weapon made. You’ll need it for the initiation tonight.”
Michael and Lennie looked up with wide eyes. She wasn’t going to beat them both to a pulp?
“My initiation, I didn’t forget. Where will the meeting be?” Michael asked.
“Here. Under the bar. Meet us at nightfall,” Tayen instructed.
Michael tried to hide his excitement and quickly finished his soup. He jumped off of the stool and rushed out of the bar, almost knocking Ty’ere to the ground on his way out.
Michael jogged down the busy street for the market. Right now he was where most of the living quarters were built, but soon, after he made a few left and right turns, he would be in the open market.
When he was thirteen, this city was new to him. He was fascinated by the different people that walked around with their pointy ears and different colored skins. His favorite kinds of people were the ones with squinty eyes and silky black hair. They weren’t a common race that he saw in his world, but he remembered people like that being called Asians. Here, they didn’t have a label. No color had a label. It was their status that branded them.
Raluza was separated into quarters. It was a rule put into place a month after Lavier became king. The rich lived with the rich, and the poor lived with the poor; only, the poor were separated into three quarters, while the rich were separated into two. Depending on which quarter you were born in, that’s where you remained for the rest of your life. One way you could escape that lifestyle was by marrying a man or woman with a higher social status. The other way was to get your hands on a crystal, but those were almost impossible to find. King Lavier gave an announcement saying that this was to keep the peace among his people, but it was really just to get rid of those who opposed him.
Some people didn’t agree with Lavier’s decision to join the war between the North and South Kingdoms. Sure, they had strong warriors, and were the strongest out of the other two Kingdoms, but they didn’t have enough people. Sons, husbands, uncles, and brothers were sent out to fight in the war with very little training and experience. In turn, many of them died. Once Lavier was aware that there were people who were rebelling against his rule, he decided to separate them from those who followed him.
To keep those few followers he chose not to kill the rebels, but to simply send them away. It would’ve looked bad on his end if all the rebels were exterminated, so instead he had walls built in between the quarters, and anyone who stood against him, or even so much as mentioned standing against him, were sent to the lower quarters. There was the Ruq, the Ponz, and the Zext q
uarter. Then there were the richer quarters named Zyla and Gem.
The Ruq Quarter was closer to the Zyla Quarter, while the Zext Quarter was pushed towards the outer wall. The Zext Quarter was the last place that anyone ever wanted to be sent to. It was easier for Lavier to send rebels there than to hold them in captivity. He had more enemies than one could count, and killing them all would look wrong to his peace-loving followers, so he sent them to the lowest quarter. It was the only poor quarter that was cut off from the others, and one that proved impossible to escape.
Michael and his friends settled in the Ponz Quarter, where they voluntarily moved from the Ruq Quarter because there were too many Knights patrolling the grounds, and the organization needed more privacy. Michael had only seen the Zyla Quarter a few times and admired the fresh cut green grass, and beautiful cabin homes. He, Ty’ere, and Lennie would sneak in sometimes to walk around at night. He had yet to see the Gem quarter, which surrounded the Palace, but he would soon. The organization always sent a squad into the Gem quarter to take fresh water, medication, and other much needed items.
Michael was almost to the open market, which was located right before the entrance of the Ruq Quarter. He didn’t like venturing into that quarter anymore because his status was known by a few people that recognized him from when he lived there, and some Ruq’s would give him dirty looks. It reminded him of his days back on earth with his family, and he didn’t want to experience feeling lower than anyone else ever again. Ruqs were still poor anyways! He never understood how they could look down their noses at him.
He stopped running when he made it to the open market. This area was even busier with Ruq and Ponz people than where he had just come from. Zylas rarely ever visited the lower quarters, but when they really wanted something that wasn’t sold in the Zyla market, they would come here. The Gems had no reason to ever travel outside their quarter. They had more than they even deserved. Being the King’s favorites had its perks.
Michael clutched onto his pocket with the crystals inside and made his way over to the stand that the blacksmith was running. The older man behind the stand was talking to a Ruq customer. He could tell because of the customer’s accent. Ruqs sounded a little different from the Ponzes. More proper, or at least they tried to sound that way.
The customer nodded to the blacksmith and then walked away. Michael walked up with his hand still clutching over his pocket, tightly.
“Hello young man, what can I get you today?” The blacksmith asked. He was a pale old man with a snow colored beard and tired light brown eyes.
“I need a custom staff made today,” Michael said confidently.
“Ahh, a custom staff? You one of the young fighters around here?”
“S-omething like that.”
“Well, good luck on them fights. They’re dangerous. My son used to fight to help put food on the table. Someone knocked his knee out of place and now he can barely walk,” the blacksmith said, shaking his head.
Michael sucked his lips in. It was a sad story, but he didn’t care. He didn’t come here to talk about depressing matters. Besides, he was going to make the old man happy in a few minutes anyways.
“So, what would you like?” The blacksmith asked.
“Well, I want a black metal spark staff,” Michael reached into his pocket and pulled out two crystals. “With these mixed in.”
The blacksmith’s eyes widened as he looked down into Michael’s hand. He looked up at Michael, and then back at the crystals.
Michael snatched his hand away, “Well, don’t cause a scene.” He leaned over the stand. “I’ll give you two of these. It’s more than enough to feed your family. You could even get into the Zyla Quarter. All I need is for you to break down the rest and make my staff with them.”
The blacksmith stood up straight with a wide grin splayed across his face, “So, you want a black metal spark staff? You do know that the crystals will lower the voltage right? You’ll only get a small shock out of it.”
Michael chuckled, “That’s all I need. I’m not looking to kill anyone.”
“Well, it’s a deal young man. This will be the best darned staff you ever seen.”
Michael reached into his pocket for the rest of the crystals and handed them over to the blacksmith. “I’m counting on it.”
Chapter 5
Three hours had passed since the blacksmith started the staff. Michael wasn’t going to leave him alone with the crystals until it was finished. This process didn’t take as long as it took to make a sword. Michael didn’t know exactly how staffs were made, but they barely took half a day.
The blacksmith walked back to the front of the stand with Michael’s staff in hand. He held it with a towel so not to burn his fingers from the steaming metal. “So, what do you think?” He asked.
Michael looked down at the staff with his mouth hanging open. It was black with traces of electricity traveling up and down the pole. The crystals that were used were embedded all over the staff and pointed out in all directions.
“I’m taking it that you like it,” the blacksmith chuckled. “I even made you out a leather handle in the middle. It’ll be easier to use that way.”
Michael slowly grabbed the staff by the handle and held it out in front of him. He could see his blurry reflection in the pole. “Thank you.”
“Ah, no problem.” The blacksmith wiped his hands with the towel. “Just press that button on the handle and—”
Michael spotted the small black button on the top of the handle and pressed it. The staff shot inwards and formed into a little green ball like the one that Lennie had used last night.
“Welp, there you go. Do you need anything else son?” The blacksmith asked.
“No,” Michael shook his head as he stared down at the green ball. He had finally snapped out of his daze and stuffed the ball down into his pocket. “Thank you again.” He turned to run back for the bar, but slammed his face into something hard and stepped back.
Michael frowned and looked up at what he had run into, or who he’d run into. A Knight. And it was the flat metal plate on the Knight’s chest that his face smashed into.
“Watch where you’re—” the Knight stopped talking.
Michael’s eyes widened. It was one of the Knights from last night. The one he ran at, but didn’t get the chance to fight because Lennie knocked him out.
“You,” the Knight frowned.
Michael scratched the back of his head with a goofy smile on his face, “I’m sorry, have we met?”
“You’re—”
“Yeah, I knew we didn’t know each other,” Michael dismissed as he stepped passed the Knight, then passed a few other Knights. “It was nice meeting you though.” Michael quickly walked away from the Knight and power-walked down the brick road. He began to feel safe as he got a little further out of their reach, but as soon as the Knights turned around to run after him, his safe feeling melted away. Now he was on the run.
Michael cut to his left and sprinted down the brick road. The Knights weren’t very far behind, but he was still confident that they weren’t going to catch him. The Knights that patrolled the Ruq and Ponz grounds weren’t as in shape or as dangerous as the ones that patrolled around the Zyla quarter. There were a few that could sometimes keep up with Michael, and possibly even match him in a fight, but he had never been caught and was happy with the crappy security.
“Excuse me!” He ran through a smaller market that was packed with merchants and customers. Around this time of day, everyone was out and about selling their goods, or buying what they needed. “Sorry!” He jumped out of the way of a tall man with large muscles and veins popping out everywhere but his face. He ran around a few more people, then sprinted through the opening that was left open for him.
“Get that boy!” The head Knight yelled. He had his gun out and didn’t care what filthy Ponz he shot in the process. He ran into the tall vein popping man and dropped to the ground like he was the one that had just been run into.<
br />
“Watch where you’re going!” The Knight yelled as he was helped back to his feet.
The man slowly raised his chin, “You ran into me sir.”
The Knight was intimidated by this warrior, but he didn’t want to show any fear in front of the younger Knights. He also didn’t want to lose Michael, so he took a deep breath, growled, and continued to chase after him.
Michael looked back to see two younger Knights behind him. Their leader must’ve fallen behind. By now he had a clear pathway ahead of him, since the people caught on to what was going on. They only left an opening for Michael, making it difficult for the Knights to get through.
Once he made it through the market, he ran down the rest of the street only to freeze in an intersection. He didn’t know whether to go left or right, and the Knights were now free of the crowd. He was going to have to make a decision fast.
“Shoot!” As soon as Michael heard shots coming from their guns he sprinted to his right. He thought about testing out his new staff on the Knights, but he didn’t want to risk being captured. He didn’t know what he would do if they sent him to the Zext quarter, which was rumored to be a slave quarter. No way was he going back into slavery.
Michael looked back again to see that the Knights were falling back. He was finally losing them, or so he thought. The Knights behind him slowed to a stop, so Michael stopped as well and watched them. He thought that they had just given up, but he was wrong. They just came up with a plan B: to use their air boards instead of running.
“Oh, no...” Michael blasted into a sprint and could almost hear the muscles in his calves screaming at him. He trained a lot for fighting, but he didn’t do too much running, and now he regretted it. His lungs burned as if they were set on fire, and his legs were telling him to stop. The only motivation he had to continue running was the fear of being sent to the Zext quarter.
He was grateful that there was another crowd of people up ahead of him. That would at least make it a little difficult for the Knights to point him out. They had the advantage of being able to move faster by flying, but hopefully it would be hard for them to pin point him.
Aveena: The City of Gold (The Black Knight duology Book 1) Page 5