New Light

by Ben Johnston

  Christopher’s eyes went wide as well. “How’s that for luck, Spark!” He looked at the young scholar, giving a quick chuckle. “The goldenlight compass is pointing to the city.”

  Chapter 19

  As Tom and Christopher headed into the city of Naamu, the first part of Naamu to greet them was a grand walking bridge that ran over a deep valley and a narrow sparkling river. Above the chasm, the great and wide bridge carried thousands of people on its right and left sides, all of them walking, or riding animals, or else in their own little personal transport vehicles. Christopher and Tom sat in a hovering tram riding down the center of the bridge.

  Once inside the city walls, the tram slowed to walking pace. People were weaving in-between the trams now, moving towards the main street and central avenue of the city. Finally their transport reached a large open pavillion where other trams were turning around, dropping off their passengers, and so Tom and Christopher got out and merged into the foot traffic.

  Under the hot sun, the wide, main street was a seething mass of people - a sea of heads. Tom was below the surface, seeing mostly shoulders and the sides of people’s faces. He held the compass tightly in his hand, Christopher right behind him. Tom found a planter box and climbed up on it to stand next to some kids. He looked at his compass again, then in the direction it was mostly pointing.

  “Something’s interfering with the compass. Did the compass do that when you used it on your expedition?”

  Christopher shook his head. “No. It pointed true.” He scratched his growing stubble. “Maybe it has something to do with all the artifacts and stuff that people are selling around here.” He looked around, waving a gesture over the seething surface of heads, hairstyles, and hats. Tom stared out at the stands and tents jutting up from that incredible crowd, like volcanic islands rising out of a strange, multicolored ocean.

  Tom looked down at the compass arrow. “It’s bouncing around. That way occasionally.” Tom pointed backward. “But mostly there.” He pointed forward, over the heads of the dense crowd.

  Delighted screams and squeals punctuated the humming excitement around them. In the direction Tom was pointing, Christopher saw the wide dome of a building. Like an enormous moon, it rose from the sea of people.

  Tom squinted up at the bright blue sky and the burning sun, wiping sweat from his brow. “Why is it so hot here!”

  They pushed through the crowd, making their way towards the low and massive, domed building, until they arrived standing before its wide entryways. Wisps of cool air seethed out.

  Christopher gazed up at the big structure. “Looks like a convention center.”

  Tom’s eyes fluttered as a stream of cool air flowed out of the shaded, wide entryway to gently caress his sweating, hot face.

  Leaving the bright crowds and burning humidity behind, the archeologist and the scholar walked into the cool space of the convention center. The massive floor was scattered with artifacts displayed on tables, in booths, on shelves, or protected pedestals. Although the air was cooler inside, the noise was louder. Passing by fanfares, laughing, shouting, arguing, they followed the compass, navigating down the crowded aisles like fish down a colorful network of streams, weaving through the rivers of people until they arrived in the middle of the great, domed space.

  Here in the center, was a stage where a man stood speaking into a horn-shaped device that was mounted on a stand. His voice boomed out over the crowd surrounding the stage, echoing through the dome.

  “And Vectus' next item up for bid, the incredible, rare jewel and stone collection of the late Demison Gray, the former owner and sole proprietor of the Collector Gray corporation. He was known widely as the King of the Ruin.”

  Christopher looked at the stage in disbelief. “The King of the Ruin. Sparky, that’s the shard who took the sunstone from me.”

  Tom looked up from the compass in his hand at the stage. “And there’s the stone, Doctor Cernon.”

  On the stage, next to the auctioneer, was the goldenlight sunstone. It sat there, inert, in a box lined with black velvet, while the other stones and jewelry displayed alongside it sparkled and glowed.

  “We’ll start the bidding at one hundred thousand light units.”

  Christopher held up his hand. “One hundred thousand!”

  “Thirteen million!” Christopher sat down, looking around with wild eyes.

  The auctioneer’s voice boomed out. “That’s thirteen million for this fine collection. Do I hear fourteen million? Thirteen, going once.”

  The nervous archeologist turned to the young scholar sitting next to him. “That escalated quickly. Do we have any more units, Sparky?”

  The man on the stage boomed out the going price. “Thirteen million going twice…”

  “Thirteen million is everything, Doctor Cernon.”

  A shrill voice from the back of the crowd sounded-out. “Fourteen million!”

  Tom and Christopher twisted around in their seats. Standing in the back of the crowd was a tall and thin man with dark hair and bulgy eyes. Positioned next to the tall man was a gleaming, ornate hover chair cradling an impressively rotund man adorned in jewels.

  “We have a bid of fourteen million. Do I hear fifteen? Fifteen anyone, for this rare and magnificent collection?”

  “Going once.”

  Tom and Christopher clenched their teeth.

  “Are you sure that’s all we have?”

  “Doctor Cernon, that’s including the ship. That’s everything.”

  Going twice.

  A sheen of sweat started to bead on their brows.

  “Don’t we have anything else? I mean, we can’t sell the compass, that’s a secret School artifact.”

  “Doctor Cernon, what do we do?”

  “And sold, to his lordship, the baron.”

  Christopher and Tom watched as the oddly-shaped baron was presented with the collection. The Baron rubbed his hands together before grabbing away the collection of stones from the person handing it to him. He immediately took out the sunstone with his plump fingers.

  “Is this the sunstone?”

  His gangly servant bowed. “Yes, Baron, your majesty.”

  “Why doesn’t it shine? Like the sun!”

  “Sunstones don’t shine by themselves, Baron. I have heard that they may shine if held in sunlight.”

  “Oh, that sounds exciting.” The Baron bounced up and down in his hover seat while making an awful squealing noise. “Shall we try!”

  The Baron then swiftly glided past the many bystanders surrounding him, carelessly bumping a few aside as he hovered away in his floating chair towards the building’s brightly warm exit. His faithful servant sprinted awkwardly after him.

  Christopher and Tom followed the Baron out of the cool space into the burning, humid air of the bright jungle day. A circle of curious eyes had already formed around the Baron as he sat in his hovering seat holding the sunstone up to the sky.

  The Baron looked up at the sunstone in his pudgy hand, squinting.

  His face sagged. “I don’t see anything.”

  He paused. “It is pretty, though. Truly. But I was hoping to see the sunstone do something, anything.”

  The fat man narrowed his eyes as he drew the stone fractionally closer to his face. “Wait, I think I see something. I think it’s lighting up.”

  Suddenly there was a bright flash and the Baron and his servant were thrown back, the Baron rolling out of his overturned hover chair, coming to rest atop his servant. The gangly servant appeared to be having trouble breathing, his eyes bulging as his master’s great body pressed down upon him, rocking back and forth as the fat man tried to roll over.

  Next to the flailing Baron and the servant beneath him, Christopher and Tom saw a girl. She crouched, smiling, holding the sunstone. In another flash of blinding lemon light, the girl and the sunstone were gone.

  Chapter 20

  Wearing a wide grin, Anniya sailed up and away from the gasps and startled shouts of the
bright crowded street below. She rose through the hot air, stepping onto a high rooftop where with a raspberry flash she sprinted off again at high speed. Flash after flash she leapt from rooftop to rooftop, throwing herself sailing over wide crowded streets and avenues.

  As she skipped over the rooftops, the hot noon sun beat down onto Anniya. In the middle of a long leap as she wiped her brow midair, she glanced to her left at the great central building of the entire city. It threw a massive shadow.

  Landing on a messy roof, Anniya looked to her right and Seeing Spirit sitting there, paused for a moment. The little fox glimmered in the burning sunlight. He tilted his head and raised an eyebrow.

  Breathing heavily, a sheen of sweat gleaming in the bright daylight, Anniya nodded her head at the giant building. “Shade, Spirit.” Then she flashed, sailing away, drops of sweat sparkling as they beaded-off her face into the air behind her.

  Mid-air, as the blinding sun became eclipsed by the great building, Anniya passed into the relative cool of its shade. She landed, threw back her hood, and wiped the sweat from her brow. Now in its cool shadow, She gazed up at the great outer wall of the massive building. “Spirit, what is that place?”

  Spirit looked up at the dark presence. “That is the Naamu Grand Colosseum, Anniya. “The stage for the Golden Tournament.”

  Anniya took out a canteen. “Golden Tournament, what’s that?”

  Spirit continued to stare up at the wall. “A bloodsport tournament in which only the last one standing will win.”

  Anniya lowered her brows over a frown. “Last one standing.” She shook her head. “Sounds Vectan to me.” She joined Spirit in staring-up at the big wall. “They call that a death match, right?”

  The fox looked at Anniya.“A battle royale, technically.”

  Anniya made a sour face. “How many people are in there, Spirit?” She put her thumb on her canteen’s cap. The canteen cap vanished instantly.

  Spirit looked back at the colosseum wall. “There are two hundred thousand people inside.” He looked at Anniya. “The premier of Vectus himself is present.”

  Wide-eyed, Anniya scrunched her face. “Wow. The Vectan emperor.” She scratched her head. “Must be a pretty important tournament.”

  She put the canteen to her lips and drank some water as she stared at the big wall, then turned and leaned back against a rooftop structure. Opening her hand, she peered at the goldenlight sunstone. “So, sunstones don’t glow. That’s kind of boring.” The sunstone sat there in her palm, inert. She held the stone out to the shiny fox. “What kind of light is in this thing, Spirit?”

  Spirit’s eyes sparkled as he peered at the stone. He tilted his head. “Anniya, I do not know.”

  She looked at Spirit, surprised. “Really? Why not?”

  Spirit tilted his head, his eyes glowing with an early sunset light. “A sunstone holds its light until used.” Spirit’s eyes faded and shifted color until they returned to their usual soft indigo. He turned his head to look at Anniya. “You will have to use the sunstone. You will need to draw out its light before it can be seen what kind of light it is.”

  She stared intently at the sunstone, her hazel eyes narrow. “Use it? Should I just plug it into my air conditioner?” She looked up. “Will that work?”

  Spirit did not answer.

  “Spirit?”

  Anniya’s eyes narrowed at the same moment her chest suddenly glowed with a crosshatch pattern of light. The instant the grid of light shined on her, it materialized into a restrictive metallic webbing, fixing her to the wall and holding her arms against her sides.

  The scholars appeared out of a doorway, stepping onto the roof. Christopher turned to Tom. “See, Bright Guy. She’s fine. I told you the net-projector’s safe.”

  The unshaven man in the long, weatherbeaten jacket smiled at Anniya. He held up his hands. “Don’t panic, Miss. We’re not armed.”

  Christopher tossed aside the short-barreled device he was holding. It slid clattering across the rooftop. “We’re not going to hurt you. We just need that sunstone and then we’ll let you go.”

  Christopher gestured between himself and Tom who was looking uncertain. “We’re from the School of the Union.” He smiled widely. “We’re friendly!”

  Anniya gave them a high smile and a hard squint. “Friendly.” She looked down at the red wrapping around her arms and chest. “What a friendly greeting.”

  Suddenly the red, metal webbing restraining her dissolved into a fine dust.

  Tom’s mouth fell open. “Doc! She just dissolved the net!”

  Christopher’s eyebrows drew together over his wide eyes. “How did you do that!”

  Anniya looked up at them and smiled. “The same way I do this.”

  She crouched and with her left and right hand respectively flashed a hand sign at Christopher and Tom. Then in a burst of citrine light, Anniya flew high and far away, sailing over the densely packed street in a slow backwards flip towards a two-storey building that was built into the arena wall.

  With a burst of canary light, she landed softly and silently on the worn wooden rooftop, and when her misty bloom of yellow light faded-away, she fell a gentle inch, softly crushing the rickety wood beneath her feet, causing the roof to violently collapse.

  Back across the street, standing on a solid, cement, rooftop, Tom and Christopher stared, confused as they watched Anniya fall through the roof of the building that hugged the base of the wall of the arena. Tom looked at Christopher. “I think that’s an animal pen.”

  Falling through darkness, anniya flailed, the wood debris falling with her glowing with random little, desperate flashes of light. “Where’s the flecking ground! I need to flash the ground!” She and the remains of the roof came crashing down to form a large pile in the center of a large cage.

  In the dimly-lit space, the debris pile blew apart in a hot burst of light, pieces of flaring wood flying out in all directions. Anniya rose out from the center, dusting herself off. She gazed around the dimly illuminated space. She appeared to be in half-circle cage, one side a wall. As she was making sense of where she was her attention became drawn to another pile of rubble that was starting to shift and rise. With widening eyes she observed, rising up from the rubble, a massive, pitch-black tiger.

  Her eyes went wide as the big, dark cat growled, lifting its tremendous, dark form out of the rubble. Suddenly, with a chest-shaking roar, the cat’s fur turned silver-peacock-colored as it leapt at Anniya. The silvery cat flew through a burst of light as Anniya threw herself to the side, out of its path.

  Without hesitation the big, shiny cat wheeled around and leapt again at Anniya, it’s huge front paws extended out in front of it, black claws out. Again, Anniya flashed a bright apple-red flash, dodging the huge cat’s attack.

  This time, after flinging herself to the side, Anniya found herself with her back against the walled part of the cage. The cat turned around a bit slower this time, then crouched, ready to pounce.

  Anniya prepared herself for the next attack, before the wall against her back suddenly gave way. She spared the wall behind her a quick glance. It was not a wall, it was a gate. The moment she glanced at it, the wall-gate swung-up, opening to the bright outside. She bolted out of the dark cage, ducking under it as it was swinging-up, and sprinted out into the hot daylight. Moments later, the giant silver cat shot out, chasing her.

  “Help! Somebody! I’ve got a fracted Namoonian mirror tiger chasing me! I didn’t even know they were real!” Wildly, Anniya looked around as she ran, seeing a massive crowd. She looked down at the dusty floor beneath her feet. She was inside the colosseum .

  Still sprinting, Anniya looked behind her to see the gleaming tiger gaining on her. She returned to looking forward just in time to slam into a house-sized boulder that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. She fell to the ground.

  She spun around on the ground to see the tiger take a final bound before it was going to leap on her, before a water-blue bolt of light suddenly imp
acted into the tiger. This resulted in a bright flash followed by the tiger rolling off to the side before coming to rest, motionless. The huge animal’s fur changed slowly from silvery-rainbow back to the matte-black it had been before.

  Looking away from the non-moving animal, Anniya’s eyes went wide when with a messy burst of gritty white light, she threw herself to the ground onto her back facing the sky. She watched as a mirrored blade of an ochre metal sword passed over her face.

  With her left hand and a flash, she pushed off the ground while at the same time a glassy cone of silvery light formed around her right hand. She accelerated her the cone of silvery light around her fist up to the flat face of the sword’s blade, punching through the blade with a deafening, crack of a boom. The blade snapped in half, its middle exploding in an upward shower of rainbow sparks.

  Christopher and Tom rushed down from the rooftop and headed towards one of the big side gates of the arena. Using a little device he held in his hand, Christopher pushed through the crowd as people around him yelped and shouted about being stung by unseen insects. The crowd was growing convinced that there must be ants or bees around here.

  Taking advantage of the perturbation, in short order, with the crowd making efforts to escape the stings of the unseen insects that was Christopher’s device. Tom and Christopher managed to push and shove all the way up to one of the big side gates.

  Christopher looked out over the portion of the arena floor he could see. “There’s a lot of lightmakers in there, Sparky. He turned to the young scholar, his mouth a diagonal line. “It’s the golden tournament battle royale, Sparky. It’s a fight to the death.”

  Chapter 21

  Anniya stared up at the skyward shower of rainbow sparks from the sword her fist had just exploded. She then looked at her attacker, his back facing her.

  A stocky, bald man in loose-fitting clothes, he stared at the broken blade in his hand. Tossing it aside, he turned to her, bringing his rough face and broad nose into view. “Where did you get a device that can project a shieldlight field like that?”