by Ben Johnston
Anniya flashed a violent blood-red burst, bringing her to stand instantly above Jennifer before the man had even looked back from where she had just been standing. His sword came down as Anniya held up her clenched fist holding the sunstone, her eyes glowing with a pure white light.
The golden sword struck her fist holding the goldenlight sunstone, blade first.
A wave of light so bright it was also void black temporarily blinded the entire stadium. The entire city experienced this sudden blinding blink as well, every citizen at home, every single attendant of the faire, gasping in shock as they experienced the sudden phenomenon of light and darkness.
Then it was gone.
The goldenlight sword was spinning in the air. The man was flying up and away from Anniya who was still holding her fist in the air above her, her eyes still gleaming.
Her eyes flashed back to normal. All was incredibly silent.
The ringing, spinning sword fell into the dusty ground tip-first, sinking to its hilt in front of Anniya. A moment later there was a dull, thick sound like a big bag full of heavy clothes had been thrown off a roof as the man’s body struck the ground.
Anniya blinked as she opened her fist to glimpse at the sunstone she held therein.
The silence was then shattered by the roaring return of the crowd erupting in a deafening cacophony of riotous, joyful cheering and amazed shouting, mixed with cries and wails of despair.
Chapter 22
Giving the goldenlight sunstone a squeeze, Anniya pocketed it. Then, glancing down, she stooped and grasped the golden sword by the hilt, pulling it from the ground. She held the sword in front of her face, staring at her honey-colored reflection in its mirrored blade.
Mixed chants roared from the crowd. “Finish him! Finish him! Finish her! Finish her!”
An incredibly loud voice rang out above the noise.
“New champion! End the challengers and take your place at the side of the great and magnificent premier of the grand Vectan Empire.”
Anniya stood, turning, looking for the source of the voice. Glancing at the sword in her hand, she tossed it aside and shouted to the crowd. “I don’t want to win! I just want to go home!”
She bent down over Jennifer lying on the ground. “And this is my splinting friend.”
The dome of shield above glimmered, then vanished.
Anniya stood, giving a quick survey of her surroundings.
As though sinking instantly in quicksand, all the piles of boulders and rubble around the arena floor sank into the ground. Only Anniya with Jennifer at her feet and the huge unconscious champion bunched-up a short distance away remained.
In a circle around the three of them, hundreds of guards in shiny blue metallic armor rose from out of the ground, their tall helmets glinting hotly in the sun.
A few guards stepped forward, grabbing Jennifer’s unconscious body to drag her away.
A cover of glassy light flashed over Anniya’s fist. “Where are you taking her!”
A guard, a head taller than the rest, stepped forward. On the chestplate of his cobalt armor, a spectrum of bejeweled medals sprayed colorful speckled reflections of sunlight as he addressed Anniya.
“Champion. You have spared the lives of this fighter.” He motioned to Jennifer being placed onto a stretcher. He then swung his armored glove towards the strong man with dark hair lying crumpled on the ground
“And of the former champion. He will be returned to his home.”
The resplendent guard continued his address to Anniya as he looked back to Jennifer..
“The first fighter is, however, a traitor. She was fighting in this tournament for her freedom. Yet since her life now belongs to you, great Champion, she will not be executed.” He motioned to Jennifer who was being floated-away on a comfortable-looking white gurney.
He smiled through the opening in his faceplate at Anniya with what appeared to be genuine warmth. “And you, goldmaker! Legendary Champion! You will certainly have the favor of our great leader!”
The head guard turned toward the crowd. He was met with massive roar of wails, cries, cheers, and shouting, as he saluted a grand booth far up in the stadium seating.
Anniya looked at where the big guard was saluting. “So I belong to him, now?”
The guard dropped his salute then turned to her, a curious look on his face. “All lightmakers belong to Vectus, Champion.” He tilted his helmeted head. “Where in Vectus are you from?”
Anniya’s eyes made their way to her feet, her head following them down. “I’m not from Vectus. I’m from here. I’m from Namoon.”
The guard's eyebrows drew together. “Champion, why did you enter the tournament if not to win the favor of the Premier and Vectus?”
Anniya closed her eyes, shaking her head weakly. “I didn’t.”
She held out her hand towards the wall.
“I fell through…”
She tried to continue, then stopped and dropped her hand.
“Nevermind…”
From the stands, the pulsing, chaotic crowd surged out of their seats to spill-out onto the arena floor. In a riot they crashed against the arena barriers, climbing over each other, then tumbling over the edge to fall upon each other and rush past the thousands of security guards towards the center of the floor, and Anniya. The guards surrounding Anniya drew up their bluemetal spears as they formed a circle, ready to slice through the mob. From the high upper rim of the colosseum, hundreds of flashes launched additional vectan troops flying through the air to land in the center of the arena floor where, boltslingers aimed and glowing red, they formed a protective ring around the guards already encircling Anniya.
Outside the stadium, Tom worked his way through the crowd to Christopher who was standing by one of the great grated gates. The curly-haired scholar shoved his way in next to the archeologist. “Did you see that, Doctor Cernon!?”
Christopher looked distracted. “Yeah Spark, I think most of the universe saw it.”
Tom hopped up, trying to see over the heads in front of him. “That was goldenlight! And that flash!” He hopped up again. “That was shadowlight.”
Christopher blinked. “Yeah. I know.” He put his hand on Tom’s shoulder, stopping the young scholar’s jumping. He looked at Tom. “I was there.”
Tom blinked thoughtfully. “So what now?”
Christopher gazed out through the gate, across the growing riot on the dusty floor of the arena. “Nothing.” He shook his head and looked down. “Game over, man.”
Tom frowned. “But what about the sunstone? What about the Golden Girl?”
Christopher glanced at Tom with a raised eyebrow. “Golden Girl?”
Tom shook his head slightly. “Whatever you want to call her.”
Christopher turned away from Tom to gaze out at commotion on the arena floor. “Your Golden Girl is property of the Vectan Premier. She gets to be the universe’s most pampered slave.”
A look of horror passed over Tom's face. “A slave!?”
Christopher shrugged. “This is Vectus, Spark. Even as a slave, since she belongs to the Premier, she’ll earn more light units than a thousand maximum-wagers in the Union. Which is great, if you don’t care about having any freedoms or rights.”
Tom thought for a moment then looked at Christopher. “What if I told you that I think I have a way to get the goldenlight sunstone and save the Golden Girl too?”
Christopher looked at Tom with one eyebrow raised and the other lowered.
“I would assume that you must have one blindingly glinty master plan, then, Mister Bright Guy.”
Tom blinked rapidly, his mouth tilted. “I have something, but it’s less of a plan and more of a prank.”
Chapter 23
Christopher drew back confused. “A prank?”
Tom bit his lip. “Just this thing I did when I was younger. The first time by accident, and then one other time to slip out of class. But for a place this size.” Tom looked through the gate at the massiv
e colosseum.
“I’m gonna need to use my banned invention.”
Christopher dropped his eyebrows at Tom. “Banned invention?”
Tom glanced at Christopher, then to his bag where he withdrew an iridescent green sheet. He held it out for Christopher to see.
“These are called autosheets. When I created them, they consumed all the light units in the research department. The entire budget.”
The young scholar drew in a breath, staring at the shimmering sheet. “And at the same time, I also crashed a computron, setting back countless other research projects by decades.”
Tom’s mouth was a line. “So the School Device Board banned my sheets. He looked down. “Then, they banned me from the research department for a year.” He gave a slow shake of his curly-haired head. “They were pretty upset.”
Christopher patted the young scholar on the back. “Look on the bright side, you don’t have to worry about upsetting anyone around here.” He looked up over the crowd, watching as more and more spilled out from the stadium seating onto the arena floor. “Everybody’s already upset. I’ll bet millions of trillions of light units were just lost to bets. I mean, our girl wasn’t even supposed to be in the fracted thing, and she won, so nobody won but the house.”
The crowd around them here outside the gate was starting to shove and complain. “I think that what we have to worry about right now is getting crushed by an angry mob of a million.”
Christopher looked back down at Tom to see him scrawling complex sigils and patterns onto the shiny green sheet. Tom then suddenly ripped the sheet in half, each half instantly becoming a pair of jet-black glasses. He held out one pair to Christopher.
“Here. Put these on.”
“Opaque black glasses? What are these?”
“They’re important. Put them on.”
Christopher donned the pure-black shades then looked around, surprised. “Hey, I can see through these, no problem.”
“That’s the idea,” Tom donned his own pair of black shades. “Now watch this.”
From his bag, Tom withdrew another green foil sheet. “This is the final autosheet.”
The young scholar turned his black-shades to face Christopher. “The research department’s supply budget only made four sheets.”
Chrisopher’s eyes went wide. “Wait. You used-up the research department’s entire supply budget?”
Tom looked back at the sheet. “This is going to be an expensive prank.”
Christopher blinked. “If you made four sheets, and you’re using the last two right now. What did you use the first two for?”
Tom turned back to Christopher, raising an eyebrow above his black shades.“That goldenlight compass you used on your expedition and the goldenlight photometer we used in my uncle’s office. I made those devices with the first two autosheets.”
Christopher frowned. “So you didn’t actually invent either one of those? You didn’t make the compass or the photometer? Instead you’re telling me that you invented something that made them for you?”
Being lightly jostled by the crowd, Tom shrugged.
The scruffy archeologist scratched the long stubble on his face. “Pretty clever, actually.”
The young, curly-haired man gazed at the final autosheet in his hand. “Pretty expensive, actually.”
Taking in a deep breath, Tom brought the shiny green sheet close to his mouth. He whispered something unheard above the crowd’s chaotic cacophony. Then, after the sheet gave a single faint pulse of light, Tom began to fold the sheet, once down the middle, then two triangular folds followed by two more triangular folds over those.
Christopher smiled, furrowing one eyebrow and raising the other. “Are you folding a paper airplane?”
Tom finished folding and brought up the little shiny airplane in his hand. “A billion-unit paper plane.”
He drew in a deep breath. “And here goes every unit.”
Tom hopped up, drew back his arm, then threw the shiny, green paper airplane.
The little folded plane flew swiftly, flitting straight through an opening in the gate’s wide grating to zip over the riot on the arena floor. Many looked up, watching the glimmering metal-paper airplane as it cruised smoothly and swiftly over their heads. It flew straight and true, right to the center of the vast crowded floor, directly to the center of the circle of guards around Anniya. Then it stopped exactly above her.
She looked up, as did the large guard with the grand armada of multicolored medals on his armored chest, at the curious little airplane.
Suddenly, everyone in the stadium saw only sheer white.
The gigantic colosseum, the entire structure, appeared to have instantly been enveloped in a huge, pure-white, featureless dome, no shading, no shadowing. The crowd’s former angry roaring, riotous sound jolted up sharply in volume and intensity, changing into terrified screams, fearful yelling, and wails of horror.
Those who were standing outside the colosseum, gathered on the hard edge of this great dome of pure white, marveling. Toying with the phenomenon, some kids poked-in their heads in amazement at the total white blindness it created. “It’s even white when your eyes are closed!” The kids were startled as two figures wearing black glasses suddenly dashed by them into the big wall of sheer whiteness.
Around them as Christopher and Tom ran, people were panicking, flailing around at the unexplained, spontaneous white-blindness. Tom shouted to Christopher as they pushed aside blindly-wandering people, leaping over others rolling around on the ground.
“Doctor Cernon, we’ve only got a short window before this all vanishes! The last time I made a whiteout, it lasted long enough to get out of Mrs. Wellington’s class. But that was a single light unit and a microprojector. I have no idea how long we have here.”
Christopher shoved aside a flailing man as he ran. “Then we better hope we find her quickly!”
At that exact moment, Christopher was shoved to the ground as Anniya flew by, two dark circular patches floating in front of her eyes. As she sailed past them, Tom shouted. “Hey, Golden Girl! Wait for us! We’re rescuing you!”
Anniya slid to a stop and swung around. “It’s you!” She stomped towards the two scholars who had so recently bound her to a wall with a metal net.
Christopher scrambled to his feet, holding up his hands, smiling. “We’re rescuing you!”
Anniya glared at them, then looked around. “So you did all this?” She motioned at everything and all the people flailing blindly. “You got some neat toys.”
“I’m the one who made this one!” Tom smiled proudly before turning to gaze at the thousands of crying, terrified and angry people all around. His smile fell as he scratched the back of his head. “I mean. It’s just temporary, and nobody should be hurt.”
A woman stumbled past them with wide unseeing eyes, one arm outstretched, one hand covering her nose which appeared to be bleeding.
Tom’s bottom lip stretched out. “Nobody should be, uh, badly hurt.”
The black discs in front of Anniya’s eyes followed the bloody-nosed woman as she shambled by. “Sure.” She looked at Tom. “Everybody looks super as a sunbeam.”
Turning away from Tom, Anniya glanced around. “So you guys really did all this, then.” She nodded slowly, her mouth an upside down U. “Impressive.”
Her brows fell behind the black discs in front of her eyes. Her mouth went to the side. “OK.” She turned and pointed at them. “You guys are shiny.”
She hooked her thumb over her shoulder. “Meet me outside. In the jungle. We’ll talk there.”
Then, in a tattered flash, she was gone.
Tom shouted at the same moment she flashed away. “You want to meet outside? Where!?”
Chapter 24
In the jungle outside the city, coated and dripping with sweat, the archeologist and the young scholar emerged from the sticky overgrowth, panting. The forest canopy was thick, blocking so much of the afternoon sunlight that it felt like a hot, d
amp evening in the little clearing.
Tom looked around at the muggy, dim jungle. “Should we try to send her a signal or something?”
Wiping his forehead, Christopher flicked his hand at the ground. “No. We don’t want to draw any attention.”
Tom let out a humid sigh, wiping his own forehead, his eyes scrunched tight. “Then how is she supposed to find us?”
Anniya answered from behind. “By looking.”
With startled shouts, Tom and Christopher flew back, Christopher spinning around and drawing his boltslinger, aiming it at Anniya.
“Is it Union custom to say hello by pointing weapons at people?”
“Oh, it’s you!” Christopher dropped his boltslinger with an apologetic smile. “Sorry. Reflex.” He holstered the slinger.
Anniya’s eyes went to the holster, then fixed back on Christopher. “Why do you want this so badly?” She held up the goldenlight sunstone.
Christopher pulled his gaze away from the sunstone to look Anniya directly in the eyes. “It belongs in a museum.”
Anniya was obviously unimpressed.
“We’ll pay you for it. Five million units, right now.”
Her face dropped. “Units? You think I can turn-in unit vouchers?” She shook her head. “I can’t be seen again. I have to vanish into this fracted, ruinous jungle, and this time for good. I’m never coming out again. And I need this sunstone to power my air conditioning.”
Christopher’s mouth opened like a bubble popping.
Tom slapped one hand to his forehead and with his other pointed at the sunstone in Anniya’s hand. “Air conditioning!?” His eyebrows climbed, pulling his eyes open wide. “That’s a goldenlight sunstone!”
Anniya looked at the sunstone. Blinked. “Whatever light, I don’t care. As long as it powers my house.”
Tom cleared his throat. “Let me explain. The School needs that sunstone so that we can learn how to make goldenlight, because…”
Anniya tossed the stone up and down in her hand. “Go on. You need to learn how to make goldenlight. Because?”