by Ben Johnston
Tom clenched his jaw and looked at Christopher.
Christopher blinked a few times, then looked at Anniya. “I’m gonna be base plane honest with you, Miss Sparkles. You need to leave more than we need that stone. You need to get off this planet right now and come with us to the Union.”
Anniya stared at Christopher, her lids low, her mouth a line. “Leave? Are you kidding? I'm not going to leave Namoon. This is my home, dude.”
“This is not your home any more. By tomorrow morning these skies are going to be swarming with sensor ships flown in from Vectus. They’ll be scanning every bit of the planet for structures, looking for you. They might not get you tomorrow, but Vectus is relentless. Eventually, they will find you. Come with us to the Union. We’ll get you into the School, and we’ll get you a new home. But we have to leave now.”
Anniya frowned, rubbing the back of her neck as Christopher spoke. “Flecking.” She looked up at the sky, then turned around, pacing back and forth. “Fracted.” She punched the air with her fists, then crouched down and squatted there, her head in her hands, back to Christopher and Tom.
Tom stared at her for a few breaths before turning to Christopher with a whisper. “Doctor Cernon, what is she doing?”
Anniya stood. “I’m fine.” She turned to face them. “You’re right. I know. I’m no dimmy. I have to leave with you. But before we leave, fly me to my house first so I can get my stuff.”
She tossed the sunstone to Christopher. “Here’s the Sunstone. In exchange for that, you get me off this shattered shard of a planet and away from those evil Vectan jerks.”
Christopher gripped the sunstone in his fist, flashing her a bright smile. “You’ve got yourself a deal, young lady! Now, let’s get out of here.”
Anniya pulled on her hood. “I’ll meet you guys at your ship.”
Tom tilted his head. “Wait. How are you going to…”
With a flash, Anniya vanished into the jungle.
Tom finished. “Find our ship?” He turned to Christopher. “Doctor Cernon, How is she going to find our ship?”
Christopher looked at the sunstone in his hand, then at the dense jungle into which Anniya had bolted away. “Don’t know, Spark. But that one’s full of surprises.” He tossed the sunstone up, then caught it. “Honestly, I have the craziest luck.” He pocketed it beneath his jacket, securely inside his vest.
“Let’s get back to the ship.”
Sitting at the top of their space yacht’s side ramp, Tom rested his drooping head on a tripod of thumb and fingers. “What is taking her so long?”
Christopher, leaning in the open hatchway, looked at the late afternoon sun growing low in the sky. Cool air wafted out from inside the air conditioned interior of the yacht. “We gotta leave before nightfall. I’m betting the Vectan sensor fleet is gonna be here by morning.” He looked at the sunstone in his hand. “We’re gonna wait a little bit longer, but honestly Spark,” Christopher put the sunstone back in his vest, “deal or no deal, we gotta get going soon.”
They saw another spacecraft being inspected by roaming Vectan security forces. Christopher stood up straight from his lean. “Time’s up.” He looked away, over and out past the shiny spacecraft all around them, to the hills of dense Jungle. “Sorry Miss Champion.”
Christopher slammed down into the pilot’s seat then reached over his head, raking whole rows of switches at once. “No time for a system’s scan or check. We’re gonna fast-track our way out of here.” Almost every panel switch and button shined bright red and numerous alarm bells rang as he pounded his fist down on the main panel and then yanked back on a long silvery handle.
Anniya was standing behind them. “Good! Let’s get out of here.”
Tom jumped, surprised. Christopher had his boltslinger aimed at her. Anniya stared ahead out the front window.
Christopher tossed his slinger onto the console and returned his attention to the controls. “You gotta stop doing that, Sparkles.” He shoved the throttle forward.
Tom reached out to Anniya’s crumpled hood and plucked away a small broken twig. He looked at the small twig, then at her. “How did you get in here?My name’s Tom, by the way.” He dropped the branch, bowed slightly, then held out his hand.
Anniya looked at Tom’s hand, then at him. “I’m Anniya.” Raising one eyebrow, she gave Tom a quick side glance. “Also known as, the Shadow?”
Tom furrowed his brow. “The what?”
Anniya huffed. “The Shadow. It’s a person.”
Tom blinked.
Anniya shook her head. “Whatever. It’s not important. Take me to my house so I can get my stuff, please.”
As their ship flew away from the big landing plain of sparkling ships and the tan city of Naamu, Anniya stared out the side windows, her eyes wide and shimmering. She looked back to Christopher who was concentrating on flying and Tom who was still staring at her.
“I. I thank you both, greatly.” She stood, turned and began to walk to exit the flight deck of the yacht, pausing in the entryway, her back to Tom and Christopher. “I couldn't have gotten out of there on my own.”
Tom watched Anniya. He saw her jaw clench before walking away. He went over and took the copilot seat next to Christopher. “Doctor Cernon, we just saved her, but she seems upset.”
“Upset?” Rolling his head in his seat, Christopher stared at Tom with scrunched eyebrows. “Yeah, sparky.” He nodded slightly as he spoke. “I mean, you know, after being forced to fight in a deadly tournament and then thinking she was going to be a slave. She might be upset.”
Tom blinked, then looked down, his face reddening.
Chapter 25
Although the whiteout phenomenon had ended some time before, in and around the colosseum, the crowds remained noisy and disrupted from the dome of white-blindness that had so recently engulfed them. Jonas strode, boots pounding the floor in a purposeful approach towards premier Rechter. He jogged smartly up a short, wide stair, and as he saw the premier, raised his head and voice.
“Great Leader, I advise that all spacecraft be halted from leaving Namoon, immediately.”
The premier, sitting on his throne surrounded by a huddle of individuals, glared at Jonas.
One of the huddle, a tall slender man with silver grey hair, closed his eyes and smiled in Jonas’ direction before turning back to the premier.
“Dearest Leader, perhaps if this were a military operation, halting spacecraft from leaving the planet would be valid. But politically it would be.”
The silver advisor smiled another smile. “Unwise, your greatness. Vectus would not want to restrict the movements of the nobles and national officials at her tournament, Your Grace, especially over an incident like this which, from the perspective of the empire, could be considered.” He turned his permanent fake smile to Jonas. “Rather minor.”
The other huddled advisors mumbled their agreements.
Jonas leveled his eyes as green as a snake in the sunlight at the tall, silver-haired man. “Minor incident, you say.” He turned to the premier. “Your Eminence, this is not a simple matter of some escaped slave. That person, the Champion, made goldenlight and.” He glanced at the other advisors.
Jonas then focused his sharp gaze on the premier. “And something else.”
The hard-faced premier’s polar blue eyes froze on Jonas. Blinked once.
The young advisor clenched his clean jaw, and stood up straight. “Whatever it was, my Premier, that person MADE it. And my reports say that she had help in her escape. Possibly Union help. Something is going on.”
The huddle of other advisors stared at Jonas in his rare outburst.
The premier spoke. “Chair Advisor Apolas, do not be foolish. Do you think I fail to understand the rarity of that person? You are mistaken if you think that I do not recognize these unusual circumstances. You have your purpose, Advisor. And you have A purpose.
“The purpose of this tournament is greater than your purpose or you.”
Rechte
r swept his gaze across the other advisors. “It is greater than any of you.”
He stared back at Jonas. “The purpose of this tournament is my purpose, to give this verdant planet to a lord, to bring attention and value to this galaxy of no power suns. To show and grow the strength and power of Vectus.”
Jonas said no more.
The Premier turned to the other advisors, shouting. “That is not to say that I do not want that person. I want the Champion! And you will get her for me.” He threw his hand at them. “And you will do it now! Go!”
The huddle of advisors, minus Jonas whom Rechter ordered to stay, spun around and scattered away.
Once alone, the premier turned to the advisor. “Tell me of the Union involvement.”
Jonas nodded as he bowed. “Yes, Premier. Two Union citizens. They were seen with the girl, the Champion, when she robbed a baron. We haven’t actually seen her with them, but we’re tracking their spacecraft at a distance. The Union citizens are still on the planet. I have received a few other interesting leads, but this Union one caught my attention, Great Leader.”
Rechter nodded his hard, square face. “Do not make any mistakes with the Union. We’re not ready.”
Jonas bowed his dark-haired head to the premier and took a step back. “We shall be ready, very soon, my Premier.”
Chapter 26
In the growing shadows of the jungle, rays of afternoon sunlight crawled across the ground as the big, gleaming-white yacht descended from the sky. Disturbing the hot, stale air no more than the light that shined out from its citrine crystal engines, the big ship quietly extended its landing struts to set down gently and noiselessly in an open meadow of tall grass, broad-leafed plants, and squawking, scurrying animals.
The yacht’s crystal engines faded and the side ramp slid down, crushing the tall grass. Anniya stood atop the ramp in the big hatchway. She turned to Christopher and Tom with a smile and a bow.
“Thank you, kind Scholars, for your help. Thank you for the ride. And thank you.”
She gave a little sideways nod, her eyebrows jumping slightly. “For everything else.” Her mouth pulled into a tight smile.
There was a sudden flash and Christopher and Toms clothes whipped in a sudden rush of air.
Anniya was gone.
Tom blinked. “Wait. Is that it? I thought we were bringing her to her house to get her stuff. Isn’t she leaving the planet with us? Aren’t we her ride?”
Christopher frowned as he patted his long jacket’s pockets. “Spark.” His pocket-patting stopped, his hands fell to his sides. “I think we’re the ones who just got taken for a ride.”
Tom turned and looked at Christopher. “Taken for a ride?”
Looking down, Christopher shook his head then hefted his gaze to the edge of the clearing, staring off into the dense jungle that Anniya had run off into.
“She took the sunstone.”
Grinning, Anniya flew through the Jungle.
Flashing past clearing after clearing, over one dense group of brush, over another, leaping to sail over one creek, then over another, she finally burst out of the overgrowth into a meadow of evenly-spaced trees, almost like an orchard. She crouched at the base of the nearest trunk, activating a little crystal device the size of a fingertip.
The device glowed visibly for a moment, then faded out. She flashed to the next tree.
Crouching at the base, she activated another little device. This device also glowed visibly for a moment, but before it faded out it sent out a fine line of quickly fading light across the jungle floor to the other device she had already activated. She flashed to the next trunk and activated the device at its trunk. It sent out two lines of light to the other two devices. Those two devices also flashed the line they had made between each other. The lines faded and she moved on to the next tree.
Each device, when activated, flickered-out lines to all the other devices.
Eventually Anniya finished flashing to every single tree trunk in the grove, weaving the net of invisible lines of light across the flat, leafy ground. After she activated the last one, and the big network of light lines faded away, she turned to gaze back through the vast stand of trees and up to the dense canopy. The sun rays held a deepening hue in the waning late afternoon.
Smiling, Anniya turned and bolted off with a wine-colored flash.
She whipped through a narrow, overgrown gap between two impassible rock faces. Moments after she flew by, plants on the rock walls unfurled, reaching-out to cover and conceal the gap.
Anniya leapt over a series of deep holes. As she passed over each pit, hundreds of little ground vines slithered out to cover their tops, concealing their openings.
The sun sank lower and fewer patches of tangerine light found their way through the thick canopy. The darkness around Anniya grew as she sped along arming her gauntlet of traps.
By the time Anniya passed her last trap, the little light that reached the rainforest floor had taken on an ember red. The high clouds on the sunset horizon still held the bright colors of earlier, but the sky on the far horizon was already tinged with evening.
The treehouse stood dark against a dying sunset sky.
Up in the giant woven tree and in the gardens below, the cricking, ringing, singing of insects sounded out. By the solid wall of trees encircling the plot, two of the trunks glowed green, then bowed apart from one another.
Anniya strode out through the opening between the trunks, Spirit following at her feet. The darkening sunset sky filtered down through the crown of the great tree to speckle the ground and garden with faint patches of cranberry light that glinted off the little fox’s coat.
Strolling through her rows of garden plants, over her short grass yard, up to the base of her house’s massive woven tree, she placed her hand against two of the great woven trunks. In a warm green glow, the two trunks arched apart, creating an opening into a hollow space in the center of the woven trunks. Anniya took a step forward into the space, then dropped down.
From the pitch black, sunflower light burst forth to reveal Anniya standing in the middle of the bloom. As the lemon light around her died away, hundreds of little jewels lining the curving walls glowed to life to illuminate a large round room.
In the center of this room, roughly the size of a big tree stump, chest-high, was a smooth stand made of flat, gray concrete. On the gray stand’s surface, there was a fist-sized slot scooped out of the middle, and in that slot, glowing faintly and pulsing slowly, floated a crystal with two wire caps on its ends. The slot holding the crystal was covered by a small glass dome. On the ground next to the stand, lay piles of discarded, dark crystals.
Anniya stepped up to the stand and placed her hand onto a panel next to the slot. Below eleven unlit bars, a single bar glowed to life with a shallow cranberry light, pulsing slowly like shallow breathing.
Starting with a frown at the faintly glowing bar, Anniya flipped a small switch by the glass-covered slot. The glass covering rolled back, allowing her access to the floating crystal. She removed the two wire caps, then withdrew the faintly-glowing crystal, immediately tossing it over her shoulder to tink and clink among the scattered piles of dark crystals.
On the panel on the surface of the stand, the single red bar faded away. The jeweled lights on the walls around the room began to slowly fade, the room growing darker bit by bit. Anniya let out a strong sigh, gazing in the dying light at the goldenlight sunstone in her hand. She bit her lip. “OK. Here we go.”
The little fox was sitting on his haunches on the concrete stand in front of her, his eyes brightening as the jeweled lights faded.
She held the goldenlight sunstone over the slot. “Do I just put the stone in there? Like a power crystal?”
Looking at the goldenlight sunstone in Anniya’s hand and the open slot, Spirit tilted his head one way, and then the other.
The shiny little fox then looked at Anniya, blinked his glowing eyes, and said nothing.
“What. No advice,
Little Sage?”
“Not at this time, Anniya.”
“Not at this time? What does that mean?”
Spirit again said nothing. Anniya looked away from the curious lightfox to the goldenlight sunstone in her hand. “Fine then. I guess I’ll just sling a bolt in the dark.”
Taking a deep breath, Anniya reached out and set the goldenlight sunstone into the empty slot in the surface of the concrete stand. The stone hovered firmly in the center.
Taking the coiled wire cap from the left side of the slot, she positioned the cap floating over one end of the floating sunstone. She then took the other coiled wire cap, placing it over the other side of the stone. The stone sat there in the uncovered slot. Floated there. Dark. Inert.
She grinned, looking at Spirit as he sat looking at the sunstone floating in the slot. “You’re interested in this too, aren’t you, Spirit?”
Spirit looked at Anniya then back to the sunstone floating in the slot, dark. “I am interested in everything, Anniya.”
Anniya blinked at the concrete stand. “Guess it’s time to turn on the house, then, and see if anything interesting happens.”
She placed her finger on the small switch by the slot. Taking in another deep breath, she flipped the switch and in a snap the round glass rolled over to cover the sunstone in the slot.
Anniya’s face was instantly lit from beneath by the blinding light of twelve glowing green bars on the panel next to the now shining goldenlight sunstone. “Spirit!” Anniya grinned widely, her mouth agape. “It’s working! It’s working!”
The green light of the glowing twelve bars on the panel brightened until the bars shined with a sunlight white. Anniya clasped her hands over her grinning mouth, her eyes wide and sparkling in the glare. Her hands flew away from her mouth as if her squeal had thrown them. “Spirit! It’s more than one hundred percent!”
The jeweled lights on the walls all shined brightly.
Anniya made a couple little hops, shaking her fists in front of her chest. “That’s going to last forever! right?”