Three Suns

by S King

  “Hang on!” Emric clutched me tighter to him as we started spinning around at rapid speed toward the ground. I knew by the way that we were spinning that his plan was simple. Land on a roll, minimize the chance for injury. In turn, we could maximize the chance of getting closer to Somsang. A solid plan at best, but neither Emric’s nor my plans always worked out for the best.

  He twisted just enough for his back to collide with several Eynos and for me to land on the hard ground with a bone shaking thud. The air in my lungs left on a wheeze as I rolled away from a poisoned blade arcing toward my chest; without thinking, I allowed my internal flames to engulf my body and turn the surrounding Eynos to nothing more than black, molted ash.

  “Ostana!” Eikko’s voice broke through the confusion, battle cries, agony filled wails and grunts that morphed the air into another battlefield.

  Kicking up in the face of an Eyno, I spun around and searched for the man that I had started this psychotic mission for. It took me five sekundi to find those purple eyes in the mass of black, red, and silver blood flying through the air and warriors colliding with Eynos.

  I threw several fire angels at oncoming Eynos before I took a step toward Eikko only to stop dead in my tracks as I watched Somsang raise a gun to Eikko’s back and fire.

  Shock, pain, agony, all of the emotions fathomable crossed over Eikko’s disgustingly handsome face as he stumbled toward me. As the bullets continued to implant themselves into his body, he never stopped coming toward me with only a hint of determination mingling in his iris eyes.

  Agony and rage for what I was watching made the white flames roar out from my body in waves as I forced my legs to carry me toward Eikko, struggling to stand upright.

  “Major Shaye!” Someone from behind me hollered in warning, but I had tunnel vision. The only thing that I was capable of worrying about was Eikko spitting out blood as the final bullet from Somsang’s weapon lodged its way into his neck and sent him to the ground in a gagging, clawing heap.

  The sharp sting of the Eyno blade ran from my thigh to my ribs, causing me to turn around and incinerate the seven eyed thing on sight. I didn’t have time to sit here and fight each and every Eyno that came for me. Eikko was in desperate need of surgery and if I didn’t get to him soon, he’d be dead before I could drag him back to the infirmary.

  Holding onto my waist, I struggled to clear my vision and closed the distance to Eikko; pressing my communicator, I pulled his big body into my lap as I surrounded us with the last of my flames.

  “Major, what’s going on down there?” Fauve answered before the communicator could even fully connect.

  I swallowed down the burning sensation that began to fill my stomach, “sir, we need assistance now. Keon started an uprising and…” I felt myself fading as I clutched tighter to Eikko’s still body and started listing to side.

  “And what?” Fauve’s shout snapped me out of the blackness that was trying to grab ahold of me.

  I swallowed down the nausea and started rocking Eikko to keep myself conscious, “I’ve found Eikko. He’s really hurt, General Fauve, and…” again, the blackness started swallowing me again just as my flames began to diminish in size and allow us to become visible to the Eynos coming toward us.

  “Stay awake, Shaye!” I’d never heard panic in Fauve’s voice and even I had to admit that it was just as bad as seeing a mother cry.

  He was ordering something to someone as I tried to regain my grip on consciousness long enough to encase Eikko and I in flames again. I just needed a little time, glancing down at Eikko, slowly bleeding all over my black combat pants and his once perfect olive colored skin turning a damning gray, I found my strength.

  “Hurry General,” I whispered as I forced the flames outward on a battle cry before I lost all consciousness for the final time.

  Sometime later an annoying beep, beep, beeping kept hammering away at my mind as I tried to remember what had happened and where I was. When the memories came back, I couldn’t stop myself from bolting upright.

  Somsang AWOL, Fauve tearing Kendrick a new ass, Emric and I in another wreck, the new battlefield. Eikko. Eikko being shot too many times for a guaranteed chance of survival. Somsang behind the trigger.

  I swung my legs over the infirmary bed and stumbled into the side table as I tried to regain my balance and look around the small room. The good news was that neither Emric or my grandmother were in the room and I could get dressed without having to exhaust my flames anymore than they already were.

  Grabbing the health drink from the side table, I guzzled the thing down and grimaced as I put on my combat compression top and cargo pants.

  As I figured out on the battlefield, the Eyno’s blade that had sliced its way from my hip to my rib had spread to my stomach and caused a nasty looking black spiderweb pattern of poison markings to form across my alabaster skin.

  “I’ll worry about that later,” I mumbled, shoving my feet into my combat boots, and ripping the needles from my skin. I needed to find Eikko and being stuck to the health monitors wasn’t going to allow me to do that. He looked half dead on the battlefield and a part of me was afraid that I was going to find him under a sheet from head to toe once I did find him.

  “You’re awake,” my grandmother came into the room, looking me over before stepping to the side and pointing down the corridor. “He’s in surgery right now.”

  I thanked her quickly, stumbling forward before gaining my balance with the help of the wall and headed for the room that Eikko was in.

  Like a majority of the infirmary rooms, the room that Eikko was in was a surgical area that had the best of the best for medical equipment and physicians available. I pressed myself to the window and stared at the physicians doing everything they could to ensure that Eikko would pull through the attack.

  Tubes, wires, needles, everything was inserted into his body; gone was the image of him laughing and telling jokes to my unit during the few times that there was a unit dinner. Now, all that was left was him laying on a hard table, unmoving as the physicians poked, prodded, sliced and sewed his body in an attempt to save his life.

  “Funny thing, isn't it?” Emric’s voice made me jump before I glanced at him.

  “What?” Quickly, I wiped away the foreign tears from my eyes, that I hadn’t known were falling until he handed me a royal purple silk cloth from his pocket.

  He tapped the glass of the observatory window, “how someone once so insignificant can become the only thing you dream and think about. They become your whole world in a matter of seconds, and you don’t even know how it happened.”

  I tried not to flinch as one of the physicians began to cut across Eikko’s chest, “what causes it?”

  Emric sighed, “you love him, Ana.” He smirked at my sidelong glance at him, “you admitted it yourself just last night.”

  I started to shake my head in protest when the heart monitor began to screech in response to Eikko flat lining.

  Emric stopped me from busting into the room and held onto me as the tears that had already been falling began to flow from my eyes.

  I couldn't lose Eikko, not like this. Not because of fucking Somsang, who had his own mission and agenda from brining Eikko here. It wasn’t his fault that Somsang didn't know how to be a true friend or an assistant, so why was Eikko getting punished?

  In the seconds that it took the physicians to revive him, I had already vowed to rain down hell on the red sun society and more importantly, Somsang.

  When the monitor regained a regular rhythm, I let out the breath that I’d been holding in. For now, Eikko was safe and going to be ok, but he had a long way to go before that was the case.

  Leaning my head against the window, I watched the physicians order the health staff to their posts, “I may have admitted it, but the reality of the situation is, I can't love someone that is from the blue sun, Emric. It's not allowed,” I didn't know who I was trying to convince more. My best friend or myself.

  “That's ne
ver stopped anyone before. You can't help who your heart wants, and you can’t deny the fact that you would've easily taken the attack had you known what the end result was going to be.” Emric tilted his head as he watched the physicians, “he’s a good man. Even if he is from Parlan,” he looked at me, “I just want you to be happy even if that means that it's not with me.”

  I opened my mouth to respond when a rumble shook the building and the war alarms went off. We looked at each other knowing that the alarms meant we, or rather, I couldn't stay by Eikko's side because the first obligation of any purple sun military personnel was to protect the society at any and all costs.

  With a final look at the man that had made me feel anything other than responsibility since he arrived, I followed Emric out of the infirmary and to the debriefing base to fulfill my promise to the red sun society and hopefully, Somsang.

  When we cleared the entrance of the airbase, Emric and I were greeted with shocked and worried stares from our fellow warriors.

  “Were we not supposed to come?” Emric asked me as we met each of their stares.

  “Freyer! Shaye!” Fauve pushed his way through the crowd, coming to a stop in front of us, “what are you two doing out of the infirmary?”

  “We heard the impact and the alarms?” I said slowly as I frowned at our superior. Again, were we not supposed to be here?

  Fauve closed his eyes, nodding, “we’re glad that you both are ok.” Opening his eyes, he sighed, “the alarms were for the notification that we've all returned to the base and suffered minimal casualties. The impact was the final aircraft of the Eynos going down.”

  “What about Somsang?” I asked, looking at all of the faces of the combat warriors again.

  Fauve shook his head in defeat, “disappeared again.”

  “What?” Emric and I barked at the same time. This time it was my turn to fly of the handle.

  I held my hands up to stop him from saying anything, “what the fuck do you mean that he's disappeared again? He was right there!”

  “Major Shaye,” Fauve started, “our primary object is to bring home our warriors after a battle. I understand where you're coming from in regard to Mr. Kangho.” He raised a brow at me pointedly, “right now we’re going to focus our attention on protecting the blue sun and the purple sun society.”

  I kept my mouth shut about Eikko's and my relationship; if anyone from the officials of the society found out about my relationship with the Parlan Playboy not only was Eikko going to face the firing squad. Sadly, I'd be right beside him for neglecting my obligations to the military and the purple sun society.

  Brushing the thoughts away, I just nodded. There was no sense in arguing with Fauve, he and I knew that I was over a barrel and was dancing on a thin line that wouldn't take much to cross.

  Placing a reassuring hand on my shoulder, he sighed, “go back to the infirmary, Ostana. Emric and the rest of us will handle the fallout and locating of Somsang. Ok?”

  I nodded, “thanks General.” With a parting salute of respect, I left my brothers and sisters to return to Eikko’s side.

  Chapter 17 Hoorah

  “You should really get some sleep,” I looked away from the health monitor that was reading Eikko’s vitals and found my grandmother leaning against the door jamb to the room.

  I stretched my back from the hard chair and sighed as I ran my fingers through my hair, “I’m fine.”

  She came into the room, handing me a cold cup of the standard health drink that was the only other source of energy for rejuvenation in Padrieg. “How’s he doing?”

  I took the cup from her and rubbed a hand over my face, “no change. The most that’s happened was a finger twitch here and there.”

  “Why don’t you go home and get some rest and I’ll stay here and watch him.”

  “I’m fine,” I said again, this time more a little more forcefully. “Have they found Somsang yet?”

  She stalled, looking anywhere else other than my eyes.

  “Othala?” I sat up in the chair and pinned her with a warning look, “what do you know?”

  With a deep intake of breath and a raised brow, she leveled her gaze to mine, “we still haven’t found him.”

  For a moment, all I could do was stare at her, “is he not in Padrieg anymore?”

  “We don’t know.”

  “Is he in Pya?”

  “We don’t know that either.”

  I ground my teeth together and went back to watching the heal monitor, “then what the hell do we know?”

  She combed her fingers through her short snow-white hair, “at this point, Fauve and the others are trying to secure the borders. Orrie found out that Somsang is trying to get rid of your sister because she found out the truth behind his accounting issues.”

  I frowned, turning back to her, “what do you mean accounting issues?” That was news to me; granted, I hadn’t been able to talk to Orrie in what seemed like forever.

  “Theodora handles all of her accounting and when she’s working with Eikko, his too. Apparently, she found out that Somsang was stealing off the back end of Eikko’s royalties and she had plans to tell Eikko when she had gone missing.” She shrugged at my screwed look, “someone must’ve told her that Somsang was after her and that’s when she went into hiding. In turn…”

  “Somsang found out about me and thought that by bringing Eikko along, I’d fall for him and go back to Parlan in order to take Theodora's place.” Othala nodded as I finished the puzzle that had been slowly coming together ever since Xerminara passed.

  I scrubbed my hands over my face and went through the truth again, “Somsang was robbing Eikko blindly. My sister found out and was going to tell Eikko. Somsang panicked, deciding to go after Theodora. When she heard about Somsang’s plan, she went underground. Finally, Somsang fabricated the booking in the entertainment district to get Eikko on the aircraft.” I glanced at my grandmother. When she nodded, I continued, “but the grey area of the situation, is how did Somsang get in touch with Eikko’s brother and stepmother to set the explosion up? I mean, from what I understand of his relationship,” I hooked my thumb to Eikko’s still body, “they’re not on speaking terms, let alone close enough for them to speak to Somsang on a regular basis. If either of them had found out that Somsang had been stealing from their cash cow, then wouldn’t they have wanted to stop that rather than kill off Eikko?”

  “That would seem like the most plausible thing to do, but at the same time,” she crossed her arms over her chest, looking at the blanket covering Eikko, “all three of them want something that they can’t have without Eikko.”

  “Not true,” I shook my head, remembering what he had said about the Parlan customs, “if something happens to Eikko all of his assets and everything else goes to his parents. It doesn’t matter if he has a will or anything else.”

  “Are you serious?” Othala’s garnet eyes went wide as she looked at me.

  “As a heart attack,” I leaned forward, searching Eikko’s face for some kind of indication that he was going to wake up soon. “He told me about the practices one night when we were up drinking and playing truth and lies.” I smirked as I moved some of his black hair off his forehead, then something else dawned on me. “You know what else doesn’t make any sense to me?”

  “What’s that?”

  I turned to look at my grandmother with a furrowed brow, “how did Somsang find out about me in the first place?”

  She opened her mouth to respond but quickly closed it, stumped by my own question. It was no secret that Somsang was a greedy jackass but how did he even know that I existed? Hell, I didn’t even know about Theodora until a few mjeseci ago.

  I rubbed my forehead, idly holding onto Eikko’s hand. If anything, my main objective was to get Eikko back to Parlan and then bury Somsang in the grave that he had dug for himself since this whole shit hole of a bad story even started.

  My communicator beeped, pulled me away from my foreboding thoughts. “What is it E
mric?”

  “You have a twin in Parlan?” He snapped.

  Well if the cat was nestled in the bag, then it just got snatched out. I wasn’t one for wanting to put my personal business, or my family’s, out in the public. To be honest, I didn’t know how the military officials or even the officials of the society were going to react to the news that I had not only a sister in the blue sun but also a twin. An exact replica of myself.

  “So, it would seem,” I mumbled, pushing my tired body from the chair, and nodding to my grandmother in respect as I walked out of the infirmary and toward the airbase where Orrie was surely hiding away in.

  “And you didn’t think to tell me that you had a sister that looks just like you?”