The Key of Astrea

by Nicholas Marson

  Lin led Jenny and Kensei down the landscaped path to the Waypoint gazebo. She pointed up at a majestic stone cathedral lit from below by powerful lights. It was the second-tallest building in the plaza, next to the Department of Transportation. The cathedral’s towers pointed up to heaven, and a huge dome stood eight stories tall. “Waypoint travel paid for that and most of this plaza.” Lin looked at Jenny. “The same Church that condemned the Roma and drove—”

  Jenny shook her head. She didn’t want Lin to tell Kensei that she was Roma, because she didn’t want to be teased for being a Gypsy.

  “—Astrea and her people away,” Lin finished.

  Did he suspect? Jenny glanced at Kensei. No, how could he? Her black hair was short and spiked with a red streak on one side, and she kept out of the sun so that her brown skin was paler than other Roma.

  Lin cleared her throat and continued. “After finding the first key, Astrea soon discovered the other seven original keys. Her people rapidly grew wealthy from their magical transportation devices. This got the attention of the Catholic Church, which held authority in Europe at the time. They claimed that the Waypoints were a gift from God and the rightful property of the Church. Astrea’s clan were Roma, and in Spain, they lacked even the most basic human rights. The Church mobilized a task force, and over the course of three days, those seven keys were stolen, and the bearers were found dead.

  “The Catholic Church was now free to increase tolls to build more forts, missions, and cathedrals. Meanwhile, Astrea’s clan went into hiding from the Church, until one day they heard of a fort that had been abandoned by the church. Astrea’s clan saw this fort as their salvation. They fled from Spain and took refuge in the abandoned fort. Of course, that’s all in the past. Today, Cabin owns the Waypoints.”

  “Why would Cabin want them?” Jenny asked.

  “For use in off-world travel.”

  “Wow.” Kensei looked up to the sky. “That would be incredible. Imagine, visiting the moon, or Mars, or even Titan in an instant.”

  Jenny wondered how he could see anything behind those sunglasses at night.

  “That’s the idea.” Lin nodded. “With the Waypoints, we could support off-world colonies, or transport people and goods to and from a spaceship.”

  The two Songbirds, Pat and John, nodded to them as they neared the gazebo. Nearby, Aindriu stood alongside a solidly built man in his thirties. The man saw them approach first and turned to face them. The man had shaggy brown hair and a clean-shaven face. His leather jacket was well worn, as were the rest of his clothes. He clutched a shopping bag from Penwales Coffee Roasters in a big fist.

  “Hello, Aindriu,” Lin said. “Is this Jack Spriggan?”

  “It is.” Aindriu turned to face Lin. “Yeah, it is. Jack, this is Lin Yuan Song, Jenny Tripper, and…” Aindriu gulped as he looked at Kensei, causing his Adam’s apple to warp the thick scar encircling his neck. “Umm.”

  “Kensei Drake,” Jenny spoke up for Kensei.

  “Nice to meet you,” Jenny said as she held out her hand. Jack had stubby fingernails with dry and cracked cuticles, she noticed.

  “Welcome to Cabin, Jack,” Lin said. “It will be good to have another pilot around.” She looked at Aindriu. “Any sign of Trey or Sadi?”

  “No.” Aindriu’s blond eyebrows lifted over his gray eyes. “No one’s come through since Sadi left.”

  “Well, I’m about to show Jenny and Kensei how to use their new keys…”

  “By all means.” Aindriu stepped aside to let them up the gazebo steps.

  Lin climbed into the Waypoint and signaled for Jenny and Kensei to follow. Jenny and Kensei scrambled down the bowl. The tree-like gazebo canopy provided some shelter from the rain, but heavy drops still formed on the lower branches before falling onto their heads.

  “When you first insert your key”—Lin freed her shiny key and knelt down in the base of the obsidian bowl—“it is set to this Waypoint.” She pushed the fork end of her key into a hole at the base of the Waypoint, and one of the sixteen number-like symbols lit up with blue light. “As you turn your key clockwise, the other locations will light up.” She rotated the key inside the hole, and the other symbols lit up. “There are sixteen total, including this one. Eight in this world, and eight in the Nimue Realm.”

  “Where do they all lead?” As Kensei dug a sketchbook and pencil out of his backpack, Leon ran up his arm to perch on his shoulder.

  “Let’s see...there’s Spain, Argentina, China,” Lin counted each Waypoint off on her fingers. “South Africa, California, Greenland, and Antarctica.” She put her hands down. “Now if you’re ready, please take out your keys.”

  Jenny gripped the silver chain and pulled her newly found Waypoint key out of her uniform shirt.

  Kensei finished writing in his sketchbook, then pulled his own key out by the chain. The movement caused Leon to jump from his shoulder onto his purple Lakers hat. “Get back in there.” Kensei grabbed Leon and put him and his sketchbook into his backpack. He zipped it up and focused on Lin.

  “Now this is important, so listen up,” Lin warned. “Before activating a Waypoint, make sure that everyone who is traveling is completely inside the gazebo.”

  “Why’s that?” Kensei asked.

  “Because you don’t want to transport half a person.”

  Jenny shuddered as she recalled seeing the Risi losing an arm to Astrea’s portal, and then getting cut in half.

  “When you’re ready to activate the Waypoint, just push down. Your key will lock in place until the Waypoint cycles. Afterward, you can remove your key.” Lin lifted her key free of the slot and jumped to her feet with surprising agility. “Now, who wants to give it a try?”

  Kensei looked down at his feet.

  “Me,” Jenny said, raising her hand.

  “Okay Jenny, just do what I did.”

  Jenny knelt down as Lin had done, but before she could insert her key, water bubbled up from the keyhole. She knitted her eyebrows together and looked up at Lin. “What’s happening?”

  “Someone’s coming through. Quick, get out of there,” Lin said as she pulled Jenny and Kensei out of the gazebo.

  “What’s the water for?” Kensei asked.

  “It’s a safeguard. Whenever someone activates a Waypoint, water bubbles up at the destination to warn people to get clear.”

  “It’s probably Sadi.” Aindriu pushed them aside to get a look.

  The air above the Waypoint took on a shimmering, spherical shape, like a soap bubble. There was a bright flash of light, and four enormous figures filled the gazebo. Each stood around three meters tall and their heads almost reached the canopy. Their giant heads rotated inside steel helmets as they examined their surroundings. The Risi had changed little in six hundred years. Their armor looked more protective, their weapons were more deadly. They looked so out of place in this modern city that Jenny’s brain struggled to accept this reality. She shook her head and pinched her arm. It wasn’t a dream. Then, she noticed a human-sized figure in a black cloak crouched between their thick, elephantine legs. A large hood hid his face in shadow.

  Jon and Pat, the two Songbirds, were the first to react. They ran up the gazebo steps with their halberds.

  “Keep them in the bowl!” Pat shouted as he thrust his polearm at the nearest giant. The long spike found its way through the Risi’s leather armor and sank into his gut. The enraged giant swung his massive club at Pat. The old man caught the attack on the shaft of his halberd. The polearm bent at the point of impact but didn’t break. Instead, the spike ripped through the giant’s gut in a spray of viscera. The Risi roared and clutched at his eviscerated abdomen. Dark blood pumped between his thick fingers and poured into the obsidian bowl.

  Pat lost his grip on the halberd. Exploding fireworks echoed off the buildings as Jenny watched the polearm clatter down the steps until it rested at the base of the gazebo. She turned her attention back on the battle in time to see another giant shove his wounded comrade as
ide. He swung an ax the size of a stop sign at Pat, but the Songbird’s armor deflected the weapon downward where it struck the stone gazebo in a spray of sparks. A studded club smashed into one of the gazebo’s columns. Chunks of granite sprayed outward. Jenny turned away, and rocks struck the back of her head. Pat was knocked out of the gazebo.

  Jack rushed to Jenny’s side and pulled a futuristic-looking gun from his jacket. A thunderous boom rocked the plaza, and a fist-size hole opened up in a Risi’s chest. His blasted armor peppered the other Risi with molten shrapnel. The giant dropped with a splash into the obsidian bowl.

  Only a few seconds had passed since the Risi arrived, and already two of the four were dead. Feeling confident, Jenny looked down at Pat’s halberd. I should do something, she thought. I’ve seen how to fight these things in Astrea’s vision. I could help. Jenny ran down the steps and picked up the fallen polearm. The shaft was a composite material as light and flexible as wood but as strong as steel.

  “What are you doing?” Kensei asked. “We should get out of here.”

  Jenny knew that it was foolish to stay, but she couldn’t run. “Help me.” Jenny held the halberd midshaft, keeping the tip low.

  “I’ve never killed anything,” Kensei said.

  “Neither have I. Nothing bigger than a spider.” The rumbling voices of the Risi prickled the back of her neck, and she turned around. The angry yellow eyes of a giant met hers. Jenny lifted the halberd’s head, with its long spike, toward the Risi. The giant charged. His footfalls shook the cobblestone path, and the halberd trembled in Jenny’s hands. Suddenly, the massive polearm slipped from her rain-numbed fingers. She dropped to her knees and picked it up. “Hold it steady!” she shouted at Kensei.

  Kensei grabbed the end of the halberd. “How?”

  The Risi’s metal armor clanged loudly in Jenny’s ears.

  “Brace it against the stone.”

  Kensei jammed the polearm into a joint in the cobbled path and put a foot on it. Jenny lifted the tip of the halberd toward the giant. Her heart thundered in her chest.

  The Risi raised his enormous ax, which could easily cut Jenny and Kensei in half with one stroke. However, the giant slipped on the wet stone pathway. His eyes bulged with shock. The momentum carried him forward. The halberd’s spike punched through the giant’s neck and hit the roof of his skull. The Risi gurgled and gasped. Hot blood flowed down the polearm’s shaft and warmed Jenny’s cold hands. Then, the weight of the giant’s body yanked the halberd from her grip.

  Jenny looked down at her blood-soaked hands and was overcome with nausea. She scrambled away from the grisly scene and vomited into a trash can. Jenny felt a hand on her back. She spun around and saw Lin. She was talking, but Jenny couldn’t understand what she was saying. Her mind was too numb. Slowly, it came into focus. She looked over at the gazebo just in time to see it flash a brilliant white. The man in the black hood had disappeared, along with the remains of the fallen giants.

  “What was that?” Jack looked around for additional threats. With the hostiles dead or vanished, he opened his jacket to holster his gun.

  “You should keep that out,” Aindriu said.

  “You think there will be more?” Kensei asked.

  “Positive.”

  “Look.” Jenny pointed at the gazebo. A giant soap bubble formed, and with a bright flash of light, four large, dark figures materialized around a smaller hooded and cloaked figure.

  One of these new giants stood a head taller than the others. His mane of bright-orange hair brushed the roof the gazebo four meters above the base of the Waypoint. He wore a leather skirt over skin the color of asphalt. Two knives the size of long swords hung from a belt at his waist. Long, slender fingers with black fingernails gripped an enormous sword with a wavy blade.

  “I got him.” Jack leveled his gun at the gazebo. A thunderclap sounded, and the air ignited, leaving a trace of the hypersonic projectile. The orange-haired giant stumbled backward. But, instead of creating a hole in his chest, the bullet left only a minor smoking flesh wound. Jack fired twice more. Each shot hit, forming visible divots in the giant’s bare chest, and the Risi stumbled out of the gazebo. “Finally.” Jack sounded relieved.

  The two Songbirds recovered their halberds and rushed at the remaining three giants. These Risi were lightly armored in leather. They dodged and performed counterattacks with long knives that put the Songbirds on the defensive. One giant jump-kicked Pat, knocking him down the gazebo steps. The other smashed John with a gauntleted hand, sending him headfirst into a stone column. With a loud whoop, two of the Risi fled from the gazebo toward the Department of Transportation.

  To Jenny’s surprise, Aindriu had engaged the third Risi barehanded. He even managed to disarm the giant. With a twist of his wrist and a quick kick, Aindriu dropped the Risi and broke his knee. The giant roared in pain. Aindriu calmly flipped the fallen knife to his hand with his foot and slit the Risi’s throat. Aindriu jumped backward just as the Waypoint flashed a bright white, and the cloaked figure disappeared.

  In the distance, people screamed as the other two giants reached the outer plaza. Then, a deep rumbling sound erupted from the opposite side of the gazebo. “I am Blunderbore!” The lithe, dark giant with the orange mane of hair rose to his feet. His yellow eyes shone like the moon. “No weapon can harm me.” He snorted out of his wide, flat nostrils and walked around the gazebo.

  Jack found a clear shot between the columns and fired at Blunderbore. The round exploded with a thunderclap. Blunderbore’s shoulder jerked backward, but he continued his slow walk around the gazebo. “You are a nuisance.” Then he charged, knocking Jack to the ground with a grunt. Instead of finishing him off, Blunderbore doubled over in a coughing fit. Blood spilled from his mouth onto the rain-soaked stone.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Aindriu said and pushed Jenny and Kensei down the sidewalk.

  Jenny and the others ran north, toward the Department of Transportation. They found a hiding spot behind a cluster of shrubs and watched for Blunderbore. To Jenny’s surprise, tourists still walked the streets as if nothing had happened. She looked up and thought, I guess they believe the gunshots were just fireworks. The fireworks, which had reached a pitch, suddenly ceased, casting a strange silence over the plaza.

  A man’s voice spoke from Jack’s belt. “Jack, you discharged your firearm. What is going on down there?”

  “Shut it off,” everyone said in unison.

  Jack fumbled with the controls and switched his communicator off.

  Jenny looked toward the Waypoint and saw Blunderbore leading a new group of four giants north. She and the others crouched down behind a bush.

  “What are Risi doing in Acacia City?” Aindriu asked.

  “I don’t know,” Lin said. “And we’re not going to stay and find out. It’s my job to get our new recruits safely to HQ.” She turned to Jack. “Is your plane nearby?”

  “Yup,” Jack said. “It’s at the airfield.”

  “Can you take us there?”

  “Yes, I have a car parked that way.” Jack pointed southwest.

  “What about Sadi?” Aindriu asked.

  Lin shook her head. “She’s on her own.”

  Suddenly, gunfire sounded from the Department of Transportation. Several security guards were firing at the two Risi who had escaped the Waypoint. Behind them, the Waypoint flashed again, signaling the arrival of more Risi. Blunderbore led his giants to the entrance of the DOT building. A press of aliens and humans jammed the exits as they struggled to flee through the revolving door. The dark giant yanked people out, like he was unclogging a drain, and tossed them down the steps.

  Jenny winced as a man flew through the air and rolled down the steps to the street. She made eye contact with the mother of a family of blue aliens trapped inside the building. Jenny grabbed Jack’s arm and pointed at the aliens. “You need to help them.”

  Jack lifted his gun. “You saw what this did to him.”

  “Or didn’t
do,” Kensei said.

  “You don’t have to kill him,” Jenny said. “Just try to distract him long enough for those people to get out.”

  Jack sighed and rolled his head, popping the joints in his neck. Then he took aim above the crowd. Two shots slammed into Blunderbore’s back, causing the giant to stumble forward. One more hit him in the head. Blunderbore turned and located his attacker. He gritted his black teeth and roared before charging at them.

  Grinning, Jack looked back and saw that the rest of the group was already running away. “Shit,” he said. He clutched the bags of Penwales coffee to his chest and chased after them.

  Jenny and the others splashed through rain-soaked streets. Frightened tourists fled and screamed at the sight of Blunderbore at their backs. Dozens of tourists clogged the row of yellow barriers that separated the pedestrian plaza from car traffic.

  Jack slowed to a stop with the others, who all pointed behind him. He turned just as Blunderbore swung his colossal sword. Jack jumped backward and raised his coffee like a shield. The wavy blade sliced through the canvas bag, sending a spray of coffee beans out in an arc.

  “Now you did it.” Jack snarled as he aimed his gun at Blunderbore’s belly and pulled the trigger. Thunderclaps sounded, and the giant jerked back with each shot. The gun clicked empty on the seventh round, and Blunderbore fell to the cobblestone road with a thud. His skin was unbroken.

  “Damn.” Jack knelt down to gather his spilled beans. “My coffee.”

  “It’s not worth it, Jack.” Lin grabbed his arm.

  Jack sighed allowed Lin to pull him away from the spilled beans. “The car is this way.” He led them to a small yellow and white electric cart with “Acacia City Airfield” printed on the side. It had room for six passengers and a trunk with ample room for luggage. It was parked illegally between two cars.

  “Where did you get this car?” Lin asked.

  “I borrowed it from the airport.” Jack pulled a parking ticket off the windshield and threw what remained of his bag into the back seat.