by Kate O'Hearn
When the long journey finally came to an end, Pegasus slipped out of the Solar Stream over the jungle world. Thick clouds hung dense and full just above the trees, and the fragrance of the rich, thriving wildlife below filled their nostrils.
“It’s so good to be back, isn’t it?” Emily called to Pegasus.
The stallion whinnied and bobbed his head up and down. The sure, confident beating of his large white wings told her he knew exactly where they needed to go.
It had been some time since she’d last visited Xanadu, and in that time a lot had changed. When Pegasus touched down in the clearing before the Temple of Arious, she noticed all the work Riza had done. The area had been neatly groomed, and the immense statues of the ancient Xan, cleaned of the vines and moss, glowed in the bright sunlight.
“Riza’s been busy,” Emily commented as Pegasus touched down and folded his wings.
The Temple of Arious itself was almost unrecognizable. Gone were all the vines and trees that sought to reclaim and obscure the ancient building. The entrance and external walls now gleamed of polished marble. Sitting on the top of the flat, squat building were the three helicopters Emily had sent here so very long ago. The Olympians had offered to remove them, but Riza had declined the offer, saying they were now part of Xanadu. They too had been polished to a bright shine.
“Riza,” Emily called. “Can you hear me? Where are you?”
Emily and Pegasus waited before the entrance to the temple. After a few minutes, Emily called again, and Pegasus joined in with several whinnies. But for all their calling, the only sound around them was from the wildlife.
“I wonder if she’s inside.” Emily walked forward and entered the temple. Once again, everything around her looked brand-new. “Does she spend all day cleaning?”
Pegasus nickered with laughter and walked farther inside. He moved toward the stairs that led down to the lower levels.
“Do you think she’s with Arious?”
In answer, Pegasus started down. They wound their way through the maze of corridors until they reached the level containing the supercomputer, Arious. The entry doors were open and the lights were on. A distinct humming was coming from inside, which let Emily know someone was in there.
When Emily and Pegasus entered, she was surprised to see Cupid standing at the central control consul with both his hands on the receivers. His head was back and his wings fluttered while he was connected to Arious.
“Arious,” Emily said softly. “We need to speak with you.”
“Hello, Emily and Pegasus. Welcome back,” the soft voice of the computer called. “Give me a moment and I will disconnect with Cupid.”
The humming increased slightly. A moment later, Cupid shook his head and removed his hands from the receivers.
“Hi, Cupid.”
Cupid jumped and his wings flashed open. He turned quickly. “Flame! I did not hear you come in.”
“You can’t hear anything when you’re connected to Arious.”
“True,” he agreed as he stepped away from the consul. “But what an amazing experience it is to go in there. Thank you, Arious.”
“You are most welcome, Cupid. Feel free to return anytime.”
Cupid grinned, and that smile was just as beautiful as ever. His smooth skin, perfect teeth, and blazing eyes were almost painful to look at. After everything they’d gone through, his beauty never diminished.
“I will, have no doubt,” he said.
“So, Emily,” Arious said. “Do you have something to share with me?”
Since Riza had been separated from her, she had been working with Arious to ensure the supercomputer would be compatible with Olympians, so they could come here and share their collective knowledge as well.
“Not this time, thank you,” Emily said. “Actually, I’m looking for Riza. I really need to speak with her. It’s urgent.”
“I am sorry, but Riza isn’t here.”
“Is she visiting one of the other sanctuary continents?”
“No. She is off-world. We discovered a sun about to go supernova. There was at least one planet in their system that still had life. Riza has gone there to arrange for the transport of the inhabitants. We will soon be enlarging Xanadu again to take in this new civilization. It has been a very long time since we’ve done that, and it is exciting.”
Emily was crushed. She had never expected Riza not to be here. “Do you know how long she will be?”
“Some time, I’m afraid. Though she did leave something here for you in case you came to visit.” Arious hummed a bit more. Then a small drawer on the wall consul popped open. Inside was a beautiful gold ring containing a stunning blue stone.
Emily admired the ring and placed it on her finger. “It’s perfect. But I wonder what would happen if I wore this and then used the Flame. Would it burn up?” She looked at Cupid. “Paelen gave me a ring, but it melted when I used the Flame. Now all I have left is the jewel.”
“Riza knew this,” Arious answered. “She said the ring would not burn or melt. It is indestructible. Though I probably should have warned you: Once you put it on, only Riza can remove it.”
“Really?” Emily tried to pull the ring off her finger, but it wouldn’t budge. “It doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t want to take it off anyway. She knows I love sapphires.”
“That is not a sapphire, though it looks like one. She hopes you might use it to join her.”
“Join her?” Emily looked into the sparkling facets of the jewel again. “Is this what I think it is?”
“Yes,” Arious said. “It will open the Solar Stream. She said you can use it to visit her. All you need to do is hold it up and call her name and it will take you right to her. She said she would welcome yours and Pegasus’s help, since the world she is on has an atmosphere compatible to you.”
“May I join you?” Cupid asked hopefully. “Since visiting Arious, I have been seeing all the things the Xan did and all the places they have been.”
Emily frowned. “You want to go exploring? But you’ve always been so . . . so . . .”
“Hesitant?” Cupid said. “Yes, I have. But after all we have been through, I discovered I have a taste for adventure. For all the horrors of the war with the Titans, I did enjoy fighting for Hawaii.”
“You were there?”
Cupid nodded. “It was a wondrous place, and I met some very interesting Hawaiian goddesses. It is unlikely that you would have seen me, as I was not fighting at Diamond Head. So I would like to help Riza save the survivors.”
“So would I,” Emily agreed. “But we can’t, at least not right now. There’s a big problem on Earth with the CRU. We were hoping Riza would come with us to help free Agent B, Stella, Earl, and Frankie. They’ve all been captured.”
“Earl?” Cupid cried. “How? He and Frankie were in safe hiding in Wisconsin.”
“Trust me; they’re locked away in CRU cells.”
“You must be mistaken,” Arious said. “I have seen Agent B and Stella from your memories. They were part of the alternate time line. There is no way the Central Research Unit could know about them.”
“There is no mistake,” Emily said. “I’ve seen them with my own eyes within some kind of magical pool that Urania has. Agent B has been beaten. Earl too, I suspect. They’ve been imprisoned in London, England.”
“And you hope to have Riza help you to extricate them,” Arious said.
“If you mean by ‘extricate’ that I want to free them, then yes. I want to extricate them. Pegasus does too.”
Pegasus nodded and snorted loudly. He pawed the smooth floor of the computer room.
“I understand how you feel, Pegasus,” Arious said. “And it is a conundrum how they knew. But should Riza leave what she is doing now, many species will perish as their sun dies. Her duty as a Xan is to protect all life.”
Emily knew Arious was right, but it felt wrong. The needs of the many did outweigh the needs of the few, and Riza shouldn’t abandon what she was doing. Bu
t if she didn’t help with Agent B and the others, there was no telling what the CRU would do to them.
“What about us?” Cupid volunteered. “We can free them.”
Emily gazed at him, completely stunned. She could hardly believe this was the same Cupid who just a couple of years ago was frightened of his own shadow. But looking at him, she could see there was more determination in his face. Despite the fact that time moved profoundly slowly on Olympus, it seemed that Cupid had matured.
Emily shook her head. “We can’t go. We promised Tom and Alexis we wouldn’t go alone.”
“You will not be alone,” Cupid said. “I will be with you.” He reached for her hands. “Emily, I realize that you have gone through some major changes in your life. But so have I. I have seen Olympus invaded twice: once by the Nirads when you first came to us and then by the Titans. I have traveled to Earth and fought beside you against the CRU. During that time, I became friends with Earl. Knowing that he is in danger is intolerable to me. If you do not go to Earth with me, I will go alone and find him.”
“That is not logical, Cupid,” Arious said. “You do not look human. Your wings will betray you.”
“Of course it is not logical,” Cupid agreed. “But it is the right thing to do. I do not know Agent B or Stella. But I do know Earl and Frankie. It would be wrong to turn our backs on them now because of a little danger. Wings can be hidden, but the suffering of friends cannot.”
“It’s not a little danger, Cupid,” Emily said. “It’s a lot. Tom said the London CRU unit is a super-facility, the biggest and most dangerous we’ve gone against.” She looked over at Pegasus. “What do you think we should do? If we go back to Olympus and tell Jupiter, there’s no telling what he’ll do.”
“We all know exactly what he will do,” Cupid put in. “He will destroy Earth once and for all. Now that your powers are diminished, you could not stop the Big Three if they rose against Earth.”
Beside her, Pegasus whinnied and snorted. Emily looked to Cupid to translate.
“Pegasus agrees with me,” Cupid said.
“Pegasus,” Arious said. “You are letting your emotions rule your head.”
Again Pegasus whinnied as he clopped over to the supercomputer. He snorted and shook his head.
“Yes, emotions and loyalty are important, but so is logic. The CRU is formidable. In the weights and measures of the universe, they are too dangerous for you three.”
“You cannot stop us, Arious,” Cupid said. “But you can help us.”
“Help us how?” Emily asked.
Cupid walked up to the computer and put his hand on the consul. “I have studied you well, my strange silver friend. Long enough to know there is another within you who can help. You have done it in the past for the Xan. You can do it now for us.”
If a machine could frown, Emily was sure Arious was doing just that. The supercomputer actually sighed. “Perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea for Riza to enable us to communicate after all. You have learned too much about me.”
Cupid chuckled. “Perhaps, but it is too late to back out now. And you do not fool me, Arious. I know you wish to go as well.”
“What are you talking about?” Emily asked.
“Watch,” Cupid said. “Release Arious Minor.”
They could hear Arious grumbling under its breath as it clicked and its lights flashed. Finally a small dot of light appeared before Emily and floated just in front of her face.
“What is this?” she asked. She held out her hand, and the dot settled on her palm. There was no heat, but she did feel a light tickling sensation.
“I am Arious Minor,” the dot answered in a high-pitched voice. “I am a holographic link to Arious Major. Separate from but part of Arious.”
“This dot,” Cupid said, “would often go on long journeys with the Xan. It worked as their guide and adviser—always connected to Arious here on Xanadu.”
“And witness,” the soft, light voice said. “But it has been millennia since I have left Xanadu. I may not have the strength to sustain myself.”
“Sure you do,” Cupid said. “You are just frightened to be leaving this room, which has imprisoned you for all this time. Come with us. The journey will do you good.”
“What good can come from watching you hand yourselves over to the CRU?” Arious Major said in its normal voice.
“If we get into trouble, you could let the others know.”
“And the result will be the same. Jupiter and his brothers will attempt to destroy the Earth. Riza and I will have to stop it. It will be a disaster for all involved.”
Emily felt the first glimmer of hope. “Not necessarily. If you did come with us, we might be able to get in and out before Jupiter finds out.”
“What could I do?” Arious Minor said.
“Well, I was thinking . . . Could you . . . ?” Emily paused. “I don’t know how to explain it, but could you get into other computers and figure out what they know?”
“The word is ‘interface,’ ” Arious Major said. “Yes, though I fail to see the importance of that.”
“You might not see the importance, but I do,” Emily said. “The CRU runs on computers. They use them to lock their doors, to record their knowledge, everything.”
Pegasus started to whinny excitedly.
“It is possible,” Arious Major said to the stallion. “If what Emily suggests is true.”
“What’s that?” Emily asked.
Arious Major said, “Pegasus has asked, if I interface with the CRU computers, could I learn all their secrets and thus figure out how to destroy them.”
“Could you?” Emily asked.
“Yes,” Arious Major said. “If I can connect to the CRU mainframe, I am sure I can enter their network and destroy them from within. We can end them, once and for all.”
4
THEY LEFT THE TEMPLE AND walked out into the bright sunshine of Xanadu. The jungle was wild and alive and the air sweet with the perfume of flowers. But for all the beauty around them, Emily was focused on only one thing.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked Cupid. “It is Earth, and you know what’ll happen if they catch us, and there’s a pretty good chance they will catch us.”
“I do,” Cupid said. “But I also know what will happen to Earl and Frankie if we do not go. So we have no choice.”
Emily went up to Pegasus’s head. “It’s got to be your decision too. Are you sure you want to do this?”
Pegasus snorted, pawed the ground, and nodded his head. Cupid said, “He says absolutely.” But Emily already knew that.
“I want it on the record right now that I believe this is a bad idea,” said Arious Minor. “No good can come of handing yourselves over to the CRU.”
“We’re not handing ourselves over,” Emily said. “We’re going to free friends. Besides, you’re with us. It’s you who will help the most when you take their computers down. The CRU would never in a million years expect you there.”
“I think it’s rather unfair of you to put all the pressure on me,” Arious Minor said.
Emily chuckled. “And I think you’ve spent too much time in my head, and Dad’s and Joel’s. You’re sounding like a human.”
“If you’re just going to insult me, I’ll go back inside.”
“No, don’t go.” Emily smiled. “I’m sorry. But it’s funny to hear how your language has changed since I first met you.”
“It’s called adaptation. I speak in a manner that is best suited to your understanding. If you prefer, I could go back into binary code.”
“No, no, I prefer you speaking my language.”
“All right, then, I still think you are crazy!”
“And I think you are wasting time,” Cupid added. “If we are going, now would be the time.”
Pegasus snorted in agreement. He lowered his wing and invited Emily up on his back. The moment she climbed up, there was a flash of familiarity that calmed her more than all the talking to anyone
had done. They were going on a mission. There was no worrying what she looked like or what she had lost. There was only the need to rescue her friends.
“If everyone is ready,” she called. “Let’s go!”
Pegasus entered into a trot and then a full gallop. Beating his strong wings, he climbed steadily into the blazing sky. Cupid was keeping up close beside them. The beating of his wings matched the stallion as they gained speed to enter the Solar Stream.
As they plunged once again into the Solar Stream, somehow Emily could still see the dot that was Arious Minor leading the way despite the blinding lights swirling all around them. Emily was mesmerized by the small dot and focused on it, keeping all the negative thoughts and worries out of her mind.
The journey to Earth from Xanadu was a long one. But after an age, they burst free of the blazing lights and into a star-filled night sky. Just like their previous journey to Earth, Pegasus arrived over open water.
Emily gazed all around, trying to get an idea of where they were. But surrounded by water, she hadn’t a clue.
“Do you know where we are?” she called to Cupid.
“Not yet,” he responded. “I need to see some land to get a better idea.”
“You do not need land,” Arious Minor said. “Look up. Use the stars to chart our location. We are currently flying over the Atlantic Ocean, four hundred and fifty-one miles from Ireland. After that, we shall approach the United Kingdom. By my estimates and Pegasus’s current speed, barring complications, we shall arrive in London in nine point seven hours.”
“Wow!” Emily said. “That’s really impressive. So, can you tell us what time of year it is, based on the stars?”
“It is midwinter in this part of the world,” Arious Minor said. “Are you not feeling the cold?”
“Actually, no,” Emily said. Now that she had a body, she’d thought she might. “Cupid, are you cold?”
The winged Olympian shook his head. “Not at all. Though, if memory serves, I am hardly dressed for winter.”