The Azureans

by R Gene Curtis

  I’m trapped, I’m naked, and I’m alone. And it’s dark. I hold up my hand, but I can’t see it. I can’t see anything.

  That’s when the tears come. My friends are captured. Arujan will be here soon, and he’ll take over the mountains and everything will be lost. Wynn will get the key and the map. I will die, just like Karl did.

  I’ve failed. I wasn’t supposed to die in this world without doing anything but giving my enemy exactly what he was looking for. But, it appears that is just what I did.

  13 Injury

  Karl

  I stand at the open window staring out at the setting sun. The smell isn’t nearly as bad as it was last week. The lumps on the grass don’t move anymore. They’re all dead.

  Someone touches my hand and I jump.

  “What’s wrong, Karu?” Somrusee asks; she can feel how sweaty my hands are.

  I wipe my hands on my robe and walk to my bed. Somrusee sits down beside me, her bare leg touching mine. I glance down, but I don’t move. It doesn’t bother me.

  “Just thinking.” I can’t tell her what I was thinking about, not with Wynn listening. Still, she knows. She takes my hand, and I hold it.

  We’re going through the same emotions, walking the same lonely road to death. Our month will end in three days. It passed too slowly and yet too quickly. Slowly because I’m stuck in the castle with nothing to do but fret, and too quickly because everything ends in days.

  It’s a scene I’ve played in my mind a thousand times. I will refuse to help Wynn, and it will be the last thing I do. I can’t fight him. Every plan I’ve come up with involves me looking like a toddler trying to get stolen candy from a teenage brother.

  And so, the days and nights pass. I dream about fighting Wynn, I dream about dying. Was this how Mom felt with her death approaching? Did she secretly believe she might still beat the cancer, or did she helplessly wait for each day to pass, knowing her last day was just around the corner?

  Mom always was stronger than me. She wouldn’t have feared death as much as I do. I lay down on the bed and let tears roll down my cheeks. Somrusee stays by me and sings a lullaby. I don’t understand the words, but I know she understands me.

  “Thank you.” I close my eyes.

  She squeezes my hand. “Thank you.”

  ✽✽✽

  The next afternoon I go down to the library. Despite the heat, I get a fire going and sit down to write. Wynn can’t hear writing, and he can’t see it. I can express myself without him knowing.

  I hate Wynn. I’m tired of him following me everywhere without a way to be rid of him. I can’t believe I’ve spent over eight months under the constant supervision of my soon-to-be executioner. Sometimes, I just want to die so that it will be over.

  And so, today, I write.

  I write to Mom and tell her where I am, how I decided to be better, and how I’m about to die.

  The letter goes up in flames.

  I write to Pearl. I tell her I love her, I’m sorry I ignored her so often, I wish I could see her again, and if there ever could be a next time I would listen to her.

  The letter goes up in flames.

  I write to Lydia and tell her I’m sorry for being a jerk, and I hope she’s still alive out there somewhere.

  The letter goes up in flames.

  I write to Dad. I start to tell him where I am and then stop as the door creaks open. I push the paper into the fire. It catches immediately and the words I’ve written are gone.

  It’s Buen. He walks in and eyes me and the fire curiously.

  “Writing practice?”

  I nod.

  “Spring is coming,” he says in his matter-of-fact way. “Wynn says you will go in two weeks’ time.”

  I stare at Buen. Two more weeks? Should I be relieved?

  “I thought we were leaving at the end of this week,” I say.

  He says nothing more, and neither do I. We stare at each other, our bright blue eyes reflecting the firelight, sweat glistening on our skin from the heat of the room.

  “Why do we both have glowing eyes?” I ask. Mom had bright blue eyes—I’m sure we inherited them from Kinni.

  For a moment, I don’t know if Buen heard me. I open my mouth to ask again, but decide it’s a dumb question to ask. I’m the geneticist, and he lives in a world that doesn’t know what DNA is, much less how traits are passed down.

  “We both have blue eyes because we’re brothers,” he says softly. “We’re both Sapphiri, those with blue eyes. There aren’t many of us.”

  “I got my blue eyes from my mother,” I say. “She inherited them from her father. All the way up to some man named Kinni.”

  “Kinni,” Buen repeats. He stares at the fire, the light flickering on his face, and then he sits next to me, though he keeps his gaze on the flames. “That might explain something.”

  “You’ve heard of Kinni?” I’m surprised and pleased at the same time. Perhaps the story Lydia gave me about Kinni, the one that started this whole thing, had some truth to it.

  “What do you know about Kinni?” Buen asks. “How did someone in your world descend from him? Was it through his wife, Janya?”

  “No. He came into my world with some guy named Togan and met the woman who became my great-great grandmother. Her name was Lovina.”

  “Oh,” Buen says softly.

  “He never came back.”

  A short laugh. “Of course he didn’t.”

  “Why not?” Ever since I read Kinni’s story, I’ve thought he was a jerk. He came into my world, got a trusting young woman pregnant, and was never heard of again.

  “We always knew Kinni had a falling out with Togan, and with Janya,” Buen says. “People always told me it was because of a woman. Some thought the woman was Togan’s wife. I never understood from the stories how that could be, since she was so close to Togan all the way to the end.”

  “A falling out?”

  “Kinni betrayed Togan and helped Wynn to power,” Buen’s blue eyes glow brighter, like mine do when I’m angry. “This Kinni was one of King Togan’s trusted friends, but he went to the Western Hills to find Wynn after a dispute over a woman. Shortly thereafter, Togan died and Wynn took power. Aside from that, no one knows what happened. No one ever heard of Kinni again. Wynn probably killed him.”

  “So, how do we know any of this?”

  “Kinni’s daughter escaped the slaughter. That is why I’m alive. As far as I knew, all my other kin had been hunted down and killed, until I met you.”

  “You call us Sapphiri?”

  “Yes, though I don’t know why. That’s been our name for centuries. We have been persecuted and killed as long as anyone can remember, and Wynn has almost killed us all.”

  Almost, but there is me and there is Buen, and he has a few children through his za’an. Maybe that is one thing that keeps him going—knowing that he’s preserving his people, or at least his genes, as he serves Wynn. It’s one of the most basic survival instincts.

  We sit in silence, and then Buen grabs a paper and begins to write.

  Will you go with Wynn?

  I shake my head.

  Are you ready to die?

  I shrug my shoulders.

  Is the story about the Azurean in the mountains true?

  I nod. I wonder how he heard about Lydia.

  Buen watches the fire for a while. A smile twitches in the corner of his mouth. Hope? Humor? I don’t know. I take the paper he was writing on and throw it on the fire. We watch it burn. Buen grabs another sheet.

  I know a way out of the castle, he writes. There is a story in my family how my grandmother escaped from Wynn centuries ago. She was running away from Wynn when she leaned against a wall in a staircase and fell through it—it was an exit. The last time I was in Wynn’s tower I looked for this exit, and I found it. Six steps up.

  An exit? Buen’s glowing eyes are unreadable as he stares at the parchment, writing slowly but deliberately.

  I want you to go. Go warn the Az
urean about Wynn. Help her.

  “Why?” I ask out loud, but Buen shakes his head and throws the paper on the fire.

  I grab a new sheet. Wynn will track me—there’s no way I can make it to the mountains.

  I will cover for you. You have two weeks. Take out the earring, and take off your ring, but pull them out every few hours and say something.

  But when Wynn does find out, he’ll kill you.

  Buen stands abruptly and leaves the room.

  ✽✽✽

  I follow my routine the rest of the day, barely able to contain my excitement and my dread. This could be my last day alive, yet it also feels like my first.

  Somrusee is coming with me. Buen would kill me if he knew, but I’m sure I can’t navigate the countryside to the mountains by myself. Somrusee grew up out there, and she’s my friend. If I leave her, she will die just like Buen. If there’s anything I can do about it, not everyone I’ve known here will end up dead.

  It’s a risk. Taking a za’an outside the castle is dangerous, especially a woman. Two people are easier to catch than one. But Somrusee is bright and quick. I think she’ll help me. And, I need help.

  As evening approaches, so does a big thunderstorm. Clouds billow on the horizon. It’s the perfect distraction. We’ll leave after the storm hits.

  We’ll go to Wynn’s tower. It will be the last time.

  After dinner, I stand in the hallway in front of my doorway, summoning all the moxie I can. Footsteps sound behind me and I turn to see Buen walking up the stairs, returning from his day’s work. Who did he kill today? What atrocities did Wynn force his hand to do?

  He sees me and stops at the top of the stairs. His eyes glow faintly in the dim light. The hallway illuminates with a flash of lightning and a boom of thunder follows five seconds later.

  Buen was my mentor. My strong body, my knowledge of the city and the class system, my attitude towards Wynn are all his. He trained me; he taught me.

  Now, he’s giving his life for me.

  We stand on opposite ends of the hall, saying nothing. I see tears on his face as another lightning hits. “I will give you as much time as I can,” he says. And then he disappears into his room. I don’t know why he’s doing this, but it isn’t a capricious move. Everything he does is premeditated.

  Am I a bad person for taking advantage of him? Do I value my own life more than his?

  No, but I can help Lydia. I can get into the mountains. Maybe we’ll make it back in time to save him.

  Assuming we escape tonight. I take a deep breath and push the door open to my room.

  As she has done every day for the last eight months, Somrusee stands and bows as I enter. There is no time for nostalgia, yet it washes over me anyway. I’ve hated this place, yet, in a few minutes I will leave it behind forever, whether I’m dead or alive. It might have been a prison, but it was a life.

  A life that was about to end. That may still end tonight.

  No more thinking about that. I need to focus. One distraction, one thing I miss, and we’ll die.

  I meet Somrusee halfway and pull her close so I can whisper in her ear. “There is a way out of the castle. We’re leaving right now.”

  She shakes her head and steps away from me, her eyes wide.

  I grab her hand. There is so much I want to say. I want to tell her that we need to be careful, that we’re going to Wynn’s tower, that this is our only option. But, I don’t want to tell Wynn any of that.

  She puts up little resistance as I pull her into the hall. Another flash of lightning streaks across the sky. The light reflects off Somrusee’s bare skin, highlighting her skimpy blue clothing. She’s going to be cold. I think about getting her one of my cloaks, but decide against it. It would be way too big on her, and would be a dead giveaway if someone saw us. Not that it matters anyway. Somrusee isn’t allowed outside my room.

  I don’t plan on being caught. If we don’t succeed tonight, it’s over.

  Before we reach the stairs, Somrusee digs her heels into the floor and forces me to stop. Once I’ve stopped, she whispers into my ear.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Don’t ask questions and stay with me,” I whisper back. Another lightning flash.

  I have to yank on her hand a couple times, but she does follow me down the stairs after that. The rain is coming down in sheets outside, drowning out the sound of our footsteps. Somrusee doesn’t say anything else, but she knows how much danger we’re in. We hurry down the stairs and out onto the causeway that crosses to Wynn’s tower.

  A lightning strike. Thunder booms so loud my ears ring.

  I let go of Somrusee’s hand and run across the causeway. She keeps up with me, but halfway across, she slips on the wet stone and falls hard on her knees. I slow, but she pushes herself up and keeps running past. By the time I join her at the end of the causeway, my robe is soaked and dripping with water. It’s good that the robe doesn’t absorb water very well.

  Another lightning flash illuminates Somrusee. Her knee is bleeding.

  We’re so going to get caught!

  Somrusee sees me looking at the blood coming out of her knee and her eyes widen. Then, with her eyes narrowing in determination, she reaches out and rips off a strip from my robe. When she’s done tying it around her knee, she pushes the door open into Wynn’s tower.

  I close the door behind me, shutting us in complete darkness. Seconds pass, and the only sound is my heavy breathing in concert with hers. Finally, a flash of lightning illuminates the room. One flash is all I need. I grab Somrusee’s hand and we pad across the floor toward the stairs. Another flash lights the room as we reach the bottom of the staircase.

  We’ve almost made it.

  I freeze when I hear a high-pitched voice floating down the spiraling staircase. Wynn’s soothing voice follows. I feel Somrusee tug my hand, pulling me back toward the door, back to outside and safety. The stairway is starting to get light. I can almost see her.

  We’re so dead.

  Somrusee tugs my arm again.

  But I know we won’t make it back to the door. This is it. I pull against her, and she lets me drag her up to the stairs.

  One, two, three, four, five. The voices get louder. Six.

  I push on the wall. Just another second until Wynn turns the corner. I push again. The wall is solid. Frantic, I push high and I push low. There is nothing here. Buen set us up.

  The light is so bright now—they’re coming around the corner.

  Somrusee yanks against me again, and this time her sweaty hand pulls free of my grasp. She loses her footing and tumbles into the wall on the other side of the stair.

  And disappears.

  It takes a second for things to register and then I dive across the stair at the wall. I go through it like it didn’t exist and land hard on top of Somrusee. To her credit, she doesn’t cry out or even groan.

  I roll off her and close my eyes. My heart pounds wildly in my chest, and I bite back a laugh. We’re still alive.

  Neither of us moves. Seconds pass, and then minutes. Somrusee’s breathing slows gradually, and I reach out and she takes my hand. I squeeze her hand back.

  We made it.

  Somehow, the passageway is dimly lit by candles on the walls. They seem to be magic because I don’t see any flames. I look at the copper stud in Somrusee’s foot and feel the earring in my ear. We aren’t free of Wynn yet. Somrusee leaves her top on her cut, and I don’t dare speak to ask her to replace it. Instead, I avoid looking at her as we trudge along the tunnel, away from the castle, in silence.

  Just when it seems the tunnel is going to go on forever, it ends and we step out of a large tree onto a walkway next to an old house. It’s still raining, but the rain has slowed into a light, drizzly rain. I shiver from the cold. It was warm in the tunnel.

  There is just enough light from the moon starting to peek through the clouds that I can make out the details of the old house. It looks deserted. We aren’t going to make it far ton
ight—this house will get us out of the rain.

  We walk slowly across the yard. The place is definitely deserted. The front door is hanging on by one hinge. I turn and start walking around the house. If we go in through the front door, we’ll probably knock it off and our presence here will be obvious. We round the back of the house, and luckily, we find a broken window.

  I help Somrusee climb through, and then I cut my hand on a shard of metal when I pull myself up. I bite my lips to keep from screaming as I hoist myself up and inside.

  It’s pitch-black inside. Somrusee stands next to me. Neither of us dare walk around without light. I put my arm around her. Her body is cold against mine, and she’s shivering.

  “I cut myself,” I say. My hand smarts like crazy.

  She doesn’t respond. I think of her knee. I bet that hurts, too. It’s dark, we’re both hurt, we can’t see, and Somrusee is cold.

  But we’re free. For now.

  I crouch down and feel the floor around us with my good hand. It seems sturdy enough around where we are. And it’s empty; the only thing I find on the floor is Somrusee’s bare feet.

  When I’m sure it’s safe, I tell Somrusee to lie down. I slip off my robe as she sits down beside me.

  “Curl up next to me,” I say. The words are safe to say out loud, though they might pique some interest inside Wynn’s golden room. Let him wonder. Somrusee’s hand touches my bare chest, and I turn so that my back is toward her. She curls her body around mine. Her skin is soft against me, and cold. Her body against mine triggers chemical reactions in me. My heartbeat quickens, but I take deep breaths to slow it down again and think about the danger we’re in.

  Once we’re settled, I throw my robe over our bodies. It has dried out already, and it’s big enough to cover us. Somrusee puts her free arm around me, pulling her cool skin tight against mine.

  Neither of us speaks again. I grab a fold of the robe and clutch it in my palm to stop the bleeding from the window. I lie still on the floor. My hand aches. Somrusee’s body moves softly next to me as she breathes. It isn’t long before her skin warms and she falls asleep.