The Azureans

by R Gene Curtis

  I pick the heavy copper piece off the ground. “We should destroy this. We don’t want Wynn listening to us.” How did she walk at all with this in her foot? It’s heavy.

  “How are you going to do that?” Karl asks. “We should probably bury it somewhere.”

  I remember the night the guard left a rock in my jail cell, and I wonder if something like that could be related to this metal and Wynn. “Up in the mountains, I melted a door with a rock,” I say. “It was probably a green rock—they all were around that area. Though they were green, not copper.”

  “Actually, if it was green, it probably had copper in it,” Karl says. “Copper is green when it gets oxidized. How did you do it?”

  “With saliva.” Without thinking, I put the end of the stud into my mouth. I promptly gag, as it has been in that girl’s leg for who knows how long and tastes like it’s been there longer.

  But, it gets hot, much faster than the rock that heated up at the gate prison.

  I drop the metal on the ground before it burns my hands. It smokes, and then it melts into liquid metal that trickles down the trail until it puddles into an indent in the ground.

  “Well,” Karl says. “That was cool, but who knows if it stops Wynn from hearing us.”

  I shrug. “Let’s keep it around. Maybe it will help us learn something about hemazury.”

  Karl nods. We all look around at each other, unsure what to do next or how we ended up here together.

  “Dynd, do you want to come with me to get some clothing for these two?” Ler asks.

  Dynd nods and they leave for Watch. Somrusee moves out of the cave and starts weaving a basket. Karl stands awkwardly at the entrance, not sure what to do next.

  I trust this new Karl. I just hope it isn’t another mistake.

  18 Intelligence

  Karl

  I stand at the mouth of the cave as Dynd and Ler walk down the trail that goes to Watch. They have a few hours of daylight left, but I imagine it will be dark or tomorrow before they return. With tunics. Tomorrow I’m going to be wearing a tunic—after another chilly night without a shirt.

  I hope Somrusee will be warm enough. Now that we aren’t alone, I’m thinking the cuddling next to each other part of our relationship is over and tonight we’ll sleep apart. In the last week, we’ve held hands, cuddled, and been close to each other a lot. It’s been nice, but it’s also been confusing. Aside from the first few weeks of massages, we never touched each other before we escaped. Just moments ago, Somrusee said we were together, but I’ve never thought of her that way. I’m not sure I can think of her that way, given her history as my slave. Yeah, I’ve protected her, but I’ve done that as a friend. Right?

  I hear movement behind me and Lydia walks up to stand beside me. I’m strangely nervous being by her again. Wind rustles through her hair as she catches a last glimpse of her friends before they turn out of sight.

  She looks familiar, but she’s a complete stranger. Her features are soft, and her curly hair really fills out her face nicely. She’s wearing the typical tunic and tights from the mountains.

  “You were at Wynn’s castle,” she says.

  “Yes. You’ve been in the mountains?”

  “Yeah.”

  An awkward pause. The English words are strange in my mouth, but I’m not sure what to say anyway. I’m almost touching Lydia as we stand next to each other in the small mouth of the cave. I grunt and move to sit on a rock facing Lydia. She sits down on the floor where she was.

  From this angle, I can see Somrusee working silently, still weaving a basket. She catches my eye and winks at me. I smile dumbly back.

  “Your English sounds a little rough. Can you still speak?” Lydia asks with a grin.

  The words sound funny, but I do understand them.

  “I reckon so.” A smile tugs at the corner of my mouth. I never thought my native tongue would feel so strange in my mouth.

  “You look great,” Lydia says. “Stronger, leaner.”

  “Thanks. I worked hard.”

  Lydia was an athlete before, so I imagine she understands the amount of physical effort it took to build out my body. Still, having her give me a once over makes me wish I had a shirt on.

  “Did you learn how to fight?” she asks.

  “Yeah. Sword fighting, knife throwing, hand-to-hand combat, horse riding. I learned it all.” All under the supervision of a dictator. My physique came at a price, one that Lydia could never understand. And my being here, talking to her like we’re friends from Earth, seems to negate Buen’s sacrifice somehow. How can things seem so normal when they just aren’t?

  She studies me, and I look away. I don’t need her intense gaze on me. I remember that gaze now, and I remember that I don’t like it. I didn’t trust her before. I trust her now, but I’m not sure why. She did break my foot, but then she healed it again.

  “And Wynn, you really saw him?”

  “Unfortunately.”

  “Is he as bad as all the legends?”

  “Worse.”

  She looks at me skeptically. “He would really kill everyone in this mountain?”

  A shiver runs through me, and I lean forward, as if to escape the fear that slithers through my veins. “Absolutely, Lydia, he would. He believes that there’s some secret here he needs to learn, and he’ll do anything to find it. He’s been working on ploys to access these mountains for decades. I was his biggest plan. He was sure he could get me to let him in. Instead, my friend died so that Somrusee and I could escape.” And at the thought of Buen, the urgency chokes in my throat, and I look down at my hands, blinking away the tears.

  Lydia probably thinks I’m an awful person for accepting such a sacrifice. And she’s probably right. I almost threw his sacrifice in the garbage and got killed by Goluken.

  “Is that why you don’t want to go home?” Her voice is soft. Not as harsh as I remember it. Maybe her gaze has softened, too.

  “That’s part of it, naturally. But, I also want to stop Wynn, if we can. He’s oppressed so many people. It seems like it might be possible, if you’re also a, what did you call yourself?”

  “Azurean.”

  “If you’re an Azurean, does that mean you can defeat Wynn? Do you know the secret?”

  Lydia shakes her head. “It’s not that easy. The secret isn’t in the mountains.”

  “Are you sure?” Wynn is too desperate for the secret not to be here.

  “While you’ve been trapped in the valley, I’ve been training as well.”

  “Training? Have you learned how to defeat Wynn?”

  She shakes her head. “Sadly, no. I’ve only had three training sessions, all of them from Wynn’s father.”

  “Wynn’s father?” Who knew that creep had a father? Still alive!

  She laughs. “His name is Cylus, and Wynn killed him a long time ago. But, he recorded information in a series of three caverns. Each of them has a magical entrance, and each of them tell about Wynn’s history and a bit about hemazury.”

  I know about some of the magic that Wynn does—copper listening devices, healings, breaking femurs. I’ve never heard about recording history or training.

  “What do you know? Do you know how to heal people?” My face gets hot as soon as the words leave my mouth—duh! She’s already healed me. “I mean, of course you do,” I mumble.

  She smiles a little, but she doesn’t mock my stupidity. “Yes, I can. I don’t understand everything, but I do it by touching the dirt. If I add my blood, I can do it from a distance. I use dirt both to heal and to hurt.”

  “I saw Wynn hurt from a distance. There was an invading army, and he broke all of their femurs, just by staring at them after throwing some dust.” I shudder at the memory. “So, everything you touch you can suddenly control like that?”

  She shakes her head. “No, it’s just the dirt, and I can only affect living things.”

  “That still seems cool. And then there’s copper. You can heat it up.”

  �
�Apparently. With saliva. I discovered that by accident when I was in jail and really hungry.”

  Even if hemazury is magic, there has to be a scientific way to think about it. Lydia’s brow furrows. I wonder if she’s smart, though I’m not sure that’s my business.

  “Wynn uses copper to listen to people’s conversations,” I tell her.

  “That’s what you said,” she says. “How do you think he does it?” She stands up and walks down the trail a little to pick up the the now-hardened piece of copper. She lets the sun warm her face while she closes her eyes. I watch with moderate interest as a few minutes tick by.

  “I think I figured it out.” She opens her eyes and smiles. It’s a cute smile. “It’s sweat, just like the dirt. I transfer consciousness to the copper. I can go back to the copper any time.”

  “Like the dirt?” I’m a little lost.

  She tosses me the copper piece. “Yeah, it’s almost the same, except I transfer my consciousness back to the copper whenever I want to. Go over to those trees where I can’t hear you and say something.”

  I stand obediently and walk until I’m out of earshot. “Hi, Lydia. My name is Karl.” I might as well have said, “I’m the most uncreative person in the universe.”

  When I get back to the cave entrance, Lydia is smiling. “I thought your name was Karu now.”

  I laugh. At least she’s funny about how stupid I am. And, I’m enjoying talking in English now. I didn’t know how much I’ve missed it.

  “It’s interesting,” she says with her eyes closed again, “It’s like a sound bite. I can fast-forward or rewind, and I can jump around, too. I can hear conversations you had with Somrusee days or even weeks ago.”

  “Really?”

  “Sounds like it was pretty intense getting onto the mountain,” she says, and she frowns and her face pales. “That man, Goluken, he said awful things to Somrusee. You showed up just in time.”

  “You found that part already?”

  She smiles a little sheepishly. “Yeah, it’s interesting. And I recognize that I’m totally invading your privacy. But, I just have to wonder about certain conversations, and the consciousness goes there automatically.”

  She probably wondered about the rape so she could verify I was telling the truth. It makes sense, but I’m anxious for her to stop listening in on everything I’ve said over the past year. Especially to Somrusee.

  “That’s probably why Wynn is so efficient at what he does,” I say.

  “What do you mean?” Her eyes open.

  “He sits all day in a small room, listening to copper in order to find people who are his enemies. Then, he sends his errand boys, his men of Wynn, to kill them. That’s what he was training me to do.”

  She shudders. “That’s disgusting! All day? How does he stay safe? It takes a lot of concentration to do this.”

  “He locks himself in a small room.” I shudder at the thought of the room. I thought I would die in there.

  She frowns. “What’s wrong?”

  I shrug; I hadn’t realized how obvious my emotions were. “He took me in there once. He kept his hand on me the entire time.”

  “That’s strange.”

  She’s right. It was really strange. Thinking back on it now, Wynn had a hand or foot on me every time we were together. “You know what? Maybe there was some kind of magic, I mean hemazury, in it. You use sweat for the copper and for the dirt. Would it work on people?”

  Lydia’s face lights up. “Yeah! That could explain it! Since I’ve been here, I’ve had weird feelings every time I’ve touched someone. Want to try it?” She grins a little sheepishly. “Not that you have to be my guinea pig, but I thought you were a scientist.”

  I’m a little slow to respond since my privacy has already been violated with the copper.

  “It’s okay if you don’t want to. I can ask Somrusee instead.”

  The comment hits a nerve, and I stand up and walk over to where she’s still holding the copper. “I’m not going to ask Somrusee to do anything.” I’m embarrassed by how harsh the words sound, and I turn away from her, frustrated by my own burst of emotion.

  Lydia backtracks immediately. “I’m sorry, I...”

  “Don’t worry about it,” I say weakly. “I’m just, well...” I can’t think of how to finish that sentence.

  “Ready?” she asks with another apologetic smile, and she shrugs.

  I return the smile. “Yeah.”

  She puts her hand on my arm. I watch her intently. Nothing happens to me, but I expected that.

  Lydia lets go of my arm and laughs. “I would say that you feel very curious about this whole thing. It was almost as if I could feel your curiosity as if it were my own.”

  I laugh. “Feelings. Wynn would want to know what people are feeling. It almost gives you a window to their thoughts. Though, aren’t you curious, too?”

  “Yeah. Let’s try it again, but this time think about something else. Think about something I’ve never thought about before, or something I wouldn’t expect.”

  I try to think of something, but she doesn’t give me long enough. I randomly remember the night Tara made out with me before going to her study session.

  “Ready?” Lydia asks.

  No, but I’m not going to come up with anything else. I nod and close my eyes, remembering the kiss with Tara.

  Lydia touches me for a few seconds and pulls back. Her eyes search mine.

  “Well?” Something in her expression says I should have asked for more time to find something else to think about.

  “You felt, uh ... desire.” Her brow furrows, and I wish I could disappear rather than hear her next words. “You wanted,” she pauses, searching for the right word, “a girl, I guess. But you felt guilty about it. The guilt and the excitement were fighting for control inside of you.”

  My face burns and I look into the dirt. That was a disaster. Maybe I should let Lydia figure hemazury out by herself before she’s uncovered all of my life’s secrets.

  “That’s it,” she says, and I’m sure the light tone in her voice is forced. “But, it works the same way as the copper and the dirt. I just have to concentrate on it. I feel your emotions as if they were my own, but I keep my own thoughts. So, I can stay conscious the entire time.”

  “Wow.” Wynn. He knew exactly how I felt. He knew my fear of him, and of my despair as well as my desire to fight to survive. That’s why he kept me in the castle. That’s why it took Buen’s life to save mine.

  “I guess I never imagined boys felt like that about girls,” Lydia says. My face gets hot again. Who did she think I was thinking about? Her? Somrusee? I’m such an idiot.

  She laughs. “Karl, you’re bright red.”

  I clear my throat. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “That’s okay,” she says, and she slides her hand onto my arm.

  I jump away, recoiling from the touch like I would an electrical wire. Only then do I realize she’s teasing me, and my face heats up even more. She laughs. She’s strangely natural around me, and she gets to me in a way other girls don’t. Well, maybe except for Pearl.

  I wish I could read her mind, too. What would she think if I had similar thoughts about her? Is she a girl I could think about in a romantic way?

  I glance back to see Somrusee watching us from inside the cave, her weaving momentarily forgotten.

  “Okay,” Lydia calls my attention back to her and gives me a reassuring smile. She’s all business again. “So, we know sweat interacts with dirt, copper, and people.”

  I nod. “It seems like saliva should be able to do the same thing.”

  “We know that saliva interacts with copper.”

  “Heat,” I confirm.

  “Right. So, what about dirt?” She leans over and spits on the ground in front of her. Within a few seconds, the dirt starts to make a small cloud over the hole. Lydia reaches down and waves her hand through it. “It isn’t hot,” she says.

  About a minute later, th
e dust clears and in front of Lydia is a hole. It’s about 5 inches in diameter, and deeper than either of us can tell.

  “That’s interesting.” We bump heads as we look down the hole and come back laughing.

  “And completely useless as far as I can tell.”

  “I’ve never seen anything like it,” I say.

  “Are you brave enough to let me try it on you?” she asks.

  I’m not sure that I want her to touch me with her saliva. “Can you put me back together, if I die?”

  She laughs. “I don’t think you’ll die. It seems like it would be too hard not to kill people if everyone who touches your saliva dies. I would have figured that out already.”

  “Okay, but just a little saliva.”

  She licks her finger. As her finger approaches me, I get a little nervous. And then her finger touches me and I get a lot nervous. In fact, I get so nervous that I’m sure that I’m going to die from the saliva. The apprehension and fear grip me, and I cry out and fall down to my knees. Then, the feelings are gone just as fast as they came. I look up, not sure where I am or what happened.

  “Why did you do that?” Lydia asks.

  “I don’t know what happened. When you touched me, I was gripped with fear. It was so distracting, I couldn’t concentrate on anything else.”

  Lydia smiles. “What if the fear was what happened to you?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Feel something else.”

  I close my eyes and remember my mother on her deathbed. How much I love her, and how much I miss her. Suddenly, my grief becomes all consuming. Tears run down my cheeks, and I know I will never be happy again. Mom is gone and I miss her so much. Sobs escape from deep inside of me. The feelings pass, and I open my eyes.

  “Were you thinking about something sad?” Lydia asks, a grin on her face.

  “Oh.” I wipe the tears away, confused about where the burst of emotion came from. “Sorry about that. Are we going to try again?” I’m going to think about something happy. My emotions are a mess.

  “I touched you already. As soon as I did, you started sobbing.”