The Azureans

by R Gene Curtis

  “Oh. That’s what happens then. Saliva interacts with people by enhancing their emotions.” Saliva is energy. More emotion, more heat, and holes—dirt moving out of the way. Sweat—consciousness. Each of them interacts with all three.

  This isn’t magic—this is science! Somrusee watches us from the cave as we work for another twenty minutes and add blood to each of the six combinations. For sweat, blood enhances the ability. Blood and sweat and dirt allows you to throw. Blood and sweat and copper means that you can hear, smell, and feel (apparently, it’s weird to feel someone’s fingers touch you when you are copper). Blood and sweat makes it so that Lydia can even start to pick out some of my thoughts. We stop there.

  Then we move to saliva. Interestingly, blood and saliva have a counteracting effect. Dirt turns to solid rock instead of vaporizing. The copper gets so cold that it becomes a 12-inch ball of ice from frozen condensation. And when Lydia touches me with saliva and blood, I lose all emotion and can’t feel anything.

  By the time we finish our exploration, we’re both excited. The rules are simple. Of course, we’re not sure how any of this will defeat Wynn, or how it makes a portal or the caverns or the secret passageway out of the castle. There may be other elements and fluids, but we aren’t sure how to figure out what they might be.

  But we made a lot of progress today.

  The sun starts to hide behind the distant horizon, and sunset colors light up the sky.

  “Do you think Ler and Dynd will make it back tonight?” I ask.

  Lydia shakes her head. “They wanted to get information while they’re in Watch. Ler hasn’t been back since the day you left.”

  I start when I see Somrusee walking up the trail, a basket of food under each arm. I didn’t even notice her leave the cave.

  “You’ve had a lot to talk about,” she says.

  I take one of the baskets from her, avoiding her eyes and her implicit question. I liked spending time with Lydia, but I feel shy about it. I sample a few shoots from the basket. “We’ve been learning the basics of Azurean magic.”

  “I see.” Her eyes narrow and she looks past me to Lydia, who is knocking ice off the copper. She’s going to use it to heat the cave tonight. The setting sun behind her shapes her slim silhouette against the colors of the sunset as she pounds against the ground.

  I follow Somrusee back to the cave, and suddenly I long for cuddling with Somrusee tonight. When we were running together, I let her be close to me. But, now that we’re safe, I’m not sure what to do. Somrusee is a strong, beautiful woman, and we’ve been through a lot together. But, I’m not ready to commit, and it has nothing to do with Lydia. It has a lot more to do with a crazy man who throws dirt to break people’s legs and forces women to wear skimpy clothes and call themselves za’an.

  A man who would kill me if he knew where I am. A man that this world would be better without.

  Lydia’s consciousness is in the copper now. Does that mean that Wynn can’t hear us anymore? Or, will he always be with us?

  19 Identity

  Lydia

  Somrusee’s breathing slows. Finally. You’d think she’s never slept at night before.

  I push against the hard ground and tiptoe to the copper in the center of the cave. It’s still hot—too hot to touch, keeping the cave at a pleasant temperature.

  Karl is by himself on what we decided would be the men’s side of the cave. As expected, Ler and Dynd haven’t made it back yet. I pause momentarily to convince myself Karl is asleep also. It was a nice day here with him. In the lambent light from the copper I can see his shaped body as he breathes deep and rhythmic. Yeah, he’s asleep, and I feel like I could watch him all night. If only I had some idea how I look—I haven’t seen myself in a mirror since we came through the portal.

  I sigh and move on, pushing thoughts of our afternoon out of my mind. It was fun how our minds met and we worked together. But I didn’t wait for hours for Somrusee to fall asleep so I could watch Karl.

  I go to the cave opening. Stars freckle across the night sky, and the moon sneaks over the peaks in the distance. The peace of the night betrays the turmoil in the world. Were there nights like this in Auschwitz? Peaceful, beautiful nights, oblivious to the people being gassed and buried in masses? Was the night before Pearl Harbor beautiful with a warm breeze and a sky full of stars as Japanese boats floated in the water just miles away?

  I pull the key from my pocket and turn it over in my hand. My palms are sweaty, making the key slick in my hand, but it doesn’t pull on my consciousness. I guess it’s not copper.

  There’s a lot I don’t know—about metal, or about hemazury. Realizing this afternoon just how much more there is to learn makes the hours and hours I practiced this winter seem so specialized to such a small part of hemazury.

  How much do I not know? How did Togan trap Wynn? How did Wynn escape? How would I make portals, tunnels, chambers, and memories? Cylus said that there is a secret to the hemazury—something they couldn’t risk Wynn knowing. What is that about?

  And while I stand here not knowing, Wynn is out there somewhere. He’s under this same moon, under this same peaceful sky. And he has been using hemazury for centuries. Today, Karl gave me a scientific way of thinking about things, but I am still having a hard time keeping it all straight.

  And then there was that part when I touched him to see how he felt. And he felt something strong, and I felt it, and then I wanted that feeling to be for me.

  Before Karl left, I was so frustrated with him, but things are different now. He wants to fight Wynn to free people from the hell they live in. Like I do.

  I look back into the cave where Somrusee is sleeping.

  What am I doing?

  The key turns over in my hand again.

  This is the last chamber. I came outside to prep myself, but instead I’m thinking about Karl.

  I leave the panorama of stars and walk back into the cave. The map led me here, to this cave, and I know where I’m supposed to go. A small hole near the back of the cave doesn’t look natural, like it will fit my strangely shaped key. This is it. This is the time where I learn everything else Cylus and Togan have left for me.

  Neither Karl nor Somrusee stir as I tiptoe across the cave and push the key into it. I wait for rumbling, for the ground to move away, but nothing happens. I turn the key, and it turns.

  Still nothing, and so I push and the wall in front of me opens into complete blackness. I stand in the doorway, staring out into nothing until I remember seeing a pair of lanterns that Ler left behind. I tiptoe over by Karl again. His broad chest rises and falls slowly. I pause, tempted to explore his shaped body and feel how his broad muscles stretch against each other. And then I catch myself and get a lantern.

  Light reveals a small room that reminds me of my high school coach’s office. A small desk cluttered with papers takes up most of the room, and the rest is filled with books teetering on makeshift shelves.

  Books. I close the door behind me and lean against it with my eyes closed. I cannot read.

  I open a book and find nothing but chicken scratch.

  This quest, this journey through the mountains, the conversations with Cylus, led me here. To a room full of books, probably information, but I can’t access any of it.

  Do any of my friends know how to read? Ler? Dynd? It doesn’t seem likely. I haven’t seen any writing in the mountains. I bite my lip and wander aimless around the room. Paper. Books. More paper. More chicken scratch. More books.

  I can’t find anything in here that will keep me from facing a restless night on the cave floor. Nothing in here will distract me from the disappointment that seeps through my veins.

  In the back corner of the room, a reflection catches my eye, and I find something that is not a book. It’s a disk, about the shape of an apple, and it’s sitting on a shelf next to one of the old books. It glows red when the lantern light hits it. Copper. I pick it up, and three people flash into view as soon as I touch it. I recogni
ze Cylus at once. He sits in the corner, a book on his lap. Two others are with him, a younger looking man and a woman. The woman is pregnant; she’s just starting to show.

  The man and woman look familiar, but I’m sure I’ve never seen them before. And then I realize why they look familiar. The man’s eyes look just like mine, as does the way he holds himself. And then the woman—her ears and her unruly hair match me. I can’t take my eyes off their faces, off of my own reflection in their features. Their conversation barely registers. I put my hand on the shelf behind me to steady myself, careful not to drop the disk.

  “You’re sure this plan will work?” the man asks.

  “Yes,” Cylus says. “If we make a sequence of way stations, the location of the cave will stay hidden. Wynn doesn’t have patience. We’ll put the key at the third station and thus give ourselves a really good chance that Wynn will never get it.”

  “Even then,” the man says, “we must destroy the book that holds the secret to renewing blue blood. It’s too risky. If I don’t pass the secret to my daughter, it will die with me and Azureans will have a limited blood supply from now on.”

  I’m barely breathing. A daughter. This man’s daughter? Could it be me that is just starting to show from inside the woman? But Cylus lived 200 years ago, so it can’t be.

  “Togan,” the woman says, speaking for the first time. Her voice is soft, but confident. It sounds like my voice. I know the name she speaks. Togan, the man who looks like me, is the king. He turns to his wife, and his expression is soft when he looks at her. His mouth twitches, and I smile when I see it. My mouth twitches like that when I’m excited or nervous.

  “Wynn is trapped,” she says. “Why are you so worried? You’ve defeated him, stopped him. That’s why we got married, why we decided to have this baby.”

  “Yes, of course,” Togan says softly. “But, in the past month rumors have started. Wynn’s up to something. He may have found a way past the barrier. I hope not, but I’m not as confident as I was a few months ago.”

  “But, you told me Wynn could only get past the barrier if you were dead.”

  “Reenah.” His voice is so gentle as he holds his hand out to her. “Yes. If Wynn kills me, he would be free. Then you and our baby would be in extreme danger. All the information we’ve gathered would be compromised. Wynn would destroy this world.”

  Reenah puts her head in her hands to hide her tears while Togan continues talking.

  “That is why we’ll create a barrier to the mountains. Not because we know this will happen, but just in case. Only certain people will be able to pass the barrier. Like Kinni, for example, and his descendants. People we trust. We’ll tell them about it, and they can come here for safety if something happens. But, even with a barrier, there is still a chance Wynn could get through. That’s why we need the precautions Cylus is talking about. We’ll be careful.”

  Reenah pulls away from Togan, and wipes tears from her face angrily. “You could have killed him!” she shouts. “Why didn’t you kill him?”

  Togan looks stunned. “Reenah, he’s my brother...”

  “He killed your mother!”

  “We don’t know that,” Togan says softly.

  “Don’t say that! You know it was him. And he killed your father. He would have killed you, too, if Cylus hadn’t found this cave.”

  Cylus gets up and leaves the room and memory. I almost don’t notice, I am so riveted on Togan and Reenah. Cylus may have left, but I’m not going anywhere.

  “I’m not a killer. I’m not Wynn.”

  “You’re scared,” she says, nearly choking on the words. “You’re scared if you kill him you might become like him, and so instead you don’t protect me.” Tears splash onto her cheeks. “You don’t protect us,” she says, resting her hands on her belly. “What about my daughter? If we die, this little girl doesn’t have a mommy. This little girl will be alone. What happens to her?”

  Togan looks down at Reenah’s belly. He rests his hand on it gently, and speaks so quietly I have to take a step closer to hear. “We have a backup plan for that, too. Cylus and I developed a transportable portal. It will be in Cylus’s possession. If something happens, you will take her to the other world. You’ll bring her back when she’s ready.”

  Reenah looks into Togan’s face. The anger has drained out of it, and her face is wet with tears. “What if I’m dead?” she whispers.

  “Then Cylus will take her. The one thing we know about portals, is that it always takes two people.”

  “This portal behaves in the same way as the others you’ve made?”

  Togan shakes his head. “No. This portal will have a companion portal here on the mountains. When it’s time to come back, Ria will just have to hold hands with someone from our world. She can do that anywhere and she’ll be in the mountains.”

  For the first time Reenah smiles. Her smile is a lot like mine. “Ria?”

  Togan nods. “Yes, I’ve decided I accept the name you love so much.”

  She nods and lets Togan hug her. “Then, I hope you’re wrong. I hope we don’t need that stupid portal. I hope you and I both live to see our Ria born, and that we grow old and love her and that she’s never alone. You will teach her hemazury, and we will never worry about Wynn again.”

  Reenah buries her face into Togan’s chest, and he holds her tight.

  Suddenly, Togan laughs. “I forgot. This was all captured on that copper Cylus set up to tell us about his plan to place memories in caverns with copper floors.”

  Reenah shrugs. “No one will ever see any of them anyway.”

  Togan smiles. “I’m sure you’re right, but if they do, I want to be sure they see this.” He leans forward and kisses Reenah. She throws her arms around him, pulling herself into him, her baby bump smothered between them. Togan laughs and bends over to kiss the bump. “I love you, too, Ria,” he says as they disappear.

  I’m alone again, standing in the center of the room with wet cheeks. I’m barely breathing. Those two people—Reenah and Togan—their faces and mannerisms. How could they not be my parents? The story sort of makes sense. Wynn escaped and killed them, and the portal didn’t work—it sent me to the future. When I touched Karl, I ended up in the meadow, which actually did work like it was supposed to.

  But, there are too many holes in the story for me to accept it. Who came with me to Earth? Why didn’t they tell me who I was? Why did I show up in the park alone? And, even though it sounds nice, Togan didn’t say a word about time travel.

  Still. They looked so much like me. Togan kissed Reenah so gently. Was I there when he did that? Am I Ria?

  Will I ever know?

  I slide to the floor and hug my legs. I cry for a long time before I leave the chamber.

  ✽✽✽

  I wake up with a headache, which isn’t new given the sleeping arrangements these past few months. If we survive this whole thing, I’m teaching these people about beds.

  Birds sing and call to each other outside the cave. What is today going to bring? More disappointment?

  I stand up and stretch, but stop when I look at the entrance of the cave. Karl sits next to Somrusee on the same rock where he talked to me yesterday. Somrusee is scantily clad, as she always is, and she leans against Karl, who has his arm around her.

  I turn away and stretch my neck muscles. Like I told myself last night—that feeling Karl had yesterday was for Somrusee. I was right about it.

  Footsteps approach. I turn around to see Karl.

  “Good morning,” he says.

  “Morning.”

  “How are you feeling?”

  I shrug.

  “You don’t look like you’re feeling well, and you slept really late.”

  My eyes shift back and forth between Karl and Somrusee.

  I try to put a smile on. “I didn’t sleep well. And I have a headache.”

  Karl reaches down and grabs a handful of dirt. “You should be able to take care of the headache part,” he says.<
br />
  I stare at him dumbly. What does dirt have to do with anything?

  “You’re an Azurean, right?”

  Oh. Right. “I’m not sure what I would do with a headache. You think I can do something?”

  “It’s probably a tension headache. You need to loosen the muscles in your back, neck, and scalp. They’re probably tight from sleeping on the cave floor.”

  I nod and let him put the dirt into my hands. I wonder if I know how to loosen muscles. I can break bones and heal wounds, but I’ve never loosened muscles. I rub my hands, and sit down.

  The neck muscles are particularly interesting to me. They feel like a spider web of connections between my shoulders, my neck, and my head. But, there are muscles that are tight, and when I loosen them, my headache reduces. When I open my eyes again, I am feeling much better. I look around for Karl, to thank him, but he has returned to sit by Somrusee on the rock again. I still manage a smile, as I walk over to stand awkwardly next to them.

  “Thank you,” I say. “That was a great idea.” Karl returns my smile, but I step away so I’m not towering over them like some kind of teetering giant.

  “Do you know how to read?” I ask, as I straddle a log adjacent to the rock.

  It’s Karl who answers, surprisingly. “I learned how to read and write as a Man of Wynn. But I don’t know how well that language will match up with whatever text you want read.”

  “I can read, too,” Somrusee says.

  I practically fly off the log. “Come with me,” I say, and the two follow me into the cave. I open the door to the small room.

  “This is where everything has led,” I say excitedly, probably talking too fast. “Cylus set up the three caverns to lead me here. And now that I’m here, I can’t read a single word.”

  They step past me into the room. It’s too dark to read in the room without a lamp, but they both open several books and hold them up to the light.

  “We can read these books,” Somrusee says. “What is it that you want to know?”

  The kindness in her voice seems out of place for a woman parading around looking like a girl who should be standing outside a strip club. But, if Karl trusts her, she probably is nice.