The Azureans

by R Gene Curtis

  “Yes. Wynn will be here soon.”

  “He will,” Goluken says. “He has business here. A man of Wynn escaped into the mountains. There is also talk of a blue princess. Wynn will squash those rumors quickly.”

  Mara’s father laughs. “People are so gullible?”

  “They are,” Goluken says. “But even I, myself, will take the rumors seriously until Wynn proves them false. The last thing I need is for a second Azurean to disrupt my plans.”

  “So, you believe it, then?”

  “Not enough to keep me out of the mountains. If there was an Azurean up there, I don’t know why she didn’t foist herself into our world a long time ago. Azureans crave power. You see how Wynn clutches to it so tightly. They think they’re gods. They parade around, so sure their power sets them above men. Fortunately, it’s their lust for power that saves us, and their ignorance of the Sapphiri.”

  “The Sapphiri?”

  “Legends say the day will come when Sapphiri combine power with Azureans, resulting in ultimate power and peace in this world.”

  “Maybe that’s why Wynn tried to have them all killed.”

  “Maybe that’s why Wynn is a fool. If he could have had more power by using another, he should have taken it. But it’s too late now. There is only one Sapphiri left alive, and I plan to kill him soon.”

  “I see,” Mara’s father says. “But can’t Wynn hear this conversation?”

  Goluken laughs. “I’m not a fool, I put in a phony copper earring a long time ago. I switch it out regularly enough. I’m free of the old man. But thanks for this. Now I must go.”

  “Arujan?”

  “No, the man of Wynn. I want him dead before Wynn gets here. I want to kill him myself—see the light go out of his eyes under my hand.”

  “What makes you think you can find him?”

  “Oh, I know something about him. A weakness. He won’t be moving very fast.” Goluken’s laugh makes me sick.

  “I have a rebellious daughter up there. Can I come along? I need to find her, for similar reasons.”

  “Gather what you need quickly. I want to get back to my house by nightfall. We leave first thing tomorrow.”

  Mara’s father steps over to the closet. “I will need papers,” he says. I can see him now. He stands right in front of me, his brow furrowed as he searches through a stack of papers in front of the closet. I hold my breath, still but ready to punch him and draw my sword, sure that I don’t want to give Goluken a chance to fulfill his threat while trapped inside a closet.

  “Found it!” Mara’s father grabs a sheet of paper and turns back into the room. Somehow, my figure didn’t register in his brain.

  “I’ll sign it now,” Goluken says. I hear the scribble on paper, and the two men leave the room and go into the kitchen. They continue to talk, and I stay still, wishing I could still hear their conversation.

  It’s more than an hour later that the two men finally leave the house. By then I’m so sore I can barely move. Still, I escaped. That was close.

  Dynd is excited when I recount the story of my near-death experience. “Best news all day! Arujan’s plan is foiled,” he says happily. “It will be hard to hide the fact that people live in the valley when an army shows up.”

  “Our plan has been foiled, too,” Lydia says quietly. “We don’t have a hideout, and a lot of people are trying to kill us.”

  Dynd nods. “I know. I’m just saying we aren’t the only ones who lost something.”

  But Lydia isn’t done yet. “I don’t care about Arujan,” she says, and she means it. “Talking about him or the mountains is a waste of time. We need to get out of here as fast as possible.”

  “Without being detected,” I interject.

  “Yes.” Lydia sighs. “Without being detected by an Azurean god who wants to kill us.”

  Jarra chooses that moment to run across the room screaming and naked from being changed. The laughter that ensues is a welcome respite from the rising tension.

  Lydia wisely lets the laughter die down before she speaks again.

  “Thanks for being here.” She looks tired.

  “No, thank you,” Somrusee says. “You’re saving, or have saved, the lives of each of us here.” She looks at me as she says it.

  There are murmurs of agreement around the room.

  “I just hope we’re still alive to tell the same story tomorrow.” Lydia retreats into a corner and curls into a ball.

  The rest of us find our own space and lie down. I don’t know if anyone is asleep, but the light outside dims, and it’s quiet.

  25 Information

  Brit

  “When do you need to leave to go back for Fall camp?” Mom asks.

  “Camp starts a week from Friday.”

  “Any word from your friend?”

  “No.” Lydia is gone. Filed away as a missing person. Forgotten by just about everyone. Everyone but me. I’ve thought about her every day this summer.

  Lydia won’t be at camp next week, she won’t be there to bring me back to Waunakee when I need it, and she won’t compete with me for the starting spot on the soccer team.

  Mom touches my shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

  I’m sorry, too. I wish someone knew what happened to her. Was it the injury? Was she jealous of me playing for her after she worked so hard to get on the team? Once I got the starting position, I didn’t really think about her until after the season.

  She didn’t have family support; no one was looking out for her. She was counting on me, and I failed her.

  Maria told me they found her crutches in Arches National Park. She couldn’t have gone far without them, not with how hurt her knee was. Maybe she was kidnapped, or maybe there was an accident. I’ve had the image of coyotes ripping her body apart come into my mind too many times.

  “You need to let it go and move on with your life,” Mom says.

  I just shrug. The world is a big place, and it keeps moving. It doesn’t care that Lydia is gone. It doesn’t care about her, or her dreams, or her life. What makes Mom think that it cares about me and my life?

  “Are you going to leave me, too?” I ask.

  Mom shakes her head and gives me a squeeze.

  I let myself cry. How do I know if she’ll be here tomorrow? She talks to me in her soporific voice, makes promises and gives me a hug, but she can’t promise that she’ll be here for me. My brother died, and now he’s rotting in the ground. Greg said he’d be there for me, but that was only for as long as he could manipulate me. Lydia was there for me when Stephen died, but now she’s been kidnapped or murdered or lost. Mom doesn’t know if she’ll be here tomorrow, next week, or next year.

  Though one thing is for sure, she won’t be there for me at soccer camp. I’m going to be alone, but I’m going to work hard and I’m going to start on the team. Maybe I’ll make it through the season, or maybe I’ll get injured like Lydia. But, I’m going to work hard. It’s not because I’m moving on with my life. It’s because I have to, and because I won’t have anything left if I don’t. The only one I have is Mom. And she’s overweight and old and could have a stroke any minute.

  “Thanks for talking,” I say.

  “I’m going to miss you.” She steps forward and gives me another one of her hugs—the kind that makes the world seem like a happy place.

  I want to ask her to come with me, which makes me feel like an idiot. Who brings their Mom to college?

  My phone vibrates. It’s an unknown Arizona number. I answer it because I don’t want to talk about this anymore.

  “Hello?”

  Mom stands and leaves the room.

  “Hi, my name is Pearl Stapp. I’m an investigator, and I’m looking for information about two missing persons who disappeared about ten months ago.”

  Another investigator. I get too many calls like this.

  “You knew Lydia Miller?” she asks.

  “Yes.”

  “It was your car she drove to meet with Karl Stapp in P
ittsburgh?”

  Stapp. The investigator has the same last name as the Karl guy.

  “You are a Stapp, too?”

  Silence. And then, “I’m his sister.”

  There are other people in the world who have lost someone. I give the caller what information I have, which isn’t much.

  I hang up the phone and stare blankly out the window. Though most of the street is obscured by the large tree in our front yard, I make out a black car parked across the street. A man with a long, blond ponytail sits in the driver’s seat. I squint through the window. The man sitting in the front seat is that Bob guy—I’m almost sure. What is he doing here?

  He turns on the car and drives away when I open the front door. That’s creepy. I stand in the shade of the tree for a while, letting the humidity of the late afternoon grab my clothes and stick them tightly to my skin. Not knowing what else to do, I sigh and go back into the house.

  Mom’s in the kitchen. I should probably go help, but I’m really not in the mood to talk to her right now. Another good thing would be to kick a ball around or go for a run, but there will be plenty of that next week. I sit down at the computer and go to Facebook. Maybe something interesting is going on there. If I have any friends left.

  I find a friend request from Chuck Madsen. I haven’t talked to Chuck since our junior year of high school. He was a shy kid, but I really thought he’d be my boyfriend. I tried to get to know him all year, but he never asked me out. Well, maybe he’s finally getting his nerve up. I’d love to have a guy to flirt with for a few days before going back to school.

  I accept the friend request. The acceptance registers, and Chuck and I are friends. I click into Chuck’s profile, and it gives me a blocking message. “Chuck only shares information with his friends,” it says.

  He’s already unfriended me. I check my list of friends, and he isn’t there. That’s a new record. Time to help Mom with the dishes.

  Where is Lydia? How can someone just disappear? I wish she was going to be there with me when I step back on the soccer field.

  26 Iroyo

  Lydia

  I look at the people sitting in front of me. Dynd, Ler, Karl, Mara, Tran, and Somrusee. This is my team. This is who we have to orchestrate a battle against Wynn.

  Somrusee sits next to Karl. I know I shouldn’t, but I keep glancing over at them. Somrusee puts her hand where Karl can take it, but he doesn’t. She sits close to him so he can put his arm around her, but he leaves his arm resting on his leg. I saw them kiss in the forest, and I saw Karl’s desperation when Somrusee nearly died. So, why doesn’t he return her affection? I look at them again, and Karl’s eyes meet mine. He notices and smiles. Pesky butterflies flutter through me, and I force myself to look away.

  Off to their left, Mara sits alone, if she can sit for very long. She stands, and then she sits, and then she stands again. She’s uncomfortable, but those two babies in her are not ready for the world yet. I’ve checked on them enough times to be sure of that.

  Dynd, Ler, and Tran all sit next to each other on the other side of the room. They’re as clueless as I am as to what we should do next. Off the mountains, they’ve entered a world just as foreign to them as it is to me. I can’t rely on them like I could in the mountains. If I could take all my friends back to my world, I might do it. Instead, they keep me here, tethering me to the world and its problems, like a tree’s trunk keeps it anchored in the ground.

  “Somrusee and Mara,” I say. “You know this world. Karl has the papers, but I don’t know what to do next.”

  “I know my dad’s signature,” Mara says. “I can plagiarize the paperwork for you and Karu.”

  Karl hands her the paperwork, and she starts writing.

  “Goluken has a summer home in the west,” Somrusee says, looking at Karl when she speaks, as if asking him to notice her. “My father and I visited it once on holiday when I was very young.”

  Karl doesn’t turn his gaze away from Mara, who is writing.

  Mara nods. “I remember him mentioning that home, too,” she says. “But we never left our town.”

  “Goluken told Mara’s dad he’s going into the mountains, which means his summer home is likely empty,” Somrusee says. “He isn’t the kind of man to let even one za’an out of his sight. If we make it to the hills, and if we find the house, it would be a perfect hideout while Karu and the princess go into Juniter. We would just have to make it across the country unnoticed.”

  Karl laughs, finally turning to Somrusee, who lights up when he looks at her. “You make it sound so easy. Did you want me to go back to Goluken’s house to find a map?”

  “Let’s not try our luck two days in a row,” I say, choosing to take Karl’s words literally. Both his and Somrusee’s expressions grow serious again.

  “Let’s get supplies ready and go before noon,” I say.

  Ler stands up. “We’re ready,” he says, grinning. “It doesn’t take long to prepare when you don’t have anything to gather.”

  Dynd and Tran stand, too. Dynd steps to Mara, takes the completed paperwork and helps her clamber to her feet. This is going to be a long journey for her.

  “I gave you both common names,” Mara says. “I’m calling you Ria, Lydia.”

  “The name of the princess?”

  Mara nods. “Yes, it’s common.”

  “What name did you pick for Karu?” Somrusee asks.

  “Iroyo.”

  Somrusee smiles. “Hope,” she says. “I like it.”

  Karl shrugs and walks toward the door, seemingly oblivious to Somrusee following right after him.

  I stand up, too. We’re as ready as we’ll ever be. The plan is simple. We’ll follow Somrusee in a beeline for the Western Hills. If anyone spots us, the others will hide and Karl and I will show our papers. When we get to Juniter, we’ll have proof that we’re supposed to be there, and someone will help us find shelter and things to do. Hopefully we’ll have time to look for information about Wynn’s escape from captivity. Maybe we’ll figure something out. At a minimum, we’ll buy ourselves a little more time before Wynn finds us. And that means that Karl and Somrusee will be reading as much as they can from here on out.

  The sun is high in the sky as Somrusee leads the way away from the mountains, followed by Dynd, who is helping Mara along. I fall behind the group, and when no one is watching, I stop and stare at the peaks that have been my home for the last year. The steep cliffs, jagged rocks, and pine-coated crevasses stand strong and firm. I hope that I can stand tall against the tasks that lie ahead and not fall on the ground like I did in Keeper a few days ago.

  Like Cylus, my journey began here—I learned about hemazury in these mountains. But, unlike Togan, I have to flee now, before I’m ready. Cylus and Togan spent a year together in the cave, working and learning. I had just a few days. When Cylus and Togan left, they were ready to defeat Wynn. I’m not. Togan had an infinite supply of blue blood. I don’t.

  And yet, I’m not turning back. I’m not sure if it’s destiny or fate, but I don’t have a choice. I can die, I can go home, or I can fight. The mountains tower in front of me, and they’re beautiful. But I cannot go back, not with Arujan’s plans foiled and Wynn on his way.

  “Amazing place, isn’t it?” Karl says. I jump at the sound of his voice, and glance at him uncertainly. I didn’t know anyone noticed me stop. He’s dressed differently now, in an outfit Somrusee says is common in the valley. It fits around him loosely, but not so loose that I can’t see the shape of his strong body underneath it.

  I don’t think he’s together with Somrusee. The butterflies start again. We’re alone.

  “It’s been a nice home the past year,” I say. “Though I’m not sure I want to repeat it.”

  “The rest of the world is pretty, too,” he says. “Worth saving.”

  I nod and turn away from the mountains. Karl puts his hand on the small of my back and gently nudges me forward. My breath catches, and I look up at him. His eyes burn brillian
tly into mine.

  “We’ll do this thing,” he says.

  I try to think of what to say, but my poor mind can’t come up with anything, and so I start walking.

  ✽✽✽

  The trip goes smoothly. For the most part, we don’t see anyone. When we do, we hide in the bushes or the forests near the road. Most of the world seems to be forested, which makes sneaking across it easy.

  Karl gets really antsy as we approach the turnoff to Sattah. He doesn’t smile at jokes, and his face gets more determined each step forward. Somrusee doesn’t get as nervous, though she also notices Karl and spends a lot of energy trying to comfort him. Her flirtations don’t seem to have any effect on Karl’s mood, though they do on mine. I try to quit watching them and focus my thoughts on defeating Wynn, but I don’t have any new ideas, and I’m relying on them to read the books. They are reading, but we still haven’t figured anything out.

  We stop for the night in the woods just a few miles outside of Sattah. Early the next morning, the sound of footsteps wakes me up.

  An army is coming toward us, up the road from Sattah. Legions of men—at least a couple thousand—march in straight lines. In the center of the group is a man sitting on a tower, which is held on the shoulders of scantily-dressed men. His dark eyes scan the world around him, covered by strands of his dark, greasy hair. I shrink back into the foliage and wish I were invisible. We are well hidden, but still the man’s eyes sweep over our hiding spot several times. I hear movement behind me and pray the others have seen him, too. I can’t defend us against that many men, especially if the man on the top of the tower is related to me, perhaps my uncle.

  Everyone stays quiet, and the army passes by without anyone realizing the people they’re looking for are hidden a drop-kick away. They’re off to the mountains. They’re off to find Arujan. Better him than us. I just hope we have some time before they come back the other way.

  ✽✽✽

  A week later, we reach the Western Hills and leave our friends at Goluken’s house. Then Karl and I set off up the hill to Juniter. This is our last hope—we still haven’t found anything in the books that will help us defeat Wynn.