The Azureans

by R Gene Curtis

  Karl walks to the desk. He puts the candle down and runs his fingers along the surface, carefully pulling it apart. He doesn’t find anything but rotten wood, which he tosses on the floor.

  And then the rest of the desk collapses.

  “Look at this!” Karl reaches into the rubble and pulls out a decayed sheet of parchment.

  “Does it have writing on it?” As if it would still be legible.

  “Yes.”

  “Read it.”

  “Don’t you think...” Karl starts to say, but I cut him off.

  “No, now. I don’t want to risk losing it and not finding out what’s on that paper. Wynn probably already knows we’re here. We’ve certainly seen enough copper in here.”

  Karl smiles. I love that smile. I’m glad he’s patient with me, even if I make silly, anxious demands sometimes.

  Karl holds the parchment up to the candlelight and examines it. “It’s signed by Kinni,” he says.

  “Togan’s friend?”

  He nods. “If there was ever any doubt, this is solid proof that I’m descended from a traitorous scumbag.”

  “At least you know who you’re descended from,” I mumble, but Karl doesn’t hear me.

  Finally, he looks up from the document and sees the expression on my face. He reads me wrong and laughs, “Okay, okay. I’ll read it.”

  I feel my face go red, grateful when he starts reading and doesn’t see me.

  Master Wynn,

  I have traveled safely to Sattah and still have Togan and Reenah’s trust. Their baby Ria arrived just three weeks ago, and she’s strong—surely an Azurean like you say.

  I have the vial that you sent with me. I have waited for the right opportunity, when Togan, Reenah, and Cylus are all together, but it has not come. I know of your impatience, and so I will proceed soon, with or without the opportunity. Cylus does not come near the castle, ever, and I have not been able to discover where his home is.

  Your propaganda has worked well. An army waits for you in the Trandan Forest. I have the poison ready, and have found the castle’s main water supply. Everyone but Togan and Reenah drink from it. I will release the poison soon, and then I will break the vial as the king sleeps. If all goes well, that will be within a day of your receiving this communication.

  I look forward to your fulfillment of your promise.

  I stare blankly as Karl folds the paper and puts in into his pocket. Wynn was trapped here, but he created a vial that would free him? Hurt Togan?

  How could he have done that?

  “The note doesn’t say anything more?”

  Karl shakes his head.

  I look around the room. I don’t get it. I push broken wood off the top of a partially decomposed desk drawer.

  Nothing.

  So, we know that Kinni did betray Togan. But, why? What promise did he have? And what did Wynn send in that bottle? And is that something that we could use?

  I kick the bed, and what’s still standing, collapses.

  “We both knew we might not learn anything useful,” Karl says.

  His voice is condescending, and maybe he’s right to give up hope now. We actually found what we were looking for, and there was nothing here for us to find. Karl turns to leave, but I stop him before he leaves the room with our only light.

  “Wait. Let’s not give up yet. Maybe something is hidden in the rock walls.”

  “Really, Ria?” Karl steps back into the room and swings the candle so it shines at all the walls. They all look like the inside of a cave.

  He turns to go again.

  “One more time, Karl. And slower this time.” I hate how pathetic my voice sounds, but if we don’t find something here, I don’t know what we’ll do when Wynn finds us.

  Karl slowly swings the candle around the room again. Everything still looks like a wall from inside a cave. Except one stone that protrudes awkwardly from the wall over the desk.

  “Stop right there.”

  I walk to the desk rubble and pull on the stone, but it doesn’t budge.

  “Let me try.” Karl hands me the candle. He walks up next to me and puts his hands on the stone. “It looks like you might be right.”

  He’s taller than me, and stronger. His muscles strain against the rock, and it starts to loosen as he fights against it. And then, he pulls it free. I swing the candle forward, and the light finds a stack of paper that was hidden behind the stone.

  Karl throws the rock aside and grabs the stack. He pulls it out and steps up close to me to use the light while he thumbs through the paper. I stare impatiently at the markings on the paper. I hate not knowing how to read.

  “These pages were ripped out of the mountain collection. I recognize the style, and I remember noticing the missing pages when I went through the book I’m sure this came from.” Karl thumbs through the pages, muttering to himself.

  “How to make a fruit tree produce more, how to make copper produce heat for up to a full week, how to...”

  He stops at a page and holds it deliberately to the light. His face scrunches into a scowl and a half smile tugs at the corner of his lips.

  “How to what?” I ask impatiently, straining over his shoulder to look at the paper even though I can’t read it.

  Karl is quiet for a moment, and I can barely stay calm as he reads. I’m sure I’m annoying as I sway the candle around, my gaze oscillating between his face and the text.

  Finally, Karl finishes reading.

  “How to split consciousness,” he says.

  I gasp. The vial.

  “The ancients figured out how to split their consciousness,” he reads. “It uses all the Azurean’s blue blood to do it, but the advantages can be enormous. By splitting consciousness in two, an Azurean can attack enemies in a place that may be otherwise inaccessible. The consciousness can attack up to three people, at which point the consciousness must return to the host.”

  His bright blue eyes glow over the paper as he glances over the paper at me. “The names Cylus, Togan, and Reenah, are written here in Wynn’s handwriting. I recognize the handwriting from my time at the castle.”

  I nod, trying to take it all in, trying to see how this helps us defeat Wynn, and still trying to figure out where I fit into this puzzle.

  When I don’t say anything, he looks back down at the parchment. “While the consciousness is split, there are certain emotions that cannot be felt. Hunger, sexual attraction, satiety, and fatigue. These emotions will return with the reuniting of the individual, however the time the consciousness is split has an effect. It’s documented that one man did not reunite himself for over a month and was very ill at the time of reuniting. It’s not recommended to exceed this time, though the consciousness can be stored in a glass vial until ready to be released.”

  Karl’s mouth closes, but his eyes remain glued to the paper. They fly back and forth, probably reading and rereading the words. I watch his eyes, wishing his mouth would start moving again. It makes sense to me—I can split my consciousness when I listen to copper and when I control dirt. It takes practice, but I’m getting better at it.

  “Wynn’s consciousness is still split,” Karl whispers.

  “How do you know?”

  “The emotions … the things he shouldn’t feel. He doesn’t feel them.”

  “How is that possible? Togan and Reenah died hundreds of years ago!” And that baby. What happened to that baby?

  Karl frowns, his brow furrowing. “I know. I’m still missing a piece of the puzzle.” He turns the page, and his eyes light up.

  “What is it?”

  “This might be it. This page is marked up with a note from Kinni. I’m guessing Kinni stole these pages from Togan and snuck them out to Wynn. This page tells how to make a portable transport like the one you saw in that memory.”

  “They must have taken the book back to the mountains after Kinni stole those pages,” I say.

  Karl nods. “Maybe they suspected him. But listen to this—

 
; “The pocket sand transport is powerful. Instead of being restricted to one location, it will transport two individuals to the home world from anywhere by releasing the sand, and they only need to touch to be transported back to the base portal. But be warned, there are documented cases where the sand sat for longer periods of time, and the transported individuals did not arrive at the same time in the other world. It’s uncertain if this is a fabricated report, or if the hemazury degrades over time.”

  Karl frowns. “I wonder if that means this world and our world are on the same time clock. That might be encouraging if we ever decided to go back home.” He laughs. “If we’re still alive to go back home, that is.”

  Time. “The sand would have sat for months,” I say. “Kinni said that Ria was three weeks old, and when I saw Reenah, she barely looked pregnant.”

  And then the pieces start to come together. The world starts to spin around me. I step away from Karl and look into the blackness of the cave. It stares back at me, uncaring. I stumble out of the room and trip on a piece of copper. I let my momentum take me into the pile and I slide into it, letting the copper pieces support my weight. And then the tears come. I let my head fall into my hands and feel the warmth slide down my palms and then drop onto the floor.

  “You know what this means?” Karl follows me into the room, his eyes dancing with excitement.

  Tears drip off my cheeks. I nod and wait for him to say it. I want to hear the words, but I’m dreading them at the same time.

  “Cylus must have tried to use the time capsule, but instead of it transporting another person, it must have transported Wynn. That explains it—how he got off the Hill, how he defeated Togan. Everything.”

  Those weren’t the words.

  Karl stops pacing and looks at me. My face is wet, and I’m sure my eyes are blotchy. The tears still haven’t stopped.

  “Lydia, what’s wrong?” he says, forgetting to use my code name.

  I shake my head and look away. He sits down and puts his arm around me. I lean into him, grateful for his warmth. Tears run down my face, hot and then cool in the cave’s musty air.

  He starts talking again. “A part of Wynn’s consciousness is on Earth. I can’t believe it. It must have got caught in the portal somehow. Cylus was supposed to transport himself and Ria in the case of an emergency, but he must have transported himself and Wynn instead.”

  “No,” I say, barely getting the words out. “Cylus didn’t transport. The sand transported me and Wynn. I’m the baby. I’m Ria. My parents and Cylus were killed by Wynn, and I got separated from my time by two hundred years.”

  “Oh.”

  I throw my arms around Karl and cry like a baby. I cry because I was born over two hundred years ago. I cry because my parents are dead and because the same man who killed them wants to kill me. I cry because my other mom, the one who raised me, is also gone and I can’t tell her what I’ve learned.

  Karl’s arms stay secure and strong around me.

  Eventually, I regain my composure. I wipe the tears off my face and laugh when I pull back from Karl’s wet shirt. “Sorry about that,” I say, sniffling.

  “Wynn’s heard everything we’ve said tonight,” he says quietly.

  “Then we shouldn’t say more.”

  Karl’s arms are still around me. His eyes are contemplative as they search mine. “We found lots of answers here.”

  “Yes.”

  He stays close to me, and I listen to him breathe. The sound is soothing. The flickering light of the candle shines off the copper all around the room, illuminating Karl’s broad shoulders and the kind look in his eyes.

  He’s a good man. Sincere. Kind. He’s looking at my lips. My breath catches, and my eyes widen.

  He hesitates, and his eyes come back to mine. I stand, but I keep my grip on his arms. He stands with me, and his gaze stays locked with mine. I want this. I move my head back and push myself up slowly onto my toes.

  I can feel his breath on my lips. His eyes start to close. I tilt my head, and his head tilts the other way. I close my eyes and feel his nervousness as his strong arms pull me toward him. Then our lips meet. Tingles run up and down my spine. I start to lift my arms to grab him, to hold him close to me, but he pulls back and steps away. The kiss only lasted a second, but I’m breathless. Karl picks up the candle and walks out of the cave. I sit in the darkness, unsure why he left so quickly. I wanted that kiss, did he? Was it as magical to him as it was to me? Why did he run away?

  When I went in the cave, I was Lydia. Coming out, I don’t know who I am. I’m Lydia, and I played soccer for the University of Washington. But, I’m also Ria, and I’ve seen my parents. I’m an Azurean, and I’m the only one who can save this world from Wynn, even if I don’t know how. I’m a little girl who is falling for a strong young man with a kind heart that might already belong to someone else.

  And he just kissed me.

  Mylus is where we left him. I put his arms back in their sockets and tell him to run.

  He does.

  It’s time to leave and find the others. Wynn is coming. He has to know where we are and what we’ve been doing.

  The moon is bright tonight. Karl takes my hand as we hurry down the trail and my heart does somersaults the whole way.

  ✽✽✽

  I wake in a beautiful wooden house. Fatigue kept me from noticing anything when we arrived, but apparently, I slept in luxury. Everything in the room is delicately hand-carved. The bed is soft—almost as good as the mattress I grew up with. This home is a testament to Goluken’s power under Wynn.

  I lie on my back and stare at the ceiling. The sun is high in the sky. After hiking all night, I guess I was tired.

  Wynn is coming. I should be dreading today, but I feel giddy.

  My thoughts are on Karl. The way we talked last night in the cave, and the way that we kissed.

  He kissed me!

  My first kiss—the one I’ve dreamed about. I had more than one “how to get a boy to kiss you” session with Maria. According to our lessons, I did everything wrong. Our lips just ... met. It was almost like an accident, except it wasn’t. We spent several days together. We were taking care of each other. This wasn’t just a kiss for a thrill. It was real.

  Or was it? I’ve seen Karl kiss Somrusee, too. The evening after they were nearly killed visiting Arujan. But Karl’s not like that. He wouldn’t just kiss girls for the fun of it. I know how much Somrusee likes him, though. And I’ve seen him act like he doesn’t notice. Would he feel differently if he did notice? Does his kiss mean that he chooses me?

  I stay in bed just a little longer and think about that moment when our lips met. Gradually, my thoughts turn to the evening when I held his hand and he cried about his sister.

  And I let reality sink in. The kiss was amazing, and Karl is sweet to stay here, but he belongs back at home. He needs to go back and make amends with his family and salvage his career. He’s had nothing but near-death experiences since his arrival. I was born here; this is my world to save, but this isn’t Karl’s world. He might have blue eyes, but that doesn’t mean he belongs here.

  I get up and leave the room to find Karl. I need to tell him. I need to find a way to get him home, and I have an idea that just might do it.

  Ler meets me in the hall. “Good morning Lydia,” he says cheerfully. “Can I show you to the kitchen?”

  My tummy rumbles, and I let Ler’s smile and the smells wafting down the hallway distract me from Karl. Ler leads me to the kitchen where Mara places a huge plate of food in front of me. It isn’t anything like mountain food—it smells and tastes wonderful.

  “Where did you learn to cook like this?” I ask her.

  “It was my duty to cook from the time I was very young,” she says. “Father always had important people coming and going. He demanded the finest food, and I was his staff.”

  Jarra runs across the room screaming. Ler chases after him. After three laps around the kitchen, he grabs the boy and tickles him
; Jarra squeals with delight.

  Mara turns from the small kitchen fire and smiles. “This has been a nice few days. Is it over now?”

  “Wynn is on his way,” I say. He will want us, me, to have as little time to prepare as possible.

  I finish my food and stand. I need to find Karl. “Thank you, Mara,” I say as I leave the room. “That was ama...”

  I found him. Karl is standing in the hallway, with Somrusee. She clings to him, like he’s hers, and the scar on her cheek concurs. I freeze, staring, confused. Karl notices me and stiffens. He pushes Somrusee away gently. But I understand—the kiss with me must have all been an act. No wonder why he pulled away so fast. I should have pulled away; I knew about Somrusee. And yet, I was stupid and spent my morning thinking about him. Was he down here making out with Somrusee while I was dreaming about a single kiss?

  It doesn’t matter. Wynn is coming. I brush the tears off my face, wishing I wasn’t such an open book. “Karl, I need your help.” I’m barely able to keep my voice steady.

  He smiles, steps away from Somrusee, and walks over to me like he thinks I trust him. “Of course,” he says. “We should leave the premises. I’m sure the house is bugged so well that we could never find all the bugs.”

  I spin and walk down the hallway to the main door, holding my head high and not looking at him. As we approach the door, Karl takes a long step forward and opens it for me, putting his hand on the small of my back to guide me outside. Butterflies flutter in my stomach. Unruly, stupid butterflies. Karl belongs to Somrusee. I hate him.

  I have to do this. Wynn is coming.

  We walk down the path and leave the estate. Karl takes my hand once we’re out of sight. I shouldn’t let him do it, but I do. He was all over Somrusee just seconds ago! Clearly, I don’t care about my own wellbeing.

  I battle my emotions in silence until we come to a large, fallen tree near a tall, shallow cave. We sit on the log, still holding hands. I can’t believe I let him take my hand, seconds after seeing him with Somrusee. He feels calm today, though. Happy. How can he feel like that when I’m all tied in knots?