King Tides Curse

by C J Timms

  ‘Didn’t know you were a fan Gale.’ Sterling said.

  ‘Just wanted to see a game.’ Gale said. He’d needed insight into Ultimate Frisbee for the plan to work, Yip had no idea about the game, Titus was a strictly Rugby Union guy, but Swan and Sterling were fanatics. The sport of kings, they kept saying.

  ‘A fine tradition handed down from noble family to family. Ultimate Frisbee was used as a way of settling duels and providing non-lethal entertainment…mostly. It evolved to become a training exercise for the military, using it to train soldiers how to combat the fathomless on the water. Now though it's mostly entertainment.’ Sterling said.

  The train clacked to a stop in front of the Coliseum. The Coliseum or the ‘Clacka’ as Gale heard it called by a particularly grotty looking dude was swarming with fans.

  They battled through the crowds into a massive stadium. The seating was a jarring mixture of old sandstone benches and modern foldable plastic seats. Corporate boxes stuck like barnacles to the rising walls of the Coliseum looking over a lake of water with erratic towers and platforms popping out of the surface. Platforms floated through the air above the water, up, down, sideways or flipped through the air. Platforms alternated between images of giant smiley faces and red frowning faces.

  A giant silver sphere hovered in the centre of the field. The sphere was ten times Gales height in diameter. The outside was covered with a mix of sporting goods logos, beer advertisements and pictures of Emperor Charlemagne. A tall man with massive shoulders and piercing blue eyes. Atop his brow sat the smoke crown, blue, shifting like smoke. The sphere also had multiple holes of variable size from the size of a small man to the size of a dinner plate.

  The ticket collector looked over the three of them and glanced at Swan’s jersey. ‘A Jaguar supporter I see.’ he said with a sigh.

  ‘What’s wrong with supporting the Jaguars?’ Swan said.

  ‘If you have to ask…’ the ticket collector said and waved them through.

  ‘I’ve bought us tickets in the bleachers’. Swan said, pointing to a stand in the nose bleed section. Gale and Sterling shared a look.

  ‘Well, you three didn’t offer to buy them, and none of us can afford rent as it is.’ Swan put her hands on her hips.

  ‘You know Swan I think if I squint I can almost tell which team is which.’ Sterling said. Swan grabbed him into a headlock and gave him a noogie. Gale flicked on a hydrolens to magnify his vision. Gale focused on the field, trying to remember Sterling’s descriptions. An exhibition match seemed to be going on before the main game.

  Ultimate frisbee was played over two halves. Matches were played with teams between three to seven people depending on the size of the game. Players could manoeuvrer around the field using whatever transport they wanted, provided it was powered with their own Script. The field was a perfect circle of water with small islands at ground level. The central sphere dominated the field, rotating in place about ten metres above sea level. The sphere was covered in several openings. There were many big openings the size of a person, a few the size of a basketball and one silver opening almost precisely the size of a frisbee. The floating sphere was surrounded by several smaller floating spheres which orbited lazily through the air.

  A team of three, all in silver, was playing off against a team of three, all in red. They rode different mounts, there were wakeboards, hang-gliders and one crazy bastard just launched himself from platform to platform using raw Script.

  The red team was hurting. The team in red rode modified wakeboards with small propulsion engines at the back. They desperately threw a frisbee back and forth on the periphery of the lake.

  The team in silver hounded them. Two of the silver team rode in the air on hang-gliders with propulsion engines. The third, a stunning looking blonde woman, simply leapt between platforms and spheres. Geysers of water would shoot from sea level into the air, turning in physics-defying patterns to make obstacles. The blonde woman dodged the obstacles with ease then crashed into one of the red team, knocking him clean out of the arena.

  ‘That's her,’ Sterling whispered to Gale. ‘Jean the Lioness.’

  A teammate in silver, a rugged-looking brown bearded man, snagged the frisbee and casually tossed it through one of the basketball-sized holes. A siren went off, and the number fifty flashed onto the big screen.

  ‘A brilliant move by the man’s man, Jack Dennerman!’ the announcer called. The camera zoomed in on the player, he shot a finger gun at it, flexing his biceps.

  ‘Let me at him.’ Titus said, standing.

  Swan wrenched him back down ‘Settle down you bogan.’

  The red team fell to pieces. One of the red players panicked and threw the frisbee wide. Jean the Lioness, snagged it from the air. She skimmed the frisbee straight to one of her teammates. Her third teammate, an elegant looking guy with elfin features, perched on the rotating sphere. He snagged the frisbee and with a devilish grin, placed it into the smallest goal in the sphere. The entire arena changed to a silver colour. Giant hands of water reached out of the lake and grabbed the red team, dragging them down into the depths.

  ‘Another victory for Jean the Lioness!’ the announcer roared. The crowd erupted in cheers. The red team was spat unceremoniously out of the water onto the ground.

  ‘So what do you think?’ Gale asked Yip.

  ‘We’re looking at a water sport where everyone’s afraid of the water. Except you…and maybe that lioness.’ Yip said. ‘This is one of your better plans, Gale.’

  The announcer held up his hands. ‘Now do we have any volunteers to take on Jean’s Roaring Pride?

  Titus shot up in his seat ‘Ooohhh yes, pick me, pick me!’

  Swan grabbed Titus’s arm, but a spotlight descended on them. Titus rushed down the stairs, like a contestant on the Price is Right.

  ‘Can he even play Ultimate Frisbee.’ Sterling asked.

  ‘I don’t think he can even swim.’ Gale replied.

  Swan muttered, ‘Damn bogan is going to get himself hurt.’ She pushed herself up grudgingly and followed Titus as did Sterling and Gale.

  Yip held up a tiny flag and drew the Lighthouse symbol on it. He gave them the thumbs up. ‘I’m made for coaching.’

  The announcer looked over them, a five-foot-tall man with a gaudy gold cloak. ‘Now there are four of you, and the exhibition match is only for three.’

  ‘Four of them is fine, I’m hungry for a challenge’ Jean replied swooping down, hang glider like wings folded into her back, ‘And that one is cute,’ she winked at Sterling. Sterling actually blushed, Gale and Swan snorted.

  Jean’s teammates swooped down to land on the platform beside her. The giant of a man, Jack struck a pose for the cameras. ‘Maybe we just give them an autograph Jean and send them on their way. I fight men, not boys.’

  Titus’s tattoos fired up with white light. Swan grabbed the back of Titus’s shirt.

  ‘What do you think, Gabriel.’ Jack said to the other team member. Gabriel, the man with elfin features, sparkling blue eyes, and a whip-thin frame, remained silent.

  ‘Another rousing pep talk Gabriel.’ Jean roared slapping him on the back. Gabriel came out of his reverie for a moment and offered a smile before slipping back into thought.

  ‘What about a wager, to make things more interesting?’ Gale said. ‘The payment for the exhibition match. If we win….we get it.’

  ‘What’s in it for us’ Jack said cocking an eyebrow. Jean however licked her lips.

  ‘I’ll take your wager…but if we win’ Jean paused, ‘You’ve gotta clean our gear for the next year.’

  ‘YESSS!!!’ Titus roared, ‘A real man leaves it all on the line, rule eleven.’

  Jean and her team nodded then jumped off the platform again to take their positions, Jean cast a slow look over her opponents, lingering on Sterling who blushed even harder. Swan sniggered next to him.

  ‘What are you doing Gale, they’re bloody undefeated,’ Sterling hissed at him then narrowed his
eyes. ‘Were you planning this from the start?’

  ‘Trust me….I’ve got a plan.’ Gale said.

  Sterling shot a look at Swan and leaned in, ‘Swan can’t even swim Gale.’

  ‘What!’ Said Gale, ‘How can you not swim?’

  ‘Where would I have learned in Locomotyr, the lava pools? Besides its fine, I just have to avoid falling in.’

  ‘Well then…’ Said the announcer glancing back and forth. ‘Do we have a name for the challengers.’

  Titus thumped his fist into his hand, ‘The Men ‘o’ war.’ He winked at Gale, he’d been pushing that nickname very hard since the salt mines. Sterling put his hands in his face. Swan put her hands on her hips.

  ‘Please pick your mount for the contest,’ the announcer gestured to a selection of boards, gliders and windsurfers.

  While the others started looking over the selection, Gale summoned Pancakes. The tiny seahound looked up at him curiously in his pocket, Gale felt his breathing deepen and his Script swell. He reached into his bag and pulled out the small jetpack from the Eureka room. Gale had made a few modifications to it. He strapped it to his back and rolled his shoulders. He caught Jean’s eyes studying him just for a second before they flicked away.

  ‘SURRRRFFFSSS UPPPPPPP!’ yelled Titus. Titus grabbed a kneeboard and launched himself off the platform, five metres above sea level, into one of the water geysers. He shot down it grabbing the frisbee from the starting position and raced towards the periphery. He struck another water geyser and was shot upwards, smacking into a platform. The platform flashed red angry face emoji and was shot backwards and into the water outside the field. He came to a stop just on the beach at the edge of the playing field, out cold. The frisbee levitated from his limp hand back to the starting position.

  ‘Well frak,’ Swan cursed. Swan held a wakeboard with a small propulsion unit, and Sterling held nothing, just stretching out his legs.

  ‘Okay here’s the plan’ Gale said. ‘Sterling you and Swan go after the frisbee hard. I’ll play defence.’

  Sterling nodded ‘At all costs stop them getting the frisbee in the smallest target, that's an instant win for them. Watch the bearded dude, he’s not just glamour and flare.’

  ‘We are the Lighthouse, we fight monsters, we’ve got this.’

  They didn’t have this.

  Gale looped water around the goal fighting off shots from Jean’s pride. He was exhausted, his Script sluggish and he didn’t dare summon Pancakes in a larger form in such a public venue.

  Sterling leapt into the air and intercepted the frisbee. He ran across the water, Script pumping through his legs. Jean swooped down and fly-kicked Sterling across the arena. Sterling managed to hurl the frisbee towards Swan in midair.

  Overhead, the scoreboard read 80 to 10 against them.

  Swan gritted her teeth and launched off her wakeboard, grabbing for the frisbee. She missed, fell in the water and didn’t come up. Gale gritted his teeth and fired up the eureka-pack. Water exploded outwards from his back, and he shot across the water like a rocket. Gale dived into the water and plunged downwards looking for Swan. He felt Pancakes nudge him in the right direction. Swan was thrashing in the currents below the surface. Her eyes darting around, her limbs flailing wildly.

  Gale grabbed Swan’s hand and hauled her up to the surface. He flumped onto a platform along with Swan. Swan groaned and tried to slap him on the back in thanks.

  High above on the sphere, Jean sat cross-legged. Jean winked and dropped the frisbee into the smallest hole. Red lights blared across the arena.

  ‘Frak,’ Swan gurgled out. The currents grabbed them and dragged them back under.

  Frak this, thought Gale. No way his teammate deserved that again. This at least he could spare her from. He fired the eureka-pack and shot them out of the harbour, skimmed along its surface before coming to a crash on the bank. A moment later Sterling was ejected onto the beach beside them. Oh right Sterling, he’d forgotten about him.

  Well it would probably toughen him up.

  Gale squelched to his hands and knees. Jean’s boots came in to view.

  ‘I enjoyed that, best workout I’ve had in a while….keep the money, you can take us out for lunch in exchange.’ Jean said and walked off, raising her hands to the adoring crowd.

  Sterling grinned at Gale, ‘What a woman.’ Then he vomited everywhere.

  Swan tipped water out of her boots, ‘She’s a show-off.’

  ‘Ain’t nothing wrong with putting on a show,’ Gale said and removed a hydrolens from his eye. ‘Unless someones looking close enough.’

  Sterling dragged his head up again. ‘You asked what’s wrong with supporting the Jaguars Swan? Noone likes backing the perpetual losers.’

  They gathered Yip and roused Titus. The took an airship back to the university and flew over Ionhome. Gale saw the Ironchurch, like a sore thumb in Reefside, now closed until further notice. The signs of the fight still visible, one wall missing. Gale clenched his fist. The eureka-pack had been field-tested.

  He wanted answers, and he knew just where to get them.

  Gale - The forbidden library

  He was an idiot.

  Gale stalked through the dark. The waxing crescent moon was high in the sky, like a supervisor that had only just bothered to turn up but was already judging him. The cold breeze off the ocean bit into him, and he pulled his cloak tighter, shifting the eureka pack on his back. He was tired of operating without information. The second test was coming up soon, the Splinterpoint Gate. He needed to get answers now. He needed to find the Blood Knight. He’d been travelling through this year blind, he didn’t even know the name of the fracturesmith who’d sent him here. He wasn’t a lick closer to uncovering his family history. Checking the logs for his pager would tell him who the owner had been. This was his burden, his quest, and he would solve it. He was tired of being ignorant and fumbling in the dark.

  He banged his shin on a bench.

  ‘Frak.’

  The library tower rose in front of him. A fortress-like repository of knowledge storing the most restricted materials and the pager logs. The highest level was the domain only of the Professors and the Chancellor. Guarded by creatures described only as ‘the librarians.’ Only an idiot would try to break into such a place.

  The line between idiot and revolutionary was so fragile.

  Gale had hidden in the Eureka room until midnight. He’d slipped by the benches, eyes darting back and forth. Ears straining for the booming voice of Ilmark. He’d crept across campus to the library. Here he could find the written records, maybe something about the King Tide and the Blood Knight. Short of breaking into the Heretics Rest beneath the Membranous Cathedral, this was his best shot.

  Gale looked up at the library and visualised his goals.

  ‘Find the King Tide, find the Blood Knight. Find the Blood Knight, fix Ironchurch. Fix Ironchurch, get free gym membership for a year.’ Gale grinned, the stubborn bastard would never give out free membership. Sacrilege.

  The library tower was surrounded by floating spheres in orbit, simulating the nine realms. The rapidly moving floating orbs created a constant hazard for anyone trying to approach from the air. A Locomotyr user could have just run up the walls, but Gale had to use something else.

  Gale expanded the eureka pack on his back, now field-tested from the Frisbee match. He placed his hand over the trigger and aimed for the top of the wall.

  ‘Pancakes,’ he whispered, and the seahound appeared in his pocket.

 

  Gale grinned. ‘Walkies.’

  Gale hit the switch.

  Gale rocketed straight up into the air. He let out a whoop and streaked towards his goal. Then his shoulder clipped the sphere representing Locomotyr. His hand slipped off the handle. The eureka pack stalled and he fell straight down. He crashed towards the ground, hauling on the eureka-pack and cushioned his blow with a blast of water. He fell flat on his arse, muffled a yelp and rubbed his backside.r />
  Pancakes said, giving him a slobbery lick on the cheek.

  ‘Impressive.’ Yip said from the shadows of the tower.

  ‘Don’t you sleep?’ Gale asked. ‘Why are you here?’

  ‘Sleep is for the weak. When you didn’t turn up at the Lighthouse, I thought you might have run into some trouble from House Laurels.’ Yip said. ‘If you’re going to break the rules at least do it right.’ Yip walked around the walls, his floating books swarmed upwards towards the spheres. ‘The Eureka pack is a good idea, it avoids the pressure sensors in the walls.’

  ‘Oh right, pressure sensors…that was what I was thinking.’ Gale said.

  Yip rolled his eyes, walked back ten paces and gazed up at the tower top. ‘Launch from here. I’ll use some books as stepping stones for you to bounce off.’

  ‘You’d sacrifice your books? I’m touched.’

  ‘Oh don’t worry, these are Swan’s historical romance novels.’

  Gale crouched low and realigned the Eureka pack. ‘You shouldn’t steal her stuff mate, she’s not a bad chick.’

  ‘Can’t trust a Swan,’ Yip said, shaking his head. ‘You remember what you heard in the salt mines? Their word is only as good as gold. Now, are we doing this?’

  Gale shook his head, he’d been trying to forget about the salt mines. The traitors running through their ranks. He couldn’t help but trust Swan though. It was hard to picture her as a traitor after seeing her terrified face in the water yesterday.

  ‘Why are you helping with this. I thought you were a stickler for the rules?’ Gale asked.

  Yip blinked at him. ‘I follow my rules perfectly. Other people’s…well they’re more like guidelines. Not designed as well as mine, you understand. Now don’t get caught, you need to be quiet as the grave.’

  Gale nodded, ‘Don’t worry I’m practically a ninja when I want to be.’

  Gale crouched low, gripped the Eureka pack and hit the switch. He rocketed upwards once more. Books swarmed around him. Gale stepped off of ‘Love in the time of the Nine-metal throne.’ He twisted and leapt off the novel ‘The blacksmith girls hit Vegas.’ The orbiting planet models blurred past him. The curved rings surrounding Celesta Firma sliced the edge off his cloak, and he sucked in his belly around the sphere for Wyldfell. He landed in a crouch on the roof of the library.