Home of the Forgotten

by Rayne W Grath

  Isis made no indication she heard him, but pulled the carpet to a stop a second before the door flung open and the maid backed out pulling a wardrobe of clothing behind her. Muttering to herself she flipped around and headed back towards the stairs. Isis slipped into the room just as the doors swung shut and stopped just inside the entryway. Nudging Kiya with his arm he quietly said, “Your grandmother is changing and will be out shortly. She knows we are here of course and is quite cross with you.”

  “HA! Well I’m sure it has nothing on how I’m feeling at the moment, but she’ll soon find out,” Kiya growled out incredulously. Turning her WED off she pushed off from the carpet and stalked toward the location of her grandmother. Aarik and the others followed suit, but stayed back at a safe distance to give the two some room to argue.

  “Not nearly as disappointed as I am that you followed after me like an idjit. What were you thinking?!” Grandma Tashina stated with authority, as she entered the room in long sweeping robes with her hair flowing out behind her.

  “What was I thinking? You made a pact with a mad man for god’s sake! Why would you do that?” Kiya threw back.

  “I had to or we all would have died. You and Aarik needed time to prepare,” Tashina explained passionately while she braided her hair and then added, “It doesn’t matter now. Th’ael is on his way as we speak to escort me to dinner. If you want to escape without any loss of life we will have to take this discussion elsewhere immediately.”

  “Wait, you knew we were coming to get you, yet you yelled at me when I arrived for doing that very thing? I’m confused,” Kiya cried out with her hands on her hips.

  “I also knew that an alliance was only possible if I was here. Why do you think I agreed to come in the first place? I just didn’t see that YOU would be accompanying THEM,” Tashina stated with a frown as she nodded toward Isis and Morri. Climbing aboard the carpet, she held her hand out and said, “Come on hand me the invisibility thingy. We have less than thirty seconds before he arrives.”

  Aarik was mesmerized as he watched the scene unfold exactly as he envisioned it and snapped out of it when Enki mentally nudged him, You’ll get used to it. Get moving already.

  Shaking his head at a mistake that could very well cost him his life, Aarik jumped into action as he pushed Kiya toward the carpet and tossed the WED to Tashina. Knowing full well she would catch it, he barked out orders right before the door burst open, “Cloaks on! Get ready to punch it, Isis! NOW!”

  Barrelling through the door, Aarik flung his body over Kiya to protect her from the sword Th’ael came in swinging and barely contained a scream of agony as it made contact with his neck, nicking a major artery in the process. Gritting his teeth he tried to staunch the flow of blood and barely had time to send Kiya a message before he passed out, Damn that hurt more than I thought it would.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Kiya

  Kiya heard Aarik’s exclamation in her head and attempted to push him off. When he didn’t budge she hedged, Aarik? When he didn’t respond she tried again, Hey. You ok? You’re squishing me. When she felt a drop of liquid hit her forehead she panicked and squirmed out from under him, almost falling off in the process. Knowing their very lives hung in the balance if they were found before they reached the secret door; Kiya clung to Aarik’s deadweight, barely managing to hold on. Feeling around for a pulse she bit back a cry as her fingers came away sticky with blood. Aarik moaned from the contact.

  Kiya, frantic to reach the outside, was moments away from losing it when she recalled the magical bracelets Anna had sent with her that could seal any wound. Pushing him over, she straddled his hips and unraveled the fabric from her wrist. With shaking hands, she gingerly prodded around his neck, to get a feel for where she should place the bandage; covering the wound as best as she could, Kiya dropped her head to his chest and listened for his heartbeat. It was slow, but consistent and gave her a sense of hope that he would be alright.

  The trip to the back door felt long, as Isis maneuvered through the hallways like she was a crazy New York City cab driver. Shouts could be heard throughout the palace with a couple of close calls as they neared the exit. Turning a corner the carpet started to lose power until it was crawling forward at a sloth’s pace. Growling in frustration Isis opened a channel to the group and said, They’ve placed a barrier near all exits. Obviously they must have wanted someone on here to live because they’ve added a charm to slow our stop before we hit it. If you’ve got any bright ideas or counter spells, now is the time to use them.

  Not a problem, I’ll transport us past, Morri replied.

  How? I thought you said the doors were blocked, Isis responded.

  The door is blocked, but I bet you the barrier isn’t, Morri explained.

  Kiya watched as the now familiar blue mist attached itself to an invisible barrier in the middle of the hallway. They reached the swirling mist just as it filled the space and instead of stopping, the carpet slipped through to the other side which, thankfully, was void of the slowing chant they encountered before the barrier. They raced to the exit and, not knowing what to expect, Kiya almost fainted when she saw her grandfather waiting outside looking no worse for wear in the midst of dozens of sleeping snakes. Knowing Aarik’s wound could be fatal, Kiya wasted no time revealing Aarik and herself. Covered in blood she stammered out, “Aarik’s hurt. Please help me.”

  Jumping into action Thad called out orders for Dag and Morri to open a portal to their ship as he approached Aarik’s still form. Looking at the dressing covering the wound he said, “Nice work, probably saved his life, but you have to get off of him for me to get him the help he needs, sweetie. Don’t worry. He warned me before the jump, so we were prepared for injuries,”

  “Are you telling me, you and Aarik were aware he might die on this trip and we went anyway?” Kiya said in anger scrambling off Aarik. Shaking, she reiterated, “Explain yourself!”

  Holding his hands out he bargained, “Now now. Getting angry is not going to help our situation. I was not aware he would be injured. He only told me to be prepared for injuries. Let’s get aboard the ship and get him healed. We can both interrogate him when he wakes up.”

  Thad ushered the girls through the mist, which led directly to the spaceship. Ah’naki could be seen scrambling to ready the ship for a quick departure. Aarik looked pale under the bright lights and drew in shallow breaths. Looking over at her grandmother she lost it. “He will wake up, right? I mean he wouldn’t have gone if he knew it was a suicide mission right, Grams? I didn’t just exchange your life for his, did I? Oh my gods! What have I done?” Kiya cried out in dismay as she watched Aarik being carted off to the ship’s infirmary.

  “Of course he’ll wake up. Your story is just beginning,” Grams replied as she patted her hand in comfort and then without warning she slapped it hard and added, “Now snap out of it child. Wallowing in self pity is useless. You haven’t got the time and should be focusing your energy on your training.”

  Pulling her hand back she yelled, “Ouch! You hit me. What’d you do that for?”

  “Oh it didn’t hurt that much, you big baby. Plus you needed your reset button pushed before you spiraled out of control,” Grams responded matter-of-factly and then turning to Thad she added, “I don’t suppose you could lead me to a chair. These old feet need a rest, just like these old ears need to hear what the plan is moving forward.”

  “Like we’d tell you anything, old woman. You swore the Ah’naki pledge to our sworn enemy. If anything, we should lock you up until we can decide what to do with you,” Thor warned from the back of the room.

  “Oh piddle posh. I swore to tell him the future until his death or mine. Seeing as I don’t want to be incarcerated until he dies, it will just have to be my death that breaks the curse,” Tashina replied nonchalantly before popping a pill into her mouth and biting down.

  Kiya cried out as her Grams fell to the floor in convulsions. Rushing to her aide, with tears streaming down her face
she yelled, “Grams! No! What have you done! Someone help me!” Lifting her eyes to Thad she screamed, “Don’t just stand there! Do something! She’s dying.”

  “That’s the point,” Thor replied in a deadpan voice.

  Shooting Thor an evil look Kiya warned, “I’ll deal with you later.” Turning to her grandfather, she said, “Please! I’m begging you.”

  “Your grandmother might be onto something. If her heart stops she’ll be dead and if we bring her back it should technically break the Ah’naki oath she made with Th’ael. Brilliant plan really. Not sure why someone else didn’t think of it,” Thad explained in astonishment. Picking Tashina up he added, “We’ll take her to the infirmary and try to revive her and if not, she knew what she was doing. I know it’s not what you want to hear child, but we’ll do our best.”

  Walking behind Thad in a daze, Kiya barely registered the viewing windows lining the hallway until a glowing squid-like creature floated into her periphery. Turning her head, her jaw dropped open in astonishment as the being inflated its upper body like a parachute and shot forward out of sight, leaving a chemiluminescent trail behind it. Mesmerized, she didn’t notice Thad had stopped walking until she rammed into him and almost fell over in the process. Thor stuck an arm out to steady her and, as soon as she was stable, he dropped his support and said, “They’re called Callients. They ride the ionic waves of space and the young are attracted to the wakes ships create. Similar to dolphins on your planet they are extremely intelligent and playful.”

  Kiya snapped her mouth shut and sneered at Thor before she turned her attention back to the window as they waited for an elevator to arrive and said, “My Grams taught me if I had nothing nice to say, to not say anything at all. So on that note...Thad, what is the glass made out of?”

  “There is no glass. The whole ship is coated in millions of single cell organisms called Tahkees. They congeal and form a bond tighter than a diamond, but are invisible to the naked eye, making it the perfect substance for a window. It can withstand the extreme temperature fluctuations ships incur during a voyage,” Thad replied as the doors opened, revealing a long cylindrical glass tube. He marched into the cramped space, maneuvering Grams so they could fit and said, “This pod will take you directly to sick bay. It is weight activated and will move within ten seconds. I’ll be waiting for you there.”

  As the glass pod rotated and the elevator doors closed, Kiya turned towards Thor and said, “Pinch me please. I’m on sensory overload because I could have sworn he just said we are protected from being sucked out into space by a single cell organism.”

  “You heard him right,” Morri offered, as she walked by with Dag at her side.

  “Is it alive? What does it feed on?” Kiya asked, nibbling on her lip as she tried to distract herself from worrying about the only two people she loved.

  Just shy of tapping her foot, she rocked on her feet as she waited for the pod to come back. Thor placated her nervousness and answered, “It is very much alive and feeds on a sugar substance that the ship is coated in.”

  “What happens if it runs out of food?” Kiya asked intrigued by the relationship.

  “It would die and then we would die. Don’t worry, in the history of space travel it has never happened,” Thor replied and then pointed to the returning pod and said, “Your turn.”

  “Are you coming as well?” Kiya asked, entering the glass pod cautiously.

  Thor huffed out a brisk, “No. I just didn’t think you should be alone. See you at the convocation.”

  As the pod rotated she called out, “The real question would be is that because you care or because you were worried I might sabotage something if left to my own devices?”

  If I told you, where would the mystery be? Thor answered telepathically.

  If I was a betting woman, I’d put my money on the latter, Kiya snapped back.

  Unsure of what to expect as the outer door closed, plunging Kiya into darkness, her stomach flipped as the tube dropped at an alarming speed. Bracing herself for impact, she stared at her feet for a hint of light that would give her a clue of how close she was to her destination. To her surprise a blast of air shot out from the bottom of the transport tube, lifting her up so she was floating above the ground when the tube came to an abrupt stop. Just as quickly, the air turned off and she landed on her feet softly. Placing her hands on both sides of the glass as it turned back around, she pushed herself out as soon as possible. Leaning over, she stuck her head between her knees and said, “You should have warned me I was in for a ride! I about peed my pants!”

  “It’s perfectly safe. At least doing it my way you didn’t have the added anxiety of the anticipation,” Thad countered motioning her over to him.

  Standing up, Kiya got a glimpse of her surroundings. Three ARC’s lined one wall with the occupants’ vitals displayed above them on a glass monitor. Half of the room was separated by a glass wall and a giant of a man could be seen on the other side. Stepping back a few steps to get a better look, her mouth dropped open when he turned around and looked at her with his one eye and said, “I’ll give you a pass this one time, since I’m sure you’ve never encountered one of my kind, but most sentient beings find it impolite to stare.”

  Slamming her mouth shut, she averted her eyes to the screens behind him and mumbled out an awkward apology, “Um, thank you I guess...I’m sorry...That was rude. Um...Can we start over?” Walking around the glass wall, she approached him with her hand held out and said, “Kiya Brown, Idiot Scientist who likes to make a fool of herself. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  “Likewise, I’m sure. My name is Gameer and I’m the ship’s physician. I assume you’re interested in the progress of my newest patients,” Gameer drawled, as he covered her hand with his giant paw of a hand and shook it far more gently than Kiya thought he was capable of.

  “Very much so, please,” Kiya breathed out in relief as she pulled her hand out and ran it through her hair. The fact that he referred to them as patients in Kiya’s eyes was a sign they were still alive.

  “The male is recovering nicely and should be up and about in a couple hours. Well before we reach Zyntese. The woman is in stasis for the moment, while I identify the poison she ingested. Once I administer the antitoxin I’ll restart her heart and see where we go from there. You are welcome to stay, but don’t interrupt as we can only keep her in stasis for an hour before irreversible brain damage can occur. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to work,” Gameer replied turning back towards the monitors in front of him.

  At war with herself to not ask more questions, she bit her lip and nodded her head. Thad grabbed her arm and lead her to the ARC her grandmother resided in and, pulling up a chair, he pushed her into it and said, “Patience. Gameer is the best we have. She’ll recover. I know it.”

  “She has to make it. I’ll be damned if she gets the last word,” Kiya uttered with a cry.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Aarik

  If I would have known you were going to give me a play by play while I was unconscious, it would have saved me a shitload of anxiety. Why didn’t you say anything? Aarik moaned inwardly, with irritation.

  I needed you on your toes. Not complacent that everything would work out, Enki explained and then added, Just because we can see the future doesn’t mean we are invincible. It just gives us a better understanding of the consequences of our choices.

  Will Tashina live? Aarik asked as he took stock of the warmth growing in his core.

  I’m fairly confident she will. The future is bleak if she does not pull through, Enki replied gloomily.

  Not like I’m a betting man, but what are our chances? Aarik inquired as he felt an electric current travel north towards his neck.

  The human species will survive at this point, Enki answered and then paused before he added, As long as the convocation goes in your favor.

  Is there anything we can do to sway the vote in our favor? Aarik asked with a chuckle before he asked,
Why do I feel drunk?

  It’s probably the endorphins your body’s producing in response to the healing. The enjoyable experience won’t last long. I suggest you enjoy it while it lasts, it won’t be long before you feel the effects of a hangover, Enki answered. Clearing his throat he said, In regards to turning the vote in your favor, have you considered the Kh’izment ceremony? The power of your combined souls as well as your seer abilities might just be enough to persuade them.

  It’s not like we haven’t thought about it, but we also haven’t had the time to do anything about it! Besides the fact that we barely know each other, I’m not sure if she’s ready for that kind of commitment. Aarik claimed adamantly.

  You asked what could help you in the convocation, I supplied the answer. Don’t shoot the messenger, Enki shot back before adding, Besides, you complained that you couldn’t handle my desire for her and I’m just a figment of your mind. What makes you think if you continue to wait to claim her it will get any better?

  What if she isn’t interested in that kind of a commitment? Aarik questioned self-consciously.

  She might not think she is ready, but she is definitely interested, replied Enki with bravado.

  It’s not like we’ve had a lot of time alone, and now that I know I have a bystander with me at all times I’m not exactly in the mood to get physical, Aarik replied defensively.

  It doesn’t have to be physical, just happens that way most of the time. It can be done in a matter of minutes really, Enki encouraged.

  What are you, my pimp? You make it sound cheap and insignificant. We’re talking about a lifelong commitment. Aarik fired back with annoyance, wishing he could reach his neck to scratch away the healing itch developing at his wound site.

  More like a soul-long commitment, Enki reminded Aarik and then added, I know you’ve seen it just like I have, why prolong the inevitable?

  Do you go away the moment it happens? Aarik asked sarcastically to change the subject.