“Precisely. You must act fast. When you leave our meeting tonight, return to Chesterfield and tell Delia to prepare a Vidra360 for you. Take the box to my brother. Vance will need an Etherian to open it, which I’m sure he can arrange in short order. But at least, it will buy us enough time to plan your escape. You need not worry. I promise to help you and your family to safety.”
Words failed Myles.
“And, I have one last assignment for you…” He turned and handed a small brown leather pouch to a still dumbfounded Myles. “Keep this close to you on the trip and only open it after you have already given Vance my portal. Whatever you do, do not let Vance get a hold of this.”
A mixture of guilt, gratitude and doubt overcame Myles when he pocketed the bag. He felt no relief at completing Vance’s last assignment; he was about to betray a Sumrect who had done everything to help him these past years.
“Well? Don’t just stand there… Get going!”
The double doors swung open, signaling the end of their meeting. Ansel wished him good luck and went back to staring out the window.
Myles only managed a quick nod and a half-mumbled “thank you” before he exited the room unceremoniously, his insides knotted with shame.
Little did he know, at that exact moment, twenty stories below, a black tinted glider zoomed past the entrance of the Ealon Hotel, carrying inside three Sumrects and their unconscious prisoner.
✽✽✽
Dawn awoke to a throbbing headache and the pungent stench of manure. The scene in front of her took a while to come into focus as she sat up on a hard metal surface to assess her surroundings. A fluorescent light flickered and buzzed overhead, worsening her headache. She was in a small concrete room with nothing but a steel shelf for a bed, a toilet and a sink. Opposite the shelf was a thick glass wall adjoined to a metal gated door. I’m in a jail cell, she thought, probably somewhere in Crimson.
Sore all over, she had no recollection of how long she had been unconscious or who had transported her to this holding cell. The last thing she remembered was running down a dark stairway of the Ealon Hotel. Ansel must have discovered my disappearance by now. I hope he does nothing rash.
Her stomach growled loudly in the small chamber. Through the glass wall, she could see a similar but empty cell right across from hers. Except for the buzzing of the fluorescent lights and the rumbling of her own stomach, she could hear nothing else. She searched the cell for security cameras but found none. I wonder if they can see my every move.
As if she had voiced her thoughts out loud, the thick glass in front of her flashed to life. Colors danced across the glass until a giant image of Quinn’s head emerged.
“Sleeping beauty has finally woken from her slumber!” His smile was more of a snarl.
She crossed her arms and turned her back on his face.
Quinn snickered. “You can turn, but you can’t run.”
He can see me.
“Don’t bother with any ideas of escaping. You are deep inside the tunnels below Crimson Estate with only one well-secured entrance and exit. Even Sumrects can’t break that glass wall in front of you, let alone pry open the metal bars, so I suggest you save your energy for less futile tasks,” he smugly informed her.
“Hey, Quinn! Is that who we were supposed to catch at Phyon?” A nasal voice joined the conversation.
“Shut up, Cameron! Remember? We switched targets halfway! We’re not looking for that Brighton girl anymore!”
“Say what, Steve? Let me see.” On the screen, half of a chubby, freckled face appeared briefly, only to the shoved aside by an angry Quinn.
“Instead of standing here like idiots, take this down to the human’s cell!” Quinn growled at Cameron, who jumped out of the screen with a whimper.
“Henry,” Dawn demanded. “Our deal, Quinn. You promised to release him if I turn myself in. I’m here now. Let him go.”
Quinn gave a throaty laugh. “She has come to save her dear brother. Such a loving act. I expected nothing less.”
Sick of his games, she whipped around to stare right into his beady pupils. “Where is Henry?”
“Calm down, little human! Don’t get so worked up!” He rolled his giant eyes on the screen. “Your brother will be released in time.”
“Let Henry go now, or you’ll have to tell your Atma the bringer of light is dead!” she said through clenched teeth,
He surveyed her for a moment, smiling widely. “Good one, human. These empty threats are quite entertaining.” The next instant, he snapped back to seriousness. “If you even consider ending that pretty life of yours on my watch, then not only does Henry die with you, all one hundred human workers in these cells will also perish. What good have you done then?”
One hundred? Is he bluffing? She clenched her fists so tight her nails dug into her palms. “Vance wouldn’t dare risk my life when he’s one step away from success.” She tried her best to sound threatening.
“And you wouldn’t dare risk all of their lives in one moment of reckless behavior,” retorted Quinn. The screen changed as he spoke and was replaced by a few hundred tiny images of jail cells like hers, each with a figure inside.
A dreadful feeling of defeat washed over Dawn like a cold shower. Quinn knew exactly what he was doing, and he was not about to budge. Nauseated from the sight of the human prisoners, she could not think of a better response to give him.
The screen switched once more to a single cell with a teenage boy laying on the metal bed.
“Henry!” she cried when she recognized the sleeping face.
“Look, he’s alive and well.” Quinn’s voice echoed through the concrete box. “But his wellbeing depends wholly on how you behave the next few days. Did I make myself clear?”
Dawn stared at her brother’s huddled figure on the metal shelf and backed away into her own bed.
“Did I make myself clear?” Quinn repeated, his head reappearing on the wall.
She spat into the screen.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” He sneered. After a short beep, his head vanished, and the wall reverted to its normal glass form.
Dawn sank to the ground and drew her knees up to her chin. She needed to come up with a plan. Fast.
✽✽✽
The morning after the celebration, a solemn-faced Ansel informed the Phyon Sumrects of Dawn’s capture. He knew a visit to Crimson Estate was unavoidable, and he knew exactly how much time he had left. Although he condemned the training of blue Sumrects, he now felt it necessary to impart at least the innocuous components of his training to a few trusted friends while he still could.
So, an hour later, the Phyon Sumrects began practicing their vunns, voortems and icklians with Ansel on the field. Some even attempted the lucean.
On the open field behind Chesterfield House, four pale blue domes flickered on and off under the mid-day sun. Ansel weaved in between the vunns, testing them with blasts of white electric currents. Next to the sturdiest vunn of them all stood a red-faced, sweat-laden Lorenzo, his features distorted with concentration. Jarret and Alexander managed to produce blue sparks all around themselves, but they could not assemble the sparks to form the desired shape. Winston’s dome glowed a lighter shade but held steady against the crackling balls of electricity that struck it from multiple angles. Though less transparent than Winston’s, Nico’s vunn had holes throughout. He squeezed his eyes shut while muttering nonstop in Sumrectian.
Ansel paused in front of the swiss-cheese dome. He tapped Nico on the shoulder, giving him quite a scare. “Form matters more than intensity!”
Nico laughed sheepishly, his face turning beet red.
With a sigh, Ansel checked his own patience. Blue Sumrects were not made overnight. Even with his prodigious talents, it still took him years to learn the skills Nico was practicing now. A nausea stirred in his gut as his body remembered the unquenchable, all-consuming thirst for power. There was another path to immense power. A much faster way. But the risk in taking that path outweighed the reward.
Training a Sumrect to turn blue was like feeding a vicious addiction. Most destroyed themselves in the pursuit of unbridled power.
He was the lucky one. The exception rather than the norm.
At the south end of the field, Blair ogled at him, absentmindedly twirling her hair between her fingers. Her dome rivaled Lorenzo’s at times, yet she struggled to maintain her vunn only ten feet away.
“Focus, Blair! Your vunn is unstable because you are letting your mind wander!” Ansel started in her direction, his expression stern.
“You make it hard to focus.” She giggled.
“Close your eyes and rid your mind of distractions. A weak mind attracts unwanted forces.”
“There’s no way we can learn in one day what took you years to master.” Blair crossed her arms and tapped her foot on the grass.
“You may not master everything in such a short period, but at least you will be better equipped to fight Crimson soldiers should it be necessary.”
“If it’s Crimson soldiers we’re fighting, then why don’t you teach us how to channel Etherian—”
“No.” Ansel cut her off sharply. “The aim is not to turn you all into blue Sumrects.”
“But you—”
“Stay away from Etherian forces.”
Blair scoffed. “Sure. Like you did—”
“Enough!” A blast of electricity burst from his hand and struck Blair’s vunn, disintegrating it upon contact.
“Ansel! What is going on?” Delia, who was chatting with Kai and Gail not too far away, turned to stare at them.
Arms crossed, Blair closed her eyes as her vunn grew solid.
“That’s much better,” Ansel said after the dome held steady for a good ten seconds.
Blair smiled. “I can do much better than that!”
She barely finished her sentence when the field turned a bright shade of red, and the blue domes fizzled out.
“Catch this, Ansel!” she yelled.
A dense, amorphous globule of reddish cloud hovered over her out-stretched palms. At the sound of her voice, Ansel spun to see Blair push the clouds out toward him. The globule of red bloomed in size to enshroud its target.
“Excellent voortem!” he praised from inside the cloud. “But you have to act fast now!”
Without further warning, a series of icicles spiraled down from the sky to where Blair stood, still gloating over the compliment.
“Watch out!” Delia ran forward.
Yet as Blair looked up, the ice began to melt, and right before they struck, the icicles evaporated into steam.
Ansel stepped out from a thinning red fog. “We need to work on your focus, Blair. Had the icklians came from an enemy, they would have pinned you before you even reacted.”
“Humph! I wasn’t prepared just now!” Blair sniffed, indignant.
Ansel’s lips curled upward into a slight smile. “A blue Sumrect is always prepared.”
“Like this?” With a quick flip of the hand, Blair threw at him a swirling mass of smoke-like matter.
Alarmed, he dodged it deftly. “Where did you learn that?”
Blair giggled and sent more black smoke whizzing past his ears. “Impressed yet?”
He hopped back as the smoke narrowly skimmed past his shirt sleeve. “Impressed? No. Worried that you’re dabbling in the wrong kind of forces? Yes.”
Alas, Blair ignored his expressed concern. She levitated off the ground and twirled in midair, hurling streams of dark smoke across the field.
“Whoa! Slow down!” Lorenzo tilted his head to avoid a hit.
“Stop! There are humans about!” Winston flailed his arms to get Blair’s attention. His white shield sprang up just in time to deflect an incoming dark mass. All other Sumrects followed suit. The shields reverberated loudly when the flying smoke bombs struck them, and the field was suddenly filled with gong-like sounds.
“Get down!” Ansel sent a blue dome cascading over Gail, Kai and Delia at the edge of the field.
Except it flashed a few times and disappeared. Like a broken faucet, the warm Sumrectian force coursed through his left hand intermittently. Despite his best efforts, he could not keep a steady vunn. Fortunately, Gail had pulled Kai to the ground as Delia deflected a string of vusaliers that flew over their heads.
Blair spun on, oblivious to the Sumrects below calling her name.
Ansel’s deep blue shield shimmered on and off sporadically. Each time he tried to shield, the warm Sumrectian force would rise in his chest and scatter before he could direct it. He understood what was happening, but Blair did not seem to notice. Smoke bombs littered the field. He dodged this way and that, sometimes evading Blair’s vusaliers by mere centimeters. After five minutes of dancing around the vusaliers, Ansel stood still and closed his eyes. An indigo shield formed around his head, but just as it spread to cover the rest of him, a dark mass struck the newly formed shield with a thunderous boom, cracking it down the middle. Ansel struggled to breathe while an enormous force hoisted him ten feet into the air before slamming him back down face first into the ground.
Chapter 17
The Vidra360 glided smoothly over calm ocean waters and snowcapped mountain peaks. Inside, the heat kept Myles toasty enough to remain in his summer garb. As instructed, he left for Crimson at noon the day after his meeting with Ansel. Twenty-four hours had passed since he last slept, but the churning of his mind and stomach prevented him from dozing off. The awful, imminent act of betrayal he was about to commit chewed at his conscience, and no amount of reasoning could assuage his guilt.
He ran his fingers along the engraving on the purple velvet box. Even though the box contained nothing but an amber stone, it felt heavy in his hands. There must be a better way. He reached into his pocket for the leather pouch Ansel had given him last. The instruction was for him to open the bag after he handed over the portal to Vance. Not before.
What if Vance kills me before I get a chance to view the contents? What if giving up the box is a complete mistake? For hours, Myles considered the possibilities, and when at last, he could see Tempeia’s coastline, he inhaled a deep breath and carefully pulled apart the drawstrings. Sorry, Ansel, I must.
Inside the leather bag were a folded note and what looked like a rectangular slab of… ice. Despite having traveled with him in a well-heated pod for the past twenty or so hours, the dark blue ice was smooth and untarnished. Bewildered, he unfolded the paper to discover a short message in Ansel’s fluid handwriting.
Myles, if you are reading this while still aboard the Vidra360, then my inkling has been proven correct once again. A smart man like you would not have permitted this bag to fall into the wrong hands should our plan fail. Do not worry. Vance will keep you alive long enough for you and your family to be rescued by my Sumrects. I am asking you, when the time is right—and I do trust your judgment—please give this bag to Dawn. Please also consider my request not as an assignment, but as a small favor for a long-time friend. Thank you.
~Ansel
Dawn? Is she at Crimson too? Myles stared at the note for a long time. His eyes grew moist when the memory of his first encounter with Ansel floated to the surface of his awareness. Vance had caught him in conversation with a Pathfinder at Crimson Estate. All he wanted back then was to find a way home, but Vance viewed his behavior as insubordination and exiled him to Phyon. What should have been the end of him turned out much differently than expected. Ansel welcomed him with open arms, treated him more like a family member than a prisoner, and before long, Myles learned just how much Vance had distorted Ansel’s true nature. If Vance had not taken his family captive and threatened their lives, he would have never traversed down this path of treachery.
A small favor for a long-time friend. He was glad no one was around to see the tears flowing down his cheeks. It is the least I can do.
✽✽✽
“Stop this insanity right now!” Ansel heard Delia holler furiously. Every bone in his body ached. He pushed with screaming muscles against a
shifting earth to rise from the dirt. Instinct and prior experience saved him from more severe injuries; he had shielded just in time and rolled on the ground to soften the impact.
“Enough playing around for one day. You could have killed somebody!” Delia scolded.
“I-I promise I had no idea—” Blair’s voice lost all its previous arrogance.
“I don’t believe it. How could Blair’s vusalier really hurt you?” Alexander said as he helped Ansel to his feet.
Sheepishly, Ansel dusted the dirt off his knees while the other Sumrects congregated around him.
“What just happened?” Lorenzo’s voice carried a hint of concern.
Nico was the only one smiling. “You were just letting Blair have her fun, weren’t you?”
“That’s it,” Delia joined the group and cut across them firmly. “You all need to go inside and take a break. Blair, think twice before you do something like that again.” Behind her, Blair wriggled free from the invisible ropes Delia loosened and dashed up to Ansel.
Embarrassed and worried, Blair grabbed him by the arms and inspected him from head to toe. “I’m so, so sorry… Are you okay?”
Ansel gave a chuckle. “After escaping from what I thought was certain death, I’m doing fantastic. But I must warn you…” He scrutinized her, choosing his words with care. “Stop channeling dark forces… sooner or later, they will consume you.”
She stared back at him, lips pouted.
“Blair, you need to keep your anger under control, or we can’t trust you in an actual fight,” Lorenzo said.
Blair stuck her tongue out at him but held back a smart retort.
“She made a mistake. That is all…” Ansel sighed. One day, her inquisitiveness would bring about her downfall. “Delia’s right. We have been out here all morning and need a break. Let’s go inside. There’s something I ought to share with you.”
✽✽✽
The only prisoner in a row of empty holding cells, Dawn heard the bickering and footsteps well before she spotted the guards. It had been a whole day since she turned herself in. Twice, the guards passed by with food, but she refused to give Quinn the satisfaction of seeing her take a bite. Her refusal to eat was not a viable long-term solution, but for the time being, maybe Quinn will get the message that she meant business.
The Eye of Elektron: A Clean Urban Fantasy (The Sumrectian Series Book 1) Page 18