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by Brad Stucki

  Again there was a mumbled growl from Sauros, and then, "My head aches," in reply.

  Javin again looked at the ministering stranger. She was like the guards they'd already met, though her skin had a lighter pallor and her shell plates seemed a bit thinner and lighter too. It gave the appearance, combined with what Javin had 'felt' through their eye contact, of greater compassion, wisdom, a definite feminine feel. Then Javin noted the single black arm band around the left arm of the woman now helping Sauros to sit back up against the wall.

  "What happened to you?" the woman asked. "We did you no harm as we brought you here?" The woman turned back to look at the person with the headdress. He had a definite male quality, as had all the guards who'd brought them here.

  "There were no reports of struggle," the man answered in respectful tones, though a bit clipped at being questioned thus. The man with the headdress appeared to be a leader, it was clear to Javin he was addressing a subordinate, though one who deserved respect.

  Javin shook his head. "No, your people did us no harm." Javin thought of what he should say, what he could say, that wouldn't make Sauros and he seem insane. He had no way of knowing what these people's reaction would be. "It's a rather long and complicated story," Javin finally said.

  The being in front of him again looked directly into Javin's eyes. Javin returned the gaze and 'felt' the contact. There was peacefulness in the woman, warmth and an invitation to trust. Javin slowly allowed more 'feeling' though cautiously.

  What passed between them could not be put into words. It was more of a syncing, a reaching of harmony, understanding, detection of who each was, to the core.

  The woman nodded and sat back. Javin felt strangely refreshed at the contact, and he too, had no doubt as to the intentions of the woman in front of him.

  "You have the 'Gift'?"

  "Gift?" Javin asked confused after the communing which had taken place.

  "Here," the woman said, pointing to her plated breast. "The 'Gift'? I sense you have it or we could not have 'touched' as we did.

  "You mean the crystal," Javin said. "Yes, I have one. He does too," Javin pointed to Sauros who had been watching closely.

  "Relax, big guy," Javin said. "I think we've reached a 'simpatico.'" Javin flinched at the reference that had just blurted out.

  Sauros looked at the woman who'd turned to look at him in question of what Javin meant. Sauros shrugged. "He sometimes talks that way. I've learned to live with it. I think he means we're friends."

  Chapter 7

  Javin and Sauros had been helped to their feet and removed from the cell. They were assisted by other guards who'd been summoned to help them move further up in the 'building' carved out of the immense stone pillar of this underground world. Two other guards had been detailed to bring their packs. They still were allowed to wear their long knives, which really confused Javin.

  They'd been assisted higher up in the structure and taken to an ornately appointed room. Along the way, they'd regained a measure of strength and by the time they reached their destinations, Javin was feeling more himself, though a bit dizzy and his head still ached.

  The furnishings of the room were about what Javin expected of a royal audience chamber. There were wall hangings of brilliant colors sparsely hung so as not to hinder the glow from the light-providing lichen growth on the walls, which otherwise were left bare. There were windows opening out onto the subterranean world, with other brightly hued hangings drawn back from the windows with chords, which if released would cover the windows. The windows were left open to the air. Then Javin realized that in this subterranean world, there would be no wind, no storms, no need to enclose the windows or even shelter a habitation.

  Occasionally along each wall there were pedestals with a vase or carving of a particular creature Javin had never seen before. He assumed they were of this world.

  The biggest difference was there were no chairs. Instead, spread on the floor in a circular pattern, were voluminous oval cushions of a dark burnished green.

  The man with the headdress semi-reclined on his stomach facing the center on one of the several cushioned pads. The two guards carrying their packs set them next to the leader and left, as did the other guards. It was apparent with the shells on their backs though flexible they wouldn't have been comfortable on any chair. The way he reclined again reminded Javin of the flexible nature of an armadillo, complete with the flash image of one of the creatures in his mind sitting alongside a road, curled up almost in a ball for protection. Javin 'saw' the remote road and the sky overhead clear and sunny and a name for the place – "Texas!" he said aloud as if he'd captured something important.

  "What?" the head dressed figure asked as he gestured for Javin and Sauros to take one of the pads in front of him. Sauros had turned to Javin.

  "Sorry," Javin said. "You remind me of something from where I come from. I think that place is called Texas."

  Sauros shook his head and settled himself awkwardly on the pad as Javin did the same.

  "Where is Texas?" the leader asked as he gestured to the other, the one who'd revived Javin and Sauros to take a pad beside him.

  "That's also a long story, and I'm not sure I'm able to explain it adequately," Javin said apologetically.

  "First, we should let them eat and restore their strength, Highness."

  "You are right. Ah, here it comes now."

  Others came in bearing trays of assorted foods and drink. The bearers were slighter and lighter in color. Their shells and plating also seemed thinner, like the woman who'd revived them, but otherwise looked identical to the larger masculine beings they'd met. Javin sensed femininity in them and assumed they were female. He didn't want to assume too much and only waited silently as they sat the trays down in a servile manner. They took smaller platters and filled them with what looked like an assortment of tubers and vegetables, and then a cup filled with a darker liquid and sat them before each. The remaining food was left on the trays and the servers bowed to the leader and left.

  "Please, eat." The leader said and suited actions to words.

  "We hope you like our food. We do not know what sort of beings you are, but assume you can eat the same as we." He held up a tuber and took a bite and then swallowed a sip from his cup, showing them it was safe. "If we intended you harm we wouldn't have brought you out of the cell."

  Javin held up what looked like a sprout of some sort with a tufted head, green in color, and sniffed it. It was served raw and it had a fresh smell. Cautiously he took a bite and found it a bit bitter and starchy but the taste wasn't unpleasant. He took a larger bite and chewed. He turned to see Sauros doing much the same with a longer strand of a whitish tuber.

  The drink was pleasantly sweet with just a hint of grit.

  "It is a drink from a tasty fruit we grow. It is renowned for its restorative properties," the arm-banded woman said with what Javin took to be a smile. Her teeth had been bared and her lips covering her snout had wrinkled a bit with the whiskers twitching slightly. It was a strange sight. Javin smiled back and the woman stared at him in much the way Javin guessed he'd been staring at her. Then Javin laughed at the humor of it all.

  "You're as strange to us as we must appear to you," he said. "I assure you, though, we mean you, or your world no harm.

  "I think it's time for introductions," Javin continued. "My name is Javin Cox. I come from a world that is different and far removed from yours. I think I come from a country called 'Texas.'" He turned to Sauros.

  "I am Sauros' Bho. I am a prince of my city and world, which is different from Javin's. We came to your world through an archway-portal which brought us here from my world. My city is called Sunzah’ nu Geeza. My world is called Faultro' Cho.”

  At that, the ‘man’ in the headdress responded. "I am called Bunta, king of Naarla." He gestured around him, indicating the city? Javin wanted to ask more but instead thought he should listen to the full introductions before jumping in. He knew it wasn't polite to i
nterrupt a king.

  "I am called Kokos, Keeper of the Chronicles," the arm-banded woman said. "Naarla is our city. Our world is called Nahishma."

  Javin looked at Sauros and smiled. 'Keeper of the Chronicals' was the same title they'd had on Sauros' world. That was a good sign. Hopefully it meant they'd have an ally.

  "We have Keepers on our world also," Sauros said. Clearly a Prince could interrupt a king, or at least a Keeper. "Perhaps there is a connection between us. On our world each city keeps a certain book where the history of their royal families is kept. It also talks of the future and of prophecy to which we must look. Do you also?"

  "What is this talk of other worlds? And what is the word, 'Planet?'" the king asked, getting back to his questions. "Do you mean you are from one of the farthest cities? Or do you come from the deep jungle? Perhaps from an undiscovered country? Surely I would have heard of creatures like you." Bunta clearly did not comprehend the terminology.

  Sauros turned and looked at Javin. It was a concept Sauros had only recently been able to grasp. After all, his world was covered in mist and he'd never seen stars or open sky.

  Javin took a deep breath. He pointed to the ceiling of the room. "Above your world, on the surface of this planet, there is a gateway; a doorway, through which we came from very far away."

  "What is this surface you talk of? You point to the top of the world. Are you telling me you live on the top of the world hidden in the mist? Perhaps that is why you are unknown to us." He looked at his Keeper.

  "I think I understand a bit, highness." She rose and went over to the far wall to a table that held a large book. She brought it back over and opened it on the floor in front of the king. Javin and Sauros watched closely and their eyes grew wide.

  The Keeper had turned to a picture they had studied hundreds of times on Sauros' world, trying to understand how it had gotten there. No one on Sauros' world knew.

  It was the picture of the Mulda' fi; the Promised Ones talked about on Sauros' world. It had the painted pictures of seven different species. And then it dawned on Javin, the Armadillo men were one of those species! How had he not recognized that right off?

  The king looked at Javin and Sauros while placing one of his thick fingers on the page; first on one being and then another. "This is you?" He glanced down at the book, studying it closely then looked back at them. "It is!" He gaped at the Keeper. "These are two of the Bousluu? Have the End-Times come, then?"

  "Bousluu?" Sauros asked, looking at Javin. "On my world they are called 'Mulda' fi. They are Promised Ones, sent during a Time of Trouble to save my world."

  The king and the Keeper sat and stared. "You know of the Guardians then?" Javin could see that the leader with the headdress was clearly astonished. "How is this possible if you come from so far a place?"

  Sauros shook his head with irony. "We don't know much I'm afraid, other than that they exist and that they are said to Guard us against Darkness. What do you know of them? We must be connected through them somehow. We both have the same picture in our chronicles."

  Kokos was silent, staring at Javin, and then to Sauros. "I know you both also have the 'Gift'. You must tell me of this. I see we have need to learn from each other." She turned to the king. "Highness, I must have your leave to speak with these men completely openly, and tell them of all our history. In return –"she cast a meaningful look at Javin and Sauros, "I must insist you tell me all you know. I think both our 'worlds' are at stake."

  Javin and Sauros looked at each other and then nodded agreement.

  Chapter 8

  Kokos told the history, greatly abbreviated, of her world. It spanned 1,000 years. It told of how the Guardians had placed them on their world to preserve and protect them and then had set their world in motion. The image in the book had been handed down from the first recorded history and kept in the history of each city so they would recognize the Bousluu when they came and know they were near the End Times.

  The history began with the establishment of the Seven Cities, far flung from each other, but all of the same people. And how they had discovered the sites of the Ancients. At this, Javin's attention was peaked. The ruins, the pyramids! They must be the same. The records said they were ancient cities left by those who'd been here before. They were never inhabited, instead held sacred, thinking maybe they had been inhabited by the Guardians before.

  What Kokos referred to as 'the Gift' she pointed to the images on the page and indicated the radiance flowing from the chest of each of the Bousluu – or Mulda' fi. Then she touched her own breast.

  "The 'Gift' was given to me just prior to the death of my father. It is the heritage my family has been honored to preserve and protect since our history began. It is normally passed from father to son, though I was the only one of my family left to received the 'Gift' when my brother . . . left and could not be found." Kokos closed her eyes as if in concentration and a warm burnished red-gold light began to grow from within her breast, emanating out in waves of warm radiance. "Through it I have the memories of all my fathers from the first time we set foot on the mother embrace of Nahishma."

  Javin was stunned. Here was a golden opportunity. How much detail did she have in those 'memories?' He just might start getting answers. Although the Keepers on Sauros' world had the records – which was quite a bit different with a 7000 year history, but it had the same amount of cities, and the same set-up in other ways, with the ‘Keepers’ and the Guardians. On Sauros’ world they didn’t have the actual 'memories.' It was because of the crystal in Koko's breast. That was the difference.

  On Sauros' world, none of the people had received a crystal until Javin had arrived. Then Sauros had found one. He knew Chahzuu, the spiritual leader -- the prophet of the Pontu' gi had a crystal too, and if he concentrated, he could see in his mind when he'd received it, along with the terrifying feeling of Chahzuu having his mind and soul stripped from his body by Nemesis. Chahzuu had ended up giving his life to save his people on Sauros’ world. But before that, he’d transferred all his memories to Javin and Sauros through the crystals now embedded in their breasts.

  Javin tamped down on that memory. He had to focus on the here and now. Four of the seven races in the chronicle were now identified. There were three more races to go. Things must be coming to a head. Javin and Sauros were smack in the middle. He just wished he had a clue as to what was going on.

  ***

  Nemesis stood staring down at the article of power sitting on the altar. He focused his mind and gently 'pushed.' A red-gold burnished glow swirled around his chest. The article emanated a certain feeling -- this was the one associated with the power of creation.

  He was always amazed at the surge. The energy seemed endless -- and he could draw upon it. Nemesis continued to delve; probing, touching, and feeling in and around the energy matrices, trying to grasp the purpose of its creation. He'd been carefully doing this for some time now. Carefully feeling his way through, based on the rudimentary instructions given him by his Masters. Clearly they knew about the Articles but it seemed they were nervous about telling him too much. Why was that? It wasn't that they were afraid of him. He sensed they were more afraid of the power of the Article itself. Because of that, he was being very careful and deliberate in his exploration.

  “There!” he said to himself. A strange pattern began to emerge in the energy flows. Though he couldn’t see it physically, he could discern with an ‘inner’ eye. Like seeing the image in his mind superimposed on his vision overlaying the Article so he could ‘see’ the emanations and what he was doing with his mental energy, rather than his physical form. It was as if there was a switch he could nudge with his mind’s eye, or a power control he could set at different variants.

  Nemesis eased it forward ever so slightly with his mental touch and felt waves of energy surging outward from the article, spreading through the thick stone walls. The waves pulsed outward as Nemesis ‘observed’ the effect they had on everything they touched. It was as
if he could see the inner workings of every plant, every tree, every animal and rock and even down to the soil and its composite nutrients, minerals, and water.

  The waves revitalized, strengthened, surged . . . those words of description were inadequate. Everything living the waves touched seemed to be energized, enriched and nourished. And as he observed closely, though he couldn’t understand how he could do this -- it must be the gestalt crystal in his breast -- everything the waves touched seemed to resonate with health and vitality.

  The power creation! Nemesis thought. Plants, animals even the very soil had its growth accelerated.

  Nemesis again ‘looked’ into himself. He seemed unaffected. Could he observe others? Was the phenomenon passing over only him because he’d set it off or because he was close in proximity? Closing his eyes, he cast his awareness out, feeling in a way he’d never been able to do before. But now he’d done it once, he knew he could stretch that awareness out again.

  He sensed living beings in an enclave fairly close by. Then reached further, testing his limits. How far could he ‘discern.’ Nemesis reached further through the chasm of the subterranean world, stretching himself. It was easy! There was another enclave, reaching again, and then another. He continued to push his awareness, transversing along with the waves of creative energy still pulsing outward, energizing all organic material it touched . . . except the sentient flesh and blood creatures Nemesis could sense. They remained unaffected.

  Why?

  “There,” Nemesis spoke aloud again. It was something different. He paused, and moved in carefully with his senses, not wanting to disturb or give warning lest they could sense his touch.

  There were three beings . . . two he recognized! And he grit his teeth, eyes flashing in anger. The dark swirling of burnished energy at his breast turned a deeper crimson in anger.

  “They are still alive,” Nemesis mumbled. “And there is another.”