by Blake Vanier
“Am I going?” Nero asks nervously.
“I suppose so,” the guard says. “The final trial will happen when the moon Stybris is in Axiom later tonight so we have some time to kill anyway.”
After a short wait to let the crowd thin, the three climb up through the hordes of people until they finally reach the King's box. They are let inside by several guards after a security check. Natina quickly sees her dad and moves toward him. He is among the largest Borukins in the box. His shaved head and its crown-like tattoos give him an unrivaled presence. He is talking with several older Borukins with long hair, a smaller light-skinned person in a military uniform, and Prince Kamin.
“Aether rifles, generators, and accelerators. They have their use, but they are just toys,” the King says to his companion in a deep, booming voice. “What else can you offer?”
Natina stops behind him. “Excuse me, Your Highness, where’s the Queen?”
The King turns to Natina, his lip curled. “Natina. How dare you interrupt me. Have you not been taught better?” Natina cowers. The King shakes his head, turning his back on her.
Natina stands there for a moment until the guard finally puts a hand on her shoulder to move her away. “Don't take it personally, Natina. He’s a very busy man.”
Nero glances back at the King and notices the face of the smallest person in his company for the first time. He is an Erohsian. Bolts of panic race through his body. “Why is there an Erohsian here?” Nero asks.
“He's an Erohsian General, if I heard correctly,” the guard says. “Politics probably.”
Oh no. Nero turns his back to the King. “Hey, Natina, do you think we can leave?”
“No, not yet. I want you to meet my dad.”
“How about your mom?”
Natina nods. “Yeah, okay. She’ll be happy to see me. We can find my dad later.”
“Natina!” Both Nero and Natina jump, startled by the blasting voice of the King. “Come.”
Nero’s body goes rigid and Natina drags him toward the King and the Erohsian General. Natina performs a small curtsy. Panicked, Nero does the same.
The King raises one eyebrow. “This is your friend, Natina? A Human?”
“Yes, your highness. His name is Nero.”
“Nero? An ironic name for someone so small.” The King signals to the General. “This is General Lark of the Erohsians. He is my guest at the Games.”
The General moves his eyes from Nero and dips his head. “Pleasure to meet you, my lady.”
“The pleasure is mine,” Natina says with another curtsy.
“Are you proud of your brother?” the General asks. “I hear he’s going to compete in the Trial of Orinda, as well. Perhaps he'll be the youngest to win all three.”
“There is no doubt about that, Richard,” King Kamin says roughly.
“Of course, Your Highness. After his success so far today, I would expect nothing less.” The General looks at Nero one more time. “Excuse me, Your Highness, I need a moment.” He dips his head and moves away, pulling up his wrist computer as he does.
“Nero,” the King says. “Have you bonded with an essence? Can you use Aether?”
“Um… Well, kinda, sometimes.” Nero shifts uneasily, unable to take his eyes from the Erohsian consulting his computer.
The King turns to Natina. “Your choice in friends is disappointing. This one is nothing but a spineless child.”
“He's not just a child!”
The King's face turns cold. “Do not dare raise your voice at me.”
The Erohsian General pops back beside the King and holds up his wrist computer. He points to something on the holographic screen and whispers into the King’s ear. His eyes fall on Nero, who is holding his breath.
The King points to Natina's guard. “You, grab him.”
The guard hesitates for a fraction of a second, then firmly grasps Nero's arm.
The King walks up to Nero. “So, boy, it seems you have been getting into some trouble with my friend here.”
“Your highness, if we move quickly, we may be able to question this one and capture the others as well,” the General says.
The King shakes his head. “You can have this one, but I am not about to let you snatch up every Human child in Kiats. That would cause me more trouble than it is worth.”
“Dad, you can't take him,” Natina yells.
The King flashes her a fiery look. “Enough.”
“These children may have some very important information,” the Erohsian says. “We would be in your debt.”
“You're already going to owe me if I give you this one. Besides, if they were so important, you should not have let them escape in the first place. Borukins have a certain respect for Humans. Allowing children to disappear would just fuel the unrest I am dealing with. Would you rather I let this one go?”
The General shakes his head. “No, Your Highness. I understand your concerns. We appreciate your sacrifice.”
“Good.” The King looks at Natina's guard. “I will watch Natina for now. Lock the boy up.”
The guard dips her head. “Yes, Your Honor.” She turns, pulling Nero through the crowd.
Nero stumbles after her, trying to sift through the shock of the rapidly collapsing situation. Tears begin to well up in his eyes.
The guard looks down at him apologetically.
26
On the Other Side
Iona
Sosimo's face turns hard while he holds the phone to his ear. “Go on… Taken? How did this happen, Saraf?”
What’s happening? Iona sets down a stocking list.
“What's going on?” Ryder whispers to Iona as the other children gather in the storage room of the candy shop.
Iona shakes her head. “I don't know.”
“You let him go to the final day of the Games with the Princess?” Sosimo asks. “She’s the one you’ve been training? Did you not think to mention that to me?” Sosimo shakes his head. “Well then, what happened to Nero?”
The children turn to each other, wide-eyed, mouthing. “Princess?”
“Alright, thanks for the information. I’ll call you if I need anything.”
“No. I don’t want his help.” Sosimo’s shoulders sag. The toothpick in his mouth snaps. “Fine, but this doesn’t fix anything.”
“Okay. I’ll let you know how it goes tonight. Bye.”
“What's going on?” Thea asks.
“Nero got himself into some trouble.” Sosimo looks away, clenching his cylindrical toothpick holder in his fist.
“Did you say he was with a princess?” Thea asks.
“Yeah, and he seemed to have met the King as well. And the King seemed to want him locked up.”
“But he’s such a wuss,” Korbin says. “How could he get into so much trouble?”
“What could Nero have done to deserve that?” Iona asks.
Sosimo shakes his head.
“Well, shouldn't we do something to help him? We need to rescue him if he's in trouble. He's family,” Korbin says.
Sosimo gives Korbin an approving nod. “Yes, he is. There’s nothing we can do at this moment. Tonight, someone will come over to explain the situation. Then we can start planning. Finish up here, then get ready for dinner.” Sosimo walks off.
“How was he hanging out with a princess?” Thea asks.
“I wonder who’s coming over tonight,” Ryder says. “Sosimo doesn’t look happy about it.”
Iona nods. “No, he doesn’t.”
*****
As the children and Sosimo are cleaning after dinner, the doorbell rings. They hurry to the main entrance. Sosimo opens the door to a Borukin half a head taller than him. His face has three ivory tattoos of the Aether casts and his arms, at least what can be seen of them, are covered in tattoos. Iona suddenly becomes antsy. Her hands start to sweat. The two Borukins lock eyes for a moment in a tense silence. Sosimo’s jaw clenches about the toothpick in his mouth. The other Borukin’s arms flex.
> “Grebson,” Sosimo says, almost growling.
“Sosimo,” Grebson says in the same tone.
“Let’s just get this over with.” Sosimo steps to the side, allowing the large man to enter.
Grebson glances over the children. They drop their eyes immediately. “Natina demanded that she come along.”
“The Princess?” Sosimo asks.
Grebson nods.
Natina steps from behind Grebson, holding out her hand to Sosimo. She forces the worry from her face. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Sosimo.”
Sosimo shakes her hand. “You as well.” He turns to the children. “This is Nero's family. Ryder, Korbin, Iona, and Thea.”
Ryder shakes her hand first, coming up a few centimeters shorter than her.
“So, you're the one that got Nero in trouble?” Korbin asks.
Sosimo flicks Korbin on his arm with the back of his hand. “Korbin, stop. She's here to help.”
Korbin rubs his arm. “Okay, jeez, I just don't see how she could help.”
“She’s probably thinking the same thing about you.” Sosimo turns to Natina. “We appreciate your help. We can talk at the table.”
*****
“What happened to Nero?” Thea asks as soon as they are seated around the dining room table.
Grebson eyes her. “From what I’ve heard, it sounds like King Kamin asked the guards to grab Nero.”
“Why was he there in the first place?” Sosimo asks.
“I'm sorry, I didn't know this would happen,” Natina says. “I don't have many friends, so I invited him.”
Sosimo looks back to Grebson. “Where were you? Why didn't you help him?”
“You know I don't go to the Games anymore. Even so, there wouldn’t have been anything I could do. Nero did nothing wrong. The King made a demand, and no one was going to stop him.”
Sosimo looks at Grebson for a long moment. “Why, then?”
“Did you hear that Madam Carason died after the Trial of Odosa?”
“Yes.” Sosimo dips his head. “More bad news.”
“It is,” Grebson says. “Kamin Ramas Jr. is now the head of the schools, which greatly extends the King’s power.”
“I can only imagine what that’ll mean,” Sosimo says. “But, what does this have to do with Nero?”
“The King is making a push for power on all fronts. One of which is through technology. He’s pursuing an agreement with the Erohsians.”
“Erohsians?” the children cry out.
“Ah,” Sosimo says. The tension releases from his face. “And there was an Erohsian with him?”
Grebson nods. “Some general. Apparently the Erohsians want to make a deal with the King to help handle the rebelling Humans.” Grebson turns to the children. “Now, why would this general be interested in you all? The general showed Natina a picture of all of you.”
The children sink back, looking at Sosimo nervously.
“From what I can work out,” Sosimo says, “they stumbled upon some Erohsian essence specimens that were stolen by Catalyst. They opened the canisters and absorbed the essence. Now, the Erohsians are chasing them.”
“And Nero absorbed one of these?” Grebson asks.
“It was just me, Korbin, and Thea,” Ryder says. “Something funky happened when Nero tried. It just evaporated.”
Grebson nods in thought. “It’s interesting that a general would care about these children and a few essences. I wonder if there’s something else going on.”
“Especially with the amount of effort they’re putting into the search. They nearly shut down Blue Horin when I was smuggling them out. I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re missing something.”
“Did the Erohsians get Nero?” Thea asks. “What are we going to do? This is horrible.”
Grebson shakes his head. “Not yet.”
“What do you mean?” she asks.
“If you'd let him finish, Thea,” Sosimo says. “I'm sure he'll get to it.”
“The King has taken Nero into custody. He plans on hand-delivering Nero to the Erohsians when he visits them in Sunta. That’s in a little over a month. He's using it as a show of good faith,” Grebson says.
“Do you know if they'll come after the others?” Sosimo asks. “Should they go into hiding?”
“I doubt it,” Grebson says. “If word gets out, the King will be lucky to avoid protests because of Nero. It wouldn’t hurt to be more careful, though. Maybe you should pull them from school since Prince Kamin will be taking over.”
“He can't just take Nero like that,” Iona says.
Sosimo shrugs. “He's the King, he can get away with a lot. I don't have legal guardianship over you, so there’s no real proof Nero was in Kiats at all. They might try to hide the whole thing. It would be my word against the King's, which wouldn’t go very well.”
“What about my word?” Natina asks.
“You're too young. Yours would probably just get you into more trouble than it’s worth.” Sosimo turns to Grebson. “Do you know when they’re leaving?”
“I believe their plan is to leave Kiats in one week, and drive to Sunta so the King can make some stops in the mountain towns along the way. I believe he also wants to stop at the Moltrik Corusnigma so Kamin Jr. can attempt the trial in order to quell any disputes of his new position as the Overseer of the schools.”
“So that gives us plenty of time to rescue him before they leave,” Ryder says. “We’re going to go get him, right?”
Korbin throws his fist into the air. “Definitely. We owe him one.”
“Yes, we’re going to rescue him,” Sosimo says. “There's no telling what the Erohsians would do to him, or if they’d ever release him. Unfortunately, we may need to exercise more patience than you’d like. I think we’d do better pulling off a rescue mission in Sunta.”
“But that means we’d leave him locked up until they got there,” Thea says. “Why would we wait so long?”
“I don't like leaving the boy trapped for that long, either, but Sosimo's correct,” Grebson says. “We couldn’t go toe to toe with a bunch of Borukins. Sosimo’s and my skills combined with your Aether abilities just aren’t enough. The Erohsians, on the other hand, are particularly vulnerable to Aether. The appropriate skills would give you kids a significant advantage over them. Especially if we hit them when they aren't geared up… like at the Borukin welcoming banquet.”
“What do you mean by 'you kids’?” Ryder asks.
“He means this is your task,” Sosimo says.
Korbin's mouth drops. “You're not going to help?”
“A few Human children have a better chance sneaking in and out during the welcoming party than a couple of ugly Borukins,” Sosimo says. “You’ll have to do the actual rescuing. We’ll be helping every step of the way, so you won’t be completely on your own.”
“Who are you calling ugly?” Grebson asks.
Sosimo shakes his head. “You’re just as much of a pretty boy as Saraf.”
“Not even close.”
“Uh-huh.” Sosimo looks at Grebson, eyebrows raised. “Anyway. These children are making good progress with Aether, but another month of specialized training for real situations will do nicely. Do you have any ideas for sneaking them in?”
“I can help,” Natina says. “I'm not sure how, but I'll do whatever I can.”
Grebson nods. “Good. We'll need it.” Grebson turns back to Sosimo. “I also heard you may have some contacts in Sunta that could be useful?”
“Does Saraf tell you everything?” Sosimo asks.
“What would you expect?”
Sosimo lets out a grunt, lowering his voice. “Perhaps we can talk privately?”
Grebson lays a hand on Natina's shoulder. “Would you care to test these Humans' abilities? We need to make sure they'll make the cut.”
“Sure, what would you like?”
“See if any of them can take you down. Keep it simple. Use standard Roroon.”
“She’s a pri
ncess,” Korbin says. “What if I hurt her?”
“She's also bigger than you, Korbin,” Sosimo says. “You should worry more about yourself.”
“If any of you can take her, I'll be impressed,” Grebson says.
Korbin jumps up. “That's a challenge.”
“Okay, take it to the training room,” Sosimo says. “We'll join you soon.”
The children run off. Iona is last, following slowly. Just before the training room, she stops.
Natina is bigger, stronger, and better trained. We don’t have a chance… unless we can use Icor talismans. She stands at the doorway for a moment before turning back the way she came. Maybe Sosimo will let us.
Iona hurries back to the Borukins but stops just around the corner when she hears the tension in Sosimo's voice.
“Why are you helping?” Sosimo asks. “I'm sure you could care less.”
“I'm not the man you think I am. Things change.”
“Situations change. People rarely do. What's in it for you?”
“It's not about us,” Grebson says. “It's about the boy. Can we put our baggage aside for the time being?”
There is a long pause before Sosimo speaks again. The tension gone from his voice. “I agree,” he says, low and barely audible from outside the dining room.
“Tell me about Nero.”
Sosimo lets out a long breath. “His ability to sense Aether is astonishing. He describes it as though he can see Aether. I’ve never heard of anything like it.”
“And his Odo is equally as impressive.”
“It is,” Sosimo says. “I thought he was only practicing Roroon with Saraf. How long has he been doing Odo? And why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“Roroon is all he’s been doing. He said he learned it by listening to Saraf and playing in the park… but he moves too well to not have been practicing with Aether. Natina told me he said something about an entity once, and Saraf said something about a smart entity. Have you heard of this?”
“He did ask me some odd questions a while back. But a wild entity in the middle of Kiats. And a smart one?”