by J D Morganne
“Loving night, Earthens, plus one Enkindler detected.”
It wasn’t Aicis, but the AI took them all—especially Jaxon—by surprise. Her voice was clear as if she was standing right beside them. With her presence came four walls of transparent, blue screens closing the lab again. Celecomb vapor materialized into a transparent orb in the air.
Jaxon blinked several times, hoping this wasn’t a dream. He’d never been happier to hear that dumb AI’s voice. “Control, find”—
“System mending. This could take several hours.”
“Call Beck,” Eshauna commanded.
“Unable,” it said.
“Why?” Jaxon said.
“System mending,” it said again. “Unable to locate.”
Beck wasn’t like Jaxon. She didn’t have rings that had access to every part of her body, like him. He needed to be more specific. Beck said they would be waiting in the tunnels. “Contact the tunnels under Mt. Garrida.”
The pause afterward felt endless. Jaxon started to wonder if the thing had gone offline again.
“Confirmed,” it said, finally.
Within seconds, the ground pulsated the hum of djembes that teased and invited them. The electrified crowd and oblivious faces came into view, reflecting across bulbous screens. With the night came fireflies. Their green lights flickered past the screens as they dipped under and between thick, Koloberry branches. Insane to think Cayman wanted to destroy all that.
Jaxon didn’t see Beck and he didn’t think anyone could hear them. He searched for her in the crowd, but only found cautious Lions surveilling. A few noticed the screens lighting the tunnels and ran to find, Jaxon assumed, Beck.
“Can they hear us?” He searched for a button, with a mic symbol, scraping away dust as he did.
“Nah,” Nano said.
The screens went black, before a dying flow of power. “System mending. Converting stored energy to Recovery Procedure.”
“Let’s lock up,” Eshauna suggested in a hurry. “There won’t be enough sunlight to keep the power flowin’ through the night. We’ll see what we’re workin’ with in the mornin’.”
Jaxon took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He nodded.
“That it?” Nano said. “Let’s beat. My baby made apple pie.”
It didn’t sound as appetizing as before. Now, Jaxon wanted to stay behind, play with the controls. If he could reach the tunnels from this village, he could reach Obedience. His hands hovered above a set of red buttons.
“We’ll come back in the morning,” Eshauna promised.
Jaxon would be gone by morning.
Still, he left with them. They were right. Staying wouldn’t change the results.
―
It took the same time to get home as it had taken to get there, but it felt longer. Jaxon’s filthy hair and clothes reeked, and he ached for a warm shower and two days of sleep. As they approached the tunnels, he realized he wouldn’t get that. There wasn’t a single place Aria hadn’t polluted with her extreme decorations. Green candles illuminated the surrounding space and crammed Jaxon’s nostrils with mint. He sneezed.
“My baby has outdone herself.” Nano scurried past Jaxon into the sea of Earthens, while singing about apple pie and making love. The screens had gone black again. Jaxon followed Nano’s terrible singing to get through the thick crowd. Back at the lab, all these people made it impossible to see the antechamber’s floor. Now, there was half that.
Jaxon yawned, but he wasn’t allowed to be sleepy for long.
“Get cleaned up.” Aria took his bag, irritation lurking in the wrinkle between her eyebrows. She snatched off his coat, and his tired muscles throbbed. “There’s a shower in the third hall at the end. I put’ya clothes in there. Go get cleaned…” She paused, gaze set on the rip in his coat. “You’re bleeding.”
“I’m fine. What’s going on?” He was referring to Nano’s low mumbling carrying from the other end of the hall.
“Should’a seen what he did. He vaporized— I mean evaporated the Colloid.” Nano blabbered on and on about the last thing Beck wanted to hear: that Jaxon had lost control of his abilities. Again.
“It was more like… melted,” Eshauna corrected.
“One minute he’s in there, the next this dome comes out of nowhere and then… this fire… I thought they were birds at first.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Beck said, quietly. “He’s leaving.”
“Leavin’?” Nano was shocked like he’d found out Old-World humans weren’t real. “Why would he leave?”
“You’re not asking that.”
“Look how far I got him.”
“You’re enjoying having a brother and that’s great for you, but the kid’s the only one in all the Doors that can harm that tree.”
“But we have him on our side.”
“There are no sides! Cayman killed over forty people getting to him. Earthens. My job is to protect Jerus from him.”
“Hey,” Aria tapped Jaxon’s shoulder, drawing his attention back to her. “Don’t listen to them.” She turned him around steered him in another direction. “None of this matters anyway. Nobody is volunteering to dance and if Beck don’t have a volunteer, she can’t Ascend.”
Even though Jaxon knew Beck would choose her people over him—she had every right—her words still stung. That wouldn’t stop him from helping her in whatever way he could. He turned and followed their voices.
“Jax.” Aria chased him.
“They hate me,” Beck said to Nano, before Jaxon rounded the corner. “I can barely stand and I’m supposed to dance?”
“We already said you was skippin’ that.”
“I can’t! No Emiir…” She sighed, slapped her hands on her hips and started to pace. If it was her way of calming down, it wasn’t working. “The dance is what pushes me to the next stage.”
“You know that’s all meaningless symbols.”
“If it’s meaningless, why are you here?” Beck snapped, straight-faced. “This means a lot to Mama. Another female can’t volunteer. No man will volunteer to dance for their injured Emiir because they all hate me. Why stand in my face talking about ‘meaningless symbols’?”
Nano laughed hard enough to make Beck punch his arm.
“Ow! I don’t think it’s cause’a you. It’s ‘cause they have to eat the Reaper,” he said. “That thing’a kill you. That’s why it’s only for the Emiir.”
Beck turned, her eyes bursting wider when she saw Jaxon standing there. “You’re hurt?” She shot a disapproving look at Eshauna.
“No. Well, it doesn’t hurt anymore. You need help?” Jaxon said.
“She need’a volunteer.” Nano looked bored and ready to eat or sleep, or both.
“I’ll do it.” He was only offering to help because it was Beck. And at some point, he’d opened up to her and let himself care about her. He would’ve never agreed to humiliate himself in front of hundreds of people. He was the only person like him there. Already a spectacle.
“You’re hurt,” she said again, gently smacking his cheek. “No.” Her shoulders slouched in a mixture of annoyance and dismay. “It’s over, so forget it.” She sulked off, back into a room with a long desk and wall-to-wall mirrors.
Aria faced Jaxon. “You’ll have to dance if you do this. You up for that?”
He nodded. He would do anything Beck needed him to do.
Aria nodded with less enthusiasm and slammed the door in his face.
Jaxon turned around, brow creased in confusion. “Are they both mad at me?”
Nano, who had stood there and said nothing, finally broke into hysterical hyena laughs. “Ohhh. Mother. Earth. Boy.” He leaned on Jaxon’s shoulder. “That was painful to watch. She gotchu on a leash? They.”
Jaxon shrugged him off. “Shut up.”
35
Beck and the other’s trekked the short journey through the least dank tunnels. Lions guarded even this level of the tree, parked at each exit. The tree was untouche
d. There was no threat now. Jaxon watched the Lions from where he stood on the platform Beck had raised. There was plenty space for him to dance, though he doubted he’d use most of it. Wasn’t a dancer. He kept eyeing a table off to the side that held five tall glasses of water.
Aria settled the crowd. Many people had returned to see the stranger from another Door make a fool of himself. “Welcome. We’re here to celebrate the twenty-fourth birthday of Sixth Emiir Yahid Beck.”
The applause was bigger than Jaxon expected, and he was flattered though he knew it was for Beck. It occurred to him that Beck thought Jaxon knew nothing about their traditions, but he had done his research. He knew how important it was, even if it was, as Nano had said, ‘symbolism’. If Jaxon drank the water, he failed. If he spat the pepper out, he failed. If he vomited, he failed. If he didn’t dance, he failed. For so much riding on this, neither of them had thought it through.
Jaxon bent low while Aria tied his hair in a ponytail. A rhythm of djembes. A soft hum of a saxophone.
“Our very own alien from an outside world, our brother, Jaxon Fletcher has volunteered to represent our Emiir on her Ulai.” She scurried to a safe on a table. Three open circles on top of it vented what was inside. Jaxon tapped his hands on his legs and counted the fifteen seconds it took her to unlock the safe. She came back with a silver box, sealed with a resting lioness emblem.
Aria wiggled her mouth under her facemask, her goggles flinching with her nose. “Ready?”
The familiar scent was like the bitter peppers Naomi had diced for her vegetable burrito. Except this smell was more fetid and poked at the back of Jaxon’s throat. He coughed.
“Put your hands on mine.”
Jaxon placed his hands over Aria’s rubber-gloved hands.
“The reaper pepper represents the struggles of your past life. It allows you to cleanse yourself of the hurt and pain of losses and disappointments. It allows you to start fresh and pledge understanding and growth in your next stage of life. Do you accept this honor for your Emiir Yahid Beck VI?”
Jaxon nodded, rigid as ever. He accepted it for Beck and himself. There were plenty disappointments he wanted to cleanse himself of. The world he’d known was a lie, an elaborate scheme, orchestrated to get him to Knowledge. Now look who he had become. New. Different. His life had taken him through frightening, fascinating and exciting challenges. “Yes.” He focused on the box, where the pepper was waiting, calling to him as if giving a brutal warning.
Aria lifted the top and presented a pepper the color of piss, oozing, reddening at the tip, sunken in thick liquid, like a hunk of flab. Jaxon took a step back to wipe his stinging eyes. In his peripheral, he caught Beck slouching back, shielding her sight with her fingers. He didn’t want to disappoint her.
“Repeat after me,” Aria said. “From earth I am born. To earth I belong. Miyoo-yede eeart ii eeart miyoo-ye do’e.”
Jaxon repeated.
“You can’t stop dancin’ till the drums stop.”
He nodded fast.
“Emiir, ascend.” Aria kneeled, holding the pepper for Jaxon to take. “You have to eat the whole—"
Without thinking, he snatched it with bare hands and threw it into his mouth. And he felt the wrath of the sun on his tongue, down his throat, burning a hole in his esophagus. His trumpeting heart was nothing compared to the spine-tingling drums, pounding a steady, yet menacing beat. Jaxon bounced from foot-to-foot, trying and failing to tap his legs in tune with them.
He tried not to look at Beck, on the edge of her seat, every pearly tooth clenched tight.
He closed his eyes and shut out the rest of the audience, all leaning in collective anticipation. He bobbed his head to the drums, while ripping the last of the chunky, rubbery skin between his teeth. With sweat soaking his shirt, his whole body was a piece of baking meat. He finally swallowed with a regretful look, before turning away from the crowd. He understood the point of the dance now. If he stopped moving, he’d surely die.
Pholcidae, Jaxon thought. A dead cellar spider he’d found in the corner under his bed, its spindly legs, shriveled and firm, even when Jaxon flushed it down the toilet. He felt like that. A dead, dancing spider.
Someone whistled. The drums beat wilder, faster. The crowd cheered. Jaxon wouldn’t be distracted. He listened for the drums to stop. When they did, he’d bolt out of there and hide, until he felt his face again.
He opened his eyes to catch a glimpse of Beck. Her eyes were wide, whole body still while she hid her humiliation behind her hands.
Then three loud beeps made his ears twitch. Static rustled in his ears, before, “Procuring delayed messages,” his AI said.
Jaxon almost stopped dancing. Almost.
He tripped over his own feet, trying to stifle his shock and not let Beck down.
“Warning: Significant amount of data outgoing and incoming.” A burst of information streamed down Jaxon’s cornea tab, visible to only him. He looked like a crazy person, nodding his head to read the rolling text, while trying to keep up with the drums. Where had this come from? And why had it picked the most inconvenient time?
“Delayed transcripts,” Aicis continued. “Received April 524 ED. Approximately eight months ago. For full pardon, please complete following missions. Confederate – Anga Beck, Alias – Nano. Confederate – Emiir Cayman Beck of Alasta. Await details at their command. Playing mission files. Mission: Activate celtech in underground tunnels. Approximate location—The Door of Knowledge, Jerus, Tite, beneath Garrida’s Mountain. Successful. Internal core is currently one hundred-and-two-degrees Fahrenheit. Continue incoming data?”
If he stopped now, he failed Beck. His eyes rolled, but he fought the squeezing in his brain. “Con–ti–nu...” Breathless, he danced.
“Mission: Infiltrate chateau residence of Emiir Yahid Beck VI. Successful. Mission: Acquire data on fructus babylonica giganteum, also known as the Koloberry Tree. Successful. Mission: Acquire Doctor Ariana Clair. Assessing… assessing memories… assessing… successful.”
All the information went as it came, electric energy blasting off in his brain.
In the beginning, he’d begged for an escape, a way back to Naruchi. Aicis was telling him that Dasher would’ve pardoned him if he’d gone to Alasta? He would’ve. He would’ve completed his missions without fail, stuck to his principles. They hadn’t had to condemn him. If only they had asked… he would’ve avoided falling for a family Dasher had sent him to infiltrate.
And what did Nano have to do with it? And Aria?
A final, unison drumbeat signified the end of Beck’s passing and Jaxon froze, amidst uproarious applause. Beck was there, but she wasn’t cheering. She watched him, eyes muddled.
She climbed onto the stage but stayed on her knees a short distance from him. “What’s wrong?” she mouthed.
“Missions complete. Purging memories. Internal core: one hundred five degrees Fahrenheit. Seizure imminent. Brace for impact.”
A white aura blinded Jaxon to the cheers. He reached for Beck, but a violent force immersed him and coursed cold through his veins, before the white swarm took him again.
36
“Jaxon!” Beck’s heart raced as she ran to him. She dropped beside where he’d fallen. He’d knocked his shoulder on the table’s corner, and shards of glass from the broken pitcher scattered by his head. “Jax?”
She was afraid if she touched him, she would make it worse. He hadn’t fallen under a dark spell. He wasn’t having a nightmare. He’d pissed his pants and white replaced the innocent darkness she loved. His jaws had locked so tight he’d bitten his tongue. Blood poured between his teeth.
“Where’s Aria? Someone get’er.” Beck’s mind battled between reality and what she wanted to be a dream. She didn’t know what this was, but Aria would. She popped her head up, searching frantically for her. “I’ll be right back.” She pulled off her coat and laid it over Jaxon. It only covered his torso, but it was better than leaving him on the wet ground. His convulsion
s had slowed, but his breath came strained. “I’ll be right back.” Before she planted her foot and slingshot herself forward, the tremoring earth threw her to the ground.
Above her, wild vibrations shook her bones. An explosion rocked her feet, down into her stomach, where it sat sickly. Her house was gone. She’d felt that. Right behind it, explosions blew the chateau to pieces. One detonation after another. Panic incited, replete with black, solid clouds of smoke in every orifice.
“No.” For a moment, Beck had forgotten what unbridled infatuation felt like. She had forgotten the regretful feeling of choice. In the end, protecting her people was priority. She left Jaxon. “Lions! Get everyone to safety.”
Another two explosions, a lot closer than her house and the chateau, sent her to her knees. She didn’t know where the next one would hit, but she knew it would. The Koloberry! They were coming for the Koloberry. Earthens would shun Beck, kill her, throw her somewhere in a ditch if she didn’t protect it.
Two—maybe three—wars between her reign and her mother’s? She couldn’t afford mistakes. She ran down the peppery air-filled tunnels, her arm over her nose. Another explosion flung her into the air and back down. She braced herself, before a draft of burning wood crammed inside her nostrils. She followed it, thankful it wasn’t coming from the tree. Jaxon was the only one who could destroy it and Beck had left him behind. But that didn’t mean other idiots wouldn’t try.
The sound of war, she thought, as children and women stampeded by.
A bloodcurdling scream in the distance ripped Beck’s soul apart, leaving echoes in its wake. That was Aria. Beck bolted for the blue light, spilling into the tunnel from the antechamber. Grunting, knowing she couldn’t burst in there without attracting everyone’s attention, she stopped. She hoisted herself onto a slope and dipped into an open crack in the sediment. She inched to the end where she couldn’t be seen, like when she was younger, holding Nano close between the heavy coats in an armoire, as Alastan soldiers slashed her mother.
A maelstrom of Earthens pervaded the antechamber, huddled in close groups. Children’s screams died to sniffling and whimpering. Panicked gazes followed a buff man who had one hand on Aria’s shoulder.
