by Drew Wagar
‘They’re getting ready,’ she said.
‘You too,’ Meru replied, pulling the straps tight around him. Zoella did the same.
‘Auxiliary power at seventy percent,’ Sandra said. ‘Land immediately.’
Meru gripped the controls.
‘This could get messy.’
Zoella looked ahead. The rocks were thinning out, the tall spiky constructs they had been flying over were less and less obvious, she could even make out small scrubs growing in between the rocks.
There was something else too … when the power on the ship failed … there was a message from the Obelisk … and pain!
She could feel it, a pulsing burning pain growing in her head.
‘Meru …’
She managed to gasp out his name before the full force of it hit her. She screamed, lurching in her chair. A white hot pain flashed across her temple and burrowed into her brain. She was aware of screams from the back of the flying machine; Ira and the children were also affected.
‘There!’ She was barely aware of Meru’s voice. ‘I’m going to try there. Hang on!’
The agony was intense and unrelenting. Zoella clawed at her forehead to no avail, the world outside now streaked with pain, blurred and dizzying. More screams and cries of pain.
Ahead of them the ground was falling away. They reached a lip and it dropped away below into an arid valley filled with dry vegetation. It looked harsh and uninviting, but it was flat.
‘Auxiliary power is now critical,’ Sandra said. ‘Land immediately.’
Meru brought the machine down as fast as he could, trying to find the least dangerous-looking spot to land in. There were twisted stunted shades everywhere, with no open space at all.
‘Just got to …’
The flying machine was twenty hands above the ground when its power failed. The engines gave a final whine and then began to spin down. The machine dropped, tilting forward and crunching down into the shades.
A terrifying grating noise accompanied their headlong rush downwards. There was a hard thump, followed by a second. One of the front windows cracked, a spider web of lines arcing across it.
Then with a further jolt, the machine came to rest, lying canted to one side. The only sounds were the screams of those within.
Kiri and Tali stood watching as the pyre was consumed by fire. Kiri stared into the flames, wrestling with her thoughts.
Another fallen priestess, another death, and now we go to seek more conflict, more war. Elena commanded us to destroy Amar, but her religion is false. Amar is not the enemy, I’m not sure who is any more! Can I stop this now? If I defy Nerina now I will be torn, cast aside and likely killed; I am not strong enough yet. If I do nothing, Amar will be attacked and defeated.
Flames crackled, she could feel the heat on her face. Tears streaked her cheeks, but she stood immobile.
But Amar will not receive me, neither would Scallia. I am their sworn enemy! They will kill me as surely as Nerina would. Drayden has been my home all my life. Can I throw away my past? What of the command of the Obelisk? Meru said Zoella had received the same warning, we must go to it …
She trembled, her grip on her kai tightening until her knuckles showed white through her skin. A vision consumed her mind once more. She gasped with the realisation of it.
Zoella was right. I do want it all. It was no dream. I hid it even from myself! But I would be a better high priestess, a better Empress than those who have gone before. I know what it is to be poor and hungry, I came from the slums …
It should be her. It was she who was queen, royalty of Scallia. Nerina had no claim to be high priestess other than the power she had acquired. But to stop her …
Nerina is too powerful. I can’t stop her without help. Without Zoella … would Rihanna stand with me? Can I trust her to betray Nerina? Would we be strong enough together? Which way will the priestesses turn, to us or against us? And how many more might die in such a power struggle?
More tears trickled down her face.
I was so sure before. The enemy was ahead, the priestesses righteous, our task clear! All I had to do was vanquish them and all would be right … but now? Every choice I make leads to conflict. Who is right and who is wrong? All are set against me, Drayden, Scallia, Amar … and the only one who did care for me … I lied to … I pushed away …
A sob escaped her. Tali grabbed her shoulder.
‘Kiri … there was nothing you could have done.’
She nodded, blinking back her tears. She wiped at her eyes, her resolve coming back to her.
Amar is lost whatever I do. Let them all be weakened by the fight. Nothing matters anyway. If there’s no goddess, there’s no after, no reward for service, nothing! Just this life and what I can do with it. I will pick up the spoils, tear those I can in the midst of the carnage. Strengthen myself to challenge Nerina! I will show mercy to those who pledge themselves to me wherever they might come from. I will be Empress. There will be no Amar, no Scallia, no Drayden! I will be fair to everyone from the lowest to the highest. They will worship me, fall at my feet! They will love me! And Meru will sit at my right hand, my consort. This I will make happen!
The tears were gone now; her eyes were bright once more with purpose.
‘It is done,’ she said to Tali. ‘Time for us to depart.’
Kiri stepped away, walking towards the harbour.
The flying machine was settled in a grove of twisted and thin looking shades. There was enough vegetation to hide them from the casual observer, but it wasn’t thick enough to present a problem with landing or take off. One figure stood outside, walking around, surveying the damage.
Meru completed his inspection of the flying machine. It was scratched and dented, but as far as he could tell, it was still operational.
But without power, we’re not going anywhere.
Inside, Zoella was slumped in the passenger seat, with Ira and the children curled up on the floor. All had fainted, overcome by the strange pain that seemed to accompany the loss of the ’tricity.
How can that be connected? Perhaps the ’tricity is what gives them their gifts somehow?
It didn’t make much sense to Meru. The strange powers that Zoella and the others seemed to possess were of the mind, whereas ’tricity was a motive force, making engines turn and lights glow.
But it seems they share a common source. The Obelisk I guess.
A thought occurred to him.
If the ’tricity is failing … does that mean these powers fail with it?
Zoella was stirring. He climbed back into the cockpit of the machine.
‘Zoella?’
She looked across at him before looking around herself.
‘We’re alive?’ she whispered.
‘For now,’ Meru answered. ‘How are you?’
Zoella winced, propping herself up. ‘It was like before, the pain … it’s gone now. The others …’
Meru held up a hand. ‘Still resting for now, they seem to be all right.’
Zoella undid the clasps on her seat and Meru helped her down from the machine. The temperature was soaring, so they both stood in the shadow of the machine’s wings. Zoella checked on Ira and the children. She looked around the interior.
‘We had to throw out all the food?’ Zoella asked.
‘The water too,’ Meru said, ‘With all of us aboard it’s just too heavy. Unless we’re planning to leave someone behind.’
Zoella shook her head. ‘Out here? They’ll die for sure.’
She walked away from the machine and grabbed one of the shades, it was brittle and dry, there was no nourishment or water to be found here.
‘We’re going to have to find some water then,’ Meru said. ‘We can go hungry easily enough, but three stretches without water and we’ll all be dead. Look …’
Meru gestured inside the machine again. There was no power for the engines, but the screens still worked. He showed Zoella the map.
‘See,’ he said,
pointing. ‘The coastline runs shadewards before turning shaderight towards Dynesia. That’s the closest point to Amar.’ He moved his finger to the left. ‘We’re here, maybe a hundred marks inland now. We’re going the wrong way.’
‘We’re not going anywhere at the moment,’ Zoella said. ‘Is the machine broken?’
‘I don’t think so, just no power,’ Meru answered. ‘It was only a spell last time before the ’tricity came back, but it’s been longer than that already.’
‘But if we can’t go anywhere …’ Zoella said. ‘We’ve got to get back to Amar, the fleet … the priestesses!’
Meru shrugged. He tried the radio switches. As he did so the screens flickered and faded out.
‘Without ’tricity, we aren’t going anywhere.’
Lacaille burned hot above them. Both of them looked up at the shining disc, it was high in the sky.
‘Last time,’ Meru said. ‘When this happened before, you heard a call, a message from the Obelisk. Did you hear anything this time?’
Zoella shook her head.
‘No nothing, just the pain in my head.’
‘I have this idea,’ Meru said. ‘I think your powers, these gifts and the ’tricity are all connected. Can you try … can you use them?’
‘Now?’
‘Yes, try it.’
Zoella concentrated for a moment.
Can you still hear me?
Meru looked surprised and then deflated.
‘So much for that idea then,’ he said. ‘Thought I might be on to something.’
‘They’ve got to be connected,’ Zoella said. ‘Too much of a coincidence to be anything else. Wait … what if I try to talk to the Obelisk?’
‘Talk to it?’
‘Caesar asked me if I could contact it,’ Zoella said. ‘Don’t you remember? Perhaps there’s a way. If it can talk to me, perhaps I can talk to it, make the ’tricity come back …’
‘Worth a try.’ Meru shrugged and looked at the arid landscape around him. ‘Without it we’re going to die out here.’
Zoella sat down in the passenger seat and closed her eyes, concentrating on the voice she remembered when she’d been aboard the Mobilis.
Obelisk, can you hear me?
There was no answer. She tried again, pushing her thoughts out as far as she could. She picked up on confusion and distress as she sensed the vague impressions of others. They were far away, perhaps it was the priestesses themselves. She pushed further, straining to the limits of her perceptions.
Obelisk, can you …
A voice, deafening, echoed around her head.
Administrator. Contact has been established. Access is granted.
Zoella gasped, struggling with the mental effort required.
‘Can you …?’ Meru began. She waved him to silence.
The ’tricity has failed, we need it back.
Failure of magnetic induction energy facility is confirmed. Diagnostics indicate axial alignment is now out of tolerance resulting in excess thermal load. Temporary shutdown is in place until cooling systems return this facility to safe levels.
Zoella frowned, trying to understand the words.
Will the ’tricity come back then?
Power distribution will be restored in approximately one stretch.
Zoella breathed a sigh of relief and was about to drop the link, but the Obelisk spoke again.
Administrator, on site repairs are mandated for a permanent solution. Energy distribution failure frequency will increase and become permanent within two passes. Without realignment, power distribution will halt and atmospheric erosion will reach critical values. Flare generated ultraviolet, x-ray and microwave radiation exposure will rapidly increase to fatal levels as ozone layer depletion rises exponentially. Please arrange a repair maintenance team and proceed to substellar pole, co-ordinates zero zero, immediately.
The connection ended itself. Zoella gasped and opened her eyes.
‘What happened?’ Meru demanded.
‘Good news,’ Zoella breathed. ‘And bad. The ’tricity will come back on in a stretch or so, but whatever has gone wrong is getting worse. It told me that whatever it does … it’s going to completely stop in two passes.’
‘Two passes!’
Rihanna had seen to the organisation of the dachs. Whilst the fleet of ships made its way shadewards up the coast, the dachs flew with them stopping to rest on the land. However, when the fleet had to turn away from the land and sail into the sunright, the land was left behind. Now the dachs were settled on the big barges that had been brought along with them. Four dachs could be housed on each one, with every available ship pressed into service to carry them. A hundred of the great beasts were able to be transported in this manner, along with their food, water and handlers.
Another searing flash of pain had assailed the priestesses, some more so than others. Kiri had been lying down in her sleeping bunk aboard ship at the time and had been able to muffle her cries. It was short lived and she got no message as she had done before.
The Obelisk, it reminds us it needs attention. What does it need? Why does it need us?
The sense of urgency remained though. Whatever it needed, she had to make her way there and soon.
Kiri had watched Nerina and Karquesh board the flagship of the fleet. Dachs were in the sky, squawking. The soldiers of Taloon had also brought some of their phaunts with them too, in order to press the attack once the city had been breached.
Each priestess had been assigned a ship. Aboard her own, Kiri had little to do but ponder the upcoming attack on Amar. She stood near the prow of one of the military ships, loaded with armed soldiers from Taloon. They knew of her from King Karquesh, none came near her and they retreated whenever she walked about, bowing and scraping to get out of her way.
She looked out to sea as the bow rose and fell beneath her feet. She had never set foot on a ship before. The sensation was strange, but not unpleasant, but she would have preferred to have been aboard a dach.
The sea dashed away beneath, surging and splashing before the ship’s bow. Amar was not far away.
They had spent the stretch making what few repairs to the flying machine they could and stripping out any other weight and non-essential items they could find. After deliberation they decided to leave the rifles and everything else associated with them. Everyone was hot and thirsty in the broiling heat, Zoella divided up the little water they had left between them all to ensure everyone got a fair share.
A stretch had passed and they’d spent a hot sleeping lying in the shade of the flying machine, with the unrelenting glare of Lacaille all about. Then, two chimes later, Sandra spoke.
‘Power cycle restored,’ she said. ‘Auxiliary batteries recharging.’
‘We can go!’ Meru called.
Everyone climbed aboard, Meru ran some checks and was pleased to see that the crash landing hadn’t broken anything critical. The machine lifted off and continued on its course.
‘We should find the forest first,’ Zoella said. ‘Get some water. Before we all pass out.’
Meru nodded.
Another stretch saw them to the edge of the Scallian forests with the dry aridness of Taloon left behind. Zoella located a stream and Meru set the machine down nearby. All of them ran to it, dousing themselves in water and drinking their fill.
‘We’ll carry as much as we can,’ Zoella said, ‘But we can’t store much, we’ll have to keep stopping to find more.’
‘Best we can do,’ Meru said. ‘If we follow the coast back sunright, there should be streams and rivers we can use. Once we cross the sea though, we’re just going to have to keep going.’
The delay had cost them precious time, both Zoella and Meru knew that the priestesses’ fleet was now far ahead of them. More stretches passed, but they reached the far sunright of the continent.
‘This is it,’ Meru said, at their final stop. ‘Across the sea now. Either we make it to Amar … or we don’t.’
‘Let�
��s go then,’ Zoella said, signalling to Ira and the children to climb aboard once more. ‘No time to waste.’
The flying machine was still weighed down, but it was able to fly high enough to avoid the worst of the terrain. They left the continent behind them, turning across the sea.
‘Let’s hope we don’t run into any more trouble,’ Meru said, looking out at the distant horizon as the coastline receded past them. ‘There’s a lot of sea out here. If the power fails when we’re out there …’
Zoella nodded. She looked behind her, Ira and the others were already asleep, with little to do they had huddled up and were resting as best they could in the cramped space to the rear.
She turned back and slumped in her seat, letting out a deep sigh.
‘You did well with the Obelisk,’ Meru said.
‘Thank you,’ Zoella said. Their conversation lapsed.
‘Are we going to talk about what happened?’ Meru asked, his voice low. ‘About …’
‘I don’t want to talk about her,’ Zoella answered, looking out of the window away from Meru.
‘I need to tell you what happened … why … because Kiri …’
‘I don’t want to know what you did with her,’ Zoella spat. ‘I don’t want to even think about it. You clearly don’t care what anyone else thinks.’ She turned and glared at him. ‘It’s nothing to do with me.’
‘Zoella …’
‘What?’ She rounded on him. ‘You made your choice, you live with the consequences. I need you to get us back to Amar. What you do after that I really don’t care. Go join her if you wish. You’d better make your mind up which side you’re on at some point.’
‘She wasn’t lying …’
Zoella shook her head and snorted in exasperation. ‘I can’t believe that you can even think that! She really has bewitched you, hasn’t she? You can’t see any fault in her.’ He recoiled, but she continued to lay into him. ‘She’s a liar, Meru. She’s manipulating you and everyone else. She wants it all for herself. The moment she didn’t get her way she turned on us, can’t you see that? She tried to take my powers. If Ira hadn’t been there she would have succeeded.’
