Palatinii Cycle

by G'vonni Avner

  Tyson came by and asked, “Is he breathing?” He stared down at Tantor, almost as if he didn’t care.

  Koran knelt and put his ear to Tantor’s chest. “No, I don’t think so.” Koran made a motion as if he were about to start a crude form of CPR. Katie put her hand over Tantor’s mouth and raised her arm, just like she did with Tyson a few days back. In just a few seconds Tantor woke up and started coughing out water. He looked up at Katie for a second, and she looked at him; his face was still swollen and painted with bruises. Katie then fainted and fell over.

  Katie was only half-aware of being lifted into someone’s arms and carried off. She could hear Tyson’s and Koran’s voices but couldn’t make out their words. When she opened her eyes, only partially, she only saw the blue, red and orange colors that belonged to the sunset.

  When she woke hours later, Katie found herself lying on cool sand. There was a soft pillow under her head. On closer inspection, her pillow was made of long green grass. Katie looked around and saw she was surrounded by a thick group of trees. She could see the waves crashing on the sand several hundred feet away in the moonlight.

  She heard the sound of a crackling fire. Katie rose to a sitting position. Koran, Tyson, and Tantor were all staring at her. Koran tended to the fire in the middle with a thick branch.

  “How are you feeling?” Koran asked.

  Katie didn’t feel like she could speak at the moment, so she nodded. Tyson looked at her with worry. Tantor glared at her as if she had done something wrong, but Katie barely noticed this.

  “I’m sure you’re wondering what happened,” Koran said, after exchanging looks of silence with everyone. “Well, truth is, so are we. We’re hoping you may be able to tell us.”

  Katie shook her head. At first, she struggled to speak, but then she found her voice, if only scratchy and weak. “Wh-what do you mean?”

  “You took down the Pillars of Dusk by yourself,” Koran answered. “That’s a feat no one has managed before. A ghost ship is really what it is. It’s been around for hundreds and hundreds of years. No one has seen that ship and lived to tell the tale, except those who have become a part of it.”

  “So I’m the only one who could destroy it?”

  Koran nodded. “Describing what you did as destroying might be putting it mildly. You left no survivors, no nothing, well, except for all of us. Thank you, by the way.”

  Katie sat in silence. She thought she could hear the others talk to each other, but couldn’t get what they were saying, and when she looked up, none of them were talking.

  “What were you doing on the ship?” Katie asked, unknowingly breaking the silence. “Did they capture you or did you get on another way?”

  Koran didn’t answer right away.

  “They said you stole something from it, is it true?”

  Koran stroked the fire. “I was traveling by myself, on a small ship. It was built so that it could be managed by one person. I was looking for my father at the time; he said to meet him at Brickdale Ridge. But the Pillars of Dusk appeared from the dark fog, as it usually does, and they got to me before I got to my dad.”

  As Koran spoke, it looked as if he were in pain, mentally and emotionally. Katie was about to tell him he didn’t have to say anything if he was uncomfortable, but he went on.

  “My ship was destroyed. They took me hostage on their ship. I put up a fight, which they didn’t like, so they sent me down to their brig. Their Captain gave me a death sentence the second he saw me. There was a moment where they had me up on deck, to clean their masts, and I saw my father. He only told me to look after you and keep you safe, no matter what. From then on I didn’t see him until the day of my execution, and that was the last time I would see him.”

  Katie stared at him. So did Tyson. She should have known that Koran was the name of Cyrus’ son. They didn’t look very much alike; Cyrus had white, pale skin and Koran’s was an olive color.

  “From there you know the rest,” Koran said. “That’s when you got to the man who killed him before I could.” Katie almost felt guilty from the way Koran spoke, but truthfully felt guilty because she felt responsible for Cyrus’ death.

  “I mean, I’m glad you did,” Koran went on. “He would have killed me too.”

  Katie nodded. Visions of the action raced through her mind. It scared her, seeing what she was capable of. She felt as if she had become a very different person in just a short time; half proud of how strong she had become, and angry as to why it had to be.

  “And now we’re here,” Tantor said, feeling left out of the conversation.

  Katie didn’t know what else to say. Sorry? He was a good friend?

  Tyson stayed equally silent, his surprise still faintly etched across his face. Koran continued to stroke the fire, deep in thought and lost in sorrow. When no one responded to Tantor, he began making grunting noises and small growls, which Katie wasn’t sure whether that was his stomach or something else.

  “I’m sorry about your father,” Katie said, even though her mind told her not to at least ten times. She hadn’t yet dealt with her own feelings of loss for the man who had been a father figure and guide in this strange world.

  “He was a good man,” Tyson inputted, saving Katie from her own embarrassment.

  “Thank you,” Koran said. “Years ago he told me that there would be a day where I wouldn’t have him in my life anymore, that that was the way it had to be, and nothing could change it. He told me to keep moving on, and hopefully, things would start to make sense.”

  Katie stared at Koran. While he didn’t share any physical similarities with his father, Koran did share the presence of authority and safety that his father had, which make Katie feel better. They weren’t alone, even with Cyrus gone.

  “I know that we must head to Oasi and warn the council of the imminent attack. They must be protected,” said Koran.

  “And Nayara must be stopped. She intends to break into Colinth Mountain and unleash some sort of creature from deep within it,” said Katie.

  “How far are we from the city?” Tyson asked. His voice was so sudden Katie jumped slightly, almost as if she had forgotten he was there. She noticed Tantor was also there, who she had forgotten was there. Tyson looked suspiciously at Katie, which made her feel oddly guilty, but he didn’t say anything.

  “Well, though a journey on the Pillars of Dusk is always the worst, we seem to have been placed in the most ideal location,” Koran answered. “We’re going to go through this thicket of trees that separate the beach from the Equire Plains. We’ll cross the Plains and soon reach the Fountain of Chance; that’s how we’ll know we are headed in the right direction. From there we won’t have far to go.”

  “How long will it take?” Tyson asked.

  Koran shrugged. “Just a day, maybe two if we take our time.”

  “Well, we don’t have time,” Katie said. “Let’s get going now.”

  Katie started to get up but Koran, who was sitting facing her, grabbed her wrist and gave her a look that stopped her in her tracks.

  “We’re going to rest for tonight,” he said. “We can leave early tomorrow morning.”

  “What if Nayara reaches Oasi first?” Katie asked.

  “Then we’d better hope they’re ready,” Koran said gravely. “But we won’t be much help to them exhausted, and the chances of Nayara reaching Oasi tomorrow is slim. We don’t know where she is located, but I highly doubt she would have built her kingdom anywhere near Oasi.”

  Katie nodded and sat down. Another bout of silence fell between them. After wondering for a while about Koran and his life story, where he lived, traveled, and his family, she felt brave enough to ask.

  “When did you last see your mom?”

  Koran looked up at her, almost with sad eyes you might see in a desperate pup. He took a few seconds to answer and looked back down. “When I was about two. She died shortly after my sister’s birth.”

  “I’m sorry,” Katie said in a small voice. She
felt sad that his whole family was gone, except his sister.

  “Don’t be,” Koran said. “It isn’t your fault, or my sister’s. It’s just the way it is. Also, it isn’t like I have much time to feel sad about it, and when I do, I can’t because I barely knew her.”

  Katie felt, if anything, worse. Part of her wanted to know more about Koran, mainly to see if she could trust him, but another part of her already did, as if she had known him all her life.

  “She was a dog.”

  Katie stared at Koran. “What?”

  “My mom was a dog,” Koran repeated. “Not like what you’re thinking, like the four-legged creatures on Earth. I mean, her ancestors were more like wolves, but not quite. But there is a race of humans on this planet that evolved from dogs. Usually, they stay together, but my mom found my dad. So, technically, I’m half dog.”

  Tyson made a noise that Katie took to be a choked cough. She looked at him but he didn’t return it.

  What Koran said had stunned Katie, but mainly because she thought she had seen it all or at least heard it all. She then realized that there was probably still so much to learn and that it was going to be harder now, with Cyrus dead. She knew then that she had to find her father.

  “Do you have a tail?” Katie asked, curiosity getting the better of her. She didn’t mean it offensively but was genuinely curious.

  Koran chuckled. “No, I don’t. Luckily for me and my sister, and the rest of us, the tails were lost as we evolved.”

  “Oh,” Katie said. She didn’t know what else to say. For a while, the only sounds were the crackling of the fire and the rustle of leaves from the slight breeze that flowed through the tall grass. Shortly afterward, Koran let the fire die and they all fell asleep on their crudely made beds of grass. She was happy the grass was soft because back on Earth it made her feel itchy. She looked up to the stars; she was used to the stunning night sky, but it still gave her that feeling of awe at the breathtaking beauty, and she knew she would never get over it.

  She glanced over at Tyson, remembering when they had both seen the Narque night sky for the first time, but his back was to her. Katie figured that he was already sleeping.

  Katie felt herself gliding over the sea; she could feel the crisp cool air that tasted just slightly of salt, and her hair blew behind her in the wind. She opened her eyes and looked below her. She could see small schools of fish swimming beneath in the clear ocean. The coral reef was large and beautiful. She looked ahead of her; the horizon stood far, never seeming to get closer, no matter how fast she flew. Then she heard thumping, like the sound of footsteps; they were heavy, yet muffled. She felt something pull her back. She looked behind and saw nothing but when she looked down, she was no longer staring at the sea. The crystal clear water that was the ocean had turned brown and solid.

  Katie opened her eyes fully. Immediately she knew something was wrong. Grass was in her mouth and her hair was tangled in loose leaves and thin sticks. She tried to stand up but when she did, she felt a blow to the back of her head and fell face-first into the dirt.

  She looked back and stood up quickly. Tantor was there readying another punch. Katie ducked out of the way. She took quick steps back. Tantor stared at her, his eyes cold and frenzied. He was breathing heavily. His blond hair was matted in sweat, grime, and blood. He picked up a thick branch from the ground.

  Katie was about to ask what he was doing when he charged at her and swung the branch. Katie ducked but one of the loose twigs caught her hair and pulled her head to the side. She kept her balance but was sure some hair had been ripped out.

  “You, it’s all you,” he seethed, taking small but forceful steps towards her. “Everything is your fault; it’s you they want, anyway.”

  “What are you talking about?” she asked. In response, Tantor swung the branch again. She ducked lower this time, avoiding any protruding sticks. Tantor opened his mouth wide as if to yell but made no sound. Saliva dripped out of his mouth.

  Before Katie could properly think, Tantor ran at her and tackled her to the ground. He was heavy and Katie flailed and screamed, trying to shove him off. She didn’t know if anyone could hear her, or how far he had taken her before she woke up. Tantor had her pinned to the ground, his face locked in a set rage, a little less than a foot from hers. He pulled her hair and put his hand around her neck.

  Katie struggled to scream as she attempted to breathe. Tantor drooled on her face. Katie tried to pull his hand off of her but his grip was too tight.

  She then felt his weight fly of her. Katie scrambled to her feet and saw that Tantor was now in close combat with Koran. She wiped his saliva from her face.

  “Stop!” Tantor screamed. Koran stared at him, breathing heavily. “I heard things. In my head.” He jabbed his finger to his right temple twice. “They’re saying things. She has to die.” Tantor stuttered with nearly every word he spoke. Then he pointed at Katie, and his voice was deep and clear, unlike his normal tone. “She is dangerous. I must kill her.”

  In that split second, Tantor lunged after Katie. Katie moved out of the way and before he could come at her again, Koran blocked his way. Tantor threw a punch at Koran but Koran was too fast. Koran ducked and hit Tantor in the stomach. Tantor yelled, more saliva pouring from his mouth. He took a few slow, tromping steps at Koran. Koran backed away slowly, still breathing heavily. Tantor threw himself at Koran.

  Koran wasn’t ready for it and was knocked to the ground. Tantor had been airborne for quite a distance and moved at a much faster speed than Koran could. Katie watched as Tantor and Koran fought, rolling on top of each other. Koran was punching Tantor in the face. Blood and more spit spewed from Tantor’s mouth. Tantor screamed and threw Koran off him.

  Koran flew ten feet back and hit the ground, just narrowly missing a tree. Before he could get up Tantor jumped on top of him and wrapped his hand around Koran’s neck, as he had done with Katie. Koran too struggled with breaking Tantor’s grip.

  Katie saw the branch that Tantor had used and hit him in the back of the head. Tantor didn’t release his grip but was distracted for long enough that Koran was able to break free. Koran threw an awkward uppercut and shoved Tantor off his body.

  Koran scrambled and put distance between himself and Tantor and stood near Katie. Tantor stood on and stared at the two of them. He was opening his mouth but again only bubbling saliva fell from his mouth. His eyes were red and his pupils were small. He made some gurgling sounds as he stomped his way over towards Katie. Koran got in front of Katie, ready for Tantor’s next move.

  Tantor opened his mouth again, but this time managed to make sound and yelled into the night with a roar. He charged at Koran. Katie noticed that Tantor had seemed to have grown a bit and was larger and more powerful. Koran wrapped his foot around Katie’s ankle and tripped her, sending her to the ground. When Tantor arrived, Koran ducked and with enormous effort, threw Tantor’s body away. Tantor didn’t go far but fell onto a jagged rock.

  Tantor was still for a moment. Koran ran over, pulled out a dagger and carved it into Tantor’s stomach.

  Katie gasped as Tantor’s sputters went quiet. She walked closer to look. Koran had stabbed him and dragged the knife down, creating a large gash that quickly leaked blood from his body.

  Koran stared at Tantor for a second; he was still on his knees. He made sure that Tantor was dead before pulled the knife from his gut.

  “You killed him,” Katie said in a small voice. She was shaking.

  At first, Koran didn’t answer. He continued to kneel there, with his eyes closed, slowly catching his breath.

  “Had too,” Koran said after a few moments. “Otherwise he would have killed us both. Then he probably would have found Tyson and do the same.”