Majesty

by Brooke Vinson

  I cursed as a swarm of Earth Guards came teeming from all directions and I cursed again as I realized that we were heading towards a dead end. “Here!”

  I grabbed Raven as Edward thrust her into my arms and turned to face the guards. “I can’t hold them for long, but I can give you enough time to make it across the bridge. If you can reach the temple there, you’ll be safe until the guards can obtain a court order. I have a feeling you’ll be long gone by then.”

  “But—”

  “Goodbye my love, we’ll meet again in the next world if not this one.” Edward reached down and kissed Raven before pushing her away. “Now go. Protect her for me.”

  I nodded, turned and ran. I ran with Raven trying her damndest to break free of my grip and rush back to her husband’s side. “Edward!”

  “Raven, they won’t kill him.” I soothed as I rushed towards the glowing white obsidian bridge. “He’s a public hero and a human. They may arrest him for the time being, but they won’t kill him. We’ll be back and he’ll be waiting for you. I promise everything will be alright.”

  “Able?” I cursed again as Zuhara O Kande with a silent Nihilo came out of a shop, carrying a bag made of skysilk which I was willing to bet my life had other Skypian delicacies stuffed into it. “What causes you to run so fast, have you upon their laws trespassed?”

  “Something like that!” I called and after a moment’s hesitation, they chased after me. I was actually slightly out of breath when we reached the great marble expanse, but as my foot touched it, like last time, it pulsed with a brilliant blue-green light. Zuhara O Kande stared at it for a second before stepping on it too. but her touch didn’t stop the brilliant glow from radiating out from me. Rather, the glow seemed to flow around them to form a pulsing circle around her and Nihilo.

  “Raven, can you walk?” I asked as I slowed to a jog and when she nodded and I sat her down, regained my pace. We never made it past the midpoint of the bridge. As we reached the portion that overlooked part of the Stormsea and the other the center of Skycity, the sound of loading stun-guns set on their highest voltage echoed around us.

  “Found you.” I stared in shock as out from the darkness came the form of my favorite enemy. Ado looked different with the dark, tight silk of a hunter replacing the green cameo of her former Earth Guard suit.

  “Ado, the change of clothing looks nice on you.” I nodded, but she only laughed at me.

  “Trying to change the subject. Do you know how long I’ve been chasing you? I didn’t think I was ever going to find you until I heard the warning calls from the Earth Guard Training Camp. A group of Skypians had passed the Skybarrier.”

  “I don’t understand why you hate me so much?” I shrugged. “I did what anybody would do. No, I actually did something kinder than other people would do. How many people do you know would let somebody who tried to kill them live?”

  “You and your Skypian cur brought my beloved city crumbling to the ground!” She snarled and I wondered where she had gotten that misleading idea.

  “We saved your life! Your city was coming down before we even got there! It was a coincidence nothing more!”

  “Prove it!” She shrieked and I raised an eyebrow.

  “Okay, let’s say hypothetically we did do it. Tell me how we sent your entire city, the forest surrounding it, everything crumbling to the ground. You can’t even make bombs anymore since the Bose Bombs destabilized the atmosphere. Tell me how I did it and I’ll give you two, no three mythril pieces. I would be delighted to hear your explanation.” She turned red in the face, but fell silent for a moment and I gathered that whoever had planted that idea in her head had just lost his grip.

  “You did good work my dear.” The man who pulled her back after a pat on the shoulder was heavily scarred and I instantly realized he had unimaginable power. He was elderly, but in such excellent shape that if his face didn’t have the weathered lines of age, I would have never guessed he was older than thirty. His eyes were heartless and their brown depths held no mercy. He was someone used to power and used to exercising the power as he saw fit.

  “And you are?” I growled.

  “Straight to the point, I see. Very well, I will warrant you an answer based solely on the fact that you managed to break out of our best holding facility. I am the Captain and Supreme Commander of the Earthen Guard, Cūlus Aēnī. Who is it that I address?”

  “Able Amsterdam.” I said no more, but felt that the Captain wasn’t finished fishing out information.

  “I have a very important question for you to answer and if I sense one hint of a lie, we’ll kill your friend. Understand?” I nodded sharply, but didn’t guarantee an answer. “This bridge has remained colorless and reactionless since the death of the Last Skypian Queen. So tell me, why has it awoken to your touch?”

  “Dear Captain,” I purred and caught him with my hypnotic gaze, “you tell me.”

  He opened his mouth to answer, but I was the one who gasped when he broke my control only to laugh at me. “Quite a power you have there. I was planning to see if I could get any information from you, but I think you are a bit too dangerous for such delicate work. Guards—”

  “Hey old buzzard.” I looked around curiously, trying to find the young man who had yelled at the highest authority in the sky, but couldn’t find him. Then I followed the gaze of the Captain up. I stared at the group above me wearing, of all things, real Skyskaters. I flinched back as a group came whizzing by, throwing a net onto the enraged Captain.

  “Fire!” I had no trouble grabbing the Captain’s soldiers with my eyes. With a twist of my head they all dropped to the ground, immobilized. With the captain out of commission, I walked to Ado who was also frozen but not unconscious from my explosion of power.

  “Ado, my dear.” I cooed as I came up close and tapped her chin. “You lost this round, but I so enjoy you chasing us. You seem to be more resourceful than I thought. This, however,” I screwed up my face as I looked around, “isn’t the way to capture me. Try again, my dear.”

  I planted a small kiss on her lips as a promise. She would chase me again and I would relish the encounter. She had grown from the young woman who had pointed the gun at me, but she wasn’t quite the arch enemy I was expecting. She was like a pest, an annoying termite of a pest.

  “That power…” I turned and looked at the young man who had yelled. He was hovering above the ground beside me and even though I noticed him, I was more excited about the skates. They were little more than ice skates, but they were made of the same black obsidian as the bridge. As he moved, the skates seemed to cut the air itself and form a sort of hard platform, a small glimpse of fading Cloudland. I wanted a pair; I wanted at least one so badly. “That power is exactly what we’re looking for!”

  “Introductions.” I tsked, glancing away from the wondrous pieces of machinery to look at him. He was young, but I knew that he was Skypian by the two almost antennae like strands of blue that sprouted from his forehead. His face was covered in similar blue marks that I might have laughed at except for the long scar stretching from his chin all the way to his ear and his eyes. No one so young should have such merciless eyes.

  “A bit rude of me. I am the Leader of the Skypian Army now known as the Resistance. I am Gelu. Once upon a time I had a last name, but it has long since faded.” He smiled at me and his teeth were plates, two solid plates where the individual teeth should have been. “And you are?”

  “Able Amsterdam.” I answered and touched one of his Skyskaters. As I touched the Skystone, it flashed blue-green and he shot up as the skates overpowered. He floated back down silently and stared at me with some unrecognizable emotion in his eyes.

  “You… you are perfect! That power, the power of the judge! You, you could be the one!” He suddenly let out a wordless yell that every one of his followers copied. “We’ve found him! We’ve found the new King!”

  “New King?” I echoed and lost my patience as he continued yelling at his men in a language
I didn’t know. I grabbed him and caught him with my eyes. He was almost impossible to immobilize, but I managed it and he finally fell silent. “Tell me what—”

  “Able!” I had been ignoring it, but I knew what Zuhara O Kande was warning me about. I turned to look at the rising sun just as my power failed. I winced and pulled out my sunglasses just in time for my headache to start.

  “Maybe we ought to get out of here.” Raven trilled as the men started moving. The Leader looked like he wanted to ask, but with an armada of soldiers reawakening, a tactful retreat was the best course of action. I actually yelped as the leader grabbed me and burst into the sky, moving with ease through the air. I looked down at the Earth thousands of feet below and felt my stomach curl. If he let go, Able was no more.

  “If you feel dizzy, it’s best to close your eyes.” The Leader yelled down to me. I wanted to quip that I was always dizzy during the day, but couldn’t find the words as he suddenly dropped lower in the sky. I finally listened to him and closed my eyes as he carried me. When he set me wobbly on my feet, I was all too happy to see the Holotrain docks and solid Skybone. “Quite a ride, aren’t they. Skyskaters, one of Skypia’s most guarded secrets.”

  “Intriguing.” I bent to touch them, but this time, they didn’t respond with the blue-green light. I sighed and backed away, cursing the sun.

  My crew wasn’t half as interested in them as I was and I couldn’t blame them. They were horrible as much as they were magnificent. I sighed and walked towards where my holotrain was parked. “Come on. We’re leaving this place before they send a swarm down on our train. If they take the holotrain, we’re screwed.”

  “Fine with me.” Zuhara O Kande muttered the rest under her breath, but I was sure it wasn’t a pleasant addition.

  “Our love will never be broken! Though it pains me…” Raven flourished her hand. “I must bid my love adieu. I will be back one day and my love shall finally be free to bloom.”

  She stomped onto the train, but I had no doubt she would be crying later. I could at least try to keep her lover alive. “There’s a human in jail right now for helping us escape. He is also the husband of the Skypian that just entered the train. His name is Edward Allen and if you get the chance, rescue him and keep him safe. We’ll be back one day.”

  “How about you don’t leave?” The Leader grabbed my arm with a very serious face and an iron grip. “We need you.”

  “How? Why?”

  “Skypia needs a king and we want you to be that king.” I raised an eyebrow, but knew he was going to elaborate. “Our dearly departed Queen had no children and the lineage of our royalty died out. That doesn’t mean that certain people don’t have a trace of the judge’s blood. The power of our Queens and Kings is akin to that of the gods. They can—”

  “Control the minds of others.” I finished for him.

  “Obviously your power is diluted… the aversion to sunlight is common among the royal bloodline, but the loss of power… is not.” The guy shook his head and kneeled down. “Please! Skypia needs a King and if we can find one, one like you who has all the powers traditionally found in our royalty, who can be a symbol and a judge to our people. Someone who can be our reason to fight once more.”

  “So…” I cocked my head, delighted by the prospect. “You’re begging me to be your king. To take control of this world but… what’s in it for me?”

  “What?” He asked, looking at me with a shocked expression.

  “Being a King isn’t an easy or even very rewarding job. I want some compensation. What kind of money are you willing to pay for me to be your false king?”

  “It’s for the good of the people.” He stood and dropped my hand.

  “And? I don’t know them. I owe them nothing.” I didn’t expect the shove and I fell backwards into my train from the strength of his push. I scrambled up from the floor, embarrassed but stilled my mouth in the wake of the glare I was receiving. He looked at me with hatred and disappointment all over his face. “What was—”

  “Goodbye Able Amsterdam. We don’t need a king like you.” I stared in shock as he motioned for our train to be ejected from the docks. His words ate straight into me. I had never been so embarrassed or rejected so horrendously before in my entire life. His words continuously echoed in my mind as they did in my heart. We don’t need a king like you.

  Lost

  “Able, he didn’t mean what he said.” Amica was trying to comfort me when I didn’t want to be comforted, but I couldn’t tell him to go away. He had the best intentions, but at the moment, I needed to think and sulk if applicable. “He wants some impossible, holy messiah that will never come. He’ll be waiting for his imaginary king for the rest of his life.”

  “Amica.” I turned my head to look at him and couldn’t resist kissing him before I ejected him from the room. “I want to be alone right now, okay?”

  “Oh… okay.” He nodded and obediently left.

  I flopped into the conductor’s chair with one leg raised as I thought. Why wasn’t I worthy of being the king? I was strong, super strong and fast. I was one of the most intelligent people of our era and I had almost photographic memory that came in useful all the time. I was not only a Skypian, but one who could pass as human when need be. Not to mention my greatest asset, I could control peoples’ minds. Not just humans but other Skypians too. I was the perfect leader. No one could dissent against me, so why hadn’t he jumped at the chance to make me his king? I wasn’t even asking for an outrageous price! It made no sense.

  “Able,” I looked up from my brooding as Siniste leaned into the room. “We’re running low on supplies. We need to stop at the next town and restock.”

  “How soon will we run out of food?” I asked, leaning forward and pulling up the electronic GPS system. I looked at the empty screen with slight apprehension. There was one place within a day’s distance, but it was labeled only as ‘The Mansion’ and that could be anything. I didn’t want to have another experience like Sodom.

  “By the end of the week,” she muttered and I looked as far forward as I could on the holoscreen. After The Mansion, there wasn’t a single stop, even a small city for another week’s worth of travel. We might possibly survive until we reached the next city, but I wasn’t willing to risk it. “Is Amica alright?”

  “Hmm?” I asked as I started rerouting the train. “He should be. Why? Is he sick or something?”

  “No, he just…” She hesitated to continue and opted for the easiest excuse ever. “I don’t know.”

  “You do know and you’re not telling me.” I turned around and flashed my eyes at her as a warning. They were my family and I didn’t like mind controlling them when I could weasel it out naturally. “I’m his lover. I deserve to know if there is something he’s hiding from me.”

  “Not so much hiding as… you just aren’t noticing.” Siniste cracked her fingers and jerked her head. “If you want to see what’s up, come to the storage car sometime and hide. He comes in there a lot to work on the performances even though we haven’t done one in almost half a year. There’s still the chance we’ll have to do one sometime so it’s best to stay in shape.”

  “We’ll be stopping tomorrow for supplies and possibly stay there overnight.” I stood and followed her out of the room. “Make a list of the items we need to restock.”

  Amica could almost always sense when I was in the room so as I entered I used my powers to make him forget and I hid behind a large hammock like structure to watch. He was muttering to himself and walking around. He suddenly stopped though, grabbing a towel to wipe off his sweat. I frowned; he had no reason to be sweating so profusely. He stood, panting for a moment before startling me as he went into a series of very complex flips. Before the landing though, I saw his arm buckle and I winced as he fell heavily to the floor.

  He sat, holding his arm with tears leaking slowly out of his eyes for a good minute before standing up. He was unsteady on his feet as he walked to the door and as he opened the door
and brighter light flooded into the room, I gasped in shock. I didn’t know how I hadn’t noticed, but Amica was pasty with almost a green sheen to his skin. His clothes were hanging loose from his body that had once filled them to the brim. His normally white, lustrous hair looked almost like he was covered in a thin film of dirt. He was sick, very sick.

  “Zuhara O Kande!” I burst into her car with every intention of quizzing her for an answer, but she already knew the object of my panic.

  “He is sick because of you; it will never work between you two. The closer you are the worse he gets, until he will lose all his assets. To each other you are like poison, eating away at each other’s souls. You feed and act as corrosion; you steal what energy he has left, leaving only a hole.” She looked at me without compassion, without any feeling for my dying lover. “There is no potion, no mixture no tincture, that can heal your beloved. Only one thing can heal him, but is a path not coveted.”

  “How, how can I help him?” I glanced at her, but she ignored my plea, almost looking down at me.

  “I told you once and I’ll tell you once more, distance is the only cure for sure.” I questioned the rhyme she made by twisting the pronunciation of sure, but it was her power she gambled with. I wasn’t even sure her power truly came from the rhymes or if it was just a mental process.

  “But I love him! He’s my… mine.” I couldn’t find words to describe my lover. He was simply mine. I adored, protected, listened to, needed him.

  “You are a fool my prince!” She stood with a hiss. “To not realize what is right in front of you… I will not help you continue this fruitless love. I have no problems with gender or with your choice, but when you try to kill yourself and try to kill him, I refuse to help you! Look at yourself; you have grown fat, weak and stupid, indulging in his essence. In turn he has grown weak and is dying and neither of you can say no.”

  “You’re not rhyming,” I whispered under my breath and she stormed past me, pausing for one last dagger.