Majesty

by Brooke Vinson

  “What—” I was silenced by Siniste.

  “So, they’re giving me a minute to say some last words. Never knew the… Earth Guards were actually a little human. I’m supposed to be sent back to Skypia to be hung. They said something about outside their jurisdiction which I find kind of funny.” She paused for a second and I raised my eyes to get my answer, but Siniste closed her eyes and turned around.

  “You know… I was kind of expecting Able to get us out of this real quick like. I mean, he had us doing such crazy… stuff that nobody else could get out of alive let alone unharmed… But I guess that’s not going to happen this time. At this rate, he’ll be dead soon because those… people won’t give him any treatment. I mean his… freaking head is broke!” I smiled a little at her worry for me.

  “So, I figure this time it’s my turn to help you guys out.” Dexter looked back behind her and smiled at the charging electragate. “We never told you guys, but me and Sin had a pretty good thing going before we jumped on this train. We were the servants of this guy who smuggled people and Skypians in and out the Skybarrier. He was a real creep, but we learned a lot about the Skybarrier and stuff.”

  “That’s why I know if I jump in the electragate before it’s fully charged it’ll send an electric shock through the system and short circuit everything.” I couldn’t find a single word in my entire head and my throat constricted but not from hunger. I knew Dexter and I knew what had happened, but I had to keep watching. I had to see if it was true. “I know ya’ll are probably out of your cell and heading here for a rescue mission, but I saw this place when they walked me here. This isn’t a place we can get out of. So let me make my death worth your lives. It’s been fun. Run and don’t look back.”

  I saw her run and jump, but then the signal died and the screen went back. Dexter wasn’t on our train, Dexter wasn’t here laughing with us at another close call, Dexter wasn’t spouting off any expletives in colorful combinations. Siniste wasn’t chastening her, Magnus wasn’t beating her at cards, Raven wasn’t whining about some backhand comment Dexter had made to her, Zuhara O Kande wasn’t teasing her. Dexter was dead.

  “This isn’t right.” I stood up.

  “That doesn’t mean anything. When has the world been right?” Siniste muttered.

  “No, but this isn’t right!” I slammed my hand down and they all jumped, staring at the dent I had made on the wall. “I could have helped her! I… could have done something!”

  “How? You couldn’t even say your own name.”

  “I could have tried!” I yelled back. “I could have stopped this. I could have changed what happened. This just isn’t right. This shouldn’t have happened!”

  “Why won’t you just shut up!” I stared at Siniste as she screamed out, her tears flying out angrily. “Stop saying stupid shit. What could you have done? This is how the world is! Unless you want to change the entire fucking world, unless you can undo centuries of injustice and pain, just stop! One person can’t change the world… not even you.”

  But I could, I had been given that choice and at the time, I hadn’t understood it. I had ignored what had been going on around me because it hadn’t affected me. Well now it had. I had pretended like the Skypians weren’t my people. They were. Ignoring the problem hadn’t made it not exist. And it had finally reached me.

  “We’re going back.”

  “It’s already been a week, there’s nothing left but—”

  “Were going back to Skypia.”

  Land of the Falling Sky

  “Leave the train! We won’t be coming back.” I called as I marched off my train and into the sun-filled sky. The clouds up under my feet were the bouncy, baked feel that came with the day, but even with the shining gold light, I refused to stop. My head was pounding, but I had a long trip ahead of me and I couldn’t stand to wait for the sun to set. Time was of the essence and with Zuhara O Kande at my side, we were going to fix everything.

  “As much as I want to hurry, right now your foresight is blurry! You are a wanted man across the sky, if they catch us, you will die!” I glanced at Zuhara O Kande and only smiled.

  “If my destiny is to die, I will accept it.” I closed my hand into a fist and continued on my journey. I may not have been able to get in contact with the Resistance, but I knew where I could find them. The one place where they could find me; the Night Light Bridge.

  “To die in vain, is to die a fool!” Zuhara O Kande spun me to look her in the face, but I only kissed her.

  “You lost the rhyme.” As I broke free, I hailed a cart peddler and paid him in pure gold to take us to the bridge without question and without checking our identity.

  “Able! This is not a joke! You are not thinking! Calm your emotions and wait a minute!” I looked at my companions and found Zuhara O Kande was acting as the voice for the others. I looked back at them and smiled at the worry in their faces.

  “I want all of your voices to be heard. Speak and I will listen.”

  “This is suicide!” Magnus stared at me and for a moment, I felt the weight of her existence. She never knew if any second she would drop dead without warning or whether she would continue to wither away until only an empty husk was left. She was constantly being driven insane knowing that this was all her father’s fault and that the only thing she had ever done wrong was to be born. She couldn’t stand anyone dying for any reason.

  “Able, I don’t want to see you acting this way. This isn’t Able. Able doesn’t make stupid choices like this.” I looked at Raven and found a mirror. Raven had lived so much of her life trying to be someone she wasn’t and the one thing she could never understand was someone denying their own existence.

  Nihilo simply looked at me, but I understood him too. The world was inherently evil and even though one person could try their whole life, to change the world was a power no one person should possess. Even the Buddha, his mantra could only reach the hearts of the people who chose to believe in him and there were always ones who dissented. I was trying to do a fool’s errand.

  “Able…” Siniste’s voice was shaking as she spoke for the first time about her sister’s death. She couldn’t keep the pain out of her words, but she spoke them with pride. “I understand you’re pissed. I’m the angriest out of all of us, but this isn’t what Dexter would have wanted. She may have been a little rough around the edges, but she didn’t want anyone to die, least of all for her. I want to go and slash those… mother fucker’s necks too, but I’m not going to do it... She wouldn’t have wanted me to.”

  Everything, everyone said was full of absolute truth and I had already thought about everything they said, but an inner power was driving me. Something older and stronger than all of us. I leaned in close and smiled. “I remember the last verse.”

  “We’re here.” I stepped out of the cab and walked over and onto the bridge. I stood on the side and started whistling as I waited. I had only an hour’s wait before one of the Earth Guards recognized me and sent for his captain. They came with an armada, but with such a large scale movement, the resistance noticed and came flying in to hinder whatever the humans were doing.

  “Able Amsterdam.” I stared at the Captain with a smile and a small laugh on my lips. “You are under arrest for—”

  “Imperialist Earth Pigs!” I stared at the Leader with an even bigger smile. After leveling their reverbguns on the humans, the leader looked at me with a confused expression. “What are you doing back here? I thought our plight didn’t matter.”

  “It matters very much.” I stared at the sun as it continued to head towards the edge of the horizon. “It matters to everyone. I have seen Skypians die. Not faceless martyrs or common peasants but real, strong people who I have had the honor to know. I have seen people die, people who were kind and good men who only wanted for peace. I have seen unspeakable horrors and my own ignorance and inaction played a part in allowing such injustices to continue.”

  The Captain moved to yell at me, but I looked at hi
m. Even though my powers had yet to return, he felt something in my gaze that silenced him. “I found that this war, this imprisonment, this slavery of my species does impact me. I may have never been a slave and I haven’t lived a single day in Skypia, but I could feel the effects throughout the world. I am here to stand as a False King. I will be the person Skypians can rally behind, if you still need me.”

  I turned to look at the Leader who finally caught my eye. As he saw my gaze, his mouth burst open in a smile. “It’s good to have you as an ally. We would be screwed to have you as an enemy.”

  “Fire!” I dropped down, but I didn’t even need to. Before the humans could pull their triggers, the Skypians had been ready and my Ancient Queen had been waiting for the chance to zap the men who had nearly killed her lover. The men screamed as she sent a wave of electricity through the bridge towards them. Even though she didn’t have enough power to truly hurt them, it gave the resistance time to fire.

  The Earth Guard’s fell like flies. The reverbguns couldn’t kill anyone, but that wasn’t the goal of the Resistance. They rushed forward and restrained the humans with mythril cuffs and rope. I watched their capture with a smile dancing across my face. This was working out perfectly; there was only one thing left.

  “Able. We’re going to need to show you off to the people once the sun sets. You have to become a public icon if—” I silenced the Leader with a laugh.

  “Sometimes, we make things more difficult than they actually are.” I felt the sun sink with a shudder and I touched my Zuhara’s hands affectionately. “Can you use your powers once more for me? I need the world to see me and that is something I cannot do.”

  “Give me a moment and I can rig, I will blow your image up big.” She rushed over to the camera hooked to the side of the bridge and started working on it. I looked at the Captain with a smile.

  “Payback is a bitch isn’t it?” The Captain opened his mouth, but the Leader quickly jerked him into silence. “No, let him speak. I am about to undo two generations of colonization and restore the Skypian throne. Now will be the only chance he gets to protest.”

  Despite my allowance, the Captain didn’t say a word. He looked over to his left and then back at me with angry eyes. I saw no recognition that I was a human in his eyes; he saw us only as animals. I stared right back at him and showed him what I thought. He lowered his gaze then and Zuhara finally nodded to me.

  The buzz of the interweaving electric currents was loud enough to almost overpower the sound of my voice, but it didn’t matter. I had the power of all my ancestors before me and the faith of everyone around me. In that moment I was the King of Skypia.

  With the whole of the Skypian World watching me, I let my voice rise in the harmonies that defined our people. These weren’t just words; this wasn’t something we had suddenly made up. It was the representation of everything that made our people Skypian. We weren’t the arguing, flailing humans that couldn’t form a cohesive thought. Even though we were strewn across the entire sky with almost no way to stay in touch, we always had each other and we shared the song of our existence.

  La-and of the falling sky

  Home of those who cannot die

  They who flee across the sea

  Shall ne-er live past the morn

  I could feel a power I had never felt before surging inside me as I let my hypnotic gaze roam around the realm of Skycity. I could feel the children in the streets whose backs were constantly bent from beatings and hunger, straighten. This was their call, this was their power, this was our hope. They were the ones who joined me in the next verse. This was the call for those who could show no allegiance to family but who had allegiance to our people.

  Upon the land of fog and cloud

  Lies a people strong and proud

  They who li-ive without fear

  Under the banner of kings

  I alone sang the next verse, but it vibrated through everyone. I was the last of the Kings, I was the last of the Queens, I did not know where I truly came from, but I knew who I was. I was the King of Skypia and I would lead my people as they needed.

  High he stands the king of night

  With powers deep, fear the sight

  Fair she judges, steel her hand

  Royal not be daybreak rise

  The chorus rocked the bridge as my people marched forward and knelt before me. This was our song and we would sing it. We would show who we were to the people of the Earth. When we hit the next verse, the harsh voices of the moon people roared around us. They were workers, gruff and loud people who never went against who they were.

  Children of moon bear their fangs

  Cry-y they their hidden pangs

  Stars, sun, day, wind, night and moon

  All u-u-nder silky sky

  As once again the chorus rang, I could feel the song weaving us together. The humans could feel the power binding us, but they couldn’t join us. They couldn’t understand us. They didn’t belong. The people of the sun sang out with me next and their playful voices annoyed me. We were exact opposites, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t get along. They, in many ways, were better people than me.

  Dancer of the sun and day

  There they run and dance and play

  Free they be across the sea

  Let lo-o-ve guide your hand

  I wasn’t even leading the chorus as we reached it this time. My people knew this song in their very bones. It was the one thing that had kept them going under the hands of their overseers and their masters. It was their reason for being. The shifting people whose voices rose with mine were all beautiful, but I knew underneath their beauty was tremulous sea. They all had a story, a story as deep as their power, but they would never let their experiences rule their life.

  Strange they be the star and wind

  Change they do upon a whim

  They who pra-ay to the day

  Li-i-sten well to your eyes

  As my people all dropped to their knees, my sole voice was left to sing the last verse. It was a lost verse for a reason. It was a verse filled with power and one only the King or Queen of the Skypians could sing. It was the power all of Skypia shared and the reason why the humans had to leave. Some of them were worthy of love, and I felt a tear flow down my cheek as I realized that I would never see my Amica again. Our love would never have worked; he needed someone stable and able to give all their attention to him. I needed someone to sit on a throne beside me as an equal. We could never be together. I grabbed the hands of my true Queen and I gave her the words with my eyes so that our voices could join together in the final verse.

  Live they do above the ground

  Laughing at the Earth as it’s bound

  Whistle the wind and shine the sun

  Tis they who ru-ule above

  As I finished the last chorus and my people stirred, waiting for my orders. I had given them power, now I needed to give them direction. I took the power the song and my people had given me and swept my gaze over the city, capturing everyone.

  “By the time the sun sets on the day tomorrow, there shall be no human left within the Skycity. Friend, enemy, poor, old, they will be boarded onto holotrains and evacuated. No one is to be harmed, nothing is to be packed. After they are all gone, we will send out a call to all the Skypian born. Within a month, the holorails leading into the city shall be broken.” At that my people shifted sadly, responding partially to my power and partially to the news that we would be cut off from the Earth. “However, this is not for forever. As we are now, Skypians cannot stand as equals to the humans in technology or power and the humans are unable to act with consideration and respect. Maybe this will change within my lifetime and I can have the delight of repealing my decree, but if it isn’t, I will live knowing one day, our worlds will become one. Truly one.”

  As the sun crested in an early sunrise I collapsed and my power failed, but my Queen grabbed me. She leaned into my ear and whispered to me in the words of her dead world. “I adore
you my King and they shall too.”

  “You really are the one for me,” I whispered back and kissed her.

  “This power you have…” The Leader walked forward, towing along the bound Captain. “Even your looks remind me of her dearly departed majesty. This kind of resemblance makes me wonder…”

  “I grew up on Earth.” I shook my head and sighed. “My parents, although I have reason to question them, were Infirma Mendacium and Lenis Amsterdam, both human.”

  “Amsterdam.” The Captain lifted his head and even with his head cracked open from the force of the reverbgun he managed to give me a dirty sneer. “That traitor?”

  “Traitor?” I inquired and my queen snapped her fingers, letting her electricity show in a very obvious threat.

  “We had him executed.” The Captain laughed. “Capital wouldn’t let us, claimed that he had done nothing wrong, but I knew. I knew what he did with that… that thing. He was supposed to guard her, make sure she didn’t give birth to anything, but instead he helped her sire it. I killed the bastard, killed him and offed the bitch. No one complained, she needed to be disposed of. What use do a broken people need for a monarch?”

  I figured it out, I figured out everything. My mother hadn’t been Infirma Mendacium, she had been the Queen of Skypia, but my father had been Lenis Amsterdam. The Queen must have used her powers, not the watered down mockery I possessed, but the true power of mind control to make my adoptive mother believe she had loved and given birth to me. The reason I lost all power in the day was because I wasn’t pure Skypian; I was in every aspect a bastard. A powerful bastard who was the last remaining carrier of the royal bloodline.

  “Then… you are the King. The rightful and true King of Skypia.” I looked at the Leader and we both saw understanding in the other’s eyes. No one could know I was only half-Skypian. I would constantly be in danger and I would be rejected by many. The Leader wiped away tears and let out a shaky breath. “Now we only need to find you a Queen and—”

  “I’m sorry to tell you,” I smiled at my Queen. “I already have a Queen. She is not human, but she is not Skypian. She, however, is perfectly right for me. Any children we have will be a mixture of all three of the original bloodlines. Whether they have my power or hers or none at all, we won’t know, but only she can match me.”