by Casey Lane
“She caught a cold, so I went out by myself.”
“With the prince of Kakoi?”
Talia caught her breath. How did Aunt Stacie know about Troylus? Daphne had promised that she wouldn’t mention it unless Talia did.
“Get home immediately. Now.”
When Talia approached the house, the door flew open before she got out her magkey. Aunt Stacie stood in the middle of the doorway, hands planted on her hips. She looked like a sweet old lady, with her curly white hair and pink cheeks, but only those close to her knew how terrifying she could be.
Aunt Stacie thrust her portable net screen towards Talia. “Stars above, what have you been doing, child?”
A large, unflattering photo of Troylus holding her hand under the tree was clearly shown on the screen. A caption under the photo read, “Who is the girl that captivated the prince of Kakoi?”
Talia’s heart sank. Busted. “Where did you get this picture?”
“When was it taken?” Aunt Stacie said. “Was it a few days ago, or today?”
Talia wondered why her aunt was more concerned with the timing of the picture than how Talia came to be acquainted with the prince. But before she could respond, an ear-splitting alarm tore through the house. The lights in the living room started flashing intermittently, as though the energy level in the house had suddenly taken a dramatic dip.
What’s going on?
Talia stared around, hands pressed to her ears, wondering why the lights had gone haywire. “What’s that noise?”
Aunt Stacie grabbed her wrist. There was a wildness in her eyes, and her voice was unsteady as she spoke. “Pernicia has found us. We have to get out of here as soon as possible.”
“Who’s Pernicia?”
“I’ll tell you later. Now move!”
Aunt Stacie dragged her through the kitchen and out of the back door. The lights were still flickering. When they were outside, her aunt pulled out her own commlink, rapidly hit a few buttons, and a strange ticking sound started.
“To the field!”
They ran through the backyard, past the makeshift shooting target that Talia had rigged up, and past the fence surrounding the potato field. Aunt Stacie didn’t stop until they reached the tractor that was used to plant and harvest the potatoes.
“Get in.” Aunt Stacie shoved Talia into the seat and slammed the door. At the same time, there was a deafening boom and the ground shook. Startled, Talia was thrown aside. She hit her shoulder against the window, but she barely registered the pain. Their house had exploded, and flames shot up from the burning remains.
“It had to be done,” Aunt Stacie said grimly, climbing into the other seat. “We can’t afford to let them search our house for commlinks and track us.” She turned on the computer screen installed in the tractor, but instead of starting up the positioning system that was used to plant potatoes in straight lines, the screen flashed with several words that Talia had never seen before: ENTERING POD PLANE MODE.
A whirring noise came from somewhere beneath the tractor. Talia looked outside. To her amazement, the huge, sturdy tires fell off and rolled away, as though they had been ejected from the vehicle. Then there was a low, continuous humming sound. Sleek, silver wings slowly unfolded from where the wheels used to be, and extended horizontally to the side.
“They’re stackable wings,” Aunt Stacie said, still working on the computer screen with both hands. “They’ve been stored in a compartment under the body.”
She hit a dot marked “Core,” and the tractor—plane—jolted. The next second, the plane rose from the ground and sped away from the farm. The last thing that Talia saw of their house was a cloud of smoke and fire.
Chapter 4
“Password?”
“Briar Rose,” Aunt Stacie spoke into a mouthpiece, which she pulled from some hidden compartment behind the computer screen. By this time, Talia wouldn’t have been surprised if she produced a rabbit under the seat. “Plan A has failed. Time to activate Plan B.”
“Message received. Starting Plan B now.”
“Who are you talking to?”
Aunt Stacie shut off the mouthpiece. “The palace.”
“What?”
“It’s a long story.” Aunt Stacie checked the time-teller. “I don’t know if we have enough time…”
“Aunt Stacie. Our house is burned down, our tractor is actually a pod plane in disguise, and you’ve been comming with the palace.” Talia felt her voice shaking. “I want to know what’s going on.”
A moment of silence.
“I suppose it’s time that you should know.” Her aunt sighed. “I’m warning you, however, that you might find it impossible to believe.”
“Even more incredible than your favorite soap?”
For the first time since Talia had arrived home, Aunt Stacie laughed—a tinkling sound like crystal bells. Talia looked at her aunt and her mouth fell open. Gone was Aunt Stacie’s white hair and wrinkles. Her hair was thick and wavy, the color of ripe plums. Her skin was translucent and had a pearly-white glow. She didn’t look completely different, though, but rather a younger and more surreal version of her old self.
“I was using an illusion spell,” Aunt Stacie said. She yanked on a lever and the pod plane flew higher. “My name is Anastasia, and I am from the race of fae—more commonly known as fairies.”
Fairies. They were supposed to be a dying race that possessed mysterious powers called magic, which could defy scientific principles and human-made technology. For this reason, fairies were often regarded as freaks, feared by both pure humans and cyborgs. The most famous story was a tragedy originating from a fairy boy.
Many years ago, a schoolboy called Rendel went berserk, levitating heavy objects and hurling them at classmates who had bullied and ostracized him. Several teens were killed; many more were injured. Luckily, the king happened to be visiting the school that day, and with his squad of palace guards, they managed to subdue Rendel by using blasters and stunning sabers. Rendel, exhausted from using too much magic, didn’t survive his injuries. He died before the police force arrived.
Talia glanced at her aunt’s youthful appearance and shivered involuntarily. “So I’m also a fairy? But I don’t have any magic.”
“No, child. I was never your aunt.” Aunt Stacie took a deep breath. “My full name is Anastasia, and I served as a magic consultant for the king and queen. You are their daughter, and therefore princess of Neru.”
Was the wind too strong, or were her ears malfunctioning? Or was her aunt—Anastasia—being delusional?
“I can’t be the princess.” Talia looked down at her pink cotton shirt, patched in a few places and washed so many times that the color was fading. “She died a long time ago. And if I am the princess, why am I living with you?”
“On the day you were born, a fairy called Pernicia gave you a dreadful curse. When you turn sixteen, you will prick your finger on a spindle and die. Your parents were devastated and begged me to reverse it, but it was a forbidden spell that was too powerful. The best thing I could suggest to guard your fingers from the spindle was to remove them.”
Talia gasped. She looked down at her metal hands, shiny and smooth. “You told me that I had an accident when I was a baby, and my hands were damaged beyond hope, so they had to be amputated. Do you mean to say that the amputation was deliberate?”
“It was the only way that we could save you. Either let you succumb to the curse and die, or turn you into a cyborg and at least you’d have a chance to live.”
It couldn’t be true. She had always believed that she was an orphan, that her parents died in a plane crash, and her aunt was her only relative. But her aunt wasn’t a blood relation—she wasn’t even human. Her real flesh-and-blood connections were the king and queen—people that often graced the headlines on news netsites.
Talia dug her nails into her palms and bit her lip. Thanks to Pernicia, she had lost her human hands. “Why does Pernicia want me dead? Why would she hold a gru
dge against me?”
Anastasia sighed. “You know of the massacre at New Gaia High School?”
“Of course.”
“Rendel was Pernicia’s son.”
A sudden coldness flooded through her stomach.
“Pernicia believed that your father was responsible for Rendel’s death. And so she vowed revenge. She wanted your father to suffer the pain of losing his daughter, as she had to suffer from losing her son. I believe this is why she didn’t try to kill you at your birth. Rendel was sixteen when he died.”
The coldness turned to ice. It all made sense now—why Anastasia was reluctant to let her leave the farm, why she could practice shooting as much as she wanted, why she was supplied with high-quality prosthetic hands and laser guns, but wasn’t allowed to have a commlink until recently.
Neither could she deny those weird dreams of a sharp object, which seemed to call to her with a strong, magnetic pull. She couldn’t deny the itch in her fingers every time she woke up from that dream.
“Why didn’t you tell me the truth? Why wait until now?” Talia felt like yelling. In fact, she was yelling. No one could hear her high up in the air.
“I’m sorry, child. We didn’t want you to grow up with this burden, knowing that you might not survive. Besides, if you knew the truth, you could have leaked it to someone else. It was safer that you didn’t know.”
A long, uncomfortable silence stretched between them. Talia stewed in frustration and hurt, until she noticed a tear glistening in Anastasia’s eye. Whatever the fairy had done, she had done it out of determination to protect her.
“Where are we going now?”
“To the palace.” Anastasia pulled down the lever and the pod plane began to descend. “Your parents are waiting for you.”
Chapter 5
Talia didn’t know how long they had been flying until the Core appeared in the horizon. All her life she dreamed of visiting the Core, and now here she was. Her dream had finally come true, but not in the way she had wanted. She had imagined herself entering the Core as a skilled sharpshooter, winning competitions and being able to go anywhere she wanted. Not as a princess fleeing from an evil fairy.
Yet she couldn’t help but feel excited as the Core became closer and closer. It was a glittering mass of buildings surrounded by azure blue water. Aircabs circled in the air like swallows that flew over the potato farm. Gigantic net screens constructed in the outer walls of the buildings were flashing colorful advertisements. Everything looked beautiful, sophisticated, wondrous.
In the very middle of the Core rose a huge pyramid made of reflective glass panes. One side of the pyramid was open, revealing numerous levels of apartment-like structures, dozens of elevators and conveyor trains, and rows of trees planted on the base.
“Here we are.” Anastasia sounded nostalgic. “Twenty years since I’ve set foot in the palace.”
They did not enter the pyramid through its open side. Instead, Anastasia directed the plane to another side and flew to a spot at a lower angle of the pyramid. She spoke into the mouthpiece and seconds later, a glass pane slowly slid to the side, revealing an opening just wide enough to accommodate their pod plane.
“Come, quick.” Anastasia parked the plane and turned off the controls. “We must get you to your parents as soon as possible.”
Talia barely had time to take in her surroundings. Anastasia ushered her through a maze of tunnels and trapdoors, until they entered a room that lacked any windows. An android was standing in the center. It was sleek and silver, with an impressive array of technological implants all over its body. Talia supposed that palace androids had to be top-notch as well.
“Princess Talia?” It glided over to her in a quick, smooth move. “You have no idea how relieved we are to see you alive and healthy.”
Talia didn’t know what to say. She really was a princess.
“Um... thanks?”
“Let me inform His and Her Majesty that you have arrived.”
The android wheeled out of the room. After a moment, two humans entered. One was a distinguished-looking man, his hair entirely white, and the other a lovely woman with silver streaks in her chestnut hair.
The woman gave a choked cry and hurried forward. “Talia! Oh my God. You’re… you’re a young woman now.”
Talia gazed at the woman in front of her. She had the same face that graced the many photos of the queen. Queen Raine.
What was she supposed to say? Your Majesty, or…
“Mo… Mother.” The word felt awkward as she squeezed it from her throat. All of a sudden, Talia was acutely aware of her sweat-soaked, mud-splattered clothes. She hadn’t had time to change when she walked back from the Death Shot. Even if she were spotless, her everyday clothes seemed far too drab compared to the fine silk and velvet that the queen wore.
“Poor darling.” The queen didn’t seem to notice anything about Talia’s appearance. She caught Talia’s hands and held them tightly, as though to apologize for removing them in the first place. “Maxim, she has your eyes.”
The king came over to them. His hair was thinning; his beard streaked white. He would be around the age of Daphne’s father, yet there was such a dignity and grace in his manners that he couldn’t be anyone but a royal.
“Daughter.” He opened his arms. “Welcome home.”
Without thinking, Talia went into his embrace. His chest heaved and fell, and although he did not weep, she could feel his emotions running deep inside.
“You were only a baby when we asked Anastasia to take you away,” Maxim said. “Anastasia refrained from sending us your photo, in case someone were to know you were alive.”
“Why didn’t you send for me earlier?”
“We wanted to wait until your sixteenth birthday passed,” Anastasia said. “The curse won’t release you until you have lived sixteen years fully. But since Pernicia has discovered you, we must take the next step of action.”
“Not so soon,” Raine pleaded. “Cannot I spend some time with our daughter before she is locked away?”
Talia took a step back. “You’re going to lock me up?”
“Every precaution must be taken until your sixteenth birthday.”
Seeing their faces, there was little she could do but agree.
Chapter 6
Talia walked through the corridor, trying not to pause and stare outside. The ceiling-to-floor glass windows looked out onto a magnificent view of steel buildings and glass framework. Sky trains ran through the buildings in elliptical tracks, like large serpents coiled around the tall buildings; Talia heard that the trains served as public transportation. However, the royal family and those who possessed immense wealth could afford to fly around the city in tiny pod planes. It might be as well that these pod planes were only affordable to a select few, or the traffic in the air could be easily congested.
She was dressed in the robes of a servant; her hair braided and tucked into a dark scarf wound over her head. Fortunately, there were no rules on how a servant should wear his or her hair. Anastasia had also changed back to her old lady self and donned the attire of a matronly housekeeper.
“Cannot you change her appearance so she won’t be recognized?” Maxim had asked. “You have been wearing an illusion for years.”
Anastasia shook her head. “It won’t be much use. Pernicia can easily see through an illusion spell.”
“Then why did you bother to hide your face when you lived with me?”
“Because her skin is too different from a human’s,” Raine said. “You’d attract more attention if Anastasia made herself known as fae. People may wonder why a fairy has a cyborg niece.”
Her parents were reluctant to let her leave with Anastasia—Raine was fighting back tears—but they agreed that it was easier for Talia to move around the palace without her parents following her.
First, she was taken to an iron door that required a complicated code to enter. If the combination was wrong, an alarm would be set off and armed gu
ards would arrive immediately.
Then she passed through a stone door that had a blinking sensor on its right hand side.
“The sensor will scan your fingerprints,” Anastasia explained. “You cannot enter without the correct thumbprint.”
Talia wondered what Pernicia was like. There were so many different rumors on the netsites; some said she was a vulture, another said she was supremely beautiful, while yet another said that she chose to make herself invisible and only reveal herself when she wanted.
Finally, they stopped in front of a gray, stone wall. Puzzled, Talia looked around, wondering why they had stopped walking.
“Scanning complete,” a robotic voice echoed. “You may now enter.”
There was the sound of creaking and, to Talia’s surprise, Anastasia pushed the wall and revealed a turning door.
“How did we get through?”
“There’s a scanning apparatus installed overhead,” Anastasia said softly. “It scans your retina. No one can pass through except you and I. Not even your parents may enter.”
Talia clutched at her arms, feeling overwhelmed. “Was this built… all for me?”
“There was a similar mechanism built by your ancestors, in case of war, but in order to ensure the best protection, your father ordered to have the security renovated. Even if Pernicia finds you with her magic, she cannot make a door explode without triggering the alarm.”
“Wow.” Talia swallowed. “I don’t know what to say.”
Anastasia smiled grimly. “When it comes to that witch, you can never be too careful.”
They entered a suite that was sparsely furnished. One room stocked food in tins, another had a hydraulic-powered bathroom, and two identical rooms contained nothing but a bed and a chair. The last room had a large target hanging on the wall and a laser gun lying in the corner.
“We couldn’t risk having a portable computer set up in this place and have the network linked to your location. However, I know you’d die of boredom in this prison, so I asked Maxim to install this. Besides, it’s best that you continue practicing shooting.”
