by Mara Powers
Without another word, Lukias picked Brigitte up and carried her to the carriage. Allondriss followed. Stixxus fell in step. At the carriage, Lukias carefully arranged her body comfortably in the back seat. He opened his mind to Allondriss as he nimbly crouched at his sister’s side. “Allondriss, you must make sure the fury warriors keep those priests away from us. I will enter into dreambody and find my sister.”
“I can help you,” Allondriss responded with easy telepathy. She opened the curtain and spoke in hushed tones with the warrior outside.
Lukias reached out his hand. “Stay with me, then. Be my ground.”
She took his hand and sat on Brigitte’s other side. They locked expressions as he slowed his breath to a rhythmic cadence. Absorbed in her ocean-blue eyes, his fingers pressed against the softness of the skin on her palm. They both took Brigitte’s hands. Thousands of subtle sparks passed between them. After a few moments, he closed his eyes, just as the resonant capacitors, known as nodes, began to sing at high sun. Waves of sound rippled over Atlantis, and Lukias flew out of his body. Brigitte was waiting for him.
FROM THE HIGHEST deck of Dafni’s Enigma, D’Vinid watched the horizon. Nodesong caught his attention, and he climbed up the steps to absorb the resonance and collect Ra’s sunrays into his mindlight. If he was truly doing his duty, he would psychically transfer the rays into one of the nodes. With a heavy sigh, he vowed to attend illumination rituals at the very next nodesong. He held the blue-dream elixir between his fingers.
His eyes drifted to the tuning peg on his chest and slid to his instrument. He tucked the elixir vial into a pocket and picked up the dabrina. After aligning it, the peg fit perfectly into the one empty notch. He twisted it, and it clicked as it turned. A jolt shocked his finger. He pulled away and realized how replacing the peg had created a crack in the wood.
He cursed, tracing his finger along the crack. But it did not have the random pattern of a crack. The wood crumbled away like a clay shell at the touch of his finger, and revealed a small, secret compartment. Puzzled, and driven by curiosity, he pried at the edge of the compartment with his fingernail. It popped off, and he cursed again under his breath. Beneath the plate was a symbol. But not a symbol he liked seeing. He tried desperately to replace the plate, but it was too late. It would not go back on unless he could replace the sealant that had somehow crumbled at the tuning peg’s replacement. He let the dabrina fall into his lap, and stared over the edge of the deck.
“You must have faith when you jump from high places,” Ofira’s voice came from behind as she joined him. “You must trust that you will grow wings and the wind will catch you to fly.” She ran her finger down the skin of his arm.
His attraction for her ignited. She pulled a hover-disc from a satchel at her side. “I need to go on an errand. Would you like to accompany me?”
“I have no hover-disc.” For the first time in many cycles, he regretted it. He casually covered the symbol on the dabrina with his hand.
With a sneaky smile, she pulled another disc from her satchel. “I never leave home without an extra.”
“You lie.”
“You’re right. I brought that for you. I knew you didn’t have one. Unless, of course, somehow you’ve dropped your stubborn protest. But I knew you hadn’t.”
He studied the disc suspiciously. Of course, he had not made the bond with it, so he couldn’t necessarily leap off the top deck like he wanted to. He longed to feel the wind in his hair again, to search for Sophaiya’s telluric currents with his senses. “You offer me so much, Ofira. What’s the reason?”
“Would you believe me if I say it’s a task I’ve been assigned by the Watchers?”
He shivered. “So, they sent you.” He shook his head. “What do they want with me? They should know, I am not interested in being their minion.”
“Do you think that’s what I am? A minion?” She raised an eyebrow. “Being favored by the Watchers is a tremendous honor, D’Vinid. Only you would resist something like that.” She laughed to herself. “What if I were to say you were already chosen by something far less savory than the Watchers, and you are simply being used to entrap this unsavory entity?”
He thought about her words very carefully.
“Okay, I’m kidding. I want you to come with me,” she admitted. “I’ve decided I want you in my life.”
He squirmed, wanting to run, though he admired the curve of her hips, the oval perfection of her face, the strength of her jawline, and thick curls of her dark, auburn hair. Somehow he thought her lie was not a lie at all. In his mind, the unsavory entity she spoke of was Kyliron. He could not help but feel trapped between Kyliron and the Watchers, although he would choose the Watchers if given no other way out. He focused on the hover-disc, and placed his hand over the imprinter panel, connecting with the torsion-crystal at its center.
Ofira followed him down the stairs to his cabin, which had been his quarters all his life. He carefully stashed the dabrina, trying to ignore the symbol. It mocked him until anger clutched his throat. Even his music was being tainted by the royal family. He could barely restrain himself as the realization began to solidify. He covered the symbol with a blanket, as if it had given his dabrina a deadly disease. Quickly, he tore his eyes away and triggered the door shut in an effort to entomb his rising dread.
He closed his eyes and tried to imagine anything but the personal seal of King Koraxx etched into his beloved dabrina, and hidden from him all of his life until now. He shivered to imagine what it could mean, though he couldn’t even begin to come up with any reasons why it was hidden there.
“Are you coming back tonight?” Hanonin shouted after them as they left the ship.
“Hanonin, I will do what I want, when I want. How many times do I have to say this?” he shot back, looking at Ofira the whole time with a half-cocked smile.
Hanonin shook his head and went back to work, grumbling about D’Vinid earning his keep, but knowing better than to interrupt his female conquests.
The moment they were off the ship, Ofira activated her disc and threw it into the air. It clicked open with a snap, fanning its mesh of copper wires into a spiral around its spherical central crystal. It glowed as it spun, and vibrated quickly up the frequencies of sound until it was beyond human hearing. She winked, and in one graceful move, hopped on the footpads and bounced off the dock.
“You know that’s still illegal here,” he teased.
Her answer was to simply speed up and circle around, creating an impression in the water where she passed. D’Vinid knew how extremely difficult this was. Hovering over water was one of the more advanced trickster techniques. Some of the guests on Dafni’s Enigma applauded her skill. He flipped his disc toward the dock and it spun open, moving faster and faster until the crystal gained traction on the Grid and aligned itself.
It took a few moments to steady himself on the footpads, but he managed to pick it up again quickly as he slowly drifted in several directions. Careful to avoid her more advanced techniques, he reached his energy into the torsion-crystal at the center of the disc and drifted down the dock. When he was finally able to match his vibration with the crystal, he felt his awareness spring through the web of copper wires into the telluric currents of Sophaiya.
At the end of the docks, he dismounted and walked toward the road mound.
She hovered up to him. “What are you doing?”
“What I’m supposed to do,” he grumbled, not wanting to attract undue attention.
“I have a better idea. Follow me if you can.” She sped off down a side street, grinning while completely ignoring the road mounds. Against his better judgment, D’Vinid decided to follow.
They banked off walls, up steps, and onto the rooftops of Poseidia, skipping off buildings, across chasms and balconies, feeling through their discs and into the surfaces beneath. They quickly fell into a deep meditative state, making them keenly aware of the pulsing of their auric fields into the torsion-crystals. Magnetic waves prop
elled them wherever they wished to go.
They slid down the face of a crystal minaret, bounced onto the esplanade of the outer land ring, and joined the road mound running alongside the second water ring. They reached the great bridge on the Grand Esplanade then crossed with traffic all the way to the third land ring, where the mediator estates rose in terraced affluence.
Ofira glanced back at him and hovered to the edge of the great silver wall overlooking the water ring. Looking quickly over her shoulder, she catapulted over the edge. D’Vinid watched in awe as she landed just above the water. He tried not to think about it too much, and instead sucked in a deep breath and followed. He plummeted several stories, breathing steadily and spinning the crystal to a fever pitch, waiting to feel the water below. The instant he felt its presence, he slammed his auric field in a spiral into the crystal and accelerated it to its limits. His field merged with the hover-disc and leapt outward below him, pushing against the bonds of the water, rocketing him forward like a meteor. Steam rolled off his disc as he caught up with Ofira, who nodded at his resurrected skill, and together they skimmed the surface at breakneck speed.
Ofira suddenly veered right, toward the hull of a ship. She ricocheted off the side, arching into a backflip as she spun the disc’s field into a harsh resonance pattern, and landed squarely on a dock reaching into the water ring. D’Vinid copied her move, but with far less grace. She dismounted the disc, laughing while applauding his flailing attempt to re-enter the world of hover-tricksters. He kicked the hover-disc away and leaned forward with his hands on his knees, breathing heavily.
The dock was part of a private marina maintained by a cartel of commercian families. He loved the Mediator Heights on the inner ring of Poseidia. This was the most opulent part of the city, where mediators and wealthy citizens lived in their vast estates. All of Atlantis held wonders and sensual delights, but the Ring of Mediation topped them all.
Dafni’s Enigma once sailed the water rings, so the royal family could attend revelries along the mediator shores. D’Vinid had spent many hours exploring the winding streets, beholding their breathtaking vistas.
Ofira tapped him on the arm. “If you were to actually take the elixir, you would be able to see the blue-dream markers,” she laughed. “This is a conclave sanctuary.” She folded her index finger, looking him squarely in the eyes as her gesture lured him closer. She cocked her head playfully, revealing the definition of her jawline. “This situation would be a far different experience if you awakened your mindlight to the blue dream.”
His head twitched. For a moment he forgot what was happening, as her beauty awoke his desire further. “How can I know what to decide if I can’t even imagine what it is you’re talking about? Look. At least let me see the contrast.”
Her smile brightened. “Perhaps you are wiser than you seem.” She gently tapped his cheek with her index finger, and turned laughingly to stroll down the dock with her hands behind her back. She allowed the heels of her boots to drag along the boards as she walked, enjoying the hollow sound echoing off the water below. At this point, it felt as though he would follow her anywhere if she continued her flirting. It was becoming a welcome distraction, which was managing to lift his spirits.
The dock reached the wall of the canal and branched off in two directions. Each direction led to the famous cartel docks, where the most influential commercian families gathered to bargain with one another.
She turned to glare at him. “Now, let me do all the talking. If I say something you know to be untrue,” she shrugged, “just go with it.”
He covered his dashing grin with the scarf he kept around his neck at all times for just such an occasion. Seduction flared in her eyes as she slowly turned and led him onward.
Ofira pointed to the wall at the dock’s end. “You don’t see the sign, because you didn’t take the elixir. But if you had, you would see that is not really a wall.” She continued, taking one of the other routes toward the cartel docks. These docks were a special place of commerce. Commercians were the best networkers in the ten kingdoms, and so their markets were upscale places of business where they could match goods and services with those who had the means to channel them through the realm.
Ambassadors frequented commercian docks to find out the news of all trade trends through the kingdoms. Mediators would find leisure among its international visitors. There was no telling what exotic surprises would present themselves amid those who came to register with commercian cartels. As such, the docks were kept in pristine condition, and served as a marketplace, as well as mooring for the most important visiting vessels. For the last day of Ka-Ma-Sharri, the docks were adorned beyond their usual grandeur.
“Aren’t we going into the magical wall?” he asked with a laugh.
“We have other business in the market hub first, my love.” She directed their whimsical journey down the dock to the right. To the left lay a quay belonging to the Telleria family, who controlled the cartel.
The quay gave the effect of being suspended above water. In actuality, it rested on giant pedestals anchored at the bottom of the canal. From the building, docks jutted into the water ring, providing moorings for ships to unload supplies onto hover-sleds. Ramps stretched from the unloading zone straight to the doors in the side of the main building.
The pier above them separated the work area from the public area. Anyone who walked along the esplanades could divert their path along the pier to overlook either side. D’Vinid knew there was a nodeyard at the entrance to the pier. He resolved to perhaps attend illumination rituals if they were still around at the evening resonance.
Ofira and D’Vinid ambled onto the main ramp of the marketplace. Ofira did not seem to be trying to get anywhere in particular. She merely enjoyed each moment with her usual casual demeanor. They perched next to a temporary shop.
The people filling the floating market had come to see what surprise bargains had arrived in the cartel docks for the holiday. Traders and marketeers who traveled the world had no doubt signed up with the cartel to display the goods they transported, filling the temporary shops provided by the cartel. Merchants who attended the previews would be here to buy goods to supply their local stores. The other attendees would be from wealthy families who wanted to have the first choice of everything. The smell of spices and perfumes filled the air. Where they stood, cages of exotic animals hung from the ceiling of the cubicle obviously reserved by an animal merchant for the preview. D’Vinid poked at a monkey, who stared at him with eyes that asked to be set free.
Ofira winked. “Don’t get attached. These creatures don’t always find good homes.”
D’Vinid saw Ofira as a magic trick, an intriguing mystery. Her appearance was always as if she had materialized out of nowhere. Her family’s shipping business was highly connected with cartels in all ten kingdoms. But somewhere along the line she had acquired a crew who could command the elements, and the ship she inherited was able to travel into the Dreamvale.
Her business then expanded far beyond that of her commercian lineage. She had once told him she left her family behind when the Watchers took her into their favor. They could never understand how her new existence brought her to a land somewhere between waking and lucid living. This had significantly changed her priorities.
She began to count backwards slowly from ten. A wry smile spread across the fullness of her lips. The moment her counting hit one, a gravel voice bellowed across the din of revelers. “Ah! Ofira Pazit!” An old seafarer stood across the market hub, waving eagerly. He had a barrel chest and a big nose with a handlebar mustache. His long beard was braided. Beads at the end of the braids dangled with every move he made.
In the confusion of those arriving for the preview, few took notice of the scene he caused pushing across the docks as if they would unite in a hug. When he reached her, she expertly evaded his advance, leaving him standing awkwardly next to an array of colorful fabrics rolled vertically at the entry of a merchant’s temporary sho
p.
“Oh, Little Captain!” He slapped toward her with a limp hand. “You aren’t still mad at me, are you?” He uncomfortably scratched an itch on his head.
“Not at all,” she seemed more interested in a piece of fabric. “I just don’t trust you. There is a difference.” She raised an eyebrow at him.
“Fair enough.” He swung his giant hand to slap her on the shoulder.
She dodged it adeptly.
He let out a belly laugh and pulled his hand away. “At least let me make you a peace offering,” he suggested.
“How about you let me know what you’re doing in Poseidia,” she blurted, finally making eye contact.
“Very well. I have sailed from Og with a shipment of animata servants. We are preparing for a showing very soon, in fact. This shipment is strong on pleasure animata . . . for the Ka-Ma-Sharri.”
“And what is your involvement with the attacks on dreamclans?” she grilled.
“No, no, no!” His look shifted into animated concern. “I have nothing to do with that! I would never hurt the dreamclans. I don’t think it’s the smartest idea to anger the Watchers.” He leaned in conspiratorially. “And as you know, one has to be clever to be a free-marketeer.”
“So, what do you know about it, then?” She shifted impatiently, cocking her head to the side. She examined him intensely. He retracted from the heaviness of her glare.
“Look, Little Captain. I know you will find out eventually. I will tell you what’s going on in the free-market guild, just to make things easier for you. There are new animata being produced in Og. I cannot name names! But some of the free-market ships have been taking madness victims to these compounds. Some believe they are turning said victims into animata.”
“How would they do that?” A look of horror formed on her face.
