by Vishal Ved
‘Who are you?’ the kiro snapped in confusion.
‘I’m Mesek,’ replied the chubby old fugit.
'Why do you come to me?' she demanded.
‘I came to save your life,’ replied Mesek.
‘From whom?’
‘The guards. They will kill you tomorrow in the field for what you did to one of them today,’ replied the hefty guard, looking concerned.
‘Why should I trust you? After all you’re one of them.’ Cenoy wondered if this was some elaborate ploy to torture her further.
‘No, we’re not,’ the hefty fugit replied. ‘I’m Hak, Mesek’s lieutenant, and we fight for the rights of prisoners. You do know that prisoners never make it back alive, don’t you?’
The kiro paused for a moment and then said to Mesek, ‘Where do you come from? Fight for prisoners, you say? You don’t look like you’ve ever been in a fight.’
Hak jerked his setek and pointed it towards Cenoy, angrily.
‘Easy.’ Mesek raised his hand and Hak brought his setek down, growling.
‘I’m a member of MOX,’ said Mesek, quietly. ‘But I’ve parted ways with them, after they took the decision to kill all prisoners on the DAY OF JURUS.’ He spoke the last three words with extra emphasis.
‘But can you, really? I mean, fight them?’ Cenoy stared into Mesek’s eyes doubtfully, still not buying his story.
‘My haeres has formed an army of prisoners, trained, equipped and devoted,’ the lieutenant said, pointing to Mesek respectfully. ‘As a matter of fact, some members of council have already surrendered before haeres.’
An army of prisoners? she thought, and images of broken cells flashed in her mind, which she had noticed quite a few times in the past as well. MOX never thought before that manual guarding of Carcerem was required until recently when the security was tightened and they started sending two new guards every night to Carcerem.
‘I want you to lead the Odium forces in my army,’ said Mesek, with conviction.
‘Are you outta your mind?’ the kiro shot back. She glanced at Hak and corrected her tone. ‘Pardon me haeres, but how can I lead an army? I’m hardly fit to be a soldier.’
‘We know more about you than you know about yourself, kiro,’ Hak snapped. ‘We would have approached you earlier, but we assumed you to be dead along with your allies.’
How did they know so much about her, Cenoy wondered, hiding her surprise. ‘Alright haeres, but I have company,’
Mesek and Hak stared at each other in confusion; there was no other kiro in prison and her allies had been brutally executed a long back.
Pointing towards Ariet’s cell in the dark, she said, ‘He’s in there. And I’m not leaving without him.’
Hak turned but he couldn’t see who was she talking about. Getting to her feet, she led them to Ariet’s cell. She had no desire to risk Ariet’s life with her own, but she did know that he wouldn’t make it in Carcerem for more than a few days on his own.
‘That’s him.’ The kiro pointed towards Ariet who was fast asleep in his cell after his first tiresome day, his legs resting against the cell door, one hand folded under his head. Mesek glanced at him and let out an amused chuckle. Hak, however, was far from amused.
‘Haeres, he won’t cut it as a soldier,’ Hak hissed in Mesak’s ear, concerned.
‘I’m not leaving without him,’ Cenoy declared forcefully.
Mesak shrugged. ‘Fine, I agree with your proposal. Let’s take him onboard,’ he said, with a smile.
6.
Prison Escape
Hak stood in front of the sato’s cell, his setek glowing crimson red. Cenoy and haeres stepped back. The setek was the deadliest weapon on the planet, a two-foot long thin wand, with an emerald gem fitted on its handle giving it powers of electromagnetic force no less than any magical wand. When Cenoy and her allies had been captured she had seen a council member shooting at one of them with a setek, and the next moment there was a hole in her ally’s chest big enough for a hand to pass through.
The setek vibrated in Hak’s hand with its tip touching the cell door and, in the blink of an eye, the door was shattered. Shards of glass fell on the sato’s legs and he jumped up with a cry. Terrified, he cowered against the back of the cell, trying to look past the bright, red glow which was now fading. Was he about to die? He wished at the very least he could say one last goodbye to Cenoy.
‘It’s me, Ariet,’ called the kiro.
‘Cenoy, you!’ cried Ariet, shocked. ‘Are we free now?’ he said excitedly, but as the glimmer vanished and he saw two guards standing in front of him, he sank back in terror, gasping for breath in the fast depleting dueso. The hefty guard came forward and put a dueso mask on his forehead and he found he could breathe normally. He looked up and saw Cenoy standing in front of him wearing a similar dueso mask on her forehead. Had they both been captured? But why was there a smile on the kiro’s face? ‘Yes, we’re free,’ Cenoy said reassuringly, seeing that Ariet was still shaking with fear.
‘But we gotta do some work for these folks though. This is haeres Mesek and that, his lieutenant Hak.’ Mesek and Hak looked away, breaking the eye contact, not wanting to scare the sato further. ‘We’re going to fight with them for prisoners’ Cenoy added.
Ariet stared at Cenoy with his mouth open. Had she gone mad? Had the heat addled her brains?
‘Ariet, listen!’ she said urgently, and the tone of her voice brought him to his senses. ‘We have to move, we don’t have much time.’
Ariet nodded. Cenoy turned towards Mesek who now had a small bottle in his hand filled with a greasy liquid.
‘What’s this, haeres?’ asked Cenoy, her eyes narrowing with suspicion. ‘We aren’t drinking this until one of you do first,’ she added, before Mesek could answer her first question.
‘Nobody’s drinking anything,’ snapped Hak. ‘It’s to apply on your body. It will make things easier for you, while we drag you out of here like corpses.’
Excited at the prospect of escaping from Carcerem, Ariet stretched his hand to take the bottle from Mesek’s hand, but pulled it back immediately when Hak glared at him. Mesek came forward and gave the bottle to the kiro. She poured some of the foul-smelling dark liquid in the sato’s palm and applied the remaining on her hands, legs, on the back of her head and, with a grimace of disgust, on her face.
“Let’s move, we’ve to go before the keepers come,’ hissed Mesek, and the duo quickly lay down with their backs pressed against the hard, uneven floor. Haeres lifted one of Cenoy’s legs and started dragging her gently; on the other hand, Hak dragged the sato roughly like he was actually dead.
‘Shut your mouth,’ growled Hak, when he heard the sato moaning. The liquid didn’t work too well, it seemed; the sato had to put one of his hands under his head for a little slack.
It was pitch dark and silent except for a few prisoners who retreated fearfully to the far end of their cells when they saw the two guards hauling carcasses in the corridor.
‘Be careful… and hide your masks,’ hissed Mesek. The duo held their breaths taking off their masks and hiding them in their gaban; it took an enormous effort to stay calm and remain still, their hearts were beating faster than ever.
Ariet could sense through his eyelids that it was getting brighter, and he felt the change in the air too. They stopped and he heard the exchange of coded messages between Mesek and what seemed like an electronic voice. All of a sudden, Mesek and Hak started dragging them roughly on the floor which had started quivering.
Had something gone wrong? Ariet panicked. He knew he could not hold his breath much longer. The background noise grew louder and louder like they were approaching near a thunderstorm. Cenoy started suffocating too. She glanced through slitted eyes towards the sato, who was staring at Hak, his eyes wide open, terrified. The ground shook as though the whole of Hydus would collapse, and then they felt their legs lowered to the ground.
The duo didn’t wait for the signal; Ariet had already taken out h
is mask and was wearing it, Cenoy sat up too, hastily taking out her mask from the gaban. They had arrived in a murky chamber which was shaking tremendously like it was the source of destruction. They had to hold on to each other for support as they got to their feet.
‘This is the disposal site,’ said Hak, shouting to making himself audible in the noisy chamber.
The duo looked around, bewildered, as they couldn’t see anything but a lot of canisters piled up in a corner.
‘Why are we here?’ Cenoy shouted back much louder, trying to sound fearless.
‘Those will get us to ground level,’ replied Hak, pointing towards the canisters.
While they had been talking Mesek had dragged a canister over.
‘Once you get in, I’ll flush the canister in Panola. By morning, you will reach the surface,’ he told them, matter-of-factly, like it was the most ordinary thing to do.
Ariet did know a little about Panola, an underground river, running deep under the desert, passing around Hydus and keeping the megacity cool and habitable.
Noticing the terrified look on the sato’s face, Cenoy pointed to Hak and said firmly, ‘He goes first.’
Mesek nodded at Hak who at once stepped forward. He knelt in the dark and the duo heard the scraping sound of something heavy being pushed aside. Almost at once, they could hear the sound of gushing water coming from somewhere below the ground.
7.
A Beautiful Citris-Rise
Hak entered the canister and closed it from inside. On Mesek’s order, Cenoy pushed it into the dark hole in the ground, and a big splash reached their ears when the canister hit the water. Ariet watched, wondering if it was all a dream.
‘You’re next, Ariet,’ Cenoy shouted in his ear, making him jump. He gave her a doubtful look, but got inside the canister.
‘Close it,’ Cenoy shouted again, slapping the canister hard.
Ariet reached out and brought the lid down over himself and latched it, wondering if he would make it out of there alive.
The kiro dragged the canister to the hole, but paused before pushing it in. ‘Is it truly safe, haeres?’ she asked Mesek.
‘It is,’ Mesek replied, confidently. ‘The current will sweep you to the surface in a short time.’
Cenoy took a leap of faith and pushed the sato’s canister down in the dark hole. There was the sound of a collision, and she whirled around. ‘What was that? Is he okay?’ ‘Don’t worry, he must have landed on Hak’s canister. He is fine,’ Mesek assured her. He gazed at her, thoughtfully. The natural instinct of affection was rare in fugits, an underdeveloped trait in their race. Yet, it was pretty obvious Cenoy had a soft corner for the sato.
‘How long has he been in Carcerem?’ he asked her point-blank.
‘Two days, haeres,’ she replied, meeting his eyes defiantly. ‘Is there a problem?’ He didn’t respond, but turned to the hole. ‘Hurry up, we don’t have much time.’ he said, pointing her to the canister.
The kiro climbed into the canister and closed it from inside. She felt Mesek pushing it, and then she was falling, her heart racing. The canister hit water hard and her head banged against the canister painfully, making her cry out in pain.
‘You alright, Cenoy??’ Ariet’s voice reached her, muffled by the noise of the water.
‘I’m fine. And you??’ she shouted back.
‘Yes, I—’ Ariet’s voice was lost as a rasping sound from above indicated that Mesek had closed the hole from above. Sato’s canister started moving. He could feel the platform beneath him, where he had landed, slipping away briskly, and the canister bobbed along the water, colliding with the rock walls of the passage.
It was a rocky ride to the top, and Ariet and Cenoy both fainted from the repeated blows against the canister walls. The journey was exhausting even for Hak, though he weathered it much better, being a veteran of this particular ride.
Lying unconscious in their canisters, Ariet and Cenoy had no idea that the stream had thrown them on the shore until Hak drummed his fist on the canisters and brought them to their senses.
The locks clicked together, and Ariet staggered out first, followed by Cenoy. Their injuries were not serious, but they were woozy from the turbulent journey, and their eyes were shut tight against the sudden light.
Hak couldn’t hide his amusement at the state they were in. ‘My first time was worse,’ he told them, with a laugh. ‘I was knocked out flat and Mesek had to cut open the canister to get me out.’
Ariet rubbed his eyes open. Then, he stopped short and stared. ‘Whoa,’ he gasped. The vast yellow ocean lay spread before them to the horizon, glittering in the dawn’s light.
‘It’s marvelous,’ Cenoy murmured, stunned.
They stood there looking from left to right in awe, trying to capture its beauty. The citris, glinting behind the mist, was close to the water like it had just come out after a bath and the water was still dripping from its body. They had never seen anything so wondrous.
‘Omin, we gotta go,’ said Hak, breaking into their reverie.
8.
Sinister Eyes In the Woods
The purple forest greeted its visitors with the chirping of birds and the jingling of leaf-balls sitting on branches like purple dew drops. Even Hak couldn’t help being struck by its beauty, though it wasn’t his first time in the forest.
Like his companions, the sato too was immersed in the beauty of the forest, until he suddenly noticed something unusual—Hak’s dueso mask was not on his forehead; he had taken it off.
‘Look—,’ he whispered in Cenoy’s ear, pointing at the mask dangling from Hak’s hand. ‘Should we—?’
The bolder kiro took off her mask and breathed in the cold breeze going down her body briskly, refreshing her soul like never before. She closed her eyes in ecstasy.
‘What happened?’ the sato asked, but Cenoy didn’t utter a word, lost in a feeling she found hard to describe. Finally, unable to resist his curiosity, the sato ripped off his mask and instantly felt what she had. He took a deep breath, serene and contended.
‘Come on,’ Hak said. Getting no response, he turned to see the sato and kiro with their masks in their hands, drinking in the beauty of the forest, their feet buried in the cool sand. ‘Let’s move, Omin,’ repeated Hak, a little louder, and his voice brought them to their senses.
They didn’t realize that their feet had sunk into the sand until they tried to move and nearly fell. They held hands and moved forward cautiously trying to keep up with Hak, whose skinny suit helped him move quickly even without support. Advancing towards the purple forest, Hak had crossed the entire length of quicksand by the time the duo reached halfway through it.
‘He’s gone,’ said Ariet, peering ahead, worried.
‘Don’t you think it’s way better here than those tiny packed cells’ said the kiro, with an unconcerned smile.
‘Yeah it is, but let’s not take chances,’ replied Ariet, concerned. A kiro who could beat a guard to death and break out of prison in the middle of the night couldn’t be trusted.
They finally crossed the quicksand after what seemed like forever.
‘Ariet, look at that,’ said Cenoy, staring at the white bushes covered with leaf balls and tiny magenta flowers.
The bush swaying with in the feeble breeze looked like a kiro dancing in a magenta gaban. The shore was covered with similar bushes as though if they had all gathered for some ceremony.
The duo went close to a shrub and, as the kiro reached out to pluck a flower, it instantly pulled back startling her. It was as though the shrub was protecting itself.
Ariet chuckled. ‘It’s a Kenin, they are born in the heart of forest, but after they grow up they look for more water.’
‘And then creep towards it?’ asked Cenoy, gasping.
‘Yes, exactly.’
‘How do you know about these?’ asked Cenoy. The only plant she had seen in Hydus had flat leaves instead of leaf balls and it was trapped inside a big cage.
'
I was a bo'corum,’ replied Ariet, ‘and I have worked with plants my whole life, until one day…’ He fell silent.
‘What happened?’ asked Cenoy, looking at the sato whose eyes had gone wet.
‘Nothing, forget it, I don’t wanna talk,’ replied Ariet.
‘You can tell me, I’m your friend,’ said Cenoy, squeezing the sato’s hand.
‘One day, they caught me experimenting on myself. It’s prohibited to look inside our bodies though we are allowed to experiment with birds and rodents.’
‘Why did you take the risk then?’
‘There are no hearts in any other species on the planet, neither rodents, birds nor anything else. No one other than us... and that’s not possible,’ replied the sato. He had always felt there was something special about fugits’ bodies, but he hadn’t been able to find it.
Cenoy was silent, thinking it was ridiculous of him to sacrifice his whole life over a silly question.
After trudging a little longer away from the shore, the duo reached at the edge of forest. Big purple trees of various shapes blocked their way with their thin, long stems, and a flock of birds sitting on a tree took to flight, startled by their presence.
Cenoy was amazed by the diversity of the place, and yet it was the leaf balls that fascinated her the most, some big and purple, others small and pink.
‘Watch out!’ Ariet pulled the kiro back, as a pack of six-legged rodents crossed in front of them. They looked like brown rats, each with three vulnerable white eyes with no pupils inside, which made them look even scarier.
‘They look creepy, don’t they?’ muttered Ariet, with a slight shudder.
‘Yeah, they do—’ Cenoy stopped abruptly at a noise.
‘What’s there?’ asked the sato, frightened.
‘Shhh, keep silent.’ whispered the kiro, as she saw a hump on the ground bulging up more and more like something was making its way out of the ground. Dry leaf balls slided down the heap, rattling, as it rose further; it was something bigger than the rodents. Suddenly the rattling noise was everywhere, as humps began to rise all around them trapping the duo in the center.
