by Cara Violet
“There! There!” he said animatedly.
Chapter Thirty-Two: The Re-Taking of Janjuc
“Over here!”
Darayan had never run faster; Archibel was on his heels; the Kinsmen Rangers hurried after them, excited to see their comrades.
“Owen!” Taelen called, the atmosphere noisy with hundreds of Kinsmen Rangers getting into formation.
“Taelen!” Owen said. “I’m so glad you’re alright. How did you get here?”
“That water hole on Whidal! We were sent home,” he said with eagerness. “I kept thinking of Valendean, of wanting to see it one more time before the end, and then poof! we were dropped right in a tangle of Deva vines! We took a day to work with the other Rangers, and I was able to secure us all on the last cruiser and lead the soldiers until your return.”
Owen smirked, but kept listening as Taelen updated him on the arrival of all the cruisers on Janjuc, ready to assist in the rescue of Queen Chastity. The Sprites of the South had crumbled in Levon’s absence, and the previous three cruisers full of Kinsmen Rangers had taken them by surprise in the sky, destroying the majority of their painted red D-wing fighters. The remaining South Sprites were rounded up, regrouping to defend the Marble Castle. The Valendean had the upper hand.
“Materid,” Darayan hugged his pilot friend.
“Looks like you’re all still alive,” Bodel said apathetically.
“Don’t be so sullen,” Archibel said scooping her fellow Sari up in an embrace. Darayan almost laughed at the disbelief on Bodel’s face.
“How did you get here?” Materid asked Darayan.
“Delriq,” he said “the Valendean Conductor; we came from Hilan, where they’re all stationed.”
“The Harpies?”
“Yes.”
“We must fall in line,” Owen ordered. “Catch up later; we have the advantage with us right now.”
Nodding, Darayan got closer to Archibel.
“You don’t need to say anything, Darayan,” she said gently. “I know we will make it out of this okay.”
He smiled at her confidence.
“My new friends,” Owen said “our Valendean army will entice the trained aura users out to the front of the Marble Castle. I believe the Sprites that are still committed to Queen Chastity will fight with us when they see our might.”
Staring out to the Marble Castle, Darayan felt an eeriness about it, and it wasn’t just the overcast weather.
“She’s still in there,” Archibel said.
“What we will do, as a small camaraderie,” Owen winked Darayan’s way, “is gain access to the castle and free the young Queen Chastity. It is my opinion that if we can get her some more support and show the people, she is alive and well, the uprising will turn. This is our only shot.”
Darayan found himself nodding in agreement.
Owen then stalked forward to the front line of his army.
“Kinsmen!” he said aggressively, his arm up in the air in might. “We are to flush out the Sprites of the South and keep them busy while Queen Chastity is secured. Ordinarily, it is your duty to protect your fellow Rangers and our Kinsmen people; but today that duty lies in keeping this species accountable, so we may continue to live peacefully in Valendean and across the whole of Dowaric!”
Cries echoed into the atmosphere.
Darayan knew this wasn’t a normal battle for such a peaceful people, and that their only aim was to protect their own—but it was a necessary stand.
“Move out!”
On Owen’s command, the hundreds of Valendean began cascading forward, traversing the grassy landscape and onward to the Marble Castle.
“Camaraderie: with me!”
Following Taelen and Lafael, Darayan kept close to Owen. By the time the Valendean army had reached the base of the castle grounds, at least a hundred red glowing Sprites had emerged.
Darayan watched in awe as the Kinsmen Rangers lit up in their green auras. The cries of the fuming Sprites echoed the sounds of the auras sparking and beaming.
“It’s like a wildfire plant,” Archibel said.
“Sorry: we gotta go!”
Owen glowered at Nash as he and Everett left them; they headed for the main army to fight against the Sprites.
“Anyone else wanting to desert our party?”
Ryar had already followed Nash and Everett, tailed by the little critter Cuki.
“I’ll watch over them,” Lafael said also departing.
Owen shook his head and ran on. “The rest of you, stay close.”
Darayan did stay close, but he stayed closer to Archibel.
A few more minutes of running under bridges and over unguarded gates, they came to the side wall of the castle, basically unspotted.
“We surveyed the area when we were here last,” Owen said. “We found the weak points.”
All Darayan could hear was the crashing of auras—beams against beams, blades against blades.
“Hurry,” Owen directed, over the noise; he knew the timing of Chastity’s release could prevent more harm to his men.
“Where would she be?” Bodel said.
“This way.”
Down two small, tunnel-like-corridors of the castle, which they had first entered through some shaft exposed to the exterior of the wall—possibly even a laundry chute—he led them to a royal-looking hallway.
“Ah,” Bodel said amused, “so this is the Marble Castle.”
“The prisoners are to the east, past the kitchens,” Owen licked his lips. “We split up: three this way, three that way.”
“I’ll go left,” Darayan said.
“I will too,” Bodel said.
Materid shrugged. “Guess I’ll tag along.”
Archibel gave a sharp nod to Darayan before she departed with Owen and Taelen to the right.
“She’ll be fine,” Materid said.
The hallway took them down two flights of steps, and they were nearly sighted a few times, but due to the scarceness of the Sprites and the diversion of battle at the front of the castle, they were able to slip past without being seen.
“Kitchen to my left,” Materid said concealing himself behind a wall. Several huge, industrial-looking machines jutted into the wide galley kitchen on kitchen from either side.
“Bodel?” Darayan said checking her whereabouts.
“I’ll go,” she said moving very slowly and discreetly to the iron door at the end of the kitchen. “Locked. Materid?”
“Break it? Perhaps?”
Darayan held in his laughter.
Snap!
“What?” Bodel said holding the star-shaped marble lock, broken from her pulsing aura. “They mustn’t keep prisoners often.”
“With a dungeon that looks like a large storeroom, it would appear not.”
Easing the door wide, Darayan realised it was indeed an oversized storeroom, with many levels and various produce stacked amongst shelves. The Sprites of the South must have got desperate without Levon. In addition to the absence of their Silkri Drake leader, Darayan sensed that Levon’s father’s demise had been a huge blow: breaking into the store room, they’d met no adversary.
“Where is everyone?” Bodel said.
“There are too many of us,” Owen’s voice reached them from a lower concrete deck—obviously where the produce was imported. “The Kinsmen are devastating the Sprites of the South.”
“I’ve found her,” Archibel’s voice came from a few stairs below them. “She’s okay.”
Darayan hunted after her.
Inside one of the caged rooms that held some sort of bagged flour, Chastity stood, a flush-faced mess.
“I will put a stop to this!” she said desperately.
“The Valendean have made good headway to dismantling the South,” Owen said when he entered the store room.
“I must address the people,” she said half-desperately, half-angrily.
“Are you sure you’re alright?” Archibel asked.
“My people,” s
he said weak and short of breath. “I must keep them composed. Help me to the balcony terrace,” her wide eyes were on Owen and Darayan. “Now.”
Chapter Thirty-Three: One Queen Free from Three
Cuki ran.
Two aura-wielding Arch Mages were on his tail.
“Oh no, watch out!” he screeched to Nash and Owen: they were in battle with Sprites of the South in the gateway of the Marble Castle—a wide stretch of ground full of Valendean and Sprites in battle.
“I’ll get you, little man,” Nash said pummelling a Sprite in the face. He turned on his heel, leaping onto a bended Sprite’s spine and launching himself for Cuki. Cuki was seized around his stick figure waist and when he landed, Nash darted for Everett.
“Now would be a good time to help out!” Nash said; Cuki clambered about in his grip; two Sprites homed in on them.
Cuki howled. “There’s more there, sir!”
“Ah yes,” Nash sped up, ducking right and avoiding another three Sprites. “Where’s the cavalry when you need it?”
Two Kinsmen Rangers to their left fired aura beams; shades of green whisked past, sending one of the South Sprites to the hard ground.
“I’ve got the other!” Everett called, spinning his chain sticks in his hands; each hard timber handle flowed to a single rail of chain, flowed to a second spinning timber handle.
Cuki frowned with uncertainty. “Be care—ful—sir!”
In two swift motions, Everett looped one chain stick around and around in the air and then let go.
“Koo wee!” he called.
Pow!
Cuki felt it round his itty-bitty gut. Nash’s hand squeezed even tighter as the chain stick lassoed them and brought them chest-first into the hard ground, alongside several unconscious Sprites.
“Koo wee!”
The call came again, only this time a pouncing Sprite, ready to attack them, was the target. Rolling onto his back, Cuki’s eyes bulged as the huge, red glowing figure, downed by the chain stick, began to fall forward onto them.
“Ahhh!” Cuki squealed.
“Sprites of the South,” the voice sounded somewhere above him, and, while still trying to protect himself, Cuki looked up at the balcony terrace of the Marble Castle.
“Sprites of the South,” the voice came again—Nash blocked his view.
“Watch out. little man,” he called, stepping forward and taking the bulk of the falling Sprite’s weight as he landed.
“Oow.” Cuki caressed his big nose.
“My Sprites are still with me!”
Using the only strength in his little arms, Cuki shoved the Sprite’s ear away from his face. With his body still trapped under Nash and the unconscious Sprite, he assessed the balcony terrace. Queen Chastity stood centre; flanking her either side were the Kinsmen and the Sarinese.
Cuki’s mouth broadened in a smile.
“It is time for the Sprites to reunite!” the Queen said with determination. The outnumbered Sprites were looking to her, the fighting completely halted.
“Up you get,” Nash’s voice announced, as he pushed the unconscious Sprite aside.
On his feet, Cuki waved to the terrace—his ears flapping in delight when the Kinsmen and Sarinese returned the greeting.
Archibel watched on from the rear; Bodel and Materid alongside her; the Kinsmen had lined the left of the Queen and Darayan on the balcony terrace while the Sarinese lined the right. It was an automatic wave to the critter below when he’d found some room to stand with the Kinsmen. Regardless of how the scene below them looked, Cuki was a breath of hope in amongst it.
“We are not going to fight you,” Chastity ordered. “But you will step down like your leader has.”
It wasn’t as if the Sprites stood a chance, and by the way they looked around the battlefield, they knew it. Within a few short moments, more Sprites emerged from the fringes of the city: those who chose not to rebuke the Sprites of the South, yet remained faithful to the Sprite line of royalty, Chastity’s bloodline.
There was no other leader present.
“I will align with the Sprite Laws!” Chastity said strongly. “The Sprite way will prevail.”
Boisterous chatter began from the fringes, suddenly silenced by a red-robed South Sprite.
“You think this is it?” he said his temper flaring as aggressively as his aura. “You think the Defeated King won’t get his vengeance—”
The Sprite was taken from the rear. Nash and Everett, burning their emerald auras through him, forced him to the grass.
Archibel gulped and studied the Queen of the Sprites as she raised her hand.
“Leave him,” she protested. “He will be able to keep his faith from here on in. I am your true blood Queen; I am my father’s daughter. I give you my life, my soul, my word to succeed, and I will reign over this Marble city for the next hundred years and bring you choice, peace and prosperity!”
During the roars of support for Chastity, Archibel closed her eyes in thought, removing the vision of pure belief the Queen showed. Kaianan had that belief, and now so did Chastity. They were destined to be Queens, and chose to embrace that destiny; embrace who they had chosen to be. Archibel chose too: she chose not to embrace it, and it was this choice that proved who she was. That proved it was her life to live, however she wanted.
Her eyes opened and she hunted for Darayan’s eyes; she had witnessed her own inner peace and serenity, her own strong beliefs in that instant—it was then she felt it—
She was finally free.
Chapter Thirty-Four: Losing Siliou, Gaining the Past
Pounding his little webbed feet through the dirt, Cuki sprinted to the cruiser where Owen and the others were readying for boarding.
“Thank you for your help, friend,” Owen kneeled down to Cuki as he arrived. “You will have a place with us in Valendean.”
Cuki’s face widened, his little body skipping about in glee.
“Keep it cool,” Nash said raising his eyebrows.
Cuki nodded, his ears slapping him about in the face.
“And you will also,” Owen said to Ryar, who stood in Materid’s shadow.
It had taken three days to restore the Marble Castle, and it took Chastity an entire day to go around thanking each and every one of the Kinsmen Rangers for their services to her people.
As the last cruiser was readying for departure, the young Queen bowed to Owen.
“There is trust here,” she said truthfully.
Owen nodded low, “Dowaric will have peace.”
“And it shall always be. Vector safely.”
Returning to the cruiser with the rest of them, Archibel and Darayan joined them on the trip to Valendean, in the hope Owen would be diplomatic enough to give them a cruiser to travel home in, now that Conductors were all but non-existent. Materid and Bodel were also eager to get back to Sari.
“Perhaps,” Owen said as the cruiser entered the Valendean atmosphere. “You might like it here, though.”
Valendean was nothing like Sari. Sari was dry and hot. This place was humid and sticky, a rainforest in the middle of a gorge, Darayan thought. But it was beautiful. The Valendean lived inside the land, using timber and strong shrubs to create their homes.
“It’s breathtaking,” Archibel said to Darayan’s right.
“It is,” he scanned the horizon, the orange setting sun shining out past the valleys and gorges, and then glimmering off Archibel’s bronze skin cheek as it set.
Grinning, she quietly gazed down at the timber bridges they walked on and followed Owen and the Kinsmen on into the centre of the vertical city.
“You can dine with my family tonight; it is late,” Owen said once they’d zigzagged across five more bridges. “We will address the people tomorrow and then you can part on a cruiser.”
Darayan couldn’t have been happier. “Thank you,” he said as Owen escorted them through an arched timber door into a glowing room.
“Pretty,” Cuki said from alongside Ryar.
It was. A smallish living room, but one so decorated with timber furniture, vases of white flowers and leafy plants and hanging lights that it glowed a warm, welcoming yellow.
“My wife, Tanaela.” Owen gestured to the woman who popped her head out from the back window.
“I’ve got a whole Leeog on the spit,” she said disappearing and speaking through the wall. “Please take a seat at the table and it will be right out.” Owen followed her.
An eight-place timber table greeted them with a smorgasbord of appetisers.
“Was she expecting us?” Bodel said confused.
“Must have been,” Materid said sitting alongside Darayan.
“And what’s Leeog?”
Once Tanaela and Owen returned, dinner flowed quickly. Leeog turned out to be some sort of fatty beast and Darayan thought it was one of the best meals he’d ever had.
“Thank you, that was delicious,” he said once finished.
“Anytime,” Tanaela said her vision lingering on Owen. “You are all welcome anytime.”
“I’ve not worked so intimately with outerworlders before,” Owen said after the dishes were cleared.
“First time for everything,” Darayan replied. “I was wondering, Owen: as one of the five alliance systems operating closely with the Felrin, what exactly was the information you were given?”
“We would be told about the anomalies in the universe,” he began, not in the least bit cautious. “Bits and pieces about what the Felrin plan was and if any of the Systems were willing to devote an army to their cause.”
“And did you?”
“No,” he said. “Not under my watch; I believe my father’s father helped them, though.”
“What would they be capable of doing now the Defeated King has been released? I mean if, is as Kaianan says, he is heading for Earth to wipe them out?”
“The Felrin control water on land planets,” Owen said not batting an eyelid. “I don’t know how they do it, I’ve never seen them do it, but nearly all planets have bodies of water they control.”
“Do they place animals in there?” Darayan said recalling the moments back on Sari.
