A loud horn blast made Karolita jump. Steam belched out of the last ship’s horn. An immigration officer stood on the table at the far end. She blew her whistle and waved her green flag back and forth with broad gestures. Immediately, everyone around Karolita took off trotting in that direction.
Karolita took off too but at a much slower trot. At least I’m rested. They’ll see me coming. Besides, how much worse can it get?
About the time she reached the point where the two roads separated, it got worse. She heard a familiar voice shouting from the mall area.
“Wait for me. Wait for me.”
There was an initial reflex to look down the road and meet Eros’ eyes as she painfully limped toward her, but they were supposed to be traveling separately, so Karolita ignored her.
“Karolita. Karolita. Make sure they don’t leave without me.”
Eros always did have a big mouth, and Karolita could have heard her had she been half way to Glamoria. Karolita had never felt embarrassment about anything. Today, right now, she did.
She picked up her pace, reaching the point where the stores started, now no longer able to see Eros. The shouts got even louder as they echoed from the other side of the stores.
“Karolita. Karolita. Make sure they don’t leave without me.”
One of the ships slowly moved away from the dock. Karolita reflexively looked up. She saw Marije standing at the handrail. Their eyes met. Marije put her head down and gently smacked her forehead with the palm of her right hand. She sent Karolita a quick set of hand signals. ‘It was a good plan but Eros could mess up anything.’
How could it get worse? Karolita thought. At least no one knows I’m the Karolita that fool is yelling about. Maybe she’ll stop screaming once she sees there are still lines she can easily get into.
But it got worse. “Hello Karolita,” a dreamy voice said. Karolita looked up. “Isn’t that your friend, Eros?”
Karolita forced a smile and spoke. “Why, hello Chaniel. I heard the word bunny and thought it might be you.”
“Yes. My bunny friend said he wanted to go with me. He can’t believe the immigration officers won’t let him on board. The immigration officer was nice enough to explain that Oceania is his home and Eden is no place for bunnies. I think he believes me now.” Chaniel held the cage door up to her face. “Don’t you, little Ereumpatat?”
Chaniel’s attention wandered over to the other side of the buildings. “What’s wrong with Eros? She’s limping. Has she been hurt?”
“Yes. It was quite terrible. She tripped and fell right on her…” Karolita subtly point to her crotch.
“Oh, how horrible,” Chaniel said with the same emotion she used for everything.
“We made a mistake in the ship departure time,” Karolita continued. “We were told that it departed at 7:00. At quarter to, we discovered it left at 5:00. I came ahead to hold Eros a place. Still, she does tend to panic. That’s why she’s shouting.”
“Oh, that was very sweet of you,” Chaniel said while studying Karolita’s face. “Here, I’ll carry your suitcase over to the ship so you can help Eros.” Tired of straining, Karolita happily sat the suitcase down. Her plan to travel separately had failed, at least as far as she and Eros were concerned.
Without thinking, she sat her large purse on top of it. It pleased Karolita to see the strain on Chaniel’s face as she tugged the suitcase. “By the way, there’s another big ship that leaves at 7:00,” Chaniel called out to Karolita. “It’s the second newest in the fleet. I’m going to take my bunny back to the woods, then catch that one. So, we can all go on that ship together if you like.”
Karolita stopped. She slowly turned around and scanned the departed ship, but Marije was no longer at the railing. We’ll see how many layers of pain you can handle when we get back to Glamoria. Just you wait.
“Can I help you with that?” A muscular green Melchizedek with a handsome face asked as he approached Chaniel. She put the suitcase down, and then wrapped her arms around him.
“You’re my hero,” she said. She gave him a long kiss on the lips. Karolita felt a twinge of panic as she watched Chaniel slide the Melchizedek’s left arm through the handle of her purse, realizing she had again lost control of her weapons. The Melchizedek lifted the suitcase as if it were weightless and quickly walked down the dock.
Karolita pushed down her panic as she watched her weapons walk away. She knew she was expected to help a friend. That was what a pigeon would do. But running to help Eros was the last thing on her mind as she stomped toward her.
She heard the absentminded voice again. “Do you like to skip?” Chaniel reached down, took Karolita’s hand, and started skipping.
It became just too much to take — being lied to by Marije — having to work like a slave — surrounded by incompetence — now having a stupid pigeon touch her. “No,” Karolita snarled and snatched her hand out of Chaniel’s.
“Oh, okay,” Chaniel said with exactly the same expression and tone of voice. “I can understand why you are grumpy. So, I’ll say goodbye and take Ereumpatat back to the woods.”
“Goodbye,” Chaniel said happily, then skipped away with her light, silvery hair bouncing behind her.
After rounding the corner, Karolita saw Chaniel had reached Eros and was talking to her. Karolita had no idea what she was saying but figured it was the same dribble. In the distance, she could see Guard2 quickly trotting with her and Eros’ suitcases.
Chaniel gave Eros a little kiss on the cheek and skipped away. Karolita delighted in seeing the nauseated expression that came across Eros’ face. When Karolita finally reached Eros, she interlaced her arm with Eros’ as if attempting to help her.
“You know what we’re going to do now, you idiot?” Eros hesitantly shook her head. “We’re going to run. I told you to carry your own suitcase. We were supposed to appear to be traveling separately. You were supposed to act like you didn’t know me or Guard2. Were you planning to pretend that some stranger actually volunteered to carry your crap? Then you start screaming out my name?” Karolita pulled her so hard, she had to trot to keep up. “Not fast enough. We’re going to run until the pain gives you something to scream about.”
Although it was out of character, Karolita turned back to see Guard2’s progress. It sickened her when she realized that Oceania had so polluted her that now, a Goddess was checking on a slave. What was not surprising was that Chaniel had reached Guard2 and was taking one of the bags. They were now coming together — Guard2 trotting quickly — Chaniel skipping unhurriedly.
Finally, they reached the far end of the dock. A Valkyrie guard directed them to the immigration desk for the last ship. She saw that the second to the last ship had its gangplank up and workers were casting off the ropes. Karolita thought she caught a glimpse of Guard1 safely aboard the departing ship. Everyone else who had previously been in line with Karolita was either already aboard or had already departed on the other ship. Regardless, the immigration officer seemed to be in no hurry.
“Great. Glad you could make it,” the immigration officer said casually.
“Yes, me too. I have a very important meeting to get to,” Karolita said, figuring it was something a pigeon would say. “Thank you very much for waiting.”
The immigration officer continued with her routine. “Passport and visa please.”
Over the past week, Karolita had been focusing on blending in during this nightmarish journey into the stench of Oceania. She had been watching carefully, studying the body language and mannerisms of the pigeons while they were under different situations. She looked down to pick up her purse, some part of her brain still thinking she had it, but it was gone. Her heart began to race until she remembered a handsome Melchizedek had carried it for Chaniel.
“Oh, yes,” she said as she looked around. “My purse and luggage are…”
“Just there behind you,” a voice called out. Karolita quickly turned around and retrieved her purse. She brought it back to the table,
opened it, and took out her papers. Then, she turned back to retrieve her suitcase. I’ve become just another trained monkey.
“Are you carrying any fruit, nuts, vegetables, or animals?”
“No Ma’am, I am not.” She had just called a pigeon, ‘Ma’am’.
Karolita knew the polite thing to do would be to look to her right and see the progress of her travel mate. Clearly, except for Marije and Guard1, all pretexts of separateness had collapsed. She smiled and waved over to Guard2 and Chaniel. No. I haven’t become a monkey. I’ve just become a great actress in a bizarre play.
She casually scanned her environment as the immigration officer looked at her paperwork. With all passengers aboard and only one ship remaining, all the Valkyrie who were on duty and most of the dockworkers were casually sitting around. She saw the handsome Melchizedek who had carried her bag. He was sitting beside a young, small-framed girl with a nice shade of green skin. “Thank you,” Karolita called out to the handsome Melchizedek and waved. After all, it was the pigeon-thing to do.
“You’re welcome,” he called back. The small-framed girl looked over. Her skin was nice but her face was very ordinary. It reminded her of Marije. The girlfriend was frowning. Karolita noticed they were holding hands. Ah... The jealous girlfriend. I guess some things truly are universal.
Karolita continued her scan along the wall. There were more Valkyrie than she had initially noticed. No need to panic. All the ships are now gone, so the guards are just accumulating. Nothing more.
Karolita scanned the faces of the Valkyrie. She saw a few lucky faces from the rainy woods last week, those who narrowly escaped a lethal blast from her Celestial weapon.
One particular face grabbed her attention as he stared at her with his piercing blue eyes. His nametag read ‘F. Haiguns’.
Karolita avoided his gaze and continued her scan. Another individual seemed familiar. It was not easy to place this lean female because Karolita could only see her back but she looked tense. The clothes also seemed familiar. Whoever she wa…
Haiguns. Frank Haiguns. Frank’s Grocer. The Lieutenant Colonel Valkyrie who was staring at her with piercing blue eyes was the bum who hurled her out of his store just yesterday. Calm down. Keep your eyes moving. You’ve figured it out. No need for a second look. If he knew who you were, he would have arrested you yesterday rather than just abusing you. He didn’t know then. He still doesn’t know now. Stupid pigeon.
She glanced at the back of the worried lean female civilian to see if it was possible to determine who she was talking to. Whoever was intimidating her so badly had their arms crossed defensively. All she could see of the intimidator was the edge of her head and long bright auburn hair. No problem. Whoever is being questioned, that’s their problem. Not mine.
“Made it,” came Chaniel’s dreamy voice.
“Thank you for your help,” Guard2 said.
Chaniel gave Guard2 a little kiss on the cheek. Guard2 smiled appreciatively.
Good. Keep up the act, Karolita thought as her eyes followed the back of Chaniel as she walked toward the handsome Melchizedek, gave him another kiss, and then turned her attention to his girlfriend.
Karolita wondered what the girlfriend’s expression looked like now. She thought about calling out some words of thanks to Chaniel but decided it might appear too obvious and attract undue attention. Besides, she really did not care about the Melchizedek, his girlfriend, Chaniel, or anyone else right now except for the immigration officer.
Karolita looked down again and was surprised to see that the immigration officer was now wearing magnifying lenses and was carefully scrutinizing her documents. Keep cool. You’ve seen this before. Nothing to worry about.
She shifted her eyes from the table and casually scanned around again. Chaniel was talking to a woman wearing a doctor’s blue uniform. Chaniel turned and pointed to Eros. Karolita read her lips. ‘She fell and badly hurt her testicles.’
The doctor walked toward Eros, smiling. Trouble. Trouble. Trouble.
“Hello,” she said politely to Eros. “My name is Nurse Rowe.” Not a doctor. A nurse. That’s much better because nurses have no power. “Chaniel tells me you’ve injured your testic…”
Nurse Rowe took a couple steps backward. She crossed her right arm across her chest and scratched her head with her left hand, looking between Eros’ breasts and crotch.
“She’s a little confused,” Chaniel called out.
Karolita looked at Chaniel. She was now sitting, holding the hand of the small-framed, green-skinned girl with the ordinary face. There was no doubt Chaniel truly meant no harm by the comment. Whatever vacuous intellect she possessed, she was actually trying to help. Regardless, Karolita knew Eros would not be able to control herself from at least some level of sarcastic reply — it was just a matter of what level.
“I met them in the woods last week, Parvarti. They were all up to their necks…”
Parvarti. The name stung Karolita’s brain. She jerked back to the young, green, ordinary face. Youngest daughter of The Blind King and the Donkey Queen.
“Like I give a shit what a bitch like you t…”
POW.
Nurse Rowe’s hand struck Eros across the face. “I really don’t like that language. And just because you talk like that on Glamoria, doesn’t mean you can come here and insult the Angels with such vulgarity.”
Karolita turned back to the immigration officer, pretending to not be involved. There were three officers with high-powered glasses intently scrutinizing the documents. One of them took off her glasses and fixed her eyes on Karolita. When Karolita heard scuffling, she could not stop herself from looking.
Eros had attacked Nurse Rowe. At hearing the ruckus, the lean female civilian being interrogated turned around. It was Guard1. When Guard1 turned around, Karolita could see the auburn-haired Valkyrie with the crossed arms. Colonel Doulmahel.
Karolita felt like she was falling. Doulmahel strode toward her. Guard1 quickly reached for her short sword and stepped to help Eros, but the five-starred general D. Pesagniya appeared. He grabbed Guard1’s hair at the back of her head with one hand and effortlessly twisted her arm behind her with his other. Karolita’s plans for escape shattered. She looked along the wall and found all eyes fixed on her.
“That’s Karol? That’s Lakshmi’s daughter?” Parvarti said to Chaniel. “She sure is a lot uglier than I expected. And what a hippo. Look at the size of those fat snausage feet. Her shoes could hold enough water to float an armada. But then again, I guess for a fat chick she doesn’t sweat too much. What do you think, Collin?” Parvarti smirked at Karolita.
Collin Striker? That traitorous bastard who stole from me? Karolita burned at being insulted — burned at losing her bet — burned at being trapped — burned at the idea of living in a Valkyrie prison — burned at being called Karol — and more than anything else she hated being told she had fat feet. But now, she had to decide which target — Parvarti or Collin.
“Parvarti,” Karolita hissed.
The words of the Pharisees played through her mind. ‘When the battle comes to an end and you see all is lost, let your last act be an act of vengeance.’
Karolita looked for her purse, but it was too far away and her weapons were buried at the bottom. Then she remembered — her last line of defense — one of Priest Diagon’s Destiny Blades — a razor sharp Morontial blade conveniently strapped to the inside of her right wrist under her clothes.
Parvarti turned toward Collin who met her eyes. Chaniel was talking to her rabbit.
Karolita’s arm rotated and her wrist flicked, hurling the Destiny Blade right at its target — Parvarti’s left eye.
As Karolita watched the missile fly, she glimpsed some movement from her left. It was Doulmahel. What joy to watch her final failure and have to witness little Parvarti die right in front of her. The Blind King might have me crucified but at least that arrogant bitch, Doulmahel will be crucified right beside me for failing to protect his ugly little daugh
ter.
But Doulmahel began to accelerate much faster than Karolita thought possible.
The Destiny Blade was over halfway to its target. Parvarti’s eyes flickered at seeing Doulmahel flying toward her. Karolita could see the confusion behind those pretty little green eyes.
Even before the blade left Karolita’s hand, she began to gloat over her final victory. The beautiful, glorious great Goddess of Lakshmi would be victorious over the pitiful, ordinary Blind King’s little Goddess.
How fitting. I will be remembered and praised forever.
Doulmahel made a last desperate stretch in her leap.
Karolita sneered as she anticipated Parvarti’s head flying backward with the Destiny Blade sticking out of her left eye.
But Parvarti’s head did not fly back. There was no blade.
She jerked back to Doulmahel. Doulmahel was turning the momentum of her slide across the hard ground into a roll. She was back on her feet, slinging her left foot around, quickly twisting her body. Doulmahel’s hair was a sea of auburn fire covering her face.
Karolita felt panic tingles start in her toes and race upward when she saw the raw violence in Colonel Doulmahel’s eyes.
Karolita scanned for the Destiny Blade. That was her only hope. Then she saw it in Doulmahel’s bleeding hand as Doulmahel stormed toward her. She was no longer a pretty little pigeon. She had become the eagle on her lapel — an eagle closing in on a fat juicy rat.
And Karolita was the rat.
Time to die. Time to die.
Chapter 58
The Black Beast
You think you really know who you are? Maybe it’s time to look again.
—Josephine
Oceania
Colonel Doulmahel tossed the immigration officers out of her way. Her right forearm rose and came crashing down on the desk, exploding it into splinters.
Karolita looked up just in time to see the point of the Destiny Blade slashing down her own rich, blue cheek. Doulmahel’s own pale, creamy blood splattered across Karolita’s face as her profusely bleeding hand streaked past.
Lilith: Eden's Planetary Princess (The Michael Archives Book 1) Page 46
