The Yanti

by Christopher Pike

  Doren thrust a spear through his spine, so deep, it came out his front.

  Lord Balar died with the dragon.

  Lord Vak countered by hurtling his famous black spear at Doren. It hit her shield and shattered it. Leaping off the back of the dead beast, Doren dropped her ruined shield and threw a black knife at Lord Vak’s leg. Her aim was sharp—the cruel blade impaled his hamstring, and the elven king stumbled against a wall. Ra went to pull it out, but Lord Vak stopped him.

  “It will only bleed worse! Take my sword! Protect Geea!”

  Ra did as he was told, but as he turned, he saw the fairies had already exited the room. They had gone out and over the balcony railing. Ra had to race down a flight of stairs to reach the soggy lawn and gardens where the final battle was to be waged.

  Lestre continued to churn with foam and mud. Many large stones that normally sheltered the northern tip of Uleestar from the river had been overturned and thrown onto the lawn that stretched below Geea’s private quarters. The shrubs, the trees, the hedges, the flowers—all were gone. Even the sweet aroma of the spot had been washed away. The place smelled like a swamp.

  Not that it mattered. The water-encased battlefield was damp and muddy but the two warriors blazed with such fire that Ra would not have been surprised if the entire area dried before one of them fell. Geea wore green; Doren’s robe was red. Geea also had on her emeralds—bracelets and anklets. Doren displayed a single ruby necklace. The latter was more than enough. As the light of the green sun caught the red jewels, Ra was almost blinded. The crimson light pierced deep into his eyes, and made him wonder how many foes Doren had hypnotized and then defeated with her necklace alone.

  Geea’s sword was silver, with a gold hilt. Doren’s was a shiny black metal that tapered into burning gold. Doren also wore armor, a breastplate, but Geea had none. As Ra watched, they cautiously circled each other.

  “Ra. Listen and do not argue,” Geea said. “You cannot help me now. You can only hurt me. Stay back.”

  He held up Lord Vak’s sword. “My father says I am to protect you!”

  “Not another word. You can only distract me from what I must do.”

  Doren grinned as she nodded toward Ra. He was stunned by her beauty, and he had thought he had seen the limit of the word when he had met Geea. Doren was taller, her eyes larger, her nose sharper, but she moved with a slithering motion that reminded him of a reptile. Besides the green in her eyes, there were also shades of red and purple. These same colors vibrated through the magical field that surrounded her, and Ra saw it was brighter than Geea’s, more powerful, and that worried him.

  “Who is that one?” Doren asked Geea.

  “A toy, nothing more. Who was that dragon Lord Balar decapitated?”

  “A pet. Did you like the way I took care of Lord Balar?”

  “He was getting old. He died bravely, and in battle, the kind of death he would have wanted.”

  Doren laughed. “What about Lord Vak? Has he lost his nerve? One knife in his leg and he decides to sit out the final round?”

  “Doren?” Geea said.

  “What?”

  “Shut up and fight.”

  Doren chuckled. “But maybe I want to savor our time together, sister. I know how short it’s going to be. Maybe I just want to catch up on old times. You know, we haven’t seen each other in ages. How was your long sleep?”

  “Fine. Occasionally, I would leave my body and spy on you. Your daily activities would amuse me more than any comedy. But I suppose any stooge working for the Entity would have made me laugh.”

  Doren glared. “Liar! Inside or outside of the body, you never came near me.”

  Geea made a face. “Oh my, you’re right. You’re so scary. I mean, you got that scary name. What does Shaktra mean, anyway? Where did you get it?”

  The remark annoyed Doren. “You will never know.”

  “Such a pity. That I might die so ignorant.”

  Doren made a slash with her sword. Even though they were a good ten meters apart, Ra saw that Geea had to counter the swing. The air between them crackled with sparks. There was a loud bang. Doren continued to circle, to talk.

  “You know what our two counterparts are doing right now? They’re talking, same as we are. Stalking each other as well. Like us, they have a witness to the final fight. That guy your Ali has brought along is trying to pass himself off as Tulas. Imagine that?”

  “Sister. If you would close your mouth for once and take a look inside, you’d see that he is Tulas.”

  “Tulas would never take birth as a human!”

  “Are you sure?” Geea asked.

  “He finished with that species ages ago!”

  “Yet your dear Entity promised you two would be born together.”

  A hideous wave of purple light pulsed through Doren’s massive field. Ra got only a hint of it, but still wanted to vomit. Also, Geea’s last remark had so angered Doren that the evil sister had made another slashing motion with her sword. Again, even though the blade came nowhere near Geea, she had to quickly counter. This time the air between them briefly erupted in flames. The fire was dark, the smoke it left behind pure black.

  “He’s not Tulas!” Doren screamed. “I would know if it was him!”

  “Then why are you getting emotional if he’s just an impostor?”

  Another touchy question the hotheaded Doren did not like.

  Doren leapt toward Geea. This time the Shaktra brought her blade straight toward Geea’s neck. Geea barely had time to duck, and lost a chunk of red hair in the process. It floated away on a breeze the flood had stirred up. Geea countered with a blow of her own—a stab at Doren’s breastplate. Sparks flew and the armor cracked. Doren groaned in pain, backed off quickly.

  “I always thought you looked better with shorter hair,” Doren said, as she returned to stalking; moving right to left, left to right. Yet now Doren was panting. The blow had hurt. Ra suspected it had cracked a few ribs.

  “You don’t have much strength left to attack the Earth,” Geea said. “Don’t think the elementals you’ve been killing for the last few years are going to sign up for another bloody campaign. You’ve worn out everyone’s desire for battle. Even the dragons just want to lie around and get high.”

  “They were on my side two days ago. With you dead, they’ll come back. Besides, they hate humans. Everyone hates humans, except fairies. And soon I’ll be the only fairy left of note.”

  “What about Amma? She loves humans,” Geea said.

  “Amma’s marked! Amma’s mine!”

  “Have you tried seeing through her eyes lately?”

  Doren paused. “What are you talking about?”

  “Ali Warner dared what I feared to dare. She went to the Isle of Greesh. She confronted the Entity. Now we know how to unmark your thralls. We also know how the Entity tricked you into joining their side by using Tulas.”

  Doren’s eyes blazed red. “Stop saying his name!”

  “We both know the deal you made with the Entity! You were tricked! Plain and simple! But it wasn’t your fault, Doren.” Geea added, “There’s still time to stop.”

  Doren sneered. “Stop what?”

  “This war! Your mistake! It’s all been just one big mistake! The Entity cannot do anything unless we let them! And you’re the one helping them. All because of what they did to Tulas!”

  “I warned you . . .” Doren began.

  “They incinerated him in front of you! But there’s no reason . . .”

  Geea did not get to finish. Once more Doren attacked, but this was no ordinary charge. Her leap carried her high above Geea. At first she seemed to move in a single direction. Yet as Geea strove to follow her leap, Doren suddenly spun in midair. Then, for a split second, the course of her path was impossible to determine. Her actual body appeared to blur, to go out of focus.

  It was a weird combination of a spin and a flip. It violated every law of motion. The end result was that Doren was able to come straight down
on Geea, with her sword stretched out in front of her.

  Geea was unable to block the thrust with her own sword. The best she could do was to try to dodge it. That was not good enough. Doren was too close, and her blade tore through the left side of Geea’s back. In an instant, Geea’s gown was soaked in blood.

  Still holding onto her sword, Geea rolled on the muddy ground and tried to stand. Doren casually stepped forward and kicked her in the mouth. She kicked the teeth from her sister’s gums. Nevertheless, on her knees in the dirt, her mouth dripping blood, Geea swung at her with her sword. But Doren had taken control. She hopped up, briefly, then came down on the sword, pinning Geea’s blade to the ground.

  Doren howled with laughter.

  She thrust her blade under Geea’s throat.

  “Where’s the Yanti? Give it to me and maybe I’ll let you live!”

  Geea choked on her own blood as she stared up at her sister.

  “You stopped living the day you made your deal with the Entity!”

  Spitting in her sister’s face, Doren drew back her sword to cut off Geea’s head.

  Cindy and Mr. Warner had asked Nira what she was doing. Nira had answered, “Switching the doors around.”

  That had been the extent of her explanation.

  As they sat in the dim light of the cave—they were using only one light, trying to save their batteries—they began to understand that Nira was employing the Yanti as a welding gun of sorts. A narrow violet beam shone from the talisman, as Nira ran it over the hinges of the yellow door. This took time, but when she finished, she did not try to remove the door. She simply moved on to the green door, and worked on its hinges.

  “She’s going to switch the green and yellow doors?” Cindy guessed aloud. Mr. Warner shook his head.

  “What effect could that possibly have? They’re just doors.”

  “Doors that happen to lead into other worlds.”

  Mr. Warner was depressed. “I’m worried about Ali. My guts are in knots.”

  Cindy patted his arm. “Think of all the weird monsters she’s killed in the green world. Then think of who her big enemy is here. That Sheri Smith—she’s just a software executive. The last time, when Steve and I were alone with that witch—and she heard Ali was coming—man did she run. Trust me, Mr. Warner, Ali can take care of herself. I’m not worried about her at all.”

  Mr. Warner sighed as he glanced at the doors. “Somehow it’s hard to imagine I’ll ever see my wife again. I feel guilty for just having the desire.”

  “No reason to feel guilty. She was the greatest woman in the world. You’ve gotta miss her. But if you do meet her, call her Amma. That’s her name now.” Cindy added, “At least that’s what Ali told me.”

  “I’ll call her whatever she wants. Just as long as it’s her.”

  They removed Hector’s body from the cave with the bomb, and placed it in a tunnel Sheri seemed familiar with. She said it led to Fuji, and it probably did. But before they had a chance to look outside at Japan, they came to a cavern where there were seven colored doors on one wall, and three plain doors on the other.

  It was here they laid Hector down, between them.

  Sheri explained that the Mt. Fuji setup was identical to Pete’s Peak, except the doors were all in the same spot. When she was growing up in Toule, she said, it was her favorite spot to visit. Fuji had been the first mountain she had tried to paint.

  “How old were you when you discovered you were a fairy?” Ali asked.

  Sheri answered in a lifeless voice. It was possible she was in shock. Clearly she was in a place where her pain was so great, no human word had been invented that could contain it all. At last, she had dropped her illusion of beauty. Yet even her external scars seemed unable to equal her internal wounds. And now she had a fresh one. She was bleeding. But she didn’t want that to show, not Sheri Smith . . .

  “It came in stages,” Sheri said. “I was nine when I knew I was different than other girls my age. But I was eleven when I found this cavern.”

  “I was slower to catch on,” Ali said.

  “That which comes late, comes strong,” Sheri muttered.

  “Where did that come from?”

  “Father. He used to have such great one-liners.” Sheri reached up and wiped away a tear. It was from her right eye, the only one that actually opened. Ali had her own tears to wipe away. Sheri added, “I wish he was here now.”

  “I’m sure he would tell you that it wasn’t your fault.”

  “But I did sort of stick the sword in Hector’s chest, you know.”

  Ali shook her head. “Who was the fool who brought him up here?”

  Sheri reached down and picked up Hector’s right hand. She used it to wipe away her tears. The simple act seemed to comfort her. “Why did you bring him along?”

  “I thought maybe he would have more luck talking to you than I did.”

  “What did you expect us to talk about?”

  “War. Pain. Morality. Nira, maybe, I don’t know. He wanted to see you.” Ali added, “He still missed you, you know. After all these years.”

  Sheri sighed. “It’s hard to believe.”

  “You don’t have to believe. You know.”

  “How? How do I know?”

  “Because I warned him that he might die if he came, and it didn’t matter to him.”

  “As long as he got to see me?” she asked, a pathetic note in her voice.

  Ali nodded and patted her on the back. “You were his only love.”

  Sheri pressed his hand to her heart. “He was mine.”

  A long silence fell between them. But after a while, Sheri checked her watch and told her that she had to go. The bomb was going to detonate in five minutes. Ali said that was fine, but she had to come with her. But Sheri shook her head and took hold of both Hector’s hands. She wasn’t going to leave him.

  Sheri began to get a dark mark between her eyebrows.

  “I understand. I’ll stay with you,” Ali said.

  Sheri gave her a look. “This is not like that stupid scar trick of yours,” she said, getting impatient. “You have nothing to prove to me by staying.”

  “I know.”

  “Then why are you staying?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe because I love you,” Ali said.

  “I don’t love you.”

  “That’s fine, I don’t care. But why are you anxious for me to leave?”

  “You bug me. Just get out of here.”

  Ali nodded. “You just wanted to be with Tulas?”

  Sheri went to snap at her, then sighed. “When the Entity took him away, I felt I had to fill the void with something bigger than myself. A noble purpose. The Entity said I could save the Earth, and I believed it.”

  “And have Tulas back as well.”

  Sheri smiled sadly. “Yeah. What a bargain. Look how little I got to love him in this world. We were happy together for what, a year? Then came the accident and it was all taken away.”

  “Hector still wanted to be with you.”

  “I couldn’t even hug him. How could I be with him?”

  “What about Nira? Was she an accident?”

  Sheri shook her head sadly. “No. She was a gift. I just wish . . .”

  “Mike Havor hadn’t forced you to mark her?”

  “Yeah.” Sheri paused. “So you knew about him?”

  “Only figured it out recently. What did he promise you when you met?”

  “What else? The world. He had his eyes then. He was a real smooth talker.”

  “He confused me. When I was around him, I always felt his warmth.”

  “So did I at first. It was because he was so empty. He could become whoever you wanted him to be. He’s the ultimate manipulator. You saw him one way. Others at the company saw him in a completely different way.”

  “Were you trying to get ahold of the Yanti to gain the upper hand with him?”

  Sheri nodded. Probably without knowing why, she reached up and scratched at
the dark mark between her eyebrows. It was growing. “I knew the Entity might decide to get rid of me. The Yanti was going to be my insurance,” she said.

  “They don’t understand what it is, do they?”

  “I don’t think so. But who does?”

  “I think Nira does.”

  “Nira, yeah.” She reached over and squeezed Ali’s hand. “Thanks for fixing her. It means a lot to me, you know, that she’ll live a normal life now.”

  Ali had to smile. “I think it might end up being a little supernormal.”

  Sheri was stroking Hector’s hair now. Probably like she used to in high school.

  “Yeah,” she muttered.

  “Was that you in the barber shop that day? Dressed as a wizard?”

  Sheri blinked. “What? When?”

  “The same day I went to your firm in Toule. I ran into a wizard in the local barber shop. I thought it was you because he wore long white gloves.”

  “It wasn’t me. What did he do?”

  “Demanded to see the Yanti. When I refused to show it to him, he vanished in a flash of bright light.”

  Sheri looked genuinely puzzled. “I’ve never met anyone like that before.”

  “But you told Steve and Cindy you had met me before?”

  Sheri smiled faintly. “Yeah. Just once. But you were only ten.”

  “What did you think of me?” Ali asked.

  “That you were going to be trouble.”

  Ali continued to struggle with the wizard issue, but then figured it didn’t really matter. Not now, not with a nuclear warhead sitting fifty yards away. Ali glanced in the direction of the bomb. “There’s no way to stop it from exploding?” she asked.

  “No way. It came with an internal timer. If need be, I could have set it off earlier. But as it is . . .” Sheri checked her watch. “You have three minutes left.”

  “That’s time.”

  “Time for what?”

  “For us to become sisters again.”

  Sheri chuckled. “Geea, you still drive me nuts, you know that?”