by Sulin Young
“And we will send our best weavers and lacers into the cloud, where they will restore the lacing to hold the Dream Walker for all eternity,” finished the grandmaster.
Kuldor shook his head. “There’s a problem with that plan. Nashim is most likely on his way to the Dream Walker now. He has the tonien and Namasar’s pendant. We don’t have the tonien, which means we cannot find our way to the Dream Walker.”
The stream gurgled loudly and a strong wind blew across the blue grass. “Our systems indicate that he has not been able to unlock the tonien. He has no advantage over you,” said the voices.
“Could you run that by us again?” said Raimus, cheekily cupping his hand to his ear. “Unlock the tonien did you say?”
“The tonien requires three keys. The first key is a generated algorithm requiring a password spoken in our tongue. The password itself is a combination of sounds, digits, and words that only an authorised Kartathian knows. The second key is an Olden Kartath puzzle based on Kartathian logic. The third key is physical. It still remains here with us in Olden Kartath.”
“Damn you!” blurted Raimus, turning red in the face. “You could have told us that from the very beginning! If I wasn’t already missing a heart, I’d throw one at you, you heartless bastards!”
The voices went silent.
“Raimus, you must keep calm,” chided the grandmaster. “We need the Kartathians’ help. Without it, our worlds may well perish at the hands of the Valpuri and the Dream Walker.”
Raimus inhaled deeply. “I’m sorry, Grandmaster Deitrux. You are right.” He looked at the pods hanging from the tree tops.
“Please accept my heartfelt apology, Ancient Ones. My words were uttered in anger, and I’m afraid I caved in to the pressure of these dire circumstances. I am thoroughly ashamed of myself.”
The voices seemed to accept his apology, because they resumed speaking. “Even without the tonien, the Valpuri can still find their way to the Dream Walker. It will take them longer using only the pendant, and it is not certain that they will find him in their lifetime. You can track the Valpuri using Skra’s pendant. You can still stop them.”
“Then we must leave immediately,” said Grandmaster Deitrux. “But before we do, you must show us how to activate the pendant.”
“We will tell only you, Grandmaster Deitrux.”
The grandmaster suddenly went still, and he remained frozen for several minutes as the voices spoke directly into his head. When it was over, the voices spoke aloud again. “There is one more thing you need to know.”
Raimus groaned and shook his head. “Why do I get the feeling it’s not going to be good?”
“The Valpuri have been known to travel with certain creatures called wrails. If your planet has the misfortune to host them, it will be destroyed in a matter of days. Do not hesitate to eradicate them when you see them.”
“What are they?” asked Quempa.
“Creatures from the Valpuri world. They are transported in eggs and lie dormant until they are needed. They are extremely difficult to kill; in a sense they are feiyed. They can survive if they are cast into Dartkala, but unlike true feiyed creatures, they cannot traverse the In-Between. Instead, they lie dormant until they come across any planet or asteroid capable of supporting them.”
“Sounds wonderful,” muttered Raimus.
“We will return you to your ship now and bid you a safe journey. The fate of our worlds rests in your hands.”
37
Missing Time
The gate spat out the ship as if it was a rotten morsel it had chewed on, and vanished right after. For a few minutes, the ship floated in silence before all its systems came on and it began moving of its own volition. It continued on its way, harbouring its anxious occupants.
Inside the cockpit, Grandmaster Deitrux and Kuldor monitored the glowing pendant, both growing more nervous by the minute as they observed no change in its colour.
“Are you certain that’s the right colour?” Kuldor asked for the fifth time, rubbing his hands anxiously.
“Blue is cold, red is hot,” replied the grandmaster. “Really, Kuldor, it can’t get much simpler than that!”
“It’s not too much to hope you could be wrong,” muttered Kuldor.
“Believe me, I wish I were!”
They both sighed and stared at the pendant again, their chins resting on their hands. Grandmaster Deitrux had activated the pendant upon leaving Olden Kartath, in the hope that it would reveal Nashim’s whereabouts. The pendant had lit up without any hiccups; the only problem was, it was leading them in Pa Gumpina’s direction.
“I don’t understand!” growled Kuldor. “Why hasn’t he gone to the Dream Walker? I’d have expected him to be in the Voron Cloud by now!”
Grandmaster Deitrux did not say anything, but remained deep in thought.
However, Kuldor was not quite ready to stay quiet. “The phoenix blade is gone too. The Ancients must have taken it.”
“Thieves,” muttered Grandmaster Deitrux. “Not even the oldest, hardened race can resist the pull of velassium.”
Back in Minda Yerra, sitting morosely by the lake and watching Kazu play with Niku, Mikin sighed heavily. While the antics of Terrana’s kitten amused him as he watched it boss Niku around, Mikin worried for his missing friends. It loomed over him like an ever present shadow, and somehow he couldn’t help but feel that all the recent happenings were linked to their disappearance. Three weeks had passed since Terrana and Lorn had flown off with the prince, and no one had heard from them.
“Everything all right?”
The big, hairy Bagruth sat down next to him, and he was not alone. Bindal appeared on Mikin’s right and she, too, sat promptly on the ground.
“Not really,” answered Mikin, flapping his ears. His trunk rubbed his arm gently before it slid it across a tiny, hexagonal cube lying on his lap. It was a burnished bronze colour and was no larger than a golf ball.
“What do you have there?” asked Bindal, a little too brightly.
Mikin glanced down at his cube, realising that it was still projecting images of grotesque, evil-looking creatures real enough to materialise. He reached out to deactivate it, but Bagruth glimpsed the images and snatched the cube from his hands.
“Hey!” Mikin barked in surprise.
“These are images of the alien creatures that have invaded Pa Gumpina!” cried Bagruth, sliding his hand over the projections. “How is it you have them?”
“What?” Bindal peered over Mikin’s arm. She yelped as the one of the creatures lumbered towards her and she jumped back.
“Mikin, where did you get these from? The whole planet’s in mayhem over the appearance of these creatures, no one knows where they came from and here you are, sitting down with information about them!”
“I wasn’t sure,” Mikin answered in his defence. “Until the police drone caught this particular one.” He pointed to a lizard-like creature with a wide wing span. “And then I recalled seeing it somewhere before, so I dug it up.”
“But where did you get this from, Mikin?” asked Bindal. “It isn’t just one or two pages you have here. It’s a compilation!”
“My family’s always collected books,” Mikin mumbled. “Down through the centuries, we’ve collected anything we could get our hands on. For generations we’ve always had space pilots in my family.”
“Wow,” said Bindal. “That’s amazing.”
“So does it say where these creatures come from?” asked Bagruth, being the more pragmatic of the two.
Mikin frowned then. That had been the first thing he had searched for and the explanation he found hadn’t made any sense.
“Eggs,” he said. “They were brought in as eggs by an alien race, or at least, that’s what it says in the book.”
He met their incredulous stares. “Yeah, that’s what I thought too.”
They were distracted by Niku’s thunderous stomping as the gigantic brudisaurius leapt out of the water and galloped up the e
mbankment with a crazed, yet happy look on his face. His tongue lolled to one side and he looked as though he was having a great time. Behind him was Kazu, completely sodden and looking thoroughly vengeful as he chased after Niku.
“One of these days Niku is going to step on Kazu and we’ll have to scrape him off his foot,” said Mikin.
“It’s an unlikely friendship,” agreed Bagruth. “I find it uncanny that Kazu can order Niku around like his own personal bodyguard. Did I tell you I caught them the other day heading up the mountains? Niku hates closed-in spaces, but when I found him he was happily winding his way between the trees. And of course, there was Kazu sitting on his head.”
“He even sleeps with Niku in the stables!” added Bindal.
“Well, at least they’ll be company for each other when we evacuate to AlKalindrome 77 tomorrow afternoon,” sighed Mikin. “There won’t be much space there for them to run around in.”
The air turned gloomy immediately. So much had happened in the last three weeks, and Pa Gumpina was now in a state of emergency. UWIB had declared it a no-go zone because of the invasion of the alien creatures, and the authorities were having trouble containing them. In fact, the devastating toll on people’s lives had resulted in the highest directive issued from the planet’s homeland National Defence Council; ES — Eliminate on Sight. The entire planet’s troops, from the air force, navy, and land army had been mobilised and were working together to combat this deadly invasion. Lacers and weavers had been recruited also, but despite their best efforts, reports were being leaked that they were facing a losing battle.
The civilian death toll stood at ten thousand and was still rising. The populations of villages, towns, and cities were being evacuated to the space stations orbiting Sector One, but these were fast running out of room, and now Pa Gumpina was appealing to the UWIB Council to expand its evacuation efforts into the other sectors.
“Your parents were enlisted, weren’t they?” said Mikin to Bindal. “Have you heard from them?”
Bindal nodded sadly. Her parents belonged to a research guild and they had been drafted into the military to try to analyse a way of stopping the alien creatures.
“They told me to board the evacuation ship as soon as possible,” she said. “They were tired and wouldn’t tell me much of what was going on but … they looked awful. I’ve never seen them look so terrified.”
“Headmistress Marl has barred all news coverage in school,” said Mikin. “I guess she’s afraid we might panic.”
“But Mikin, we’ve got to get this information to Headmistress Marl quickly,” urged Bindal. “It could help the weavers find a way to stop these creatures!”
“Yes, you should go now,” agreed Bagruth. “I’ll join you once I lock Niku and Kazu down for the night. This could be their last night on this planet.”
Mikin silently agreed with them, not seeing the point in withholding his information any longer. If it turned out to be worthless, he was adult enough to deal with the consequences. At least he would have tried. The three of them stood up and Bagruth ran off after Niku, to lead him back into the stables.
“Well, what do we have out here?” said a sneering voice.
Bindal and Mikin looked up to see Misa and Kalindra approaching. They both groaned. Kalindra had recently been appointed a school prefect and, as part of her responsibilities, she ensured that all the students were in their dormitories before a certain time. It was a rule that had been recently implemented by Headmistress Marl, ever since the appearance of the alien creatures.
“We’re just heading in,” Mikin mumbled.
Kalindra’s cold eyes swept over them, noticing the cube in Mikin’s hand. She swept her silver hair behind her shoulder, the slightest frown appearing on her beautiful features.
“What’s that?” She snatched the cube.
“Hey, give that back!” said Mikin angrily. Kalindra tried to access the cube’s contents but was thwarted each time she tried to decrypt the password on it.
“Have you been communicating with Lorn on this?” she asked in an accusing tone.
“Of course not!” cried Mikin. “Like I told you before, I have no idea where he is. I’m just as worried about them as you are!”
“Them?” snarled Kalindra, bearing down on him. She shoved Mikin back roughly.
“You didn’t have to do that!” cried Bindal. She tried to go to Mikin’s side, but Misa stepped forwards and pushed her back. Both girls were much taller and stronger than either of them, and they didn’t stand a chance of defending themselves.
“Let’s get this straight, little elephant,” said Kalindra, her eyes blazing angrily. “I don’t care about that dirty girl from Sector Thirteen. I’m only concerned for my friend, Lorn, who happened to be with her at the time. No doubt, it was her doing that got him into trouble. If Headmistress Marl so much as tries to expel him, I will drag your sorry little trunk to her, and you will tell her that he didn’t have a choice. The prince and Terrana kidnapped him.”
“But that’s not true,” said Mikin. “It’s like I said earlier. He got into a fight with the prince and went after them. They were trying to get away from —”
“SHUT UP!” barked Misa.
Mikin shrunk back as Misa stepped up to him. The girl then lifted him into the air, her arms bulging from her daily work-out in Kampu training. She looked as though she wanted to hurl him into the nearest tree, and Mikin was really afraid that she would.
“Put him down,” said Kalindra. Misa flashed her an angry look, but she did as she was told.
“Head to your dormitories now.” Kalindra waved the cube. “I’ll hang onto this until you tell me where Lorn went.”
Now it was Bindal’s turn to get angry. “You return that to him right now! We were going to see Headmistress Marl before you appeared and we need to show that to her!”
“Why, what does it contain?” Kalindra asked. Her eyes burned with curiosity.
“Information about the alien creatures!” Bindal snapped.
Mikin threw her a shocked look. He had refrained from telling them about the creatures in case they didn’t believe him and threw the cube away out of spite. At the same time, he couldn’t understand Kalindra’s concern for Lorn. He knew that she and Lorn were both from Daiphus, and they had been close friends at one point. However, since Mikin had been at Minda Yerra, he had hardly seen them together, and Lorn never mentioned her. It was only after Lorn’s disappearance that Kalindra started to bug them, trying to glean any information about Lorn.
Misa was simpler to understand. Misa hated Terrana, and because Mikin and Bindal hung out with her, she hated them too. Bindal continued to talk, fully aware of Mikin’s concern. However, she knew what she was doing — or so she hoped.
“Mikin’s family have been librarians for centuries,” Mikin tried not to let his surprise show through at her obvious lie, “and Mikin’s come across some information about the creatures which could change the balance of this invasion. Your parents, like mine, were enlisted to combat them, weren’t they? They are directly on the frontline. Don’t you want to help them?”
Both Misa and Kalindra went really still. It was true what Bindal had said. Their parents were guild weavers and, like Bindal, Misa and Kalindra had heard from them recently, so knew how dire the situation was outside the school.
Bindal continued. “Right now, the creatures are in Pa Gumpina. But what if they spread throughout Sector One and arrive on our home planets? We can’t afford to let that happen. So please, return the cube to Mikin, and allow us to see Headmistress Marl.”
Kalindra gave her a harsh look. “No,” she said.
“What?” Bindal cried angrily.
“Misa and I are coming with you,” she said. She had the upper hand and they knew it.
“Fine,” said Bindal, shrugging her shoulders in resignation. “But we should go now.”
“I saw Headmistress Marl by the lobby,” said Kalindra, turning around. “Follow me.” She led the
way, taking the path towards the school lobby. They walked quickly and had almost reached their destination when something fat and fluffy pounced on Kalindra’s head. As quickly as it landed, it leapt off, using her head for added acceleration. Mikin, Bindal, Kalindra, and Misa watched open-mouthed as Kazu raced away.
“Whose animal is that?” Kalindra shouted angrily, rubbing her sore head. Mikin and Bindal glanced at each other, but wisely kept silent.
“Two weeks of detention to the person who owns it!” Kalindra began running after Kazu. Misa followed.
Mikin groaned. “Why now, of all times?” And then he too, began running.
They raced across the grounds, Kalindra and Misa cursing as Kazu cheekily teased them, allowing them to catch up to him before sprinting away again. He seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself at their expense. Mikin huffed and puffed as he ran after them, but stopped when a large shadow fell across him.
He looked up in surprise. To his amazement, a large starcraft appeared to be coming in for a landing. More disturbingly, it was flanked by five fighter jets, which sounded alarm bells in his head. Even Misa, Kalindra, and Bindal had stopped giving chase and were staring at the jets. Fighter jets appeared only when something needed to be destroyed. To add to the intrigue, Headmistress Marl and Master Drummik emerged from the school lobby, looking peculiarly strained.
Mikin took shelter behind some bushes as the craft touched down on the school grounds. Interestingly enough, the fighter jets did not land, but went on to circle the school’s perimeter. One jet hovered in one place, acting as a sentry.
As Mikin watched, the door to the starcraft opened and circular discs dropped down. People disembarked, and when Terrana, Lorn, and Prince Gil Ra Im stepped out, Mikin nearly shouted out their names, he was so happy to see them.
They looked terrible. Terrana, in particular, appeared inert. She was being led by a haggard-looking Lorn. Prince Gil Ra Im seemed no better than Terrana and was being supported by a tall warrior woman. A pair of faars followed.
