by Suzie Taylor
“Dust eaters,” Nexus explained.
“What Mum would do for one of those!” laughed Ben
“That’s crazy,” said Nadia. “How could anything live on dust?”
“Dust is made up of particles of everything,” said Alf. “Pollen, skin cells, minerals... it’s potentially a very balanced diet.”
“This place is amazing,” murmured Nadia as she wandered slowly forwards. “Is all this stuff from the ruined fairy city?”
“It’s all I could salvage yes – everything was destroyed of course but I was able to build up a fair collection on the sly before disaster struck. It’s annoying how many things I forgot though. I didn’t have much time. Carcawrass had no idea what I was up to and still has no idea. They thought they’d killed me – which is what they were supposed to do of course. Didn’t work though. Ha! I’m working on a few projects of my own up the back here you see... this is my work space and not so tidy. The bedroom that way and toilet over there... oh I can see that was needed!”
Nadia and Emily rushed for it.
“Yes me too if you don’t mind,” Ben apologised.
Once they were all more comfortable, Nexus gave them a hot drink and an unusual jelly like cake which even Alf enjoyed.
“So you’re a fairy?” asked Emily. “What happened to your wings? Are you the only one left?”
“Yes to your first question - although you must understand there were many races in Felantia at the end. I used to be able to fly of course, but during my imprisonment they had my wings cut off. I have a disability platform for getting around now.” He indicated a scooter like vehicle near the doorway. “As to the third question, well that’s a matter of debate. There’s Shulamai of course who used to live in the forest. Nobody’s quite sure what she is or was, not even herself. Probably a cross breed of some kind as was her Grandmother Agnes. And then there were all the others who disappeared - literally disappeared - well before Felantia faced its final destruction. Who knows what became of them.” He paused and sighed. The burden of being the only one of his kind still living had become a reality he was accustomed to living with but never willing to accept. He regarded the children solemnly for a moment then gave a resigned smile. “The past is long gone but the future is still ours to make.”
“How long ago did it all happen?” asked Ben.
“One hundred and seventy five years now,” said Nexus.
“You’re over one hundred and seventy five years old?” asked Emily incredulously.
“Two hundred and forty nine. I was only a young ‘un when I came to live here.”
“You don’t look old now!”
“Well I should hope not yet!”
“Actually one hundred and seventy five isn’t very long,” said Alf. “The city out there is petrified. I thought it must have happened much longer ago than that.”
“It’s a matter of circumstances, not time,” said Nexus. “But enough of this chit-chat. The task ahead of us now is to make sure you’re prepared for this mission.”
“Mission?” asked Ben. “What mission? We’re not on any mission apart from a mission to get home.”
Nexus looked at him incredulously. “Surely you jest.”
“No, not ever,” said Emily
“You have the Spectrum Stone don’t you?”
Ben took the stone from his pocket and placed it carefully on the table. Nexus looked at it in relief.
“Thank goodness, you had me for a moment there. His Majesty said you were pretending to be ignorant and he was concerned that you were spies, but I told him to forget that notion – the stone would not have chosen you if you were a spy.”
“The King told us his name was ‘Awesome the Magnificent,’” said Nadia. “Is that true?”
Nexus shut his eyes for a moment and the corners of his mouth twitched. “No – but he can be forgiven for saying that. His name actually means ‘tough’ or ‘unbreakable’. He earned that title before he had even hatched! His egg was extremely hard; his parents could hear him scratching and tapping away inside it for some time, but before they committed to help him break out, he managed to roll his own egg off the nest platform and it bounced down a ten metre rocky slope before finally cracking at the bottom. He then pulled himself out and stretched as if nothing had happened so they named him accordingly.”
“So why doesn’t he use that name? What is it?”
“He does use it here – Here it doesn’t matter, but according to Shulamai it sounds very rude in the English dialect!”
“What is it?” asked all four children at once.
Nexus pressed his lips together and shook his head. “Oh no... if he has chosen not to speak his name I’m not going to risk sharing it with you! You’d better stick with ‘Awesome!’”
“Oh go on Mr Nexus please!” pleaded Emily.
Nexus shook his head
“Well if it’s going to be like that, I’m spelling it with an ‘O’” said Alf. “‘Orsum’ with an ‘O.’”
“Who is Shulamai?” asked Ben.
“She used to live in the cottage at the cave entrance,” said Nexus, “until she disappeared last year. We think she was part human but nobody is really sure and neither was she. I don’t know where she’s gone but I suspect something nasty got her.”
“We saw the cottage and wondered whose it was,” said Ben, “but I guess our main concern now is what this stone thinks it’s doing – and why King ‘Orsum,’ doesn’t appear to like us. It’s not like we’ve done anything deliberately wrong, but he seems to suspect the worst all the time.”
Nexus shook his head. “Don’t worry about him. He’s just got his snout out of joint because the stone chose you instead of him for this mission. He was all prepared to be the hero – even got me to make him a suit of armour so that he could look the part – but despite his confidence and bravado the spectrum stone would have none of it. He presented himself as the strongest and bravest of the Oreletaah but that was not what was required. It hasn’t occurred to him that he might be assigned to a quite different task.”
Ben shook his head. “I’m sorry, I just don’t get this. What mission are we talking about?”
“Simply this; you need to take the Spectrum Stone to the Orator. The question we really need to ask is why? Apparently we are under attack... but what is out there that could be dangerous? No enemy has entered the caves that we are aware of; unless one of the Oreletaah themselves has joined with the enemy which seems very unlikely...”
“The who?” asked Ben.
“Oreletaah? What do you call them? His Majesty and his people...?”
“Bug dragons?”
Nexus chuckled. “Ah ha! Yes, well they may have been bugs to you before! But my point is that it is unlikely that any of them would join the enemy – so, the only thing I can think of is the clouds. There is no explanation for them. They formed very quietly and slowly but since the stone left the mountain and made its way into your pocket, they have begun to increase. That suggests to me that something is panicking because it knows its time is short.”
“I did wonder about them,” said Alf. “Are they poisonous or something?”
“Good question. That is now my task; to find out what they really are. At any rate, something sinister is afoot and if it’s the clouds, they need to be stopped.”
“I thought they were really pretty,” said Emily.
“They are indeed,” said Nexus, “but don’t ever let appearances fool you. We have had clouds before... harmless ones, but it is a rare event and perhaps these are different. One way or another, the enemy has found a way in and he was counting on stealth to accomplish his task. The Spectrum Stone needs to be taken to the Orator so you can obtain the words of wisdom and power necessary to protect us.”
“Sorry, I’m just not quite with you,” said Ben. “Where and what is the Orator?”
“Goodness me! You ask that - and yet I do believe you’ve already seen it or the enemy would not be out in such force! The Orat
or is the pedestal; the pillar in Felantia city. Let me help you understand. The Word and the Light work in conjunction with each other; The Spectrum Stone will absorb the words of power from the Orator which you can then use to stop the clouds (if indeed it is them) and save the city.”
“So... I just have to put the stone on the pedestal and somehow it will give me magic words to destroy the clouds?”
“Not magic; Words of authority and truth. But yes.”
“But why me?” asked Ben. “Surely the King would have been a better choice. It’s not like I’m a prince or superhero or anything.”
“He really isn’t,” said Emily.
“I always thought I was the child of prophesy,” said Alf in a slightly injured tone.
“Never ask why. Just have faith that you can.” Nexus took out his timepiece, a tiny silver instrument that sprang from its case and hovered briefly in front of him in a whirl of wheels and dials before zipping back down so that he could put it away. “Time: four fifteen, outside temperature 28 degrees and no chance of rain. There’s no time for this kind of chatter, you need to get your act together. Are you ready?”
“I don’t know,” said Ben. “What am I up against? Magpies?”
“Who knows?” Nexus shrugged. “Carcawrass will no doubt find something ugly to carry his army. Don’t worry about it, just focus and always look ahead. The stone will help you.”
Alf was not satisfied. It all seemed like an unnecessary overexertion to him. If the stone was so powerful (which he found hard to believe) and had the capacity to put itself in people’s pockets, why couldn’t it put itself on the Orator without help? Why all the risk? And if the enemy was so keen to stop the two getting together why not simply destroy the Orator? It was just sitting there completely vulnerable out in the open. And how could words (however true and authoritative) make real stuff happen anyway?
“When your mother tells you to do something do you do it?” asked Nexus.
“Usually... but not always!”
“The Orator has more authority than your mother and a great deal more power. As to destroying it, Ha! Not likely. It’s the bedrock upon which everything was built, the foundation of reality. It’s made of words, and spoken words cannot be retracted.”
“But spoken words are not objects” Alf argued. “They’re sounds.”
“Do you judge if something’s an object by whether you can see or feel it?” asked Nexus. “Is that what makes it real?”
Alf hedged. It sounded like a trick question. “...Maybe...”
“You could not see or feel my dust eaters without goggles but you agree that they’re real? Sometimes you know that something is real because you can see the effect it has on something else. Consider the wind. You can look out of a window and see the trees moving so you know it’s windy even if you can’t see or feel it yourself.”
“Yes but...”
“The reality of the Orator actually lies outside of its solid form and that is why you need the spectrum stone to comprehend it. The stone is like your goggles. Carcawrass has no light – he cannot grasp the spectrum stone so he cannot destroy that which makes the Orator real. The pedestal as you see it may feel solid to touch, but that’s not where its reality lies. On the contrary, its solid form is merely a reflection of the real thing.”
The children looked at Alf, expecting him to continue the argument.
Alf opened his mouth then closed it again. “Processing,” he said.
“Right, so we need some real equipment to do the job properly,” said Nadia who had been eyeing off an impressive looking gun on a shelf behind Nexus. “That big gun over there... can I have it?”
“You don’t need it.”
Of course she needed it. It was a no brainer.If she was going to face a hoard of angry magpies or worse, she would need to be armed.
“I’m not sure that you need to be involved,” said Ben. “I think I’ll have to do this by myself. It’s not right to put the rest of you in danger.”
“Like we’re just gonna sit here and wait,” snorted Nadia.
“I can combust things with my brain,” said Alf. “I once caused the kitchen to catch fire just by thinking about it.”
“I thought it was you that caught fire,” said Emily.
“That was before I learnt to control it.”
“Anyway, you can’t stop us,” said Emily “You’re not going alone and that’s final.”
Ben folded his arms. “You all signed up to obey my orders.”
Nadia stood squarely in front of him with her hands on her hips. “We also signed up to do our share of any work involved. Em, help me hold him down. Alf, set his hair on fire!”
“Ok, ok! We’ll all go!”
The armour was way too big and the wrong shape.
“Can’t see properly,” Ben’s muffled voice came from within the helmet, “but thanks anyway.”
It was a magnificent suit – the second complete dragon armour made by Nexus after Growler’s, and designed to accentuate the King’s strongest features; broad shoulders and chest, a strong fierce expression and a cluster of sharp spikes on the end of the tail. It was not however designed for a ten year old boy – not even a large one like Ben.
The King was not surprised but had become anxious to help. The clouds had now reached the outskirts of the city and were beginning to spread around the perimeter of the cave. They had developed a certain heaviness and solidity about them but the frothiness of their shapes and the beautiful subtlety of their colours still made the view spectacular rather than threatening.
Alf was equipped with a dimension modifier in case any of them felt that human size rather than fairy size would be more effective, and Emily had several sets of transmitters in a small waist pack in case they decided to go their separate ways.
Nadia was armed with the biggest gun Nexus – under protest – would let her have. It was not a ‘paint-baller’ like the guns that the soldiers carried; she was not interested in that. This one looked like it could do serious damage. She hoisted it up to her shoulder and found that it was lighter and easier to handle than it looked, but Nexus warned her not to try it out in the Oreletaah cave. ‘It won’t work on plants or rocks and we don’t want to upset anyone,” he said. “It’s easy to aim though; the ammunition is self-guiding.”
“Can I have one?” asked Ben. All he had was a battered bike helmet and a small stone.
“Sorry, I only have one,” said Nexus. “Besides you will be faster unarmed and it’s always best not to rely on these things.
Trust me, you’ll be fine.”
“I’m sure Nadia will keep you covered,” said Emily reassuringly.
Alf wasn’t convinced “Does she shoot the same way as she plays tennis?”
“I hope not,” Ben grunted.
“Hey I did the job didn’t I?” protested Nadia. “Stop worrying. If you die I promise I’ll avenge you and do the job in your place.”
“Great, thanks.”
“Let’s take a photo first so we have something to remember you by...”
Ben groaned and rolled his eyes. She had spied her phone dismantled all over Nexus’s workbench and insisted that he put it together again. This he was happy to do, working at great speed with all four hands at once, reconstructing, and reaching for various tools and parts. A series of lights sprang up before him and these he manoeuvred with one hand whilst the other hands continued building. A device that looked rather like a wire spider was also crawling over the phone, probing and soldering with a proboscis like needle. Emily pointed down under the table. Nexus had kicked his slippers off, and his feet which were furnished with remarkably long toes were working hard on another construction.
“And I thought mum was good at multi-tasking,” she murmured.
“What about mine,” grumbled Alf, looking down at his broken phone. “Can you restore it so it takes proper pictures again?”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Nexus.
�
�You know perfectly well what I’m talking about! Photos not paintings!”
Nexus denied all involvement. He had looked at Alf’s phone of course, but apart from pulling it apart and putting it back together again, he had not touched it.
“Well if it wasn’t you, who was it?” demanded Alf. “You said the bug dragons were not technically savvy.”
Nexus shrugged. “Don’t know. I promise I didn’t change a thing. Bring it to me later though and I’ll have a look. Ok Nadia – I have attached a device to your phone which allows it to take three dimensional images which you can view as holograms. It’s detachable like this see?” He demonstrated then handed it to Nadia. It looked rather like a phone version of a street machine with extra turbo bits sticking out from the surface. Nadia was only too happy to try it out on everything and everyone she could.
“Awesome,” she said, looking at the 3D image of Ben that now stood on the surface of the glass. “Hey Mouse can you take a group photo please?”
“Never mind the photos,” Ben snapped. “We need to get on with it!”
“Don’t be so crabby!” said Nadia. “You’ll be glad of this later.”
“He’s just nervous,” said Emily.
The passage ahead of them apparently led towards Felantia and according to Mouse came out close to the edge of the lake overlooking the island – it would mean that they could avoid detection for at least part of the journey and have the advantage of surprise if anything was guarding the island. Apart from Mouse as a guide, they had also gained the support of Gypsy, Pixel, Ruby and Needles.
“It’ll be dark by the time we get there,” said Ben. “We’ll try to work out what’s guarding the island and then decide whether I should stay small or use the dimension converter to increase my size.” if necessary Gypsy had agreed to carry him over as she was the only one who had any chance of keeping herself dark long enough.
