by J. Naomi Ay
Katie didn't respond. There was no point. Senya had decided before Shika was born that his son would never succeed him, something Katie had wholeheartedly agreed with. Up until recently, this hadn't bothered Shika. Now, it was like a canker sore that was continuously rubbed raw.
Katie left. She headed across the vast chamber to the door behind the hearth, which led to a simple wooden staircase dating back to the Palace's earliest years. Her footsteps echoed on the ancient treads as she climbed what had once been a servant's passage or a clandestine route for sneaking a lover into the King's chamber.
Outside, the rain turned to hail and pelted like tiny gun shots against the narrow window panes. Katie shivered at the cold, as the stairwell was unheated. She wished her sweater had not been left on her office chair.
When she reached the top of the narrow staircase, she pushed open the door to her suite, an immense and opulent apartment on the third and topmost floor of the royal residence building known as the Big House. It was quiet in there and dark, which didn't necessarily mean Senya wasn't home. He never turned on lights, as they made no difference to him. A blind man had no need to illuminate anything. The vid should have been on, though. The only reason he would have left his office early would be to listen to a Raven's football game undisturbed.
"Senya?" Katie called, her heart immediately speeding up again as a shiver of fear trickled down her spine. "Senya? Are you in here?"
He might have gone outside. He didn't do that much anymore, but on occasion, he still had a desire for something fresh.
Katie crossed the living room to the French doors, which led out to their private balcony. She tried to push one open, but the wind caught it and slammed it back.
The rain was coming harder now, some of it turning to snowflakes as the ocean crashed against the seawall and sprayed salt all the way up to her windows. She tried to look outside. She scanned the dark sky for a sign of the Great Black Eagle. Something told her, she wouldn’t find him there, but her intuition was always wrong. Wasn't that what Luci had just decided?
Katie turned and faced the door to the bedroom, assuring herself there was no reason to be afraid. Senya wasn't that old, relatively speaking, and he was still in excellent shape. He was as fit and strong as he had ever been. If anything, he was more beautiful now than he had been in his youth. And, he wasn't entirely mortal, she reminded herself, although she had never actually believed in all those strange theories.
Still, his leg had been paining him lately. He had developed a bit of arthritis which often kept him awake and pacing the floor at night. Lack of sleep and all this stress had made him very ill-tempered. He was also forgetting where things were, especially if he wasn't wearing his sensory lenses. Recently, she had barely caught him before he bumped into a wall. Once, he had nearly toppled down the stair.
Now, most mornings, she took his hand and guided him to his desk. Yet, he was still the most brilliant man alive and knew everything there was to know. He was just aging, Katie insisted as she opened the bedroom door. It had to happen to all of us, even to him.
It was then that she discovered him lying on the bed.
"Senya?" Katie raced to her husband's side, and when he didn't respond, she immediately rang the Palace medics.
It didn't take them long to arrive, barely a minute or two. Her intuition was always wrong. If it wasn't, she wouldn't have dawdled in the office below or wasted time searching the skies outside. She would have been here, and she would have known the exact moment he had laid down to die.
Chapter 2
Sara awoke with a large bump on her head that throbbed, and when she moved, it threatened to make her throw up. Touching it made it worse. Even though, it was terribly hot and her bedroom on the spaceplane smelled horribly, Sara decided to stay exactly where she was until she felt better.
A few minutes later, she couldn't tell exactly how much time had passed, the plane began to shake and roll a little. It felt like they were sliding down something. Sara closed her eyes and imagined she was at that waterpark in New Mishnah where her father had taken her the previous summer. She went slipping and sliding down through all the tubes, whirling sideways and getting water splashed in her face. It was fun then, and she didn't feel sick.
Now, it wasn't fun at all. Sara threw up a little in her mouth. It was only a little, so she swallowed it back down even though it tasted horrible. Mama would be furious if she made a mess on the sheets.
This was a Xironian government plane, and that meant, they were just guests. Of course, Mama would have been furious if Sara threw up in her bed at home, which were her own sheets and not somebody else's. Mama didn't like sickness of any sort. Whenever Sara or even Papa got a headache or a stuffy nose, Mama would go into some long story about how hard it was when she was a child slave. She never got a day off, even if she had a terrible fever. That was back when all the people of Mama's tribe were slaves. Now, everybody on Xironia was a free person. Papa said if anyone tried to make slaves again, the Great Emperor would come in and knock all the bad guys dead.
Sara wondered if she was running a fever as she was really hot and getting sweaty. She reached up with her hand to check the temperature on her forehead, forgetting the bump that was now as large as a unicorn's horn. Touching it made her head reel. She lay back down and hoped this was a bad dream. Never before had she been on a flight so bumpy, hot and smelly all at the same time.
It was noisy, too, although it didn't sound like the right kind of noise. Spaceplane engines usually had a soft humming sound. Sometimes, they got louder and faster and sometimes they were so quiet, you could barely hear them. Papa said the Imperial Spaceplanes were silent, so it felt like you were floating on air.
Papa knew all about the things that went on in the Empire because his dad, Grandpa Rekah was the Great Emperor's cousin. Sara had never met the Great Emperor before, which was fine, because she thought he looked quite scary. Once she had seen the Empress when they were all in Karupatani for some kind of holiday.
The Empress was sitting with all the Sister Grandmas and Great Aunt Lookah. Sara thought she looked nice and was very pretty, even though Grandpa Rekah had called her a wicked witch, and mumbled something about stomping on his balls. Sara didn’t know what that meant or why the Empress should be concerned with Grandpa's balls. She imagined them going out into the field to play soccer and the Empress using her fancy shoe to pop Grandpa's ball.
Her cousin, Minka told her that was the dumbest thing she had ever heard, and that Sara was stupid because she was half Xironian. Sara left the children's center then and went to find her dad who was sitting in a circle near the fire pit in the center of the village. He was with his many brothers, and they were all smoking pipes and laughing. Sara climbed into her dad's lap and stayed there until he was done, even though the smell of all that smoke made her head a little woozy.
Suddenly, the spaceplane stopped. Sara heard a terrible noise and at the same time, the plane hit something that caused her to fly out of her bed. She was holding her pillow and luckily it softened the blow when she fell on the floor, but now she threw up for real on the bedroom's rug.
It grew quiet after that, and the lights flickered and went out. Sara felt like she was trapped inside a cave. The smell was beyond terrible because now it stunk like vomit too, and even though the engines were off, it was getting hotter.
"Papa?" Sara called tentatively, tears leaking from eyes. Normally, she knew she shouldn't wake her parents if they had gone to bed. "Papa?" She yelled a little louder. "Papa, I'm sick."
She waited for the sound of his footsteps in the hall. When she still heard nothing, Sara became very frightened. Her voice took on a hysterical tone. All she heard in response was her own echo bouncing off the metallic walls. Sara didn't realize she was the only one aboard who had survived.
Despite being small, tiny really, Lizwix had ears that were exceptionally keen. She could detect the exact tone and vibration in each of her friends' wings, so she ne
ver was surprised who was at her door.
When the spaceplane crashed during the volcanic storm, even Lizwix didn't hear the accompanying explosions. After the weather had finally quieted and only the songs of the forest birds filled the air, Lizwix heard the cries of a strange voice.
Being an inquisitive creature, Lizwix often acted quite rashly and then chastised herself later for not thinking things through. The cries were distressing, and they piqued her curiosity, so against her better judgment, Lizwix left her nest.
The forest floor was still moving as the magma flows were hot and hadn't settled. Steam and ash wafted upward making Lizwix sneeze as she flew along through the brush. Not far from her nest, she discovered the wreckage of a ship, which lay in pieces scattered about the base of the mountain. The cockpit and starboard fuselage were both buried by the lava rock. The tail section had broken off and was nearly a half mile away. It stood up like a sentinel guarding the port side fuselage, which was the only portion of the ship that remained intact.
Lizwix located the noise here. There was a pounding noise which reverberated throughout the metal hull. It alternated with the crying, although sometimes, Lizwix could hear both. She wasn't certain what to do. She couldn’t touch the craft as the outer shell was still glowing with heat.
"There's something inside," Lawbre remarked as he emerged from behind the tail. "I heard it myself a short time ago. Whatever it is, I believe it is alive."
"Of course, it's alive," Lizwix snapped at the obvious observation. Lawbre always tested her patience. Often, it seemed, he lived only to annoy the females. "We need to get it out."
"It's too hot," Lawbre remarked, again stating what was readily apparent as he hovered just above what appeared to be a door.
Inside, the crying became a plaintive wail that tore at Lizwix's tiny heart. If only her tiny brain could think of a way to rescue whatever it was. A crowd of Sprites joined them, fluttering down from the glade of trees. Each one began to voice an opinion on whether or not the creature should be released. Not one of them had any clue how to do it, yet that didn't stop them from arguing back and forth. It was entertainment for the Lyrian Sprites to endlessly debate an issue that could never be resolved.
"What if it eats us?" Someone protested.
"What if it bears an alien disease?" Another called.
"What if more of them come and try to steal our beautiful land?"
"Shut up, all of you," Lizwix yelled as their tiny voices rose in a clamor. "Whatever it is, it is in distress. It's our duty to help it out as the creatures before us helped us when we landed here and lost our feet to the molten rock."
"That is true," Lawbre agreed, and he smiled at Lizwix.
Lizwix rolled her tiny eyes and turned her back to him. Lawbre wanted only two things in this life, to annoy and to share the honeyed nectar. Lizwix, on the other hand, wanted to be alone in the quiet and solitude, sharing the nectar only when she decided to mate.
"Let us bring some tree limbs to open to the door," Lawbre continued. "I shall gather my rope of hemp for it to climb. If it does not have wings, we must make certain it does not touch the ground, else it shall lose its feet like our great ancestors did."
The Sprites of the Lyra II flew off in mass, their wings buzzing in unison. Lawbre scampered to his own nest and then, returned with the rope, which he strung from a tree limb directly. When the Sprites returned with the twigs and biggest sticks they could carry, they all jostled and levered at the spaceship's door.
Unfortunately, they were all of tiny brain. They did not realize that a piece of wood could not break through the composite metal of an interlocking set of air tight doors manufactured exclusively for us in intergalactic space travel.
Their efforts, though well intended, were simply not enough. It was the equivalent to taking a toothpick to a giant bolt. There was nothing these tiny creatures could do to open the door and rescue poor Sara. Fortunately for all, someone else was watching.
The raptor observed all this from the top of a tree. He was deciding whether to eat the Sprites first or save them for later. He was hungry for something fresh, of which this Mesozoic planet had precious little that suited his taste. Frankly, only the Sprites who had landed from another world were filled with the warm blood that he craved. Two or three fat ones ought to satisfy him for now. There were plenty enough in this village to last him as long as he wished to stay. Selecting the plumpest of the lot to start with, he lifted his wings and let the wind currents take him from the tree. The Sprite who carried the hemp rope would be his first target.
Lawbre had no idea that he was the subject of the raptor's observation. He sped back toward the spacecraft, his tiny wings beating at a rapid pace, his round bald pate reflecting the mild Lyrian sun. This pleased the raptor, who both enjoyed giving chase, as well as eating a creature devoid of hair.
He flexed his talons and made to dive for his mark, when he heard the keening wails from inside the spaceplane on the ground. Pulling himself up sharply, he found a limb upon which to perch, cursing himself, for in his haste to eat, he had nearly forgotten his mission altogether.
"I'm getting old," he mumbled, none too pleased with himself. The consummate perfectionist, he despised making a mistake. "Hurry up, then," he urged the Sprites and willed the door of the spacecraft to slide open a crack.
The Sprites cheered, thinking they had done this all themselves. They wedged their tiny sticks and twigs in further, thrusting the door open enough to fly in, and greet the creature locked inside.
Sara gasped as the winged people entered her room. "Where's my papa?" She screamed, although the Sprites hadn't a clue what she meant.
They hovered in the air and looked curiously from one to another. Although Lizwix's brain was small, it was enormous compared to those of the rest of her people. She realized, despite the creature's size, it was just a young one and terrified. Bravely, Lizwix held out her arms and called to the girl while everyone else hovered near the door.
"Are there others?" Someone asked, glancing fearfully about the room.
"It looks like a monster," one of the males announced.
"It's hot in here," another female scorned. "Let's get it out before we all end up dead."
Lizwix agreed they had to leave right away for the magma river was cresting again. The volcano belched another plume as the ground rumbled and shook the forest floor.
"Come." Lizwix waved her hands urgently at the girl. She reached for the young one's arm, but the girl shied away, tears flooding down her face.
"She's leaking," a male remarked. "It could be dangerous."
"No, no," Lizwix insisted. In her soft vibrating voice, she sang the lullaby of the Sprite people of Lyra II. It seemed to calm the girl a little as Lizwix hoped it would.
Trustingly, the girl gazed at the Sprite with her large blue eyes. She took Lizwix's hand and followed her to the door whereupon she looked outside and screamed again. It took all of Lizwix's strength to urge the girl to grasp the rope. Then, all the sprite people grabbed it together and lifted the girl into the sky.
Sara held on tightly with her shaking hands, refusing to look at the ground as the Sprites flew her high up into the trees. She did not see the wreckage of the plane or the bubbling river of magma, which again began to flow, and neither did she hear Lawbre's fatal scream.
While Sara was lowered into Lizwix's nest, Lawbre was plucked from the air by one massive claw. His head was severed and quickly swallowed by the raptor's beak.
Not bad, the raptor decided, and chose someone else to make for his dessert, as he circled above the bubbling magma fields of Lyra II.
Chapter 3
Angelica Korelesk looked in the mirror, turning her head around as far as she could in order to see her butt.
"Is it fat?" She murmured.
The mirror didn't respond, as it was just an ordinary normal mirror, not a magical one.
Angelica turned sideways and tried to see her profile. Granted it wasn't the most
perfect pose with her head twisted like this. Still, no matter how hard she tried to suck in her stomach and thrust out her chest, Angelica's tummy always looked big while her breasts looked too small.
"You're perfectly lovely," her mother Princess Elana said.
"Sure," Angelica thought, "Compared to you."
Compared to the waif-like figures of her aunt, Princess Marie, or her grandmother, the Queen of Cyganus, Angelica felt like she ought to play Left Tackle or Right Guard on the Korelesk Kings, her dad's favorite football team.
Somehow, Angelica was blessed with the genetics of her great-grandfather Loman and everyone else on the Korelesk side of the family. Like them, she had square shoulders, a broad back and the tendency to grow as wide as she was tall, although she regularly starved herself or forced herself to throw up what little she ate.
Her cousin, Loran, who shared the same set of grandparents on both sides, took after the Cyganians. Though three years younger, he was already taller than Angelica and reed thin, despite how much he packed away.
Angelica had devised some tests, since no one would be truthful about her looks. This was because she was the second in line to the Cyganian throne, the only granddaughter of the Duke of Korelesk and the closest marriageable relative of the Emperor himself. That made Angelica the most eligible bachelorette in practically the entire Universe, so naturally, no matter how fat she was, everyone would lie and tell her she looked fabulous.
Her first fat test was this. She would lie on her back and place her hand on her stomach. If anything wobbled, it was a fail and became a starvation day. If the skin and all the guts underneath stayed firmly in place, no matter how she prodded them, Angelica would let herself eat a little breakfast.
