by Tristan Vick
“Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes!” I chirp gleefully. I’m so glad to see Lisette’s shining smile and warm kind eyes once more that I can hardly contain myself. As I gaze upon her in admiration, I can’t help but appreciate the fact that she’s kept up her training. Even without my direct tutelage, she has learned how to pilot Guerriero. Seeing her behind the faceplate of the Juggernaut, I can’t help but think she’ll make a fine warrior and knight someday. “I’ve missed you so much.”
“I thought we’d lost you forever,” Lisette replies. “You’ve been missing for so long. We all thought you were dead. Or worse, trapped forever in the Nether Realm.”
“What are you talking about?” I laugh. “It’s only been a day since the coronation in Koroth. Since I went down into the Nether Realm to find the Outlier.”
“No,” Lisette informs me, her voice growing as distant as it does solemn. “It’s been over three years.”
32
It only takes one look from Lisette to prompt me to follow her to the large portal on the upper deck of the skyship. She turns in her clunky armor and moves onto a circular elevatorum platform. After she steps onto the platform, it moves down, and Guerriero and Lisette slowly sink out of view.
In no time at all, the platform returns, and following Lisette’s lead, I step onto the platform. With a clangor, the platform begins to descend and I am lowered into a massive chamber.
Off to the left is a crew of men pulling on ropes that are rigged to a system of pulleys. It is with their manpower that they tug and pull the platform. Once the platform slams to the main deck of the large chamber, a man pulls a lever, locking the platform in place.
I step off the platform and walk to where Lisette has parked Guerriero. Without waiting for me, she opens her armor and climbs out. She hops down to the ground and tugs at the jacket of a nice, form-fitting, navy-blue uniform. Behind her, Guerriero immediately transforms back to his original form.
I bring Vanguardian to a full stop in front of Lisette and think the word open. At the speed of thought, there is a hiss, and a shuffling of armor plating, and then Vanguardian’s chest plate expands, releasing the snug grip on my torso, and unfurls. Barely able to contain my excitement to see Lisette again, I quickly climb out of my Juggernaut and rush over to greet her.
We meet in the middle. Before I can even say the words “Hello,” Lisette leaps up into the air and pounces on me.
I catch her by the waist and she wraps her legs around me. I almost lose my balance, and have to take a few steps back just to catch my footing. With my face pressed into her flat stomach, I mumble, “It’s nice to see you too.”
“I’ve missed you so much,” Lisette says, squeezing my head tightly.
Finally, we break our embrace and I set Lisette down. She’s not kidding. She no longer looks like a mere eighteen-year-old girl. If what she said is true, and three years really have passed, she is twenty-one now.
Unintentionally, I glance down at her chest to find it bulging with an unmistakable opulence that wasn’t there before. “You filled out,” I say, smiling sheepishly as she follows my gaze to her chest.
She laughs. “I suppose I have.” She checks herself out one more time then looks up at me, as though she just remembered some vital information she wants to tell me. “As much as I’d love to catch up, my orders are to bring you to the bridge immediately.”
Lisette turns to leave and I reach out and touch her arm, softly urging her to stay long enough to help me wrap my mind around everything. “Orders?” I ask.
She glances at me with a wry look. Then, smiling big and bright, announces excitedly, “I’m a knight now. Can you believe it?!”
“Really?!” I gasp. “I mean, that’s…great.”
Lisette laughs. “Yes, well, I wish I could have finished my training with you. We had so many wonderful adventures together. But with the war pressing on and everything…”
“War?” I interrupt. “What war?”
“The war with Daeris Darkthorne. She’s taken Algoroth, Bulgoroth, and the Rocky Isles, as well as Trioli. My father negotiated a treaty with her so she wouldn’t turn all our people into slaves. At the same time, he wrote me to let me know Algoroth was no longer safe for me, and urged me to not return until things settled down. He wished me well in my continued training as a knight.”
“I’m so sorry,” I say. “That’s terrible. I should have been there.”
“In all truth,” she says, looking away, “I feel as though I let him down. I was supposed to become this great warrior, like you. But now I’m just a grunt. Another foot soldier to fill the desperate need for new warriors.”
I place my hand on Lisette’s shoulder and turn her back toward me so that our eyes lock onto one another. “Listen to me. You accomplished what you set out to do, even when life tried to upset your goals by throwing you some unexpected twists and turns. But you persevered and you pushed onward. I’m sure your father is extremely proud of all that you’ve accomplished.”
“Yes, well, I hope so. At any rate, to make a long story short, I finished my training with the Valandra Royal Guard then returned to Koroth, where I requested to be stationed here, aboard the Aeronautilus.”
“Is that what this thing is called?” I ask amazedly.
“Yes,” replies Lisette. “It’s the first in a series of airships which we hope to use against Darkthorne’s refashioned Juggernauts. She has amassed six, but she’s unearthing more every single day.”
“You mean, she’s actually digging them up out of the ground?”
Lisette looks at me as if I was born yesterday. And in a way, I kind of was.
“That’s the real purpose for her digging up half of Bolgoroth. It’s to mine ore and Dragon’s eye crystals. With the order, she fashions new Juggernauts. And because she has the Dragon Blade, we haven’t been able to get close to her. But now,” Lisette motions with her hands as she shows off the Aeronautilus, “with this ship, that’s all about to change. For the first time in three long years, we have the upper hand.”
I turn around and scan the design aesthetics of the ship’s interior. Steel beams, like the ribcage of a great beast, are strewn out in segmented fashion on either bulkhead. Brass and hammered steel plating make the outer hull of the ship. Meanwhile, on the inside, a polished wooden floor and wooden framework provide rigidity and a pleasing aesthetic. Just like a regular sailing vessel, except this one sails through the skies.
Lisette motions with her hand for me to follow her, and I do. As we head up a small row of stairs, through a small door, and down a side passageway with rounded porthole windows, she unexpectedly apologizes. “Sorry that we attacked you earlier. We saw Darkthorne’s armor and thought she had caught wind of our new battleship. We couldn’t imagine how word even got out, as the utmost secrecy was kept in its development.”
“And I’m sorry I couldn’t have warned you I was coming.”
Lisette glances over her shoulder at me and smiles. I smile back. But there’s something distant and calculated about her smile that upsets me.
“Well, it all worked out in the end,” she says. Her grin fades away. She holds out her hand and ushers me down a different passageway. “I am curious, though, as how you managed to steal Daeris Darkthorne’s personal Juggernaut.”
“Oh, I didn’t steal it,” I inform her. “Darkthorne gave it to me.”
Lisette abruptly comes to a stop in the middle of the passageway and puts a finger onto my chest, just below my clavicle. Whispering in a hushed voice, she sates, “I feel I should warn you that it’s best if you didn’t divulge that information to anyone. If asked, just lie and say that you stole it.”
“Lie? But why would I do that?”
Lisette gives me a cold glare, then turns and continues heading on her way. I shrug and trail after her.
We hook right down another long passage and walk straight on until we come to a heavily armored door with a small, saucer-sized porthole. Lisette bangs on the door three
times, and then a portly face with large bulging and startlingly inquisitive eyes appears in the window. It peers out at us suspiciously then disappears again. With a clank and a bit of rattling, the heavy door swings open, its creaky hinges kicking up a ruckus as it does.
We step through the door. The suspicious sailor who let us in throws his stout girth against the heavy door and, with a loud metallic clank, bolts shut the way behind us.
Lisette and I enter the wheelhouse. All along the outfacing windows are stationed flight navigators who sit at stools and attend to the wheels, which control pitch and yaw. There’s one to either side. At the front are stationed two more pilots, who grapple with tall levers as they steer the airship.
In the center of the large semicircular room there is a large chair. It looks like a throne but merely serves the function of being the lookout and command station. Retracted into the ceiling before the command chair is a telescoping device of some sort.
Lisette holds her arm of for me to wait behind her as she stops just beside the command chair. She leans over and whispers something into the ear of the person commanding the ship.
After a brief pause, a voice says, “Take us about, full tilt.”
“Increasing magnetic distribution to stone P1,” one of the navigators informs the rest of the bridge crew.
There’s a lot of chatter and then a creaking noise. A whistle blows and then the ship begins to creak and shudder. The shuddering seems to be emanating from the starboard side stone, which seems to be vibrating. The Dragon’s eye crystals mounted in the ring begin to glow and expel a kind of flowing discharge, which reminds me of the porous mist of a mushroom head being discharged.
Gradually the giant airship begins to turn and in no time, we’re set upon a heading that will take us back to Koroth.
“Arianna,” a familiar voice says, calling to me. “It’s been far too long.”
A dark-headed figure with short choppy hair down to her armor-plated shoulders stands up. When she turns around my jaw about hits the ground in both surprise and dismay. She has on an eye patch, and extending out of either end of it are the tail ends of a terrible scar.
Zarine looks upon me fondly and smiles. She has on the same navy-blue uniform as Lisette but for the shoulder pads and a golden pin in the shape of a dragon. The dragon’s left wing wraps around the slender body in a semicircle, while its right wing wraps around the other way, forming the outline of the pin. At the same time, one of the dragon’s feet is clutching an arrow while the other foot blends artistically into the tail, disappearing out of sight.
Throwing out her arms, Zarine welcomes me into an embrace. Without hesitation, I rush past Lisette and crash into Zarine. Throwing my arms around her middle, I bury my face into her shoulder and squeeze her with all my affection. As I breathe in her scent, I realize she’s wearing the same perfume she had on the day we first met. I smile and whisper, “I’ve missed you.”
“That’s enough,” she finally says, pushing me back and setting me a comfortable arm’s length away. “I have a crew watching.”
“I’m so glad to see you,” I gush. “Aren’t you the least bit excited to see me too?”
“Of course, I am,” she reassures me. “When I heard it was you, I could scarcely believe it. I had to see it with my own eyes…I mean eye,” she says bashfully, glancing away to cover up her gaffe. She reaches up and touches her eyepatch, caressing the edges of it with her delicate white fingers.
“What happened?” I ask, pointing toward my right eye, the same eye which Zarine is missing.
“Just one of Darkthorne’s many gifts,” she replies. “I was spying on her through my crystal ball, trying to get intel, and she took my eye as a lesson for my nosiness.”
“That’s terrible,” I say morosely.
“It is what it is,” she replies.
“No,” I say, throwing out my hand. I look her in the eye. “It’s perverse. It’s an eye for an eye, quite literally. I cannot allow her to get away with this.”
Zarine stares at me for a while and doesn’t say a single word. The lingering silence penetrates the room with its deafening effect. Everyone turns to see what the matter is. Then, suddenly, and quite unexpectedly, Zarine begins laughing out loud. She laughs so hard that she bends over and wraps her arms around her waist.
I look to Lisette, who merely shrugs in response.
With a slap on her thigh, Zarine stands back up and takes in a deep breath, calms herself, then sighs. “Oh, how I’ve missed your incommensurate optimism, Arianna.”
She smiles at me one last time and I cannot tell what’s going on in her mind. It seems she is reflecting on fonder times. But her face suddenly grows dark and grim and the warmth I saw dancing in her eye fades, leaving only her cold gaze locked upon me.
“Lisette,” Zarine says, summoning her knight.
Lisette steps forward dutifully and awaits her command. I couldn’t be prouder of her.
“Please escort our prisoner to the brig.”
“Yes, your highness,” Lisette answers, bowing her head in compliance.
“Wait…what?!” I gasp as Lisette takes me by the arm. As she begins to drag me away, I plant my feet and say, “There must be some kind of misunderstanding. You know me, Zee! Don’t do this.”
Zarine merely turns her gaze away from me and then returns to her duties. She walks back to her command chair and sits down. Reclining in the chair, she throws one leg over her knee and then stares out the front viewing ports.
Lisette tugs on my arm, gives me a firm squeeze, and whispers through the corner of her mouth, “Don’t make this any harder than it already is.”
As she drags me out of the wheelhouse, I grab onto the edge of the door and shout across the room at Zee. “I demand to know why you’re doing this. I demand you tell me what’s going on here.”
Zee merely raises her hand in response, and growls, “Get her off my bridge.”
Lisette jerks me out of the room. The same portly-faced man, his face devoid of any real emotion, looks right at me and then slams the heavy door right in my face.
33
Aeronautilus’s brig is on the lowest deck in the farthest reaches of the aft section. Wedged into the triangular aft bulkhead are two barred jail cells that sit next to each other, sharing a barred divider.
A bale of hay stands in for a chair and dry straw on the ground suffices for a bed. The cell to the left has a single occupant. A bearded man wearing nothing but tattered rags. It looks as though his clothes used to be a crewman’s uniform, but it’s to grimy and tattered to make out clearly what rank it was. It’s merely a faded navy blue.
“Quaint,” I say, inspecting my guest room.
“It’s not much, but you’ll be treated to supper and in the morning, you’ll be transferred to a proper holding facility in Koroth.”
Willingly, I step into the barred cage and walk to the center of the cell. I turn around to see Lisette shut the gated door and lock it with a key.
She gazes into my eyes and tucks the key back into a side pocket on her navy-blue uniform. “I’m sorry about all of this.”
“And what is this, exactly?” I ask her. “Why am I being detained.”
Lisette looks away. “I have my marching orders,” she replies, evading my question. And although it took a while for it to sink in, now it’s crystal clear to me that everything and everyone I’ve ever known has changed.”
“Some of us have stayed true to ourselves,” Lisette says. “And our friends,” she adds. She smiles at me warmly to let me know that she’s still on my side. “And some of us…” she says, turning her head toward the bearded man lying in the cellblock next to me, “have lost themselves entirely.”
“Lisette…” I begin, reaching up and taking ahold of the bars. I want to ask her a thousand questions but my mind goes blank.
“I’m sorry,” Lisette says, slowly backing away. “I must return to my duties. I’ll see to it someone brings you your supper on time.”
>
“And what about him?” I ask, looking down at the man sleeping on the pile of straw, curled into a tight ball.
“He’s quite harmless, I can assure you.”
I slide my fingers down and try to touch Lisette’s hand, which rests against the bar. But she removes her hand before I can touch her. “Just one thing,” I ask. “Where’s Alegra?”
“She returned to Thananor,” Lisette states. “That’s all I know.” With that, Lisette turns on her heel and marches out of the room. As she leaves I can see two guards outside the door.
“Pssst!” I hiss through my teeth as I try to get the sleeping man’s attention. “Hey!”
“Mmm…what?” the man says, and then rolls over. He reaches into his pants and scratches himself in a not so appropriate manner. Soon enough a simple case of scratching an itch turns into something else entirely and I am forced to look away.
Luckily, I find a small stone in the corner of my space, and I reach down and pick it up. Walking back to the bars, I chuck the stone at the man’s head. It pelts him right on the side of his temple. He stops what he’s doing and sits straight up.
Looking about the area, he leaps onto his hands and knees and begins to rummage through his pile of straw as though he’s lost a most valuable item.
“Have you seen my scruples?” he asks.
I have no idea what he means. But he seems to have worked himself up into a panic, so I answer, “No. Sorry.” Then as an aside, I whisper to myself, “Just my luck, they put me in a cell with a crazy person.”
“I’m not crazy,” the man says. He jumps up and rushes over to the bars. He clings to them as he stares at me with wild eyes. “I’m not crazy,” he repeats.
“Oh, you heard that?” I ask, ashamed I said something so rude. “What I meant was…”
“The witch,” he interrupts, “she stole all my scruples.”
“I’m sorry,” I say. I don’t really know how else to respond. Then the man turns around. But just before he does the shape of his high cheekbone and rugged jawline catch my eye. He looks awfully familiar to me. But then he clamors to the ground, at it again. Looking for his scruples.
