by Gabe Sluis
“Yeah, we will have to just ask around. Any clues about anything that anyone has seen that could lead us to where they might be held. But, I do suggest staying away from Dialon officials and security. They are going to be more than a little jumpy if they really have the Verdur, whether it’s a girl inquiring or not.”
They made their way to the gate, stone pillars on a wall, surrounding a large cobblestone courtyard. All the stones were in a state of slight disrepair, but it had been that way for generations and still sat solidly for all that time. The south marketplace was small, and in the far end three passageways ran through the maze of circular stone buildings, back into the heart of the city. One of the paths in the network of stone would lead to the west terraces that looked out on the ocean. In the north, closest to the modern Dohit city of Dauna, sat the main market, three times the size of the smaller south market.
Kya took the lead, approaching shop and kiosk owners and showing them a picture of her brother. Aros walked with her, staying quiet and slightly back, but still giving the strong impression that he was guarding her. Akoda drifted off, remaining in the same vicinity, asking his own casual questions. The market was not busy, but still had many other Tarkin, Dohit and a few Nar patrons milling around. One group of Nar, who were obviously on a supply run, continued loading a cart with their recent purchases, camped themselves on the outskirts of the cobblestone promenade. There were several small Nar children running around the area, playing and lifting each other up off the ground. One little Nar girl stood looking at Kya while she spoke to a Dohit working at a kiosk. When Kya turned away without any new information, the little girl waived.
“Well arn’t you very pretty,” Kya said bending to her level. “Have you by chance seen my brother?” she said, showing her his picture.
The girl giggled and ran away. Kya stood and looked to Aros.
“This doesn’t seem to be getting me anywhere.”
“Yeah, lets go for a walk through the terraces, there are always lots of people out there enjoying the sea.”
“Alright.”
They began to walk in that direction and Akoda joined up with Aros.
“Did you see the Tarkin watching us?” Aros asked quietly.
“I did, a light-green star from the look of him. This guy was not Verdur or Appointer. I don’t know what he was.”
“Yeah, I saw him leaning against that wall observing us.”
“Then he just took off,” Akoda finished.
“Keep an eye out for him. If you spot him, give the signal and I’ll be overt, you waylay him.
Akoda gave a grunt of approval and drifted back from the pair, taking another route deeper into the maze.
Kya kept going, following painted signs high up on the stones of the path she was following. The two wound around the shaded streets and finally entered a dark tunnel with the brightness from the ocean on the other side.
“Ahh, the sun is finally out! What a lovely place!”
Kya walked out onto one of the terraces. Large stone steps spread out from the city down to the edge of the water. Several split-levels, placed seemingly at random, were all interconnected by stairways. Visitors to the palace, all enjoying the ocean view, occupied stone tables, chairs and benches. Aros followed Kya, again making her enquiries. As he trailed along, Aros kept his eyes moving, watching the entire crowd. Akoda would appear in and out of Aros’s sphere of awareness, and disappear again.
Aros turned his head, as if to stretch his neck when he again saw the light-green star Tarkin, lurking by a wall. Aros looked for Akoda and finally caught his eye. He was about to give the signal when Kya’s voice rose to the top of his mind.
“You are sure?” she was asking someone.
“Yes, dear. I will tell you all I know. But not here, come with me,” a Dohit woman said.
“She says she saw the whole team,” Kya whispered to Aros as she swept by him, following the Dohits lead.
“Wait, Kya,” Aros tried to protest, but was cut off by their quick movement. Rather than draw attention to them, Aros followed, trying to signal to Akoda to follow.
The Dohit woman led them to a crumbling circular remnant of a tower, and opened the wooden door. She was beckoning Kya inside when Aros caught up close enough to try and stop her. Before he knew it, Kya was practically in the door and Aros felt a large presence behind him. He turned and came face-to-chest with a large Nar male. Aros began his instinctive crouch-and-draw of his single hon-ra, but the Nar muscled him straight back into the room without any room to resist.
Shoved inside and weapon removed, Aros found himself with a male and female Dohit, and the big Nar. Blasting blue ghost fire from his hands, Aros slowly moved in front of Kya.
“There will be no need for that,” a voice said from the door.
Akoda was lead in, with the light-green star holding him, a hon-ra pointed to the back.
“My friend is right,” the male Dohit said. “We are doing you a courtesy, young ones.”
The male and female were tall and skinny, typical of Dohits. Their heads did not seem proportional and to their bodies, as far as the Tarkin were concerned. They wore common clothes, rather than the royal blue accentuated clothes of Dialon Kingdom Dohits. Even more odd was that they seemed to be working together with a Nar and Tarkin.
“We have no stake in this, but if you continue to expose yourself like this, you will be arrested. There are spies all around this palace,” the male said.
“Who are you? What do you know?” Akoda demanded from the Tarkin. He figured he could better get answers from his own kind.
“I am Sar. That is Danna and Taris. Our muscle is Dor Anned,” the Tarkin said, putting away his hon-ra.
“That’s right,” Taris continued. “We are just a assemblage of like minded persons who perform or facilitate tasks here in the city.”
“You are a bunch of criminals,” Aros said, letting his ghost fire abate.
The Nar in the corner with his arms crossed across his massive chest laughed.
“Call us what you may,” Danna said, again speaking to Kya. “I told you the truth. Now, do you wish to know about your brother?”
Kya, who had been standing with big eyes, nodded her head.
“Some Telgents from Dialon captured a party of Tarkin four days ago. That, we heard as rumor. But, what we know is, they missed one. Your brother. We know this because he came into the city looking for some supplies. Very particular supplies, that we had access to. These were things that someone would need to slip into a city, and not be noticed. We asked him why he did not just ask for assistance from his council, but he said he could not do that. He felt that he could trust no one but his captured team. So we sold him some things and he left.”
“I even offered to help him get into Dauna. I have done it before,” Sar said. “But he refused and demanded we tell no one, especially any Appointers.”
“Sure enough, they showed up looking for him,” Taris said. “And we said nothing. We heard the next day that something had happened at Dauna and assumed that the young Tarkin boy had succeeded at rescuing some of the ambushed prisoners.”
“Then where is he?” Kya said, more tears came to her eyes.
“No indication,” Tarris said. “A Telgent force was seen leaving the city soon after. This was all two days ago. If you go around broadcasting that you know him, security will pick you up in no time, thinking they can use you to find your on-the-run brother.”
Akoda was gravely concerned. “Thank you, thank you. We have to get out of here now. I’m not letting any Dohits strap gloves on me and keep me locked away. We owe you one,” he added to the Dohit couple.
“No such thing,” Danna said.
“Come on, Kya,” Aros said, ushering her to the door.
They made it out into the maze of the streets and Sar popped his head out of the building.
“There is exit just east of the South market where you came in. Don’t run, make yourselves dim, and go.”<
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The two Tarkin nodded. They were trained Guardians, as Sar must have once been. They moved quickly and stopped at the first place of relative cover they could find.
“He snatched the dark star!” Kya gasped. “That must have been the reason they sent Telgents after him. Ekam is completing his mission!”
“Kya, quiet,” Aros said.
“He is going to the Taviar Mountains, the gate…” Akoda said.
“Alright, I know. Now, lets get out of here alive first,” Aros said. “We have to go dim and walk out of here. Kya, do you know what that means?”
“It’s the way you move unnoticed, but I’ve never done it.”
“Ok. Focus on your breathing, keep it slow and regular. Then imagine the light inside of you,” Aros’s voice became low and regular. “Focus on yourself and hide that light from the world. Imagine you are in the shadows, even if you are standing in the sun. You are the only thing in this world, and all those around you are just the wind. When you can center yourself in this way, you will be dim. Do this, stay between Akoda and myself. We have to reach the tri-blade.”
Kya had her eyes closed and murmured an okay.
“Let's move.”
***
The three Tarkin exited the North Sea Palace at a slow run. Once they were away from the walls by at least two stones throw, Aros, in the lead, picked up to a full run. He and Akoda had much practice staying dim, and could look around and move while staying nearly invisible to those who were not looking for them.
Akoda got to the tri-blade and ripped off the cover as Aros took Kya by the shoulders.
“Well, now we know. He is completing his mission, we need to report back to the council and…”
“No!” Kya cut him off. “There is a reason he didn’t contact anyone for help! We are going to the mountain. We will make sure he doesn’t get captured.”
“Are you really asking us to go to Taviar?” Akoda said from the pilots seat. “Because this is way out of our league.”
Kya stared back.
“This is a bad idea! I won’t do it! Aros! Talk some sense into her!”
Kya jumped on the tri-blade and got in her position. She pulled her hood over her head and turned, giving a nasty look at Akoda.
“We are wasting time.”
He looked back at Aros, who felt powerless.
“Well, then! Let's go Aros! You heard the lady! We are wasting time!” Akoda said. He threw back his head, brought it back and fired up the flyer.
“East, north-east. Taviar Mountains! On we go.”
***
They flew for the rest of the day, stopping only once at a Nar town in the foothills of the mountains. They bought shoes, as their tough feet would not be able to stand up to the cold of walking in the snow. They bought children’s shoes and had to lace them up tight as they were already too wide. The tri-blade flew on.
As the sun was setting and a bright moon lit up the sky. Aros rolled over and faced Akoda.
“This thing have maps on a route we can take to the top?” he shouted over the roar of travel.
“It doesn’t look like many people travel to the top of the mountain. There is a meadow about half way up to the top on the east side. From there, I think we will be going by foot. This thing can’t run when the air starts getting thin. If we find anything…”
They continued along, where the night became thicker. White patches of snow scattered in shady spots suddenly became a blanket covering the ground. They had reached the mountain, and were driving the tri-blade hard as they gained altitude. Finally, they came to the place where the mountain path widened and a high altitude meadow spread before them.
“The hiking path is that way. I’ll set it down as close to the trailhead as I can.”
“Do you see that?” Kya spoke for the first time in hours. “Smoke!”
As they got closer, they could make out the smoldering ruins of a much larger flyer, and bodies scattered about. Dohit Telgents. Akoda flew the tri-blade over to the trailhead and set it down.
“What do you think happened?” Kya said, shocked.
“These guys must have caught up with Ekam and the dark star. This is not that old, everything is still warm. They probably are on their way to the top now,” Aros said.
“I see footprints. Two pair: a big and a small one. Ekam looks like he may be limping…”
“Let's go!” Kya ran past the other two.
They followed behind.
***
The footpath wound up the mountain. The three moved at a slow jog, keeping an eye on the prints in the snow. The winding trail turned into switchbacks that seemed to never end. Aros took the time to look out down the mountain. Anything beyond and further out from the meadow was covered by a silver blanket of thin clouds. He was hoping he would be able to see all the way out to the prairie, where he just crossed days earlier, looking up at the mountain he was ascending now.
The switchbacks finally came to an end and turned into a wavy ribbon, moving straight up the mountain. Several times, they found marks in the snow where one of the two had fallen. They looked ahead and felt they could barely see two dark figures climbing the stone steps, which were the last obstacle before the top. A non-Tarkin may have called out, but the three all felt they would overtake the slower moving two in a short time. They had to push through their exhaustion and resist the urge to stop and take a break.
Moving quickly across the non-uniform steps of rock, which led to the peak, the distance between the pair they pursued became smaller and smaller.
“We are almost there,” Akoda puffed. “Just over this rise.”
As they reached the top, exhausted from their breakneck pace to reach the top, the shouting began.
“WHAT IS THIS!” the high-pitched voice of a boy screamed. “THERE IS NOTHING HERE! NO TEMPLE! WHY HAVE YOU DONE THIS!?”
All three were now on the summit. The area was flat and not large. They could make out the faces of the other two across the clearing. The dark star was in a rage. Behind them sat a stone structure, two thick slabs of stone standing upright and a third laid across the top. Strange symbols were carved into the horizontal top. The Chaos Gate.
Ekam looked over his shoulder and noticed the other three’s arrival. He was visibly hurt. His left arm hung low and his right leg held the majority of his body’s weight.
“This is the only way for you! There is only safety for you on the other side of that gate!”
The boy screamed. His hands lit with a black power like Aros and Akoda had never seen. Chills ran over Aros when he noticed that the boy’s eyes began emanating the power as well. The rage was unmistakable; this is what had happened to the Dohits down in the meadow.
“EVERYONE WANTS TO CONTROL ME! MY PARENTS, THE VILLAGE, DOHITS, AND NOW YOU! LEAVE. ME. ALONE!!”
With the last statement, the young dark star threw his hands forward and lowered his head, letting go a blast from his hands and eyes. Aros, Kya and Akoda jumped out of the way as the blast caught a dumbfounded Ekam in the chest. Akoda landed in the snow, wide eyes at the young Tarkin who had just done something he could not believe. Throw ghost fire from his hands?
Aros hit the ground, equally as shocked when the Gate lit up a mix of colors and flashing lights. He could feel himself so close to everywhere and everything. Space and time opened to different points faster than his purple eyes could focus. The boy had activated the Gate.
Kya scrambled over to her brother. She grabbed him and began to scream.
“You killed him! YOU killed him!”
She got up and ran towards the dark star. Aros and Akoda were stunned, but quickly got up to try and stop her. She ran blindly at him and he easily deflected her backwards. She tumbled to the ground, stopping right before the threshold of the gate.
Aros closed the distance with the young boy and began to attack. The boy took a few steps back and came to a fighting stance. Deflecting the blows, despite the display of violence of action from both Tar
kins that were now attacking the boy. He took no real damage. They struck him with amazing blows, fists full of ghost fire, and he seemed to be affected by none of it. Aros and Akoda, in a well-practiced dual attack, continued to push him back toward the gate.
Kya was on her feet as they grew closer. She turned in fear, looking at the gate then back to the approaching combat.
Just then, the dark star made a sudden backwards move with his arm, in a windup for a heavy strike. Kya was knocked backwards, and fell through the gate.
Aros watched the panicked look on her face as her body slowly passed through the event horizon of the gate. Her face disappeared and the last thing he saw were her fingertips falling back into chaos.
The child, surprised, began to look back at what he had just struck as Akoda’s foot, thrown in a high front kick, connected with his jaw. In a second, he was gone as well, thrown through the gate.
The two Tarkin stood in dismay, alone, left on the top of the silent snowy peak. Aros turned and looked at Akoda, spoke Kya’s name and leapt through the gate, leaving his world behind.
Part VI
“So you went through after her?” Crescent said.
“I did.”
“Why exactly?” Crescent asked.
Aros was staring off at the wall of the ship, as if he could see the universe or the past actually unfolding just beyond the ship.
“She was flung off somewhere randomly into space and time. All alone. I didn’t think. I made a promise to her, as I saw her fall away from our world, that I would go after her. So I did, and I have been. She would have done the same for me,” he murmured.
“So you have been looking for her all this time? Across worlds and you never found her?”
“I came close, several times. But again, those are much different stories.” Aros looked toward Jane. “I even gave up hope a couple times. I hardened my heart and just looked for a way home. Maybe I will get there and she will be there too. Maybe she, like me, was reborn on some world and will find her way like I have.”
“What was she like?” Crescent asked. Now, he was daydreaming, completing the picture of her he had in his head.
