by Beth Hodgson
Getting in the sergeant’s face, Derek stood over him, a full head taller. He narrowed his piercing icy eyes, and a scowl appeared across his face.
“I daresay you are wrong, Head Sergeant.” Derek leaned in within an inch of the sergeant, raising his voice. “Have you checked Arcadia’s laws lately? In case you haven’t, I have been named heir to the kingdom. Meaning, I will be king after Damaris. Princess Emerald is my fiancée, and what happens to her is my concern. Do you understand?”
The head sergeant’s face remained stiff, then he nodded, quickly understanding the prince’s status. “Yes, Your Highness.”
“Now, tell me. How did the princess get away?”
The head sergeant paused, hesitating to speak. Derek knew he wanted to speak of her magic but didn’t know where to start.
“If it’s about the princess’s unique abilities, I already know.”
The sergeant cautiously eyed Derek, then spoke. “The princess used her… abilities to aid her escape. The specialized cyborg that had the ability to track the princess found her at a mid-level club.”
“A club?” Derek repeated incredulously. What was Emerald doing at a club?
“Yes. The specialized cyborg located her at the venue. He captured her for a short period of time, but she managed to escape.”
“What happened?”
“There was another gifted there.”
“Gifted?”
“Yes. One with magic, Your Highness. This gifted tracked the cyborg and used a heavy amount of purple lightning on him, causing the cyborg to go into complete overload, crashing off course. And here is where you see the impact from his body’s crash.” The sergeant waved his hand, indicating the lobby.
Purple lightning? Could this be Ikaria’s doing? She wanted the princess’s blood. Perhaps she’d decided on a more forward approach to getting the princess’s blood rather than relying on him to get it for her…
Derek’s thoughts immediately shifted. “Who was the princess with on that motorcycle?”
“Kyle Trancer. We ran his background. A few misdemeanors for possession of drugs. No felonies.”
“Drugs?”
“Yeah. The charges were from years ago. He currently has a clean record, except for the registration of his vehicle, which we just found out about. Looks like he never reported it. Don’t know how he hasn’t been caught yet.”
“I can’t believe this.” Derek shook his head. His chest pains were flaring up again.
“His band was playing at the venue when the cyborg first located the princess. Don’t know any other connection between the two of them. But our officers are still interviewing other witnesses from the initial scene, including the other band members.”
Derek snarled just at the thought of Emerald with that man.
“Thank you, Head Sergeant.” Derek curtly nodded, then headed off, getting back to his transport.
As they made their way back, Derek saw a woman with two other men crouched over the remains of the cyborg. Derek couldn’t get a good look at it, as most of its body was blocked by the three scientists. For a moment, the woman glanced up at him curiously from under her thick framed glasses, then turned her attention back to the cyborg.
Magic. It had the power to obliterate the strongest buildings and stop technology. He marveled at the way it had sent the cyborg crashing, caused it to overload. The ones that were deployed in the rioting streets were unstoppable, so Derek had heard. To think, this special cyborg had even more abilities. And magic just tore it apart. Maybe not completely, but enough to take it down.
It was all too much. The sorceress. The magic. And now the princess, with a low-life rocker, fleeing the authorities. All he wanted to do was find Emerald, and everything would go back to the way it was supposed to be before this all happened.
Derek and his guards got back into the transport, settling in their seats.
“You are requested for an audience with King Damaris,” his driver called out from the front. “Transmission just came in.”
Good. He could ask Ikaria if that was her doing with the purple magic.
The witch had been controlling the King’s body since the night he signed the decree naming Derek heir. After that night, Ikaria had placed Damaris in a comalike state most of the time, leaving him bedridden unless she needed to use his body to further her plans in some way. The good thing about it was that now he was privy to all of Arcadia’s secrets.
I wonder what she wants now, Derek thought, annoyed.
Another thought flooded his gut. What if Ikaria had found a way to journey to this time and decided that she didn’t need his help anymore? What if Damaris “woke up” from Ikaria’s control and took back what he had decreed in his new law…
His guards were taking too long getting situated in the transport, frustrating Derek.
“Hurry up and get seated! You heard the driver! His Majesty expects me!” Derek snapped at them. They all looked at him with confusion, as he had never been short with them before.
“Yes, Your Highness,” they all managed to say, quickly getting into their seats, and the transport was off.
***
Telly had been biting her nails the whole time while in transit. She checked her tablet again, and temporary relief flooded her when she saw that Drew’s vitals were still intact. His heart continued to beat, but according to the readings there was no movement in his body. If it weren’t for the healing properties of the powerful blood, he wouldn’t have survived.
A large crowd, made up of lower-level residents surrounded the scene where Drew had crashed. All of them were trying to get a peek at what the commotion was all about. As Telly emerged from the corporation’s transport, she saw the flashing red and blue colors of Arcadia’s police sirens. A multitude of bystanders stood behind a line of yellow line tape put up by the authorities. Two other members of her team, Robert and Michael, followed closely behind her, equipment in their hands, ready to be put to good use.
As she approached the yellow line, Telly flashed her ID to one of the authorities guarding the scene.
“Telly, from Lab 34,” she said to the large uniformed man. He inspected her ID for a moment, then scanned the barcode with his scan gun. There was a pleasant beep that came from the device, meaning she was cleared. Robert and Michael handed theirs over next.
“Go on, the robot is right inside that building,” the policeman stated, pointing in a direction off to the side.
“Cyborg, actually,” Telly corrected him sharply, fixing her glasses. How hard was it for people to understand the difference between a cyborg and a robot? It never ceased to amaze her how incompetent people were sometimes. “He is, after all, part human.”
“Whatever,” the policeman said, rolling his eyes, moving aside for her to step through the taped line.
Telly sighed loudly in response. Some people are so inhuman. And they think the cyborgs lack emotion.
Biting her tongue, she hurried past the policeman and through the site, with Robert and Michael behind her. As she passed by a group of authorities, she saw shattered glass, strewn building materials, and several collapsed and overturned shop stands. But amongst all the debris, one thing was clear: There was a complete, concise path cutting straight through it all, charred and seared black, leading down the street and ending inside of a building.
“Telly, do you think Drew did this?” asked Michael as he inspected the damage. He was punching code into his tablet as they followed the charred path.
By Drew’s readings, there is no possible way he could have done this damage… I think. Unless the data retrieved was inaccurate.
“It could be the magic component,” said Robert matter-of-factly. “We don’t know what he is truly capable of yet.”
“Yes,” Telly agreed. The thought worried her. What if Drew had no way to control the magic, considering half his brain was machine?
Their group stepped carefully over a charred wall that had been punched through, leading them insi
de the lobby of a business building. As they entered, a group of Arcadia’s authorities saw her immediately and resumed talking amongst themselves. She could hear them arguing with each other; others were taking notes on their tablets or using their communication devices.
There. Drew’s body was stuck to a chrome secretary desk, half his body melted and charred—the side where his circuitry ran through. His eyes were glowing orange, staring at the inert nothingness, not blinking or moving. Half of his wires weren’t connected to flesh; instead they hung out limply, sparking with electricity. His body jolted and twisted in intervals.
“Oh God! Drew?”
Telly ran over to him, skidding to her knees, then cradled him in her arms. Tears stung her eyes, lightly fogging her glasses, and her gut ached at the sight of him. Telly couldn’t believe how much damage had been inflicted on him.
“Drew… I’m here now,” she whispered under her breath. “I am going to get you back to the lab to make you whole again,” she told him in a reassuring voice.
Drew’s pupils focused on her, then glowed slightly brighter orange through his thick-rimmed glasses, understanding what was happening.
Robert knelt next to her, helping Michael ply Drew’s melted circuitry off the desk. They laid Drew down steadily once they freed him, then began to hook him up with the equipment.
“He will be okay, Telly. The tablet shows positive signs that his organs are intact and functioning,” Robert reported.
The magical blood saved his life, protecting him somehow, Telly thought. How, she did not know. The blood never made any sense. There were no formulas, no scientific explanation. It just did whatever it wanted to do. It was an uncontrollable variable.
Telly rubbed her teary eyes behind her glasses, then laid her hand on Drew’s chest as his body continued to jolt with seizures.
“Geez, Telly, why are you getting so emotional over a piece of equipment?” Michael asked as he plugged a scanner into their equipment to stabilize Drew.
Telly whipped around to face Michael, then narrowed her eyes. “Say that to me again and see if you have a job after that.”
Michael chuckled under his breath. “I was only kidding. Lighten up. We’ll fix him.”
“This is not the time to tell a damn joke,” she snapped.
“Always like walking on eggshells around you,” muttered Michael under his breath. “Especially when it comes to this guy.”
Ignoring his statement, Telly gave Michael a hard look, then turned back to Drew, helping Michael and Robert finish hooking him up. The smell of Drew’s flesh reeked of sulfur mixed with melted plastic. Drew looked up at her, his eyes flashing at her.
“Oh, Drew, what happened?” Telly asked under her breath. “Who or what could have done this to you?”
A loud voice rang out within the lobby of the building.
“I have been named heir to Arcadia. Meaning, I will be king after Damaris. Princess Emerald is my fiancée, and what happens to her is my concern. Do you understand?”
Telly and her team looked over at the commotion for a moment. Standing there was one of the most beautiful men she had ever seen. Deep black curls framed his head, and he wore royal clothing and jewelry set in blues, silvers, and blacks. Adorning his forehead was a circlet, showing his regal status.
Princess Emerald is engaged? Telly thought. Surely that’s Price Derek.
The prince continued to bark at the head sergeant. Turning away, Telly resumed her efforts on Drew, continuing to work with her team.
“Drew, we need to make sure you are stabilized in order to get you moved,” Telly said.
Drew’s eyes burned brighter than before, as if answering her. Michael scanned his body as Telly and Robert two began typing code into their tablets. “It appears that all of his circuits went into overload. We need to replace all of the transistors and give him another dose of the sample blood,” Michael said.
“Telly, right?” said a deep voice from behind her. Turning her head over her shoulder, Telly saw the head sergeant of Arcadia.
“Yes, that is correct.” Telly looked away from her tablet, getting to her feet to meet the sergeant.
“Thank you for responding on such short notice.”
“I’m glad that I was near the area. I tried to get here as fast as I could,” Telly said. “Did anyone see what happened to him? No one has told my team anything. It seems very unlikely that he would have ended up like this.”
“Eye witnesses, including half of the task force, claim that he was struck by some kind of purple-colored lightning.” The sergeant gave her a skeptical look, as if he couldn’t believe he was saying those words himself.
“Purple lightning?”
“Yes,” he confirmed. “The cyborg tracked down the subject. During the chase, he was hit several times by the lightning. Each time, he seemed to recover slightly, allowing him to continue pursuing the suspect. At one point, there was a purple force that struck him while in midair, causing him to crash off course.”
“Purple force?”
“Yep. I know it sounds crazy. But considering the subject he was chasing, it’s all a little beyond us. That’s about all the information that we have at this time. You and your team must get this thing moved before the rest of the squad comes in.”
Telly cringed at his use of the word “thing.” “We will, thank you, Sergeant.”
Several other men from Lab 34 appeared, hauling a stretcher. They carefully loaded Drew onto the bed, strapped him down, then placed a white sheet over him.
Who is the subject? Telly wondered, thinking back to her conversation with the sergeant.
Then it dawned on Telly. The princess. That is why that dark-haired prince, her fiancé, was here. She was the one being tracked.
All of these years, the donor blood that they had been using for their cyborgs flowed from the princess’s veins. Princess Emerald’s. She… she had magic. Had the princess known how the corporation had been using her blood? Recalling what she knew of Princess Emerald, Telly immediately thought of her green hair and eyes.
She must have green magic! Just like Drew has orange magic!
The princess’s blood samples had healing and life-giving properties. That was why the cyborgs were able to regenerate themselves. Well, those who were more human than machine, anyway.
The sergeant said Drew was chasing the subject… Is the princess running away? Is that why the King was impatient for Drew to be readied so quickly? Suddenly, guilt hit Telly in her stomach. From just piecing the King’s and the sergeant’s words together, she had a sneaking suspicion that the princess had been forced to give her blood unwillingly. And now Telly was tied to this mess.
Telly followed Drew’s stretcher outside to where the corporation’s transport was waiting for them. Telly looked up and saw the prince’s transport, hovering above her and her team for a moment before departing, and she couldn’t shake the guilty feeling.
***
As soon as the transport landed on the loading platform, Derek made haste through Arcadia’s palace. At night, the corridors seemed lonely, and only the neon colors of the lifts and wall trims lit the empty passageways.
Arcadia’s palace was by far the saddest court that he had ever visited in his life. No doubt the structure itself was one of the most beautiful architectural pieces he had seen, with its hallways, stairs, and lifts infused with light and glass embellished with gold and silver.
But without evening activities, parties, or engagements, all the decorations in the world couldn’t breathe life into the stale atmosphere. The walls themselves seemed to drown out any joyous conversation, replacing the sounds of life with ghostly whispers and melancholy tones. The night of the ball had truly been an exception, where the palace came to life instantly, as if everyone had been waiting years for an event like that.
Once he was king, Derek would make sure that Arcadia’s court would no longer have a dark cloud cast upon it. People needed laughter, and living without it was much too de
pressing. With even the little time Derek had spent in the palace, he was starting to let the depressing air sink into him.
Derek crossed over the glass bridge that led to the Inner Council room, seeing the expansive glowing city-kingdom dancing below his feet. He glanced in the direction of the edge of Arcadia’s borders, hoping that by some miracle he would see a sudden gleam of Emerald’s magic, but it was useless. There were nothing but lights glittering as far as the eye could see. Emerald was in that direction, somewhere in the wastelands.
Damn that man! Taking her out there.
As Derek entered the council chambers, he found Damaris sitting alone, enjoying a glass of wine with his legs crossed. Or rather, Ikaria was sitting, as it appeared that she was in control of Damaris’s body.
“Had fun?” Damaris’s empty eyes glimmered.
“No,” Derek said, annoyed, slumping down in a vacant chair. He hastily grabbed a chalice and poured himself some wine.
“Well, that’s too bad.” Damaris took another sip of his glass. How Ikaria got enjoyment out of controlling Damaris like she did, Derek couldn’t understand. “You’ll never know what intriguing piece of information I found while controlling this body.”
Derek leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes, readying himself for another onslaught of a headache. “Should I care?”
“You might not. But I find it rather fascinating.”
“What now?”
“Did you know that your father was going to take Queen Elyathi back to York with him in secret?”
Derek’s eyes shot open, and he dropped his glass on the floor, stunned by the revelation. It was the first piece of information he had ever heard regarding what happened between his father and Damaris.
“Truly?”
“Yes. The Queen had an elaborate plan to escape with King Samir on his last visit, years ago. It was going to involve Princess Emerald going with them. That is, until Damaris caught your father in her chambers.” Ikaria made a tsk-tsk sound through Damaris’s voice. “You people from York can’t seem to get enough royal flesh from Arcadia.”
