by Marc Secchia
Zaranna chuckled through her mouthful. “Mountain water, Sanu.”
Within half a flare, the rest of the Tribes had appeared and the hitherto pristine, undisturbed stream had turned into a playground. Kesuu set a screen of warriors and instructed his scouts, and then let the people and children play and wash and drink to their hearts’ content. For the first time, Zaranna thought, there was laughter and playing in place of fighting. And while nudity for the children and topless bathing for the women was apparently no issue, she was grateful that both men and women remained in loincloth-like underwear. Phew. Otherwise, she would have had to flee for the hills!
Of course, the young warriors of the different Tribes soon restarted their clandestine warfare.
The Plains Horse looked to the mountains. When would the Pegasi come, and the shame and explanations begin?
When night fell like a glorious dark curtain resplendent with starlight and the luminous glow of the asteroid belt, Zaranna fell into a peaceful doze. This time, she Dreamed.
* * * *
“Hey, Zorer Snorer? Wake up.”
Zara’s eyes flicked open at once. Whiz, and Doctor … holding hands! She caught her jaw just in time to save her chin a bruising encounter with the lounger she lay upon. Goodness, Doctor Martinez looked rather different in non-hospital dress. She wore white ankle boots, tasteful blue jeans with a spray of lilies artfully stitched upon the left thigh, and a deep blue blouse that did not come from the cheap end of any store, for it had been studiously tailored to fit a curvier figure – which the Whiz, being himself, ‘noticed’ three times while Zaranna was gathering her thoughts from the far realms of Equinox.
“Doctor,” she said, sitting up and holding out her hand.
“Christi,” she said. “I’m not at work.”
Nonno said, “You could have given me adequate notice rather than sunning your undoubtedly lovely self by the pool. Pleasant dreams?”
“Uh …”
The Doctor said, “Actually, there’s a less pleasant job I must do. Let’s get that out of the way. I don’t know if we’ll enjoy the evening after this, but … don’t be too shocked, Zaranna, alright? Alex is stable at the moment, but I must tell you directly, he is not doing well. He is not responding to treatment and although he remains on life support, he is getting weaker. The hospital needs details of his next of kin. I’ve a couple of forms I need you to fill in …”
Doctor Christi’s voice seemed to recede into the distance, drowned out by a roaring in Zara’s ears. She heard herself say, “No. No, it can’t be. It’s all wrong. He’s too young.”
Nonno was holding one hand, the Doctor took the other. She said, “Zaranna, listen to me.”
“He’ll get better, won’t he, Doctor?
“We’ve run every test in the book on him without a single actionable result, Zara,” Doctor Martinez said softly. “This is uncharted territory. He’s otherwise a very healthy young man. Fit, athletic, strong. We’ve even resorted to invasive tests – nothing. I’ve been consulting with cardiac experts from around the world and so far all I’ve generated is an enormous amount of head-scratching.”
“So I saved his life for nothing?”
“Where’s your faith, Zu-Zu?” asked Nonno.
“Whiz …” Christi smiled thinly at him. “Listen, I’m starving and I happen to know you make the best ravioli in the Southern Hemisphere. You couldn’t do me a favour and whip something up, could you?”
“Yeah, yeah. Don’t think I don’t get it. The women need to talk.”
“Very discerning,” she replied drily. “You could change, too. Then tantalise our taste buds with one of your creations.”
“Forthwith, o Crystabel, my Cristabel, wherefore art thou my bella senorita!”
Mangling Shakespeare with Italian, Zaranna chuckled inwardly, but the Whiz whizzed off as if an entire beehive had been summarily thrust beneath his bonnet. Effective.
Turning to Doctor Martinez, she said, “How bad is it, Doctor?”
She shook her head slightly. “Can’t know. Patients respond differently. Medically, we are doing everything we can for him. What I do know is that I’ve seen some strange things happen in my time, Zara, and that’s why I came to visit. I’m going to need you to be willing to be disinfected and go into Isolation and be with him. That’s dangerous if he has something truly infectious. I need you to think of something, anything, that will help him fight. Are you willing to go in there tomorrow?”
Her dark eyes examined Zaranna as if pushing to know her secrets. Zara lifted her chin. “Of course. I’d do anything.”
“Alright, I’ll call now to make the arrangements. It’s unusual – but I sense we’re at a point where a balance needs to be tipped. Also, I need you to get his family involved. Get them down here if you can. Do you have their details?”
“No … it’s complicated.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “Of course, my Mom will have his grandfather’s number. He’s a hospital Chaplain. And maybe his sister … I could check his wallet and his phone. She lives in Singapore.”
“Good. That’s the spirit. Will you do that now?”
Zaranna locked eyes with the pretty doctor. Infusing her tone with a healthy dose of Illume at his most acerbic, she demanded, “Doctor Martinez, what is between you and my grandfather?”
The eyes popped wide. “Wow. What turned you into a Rottweiler?”
“Love!”
She nodded slowly, making her dark curls bob around her face. Christi pushed her hair behind her ear, and refastened her white lily clip self-consciously. “Gosh, you might only be sixteen but I feel like I’ve just been hauled in front of my mother! The short version is, nineteen years ago, I broke his heart. I opted to stay with a man who was not right for me and I paid the price. A couple of months ago I bumped into Whiz at the Waterfront, of all places, in a jewellery shop. He was looking at a tourmaline gemstone in the light, and suddenly he was looking past it, at me … and our eyes … we’re attracted to each other. I have feelings for your grandfather, Zaranna. And neither of us is exactly a spring chicken anymore, so I want to be sure. I think he does, too.”
Reaching out, Zaranna touched the Doctor’s folded arms. “Ok. Off defensive. Sorry I barked at you.”
Unexpectedly, her touch released a hug. “I’m doing my best for Alex, alright?” Christi held her warmly. “We’ll get through this together. I have it on good authority that you’re an extraordinary young woman.”
Did Alex need magic, or a miracle? Or were the two synonymous?
Chapter 21: Glorious Equines
KESUU NEGOTIATED THEIR way into the Safeway, but it was perfectly clear that the troop of Pegasi guarding the entrance were less than enamoured with his story. Quite the flap and kerfuffle and a five-flare delay developed before a further fifty Pegasi whipped out of the black portal to confront the ‘Human army’, and to look Zaranna over with openly hostile expressions. In contrast to Jesafion, these were Black Cloud Pegasi, creatures two or three hands smaller than the Prince, but what they lacked in stature they made up for in belligerence.
Their leader, having been directed to Kesuu, landed in front of the Human with a bristling posture and barked, military-formal, “I am Stenfion, Troop-Lead of the Third Black Cloud Pegasi, Second Quartile, King’s Army!”
“Kesuu, leader of my Tribe,” said the huge man, hooking his fingers into his belt.
The coal-black Pegasus yelled, “You Humans will come with me! You will remain inside the area demarcated by my troops at all times! You will march and not straggle! You will enter Chentik Vale and leave it immediately via another Inter-Vale Safeway! You will be watched every step of the way!”
Just within hearing, Sanu muttered very quietly, “Ever tried to herd a bunch of invisible chameleon-people, you piece of chakk?”
Zaranna almost popped a blood vessel trying to keep a giggle firmly in its place.
Eyes bulging, Stenfion screamed, in three distinct syllables, “Un-der-stood?”
Kesuu chewed on a grass-stem. After a pause a whisker shy of insolence, in Zaranna’s estimation, he said mildly, “Do you guarantee safe conduct for my people, noble Stenfion?”
The Pegasus managed to wind up his volume to a few decibels short of a jet engine’s scream. “You will remain inside the area demarcated by my troops at all times! You will be watched every step of the way! If you behave perfectly, there will be safe conduct!”
Clearly, this Pegasus’ gift was not imagination. Or persuasion.
“Good,” said Kesuu, making a signal to his sons. “Pass the word, boys. One person steps out of line, they will answer to me. Personally.”
And with a significant glance at Sanu and Zaranna, fingers white-knuckled on the hilt of his dagger, he stepped into the portal as bidden.
“Great, don’t I feel trusted,” grunted Sanu, kicking at a tuft of grass.
“I thought trust was right up there with honesty on your list of cultural values?” Zaranna inquired archly. “How much of a troublemaker are you, Sanu?”
The Human girl gave her a mocking sneer. “It’s all about the bad influences in my life.”
“Hey!”
“Besides, sweet little Plains Horse, I know you only picked me so that I could give you lessons in troublemaking.”
“Huh. That’s more like it.”
As Zaranna walked forward toward the portal, two of the Black Cloud Pegasi managed to find an opportunity to jostle her and politely make clear their opinion of her position on the food-chain. Being melted down for glue probably covered it. She kept her chin high, but her heart sank. This was not going to be pretty.
The balance of the day was about hassle, manhandling, and being called more names and being sworn at more times than in the rest of her life put together. They spent perhaps ten minutes in Chentik Vale, long enough to see the interior of a heavily-guarded cavern lit by bioluminescent roots trailing down from the roof like a bad case of hair with split ends, before being shoved into another portal. This was a longer walk, perhaps two hours through a Safeway under the watchful eye of the Pegasus troops, before they emerged near the edge of a mighty waterfall at Ribanda Vale, home of the Forest Pegasus Clan. Briefly, the Humans and the Plains Horse goggled at a panorama of forested hills stretching from where they stood to the horizon, a carpet of trees so perfect Zaranna imagined she could simply step out there and gallop across the green. In the distance, massive, miles-high equine thunderheads gathered in amethyst array, frowning over the forests as though trying to decide which part of that pristine acreage to flatten first.
No mind, for the Black Clouds were already shoving the Humans into the next Inter-Vale Safeway. Zaranna was starting to notice a pattern. The Safeways seemed to join together in heavily guarded locations, where often five or eight portals were visible at once – a perfect system of highways through the Vales. Whoever controlled the nexuses must hold the power. What, then, of the secret Safeway which had taken her and Jesafion directly from Sentalia to Obscurant and Worafion’s fortress? And what of people who attempted the Safeways without Pegasi to guard their minds? Would they emerge mad?
Another fourteen flares later, according to Kesuu, the Outland Humans emerged into a world unimaginable to them – or to Zaranna, for that matter. She stepped out onto a lush meadow lit by the sun’s dying rays, amidst a great, sprawling stand of silvery trees that she mistook at first for cliffs or strange rock-formations, they were so enormous. But when her neck creaked as she gazed upward, she saw branches and russet leaves up there and white Pegasi flying between them like huge, beautiful birds. Sentalia trees, she realised. This was a city, complete with boulevards up above and great, apparently natural holes and openings in the mighty trunks that appeared to lead to living spaces or halls and businesses.
She had never seen so many Equines in one place. Here, a tan Pegasus walked vertically up a trunk. There, a flight of six crimson winged ponies whizzed beneath one of the high-up branches. A few hundred feet away, a posse of rippling blue horses appeared to run across the surface of a long, narrow lake that snaked between several of the Sentalia trees. Waterfalls fell from above, somehow from amongst or within the trees, to feed the lake. A dozen or more Water Pegasi were running up the nearest waterfall as though galloping at ease through a meadow. Transportation, she realised, smiling involuntarily. A vertical road.
If she had ever wondered what Equine society might look like …
Suddenly, an officious White Thunder Pegasus landed in front of the Black Cloud group. With a flurry of wings, a further number of White Pegasi landed all around, while others hovered overhead. The Blacks had been gazing around with almost as much wonder as the Humans they escorted.
The White Pegasus said, “Good work, brethren. We welcome you to Sentalia. My Second Cohort-Leader will show you to the barracks where you may enjoy food, water and a brushing-down by our Human slaves –” he emphasized this with a ringing snort of laughter “– before returning to Chentik Vale tomorrow.”
The tone of dismissal was unmistakable.
Then he turned to regard the Outland Humans, perhaps six hundred in number, with a curl of his lip. “Who is the leader of this rabble? Show yourself. You. Traitor.” He clicked his tongue at Zaranna. “The King commands your – cha! cha! – presence at the High Council without delay. And where is your criminal accomplice?”
What was that, an expletive, Zaranna wondered?
He spat upon the ground as Sanu stepped forward boldly, saying, “I am the one.”
Kesuu also stepped out. “I lead most of these people.”
“Fine.” The Pegasus raised his wing. “Get the rest of these filth out of my sight – out of the city, and don’t let them steal anything. You three will come with me. It splits my hooves to help you fly but the King will not be kept waiting.”
Suddenly, she was airborne. Flying, as she had with Jesafion. Easily a dozen Clan Mages, identifiable by the thick, braided jewelled collars they wore about their necks according to Jesafion’s description, surrounded them, using their power to levitate Sanu, Kesuu and Zaranna hundreds of feet up into the boughs of the Sentalia trees. Up close the bark was even more beautiful than she had imagined, like silvery velvet, glittering gently where the sun struck it. Yet Zara had only a moment to take in blurred impressions, for they were flying into one of the trees now, through an opening fringed with Pegasus guards and glittering with an apparent veil of magic, but they passed through without incident. Within they passed quickly through an outer hall decorated with statues of noble-looking Pegasi striking a variety of forceful poses – the sculptor must have been a great master, for the works were magnificent, so perfect that they appeared ready to fly off at a moment’s notice.
Whisked past these statues at high speed, Zaranna gasped as the magic was suddenly removed and she fell upon her hooves, stumbling to one knee. Kesuu and Sanu landed with the natural grace of swans, obviously.
They stood at the portico of an inner chamber dominated by a massive, intricate golden crystal that hung from the ceiling, filling a simple chamber with golden light. Arranged in a semicircle before them were twelve Pegasi standing in stall-like enclosures, although the walls reached barely knee-high to these stately beasts. Each Pegasus wore a cloak of office which symbolised their position or Clan – Zaranna readily picked out the blue of the River Pegasi and the Green of the Forest, and the silver armour which must belong to the redoubtable Zanfurion, Commander of the Host. But before them stood the most striking Equine of all, a pure white Pegasus garbed in spotless white samite robes that swept from his shoulders to the ground upon either flank, stitched with lightning bolts in a variety of colours. His horn blazed with power, and his gaze was silver, like molten metal, and the set of his brow registered furious disapproval.
This was Arafion, father of Jesafion, King of the Pegasus Clans. Twenty-four hands tall. Peerless in battle. Feared and revered in equal measure.
Kesuu and Sanu performed Outland genuflections. Zaranna bent h
er forehoof as Jesafion had taught her, and lowered her muzzle, and waited for the King to speak.
Hooves tapped across the polished wooden floor. Gazing down, she could appreciate that the entire floor was laminated, covering a fantastically detailed artwork that depicted life in the city without in sixteen segments, like the inside of an orange. She noticed this only tangentially, for the tapping sound filled her world. Zara could not help but imagine the sharp taps of nails being driven into her coffin.
“Arise,” said King Arafion.
There was such a profound silence, Zaranna felt sweat break out all over her body.
“Humans, you have returned from exile,” he said. “You have sullied this hall with the presence of two traitors. You will state your business here, Kesuu of the Outland Tribes – but first tell me, where is my son?”
“I-I left him in the Obsidian Pentacle, Majesty,” Zaranna said. “He was w-well, but captive –”
“By my wings, will the filly speak up?” snapped one of the High Council.
Zanfurion growled, “Earthen Fires, you claim to have penetrated the Pentacle? How is this? How do we know you speak for the Prince, and are not a servant of the Hooded Wizard?”
No matter how much she had feared this moment, Zaranna knew she must speak and speak well, for Jesafion’s sake. She said, “Noble Pegasi, I bring considerable intelligence from the heart of the Hooded Wizard’s fortress and news of a war he will launch, now in two sunspot-cycles time. These Humans provided invaluable assistance in defeating Tayburrl Darkwolf and a Gryphon army, with whom the Wizard is newly allied –”
Several of the Councillors cried out, but Zanfurion stilled them with a sharp whinny. “Continue!”
“Councillors, Tayburrl attacked and wiped out the Outland Humans. These few who arrived in Sentalia Vale are all we know of who survived.”
“Fleas,” sneered the hulking Commander. “How did you cross Azoron’s Gorge, mad filly? And why, by the accursed darkness of the Abyssal Plains, did you bear a mere Human – this child – upon your back? You seem vanishingly plain to have caused so much trouble.” Now he too approached the threesome, settling his wings with an incensed ruffle. “Are you insane? Which luckless Plains Tribe do you hail from? Tell us!”
