Aveena: The City of Gold (The Black Knight duology Book 1)

by Destiny Hawkins

  “Grab the Princess!” Someone yelled. “Let’s take her and go!”

  Aveena pulled Michael closer to her. He was going unconscious, and blood was flowing freely from the back of his head and onto her lap.

  “Michael, Michael just stay awake,” she patted his cheeks. “If you go to sleep you might not wake back up!”

  Michael did his best to keep his eyes open, but it was getting harder for him by the second. “What’s happening?” He asked.

  The sound of swords clashing and laser guns shooting became louder. There were a few words yelled, but Michael could barely understand them.

  “Take cover!” A woman yelled.

  A loud explosion sounded and Aveena shielded Michael with her body. It was the least that she could do after he had taken care of her for the last two days. Back at home, Aveena didn’t have anyone to talk to or laugh with anymore. She and Avon were barely speaking to each other, and Lavier mostly kept her isolated from everyone else. Michael was the first person in months that she had connected with.

  “Grab her! We need to get the Princess back to the palace now!” A deep voice barked.

  An arm reached around Aveena’s waist and yanked her away from Michael. She reached her arms out to grab him, but was too far away. If she didn’t have the seal on her chest, then she would have been able to fight against her abductor, but she was powerless. She couldn’t do anything.

  Aveena, and the men that came to get her, disappeared behind the golden wall. Michael could still see it in the corner of his eye, and waited to see if anyone else would come through. He was focusing all his attention on the wall in order to keep himself awake, but even that was failing.

  “Hey, are you alright?” A man asked.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” a woman said brushing herself off. “Mission failed, but I’m alright.”

  Two boots stopped next to Michael’s head. “Hey guys, come over here,” Another man yelled.

  “What is it?” The woman asked. she walked up to Michael and crouched down next to him. “A boy. But what is he doing out here?”

  “I don’t know. I think he’s dead.”

  Michael could no longer hold his eyes open, but he could hear their voices. Two men, and one woman.

  “Avee..na,” Michael struggled to get out. He swallowed and clenched his fist over the crystal.

  “He’s not dead,” the woman stated. She brushed her fingers over Michael’s cheek and felt bad for the kid. What had happened to him? “But he will be if we just leave him here.”

  “Which is exactly what we’re going to do. We can’t bring this human with us!”

  “Yes we can, and we will. I’m not leaving him here to die,” the woman said.

  “I got him.” It was the man with the deeper voice. He reached under Michael and picked him up. “Let’s go.”

  “Ugh! Well, he can’t have my bed!” The other man yelled.

  The three strangers stepped through the golden wall with Michael, and then it disappeared into thin air.

  ~*~

  “What’s your name?”

  The girl looked down at her hands, and then up into Michael’s dark eyes. “My name is Aveena,” she said. “And what is yours?”

  “I’m Michael,” he smiled.

  Michael looked into her grey eyes and knew that she was different. It was like he could see a whole other world through her, and even though he knew that she wasn’t human, he knew that he didn’t have to be afraid of her. It was just something about Aveena’s eyes that told him there was nothing to fear...

  “So, where are you from?”

  ~*~

  Michael opened his eyes to a bright room with dirty white walls. He turned his head to see a window with a brown door next to it, but then his attention went to his searing headache. His head hurt so badly that he shot up into a sitting position.

  “Ah,” He reached up to touch the bandage that was wrapped around the top of his head, then his headache worsened. “What in the world?” He looked around to see if anyone was in the room with him, but there was no one. It was just him and his new stained bed.

  Something tickled Michael’s neck and he quickly reached up to grab whatever was crawling on him. Whatever it was, it was hard and kind of sharp. He lifted the bug on his neck to see that it wasn’t a bug at all. It was a small crystal that was hanging from a silver necklace around his neck.

  “This is beautiful,” Michael whispered as he rotated the crystal in the sunlight.

  A loud bump from below the room startled him and he dropped the crystal back against his chest. That’s when he could hear all of the sounds from outside the door get louder. Whoever was making all of that noise must’ve been the person, or people, that helped him, and he wanted to thank them.

  Michael got out of the bed and headed for the door when he noticed the large city outside his window. He wasn’t up that high, but he could still see that this city stretched out for miles, and that wasn’t the only thing that he noticed. Not too far from here was a Palace. A large gold and red Palace. It wa just as his father described.

  The door opened and a boy with light skin and sand colored hair popped his head in.

  Michael turned his head to see the boy standing there with wide eyes, “Oh, hello—”

  The boy bolted off running while yelling, “He’s awake! He’s awake!”

  Michael sighed and looked down at his crystal one more time before walking out of the room. He walked down four flights of stairs before finally reaching the bottom and held onto the railing while catching his breath. His head was pounding again, and he didn’t think that he could stand for much longer.

  Michael looked ahead and saw two large wooden doors, then to his left he saw a wide entrance to a bar full of people of all colors. That’s right, Raluza was a world where color didn’t matter.

  “Tayen! Tayen! There he is!” The boy pointed back to Michael.

  The entire bar became silent as they all turned their heads to the earthling. Some even froze in the middle of what they were doing which was either arm wrestling, drinking large cups of alcohol, and talking. Two fighters even froze in the middle of their fight.

  A woman with long black hair and abnormally light green eyes turned around from the bar to face Michael. She was a fit woman who looked no older than twenty years old with pointy ears and a small scar next to her right eye. Even with the scar, she was still one of the most beautiful women Michael had ever seen. She definitely looked better than the Conowell daughters. She looked stronger too.

  Michael drew his brows together in confusion as he observed her attire. What was she wearing?

  The woman had on a shear black shirt with a black sports bra under it. Her pants were black as well, but her knees and shoulders had silver metal plates over them. On her right hip there was a holster with a gun in it, and on her left hip there was a sword.

  The woman, Tayen, smiled and nodded for Michael to come in.

  Michael slowly walked away from the steps and entered into the bar room where everyone was still staring at him. When he looked around, he saw that everyone else was wearing similar attire as the woman and stopped before he walked any further into the bar, unsure of trusting the people here. How could there be a world where color didn’t matter? That couldn’t be possible. His mind soon changed when he took a better look and saw all kinds of different colored people. There were black, white, Indian, Asian, and many more.

  Tayen smiled and walked over to Michael. She could tell that he was afraid by the way that his eyes darted across the room. “You know, the first time your father came here, he looked the same exact way,” she said.

  Michael snapped his attention to Tayen and glanced at her pointy ears, “You know my father?”

  Tayen looked down but remained smiling, “Yeah, I knew your father. He said that he was going to get his family, but he never came back. I could tell that you were his son just by looking at you. Michael, right?”

  “Y-yeah, and the boy said tha
t your name was Tayen?” .

  “Yes,” Tayen nodded. “I’m glad to see that you’re alright.”

  “Are you the voice that I heard? You were the one that helped me?” Michael asked.

  “Yes, me and my husband, Joctus,” she nodded over to a beefy dark skinned man on the far side of the room.

  “Thank you,” Michael nodded, “and you too...Joctus.”

  “Any time,” Joctus said before turning around and drinking from his cup.

  “So,” Michael looked back up at Tayen, “could you tell me how I got here? What happened?”

  Tayen’s eyes widened, “You don’t remember. You don’t remember the Princess either do you?”

  Michael frowned, “Princess? What Princess?”

  “Princess Aveena.”

  Chapter 4

  Houston, Texas

  Year: 2015

  “Well,” Xavia stood up, “time for me to get to bed.”

  “Already? Man, I remember when you would stay up all darned night!” Grandpa said.

  Christian laughed, “Yeah, we’re getting old. We need our beauty sleep.” He stood up as well.

  Xavia walked over and kissed grandpa on the cheek. “Goodnight daddy. Don’t keep them up all night.”

  “I’ll try not to.”

  “Night pops,” Christian said.

  Xavia and Christian walked down the hall and to their room.

  “So,” Vincent started, “how much later can we stay up?”

  “Well, that depends,” Grandpa sighed.

  “Depends on what?” Ayva asked.

  “On how long I can keep this up. I get tired too you know,” Grandpa laughed.

  “Ok, so let’s hurry up before you get too sleepy,” Ayva whined.

  “Yeah gramps. What happens next?” Vincent asked. “Did Michael lose his memory or something?”

  “Not completely, he knew where he was from. He could remember his father, his mother, and his brother. The only person he forgot about was Aveena. He couldn’t recall his last few days with her.”

  “Ohhh, I got it,” Vincent nodded. “And what about those people? Who are they? Who the heck is Tayen?”

  Grandpa smiled, “Well for starters, Tayen and Joctus both owned the bar, but they were more than just bar owners. Think of them as leaders of a large organization. See, the city of Raluza was a great city up until Lavier took the crown. People started going poor and hungry, so the organization was established to help those people. They were a team of organized thieves. They stole from the rich and gave back to the poor. It was the only way that the poor were going to survive as long as Lavier was King.”

  “And they just got away with all of that?” Vincent asked.

  “Oh no, no, no. If anyone were to get caught, they were punished. Lavier was merciless and could care less about the lower half of his people. All he cared about was himself and his Palace. That’s why the organization was secret, and they only did most of their stealing at night.”

  “Ok, so what about Michael? He just lives with them now? He doesn’t want to go back home?” Ayva asked.

  Grandpa shrugged, “Tell me, would you? He stayed with the organization for a while, and he planned on going to get his family, but he wanted to make Raluza a great place to live again. See, they did more than just steal, they planned. They needed a plan to overrun the Palace and stop Lavier. They tried before, but failed, so for now, they had to play it safe.”

  “Alright enough questions. What happens next grandpa?” Vincent asked.

  Grandpa laughed, “Well, let me just skip to five years later when Michael turned eighteen...”

  Raluza

  Year: 1875

  Michael peeked around the corner of the building and did his best to see if there were any Knights patrolling the dark alley. Tonight was the night that he was going to steal some crystals for himself. Tomorrow he was going to be initiated into the organization, and he wanted to make sure that he had the strongest material for his staff. Not many had heard of a crystal staff, and most believed that it wouldn’t hold up because the crystals broke so easily, but when they were melted and mixed with metal, they made the strongest of weapons.

  Michael squinted his eyes and saw something glisten in the moonlight. Armor. There were two Knights patrolling the area tonight.

  “Do you see anyone?” Michael’s best friend, Ty’ere, asked. He was the spitting image of his aunt Tayen, who took care of him after his parents were killed years ago. The only difference between them was that his black hair remained pulled back in a ponytail that hung to the middle of his back, and he had a strong jawline unlike his aunt’s soft features.

  “Two Knights,” Michael whispered.

  Another one of Michael’s friends, Lennie, stepped in closer to Michael. “Let’s do this,” he said.

  Lennie was the boy that Michael met in his room the day he woke up in Raluza. He had grown into a tall and beefy young man, just like his father, Joctus. The two shown no resemblance since Lennie was born with sand colored hair and light skin. He looked more like his mother, who had left Joctus years ago to live with a richer man and his family. She left him with his father, who fell in love with Tayen, the woman who Lennie preferred to call his mother.

  “Don’t hold back on these guys, they look tough,” Michael said.

  Lennie smirked and reached into his pocket for a small green ball. He squeezed it in his hands as if he were trying to crush it, then suddenly, a long silver staff shot out of both sides of his hand.

  Ty’ere pulled out a black hand gun and sighed, “I’ll have to do with this tonight.”

  Lennie chuckled, “It’s alright. You can use the big guns for later.”

  Michael smiled and pulled a hand knife from the holster on his leg. “Let’s get this over with.”

  “I’ll go first.” Lennie unlatched his yellow board from his back and threw it at the ground. Michael was always amazed at how those boards never hit the ground but stopped in midair, a few inches above it. They were called air boards, and he couldn’t wait until he had one of his own.

  Lennie jumped on his board and zoomed from around the building with his staff out and ready.

  “Hey boys!” Lennie yelled. “Now what could you two possibly be doing out so late?”

  “Hey!” One of the Knights pointed his staff at Lennie. “You get the hell out of here!”

  “Why? It’s a free world, and I’m not doing anything wrong.”

  “You know there’s a curfew in this quarter. Now get the hell out of here or you’re under arrest!” The other Knight yelled.

  “Ahh, a curfew. In hopes to keep any rebels from getting together and making plans to stop the King.Yeah, this curfew isn’t working!” Lennie bent his knees and held his staff out in front of him.

  Ty’ere took a deep breath, “Okay.” He raised his gun and pointed it at the Knights. The barrel of the gun then twisted and clicked until the inside of it stretched out into an even smaller barrel.

  Michael’s eyes widened. He had never seen any of the members from the organization in action . He had only heard stories about their run-ins with the Knights and attacks on the rich, so that's all he had to go off of. Since he was thirteen, they had trained him on how to use a weapon and an air board, but he wasn’t allowed any of those things for himself until he was initiated into the organization. He just had to get those crystals for his big day.

  Michael turned from Ty’ere and back to Lennie. Lennie was the fighter of the two, while Ty’ere was the more technical one. Ty’ere was also the brains of the group and could create a plan on short notice.

  Michael didn’t really know where he stood out of his friends. He was always told that he was a great fighter, but he wasn’t anything special. He was just the impulsive one that went off of brute strength sometimes.

  Lennie smiled and flew in towards the Knights. The first Knight quickly pulled out his gun and started shooting at him, but Lennie deflected it with the bottom of his board and slammed the
end of his staff against the Knight’s armor. The Knight fell to the ground and slid against his back.

  The second Knight pulled out a sword, but Ty’ere pointed his gun at him pulled the trigger. The Knight went down. Ty’ere’s gun, at its second level, could shoot through almost anything. It was specifically made to go through the armor that the Knights wore.

  Michael finally came from around the corner and sprinted for the Knight that was still conscious. He had never fought against a Knight, so he didn’t know what to expect, but he was going to do his best. At least that what his plan was before Lennie slammed his staff over the Knight’s head and knocked him out.

  Michael slid to a stop in confusion. “What the heck Lennie?”

  Lennie spun around in slow circles on his board. “You looked so excited for this moment. I couldn’t help but kill your joy.”

  Michael shook his head with a smile, then he searched the Knight’s pouch and pulled out a small bag of crystals.

  Ty’ere jogged up to Michael. “Is that enough for you?”

  Michael peered into the opening of the bag and nodded, “It’s just enough.”

  “Great!” Lennie stopped spinning. “Now, let’s get out of here.We have company.”

  Michael turned around and saw four more Knights at the opening of the alley.

  “They must’ve heard the commoyion over here,” Ty’ere said. “You guys know what to do.” Ty’ere unlatched his black board from his back and jumped on top of it.

  “Hey!” One of the Knights yelled. He was in the process of pulling out his silver gun when Ty’ere spun around and shot it out of his hands.

  Lennie glided in closer to Michael and turned around. “Hop on!”

  Michael jumped onto the board, grabbed onto Lennie’s shoulders, and then the three of them shot off deeper into the alley.

  “Get them!” One Knight yelled.

  Bullets popped off behind the boys, but none of them were going to land. The Knights around here didn’t have the best aim.

  “Down the slide!” Ty’ere yelled.

  They shot left, down another alley, and then right. The Knights were out of sight now, and fortunately, had no air boarders with them to keep up with the boys, so they were safe, but they weren’t going to take any chances.