Rigel

by Eli Ingle

  “My name’s Rona,” Rona said, jumping in. “And I’m also a Light One. I can vouch for the power of Rigel as I’ve seen it myself. He and these pilots came to rescue me … quite a good job they made of it too.”

  “And I, er, have also seen Rona’s powers. They’re very, er, powerful … so yeah …”

  As speeches went it was definitely not the best. The crowd seemed to be far from convinced.

  “Prove it!” piped up the voice from the platform.

  Rigel looked at Rona, who shrugged her shoulders. Why not?

  “Together?” she said, low enough for just him to hear. “We can do something more impressive that way.”

  “Okay.”

  Linking hands again, they felt the flow of energy through their bodies and turned on the spot, looking for something to aim at. The Kolya gleamed; its strong armour proved a tempting target. Raising their hands with a shout, they sent a stream of white magic towards the ship. The light hit the front and exploded into five different streams of light. These spread out in different directions and crackled with energy towards the ends of the beams. With a flick of their hands the light gathered into a ball and erupted into a flash of fiery light that lit all the shadows.

  “Happy now?” asked Rona, grabbing the microphone and staring angrily down the lens.

  “A little bit,” said the small voice.

  Then the crowd erupted, screaming and shouting in delight at what they had just done. At least it seemed enough to convince the crowd that Rigel and Rona were not a mistake.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  “Come in! Come in and sit down!”

  The noise of the crowd was cut out as the heavy oak doors were sealed behind them. They were back for another appointment on Plum Street. At least the Ministry looked less austere than last time; the sun was shining and the people were kind. Despite this, Rigel could not suppress a shudder as he looked up at the chandelier hanging above the entrance hall, remembering the last time he had been here.

  They were ushered over to a small collection of chairs that faced each other. Sitting down together, Rona and Rigel looked at each other, trying to work out what was going to happen to them next. The comfort of having Laurie sitting nearby helped Rigel to stop feeling too nervous.

  The receptionist who had shown them to their seats was now taking orders for drinks. Even he was agitated with suppressed excitement at seeing them all together and seemed unable to contain his delight that he was serving them all.

  Once they had ordered the drinks, he bustled off to the kitchen, leaving them in blissful silence.

  “That was … memorable,” commented Rigel, still feeling dazed.

  “Yes it was quite, wasn’t it?” replied Laurie, leaning back in his chair and sighing heavily.

  “Erm … what just happened?” asked Tink.

  “Not quite sure, Tink … not quite sure … .”

  “Didn’t anyone else notice that when we arrived, we were also just leaving?” asked Quimby.

  “Yes,” replied Laurie. “I did notice that … I think it’s just best not to think about it too much.”

  “Perhaps that’s best.”

  The receptionist returned several moments later with their drinks and then left again, although Rigel could not help noticing that he looked reluctant to do so. Rigel had been given a tall glass that looked as if it were full of clouds. The thick yet fluffy white liquid swirled and rolled around the glass. As he watched, a flash of lightning illuminated the inside of the glass. He took a drink. It tasted like ice cream. There was a crack of thunder, and lightning bolted from the bite he had swallowed, making his eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth flash from the inside out whilst a pleasant buzzing sensation filled his stomach. Rona pointed at him, laughing.

  “Look at that! And your hair’s stood on end!”

  He tried to flatten it down while looking at her drink. It was red and flickering, like fire in a glass.

  Just as he was settling down to enjoy another sip and the silence, a messenger bustled in, looking as excited as the receptionist had been.

  “A message for Captain Lorrirone Orunstone Peririer,” he said smartly. Rigel blinked; he had been calling him Laurie for so long he had forgotten that that was his real name. “The High King and Queen of Kozenia, Alcor and Mizar, request an immediate audience with you and your crew, ensuring that you bring Rigel and Rebecca with you.”

  “Okay,” said Laurie, standing up, “show us the way please.”

  “I swear no-one remembers my name,” muttered Rona.

  “Don’t worry Max,” said Rigel. “I do.”

  She hit him as the man bowed and walked to a lift at the end of the entrance hall. He allowed everyone to step inside before following them in and closing the brass shutters. The man pressed the button and the lift rose quickly to the upper levels with a light whirr. Once they had reached the middle floor the lift stopped. The man opened the shutters and led them down a lushly carpeted hallway.

  Passing heavy mahogany doors, they finally arrived at the grandest entrance. The man knocked sharply on the door three times before entering the room.

  Rigel was both swept up in the grandeur of it and surprised at the layout. He was expecting a throne room or perhaps an audience-reception room but it was actually just a grandly furnished sitting room. Several armchairs were carefully positioned around a fireplace with little tables nearby, books stacked high upon them. Sitting in two of the armchairs were a man and a woman. They were dressed in heavy robes made out of rich patterned velvet. The man was dressed entirely in shades of deep blue and underneath his robes Rigel could see a blue three-piece suit. On his head was a turban with a heavy blue jewel in the centre. He had an extraordinary moustache that curled magnificently. The woman was dressed exactly the same but in red and instead of a turban she had a shawl wrapped loosely over her head. She was chewing an unlit cigar.

  Upon seeing their arrival, the Royals stood up and addressed them.

  “Good day,” said the man in blue.

  “It’s very good to see you back, Laurie,” said the woman in red.

  “Thank you sir, sir,” Laurie replied, bowing. The other pilots also bowed. Rigel and Rona exchanged a look before bowing awkwardly as well. The Royals watched them with a laugh.

  “You don’t have to bow to us,” said the woman in red. “You don’t even know who we are yet.”

  “My name is Alcor,” said the man.

  “And my name is Mizar,” said the woman.

  “Hello,” said Rigel. “I’m Rigel.”

  “And I’m Rona.”

  “Pleased to meet you,” said Alcor.

  “Please sit down,” said Mizar. They were like a double act.

  They all took seats around the fireplace. The King and Queen looked fondly at the assembled group, their eyes settling on Rona and Rigel most frequently of all.

  “I guess you’re going to explain to us how you managed to arrive back here when you have only just left?”

  “Ah. Yes. Quite a long story,” said Laurie.

  “Excellent,” interrupted Mizar. “I haven’t heard a good story for quite a while.” She pulled a lighter from within her robes and clicked it. A blue flame sparked and she lit the cigar. Thick plumes of smoke rolled up into the air.

  “Although I’d just like to say, Laurie, that that was very naughty what you did earlier,” said Alcor luxuriously, “stealing that airship. It’s a good job everyone likes you enough not to bother.” He stretched back in his chair and took a sip of drink that looked like liquid glitter.

  Laurie spluttered laughter nervously. The Royals’ chuckling let him know they were not taking it too seriously.

  So he began narrating the tale of what had happened to them since they left. He told of their journey to Earth and their difficulties in breaking through because of the Fallen creature that had attacked them. At this early point in the story the Queen stopped him, horrified at what she had
heard.

  “A Fallen One in the portals? So the rumours are true then? They’re getting closer.” The Queen said before draining her glass. “Gods, who do you have to enslave to get a drink round here?” She rang a bell off the table beside her. “Boy! Boy! Get in here!”

  A door opened next to a bookcase and a stringy youth hurried in. He was wearing a tuxedo that was far too large for him and was wringing his white-gloved hands nervously.

  “Yes, ma’am?”

  “That’s ‘Your Highness’,” she said.

  “Yes it is, your brother Alcor.”

  “No, you imbecile! I’m ‘Your Highness’.”

  “No,” said the boy, sweating, “you’re Mizar.”

  “Dear Gods,” the Queen groaned. “Just pour me another drink.”

  “The bottle’s right there,” interrupted Alcor, pointing at the decanter on the table beside her.

  “I wasn’t chosen by the Gods to be Queen so I could pour my own drinks,” she retorted.

  “Then what do you do?” Alcor asked.

  “Enjoy the life bestowed on me by the Gods,” replied Mizar. She turned to Rigel and Rona and leaned in confidentially. “I must have been very well behaved in a previous life.”

  “Or paid someone off on the other side,” muttered the King.

  “Fill it up to the top, boy!” Mizar snapped to the waiter. “We’re not on rations.”

  “You should be,” interjected Alcor.

  “I drink. I smoke. I know it’s bad for me and I don’t care. I enjoy it.”

  Laurie cleared his throat. “If we could return to what we were talking about …”

  “Of course, of course,” replied Alcor. “Do continue.”

  Laurie opened his mouth, and then paused when he spotted the waiter standing beside the Queen, staring at Laurie.

  “Er …”

  “Go on,” said Mizar, puffing her cigar. “What is it?” Laurie flicked his eyes at the boy; the Queen followed his look. “You, boy! What are you still doing here?”

  “I didn’t know whether you needed anything else,” stammered the boy.

  “I’ll tell you if I want anything else.”

  “Okay … so you don’t want anything else?” he asked.

  The Queen exhaled sharply. “Do you have a family, boy?”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  “‘Your Highness’,” corrected the Queen.

  “I’m not a King, ma’am,” said the boy.

  “Oh my Gods. If you don’t grow some brains we’ll tie up your family and make them watch while I force feed you textbooks until you learn how to really think! Now get out!”

  The boy tripped over his own feet as he scrambled to get out of the room.

  “Really, Mizar,” said Alcor, stretching out in his chair. “You’re too harsh on the poor waiters. What happened to the last one?”

  “I had him drowned for eating our nieces’ wedding cake.”

  “Mizar! You got drunk and ate her wedding cake!”

  “Oh yes, so I did … huh. Really, being royal is such hard work.”

  “Why are you so horrible to poor people?” asked Rona.

  Mizar leant back in her chair and regarded Rona while pulling on her cigar.

  “I’m not!” protested Alcor.

  “Quiet, brother,” said Mizar. “I’m in charge. I’m older than you.”

  “By three minutes.”

  “That’s all it takes. Now, child: why am I so horrible to poor people? I’m not horrible to them, I treat them appropriately. Poor people are like bacteria; they are usually unwanted and left to their own devices will breed at a phenomenal rate. What do we do with bacteria? We keep an eye on it, control it. A bit of bacteria is good for you; any more causes illness. By keeping it in its place it knows where it belongs and causes much less harm.”

  “Surely if you don’t treat your subjects nicely, they hate you?” asked Rona.

  The Queen blew out another plume of smoke and sipped her drink. “On the contrary, it shows them their place and they respect us as their masters. They don’t have to take responsibility for their failings in life because it’s our fault but equally our public presence gives them hope when new ones are born and distracts them from the real issues.”

  “Why are you telling us this?” asked Rigel.

  “She’s drunk,” scorned Alcor. “I don’t really believe that and when she’s sober I don’t think she does either.” Although his eyes told a different story.

  “If we could please return to what we were talking about?” complained Laurie.

  “Sorry,” said Alcor, leaning back in his chair again and waving a hand. “Continue.”

  “The Fallen Ones, they’re getting closer.”

  “Bound to happen sometime I suppose, though I’m far from happy about it …. Go on then, carry on.”

  Laurie continued to tell them the story. Then Rigel was allowed to take over and tell his part of it until when the Persefoni flew down and arrived in the field behind his house. After that Laurie picked up the story again, telling about their crash-landing on the distant planet, their discovery of Iselt and how the Dark Angel had banished her, and then of their travels back to Kozenia and what they had found there.

  “Wait a minute, wait a minute! You mean to say you came back here and ended up three years in the future? What happened?”

  “Well, there had been civil wars and the Shadow had almost completely taken over. The Lord Minister –”

  “Who?”

  “He, er, well … he was running everything.”

  “What happened to us?” demanded Alcor.

  “Well, apparently Mizar remained in an advisory capacity … you died in a battle during the Civil War,” he told Alcor, who froze.

  “I … I died?!”

  “Yes. I’m sorry.”

  “I mean to say, what you’re saying … it’s ridiculous, I wouldn’t die!”

  “Well … I know, but you must have done.”

  “So are you telling me I have less than a year to live?”

  “Well now I don’t know,” admitted Laurie. “That was in the future when we had only just arrived. You’ve not heard the next part of the story, and I think that by returning now, we will be able to change that and it won’t happen.”

  “I hope you’re right,” muttered Alcor.

  So Laurie continued to tell them the next part of the story: about their imprisonment and Rigel’s testing in the cell, the strange appearance of mysterious woman to Rigel when he was in the white cell and the advice she gave to Rigel, his escape and their theft of another aircraft, and how this finally led them back to Kozenia now, three years earlier and when they should have originally arrived.

  “And all this happened in the time frame of about a week? You have been busy. I mean, that’s what they call an adventure, isn’t it?” said Mizar. She quaffed her drink and poured another, not bothering to call the waiter back.

  “Yes, I think it is,” replied Laurie, smiling. “At the time it seemed very stressful and awful half the time, but now it’s over I sort of miss it ….”

  “Well, Laurie, the adventure is the process of achieving your goal. Once you’ve completed it then you realise that it wasn’t the goal that was the main objective, but how you got there,” said Alcor.

  Silence fell for a while and they remained lost in their own reflective thoughts about the past few days. What Rigel was finding hardest to comprehend was that all this had happened in about a week, but in the Kings’ time frame it had actually occurred within a few hours …. Did that make them older? Had they lost a week of their lives in the Kozenian time frame or had the process of going back in time again reversed the effects? He had no idea and decided it was probably best to stop thinking about it, as it made his head hurt.

  “So, I believe we should outline the plan then,” said Alcor. “And also update you on the current situation. Firstly, the situation between us and t
he Arzengravian Kingdom: there are rumours there of upheaval and tension. Our spies have been relaying rumours to us of the beginnings of a civil war and the possibility of revolution.”

  “Hang on, hang on,” said Laurie. “They’ve been threatening to do that for years. Are you telling me that they’re finally getting their act together? Or are they just causing trouble by threatening us again?”

  “No, we believe that this time they are serious and do intend to carry out these plans.”

  “Why?” asked Rigel. “What’s wrong with them?”

  “They believe that we have a dominant power over the land,” explained Mizar, “and that we have an unfair share of trade and custom. It’s true we have an upper hand but that is largely due to our years of experience. The Arzengravian King is inexperienced and has been taking advice from us for most of his reign. The people in his kingdom believe he is being fed lies that keep him subordinate to us. They believe that in overthrowing him they will be able to create a better life for themselves and that, if they rally enough people, they could go to war with us and overthrow us too.”

  “Have you been feeding them lies?” asked Tink.

  “Tink!” said Laurie, aghast. “You can’t ask them that!”

  “I can,” he replied. “I’ve always wanted to know and now it comes to it I’m wondering whether they actually have or not. I might not get another chance to ask.”

  “Off with his head,” hiccoughed Mizar.

  “It’s quite alright,” said Alcor. “But we haven’t in fact been feeding anyone any lies. We try to be considerate leaders and we were acting in his best interest. But you know what people can be like – they don’t listen to a word you say to them when it suits. Then when you want them to stop listening they take it all in.”

  “Anyway, we digress,” said Mizar. “So, on the Arzengravian front we must keep the peace between our lands and theirs, as the last thing we need right now is a civil war. Not that we couldn’t crush them like our dear old grandmother, of course.”

  “I thought she died of natural causes?” asked Alcor.

  “Yes, Natural Causes, the one hundred percent untraceable poison.”