The Heir of Ænæria

by Thom L Matthews

  “How many more of you are there?” he asked.

  The boy spat in Darius’s face. Ben expected him to smack the wastelander right then for that behavior. What he did instead was more intimidating. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t move. He just stayed in the same position, squatted in front of the bound wastelander, and stared at him unblinkingly. The silence went on for what felt like a full five minutes. The boy broke.

  “The bloody wastes you staring at me like that for? We’s already told you we ain’t know nothing that needs knowing! Let me outta here, and I’ll show you a real fight—a fair one. Just us two! None of your wolf getting involved or your other fancy tricks with the trees and flashing lights!”

  Stone-faced, Darius asked, “Do you think my friends would just let you all leave if you happened to beat me in a fight?”

  “I don’t give a rat’s bald behind what your friends’ll let me do. Soon as Larz figures out where we are, he’ll kill you all for daring to so much as touch us!”

  Darius stood up straight and looked at Ben and Mandi. Smiling.

  “You bleeding idiot!” Pointy Lips exclaimed.

  “Have you heard of anyone named Larz?” Ben asked Mandi.

  She shook her head. “He’s either a small-time wastelander or has never come close enough to our borders.”

  Half-Ear, the first wastelander, let out a laugh before falling into a coughing fit. “Y’all civs are so stuck up in your own affairs that you don’t notice what’s going on right outside your borders.”

  “Shut it, Kirk!” Pointy Lips yelled.

  Kirk/Half-Ear mumbled a curse under his breath. “Don’t talk back to me, Liv! It’s you what got us into this mess, snapping that damn branch!”

  “My fault? There’s no way they heard that!”

  While the two were distracted arguing about the branch that Ben most certainly did hear, he looked at the boy. “How big is Larz’s group? Does he know where we are?”

  The boy looked at Ben arrogantly. “Course he does. He heard the racket y’all made driving that funky-looking truck there.” The boy nodded his head toward something at the camp. “That’s why he sent a small group to investigate. No other gangs around here supposed to have any.”

  Liv and Kirk stopped their bickering for a moment and noticed that the boy had just given away a vital piece of information without realizing it. As they began scolding him, Ben stepped away from the tied-up wastelanders toward the camp, wondering what the boy meant when he called something a ‘truck.’ His eye went wide with concern when it landed on the sun-carriage. It was the only thing the boy could have been pointing at. Mandi followed him and tried to ask him what was wrong. Ben held his hand up to her to keep silent. He closed his eye, muffled all the sounds, dampened the scents, and quieted the feel of moist night air around him. His ears popped—more than from change of pressure. Like something had punched through the drums. His sinuses flared and squeezed inward while his temples seared with burning agony. Ben fell to his knees, catching himself with his open palms against the muddy ground. Despite it all, he withstood the torture of heightening his senses and kept his focus. He felt a slight rumble. Harder. I need to concentrate harder. More rumbling. Bigger. Louder. Closer. It was moving. Driving. There wasn’t just one. There were many.

  Reining in the rest of his powers instead of yielding to the red flickers was like keeping his hands over a steaming geyser fighting to explode from the Earth’s depths. He let go of his powers with instant relief, the water bursting free to the open air. He collapsed and let out a deep breath.

  His friends looked at him quizzically.

  Ben let out an utterly frustrated groan, panting between his words. “They have…their own…sun-carriages…and they’re closing…in on us.”

  Darius’s eyes betrayed his concern. Mandi frowned, still looking skeptical. “Only Ænærians have sun-carriages. There’s no way these guys have them. Besides, they hardly function at night without the sun to charge them.”

  Ben caught much of his breath. He pointed at the young wastelander. “He recognized the sun-carriage. Their people have them. I can feel them coming toward us. We have to use whatever energy we have left in the sun-carriage. Get as far away from here as possible. Who knows what other weapons they have.”

  Darius, though still looking concerned, tried to offer a counter. “You saw how easily we defeated this group. With our weapons, Sierra, and your powers, we can take them on.”

  “It’s the middle of the night. The three of us are tired. You two will run out of energy, and I won’t be able to hold off dozens of people all at once and keep you two safe. No, we need to go.” On top of that, it felt like an angered beast was pounding his head from the inside.

  Mandi and Darius exchanged uncertain looks with one another before eventually giving in to Ben’s concerns. They took down their tents as quickly as possible and shoved them into the back of the sun-carriage with the rest of their supplies. Ben did a quick scan of the campsite but could only use his slight night vision for a few seconds before the headache evolved in a migraine. Sierra scampered back to Ben from her watch over the captured wastelanders. He didn’t notice anything left behind on the campsite and was in too much of a hurry to double-check. They had their weapons and still a few pouches of food and water. That was all they needed.

  Darius took the controls. The motors turned and the lights flared on. The power meter in the vehicle indicated there was only about an hour’s worth of energy left. He shifted the sun-carriage out of park and into gear and began their escape over the rough terrain into the blackened night.

  15

  Longinus

  Kolpos, Across the Shimmering Sea

  Stepping beyond the threshold of the Vault was like entering the trance of a dream. Nothing seemed real. Bright white lights, pure translucent glass, high-pitched sounds, and steady moving air; Longinus couldn't believe something like this existed.

  Yet by the grace of the Sun, it did. Everything inside it would belong to Her people. Ænæria would be unstoppable.

  The room spanned across a single octagonal floor. Their boots clanged loudly against the hard ground, the room seemingly empty save for the rectangular metal pillar in the middle that spanned all the way to the ceiling. Closer examination revealed that each of the eight corners was labeled with symbols she’d never seen before, and below each lay small compartments with flashing blue lights. They beckoned her, as if calling her to discover whatever lay inside. Her gut fought the urge and instead guided her to the pillar in the center of the room.

  The Rhion stood at attention against the opposite wall, far too overwhelmed by the mystery of the Vault to venture in farther than necessary. Even Nico kept his distance, standing a few paces behind Longinus. The same fear all but captivated Longinus in her place. It was the promise of destiny that let her take those steps toward the center.

  The walk to the pillar felt like it lasted an age, the anticipation of the Vault’s secrets a looming cloud dragging her pace.

  A bright white outline of a hand appeared on the metal column. Her heart sank as she saw it, fearing yet another obstacle in her path. Then she realized it was the outline of a left hand. This moment was truly her destiny. Her hand touched the pillar, which felt more like glass than anything else, and a wave of warmth slid down her hand. She heard a rough whirring of air coming from inside the pillar and saw that it was moving. She snapped her hand back and watched as half the pillar rose into the ceiling and the other descended into the floor. Both halves disappeared into the Vault, leaving behind something resting on a wide black pedestal. A soft light illuminated the object like the Sun’s light breaking through stormy clouds.

  “Please handle with extreme caution.”

  Longinus turned around to find the speaker. The Rhion each looked to one another and then glanced around the chamber. Nico looked perplexed. He hadn’t seen where it came from either. No one else could have spoken because the voice was unmistakably female.
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br />   “Who’s there? Show yourself!” Longinus demanded.

  Nothing. She backed up, accidentally bumping into the pedestal.

  “Warning: Volatile equipment. Handle with extreme caution.”

  Longinus figured out from where the voice had come. Not from any person. It came from all around, out of the air itself.

  “By the Sun,” she muttered. “It’s Her. It’s the Eternal Mother Herself.”

  The Rhion gasped, and each of them suddenly had a look of self-consciousness; they examined their clothing, adjusted their posture, doing anything to make themselves appear more worthy in the eyes of the Sun. It was silly, because She was omnipresent, able to see everyone and everything at all times. Yet even Longinus found herself flattening her hair and hiding her stump.

  “It’s just like Xander’s tales!” Nico exclaimed. “The Sun Herself spoke to him in Minervia, naming him the Chosen.”

  “Then what makes us worthy of hearing Her?” one of the Rhion said.

  “Destiny,” Longinus answered. Her eyes were now on the artifact sitting atop the pedestal. It was long and cylindrical and about the size of a man. It had a tapered end painted in red with a large yellow symbol covering the body. If only she knew what the symbols in the Vault meant. If I need to know, the Eternal Mother will guide me. After all, She had warned them that the artifact could be dangerous. Longinus didn’t know exactly what it was, but she knew what it was for. This is how we will defeat the pagans.

  Her gaze left the weapon and moved to the eight corners and their compartments. She approached one, seemingly at random, yet all the same, knowing that the Sun’s gaze was upon her and guiding her decisions. Nothing was by chance. They’d survived the attack by the village at the mountain’s base. The necklace had worked, despite her doubts. And now they were given something that she knew would lead them to glory. If anything could regain the honor lost by her father, this was it.

  The compartment stood at waist level, shaped like a large disc the size of a table. She placed her hand on it just as she had with the pillar. It had the same glassy feel. The entire compartment glowed, with more sounds beeping and air fizzing out. This time it rose instead of sinking into the ground. It continued to extend upwards until it was taller than her, revealing a translucent cylindrical container. A glass door slid open, inviting her inside.

  Without hesitation she stepped in, turning around and locking eyes with Nico. “Get in,” she told him. He grinned and followed her command.

  A glass pane curved across them, closing the compartment. It hummed and Longinus felt a sudden drop as they descended deeper into the Vault. It was strange being trapped in such a small place with Nico—it would have been strange with anyone, really. Longinus still hadn’t gotten used to sharing her time or space with anyone else. Yet it had to be Nico who went into the moving chamber with her. She trusted all of her men; her Rhion had earned that from her. One couldn’t fight alongside men on the battlefield without trust. Doubly so since they hadn’t been among the few who dared betray Ænæria to join the pagans. Nico had her trust, of course, and he also earned the closest thing to respect she’d ever felt for someone. Probably because he’d been the one person to show her kindness instead of the blatant fear that she’d drawn out of so many others.

  The glass chamber brought them to a room smaller than the first but packed with so much more. Racks lined the walls holding long polearms, their white finish starkly contrasting that of the walls’ darkness. She and Nico walked to the nearest display, a rack that held seven white staves. They held no blades or tips; both sides’ ends were dull and flat. Nico picked one up from the stand and examined it. He held it across his chest horizontally with his eyes close against the sleek metal. His thumb moved down the shaft until it found a small divot whereupon he pressed down.

  A massive burst of light erupted from the pole’s end. Lightning arched across the room. Thunder boomed and the ground shook. The smell of ozone filled the room, and the static charge lifted the hair on the back of Longinus’s neck. She and Nico looked at one another with wide and surprised eyes. Then they both laughed hysterically.

  “This is perfect!” she said. “Look how many of these there are! Close to one hundred in this chamber alone! If even just a few men are armed with these, we’ll crush the southerners!”

  Nico grinned widely, and then Longinus realized she’d made a terrible mistake. Few events had ever excited her so much. In that unfamiliar joy, she’d let down her guard and neglected to deepen her voice. It was something that almost always came naturally to her, such an imperative part of her disguise that it was. She wasn’t used to the giddy feeling of excitement. It lowered her guard, left herself vulnerable.

  She pretended to cough, trying to scrape up any possible doubt in the captain’s bright eyes. He walked to her slowly, putting a hand on her shoulder. She wanted to swat it away but the fear of being exposed combined with the powerful weapon in Nico’s other hand paralyzed her.

  “You don’t have to pretend with me any longer,” he said softly. His words sounded kind, but she knew better than to hope for such a thing. “I’ve known for a while. When you know what to look for, it’s rather easy to see. I was already of an age to fight with the Rhion when the draft was issued. In order to protect me, Cameron went in my stead. Died, so that I could live.”

  He’d all but confirmed her fear from that day on the airship. Shimmering Sister—the name of his ship—named not for the stars, the sisters of the Sun, but for Nico’s own sibling. After all, Cameron had been the one to inspire Nico to become a captain. It made sense that he would name his first ship after her.

  “Have you told anyone?” she asked, no longer disguising her voice. There was no point now that she’d be caught.

  “About Cameron? Never.”

  “About me.”

  He shook his head. “It isn’t my place. I’d hoped you’d tell me sooner or later.”

  “Why would I have done that? If you knew about your sister, then you should know this is a secret that can never be shared. I’d lose everything—my title, my life, my honor. Gone.”

  “My sister did tell someone. The man who saved her life.”

  “I thought you never heard from her again,” Longinus pointed out.

  “A lie I have to tell to keep her secret. Officially, Captain Cameron of Neputan died, the last man standing during a raid against pirates. In actuality, she survived and was found in the shipwreck by a local fisherman who took her in. They married and moved to another province. Last I checked they have three children.”

  Longinus could barely believe any of what he was telling her. “What you’re telling me…it’s treason. She deserted her kingdom.”

  “She never should’ve fought for it in the first place. That was the first treason. But she fought and, officially, died for her people. Something I know someone else very much like her would do in a heartbeat. Do you understand now why I wanted to be closer to you? For so long I’ve felt like I knew you but never had the chance to know about you.”

  Finally, she found the courage to push him away. She turned her back to him, grabbing one of the thunder staves for herself. “Let’s go back up and explore the rest of the Vault with the others.” Then she added, “and not a word to the others, or I’ll find someone else to fly the airship.”

  They rode the elevator in silence. Nico tried to speak to her, promising he’d be silent, and how he was sorry if he’d misread her. She cut him off before the doors to the chamber shut and lifted them back to the main floor. When they arrived, she exited first and told the Rhion, in her deepened voice, about the weapons they’d found. She did a demonstration, recalling exactly what Nico had done to make the weapon discharge. Blue lightning struck the wall opposite her, sparks spraying up and down along the wall. Everyone felt the room heat up as the power of the heavens erupted from her grip. It was difficult for her to keep steady with only the one arm. She imagined that if she still had the metal prosthetic it would con
duct some of the electricity to herself, likely killing her. This was a good weapon—a powerful one—but it was not one for her.

  The looks of astonishment scintillated on the Rhion’s faces. Longinus ordered them to split up, explore the remaining levels of the Vault, and carry as many weapons as they could to the main floor. Two men were sent back to the village to order help from the other Rhion. The villagers were to be forced to work as well, and they would supply them with wagons and animals to carry them.

  Longinus didn’t know what to do with Nico. Everything about him confused her, distracting her from her task. Yet leaving him alone with the Rhion scared her. He might say something. I should have him arrested for treason. Executed, really. The thought didn’t sit well with her. Not after all the kindness he’d shown her. As uncomfortable as it made her, she ultimately decided to have him stay with her as she explored the other levels. This way she could keep an eye on him.

  He kept his mouth shut, about her identity at the very least. In fact, he acted as though nothing had happened and reverted back to his chatty self with the other Rhion. His behavior almost made her drop her guard once again, thinking herself safe. She had to constantly remind herself of the dangers of exposure among the distraction of the secrets within each chamber of the Vault. At the very least, it kept her from feeling so anxious. She could focus her emotions on these discoveries.

  A second elevator brought her to a higher level of the Vault rather than taking her deeper into the ground under the mountain. There were no windows in the Vault, but she could feel the platform in the glass chamber pushing her body up rather than the stomach-dropping sensation of rapid descent. As soon as she left the elevator she understood why. The machines inside would never fit in the elevator and exit through the Vault’s main entrance. She didn’t know what they did, but they were massive—bigger than many of the houses in the village below. There were three machines in there—two of the same and another vastly different.