Ice Phoenix (29 page)

"Baneyon, can you hear me? I'm here, Baneyon, on board the ship. I'm holding your hand right now. Can you feel it?"

She watched him closely, hoping to feel him move or twitch, but he remained still. Using her sleeve, she reached out to wipe a smear of blood that had matted his hair along the forehead. She noticed the sorry state of
her cardigan and realised that she was not wearing anything beneath. It was as if the cardigan had been the only garment worth saving.

"Baneyon," she whispered. "You can't die, I forbid you! If you die, I won't … I won't forgive you."

Memories of their first encounter came back to her. There he was, on the water, carrying her after he rescued her from the fire. He was doing his best to shield her from the pain of her injuries while allowing her to say her final goodbyes to Puddy. He was by her side at the hospital, speaking to her kindly after she had woken up and screamed. He had dragged the mean counsellor away, and he had stayed with her every day after that, talking to her about nothing, about everything.

She had been a lost cause, but Baneyon had never given up on her. He had done everything to make her feel at home, even trying to recreate the dishes she would normally eat back in Fiji.

"Lunch is ready. This time it's really good. I roasted a kantakry bug fish with caramelized root vegetables. You would like it."

He had understood her pain after losing her family, becoming the pillar she had needed.

"You can cry you know. If it's hurting you, just let it come out. No one person could keep all that grief in there without exploding."

Before she had known it, she was clinging to Baneyon and sobbing her soul out while he comforted her. But he couldn't do that now. Instead, he was the one lying down and in pain, and she could not do anything to help him. She started to shake. Someone laid a coat over her shoulders. She looked up to find Quempa staring at her sadly.

"We should close the capsule and allow him to rest," he said.

Terrana nodded and straightened. As she reached over to shut the lid of the capsule, she remembered something. She stooped over and kissed him gently on the forehead, remaining in that position for several seconds.

"Just so you know," she whispered so that no one else could hear, "I know you used Eliksha's measurements for your credit pin. So, if you don't wanna die broke, you better wake up soon."

Her hand reached out and slowly pulled the lid shut. Terrana turned around to look for the others, and spied Lorn and Prince Gil Ra Im across from her. The prince was seated by an open capsule while Lorn stood, watching her with steely eyes. Terrana reeled back in surprise — it was as though he hated her!

She looked at the prince and was shocked to see how haggard and weak he appeared. Her next thought left her wondering who it was that lay in the open capsule. She walked towards them, but Quempa laid a hand on her shoulder and shook his head.

"
It's better we leave them be," he said. "The prince is under a lot of strain."

"Who's in the capsule?" she asked.

"His mother," said Lorn. Terrana stiffened. Lorn had walked up to them quite suddenly. Terrana drew back from his angry gaze.

"Is she going to be all right?"

"Would you be if someone punched a hole through your stomach?" he snarled.

Terrana blanched. "Did the demons do that to her?"

Lorn looked stunned. "You don't remember?"

"Remember what?"

"You broke through the barrier, Terrana.
You
turned into —"

Lady Anrath cried out suddenly and they looked past her to see the prince keeling over into the capsule. Terrana dashed to him immediately.

"That's enough, Your Majesty! You cannot last much longer," said Lady Anrath. She was pulling him back from the capsule, away from his mother.

"Release me! My mother is dying! How can you tell me to stop?"

Terrana reached his side and glanced into the capsule. Her chest tightened when she saw the nearly lifeless queen.

"Prince," she said softly. If he heard her, he did not acknowledge it. His eyes were filled with pain as he fought to break free from Lady Anrath's iron grip.

"Your mother would never forgive me if I allowed you to die with her!" said Lady Anrath. "You must live on, to inherit her will if she dies, do you understand? It is your
duty
."

"You speak as if my mother was dead already!" growled the prince.

"No, Your Majesty. I speak as your mother still living, relaying what she would wish of you. Down to her very last breath, your mother is the queen of Swiva and ruler of Sector Six, and she would want to ensure the protection and safety of her people. Do not disrespect her by giving your life away too!"

"If I don't help her, she will die!
She's not dead
yet
!
" His expression was just as pained and lost as Terrana's had been earlier. He collapsed suddenly, and would have fallen to the floor had Lady Anrath not been holding him.

"I can stand on my own!" He tried to push her away.

"Your Majesty, anymore and you will die!" cried Lady Anrath. "You've done all that you can do. Now, you must be her son and stay by her side in her final moments."

Prince Gil Ra Im's shoulders shook. He reached out towards his unmoving mother and wrapped his hand around her limp one. With his other hand, he stroked the side of her beautiful face, his expression anguished. When he spoke, his voice was raw and full of emotion. "Mother, you didn't prepare me for this. I'm not ready to take your place."

Terrana watched him in silence, fresh tears coming to her eyes. Kuldor and Grandmaster Deitrux walked out of the cockpit, coming to stand on either side of the prince. The grandmaster laid a hand on the prince's shoulder. They stood together around the capsule in a small group, watching over the queen. Queen Julere's face, even when she died, was still as beautiful and commanding as ever.

For a long while, everyone remained still as they struggled to come to terms with the queen's passing. The silence was broken only when they heard a groan and the capsule next to them popped open. Raimus sat up, clutching a
pli-gel bag to his chest. He took one look at the others before glancing into the queen's capsule. His expression saddened. Tears filled his eyes.

"Dartkala have mercy," he said.
"Why her?"

He tried to get out of his capsule, and Quempa hobbled over to help him. When he stepped out, he glanced over at the other capsules, sensing the others inside. Then, he walked over to the queen and bowed low and long before her, even though the movement sent shards of searing pain through his body. Everyone except for the prince did the same.

When they finally straightened, Raimus wiped his tears away. "At least, she has Baneyon with her," he said. "May Dartkala forever watch over them."

He wondered if he had committed some terrible faux pas when everyone threw him horrified glances, including the young prince. He couldn't have known; he had been unconscious when Terrana had transformed and killed the queen. He didn't know that it had been Baneyon's near death while fighting the demons that had triggered Terrana's transformation.

"What did you say? Baneyon is not dead!" Terrana growled, blackness flooding her eyes. Raimus gasped and stepped back. She advanced on him while everyone else moved away — the panic in their eyes was obvious as they tried to regroup behind her.

A deafening noise suddenly struck the ship and it shuddered violently — they had struck something. Kuldor sprinted to the cockpit. The pressure in the hangar suddenly increased and strange whispering noises filled their heads, growing louder with each second.

"Kuldor!" shouted Grandmaster Deitrux. They were all covering their ears to shut out the awful whispering. Even Terrana was snapped back to into herself, trying to stem the bleeding from her ears.

Kuldor burst into the hangar, visibly shaken. "A gate's appeared ahead of us!" he shouted. "We're being sucked into it! Zip on your suits and prepare yourselves. We must not be pulled into that hole!"

"How can that be?" Raimus shouted. "There are no gates in this part of the In-Between! Did you miscalculate our heading?"

Kuldor's expression was terrifying when he answered. "There's been no miscalculation. It suddenly appeared in front of us. The gate belongs to
Olden Kartath
!"

His words might as well have been a death sentence. Everyone paled. The same thoughts ran through their minds — madness and time flux.

"Tell us this ship has protection from the nightmares!" Raimus cried, his puffy face even more swollen from fear.

"We never planned to cross Olden Kartath," replied Kuldor. "In fact, we shouldn't be anywhere near Sector One. This ship has no sleep serum."

"We may be able to deal with the nightmares," said Lady Anrath quickly. "As long as we avoid the time flux belt, we can locate the other gate and leave. We can induce a sleeping mind state and navigate our way through this."

Kuldor shook his head. "We don't have a lock on our coordinates. This gate is not the registered gate our ships pass through. We could be in the time flux belt already!"

The whispering in everyone's heads grew louder as the ship came alive with vivid images.
"What's that?"
Raimus pointed to the floor. A creature he had never seen before crawled through the steel grid panels. Its breath reeked of decaying corpses. No one else saw what he saw; they were trapped in their own visions of hell. Millions of voices flooded their minds.
Help us, please help us! Please save us.

The apparitions' pleas were like knives to their brains, and everyone began to shriek, covering their ears to block out the voices. Visions bombarded them — races they had never seen before, their faces gaunt and terrified, crawled towards them. Fire and explosions ripped apart their planets. A dark cloud trailed the dying people, absorbing their qi. It turned them into shrivelled husks until they were stepped on and turned into dust.

"
No more!
" screamed Terrana. "
Please no more
!"

Quite suddenly, a brilliant light appeared, bathing them in soothing tones. It washed away the images and whispers, and silence ensued. Terrana stumbled to her feet groggily. The light had washed the blood off her face and her head no longer felt like exploding. And they weren't on the ship. And it was raining.

She gasped as whatever shield that had been keeping her dry vanished and she was suddenly drenched in a downpour. The rain was warm. She took a step forwards and realised she was standing in a shallow stream under an open sky. Smooth pebbles poked her feet.

Streams weaved in and out between white, smooth rocks and blue grass. Tall trees grew on the banks and, like the
rocks, their trunks were white and polished with fine silver lines etched into the bark. Their branches spread out in a manner that Terrana had not seen before — they interwove with each other, forming large spherical structures at the top. Pale pink pods hung from these spheres.

She looked towards the area where the streams converged into rapids and sucked in her breath. They must have been on very high ground because the rapids vanished into thin air, and up ahead she saw nothing but sky, and heard the majestic roar of waterfalls.

Beyond the waterfalls, two planets loomed in the distance. They were so close that she could make out the mountains and rivers that marked their surfaces. She disliked the look of one of them though; it was covered in a red haze and reeked of death.

"Where are we?" Lorn asked. He was standing behind her, and next to him was the prince. Kuldor, Quempa, Raimus, Lady Anrath, and the grandmaster were also standing in the stream close by, looking around in wonder. There was no sign of the capsules in which the queen and Baneyon lay.

Terrana blinked, attempting to shake the rain off her face.

"It appears that we have been transported to
DalKal 7, the third planet of Olden Kartath's galaxy," said Lady Anrath.

"How do you know this?" asked Raimus.

"We learnt a few things from our last visit to Olden Kartath." Lady Anrath pointed to the red planet. "That planet is Syrog where the tonien was kept, and the other is DalKal 2."

"The fair haired creature is correct. This is
DalKal 7, and it is here that you must answer for your crimes!"

Everyone jumped. It was a multitude of voices speaking as one voice, and they seemed to emanate from everywhere. There was a gust of wind and the pods which hung from the treetops rustled, sending chills down everyone's spines. A strange gravitational force acted as an unseen hand, forcing them to kneel in the flowing stream.

"The pendant has been stolen, and you are responsible. Dark qi has been unleashed, and you are responsible. The demons flee to the Dream Walker, and you are responsible. This is a crime against all life and Dartkala. What you have done this day has only ensured the death of us all."

The voices were angry. The wind blew harder and the grass on the embankments rippled like waves on the sea. With a start, Terrana realised that the voices
were
the wind and somehow, she could understand them.

Grandmaster Deitrux spoke. His voice was respectful, and he kept his head lowered. "Ancients of Olden Kartath, it is true what you say of the pendant and the demons. But, we are not the ones responsible. We tried to prevent the demons from fleeing with the pendant, but we could not."

"Fools!"

Pain descended on them like a hurricane and they saw, once again, the images that had appeared on board the ship. Whispers of madness filled their heads and everyone covered their ears, falling into the water, writhing and groaning in pain.

The voices spoke, full of scorn. "Why do you cry out in fear and pain of what you see? This is only a fraction of what we protect the worlds from. For thousands of years, we have kept the nightmares away from you. But you brazenly entered our sector and allowed the tonien and the pendant to be stolen. This is a crime that cannot go unpunished."

"
What crime?
" screamed Prince Gil Ra Im, writhing in the stream. "My mother gave up her life to stop the demons and none of you helped her! If you knew so much, if you were keeping the nightmares away, why didn't you stop the demons?
Why couldn't you do anything?
"

"It's true!" Quempa shouted angrily. "We did everything we could to stop the demons from taking the tonien and the pendant. Good people lost their lives because we didn't have enough information. But you did! You could have helped us!"

The whispering in their heads faded, and a white light washed over them. The images vanished and a long silence ensued. During that time, not even the grass rippled. It was Grandmaster Deitrux who broke the silence.

"We have some people on board our ship who are seriously injured. We humbly ask that you allow them access to your medical facilities. They fought valiantly against the demons."

The wind picked up again.

"The half-breed woman, the one called Fless, is being seen to. She will recover," said the mysterious voices.

"There are more," said Grandmaster Deitrux.

"The dead cannot enter
DalKal 7." The voices were absolute.

"Please,"
pleaded the grandmaster. "The queen has not been dead more than a half hour. There is still a chance that you could re-"

"The dead cannot enter
DalKal 7. Their bodies disintegrate in the time flux belt. Do not waste our time discussing this."

The full implication of their words sunk in, and there were gasps of disbelief.

"What are you saying?" snarled Prince Gil Ra Im. He struggled to his knees, his face a mask of dread. "My mother, she's still on board the ship!"

"There is only one body on your ship, and it is the half-breed."

The blood drained from the prince's face, and he fell back into the stream. "No," he whispered hoarsely. "How could you?"

There was loud splash, and they all turned to see Terrana walking through the stream, looking like a zombie. She shouldn't have been able to resist the
unseen force that held them down, and yet, she managed to climb onto the embankment.

"You made a mistake," she called out. "Baneyon's still alive. He couldn't have disintegrated in the time flux belt!"

"Kneel, child." Invisible hands tried to force her into a kneeling position, but Terrana resisted.

"Don't touch me!" she screamed.

"You will kneel in the presence of the Ancient Ones."

Terrana was lifted into the air before being brought down hard.

"Terrana!" Lorn lurched forwards to reach her, but he could not break free of the force that held him down.

"Ancient Ones, let her be I beg of you!" cried Quempa. "She's just lost a loved one."

"He's right!" shouted Lady Anrath in fear. "Leave the girl be!"

"The child will show respect when in our presence!" said the voices.

"You don't know what you are releasing!" cried the grandmaster.

Terrana's eyes turned black, and she screamed. The pods in the treetops shook violently, and the stream suddenly surged. If not for the force holding them down, the Imeldors would have been dragged along with the powerful current.

"Leave the child be!"
These words were spoken by a different group of voices.

There was an angry whisper before the first collective voice hushed into silence. White light washed over a seething Terrana, and the others looked on amazed as the darkness receded from her eyes. When the light finally disappeared, an exhausted and visibly upset Terrana sat on the embankment. She showed no signs of turning into her alter ego and the Imeldors, including the prince and Lorn, tried not to show their immense relief.

The second collective voice continued. "You have come a long way and, more importantly, you are alive. Please rise and proceed to the embankment."

They were only too glad to oblige. Lorn hesitated as he walked past Terrana, but, after clearly struggling with his feelings, he sat down next to her. It was still raining.

The second voice spoke. "We are sorry for your loss. You must understand that in our world the dead are deemed free. They do not have to suffer the burdens and sins of the living. They are treated with the greatest reverence, and we believe that they should not be held back in the world of the living any longer than they have to. However, we should have consulted you first, and brought only the living through the time flux belt."

"But we couldn't have brought them through without the ship!" hissed the first voice. "The dead had to come through."

"And we had high hopes of the queen," continued the second voice, ignoring the first. It was the only reason we allowed her group to survive and leave our world when they came looking for information about the Dream Walker."

"Queen Julere believed in what she was doing," said the grandmaster.

"The second group you sent was not as successful," continued the second collective voice. "Not long after the queen's departure, you sent another group to Olden Kartath to glean information from us. They were denied entry and have since returned to wherever they came from."

Grandmaster Deitrux grimaced. After the queen had informed them of the demons and the Dream Walker, he had sent a second group of Imeldors to Olden Kartath to learn more. It was apparent their efforts had been for naught.

"We entrusted the queen with knowledge of our valuable possession, the tonien. It was the first time in three millennia that we have reached out to another race, and by entrusting your queen with knowledge of the tonien, you must understand, we had high hopes of her. Her death and your subsequent failure to prevent the demons from stealing the pendant angered many among us, particularly as it was one of your own who killed her."

Grandmaster Deitrux lowered his head, perhaps to hide his agony at that last sentence.

"We have read your minds, and we know that it was velassium that killed the queen — the blade that belonged to another member of your group. Had it been any other weapon, she could have survived. Unfortunately, velassium prevents regeneration by qi and so your efforts to save her were futile."

Both Terrana and Prince Gil Ra Im stiffened upon hearing this, for different reasons. "I would have done anything to save my mother," snarled the prince.

Terrana's hand shook. The voices said the queen had been killed by velassium. By one of their own. The only velassium she could think of was the blade that had been in her hand when she had boarded the ship. Why had she been holding it? It belonged to Baneyon. And then there was Lorn. He had been giving her harsh looks ever since she stepped onto the ship. Did
she
do something bad? Baneyon's words came back to her.
People got hurt because of you.
Terrana felt sick; when she spoke, her voice was more of a croak.

"Who … who killed the queen?"

No one answered. They avoided her eyes and looked everywhere but at her. She tried again. "Did I … kill the queen? I was holding the velassium. I was holding Baneyon's spear."

When no one spoke, her face scrunched up and she shouted.
"Tell me!"
A hand covered hers and she found herself staring into Lorn's grim face.

"Terrana," he began, "it wasn't you." She only had to look into his eyes to know he was lying.

"Yes, it was!" she cried back. "Perhaps not the
me
now, but
her
. The dark me. It was, wasn't it?"

Lorn didn't know what to say. Terrana's face turned into a wrinkled mess as her emotions burst through, and she hid it behind her hands. "Oh my god," she cried, more to herself than to anyone else. "I killed the queen. I killed Prince Gil Ra Im's mother! I'm a murderer!"

Footsteps approached but she didn't look up. Lorn did, however, and was surprised to find the prince standing in front of them.

"Let me speak with her," he said. He didn't look angry or vengeful. In fact, he looked sad, as if Terrana's pain was hurting him. Lorn acquiesced and moved away.
Just a little.

The prince knelt down by Terrana and placed his hand tenderly below her chin, raising her head so that she was looking at him. "You didn't kill my mother. If you blame yourself, then I'm also at fault because I should never have brought you to Si Ren Da. If anything, I am responsible for my mother's death, and I became her weakness in her fight against the demons. You were only trying to protect Baneyon. So, you must not cry. You must not blame yourself, for if you do, I —," he choked at this point, "I will not be able to honour my mother's memory or deal with the duties left to me."

In that moment, he looked to be in so much pain that Terrana temporarily forgot her own grief. She didn't wish to cause him further anguish; she understood why he might have felt responsible for his mother's death, but it didn't change her reality —
she
had killed the queen, not Prince Gil Ra Im.

"I won't," she said, hoping he wouldn't see through her lie.

Prince Gil Ra Im smiled grimly. "Then we will finish my mother's work and learn why this all happened." He stood up and directed his gaze towards the treetops.

"Tell us!" he shouted. "What will happen now the demons have the pendant? Tell us who the Dream Walker is!"

The wind picked up and it was like a gentle sigh across the land. The rain stopped falling and a bright mist filled the air. When it cleared, the voices spoke.

"Very well, we will start from the beginning. A long time ago, a child was born in Olden Kartath. He was a child of exceptional power, and he amazed his elders with the feats he could perform. He was much loved, and as he grew, his powers grew with him at an exponential rate. He was a phenomenon, a child of Dartkala, and he thirsted for knowledge. He understood Dartkala in ways we could never understand. We compared him to an Ancient."

"What's an Ancient?" Lorn asked.

"They were the first explorers of Dartkala or the In-Between as some of you prefer to call it. They were also our people. They came to this part of Dartkala long before the worlds of UWIB even learned of our existence. They were explorers, discoverers, and givers. They likened themselves to gods, and believed the other worlds owed their progress to them. They were cruel and on occasion merciless, but as time went by, the younger generations of the Ancients changed their beliefs.

"They recognised beauty and intelligence in other species, and fought to remove the conviction that we were gods. In the end, they succeeded, and Olden Kartath withdrew from the affairs of other races, allowing progress to take place naturally. However, this did not bode well with the older generation of the Ancients, and for many years they fought to have the system reversed. Unfortunately, they gained a victory. A victory that we paid for in the highest possible price."

"They won the support of the Dream Walker," said the grandmaster in understanding.

The voices released a deep and mournful sigh. "Yes. The child we spoke of earlier grew up to become the Dream Walker. He was adored by the Ancients and while they studied him, he studied them. He learned their history and he believed they were right to be gods. This of course, went down very well with the Ancients, and they taught him nearly everything they knew. But all they were doing was feeding his lust for power. His lust to conquer and kill.