Regius (40 page)

Knowing he was disobeying
the Elders’ orders once again in less than two weeks’ time, he
figured that was the least of his worries. Indeed, because Datura
knew where he was heading and exactly who he had to find in order
to get the truth, when the Elders would hear about it, not even
they would care about the orders given anymore. Because once Datura
spoke to the person he sought, the Altors would consider him a
traitor.

* * * *

Brass, much like myself,
had been angry to find out he'd been lied too. Of course he didn't
know how to control his rage, so he'd been pretty ready to just
climb onto the highest roof top Cobalt had to offer and shout out
the truth from there on forward. While that idea had crossed my
mind for a split second, Dell had pointed out that this city wasn't
only inhabited by Civilians. Cobalt was Pallium turf, and not only
that, once Brass was up to date, Dell had continued to explain some
things to us. While Altors could be found all over Zinc, apparently
Cobalt City was where the biggest number of Altors
resided.

As Dell had continued to
tell us details that explained the war, it was made clear that if
there hadn’t been some kind of magical hiccup in the Rangers
Alley's barrier, I would have never found out the truth. The Altors
discipline and knack for following rules along with the Palliums
wit and knowledge on technology, they had built their lie extremely
carefully, making sure to close any gap a Civilian could
accidentally run into and find out the truth.

All the things that had
been kept from us, be it communication objects, historical facts,
the way people looked, was mind blowing to say the least and not
exactly in good sense. While Dell had shown myself and Brass around
Cobalt, telling us everything he knew that we weren't supposed to
know, my mind had been racing. Brass' solution was to tell the
truth to the other Civilians, but while it didn't seem like the
smartest way to go about it, it was the only one I could really
think of. How else could I show the others the truth? But the city
was swarming with soldiers, ready to jump us if we made a
suspicious move. I'd doubted it at first, but then Dell had started
to point out all the Altors passing by us unnoticed. We'd be
tackled down and brought in for questioning before we'd even be
able to spell out the word 'war'.

I realized that we were
lucky to have gotten Dell as our 'revealer of the truth' and guide.
I was pretty sure the dude knew every single corner you could find
in this dusty place, and when it came to giving us details, he
didn't beat around the bush or try and cushion the blow. He gave us
straight harsh and no-nonsense facts.

To make sure we didn't
stand out of the crowd with Dell being Ranger, myself looking like
and Altor and Brass looking as Civilian as one could get, Dell had,
in a very pirate-y fashion, snatched some scarves from random
fabric stands we'd walked past. Once the pirate boy was done with
his handy work, Brass' brown curls were stuffed away beneath
scarves wrapped around his head, the ends dropping down along the
sides of his neck and twisting around his throat to loosely shadow
Brass' face and make his coloring less noticeable. Some more fabric
was haphazardly thrown across his shoulders and tied around his
waist and hips. Dell seemed to be having fun as he was helping us
blend in a little better. He'd not stopped there, thieving a water
bottle out of a wicker basket a passing by Pallium had been
carrying, splashing some onto Brass' neat jeans and then grabbing a
handful of sand to throw on there. The result was dirty pants which
had Brass wrinkle his nose and Dell grin in triumph at what he
called 'perfection'.

Going less heavy on the
face concealing in my case, what with Rangers being Altors at the
base and my looking like one, Dell had tied a simple thin cord
around my head, colorful feathers falling down from it along the
right side of my face with beads painted a matte gold twined into
them. A brown transparent veil covered my nose and mouth, the end
of it flowing all the way down to my chest, which was covered with
a large dark red poncho made of cotton. He'd added some finishing
touches by wrapping leather around my wrists, tying them up with
more feathered cords and doing the same thing around my ankles and
lower legs, all the while stuffing my jeans into them. Which of
course, he'd dirtied up with sand.

By the time he was done
with us, he had me and Brass stop, pointing at a shopping window in
which we could catch our reflection. Standing side by side, the
three of us stared at how our physical traits were no longer
standing out, making us look like a regular bunch of Rangers
walking around Cobalt.

* * * *

"I like that." Dell
murmured. "It's risky, but so was the newspaper and anything else
we came up with." Raising an eyebrow at Brass, Dell added, "You do
realize that you are offering yourself up to the Altors, right? We
have no idea which District they'll bring you to and since you're
our decoy, you'll have to stay in their custody for as long as it
takes Delph and me to plant and spread the rumor amongst the
Civilians."

Brass nodded. I couldn't
help but feel nervous for my friend; he was Civilian as much as I
was. He wanted to be involved in the mission, but it had been my
idea. It felt wrong to have Brass be the one to have to deal with
the Altor's wrath. Technically, I'd been the one to find out about
the truth, but Brass was taking the blame for it.

"I'm not a moron; I know
that I'll have soldiers on my back in no time. But here's how I see
it. We want the Civilians to know about the truth, but what we want
more than that is to let the Altors know that we know." Brass
reminded. "While I keep those soldiers busy and have them believe
I'm the only one who's figured it all out, you will have time to
inform the rest of the clueless population. Just don't get caught
or else my sacrifice will have been useless."

"It may be a while before
enough Civilians start to doubt." I edged, worrying for my
friend.

"I can do this, Delph."
Brass assured. "Just stay out of sight and below the Altor radar.
Plant the rumor, let it grow and the damage will be made all on its
own."

"Dell." Turning my gaze to
the pirate, I saw him scratching his head. "I don't believe I'm the
only Civilian who knows. I need you to help me find others." If one
person started whispering about the war still going on, they'd
write me off as crazy. But if there was more, things may work out.
The Altors had the power to stop one Civilian, possibly a group.
But if a mass of Civilians started to revolt, I'd like to see them
try.

"Juglan." Dell said. "If
there's one person who would know where to find Civilians who know,
it'd be him. Or any other Ranger captain, but since I'm part of
Juglan's crew, he might not make you pay for the info." Giving Dell
a nod, I winced and looked at Brass again.

"Delph, don't do that. The
Altors are the good guys, remember? All they're gonna do is point a
stern finger at me and go 'don't say that kind of stuff'. Worse
they can do is lock me up." Chuckling now, he squeezed my shoulder
in reassurance.

"You and me, my friend." I
murmured. "We know the truth and if we gotta split up to be able to
tell the others, so be it. But once the job is done-"

Brass rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, yeah, we return to one another, etc. Don't go all mushy on
me." He ruffled my hair before moving through the mass of people
that made their way through the main street. My eyes were taken
from his figure as Dell grabbed my wrist, tugging me along with him
so we could move away. Thankfully, the pirate made sure we could
still see him as he probably knew I wanted to.

"You're sure Juglan will
hold the answer?" I asked Dell, eyes fixed onto Brass as I saw him
stop walking, beginning to unwrap the scarves from around his face,
revealing his physical traits to Cobalt City once more.

"Target acquired, he may
not even need to say anything. Four Altors stopped walking when
Brass took off the scarves." Dell muttered, pulling us behind a
stand, the owner of it looking down at us weirdly as we crouched
beside him. "And yes, Juglan has tidbits of info on pretty much
every subject concerning Zinc and its war."

I heard every word Dell
said, but never did I look at him as I watched Brass closely. He
seemed to be taking his time, and although Dell's Altor vision had
allowed us to know soldiers had noticed him, I could tell Brass
realized it too as a small smirk played on his lips, his eyes
jumping from one soldier to the other as they slowly made their way
towards him.

"What do you think he's
gonna say?" Dell whispered by my ear.

Batting the pirate's face
out of my neck as it tickled, I grinned. "One word."

"Wanna bet on
that?"

I saw Brass clear his
throat, preparing his vocal chords for what he was about to
say.

"Kay. If I'm right, you
give me that gun of yours."

"Denied. But I'll get you
an exact replica. If I win," he paused. "You promise me that we'll
remain friends after this ordeal is over."

"You don't need a bet to
assure the outcome of that."

"
ALTORS
!"

Brass couldn't have said
more even if he'd wanted too. The Altors had already restrained him
and were escorting him to wherever they'd detain him.

I swear the cliff-hangers
were purely coincidental as I wrote this story in one go without
intention of cutting it into three parts. Although I can’t say I’m
unhappy with them as an author, I would definitely groan had I been
the reader.

Nas.

Zincuniverse.com

ZincChronicles
/Facebook

This author bio will be
written by Amber, because I totally don’t trust Nas to tell you all
the juicy details.

We’ve known each other for
a few years and in that time, I’ve seen her go from writing short
stories, to whole books. All the while going to school to earn a
degree, working a horrible apprenticeship for a restaurant, and
doing fabulous illustrations.

She was born in the
Netherlands to a Dutch father and French mother. Her family moved
to France when she was fourteen years old, and has been living
there ever since. She has two younger brothers who often harass her
while she is drawing, and whom she harasses back in various
ways.

Her father is an
illustrator and her mother is a photographer who first introduced
her to the art of Vector when she was fourteen. And since then she
has been working with that and Digital Painting. Recently, her
drawings have been published in an Adobe MasterClass art
book.

Behind every drawing or
illustration is a story and after experimenting with short stories,
it seemed like a logical step to move into the world of Zinc. It
took some time, and a lot of planning, but she finally completed
her book. Then, while editing and revising with her ‘poor harassed
editor’, two chapters to the end, she scrapped the entire last half
of the book and rewrote it.

That’s why there is now a
trilogy. Currently Nas works for a graphic media website and does
freelance work. She resides in the region of Brittany,
France.

Chapter one of
Seers

Datura Lovelace

Datura remembered returning to the
Coliseum after having been to the Valley of Death for the first
time. While Ilex had assured his trigger, Caltha had been the one
to get him back up on his feet after the many hits his body had
taken. He'd been stuck in bed for a while after. The Altor he'd
come to love as an elder brother had told him everything he'd
needed to hear concerning the war, the Regius, Altors, Palliums,
but most importantly that his best friend, Calycanthus, was safe
and sound.

One striking thing about their
conversations popped into the Keeper's head at this moment. Caltha
had asked him if the Valley of Death was lonely, if Datura felt
alone when he was there doing what was expected of him. There
certainly was a type of solitude offered in the realm, as the
ghosts weren't actually alive, after all. Since the souls roaming
through the Valley weren't what you'd call kind either, their greed
besting them, whatever presence they offered wasn't always one
Datura could trust. A darkness traveled through the realm, it
always kept the Keeper alert, feeling as if he were standing on the
edge of a cliff and could be pushed off at any given moment were he
to lose focus for one split second. He knew the ghosts would take
advantage of his current lack of stability and while before he
would have avoided the Valley at all costs, right now he knew that
if he wanted to obtain the answer to his question, the Valley was
the only option he had to get him to his destination.

Although time didn't work the same
here as it did on the outside of the Valley, Datura knew what felt
like a month was only about a day’s worth of walking outside of the
realm. He'd never understood why it was that time never seemed
stable in this place. Sometimes it went faster than outside, while
at others it slowed down. All he could do was guess as there
weren't many written facts concerning the Keepers of the Dead and
it's Valley. He assumed the clock was linked to the ghosts, them
being able to control it to show him what they wished for him to
see. Far from the powerful Seer visions, the pasts of souls he did
see, had informed him of numerous things concerning the war. He'd
seen the battles of those he’d had to guide to peace.