The Gift of Volkeye (30 page)

Nearby were weapons and armour for the rest of them, labeled along the gun barrels and breast plates, indicative of their owner. Khyeryn’s armour was missing, for he was so impressed with the sight of himself as a warrior, he’d worn his to bed! Although Lyn had not slept in hers, she too, kept it with her. At this very moment it lay next to her on the couch in her library, as she secretly sped through another chapter of her PoisonTongue story.

They made it past the master control to a long dimly lit hallway along its side, leading out to the balcony. They sprinted all the way down and then let the shield up. Baz and Tesh found Jalum atop of the immense stone railing, hopping back and forth, and roaring at the top of his lungs. His attention was focused straight ahead at something they couldn’t see, as the fog and dark sky rendered that impossible.

“Hey, buddy, calm down,” Teshunua said, rubbing his feathers.

“What’s wrong?” Bahzee asked.

Jalum looked down at them both and growled viciously, blowing their clothes in all sorts of disarray. He was angered that his human friends could not see the same as he.

“Come on Jay, what’s the problem? There’s nothing out th-”

Teshunua was momentarily paralyzed with fear as he gazed through the lens of his camera. Past the intertwined clouds and fog, dancing their way across the night sky, he saw the silhouette of a ship.

“What is it?” Bahzee asked, concerned with Teshunua’s immediate silence.

“Oh shit…
SHIT!
” He grabbed her hand and ran across the circling balcony to the other side of the castle. He dropped to a crawl, hiding behind the thick pillars of the stone railing, pulling Bahzee with him.

“Teshunua, you’re scaring me…what’s wrong?”

“Look,” he said, handing her his camera.

Even as healthy and fit as Bahzee was, her heart near stopped as she stared at the dark mass subtly drifting through the clouds. Wondering whether they were surrounded, they got up and stealthily ran along the railing, inspecting each side of the castle. Indeed, there were multiple attack ships, only they couldn’t be sure how many.

“Damn Phyllamon!” Teshunua swore, intuitively aware of who was on approach. It had to be Phyllamon, because Zynathian had no other enemies!

They came back to Jay and now found him crouched low, silent as could be. He snapped his beak at them as he threw his head sharply in the direction of the hallway from whence they came.

They took the hint, and raced indoors. Upon entering the castle, the two of them tried to warn the others, howling at the top of their lungs.

Dissatisfied with the lack of immediate response from everyone, Teshunua ran above to the kitchen and filled a bucket with water. He descended the winding staircase and practically flew across the room to Maugrimm’s freezer. As the shield rose, he was already in motion, throwing the contents of the bucket over Maugrimm. His friend roared with anger as he woke from his slumber, thinking the act a practical joke.

“What da’ ruddy hell is ‘zis about?”

Maugrimm grabbed Teshunua by collar of his coat and shook him violently in the air. His eyes bulged with malice as the vapor from the lukewarm water rose from his skin, evaporating into the frigid air above. Just as he prepared to instill some fear into the practical joker, a deafening cry shot into the freezer, causing him to drop Teshunua to the floor. It was Bahzee shrieking into the castle intercom.

“GET UP! GET UP! PHYLLAMON’S HERE! WE’RE GONNA’ DIE!”

At the same time that Khyeryn and Sing came running from their rooms in a stupor of drowsiness, crashing into each other, above, Zynathian and Asha were hurriedly robing themselves. Maugrimm pushed Teshunua aside, running out of his room.

“How far away are they?” Maugrimm asked.

“Only moments,” Teshunua replied.

“Grab ya’ weapons off the floor, find Zynathian and Asha, and all o’ ya’ locate a safe place to hide!”

However, Teshunua couldn’t move. His black skin had gone a few shades lighter as fear had drained much of the colour from his cheeks.

“Now, Teshunua!”

At this, Tesh snapped out of his spell.

Maugrimm suited up in a hurry. The armour slid over the massive spikes on his back and shoulders with ease. The midsection of Asha’s design was snug and form fitting, but comfortable. He, of course, had no time to consider such trivialities as comfort, because he was looking over his weaponry on both arms, refreshing his memory on their functions.

He remembered that the mini-cannons, atop his laser barrels, weren’t loaded and looked on the floor, finding a steel box with his name engraved. Next to his name was a bright red sticker with yellow print, saying
“BOOM!”

Ah,
he thought, carefully unlocking it and pulling back the lid. Each piece of explosive ammunition was engraved with an arrow along the iron shell casing, indicative of the direction in which to load them in each arm. With much care and angst (as he’d had no practice with them), he began to fill each cannon to capacity. Luckily the lasers were fully charged already from the training sessions earlier that day.

Ready, he exhaled nervously and looked at Teshunua. Tesh got up and hugged him.

“Be careful, Mawg, please,” he said, unable to believe that things had come this.

Maugrimm looked down at his friend and then noticed Bahzee, Khyeryn, and Sing huddled together in the shadows near the winding staircase.

“You too, mate,” he said, pausing as he tried to think of the proper thing to say. Flustered, Maugrimm could come up with nothing.

“Hurry up…y’all grab ya’ weapons and then join Zynathian and Asha…they’ll know what to do. And don’t turn on any lights! Do what me says, kid, now!”

With that Maugrimm was off.

As he watched Maugrimm disappear into the shadows, Teshunua recovered his wits. A dangerous and risky idea came to him. He would be putting a loved one in harm’s way, but he saw no other alternative. He put his index finger and thumb in his mouth, whistling. Jix came flying.

7

Bahzee’s voice came thundering through the intercom, startling Zynathian out of bed. Asha was jarred out of her repose as well, and when she jumped up, she accidentally fell into the switch, turning the lamp on. However, it went crashing to the floor, and the bulb burst, dispelling the light as quickly as it had come, giving the room a firefly effect.

As they escaped the clutches of drowsiness and gathered their awareness, they robed themselves, unable to rid their minds of two words that had invaded both of their dreams.

Phyllamon.

Die.

“He’s here, Zynathian!”

“That’s not possible!” he said, running to the window.

“You see anything?”

“No…we’d better get downstairs,” he replied.

“Hey, what’s the deal with the racket?” a groggy, irritated voice called from the apartment’s kitchen. Zynathian answered him.

“There’s trouble, Khyetarah, and if it makes its way up here, you don’t want to be found, so keep quiet! We’ll be back soon…hopefully.”

8

As they had advanced to within a mile of the castle walls, Phyllamon raised his binoculars. He could now see the magnificent structure in greater detail. There were towers at every corner of the complex, rising to a sharp point. At their tips, the moonlight allowed a glimpse of their colour—a deep bluish black they seemed, much darker than the combination of white and gray stones in lower areas. Also, the bricks for these were much smaller, creating quite a beautiful contrast with the boulders that made up the rest of the castle.

As if it isn’t enough that he lives among the clouds like a god of some sort, this man has the nerve to have a home more beautiful than mine! How dare he?

Phyllamon’s spell of jealousy was abruptly cut short as he panned up with his binoculars and found another tower, rising straight out of the center of the castle, peaking at about one hundred feet above the other towers. This one had non-uniform, slate-like stones jutting out at every angle, sharply contrasting the symmetrically perfect rocks that made up the rest of the castle. These stones were much darker, yet they shimmered more. With the moonlight reflecting off its surface, the tower could have passed for a giant lighthouse. However, it was not the beauty of this spectacle that caught Phyllamon’s attention—it was a window at the top of the tower. He wouldn’t have noticed the room had it not suddenly sparked with light and gone dark even faster!

They’re watching!

Knowing there was no longer any reason to be reserved with his entrance, he gave the order.

“All ships, full speed…attack at will!”

9

“Go now, Jix…be careful!”

The cat-beast took off, disappearing into the darkness.  Sing and Khyeryn had just ran forward with Bahzee.

“Grab your things,” Teshunua said, slinging his body armour overhead, carefully strapping it on. “We need to get off the first floor…I have a feeling they’ll be aiming here first!”

Bahzee went over and adjusted Teshunua’s fastenings, and he did the same for her. She watched him grab a large, lightweight laser rifle with his name engraved along the barrel. He checked it for ammo and then flicked the laser sighting on and off. Teshunua seemed ready.

Bahzee, however, was far from ready. She looked to the floor at her own weapon and sighed with nausea. As she went to grab it, she noticed two long-sleeved, sparkling black gloves lying next to it. Bahzee pulled one over her hand and slid it up her arm, surprised at its comfort and perfect fit. There was a note. She picked it up and read:

Sweetie, I would much prefer you to use a gun if you ever needed to defend yourself, because they allow distance…but if you’re bent on using your hands, Zynathian has come up with a way for you to do so without getting so much as a scratch on your skin. It’s an old but effective invention of his that he tailored to suit your needs…hence, the gloves.

Do wear your body armour, Bahzee, please.

—Mom

Meanwhile, Khyeryn paced back and forth. His cheeks and ears blazed red, for he was frightened and angry beyond reason. Hours ago, he was the happiest person alive as he ran about the castle, showing off his new armour. Now that the very reason for the armour’s creation had surfaced, Khyeryn wished it to go away. He silently promised himself that as soon as Phyllamon stepped foot inside the castle, he would blast him into the afterlife, ending the conflict and therefore never needing to wear his armour again.

As Sing checked her hip for her blaster, she noticed a tear run down Khyeryn’s cheek, which he quickly brushed away. She went over to him and slapped him firmly on his shoulder pad.

Butch up, little one. If you’re tough enough to survive a Karnov attack, then you can handle this. We need your strength!

Khyeryn got the message.

Sing wanted to console him further, but her own emotions were in frenzy. Although it was impossible for Phyllamon to know of her whereabouts, a part of her couldn’t help but think he was here to retrieve her!

Like hell you will, motherfucker…you’ll have to kill me!
Sing thought, snarling. She strapped on her body armour and went to the others.

Deciding it was time, they gave one another a final once over, checking their protective wear. They then grabbed all else that they needed from the center of the room and turned to ascend the winding stairwell only to find Zynathian and Asha rushing down. Still in their robes and barefoot, they frantically sprinted across the cold stone floor. Zynathian was looking the children over, while Asha ran to the pile of weapons and grabbed a large cannon-like rifle, slinging it over her shoulder.

“Let’s go!” She headed for the stairwell with the others following.

Zynathian, however, knew something was wrong and looked about. “Where is…”

Before he could finish, there was a deafening explosion.

10

Saddled and ready for battle with Maugrimm on his back, Jalum shrieked in rage and leapt into the air. He cuffed a strong gust of wind under his wings and lingered a moment before he set into a steep nosedive. Maugrimm felt at home with the frigid wind slapping his body and easily maintained his grip on Jalum’s saddle. He readied himself to unleash hell upon the first thing he saw.

Suddenly there was explosion from far behind, and when they whirled around they found a long, slender black ship, emerging from the clouds. As debris and smoke permeated from the cavity, a ramp protruded from the ship, touching down a few feet within the opening to the castle. Though the soldiers running down the ramp were but moonlit blurs of colour at this distance, Maugrimm could still tell that many of them were even larger than he.

“Damn it, they’re here already! Get over there, Jay!”

Just as Jalum raised his wings, preparing to dart off, there was another explosion to their left. This time it was the opposite side of the castle that fell victim to catastrophe. The attack ship entering here was bright silver that, even in the night sky, was shiny enough to temporarily blind a person. Between the two options, Jay was flustered about which way to go first. They quickly decided on the first ship, however, because its occupants were already disembarking. Perhaps, if they made haste, they could rid themselves of one problem before the others, on the opposite side, entered the castle.