The Guardian (Coranite Chronicles) (7 page)

“Hey!” Kale shouted after him. “Now just wait a minute!”

Standing by the hillside, the boy waved his hand. Roots popped out of the ground and parted the mass of turtles in two. Azura was sprawled on the rocks, looking beaten and injured.

The boy said to Kale, “This place is not safe. Take her back to my village.”

“What’s going on here?” asked Kale. “Those roots are
your
doing?”

“See the ground with your eyes,” the boy said plainly.

Kale focused his gaze below and saw that the ground was perfectly fine; the destruction he had witnessed had not left any marks. “Don’t tell me it was all an—”

“Illusion,” the boy finished his sentence. “It was not my intention to catch you with it, but you apparently fell into it of your own accord.” A howl echoed in the distance, and the boy cast a wary glance to the ocean nearby. “Hurry! It’s coming! Take Azura and follow me!”

Azura opened her eyes, grimacing. She stared at the boy for a moment before recognizing him. “Merdon?”

Merdon said hastily, “No time for idle talk! We must leave before they arrive!”

CHAPTER 4

Skytown

Darek hopped out of the portal. He might’ve ended up inside a building, but he couldn’t be sure. It all looked really confusing. To begin with, the building didn’t seem entirely man-made. Part of the wall resembled tree bark. Extending from the bark was a flat stone floor. This area was enclosed inside, what he could only describe as, a massive bulbous glass. It seemed like he was standing inside a giant bubble.

From the looks of things, it was also a residence. Four sofas were arranged in a square. In the middle of the arrangement was a 3D hologram projection. This allowed people to sit together and watch broadcasted shows through the hologram in all directions. Unlike televisions of the past where people were limited to watching at certain angles, the hologram projector allowed people to watch it from all over the room.

Darek didn’t notice it before, but there was an elderly couple sitting on one of the couches. They stared curiously at him. While they gawked uncomfortably, the bespectacled old man frowned and the woman folded her arms disapprovingly.

The elderly man said to his wife, “Look at that! More of them! And they’re getting younger by the minute! We absolutely must call a plumber about this problem. We can’t have people coming out of our bathroom whenever they feel like it.”

The wife replied, “No, dear. No need to waste good money. It’s just a fad. These youngsters will get tired of crawling out of toilets soon enough.”

Bowing his head, Darek said to them, “Sorry to intrude, and excuse me for asking, but has anyone else come through here?”

The old man nodded. “There were five others—four men and a woman. They left in hurry. Boy, was I scared! Some of them carried large weapons! But my wife assured me that you kids were just playing a strange game with swords and toilets.”

“Five?” Darek furrowed his brow. There were others?

Slade appeared from the door shortly after. The portal slowly vanished, allowing the original bathroom door to take its place.

Darek gestured at the couple and said to Slade, “These people said that they saw five people come through here.”

Slade growled at the residents, “Did you see where they went?”

The old man and his wife huddled together, trembling and shaking their heads apprehensively. Intimidated by Slade’s brutish appearance and anger, they fell completely silent.

“Tell me!” Slade shouted. “Tell me where they went!”

Darek tapped Slade on the shoulder. “We don’t need to interrogate civilians for this. We weren’t that far behind. I’m sure those guys are just right outside.”

“You’re right,” said Slade. Though he sounded calm, his face was still full of anger. “Let’s chase them down. We can’t let those guys get away!”

The way out of the weird bubble-like house was marked by a circular outline. The exit looked like a hole in the glass covered by a thick blurry liquid. After they passed through the liquid barrier, they could finally see what the rest of the world looked like. None of them recognized the place.

Upon the balcony of the residence, they gawked in awe at the alien planet. Massive trees were everywhere, their trunks several miles wide. Darek now understood why the back of the bulbous house was made out of bark. There were many of these strange bubble-like homes that were stuck on the bark of tree trunks. The sky was clear blue. But the ground was nowhere in sight. They were above a thick layer of clouds.

Darek believed that the sheer magnitude of the sight had taken his breath away. Then he realized it was just hard to breathe because they were this high up. Feeling woozy, he was forced to take deep breaths.

“I don’t see them,” said Darek, wheezing.

Vexed, Slade grunted, “They could be anywhere by now!”

“The gravity here feels lighter than Lacuna. We could fly around to search.”

“I doubt it’ll be any help,” Slade said. “They reached the Court much faster than us. Most likely one of them knows how to shift. And besides, Lyonil knows Spirit Displacement. That woman and her companions might be around, but Lyonil would be long gone.”

Darek cocked his head. “Shift? Spirit Displacement? Wha?”

“Different kinds of teleportation,” explained Slade. “Shift is a short-range form, able to send people only as far as their eye can see. Spirit Displacement is Lyonil’s specialty. He projects his spirit forward, and wherever his spiritual body goes, his physical body can follow…” The sound of a soft buzzing pierced his ear. They looked up.

Something in the sky was heading towards them.

“What is that?” Darek asked.

Slade said nothing but watched cautiously as it drew near.

Darek froze when he finally could see what it was. A person was flying towards them on a hover board. As the woman on the hover board got closer, Darek gasped.

“I…I don’t believe it,” said Darek, gaping at the woman.

“Neither do I,” Slade said slowly, his eyes wide. “I thought you said she was—”

“She was! I saw it with my own eyes! I buried her myself!”

“Then why…is she right there in front of us?”

The woman landed on the balcony and strode over to them, shouldering her hover board. She was tall and her dark hair was tied up in a bun. She wore a white blouse and dark blue jeans. As she approached them, she gave a slight bow.

Darek stared incredulously at her. He couldn’t believe it, but the resemblance was too striking. Was this some kind of illusion?

The woman smiled. “Darek, you’ve grown so much. I almost didn’t recognize you.”

Speechless, Darek shook his head. His face turned pale. He couldn’t accept it. He wouldn’t accept it. This woman could not be standing before him. It made no sense.

“What’s wrong, Darek?” she asked. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Y-you can’t be alive…” Darek backed away. “You can’t be! You’re dead!”

“Darek…” The woman walked closer to him. “You don’t remember me?”

“I-I don’t understand,” said Darek. “There’s no way my mother is alive! I saw them shoot her! I saw her die! Who are you?”

“No, Darek,” she said, gesturing to herself. “Look. It’s me, Kyrie.”

“Kyrie?” Darek examined her closely. “I don’t know any Kyrie.”

Kyrie stepped back. “You’re not kidding…?”

Perplexed, Darek shook his head. “Who are you?”

With a look of sadness, Kyrie said,
 
“I’m your sister, Kyrie.”

Slade exchanged dumbfounded glances with Darek. Even though he had lived with Darek and his mother for eight years, neither of them knew Darek had a sister.

“S-sister?” Darek stuttered. “Wha-what? Really? I have a sister? But that’s impossible—I mean, I didn’t think I had any family left….”

“You forgot about me?” Kyrie frowned. “I suppose it can’t be helped. You were only three or four years old when I last saw you.” She heaved a sigh. “But I didn’t come here for a family reunion. I’m a Vespar, like my mother before me. I was alerted to the presence of a portal opening on this planet. I’m here to assist you Judges in any way possible.”

“Perfect,” said Slade. “Then send word to the other Vespars on this planet to search for Lyonil. He’s on this world. The Conclave has been murdered—”

“What?” Kyrie shrieked. “The Conclave? How—”

“I don’t have time to explain,” Slade said curtly. “The Conclave is no more. And the portal to Lacuna has been destroyed.”

Kyrie’s jaw slackened.

“I can understand your disbelief,” said Slade. “But I can assure you that I’m telling the truth.”

Kyrie spluttered, “But this has got to be the biggest disaster in the history of the Judges! Never before has something like this ever happened! Never before in thousands of years! Since the beginning of time! Since the—”

“I know, I know,” said Slade. “This might really be the end of us. Now go and send word to the other Vespars. We must have our revenge…before the murderer escapes.”

Kyrie shook her head. “I can't do that.”

Slade raised a brow.

“Unfortunately,” said Kyrie, “I am the
only
Vespar on this world. This planet is an outer world called Grehelm. It’s a small mining colony. Very low crime rate.” She added quickly, “But don’t worry. I do have several informants. I’ll tell them to keep an eye out for suspicious travelers. It’ll be easy to track them down on such a small world.”

“Please do,” said Slade, faking a grin. They could tell he was not happy. Slade was worried. Even if the informants could find the suspects, what good would that do? Lyonil had accomplices. Maybe if Elize were still around they’d have a chance. But with only the two of them and one Vespar…would they be able to overpower them? Would they be able to have their revenge?

After a period of silence, Slade continued, “And get us some transportation off this rock. After we avenge our fellow Judges, we’ll need to search for the others and regroup.”

“That might be a problem too,” said Kyrie.

Slade did not like the sound of that. “What
now?
”

“As I said before,” Kyrie continued, “this planet is rather uneventful. There isn’t much interstellar traveling. The residents are mostly miners. They don’t own ships. The Munsks Mining Corporation has some, but they don’t get used. They are saved for emergencies, like evacuations.” Kyrie paused. “Our only chance would be the fleet of freighters that stops by once a month.”

“How long do we have to wait for that?”

“A month here is about six weeks Federation time,” said Kyrie. “But it came about three weeks ago.”

“So we still have to wait three weeks?” Slade shook his head. “We can’t stay here for that long! There’s got to be something else.”

“Something else?” Kyrie pondered.

Slade nodded. “Anything else. Anything.”

Kyrie looked down, deep in thought. When Slade had said those words, Kyrie was reminded of something that might just work. But what was it? After a period of silence, her eyes sparkled. “I remember now! There is something! A hover board race!”

“A hover board race?” said Darek, sounding disappointed. His eyes narrowed. “At a time like this?”

Kyrie exclaimed, “The grand prize is an ITD! That’s just what you need!”

“An ITD?” asked Slade.

Kyrie opened her mouth to speak, but Darek said it first, “An interplanetary teleportation device, right?”

“Really?” Slade's eyes widened. He asked Kyrie, “Is that what it is?”

Kyrie nodded, grinning.

“I’ve never heard of it before,” said Slade. “Since when did they start making those?”

“It’s a new invention from a young scientist,” said Kyrie. “I forget his name—”

“Jenson,” Darek said. “It’s Jenson, right?”

“I think so.” Kyrie turned to Slade. “Whatever his name is, he’s pretty famous now. As a promotion for his invention, he’s been giving out ITDs to all the planets.”

Darek couldn’t restrain a grin. He had wondered how Jenson was faring ever since he had helped Darek escape from his death sentence. But to see that Jenson was successful blew all his worries away.

Slade said, “So you’re saying we should enter this race and win the ITD?”

Kyrie replied, “Yes. The race is being held once a week. But don’t think it’s going to be easy. Hover boards are a way of life on this planet. You can’t get anywhere without a hover board. Everyone is an expert at riding.”

Slade grinned. “We’re not bad ourselves. We’ve been practicing in Lacuna. And we’ve brought our own boards. I doubt your hover boards can stand a chance against ours.”

“They won’t allow you to use those,” said Kyrie. “Each board gets inspected. They’ll definitely find it strange when they discover your boards are without engines.”

Slade grunted, “I guess we’ll do it the hard way then. Between the three of us, we could get lucky.”

“But first,” said Kyrie, giving them a huge smile, “since we've got time. Want to get something to eat?”