Again, if you manage to slave through every chapter, I'll be more than happy to return reviews.
This portion picks up right in the middle of the scene in the previous chapter, because I split the chapter based on length versus scene breaks (there is actually only one scene break in the chapter).
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“What are you going to do with me?” said Tey, more sullenly than he’d like to admit. Jyuna just laughed, and, to Tey’s surprise, clapped him hard on the shoulder. Tey winced from the force of the clap, startled by how cold Jyuna’s gold-encased fingers felt.
Unbidden, a memory arose of Nendo, clapping Tey on the shoulder in the same way, the tips of his fingers burnt and blackened… Tey swallowed, hard.
“Taking you to our headquarters,” said Jyuna, heedless of Tey’s distress. “We could use someone like you.”
“What?” Tey was completely lost. He didn’t see what use an Ajyadi separatist movement could have for a Theratolian street boy like himself.
Anything else he was going to say, however, was knocked out of his lungs by the sight of Jyuna kneeling to a patch of bare ground, and sketching the outline of a circle with a single decisive movement of his index finger. The circle flared alight with red fire, and Tey suddenly realized what Jyuna’s gauntlets were for: to protect his hands from the fire of magic.
Tey stared in speechless astonishment as Jyuna continued drawing the circle with quick, decisive flicks of his wrist, filling in details. He could feel the heat of the magic even from his distance, and a small part of it terrified him. Like most of Theratolia’s citizens, he didn’t have much contact with magic; the few times he’d seen it before had been in the displays during holiday parades.
This magic was different from the parade kind, though; the designs within the circle strongly resembled the curling tattoos on Jyuna’s torso and arms. Yet, there was something oddly familiar to it, too. Tey didn’t have time to muse more on the magic circle, though, before it suddenly expanded, surrounding not just Jyuna but himself.
“Hey, watch it,” said Tey, staggering backwards to avoid the lines of scarlet fire surrounding him.
“Don’t worry, it won’t hurt you,” said Jyuna.
“What is it?” said Tey, glancing nervously at the circle again.
“A teleportation spell,” replied Jyuna, his tone matter-of-fact.
“A what?” cried Tey, but before he could say anything else, Jyuna lifted his hand in the air and sketched another curlicue of red fire that wrapped around his and Tey’s bodies like a glowing snake. Tey gulped and hugged his arms closer to his body, trying to avoid the fiery magic, but then the entire circle was glowing so brightly it hurt Tey’s eyes to look at it. He squeezed his eyes shut—
So didn’t get to see the explosion that rocked the alleyway, though he heard something like a sonic boom in his ears, and a flash of bright light even behind his shut eyes. He caught a whiff of something like sulfur before his surroundings dissolved around him, and he knew nothing but the brilliant light pressing down on him from all sides.
Then, coughing, sucking in smoke fumes, Tey tumbled to his knees on a floor that was not compacted sand but something hard and cool. His head was spinning, nausea rising in his throat.
What happened? Was that—an explosion? Like the one that—oh, no, no, was Jyuna the one who—
As the smoke died, Tey became aware of a change in his surroundings. He no longer smelled the dust, sweat and spices of the Foreign Quarter; instead the air was clear and smelled faintly sweet, like flowers. He couldn’t hear anything but the tinkling of water in the distance, and closer by, a persistent snik, snik, snik sound.
Beside him, Tey heard Jyuna straighten up and step forward. Moments later, a girl’s voice spoke up:
“Welcome home, Jyuna. About time.”
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Tey still couldn’t believe where he was.
He was standing in a small courtyard surrounded by high white walls. The floor beneath his feet was tiled in earth-hued mosaics, and kaza trees towered over the walls. A rectangular pool, surrounded by a rim of achingly-bright flowers, lay in the center of the courtyard. Next to the pool rose a low, white-washed stone bench, and sitting on the bench was a girl.
She was smaller than Tey, very petite, and dark-haired—an islander. Like the hooker from earlier, she was dressed in a silken robe, though hers was much simpler and a delicate shade of blue, like the sky above. As Jyuna approached her, she stood up, placing the sword she’d been polishing with a cloth (that had been the source of the sound) on the bench.
“Thanks for the welcome, Kiri,” said Jyuna. “I didn’t expect anyone to be here waiting for me.”
“I wasn’t waiting for you,” said Kiri, her full lips twitching into a smirk. “I was just bored and I wanted to escape the doctor.”
“The doctor? How is he?” said Jyuna in the most polite tone Tey had ever heard him use.
“All right. You know, he’s being the way he is, always wants to teach me about kinetics and whatnot.” An ugly scowl came over Kiri’s face, twisting her delicate features.
“Kinetics is physics, Kiri; you mean ‘genetics’,” said Jyuna, still politely. “Say, can you tell me where the boss is?”
Doctor? Boss? Physics? Genetics? What were they talking about? Tey hung back, uncertain and nervous, still breathing smoke. There was no sign, however, of an explosion, even though he was sure he’d felt one. An explosion…like the one that had gone off earlier, in the marketplace.
That must have been Jyuna’s doing, Tey realized with a sink twisting sensation in his stomach. Jyuna was dangerous, whoever he was: clearly he was part of this foreign separatist group. Just by being here, standing in this strange courtyard, Tey was putting his life in danger.
But he had nowhere to go. Nowhere to escape to.
“Hey, who’s that?” said Kiri, noticing Tey. The instant she lay her dark eyes on him, her expression changed—to one of savage delight. It reminded Tey of the expressions the burly dockworker boys would get when they saw someone weak to pick on. Seeing such a familiar light shining in a strange girl’s eyes disturbed him.
“His name’s—what’s your name again?” said Jyuna.
Tey suppressed an insult; he knew it was perfectly logical that Jyuna didn’t know his name as he’d never divulged it. “My name is Tey,” he said.
“His name is Tey,” said Jyuna, much to Tey’s annoyance. I can speak for myself, you know!
“Tey, huh?” said Kiri, casting Tey a contemptuous glance. Tey had to resist the urge to jump in surprise; he’d rarely been on the receiving end of such contempt before. “Doesn’t look like much. Why’d you pick up this piece of street rat trash?”
Street rat trash? Tey stiffened and balled his hands into fists. He decided he didn’t like this Kiri, whoever she was.
Jyuna, however, just chuckled a little bit in response. “Well, trash or not, he might have potential.”
“Potential?” Kiri arched an elegantly slender eyebrow. “Well, potential to die quickly, I guess. We could use him as cannon fodder.”
The rage swirling within Tey intensified; he forced himself to shove it down. No, it wouldn’t do to get angry: possibly this Kiri was a strong fighter, given the way she’d been so expertly polishing the sword. And she was an islander, who were infamous for their warrior women.
That doesn’t give her the right to call me “cannon fodder”, he thought discontentedly.
“The boss will be the judge of that,” said Jyuna. “Where is he? Do you know?”
“Probably with Aiday,” said Kiri, stretching and yawning as if trying to show that she was bored by Jyuna’s presence. “No, no wait, he told me he was in his inner chambers. I think.”
“Are you serious?” Jyuna sighed. “That’ll be a long walk…”
“You can just teleport there,” snickered Kiri, as if she was sharing a joke.
Jyuna ignored her, striding over to Tey and seizing Tey by the forearm again. This time, Tey, too disoriented by everything, didn’t protest. He stumbled after Jyuna, struggling to keep up with the Ajyadi’s long paces. Behind them, Kiri waved.
“Have fun!” she called. “Though I don’t know why you’re wasting your time like this…”
Jyuna slammed shut the wooden door set in one of the courtyard’s walls, cutting short Kiri’s farewell. Then, tightening his grip on Tey’s arm (Tey hissed in pain), he began striding forward at a breakneck pace.
“Who—who—” gasped Tey. “Who was she?” And who are you? What do you want with me?
“Asai Kiri, of Kiasa Island, as she so often likes reminding the rest of us,” replied Jyuna. “One of the senior members of Presulis.”
“Presulis…? What’s that?” Despite himself, Tey let some of his exasperation slip into his voice.
“Presulis is us,” said Jyuna most unhelpfully.
“And who is us?” demanded Tey. “And where are we going?”
Jyuna gave another unhelpful answer. “To meet the boss.”
Tey sighed and decided to stop trying to pester answers out of Jyuna. He instead began looking around, taking in his surroundings. They were now striding down a long, shaded walkway, also paved in earth-colored mosaics. Tall kaza trees and low harrim bushes surrounded them, while thick greenish-blue vines snaked over the shade trellis above the walkway, reminding Tey of the designs tattooed on Jyuna’s skin. The soft songs of monkeybirds floated throughout, and ever present was the distant sound of running water.
Wherever they were didn’t seem like the headquarters of a revolutionary group. It was quiet, and peaceful, almost like—like nothing that Tey had ever seen in his life. He’d never known anything like peace, except maybe in the dead of night when he and Nendo curled up together in a hideout to sleep. And he’d certainly never known any quiet.
Beautiful as the place was, it bore a slight air of disrepair, as if it had once been even grander. Grass was growing in the grout between the mosaic tiles, and the white paint on the walls of the long, low buildings Tey sometimes glimpsed was chipped and cracked at places. The silence, too, didn’t feel natural: this place seemed more suited to the subdued murmur of dozens of conversations than the silence that hung over it instead.
The clattering of footsteps startled Tey out of his thoughts. He looked wildly around, but Jyuna just smiled at him before stopping in his tracks. Tey bumped by Jyuna’s side, startled by how quickly the Ajyadi had stopped.
Three soldiers clad in matching dark tunics stepped into view, their boots ringing against the tile in unison. Tey, despite himself, drew closer to Jyuna; years on the street had taught him to fear soldiers. But the soldiers barely paid him any heed, except to draw their swords in a single synchronized movement and salute to Jyuna as they passed. Jyuna nodded lazily in acknowledgment, and the soldiers lowered their swords and went marching on.
Tey watched the soldiers’ retreating backs, his heart pounding. If he hadn’t been mistaken, the soldiers had saluted to Jyuna. What did that mean—that Jyuna was part of the army? But he said he hated the government…
“Oh, here,” said Jyuna, his hand tightening around Tey’s arm. “Let’s go through here—the doctor’s lab. It’s a shortcut.”
Lab? What’s that? thought Tey, before he was dragged through an open archway that opened not into another courtyard, but into a building. Tey followed Jyuna across the building’s beige flagstone floor, his steps barely making a sound on the cool stone. Jyuna led him through more archways set in the walls, deeper into the building. The sound of tinkling water faded, to be replaced by something else—a low humming, so low that Tey felt more than heard it in, throbbing in his bones.
Then they reached an archway that was blocked by two curtains of blue cloth. Jyuna strode straight forward and pushed the curtains aside, beckoning for Tey to follow. Tey reluctantly stepped through, even though he wasn’t sure he’d like whatever was on the opposite side.
The first thing he became aware of was a blast of bone-chilling cold. Tey jumped, wrapping his arms around his torso as goose bumps rose in his bare skin. The throbbing hum was at its loudest in this room, wherever it was…
He cast his glance around, seeing a large, dark, low-ceilinged room whose walls and windows were blocked with blue cloth. Sitting beneath one window was a box-like contraption of rusting metal: it was where the humming sound was coming from. Several long tables were strewn throughout the room, laden with all sorts of bizarre objects that Tey had never seen before: long glass tubes, more metal contraptions, stacks and stacks of glass plates with colorful blobs on them. He blinked, hard, wondering if he wasn’t imagining all this.
At one table stood a man, bent diligently over a black-and-silver device with knobs sticking other everywhere. “Yoo-hoo, Doctor,” called Jyuna.
“What? Oh!” The man leaped away from the device, turning to face Jyuna. He was middle-aged, with a mop of copper-colored hair already showing gray streaks, and a thick layer of stubble on a rather weak jaw. He was paler than Jyuna and Tey, and wearing a long, grubby white jacket.
“Having fun?” said Jyuna, waving.
“Oh—Jyuna! You’re back! How marvelous!” cried the man, doing some sort of bizarre hop-skipping that led him right in front of Jyuna. Tey had enough time to register that Jyuna was at least a head taller than the man before the two enthusiastically wrung hands, huge grins eating up their faces, before thumping each other on the back.
“Doctor! Been a while,” said Jyuna, patting the man rather hard on the shoulder. “How’s your research going?”
Research? thought Tey, disquieted by the strange new word.
“Oh—it’s going,” said the man, the doctor. “How was your trip to the city?”
“All right,” said Jyuna with an elaborate shrug. “I picked up a new recruit there.”
He jerked his thumb at Tey, and Tey gulped when the man fixed pale gray eyes on him. Who was this man? So pale…he had to be a noble. Tey didn’t whether to bow or not, but Jyuna hadn’t bowed either, and he was Ajyadi, even lower than a commoner. So Tey just stood still, shivering, not sure what to do.
“New recruit?” said the doctor. “Doesn’t look like much…”
“His name is Tey,” said Jyuna. For once, Tey was glad that Jyuna was speaking for him; Tey was afraid that if he opened his mouth, his teeth would start chattering.
“Tey, hmm?” The doctor blinked, and then stepped closer so that he was almost in front of Tey. He was slightly shorter than Tey; about the same height as Nendo. Thinking about Nendo caused a lump to rise in his throat: he swallowed hard to suppress it.
“Well, nice to meet you, Tey,” said the doctor. “I’m Dr. Felipe Cadmus. Chief scientist, for what that’s worth, of Presulis. Welcome to Presulis Palace.”
He then stuck out his hand. Tey wasn’t sure what to do--wring it like Jyuna had? He settled for doing so, taking the doctor’s hand in his. Dr. Cadmus’s grip was surprisingly strong, and he didn’t wring Tey’s hand so much as give it a brief shake before releasing it. Odd…but it already struck Tey that Dr. Cadmus was an offworlder, someone from the main Coalition. Their rituals had to be different.
What was that he said? “Presulis Palace”? Is that where I am? What’s Presulis?
“All right, doc,” said Jyuna, grabbing Tey by the shoulder—Tey jumped, surprised by the cold touch of Jyuna’s gold-covered fingers against his skin. “We’ve got to and introduce Tey to the boss. Talk to you later. Injye ke tuka.”
“Injyein ke tu,” mumbled the doctor somewhat distractedly, as he turned back to the knobby black-and-silver device. Tey blinked; the Coalition doctor knew Ajyadi? “See you, fare thee well, hasta luego, so on and so forth.”
Jyuna just laughed and steered Tey out of the room. Tey breathed in relief when he entered the much warmer hall.
“Caught him at a bad time, he’s busy,” Jyuna was saying as he led Tey through the building’s halls and out an open archway. “Usually the doc will stay longer for conversation…what’d you think?”
“Um…” Tey was caught off guard by Jyuna suddenly posing the question like that. “Well…it was cold.” Which, he thought defensively, was true.
“Ha ha, you think?” laughed Jyuna. “That’s because of—did you see that thing beneath the window? It’s called an air conditioner, it makes the room cold. He needs it cold, for his research. Or something like that.”
Tey didn’t understand—didn’t even know what the word research meant—but was too overwhelmed to say anything. He could only follow Jyuna, vaguely aware that Jyuna had released him.
The two continued walking for what felt like an eternity to Tey, silently weaving through labyrinths of walkways and sometimes cutting through airy white buildings. Even though Tey felt he should ask questions—he was so full of them he was afraid he was going to burst—he didn’t know where to start, or even if Jyuna would give him an answer. So he just walked silently in step with Jyuna, glimpsing no one else except the occasional group of soldiers or a servant or two. Whatever this Presulis Palace was, it didn’t seem to have a large enough population to fill its grounds.
Gradually, the shadows started to lengthen, tinges of red and orange began to creep up on the pearly blue sky, and the warm desert air became cooler. Tey fought the urge to shiver and trotted to keep up with Jyuna, from whom he’d fallen behind. His legs were beginning to feel like logs, yet they didn’t seem any closer to their destination. He hoped they’d get there soon: his head injury was beginning to throb, as were the bruises around his throat.
“Why—” he panted, struggling to match Jyuna’s long-legged pace. “Why—can’t you just—teleport us—wherever it is—we’re going—”
Jyuna cast Tey a condescending glance. “Teleportation magic doesn’t work in this palace except in a few places. Most of which are the outer courtyards, unfortunately.”
“This palace—” Tey grappled with the million wild questions floating in his head, seizing on one to place into words. “You built it?”
A noncommittal shrug. “Not really.”
Not really? What’s that mean? But of course Tey knew what it meant—it was an evasion, a non-answer. Tey grit his teeth and continued following Jyuna.
At length, Jyuna said, “Oh, here we are,” before pausing in front of an archway. This building looked different than the others: It wasn’t nearly as low to the ground, and the archway was decorated, surrounded with an edging of blue glass tiles that rippled in the dying light.
“Aww, we’ll have to pass through Aiday’s lair,” sighed Jyuna, shaking his head. His ponytail swung slightly, like the tail of a burdenbeast. Tey watched Jyuna nervously, wondering what this “Aiday” was—a monster who they’d have to face?
Jyuna was already stepping through the archway. Tey could do nothing but follow. They entered a small courtyard which resembled the one that Tey had first entered. Jyuna crossed it in quick strides and reached an archway on the opposite wall, also edged with blue glass tiles. It was blocked by a beaded curtain, which Jyuna carelessly drew aside before beckoning for Tey to follow him in. Tey obeyed, even though his heart was hammering a violent staccato against his ribcage. Even though he didn’t want to admit it…he was expecting a monster.
Instead, he saw a room, a small and dark room with blue-painted walls. The first thing Tey’s eyes were drawn to was a circular pool set in the floor, shimmering with deep blue water and rimmed with broken glass mosaic. Tey stared, entranced, at the motion of the water in the pool: it seemed to almost have a consciousness, like it was communicating secret meanings with every ripple across its surface.
“Don’t look at the water,” murmured Jyuna, his breath hot in Tey’s ear. Tey jumped, startled by how close Jyuna had gotten to him. He turned to tell Jyuna to back off, but then he noticed the woman sitting on a bench in front of the pool.
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Yeah...this where the whole "meet the family" aspect comes in. I feel like I'm dumping all these introductions on the reader without giving them time to adjust, but the problem is that I need these introductions out of the way to properly set up the rest of the Presulis viewpoint scenes. >_> So I'm stuck in a bit of a quandary here.
And I think I'm starting to stretch out the whole "what is Presulis" thing far waaaay too long, beyond the point of suspense and to the point of annoyance. Overall, I'm the least fond of the second part of the chapter. As it is, though, I feel the first third of the story drags enough as it is so I don't want to drag it out even longer by randomly inserting introductions at random points...hahaha yeah, I'm not making sense anymore. Leave me alone, it's getting late!
Next part (FINALLY) we'll find out what Presulis is! Again, I extend greatest gratitude, love, and (perhaps mostly importantly...) reviews to the people who've been sticking with me all this way. I'm glad to know that this story is worth pursuing, at least.
