Star City - Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Zenith

There was no doubt in her mind that she was about to die. She did not know how. In what form. By who. But she had never been more sure of anything in her life.

It had taken her twenty minutes to walk all the way round from the council towers. It was physically impossible to do it in 180 seconds, even at the fastest of sprints.

But she didn’t stop running. Why had she even left in the first place? It was more of an angry, rhetorical thought. The fury erupted once more within her. She knew damn well why.

The alleys were utterly silent. No one. Not one person. Her bare feet slammed off the diamond tiles as sweat shined on her forehead, silver hair streaking out behind her like the tail of an interstellar comet.

But then she saw it. A gate in the high wall to her right. She had reached the first few council towers. These had to be the homes of some of the most important dignitaries in Marlaya, she thought absently, a wild hope erupting inside her mind. Without a second thought she threw herself at the gate, why lock a door when you were in a world of no crime? A short-cut. It had to be. Never mind if it was private property.

She was in a vast courtyard. In the centre was a beautiful fountain, twisting upwards into the shape of a serpentine dragon. It sparkled eerily in the gloom. She checked her wrist again. Cutting directly across the private courtyards would completely cut out the winding, curving root that had taken her so long. She could make it.

So quiet.

She scurried across the silent square, holding her breath, not daring to even look up at the sinister tower looming over her. She launched herself at the far wall, the tips of her fingers just making it over the edge. With a soft cry of exertion she managed to haul herself onto the narrow ledge. Another three courtyards stretched out before her.

She was taking a slow breath, readying herself to lurch once more into a sprint across the next square, when something made her look to her left. Some sudden urge.

It took her several seconds to realise what she was looking at. Not at. Through. She was looking through a window across a pillared balcony that was almost level with her on the tower. It was clearly a bedroom, lit by the soft golden light of several lanterns. But all she could see was the person standing in its centre.

It was a boy, his muscled chest bare as he fiddled with something hanging round his neck. It was some kind of medallion, secured over his heart by a slender silver chain. Koretta found herself staring at his face. He had to be maybe nineteen rotations old, his thick hair a pale golden colour, like starlight. Such chiselled features. A strong jaw, perfect nose, long eyelashes. Though she was within touching distance of the balcony she couldn’t make out his eyes, the delicate shadows just a fraction too tight. There was a fierce concentration on his face as he turned a thin wiry tool into the centre of the medallion. It beeped three times before shining with a sudden blue light that seemed to coat his golden skin in an ethereal glow.

Her breath caught. As her hand flew up to her mouth, the boy looked up.

A flash of surprise passed over his face and for half a second they just stared at each other, but then he surged forwards.

‘Hey!’ He stepped out onto the balcony. ‘Who-?’

But she took a running leap off the wall, panic searing through her. She didn’t look back until she had dropped into the final courtyard, crossing it in seconds and collapsing over the side of the far wall. She just crouched there in the alley for several seconds, trying to steady her racing heart. But another glance at her wrist set her off sprinting once more.

It was with barely ten seconds to spare that she finally burst through the entrance to her father’s tower, falling to her knees and trying not to retch. She pressed her forehead to the cool diamond and focused on breathing.

‘Koretta.’

Breathe. Breathe.

‘Koretta.’

She wearily got to her feet. Well, at least he had changed out of those damn robes. Her father was standing in the centre of the hallway, an expression of utter outrage burning in his electric blue eyes.

‘What the hell were you thinking?’ he snapped. She didn’t answer.

‘Do you want to live to see your seventeenth rotation, or not? Is this some sort of twisted death wish?’

For a moment she merely stared at his thin lips, but then she suddenly realised what he had just said.

‘Death wish,’ she said abruptly, stepping forwards, her eyes wide. He looked slightly alarmed, opening his mouth to yell again, but she cut him off.

‘So your saying if you violate the curfew… you die? Is that what you’re saying? It is, isn’t it?’ She was shouting now, an inexplicable excitement coursing through her.

‘Don’t be absurd,’ he snapped, whirling around and storming into the Gallery. She surged after him.

‘What happens if you break the curfew? Is it the Elder Guards? Do they wake up? Or is there some kind of secret police?’

‘Silence,’ he bellowed, turning on her, his deep voice echoing up towards the arched roof so far above.

‘Why do you never answer my questions?’ she yelled at him, almost shaking with rage, ‘do you really have so much respect for the damned Elders? You’ve never even met them? Why are you keeping their secrets?’ But there was something about the expression on his face that brought her up short. ‘Wait… you don’t know… do you?’

His jaw was clenched, eyes wide with fury. But he said nothing.

‘You don’t know what happens after the curfew, no one does.’ She took another step forwards, searching his face, her heart racing. ‘Answer me.’

‘It’s more complicated than that Koretta-’

‘What’s so complicated?’

‘Listen… you will say nothing about these things in public, you will stop asking questions… do you understand me?’ She had never heard his voice so dangerous, never seen such an expression of dark severity on his face ever before. And it frightened her. All she could do was nod imperceptibly as he bellowed.

‘You will go to your room right now, and in the morning, you will accompany me to the Great Council. You will not speak unless spoken to and only with my express permission… Now, leave.’

Koretta backed away slowly, paling under the wrath bleeding from his eyes. She didn’t turn away until she was back in the entrance hall, his motionless silhouette still watching her from the darkness, imprisoned in the weak lantern light.

Slowly, she implored herself, walking calmly up the spiral stairway. Her emotions were in utter turmoil, but she forced herself to wash quickly, change out of her study uniform, and finally slide under the thick feather duvet of her four-poster bed.

Some way to start her seventeenth rotation, she thought bitterly, glancing at her wrist. All she could think about, however, was not the wild anger and frustration at her father, not the Great Council she would be attending in mere hours, or even the Elders. Ramming itself behind her eyes was the boy’s face. She longed to know what he had been doing with the strange medallion, the strength of her curiosity overriding the humiliation and embarrassment at being caught watching him minutes before the curfew, perched on top of the diamond wall outside his home as he stood there half-naked. She pulled the covers higher up her face, toes curling. And would she ever see him again?

Her studies at the Marlayan Academy were in a priority class of only five others. And none of them did she call a friend. All of them seemed to be carbon copies of the adults, blind to the illusion of reality. She had spent eleven rotations now studying the core knowledge units mandatory to all citizens: philosophy, ethical morality, religion, epistemology…

She couldn’t care less about any of it.

Finally, her turbulent thoughts began to unravel and she fell into a half-dream state, her breathing becoming mechanical.

But far away in the creeping gloom, at the heart of Marlaya, a diamond gate slid back. For the first time in centuries, the outside air collided with the cold metal chest, the clenched fists, the sleek helmet, the whirring mechanical joints…

And the Elder Guard blinked.