sorcery and science 04.5 - masquerade (5 page)

“Are they still watching?” he asked, his voice lowered.

“Yes. Davin practically has his nose pressed up against the glass. And he said he didn’t even want to come today,” she told him, rolling her eyes.

Jason fiddled with the jewelry box in his hands. “You know what this is all about already, right?”

“Yes,” she nodded, snorting. “They want us to get married.”

“And what do you think about that?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess we have awhile until we have to worry about it.”

“Maybe, but I’m supposed to give this to you
now
,” Jason emphasized.

He lifted up the top of the box, revealing the pendant inside. Terra brushed her fingers up the silver chain to the sapphire gemstone.

“It’s so pretty!” she gasped.

Jason felt proud as she said this, though he really had no reason to be. He hadn’t picked it out. In fact, he’d had absolutely nothing to do with the whole thing.

“Aren’t you going to put it on me?” she asked, her hands buzzing as she turned her back to him.

He set the open box on the grass and lifted the chain over her head, fastening it at the back of her neck. She twirled around to face him again, fingering the pendant as she looked down to give it an admiring look. Just like a girl, she was thinking of nothing but its sparkle. Jason didn’t think she’d processed what this all meant for them—for their entire lives.

There was a jingle of laughter and the resonance of conversation as the others spilled out of the winter garden and joined them on the lawn. All faux formality gone, King River patted Jason on the back as Jason’s father kissed Terra on the forehead, and the two men embraced each other. And then all of them proceeded to have a fun afternoon of fighting with Summer Sticks, playing Wilderness, and running through the mud.

STORY THREE

The Portal Loop

~ 1 ~

515AX December 5, Chrysalis

“HOLD STILL, LANA,” Jason said, flipping his knife around in the air.

The knife’s silver metal gleamed in the hot summer sunlight, but its surface was cool to the touch. ‘Leaves’, the throwing knives of southern Elitia, were characterized by the row of circular holes in their flat handles and by how lightweight they were. Right now, Jason had five strapped to each of his arms, and he hardly noticed the weight.

“I
am
holding still,” Lana insisted. She stood with her arms spread away from her sides and her back pressed against a tree trunk.

“Are you ready?” he asked her.

“Yes,” she hiccuped.

Jason took in a final preparatory breath, then launched the five pairs of knives in quick succession. They whistled through the air, flying toward Lana.

Thump, thump. Thump, thump. Thump, thump. Thump, thump. Thump, thump. They sank in softly.

“Is it over?” Lana asked, cracking one eyelid open.

“See for yourself.”

Lana opened her eyes fully and gasped as she looked down. The ten silver handles stuck out of the rough bark, forming a tight outline around her arms and torso.

“You missed,” she said.

“I don’t miss.”

She frowned as she yanked out a knife that had cut through the corner of her shirt. “You put a hole in my shirt.”

“As I said, I don’t miss.”

“Jerk,” she muttered, brushing her fingers over the hole.

“Brat,” he countered.

“What’s going on here?”

Jason turned at the sound of his mother’s voice and slapped on his neutral face. Mother looked from Lana, to the knives in the tree, to him.

“Have you been throwing knives at your sister?” she demanded, her voice raised in outrage.

Clearly, his neutral face still needed some work.

“I didn’t throw them at Lana. I threw them at the tree.”

“While she was standing in front of the tree.”

Jason shrugged. “It was too easy otherwise.”

Mother’s mouth dropped in disbelief. “I…I don’t even know what to say to your total lack of judgement, Jason. You could have hit her.”

“No.”

“And if you had?”

Jason thought about that for a moment. “She would have healed.”

“Most children don’t heal as fast as you do, Jason,” Mother said. She pulled the knives out of the tree and dropped them into a basket. “In fact, most adult Elitions don’t heal as fast as you do.”

That’s because, at the age of nine, he was already wielding Phantom powers. He hadn’t gone through his Passing—his physical features were still mostly unchanged—but he could do things. Things like sensing resonances and mind-shifting objects. And he was really fast. Jason had heard some people whisper that he would someday be the Elite Phantom, and he sure liked the sound of that.

“He put a knife through my shirt,” Lana piped up as she tossed the knife in her hand into the basket.

Mother looked over the hole in the fabric, then turned a glare on Jason that only mothers were capable of.

“There’s no blood,” he said.

“I think you’re done playing with knives for today, Jason,” she decided. “Why don’t you open a book or something? Don’t you have homework?”

Perhaps. Jason wasn’t sure. He never did homework anyway. And his mother knew that.

She let out a resigned sigh. “Just try to stay out of trouble. Lana, how about you go get changed?”

Prim and obedient, Lana walked beside their mother as she dropped off the basket of weapons in the shed. She was such a goody-goody.

Jason looked up at the sky. The morning wasn’t even half over, and he was bored. Maybe he’d go for a run in the woods. Maybe some bandits would try to abduct him, and then he could fight them off. He wished Terra were there. Whenever she was with him, they always managed to find some adventure or another. No one was looking. He could run to the portal and be in Laelia in no time.

Just as he’d resolved to do that, he felt the hum of an opening portal ripple through his body. He looked out to the edge of the front lawn and was surprised to see King River walking toward the house with hurried steps. Terra had said her father would be in Orion for the weekend, and yet here he was. King River moved with an air of urgency, aggravation seeping off of him with every step. Jason was obscured by the gigantic shed, so King River didn’t even notice him as he stormed through the open winter garden doors. He didn’t even stop to knock. That was odd. King River was always such an unbearable stickler for protocol.

Before Jason could follow, he felt a second ripple. He was so tuned into her resonance that he knew who it was before he even turned. Terra.

Unlike her father, she saw him immediately. She ran toward him so fast that he nearly fell back from the impact of her hug. Jason tightened his hold around her, steadying them both.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“It’s Father. He came back home all of a sudden in a real mood, grumbling about loyalty and alliances. I think something happened with the Selpes.”

The Selpes. Jason had to agree with Father when he said they were bad news.

“What happened?” he asked her.

“I asked, but he wouldn’t say anything except he had to see your father at once. Then he ran off to the Gateway and took the portal here.”

“And you followed to spy on him.”

“I have a really bad feeling about this, Jason,” she told him.

“Like a foresight?”

“Not exactly. Kind of. I don’t know.” She took his hand. “Come with me, Jason. We need to figure out what’s going on.”

She sounded so serious that Jason didn’t say a thing—not even to tease her as he often did. They crept toward the house, then ducked under the open window of the winter garden and waited in perfect silence, ears perked.

“Rhys? We weren’t expecting you. Please sit. It’s very hot today. May I offer you some chilled tea?” Jason’s mother said.

“No, Danielle, thank you. I cannot stay long.” There was the rustle of papers. “I have brought these documents for Edward to sign.”

A chair screeched back against the wood floor. Jason rose in his knees to peer through the window as his father walked across the floor to King River. He took the papers, and a frown formed on his lips as he read.

“I’ve made my view on this matter quite clear, Rhys,” he said.

“As have I, Edward,” replied King River. “Elitia needs to maintain this alliance.”

“We don’t. The Selpes’ price is too high. I will not send more of our people from Pegasus to them. We aren’t weapons to be used in their power struggles. Their war with the Avans is over. We kept up our end of the deal. They should be sending Elitions home, not demanding more of us. I’ve been saying this since…”

Since Jasmine Cross died half a year ago. Beside Jason, a tear slid down Terra’s cheek. He gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

“Jasmine was killed by Avans,” King River said roughly, holding back some tears of his own.

“And where were our Selpe allies when that happened?” Father demanded.

King River took a deep breath. “Edward, please. I need you to stand with me on this.”

Father looked at him long and hard. “They’ve given you an ultimatum?”

“All or nothing,” replied King River. “They won’t deal with a non-unified Elitia. Either I reclaim your allegiance, or the deal is off. I will lose my place on the Council and with it any chance of influencing Selpe politics. But worse than that, Elitia will lose Selpe protection.”

“In other words, they’ll invade,” Edward said. “Some friends you have there.”

“
You
are my friend, Edward. I ask for your help now, if not as your leader, then as your friend.”

“It’s too much, Rhys. The Selpes have gone too far. I see them roaming Elitia, scouring our kingdoms with a predatory eye. We aren’t people to them. No, to them we’re nothing more than living weapons. How long before they begin experimenting on us as the Xenens once did? Is that what you want—to sell our people into slavery, to have us deployed as weapons or showcased like exotic creatures?”

“That won’t happen.”

“It has already begun. They’re hunting us down.”

“No,” said King River. “I would know about that.”

“Would you?” Father demanded. “Would you indeed? Then it might interest you to learn that Selpe soldiers have already tried to abduct Jason five times. There have also been a few attempts made by various bandits and bounty hunters. All in all, he’s evaded capture over a dozen times.”

“A dozen times…”

“It has already begun,” Father repeated.

King River shook his head. “No. They must have been a rogue division. The Emperor would never—”

“Wake up, Rhys!” Father shouted out. “Your emperor is no longer in control. Selpe lords will do whatever they want. And they want us. Not as allies. Not as comrades. But as
slaves
.”

“I’m trying to protect Elitia.”

“The Selpes do not share that goal. They seek to subjugate us, not protect us. They didn’t protect Jasmine, and they won’t protect any of the rest of us.”

“Leave Jasmine out of this,” King River growled.

“The Selpes are no good for Elitia, for its people, for anyone,” Father continued. “They’re no good. Period. Maybe you don’t care for my son, but what if it had been your daughter? What if they had come for Terra?”

“And now you will leave Terra out of this,” said King River, his resonance freezing over.

“How long do you think it will take before they realize how special she is? And when they do, it will be your daughter in danger. Then maybe you’ll listen. Then maybe you’ll see.”

“I will not be threatened, Edward!” King River bellowed.

Father let out a heavy sigh. “I’m not threatening you, Rhys. I’m just warning you of what the Selpes will do.” He set a hand on King River’s shoulder. “We’ve been friends for a long time. We’ve always listened to each other. Will you listen to me now?”

“Will you listen to me?” countered King River. “Will you do your duty to Elitia and to your high king by signing these papers now?”

“I must protect my family and my kingdom, and so I will not sign,” Father said, pushing the paper back at King River.

“Then there’s nothing left for us to discuss.”

King River stormed out of the house. His incensed teal-green eyes locked on Terra and Jason where they sat beneath the open window.

“Terra, you shouldn’t have come here. And now we’re leaving,” he told her.

“But, Father—”

“Come,” he repeated, his voice harder.

Terra looked at Jason, her eyes frozen on him. King River stepped between them.

“And before we go, return the pendant to Prince Jason,” he said.

She set her hand on her chest, holding to the silver-chained sapphire pendant. “But Father.”

“Do it now.”

“Rhys, is this really necessary?” Father asked from the doorway. “They’re just children. What would Jasmine say?”

“If she were still with us, she would mourn the betrayal of our closest friends,” King River shot back. “Now, Terra, the pendant. I won’t ask again.”

With tears streaming down her face, Terra unclasped the chain and set it slowly into Jason’s palm. Her hand lingered for a woeful second, until King River tugged her away. Jason watched her shuffle behind her father, struggling to look back at him as she was pulled off. Even when she’d disappeared through the portal, Jason kept his eyes locked on where he’d last seen her. With Terra’s body no longer there to warm it, the pendant sat cold and dead in his hand.

~ 2 ~

516AX April 18, Rosewater

THE FOUNTAIN AT the center of Rosewater featured a ring of a dozen water-spewing winged horses rearing their muscular legs atop open rose blossoms. Each pegasus was slightly different, whether in the thickness of its tail, the spread of its wings, the shape of its eyes, the pattern on its back—or in many other sorts of ways. Jason had found himself with ample opportunities to observe these differences. He’d stood there against the fountain every single day after school for the past half year.