The Chronicles of Heaven's War: Burning Phoenix (93 page)

Looking past Hanna into the darkness of the
room beyond, Apollonius sighed, resigned. “Drorli says that Ishtar
has to grow up fast. The hour is already upon us… the reason for
Lowenah’s meeting today. My dearest Hanna, the ending hour has
arrived and there is no turning it back. I’ve already signed on for
Marine duty, been given an officer’s commission.” He looked out
toward the road. “Will be leaving with tomorrow’s sun for training
school.”

Hanna bolted upright in her chair, but
before she could make reply, the sound of a motorcar coming down
the road fell upon their ears. In only moments, the auto was parked
at the curb and a smiling Merna, all dressed up in new Army attire,
pranced down the walkway toward the couple. They both stood in
surprise, watching their friend strutting her fancy new dress
uniform.

“Well, what do we have here?!” Apollonius
exclaimed in wonder. “You went off and joined the Army or
something?”

Merna stopped and snapped smartly to
attention. She grinned. “Signed up a week ago, but waited to tell
anyone until I got my new duds. You two are the first to know.
Gonna go and kill some demon scum! Yep, gonna get some revenge, I
am...” She hurried up onto the porch and gave Hanna and Apollonius
giant hugs.

After inviting Merna to sit, the three
carried on with a little friendly banter, Apollonius finally
asking, “So what made you choose the Army? You caught me by
surprise on this one.”

“Well…” Merna began. “I’ve been assisting
Eurawha and Drorli out here in the village for some months before
Ishtar’s arrival. Drorli is a master storyteller, and spun me some
good yarns about a few of his adventures in the Army. I think that
influenced me a bit.”

She took a sip of some tea Hanna had poured
for her. “The biggest thing, though, I believe, is that Alba
received a letter of invite to join up with the Army. They’ve
arranged for her to attend officer training school. I…”

Apollonius bolted upright in his chair.
“Alba’s leaving to be in the Army?! Does James know about this
yet?”

Merna said it was so. “Yes, just two days
ago she told him. We had a little party to celebrate. He was just
beaming the whole time, thinking about his lady becoming an officer
and all.”

Apollonius nodded approvingly. “They always
were so close. I was so saddened back then. You remember hearing
about, don’t you? Sure, you must have. Hanna would have told you
about it back when the fever took Alba. It ruined James. Hey! Did
he say if he’s going to join up?”

“Well, yes, but not with the Army.” Merna
explained. “Wanted to bunk aboard a ship, but not have to swab the
deck, so he’s accepted an invitation to join the Marines, doing
ship duty.” She turned to Hanna, asking, “What about you? Have you
made any plans yet?”

Hanna silently stared down at the floor in
thought for some time, finally answering. “As you know, I’ve
already been active in military affairs, at least from time to
time, shipped aboard a bilander out of Stargaton doing border
patrol for a few months. Although I was signed up for Navy, I was
soon directed to temporary Marine duty.”

She blushed. “Made a good friend of the
Marine officer in charge... Anyway, I got a letter from him a while
back, telling me he was promoted to captain of the guard over the
Marines on the imperial frigate, Sharon, and asked me if I would be
willing to sign on with him as his 1
^st
leftenant.” Hanna
did not tell them she would also be his bunk mate. “A packet is
pulling from Palace City Spaceport the day after tomorrow that will
deliver me to the Fourth Fleet. The Sharon’s what the Navy calls a
‘ghost raider’, sails alone on patrol most of the time. When it
rendezvous with the main fleet to resupply, I’ll hitch aboard.”

Surprised, Apollonius raised an eyebrow,
exclaiming in question, “So, when were you going to tell us? Send
us a letter after you’d left? And Symeon! Does he know yet?”

Hanna leaned forward, her hands clutching
the chair arms, defending her silence. “I was going to tell you all
tonight, after Symeon and Drorli were returned from the Special
Meeting. No secrets. I just thought, knowing Symeon, that it was
better for him if I waited until after today’s meeting.” She leaned
back in the chair. “Besides, Symeon has already accepted King
Mihai’s offer to serve on her council. He’s going off on some
diplomatic errand to some place called… oh… ‘Tilgath City on
Pilneser’, leaving in just a few days.”

She grumped, a jealous tone in her voice.
“Didn’t even ask me to go along... Had some cutie hanging on his
arm - a ‘
Chuntay
’ somebody or other - who was going off to
be his aide-de-camp. Claimed Army Command wanted to set up
independent operations systems in strategic locations across the
Empire. Said this Chuntay was an expert in such things. Well,
anyway, I didn’t get invited. So… so I chose to go my own way, and
poof!
Up arrives this letter.”

“What’s gonna happen to our girl in there?”
Apollonius pointed toward the doorway. “Seems she’s being left
alone.”

Merna piped in. “Not everyone’s leaving
right away. I’ll be here a while. And Drorli says he has an entire
team staying to help Ishtar until she’s off for military training,
which will be soon if I understand what I heard.”

Apollonius shrugged, bewildered. “Sounds
like he’s got little time before his team scatters across the
Empire. What’s he planning on doing with the girl, rebuilding her
in one of those machines to become a nice, obedient child?”

Hanna punched Apollonius in the arm. “You
stop it now!” She scolded. “Ishtar’s been through a lot and is
having a hard time adjusting.”

Rubbing his arm, Apollonius replied sourly,
“Well she’s gonna have to adjust pretty fast! At this rate, Lowenah
may send her back for someone easier to work with - maybe that
governor.”

Merna stood up and began pummeling
Apollonius. “Be careful or they may be sending
you
back for
repairs!”

Apollonius held his arm up, crying, “Sorry!
Sorry! I forgot, thinking of the fellow when I knew him. A changed
man he was! A changed man!”

Merna’s face clouded. “
He murdered my
Hilen
, and for that I cannot forgive him, at least not now... I
saw him only as an evil old monster, see him so. Someday, should he
return, as some of you believe, then…well, we’ll see. When I hold
my little girl in my arms again, then we’ll see.”

Apollonius sighed, slowly moving his head
from side to side as he peered down at the porch floor. “We all did
things that needed living down, some of us more so than others. I…
well… it took me a while to grow up. Then there’s Treston. He’s
treated us all like gold, and…” He looked at Merna. “how many times
has he begged your forgiveness? And you’ve seemed to have accepted
him.”

Merna looked down, playing with her fingers.
“I never really remembered him, so it was easier to forgive, plus
I’ve had time to get to know him, see the kind of person he is.”
Her face clouded. “The governor, I remember.
He ordered the
murder of my child… his command
...”

For some time, the three sat in silence.
Apollonius finally stood, suggesting they check on Ishtar. “It’s
been a while. Let’s see how our girl’s doing. If she’s settled down
a bit, we could offer to take her for a drive in that auto machine.
There’s a farm not far from here that Ishtar might like to
visit.”

The others agreed, and soon all had
disappeared back through the doorway to check on their charge.

(
Author’s note:
Although Hanna’s
role in the King’s War is of no little significance, she has become
one of the lesser known figures of that tumultuous time. Early
during the expansion of the Children’s Empire, at the beginning of
the Fourth Age, Hanna departed with the Tarezabarian Fleet for the
far reaches of the galaxy, eventually establishing a colony in a
newly discovered star system.

When it came time for the Tarezabarians
to move on in their ever-search for new and undiscovered star
systems, Hanna and a few others remained behind, they and their
descendants spreading out among the stars in that region. The
distant mountain city of
StolosisDistomissy
[Lit:
‘The Twin Pillars’, or the ‘Gateway to Beyond’, named after the
Pillars of Hercules, the passage point from the Great Sea into the
open ocean beyond, the passage Hanna’s grandfather often sailed in
his adventures] became the further-most outpost on the edge of the
Frontier. To this day, the city is considered the last bastion of
civilization before one enters the uncharted skies of the galaxy’s
eastern quadrant.

The planet,
TerasTereo,
is
home to the city of
StolosisDistomissy
. Its name
means ‘Wonderful Keep’. In time, that name came to encompass the
entire
Dodeka
Star Cluster (having twelve stars) and
its four inhabitable star systems.

StolosisDistomissy was made the capital
city over the entire Dodeka Principality, and Hanna was appointed
its
ArchonArchitriklinos
(Lit: ‘Ruler over the
sustenance of the house’). Her given name has long since gone out
of common use, she being better known by her title of ‘
Queen
PoimainoDeDistomissy’
, Shepherd over the Gateway, or
‘
Queen
Poimaino’
, the Shepherd Queen.

CythereaNoah’ha included a lengthy
account of Hanna’s heroic history in her exhaustive writings
regarding select women of the early ages. From her accounts, I have
borrowed liberally to help provide in-depth information about, and
to flesh out some of my own accounts concerning a few of these
outstanding people. With
Cytherea’s
generous
permission, I include a small excerpt from her book about
Hanna.

~Excerpted from CythereaNoah’ha’s
Book:
Daughters of the Dragon Saints
,
Chapter 7, ‘Dragon Queens’: “Hanna’s grandfather was a traveling
merchant. He had taken a wife from the people of the western lands.
They were dark-skinned, seafaring traders. Stories had been told of
their wanderings far beyond the Pillars of Hercules. Such a woman
pleased her grandfather because of his own love for travel and the
sea. Their children grew up feeling the heaving deck beneath their
feet more often than solid ground. Hanna’s golden-brown skin was a
gift from her grandmother through her mother. Her long, thick,
brunette locks, sparkling cyan eyes, long sensuous eyelashes and
rich full brows came from her father. It was said that some of his
ancestors were the infamous warriors who roamed the land before her
people possessed it. The women of that race were, as legend had it,
among the most beautiful creatures to ever walk the planet and also
most to be feared, they taking up the axe and javelin in battle
beside their men.

“…
Hanna, though, chose not to remarry
after the death of her husband. She had long before befriended
Symeon and hoped that one day, after her youngest was grown and
married, she would be able to convince her friend to make room in
his life for her company. Circumstances never did allow this, but
when Symeon’s feet journeyed to Ephesus, they would find their way
to Hanna’s door. Symeon was an aged man and Hanna not much younger
when Ishtar died in the arena. Neither ever returned to Ephesus,
nor did their paths cross again in that Realm.

Hanna went into the wilds of the North
Country to reside with her late husband’s relatives, living well
into her nineties. Symeon journeyed on to fulfill his destiny,
eventually suffering a martyr’s death as was prophesied of him long
before.”)

* * *

As if rising up in a ghostly mist, Lowenah
silently appeared all aglow with majestic splendor in the middle of
the lighted floor. Before them stood not the petite woman clothed
in dancing golden hair the children lovingly called ‘Mother’. No!
This day the crowd gazed upon the
King
of kings and
Lord
of lords as she cast her fiery gaze about the chambers.
The chained glory of the immortal universe could be felt hiding
behind those piercing eyes burning with unbridled energy.

Upon her head there rested a crown, but not
of diamond or gold, jade or chrysolite. Above her there spun the
galaxies of fiery stars, all ablaze in hues of blinding intensity.
For a garment, she wore the universe in all its radiance, and
beneath her feet were placed the sun and all its planets spinning
about in perfect balance, with their harmonic pulses reverberating
through the Theater. The heartbeat of the universe echoed off the
walls and into the very being of every child gathered there - the
heartbeat that drove all things both inanimate and living, the beat
that bonded all matter together that made life possible.

Without a word, Lowenah searched the hearts
of everyone present. When her white-hot, burning orbs locked their
focus upon a soul, that person could feel a roaring fire erupt
within, racing through and into every fiber and nerve to the
deepest corner of sense and consciousness to the point of stripping
away of mind and spirit, leaving the body an empty shell of naked
honesty. Then her gaze would pass, leaving little more than a
haunting memory of a passing storm as a restful calm settled all
about.

There was something else that remained after
Mother’s searching stare passed, an aching knowledge that things
were changing, had changed. Lowenah’s hand was lifting up and she
was quietly backing away. The children could feel a chasm growing
between them and her. It was as if a message were being sent,
telling them that whatever was to come must be delivered by their
own hands, that Fate was now servant to their will and she would
abstain from interfering with where they might take that Fate. They
were now come the gods to decide the future. Alone, they would
stand or fall.