Aliens- USK Invasion
Idea from 1997, 5th grade...
Foreword
"Nibba dorf meep," one alien said. This choice bit of alien-speak meant, "Let’s destroy Earth," and it had been on everyone’s tongues since the last invasion of Zixadoo-5. The aliens had been beaten in the end, and Zixadoo-5 was crawling with humans. Well, good riddance to them! The aliens, using "Nibba dorf meep" as their battle cry, killed the humans. Then they started off for Earth.
Dugh, USK
A tiny hut in the Mahara Desert
"Ho, hum," sighed Kit MacMiran. She’d been waiting for some signal to come along all day, some sign of invading life out there. If she found nothing tonight, her research grant would be taken away from her and she’d have no means of proving that her alien-detecting machine worked. Now, she was busily tidying up, and would have continued that way peacefully if not for the shout from the back room of the tent.
Undoubtedly, it was Crazy Jack, and he had some news. "This is it, baby, the big one! Come over, Kit, and see what we have here!" Kit strolled into the back room expecting a tightrope walking cockroach or a scorpion in a tuxedo, but what she saw was a completely different matter.
"There’s a signal," she said, not believing her eyes. Before her baby blues were fragments of a conversation. She recognized the signals and language as being from Zixadoo-5, the most hostile planet she’d ever encountered. She had been part of the expedition to that outermost rock in the Chocolate Rings, the neighboring galaxy. But her mother had died and she’d come back home to her family. Now it appeared as if she was the only one of her crew left. The Zixadooans had killed every last human on their planet and were heading to Earth, along with allies from Zixadoo-1, 2, 3, and 4. It looked as if they were in for a big battle. Kit faxed her findings to her sister, Lizzie, the secretary to Queen Kitten.
Cattia District, Cool Cat City, Animalia
The Green House
A document was printing out on the fax machine in the Queen’s chambers. Her secretary, Lizzie MacMiran, looked the document over. It had become a habit when she was just starting out, and now that she had been doing so for five years, she just couldn’t stop! This particular document was from her sister, Kit, the great scientist and inventor. Lizzie’s green eyes widened and her black hair flew behind her as she raced into the Queen’s private room. She was entertaining her guests from Backsea Woods. They were the only family she had. The Queen took the document and scanned it.
"Your Majesty: I beg to report that there are aliens invading from the Zixadoo cluster, on the Chocolate Rings. All humans on the cluster’s five planets are dead. My machine does, indeed, work. All in tribute and panic, Lady Kit MacMiran."
Queen Kitten Crazy de Backsea thought about the impending attack. She was no longer young, yet she could still lead her troops into battle, she supposed. Even a dinosaur of fifty was still able to command 5000 troops and attack with the same precision as she had 30 years earlier, as a young ambassador from the USK’s sister country, the United States of America. Her thoughts then shifted to her family in Backsea Woods- her twin sister, Princess Christina Crazy de Backsea, her cats, Ruby, Jesse, Sadie, Sassy, Rusty, Misty, and Mouse; and the Rodentia and Feline Alliance based there, dating from her seventh great-aunt Duchess Caitren de Foxhall’s years at sea with her husband and Kitten’s seventh great-uncle, Sir Tristan deRose. Tristan was dark, with black hair and eyes. She supposed that was why she had deep tan skin, blond –well, silvery blond- hair, and blue eyes. Those piercing ocean blue eyes hardened and the light gleamed off her silver-blond curls as she turned to Lizzie and said, "Prepare the USK for an invasion. Send me the Queen’s Fighters, and order them here come hell or high water." It was going to be a long and hard fight, but she would die before surrendering to that alien slime.
Pettish District, South Mammal, Organism
The Coriander Factory
Eliza Millan was sleeping peacefully in her tiny closet-sized room until her alarm clock rang with enough vigor to jolt her to wakefulness. It rang so hard that it shivered and twitched itself off the bedside table. Eliza was part of the Queen’s Fighters, in the First Brigade. She knew that at any time, she must be ready to fight for the Queen, but there hadn’t been any fights in all her 21 years, so she never suspected the coming attack.
"Wake up, Eliza," cajoled Feather Copper. Feather was the proprietor of Feather’s House, a club in the Night Owl District of South Mammal. It offered live entertainment (swab out your dirty minds; it’s a theater and cabaret establishment!) and choice suppers. Feather’s food was a lot better than the gruel the factory served, anyway. Feather was one of few workers who boarded somewhere other than the factory, and everybody envied her for it. "We need to get up now, so we can do our day’s work, so we can make it to the club earlier. Tonight’s the premiere of ‘Alice’s Gate,’ or have you forgotten in your dreams about Will?" she teased.
"Oh, stuff it up a little orifice in your- hey, who’s that?" asked Eliza, pointing. A messenger, dressed in what appeared to be the Queen’s Courier uniform, was racing through the corridors of the bunkhouse to get to someone. And that someone was Eliza Millan.
"Sorry, pardon me, whoopsie!" exclaimed Sam Berkshire, a British import, blushing deeply as he encountered a woman in a state of undress. He was not young anymore, and it had been ten years since he had seen anything resembling a school or a factory job. "Oh, bother, where are you, Lady Eliza Millan?" he muttered as he sped by her nook.
"Back here, mister," Feather called out the door, sending Eliza into peals of laughter.
"Feather, girl, you don’t just bellow to one of the Queen’s Couriers," she explained between giggles. "You hail ‘em, polite-like and gently, idiot!"
Sam, breathless from running, turned around and limped back to Eliza’s bed. "Lady Eliza, I would have a word with you," he said, turning to Feather and grabbing her hand.
"No, not me, I wouldn’t touch all that society crud for all the jewels in the universe. The one you’re lookin’ for is Miss Born-and-Bred-High there. I just shouted to you from back here," explained Feather, backing away. Her mocha skin took on a coral tinge at her high, expressive cheekbones. She kept on going until she hit the hallway, and an orderly with a cart hit her. "Hey, watch where you’re going, you little…" exploded Feather in several long bursts of profanity.
"That’s Feather for you, constantly quarreling with the help," giggled Eliza, who was still in the midst of a laughing fit. "Do sit down," she added, trying to stifle her laughs with her hand. "Now, why do you seek me, sir?" asked Eliza. Sam and Eliza got a good look at each other. Eliza was caught off guard for a moment. Sam was cute, that was for sure. Maybe even handsome… but Eliza caught herself. It was her fiancée she should be thinking about, not a courier. Sam also supposed that Eliza was pretty- no, beautiful, he thought. But he needed to get to the main reason of his quest. Rummaging in his bag of letters, he withdrew a folded summons with the red royal seal keeping it tightly shut.
"This is from the Queen, madam. She requests and requires your presence in the Great Hall of the Green House at 0600 hours tomorrow morning, and would you arrive in your uniform?" Sam explained. The uniform in question, a long white cotton gown with two petticoats, a red kirtle, and a purple sword belt, hung on the closet door. Eliza’s sword was sheathed and placed in a crib beside her bed. It was at her left side, due to the fact that she was left-handed. In fact, all of the Queen’s Fighters were. That was one of the requirements. A bow and arrow also hung in the closet, in case it was a manhunt and not an attack, but the Queen’s note had specified that swords would be needed only. Eliza sighed and threw her long legs over the side of the bed. Her tousled brown hair hung limply from her head, and her tired hazel eyes showed the tiniest bit of alertness and just a hint of curiosity. Her skin was pale from sleep, but that would right itself in a few minutes.
"You may go, then. I shall be there," yawned Eliza. She dismissed the middle-aged courier with a wave of her fine, ringed hand. "But do grant me one more service, sir. Tell me your name."
"Sam Berkshire, madam, at your service," he said reverently. Bowing, he made his way out of the room.
Zone 42, near Los Cagos, Laveda
Building 63
"Yawner, get over here, we got a report!" shouted Mara Joy.
"Where from?" Robert "Yawner" Morris asked, stepping out of his alcove and over to Mara’s computer.
"Looks like the Zixadooans finally organized that revolt they were threatening," said Mara. "A researcher in Dugh, name of Kit MacMiran, picked up the signal while trying to develop a machine to do so. Looks like it works," she smiled.
"Kit MacMiran? Is that Lady Kit?" asked Connie MacMiran, Kit’s cousin from Freesia District, in the city of Beau, Animalia. "She’s my cousin. Let me see that." Before anyone could stop her, Connie was scanning the document. "Well done, Kit," she muttered. Her meddling relative had probably gotten the USK into yet another squabble with the aliens. She tossed the paper back to the desk. "Could you keep it down in here?" she requested. "My kids are trying to sleep."
"Well, if you did your goddamn job instead of babysitting all day, you’d have noticed it," articulated Mara. With that she placed a call to the head of foreign relations, Moria DeNade.
At that moment, Moria was chatting with her ex-husband, Horatio. "Dear, I promise, this year I’ll be home earlier than Christmas Eve for the Christmas celebration. All right? Oh, hold on a minute, there’s another call coming through. Send my love to little Richard and my hate to your other ex, Maria. But give Barbara a hug for me. Love ya like a brother!" she said in a rush. She took Mara’s call then. "Foreign relations, Moria DeNade speaking."
"Moria? Bad news. Apparently there’s been an alien revolt in the Zixadoo cluster and they’re heading straight for Earth, primary target the USK. Just thought I’d let you know!" chirped Mara. Then she hung up, leaving a very confused Moria to wonder what the full meaning of all this was.
Gemmand City, Jewel Kingdom
Ruby Palace
Anyone who had magic gathered here at the Ruby Palace on this favorable day. It was Princess Jewella’s birthday, and although High Queen Kitten had not yet summoned her for a celebration, she still had her best magicians here at work. The seers stood in the western corner, discussing visions and dreams. The elementals were at the east window, checking the air, the earth, the fires, and the seas. The witches were huddled to the south, plotting some scheme or another. And the ragtag bunch in the north was the children of time and fate.
The children were the unwanted ones, cast away by their parents or their guardians. Several were seers’ bastards, having also the ability to do some sort of little magic. At least two dozen were crosses between witches and elementals. Some of these were so powerful that it leaked to their appearance. The ones that bore more heavily to their witch heritage were ugly as sin. There were four outsiders, who could only do small things like levitate or start a fire. They were all but invisible at a gathering, and the only thing that got them invited was the fact that they could do something. You had it or you didn’t, and those that had it were fortunate. Those that didn’t just weren’t.
At that moment, Elene fan Dudrinach thought she was one of those unfortunate souls. Try as she might, the fire that normally could be conjured up in seconds was gone! It had disappeared, she thought, sometime during the night before. Her sleep had left her emptier than she’d ever felt before. Her parents hated her for not having the great elemental magic possessed by every one of her line since the beginning of time. It was in her blood, she thought miserably, and in her full name- she was christened Elene fan Dudrinach wen Garnet. Elene, daughter of Dudrinach, of the Garnet line. But there was one element missing: the "gem Elemé" signifying elemental status. There may have been one or two individuals in the past similarly stricken, but they were cast from the collective wen Garnet memory and Elene would never know for sure if there had been such people. Her fire was always weak, and always violet-blue, a color never seen in any gem or line before. She knew it was so because such an event could never be forgotten. So when their line produced an ugly duckling, they kept it hidden by always spelling her in public, always putting the dark red fire in her hand and teaching her how it felt to have such a tool. But try as she might, she could not find it today, and that saddened her greatly. She bowed her head and wept softly.
Across the crowd, another outsider tried to conjure up a glow that would give her, at least, some semblance of belonging. But it, too, vanished, and that left Niniane Laghren quite sad. She was a famous witch’s bastard daughter. Miranda Laghren had found true love with a human and the product, nine months later, was Niniane. Laghren, her family name, signified light and an ability to fend off the dangers of the dark. So to suddenly lose even a flicker of her former violet-blue glow terrified the young half-witch. She knew nothing of the significance of the violet-blue color, or the secrets that her clan had tried to keep. She knew only shame for being herself. She was forever encouraged to try the light, to feel the light, to give the light. But she loved the darkness more than the light, and this upset her mother and her granddame and grandsire.
At the south side of the northern crowd lingered a boy unlike any the world had ever met. He was Samhin au Dailalu, the only son of the great seer, Haren au Dailalu. Dailalu was "light wind" in the Crazy language they all spoke. Haren was a seer of all things great and small. He could see the future, the past, and the present, but he could not tell, fifteen years ago, whether his son would follow his path. And that was enough of a warning for him. Samhin had been born atop Dailalu Mountain, nearly unable to see with magical Sight but bright nonetheless. He had lived with his ability to see only the world around him, and only little snippets of the other three things. Now he was alone with no sight at all, save for his vision, which was sharper than a hawk’s, and he also had the violet-blue eyes that nobody could explain away.
Lastly, the mysterious dark haired girl with the sapphire circlet atop her head was Sapphire Gemmine. The Gemmines were well to do in the Jewel Kingdom. It was their family that had produced the original princess of the kingdom. They were in a league of their own, a group that held the power of the gems of the kingdom. Sapphire was named for the first princess and she held her circlet and sapphire ball close to her heart. The gem power had never gone right with her. Somehow, when she tried to get the guardian gem to shine for her, it shone with a hint of violet in the vibrant blue of the gem’s light. It never had done anything else but shine violet-blue, and some were beginning to wonder if there was an indiscretion, to put it delicately, on Talco Gemmine’s side. The gem always skipped a generation when weakening or strengthening powers, and it was Talco, Sapphire’s grandfather, who came under fire. He always defended his honor, but since the weakness had become apparent in each of the four Gemmine grandchildren, he had begun wondering himself. The weakness was bad in Ruby, Topaz, and little Emerald, but worst in Sapphire, who had yet to call the gem to do her bidding, let alone extract true light from its core. And when the faulty light quite coming, she cried. It was all over now; her family was shamed forever.
Cattia District, Cool Cat City, Animalia
The Red Hall
The Queen’s Fighters were assembled, all 100 of them, in the Red Hall. There were two women for every year of the queen’s life, and the most elite were in the front row of ten. Older fighters sometimes had to be retired, but unless they had truly outlived their usefulness, they were stuck in the rear ranks, in the safest place possible.
Eliza was not one of those old fighters. She was young, healthy, and smart, and that earned her a coveted place in the first row. She was fifth from the left, directly facing the Queen. Her sword gleamed bright in the early morning sun streaming into the hall. Her skirts were arranged so that they fell straight down to the top of her feet, encased in black leather knee boots. It was summer, so only the three layers were needed, but in winter the thin cotton afforded little or no protection from the elements, so the Queen’s Fighters added white overcoats to their design. The violet sash of the belt fell down to her knees, and the red kirtle showed no bloodstains from previous battles. Queen Kitten, dressed in the same ensemble, but with a silver and ruby band around her head, faced them all with a sense of purpose.
"You have been called before me today to help ensure the safety of our beloved kingdom. I trust that you will always act in the best interest of the country, and savor the glory of the fight for as long as you can before facing another foe. I am placing my life and that of my people in your hands. See that you do not fail me," she said. If she was scared, her eyes gave no trace of it, and her still youthful face was emotionless. One of her couriers brought her a scroll, which she would read in a minute. Eliza knew it was their mission, the thing that had disrupted life in the USK for better or for worse. Then she took a second look at the courier. It was Sam Berkshire! But what was he doing here? He gave her a smile, and she returned it, but she expected him to run back to where he came from. Instead, he took a place next to the Queen. Another courier, this one a girl, took the other place next to Her Majesty. Eliza realized that from here on in, she would have to watch her emotions and her expression very, very carefully.
Zone 42, Los Cagos, Laveda
The Air Docks
The plane landed uneventfully, much to Kit’s relief. She, Jack, and her machine were flying to Los Cagos because that was where Moria DeNade was. Moria, as the head of foreign relations, simply couldn’t ignore the situation, and so had Kit MacMiran flown in from the Mahara Desert.
Kit stumbled off the plane in quite a disheveled state. Normally, she’d greet Moria in a cream dress and red over-gown, signifying she was an eldest daughter of the MacMirans of Dugh, but today was much too warm and she arrived wearing only her chemise and a red silk robe wrapped around her shoulders and draped down her back. For all her peasant ways and way of life, she looked every inch like their honored Queen Kitten, for whom she’d been named. Moria, resplendent herself in a white sari, was appalled at the lack of family loyalty but said nothing. Offending this honored guest could cost the USK several million lives. She didn’t want to risk that.
Kit was still important, disloyally clothed as she was, but she managed to keep her dignity until she and her machine reached the safety of Building 1, Moria’s headquarters. Then she fainted, turning a pale cream and mottled gray. "Oh, idiot, you had to go and keel over," chided her inner self, but she mentally waved the voice away and went back to unconsciousness.
Meanwhile, the other workers could sense something was up, and several from the far buildings of Zone 42 came running to the Air Docks with anxious looks on their faces. Three in particular were curious about the visitor. Yawner Morris was concerned about the machine’s welfare. Connie MacMiran was worried that the fuss would wake her children up. And Mara Joy noticed the visitor in the building was none other than Kit MacMiran, from the deserts of Dugh, who had come to help them with the alien invasion. Mara thanked the goddess she prayed to. With luck, the Zones of Laveda would help win the coming war.
Gemmand City, Jewel Kingdom
Ruby Palace
Something was amiss at the northern end of the Great Hall. None of the outsiders could feel the little power they had before! Each of them worried about their sudden lack of magic. Sapphire was distraught because her gem didn’t shine for her, and if the gem didn’t shine, it meant she was cast out of her family’s circle forever. Niniane mourned the loss of her witch magic, because now she was doomed to be a human forever, and would probably be sent to live with her father, now a resident of Animalia. Samhin went blind all of a sudden. He had never experienced any real magic, but now that his vision was gone, he was terrified. Elene just wailed to the heavens. In this crowd, who could hear her?
But one individual did see the children’s fright, and she stood at the balcony, next to the great winding staircase that led down to the Great Hall. Sandemere deRose, a direct descendant of Sir Tristan and Duchess Caitren, was perceptive enough to notice that while her princess needed to be escorted to the Green House, there were four kids who required aid, and if she was anything at all, then she was at least a rescuer with very acute senses. "Excuse me just a moment, Your Highness," she said. Using the agility of her godmother, Lilia Ana Demichat (half-cat), she sprang down the spiraling staircase. She darted in and out of the crowd until she found the north end of the building. Then she turned on her finding senses and hunted through the crowd until she found all four children.
"Excuse me, madam, would you come with me? You, girl, yes even you, little girl, and you, boy. All four of you follow me," Sandemere directed. She led the kids to a chamber in the hallway. Doomed thoughts coursed through Elene’s mind. Now it was over for her, she thought. No more could she hide behind being a daughter of the house of Garnet, nor could she rely on her family’s spelling to give her the telltale red fire. In the midst of all the confusion, Elene hadn’t noticed that Sandemere wore the blue rose pin of a peacekeeper on her sash. But Sandemere knew the kids’ fear- she had such fears herself, thirty years past, as a young girl just starting her training in magic. She was adopted into the Garnet family herself once, and it was customary for an adoptee to be trained in his or her new family’s magic. Often this process went off without a hitch, but the Blue Rose magic was just too strong in Sandemere. When her new parents learned that she was the eighth great granddaughter of the founders of the Blue Rose line, they sent her away to Backsea Woods, to grow up with her rightful family, and eventually to become the queen’s niece. And here she was today, an esteemed guest in the Jewel Kingdom, and a magician in her own right. But Elene couldn’t know this, nor could Sandemere know that Elene was of the Garnet line.
"Now, what seems to be the trouble?" asked Sandemere in her usual businesslike manner. "I saw the boy grab his eyes, the young fair thing clutch her hand, and you girls burst into tears all at the same time. Don’t try to tell me there’s nothing wrong here. Now, I think you should go first, boy. You don’t seem to be much troubled anymore," Sandemere continued. Then she gasped. Those violet-blue eyes, they were so vivid in Samhin! It was almost certain that he was not of the seers. But that was impossible; he was the son of the great seer Haren au Dailalu. And Haren had a wife, which he’d always been faithful to. There was no way he could be a by-blow on Haren’s side. Almost immediately she understood the situation, and recalled a legend from many years past.
Sandemere had always been told the story of the Four Fires of Cattia. Back in the days of Queen Cattia deRose-Backsea, there had been four witches: Lilia, the witch of sight, Marian, the witch of the great families, Sarah, the witch of all witches, and Gemma, the witch of all gems. They had made a prophecy that in precisely a century’s time they would find four children similarly afflicted. One would have great sight and violet-blue eyes; one would be cursed as the bad egg of a great family, yet be truthfully more powerful than any of them; one would be half-witch and half royalty; and one would be the gem protector for years to come. Sandemere had the fortune of being there when Sarah, the last of the witches, died. Sarah told Sandemere that her lifetime would see the children brought to power, each at fifteen years of age, in time for an earth-shaking event that would nearly destroy the USK, but the children would hold the power to bring the country back to its former glory. She had found the first child, and he was Samhin au Dailalu. Now all she needed to do was find out if the other three were the remaining four great witches’ children, the Four Fires of the USK.
"Come with me," she said. "I think I can help you."
The Purple Pilot Pen Plane
Over the Mahara Desert, headed for the Jewel Kingdom
The queen could sense something was amiss the moment she and the fighters stepped onto the plane. Something was quite off, and Kitten wished she knew what. She was almost afraid to board the plane, but after reassurance from Lizzie MacMiran, she was persuaded to let the plane take off. She still insisted on wearing a parachute, and she had her air mask at the ready, but at least the plane could leave.
Not more than three rows away, Eliza Millan was hyperventilating. "God, Sam, I’m terrified of planes!" she shrieked to the patient courier, clutching his arm in panic. Sam had found Eliza in the midst of a nervous breakdown. Ever since the disaster aboard Flight 65.7, Eliza had been deathly scared of flying. Some say it was because the darn thing crashed and she lost her family; others say it’s because of the similarity of all jetliners to one another. But for all the differences between a normal jet and the Purple Pilot Pen, Eliza still saw the looks on her fellow passengers’ faces, saw the horror in her brother’s eyes when he was impaled on another passenger’s cane, and still she could not erase those images from her mind.
"Give it time," the counselor had said. Well, it had been five long years, spent alternately as a fighter and as a worker at the Coriander Factory in South Mammal, Organism. It was only recently that Eliza had made some extra money as an actress at Feather’s House. It was also a recent development that her childhood friend, Will, had called her with the results of the last testament of her father. Doc Millan wanted his baby girl to marry that nice boy down the street. Or so Will and the will both claimed. So she was engaged until her 21st birthday to someone she hardly knew, and Feather teased her mercilessly about it.
It was ten minutes out over Zone 42 that Eliza chanced a look out the window. The sight that met her eyes simultaneously horrified her and filled her with awe. Headed right toward the plane were five alien spaceships, painted in the Zixadoo symbols and colors. Black backgrounds offset golden, silver, and copper stars nicely. Red balls of fire danced in the painted skies. It was a truly beautiful sight, but a harbinger of doom that could not be ignored. "We’re going to be hit!" she cried weakly before fainting. Just as she had uttered those words, the red alarm light flashed on inside the cabin and panic erupted.
"Bail out!" shouted the pilot, shrugging into his own parachute. Nobody needed further urging except for Sam. He was torn between duty to his country, which would entail bailing the queen out then jumping himself, and duty to his heart, which nagged that he couldn’t leave Eliza behind. Sighing in impatience with himself, he seized Eliza’s limp form by the waist, strapped himself into a parachute, tied her arm to his, and jumped.
Zone 42, Los Cagos, Laveda
The Air Docks
"Look out below!" bellowed several specks in the air. Behind them, advancing rapidly and with deadly purpose was one huge purple plane. It burst into flames as it hit the ground, crushing beneath it half of the Queen’s Fighters. Mara Joy looked on in awe.
"My god," she breathed. "Yawner, will ya look at that?" Her dark brown, poker-straight locks swished behind her as she brushed past emergency personnel. She got to her knees at the edge of the wreckage and began picking through the remains. She found an arm here, a leg there, and the most shocking thing she had seen in her entire life. She spoke the words, a quotation from so many places, but they seemed to be most appropriate.
"The queen is dead, long live the queen."
For Queen Kitten Crazy de Backsea had finally met her match- 10 tons of flying, flaming, twisted metal that had taken her for all she was and hurled her to the earth beneath it. She was peaceful, even in such a painful death, and the only signs that she was truly gone were the slight trickle of blood from her ruby lips and maybe the odd angle of her neck to her shoulders.
Not far away, Kit MacMiran was jolted back to consciousness. The sight that met her eyes stunned her back to her previous mental capacity. She cast aside all but her cream chemise and staggered to the plane. Yawner attempted to assist her, but she shook him off. She knew the plane belonged to the queen. She also knew something nobody else did. She, Lady Kit, was heir to the throne. She knew right away that the queen was dead. Who could still be alive in such a position? Who could have the blood flowing out of their mouth and still see another day? Nobody could, and that meant Kit was it. She brought forth her proof of her claim to the USK throne. It was a giant sapphire ring, set in silver, and sitting on her left ring finger, and it was the proudest symbol of their country, although it had disappeared with Caitren deRose’s death in 1885.
Mara and Yawner both remembered Kitten’s offer: "The one who finds the sapphire ring of my ancestor Caitren deRose can keep the throne. It is really that simple. The ring’s owner will have control." When asked why she relinquished rule to the outsiders, she replied, "Come now, do you really expect me to give birth to a child at my age? I have long since given up hope of that. Besides, it brings the ring back to the royal family, which is really its rightful place, on the hand of the queen of the USK." With shaking hands they sank to the sandy battlefield.
"Your Highness," they said in unison. "I am no more worthy of your praise than is my companion, my lady," Mara added, despite a sharp jab in the side from Yawner.
"If this is a bid for a turn as my personal assistants, you’ll have to be patient. I shall not assume my full duties until after this skirmish with the aliens is done. Now, where can I go to keep digging? It looks like both of you have the situation well covered," smiled Kit.
"See what you can do over there, Your Highness," replied Mara. "They may need help in identification, and you could always use a tally of how many Queen’s Fighters are left." Kit nodded and strode away.
Gemmand City, Jewel Kingdom
Ruby Palace, the princess’ bedchamber
Sandemere deRose knew a good thing when she saw it. The four outsiders before her were undoubtedly the children that the witches had seen. All four would have to be somewhere around fifteen, then, maybe sixteen. She took a good look at the three girls and one boy.
Samhin’s vision was already returning. In fact, she had a feeling that soon he would be seeing things he never had before, and grow to be more powerful than his father, Haren. Elene must be the one that was cast out, but would be more powerful than any of her family. She already knew the Garnet line had a black sheep somewhere in there; judging from the raw power and the worry shining in Elene’s eyes, she was the one. Niniane would be the half-witch- she was the only one with any witching background and she already glimmered violet-blue. That left young Sapphire to be the guardian of gems, a fact made apparent by the fierce concentration on her face and the smile she produced when she managed to get a dim blue glow, with just a hint of violet, from the enormous sapphire in her hand. Holy good gravy, but it would sell for so much in the Animalian markets! She knew jewelry dealers that would kill for such a jewel, and who would try to pass it off as the antique sapphire ring belonging to her eighth great-grandmother.
"Listen to me, Samhin, Elene, Niniane, and Sapphire," ordered Sandemere. Each young one straightened up at the sound of his or her name. "You are not powerless. No, don’t try to tell me that you only had something in your eyes. I know worries from simple afflictions. You four happen to be the most powerful magicians here."
Elene, expecting a platitude, darkened and kept her face stony. "You four are the Four Fires of Cattia, predicted long ago by the witches of Queen Cattia’s council," continued Sandemere. She turned to Samhin. "Your eyes are no ordinary eyes, you know. They are the color they are because soon you will be able to see farther than anyone in the world."
"No, you’re wrong this time. My father, the greatest seer ever, taught me all he could but still I cannot see," snapped Samhin.
"He taught you the sight for his own brand of visions. You need careful instruction by the Sight Witch for your type of magic," countered Sandemere. "Elene, I believe you had a blue-violet fire until just a few minutes ago?"
Elene gaped in surprise. "How did you know that?"
"Simple. I was once adopted by the Garnet line and cast away because I did not follow their magic. You are of one of the most powerful houses, yet you are an outsider. This is added to the fact that I can see the raw fire burning in your eyes, and the defiance you put up constantly. You are afraid to accept because you think you can never be accepted and are naught but your family’s curse," Sandemere said. "You, Niniane, are supposedly half human and half witch, yet that doesn’t explain the dark blue-violet light you could give off. Your family’s name means light bringer, yet you prefer the dark. They all have yellow and orange glows, whereas yours is the color of the robes of the High Queen. You are the fabled one who is somehow royal, related to a current or coming queen."
"And that brings me to the most powerful of them all. Sapphire Gemmine, you are directly related to the witch Gemma, the guardian of all gems and the Jewel Kingdom itself. Go ahead, make the sapphire give off its ordinary blue-violet light," prodded Sandemire.
Sapphire concentrated fiercely, wishing only for a gleam and a light, but when she looked at the ball in her hand, it flared and lit up the darkest corners of the room. Several seers from the outside looked to see what was going on, and Sandemere kicked the door shut. "You see? That’s all you," added Sandemere.
The four looked themselves over, head to toe. Then they scrutinized their companions. The third thing, which Sandemere had expected, was a clamor to try out their respective magics. Samhin stared at the door and observed the seers, Elene flashed the wood on the hearth a glare and made a bonfire in the fireplace, Niniane lit up like a lightbulb before she knew how to control it, and Sapphire’s ball just kept on going, brighter than ever. Sandemere wisely flicked off the harsh overhead lamp, watching the children and letting them play.
Zone 42, near Los Cagos, Laveda
Just past the wreckage of the Purple Pilot Pen
Sam had swerved to the right during the bailout. The plane hadn’t crushed him, nor had it even come close. He was blown clear of the wreck and the debris fell three feet short of the tips of his shoes. He knew he had to find a safe place, so, while hanging on to an unconscious Eliza, he ran across the open desert. He didn’t doubt the fact that he wouldn’t be missed. In fact, with all of the deaths that were certain to follow such a crash, he anticipated the lack of attention they would pay him.
It was crucial that the pair reached shelter before the aliens reached Earth. The black and metallic ships loomed ever closer as Sam bounded to the city of Los Cagos, Laveda. It was situated a mile away from the Zones, in easy reach if disaster struck as it had today. The first reports of alien sightings elsewhere in the USK were trickling west from the Colorene coast, and frantic citizens were busy defending their homes. Two more lives to protect for the Los Cagos Police Department weren’t too many, were they?
The sun set golden-red as Sam skidded into the city and behind an apartment building. Someone had cast an old featherbed out into the spacious alley, and he set Eliza there. He collapsed onto the bolster himself, nearly on top of Eliza’s left arm, which he moved gently, so as not to hurt her. Beside him, she seemed so angelic, so free; this was probably the last time he’d ever get a chance to observe her as a fresh young fighter. He pulled a sketchpad and three pencils from his jacket and began to draw. He was nearly finished with the sketch when she woke up.
"Where am I?" she mumbled. "What happened? I can remember the Zixadoo ships coming straight for us, but then what happened?"
"We got hit, my lady, and we bailed out. The plane landed on top of a good half of your comrades. The queen is likely dead; and I doubt her secretary lived, either," Sam informed Eliza.
"Oh," she said, lying back on the pillow. "Well, that’s all right then, I guess. But why are we here? Where are we, in fact?"
"This is an alley in Los Cagos, Laveda, which was created as a retreat city for the Zones’ inhabitants. The aliens are attacking, my lady, and we need to build a shelter, but I thought first I’d capture the sight of an angel in sleep while I could," said Sam.
"Would you come here? I need a little companionship more than anything right now," Eliza requested. Sam got up from the trashcan he’d been sitting on and joined Eliza on the bed.
"This is quite a comfortable seat, isn’t it, my lady?" he asked.
"Please call me Eliza, it’s not as if I’m important enough anyway. It’s the best seat in the world. Can we keep it?" she replied.
Sam laughed at that; she could joke even in the middle of an alien attack. "Sure, Eliza, let’s keep it. Why don’t we build a shelter?" he asked drowsily. But the stress of the day got to him, and he slumped over in deep sleep. Eliza, who had only been unconscious, not asleep, decided to join him in Dreamland. They slept soundly for about eight hours. Sometime around the fourth hour, Eliza turned and rolled into Sam’s arms, and that’s where she stayed.
Cattia District, Cool Cat City, Animalia
Over the outskirts of the city
Sandemere had been flying for five hours, from late evening to midnight. Her four charges were sound asleep. Samhin was huddled in the middle of the magic carpet, black thatches of hair going every which way. Elene was sprawled on the side, clinging to the tassel. Her fiery auburn hair almost defined her status as a Garnet. Niniane, child of the night, turned out to have baby fine corn silk hair and luminous black eyelashes. Sapphire had Indian coloring, and her hair was blacker than a raven’s wing. She was almost certain that her eyes were amber brown.
Samhin’s dreams were occupied by one image: Queen Kitten, lying on the ground in the Mahara Desert, surrounded by two government agents and one would-be queen. He rose up suddenly, still asleep, crying, "The Queen is dead, long live the Queen!" Sandemere shushed him and settled him back in the carpet’s folds. Sapphire clutched the sapphire ball, which flickered on and off at intervals. Elene’s violet-blue fires burned at her eyelids and her hair was illuminated with her family’s blood red garnet flame. Even Niniane, the one who loved the darkness, was bright with a glow of violet-blue. Interestingly enough, the glow was laced with shades of copper, silver, gold, red, and black, from the colors of the Zixadoo cluster. Sandemere frowned. Zixadoo colors? That was odd. She knew there was an upcoming cataclysm, but this was too unrealistic. Suddenly, Sandemere looked sharply down. There was the Green House, but where was the Purple Pilot Pen, the royal plane? She had a misgiving then- maybe Samhin’s vision wasn’t that far off after all. She landed the carpet and rushed herself and her charges into the building.
The first person she saw was dressed in mourning colors. This was definitely not good. "Samhin," Sandemere urged, "what was your dream, the one when you cried ‘The Queen is dead, long live the queen?’"
"I dreamed the Queen was dead in the Mahara Desert. Someone has found the ring and claimed the throne!" whispered Samhin. "Never fear; she will be a kind and benevolent ruler. Of this I am sure."
So the Queen was dead. Well, then, the Fires were in the wrong place to help their country. She would just have to take them to the right place. "Back on the carpet, younglings, we’ve got to find the Mahara Desert pronto!" barked Sandemere. With that the group took off into the night, in the direction of the battle between the aliens and the Queen’s Fighters.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All over the USK, battles for lives and freedom were transpiring. In Colora, troops were fighting off the Mad Monochrome Zixadooans with giant paint jugs and sprayers. So far the score was 4000 to 6, in favor of the Colorenes. Organism had let loose the Level 4 Biosafeties, with their promise to come back to the Hot Zones as soon as they were done, and to bring any dead Zixadooans back with them. Well, the first half of their promise was going well: the ones who could crawl limped back to the Hot Zones. But there were more dead Level 4 fighters than Zixadooans, and it was all they could do to confine the dead on both sides to the Zone. On the Europan front, the Seinefeld River was under Zixadoo control and the Effel, Iffel, Eiffl, Eifel, Ifl, Efl, Ef, and If towers were being defended by the Europan citizens. Needless to say, the outer six states in the United States of Kitten were in chaos. But on the westernmost coast, three states and one principality still held. The Jewel Kingdom and the states of Dugh, Laveda, and Animalia still had their freedom for the most part.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Los Cagos, Laveda
An alley behind a casino
The little shelter had become a well-defended fortress now. The owners of the casino had boarded up the building and, in their haste, covered the alleyway too. When the owners learned their mistake, they tore down the brick wall separating the casino from the alley and invited Sam and Eliza in.
Actually, they dragged them in, because they were both still entwined with each other. Sam’s left hand was tangled in Eliza’s light cinnamon mane and his right arm gathered her close to him at the waist. In turn, Eliza had her left arm tucked around his body, and her right arm held close to her own. They awoke several hours after midnight in a pantry that had been cleared away and stocked with pillows and such instead. This was the linen closet.
The first thing that Eliza did was to roll her eyes up and look at Sam. He’d had a chance to gaze upon her in repose, now it was her turn. And he was beautiful as summer, which it was, in December here in the Southern Hemisphere. She kissed his fine jaw so gently, nobody else could have stirred awake, but Sam felt it as clear as day. He woke up to her loving gaze, and her sweet kisses on his face.
"Care to elaborate on that emotion?" he muttered, sitting up and letting her fall to his chest. He noticed that his jacket was gone; probably still outside, he reflected. His white linen shirt was still there, and his white cotton trousers were, too. "Thank God for small mercies," he thought while appraising the situation. Here he was, a courier for the Queen, in the same bed as a still mostly clothed Queen’s Fighter. The Queen was dead, the aliens had attacked, and somehow he had ended up in the linen closet of the Hallucination Casino. The thing that struck him most was not that he wasn’t at the battlefield. Nobody could be expected to stick around; it was war now, after all, and all’s fair in love and war. At least, that old adage said so, if it was still a law. He prayed that the new queen wouldn’t repeal it, because it made a lot of sense. Still, the thing that couldn’t escape him was that he was in bed with Eliza. Oh, sure, he hadn’t taken advantage of her or his fortunate situation (thank God for that, too) but the fact is, he could have. And he just couldn’t trust himself. But apparently she thought she could.
"Sam," she said, "what’s wrong?"
"I’ve been doing some thinking. Look, it’s wrong for us to be in the same bed. You know what would happen if I took advantage of you, don’t you?" Sam asked.
"Yes, I’ve given it plenty of thought. I’m engaged, and you work for the government… it could never work. But I just want someone to love. I don’t love my fiancée, and I know that if we’re found together, the Queen will have our heads. But I don’t care if this is forbidden or not; I want to love someone, and you’re the one. Simple as that," she stated. She sat up beside him. She wasn’t intentionally tantalizing him, but nevertheless, she was. Even in a red kirtle, purple sash, and several petticoats, you could still make out the outline of her legs under the fabric. Her feet were bare; she’d taken off her shoes and stockings in the plane.
"Do you know exactly how very wonderful you look at this very moment?" Sam growled. He wasn’t mad, far from it.
"No, could you show me?" answered Eliza, before bringing his honey blond head down to her own and giving him the sweetest kiss he’d ever had. And he returned it, fool that he was. His conscience was screaming, No, you idiotic fool, this is how you get seduced! At the same time his heart was trying desperately to block his conscience, and this made for an odd fight indeed.
Her hand went to his back and she pulled him closer to her. In an agonizing second, he was afraid he’d actually react in a completely lustful way, but his conscience broke through then and he ended the kiss. "I’m sorry," he whispered into her mouth. "I just couldn’t let you be taken advantage of."
Or taken, nagged his conscience. Eliza suddenly went weak, and she collapsed onto her side on the featherbed. She pulled Sam down with her, and he followed willingly. "No matter where I go, I want you to follow," she said.
In a moment of sheer madness, one that could very well have gotten him killed later, he agreed. "I will go with you wherever you’ll take me," he answered her.
Zone 42, near Los Cagos, Laveda
The Air Docks
"Get down! Everybody down!" shrieked Moria DeNade. She pressed the giant red button next to the door of Hangar #1. The sands shifted then, downward into the ground. The sudden motion caused Kit to be thrown to her knees just yards away from her sister, Lizzie.
"What’s happening?" moaned Kit, and Lizzie’s ears perked up. Could it really be her sister?
"Kit?" shouted Lizzie over the noise.
"Lizzie?" returned an incredulous Kit. She crawled through the rubble to her sister. "Oh my God, you survived!" she exclaimed, which wasn’t easy over the noise. Barriers at the top kept sand from burying them, but the whole contraption was shaking madly and sinking loudly. Four flaps slid to an interlocking close as the lights flickered in. Kit was able to see, for the first time, her sister’s condition.
"Lizzie, you’re cut everywhere! Oh, no, this is not good… MEDIC!!!" bellowed the newly minted queen. "I NEED HELP HERE!"
"Aw, wait a while longer, lady, so do a million others," sniped one of the medical crew.
"Hey, how dare you speak that way to the new queen? Bow, damn it! Do as she says!" barked Mara, forever defensive of Kit.
Lizzie looked from Mara to Kit. "New queen?" she asked shakily. "What happened to Her Royal Highness, Queen Kitten Crazy de Backsea?"
"Dead as the sand she lies on," replied Kit. "I have the throne now."
"That’s impossible," scoffed Lizzie. "To do that, you’d have to have… oh my God, you have the ring, don’t you?"
Kit showed Lizzie her left hand, and Lizzie’s eyes welled up in tears of both sadness and joy. "It’s good to serve under you, dear sister, Your Highness, that is," she bawled happily.
"Does this mean I don’t get a shot at secretarial duty?" asked Mara innocently.
"Hmmm… Lizzie, weren’t you always complaining about the work load?" grinned Kit, winking at Lizzie.
~~~
Above ground, Moria dashed indoors. "Secure all compounds and activate underground systems! I’m headed there now. You, you, and you come with me," she yelled. It would not be the toughest battle in the world in Zone 42, but she should warn her allies elsewhere. An ounce of prevention really was worth a pound of cure.
The Mahara Desert, Dugh
Near the Dugh/Laveda border and Zone 42
"Oh no," breathed Sandemere. "We’re too late!"
And indeed they were. Zixadoo ships surrounded the Zones of Laveda. There was no way out and certainly no way in. But there has to be a way in! thought Sandemere. I have the four fires! The USK needs them! She searched for a hole in the Zixadoo offense. Nothing, not even a small gap, showed itself. Oh, how could they find their way in?
Then Sandemere realized that she had an advantage. She did have the four fires, and guess what? They must be more powerful than the aliens. "Elene! Samhin! Come here," hissed Sandemere, gliding the carpet to one of the ships. "Samhin, can you see the most crucial spot for a fire in the ship?"
Samhin surveyed the Zixadoo ship. "Right here," he motioned. He was pointing at the fuel tank. "But you’d be better off setting the fire where it’ll take some time to spread to the fuel tank. We can’t risk being blown up in the explosion as well as the ships. If you can set the fire quickly and move on to the other ships, we may just be able to get them all out of the way," he added.
Elene spoke up then. "I think I can do it," she said. "I can not only set the fire quickly, I can set it from afar." To demonstrate, she pointed her finger at a falling piece of debris from space. It burst into flames and sank to the sand in a fireball. Sandemere whistled appreciatively.
"Is that using the violet-blue or the garnet fire?" she asked.
"Garnet at first, then if we’re pressed for time, the violet-blue," answered Elene. "Now, where did you say I should set it?"
"Right here," replied Samhin. "This is a gap in the heatproof shield that would normally be shielded anyway. But it’s not immune to fiery specks getting in there, and although it’s so close to the fuel tank, it will take some time to get into the ship through the many layers of fabric and wood." Elene zapped the crevice with garnet fire and fanned the flames with one of her incredibly huge hairpieces. The flames flared and began licking along the paint as well as the fabric holding the ship together.
"Perfect," grinned Sandemere. "Come on, let’s tell the others our plan. We’ll need both of their light sources for this job- one for close lighting, that’s the big gem, and one for plain sight, that’s where Niniane comes in." The three collaborators told their plan to the others and set off to sink some Zixadoo ships.
Los Cagos, Laveda
The Hallucination Casino
They remained on the feather bed for what seemed like ages, but only held them until morning. "I could stay like this forever, Sam," Eliza said dreamily.
"I could too, but there’s got to be something else we’re needed for in such a big casino," Sam replied. "We should get up, and you should find shoes."
"You’re really lucky I didn’t lose anything else, like the kirtle or several petticoats," Eliza said. "Where would we find those at a time like this?" Both of them chuckled at that, but then Sam sat up and got off the featherbed.
"You’d do best to get up now too, Eliza," he reminded her. They were both quite disheveled- Sam’s hair was rumpled, and his jacket had inexplicably disappeared. It still had his sketch in it, he realized. Anyone looking for them could track them down if they wished… just look for the courier missing a jacket and the woman who matches the sketch. He lifted her off the bed and set her on a pile of pillows. With that, he strode out of the closet and into the now-reinforced Hallucination Casino.
The games were all gone, probably stored in the upstairs hotel rooms. Thousands of little apartments were blocked off on the vast marble floor. Several apartments already had name cards, and one was organized and lived in. Three children chased each other on the teal carpet passageway, nearly sending Sam into one of the apartments. Behind him crept up Eliza, who had found a comb and made herself a bit more presentable. He said nothing when she approached him from the rear, and kept his silence when she took his arm and walked up beside him. Together they inspected their surroundings, as if husband and wife; in fact, some of the casino employees thought they were married, and at least one refugee claimed they were engaged. They could have gotten married if they wanted to and they hadn’t only met two days ago, since neither marriage licenses nor an official individual are needed at a USK wedding. But they didn’t want to, because the fact remained that she was engaged and he was one of the Queen’s personal servants, and their match could never work.
As they strolled around the casino, they looked for familiar faces from the Zones or from the plane, but they saw none. Finally Sam gave up and decided to head back to the closet. There was nothing for him to do but make conversation with the refugees. He turned around and followed the path back to the closet, with Eliza close at his heels. He had simply planned to doze for a while on the bed, but Eliza had quite different plans.
He knew what they were when she kicked the door shut.
Zone 42, near Los Cagos, Laveda
A magic carpet near the Zixadoo ships
There were now seventy flaming spaceships where there was once that amount of capable battle vehicles. Working together, the four fires and Sandemere constructed a flaming circle of sorts around the Zones of Laveda. It was a tiresome but risky task. They all knew that by the time they reached the last of the ships, they would have to hightail it to safety because the ships would explode in a domino fashion- the first would explode, then the one to its right, and this pattern would continue, going clockwise until the very last ship exploded.
The Zixadooans could only crowd the next ships in line or jump, and either way, their death was certain. All Zixadooans had some blood-clotting problems, not quite as severe as hemophilia but still quite bad. When the ships exploded, the Zixadooans that weren’t charred in a fire that couldn’t be put out by water would fall to a barren desert. The Zones’ defenses were all in place, and the underground refuge could withstand up to 100 nuclear bombs. Since there weren’t even 100 ships, and certainly none with enough room for even one nuclear bomb, the likelihood of a blitzkrieg was low.
Sandemere was prouder than a papa penguin of her four fires. Although they still needed to learn some control, they were grasping their new magics nicely. Elene couldn’t point to the ship for more than a second because she’d set the whole thing aflame in that amount of time. Sapphire’s gem either shone like another sun or dimly glowed, and she still couldn’t get the natural blue glow from it. Niniane’s father must have had some seeing tendencies because her natural violet-blue light was laced with colors that had something to do with an upcoming event. Only Samhin seemed to have a semblance of control, and that was because he’d grown up with seers.
And they still didn’t know all they could do! Elene, for all her awareness of the double fires she had, couldn’t do half of what she would eventually learn. Samhin hadn’t gained the ability to see the past. Sapphire couldn’t control the gem itself, only get some light from it, and as for Niniane, she had yet to learn the many spells she could try.
But for now maybe they’d better fight the big battle.
Zone 42, near Los Cagos, Laveda
Underground Retreat
They helped the survivors of the alien attack into the compound. There were 56 surviving Queen’s Fighters, and all of them were shocked and saddened to hear that the queen was dead. Some blamed themselves for not heeding the queen’s precognitive urges. She had a reputation in Backsea to sense the incomprehensible! And an alien attack was not out of the question in the Zones. Kitten was right, after all.
Mara, Kit, and Yawner carried Lizzie MacMiran, now Duchess Lizzie, inside. The hospital workers were kind enough to let Kit remain with her sister during the long process of stitching her many cuts. There were 34 that needed sutures, and at least twice that many nicks and bruises to deal with. Finally the nurse threw up her hands in frustration and wrapped Lizzie in gauze from neck to toes. Each limb was bandaged individually, to give Lizzie freedom of movement, and she was kept in a bed of the softest cotton the facility could offer. Kit stayed with Lizzie until she fell asleep, then marched into the fighters’ ward to take a roll of who was alive. Mara and Yawner found fifty-six fighters, and seven were so bad off that they might as well be dead, and would likely die before morning. That left 49 women to carry on for a crew of 100. But something was wrong.
There were only 43 bodies in the morgue. One fighter had gone missing! Kit puzzled over this discrepancy. There were no other bodies on the sand. The entire wreck had only encompassed an area of ten square yards, save for some debris that went flying on impact. She scanned her list. The missing woman was Eliza Millan, and she apparently wasn’t the only one. The courier, Sam Berkshire, also was not among the bodies or the survivors. So where could they be? She never supposed that they’d even know each other, let alone have found each other after the crash. And she certainly never imagined that they were holed up in a linen closet at the Hallucination Casino, located in Los Cagos, Laveda.
Los Cagos, Laveda
A linen closet in the Hallucination Casino
Eliza had kicked the door shut, and not just because she wanted to darken the room or conserve heat. There was plenty of that in the linen closet, which by now was only lit by five uplights placed around the room. No, there was a hidden meaning to that gesture, and Sam had a sinking feeling when he realized what it was.
She wanted privacy for one reason: she didn’t want to get caught seducing Sam. He knew her purpose from the second she shoved him onto the mattress. "Hold on, Eliza, this is not the best way to go about breaking your engagement. Couldn’t you simply tell him you don’t want to get married?" asked Sam, teeth chattering nervously as she was pulling off first the kirtle, and then the two petticoats, leaving her only a thin cotton gown.
"You think too much," she purred, crawling on all fours towards him. "Will doesn’t listen to females. He thinks we’re all fluffheads who’d be happy stitching jumpers for our kiddies. I’ll show him there’s no truth to that. We’re very cunning."
"So I guessed," remarked Sam. "But shouldn’t you be doing this out of love? Not out of revenge? You’ll never forgive yourself… hell, I’ll never forgive myself if this happens just because you want to give Will something to think about, whoever Will is."
"There’s more to this, Sam, than just lust and vengeful thoughts. I want you," she said. With that she stopped advancing, sat back on her haunches, and reached out to stroke his chin. "Now, don’t you feel the same way? Besides, we’ve gone missing for almost a day now. Nobody’s going to believe that you didn’t take advantage of me during all that time, are they?"
Oh, she had a point there. His buddies back home would undoubtedly kid him about being stuck in a casino in the middle of a war with a really beautiful lady. "Make love, not war, is that it?" he asked, still quite nervous but also quite enchanted.
"Yes," she hissed. "That’s precisely it." And she moved her attention from his chin to his forehead. "Imagine being out there. Is that really what you want instead of being here, comfortably seated on a feather bed, with a foxy lady?" He thought about the battlefield. Right now, that sand was looking mighty nice, but he didn’t say that. He didn’t want to offend her. He found himself looking her over, almost appraising her, as she played with the golden lock of hair at the top of his forehead. There was a great bump, considered a deformity by some, and the rest of his hair was parted according to that one anomaly. And his bangs seemed to grow out in spokes from there. She had grasped that one section and twirled it in her long, slender fingers. Those hands made him almost envious- his own were rough from a combination of farm work as a boy and paper cuts from his adult job as a courier. He was able to smile now, a nice smile. Eliza liked the smile, though tentative; it was still a nice smile.
"So, what do you think? Will you help me, Sam? I must admit falling in love with you more and more each second," Eliza cajoled. She moved her other arm to the nape of his neck and slowly began to massage it. No matter how much he tried to deny it, that felt great, especially after jumping out of a plane and carrying a grown woman to the alley of a casino. He closed his eyes, savoring the relaxing movements of her skilled hand. She knelt close beside him, still letting him stay on his back, and kissed his face here and there- a small peck on the cheek, then a nibble on the ear… how many romance novels had she read? Or how many men had enjoyed her favors before him?
As if she could read his thoughts, Eliza whispered, "I have never given myself to anyone before. You should be honored, you’re going to take my virginity, you know." And that was his last coherent thought, that maybe she really did love him, after all.
Zone 42, near Los Cagos, Laveda
Over the underground fortress
It was a glorious explosion- seventy Zixadoo ships all blowing apart, one by one, like dominoes collapsing in a fiery clockwise pattern. Not one ship remained untouched, but the saboteurs were uninjured. The people below the ground would not be hurt; only the Zixadoo forces would be decimated. If any survived, Elene would zap them with a glare and a poof! Their aim was to take no prisoners and leave no survivors, however heartless that plan of action seemed. The four adolescents on the magic carpet rejoiced to see what their combined talents had wrought. Their teacher snapped a photograph and tucked the camera into her shift.
They still had so much to learn, yet they knew so much already, realized Sandemere. Now that the main Zixadoo forces were defeated, the rest would have to fall into place, and all thanks to four miniature adults who were still mostly kids. The carpet shivered impatiently, as if it knew the worst danger was over and the group needed to find shelter. It was morning, and they’d been flying all night; Sandemere didn’t know how much longer her magic and the carpet it was working on could last. So she headed for the nearest city, and as Cool Cat City was back in Animalia, it seemed that Los Cagos was their best bet. They flew the last mile in great joy- who wouldn’t celebrate destroying the enemy that would have destroyed your country, and who had already killed the queen? They checked into the nearest casino, which turned out to be the Hallucination. Samhin whispered to Sandemere that they should get a special room just for themselves, because they had saved the USK. Sandemere agreed completely and ordered the finest room, paying with her own diamond necklace.
Zone 42, near Los Cagos, Laveda
The underground fortress
It was all over in ten minutes. The first spaceship exploded in a blaze of garnet fire, and just a second later, the others began to follow. The watchers at the periscope informed Kit that it was safe to leave. But first Kit wanted to find her truant officers. She changed into plain white khakis, a crimson linen shirt, and a plum linsey-woolsey sweater. She took Mara and Yawner, who from experience knew every inch of Los Cagos, being natives of the city, and went searching for Eliza and Sam. They scoured the desert around the city in a one-mile radius, and decided to search within the city limits only after they had abandoned hope of finding them in the Zone. There, they looked in every alley and every home, and only ducked into the casino after combing the apartment buildings. It would be pure hell trying to find them there, but with luck, they could manage. They agreed to rendezvous at the old dumbwaiter next to the pantry/linen closet. With that they split up and searched the refugees’ apartments.
They never thought to look upstairs, or behind the stairs, or in the linen closet, and they certainly didn’t think to look for them together. So Mara went west, Yawner southeast, and Kit stayed at the north end of the ballroom.
Los Cagos, Laveda
The linen closet in the Hallucination Casino
At that moment, neither Eliza nor Sam wanted to be found. Eliza and Sam were lying together under the same sheet, wearing nothing but the skin they were born in, and Sam was even missing some of that due to Eliza’s sharp fingernails. He had no idea she was so aggressive in bed. Still, something had changed. While she was trying to get him to loosen up, he suddenly realized the way their souls were meant to be- together for all eternity, and he liked that concept just fine. It had gone from getting revenge to making love to something much more profound: a feeling of pure love itself, with nothing to get in its way. She was lying beside him now, cinnamon-sugar colored hair limp and her bangs plastered to her head. He was kissing her hair, and she loved it. Moments ago, they’d both been in the throes of passion, and if Mara had thought to check the linen closet then, she would have found them together, all right, the closest they could possibly be. They were a bit farther apart now, but neither one had the sense to reach for their clothes. She was half-asleep and he was plumb exhausted.
Sam wondered that nobody had heard their cries and shouts of each other’s names. Surely the USK hadn’t sent deaf searchers to Los Cagos? In the same instant, he hoped they had, because, truth be told, he just didn’t want to be found by the USK officials. He wouldn’t care if they were ordered to leave by the queen herself, of his home, Great Britain, or hers, the USK. The old queen was dead, anyhow, and maybe the fighters were null and void, and someone younger than he, at 31, had replaced him. He was well aware of the gap between their ages. She was at least 18, but not much older, he surmised, possibly 20. That left 11 years! He had a baby sister at home that was only 20.
In the midst of all these computations and contemplations, the three seekers decided to reconvene just outside of their hideout. Sam was so far off in space that he couldn’t catch snippets of conversation, but Eliza’s cat ears did.
"…looking for them? You can’t give up! We have to find them," raged one voice. "We can’t…" burbled another, and here Eliza heard something like "leave," and then she was snapped back to attention. They mentioned first Sam’s name, then her own.
"Sam, love, wake up!" she said. She slapped his cheeks lightly to bring him to attention. "They’re outside, the searchers. Get dressed!" They kissed for a moment, then wrenched free and hastily pulled on clothes. It escaped their minds that she ended up in only her gown, one petticoat, and a bedsheet, and his jacket was still gone. It only mattered that they were dressed. Then –and only then- could they collapse on the bed and resume kissing.
In the end, it wasn’t Kit, Mara, and Yawner who discovered their hideout, but the four teens, which were playing in the dumbwaiter. Samhin and Elene, fast friends, were crouched there. Her earrings were diamonds, and they contained the violet-blue fire of the witches’ prophecy. Samhin, although he could see through walls, had not yet learned how to see in the dark, and so Sapphire and Niniane had done their duty by staying in the room, but working to keep a string and the great sapphire lit. The yarn was laced with the sandy hue of Sam’s hair and the light brown of Eliza’s, and the bright red of the kirtle. There was also some plum for Kit’s sweater, but that couldn’t be seen against the violet-blue gleam of the string. The sapphire flared pure blue at times, and Samhin was pleased to see that she was learning to master the sapphire’s natural power and not just her own fiery gem magic.
Now, as they were approaching the first floor linen closet, Samhin peeked down and into the small space. He gasped. A man and a woman were apparently eating each other! He shook Elene, taking care not to touch her burning ears, and showed her the pair on the bed. Elene giggled. "Silly goose, they’re kissing!" she explained, quietly so as not to disturb them. When the box jolted to a stop, Elene signaled for Sapphire to extinguish her ball and for Niniane to stop lighting the yarn, and for both of them to draw up the light source. She lit her fingertips and pointed to the latch of the dumbwaiter. Samhin’s nimble hands worked to unlatch it quietly, while Elene’s fire warmed the hinges of the box door. The trick worked and the door swung gently open, and thunked against the plaster door opening into the closet. Samhin slipped a hand out of the door and onto the lock of the plaster hatch. He worked it open, and they now faced a startled Sam and Eliza.
"Oh, no, this is not good," muttered Sam. "Who are you?" he called to Samhin and Elene.
"We’re two fires from the Jewel Kingdom. Actually, he’s a seer and I’m a girl with fire magic," explained Elene, who thought that everybody knew the legend, and who had conveniently forgotten that a day ago, she hadn’t herself.
"Ah, I see," remarked Sam absently, though of course he didn’t. At that very moment, Kit realized that they hadn’t checked the linen closet. She, Yawner, and Mara grasped the door handle. On the count of three, they entered the small room to find two kids and a bewildered couple there.
"What is going on?" asked Kit.
"That’s what we’re trying to figure out, with all due respect, madam," Sam said officially. He straightened up, and belatedly he remembered Eliza.
"Let me guess, it’s not what it looks like," said Mara sarcastically. "Look, it’s none of my business, but if a normal fighter’s uniform has two petticoats and a kirtle, then why do I see the kirtle and a petticoat here? Sir, your jacket is gone, unless you’re accusing these two kids of taking it, and, uh, I would examine your trousers more carefully. Your fly’s unzipped." Mara’s face went a shade pinker when she informed Sam of this fact, but she kept her cool nonetheless.
"I think they got the right idea, Mara," said Yawner, sidling up to her. "Wanna get a hotel room, baby?" he joked in a bad yuppie impression. Mara swatted his head like she would an insect.
"Not for all the Zixadooans in the world," she stated. Kit was still speechless. The sketch was definitely of the woman, and the man was missing a jacket. And if they had… yuck! Kit’s mind reflexively caused her to shudder, thinking about the state those two had probably been in earlier. Well, at least the aliens were gone, and come to think of it, they had burned in a fire that looked unnatural, and kind of like the fire illuminating the girl’s hair…
"Hey, you kids, come here," Kit ordered. "Why is your hair so bright and fiery?" she asked Elene. "And what about your friend’s violet-blue eyes?" She assumed her I’m-waiting stance, the one that was familiar to her family and friends, and even now, to Mara.
"We’re two of the four USK fires," she said matter-of-factly. "Samhin’s a seer and I can work with flame. See?" Elene demonstrated her earrings and her fingertips, lighting her left hand in garnet fire, and her right in blue-violet.
By the time they made their way to the Green House, it was midnight again, and Elene and Samhin were curled up on a bench. Sandemere had been notified of her charges’ discovery, and she was being flown home on the private jet belonging to Kit. Niniane was dreaming of the Jewel Kingdom- her blue-violet glow was laced with a million gem colors. Elene was dozing on Samhin’s shoulder, and a thin layer of violet-blue fire encompassed them both. They looked like two kittens to Sandemere. Sapphire was stretched across several seats clutching her gem ball. Everyone was peaceful, even the other adults. Kit had retired to her little bedroom long ago. Eliza and Sam, much to their chagrin, were provided with connected rooms, one in each room. Yawner had yawned himself to sleep in the living room, leaving only Mara and Sandemere to sip coffee and tell their stories.
The plane reached the Green House at dawn.
Eliza woke up feeling very much alone in the giant guest suite at the Green House. After a day and a half in Sam’s company, she had grown accustomed to a warm body beside her, and it helped if that body was as irresistible as Sam’s was. She got up and pulled on her stockings, and crept into the hallway, intending to find him.
She didn’t have to go far, because he had taken the same initiative. Sam sighted Eliza at the opposite end of the hall, with her baby-soft hair in a cloud around her shoulders. When he scooped her up in his arms, the satin nightshift seemed thicker than a million wool dresses. He knew why, too- he had felt her bare skin against his hand, and that was a feeling he wanted to repeat. "Your place or mine?" he whispered, so softly that only she could hear it.
"How about ours?" she replied, reaching out to open the door to her spacious suite. He caught her wrist and brought it up to his mouth. He kissed it several times, before opening the door on his own, crouching down, and lifting her up. Sam carried Eliza into their room, and this time it was he who did the kicking and she who lay there helplessly, anticipating what would come next. But this time, she forgot that she was engaged, or that her fiancée, and the rest of the busy world, existed. All the world was within four walls, and it was all the world they needed.