elegant gait, once again strapped and buckled tightly into sculpted sable black. The SYS-soldiers standing close by, who had been happily harassing the citizens of Destiny, stopped cold when they saw him and tensed to attention, each suddenly smothered by an icy blanket of dread — even without the knowledge that he was, in fact, one of the Dark Three.
Lúez’s cold eyes were still trained on the hapless family of four scurrying away over the forum; the father was urging his family on more quickly, much to their annoyance, as he twisted back his neck to see if the shadow of the SYS-officer was still upon them. Lúez looked ahead again, and his mouth curled into a hideous grin; as he paced silently forwards, his shadow crept over an unwitting SYS-soldier like an eclipse — a junior officer with two thin, red stripes on his black collar, and his back to the SYS-officer as he barked orders at a group of soldiers over whom he apparently had some semblance of authority. One by one, the soldiers’ blood turned to ice and their eyes peeled wide as they watched the SYS-officer descending upon their commander. As they all stretched themselves up into terrified attention, the junior officer stopped barking and cocked his head to one side, confused regarding the sudden show of respect from his underlings. Then an icy rasp pierced his ear —
“I assume...you have them,” came the hiss.
The junior officer understood at once; he gulped hard, pulled himself up straight and turned around reluctantly to look up at the SYS-officer.
“No, um...,” he forced through his drying, tightening throat, “Not actually...yet, Sir!”
Lúez crooked over his sculpted spine, bringing his ashen face within a fetid breath of the junior officer’s twitching mouth. A single, splurting cackle spat from his torn lips —
“Yet?!”
The junior officer gulped harder, and faster, but neither air nor words came as he redefined his concept of how much regret was possible in one short life.
“I...I....”
Lúez explained in a sinisterly emotionless rasp: “Well...we will have them...or we will no longer have you.”
“Yes, yes of course, Sir, and...”
Two other junior officers sporting similar insignia and terror slid nervously up into the SYS-officer’s shadow, temporarily delivering their colleague from further humiliation. With eyes as dead as joy, the SYS-officer sliced at the air three times with his adamantine claw, and the officers scurried off at once in different directions. His eyes followed after the soldier to his right as he scurried secretly away in pursuit of the family of four, and then back to the first junior officer as he resumed barking orders, his throat gradually opening again and his quick, quivering legs keeping him just ahead of his taller troops as he dragged them towards the Religious Quarter.
Lúez started slowly towards the temple and grinned to himself: “Such simple pleasures.”
Moments later screams of panic pierced the air as the junior officer had his troops pull down orators from the edge of the Religious Quarter. Shen’s finger was still prodding Kai’s chest as they both looked up at the light of the sun wavering through darkening clouds over the dome of the temple.
“‘A dying star is our salvation true’,” whispered Shen.
Kai’s dark eyes blazed. A drop of moisture spattered onto his left hand. He clenched his fist at the slight sting, and held it with his right hand. With a hiss, a droplet landed in Shen’s wiry mass of glowing hair and a rainbow wisp of of steam snaked up, almost like a new strand of chaotic hair coming to life. A flock of four-winged birds flapped up from the forum’s stone in a crackle of unexplained fear, just moments before an ominous rumble filled the air.
it’s time
“I do believe it is time, Salvator,” said Shen at once, “Destiny’s skies are far from kind to visitors — your skin is yet too thin.”
The clouds broke. Abrasive rain cascaded down as though an invisible canopy had been pulled asunder. Above the temple, an energy field crackled and fizzled into shape — a million tiny sparks shimmered into a funnel, drawing the rain towards and through the lofty roof. Immediately a tapestry of chimes wove through the air in a glittering choral knell. The SYS-soldiers tightened in around the far end of the Religious Quarter and more shrieks and cries wove into the chorus. Shen and Kai grabbed each other’s arms and pushed and pulled and shouldered their way through the unruly crowd until they finally shot out into the open forum and ran straight towards the temple.
Watching the trickling specks of Kai and Shen from high above as they ran through rainbows in his direction, Lúez stood observing from a tall, narrow opening in the stone wall of a stairwell in the ancient temple. He swallowed deeply, then curled his grey lips into a private, rasping sneer —
“It's time.”
Next chapter — Time
Sunday 30 January 2011
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