Suddenly a narrow door cracked open in the wall, flooding the corridor with light, and the warrior forced the three of them through it, scuffling over the stone floor into a round chamber. Shen screamed as he saw countless upturned warrior legs enswathed in glimmering white leaping straight at him. The warriors plucked him and Kai from their captor and whisked them towards a large holographic sphere in the middle of the chamber surrounded by other glowing images. Kai’s dazed eyes peeled wide and drowned in the temple’s blue and violet gleam as the warriors’ white bled into one behind upended shapes and sheen — a diamond galaxy, a branching map, a planetary system. A breath of red brushed past the other side obscured, and as twin warriors held him and Shen fast, then flicked them back upright with their feet dangling half their height above the floor, the noiseless I’sta chorus moved in around them boiling Shen into a scarlet rage of fear —
“Put me down, idicimes! Put me down this instant!”
Kai’s eyes remained transfixed by the swirling crimson glint, as a Truth Warrior drifted elegantly up to him.
“It’s you,” said Sann.
“You’re right,” barked Shen without looking, “That’s him, I’m me, and you’re you. Now, let us go!”
Sann shifted her eyes to one of the twins, then back to Kai — the identical warriors nodded together and lowered the captives carefully to the floor. Kai squinted up at Sann; the light from the holographic galaxy flowed around her head in a diffuse halo. Shen looked up and recognised Sann with a flicker of orange.
“Oh! It is you!” he said, “You saved us earlier! You and...and that serious-looking one! We cannot thank you earnestly enough, my friend and I. And now...now....”
Shen’s orange seeped away and his mouth hung open as his skin became awash with scarlet and grey.
“Oh...my...! I’m sorry to have to tell you this...but you are all in grave danger!”
Blank stares engulfed him.
“Oh, no...no, not from me!”
Sniggers rippled through the circle of warriors.
“No. Under the temple!” continued Shen, “The Way is all corrupt, it would appear, and...there’s Sucthul there! The High Priest himself is one of the Dark Three!”
Another warrior stepped forward; Sann moved aside and the others bowed their heads in respect as she neared Shen, grave and austere — Onnd.
“The Sucthul Three?” came her terrible and beautiful voice as she towered over him, “How can you know this?”
Shen turned pale, gulped through airless dread, then continued, “They were...chasing us. We were escaping...trying to escape. You I’sta were right all along, and...”
“And you doubted us?” said Onnd coldly.
Shen gulped again, and then forced out as much of a nervous whisper as he could from his tightening throat: “N...not for a moment, ma’am. Not...ever.”
Jhor stepped forward, her thin lips twisting into a dark smirk.
“Why in Destiny would one of Déhath’s Three be chasing you?!”
“The Dark Three!” gasped Shen, as though he had already forgotten, then continued wide-eyed and bright like a child, “Yes! Yes! It was Lúez! And Sílb!”
Jhor raised a silvery eyebrow: “How detailed of you!”
A rainbow of pride flickered across Shen’s face.
“Thank you,” he said in complete sincerity, “Thank you for noticing. I certainly do try....”
The silence stabbed through Shen’s eyes and his colour trickled away as he registered Jhor’s derision.
“Well...I think they were after him — he’s the One!” blurted out Shen, pointing at Kai as his radiant flicker of pride returned, “And he’s my friend!”
All eyes shifted fluidly towards Kai. Shen continued, his voice skipping ahead and tripping over his own thoughts, “Yes we...he did! He saw! He used the light, and I was there. I saw. Well, it was my light, actually. So of course I was there. Of course. And I was so scared. I was bleeding and was all — AAARGH — you know? Like a binkoth. But this boy, he came with his hand and did the thing and...and...well he held the light, my light, and...and he shaped it! He did!”
“He bore the light?” said Onnd pensively, then began circling Kai, studying him.
“Yes! Yes, that’s right. Just like the prophecy says. And he’s a ‘silent soul’ too! I do believe he’s the One!”
Onnd continued around them without comment.
“Well...he might be the One,” wavered Shen in the heavy hush, his colour draining away to doubt, “He could be. I mean, maybe he’s one One, at least. Some One, or other. All I know is that he did the light thing, he doesn’t say much, and then they were after him — Lúez, Sílb...and Déhath Himself!”
Onnd’s eyes rippled wide.
“Déhath?”
Onnd completed her circle and hung over them like a tower. A breath of red flowed through the light towards Kai and his mouth fell open, just as Sann and Jhor stepped up and loomed over him beside Onnd, and Shen began to quiver palely pink.
“Well...boy,” said Jhor, “If you are the Chosen One...show us!”
Next chapter — Reckoning
Sunday 5 June 2011
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