Excelsior (15 page)

“My mother saved me the same way, you know,” Excelsior said as the child looked up adoringly. “You don’t have to be sad anymore, you have important work to do. When I go, you’ll be the one to keep the planet safe.”

The boy pushed away his tears and smiled. “You think so?”

“I know so. Just make sure to keep yourself focused at all times. Don’t let these guys get away with anything, okay?” The child nodded and smiled a little broader.

“The body must be kept alive,” came a whisper out of nowhere. Excelsior’s reassuring smile vanished as he snapped his head first to the left and then to the right.

“You sure you’re all right?” asked the boy.

“I think so,” he managed to say.

Suddenly, a hooded figure passed in front of him.

Excelsior looked into a pair of eyes that glowed red with hatred. The figure lunged forward and jabbed a blade into Excelsior's exposed flesh and a scream tore through the crowd.

*   *   *

Matthew dropped to one knee and reached for his side. In spite of the sharp pain, he saw nothing there. And then he heard another scream.

He saw Jason on the ground, clawing at the patches on his body, tears flowing down his face. His T-shirt was torn open and an unearthly moaning escaped his mouth. Matthew tried to shake off his stupor when he heard three sets of feet running toward him. Zorribis made an adjustment to the Krephth and shoved it at Karini, who immediately started rubbing it over the patches on Jason’s body. They turned a soft blue and began to glow. Jason thrashed once then relaxed.

“I told you to take it easy. You are two tronks from your home. Why didn't you listen?” demanded Karini.

Jason answered with a weak gurgling sound.

“It was my fault. I had another vision,” Matthew said. Karini exchanged glances with Klierra, but she said nothing.

“We should get them back to their home. Jason needs rest,” Karini asserted.

“Fine. You and Zorribis attend to them and I will collect Radifen and Grannik.”

*   *   *

First, there was darkness and silence.

Then a soft glow cut through the emptiness and as the light grew larger, the murmuring of various voices began to make themselves heard. In the beginning, a mashing of three voices, each one getting louder to overpower the others. A barely audible rasp cut through the voices.

“Where am I?”

He could feel his nerves start to tingle and his blood start to boil with rage as the voices around him grew louder.

“So how long does this thing have to be here before we can start cutting it up?”

“I already requested before that you stop calling it a thing. It has a name.”

“I'm sorry, Teddy. I keep forgetting the limited shelf life your requests have in my mind. I meant to say, how long does 'Ritgen-Man' have to be here before we cut him up?”

Rage coursed through him and he began to feel blood being forced through his veins and his eyes tightened as he struggled to move his limbs. Suddenly, he heard another voice, one that echoed in his mind as the jewel in his hand started to vibrate.

“Rest, Danaak. Rest.”

“What is that?” he hissed, responding to the voice that only he could hear.

The jewel vibrated again. “You will return to full strength soon enough. You are almost ready.”

The anger in Danaak's soul began to subside, replaced quickly by impatience. “Yes,” he hissed to himself. “Only a matter of time.”

“You have done well with me in your possession, Danaak. You will succeed where Nocterar had failed. Our master would have been pleased with your performance.”

*   *   *

“How much farther do we have to go?” Grannik asked as he twisted and turned, trying to get comfortable shoehorned into the back seat of Klierra's car.

“It shouldn't take too much longer,” she answered. “The apartment is just up this street.”

“Well, I still don't understand why Radifen was told he would be sitting in the front seat while I have to squeeze back here.”

Radifen glanced over the front seat. “Because I'm older.”

“Humph! Someone would think you’re an Elder the way you act.”

“What is that supposed to …” Before he could finish, Klierra pulled up in front of Mrs. Norris's Maspeth home and braked sharply. Grannik jammed a meaty hand against the roof of the car for balance.

“We’re here.” Klierra bit off the words. Both men fell silent.

As she got out of the car, Klierra spotted Mrs. Norris sitting by herself on the porch, scrutinizing the comings and goings on her street.

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Norris,” Klierra said with a smile.

Mrs. Norris started with surprise. “Oh hello, dear. What are you up to today? Shouldn't you be at work by now?”

“No, I have the day off,” Klierra replied smoothly. She walked up to Mrs. Norris as Grannik and Radifen unfolded themselves from the car. Mrs. Norris’s gaze followed them as they rose. She unconsciously straightened up and one hand fluttered to her eyeglass chain on her ample chest.

“Oh, my, who is THAT?” she breathed. She straightened her housecoat and tried to pat her unruly curls into place.

Klierra smiled, amused that the “Denarian Effect” worked on women as well as men. “These are my sons… Luke and Han. I’m going to move to be near them and my grandchildren.”

“Your sons? You have children? I don’t recall you mentioning… Why, hello, boys, I’m Flora.” She looked up at Grannik. “My, you’re a big one. Would you like some tea and English muffins?” Mrs. Norris opened the top button of her housecoat.

“We’re sorry, Mrs. Norris, but we have so much work to do. Please excuse us.” Klierra steered her large “sons” toward the basement apartment.

“What? You’re not leaving, are you?” her eyes lingered on the men. “I’d hate to lose you. You've been such a wonderful tenant.”

“My family needs me,” Klierra answered.

“Where are you going?” Mrs. Norris forced herself to tear her gaze from the retreating Radifen and Grannik.

Klierra took a deep breath. “Out of state.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out an envelope, handing it to her now former landlady. “I hope this will make up for giving you this news so abruptly.”

“Oh, you don't have to...” Mrs. Norris's voice trailed off when she looked at the amount of cash in the envelope. “Um, yes. Yes, this will do just fine. You don't need any help with your things, do you?” She then peeked around the corner and took one moer deep breath of the heady aroma still hanging in the air.

*   *   *

“What are you doing?” Klierra called into the kitchen as she could hear the sounds of various items in her refrigerator being shifted around.

“Looking for some more of that peet-za,” Grannik called back to her. “You have any here?”

Klierra shook her head. “Will you both get in here and start getting this stuff out to the car?! You both ate before we left!”

“Yes, Elder Klierra,” Grannik responded as he shut the door.

“I told you not to look for any,” came Radifen’s sharp whisper.

The men walked into the living room where Klierra was tucking in the flaps of a large cardboard box. “Be careful with this one, Grannik. The armor is in here.”

Grannik's eyes widened. “The armor?” He tried to peek inside the box, but Klierra pointed to the door. “Just put it in the car.”

As he walked to the door, Grannik looked back over his shoulder. “Isn't this supposed to be in its proper casing?”

“It is. Inside the box. Remind me to tell you on the way back about these people's basic attraction toward shiny metallic objects.” Grannik nodded, then walked out.

Radifen watched Grannik leave then turned to Klierra, “Shouldn’t we contact Elder Acerus and update him on our progress?”

Klierra nodded. “Yes. He sent me a message on one of Jason’s appliances right before you arrived.”

“What did he say?”

Klierra looked away. “He said ... Nocterar has returned.”

Radifen’s eyes widened. “Where is your communicator?”

Klierra took the device out of its box as Grannik returned. Radifen glanced at Klierra, then piled three boxes into Grannik’s powerful arms. “Take these to the car, Grannik. I’ll be right out.” He held the door open.

Moving with a sense of urgency, Klierra set the communicator on her coffee table and activated it. The image of Elder Acerus looked up at her with eyes as dark as the ash on his tired and lined face.

“Elder Acerus, I bring wonderful news,” Klierra began immediately. There was no response from Acerus. “We have found the keeper of Excelsior’s lifeforce and we are preparing to retrieve the sword. Our mission is almost complete and we should be able to bring Excelsior back to us before Danaak is fully revived.”

Radifen noticed a tear cutting through the ash on Acerus’ cheek. Abandoning protocol, he interrupted Klierra. “Father Acerus, has Wilitar rejoined our unit?”

Acerus held Radifen’s intense stare but his voice was hard to distinguish. Radifen leaned closer to hear his choked whisper. “Wilitar…did not rejoin us. Wilitar is dead.”

Radifen backed away from the device and staggered toward the kitchen. Klierra watched with some alarm as she saw him grab the counter for support, then start pounding, his blows making the pans rattle in the cupboards. His silver hair fell like a protective curtain around his head as his tears splashed onto the worn, yellow Formica.

*   *   *

The Krunation master’s castle rose like an obsidian basilisk above the decimated landscape that once was Denab IV’s most verdant plateau. In the Great Throne Room Hodera’s footsteps echoed off the soaring walls of volcanic glass and seemed to escape through the gaping hole in the ceiling that provided the only illumination. Hodera surveyed the nearly empty chamber and extended her arms to feel the power she sensed vibrating from the walls.

Smiling, she stepped up to the imposing gray and black throne rising high on a stack of twisted objects, her forked tongue flicking over her lips. With one long, elegant finger she traced the intricately detailed arm of the throne and then held up her finger. On it was an annoyingly fluffy quarter-inch of dust, which had turned much of Nocterar’s gleaming
midnight
seat a soft Denarian gray. “What a waste of a perfectly good chair,” she hissed and wiped the finger with disgust on her cape.

“Hardly a waste, my dear!” Hodera took a sharp breath and turned to face the dark cloaked figure that now filled the room’s doorway. “This throne has served its purpose well.” The darkened shape of Nocterar stepped into the chamber, his shadows moving at his will.

Hodera tried to see through the fog of darkness as Nocterar glided toward her. When he drew closer, she folded her supple spine in a deep bow. “Master.”

“You should sit on this throne, General Hodera. You can feel the resolve of the Denarians draining more and more every second you are upon it. The name the Denarians saw fit to give it -- ‘The Throne of Damnation’ -- it is the highest throne on the highest floor of the highest point in all of Denab IV, and from it you do not even need a window to see the imminent victory of the Krunation Empire.”

Nocterar’s words filled Hodera with a burning desire to mount the altar upon which the chair sat. Instead, she crossed her arms and bowed again. “Yes, my Lord.”

A pair of fire-red eyes cut through the blackness towering over her. “I am still weakened and am not ready to sit on that throne again. Since the gift that our creator bestowed upon me is no longer on this planet, it is taking longer for me to regain my strength than I would like. But I understand you have kept the Denarians under your control while I was gone.” A huge, scaly hand seemed to materialize out of nowhere and came to rest on her shoulder.

A small smile cracked the perfect façade of her face. “I have, Lord Nocterar.”

“I am pleased, my dear,” the emperor said as he gave her shoulder a soft squeeze. The tip of one claw nicked her through her armor and she gave a delicious shudder. “Before Excelsior defeated me, I would have thought to be the only Krunation capable of creating such a sensation of fear across this planet. Unlike my second-in-command, who saw fit to rob the grave of his master and take the jewel for his own purposes, you served your master well.”

Hodera flushed with pride as Nocterar praised her. “I understand your yearning for power. I know you hunger for it, long for it, wish to drink it in. And I know it was your decision to assume control over the Krunation soldiers after Danaak disappeared.” The hand on her shoulder slid up her neck. “I admire your work, Hodera. Your method of torturing the Denarian people, destroying their spirit and flaunting that power to humiliate them thrills me. Had I known you were so -- gifted, I would have given you the title of my second-in-command.”

“Thank you, my Lord,” Hodera responded.

Nocterar removed his hand from Hodera’s neck and pointed to his throne. “While my powers slowly restore themselves, I would like you to sit on the throne.”