Ice Phoenix (13 page)

He returned his attention to the girls and snapped Terrana grabbing Misa with her legs before striking her in the face. That had to be a foul! He took another of Misa yanking on Terrana's hair followed by a kick to the stomach. Yep, that was definitely a foul.

The long, dark silhouette of a fish passed above the girls and it was clear enough for Mawuk to distinguish the dorsal and pectoral fins, and a pair of flukes that made up the tail. He tried to spot the actual creature and failed. The silhouette returned, passing under the girls, but neither of them noticed it.

Mawuk was scared now. Was this the real reason why
Headmistress Marl had summoned him? To photograph a shadowy monster in the lake?

"Mawuk!"
The impatience in the headmistress's voice was all too clear.

Mawuk snapped rapidly, capturing both the girls and the silhouette while praying he wouldn't be gobbled up by the shadow monster. Half-a-minute must have passed before he saw a new development.
Misa began pulling away from Terrana, attempting to reach the surface. Her movements were sluggish at best, and Mawuk didn't think she'd make it.

Thankfully,
Headmistress Marl was already heading towards her, but Terrana reached her first. She hooked her hands under Misa's armpits and kicked for the surface. Mawuk was surprised at how powerful a swimmer she was — she seemed to be lifting Misa through the water effortlessly, bringing her feet down together in a powerful sweep.

T
hey broke through the surface and Terrana gave Misa a squeeze around the ribs, forcing her to draw a breath. Air was never so sweet! Headmistress Marl also appeared and raised both girls out of the water.

"Both combatants are disqualified
," she said loudly to the cheers and boos of the crowd.

"In case you didn't realise, the gong is above the grid —
not
in the lake." Both girls squirmed under her disapproving gaze. "Did you see the dolphin?"

Terrana's eyes widened. "What dolphin?"

"I said, you swim like a dolphin." So, she hadn't seen it after all. Headmistress Marl was left feeling disturbed. Had it been a manifestation of Terrana's desires, or had it been an entity independent of her?

"Get changed. Class is over."

"Yes, Headmistress Marl," replied both girls meekly. She deposited them on land and watched as they walked away. Her skin still crawled from witnessing the large silhouette under the lake and, like Mawuk, she had been unable to see the creature clearly. She would have to study the pictures closely to learn more about it, and she also had to wipe the boy's memory.

"
Degra!"

Headmistress
Marl looked up in surprise to see Master Drummik approaching. Judging from his grim expression, something serious had happened.

"
What is it?" she asked once he reached her.

Master Drummik leaned forwards and whispered in her ear. "F
elix Jingo was murdered early this morning."

"
Degra, the queen's on the move," said Master Drummik.They were in her office, behind the left eye of the great dragon that made up the main building of Minda Yerra. Everything was sleek and white, from the furniture and walls, to the flower vase that graced her desk.

"
Is it related to Felix Jingo?"

"Possibly
."

"
Dartkala!" muttered Headmistress Marl, using the word as an expression of surprise and dismay. She felt ill just hearing about the queen. It had been a long time since this imperial menace had ventured from her own planet; everyone, especially the Imeldors and L-Masters, preferred it when she remained in Swiva.

A
n automated voice interrupted them.

"
You have a new message."

Headmistress
Marl raised an eyebrow and looked at Drummik. "Don't you usually keep it on silent?"

"
New phone. I'm still getting used to it." Master Drummik fished a small, rectangular device from his pocket, glanced at the message and started cussing. Headmistress Marllooked at it in surpris
e
— it was an old model that seemed to be regaining popularity with the phalange-endowed species.

"
Don't ask," he growled when she threw him an inquisitive stare. He put the phone away and continued, "Felix Jingo wasn't the only one. Three L-Masters were also murdered last night. They were Barthos Morkan, Ophilia Traci, and Pajar Kumta — all killed within a space of few hours, at different locations. There was evidence of a struggle in each case."

"Dear
Dartkala! Who would be so bold as to go after both Imeldors and L-Masters?" Marl said, the disbelief plain in her voice.

"
The lacers believe that someone mindslipped into them. They're pointing at us." Master Drummik looked worried.

"
Why? Because Imeldors are supposed to be the only people who can take control of a person's mind? We're losing people too."

She understood Master Drummik
's reason for worrying. It was no secret that the L-Masters loathed Imeldors and took every opportunity to carry out regular checks on them via the UWIB Monitoring Authorities. These checks included late night raids on Imeldor
s
’ premises under the guise of protecting the general public. But what the L-Masters really wanted, were detailed studies on weavers'methods of qi manipulation, mind control an
d
— the queen.

Headmistress
Marl shuddered. Cold blue eyes and a beautiful, unforgiving face framed in a dark halo of hair came to mind. Icy as the world she came from, the queen had once obliterated an entire guild of assassins who had slipped into her planet. They had been on a mission to assassinate her and capture the faars.

The attempt, however, had ended disastrously.
She had been sipping hot tea in her ice caves with a group of L-Masters when it had happened. The assassins had been more than two kilometres away and never knew what hit them. But the L-Masters did, and when they returned home carrying the bodies of the assassins, they locked themselves away in solitary confinement. That incident had occurred five years ago and, to this day, the L-Masters were still locked away. Many believed that it had something to do with the queen kindly sparing their lives because she could have easily killed them all. Whatever had stayed her hand was a mystery to everyone.

Headmistress
Marl sighed. "With the queen on the move, we must be extra vigilant about the boy's whereabouts. Why do I feel like we are sitting on a ticking time-bomb?"

"
Are you referring to Prince Gil Ra Im?"

"
Of all the people she could have entrusted him to, why did she pick us at Minda Yerra? For sixteen years he trained under her tutelage, and it shows. There is no one his equal among the students. Minda Yerra is a holiday for him!"

"
He's led a sheltered life," said Master Drummik softly. "Knowledge comes from experience, and experience comes from living beyond the sheltered confines of his world. Perhaps the queen knew this."

The headmistress was about to respond when a vibration on her wrist interrupted her. She glanced at the message blinking on her wrist-phone.

Tell Drummik to answer his phone. B.

"
It's Baneyon. He wants to speak with you."

Master
Drummik scowled. "Tell him to stop stalking me!" He caught her puzzled look and explained. "He's been harassing me about Terrana's progress every single day! He wants to know how she's doing, if she's settling in okay, if anyone's bullying her, if the food is to her liking, if she's made any friends, what her grades are. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he's a nagging mother!"

"W
hy doesn't he ask me? I spend more time with her."

"He said your fangs would only get in the way." Master Drummik almost bit off his tongue when he realised what he had said. Headmistress
Marl descended on him, her face black as thunder. "Degra, in my defence  ... Don't kill me!"

Blissfully unaware of the terrible events her teacher and headmistress were discussing, Terrana sat at the desk in her room, typing out a message to Baneyon. Her school day was over and so she had time to communicate with him; students weren't allowed to carry phones beyond their rooms. Kazu lay on her lap purring contentedly, glad his mistress had returned.

Terrana
thought carefull
y
— how she phrased the next few words was a matter of life and death. She tapped her fingers across the virtual keyboard on her desk.

Baneyon, please get me the new hooded cardigan from Grienna's Store. It's called the A-Line and I'd like the rainbow one. With love, your only daughter. P.S. I can send you the catalogue number.

She tapped
Send.

Back in Pophusia, languishing
in the warm sunshine outside a riverside café, Baneyon nearly choked on his iced loganberry shake. His eyes scrolled rapidly across the screen of his phone, blinking his response.

Sure. When the sun marries the moon and they give birth to a
two-headed baby monkey.
Send.

Terrana scowled.
Her fingers flashed across the desk.

You
're too old to understand. Fashion is a religion. Today I was told my clothes were cheap, ugly, and primitive. Do you want me to live with that?
Send.

Baneyon's face turned dark. Did she really just say he was too old? He read his message again. She did!

Live with it. And just remember, an old man would not take you shopping.
Send.

Prove
it to me and buy me the A-Line.
Send.

Baneyon cussed under his breath.
The little brat had got him. His phone beeped again. It was a message from Master Drummik.

Beware Degra! She tried to force
me to spit out what you said about her fangs.

"Drummik, you idiot!" he said out loud. He blinked his reply.

As long as she doesn't know I wanted to use them as rivets to attach the beam on my ceiling.
Send.

A whole minute passed by
before he received an answer from Drummik.

You idiot! You sent that last message to Degra.

Crap! Baneyon prepared himself for the backlash. He, Drummik, and Degra had grown up together so he knew just how unpredictable her temper could be. Any moment now ... His phone rang.

"
Baneyon here," he answered, sounding as normal as he could.

"
How did your time on Earth go?" She didn't sound angry. That was good. The murder business was probably weighing on her mind.

"No luck.
I nearly got my ass bitten off by some great whites along the coast of Australia — did you know they actually have the intelligence to herd their prey into traps?"

"If you were the prey, then it wouldn't be too hard."

There it was — the slightest hint of vehemence.

"Have you tried searching close to her home?"

"I did!
All three-hundred-and-fifty islands. There wasn't any sign of the dolphin. If I don't see fish for the next five years, it'd still be too soon."

"Ahh ... well, she is living in Minda Yerra now."

Baneyon couldn't help but feel that statement carried undertones of smugness, although he didn't see how. "Are you trying to tell me that Terrana's feeling at home in Minda Yerra?"

"Yes. And if Minda Yerra'sher home the
n—
"

"You saw it, didn't you?" he snapped. "You saw the dolphin!" And to think he had spent the last two weeks scouring Earth's oceans dodging sharks while looking for it.

"I have pictures. One of my students took them. Don't worry, I've already wiped his memory."

"You're not joking. You really saw it?"

"I saw a manifestation of it. I'm not sure whether Terrana called it or it appeared on its own."

"A manifestation?
It wasn't real?"

"I don't know. Terrana could have projected it, or it could have been real and therefore trying to tear through our fabric of reality, the way she had done when she was living in Sector Thirteen. There was one other thing ..."

Baneyon tensed. Whatever she said next was not going to be good.

"I failed to detect any qi from either Terrana or the dolphin. It seems that what happened on the ship was not an anomaly. Sensors can't detect her qi."

A tiny ball of fear grew in the pit of his stomach. He, Degra, and Drummik had physically searched and scanned the forecastle deck of Dartkala's Arrow but had not detected any traces of qi from either Terrana or the ice-phoenix. There had been minute recordings of the other students who had stayed with her, but zero readings of the ice-phoenix and Terrana. How was that even possible? Why had the ice-phoenix appeared to her?

The enormity of the interaction between Terrana and the ice-phoenix terrified Baneyon. I
f they didn't find answers soon and word escaped that Terrana had personally met an ice-phoenix, it wouldn't be long before the L-Council came knocking on the doors of Minda Yerra, demanding to remove her. And knowing their methods, they would begin with a lobotomy.

"Degra," he said slowly. "Those boys who were with Terrana on the shi
p
— we should wipe their memories as well."

There was no reply. Baneyon frowned.
"Degra, you there?"

"Baneyon, hello? Baneyon, can you hear me?"

"I can hear you.
Must be the connection."

"It's not the connection. You were quiet for two whole minutes."

Baneyon froze. He stared at the table and the cast of its shadow. It was exactly how he remembered it — the shadow fell neatly across the grains of the pavement in the same exact line.

He
looked towards the potted Alduran lemon tree and noticed a few of the leaves fluttering, but he knew there was no breeze. The table's shadow should have shifted point zero five degrees to the right if two minutes had truly passed.

He
glanced at his messages — there were two from Terrana.

Fell into the
lake again but took Misa with me. She gave up first cos she wasn't able to hold her breath.

The message was time stamped two minutes
earlier.

If you buy me the A-line, I
'll pretend I won't understand anything about particle separation in Master Drummik's class so you can win your bet.
Ten secs.

"
Degra," he whispered hoarsely. "I've been compromised. Someone's mindslipped into me."

Baneyon dropped his phone and looked around in panic. With the intruder in his mind reading his thoughts, he couldn't be sure whether what he saw was real. T
here were people everywhere, strolling by with their pets, sitting down, whizzing past on their scooters; they looked real enough. He couldn't believe he was being attacked in broad daylight — an unwelcome sign of the enemy's confidence.

A little boy no older than five, with curly hair and chubby cheeks, walked past him holding onto his mother's hand. He saw Baneyon and smiled. It was an evil smile; his eyes crinkled into dark slits and his mouth pulled back too far.

"
You're going to die today, Baneyon," he gurgled.

"Hope your mum leaves you soaking in your diapers!" Baneyon shot back, but not loud enough for the mother to hear. He could sense the attacker within him, contaminating his body with foreign qi in a bid to gain control of his limbs.

Baneyon
shut his eyes. One by one, he began blocking off the qi points in his body that could have allowed a skilled user to enter. In doing so, he trapped the foreign qi and, therefore, part of the attacker's consciousness became trapped within him. He only hoped it wasn't too late; he was beginning to lose sensation in his lower body.