Ice Phoenix (20 page)

"You were still in a coma," he said gently, "when I returned to your house with Master Drummik. We had to make sure that the fire had not been caused by anything qi-related." He paused.

"And?"

Baneyon wanted to close his eyes so he didn't have to look at her, but he didn't.

"We discovered a surge spot on the fallen beams that used to be above your parents' bed. In all likelihood, the fire bega
n—
"

"From the ceiling," Terrana finished.
"Caused by someone who could use qi." Her hands fell to her sides. All the blood seemed to have left her face. Her shoulders sagged.

"Then she was right," she whispered. "I started that fire. I killed my own family. I'm a murderer." She began to tremble.

Baneyon grabbed her hand, giving it a hard squeeze.

"No, Terrana. You are not a murderer. You could never have done it."

"Yes, I could!"

It hurt Baneyon to see her like that, in pain and despairing.

"You haven't seen her, Baneyon. The other me. She's evil." Tears rained down her cheeks. "I'm the only one who possessed qi. Only I could have started that fire. That's why, when I saw Archie in a vision, he said I killed them."

Baneyon pulled her close to him. "No, Terrana. You didn't. I know you. You are the strongest person I've ever met. So strong,
that even the other you can't break out. As long as you two share the same body,
you
will always win. I believe that."

"It should have been me who died."

Baneyon stiffened. It seemed so long ago that he had almost forgotten that Terrana had tried to kill herself while she was in hospital. Suicidal thoughts were not new to her. He shook her angrily.

"Don't you ever say that
again! Do you understand? Never!"

Kazu hissed and swiped Baneyon's hand, leaving a dark and bloody scratch. Baneyon ignored it and continued to look at the wretched girl next to him.

"Listen to me, Terrana. You weren't the only qi user on your island. There was someone else."

She raised her head.

"Your dolphin. From everything we've seen so far, we think your dolphin is feiyed. Both Headmistress Marl and the prince have seen it. We think it's trying to follow you here."

"Puddy?" A little bit of the wretchedness in her flitted away. Without realising it, the emotional wound she had been carrying since Puddy had left her, healed just a little. "Headmistress
Marl and Prince Gil Ra Im saw Puddy?"

Baneyon nodded. "Puddy appeared during your match with Misa, but Headmistress Marl wasn't sure if he was something you had woven out of your desire to see him. But when you fought the prince, his faar saw Puddy and confirmed he was feiyed."

"Puddy is feiyed?" Terrana said slowly. The cogs in her mind churned. "Then, does that mean, like the faars, he can travel through the In-Between? He could ... come here?" Her body trembled in growing excitement. The lift in her voice scared Baneyon a little. He hadn't meant to give her false hope.

"Then, I wasn't imagining it when I thought I saw him in the lake," Terrana continued, not noticing Baneyon's worried look. "And that was
his
voice I heard in my head. That was him in the lake! He was trying to reach me!" Joy was a dam bursting in her chest, and Terrana sprung to her feet, a smile breaking onto her face. "He didn't abandon me!"

Baneyon inwardly berated himself for doing this to her. The last thing he wanted to do was destroy her newfound happiness.

"Terrana," he said gravely, "Puddy may not have abandoned you, but what he did was much worse."

Terrana gave him a puzzled look, wondering why he looked like stone. Her mind quickly went back to what Baneyon had been telling her about the fire, about the other qi user, and finally the implication of Baneyon's words sank in.

"You're wrong!" she cried. "Puddy would never have started the fire!"

"And neither could you. When I found you, you were injured and near your brother. The doctors had to peel the clothes off your melted flesh. But when you turned into
her
last week while you were with the prince, you were covered in fire but you weren't hurt at all. If it had been this 'other you' who started the fire in your parent's house, the real you wouldn't have been harmed at all. I really believe that, Terrana, and you must believe it too
.
” He paused for a moment, watching Terrana's face to see whether the truth had sunk in. "Terrana, you have to be careful. Your dolphin is a very dangerous creature. You can't just run to it whenever you see it."

"But Puddy would neve
r—
"

"Puddy is
feiyed,
Terrana. Remember the lessons I taught you. Feiyed animals are dangerous. They are extremely powerful and they can't be trusted. We don't know what happened the night of the fir
e
— whether it was an accident or if it had been caused deliberately. But what I do know is, if you ever see your dolphin again, get away from him. Don't get caught with him alone."

Terrana's eyes were like rocks in a mountain.

"Terrana, please, I need you to promise me to stay away from Puddy."

There was no reaction. She just continued to stare at Baneyon as if he were a cockroach on a wall. He didn't blame he
r
— he had just accused her best friend of murdering her family.

Baneyon reached out and raised her chin. "You need to promise me. Your dolphin could well be the reason for your transformation. If you were to transform into
her
again, you won't be able to remain at this school. Do you understand?"

For a while, she didn't say anything. She and Baneyon remained as they were, willing the other to look away first. Terrana understood. If she transformed again, she'd be a threat to the other students around her. She had already hurt the prince. And something told her that Baneyon would not leave her alone unless she promised.

"I promise," she said finally.

"Good." He stared at her for a long while, not saying anything. The kitten remained at her side, flashing him nasty looks. For a moment he thought it resembled Terrana in one of her bad moods and he smiled. Pulling away from her, he said, "I'll be gone for a while. It may be days, perhaps weeks before I get back. During that time, you won't be able to contact me."

Terrana stiffened. "Where're you going?"

"I can't tell yo
u
— it's work-related. But I'll call you as soon I get back."

"You promise?"

Baneyon smiled. "I promise." He stood up.

"I must leave now. Try to avoid getting into trouble while I'm gone."

Terrana nodded.

He removed a package from his shoulder bag and handed it to her.
"For you. I'm sorry I wasn't there when you needed to speak with me. I should have called you."

Terrana took the package from him.

"Open it later. Walk me to the door first."

She placed the package on the bed and then walked with him to the door. It slid open and Baneyon stepped out.

"Stay safe," he said, his eyes taking her in.

"You too."
She watched him disappear down the corridor, a feeling of sadness rising in her. She shut the door quickly and walked back to the bed. The package was lying there and she unwrapped it, tearing at the crisp paper with shaking hands. Something soft nestled in the folds of the paper. It was the colourful A-line cardigan from Grienna's that she had wanted.

Baneyon stared gloomily into the fire, taking comfort in the heat drawn from the crackling wood as he tried to clear his mind of the previous days' disasters. Five days had passed since they had departed Pa Gumpina and two of them had been spent on Si Ren Da. From the moment they had met up with the L-Masters, they had been besieged by one disaster after another.

Disaster one: joining forces with the L-Masters. Never had Baneyon met a more pompous, arrogant, status-loving bunch of fools. They whined about everything, from the ship and its sparse quarters to the food, and took offence every time any of the Imeldors tried to speak. Apparently, they were still upset that the Imeldors had managed to work out the reason behind all the murders.

Disaster two: eight hours before they expected to reach Si Ren Da, they ran into a freak meteor shower that blew an engine, taking one of the L-Masters with it. Baneyon had no idea what he had been doing in the engine room in the first place.

Disaster three: another one of the L-Masters had insisted he could replicate the engine. While trying to do this, he blew out the remaining engine and died. Baneyon and Quempa had to guide the ship down to Si Ren Da — an action that nearly drained them entirely of qi. Both had required eight hours of undisturbed rest after that.

Disaster four: the dogs of Si Ren Da. Raimus had not been exaggerating when he had called them hell's jaws. L-Master Bolik had attempted to place bombs on several of the dogs, but that did not end well. Much to everyone's horror, the dogs had shed the offending devices at the very last moment, leaving L-Master Bolik surrounded by his own devices.

Needless to say, everyone had been forced to scrub the remains of L-Master
Bolik from the soles of their shoes and clothes. Baneyon never wanted to go through that again.

Because of these hellish hounds, Baneyon and the rest of the group
were now hiding in a hastily made cave underground. With three dead L-Masters and a useless ship, the outcome of this mission seemed bleak.

Someone groaned and Baneyon looked over to where Talinuk Ferro lay. He had been wounded by being too close to L-Master
Bolik when the bombs went off.

"We're in trouble, aren't we?" Raimus Jigahart said as he sat his large body next to Baneyon and reached a hand into the fire.

"Mind if I brighten this place up a bit?" He located the switch within the fire and turned it up a notch. The fire blazed outwards and Baneyon shifted back a bit.

"Useful gadget this.
I'm glad we brought it along."

"What are we going to do about those dogs?"

Raimus pulled out a cigar, clipped the end and lit it. He sucked in deeply and puffed out, pulling his moustache thoughtfully.

"They're two metres high, their saliva is corrosive, their very presence nullifies our qi attacks, and they can spot us from kilometres away. And as we've just recently learned, they are also bomb disposal experts. I say we leave this planet
now
."

"With what ship?"
Baneyon didn't bother to hide his cynicism. "Our L-Master friends led the dogs to it while searching for a place to hide, and now it's nothing but a corroded hunk of junk! We can only pray that Kuldor received our distress signal when we lost the first engine, because now we are stuck in a sector where only one out of its four hundred planets is covered by satellites. And guess what? We're not on that planet!"

"Dartkala's breath, you know how to put things into perspective don't you?" grumbled Raimus. "Quempa," he said to the man who was approaching
, "how do you ever survive with this miserable git on missions?"

Quempa
Pillidux tucked away his leathery wings and took a seat by the fire. Instead of answering, he just shrugged. Unlike Grandmaster Deitrux, who didn't possess wings, Quempa Pillidux came from the mountainous regions in the southern hemisphere of his planet. Over time, the people in his region had evolved wings to cope with the harsh, high altitude environment, which was a stark contrast to its northern counterpart.

Baneyon looked around. "Where's Lady Fless?"

"Out scouting," answered Quempa. "She should be back soon."

"How is it possible we started out with ten people and we are now left with seven?" Baneyon said.

"Well, on the bright side, we have three less people complaining about food," said Raimus.

"They need to get their heads into this mission. We haven't so much as smelled the pendant yet."

Quempa stiffened, touching his ear. The other two stared at him.

"What is it?" asked Raimus.

"That was Lady Fless. Looks like you'll have to take your words back, Baneyon. She located the pendant."

"What? She did? Brilliant!"

"She'll be here soon," Quempa continued. "She intends to rendezvous with L-Master Ana first and they'll head here together."

They were interrupted by the sound of someone sliding down the entrance into the cave. Moments later, a tall, thin man appeared, dressed in loose black trousers and a dark shirt. He had a dark yellow complexion and lacked any facial hair. Two discreet slits above his mouth indicated his nostrils.

"L-Master Kalum, care to join us by the fire?" Raimus called out.

The tall man nodded and walked over. He glanced at Talinuk Ferro, who was leaning against the far wall.

"How is he doing?" asked Kalum.

"He's healing," answered Raimus. "He'll be all right in a few hours."

"We may not have a few hours. Did I just hear Quempa say that Lady Fless discovered the pendant?"

"You heard right, L-Master Kalum," answered Baneyon.

"Kalum. Just call me Kalum."

It wasn't long until Lady Fless and L-Master Ana slid down the entrance.

"Welcome back," called out Raimus. "I hope you have some good news for us."

"On the contrary, the news is dire," said Lady Fless, looking grim. L-Master Ana stood next to her, a tall and lanky woman from
Palilon, in Sector Eight. Palilon was a swampy, humid planet and most of its inhabitants possessed either amphibian or insectile characteristics. L-Master Ana was of the former; she had webbed limbs, tiny gills running down both sides of her neck, and a small fin on top her head.

They all gathered around the fire, and the injured Talinuk Ferro joined them.

"As you know, I located the pendant. Unfortunately, it's in the dogs' lair underground. To make matters worse, the entrance is protected by a barrier, and only the dogs can move freely through it."

"No doubt you have tested it?" said Raimus.

Lady Fless nodded. "I threw a couple of rats and watched them dissolve. The same with rocks. The barrier appears to be a construction of weaving and lacing."

"Not too bad," Raimus mused. "I'm sure we can figure out how the barrier works and deactivate it. It's the dogs I'm worried about — we're talking about a full nest of those vicious monsters."

"I haven't finished," said Lady Fless. "I also located the demons. There are five of them, and right now, they're standing outside the dogs' lair. They looked like they were trying to find a way past the barrier."

"You saw the demons?" Quempa asked. "What did they look like?"

Lady Fless's mouth set into a straight line. "They could be any one of us. Pophusian, Cubeyon, Magarkan … it's hard to tell."

"Then it's only a matter of time before they find a way to retrieve the pendant," said Baneyon.

Lady Fless nodded. "They are also keeping a safe distance from the dogs."

Raimus breathed out a sigh of relief. "At least the dogs are good for something. But that doesn't give us much time, does it? With the demons standing in front of the barrier, do we attempt to engage them and deactivate the barrier later, or do we focus on the pendant?"

"Focus on the pendant," Quempa said quickly. "Don't forget, both the queen and the grandmaster warned us about their qi. Without knowing how the enemy fights, we can't afford to engage them on the assumption we would win."

"I agree with Quempa," said Baneyon. "Our mission is to retrieve the pendant, not engage with the demons. Are we all agreed on this?"

Everyone nodded.

"Great," he said. "Lady Fless, do you have any idea how we can penetrate this barrier?"

"I do actually," she replied. "I had a little time to experiment before the demons arrived. I discovered that if you distance yourself from the barrier by a hundred metres or more, you can send an astral form of yourself into the ground."

"That was dangerous!" exclaimed Quempa. "You left your physical body open to attack."

Lady Fless was talking about astral projection. It required ejecting nearly all her qi from her body to form a second body that would contain her consciousness. It was similar to weaving a clone, except an astral projection did not have a solid body. Any injury sustained to the astral form would affect the real body. There was also another limitation to astral projection — Lady Fless could not have returned to her body carrying anything she would have picked up along the way.

"I didn't have much of a choice, Quempa," said Lady Fless. "With the demons so close to us, we have very few options."

"What was the lair like?" Baneyon asked.

"Cavernous. I materialised at least a hundred metres below ground. There's a path that descends for about two hundred metres before disappearing into another cave. You need to enter that cave and take the
right fork. It led me to a small room where I found the pendant." Her eyes gleamed. "And guess what else I found?"

"Oh cut it out, Lady Fless! This is the wrong time to play with our emotions," said Raimus, pulling his moustache fretfully. "Just tell us already!"

Lady Fless gave him a scathing look. "You're such a wuss! The pendant was attached to a skeleton, and judging from its open circular pelvic inlet, it was female. I couldn't confirm the carbon dating, but the woman was most likely Santorian, from Sector One. The skeleton is around three thousand years old."

"Dartkala, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" gasped Raimus.

"No one has to think," said Baneyon. "You are screaming it into our heads. Who else thinks that we found the final resting place of Skra?"

"It's possible," L-Master Kalum concurred. "She did go missing after the war, and it is logical that she would have kept the pendant with her at all times."

"Dartkala's breath, if it really is her, Si Ren Da has just become UWIB's number one cultural heritage site. Here lies a missing piece of history! Incredible!" said Raimus.

"Furthermore, it shows we're on the right track and the queen's hypothesis about the demons and what they're after is correct. Skra's pendant really does exist — this is going to throw a spanner into historians' work everywhere," said Baneyon.

"Indeed, it will. But before that can happen, we need to rescue the pendant or our historians will be too caught up in recording the events of a new war to write about the last one," said Quempa.

They all turned sombre after he said that. Baneyon clapped his hands. "Not to worry, I have a plan!"

Quempa groaned. "This better be good."

"My plans always work, Quempa," said Baneyon, giving his friend a withering look. "You've survived all of them, haven't you?" Before Quempa could answer, he continued. "For it to work, we have to be extremely well
coordinated. No offense to anyone here, but I'll need the best athletes for this. That would be me, Lady Fless, and L-Master Ana."

"And what would we be doing that requires us to be athletes?" asked Lady Fless, her eyes narrowing.

"Chillax, Lady Fless. I've got this covered." Baneyon grinned, which made Quempa groan audibly.

"We're going to astral project into the lair at different times. I'll go first, grab the pendant, and race up to the next level where you'll be waiting for me. I'll pass you the pendant and project out. You then need to make it up to the second level to L-Master Ana. Again, pass her the pendant and project out."

Baneyon turned to L-Master Ana. "Your job is a little harder, I'm afraid. The dogs will have sensed you by then and will follow your trail of gi. You need to lead the pack to the barrier. When you are close enough to the barrier, you'll have to attach the pendant to one of the dogs. Make sure it runs through the barrier. Understood?"

L-Master Ana didn't answer. Her large eyes blinked several times while she gaped, struggling to find the right words.

"Have you completely lost your mind?" barked Lady Fless. "You actually
want
to encourage the dogs to come after us? And what's more, you expect Ana to latch the pendant onto one of them? Have you forgotten, we can't weave around them!"

"That's not the only thing he's forgotten," added Quempa. "Who's supposed to remove the pendant from the dog if L-Master Ana succeeds?"

"You are," Baneyon said promptly. Quempa threw him a disbelieving look.

"It makes sense, Quempa. You're the only one that can fly without using qi. All you have to do is swoop in, grab the pendant, and fly the hell away from there!"