Ice Phoenix (49 page)

"Yes she can. She's always in you. She's taking a long rest, that's all."

Terrana shuddered and pulled away from him, wiping her tears. When her palms couldn't do a proper job, she used the prince's handkerchief. Finally, she took a deep breath and stared at Master Drummik. She smiled. It was watery, but it was a smile nevertheless. A smile that said she was not going to give up. A smile that brought sunshine into everyone's hearts and told them that tomorrow would be another day. A smile that made them realise why Baneyon had loved her so.

"Such is the impermanence of life and the endurance of a child's spirit," said Grandmaster Deitrux, his voice suspiciously shaky. "We could all learn from you, Terrana. The strength you possess is rare, and there are not many people who could stand again after having their hopes and dreams crushed. You have persisted, and the flower you'll bloom into will be one that lasts through time."

His gaze swept across everyone. "Pa Gumpina exists, the virus has been contained, the wrails are under control, and Queen Julere is back. I'd say this is a good day indeed."

"The virus is not only contained, but being eradicated as we speak," said Master Kuldor. "We discovered and were able to synthesize a cure a day after you left Pa Gumpina. We used a freeze-paralysis method to contain the infected, hence the frozen bodies you saw being loaded onto the truck earlier. There are still some infected people roaming about. The cure is currently being administered to everyone. It requires two shots to a person's system; one to destroy the virus, which acts as neurohormones that manipulate the brain into believing the body is starving, and the other shot is to correct the imbalance in the hypothalamus. The process is a little long winded but we are close to completing a spray that will be released into the air. It will cure the infected people who will breathe it in. Unfortunately, the psychological damage suffered by the victims is a little more difficult to manage, and in many cases we had to delete sections of their memories. Very sad indeed."

"I imagine that would be a long and slow process," said Grandmaster Deitrux sadly. "Who'd want to remember eating their loved ones or seeing their loved ones eat each other? Did you learn which type of wrail was spreading the virus?"

"Yes, the little humanoid heads. Some students discovered it."

"Students?"

Master Kuldor nodded at Terrana. "Her friends. Three boys and two girls. One of the girls was bitten by a humanoid wrail and she turned. Luckily the boy, Lorn, acted quickly and bound her in ice. That's how we got the idea to apply the freeze-paralysis method to the rest of the infected population. The students stayed by her side until help arrived. We were able to cure her."

"I see ...," replied the grandmaster, looking deep in thought. "What about the wrails? Have they been completely eradicated?"

Master Kuldor's face darkened. "Almost. We are having trouble containing one type — the soldiers refer to it as the inferno. It is no exaggeration when I say it is extremely difficult to kill. It absorbs qi from everything within a fifty-metre radius and breathes liquid flames. The upside is that there are only a few. The downside is that they've gone into hiding."

"Were you able to kill any?"

"Three of them. Her Highness and I brought one down, Degra and a group of weavers managed another. In both situations we depended heavily on the faars' help to defeat them. But ... we discovered a third that vanished off our radar close to where we found the students."

"The same students that discovered the virus-carrying wrail?"

"Yes. They were extremely lucky to survive after encountering it, mainly due to a brudisaurius owned by one of them. It distracted the wrail, giving them enough time to escape."

"Niku?
What happened to Niku?" Terrana asked sharply.

"The brudisaurius?
Probably in the stomachs of several wrails by now. We found blood traces of it all over the ground. His master is understandably upset — after all, his pet saved them."

"So what killed the inferno then?" asked Grandmaster Deitrux.

"We have no idea. It definitely wasn't the brudisaurius. We are retrieving data from the drones circling the city during that time, so it won't be long before we learn what killed it."

While Terrana listened, she felt a familiar sensation in her chest and she shot an anxious look towards the buildings. Her eyes came to rest on a building about twenty metres down to her left, and in particular, on an archway above a door. Crouching above it and peering at her tentatively was a little fat cat. Her eyes widened in disbelief.
Kazu?

Terrana!
Kazu's been waiting a long time.

Kazu!
She broke into a run. So did Kazu.

The young waitress sensed his shadow first and glanced up, only to find
herself drowning in the most seductive pair of grey eyes she had ever seen. The man was tall and strong with a full head of rich, auburn curls. His skin was a natural shade of tanned caramel, and when he smiled, the waitress found herself grabbing the countertop to stop from falling. He was most likely in his mid to late thirties if one were to judge from appearance alone.

"
Hi," he said, flashing pearly white teeth behind full lips.

"C-
ca, can I get you anything?
Anything?
" She stretched out the last word.

"
I heard this café serves up an excellent dish of tuna tartar. I'll have that along with the Monpog steak, rare, and a bottle of your house red please."

"
Of, of course. Let me lead you to a table. There's a private table behind the —"

"
Will you be there?"

"
No, I work behind the bar."

"
Then I'll have it here."

She turned a bright shade of purple and was afraid that he would hear her three hearts beating like a drum solo. She quickly punched in the order on her palm tablet.

"Anything else?"

He smiled again and she found herself drawn in, her eyes fixed on his mouth.
"As a matter of fact, yes. Can you tell me how to get to Minda Yerra?"

Her eyes widened. "
Are you a teacher there?"

"
Not nearly. I have a niece who studies there, and I was only recently informed that her parents, my brother and his wife, passed away. I'm not the easiest person to reach since I work in the Xanthrian mines in Sector Two, and it was quite a shock for me to learn that my only brother had passed away."

The waitress pulled a sympathetic face.
"I am so sorry to hear that. That must have been hard indeed."

The man nodded. "They passed on about four months ago. The authorities informed me that they had contracted the hunger virus. Do you know anything about that?"

The waitress paled and her hands shook. He noticed her pallor, and leaned forwards in concern. "I'm sorry, did I say something wrong?"

She smiled nervously and shook her head.
"No, not at all. I just, everything's still fresh in my mind, you see. You weren't here so you wouldn't know although it was in the news everywhere. You must know that Pa Gumpina was attacked?"

The man nodded.

"The wrails ... they came from nowhere, invading our planet and killing everything. Our government thought that they could be contained, and for a short while, they were doing okay. But that was before the flying heads struck."

She fell quiet, as if wrestling with her emotions, and the man didn't push. Instead, he waited for her to calm down. His silence appeared to help and she shot him a grateful smile.

"It must have been really hard for you," he said. "I take it you were here when the wrails attacked?"

She nodded.
"Through every single moment of it. I couldn't believe it when the UWIB Council declared they would exterminate us. No one could. They had already started shooting down our evacuation ships. How could they? They killed thousands of innocent people!" She brushed her tears away angrily. "I lost many friends."

The man laid a hand on hers. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

"No, thank you, but I want to. I want the whole world to know just how horrible the UWIB Council is and what they did to us! They were so quick to galaport their precious Nuclear Chain Matrix to destroy us, and their fighter ships were attacking everything indiscriminately, regardless whether they were wrails or people! I hate them so much!"

She said it with such vehemence that the man leaned back a little to distance himself from her fury.

"But you're still here, right?" he said. "You, Pa Gumpina, and all the other people. You're still alive."

She sniffed.
"Thanks to the Imeldors and the L-Masters who fought for us. They went all out to protect Pa Gumpina."

"Yes, I read about that also. They were very brave, to go up against the Council like that.
Also unusual for Imeldors and L-Masters to unite."

"Yes it was. Everyone knows how they hate each other. But they were more than brave. I have no words to describe what they did, but they are our heroes. And then, there's the queen. She's not just the queen or our hero — she's a goddess!"

"The queen?"

The waitress ducked beneath the counter, rummaging for something. She reappeared, brandishing a newsreader. "I saved the articles. They came out a week ago." A virtual screen appeared and the man saw several sharp images.

"The UWIB Council was furious that someone had destroyed the matrix — especially because it was thought to be indestructible. But as you can see from the articles, they finally discovered who did it. It was the queen of Sector Six. She single-handedly demolished the Nuclear Chain Matrix. Those are images of her."

He flipped through the images, pausing only when he saw a clearer picture of the weapon in the queen's hand. His eyes took on a strange glimmer. "Interesting," he said.

"Pa Gumpina is planning to hold a celebration for her and everyone else who fought on our side. Sector Six will forever be our allies — the queen brought her own army with her."

"The
Shakan?" He looked surprised.

"Yes, that's what the queen's warriors are called, aren't they? I saw them you know."
Her eyes took on a faraway expression. "UWIB's Mobile-suit soldiers didn't stand a chance against them."

A waiter walked up to them carrying a covered tray. He set it down in front of the man with a flourish, removing the lid to reveal the first dish of glistening tuna tartar. The man sniffed it appreciatively
while the waiter poured him a glass of red wine.

"
Enjoy your meal, sir," he said. Then, he turned smartly and took long, striding steps back to the kitchen. The waitress also stepped back, leaving him to enjoy his meal in silence.

As he chewed on his tuna, the man
scanned through the image banks of the newsreader, taking in the images of destruction, hopeless faces, and soldiers. He particularly liked the way in which the photographers aptly portrayed the emotions of the people, from shock, disbelief, and hopelessness to hope, joy, and triumph.

Suddenly, he froze and the fork fell from his hand, clattering to the floor loudly.
A picture of a young girl clutching a silver-striped kitten came into focus. He stared at her pale, tired face as she struggled to stand. Her halo of tousled hair swathed her head like dark fire, set against the backdrop of a frozen, winter-land nightmare. The picture was both hauntingly beautiful, and inspirational. He read the caption beneath it:
Our children refuse to kneel to UWIB.

A finger inched out to
stroke her face gently, and the man felt a surge of pride as he took in her beautiful eyes and stubborn mouth.

"
My, my you've grown ... Terrana."

Someone approached and he looked up.

"I brought you another fork, sir," said the waitress.

He smiled. "Call me Aran."

More than a billion
kilometres from where he was eating, passing through several gates in the void and beyond, a large whirlpool of bubbles appeared in a sea close to an outcrop of rocks that lay at the very edge of the land.

A gigantic wave crashed over the rocks, spraying wildly into the air. As the water receded,
a dark humanoid being, tall and muscular, peeled himself off the grated surface of the rocks and stood up. Bottomless eyes scanned his surroundings.

He was fearsome to behold. A
pair of horns twisted into a single point behind his head, while a thick tail of blood-red hair ran from the top of his forehead down to his bare waist. There was no mistaking he was a predator, and right then, he looked murderous. Even the sea sensed his anger and rolled back fearfully.

Words
carried across the wind. "Aran, I
will
find you, and I
will
kill you."