Noble (3 page)

He extended his hand, and the small box gleamed in the light. It was a brown so dark, it was nearly black.

Myra knew better than to take gifts from strangers, but everyone around her was a stranger, and if she didn’t take stuff from them, she was going to starve.

She smoothed the medical wrap down and reached out to take the box. Her palm tingled when she touched it, and she pulled it toward her, examining it closely.

“It is pretty. What is it?”

“Open it and find out.” There was anticipation in the captain’s white eyes.

She swallowed and felt for the catch. A small projection stabbed her, and she yelped, but the box opened.

A small, glowing light illuminated the silky interior of the box, and as she stared into her cupped hands, the light moved, elevating slightly. In a move so fast, she could only feel it, not see it, the light shot into her chest, and fire ripped through her body.

She thought she screamed, she needed to scream, but the fire went on and on until she hit the floor and passed out.

Medic Winfel was watching her with concern on his face. “You are awake.”

“That was the suckiest present ever. What did it do to me?”

Winfel grimaced. “The Day clan kept the power of the Kameraet. Not just as leaders, but our actual psychic capabilities were bound in the cells of your kind. After the uprising, the Days ceased to be. Not simply because they were hunted, but the females refused to breed, and their line died out in less than one hundred years from the initial coup.”

“You kept the women?”

He blinked. “Of course. We are not barbarians. They were our healers, our protectors. We may have classified them as weak, but it was not until they were gone that we realised what we had done. Sek-Rah made it quite clear and ceased to speak with us.”

“Sek-Rah?”

“The soul of Fremiat, our home world. Her Avatar had a child and that child mated with the Day clan over an eon ago. That is when you rose to power. Without one of her children in control, she has ceased all communication with us, and our own world has become barren and hostile.”

“So that is where we are going? Fremiat?”

“Correct. If you are a member of the Day clan, as we believe you are, you will be able to bring peace to Sek-Rah, and she will bless our people once again. We can come home instead of pressing outward to take over unsuitable worlds.”

She sighed and struggled to sit up. “What did the light ball do?”

“It was a gift from Sek-Rah. She said that if we ever found one of the Day clan alive, we should present the box and the gift would do the rest.”

Myra wiggled her fingers and toes. The fire had faded into a comforting warmth and a strange energy. “Are my clothes ready yet?”

“Some pieces were destroyed in the decontamination process. We have found a suit for you that should fit you fairly well.”

“Not unless your females are the same size I am.”

He chuckled. “We don’t have females. That was another thing that the Day clan brought to us. Their presence kept the few women that there were fertile, and the men could sire daughters.”

“So where do you...you mean that you had to find alternate sources of breeding?” She couldn’t think of a better way to say it.

“We began to raid other species for what we needed, but we still had no daughters. No female Kameraet has been born in eight hundred years. Not Night clan, not Eclipse clan.”

She was really feeling the energy in her body now. “If my clothes are gone, can you get me that suit? Is there a place I can exercise on the ship? I really need to burn off some steam.”

Medic Winfel quickly moved to a cupboard and pulled out a folded garment. He returned to her and left her alone with the one-piece outfit with built-in footwear.

It took some wrestling, but she managed to get herself tucked into the suit and her thumbs through the hole in the sleeves and sealed the front closure. It was snug but supportive, and she wanted to exercise like she never had before.

“I am decent. Now, where can I exercise?”

Medic Winfel raised his eyebrows. “I will take you to the exercise space. You should be able to work off some of your excess energy there.”

“Lead the way.”

Her music player was inside her suit, and the headphones dangled out of the neckline. She followed Winfel out of medical, and her guards gathered around her.

Winfel led the way.

In three minutes, Winfel opened a door, and their group filed inside to a balcony that overlooked a huge space filled with obstacles and climbing apparatuses.

“Oh, wow. I have never tried parkour before, but I am definitely willing to give it a try.”

There were a few men using the space, but as soon as the leader of her guards let out a sharp whistle, they stopped what they were doing and left the facility.

Winfel smiled and led her down the stairs to the main floor and escorted her to the start mark. “Run, skip, do what you will, lady.”

She nodded and looked at the structure in front of her. A map of the facility appeared in her mind, and she suddenly knew how to get through the maze. “I am going to be sore in the morning.”

She put in her earbuds, cranked up the music and launched herself up the first obstacle without hesitation. The focus of physical activity was cleansing. She felt the power in her body humming in every vein, every muscle.

Myra ran across the top of the obstacle and leaped for the next, landing and keeping her forward momentum.

She ran, jumped, climbed, fell a few times and kept getting up. It could have taken fifteen minutes or an hour, but when she finally limped off the course, she felt relaxed and her body was back to normal levels of energy.

Winfel was staring at her with shock in his gaze. “You...”

She rubbed her hands on her thighs. “Did I do it wrong?”

“Um, no, but you came very close to beating the ship’s record.”

“Oh. Well it did what I needed it to. Can I go back to my room now?”

He nodded slowly. “Do you need medical attention for your leg?”

She flexed what had been a nasty sprain. “Nope. It seems to have fixed itself.”

“I see. Well, please come with me, lady.” There was still a stunned shock in his tone, but he gestured for her to precede him.

Her guards inclined their heads as she approached, and she waved her grubby hand at them. “Uh, thanks. I think I need a shower.”

The walk to her quarters was a little odd. She could swear that her guards were having trouble breathing. She didn’t think that her sweat was that bad, but Myra had been wrong about her feeling alive in space, so she wasn’t a good judge of what was what.

In her quarters, she found a few sets of clothing, and she took a shower before heading to bed.

When she woke in the night, she went to the terminal and looked up the iconography of the Night clan. All of her guards were of that clan, and she wanted to know what their masks and the engravings on their breastplates meant.

After two hours, she went back to bed and tucked herself in. If she read it right, the eldest sons of high families who had all proved themselves in battle and assignments in their chosen field of assassination surrounded her.

Their gathering was highly unlikely, and Myra began to be suspicious. Why would they put six of their best around her? If she was as important as they had said, she didn’t think that any of their people would hurt her.

She turned to her side and pulled the sheet up trying to ignore the fact that they were her people now.

Fremiat was as desolate as Winfel had said. There was green but no blooming, and a feeling of emptiness.

Myra heaved her much-lighter bag over her shoulder and stepped into the skimmer that was waiting to take her into the city.

Her six guards were with her, and one of them was flying the skimmer. It cruised above the ground with dizzying speed that didn’t leave anything but swaying grasses in its wake.

She fidgeted as the energy level started rising again. “So, what are your names?”

The pilot looked at her. “It is inappropriate.”

“Why?”

“We are your consort candidates. To get on a verbally intimate level with all of us would be awkward. It might lead to conflict within our group.”

Myra blinked. “Consort candidates?”

“Yes. We have been selected from different families; we all have leadership experience, and when you choose one of us, we will take control of Kameraet people.”

She blinked. “What if I can’t choose?”

It was funny that her mind didn’t say
wouldn’t
or
don’t.

He gave her a solemn look. “Then, we will have to make the choice for you, so let’s hope it does not come to that.”

She nodded and stared at the approaching city. A small suburb was clinging to the outer wall of the larger expanse, and the people there were a mix of female aliens and the Kameraet.

“How many live in the city?”

The man next to the pilot gave her a surprised look. “No one. The city sealed itself up centuries ago. All attempts to gain entry have been rebuffed by the capitol itself.”

That made her curious, but she sensed that the curiosity would be answered in a matter of minutes. They were flying direct to the large entry gates of the city.

Folk came out of the homes and followed them as they decreased to a slow crawl toward the gates.

“Um, why are we being followed?”

The pilot smiled. “Since the news came forth that you existed, there are several who are sceptics and need convincing. Everyone who can walk will be there to witness you opening the gates of the city.”

The skimmer settled down on the main road near the gates. The crowd stayed well back, but a wall of emotion that was broadcasting from them.

Myra rubbed the back of her neck and tried to figure out what she was supposed to do next. The guards beckoned her, and she kept her bag over her shoulder as she headed to the gate.

Icons were embossed in metal showing the rising sun, the eclipse at noon and the night stars. The door was split through the centre of the eclipse and two huge handles were at chest height.

“So, I just have to open this door?”

Her guards were behind her, and she looked back over her shoulder. They nodded.

How hard could it be to open a door?
She pressed her palms to the metal, and to her shock, her hands sunk inside the solid-seeming panels.

“Son of a bitch!” She tried to pull her hands free, but the doors hummed, and as they parted, they pulled her inside the city.

A cheer rang out behind her, and she stepped forward quickly to free her hands from the clinging metal. It stretched but freed her before it snapped back into the shape of a rising sun.

She looked around the interior, and instead of a city marked by decay, it was pristine, clean and had manicured green spaces. There was no colour beyond the green areas. The main wide road led to the central tower, and since she was already inside, Myra kept walking.

Everything was made in a pale gold or white stone. The city was designed with light, and all structures reached for the sky. Spires and twists were everywhere, and her new energy wanted to flip her around and send her running along the skyline.

She fought the new instinct and continued on her path to the centre of the city. Myra heard voices behind her, but she kept going. A quick glance behind her showed that her guard was lined up along the pathway, unable to follow. The gold band of light in between her and them was holding them back, but she pushed aside her unease and continued forward.

The building with the tower had a similar door to the front gate, and she pulled it open the same way.

There was a call, a summons that rang through her mind. She followed the call, and after half an hour of hallways, she was standing in a throne room with the great seat emblazoned with the same sun symbol that marked the doors.

A voice whispered,
Take the seat. It is yours. Take what is yours. This is where you belong.

The voice was gentle, coaxing and warm.

Myra put her bag down on the floor, and she stepped up onto the dais. The throne hummed when she touched it, and the moment she sat down, she was swallowed in a burst of light.

* * * *

Sek-Rah smiled as the energy of the Day clan ran across the surface of Fremiat. Her granddaughter contained all the power of her entire clan now. Myra would have to choose a consort, of course, but that too had been taken care of. She would know her match with a kiss.

Sek-Rah took her staff and walked into the centre of the throne room. Myra was giving her all to the world, and Sek-Rah would be here when she came out of the power transfer.

* * * *

Across the world, greenery rustled and woke from their endless early stages, maturing as the Kameraet watched. Buds formed and waited for the next wave of power.

* * * *

Myra slumped in the throne and caught her breath with some difficulty. “What the hell was that?”

“You woke up, child.”

Myra’s head lifted with a snap. A cloaked figure with a tall staff stood in the centre of the room. “Who are you?”

“I am the Avatar of Fremiat and your ancestor. My name is Sek-Rah. Welcome to my world.” A hand lifted, and the figure exposed a feminine face and masculine hands.

There was a conflicting sense of gender around Sek-Rah. “You are not...You are not female, are you?”

A rich chuckle ran through the room. “I am a functioning hermaphrodite. There used to be more of my kind, but they were killed with the rest of the Day clan.”

“How is it that you are my ancestor?”

The woman leaned against her staff. “Once, a long time ago, I wanted a child, so I engaged in a bit of personal experimentation. It wasn’t comfortable, but I had a daughter, and Fremiat claimed me, so I gave my child the blessings of this world. She passed them down to her children, but they always came to rest in the daughters throughout the centuries. She was the goddess of spring, and her children made Fremiat lush and fertile, leaving the animals and insects to me.”