Princess of Amathar (18 page)

"Why the gold fringe?" I asked.

"You are Kurar. You are a lord," he replied. "You are the head of your family."

"I am the only one in my family."

"Which makes you the head of the family," he continued. "It is not unheard of to be the only one in a family, though this is the only instance I can recall, of some one starting out that way." I put the tabards down on a table, and lifting one from the top of the stack, unfurled it, and then put it on over my head. In the middle of the front and back was my crest in bright gold--a flaming sun embossed with a large letter "A".

"I am proud to say that you are now my kinsman," said Norar Remontar.

"No one could be more proud than I," I replied.

"We could stand around here, puffing our chests out," said Malagor, his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth, "or we could go get our dinner."

The three of us left the apartment, and headed down the flights of escalators to a great dining hall located on the fourth floor. It was a magnificent hall, filled with large round tables. There seemed to be enough room to seat five thousand. Already throngs of Amatharians in warrior black and white were feasting on great heaping servings of food, and tossing back large beakers of mirrah. They were being served by men and women dressed not just in white, but in a rainbow of colors.

"This is a chance for family and friends to serve the warriors before they go off to battle,” said Norar Remontar. "There are more than a hundred parties just like this going on at the same time." We stepped into the hall, just as an orchestra began to play. The musicians were seated to the far left in a semi-round annex of the room, I supposed for the acoustical qualities. Some were wearing yellow, denoting their devotion to art, but most were wearing other colors. This didn't surprise me, since most Amatharians seemed to be multi-talented, and quite a few could well be called renaissance individuals. The instruments of the orchestra were all unlike anything I had seen on Earth, not that I am an expert in the field. I could make out brass, woodwinds, and strings sections, but there were a couple of sections that I could not identify. The entire assembly made a hauntingly beautiful music that sounded vaguely familiar, though unlike any orchestra I had heard in my home land.

The three of us made our way around the great throngs of diners and servers, to a table at the far end of the room. Already seated were the radiant Vena Remontar, as well as a dozen other knights, swordsmen, and warriors whom I didn't know. We took our seats, and immediately three great platters were placed in front of us. I looked up to see the two young girls, Neela Esponar and Nona Montendro, serving our food. Both smiled at me. When a goblet of mirrah was placed before me, I was shocked to look up into the face of Mindana Remontar.

"Drink, kinsman," she said without smiling, and I got the impression that she seldom smiled.

"Thank you, aunt," I replied, using the term for mother's sister. She cocked an eyebrow, and then moved away with her tray into the crowd.

"I don't think that she likes me," I said.

"She is worried that I will become enamored of you, and break my engagement to Tular Maximinos," said Vena Remontar. "Breaking a vow of betrothal is a disgrace.

"Do not worry," she continued, wrinkling her nose in a smile. "You have no such power over me."

"Where is Tular Maximinos? Where is Bentar Hissendar?" I asked.

"They are both at a party in Reyno Hissendar's building," she replied. We enjoyed great food and fantastic music and what seemed like gallons of mirrah until I thought I could take no more of any of it. At last the music stopped and a single horn blew. That was the signal that the party was over, and it was time to begin boarding the ships. I shook hands with Vena Remontar and the other soldiers at the table, and followed Norar Remontar and Malagor from the room. Just as I was leaving, Nona Montendro grabbed me by the tabard.

"Kinsman?" she asked, giggling.

"Yes?"

"Will you wear this token?" she stepped close, and pinned a small broach above the crest in the front of my tabard.

"Um, sure," I replied.

No sooner had I moved away from her, than I was approached by a woman whom I had never met before. She was quite attractive in the way of all Amatharians, though she was not the raving beauty of Vena Remontar or her cousin the Princess. She smiled at me and batted her eyelashes.

"Er, hello," I said.

"Kurar Remiant Alexander Ashton," said Norar Remontar, stepping to my side. "Allow me to present Tulia Maximinos. It is a shame we didn't meet you sooner, Tulia. Now we must leave for the ship."

"Too bad," she said, with a predatory look in her eye.

Norar Remontar hurried me from the room, Malagor trailing behind us. We made our way up to his apartment to gather our gear. A short time later, we were aboard the great Amatharian Battle cruiser.
Chapter Eighteen: Toward the Zoasians

In many ways, life aboard the great Amatharian battle cruiser was much easier for me than it had been in the city. The ship operated on a fixed schedule based on its own version of the city-cycle, which was recalibrated each time the ship docked in Amathar. Each person on board was assigned a duty and worked three cycles, followed by six cycles off duty. I knew absolutely nothing about the ship or its procedures, so initially I was assigned to the security detail. Since I was a knight, I was given what was essentially an officer's rank--command of ten swordsmen, each of whom commanded eight to ten warriors.

Amatharian ships didn't have names, though they did sport numbers. The battle cruisers were essentially all of the same class, though they had minor differences, and some were newer than others. Their importance was based entirely upon who commanded them, and what mission they were on. This ship was Sun Battle cruiser 11, and it was the flagship of Norar Remontar's twelve ship squadron, one of four squadrons making the assault on Zonamis. Like the other ships, this one was painted navy blue with silver trim. Like the other three flagships of the fleet, this one had a great crest across the bow--in this case, a flaming sun with outstretched wings. And like all Amatharian ships, this one was arrayed with the banners of her knights. When I first saw my own banner, with a flaming sun embossed by the letter "A", flying among the many others, I was filled with pride. There were more than ten thousand soldiers aboard this one ship, and about one in a hundred were knights.

The accommodations on the vessel were far more spacious than I had expected. Every soldier aboard had his own cabin, and though they were very small in comparison to their homes in Amathar, they were far larger than I had seen on any ocean going vessels of Earth. Each was large enough to have a bunk, which was mounted to the wall rather than sunk into the floor as was the Amatharian fashion, a small table and two chairs and a closet. My own cabin had a large window looking out toward the landscape that rolled continuously past.

Now that we were finally on our way, I spent more and more time thinking of the woman I knew I was in love with, though I had seen her only one time--the Princess of Amathar. Sometimes these thoughts would lead to remembrances of her cousin, Vena Remontar, and the friendship she had shown me. Other times I just fretted over what might have happened to Noriandara Remontar since her abduction by the Zoasians. Even cruising at full speed, it would be a long time before we reached Zonamis, and I worried about all the things which she still might face. I figured our maximum speed to be between two and three hundred miles per hour, and so even accepting the more generous of the two figures, it would be the equivalent of four and a half months before the fleet arrived. It was a long time. I tried to make good use of all the time I had available. I learned to pilot the Amatharian aircraft, both fighters and shuttles. It wasn't as difficult as one might expect. I imagine that any child capable of playing those fast action video games could easily manage it. The controls consisted of a joystick in the left hand to control the steering and a lever for the right hand which controlled lift. There was an automated training simulator on board which I used at first, but after it became apparent to me and to the pilots that I would probably not crash the vehicle, I was allowed to participate in some of the flight drills which were constantly leaving the battle cruiser and returning.

I improved upon my growing skill with the sword, which was in fact my primary duty aboard ship. As the leader of a security team, I did little but see to the watches around the vessel, and drill my troops with the sword and the light rifle. I must say that I had never seen men and women so devoted to duty as those one hundred or so Amatharians under my command. In that entire time, never once was a soldier absent from his duty because of sickness or anything else.

Even with all of the military activity in which I was involved, there was plenty of time for recreation and social activity. The swordsmen and warriors of my company enjoyed playing a kind of catch, in which they used an irregular shaped cloth bag filled with plastic-like beads. Another game involved the skewering of various thrown objects upon a stick as the individual ran through a maze of obstacles. I gathered that this traditional activity once involved the use of swords, but now it was considered a great dishonor to endanger one's sword for a mere game. In addition, I spent a large amount of time in the ship’s prodigious library where I read biographies of interesting Amatharians, novels of several different types, and a book of rather dark and morbid poems penned by Mindana Remontar herself. I was lucky to have my friends present on the same ship. Norar Remontar was of course in command, and though he was busy with his duties far more than I was with mine, we still had time to discuss life, love, and duty over dinner. Malagor occupied the cabin right next door to me. He had been given command of eight warriors, and had been placed in charge of one of the ship's great light guns. Vena Remontar was aboard this ship as well, in command of all the squadrons of fighter aircraft. She seemed more and more beautiful each time I saw her. Tular Maximinos was there too. After passing over the great plain beyond Amathar, our fleet split into its four separate squadrons and moved forward like the four prongs of a very large fork. We crossed over several large mountain ranges and a sea which was about a thousand miles across. Beyond that was an impressive forest, another sea, and still more mountain ranges, until it all became a blur to me. I enjoyed watching the wildlife through a telescope aimed at the ground though there was a large amount of bird life, or perhaps I should say flying life, as well. Once in the distance I spotted something extremely large flying, but by the time I had returned with my telescope, it was gone.

We had been zooming along for several months, by my own private calculations, before we came into contact with anything Zoasian. As we crossed yet one more mountain range, the squadron came under fire from ground-based missiles that proved to have come from automated stations. One of the missiles blew a large hole in the side of one of the other battle cruisers, but the rest of the weapons were destroyed by the ships' guns. The injured ship was left behind to search for and destroy any other automated defenses along the mountains.

I suspected that it would be only a short time until the Zoasians came to see what had happened to their missile sites, and I was right. Shortly after the missile attack, the squadron encountered two Zoasian battle cruisers heading straight toward us. When they saw our eleven ships, they pealed off to the right and tried to run back to their home base. Norar Remontar sent a command by signal light, and three of our cruisers took off in hot pursuit of the enemy. The five ships were only dots on the horizon, when the captains of the Zoasian vessels realized that they wouldn't be able to outrun their foes, and turned to fight. Though the distance was too great to see the details, tremendous explosions among the ships were clearly visible, and we could even hear the sounds of war. But the remainder of our fleet continued on toward Zonamis.

The warriors, swordsmen, and knights of the fleet moved to a state of constant readiness. The shift schedule was changed to two cycles on and one cycle off, so there was always a double shift at ready. Automated missile sites and manned weapons silos firing black energy beams became more and more common. Still the fleet pushed on. At last we crossed one more, great valley and approached Zonamis. It was an incredible city. If I had not been to Amathar, it would have been the largest city that I had ever seen, though Amathar was such that it really deserved a different word entirely. Zonamis was larger than Los Angeles or Mexico City, more than ten thousand square miles of urban buildings, factories, and power stations. It was built on and around an entire mountain range. Much of the central part of the city was carved from the mountain rock itself. I had the impression that installations went deep into the ground.

As soon as we had sighted the city, the city sighted us, and energy beam and missile fire began to shoot out from literally thousands of locations within Zonamis. Fighters began to streak into the sky from the ground and our ships began launching fighters to engage them. Shortly after the fighters began their three dimensional ballet of death in the sky, twenty great black battleships rose up into the air from behind the mountains and prepared to engage us. For the moment we were outnumbered, but I could see two more of our squadrons in the distance approaching at full speed. The challenge had been made and accepted. The battle had begun.

Chapter Nineteen: The Battle for Zonamis

As flame and ordinance shot through the air all around the ship, I gathered my company together on the deck of the vessel, as did the five other security companies on board. Our squadron and the one commanded by Ulla Yerrontis were flying high above the city drawing fire, and engaging the battleships. Vandan Lorrinos was moving his squadron in low and attacking the ground installations with shipboard weapons, as well as landing thousands of Amatharian troops. The final squadron under Reyno Hissendar waited in the rear as reserves.