The Four Kings (12 page)

“It’s not hard as it looks,” Demus said. With a snap of the fingers, he and Amanda were standing on an instant diving board, about five hundred feet into the air. Amanda shrieked, and fearing she’d lose her balance and fall to her death, clutched Demus on his shoulders. Try as she might, she couldn’t take her eyes off the spectacle below. All of the ten spheres were now drifting in front of them, as well as below them. Amanda saw one directly below, by about thirty feet.

“Get me off!” Amanda screamed, still holding on tight to Demus.

Demus seemed to savor her firm grasp on his bare shoulders. Turning his head to look at her, he said, “The idea’s to find a path from one sphere to another. You’ll enter each sphere and swim in it. Then you must find a magic gate that will appear in front of your eyes. Take it. It’ll take you to the next sphere. Oh, and you may have to hold your breath a few times. The important thing is not to panic.”

“You freaking idiot!” Amanda shouted uncontrollably. “I said, get me off right now!”

“So,” Demus continued calmly, “The first step now is to dive into that sphere right below us.”

Despite her intense fear, Amanda compelled herself to look straight down at the perilous descent. The orb, thirty feet straight down, appeared so small at that distance.

No way…

“I’ll die!” Amanda said forcefully, “The pool below is too small!”

I’m going to break my neck.

“You’ll see,” Demus said. With a swift motion of his left arm, he pushed her, face forward, off the diving board.

Amanda fell, head down, flailing her arms about her, screaming. In the few seconds she had left of her life, she gritted her teeth and braced for impact.

Instead, she felt nothing but the jarring coolness of the water, and kept on diving forward, the momentum drastically reduced by the impact on the water’s surface, but still propelling her onward nonetheless. She again braced for a crash onto the sphere’s glass wall. Nothing. Just more water.

What the hell?

After diving for what seemed like fifteen feet under water, Amanda relaxed just enough to move her arms about. Still more water. Testing her environment, she kicked her legs gently, trying to find the glass curved wall. Still more water. Realizing she’d be out of breath soon, she reversed course and kicked her way up to the water’s surface, gasping in the open air. She heard a huge splash, felt a large wave, and then saw Demus treading water about two feet away, his hair wet, smiling at her.

“I – I didn’t hit the wall,” Amanda said, shaken.

“It expands,” Demus explained. “That’s our magic at work.”

A light went off above her head. “You mean the orb adds more water whenever you need it?”

“Correct.”

“Wow,” Amanda muttered silently, still lightly treading water. Her head above water, she could somewhat see through the crystal clear liquid through the glass enclosure, to the ivory marble floor hundreds of feet down. It
was
beautiful and enchanting. The water was lukewarm – not bathtub warm, but just a shade below, so she didn’t feel like shivering, but rather refreshed. The air seemed cool. She
had
calmed down quite a lot.

“Now,” Demus said, treading closer to her, “you need to find a way out, and go to the next pool.”

“But there’s nothing connecting the pools together!”

He smiled. “You can’t see them. But they’re there. You have to explore the pool, and find a gate. Once you see it, you’ll know what to do.”

Should I demand that he get me out, and back home? But this is fun. I am curious about how it ends.

“Okay. Will you follow me, and make sure I’m safe?”

“Amanda, I can guarantee no harm will come to you. Our magic itself prevents harm to others.”

She nodded. Taking a deep breath, she plunged into the depth below. Not that there was much water. Since she was now just exploring, the pool remained small – only a globe of twenty feet wide. It was easy.

Seeing nothing in particular on one side, she swam again to the other side, having propelled herself by pushing away with her feet planted on the curvature. The glass felt smooth and a little slippery to the touch. There! About ten feet beneath the surface, Amanda saw a mass of bubbles. She swam closer, completely submerged. Surprisingly, the area of bubbles was rectangular in shape – about three feet high and wide. Further, the bubbles were going
out
, not coming
in
. Was there a portal out of the sphere that way?
Must be magic
. As she got closer to the opening, she felt a strong current sucking her into the hole. She remembered to keep holding her breath, and not to panic.

The undertow was now getting stronger. She felt her long hair, then her head and shoulders, being drawn toward the departing water. She was starting to feel dread. Before the portal could consume her, she decided to stop and hold her breath.
Just to make sure
. Reaching out her arms, and sticking out her elbows, she purposely jammed herself against the frame of the portal. The pressure was so strong now. She felt herself losing her breath. Panic registered within her. If she attempted to retreat, she might not be able to escape the vortex. Perhaps she should give in, and see where it took her. Would her breath survive that long into the hatch?

What to do? Surrender and explore the unknown or go back up to the surface to get more precious oxygen?

Glancing to her right, she saw the frontal portion of Demus swimming toward her. Even in her confusion, she could clearly see him nod his head, and hold a “thumbs-up” signal in front of himself.

Okay. Time to give in…

The volume of bubbles about her head escalated as she inched closer to the gate. She almost decided to try to breath in the air from those bubbles – maybe Demus intended these bubbles to give her much-needed oxygen. But it was too risky. Resolving herself to take action, she withdrew her arms.

Her entire body, head first, was sucked into the portal.

Whee!
She felt the sensation of going down a water slide head-first, but this ride was completely different. It was submerged, not above ground. She never had experienced anything like it. Bouncing off against the sides, her body escalated forward through foaming, bubbling water, like a missile through a cannon gun. The path curved to the left, it curved to the right, and also bent up and down. The strong water current matched the curvatures to which it was forced through.

Then
ahhhhh
– air! Then the sensation of falling again. But it only lasted a few seconds. She plopped into another pool of water, and then surfaced to recover her breath. She gasped for air, drawing in deep breaths to replenish the severely-depleted oxygen levels within her blood vessels. She heard a plop behind her, and saw Demus surfacing.

Demus was grinning from side to side as he gazed at her. He looked just like any excited little boy.

“Pool number two now,” he said proudly, “eight more to go. The last pool’s just a welcoming final destination.”

“Do I look for the next gate?” Amanda asked quizzically, eagerly looking around.

Demus squinted at her. “I thought you wanted to get out.”

Amanda had a sheepish grin. “This is kind of fun. As long as I don’t die doing this.”

“You won’t.” Demus was clearly glad Amanda seemed to be enjoying the game. “As for the next gate, well, that’s the fun of it. You have to find it yourself.”

Amanda took stock of her surroundings. They were both treading water in a glass orb similar in size and appearance to the last one. While treading water and looking over the thick glass rim, she could see the other orbs, all still suspended in the air around them. She gazed up again at the rain forest canopy far above, and to the crystal walls off in the far distance.
Magic
. She tried to find the end portal from her recent slide, but it seemed to have disappeared.

“Where’s the tube that led us here?”

Demus shrugged. “It only shows when you actually use it. That’s the fun. It doesn’t show up until you need it, and when it does show up, you no longer need it.”

Amanda was confused by the explanation, but decided to discard her thoughts.

She decided she’d try again to find a gate on the glass wall. She dove several times, which wasn’t hard, considering that the water was only at most fifteen feet deep. She probed, knocked, and fingered several tactical areas of the surface below the water. After several minutes of up-and-down excursions, she finally rested, panting. Demus hadn’t helped at all. He just seemed to enjoy watching her slender figure.

“I can’t find it, Demus.”

“You’re looking in the wrong areas.”

She frowned. “Can’t be. I’ve searched every area and there’s no door or anything.”

“Where’ve you been looking?”

She was exasperated. He liked playing games verbally as well as physically. “Everywhere.”

“Be more specific. Where is
everywhere
?”

She was about to throw her hands up in disgust, but resisted. “Under the water, of course.”

Demus tilted his head to make his point. “Why
only
under the water?”

Amanda had an
aha
moment. Wordlessly, she started probing the glass above the water surface, pressing lightly, as if examining a specimen.

Demus agreed. He said, talking behind her, “Amanda, one thing you must learn. Never fight the old battles. The past is irrelevant.” He spoke in a monotone, “You were fixated on the unique circumstances of the first pool, narrowing down your options for the next round. An error that so many make.”

Amanda wasn’t really listening. After completing half the circumference, she was startled as a large rectangular slab of glass fell outward and pivoted down, still attached at its bottom. The panel had straddled both above and below the water line. A hole now appeared, big enough for Amanda to fit through. As the bottom of the hole was below the water’s surface, the water starting rushing out of the globe. She gasped. A slide had magically appeared, conveying the water to another sphere of liquid, located down lower.

Amanda turned to Demus. “A slide?”

Demus held his hand out toward it. “Be my guest.”

She was nervous. “What if I fall off?”

“You won’t.”

Amanda sized up the slide carefully. The rims were only about two inches high on the sides. Very easy for her to roll over and fall off, if she was that clumsy. But… Demus had said that no one could die during this game. Could she?

She was sorely tempted to pull back. But her excitement got the better of her. She wanted to do this. She wanted to finish the game, as it was so thrilling, so beautiful, and so unique. She knew she’d never see any game like this on her home planet. Daringly, she pulled herself up through the small door. Grabbing the rims of the slide with white knuckles, not able to look down to the floor, which was hundreds of feet down, she seated herself on the slide. It didn’t help that the slide was also made up of transparent material – perhaps glass. The water current on the slide somewhat obscured her view past her legs, but there was no mistaking the fact that it appeared that to go down the slide was to attempt a suicidal jump into the air.

Amanda took a deep breath.

“Hurry,” said Demus behind her, “The water level’s getting low. Soon there’ll be no more water escaping.”

With that warning ringing in her ears, Amanda pushed off.
Whee
! Down the slide she went, going faster and faster until she thought she’d lose control and fall off and soar through the air to her certain death below…

Then, a head rush of wind, and the refreshing impact into another pool full of water.

She had made it.

She heard whooping behind her, and scrambled to get out of the way. Demus had landed behind her, splashing joyously. He appeared like a giddy little boy, but with the allure of a well-built young man in a bathing suit. Amanda immediately felt attracted to him.

“Seven more to go?”

“Right on,” Demus said, excited.

And so on it went. Amanda thoroughly examined every pool in which they ended up in, and using her own resources, figured out the gateway to the next pool. Some were ingeniously clever, and she needed hints from Demus, but in the end, she nailed them all. Once they were in the last pool, they were laughing, giddy with their accomplishments. Then Demus raised his hand, and they were back on the floor of Emerana, fully clothed and completely dry.

Amanda gazed up at the ceiling. The floating spheres of water had disappeared.

She gazed at her companion. “That was beautiful.”

“Yeah, I know,” Demus said. He appeared to be blushing.

She searched for her words. “It’s like… it’s like art and play at the same time. It’s inspirational.”

Demus came closer to her, invading her personal space. The look on his face told it all. She was apprehensive about what commitment he wanted from her, and how she’d deal with it.

“Yes, it is. Now you can see why we wizards are so well-equipped to deal with the severe problems affecting Earth. We’ve trained ourselves well.”

Amanda said nothing.

Demus gently took one of her hands with both of his. “Amanda,” he said softly, “You’re an incredible woman.” His head was down. Then he locked eyes with hers. “And you’re beautiful. Even if I’m a wizard, if you want to know me better, don’t feel that you have to hold back.”

Amanda furiously processed her thoughts, trying to formulate a response. Finally she said, “Demus, you brought me here against my will. It’s not appropriate. I’m reporting to millions of citizens – Mortals, as you call them – and I shouldn’t be emotionally involved with their employees, which means you and Justica and Indie and Regi.”

Demus exhaled loudly. He looked away. Then he pointed a finger at her, his voice angry. “I don’t care what Indie or Justica or Regi think, and I certainly don’t care what millions of Mortals think. It’s just you and me. Why make it so complicated?”

Amanda felt lousy. At no fault of hers, while she was just doing her job, she’d managed to provoke one of the four Liberators that governed her home continent. She held out her arms plaintively. “Demus, it’s complicated. Don’t make me feel that way about you.”