The Lighter That Shone Like A Star (Story of The South) (17 page)

“Right, the first question is for Haze: true or false, your first extravagant purchase was a new car for your mum?”

Haze smiled, remembering the look on his mother’s face when she first saw the brand new car in her driveway. His family had never had much, and his parents spent their entire lives working in order to pay for their house and provide for their family.

When Haze announced that his band had signed a record deal, his mother and father could not have been happier. Their constant support was the reason for Haze’s desire to succeed, and so he owed them. The car was just a symbol, a thank you, a gift.

“That one is true.” The audience aww-ed. “But I did buy myself a really expensive jacket about an hour later.”

“Yeah, and he means, like, ridiculously expensive,” Naithain added.

“It may as well have been made of gold,” said Jimmie.

“And diamond encrusted,” chipped in Zaak.

“And then he lost it one day, and he actually cried,” elaborated Jayke.

“I did not cry! I
almost
cried.”

The audience, and Elisabeth, laughed.

The game continued for about ten minutes, the band each owning up to embarrassing moments, for example the time Jayke forgot to wear a belt causing his trousers to fall to his ankles while he was taking photos with fans, or the day Naithain wore his tee-shirt inside out and only realised when he saw the photos on Scribbler the following day.

Elisabeth asked each of the musicians if they were still single, and they all said yes. Except Zaak, who smirked and hinted that “there may be a special someone”. But try as she might, their interviewer could obtain no more information about Zaak’s mystery woman.

When she got to Haze and Jimmie, she asked, “And what about Jimaze?” with a cheeky grin.

“Well, as much as I love the kid, Haze just doesn’t do it for me I’m afraid,” Jimmie replied.

“Hey, I’m no kid, gramps,” Haze retorted. “Nah, Jimmie keeps asking and I keep knocking him back.” The room was filled with laughter as the boys continued their banter.

“Yeah, I keep asking him to leave me alone but this one’s persistent.”

“He loves me really, he just doesn’t want to admit it,” Haze said, jokingly punching Jimmie’s arm.

Elisabeth was also laughing, covering her face with her cue cards. “Oh, you boys are so funny. I can see why the fans love your friendship so much.”

Haze smiled.
Friendship
. She was the only interviewer who had avoided the word ‘relationship’, an ambiguous word with so many implications, and for that he was grateful.

“Yeah, all five of us are the best of friends. I know people don’t necessarily believe that, but it is true. We literally never argue about serious stuff, and just have so much fun together,” said Haze.

“Well I believe that, and after seeing you all today I think the whole of Terexe can see how close you five are. And of course, you have an honorary sixth member in Lynk!”

Haze stiffened. She was not meant to mention
Lynk, he thought Graham had made that explicit. He looked to his side, and could see the worry in all his friends’ faces. Luckily, Jimmie was as sharp as ever.

“Ah, Lynk.
Yeah, he’s such a good laugh and it’s been great having him along with us for the ride. He’s learning a lot about our crazy lifestyle, I can tell you!”

“Yeah, I can only imagine,” said Elisabeth. She looked back at the autocue, and continued. “And how did you meet Freddie?” she asked.

Haze froze. He could feel Jimmie tense up next to him as the whole atmosphere on the small stage changed. The studio had fallen completely silent; the band suddenly nervous, Elisabeth looking confused at what she had just read aloud, and the audience surely wondering who Freddie was.

“Lynk.
That’s meant to say Lynk, of course,” Elisabeth laughed uncomfortably.

“Can we cut that?” asked Jimmie, looking around to where the show’s producer was standing.

“Yep! Sorry, there must have been an error in the autocue script! Go from ‘How did you meet Lynk?’.”

“Lynk’s my cousin, everyone knows that from Scribbler,” retorted Jimmie, a rare angry edge to his voice.

“Oh… Umm… Okay, fine. Liz, link the guys into their performance.”

Elisabeth smiled and composed herself, slipping quickly back into her chirpy demeanour, before looking back at the boys.

“Well you really are living the dream, and there is so much more to see from you boys yet! I, for one, can’t wait to follow you over the next few years. And, of course, you’re welcome back to chat anytime you want! I’ve loved having you here today.”

The band thanked her in unison, insisting that the pleasure was entirely theirs.

“And you’re going to perform for us next, I believe. What song are you going to do for us?”

“Our next single, actually,” Jayke answered. “It’s the last one we’re releasing from this album, and then we start recording our second album in a couple of months when we come off tour.”

“How exciting! Well, go and get yourselves ready. Ladies and gentlemen, performing their new single, I’ll Find You, for the first time – please give it up for Light on the Landing!”

The band walked over to the performance area, where the stage had been set up with their instruments and microphones.

Haze looked over towards the filming crew, where Freddie was standing, watching the show through a monitor. He was as white as a sheet of paper, streaks of blue flashing through his fading black hair, chewing his bottom lip nervously.

That was no typo on the autocue. Somebody knew that Freddie Vassallo was with Light on the Landing. The young man’s safety did not seem so certain anymore and, once again, that meant that they were all in a tricky situation.

“Clemari, you cannot put my father in jail. You simply cannot,” said Luc.

“That’s funny, I thought I was king and everyone had to do as I say,” Max retorted.

“We must, of course we must. But think of the outrage it would cause. The New Clemari imprisoning the Old Clemari – it would be highly controversial and nobody would stand for it. Perhaps you do not realise how loved my father was…
is.
”

“What do you suggest then, Luc?” asked
Max.

“Anything but this.
I implore you to see reason. My father is helping you become all you can be. You need him,” Luc urged, staring intensely into Max’s eyes.

“No I don’t,” Max replied, simply.

“
You do.
How do you expect to learn the magic of Naegis without his aid? You cannot make Joz the enemy, it will only backfire.”

Max huffed, annoyed at Luc’s infallible logic. He was right, Max accepted that with ease, but Luc was always right and that irked Max more than anything. Luc did not allow emotion to interfere with his opinions and
ideas, whereas Max’s volatile state of mind was affecting his every decision.

“Fine.
You’re right, of course. But we need to watch him and find out what he is doing. My friends should all be here, your mother told me that at the Stone Circle, but for some reason Joz is hiding them from me.”

“Let me take you to the room with the screens,” offered Luc. “Maybe it will help shed some light.”

Spiral staircase after hallway after guard, Luc led Max, his cloak lapping at his ankles. Wordlessly the pair walked down a stairway lit by dim torches, under the castle and along a dark corridor. The red walls were bare brick, as far as Max could tell, except for the very end of the hallway where a torn tapestry hung.

“What’s down here?”

“Nothing.
Or, nothing as far as anybody but my father is concerned,” said Luc, lifting the tapestry and locating a small silver key hidden in an unnoticeable pouch on the underside of the fabric.

The pair made their way back along the corridor until about halfway. Luc lifted a torch from the wall and used the flitting light to locate a tiny keyhole just inches from the concrete floor. He turned the key in the lock and the wall dissolved into an archway, revealing a hidden room.

“It has taken me years to discover what lay beneath the castle. My father usually wanders the castle with a guard, just like I accompany you, so I have no opportunity to follow him. But a few days ago, while everyone slept, he left his quarters alone. I followed him and inadvertently he led me here,” Luc explained.

Max entered the room and saw exactly what Luc had described: the walls were adorned with screens (
computer or television?
) and what appeared to be a control centre stood in the middle of the room.

A flash of red caught the corner of the Clemari’s eye immediately. He span to his left to see the face he had been longing to see for what felt like a lifetime.

Sofia.

He walked up to the screen projecting her face and reached out, as if he could touch her. She was staring intently into the screen, absentmindedly chewing her bottom lip. She looked well, if not worried.

“She misses you,” Luc stated.

“Not as much as I miss her,” replied Max. “I don’t understand. Where is she?”

“I do not know.”

Max contemplated his girlfriend’s face for a few more moments before turning back to Luc.

“That’s not how I see you, you know,” he said to a befuddled Luc. “You said before that you accompany me like a guard, but that’s not how I consider you,” explained Max. “I ask for your company because you are my friend, Luc.”

“That is very kind, Clemari,” his older friend smiled.

Max sighed.
Still Clemari. Not yet Max.

The room was a hub. It received and sent information, but neither Max nor Luc could figure out what exactly the information was. The monitors clearly showed live images of people – his friends – but they could not deduce how.

Russell’s face popped up onto the screen below Sofia’s just once. He stared blankly for ten-or-so seconds before disappearing with a resigned expression. Another male face made a brief appearance, and Max would have sworn it belonged to Freddie had he not been sporting glasses and had jet-black hair, but his screen went blank before Max could get a good look.

Other faces flashed onto the screen, many of which Max could not identify. There was an instant where a dark haired man with slight stubble grinned through the lens and Max would have been sure it was Zaak from Light of the Landing had it not seemed so preposterous. It could have been anyone, really.

But how?
That was the question swimming through Max’s mind.

***

The rest of the week involved intense training sessions. Although they were hard, they were also extremely rewarding. Their sessions had taken them to the forest, where Max had soared into the sky, navigating his way around the dense woods. The tall wall loomed over, but as high as Max flew, he could not see the top nor either end.
A never-ending barrier.

He also learnt to fight. Joz, as weak as he was, played the opponent. Powerful jets of fire and streams of water shot from his wooden staff, while Max countered them all. Fighting fire with water, he had overpowered the Old Clemari time after time.

(“You must remember, though. I am old and weak; Eimaj may be old but she has power that I will never know.”)

Astounded my Max’s progress, Luc could not help but sing his praise whenever he achieved something remarkable. The young man had gone from levitating a few inches and falling to his knees, to tearing down trees with a simple hand movement. He could create electricity strong enough to create an electrical storm and produce magic of an inexplicable form to mould invisible barriers that repelled the strongest of Joz’s spells.

With enough concentration, Max had even managed to render himself completely invisible. Surely with more practice he would be able to turn his clothes invisible, too, and make it so he was untouchable, like a ghost, and pass through walls unseen.

Telepathy and telekinesis were the only magic with which he struggled. He had no problem conversing without moving his mouth, but the things that Joz was able to do with
his mind were incredible. The older man boasted that he could change a person’s ideas, force people to fall in love, unhinge somebody completely by tearing their mind apart.

It was clear that Joz was becoming infuriated with the younger man’s lack of telepathic abilities, especially as he had excelled in all other aspects.

By the end of the week, Max felt empowered. He still had a long way to go, he knew that, but he was finally learning who he was. He was the Clemari, king of Naegis – guardian of The South and the most powerful man in the world. But not quite yet.

During the brief periods of time that he was not training, or visiting Anne-Alicia’s cell only to be told in a rather unpleasant manner to ‘go away’, he was in the hidden room –  the room he had named The Hub.

Luc accompanied him each time, both men trying to make more sense of the mysterious screens. Max had seen all of his friends except Matthew and Anne-Alicia. Sofia and Russell had worryingly ceased to appear, but he had seen each member of Light on the Landing at different points. But none of it made any sense.

One evening, he and Luc were inspecting the centre of the room, what appeared to be the control panel. There were lots of lights and switches, wires and one large computer screen.  No button or wire or switch would turn the computer on. They were at a complete loss.

No matter how obsessed Max became over The Hub and finding out just what Joz was up to, he could not find any answers. He looked up to his favourite spot – Sofia’s screen. Her absence was a harsh kick in Max’s gut.

“Max,” said a voice from behind him and Luc. The two men jumped in shock and turned around to see Joz standing in the doorway, propped up by his walking stick.

“Joz,” Max replied. “Care to explain?” His voice shook as he reminded himself that
he
was the Clemari now.

“No,” was his response.

“Then I demand that you explain.”

“And what will you do if I refuse? Throw me in a cell?” Joz asked, knowingly.

“If I have to,” threatened Max.

“Then good luck. Your staff were once mine, and they remain loyal to me let me assure you. And when the people of Naegis learn of your treason, they will no longer be yours.”

“You dare threaten your Clemari?” Max challenged.

Joz smiled, sarcastically.
“No, my dear Clemari. I am simply telling you.”

“Father…” began Luc.

“No, Luc. This is my fault. I should not have trusted you, even if you are my son. I let you follow me so you would stop nagging me to show you where I was going. Had I even dreamt that you would tell Max then I would have been more careful.” Joz did not sound mad or disappointed, just tired.

“You’re keeping my friends away from me. Bring them here,” Max ordered, each word lacking more conviction that the last.

“Max, I do not expect you to understand. Getting you here was a complex operation; I had to have a method of watching over you. This was it. I was obviously tracking your friends as well, and I decided to continue. Now, I suggest you forget what you’ve seen here and go back to bed.”

“I won’t.”

“Oh yes,” he replied. “You will.” And with that, Joz raised his stick and thudded it against the ground.

Max was prepared, and had much quicker reactions than his elderly predecessor. He pushed Luc aside with his left hand and instinctively raised his right arm to protect himself, a translucent barrier flashing before him. Violet sparks of electricity hit the barrier and Joz stumbled backwards, falling to the ground and hitting his head hard against the solid wall behind him. He was knocked out.

Max reached down to Luc to help him off the ground.

“Come on, we’ll carry him to Dorot and say he tripped and fell,” said Max. But as he pulled Luc to his feet, Max felt a sharp pain in the centre of his forehead. He looked towards the archway and saw Joz smirking, his wooden staff clutched tightly in his fist. Darkness swept over his eyes as he fell clumsily to the ground.