The Rising Sun: Episode 2 (16 page)

“Did you find it?” asked Vestra.

Qyro shut the drawer and straightened up,
raising an object in his right hand, the same one Mantra had shown
Ion in the holo screen. It was, in simplest appearance, a crystal
shard. Thin, pointed and glinting in the light, no longer than the
Redling’s forefinger and no thicker than a few strands of hair.

Ion found himself gaping at the crystal shard
with his jaw open.

The beam on his face growing stronger, Qyro
pocketed the crystal shard like object.

“We’re done here, then.” he said, striding
over across the room towards the exit behind them. “Let’s head
out.”

__________

Now having seen the strange object live, Ion
felt his confusion double: the Nyon had sent the other two and
himself into the most dangerous planet in the spectrum to retrieve
what looked like a crystal shard. And nothing more. A part of him
was yearning to know what in the world was going on, and why the
three of them were here risking their lives for this utterly
ridiculous object. But he kept that part of him reserved for later
on, knowing better than to abandon focus at a time like this: as of
now, their priority was getting out of here alive with this strange
object. The questions could be posed later on, if they were alive
to ask them, of course.

Taking the white cloaks and masks from the
rebels lying about the room, the three of them disguised themselves
as members of the rebel squad and slowly made their way down the
village’s cold streets. They skulked from street to street,
stealthily moving through the maze of streets and keeping
themselves to lanes that were smaller and less prone to have rebels
moving through them. The few rebels they did pass threw strange
lingering glances at the trio as they walked past. And at such
instances when they did pass rebels, they would grip their sword
handles tighter beneath their cloaks, sensing something loom over
them. But the rebels they walked past so far didn’t seem to sniff
out anything fishy at the pack of three moving down the place, and
simply let them walk on, unconfronted.

The earlier lack of fortune that the two Nyon
sent here had had seemed to have now been made up for as they tried
exiting the village: they had managed to make it to the outskirts
of the village without being attacked, without giving themselves
away. As they reached the edge of the village, the three of them
threw off their cloaks and took to a mindless dash down the lands
beyond, aiming to put as much distance between them and the village
as they could with their legs could handle.

After fifteen whole minutes of running, the
three of them came to stall, panting relentlessly into the silent
night air. As they finally gathered their breaths and were able to
speak again, the Redling turned to Ion again.

“Great,” he said. “Now, if you don’t mind
explaining yourself, pal,” He exchanged a glance with Vestra. “Who
are you, and why’d you help us back there?”

Ion took in a deep breath. “I’m one of you,
now.”

The two of them lifted eyebrows together.

“One of us?” repeated Vestra.

“Yeah,” said Ion. “one of the Nyon. An hour
or so back, Mantra and a few others from your elder council found
me, and convinced me to help them.”

The shock returned to leave both their faces
blank again for a moment or two.

“Mantra and some of our council,” said the
Redling slowly, looking thoughtful. “They asked you to join
them?”

“Yeah,” said Ion. “I was a stray mystic
they’d been keeping an eye on. They thought I’d be a good candidate
to join them.”

“How’s that?” asked Vestra.

Ion allowed her a smile. “Because of you, of
course.”

“Me?” she asked, taken aback.

“You told them that I’d make a good member
when you met me two years back.”

Vestra looked at him incredulously for a few
seconds, before slowly saying, “I’m sorry, do we know each
other?”

Ion considered the question for a moment. He
thought it would be slightly awry to say, “Yes, you’re the girl
I’ve dreamt of for two years now.” Instead, he decided on, “You
saved me from the Zelgron warlord, Carcasar, two years back,
remember?”

As he finished Vestra’s eyes drifted into
memory for a few seconds. Then, a smile sprang to her lips. “You’re
… Ion.”

One more person knows my name.
thought
Ion.
Guess that brings the count upto … well, one.

The Redling fixed Ion with an intrigued
stare. “So … Mantra and the elder council sent you here?”

“They did.”

“They found and sent a stray mystic to help
us?”

“Let’s hope they weren’t making a mistake
there.”

The Redling gave an amused laugh. “Of course
not. It’s just … there’s gotta be something really big going on. To
push them to such an extent.”

Ion scowled, inwardly trying to scout out a
heading through the murky background they were in. “I had that very
same feeling.”

Qyro’s sceptical look now dissolved, allowing
a friendly grin to spread over his face.

“Well, if what you’re saying is true,” he
said. “We’re sorry for doubting you, man. It’s just … policy
demands that we keep up our vigilance.”

“A wise policy.” Ion nodded. He now felt his
earlier curiosity rise inside of him. “What was that thing you two
were sent to recover?”

Qyro thrust his hand into his pocket and
withdrew the small crystal, which looked like a toothpick made out
of glass, shining and well crafted. But definitely not worth such a
chaotic misadventure for all three of them.

“What the hell us it?” asked Ion. Not
bothering to keep the tone of startlement down.

“Whatever it is,” said Qyro, pocketing it
again. “It’s definitely more than it looks.”

“Let’s hope so.” said Ion, nodding. “It would
be a pity if we’d risked our necks for a broken piece of
glass.”

Ion had parked the escape ship which he had
stolen across the other side of the village. After fleeing the
village successfully and ending up here, they agreed that it would
be beyond foolish to tread anywhere back towards the village to
retrieve the ship. Qyro and Vestra had brought their hover boards,
which they remembered to have parked closeby. They walked further
off from the village for less than two minutes before arriving at
the trough in the unlevelled terrain where the two vehicles lay
safely parked.

“So where
is
the brotherhood hiding,
currently?” asked Ion, something that had never occurred to him to
ask earlier on.

“The Nyon temple’s hidden in a planet deep in
the outer spectrum.” said Qyro, as the two of them walked over to
where their boards lay. “Pretty deep into it, actually.”

“It’s in the planet Farnor, which is in the
seventh level of the outer spectrum.” said Vestra.

Ion had travelled wide across the outer
spectrum. But he’d never heard of this planet. It was clear that
the Nyon were keeping themselves well hidden. In a planet barely
even heard of. They were safer than he might have guessed.

“How long would it take us to get there?’ he
asked, as the two of them stood bent over their long, thin hover
boards, with flawless black skin that gleamed in the moon and
starlight.

Vestra paused as she set the hover board to
its destination. “It took us about half an hour to reach here.”

As soon as she said it, a fierce beeping
noise emitted from the folds of her robes. A noise Ion knew to be
that of a z-com with an incoming call.

Qyro paused and looked over as Vestra drew
the z-com and pressed a button. A holographic screen grew to life
over the device. And a familiar face stared out of it. But the calm
look which Ion had seen earlier on Mantra’s face was gone, and a
heavy anxiety was left to cloud his features. His eyebrows rose
slightly as his vision registered Vestra and Qyro, standing before
the screen.

“You’re alive!”

“Hope you’re not sorry.” snapped Qyro, who
dug his hand into his robe and produced the shiny crystal object.
He held it before the screen for Mantra to see. The elderly
master’s eyes widened as they fell over it.

“We’ve got it,” said Qyro, turning to Ion who
stood beside the two of them. “With a little bit of help that
you’ve sent our way.”

“You got it!” exclaimed Mantra, and the tone
in his voice for some reason, was not that of delight and relief …
It was of alarm and terror.

Vestra’s eyes sank in a troubled frown. “Why,
is something wrong?”

“Where are you?”

The three of them exchanged glances, not
failing to miss the growing tenseness in Mantra’s voice.

“We’re still on the planet.” answered Qyro.
“We haven’t left, yet.”

“Master, is something wrong?” repeated
Vestra.

Mantra continued to keep his eyes steadily
held on the crystal Qyro raised before him. Then, gathering a
quick, deep breath, the master went on in a slightly less panicky
tone.

“The object you’ve acquired is a very, very
crucial one. We have to ensure that it’s brought back to the temple
safely, without the slightest chance of falling to the wrong hands.
Hear me out.” He drew in another deep breath, and said slowly,
“That crystal
must not fall to the wrong hands … even the
Naxim’s.
But we’ve just discovered a
big
problem with
that particular part.”

__________

The three of them stared at Mantra’s face in
the holo screen, sharing the confused silence for a second.

“What problem?” asked Qyro, throwing his
hands out. “We don’t see any problem. We’re going to get on our
hover boards now, and reach the temple in less than half an -”

“That my friend, is the very problem.” said
Mantra, his voice taking a slower pace. “We’ve just got intel from
Dantox that the Naxim has been alerted of the three of you by the
rebels in the village. And apparently, they’ve scanned their
satellite cameras and spotted the two of you arriving on your hover
boards. The entire planet’s now on high alert. They’re watching the
skies of the planet, monitoring every ship and car and board
leaving it. The planet’s skies are being watched carefully. If you
leave on the hover boards, they won’t fail to recognise the two of
you from the video which caught you entering. And you’ll be goners
before you knew it.”

His words ended in cold silence.

“They have satellite imagery of the hover
boards the two of us came here in.” Qyro said, looking over at the
two hover boards. “Then our boards are ruled out: they’re obviously
expecting us to leave the same way.”

“It makes no difference,” said Mantra.
“because they’re still keeping their alerted watch on every
personal vehicle moving out of the planet.”

“They’re monitoring every ship and vehicle
leaving the planet to find us , you say?” asked Vestra in a shrill
whisper. She looked around at the other two, unable to complete the
assimilation that was running through all their heads now. “This
means…”

“That we’re trapped here.” whispered Qyro,
looking stunned. “We can’t leave at all.”

Ion ran a hand through his red hair absently,
his insides bubbling with anxiety and discord.

“And if you’re near the village right now,”
said Mantra. “Then you can’t stay there either: they’re sending
their forces to scout out the region around the village, in case
you’re still here.”

The three of them drew their eyes off the
screen from which they were hearing all these announcements, and
gazed at each other in silent alarm.

“What the hell
do
we do, then?” asked
Ion finally.

“Whatever you do now,” said Mantra. “There
will be a very grave risk involved. The situation’s now changed
with the Naxim having been alerted of you. But seeing as all the
options are plain suicide anyway, we’ll have to surrender to the
lesser of two dangerous ones.”

“Which is?” asked Vestra.

“Public transport.” answered Mantra.

“That’s half crazy.” protested Qyro. “Are you
telling me that the ship stations haven’t been alerted of us?”

“The Naxim would have placed the planet’s
authorities on alert as well.” pointed out Ion. “Which means the
planet’s authorities will be keeping an eye out for us around here,
especially in ship stations.”

“As a matter of fact,” said Vestra. “they’ll
be watching out for us everywhere. There’s nowhere here on this
planet’s that’s safe anymore.”

To their surprise, a smile broadened over
Mantra’s face. “Exactly. That’s what I’m heading to: there’s
nowhere in the planet that’s safe for you anymore. But of all the
places, the ship station would be almost safest. Because the Naxim
would be taking things from your point of view. And when they do
that, they would assume that you wouldn’t dare use public transport
in the most prominent planet that they’re present in: they would
find it rather foolish of you. So, they would focus their resources
instead on other regions, where they presume you would be more
likely to be found. And their presumption can garner us a sleek
advantage. Believe me, the options right now are very slim. And
public transport is the safest of all of them.”