Catastrophe in the Firesnake Read online

  The remaining monkeys screeched and dispersed into faraway trees.

  Mahaar swung three bags and his quiver over his shoulder, shimmied up the tree, then sat beside Roobish. With her light intensifying goggles, his face looked grey amongst the black forest. His eyes were hard and cold. “I found Kaal’s remains in the mangroves downriver. I buried him in the forest.”

  A sudden numbness overtook her, and she placed a hand over her face. Tears streamed down her cheeks.

  “Where’s Kala gone? Gone to get food?”

  “She glided away,” Roobish said. “The monkeys almost knocked the two of us out of this tree.”

  “To where did she glide? Can you see her?”

  “No! She’s gone!”

  He glided to an adjacent tree and vanished into its canopy. “Kala! Where are you? You can come back now. The monkeys have gone.”

  Roobish’s groans developed into wails and time stood still as she fell into a pit of depression.

  When Mahaar came back, she asked, “No sign of her?”

  “No.”

  “I should hand myself over to Mahaaraanee!”

  “Pull yourself together! You can’t give yourself up over guilt. My son is dead, but you can help me save my daughter.”

  “But—”

  “Listen. You owe me. If Kala doesn’t come back, you’ll need to search for her.”

  “How?”

  “By river and rain. I have this.” He pulled a ring with a red gem out of his pocket.

  “My aurashield remote?”

  “Yes. The gift to you from your friend.”

  “Mosh.”

  He nodded. “Should’ve given it to you and Kala earlier. It could have protected you from the monkeys.”

  “I doubt it. It protects from rain and other weather conditions, but not violence. Is it charged?”

  “Yes. But it takes a long time under the red sun.”

  “Doesn’t matter if it still works well.” She gazed at the river. “Where’s the river connected to the pyramid?”

  “We need to travel ten miles to where the Alimazi glacier feeds the River Ranyer, then walk farther up the glacier.”

  “But that’s the Ice Side.”

  “Yes.”

  “How will we see?”

  “I’ll have a little vision in the darkness and will guide you.”

  She breathed in sharply. “I’ll hold on tight. Will we stay in the lowlands?”

  “If we don’t, Mother will find you and kill you. Then you won’t have the chance to search for my last living child.”

  Goosebumps prickled her skin. She shrank back. “Oxygen concentration will be higher in the cold.”

  “Yes. But you already said you’re prepared to die. Dying from hyperoxia in the effort to save Kala will be better than dying under Mother’s orders.”

  “You’re right. I’m not afraid of death.” Her voice cracked. “I’m ready to die for what’s right.”

  “Let’s sleep first.”

  In the zone of constant twilight, day and night meant nothing. But Roobish’s limbs ached, and her eyelids drooped as if they’d become granite.

  Mahaar rubbed his oversized forehead. “We’ll need energy for the journey. I’ll build a platform.”

  He sawed branches, stacked them in a layer, and secured them onto a base using ropes and nails. Afterwards, he flew from tree to tree, calling for his daughter to no avail.

  When he returned, Roobish fell into a fitful slumber, woken now and again by Mahaar’s sobs. “Can you find a key to bring him back?”

  “I’ll try.”

  “Search all of Plan8?”

  “Yes.”

  Silence.

  She sighed. “I will search everywhere. When I find a key, I’ll go back in time and reset it again.”

  “But your memory—“

  “I don’t care. I despise myself.” She straightened her spine and took a deep breath. “We can do this.”

  “But you couldn’t find a key before.”

  Her chest tightened at the memories of the secrets she’d kept from the Satsang. She lowered her gaze. Mahaaraanee and her people had trusted her to find one key. But, she’d accidentally led the most dangerous man through the portal.

  She glimpsed at Mahaar. Her guilt didn’t end there. She’d discovered three keys and never told the Satsang.

  The crow woman kept those keys. She’d saved Roobish from being hanged for witchcraft. Her flying kicks of talons had helped, along with the daggers thrown by her human hands. She'd let Roobish live with her. The crow had told Roobish of her mission— to collect the eight keys and destroy them. She’d also said the Satsang were dangerous.

  It made sense not to give them a key at the time. But Roobish had deceived the people who loved and trusted her. Kaal had died for her.

  No wonder Mahaaraanee wanted her dead.

  She owed Mahaar his children. But how could she find one of the crow’s keys now? The crow woman had stolen them from the Satsang Elite when they ruled Eeporyo three thousand years ago. That was when the crow woman was a mere human before she’d become immortal. Would the keys be in her stash still? “I will try again.”

  A breeze blew through the black forest, sprinkling its leaves with rain.

  “Shall we go now?” Roobish asked.

  “Yes.”

  “You haven’t slept long.”

  “I can’t. My son is dead, and my daughter’s missing in hell.”

  Roobish nodded. “Let’s go now so I can travel by river and rain sooner.”

  “Travel by glacier and rain sooner, you mean.”

  “Is that even possible?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You got an amethyst?”

  He handed her half of a heart-shaped amethyst pendant. “I took it from Kaal before burying him. Thought I’d give it to Kala. She has the other half.”

  Chapter 7*YuFang

  YuFang stretched out on an oversized beanbag with his left leg tied to a splint. Like the rest of the temple, the room was spotless—from the clean white walls down to a glossy white tiled floor. A breeze swept through the opened doors, offering some comfort from the heat and humidity. A low wooden tea table sat in the centre of the room, and a wooden couch without cushions occupied the corner, engraved in traditional Maozong fashion. Luckily the old man, Apek, had found YuFang a beanbag instead of that uncomfortable thing.

  Who’d have thought a mage would save him and take him to the sanctum of a Feili temple.

  A chill went up his spine, and his skin prickled. Was the ginger woman, Aedre, an enormous spider? Or was she human?

  Three days ago, when YeLi hadn’t wanted them to stay, she’d phoned the old master, Apek. From his hospital bed, he’d insisted they stay and that any friends of Aedre’s were friends of his.

  Apek had returned to the temple in good shape, but YeLi still had a chip on her shoulder. She refused to cook for them, so Apek went out to buy street food every morning.

  Despite YeLi’s whining, the Feili temple offered peace and comfort. Apek gave them endless cups of Jerjen tea, and Yasmin’s pretty face set YuFang at ease. A lot more comfortable than hiding from drones in a cave. Better than being tortured by the Yiksaan too.

  Apek, YeLi, and Yasmin appeared blurry through YuFang’s swollen eyes as they sat cross-legged around the tea-table. They discussed political problems between Jerjens and Native-Reds in the Firesnake.

  “Are you Jerjen?” Apek asked Yasmin.

  “My mother is. Don’t know about my father.”

  YeLi recoiled. “Did your mother never marry?”

  YuFang cut YeLi an evil look. Judgemental bitch. She was probably still a virgin at thirty, and she, like most Inarmuzzans, didn’t agree with premarital sex.

  Yasmin smoothed down her long, baggy dress, which she’d borrowed from YeLi. “I’m not sure I should tell you about where I was brought up. You won’t believe me.”

  Apek finished preparing green tea in a small pot, str
etched a skinny arm to the centre of the table and poured it into four tiny cups. “Try us.” He refilled the teapot and looked up at her with wrinkled eyes.

  YuFang peered at his outstretched leg. Surely her story couldn’t be that bad. Was her mother a prostitute? Bamdar had bought her off a beggar woman in Rajka?

  Yasmin gave YeLi a sideways glance. “I was brought up on a moon camp called Glass City—”

  YuFang frowned. He’d never heard of such a place, but after the spider mage’s vanishing tricks, anything could be possible.

  YeLi sniggered, and a flush crept across Yasmin’s cheeks.

  “YeLi.” Apek cocked his head and then shook it. He said something to her in Maozong. Then he looked at Yasmin and switched back to Inarmuzzan. “Don’t pay attention to her. Please, continue.”

  Yasmin drank her tea, and Apek refilled the cup.

  “Glass City is on the moon, Cronos—one of Eeporyo’s three moons.”

  “That’s far away,” YeLi said. “How’d you get here?”

  Yasmin crossed her arms. “Tachyon Cryosponge, like most people who travel in interstellar space.”

  Apek turned to YeLi and spoke in Maozong again, his tone sharp. Then he opened his palm to Yasmin and said something to her.

  Although Yasmin could speak Maozong, YuFang didn’t have the faintest idea what he’d said.

  Yasmin continued in Inarmuzzan. She placed her hands on the table. “Only women live in Glass City. We’re brought up from babies by women called noomies. Each noomy brings up between three to five daughters. Noomies mother us and teach us.”

  It sounded like make-believe to YuFang, but something told him she wasn’t lying.

  She took a deep breath and sighed. “When we reach sixteen, we have a concubine exam. If we pass, we go to other planets to become concubines. If we fail, we become sex slaves.”

  YeLi narrowed her eyes and stood. “I’ve never heard of anything so stupid.” She swivelled on her heel and left.

  Yasmin gazed into her cup and twisted it around. “I knew no one would believe me.”

  “I believe you,” YuFang said. “Bamdar must get a lot of his slaves from there.”

  She nodded. “I included. That’s why they wipe our memories—so clients don’t find out. They didn’t wipe mine because they handed me around the mobsters instead.” Her bottom lip quivered.

  Apek stood and then bent down towards the beanbag to hand YuFang a full cup. YuFang downed it in one gulp and nodded.

  Apek’s body creaked as he lowered himself back to the floor and placed YuFang’s empty cup on the tabletop. He stared at Yasmin. “I believe you too. I am sorry for everything bad that’s happened to you. You can stay here as long as you like.”

  “Thank you.”

  “When Aedre comes back, she’ll be content to know you’re safe.”

  “I hope she can go to Glass City and free the slaves,” Yasmin said. “Like at the Yiksaan.”

  YuFang crossed his arms. “She’d have to be more careful. Loads of innocents died.”

  Yasmin glared at him. “She saved your life.”

  Apek shrugged. “I have to admit. I watch the news regularly and never hear anything about lunar camps.”

  “They’re a huge conspiracy. No one knows.”

  YuFang’s throat constricted, and he ran a jerky hand through his hair. His face would be all over the news after committing mass murder in Kalak. Apek and YeLi must not have seen his picture, or maybe they had but not made the connection. His face was still swollen and bruised, and he’d shaved his beard off since then.

  “Will you tell us about yourself, YuFang?” Yasmin asked. “We’d love to learn more about you.”

  Heat washed through him, and sweat beaded on his forehead. He wiped it away. “I’m not ready.”

  ***

  YuFang sank into a slumber so deep, his hand wouldn’t lift from his heart.

  He and his brother, Tao Tao, lay side by side in the red desert and looked up at the stars and moons.

  “YuFu! Tao Tao! Eat food! Eat food!”

  They went through the opened hatch in the ground. If he hurried ahead, he might catch a glimpse of Mama. He jumped down the remaining ladder rungs, flew through the tunnel, came to the second hatch, and dropped down the other ladder.

  “Mama!” He strode through the dining room and into the kitchen. Fried fish lay sizzling in a wok of oil, and chopped green onion, ginger, peppercorn, and garlic were piled high on a wooden board. Steam rose from the rice cooker. “Mama?”

  A little Jerjen woman with short hair and glasses too big for her face stepped out of the pantry carrying a large jar of pickled cabbage. “YuFu! Go tell your brother to hurry. Eat food! Have you washed your hands?”

  “Yes,” he lied. “Mama. I love you so much.” He broke down in tears.

  “What’s wrong now, YuFu? Do you remember me? Go. Sit and eat. Let’s celebrate.”

  YuFang returned to the dining room. The round polished table held twelve dishes of meats, vegetables, and steamy dumplings. His brother and Baba scarfed it down, dipping their chopsticks in and pulling out delicacies.

  Mama entered, carrying a dish with the whole deep-fried fish. YuFang’s mouth watered at the sight and smell.

  In a blink of an eye, the scene vanished. He sat on a bench on top of a windy cliff. His arm curled around a Svad woman. Her strawberry blonde hair lay in ringlets over his broad shoulder, and his heart tingled as she nuzzled her golden-orange face there.

  He relaxed and gazed at the blue sky under Tushing—Mayleeda’s gas giant. The lower end of Tushing occupied the top half of the sky, which meant they were in the South Pole. Tushing’s rings twinkled, and its body swirled in different shades of purple, yellow, and gold.

  He shared a playful grin with the woman. The sun managed to climb high enough to shine through Tushing, darkening the atmosphere.

  “I’m pregnant,” the woman said.

  He sat bolt upright. “You are?”

  Filled with exhilaration and covered in sweat, he awoke. He pushed himself up and drank the water on his bedside table. He lifted the thin sheet off his legs and grimaced at the swollen limb. Taking in a deep breath, he struggled to reach his crutch, then hobbled down the passageway and stopped outside the last door on the left. He tapped, and Yasmin opened it a crack.

  Dressed in joggers and a t-shirt, with her messy hair tied in a top-knot, she looked gorgeous. “Are you alright?”

  “Need to talk to you. Think I’m going crazy.”

  She didn’t let him in but spoke through the gap in the door. “Talk later with everyone else.”

  It made sense. Of course, she wouldn’t trust him after what she'd been through. “The other day, you asked me to tell you about myself, and I refused.”

  She nodded.

  “I’m ready.”

  “Wanna tell Apek and me together?”

  “I like the old man, but don’t want YeLi around.”

  “Her shift doesn’t start for two hours. Apek will be meditating in the inner temple. Shall we wait outside for him to finish?”

  When Apek strolled into the courtyard garden, he did a double-take. “Awake already? Doubt the food vendors have set up yet.”

  “Don’t worry about that,” Yasmin said. “We came because YuFang wants to tell us about himself.”

  “Before YeLi arrives,” YuFang said. “I know she hates my guts. Don’t wanna give her more reason to despise me.”

  Apek looked around and rubbed his hands together. “Right. Good. Good. Where would you like to go?”

  “The living room.”

  “Right. I can make us fresh tea.”

  They sat at the tea-table around three steaming cups.

  YuFang lay back on his beanbag. “I’ve had reoccurring dreams. The places and people are familiar, but I don’t know them. In reality, they’re strangers.”

  “A past life?” Apek asked.

  “I’ve never believed in that stuff.”

  Yasmin hugge
d her knees. “Tell us about your dreams.”

  “Not yet. I’ll tell you about my past as I know it. I was born into a rich military family in Oojena, the continent in the South Pole of Mayleeda.”

  Yasmin nodded, and Apek leaned forward.

  “My father was the captain of the Oojenan Interstellar Space Force.” He wiped a hand over his face and hunched his shoulders. “My parents and younger sister died when Sattchi terrorists bombed my father’s base.”

  Yasmin’s eyes widened. “I’m so sorry. How old were you?”

  “Twelve.”

  “Dear.” Apek lowered his gaze. “How did you survive?”

  “I was playing hide and seek in the underground grain stores. Those of us underground survived. Feili missionaries found us.” His limbs tingled with warmth. He brought a hand to his heart. “It seems Feilis have saved me twice.”

  “Aedre’s no Feili,” Apek said.

  “The mage who changes shape?”

  Apek scratched his head. “I won’t believe that until I see it.”

  “Even though we all saw her vanish?”

  “I’ve seen a lot in my time, but I won’t believe that until Aedre shows me herself.” He chuckled and stuck a boiling rod in the water jug.

  “What did the Feili missionaries do?” Yasmin asked.

  “They took my surviving friends to a Feili boarding school in Teeyen. They took me to an orphanage.”

  Yasmin’s jaw went slack. “That wasn’t fair.”

  “I wasn’t brought up Feili. My parents were atheist. The orphanage sold me to a cruel couple. They abused other children and me.”

  “That’s awful,” Yasmin said. “I’m so sorry.”

  “I managed to escape two years later by killing them.”

  Yasmin recoiled. “I don’t think I’ll ask how you did that.”

  “Another time, perhaps.” YuFang accepted his cup of tea from Apek and swigged it. “Anyway, I joined an underground mafia called the Hwaider Brotherhood. They were like brothers, but I wanted more; I wanted freedom. I stole diamonds from them and worked as a methane rig worker on Tai.”

  Apek poured boiling water over leaves. “Tai?”

  “One of Tushing’s other moons.”

  “How’d you get the diamonds there?” Yasmin asked. “Security must be tight.”