Coronation: A Kid Sensation Novel (Kid Sensation #5) (14 page)

“I’m sorry,” Myshtal said. “I didn’t intend to be rude.”

“It’s alright,” I said. “I tend to lose track of the fact that my appearance is different, and your curiosity is only natural. I’m sorry I didn’t respond in a better fashion.”

With mutual apologies made and accepted between me and Myshtal, conversation resumed between Vicra and Nylerin, and they picked up almost immediately where they’d left off. On my part, I went back to praying this thing would be over soon. A short time later, I got my wish.

In retrospect, it was the only truly untoward thing that happened that afternoon, and it occurred just a few minutes after Myshtal apologized for staring at my ears. The other three at the table were discussing some trip they had made together in the recent past when I felt something brush against my ankle.

For a second, I thought it was Nylerin playing footsies. It had become blatantly obvious very early on that Vicra was infatuated with Myshtal, and I picked up on strong romantic undercurrents almost every time he looked at her. To the extent that this could be viewed as a double date, she was with him while Nylerin was paired with me. That was seemingly why Nylerin had been flirting with me throughout lunch, giving me sly winks every now and then from across the table, as well as making a few double entendres during the course of the meal. At the moment, however, I wasn’t sensing the same coquettish buzz from her that I typically picked up whenever she batted an eye in my direction. Confused, I casually glanced under the table, and got one of the worst surprises of my life.

There, nuzzling up to my leg, was something that looked like a cross between a tarantula and a penguin – a furry, eight-legged monstrosity with four eyes and a beak.

My reactions all went on autopilot. I immediately teleported about ten feet away. My vanishing and reappearing so surprised everyone else at the table that all conversation came to an immediate halt, and Myshtal let out a slight gasp. I then telekinetically grabbed the creature that had been under the table and slammed it into the trunk of the tree we’d been sitting under, causing it to let out a painful squeal. I then flung it out into the lake.

“Maja!” Nylerin suddenly screamed. A second later, she had leaped away from the table and was running towards the lake like there was a man-eating grizzly chasing her.

“What the…?” I muttered as Nylerin went plunging into the water.

By this time, Myshtal and Vicra had stood up as well and had come over to join me in watching Nylerin’s antics, which I still hadn’t figured out.

“Thanks,” Myshtal said, giving me a smile.

“For what?” I asked, clearly confused.

“I hate that
gnuglebbin
,” she replied, obviously referring to the thing I had tossed into the lake. “But Nylerin insists on taking it everywhere. Maybe next time she’ll leave it at home.”

I blinked, as the truth suddenly became clear. “That thing’s a pet?”

“It
was
,” Vicra said, also without a great deal of sympathy. “Unless by some miracle you didn’t kill it.”

I gulped. I couldn’t tell if he were serious or not – emotionally he wasn’t giving anything away at the moment – but Nylerin’s distress was real enough. Empathically, I felt it like a beacon flaring in the night.

Myshtal and Vicra began peppering me with questions about my powers and what they’d just seen me do. I basically blew them off, focusing more on Nylerin, whose anguish was almost palpable. Feeling responsible, I was about to join her in the water when I sensed relief intermingled with diminished worry coming from her.

“She’s got him,” I said to no one in particular, not caring whether I got the
gnuglebbin
’s gender right.

As if in confirmation, Nylerin turned to the shore and began trudging back, her little pet monster nestled tightly against her bosom. Needless to say, she was drenched, and I honestly expected her wrap to be falling off. Instead, the thing clung to her more fiercely than ever, still teasing with the promise of baring more flesh if one watched long enough.

Once she reached the shore, servants raced up and placed a blanket around Nylerin. (I hadn’t heard anyone call for them, so presumably the servants had seen Nylerin in the water and then acted on their own initiative.) She pulled the blanket in close around her as she marched towards where Vicra, Myshtal, and I were standing.

“I’m sorry,” I said once she was close enough to hear. “I had no idea that it was a pet.”

Nylerin didn’t say anything; she merely gave me the stinkeye as she went by, headed for the tent. A moment later, she disappeared inside.

That was effectively the end of the lunch, as none of us returned to the table. I spoke with Vicra and Myshtal for a short time afterwards while servants cleared away the dishes. I was hoping for a chance to apologize to Nylerin again, but after about twenty minutes it became clear that she wasn’t going to make another appearance. That being the case, I said my goodbyes to the other two.

“Wait,” Myshtal said as I was preparing to leave. “Why don’t you join us tonight?”

“Tonight?” I repeated, confused.

“Yes,” Vicra chimed in. “There’s a little get-together happening.”

“I don’t know,” I said sincerely. “I’ve got my own little thing called the
prexetus
going on tomorrow, if you haven’t heard.”

“Everyone’s heard,” Vicra declared. “But that’s all the more reason to have fun tonight.”

“It’ll also give you another chance to apologize to Nylerin,” Myshtal added.

I glanced towards the tent where Nylerin had disappeared. I did want her to accept my apology. (And there was no law that said I couldn’t leave their little soiree early if I wanted to.)

“Alright,” I said. “I’ll come.”

Following lunch, I teleported back to the Castellum Cardinal, and then hunted my grandmother down, finally locating her in her study. After a cursory greeting, I immediately inquired about the attack on me and Berran.

“Unfortunately, there’s no physical evidence to speak of,” she gloomily replied. “We thoroughly searched the area where you were ambushed – we still have people investigating – but there’s nothing there.”

“So whatever was used on our attackers eliminated all trace of the skirmish,” I said in summation.

“Well, not all trace,” Indigo countered. “Berran was able to surreptitiously obtain a few images of the assailants.”

I was stunned. “He was able to get pics?”

My grandmother nodded. “Just before the two of you engaged with them. He’s very adept at that sort of thing.”

I shook my head in nigh-disbelief. I hadn’t seen Berran do anything that suggested he was capturing the moment for posterity when we were on the walkway. Once again, I got the impression that “courier” was the least-accurate description on his résumé.

“So does that mean we can find out who they are?” I asked.

“Ordinarily, yes. But despite having fairly clear images, we haven’t been able to identify them.”

“So what does that mean?”

“Our personnel databases are rather extensive. The obvious conclusion, when we can’t identify an individual, is that someone has purged their information from the system.”

“So it’s a dead end.”

Indigo shrugged. “Perhaps not. We’ll simply have to keep looking.” She then gave me a bright smile. “Now, tell me about your lunch.”

“It was okay,” I said, rolling my eyes slightly. “It was me, Vicra, and a couple of girls he invited to join us.”

“Girls?” my grandmother said, raising an inquisitive eyebrow. “Were they attractive?”

“In appearance, but not personality.” I then gave her a quick overview of what had happened, including my perception that I was essentially nothing more to them than an object of curiosity.

“Don’t judge them too harshly,” Indigo said. “They’re still adolescents by our standards, and – lest you forget – they’re royals. Combine those two facts, and they think everything in existence is for their amusement.”

“Well, I’m not. And the more I think about it, the more I feel like I should skip their little shindig tonight.”

“No, don’t do that. Go and try to have some fun. Tomorrow night’s the
prexetus
. Life may not be fun for a long time after that.”

I had to admit that she had a point. Plus, I did promise I’d come and apologize to Nylerin again. Maybe she’d even accept it this time.

“Okay,” I said. “But what about you? I feel bad leaving you home by yourself.”

Indigo laughed. “First, there’s always a score of servants somewhere near me, so I’m never alone. Second, who says I’m staying home?”

“Huh?” I mumbled, caught off-balance. “Does that mean you’re coming with me?”

“Now what would I do at a party full of juveniles?” she said, laughing more heartily than before. “No, there are galas throughout the Acropolis tonight. Your
prexetus
is the most exciting thing to happen in ages, drawing in royals from all over the Caelesian Empire. They apparently need something to occupy their time until the big event, because there have actually been nightly jubilees since before you arrived.”

She then rattled off a list of some of the major fetes that would be taking place that evening. I let out a low whistle, noting that there were at least a dozen of them.

“Which will you be going to?” I asked.

“I don’t know yet,” she answered, “but at least three of them.”

“Wow,” I said, unprepared for her response. “You’re really planning on tripping the light fantastic.”

“Just to be clear, I was on Earth long enough to know what that phrase means,” she said stonily. “And what I plan on doing,
Sxibbo
, is attending as many parties as necessary in order to continue soliciting support in opposition to the
prexetus
. In short,
you
are attending a party to socialize and have fun, whereas
I
am attending parties to complete a task.”

“I’m sorry,
Sxahnin
,” I said sheepishly. “I guess I keep viewing things through my own narrow lens, and as a result keep missing the big picture.”

“It’s fine,” my grandmother intoned soothingly. “I should have been sharing more with you than I have, but I keep thinking I’m protecting you.”

Now it was my turn to laugh. I telepathically linked with her, then shared with her a portion of the fight from the underground walkway. “As you can tell, I’m probably the last person who needs protection.”

“Agreed,” she said with a smile. “I suppose that’s why they call you Kid Sensation.”

We both grinned at that, and I noted that she used slightly different phrasing than I did when saying my nickname in Caelesian. However, her comment brought to mind the discussion about names that had occurred during lunch, and with it a question that had been bothering me.

“
Sxahnin
, what’s the origin of my Caelesian name?” I asked.

My grandmother frowned. “What do you mean?”

“On Earth, I’m John Indigo Morrison Carrow. Here, I’m J’h’dgo. The two sound alike, so I’ve been laboring under the impression that my Caelesian name was just some modified version of ‘John Indigo,’ but that doesn’t appear to be the case.”

“No, it isn’t,” Indigo agreed. “But, as with so much else, there is some history behind the explanation I’m about to give you that will better put things into context.”

“Go on.”

“When we found out that we were expecting, your grandfather and I sifted through a number of names, both Caelesian and Terran, before settling on a couple that we liked. The plan was to give the baby a separate, distinct name to use within each individual culture, to make it easier to intermingle in either society.”

“I follow you,” I said, remembering a friend from elementary school whose parents had emigrated from somewhere in Asia. His given name had been Wei-Quo, and that’s what he was called by his family or whenever they went back to visit relatives in the old country. At all other times, however – especially in school – he went by Wayne.

“Our child was to be named J’h’dgo,” she said “after an ancient Caelesian king, if we had a boy. At least, that was to be his non-terrestrial name. However, we were blessed with a girl instead.”

“And then when I came along…”

“Apparently your grandfather remembered the name we had discussed years earlier. Thus, you were given the Terran designation of John Indigo, for obvious reasons, as well as the name J’h’dgo for Caelesian purposes.”

“And the fact that they sound somewhat alike?”

“Mere coincidence, which sometimes happens. For instance, my Caelesian name is actually N’d’go.”

She used the Caelesian pronunciation that I’d heard a few times before, saying the name in a way that sounded slightly unusual to my ears, stressing the enunciation in a queer accent (although I could still make out what she was saying).

“It’s simply a fluke that it also sounds like the name of a color on Earth,” she continued, “although it’s not uncommon for names from the two worlds to sound similar.”

She then gave me a few examples of Caelesian names that seemingly had Terran equivalents, such as Temte (Timothy), M’g’rit (Margarite), and more.

“Well, now I feel stupid,” I said once she’d finished.

“Don’t,” my grandmother insisted. “It was a mistake anyone could have made.”

“Maybe, but Mom’s name should have been a clue that my assumption was wrong.”

“Of course,” Indigo said with a smile. “On Earth she’s Geneva, but her Caelesian name is Kasoli.”

“Which sound nothing alike.”

“Well, again, don’t be too hard on yourself. Besides, it’s far less important than other concerns at the moment. Speaking of which, I need to focus on winnowing down the list of functions I should attend tonight, while you have your own event to prepare for.”

With that, she shooed me out the room, telling me that she’d see me later. Unsure of what to do with myself, I headed to my quarters. Once there, I found the entrance guarded by Sloe, who would apparently be joining us for the length of our stay in the Acropolis. Acknowledging the robot with a nod, I went inside, whereupon I headed straight to the bedroom, tossed my crown onto a nearby nightstand, and flopped onto the mattress.

I wasn’t excessively tired, but it had been a long day and I still had the night ahead of me. (Not to mention the
prexetus
looming on the horizon.) I closed my eyes and tried to imagine something pleasant – joking around with Gramps, hanging out with my friends, going on a date with my girlfriend, Electra.

What’s she doing right now?
I wondered, thinking about how much I missed her – the twinkle in her eyes when she laughed, how her fingers interlocked with mine when we held hands, the way she melted into me when we hugged.

As I dozed off, however, the image of Electra that was in my mind began to alter, subtly changing into something else. Her features – already lovely – appeared to become more refined. Her enchanting eyes adopted the Caelesian trait of flashing a wide array of colors. Her dark hair morphed into rich, crimson curls, topped by a crown of rare metal that was inlaid with precious jewels.

Myshtal
.

Her image winked at me, giving me butterflies for some reason.

I have a girlfriend
, I reminded myself as I fell asleep.