The Royal Pursuit (14 page)

“
You ask a very reasonable
thing,” Jaz replied. “The Olympians do not have a virus invading
their planet, so although they may be uncomfortable with aging
naturally, they will not die anytime soon. You, however, could die
shortly after the stone is taken from your possession. I suggest
you keep the stone for now.”

“
The Olympians can wait,”
Falon agreed.

The Nicals breathed a sigh of relief,
their white hair displaying their gratitude.

“
The man in white, the one
who wants Queen Ann dead, chose to come to your planet for a
reason,” Falon told Xan. “I don’t think it was to defend you from
us.”

“
We need to discover his
true motives,” she said. “Does anyone know how to find
him?”

Xan glanced at his companions, who
shook their heads.

“
Athen mentioned he dropped
the Book of Spells back in the wilderness,” Falon said. “We should
find it. Hathor will need it to locate the queen.”

“
I agree. We need that
book,” Jaz replied. “It may not lead to a solution to your problem,
but we can find Queen Ann, and after she hears of your predicament,
she will want to talk to the Olympians. They tend to do whatever
she asks. I am sure she will try to find a way to make the copy of
their stone that you desire.”

“
We are deeply indebted to
you for your aid,” Xan said, a smile growing wide across his
face.

“
Hold that thought until we
find the queen,” Falon replied, and Jaz could tell he was just as
happy to help them as she was.

They made their plans to track the
book down.

Chapter
Twelve

In the Wilderness

Planet: Lone

At sunrise, Ann and Hathor left the
cave to find the lake the Augurs told them to go to.

“
Gaius said to follow the
lilacs. They will direct us to the lake,” Hathor told
Ann.

“
I shouldn’t be surprised
Gaius didn’t explain why we need to turn into merpeople and meet
them at the bottom of the lake,” she wryly said. “Should we get the
Book of Spells first? Athen lost it when we jumped out of the
spaceship.”

He grimaced. “Did the Nicals or Pallid
have it?”

“
I don’t think so. At
least, they never mentioned it.”

“
From the way Gaius talked,
it sounded like meeting him was a priority. We’ll just have to hope
no one finds the book before we’re able to come back for
it.”

She nodded.

They walked through the forest,
weaving around the trees and stepping over tree roots.

“
I’m glad the Royal Palace
is located in the valley,” she commented after nearly tripping on
another tree root. “I’ve had enough of trees to last me a
lifetime.”

He grinned. “You don’t love these
wonderful obstacles?”

Laughing, she said, “I won’t justify
that with a response.”

He reached out and squeezed her hand.
“I’ll catch you if you fall.”

By the time they found the lilacs, the
suns were high in the sky. Ann guessed it was mid-day. Her growling
stomach was a constant reminder she needed to rest and
eat.

“
I need to stop,” she
finally said. “Do you know if there’s anything edible to humans on
this planet?”

He paused. “I wish I knew more about
this place. The Nicals did a good job of hiding their identity from
the rest of the galaxies. There must be food we can eat because the
gold fish are edible.”

She studied their surroundings. She
watched a squirrel run up a tree. A bird flew off one of the tree’s
branch. The animals looked just like Earth’s animals, but she
hadn’t eaten squirrels or birds on Earth, and she wasn’t thrilled
with the idea of starting now. A few insects crawled over a
moss-covered tree in front of her. She didn’t want to eat bugs
either. She shivered in disgust. Apparently, she wasn’t as hungry
as she thought.

“
I’ll be right back,” he
said, letting go of her hand.

She watched him as he ran down the
hill until he came to one of the many trees. He quickly climbed up
it.

“
Where does he get so much
energy?” she murmured.

She was doing well to keep walking.
Her side still ached from all the running she’d done the day
before. She glanced at the ground apprehensively. She didn’t really
want to sit on the dirt and fallen leaves, but her legs were crying
out for relief. Sometimes being a queen wasn’t fun, and this was
one of those times. Reassuring herself she would throw her clothes
out as soon as she got back to Raz, she reluctantly sat down. She
recalled how she didn’t mind being on Forestaria on her journey to
Raz to become queen, and Forestaria was full of trees. But then,
Forestaria wasn’t as dirty or filled with creepy insects as Lone
was. Or maybe it was simply because she was five years older now
and beginning to notice these things. Either way, she was glad
Hathor was with her.

When he returned, he carried as many
apples as he could in his arms. “This is the best I can do unless
you want me to cook up a squirrel or a rabbit. I don’t see any
other animals out here, though I know they exist on this
planet.”

“
No, that’s alright,” she
said. “These apples will do. Besides, we need to save some room for
those gold fish at the lake.”

“
These should tide us over
until then.”

“
I wonder who Pallid is,”
she reflected after she swallowed a bite of her apple. “I can’t
help but think people enjoy trying to kill me. First Omin, then his
clone, and now this guy. Does the Queen always have this
problem?”

“
My mom did when she was
queen. I think it goes with the job. That’s why one of the king’s
jobs is to protect the queen,” he replied. “It’s a good reminder to
appreciate what you have while you have it.”

She stared at her half-eaten apple.
“That’s true.”

“
You’ll be alright. Gaius
said Amanda would be born. That means you will make it through
this.”

“
Does he really know the
future? I mean, is the future fixed, or is it something you can
change by a single decision you make? If Amanda is going to be born
regardless of what any of us does, then why is Pallid trying to
kill me before she is born?”

He let his apple fall to the ground.
“I’ve lost my appetite.”

“
I know you don’t want to
think about it.” She hugged him. “You’re here. That means you’re
going to make sure I’ll get through this.”

He smiled. “I’ll do what I
can.”

“
I know you
will.”

Sooner or later she was going to have
to confront her enemies without him. The thought was sobering.
Would she be ready when the time came for her to do it? Was this
going to be the time she would have to do it?

“
Are you ready to
continue?” he asked.

“
No. But I know we have
to,” she replied.

Carrying a couple apples, they
continued to eat while they followed the lilacs.

***

Athen ate the oranges and apples,
famished after spending the entire night walking through the
forest. The man in white was anxious to find Queen Ann, and Athen
couldn’t help but wonder why it was so important for this man to
kill her. What threat did her future child pose to him?

When the strange man left them for a
few minutes, Optima whispered to Athen and Dour, “He’s probably
talking to the same person he talked to in the library.”

“
I wonder if I should
follow him. It would be good to know what he plans to do,” Dour
said, keeping his voice low.

“
It could be dangerous,”
Athen argued. “One slight turn and he could see you.”

“
Yes, but we have a stone
that makes us immortal, which means he can’t kill me if he happens
to catch me eavesdropping.”

“
True. However, just
because you’re immortal, it doesn’t mean he can’t inflict a wound
that would hurt.”

Dour hesitated then said, “I need to
do what is best for everyone. I’ll have to risk it.”

He nodded, understanding Dour’s desire
to figure out the man’s next move so they could plan for their
reaction to it.

After he left, Optima smiled at him.
“He’s a terrific ruler. We lost the ruler before him in the virus
that swept through this planet.”

Noting the sadness in her voice, he
asked, “What happened?”

She sighed, her hair turning blue.
“It’s a long story, so I will try to tell it as briefly as
possible. Twenty-four years ago, the last Nical was born. Shortly
after his birth, we realized we had all become sterile. We don’t
know what caused it. Even after all these years of searching for
the cause, we still don’t know. We worked on finding a solution
that would make us able to reproduce again, and we thought we found
it. To our delight, children were born and everyone was healthy.
All we had to do was take a series of injections. We had hope
again. Then one male Nical had a bad reaction to the injections and
developed a virus we later called the Eradicator. The virus invaded
the entire world so fast that we didn’t have time to stop it. It
took two years, but the virus has wiped out all but thirty-seven of
us. We are between the ages of twenty-four and thirty-five. I am
twenty-nine. We were all getting sick with the virus when we went
to Olympia.”

“
Where you stole their
immortality?”

“
We never intended to steal
the power from that stone. We only meant to copy its immortal
ability. We were devastated when we learned what had really
happened. The man promised to protect us. He said you and your
friends came to destroy us.”

“
We didn’t want to destroy
you. We only wanted to give the Olympians their immortality back.
We would have listened to your case. Surely what you have done does
not deserve death.”

A tear fell from her eye.
“Really?”

“
Yes. You must have been
terrified. You had nothing to fear from our arrival. We would have
contacted you before arriving here, but you have no means of
communicating across galaxies.” He reached out to touch her hand,
hoping to comfort her.

She blushed at his touch, her hair
turning pink.

He cleared his throat as he withdrew
his hand from hers. He had not meant to be so forward with her. He
recalled how Sando had said she was all he had left. Athen assumed
that meant they were either married or engaged.

“
We will do all we can to
help you,” he softly assured her. “We can find a way to either give
your people your reproductive abilities back or we can make a true
copy of the Olympians’ stone.”

“
We would be happy if we
could just eliminate the virus and have children again.”

He was touched by her sincerity, and
it was even more appealing from someone so lovely to look at. Now
it was his turn to blush. He couldn’t entertain such thoughts of a
woman who belonged to someone else.

Dour quietly returned. “He was talking
to that person, just as we thought. It doesn’t look good. He’s
going to have us eat the gold fish so we’ll turn into merpeople.
There’s a city at the bottom of the lake he’s taking us to. He
expects the queen to be there as well.”

“
There’s a city at the
bottom of our lake?” Optima asked. “Why didn’t we know about
this?”

Dour glanced over his shoulder. “Here
he comes.”

They grew quiet as they watched the
man return.

“
Are you done eating?” the
man asked.

They nodded.

“
Good. Get up and let’s
continue our journey,” he replied. Without waiting for their
agreement, he walked away.

Glancing uneasily at each other, they
followed him.

***

Atlantis

Planet: Earth

Stacey yawned as she got out of her
small bed. She squeezed past the other beds and got dressed in
another outfit that hung in her small closet. She was alone for the
moment. She never realized how much she enjoyed her privacy until
she was surrounded by other people most of the time.

After she finished dressing, she went
to the small kitchen so she could get something to eat. On her way
there, Kent ran up to her.

“
You’ve got to see this!”
he exclaimed, grabbing her hand and leading her to their research
room.

She laughed at his enthusiasm. “Slow
down! You’re going too fast.”

When they got to the room, he smiled
at her. “This is incredible. You’ll never guess what these people
had in their possession.”

“
Well, don’t keep me in
suspense. Tell me!”

He took her to a computer where they
could see their probe scanning a large room.

She squinted. It was hard to make out
the details with the fuzzy reception they were getting, but she saw
a large screen that resembled a TV. She shook her head. What was so
special about that?