The Royal Pursuit (3 page)

Hathor slipped out of the room through
the side entrance. She hid her surprise at his action. It wasn’t
like him to do that unless there was an emergency. Forcing herself
to turn back to the fairies, she pushed aside the sudden unease in
her stomach.

“
The book on Razian Laws
and Customs gives priority to Sunlight,” she said. “The one who
arrives at the flowers first has ownership rights. The book also
states it is possible to share the same group of flowers by
establishing a dividing line through them. Then each family can
have their own section of flowers. Of course, that will be up to
you, Sunlight. You can choose whether to make the offer to Ray or
not.”

Sunlight considered her suggestion.
“They are beautiful flowers. It would be a shame not to share them
with another family who appreciates such beauty.”

Ray’s eyes lit up with
hope.

“
Would you like to take the
flowers on the north side?” Sunlight offered.

“
I’d be delighted,” he
eagerly replied.

Ann was glad Sunlight chose to be
generous. Not every creature was as gracious as he was. “Sunlight,
I will make it so that your flowers will always bloom for
you.”

He beamed with pleasure at her reward.
“Thank you, Queen Ann.”

“
Thank you, Queen Ann,” Ray
added.

The two fairies bowed to
her.

Usually, Hathor would lead them out,
but since he wasn’t there, she dismissed them and let them leave by
themselves.

She wondered where Hathor had run off
to. As if to answer her question, Athen stood outside the Throne
Room doors.

“
Permission to enter, Queen
Ann.”

“
Permission granted,” she
said.

“
I’m sorry to bother you in
the middle of your work, but Hathor is speaking to
Zeus.”

Zeus? She rose to her feet and
followed Athen down the hallway. Her stomach tensed. Zeus wouldn’t
come to Raz unless he needed her help. Since Raz and Olympia had a
Special Alliance, she would do anything he requested.

By the time Athen led her to the
palace grounds, Hathor and Zeus were talking at the Olympian
spaceship. She could tell by the way Zeus was waving his arms that
he was deeply troubled.

“
Athen, will you notify
everyone who wants to see me that I will be unable to meet with
them today? This is going to take a while.”

“
I will do as requested,
Queen Ann.”

As he left, she walked over to Zeus.
Hathor’s stunned expression wasn’t much of a comfort to her. This
had to be worse than she could imagine.

“
Greetings, Queen Ann.”
Zeus bowed. “Something awful has happened on Olympia. We have lost
our immortality.”

She blinked. “But how…”

“
Someone stole the immortal
properties from our Stone of Immortality. There were three people,
but I don’t even know who they were. They came into my bedroom two
nights ago, and before I could warn the other gods and goddesses,
they drugged me so that I passed out. By the time I regained
consciousness, they were gone.”

“
They took your
stone?”

“
No. They left the stone.
It’s just that the stone doesn’t work anymore. Whatever they did,
they made it useless to us. Now we are in the process of dying.
Look at me. I’m already aging.”

She could see that he had aged. He had
several gray strands in his hair and a couple of wrinkles lined his
usually flawless face.

“
There is a way we can tell
who is responsible for this,” Hathor spoke up.

Interested, she turned to him.
“How?”

“
The Great Magician can
tell us from his crystal ball,” he said.

“
Great! Let’s go see
him.”

“
I need to see if he’s
available right now. He may be busy.”

“
This is important,” Ann
said.

“
Yes, I know. But we can’t
just interrupt him. We need to ask him if we can see him. It’s the
way things are done on this planet.”

She sighed. “Very well. Be sure to
stress the urgency of our request.”

Hathor nodded his consent and ran to
find the Great Magician.

Turning to Zeus, she smiled. “I’m sure
the Great Magician will see us.”

Sometimes she felt helpless. It would
be nice if she could just check the magic ball herself and give him
the answer he needed instead of having to rely on the Great
Magician. She liked the Great Magician. He had been more than
helpful to her in the past, but it was discouraging at times to
know she was the queen, the most important person on Raz, and yet
still dependent on others to help her out. She figured there was a
good reason for it, though she didn’t know what it was. Who knew?
Maybe it was a balance of powers that prevented her from abusing
her authority.

“
I speak on behalf of
everyone on Olympia when I say I appreciate you coming to our aid
like this,” Zeus said.

“
After all the times you’ve
come to my aid, it’s the least I can do.”

Hathor returned a minute later. “The
Great Magician will meet us in the Grand Oak Room.”

Zeus and Ann followed him to the room
behind the Throne Room where the Great Magician bowed before her.
“I have been informed of the situation. I will grant your
request.”

Ann watched as he went to his crystal
ball and peered into it. His eyes and the ball slowly became the
same milky white color. She glanced at Zeus, noting his anxiety. If
she was in danger of losing her life and the lives of everyone on
her planet, she would be frightened, too.

The magician’s eyes resumed their
normal color as the ball reverted back to its clear
appearance.

They waited for him to speak, but he
took his time in saying anything, something that made Ann suspect
he relished these dramatic moments.

“
The ones you seek are
called Nicals, and they reside on planet Lone in the Mythical
Galaxy,” he finally spoke. “There are only thirty-seven of them
left.”

“
Nicals,” Hathor whispered.
“I don’t know much about them.”

“
No, you wouldn’t. They
mainly keep to themselves. They are very reserved and rarely seek
outside contact. You say they stole something from your bedroom?”
The magician turned to Zeus.

“
They didn’t steal
anything,” Zeus replied. “They were looking for something. I have
no idea what they wanted. All I know is that today the other gods
and I realized we are slowly dying because our Stone of Immortality
is empty of its power.”

“
Then they stole that
power,” Ann said.

Zeus shrugged. “I suppose. I don’t
know how they did it. I don’t even know what to look for or where
to go.”

“
Obviously, they must still
have that power with them. It’s just a matter of what is holding
that power,” Ann said.

“
That is safe to assume,”
the magician agreed.

“
We won’t live for long
without that power,” Zeus said. “And every day that passes, we will
grow older and weaker.”

“
You won’t be in any shape
to get that power back. We will have to do it,” she said. “We were
supposed to meet with the Augurs tomorrow, but that can wait. This
is an emergency.” After a moment, another idea came to her. “I’m
sure we can get the Palers’ help.” She glanced at Hathor. “What do
you think?”

“
I think we should do it at
once,” Hathor replied.

“
Thank you, Queen Ann.”
Zeus bowed. “I wish I could be of some help.”

“
You’ve helped me in the
past,” Ann began. “Now it’s my turn to help you. I will notify you
of our plan after I am done talking with the Palers and Augurs. For
now, it’s best for you to go back to Olympia and rest. It looks
like the trip here has aged you more than if you would have stayed
there.”

“
Yes. I think ten years has
been wiped from me in the travel.”

She shivered at the thought. “Well,
Hathor and I can always use the Book of Spells to go to your home
and tell you what our plans are.”

“
Thank you. And come
directly to the Ivory Palace doors. I know we usually require our
visitors to climb up the mountain to our home, but there isn’t time
for that.”

“
We will do
that.”

She watched as he left, feeling sad at
the way his shoulders slouched. It was hard to watch him slowly
lose his strength like this.

“
Thank you, Great
Magician,” she said.

“
You are welcome, Queen
Ann.” He bowed. “You may use my crystal ball to contact the Palers
and Augurs. They have the technology that will allow you to
communicate with them through it.”

“
Like a program you can use
on your computer to chat with someone else,” she said.

Hathor and the Great Magician gave her
a questioning look.

She waved aside their question. “It’s
what we had on Earth. Anyway, we’ve got a lot to do. Hathor, tell
Naomi to feed the children tonight. We won’t be having dinner with
them.”

Hathor bowed. “I will, my
queen.”

She watched him as he left. She
wondered about the Nicals. Why would they steal the immortal powers
from the gods and goddesses of Olympia? And how was she going to
get it back from them?

Chapter
Three

Alpha Head I

Planet: Pale

Galaxy: Enchanted

Leader Paff was reviewing the weapons
report, making sure the new weapons met the appropriate safety
precautions. After several incidents regarding guns that misfired,
it was now a priority to protect the guns’ owners. He liked what
he’d read so far. It looked as if they had taken care of the
problem.

When his intercom beeped, he turned
from the report and answered it.

“
Queen Ann from planet Raz
desires to speak with you,” Shast, his secretary, informed
him.

“
I will see her,” he
said.

“
She is using the crystal
ball this time.”

“
Thank you, Shast.” He put
the report down and clicked on his 3-D Hologram Communicator. In
front of him, an image of Ann’s face appeared before him.
“Greetings, Queen Ann.”

She smiled. “It’s good to see you,
Leader Paff. Unfortunately, something serious has happened to the
Olympians, and I’d like your help.”

He listened as she described the
Olympians’ predicament.

“
The Olympians are in no
shape for combat,” Ann concluded. “They are frail without their
stone’s power. I will be going to Lone with Hathor. Would you be
willing to send any Palers with with us?”

He sat back and considered the
problem. “There are only thirty-seven Nicals?”

She nodded. “I know it’s a small
number and it seems that Hathor and I should be able to do this
without your help, but I would feel better if we had your expertise
in these matters.”

“
We will go with you,” he
said. “We won’t need to send a large group of Palers like we did
three years ago in our conflict on Earth with Omin’s
clone.”

“
Yes. I am hoping this will
only take a day. Two at the most.”

“
It shouldn’t be too
difficult, but we must plan for great resistance on the Nicals’
part. I am assuming they will be prepared to fight us. There is a
reason they felt it was necessary to steal what they
did.”

“
Yes. That is something we
need to consider. We won’t engage in battle unless it’s
necessary.”

“
I can gather up some
Palers suitable for this mission in a few hours. Should we plan on
arriving on Raz at sunset tonight?”

She agreed. “Thank you, Leader Paff. I
appreciate this.”

“
I owe you one after your
help with Omin and his clone.”

They ended their
conversation.

He called in his First Commander Zak
and Second Commander Jaz. It was time to discuss their options in
this latest development.

***

Grand Oak Room

Planet: Raz

Ann glanced at Hathor. “Well,
thankfully the Palers will be helping us,” she said. “Now it’s time
to contact the Augurs.”

She took a deep breath. She hadn’t had
any direct contact with them, so she wasn’t sure what to expect.
She only knew what Hathor had told her about them, that they were
honest, loyal and rigid. She didn’t know why she felt so nervous
about actually talking to them. After all, they were the ones who
wanted to meet with her, not the other way around.

“
If you want, I can explain
it to them,” he offered.

She smiled at him, grateful for his
willingness to help her. He had always been there to support her.
“I’d better do it. After all, I’m the queen. It’s my responsibility
to take care of this stuff.”

“
You do an excellent job.”
He squeezed her shoulder, his very touch calming her
nerves.