Chapter 24
Nearly everyone was gone.
Mekos and Aradella were stretched out on the grass in Qip’s garden. They were a foot apart and enjoying the sunshine.
They were also enjoying the silence, the peace. Yesterday had been pure chaos.
Reena was the first to contact them and demand that Bree return to her. “I have no time to trudge through these books.”
Bree had been reluctant to leave Qip’s house. It was very pleasant there—and she and Aradella had years of catching up to
do. But Reena said that Bree was needed on another island. She still hesitated, but then Reena very pointedly said that Bree
was “desperately” needed. That word shot through her. She was packed and ready to go in about four minutes.
By that time, Sojee had contacted Tanek, saying his help was needed on Pithan. The first rosy glow of men and women living
together was fading and there were problems.
Kaley said to her grandfather, “You don’t need me?”
“Not really. Stay there and enjoy yourself,” Sojee said. “Did I tell you that I visited the Lair? I had no idea there are
so many Lelys there. We don’t know what to do with them. I sure wish we knew someone who wasn’t afraid of them.”
Kaley mumbled about “dad jokes” then she packed faster than Bree did.
No one asked Frank, but they assumed he’d fly them back to Pithan. He gave a longing look at Darr and Qip. As a fellow engineer,
Frank wanted to know more about how Qip had made a living creature. “I’ll leave the Solium with you,” he told Qip. “Use it
to buy anything you need. Maybe I can help on the next one.”
They knew he meant building more creatures like Darr, and Qip smiled at the offer.
There was a great flurry of activity, then they got in the helicopter and took off. On the ground were Qip and Darr, Mekos
and Aradella. Ian stood on Darr’s shoulder. Qip had welded a little handle to Darr’s ear so Ian could hold on easier.
When the blast of the chopper was gone, they looked at each other. Now what? they seemed to ask.
“We . . .” Mekos said. Since he had no idea what he and Aradella were going to do, he didn’t finish.
“Us too,” Qip said, then he and Darr and Ian went into the house.
For a day and a half, the young couple were content. They talked some, but mostly they basked in the joy of just being together.
On the second afternoon, they were lying on the grass and looking up at the sky.
It was Aradella who broke the silence. “What are we going to do?”
He knew she meant if they managed to escape the threat of Olina and her mother. If they could repair the damage they’d done to Vian’s plan. In a perfect world, where would they live? Where would they fit
in? What about a livelihood? The truth was that they were homeless and jobless.
“Should we return to Pithan?” he asked.
“My birthright makes me a threat to King Aramus. Eventually, he’ll put Nessa on the throne.”
“So he can easily be controlled by Fahir.”
“Of course,” Aradella said. “I doubt if Fahir would let you and me live in peace in my little rooms. I would always be a threat to them.”
“He’d probably seal the doors with us inside. We could go to the Homestead. My father plans to rebuild it to what it was.”
When she didn’t reply, he turned on his side and looked at her. Wherever they went, danger would follow them. “My grandfather
lives on Eren. Maybe we could go there.”
She didn’t look at him. “And will your grandmother, Vian, be living there?”
The memory of being bawled out by her made them both shiver.
Mekos rolled onto his back. It was like a great, ugly cloud was hanging over them. They were the ones who’d destroyed the
plan Vian had sacrificed her life to make happen. “Because of us, Evil Olina was exchanged for Evil Fahir.”
“In the future, the story of what we did will be embellished,” she said. “People will say that our belief that only we mattered is what caused us to destroy things.”
“And lust,” he said. “I’m sure people will talk of that. ‘The lust of the Lely swan herder for the high-ranking princess ruined
it all’ is what they’ll say.”
“It’ll become one of those Earth stories, those fairy tales, that Kaley knows.”
“Stories that seem to actually happen here.” He shook his head. “I wonder what happened to the goat-man? What did Kaley call
him?”
“A satter, or something like that. He said . . .” She looked at Mekos.
“That Urah will want the medallion.”
“Then of course we will have to turn it over to someone,” he said and she nodded. “So what about us?” Mekos sounded frustrated.
“We could join Bree on that island Reena knows about.” She was only half joking.
Mekos sighed. “I wish we could do something to erase what happened at the Lair. Something that would make my father forgive me.”
“It’s not him!” Aradella said fiercely. “It’s your grandmother! She shows up after years of nothing and shouts at us. If she didn’t want
Valona killed she should have told us.”
Mekos couldn’t help a laugh. “‘Don’t kill your hostess.’ That should have been her advice. I just hope that when my father
at last invades Empyrea, I’ll be allowed to go. Or will I be told to stay back with the children?”
“If he goes there! None of us have even seen the place. Except Vian and she tells us nothing. She—” Aradella looked at him.
It was as though their minds linked and they read each other’s thoughts. “Except Qip. He spent most of his life there.”
Aradella turned to her side and propped her head on her hand. “Did you hear Frank and Qip talking? Those men want to make
more creatures like Darr.”
Mekos looked at her. “But they don’t have the materials.”
Aradella sat up, cross-legged, and looked at him. “Frank left a big package of their treasured Solium so Qip could afford
to buy what he needs.”
Mekos sat up, also cross-legged. “Qip will need to go to Empyrea to get what he needs. To choose it himself.”
They looked at each other, blinking rapidly.
“If we went there with him, then we could . . .” Aradella didn’t finish.
“We could tell my father what Empyrea is like. What to expect. What he needs to do.” He gave a crooked grin. “In the military,
it’s called a reconnaissance mission.”
“But Vian could tell him what he needs to know,” Aradella said.
“I don’t think Grandmamá can see that island with the same perspective that an outsider would have.”
Aradella looked serious. “This time, we should consult with our families before we do this.”
They contemplated that for the time it took a hummingbird to take a breath.
“Let’s go talk to Qip about how to get there.”
“Yes, let’s go.” They ran.
They had to search for Qip. Through Mekos’s keen hearing, they discovered that under his house was a workshop. The door was
unlocked and they went down the stairs. The huge room was a bit creepy in that it had lifelike metal body parts on the walls
and hanging from the ceiling. At the bottom of the stairs was a full-size metal female. She turned and looked at them with
empty eyes.
“Hello,” Aradella said, but received no answer. She didn’t have the look of life that Darr did.
“She’s for Darr?” Mekos asked as he stepped away.
Qip was at a huge steel table in the middle of the room, made low for his height. On it were three heads. One of them was
blinking its purple eyes. “Eventually, but she has no soul yet.” He studied their young, excited faces. “So what great plan
have you two come up with?”
“We want to go to Empyrea,” Mekos said.
“We could get the parts you need.” Aradella sounded hopeful.
“You mean you want to redeem your behinds after you screwed everything up in the Lair?”
“Yes,” Aradella and Mekos said in unison. They were holding hands, as though for protection as they waited for Qip to answer.
They couldn’t go without his agreement.
“I think that’s a good idea.”
The two young people looked surprised.
Qip wiped his hands on a greasy rag and turned to them. “I don’t want to go and you’ll get to see the truth of what Empyrea
is.”
“Violent,” Mekos said. “Warriors. They bombed my home and killed my uncle.” His ears were standing up so straight they poked
out of his hair.
Aradella held his hand tighter.
“No,” Qip said calmly. “That’s something that needs to be addressed. Frank wanted to tell Tanek this first but I think you
should know.” He hesitated. “When Frank searched Haver’s computers, he found out that it wasn’t the Empyreans who led the
bombing of your home and killed your uncle. It was Urah.”
Aradella and Mekos looked at him in shock.
Qip continued. “Frank and I think Haver was too close to starting the takeover he’d been planning for years, so someone in
Empyrea sent Urah to do the dirty work. Unofficially, of course, but the weapons she used weren’t made on Pithan.” He shook
his head in disgust. “Haver lost his son and his home, but he managed to escape and he hid, but Urah used her magic to find
him in the cave. We think she killed Haver and her guardsmen smashed the computers. Then they sealed Haver’s body in the cave.”
“And because of all this, her daughter was made queen,” Mekos said softly.
Aradella was staring at Qip. “Haver disappeared when my parents were still alive. Were their deaths another stepping stone
to her goal?”
“Yes,” Qip said. “To make her daughter queen was her plan all along.”
Mekos put his arm around Aradella’s shoulders.
Qip’s face brightened. “I think you two should go. I’ll contact Davro and he’ll send a Spacer to pick you up. You will both
need to use Zeon’s mask.” He looked at Aradella. “You must make yourself less beautiful.”
“Oh.” Aradella’s eyebrows were high. “Uh . . .”
“That will be very difficult for her to do,” Mekos said solemnly.
Qip laughed. “Ah, to be young again! Give me today to arrange it all, then—”
“Who is Davro?” Mekos asked.
“Vian’s brother. Your granduncle. He’s a doctor and he lives on Empyrea, but he sometimes travels to Earth.”
“How will we get past the guards?” Aradella asked.
“I know Cutters from Selkan are there,” Mekos said. “They are violent, dangerous men. Will we be facing them?”