Chapter 2:

Sukren didn’t think they would run into a mobile checkpoint unit, not in this part of the quintant, but he couldn’t be sure. He hoped they wouldn’t run into one, anyway. Just the thought of it made his palms clammy. He rubbed them against the front of his village suit. “If you hear anything or see anyone, tell me right away,” he told Mayah. “So we can get off the path and into the plastos plants.”

He watched Mayah glance at the row of purple cane bordering the ash-path. “They’re glowing,” she said softly. She reached out to touch one. A smile touched her lips. Rock-god, it broke Sukren’s heart to see her smile like that, so full of wonder, so full of curiosity. Over ten years he had raised her, cared for her, ever since she was only two weeks old, and now it was all coming to an end. Damn Lady Ki!

“We have to keep moving,” he said gently. “The sun’s already set, and we have a long way to go.”

Every rustle of wind through the canes was making him jump. It didn’t help that the ash-path was sloping upwards, then down, making it impossible to see what was coming up ahead. With the plastos fields penning them in on either side, it felt like he and Mayah were walking on a tight black rope in between walls of purple fire. His shoulders tense, Sukren tried to remember what Lady Nari had told him. If she’s ever in danger, I’ll send an agent to you. Bring her to the castle, go to the regent’s desk. You’ll be smuggled in and given the paperwork you need to stay.

Hopefully, it would be as easy as that: show up at the castle, and be done. Sukren doubted it though. The castle was its own beast. Getting through it could very well likely be more challenging than simply getting to it.

“What’s that sound?”

Sukren didn’t hesitate. Bodily he hauled Mayah off the ash-path. Soon they were lying curled up around the roots and stem bases of the plastos plants. Sukren took a quiet, shallow breath. Mayah was tense and stiff next to him. The sound of footsteps grew louder, and louder, and louder. He closed his eyes. Keep going, keep going, he urged, don’t see us, don’t see us…

It took an eternity, it felt like, for the mobile checkpoint unit to pass. Sukren’s hands were shaking as he crept back onto the path. But nobody was within sight, not even when he climbed up the crest to look at the way ahead. Thank the rock-god!

“You can come out now,” he called softly to Mayah. She crawled out of the glowing field, her face ashen. He held his hand out to her and helped her up. “You’re doing great,” he told her. “Let me know if you get tired. For now, keep following me.”

***

“Mayah. Wake up, we’re here.”

Mayah blinked slowly. She was on Sukren’s back; he’d been carrying her.

“You don’t want to see the castle?”

Not really, Mayah wanted to say. Not if it’s going to be scary. She blinked again. She didn’t want to get off Sukren’s back, that was what she didn’t want to do, but he was sliding her down now. Yawning, she let go of him, rubbed her eyes, then adjusted her green headscarf. Wait, was that a golden glow in front of her?

Curiosity drove out fear. Mayah stared at the castle. It went up and up and up and up, all the way to the very top of the bio-dome. It looked like a huge plastos plant, huge, and not purple at all, but yellow. And – oh! There were things sticking out of it! “What are those?” Mayah asked, pointing. “The long ones, sticking out like that?”

“Those are branches.”

“Like on a tree?”

“That’s right. Four of the bio-dome’s five castles are giant hollow-trees.”

“But it’s so tall! And fat!”

Mayah took a step forward. The wind rustled in the plastos fields behind her. A spike of fear shot through her, and she reached for Sukren’s leg. “What’s that?” she asked, after a moment of clinging to him. “The bumps on the castle, what are those?”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Those are balconies. Remember learning about them from your architecture tutor?”

Of course Mayah remembered. She had to study while all the other kids in the village got to help out with rice. “I didn’t know they were real!” she cried out. “Oh, Sukren, look, there’s someone on that balcony right now!” She pointed. “Is it a Rajas?”

“We can go in and see for ourselves.”

“We can go into the castle?”

“That’s right.”

Mayah felt excited and nervous at the same time. “I thought serfs couldn’t go into castles.”

When Sukren didn’t reply, Mayah looked up at him. Her brow furrowed. “What’s wrong? Why… why do you look so sad?”

He gave her a half-smile. “Remember, when you were nine, I told you I had a secret to tell you when you got older?”

Mayah nodded. She kind of remembered. It had been a long time ago.

“The thing is, Mayah, you’re not a serf.”

Mayah frowned. “What do you mean?”

“You’re a Rajas.”

“What?”

“You were given to me to be raised in a serf village to keep you safe. But bad people found us – they’re the ones who sent the soldiers. That’s why we’re here. We’re going to live in the castle now and be safe.”

Mayah didn’t understand. The Rajas were the top of the top, like the bitty-bats that lived in the branches of the bio-dome, so high up that nobody could touch them. What did Sukren mean that Mayah was one of them? That made no sense. Rajas were so special, they were called princesses and princes, every single one of them, well, except for the queen, and that was because she was even more special!

“I want to go home,” Mayah whispered. “Can we go home?”

Sukren put his arm around Mayah’s shoulders, just like he had earlier, but this time it didn’t make her feel safe. It felt like he was saying sorry, almost, but that made Mayah feel even more nervous. What was he sorry about? Sukren was only ever sorry to Mayah when he accidentally said something mean to her.

“You’re a princess, Mayah,” Sukren replied. “Princess Mayah. You were born in that castle right over there. You are going home.”

Mayah stayed where she was. She glanced at the castle over Sukren’s arm. It was kind of ugly, actually, all that glowing yellow, almost like it was screaming. Sukren had brought home a bonsai, once, and it had had a gold limestone shell too, like most of the hollow-trees that made up the bio-dome, but the bonsai was small and cute, and the bio-dome was big and strong. The castle was weird. Who wanted to live in a tree, anyway?

“Can you put your hood up for me now? We have to go.”

Slowly she did as Sukren asked. The castle was even uglier up close. The entrance was a huge arch with a carving of a woman draped in breathflowers at the apex. But the arch didn’t have a gate like the greenhouse village did. Instead, it kept going up and into the castle over a broad flight of stairs, like a tunnel with pillars holding it up on either side. So ugly! So messy, not clean and clear like the greenhouse.

A woman and a tall, heavy man were standing on either side of the arch-tunnel. Both of them were holding bows, kind of like the ones the village boys used to dart fish out of the rice fields, only a lot bigger. “Show us your papers,” the woman said, in a pidgin Mayah had only ever heard her language tutors use.

“They were stolen,” Sukren said in the same speech. “I’m here to apply for new ones.”

The man glanced at Mayah. She didn’t like the way he looked at her, like he was better than her or something. He was the weird one, with his long, loose curls. Mayah had never seen anything like them before! Sukren and all the other villagers, and Mayah too, they all had straight hair.

“Give this to the checkpoint unit in the entrance hall,” the man said, scribbling something down onto a sheaf-pad. He tore off the top page and handed it to Sukren. “Go on, then.”

Sukren grabbed Mayah’s hand and pulled her up the steps into the arch-tunnel. Mayah looked back over her shoulder. “Who are they?”

“Shhh,” Sukren replied. “Quietly. They’re Eenta soldiers.”

“Why’d they act like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like they won something, and we lost.”

She was surprised when Sukren chuckled. “Don’t worry, if they knew who you were, they wouldn’t be acting like that to you.”

Mayah looked back one more time. She and Sukren were almost at the top of the steps, so she couldn’t see the soldiers as well anymore. Strange. From up here, they could be any one of the adults in Mayah’s village. Dark-haired, dark-skinned, why, the man was so tall and big he even looked a little like Sukren.

But not like me.

They were at the top of the stairs and about to go inside. Mayah couldn’t see the purple plastos plants anymore, or the yellow glow of the castle. There was still a little light, though, coming from some fancy-looking lanterns hanging off the columns. Mayah lifted her hand, looked at it, then looked at Sukren’s.

I’m… I’m so much lighter than he is. He’s brown-skinned, and I’m gold. I… I never saw that before.