Fire Eyes Awakened: The Senturians of Terraunum Series (Book 1) Page 6

  “– over the Coleto River, and finally arrive on the western edge of Divine, just across the Blanco River from Harlingon. Meals are provided for new recruits. Feel free to browse the books. Thank you and welcome!

  “Your Ranger Recruit Train Staff.”

  Needing to stretch our legs, we walked up and down the train. I didn’t catch as many stares this time – people were too busy talking or sleeping or whatever else people who rode on trains did. Still, we heard some whispers. We went all the way to the front of the train, at least a mile long, and were on our way back when I heard, “Jay!” from behind me.

  Gilmer and I both turned; Leona jogged the last few strides toward us. As she stopped, the train made a lurch, launching her forward into my arms. I caught the smell of flowers again as she stood up, slightly red.

  “Sorry about that,” she said. “Stupid train.”

  I smiled and I think her hand lingered on my arm a little longer than would be normal. I think. Or hoped. Don’t judge.

  “That’s OK,” I said. “How have you been?”

  “Well,” she said, “when I heard the verdict, I did not want to see them…you know…so I left. It wasn’t until I was already on the train when someone said that they had let you live! I’ve been looking for you ever since. I wanted you to know that…well…I’m glad you’re…that they didn’t…that…”

  “That I’m alive?” She grinned and looked me in the eyes, nodding. “I appreciate it. Thank you for the healing, by the way, and staying with me – that meant a lot.”

  “Oh, you’re welcome,” she said, cocking her head and smiling a dazzling smile.

  We must have stood there a second before Gilmer cleared his throat and I introduced them.

  “Good to meet you, Gilmer,” Leona said, then paused a second. “Well, I guess I’d better get back to my car. I’ll…see you around, Jay?” Her eyes fluttered slightly as she said it.

  “Sure!” I replied sheepishly. “Anytime.”

  “OK”

  “OK”

  “Well, bye then.”

  “OK, bye,” I said, and she slowly turned and walked away – which was both a good and bad thing – and I watched her until she opened the door of a car, glanced my way, and then was out of sight. I took a deep breath and then turned, but was met with a sly grin from Gilmer. I scowled back. “What?”

  He laughed, cocking an eyebrow. “Really?”

  “What?”

  He laughed again, throwing up his arms. “Nothing, nothing at all.” He giggled to himself the whole way back to the car.

  Whatever. Dang, Gilmer, I didn’t do anything and now he was just making fun of me. But I couldn’t grumble – my mind was still replaying my conversation with Leona and the corners of my mouth wouldn’t stay down. Wow, I could not talk to girls.

  Once back in our cabin, I found a book on Quantum Powers. Opening it up, I frantically looked up Fire Eyes and Morsenube. I wanted to see what all the dang fuss was about, why I was almost killed, what saved me, and most importantly, how I was supposed to save the world or whatever the heck I was supposed to do.

  “What’s it say, Jay?” Gilmer asked, so I read it aloud.

  “Ignis Oculus – also known as ‘Fire Eyes,’ is one of the rarest Quantum powers. The name is derived from the white fire-like energy surrounding the user’s eyes when the power is used. It is also known as a ‘Hero Power’: when in use, the user and those around him/her are inspired to act on good, just, and righteous impulses, while at the same time, repelling all evil thoughts, acts, etc. Ignis Oculus’s main function, however, is knowledge. An Ignis Oculus user is instantly able to recognize and identify any power, technique, or battle strategy they see, and at the same time, know the best way to counter said move.”

  That was it? “Well, that doesn’t sound that great. Knowledge? Everyone’s acting like I can blow up mountains or something – how does this help?”

  Gilmer scoffed at me. “Uhhh…what good is knowledge? Are you nuts? It’s the ultimate weapon!” My upturned eyebrow must not have convinced him. “Really? To be able to know what your opponent is doing and how to counter it instantly? How is that not awesome? It’s almost like you can see the future.”

  Sounded pretty cool when you put it like that.

  “And if this invasion actually happens, I’m sure you’ll be right in the center of it, probably with all the big wigs.”

  “What do you mean, dude?”

  “Oh man, seriously? ‘Battle strategy.’ Hello, you could tell them what to do, where to direct their troops, how to attack. With you up there, we couldn’t lose!”

  I smiled. Maybe it was something worth all the ruckus. And the “Hero Power” sounded pretty cool. “All right, you’ve convinced me. I am now the coolest dude on the planet. As if I wasn’t before. So let’s get the bad news then…”

  Gilmer smiled big and then scowled as I flipped pages. “It’s not good, man. Not good at all. I’m really sorry about it, actually.”

  “Ah, no problem, man. How bad could it be? Here it is..”

  “Morsenube: the darkest power known to man. The user is able to produce and control a multitude of spherical packets of energy, black in color, that are capable of penetrating any material or shield, given enough time.”

  “That’s not bad!” I said, but Gilmer shook his head and pointed back to the book.

  “Although it is not understood fully, the effect of this ‘black cloud’ of energy on the user and those around him/her are severe. Eventually, they lose rational thought, succumbing to the base human desires of greed, rage, and lust for power, having a complete loss of moral values. The user of Morsenube is in constant battle with him or herself and those around them. Most users either go insane or turn evil, rejecting normal society in favor of the dark corners of the world. It is because of this that all new Senturians who are Awakened with this power are put on trial, and are almost always executed.”

  Oh. Well, damn. Now I knew why the vote was split. On the one hand, I had this huge tool for good, and on the other, this big hammer for evil. And of course the evil one was at level fifteen. How was this going to work? Which power would win? I’ve thought of myself as a good person, but my dad always said there was evil in all of us. It was each of our jobs to beat it back with the Light.

  Over the next twelve days – long days – we managed to read all the books. We read more on some other Quantum powers: Strength and Speed being pretty obvious; Telekinesis – able to move object with your mind; and Transition – ability to change one form of matter to another, like water to rock.

  I looked up Leona’s powers too: Amplify – ability to increase the user’s powers or the powers of others around him/her. I already knew about her Guide powers, but this confirmed that her “gut feelings” were very good and she would be an excellent navigator, even when she couldn’t see.

  Unable to make our badges do anything, we still slapped them on our hip. Other than talking and reading, we spent a lot of time looking out the window and seeing the new country. One of the more interesting books I read explained how we used the powers of the Senturians and the inner energy of every person like humans used to use electricity.

  Once we cleared the mountains around Bayou Vista, we were in Aeren country. You could barely see the mesas from here, even though it was so flat. Despite that, the train was constantly rocked by prevailing winds from the east, the grasses swaying hypnotically and gracefully.

  We stopped in Aguadulce, on the southern edge of the Reka’s territory. I was wondering why, then spotted the blue legs of Princess Aurora striding out on the platform to talk to what I assumed was the rest of her royal family – all of them had crowns and expensive-looking clothes. The princess had on shorts and a tank top, and she rocked both. Man, she looked like Leona.

  The family had what looked like a heated discussion, during which I heard an “Ugh” from behind me, and I turned around to catch the end of Leona’s ponytail just before it whipped out of view. Why
didn’t she say hi? I turned my attention back to the royals, who evidently had reconciled, as they were exchanging hugs. Aurora walked right by my window on the way back onto the train, and caught me staring. I smiled at her, and she actually stopped and smiled back. After brushing some of her hair behind her ear, she continued on. Huh.

  Back underway, we were in neutral territory, running adjacent to the Reka’s land – a huge swamp, from the looks of it, though we were a little far away to tell for sure. That would make sense – it would give them a lot of water to work with.

  Steadily heading north, during the few days it took to get the Train Tunnel, we could watch the Divide Mountains get bigger and bigger. These mountains divided – hence the name – the East Side of the Breaks into the Northland and Southland. The Northland had a colder climate than the Southland. Parts of the Helios land never actually thawed out, which was fine with them. Somehow they were immune to the cold.

  The Northland provided much of the industry, manufacturing, and had the higher population, while the South was more rural and agricultural based. It was a good relationship, and though we kidded each other, we were one nation, collectively the East Side of the Breaks.

  The West Side, on the other hand, was a whole different ball game. It was sometimes called the Badlands for a couple of reasons – there was almost nothing but criminals living there, theoretically – and that was where almost all the evil creatures were sealed off around two or three thousand years ago. Other than the Wilds south of the Manu’s land. It was the main job of the Manus to keep those creatures in check.

  Leona stopped by twice, said a quick hi, and then went on. I wasn’t sure why, but she didn’t really talk much. Gilmer had his stupid grin after each visit, though, and kept looking at me while shaking his head.

  The Train Tunnel was about as impressive as its name; to me it was just a huge hole in the mountain, but we heard oohs and ahhs around us. It ran right through the middle of an almost vertical mountain, a gaping hole wide enough for the train and fifteen mounted riders galloping beside the engine on either side, shoulder to shoulder. It was the most direct and easiest access point between the North and South, as it was almost impossible to cross the Divide on foot, though the Dwarves did it all the time. But that was their home, and let’s face it – rock is still Earth, so they were fine.

  Just before we got to the Tunnel, they made an announcement that it would be very dark aboard the train for almost eight hours while we were under the mountain, with only the running lights operational, as all power was needed for the engines. I thought it might be a good idea to use the facilities before that happened. On the way back, I ran into Princess Aurora and a couple of her retainers – blue-skinned female Reka, both older, wearing armor and carrying spears.

  There wasn’t enough room for all of us to walk down the hallway at the same time, so I stopped to let them pass. The Princess glanced back at her guard, who immediately stopped, turned around, and blocked the way completely. I took the opportunity to check her out, and I was not disappointed. She had on almost the same outfit she did the other day at Aguadulce, except this time her shorts and shirt were black. Wow. To say she was beautiful would be like calling a shark a “little fish.” Everything about her was just…man, perfect sounds cliché, but…

  Uh oh. Certain parts were trying to take over my thinking. Calm down, Jay. Calm down, calm down…oh, for heaven’s sake. Any success I had was negotiable.

  She almost caught me staring when she turned back, and looked at me, grinning. She purred, “Hello, I am Princess Aurora Helotes of the Reka.” She extended her hand, and I shook it. Her skin was soft and smooth, her grip firm, like it had been practiced. Probably had, actually, since she was royalty – couldn’t have a limp fish handshake.

  “Jayton Baird, of, er…Portland.”

  She laughed. “I know. I changed my vote for you, remember?”

  “Oh yeah, thank you very much for that, your highness,” I said, with a slight bow of my head, manners coming back to me somehow through the block in my head.

  She smiled. “You’re very welcome. Do you know much about my people?” She started walking slowly around me, so I had to keep turning my head to follow her. She brushed my body with hers as she moved. I kinda felt like a gazelle being circled by a lion. Or a fish by a school of barracuda.

  “No, ma’am, why do you ask?”

  Looking more serious, she stopped right in front of me – her eyes dead even with mine, our noses almost touching. I was finding it hard to breathe, and harder still to concentrate with her basically pressed up against me. “Because, sir, we are very forward. If we like something, we say so, and try to, um…how you would say? Acquire it. I like you. That’s why I changed my vote, despite my peoples’ wishes.”

  And then she kissed me. Now, I haven’t kissed a lot of girls. OK, so I’ve kissed a few. Maybe ten. Fine – three. So I didn’t completely embarrass myself. Aurora was a great kisser – her soft lips and tongue playing with mine as she pulled me tight against her. I was too shocked to react before she pulled away and put a finger to her mouth, pressing her lips together and smiling as she backed away.

  “Very nice, Jayton Baird. Very nice indeed,” she said with a sly upturn of her lips. “I look forward to our next…encounter.” She turned to her companions. “Let’s go.”

  They let her pass, fell in behind her, and walked back the way they came. I stood there till the lights went out, my heart trying its damnedest to bust out of my chest.

  What the hell just happened?

  I made it back to our car and sat down. There was some vague noise coming from Gilmer’s direction. He might have been talking.

  “JAY!”

  I shook my head. “What?”

  “Did you hear anything I said?”

  “Yes! Um…no.”

  “What’s up? You act like you’ve been hit in the head.”

  I took a deep breath. “Princess Aurora – you remember her, right?”

  “Yeah, hot blue girl. Don’t forget many of those. Why?”

  “Well, she just kissed me.”

  He froze, cocked his head, then smiled big and hit me on the shoulder, laughing. “You dog, you! Well don’t just stand there – what happened?” I told him.

  “Hmm. And then she just walked away?”

  I nodded.

  “Go figure,” he said.

  We slept, and in no time the lights came back on, the train never slowing. Later, we went over a huge suspension bridge at the Coleto River. I’d never seen a suspension bridge before. From there, it was sporadic farms and forests the rest of the way. The Northerners grew as much as they could here in the short growing season, but they couldn’t compete with the South. What they did have in abundance was lumber, lumber yards, and mines of all sorts.

  A few more days, and we finally went through Divine, the city across the Blanco River from Harlingon. Divine looked nice, and benefited from being this close to the Harlingon and Ranger headquarters. Blanco means white, so I didn’t really understand why they would name something the “white river” when it was so clear you could see the bottom even though it was a hundred feet deep.

  Chapter 8

  Harlingon wasn’t really a city – it was an enormous square castle, each corner facing a point on the compass. At each corner was an equally huge tower, with an even bigger tower in the center. All five – well, four and a half; the west tower looked like it had been blasted off right above the wall – jutted into the clear blue sky, and everyone aboard the train was caught in its spectacle. Each wall had to be a mile long, and each tower had to be a good fifty stories tall and a couple hundred yards wide, with the middle at least seventy-five stories. It was wider than the edge towers by a great deal, and looked to take up a large amount of the space between the walls. Each tower ended in a pointed spire with a white triangular flag flying from the tip. The whole structure was made of some kind of gray rock, which looked smooth from so far away.

  I c
ouldn’t say if it was beautiful or intimidating. Nope, it was like a pretty woman – it was both.

  Brakes squealed and everyone readied their belongings.

  An announcement came: “Rangers – leave your bags in your cabin with your badge number attached and they’ll be brought to your room. Everyone is to go out onto the platform; follow the Ranger waiting for you to the main auditorium for your squad assignment. Good luck.”

  Well, that was simple. Gilmer and I found and attached our ID tags just as the train lurched to a final stop. We looked at each other, nodded, and followed the couple thousand others who were piling on the platform. Evidently the Northland Awakening arrived at the same time, because there was no way all the recruits on the deck were just from the South.

  A Ranger on stilts directed us to follow him, and he headed toward a huge half-circle opening in the wall of Harlingon.

  Someone brushed my shoulder roughly. “Watch it, bub! Keep away from me. I won’t hesitate to execute you, unlike the cowards in Bayou Vista,” said a tall dude, who kept right on walking, the rest of his cronies following right behind him, each scowling as they passed.

  Ah, my reputation preceded me.

  Even up close, the stone of the castle was as smooth as polished wood with hardly a scar on it – other than the missing tower top. The walls seemed about half as thick as they were tall, the sun blotted out as we entered the short tunnel. The passage narrowed sharply the closer we got to the middle, causing a bit of a traffic jam.

  One of the many books I’d read on the train said the whole place was built to withstand a siege. The narrowing allowed it to be easily defended if someone broke through the gate. But surely nothing would happen to make that necessary.

  We were being herded toward two huge open oaken doors with metal supports and hinges, each door wide enough to pass two wagons side by side with no problem. They were beautifully carved, with intricate designs all over the polished wood. I caught a flash of blue skin several rows in front of me, which got my mind wondering on that subject. Then I saw blonde-streaked brown hair two rows in front of me and several to the right. That got me thinking even more, and I almost missed the entrance into the central tower. We were thrust again into darkness, lit slightly by some glowstones on the wall, enough to see once my eyes adjusted. All I heard was the shuffling of feet and the occasional whispered conversation – everyone was anticipating the squad assignments.