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Legend of the Promised One
Becoming Our Legends
It was the strangest flight. Fish came to the top of the water as if to watch them, and seals leaped to see the gliders, and to catch an easy meal. Even mats of seaweed came out with new green tendrils and flowers. Birds followed them.
"Beautiful." Miya said, but Neri found it more eerie than lovely. She wanted to fly through the night and get home in the dark, but Jobah insisted they stop and sleep. He bullied Neri and Miya down to a small island. Of course Neri crashed the glider again, and Miya grumbled that next time she wanted to ride drier transportation. She went around a rock and shed most of her clothes so the satins could dry while she slept in a nest of leaves.
"Neri, truly, I wanted to talk to you."
"I know." Neri said in the same quiet voice. She untied the bag holding the crystal from around her shoulders, set the crystal in the sand, and wrung water out of the bag. Her clothes were already drying in the warm night air.
"What are you going to do when we get back?"
"I don't know." Neri had tried to think of a plan, to think of anything they could do, and hadn't been able to.
"I have an idea. We leave Miya here. If Galiel really cares about her he won't leave without her. It would give us some power over him."
"Miya could swim to the palace. And if she couldn't, she'd drown. I care about her."
"I know, and so do I. But you have to protect everyone, and Oceanna. You have to be the Promised One."
Neri bowed her head. Salt water dripped from her hair and slid down her cheeks. "I know. But-you should go! Go back to Bandor! Get away from here!"
"No thanks." Jobah said casually.
"'No thanks'?"
"You're here. My sister...right now I don't want to claim kinship with her but she's here. If this world is ending I want to be here until the last minute trying to save it."
"I... Thank you. Makes me glad."
"Since we're having this starlight talk... if we survive, ask me how I feel about you."
Neri's heart filled with traitorous delight, but this was no time for such hopes. She stood up and looked over at Miya. The girl was curled up in a nest of leaves, her pale limbs shining. "She's asleep and we should be too. But if we survive, I will ask you."
In a minute they'd settled down for the night. Jobah had a thin mattress rolled up in a compartment in the glider and Neri was happy to sleep on sand, one arm crooked under her head, the other absently pulling the crystal close to keep it safe. The last thing she felt was the sweet coolness of the crystal against her hand.
The next day they reached the palace. Floating above it Neri felt only panic. She didn't know what was going to happen, or how she could change it. There was nothing to do but go in.
"Neri..." Miya murmured.
"I... I'll protect you Miya, so please help me protect Oceanna."
Miya didn't reply.
The crowd of people was smaller, and they were all people now. Neri saw Neanda and ran to him.
"Neri!" Neanda hugged her back, lifting her off her feet.
"Neanda! Thank you, thank you for staying alive. You'll be safe now."
"None of us are. You should go from here!"
"Where is my uncle?"
"Badly sick. Beloved, go, before Galiel destroys us all!"
"I can't." Neri whispered and turned to look back.
Miya had tried to go to Galiel; Jobah was holding onto the back of her dress to stop her.
"I have to go to them." Neri said. Neanda didn't follow her."
The other three crystals were set in a strange stand made of silver plates and wires and flowing with strange metallic liquids. There was an empty space for the fourth crystal, the one Neri held in the curve of her arm. Jobah was holding Miya at arms length by the neck of her dress. Miya scowled but didn't fight; from the look on his face Jobah would happily have throttled her.
Galiel's mad eyes watched them.
"We've come back."
Galiel leaned forward, looking at the crystal hungrily. But when he finally spoke he didn't sound happy. "You have."
"Now what? I won't just give it to you, and I can protect my people now." The crystal was humming in her hand, delightedly, as if it knew the others were close.
"Galiel, if you take the crystals millions of people on Oceanna will die, like millions on Bandor died. You know that. This time she will die too."
Miya shouted and tried to squirm away.
"We wouldn't-let her go, Jobah-Miya, we wouldn't."
Miya straightened her satins with a flounce. "I know you wouldn't." She took two steps, enough that she couldn't be grabbed again easily, and stood there. Choosing a side? Or just not choosing?
Enough. Neri spoke to Galiel, "Why? Why is your life worth so much you'll destroy others just to keep it? Your life... like that..." her voice faded, "Doesn't it hurt?"
Galiel's set face didn't change, but his voice was soft. "Every moment, but my life is all I have. All I have, princess. When I lived here people would walk away from me in the halls. No one wanted to speak to me. The queen's cursed wizard, destined to bring on the time of darkness. The queen's pet, living on Oceanna only by her favor. You'll never know how that feels, princess."
"I..." Neri remembered the night after the fliers' brush with war, when her own people had looked at her with fear. But not everyone. "No, I'll never know."
"All the good I tried to do was nothing compared to a glance from a blind woman. Trying to be anything but a monster I walked right into that role. Living is all I have."
"All you have and you managed to mess it up. No wonder Neri feels sorry for you."
"Do you, princess?"
Neri wished Jobah hadn't spoken, but she knew better than to lie. "Yes, of course I do. But it was your choice to take all the bad things you know and turn them on others."
"Enough." Miya was holding a gun, the point to her own chest.
"Don't!" Jobah shouted.
"Miya!"
"Enough. Give us the crystal so we can leave." So this was the side she'd chosen.
"It's all right-I'm doing it." Neri lowered the crystal into its place. She looked at Galiel and saw only horror in his face. Lightning flashed between the crystals.
The gun went off. No, it almost exploded. Bits of hot metal fell on Miya's dress, scorching holes that were nothing compared to the terrible stain spreading across her chest.
Galiel screamed, a terrible sound.
"Miyaaaaa!" Neri wrenched the crystal back in a splash of lightning she didn't notice. A minute later it fell, forgotten, as Neri knelt beside her friend. Miya was dying. There was nothing Neri could do to give her breath. Unless...
No.
The crystal...
No.
It glowed beside her, offering, offering to replace Miya's torn heart. What will you do? Came the song from the sea.
"What will you do?" Galiel asked coldly. "Save her and be the monster who destroyed all Oceanna or let her die and be the Promised One?"
The... Promised One.
"I..." It was the wrong choice. The worst choice. The only choice she could make. "I promised..." The crystal came to her hand.
"Wait." Not Jobah's voice; Galiel's. He held a shaking hand, his real hand, over the crystal and whispered, "You win. Make sure... give her a future."
His body ignited, burning without heat, burning away to nothing, to a breath of ash on the air. The crystals blazed like a white sun filling the room. Neri thought she saw a young man with flowing hair, turning away... then she had to close her eyes against the light.
Miya sat up and pulled open the front of her dress to reveal smooth skin beneath. She looked down at herself, her dress scorched, her hands no longer burned but still covered in blood, and burst into tears. Neri flinched at the blood but awkwardly tried to comfort her. She probably would have been crying on someone, if Miya hadn't been crying on her.
"We won." Jobah said quietly. "Are you all right? Is she all right?"
"I think we are. I need... some peace and quiet! And we both need other clothes." Neri tried to stand, "Come on Miya, you need something else to wear... You have to get up... I can't carry you...."
Clawed hands gently pushed her aside and Neanda lifted Miya in his arms. "She needs more than a change of clothes Neri, she's in shock. Come."
Neri muttered, "so am I." And turned to say quickly, "Jobah, please see if anyone else is hurt. Find Zardor and Shema-find my uncle! And nobody touch the crystals!"
When she returned the entire population of the island seemed to be packed into the throne room. Mostly people were staring at the crystals, and Neri had to "excuse me, pardon," her way through.
"Where's Miya?" Jobah asked when Neri reached him.
"Asleep. She's pretty devastated by all this but she'll be all right. Now, I want to take that thing apart so we can put the crystals back where they belong!"
Jobah grinned and pointed. Emilee was sitting on her big toolbox. She waved a pry-bar, "Princess! Let's get this wizard junk out of our palace!" Mita and Ruki popped up from behind her waving other tools.
Neri put the four crystals in the seat of her uncle's throne. They were all water-clear now. They she called, "Guys, go for it!"
They set upon Galiel's crystal stand with pry-bars and screwdrivers while everyone cheered and soon had it reduced to bits of metal and containers of chemicals. Those were carefully wrapped up until someone could find out exactly what they were and how best to dispose of them.
Then there was nothing to do but celebrate.
"Well, I see I've been deposed."
"Uncle!" Neri laughed and ran to hug him, "It seemed like the best place to put them. Where were you? Neanda said you were sick."
"I was, until your miracle."
"It wasn't me. It was Galiel, he was finally a hero."
"If you don't believe you're the Promised One, you're the only person who doesn't."
"I know." Neri was still frightened, but she was getting used to being a legend.
The party went on all day and into the night, the questioning and talking, then the eating and dancing. As the moon was rising Neri fell asleep leaning on Jobah's shoulder and he woke her up, laughing, and sent her to bed.
Legend of the Promised One
Becoming Our Legends
It was the strangest flight. Fish came to the top of the water as if to watch them, and seals leaped to see the gliders, and to catch an easy meal. Even mats of seaweed came out with new green tendrils and flowers. Birds followed them.
"Beautiful." Miya said, but Neri found it more eerie than lovely. She wanted to fly through the night and get home in the dark, but Jobah insisted they stop and sleep. He bullied Neri and Miya down to a small island. Of course Neri crashed the glider again, and Miya grumbled that next time she wanted to ride drier transportation. She went around a rock and shed most of her clothes so the satins could dry while she slept in a nest of leaves.
"Neri, truly, I wanted to talk to you."
"I know." Neri said in the same quiet voice. She untied the bag holding the crystal from around her shoulders, set the crystal in the sand, and wrung water out of the bag. Her clothes were already drying in the warm night air.
"What are you going to do when we get back?"
"I don't know." Neri had tried to think of a plan, to think of anything they could do, and hadn't been able to.
"I have an idea. We leave Miya here. If Galiel really cares about her he won't leave without her. It would give us some power over him."
"Miya could swim to the palace. And if she couldn't, she'd drown. I care about her."
"I know, and so do I. But you have to protect everyone, and Oceanna. You have to be the Promised One."
Neri bowed her head. Salt water dripped from her hair and slid down her cheeks. "I know. But-you should go! Go back to Bandor! Get away from here!"
"No thanks." Jobah said casually.
"'No thanks'?"
"You're here. My sister...right now I don't want to claim kinship with her but she's here. If this world is ending I want to be here until the last minute trying to save it."
"I... Thank you. Makes me glad."
"Since we're having this starlight talk... if we survive, ask me how I feel about you."
Neri's heart filled with traitorous delight, but this was no time for such hopes. She stood up and looked over at Miya. The girl was curled up in a nest of leaves, her pale limbs shining. "She's asleep and we should be too. But if we survive, I will ask you."
In a minute they'd settled down for the night. Jobah had a thin mattress rolled up in a compartment in the glider and Neri was happy to sleep on sand, one arm crooked under her head, the other absently pulling the crystal close to keep it safe. The last thing she felt was the sweet coolness of the crystal against her hand.
The next day they reached the palace. Floating above it Neri felt only panic. She didn't know what was going to happen, or how she could change it. There was nothing to do but go in.
"Neri..." Miya murmured.
"I... I'll protect you Miya, so please help me protect Oceanna."
Miya didn't reply.
The crowd of people was smaller, and they were all people now. Neri saw Neanda and ran to him.
"Neri!" Neanda hugged her back, lifting her off her feet.
"Neanda! Thank you, thank you for staying alive. You'll be safe now."
"None of us are. You should go from here!"
"Where is my uncle?"
"Badly sick. Beloved, go, before Galiel destroys us all!"
"I can't." Neri whispered and turned to look back.
Miya had tried to go to Galiel; Jobah was holding onto the back of her dress to stop her.
"I have to go to them." Neri said. Neanda didn't follow her."
The other three crystals were set in a strange stand made of silver plates and wires and flowing with strange metallic liquids. There was an empty space for the fourth crystal, the one Neri held in the curve of her arm. Jobah was holding Miya at arms length by the neck of her dress. Miya scowled but didn't fight; from the look on his face Jobah would happily have throttled her.
Galiel's mad eyes watched them.
"We've come back."
Galiel leaned forward, looking at the crystal hungrily. But when he finally spoke he didn't sound happy. "You have."
"Now what? I won't just give it to you, and I can protect my people now." The crystal was humming in her hand, delightedly, as if it knew the others were close.
"Galiel, if you take the crystals millions of people on Oceanna will die, like millions on Bandor died. You know that. This time she will die too."
Miya shouted and tried to squirm away.
"We wouldn't-let her go, Jobah-Miya, we wouldn't."
Miya straightened her satins with a flounce. "I know you wouldn't." She took two steps, enough that she couldn't be grabbed again easily, and stood there. Choosing a side? Or just not choosing?
Enough. Neri spoke to Galiel, "Why? Why is your life worth so much you'll destroy others just to keep it? Your life... like that..." her voice faded, "Doesn't it hurt?"
Galiel's set face didn't change, but his voice was soft. "Every moment, but my life is all I have. All I have, princess. When I lived here people would walk away from me in the halls. No one wanted to speak to me. The queen's cursed wizard, destined to bring on the time of darkness. The queen's pet, living on Oceanna only by her favor. You'll never know how that feels, princess."
"I..." Neri remembered the night after the fliers' brush with war, when her own people had looked at her with fear. But not everyone. "No, I'll never know."
"All the good I tried to do was nothing compared to a glance from a blind woman. Trying to be anything but a monster I walked right into that role. Living is all I have."
"All you have and you managed to mess it up. No wonder Neri feels sorry for you."
"Do you, princess?"
Neri wished Jobah hadn't spoken, but she knew better than to lie. "Yes, of course I do. But it was your choice to take all the bad things you know and turn them on others."
"Enough." Miya was holding a gun, the point to her own chest.
"Don't!" Jobah shouted.
"Miya!"
"Enough. Give us the crystal so we can leave." So this was the side she'd chosen.
"It's all right-I'm doing it." Neri lowered the crystal into its place. She looked at Galiel and saw only horror in his face. Lightning flashed between the crystals.
The gun went off. No, it almost exploded. Bits of hot metal fell on Miya's dress, scorching holes that were nothing compared to the terrible stain spreading across her chest.
Galiel screamed, a terrible sound.
"Miyaaaaa!" Neri wrenched the crystal back in a splash of lightning she didn't notice. A minute later it fell, forgotten, as Neri knelt beside her friend. Miya was dying. There was nothing Neri could do to give her breath. Unless...
No.
The crystal...
No.
It glowed beside her, offering, offering to replace Miya's torn heart. What will you do? Came the song from the sea.
"What will you do?" Galiel asked coldly. "Save her and be the monster who destroyed all Oceanna or let her die and be the Promised One?"
The... Promised One.
"I..." It was the wrong choice. The worst choice. The only choice she could make. "I promised..." The crystal came to her hand.
"Wait." Not Jobah's voice; Galiel's. He held a shaking hand, his real hand, over the crystal and whispered, "You win. Make sure... give her a future."
His body ignited, burning without heat, burning away to nothing, to a breath of ash on the air. The crystals blazed like a white sun filling the room. Neri thought she saw a young man with flowing hair, turning away... then she had to close her eyes against the light.
Miya sat up and pulled open the front of her dress to reveal smooth skin beneath. She looked down at herself, her dress scorched, her hands no longer burned but still covered in blood, and burst into tears. Neri flinched at the blood but awkwardly tried to comfort her. She probably would have been crying on someone, if Miya hadn't been crying on her.
"We won." Jobah said quietly. "Are you all right? Is she all right?"
"I think we are. I need... some peace and quiet! And we both need other clothes." Neri tried to stand, "Come on Miya, you need something else to wear... You have to get up... I can't carry you...."
Clawed hands gently pushed her aside and Neanda lifted Miya in his arms. "She needs more than a change of clothes Neri, she's in shock. Come."
Neri muttered, "so am I." And turned to say quickly, "Jobah, please see if anyone else is hurt. Find Zardor and Shema-find my uncle! And nobody touch the crystals!"
When she returned the entire population of the island seemed to be packed into the throne room. Mostly people were staring at the crystals, and Neri had to "excuse me, pardon," her way through.
"Where's Miya?" Jobah asked when Neri reached him.
"Asleep. She's pretty devastated by all this but she'll be all right. Now, I want to take that thing apart so we can put the crystals back where they belong!"
Jobah grinned and pointed. Emilee was sitting on her big toolbox. She waved a pry-bar, "Princess! Let's get this wizard junk out of our palace!" Mita and Ruki popped up from behind her waving other tools.
Neri put the four crystals in the seat of her uncle's throne. They were all water-clear now. They she called, "Guys, go for it!"
They set upon Galiel's crystal stand with pry-bars and screwdrivers while everyone cheered and soon had it reduced to bits of metal and containers of chemicals. Those were carefully wrapped up until someone could find out exactly what they were and how best to dispose of them.
Then there was nothing to do but celebrate.
"Well, I see I've been deposed."
"Uncle!" Neri laughed and ran to hug him, "It seemed like the best place to put them. Where were you? Neanda said you were sick."
"I was, until your miracle."
"It wasn't me. It was Galiel, he was finally a hero."
"If you don't believe you're the Promised One, you're the only person who doesn't."
"I know." Neri was still frightened, but she was getting used to being a legend.
The party went on all day and into the night, the questioning and talking, then the eating and dancing. As the moon was rising Neri fell asleep leaning on Jobah's shoulder and he woke her up, laughing, and sent her to bed.