A Friend Of A Friend
Chapter 51
LI
Ta'lan looked at Rahn, and Rahn turned his hand over palm up, silently asking what, exactly, she was expecting to happen. Ta'lan looked back at Max…
"Are you certain that what you have done was wise, Zan?"
Max nodded. "I have a mental connection with them in my dimension. I wasn't sure it would work in your dimension, because I've never met her here, and she's never met me… but there was a connection. She understood what I told her. I can't guarantee she'll come, of course, but I believe she will. She understands that I'm a friend of her kind."
"Where does she live?"
"On an island… under it, actually… at least in my dimension."
"How many are there?"
"I've seen this one and her three babies… and her mate… but I've had a mental connection with others from time to time. I'm not sure how many there are. It isn't many… maybe fifteen adults… plus at least three babies. Well, I guess they're adults, too, now."
"How far away is this island? How long will it take her to come here… if she comes?"
Max nodded, understanding Ta'lan's concern. "The island is pretty far away… about a third of Antar's circumference… but it won't take her long to get here. She flies very high and very fast… in the high winds. And I think she was closer than that when we connected."
Even as Max spoke, Ta'lan and the others in the house noticed that a commotion was growing outside. Hearing shouts and rapid footsteps, as though people were running outside her door, Ta'lan walked to the window and looked out to see what was happening. She saw Ke'cjes running in the street, most of them looking upward as they ran, and all of them were yelling about something. Obviously, something quite extraordinary was happening. Though outsiders are not invited to their valley, which is secluded and hidden from other Antarians, Ke'cjes just do not become easily excited. Even Jung-Jo, a feared pawgor, had barely got a sideways glance from the Ke'cjes as he walked down the lane with a group of outsiders to Ta'lan's house. But something had definitely stirred up some excitement in this group.
Ta'lan opened the front door and walked outside, followed by her guests, just in time to see a large shadow pass overhead. She looked up and gasped. It was far larger than she had ever imagined; and although Ta'lan had had some warning that it was coming, she found herself watching, like everyone else, in utter awe as the huge bird circled high overhead, descending from the sky, drawing ever nearer to their valley… and to her…
"Zan… are you certain that this jah-ee will be… uh…"
"Friendly?"
"I was going to say 'safe,' but yes, friendly. Is it true that the jah-ee's talons are poisonous?"
Max nodded. "They're hollow… and filled with an unknown but very powerful poison. A scratch from any one of the talons would be deadly… there's no cure that is known to Antarians. Even I cannot reverse the poison's effects. I know. I got scratched when I met the jah-ee the first time."
"But you survived?"
"Barely… only because she decided not to let me die and took me to a place where I would heal… because I had healed her broken wing. That's how I came to be friends with the jah-ees. In our dimension, we had to fight Kivar for Antar, and during one battle, I was forced to hide deep inside the Nan-Torel to escape from Kivar's soldiers. I was attacked there by the jah-ee… near the river… but during the attack, her wing got broken."
Ta'lan gasped. "No one goes into the Nan-Torel. It's deadly. No one ever comes out again."
Max smiled and nodded. "Where were you when I needed you to tell me that? Anyway, you're right… It's dangerous. There are pawgors and fire snakes and rob-jettas that can strip a person to the bones in minutes."
"Sounds like you should put up a lot of 'No Camping' signs around that forest, Max," Alex said, his eyes widening as Max described the dangers of the unique Antarian forest-jungle.
Max grinned and shook his head. "Not necessary. You couldn't drag an Antarian into the Nan-Torel kicking and screaming. Ask Jim. He tried."
Ta'lan looked at Jim, and Jim held up his hands defensively.
"I'm not a cold-hearted sadist, really! I was doing a documentary on the Nan-Torel… for Antarians… and I needed cameramen and a crew…"
Ta'lan nodded. "Did you get them to go with you?"
Jim shook his head. "Antarians wouldn't go in. Xarians took off running when the first wild pawgor howled… and left me alone with the equipment. I finally got the Dragons of Drago to do it."
Ta'lan wanted to know more about Max's encounter with the jah-ee in his dimension, but the presence of a real, live jah-ee over her house was far more pressing at the moment. She turned her attention again entirely to the bird that was dropping fast from the sky. As it drew nearer, the huge bird let out a piercing, high-pitched scream that sounded eerily like, "jaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee." The streets, by now, were completely clear. Ta'lan and Rahn were the only Ke'cjes who were not inside their houses.
With a final powerful flapping of huge wings that measured sixty feet from wingtip to wingtip, the jah-ee set itself lightly down in the street in front of Max, Rahn, Ta'lan, Jim, Liz, Michael, Maria, Alex, Isabel, Kyle, Angie Lee, Tess, Varec, and the doubles who were there. Several of the group took a step or two backwards without realizing it, as the wind from the huge bird's wings blew over them with the force of a sudden gale. Besides, it just seemed like this bird should be given plenty of room. It was easily twice as tall as either Max or Michael, probably a little more. All the Ke'cje houses were two-stories, so the jah-ee did not give the appearance of standing as high as the rooftops the way it did when standing next to an average single-story Antarian structure, but despite this, the bird seemed no less awesome here than anywhere else Max had ever seen it.
The jah-ee cocked its head slightly and looked at Ta'lan, then at Rahn, who's eyes were bigger than Max thought he had ever seen them. Then it looked at Max. Max concentrated and began to send out mental images, the method by which the jah-ee communicated. During his time in the lost world under their island, he had learned to communicate with them quite effectively through mental imagery.
Max formed an image of himself leading the people. This was as close as he could come to telling the jah-ee that he was the king. What did the jah-ee know of kings? A leader was a leader. The jah-ee understood… Max was the leader; He was the bird that led the formation.
Next, Max sent the jah-ee a mental image of his double and let the bird know that this was the true leader here in this dimension. He wasn't certain that the bird understood the concept of dimensions, but it did understand that both Maxes were the king, or leader of the people, one here and one in another place, where other jah-ees lived.
Finally, Max sent the jah-ee an image of Kivar and Nicholas hurting the young Zan and taking his place against the will of the other people. Then he "told" the bird that his double had returned to take back his rightful place. The jah-ee understood, and it trusted Max. Max spoke its "language." Max was different than the others. He was the leader. The jah-ee felt this and knew intuitively that it was right. It also knew what Max had done for another jah-ee. He had saved its life and the lives of its nestlings by healing its broken wing so that it could return to its island and feed its young. Max didn't tell the jah-ee this. It picked the images out of his mind… out of his memories.
The jah-ee knew that Max was its friend… and if Max was its friend, his friends were its friends. They might not be able to communicate with it the way Max could, but they were not its enemies… so they would not become its prey. It might have been a little easier on Ta'lan and Rahn at that moment, of course, if they could have read the huge bird's mind the way it read Max's and known this themselves for a fact. Fortunately, they both trusted Max… but that did not make them much less jittery in the presence of a bird that normally would have considered them not much more than a convenience meal. In mythology, the jah-ee was capable of flying away with people and even with yeggs, large animals somewhat like hairy water buffalos. Even pawgors gave the jah-ee a wide berth, mostly out of caution and uncertainty, but undoubtedly wisely, considering that a mere scratch from the jah-ee's claws would bring on swift paralysis and inescapable death.
Up and down the street, dozens of Ke'cjes peered cautiously out of their windows, most of them holding the curtains in front of themselves, hoping not to be seen by the jah-ee as they tried to steal a glimpse of the "mythical" bird that frightened Antarians, including Ke'cjes, half to death even though most did not believe… or only half-believed… that it really existed.
Max took several steps toward the jah-ee, and the huge bird reflexively lifted its wings and opened its enormous eagle-like beak. Tess, Angie Lee, Kyle, and a couple of others quickly stepped back into the house, and curtains all up and down the street were instantly drawn shut tightly; but the bird put its wings back down, and, slowly, its mouth closed again. Max walked up to the jah-ee and touched it… then stroked it gently… soothingly. The bird relaxed. It seemed that this meeting was causing jitters on both sides, even in the fearsome jah-ee, but those misgivings were rapidly being put to rest. After several moments, Max's younger double approached the huge bird and cautiously extended his hand to touch it, too… then Rahn did, followed by Ta'lan… then, one by one, the others all edged closer and touched it, too. The bird no longer felt afraid. Under normal circumstances, of course, it would have had nothing to fear from these people. It would have never crossed paths with them. And if it had, it would probably have taken them back to its island as food for its babies. But standing here now and allowing itself to be touched like this was something that it was not accustomed to. It made the huge bird vulnerable. And that was a feeling that the jah-ee was not accustomed to.
"Try communicating with it," Max said to his younger double.
"How do I do that?"
"You think in pictures, and it reads your thoughts. It doesn't understand words. It sees picture thoughts… and sometimes memories. But it can only do that if you form picture thoughts for it to understand. If you concentrate, you should be able to receive thought images from it, too."
"I thought I was having hallucinations."
"So you did see them?"
"I don't know… I saw something. It was… strange."
"In the beginning it is. You have to learn to think like a bird… like a jah-ee. To tell it that you're the king, you have to picture yourself as the leader of the people. The jah-ee wouldn't know a king from a street sweeper, even if you put a crown on yourself."
"How do I 'picture' a leader?"
"Make yourself the lead bird in the formation."
The younger Max nodded. "Some day I'm going to make you tell me how you figured all this out, Max. I'm really starting to wonder about you."
The older Max grinned just a bit. "I've led an interesting life."
The younger Max concentrated, forming a mental image in his head of two jah-ees side by side. One of them was himself, the other was the jah-ee in front of him. Almost immediately, he saw an image return to him. In it, he was sitting in the jah-ee's nest.
"What did you see," Liz asked.
Max shook his head. "I tried to tell it I wanted to be its friend. I'm not sure what its answer was. Either it agreed or it wants to take me home and raise me as one of its children… or feed me to them."
The older Max chuckled. "It was agreeing. It wants you to be its friend. To the jah-ee, friends are family. You're a part of its family now. The nest you saw would be the nest she grew up in. She's made you a sibling."
Max suddenly received another mental picture. In it, he saw all of them sitting in the jah-ee's nest together. He looked at his older double, who, of course, had seen it, too.
The older Max smiled. "We're all family. She's accepted us all."
"Cool," Kyle exclaimed quietly. "I have a mythological giant bird for a sister!"
"I had nothing to do with it," Jim vowed, shaking his head, "I swear. Remember, I'm from the other dimension."
Liz and Maria laughed and nodded, giving Jim an "Oh, yeah, and we're supposed to believe that" look. Max shook his head and groaned but smiled.
"Actually," Alex said cheerfully, "we're all one big family now… jah-ee, shapeshifters, Antarians, earthlings, different dimensions, and all. I think it's kind of excellent myself."
"Yeah, I can live with it," Jim agreed.
"Yeah, me, too," Angie Lee added, "I think it's sweet."
The other girls all nodded.
"Well…" Max from the other dimension said, changing the subject, "sweet or not, we've got serious business to discuss with her. I was thinking that with a little help from her and her friends, the other jah-ees, we might be able to get Nicholas out of the castle and out of our lives a lot quicker… and maybe without any of us getting killed."
"It might work," Michael concurred. "Yeah, it just might. I like it. Can you get that idea across to her? Will she do it?"
Max concentrated and formed several pictures in his mind. The first was a picture of Nicholas in the palace. The second was a picture of himself and Michael using themselves as decoys to lure Nicholas and his guards out of the palace. The third picture was of the younger Max taking Nicholas' place as the lead 'bird', with Michael at his wingtip. The fourth picture was of the jah-ees, together with Jim, Kyle, Alex, Rahn, and others ambushing Nicholas and his guards once they were out of the castle. The fifth picture was Nicholas and his guards tied up and under arrest.
Almost instantly, Max received a mental picture back. In it, the jah-ees had Nicholas and his guards in their talons and were flying back to their island with them.
Max looked at his double. Both of them had understood the jah-ee's meaning.
"They hunt for food," the older Max said, "And they kill to defend themselves and their own kind from enemies. They don't understand the concept of arresting someone. If there is a disagreement, it ends in something being dead."
The younger Max grimaced slightly then nodded. "Well, maybe they'll let us take the prisoners if we say we're going to eat them ourselves."
The older Max started to say something then smiled and shook his head. "Let's just take it as it comes. If Nicholas or any of the guards surrender and throw down their weapons, we'll spare their lives. I think I can convince the jah-ee. But if they fight on, there'll be no reason NOT to let the jah-ees have them."
"I like Max's idea," Michael from the other dimension said. "If they won't give up, and the jah-ees have to catch them, let the jah-ees have 'em.
"Ewww," Maria groaned, standing behind Michael.
Michael turned around and looked at her. "Do you have a better idea?"
"No. I like your idea. But it's still gross."
Michael nodded. "Well, you don't have to share their meal. You can always say you're not hungry."
"Ewwww," Liz, Maria, Angie Lee, and Tess all said as one. Isabel just shook her head.
"I'm kidding," Michael said with a tone of exasperation. "Sheesh! If the jah-ees get them they'll take them back to their island to eat them anyway."
"Ewwww," several of the girls moaned again. Michael shrugged.
"Then it's agreed," Max said. "She's willing to help and so are her mate and three grown babies. They already know."
"You asked them… from here… with mental telepathy?" Alex asked.
Max shook his head. "She told them herself. They're excited about helping."
Max turned to Ta'lan and Rahn… "Will you be with us, too?"
Ta'lan nodded.
"I will be with you," Rahn said with absolute certainty. "You rescued me from sixty years of imprisonment beneath the army base… It is the least I can do for you."
"You've done a lot for us already," Liz said. "You're not under any obligation, Rahn. Any debt you had has been paid back several times over."
Rahn smiled. "I still wish to help you."
Max patted Rahn on the back and smiled appreciatively. "Thanks, Rahn. Welcome onboard. Ta'lan… you, too. Let's make some plans."
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The palace looked deceptively peaceful in the morning light. Several different kinds of birds were singing in the trees, and long-tail golden zerpias strutted confidently through the gardens and around the palace grounds. No guards were visible. Nicholas had become quite confident since he had taken over the palace. Several factions had sworn to dislodge him, but none had the power to do it. Some had tried, and all had been crushed. Others had simply decided to back off and wait for a better day when they might have the upper hand. But for now, Nicholas had no doubt who had the upper hand on Antar… He did. And no one was telling him otherwise.
Max and his double, together with Michael and his double, made their way stealthily to a secret tunnel that began just outside the palace grounds and ran beneath the palace directly to the throne room. Max wondered if Nicholas had ever found his personal royal escape tunnel. He doubted that he had. It was only accessible by Max's handprint. Both the entrance and the exit were invisible until touched by his hand… or by his younger double's hand in this case. He suspected either one could open it. They were both, after all, Max.
The younger Max activated the entrance, and Jim looked around. Seeing no guards yet, he hurried Max and Michael and their doubles into the tunnel. Then he turned back to Kyle and Alex, who were with him…
"Get ready. They're in."
Kyle and Alex both nodded silently and positioned themselves where they would not be seen until they were ready to attack. Nearby, Liz, Maria, Isabel, Tess, Angie Lee, Varec, and Ta'lan waited, too, hidden from sight.
Max and Michael and their doubles made their way silently through the tunnel for several minutes until they came to a stone door. The older Max opened it, proving to himself that their handprints actually were identical. They were the same person… in two different dimensions… One was just a few years younger. Beyond the stone door, several diverging tunnels went off in different directions. Three went to the palace… one to the throne room, one to Max's personal chambers, and one to a large office of sorts. Three others ran on and on and eventually dead-ended miles away in a bog. Those three were decoys. In a very real sense, though, from the stone door on, even the tunnels that went to the palace were an underground maze. The older Max, who knew the way, led the group toward the throne room.
Fifteen minutes later, they stood before another door.
"On the other side of this wall and door is the throne room," the older Max said quietly. "I'll open the door and sneak in with Michael. The other two of you stay in the tunnel. Michael and I will make sure that we get spotted so that Nicholas and the guards will chase us out of the throne room. When everyone is out, you two come out of the tunnel and take the throne. Seal the doors from the inside so they can't get back in. It is important that Max be sitting on the throne. You'll understand why later."
The younger Max nodded, and his older double pressed his hand to the door. It opened ever so slightly, and ever so silently, and Max and Michael stepped out at the back of an alcove. Max peeked around the corner. Nicholas was sitting on the throne. Max had never seen the real Nicholas in his true original form, but Michael saw him when he went back to the past. The older Max did recognize him, though, from pictures he had seen. He looked bored. Nearby were two guards. They looked bored, too. Neither one was paying much attention to his job, which would have been to defend their master, the usurper of the throne, Nicholas. The fact is, for some time now, no one had challenged Nicholas' claim to the throne. Nicholas and his guards had grown careless.
"You won't be bored long," Max thought to himself. Carefully, he slipped out of the alcove and made his way behind the somnolent guards with Michael. Max nodded, and both of them held up one hand each. Glimpsing the intruders as they moved behind them, the two guards seemed to wake up and turned around suddenly… but not in time. Instantly, two power bursts shot forward, knocking the guards completely out of the throne room. That seemed to wake Nicholas up from his boredom-induced stupor in a flash. Cursing loudly, Nicholas shouted for reinforcements and grabbed a modified TAZIER gun that he kept beside the throne.
Max and Michael ran from the throne room, and Nicholas followed, screaming profanities… some at them… but most at his guards, who had still not shown up to catch the intruders. They soon would, however… and in larger numbers than either Max or Michael had thought Nicholas had readily available. Within moments, there were at least twenty guards behind them, armed to the hilt, and each one anxious to make the kill himself. Max and Michael ran faster, pausing occasionally only to throw power bolts to slow their pursuers down. So far, they had managed to stay just far enough ahead of the guards and Nicholas to keep from getting disintegrated by a TAZIER ray.
The TAZIER was a wicked weapon developed by Kivar's scientists. It actually set off a chain reaction inside the victim who was hit by it. The victim's aura would glow brightly for several moments then explode, releasing the victim's atoms into the cosmos. Kivar had loved this weapon; and in Kivar's absence, Nicholas found that he had become pretty fond of it, too. Now Max and Michael were having to dodge its blasts as they ran, searching for a way out of the palace that would not be blocked or heavily defended.
At some point in the chase, Nicholas returned to the throne room to retrieve another weapon, a special obsidian blade that he intended to use if he had the chance, and to recharge his TAZIER. Much to his dismay and irritation, he found the throne room doors sealed shut. In spite of this, it never occurred to him that anyone might be inside. He assumed that the guards had closed the doors to keep more intruders out. Unable to open the doors, he began to curse and scream for the guards. Within seconds, three of them were at his side.
"Open this door! Now! I need to get into my throne room!"
All three guards, in turn, hurried to try to open the door, but it refused to budge.
"We can't open it," one of the guards finally admitted.
Incredulous and red with fury, Nicholas screamed at the guards, "You closed it! What do you mean you can't open it?"
"No, your highness. We didn't close it."
"Liar! How dare you! If this TAZIER still had a charge, I'd use it on you right now! If you didn't close the doors, then who…"
Nicholas paused and began to blanche, as the realization struck him. "The devil take you all! You let them get control of the throne! I'll have you all executed!"
The guards stammered, falling over each other trying to apologize and deny any culpability at the same time.
"Never mind. Find those two intruders that we chased out of the throne room. I want them captured and questioned. Then I intend to have the personal satisfaction of TAZIERing them both. Go! Go! Go! Get out of here!"
Without a word, the guards ran, thankful to just be leaving alive. They all knew very well what the TAZIER would do… and they all knew equally well how much Nicholas enjoyed using it.
In the palace grand hall, meanwhile, Max and Michael had slipped behind two large columns seconds before the guards who were chasing them got there. The guards entered the grand hall and looked around cautiously, pointing their TAZIERs each way as they turned. They saw nothing. Nothing moved… Nothing made a sound. The guards fanned out to walk around the grand hall from different sides, and as they did, both Max and Michael leapt out from behind the columns and fired off several quick blasts from the palms of their hands. It was enough to drop six of the guards, but there were still a dozen left, and now they knew where Max and Michael were. From both sides, the remaining guards tried to close in, pointing their TAZIERs at Max and Michael, who were caught in between.
Michael made a circular motion with his finger to Max, and Max nodded. Both of them dove to the floor and rolled back into a standing position. The guards fired, missing Max and Michael but hitting two of their own, one on each side. Max and Michael didn't wait to see what would happen to the two who had been hit. They scrambled for the door and headed down the outer passageway in the direction of the sleeping chambers. The remaining guards stood where they were for several moments, watching with morbid fascination as the two victims' auras began to glow brightly, one a grayish-green, the other an ambery yellow, and finally exploded, releasing billions of tiny atoms that spread out like two miniature atomic explosions then just disappeared into nothingness. The two stricken guards were no more. Suddenly, the remaining guards realized that the intruders were getting away…
Max ducked into one of the sleeping chambers, and Michael followed him, blasting a window out with a power surge from the palm of his hand as they ran in. Both Max and Michael dove through the window just as the guards came rushing in behind them. Ten guards leapt through the window, following Max and Michael out of the palace and onto the palace grounds, then they looked around to see which way the two had gone.
"This way," one guard said, pointing toward the east wing of the palace. The others all followed him, armed with their now nearly-depleted TAZIERS.
"Go get some more weapons," the lead guard yelled at the one right behind him. The power in my TAZIER is almost depleted."
"What do you want me to get?"
"Whatever works and is loaded or charged up. Anything! Just get some more weapons! And find Nyykto!" The guard looked around for a moment then shook his head thoughtfully. "On second thought, don't bother Nyykto. I'm sure he'll find us soon enough."
"Yes, sir!"
The second guard ran off, and the others followed the first one toward the east wing of the palace, in the direction Max and Michael had run.
Max and Michael, meanwhile, had hidden again, this time inside a hollow, barrel-like plant called a "T'pi" with a large flower on top of it. The huge yellow flower more than covered the opening of the T'pi, making it invisible, but Max and Michael knew that it was there, between the petals. The guards all rushed by; and once they were past, Max and Michael hopped out of the T'pi and ran toward the place where their friends were waiting for them. They almost made it.
Half way there, a shot rang out and Max fell. Michael stopped to help him.
"No, Michael, don't stop. Keep running!"
"I'm not leaving you, Max."
"It's okay. It's just my leg. I can heal it."
Michael helped Max to his feet. "Hold onto me. I'll help you."
As Max put his arm over Michael's shoulder, Jim, Kyle, Liz, and Alex rushed up to help, too. Max grimaced. "You shouldn't be out here in the open like this… any of you. Go get back behind shelter!"
"Shut up, Max," Alex said, clearly intending to disobey the royal order.
The five of them hurried to get to cover together, but the guards were closing on them fast. That's when all semblance of normality ended. Suddenly, the guards looked up. In the sky above them were at least ten of the largest birds any of them had ever seen, and it looked like they were coming straight for them. Immediately, the guards turned their attention away from Max, Michael, and those helping them and focused on the danger from above. Some mutterings of "jah-ee" were heard, and some said that there was no such thing, but an ear-piercing, war-like cry of "jaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" from one of the birds convinced even the most skeptical among them.
As the guards turned their weapons toward the birds, the birds swooped down on them, grabbing four of them in huge talons. Two others received minor scratches as the birds swooped past them to grab their companions. Within seconds, the two who had been scratched began to feel numb and were unable to move their arms. Moments after that, they fell to the ground, unable to move their legs or even their eyelids. The scene among the few guards who were now left was pure panic and pandemonium. They ran every which way, occasionally shooting at the huge birds, but mostly trying to find any place they could to hide.
As they watched the scene before them play out, Max and the others didn't notice that two new guards had come up behind them. Before they could react, the new guards had weapons pointed at them. Kyle started to rush them, but he realized that it was too dangerous. Someone would get shot.
"Who are you," one of the two guards asked gruffly.
"Don't you know?" Max asked.
"No."
"He's your king, stupid," Alex said.
The guard shook his head. "Zan is dead. You look like him, but you can't be Zan. I'm asking you again… Who are you?"
"I'm Zan."
The guard looked frustrated. "Alright, have it your way."
"Would it matter if he really is Zan," Jim asked.
The guards looked at each other and seemed to think about it.
"Sure," the second guard said. "It would matter."
"You'd let him go?" Kyle asked.
The guard shook his head. "I'd get a bonus for turning him over to Nyykto to kill."
Kyle sighed. "Just thought I'd ask."
While Kyle, Jim, and Alex had kept the guards occupied with small talk, the guards hadn't realized that they, in turn, had been compromised. Maria, Isabel, Varec, Angie Lee, and Tess had come up quietly behind them, and Tess had her hand up, palm out, prepared to fire a blast of power at whichever one turned around first. For a moment, no one said anything, then Maria raised a club that she had in her hand.
Noticing the look in Kyle's eyes, one of the guards grinned. "Don't even think about telling me there's someone behind me. It's an old trick, and it won't work."
Suddenly, the tree branch club in Maria's hand descended on his head, sending him sprawling to the ground unconscious. The other guard turned around quickly and received a power blast to the chest from Tess.
"It's an old trick," Kyle said, "and it still works… especially when my Aces are lined up behind you."
Kyle dragged the two unconscious men to one side, and the group looked to see what was going on in the clearing now. A number of jah-ees were still circling above. At least four had flown away with their prey, undoubtedly back to their island. The remaining guards were nowhere to be seen. They were either hiding or had been caught. Either way, it appeared that there was no longer anyone out in the open to shoot at anybody. Max finished healing his leg, then he and Michael walked out into the field and looked around.
"Do you think we got them all, Max? Do you think the jah-ees got Nicholas?"
"I don't know… maybe. We'll have to go back in the palace and see if we find anybody inside."
As Max spoke, a shot rang out from a hiding place nearby. Max and Michael ducked then dropped down onto the ground.
"Was he shooting at us?"
"I don't know. Where is he?"
"Over there… behind that bluff."
As they spoke, Max noticed that one of the jah-ees was descending rapidly. At first, they thought she had spotted the shooter and was going after him, but it soon became obvious that this was not the case. The jah-ee's fall was out of control.
"She's been hit," Max said, a feeling of intense dread coming over him.
The bird crashed to the ground hard, its sixty-foot wings partially extended, its head lying on one side, its eyes closed. Max and Michael rushed to its side to see if there was anything they could do, and as they knelt beside the bird, they were both hit with something hard from behind. When they could finally see again, they looked up into the face of… Nicholas.
"You two have caused me a lot of trouble. I'm going to enjoy killing you… like this bird. What were you thinking… if you got some big stupid birds to help you, you could take over my throne?"
Max groaned.
"How did you get back to Antar from that backwards little planet they sent you to," Nicholas asked. "The one they call 'earth.'"
Neither Max nor Michael spoke.
"Okay, suit yourselves. I didn't want any boring conversations anyway. I'm just here to finish what my former guards were too incompetent to do."
Nicholas raised his TAZIER. Max assumed that it was now fully-charged again.
"Which one do I eliminate first? Choices, choices! Life is so hard for me! Hmmm… the one with the low forehead and stupid look in his eyes? That would be Rath. …or the moron who would be king… Zan the Last? It's a hard decision."
As Nicholas mocked Max and Michael, Max noticed a movement in the jah-ee. He motioned to Michael with his eyes. Michael saw it, too. The jah-ee moved again then began to writhe on the ground. Nicholas scowled…
"Looks like I have to shoot it again. I wonder what a TAZIER would do to a jah-ee. Why don't we find out?"
Nicholas didn't have time to lift the TAZIER. The jah-ee writhed one last time, and where it had been, a huge serpent appeared. Immediately, the serpent threw coil after coil of its huge, heavy body around Nicholas faster than he could react. Staring out from between the coils with wide, terrified eyes, Nicholas looked like he had just met his maker, and the fact of the matter was, he probably was about to. The serpent squeezed tighter and tighter until Nicholas could no longer breathe in a single breath and began to lose consciousness. He heard several ribs crack. Once Nicholas lost consciousness, the snake slowly released him. Then it began to change shape again, this time turning into a man…
It was Rahn.
Max and Michael rushed to check him over and see if he was okay.
"I'm fine, Max. When I shifted, I fixed the wound."
"Rahn, we are really, really, REALLY glad to see you and to see that you're okay!"
"I enjoyed being a jah-ee. I may do it again sometime." Rahn looked down at the unconscious form of Nicholas lying on the ground… "What are you going to do with him, Max?"
Max grinned. "Well, he doesn't look very appetizing to me. I don't think I want to eat him. I guess we'll have to build a jail to put him in. Where are the real jah-ees?"
"They all flew back to their island with their prey. The ones up there in the sky now are Ke'cjes."
Max stared at the huge "jah-ees" circling high overhead. They seemed to be enjoying themselves. Rahn looked at them, too, but his mind was on something else…
"Did the king succeed in taking back his throne?"
Max searched the sky and pointed to an area to the southeast. All the planets of the Antarian solar system could be seen diverging in two different directions away from Antar. Antar was the nexus, joining them together in a "V" pattern. Only now, the planets shone much more brightly than Rahn remembered ever seeing them in any recent times; and high above the palace, a swirling symbol had appeared in the sky.
"I never saw that before," Rahn said with amazement. "What caused it to appear?"
"It appears anytime the true king sits on his throne again after having been away for forty days or more. It would be the first time in more than sixty years that it's appeared," Max explained.
Rahn thought about this for several moments… "But I was here before that… and I never saw it before."
Max nodded. "The king was rarely gone for that long in times past, so few people living today would have ever seen the sign in the sky… or the brightening of the planets."
"How is that accomplished," Ta'lan asked.
"It's merely a side effect of the phenomena that cause the symbol to appear. The sky is clearer. The energy needed to produce the symbol ionizes the air, cleansing it and giving it a magnifying effect, so the stars and planets appear to shine many times more brightly, and larger, for at least two or three days."
Ta'lan nodded, beginning to understand. "And our people see these things from all over Antar… maybe even on other planets in our system… and they know that the king has returned."
"The real king," Rahn added. "The king descended through the royal line since the beginning of our civilization as we know it. Not some tyrant king like Kivar or pretend emperor like Nyykto."
Ta'lan nodded.
The entire group had by now rejoined Max, Michael, Rahn, and Ta'lan and had heard the explanations Max gave for the strange symbol in the sky and the unheralded sudden brightness of the planets in their system. These things were not new to the "Antarian" doubles from the other dimension. Michael, Kyle, and Varec had seen them when Max retook the throne there, but Max had also been away several times since then for more than forty days, so the others from their dimension, even those who came later, had seen them, too. But it was all new to the younger group, as well as to most Antarians, in this dimension.
"Let's go check out the palace," Max said, putting one arm around his Liz and the other protectively around the Liz from this dimension. "Your husband awaits you inside, Liz… on the throne. Come on everyone. Rahn, can you ask one of your people to tie Nyykto up or something?"
Rahn nodded. "With great pleasure."
As the group approached the palace, the younger Max and Michael met them outside the entrance. Having been informed by Kyle that Nicholas had been defeated, they had unsealed the throne room. Max smiled as his double approached with Liz. Then he swooped her up into his arms.
"Max…! What are you doing? I can walk now. I'm not paralyzed anymore."
"I'm carrying you over the threshold into our new house… our new home… your majesty."
Liz looked at Max, and in his eyes, she saw something new… a depth and feeling that she had not noticed before… the collective reflections of all their trials, all their experiences, all their pains and joys and hopes. Everything had come together to create this man that was Max, or Zan, as the people here would call him now… their king…
"I don't think I'll ever get used to being called 'your majesty,' Max," Liz said, looking around the palace with amazement as Max carried her in… "But you may not EVER be able to get me out of here! This is incredible! I don't have to clean this whole place, do I?"
Max shook his head, as he set Liz down lightly on her feet.
Then he kissed her.
tbc
Coming up: The Uniter