Chapter Eleven

At the bottom of a damp pit, Pan said, "I thought he was joking about the oubliette!"

Lucia sprawled on a wooden bench hanging from the wall. "Bustion never jokes about the oubliette."

"This is some way to find out Ember does. Did you see the way he laughed?"

"He looked like he was going to choke. I bet you think this is all my fault."

"I didn't, but I'm thinking that now, because you just told me not to. If you don't want me to think something, don't tell me not to think it, because then I won't be able to help it," Pan said. Above them, the trapdoor waited still and silent. It didn't so much as vibrate from passing footsteps. "How long does he usually leave you down here?"

"He doesn't. I'm just trying to gather the energy to climb out."

"Is that all?" Pan asked. "You should've said so earlier. Come over here."

Lucia hopped off the bench. "What am I doing?"

"Hold on to my back."

Lucia looked skeptical, but did as Pan asked her.

There wasn't any good way to warn her what was happening next, so Pan didn't. She just flew to the trapdoor and opened it, tossing Lucia out first before climbing through herself. It wasn't her best landing. Lucia fell with a flop and skidded into a dresser. Pan closed her foot in the trap door.

As Pan yanked her foot free and dusted off her hands, Lucia climbed the dresser and cried out. At least she didn't actually scream. It was raspy and strangled.

"Y-you can fly!"

Pan shrugged. "So what? So can Ember." She thought back to her stay at the palace at the center of Asphodel. "And I think Incendria can, too."

"Her majesty? You're teasing me now. You have to be. I think I'd have heard if the Captain of the Guard was flying all over the place, and the princess? She's delicate and proper, a model to every girl exactly what we should all aspire to be. I know she does ceremonial staff work, but it's just for the grace and tradition of it. She wouldn't hurt a naif beetle."

That description clashed so badly with the Incendria Pan met, she couldn't even laugh at it. Now that she'd seen other Sutova and gotten an idea of their average capabilities, she knew Incendria wasn't just powerful, but abnormally so. Yet she went to such great lengths to hide it, this was how the public saw her. Why?

"Anyway, we're out of the hole," Pan said. "I'm glad it was easier to escape than the dungeon Ember threw me in. I'd better go find out where he went."

"That's no mystery. He went to visit my father. That's on the top floor of the manor."

It was difficult to stay angry at Ember. Here his friend was sick, and he was fighting an enemy that could very well be invincible. They might never see each other again. Pan thought back to the promise she'd made to Chi-Chi. Would she be able to keep it?

Outside the ivy-ringed window, the sky pulsed green. Much as she sympathized, they had to get back on the road. Frieza seemed to have some way of finding her no matter where she was, perhaps through the bug bite on her hand.

"Are you all right?" Lucia asked. "Your face is so… intense."

Pan pushed away from the window. "I'm fine."

"With an expression like that, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were thinking about a boy."

That did make Pan laugh, largely for the realization she had been, kind of.

Even so, as they climbed the manor stairs, she kept an eye on the windows they passed and the increasingly green sky outside them. It wasn't a long trip, though. Before she knew it, Pan stood on the top floor, before a closed door flanked by guards.

"Excuse me," Lucia said, "Is my father awake? May I see him?"

"Your father is being examined," One of the guards said. "We'll call you when he can receive guests."

"I see. Thank you."

Lucia grabbed Pan and pulled her down the hall, around a corner.

"What I mean," Lucia said, winking, "Is that we'll have to go the back way."

"I don't know if we should do this," Pan said, shocked to be arguing against sneaking somewhere she wasn't allowed to go. She was usually the one coming up with schemes like that, but that was when she was with Trunks or Bulla or Grandpa. For all her alleged experience, Lucia didn't seem particularly good at this kind of thing. "If he's being treated he could be undressed or cut open."

"If Ember's doing the examination, he's going to be using the Prismasphere, so that won't be necessary. Besides, Gelata's in there with him," Lucia opened the window and swung one leg out. "This faces the garden wall, so nobody will see us, and the ledge is just wide enough to balance on. What am I saying? You don't have to worry about falling. You can fly."

Pan climbed out the window, hoping Lucia was right about Ember using the Prismasphere.

Lucia dragged her to a balcony overlooking a verdant field of thick rosebushes. Falling into those wouldn't be pleasant, even for her.

Inside the forbidden room, Ember knelt beside the bed of an old Sutova man. Just how old was he? Lines covered his face, wore his expression, and he was aged even further by the illness, which paled his skin and glazed his eyes. Gelata leaned against the wall. They spoke, but the glass muffled their voices and hid the subject of their conversation.

"Not good. Father looks worse than before."

"What exactly does he have?" Pan whispered.

Lucia's face darkened. "Nobody's sure, but I have my theories."

Both Lucia and Pan ducked as Ember opened the window.

"…organ damage is not good, but it's not beyond fixing, given enough time," Ember was saying.

"Until I run out of it, I've got nothing but time," the old count said.

"So the rumors are true. You've gone full diplomat after all."

"What else am I going to do at my age?" The count lay back on his pillow.

"Gelata," Ember said. "Much as I don't trust the girl, much as I don't like this, we may have to tell Pan to go ahead without us and catch up with her tomorrow morning. I can help him, but not in a single afternoon."

"We have to leave the night's business to her anyway," Gelata said. "It's just as well to wait here as anywhere."

The count chuckled. "You don't need to talk around whatever mission the king's sent you on so discreetly. I know how things run in the palace. I was in his father's court, you know."

"Yes," Gelata said, colder than Pan expected. "I know."

"I could still go a round or two if the need presented itself. Nowadays, I leave the heavy lifting to Shivor, my best warrior. I'd introduce you to him but he hasn't been in all day."

Lucia covered her mouth. "He's not back yet?"

Pan shushed her as quietly as she could.

Gelata opened the door. Pan wriggled back to the window as quickly as she could. She scraped her arm on the garden wall but squirmed through. Lucia must have had a lot of practice, because she was right behind her. They landed back on the floor inside just as Gelata closed the door behind her and asked the guards to fetch Pan.

"Actually, she was just here with the count's daughter," The guard said. "I told them it was too early to visit. I don't know where they went to wait, but they couldn't have gotten far."

Pan poked her head around the corner and waved. "Over here! I heard the door open. Can Lucia go inside now?"

"Not yet, I'm afraid," Gelata said, striding to Pan. "May I speak to you in private?"

She dragged Pan back the way she'd come, which wasn't exactly private, but Pan didn't have time to explain that; Lucia was gone, back out the window most likely, and Gelata began talking the very moment she thought they were out of earshot.

"I can't stand any of this! That man is no friend of mine, but at least I understand the danger he's in and the vacuum his passing would create, and what is anyone doing about it? Appealing to theatrics and superstitious nonsense! Do they really think burning dolls is going to… but pardon me, Pan. None of this is your concern. Making Crater Farm is, and Ember and I have elected to stay here while you go there. We'll meet you in the morning, assuming you're still alive."

"Ember can fix the count, can't he?"

"I've a good deal more faith in the Captain's abilities than any of this other garbage, that's for certain. Forgive me again. They are, after all, Reizomorph myths. I appreciate their significance from a cultural perspective."

Gelata sounded anything but appreciative.

"And really, what happened to Kuriza was terrible, there's no argument there, but believing you can activate ancient hidden Vile Wave magic by recreating it is an insult to his memory. But it's not your problem. You can leave right away. Good luck."

"That explains why I saw it on a headstone," Pan said, turning to go.

"A headstone?"

"Yeah, in…" she glanced at the window. "In that graveyard by the city."

"You must have seen Kuriza's tomb. He was a Cold. The grandson of the last sovereign king of Cocytus, in fact. Ten years old when King Flare's forces managed to snatch him. They demanded his grandfather, Chilled, open the gates to Cocytus City and turn over his citizens, or they'd execute the boy for treason. Chilled didn't open the gates. Flare kept his word. You can hardly blame Chilled for his subsequent mental breakdown, but that's all it was. Attributing the personality change to him tampering with the Vile Wave to avenge his grandson, becoming some kind of dark Prismatist who exchanged his sanity for power… the rest of the universe already thinks we're ghoulish and credulous, and spreading rumors like that hardly dispels the notion."

Pan tried not to shiver too visibly. She knew Lucia was still outside, and didn't know how much she was seeing and hearing; she had to act like she already knew this. After finding out what really happened on the king's "hunts," maybe she should have.

"If you start for the farm now, you should be able to make it with a few hours to spare. I apologize for delaying you so much already."

She spun and left, hands tucked behind her back. Pan wondered just how long she'd waited to get that off her chest.

After a few moments, Lucia clambered back through the window. "Yikes, she sounded mad. What she said, though; it all but confirms my suspicions."

"What suspicions?"

"That my father was poisoned, just like King Flare was," Lucia said. "That's where Shivor went, to get the antidote from the outer wald. There's a mushroom that grows beneath the trees capable of counteracting the poison used to kill Flare. Shivor was supposed to meet me with it in the square today. If he didn't show up, and hasn't been back here either, there's no way around it. Something happened to him. I'm going to have to go looking for him."

Pan grabbed her wrist. "Wait! I have a better idea."

Then she had to come up with a better idea. As before, she decided to stick with what she was good at. "Tell me where he went and I'll go looking for Shivor. If you stay here, I can bring him and the antidote back to you instantly. You just heard Gelata. I have a few extra hours, and I can always fly to make up for lost time. I won't have to sneak out because they expect me to be leaving. It's perfect."

Boy, she hoped Lucia would think so.

To Pan's relief, she did. "All right, but if I don't hear from you…"

"You'll hear from me. Trust me. It'll be fine."

Later, Pan would question her definition of "fine." For now, she was just happy to have talked Lucia out of another ill-advised excursion and, at best, another trip to the oubliette.

ooo

Peril could thrive just as well in the daylight as the dark. For all her dodging the Vile Wave's midnight appearances, Pan had forgotten that.

In a forest clearing, she found a grisly reminder.

If it hadn't been for the birds, she might not have found anything. True, a queasy feeling settled in her gut as she peered into the treeline. Also, the first thing she found at the edge of the forest was a patch of blood. It had been spilled long enough ago that it had sunk into the dirt, disguising whether it had been red or purple, but recently enough it was still wet to the touch. However, nothing had been disturbed, and there were no signs of a struggle among the tall and quiet trees. Just dappled Prismatic light and the faint energy she'd expect to feel from the foliage and small creatures living in it. It wasn't even dead silence. Birds called.

"This could be from a wounded animal," Pan said. A few days of being hunted by fiends from beyond the grave might have her seeing monsters behind everything, but that was the most likely explanation.

Still, she kept her senses open.

She wasn't just on guard because of the blood. Pan also had to feel for a large concentration of energy, a signature that could belong to the county's best warrior. That was her best chance of finding Shivor.

At first, it was comforting that the woods weren't suspiciously quiet, that there was a steady thrum of birdsong. The deeper Pan went, the more it bothered her. The squawking grew louder, and now she could hear the beating of wings; many wings. The ki hit her a moment later; a wash of power that must belong to Shivor. Pan broke into a run. The trees were wide enough to dart through without slowing down. Even though the sky overhead was green with just a tinge of blue, a clock ticked at the back of her head, the knowledge she had to be at the farm before midnight a constant and nagging companion.

Her blood chilled when she saw a hand sticking out of a sleeve behind a tree.

Her running steps wound down to a walk, then a tip-toe.

In a clearing around the tree, blackbirds gathered in flocks, stretching their wings, opening their stiff beaks to cry out between bites. They had come to eat. It would take all of them to finish the meal left here, too: four men, blanketed with crows, pinned to the ground with massive stakes sharpened from whole trees.

"This… this is horrible…"

Though it was the last thing Pan wanted to do, she shooed the birds away from them and checked them, one by one, to make sure they were indeed dead. It didn't surprise her they were. It did surprise her warmth lingered in their bodies. Just like the blood was still wet. This hadn't happened in the middle of the night, but this afternoon at the earliest.

Whoever did this might still be here!

Pan whipped around, searching the trees from every angle, but she found nothing but crab-squirrels and a mystified lizard. She didn't feel any out-of-place energy, either. What did that mean for Shivor? Was one of these men… she cut that thought right off. Somehow, she didn't think so. In fact, their piecemeal attire made her think they must be bandits.

She knew who could tell her for certain.

Pan knelt by one of the dead men. She tried to focus. Bonpara?

She got a response almost immediately. If you're asking if we're moving again, keep your bandanna on. We're back in space and on our way.

I've got another question, actually, Pan thought, but it's a morbid one, and… you guys haven't eaten recently, have you? I found some bodies. I want to see if you recognize their clothes.

Why not see if we recognize their faces? Bonpara thought.

The birds haven't left much of those, Pan replied.

There's not much choice, is there? Send it along.

Pan concentrated on the man's dull gray cloak, trying to ignore the more gruesome details. She thought it might have worked, because Bonpara said,

Eh. I've seen worse. So why do you need to know who these guys are? Did they jump you?

No, Pan thought, but I'm looking for someone in these woods, and I want to make sure this isn't him.

I know this is asking a lot of you, but check to see if they're carrying anything.

Pan almost protested aloud that she had to move them to do that, but Bonpara knew that. Apologizing, she brushed the man's cloak aside, checking for pockets or possessions.

Nothing, Pan thought. Wait. I take that back. He's carrying…

Pan pulled out a blaster. It was a puffy cylinder that made her think of a marshmallow. It showed signs of heavy use.

This gun.

Silence followed. Perhaps Bonpara was checking the computer, or perhaps he was filing through his own memory.

Bonpara thought, Are you sure they weren't after you? These are Planet Trade mercenaries.

You can tell from the gun?

The gun, the clothes, what I can see of the men themselves; it's their calling card. Very professional. They want their enemies to know exactly who's after them, but they don't want their men leaving corpses the Galactic Patrol could trace back to them. The equipment's gotta have the serial numbers filed off in case they get caught.

They definitely got caught by something, Pan thought.

Energy exploded right behind her.

And I think it's here! I'll call you back!

Pan rolled out of the way just in time to avoid a heel to the head that could have fractured her skull. Her opponent tried to keep her on the ground, throwing himself bodily over her. She kicked him with both feet, sending him flying back to the trees. He stopped himself from hitting, landing on his feet. Pan made it to hers just in time to stare him in the face.

He was pale teal, sleek and unarmored, and a small pack was slung over his shoulder. Without the chitin he was fast; he was already charging Pan, trying to overpower her.

She locked hands with him. He faltered. He wasn't expecting her strength.

"Are you Shivor?" Pan asked.

"Who wants to know?"

Fairly certain the answer was "yes" and hoping her hunch was correct, Pan slapped the man's hands away, but instead of pulling back, she threw her arms around him and teleported.

She popped out of the teleportation zone and back into existence in the manor hall. The two of them careened into a table. A vase toppled and spilled water all over the tile. Lucia screamed as they slid at her feet. Pan jammed her elbow under the teal man's chin, and asked,

"Is this Shivor?"

Dazed and probably thinking she was dreaming, Lucia nodded.

Pan stood, taking a good leap backwards in case his mind hadn't caught up and he attacked again. It had, though. Shivor stared at his changed surroundings, his face as dumbfounded as Lucia's.

"Is this another illusion? Can I truly be back in Colander?" He said. "How?"

"I locked in on Lucia's signature," Pan said. False alarm, Bonpara; everything's okay, she thought. "Speaking of which, I bet I know how you hid yours from me. You reverted to your first form so you'd be faint enough to blend in with the forest life and the Prismasphere, and didn't change into your fourth form until you decided I was a threat. Clever."

"Then you really were sent to retrieve me," He said. "When I saw you disturbing those bodies, taking their weapons, I thought…"

"Bodies," Lucia said. "What bodies?"

"The Planet Trade King Sulfuri swears has no presence here," Pan said. "There are four of them dead on the edge of the Bludwald."

"You reached the same conclusion about their identities I did, then," Shivor said. "Those mercenaries were sent to kill me before I could retrieve the antidote. There were five."

He tossed Lucia the pack. She opened it and removed one of the mushrooms. She swore under her breath. "I knew it."

"After they confronted me, something came out of the woods and tore them to pieces. I couldn't get a good look at it. If I tried, everything would blur, and it would disappear, and when my senses returned to normal another mercenary would be dead. I began to question my own perceptions of reality, but I kept enough of my wits about me that when two had fallen, I was able to burrow underground and seal the entrance. I couldn't think of any safe way to leave cover. Even from there, I never did see what killed them. I only heard it. The last mercenary, the fifth one, it talked to him."

"What did it say?" Pan asked.

"It spoke but two coherent words. 'Stop meddling.' It had the most horrible voice, like an evil little troll."

"So the Planet Trade mercenaries attacked you and this… mysterious creature you never saw… rescued you from them?"

"No," Shivor said. "I believe it was there for them and my presence was incidental. It would have killed me if I'd stayed, but when I opted to hide instead, I wasn't important enough to hunt down. At least I was able to keep the antidote safe. We must get it to the count quickly."

Lucia tugged Pan's sleeve, but the sky outside pulsed once more and flooded completely blue.

Years ago, on Imecka, Trunks had told Pan every planet had its troubles and she couldn't fix them all. She hated leaving Colander like this, with something horrible abandoning bodies in the woods and the count ill from what was most certainly poison. However, if she didn't leave for the farm right now, if she didn't at least clear town before the Vile Wave crested, Colander would have a lot more problems. If she really wanted to help, she had to go. Now.

Instead of following Lucia and Shivor, Pan opened the window and flew.