Chapter Twenty-Six

The air was heavy with danger, and Pan half-expected to teleport into a repeat of Blendarr, with its flames and screaming and fleeing masses. She and her friends did surface in a crowd, regaining hold on reality in a tumultuous din, but it was just the kind of traffic Colander always had. Reizomorphs, Brenchians, and Sutova strode with purpose through the streets, nearly shoulder-to-shoulder. Conversation became a garbled hum of background noise. Pan squeezed closer to Frieza.

"This rules out splitting up to search. We'd never find each other again, let alone Incendria. At least this means our mystery killer hasn't attacked yet," Pan said.

"Does it?" Frieza asked. "Crowds this thick can hide malice as easily as the dead of night. Do you see that?"

IF Frieza hadn't pointed, Pan wouldn't have; but she had a perfect view as a nondescript Brenchian pushed past a woman carrying a basket of apples, slipped his hand into her pocket, and removed her purse. He disappeared into the multitude. The woman noticed nothing.

"Hey…" Pan said.

"Don't let the Great Saiyawoman get the better of you. If we stop what we're doing to interfere, we may not be in time to stop the Backlash, and that woman won't be losing her purse, she'll be losing her life. Which do you think she'll miss more?"

Pan relaxed, but the grimace remained on her face.

Bonpara had resumed his Sutova disguise. He was joined by Donpara as a gangly Brenchian and Sonpara as a rather convincing first-tier Reizomorph. Bonpara tapped his arm, which looked nonsensical thanks to the holograph, but Pan knew what he was doing.

"The computer's scanned the pedestrians. No faces matched Incendria's," Bonpara said.

"I'm not picking up her energy signature, either," Ginyu said, "Although we expected as much, with her hiding it."

"There must be some way to find out where she is," Gelata said.

Abruptly, Frieza dashed between the rows of walkers. Pan and the others had little choice but to follow him.

"What happened? Did you see her?"

He stopped in the town square. The effigy had been taken down, with the scent of smoke and a sprinkling of ash mixed with snow left as evidence it had been there. Now Pan could see the bonfire had been started in a garden. Flowers and round stones littered the ground beneath where it had hung.

"I know what to do," Frieza said.

Frieza knelt and rearranged the stones.

They'd been in the square only for a few seconds, and already Frieza pulled them away, in the direction of a kiosk surrounded by customers.

"I suppose that little exercise had some purpose," Ember said. "But I'll be damned if I can figure out what it is."

"A good thing, too," Frieza said, "For we developed it to fool you… and the other guards, of course. When I was imprisoned in the palace dungeon, Incendria wanted to speak with me, but feared doing so would make her father suspicious. We developed this code to pass brief messages. It's much like the Morse code on your world, Pan."

"How can we know she'll see it, though?" Pan asked.

"You remember how long it took you to get here from Blendarr, don't you? As far as I know, mama can't use Instant Transmission, and would have to find shelter in the night against the Vile Wave. Even if she ran the whole way… and she couldn't have without making her energy signature traceable… we'll have beaten her here by at least ten minutes. She has to pass that garden to get anywhere in Colander, so she'll see it."

"What kind of message did you leave her? Did you tell her to meet us here?" Gelata asked.

"For fear she'd think it a trick, I identified myself and told her to leave us directions. We'll wait for them."

"Even with the Para Brothers' disguises, won't we look suspicious, standing together in a big group?" Pan asked.

"Who says we're standing here doing nothing? We're in line like everyone else," Frieza said.

Pan tried to peek around the line, but a few people thought she was trying to cut, so she backed down. "In line for what?"

She found out when their turn finally arrived. The kiosk was selling flowers, and Frieza presented her with one.

"This is customary, is it not?" He asked.

Pan took the bloom and stroked the petals, yellow flecked with crimson.

"It's an asphodel. The capital was named after the flowers."

It was beautiful, and her first gift from someone she cared about, but perhaps because she was already on edge, the red looked like droplets of blood. Hoping it would calm the ghoulish thought, she closed her eyes and smelled its perfume. There was nothing ominous about that. "Mm, nice. Thank you."

When they returned to the square, the stones had been rearranged.

"She left us a location," Frieza said. "This way."

The buildings were as packed as the people, and the throngs made the already-narrow roads even smaller. They had to walk single-file in places. It was difficult for Pan to see where she was going in this maze of high walls and apathetic faces.

Then one emerged and stood out for not being a face, but a veil; and its owner stood motionless at the corner. She lifted her eyes, and Pan recognized them. A moment later she lowered the veil just enough to reveal the rest of her face.

Frieza slowed his approach.

"Mama?"

Incendria didn't move. Neither of them spoke. Notes passed in the dungeon did not make them anything but strangers. There was nothing to be said that was not business, and they both knew and regretted that.

"You've figured it out, too, then," Incendria said.

"All I've figured out is that you know who did this," Frieza said. "And truth be told, I had help with that."

"And yet it's been in plain sight this whole time. It's about Magmast. It's always been about Magmast."

Her cloak billowed as she turned towards the count's manor.

After a weighted breath, she looked back over her shoulder.

"News from the North Quadrant makes its way to Ketchyn in pieces, if at all. I heard so little about you. Even so, when they brought me news of your death, my heart broke. It knows you, even if I do not, my son. And Pan? I do hope we can finish our battle when this is over."

As they left for the count's house, Pan felt like a spring uncoiled in her chest. Tension had built so quickly she hadn't been aware of it until it released. She'd been so certain something horrible was about to happen, but now they'd found Incendria. Soon they'd have their culprit. The dread didn't fade, but lost power with every step.

Until Pan felt a familiar ki seconds before its owner stepped out of a side-street and blocked Incendria's path.

"Hello, sister."

She spun around. "Were you followed?"

King Sulfuri laughed. "Oh, my dear Incendria; as if there was any need! All that trouble you went to just to stay hidden, all that subterfuge. I must admit you've gotten very good at it. Every bit was for nothing, though. I found you instantly just by looking in the nearest mirror."

"It was you!" Frieza said.

Every one of them readied themselves for combat. All around Pan felt energy flaring, saw stances changing…

Except for Sulfuri, whose ki signature remained as dismal and his vitals as open as ever.

"Did you expect your trap to kill me?" Incendria asked, "When I've always been the stronger of the two of us?"

The king sighed, acknowledging a fact that rankled. "Yes, you have. You still are. What are you going to do now? Incinerate me on the spot, in front of all these people? I have no doubt you could. Will you?"

Incendria's back blocked Pan's view of Sulfuri, so she could not see what the king did. His dull energy did not spike or even hop, not even briefly. Yet he did something with his hands, ending with touching Incendria's shoulder. He retracted his hand, and that instant, the Princess was on her knees, then her face. She opened her mouth but no words came out, only blood, splattering the pavement.

"You should have," Sulfuri said.

Pan and Frieza sprang into action at once; Pan to pursue Sulfuri, Frieza to tend his mother. Neither accomplished anything. Sulfuri had disappeared into the masses he'd come from as surely as the pickpocket had, and Incendria was dead.

Ember didn't believe it. He pushed Frieza aside and checked the princess's pulse, her breath. He wove his healing magic. She remained still. He unleashed a gargled scream and left the Prismasphere, compressing her chest like an Earth doctor. This was when the crowd finally noticed what was happening, though they did nothing but gather around. Still, Ember didn't stop until Gelata pulled him away.

"It's too late," Gelata said.

"That's impossible," he said, voice still rough. "I didn't see anything! He didn't do anything!"

"We've got to catch him," she said, pulling his arm harder.

"The computer already scanned the area," Bonpara said. "He must have hidden his face as soon as he got away from us."

Frieza, who had kept quiet through all of it, returned to Incendria's side. He brushed the cloth from her face- her stranger's face, so like his own- and closed her eyes. "We don't need to chase him down. We know where he's going. Didn't you hear? It's about Magmast. Sulfuri brought me here, murdered his sister, and risked waking the mirror and destroying all of Ketchyn just to kill one man."

Her robes dusted the ground as he picked her up, cradled her against his chest.

"I never understood why your father and grandfather insisted on burying them," Frieza said. "The bodies I left behind me on Namek. I do now. I know we must hurry, but please, we can't leave her like this."

"They've called for help," Gelata said. "They'll… take care of her."

He spread her on a bench and crossed her arms over her chest, as if she were lying in state.

The crowd looked for them, but they were gone. One transmission later, and Count Magmast's manor stood before them.

ooo

Magister Bustion barreled down the stairs, whiskers flying. Sulfuri stood the picture of steady calm. With a bound, Bustion threw every bit of his weight and strength at the king. It appeared to work, too; Sulfuri tore a rift through the carpet all the way to the door he'd come from. Pan and company dodged and scattered as he slammed into the wood and cracked it in half.

Pan had been right on his heels. That ended. The moment Sulfuri passed the house's threshold, a line of violet flame shot across the floor, and a barrier bust between her and the anteroom. She skidded, the carpet rumpling beneath her feet, and stopped inches from its cackling surface.

Still, she was close enough when Sulfuri hit to see a glint of red in his hand. The Prismasphere hadn't stirred, and she felt no spike in energy. Was it a blade? A concealed cannon?

"What's in his hand?" She asked the man next to her.

Unfortunately, the man next to her was Captain Ginyu, and he and Bonpara whispered so furiously to each other they wouldn't have seen a firecracker being set off inches from their noses.

"Never mind," Pan said. "Ember and Gelata, how long until you can get that Vile Barrier down?"

"We're working on it," Ember said.

Bustion shredded the carpet even further closing the distance between them fist-first. Sulfuri slumped against the door. He raised his head, flatted his palm against thin air. There was no strength in that hand to stop the bum's rush, and yet on contact, Bustion lost momentum. He fell over Sulfuri's shoulder.

Sulfuri tapped his chest. Red glinted, and Bustion slid to the floor like a rag doll. Sparing him one last look of disgust, Sulfuri stepped over him and strode to the stairwell.

Magmast himself appeared on the balcony atop it, face sour. Shivor stood at his side in his fourth form. Behind him, in the shadows of the doorway, Pan caught the outline of Lucia's shadow.

"Climb out the window and run into the city," Magmast told her. "I know you know how."

"Ah, Magmast," Sulfuri said. "Did you think you could buy the lives of your household with your own? I don't know whether that makes you an optimist, a fool, or both. I won't leave a single person breathing here. I promise you that."

"You've no quarrel with anyone but me."

"That's where you're wrong," Sulfuri said. "I certainly have a quarrel with you, but I've amassed quite the collection over the years, and haven't forgotten a one. Why, there have been days the pain of all those grudges was the only thing getting me out of bed in the morning. You will go first, though. You should have been dead a hundred times over by now. When I brought Frieza back, I was certain he'd eliminate you that very night to avenge Polrene. How was I to know he'd neglect his duty to his family and prioritize…" Sulfuri gave Pan an impassive once-over, "…whatever it is he brought that monkey here to do with it? He's always been a self-centered wretch, but that's worse than I would have expected, even from him."

Frieza shook his head. "Hurl as much abuse as you want, uncle, but I know you must harbor some affection for me. Why, the things you were willing to do with a rusty knife just to see me again."

Sulfuri lost his composure and found his feet instead. "I don't want to talk about it. It was a waste in the end. I have to do everything myself. I always do."

Shivor landed beside him. "Consorting with the Vile Wave? Attempting assassination? This filth doesn't deserve to die by your hand, my count. Allow me."

He didn't bother offering Sulfuri the first strike. Like Bustion before him, Shivor hurled himself into battle without another word. He was as fast as he'd been when Pan fought him; he drove his knuckles into the king's jaw before the echo of his challenge had died. He didn't stop to let Sulfuri respond, either; he jabbed Sulfuri's throat, his solar plexus. His blows rained down hard enough to distort the king's shape and paint the walls with flecks of his blood.

"Be careful!" Pan yelled. "I know you're getting weak readings from him, but he didn't just kill Bustion, he killed Incendria, too! You know how strong she was, don't you?"

Magmast gasped. "You… Incendria… how could you?"

Sulfuri licked his lips and the blood on them. "How could I? How could you? In my hands, she died instantly. Painlessly. You'd have murdered her a little more inside each day over the years if you'd had your way. Were you after the throne destiny bequeathed to me even then, or did you really fancy yourself in love with her? Either way, you were so mad she wanted that grub king instead of you. You really bought it, didn't you? My father's delusion of noble Sutova fighting evil grubs for control of the monkey and creamer cattle? I knew as a child it was all garbage. Don't misunderstand, it's garbage I fully plan to exploit to keep my kingdom together. It makes the people so easy to frighten and enrage and manipulate. And, really, what is life itself, if not cosmic detritus given value only by mass delusion?"

Sulfuri, Pan decided, did not sound like he'd just memorized that. He sounded like he believed it. She turned to ask Ginyu what he thought, saw that he'd switched from whispering with Bonpara to whispering with Gelata, and decided it wasn't that important compared to the rest of the circumstances.

"Speaking of monkeys, our Saiyan friend is just dying to know how I slew her benefactor. I'll do better than tell you, my sweet. I'll show you."

Shivor wiped his hand on the wall. "All I'm getting out of this is that I didn't hit your mouth hard enough."

This time, when he struck Sulfuri, Sulfuri struck back; but it was only a cuff to Shivor's head, and it didn't even turn it. Shivor responded with a beating so brutal it was hard for Pan to watch, even when its recipient had executed two people in cold blood in front of her. It made her think back to her mother's scariest professional fight, the one where unbeknownst to her or the competition's organizers, she'd gotten in the ring with an assassin who'd really meant to beat her to death and had only survived because his own partner pulled him off her.

"Don't close your eyes now," Sulfuri said. "It's just starting to get good."

Shivor growled and pulled Sulfuri into a half-Nelson, digging his knee into his back. How his spine didn't snap was a mystery to Pan. Come to think of it, with all the damage he'd absorbed, Sulfuri should have been unconscious several punches ago, if not dead, but he was still talking, still smiling.

He took two fingers and jabbed Shivor's shoulder. Shivor winced. Red flashed.

"You see," Sulfuri said, "Each man is governed by three things: his head, his heart, and the arm of his strength. In Shivor's case, his left arm. At the epicenter of each lies a vital pressure point. Suppose one were to cut them all off. What do you think would happen?"

"Shivor!" Pan screamed. "Don't let him touch you again! Get out of his range!"

Sulfuri had planned his attack well, though. Shivor was too tangled in his hold to just break free and retreat, and within a breath, Sulfuri had jabbed his chest. He flailed with his hands to keep grip of Sulfuri as he slid down him, leaving bloody handprints on the king's body. Shivor hit the floor and did not move again.

Sulfuri spat blood onto his corpse.

"Chilling, isn't it?" Sulfuri asked. "To know that, 'weakling' though I may be, to stand before me is to stand before death? I call this technique the Dark Triad. It's half the reason I'm still in power."

Pan fired a Masenko, hoping to at least force him away from Magmast. The Vile Barrier absorbed most of it, but some got through. She could smell his flesh singe as it hit, and solid swirled among the ashes; still, when both the scent and the decay cleared, Sulfuri remained. He was covered in his own blood and flecks of his own burned flesh, and yet beneath them, he had every appearance of being totally unharmed.

"That's the other half," He said. "Incendria had her wish, and I had mine. Now it's time for you to feel the touch of the Dark Triad, Magmast. The rest of you will have your turn."

"Pick on someone your own size, you big bully!" Pan yelled.

"You mean you? Or him?" Sulfuri looked from Pan to Frieza and back to Pan again and said, "What are you going to do, stand on each other's shoulders?"

"Sure, why not? Trunks and Uncle Goten used to fight that way. Come on, lower this barrier!"

He didn't listen. Magmast stepped into a tentative defensive stance. Pan's strategies turned from winning to getting her friends away from this frail grim reaper.

A new voice shattered her train of thought.

"Wait!"

Lucia darted down the stairs and planted herself between her father and Sulfuri, arms thrown out.

"I want to make a deal with you," Lucia said.

"I don't make deals, and you're in no position to negotiate."

"Hear me out, please," Lucia said. "I didn't hear everything, and I didn't understand much of what I heard, but I understand that you're angry and that you want revenge on father. I'm offering you that. You're still the king, Sulfuri. I'm petitioning you as your subject to let Count Magmast go. I'm his daughter, right? If you need to spill his blood, it runs through my veins as surely as his. Let him go, and in his place… execute me."

"Ember, the barrier!" Pan said.

"I'm trying! He's positioned the thread on the other side of it! I haven't been able to catch it!"

Magmast didn't bother speaking. He grabbed Lucia and tried to force her out of the way. What she lacked in strength, she made up for in struggling; he couldn't keep hold of her. She slipped from his arms and threw her head on the king's chest.

"You're braver than I thought," Sulfuri said.

He hit once, twice, three times, and Lucia fell at Magmast's feet.

"But you must not have heard that I always meant to kill you both."

"You bastard!" Magmast charged Sulfuri, fully aware it was suicide, not caring anymore.

He hit something, but it wasn't Sulfuri. He fell against the wall, but not dead. A purple forearm and ashen gauntlet dug into this throat under his chin, pushing him into the door frame. That arm's and gauntlet's owner was Cooler. Sulfuri was stunned at the sudden loss of his prey, but Cooler barely appeared to notice the king. His eyes were fixed on Magmast in pure loathing.

"Do you know," he said, "If Sulfuri had asked me, not Frieza, to kill you, I'd have done it gladly? There was a time I wanted nothing more than to see you on the floor choking on your own blood, just like you left my mother."

He dropped Magmast and turned to the bloodied carpet where Lucia lay.

"I've changed my mind. That barrier of yours is draining the mirror at a horrifying pace, Sulfuri. I'm going to have to ask you to remove it. I'm not going to ask nicely."

Sulfuri was so enraged, he trembled. "How are you here? You can't get through a Prismatic barrier with Instant Transmission."

"When I felt Incendria die, I came straight to the manor. I was already in the house when you wove the barrier. The basement."

Sulfuri screamed. "Is every damned Cold determined to defy me? It's futile. When our father used to work out his rages on us, and Incendria wished to be invisible, I wished that I'd never feel pain again – and mine was granted as surely as hers. It's how I found Chilled's Mirror in the first place, wondering just how that had happened and tracing the phenomenon back to Cold Manor. You can't hurt me. If you can't hurt me, you can't kill me. If you can't kill me, you can't stop me. No matter where you run, no matter how deep into those worm holes you bury yourself, I'll find you."

"So you're the one who taught my brother to prattle like that," Cooler said. "I knew he didn't learn it from me or papa."

"Hmpf," Frieza said, but there was a slight smile on his face.

Cooler called to Pan. "I've got the barrier's thread and I'm going to pull it. Gather your friends and get ready to jump when I tell you, where I tell you."

"Understood," Pan said.

"Follow me. Now!"

Sulfuri charged them, hands blazing, and the outstretched death's fingers over Lucia's corpse was the last Pan saw of Magmast's manor. Following Cooler's trail deposited her into a green field of winter wheat. It cushioned her fall, but not so much the brunt of all three Para Brothers falling on her head. At least Gelata tried to change the directory of her fall, choosing instead to fall on Ember, who'd landed right beside Pan.

Frieza helped her to her feet.

"Is everyone here?" Pan asked.

Frieza counted the Para Brothers, the Ginyu Force, Ember and Gelata, Cooler, and Magmast, who'd fallen to the dirt sobbing quietly.

"He has to pay for this," He whispered.

Bonpara, Gelata, and Ginyu stepped forward.

"He will," Ember said.

"My old friend, this is no time for platitudes," Magmast said, sounding even worse than he had on his deathbed.

"It's no platitude," Captain Ginyu said. "That king thinks he's unbeatable? Gelata, Bonpara and I made a plan to defeat him while he was running his mouth. We've just got to lure him somewhere open, where we can keep a decent distance between us until it's time to strike. Somewhere sound will travel nicely. Somewhere like…"

He looked around him at the swaying green blades.

"…well, right here, actually. How do we let him know? He can't read energy."

Pan wiped her eyes. "Does anyone have a mirror?" Before Cooler could protest, she explained, "Sulfuri's going to use Chilled's Mirror to search for us no matter what. If we let him find us right away, he won't spend enough time on it to wake it up. We need a mirror, though."

Magmast pulled a small hand-glass from his cape. "Please be careful with it. It belonged to Lucia."

Pan held the mirror to the side to make as much of the backdrop behind her visible as possible. Her face was tear-streaked, and she knew Sulfuri would find it, but how identifying would a field be? Identifying enough, she hoped, that the king would recognize it.

"Here we are, Sulfuri," she said. "Come and get us."