The Acolytes of Crane "Updated Edition" (31 page)

 After
an exhilarating ride through the desert, we were now slowing down as we
approached the bazaar. It was amazing, just like lifting a scene out of present
day marketplace Egypt or Morocco. Rows upon rows of white tented stalls,
offering wicker baskets, ornamented silver plates, and fragrant spices like
myrrh, with customers and merchants yelling as they haggled with each other.
Exotic parrots for sale squawking above the din, and vapors of incense wafting
through the air. I couldn’t resist!

The
guards were following close. It would be difficult for any mischief to occur
under their watch. Through the hordes of customers flinging coin and pulling
merchandise, I saw an interesting tent.

When
I had the boys’ attention, I yelled, ‘Hey guys, Check out these trinkets!’

I
had to shout, because it was windy outside and difficult for them to hear me.
It was probably tunneling through their ears. The gusts were blowing my hair
into my mouth, and it was sticking to my tongue. Every time I pulled a strand
out, I only introduced another.

Liam
said, ‘Hey, these are cool.’

‘Madam
Espinosa, we have been instructed to take you directly to the castle. No stops,’
one of the guards said.

‘Can't
we just stop for a second?’ I asked.

We
turned the corner on the hovercraft and the guards stopped. ‘Wait, do you hear
that?’ the first guard asked. He and his comrades pushed outward slightly from
our group, as if readying for an assault. Just as the guards approached the
adjacent shacks searching for signs of unrest, the merchants and stalls
disappeared in the blink of an eye.

‘Attack!
Attack!’ another guard yelled. The boys and I gasped at the sudden vanishing of
our alluring surroundings and dropped to our knees inside the hovercraft. We
feared for our lives.

‘It’s
a trap!’ Dan yelled.

Instantly,
we found ourselves in a closed alley by the palace—a perfect spot for an
ambush. We knew right away that Rangiers were at work with their projection
devices.

‘Hurry!’
the lead guard hollered, ‘Get the kids straight away to the castle. Hold them
off!’ I fell to the ground as the guard brusquely pushed me out. The boys
scrambled over the sides of the vehicle in their mad flee to evade.

Our
hovercraft was hit right in the engine. The hood of the craft exploded, sending
sparks into our direction. I screamed. It was time to abandon ship, and start
running for our lives.

From
the rooftops, two turret sentries floated above us and started firing lasers
against the Rangiers, who by now had been detected. These Rangiers started
speeding away on their turbo-cycles to avoid our escorts’ outgoing fire.

I
remember running faster than I ever had. We were now darting out of the
alleyway and back among the tented stalls—these were real this time. I could
feel the retaliatory fire from the Rangiers hitting shacks around us. A fruit
stand blew up next to me, splattering my face with fragments of melon. I kept
running. The lead guard looked back, firing lasers over our heads at the
retreating Rangiers.

‘Open
the gates!’ our valiant escort yelled.

The
gates unfolded. I didn't even know if the boys were behind me. I passed beyond
the gate, turning to watch for the others. Fortunately, they were close behind.
Large and bulky, Liam was falling behind. Lasers were zinging by him. The gates
started to close in. Dan and Lincoln whizzed through the closing space easily,
but Liam was barely able to make it through. Just as I thought the gates would
click shut and trap him out, Liam’s arm protruded through!

‘Halt!
Let in one more!’ I yelled to the sentries. Running up, I pulled back the
closing door, and simultaneously pulled at his visible arm.

‘Yeow!’
Liam screamed in agony. A laser shot had skimmed his thigh. Finally, he wiggled
through just in time, and the gate shut with a loud clang. Thanks to the
castle’s perimeter forces, the rogue Rangiers were in full retreat. We guessed
that the king’s protectors would be chasing them on hovercrafts by now to seek and
to destroy them.

Horrified,
I saw the lead guard rush over to Liam’s side.  ‘Liam! Were you hit?’

‘My
leg!’ Liam moaned in excruciating pain. He was rocking on his back and holding
his leg up near his chest. The lead guard decisively ripped Liam's pant leg off
and applied a shiny ointment onto his wound.

‘It’s
just a scratch, kid. You will be alright,' the guard said. ‘That is going to
take some time to heal. Maybe by fifteen morgets it’ll be as good as new.’ He
glanced around warily. ‘We should keep moving. You are all safe now, so breathe
easy. Welcome to the home palace of His Royal Majesty, King Trazuline of
Karshiz.’

The
dark hallway was lined with mounted plasma cannons, monitoring the entry into
the castle. As we walked, I was still shaking all over from our recent danger.

‘Is
that it? That was hardly a welcome. We get attacked and then we just carry on?’
I whimpered, wiping away the melon chunks from my face.

‘Listen,
Madam Espinsoa. You chose to be a warrior when you volunteered for the mission
of the Great Zane, so I am appalled to hear you speak thereof. Get used to it!
This is the life we live. There are attacks on our units everyday, but this
ambush was different. The timing of it is alarming. We have a schedule to keep,
so we must stay on course.’

Liam
stopped limping along and asked, marveling, ‘My leg is feeling much better.
What was that stuff you put on it?’

‘The
stuff I massaged into your wound was deflicontis mucilage. A most useful
ointment. Ah, here we are. Armorer!’

‘Yes
sir!’

‘I
want the status of my squad. Notify His Majesty the humans are safe and in my
custody. After you are finished with the communicator, issue us one rifle and a
laser cartridge for each of our guests.’

‘Yes,
sir.’

We
all marched off to a huge marbled room two stories high and of colossal
size—about two football fields side by side. We gaped in awe at the
magnificence of it all.

‘We
are now in the training facilities of His Majesty,’ the lead guard announced.

‘Whoa,
dude!’ Dan exclaimed, his eyes bulging. ‘Bigger than even that on the Uriel!’

‘The
Uriel, as majestic as it is, is constrained by the necessity of design intended
for space. Here, we have no such limitations,’ the guard intoned dryly. He
pushed a button on his jacket, and before our eyes, an array of bull’s eye
targets emerged from the floor through an automatic shaft lined in the floor.
Another guard approached us, hauling a wooden barrel of rifles.

‘Let’s
just go over a couple of things first,’ the lead guard said, his eyes darting
sideways at the rifles, ‘Time for your training to begin. His Majesty has
decreed so.’

Lincoln
piped up. ‘
Now
? We just barely escaped an ambush, and we haven’t even
been given a decent tour!’

‘Exactly
why you should start now. These Rangiers were after you, as instruments of Odion.’

Lincoln
pointed toward the wall, as if pointing outside to indicate the site of the
ambush, ‘Are all Rangiers bad?’

‘No.
Rangiers are very intelligent and they are peace-loving. Unfortunately, their
projection skills and mastery of illusory deception makes them very highly
sought after. Only a few Rangiers have become corrupted, yet you still must be
careful. Odion knows you’re on the planet, and you must defend yourself.
There’s no time to lose.’

‘Odion
wants us that badly?’ Lincoln asked, somewhat in a state of shock. ‘We’re just
teenagers from Earth!’

Dan
jumped in. ‘Dude, we’ve been over this. Zane was very clear why we were
valuable to him. Get in with the program.’

‘A
very wise boy. Theodore knew this, and you doubtlessly need his guidance now,’
the guard said, nodding his head. He held out a rifle, striking in its beauty
and handicraft.  ‘Never, and I mean never hold your finger on the trigger
unless you plan on shooting the weapon. Always assume the weapon is loaded and
capable of firing. Your relationship with a weapon is based on respect. It can
end a life, it can destroy a home, and this power is steered by you. Always
point the rifle in a safe direction—muzzle toward the ground.’

‘Right,
sir. That’s the TZ-47. Locked and loaded,’ an assistant confirmed.

The
guard firmly held the rifle closer to us and fiercely said, ‘Hear what he just
said? Locked and loaded. This gun is ready to fire and we will treat it
accordingly. Follow me.’ We walked over to the firing range they had just
summoned. It was the length of a bowling alley. Eight target simulating
holograms were displayed in front of us.

‘What
is your name, sir?’ Lincoln asked the lead guard.

‘You
have it correct,’ the guard said.

‘Sir?’
Liam asked, disappointed.

‘Yes.
Names do not matter. I am only a subject of His Majesty, King of Karshiz. His
name is the only name that matters here, aside from our Supreme, Zane. Now,
listen. This is the firing range. This weapon fires a laser that can incinerate
on contact.'

‘Who
is going first, dude… I mean—sir?’ Dan asked; his unruly shock of hair was
flopped over his eyes due to our recent battle.

‘You
will,’ the guard said. He handed Dan the rifle. Dan lovingly embraced it with
his fingers, then held it into position, confident.

‘This
is just like a first-person shooter! I will give you a lesson, Mariah! Ha ha,’
Dan said. He lowered his body into a prone position and prepared to fire. ‘Just
aim and shoot, sir?’

‘Correct.
It’s not that simple. You are to be elite warriors, so let us reduce the size
of the targets to exaggerate distance. Lasers have a completely straight and
linear trajectory.’

Comfortable
in his challenge, Dan was talking trash as usual. To my surprise, the guards
around us smiled to each other. My guess is that they did exactly the same thing
when they were out of earshot of the king. Following Dan’s lead, the other boys
started bragging about hunting with their fathers for deer years ago.

Well,
they can brag all they want. I wasn't impressed with their shooting. After they
all finished about twenty rounds among all three of them, the best score was
four bull’s eyes.

They
didn’t even invite me to hold one of the rifles or ask me to step up. They just
automatically forgot about my existence in the shooting range because I was a
girl. Well, I showed them! Back on Earth, I lovingly recalled the many hours of
laser tag battles with my friends—not just girls, but also tons of astonished
guys, several of them much older than me.

After
the boys showed off their mediocre skill, I stepped up to the firing platform.
The three boys snickered when I defiantly held the rifle in my arms.

‘Okay
Mariah, this is the trigger and this is where the laser comes out,’ Dan said.
He seriously felt he was being very helpful and that I would swoon at his
chivalrous gesture.

‘Thanks,
Dan,’ I hissed, surprising him with my reaction. ‘How very belittling and
ignorant of you.’ Resolutely, I aimed, attempting to block out my seething
thoughts. Then I missed my first target by about a mile. More snickers from the
lads.

The
guard knowingly leaned in and whispered into my ear, ‘Let your memory of the
ambush go. Put it behind you. I know you are rattled, but this is right up your
alley. Take a deep breath. After you exhale completely, squeeze the trigger.’

I
followed his lead exactly and nailed a bull’s eye with ease.

‘Hey!’
Dan yelled in astonishment.

I
turned back to the boys with a wicked smile. ‘There’s more.’

I
proceeded to nab five more bull’s eyes in a row.

The
boys were shouting about luck from behind me.

The
lead guard, sporting a wide, beaming grin, sauntered over to my side. ‘I think
we have a natural here. Shooting a rifle just doesn't seem to be the thing for
you, boys. I hate to say, but she showed you. Now, there was a purpose to this
lesson. I wanted to show everyone that all weapons are suited for certain body
types and attributes. Yes, it is great to be proficient with many weapons, but
it is best to perfect your skill with one that suits you.’

‘So
what does this mean for us, right now?’ Lincoln asked.

‘We
have already scanned you aboard the Uriel, and we know exactly what weapons to
issue all of you. I knew Mariah would be the best with the rifle. We will stop
by the armory on the way to meet King Trazuline. There, we will issue weapons
that we designed specifically for each of you,’ the lead guard said. ‘Oh, and
my name is Pritok, but I still prefer to be called sir. Xalag and I are special
aides to His Majesty.’ He pointed to one of the guards directly behind us.

Another
man dressed in the same attire as our guard ran over and said, ‘The king’s
escorts made it out safely. One of the wounded is in the infirmary. He
requested your presence, my Captain.’

Pritok
looked at us and said, ‘I have to go. My troops will take it from here. We will
meet again someday. I am sure of it.
Doviant
. It means good luck.’