The Wanderers: Chapter Four

Within a few steps of leaving Katapyros to her royal inquiry, Hephaestus had snagged a drink from the tray of a passing soldier and headed toward the naval commander he had recognized from the Tranquility’s transmissions. The man was several inches shorter than average with a handsome, if mournful, face and a shock of dark blue hair going attractively white at the temples. The Mau-ese man slipped through the courtiers gathered near the throne with practiced ease. He might not have learned much at the University of Mau, but he had learned to charm his way through crowds with a smile and a nod. Phes went around a group of hovering females and held out his hand to the commander. “Hello. Glad to see you when you’re not shooting at me.”

The commander smiled and shook his hand as briefly as was polite. “I assure you it was nothing personal, Mr. Hephaestus.”

Phes grinned. “Oh, I know that. If it was personal, one of us would be free floating carbon right now, Commander.” He ended the statement on a questioning note.

“Barin Stormrider,” Barin supplied. The Centarii émigré was not quite sure what to think about this young man. He was young, handsome, charming and traveling alone with a much older, if youthful, woman. There were certain immediate conclusions that could be drawn from that alone.

“Commander Stormrider,” Phes repeated cheerfully, “What do you think that’s about?” He nodded toward dais where Voiddancer was holding on to Katapyros’ arm as they talked.

“I’m sure I don’t know,” Barin replied. He followed Jazzom and Katapyros out onto the floor with his eyes. What was Jazzom up to?

“Now that’s promising. Tell me is your captain involved?”

Barin flicked a glance back at the grinning redhead. “Involved?”

“Wife? Girlfriend? Boyfriend?” Phes clarified.

“No, he’s not,” Barin shifted slightly away from the boy. “And he and I both are firmly heterosexual.”

“Good to know, good to know.” Phes sipped his drink. “Oh, they’re going to do the Ribbon Chase. I was hoping someone would take her up on that invitation.” He leaned closer to the commander. “You see, I’m working on a small problem. Kat is just too uptight. I’ve tried to get her to relax with games, witty banter, and good therapeutic arguments. That didn’t work so now I’m working on a new theory.”

“Really?” Barin mumbled as he took a drink from a passing servant.

“Yep,” Phes said with absolute seriousness as the musicians huddled together discussing the request and switching out instruments. “As near as I can tell, Kat hasn’t had a serious relationship in well over a century. She is definitely in need of a good lay and I nominate your captain.” He then cheerfully helped Stormrider blot up the champagne the commander had spilt all down his uniform.

******

Katapyros peered down at the man kneeling before her, confusion wrinkling her brow. She could not imagine what had caused the anger burning in his blue eyes. She supposed that it could be because she had been brusque with Serenity, but somehow, she doubted that. Whatever else the man was, he was a professional soldier. An insult to his ruler would not have resulted in a dance invitation. Somewhere behind her, the musicians must have sorted out their placings. Briefly, the jarring, bright notes of desert instruments rang out in discord as their players tuned them. Silence fell briefly before the strings and soft beat of the tambour heralded the way for a sweet, shrill wooden flute. The Vulcan pushed all other thoughts from the forefront of her mind. It had been years she had actually performed this dance. It would require concentration to complete it with the exacting precision that she required. Nothing less than perfection was permissible. She spun in the first movement as a woman sang out in a pure, liquid soprano.

Burning sands

Winds of desire

Mirrored oasis

Reflect a burning fire

Within my heart

Unwatered

Feeding the flame

Welcoming you to my harem

“I didn’t know that Captain Jazzom could dance like that,” Ember whispered to Princess Serenity. Her dark hair fell forward over her shoulder to mingle briefly with the Princess’s blonde locks before she impatiently shoved it back.

“He was a nobleman before he was exiled,” Serenity answered, “I’m sure he had training in the ‘noble arts.’” She waved for an older girl to join them.

Hyacinth knelt beside the princess’s throne, her eyes bright with interest. She ran a hand through the blue hair she kept cut unfashionably short and asked, “Yes, Sere?”

“What dance is that? I don’t recognize it.”

“It’s from Risa,” Hyacinth said flicking a glance around to make sure that Luna wasn’t near. Fortunately she and Artemis both were speaking to (lecturing, in truth) Augusta and Isabella. From the sullen look on Augusta’s face, Luna was once again giving them the riot act about their attempt to arrest the crew of the Vulcan’s Forge. Hyacinth continued in a low tone. “It is called the Ribbon Chase. From what I remember from my readings, it is a courtship ritual.”

“Courtship?” Illume leaned closer to make sure she missed nothing that was said.

“Really?” the fifth girl, Holly, added.

Hyacinth nodded. “The man is supposed to try and pull the ribbon from the woman’s hair. If he succeeds, he gets to ask a favor from her.” The other girls were young but not so young as to not understand the subtle emphasis that the blue haired teen put on ‘favor.’

Holly grinned fiercely. “Wouldn’t that just put a knot in Luddy’s tail?” The five girls looked over to where the Lady Ludmilla was watching the exhibition with a fixed and patently false smile plastered over her face. They all snickered in malicious delight. The woman was not one of their favorite people and they all actively resented the way she had made it clear to all the ladies of the court that Jazzom Voiddancer was her property.

Sing for me

A song of life’s visage

Sing for me

A tune of love’s mirage

Jazzom followed Katapyros’s lead, mimicking her steps in reverse like a mirrored shadow. Spinning and swaying, never actually touching, the Ribbon Chase was supposed to be a mild, public seduction. The long streamers of scarlet spider silk gauze at her shoulders floated with her movements like effervescent clouds of color. They brushed across his face like fairy fingers. From glimpses of the expressions of their audience, they were impressing the courtiers. The dance should have been sensuous and exciting. It wasn’t. She moved with grace, but that grace had all the passion of a rock. Each step was precisely as it should be with no variation, none of the individualism, none of the casual flirting that was supposed to occur. The only difference between the Vulcan and the dance tutor he had been forced to endure as a youngster was the extra flip Katapyros had to add to her head movements to keep her long braid from slapping him in the face. Despite his anger, he couldn’t help feeling disappointed. ‘Love’s mirage, indeed,’ he thought.

Deep desires

Sleep untold

Whispers that echo

The desert of my soul

I hold your Eastern promise

Close to my heart

Welcoming you to my harem

For a brief moment, Katapyros felt the songstress’s words brush across her mind as more than pretty background noise. She wished she did have someone to welcome to her ‘harem.’ It had been a long, long time since she had been with anyone. She had never been one capable of keeping relationships at a mere physical level. Short affairs and one-night stands were not things she could even bring herself to contemplate. She craved stability, a love as solid as bedrock, as enduring as the stars. But such things were as fictitious as any other fairy tale.

Sing for me

A song of life’s visage

Sing for me

A tune of love’s mirage

Jazzom almost lost his momentum coming out of another ‘seductive’ swirling pattern of sweeping steps. Something had changed in Katapyros. She had gone from projecting nothing but cold, mechanical precision, to seeming to radiate a longing and a sadness that made his heart ache. He had never known that anyone could change their body language so completely between one breath and the next. Almost immediately though, she had returned to her former style, leaving him doubting he had ever felt a thing. He fell back into the rhythm of the dance, certain that he would have no trouble snaring that trailing crimson ribbon.

Time is change

Time’s fool is man

Time will escape

The passing sands of time

Ludmilla fluttered her ostrich feather fan in front of her face so that she could let her fixed smile fall into a snarl before her cheeks exploded. The gall of that, that alien hussy! Making time with her Jazzom! No one interfered with Ludmilla Borsev’s plans. That alien had better finish whatever business had brought her to the Moon Kingdom quickly and go back to whatever outlandish place that had spawned her. If this Katapyros lingered in Ludmilla’s kingdom, she had better watch her back.

I hold your Eastern promise

Close to my heart

Welcoming you to my harem

As the final notes of the desert music floated across the ballroom, the long rope of Katapyros’ silken hair slid through Jazzom’s fingers. He grasped the ribbon as she spun away, unraveling her braid. Her dark hair fell like a land bound cloud about her ivory shoulders as she knelt at his feet. She cocked a quizzical eyebrow at him, clearly waiting for him to make the next move. Unfortunately, he could think of nothing to say to her. Here was the object of his unrequited juvenile fascination and hero worship rolled up into one, a woman he had both loved and hated for much of his life and now she was kneeling at his feet waiting for him to say or do something and his brain had frozen on him. Even his earlier anger was entirely gone, worn away by the physical exertion of the energetic Ribbon Chase. He still wanted answers, but he could not frame the questions.

He extended his hand to pull her to her feet (and to buy himself a few more precious seconds). Suddenly her eyes widened in surprise or fear and locked on something over his shoulder. He started to turn to see what had caught her attention when she launched herself from the floor, slamming into him, sending them both tumbling across the polished marble floor. He caught a glimpse of an open portal into nothingness and the multi-armed creature bearing numerous bladed weapons that was stepping out of it. They came to a rest several feet from the monster with Katapyros sprawled across his chest. Struggling to regain the breath that had been knocked from his lungs, he barely managed to roll himself and the woman to the side before the creature pinned them to the floor with a spear. The wickedly barbed weapon missed him entirely, but it sliced Katapyros’ right arm open from the point of her shoulder almost to her elbow. Her cry of pain was lost in the panicky screams of the courtiers. Green blood poured from the wound, soaking the scanty cloth of her costume and sheeting across her pale skin. The monster charged on past them, its pupil-less yellow eyes focused on the royal dais and the women seated there. Jazzom rolled up to his knees, leaving Katapyros to struggle up on her own. He flung out his telekinetic power out, wrenching a heavy trestle table from near the servants’ entrance. He flipped it on its side as it flew through the air, bringing it to a halt in front of his queen just in time to catch the spears the monster had launched at her. The monster howled with fury and drew swords from scabbards lashed awkwardly to its misshapen body.

The impact of the spears upon the heavy wood snapped the young senshi out of their shock. Transformation phrases rang out. Jazzom winced at the ragged confusion among their transformation sequences. It was nothing like the show of pure overwhelming power that the elder senshi used to dominate their enemies. The young senshi were disorganized and it showed in their lack of coordination. Neptune’s Deep Submerge and Jupiter’s Supreme Thunder collided in midair causing an explosion that knocked everyone at that end of the ballroom to the floor and snatched the trestle table from Jazzom’s mental grip. The backwash of power catapulted Neptune and Jupiter into the wall; they slid down it in the utter limpness of unconsciousness or death. The much more massive monster was shaken, but kept its feet and charged with renewed fury.

Uranus and Venus managed to drag themselves back to their feet in time to grab onto Queen Serenity and haul her off the dais before the monster reached it. The queen struggled against her senshi’s grip, clearly more worried about her daughter than her own safety. Mercury scooped up the princess who was clearly terrified and disoriented. Before she could get the younger girl to safety, the monster vaulted the table, blocking their way out. Mercury shrank back and Princess Serenity screamed.

Mars pulled herself to her feet using Princess Serenity’s empty throne. She echoed her princess’s scream, wild eyed and obviously terrified beyond rational thought. Her tiara vanished, revealing the emblem of Mars glowing in sullen glory. Pure flame erupted around her, reaching out like a living thing for the monster. Within seconds, the entire dais was engulfed in fire. Mercury dropped to her knees behind the irrational senshi, wrapping herself and Princess Serenity in fog in a desperate attempt to keep the flames at bay.