The Shaktra

  “Geea,” the man said in a soft melodious voice. “Welcome home.”

  Ali bowed as well, gave Ra a nudge to follow her example. “I’m happy to be here, thank you,” she said. “This is my friend, Ra.”

  They bowed in Ra’s direction. “Welcome to Uleestar, Ra,” the man said. “My name is Trae, I’m Geea’s adviser of old. This is Amma. . . a friend of the royal family.”

  Amma spoke, and her voice was sweet as rain. “We have been waiting for you,” she said. “But we were not sure when you would arrive.”

  “How did you know we were coming?” Ali asked.

  “It was inevitable that you would return here, once you had the Yanti,” Trae said. “And your capture of the Yanti from Lord Vak is well known in our world.”

  “I did not capture it so much as he let me have it,” Ali said. Trae nodded. “Forgive me, Geea, I have not had a chance to advise you in many years, and I think your estimation of your encounter with Lord Vak is more accurate. You see, we know a bit about your life in the yellow world, but there is much we don’t know.”

  “But understand that we are here to help you in any way we can,” Amma said.

  Ali smiled. “Please, you speak to me like I’m your boss, when I’m just a visitor to this land. Let us talk as equals.”

  Trae smiled but shook his head. “You must forgive us, Geea. We remember you quite differently than you remember yourself. To us, you are the bright jewel of this land, and we owe you our lives and allegiance. Indulge us, and let us treat you as our ruler. It does not matter to us that you elected to be born in a human body. You are still our queen.”

  “Your queen is suffering from a severe case of amnesia, I’m afraid.”

  Amma came near, went down on her knees in front of Ali, peering up at her intently. As if to touch her hair, to caress her face perhaps, she raised her hand, but then thought better of it. A note of loss entered the fairy’s rich voice.

  “But a part of you remembers us, does it not?” Amma asked.

  Ali felt a wave of emotion then, stronger than any she had experienced in her life. Yet the feeling was a brew of opposites: love and loss, joy and sorrow. Ali reached out and touched the woman’s hair, let it run through her fingers, and it felt so nice. . .

  “I don’t remember you, I’m sorry. But I know you,” Ali said.

  That appeared to satisfy Amma, and she bowed her head and stood and took a step back. Trae spoke next in a respectful tone. “Geea, we don’t know what you have learned about Uleestar in your travels in our world, but it has already been overrun by the Shaktra and its gruesome army. Fortunately, for reasons unknown to us, the enemy has chosen to leave our capital unoccupied. Amma and I, along with twenty other fairies, have managed to remain here by hiding in the Crystal Palace.” He added, “Your home.”

  “There are no scaliis here?” Ali asked.

  “None on the central island,” Amma said. “But earlier this morning, Trae and I saw a group of dark fairies fly over the palace. They did not stop or land, but they have clearly been sent by the Shaktra to see that the palace is empty.”

  “These twenty fairies you speak of—they keep well hidden?” Ali asked.

  “There are secret rooms in the palaces few could find even if they were given a map,” Amma said.

  Ali considered. “Do you know Radrine?” she asked.

  Trae nodded. “We know a great deal about her.”

  “I had a run in with her the other day. I hurt her, she hurt me, but I think she is here in this world. Do you know if she was one of the dark fairies that flew by?”

  “We did not see her, so we have no way of knowing for sure,” Trae said. “But it is possible she is here, and in communication with the Shaktra.”

  Ali felt her heart pound. “So the Shaktra is definitely in this world?”

  Trae turned to Amma, who hesitated. “Yes, it is here,” she said. “But we believe it to be in the far east, in command of an army that is pressing the bulk of the elementals against a range of mountains we call the Morray.”

  “Is the fairy army there as well?” Ali asked.

  “All the fairies are there,” Trae said. “All that are left alive, or unchanged. The Shaktra attacked our land first, coming in force over the sea from the Isle of Greesh. The scaliis, the dragons, the crashing ice—they were an irresistible black wave. They came so fast, there was nothing we could do to fight back. We had to evacuate.”

  “General Tapor took command of your army, Geea,” Amma said. “You may not remember him, but he’s a great man—a brilliant tactician, a fearless solider. He fights with Lord Vak and Lord Balar as we speak.”

  “Even the leprechauns and the trolls fight with them, which has never happened before,” Trae said. “But we have heard that their combined armies have been ravaged by the Shaktra’s, and that they are being pressed to surrender—to eventually be exiled in the human kingdom.”

  Ali nodded. “The koul that travels with me told me some of this. Do you know if General Tapor, Lord Vak, and Lord Balar are considering surrender?”

  Trae shook his head. “Our news is at best a week old. Much could have happened since then.”

  Ali glanced at Drash. “Do the dragons continue to fight alongside the Shaktra?”

  “Yes. Along with other creatures I did not mention, the marked ones,” Trae said.

  “I know of them. We met several on the road,” Ali said. Amma shuddered. “Were they. . . our people?”

  “Yes. I tied up one, and injured another, to stop them from reaching the desert. . . “Ali did not know how to finish.

  Amma shook her head. “Nothing is sacred to our enemy.”

  “How are they marked?” Ali asked.

  “It is said the Shaktra itself touches them,” Trae said.

  Ali frowned. “And their minds are just gone?”

  “Or else imprisoned,” Amma said.

  Ali paused. “Do you know what the Shaktra is? Can you describe it to me?”

  Trae and Amma exchanged a long look, and Ali saw a thousand words in it and yet could not read a single one. Nevertheless, she knew right then that even though they were her loyal servants and loved her dearly, there were things they did not want to tell her. It was Trae who finally spoke.

  “Let us not speak of it in this dark place,” he said.

  The Crystal Palace. It took Ali several minutes above ground, in the fresh air and the green light, walking the vast rooms and the long halls of her old home, to realize that the palace had been carved out of a single giant clear quartz crystal. There were so many lovely wood carvings, and carpets, and big woven canopies, and laced curtains, that she did not understand that the basic structure was entirely made of stone. Amma had to explain how the place came to be.

  “It is said that long ago the ice maidens brought this crystal to the ground, from the highest kloudar, to rest here at the tip of this island around which Lestre flows. Further, it is said that this crystal is forever tied to the kloudar, and to the ice maidens themselves.” Amma added, “That might be the reason the Shaktra hesitates to destroy this place.”

  Ali had trouble listening, her eyes were too big as she strode from room to room. The only thing she could compare it to was the castle at Versailles, outside Paris. Her parents had taken her there when she was ten, and she had spent an afternoon lost in a dream. Yet the artwork of her palace surpassed the brilliance of the French. Here many of the walls were the paintings. Around every other corner she stumbled on a remote part of the elemental kingdom. So many scenes of beauty, so many tales told in pictures—Ali could not help but feel overwhelmed.

  Yet the odd thing was that she felt comfortable in the palace.

  Ali saw no other fairies as she explored.

  “It’s going to be hard to go home after this,” Ra muttered.

  “Aye. No leprechaun has ever walked these halls before,” Paddy said, and for the first time she heard genuine awe in his voice. It made Ali stop and turn to Trae and Amma.
r />   “Do you have gold here?” she asked.

  Trae was puzzled. “Gold? Why yes, Geea, there is gold here.”

  “How much?” Ali asked.

  Amma seemed to catch on, for she smiled. “As much as anyone could want.”

  Ali pointed at Paddy. “Give him a pot of gold. No, give him ten pots of gold.”

  Paddy’s green eyes swelled the size of limes. “Missy!” he cried.

  Then the leprechaun fainted dead away on the floor, and Ali laughed. She could not stop laughing, and the others joined her, even Farble, and it was a treat to hear a troll giggling, because he sounded like he was about to throw up. Ali regretted that Drash was not there to share the happy moment, but he was of course too big to fit in the palace. As far as she knew, he was still below, at the dock on the river.

  Trae led the others away to eat, and Amma took Ali to her private quarters. Ali was surprised to find her waiting room had a small throne in it, upon which sat a jeweled crown. She put on the latter, but it was too big for her head, and besides she did not like it. Amma nodded at her reaction.

  “You did not like to wear a crown when you lived among us,” Amma said.

  “I would have thought that I would have gotten used to it.”

  “You never did. It was not you, you used to say.”

  “I didn’t enjoy being queen?” ALL asked.

  “I would not put it that way. You had been queen a number of years before you chose to become human.”

  Ali was curious. “Did you help me with that decision? Did I talk to you about it?”

  Amma hesitated. “A long time ago, yes.”

  She strolled into her bedroom, and was happy to find it simply furnished. There was a large bed, a chest of drawers with a mirror, an efficient wooden desk, a closet filled with clothes, mostly white and green robes, a shelf filled with books—hardly anything she would have failed to recognize on Earth. Yet one of the room’s doors led onto a balcony that had a view few humans could have dreamed of.

  Taking a step outside, Ali was amazed to see how much larger the flying kloudar appeared—even with the sun shining straight overhead—and how impressive Lestre was as it rushed around the twin sides of their island, Uleestar. Yet it troubled her to think that the barrier of running water had been of no avail against the Shaktra’s forces. In the end, she had to ask herself, could anything stop the enemy?

  Lestre was unable to erode away the island because of a barrier of gigantic white marble boulders that covered the north end of Uleestar. Ali was not sure if they were a natural formation or not, but could see that the rows of clear green pools and the intricate labyrinth of flowers this side of the stones had been purposely constructed. Her palace was at the very tip of the island, hence she saw no other dwellings.

  But there was a magnificent mountain range that rose sharply a few miles north of Uleestar. Several of the highest snowy peaks seemed to brush the kloudar, although it might have been an optical illusion. Trying hard, she sought for a name for the mountains, and finally it came: the Youli. She could see that the Youli would make a natural stepping stone up to the kloudar.

  “Best not to stay out too long,” Amma said at her back.

  Ali turned. “Sorry.”

  Amma smiled. “Please come in, Geea, I feel safer with you close.”

  Ali reentered her bedroom, closed the door at her back. She did not see any lights, yet the room was pleasantly lit. Then she noticed a dozen square crystals, a foot across, arranged in the corners, and the faint warm glows they emitted. She did not bother to ask Amma if they used electricity.

  Ali sat on the edge of her old bed, opened the top drawer in the cedar table that stood near her pillows, found a small, oblong gold box, which she took out and set on top of her green sheets. Amma came quickly to her side as she opened it, almost as if in fear.

  Inside was a flaky dark blue powder.

  Stardust. The real thing. Ali recognized it immediately.

  She went to dip her finger in it, to taste it. Amma grabbed her hand.

  “No!” Amma cried.

  Ali sat back, startled. “What’s the matter? I know what it is.”

  Amma was anxious. “But do you know what it will do to a human body? Does anyone know?”

  Ali shrugged. “I have made my own version of stardust in my world. And it has helped me integrate my powers into my body. I was just thinking a little of the real thing might allow me to regain my strength.” She added, “Fighting Radrine took more out of me than I care to admit.”

  Amma gestured to her bandaged hand. “Does it cause you much pain?”

  Ali hesitated. “The dark fairy burned all the skin off my palm.”

  Amma winced and jumped up. “I have something I can put on it. I’ll be back in a moment.” She added as she left the room, “Don’t touch the stardust!”

  The moment Amma left, Ali picked up the gold box again, and placed her injured palm above the flaky blue powder. Immediately she felt a pulsating magnetic current flow from the material into her hand. It was soothing, invigorating, but its power intimidated her, and she closed the box and put it back in the drawer before Amma could return.

  “This gel is made from a special plant that grows only on the tallest peaks north of here, which perpetually lie in the shadow of the kloudar. It is very soothing,” Amma said as she came back in the room and sat near Ali. Amma had in her hand a white dish that contained a red cream. Once again, she gestured to Ali’s bandage. “May I see?”

  Ali offered her injured hand, feeling safe with Amma. “I warn you, it is not a pleasant sight,” she said.

  Amma began to unwind the gauze. “Ra bandaged this for you,” she said.

  “How did you know?”

  “He likes to take care of you, I see it.”

  “I only met him two days ago. He hardly knows me.” Amma smiled. “It is something to wonder about.” She added, “Where did you meet him?”

  “In Africa.”

  “You were in Africa?”

  “For a few minutes.” Ali added, “I used one of the portals in the mountain near my home, ran into him. You know about those?”

  Amma hesitated. “Yes, I do.”

  “You must know about the different colored doors then?”

  “All the high fairies know about the doors.”

  “I’m so curious about them. Where does the blue one lead?”

  “To the blue universe.”

  Ali chuckled. “What is that? It sounds like a higher kingdom.”

  Amma nodded. “It is a much higher realm that the elemental one. You might say all the creatures who live here aspire to attain it, even if they are not consciously aware of the desire.”

  “But the ice maidens have attained it?” Ali asked.

  “The koul must have told you about them. Yes, the ice maidens are free to come and go as they wish, to the stars even. But they do not interfere in our affairs.”

  “There’s no way of talking them into helping fight the Shaktra?”

  “That would be quite impossible. The ice maidens do not fight.”

  “But Drash said they take care of the dead, until they are ready to live again. How is that done?”

  “When an elemental grows old here, and finally tires of life, and lays down to rest, the ice maidens come for that body, and shelter it in the ice caves of the kloudar, and help it heal, until it is ready to return to life.”

  “What if the elemental’s body has been severely damaged? Say burned to a crisp by a dragon?”

  “Then a new body must be grown for that one.”

  “Fairies have babies then?” Ali asked.

  “An old elemental soul can be born as a tiny baby. But it is not the usual way for us. We prefer at the end of our lives to be taken by the ice maidens, and then returned to our land when our time comes.”

  Ali had to smile. “Sounds like you prefer to start life all grown up?”

  “There are advantages,” Amma said.

  Amma grim
aced when she finally undid the bandage, and Ali herself was not happy to see the bloody tissue. There was no sign of infection, but Ra had been right. The injury needed medical attention, and probably surgery. Healing had been going on but there was no skin left unburned with which to cover her muscles and tendons. Two days of recovery and it still looked like an open sore. No wonder it kept bleeding.

  Gently, Amma began to apply the cream, and Ali was amazed but relieved to feel her pain level drop in half. The fairies knew a thing or two about medicine, after all. Ali asked if the cream could heal the wound and Amma told her it could, but that it would take time.

  “You need to rest, and not channel your power through your arm.”

  Ali shook her head. “I don’t think I’m going to get much rest until I accomplish what I came here for.”

  Amma gave her a look. “Do you know why you are here, Geea?”

  Ali hesitated. “There are two main reasons. I’m trying to find my mother. She was taken hostage by Drugle over a year ago, and I’m positive he is hiding her in this realm.”

  “What’s the other reason?”

  “To help you fight the Shaktra.”

  “How do you propose to do that?”

  Ali reached for the Yanti around her neck, brought it out so that Amma could see it. Her trust in the high fairy caught her by surprise—she seldom showed it to Steve or Cindy. There was just something about Amma that reassured her.

  “I was hoping that by coming here I would learn more about the Yanti. But I have yet to meet anyone who knows about it.” Ali paused. “Do you know how it works?”

  Amma stared at the Yanti but did not touch it. “No.”

  “Do you know where it comes from at least?”

  Amma spoke in a reverential tone. “It is said the Yanti came from behind the violet door.”

  “The sixth door?”

  “Yes. But no one knows exactly how it entered this realm, or when.”

  “Was I the custodian of it? Before I left to become human?”