Ice Phoenix

Baneyon stared gloomily into the fire, taking comfort in the heat drawn from the crackling wood as he tried to clear his mind of the previous days’ disasters. Five days had passed since they had departed Pa Gumpina and two of them had been spent on Si Ren Da. From the moment they had met up with the L-Masters, they had been besieged by one disaster after another.

Disaster one: joining forces with the L-Masters. Never had Baneyon met a more pompous, arrogant, status-loving bunch of fools. They whined about everything, from the ship and its sparse quarters to the food, and took offence every time any of the Imeldors tried to speak. Apparently, they were still upset that the Imeldors had managed to work out the reason behind all the murders.

Disaster two: eight hours before they expected to reach Si Ren Da, they ran into a freak meteor shower that blew an engine, taking one of the L-Masters with it. Baneyon had no idea what he had been doing in the engine room in the first place.

Disaster three: another one of the L-Masters had insisted he could replicate the engine. While trying to do this, he blew out the remaining engine and died. Baneyon and Quempa had to guide the ship down to Si Ren Da — an action that nearly drained them entirely of qi. Both had required eight hours of undisturbed rest after that.

Disaster four: the dogs of Si Ren Da. Raimus had not been exaggerating when he had called them hell’s jaws. L-Master Bolik had attempted to place bombs on several of the dogs, but that did not end well. Much to everyone’s horror, the dogs had shed the offending devices at the very last moment, leaving L-Master Bolik surrounded by his own devices.

Needless to say, everyone had been forced to scrub the remains of L-Master Bolik from the soles of their shoes and clothes. Baneyon never wanted to go through that again.

Because of these hellish hounds, Baneyon and the rest of the group were now hiding in a hastily made cave underground. With three dead L-Masters and a useless ship, the outcome of this mission seemed bleak.

Someone groaned and Baneyon looked over to where Talinuk Ferro lay. He had been wounded by being too close to L-Master Bolik when the bombs went off.

“We’re in trouble, aren’t we?” Raimus Jigahart said as he sat his large body next to Baneyon and reached a hand into the fire.

“Mind if I brighten this place up a bit?” He located the switch within the fire and turned it up a notch. The fire blazed outwards and Baneyon shifted back a bit.

“Useful gadget this. I’m glad we brought it along.”

“What are we going to do about those dogs?”

Raimus pulled out a cigar, clipped the end and lit it. He sucked in deeply and puffed out, pulling his moustache thoughtfully.

“They’re two metres high, their saliva is corrosive, their very presence nullifies our qi attacks, and they can spot us from kilometres away. And as we’ve just recently learned, they are also bomb disposal experts. I say we leave this planet now.”

“With what ship?” Baneyon didn’t bother to hide his cynicism. “Our L-Master friends led the dogs to it while searching for a place to hide, and now it’s nothing but a corroded hunk of junk! We can only pray that Kuldor received our distress signal when we lost the first engine, because now we are stuck in a sector where only one out of its four hundred planets is covered by satellites. And guess what? We’re not on that planet!”

“Dartkala’s breath, you know how to put things into perspective don’t you?” grumbled Raimus. “Quempa,” he said to the man who was approaching, “how do you ever survive with this miserable git on missions?”

Quempa Pillidux tucked away his leathery wings and took a seat by the fire. Instead of answering, he just shrugged. Unlike Grandmaster Deitrux, who didn’t possess wings, Quempa Pillidux came from the mountainous regions in the southern hemisphere of his planet. Over time, the people in his region had evolved wings to cope with the harsh, high altitude environment, which was a stark contrast to its northern counterpart.

Baneyon looked around. “Where’s Lady Fless?”

“Out scouting,” answered Quempa. “She should be back soon.”

“How is it possible we started out with ten people and we are now left with seven?” Baneyon said.

“Well, on the bright side, we have three less people complaining about food,” said Raimus.

“They need to get their heads into this mission. We haven’t so much as smelled the pendant yet.”

Quempa stiffened, touching his ear. The other two stared at him.

“What is it?” asked Raimus.

“That was Lady Fless. Looks like you’ll have to take your words back, Baneyon. She located the pendant.”

“What? She did? Brilliant!”

“She’ll be here soon,” Quempa continued. “She intends to rendezvous with L-Master Ana first and they’ll head here together.”

They were interrupted by the sound of someone sliding down the entrance into the cave. Moments later, a tall, thin man appeared, dressed in loose black trousers and a dark shirt. He had a dark yellow complexion and lacked any facial hair. Two discreet slits above his mouth indicated his nostrils.

“L-Master Kalum, care to join us by the fire?” Raimus called out.

The tall man nodded and walked over. He glanced at Talinuk Ferro, who was leaning against the far wall.

“How is he doing?” asked Kalum.

“He’s healing,” answered Raimus. “He’ll be all right in a few hours.”

“We may not have a few hours. Did I just hear Quempa say that Lady Fless discovered the pendant?”

“You heard right, L-Master Kalum,” answered Baneyon.

“Kalum. Just call me Kalum.”

It wasn’t long until Lady Fless and L-Master Ana slid down the entrance.

“Welcome back,” called out Raimus. “I hope you have some good news for us.”

“On the contrary, the news is dire,” said Lady Fless, looking grim. L-Master Ana stood next to her, a tall and lanky woman from Palilon, in Sector Eight. Palilon was a swampy, humid planet and most of its inhabitants possessed either amphibian or insectile characteristics. L-Master Ana was of the former; she had webbed limbs, tiny gills running down both sides of her neck, and a small fin on top her head.

They all gathered around the fire, and the injured Talinuk Ferro joined them.

“As you know, I located the pendant. Unfortunately, it’s in the dogs’ lair underground. To make matters worse, the entrance is protected by a barrier, and only the dogs can move freely through it.”

“No doubt you have tested it?” said Raimus.

Lady Fless nodded. “I threw a couple of rats and watched them dissolve. The same with rocks. The barrier appears to be a construction of weaving and lacing.”

“Not too bad,” Raimus mused. “I’m sure we can figure out how the barrier works and deactivate it. It’s the dogs I’m worried about — we’re talking about a full nest of those vicious monsters.”

“I haven’t finished,” said Lady Fless. “I also located the demons. There are five of them, and right now, they’re standing outside the dogs’ lair. They looked like they were trying to find a way past the barrier.”

“You saw the demons?” Quempa asked. “What did they look like?”

Lady Fless’s mouth set into a straight line. “They could be any one of us. Pophusian, Cubeyon, Magarkan … it’s hard to tell.”

“Then it’s only a matter of time before they find a way to retrieve the pendant,” said Baneyon.

Lady Fless nodded. “They are also keeping a safe distance from the dogs.”

Raimus breathed out a sigh of relief. “At least the dogs are good for something. But that doesn’t give us much time, does it? With the demons standing in front of the barrier, do we attempt to engage them and deactivate the barrier later, or do we focus on the pendant?”

“Focus on the pendant,” Quempa said quickly. “Don’t forget, both the queen and the grandmaster warned us about their qi. Without knowing how the enemy fights, we can’t afford to engage them on the assumption we would win.”

“I agree with Quempa,” said Baneyon. “Our mission is to retrieve the pendant, not engage with the demons. Are we all agreed on this?”

Everyone nodded.

“Great,” he said. “Lady Fless, do you have any idea how we can penetrate this barrier?”

“I do actually,” she replied. “I had a little time to experiment before the demons arrived. I discovered that if you distance yourself from the barrier by a hundred metres or more, you can send an astral form of yourself into the ground.”

“That was dangerous!” exclaimed Quempa. “You left your physical body open to attack.”

Lady Fless was talking about astral projection. It required ejecting nearly all her qi from her body to form a second body that would contain her consciousness. It was similar to weaving a clone, except an astral projection did not have a solid body. Any injury sustained to the astral form would affect the real body. There was also another limitation to astral projection — Lady Fless could not have returned to her body carrying anything she would have picked up along the way.

“I didn’t have much of a choice, Quempa,” said Lady Fless. “With the demons so close to us, we have very few options.”

“What was the lair like?” Baneyon asked.

“Cavernous. I materialised at least a hundred metres below ground. There’s a path that descends for about two hundred metres before disappearing into another cave. You need to enter that cave and take the right fork. It led me to a small room where I found the pendant.” Her eyes gleamed. “And guess what else I found?”

“Oh cut it out, Lady Fless! This is the wrong time to play with our emotions,” said Raimus, pulling his moustache fretfully. “Just tell us already!”

Lady Fless gave him a scathing look. “You’re such a wuss! The pendant was attached to a skeleton, and judging from its open circular pelvic inlet, it was female. I couldn’t confirm the carbon dating, but the woman was most likely Santorian, from Sector One. The skeleton is around three thousand years old.”

“Dartkala, are you thinking what I’m thinking?” gasped Raimus.

“No one has to think,” said Baneyon. “You are screaming it into our heads. Who else thinks that we found the final resting place of Skra?”

“It’s possible,” L-Master Kalum concurred. “She did go missing after the war, and it is logical that she would have kept the pendant with her at all times.”

“Dartkala’s breath, if it really is her, Si Ren Da has just become UWIB’s number one cultural heritage site. Here lies a missing piece of history! Incredible!” said Raimus.

“Furthermore, it shows we’re on the right track and the queen’s hypothesis about the demons and what they’re after is correct. Skra’s pendant really does exist — this is going to throw a spanner into historians’ work everywhere,” said Baneyon.

“Indeed, it will. But before that can happen, we need to rescue the pendant or our historians will be too caught up in recording the events of a new war to write about the last one,” said Quempa.

They all turned sombre after he said that. Baneyon clapped his hands. “Not to worry, I have a plan!”

Quempa groaned. “This better be good.”

“My plans always work, Quempa,” said Baneyon, giving his friend a withering look. “You’ve survived all of them, haven’t you?” Before Quempa could answer, he continued. “For it to work, we have to be extremely well coordinated. No offense to anyone here, but I’ll need the best athletes for this. That would be me, Lady Fless, and L-Master Ana.”

“And what would we be doing that requires us to be athletes?” asked Lady Fless, her eyes narrowing.

“Chillax, Lady Fless. I’ve got this covered.” Baneyon grinned, which made Quempa groan audibly.

“We’re going to astral project into the lair at different times. I’ll go first, grab the pendant, and race up to the next level where you’ll be waiting for me. I’ll pass you the pendant and project out. You then need to make it up to the second level to L-Master Ana. Again, pass her the pendant and project out.”

Baneyon turned to L-Master Ana. “Your job is a little harder, I’m afraid. The dogs will have sensed you by then and will follow your trail of gi. You need to lead the pack to the barrier. When you are close enough to the barrier, you’ll have to attach the pendant to one of the dogs. Make sure it runs through the barrier. Understood?”

L-Master Ana didn’t answer. Her large eyes blinked several times while she gaped, struggling to find the right words.

“Have you completely lost your mind?” barked Lady Fless. “You actually want to encourage the dogs to come after us? And what’s more, you expect Ana to latch the pendant onto one of them? Have you forgotten, we can’t weave around them!”

“That’s not the only thing he’s forgotten,” added Quempa. “Who’s supposed to remove the pendant from the dog if L-Master Ana succeeds?”

“You are,” Baneyon said promptly. Quempa threw him a disbelieving look.

“It makes sense, Quempa. You’re the only one that can fly without using qi. All you have to do is swoop in, grab the pendant, and fly the hell away from there!”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah!”

“And where am I supposed to fly to? I’ll just cruise to Pa Gumpina shall I, since we don’t have a ship anymore!”

“What makes you think I haven’t thought of that?”

“Have you?”

“Of course, I have! You will rendezvous with the rest of us at Mire’s Point.”

Mire’s Point was the third highest point along the stretch of craggy mountains that lay on the southern side of their cave. It wasn’t far, and Quempa would be able to reach it within minutes.

“As soon as we meet up, we’re getting the hell off this planet!”

“How?” Quempa asked flatly.

“Geez Quempa, do I have to spell everything out for you? We’ll be taking the demons’ ship. Kalum and Ferro are in charge of reconnaissance and capture.”

Everyone groaned.

“We’re all going to die,” wailed Raimus.

“Wait a moment, Baneyon,” interjected Quempa, “You overlooked one thing — the demons will not give up their ship so easily. That being said, we could use that to our advantage — we can use the ship to kill the demons.”

“What?” cried everyone.

“Listen carefully as I explain,” continued Quempa. The minutes ticked by and there were gasps of disbelief and heated debate as he explained what he had in mind. Towards the end, the rest of the team was forced to admit that he was right. Quempa’s plan was a dangerous one, but, it had a better outcome than Baneyon’s — if they succeeded in pulling it off.