She gathers the black box and waits for me to retrieve the jacket. When I pull it on, she walks with me to the terrace outside. Taking the staircase that leads to the grounds below, we descend the stone steps to a lovely courtyard. Charisma activates the lighting. Everywhere in the beautiful courtyard, hundreds of floating yellow, round lights the size of baseballs rise up from the ground to hover above us in the air. They hang at different levels in a staggered, firefly pattern; it’s breathtaking and magical.
With the mountain range of the annexed area in the background, beneath the shine of the moons, Charisma sets up the zero-gravity apparatus and frees all the Crystal Clear Moments into the star chamber. Immediately, the figurines start to perform their tricks for us.
“Do you know which one you want to keep?” Charisma asks, watching the trift fly around performing daring maneuvers.
I reach into the pocket of the black jacket and show her the crystal spix that I had previously rescued from the star chamber. “I like the knight.”
“It suits you,” she says with a grin. Placing the box on the ground, she extracts the sonic sayzer cuffs from it. I lift my wrist for her to attach the right one to me. Immediately, the metal of the sonic sayzer grows and lengthens, covering my wrist to my elbow in a framework of Gothic-looking silver.
After the fingerless-glove part of it has grown over the back of my hand, Charisma advises, “Move your fingers to enter your security code.” I do as she says, twitching my fingers so that it looks like I’m playing an invisible piano with my right hand. “You can extract the earpiece now,” she advises as she dons the other weapon.
“Are you ready?” she asks me when I have the earpiece in place.
“Yes,” I reply. We walk a short distance away from the targets.
She lifts her hand and concentrates on the shiny quarry ahead of her. When she fires, she hits the ballerina dead in its center, shattering the glass into showering bits. She squeals like a child! Turning to me, her face is a mask of elation and she smiles giddily. “That felt so good! I never would have dreamed that it would be so good!”
I laugh as she grasps my forearms while jumping up and down. She reaches around me and hugs me impulsively. “You have to kill one too! It’s the best!”
When she releases me, I laugh some more and say, “I’ll try, but I’m not sure what words to say to get it to work.”
“I think you should try to shoot the mastoff first,” she says, referring to the mastodon. “It’s wide and it doesn’t move very fast.”
From somewhere behind us, a fast-moving, falcon-shaped ship sweeps through the dark sky, roaring over the stables and house. It’s hard to see, but the sound of it is like a jet fighter breaking the sound barrier. Trailing it, in definite pursuit, is an Alameeda E-One. The waspish ship shoots blue-colored laser cannons at the falcon ship, trying to bring it down. The falcon ship banks to the left. It comes around to fly directly over the courtyard. As the E-One adjusts to follow it, it suddenly slows its progression when it comes upon us in the center of the courtyard. Allowing the falcon ship to escape, it instead hovers over Charisma and me in an eerie, menacing way.
Shouts from the Cavars come from every direction when a bright white beam of light hits us in a sickening spotlight. Beside me, Charisma glances my way and whimpers, “Kricket.”
An instant later, her skin is melting from her bones from a flamethrower directed at her. I scream her name, but it doesn’t help; she’s on fire. A tractor beam lifts me up into the air and I travel toward the belly of the ship.
“Are you ready?” Charisma asks me. I blink a couple of times. In front of me, the ballerina crystal figurine dances across the zero-gravity sky. I exhale a deep breath, seeing it curl with the icy smoke of a vision.
I shake my head no. When I find my voice, I shout at her, “Run, Charisma! Tell Trey that they’re here—the Alameeda are here!”
Charisma hesitates, unable to process what I just said to her. I have to get her moving, so I push her hard in the direction of the house. “Run!” I shout again.
With terror in her eyes, she asks me, “What about you?”
“Just go!” I plead. This time she listens to me. She picks up the hem of her dress and she runs toward the house.
I pick up the hem of my dress too, as I run around the exterior of the house to the front of the estate. When I reach the orchard there, I try to catch my breath. I scan the hills by the pass where we entered the valley. Lifting my shaking right arm, I try to brace it with my left one. My breath comes out in raspy pants as I wait for what seems like an eternity.