“I presume there’s a reason you’ve suddenly decided to share your artistic side?” Alex asked when Drock finally released her hand.
“That,” the general said, pointing to her wrist, “is what’s called a Beacon. It’s next-gen experimental tech.”
“Experimental tech?” Alex looked from her barely-there tattoo back up to his face. “Why do I not like the sound of that?”
“If you were going to have a reaction, you would have already keeled over by now,” Drock grunted, returning the stylus to his pocket. “You survived the imprinting, so you’ve got nothing to worry about.”
Survived? Alex wondered exactly what kind of tech Drock had just ‘imprinted’ her with.
“Care to explain what it is?”
“I told you,” Drock said. “It’s a Beacon.”
Alex tapped her foot impatiently, her expression demanding more.
“You and I both know you’ll be going off on some half-assed attempt to commit treason by warning the other races,” Drock said. He didn’t wait for her confirmation—or denial—before he continued, “If you get in trouble, trace the symbol three times with your finger and it’ll send out an invisible signal flare, like a homing beacon, with coordinates that can be used to program Bubbledoors to your location. It’ll only work once without being reactivated, so use it only if you absolutely have to.” He glared at her as if to add weight to his words. “After you’ve traced it three times, follow that with one more trace if you need an extraction, or two more traces if you need an army of reinforcements. There’s no middle option—we either retrieve you quietly or we deploy for a battle. Understood?”
Alex looked at the general with suspicion. “Why are you giving me this? If you know what I’m going to do, why aren’t you throwing me in a dungeon?”
“Because you’re right,” Drock said without hesitation. “The other races need to be warned. Everyone in that room knows it.” He paused. “Well, everyone but that scurvy asswipe, Jaxon. But to be fair, he’s been the royal advisor for a long time, and while he’s set in his ways, he usually does offer sound advice.”
Drock shook his head and continued, “Never mind all that. The point is, you need to do what we can’t. I know that—and they know it, too. But our hands are tied, at least politically. And neither the king nor the commander is in a position to offer you the support you might need. So this is me doing what I can in the hope that you’ll never have to use it—for both our sakes, since I’ll likely be court-martialled if they find out what I’ve done. But I’d rather you have it and never use it than don’t have it and need it, consequences be damned.”
Feeling warmth bubble within her, Alex reached out a hand and wrapped her fingers around his muscled arm, giving a gentle squeeze. “Thank you, General,” she said, her voice slightly hoarse.
“Go on, get out of here, kid,” Drock said gruffly in response, but Alex could hear the emotion in his tone. He might be a formidable general who commanded half of Medora’s military, but he was also an old softie. Mostly. “Don’t get yourself killed.”
His words startled a chuckle out of Alex. “Same goes for you, General. And fair warning, if my parents see this ink and learn who it came from, you might not be able to keep up your end of the deal.”
It was Drock’s turn to chuckle, but his only other response was to make a shooing gesture with his hands, so Alex pulled out her return Bubbler vial and threw it to the ground, grinning at the general one last time before disappearing from the palace.
Four
When Alex arrived back at Akarnae, she weighed up whether she should visit the food court for a quick lunch before continuing on with her plans for the day. But she decided against it, knowing her friends would want to hear how her royal meeting had gone—especially D.C., after having been sent back early. Not to mention, they would try again to tag along on her afternoon mission, something she simply couldn’t allow. She didn’t know when or where her mysterious stranger would meet her, only that Caspar Lennox had said, “He’ll find you.” Without anything else to go on, all she could do was go about her day and wait for him to turn up.
Skipping lunch to instead head directly into the Tower building, Alex descended the staircase leading to the foyer of the Library. The surly librarian wasn’t at his desk, so she was able to sneak past without enduring his barbed commentary.
Alex scurried down the next set of stairs, feeling the phantom welcoming embrace of the Library as she continued past where most people were able to venture. When she reached the bottom of the staircase and hit a dead end, she willed a door to open, concentrating on where she wanted it to lead.
“First things first,” she said to herself as she stepped through to Ancient Egypt.
After battling the windswept sand and searing heat as she slid down the side of a large dune in the fake-but-oh-so-real desert, Alex entered the colossal pyramid where she knew she would find her parents.
While it had technically only been a few weeks since their last family reunion before Alex had left for the Kaldoras break, for her it had been nearly two months since she’d seen her parents. She missed them, especially with the vision of their tortured deaths burned into her brain.
Just as expected, as soon as Alex walked a few steps along one of the flame-lit passages, she heard their excited voices and headed towards the sound, only to find them both fussing over an open tomb. Inside was a sealed sarcophagus, with Rachel using a small brush to dust the symbols carved into it, and Jack taking notes based on her findings.
“… and I think whoever is inside must have been important, though perhaps not royal. There’s not enough gold, even if it does have a gilt inlay around the edges. But see these markings here? I’m thinking this was a high priest or priestess—someone of great renown. I can’t wait to analyse these hieroglyphs and discover the story behind—”
Alex interrupted by clearing her throat, knowing from experience that they would never notice her unless she made them aware of her presence.
“Alex!” Jack said, placing his notebook on the edge of the tomb so he could wrap her in a hug. “Has it really been a fortnight already?”
Caught up in their own world, Alex wasn’t surprised her parents had lost track of time. “Almost three weeks, actually. I’ve been back at school for nearly a week now.”
“Wow, time sure does fly when you’re up to your elbows in mummified remains,” Rachel said, moving to embrace Alex as well. “You’re looking well, sweetheart. Very tanned.”
Enough with the tanning observations, Alex thought. She wasn’t that much darker after her summery trip to the past.
“It looks good on you,” said Jack, wrapping an arm around her. “Like a golden sun goddess.”