S2 Chapter 4 Welcome to the Rainbow

Ao'o, 2026 AC/DC, day. . . . . . .

 Another bright and sunny day. Warm weather, a slight breeze. Star was on her terrace watering her herbal garden. The buds were thick and dark green, smelling heavy with earth. They were sticky to the touch, large in her fingers, nearly ready to be picked and left to dry. She went to the small gardening table next to her plants and picked up an already dried bud from a small gold tray and proceeded to roll a joint. She picked up a match, struck it and lit the joint.

She inhaled deeply and felt the smoke fill her lungs in the morning rays. For weeks there had been nothing but peace in the castle. Dawn had recovered and spent her time with her child. Star had been left in isolation these past few days, of her own choice mostly. She wanted a little peace and quiet, especially after finding her spy dead. Two days and a night after sending him his body was found with ears, eyes and tongue ripped out.

It had unnerved the Queen, as well as those closest to her. Speaking of which, Richi was out doing his job, ruling the estate managers and kingdom correspondents. He liked that part of their duality most, while she was the face of the throne, he knew everything that ran it.

She had much to think of, to be thankful for, to wonder about. Richi was her ever faithful companion and she cared for him deeply. Sometimes she wished wished she could marry him, but to do so would remove her from power. She clenched her fist and it felt so empty.

“Your highness!” A guard had run in. “Look to the north!”

She did and it was then that she noticed the pillar of smoke. That was the direction of the Sabbath Lands. She sighed, they were in a state of civil war right now. While she had established peace among her own lands, the hill clans and tribes of the north east were often at war with one another. Nothing but land disputes between people who were one step below the Geordieman tribes and one step above being completely pagan. All of them out of reach of her political power, but not that of her friend.

As the guard rambled on about how no news was yet forthcoming she decided to entertain herself and ride out to assist, she had an investment in the Sabbath Lands after all. She nearly Had to guarantee the safety of the land. Most people knew she had close bonds to the Mage Geez, who grew the plants she tended to now. His herbal supply spread far and wide, the medicine to cure any aliment. As his friend she took it upon herself to personally ride out and lend help.

She walked past her guard and to the stables. Before Anyone could object she was riding hard for the Sabbath lands with a small militia in tow. Richi, watching her leave yet again with a scowl on his perfect face, could at least be happy about that last bit. As he turned inside from the front steps of the castle he was met with a barrage of unanswered questions by the Managers. When would she be back? She must see to this, she must see to that. Richi sometimes wondered who the true ruler was, himself or his cousin.

Star rode hard, and what was normal a comfortable five day journey she did in two. Along the way she found taverns with ready horses for her to ride and once off a tired steed she simply hoped on another. This way she rode longer and farther and within two and a half days, arrived. The fire had not been quenched yet, as was normal for this type of land. In this outer most lands of the Sabbath kingdom, they were plains and hills that rolled far in all directions. Usually these plains were used to grow crops of all kinds, their more active villages and kingdoms lay to farther north to the marshes.

Sometimes, these fires were allowed to burn to days at a time to help clear dead brush for a new harvest. No doubt the fire had been struck by man, but was a thing of help in the midst of chaos. When she came up to the fire she saw tribesmen battling it out in a small scrimmage, Geez's people however were more concerned with the inferno. She held her men back from the battle, instead opting to help douse the flames of the fire line near Geez's property. She hadn't been this way since she last spoke to him and she found him easily as he helped to lead the fight against the flames.

She over watched from a hill that over looked the massive valley, there was no use getting involved with nothing to do. She likened being useless in such a situation as being a beheaded chicken. There was no need for her to get involved as her men did it instead. They had even asked her to stay back, they being more useful in this matter than she was. Geez rode up to her side to watch as she did. He had a smudge of soot across one cheek but seemed fine otherwise.

“Nasty fire!” She shouted, gazing upon his frizzy curly hair or the mustache that perfect rested on his face.

He nodded. “Nothing I feel threatened by. Better than ye olde dragon fire any day. Thank you for coming all the same!”

She smiled. “Of course my friend!”

Into the day the fire was fought, Star shed sweat even from a distance. Yet as the Mage had said there was no real danger, the fire was catching mostly brush and his men had quickly dug a trench that separated the barns from the flames with the others fought their battles on the other side of it. Well into the night they battled and the next day it was put to rest like the land dispute that caused it. Geez and Star had called a meeting between warring leaders and an arrangement of their own device was made.

“At least for now the dispute is settled,” Geez said when they turned away from the meeting in a glen.

She nodded. “Is there nothing to be done to bring them into the fold of modern civilization?”

“They refuse. They see us as the pagans.”

She laughed. He led her into the woods, away from the prying eye. She followed without hesitation. Into the sunset they rode and into the night, to the more rocky areas of the east. By the time the moon came to rest just above the horizon they stopped before a large rocky pass. The sides of the pass rose up into the sky on either side of them. Geez led the way without a word and she followed in complete trust.

“If only Richi knew I was alone Again. He would be furious.”

“Forgive me for asking, but why not marry him? He controls your affairs when you leave. He cares for your well being. He worries and is angered by you being alone. Sounds to me like you two are already married.”

“We can never marry. I was not born royal, I am the mother of royals and if I married another man besides a prince or king, I will lose my crown.”

“Ah I see. With your husband vanished your motherhood is all.”

“I claim Jim is still alive,” she whispered. He could see her eyes flash in the moonlight as she looked upwards. “His body was never found. No one can prove, besides his absence, that he ever died. To remarry would effectively dethrone me.”

“And your cousin?”

“Richi is my family and closest friend, he started the rebellion against the BOC to free me, he understands me. He knows me very well, better than anyone.” She recalled a moonlight tryst they shared long ago. . . .when she was just a young one.

“You seem very guarded over bloodlines your highness. I notice such things. You refuse to remarry to remain the queen to a king long since gone.”

“The line of rulers is an event that I have to guard the integrity of. The BOC must never gain power like they did before, never again. Should they stand next to the throne all freedom is lost. They nearly had it too, until I became Queen.” She was silent for a heart beat as flashes of memory swept behind her eyes. “The wrong or right ruler will decide the fate of thousands, upon thousands of people. The BOC must never gain the crown.”

“One day we might see the destruction of them entirely.”

“I can only hope. As much as I wish to, the people still rely on them. To destroy something as ancient as the BOC could be devastating so I cursed us both with immortality. If they must thrive so would I. Until then, I leave it to the citizens to decide when they want to abolish it. I hope some day they find a reason.”

“Or you find a replacement solution. And Richi you trust to be your stand in?”

She nodded. “He I trust to never fall victim to any priest.” She shook her head, at both her antics of ruling and his of taking up her slack. “He is my cousin and closest friend. I love him dearly.” After a beat of silence she spoke again, trying to move on from subjects she tried to avoid like love and marriage and men. “What is it you brought me this way to see Geez? What lays in the darkness here?”

“Something you have been seeking.”

She felt her heart leap into her throat and she fell silent as they approached a large building in the middle of a rocky gorge. It stood alone and only one horse wandered the sparsely grassed over area. They dismounted, wen to the porch and Geez opened the door. Inside was a wonderful world of candle and lamp lights and tools and gears. Large things covered with dirty white linen sheets, crates opened and some closed.

“What is this place?” She asked, though in her heart she knew.

“This is where the last stand was made.” A voice rang out from high above.

A large sheet was dropped and a massive structure that Star could only call a canon was revealed. She looked up and saw a man above tinkering with something here, tightening something there. It was the Kilmister by the scent of his cigarette. Most of these crates were things she had paid for. She knew where she was.

“Welcome to the Rainbow.” Geez said next to her, admiring the work done to it. “The last stand of Spyders from Mars against the People of Earth. It was here that the Earth King trapped a horde of Spyders and forced them to watch as he destroyed their only way home after defeating them in battle. He took them prisoner for decades before they were mysteriously released and scattered to the winds of the lands.”

“Mysteriously?” She asked skeptically.

“So they say,” Kilmister said from above. He put down his tools and stepped onto a platform that he started lowering with a turn lever. When he was on the ground he approached Star, wiping his hands free of grease. “They begged 'im to let 'em and their children return to Mars. Begged the king but he refused 'em.”

“I was not there, I cannot speak for that King.” She sniffed and said haughtily.

“Of course you weren't. You were still asleep on Mars.”

“Asleep?” Her eyebrows creased together as she tried to understand. “How so? As in unborn?”

Geez went off to inspect the Rainbow Bridge, a device that had been destroyed for centuries.

Kilmister paused and sighed, trying to think of how to explain it. “On Mars there has had three races of people. The Humans who lived there and the race of aliens they rescued from a dying planet. These other-worlders were called Starriders, they were an ancient race who mastered immortality without the aid of water. Once rescued and take to Human colonies on Mars, the younger generations fell in league with the humans and interbred against the wishes of the elders. Their offspring eventually became its own race, Spyders.”

Star had never known this. No one on earth except the man telling her knew. Mars history had long since been lost to earthlings.

“Where does that leave you and me?” She asked, watching every move he made as he took out a lighter to light the joint she had on her lips.

“My great great.....great....grandmother was a true hybrid, what came after her are Spyders. Her father was a 'Rider, one of the younger nobles who chose mortality." He took a puff on his cig. "When Mars broke out in civil war, he married a Spyder woman for peace. But unless you was one of the immortal StarRiders, hybrid blood faded into Spyder blood. These elder Riders were neither born nor ever dead.”

Even Geez had to eavesdrop. Star eyed Kilmister nervously as he went about, tugging cables and tightening bolts. She inhaled, held her breath, then exhaled.

“You are something that was supposed to be laid to rest forever and never awaken.” He stepped back and looked at his handy work. “Do you like children?”

“Of course I do, I have children.”

“On Mars, when I left, the rulers cursed the planet to remain still in time until you returned. As far as I know, not a single babe 'as been born on Mars since.”

She had no idea it was even possible. “When do I to return to the red planet?”

“Nearly ready here. I'll call you to my side when its ready.”

“That's it?” She asked. “That's all you wanted to tell me? That's all you have to say to me here and now?”

“Yep, that's it.”

“You can't just stop in the middle of a story and not reveal the whole truth!”

“I can and I did. Now go home Star Queen.” He had hardly so much as looked at her and knew it infuriated her. His ultimate goal was to drive her away from this thing she made him do.

Geez watched silently as Star fumed with frustration, he too was wary of what she wanted to do. She had to have faith in Kilmister, yet she was opening a dangerous door. Before leaving she stopped at the doorway and turned back.

“How do I know you aren't just lying to me? How do I know you won't lead an invasion once the bridge is opened?”

“If that was my plan, I wouldn't be asking ya for help.”

She clenched her teeth together, nodded and then tuned in a huff. Geez followed her.

"Star!" He came up beside her she mounted her horse.

She stared down at him with a placid face.

"Are you sure you want to do it? Leave this world?"

"I must. . . ."

"But why? You have been Queen for decades. What can help you on Mars? What if you ARE earthling?"

"There are questions left unanswered, time lost and forgotten. Demons that haunt me. Mars calls to me and I must go. " She saw Zardos lurking on the porch, unseen by anyone but Star. "Not long before I was adopted, stars fell from the sky and I woke up in a pit of fire. I am what fell that night. Why?" She looked up and then turned her horse and rode off into the night.

Geez had become friends with Kilmister. Not even he knew much more than Star did, hearing of her earliest memory was a surprise. Her heart pounded as furiously as she forced her horse to ride. Always! Always such a lack of information! Damn be the men who crossed the Queen of Stars! She screamed and thundered hard away from the gorge of the Rainbow Bridge. What she wanted was in her grasp but would she grab it when it came? She didn't even know. That is what angered her most.

She stopped suddenly in the path after an hour's ride. She could not return to Ao'o, not when the bridge was nearly done.

“I cannot return.” She dismounted, talking to herself. “The bridge is almost done, no I cannot go home just yet.” She stopped and looked behind her, the gorge was a distant smudge on the horizon.

Her horse was breathing hard so she let go of the reigns and let him wander to the small stream in hearing distance. She followed her beast through the glen and through the short trees under the moon. The smoke in the distance from the fire of the Sabbath marshes was diminishing every moment. The creature found water and by the brook were berry bushes and small mushrooms. Star was hungry and far from the nearest village, far from civilization.

She sat down with her back to a tree, sighing into the night about her life. The mushrooms were pale in the moonlight and it didn't even cross her mind whether or not the things she found in the night were safely edible, but she ate them anyway. Mushrooms, berries, handfuls of water. She didn't even have a canteen with her.

Into the night the moon rose higher and not long after eating, Star felt a pulse in her eyes. She took off her coat, then her boots. When she sat back again the moon was a larger, flatter disc in the sky. It suddenly began reaching for her and her jaw dropped as the moon looked like it was melting in reverse, towards her, dripping its craters across the black grass. Its light was flat, she was frozen and it crept upon her like a man in heat.

She couldn't even scream as it opened into an endless white hole and she felt herself being sucked in. She grabbed for the grass between her fingers, trying to hold back and succeeded in managing to crawl forward on her belly. Away from the hungry moon.

She got to her feet and was running! Running from the moon as it clawed it way after her! She couldn't scream, there was no sound. She tripped and landed hard on her front! When she turned she wasn't even in the glen anymore. She was on the ridge around Blackmoore hills.....where she and Richi had consummated their lingering stares brimming with teenage lust.

…..when she first came to stay with the Blackmoores of Holy Wood, they put her at age fifteen, she was a strong and capable nineteen now. Out of the three Blackmoore brothers, the first had many sons. The second had one son and the third had a daughter, Star. She had no real future of duty, unless she married into royalty she would remain a noble lady forever. She had no woes then. . . . . .

Star was watching everything as if it were a dream. She watched herself in that time on this day. For some reason she had fallen into the memory of her and Richi's night together.

Still learning the ways of the people, she was educated enough to her age level and knew the Book of Law like no one else better. She attended a girls academy, and her parents took it upon themselves to make sure she knew how to run a household and run servants. She had been gifted a life of nobility, but she was to take the role like she was born to it.

The King was young, and would soon seek a wife in the years to come. They were holding out for her to wed into the throne. She was an adamant virgin. But she herself was also curious. Having been shied away from men, she wondered about them. She read many things in the libraries and sexual conduct was some of them.

Richi was a handsome lad just three years older than her. Her cousin, her father's brother's only son. He was a quiet young man, unwed at age twenty two. Typical Blackmoore look with long black hair, dark eyes, and a solemn gaze. He was always with his guitar, he was a quick hand and deviant ladies man. He was sitting on the porch one summer's day, when the procession came up the drive. Horses, pack mules and travel vehicles were coming. His mother and father had beat them to it; the family summer retreat. 

 It was a humid summer when they arrive, her hair was arranged simply, a thick braid to the side, a pin with the family crest insignia on it in the twists. The crest was an ornate B on a deep purple background.

She was riding on a grey and white speckled stallion, prancing up the drive like she half owned the place. She wore black boots up to her knees, black riding pants and an off white shirt that she seemed to have just buttoned on the verge of indecent. She seemed to have changed since she was first presented to the public. She had been a tad more conservative then, a tad more modest.

She wore her customary riding glasses, round and yellow to adjust to the long sun exposure. On her head was a now worn black leather hat. Her hat had dark purple plumage sprouting from on side. She was pure Blackmoore there. Richi knew she would be his then.

He himself was dressed in his usual all black. An airy tunic of black woven silk, white stars along the buttons. His pants were likewise, long and as is customary for the Blackmoore family, were a thin black velvet. His shoes were canvas sewn, traditional black. He was a black blood, through and through and wore it with pride.

Star watched as they conversed, shared a stolen kiss in the stables and how She had stalked him with her eyes the entire visit. She wanted him to want her, back then, there had been no other men in her life.

It was sunset when Richi was back on his porch, strumming. The three brothers were here, and their wives and children. The Blackmoores were all there and their elder cousins held the center of attention. Star and Ritchie were the odd ones out, his father was second in line of succession, Star's was third. They didn't have the most responsibility and were fine with that.

Star walked out of the house is a traditional Blackmoore women's garb for this type of setting and event, a dress of black lace. An off shoulder neckline in lace, long-sleeved in lace, a slim silk gown underneath contoured to her every curve to just below her thighs. She looked elegant, and when she passed, he saw that the back was cut out in a diamond shape. Her creamy skin beckoned him. Her hair was half pinned up with silver and amethyst tipped pins.

She was leading him, he was willing. She took him tot he tree nestled atop a hill. It looked over valleys and the servants always placed thick rugs under it for the family members and off duty servants to sit and lounge. Of course, to those more perverse it was a place for the curious.

When he found her she was standing next to the tree, staring off into the silver valley below. She had removed the silk under dress and was only in ruffled black lace. He went up behind her and began to undo the clasp to the heavy choker her parents put on her. It was symbolic, she caged by them. He took off the heavy silver collar, in the shape of a constellation, amethysts to match her hair pins. He let it drop to the ground. He took the hair pins out, and put them in his pocket. He reached around her to grab her shoulders and hold her against him. The feel of her bare this close to him.

He turned her round and kissed her. It was deep and possessive. He tilted her head back and trailed kisses down her temple, her jaw line, her neck. A breeze blew through and it made her skin prick, her nipple hardened against the bare chest peeking out of his tunic.

While they kissed she took the tunic away from him. He eased her back to sit on the rug with him, he laid her back and hovered in close to her, smothering her with his kiss, his hand playing with her rosebud nipples. Her dress hiked up on her legs, she rubbed her smooth thighs against him, it made his spine shiver. She was aching for him, and nervous at the thought of an intrusion.

Star watched herself make love to the man she was told was her cousin.

His hips pressed against her womanhood and she felt him then, a hard member straining against his thin velvet trousers. All that separated them was lace and velvet. He undid his trousers and worked them off with ease. He had her sit in his lap, facing him at first. His hands were everywhere, her neckline was low and his hands grabbed her breasts, squeezing, holding. His mouth went to her hard peaks and he sucked.

Suddenly it ended and there was her husband, laughing, walking through her vision. Alive. He came up to her in the glen and she realized she was back in the real world, tripping on mushrooms. He held his hand for her and pulled her up, she glanced down and found her shirt was missing by her own hand. He took her by the hand and led her back to the river, as he had long ago. . . .

In a moment the moon was back in the sky and was reflecting off the rippling water. She had loved him yes, but he was gone often and she was left to the mercy of the BOC those many times until he never came back. She began to untie her trousers as the moonlight in the water reflected off her face. She stepped out of and away from the rest of her clothing, now naked in the moonlight. She went forward and the water was cold as it touched her bare toes, it gratefully accommodated her body with each step she went into the river.

The water wrapped around her like a silky, barely there blanket and she spread her arms as she swam into it. The sound of the brook filled her ears and when she looked back to find Jim, he was gone. . . . But there was someone else there and she abruptly stood up in the water. Her nipples hardened and the water desperately rolled off of her skin like clothing falling to the ground.

He was there, in his worn jeans and without shoes or shirt. Three men had visited her in her nightly drugged escapade, three men who all had had an impact on her life. Three who have liberated her, sheltered her, fought for her, loved her. All three were men she had returned the feelings for. But the one who stood there now was the one she wanted most. Yet, in the blink of an eye he vanished with a smile.

Leaning on a tree was her tormented reflection. It was Zardos. Star stared at her with unseeing eyes and tiled her head. She had no idea why the men who had been showed her were chosen, or what they meant. 

“What does it mean?” She called to Zardos, her mental projection. “Why do you all appear to me? Torment me?” She shivered in a small breeze that slithered across her nude body. 

Zardos watched like a wolf on its prey. Watching each ripple in the water. "One to never fail you. One to give you power. One to make you desperate."

 She listened to the twisted being and as her head filled with colors and thoughts of many shades and reasons she sank back into the water for her night time swim. Three men, past present and dead....or was it future? Richi was her most trusted ally, Jim her only husband, Bon her only love. But there was one more man, one more man who waited on the red speck in the sky she looked up to. The one who invaded her dreams, who she didn't know.

“Where men once ruled and ruined before you, may men rule a better world after you.” She told the sky, repeating what a witch haunted her by. “No daughters shall rule what is rightfully theirs, lest blood be their domain. Where once sons were absent, let them come forth to right the imbalance of their fathers, to continue the legacy of their mothers. Red sands for she, and green for he. . . . .Only then may you rest.”

The next thing she knew the day had come and the night seemed to end all too quickly. She sat up and gasped to find herself nude, covered in leaves and branches. She shook her head, collected her clothing and sat by the brook. Her fingers stretched across the ground where she pressed her hand into the earth, he had been standing there, he had been there. Tears choked her but she refused to cry.

A Queen never cried.

S2 Chapter 3 Dawn in the Underground. . . .part 2

Underground, nightfall.

Vince was the eldest of the Motley gang, born in scandal. Now he helped run the Underground. A girl's favorite about the tunnels.

Mik and Tom were the true warriors of the group, having come from nomadic families who specialized in warring and fighting as an art. The youngest member was Nik, younger brother to Mik. They hid out in the corner of the tunnels, around a particularly active hub of people, where red lights and bath houses were one in the same.

There was a knock and when it was opened the boys were met with their friend Joan and two other females in tow. Vince was at the door and he immediately took an interest in the blonde woman of high status. However Joan made it clear they had a mission in mind. Once inside she took them into confidence.

“Ok guys I need help. Dawn's missing and that Man has her. I need to find them.” She started, they would know who she meant.

“You mean that Spyder guy she's been hanging with?” Tom asked.

Nik took notice of the youngest of the group. A few years younger than he was maybe. The Princess Heir Apparent. Though while to his eyes she appeared younger than himself, she had been born more than twenty years ago. Longer than he had been.

Star bristled. “WHO!?”

Joan recoiled but held her ground and faced the Queen. “ She accepted a Spyder to stay here over a week ago and insisted no one tell you. They've disappeared ”

“That's what happened to her?” Her hands balled into fists, she stood nose to nose with the shorter woman.

The guys were waiting for a fight.

“Yes. These guys know this place, they can find her. Rosie can stay here with Nik.”

Star stared down at her. “Then lets go. I tire of waiting.”

Without any more formality, the guys agreed to Joan's idea. Nik and Rosie would stay in the hide out. If there was one gang who knew almost everything about the tunnels, it was the Motley boys. Vince took to the streets and asked the right questions. If anyone had seen Dawn, where did she go, tell Vince or risk your physical health. Star's heart was torn between Dawn and Rosie, she had no reason to trust this Joan woman, no reason to trust anyone. . .other than the fact that they were Dawn's people. She had trusted this woman, as far as Star could tell.

Star looked at Joan as they followed Vince through the tunnels. She remembered the Jetts family, so long ago. Their house crumpled around 1990 AC/DC, into ruin of every kind. What a fall it had been. It tickled the queen to see the last living member now helping rule the Underground. A different nobility.

It reminded her of the reason there was an Underground at all, she refused Dawn that which was rightfully hers. But as always she had her reasons.

Joan seemed to feel her thoughts. “You're staring at me your highness.”

“It is hard not to, considering how I knew your family.”

“My grandfather's family you mean.”

“You say that as if they are not your own.”

“They ceased to be when they sold me.”

“Fair enough. . .” Star whispered. She saw the woman's mouth twitch at the corner. “You wish to say something yourself.”

“Not for me but for Dawn.”

“She is your friend.”

She nodded. “And your daughter, heir to the throne.”

“Aye.”

Joan stopped and turned to Star, staring into her eyes with a fierce glare.

“I am a blunt woman your highness and will not spare you. Give her what she was born to have. You married into the family, she was born into it. It is hers by right. Holy Wood has had Queens before.”

“Of course it has. The Throne does not discriminate against the heir apparent.”

“As the last living heir to the last born king of Holy Wood, Dawn should have it.”

“New blood does not always mean a new rule. Though Queens would often have more peaceful rules than Kings.”

“Except yours.”

“Yes,” she turned to stare directly at Joan. While she could appreciate the honesty, she detested the insolence. “Blood was freedom's stain, one I would gladly spill again. As you pointed out I married into the family, my power was less than a Queen born into it. Yet it was I who reduced the BOC's power ten fold when they crossed me.” She turned her nose up at the younger female. “You should be grateful, without me you would not be immortal and probably still a slave.”

That shut up the smaller woman.

After a moment of silence Star spoke again. “Do not ever question me. I've torn down castles to save my daughter, I would do it again. What I do is all for her and the continuation of our bloodline.”

Vince grinned at their wispy fighting. It wasn't long before someone nodded towards a small food front. An informant. They entered the shop and a man came out to weasel his way into their party.

“And what will it be today? Heart of cow? Fried mice? A woman on the side?”

Vince shoved him aside. “How about the back stairs.”

“No wait! You can't!” The man protested.

Tommy shoved him again. A bowl of rice sat on the counter between them. He stuck his fingers in it, hungry, and scooped rice into his mouth. It was drenched in salt and half cooked. He spit it out and then followed his comrades down the back stairs. Vince led the way, behind him was Joan, Star, then Mik and Tommy. They descended deeper below the tunnels, to the sex chambers where whores and their lovers hid.

Star began to grow sweaty in her thick black clothing, envying the Motley boys in their thin, tight leather pants and near non existent shirts. She shook her head and they came to the bottom of the narrow stairway. They came out into a hot, steam filled room deep under ground. There were sounds of moaning sex workers drifting through the air. Perfect it may seem above, not all was as homey as it appeared. It did not surprise Star, these were where criminals hid. There was suddenly a ruckus and the few people who were lounging in the room they entered suddenly left. Four men stood in front of a door across the way. A large door.

They each approached, mirrored by the three Motley Boys and Joan.

“Go,” Joan said without looking at Star, she pulled a dagger out of her belt and tossed it to the Queen. “She will be beyond that door. Use the shadow, get into that room.”

Star did as instructed and as the four vs four battle commenced. The Boys and Joan were expert warriors, they survived by fighting, it was almost all they knew. She wanted to see the outcome, but she had to keep creeping. With the men fighting she made it to the doors and opened them as little as she could.

There was Dawn in a chair, being strapped down by a handsome man. Star disliked him immediately. He had a small bottle in his hand. Dawn herself seemed to be intoxicated. She was giggling and caught in the throws of a high, her mother knew.

He walked around her saying things. Star gently pushed the door and slipped inside, she held the dagger at a ready angle. The shadows worked to her advanatage and she crept into the room. There was no one else except her daughter and the Spy.

“We have worked hard to return here, years spent recoving.” He whispered. “Hard to get a spy into your midst. I am but the first wave, soon we will return to the rest of them. With you by my side, we will return to the Mountains of the East and there we will march on your own city.”

Dawn laughed and didn't seem to hear him.

He grinned. “My informant put you under my spell long before I came to your sights. I was simply waiting for you. In my stone palace, we will join together in matrimony, body and blood. You will bear my sons and maybe become more useful to me.”

He grabbed her chin and licked her cheek.

Star watched and in the dark her eyes glowed a bright, honey gold. She stepped out of the shadows and came up behind the Spyder.

“You will become the Spyder's revenge.”

“I think not.”

There was a cool voice behind him as a cold blade came over his neck.

“You've told me much and I fear letting you do more to my child. I must thank you for telling me so much will so little, yet now you must die.”

Before he could stutter excuses, she cut his throat. He crumpled to her feet and she watched him bleed out. It had been anticlimactic for her, she had wanted to take him back, interrogate him, abuse him, torture him. But she would not chance Dawn's life in his hands and when she had Him in Her hands, she knew that a fight might let him escape. Escape was not an option, so she allowed him to speak as much as he would say, exposing his plan and the somewhat location of his people.

She doubted he would have said much anyway, they never did. Besides she would make a message of him, instead of mercy only death came for those who tried what he had. Torture was too merciful, choking on his own blood was befitting. Yet as she stared at the man with dark dark eyes, she felt that she had murdered one more person who had seen the world she hailed from. . . truly. It felt strange, but in her mind she had no choice.

She had been betrayed by her “people” in the past, these Spyders were no different. She went to Dawn but the woman was unconscious. Star cut her bonds, moved the traitor's body, and waited for Joan to win her battles. As the victors rushed in, Vince, Mik, Tom and Joan, Star hovered next to her child. Tom came in and picked her up, Mik and Joan scouted the room to secure their location. Vince came to Star, she stared at him with a smudge of blood along her cheek.

She looked at him, he looked at her. She grabbed his barely-there shirt and yanked him in close for a hot sweaty kiss. He happily obliged her. She pulled away and grimaced, he tasted like whiskey, but she got over it and kissed him again.

                                                      *_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

Dawn awoke in her rooms. The only one there was Joan. She was smiling with her arms crossed, a glorious dark silver cape draped across her shoulders. She grinned and leaned forward.

“Good morning. How you feel?”

“Like fucking shite.” The princess said. She blinked in her harshly half dark, half light room. “Why are we in Ao'o?”

“Because a witch cursed you at the behest of a Spyder.”

“Lyr. . . .”

“Yes.”

“Well if we're here and he isn't, I take it he's dead.” Her friend nodded. Dawn studied Joan. “My mother gave you something didn't she?”

She laughed. “Well, after you went missing, I found your mother and took her to the Underground. Rosie followed so we-”

“She what?!”

“She kind of came with us. But it was ok, she stayed with the Motley boys, with Nik.”

“Please tell me my mother didn't engage Rosie to any of them!”

Joan couldn't help but belt out laughter. “I swear she did not! Rosie was just fine with Nik. Your mother was the one who saved you actually. She cut Lyr's throat as he stood over you. We collected Rosie afterwards and brought you here.”

“Sounds like her. So what's with your finery?”

“That's my second favorite part, your mother knighted me and all the Boys.”

“Knighted the Motley Boys??”

“I actually enjoy being a knight of Ao'o.”

Dawn rolled her eyes at her mother's antics. “So do you want to live here then?”

“No!” She spat out. “My home is with the Underground, our world we created. Besides, being a knight of Ao'o means being a knight of yours.”

The Princess was pleased and nodded in response. “Thank you Joan. I have no words enough to say what I want to say.”

“Thank you is just fine.”

They smiled at each other and small talked their way through the day. Rosie was asleep in her chambers, perfectly unharmed. Star too had gone into her chambers to sleep after knighting the Undergroundlings. She emerged from her room at dusk and wandered the outside waist high maze in the gardens. She and Richi spoke of what had transpired in the night.

They were speaking of Rosie.

“I had to leave her with that ruffian boy, Nik. She said he was kind enough, didn't try much on her. But he stunk and was was unsightly and was all too happy to return home.” She laughed softly. She then coughed once, she could still taste Vince's breath on her lips.

“I'm still upset you did nothing to alert me,” Richi grumbled as they turned a corner.

Star grinned. “If I had you would have fought me about it and there was no time.”

“Very well,” he said, relenting to her antics. “I can see no arguing will make you say sorry.”

They had been walking for a short amount of time but the maze was not that hard. They turned a corner again, approaching the center of it. “No, I'm afraid not dearest cousin. It had to be done in secrecy. Tere is a more pressing matter than my safety.”

He rolled his eyes. “And what could be more pressing than that I wonder?”

“The fact that the Spyder's returned and nearly took my daughter out from her own Underground. That cannot happen.”

“You said they are holed up to the east?”

“Eastern Mountains, the one said. They must have found a network of caves, its the only known shelter out that way.”

“It's the only know thing at all that way. After that, its just empty land and nothingness.”

“There might be more. No one has successfully trekked across the mountains in this era of recorded history. Whatever lay beyond them before the era of Darkness was lost to the darkness itself.” She wandered along silently and reached out to hold her cousin's hand. He wasn't an overly emotional man but he did allow her to lace her fingers through his. It brought them both comfort.

“We might be able to send men out to travel those hills if we wanted to search for the renegades.” He suggested. “We're still waiting for the return of our last spy.”

He hadn't been paying attention to what lay in front of them, but she had. She stopped and he halted to look at her, he had been observing the constellations as they walked and chatted. She stopped in her tracks as they came around a corner, her voice stalled and died. It took Richi a moment to follow her gaze and when he did he went into full alert, his hand left hers. There in the center of the maze was a dead man, a spy. Richi immediately called for guards and as they came rushed he walked about the courtyard in defense. Star went to him and crouched beside the dead one.

His ears, tongue and eyes were scattered around his head. He hadn't been killed here, there was not enough blood. He had been dumped here. It was one of her's she knew. There was no other reason such a message would be on her grounds, flies already buzzed around his damaged head. She knew the message, follow, spy and die.