She smirked. Maki had never seen her smile before. He’d assumed it was because she had a beak.
She crouched on her skinny bird-legs, talons stretched out on gravel. “Come ‘ere.” She held out her arms, and Maki flew into them. “If I don’t see you again in this lifetime,” she said, “I’ll see you in another—be it past or future.”
His heart banged against her feathered breast. He thought he heard her snivel.
“I’ll miss you,” he said.
“No, you won’t. Let us all hope you’ll be secure and normal, now. Who’d have thought a five-year-old-boy would find the courage to enter a time machine alone so he could go back to find his dead mam?”
Maki wiped his wet cheeks on her feathers.
“Who’d have thought he would have the courage to rescue hundreds of slaves, hundreds of natives, with so much love and selflessness?”
Maki flinched. “Are you crying?”
“If you were a bird hybrid like me, you’d know, my lad.” She straightened her knees and rolled her shoulders and spread her wings.
“Normal boring,” he said. “If Daddy’s got superpowers, we must understand what he can do. I might be only seven, but I’m not scared.”
Crowleen chuckled and turned on her heel. After three strides, the pyramid’s darkness swallowed her. Bright purple beamed all around once more, and when it faded, all the stars came back.
Daddy held Maki’s hand. “Come on. Let’s head home.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you had that star in your chest?”
“Because of the last thing you just said to that crow-ninja. That’s why I never said about river and rain travel or time portals. What dad would crave for his son to go on such dangerous adventures?”
***
After bidding Maki goodbye, Crowleen appeared in Heaven Island’s pyramid, many light-years away. She rubbed a finger in the centre of the star-key. Once it rose into her palm, she slotted it behind her sheath of throwing daggers along with the other which Maki had given her. After she wiped tears from her feathered face, she evacuated.
As she descended through clouds, she reflected on how it was better to lock up the time portals and mask the star-keys for good. So much good could be done with the authority of the amethyst doorways through time and space, but villains would always abuse such power for their greedy ends.
As Crowleen beat her wings, she let out an old woman’s sigh. She’d have to eliminate the star-keys. The United Wheel of Eeporyo waited for the final two.
After a week of flight, rest, and hunting, Crowleen found the canyon which ran under the United Wheel of Eeporyo. Rather than touching down at Diamond Hall’s entrance, she did what they considered respectful and proper, and settled on the cliff. Her talons slipped on the glass bridge.
She bit down on her beak, refusing to look at the canyon below.
Only the Empress of Eeporyo sat in her Diamond Hall. Starlight cast a gentle glow on her through spaces in the ceiling. The cat woman jumped off the podium and padded on 2 feet towards Crowleen. She opened a palm. “You have the amethyst stars?”
“I do.” Crowleen picked them out from behind her dagger holster and passed them over.
“Thank you. Will you help me somewhere to hide them?”
“You trust me?”
“No. I don’t. But you must show me that invisibility spell.”
The Empress was right. Only a time-traveller was capable of the invisibility enchantment once he or she had found a place to hide the object. Could she trust herself with knowledge on their whereabouts?
Her breath snagged hold of something inside her chest.
The Empress inclined her head. “You fear you’ll go mad without a key?”
“That I do.”
“What do you want?”
“Kill me. I don’t trust myself.”
“I cannot kill. Although I’m half cat, I’m half-human too.”
“Humans can be wickeder than cats.”
The next day, the United Wheel’s House Guard secured a carriage onto the back of an eagle bigger than Ama. The Empress had all her luxuries for the long journey ahead.
Darkness had fallen by the time they reached Crowleen’s hideout in Hearthrum. Inside the cavern, stalactites and stalagmites glistened against glow balls. Crowleen opened her palm and gestured towards the natural rock ledge in which she’d always housed her collection of amethyst stars. “We can hide them here.”
“Don’t tell me how,” the Empress said.
Crowleen placed all eight stars on her shelf where she had carried so many hopes. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. After exhaling, she waited with empty lungs while visualising eight keys on the shelf. When she breathed in again and opened her eyes, the star-keys looked as if they were no longer there.
The Empress’s stare darted from Crowleen to the ledge. “It worked.” She crept to the ledge. Her eyes widened as she ran her clawed hand along the mineral surface. “Where are they?”
“Still there. But no one can feel or touch the keys. Only a time-traveller could bring them back.”
“Can a time traveller come from outside the boundaries?”
“I’m not sure.”
Outside, Eeporyo’s Empress asked, “Where would you like to die?”
Crowleen winced. In the past, she would still have clones waiting to be activated. But when she’d got depressed during her weeks in the Firesnake, she’d destroyed all her clones. “Take me to the volcano in the South. Where orange groves grow.”
When they reached the orange grove, Crowleen stood by a bubbling sulphur pool on Steamy Vent’s volcanic plateau. Above the stench of rotten egg, Eeporyo’s three crescent moons rested in a triangle. She detached her case of daggers and gave them to the Empress. “Give these to my friend, Sharr Shuvuu.”
The Empress tied them around her torso. “Are you ready?”
Crowleen nodded.
Two Phoenix with human arms and hands stalked forward. They aimed their laser guns.
A cold sweat broke out under her feathers, and
