Kia's Biehshah Gift

Chapter 23 Cube Inventory

Ry'nao put a four-fingered hand on Ir's shoulder and tapped. "Ir, I need you to call a meeting of all who hold Cubes. Let us meet discreetly in my house. I have an underground chamber for this purpose."

Ir bowed and Ry'nao returned it. Then Ir mentally directed all of us left. He still had 151 people. Even Baker Fahnar went into Oshfah to find early festival-goers, though it wasn't that early now. Yeff are still working their half-day as they always do on festival days. We are still celebrating the move to Alb, that we thought would be safe. Most of those Yeff, Earthans, Areonians, purple Thordes and Elshars enjoying it believe we are safe from slavers. Oh, and hundreds of red Xchou like our Emperor.

Except those holding Cubes, all of our Biehshah, and our Ry Pethe folks. All of the ones without Cubes asked people with Cubes to come with them, and I used my Cube to tell them why.

Ry'nao, Ryonne~ and his wife, Adia, all clones of the originals still on Earth, led us past the Ry Pethe colony which now had homes above ground with beautiful flower gardens. A huge one sat between Ry Pethe and its very Earthan or Areonian-German log homes with their beautiful carvings, and Xchou Ye~ with stone domes.

He led us into one that sat apart from the circle of domes and a portal took us to a stone room with Eaezhfee chairs like Adia's Ship is made of, and people whooshed in. It got bigger as more people crowded in. The seats multiplied until there were three rows of them in a circle and Ry'nao stood in the middle.

"Friends, today, I am not here as your emperor, but as an equal. Kia, you are directing them, so I will let you speak." He sat in a neon green chair to my right. Ir was on my left, but also sat down. Me? Every neon green chair had a different design, but other than that, they were all the same as people sat in them.

Light came from the round wall equally and sound echoed despite about 200 of us. "We need to get ready to fight."

A lady stood, one of the Ry Pethe folks with a yellow cube. "I can't fight him, he'll kill my mother!"

I swallowed. "He has our baby, our son! But we have to fight. You think he will spare our relatives if he wins? We have to believe that they are still alive, but his slaves. If we act quickly—"

Ry'nao sighed and all of us looked at him. "Adia must confront Eriganh, in his time, of his choosing. We cannot interfere."

"Even though he is cheating?" Dromie stood with his arms up. He just appeared in a chair. "We are fighting, even though it is forbidden, because Wslarc told me we must! He is from the 6th level and is a clone for our level. Wally is from the 5th and tells us we must fight. Do you know what happened? Rentappenen already killed all the Councils of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of the Test Of Levels!"

Ir gasped. So did Ry'nao! Ir stood up. "Then, we must act. The moment Queen Adia and Eriganh finish, our Battle Of The Cubes must begin! Eriganh is so irrational now, I think it will not be long."

Dromie frowned at Ry'nao. "You worried about him knowing of our plans, but he does. He cannot destroy Alb because Pirad and Kirnonos set up defenses he cannot penetrate. Bisillipia is at war with us against him. They have arms they kept from the last war, the one Bisillipia waged against the Jain. They still have those weapons, and the Elshar Council retrieved the ones hidden on Jain. We also gave Bisillipia weapons, vast stores of them, from Lisbaar, Luruu, Taspan, Iritt, Guaspesi, and their thousands of worlds.

"Now, Rentappenen knows what he has unleashed, and he no longer has his Ty'nirrhan body with its rainbow Tessite, because the 6th allowed Sara to take it! He cannot control but a third of his troops and many are rebelling because of his harsh rule. The War is already even, now. We brought the Jain and the Lerk back."