Black Saturday

VI

Later the night, Rahal brought Luna outside. She fiddled with the black rose still behind her ear.

Rahal said, 'Do you want to see Navia?'

This caught Luna off guard. 'I thought you said—'

'I know what I said. At least, if Yoshie's here, things won't be so bad and I can assure some level of protection for you. Besides...' Rahal squeezed Luna's cheeks again, and the girl squirmed out of her grip.

'Please, no. I'm not that way.'

Rahal said, 'Wait, wha— Oh no, no, that's not what I was trying to do.' Again, Rahal squeezed her cheeks, flicked her thumb, and pressed her fingers against the back of Luna's neck.

'Ouch!'

'It's not that painful, Moonshine. You'll need it to understand all the frightening, chaotic, and indecipherable languages you'll soon hear.'

Solomon emerged from the shadows of the household. He carried a sack over his shoulder, a sack full of cluttering and fragile-sounding trinkets.

'Ho ho ho,' he sang. 'I bear your family gifts from another realm. Xenophilius has already seen them.'

Luna eyed the bag suspiciously. She hadn't seen him with it earlier, and— now that she thought of it, she couldn't recall seeing Solomon whenever he left the house.

Rahal grabbed the neck of the bag and carried it to the steps of Lovegood House.

'Later, Yoshie, later. First, I've taken a decision on whether or not we should bring Moonshine to Navia.'

Luna whispered, 'My name is Luna; where are you getting Moonshine from?'

Rahal sniggered into her hand and said, 'It's nothing.'

'That's not what people call me on Seventh Earth, is it?'

'No, not at all. But that's not important!'

'Is she going or not?'

'When have you ever been an impatient man?'

Rahal noogied Solomon, ruffling his already wiry and shaggy hair, and flicking his chai necklace.

He answered, 'Ever since you started pissing about!'

'Whatever. And to answer your question, yes. She's going. I figured that, since we have you on our side, I won't have to worry too much about if Luna'll be able to come back in one piece. Not too many people will dare to steal from a god, after all.'

This brought Luna to her knees. She screamed, 'You're a god?' But she regained her posture and said, 'Sorry, I'm just not too good with sarcasm.'

With a straight face, Rahal said, 'No, he's a god. I mean come on, I even told you he's a prince, right?'

'No.'

Rahal considered this, scrunching her face and saying, 'I didn't?'

'You didn't?' Solomon looked offended. 'That's the first thing you ever tell anyone about me, isn't it?'

After rubbing her chin, Rahal said, 'Well... Now you know.'

'And you're a princess, right?'

'I mean, that's what your world would call it. And we've already consummated our royal love.'

Solomon blushed and looked down.

'Not that anyone thought this ponce had it in him.'

'So why do you need protection? Shouldn't people know?"

'That's how bad Navia is, Moonshine. No one gives a damn about your social class. And yet, at the same time, that's all some people derive their worth from. Imagine a society that's simultaneously fascist and anarchist.'

Rahal fell to the ground and made a snow angel while Solomon talked into his phone. Luna felt anger in her, and it bubbled until she said, 'How could you be so carefree if your homeworld is so terrible?'

Rahal tossed a snowball at her face. As she laughed, she said, 'Because we don't care about power.'

Solomon stiffled one of the biggest laughs of the century, turned to Luna, and said, 'That's how I know Rahal's not in her right mind.'

'Oh come off it, love.'

'This bitch used to live solely for the pursuit of absolute power.'

'She doesn't need to know that!'

'If times were different, she'd probably be a follower of Voldemort.'

Luna said again, 'But that's not who you are anymore! You're not anything like the Slytherins.'

'Hey, now— not all Slytherins are for Voldemort. But Yoshie's telling the truth. If the last few years never happened, I'd be a Naz-Eater right now.' Rahal went back to playing in the snow. 'Goddamn, I love this stuff!'

'Snow is the worst thing in the universe.'

'Shove it!'

Luna watched on, struggling to wrap her mind around the couple's actions and reactions. At that moment, her mind began to shift, and her feelings toward Rahal hardened. Yet the only thing to show for it was her scowl.

'Will we be going to Navia soon?'

'Not just yet, Moonshine. Yoshie's used up all the juices we needed, so we're just waiting for the universe to supply some more.'

'By the way, Luna,' Solomon began. He walked around her and slipped his hand over her shoulder as if she were an old friend. That touch electrified her, and Luna couldn't explain why. His vibe, his magic... It was on another level. 'I've heard quite a bit about you.'

'I'm watching your hands, you litch!' came from behind them. Solomon sneered at her.

'But what I'm really interested in is your relationship with Harry Potter.'

Luna's heart skipped a beat. This never happened before— she's never been so anxious about speaking to another person. And Harry Potter?

'I d-don't really know him very well, b-but he's a charming fellow.'

Solomon let go of her and walked ahead. 'Would you say he's worth talking to? Don't answer that. I know the answer.'

'Jesus, Solomon!'

'What, child?'

'It's still not fully charged? Christ. If we're gonna wait this long, then why don't we make some napalm wine? I have this perfect little Black Saturday.' She pulled the black rose from behind her ear and waved it around. 'After all, it should take about an hour to whip up a few pints.'

'Nope, it's done.' Solomon pulls a magic wand from within his denim coat and lifted it to the heavens. Sparkling rainbows flowed from the edge out into the world at large. That should have been enough to amaze Luna, but what caught her attention was Solomon's wand. The way he held it suggested it was not a wand at all— but a cross. And then the world wobbled, degenerating into a maelstrom of colors. There was no sound. Time stopped. The air thickened and the smell of a bitter winter faded, replaced by a growing stench of a thousand rotting corpses. Luna felt her insides coming up her throat.

Rahal said, 'I warned you this world's disgusting. Trust me, O' My Dear Moonshine! It will get worse— much worse!'

The colors, once psychedelic and from a million parts of the spectrum, fast died. The vortex's edges took the color of foul, month-old dung.

And then Navia appeared before them.