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Arielle shifted through the crowd filling the Otoch monuments—the ruins of an ancient Azzaro city. Enormous, flat-topped pyramids comprised most of the buildings still standing. She angled toward the blue stone bridge where she and Dirk had watched the eruption last year.
After dinner with Tiru and Instructor Zelo the previous night, she’d wandered the streets of Tanarille, reminiscing. She’d loved living in the Azzaro capital, and the diplomat training program had been incredible. Even after the craziness of Nochil Rassa, an ambitious local official in the town of Kaahrim, holding her and Dirk hostage, she wouldn’t trade the experience. Though now she triple-checked for her Azzaro ID before she went anywhere and had Tiru’s direct contact information on her wrist-comp.
Landing a job at the Space City Embassy in Tanarille remained her goal. But instead of a consular officer as she was now on Gleeson, she intended to one day become Space City’s diplomat to Sundara.
She strolled onto the bridge, the walls etched with early Azzaro pictograms. They told the story of K’inn and T’amm, the Sun twins. From Azzaro mythology, the brother and sister raced each other around Sundara, carrying the twin suns on their shoulders. To motivate the twins to keep racing, every year at the summer solstice the Azzaro held a festival to cheer them on. If everyone on Sundara participated in the festival, the twins would bless them for another year.
Arielle scanned the crowd for Dirk. A blue-eyed, blonde-haired German should stand out among the blue-skinned Azzaro. Either he was hiding or he hadn’t arrived. If the latter, he was cutting it close. One hour remained until the Triplet Geysers erupted.
Her last message from him that morning indicated he was finishing some paperwork, but it would in no way stop him from coming. He’d assured her of that. Had he misjudged how long it would take him to travel here from the Macab home planet, Niveum? She’d asked him to join her in Tanarille, but he’d said he had a surprise for her and would meet her here.
Her eyes halted on a figure dressed in dark orange robes staring straight at her. Hard eyes peered out from a bright orange mask shaped in the classic depiction of K’inn. The costume was common during the festival. Still, the hair on the back of her neck rose. She glanced away, unsettled. When she turned back, the figure had evaporated into the crowd.
Unable to shake her discomfort, and with no sign of Dirk, she pulled up her wrist-comp. He still hadn’t responded.
“Where are you?” she asked, dictating the message to her wrist-comp. “I hope you’re not going to be late for the one-year anniversary of our first date.” She added a winking emoji to the end of her message and sent it.
What was taking him so long? And what was he planning?
Still unsettled, Arielle wandered for a bit. Azzaros milled about, some chatting, others buying food from vendors; but everyone kept one eye on the wisps of steam rising from the beautiful turquoise water that shimmered in the pools where the Triplet Geysers would soon erupt.
The Triplet Geysers eruption marked the summer solstice and the start of the festival. Tonight, many more Azzaros would wear the sibling costumes, with red representing T’amm. They’d release thousands of orange and red sky lanterns in celebration.
With thirty minutes until the eruption, she drifted back to the bridge. Her discomfort returned, this time for Dirk instead of herself. At the fifteen-minute mark, she sent a follow-up message.
“When I said I hope you’re not gonna be late I was joking, but now I’m starting to wonder. Where are you?”
Nervous energy bubbled in her gut. Had something happened to him? What would prevent him from coming, or at least messaging her? Could it be part of his surprise?
Water shot more than seven meters into the air from all three geysers. Arielle jumped, a small gasp escaping her. Everyone cheered. The summer festival had started. She couldn’t remember why the eruptions marked the start, but Dirk knew. She remembered him remarking on it. Why hadn’t he shown?
Then she remembered he’d given her his GPS locator information for his wrist-comp. She could check his exact location at this moment.
She activated the locator. After a few seconds, she frowned and scanned the crowds. His wrist-comp had pinged in the area, but she couldn’t spot him. Why hadn’t he come to the bridge? They’d agreed to meet here.
She checked the locator again. It pinpointed him inside a pyramid nearby. She frowned. Why would he be there? He couldn’t have gotten lost.
She pushed through the dispersing crowd toward the pyramid, her agitation growing. Unlike the splendid palace at the heart of the ruins, it was not large. Two carved stelae, carved to depict K’inn and T’amm, guarded the entrance. Hieroglyphics and depictions of strange, winged creatures covered the walls of a narrow hallway leading inside. Her instinct said to retreat, but the place would interest Dirk, so she pressed forward.
The hallway ended at a corbel arch, which served as an entrance for a chamber with vaulted ceilings. A dozen stone fire pits filled the chamber, over which large vats bubbled with some dark liquid. The orange-robed figure from earlier entered the far side of the room.
“Hello, Arielle.” The figure lifted his mask to reveal Nochil Rassa.
Shee backed up, turning to run.
“Don’t!” he warned. “Don’t run or Dirk will die.”