Tachyon, Son of Ion
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This illustration, you may notice, has the same background as my featured post, "The King's Tree." That's because I began with the intent to draw Tachyon, but then ended up drawing the King's Tree in the middle of it, so decided to kill two birds with one stone.
Ion, you may remember, died by Necrolius' hand. Tachyon, as a result, is a little different from his fellow sea horses. He's a bit more temperamental, and, still undiscovered by anyone, possesses a few more interesting traits. At least, I believe that is so. I can't be sure at this point. There is still so much of the story to be told.
Tachyon is Conor's sea horse. Below is the excerpt of the meeting between him and Maggie.
Enjoy!
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Four Kumiyaay strode towards her in full uniform,
their faces severe and unsmiling. Clockwise was the last to flash through. They
came to a halt before her, where they saluted before three took their immediate
leave of her, walking silently around her towards the beasts, who had noticed
them and floated to the shore of the river, chiming happily. The Supreme
Commander stood waiting in front of her.
She managed to gasp out, “I ... I’m riding one of
those sea horses t-to see Aedan?” And then, noting that there were five riders,
including herself, added, “I take it I’ll be going with one of the warriors—?”
Clockwise gave a mad smile, said, “Of course not,
Ms. Singleton. You’ll be riding the king’s own mount, Tachyon.” He looked
around. “He must have wandered off. He does that. He isn’t the most social of
sea horses ...”
This made Maggie’s heart flutter even faster. Even
so, she caught the use of the pronoun and said, “You called it ‘he.’ For some
reason I thought sea horses are sexless.”
“They are, properly speaking,” said Clockwise
shortly, still looking around. “But if a sea horse belongs to a man, it comes
to be known as a ‘he’; if by a woman, a ‘she.’ It sounds silly to denote them
in such a manner, I grant you, but it really isn’t. Hopefully I’ll be able to
explain why in a minute, given that I find him. Ah. There he is, just coming
over the rise there. See?”
She looked left. Over a small brown hillock well
within the salt marsh floated a streamlined, rainbow-laced shape that made her
forget everything she’d seen to this point, everything she’d heard. Clockwise
noted her expression and allowed himself a second deranged smile. She didn’t
notice.
Tachyon floated over the river, coming around the
other sea horses, who took note of his presence and immediately settled down,
like children do when a stern parent enters their playroom. He loomed large,
stopping just five or so feet from her. She looked up, breathless.
Tachyon was larger than the other sea horses, and
shaped slightly differently. His form was leaner and longer, the great vertical
fan on his back pointed, the ridges running down from it sharper, his curled
tail firmer and more whiplike. Startling, irregular streaks of red-black
lightning laced backward through his form from his massive chest, disappearing
deep within his body—something that didn’t happen with the other sea horses.
“Tachyon,” said Clockwise in a loud voice, “this
is Ms. Maggie Singleton.”
As though he had understood, the sea horse’s huge
body swiveled around, stopping when it faced her. The black onyx commas of his
eyes caught the sunlight, sparked as he regarded her. Maggie sensed enormous
intelligence in the beast. She spluttered, “C-Commander ... I can’t ... can’t
ride that, er, Tachyon. I don’t know how! I ... I have no training on them!”
“You’ve ridden a regular horse, haven’t you, Ms.
Singleton?” He studied her.
“Of course I have,” she responded, unable to keep
the irritation out of her voice. “I was 4-H Champion at the Kansas State Fair
when I was fourteen. But that was a ... a horse,
an Arabian! This is a ...” Her voiced trailed away.
“I’m glad you can see him,” said Clockwise, who
had come up behind her. “Not everyone can. Sea horses can only be seen by those
whose souls are strong enough.” He walked around her, extended a hand up.
Tachyon drooped his head low enough so that the Commander could pat his face.
Clockwise took note of her expression and said, “There is nothing to worry
about, ma’am. If you’ve ridden a regular horse, you can ride Tachyon.”
The sea horse chimed as Clockwise ran a hand up
and down his glassy face, but it was a chime so different from his brethren
that Maggie, her heart jumping, blurted out, “What’s that?” For it had sounded less like a chime than the sound of wind
passing through trees in a dense forest, or the sound of a tumbling river, or
maybe the sound of a collapsing office building. She could just make out the
pleasant pure notes of the chiming, but it was as though they were relegated to
the background, washed out and in the distance. The beast had not stopped his
consideration of her, even though he was being tended to by the Supreme
Commander.
Clockwise ignored her question. Without turning
around, he said, “This is the son of Ion, Ms. Singleton. His Excellency has
told me you’d know who that was.”
“His Excellency—? You mean—Luis Arroyo?”
“Yes.”
“This ... is Ion’s son?”
“Yes. He was part of the only clutch Ion was known
to bear.” He looked over his shoulder at her. “Again, as you’ve mentioned, sea
horses are sexless. They are, at least, in this stage. They have three life
cycles: larval, breeder, and adult—the stage Tachyon is at now. The larvae can
be found all over Earth. Gaians buy them in pet stores and the like. They are
called ‘seahorses’ as well—but spelled as one word. They do not evolve beyond
the larval stage on this world, though they have developed an entire life cycle
of their own to ensure their survival. On Aquanus, the larval stage is just the
beginning for them. There, in that stage, they are called ‘prehorses.’ When
they become adults, we respell ‘seahorse’ as two words, ‘sea horse,’ to denote
the time when they finally separate from the sea. When Ion was a breeder, and
still in the sea, ‘he’ had a clutch of eggs. Tachyon is the only survivor from
that clutch.”
“He’s ... different,” said Maggie delicately,
certain the great beast watching her understood perfectly what she was saying.
“Yes,” agreed Clockwise. But he offered no more
information. Instead he said, “Care to go for a ride on the king’s sea horse?”
Maggie closed her eyes and tried to gin up her
courage. She took a deep breath. “Yes,” she said resolutely, knowing that the
firmness in her voice was an absolute lie. “What do I need to do? I mean ...
his saddle is ten feet off the ground! How do I get up to it?”
Clockwise said, “I will show you how in a moment.
For now, I must tell you that sea horses sustain themselves by feeding on the
Living Aecxis of their riders. When
you mount this horse, you will enter into just such a relationship. Does this
concern you?”
“Should it?” she asked.
“It bothers some. You will be entering into a
symbiotic relationship, Ms. Singleton. The sea horse feeds on your Living Aecxis; in exchange your physical body
is replenished and rejuvenated. You become stronger, healthier, as does the
Living Aecxis within your spirit. It
is by this symbiotic relationship that sea horses with male riders tend to
start to manifest male-type behaviors,” he continued. “They become more
aggressive, more impatient, more—”
“—jerkier?”
She flushed. The word had rushed out of her mouth
unbidden. “Sorry ...” she said quickly. “That was uncalled for.”
But the look in his eyes, along with the momentary
presence of that crazy smile, made her reconsider her apology. Because
something like respect passed through that gaze as he regarded her just then.
She broke the discomfort of the ensuing silence by asking, “What happens to sea
horses with female riders?”
He smirked. “They become bitchy and needy three
weeks of the month; the fourth they’re completely useless. Why?”
And Maggie understood Guptaamaq Jelignite,
“Clockwise,” Supreme Commander of the Saeire Insu, and he understood her. Their
friendship was sealed. And though the prospect of riding this splendid aecxal beast was still daunting, she
knew she’d be okay. He’d see to it. She laughed without sound, nodding, looking
into his eyes, a self-effacing touche!
grin spreading over her face.
He said, “Come. Let’s get you acquainted with him.
Go ahead, touch him.”
She did as told, first barely and very cautiously
touching the sea horse with her fingers before becoming quickly more confident
and running her full hand up and down the side of Tachyon’s massive face. The
king’s mount felt quite real, just like Tawny, her old horse—almost. The
surprising velvety softness of his face was contradicted by an iron hardness
beneath that belied the beast’s semi-translucent, seemingly ethereal nature.
Tachyon chimed—his very disconcerting chime—then dropped his head a little and
nudged her beneath her chin, tossing her ten feet backward onto her butt on
hard, baked earth.
She goggled up in awe—and then burst out laughing.
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