The Yanti by Christopher Pike

frightened him. Why? Something had happened between the two of them that had somehow slipped his conscious mind—or else been purposely erased—that caused his anxiety. Ali had a pretty good idea what it was.
    An hour ago, when Ali had finally met Hector, and sat across from him at her own kitchen table—Nira sitting in his lap—she had known for a fact that her theory was true. The similarities in their faces had been undeniable.
    Hector
was
Nira’s father. The elusive Mr. Smith.
    He was the child’s father, and it was clear he did not know it. Like most truly honest people, he was easy for Ali to read. Hector sincerely believed that thirteen years ago Lucy had perished in the power plant explosion. Certainly, he did not know that Lucy Pillar and Sheri Smith were one and the same person. It was equally clear that he had no memory of ever having been intimate with the woman. He hated her!
    So what had happened?
    The witch had seduced him. Then cast a forgetting spell on him.
    That part was easy. The hard part was . . .
    Why had she done so? Was it because she still loved him?
    Was the Shaktra even capable of such an emotion?
    Ali considered all of this as she watched Sheri strive to regain her composure. The woman was so shaken by Ali’s last remark, she did not even bother to flash a fake smile. At last, Ali knew she had found the monster’s Achilles’ heel.
    But perhaps that was wishful thinking. When Sheri finally did answer, she was all business. She held Ali’s eye as she spoke.
    “You go too far with your insolence. I’ve made you a reasonable offer, that will allow a large portion of the beings on both sides of the war to survive, and you turn me down. Fine, Geea, let the missiles soar through the sky. Let the nuclear mushroom clouds glow over every major city on Earth. Let Vak—and the weapons I’ll provide him with—ruin this lovely planet. It doesn’t matter—the end result will be the same to me. It is justthat so much suffering could be avoided if you would cooperate.” She added, “It will be on your head.”
    Ali felt the need to gamble. “So you don’t want Hector and Nira to die?”
    Sheri pounded the table. “They’re irrelevant! You’ll not speak of them again in my presence!”
    Ali stood, letting her chair fall to the floor at her back. Striding halfway around the table, she glared down at the woman, and pointed a bitter finger at her.
    “Let us talk about you then! Let us go back to the question you refused to answer at the start! How did you turn into such a monster? In the green world I knew an older sister who was disappointed she was not named queen of the fairies—
disappointed
is all. She was not ready to harm a soul to gain the title. But then she runs off to the Isle of Greesh, where our father works but soon disappears, and where my boyfriend is fatally wounded. Then, years later, I have a monster called the Shaktra knocking at my door! I don’t know what it is but it’s attacking Uleestar! And the rest of the elemental kingdom! Then, in the yellow world, this world we call Earth, fourteen years ago, we have a teenage girl named Lucy Pillar, whom everyone calls a saint, who gets in a car accident, and ends up horribly burned. Yet this same Lucy Pillar has a boyfriend who still loves her, and who, from all outward appearances—so it seems—still loves him. His name is Hector by the way. Hector! Remember that name. Because thirteen years ago, she hides this same Hector in a part of a power plant that she blows up. Yes! She’s the one who blew it up! She’s the one who killed hundreds of innocent people! And for what reason? Not to hurt Hector, he was one of the few people to survive the explosion. So why did she do it? God help me, Doren, I’ll not bargain with you until you answer these questions! You’ll not get theYanti from me. You’ll get only my scorn, and I swear to you, on everything that’s sacred to me, that I’ll use the last shred of power at my