Elementis 1: The Heir to the Stone (14 page)

"I cannot be at war with myself. I am a cytherean. The dydrid is the enemy," Jonas said.

"Stay true Jonas. The darkness cannot fall without the light."

"The Zohr will fall, I promise you that!" Jonas finished, cutting his tired mind free from the level of thought needed to transmit the telepathy.

Willow left Jonas alone with his thoughts and the fearful voices of the converted dydrid died back down to a murmur. He lay there wide awake, wondering if one of the voices of the converted could tell him what the upset was. He focused his mind to return the thoughts of one of the voices in his head. It was no use. He strained and tried again. He couldn't do it. No one responded clearly to his thoughts. He tried again and again throughout the late hours of the night. His energy waned but he kept on trying until his mind and body gave up on itself and he fell to a deep sleep.

*

Jonas's eyelids squinted at the low hanging light of Valo shining morning rays into his eyes as he left the palace and walked out to the top of the main courtyard steps. His sight adjusted to the light and below his feet a sea of burgundy unfolded below him. Standing to attention and filling the entire royal parade square, were ranks of Guard stretching out in a display that captured Jonas's breath with both excitement and stomach-tingling dread. Jonas pushed his nerves aside, tackled the steps cautiously and marched alone down the pathway through the centre of the parade. Every time Jonas walked level with a row of burgundy-clad soldiers the entire line gave the salute of the Cytherean Guard, gripping their left hand around the wrist of their right and swinging their arms back down by their side as Jonas walked past. The boy was overwhelmed by the show of respect—as far as he was concerned he was still just Jonas Illian Knight, a low-life, a thief, a nobody. But here he was, Prince Jonas Krestwell, the keeper of a sacred mind, being given a grand ceremony on his way to training as the heir to the stone.

A little way behind Jonas, his four protectors followed. Against what they thought best, they were being sent away with him to fulfil their promise to Witakker and to get used to the fact that they must protect the boy from any dangers that he might face.

Jonas approached the end of the soldier made pathway and standing in front of Skylark, the king wore a face as proud as any father would on his child's first day at school. He looked on with a hidden smile that leapt from his eyes, watching every step his son took towards him. Right beside Uly stood Hawk, Spirit, Wingrise, Tempo, Witakker and the unemotional stare of Willow's green eyes. Jonas caught sight of the princess, all too aware that he didn't know what to make of her anymore. He had thought of her as a friend, but he suspected too much that she knew something and wouldn't say what. She had said that she wanted Jonas to protect both the dydrid and the cythereans, an impossible task, he thought. She asked more of him than his father did and she avoided answering who it was that she would fight for if a war arrived at their door. She confused Jonas; she angered him. He thought it wise to push Willow from his mind and concentrate fully on his training. There was much to learn on Obitrum, Witakker had warned him of that, over and over. He must learn to fight and protect as well as continue to train his mind.

Jonas stopped in front of the king and lowered his head to his father. Uly reached out with a silver headband in his hands, identical to that worn by Calyx. He rested the crown on Jonas's ears and brow. It made his face sparkle with as much light as an eclipse revealing a hidden star. Hawk handed Uly a golden bracelet, an energy-star. "You'll need this one day." Uly smiled at Jonas, holding out the bracelet.

The boy held out his right wrist and the king placed the energy-star on his forearm. The golden straps had no clasp to hold the bracelet in place, but no sooner had the straps touched Jonas's skin they became alive, tightening and sinking themselves deep under his skin, connecting its energy into the veins around his tendons. Jonas winced, his arm muscles tensed. He wrapped his left hand around his wrist to stem the blood flow and as quickly as it had come the pain was gone. Jonas stroked his fingers across the smooth gold surface of the crescent moons and studied the empty stone clasp in the centre. One day, the king had said, he will need this. One day the stone will sit in this clasp and Jonas may become the most powerful man in existence. His gaze broke away from the energy-star and he looked up to his father. "Are you sure you don't need me here?" Jonas asked, worried by the voices that he couldn't decipher.

The king rested a hand firmly on Jonas's shoulder. "For now I need you to learn. There is much hardship ahead. You will return when you are ready. I cannot say how long your training will take, that is up to you."

"Goodbye, Father," Jonas said, plunging his head into his father's bosom and wrapping his arms around his waist.

Their embrace broke free, and the king smiled and stepped aside. Jonas walked past the cytherean salutes of Hawk, Wingrise, Tempo and Spirit and stopped in front of the old beard of Witakker.

"Have you spoken with your brother? We would like to know if he is at least still alive," said Witakker.

"He won't return any of my thoughts. I only see a flash from his eyes when I try. I am sure he is still alive."

"Keep trying," said Witakker, patting a hand of comfort on the side of the boys shoulder. "And take this, carry it always," he said, handing across a vial filled with a curious purple solution.

"What is it?" said Jonas, holding the vial up close to his eye looking deep inside the viscous liquid for some clue as to what it might hold.

"A stimulant. One that I've been developing with Calyx. We had some breakthroughs in the last batch and I've made some improvements," said Witakker.

The old man held a wise finger out in front of Jonas. "You must always remember, Jonas, that in your mind only the impossible is impossible. Once you know how to control the potential of your senses, you will be at one with the esla and become the true Maven. More powerful than the Zohr. One that can rule all imagination. This formula should help you find the way."

"How will I know when I'm ready?" asked Jonas.

"Train your own mind. Only you can show yourself how to access the areas of your mind that are unknown," Witakker told him.

Jonas held out his hand. Witakker took it, shaking it with an affectionate smile.

"Take care young Jonas. And try to take no notice of the others. They have a deep loyalty for your brother."

"Thank you Witakker, for everything," Jonas said, thinking back over everything   Witakker had done for him.

Witakker had been the one who had taken Jonas to Rilk, leaving him with an old friend of his called Lina. She had brought up Jonas like he was her own. When she had died five years later and Witakker had learned of her death, he continued to help the boy without the king knowing and without Jonas knowing. He visited Rilk regularly and paid the spiders well to help shelter and feed Jonas until he was old enough to earn his own way. When Witakker first saw for himself that Jonas had been taken in by the ring of ship-spiders it didn't displease him too much. He knew that he would learn how to handle weapons, how to fly ships and how to move stealthily through heavily guarded areas without being seen. All skills that one would need in war, if that fate was ever bestowed. And as it happened that fate had now been chosen. When the king had agreed to find Jonas instead of rescue Calyx, Witakker already knew that the boy was in trouble and in the prisons of Kroyto. As far as Witakker was concerned the king had been short sighted in sending Jonas away, he had always known that one day he may be needed. He never held it against Uly, love can make the sanest man do the craziest things in the depths of a heartbreak. And though Witakker could not stop the baby being sent away, he would not rest until Jonas was taken care of. Today of all days, Witakker's mind was laid at ease. And although the boy had felt this way all of his life, Jonas was really on his own now.

Jonas had a strange feeling that he may have had someone looking out for him throughout his life. Thinking back, the other orphans of Rilk had not had so much luck as he, and their lives were mostly ruled by slavery and the debauchery of others. That feeling pointed only to Witakker. From the first moment Jonas had landed in Enterra, Witakker had shown him the kindness and guidance of a father figure and without being able to place it, his face was somehow familiar to Jonas. And now, with his journey into the unknown the old man gave him a potion of sorts and one final helping hand. Jonas would treasure Witakker's vial of liquid, he would use it wisely, a potion that helps to rule all of imagination must not be used lightly, Jonas knew that much. And if he were ever to uncover the potential in his mind he would do so for Witakker. The kindness of the old man deserved a part of Jonas's heart, and Witakker knew that he was in there somewhere alongside Twain and the mother that Jonas never knew, and possibly even with Uly. Witakker couldn't always tell, Jonas was difficult to read sometimes, just like his father. Their hands left each other's touch with a warm smile.

Twain came running over towards Jonas, the soles of his boots slapped against the concrete parade ground. Jonas's smile grew, seeing the excitement on Twain's young face. "Look at the genius, you almost look like a soldier!" he mused, folding his arms and admiring Twain's new uniform.

"Got my own blaster and everything!" said Twain, placing his hands on his side and poking a hip out with a blaster secured in its holster.

Jonas figured straight away that Twain was coming early for his Guard training. "It's okay with your mother?" he said, peering across to Lora who eventually caught up to her son, walking alongside with Lynk.

"As long as he comes back in one piece," she said, with all the concern of a mother whose son was leaving to train for war.

Twain threw his arms around his mother. "Oh Ma, I’ll be fine, you’ll see!"

Spectrum came up behind Jonas, "We need to leave Jonas, the ship is ready," he said, looking across to Cortex, Menace and Goldheart who stood, waiting at the bottom of the ships ramp.

"Say goodbye, Twain," Jonas told him.

"Goodbye, Ma," he said to his mother.

She leant down and kissed his head, "I love you son."

"Love you to, Ma," Twain smiled at his mother and then looked across to Lynk, "Lynk, take good care of her."

"Yes my serdar," Lynk squeaked, leaning forward to bow to his creator as best as he could.

Twain ran to the ship and turned half way up the ramp to salute with a wrist hold to his mother. "See you soon," he shouted, turning back and running onboard the ship waving a hand behind him.

Jonas followed on after Twain. He reached the ramp and turned back for one last look at the king, his protectors, Witakker, and finally he glanced at Willow for a second before breaking his eye contact, determined to forget her. He walked inside the ship as the ramp closed behind him and Skylark blasted away from the soils of Aquilla heading for the planet of Obitrum.

Chapter XII

Obitrum

The journey to Obitrum, the fifth planet of the Valo star system, passed without sighting a single dydrid shadow-fighter, which considering the cargo they were carrying could only mean that the Zohr was not interested in Jonas. He wasn't the only one. A sourness lingered in the air and Jonas could clearly see the ill-feeling that Witakker had warned him about over the protectors pledged loyalty to Calyx.

Jonas kept the company of Twain and the two of them sat towards the rear of the passenger hold where the genius talked incessantly about the workings of ships engines and how efficient interstellar travel was these days and what gadgets he was planning on making after he'd finished the molectron transistor he was working on. Jonas didn't have a clue what half of it meant but enjoyed seeing Twain's passion for inventions and theories, so he listened on to the jargon regardless.

The protectors on the other hand had hardly said a word to each other or to Jonas. The thought that this know-nothing stranger was their defender, a stranger that they didn't trust, didn't like and didn't think had anywhere near the capabilities of Calyx, had gone beyond a joke for them. This was happening and they had to bite their tongues and get on with their orders. As far as they were concerned, sending Jonas to Obitrum was a waste of their time. They knew that Jonas would screw up sooner or later and then they would be called in to return home and rescue Prince Calyx like they wanted to do in the first place.

It was dark when they pierced Obitrum's atmosphere and flew down to the academy, and there wasn't much to see in the poorly lit night but the lights of the approaching landing bay. Skylark set down inside. The landing bay was well equipped with fighters. Jonas was impressed, looking forward to flying these sonic creatures in combat training. Some of the junior Guard welcomed the party to the training camp, showing them the way to their quarters.

Jonas was sleeping seperately from the others, and he settled into his private quarters. But he didn't happen to be tired and being in a new place, he was high on excitement and trying to wrap his head around everything that was happening. He left his room to look around the camp, taking a stroll through the landing docks and hallways, nosing in at the lecture theatres along the way. No one else was around when it dawned on him that outside of his bedroom in the palace he had hardly spent one minute alone since arriving on Aquilla. Ironic, he thought, considering his life up to that point had been spent almost entirely alone. But now, things were very different for the spider from Rilk. For the first time he started to actually think about what all of this meant. The history of his race, their past struggles, their future struggles. If he could complete his training and learn the fullness of his mind over the next year or however long it took then maybe one day there was no reason why he couldn't be a good prince. A king though? Perhaps that would be too much. His saving grace was Calyx. He had no doubt that soon the Zohr and Uly would see fit to exchange their two prisoners and return the war to a stalemate. What else could be done with the powers so finely balanced? Jonas thought.