Elementis 1: The Heir to the Stone (13 page)

"What happens here?" asked Calyx, unsure if he wanted to know.

"Let me show you," the Zohr said, as Mutus walked straight back in followed by the recently dydrified lukran beast at his back. Calyx's senses warned him to move away from the beast but he somehow managed to remain calm at being so close to the tusked creature that had ruthlessly torn off his opponents head in the battle arena. The only reaction Calyx showed was to raise his chin and fill his chest with breath to make him appear a little larger. The lukran was no threat to Calyx now, not with his new silver eyes and a mind as dead as a rock. But still, when a beast as fearsome as this is close by there is no fooling your senses that they are not in danger.

Mutus opened a metal door to a sealed chamber that could have housed at least ten beasts his size. The lukran stepped inside. Mutus pulled a breathing mask to the lukrans face and slammed the door closed as he pressed a sequence of buttons on a control pad beside the chamber. Clear liquid began to flood over the lukrans body. Calyx watched on. The beast seemed as relaxed as if he was taking a warm bath and the liquid poured in over the lukrans silver eyes and over his tusked head, rising the beast up to float in the middle of the tall chamber. Calyx tensed in shock as thousands of tubes shot down through the liquid, puncturing the lukrans thick leather skin. He pulled and struggled as the tubes pierced his body. His strength couldn't free him and he relaxed, calming to accept the pain and restraints that he could not break.

Calyx didn't know how he hadn't seen them before when he spotted a network of narrow chutes feeding out from the chamber to the field of pods around the room. A silver liquid piped from the lukrans chamber out towards each station. Calyx watched the liquid reach the closest pod to him and out of nowhere a small black something began to form in the liquid. The black mass grew larger, arms stretched out, legs and feet and hands formed right in front of Calyx's eyes. In seconds, a fully grown lukran was created, curled up like a foetus ready to spring to life. Calyx admired the spectacle. He couldn't look away. He brought his face close against the glass, fascinated by the sleeping beast. The lukrans eyes shot open, shining with the silver glint of the dydrid, staring blindly at Calyx. After a short moment of waking, the giant lukran baby rose up and out of the liquid, roaring with freedom as the slimy fluid slid down its furry face and solid chest. Calyx stood back a pace. His eyes lit up watching one after the other, beast after beast stretching out from their liquid wombs and breathing with a roar to welcome life into their bodies.

"They grow at an astonishing rate. Aren’t they beautiful!" said the Zohr, admiring his new batch of super killers.

Calyx was fascinated. The science behind such a feat was incomprehensible to him. He could only wonder at the nature behind the reason for cloning these animals. "Where are the females in your army?" he asked, keeping his eyes locked to one of the beasts.

The Zohr sneered in disgust. "The female of any species is weak, even with the strength of our pure race they die too easily," he said.

The pure race? Calyx thought. He only knew one female of the pure race, she may even be the last, he'd never seen another. "Will Willow die if she breeds?"

"She is a little stronger than most, but she might," the Zohr said, in such a way that told Calyx not only did he not care for females but that he also didn't care for the welfare of his own family.

"If that is so, soon there will be no dydrid women left," said Calyx.

"I have all the reproductive requirements I need," the Zohr told him. "Women serve no purpose to me."

Calyx looked up to the Zohr's lifeless face. "How can you be so cold?" he said, daring to question the great oppressor. "How can any of your men find love?"

"Love is a disgusting habit," the Zohr sneered, curling his lip and turning his nose up at Calyx. "Love leads only to sadness and loss. Why would anyone do that to themselves!?"

The bitterness in his voice told Calyx a great deal about the ancient man standing before him. He almost sympathized with him. He almost agreed with him. Calyx had never realised it or ever given thought to it before but the Zohr's words were true, love leads only to sadness and loss.

Chapter XI

Honesty

Jonas walked through the palace. He smiled inside seeing a patched-up section of the ceiling above his head where he had so desperately run away from his father after being scared to death with the threat of being sent back to Kroyto. But now, having listened to Witakker's history lesson, Jonas fully understood the predicament that his father was faced with.

The cythereans kept a watchful eye on the Zohr, choosing their battles with him wisely. Should they have tried to stop him completely, his army was strong enough to wipe out large numbers of cythereans in a war which they would lose if they did not have the Elementis. However, the Zohr could not attack Enterra on such a scale, since they did hold the ultimate power in the universe and, should he try and destroy them, Uly could just as easily destroy him and everything he is by the power of thought alone. The war was finely balanced. If under any circumstances the Zohr were to hold the Elementis in his hands once again, there would be nothing Uly could do to stop him. His reign of terror would spread, plaguing the local star systems, the wider galaxy of Iopa and out across the entire universe until he controlled everything.

Jonas also further understood his father's decision to find and ask him to become the ultimate protector while Calyx sat in waiting within the iron walls of Mercron. He was right to do so; the Zohr would without question have killed Calyx with any pending attack and war would rage with millions of innocent lives lost.

The only thing that Jonas still didn't understand was why couldn't his father destroy the Zohr and end this war. The Elementis was one of only two things that could stop all of this. The solution of using it seemed simple to Jonas. The other solution was not so simple, and it was apparently hidden somewhere in Jonas's mind, somewhere where he wouldn't even know where to start looking for it. Calyx had undergone years of training his mind to find whatever it was that gave one the mind control of the Esla Maven and he still hadn't found it. With the Elementis sat on your arm you could control everything made of matter and destroy the Zohr—it went over and over in Jonas's mind, why didn't his father use it? Kill the Zohr; just do it. Jonas walked on through the palace; he needed an answer. Witakker had already told him where he could find his father.

Valo brought another day to an end. The star melted into the horizon, scattering reds and pinks through the clouds above. King Uly was standing on top of the hold on the palace's roof, the last place that he had seen Calyx. He watched the waving heat of the burning star in the sky fade into the early evening coolness, hoping that Calyx was okay, hoping that Jonas would save them.

Jonas walked outside, stopping to stand a little way behind his father. He watched his silken brown hair blowing across his broad shoulders in the soft evening breeze. The flamingo-pink clouds brought a serene feeling to the drawing night and yet Jonas knew that serenity was far from the thoughts of Uly as he watched their setting star.

"Father, do you still miss her?" asked Jonas from behind.

Uly did not turn, he did not blink, he did not defer his response, he did not even move his eyes from the orange glow of the life-giving Valo, "Your mother is in my heart as much as the blood that courses through it. When the time comes for my heart to die, only then my love will cease."

"You loved my mother, even though she was a dydrid!?" Jonas said, needing to know more about the mother he had killed.

Uly kept still. He might have turned and faced his sons broken heart but that would have made his response somewhat closed and less personal. That was how he was used to acting, a leader wasn't weak, a leader wasn't emotional and Uly lived up to that. For now though he felt that he should be a father and answer his sons questions openly. He owed him that much.

"My compassion for those under the Zohr’s control grew stronger with every day that I knew your mother. Yes, I deeply loved a dydrid woman," Uly said.

"I can understand why you sent me away," Jonas said, with sadness.

"Can you? I can-not my son. My anger was unruly."

"I have never had love in my life. But to have it and to lose it… it must have destroyed everything."

Uly looked down in shame. "I was still wrong. I see that every time I look at you."

The king took a deep breath. "Someday you will feel a love like your mothers and mine, and I hope that on that day you may forgive me. I have made many mistakes for which there should be no forgiving, but still I hope."

Jonas looked upon his fathers lowered head, seeing a man steeped in desperation, a man that had made mistakes and lived with the consequences every day of his life. Jonas walked up by Uly's side, he looked across to the king. "I will do it, Father," he said.

Uly raised his head, looking deep into Jonas's blue eyes, his lips trembled with fear for his son.

Jonas confirmed his acceptance, "I will protect the Elementis."

Uly nodded once. "Is that what you want? There is no going back," he said.

"I can bring peace to this planet," said Jonas.

"You are the only one who can, Jonas," Uly said, with every meaning in his body. Uly looked away into the distance, repeating himself. "You are the only one who can!"

Jonas stared at the Elementis and energy-star on Uly's wrist. Thinking—how can something so small be filled with so much power? Endless possibilities lay within this one stone.

Uly noticed Jonas's eyes as he glared at the Elementis. "The power must never be abused—you understand that?" he said.

"I could use it to do so much good," said Jonas.

Uly's voice turned more serious. "We are sworn to ensure we never deliver it into the wrong hands, not to yield its powers. Is that clear?"

"Is that why you will not kill Oreaus with it?"

Uly looked away from Jonas for a moment and returned his eyes to his child. "If I tried to destroy the Zohr with the Elementis it is possible that Oreaus could take control of it, connecting through my thoughts. It is too risky for me to try."

The question was answered and Jonas was satisfied that it was too dangerous to use the Elementis directly on the Zohr. "I will do everything I can, Father," he said with every promise in his heart.

Uly moved closer to Jonas, taking him in his arms. The boy held his father, feeling the warmth of his heart for the first time against his cheeks. Jonas knew at that moment that choosing to stay and choosing responsibility would have made his mother proud.

Uly held Jonas away from his chest, looking down to his youthful face. "Get some rest, son," he said. "Tomorrow you leave for Obitrum to train with the junior Guard."

*

Jonas stirred in the night, moon rays shone through his window lighting up the whites of his eyes in the darkness of his room. He tossed from one side of his bed to the other. The voices returned, voices that had bugged his mind ever since he'd started making progress in his telepathy. He couldn't stop them talking to him and they wouldn't leave his thoughts alone. The voices were a constant on and off noise that grew louder for some reason this night. He couldn't make out what a single voice was saying but it was clear that their calls were full of pain and desperation. One voice came into his mind, louder and clearer than any other.

"What troubles you, Jonas?" Willow's voice resonated with a tingling somewhere inside Jonas's brain.

Jonas sat up in his bed, squinting around the dark room, searching for the figure of the princess. "Willow?" he called out.

"See into my eyes and talk to me, Jonas." Willow instructed.

Jonas relaxed back onto his bed, realising Willow would not be seen. She was half away across the palace and keeping a thought on his feelings. He closed his eyes and focused every living thought into hers. He delved into the deepness of his mind, thought beyond thought and spoke to her silently, "I hear hundreds, thousands of voices and see as many visions - I cannot speak with them."

"You hear the trapped minds of the converted fantoms," Willow told him.

The trapped minds? What about Calyx? thought Jonas. Was his mind now amongst them?

"Something terrible is happening. I hear it in their voices." said Jonas.

"It is beyond your control," she said, teasing his thoughts with wonder.

"What is it?" Jonas asked.

"I can’t tell you, Jonas."

Jonas took a shallow breath, incensed with Willow's response, why wasn't she concerned that the converted dydrid minds were crying out for help? What was it she knew?

"Can’t or won’t?" Jonas questioned.

"I hear things too but I do not know for certain," said the princess.

"I cannot leave my father if trouble is coming," said Jonas.

"You must do as your father wishes—your training is vital to everything."

"You want me to leave?" Jonas said, with mixed anger and confusion.

"You need to know how to survive and how to protect," she said, not reacting to Jonas's emotions.

"Willow, tell me what comes and when!" Jonas demanded, agitated by his supposed friend.

"I have told you that I cannot."

Jonas held back any further annoyance. Willow was proving his father and the protectors to be right. He was beginning to question whether he could trust a dydrid spy, no matter how beautiful she was. He needed to know either way and he wasn't playing any of her games. "When the day comes, will you fight for him—will you fight for the Zohr? Or will you fight for us?" he poised.

Willow made Jonas wait for her response. He lay still with his eyes open, listening out with his thoughts.

"You must believe what your mind tells you—that is the ultimate truth," said Willow.

"What would you have me believe?" said Jonas.

"Your thoughts are not clear. They are shadowed by the hatred of yours and my people. You are a part of both of us. You must protect both." Willow told him.