Elementis 1: The Heir to the Stone (26 page)

"Let go, Jonas," shouted Menace, "You can’t hold it! Let go!"

The giant berg slipped further away. Jonas slipped with it, watching dozens of Guard clambering for their lives. But he couldn't hold it any longer. He closed his eyes and released his grip. He rolled onto his back yelling up to the sky. He couldn't bear to watch the hands of the Guard clawing the ice as the berg slipped away, turned and trapped them underneath.

"Jonas, we have to keep moving," said Menace, offering Jonas a hand to pull him to his feet.

Jonas, Menace and Goldheart caught up with the others at the edge of a pine forest that surrounded that the lake.

"Which way Lynk?" Jonas asked, as he approached and walked on to the front with Calyx.

Lynk pointed through the forest, "That way will take us there," he said.

"Let's hurry!" said Jonas, leading on into the woods with his depleted army.

Chapter XXII

As One

Crawling through the frozen forest, the fantoms and the Zohr edged ever closer to the stone under Solipa's guidance. A blanket of mist hung in the air and the trees vanished half way up their trunks. Through the fog the Zohr saw the shape of a man appear and disappear so quickly he questioned his own vision. The Zohr sent instruction to all of his minds, and the army halted and settled on one knee, waiting in the silence of the woods.

The Zohr scanned the ghostly trees. "Shardwey!" he shouted, his voice echoed through the mist. "The time has come old friend! You cannot hide from us," he bellowed into the silence. The forest was still. There was not one sound beneath the cover of the frigid firs.

Mutus leaned over Solipa's head and closer in to his master. "My Zohr, the fantoms have detected the stone," he said calmly into his father's silver ear. Solipa shuffled uncomfortably with a squeaky moan.

"Where?" the Zohr asked.

Mutus pointed through the trees to where the stone had been sighted. The fantoms stood and pushed their darkness forward through the fog. The forest exploded with fire. Soldiers' limbs dropped from the sky and fell smoking in the snow. Explosions wrapped the fantoms in a fire that melted their uniforms into a molten mixture of armour and metal blood.

Through the other side of the flames a figure ran away from the fire, and into the mist. Charging forward, the Zohr and his colonels didn't care how many of their soldiers needed to die to reach the stone. They sent infantry running ahead to clear the pathway of mines. More and more explosions filled the forest with fire.

"You think you can run, Shardwey?" the Zohr shouted, as his army hounded down the elusive figure.

Soldiers dissolved inside the flames up ahead. The Zohr hovered through the heat unfazed by the surrounding fire. The figure of the man was nowhere to be seen. The fantoms halted, their visors data-screens scanned the ground for the warmth of a body and the make-up of the stone. Neither could be found within the heat of the flames around them.

"You have no protection here, no army! Bring the stone to me and you may yet live," the Zohr said, projecting his voice into the trees.

A laser blast flew past the Zohr's shoulder. Mutus drew his blaster, returning fire before the trail of laser light had faded from the air. An old man dropped down to his knees from behind a tree. His cream robe, with the cytherean cross stitched into his chest plate, was bloodied, burnt, and torn, and his forearm smoked with laser heat. He knelt on the snow in shock, taking in and releasing short, sharp gasps of air.

The Zohr stepped down from his carrier. His eyes reflected the fires burning in the woods as if hell itself lived within him. He moved across to the wounded man. He knew him well. It was Shardwey Krestwell, just as Solipa had said.

"Where is it?" the Zohr demanded, standing above him like a bird eyeing his prey.

Shardwey looked up with trembling lips at the most dangerous man ever to breathe. "The stone does not belong to you, Oreaus, it belongs to the universe," he said, preparing to die in his last stand against the monster.

"Oh, I am sorry," the Zohr said softly, teasing Shardwey with his words. "The universe belongs to me as well," he said as his whispered voice turned from softness to bitter madness.

Mutus spoke out from behind his father. "The stone is inside the old man's stomach," he said.

The Zohr smiled, as close to a smile as he could ever muster. "You fool!" he said.

Kneeling down, pushing Shardwey back into the snow, he ripped his robes from his chest downwards, revealing a pale lightly haired stomach, and he plunged one hand straight through the tethered skin of Shardwey's abdomen and deep into his organs. The old man screamed, blood gushed from the tear and the Zohr removed his hand bringing the stone out and up to his eye. He groaned with satisfaction and wiped the stone clean of blood on Shardwey's cloak.

"At last," he said, rising to his feet.

The stone-sized clasp reared out from the Zohr's gauntleted arm. He placed the stone inside. The power fuelled his body. His silver veins pulsed, growing with the muscles in his almighty arms. He laughed from the depths of his lungs, thinking of the countless times he had relived this vision. He raised his arms up to the sky and as bright as a burning star, every colour of the world shone from the stone.

*

Through the ferns and the trees, Jonas and his entourage threw their arms across their faces, shielding themselves from the light of a blue beam. The glow faded, leaving a flash of light in each of their eyes.

"You are too late, brother. The power is gone," said Calyx, almost happy at his brother's failure.

Jonas looked at him in frustration and he ran towards the source of the light, followed after by his loyal Guard. Calyx stayed standing as everyone rushed past, "I wouldn’t be in such a hurry to die if I were you," he said to himself.

*

The Zohr lowered his arms as the colours of the sky burned away. He turned to his fantoms, with death ruling his thoughts and anger painting his face with evil. "I am the destroyer, the creator, the unlimited power—nothing can stop me!"

He pointed his arm out towards Solipa, and with a wave of energy shooting through the air, the tiny man dissolved into water as his body burst and spilled to the floor. Shardwey clawed himself away from Oreaus, blood trailed behind his path in the snow. Having satisfied his first test, the Zohr turned towards the old king, held out his arm once more but paused at the noise of running feet through the snow. He looked around to see Jonas and his army standing and staring at the sight of the stone on his forearm.

"Young Jonas, you are just in time!" the Zohr said, piercing his eyes straight through him.

His gaze intensified on the boy as he sent his next thought wave through the stone and out into his world. Shardwey turned from skin and soul and heart into a solid diamond, the figure of his crawling body lay sparkling in the snow.

"Oreaus, what made you this way?" Jonas asked, revolted by his cruelty, recognising that the man he had just killed was one of the white faces he had seen carved in stone at the palace, it was his grandfather.

"You will never know!" the Zohr answered, holding his arm pointing out to Jonas just as Calyx walked and stood beside his brother.

The Zohr held off any thoughts of finishing Jonas. "Calyx, come, bring my granddaughter. She needs reminding of where her loyalties lie," he said.

Calyx drew Willow's sword from the sheath around her waist and waved her across to her grandfather.

"Calyx, no!" Jonas said, not believing his eyes.

Willow didn't move quick enough to stop Calyx. She gazed across at Jonas for him to help her but the Zohr had his eyes and thoughts fixed on the boy, and he was helpless to stop his brother. Calyx tossed Willow's sword to the floor and took out his blaster ushering her along to move beside her father. Mutus lowered his eyebrows at his daughter, watching her return to his side. She whispered with her thoughts that she was sorry and looked down at the ground.

"I had to brother," Calyx said, as he moved over to join the Zohr.

"Why?" Jonas asked, shaking his head with anger boiling up inside of him.

"You are the king of nothing, Jonas! You do not have the Elementis, you do not have a planet to rule and you do not have Willow!" Calyx said, showing that he had lost all honor and all feeling for his people.

Goldheart's temper burst. "He’s got us, creep!" he shouted, firing a blast into Calyx and catching his side, knocking him to the ground.

The Cytherean Guard shot streams of helix fire into the fantoms, and as soon as they did so they dropped their weapons to the floor from a heat burning their hands.

"Enough!" the Zohr commanded, having burned each of their blasters from their hands. The weapons glowed red where they were dropped, cooling with a sizzle in the snow.

"Now, forgive me, Jonas," the Zohr said, looking at the boy, "as I turn you into chromium, to rust for eternity!"

A thought wave streamed through the air towards Jonas, as the Zohr thought only of turning his skin and armour into chromium so that his organs would take some time to die on the inside. Jonas tried to turn and run. His feet wouldn't move. Looking down, he saw a silver coating forming on his boots. A sharp pain attacked his feet, feeling as though he was standing in a nest of fanged-ants that swarmed up, biting his toes and ankles. He dropped to his knees, fighting the pain. His protectors could do nothing but watch, knowing that this was the end of Jonas, the end of them and the end of everything. The chromium covering edged up the boy's legs. There was no longer any feeling from Jonas's waist downwards. He accepted death and pushed aside his pain. Closing his eyes he made his peace with the world. His first thoughts wished that he had done more with his life. He wished that he had found the love of which his father spoke, he wished that he had laughed more with friends, helped more, stolen less. His father's face came into his mind. What would his eternal lasting thought be of the man? He wasn't a bad man, just misguided at times by his passion and his drive. Too much like Calyx, the traitor. One thought lay heavy on his mind, and that was that the protection of the Elementis had been safe for over a thousand years, and Jonas had been the one who had failed to protect the stone. His name would echo in vain across every star system as the Zohr's armies grew, consuming every living being until they had been turned to his rule or killed by his thoughts. It would be said that Jonas Krestwell was the one who couldn't save them from the end.

The Zohr smiled at the last king of the cythereans dying before him.

"I remember the times I have dreamed of killing every king from Valdoor to your father," the Zohr said, as Jonas absorbed the pain in his body with all the strength in his mind. "Now you are the last!"

The metal stiffened around his chest but his arms were still free. "No!" Jonas whispered.

He reached across with his right arm and took his vial from his shoulder pouch. Shaking with the nerves of his failing system, Jonas bit off the cork and poured the liquid into his mouth, just before his skin began to stiffen down his arms and up his neck. The empty vial slipped from his metal fingers into the snow. Jonas's eyes turned silver. He took one deep breath. His lips crystallized, and then his nose and his ears, and every hair on his head was covered in the cursed chromium and his body was sealed within a metal tomb. Inside the metal cast, Jonas was still alive. His heart thumped. His brain was aware of everything. He sent every thought of death and life aside into nothing and sent all of his being into the far reaches of the Zohr's mind. He absorbed his dark soul from within the energy wave that joined their minds together. He felt the power of the stone soothe his body, and with the speed of a thought, the metal that covered him reversed back to skin and armour. He stood and stared at the Zohr with his silver eyes.

Jonas spoke into the mind of the Zohr, "Sorry Oreaus—some dreams just don't come true!"

"Impossible," the Zohr whispered to himself, snatching the stone from the clasp on his gauntlet and ordering his army to finish them.

Spectrum, Cortex, Menace and Goldheart threw themselves in front of Jonas, and the Guard opened fire with sleeve mortars and what blasters they had left. The Zohr didn't move, his eyes widened, and his face took on the stillness of a morning frost. Laser bolts flew between the soldiers as the two armies took cover, cowering in natural trenches and hiding behind trees.

"Visors down—there’s a light show in town!" shouted Cortex.

All of the Guard's visors shot down, and Jonas shielded his eyes. Cortex's flare sent panic into the fantom soldiers. Their heat-seeking target displays blinded every one of them. The Zohr fled and the dydrid army retreated back through the woods. Willow and Calyx had gone, and silence returned to the forest. The battle was short but many Guard lay dead on top of the snow. Jonas searched through the snow, kicking around with his feet. He bent down and picked up Skull.

"What orders, Spider?" asked Spectrum.

Jonas looked at Spectrum. His eyes had returned to the fresh blue of his cytherean soul. "Honour the fallen," he said. "The fight is over."

Chapter XXIII

Help

Dominating the command deck of the Nangus was an exact replica of the spiked, black throne which the Zohr ruled from in Mercron. He sat deep in his chair, thinking about Jonas. Rolling the stone between his fingers, staring at it, wondering if he would now have to shield its magic from the young king. To what extent could this boy use his mind? Perhaps he could persuade him to join them? Calyx had fallen, why not Jonas? He needed them on side long enough to find a way to kill them both. Maybe the threat of dydrifying the remaining cythereans would be enough to come to an arrangement, or perhaps he would have them killed and be done with it.

A uniformed corporal, bearing the red-eyed symbol of the dydrid approached the throne, interrupting his master's thoughts. He pushed his chest out to attention. "Our navigation and speed modules have been affected by unexpected wiring damage, my Zohr—we may have some delay."