Heart of Stone

Copyright
© 2013 Arwen Jayne

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved

While reference has been made to some
actual historical events or persons and some existing locations all
other names, characters and places are fictional; the product of
the author’s over imaginative mind.  Any resemblance to actual
persons, living or dead, businesses or places is purely
coincidental.

Disclaimer

This book contains sexually explicit
scenes and language that may offend.  The author is not
responsible for any loss, harm, injury or death resulting from use
of information contained in this title.

100,000 years ago, more or
less

In a galaxy far far away...

Shimon saw the big adult Meta coming
to their house. He ran to his mum finding safety as she knelt down
and cuddled him close to her. “Ma!”

The beautiful young woman, delicate
but self-assured, gently caressed the top of his head. “It's
alright little one. They need you”.

Meta stood at the doorway, a picture
of majesty. “Come Shimon, you are equal amongst us, there is
nothing to fear”. He gently but firmly grasped the little boy’s
hand in his own and led him up the path to the shining white temple
on the hill.

Shimon turned to look over his
shoulder, his mum was waving reassuringly. He took a deep breath,
finding his resolve. He could be a man.

Shimon had never been inside the
temple. The great white marble pillars supporting the outer
circular structure looked like giants rising into the heavens. Once
through the outer ring they entered under a great domed ceiling. In
the center of the dome a clear crystal covered opening filtered
shafts of light into a rainbow of colors dancing on the floor of
the temple.

Meta seated himself cross legged on
the floor to one side of the temple, motioning for Shimon to sit
beside him and then they waited.

The men and women of the high council
entered, followed by the mages, the academy's elite scholars and
scientists and then the galaxy defenders.

Shimon saw the great commander of the
defenders among them, tall, straight backed, piercing dark eyes
that seemed to take the measure of everyone and everything in the
room. His blue black war braids hung down his back, marking him as
a follower of the right hand way, a fighter for justice, law
enforcer and protector of the weak. Such was the awe and respect in
which he was held everyone just called him Thex which meant simply
'right' and few outside his own family remembered him ever having
another name.

Each person sat on the floor,
completing a circle, a circle of equals.

When everyone was there Meta rose,
indicating he would take the right to speak. “Sisters and brothers
of the Malakim. I have called you here today to hear the words of
the all-spirit. For the past few nights I have had dreams of
foreboding and others of you have told me that you too have felt
the disturbance in the ether. I have asked young Shimon Aris to
come here today, as our equal. As was foretold at his birth he has
great ability listening to the will of the all-spirit.” Meta sat
back down and smiling reassuring warmth turned to Shimon, “arise
Shimon, turn your mind inwards for us and listen to the all-spirit
for us.”

Shimon stood. Closing his eyes helped
to remove the intimidating presence of the adults. He sent his
focus to the top of his head and listened.

Suddenly Shimon's eyes rolling back in
his head, Meta catching him as he fell to the floor. “The Din are
coming! All is lost if you flee. All is lost if you stay. But lose
and you will endure. Great is the suffering. Great is the pain. But
Hearts of Stone by love be freed.”

With worry creasing his brow Meta
placed a blanket over the young boy and put him in a fetal position
so he could rest safely, “the all-spirit has given its prophecy”.
He turned and faced the others, “go now and prepare for battle, the
all-spirit is within you and watching over you”.

Thex, the battle commander for the
galaxy, scowled, “it would seem the all-spirit is about to desert
us”.

Meta sucked in his breath at the
blasphemy. “The all-spirit always has its way in the end, the world
to come depends on it. It is not for us to question”.

Thex humphed, “I’ll leave faith and
prophecy to the philosophers and mages, Father. If your dreams are
any indication then there are some demonic lizards out there that
are about to enter into the lower worlds, with who knows what
agenda. We are sworn to protect those worlds and I for one will not
consider defeat”. Turning to his team, the dozen men and women of
the Malakim, the elite force of galaxy defenders, “time for us to
go and kick some mean scaly ass”.

The team rose swiftly from their seats
and nodded to Arion, the second in command, to speak. Resolution
was upon his face he raised his fist and beat it on his chest “We
are with you Commander, always”.

As everyone left Meta thoughtfully
nudged the young boy on the floor. “Come little one, I think I have
a job for you”.

A little while later

In a Malakim battleship far out in
space. Arion yelled into his communicator, continuing to fire his
laser weapon at the ferocious lizard beings who were trying to
round up his team and slashing with their saber sharp claws and
teeth those who resisted “Commander, we’ve been breached,
requesting backup”.

“
Shit” came the swift
reply, “hold them off a bit longer, I’m coming”.

Thex left the command deck. He headed
to the transporter hold and rounded the corner only to find himself
pinned to the wall by a giant lizard, its grotesque face almost
lion-like except for the scales. “Bloody Hell! This can’t be
happening”.

The lizard quickly secured Thex’s
hands with some kind of metal restraint that snapped ominously in
place. “Move and you die like the others, speak again and I will
rip out your tongue”.

Thex glanced around the hold that had
become the enemys’ beach head. Corpses of friends, brutally
slashed, entrails spilling from slashes, necks hanging loosely by
threads. Surrounded by their dead comrades were six badly bruised
and bloodied, heavily bound survivors: Arion, Orea, Kiana, Zex,
Trian and Kaleem. The lizard yanked forcefully on Thex’s restraints
and dragged him to the others.

Thex tried to mentally teleport
himself away but something in the restraints blocked
him.

One of the lizards made a guttural
barking sound and the other lizards in the glider bay became rigid,
as if frozen in whatever position they were in at the
time.

A larger lizard stomped ponderously
into the room, the floor shaking with the vibration of his steps.
His eyes like fire gleamed with an evil pleasure. He sneered at the
prisoners, “for your crime of attempting to thwart our take-over of
these worlds I sentence you to the long death. Your material bodies
will be descended into sama crystal and thrown into space to land
on the planet below. If you survive re-entry, which you probably
will, since sama is the strongest known material in our parallel
universe, your souls will be trapped forever, your awareness
intact, alone through the aeons, contemplating your
defeat”.

The survivors looked in horror at each
other but daren’t speak.

“
You!” The lizard commander
pointed at Thex. “You are their leader, yes?”

Thex just nodded, he hadn’t been given
permission to speak.

“
Good”. The lizard laughed
insanely. “We’ll do you last. I want you to remember the pain and
horror on each of your team’s face and you can take that with you
into your eternal prison”. He turned to the lizard beside him.
“That girl first!

Orea, the Malakim’s beautiful but
feisty chief of communication for everything from code breaking to
computers to managing the ship’s transceivers, rose to her feet and
head butted the lizard trying to grab her. “I’d rather
die”.

The lizard commander raised his weapon
and shot both her and her captor with a stun ray. “Afraid not.” He
turned to the other captives. “Now if anyone else would like
dispute my verdict I’d be more than happy to remove their limbs
before the procedure. I thought not. Well we’ll leave the girl
until she comes to. I still look forward to seeing her suffer. You
then”. He pointed at Arion.

Arion glanced sorrowfully at Thex, his
clear pale green eyes saying their goodbye to his longtime friend
and commanding officer. Just as he was placed in position he
remembered something and quickly mouthed “the prophecy”. At that
moment a blast of absolute cold black light surrounded his body and
he screamed. When the light disappeared all that remained was a
gleaming piece of crystal, a rock the shape of a man, frozen in his
scream.

The rock was pushed aside and the next
captive put in place.

Thex watched in horror as one by one
his team were reduced to stone. He held himself rigid in defiance
and deadly calm yet the single tear coursing down his face betrayed
him.

Finally the lizard commander turned to
Thex. “So, any last requests?” His face made more hideous by his
laugh.

Thex glared at him, holding the
lizard’s gaze. “Your name”.

“
Ha! I don’t know what good
that will do you but very well. I am simply the enemy but you can
call me Sakla. Are we done then?”

“
We are done.” Thex calmly
stood himself in position and braced himself for the rays impact.
“Until we meet again Sakla of the enemy.”

And then there was only
rock.

Sakla shook his head. “We won’t meet
again”.

A little while later seven large rocks
were pushed out the bay doors and fell as meteorites to the planet
below. The sama crystal held its hyper dense structure intact,
surviving the entry into the atmosphere and impact. Buried in the
ground the only sign of where they landed were the craters made as
the impacted earth gave and rippled out in circles.

Tyra Aguila Goodwin woke with a start.
“That bloody dream again! One day I’ll have to write it down and
maybe then it will go away.” Dream was being too kind to it as it
was most definitely a nightmare. But she wasn’t sure she wanted it
to go away, she loved the dark haired man in the dream. Loved him
for his deadly calm and loved him for his compassion. She hoped one
day she would dream a better ending for the man and his
warriors.

A loud knocking at her front door
roused her from her musing. Who’d be knocking at this time of the
night? It’s three in the morning.

Quickly she threw on her trackies and
a tee-shirt and made a run for the door yelling “I’m coming!” Ha,
that’ll be the day! Now fifty years of age Tyra doubted she'd ever
have a lover. She had never managed to so much as snuggle up to a
guy without thinking of the man from her nightmares. By no means
frigid she’d ‘got by’ on a hearty diet of romance novels and
discovering that with the right fantasy, usually featuring
supernatural warriors or powerful mages, she could occasionally
have an orgasm, or two. She wasn’t entirely sad though on missing
out on the whole expensive wedding, white picket fence, two
screaming kids and cleaning up after a guy thing. She had a good
life, had travelled some and enjoyed her low paying but rewarding
job as a research librarian. She planned to take an early
retirement in a few years and then if she could get a scholarship
she’d probably go back to university and do her post graduate
doctorate. If not she might go overseas and volunteer as a research
assistant on some archaeological dig.

Tyra peered through the security
viewer in her door and saw a youngish but not too intimidating
policeman outside. After quickly racking her brain whether she had
recently been speeding when driving somewhere and deciding that the
policeman wasn’t there for anything she’d done she opened the door
with a reasonably friendly face. “Hello?”