Martin King and the Prison of Ice (Martin King Series) (15 page)

“Martin, Darcy,
Tommy,” he said. “How good to see you all again!”

“I’m so glad
you’re alive,” said Martin. “Agamon told me that you had escaped, but…”

“I know, I
know,” said Falcon. The alien ran a hand through his white hair, surveying the
army. “We are one soldier down.”

Martin suddenly
realised why. “We called Abaddon using a recall device,” he said. “Agamon and
Mulciber must have allowed for him when putting together the army. But he
hasn’t turned up.”

“A great pity,”
said Falcon. “Abaddon would have been of immense use to us. Anyway, never mind
that. Look!” Agamon was gesturing to the crowd. “I think he wants to gather us
together.”

Falcon ran to
the other Axis Lords. He embraced Agamon, Mulciber and Slater in turn. Then he
pointed towards his ship. The soldiers began to move towards Falcon’s craft.

*

Martin, Darcy and Tommy stepped
inside the ship; the rest of the troops slowly made their way through the
entrance. As soon as they passed the threshold, all of the snow from their
shoes vanished.

It was obvious
why Falcon’s ship was so large; it had been set up to accommodate a large
gathering. The ship was decorated all in black, but powerful directional lights
cast an white glow over everything. There were 100 black chairs in ten rows.
All of the chairs had a hologram projection of a name. Martin, Darcy and Tommy
sat down on the chairs bearing their names.

“It’s like a
school assembly,” Darcy muttered.

“Except school
assemblies aren’t usually followed by a battle,” said Tommy.

There was a
raised black platform at the front of the ship, and the chairs sat facing it.
Falcon, Agamon, Slater and Mulciber made their way over to the platform; they
climbed up the steps and faced the troops. The four Axis Lords were wearing
glossy black armour.

Martin glanced
at his friends. They were still wearing casual clothes; Martin was wearing a
thick coat over his jeans and sweater.

The Axis Lords
from the city were wearing a kind of silver armour.

“Good morning,”
said Agamon, and the room fell silent. “Thank you for coming. Now, we all know
why we are here. The members of the Axis Council wish to battle us. If they win
the battle, this planet—along with all of us—will be destroyed. If we win, they
will leave us in peace. The British Prime Minister wanted to fight alongside
us, but we asked him to stay behind. The people of Earth need him at this
difficult time. However, he did send 20 highly-trained human soldiers.”

“The Axis Lord
ships are placed strategically all over the planet,” said Falcon. “If we lose
this battle, they are already poised to destroy the Earth.”

“Now,” said
Agamon. “It is important that we go over our strategy. The most important thing
is that we will be adopting a completely
defensive
strategy—at least at
the outset.” He glanced at Mulciber. “Mulciber will use his power to cast a
shield over us; he does not know how long it will last, but it should give us
at least a few minutes.”

“The plan is no
good!” Mulciber blurted out. “I’m sorry, but it’s true. If we stand any chance
against the Axis Council we need to strike pre-emptively. We need to have
weapons ready for the Axis Lords, so we can attack as soon as they land!”

Agamon shook
his head. “No. We will only show aggression if absolutely necessary. When the
history of this great battle is written, it shall not say that we fired the
first shot.”

“What good are
history books if we are all dead?” said Mulciber.

Falcon put a
hand on Mulciber’s arm. “Please,” he said.

Mulciber fell
silent.

“We will adopt
a simple line formation,” said Agamon. “There are no pawns or kings in this
chess game. None of us are more important than the others. We will all stand
and fight together—if we win, we shall live together, and if we lose, we shall
die together.”

“Now, please
raise your hand if you have brought your own weapons so we can make an inventory
of our exact arsenal.”

About half of
the soldiers raised their hands. All of the SAS men had their own guns, but
they were useless against Axis Lords. The weapons were all quickly swapped for
Blazing Diamond guns.

Tommy and Darcy
began to whisper about something. Martin swung his legs under his chair; his
foot came into contact with something hard. Martin picked it up. It was a book
that was bound with black leather. The title, which was embossed in gold, was
written in an alien script. But there must have been a translation mechanism
built into the book; as Martin watched, the letters dissolved and were reformed
into English words. The title read:

BATTLE
CUSTOMS OF THE ANCIENT AND NOBLE AXIS LORDS

Intrigued, Martin began to flick
through the book. It seemed like a brand new copy; all of the pages were clean
and the spine wasn’t creased. There was a satin ribbon bookmark in one of the
pages. Martin opened the book at that page; the alien letters melted away and
English ones took their place. Martin began to read.

CHAMPIONS:
THEIR FUNCTION AND HISTORY

One of the Battle Decrees
established by Dominus, First Emperor of the Axis Lords, introduced the use of
champions in battle. Historically, a battle—either galactic or
terrestrial—generally entailed many casualties on both sides. Dominus viewed
this as wasteful and unnecessary. Therefore, the use of a champion was strongly
encouraged in any war.

The principle was extremely
simple. A champion—either self-nominated or chosen by a committee—would
represent the entire army. One champion from each side of the battle would
fight to determine the final outcome of the battle.

To initiate a champion
battle, both sides of the army would have to agree to select a champion. If
only one side of the army wished to select a champion, their selection would be
void. Champions were usually trained for centuries in advance to ensure the
best chance of victory. There are, however, a few recorded instances of
surprise champions. Any member of an Axis Lord army could choose to volunteer
as champion, and providing a member of the opposing army also stood as
champion, the champion battle had to go ahead. Champions could be replaced only
once during a battle, and only in the event of another soldier agreeing to take
their place. In a way, Dominus’ establishment of the champion principle helped
to democratise Axis Lord battles.

Of course, opting to fight by
champion could sometimes be a foolish strategy, particularly if the opposing
force had an especially mighty warrior. For this reason, after the death of
Dominus the use of champions largely fell out of favour with Axis Lord
generals. Of course, Axis Lords in the modern day have renounced war, so do not
generally engage in battles of any kind.

Martin smiled grimly at the
irony. The Axis Lords were about to engage in the most brutal and unnecessary
battle in their history. Darcy glanced at the book that Martin was holding.

“What’s that?”

“Oh, I found it
under my chair. I suppose Agamon or one of the others left it there by
mistake.”

He handed it to
Darcy and she flicked through it. “It’s all written in another language,” she
muttered. “Makes no sense to me.”

Martin frowned.
Why hadn’t it translated for Darcy? Martin took the book and handed it to
Tommy.

“You understand
every language, Tommy. Can you read what it says?”

Tommy took the
book. “No,” he said blankly. “That’s weird. It’s the first language I haven’t
been able to read. I wonder what language it is…”

Martin was
puzzled. But, at that moment, Agamon walked past their seats. He saw the copy
of the book and held out a hand.

“I have been
looking for that,” he said.

Martin didn’t
hand it back. “What language is it written in?” said Martin. “Tommy can’t read
it—and he can usually read any language.”

Agamon smiled.
“It’s written in Thieron Quantum Code. Unless you have the correct translation
key, it is indecipherable—even for an omnilinguist.”

Martin nodded
and handed the book back.

“I could
understand it,” he whispered to Darcy.

“Really? How?”

Martin
shrugged. “I don’t know. It just seemed to translate itself for me. I was
reading about Axis Lord battle customs.”

Falcon walked
up to their chairs. “Hello again. Did you three bring any weapons?”

They shook
their heads.

“No matter,”
said Falcon. “There are some more suits of armour and Blazing Diamond guns in
the armoury, if you follow me.”

They followed
the Axis Lord out of the main hall and into a black corridor. He led them into
a small room that was filled with weapon racks. Most of the guns had already
been taken, but there were still several large Blazing Diamond guns left.

Three suits of
armour were hanging up behind glass. They were made of some sort of glistening
white material.

“I had these
made especially for the three of you,” Falcon explained. “I heard that the
battle would be taking place on the snow, so white seemed the best colour.” The
alien opened the glass case. “Please—try them on.”

He showed the
teenagers which armour belonged to each of them.

“Isn’t there a
changing room?” said Darcy.

Falcon shook
his head. “I’m afraid not.”

The alien
turned to look away as the three teenagers got changed. The armour was a
continuous piece that you stepped into and then fastened around yourself; it
had obviously been made to their exact specifications, so they needed to
undress to put them on.

Martin watched
Darcy as she pulled her jumper and shirt off, followed by her jeans. Darcy
looked up; Tommy was watching too.

“Martin’s
allowed to look,” said Darcy, “but you have a girlfriend of your own.”

“Sorry,”
muttered Tommy, grinning.

They finished
getting changed into their armour. Falcon turned around and beamed at them.

“How do they
feel?”

Martin turned
around in the armour. It felt very comfortable, almost like a second skin. And
it was so light.

“The body
armour was designed by a Thieron,” said Falcon. “It is light but exceedingly
strong. Even a Blazing Diamond gun would have trouble piercing the material.”

Darcy touched
the white armour. “If it’s so good, won’t the Axis Lords have them too?”

Falcon shook
his head. “Axis Lords stopped all dealings with Thierons about 50 years ago.”

“Falcon?” said
Tommy. “There are only three pieces of armour, but… what about the others? What
about Fire Opal?”

“Do not worry,
Tommy. All of our soldiers have armour and weapons. Which reminds me—” Falcon
pointed to three guns that stood side-by-side. “These are yours.”

Martin took one
of the guns.

“They are
Blazing Diamond guns,” said Falcon. “They use burning diamonds instead of
bullets—very effective. You can try them out in a few moments.”

Another weapon
caught Martin’s eye. It was a silver sword, and a large red stone was set into
the handle.

“Ah,” said
Falcon, glancing at the glass case. “That is a very special weapon. There is
only one more of those in the whole universe.”

“What’s special
about it?” said Martin.

“It was made by
Dominus himself, the first emperor of the Axis Lords,” said Falcon. “Every time
Dominus led his people into battle, he insisted on using this sword. He made a
second sword as a back-up, but this first sword never failed him. When he died,
Dominus gave it to one of my ancestors, and it has never left my family.”

“Have you ever
used it?” said Tommy.

Falcon laughed.
“No, never.”

Martin stared
at the sword. For some reason, he felt drawn to it.

“Come on,” said
Falcon. “You need to have some practice with the Blazing Diamond guns.”

*

Falcon led the teenagers into
the battle room. There were ten battle rooms on the ship; all of the others
were occupied by other soldiers. The Axis Lord army would be arriving in two
hours, and they all needed as much practice as they could get.

The room was
quite large and empty. It was very dark, but there was a white line painted on
the floor.

“Do not step
past the white line,” said Falcon. “Now arm yourselves.”

Martin, Darcy
and Tommy raised their guns.

“The operation
of Blazing Diamond guns is quite simple,” said Falcon. “Simply press the red
button on the back—that switches off the safety—aim, and then pull the
trigger.”

The teenagers
pressed the red buttons on their guns. Each gun was large and heavy; they
needed to use both hands to hold them steady.