Nyteria Rising (The Thirteenth Series Book 3) (24 page)

The soldier relayed to his superior. “We have them; seems the female has made the right decision.”

Val could hear the message going into his headset. “Nathan orders that they should be delivered to him
without harm or he will personally punish those responsible.” The soldier passed the message on. Val and the Warden’s hands were bound behind their backs; they were then raised roughly to their feet and set marching. Val intentionally dragged her feet, slowing them down, to the annoyance of her captors. She was willing to try anything to gain the hour she needed for the people from the Space to be vaccinated. Every second counted.

“Hello, can you hear me?” a voice whispered into her ear. She coughed. “Two coughs for yes.” She coughed twice quickly. The soldier pushed her again in disgust at her weak and feeble coughing fit. “I have you on a one-to one headset to keep the noise down. You’re moving into the coordinates where we lost Sam. Vaccinations are going well here and Zac is collecting all the Hunters together. Boden and Hadwyn are making the Guards ready. Stay strong, Val, we’re coming.” She coughed again. Glancing across at the Warden she nodded her head discreetly. He responded with the same action and they continued to march.

Val knew they had arrived at the centre of operations. The air was dense with fear and obedience. Every person in the area was on edge. Nathan seemed to inspire gut-wrenching terror in everyone. She’d been scared of Excariot, but this was a deeper feeling. She had felt it on Nyteria. It was like life had no value to him, and everyone knew it.

Nathan appeared - his skin a vibrant blue. Now Val could see him in the light of the Prison she was almost mesmerised by his colour. It glowed, palpitating as he walked. His jaw was squared, his hair blue to match his
skin perfectly. He walked towards her and she felt her insides start to shake. “Welcome to my Prison, I’m pleased you came.” He greeted his newest acquisitions. “You have taken the Warden from me twice and that’s two times too many. Do you understand what I’m saying to you?” His voice was firm but not yet raised. Val was forced by two soldiers to kneel down in front of him. She kept her eyes on the clean white floor. “Take the Warden back to where the Guards can see him and make sure everyone knows he is back in our power. We need to make an example of this girl, something they won’t forget in a hurry.”

Val felt them pulling the Warden away from her. She calculated they had been at least half an hour so far. As long as his example of her didn’t last less than the half hour they needed, she might just make it through this.

“Come with me.” Nathan pulled her to her feet. His grip was firm, but not tight enough to hurt her. She rose and followed him through a large group of his soldiers and out onto a balcony. She recognised where she was now. The Warden had brought her out here before. It overlooked a large part of the Prison that stretched out in front of her and she could see row after row of standing Guards. They were eerily still and had clearly been brought out to see the spectacle.

Val wondered if he would torture her in front of them. That would have a lasting effect on everyone who witnessed it. He moved her out to the edge. Val looked down and realised just how high up they were. She still hated heights, and shivered uneasily. The crowd started to move backwards and spread out a little. Something was coming out from below the balcony, but she couldn’t yet see what it was. She knew it was bad judging from the muffled gasps coming from below.

Slowly a procession came into view. There were eight people wearing dark green cloaks. Their heads covered. Val saw that they were tied together by something that looked like a neon cable. It sparked and buzzed between each one. The soldiers proceeded to line them up in clear view of the balcony. “Reveal my power!” Nathan called to his soldiers. They pulled back the hoods. There stood five men, two women and Sam. Val wanted to call out his name, but he was going to see her soon enough. They looked like they hadn’t been hurt, but this wasn’t a good situation. The Guards were fidgeting in agitation. “Have you never seen the faces of your gods?” Nathan asked the crowd. “The ones that took you from your homes and made you their slaves?” No one spoke. “Do you not want retribution for the homes that they destroyed? To stop you longing to see your loved ones again?” His voice echoed around them all.

“Val, that’s your name isn’t it, not number thirteen?” He pulled her closer to the edge so that everyone could see her. As soon as he saw her, Sam started to struggle, but the weapon of a soldier colliding with his head soon ended that. Blood ran down the side of his face. “See these people, Val. They took you from your home, from your mother and sent you to the future.” Val was shocked. How did he know that? “They made you a weapon of destruction with no thought for your family or your planet. Is that a lie?” he asked her.

Val could see the Guards looking at her, waiting for her to speak. Sam’s eyes met hers. “No.” She hung her head. It wasn’t a lie and that hurt.

“Did they take away your life and treat you like a reject, something imperfect, something that they were stuck with?” Then he pointed at the Judges. “And then
you caught one of their most wanted criminals for them: Excariot. Is that not the truth?”

She couldn’t understand where all this information was coming from. “Yes.” Answering him was so painful. He was right and what he was saying was the truth and it grated in her throat.

“Is it true that you just created the largest portal in the history of the Prison, bringing several hundred aliens to their knees? May I also add to that you escaped me twice, and took the Warden to freedom and still returned to save them after everything they have taken from you?”

Tears had started to form in her eyes. “Yes,” she cried. This was crazy. He was turning her against her own people. Listening to what he was saying she wasn’t sure what to think anymore.

“This girl, this human, or reject as you have chosen to call her, is a true god.” He looked out at them all, waiting for their full attention. “I will take her to be mine!”

“NO!” A cry came from Sam and he was brutally silenced again.

“When you see her at my side you will see her as a symbol of my dominance over you, and you will remember everything that has been taken from you by these creatures of power.” He pointed at the Judges. “They will be sent to the Interspace for you to see that they have no power over you anymore.”

Val’s head was spinning so much she felt she might pass out. Before she had a chance to look back at Sam, Nathan pulled her away from the balcony. She could only pray now that the others were on their way, because if they didn’t succeed, she was going to be Mr Blue’s girlfriend far too soon.

“Can you hear me?” A soft voice echoed in Val’s ear. She gave two sharp coughs. “We’re on our way. We have over a hundred and fifty Guards ready plus enough airborn Vaccine to treat most of the affected Guards within twelve hours.”

Nathan had sat Val down on a bench to await his next orders. Soldiers were stationed round the perimeter of the room. “Not the right people.” She said clearly. “What?” The soldier turned and walked towards her.

“I said, there are a lot of you guys on this planet, thousands I’d guess. Am I right?” she asked him.

His gaze grew suspicious. “What’s the reason for your question?”

“Well, you have to cover all of us and that must take thousands of you surely?” she gave a weak shrug as if she was genuinely interested in what he had to say.

“We have enough. Anyway, once you remove your power to resist, you need little force. The Guards were our only real threat, so the power of the Prison has gone. Now one soldier with power could rule this place, the rest of them are a joke.” He turned away.

“But you still have the High Judges as prisoners, they still have their powers.”

“Not for long. Now shut up.” He moved further away to prevent her from questioning him further.

Jason spoke after a few moments of silence. “So, you’re saying we don’t have the right people?”

The soldier was now a few metres away from her and she was able to whisper carefully. “Listen to me. I want you to come, but this is a battle we can’t win with the amount of Guards in the Space. They have the High Judges and Sam’s alive for now, but we need people to get the Vaccine onto the surface.” The soldier turned to look at her. She stopped speaking, waiting until he lost interest. “Tell Eswith to send Zac and his Hunters, they’ll stand a better chance of being undetected. Send them to all the highly populated points where our Guards are being held. We can’t do this without the support of all our Guards, we’re not strong enough.” She went quiet again, waiting for a moment. “I’ve just seen the prisoners and they’re all Guards. He sees most of the others as unimportant. Tell Zac to get the Extractors’ help.”

“Makes sense. I’ll speak to Enoch now. Are you ok, Val? I heard what he was saying to you.”

“Been better.”

“SHUT UP!” the soldier shouted at her.

“But I’m lonely I want someone to talk to…” She fell silent as Nathan returned.

“You will come with me.” He pointed at her and she knew if she was going to stay alive until the Vaccine had had a chance to work on the surface, she would need to do as she was told. She stood, her hands still tied behind her back. “We need to get you something different to wear. Untie her arms. She won’t be a problem, she knows better.” A soldier hurried to release her.

It felt good having her hands free again. He led her out of the room and they walked down corridors that she was becoming familiar with. She plucked up the courage to ask a question. “So, what’s your plan?”

“Freedom.” He took her hand and Val noticed his skin felt human. “I want my people to have a chance at survival, that’s all.” Gradually, starting with the hand that was holding hers, his skin was changing colour, matching her own skin tone, slowly travelling up his arm and then all over his body, until he looked human. His eyes met hers and she was shocked to see they were now the colour of honey.

“But surely war is just causing pain. So, to free one planet you would enslave another?” She kept her voice very calm; she knew that this man could explode.

“Not if the people you enslave are the cause of your pain. Tell me, Val, when you caught Excariot, what had he done that made you want to imprison him?”

She thought for a moment as he moved her along. “He killed my real father, threatened my family and he was a bad person, he wanted to take over the world. That tends to make you enemy number one.”

“But what of his love for Lailah? Wouldn’t you risk everything for someone you loved?”

She hated that he made sense. “Yes, I would, but I would do my best not to hurt anyone else.”

“Who have I hurt Val?”

“The Warden looks pretty black and blue to me.”

“He resisted. We told them to hand themselves over, we gave them the option, but they insisted on fighting. That was the Warden’s decision.”

A waiting soldier opened a door for them. Spread around the room in front of her were several rails of
dresses, not just any dresses. Val immediately knew that these were the dresses that Wendy had seen in her vision.

“I will leave you here. There is no exit and if you teleport out I’ll kill the Judge they call Sam. I know you came back for him.”

“I’m not going anywhere. Don’t hurt anyone, please,” she supplicated. “I’ll do anything you want.”

“Choose one of these dresses and then we will talk again.” He turned to leave. “Look your best or I won’t be happy.” His skin turned blue once more as the door closed on her designer Prison.

“Jason can you hear me?” She waited in silence, unsure if this room would have a signal.

“Hello mate. You ok?”

“You need to get Boden or Hadwyn for me now!” she ordered.

“Will do. Fran, get the boys. Enoch agreed with your plan and Zac and the others have left for the surface with the vaccine.”

“Good, I just need to keep this going. Jason, he wants me to wear a dress. Scarily my uniform now looks good.”

“They’re here. Can I put you on speaker?”

“Yes, we’re alone.”

“Ok, go for it.”

“Help me Boden, Nathan wants me to put on a dress, which means no uniform, which means no weapons.” She was pulling at the dresses as despair washed over her. “What is it with men and dresses? Boden, I remember when you showed me your tattoo; you made your uniform invisible? Can I do that and put the dress on top?”

Boden responded, his voice soft and familiar. “Yes you can, it’s the same as your helmet and your weapon:
it has to come from inside you. Your suit is made to respond to your requests. Just focus on it becoming invisible.”

Val closed her eyes and she imagined herself naked. Cautiously she peeked from one of her eyes. “Ok, I have a naked leg and left arm.”

“Val, imagine me shooting you,” Hadwyn added from the background.

She laughed out loud, “You’re not here!”

“How do you know that? You can hear me and I’m invisible when I want to be.”

Val span around, her uniform again covering her whole body. “That’s not helping!”