A roaring engine in the skies of Destus turned the Zohr's head skyward. He scowled with a memory that would never fade at the sight of the ten-sided ship. The thoughts of the night Valdoor had taken his element stone fed into his mind. The Utopious streamed across the dark-blue inner atmosphere as the Zohr kept his eyes fixed on the path of the ship. "Take care of them," he said to Mutus, who nodded in response to the request, transmitting the task of destroying the Utopious to the fighter pilots of the Nangus.
*
Kile and the other geisendorfers dangled on their ropes, dropping down out of the boosters of the Nangus. Shadow-walkers scrambled from the bellows of the ship, flying over the heads of the small men, sending them diving for cover. Kile lifted his head up from the snow to see that the fighters weren't there for them. Dozens of plasmic boosters flew off towards another ship in the sky. As he and the men got up to run, he watched with concern at the strange shaped ship, thinking that if the black soldiers didn't like them, they would surely be friends to the geisendorfers.
*
Without warning, the pack of shadow-walkers struck from a distance with guns and missiles tearing into several sides of the Utopious. Flames and smoke poured from its wounded hull. Alert sirens rang down the corridors. The Guard rushed to tackle the fires with foaming extinguishers. Goldheart pressed buttons to activate the lasers but instead smashed a fist into his dashboard when a malfunction message flashed up on the data-screen. The dydrid had shot out the ships weapons, and the fighter ship bay doors were jammed. The Utopious was defenceless being hounded through the skies by the dark minds of the shadow pilots.
Jonas ran into the cockpit holding onto whatever he could as the ship rumbled and turned taking a beating in the sky. The protectors, Willow and Calyx were already strapped in and holding on to their seats in the passenger hold behind Goldheart and Lynk. Jonas jolted into his seat as the ship tilted sharply. Dydrid fighters corkscrewed past the windshield outside, turning back to unleash more fire.
"Shadow-walkers," said Goldheart.
"How many?" Jonas said, as the ship's body creaked under the uneven pressure applied to the semi-destroyed hull.
"Too many!" Goldheart said. "We've lost all weapons and we're losing boosters, fast!"
"Take us down—anywhere!" said Jonas.
"We’re going down, but it’s nothing to do with me. Everyone hold on!"
The ship's power cut out. One thousand megatons of metal fell through the air at a frightening pace. Jonas held himself down in his chair, stopping his body from floating up in freefall as he pulled the strap of his seat-belt over his shoulders, fumbling around to clip himself in. The white ground below came closer and brighter. They braced for impact. Even Goldheart squeezed his eyes closed. The Utopious smashed into the snow. Jonas's blood rushed deep into his limbs as the ship went from falling under its own weight to ploughing into the ground. The pain was equal to someone hammering twenty burning nails fresh from a furnace fire beneath his toenails. The ship rolled across the ground. The crew screamed, screwing their eyes shut as their heads were thrown backwards and forward, knocking around from side to side. The windshield cracked, snow crushed into the glass with every rotation. One last creaking roll and the ship slumped to a stop. Everyone opened their eyes. At least they were alive.
The crew unstrapped their belts as their heartbeats settled and they caught their breath, stretching and cracking joints back into place.
"Do you still need those flying lessons I offered you?" Cortex said across to the cockpit, teasing Goldheart.
Goldheart shot a death stare at him, and Cortex put out a calming hand. "I was only asking!" he said, saving himself from a bloody lip.
The ship dropped to one side, and everyone grabbed onto anything they could to stop them from stumbling sideways. Willow fell back into her chair. The ship dropped again, and they heard what sounded like the cracking of ice.
"It's an ice field," Jonas said. "Everyone move!"
"Gladly," said Cortex, already halfway out of the passenger hold.
"Isn't he the brave one!" said Menace to the others as she followed after him.
Jonas held a hand out and pulled Willow up from her chair. "Are you okay?" he asked.
She said nothing but smiled at Jonas and ran out after Menace. Calyx rolled his eyes at his brother and shook his head in disbelief at Jonas's softness. Jonas lifted Lynk onto his back and followed on after Goldheart, Spectrum and Calyx.
As they made their way down the exit ramp to the surface of the frozen lake outside, the ship jolted, sinking a few feet deeper into the freezing water. Menace lost her footing, nearly falling over the side into the seeping water below. Goldheart yanked her back with a strong hand across her shoulder. Cortex was already sprinting at pace away from the ship, running alongside hundreds of scrambling Guard. One by one they stepped onto the safety of the hard surface. The unstable ship towered behind them poised to fall through the ice. Cracks tore across the ice beneath their feet as the ground began to move.
"Run!" Jonas shouted, watching the water surge out across the breaking ice.
With Lynk on his back, Jonas ran across the ground. Ice cracked and floated free all around them, icebergs rose into the air, twisting in the water and throwing soldiers into the water beneath. The ice surrounding the Utopious cracked further. The ship dropped through with a rumble and cracks rippled further and further out beneath Jonas's feet. The Guard who weren't fast enough duly screamed as they were sucked down into the coldness of the lake. Jonas, Willow, Calyx and Spectrum were clear of the most far-reaching cracks, catching up with Cortex who now stood, willing the safety of those still running. Jonas turned to see a flurry of Guard, most from the junior academy, running for their lives. Menace and Goldheart leapt from the peaks of rising icebergs in their bid to outrun death. Breathing heavily, Jonas watched as the Utopious sank down and became nothing more than oxygen bubbles and a riptide swirl beneath the dark grey water.
The pressure of the sinking ship sent one last rippling crack sideways across all the other cracks threatening to break free one giant chunk of ice. As the ice began to break away, the lump in Jonas's throat and the dread in his eyes told him that Menace, Goldheart and the others wouldn't make it. Jonas lowered Lynk down from his shoulders and shifted back across the ice faster than he'd run to escape it. He passed by a number of Guard as they reached safety. The bond between the breaking ice and the solid ice beyond weakened and the crack widened. If Jonas decided to cross it he would be pulled down with the rest of the men who weren't quick enough. He dove, sliding across the surface on his chest. Jonas yelled, tensing every vein in his muscled body as he smashed his steel fingers deep into the retreating ice berg, holding tons of frozen water. Goldheart jumped across the break and wrapped himself around the legs of Jonas as an anchor for the boy. Jonas held on tight, his muscles fought with every fibre. The cold crept up his fingers along to his elbows, weakening his grip. No matter how cold his nerve endings became, the focus in his eyes said that he would save every last man, woman and child that remained out there. Menace ran across; the ice was slipping from Jonas's hold.
"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 w
oods 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 towa
rds 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!"
Elementis 1: The Heir to the Stone Page 20