“You know it’s a hanging offence to rescue someone who is about to be executed,” Parlan said to his rescuer, grinning broadly.
“So, arrest me,” replied Tyler, removing his hood, as they clasped each other’s shoulders.
“My lord,” interrupted one of the men, stepping forward, “a prince you may be, and the finery you wear is fitting for a man of your status. But here, you must become one of us. I have a change of clothes for you, something a little less obvious to the watchful eyes that Tobyn will send out to scour the realm for you.”
“I was sure this morning was to be my last,” Parlan said, as he changed his clothes, “it is nice to think I have a few people on my side. Sitting inside those dungeons, and having no one to speak to, made me wonder if everyone in the land was against me.”
“I was at the trial, my lord,” said one of the men, “and no one was allowed to speak unless Lord Tobyn agreed it. You have many friends, loyal people who will help, if possible, to clear your name.”
“Thank you,” said Parlan, warmly, “but for the present, you must not draw attention to yourselves. Tobyn managed to kill my father and blame me, he wouldn’t think twice about having my brother hang you. I wonder just how much he has influenced Kaleb. I should have seen this coming; Kaleb has always hated being the second born. He and I have never been close, not as brothers should be. When Tobyn first came to the castle, Kaleb became his willing recruit.”
Chapter 6
The Pod of Life
Ilanthia stood wondering if her daughter would actually go with her, and be given the added strength she would need to help combat her sworn enemy. Would the girl trust someone she knew nothing about? She studied the two people who had raised her daughter and sympathised with them; they had worked hard to provide for her and now, after all their labours, they could very easily lose her.
“Will we ever see her again?” asked the Taliena, her voice trembled, and her eyes brimmed with tears that she desperately fought to control.
“Of course you will. I do not mean to take her from you, forever,” Ilanthia reassured them, “I only want to help protect her against what might happen in the future.”
Nemeila hugged her mother and father, promising to return as soon as she could. “Perhaps you were right, mama, when you told me not to use my gift. If I had listened to you, maybe this man would never have found me.”
“That is not so,” said Ilanthia. “This man has dispersed the creatures that escaped my ship and sided with him. They will not stop searching until they eventually find you. There is no place where you would be safe. But they will not be the ones to kill you; that pleasure Tobyn will want for himself.”
Ilanthia scanned the tree line, where the wolf was staring at them, as if waiting for her command. She snapped her fingers and called, “Come,” and as though he were a domestic dog, he padded towards the cottage. Taliena let out a gasp at the approach of the wild animal and gripped her husband’s arm in alarm.
“That was the wolf that brought us our daughter,” he comforted her. “If he is here now, he will not harm us.”
Nemeila dropped to her knees to fuss her friend; the wolf in turn sat back on his haunches and raising a large dusty paw, rested it on her knee.
Eona had been monitoring Ilanthia’s progress the whole time she was in the forest surrounding the woodsman’s cottage. She realised it was now time to engage the equipment that would return the woman who had once been her enemy, to the ship. She could easily have reneged on her promise, thus taking revenge upon the race that policed the galaxy, but she had given her word to the princess who had captained the ship and she meant to keep it. The power of the generators caused a loud hum, which grew in intensity as it vibrated through the core of the ship. Then, when the meters showed it had reached a critical stage she slid home a series of levers that released a surge of pure energy, allowing the object of its focus to dematerialise and re-materialise in a new location. The energy surge enveloped Ilanthia, the girl and the wolf and they vanished from outside the woodsman’s cottage and reappeared inside the ship. It seemed to take an age, and Eona was afraid she had operated the levers incorrectly. But then, three forms appeared before her in a haze of pulsating light.
“I thought I had failed you,” she gasped in relief, as Ilanthia smiled at her. “What would have happened if I’d done something wrong?”
“We would have been lost somewhere in the ether between this time and eternity,” Ilanthia said. “Not a nice way to die, I am told.”
“Couldn’t we just pluck the sorcerer up and lose him sort of accidentally? It would save many of the aliens’ lives of this world.”
“No. That would not be possible,” said Ilanthia firmly, shaking her head. “It would be against everything my race believes in. We live by honour and die by honour. Our weapons are swords and daggers, where such are used, or sorcery. We have the ability to command the elements and to shape wards to bind or protect, and although Tobyn has the ability to do the same, I will not fight him any other way, even though it may cost me my life.”
“What of your daughter’s life, Ilanthia. Surely that’s worth a little sacrifice on the morality front?”
“That is why I’ve brought her here, if she has inherited anything of me, she too will stand by what I believe in. Tobyn has no honour and his gratification is to see suffering inflicted upon others. It doesn’t matter if he is the perpetrator or not.”
As the two women seemed to argue with each other, Nemeila looked about her and was fascinated by what she saw. Row upon row of monitors lined the walls; each showing a different view of what she imagined was the outside of the ship. On one screen the view resembled what she had seen the day the old lady had asked her to gaze into a dish of water and she was tempted to go and look. Then for a moment she was afraid, but curiosity took a hold and she turned completely around, completely in awe of her surroundings.
“Nemeila, this is Eona, she was once my prisoner but now we are friends. Eona, this is my daughter, Nemeila. She likes to be called Nemi.”
“I’m pleased to meet you,” said Nemeila, as she took the outstretched hand in friendship. It felt cold, not slimy, but silky to the touch. “I too am pleased to meet you,” said Eona. “I can see you are confused by my appearance. My race is reptilian, but over countless generations we have evolved into a more human form, as you can see.” “You are very beautiful,” said Nemeila, with a smile. “Thank you for bringing us back.” “Well if we are ever to leave this planet and return home, I’ll need your mother to fly the ship. Besides, it would get very lonely here, on my own.” She looked over at Ilanthia and saw that she too was smiling. “Now that I am here, I will accept whatever training you believe I need,” Nemeila said, trying to sound brave. “If there is to be a confrontation, then I would like to meet him on equal terms. As for the creatures he has ordered to find me, I will deal with them if and when the time comes. But there is one thing I would like to know. Is the process dangerous?” Ilanthia met Nemeila’s eyes, wanting to reassure her child, but the truth was, she didn’t know. The pod would undoubtedly change her life forever, but someone so young had never been subjected to it before. There was no way of programming it in advance, the pod would assess the creature’s body structure and enhance its capabilities to the maximum the body could withstand, and then once satisfied, it would add something indefinable of its own. Ilanthia knew it would never kill her daughter, or she would never have contemplated her undergoing the process. Nevertheless, there was always a danger. “The pod will help you to the best of its abilities,” she stated. “Whatever happens, it will not harm you.” She hoped she was speaking the truth.
With her body sealed inside the capsule, automatons connected cables to the pod. The servomechanisms worked like metallic insects as they hooked leads to switches and wires in the capsule. There was nothing to do now but wait. The girl inside would dream in unison with the denizens of the mother world. She would never know the exact nature of the en
tity that would nurture, analyse and train her. The length of time it took depended upon whatever the entity felt the body required. It could be merely a few hours, on other occasions, months or maybe years. For the pod had no recognition of time itself, only a sequence of events that once started would continue until they had run their course.
As Nemeila lay asleep inside the pod of life, everything seemed alive and real, as if it were actually happening to her. At one stage her mind cast her into a deep forceful dream, only to Nemeila it wasn’t a dream, it was happening. She saw a little girl skipping, playing a kind of hopscotch, stepping daintily between the lines drawn on a length of pathway. Her hair was dark and although her face was hidden, she knew it was her holding the skipping rope. As she tossed and turned in her sleep she tried to make out the chant the girl/she, was singing. C is for Caring, H is for Healing, A is for Always, L is for Loving. C is for Comfort, E Everlasting, D for Domination, O-ver the eye of the storm, NY is Never Yielding from the fate that you were born. It was a chant, spelling the name of one of the stones to bring the amulet to life. She locked the thought deep inside her mind so that she could recall it, should it ever be needed. Nemeila woke and stretched then hauled herself upright unaware that every thought that had raced through her mind since being in the custody of the machine, had been simply a dream.
“Nothing’s happened,” she complained, as she spotted her mother’s worried frown. Ilanthia and Eona helped her out of the pod, and it was only then, as she stood facing them that she realised she had grown.
“The pod has aged you a further nine years,” said one of the automatons, in a grating voice, “although not so much time has passed since you entered the capsule. We found that your previous form was not capable of enduring the necessary advancements and so have enhanced it. This will now allow you to live for two millennia of this planet’s time periods called years. The gifts that you already possessed have been finely tuned and your character has been assessed. You have a loving heart for one so young, mortal.”
“I do have a name,” Nemi said, indignantly, allowing the sheet she was holding to fall to study her reflection in a mirrored surface. The automaton said nothing as she swivelled her body to the left and to the right, maintaining eye contact with her reflection. Her legs were very shapely, and as she stood on tiptoe it made the calf muscles curve out into exquisite shapes. When shown off under a short mid-thigh length skirt they would make many a boy’s mouth water, she thought.
Her waist was slim but her hips were beginning to swell into the perfection that a truly beautiful girl gains with age. She already had a magnificent rear that wriggled as she walked an aspect of the woman to come. Last but not least her face was a perfect mask of superb bone structure and unblemished skin; it would be hard for any boy or man not to fall in love with her. She was after all, a princess in her own right on the world her mother came from, and it was that inherited grace that made her almost aristocratic. She would be in later years become a very desirable woman.
Her eyes were the colour yellow-brown, matching the dark brown, almost black hair. She had not inherited the golden eye colour of her race due to her mother interbreeding with a human from another planet.
With her full lips, short nose, and wide-set yellow-brown eyes beneath long, butterfly lashes. She was indeed, beautiful.
She was pleased with what she saw and as she spun round her long dark hair glistened in the light cast by the ship’s lanterns. Her golden brown eyes shone in wonderment at the sight of her new self.
“You are very beautiful,” smiled Eona, “not that you weren’t a pretty child before entering the pod. I would think that before you settle down and marry many hearts would be broken by your loveliness. Here, I have clothes for you to wear.”
Marriage was the furthest thing from Nemeila’s mind as she dressed. Although her body had been transformed, and her mind expanded by the teachings that the entity had forced upon her, she was in reality still a young girl, just nine winters in age. It would take her a while to come to terms with being twice that age, without the experience to fall back on.
“How long was I in the pod?” Nemi asked, wondering if her friends would still be in the village or now married and moved away.
“You were in the care of the automatons for almost two and a half years,” Ilanthia answered. “They looked after all your needs in the way of knowledge and nourishment.”
“What about my wolf. Where is he?” Nemeila wondered, looking about her.
“These troubled times, and as I am unable to be with you,” said Ilanthia, “I thought perhaps you might like him at your side. He has been placed into another pod used for non-human subjects. It will, I hope, extend his life expectancy. Also it will enable him to think instinctively about how he might help you should you have need of him. But you must remember that, although the pod has changed your body structure so that you will not age, you are not immortal. If you are injured, your body will heal itself, quickly. The only sure way that you can be killed is by having your head severed from your body, or by powerful sorcery.” Ilanthia paused to let this sink in. “You must now learn how to use your new talents; Eona and I will help you. Then, when you feel you are ready, you may leave. Have you a place in mind you would like to be set down should you decide to go?”
“I think I would like to return to the woodsman’s cottage. They raised me as their own and I love them very much. I also promised that I would return to them. If this Tobyn has really sent his messengers out to find me, it might be a good idea to practice my new skills in familiar surroundings.”
Over the following weeks, Eona and Ilanthia tested Nemeila, forcing her to call on the powers she now possessed until she became adept in her skills. Now, having been taught how to control her thoughts and actions, she felt an impatience to return to her parents’ home in Ikasar. During the whole time of her training, the wolf had never left her side. Nemeila knelt in front of the loyal animal and took its muzzle between her hands.
“If you are going to be my guardian, then I think you ought to have a name,” she considered. She peered intently into his eyes, a bright yellow in colour. “I think… I will call you… Amber. What do you think of that? Would you like to be called Amber, instead of just Wolf?”
The wolf cocked his head to one side, as if pondering the question. He had never considered having a name to answer to; there had never been the need amongst his pack. “Amber. That’s not so bad,” thought the wolf, “I have heard animals called a lot worse.” Although he could not speak to the girl, the newly christened Amber indicated his approval with a deep whine whilst pawing her knee. “There is one thing that puzzles me,” Nemeila said, turning to face Ilanthia, “you say that you cannot breathe the air outside this ship, but you and I breathe the same air here, inside. How can you do that?” “My home world’s atmosphere has another ingredient, if you like, which is created here in the ship. It enables me to walk around without wearing breathing apparatus but it is not harmful to the rest of my crew, including you. The only way I can go outside the force field surrounding this ship, is in a space suit, or if I place a ward around myself. That is what I did when we left the cottage to visit your adoptive parents. But the ward has a limited time span and should it have failed, I would have surely choked to death.” “I wish you were able to come with me, back to Ikasar,” Nemeila said, “the people there are really nice. Of course there are disagreements, but the people nearly always make up after any arguments, and with your skills you could become a great healer.” “Maybe someday,” Ilanthia sighed, “but until then, I will keep an eye on you via the monitoring screens inside the ship, and should Eona and I be able to help you, then we will. In the meantime, would you like me to show you round my ship?” Nemeila’s eyes lit up; from the moment she had arrived she had been in awe of the vessel. “I would love to see round it,” she said, gazing round at the different screens that were lit, and the lights that spasmodically flashed on and off. Ilanthia showed her throug
h the section that had held the prisoners and as they passed the cell where Tobyn had been kept, Nemeila shivered. “I can feel his presence,” she said, “even though he is no longer here.”
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