Chapter 45 - Aftermath
Grasses and trees were blackened and smouldering where the drive jets of the alien spacecraft had spewed fire during the emergency blast off. Tymos had given a vivid picture coordinate of the edge of the forest. The full desolation of the scene emerged as they turned around. The smell of burning trees, scorched rock and burnt flesh was overwhelming. Everything within range of the emergency thrusters was blackened.
Underneath where the spaceship had rested, were blackened heaps and burning trees. Strangely untouched bodies were visible on the side of the clearing away from the blast. Tymos, with Kryslie close behind him, ran towards these briefly touching each before moving to the next. There were close to fifty bodies not burnt beyond recognition but none remained alive. They shared a sense of failure at arriving too late to help the members of the lost third scout party.
Kryslie began to get a sense of aliens’ warped power. Tymos shared her awareness and began to scan the edges of the forest. The Governors drew their weapons as the sense of alien watchers grew stronger; they were in dangerously open ground. Jonko and Keleb had instinctively moved to protect Tymos and Kryslie from the rear.
Kryslie turned to pinpoint the aliens that she had sensed and her arms that had been hanging loosely at her sides began to come together. Tymos was moving in an identical fashion but facing a slightly different direction. Suddenly they both stiffened; arms now stretched out together. From two directions, two powerful beams had been fired at them and the beams were perfectly deflected!
One had been reflected into the forest where came a scream of agony, the other into the sky where an explosion occurred and an alien flitter appeared, now devoid of its field of invisibility.
The explosion should have blown the ship into a million pieces, but a powerful force held it together and gently lowered it to the ground in front of Jono Reslic. Xyron examined the flitter recognizing its type and memorizing all relevant details. Tymos and Kryslie both used their new perception to scan it and when they encountered the alien pilot did not linger to examine him but withdrew their minds and walked to the edge of the forest.
Jonko and Keleb had followed their friends to the source of the agonized screams - two aliens, one with an arm gone and the other with part of his leg missing where the deflected disintegrator beam had struck, both were in severe pain.
Tymos approached the injured aliens and briefly touched the first and deadened his pain. When he touched the second one, he quickly withdrew his hand. Kryslie was startled by the sudden movement.
“Brother, what is wrong?”
“This one is not alien!” Tymos stated bluntly, his mind showing clearly what he had sensed. Kryslie touched the man herself and then quickly checked his eyes. “He is one of ours with the alien taint!” Kryslie agreed, as she blocked the man’s pain, which was affecting the sensitive Keleb.
She turned to find that her father had come up to them.
The High King looked down at the man lying beside Tymos’s crouched form. His face hardened and his children realized he was coming to terms with an unpleasant truth.
“Who is he father,” Tymos demanded.
“Nabeth, a minor member of the House of Reslic.” Tymoros spoke quietly. “Many years before you came here he left the estate for the City of Isean; he had only the barest minimum of power.”
Tymoros turned away from Tymos and looked to where Reslic was still controlling the alien flitter. Reslic had raised the flitter high into the sky again and then released his hold. The delayed explosion vaporized it.
Xyron and Reslic came to the forest in answer to a summons from Tymoros. Reslic, warned of what he would see, betrayed no expression. He probed the man’s mind for himself and saw the signs of alien indoctrination. There was a brief flare of anger.
“How many more of our people have they warped?” he spoke aloud. “He was my friend when I was a child.”
A memory came unbidden into the minds of Tymos and Kryslie. The Governors, lightly in rapport with them, picked up the image. Tymoros went pale.
“Who are they?” he demanded fiercely of his children.
“The child is Pyr,” Kryslie began. “The man is Jordan and the woman is Vila. I did not see her, but I was mistaken for her!”
“Father?” Tymos said softly, concern in his voice. The High King had firmly shielded his thoughts and both Xyron and Reslic returned his glance impassively.
Kryslie walked to where she could touch her Father’s arm.
“Father, there is hope that Pyr will not turn against us and Jordan who is a Commander, is less powerful than I.”
Tymoros put an arm around Kryslie.
“How…” Tymos started to ask but he did not complete his question, from the look on his father’s face he knew he would not answer - not at this time. So instead of asking questions, he joined his sister in embracing the man they now looked on as their father, and giving him silent understanding and sympathy.
After a moment, during which Tymoros controlled his mind, and grief and anger, he murmured, “Why? Why did they do this to my children?”
“Father, this does not justify the reasons, but Kellex, the alien leader, claims that one of theirs was gifted with a prophecy – that three of your children would ruin their plans. I intend to prove it a true vision,” Tymos stated.
“And if it was indeed a prophecy,” Kryslie considered, “Then the aliens interpreted it wrongly.”
During the brief exchange, Xyron had summoned attendants and guards from the Royal Estate. The injured aliens were taken prisoner, to be treated and questioned. The bodies of the scout party would be returned for identification and funeral rites.
Tymoros released his children, grateful for their unconditional support. “It is time you both returned to the estate.”
Both Tymos and Kryslie took a step away from their father, and straitened their posture.
“No!”
Kryslie moved to stand beside her brother as he faced the stern looks of the three Governors.
Both had seen such looks before – but this time they both knew what they had to do. They met the glares without backing down.
“Explain,” Reslic snapped at them.
Tymos began to speak, knowing that he must convince his elders or be dragged home in disgrace.
“Sir, the Elders said, some months ago, that we must win the loyalty of the mutants. We know that most of the mutants that you tried to help died. The aliens have convinced them that you only intended to torture them. We know that this is not the truth.”
“They are traitors,” Reslic said bluntly.
“No!” Kryslie stated as bluntly. “For ages, they have been treated poorly by the common people. All they want is to live a good life and live in peace. They don’t like to be hounded out of every town as if they were carriers of a deadly plague. No wonder the aliens could convince them to think ill of us. However, they are not traitors. Seduced by the thought of an easier life and perhaps by the idea of revenge for all the slights they have suffered – but that is all.”
“The mutants found us and would have turned us in to the aliens, had in fact called them. Yet it did not take much to get them to help us. They saw that our message got to you. They led you to us. In doing so, they risked themselves,” Tymos pointed out.
“We will send an envoy to them,” Tymoros said, voicing an option.
“No,” Tymos insisted. “They will not trust any of you, or anyone that you send. Yet they trust us – even though they know that one day one of us might be Governor, like you.”
“They see you as children who can be manipulated,” Xyron proposed.
“Does that matter?” Kryslie asked. “If what they want to manipulate us to do – is what we want too? Whatever their motive, deep down they don’t want to betray our world. They want their rights as citizens, to live in peace, as I said, and to have a better life than the dirt grubbing existence they have been forced into. Many of the mutants can’t even read and
write…”
“Your point, Princess Kryslie? Prince Tymos?” Reslic asked implacably.
Tymos stated unequivocally, “We must visit all the mutant tribes in these mountains and consolidate them as our allies. Those who have the rudiments of telepathy are already firmly on our side but we must convince all of them.”
“There will be time for that when your training is finished!” Reslic said sharply.
“No, the time is now – before the aliens discover our interference, before they turn the minds of the mutants against us again. We can do this. We must do this. No one else can.” Tymos insisted.
“You have not had the training in diplomacy,” Tymoros said with a faint sigh.
A memory, rising from the mind meld – of a future too vast to comprehend – and a terrible time to come.
Kryslie had a sudden leap of intuition. “Isn’t this why you melded with us? Why you pushed us into level Delta? You feared that we would not have the time to finish our education. Isn’t that what you intended? That we would have the knowledge we need, when we need it?”
“Yes, that is true,” Tymoros sighed. “I have had you for too short a time to be happy sending you into danger. There will be a war, a dreadful, wasteful, dirty war. The Elders see you as the hope for the future – I don’t want to risk you.”
Tymos faced his father and spoke with all his heart. “Father – we must do this – for peace. You would not hesitate to send any of our older cousins out for that cause. You cannot deny us that right. And I think we must do this, because of what we are, because we are Advocates of the Guardians.”
“You are not afraid of the huge task you have set yourselves?” Xyron asked.
“Of this, no. We believe, as you have often told us, that the Guardians would not set us an impossible task. We must do this.”
The expression on the faces of Tymoros and Xyron became less severe, as they sensed something greater than just a whim of inexperienced children.
“If it is what you must do,” Tymoros relented. “Then you must go. Have you considered though that the alien warlord will be sparing no effort to capture you again?”
Tymos began to smile, but it wasn’t one of mirth. “Yes. I have at least. The alien leader has seen us as children. He has a measure of our power, but he cannot fully comprehend what we can do. Those that he has taken and trained, do not have our strength or stubbornness and we have not been here a year yet. Based on his wards, he will not expect too much from us nor will he realise that we think differently to the majority of Royal Children. He will expect you to drag us back to the safety of the estate – where they failed to take us. I doubt that he will expect us to be wandering, alone, in the mountains and living off the land.”
Reslic remarked, “You have no experience fending for yourself.”
Tymos did not get the surge of memories to back up his claim of. “We will learn.”
Kryslie supplied a warning of her own. “Don’t fall into that same trap. We are no longer children. The war hasn’t started yet – when it does, we will do what we were created to do – what we must do - like now. We are trying to turn the balance back in our favour.”
“Do not let this freedom seduce you,” Reslic warned in turn, feeling the deep sense of purpose in each of them. “You are not the creatures of legend that we have foreseen – not yet. But you will be acting in our name.”
“We will act with all honour,” Tymos promised.
“That I do not doubt,” Reslic admitted. “However, you might have to act as judge and jury. Could you kill if you had to?”
“Yes,” Tymos said standing straighter. “I have, and in the future, if the crime warranted death and the criminal was unredeemable, or it is the only way to an end – I will again.”
Reslic looked at Kryslie.
“We will do what we must,” Kryslie told him. “But killing would not be my first way.”
“I will come with you,” Jonko decided, speaking up.
Tymos spoke quickly, before Xyron had a chance to counter that pledge.
“No, Jon, Kel,” Tymos willed them to agree with his wishes. “As much as we would prefer to have you with us, you must return and tell of all we learnt while on the alien ship.”
“There is much that you know that we do not!” Jonko protested. “You…”
Jonko broke off in mid-sentence; he felt Kryslie’s presence in his mind and a sudden flash of knowledge.
“It is necessary that the Governor’s know of all that we learnt. I have given you all the information that I had in my mind about the alien mother-ship.”
“Keleb, you now have my discoveries.” Tymos explained to his friend. “I am sorry was rough, you are not fully receptive to the thoughts I send.”
Kryslie added, “We would rather you returned to reassure Llaimos that we are well. And you can join Stenn in giving him extra protection and lessons.”
The Governors conferred silently for a while, excluding Tymos and Kryslie from their minds.
Tymoros said finally. “I will leave four guards with you and you will report to us when you can.”
“Thank you, father, and thank you Your Excellency,” Kryslie said softly. “We will not be in great danger as we can deal with any aliens left in the mountains and the mutants won’t harm us.”
Neither Tymos, nor Kryslie doubted the concern in the minds of the Governors. They respected it, knowing the reason for it. Their father had lost all but three children and had just learnt that three more that he had mourned as dead were actually firmly allied with the aliens.
Tymoros was not embarrassed to give his children an embrace before returning to the Royal Estate with Jonko and Keleb.
Tymos watched as Reslic directed the shrouding of the burnt remains and then moved to talk to four Guardsmen. These separated and came to face him.
“I am Guardsman Allyn. Frest, Juan and Drake and I are to be your escort.”
Kryslie glanced at her brother and spoke in his stead. “We are returning to the tribe of Mithas. Bring your gear, quickly.”
She caught a fleeting change in expression, and knew Allyn did not expect to take orders from a girl.
Tymos, sharing her awareness, spoke to her mind. “They do not realise what we are.”
“Or that you and I far outrank them in status and power,” Kryslie agreed.
“They will learn….” Tymos murmured, listening to Allyn requisitioning field kits for them all.
“Yes, they will come to know that we were born to protect the sacred trust and we will do it in our own way,” Kryslie confirmed.
The End
This is the end of The Tymorean Trust Book One - Power Rising.
The story will continue in Book Two - Great Ones.
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The Wild One - She was human, Jai Cassidy insisted, no matter what the creepy lizard- like Atapi claimed. Understanding their barbaric language, in her head, must be a human talent.
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Even when the sorcerer was dead, Jai wasn’t free. Now she was suddenly responsible for all the surviving Atapi. She was their new Sorcerer, and now the Kumatan had more reason than before to want to neutralise her power. They had a duty to protect Earth’s innocents from Atapi sorcery.
Though she proclaims her humanity, the Kumatan intend to take her to Korvu when they return. Her destiny is there, but to be free to act Jai must master her own talents and escape the Kumatan.
The Tymorean Trust Book 1 - Power Rising Page 48