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!”
“Ignore him Val, he’s here alright, driving us all mad. Just try again. See yourself being washed over by a feeling of freedom from restraint.”
She closed her eyes again and the feeling came from her head this time, thoughts flooding out of the cool breeze she had felt when she had left Shane in the Space. Then came the scent of lilies. A tear formed in her eye. She breathed it in for as long as it lasted, then with a sense of inner calm she opened her eyes. Looking down, all she could see was her superman pants and matching bra. “All good here.”
“Well done! Stay alive until we can get there,” Boden said.
“Yes, we shall stun them all into submission when we arrive.” Hadwyn added his brutish take on the situation.
“Need to choose a dress. Is Wendy there?”
“I am.”
“What dress did you see me wearing in your vision?”
“It was pink.” Wendy’s voice was a little shaky. “I’m so sorry.”
“You should be pink!” Val complained.
“I’m sorry I got the vision wrong.”
“Hey, you did your best. But seriously - pink?”
“Yes. It was on the third row.”
Val scanned the hideous collection. “I do believe Nathan’s been watching that gypsy wedding program.” She found the offensive object of Wendy’s vision. “I’ll never forget this day as long as I live.” She pulled it off the rail. It was a deep magenta with more lace netting than Katie Price’s entire wardrobe. “Seriously, the things I do for this Prison,” she groaned as she climbed into it.
There was a knocking at the door. “Yes,” she replied. The door opened and in walked a woman. She seemed petrified. Val felt for her. “Hello,” she greeted her as the door shut again.
“I am here to prepare you. That’s a beautiful dress.” The woman admired Val’s magenta meringue.
“Who are you?” Val wanted to know more about her before she let down her guard.
“I am a Ranswar. My
name is not important. We serve those who rule and now we will serve the Nyterians.” she moved around Val and started to bunch her hair in her hands.
She thought it wise not to mention that she had recently had the Ranswar Princess bitten by a killer alien dog: bad way to start their relationship. “I want to know your name. It matters to me and you don’t serve anyone here.”
“My name is Dahntey.”
“Well Dahntey, it’s nice to meet you.” Val wouldn’t speak to the others now. She wanted to believe this woman was who she said she was, but she couldn’t be sure this wasn’t a trick.
The woman worked diligently, twisting and hooking Val’s mass of hair. She could only imagine that she now looked like every five year old girl’s dream doll. She smiled for a moment as she imagined being the scary plastic doll standing on her great auntie’s loo covering the roll of toilet paper.
“You seem happy to be going into a union with Nathan,” the woman commented, picking up on her smile.
“Sorry... union?” Val’s grin disappeared abruptly.
“Yes, you are to be united with Nathan.”
“What - like married?”
“I don’t know what this married is, but he sees you as a symbol of good fortune and great magical power. It’s normal on Nyteria for people of power to be united.”
“What else do you know about Nyteria?” she asked.
“Not much. I met a girl from there once. They used to have a leader who believed in talking and all that achieved was more talking. Now they have someone much different. And look, he has taken over the Prison in no time, so he must be powerful. You are a very lucky person to be united with someone so dominant.” She tucked a few loose hairs away. “It’s time for you to go now.” Val watched as she moved gracefully to the door and knocked to be released. The soldier let her out and beckoned Val to follow.
She was curious to see what Nathan’s next move would be. He had her dressed like Barbie and would parade her around as an example to the Prison, obviously had poor dress sense. Val would not let herself imagine what the union would mean. She knew from Nathan’s warning that he was going to use Sam as a weapon against her, which meant he might not kill him for now. If he felt the need to threaten her, then he clearly still saw her as a threat. She just needed to keep that feeling going, without pushing him too far.
She stood in the corridor, invisible suit under her dress, hair up, waiting for him to arrive. As he approached, he changed from his shade to hers. “You look spectacular!” He seemed very pleased with her ridiculous appearance.
“Why do you change colour for me?” she asked him as once again he took her hand. He seemed to want physical contact with her, which she hated to her core.
“I want you to like the way I look.” He smiled as if they were a normal couple off on a stroll around the local park.
“Why would I like you?” It came out before she could stop her stupid tongue from running away.
His grip on her hand grew tighter, she moaned and he released it again. “You will learn to like me, it isn’t an option,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Then I will,” she said, “but I want something from you.” She felt it was risky, but she had to ask.
His smile had returned at her submission. “What do you want?”
“I would like to see the Warden one more time.” She waited for him to answer. He seemed to be thinking about her request.
“Strange, I thought you would want to see the Judge you love so much that you would risk your life to save him. You have confused me a little. However you may see the Warden one last time. You will be leaving the Prison shortly, so I will make this happen for you now.” He nodded as if agreeing with himself.
Val felt her knees go weak. She would be leaving the Prison. She hadn’t planned on leaving. “When will I be leaving? I thought you wanted to keep me at your side as a shining example of your power?” she asked in a sweet tone.
“And I will. The Prison will be an almost dead planet once we move everything to Nyteria. The Guards will come with us to help rebuild our new home.”
Val suddenly felt sicker than she had before. “But why take the planet? How will you move all the prisoners? They can’t be left here. Don’t you need the energy?”
“Yes I do. So many questions.” He patted her hand as they entered a new area. “The energy will be sent to us by the portals we have built. We have been creating transporters for a very long time. You seem concerned about leaving the Prison. Why?”
She realised that she was showing her vulnerability to him and putting their plans at risk. He would never get all the Guards off the Prison before the Vaccine started to work. “Just interested in my future.”
“Good, because so am I.” He led her across the room and there, in a clear perspex-like cell, sat the Warden. “You may have a moment with him. I don’t need to remind you of what I will do if you cross me.”
“I know.” She looked at the floor and after a moment he left them alone. “Can you still hear me, Jason?” she asked, smiling at the Warden.
“Yes, I heard it all. Val, you can’t let him take you off the surface. Zac says they’re nearly done.”
“I’ll do my best, but you’ll have to just focus on the plan.”
“Stay safe,” he told her.
“What’s happening?” the Warden stood, bumping into the sides of his restrictive cell.
“As you can see, I have a new uniform.” She gave him a twirl. “Seems like I’m going to be united with Nathan and shipped off to Nyteria. Then he’s going to bring the Guards to Nyteria to work as slaves until his planet is back up to full power, leaving someone here in charge of teleporting the energy to the surface. Any ideas on how to stall him for the next ten hours would be good, because what he doesn’t know is that Zac and the other Hunters have deposited the vaccine all over the surface.”
“When are you going to be united? There are strict rules that say a Guard cannot be united with anyone other than their designated Ranswar.”
Val was confused. Hadn’t he heard the good news she had just given him. “Are you serious? I’m a girl like all the Ranswars, if you hadn’t noticed.” Val pointed at her dress. “And the vaccine…”
“Listen to me! We have never had a female Guard, Val, but if he unites himself with you there will be repercussions.”
“Seriously, like a slap on his crazy wrist? I don’t feel like this is helping me in any way.”
“Val, this galaxy has a Prison planet for a reason. On Earth, you have Prisons in small boxes of bricks and mortar, where you contain a few. The Ballany Galaxy has us. We needed a whole planet for our prisoners. There are powers overseeing us, even bigger than the High Judges. There is always a force to rule a force.”
“So why haven’t they stepped in? Why is it in your Galaxy no one steps in until all hell has broken loose? The Prison gets overrun and no one moves, but Val Saunders gets hitched and the Angel of Darkness gets on his high horse.”
“Val, no one can stop Nathan attacking, and as long as one of the Judges is alive and the Prison is still running they won’t step in. He’s not stupid. I’m talking to you about a loop-hole. You must trust me when I say you really don’t want these powers to get involved - ever. I have a feeling Nathan doesn’t know this rule and it could work in our favour. You must get a union as soon as possible. Make sure he makes this error and you will be free.” He seemed almost uplifted at the prospect.
“So let me get this straight. I get united to Nathan and because he’s not my designated Ranswar he will be punished by something or someone?”
“Yes.” He sat back down.
“Will they appear before us at the altar? Anything I should be looking out for?”
“Did you ever hear of the Returners? They are the ones who return your humans to Earth when they have stripped their memories. Everyone stays clear of them. They work alone. Well, the last time I saw a Guard make a union with someone who wasn’t a Ranswar they we
re brought in to deal with him. He hasn’t been seen again. The punishment can take many different forms. It just depends on who and where they are when it takes place.”
“So what about Excariot and Lailah?” Val asked.
“Your father caught them on Gingua and they were brought back to the planet for punishment, but Excariot escaped.”
“And my father and Wyetta?”
The Warden went quiet, he shuffled his feet. For someone so big, at that moment he seemed very small. “He was never united with your mother, but I would have reprimanded him on his return. I’m sorry, Val, but rules are rules and this one is going to work in your favour. Make him perform the union with you as soon as you can and the planet will be free. Soldiers need a leader and the one mistake Nathan has made is making his soldiers follow him through fear. It has the opposite affect to hope. They will surrender if he’s removed. If this doesn’t happen, then when the Guards are back up to strength, they can defeat the Nyterians.” His face looked old, tired and bruised.
“Doesn’t it sound wrong to you that people can’t be with the ones they love?”
“Val, it’s the way it is and always has been. I didn’t make the rules, I just follow them, and this one could save us all.”
She took a deep breath. “Then I guess that’s what I’ll have to do. Jason, don’t tell my Mum I’m getting married.”
“Ok.” The voice in her ear complied.
CHAPTER 21
Rule Breaker
Nathan sent a soldier to collect her; her time with the Warden was up. She had said her goodbyes, knowing what was now expected of her. She just had to get married and everything would be fine. “This way.” The soldier guided her into a room.
Nathan was sitting in a chair waiting for her. The seat was strange, it looked a little like a tête-à-tête chair she had seen at a museum once. It had a wooden back in the shape of an S. Nathan invited her to sit facing him.
She pushed her hands down on the wood. “It looks like mahogany,” she said.
“Yes, a friend gave it to me as a gift. He said that one day I would sit in it with someone I hoped to love and they would face me and this would be our special place.”
Nyteria Rising (The Thirteenth Series Book 3) Page 18