He glanced at the corner again and then looked at his generals, admirals, and his son seriously, and added, “We should still consider the problem at hand as we consider Vengethor’s idea. We must continue to search for this new general and get rid of him quickly. The prophecy says that if he comes to power, he’ll unite several worlds against us and the Sphinx and bring destruction to us and our people. This must be prevented at all costs. Also, just in case your plan fails,” and he looked sternly at his son, “We need to start planning an alternate plan. Keep sending raiding parties to Althora to keep them off guard while we start gathering our troops here.”
Vengethor nodded and felt humbled by his father’s look. He also got the fact that his father had been glancing into a corner of the room. It took some concentration for him not to glance in the corner and try to see what was in that corner or who was there. He loved and trusted his father and knew that he would seriously consider his plan, yet he wondered why his father kept coming back to seeking this mysterious general.
To him the whole matter would be resolved with the capture of the princess. Up to recently he and his father had talked and planned every effort to try and capture her. It was getting very annoying that all of their efforts were defeated some way and she was still free. He didn’t understand why his father was now so determined to find some general; however, Axlor was his father and his king, and he’d do his best to accomplish what he sent him to do.
Vengethor knew his place. He had rank higher than any general or admiral, and was next in line for the throne of Boulthora, yet he didn’t seek that throne. He loved and adored his father and was completely loyal to him. If it had to come to a choice, he would abandon the plan and seek the universe for that general and get rid of him himself. He was one of the greatest swordsmen on Boulthora, the only one better than he was his father. Vengethor was incredibly well schooled, academically, and most especially militarily. He had proved to be an amazingly good commander of men. He could command his men to do the most extraordinary things.
The best swordsmen and soldiers under his father, Gralthor, who was king before him, had trained Axlor. When Vengethor was about seven years old Axlor began to train him to be a soldier and swordsman. Axlor brought in his old teachers and they trained his son. By the time Vengethor was twelve he could defeat some of his teachers a third of the time. By fourteen he could defeat almost all of them three-fourths of the time. A year later he could not be beaten, except by his father.
Axlor took a deep breath and said, “I will consider all of your comments and ideas. We’ll meet here tomorrow to discuss these issues to decide our next course of action and to plan a possible attack on the tournaments on Caldar and to capture Princess Corena. Remember that at the moment our main objective is still to find this general and eliminate him. Keep me informed as your various battalions and divisions engage the Althorians and search for him, or anyone that might fit the profile as described in the prophecy about him. He is and will be highly dangerous to us. Find him!”
Axlor then dismissed the meeting and his generals, admirals, and Vengethor. As the men rose from their seats and talked to each other as they moved toward the door, Axlor called Kass to him. Vengethor and Roamer stopped and looked back, curious, but Axlor motioned to them that he wanted to speak to Kass alone, so they moved out of the room. Now alone with his most trusted general and advisor Axlor looked anxious.
“Kass, is the treasure we have at our main outpost on Althora secure?” Axlor looked for reassurance.
“Yes your highness. I can positively say that the treasure is very secure. I have doubled the guard there to protect it. I must tell you, though, some of our knights guarding it have asked what it is exactly they are guarding,” said Kass.
“Tell them that it is a most precious treasure worth more than they could ever imagine. That treasure is so important Kass; it must be protected at all costs! Now I must have you help me. Vengethor must never know the truth of our Bible. If he knew that our Bible and translation is slanted to make us and the Sphinx look good is false, we’d have a major problem. He must never learn the truth!” Axlor was desperate to slam his point home.
“Yes sire, I will do my best to insure that he never learns the truth. I’ll also personally take charge of the protection of the treasure on Althora,” Kass promised.
“Good. Now leave me, I have some thinking to do,” Axlor said and sent Kass on his way. After Kass left the room, Axlor turned and saw a figure stride out of the dark corner of the room, Bazar.
The Sphinx strode swiftly up to the king, looked at him, and quickly addressed him, “A rather interesting meeting. I am rather disappointed that you haven’t discovered the identity of the Griffin General. I thought that I had made it quite clear that finding him was of the greatest importance! He must be found regardless of the cost!”
Axlor was slightly stung and kept his calm as he responded, “I assure you that my men are doing all they can to find this general. Now there is a matter I want to know about.” He straightened himself to his full height and did his best to look Bazar in the eye. “Do you know anything about the incident that my son mentioned about his mission on Arathon? Do you know anything about that Griffin that stole my son’s glory by slaying that bat ahead of him and stealing the treasure before he got to it?”
Bazar turned his head slightly before looking back at Axlor. It seemed to take him minutes to answer the questions. After a long pause that seemed to Axlor to be too long for the questions, Bazar replied, “Yes, I know about your son’s failure. As far as that Griffin goes, you don’t have to worry about him. Let’s just say that it’s not a concern at the moment. If the Griffins had that treasure, they would be gloating about it right now. For the moment that’s all I have to say.” He snorted and started to turn away.
Axlor reached out to stop him and find out more, but had his hand shoved away. Bazar looked at him rather contemptuously and said, “May I remind you of your place. You serve us! We allow you to rule this world and make your own plans, just so long as they don’t interfere with ours. Soon the Griffins will be toppled and we will rule, and there will be peace. Nobody will dare oppose us. You have your orders. Find that general and let us deal with that Griffin.” He turned to leave, and then as an afterthought turned back one more time and added, “If you’re lucky, you’ll find and eliminate this general and have your path clear to achieve your plan.” He then turned and left the room by a side door.
Chapter 20
Dance and Conversation
The Scorpio landed on Caldar amongst many other spaceships bringing tourists and the students for the end of year knight class tournaments. Trance and his family disembarked with his classmates and their families. Of course Corena went with the royal family and the troop of Golden Griffins that were their bodyguards. Trance looked around as he always did in new places. He noticed that Corena and her family were being interviewed by a number of news people and were greeted by the king and queen of the kingdom on Caldar that hosted the tournaments every year.
Trance also looked around at the station and took in its décor. It was very much like the one back on Althora. It was very modern and had all of the conveniences, yet the décor was rather rustic. All of the benches were made of polished and sanded logs. There were paintings of mountains, rivers, lakes, and wildlife everywhere. It was rather nice Trance thought as he checked out a few of the paintings. One painting in particular caught his attention. It was of an animal with a face that resembled a fox, only it was sitting on a tree limb, had dark fur around its eyes and a striped bushy tail. Trance chuckled as he walked away. Raccoons were his second favorite animals, but his most favorite animal was the mountain lion.
Trance looked out of the windows and tilted his head with a slightly surprised expression on his face. His gaze had focused on the ships lined up at various landing pads. There were many ships like the Scorpio as well as some ships that were
designed like great birds and some that were dragons. He looked out further and was really not surprised to see a few flying wings and a few saucers. Suddenly he glanced up at the sky and actually watched a saucer come in for a landing.
Trance turned away from the windows and he started to look around for his family and teammates. As he looked for them he began to notice the people in the area, many his age who looked to be other kids in knight classes here for the tournaments. Most of the boys were like him, looking for their families and greeting teammates.
Some seemed friendlier than others and started greeting fellow competitors and friends from other schools. There were some boys and girls that stood and strode about in strict military precision. Trance looked around and spotted more and more kids that were probably going to be his competitors over the two weeks. He wasn’t really shocked or surprised to see that he was also being scouted. He stood a little straighter to make more of an impression.
As he looked around at all of the kids he even spotted some that were quite hard to miss. There were several that were well over six feet tall. Trance was even more amazed to spot what must be a whole team of boys that exceeded seven feet tall, and further on were some that had to be better than ten. He was amazed and somehow not very surprised to spot one boy that was thirteen feet seven inches. He grinned to himself at the thought of these kids growing to their full height, giants. Trance was also amazed at the diversity of the boys and girls here for the tournaments. There were kids that looked as if they were from different ethnic backgrounds such as Trance remembered from Earth, white, dark, Asian, brown, and some that could be one or another.
He turned his attention back to finding his family again and started to make his way to them. As he strode toward his family he passed and greeted some of his teammates and met some of their friends along the way. Trance found himself being sized up as he moved about. He enjoyed greeting some of the other kids and kept heading toward his family. His eye suddenly found Corena and the girl she was talking to.
The girl was a very striking beauty. She was six foot one with dark hair and green eyes with a near flawless complexion. In Trance’s opinion she would make some guy extremely lucky to have her as a girlfriend or wife. The girl he noticed also had a rather regal bearing and something else, not really condescending but a sense she gave that she was rather superior.
“My team is quite ready for the tournaments. We set a new record of wins this year. I think that will help carry us into the tournament and give us an edge to give you and your girls a real competition Corena,” said the girl as Trance stepped up to them.
“Hi Corena, how are you doing?” Trance asked politely, shifting his eyes very quickly at the girl and trying to mentally ask who the girl was.
“Hello Trance,” replied Corena as her eyes lit up when she saw him. She had seen his questioning look and knew what he wanted. She felt better that he was there to stand by her and she quickly reached out and linked her arm with his. “Trance, this is my friend Pelleena. She is the Duchess of the kingdom of Caleo on the planet Gollion,” she introduced in a way that wasn’t very sincere.
“Hello,” said Trance extending his hand.
Pelleena took his hand graciously and looked Trance up and down, appraising him. “Hello. You must be the boy from Earth everyone is curious about. Corena was just telling me about you and how well your team did this year. I can’t wait to see how you lead and compete on the field.”
“Thank you,” said Trance a little flattered and at the same time felt Corena squeeze his arm.
Pelleena eyed the pair and started to feel jealous. As yet she didn’t have anyone special in her life. She had always been jealous of Corena and the fact that she seemed to have the most handsome guy on her arm. Up until recently Corena was with Rex, who had been regarded as the best knight prospect in years. Trance was rather boyishly handsome and had a fairly good build and she had heard stories about him and his battle exploits from Althora. She had actually been very curious to see him and find out if he was as good on the battlefield as she had heard. She also wanted to see if it was true that Corena had separated from Rex and was now with Trance. Her mind tried to figure out why Corena had made the change.
“We’ll talk later Pelleena, I have more people to see and introduce Trance to. Have a good evening,” said Corena as she steered Trance away and toward another group of kids that had arrived at a nearby platform. She didn’t feel threatened by Pelleena; however, she had been around her enough to know how jealous her friend could be and how Pelleena had made attempts to tempt Rex away from her. Well, if she wants him now she can have him.
Trance felt Corena next to him and sensed the tension in her. He had caught on to the fact that the two girls acted friendly toward each other, but were most probably intense rivals. He smiled and was on his best behavior as Corena led him around the platform meeting kids, parents, and royalty. They were about to catch up to their families, which were actually together and waiting for them so they could head toward their luggage and make their way to their hotel. Just then a very pretty and petite little dark red-haired girl with bright blue eyes came up and greeted them.
“Hello Corena. How are you,” the girl eyed Trance and smiled rather sweetly at him. “Hello, my name is Calista. I am the princess of Tydel, on Terana,” she said, extending her hand.
Trance took it and introduced himself. To his relief he noticed that Corena was on more friendly terms with Calista. She had a rather bubbly personality and was genuinely happy for Corena and wished her a lot of luck in the tournaments. Calista was her team’s captain and had her share of success, yet she knew that at these tournaments she might not get very far, and she accepted that.
She did not have any military ambitions like Corena. In fact she was here for the experience, her family was grooming her to one day marry a royal suitor and have him or her sit on the royal throne in due time. So the plan was working as she had met a young Duke last year and they had been seeing each other since. Calista seemed to glow as she said that he should be arriving soon and would accompany her to the dance tomorrow night and stay for the tournaments.
“That’s wonderful,” Corena said delighted for her friend. “I look forward to meeting him.”
Calista thanked them and headed off to meet some other girls. Trance found himself led again back toward his family as well as Corena’s. Once they got back with their families and the troop of Golden Griffins they all headed toward the luggage area. They mingled with the crowd gathered there and eventually retrieved their luggage and then proceeded to customs and security. Trance had to give the information on Odin his robot horse, which would be retrieved so he could be taken with them to the hotel and then onto the tournament site. Trance watched Corena give the information on her horse so he’d know what to do. It seemed to take hours to finally get everything together and get a robot horse-drawn carriage to take them.
They arrived an hour later at the hotel and went to check in. Corena had to ride in the luxury carriage with her family and went to check their room, a royal suite four floors down from the top. The upper floors were held by some of the other visiting royal families here for the tournaments. Trance and his family would be on the seventh floor. When the Sonderson family boarded the elevator Trance saw that the hotel had ninety-three floors.
Mr. Sonderson led the way into the room. It was actually more like a three bedroom, two bathroom apartment. They walked into the fair-sized living room. To the right was a kitchen and dining area. There were three doors off the kitchen and dining room, one for one of the two bathrooms and two doors for the bedrooms. To the left of the living room was a double door to the master bedroom. The master had its own bathroom and walk-in closet.
The family unpacked in their rooms. Trance’s parents went to the master while Heather took one bedroom and Trance and Sammy took the other one. Kyle had come also and was going to sleep on the living ro
om couch. After unpacking Trance’s mother went into the kitchen and fixed lunch for them. Then everyone stretched out and relaxed. Trance received a call from Corena and talked to her for several minutes and was then called by Gracer and Zam.
The next day was going to be rather busy for Trance. He would have to go with his team to the tournament site and register for all of the events he was going to compete in. He would find out what order the events would be held so he could plan how to train and prepare his team for the competitions. He would also have to come back and clean up and get ready for the dance that night.
It was strange, he felt more nervous about the dance than the competitions. Trance had made an arrangement to ride to the dance with Corena, while his family would follow in their own carriage. He wasn’t exactly sure why, but the thought of riding in a royal coach with the princess and her family was slightly nerve-racking. Sammy tried to lighten the mood by teasing him about riding in the royal coach.
Heather was a bit too distracted to tease Trance. She had been asked to go to the dance by one of Trance’s teammates. She was going to go shopping with her mother and then come back and get dressed and ready for the dance. She already had her dress and cosmetics picked out to make it easier for her to get ready.
Kyle was there alone and would go with the family and maybe meet a girl to dance with there. He had always been a rather outgoing and popular guy and he knew that there were a number of girls that were interested in him. He could have any one of them, yet he did his best to be respectful of all the girls he knew. Yes, he dated and he had taken a number of girls out when he was in school, but he still hadn’t found the right girl for him. Since he had become a knight he was dedicated to serving his King and defending the kingdom and planet. He was very proud to serve and had worked hard to advance himself in the ranks of his division, and he was rather excited to see Trance develop into an excellent knight.
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