“Arthas, make it fly!” Andria screamed.
“I can’t, we’ve lost the reactor!”
“Can’t you turn on the other one?” she asked him.
“Which one? There is only one reactor on this ship!”
“What? Are you sure? Ivorin said that the he needed two reactors. Probably the one would be the backup?”
“Andria, if there was a second reactor on the spaceship, I would have known it; trust me! We are falling, I’ll try at least to guide us into the forest! She said as they were travelling back to Earth.
Andria was desperate, when she heard this piece of news, realising that Ivorin’s true price was a nuclear reactor. Who knew what he needed it for? She didn’t have the time to worry about the thought, she just hoped Arthas would manage to drive them through the big hole of the forest, instead of crashing on the dry lands of the surface, and for the first time in her life she prayed to survive. It would be a pity to die in this tin-can just outside the Forest. The young pilot tried hard to turn the falling ship as the outside burst into flames when they entered the Earth’s atmosphere, plummeting towards the never ending desert. The forest’s hole was still far but he managed to find it, pass through it and fall on its tall, thick trees. The crash would have been lethal, but the trees slowed it down and the spaceship fell creating a crater where some of the smaller trees burned away. Everyone passed out, but they were back on Earth alive and still in one piece.
Part 5:
The Return
Since Andria left, King George hadn’t eaten or slept properly. The fact that his daughter had flown to the sun was beyond his imagination. He remembered that she had always expressed her desire for this adventure, but he had never taken her seriously. He couldn’t accept that she might be in danger and he wasn’t able to protect her as he had promised her mother before she died. He had let her down, everyone, but most importantly himself. The power a throne provides was so meaningless then, compared to missing the affection of his own child.
He had sent Roy to arrest this mysterious scientist that helped his young daughter , but Roy had found no one in the factory-like house. It had been entirely emptied while in the basement there was a huge hole and a tunnel to an unknown destination. The Special Forces returned empty-handed after a long search—seemed that the tunnel was part of a complicated underground communication system, older than a thousand years. It would take years to explore everything and map the complex of tunnels. It probably belonged to an older civilization that had since been extinguished. The king was unsatisfied with Roy’s inability in preventing Andria from getting out of the kingdom. Roy apologised for his failure to appreciate Andria’s capability and his “mistake” in keeping the information of her moves secret from the king.
“You should have told me about the reactors and her meetings with that criminal scientist. You kept me in the dark!” the king said to Roy, furious, who was looking down at the ground apologetically.
“It was my fault, your Majesty, I’m sorry. I thought I could handle it by myself to avoid troubling you with more—”
“Trouble me with what? My daughter?!” the king bellowed. “There is nothing more important than the safety of her, nothing worth more than…” He stopped suddenly as he felt a pain in his chest and he started breathing heavily. He realised that the matter was driving him crazy and the agony was killing him. “Maybe it was my fault that I imprisoned her in her apartments after we found her at Gargas the poor districts. If I had paid more attention to her thoughts and dreams maybe I would have prevent it.” He spoke to himself mostly.
“You shouldn’t blame yourself, my King, Andria has a very independent personality and she would probably have found a way to do what she wanted to anyway, sooner or later.”
“She has a strong and free spirit, just like her mother and stubborn like her father.” The king smiled melancholically as he thought of the two women that he loved, both lost from his life. “Tell me, who is this Ivorin?”
“We didn’t find much about him, except that he wasn’t very social and his house was like an underground factory, with robots and machines. His neighbours rarely saw him out of it. It was the thief, Erica, who brought the Princess in contact with him,” Roy replied, relieved to show that he could be still useful.
“It seems that this scientist isn’t just a random guy after he also chose the son of King Martin, Arthas for his plans. If this isn’t a conspiracy then it must be an impossible coincidence; two royal family members lost in a dangerous adventure organised by the same scientist.”
“King Martin’s detectives searched Artha’s computer and found that this Ivorin had been communicating with him for a long time via internet and he had instructed him to be a pilot to his spaceship,” Roy added.
“The scientist prepared the pilot knowing that one day someone would probably come to ask for his spaceship. Why did he choose Arthas, a fat young boy, yet prince and heir? Did he expect that Andria would be the one who would ask for his services? Is it possible to know about her desire to travel to the sun?”
“I know it sounds crazy, but either he knew or somehow influenced our princess with these ideas,” Roy said.
“This is way too crazy and I can’t believe that it could be possible,” the king replied, sceptical.
When facts are too extraordinary to be real ordinary people tend to block these apparently impossible ideas they are incapable of taking in that not all the people in the world walk on the same predictable path of reason. Although, even in the most chaotic minds, there is always a reason behind their actions, that, from their side, seems reasonable and justified.
Back in the forest Andria was trying to reach a mango with Erica’s and Artha’s help. This adventure brought them closer and they had fun in everything they were doing together. She was trying to balance on their clasped hands to reach the fruit.
“Hold! A bit more! Almost!” She stretched as much as possible to reach as they were struggling to keep her steady.
“Come on, faster, I don’t have such strong arms,” Erica complained.
“Jake come and help us,” Andria called him though he wasn’t in her field of view.
They turned their heads around to search for him, but he wasn’t there. A short distance from there he was sitting alone on a log, inspecting the small object that had stolen from Farnath’s room. On the bird drawing there were three red crystals and as he pressed one the crystals became brighter and hotter and a little flame suddenly came from the hole in the bird’s beak. Jake got excited, he pressed the rest of them and the flame grew larger and burned his fingertips, making him drop the devise. He heard his team calling him and tried to shut off the fire from the device. When he realised that he couldn’t, he just kicked it away and turned to Andria who had just arrived.
“What are you doing here, we were calling you!” she asked him, sniffing the air.
“Nothing, I was just lingering,” he replied with a guilty smile.
Erica just arrived and also smelled something.
“Did you burn something?” she asked him suspiciously.
Andria didn’t want to waste any more time and asked him to help them with the fruits before it got darker.
Meanwhile, in his chambers, Farnath was walking nervously and angry, mumbling words while Felix watched him from the balcony, worried about the condition of his master.
“This spoilt girl, she couldn’t stay in her wormhole with the rest of the weaklings, she had to come here, mess everything up and now she’s gone! What did she want here Felix?” He noticed Andria’s magic perfume on his desk. He lifted it in fury and went to throw it from the window, but the last moment he couldn’t. He looked at it, and wondered why he couldn’t throw a simple bottle away. This was something new to him; something had changed him. He placed it back on his desk and lay on his bed. He lay there some time, then he glanced at the perfume. It was still there, of course, it hadn’t moved, and he looked at the ceiling desperately.
&
nbsp; “I’m doomed!” he said and touched his head with both his palms, feeling hopeless.
He realised that he couldn’t take Andria out of his mind and he didn’t know if the feeling he had was just anger or something else. He stayed there all day looking at the bottle from time to time until he got upset with himself.
“I must focus on my work!” He stood up immediately.
He started working on a new devise and as he walked around carrying dragon bones, stones and papers, his eyes were often drawn back to the perfume. He was trying to put fire on some papers that were covering a handmade device, but he made the fire hotter than it needed to be and melted all the bones and the device. The entire project failed and he angrily threw the remains off the balcony in front of Felix, who was watching his master, questioning, like a dog. He grabbed the perfume bottle, opened it and sniffed it deeply. Then he closed it carefully and put it back.
“It smells like her!”
He thought of the moment she had touched him and felt a strange pain in his chest. His heart surrounded by ice, beat stronger than usual and then a miracle happened. The tough ice that had withstood fire, magic, prayers, surgeries and even the heat of the sun itself, cracked, just a bit on the surface, but Farnath felt it! He felt some heat inside him that passed through the small crack and he got dizzy. He lay down on his bed, helpless, and stayed there all day suffering from this “sickness”. Even when Felix tried to move his master he didn’t respond, so he just lay down on his master’s legs and waited for him to recover.
“She will come to fight me, you will see! Just wait for her and she will come. She won’t abandon her plan to save the world and she will come, don’t you agree my loyal Felix?” He was speaking slowly with difficulty.
The bird didn’t understand what his master wanted and just turned his head, listening.
Andria and her team were walking towards the gates and eating fruits.
“Should we tell your father about the wizard?” Erica asked her, but she didn’t get any response. “Do you think that if he knew about him he would send troops to fight him and solve the heat problem?” Andria didn’t respond again.
“I don’t think Farnath was bad, maybe if we could speak with him again,” Arthas said.
“Don’t be so naïve! The wizard is lunatic and dangerous, he must die if we want to get Earth back to how it was, it’s simple,” Jake said with hate.
“I agree with Jake,” Erica added, “Farnath kept humanity under the surface of Earth for two thousand years and he didn’t change at all. He was an enemy then and he will always be”!
“People can change, Erica, even the most difficult ones!” Andria suddenly said attracting the attention of the team.
“Some people, maybe. How do you know if Farnath can change?”
“I don’t know. But I believe there is always hope for everyone. Maybe he just didn’t have the right motivation to change,.” Andria said, trying to keep her voice as neutral as possible.
“What hope can you see in him, Andria? You tried to speak to him and he answered with fireballs and almost killed us! If that isn’t a psychopath’s mind then what is it?”
“We stole a nuclear reactor, hacked the government’s systems, betrayed my own father, the king’s trust and almost got killed on a crazy ship trying to save the world. We aren’t far from madness as I can see it and don’t tell me that there is no hope for Farnath to change. You were a thief, once living on the fringes of the society and you have changed. You have become a trustworthy person that I can rely on, haven’t you?”
The team finally reached the gates and knocked on them. The CCTV operator couldn’t believe in his eyes when he saw four young people in silver-grey uniforms knocking on the gates from the inside of the forest. The gates opened and the soldiers escorted the team inside where a military vehicle collected them and transferred them to the capital.
The king was sitting on his office signing orders that Roy had organised, while some courtiers waited patiently for instructions. Then, a palatial officer appeared and brought him the news on his daughter’s return. His face shone of happiness and his heart beat faster.
“Where is she now?” He asked and grabbed the officer with his big hands.
“She is coming here with a military van from the Forbidden Forest’s gates,” he answered, feeling awkward in the king’s grasp.
The van that transported Andria travelled through the evacuated tunnels and more police and military vehicles arrived to escort it back to the palace safely. The rest of the city struggled with the traffic as the police blocked more of the great avenues that the princess would pass. She was uncomfortable when she saw the first buildings of the capital, the black artificial ceiling and the familiar trams and neighbourhoods around the palace. When she arrived her father was waiting for her in the courtyard, surrounded by palatial officers and guards. Next to him, Roy was standing sullen, yet curious about the news that these adventurers would bring. The van stopped just in front of him and the tall man hugged her and lifted her up as she was crying. King George felt the tears running warm from his eyes, uncontrollable, but he didn’t care that all his officials were looking at them as he had his most beautiful creature on Earth in his arms.
“Oh my daughter, finally you are back! You came back to me! I thought I’d never see you again!” he said sobbing.
“I’m sorry, dad, I’m not going anywhere again! I promise!” She realised how much she missed him and how much she hurt this powerful man.
They entered the main hall and everyone followed them to the throne room, where the king sat to listen to his daughter recount her trip and to decide upon their punishment for breaking international laws. He ordered Roy to send Arthas to his father though, as he was a royal member of another kingdom and he couldn’t judge him.
“King Martin will be pleased that his son has returned safe and sound,” King George said to Roy.
“If he hasn’t forgotten him yet,” Roy mumbled to himself.
The king had Erica and Jake locked in the guest’ rooms of the palace, where he expected them to remain until a trial by an international court, and he stayed with his daughter, Roy and a few officers inside the throne room. Andria told him about the wizard, the palace made of firestones, the gigantic phoenix and the dragon, but her father couldn’t believe her.
“I read about the legend of a man who lived two thousand years on the sun and made him hotter, but it’s not possible Andria! These are just fairy tales that they tell children.”
“He eats dragons and throws fireball, dad, I’m telling you. Please believe me.” She desperately tried to convince him, but hearing herself she realised how crazy it all sounded.
“My king, Princess Andria must be tired after this long trip,” Roy intervened eventually.
“Roy is right Andria, you need to rest. Go and we’ll speak tomorrow morning, it’s late after all,” the king said with an authoritative tone.
“I'm not tired.” She murmured angrily.
Back in the forest, the wizard’s device that Jake had thrown into the woods was still on fire. The small fire sped to the nearest dry leaves and then to the bushes and finally to the trees. After a while a huge forest fire was burning uncontrollably, destroying everything in its way.
Andria was lying on her bed staring outside at the black ceiling, remembering all the things that had happened and she couldn’t sleep from the thoughts. She was wondering what would have happen if she had accepted Farnath’s offer to stay on the sun for Earth’s salvation. Would he have kept his part of the deal? What would happen to her friends after all the troubles she had put them through? Her thoughts were interrupted by the city’s alarms. She saw the fire trucks moving east towards the Forbidden Forest while people were running, panicked, and shouting “The forest, forest is on fire! We are doomed!”
“It can’t be,” she said and she felt a pain in her heart.
Had she brought Farnath’s wrath to her own home, putting the whole of hum
anity in danger? And she felt something new that drained her energy and left her empty of warmth and breath—hatred!
The Seven Kingdoms sent fire units to surround and control the fire. They were fighting in the flames all night until they managed to control it and put it out. The difficult part was that, although there was no wind to drive the fire quickly, the forest was too thick for the vehicles to pass so it took longer for them to get there and cooperate with each other to create a line of defence against the wall of flames.
Andria didn’t sleep all night, but stayed next to the king who was kept updated on the situation in the forest. She felt ashamed that she had tried to defend Farnath in front of her friends that she thought he could actually change and be a better person. She was also disappointed that she let her feelings make her misjudge this enemy of humanity that she had hoped he had something good left inside him.
Farnath was still waiting in his room for Andria to reappear and confront him, but there was a voice inside him telling him that she wouldn’t come. He realised that he missed her and wanted to see her again and that was a new feeling for him. A feeling! Any feeling except anger was new to him and he found himself touching the bottle of her perfume imagining her coming to his room to make her requests again. He desperately wanted to see her again and then he looked at Felix.
Farnath: The Frozen Heart Page 7
