Tomarkus and the Betrayed Planet
Page 14
There was nothing Mesek could do but wait in hiding till his odium force arrived, but before long he sensed a burning smell, which was coming from the other side of the pool. Mesek peeped out and found his chamber in flames. The only memories of his father and Xena were in that room, and Mesek dashed madly towards the blaze to save what he could, forgetting his fears.
A pack of eight soldiers stepped out of the dark, blocking his way. Their evil laughter pierced Mesek’s heart and, mad with fury, Mesek power-blasted one of them with his setek on the soldier, sending him flying into the chamber wall. Immediately his opponents lifted their seteks and charged at Mesek. The combined force of their seteks was too much for his force shield to block and he fell on his knees. They attacked once more, dragging Mesek till the end of the corridor; his gleaming black robe torn in a dozen places, his knees bleeding. Mesek couldn’t stand or speak. He tried to crawl desperately away, only to be kicked hard in the stomach by one of his assailants. Blood shot from Mesek’s mouth, along with a cry for mercy. His assailants only looked down at him and laughed.
‘What do you want?’ Mesek pleaded, lying curled up on the ground.
‘Give us the coordinates. We’ll take pity on you and give you an easy death,’ said one of the soldiers in a menacing tone.
‘That’s never going to happen. You’ve no time to escape now. My force is coming back,’ said Mesek, spitting blood from his mouth.
That only made the soldiers laugh louder. ‘She isn’t coming back. She is on our side.’
‘She was the one who let us in to deal you a humiliating death,’ grunted a soldier.
Mesek’s face turned pale, and he tried to lift his setek, but it was casually kicked out of his reach. Mesek had never felt this helpless in his life before.
‘You all are bluffing, Cenoy would never do that,’ he muttered, with great effort.
‘Your father betrayed this entire planet. You betrayed everyone of us and now it’s your turn to pay for his sins.’ There was a murmur of agreement all around.
‘Mates, lets drag him to the pool and begin the show,’ commented a soldier, grinning down at Mesek.
They dragged Mesek to the edge of the water, lifted him and threw him into the pool. Mesek flailed about, trying to stay afloat, despite his injuries. The Calamus soldiers circled the pool and started unleashing charge into the pool from their seteks. The water churned as the charge dispersed everywhere like lightning bolts. Mesek screamed in pain.
‘I’ll tell you the coordinates, please get me out of here,’ he pleaded again.
The soldiers hooted in glee, but suddenly their joy came to an abrupt end.
‘How’s that possible,’ one of the soldiers shrieked.
‘What happened?’
‘I just received a call that Cenoy attacked Calamus for real and it’s the end of MOX forever,’ said the soldier, wailing.
In coming to Marcamaayu, these soldiers had left their injured brethren and young children unguarded in Calamus.
Mesek looked at the grief-stricken soldiers in bewilderment. They glared at Mesek as though all this had been his plan and they had been trapped in it.
38.
The Endgame
When the soldiers had left Calamus to kill Mesek, Griex informed Ariet through Naksum when she went to give him food that Calamus officials weren’t going to stand up to their promises; they had plans to kill both Cenoy and Ariet after Mesek was killed. Ariet immediately called Cenoy and, instead of roaming outside Marcamaayu as planned, the kiro diverted her force to Calamus, but with the aim to capture the enemy rather than kill them.
All twenty Calamus soldiers returned from Marcamaayu with Mesek at their seteks’ point. Each and every odium soldier of Marcamaayu snarled at the enemies when they saw Mesek’s half-burned body. The severely injured Mesek was not in a state to speak, or even comprehend what was happening.
On the other hand, Cenoy hadn’t made the mistake of telling everyone the truth about Mesek. She knew nobody would believe her, and instead they would kill her as they had seen that even their idol Hak was a spy.
Cenoy, Ariet and Griex stood together on the top story of Calamus, whose roof had blown away in the last fight, while Marcamaayu troopers secured each and every corner of Calamus with injured soldiers, kiros and kids held at the points of their odiums.
‘Release our families, else we’ll kill Mesek,’ threatened a soldier, holding his setek close to Mesek’s face.
‘We’ll let everyone go only if you promise right now in front of everyone to free Hydus and leave Mesek unharmed,’ replied Cenoy.
The odium soldiers looked at her in surprise, unable to understand what she meant by “free Hydus”.
Cenoy corrected her words, ‘Release all the prisoners of Carcerum and change the rules of Hydus for the greater good of every fugit living in Hydus.’
The odium soldiers whooped in joy; as their captain had not only asked that they should be freed, but also that the ridiculous rules of Hydus which had landed them in prison in the first place be changed as well.
Neither Cenoy nor the Calamus officials could risk telling the crowd that Hydus was a slave city because it could help no one; on the contrary, there was the risk of an unpredictable war breaking out on Tomarkus.
‘We agree to your conditions. Just give us the coordinates of the new planet and let us take our anti-gravity stones back,’ replied a council member who himself was on the target of an odium soldier.
The Cheers of the odium soldiers shook the Calamus though some of them were confounded at the mention of a new planet.
‘Agreed, now send Mesek to us and we’ll let everyone go free,’ said Cenoy.
Two setek soldier came forward with Mesek. Holding the bleeding Mesek between them, they leaped to the top storey. They brought Mesek up to Cenoy. What followed happened in such a blur that nobody had the time to react. Mesek snatched the setek from Cenoy’s hand, and almost in the same instant Griex stabbed an odium into Mesek’s back and fell with him from the top storey. Devastated odium soldiers ripped Griex into pieces.
Tears rolled from Ariet’s eyes for Griex who had sacrificed himself for lifting the curse of slavery from the race of fugits forever and, in death, accomplished his life’s purpose...
39.
A Breathtaking Surprise
‘Now, all kiros go and choose a sato of your will,’ said Naksum.
The kiros moved around, looking for a sato they liked, while the satos stood in rows, waiting patiently to get chosen.
The kiros from MOX families were teaching Hydus fugits a new way of life, one which Ariet and Cenoy were enjoying themselves, standing in a corner, holding hands.
‘What do you think, will we ever get to save them all?’ asked Ariet.
‘I don’t know yet but I do know that even if we don’t these last few days have been the happiest of all they ever lived on Tomarkus,’ replied Cenoy, squeezing Ariet’s hand.
‘Hey, would you like to see something amazing?’ asked Ariet, getting excited.
‘What?’
‘Our motherland Santona.’
‘Wow, yes of course.’ Cenoy’s eyes sparkled.
They both hurried to the top storey of Hydus, Mortem, where Ariet had recently set up a huge telescope for exploration.
Ariet remembered the coordinates of Santona from one of Griex’s old caskets, all of which he had read these past days to know more about the fugits’ old beautiful home. The sato adjusted the telescope and the clicking sounds of the focuser filled Cenoy with excitement.
‘I can’t believe this, I can’t believe this,’ shouted Ariet, suddenly, peering into the eye-piece.
‘What happened?’ asked Cenoy, impatiently.
‘Look for yourself.’ Ariet moved away from the telescope and Cenoy adjusted her big eyes in the cups of the telescope.
‘I can’t see anything.’ Everything seemed blurred and distorted.
‘Wait a moment.’ The focuser started clicking again, and sl
owly the fuzzy object started solidifying into a sphere.
‘Stop, stop... it’s magnificent,’ said Cenoy awed. ‘Isn’t it exactly like the the description you read to me from the casket: “The blue planet with mud brown patches over it.”
‘Yes, it’s the same Santona as it was before the explosion in Manoca,’ replied Ariet.
Cenoy was mesmerised by the beautiful land where her ancestors had once lived.
‘So does it mean, it's habitable again?’ asked Cenoy, holding her breath.
‘Yes, it is,’ replied Ariet, and Cenoy screamed in excitement. ‘In all these years nature had cured motherland Santona,’ said Ariet, smiling broadly at Cenoy whom he had never seen this excited before.
The duo hurried to the twenty-second storey where the pairing game was still going on. Some kiros stood with their partners, while many were still looking for their perfect match.
‘Greetings everyone, I hope you all are enjoying the family game. We have some great news to convey,’ Ariet addressed the the crowd. ‘As you all know our planet has been suffering from lack of dueso for quite a long time and because of that our lives have been trapped underground for ages, but we’ve found a solution.’ Everybody paused, and stared at Ariet in wonder.
‘We have discovered a new habitable planet, far from Tomarkus, where lie green forests you can roam in, big clear oceans of water you can swim in, cool and fresh air you can breathe, and to top it all, various animal species you would enjoy living with.’
The crowd whooped in joy. The description of the planet sounded like a dream.
‘The name of our new home is “Santona”.’ announced Cenoy, smiling at Ariet, who had already fallen in love with her. ‘The first troop will be sent to Santona soon.’
Hails of excitement echoed in Hydus, and Ariet and Cenoy smiled at each other, their hands warmly interlinked.
Thank You...
My dearest readers, I’m grateful to all of you for trusting me with your valuable time and patience though I’m just starting my career as an author, and it means Santona to me.
I would love to read your reviews about “Tomarkus and the Betrayed Planet” on Amazon, Flipkart, Shopclues or any other online store. Your reviews will motivate me, guide me and help me as a debut author to gain more visibility in the ocean of great novels.
Table of Contents
1. The Suffering Land Tomarkus
2. The Agonies of Carcerem
3. The Mad Rush
4. The Desert Fight
5. Breaking Into Prison
6. Prison Escape
7. A Beautiful Citris-Rise
8. Sinister Eyes In the Woods
9. A Deathbed Of Thorns
10. The Marvellous Senempis
11. .........................The Fungi Mountains
12. A New World
14. Warriors of Marcamaayu
15. The Death Trap
16. Xena And the Crusher
17. The Secret Message
18. A World Full Of Surprises
19. What Is A Family?
20. The Enemy Fort Calamus
21. Ugly And Mysterious
22. The Casket and the Encrypted Script
23. The Mystery of the Hovering Stones
24. The Root Riddle
25. Riddle Solved
26. Disaster of the Mild Venom
27. Hands In Muck
28 The Betrayed Planet
29. The Five-Eyed Monster
30. The Beginning Of Slavery On Tomarkus
31. Saving the Enemy
32. Drowning In Blood
33. The Civil War
34. The Truth about the Lost Child
35. Dealing with Evil
36. Four Rotten Bodies
37. Lightning Bolts in the Pool
38. The Endgame
39. A Breathtaking Surprise