They kissed again, and when they finally broke away from each other Tommy had a thought.
“What are they like? Axis Lord weddings, I mean. And where do they take place? Not a church?”
“My father tells me that normal Axis Lord weddings are more full of pomp and ceremony than human ones. But weddings in the City of Serenity were never like that.” She smiled. “They’re not about rituals, or showing off. They really are just about two people being in love, a simple expression of faithfulness.”
“So… where do they take place?”
“Anywhere, really. They’re quite quick events, and usually nobody is invited.” She paused. “If you wanted… it would be…”
“What?” said Tommy gently.
“It would be nice to have a second wedding… in a few years, I mean, when we’re both ready. A human wedding—the kind of wedding with guests, a cake, dancing.”
Tommy smiled. “That sounds good. So where are we going to have our first wedding?”
“Well, there was a special place in the City of Serenity. We could get my father to take us there… if you wanted.”
“It sounds perfect,” said Tommy.
CHAPTER 8: THE MARRIAGE DOME
Tommy and Fire Opal were sitting in the back of Laser Wolf’s small spacecraft, heading towards the City of Serenity. The ship was about the size of a car, and it had circular windows looking out over the clouds.
“Sorry if it’s a little cramped,” said Laser Wolf. “I still need to get around to building a proper-sized ship; this little cruiser is just something I put together last night.”
Tommy glanced around the interior of the tiny ship, impressed.
“You built this in one night?”
“Yes.”
“Wow.”
Tommy didn’t mind about the size; after all, it was an excuse to be huddled up with Fire Opal on the back seat. He glanced out of the window; they were high above the clouds now. It was a surreal experience. He had the strange feeling of being inside a flying car.
“I’m glad you are getting married to my daughter,” said Laser Wolf. “I would be happy to see many more Axis Lord and human relationships.” He paused. “None of us really know how all this will work out, yet. I mean, with all of us Axis Lords living on Earth. It can only be a matter of time before the human governments realise that we are here.”
He paused, and added darkly, “Looking at Earth’s history it doesn’t seem that you react very well to newcomers.” Laser Wolf turned, and smiled at Tommy. “No offence.”
“None taken. I suppose humans must look pretty backward to you.”
“No, no, backward isn’t the right word. I mean, you humans have many admirable qualities that Axis Lords do not possess. Maybe a mingling of Axis Lord and human blood is the best way forward—quite literally, the best of both worlds.”
The Axis Lord paused reflectively, and Fire Opal turned to Tommy.
“Sorry about father,” she whispered. “He’s just happy about the wedding. He always gets philosophical when he’s feeling emotional.”
Laser Wolf didn’t hear her. Tommy stroked her white hair and kissed her on the cheek. After about ten more minutes, the ship began to descend.
“Nearly there,” said Laser Wolf.
The little ship passed down through the clouds and Tommy could see the City of Serenity. It looked exactly as he remembered it—the colourful buildings, the dark gothic structure dedicated to the Wheelmaster… There was only one difference. It was deserted.
Laser Wolf landed the ship on the beach. They climbed out. Fire Opal immediately took her shoes off so she could feel the warm sand beneath her feet.
“It’s strange to be back,” she said. “I’ve become so used to Italy.”
“I miss the city,” said Laser Wolf. “But it would be too risky to stay here for a long period. If the Axis Lords managed to reactivate the shield we would be trapped again.”
Tommy saw something in the corner of his eye. He turned his head. A small boy—he could only have been eight or nine—was running past them over the sand. He was wearing strange clothes: a velvet jacket and a waistcoat, along with a pocket watch chain.
“He’s human,” said Laser Wolf, frowning. “I wonder how he got here…”
Tommy had already started after the boy; his legs were much longer and he quickly caught him up.
“Stop!” said Tommy. “I’m trying to help you.”
The boy stopped running. He turned to Tommy, confused, ready to run again.
“It’s OK,” said Tommy gently. “I just want to help. Now, how did you get here?”
The boy suddenly began to cry. “I was… I was… playing with my friends and I suddenly appeared here,” he managed, between sobs.
Tommy frowned at the boy. His clothes were very old-fashioned.
“What year are you from?” said Tommy.
“Pardon, sir?” said the boy.
“I mean… what year do you think it is?”
“1850, of course,” said the boy, blinking at Tommy with tearful eyes.
“1850,” repeated Tommy blankly. “Right, OK. Well, what’s your name?”
“Arthur, sir.”
“OK, Arthur. Let’s find out what’s going on.”
Tommy led the little boy across the beach back towards Laser Wolf and Fire Opal. Tommy explained what had happened, and Laser Wolf frowned.
“Do you remember where you appeared on the beach—the exact spot?”
The boy nodded faintly.
“Show me.”
Arthur led the three of them across the beach towards the waves, where the sand was damp. There was a small rock pool on the beach, filled with shrimps and other sea creatures.
“About here,” said Arthur.
Laser Wolf took his pocket watch out from his pocket to scan the area. He flicked a tiny switch and the air shimmered; there was some sort of portal right next to the rock pool.
“What’s that?” breathed Tommy.
“A time fissure of some sort,” said Laser Wolf, “a fracture in reality.”
The Axis Lord put a hand through the portal, and then his entire head.
“Look,” he said.
Tommy put his head through the portal. On the other side, he could see a Victorian street. It looked like a wealthy area. A horse and cart was riding past and young well-dressed boys were playing by the side of the road.
“Looks like your friends are waiting for you,” said Tommy.
The boy stared suspiciously at the portal. “Through there?” he said.
Laser Wolf nodded. “It’s perfectly safe, I promise. You stepped through a rip in the fabric of time. Back through that tear is your home.”
The boy still looked reluctant. Laser Wolf took his hand.
“Come on, I’ll go with you.”
The boy nodded. Laser Wolf led Arthur through the gap, and a few seconds later returned alone.
“He’s safe now,” said Laser Wolf, fiddling with his pocket watch. “Let me see if I can…”
The portal began to shrink, until it had vanished completely.
“There,” said Laser Wolf. “I closed it.”
“But I wonder what opened it,” said Fire Opal.
At that moment, a man came striding along the beach, panting breathlessly. He was wearing a black suit jacket; his hair was white and his eyes were purple.
“Ah, you’ve closed it,” he said. “Good, good. Did you check where the portal had opened this time?”
Laser Wolf frowned. “This planet, London, 1850.”
The other Axis Lord sighed. “Always this planet… always this damned planet… sorry, I’m forgetting my manners. My name is Agamon.”
Tommy recognised the name, and suddenly realised that he recognised the man, too. He had met Agamon when he was travelling with Martin and Darcy to, supposedly, save the Axis Lords. But it had been a trap, and they had ended up being captured by pirates. Agamon clearly recognised Tommy as well.
“Oh, it’s you!”
he said, and shook Tommy’s hand. “Good to see you again.”
“Good to see me? Last time we met you tricked us into being captured!”
“No, no.” Agamon shook his head. “The Wheelmaster had deceived me—I genuinely believed that my planet was under attack. I am very sorry for what happened.”
Tommy turned to Laser Wolf.
“Is he telling the truth?”
Laser Wolf had an ability called Soul Sight—he could see the condition of a person’s heart. He nodded.
“Agamon has a good heart,” said Laser Wolf.
Tommy nodded. “OK.”
“What happened to Martin?” said Agamon.
“Oh, he’s fine,” said Tommy.
“Excellent,” said Agamon. “Er, why are you all here, exactly?”
Tommy smiled at Fire Opal. “We’re getting married.”
“Oh, really?” Agamon didn’t sound very interested. He turned to Laser Wolf. “I am glad to have you here, actually. I could do with another Axis Lord mind. What is your name?”
“Laser Wolf.”
“Well, could you come with me, Laser Wolf? I have a bit of a dilemma.”
“Do you mind?” said Laser Wolf, to Tommy and Fire Opal.
They did mind—they were eager to get married—but they shook their heads politely.
“Excellent,” said Agamon. “Let us go to the Wheelmaster’s temple.”
*
The temple was very dark. The high ceiling looked like a black spiral, and ten supporting pillars held it up. A tall black statue stood in the centre.
“That is the Wheelmaster,” said Agamon, “our deity.”
Tommy grinned. He knew that there was a different Wheelmaster now, one that was an exact copy of Martin King. Tommy had promised Martin that he wouldn’t tell anyone—it could only put them in danger. Tommy vaguely wondered what had happened to the old Wheelmaster. Presumably he had simply ceased to exist…
He approached the statue of the old Wheelmaster. In the statue’s black palm was a glowing shape. Tommy squinted. Millions of tiny bright specks were moving around inside it.
“That is a scale model of the known Universe,” said Agamon. “Impressive, isn’t it? The Axis Lords living in the city seem to have surpassed even mainstream Axis technology.”
Tommy looked around at the rest of the temple. It was extremely dark; nearly everything inside—the altars, the symbols, the statue of the Wheelmaster—was made from the same sort of glistening black stone.
“I expect you want to know why I have been opening up portals to different moments in Earth’s history?” said Agamon.
Laser Wolf nodded. “Well, I must confess to being a little curious.”
“Sit down, please,” said Agamon. He clapped his hands and four gleaming white chairs appeared in the darkness. Agamon sat down to begin his story.
“I used to be known as Prince Agamon. That is, until I renounced my royal title. You see, the Axis Lords have started upon a course of action that I simply cannot support.”
The former prince clapped his hands again. A star map appeared above their heads. Tommy immediately recognised the golden points of light that were dotted over the map.
“The ships,” said Tommy.
“You know about them?” said Agamon, astonished. “How?”
“We met another Axis Lord,” Fire Opal explained, “but not by chance. He found us. Well, he was looking for Tommy and his friends.”
“Who was he?”
Tommy hesitated. What was the name? Something beginning with “M”.
“What was his name?” said Agamon, more urgently.
“Mulciber,” said Tommy, finally remembering.
Even in the darkness, Tommy could see that Agamon’s face had become paler.
“You know him?” said Tommy.
“Yes, well… he is an old acquaintance of mine. Well, you could even say that he was a… friend of mine. But that was before he turned renegade.” Agamon cast his eyes towards the ground. “Although, I suppose that I am a renegade now, too.”
“What happened?” said Laser Wolf. “What did he do?”
“He was a murderer and a poet,” said Agamon. “Two of the worst crimes it is possible to commit on Hope.” He shook his head. “Never mind. There are more pressing matters. These ships will be arriving within the week.”
“But who are they?” said Fire Opal.
“The occupants of those ships are the most evil people in the five galaxies,” said Agamon slowly. “They are heartless, conscienceless killers. And worst of all—they have a great sense of moral superiority. They will squash this planet as you would squash a fly, and then congratulate themselves on their valour.”
“These people sound terrible,” said Laser Wolf. “Who are they?”
“Us,” said Agamon, with a dark smile.
“It… can’t be,” said Laser Wolf.
Agamon nodded. “When Moonstone took down the barrier around the City of Serenity, the Axis Council decided almost immediately to purge the Earth.”
“Our own people?” said Fire Opal.
“Well, think about it from our—well, their—point of view,” Agamon went on. “In their eyes, the Earth is full of dangerous criminals, and they know it can only be a matter of time before someone manages to disable the satellite. They are worried about a possible attack.”
“We need to do something!” said Tommy.
“I have been trying. Look, come and see.”
They all stood up. Agamon took a small white globe from his pocket and threw it into the air. It instantly lit up, and floated above them, following them as they walked to the corner of the temple.
“That’s interesting,” said Laser Wolf. “A sort of gravity lamp. How did you make it follow like that? A motion sensor?”
Agamon smiled. “No, just a simple heat sensor; that’s how it works in the dark.”
“Brilliant,” said Laser Wolf, “I will definitely have to make one of those when I get home.”
Fire Opal glanced at Tommy and rolled her eyes. Her father was obsessed with his inventions.
“If you think the gravity globe is impressive, take a look at this.”
The globe caught them up as they stopped. Agamon was pointing at a large silver machine. It looked immensely complex.
“I keep it in here so it can be in the dark,” said Agamon, “even the tiniest bit of direct sunlight would play havoc with its circuits. Do you know what it is?”
“I do. I actually tried to make one before, but it was too difficult.” Laser Wolf looked a little jealous.
“I can’t take too much credit for it,” said Agamon. “It was an old friend of mine who originally came up with the design.” He paused, his eyes darkening for a moment. “Actually, you’ve met him, Tommy. Mulciber invented this machine.”
Tommy stared at the silver contraption. “What does it do?”
“It’s a Time Breaker. It sounds a lot more violent than it is. To put it simply…” Agamon sighed; it was clear that he wasn’t used to putting things simply. “It is designed to create splits, or fractures, in time and space. One can then walk through these fractures and end up—well—somewhere else.”
“Cool,” said Tommy.
“Yes, it is. The trouble is, however, the damn thing won’t do what I want it to. I built the machine so I could open a portal to allow all of the Axis Lords on Earth to escape. But the machine is too erratic—remember that portal that opened up on the beach?” He paused. “I brought the machine here in the hope that it would be more reliable. But it’s hopeless. I can open portals, but only to other times in Earth’s history, and only to times after the City of Serenity was built. I can only assume that after building the city the Axis Lords created some sort of disturbance field around the entire planet.”
Suddenly, with a hissing sound, another portal appeared. But it looked different this time; it was blue, and crackling like electricity; it seemed somehow unstable.
“Tommy, step
back,” said Agamon slowly.
The portal was moving closer to Tommy. He edged slowly away from the fizzing fracture but it too increased its speed.
Suddenly, Tommy made a run for it—but the portal was fast too. He ran towards the statue of the Wheelmaster and hid behind it.
The portal stopped for a second. Then, it turned orange. Tommy felt his legs rise into the air; he was being sucked into the portal. He grabbed hold of the Wheelmaster’s waist, tightly, but he could feel his hands beginning to slip.
“Hold on!” shouted Fire Opal.
Tommy darted a glance at her. She looked terrified. For some reason, Fire Opal, Laser Wolf and Agamon were not being affected by the portal. For some reason, it only wanted him.
“Hang in there!” shouted Laser Wolf.
“I’m trying!” yelled Tommy, not sure if he could hold on much longer. His grip began to slip—he was going to fall, he was going to be pulled inside the fracture. Suddenly, the pull stopped, and the portal vanished.
“There!” said Agamon. “I have closed it.”
Tommy stood dazed for a second, before he turned on Agamon.
“What do you think you’re playing at? Where did that thing come from?”
Agamon shook his head. “I really don’t know, Tommy. I’m sorry. Either way—” Agamon pulled a lever, and the lights on the machine went dead. “It won’t be happening again.”
Tommy breathed out slowly.
*
Tommy and Fire Opal stood before the crystal dome, which glinted like ice in the sun. Tommy took his girlfriend’s hand, and looked into her purple eyes. He felt like the luckiest person in the world. So this was it. He was actually going to marry her. Of course, it was a bit different to when two humans got married. For one thing, he was so young. He would still have to go back to school almost straight after the wedding. But he would still be married. He would still have made an enduring bond between himself and the girl he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.
Laser Wolf smiled at them both. Agamon was standing outside the Marriage Dome, too. Weddings in the City of Serenity rarely involved more than two participants, but if there were any guests, there always had to be an even number. Tommy and Fire Opal had happily agreed to let Laser Wolf and Agamon observe the ceremony.
Martin King and the Prison of Ice (Martin King Series) Page 7
