Martin King and the Prison of Ice (Martin King Series)

by James McGovern

  “Well, shall we go in?” said Laser Wolf.

  Tommy held Fire Opal’s hand as they entered the crystal dome. It felt strange to be seeing the bride before the wedding. The simplicity of Axis Lord marriage customs almost made him embarrassed of the complicated English ones.

  Fire Opal’s entire body was shaking, but her eyes were gleaming with happiness. Tommy squeezed her hand.

  Tommy was very surprised by the interior of the dome. It was about the size of a football pitch, and it was simply a white, empty space. Laser Wolf led them towards the centre of the dome. The couple stood directly in the middle. Then Laser Wolf and Agamon began to make their way towards the side of the dome.

  “Wait,” said Tommy. “What do I do? I’ve never been to one of these weddings before.”

  “Just do what feels right,” replied Laser Wolf.

  “Thanks, that’s a lot of help,” Tommy muttered.

  His girlfriend smiled at him. “Trust me,” she said, “It’ll make sense for you when the ceremony begins.”

  Tommy glanced at the other two Axis Lords; they were now watching from a long way away. He looked back into Fire Opal’s eyes, and the music started. It was the most beautiful music he had ever heard—far superior to anything composed by a human. Within the music, he could feel love, compassion, kindness, passion…

  “It’s our song,” whispered Fire Opal. “The dome creates music to reflect our feelings for one another.”

  Tommy held Fire Opal in his arms. They didn’t do anything. They simply stood still, absorbed in the music of their own souls. The colour of the walls began to change—white to blue to red to gold.

  A tear fell down Fire Opal’s cheek like a silver raindrop. Tommy wiped it away. And then he kissed her.

  They had already done an awful lot of kissing before the wedding, but it was the best kiss he had ever had. The dome, the music, the colours all seemed to reflect and amplify their passion. They kissed for what seemed like an eternity. And then the music came to a perfect end, and the dome returned to white.

  “That’s it,” said Fire Opal, her voice trembling a little with emotion.

  Tommy felt so peaceful, so complete. He took Fire Opal’s hand. She really was so beautiful. There were no wedding vows in an Axis Lord wedding, but Tommy made a secret vow.

  I love you, Fire Opal. Whatever happens—ever—I swear to always love you, unreservedly and unconditionally, and protect you with every last breath in my body. I will always be there for you. Always.

  CHAPTER 9: THE IMPOSSIBLE SNOW

  It’s not every day that a fire-breathing dragon appears at your school to wreak havoc.

  Martin and Tommy were getting nearer the school when Martin heard strange sounds coming from the inside of the building.

  “Can you hear screaming?” said Martin.

  Tommy shook his head. “I can’t hear anything,” he said glumly.

  Martin turned to him. He was still looking very miserable. After the wedding, he’d had to travel back to England almost straight away for the start of his school term. He hadn’t wanted to risk the anger of his parents.

  “Cheer up, mate,” said Martin. “It won’t be long till you see her again.”

  “You’re right,” said Tommy. “Well, I’m going to Skype her tonight, actually. It’s just hard, you know? Especially so soon after the wedding.”

  “I know,” said Martin.

  He knew how miserable he would feel if he had to spend a significant period of time away from Darcy.

  As they approached the entrance, Martin turned to his cousin.

  “I can definitely hear shouting,” he said.

  They entered the school. The reception area was strangely empty—the receptionists were nowhere to be seen, and there were no teachers or students in sight.

  There was a din coming from somewhere. It was the sounds of hundreds of kids shouting. Martin and Tommy followed the direction of the noise until they realised that it was coming from near the Sports Hall.

  When they turned a corner, they saw hundreds of kids gathered outside the entrance to the hall. It was chaos. They were shouting, screaming, waving their hands about. Mr Chapman and Miss Wight were trying to calm the crowd, but nobody was listening to them. Martin and Tommy started to push their way through the crowd, heading towards the obvious source of the confusion—the Sports Hall.

  “What’s going on?” said Martin, spotting one of his friends.

  “We all want to see it!” said Mark, grinning. “But the teachers are blocking off the doors.”

  “See it? See what?”

  “The dragon!”

  “The dragon?”

  “Yeah! It was flying all over the school, breathing fire, burning things, but the teachers managed to lock it in the Sports Hall.”

  Martin glanced at Tommy. “Why does this kind of thing always happen around us?” he muttered.

  Martin wanted to ask Mark more questions but he had already disappeared into the crowd.

  “Come on,” said Martin. “If there’s a dragon I want to see it.”

  The cousins pushed through the mass of sweaty, laughing people until they were near the entrance to the Sports Hall.

  “You distract him,” said Martin, pointing at Mr Michaels, who was standing in front of the Sports Hall with his arms outstretched.

  “Er… right.”

  Tommy slipped around the corner and through the door leading to the north stairwell. Then he ran out into the corridor again, panting, as if he had just been running.

  “Sir!” he shouted. “Sir! Mr Michaels! There’s another one of those things—through there!” Tommy gestured wildly towards the north stairwell.

  Mr Michaels left his post without a second thought, and followed Tommy into the stairwell. Taking his chance, Martin ran through the doors into the Sports Hall.

  It wasn’t a dragon. Martin stared at the strange creature, which was flying in a wide circle. It was a golden clockwork bird, about the size of a parrot. The bird opened its mouth; a laser beam shot out from its metal beak.

  “That’s not fire,” Martin muttered.

  The bird fired another laser beam from its mouth, which burned a hole in the floor.

  “It’s funny, isn’t it?” said a voice.

  The hairs on Martin’s neck bristled. He turned around. It was a young-looking Axis Lord, but one that he didn’t recognise. The man’s hair was slicked back, and he was wearing an emerald-green waistcoat. The clockwork bird flew towards the Axis Lord, who had apparently appeared from nowhere, and landed on his shoulder.

  “The bird is called Softie,” said the Axis Lord. “It’s a stupid name, but I can’t take any blame for that. I won him in a card game with a bank robber on the planet Melyzza. He won’t answer to any other name. Fantastic woman, though.”

  The clockwork bird chirped, and the man smiled.

  “It is wonderful to meet you again after all these years, Martin.”

  “We’ve met before?”

  “I don’t expect you to remember. You were only a baby then. Forgive me.” The Axis Lord stepped over to Martin and held his hand out. “My name is Mulciber.”

  Martin shook his hand. “So I’m assuming that all this havoc was designed to get my attention?”

  Mulciber smiled. “You always were going to be exceptionally clever. You’re right. I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist coming here.”

  “Tommy told me about you,” said Martin. “He said you spoke to him and Fire Opal in Italy.”

  The Axis Lord nodded. “I placed an invisible tracking device on Tommy’s arm. That’s how I managed to find you so easily.”

  “So what do you want with me?”

  “A couple of things, actually,” said Mulciber. “I suppose you already know about the ships heading towards Earth?”

  Martin nodded. “Axis Lord ships.”

  “That’s right.” Mulciber grinned. “The question is: what are you doing in preparation for the arrival of the ships?”

/>   Martin paused. “What gives you the right to start asking me questions? I don’t even know who you are.”

  “Mulciber.”

  “Well, that’s your name—but who are you?”

  “Don’t you see it?” Mulciber grinned again. “Don’t you see the resemblance?”

  Martin looked carefully at Mulciber. He didn’t think that he recognised his face. The alien shook his head.

  “Well, never mind that. The important thing is that we save your planet.”

  Martin paused again. He didn’t know how much to tell Mulciber. He didn’t know whether he could trust him.

  “I’ve sent a message to Abaddon,” said Martin, “asking him to come to Earth to help us fight the Axis Lords.”

  “Really?” Mulciber looked genuinely impressed. “Well, that is certainly a start. I’m proud of you.”

  “What do you mean, proud?”

  At that moment, the doors of the Sports Hall opened and the crowd of kids came streaming in. Martin turned to look back at Mulciber. But the man had vanished—along with Softie.

  *

  Martin got to his maths lesson about five minutes before the lesson started. A few people from his class had also arrived early. He realised that Darcy was standing outside the classroom too, with a group of people that she didn’t usually hang out with. Martin was surprised. Darcy wasn’t an unsociable person, but she wasn’t what you would call a “girly girl” either. But she seemed to be talking to the girls about lipstick.

  Martin stood quietly behind a group of boys, a part of him trying to hear her conversation, and another part angry with himself for doing such a thing.

  “…Martin would like it…” one of the girls was saying.

  “No,” said Darcy, “he wouldn’t even notice.”

  “I don’t know why you even go out with that loser,” said Laura O’Carolan.

  “Yeah, well, he needs me,” sighed Darcy. “But I suppose I will have to break up with him soon. He gets more irritating every day. I don’t think I can stand him for much longer.”

  Laura O’Carolan laughed, and Martin felt a horrible falling sensation. Without thinking, he turned and began to walk in the opposite direction.

  Darcy noticed him leaving. “Martin!” she called.

  But he didn’t turn around. He broke into a run, and headed straight out of the nearest fire escape. He made his way towards the school playing court and slipped through a gap in the metal fence. He sat down in one of the bare rows of spectator seats and watched the pitch.

  The sunlight that had seemed so golden and perfect this morning now seemed hot and hateful. Martin began to cry. He didn’t understand what was going on.

  Darcy loves me… doesn’t she? She always says she does…

  Martin was perplexed. He knew that he loved Darcy. He had been dating her for two years now and—despite a couple of minor arguments—they had been the happiest two years of his life. What if she had simply been pretending to love him? Martin couldn’t bear the thought. Why would she do such a thing?

  Either way, it was too late. All of the strange things she had done recently—bringing that boy Tyler to the flat, kissing the guard on Pyridos—he had quickly made excuses for.

  But now… this. It was obvious. Darcy didn’t love him anymore. It was almost too painful to think about, but there was no point deluding himself. His mind became suddenly clear at this new revelation, and he knew exactly what he had to do.

  He had to end it—before she ended it with him.

  Martin looked out at the empty playing court as the sun baked the ground and his head. He wiped his tears away and headed back towards the school.

  *

  Martin stepped into the classroom and glanced at the teacher.

  “Sorry I’m late,” he mumbled.

  It seemed ridiculous. Two years ago, he had saved the world from Moonstone and XO5. He had visited an alien planet in a time machine over the summer holidays. And here he was apologising for being late.

  “Never mind,” said Mrs Stevens. “Just don’t let it happen again, OK? We’ve just been looking over the work from last lesson…”

  Martin stopped listening. Darcy was sitting alone, but Martin walked to sit in a chair at the back of the classroom. Darcy turned around, and looked at Martin. She mouthed “sorry” at him, but he looked down at his desk.

  I wish I had become the Wheelmaster, thought Martin. I wish I was living in another dimension, watching over everything. Anything would be better than this pain.

  Darcy tried to catch his eye several times during the lesson, but Martin ignored her. He was going to break up with her, but he would wait until he was completely calm. That way, his words couldn’t be mistaken for an outburst of emotion. She would know that he really meant it.

  Martin felt sick and his head was beginning to throb. It was the first and worst day of term. What had started off as a fun morning had turned into the most heart-breaking morning of his life. And it had broken. Darcy had broken his heart. The rest of the lesson passed in a strange daze. As soon as the clock hit 9:30, Martin leapt up from his seat and left the classroom first.

  *

  Martin was pacing quickly towards the science corridor for his next lesson when he heard shouting.

  What this time? he thought. That damn clockwork bird again?

  He turned the corner and looked through the doors into the corridor. It was snowing. It was snowing in the corridor. Dozens of kids were playing in the snow—cheering and throwing snowballs.

  Martin walked into the corridor and the snow began to fall onto him. It was real snow. Despite himself, Martin was curious. He looked up; white misty objects were hanging above the corridor. They were some kind of artificial clouds, Martin realised. Snow was falling from them. He grinned. It had to be Axis Lord technology.

  A door opened, and a white-haired face appeared. It was Mulciber.

  “In here!” he said.

  Martin stepped inside the classroom. In the corridor, the snow carried on falling; it was particularly focussed just outside the classroom. Within a few seconds, the door had been blocked off with snow.

  “We’re snowed in,” said Mulciber. “That should keep the teachers out for a while. We need to talk.”

  “I’m not really in the mood to talk,” said Martin gloomily. “That was really impressive—the thing you did with the snow—but I’d be grateful if you could put things right and let me go.”

  Mulciber put a hand on Martin’s shoulder. “And why are you in a bad mood?”

  “A girl,” said Martin, shrugging.

  “Well, it’s exactly that girl that I want to talk to you about.”

  “What? You want to talk to me about Darcy?”

  Mulciber nodded. Martin sat down in a school chair next to the alien.

  “Well, what?” he said.

  “You’re about to do something very foolish,” said the alien. “Something that you will greatly regret.”

  “I will regret it,” said Martin. “but it’s not foolish, I have to—” He broke off. “How do you know what I’m about to do?”

  “Because we are very alike,” said Mulciber, “and if I was in your situation I would do exactly the same thing. I’ve been watching you, Martin, and I know what’s going on.”

  Martin fiddled with his blazer buttons. “Darcy doesn’t love me… I… I have to end it.”

  “What do you think, Softie?” said Mulciber, turning his neck to look at the clockwork bird on his shoulder.

  “You’re wrong,” squawked Softie, facing Martin. “You’re wrong.”

  “I told him to say that,” said Mulciber, grinning. “But the bird’s right. You are about to make a very big mistake.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Yes, I do.” Mulciber stroked the bird. “I mean, doesn’t Darcy’s behaviour seem out-of-character to you?”

  Martin nodded. “It does. That’s what’s been getting to me the most. She’s been so dif
ferent lately. But maybe that’s what happens when you fall out of love with someone.”

  The Axis Lord shook his head. “She still loves you, Martin.”

  “Then why is she acting like this?”

  “Because something is making her, Martin.”

  Martin’s heart began to beat faster. “What do you mean?”

  Mulciber took out his pocket watch. “I’ve been getting strange readings on this thing for a while now—that’s what alerted me to what’s going on. And the strange readings are coming from Darcy. There is some sort of energy field around her.”

  “So… something’s taking control of her?”

  “Correct. Very good.”

  “But who? And how? If there’s something wrong, why didn’t Darcy tell me?”

  “I don’t know all the details. But please, don’t break up with the girl. Talk to her, ask her if she knows anything.”

  Martin still wasn’t completely convinced. But if there was a chance of saving his relationship with Darcy he had to take it.

  Martin nodded. “I’ll try.”

  “Excellent!”

  “But why are you so interested in me?” said Martin. “Why help me out like this?”

  Mulciber smiled mysteriously. “All will become clear—eventually.”

  “Well… thanks.”

  “No problem.”

  Suddenly, the Axis Lord vanished. Martin glanced out into the corridor. The snow had all disappeared. The rest of the class came flooding into the room, making wild speculations about the origin of the snow.

  Martin didn’t share that lesson with Darcy, but he resolved to talk to her at lunch. If there was a chance… a chance that he wouldn’t have to break up with her…

  He smiled. Even a tiny chance was better than no chance at all.

  Martin sat in the canteen at lunch. He glanced at his phone again. He had received a slightly encouraging text from Darcy about ten minutes ago.

  I’m really sorry for what you heard earlier. It’s really not what you think. I’ll explain everything to you at break. I should have told you sooner.