Chapter 38 - Power Revealed
The Royal party was still half a day’s journey from the Farmland City. They had camped the previous night on a hill with a clear view down towards their destination. They should have decamped hours before, but the reason that they had not, was clearly visible.
On rising that morning, the travelling group had felt the unstable air. It felt like a building storm, but the season for the storms had passed and the weather pattern as seen from one of the orbiting weather satellites, precluded the formation of an isolated storm that stayed in one place.
Tymos and Kryslie stood staring at the city and the thick black clouds hovering above it. They felt the tension in the air, as if some force was holding the storm. Jonko and Keleb had watched with them for a time and then went off to study the local creatures and plants.
After sending a further report to the palace, Tymoros came to stand beside his children. He wondered what they were sensing and what they were thinking.
Nothing about that storm was natural. Not only was it out of season, and stationary, the air was unstable and dry, and the thick black clouds would not bring rain. He had felt it begin to build in the early hours of the morning, and knew then it was not natural, but the expression of an alien will.
Considering the intensity of his children’s attention, he knew they were cognizant with the facts, without needing technological reports to confirm them. They seemed to be waiting for something.
Tymoros felt the hairs on his neck prickle him, and down below, brilliant lightning zigzagged from cloud to cloud and then to the ground. Another flash, and then another. The lightning increased in frequency, striking the ground in a ring around the city and starting fires that grew rapidly into an orange blaze circling the city. It fed on unnaturally dry vegetation, grasses and low bushes, trees and fallen branches. Thunder rumbled continuously, like a barrage of gunfire.
Neither Tymos nor Kryslie moved, nor changed their set expression. Tymoros found his face taking a grimmer expression. There was nothing he could do, except send some of the guards down to help fight the fire.
“No, Father, they need to stay here,” Tymos said aloud, not realising he had read his father’s thoughts. “The townsfolk are coming out to fight the fires. We should not go there for there are alien influences at work.”
“I am aware of them,” Tymoros agreed. “It is why I did not progress towards the storm.”
Kryslie noted, “Has it occurred to you father, that if we had not been delayed by that matter in Losk, we would now be within the Farmlands City and circled by fire? Or if we had kept to our revised schedule, the same would be true?”
“It had,” Tymoros confirmed. “Neither our original itinerary, nor the revised times were a highly classified secret.”
“There is someone coming,” Tymos announced abruptly. He was pointing to a tiny speck in the distance, moving along the road, and his eyes were adjusted to see that far.
Tymoros looked in the indicated direction and adjusted his own eyes. The rider was punishing his beast to get maximum speed.
Tymos commented. “His message must be urgent. Perhaps the Chancellor does not know exactly where we are, or even if he did he would not risk anyone transmitting near this storm.”
“Aldiv,” Tymoros summoned his chief attendant. The man came to his master’s side and bowed slightly.
“There is a rider coming this way, along the road from the city – can you see him?”
By normal sight, the rider’s position was only visible by the dry dust kicked up by the animal. It hung in the still air.
“I see him, Sire,” Aldiv confirmed. “The worst of the storm is behind him. I can bring him here.”
Without delay, Aldiv transmitted, arriving at a point a short distance in front of the rider. Moments later, man and beast arrived next to Tymoros. A man in Peace Corps uniform dismounted from the bulging- eyed and terrified horse. Keleb wordlessly took the reins from the rider, and walked the unnerved creature away from the people, talking softly to it and allowing it to calm down.
“Your Majesty, I bear greetings from…” the rider began to say. He had to shout to be heard over the thunder.
“The message please,” Tymoros directed, allowing the messenger to skip the traditional politenesses.
“Sire, there is danger in the city,” the messenger blurted. “The Chancellor warns against entering.”
“I am aware of the fires. Was there more?” Tymoros urged.
“Yes, Sire. We have been seeing many dark-eyed ones amongst the people arriving for the census. At first we did not realise what they were, it was when we were checking the information that we began to see the information was false. More came in this morning from the east, but when the Elders and census takers challenged them, this group fled to the west. After that, the fires began.”
“And you do not believe that all the aliens left,” Tymoros requested clarification.
“No, Sire. We do not.”
Tymos and Kryslie were aware of the messengers report, but they were watching the fire, and saw it acting like it was remotely controlled.
“Foul beasts,” Tymos murmured. Kryslie heard his thoughts more than his words. “It seems that they want to burn the whole city to get at us. And even the walls are burning as if they poured some fuel on them.”
“Not only that,” Kryslie observed. “Whoever is controlling that storm is drawing moisture from the air, and from the ground and the plants. They are holding the moisture in the clouds, but if they release it the flash flood will be as terrifying as the fires.”
Behind them, the messenger was offering, “Sire, I know all the roads around the city, and all the trials between the city and the hills.”
“We will stay here,” Tymoros decided. “I do not think it any wiser to go around the city. To the east are the mountains and the aliens came from that direction. To the west, is where some fled. Nor is it wise to transmit past the city, when such a storm is looming. And of course, entering now is not an option.”
At a gesture from Tymoros, Aldiv approached again.
“When you have seen to this man’s comfort, send a message to Governor Reslic. I want a long-range beam tuned to this location. When the storm abates, I will send a signal to the palace to activate it.”
“If the storm abates,” Kryslie murmured to her twin. “I cannot locate the controlling machine, can you?”
She felt as much as heard his negative. “What are they waiting for?”
“Perhaps for confirmation of our arrival,” Tymos considered aloud. “They must realise that we were delayed, and they may not know our amended arrival time, only that it will be today.”
“We might be sitting birds here, if they learn our position and can move the focus of that storm,” Kryslie said, her words clear in a lull in the thunder.
One of the circle of guards suddenly trotted to the nearest carriage. After a few moments rummaging, he sent a whistle signal. It was in the cadence for the recall for the scouts. Five minutes later, a purple glow covered the area of the camp like a dome.
Kryslie briefly glanced skyward, and then turned her attention back to the city. Jonko and Keleb drew closer to the watchers, and joined the vigil. Where they stood was still in bright sunshine.
Finally, Jonko said in a tight voice, “I can feel the life being sucked from the plants, even here.”
“And the animals,” Keleb added, his voice also strained. “The horse is still terrified, and I can feel the panic of smaller creatures who cannot understand what is happening. They are fleeing into the fires, for that is less terrifying than what ever is sucking the life from them.”
“Can’t we do something?” Keleb asked desperately, he was sensing many deaths.
“And the energies are so tangled that nothing will survive this,” Jonko predicted.
Kryslie adjusted her eyes again, as Tymos turned to their father.
“Father, are we powerless to help?” Tymos asked. “Creatu
res and people are dying.”
The lightning began to increase in frequency again, and the rumbling resumed.
Tymoros spoke carefully “Are you?”
His voice was neutral, but he had the sense of something momentous about to happen.
That simple question may have been a trigger. The air under the shield became charged, and then a brilliant arc of lightning ranged overhead, brighter than the suns light, brighter than the flashes from the storm below.
Two pairs of eyes retained an image of a vision; all others only saw the after glare.
“You have the power.” Tymos and Kryslie heard the voice within the deafening crack of thunder.
They understood. The Guardians of Peace had spoken.
In an instinctive gesture of obedience, Tymos and Kryslie raised their arms high and wide and then slowly lowered them. Knowledge flowed into their mind, and for a time they forgot the people around them. Mental voices and images flicked between two minds, as they acted as one.
“Trace the lines of energy,” Tymos directed. He watched as Kryslie continued to identify individual lines and begin to get a general sense of direction.
“Yes, to the west, energy is being drawn in…there! And it is flowing out again in tangled tendrils.”
“Hold the cloud, Krys, while I sever the lines going in.”
To the watchers, nothing seemed to be changing. They could only see Tymos and Kryslie, with hands now stretched out in front of them as if they were manipulating some complex set of objects.
Jonko began to glance between his friends and the town, and finally studied the energies he had learnt to see. “Yes,” he murmured.
“What,” Keleb had to move his mouth nearer Jonko to ask.
“They’re brilliant,” Jonko shouted back. “I don’t know how, but they are removing lines of energy going into the storm. Lines coming from further west, for sure, and I think from sources in the city. I don’t think the bastards realise it yet, because they are also holding the clouds.”
A chill breeze began to blow from the direction of the city, and the black clouds began to spread out. The watchers on the hill saw the clouds come and obscure the sun, and the camp area was now in deep shadow.
Suddenly, Keleb laughed. “Whoever is down there has just realised that he has lost control – he is just about evacuating himself, because he can’t leave.”
A powerful bolt of lightning struck the ground to the west of the city. Something ignited and flared up into the sky like a volcano erupting. The breeze strengthened to gale force, making it hard to stand.
On the hill, servants sought shelter, though the guards could not.
Tymoros stood with his children who seemed unaware of the way their capes flapped out behind them. Jonko and Keleb, feeling the wind trying to push them away, refused to let it.
“Now!” Tymos spoke aloud.
Kryslie eased control of the power in the cloud, and the cloud mass spread out further and further, changing from deep black, to dark grey. The lightning flickered still and the thunder rumbled, making the ground shake. Huge, heavy drops of rain began to fall, and quickly became a torrent. The glare of the fires around the city abated as the rain quenched them. Gradually, Kryslie released control of the clouds, and as they spread further, the rain grew gentler as the moisture and energy returned to the ground.
Tymos and Kryslie dropped their hands, and felt the tension inside them relax. Nature was reasserting itself. The rain pouring down on them was like a benediction from the Guardians. They once again raised their arms in thanks.
Neither Tymos nor Kryslie needed to think at the other. All they could think was, “wow,” as they each came to terms with the power they had just wielded. How they had worked seamlessly together to triumph over the alien’s evil machine and its effect.
They turned finally, finding the servants and guards staring at them in awe, and instinctively bowing in respect at what they had witnessed.
Tymoros too, was impressed and awed. However, he sensed that his children were overwhelmed by the silent accolade. He spoke to distract them. “Am I correct in thinking that the device being used to warp the weather was destroyed?”
Tymos merely nodded. Kryslie explained, neutrally, “The charge grounded there.”
“And the operators?” Tymoros asked.
“Had a few minutes warning,” Tymos said flatly. “I don’t think they chose to flee - either from fear of their superior or an inability to comprehend that their machine failed them.”
“Are you able to explain what you did?” the single Elder that had remained with the group, asked.
Kryslie shook her head, flinging water from her drenched hair. “Not exactly,” she said. “We attracted to ourselves, the lines of energy the alien machine was manipulating. We were able to take control of that storm, so when it broke, it did not cause a flash flood.”
Tymoros gestured for no more questions. “I think we need to erect some shelter and try to get dry.”
The audience began to disperse and Tymoros asked his children, “How are you feeling?”
“ Getting energy back,” Tymos said, lifting his head so the rain washed his face.
“Good. We will be leaving from here to return to the estate,” Tymoros told them.
With a glance at Kryslie, Tymos sighed and turned to where the single standing tent stood. Both still felt the euphoria of success and the thrill of the power they had used. It felt like they floated.
The Tymorean Trust Book 1 - Power Rising Page 40
