“You don’t say!”
“No, I mean they’re really up to something, Phil. They’ve been plotting against us this whole time. Lottie and I heard them, we heard the king talking about revenge. What if it’s to do with James? This place? I don’t even know what it is.”
“I do,” Phil grunted, “it’s the Urashan Stadium, the place they all go to watch the planet’s events. Revenge? What did you and Lottie hear exactly?”
“Not much,” answered Lisa, “we got caught snooping before we could really get any of the juice. Either way, this looks bad, very bad.”
***
Crystaline stood in the stadium’s royal balcony, watching as the vast crowds of people filled up the many thousands of seats. Crystaline looked up towards the Urashan sun, feeling the cool breeze brushing through her black hood. This new hood was a comforting addition to her tight, black suit. Why? The Urashan princess did not quite understand why. Perhaps it kept her warm, or perhaps it helped to hide her anguished face from everyone else.
Crystaline sighed a heavy sigh. Her people had no idea what was coming, what she and her father had planned. The Urashan princess winced - what she had planned...plotted, concocted. What did that make her? Evil, that was what.
As the sun’s golden rays sent shimmering sparkles of light onto Crystaline’s little silver nose stud, the Urashan princess felt a soft gentle hand resting on her shoulder.
“Crystaline?” Crystanaphy’s voice sounded, “what went on out there?”
The Urashan princess turned to face her auntie, her face etched with all the pain, all the guilt...yet her mouth, it was unable to speak a single word.
“Crystaline? Something’s changed. You should speak with him, tell him that this is all...” Crystanaphy could not let her words carry on, for the very man she was speaking of walked onto the balcony.
“Ah!” The king beamed, “My two favourite ladies! I’ve been notified that everything is all set up, so, we can execute our plan. Everything is good to go.”
“Cryston, are you sure?”
“Sure? Crystanaphy? We’ve waited so long for this day. Of course I’m sure. Get you and Crystaline down to the stadium stage. It’s time this show begun.”
***
Lottie gripped on tightly to the bars of the very cage which held her. The thing was moving now, being wheeled along the floor by four, mean Urashan guards.
Lottie closed her eyes, shuddering at the very sound of the people, of the crowds, getting louder and louder, until Lottie knew, she knew that she was out there, in the open air, surrounded by the crowds. The timid young woman forced her eyelids open, unveiling to her eyes the intimidating sight of the crowd of thousands all seated around her. This place...it was huge! Like a football stadium, only bigger! Other than the vast crowds of Urashans, what struck Lottie the most about this place was not its sheer, massive size, but instead, its technology. This Urashan stadium was advanced, way more technologically advanced than the rest of the planet. There were huge screens and speakers, ones which put the Earth’s stadium screens to shame. How? Lottie couldn’t help but think. The rest of the planet, it had just seemed so...so behind?
Lottie gave another little shudder, her thoughts returning to the current situation at hand. As the cage thunked down underneath her, Lottie took note of the circular, sandy purple ground beneath the cage’s wheels. She noticed what appeared to be several poles, tall black poles which rose up from the round stage.
As Lottie’s glasses covered eyes focused on the open space in front of her, she noticed what she could only assume was a display of some kind. Whatever it was looked like a table, covered in violet velvet. Right in the very centre of the display, Lottie could just about make out something blue.
Distracting her curious, frightened little eyes from the display, Lottie heard the thousands of gasps from the people sat all around her. When the female space warrior turned her head around to see what had caused these noises of astonishment, the young woman was shocked to witness Crystos, being manhandled by not one, not two, but three Urashan guards. After much struggling, the guards eventually managed to tie an angry looking prince to one of the black poles beside the human cage. With his hands now tied behind his back, Crystos could only watch on, just like Lottie and the rest of her friends.
“Crystos!” Phil’s desperate voice called out, endeavouring to reach the Urashan prince through the overbearing sounds of people, “Crystos! What’s going on? Where’s James? What have you done with him?”
Crystos’ head slowly turned to Phil, his eyes saddened by the turmoil inside him. He remained silent. For he did not even need to answer the human captain’s question.
The crowds raised their voices once again, as James was brought out to centre stage.
Chapter 28
James’ heart just would not stop thumping. His ears would not stop ringing. The young space warrior was scared, absolutely terrified of what was about to happen. Not only that, he was confused. His mind wasn’t even able to begin to comprehend or fathom what was going on here. James had obtained the stone. He had brought the desired jewel back to the city with Crystaline and Crystos. Then what? Darkness, blackness, a horrible pain in the back of his head, until he woke up to imprisonment. Now...now this? Being restrained by some brutish guards, being dragged out into the light, into a place, a place roaring with people.
If either of James’ hands were free right now, he’d have raised it to protect his eyes from the overbearing sunlight, and the vast crowds of people, all stood, raving like animals in the stands all around him.
James stared directly ahead of him, his eyes desperately searching the circular stadium pitch for anyone he knew. Then he saw it, he saw the cage, the nasty, metal clunky thing which contained each of his human friends. Then there was Crystos! Tied to a tall black pole next to the thing! What was he doing out here? What was going on? Where was his sister?
As the strong Urashan guards walked him up even closer to the human cage, James could feel his heart beginning to beat even faster. Lottie was in there! He could see her! Lottie! His dear sweet Lottie! His bestest best friend! The poor little thing was frantic, leaning on the cage bars, desperately shouting out his name.
Now, only a few short metres away from the human cage, James felt his fighting instincts beginning to kick in. Feeling suddenly overwhelmed with complete and utter desperation to see his best friend, James began to strain with all his might to escape from the heavy grasps of the guards.
“James!” Lottie and Phil were both yelling together, desperately trying to coax there loved one even closer towards them! “James!”
“Lottie!” James croaked, still fruitlessly fighting to free himself from the guards who were dragging him away. “Lottie!” James screamed this time, watching as she got further and further away from him.
With rough hands, two of the guards pushed James’ back onto one of the tall black poles, and whilst one held his struggling body to the pole, the other lifted James’ hands behind his head, securing them to the pole behind him.
“Have fun, boy!” One of the guards cackled, before walking away with the other guards to leave James alone.
As James watched the many screens, the many speakers, and that purple display in front of him, the young space warrior felt his body vibrating. He couldn’t work out if this was because of the crowd of thousands all around him, or if it was because of his nerves, his heart, preparing for a fatal shutdown.
The huge masses of people all around gasped themselves into a hush of silence as a familiar figure began to walk across the purple sandy floor. Draped in his long black robe, King Cryston walked up to the regal display, grinning out his usual, wicked, horrible little smile.
As the crowds all around him reached a complete silence, the king’s words begun, emanating through the whole entire stadium as if he had an invisible microphone attached to his lips.
“Welcome! My people...humans. It truly means a lot, that you would all come here today, to witness the g
reat spectacle which I have prepared for you. As you are all aware, my son and my daughter have been absent for quite some time, both of them carrying out a very important mission. You may all recall the great myth of the healing stone. You may all recall, that it was our dear ancestors who found it, yet they failed to obtain it. They failed to bring it back home, here to the Urashan city. That created a question in the minds of many. Did such a stone exist? Well, my people, today I have gathered you all here to answer that very question. To help me with my answer, I bring to the stage my beautiful daughter, Crystaline!”
As soon as he heard Crystaline’s name being called out, James’ heart lurched right up through to his throat. As he watched the distant black figure of the Urashan princess drawing nearer and nearer to the display, the young space warrior’s heart plummeted right the way down to the very bottom of his stomach. So she was in on this? Whatever sick, twisted little event that the king was planning, Crystaline had been planning it too. Oh crap!
As the crowds roared louder than ever to welcome the Urashan princess to the stage, James could feel his whole entire body trembling, convulsing in pain. How had he let this happen? The deceived young space warrior could barely even bring himself to look at the large screen, and the images of a hooded Crystaline, which it displayed.
With his pale bony fingers, the king began to caress the small blue box, which rested on top of the purple display.
“Now, my people, you all know how much I cherish each and every Urashan to have ever been born. You all know what great and utter respect I hold for our dear ancestors. They located the stone after all. They hid it away somewhere safe, until the right individual would need it. The map which they produced, it found its way to my hands. I’m not a believer of mere coincidences, I’m a believer of fate. You see, that map did not come to me for no reason, for I am sure you all remember...” The king let out a strained croak, “I am sure you all remember your late Queen. I am sure you all remember what she did for the Urashan population. The healing fluid was produced thanks to all her dedication and hard work. Therefore it was no mistake that the healing stone would find its way to me, to this very generation of Urashan people!”
As the crowds all around let out their own surprised gasps, the king held the blue box, gesturing for his daughter to remove her hood.
“Now, Crystaline, your princess, oh she is good! Oh she is superb, so exquisitely skilled! For my dear precious daughter, she has achieved what our ancestors could not, she has brought the stone home, to this very stage, to this very city!”
The crowds gave another roar, this time, letting out their excitement and their appreciation towards the great Urashan princess.
“Crystaline, my dear daughter, would you do me the honour of opening up this little blue box? Would you do me the honour of unveiling this precious stone to our people?”
With a pained strain on her face, Crystaline took the small box from her father, carefully opening it up to reveal the gleaming blue gem inside it.
This time, the crowds went wild, lit up with awe and hope that such a miracle could even exist.
The smug king used his hands to help him hush the overly excited crowd, for he had more to say to his people.
“Now, this stone, I am sure you have all heard of its powers, of what it can do, and today, I would like to put what we have all heard to the test. I would like to see if this stone really can grant one person complete immortality. So who? Might you all ask? Who should be granted such unthinkable powers? Well, in my opinion, there is no better subject than a leader, than a king.”
As soon as the king’s words had left his lips, the crowds let out another gasp, before continuing on to mumble their differing opinions to one another. An immortal king? Was that really such a good idea?
Unaware of the crowd’s distaste, or perhaps, choosing to not care about the opposing opinions of his people, the king continued on,
“So how? Might you all ask. How does one activate such a stone? Perhaps you have all heard that this stone is not quite as generous as we would all like to think. Because unfortunately, this stone will not just readily grant a person immortality without receiving anything in return from its beholder. No, I’m afraid to say that this stone requires something in order for it to activate. It requires blood, death and sacrifice. You see, the stone resets itself after so many years. When our dear ancestors first laid their hands on it, they would have held the power to have had it activated. Because they chose not to activate it within a certain number of years, however, the stone reset itself, setting itself to wait for whoever would next lay their hands upon it first. Unfortunately this young human tied up here was the first to touch the stone, therefore he must be sacrificed!”
As he took in the king’s words, James felt all the blood draining away from his face. His ears could hear the crowds getting more and more riled. He could hear his friends shrieking in horror, yet he could not fathom it all. He could not understand or comprehend it all, because his death, it was today.
With a change of tone, the king continued on, unmasking something deep within him for the very first time. Cryston was showing his hatred.
“You see, I have a confession to make. You humans, landing here on this planet was no accident. Oh no! It was all planned! By me! I haven’t forgotten what happened! I haven’t forgotten how you and your selfish race of people dragged us into a war which we wanted to be no part of. I haven’t forgotten that your horrific race of people killed my queen, my Crystie!”
James felt his heart jolting suddenly. His mind was back. He could hear, he could comprehend exactly what the king was saying. That conversation in the cave with Crystaline. That heart to heart, it was a human ship? The one which had crash landed? But surely? Surely Cryston couldn’t blame the human race for what happened? The two species’ were allies, friends!
Interrupting James’ thoughts, Phil’s loud voice blared out to the king,
“That was a long time ago, Cryston! You can’t blame us for that!”
“Oh, can’t I?” The king spat, “can’t I? If it wasn’t for you and your mediocre race of people, Urasha would still have their queen. My two children would still have their mother, and I....I would still have my wife. You see, Phil, I really wanted it to be you to touch the stone first. I wanted it to be you tied up to that pole, waiting for your death. But now, now I couldn’t possibly wish for a better outcome. I see that you love the boy, that perhaps you view him as a son? So somehow, everything just falls into place. There is no better revenge, than to force you to watch a loved one die.”
As James tried to figure out what the king’s words all meant, Crystos’ hoarse voice growled out from the pole behind him, shocking and silencing everyone.
“His won’t be the only heart you break!”
Trying to appear calm, the king turned to face his son,
“Now, now, Crystos. I do know that you love your foolish humans, but to say that killing the boy will destroy your heart, that’s taking things a little too far, don’t you think?!”
Crystos gritted his teeth, his eyes aggressively penetrating his father’s.
“I don’t mean me. I’m speaking about Crystaline. I’ve seen her, I’ve watched her. She loves him. Crystaline is in love with James, and if you kill him, you kill her, too.”
The king took a sharp breath of air into his lungs. Crystos’ words had caught him off guard. With a sudden, abrupt movement, Cryston stormed towards his daughter, aggressively grabbing her, as he dragged her in front of James. With one hand grappling Crystaline’s stomach, and the other clutching onto her delicate little face, the king growled out his next words,
“Look at him! Look at him!”
James watched as Crystaline’s eyes tentatively strained their way towards his. Inside those eyes of hers was pain, plain and simple, it was right there, all the pain that a person could ever possibly feel, it was there, inside the eyes of the beautiful Urashan princess.
“What nonsense!” The
king snarled, snapping Crystaline free from his grasp. “As if my daughter would ever love you. A mere, feeble, weak little human. Part of a wretched race of people? You think that Crystaline would love you?” The king’s eyes shifted to his son, “I’m sorry, you must excuse Crystos. He genuinely had nothing to do with this. He had no idea what I was planning, what Crystaline and I had been planning for a very long time.” The king snapped his head back towards the James, “You see, I hate to break it to you, but you have been played, human. Crystaline knew exactly what she was doing, she hates you humans just as much as I do. She wants to avenge her mother just as I do! She would never ever defy me. She would never ever love, or even like a human. She wants you dead, boy!”
Although he’d already suspected as much, James could still feel his heart crushing in on itself. He could still feel the agony of his heart collapsing, breaking away into tiny little pieces. Perhaps a naive little part of him had hoped that the Urashan princess hadn’t been in on this whole ordeal. He’d hoped that maybe...maybe she’d just suddenly been dragged into it, suddenly torn between her love for him and her father. Because Crystaline...she did love him, too, didn’t she? There was something there? Wasn’t there? Was there? James felt like crying as the reality of the situation hit him. It wasn’t there. It couldn’t have been. It couldn’t have ever been there, Crystaline did not feel the same, that was a fact.
Oblivious to James’ inner agony, the king continued with his verbal onslaught.
“You see, young James, there is something which you do not quite understand about my daughter. There is something you do not know about her. For how do I put it, she has a way with men, a way of manipulating men into doing whatever she wants them to do.”
Feeling the infuriating anger suddenly replacing his pain, James growled out his first words of the day.
“You’re sick!”
“I’m what?” The king said, smugly pointing to his ears. “Can you repeat that for me?”
Diversion To Urasha (Space Era Book 1) Page 29
