He learnt that the ancients of Kuhl-Agev lived amongst the giant forest as peaceful, though separate tribes, for generations but when war came to their system, those tribes needed little convincing to unite and after time joined their smaller territories into one. This much larger and powerful tribe eventually became known as one and their central territory became the city of Tika. Assorted technologies garnered from wartime allegiances with other worlds, subsequently saw the domed sky grown, the sentry satellites built and positioned in the atmosphere as protection.
*
When they had arrived at their destination, Tej directed Kel into the first of the cabins and she gladly entered through a heavy arched wooden door that the chancellor held open for her. Hayden was happy to see a door that opened manually. Tej noticed this and reminded Hayden that it was a very ancient place.
‘Get some good sleep, Kel,’ Hayden urged as she yawned again.
She looked at the large and softly quilted bed waiting for her inside and with nothing more than a nod closed the door.
‘Who was it that started these wars?’ He asked as he too was directed to a similar door which Tej kindly opened for him also. The opened door revealed a very comfortable, warmly lit and much larger room than Kel’s with a considerably larger bed with more luxurious bedding atop it. He felt suddenly sleepy at the sight of it but not so much that he didn’t groan a little in protest at the preferential treatment he was obviously receiving.
‘Your family will be best to explain the war to you.’
Hayden hadn’t thought about the fact that the Kuhlians may have been in recent contact with them and he was instantly awake.
‘You know where they are?!’
‘Highness, rendezvous with the Copernicus has been arranged.’
‘For when?’
‘As I said Highness, tomorrow will be a very trying day.’
‘Tomorrow!’ His palms sweat. ‘Here?’
The chancellor directed Hayden into his room with a wave of his slender hand.
‘You must get very good sleep, Highness.’
And it was very good advice as Hayden’s eyelids again felt so suddenly heavy he could barely keep them open and so tired that he didn’t even care that he was addressed as he was. He’d get used to it but now he just needed sleep. ‘I’m suddenly so very, very tired,’ he yawned.
‘The air,’ Tej explained. ‘The air is highly oxygenated at night which heightens the perfume of the forest which in turn induces restfulness.’ Hayden began to close the heavy door very slowly looking at the large, soft and warm bed waiting for him.
‘Grand chancellor,’ he whispered, his eyelids now heavy as cement. ‘Thank you and goodnight.’
Tej bid Hayden goodnight with a curt bow as the door slowly continued to close.
‘Tej, when do I get my watch back?’
‘Your watch?’ The chancellor paused and he thought. ‘Tomorrow, as all else, Highness.’
Hayden finished closing the door as Tej backed slowly away, bowing gracefully and smiling with eyes closed. He adjusted his robes yet again before disappearing down the hall.
Hayden leant against the door, his eyes were just about shut and he was almost fully asleep as he stood. He secured an old heavy brassy latch and turned toward the shiny, warmly coloured fabric of the thickly quilted sleep haven set in the centre back of the room just for him. Stumbling toward it, he sat on its wooden frame which, just as all else on Kuhl-Agev seemed to be, was made of a thick slice of wood. There was a large and this time perfectly round window of not quite clear glass on the opposite wall to the door that had a membranous material surrounding it that seemed to be allowing the fresh, perfumed forest air into the room as if breathing. He had barely taken off his boots before he’d fallen backward onto the bed linen’s comforting silkiness and the young prince fell quickly and deeply asleep.
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
He floated again but this time there were no planets and there were no stars. There was no pipe music and no unseen force restraining him yet he remained utterly motionless. He should’ve been terrified but he wasn’t, he was just himself. Feeling as calm as he had been in the medi-tank, he focused on the distance but he couldn’t actually tell if it was the distance he was focusing on as the claustrophobic blackness that enveloped him revealed nothing.
It was just emptiness.
After a while he summoned a meek ‘Hello?’ But he wasn’t sure if he’d said it or just thought it. There was no response either way. How could there have been?
*
It was as if hours had passed as he floated in the absolute silence and the absolute darkness and his eyes hadn’t even begun to adjust. Suddenly appearing apparently from the nothingness, a tiny spot of light before him glowed like an ember then faded almost to nothing, then brightened again like the distant flickering of candlelight.
It was if something was trying to reveal itself to him.
As soon as the light was almost bright enough, it would dissolve back into shadow. Just show me what you are? He thought as in frustration he tried telepathically to urge it to do so without success.
*
Ever more hours passed as he floated still in the now almost torturously boring blackness when he heard the faintest of sounds, a knocking and it was getting louder.
Hayden’s eyelids lifted laboriously from his deepest of sleeps to the sound of someone rapping at his door.
‘Who is it?’ He called weakly and almost inaudibly, trying to open his eyes and wake up.
‘Me,’ Kel’s small voice answered from behind the heavy door. Hayden pulled himself up from the comfort of his bed so that his back rested on his soft pillow. He shook his head, trying to meld all the dreams he’d had to make any sense of them but he couldn’t, especially at that moment.
It was good to hear Kel’s voice. He looked at his wrist in vain for the time. He was fully clothed but for his boots so he meandered across the room, unhinged the latch and opened the door.
‘The chancellor has asked to see you,’ she relayed not giving him the chance to speak. ‘He wants to see you right away.’
‘Can I wash at least?’ He answered, rubbing his eyes after he’d noticed what he hoped was an ensuite attached to his room. Kel ‘ummed’ and ‘erred’ a little then told him to be quick as she didn’t want to get into trouble because Tej seemed quite agitated. Hayden thanked her and said he’d be as quick as he could then dashed into the small room.
The ensuite, like his cabin, was burrowed out of the giant tree but was covered entirely in a rock-hard clear glossy resin. There was an elliptical typical Kuhlian-looking opaque window and a funny looking seat that looked like a half clover leaf that could’ve been a toilet. The floor was bare except for a drainage hole in the very middle of the room. For the shower, he expected some sort of strange device that hummed a frequency that shook the dirt from his skin or something equally as bizarre. Closing the door he disrobed, touched his shoulder again in amazement and stood on the wide round shower base. Almost instantly, clean water of perfect temperature and pressure rained down on him from a multitude of tiny holes in the domed ceiling. He washed using a small square green spongy block that was sweet smelling, almost like watermelon and he loved the sensation of being properly cleaned.
When after five minutes or so he was satisfied he was refreshed enough, he stepped off of the base looking for a towel. As soon as he moved of the shower base, the water stopped and he was startled by a warm dry wind that blew quite forcefully from a number of larger holes placed evenly around the room.
In less than half a minute he was completely dry.
He dressed, put his boots on by his bed and rejoined Kel who was waiting outside for him eagerly. ‘Hurry,’ she insisted as she dragged him by the forearm.
‘What’s the rush?’
‘As I said to you, the Chancellor wants to see you.’
Hayden had to think for a second then he realised and his eyes widened. ‘Hurry now, Hayden.’
Feebru appeared ahead and summoned the two toward him.
‘Hello,’ Hayden cheerfully greeted the bowing Kuhlian.
‘What is happening?’ Kel asked, detecting distinctly that Feebru had something on his mind as he looked across the hall toward a door.
‘Yeah. What is happening?’ Hayden echoed. Hoping they were off to reunite him with his family and friends.
‘This is a very serious situation Highness,’ Feebru said sternly. ‘The guarded man inside - as far as we are aware, may have wanted you,’ he paused, looked at the door and back at Hayden with worry. ‘Dead.’
‘Dead?’ Kel repeated, looking at Hayden with the same expression as Feebru.
‘Dead,’ Feebru reiterated, stone faced and Hayden was silent and disappointed they weren’t leaving so he could hopefully, possibly, go home.
‘Highness?’ Kel blurted, suddenly and finally realising what Feebru had said and had been saying.
Hayden didn’t like secrets, he’d been on the receiving end of some massive ones of late and he wasted no time in revealing what little he knew.
‘I started to tell you last night when we were eating but Kel, and this is all I know. It appears that I am the prince of some kingdom that I didn’t know of and all this landed on me only a few days ago and that’s the truth.’
Kel, with complete confusion, stood back and looked Hayden up and down anew.
‘That’s all I can tell you. I’m in the dark for most of it, too.’
‘You -’ she began, blue eyes widening, an almost horrified look on her pretty face. ‘By the - it is impossible. You are who my father spoke of!’
Hayden’s face creased with even more confusion.
‘That’s enough!’ Feebru ordered Kel and Hayden was taken aback by his uncharacteristically forcefulness.
‘No, Kuhlian!’ Kel herself enforced. ‘You Hayden, or whatever your name is, you are - you are myth!’
‘That’s enough!’ Feebru ordered again but even more forcefully. He said something to Kel in Kuhlian only for her to cross her arms tightly and turn her back. She couldn’t believe what she’d heard.
Silently she began to walk quickly away from them.
‘I don’t know what to say?’ Hayden called, seeing his attempt at explaining himself had obviously not helped her. ‘It’s the truth.’
Kel turned and looked at the earthling. ‘The truth! Haven’t you been listening? You don’t even know the truth!’
Hayden mulled over her words as he watched her leave. She was right. He didn’t even know if his name was his name!
Kel stopped and looked back at her now unknown alien friend in a way that, even though brief, made Hayden decidedly uncomfortable. He was already without the company of his dear Maddy and Monty so he couldn’t lose another friend. He really hated how she looked at him at that moment.
Feebru led Hayden through the door after the guards unsecured a large black metal bolt for them. They entered and continued down a dark passage lit only by luminous fungus on the ceiling. Whilst they were doing so and unbeknownst to them, Kel was quietly crying to herself in the long passage behind the hall.
They reached another door which Feebru opened and they entered yet another room in the vast maze that was the innards of the tree. There were no windows, skylights or any other exits but for the one by which they’d entered. Two more guards that sat in either corner had both risen to their feet, their angular features were hardened by a small bright light that shone from the ceiling, casting shadows that fell down the rough hewn walls. Hayden could see Grand Chancellor Tej still dressed in his finery, back turned, standing at a table and talking to someone. When the Chancellor realised that the they’d entered, he spun round to face him and bowed. Feebru, at Tej’s urgent gesture escorted Hayden toward him.
‘Good morning, Highness. Did you sleep well?’
Hayden didn’t answer as he was summoning all of his courage to meet this potential killer of his. Taking a tentative step forward, he couldn’t see the seated captive behind the bulk of the chancellor’s robes until he moved aside and slowly the crooked character was revealed to him.
‘YOU!’ Hayden gasped, his shock unsuppressed, surprising his Kuhlian company .
‘You know this criminal, Highness?’Tej asked with some shock.
‘He is first-mate aboard The Copernicus. The ship I was taken from.’
‘First-mate to Tor Baden?’ Feebru asked very surprised.
The prisoner, hunched forward over the desk, lifted his shackled wrists then raised the index finger on his right hand, his bloodshot eyes bulging.
‘I’m aligned ta someone a lot more powerful ‘an ‘at Tor Baden,’ he snarled. Hayden heard his shrill but gravelly voice, he knew from their first meeting that he didn’t like him, his senses had unfortunately been right.
The grand chancellor, motivated by Hayden’s presence, swiveled back to look down on the prisoner raising his large fist at him.
‘I will ask for the last time. Tell me who is it that you are working for?’
The mate stared uncomfortably at Hayden then spoke directly to him. ‘Wants ya ‘e does.’
‘Who wants the prince?’ Feebru asked concernedly as he automatically moved between Hayden and the prisoner.
The first-mate drew back onto the wood wall behind him.
‘You’ll never know till it’s too late,’ he laughed coarsely, clearing the phlegm from his throat by disgustingly spitting it onto the floor. ‘Fore it’s too late fer all youse scum.’
‘I will make you tell us just who it is that has you dangling at the end of a leash like some mite-bitten Cro-Ag,’ Tej threatened.
‘I’m at the end of nobody’s leash.’
‘No? I think that you are,’ the chancellor snapped back tenaciously. ‘Do you not know what we could do to you if not satisfied with your answers?’
Hayden moved around to the far edge of the table.
‘Ain’t nuffin’ you could do to me.’
‘Nothing?’ Tej repeated.
‘You are right,’ Feebru admitted and the prisoner relaxed noticeably. ‘Kuhlians do not torture and you know this well.’
Hayden moved further into the captive’s view and could sense fear behind his ugly facade. He seemed nervous now that this young observer had stepped out of the shadow of the Grand chancellor. Tugging on the side of Tej’s embossed robe lightly Hayden beckoned his ear down. ‘Let me try,’ he whispered confidently. Anger was building in him toward this repulsive little man that had threatened his life.
‘I cannot allow it,’ Tej whispered back dourly. ‘You are here to observe and only observe.’
‘Well, I don’t want to just observe as this involves me and my family.’
The politician simply couldn’t bypass Hayden’s steadfast gaze so unwillingly, he relented. ‘As you wish, Highness,’ he whispered, ‘but do take care as this is a very dangerous man.’
Hayden swallowed his nerves and moved toward the prisoner.
‘Cro-Ag,’ he started. ‘You’re familiar with them?’
The first-mate’s eyes widened, peppered with shock when he heard the young prince talk directly to him. It was most unexpected and Hayden could plainly see this so his confidence rose.
The first-mate’s eyebrows knitted firmly together when he realised what he’d been asked.
‘You are? Then perhaps you’d like to meet some?’
‘Kuhlians don’t do torture,’ the captive repeated.
‘Well you’re not thinking straight. As far as I know - I’m no Kuhlian.’
Tej crossed his robed arms tightly to his chest impressed and the prisoner gulped nervously.
‘I don’t care about you,’ Hayden continued. ‘All I want is to be done with all of this and get back home. Anything that gets me to that point quicker is all the better for me.’
Feebru and Tej looked confused and the first-mate dropped his gaze to the floor and didn’t look up until Hayden spoke again.
‘Y
eah, actually that sounds like a great idea. I’ll put you at the end of a leash. You’d be used to that, and I’ll dangle you above the Cro-Ag until you either tell us what we need to know or I accidentally loosen my grip. It’s no sweat off my nose. I’ll do it and I won’t even break a sweat.’
‘We can leave now if you’d like, Highness. We can get to the pits in half a day.’ Tej added stone faced on seeing that Hayden may just have broken through the captive’s seemingly impermeable thick skin. The room became deathly quiet as Hayden’s heart pumped furiously with anticipation and adrenalin as he stared down the first mate until he dropped his gaze to the floor again where it remained.
‘Was me job ta shut off the alarm sensors,’ the captive relented, much to the complete surprise and relief of all present. ‘I was t’ make sure ‘at Sepian filf retrieved ‘im an’ made a clean get out.’
‘How did you prevent the other crew from catching onto your plan?’ Hayden questioned further, moving closer still while stroking his chin as if he interrogated prisoners all the time.
‘I shut off the alarms before’n we left Salar-One an’ none wuz the wiser. The Sepian positioned itself while ya wuz out on yer little shoppin’ trip wiv ya mum ‘n uncle.’
As Hayden listened to the traitor, images of his mother and uncle inundated his thoughts again so that he at once longed for them and even more angry toward the nasty little man that sat chained before him as well as the Sepians and all who were apparently against him. ‘You will find out very soon, you traitor ,just what sort of royal commands I can give!’
On hearing Hayden, the grand chancellor raised one of his brows and glanced at Feebru. Their captive shook his head and sounded a long moan, moving uneasily in his chair as he’d clearly not expected Hayden to be present or speak with the authority he actually had, let alone move to punish him immediately. He’d misjudged the young prince and by the anguished look on his weathered face, it was obvious to all present that he was wrestling with thought. The chancellor had reassumed his position directly across from the captive.
The Blake Equation- Discovery Page 20
