‘Now! Are you going to relay to us your entire plan?’
They held their breath in anticipation.
The first-mate rattled his chains.
‘You’re not getting out of those,’ Hayden stated rigidly.
The prisoner then seemed to just miraculously give up.
‘Sepian leader Kurul. ‘E wuz t’ pay me a fortune fer ‘im. Take it outta me, he said, if I didn’t come fru.’
‘You were to take the prince to Devonia?’ Feebru asked.
‘Not me, no. ‘Em Sepians was ta deliver ‘im but ‘e scarpered wiv ‘at young witch.’
Hayden was enraged again when he heard Kel being disrespected and began to lunge at the captive but was restrained by Feebru’s strong arms. Seeing Hayden restrained briefly, the mate continued with a crooked smile at Hayden’s noble attempt.
‘When that ship blew up - well - I ‘ads ta start me back-up plan.’
‘Which was to deliver him yourself?’ Tej guessed.
‘I followed ‘em in anuva shuttle. Was ta get ‘im meself n’ take ‘im ta Devonia. ’
‘And who was it that was to meet you?’ Tej, trying to protect Hayden from what the first-mate was about to say, rechecked.
‘I told ya already. Kurul, that mongrel king ov ‘em blasted squid men.’
‘Was he to ransom his highness to who?’
‘I don’t bloody know, matey!’
‘You don’t know? You were to take payment to deceive and become a traitor to your own people and you do not even know why?’
‘I’m just ‘ired ‘elp tryin’ to get by in‘is stinkin’ galaxy.’
Hayden, though he was proud of himself for helping his new Kuhlian friends break through the captive’s shell, felt almost sorry for the wretch chained before him. He knew that he shouldn’t be unshackled and wouldn’t dream of asking Tej to do such a thing but he did feel a very small smidgeon of sorrow for him. To be blinded by greed was not at all a way to live life.
‘Do whats ya like t’ me,’ the prisoner groaned. ‘Ang me over a pit a Cro-Ag. I don’t care ‘at much. I’m dead anyways once it’s found out what’s ‘appened.’
The chancellor called Hayden and Feebru across to the other side of the room and out of the prisoner’s earshot.
‘You’re not actually going to do what I suggested to him are you, chancellor?’ Hayden whispered as quietly as possible.
‘Of course not,’ Tej answered as quietly. He glanced over at their captive checking that he couldn’t hear them. ‘But we must show discipline. He will still be punished. We will put him back in our transport’s brig as that’s where he’s been since capture. Tor Baden will be the one who will pass sentence. It was on his ship after all that these traitorous acts unfolded.’
‘As someone of, well - importance, do I get a say in his sentence?’
‘A ship that is underway has its own laws,’ Feebru explained. ‘You will learn these things Highness.’
‘But Baden told me when I was on his ship that it was in fact my ship. Therefore, wouldn’t it be then my jurisdiction?’
‘That is correct, Highness,’ Tej acknowledged.
The Kuhlians began to leave the room and Hayden followed closely behind. He was hoping that the prisoner would suddenly reveal all before they reached the door to put an end to the cloak and dagger game. He kept a watchful eye on the mutineer slumped against the wall as he walked away and in turn, the mutineer also watched his captor slyly from beneath his bushy eyebrows.
They returned to the great wood cavern, all the way having talked about the first mate and of Kuhlian politics.
‘I have another question,’ Hayden asked. ‘Who is this Kurul - the Sepian boss he mentioned?’
‘A pretender, Hayden,’ Tej snapped with real hatred in his voice. ‘A farce. He has but a small and unimportant distinction on his home world. A warlord out to make a name for himself in any way possible.’
‘Why’s he after me?’
‘Ransom, I would expect.’
Hayden was intrigued. It was just then that he noticed that Kel was gone. He looked at Tej and Feebru to see if they’d noticed but they were too busy talking about the success they’d had in the interrogation. The chancellor thanked Hayden for his most welcome and surprisingly successful help. Feebru concurred.
‘We will be leaving shortly. Two guards will escort you and your friend to the transport,’ Tej instructed as he and Feebru began to make their way toward a large door opening on their approach.
‘Stay in your cabin and wait for them,’ Feebru added and Hayden nodded with faux obedience as he had no intention of going anywhere until he knew where Kel was. The door closed quickly behind the Kuhlians and Hayden was alone.
‘Kel?’ he called quietly. ‘Kel?’ He called louder but there was no answer. He thought of checking his cabin for her so he made his way back to it, opened the door and searched the space entirely with no luck. He moved down the hall and saw Kel’s door was open, he let himself in but she wasn’t there either. He called out for her still more loudly but with no result and he began to worry. The prisoner! With her attitude she would try and talk with him to find out what was going on. How would she get past the guards? He spun around and made for the holding cell hoping that his assumption of her whereabouts was going to be wrong. On the way he stopped briefly at his own cabin to search again but still there was no trace of her. An eerie silence pervaded the atmosphere as Hayden walked back into the large cavern.
It was mid-morning and rays of light entered the vast hall from the great windows and he noticed that it was completely empty but for the two sentries posted far to the other side by the interrogation room doors. Walking gingerly across the floor toward them, his head down-turned but with eyes forward, he mentally rehearsed ridiculously involved stories as to why he needed to get inside. The guards, both standing as still as statues, looked much taller and meaner than any other Kuhlians he’d seen. Hayden tried not to stare at them so lifted the collar of his top up higher. He was barely meters away when abruptly two large, thick black and silver swords clashed together across the doorway, blocking his path and making him jump.
‘Kun jud!’ Both guards demanded. ‘Kun jud!’
A drip of sweat trickled down his cheek. He regretted that he hadn’t picked up much at all of the local dialect as it would’ve clearly been to his benefit.
Reluctantly he raised his head up to the sentries who thankfully, upon recognising him, immediately withdrew their sharp barricade with looks of embarrassment on their previously hardened faces.
Hayden waited as they again unsecured the large bolt for him. Thanking them as he entered, he shook his head at their still bowed positions as he walked down the dim passage to the interrogation room.
The first-mate sat in the same position and looked just as dejected as when they’d left him not long before. He didn’t say anything as Hayden approached, in fact barely acknowledging his presence but for another bloodshot glance. Hayden wasted no time in asking what it was he wanted to hear. ‘Did you see my friend?’
‘Ya girlfriend?’ The mate burbled.
‘The girl I came here with?’
The prisoner sat upright then looked up as he wiped his nose.
‘Where is she? Has she been in here?’
‘No, Prince ‘Ayden of Greyforn. Ya little mate ‘as not bin in‘ere. Last I saw of ‘er was ‘at eatery youse was at.’
Prince Hayden of Greythorn. It sounded so formal even coming from his gutter mouth. Hayden asked him again if he’d seen Kel but the answer was the same. Then the traitor did something mysterious and a more than a little creepy. He put his hand on Hayden’s and looked him in the eye, fixing his bloodshot gaze. ‘You know ‘ey got plans fer ya?’
‘Who has?’ Hayden asked as he pulled his hand away rapidly ‘
‘Well, it’s obvious ya don’t like me, Prince, but I’m tellin’ ya somfin’ that I don’t wants ya ta forget. Ya got the grand chancy and that Feeble and-’
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‘Feebru,’ Hayden angrily corrected.
‘Even ya family be wantin’ a piece of you.’ He enunciated mockingly then wiped some clear snot from the greying stubble beneath his fat pig-like nostrils with his sleeve then snorted back the rest and swallowed. The outside of Hayden’s mouth curled downward in disgust.
‘What plans are you talking about?’ Hayden asked angrily.
‘Let us outta ‘ere an’ I’ll tell ya.’
Hayden leant across the desk, disappointed the prisoner could even think that he’d be stupid enough to agree to such a request.
‘That is not going to happen.’
The first-mate shrugged it off and Hayden detected he now really didn’t seem to care.
‘What do you mean, ‘they want a piece of me?’
The prisoner sat back upright in his chair then after several seconds pushed himself up to the desk so that his balding, ruddy head was jutting forward to make his already creepy small deep-set eyes look more so as they peered out from under his heavy brow.
‘Ye know, a piece of ya - goin’s on.’
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about?’ Hayden replied unsettled by the prisoner’s unblinking stare.
‘Ya bigness-ya high an’ mightiness. Ya Greythorniness.’
Hayden looked blankly at the shackled little man.
‘C’mon prince. Ya Kingdom, I’m sayin’.’
‘You’re trying to get me to believe that everyone I know and all I have met so far along this journey is after my wealth?’
‘Well - first place, I wouldnta said ya’s all ‘at wealfy a prince an’ I wouldnta said ya ‘ad all ‘at much property, for the time bein’ anyways.’
He ceased talking momentarily to clear his throat again but stopped short of spitting onto the floor when he saw Hayden’s disgusted expression. He swallowed. ‘I’d be sayin’ ‘at ‘ey’d all be after a bit a ya power if ya ta regain what’s been taken from ya.’
‘I doubt it!’ Hayden answered resolutely.
‘Doubt it, eh? Ow long ‘ave ya known ‘ese characters ‘en, eh, ‘ese newbies to ya life?’
The young prince was pensive.
‘Well ,I’ll tells ya,’ the captive kept on, his voice seeming starker. ‘Yer new ta ya bigger life an’ I knows ya don’t fer certs ‘ave a foot ’old yet, matey. Be some plans afoot too ta keep ya back from becomin’ ‘at what it is yer destined fer.’
Hayden looked at the stout messy little man.
‘And that is?’
The prisoner pushed himself back onto the wall, clasped his fat grubby, hairy hands together behind his head and looked into Hayden’s eyes again with the same uncomfortably icy stare.
Tilting his head forward slightly, he untangled his fingers and let his shackled hands drop limply onto his lap. Not believing that the boy hadn’t realised yet or at least not been told, he shook his head slowly in short downward arcs left to right like a reddened pendulum.
‘And that is?’ Hayden pushed.
The prisoner let out a wheezy, guttural laugh.
‘Work it out, matey-Ya got no farva, ya got no bruvas or sisters an’ yer a bloody prince. Once ya get ta Greyforn - well, ‘ey’ll be hopin’ ta crown ya king.’
That realisation had come to Hayden much earlier.
Unfortunately though, it had taken a traitorous first-mate to jolt it into him. He needed to end his communication with the slovenly creature and leave immediately. ‘You haven’t seen my friend then?’ Hayden pressed again, trying his best not to look weak and to not fall for whatever the prisoner was trying on if he was indeed trying anything on.
‘Nah,’ the mate spat. ‘I ain’t.’
‘Then I’m wasting my time in here.’
He turned and walked toward the door but after a few steps, he looked back at him. ‘I’ll leave you to your fate.’
The captive watched as Hayden turned back, walked to the door and pounded his fist once on it.
He watched as a small slip of metal slid aside and the eyes of one of the guards peered inside, looked at Hayden then at him and then the metal slid back. He observed Hayden’s fingers fidgeting by his side as he heard the unlocking of the bolt and when the door was opened, he watched the young prince leave the room a second time.
He also watched as the door closed and the light dimmed, leaving him shackled in the near darkness but for the softly glowing fungi on the ceiling. ‘As ya wish, ya highness,’ he muttered through clenched yellowed teeth.
Outside, the guards raised their swords to their chests and bowed their heads with closed eyes allowing Hayden to pass, returning to static pose only once he had disappeared from their view.
Hayden wanted to wring the first mate’s neck. He had realised who he would become the moment his uncle Jonah had spoken to him on that first evening in the shack. To actually hear it brought an uneasiness. Especially to hear it from such a slimy character as was chained to the interrogation room wall. He was a teenager and teenagers generally didn’t have such responsibilities thrust upon them. He had to tell Kel what little he knew of himself and perhaps she in turn could tell him more or help him work it all out.
Did Greythorn mean anything to her?
‘Highness!’ Hayden looked up and saw Feebru running toward him, dressed in different clothing. Gone were the robes, and he was now wearing a jumpsuit like Hayden’s though much darker.
‘What’s wrong?’ Hayden asked, concerned at the urgency in the Kuhlians tone.
‘Highness. It is Kel - she is missing.’
‘I know that, that’s why I-’
Feebru interrupted nervously. ‘-She is not to be found in there and she is not to be found in here.’
‘What’re you saying?’ Hayden asked but realised what the answer was to be. ‘You’ve searched everywhere?’
‘Highness, she has snuck past the entrance guards, stolen an Airpad from the lower dock and is gone.’
‘What’s being done to find her?’
Feebru was quiet.
‘What Feebru, is being done to find her?’
‘Prince Hayden, Nothing is to be done.’
‘Well, it better be!’
‘Highness. That is why I come to you as I do. Our departure for The Copernicus takes place toward evening and Kel does not know this. The chancellor is very adamant we leave on time and it is most important for him that you are safely back on board with your mother and your uncle.’
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
Once Feebru had directed Hayden where to go, he fairly dragged the Kuhlian along behind him. ‘We must get back before they seal off the dock,’ Feebru explained as he ran along.
‘When do they do that?’
‘At the setting of the suns.’
‘So how much time do we have until we leave for The Copernicus?’
‘We are a few marks to half-day so we have six more marks.’
Out of habit, Hayden looked at his naked, watch-less wrist.
‘Let’s move!’
They came to a corner in a narrow passage. Hayden pushed on but had only gotten a few steps forward when Feebru asked him to stop. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘Nothing is wrong Highness. If you are accepting that I am ninety five,’ he panted.
‘You’re ninety five what?’ Hayden asked then understood. ‘Really?’ Hayden, not at all out of breath, couldn’t hide his surprise. Feebru looked nowhere near that age.
‘Highness let me remain here just for one moment.’
‘If that’s true then, sure.’
The Kuhlian leant against the wall and rested. ‘Unfortunately, yes.’
‘Feebru, why are the dock’s doors sealed in the evening?’
‘We - have to find Kel,’ Feebru began to answer, his breathing returning to normal. ‘We do not want to be in the forest when night falls.’
‘Why?’
‘I can assure you Highness. We must find her before then.’
Somewhat rested, Feebru led down the passage and into a smal
l elevator that they quickly entered. He pressed a bottom button and they much more slowly than either would have liked, began to descend.
‘I guess the train guys didn’t build this,’ Hayden commented.
‘We are to make our rendezvous with The Copernicus no matter what, Highness. The Grand chancellor demands it. He would rather fulfill his instruction to see you delivered back safely than go to find Kel. There are happenings in the Galaxy that now make it very dangerous to travel.’
‘I’m aware. We’ll find her and we’ll get her back in time.’
But Feebru did look worried and he could see that Hayden was, too.
‘If we do not, then it will be the end of my tenure.’
‘You can’t lose your position as - you know, what you said before.’ Hayden couldn’t even bear the thought of having a slave let alone to acknowledge the actuality of Feebru’s job title.
As far as Hayden was concerned he was just a teenager from Armadale and didn’t warrant any such silliness.
‘It is my duty to watch over you, Highness. It is my primary objective and as such, any dereliction of that duty would be punishable.’
Hayden smiled at him reassuringly. ‘There will be no dereliction of duty, Feebru, because you are following me. I’ll make sure that there’s no punishment. After all, there’s got to be some benefit to being royalty?’
Feebru was relieved to hear this and Hayden was glad to have said it. The elevator stopped with a sudden thud!
‘Something is wrong, Highness.’ Feebru realised and he began to command the central computer to descend the transport.
It didn’t heed instruction and they remained still.
‘Through the hatch.’ Feebru directed Hayden as he pointed to a trapdoor above them. ‘We will climb to another floor then take the stairs, Highness.’
‘Are you sure?’ Hayden asked as Feebru jumped and being tall enough, pushed the hatch away revealing the sparsely lit shaft above.
The Blake Equation- Discovery Page 21
