Chapter 43 - Intruders in the Temple
Jordan fought the hurricane strength winds that tossed the Tymorean craft and threatened to dash it into the ground. He swore fiercely as time after time, the controls tried to jerk from his grasp.
Without a word, Jonko came and sat in the co-pilot’s seat. Even their combined strength was barely enough, and so Jonko called on more power and the craft steadied.
Keleb noticed Jordan glancing at Jonko with an expression akin to amazement. He unstrapped from his seat and walked forward, keeping one hand on a solid support as he moved.
“Pyr sits with Vila. She seems to be coming closer to consciousness,” he offered as a positive thought.
“Will she be any better off in your Temple,” Jordan asked, returning his attention to the dust filled air visible through the front viewscreen.
“We could ask the Guardians to help her,” Keleb proposed.
“Why would they help us?” Jordan sounded depressed. “I may have been born Tymorean, but I have been an Aeronite for so long. I can feel the Royal power buzzing in me – I just can’t use it. Why do you commoners have it and use it so easily?”
He didn’t admit to regretting his ignorance of his heritage, and his deepening resentment towards those who had taken him from his true family, or even his craving to master the power he felt.
Keleb placed a gentle hand on Jordan’s shoulder. He grounded some of the building energy. “Our power is sufficient. Without training, yours will be erratic. I have grounded some of the excess – perhaps you will feel better able to handle what is left.”
He should have been angry, but his resentment eased. “Why do you commoners have power – are you Royal bastards or something?” Jordan wanted to understand. “Kellex called you commoners and Halflings.”
“Sounds like him,” Keleb agreed. “We have Tymorean antecedents a generation or two back, and normally, we would not have this power. As to why we do…no one knows. We can only suppose that we were created to support Tymos and Kryslie.”
“They are very young,” Jordan commented. “Kellex calls them illegitimate? Are they?”
“All I know is that they are truly the children of His Majesty,” Keleb said. “And they grew up on Earth.”
Jordan fell silent and went back to concentrate on flying the ship. He was quiet until they were approaching the City of Dira, seen as a mauve coloured glow, and the glow split into a large and a smaller glowing area.
“Will we be able to land this through the shield around the Temple, or must we land and transmit in. Vila tried to fly in and couldn’t.”
“The Great Ones sent us here,” Jonko said with confidence. “If it is the Guardians’ wish, we will land near the Temple – under the shield. It is after all, the legendary fortress of our people.”
A quiet voice behind them asked, “Will our father be here?”
“Vila!” Jordan glanced around, but still kept his hands on the flight controls. “Are you alright?”
She was very pale, almost bluish in colour. “I…think so.”
Keleb edged aside so Vila could see out the viewscreen. Something about her was making him feel edgy. It was like his reaction to Zacary. Still, he spoke gently to her, knowing that the torture Kellex had submitted him to was only a fraction of what the Ciriot had probably done to her.
“You will not see His Majesty. He has already entered Dirakee with all the other Royals. Only the Great Ones, Tymos, Kryslie and Llaimos, can open the portal. Jonko, Pyr and I could not enter.”
“The Portal is in the Temple,” Vila asked, as if just realising the fact.
Keleb nodded, and she went on, “So that is why I saw no one when I was there. When I was in the grounds, I expected the area to be crowded with Tymoreans. Instead, the Ciriot caught me.”
“They were within the shield?” Keleb asked sharply – suddenly alarmed.
“When I went there first, the shield was further out. That time, I transmitted into the protected area but could not enter the Temple. The second time, the inner barrier was about one hundred feet from the Temple itself, and I could not get through it. The upper shields were still over all of the garden. The Warlords had room to park their command ships close to the building. We had only dug under that shield, but not gone to get the Warlords out, when the Ciriot attacked. They must have flown in low like we did.”
Jonko took full control of the aircraft and slowed its speed. If they were going to crash into the Temple shields, or bounce off them, it would be better if they were travelling slowly.
He needn’t have worried. He flew close to the ground, under the upper shield and circled the shimmering inner barrier. He landed at the rear of the Temple, where he knew there was an area of flat ground, and kept the cloaking field active.
His exclamation of dismay drew he attention of Keleb. They had both seen the magnificently landscaped gardens around the Temple during their visit, but what they saw now were flattened, blackened trees and the gritty ash that swirled into the air after they flew over it. Neither voiced their apprehension as they tuned monitors and sensors to study the Temple.
The building perched on the peak of a low hill; the gardens at the front had been built up to be level. To walk up to the Temple from Dira, one had to climb a steep stairway to reach the garden and another to reach the Temple entrance. Pyr came to join his older companions, and he looked out at the scene and his face paled.
“What do we do now?” he asked, unable to look away from the desolation. “Do we go into the Temple?”
“Can we?” Keleb asked, glancing at Jonko. He thought the two of them should be able to, but he wasn’t sure about the others.
“We can stay in here,” Jonko suggested. “The monitors are not picking up any life forms. If they come and look like they are trying to get into the Temple, we will have to go out.”
“Then we should get Vila some protection,” Keleb suggested.
“There is some more Ciriot armour in the storage cubicle,” Pyr announced. “I’ll get it.”
Time passed, and they all took time to eat and rest. However, they didn’t have time to get bored. An alarm chimed and Jonko went to see the cause. He fiddled with the scanners.
“What in the Guardians name are they doing?” he exclaimed.
“What?” Keleb asked, rising from the couch he occupied.
“There are five ships coming here. Aeronite command ships - are they insane? We gave then the chance to escape; I thought they would have headed up to the coordinates to get through the planetary shield.”
“Well, it is probably too late for that, unless Pyr knows how to open the shield again to let them out,” Keleb glanced at the boy.
“I did it for Xezir and Xan,” Pyr admitted. “Llaimos only said it could open once.”
“I don’t fancy encountering Kellex,” Jordan admitted. “Particularly if he knows I used his name to make the baseships lift off.”
“Nor do I,” Vila said with a visible shiver. “I failed to get in there to help him get out.”
“You can stay here,” Jonko offered. “I doubt that the Warlords or the Ciriot will be allowed in.”
“What if they do?” Keleb murmured to Jonko. “No one should have got through the outer shields, but we did and so did Vila and the Ciriot that captured her. I think that the only shields remaining are the ones keeping the atmosphere breathable.”
Jonko shrugged very slightly. “If they go in, we do.”
“I will too,” Pyr insisted, defiantly.
Jordan started to protest, but stopped himself.
“You would be advised to attack by stealth,” Jonko said calmly, tacitly agreeing with his determination. “Your opponents will all be bigger and more experienced.”
Pyr nodded, accepting the advice. He turned his attention to the monitor screens, to hide the fear he felt. He used to manipulating of the parameters to settle his nerves. He managed to find a way to track the Warlords and a sixth ship that had to be Ciriot.
Five distinct roars of a jet engine flew over the cloaked Tymorean ship, causing it to shake. The scanners showed them fly past the Temple, before veering around to come in to land on the far side of the Temple. Then five small moving dots, showed the Warlords walking up the stairs to the ornate front entrance.
“Of course they would,” Keleb said ironically. “Those arrogant sorts would never think of sneaking in at the servant’s entrance.”
Jonko gave him a quick grin. “Maybe that is why I landed back here, out of the way? Though if I were them I wouldn’t have come here at all.”
Jordan spoke up, “Kellex refused to believe the Ciriot were here. He simply denied all the evidence. He won’t give up on trying to find where the Governors went, so he can try to kill them. He wants to be in supreme control here, I think.”
“Hey, the signal on that Ciriot ship has vanished,” Keleb exclaimed. “It was almost here, and it just vanished.”
“Probably cloaked,” Jonko suggested. “They either came after us, or the Warlords. They probably want an advantage. They are cowards, fleeing their base. Tymos meant to destroy it, and these rats escaped.”
“They won’t have seen us leave. We were cloaked,” Pyr stated positively. “They won’t know we are here.”
“If we leave the ship, they will know,” Jonko warned. “I will have to leave it unshielded so we can get back to it quickly if we need to.”
No one wanted to point out that running back to the ship was retreating.
“We could look for atmospheric disturbances from their landing rotors,” Pyr suggested. “Or I could try sending a virus program Llaimos and I wrote, to make them uncloak.”
“Send it,” Jonko directed. “I want to know where they are. And while I don’t like the Warlords, it is only fair that they can see their opponents.”
Pyr kept watching the sensor screen, following the five bright dots as they walked around the outside of the Temple. They seemed to be stopping at each door or window and trying to get in by using their various weapons on the obstruction.
Vila looked at the direct view screen and magnified the picture. “There is Kellex – he is walking along that covered passageway this side of the south chamber. I couldn’t even get that close.”
Jordan came to look too. “Persistent,” he muttered.
The figure of Kellex finished trying all the rear windows on the south side, and walked behind the Altar room to try those on the north side. He kept on going around to the front.
After a while Pyr noted, “One of the other Warlords has stopped. At the rear entrance near the north chamber. He must have brought the shield down for the other four dots are inside now. They got in the front door.”
Jonko stood up and adjusted his armour. “We’re going in. Who is coming?” He was looking at Jordan and Vila and they both nodded resolutely. “Full armour. Take spare weapons and be careful. The Ciriot are around. We can see their ship, but not the creatures themselves.”
Keleb, the last to leave, sealed the ship after him.
It was eerily quiet in the blackened gardens. Maybe it was because everything there was dead, or maybe it was because there were three mutually antagonistic groups in the area, each intent on defeating the others.
Jonko knew that whatever he said over the suit comm. could be heard by the others, but he wanted to speak just to Keleb. He thought of using Earth English, and needed a moment to recall it.
“Kel?”
“Yes.”
“We can’t let them into the Altar room, Warlords or Ciriot,” Jonko found his native language coming back to him. “I don’t know why, only that we have to keep them out.”
Keleb instinctively answered in the same language. “I have had that feeling too. And the idea that if the Altar room is destroyed, no one will be able to come back. But there is only two of us.”
“Five if we count Pyr and his siblings,” Jonko countered.
“Pyr is only a child. The other two have not been trained as we have and I don’t completely trust Vila. She might intend to stand with us, but if she has become like Zacary, the Ciriot could make her betray us.”
Jonko was quiet for a moment. “We will have to watch her. You are right to be fearful. I did not want to think she was controlled – she is so like Kryslie.”
They were nearing the entrance where one of the Warlords had stopped. Jonko moved ahead to scout and spoke a quiet warning into the suit comm.
“He’s dead,” Jonko reported, gesturing the others forward. “Be careful.”
His companions climbed carefully down the sloped section of garden to get to the door. Jonko had already entered the side passage along the north chamber and checked it for lurking Warlords. Jordan looked at the dead Warlord, whose legs were the only part in sight. He would have pulled the body out to check it for life, but the pool of blood around the head was evidence that they could not help him.
“I think it is Wazim, he always tended to wear that shade of greyish blue.
“Let’s keep moving,” Jordan directed. “That one was killed by the Ciriot.”
“How do you know?” Vila asked in a whisper.
Keleb answered. “The sensors in our suits can pick up the glow trail they leave wherever they have been. It is all over you, too.”
“Kel,” Jonko broke in. “The shields are down. All of them. This place is wide open.” For the benefit of the others, he went on to explain, “There are two levels inside – three if you count the Altar room. Four Warlords went in the front entrance on the lower level. They may still be down there or they might have come up the front staircase and be on the upper level where we will be going in. Both levels have small side chambers opening up from passages that run behind the row of arched openings. On this level, there is a bigger chamber off each side with smaller rooms off the rear wall and a large area on the front side. As you go along the upper passageway, you can look down over the large meeting area on the lower floor. It is open between the arch supports.”
“So we need to check every side room then,” Jordan spoke aloud to request confirmation. “What if we meet the Warlords or Ciriot?”
Jonko and Keleb exchanged looks, but Jonko answered. “Our absolute priority is to protect the sanctity of the Altar room. If we encounter Ciriot, we will kill them. The Warlords have refused all offers of peace, but we will disable and secure them if we can, or kill them if we must.”
Once inside, Jonko directed Jordan through the Altar room to the south side, while Keleb led Vila and Pyr along the north passage. He then activated the stealth function of his suit, and stood where he could look down on the meeting room and see some the opposite side balcony. If he were visible, his position at the waist high barrier would have been suicide. However, from there he could see faint traces of Ciriot trails down in the meeting area. He reported this sighting to the others over the suit comm.
Keleb had learnt to sense the Ciriot whilst travelling with Kryslie. He did not need to be told they were around. However, he could not identify their exact locations, and so he maintained high alertness as he helped Vila scout the passage. Although he was uneasy around her, she was an excellent scout. Pyr was learning to move stealthily, and he had a weapon out, ready to use.
The child was determined to help defend the Temple that was sacred to his kin. Keleb hoped that the boy would not need to kill.
They soon developed a routine – two searched each room, whilst the third watched from the doorway. Keleb kept alert for Ciriot traces, but found none on this upper level. His empathic senses were warning him of a deadly evil but he had seen neither Warlord nor Ciriot.
In the large side chamber, they continued to move carefully. Here Keleb forced open a window to look out along the outside walkway. Across from the windows, he could see the black desolation through the arched openings. When he pulled his head back in, he reclosed the window. They checked each of the smaller rooms, finding kitchens and pantries. In a third they found another body– freshly dead from a slashed throat.
“Axec,” Vila murmured.
When they emerged once again onto the balcony passage, they crouched to stay hidden by the waist high parapet. Vila took over the lead position.
From behind them, Pyr made a gagging sound. Keleb turned, sympathetic, but they had to keep moving.
“Take deep slow breaths,” he advised the boy. Then he added, “Don’t think of it. That man is beyond help and we need to stay alert.”
He didn’t add, “Or we might meet the same fate.”
Pyr controlled his stomach, and they moved on. They neared the front of the Temple, another arched entrance to a small room. This one had the privacy curtain shredded. Pyr waited without as Vila and Keleb went in. It took them longer, for this chamber was bigger than the ones they had scouted so far.
“This is where one of the Governors sleep when they are here,” Keleb explained. He didn’t explain that it was the room his guardian used, or that he had recognised subtle details from the furnishings and colour scheme. Oddly, the room did not look disturbed.
The next chamber was equally large and Keleb knew this one was the room the Tymorean President used. This too was still neat and tidy. Not that it was more than sparsely furnished.
Beyond that was a facilities room, also untouched. Then they came to the top of the staircase, and only one more room lay between them and the front of the building.
“The Ciriot have been in there,” Keleb warned Vila and Pyr. Through the suit comm he heard Jonko ask, “Where are you?”
“The comm room, south side front,” Keleb reported. He had continued to enter the room and now he added, “The equipment is totally smashed and the Ciriot glow is everywhere. They are not still here, even cloaked. Otherwise they would have attacked us.”
Before going down the stairs, Keleb followed the upper balcony around to the front. There was a huge archway here, opening to the outside. Normally it would let light through to the huge stained glass mural window. Now, instead, the light was dull due to the particulates in the air outside.
Keleb’s attention was on the glass picture, which depicted the visitation of the Guardians of Peace. He was distracted by Pyr’s exclamation of horror. On the tiled floor was another body, or rather part of one. The left side of the body from shoulder down had been disintegrated – blood and gore spilled from what remained. This time, Pyr turned away, opened his helmet and was quietly sick.
Vila stared at the bloody tiles. Whoever had killed Warlord Zorrec had done so in the centre of a circular design. She recognised it as being like those in the Tymorean beam-in chambers, only there was no generator here.
Hearing Keleb reassuring Pyr, recalled Vila to their current situation. “You should have stayed on the ship, Pyr. This is no place for you.”
Before Pyr could protest, Keleb suggested, “Just up ahead is the attendants’ room. Jordan should have checked it by now. You can hide in there, and we won’t think less of you.”
“Please,” he pleaded softly. “But I will come if you need me.”
Keleb gripped his arm gently. “I know.”
Vila spoke softly into the suit comm, “Jordan? Can you hear us?”
She heard no answer and glanced at Keleb with concern.
“He is as good at skulking as you are,” Keleb reminded her. “And a good fighter.”
Nodding agreement, Vila followed Keleb to the other front corner room.
The room used by the Governors’ personal attendants was sparsely furnished. Three rough beds, currently stripped to the mattress, were in a neat row, with a chair beside each. A table was pushed into one corner, and along one wall was a long wardrobe, divided into three sections. Spare garments for the three Governors, hung from hangers or were folded into drawers.
“Hide in here, Pyr,” Keleb suggested. “Stay behind the hanging clothes. I will move the beds closer. To stop the doors opening fully, but I will leave enough room for you to slip out.”
Pyr hurried to hide himself. He felt safe in the dark once the door had shut. He didn’t hear Keleb and Vila leave the room.
Once out of the attendants’ room, Keleb and Vila moved slowly along the south side balcony. They heard noises from below, as if people were fighting – grunts and muffled curses. They edged to the balcony wall and slowly raised their heads to peek over.
Vila drew back quickly, recognising Kellex as one of the combatants. The other seemed like a shadow – just barely perceptible. A guilty conscience was telling Vila to go and help her erstwhile Guardian, but her mind told her Kellex would resent it if she did, and it would not make him less angry with her. The ‘don’t get involved’ voice won.
Then she heard a sharp cry from behind. “Pyr,” she exclaimed softly, and before Keleb could caution her, she was trotting back past the two curtained alcoves, to where they had told him to hide.
With a curse of his own, Keleb ran after her along the balcony passage. He was passing the first alcove when the attack came without warning.
A solid blow caught him on the back, and in that instant he realised that he was visible. The stealth function of his suit was not working. He fought for breath as he turned to face the unseen attacker, and by sheer instinct, blocked the next blow. While scrambling backwards, Keleb turned on more of the sensors in his suit, and began to see a glowing shape moving forward with a heavy metal bar poised to smash down on him. He pressed a section of his chest plate and the figure in front of him became fully visible. The low EM pulse had disrupted the other’s stealth field generator as Keleb rolled out of the way of the blow.
Keleb’s opponent was taller and wearing Ciriot style armour. He recognised the creature he had fought in the Ciriot base. The Ciri Prince had called it Kek. Without conscious thought, Keleb drew his own knife and parried the left- handed thrust that Kek made with his knife as he thrust the beam aside. He might not be Jonko’s equal with weapons, but he excelled at defence and needed every bit of that skill now to prevent Kek from breaching the vulnerable places in the Tymorean armour. The other danger was that of being pitched over the waist high wall of the balcony, onto the stones below.
He observed that Kek was aiming for the places where Ciriot or Aeronite armour was weakest – and that unfamiliarity with Tymorean armour was saving Keleb from some nasty injuries. However, he had no illusions that the situation would last.
He scrambled to his feet and drew his sword and tried to keep Kek at a distance. The Ciriot creature seemed to ignore his sword, as if it wasn’t a threat. Certainly he wasn’t able to wield it effectively in the narrow space, but Keleb was desperate, and slashed at Kek’s armour, drawing sparks from the metal. He recalled his lessons from Jonko and drew on his power to help him. He felt strength coming into him and when his sword again struck metal armour, Kek gave an involuntary screech.
Keleb sensed that the touch of his sword had jolted Kek, like he had struck with electricity. The creature intensified its attacks and forced Keleb backward along the balcony to where the south chamber opened up.
The larger area would give both opponents more room to move, and it was away from the balcony edge.
Kek cursed every time Keleb’s sword touched his armour, even if it was a glancing blow. He began to force Keleb further into the room, as if wanting to corner him. Keleb sensed that he was being positioned for something and risked a glance around. He saw no obvious dangers and fought off another attack from Kek. In the corner of his eye he saw movement, but Kek gave him no chance to see what caused it. Then he heard a hum, growing in intensity and he ducked and twisted instinctively.
Something flew through the air, spinning so fast it was only a blur. It was the source of the loud humming and it had felt dangerous. He could hear it circling, but he dared not look for it. It was all he could do to stop Kek finding a way to kill him.
He heard the humming getting louder again, and ducked as before. This time it wasn’t low enough. Something struck the headpiece of his armour, as Kek found the gap between the plates of his armour. His knife sliced through the flexible joint and set his side on fire. Keleb fell forward, his head seemed to have knives in it too.
He fought off the blackness of oblivion, but was unable to move. Kek was kneeling on his back, trying to yank off the headpiece of his armour. As the protective helmet was dragged free, Keleb heard Kek’s triumphant laugh and another blow struck his head.
Vila did not realise that Keleb had stopped following her. She ran back into the small chamber where Pyr had hidden, and saw the beds were dragged away from the cupboard, and her little brother was unconscious on the floor. She opened his armour and felt for a pulse in his neck and to see if he was breathing. He was alive, and sheer relief made her momentarily weak. She glanced around to ask Keleb a question, and only then realised he was not with her.
Not sure of what else to do, Vila gently lifted Pyr and lay him back in the cupboard. With the door closed again, she hoped the attacker would forget about him.
A sense of urgency made her go to see where Keleb was, but as she began to move, her mind was invaded by an angry, evil presence. Her body quailed, recalling the treatment the Ciriot owner of the mind had given her. It was a presence she hoped she had escaped from, but now she knew that she never could. It owned her; it controlled her mind now, making her walk - not to help Keleb, but to go in s