[Prologue]    [Chapter 1]   [Chapter 2]    [Chapter 3]    [Chapter 4]    [Chapter 5]    [Chapter 6]    [Chapter 7]    [Chapter 8]    [Chapter 9]    [Chapter 10]    [Chapter 11]    [Chapter 12]    [Chapter 13]    [Chapter 14]    [Chapter 15]    [Chapter 16]    [Chapter 17]    [Chapter 18]    [Chapter 19]    [Chapter 20]    [Chapter 21]    [Chapter 22]    [Chapter 23]    [Chapter 24]    [Chapter 25]    [Chapter 27]    [Chapter 28]    [Chapter 29]    [Chapter 30]    [Epilogue]
   

Chapter 26

The prison door opened. 4 guards came in. 2 of them picked up Yanthro and handcuffed him. The other 2 unchained Corina and handcuffed her.
    “Right you two. Up you get. Into the hall,” one of the guards ordered.
    Corina and Yanthro were pushed into the corridor and the guards kept pushing them until they were in the lift.
    As the lift went up, Corina could finally see what Yanthro looked like. He was bruised all over and was bleeding from the mouth. She could also see he had been whipped on the back.
    The lift doors opened and they walked into a huge reception of a police station. Catlans all over were staring at the prisoners. The guards made Corina and Yanthro walk across the reception to the 2 large double doors. One Catlan walked up to Yanthro and punched him. The Catlan smiled as he walked away.
    “Prisoners for the King!” someone shouted as they went through the doors.
    They were in a big area that had lots of Catlans walking around like they were in a park. There was a huge marble statue of a Catlan King pointing to the Catlan Palace. The words at the bottom said: 'Rise North’. The palace was North, West was the Imperial Security Headquarters (Police Station), East had the Imperial Laboratories and South was where the Blocks of Flats were.
    Corina and Yanthro were pushed to the palace. The Catlans nearby were shouting insults at them-Yanthro a lot more.
    “Weakling!”
    “Law Breaker!”
    “Shatya!”
    A boy threw ice cream at Yanthro. A little girl tried to spit on Yanthro but got scared by Corina’s mean stare (like Kane’s) and ran off.

    “Get ready, we’re about to move out,” Jaron ordered.
    While the 3 squads that were now there picked up their guns, cloaks, cake bars etc. Balka-Rae had been staring at a strange type of writing carved into a cave wall.
    “Zana?” Balka asked. “Can you read this?”
    Zana walked to the wall. “I can’t read it, but I know what it says.”
    “So? What does it say?” asked Balka. Zana got embarrassed. “What?”
    He told his Dad in his head. “The son and daughter of the heretic hero will unite and produce a new race and with it, a new era.” Balka burst out laughing. “Dad-be serious about it...I’m gonna marry my own sister!”
    Balka still laughed. “That’s what’s so funny about it. But don’t worry, it’s a good sign of a peaceful future it...”
    Father and son found 14 confused Taklans staring at them.
    Jaron spoke up. “If you’re done...we’re ready to go.”

They walked along a palace corridor.
    “Do you think they’ll come in time?” asked Corina telepathically.
    “They will come,” thought Yanthro.
    The guards made them go through double doors and made them kneel. They were in the Catlan Throne Room.
    “Well well well,” said a Catlan. “We have quite a predicament. A Doglan and the Tellen Princess. We shall enjoy watching the Doglan die because of his pitiful attempt for a life.”
    “I will be the one to judge that Minister,” said Ingree sternly.
    “I’ve never been this scared,” thought Corina. “Just looking at him gives me the creeps.”
    “Why do you fear us?” asked Yanthro. A guard punched him.
    “Do you not know the rules dog?” asked Ingree. “An inferior being such as yourself is not worthy to speak the tongue.”
    Yanthro spoke again. “You siempri us fayo manya round ti an langy, but you neesus para weak furrus of Imperial. You siempri zas,” said Yanthro sternly. (You hate our language and us, but you need us because we, not you, work the machines of Imperial. You hate that.)
    Ingree stared at Yanthro. “Are you asking for punishment?”

    “Can we visit you in Catlan Mummy?” asked Lico telepathically.
    “No honey, there are things you shouldn’t see,” Loria told her. “But we’ll be home in a few days. Mando, behave yourself.”
    “Okay. Will we have ice cream when you get home?” Mando asked.
    “Perhaps, now go and watch your cartoons,” Jaron thought (and his kids heard). He looked around him as he walked along. “Where does this cave end?”
    “We passed the sanctuary door only a few minutes ago,” Loria told her husband.
    “The Ancient Days sound good,” said Zana.
    “They do, don’t they?” said Balka. “I want to bring those days back.”
    “There was a lot of interbreeding back then,” Kuni told them. “Some people wrote in their diaries that you sometimes couldn’t tell whether a person was Catlan or Doglan.”
    “I have a theory you know,” said Balka. “I think that there was once a time when there were no Catlans, no Doglans, just the Lan people.”
    “If you’re right, there must be proof of it somewhere,” said Rida.
    “We did find proof of it,” said Balka.
    “We found it during our desert travels,” told Kuni.
    “Do tell,” said Zana.
    “There were pictures on a cave wall of people who could see far, hear far and have a strong sense of smell,” Balka told them. “It seemed they had tails too because that was how they were drawn.”
    “It’s likely,” said Jaron. “Tyrons used to be covered in feathers.”
    They were walking towards a wall. The wall had a small hole in it.
    “What can we see through there?” asked Loria and she looked through. “Ah.”
    She could see a bridge go from the city entrance to the city. The entrance had tiny buildings around it. The bridge had flags and banners on the sides. The bridge and city were on top of a blue floor.
    “Not a very good design is it?” asked Balka. “Have a long entrance and then scrunch up the city in the West. They’re not daft though. Security is tighter along the West.”
    “But not as tight on the East?” asked Jaron.
    “Well they would’ve made it tighter if they knew about the secret entrance,” Zana told him.
    Loria stopped looking and Rida got a peek. “I think I can guess what happens under the blue floor,” she said.
    “Under there is what we’ll secure first, it’s where the armies will jump out from,” Balka told her.
    They turned left along the cave-letting other people look at the city-and into a huge cave. There were lots of large, standing, stone slabs.
    “Are there any other squads close by Zana?” Balka asked.
    “2” he answered.
    “Come on Kuni,” said Balka-Rae.
    Kuni went with her Dad, carrying a spray can and a small bag. “You stay here,” she said.
    Some of the soldiers from the squads that were following them had come in and sat down. One of them had found an old, dusty, dirty blanket.
    Loria telepathically talked to the further 2 squads. “Wayan Royal Legion and 2nd Bannon Squad, get your butts over here now!”
    “This place is full of history,” said Jaron.
    “What’s with this cave?” asked Rida.
    “This is a ruin from a town, thousands of years old,” said Zana. He pointed to a big stone slab with an old stone table in front of it. “That used to be a shrine.”
    More soldiers came in.
    “Hey,” said a Tellen soldier to Zana. “Can you tell us what went on here?”
    Zana looked around. “That was a hospital,” he said, pointing. “That was a dungeon. There’s a rich man’s house, it became a temple 2500 years ago. About 1000 years ago, lots of merchants used the place as a camp. People had forgotten it was a temple by then. And where I’m standing...a Doglan was executed.” Zana looked behind him and pointed. “That was the last ever house owned by a Doglan, about 1900 years ago. He kept the place because he kissed the Queen’s rear end.”
    “Ew!” someone shouted.
    “It wasn’t literall,” called Loria. She shook her head.
    More and more soldiers kept coming in. Loria then picked up more squads.
    “Tyron Flyers and 3rd Bannon Squad, please try and get here quickly. Run if you have to. You too Tellen Royals. Hi Dad.”
    “You’re real good at jumping people sweetheart,” she heard Kane say. “Mum’s behind me...way behind me.”
    Kuni and Balka came back and more soldiers were coming in. A few medics had come in as well.
    “Are there any more coming?” asked Balka.
    “This is a lot but there’s still more,” Loria told him.
    Some of the soldiers were starting to run in now, Rida at one point had to break up a fight.
    Balka then began talking. “Right basic plan: these lower levels, prison and factory, are secured first. Security is then knocked out. Then, at the signal, forces from the inside and outside attack the city…then we can pat each other on the back for destroying Dark Age Catlan.”
    “Yay,” someone called out. A few soldiers giggled.
    Balka carried on. “Along this tunnel,” he pointed to the one behind him, “there are numbers 1 to 11, all spread out and marked on the wall. They number the 11 holds. I’m going to give each squad leader a detonation controller to blow up the walls and to get in quickly. Don’t worry about hurting Doglans on the other side, they know we’re coming because they can smell our scents and the spray we used so they should have moved away.
    “Rules, do the first part quickly. Do not kill the Catlans”-a lot of soldiers started groaning-“but you can hurt them”-a load of cheering went up-“if you have to. We have to wait for one more squad so sit tight.”
    Soldiers started talking to each other.
    “How do we secure sensors and security patrol?” asked Jaron.
    Balka told him. “Us 6 get to the security room to control the cams, cyphers and radio. You and Loria control the forces while the rest of us go to the Palace, to secure the Throne Room.”
    “Shouldn’t controlling the forces be my job?” asked Zana.
    “Don’t worry, I know how to do it,” said Jaron.

©Ruth Amy Louise Hüneke 2008