[Prologue]    [Chapter 1]   [Chapter 2]    [Chapter 3]    [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 26]    [Chapter 27]    [Chapter 28]    [Chapter 29]    [Chapter 30]    [Epilogue]
   

Chapter 4

Zana and Jaron entered the Palace Lounge and saw Kane and Loria sitting on the couches. They were listening to some music.
    Zana then noticed what they were wearing. "What's the big idea here?" he asked. The red-heads turned to him. "You're wearing black too."
    "We're just paying our respects to the Tyrons unfortunately already dead," Kane said simply.
    "Most of the servants are doing it too," Loria said, then a middle-aged servant dressed in black came in.
    Zana raised an eyebrow. "Has Lark been sending messages?" he joked while crossing his arms.
    Jaron-who hasn't said anything since he found out about Zana's age-faced Zana. "Lark?"
    "It's what you're supposed to call Gaderan," said Loria. Jaron looked at the floor.
    The Tyron prince then remembered something. "Oh yeah! Zana? How are my parents?"
    Zana felt uneasy. "I'd better tell him," he thought and turned to Jaron while carefully uncrossing his arms. "Er, Jaron..." Jaron tensed.
    "Yeah! How are they? Are they worried about me? Are they..." Jaron looked into Zana's staring, sorry eyes. He looked at the floor again.
    Zana wanted to say something. "I'm sorry, I-"
    "They're dead?" the blonde asked. Zana swallowed, Jaron felt a lump in his throat. "They're dead!" he whispered. Jaron stared at Zana. "And you couldn't do anything?"
    "What could I do?" Zana asked. "They strapped me to a chair and"-Zana clenched his fists- "forced me to watch them get tortured and killed. Then they burned me to get all the answers, then they washed me, cleaned me, strapped on a body-suit and wrapped a chain round my neck so that Kayla could treat me like some kind of dog! YOU THOUGHT I COULD DO SOMETHIN' JARON?!! HUH?!!!"
    Jaron stood there and stared at him. He felt anger, sadness and pity. He backed away and shook his head, then he turned and ran out of the room.
    "Jaron, wait!" Loria called as she stood up. Then she ran out of the room after him.
    Jaron ran into the Fight-Gym and saw the kick-bag hanging on its chain at the end of the room. He started walking towards it, breathing heavily and with fierce eyes. Loria came in as he stood near it. Jaron gave a yell as he did a huge kick and made the chains snap, the bag was thrown to the wall.
    "He's really mad," thought a scared Loria. She carefully walked over to Jaron, who fell to the floor. She knelt down beside him.
    "I'm alone," said Jaron quietly and sadly.
    "No you're not," said Loria soothingly. "You still have Rida to meet, you've got us...you have me." She could see tears in Jaron's eyes. "I know you want to cry, so just cry." Jaron leaned against her shoulder as he cried freely.
    
    "Woah, this is a lot of people before breakfast," thought Loria in surprise.
     She stared at all the Taklans in the Meeting Room. There were Wayan and Tellen army officials, leaders of Wayan knife gangs looking for a thrill (you can tell by their knife-sashes), Bannon gangs and loner fighters  and any odd Bannon, Wayan, Tyron warrior who lived in Telleria. There even was-strangely-what looked like a Catlan loner.
    Loria faced the front, where the board was. Zana had just  switched the display of a Power Station to a diagram of a palace.
    "This is the Sherran Palace of today, hopefully different next week." A little laugh came from the back of the audience, Zana pointed to a square at the bottom and carried on. "This is where the dead bodies of Tyrons are stored, they're well  preserved and it ain't guarded. This room next to it is the main lab, there's a guard at every entrance-which makes about 10-and only half the scientists are armed.
    "This room is absolutely empty, has no guards and is only used for Tyron prisoners. It's also got a few Tyron treasures. This is the Throne Room, which has a fighting arena inside. Kayla and Ingree spend most of their time in there."
    Zana then sat down next to Jaron and Kane walked in front of the board. He started talking. "Here's the plan. Zana and Jaron will fly out first to reach Sherran. A mile or two behind will be a squad of Tyrons so that they can attack by surprise while the first two distract the gunmen. Under them-on a Hovercraft-will be a squad who are mainly Bannons, so they can nick the guns off guards with their tongues when they attack the palace. They'll first have to pass Coastal Village though.
    "All other squads travel in shuttles. I'll be leading a squad to take the main lab. There's another squad for the Power Station and another to raid the streets. The last squad'll take the nearest town, Spanton. They only have a simple lab. Any questions?"
    "Yeah," began a random Tellen. "What about the Coastal Village?"
    Kane answered. "After we've succeeded, one of the Hospital Ships to come in will go to the village, and a special group will take it with hopefully minimal force."
    Kane carried on talking. "In your squads your leaders make the decisions in the raid, has everyone filled out the entrance forms?" Everyone nodded and said "Yeah". (Zana, Jaron and Loria didn't need to because everyone knows their stats.) Kane carried on.
   "Make sure you bring plenty of handcuffs, ropes or whatever for prisoners, we don't want to leave Catlans running around. If you haven't taken a shower in the last 2 days, feel free to use one in the palace. The squad lists  and their leaders will be listed on the notice board in the Dining Room about mid-morning. Now get some breakfast and meet at the launch pad at 3:30."
    Everyone got up and immediately went for the door. "Loria, could I talk to you for a minute?" Kane asked telepathically. Loria turned to him, then looked at Jaron, about to tell him that she would speak with her Dad.
    "I'll save you a seat," said Jaron, then he walked off with Zana and Yatri.
    "Loria," Kane began when everyone else was out of the room. "This will probably be my last battle and er, the chance to see your first fight. I'd like you to make me proud." Loria frowned at first, but then she noticed him draw the handle of the Ice Blade. "I'd like to see you use this."
    Loria took the handle, then looked at it from all sides. "I've got it!" she shouted in her head. "I finally have my own Ice Blade! Oh this is the greatest  day of my life!"  She was so excited she couldn't hold it straight.
    "Maybe I should've given it to you later, then you wouldn't be so excited," Kane told his daughter telepathically. She immediately looked up. Kane smiled and put his arm around her, then they walked up the stairs towards the door.
    "Dad, what about Corina's Ice Blade? If I take this one then-" Kane laughed out loud, Loria could feel his muscles jigging on her back.
    "Don't you know?" he asked. "There are about 2 Elemental Blades in each country. You see, when I married Pella, my Dad gave her the other Ice Blade as a gift. But her being the peaceful type locked it in a secret box, never to be let out since."
    "Typical old Mum," commented Loria after they went through the door. There were many servants about. Loria and Kane walked to the left corridor.
    They entered the main hall-the same place where Jaron had his birthday party. There were tables, people and food everywhere. Loria found Jaron and sat down next to him. Zana was sitting on the other side, eating fish-strips.
    "Did you see that Catlan girl?" Jaron asked. "I talked to her for a bit, her name's Kuni, she says she was one of the last Catlans to get out of the desert before Ingree barred the borders."
    "Was she ever at invaded Tyrony?" asked Loria. Jaron drank some of his juice, then answered.
    "She went sometime 3 years ago for 2 days, she says that she caught a lot of fish and that the guards of Coastal Village were so lazy, they didn't care that she was feeding the Tyrons breakfast!"
    Loria laughed. Jaron got up with his plate to another table. As Loria served herself a floppy-sausage, she saw Kuni coming her way. Kuni had purple lips and dark grey lined around her eyes.
    "She's beautiful!" Loria exclaimed in her head, she could feel herself  tensing. She calmed herself and thought: "Wait, I've got  powers, I can check first. Good, she has no intention of finding love whatsoever! She's just smiling 'cos of the sausages in the middle. She won't steal my boyfriend! Yes!"
    Kuni stopped next to Zana-who budged up a bit-and took 3 floppy-sausages. Then she sat down-next to Zana. Zana put his head really low and ate really quickly. Kuni saw this and looked and felt sad.
    "It's okay for you to hate me," she said carefully. "I don't like what my people did either."
Jaron had now sat down again, but with noodles. Loria had just taken a bite out of her sausage.
    "What're ya havin' with your noodles?" asked Yatri-who sat on the other side of Zana.
    "I thought I'd try some suede mash," Jaron answered.
    "Our suede mash?" the Bannon next to him asked in shock. "Hooo, you're a brave bird 'Wing-Prince'."
He reached (with his tongue) and gave Jaron a small box of orange mash. Jaron gave himself some while somebody yelled: "Jaron's gonna eat the 'Bannon Mash'!"
    A lot of people gathered round both sides of the table as Jaron scooped a bit of the mash, he was grinning. Zana had just finished his fish-strips.
    "I'd go but this is too good to miss," Zana then swallowed-hard. "Uh-oh, my stomach's actin' up."
    Everyone had started to chant: "Eat it up! Eat it up!" Jaron gathered his scoop and ate it. The chant then changed to: "Swallow! Swallow!" When he swallowed, a huge cheer went up. But just as the cheer came, Zana turned around and threw up. Just as Zana was throwing up, everyone behind him had to move back  and some of them screamed.
    A black Wayan called out: "Er...cleanup person?!! Something to clean up!"

©Ruth Amy Louise Hüneke 2008