are caught in the middle of a war between two empires, and this planet among others has been on the receiving end of a tyrant for far too long. It is complicated so the least you know for the immediate future is better for you. You will just have to trust us.’
‘What about Halley and Capella, we are leaving them too exposed?’ Wolfe snapped.
A voice came from behind, ‘They will be alright, the resistance control the high ground. The palace is out of range of Jazri’s General’s. We have outposts in the hills and an HQ in the old hunting lodge that controls operations from the Lake of Kings upstream,’ Arsenal said as he returned to the small meeting.
‘We need to have a plan, so who is in charge?’ Said Arsenal to the two men, quickly trying to change the subject.
‘Before we do anything else our first course of action is to get to the Royal Temple and find the Priest. We can plan our strategy from there,’ Sheriff said as everyone gathered around.
‘Don’t worry little one, we have lots of surprises waiting for you,’ said Arsenal.
‘That’s what I’m worried about,’ said Wolfe as he turned to the boy and ruffled his hair.
Arsenal gathered the garments of clothing from the floor and threw local dress across to Sheriff, Wolfe and then Mars. ‘Before we go any further we’ll need to blend in like locals, so I suggest we put these on.’
A few minutes later the group appeared wearing traditional dish dash’s to conceal their identities, without delay they walked through the ground cover of ferns towards the gliders. Mars helped Wolfe gather the field bags together as they placed them in the rear of the larger glider. He looked around; the army convoy had disappeared into the surrounding countryside. ‘Can we ride in the back,’ he asked Wolfe.
‘I think that will be an excellent idea, I’m happy to drive,’ Arsenal replied as he adjusted the seating positions in the cockpit, before they settled in to continue their journey through the jungle onto the Royal Temple.
The gliders started to whir and Mars made himself comfortable by sitting on a field bag. Although the ride was pretty smooth, the bag acted as a pillow, which was much appreciated when sitting on the hard surface.
‘Follow me, I’ll direct you through the Lachman Forest; I’ve been to the temple once before a long time ago to give a blessing to my parents. There’s a series of tracks that run like avenues, they build into a grid and eventually they all lead to the Royal Temple,’ said Sheriff.
Mars watched as the gliders started their journey into the forest’s interior. He could feel the power in the craft as it banked around in an arch before straightening up entering a path that cut into the trees. The light dimmed as the jungle towered above them; the track they were travelling along was extremely narrow occasionally branches could be heard flicking against the sides of the craft. After a few miles, the back of the ride had collected numerous leaves of varying colour and size. He just sat and watched the surroundings zip past.
As the journey progressed Wolfe rummage around in a couple of the field bags, but all he retrieved was some cartridges for a rifle. He continued rummaging until he found what he wanted, he pulled it out of the bags side pocket and held it in his hand, Mars could see it was a pistol.
‘Just in case we need better protection! Who knows what’s out there, maybe animals or some unwanted soldiers,’ he said slipping it under his dish dash.
Mars felt decidedly unsure about what was going on, he knew now for certain that he was the centre of everyone's attention, but why? What had he done? Why was he so respected? How could he help to rectify the occupation of this world?
Hours passed as the forest constantly zipped by, occasionally there came a shout from Arsenal to hold tight before the glider banked over to take a new trail.
‘How long before we get there?’ Mars asked.
‘I do not know, but I think we’ve travelled about two hundred miles,’ said Wolfe.
‘We’re about half way there, I’ve just recognised an old watch tower we use for scouting the area,’ A shout came back from Arsenal.
‘Only half way!’ Mars said with annoyance.
‘The forest was not named after the Great King Lachman for nothing. It is a holy place, which deserves to be protected. That is what I’ve been doing here for the last five years, since I arrived from the Kingdom of Umbria.’ Arsenal replied.
Then there came another shout from the front ‘HOLD ON!’ The vehicle banked around again to correct its direction onto another corridor. Both Mars and Wolfe were thrown side to side as the glider negotiated another tricky tight bend, before building up speed to continue its way through the jungle.
Mars timidly rose to his knees to peek over the cabin of the craft; he raised his head an inch at a time until his head reached eye level. To his right Wolfe joined him as they both hung onto the top of the cockpit gripping tightly with their hands, all their actions appeared in tunnel vision.
The boy studied the fast approaching corridor they raced along. In the distance, he could see the solitary craft leading the way around obstacles on the jungles floor. Confined by the trees which spanning out as far as the eye could see, were a mixture of tropical palms and conifers with thick fern floor coverage. The boy could just make out the skyline in this terrain; the changing of colour as the day began to slip into evening, daylight would soon become dusk and then nightfall. As the journey progressed tree shadows became exaggerated and began to bleed all into one long carpet of darkness along which they still had to travel.
Sheriff and Arsenal reduced the speed of the craft accordingly to compensate for the lack of vision, and this in turn made the journey even longer. Eventually when it seemed that it was the middle of the night, they began to reduce their speed to a crawl as they approached their destination.
‘Here we are. We have reached the Royal Temple,’ Arsenal shouted.
‘Mars rubbed his sore, dry eyes to adjust them to the moonlight. Before him, he could see two mass structures. They looked like the pebble mountains from around the palace only these were huge in diameter and twice their size. Mars looked up at the white stone, which reflected the night’s light and lit up their surroundings. That were in an open area. Palm trees lined up behind them as open grass land ran down to the canal which had travelled thousands of miles to this point. The canal water was running like a mountain river, and it was wider here than back near the palace. He listened carefully and could hear the flow of water rushing between the two giant structures, which made up the Temples rooms.
‘Can you hear the water rushing to Temple Falls? When it flows over the edge it runs down the Crown Elevation, a hundred feet below is The Lake of Kings?’ Sheriff informed the boy.
‘The Lake of Kings,’ the name sounded very grand to Mars, and he liked it!
Wolfe jumped from the glider and helped the boy to the ground before stretching out his limbs. Sheriff and Arsenal also left their gliders and started to walk over, Mars noticed that these military looking figures sported rifles as they quickly covered their heads with scarves and joined them on the grassland.
Wolfe pointed to the Temple. ‘How do we get inside?’
‘There’s an entrance at the back of the structure down there to the left. That will take us into the Royal Temple, the other side of the temple is for pilgrims who come to worship,’ Sheriff commented.
‘However, the site has been banned by Jazri for some years now the punishment for visiting here is death,’ Arsenal said grimly.
‘That could work in our favour, if there’s no one around we can approach the Guru more easily to get the ceremony done,’ Sheriff added.
The group entered the Temple with Sheriff and Arsenal walking at the front. Their rifles loaded and at the ready as they checked out the first interior rooms for any signs of an ambush. The structure of the Royal Temple was monumental and the last hour alone had been spent checking through the ground floor auditorium. Every side room and cupboard had to be examined to ensure the place was secure. Mars ha
d followed the lead of Wolfe through the Royal Temple. Arsenal and Sheriff fixed torches to their rifles and scoped out the layout of the domed Kings Hall. It was ornately decorated with unusual alien animal gargoyles sitting on pillars supporting the upper private royal rooms. As the light from the rifles shone backwards and forwards Mars could make out the outline of a throne, it was made from the white stone of the building and had designs carved into it of a flying creature and a Seahorse. Around the base was a vivid orange band of colour, which transferred into a carpet of the same colour this, led down from a raised platform. At its base was an arch of high backed wooden chairs that resembled a court gathering, it all looked decidedly official. As the two men moved around to the back of the hall Mars could make out through their guiding lights other outlines before him, on either side of the central isle were two life size stone statues of a King and Queen in royal dress. He looked more closely at their middle-aged faces and their royal crowns. His eyes drifted over their robes, and royal dress, before he reached out to touch the Kings statue. The boy felt the curves and contours of the figures muscular appearance. He noticed that, at the front, there was a small curved dagger, which the King rested his hand upon. Mars stepped back and noticed that the two figures looked over to the throne as guardians.
Eventually