Elementis 1: The Heir to the Stone Read Free Page A

helmets with vicious punches before the RBs could react to the attack. More and more officers ran to the aid of the squadron as Jonas knocked them away with swinging fists and back hand lashes. Two energy-straps wrapped around Jonas's arms, he felt the buzz of the glowing energy warm against his skin. Two more straps restrained the boys legs. He struggled on until he realised he couldn't break free from the energy or the hold of the five RBs at each end of the straps. He struggled down to a calm acceptance that he had been captured.
    The Red-Badge captain walked onto the deck to see the mess of officers strewn across the floor. He came up close to Jonas. "Take him to Kroyto!" he said with rigid lip movements that matched the robotic edges of his face. "He won't enjoy it—one little bit!" he said.
    Jonas held his gaze into the fabricated sheen of the captains eyes. He had heard about the inmates of the prisons on planet Kroyto, and from the stories captured spiders had told him, the captain was right; he wouldn't enjoy it, not one little bit.
     

 
     
    Chapter III
     
    Wild Minds
     
     
    Morning arose and Prince Calyx stood alone on top of a palace tower, gazing out across the city of Enterra. The palace was a grand building topped with spires, towers and small dome roofs, but the tower on which Calyx stood was always his chosen spot to watch the city awake in the morning.
    The outer stone walls of the palace were decorated with panes of impressive stained-glass windows. The gentle gush of a freshwater river ran beneath the lower foundations of the palace, flowing right through the centre of Enterra and on to the unseeable ocean's edge, way beyond the city's walls. Floating courtyards bridged across the river-banks, connecting the palace to the streets and sky high buildings in the city beyond.
    Calyx stood peacefully, watching speeding transporters taking Cytherean Guard to their daily posts as the morning watch took over from the night guards. He ran his fingers across the slight protrusion of his blue birthmark upon his jaw. Somehow it gave him comfort with the thought that this is what his mother had given him before she had died. The blue scar was as clear as the day of his birth and apart from his fine woven clothes, his silver head-band and the golden crescents of the energy-star that he wore on his left wrist; Calyx looked just like his twin brother.
    Being alone with his thoughts in the mornings gave Calyx the only time he ever had to himself. The only time he ever had to think about just himself and nothing else. His life was far from easy, being constantly pushed to his mental and physical limits without too much thought from anyone about his own needs and well-being. The king was to hand down the Elementis to him in just three years time, when he reached his eighteenth year and inherited all of the power of his father. Until then, every single day was dedicated to prepare him for only that moment. He trained in solitude each day with Witakker and each time that he reached a level of theory advanced enough to progress he was trained in a new area of combat with the kings four protectors; Hawk, Wingrise, Spirit and Tempo. Calyx, of course had his own four protectors. The bond the five of them had built grew with every meeting, but Calyx rarely got to see them. The protectors trained as hard as the prince himself, and were often flown off to Obitrum for military exercise months at a time. And although he enjoyed the company of the kings protectors, Calyx had begged his father to let him join the Junior Guard and his own protectors at the Guard Academy on Obitrum too many times to remember. The king would never allow it. Calyx was far too precious to leave the palace, let alone to leave the planet. The pressure that came with his training left no time for any of life's luxuries or enjoyments and so a moment of self-reflection in the morning was as good as it got for the prince. Reflection helped him focus on his