CHAPTER 9

ARON THE ELDEST

Far away in the secret hidden city of Keva, Aron The Eldest, and the Old Ones of the Great Council were continually in conference over the crisis that had come upon their city and their world of Ares. They were hard at work exercising their mental powers in a vast mind-meld to infiltrate the thoughts of the Vognars. They were seeking to learn all the deadly secrets of these mysterious Blues. It was long and difficult work.

“Our people are making progress. We are finding out how to discover the powers of the Vognars, how to fly their airships, build and use their mighty beam weapons, and of course, the small box they wear that creates invisibility. That is a special device, it was something left over from the ancient peoples of Ares.”

“A device?” one of the Old Ones asked curiously.

“A small machine, it bends the waves of light. It appears to be magic, but it is not, it is super science from the Ancient Ones of long ago,” Lanus stated.

Now all listen,” Aron said, calling for everyone’s attention. “Olar has something of great importance to tell us.”

Slowly a younger Kevan man rose to his feet. He looked to be a serious sort, worried, and quite young for this council of aged sages. Olar was indeed youthful in age, having lived a mere 50 years of life as compared with Aron’s more than 800 years of life. Nevertheless, he was a valued council member with very special talents. Now all eyes were turned to him in anticipation of the news he had to report.

Olar took a deep breath and carefully began his report to the Great Council of the Old Ones of Keva. “Through mind calculations I have been able to discover the location of King Shamar, as well as Jon Kirk and the green warrior general, called Zaor. All three are at this very moment are being held captive, and even now are in the very presence of his mighty lordship, Okvon, Supreme Leader of the Vognars. They are in the capital city of the Blues far away on the eastern continent across the Serpent Water. I and my team are making contact and shall soon have a connection with Shamar’s mind in place and open for your contact with him Aron.”

There was a murmur of approval and consternation among the Old Ones for this was good news, but any matter of war was disturbing for the Kevans, and this would bring them deeper into it. The eastern continent of Vognar was unknown to most green people, and it was mysterious and dangerous to the Kevans who until then had not known of its existence except in old long-lost books. Nor did they care. However, to realize that all those terrible old stories, meant to scare the uneducated and superstitious might in fact be true, was unnerving. The continent of Vognar was also so far away, many leagues across the deadly Serpent Water. How could any mind reach that far, even with many of them in a meld? “What if this blue-skinned enemy forces Shamar to talk, or they can somehow enter his own mind? Looking for information?” asked one of the Old Ones named Laar, obviously nervous and growing fearful about Keva becoming involved in the coming war. “Then under torture he may tell them all he knows about the location of Keva and the mind powers of our people. That could doom us all. We are a small city-state, not powerful, we cannot oppose these thousands or millions of Blues.”

“That is true, my friend, but true only under normal circumstances. However remember, we have powers that are not normal. We must also remember that noble King Shamar is a great warrior, not only a king of Keva. He will never give up our secrets, even under the worst torture imaginable, and we will soon have Jon Kirk and his Green Empire with us. That will make all the difference.” Aron insisted firmly.

“I agree with Aron,” Olar stated. “King Shamar is strong, we shall prevail.”

Aron continued, “Shamar and his two companions are all valiant warriors. We will aid them, and in doing so, they will aid us. We need the Greens to fight and win this war. With this Jon Kirk, they can do it.”

“I am sure Aron is correct about their bravery, no one here doubts that,” Laar replied testily, “but we must remember that our numbers are too small to even contemplate any conventional fight with the blue men across the Serpent Water.”

“That is why we need the Greens. I have now established a mind-to-mind link with King Shamar,” Olar continued with a bold sweep of his arms. “I have told him to keep hope in his heart and that we will make our plans known to Jon Kirk and Zoar through him soon. Events are progressing well, but there is still great danger.”

* * * *

Zaor and I were initially shocked when we were taken into the Vognar throne room. For there appeared to be an empty throne in an empty room. Not what we expected. Most unusual. Other than our guards, there seemed to be no one else there at all. However, I could feel a presence there. A terrible dark malignant presence.

I turned when I heard what sounded like another muffled cough, accompanied by a hint of stifled laughter. Now that we were closer I could smell perfume and the sweat of bodies. Many bodies. I realized the truth now, that vast chamber was in fact full of people—all people that we could not see.

Shamar now whispered to us, relayed words from Aron’s mind speak, which gave us hope. “I am in mind-to-mind contact with the Old Ones of Keva now. Aron The Eldest tells me they are working on our problem. They will aid us, and we will be rescued soon. We are to wait, do nothing yet, and all shall be soon revealed.”

I only nodded grimly. I did not like the idea of waiting for those of Keva to begin our escape, but if we were to get help, that was something worth waiting for. Help would be nice, from whatever quarter, but I was determined that help or no help, Zaor and I would find some way to escape and get back to Tarcos no matter what these Blue fiends had in store for us.

In the meantime we were led by Vaar and his guards closer to the empty throne.

Then suddenly before us the air began to shimmer and a large and grossly fat blue man suddenly appeared upon the throne. For an instant he was alone, just sitting there by himself, watching us with an amused look upon his jowly face. Then many hundreds of the enemy suddenly became visible all throughout the huge chamber. There were now row after row of them appearing. Hundreds. Perhaps thousands.

Now that they had all become visible to us, I saw there were blue-skinned people everywhere. Men and women, nobles and warriors, the entire court of the Vognar leader. Obviously they had been invisible and remained silent as we were led into the throne room, better to make the effect of their becoming visible even more impressive to us. It was. Even though we had felt the presence of others in that room, we had seen no one until now. Seeing them all appear like that instantaneously before our eyes now, was a shock and surprise I shall never forget.

I looked up to see the man who sat upon what had once been an apparently empty throne, a man who had suddenly materialized right before my eyes. Okvon, the Supreme Leader of the Vognars and the Blues. He was the largest man I had ever seen. He was grossly overweight, wearing rich clothing and covered in gleaming jewelry, and he oozed a malignant power. His dark blue face emanated an evil with a relentless thirst. Shamar gasped nervously. Zaor took a step back. I clenched my fists ready for whatever might come.

“Bow down to Okvon, Supreme Leader of the Vognars!” Vaar ordered us harshly, and when we did not move, his men used their weapons to force us to show the required respect.

“I bow my knee to no man,” I growled, resisting the guards, adding, “and especially I do not bow down to any vile creature such as you, Okvon.”

The Supreme Leader did not appreciate my words of defiance. His face grew red with furious anger but to his credit he held his patience.

Vaar glowed red with rage at this insult to his leader, and he quickly struck me with the blunt edge of his sword. “Down you filth!”

I moved quickly too now, a bit too quickly for my guards, so I dodged his blade, and then gave Vaar a hard fist into the face. I was growing tired of games and of these insolent Blues. Vaar reeled then fell down to the floor.

“Hah!” Zaor laughed at the Blue. “Not so tough now, eh?”

Vaar, the Vognar officer had fallen to the ground stunned, but after a moment he rebounded and ordered his men to punish me for my attack upon him. He told his men to hit me mercilessly, it was an effective beating even though I got in quite a few effective shots back at my tormentors. Shamar and Zaor fought to escape and help me but they were held firmly by their guards and could only watch helplessly as I received my beating. Vaar watched with evident delight, a wicked leer upon his face.

Finally the Supreme Leader, Okvon himself intervened, “Enough! Stop it! I do not want him dead, Vaar! Not yet.”

“Yes, My Lord,” Vaar replied and he immediately called his men off me.

The Vognar leader looked closely upon the three of us and motioned that we be brought even closer to the throne so that he could view us better. When we were closer, we were halted before the Supreme Leader by Vaar and his guardsmen and held there. I considered trying a surprise attack upon Okvon to take the Supreme Leader hostage, but held back for the moment. I wanted to find out what information I could gain from him first, and I also decided to wait for the help we were promised from the Kevans. I did not want to do anything to interfere with, or mix-up, their plan. They said they would help us and I appreciated that help. I just wondered what that help could be, seeing that it was aid coming from so far away across the vast ocean and from the other side of Ares. I wondered what they could do to help us from so far away.

Okvon looked at me closely now with open contempt. “So you are the upstart fool who dares call himself emperor of all Ares? You are the man called Jon Kirk?”

Okvon was obviously highly insulted and angry by my title, for he viewed himself as the only one to lay claim to any important title on Ares.

I looked the Blue leader in the eyes boldly, my eyes blazing back with fierce defiance, “I am he, but I did not seek the title, it was forced upon me by the people I serve. I only accepted it to better lead the green peoples against their enemies and to freedom.”

“The Greens? They are nothing, it is the Blues who are important and who shall rule!” Okvon shouted, the fatty folds of his face and jowls shaking with rage with each word. “And now, Jon Kirk, what manner of being are you? You have neither blue nor green hued skin, nor are you a Zaran winged man?

“I am an American, from Earth,” I replied simply with pride. “Am-Racan? Er-Arth?” Okvon shrugged, pronouncing the words like most on Ares would do so, in two syllables. “What strange country are these? I have never heard of them, but it is of no consequence. However, when it comes to the title of emperor of Ares, there is another more fit than you for that position, Jon Kirk, and that is, of course, myself. Hah, why even the noble Grusus, the new king of the winged hordes has a more valid claim to that title than you do. The Winged-men, our new allies. Even now he and his army are carving up your middling Green Empire, even as his swords and daggers carve up the green people of the eastern continent who oppose us.”

I grew enraged by these words and the knowledge that the Blues were working together with the Zaran Winged-men, but I held back my rage. For the moment.

There was general laughter throughout the chamber against the Greens by the Blues at their leader’s striking remark.

Zaor, Shamar and I coldly stared at Okvon after his stunning and cruel words, though we prayed those words were false, or that the Vognar plans would never come to pass. We feared for the green people in the light of such dangerous enemies. I thought of my beloved Sirah back in Tarcos, and prayed she was safe and that the city had not yet fallen.

“By now,” Okvon said with a renewed eagerness as if reading my fears, “Tarcos will have fallen. Soon that city, and your so-called Green Empire, will be but a memory. Mentep, come forward!”

In response to the Supreme Leader’s command, from the front rank of Vognar nobles and warriors, strode forward a middle-aged huge blue-hued warrior. His rank denoting him as a high officer in the Vognar military. Lord Mentep was, in fact, the Lord Admiral of the Vognar air fleet, and he would lead the Vognar horde’s invasion to take over the eastern continent. He was also the brother of Okvon.

“Yes, my Lord,” Mentep answered bowing before his lord and Supreme Leader.

“You, my loyal brother, Lord Mentep,” Okvon ordered firmly, “shall take command of our expedition tomorrow and crush all resistance on the eastern continent of Ares. Soon we shall conquer the entire planet. Your army shall also aid Grusus in every way possible in his war against these green scum.”

“Yes, Supreme Leader!” Lord Mentep replied obediently. “However, these winged creatures are strange beings, not of Ares originally, so if Grusus and his flying followers refuse to aid our horde in your conquest, or become treacherous or cowardly, you have my permission to destroy them one and all. Then take full control of the eastern continent of the green people for me here in Vognar. Remember the winged beasts are our allies in this coming war—but it is only an alliance of convenience for us. We shall turn upon them when they are no longer useful. Ares is our world, the winged creatures are interlopers here!”

“Yes, My Lord,” Mentep replied eagerly. “The warriors stand ready to fight and die in your service, Great King.”

“As they should, Lord Mentep. I trust you with the destruction of the Greens. In fact, once we conquer that land, I think I shall change the name of the continent of Cos to ‘Okvon’, in honor of myself and my heroic conquest.”

“That is a superb idea, My Lord, and it shall mark your great victory for all the ages,” Mentep said with fawningly effect. “I know it is a most fitting and noble name for our newly conquered lands.”

Okvon smiled with pleasure at these words. Then he looked at me and added, “Perhaps, afterwards, we shall even find this country of the white-skin here, this Am-Racan, or Er-Arth, or whatever it is, and conquer it as well!”

“Yes, my Lord, more lands to conquer is a fine plan for the future. Your people will love to have the newly conquered eastern land blessed with your noble name, all in honor of their beloved Supreme Leader.”

I looked to Zaor and Shamar and gave both men a twisted grin. Shamar slowly shook his head, while Zaor tried to hold back a biting comment.

Nevertheless, a loud applause soon arose from those Vognars assembled in the huge chamber. Shamar, Zaor and I did not try to hide our laughter at the bombastic egotism of the Vognar leader. He had to be delusional or mad, or both.

Okvon heard us, his face took on a twisted visage as he looked upon the three of us with rage and hatred. We were raining on his parade and I was glad of it. He was a man never to be ridiculed. He sharply bellowed, “Enough! Take these barbarians away from my majestic presence! My eyes burn at the very sight of them any longer! Take them away from me and have them killed, but make sure that it happens very slowly and very painfully.”

Bold words from a big coward!” I shouted out defiantly, purposely insulting the enemy leader, hoping to egg him on.

There was a deadly hush throughout the massive chamber. The people were shocked and astounded by my incredibly defiant words.

“You dare challenge me!” Okvon growled in rage.

“What are you doing?” Zaor whispered to me nervously. I motioned him and Shamar to be silent and to go along with my plan.

I saw my opening.

“Yes, I challenge you!” I shouted boldly.

“A challenge? A challenge! I have not had a challenge in a very long time. No one has ever been foolish enough to post a challenge to me in so long a time,” Okvon replied thinking it through with some amusement, an evil leer overcoming his face.

I looked directly at Okvon, “I am the Emperor of the Greens, you are a King and Supreme Leader of the Blues, what better for the two of us to do battle to see which shall claim the true title of Emperor of Ares once and for all. I hereby challenge you Okvon, in personal combat, to the death!”

The Supreme Leader stood up from of his throne, his fatty folds quivering, his dark blue face turning beet red in rage. However, he quickly regained his composure and actually smiled. He showed pointed yellow teeth in a death’s head grin, “So be it! I accept your challenge, Jon Kirk. We shall fight to the death. Let the challenge begin!”