Son of The Prisonland (The Myth Shadow Trilogy Book 1) Page 5

  “Aye, aye,” the other Stonemen showed support for him. “They will be punished tonight.” The echoing of their voices created even eerie atmosphere. Aylan was about explain how they came here and there was no one else with them, but he and Cro felt a bit lost in the illusion. They didn’t know how the stone man carried them and presented to their king. They got their consciousness back when one of the Stonemen snapped his finger near them. Cro felt dizzy and was going to fall from Aylan’s shoulder, but Aylan caught him on the halfway and then looked around him.

  It seemed they were brought to the king’s court. There were ten Stonemen, wearing stone made necklaces, with five chairs on his right-hand side and five on his left-hand side. They were the lords of the king’s court; the standing ones were the soldiers and the servants and the big stone man who sat on the stone made throne is the king, he guessed. The king was wearing a necklace made of wood and a crown made of green leaf.

  Aylan nodded his head to the king and said, “All hail the mighty king of the stone city, long may he reign.”

  “Not if you people keep sneaking in and try to enslave us,” the king said, looking at the intruders angrily.

  “I beg your pardon, my King. I think me, and my friend are mistaken. There is no one else with us. It is our first time here, and we didn’t mean to be the intruders. I accidentally discovered your kingdom. There’s something magical about this city that kept taking over our minds.”

  “Yes, he is right. I think I’m going to be mad if the ‘Magic’ continues like this,” said angry but confused Cro.

  “Indeed, our city is full of illusions. But it is for good reasons,” said the king. “If you’re not one of the thieves then where are you coming from?”

  Aylan thought for a moment and said, “We’re coming from the desert, my King.”

  “It is impossible. We made a massive wall at the beginning of the snake pass. How did you get through it?” The king wasn’t happy to be failed by his high wall. He thought the wall was challenging and dangerous enough for the human to cross.

  Aylan smiled to Cro. Once again, he was right. “I just climbed, and my friend flew over it.”

  “It seems like you; the humans are impossible to stop. I think we better surrender to you at last,” the king’s voice sounded very frustrated. And the Stonemen growled as well.

  “Well, the wall is indeed impossible to climb for the average human, but I have been climbing mountains for years. That’s why I made it, even though I almost died.” Aylan tried to console the Stonemen who were present in the king’s court. “And even if any other people climb over the wall, they would not be able to attack you that are for sure.”

  The King felt a bit comfort by his words. After all, their efforts showed some success. “Introduce yourself and the bird, son,” he asked softly.

  “My name is Aylan Bimbsor, and I am from far west. And this is my friend Cro, the raven, a traveler.”

  “I see. You two do look like one of the good ones,” the stone king smiled. “I am King Pathuray, and you are welcome to the Kingdom of Jangaliya.”

  “Jangaliya? I think I have heard of about it somewhere.” Aylan quickly opened the book and looked at the end of the snake pass on the map. There was a circle drawn on a jungle there and written “Jangaliya” or ‘the invisible Stone hedge.’ No more details.

  “What’s that?” one of the Lords asked him.

  “It is a book of maps. But it doesn’t have anything about Jangaliya except the name.”

  “Well, I think the map was drawn when Jangaliya was invisible,” King Pathuray sighed. “Many years ago, a few of your kind sneaked into the city and stole ‘the Cricles,’ the great five stones that kept us safe and helped us to go anywhere in Duray without being noticed. They have got help from the Dainees. Otherwise, no one else would take the risk of stealing the stones.”

  “The Dainees?” Aylan remembered about his family’s tradition. “I think I’ll be able to help you, my king. My father is a Dainee hunter. I was going back to him. With your permission, I can ask him to track down the Dainees and find the Cricles to return to you.”

  “That would be so kind of you, son. We will be grateful to you forever,” King Pathuray said. “If you do return the Cricles, we will owe you a great debt and be honor bound to help you when you are in need. The Stonemen value their friendship over anything.” All the other Stonemen shook their head. Cro thought the way they were shaking their stony heads; they may fall off anytime. He kept himself alerted for any incidents.

  “But my King, I am still puzzled about what the thieves would steal from you? You’re one of the greatest creations on the face of the Duray. Even if they have had the help from the Dainees, how would they be able to enslave you? It seems impossible to me.”

  “Well, we needed to go to the jungle often to collect food from there, as we didn’t grow anything. These humans somehow came to know that without the Cricles, we’re helpless outside the border of our city. So, they attacked our people in the jungle and captured them. When we realized it and stopped going outside the frontier, they started to sneak into the city and tried to steal the young ones. So far, we have stopped them, but seems like they wouldn’t give up that easily and let us live in peace,” the stone King explained with a sad voice.

  “That’s the greed that is driving them crazy. I am feeling humiliated of my fellow human’s behaviors with you, my King. Now I am even more determined to find the Cricles and return your people who were taken.”

  “No son, you don’t need to be sorry for what the evil ones have done. We don’t blame the whole humankind for some thieves’ wrongdoing,” the king assured him about his thoughts.

  Aylan smiled and nodded. Cro whispered in his ear, “This king makes more sense than the human. I think I like him now.”

  The king asked them to join for the supper. Aylan felt confused about the food. Only God knows what would be there to eat. He nodded to the king as the accepting gesture.

  In a few moments, they were taken to the second floor of the palace. Aylan had a hard time to climb the stairs as they were way too big for him, but he smiled and rejected any help by the Stonemen. Cro stroked again, “Man, I think you have climbed enough for one day. You better sit on a stone man’s shoulder and go upstairs like a boss. I mean me.”

  “Keep your mouth shut, you joker,” Aylan smiled.

  When they got into the dining room, they were surprised to see the food. There were hundreds of bowls full of known and unknown dried fruit and jugs full of juice-like liquid. Cro whispered again, “Are they serious? I thought there would be roast chicken, rack of lamb or beef steaks. But all I can see is a huge table that is full of rubbish. Man, I am going to find some food out of the city.”

  “You are not going anywhere,” Aylan rebuked him. Cro gave him an angry glance and sat on his shoulder quietly.

  As King Pathuray and Aylan stood by the table, the Queen and the Princess appeared from behind the curtain. Aylan bowed to them with surprising eyes. In the past years, he believed that he had seen everything and there’s nothing new left to see. Right now, seeing the stone ladies, Aylan has rejected his opinion and admitted to that he hadn’t seen everything yet. He had no idea that the stone women would have any different look than the men. But the stone women had all the feminine features as the female human and the most visible difference was their main body stone, which was a bit longer than the men, as they wore long dresses. They were at the same height as Aylan. Both the Stone Queen and the Princess were indeed stunning with their stone-made bodies. They looked very sophisticated with their jewelry, which was made of various precious stones. They were also wearing red colored leave-made tiaras. The queen gave a very kind motherly look to Aylan when she entered the dining room. She said, “Please be seated, son. I have heard everything from the other room. And my blessings are with you.”

  Aylan smiled and said, “I’m feeling honored, my Grace. I will try my best.”

  The stone Queen had
some grains in her hand. As she nodded to Aylan, she put them on a plate and looked at Cro, “Here, and Cro, I hope you will like it.”

  Cro jumped off Aylan’s shoulder, walked to the plate and examined the grains, but couldn’t recognize them. At first, he hesitated, then thought to give it a go. As he put the first seed into the mouth, he realized how tasty they were. No one had seen him raising his head for the rest of the supper time.

  King Pathuray explained the reason for eating the dry fruits. The Stonemen were all vegetarians and relied on sunlight to get their required energy like the trees, but unlike trees, they didn’t have any leaves to collect the light. So, they ate sun-dried fruit to get it. The King then introduced Aylan to Prince Mathuray, the Stoneman who caught him in the border. The prince was also the commander of the stone soldiers. He was pleased to know that Aylan would go to find the Cricles for them. And with his daughter Princess Amura, who was sat quietly. Cro suspected that the princess had fancied Aylan. When he was on Aylan’s shoulder, he saw her blushing every time she looked at him. Cro just couldn’t imagine how it would look like if a human and a Stone Princess were to get married!

  On the halfway through the dinner, suddenly they heard rushed footsteps on the stairs. Within a moment a soldier appeared in the dining room. He fell on his knees straight away to apologize for entering the room without permission and then said, “My King we are under attack. The slave traders. They have gathered on a mountain just outside the eastern border. They have some strange looking vehicle with them. They are also gathering a lot of big sized stones around the vehicles.”

  Chapter Six

  Everyone had stopped their movements, and the silence fell in the room. The king and the prince looked at each other. A totally expected attack in an unexpected time and the presence of a human with them.

  “Catapult,” said Aylan.

  “What’s that?” King Pathuray asked. He wasn’t happy to know the news.

  “A catapult is a ballistic device used to launch a projectile a great distance. These people are going to destroy the whole Jangaliya. We’ve to be hurry to stop them.” Aylan jumped off the chair.

  King Pathuray looked to the Queen, “Stay inside and take care of the women. They will need your command.”

  The stone Queen was holding her daughter’s hand, who looked panicked to know the bad news. She said, “Don’t worry about us, my King. We’ll be alright. Go and defeat the slave traders.”

  The King followed the Prince and Aylan, who were already at the bottom of the stairs. Aylan felt like Prince Mathuray didn’t like his presence at the moment, but didn’t say anything. Because he had doubted that Aylan was the scout of the Raiders, and somehow he informed them about their current movements. Also, he didn’t know how these catapult things do work. He couldn’t think of any ideas for defense or attack them, as the Raiders were outside the border. When the King joined them, Prince Mathuray admitted his inability to face them, “Father, I can’t think of any good ideas to defend or attack. I thought of throwing stones back to them, but they are at the top of the mountain, and our stones will not even reach to the halfway.”

  King Pathuray looked at Aylan as he was, his last hope, “Do you have any idea how to stop the catapult, son?”

  Aylan thought for a moment and said, “Is there any chance to see the Raiders? I wanted to know what exactly they are going to do.”

  The prince nodded and pointed him to the nearest watchtower. As they approached the stairs, Prince Mathuray took Aylan on his shoulder and started going up with big steps. Cro was flying by them. He smiled to see Aylan’s embarrassed face. As they reached the top of the tower, Prince Mathuray put Aylan on a stone beside the wall and stood at a distance. Then he reached out his hands to the front, pointing at the mountain where the raiders were, grabbed the air and pulled back the hands to him. All of a sudden, the whole mountain came in front of them. It was one of the Stonemen powers that could bring the distant scenarios closer to look into them. Aylan and Cro felt dizzy once again. Cro said, “Cr-r-ruck, I can’t take it anymore.”

  Aylan hushed him as he took control of himself and looked at the preparation scene. The Raiders had five catapults ready, and they were pulling big sized rocks with the ropes and gathering them beside the catapults. Aylan thought, there was no way they have pulled the catapults to the top of the mountain. They have built them secretly behind the big boulders. Now, as the catapults were ready, there was no need to keep them hidden. And the stone soldiers were too late to see their movements. “But why are they waiting? They already have enough rocks to attack the city!” Aylan muttered.

  King Pathuray pointed him to the even distant scene. Then he grabbed the air and pulled back to him. Aylan skipped a heartbeat to see the horse rider. It was his ex-employer, slave trader Khatash Shiyalsor, one of the greediest, meanest and cruel man he had ever seen in his entire life. This man had always taken risks to make money. This time he was playing the biggest gamble of his life. He was going to destroy the stone hedge to capture the entire Stonemen race to trade. The predators were waiting for his command.

  “Do you know this man?” King Pathuray noticed Aylan’s reaction.

  “I wish I didn’t. Khatash is one of the vilest men you’d ever encounter. He will destroy the entire city if he reaches the top of the mountain. We have to strike fast,” Aylan said.

  The King and the Prince were looking at him to know if he had any plan. Aylan understood their silent question and said, “I do have a plan. But it depends if you can do what I want.”

  “What is that?” asked Prince Mathuray.

  “Can you make our position higher than the Raiders? I want to scare them to break their confidence.”

  “I could do that, but without the Cricles, we’re just some illusionists.” the prince replied with a frustrated voice.

  “Right, make an illusion then. At least we must have some advantage over them,” Aylan tried to encourage him.

  “You’ll have it right away,”

  “Awesome!” Aylan said. “As soon as you create the illusion, some of the soldiers would pretend that they are going to roll some big sized rocks. That would scare the Raiders, and in between this time Cro would hide behind a boulder and shout in a human voice, say to flee to save their lives.”

  Cro cleared his throat; he was happy to contribute to the battle, “You can have full trust in me in this matter. I am an expert menace.”

  Prince Mathuray smiled, “You know, we could roll ourselves instead of pretending, but there’s a significant risk of being caught by the Raiders, as we’re helpless outside the border.”

  Aylan thought for a moment. “Well, if you could do, it would be even better.” He looked at the stone prince, “What if, the soldiers roll and hit the catapults and return straightway?”

  “Hmm, that’s possible,” the stone prince agreed.

  When they approached the eastern wall, Prince Mathuray explained the plan to his soldiers. The soldiers knocked down the wall in a few moments and waited for the further orders. Cro flew to the mountain and waited for the right time.

  The Raiders heard the sound of the fallen wall, and they stopped their activities to look at what the Stonemen were doing. The moonlight gave them a clear view. They felt uneasy as they were told that there would be no trouble at all. Now the master Khatash Shiyalsor wasn’t there yet, and they had no idea about what the Stonemen were going to do next. They just kept looking at the broken wall. All of a sudden, they felt dizzy and found themselves in a lower position than the Stone Hedge, but they were supposed to be at the top of the mountain! The men became even more confused and started losing their confidence. The master’s most loyal assistant Vando realized the changed situation and shouted, “Don’t be fooled, my friends. Remember what the master told us? The Stonemen can make grand illusions and what you see now is one of their tricks. And the master will be here at any moment. We shall defeat the Stonemen.”

  Vando’s mini inspiring lecture worked fo
r a short time, but as they saw the Stonemen appeared rolling some huge rocks and then pushed towards them, the Raiders rushed behind the catapults and the boulders. The rocks went straight to the catapults. Four of them hit the catapults and broke them into pieces. Just before the fifth catapult was going to get hit, Vando threw a stone on the way of the rolling Stoneman. The Stoneman tripped on it, and his course changed instantly, and the catapult saved.

  That gave the Raiders a bit of courage back. But Cro shouted in a harsh voice, “Run for your lives, brothers. These Stonemen are going to crush us all!!” The Raiders have lost the rest of their confidence and started fleeing. Only Vando stayed behind as he had seen his master coming.

  While passing by the runaway men, Khatash Shiyalsor gave them some disgusted look. He didn’t try to stop them because he understood about their mental condition right at that moment. He gave an angry glance to the Stone Hedge and increased his horses’ speed. He had invested a big amount of money in capturing the Stonemen and promised buyers a big delivery of profitable slaves. Now at the last moment, everything was about to ruin.

  Aylan rushed to the Stonemen who rolled back to the broken wall. He asked them if any of them could give him a lift. The stone prince shrugged at with the question in his eyes. Aylan said, “I have to make this man flee as well. He still has a catapult ready, and his master is on the way.” As he got ready, a Stoneman held Aylan in his chest and rolled. Aylan expected to see the world rolling upside down but surprisingly found himself in a rather comfortable ride. He was just sitting on it and ride was going as fast as he never experienced.

  When they were rolling into the mountain, Vando thought that was another attack on the catapult, so he threw another rock on the way of the Stoneman. Having experienced the same trouble, the Stoneman slowed down and went around the stone. Vando understood the rolling rock wasn’t any ordinary stone, probably the Stoneman itself. He looked behind at his master’s way, as he wanted to let him know that one of the Stonemen is outside the city and they would cast a spell on him and catch him quickly. Before he could signal his master to hurry, Aylan appeared in front of him from nowhere. Vando skipped a heartbeat as if he had seen a ghost. As far as his knowledge, Aylan Bimbsor was supposed to be dead, rotten and mixed in soil by now, because he was the one who announced the reward for Aylan’s death and witnessed while Aylan was being beaten and left him to be vulture’s food. But he didn’t die and stood right here, in front of him. Vando felt his knees lost the strength and he sat down on the ground. “You!” he asked with a weak voice.