Elementis 1: The Heir to the Stone by Jonathan Wedge Read Free Book Online Page B

something to say. The serious look that was constantly plastered to his face amused Jonas. He thought that if he ever smiled, his dark hair and blue stern eyes wouldn't look so uncomfortable in deep thought. The big one with "Goldheart" on his yellow suit was even quieter, and the girl in the blue armour suit, "Menace" who looked a couple of years older than Jonas seemed a lot more intelligent than any of the females he knew back on Rilk. Not that that was difficult, the city slums he'd lived in had no education system to speak of. People only learned from what was around them and that was mostly brutality and thieving, Rilk was no world for a lady.
    Thinking of home and the spiders that he never imagined he could miss, got Jonas thinking about poor Hok. He was just doing a job. The RBs didn't have to kill him. What right did they have above all others to kill but not be killed? What right did any man have to tell another what he was doing was wrong when he would break the same laws himself? Authority, Jonas thought. It can go to the place where the bad spirits burn and souls are erased from eternity. He had had enough of being pushed around. It seemed to him that there was always someone telling him what to do. Why couldn't they just leave him alone to get on with whatever life he wanted? He didn't know any other life than the life of a spider and even though they did push him around and didn't much like him, he was at least good at his job. He didn't know what he'd have done without the spiders, he may not even still be alive if the crews hadn't taken him in ten years ago when he was five and had just lost his guardian, Lina, to old age.
    He could remember the day he lost her well. A couple of older Rilkers were pushing him about in the local drinking hole—a dark and dirty place full of tough old spiders. They were laughing, encouraging the beating. The worst thing was the smell of the two louts putting their wooden skin hands on him as they bounced him between themselves. Jonas didn't care though, he hoped that maybe if he tolerated the shoving and amused them for a while that he would be allowed to join the famous ship-spiders; that's why he had walked in there in the first place. It seemed the best fit for a boy with no home and no mother or father. The bigger of the two Rilkers took it too far though. He picked up a fork and stabbed it into the skin of his own hand as the surrounding spiders pounded their fists on the tables, laughing as their filled cups spilled klag onto an already sticky wooden floor. Then it was Jonas's turn. The spider pulled the fork out of his hand, held Jonas's flat on the table, lifted the fork into the air, raising the excitement in the room and thrust it down into his hand. Except the fork didn't go into his hand; the prongs were bent and his hand was unharmed. The laughter stopped and that was the day that Jonas became a spider.
    Spectrum knocked Jonas from his trail of thought. "Jonas, what do you know about planet Aquilla?" he asked, as a turquoise sphere came into view in front of the windshield.
    "Nothing would just about cover it," Jonas replied, eyeing the planet in wonder.
    "What could the king want with him?" Menace said.
    Jonas broke his gaze from the planet, shifting his eyes to Menace. "King?" he said.
    Cortex smiled at the minor panic. "King Uly. I'd rather spend those fifty years on Kroyto than be in trouble with him," he teased.
    Jonas turned back to look at the glowing planet outside. Curiosity filled his mind with the possibilities as to what a king could want with him.
     
     

 
     
    Chapter V
     
    Truth
     
     
    Skylark flew in above the city of Enterra with eight dekapod fighters beside her wings, escorting the transporter and its precious cargo safely home. Looking out of a small window in the side of the ship, Jonas took in the sights of the city below. As they drew closer to the ground his eyes were fixed on the city's tranquil aura of street upon street of