The Cloak of Steel

Stephen Hayes

Description

John and his circle of friends, wanted dead by the new ruler of the world, suddenly have their one and only sanctuary infiltrated and destroyed.

Yet this catastrophe is also an opportunity for the group of teenagers to do what their elders have so far failed to do, and topple the tyrant once and for all.

With the Woodward Base destroyed by Arnold Hammerson and his soldiers, John and his friends must take what little magic they have and put it to most effective use.

But a problem remains: how to do what they know must be done? The problem is far too big to be solved with a single stroke of spellwork, as our heroes soon discover.

Their only real chance is to put to use a piece of knowledge which almost no one in the world knows about, even though it would result in certain death for all of them if they fail.

Sujets

• Fantastique
• Epic Fantasy
• Fiction
• Fantasy

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 23 juin 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9780994459046
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Magic Crystals
 
The Cloak of Steel
Clean Edit Edition
 
by
 
Stephen Hayes
The Cloak of Steel
Clean Edit Edition
Book 5 in the Magic Crystals series
 
Written by Stephen Hayes
Published 2017 by Stephen Hayes, Australia
Formatted by www.eBookIt.com
 
www.StephenHayesOnline.com
 
Copyright © Stephen Hayes 2017
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon, Facebook or similar organisations) in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
 
Disclaimer: All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
 
ISBN-13: 978-0-9944590-4-6
Table of Contents
Prologue
Part 1: And on the Third Night…
Chapter 1: The First Night
Chapter 2: The Anti-Shadow Movement
Chapter 3: Dinner Guest
Chapter 4: The Second Night
Chapter 5: Escape Plan
Chapter 6: Ghostly Walls
Chapter 7: Deathtrap
Chapter 8: On Our Own
Chapter 9: Forward Progress
Part 2: Hunting
Chapter 10: Tracing
Chapter 11: The First Step
Chapter 12: The Bigger Picture
Chapter 13: Extraction
Chapter 14: Blow by Blow
Chapter 15: Hitchhiking
Chapter 16: Documents
Chapter 17: Gotcha
Chapter 18: Responsibility
Chapter 19: A Question of Protection
Part 3: Mission Improbable
Chapter 20: On the Other Side
Chapter 21: Around the Campfire
Chapter 22: Through the Wire
Chapter 23: Lowly
Chapter 24: Love Child
Chapter 25: On the Road
Chapter 26: Pain
Chapter 27: The Test
Chapter 28: Homebound
Chapter 29: Catching Up
Part 4: The Cloak of Steel
Chapter 30: The Project
Chapter 31: Simulations
Chapter 32: Exposed
Chapter 33: Coldblooded
Chapter 34: Fight the Powers that Be
Chapter 35: In the Cell
Chapter 36: Interrogation
Chapter 37: Breaking Point
Chapter 38: Eye of the Storm
Chapter 39: The Three Momentous Steps
Chapter 40: Time Bomb Triggered
Epilogue
 
Prologue
Since the beginning of June, television stations in various countries around the world had been airing informational programs about the Hammerheart rule. In each one, Arnold Hammerson (referred to throughout as Lord Hammerson) would be accompanied by his most important underlings in that particular territory and together, they would conduct a large press conference with just about every media outlet of that country, the subject being all the dos-and-don'ts of the new regime. If the country in question primarily spoke a language other than English, Lord Hammerson would place an enchantment upon himself so that although he would speak English, it would be heard to everyone else as whatever language they understood the best.
Each time one of these press conferences was held, that country (so far the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Italy, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia) would cease to be a country but would instead become, by title, a territory of Hammersonia. This political arrangement was only temporary; it would cease to matter when the Hammerhearts had taken control of the entire planet, but so far they had still not made moves toward any countries south of Panama in the Americas, or southwest of Egypt in Africa. Once the Hammerhearts had established their rule everywhere, all political borders would be severed, an action that would surely create cultural chaos if done too quickly, but Lord Hammerson insisted that by the time it happened, the world would be ready for it.
On the night of June 14, 2010, it was Australia's turn to join Hammersonia. The hour-long program aired on all commercial and government television stations and was attended by every news outlet in the country, as well as a few pro-Hammerheart bloggers who would be given the opportunity to spread the word to all their readers using more modern technology. More than one hundred media personnel were there, crammed into the large convention room with their various note-taking devices, and at the head of the room, seated around a large table, were the important men and women who were now running the country including Lord Hammerson, Hank Cornish (currently the Prime Minister, although about to be repositioned), Dermott Hall (the Australian Chief of Police, now entitled the Commissioner of Police, and therefore in charge of all law enforcement in the country as all state police forces had been merged with the federal force) and a number of other ministers who made up what was still being referred to as the Governing Committee of Australia.
Because his main job was to act as the liaison between Lord Hammerson and the local ministers, Hank Cornish had been selected to mediate the press conference (he was hardly the most important person in the room, after all). He stood up, spread his arms and welcomed everyone (press and television audience alike) to the conference, and introduced everyone at the table. Before he opened the floor to any questions, however, he turned the spotlight on Lord Hammerson. He then sat back in his seat while the man in charge of so much of the world stood up to address the country.
“For hundreds of years, humankind has strived for the ideal society,” he began. “We have evolved at a steady rate over the centuries, and the rate of evolution in recent decades has accelerated as we use technology to better our quality of life. However, this acceleration comes with several problems. One is that the entire purpose of evolution is to reach a point where we can be comfortable and content with our existence, but what happens when we reach that point? We stop; that's what happens. As a general rule, once we find a system that works for us as individuals, we stop looking to improve upon it. Another problem is that never before have we had any control over our own evolution. You only have to look at how the Internet has changed our lives in the last ten years to know what I mean. I highly doubt anyone who tried to predict where technology would lead us all those years ago would have guessed at how it has turned out. This is not a good thing because it means that the technology itself may slip out of our control and ultimately be quite damaging to our society.
“Now, before you get any ideas, our goal is not to regress technology to achieve the ideal society—we will merely take what has already been done and alter it so that we can control where it takes us. That is essentially what all of this is about, except that we will take it further. Human nature itself would make the ideal society just about impossible, but anything is possible when we have magic at our disposal. You only have to believe it is so and it will be so. All I ask of each and every one of you out there is to have a little faith and open your minds to the idea of change in your lives. Yes, we have a tough road ahead of us, but just think of the ultimate benefits: A perfect world in which crime, poverty and disease will be things of the past.
“And that is essentially all it takes. Don't listen to all the fear-mongering because it will only serve to blind you to the truth of the matter. This can be done, and the more we all push in the same direction, the quicker we can reach our ultimate goal. Just keep your head down, follow the rules as they come in, and you can live a life just as peaceful and prosperous as you could want. Now, it's time to learn a bit more about those rules. Australia will, as of tonight, come under the complete jurisdiction of Hammersonia, but the laws that have been passed in the last two months served to make the transition as smooth as possible, so again, do not fear.”
He sat back down and Cornish got back to his feet. “With that settled, it's time to open the floor. If you have a question to ask, raise your hand, and when the spotlight lands on you, you will be allowed to ask away. Make sure you speak nice and clearly so that the microphones pick it up.”
He sat back down and hands shot up all over the room—at least, this was the assumption, for the television cameras continued to focus on the head table, not showing the journalists filling the room. Eventually, a man somewhere in the crowd had permission to ask his question.
“Where are the Sorcerers? What moves have been made against them recently?”
Lord Hammerson himself got back to his feet to answer the question. “The Woodwards and Fletchers are, at this stage, in hiding. They are still trying to put up resistance against us but other than a few minor victories here and there, they aren't doing much to disrupt our march toward perfection. We do have a number of plans in place to deal with them, however, and I will now invite Commissioner Hall to tell you a bit about them.”
Commissioner Hall got to his feet as the spotlight landed on him. “Well, naturally, I am not going to tell you much about our plans; it would be a poor lookout if I gave the enemy a heads-up. However, rest assured that they will soon be brought into custody, and when they are, they will be stripped of their magic so that it can be put to better use.”
“What will happen to them after they have lost their magic?” another journalist asked.
“Well, our initial policy was to either kill them or descend them to whatever the lowest place in the new society will be, but we have since revised that,” Hall told the country. “They will now be brought around to our way of thinking and then placed somewhere within our ranks in an advisory capacity. Their knowledge of magic may be useful to us down the track and we would like not to waste that.”
“What about the Chopville Quartet? Have they been caught yet?”
“No, I'm sorry to say that they have not,” said Hall. “They have sought sanctuary with the Sorc