by Pedro Urvi
“Answer me, then I’ll rest.”
Notaplo shook his head.
Very well, I will tell you. The reason why you have been catalogued with the same rune is one that escapes my understanding and at the same time is extremely important. In fact, the repercussions are enormous. Marcus and you are the same type of hybrid.
Kyra was stunned. Her mind could not take what he meant. She was no hybrid!
“That’s absolutely impossible! I can’t be like him!
Adamis stepped forward, looking upset.
Are you sure, Notaplo?
I am indeed. There can be no other explanation. That is what the results of the analysis indicate.
Might it be related to the fact that she is a Selected?
I do not know, your Highness. I would need to study her in depth. I cannot venture a reason without a thorough previous study.
That cannot be, and you know it. Her destiny is already written.
Interfering with a Selected is punishable by death, Rotec warned them.
She looked at the three Gods in turn. “What’s my destiny? What’s going to happen to me?”
Adamis sighed deeply. His eyes turned dull, revealing sadness. She had not expected this, and it frightened her.
Your destiny… is… the Prince began remorsefully, in three days, at the moment of the Full Moon, you will be delivered for the Ceremony of Vivification.
Kyra stared hard at him. “Will I survive?”
Adamis averted his eyes and looked at the floor.
No, you will not survive.
29
“Ikai, wake up!”
Liriana’s voice was coming to him from some faraway place, like a ghost, except that it was painful.
“Come on, wake up. Come back.”
He felt himself being shaken, but no matter how much he wanted he could not go back to Liriana’s warm arms. He recalled the night they had shared and the feelings it had awakened in him. He wanted to go back to her, see her, touch her, kiss her…
And Albana’s face appeared before him, filling his mind. He opened his eyes wide and sat up like a spring.
“Albana! Treason!” he cried. He had no idea where he was.
Hands grasped him by the shoulders. “Take it easy, Ikai, you’re with me. It’s Liriana.”
Ikai looked around, trying to orient himself. “Be careful! Albana’s sold us out!”
Liriana’s face shadowed. She averted her gaze and nodded slowly. “I know, Ikai. We’re prisoners.”
He could make out a barred window, the rock wall and the metal door, and understood. He felt anguish hollowing out his chest. Prisoners! Liriana gazed at him, her turquoise eyes filled with sadness. As he looked at the brave soldier’s face, delicate and large-eyed, his soul began to unwind. He reached out his hand and touched her hair, so short and strong it scratched his fingers. She smiled faintly.
Suddenly he noticed a movement at the far end of the dungeon, among the shadows, and saw a man. He stood up, alert, with his fists clenched.
“It’s Maruk. He’s with us. Easy.”
“I don’t know him.”
“He’s the one I came looking for.”
Ikai looked at Liriana, then at the young man who had got to his feet. The light of the full moon, coming in through the window, fell on Maruk. Ikai noticed that under all the dirt and grime he was an attractive young man, with green eyes. He felt something strange within himself, something he had never felt before. He did not want this man to be there, he wanted him to disappear immediately, and a darkness came over his spirit. He felt rage.
“I see,” he said in what was almost a grunt.
“He’s with me,” Liriana said sweetly, giving Maruk a tender smile which Ikai realized meant in every way.
He clenched his jaw. He did not like it, did not like it one little bit. But there was nothing he could do about it, no matter how angry he felt. It was Liriana’s choice, so he had better calm down. He breathed deeply, in and out, a couple of times. He felt a little better, although not much. He noticed that her right arm was bandaged.
“Did they wound you?” he asked, suddenly concerned.
“It’s better now. They dressed it before they put us in here. It just needs to heal. For some reason they want us alive.”
“What happened? How did we get to this cell? Where are we?”
“I’d better tell you what happened. You’ve been out for hours.”
She told him everything, without overlooking a single detail. As he listened to her he could not help but feel doubly betrayed, but he had to stay calm and concentrate on what really mattered: to escape from there and save Kyra. He was still alive, and as long as there was life there was hope. It was madness to confront the Gods and he knew it, but that was what he would do if he had to. Liriana finished her tale and watched his reaction.
“I never trusted her,” Ikai said. “She wasn’t straight. If I ever cross paths with her again… I’ll kill her without so much as a word.”
“She fooled us both. I still can’t believe she was working for that God-Prince. I thought she was a fellow-rebel, a friend…” Liriana was obviously distressed.
Ikai glanced at his Ring. He gestured toward Maruk. “Can he really free me?”
She nodded. “Yes. That’s why the Gods are looking for him.”
Ikai turned to him. “Can you free us all, all the Senoca?”
Maruk sighed. “Yes. I found out how to do it. I’ve only managed with a few —it doesn’t always work, and you need a lot of time. Quite honestly it’s not at all easy, but it can be done, theoretically”
“Do you see his importance now, Ikai?” Liriana interrupted. “Maruk is the key that can free us all! So that the Senoca may be free again!”
“Even if he takes off our Rings we won’t be free. We still won’t be able to escape the Boundary.”
Maruk smiled.
“It’s not that I can free us from the Rings,” he said, glancing down at his own, “but I can manipulate them. We can all cross the Boundary and run away. The Rings will stop working properly.”
Ikai stared at him in awe. “You’d better not lie to me,” he said threateningly. He was not going to be taken in again.
Maruk gazed back at him calmly. “I’m not lying. There are people who’ve managed to escape and cross the Boundary with manipulated Rings. You’re a Hunter, so you know that…”
Ikai remembered the day he had been wounded by the beast outside the Boundary, and the group which had managed to cross.
“Do you understand now how crucial Maruk is for our cause? How important he is for Gedrel?”
Ikai nodded slowly.
“If he can free us from the Rings there’ll be hope. The Senoca will be able to escape from the yoke of the Gods, they’ll be able to go back home, to Mother Sea. It’ll mean a new beginning for our people.”
“The Gods won’t allow it. They’ll go after you and kill you.”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. We must save Maruk, take him back to our people. Gedrel’s waiting for him. He has great plans.”
“I’m here for my sister, not for him, not for your revolt.”
“Yes, but now we’re together in this dungeon, and the three of us have the same goal: to get out of here.”
Ikai went over to the window and looked at the moon. That night it would be full. It was turning red.
“We’re going to have a Red Moon,” he said.
Maruk shook his head. “Bad omen,” he said. Ikai became aware that his rival had a soft voice, almost melodious.
“I don’t believe in those things,” he said. “They’re just old superstitions,”
“The old beliefs say that Girlai, Father Moon, turns red with rage when he can no longer bear the separation from his beloved Mother Sea,” Liriana explained.
“Many and powerful are the ancient beliefs of our people,” Maruk said.
“My only belief is that we have to get out of here before they kill u
s. Let’s concentrate on that.” Ikai studied the cell. His decision to help Liriana had led him to this critical situation. He did not blame her; the decision had been his own, and he would have to bear the consequences of his acts. Rescuing Kyra might had been suicide before, but now, locked up in there, it seemed to him it would be impossible.
“I won’t give up, no matter how impossible it might seem. I’ll go on.”
Albana arrived at the Black Tower. She greeted the guards with a bow and showed them the disc she carried on a chain around her neck.
“Are you a Shadow?”
Albana nodded.
“Master Oskas awaits me.”
When he heard the name of the Master Spy, the Enforcer of the Gods tensed.
“You may go in.”
Albana entered the tower. In the eyes of everyone else she was only another servant. She was dressed as a slave of the Second Ring, and her symbol was that of a peasant. There was nothing to distinguish her from any other slave, nothing except the disc which hung around her neck. Discretion and the ability to blend in among the slaves were essential in her work.
She ran up the spiral staircase to the top. The tower of Oskas, Lord Asu’s Master Spy, rose at the back of the great palace like a chimney of black rock where the ruthless plans of the God-Prince of fire were purged.
Albana’s spirit was as gloomy as the place she was entering. The betrayal she had had to make gnawed at her insides, and she felt as though an iron fist were strangling her soul. You knew the moment would come, sooner or later. You always knew, she reminded herself. And she had known, but deep inside she had wished it would not need to happen, at least not in the way she had done it. I knew I’d have to give up Maruk, but I was hoping Liriana would be spared, even though the chances of that were always pretty remote. What she had not counted on, and what had finally enraged her, had been Ikai’s intervention.
She sighed. Now she would not only have the deaths of Maruk and Liriana on her conscience but that of Ikai as well. The first two had earned their fate. Whoever dares defy the Gods finds only death as a reward. A death steeped in suffering. But Ikai did not deserve to die like that. He had not defied the Gods, he only wanted to save his sister. Even so, coming to the Eternal City was suicide, and from that first moment the Hunter knew he was doomed to fail and die. They gambled and lost. That’s the game of life, she told herself to quiet the inner voice which reminded her, bitingly, that she had betrayed her friends.
I have no friends. I’m a survivor, and survivors can’t afford that luxury.
She walked into the chamber she knew so well, where she had spent countless hours during those last few years being trained as a spy in the service of Oskas. Inside the circle of suffering, her Master was practicing unarmed combat with four of his disciples. Albana recognized Lisnan, with his unmistakable red skin, the moment he launched a kick in mid-flight towards his Master’s head. Oskas deflected the leg with his forearm and punched Lisnan in the lower belly. He was thrown outside the fighting circle, where he lay on the floor fighting for breath.
Albana’s gaze was held by her Master. She was always impressed by his imposing physique and capacity for fighting. He was as tall as a God-Warrior, although Oskas was simply a hybrid born in the Eternal City, just like her, just like the four disciples. But there was something else in her Master; he had evolved into something more sinister and powerful. And both of them, she and Oskas, kept a secret, one of vital importance: both of them, unlike the rest of the hybrids, were exceptional, a singularity which only occurred very occasionally. Only a handful of such cases were known. That was the reason why Oskas had sought her out and recruited her. She and her Master were different from the other hybrids because they both possessed something very dangerous: they had Power, the Power of the Gods. They could never reveal this secret, for it would lead them to death. The Houses would never accept such an aberration, and if one of them did so, it would be in order to experiment. That was exactly what Albana suspected had happened with her Master. Moltus, that crazy Erudite, had experimented with Oskas, turning him into the monster, half-hybrid and half-Enforcer, which he now was. By the grace of Father Moon, that had not happened to her, and she would do everything in her power to avoid it.
Oskas spun with the speed and agility of a black panther to block the attack of Olsol, the hybrid from the North, blond and pale as the snow. Oskas’ body reacted. The wide shoulders squared, the narrow waist turned and two well-exercised arms hit Olsol’s face with hard precision. The Master wore a reinforced cuirass and black pants. His uncovered arms were ochre, with swollen veins, like those of the Enforcers yet different. The ochre was reddish, just like the blood which ran through his veins. He’s still human, Albana reminded herself. She did not know what the Gods had done to her Master before she was selected to enter his service, but he seemed to have one foot in the world of the Enforcers and the other in that of the humans. What she was sure of was that the process must have meant a great suffering; it hurt her just to look at it.
With movements which neared perfection, Oskas inflicted severe pain and defeat on his pupils. The four ended up outside the circle, unable to go on, their bodies defeated. With a great effort they struggled to recover and knelt, resting their hands on their thighs and watching their master with their heads bowed.
“Welcome, young Shadow,” Oskas greeted her from the center of the circle with his hands behind his back. The voice sounded worn-out, as always beneath the Helmet he wore.
“Master,” said Albana, and bowed respectfully.
“Come into the circle, come closer.”
Albana obeyed, as she always did to any request of her Master, without hesitation.
“Our powerful Lord Asu, in person, has congratulated me on the success of the mission. That’s something which doesn’t happen very often.”
“The Lord honors me.”
“You honor the Shadows with your skill.”
“Thank you, Master, I live to serve you.”
Albana bowed to her Lord once again and stared at the Helmet of Void Oskas always wore. It covered his whole head. The back of the helmet was black as night, while the front was an oval mirror which covered his whole face. When you looked into this mirror it swallowed your soul and reflected no image back. Albana always felt a chill run down her back when she looked at herself in her Master’s face. And that day was no different.
“You’ve always been a gifted student. If anyone could carry out the mission with guaranteed success, you’re the one.”
“Nestas is a better fighter than I am. He always beats me,” Albana said, looking at the ebony-skinned disciple.
“Nestas is stronger and better in combat than you, that’s true, but don’t forget that the most powerful weapon we Shadows have is not the body, but the mind. In that, you’re superior to them all.” He waved his hand at the four men.
Albana bowed in silence.
“The success of your mission is good proof of that. We have obtained our Lord Asu’s favor, and that’s a very difficult thing to obtain. His wishes are always demanding in the extreme, and he knows no pity…” Oskas waved his hand and the disciples stood up.
Albana straightened.
“Who are you?” the Master asked his pupils.
“The Shadows!” they answered in unison.
“To whom do you owe loyalty?”
“Master Oskas!”
“Who do we serve?”
“The House of Aureb!”
“Always remember, the Shadows are nothing but slaves in the eyes of the Gods. Don’t you ever forget that, my pupils. The Enforcers won’t get in our way, since we work for their masters and they know it. But guard yourselves against the Gods, or else your lives will go out in the snap of a finger.”
“Yes, Master!” the five replied.
Albana caught the veiled warning.
My request to Lord Asu…
Oskas shone, radiating blackness, and a shadow swallowed him up. He disappeared
.
She blinked in surprise. In the time it took her to do that, the shadow moved and appeared before her, covering the space which separated them. Oskas’ arm came out of the mist, seized her neck and lifted her off the floor as if she were a rag doll. The rest of his powerful ochre-red body came out of the shadow as this vanished.
“A slave can ask nothing of her Master,” he said sternly. “Still less of the God whom her Master serves. It’s an unthinkable outrage, something which deserves to be punished with death.”
“I’m sorry, Master…” Albana said breathlessly.
“You’ve endangered not only your life, but mine, and that of all,” he said, waving his hand at the other four pupils.
“I only wanted…” she managed to mumble. But she had no air left to breathe with.
“It doesn’t matter what you wanted. We serve the Gods. That is our reason for being, our reason for existence. We do their will, we question nothing and we ask for nothing in return, except to live one more day in the service of our masters.”
Albana bent her head, unable to breathe. She was suffocating. She kicked instinctively in the air, but Oskas did not slacken his pressure on her neck and kept her two hand-spans off the floor.
“Nod if you understand this lesson of life, Shadow.”
On the point of asphyxiation, she nodded as best she could.
The Master Spy let her go, and she fell to the floor. She tried to breathe and was overcome by a spasm.
Ignoring her, he turned to his pupils. “You must never forget that the Shadows are not the only agents serving the Gods. The Five Houses have spies at their disposal: among the slaves, among the Enforcers, even among the Gods themselves. There is a lot at stake, and the risks are very high in the game of power in the Eternal City. Tonight, at midnight, it will be full moon. The Ceremony of Vivification will take place at the great temple, and the most powerful Gods of the Five Houses will be present. Go back to the night, melt into the shadows and become my eyes and ears. It’s a very important night, one when the power of the Houses might become unbalanced. Lord Asu charges us to be alert and inform him of any stir of suspicious power among his rivals.”