by Pedro Urvi
The religious leader stepped forward. Ikai remembered how he had almost died at this man’s hands. Torkem was as self-satisfied as ever, with a massive double chin: a repellent face with its flat nose and bald head, with the exception of the lock of white hair which hung from his crown.
“Bring the prisoners,” he ordered.
A dozen or so people began to make their way down the stairs, escorted by Enforcers. Their heads were bowed, their hands tied behind their backs. They were led to the black dome. Ikai narrowed his eyes and tried to identify them. His soul shrank as if it had been squeezed by an icy hand: they were his companions from the Shelter. Martin the miller, the smith, several fishermen.
Torkem bowed. “Whenever you wish, my lord.”
Sesmok stretched out his arms once again. “Witness the Power of the Gods.”
The Eye nearest to the dome touched it with a disc. There came a golden flash, and the dome began to change color. The black faded, turning gradually white, and then became transparent crystal.
The crowd gave a cry of terror. Ikai started back in shock. Inside the dome was a gigantic lion, a monster of unthinkable size. Its eyes were golden. At the sight of the crowd it roared in defiance. Moans and mutterings of fear filled the square. The prisoners stepped back in horror at seeing the beast so close, but were prevented by the Executors.
“Look at this beautiful and terrible creature which the Gods have created. Do you see how magnificent it is? Can you appreciate its lethal strength? Do you understand the Power of the Gods?”
The beast leapt, trying to reach the crowd. Ikai stepped back. But the lion crashed against the translucent barrier of the dome. It’s a barrier, and it can’t cross it. Thank goodness. If it escaped…
Sesmok clasped his hands behind his back. “There are some among you who have dared to break the Law of the Gods. And you all know the punishment for such an offense. The Law of the Gods, and under it that of the Regent, must always be respected. What happens to those who break it, High Priest Torkem?”
“The punishment is death, a very painful death. So says the Law.”
Sesmok nodded vehemently. “There are rumors… unfounded rumors… about certain Heroes… who managed to leave the Boundary, who confronted the Gods themselves…. who created a shelter…”
“Utter nonsense!” cried Torkem furiously.
“Exactly. A tissue of lies, to deceive you, my dear people. And these rumors cause harm, a great deal of harm: not to me, but to you, the people, since some of you in your ignorance, naturally credulous, were deceived by those lies. Some, like those you see here” ‒ he indicated the prisoners ‒ “deceived by inventions and chimeras, broke the law.”
“Fools!” Torkem said, and raised his arms to the sky.
“Watch carefully,” Sesmok went on. “This is what awaits whoever dares disobey the will of the Golden.” He gestured to the Eye-of-the-Gods beside the dome, who manipulated the barrier. In a shrill voice, he gave the order to the Executors: “Carry on!”
Before the eyes of the stupefied watchers, the Executors pushed the prisoners inside the dome. The poor wretches, caught by surprise, could not react. Before they could realize what was happening they had crossed the barrier.
“No! By Oxatsi, no!” cried Ikai.
The great beast hurled itself on the prisoners. What ensued filled the hearts of all in the square with shock and horror. The monster tore them to pieces in the blink of an eye. Several of them tried to flee, but found that the barriers would not let them out. Amid cries of despair, every single one of them died. The beast tore them to pieces, then began to devour them.
The watchers tried to move away from the grotesque spectacle, but the Guard formed a line and restrained them. Ikai still in a state of shock, moved to the fore in an attempt to help, but the shield of a Guard hit him hard in the chest and he was forced to step back.
“Back! Nobody’s to leave the square!”
He was about to reveal himself when he saw the chain they were forming. They were held in place, completely surrounded.
“See the Power of the Gods, see their punishment!” Sesmok said haughtily.
Torkem joined in. “Out of their divine goodness, the Golden Gods allow us to live and prosper. But they are our masters, and they watch us. They neither forget nor forgive when we fail to follow their Law, when we allow ourselves to be deceived and turn against them. Their intentions are merciful, but the punishment for disobeying them is merciless.”
“This is what awaits whoever breaks the law of the Golden,” Sesmok said. “Nobody can hide. All must pay, with blood and suffering.”
“We are on this earth to serve our lords,” the High Priest proclaimed, “to comply with their divine will. This is our glorious duty, this is the true path we must follow. What the Gods demand of us we must always fulfill, for their word is law and their ways our duty.”
The horrified spectators were shifting and moaning. The carnage had shocked them so deeply they could not even think any further than wanting to flee.
“I see, my dear people, that the lesson is sinking into your hearts. It gladdens my soul. It’s time now to put an end to the rumors, to the messages of rebellion among the six Counties. Time to pull out this evil by the root. The one who is leading this revolt must turn himself in. His is the responsibility for what is happening here today. It is because of his insidious message that these poor souls are being sacrificed,” Sesmok finished with pretended concern.
“Bring the next batch,” Torkem ordered.
Down the stairs came another dozen prisoners. Ikai recognized them: more refugees, peasants, good folk who had done nothing but try to live in peace and freedom. He could hardly breathe. They’re going to be slaughtered! I have to do something! But what? He tried to compose himself and think, but he was overwhelmed by anxiety.
Sesmok gestured toward the crowd. Rhetorically, he cried: “Whoever leads this group of rebels who are poisoning the hearts of our people with lies must turn himself in here and now. Before everybody.”
“The leader of this useless rebellion: let him show himself!” Torkem demanded.
Once again silence took hold of the square. Nobody dared speak, or even make any gesture, for fear of being identified as the hunted person.
“Turn yourself in, Gedrel, and the sacrifices will come to an end. If you do not, I will go on feeding the beast. Its instincts are lethal, and it hungers for humans.”
Terror gripped Ikai at the mention of the old resistance leader’s name. How does he know his name? How does he know he’s the leader of the rebels? It might have been Isaz, but he doubted it. There’s another spy among us, one we haven’t found out yet. That must be it. But who?
“Very well, Gedrel, as you wish. The sacrifices will continue. But everyone here must understand that these deaths I so loathe are because of you, and on your conscience they will fall.”
“My conscience is perfectly clear,” came Gedrel’s voice spoke from the crowd.
“Where are you?” Sesmok cried. “Come forward, you coward!”
“Coward? Am I the one sacrificing innocent Senocas to a monster of the Gods? Am I the one hiding behind the Guard and the Enforcers to terrify the people? No, the only coward I can see here is the one who flaunts the position of Regent against his people’s will. The only coward and tyrant I recognize is the one I see at the foot of the monolith of the Gods. The one who enslaves the people and makes them suffer for the greater glory of his masters, the Golden.”
“Hold your tongue and show yourself!”
But for some reason nobody moved in the crowd. Gedrel’s voice came from the center of the square, but nobody around him gave him away.
“I’m just an old philosopher, a poet, a dreamer. With a dream for my people, a wish in my soul, that one day the Senoca might be free. Free to choose their life and destiny, free from hunger and suffering, free from having to live as slaves only to die at the whim of the Gods or their Enforcers. Free to go back to Mot
her Sea. What’s wrong with that dream? What’s wrong with wanting freedom and a prosperous future?”
“How dare you! The destiny of all the Senoca, thousands of innocent lives, the future of our whole race, depends on me. On my shoulders lies the weight of so great a responsibility. Only I stand between our people and the Gods, between the Senoca and their destruction.”
“You serve only yourself, your own interests. The people, their wellbeing, mean nothing to you. We’re not so foolish as to believe you.”
“I’m not going to say it again! Show yourself, or I’ll sacrifice them all!”
From among the crowd someone raised an arm. “Here I am! I’m Gedrel!” Sesmok looked in that direction and was about to give the order to the Guard when anther voice and hand rose: “I’m Gedrel!” And this was followed by another, and another, and another… until a hundred hands were raised in the crowd, and before the Regent could react there were a thousand.
Sesmok went red with fury and started to curse. “I’ll hang you all for this insolence! All of you!”
“How many more Senoca are you going to kill to ensure your position?” Gedrel said. “How many innocent men, women and children will you sacrifice like cattle to serve the Gods? The terror you spread with these atrocities, with whip and steel, will not silence what everybody already carries in their heart: the message of freedom, the flame of hope. You can go on killing innocents, but the flame will take hold and the rebellion will come. This is only the beginning.”
Sesmok turned to Lord Hunter Osvan. “Send all your hunters down there, find him and drag him to me.”
“Right away,” Osvan replied, and left at a run.
“You’ll pay for this with your lives!” ‒ and he gave the order to sacrifice the terrified prisoners. At the order from the Eye-of-the-Gods, the Executors threw them inside the dome. The murderous beast lunged at them, and before the numbed gaze of the whole square, tore them to pieces. The scene was so brutal that all glances fell, like the souls of those Senoca.
“Bring me another dozen!”
From the crowd there now came shouts which never before had a Senoca dared to utter.
“Murderer!”
“Butcher!”
“Traitor!”
“Hangman of the Gods!”
When Sesmok heard this he turned mad with rage. “Ingrates! There won’t be a single prisoner left alive before the day ends! And when I’ve finished with them, I’ll start with you!”
The new batch of prisoners arrived, and Ikai felt a knot in his stomach. Idana, Romen and his mother were among them. Mother! Mother! He tried to get closer, but once again the iron formation of the Guard held him back.
“Do you want to end up like them?” one of them said.
“I’m Gedrel. Take me to Sesmok.”
The Guard hesitated. “No, you aren’t him. We know he’s an old man, we have his description. So stay still, or else I’ll skewer you.”
Ikai muttered a curse, and his mind began to shape an alternative plan. At that moment the line of guards divided, and Gedrel appeared. Slowly he crossed the line, went up several steps and stopped.
“I am Gedrel, and I am here.”
“Noooooo!” came Liriana’s piercing lament among the crowd.
“Hold him!” Torkem ordered.
Gedrel’s gaze searched out Liriana. “It has to be done, my child. The flame must take hold.”
Several Hunters surrounded him, and he raised his hands.
“There’s no need for more deaths,” he said. “I surrender. I’m the leader of the rebellion. I admit it openly. I confess I planned a revolt to gain freedom for my people. I confess to having worked clandestinely so that we might all be free, free of these rulers and the Gods they serve.”
“Make him shut up!” Sesmok ordered. “Bring him to me!”
The Hunters hit Gedrel to silence him and dragged him up the stairs to join the other prisoners.
Ikai hurled himself against the line of Guards, but they hit him and he fell.
“On your knees!” Sesmok ordered from above, as if he were a God whom Gedrel and the others must obey.
Gedrel knelt slowly.
“This old man is guilty of treason. He has admitted it openly. I wish you all to witness what happens to those who defy the Law of the Gods. The futility of rebellion, since nobody can oppose the wishes of the Gods. Nobody!”
Gedrel turned his gaze to the crowd in the square. “Don’t forget about me,” he said. “Don’t forget my sacrifice. Keep fighting for freedom. Always. Freedom!”
“Sacrifice him!” Sesmok shouted.
The Executors shoved Gedrel inside the dome. The lion saw him and pounced on him at once.
“For freedom! Rebellion!” the old man cried an instant before the beast slaughtered him.
Ikai rose with moist eyes. Finally he understood what the old leader had said to him, and the reason for that sacrifice. The cause needed a martyr, and now it had one. All would remember that day. They would all remember Gedrel, and his sacrifice.
Among the crowd a cry was heard. “Gedrel!” The cry grew louder. More and more people were shouting: “Gedrel! Gedrel” After a few moments the whole square was chanting, as thousands of throats cried to the sky: “Gedrel! Gedrel! Gedrel!” Thousands of hands rose as the throats of the crowd exalted the fallen leader.
Sesmok lost his head. “Make them shut up! Guard! Shed blood!”
The Guard began to strike those who were shouting, using spears and shields. Suddenly someone cried: “Rebellion!” and fought back against the Guard who was striking him. The man fell dead, pierced by the Guard’s spear. Those near him threw themselves on to the murderer with a cry of Rebellion and dragged him down as they hit him. Liriana’s voice rose to the sky. “Rebellion! For Gedrel! Freedom!” and she launched herself at the Guards. She was followed by a hundred men. Chaos took over the square. The Guards fought the crowd, shedding blood. The inflamed mob hurled themselves at them. Cries of fighting and horror filled the square. The Regent’s followers fled to their palaces as the people fought for their freedom and died for it.
Ikai disarmed a Guard and let him be finished off by two men beside him. He grasped spear and shield, went to the stairs and watched the fighting for a moment. Unarmed, they stood no chance against the Guard. Fists are powerless against steel.
When Sesmok saw the revolt he turned to the Eyes behind him. “Send in the Executors,” he told them.
A hundred Executors began to run down the stairs. When they reached the prisoners they continued on their way without stopping, crushing them as they passed. Idana fell to one side, Romen to the other. But Solma was pushed downstairs, and the Executors stepped over her body, treading on it as they went.
“Nooooooooo!” Ikai cried, and ran to her.
When the Executors reached the square they fell on the crowd like a knife slicing through butter, dealing death to right and left. The Guard took up their formation again, and with military discipline hastened to crush the revolt. The cries were more desperate every moment.
When Ikai reached Solma on the stairs she was not moving. Blood was running from the corners of her mouth and her ears. “Mother!” he cried in despair.
Solma opened one eye. “My son…” She spat a mouthful of blood.
He leaned his mother’s head in his lap, barely able to hold back his tears.
“Listen, Ikai… there’s something… I must tell you…”
“Don’t talk now, Mother, save your strength…” He looked for Idana; the apothecary was his only chance. He saw her on her feet, freeing Romen. Two Executors lay dead beside her. The Hunters who had taken Gedrel were fighting a shadow. He could not get a clear idea of what was going on but he knew who it was. Albana! Thank Heavens! “Idana will be here soon. Hold on, Mother.”
“No… it’s too late for me… my body can’t take any more… but I have to tell you something very important…”
Ikai nodded, to keep her mind on something until
Idana arrived.
“You, and your sister… aren’t like the others…”
“I don’t understand. What do you mean?”
“You’re like Albana…”
“Like Albana? I don’t follow. Albana’s a hybrid. She has the blood of the Gods in her veins. Kyra and I are your children, children of Solma and Siul.”
Solma nodded slowly and coughed up blood again. “Your father and I are hybrids too… we were born in the Eternal City, we escaped… the blood of Gods runs through our veins, of powerful Gods…”
He shook his head. He could not make sense of this, or rather accept it. “It can’t be… no… we’re normal.”
“No, you aren’t.” She began to convulse.
He held her close. “Mother, hold on.” He looked up and saw Idana, Albana and Romen running toward them.
“Ikai.”
“Mother, hold on, they’re here.”
“Listen… it’s important… you have very powerful blood… of two royal houses… of their High Kings…”
“I don’t understand, Mother.”
“Remember, my son… it’s very important…” Solma convulsed and coughed blood. A moment later she stiffened.
Idana knelt beside them. “Let me tend to her.”
He moved back, and Idana tried to revive Solma. When several Guards reached them he took spear and shield and faced them, joined by Romen and Albana. The fight was short and effective. The Guards fell dead on the steps. He turned to Idana.
The apothecary raised her weeping eyes and shook her head. “I’m sorry, Ikai, she’s passed away.”
Something inside Ikai broke, and he felt such an acute pain that his eyes filled with tears.
Sesmok’s voice sounded above the cries and noise of the fray. “You’ll learn your lesson! You’ll learn it through blood!”
“We have to get out of here,” Albana said urgently. “There are more Enforcers coming.”
Ikai tried to move. His mind was telling him to run, but the pain of his loss would not let him react.
“Come on, Ikai!” she urged him.
He came out of his stunned state and they started to go down the stairs, only to find a dozen Executors barring their way.