by Pedro Urvi
“We’ll have to go back!” she cried.
They went up a few stairs, but above them were another dozen Executors who came to surround them, their silver spears ready to kill. Below, the fight went on, the cries piercing the sky. The ground of the square was now stained red and the corpses were piling up. Guard, Hunters and Enforcers were crushing the rebellion. The mutineers began to flee down the streets of the city.
Romen was protecting Idana with his own body. Ikai and Albana exchanged a glance. The situation was desperate. He knew that she would use one of her dark arts, and as soon as that happened he was going to take advantage of the surprise and attack. The Executors advanced to form a circle around them.
There was no way out.
Suddenly half a dozen Executors were thrown off to one side, and the circle opened.
What was that? He glanced aside at Albana, but she shook her head.
“Run! Get away!” came a voice from the bottom of the stairs.
Romen and Idana started to run, with Albana close behind. Ikai, who had recognized the voice at once, turned to look for his sister and saw her a few steps below. With her was a tall, thin man wearing a hooded cloak. Ikai could not see his face, but he had a strange feeling. Very strange.
“Come on, run!” Kyra shouted as the stranger reached out one hand and half a dozen more Executors went flying. The stranger’s hand caught Ikai’s attention. It was golden.
He nodded to his sister and ran as fast as he could. A few steps before the entrance to an alley, he heard Kyra’s piercing cry.
“Mom! Noooooooo!”
He turned and saw that his sister had found Solma’s body. Worried about her reaction, he stopped. But the cloaked stranger, without hesitating, grabbed her by the waist and took her away. A group of Executors chased after them.
They won’t make it! Ikai feared, watching them heading toward the tumult of the square. But suddenly Kyra and her unknown companion vanished amid a strange mist.
“Come on, Ikai!” Albana urged him. “There are more Enforcers on their way!”
He ran.
“Down here, two alleys further on, is the entrance to the sewers,” Albana said as she led them down a narrow street. Then she asked Ikai: “Kyra ‒ did she make it?”
“Yes, but she’s with a God.”
Albana’s eyes opened wide, and she almost stopped dead. “Adamis?”
He was panting from the effort. “I guess so,” he gasped.
“She’ll be okay,” she said to reassure him.
“If he does anything to her, I swear, God or no God, I’ll cut his throat.”
They reached the entrance and took shelter in the evil-smelling underground world.
Chapter 29
“I’ll kill them all! I swear I won’t leave a single one of them alive!” Kyra cried to the moon. She shook her fists, possessed by a bottomless wrath.
The sound of her cries was muffled by the constant thunder of the waterfall which fell and broke on the crystalline lake behind them. Adamis had brought her to this beautiful, hidden corner to try and sooth her, even though he knew it would be practically impossible.
“Try to calm down,” he said softly.
“Calm down? You want me to calm down? They’ve killed my mother! Those swine have killed my mom! How am I supposed to calm down? How?”
“I am deeply sorry…”
“I’ll kill them all! That bastard Sesmok, that grease-ball Torkem, that brute Osvan, the lot of them!”
Seeing that his words had no effect on her, Adamis let her unburden herself of all her rage. Perhaps that way she would calm down a little, even though he knew that the pain in her soul would never go away.
“And when I’m done with them,” she shouted, punching the air like one possessed, “I’ll kill every last one of the Enforcers, until there’s not one of them left in all six Counties!”
Adamis could feel her heartbreak, her infinite pain and her fury. Seeing her like that, in so much agony, left him with a feeling of emptiness he had not felt for a long time: since the death of Rotec, his good friend and protector, in fact. He longed with all his being to help her, to make the pain pass, but he did not know how. He who was a God in the eyes of men, who possessed enormous Power, found himself unable to help this person he cared for so deeply. He would gladly have given part of his Power, of his lengthy lifespan, to help her, but there was no way he could. And that made him feel impotent, useless.
“Who did my mom ever hurt in all her life? Nobody! Ever! All she did was sacrifice herself and fight for Ikai and me. You wouldn’t find a better woman, a better mother, a better person. Always helping, always working. And those pigs have killed her as if she was just something that got in the way.”
“I am so sorry…”
“So you should be!” She turned furiously to Adamis with eyes red from weeping, her fists white from the strength she was clenching them with.
Adamis did not move, but only bowed his head away from her look of hatred.
“I had nothing to do with it…”
“Yes you did!” she shouted, and began to hammer him on the chest with her fists. “You’re one of them, you’re a damned God!” ‒ and she went on hitting him, her tears now a whole sea of weeping.
He bore it all, accepting the punishment, both physical and verbal, as if it were a penance he felt obliged to make.
“I am no longer like them…” he whispered tenderly.
“You’re all ruthless monsters! Our lives are nothing to you! We’re nothing more than ants who work till they die just to uphold your glorious civilization and that you crush when you feel like it! Just as you crushed my mother!”
“You know I am not that. You changed me.”
At his words, she stopped hitting him. She leaned against him, head back, gazing up at his face.
“I changed you?”
“You opened my eyes. You made me see that all life is valuable, that the slaves have a right to their freedom, to live a full life, in freedom and happiness. That it is not only the Gods who have that right. You made me see how mistaken and ruthless our way of understanding life is. We have no right to enslave anybody for our own glory, no right to consider the world and all that is in it our own, simply because we have the Power to make it so. All this you have shown me, and now you have turned my world upside down.”
“Do you mean that, or are you just saying it to make me calm down?”
“I would never lie to you, Kyra of the Senoca. I am telling you the truth. Look into my eyes and you will see.”
Kyra reached out to pull off the hood which covered his head. Gazing at his beautiful golden face, she lost herself in his blue-gray eyes. Her tears stopped flowing, her pain and rage grew less. She put her hands to his cheeks and felt his own on her waist.
“I believe you,” she said at last. “Your eyes don’t lie.”
“I could never lie to you.”
“Why did you come for me? Why did you save me?”
“You were in danger.”
“Have you been finding out about me?”
“Yes. That is how I knew your life was at risk.”
“You might have sent someone… even the Enforcers. Why did you come in person?”
“I wanted to. I needed to see you… to know that you were well.”
“Why? You’re the God-Prince of one of the most powerful houses, you’re one of the most powerful Gods. What do you want with a poor slave like me?”
“I do not know, Kyra… I just know I needed to see you, be with you…”
Kyra felt her pain slip to some less immediate level, and another very powerful feeling started in her stomach and rose to her heart. She felt a surge of uncontrollable nervousness. A strange warmth enveloped her, a growing unrest, an overflowing desire…
“You’re making me confused, Adamis… I wasn’t expecting to see you, and now that we’re together… I want to hate you, for what you are, for what you represent, but I can’t. Something in
me won’t let me hate you. I ought to fight against you. You’re my enemy.”
“I am not your enemy, and you know that.”
“I do, and that’s what puzzles me. Why can’t I hate you? Why do I feel so strange when I’m with you?”
“I do not know. All I know is that I want to be with you, as we are now, sharing this moment I wish would never end. Your hands on me, my hands on you. Our bodies together, our souls joined.”
When she heard those words Kyra felt a need to embrace him with her whole being, to kiss him, and she did not think twice: she kissed Adamis with such intense passion that flames almost burst from her embrace. God and slave kissed, and for a single moment everything around them was frozen: the roar of the waterfall behind them vanished, the reflection of the moon on the surface of the lake solidified.
“I don’t know what came over me. I don’t understand why I reacted like that.”
“Neither do I,” said Adamis as he put his arms around her waist gently but firmly, “but I do not want it to end.”
“I’m a slave, a Senoca, and you’re a God. This is impossible….”
“It is madness, I cannot deny it. But if we are to change the world we live in, perhaps we should begin by changing ourselves.”
They looked into one another’s eyes and were unable to resist their mutual attraction. They kissed again, with greater passion, and stayed clasped in one another’s arms, unable to let go. They sat down on the lakeshore, watching the moon and stars which seemed to be smiling upon them. Adamis held Kyra protectively, giving her warmth and support. It was so pleasurable that for a moment all the pain in her heart vanished. And at that same moment she gave in, falling asleep in his tender embrace.
She was awoken by the morning twittering of birds. When she opened her eyes she was surprised to find herself behind the waterfall, in a cave with moss-covered walls and an opening above through which light was streaming in. Adamis was looking out through the ceaseless curtain of water, watching a deer which had come to the lake to drink and was hiding behind an oak at the edge. He turned and smiled at her with those thin, perfectly outlined lips of his. In his smile was peace and joy. The landscape was so beautiful, he was so beautiful, and to Kyra the moment was like something out of a summer’s dream.
“How did you find me?”
He showed her a crystalline disc with a huge golden pip in the middle. “I believe this is yours.”
“The disc you gave me! The Enforcers took it away when they captured me.”
“I could not follow your essence, but I could follow that of the disc. It is imbued with my power. I can feel it and track it, for it is a part of me. When I rescued you I recovered it from the Eye-of-the-God keeping it. Without it, I could never have found you.”
“I haven’t learnt to use it… Albana tried to teach me, but I didn’t like the implications.”
“If you can use it, it means you are a hybrid. Is that what you disliked?”
“For a God, you’re pretty sharp,” she said.
He smiled and gave a slight bow. “Notaplo’s experiment already proved that. It is just that you have not wished to accept the fact.”
“It’s not something I wanted. Or something I like.”
“I know, and I understand. But it is important for you to accept who and what you are. Deeply important, in fact. And now more so than ever.”
“Are you an Erudite, besides being a Prince?”
Adamis laughed. “No, no, I have Notaplo for that. But it is important that everyone should accept who they are. If we are lost we might err in our choices. I think you should think again about learning to use the Power. You are going to need it in the turbulent times at hand, and I would feel more at ease if you did.”
Kyra threw herself on him and kissed his cheek.
“What is that for?”
“For caring about me.”
He smiled.
“I have to tell you something about myself, about my parents…”
“I am listening.”
She told him what had happened with Oskas and what her mother had revealed to her. As she spoke, his face turned more serious. When she had finished there was a silence. The Prince seemed to be reflecting upon the implications.
“It would be best if for the moment what you have just told me stays between the two of us.”
She made a face. “It’s not something I plan to tell the world about.”
“I know, but it could have serious repercussions.”
“And those would be…?”
“Let us make a deal. Let me teach you how to use the Power, and when we are done I will tell you.”
“I don’t like it. Why don’t you just tell me and get it over with?”
“I want you to learn to use your Power. It is important, believe me. And it will be even more so in the near future.”
“All right then, you win. But I want you to tell me every last detail.”
“Very well.”
Kyra took her knife and made a cut in the palm of her hand.
“Very well isn’t good enough. A deal has to be sealed with blood.” She offered him her hand.
“Do you seriously think I am going to inflict a wound on myself for this? My word, as a Prince, is sacred.”
“How petulant and vain you Gods are! Blood, or there’s no deal.”
Adamis shook his head, and there was pure disapproval on his face. But he made the cut and gave his hand to her.
“You see? It wasn’t so terrible, your Highness,” she said with an irreverent smile. She pressed their hands together, then said: “It’s a deal.”
Towards sunset, after getting food in the nearby woods and resting to get their strength back after what they had been through, Kyra felt a little more herself, although the pain she felt at the loss of her mother did not grow less. She felt as if her heart had been pierced by a poisoned spear, and every now and then her eyes would fill with tears and her hand go to her bosom.
Adamis noticed this, and took her hand.
“Let us walk a little along the shore. It will do you good.”
They walked in silence, hand in hand, their souls ever closer. At last she stopped and looked into his eyes.
“Thank you, it did help. I feel better. It’s time now to learn how to use the Power. Teach me.”
“We could leave it till tomorrow…”
“I can’t go on putting it off forever. Ikai must be worried. The sooner I get back, the better.”
“Oh, I see your warrior soul is stirring again.”
“There’s no use hiding. You have to face the enemy and fight, whatever it costs. I’ve already sacrificed my mother and my friends. Now I have to fight. It’s time to face the enemy and defeat it.”
Adamis nodded. “You have the heart of a Warrior Goddess.”
“That’s why I need you to teach me how to fight, so I can become one.”
“Very well. I will grant your wish.”
He showed her the disc he had presented to her. “Before you learn to use it, you must accept who you really are. The sooner you do so, the sooner you will be able to use the Power and be able to fight using it.”
“Go ahead. I won’t resist.”
“You have to understand you are an exceptional anomaly: a Hybrid with Power. Notaplo told you, hybrids do exist and we cannot deny the evidence of what happens in some of the Houses. The harems, the weakness of some Lords for slave women, is undeniable.” He bent his head. “It is shameful and inexcusable, and it ought to be banned, but it is a fact.”
Kyra clenched her fists. “If I had a knife and they let me into one of those harems, I can assure you that before they knew what was happening, more than one God would come out of there as a eunuch.”
Adamis’s eyes widened in surprise. He shook his head, and laughed.
“You have to understand that you are special. The blood of the Gods runs through your veins, mixed with that of the Senoca. But most importantly: you have Power, something a h
ybrid very rarely has. Those who have been found have been recruited by the Houses, Princes and High Kings. They are used as spies or assassins. This is what happened with your friend Albana and her master Oskas. He serves Asu, and is extremely dangerous.”
“I see.”
“Open your hand.”
When she did so, Adamis placed the disc on her palm. The disc let out a golden flash and activated itself. It rose and hung suspended in the air above her hand, vibrating with a strange hum.
“I see you have already completed the Symbiosis.”
“Yes, the disc drank my blood. Albana did it. It was very strange. I felt… weird…”
“In that case you have already become one, the Power in this disc and you. Close your eyes, focus on the pip at its center. It is a source of Power, and as such, you will be able to use it. You must see it in your mind as a creature you can rule.”
“Rule?”
“It is at your disposal. Its Power belongs to you now. You can use it to interact and manipulate the elements of Nature.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t follow you…”
“As time goes by you will understand. For the moment, concentrate on the pip. Can you see it in your mind?”
“No. I can’t see anything but darkness. Albana made me give an order to the disc and it worked.”
“Yes, I imagine she did it to show you that you can use it. But that is not the way to do it. That way you do not have control over the Power and there might be an accident. You have to learn to rule it. That is the crucial point.”
“I’m beginning to make something out… it’s a golden dot, but blurred… it’s small, as if it was a long way away…”
“Do not open your eyes, and keep focusing on the pip. You must see it in your mind with absolute clarity, as if it were daylight. When you do that, the disc will give out a golden spark.”
Kyra went on with the exercise. After a while, seeing she was making no progress, she opened her eyes.
“I just can’t do it!”
Adamis looked at the sky and murmured: “You have many good qualities, Kyra of the Senoca, but patience is not one of them.”
“What use is patience, it’s just a waste of time!”