The Secret of the Golden Gods Omnibus Edition

by Pedro Urvi

  They were all staring at him as though hypnotized. They had not expected that honesty, that devotion and commitment. Albana and Liriana gazed at him: the one in disbelief, the other filled with pride.

  “Well said, brother!” came Kyra’s voice.

  They all turned and saw her coming towards them. With her was a tall, slender figure shrouded in a hooded cloak. A little behind them were Karm and Honus, who had let them through.

  “Kyra!” Ikai cried delightedly. He was about to throw his arms round her when Albana took his arm. “She has Adamis with her,” she whispered in warning.

  He nodded and went to his sister, folding her into a tight embrace.

  “I’m so glad to see you safe and sound. You had me worried. Where have you been?”

  “You worry too much, little brother. I was with him.” She indicated Adamis with her thumb. “He’s been teaching me some things I have to tell you about.”

  Ikai’s eyes went to Adamis. He could not see his face under the hood, but even so, he greeted him with a bow of his head. Adamis returned the greeting, but said nothing.

  “I never thought I’d hear you say those words, ever. I’m stunned.”

  “Mother’s death made me realize some facts.”

  “I know, me too. I’m sorry to have been such a nuisance all this time.”

  “You’re the best thing I have, little sis. I wouldn’t change you for anything.”

  Kyra smiled and hugged her brother again so hard it hurt her. “I love you too, my level-headed big brother.”

  “Let’s go back to the meeting. They must be wondering what we’re talking about.”

  She held him back a moment. “I’m so glad to see you, Ikai, and about that change of heart. It makes me really happy. I always knew you’d see things my way in the end.”

  They went over to the fire.

  Rutus was eying Adamis with distrust, and nor was he the only one. He pointed his axe at the newcomer. “Who’s this? Is he trustworthy?”

  “He’s with me,” Kyra hastened to say.

  “This meeting’s secret,” said Mitas.

  Kyra frowned. “I said he’s with me. Or are you going to question my word?”

  Mitas raised his hands. “I’d never doubt the word of a Hero. If he’s with you, he’s with us.”

  “That’s good enough.” Kyra glared defiantly at Rutus. The woodsman lowered his axe and nodded.

  “You’ve heard my brother lay his soul bare before you,” she said to the Group. “His honesty does him credit. I’m with him, he has my support. I follow him.” She moved away to greet Idana and Albana.

  “I’m with Ikai, always,” Albana said, and gave him a roguish smile.

  “I’m with them too,” Idana hastened to say as she hugged Kyra.

  Liriana nodded. “You already know my position.”

  “And wherever Liriana goes, I go too,” said Maruk.

  “All the Heroes have spoken,” Liriana said, looking at Camptos, “and they’re with the cause. The people will follow us.”

  “There are seven Heroes … there are six here… one’s missing,” said Camptos.

  Kyra came closer to the fire. “The seventh Hero, my friend Urda, was captured by the Enforcers. She’s in the Dungeons of Oblivion…” She turned towards where Adamis was standing a few feet away in the shadows, and he gave her a nod.

  “I have something to tell you. Something I’ve seen with my own eyes, something they made me watch. Once I tell you, your idea of the Enforcers of the Gods will change. Your whole way of thinking about what the Gods are doing to us will change. But I think you need to know. You have a right to know.”

  All eyes stared at her, worried and uneasy.

  “Go on.” Liriana encouraged her.

  In a voice broken with pain, Kyra told them in detail what she had witnessed inside the Dungeons of Oblivion: what Oskas had done to Urda, what Urda had become once the process was finished. The Heroes and the six leaders watched her in blank amazement, disbelief on their faces.

  Rutus was the first to react. “What kind of abomination is this! It cannot be!”

  Another voice cried, “I don’t believe it! The Enforcers aren’t human!” And still another: “It can’t be. Are you telling us the Enforcers are our relatives and friends?”

  Kyra spoke very slowly, with authority in her voice. “I’m telling you what I witnessed, what they did to my friend right in front of me. What she turned into. I know it’s hard to grasp, but you must. There are thousands of our own people in the Dungeons of Oblivion, and out of them they create the Enforcers.”

  “By Oxatsi! It’s horrible! Appalling!” Costan was shaking his head, unwilling to accept what he had heard.

  “Damn inhuman Gods!” came a cry.

  Costan shouted: “They’re turning us into those things?”

  Cries of horror and bewilderment rose to Father Girlai, who contemplated the scene from the sky above. They all had friends, relatives and loved ones whom the Gods had taken away. Knowing this could be their fate was worse than a death sentence.

  Rutus got up and brandished his big axe above his head, “I’ll kill them all for this! Death to the Gods!”

  The cry was picked up by the others: “Death to the Gods! And then: “Death to Sesmok!” And finally: “Death! Death! Death!” Their cries of anger at this terrible outrage filled the oak wood.

  Ikai was trying to take in what his sister had found out. Turning people into monsters in the service of the Gods was something unimaginably evil. The Gods were using slaves to control other slaves. It was an idea worthy of the sick minds of those pitiless creatures.

  Liriana intervened in an attempt to calm the mood. “Sit down, I beg you. I feel as outraged as you do. If my soul craved to fight before, it’s even more determined now. If I had any lingering doubts before, they’re gone. We can’t allow them to go on doing this to us. We have to fight. Are you with me?”

  “We’re with you, Liriana,” Rutus said. The other leaders nodded emphatically.

  She turned to Ikai. “And the Heroes?”

  “We are,” he said. Albana, Idana, Kyra and Maruk nodded in agreement.

  “Then it’s settled. We’ll fight.”

  “You’ve spoken of bringing down Sesmok,” Rutus said, “you’ve told us now’s the time to do it. We’re with you, but what’s the plan? When do we attack? How?”

  Liriana gestured towards Ikai. “He’ll guide us to victory.”

  Rutus grunted. “Him? He’s a Hero…. and I applaud his honesty and frankness… but you’re the one we follow.”

  “And he’s the one I follow.”

  “You’re Gedrel’s successor, in our eyes.” said Mitas.

  “But that’s the way Gedrel wanted it. Ikai will be the one who leads us to victory. The plan will be his, the strategy we’ll follow to overthrow Sesmok and expel the Enforcers. These are Gedrel’s words: Ikai is the brain, Kyra the soul, you the arm of this revolution. That’s what he told me, and I’ll honor his decision. Not just out of respect for him, but because I feel it’s the right decision.”

  Rutus scratched his beard thoughtfully. “Old Gedrel always knew what he was doing. He had an eye for these things. If that’s his will, then so be it. I accept.”

  “And the others?” Liriana asked.

  One by one they all accepted.

  “Very well. Ikai, the moment we talked about has come. You must choose. You must decide whether you’ll take charge and guide us in the fight.”

  Ikai breathed in the night air of the oak grove deeply, then exhaled slowly. As he did so he looked up at Father Girlai, then down at the men and women gathered there, and meditated his decision, as he always did. But this time he had already made that decision even before he knew it. Solma’s face came to his mind, and he smiled. For you, Mother, for the Senoca. He put his hands to his chest and declared:

  “I join the cause, and I’ll lead you in the rebellion!”

  “That’s the way to talk!” Kyr
a cried, full of pride and joy.

  Ikai went to Liriana by the fireside. “I’m not going to lie to you. Our chances of coming out of this victorious are pretty slim. Almost nonexistent, actually.”

  There was a buzz of angry comment at this.

  “But we have one possible opportunity,” he told them.

  Rutus patted his axe. “We only need one.”

  “All right, then,” Ikai said. “I have a plan to turn that opportunity to our advantage. Are you with me?”

  “We’re with you!” Rutus cried.

  “For freedom!” shouted Kyra.

  Ikai raised his fist. “For freedom!”

  “For freedom!” came the cry from all.

  Chapter 31

  Three days had passed since the crucial meeting: days of planning and preparation. That night the sky was clear and warm, and the stars pulsed as if they wanted to send a message of peace and harmony. Kyra had a feeling that it was the calm before the storm.

  In the clearing in the oak grove she found Adamis beside the great oak, his hand on its massive trunk, his gaze lost in the moon.

  “Mother Nature is wise, and her children incomparably lovely,” he said without turning to look at her. She did not know how he had sensed her presence, but guessed it had something to do with the Power. She put her hand to her chest, where she kept the disc in a leather sachet around her neck.

  “They certainly are,” she agreed, gazing at the noble oak outlined against the sky.

  “I meant you,” he said and turned to look at her.

  Taken by surprise, she blushed. “Stop looking at me with those eyes like the sea at dawn, or they’ll drive me crazy and I won’t know what I’m doing!”

  Adamis smiled. “You fill me with delight when you scold me like that.”

  She put her hands on her hips. “Well, I don’t find it funny at all.”

  He took her by the waist and kissed her so intensely that she was left breathless. “And… and why that?”

  “That is because you always surprise me with your answers. And because I drive myself insane trying to understand you.”

  Kyra looked around her. “Be careful, we might be seen. I don’t want them to find you out. We’d be in serious trouble if they did.”

  “They are all in the camp on the other side of the Boundary. We are alone in this part of the oak wood.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, I am. Besides, if someone crosses the barrier I will feel it.”

  “Of course, I was forgetting that nothing gets past the omnipotent God.”

  Adamis laughed. “Why are you like that with me?”

  “Because I have to bring you down a notch. You’ve spent all your life with those conceited Gods, and of course you know nothing about anything.”

  The God shook his head, smiling. “You are doing that all right, and teaching me all I need to know, with that fiery tongue and temperament of yours.”

  She raised her arms and narrowed her eyes, assuming a mock-pompous voice. “Oh, I still have a lot to polish, seeing that Your Highness is a Prince, no less, of one of the mightiest and longest-lived houses.”

  “There is nothing I would like more than not to be him at this particular moment.”

  She could hear the sadness in his voice. “What’s up, then?”

  “Tomorrow is the day. Tomorrow everyone will leave, and nothing will ever be the same again.”

  “Everything is ready. It’s time to carry out my brother’s plan. Time to go into action.”

  “Will you go with them?

  “Each Hero will go with one of the County Leaders. I’m going with Camptos. He’s the leader of the Sixth County, which is my own. I want to go with him and help him. He’ll need me.”

  Adamis sighed heavily and lowered his gaze.

  “I was afraid of that.”

  “You know I can’t turn my back on them. They need me.”

  “Yes, you are the soul of this rebellion, I know.”

  “It’s not that. Six Counties and six Heroes. Each one of us has a vital role in Ikai’s plan. I can’t fail them.”

  “I do not want anything to happen to you. What you are going to attempt is madness. It will not work. You will all end up dead. I do not want to lose you, Kyra.”

  “I know, but I just can’t stay on the sidelines like a coward because of the risk. I could never do that.”

  “You are doomed. You will not make it.”

  “You say that so I won’t go.”

  “No, Kyra, I say it because I know it is so.”

  “The risk doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter if we’re doomed. Even so, I’m going. I’ll fight for freedom until they take my life. And if I don’t make it, if we don’t make it, at least we’ll have taken the first step, we’ll be an example for others to follow someday. And if we don’t, maybe they will. We’ll free the people or else die in the attempt.”

  Adamis’s golden face shadowed.

  “I was going to ask you to come away with me. To renounce both our pasts, and live a future far from all this, together. But I know you cannot.”

  “Believe me, I’d love to get away from here with you, but I’d be selfish if I did that. What right do I have to happiness when thousands of my people are suffering and dying every single day?”

  Adamis nodded.

  “You do understand, don’t you?”

  “I understand. You have a great and noble heart.”

  “And don’t forget my temperament.”

  “That too.” He smiled.

  “Will you come with me?”

  “I cannot take part. But I will come, for you.”

  “In the end, I’ll make a good God of you,” she said mockingly.

  “The one I was, I no longer am. Knowing you has changed me.”

  Kyra arched an eyebrow. “Forget the compliments.”

  “When I am with you, I am not an arrogant God, I am simply Adamis. When we are together I am as I should be; you make me see life in all its splendor. You make me value each life, each being, as I should, as Mother Nature intended us to. Which is something my civilization decided to forget, believing themselves to be superior.”

  “So, you’re no longer superior to me?”

  “I wish the day may come when I am a tenth of the incredible person you are.”

  She looked at him, mouth agape.

  “You make me better, Kyra.”

  She tried to speak, and for the first time in a long time did not know what to say. She choked on her own fiery tongue.

  “If I could ask for a wish, it would be to be able to be with you like this, as we are now, holding each other, sharing this wonderful night, for the rest of my life.”

  Kyra felt a flare of heat explode inside her. It started in her stomach and ran through her whole body until it burst in her mind. But it was not the blast of fury she knew so well. She felt a mixture of excitement and pleasant warmth suffusing every pore of her skin. Adamis’s eyes were a blue sky with white clouds, and she lost herself in them. She stood on tiptoe to kiss him. He bowed his head and their lips met.

  She kissed him passionately, filled with an overwhelming ardor she did not understand, but which drove her towards him. Their feelings surfaced: undeniable, unstoppable. Their desire and love for one another took over, and they surrendered in body and soul. A white mist enveloped them, and they vanished into it. Kyra felt her surroundings fading until only the sky over their heads remained. He gathered her into his arms, and her excitement made her heart run wild. She suddenly felt herself floating and looked down towards the ground, but it was no longer there. She was floating in the mist, held by Adamis. His eyes assured her there was nothing to be afraid of. She kissed him again, a full, moist kiss, then gave herself over completely to the passion she felt, and two souls joined under the stars.

  ***

  High in a fir tree on the edge of the wood, Ikai watched the entrance to the mine. Below, waiting hidden in the thick vegetation, were Mitas, th
e Miner, the Leader of the Fourth County, together with Karm and Honus. Hidden in the forest behind them, five hundred slaves waited in silence, not moving a muscle.

  Ikai scanned his surroundings. Soon it would be night, and he needed to study every detail before darkness fell. He was about to risk the lives of all these men, and the situation was something less than favorable. His eyes turned to the apron of flat land in front of the mouth of the mine. Among a group of large wooden buildings, hundreds of slaves were working under the iron vigilance of the Enforcers. Behind the mine rose the green-clad mountains whose peaks formed an unsurmountable barrier. The only access is from the south, which is in our favor.

  He climbed down from the tree, careful to make no noise, and crouched amid the underbrush. Mitas whispered: “What do you think?”

  “I’ve counted nearly a hundred Enforcers, mostly Executors. Luckily there aren’t many Eyes-of-the-Gods.”

  “There are Tormentors too,” Karm said.

  Ikai looked at him in puzzlement.

  “They’re the bloody Enforcers they use inside the mines,” growled Honus.

  “They’re like the Executors,” Karm explained, “but smaller, and armed with metal rods. They never come up to the surface.”

  “And the bastard Executors don’t go below,” Honus added.

  “Right. How many of those Tormentors are there inside?”

  “At least another hundred,” Karm said. “There are more than two thousand slaves inside that mine. And about five hundred more involved in support tasks on the surface.”

  “Your experience is going to be a lot of use to us.”