by Pedro Urvi
Ikai was watching the fray, Kyra beside him. Adamis was a little way behind them.
“They’re going to slaughter them,” said Kyra.
“I know. It’s the price to pay for taking the city. There’s no other way.”
Kyra made an impatient noise.
“Let me go with them.”
“No. I need you with me.”
She closed her eyes and shook her head as the arrows fell like a shower of death upon the rebels. “I don’t want to see it.”
“The first ones have already reached the foot of the walls. They’re starting to put the tree-trunks and ladders in place.”
“I hope it works, or they’ll be massacred.”
“It will work. I’ve calculated it. The wall isn’t high enough. Even in his worst nightmares Sesmok never imagined that one day his city would be under siege. It would need to be six feet taller to be impossible to climb. A mistake we’re going to take advantage of.”
The Senoca carried the tree-trunks to the wall and leaned them against it, right under the ramparts, at a slight angle. They wedged them against the ground: first one, then a second next to it. The trunks were thick enough to let the rebels climb up and reach the battlements. While the defenders launched arrows and spears at them, the Senoca began to assault the walls.
“It’s working!” Kyra cried delightedly.
Ikai gave a snort of relief.
“Now it’s our turn. Get ready.”
The deafening din of the battle barely allowed Albana to concentrate. The Senoca were reaching the battlements at several points, and the defending soldiers were running to repel them. Albana concentrated hard and peered out of the sewer at the tower on the left of the great city gates.
Liriana’s map has brought me to the exact place. I’ll have to thank her, I really will.
Crossing the entire city through the sewers had not been easy, but she had made it.
Two guards at the tower gate, and generalized chaos all along the battlements. It’s the right moment.
She climbed out the sewer, drew her black daggers and moved on towards the soldiers nonchalantly, as if there was nothing amiss.
The soldiers saw her coming. They exchanged indecisive glances, and the most experienced of the two raised his arm.
“Stop… where are…”
He was not able to finish the sentence. Albana’s arms lashed out simultaneously two steps away, and the daggers found their targets in the guards’ necks. They died without taking in what had happened. She retrieved her weapons and looked left and right: everything was chaos, yelling and confusion.
Perfect. They haven’t seen anything.
She took the keys from the veteran guard’s belt and slipped inside. Then she hid both bodies in the tower.
“Who’s there?” came a voice over her head in the tower’s inner stairs.
More guards inside… I’ll have to deal with them too.
A strange fog, heavy and white, had settled before the city gates. Ikai and Kyra advanced at a crouch under the white cloak.
“Are you sure they can’t see us?” Ikai asked.
She gave him a triumphant look. “Positive.”
“You’ll have to explain to me how you managed to do that.”
“Adamis’s disc,” she said. “The one you dislike so much.” She gave him a wink.
At the foot of the tower, they waited.
A rope came down the wall slowly, like a snake. Brother and sister glanced at each other and nodded. They started to climb the rope to the tower, praying to Oxatsi not to be discovered. The fighting was so bloody on the eastern and western walls that all eyes were there, not on the great gates.
Albana greeted them with a roguish smile. “You’re the slowest climbers I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Ikai was ecstatic to see her in one piece. On the floor of the tower he found three dead soldiers.
“You’ve been busy,” Kyra said, her eyes sparkling.
“They have this bad habit of leaving guards on watch in important places. I had to deal with them.”
“So I can see,” Ikai said, not without concern.
“When I asked you for a convincing distraction, I didn’t expect it to be quite so good.”
“If it surprised you, it’ll have surprised Sesmok.”
“You can be sure of that.”
“I’d give anything to see his face twisted with rage right this moment.”
“What are we waiting for?” Kyra put in. “Let’s work the pulleys and get these gates open.”
“It’s not that easy,” said Ikai.
“We have to operate the secondary mechanism in the other tower as well,” Albana said.
“Right. so how do we do that?” Kyra asked.
“We need two people to work the pulleys on this side,” Ikai said.
“You two stay here and wait for my signal,” said Albana. “I’ll clear the other tower.”
Ikai was about to speak, but Albana glared at him in a way he knew very well. He relented.
“All right. At your signal.”
Kyra could not contain herself. Her hands were on the lever which operated the pulleys.
“Now?”
“No, not yet. If we do it too soon they’ll see it from the other tower and sound the alarm ‒ apart from stopping us from opening the gates.”
“Damn, why does it all have to be so complicated?”
“I wish I knew, little sis.”
Suddenly they heard a muffled cry. Ikai, who had been watching the other tower closely, saw a guard tumble off into the fog.
“That’s the signal,” he said.
Brother and sister worked the levers with all their might. There was a tremendous creak, and the gates started to open.
“Come on, Kyra, give it all you’ve got.” Ikai said. “It’s now or never.”
They both leaned on the levers as hard as they could, and finally the two giant metal gates opened wide.
Panting with the effort, Ikai saw Liriana coming in through the gates with five thousand men who had been waiting for that moment.
“We did it!” Kyra cried. “The city will be ours!”
The horns blared: first south, in front of the gates, then east, and a little later west. The Senoca retreated from the walls, soaked in blood, pursued by arrows. The defending soldiers, taken by surprise by this sudden retreat, awaited new orders.
And all of a sudden, the Senoca appeared from under the fog, pouring in through the gates of the city as if it were a broken and overflowing dam. The blue tide flooded the streets, and chaos took over Osaen. Liriana led her men to the battlements, and there they fought Sesmok’s elite guard and the Hunters. The fighting was brutal, for the enemy’s skill with weapons was superb. As they entered, the rebels headed to the top of the ramparts, where the fighting was centered. Liriana and Albana led the rebels on the eastern battlement, Ikai and Kyra on the western. Senoca blood drenched the parapets and battlements, but gradually the rebel numbers, together with their courage and heart, imposed themselves. Like a high tide covering a beach, inexorably, they went on taking the battlements until the last soldiers and Hunters had no other option but to surrender.
“Throw down your weapons!” Liriana ordered them.
The last officers surrendered and threw their weapons off the walls.
“They must be respected,” Liriana told her people, to avoid a massacre. “Nobody is to kill them.”
Kyra and Ikai secured their side of the wall and took the prisoners below. They went on to the great square of the city, where the gigantic monolith rose to the sky. When they arrived they found Sesmok, together with Osvan and Torkem, on the platform at the foot of the artifact of the Gods. On the steps leading up to them, the ones where Solma had lost her life, a hundred Enforcers were gathered.
“There’s that bastard! He’s ours now!” cried Kyra.
“Stop!” Ikai said to his people, and the Senoca came to a halt at the entrance to the square.
“Let’s go get him!” said Kyra. “Let’s tear his rotten heart out!”
“Let’s wait for the others,” said Ikai, with his eyes fixed on Sesmok. Hatred was eating him up within, but his cool head remained in control.
Liriana and Albana arrived with the remaining surviving forces and joined the two of them. Ikai saw that they had lost almost half of their people. But in the eyes of the men and women who had survived he could see the spark of hope; freedom was within reach. All they had to do was clench their fists and crush the Regent and his minions.
Liriana’s eyes were on Sesmok. “At last!” she said. “At last we’ve reached freedom! Gedrel’s dream, our dream, is fulfilled today.”
“What’s he up to?” Albana asked herself aloud, distrustfully.
“Negotiating terms of surrender?” Liriana suggested.
“We’re not going to negotiate anything,” said Kyra. “I’m going to gut him for all the Senoca blood he’s shed. For the thousands of dead we’ve left on the way here.”
Ikai was weighing up the situation, waiting for Sesmok to make his move.
And Sesmok spoke at last.
“What an unexpected surprise,” he said, sounding amused. “I must admit I didn’t expect you to get this far.”
“We won’t have any mercy on you!” Kyra cried. “Even if you surrender and beg on your knees!”
Sesmok laughed. Ikai did not like the situation at all. Sesmok did not seem defeated; he was not behaving as though he were.
“Surrender? Me? Why would I do such a foolish thing?”
“It’s the only option you have left,” Liriana said. “Surrender and beg for mercy.”
“Ah, my dear rebels. I see you haven’t learnt your lesson. I’ve repeated it ad nauseam, but you never listen. It’s pointless to confront the Gods. Anyone who does will die. It’s an invariable maxim.”
“Today you’ll be the one who dies!” Kyra snarled at him.
“On the contrary, little rebel, today all of you will die!” Sesmok said, and raised his arm. The Eyes-of-the-Gods on the stairs emitted a flash, and a sudden tremor was felt on the ground.
Kyra turned to Ikai. “What…. what’s happening?”
He did not know, but he had an ominous feeling. Albana gave him an anguished look.
From behind the monolith came Oskas, commanding an army of Enforcers. They descended the stairs, thousands of them, their feet thudding on the ground so it shook beneath their powerful bodies.
“By Oxatsi!” Liriana cried in horror.
“No! It’s impossible!”
Ikai watched the army of Enforcers take up its position before them. And as he looked, he knew who they were and where they had come from.
“They’re the prisoners from the Dungeons of Oblivion.”
“But they’re Enforcers!” Liriana said incredulously.
“This is what they’ve been doing in that place of horror for so long,” Ikai said. “Creating an army of Enforcers.”
Kyra understood. “The way they did with Urda…”
“Yes, but with all the prisoners.”
“We’re lost,” Liriana said. “There’s no way we can face up to a host like that!”
Ikai’s gaze lingered on Oskas, then on the three thousand Executors behind him.
“Yes. We’re lost.”
Chapter 36
Sesmok’s lips shaped themselves into a smile as evil as the lust for power of the Golden Gods themselves. His eyes shone with the unmistakable gleam of triumph.
“You stupid slaves. Now you’re going to learn your lesson once and for all. You’re nothing but a bunch of miserable cockroaches. Now you’ll pay with your lives for daring to rebel against me. You’ll never free yourselves from slavery to the Gods, and you’ll never defeat me. You’re all going to die!”
Oskas went back to stand beside Sesmok, to watch the fateful end of the revolt.
“Kill them all! Not one remains alive,” Sesmok ordered the Enforcers. “Such is the wish of the Gods.”
The Eyes-of-the-Gods gave the order, a single and definite one: Death.
And with that the Senoca were sentenced.
The Executors moved against the rebels with firm, determined steps, with their lethal impassivity. Their spears were to the fore, their huge bodies rigid, bearing death with them.
Ikai had no time to come up with any ideas. He drew his weapons and faced the Executor who was on his way to kill him.
“To arms!” was all he could shout.
Kyra, Liriana and Albana followed suit.
Behind them a war cry was heard: “We’ll die fighting!”
And from among the rebels came Honus, wielding a spear. He charged against the Executors as if he were a God of the Senoca.
“Follow me, brothers!” he shouted with all his might.
There was a moment of hesitation. The rebels knew it was impossible to defeat those creatures. Their minds, their fear, assured them it was not possible, but their hearts longed to follow brave Honus’ example. They knew all was lost, that they had just been condemned to death, but they would die with courage. They cried to the sky and followed Honus.
“For freedom! We’ll die fighting! For Oxatsi!”
“Imbecile mob,” was Sesmok’s contemptuous comment.
“They’re nothing but ignorant slaves,” said the High Priest Torkem, “Unable to follow one simple creed: the will of the Gods, or else death.”
The Lord Hunter Osvan spat to one side. “They’ll all die, like the stupid rabble they are.”
The two fronts clashed. But the clash was insanely unbalanced. Driven on by his valor and madness, Honus managed to kill two Executors. But as he confronted the third a spear caught him in the chest. This was followed by a second, which went through his back.
“Bastards!” he yelled. He fell to his knees, looked up at the sky and said: “Wait for me, Karm, I’m coming with you.” An Executor stood in front of him and without a word pierced his heart.
Chaos took possession of the square. The rebels fought with the despair of those who know their fatal destiny is on its way to claim its due.
Ikai managed to wound the nearest Executor, but he did not seem to feel the stroke. Kyra defended herself like a lioness, but was retreating before another Executor. Liriana, in serious difficulty, fell backwards in the face of the pressure from two Enforcers. Albana, making use of one of her dark skills, attacked them from behind and managed to save Liriana at the last moment.
Kyra brought out the Disc of Power, concentrated and managed to raise the protective sphere around her.
“Now you’ll see, you swine!” she yelled at them. Focusing on the two Executors coming towards her, she sent them flying through the air as if they were rag dolls. Ikai stared, wide-eyed.
“How…?” he muttered, but already another enemy was upon him.
Kyra stretched out her arm, cupped her hand and in her mind caught the Executor’s aura. “Gotcha!” She closed her eyes tightly, concentrating even more intensely, and gave the order to the disc. She felt the tingling which using the Power gave her, and the Executor was hurled backwards against his own men, carrying away a dozen of them with him.
Kyra helped her brother to his feet.
“It’s incredible, what you can do…”
“So now you don’t think it’s wrong to use the Power, do you?”
“Absolutely not.”
Suddenly a spear came straight for Kyra’s heart. Frightened, she tried to avoid it, and the spear buried itself in the protective sphere.
Phew!
“Ikai, get behind me!”
Her brother threw himself behind the translucent sphere.
Just then a dozen spears struck the barrier, and she took a step back. She was definitely frightened now. They nearly broke through it! She raised her eyes to see an Eye-of-the-God commanding a dozen Executors.
“Throw!” the Eye ordered.
The rest of the Executors threw their spears against Ky
ra. They struck the sphere, which under the heavy punishment was weakening. It won’t hold much longer! The last spear penetrated it and grazed her chest. By Oxatsi! It nearly killed me!
The Eye-of-the-God took out a disc and aimed it at her: “Die, Hybrid!” A discharge flew from the disc and struck the battered sphere, which burst into pieces.
Kyra was left defenseless. Ikai stepped forward and covered her body with his own. Twenty Executors came towards them determinedly, carrying half-moon knives. Kyra shut her eyes and concentrated, but she was only able to pick out the aura of six of them. She would not be able to handle them all; she was still not sufficiently master of the Power.
They were doomed.
And at that moment, when Kyra realized they were going to die with their throats cut, a voice sounded in her mind.
Take a step back, and take your brother with you.
Immediately she recognized Adamis’ voice. She grabbed Ikai’s arm and yanked him back. A white mist formed before them, and Adamis appeared from it. He thrust himself between them and the Executors. He was wearing his hooded cloak, and the Enforcers did not recognize him.
“No…” murmured Kyra. She knew what he was about to do.
As the twenty Executors reached him, Adamis spoke a single word. There was a flash, and they were struck by a tremendous wave of energy. Another thirty were hurled back by the impact. The Eye in command stared at Adamis. He hesitated. And Adamis clenched his fist. The Eye’s neck broke and he fell dead. The Prince of Ether turned to Kyra.
I cannot let you die.
“You… you can’t interfere. If you do, you’ll condemn yourself before your people. You have to let us fight our battle. To the last consequences.”
You will die. You will all die.
Kyra took his hands in hers. “Listen to me, my love. If it comes to that, you must let me go. This is my destiny. This is my cause, and I’ll die for it if I have to. Just like everyone who’s fighting with me. Just like all the Senoca who’ve given their lives for freedom.”
No, I will not let you die.