Mara pushed Lika’s head back and she lay back on the pillow. She smiled as she anticipated the death of her husband.
Chapter 17
The halls that wound into the depths of the dungeon were dark and damp. The cold stone steps of the narrow hallway, with the dried blood that covered them, bespoke of the deaths of many enemies that had tried to take over Soci. Mara walked quickly down the hallway carrying a flickering torch. Her light blue robe and white boots contrasted sharply to the hallway and anyone seeing her there would have wondered what such a lovely woman was doing in such a miserable place. The light from the torch bounced off the wet walls causing the walls to twinkle like the sky and reflect Mara’s angelic face in every dewdrop. But the angelic look was only skin deep for as she came closer to Zenak’s cell, she could see his head in her hands. She could feel his warm blood oozing all over her warm body as she tore him open with her nails. A surge of her unending needs passed through her body as she thought of her body pulsating on top of Zenak’s corpse. The thought of this caused her to quicken her pace through the tunnel-like halls to Zenak’s cell.
When Mara reached Zenak’s cell she peered through the small window in the door and saw Zenak. He was sitting with his arms wrapped around his legs and his head resting on his knees. His eyes were shut.
“My King,” Mara called out.
Zenak opened his eyes and looked around.
“My King, over here at the door,” Mara said. Her voice was sincere and loving.
Zenak rose as quickly as his chains would allow and hobbled over to the window. “Mara!” he exclaimed. All of a sudden Zenak felt a great weight taken off his shoulders. Sunlight had once again entered his thunderous life.
“Zenak, my love,” Mara answered back, she put her hand through the window and Zenak reached up and held it.
Zenak tried to speak again but a lump in his throat held the words down. All he could do was look at the lovely face of his wife.
And Mara stared back at Zenak lovingly. Little did Zenak know her true feelings. Little did Zenak know that his wife wanted him dead.
“I have the key to the cell,” she said, “but you will have to push hard so you can slide the door open.”
“Of course,” Zenak said,” unlock the door and I will slide it open in no time.”
Mara fumbled with the keys for a moment, but finally found the key to open the door. As soon as she unlocked it, Zenak put his back into sliding the heavy iron door open. It was slow work, though, because there were no grips on his side and he was chained, but within minutes the door was open and an impatient Mara was inside the cell. She jumped on Zenak and began kissing him all over. Zenak was amused and returned her kisses.
“Here, let me down,” Mara said as she climbed out of his arms, “I’ll get these chains off of you.” She took the keys that she had and unlocked the locks that held the chains on Zenak.
When Zenak was released and the chains littered the floor, Zenak again grabbed Mara and began kissing her face. She once again responded with equal enthusiasm, then she playfully pushed him back and said, “Come, we have no time to lose, my lady-in-waiting has the prince at an escape point.”
“I can’t leave yet,” Zenak argued as he pulled Mara toward him. “I must kill Vokar for what he has done to you.”
“Oh yes, of course,” Mara answered, “but you must get the prince and me to safety. You can’t realize how much I defy Vokar and what fear I have for the safety of our child. Please come back for your revenge. Just get us to safety, please.” Mara’s pleadings were very convincing and because of her supposed sincerity, Zenak decided that it was best to get Mara and his son to safety.
“Let’s go then,” Zenak said as he pulled Mara out of the cell.
Zenak led the way up the hallway, and when they got to a fork in the corridor Zenak headed up the corridor he remembered coming down. Mara stopped him.
“No, this way,” she said as she pulled him to the opposite corridor.
“No, Mara, this is the way out,” Zenak said confidently.
“Yes, but this is the way to our son,” Mara answered.
Zenak grunted and followed Mara at a quickened pace through this unknown hallway. There was a door at the end and when Zenak saw it he slowed down and stepped lightly to it.
“Shh,” Mara whispered to Zenak, “there may be guards in this room.”
She opened the door slowly. Light from torches in the room shot through the slight opening in the door.
“I’ll go first,” Zenak said.
“No, if there are guards in there, they will not harm me,” Mara said. “They think I am Vokar’s woman.”
This aroused Zenak’s anger. He hated the thought that anyone thought Mara was Vokar’s woman. It was as if she was some cheap concubine. He almost crashed through the door before Mara but then he decided that it would probably be best, for his family’s sake, to let Mara enter first. Mara walked in slowly and looked around. Then she came back to the door and opened it wide.
“It’s all clear,” she said.
Zenak smiled and confidently strode into the room. He saw his son in the arms of Lika and started to rush over to him. Before he took a step a guard moved in from behind the door and clubbed Zenak in the head. For a moment Zenak stood straight, but he fell forward as everything around him went black. The other guards rushed out from behind the room’s curtains and stood over Zenak.
Mara walked over to the unconscious giant and stared at him. She began laughing madly and uproariously. She laughed so hard that she fell to the ground in pain. The soldiers did nothing except watch their queen writhe from laughter. Then she stopped laughing and gave the guards a sharp command.
“Chain him to the chopping block.”
The guards dragged Zenak to the block and chained him by his ankles and wrists. Then Mara took the prince from Lika, stepped in front of Zenak, and waited for her husband to come to.
Zenak regained consciousness slowly. His head felt as if a great weight were resting on it. It was more and more difficult to come out unconsciousness from a blow to the head each time he was revived. The first thing he saw when his vision returned was Mara holding the baby. He smiled at the sight.
“What happened?” he asked. No one answered the question.
“Well, fool, you’ve finally awakened,” Mara said to Zenak.
Zenak shook his head for he was sure he heard wrong.
“What?” he asked quizzically. Then he tried to get up but to his chagrin he found himself chained down. “What is this, my love?”
“Your love?” Mara asked. “Your love? I have never loved you. I have hated you always. Ever since the day you exiled my father and forced me to be your bride I have hated you.”
“I never forced you,” Zenak said slowly.
“And what would have happened to me if I had not married you? I would have been exiled and I would have been forced to leave my true love,” Mara said.
“Who is that?” Zenak asked as he subtly pulled at the chains.
“Vokar,” Mara answered.
Zenak went limp at the answer. His whole world crashed about him and all purpose for living was lost.
“He has mesmerized you,” Zenak said searching for a rationale.
Mara laughed out loud and said, “No, it’s just that I love a powerful man. Vokar shall own the world and I shall share it with him.”
“Was not Deparne enough?” Zenak asked coldly.
“Deparne was stifling,” Mara answered.
Zenak then looked at his son and his purpose for living was once again revived.
“Well then free me and my son. We shall go our way and I will not fight for you. I will do nothing,” Zenak said. The sound of defeat was in his voice. Never in his life had he felt so defeated.
“He is not your son,” Mara said. “He is only my son.”
“He is my son also,” Zenak said exasperated.
“No, you bastard, no,” Mara yelled. Her eyes were ablaz
e. Insanity was obvious. “He is not yours He is only mine, only mine!”
“He is ours,” Zenak said softly. “Come with me so we may both take care of him.”
“Ours? He is part of you?” She held the boy up and looked at him. Her hands were trembling and her mouth was frothing. “Which part is yours? Which part?” She put the boy back in her arms and held him tightly. Zenak looked at her compassionately. He was still pulling on the chains. The guards did not even look at Zenak; they were too taken by the scene Mara played.
She continued, “He laughs a lot and is a happy child. He has no evil in him. He is not at all like Vokar or me. He does look like me in the face, though. But he has your heart,” Mara pointed at Zenak. “Yes, he has your heart and that’s the part you will get.”
Zenak yelled, “No!” and started pulling at the chains as hard as he could. No one tried to stop him.
Then Mara took off her robe. Her voluptuous body was a wonder to all the guards. “Get me my dagger, Lika,” she commanded,
“No!” Zenak yelled again and he could feel the chains slowly coming free.
Lika brought the dagger to Mara and Mara pushed Lika on her knees so Lika could service her. Zenak stopped shaking, looked at what was happening, and was disgusted. Mara then took the dagger and put it to the child’s breast. She was panting heavily from the expertise of Lika’s tongue,
“Here is your part, Zenak,” Mara said as she jabbed the sharp dagger into the baby’s breast.
Zenak screamed and pulled on his chains as hard as he could. Mara removed the small pulsating heart from the baby and threw it into Zenak’s face.
“There is your part,” Mara said. Then she started laughing. The blood from the child poured down the front of her body, drenching Lika.
Then there were four snaps almost simultaneously and Zenak was free. Before anyone knew what happened Zenak leaped straight for Mara. The first person Zenak came in contact with was Lika. She never felt a thing, as Zenak snapped her neck with one of his powerful hands. Then Zenak grabbed Mara; the dead baby fell from her hands. She started screaming, but it was too late. Zenak lifted her above his head and bent her backwards until her head touched her heels. She was screaming, now not from fear, but in total pain. Another snap, not the snap of a broken chain, but the snap of a backbone cracking. The sound resounded throughout the room. This happened in such a short time that the guards still hadn’t reacted and before they could, Zenak had dumped Mara on the ground and was upon them. The first three men died without fighting. Zenak took them down with his fists. Then he took a sword and lit into the rest of the soldiers like a thousand razors slashing. Heads were flying and the blood from headless and armless men ran thick and red. Some of the men died with their skulls cleaved to their teeth. The brains oozed out of the skulls like lava out of a volcano. Others died with their bowels all over or with their arms on the other side of the chamber. Nothing could stop the havoc Zenak was wreaking and not until the last man was dead did Zenak stop. When the fighting was over Zenak dropped the point of his sword and looked around him. He was up to his ankles in blood and pieces of brain and muscle hung all over his muscular body. He looked at Mara. Her face was half submerged in blood but he could see the look of pain and horror written on her face. It seemed as if her scream of pain still reverberated in the room. Zenak did not feel bad about her death. He now knew that the love he once had for her had turned into hate.
All he could care about was his lost son. He looked at his son, his arms bobbed a bit in the great puddle of blood in which he lay.
“My little prince,” Zenak said. He walked to the child and picked him up. He held him tightly and the tears poured down from his eyes onto the bloody baby. “Don’t worry my child. You will be avenged,” he said to the baby. Then he remembered the young woman of the woods, “You too will be avenged.” He put the baby on the chopping block and walked out of the chamber. He never looked back.
As he climbed the inky corridor out of the dungeon toward the courtyard, Zenak thought only of his child. His tears ran profusely down his face and great chest. He held his sword tightly and could almost feel Vokar’s head beneath it.
“Vokar, you shall die,” Zenak screamed out loud.
When he reached the door to the palace courtyard, he found it locked. This presented no problem and like a bull, he butted the door off the hinges and strode into the early morning. He was stained all over his body from blood and sweat. The sunlight in the early morning made him glisten like a bronze demon from Varsoula. He stopped just outside the door and gazed about the courtyard. No one was around and it seemed no one knew of his escape. He was glad for he was determined to find Vokar. However, he had no idea where his enemy’s room was.
He rested a moment in the sun and thought out a plan.
While Zenak was resting, his great personality responded to the atmosphere and shook Vokar up. In his contemplation, Vokar could read from the air any change in power. Zenak generated great power and consequently generated the air about him. So like waves from a pebble that has been dropped into a pond, Zenak’s waves reached Vokar’s mind. Vokar jumped from his chair and ran to his balcony. He saw Zenak far below him standing in the courtyard near the dungeon door. Vokar panicked. He ran into the hallway outside his room and called the captain of the guards. The captain of the guards was ordered to stay near Vokar at all times.
“Yes, My King.” the captain said as he rushed up to Vokar.
“Take all of the guards of the palace and place them at every entrance to the palace. Zenak has escaped and he must not get in,” Vokar said.
“Where is he?” the guard said viciously. He had been well mesmerized.
“Out in the courtyard, but don’t go out there unless I order you, you have a better chance of killing him at a close quarters than out in the open,” Vokar said. “Besides, I have plans for him.”
“It will be done,” the captain said and within moments the guards were deployed and standing in their position.
Vokar, after giving his orders, ran back to his room’s balcony. He saw Zenak quietly walking toward the main palace door. Behind the door two dozen well-trained fighters waited.
“Stop, you fool,” Vokar yelled out from the balcony.
Zenak looked up and saw Vokar in his balcony. Vokar’s black robes rustled in the wind and his coal black eyes gazed at Zenak.
“Someone else, just lately, called me that and now she lies in a pool of blood and stares at her toes,” Zenak yelled up to Vokar.
Vokar was taken aback a little. Mara was dead. For a moment he felt an emptiness in his stomach. But only a moment was all Vokar took to mourn the woman he loved. Then he quietly composed himself.
“Go away, Zenak. I have hundreds of fighters in the palace. They will cut you down,” Vokar yelled back. He had no intention of letting Zenak go, but he did want a chance to get at Zenak on his own terms.
“Why do you need them? I thought by now your powers would have little need for an army,” Zenak said sarcastically.
“My powers could reduce you to a cinder,” Vokar said.
Zenak looked at Vokar coldly for a few moments and then said, “Go ahead, I’m waiting, reduce me to a cinder.” He stretched his arms out, threw his head back, and closed his eyes.
“I will not waste my energy on you,” Vokar said.
Zenak started laughing, his bluff had worked. He knew that if he showed no fear to Vokar that Vokar would not trust such fearlessness. Vokar was such a suspicious man that any fearlessness in another person made Vokar wonder what power that person had.
The truth was that Vokar was afraid to use his power immediately on Zenak. The reason, though, was that all the time Vokar had known Zenak he could never control him with his eyes and now Zenak’s fearlessness put even more doubt in Vokar.
“Now, Vokar,” Zenak yelled, “since you are afraid to use your powers I will use mine,” Zenak pointed to his sword, “to reduce you to a thousand pieces.”
“Guards, to the courtyard, but do not attack,” Vokar ordered. The doors of the palace flung open and hundreds of fighters filed out into the courtyard. Zenak faced them and firmly stood his ground, his sword ready for action.
“Now, Zenak, you shall die and I shall have the pleasure of watching,” Vokar said somberly. “Attack,” Vokar yelled to the guards.
The guards never attacked, though. The instant Vokar gave his attack order another voice resounded throughout the courtyard with a thunderous “No,” as if the palace itself was talking. At the sound of it Vokar grabbed the railing of his balcony and fearfully looked around for the origin of the voice. The guards moved closer together and looked around nervously. Only Zenak stood his ground. He was puzzled but did not really care about the voice. He figured it was some wizard’s trick and all he wanted to do now was fight.
The voice spoke again, “You soldiers of Soci shall not stop Zenak from his task. Zenak is the last man on the panels of Destiny. Destiny must be fulfilled for it is the end. Leave Zenak alone.”
“We want to kill him, though,” the mesmerized captain yelled as he turned around looking for someone to talk to.
“No, you don’t,” the voice said. “Vokar’s spell is taken away from you and the rest of Soci.” At that the soldiers saw a flash in front of their eyes. Suddenly, they felt strong and happy and looked at Zenak with respect.
“Who are you?” Vokar questioned.
“We are the kings of Soci. The kings who ruled for thousands of years. We never died, we couldn’t. We left only our physical selves and melted into the walls of the palace,” the voice said.
Zenak Page 19