The Secret of the Golden Gods Omnibus Edition

by Pedro Urvi

  When she saw the head roll on the floor Yosane covered her mouth so as not to cry out. It was Gersa who screamed on her behalf.

  Four Custodians were still standing. Iradu signaled with his sword for them to come at him. The four attacked at once, their spears searching for chest and back. But Iradu leapt as if his huge body were weightless and passed over the heads of two of the attackers, then rolled on the floor and got back to his feet behind them.

  The Custodians swerved, but Iradu, with another leap, lunged at them. He disarmed the first with such a swift maneuver that the Custodian’s eye could not even catch it. He tried to take cover behind his shield, but the God hit the metal edge with both swords at once, with such force that it flew off the other’s arm. Even disarmed, the Custodian did not cower, and lunged at Iradu. Steel flew in a deadly arc, shining in the sun, and slit the throat of the daring attacker.

  The spear of the second Custodian aimed straight at Iradu’s face. Two inches away from his eye the God deflected the trajectory with his own sword. He launched a devastating kick at the shield, and the Custodian flew backwards. The guard tried to stop the momentum of the brutal blow, but was unable to. He fell into one of the wells just at the moment when fire burst out again.

  Yosane shut her eyes tightly in absolute horror. When she opened them she saw Lord Asu on his feet, laughing and gesticulating. The other Gods applauded: muffled applause, for they clapped their hands on their thighs instead of against each other.

  The last two Custodians attacked. Iradu stretched his shoulders and thrust out his swords to the sides, leaving his wide torso uncovered. The spears sought to run him through. Iradu waited until the last instant, then with a downwards spinning motion of both arms deflected the spears outwards. He took a lightning step forward and charged at the two Custodians like a raging bull. He overwhelmed them. They were thrown to either side and hit the floor hard. Iradu took another leap and pierced the first one, nailing him to the ground. He swerved and saw the other Custodian trying to get up. With colossal force, he threw his sword. It caught the guard in the chest, piercing armor, flesh and bone. He collapsed to one side, dead.

  The courtyard broke into applause, and the Gods stood up, applauding in that odd way. Iradu saluted the audience, respectfully, and then his master Lord Asu. The God-Prince nodded in acknowledgement, and there was a triumphant smile on his face. The champion withdrew amid applause. Yosane, her eyes wide, was biting her lip hard. She was horrified by what she had just witnessed.

  The God-Warrior went over to his pages, and one of them carefully wiped the blood from his armor. With a gesture, Iradu requested his gauntlet. He took off the metal mitten which protected his left arm and put on the curious piece of armor, which covered his hand and forearm as far as the elbow. It appeared to be metal, made up of sheets and solid rectangular pieces. It was very sturdy, and looked heavy. The God-Warrior took the silver spear, shook his head to put his long queue back in place, then turned once more to the center of the yard. All the Gods stood up.

  Yosane watched, hypnotized, and glanced aside at Gersa, who said not a word.

  Iradu raised his arms and turned towards the west, where the fifty God-Warriors watched him.

  “What’s going on? What’s he doing?” Yosane asked.

  “Our Lord is challenging the best warriors of Lord Asu, before the entire Royal House and the most influential nobles,” the page said, looking first at the thrones and then at the great dais.

  Yosane now understood who all those other Gods were.

  “Challenging?” she asked.

  “To a Duel of Power, to take his place as Champion of the House of Aureb. Last year nobody dared dispute his position. They all fear our Lord.”

  Looking at the warriors, Yosane saw they were all enormous and so menacing in appearance that her soul shrank at the mere sight of them. Nobody moved. They were all looking at Iradu with great respect.

  “Nobody’s coming out,” Yosane said, relieved at not having to witness any more bloodshed.

  Once again Iradu shook his spear and gauntlet.

  And from among the warriors, one stepped forward.

  Yosane stared at him and was left speechless. He was taller than Iradu, and equally strong. Like all the rest, his head was clean-shaven with a long queue hanging down his back. He was armed with silver spear and gauntlet. With an expression of determination, he came forward until he was standing in front of Iradu. The Gods broke into applause.

  “My Lord has been challenged. There will be combat,” the page said. He sounded worried.

  “Do you know him?”

  “It’s Pesako. He’s said to be an unequaled fighter. He’s never been defeated in a Duel of Power. He takes part in the annual Games between the Five Houses. He’s the current champion. But the House Champions don’t take part in the Games, and he’s never measured himself against our lord.”

  Yosane was taking in all this information, unable to take her eyes off what was going on in the center of the yard. The two God-Warriors were eyeing each other, while a great tension grew in the atmosphere. Lord Asu waved his hand, and both warriors bowed deeply. They moved several steps away from each other and stood in position. The nobles on the dais sat down, and Lord Asu unsheathed a ceremonial sword and raised it above his head. Silence reigned in the courtyard once more. The sword came down.

  Pesako shook his right arm and the silver spear caught fire. He took a step forward, made as if to hurl the spear, and a fiery javelin shot out from it at tremendous speed. Iradu thrust out his forearm, and from out of the gauntlet came an enormous round shield which now covered almost all his body. The shield began to burn an instant before it received the impact of the javelin. Iradu protected himself behind the shield and set fire to his spear. Pesako in turn activated his fiery shield and raised his spear above his head.

  Yosane’s eyelashes stuck to her eyelids. She looked down at her slave Ring on her left arm, and wished she had that fantastic gauntlet.

  Pesako charged against Iradu with inhuman speed, sliding his feet over a blanket of lava which formed at each step, as if he were skating on ice, except that this was magma. Yosane stared at him in disbelief. Iradu could not dodge the charge and took it full on his shield. He was thrown backwards from the impact and hit the floor ten paces away, hard. Pesako seized his advantage, took a prodigious leap and sent a trident of fire from his spear against Iradu. The champion rolled over to one side an instant before it reached him. He got to his feet, and as his rival touched the ground he swept his shield from one side to the other, sending an arc of fire against him. Pesako leapt over it and came to stand in front of Iradu.

  The two warriors exchanged blows of fire, with their flaming spears trying to penetrate the fiery shields. The blows and backstrokes were so rapid that only the resultant flames could be seen when weapons and defenses made contact. The two Gods seemed to be fighting amid a sea of fire. Pesako took one step back, withdrew his spear and shield, threw his head back, and with a beastly roar sent a cone of sustained fire against his opponent, as if it were the burning breath of some creature of fire. Iradu protected himself behind his shield, but Pesako came forward, keeping up the breath of fire against his rival.

  Yosane put her hands to her cheeks. Iradu was in trouble. The champion waved his spear and raised a wall of fire in front of him. Pesako had to stop his advance to avoid crashing into it. Yosane noticed that an incandescent surface was forming under Iradu’s fee, it was a glyph. Instantly it exploded with a deafening noise. The champion was boosted up into the sky by the explosion, which left a wake of sparks behind it.

  Yosane saw him fly, and forgot to breathe. From the heights, Iradu launched a fiery missile against Pesako, who intercepted it with one of his own. Both missiles burst into flames in midair without reaching their targets. Pesako in turn propelled himself into the sky with another fiery explosion, which made Yosane cover her ears. But Iradu was expecting him; he sent a ball of fire which rolled through the air un
til it reached him. Pesako protected himself with his shield, but the explosion of flames when the fireball made contact was so strong that it unbalanced him, sending him off to one side.

  Pesako tried to correct his position in mid-flight. Iradu saw it and as he fell, threw another tremendous fiery ball at him. Unbalanced and in midair, Pesako could only defend himself by moving his shield into place. The terrible impact of the explosion sent him toppling straight towards the ground. As he fell, the skillful warrior turned his body and sent a missile against the ground in order to propel himself in the opposite direction and avoid the impact. The missile reached the ground and Pesako shot back into the sky, avoiding disaster.

  But a ball of fire reached him full in the chest at the precise moment he managed to regain a vertical position. Iradu fell straight down and caught up with him. Pesako was thrown off amid a sea of flames and crashed into the ground with a terrible impact.

  Yosane closed her eyes and choked back a scream. Iradu sent a couple of fiery missiles against the floor under his feet before crashing and managed to break his fall. Ten feet from the ground he dropped, then rolled the moment he hit the floor. He straightened up and moved at inhuman speed towards his opponent, sliding across fire.

  Lord Asu was smiling broadly. Pesako lay unconscious on the ground in flames. Iradu went to him and gestured urgently. Four warriors came running with great amphorae full of water, which they emptied on the fallen warrior.

  The applause filled the yard. Not a single God, warrior or noble held back.

  They took away the loser, who although badly wounded, seemed to have avoided death.

  “Our lord is as magnificent a warrior as he is merciful,” Sulab said. “He has let his rival live.”

  Yosane looked at him, still in a state of shock, unable to assimilate all she had just witnessed.

  “If that’s what they do to their own people… what’ll they do to us?” stammered Gersa.

  Yosane did her best to calm her. “Nothing will happen to us, don’t worry.” She turned to Sulab. “Right?”

  The page shrugged. “You’re not beautiful enough for the harems of the nobles, not even for their personal service. They haven’t sent you to forced labor, which is where you should be, and you’re prisoners of the heir to the House of Aureb. I don’t know what’s in store for you, but I can assure you of one thing: if Lord Asu has shown an interest in you, and it seems he has, since he has you locked up here, it means nothing good. I’m sorry.” The page turned and went to meet his lord.

  Yosane hugged Gersa. “Don’t take any notice of him, I’m sure nothing will happen to us,” she lied with all the conviction she could muster. She was thinking of Lord Asu’s cruel, fiery eyes.

  21

  They left the dense forest in haste, and tall grassland opened before their eyes. The sunset welcomed them, bathing them in a soft crimson light. Albana led the way, with Liriana following a few steps behind and Ikai bringing up the rear. The three were keeping up a good pace. Unfortunately the other group of Hunters had already found their trail, and they had to escape if they wanted to stay alive. Ikai took a look back over his shoulder, afraid of seeing one of their pursuers, but saw only furtive shadows inside the great forest.

  Suddenly Albana stopped in the middle of the grassland. Ikai put his hand to his sword and followed her example, scanning the area. The mysterious girl pointed ahead without a word. Liriana moved forward and Ikai followed; in front of them was only an orange sky fading into the distant horizon. They moved on again and something extraordinary happened: in the distance the ground ahead was no longer green but had turned completely blue. Liriana and Ikai went forward slowly, staring at each other in puzzlement, until the ground disappeared to become an infinite expanse of blue.

  The sea.

  Ikai was in a state of shock as he stared at the ocean from the top of the cliff, overcome with emotion. He spread his arms wide and let the cool breeze of the sea caress his face. He breathed in deeply to fill his lungs. It smelt of the sea, of salt water… of sea! He stared in disbelief, unable to take in the full greatness and splendor of the ocean. His heart wanted to leap out of his chest and merge with that infinite blue. He closed his eyes and gave his emotions full rein. They had come to Oxatsi, Mother Sea, she whom the Gods had denied to her children the Senoca.

  The roaring of the waves breaking incessantly against the cliffs brought him back to reality. He felt Liriana’s hand take his own, and turned aside to look at her. There were tears in the girl’s eyes as she gazed at the ocean, lost in the grandeur of the eternal mother.

  “Can you believe it, Ikai? It’s the sea… the sea… as beautiful as in the legends… even more so.”

  He saw that tears were running down her tanned cheeks. He was suddenly very aware of her hand on his.

  “I never thought I’d get to see it,” he said, shaking his head.

  “It’s so beautiful!”

  “So it is. It makes you feel humble and insignificant before its immensity.”

  “It takes my breath away. We’re in the presence of Oxatsi after a thousand years… I can’t believe it.” She squeezed his hand hard.

  Ikai turned to her, and their eyes met. They remained silent, gazing at each other, unable to look away, with emotions that were too intense, impossible to control. A damp salty breeze blew strongly under the fading sun, and red reflections lit them up. For an instant he felt he was in a dream which he had no desire to wake up from. Liriana smiled at him and all his troubles vanished, swept away by that simple gesture of beauty and life.

  “I guessed you’d like to see it,” Albana said from a few steps behind them.

  The two looked at Albana, then once again at the immensity of the sea. They did not let go of one another’s hands.

  Albana turned back to the forest. “Maybe one day I can show you some of the beaches and coves on this coast. They’re so beautiful they’ll leave you speechless. But now we have to move on. We’re very near, and here we’re an easy target. Follow me.”

  A few hours later the three fugitives looked down from a high hill at the enormous port in the distant bay. They crouched, hidden behind a fallen oak. The forest in the distance murmured restlessly behind them.

  “There it is,” Albana said. She nodded in the direction of the great ships docked in the inlet.

  Ikai half-closed his eyes as he scanned the activity. “What is that place?” he asked.

  “It’s the end of the road. What we came to find,” Albana replied with her usual secrecy.

  Liriana craned forward. “I can count more than twenty ships. They’re very big. Most of them seem cargo ships, but from here it’s difficult to be sure.”

  “Look at the black monolith in the fourth building,” Ikai said. “That’s certainly the work of the Gods. What would those buildings be for? They’re huge…”

  “The biggest and squarest is where they store all kinds of materials and goods they bring from different places before transporting them in those big ships you can see. It’s some kind of temporary storage.”

  “Do you know where those ships come from?” Liriana asked.

  “No, but the process goes on non-stop, from both east and west. I tried to follow one of them, but I found it was impossible. What I can tell you is that we’re not the only people enslaved by the Gods. Those ships don’t come from our lands.”

  “Gedrel’s suspected that for some time,” Liriana said.

  “He’s right.”

  Ikai was listening closely. This information was of profound importance to him, even though he found it hard to believe. Nobody had ever said anything about other peoples. The High Priests claimed the exact opposite. It seemed to him very unlikely, another story to create hope in the hearts of men and nothing more than that. But seeing those ships and the port, he wanted to know more.

  “Please go on,” he begged. For the first time he began to see a real chance of reaching Kyra.

  “The next one,” Albana said, pointin
g to the second building, “is full of cages, many of them quite big ones.”

  “Cages?” Liriana asked in surprise.

  “Yes. The Gods like wild, dangerous animals. Don’t ask me why, I don’t know. They hunt them and shut them up in the cages, then they’re sent to the Eternal City. Two months ago I came on a hunting party of the Enforcers of the Gods. They didn’t see me. They’d caught a panther and two lionesses. Who knows what macabre end the Gods have in store for those beasts?”

  Liriana’s face shadowed, and she nodded.

  “In the next building, the third one, the one shaped like a square, the servants prepare the slaves before loading them on board for the Eternal City. They strip them naked, then under the threat of the whip they clean them thoroughly, as if they were flea-ridden dogs. Then they’re given clothes and shoes appropriate for their destination. The Eyes-of-the-Gods supervise the process meticulously. When the slaves have been prepared, they’re taken into the holds of the ships.”

  Ikai looked at her in confusion. “How do you know all this?” he asked. A trace of suspicion was nagging at his mind.

  Albana glared at him, defiantly, reading his doubts.

  “If Albana says…” Liriana began.

  But Albana interrupted her. “I know, because I’ve spied on them and because I’ve seen the Eternal City.”

  Ikai reacted. “Do you mean to say you’ve been to the Eternal City?”

  Albana sighed deeply, and nodded.

  “Why didn’t you tell us before?” Ikai wanted to know.

  “Would you have believed me? Anyway, it’s something that only concerns me. I don’t have to explain myself to you.”

  “But nobody’s ever come back from the Eternal City. That makes you someone really significant.”

  “There’s a reason why no one ever comes back…”