by Pedro Urvi
They were finishing their breakfast when they heard a muffled sound accompanied by a slight tremor, like a rhythmic, hollow hammering. The birds in the nearby trees flew away. The three remained listening, trying to puzzle out what the strange noise might be.
Adas’ eyes narrowed. “Enforcers!”
“Enforcers?” Karm asked in surprise. “Here? Are you sure?”
Adas put his head out of the door and looked in the direction of the path that led into the village. The sound meanwhile was growing louder.
Honus recognized it. “Hell! Horses’ hooves!”
The old man glanced at them. “They’re Enforcers, in carts, coming up the path. You’d better hide, quickly!”
“Where?” Karm asked. Looking around him, he saw that the house was so bare there was nowhere to hide.
“I don’t know, but hide or else you’re dead men, and me with you. Quick!”
Adas went out. With tired steps, his shoulders hunched, he walked to the center of the square.
The Enforcers soon entered the village. They came in four carts pulled by powerful horses. The first one was a golden cart, drawn by two jet-black coursers and guided by an Eye-of-the-Gods. It was followed by three heavy silver carts drawn by four horses each, carrying a dozen Executors. At the center of the square they stopped and got off without a word. The farmers, men, women and children, came out of their houses at once and threw themselves on the ground, remaining on their knees with their foreheads touching the ground and their arms outstretched.
The Eye stood in the center of the square, the dozen Executors behind him. From his tunic he brought out something long and metallic. He placed it on his helmet at the level of his mouth. The helmet opened slightly, and the Eye let out a long hissing shriek. When the sound touched the object, the hiss became an ear-splitting scream. Everyone put their hands to their ears, seeking to avoid the insufferable noise. The Eye kept up the call for a long moment, letting the sound spread throughout the fields and forests nearby. Everybody for leagues around would hear the summons. If they failed to come to the village at once, the Executors would set out with the order to find and kill.
Karm watched, trying to bear the suffering, but his head felt as though it was about to burst. Honus, on his knees beside him, writhed with his hands over his ears. “My ears! Freaking bastards!”
The Eye brought out his silver book. When he had checked it he gestured to the Executors, who began to search the houses.
“Quiet, the Executors are coming. We must hide.”
Honus’ face was twisted in pain. “But where the hell are we going to hide?”
“I don’t know, but here they come!
A moment later an Executor entered Adas’ house. The heavy steps of the Enforcer echoed on the fragile wooden floor. The sinister helmet scanned all the rooms in search of slaves, and his ominous spear checked every nook and cranny.
The Eye finished its summons. Free from the torture, the people in the square breathed out in relief, but none of them dared raise their eyes. The Executors went on searching until they were sure nobody was hiding in the houses, then went back to the Eye.
“Now what?” Honus whispered in Karm’s ear.
“Now we wait and commend ourselves to Oxatsi.”
“I hate heights.”
“Stop complaining.”
The two miners had climbed to the roof of the house and were lying on the old thatch, watching what was happening. Honus carefully removed one of the stones which held down the thatch so that he could stretch out his feet. Then he growled something about heights and his own bad luck.
For more than three hours nothing happened. The Eye-of-the-Gods waited impassively until all the farmers had returned from the fields and knelt before him. He finally counted them again and made a note in his silver book.
“Who is the leader of this village?” he asked in his shrill voice.
There was a silence. After a moment Adas spoke. “I’m the oldest, and speak for all.”
“Come closer.”
Adas got to his feet without looking directly at the Enforcer and went up to him.
“On your knees.”
The good man knelt and bowed his head.
“The recount is correct. No births?”
Adas shook his head.
“Right. If you are lying to me and hiding any newborn, what is the punishment?”
The old man swallowed. “Death to all the elders of the village.”
“I see you know the Law of the Gods.”
“We all know it.”
“I have a question for you, old man, and you had better answer with the truth. What do you know of those whom the slaves call the Heroes?”
Adas’ expression changed from fear to disbelief. “Heroes?”
“I shall not repeat it.”
“I… I don’t know anything about any heroes…”
“You lie. What is the punishment for lying?”
“D…death…”
“Exactly.”
Suddenly an Executor stepped forward and prepared to run his spear through Adas.
The Eye raised his arm, and the Executor stopped with his spear ready.
“He is an old man, he will not care much about dying,” the Eye said. “Better her.” He pointed to a little girl with copper-red hair, no more than seven years old.
The Executor grabbed her hair and dragged her across the ground to Adas’ feet, screaming and weeping with terror. Her mother’s plea was quickly silenced by another Executor who felled her with a brutal blow, leaving her unconscious. Several men made to rise, but the Executors stood in their midst, waiting for the slightest excuse to strike them.
The Eye pointed to the little girl. “The Heroes or her life,” he said in a bloodcurdling shriek.
Adas tried to sooth her. “Easy, little one, don’t cry. Old Adas will take care of you. Your name’s Alasa, isn’t it?” The child nodded, wiping away her tears with the worn-out sleeve of her old tunic.
“Time is up, old man.”
“All right, I’ll tell you the rumors that have reached us, but I don’t know whether they’re true or not. It’s just what we’ve heard.”
“Speak, and for her sake, it had better be something valuable.”
“They say that the Heroes of the Senoca are seven in number. They say they managed to escape from the Eternal City, they say they can cross the Boundary and take the Senoca with them. They say they’ve created a haven for the Senoca beside Oxatsi, Mother Sea, that a rebellion led by the Heroes is brewing. They say there’s hope for the Senoca, that the people want to follow the Heroes in the rebellion. That’s the message that flies from village to village on the wind, the message that reaches the ears of the people.”
Adas’ words represented such an act of treason that a silence of absolute terror fell on the square. Fear was in the hearts of all but one, the one whose heart yearned for nothing more than that message.
There’s hope for the Senoca, and now I know for sure, Karm thought as he watched the scene from the roof. It’s time to rise and fight, to follow the Heroes in the revolution. He turned his head and found Honus shaking his head at the message which meant so much to Karm.
“You’ve heard it just like me, Honus,” he whispered. “Don’t deny it.
“That doesn’t mean anything. It’s just rumors.”
“Say what you please, but I’m going to join the Heroes. I’m going to fight for the rebellion.”
“To hell with it! You’ll just get yourself killed, and me with you. Why are you so desperate to join this rebellion? Is it because of what happened to you before you were sent to the mines?”
Karm swallowed. “Maybe. Misfortunes change a man.”
“You’ve never told me, but I know something really horrible must have happened to you. You cry out in your sleep, you cry out her name…”
“My past is mine, like my pain. But the pain of our people is everybody’s pain. It affects us all.”
“If you’ve never told me, then you must have your good reasons for it. Just as I have my own for not wanting to end up dead. By my guts, they’re not going to get me now, not after so much time and suffering, not now that I’m free! You might not have anything to live for, you might want to fight to forget whatever happened to you, but I do have something, and I’m damned if I’m going to let myself be killed!”
The shriek of the Eye’s voice made Karm and Honus crouch deeper, pressing their bodies against the roof.
“Everything they say goes against the Law of the Gods and is punished with death,” the Eye said. His finger swept the square from one end to the other. “What else do you know of the Heroes? Who are they? Where are they?”
“Don’t answer, Adas! Don’t tell them anything else!” came the shout of a young farmer.
The Eye-of-the-Gods gestured. One of the Executors readied his arm, and in the blink of an eye the spear pierced the farmer’s chest. The lifeless body struck two other men before it fell to the ground.
The Eye pointed at Alasa, who was stammering in terror. “She is next,”
Adas closed his eyes and heaved a sigh. Then he spoke with deep feeling in his voice: “Of the seven Heroes… it is known that two are brother and sister, seventeen or eighteen years old, from the village of Issoli.”
“Their names.”
Adas shrugged. “Their names are not known. She is a farmer who was Chosen by the Gods. He is a Hunter who went to rescue her from the Eternal City and despite everything, managed to do so. That’s what they say. I don’t know whether it’s true or not, but it’s what the rumors say.”
The Eye made a note in his silver book.
Karm dug Honus in the side.
“That’s where we have to go. To that village, to find those two Heroes.”
“Not bloody likely!”
“I’m going. It’s the path I have to follow. Fate’s given me the opportunity I was looking for, and I’m not going to waste it. I’m going to join the Heroes. If you don’t want to come, I understand, and I respect it.”
“Of course I don’t. I’m not going in search of some hero I know nothing about. Least of all with all the Enforcers looking for them now they know who they are and where they’re from.”
“All right, my friend. I’ll go alone.”
“Are you out of your mind? You’re crazy if you think you won’t end up skewered by a spear.”
The Eye turned to Adas.
“What else do you know?”
The old man looked up at the sky, trying to think of something else to say. Before he could reply, the Eye pointed to a woman on his right. Almost in the same moment the Executor drove his spear through her heart.
“No! Tara!” Adas cried out in agony. But the woman, still staring wide-eyed, was already dead.
Karm was speechless with disbelief and impotence. He’s killed her just like that, like a sacrificial animal! He looked blankly at Honus. Wrath erupted inside him like a volcano.
“Murderers!” he cried, more loudly than was wise. Honus covered his mouth with his hand to silence him. He wriggled, but Honus held his face tightly and held him back.
“My patience is running out, old man,” said the Eye menacingly.
“They say… they say that one of the Heroes… can let the Senoca cross the Boundary…”
“Who?”
“I don’t know. I’ve told you everything that’s reached us. I swear. We have no more information. Please, I beg you, no more deaths.”
“Who is the leader of the rebellion?”
“I don’t know. Nobody knows. We don’t know anything else.”
The Eye stared at him. Suddenly the front of the Enforcer’s helmet divided into its two triangular halves, which moved to either side. The ominous Eye was revealed. A beam of intense light bathed Adas. The radiation was maintained for a long moment, as if the Eye were trying to read his mind, or perhaps find out the truth hidden in his soul. In the end the beam of light vanished and the Eye was again hidden inside the helmet.
“You are telling the truth.”
Adas sighed in relief.
“Whoever repeats the words of treason will be punished with death,” the Eye announced to the terrified onlookers.
“Let her live, please,” Adas begged with moist eyes as he gazed at Alasa. “She’s just a child.”
“She will live. She has not committed treason.”
“Thank you, thank you,” the old man said.
“But you will not live, since you are guilty.”
A spear he did not even see drove through Adas’ fragile body from behind. The old man arched, then with a cry of pain he fell to one side.
Nooooo! Bastards! Noooo! Driven by uncontrollable rage, Karm tried to stand up. He was on the point of leaping down into the middle of the square and tearing the pig to pieces. Honus hit him on the back of his neck with a stone. As he fell on to the roof and lost consciousness, Karm heard the Eye’s final order.
“Kill all the elders, both men and women. Then burn one third of the houses. Let all the villages of the region know what happens when the Law of the Gods is broken.”
And blood and fire fell on the Senoca once again.
Chapter 10
Sesmok woke with a terrible anxiety in his chest. He felt a rush of heat and his heart accelerated until it was beating like a drum in his chest and ears.
These cursed nightmares! Damned Golden Gods! He could not remember exactly what he had been dreaming about, but he had a vague memory of the figure of a God lurking behind him, ready to pierce him with a fiery arrow. He opened his eyes and saw the morning light filtering in through the exquisite curtains. He blew his nose and inhaled deeply in an attempt to rid himself of the oppression he felt.
He sat up, and a moan reached his ears. He turned to look at the two naked slave girls who were sleeping among the silk sheets. His eyes lingered on the beautiful young bodies, and he could not help a smile of enormous satisfaction. Being the Senoca Regent certainly has its advantages, such as being able to have my fill of exceptionally beautiful twins, as well as a harem of sex slaves to satisfy each and every one of my wishes.
He felt a sting of pain in one temple. Too much wine last night… I must go easy on the wine… But what’s a night of lust without alcohol? A tisane of Miratos’ special herbs and the pain would disappear. He had to admit that his personal Surgeon was a master of healing, as well as other arts which helped to keep the slaves docile.
He clapped twice to wake the sisters. “Come on, you bitches! Get up! Out of my bed!”
At his shouts, two of his personal guards came at once and dragged the slaves away.
Sesmok went on to the aromatic baths to be washed by his personal servant girls, who anointed him with exquisite fragrances, dressed and groomed him. Sesmok abhorred un-cleanliness and bad smells; they reminded him of his disgusting origins, which represented something he never intended to return to. And if I had to kill half the Senoca to make sure of it, I’d do it without remorse.
He breakfasted, as usual, on exotic fruits, and prepared for the day. He was looking forward to enjoying a quiet day, for after all a man with his responsibilities must not succumb to pressure and needed to relax as much as possible. The fate of the Senoca, the future of our whole race, depends on me. There’s only me between our people and the Gods, between the Senoca and annihilation at the hands of creatures to whom we’re no more than ants. He heaved a sigh. Truly, it’s a huge responsibility: one which I accept and live with daily. But today he would not be able to relax, no matter how much he needed to. They had denied it to him.
He had to find the Heroes.
He had to put an end to the Resistance.
At whatever the cost, come what may…
His life was at stake, and he was not going to take the slightest risk. I’ll find them if I have to personally search every corner of the Boundary! He did not fear fighting them; what he feared was what they represented. He could not allow a movem
ent to rise against him, could not appear weak before the Gods. A simple misstep, a show of weakness, and the Gods would finish him off. He held the post of Regent because he was efficient at his job and served the Gods well. All the demands they made of the Senoca were met, because he himself made sure of it.
With somber thoughts plaguing his mind, he went into the throne hall, as he liked to refer to the sumptuous hall from which he ruled the Senoca, with its thermal baths and luxurious hangings. Even to him that much luxury seemed excessive, but he remembered the sewers where he had grown up, the stench, the rats he had been obliged to eat, and felt that no ostentation could ever be sufficient. I’ve come a long way, no doubt of that. And no-one’s going to take it away from me, not even the Gods themselves!
“Dancers, my lord? asked one of his personal servants.
“Not today.”
“Some other pleasure…?”
“It’s too early for that, and I’m not in the mood … Wait. Bring me the High Priest Torkem, and the Lord Hunter Osvan, I want to speak to them. Presto!”
“As you order, my lord.”
Torkem and Osvan did not take long to arrive. They knew what Sesmok’s temper was like when he was made to wait.
Osvan bowed. “You called for us, my lord?”
“We have urgent business to deal with.” Sesmok said. His voice was stern.
The High Priest bent his chubby body.
Sesmok stood up very straight and glared at him. “What have you found out about the rebellion against me? Have you found out who they are, and who their leader is? There’s a limit to my patience, you know.”
“My lord, infiltrating the organization has been a very difficult process. It’s taken us a long time. Putting the piece in the right place at the right time is extremely complicated…”
“The head of the snake must be cut off. Without a head, the reptile will die.”
“Certainly, my lord. I’ll soon have the information you want; I just need a little more time…”
“Every day that goes by the rumors grow… more and more of those stupid slaves believe in the rebels and their foolish message of freedom. Freedom! Hah! As if the Gods would allow it! They’ll destroy us all without a second thought! This crazy band of rebels painting red hands all over my villages and cities ‒ in my domains! ‒ they dare defy me. Me! Their Regent! I simply can’t allow that. It makes me appear weak, and if the Gods get wind of that, it’ll be the end of me!”
