The Sacrifice (The War of the Gods Book 1)

by Pablo Andrés Wunderlich Padilla

  The distraction gave Lula an opportunity. She nocked a second arrow and aimed at the jugular of another soldier. She hit her target. Meanwhile the one who was still left alive kept advancing, showing no sign of fear. The woman, who could not stand it any more, dismounted from the mare and went straight for this assassin with the axe in her hand, ready to teach him a lesson. The soldier attacked with his spear, missed.

  The grandmother seized the weapon and pulled it towards her with a quick, sure move, narrowing the space between them so that barely a breath separated them, and with a blow shattered his shield. The officer tripped, and the moment he touched the ground the woman split his skull in two. His brains spattered everywhere.

  The fight was over, but only there. From afar she heard the croaking of a beast. It was the fire, which was crackling among wood and memories. The Ranch! The grandmother ran back. Before the hungry flames she fell to her knees, defeated, unable to believe that her home was being hopelessly consumed, because of hate, because of an ancient curse, which the village people were also suffering from. She wept and wept, howling with pain. She prayed to the god of fire, ArD’Buror, but knew it was already too late. And what if Manchego was inside? And if the fire had caught him in his sleep…?

  She looked around in search of help, of anything that might be some use. She collapsed when she saw the fire and the smoke in the distance devastating the village.

  “We’re off now!”

  It was a man riding a black courser, with unkempt beard but a penetrating gaze. Lula knew him, his name was Savarb. He came together with several riders, and on one of the horses was Luchy. The girl’s gaze was lost, shattered by a pain she could never have foreseen. The massacre the Mayor had begun was a reality.

  “We’re off! To the village! To the resistance! To the Fort of the Asaetearas, there’s nothing else left for us!”

  Lula felt the warrior within her taking over, and concentrating on a single thing ‒ survival ‒ she mounted Sureña and galloped out behind the Captain of the Resistance, towards the village, where horror would very soon greet her.

  Chapter XXIV- The River of Murria

  The sky was as deep blue as the sea, starry as if thousands of glowworms were hanging from the vault of the world. A great cloud of spidery arms darkened the horizon to the northeast. The silver light of the moon captivated him with its beauty and he stayed like that for a long while, before a landscape which took his breath away.

  The cold wind stirred him. He looked at himself, felt his body, recovered and strengthened thanks to Ramancia’s brew. He moved his limbs, tried his flexibility, his strength. He touched his face, stretched like a cat. He felt good as new; he felt the way he always did.

  Teitú was flying around his head. Manchego blinked, he could not believe that what had been a nut was now something like a seraph. He could barely reason; his mind was in a whirl. Too many things had happened, which had awakened a multitude of contradictory emotions. He preferred not to analyze; otherwise he would give way to depression.

  Teitú, on the other hand, was all enthusiasm: This world is so pretty! It flew swiftly, going up and down, examining plants and rocks, like a child discovering everything around it. The boy’s heart was heavy, realizing that this pure spirit was beginning to experience the world under the torments of a horrible shadow. Even without knowing the details of the Mayor’s plan, or whoever was killing and devastating, he was sure that something of the utmost importance was about to happen.

  He prayed to the god of light, wishing everything would be solved soon and that nobody else would die. Despite this, he did not even believe in his own hope. Perhaps the rumors were true. Perhaps the god of light was dead, and that was why the shadows were coming out and wreaking havoc.

  There came a flutter and a screech. The boy looked up. He had never imagined he would see that mysterious owl again. It was not more than a stride away from him, its powerful claws on the wall of the cave. It was bleeding from one side, and the blood had stained its plumage and claws. It took off and moved further away. Manchego’s surprised gaze followed it.

  Follow it! Teitú had given up its rapt exploration and was now shining intensely.

  “What?” Manchego felt both lost and tired. We’ve only just got out of the shadow, and I can’t even rest?

  I understand that so much fighting has overwhelmed you, but something terrible is going on in the village, and the owl wants to lead you to a particular spot. We have to follow it!

  Teitú’s red light alarmed Manchego. It confirmed his guess that this being shone with different colors, in accordance with the different situations that arose. This would be useful in the future. For the moment, he heeded his companion and ran after the owl.

  He went into the forest, guided by the bird of prey’s firm, steady wing-beat. There were obstacles in the terrain, but Manchego dodged them without difficulty. He attributed this energy to Ramancia’s potion, and thought that perhaps the witch had foreseen that he would have to face some challenge which would test his capacity to an unimaginable degree.

  Chapter XXV- Oh heart, how you suffer

  The black owl did not stop for a single moment, driven by an urgency which Manchego was very soon to understand. Teitú continued to give out a fire-red sparkle, which did not make the boy’s spirits any easier. The sound of the curfew rang, the call which invited the darkness.

  The owl landed on the branch of a tree, camouflaged in the blackness; only its eyes could be seen. They were on a stretch of flat land which reached as far as a small hill with a great solitary pine at the top. Manchego felt emotions brush hard against him. It was the Observatory, his favorite place.

  The owl had guided him to the ranch! He scanned the plain and saw, with a feeling of despair, the ceiba tree of Mamantal, the spot where the earth had swallowed him up. How much time had passed since then? He walked toward the tree curiously. The roots might have been thick snakes burrowing into the earth.

  Thanks to Teitú’s brightness, he examined his surroundings. Everything was as it always had been. It did not even look as though anything as terrible as the earth giving way had ever happened there. Ounces was nowhere to be seen either. He had no time to think of anything else. He glimpsed a corpse. He went closer and recognized the armor and badges at once: it was one of the Mayor’s soldiers! A smell of burnt wood assaulted him.

  He looked up, towards a fat worm that penetrated the sky. It was coming from the Ranch! Lulita! The name exploded in his mind like lightning. He ran towards his house, with Teitú guiding him through the darkness of the night and the smoke.

  The plantation was devastated, his enormous effort reduced to ashes. Teitú’s brightness changed to a deep, turbulent purple, mirroring the boy’s feelings. As they neared the wooden skeleton of what had been his home, Manchego reached out with his arms, as if he wished to embrace that ruined structure.

  His legs gave way and he fell to the ground. He stared at the disaster: the sheep, the cow and the donkey burnt to a crisp, the horses missing. The neighboring ranches seemed to have suffered a similar catastrophe. And Luchy? And Grandmother? What had happened to them?

  A fierce hatred took hold of the young man. This was too much. First he had had to face the conditions of his birth, then the fall into a world of shadows, the injuries, the broken body; now he had to see his home reduced to ashes. His hands stiffened, he felt the urge to seek revenge. Revenge! The word etched itself on his mind in letters of fire.

  “Feliel! Only that son of witches is capable of something as terrible as this…Lulita!” he screamed. The cry echoed in the night. “Felieeeeel!”

  Everything’s quiet and empty, Teitú said. You should look more carefully, you might find signs of life of your grandmother. Not everything’s lost. I can feel it.

  “’S not true! I’ve got nothing left in this world! They’ve always persecuted my family, they wanted my blood for a sacrifice… You know what they did to my mother, what they di
d to my grandfather…what they’ve done to my grandmother! Everybody around me suffers! They all die because of me! I only bring disaster to those I love, misfortune and destruction… Feliel! Where are you hiding!”

  Manchego began to hyperventilate, his eyes reddened. A vicious madness was gaining ground within him.

  Teitú wanted to help its master. That’s not true! You’re not the only one who’s suffering the misfortunes of these times. For the love of love, don’t give up and don’t be defeated by those thoughts! No, Manchego, don’t allow yourself to become degraded. It’s true your life hasn’t been an easy one, but hardships come and go, you decide whether you’re prepared to do something about it or give in.

  These arguments were charged with reason, Manchego thought. He felt the sharp slap of the lesson and burst into tears, but amid the tears he managed to focus. His hands relaxed, his fingers let go of the tension. Teitú stopped emitting a purple light and changed to a color between rose and sky-blue. Manchego stood up and headed for the Ranch.

  Apprehensively, he searched among the ashes for the charred bones of his grandmother. He did not find her. With his soul inflamed, he went to the graveyard. He found the place devastated, the trees fallen, the headstones of Eromes’ ancestors stained with smoke and ash.

  Manchego watched and moaned. He remembered the red book and went for it, but it too had been devoured by the flames. Sadness gave way to curiosity when something moved behind him. The ground shook. A powerful explosion echoed around. When Manchego opened his eyes, he saw a thick black cloud of smoke in the shape of a mushroom which scattered sparks and gave off an intense yellow light. That cloud hung above the village, and there was nothing spontaneous or natural about it.

  I don’t like that smoke, Manchego, we must find out what it is, but it’s sure to be some villainy of Mayor Feliel’s, Teitú said.

  They went back to the Observatory. Before he turned his attention to anything else, Manchego needed to make sure that Lulita’s body was not there. At the top of the hill he found nothing but silence and the murmur of the foliage touched by the wind. Luckily the Great Pine had been spared by the tongues of fire. He went down the hill and headed to the ceiba tree of Mamantal, where the body of the soldier lay.

  Not far off were two other bodies, killed by well-aimed arrows, and then he recalled something Balthazar had said. Lulita had been a great warrior, and being a Wild Woman, there would have been nothing surprising if she had shown great skill in the use of those weapons, which were very common in those lands.

  I think you should take a sword and a shield.

  Manchego felt fear. He had never been moved by violence, although at that moment he wished to take revenge with all his soul. But it was one thing to think about revenge, quite another to carry it out. Wielding a sword scared him, it meant taking another step on the path which would turn him into a different person. There was one broken in two and he thought that would be ideal for him, since part of him identified with this mutilated weapon. The shield turned out to be very heavy for him, so he gave it up and put it aside. He concentrated on the broken sword. It made him feel powerful, closer to his goal: to find and stop Feliel, come what may.

  Without more ado, the boy and the seraph set off towards the village, the epicenter of the shadows.

  Chapter XXVI- Echoes and dust

  Manchego! Manchego! Wake up!

  He was floating on a black sea, where the only palpable thing was evil. He felt his mind numbed, his soul tempted by some deep and macabre poison.

  Wake up! Manchego, wake up! The shadow tried to inoculate you with its poison!

  A spark lit up the boy’s mind and startled him, so that he leapt to his feet. He rubbed his eyes, breathed deeply as if he had just come out of the water, almost drowned. In one hand he was holding the broken sword, with the other he was clutching his chest.

  “What the hell..?” the boy muttered, his eyes staring wide. He was in the village, surrounded by absolute darkness. Teitú’s light illuminated a wall of monumental size.

  It’s the shadow and its evil spirit that was trying to possess you, Manchego. Don’t let it! Lighten your heart! Keep your wits about you!

  The young man became aware of how serious the situation was, and feeling that he was more himself now, he remembered his mission: to stop Feliel, as soon as possible. The gigantic wall blocked his way, but it was no ordinary wall of brick and mortar but one of corpses. It rose many feet high, so that Teitú’s light barely reached the top. Manchego prayed to the god of light five times in a row, then to the goddess of night – for the souls of the poor wretches who were now buried in a mountain. Anyone who had been capable of raising a wall of corpses had to have a shriveled soul.

  He had no choice but to climb. Amid open mouths, eyes, ribs, hair, nails, swords, broken spears, the boy gathered all his courage in order to go on, fearing that all of a sudden a dead man might bite his hand or scratch his legs, angry at this interruption of what little peace he might have found in his transit to the other world.

  The stench became unbearable, Teitú’s light bathed the mountain in red. Thousands upon thousands of bodies formed that mountain-range of outrage, whose enormous base filled several streets.

  The wind turned icy and violent, it lashed at the boy, who was already high up. He held on to the bodies so as not to fall and end up adding his own body to Feliel’s great wall. When he reached the top, Manchego looked out at what could be seen. The shadow covered the village, but there were still cracks in it, through which he could see fires in the Mid Sector.

  There were also people running away, probably escaping. He moved toward that area and began to climb down the giant pile of corpses, taking care not to lose his footing and stab himself with the broken sword. After what seemed hours, he landed on the cobbled ground of the Mid Sector and exhaled violently. A scent of eucalyptus filled his lungs. He had no time to wonder about this anomaly and went on. He saw the cloud rising in a spiral and covering the whole village from above.

  It had to be the result of some evil spell. The cloud spun around an invisible axis and gave out a vague orange flash. An explosion raised a column of fire into the air. There was shouting from not far away. Manchego’s heart was troubled at the sound of such agony.

  He went on, together with Teitú, but that scent of eucalyptus was intensifying. Manchego stopped to search for the source. As he turned his attention to his surroundings he heard a voice singing in a whisper, which then came closer and closer and insinuated itself into his head. Without his being aware of it, a spell had bewitched him.

  A man appeared, his face hidden behind a cloak. The singing of the sorcerer became clearer: “Sun little sun… calming fires…” The boy clutched the handle of his broken sword, but… he could not move! Teitú, suddenly afraid, shone red. It tried to communicate with Manchego, but its master was completely enraptured by the spell.

  Only the sorcerer’s jaw was visible as it moved in time with the chant. A nearby fire lent a glow to his face, and for a moment his eyes shone. They were sky-blue. Manchego also saw his naked torso, where he bore a tattoo which seemed to hold some powerful meaning. The sorcerer did not stop singing:

  Solemn sun, calming fires…

  Solace sun, innocent forges…

  Sun solacium, beardless and alluring…

  Sun solanum, carry me in your hand.

  The healer stopped singing and said in a clear, quiet voice: “They’re awaiting you eagerly at the Town Hall moat. Those who tried to end your life thirteen years ago wish to eliminate you. Don’t let yourself be defeated by the forces which intend to bring you down. Feliel is the author of this misfortune. He’s the one who awaits you.”

  The sorcerer went on without another word. The scent of eucalyptus faded like a ghost, leaving no trace. Manchego recovered his poise. He recognized those verses, they were the same ones Mowriz had chanted. Perhaps Mowriz and the sorcerer shared mysteries, but for now he found it imp
ossible to say what linked them. He felt as if he knew the person under the cloak, but as he could only see his jaw he could not recognize him. When he came out of the spell he tried to spot him, but saw only rubble and ruins on all sides. The sorcerer had vanished as swiftly as he had come.

  Teitú, what was that?, the boy thought.

  I don’t know and I don’t think it matters. The essential thing is to put an end to the shadow. Feliel is waiting for you: well then, let’s go to meet him. But prudently, it might be a trap. Whichever way, we must stop the creator of these shadows.

  Right!

  The boy clasped the sword and broke into a run towards the Town Hall.

  Two blasts shook the ground. Not very far away there burnt a colossal fire which advanced and swallowed everything in its way: houses, corpses, living people. The screaming was unbearable. Manchego thought about heading toward the Asaetearas Fort, where he was sure to find Captain Savarb. He would ask him for an escort, a small brigade, to assault and besiege the Town Hall. But as he approached the fort, he had to accept the evidence that this place was the epicenter of the catastrophe. A crackle of burnt wood echoed in the atmosphere.

  The desolation of finding the Fort in ruins brought him to a halt. The Throng, now the mouth of death, was sealed by hundreds of the Mayor’s soldiers, piled in layers of minced and crushed meat.

  Of the Fort nothing was left but rubble. What had once been the trench of the Resistance was now nothing more than a graveyard. His heart sank, but Teitú helped him. He sent him courage, and the boy wielded the sword firmly once again. He wanted to make Feliel pay for his crimes. Manchego walked amid the destruction in search of any sign of life.