Tears of the Dead

by Brian Braden

  Her blood froze. The wicked grin she’d come to associate with Kus-ge had returned, her mask of kindness evaporated. Behind that grin Atamoda saw cool savagery.

  “Uros!” A voice called from the crowd. “Uros, I demand to be heard!”

  The crowd parted to reveal Ro-xandra.

  “What is the meaning of this?” Atamoda challenged.

  “My words are for the Uros, not you, patesi-le.” Ro-xandra entered the inner circle.

  “Ro-xandra!” Kus-ge shouted. “Whatever you want to say it can wait until after the wedding.”

  “As I said, my words are for the Uros. I demand to be heard.”

  All the good feelings in Atamoda’s heart dissipated.

  Aizarg stepped around Ghalen and Sana, who joined the others in staring incredulously at Ro-xandra. He pointed the staff at her as if a weapon, his voice full of menace.”

  “Ro-xandra, whatever you have to say will wait until this ceremony is over.”

  “A hidden wound festers among us. It threatens all of us, and will bring a curse to this union if not brought into the open.”

  “It will wait!” Aizarg commanded.

  Ro-xandra’s eyes darted from Uros to Kus-ge.

  “Listen to the Uros,” Kus-ge’s voice fell flat. “It will wait.”

  All eyes rested on Ro-xandra as she hesitated, shrinking back into the crowd, courage suddenly gone.

  Atamoda didn’t look at Ro-xandra, instead focusing on Kus-ge, who glared at Ba-lok. Husband and wife locked eyes in a battle of wills until he surrendered and lowered his head.

  “I demand Ro-xandra be heard,” Ba-lok said stiffly, spitting out the words as if they tasted like poison. “A marriage cannot be joined under threat of curse.

  Atamoda’s heart raced as a brazier died in a puff of smoke.

  The rain began to pour harder.

  “Uros,” Ghalen spoke in a low, grumbling tone, not even attempting to mask his contempt. “Whatever games the Minnow want to play, play them after my wedding.”

  Ro-xandra stood tall, her sco-lo-ti’s authority giving her freedom to speak. “One among us has stolen food.”

  The crowd fell silent under Ro-xandra’s revelation.

  Another brazier ebbed into smoky death.

  “Well,” Kus-ge smirked. “That changes things.”

  “Aizarg, put a stop to this.” Atamoda shouted and pointed accusingly at Kus-ge. “This stinks of Minnow lies!”

  Kus-ge folded her arms. “Lies? Why do you accuse us of lies, Atamoda? We have nothing to do with this.”

  “Let Ro-xandra speak!” someone shouted.

  “I will speak to Ro-xandra in private,” Aizarg took her by the arm and began to pull her away.

  “Who stole food?” shouted another voice from the back.

  “Yes! Tell us.” The call began with the Minnow, but spread to the Crane, all united in their hunger.

  Another brazier died. And then another. Ro-xandra did not wait to be led away. With a sharp peel of unexpected thunder, she pointed a bony finger at Kol-ok. “There is the thief who stole food from the Supply Barge.”

  45. Lightning and Fire, Part One

  Clad in the Traitor’s Armor, I stormed through the palace toward the foyer, only to find Quexil barring the doors.

  “Lord Fu Xi, you are forbidden to leave...”

  I back handed him, sending Quexil sprawling against Poseidon’s statue, where he crumpled unconscious to the floor.

  “The God of Names is not yours to command.”

  In the distance, the pounding hammers echoed the thunder from the approaching storm. Seeking truth, I followed their ring across the palace grounds toward the harbor.

  I kept to the shadows, behind tall hedges and trees shielding the great Olmec houses from the city. The air turned sticky as the wind blew stronger from the sea. To my left, the city fell away toward the harbor lights as I crested the hill away from the city and beheld all which had been hidden from my sight.

  Thousands of campfires, arranged in orderly rows, blanketed the hill. A grand army camped only a stroll from the palace, and I had no idea. The campfire banter of thousands of Olmec warriors, laughing and enjoying a meal, floated up the hill and burned my ears. The orderly rows led to the harbor’s western shore, where a fleet of carracks anchored. Processions of torches snaked in neat lines toward piers and the black ships.

  Leviathan’s army prepared to sail.

  My failure crushed down on me. No mortal kingdom could stand against this army. My beloved land would fall into slavery.

  I darted from tree to tree along the hill top, circumventing the camp’s pickets and made my way toward the quarry where in the lightning, I spotted a line of trees leading to the water’s edge. Using the trees as cover, I would slip unnoticed for a closer look at the ships. But I didn’t make it to the harbor, waylaid by the moans floating like ghosts from the quarry’s bowels.

  Amiran’s scrolls describing the Empire’s engineering feats did not adequately prepare me. Standing on its rim, thousands of dingy torches flickered across the scaffolding covering the quarry’s sheer cliffs. The quarry formed a deep, box-like pit with a narrow opening to the sea. In its center, a giant wooden and iron tower rose almost equal to the rim. A dozen elephants, hitched with thick ropes to a forest of pulleys and gears, circled the tower. A massive crossbeam rested atop the tower and reached over the scaffolding.

  Mesmerized, I watched as hundreds of men secured chains to enormous slabs freshly cut from living rock. Once secured, whips cracked and the elephants lumbered around the tower. The arm lifted the block and slowly swung it around to the opposite end of the quarry, where a long series of rollers led to the pier and a waiting ship.

  Fat rain drops began to fall as I knelt down and examined some rock chips. They mined marble and granite, the building blocks of empires.

  Shouts echoed up from the highest scaffold, perhaps only twenty feet below where I knelt on the rim. In the torchlight, three naked slaves cowered under an Olmec’s whip.

  “You know what happens to those who drop their chisels!” the taskmaster laughed. “You have to go get it.” He picked up one of the slaves, perhaps only a child, and hurled him to his death far below.

  I dropped to the platform, landing in a crouch. The taskmaster barely had time to register astonishment before I sliced him in half, his pieces tumbling to join the slave’s body below.

  An emaciated old woman and young boy, naked except for their iron collars and shackles, cowered before me.

  “Mercy, Lord!” the old woman begged in my tongue. The boy merely crouched and hugged his knees.

  The Red Blade severed their chains. The old woman gazed up at me, a spark of recognition flaring in her dull eyes.

  Shouts rose from the pit as torches gathered below.

  I knelt down and cradled her, fury rising with every scar my fingers discovered on her back. “Be at peace, dear mother. I will not hurt you.” A bulky bronze hammer and a rusty chisel lay next to her. How the old woman or the child managed to pick up either I cannot imagine.

  She stroked my cheek. “Blessed be the Goddess and her beloved son, Lord Fu Xi. He has come to deliver us.”

  Blazing torches and angry shouts snaked their way up the gantries.

  I turned to the boy. “Do you understand me?” I said in Wu.

  He nodded.

  “Comfort her.”

  Water poured from the quarry rim above as I trod down the spiraling gantry toward the oncoming Olmecs. Two slaves, both young men, flattened themselves against the rock as I passed.

  “Is there another way out of the quarry other than the pier?”

  One pointed to the far wall, where I spied a narrow ramp leading out of the pit. I cut their chains.

  “Pick up your hammers and chisels. Follow me. Free any prisoners you pass. Slay any guards who survive. When we reach that ramp, tear it down.”

  At first, they came with only whips and curses, thinking they would be dealing with rebell
ious slaves. Making short work of them, I stepped over their bodies as the ranks of the liberated swelled behind me.

  Below, the elephants began to trumpet, whether in fear of me or the growing storm, I did not know. The tempest fueled my rage as the Red Sword sliced through iron and flesh again and again. With a thousand hammers, the slave army at my back assaulted the ramp leading to the surface. It came tumbling down not a moment too soon. Torches appeared along the cliff’s rim, along with a hail of arrows.

  “Hide under the scaffolding!” I commanded the slaves.

  I pressed on alone, arrows bouncing harmlessly off the Red Armor. Olmecs swarmed me one level before I reached the quarry floor. Orichalcum clashed with steel, god pitted against men. The Red Sword, the Traitor’s Sword, melted through their weapons as Leviathan’s blade had once sliced through mine.

  The rainwater pooling in the quarry bottom turned crimson. Arrows and rain pinged against my helmet as a horn sounded in the distance. The warriors retreated toward the pier, ceding me the quarry. The elephant handlers abandoned their beasts and fled. I stepped around the tower’s base as the elephants strained against their harnesses.

  A line of several hundred warriors blocked the narrow quarry entrance. Lances bristling behind a shield wall, they advanced forward into the pit. From somewhere behind them, a voice commanded they not wound the elephants.

  Glancing up, I saw a marble block suspended high above on the tower’s crane arm.

  I snatched a whip from a dead guard and ran behind the tower. Cracking the whip, I drove the elephants toward the pier. The beasts reared and heaved against their harnesses, but the ropes and chains held. I sliced the nearest elephant’s hind quarter. Trumpeting in pain, it hurtled toward the enemy formation. The harness chain snapped tight, and the elephant crumpled to the ground. The marble slab swung back and forth as the tower popped and groaned, but stood.

  The warriors briefly hesitated, and then resumed their slow advance. With my enemy only yards from where the narrow entrance widened, I whipped the elephants with greater fury, but still, the tower held.

  Then, with a deafening boom amplified by the quarry walls, a lightning bolt blasted the crane arm. The elephants stampeded and snapped the tower’s four thick base timbers at once. The elephants dragged flailing chains and timbers through the armored line, as tons of wood and iron collapsed over man and beast. The marble block shattered squarely on top of the warriors.

  I scrambled over the jumble of dead beasts, splintered timbers, and broken stone toward the pier. A forest of masts waited for me. The ships could not be allowed to reach my homeland.

  A dozen sailors fell to my blade on the first ship before someone rang the alarm. By then, I’d already lit several fires. In retrospect, I believe Leviathan ordered the ships packed tightly in the western harbor to keep them from being seen from the palace. This, combined with the gale, enabled the fire to spread quickly from ship to ship. Sails, rigging, and tar-pitched planks exploded into flames so hot they defied the pelting rain. I jumped from deck to deck, slaying all who battled the fire. Like paper lanterns consumed by their own flame, burning men leapt into sea.

  Sizzling heat caressed my skin, but could not rival my wrath. My sword and armor glowed, as if drinking in the hell storm I’d created. I buried pity. I buried mercy. In this moment, these mortals would shoulder the price of Leviathan’s ambitions and deceit. In this moment, they would bear the cost of my failure and shame. In this moment, I become the Dragon, Cin’s guardian and avenger.

  Flames at my back, I perched on one caravel’s prow and surveyed the long line of burning hulks. A shadow emerged from the firestorm. Under a single triangle sail, a lone ship drifted from the line, untouched by fire.

  I leapt across the burning decks until I arrived just in time to see the escaping vessel’s stern drift by. Terrified sailors pointed and screamed, warning their captain that a demon hunted them. I snatched a flaming rope, swung out over the water, and dropped onto the stern.

  Shrieking sailors scattered before me until I faced one who did not flee. Whip in hand, the steely eyed Olmec captain bravely stood his ground.

  “I don’t know what hell spit you out, but this is my ship. You’ll have to kill me before you burn it.”

  I glanced over the captain’s shoulder at the city side of the harbor and its great pier directly ahead.

  “As you wish.”

  The crew leapt into the harbor to join their dead captain. With oil lanterns, I transformed the ship into a torch moments before it reached the great pier.

  Lightning and fire danced from one end of the harbor to the next as I staggered from the water. To my right, Leviathan’s fleet blazed like islands of fire. To my left, a conflagration raced throughout the city and climbed the hill, already halfway to the palace.

  Thoughts of Amiran’s safety suddenly cooled my wrath. I turned, and faced a wall of torches. Olmec warriors in full battle armor stretched across the hill in ranks hundreds deep.

  A god stood against an army.

  If I fought my way through, the palace would burn before I could reach Amiran. But every Olmec I slew was one who could not set foot on my beloved soil. This night had already purchased time for my homeland, but if I destroyed Leviathan’s army, I could buy enough to build such an army in Cin.

  A warrior stepped from the ranks and called to me.

  “I knew you were trouble from the beginning,” Quexil shouted. The only god we fear is our master, Paqua. How I relish the thought of killing you!”

  Fire blazed across the villas just below the grand palace.

  “I am Fu Xi, Son of the Goddess Nuwa, Queen of the West!” I shouted so all could hear. “In me dwells the divine spirit of the Emperor of Heaven. I am the God of Names, but tonight you will call me Death.”

  I sensed doubt and fear creeping through their ranks

  Quexil raised his sword and tried to gird his warriors’ courage. “Not even a god can fight an army. Prepare to charge!”

  I pointed my sword at Quexil. “I will slay every man on this field except you, Quexil. You shall escape unharmed.”

  Quexil’s arm wavered.

  “Leviathan trusted you to mind me in his absence. Weren’t you supposed to keep me pacified and under control until his return?”

  I grinned and pointed my sword left. “I’ve burned his invasion fleet and demolished his prized quarry.” I pointed right. “And laid waste to his city. Now you, his trusted dog, graciously offer up his army so I can destroy that, too. I will be sure to leave you alive so you can greet your beloved master when he returns, and bask in his gratitude.”

  Quexil grew pale.

  Again, I pointed my sword at him. “Or you can let me pass.”

  Conflict raged in the Olmec for what seemed an eternity as flames licked the palace grounds.

  “Bah!” He screamed. “Let the god through!”

  I strode through the open ranks.

  “The Traitor’s Armor suits you, Fu Xi,” Quexil called after me. “He will find you, but not before Cin suffers a thousand fold. Their blood shall be payment for your betrayal.”

  46. Lightning and Fire, Part Two

  “Evil calculates what is probable, while goodness dreams of what is possible.” – Conversations with the Uros

  Chronicle of Fu Xi

  ***

  “Lying bitch!” Atamoda lunged at Kus-ge, but Sana held her back.

  “She laid a trap,” Sana whispered urgently. “Do not fall into it.”

  “Ro-xandra is your son’s accuser, not I,” Kus-ge countered coolly. “Tell us, woman, what proof you have against the son of the Uros.”

  “Father, I...” Kol-ok entered the circle.

  “My son is no thief! Ro-xandra lies. This is Kus-ge’s deceit.”

  “Quiet!” Aizarg shouted. “Son, approach. Did you steal food? Yes or no.”

  “I did not.”

  “Ro-xandra, what proof do you have?”

  “I saw him with my own eyes, se
veral nights ago.”

  “Are there any other witnesses?”

  “No,” Ro-xandra turned up her nose. “I was alone, everyone else slept deeply after battling the storm.”

  “What were you doing on the Supply Barge late at night?” Atamoda said.

  “I heard voices, perhaps in distress. I followed them. I saw Kol-ok rummaging through the fish.”

  “I slept on the barge, yet I heard nothing,” Atamoda glared at Ro-xandra.

  “We should search his mat,” Ba-lok said.

  His words are rehearsed.

  Okta stepped toward the Supply Barge. “I will search his mat, with the Uros’s permission of course.”

  Aizarg nodded.

  “And I’m sure I’ll find nothing!” he sneered at Ro-xandra.

  It didn’t take long for Okta to return, empty handed. “As I suspected, only his belongings. Aizarg, let’s stop this foolishness and get on with the wedding.”

  A chorus of cheers answered him.

  “Yes, of course. I knew he was innocent the whole time,” Kus-ge said and turned her attention to Ro-xandra. “We will discuss this after the wedding.”

  Ro-xandra shrank back, and Atamoda’s heart began to slow again.

  “Oh,” Kus-ge said, as if just remembering something. “One more thing, Ro-xandra; you said you heard voices. Was Kol-ok alone?”

  Atamoda looked at her son, who had turned pale as ice.

  “I think I might have seen someone with him,” Ro-xandra let the words come out slowly, as if twisting a knife.

  “Tell us, Kol-ok; were you alone by the fish pile?” Kus-ge asked too innocently, too smoothly.

  Kol-ok turned to his father. “Ro-xandra speaks truthfully. I stole the food.”

  “No!” Atamoda screamed.

  “Kol-ok,” Aizarg held him close. “Why did you say that?”

  Kol-ok didn’t answer, looking apprehensively over his shoulder at the crowd, as if looking for someone.

  Alaya fainted.

  Sana pointed to Su-gar. “Take her and the children to Levidi’s raft.”

  “He confessed!” Virag pushed his way to the front, wagging his finger. “He should share the same punishment as Alad.”