They Were Born Upon Ashes (7 page)

He pulled his hand back and then hurled it forward as if he was throwing a ball. The dagger came speeding at the old man. All Penny could hear was the crushing of a bone directly followed by the cracking of wood.

She inhaled sharply as the dagger met its mark. She reached for her side and placed her right hand on the silver dagger. She tried to control her breathing as the footsteps of the golden boots inched closer to her.

She heard the old man’s body drop to the floor. She looked out the crack and saw the king’s man drag his body to the corner where the rest of the bodies were.

A crowd of people started to come back out to the courtyard. They stood still and looked at the king’s men from a distance. The Reza king’s man stood still, facing the ever-growing crowd. The other king’s man was working on the two dozen dead bodies. He lined them up so that they were sitting next to each other. Their backs were against the wooden wall of the tavern.

Penny looked on from the distance. One of the king’s man grabbed a metal stake from a bag he carried and a small hammer. He then walked over to the first dead body. The Reza king’s man turned around and placed his palm in the air. The dead body’s arms flew up above its head and one hand went over the other. The other king’s man hammered the stake through the hands and into the wooden wall.

Penny watched as one by one the deceased bodies got their hands nailed to the wall. It wasn’t until the sixth body was completed that two men came storming out of the crowd.

Two Paplons who were alarmingly muscular in size pulled out their weapons and confronted the king’s men.

“I saw the whole thing,” said the man on the left. “What did these people do to deserve such a fate?”

One of the Reza king’s men smirked, then said, “They wish to live in this new world. They defy the laws of yesterday, so for that they have been punished.”

“What are you talking about?” asked the Paplon man. “I saw you two cut down and burn these civilians. Some of them did not even have a weapon out.”

“No,” replied the king’s man. “But you two seem to have your weapons out.”

In a quick motion the Reza king’s man threw open his hands and black waves with electric sparks came spewing at both men. One attack for each man landed in quick succession.

The two bodies flew backwards onto the dirt ground. They were motionless.

The Reza king’s man pulled out his dagger from his waist and cut open the deceased man in the left corner of the row of dead bodies. Blood dripped from his stomach.

The king’s man drenched his hand in the man’s blood. He wrote a phrase above the man’s head. He turned around and looked at the crowd at the other end of the courtyard.

“People of Genold City!” said the Reza king’s man. “The words I wrote in this man’s blood says ‘Old World!’ Let this be a lesson to all of you! If you defy the laws that have been in place for centuries, you, too, shall suffer the same fate! Your friends, your parents, your brothers, your sisters, and your children will end up like this! You have been warned; the old world will rise again!”

There was a rustling of men and women conversing amongst the crowd. Within seconds twenty brave men and women came running out of the crowd with their weapons ready.

Penny looked through the crack just a few seconds longer. She could not bear the sight of more death. She closed her eyes and all she could hear were the screams, the clashing of swords, the crackling of fire, and the sound of frost attaching to metal armor.

Hearing the sounds of death was just as displeasing to her. It was truly sickening.

She tried to cover her ears to no avail. The loud sounds pierced straight through her hands. The fighting seemed to go on longer than she had anticipated.

When she found the courage to look back through the crack she saw something she was not entirely expecting. The two king’s men were nowhere in sight. Rather, the civilians were in the courtyard having a massive battle on their own. It was savagery that she did not quite expect from the civilians. The new world with its new rules provoked violence and chaos.

After awhile the fighting stopped. The courtyard grew quiet and the moon rose high in the night sky. It was too dark for her to see much of the carnage and destruction brought about in the courtyard. She elected to stay where she was in the side of the wall until morning.

It was a long night for her. She did not get an ounce of sleep. All she did was stare at the wooden planks above her and flick the tiny insects off of her body.

Finally the morning sun came out. The sky was still dark blue in color with shades of red and orange. She felt safe enough to crawl out from her space and go back into town. She knew she had to buy a horse and food for the trip ahead. She could catch up to the group in no time with a well rounded horse.

She thought that a few king’s men had stayed back and decided to live in the new world and that Nick had traveled north with the rest of them. What the king’s men did sickened her. She was eternally grateful for what the old man did to protect her. She felt unworthy. She felt as though her life was not worth dying for. That’s what the old man did for her; he died so that she could live to see another day. It was a terribly strange feeling. As she lay down on the dirt she felt numb. The entire experience was horrifying and depressing.

She eventually found the willpower to crawl out of the space. As she stood up, she encountered a slew of dead bodies. Looking at the face of a dead person made her want to vomit. At the same time she got chills that crept up her spine.

She made her way to the market to buy food with the gold she had brought from home. Luckily, she had plenty of gold from years of saving up. She estimated that she could even buy two horses if she really wanted to.

After the market she made her way to the south gate of Genold City. Down the windy sand roads and numerous buildings she spotted horrible things. She saw dead bodies laying in allies. She saw women bruised, scrambling for scraps of food on the ground. Finally, she saw wealthy looking men walking groups of men wearing nothing but a small white towel covering their manhood. They were all chained together from their wrists to their ankles. They looked down at the sand on which they walked. They were all abhorrent things to witness. She felt sick to her stomach.

She finally made her way out of the towering gate of Genold City and walked out into the rocky area that had patches of long brown grass. She made her way up a hill alongside the towering stone gate that surrounded the city. She arrived at Capitol Stables of Genold City.

She talked to the kind owner and made the purchase of a grey stallion. She grabbed her bag of food and water and placed it across the horse’s back. She hadn’t ridden a horse since she was ten years old. She had no time to hesitate and no time to think. As nervous as she was to ride the horse, she knew what she had to do. She had to be by Nick’s side.

Chapter Five

Nick’s eyes barely opened. All they wanted to do was to stay closed. He had been sleeping the entire day. He got the privilege to lie on a bed of vegetables and meat in the back of the carriage. The horses still moved with haste as the sun started to fall.

Nick forced himself to get up. He was able to get into a seated position and he stretched his arms. He opened up the white cloth that covered the back of the carriage. He saw the thousands of people march behind him. They carried bags over their shoulders and they all looked exhausted.

“Good morning, sunshine.”

Nick looked over to his right to discover Tyler looking at him with a wide smile.

“Hope your legs aren’t too sore from the walk today,” said Tyler. “Seriously, it’s okay. Just take a few more minutes of rest then come join the rest of us.”

“How long was I out for?” asked Nick.

“All day,” said Tyler. “If you haven’t noticed yet that is the sun going down in the west. It is not rising in the east.”

“Got it, Tyler, thanks.”

“Relax. I’m just giving you a hard time,” said Tyler. “It’s what I do best. In fact, it’s what I’m known for.”

Nick got up and jumped down from the carriage. He felt great as he finally stood up. He couldn’t remember the last time he had slept for eighteen hours.

He felt the same. Even though he had gone through the transformation, he did not feel more powerful. He didn’t feel like he was more wise or anything like that. He felt like the same Nick that he had always been.

Andrew and Jeffrey spotted Nick and walked over towards him. They put their arms on him and smiled.

“How are you feeling, Nick?” asked Andrew.

“I feel alive. Just a bit tired but that’s about it. I don’t feel like a supreme Reza.”

“Sure you do,” said Jeffrey. “You always have, Nick. You just never knew it.”

Jeffrey looked at Andrew and said, “I believe now is as good as a time as any to set up camp for the night.”

Andrew nodded in agreement.

“You’ll tell us all about what you experienced during your transformation when we are finished setting up camp,” said Andrew.

Jeffrey gave a signal and the thousands of tired feet stopped dead in their tracks. Thousands of people immediately sat down on the ground or lay on their backs.

Nick helped the king’s men set up their fire. After that they spread across the camp to help people gather fire wood. After the initial fire was started by the king’s men they would take a log and distribute it to the neighboring fire pits.

It was not as if the thousands of people were helpless. It was rather that the king’s men felt a certain responsibility to take care of all of the people who came with them. Thousands put their lives in the hands of the king’s men and in return they did everything they could to care for them.

The night sky was fully out. Blackness with the glistening shine of thousands if not millions of stars overhead.

About an hour passed before Nick rejoined the king’s men and the Tarrax brothers at their fire pit. They had just started to cook two rabbits over the fire. Nick hadn’t eaten all day and the smell of cooked meat made his stomach growl, twist, and turn.

“Are you feeling more awake now?” asked Jeffrey.

“I am indeed,” said Nick.

They all stared at him as if he was the piece of meat roasting over the fire.

“Go on, please. Tell us,” said Andrew. “We have waited to hear. The floor is all yours.”

Nick cleared his throat, gave a slight smile, and then scratched his head.

“Right,” said Nick. “It began from darkness. Next thing I knew I was in a hall. I walked down the hall and it lead to the king’s room. I walked up to the golden throne and I noticed that there was a door handle on it. I opened the throne and stepped through. On the other side of that door was a long path with thousands of trees on either side of it. After a while of walking the trees started to attack me. I tried to defend myself but my attacks were not doing any damage. I felt something inside of me and next thing I knew I was launching black waves from my hands. The deadly trees stood no chance. The power the attack had stopped them in their tracks.”

“Power number one,” said Andrew.

“After a little while the trees stopped attacking me. I was able to walk further down the path. As I walked, the path curved and at the end of the curve there was a large boulder that blocked the path and it extended outwards into the trees. I figured it would be easy to simply climb over the boulder and continue on the path. As I climbed it was as if every move I made to ascend upwards, the boulder itself grew twenty feet higher. Before I knew it I was dangling hundreds of feet above the ground. Next, rocks came pummeling down towards me. As the rocks fell they morphed and gained sharp knife like edges all around it. They hit me and they hurt like you wouldn’t believe. Next thing I knew I had my palm out and something surging through me that allowed me to control the rocks. They stopped in midair and I could throw them in any direction I wanted.”

“Power number two,” said Andrew.

“I finally made it to the top of the boulder, which was now a mountain, and there was a giant barren plateau. In the near distance I saw statues. I walked towards them. They were huge; they had to have been twenty or thirty feet tall. There were a dozen statues all together. I walked down the path between the statues and saw a fountain. I was thirsty so I drank from it. It immediately started to rain. I walked back towards the statues and I watched as the rain fell on them and color started to emerge from their grey exterior. Next thing I knew they were alive and I was dodging the swords and arrows from a dozen giants. I ran and I ran some more. Nothing I was doing had any effect on those things because they were incredibly massive. I was faster than them, which gave me time. In that time I discovered how to conjure fire from beneath the earth and have it expel with devastating speed and make it go as high in the sky as the giants themselves stood.”

“And the third and final power,” said Andrew.

“You really know how to tell a story, Nick,” said Tyler. “Bravo, bravo. You truly captivated me. I got lost in your words; I almost felt as if I was there with you.”

“I’m glad you passed your tests with flying colors, Nick,” said Andrew.

“There was one final test actually,” said Nick.

There was a brief silence. Everyone in the group looked around curiously and finally all looked at Andrew for an answer.

“Interesting,” said Andrew. “Please explain. What was the final test?”

“Well, after I defeated all of the trolls, the rain concluded. The ground at my feet started to shake as if there was an earthquake. I turned around and in the near distance a black tower emerged from the ground. I walked over and went in. As I walked up the spiral staircase there was a thin layer of ice that soon covered everything from the stairs to the ceiling over head. At the end of the stairs there was a bright blue door. I opened it and there was a room covered in ice with a domed roof some thirty feet overhead. There was a balcony midway up the walls of the room. On it was the woman I love with Poloski, a member of the six, holding his blade to her throat. I was helpless there was no stairs that led to the balcony.”