Seven Kings

9

“Tell me,” said Iardu. “What do you know of the world beyond your plantations?” “Only what I’ve heard in stories.” Tong chewed on a thick slice of roasted mushroom. Like flavorless bread it was, and he craved meat. Pork and fowl were staple foods for the hard-working slaves of Khyrei. He saw no signs of livestock in Sydathus, excepting the swarms of black beetles. Still, the fungus steak filled his belly and vanquished his sudden hunger.

“And what have you heard?” asked the wizard. His eyes blinked lavender, then emerald, then settled to mother-of-pearl-gray. The eyes of the White Serpent.

“That Khyrein ships rule the Golden Sea, all the way to the Jade Isles at the Edge of the World. That the Undying One destroyed the city of his northern enemies years ago, then arose from the ashes of Shar Dni. Many other things… whispers… legends… fears.”

Iardu shook his gray head and rubbed the smooth line of his jaw. Faceted stones of beryl and agate glittered on his fingers. “So you really know nothing at all,” he sighed. “Of course you were not permitted knowledge that would not serve your bondage.”

Tong drank from a stone crock full of icy fresh water. The Sydathians had assigned him a modest cave, its walls and floor green with a soft shaggy moss. White blossoms grew from the walls in places, exhaling a sweet aroma that mixed with the smoke of his dinner. The cave was more pleasant than any slave shack, and Tong was grateful for it. His new quarters lay at the base of the columnar city, which climbed toward the great cavern’s apex. Scattered minerals in the rocky dome served as subterranean constellations, refracting the light from below in a hundred glittering hues.

Tong imagined the metropolis of honeycombed stone as a great and godly tree sprouting amid the vast grotto. Sydathus was a marvelous abode full of ancient mystery. The past few days had convinced him that these Sydathians were far more than blind monsters.

“Born into slavery you could know little of the lands beyond your own,” Iardu said. “Realms where your people would not have to endure such suffering.” The sorcerer smoked a thin pipe of white wood carved into the likeness of Mumbaza’s Feathered Serpent. Tong had seen the beast stitched on the sails of trading vessels when he was a child. Mumbazan ships no longer visited Khyrei, although each year a few Mumbazan mariners were captured by the Khyrein navy. Those who survived battle on the open sea were executed in public spectacles, or were sent to work in the fields with the native slaves. Plantation life was short and brutal for such prisoners.

The deep purple smoke from Iardu’s pipe wafted about his red robes. The azure flame on his chest continued to dance and flicker at the end of its silver chain. “Khyrei is the last of the great slave empires,” he said. His face fell from handsome to grave. “It must be destroyed if it is to be saved. The time grows short. I should have seen to this long ago.” His words sounded like an apology.

Tong swallowed the last bite of mushroom and studied the mage’s face. Ageless, yes, but full of ancient sadness… regret… compassion? Iardu stared directly at him, and the insight was lost. His sorcerer’s mask slipped back in place.

The warlock grinned. “You will need more than that longknife to take the black city.”

“What do you have in mind?”

Iardu stood at the mouth of the little green cave and looked out at the greater cavern. A cluster of toadstools large as blood oaks bordered the deep fungal forest. Sydathians moved between the upright boles like white moths through orange twilight.

“Soon the Sydathians will go to their holy Godstone,” Iardu said. “You must go with them.”

“You want me to pray… to a rock?”

“Not a rock, a crystal. And no praying.”

“Why must I do this? Slaves worship only the Earth God. No other Gods will bless us.”

“One, you are no longer a slave,” said Iardu. “Remember that. Two, you need an army.”

“The eyeless ones?”

“They see more than you know. You said you wanted to free your people. This is the path you must walk in order to do that.”

Tong wiped the grease from his knife, then slid it back into the scabbard hanging from his loincloth. Once again he pulled onto his feet the boots of an Onyx Guard. The boots he had killed for. They reminded him of the vengeance he had taken in Matay’s name. It was enough for now. There would be more; he would be patient.

“Go to the Godstone,” said Iardu.

There was no song or alarm raised to signal the beginning of the ritual. Gradually, one by one or in pairs, the Sydathians meandered into the depths of the toadstool forest. An unspoken communication, or perhaps the imprint of habit, called them down from their terraced caves and balconies by the thousands. Tong felt that nameless urge himself. It was time for something vital, something sacred. In Iardu’s face he saw the calm wisdom of an elder, despite the lack of wrinkles on the smooth brown skin. The warlock placed a hand on Tong’s shoulder and led him from the mouth of the cave into the fungal gloom.

Purple undergrowth filled the avenues between the giant mushroom boles. Mottled stalks, bulbs, and waving tendrils glowed with a violet luminescence. Spores and dried fungus patches crackled to powder beneath Tong’s boots, while Iardu and the Sydathians moved without any noise at all. The eyeless ones filed deeper into the purple glades surrounding Tong and Iardu. It was not Iardu’s insistence that called Tong onward, but his own need to know something mysterious and profound. Some ancient secret lay buried here… some lost understanding. How did he know this? Was the wizard putting things into his mind? No matter. He was a free man now. He could make his own decisions. Already he enjoyed the naked thrill of freedom. He followed the pale beastlings into the heart of the earth not because he must, but because he chose to do so.

At last a cave yawned black and misty in the glow of the lavender lichen. The Sydathians filed into the fissure with Tong and Iardu walking quietly in their midst. The passage sloped down and down, twisting and turning back upon itself innumerable times. All in solid darkness, which the eyeless ones did not seem to mind. The floor was smooth and well trodden, and the presence of so many close forms around Tong held the primeval fear of darkness at bay.

They came eventually to a great stairwell, curving deep into the bowels of another massive grotto. A white mist crawled up the steps, and a pale glow illuminated the stairs. As the Sydathians reached the last turn of the passage, the light grew stronger until it shone brighter than the fireglow of Sydathus proper. Now Tong and Iardu came into the new cavern’s threshold, joining the multitude of Sydathians gathered about the source of the white light.

A single pillar of black rock hung from the domed vault. Instead of terminating in a pointed tip, the rocky spar supported a tremendous egg-shaped crystal. It glowed like a miniature moon hanging in the bowels of the earth.

The Godstone seethed with a steady light at the center of the eyeless horde. Those directly below the great crystal were nearly tall enough to touch its gleaming surface, if they had climbed upon the backs of their brothers. Many did just that, caressing the Godstone with reverence, and all in perfect silence. Here was the object of worship, but no sound of worshipping.

Tong stood still among the crowd, Iardu an arm’s length away from him, as the last of the Sydathians filed in behind them. Then some voiceless signal, some mass will, gave the command to kneel, and the thousands kneeled as one below their hanging Godstone. Tong could no more resist this urge than a swimming man could deny the power of a great wave sweeping at him.

The Sydathians and the two Men kneeled together, and the deepest silence Tong had ever known pervaded the cavern. If they possessed eyes, the Sydathians would have been staring directly into the brilliant depths of the stone. The snouts of their horned heads focused on it. They no longer twitched and sniffed and moved their claws in arcane patterns. They had become still as stones, every one of them. Even the children.

“I don’t understand,” Tong whispered to Iardu.

“Clear your mind of all thoughts,” Iardu breathed. “That is all you have to do.”

Tong considered this. To clear his mind of everything would be to forget Matay and his unborn son. Could he do that? Even for a moment? Did he even want to? Matay’s memory was all he had left. She had been the grace that gave his days purpose. Yet he had lost that grace.

He closed his eyes and turned his face up toward the Godstone. A faint image of it lingered on the inside of his eyelids. Then it faded, yet the darkness inside his head was not complete. Pinpoints of white light glimmered in his mind’s eye, a raging river of light struggling to burst through hidden walls into his consciousness. Slowly the inner light ate away at the darkness behind his eyes, until the white light glowed inside his vision, blinding him even while his eyes were shut.

His thoughts were scattered, burning things when the inner light fell upon them. They dissolved like spices in boiling water. Was his mind boiling? Was this what Matay’s sun looked like up close? He expected to be blind still when he opened his eyes. Then he forgot that he possessed eyes, and that he was human, and that he kneeled in a cavern leagues beneath the poison jungle with a multitude of inhuman brutes.

Then he no longer thought at all. He simply was.

Time was a lotus with ten thousand petals opening before him, spilling the breath of peace into his body. For the first time he realized the true depth of his newfound freedom. Here, in a mental space beyond the reach of all things, he existed in a timeless perfection. His body, his life, his slavery, all became less than dim memories. They called to him like voices across a great expanse of water. Half-heard ghost-selves wailing at him, reminding him, recalling him back to himself.

You are not a slave. You are a Man.

An eternal spirit wearing a disguise of flesh and bone.

Tong’s eyes sprang open as twenty thousand Sydathians raised their heads. He sat in their midst beneath the glow of the Godstone. Iardu rose to his feet nearby. Tong blinked and looked not at the wizard, but at the shuffling forms of the eyeless ones. They moved in complete peace, bathed in the deep calm brought by their ceremony.

Tong released a terrible pressure in his face and found himself smiling.

“What happened?” he asked.

“Quii,” said Iardu. “The Sydathians’ sacred meditation. The crystal enhances their empathic nature. It brings them together in a bonding of mind and spirit. It will do the same for you, if you allow it.”

“It gave me peace.”

Iardu smiled, his white teeth flashing in the Godstone’s glow. “It has given you more than that.”

Sydathians swarmed about Tong now, reaching out their long fingers to caress his arms, chest, and back. The females hung on him like eager cats, licking at his arms and legs. This went on for some while, until they began to file up the great stair. The red-robed priests followed last of all. One of these holy luminaries approached Tong.

The Priest of Sydathus touched his cheek softly. Understanding sank into Tong’s mind as if he had heard spoken words in his own language.

Son of the Black City.

The priest recognized him.

You will lead us forth. Some to death, some to honor. We have seen this. The priest understood him.

Gladly will we pay this price to walk freely in the Land of the Sun. The priest believed in him.

You will end our long isolation, Son of the Black City. We have seen this.

The Sydathian removed his hand from Tong’s cheek and the flash of understanding was gone. Tong stood dazed and full of awe. The red priest turned away to join his people as they ascended to their city cavern. Tong watched the last of them climb the stony stair, lingering beneath the brilliant Godstone. “You must come here with them every day for thirty days,” Iardu said. “Then your understanding of the Sydathians will be strong. And you will know the power of Quii.”

“Is it sorcery?” Tong asked. He followed Iardu up the great stairway.

“No,” said Iardu. “It is only meditation. Bringing the true self into alignment with the Source of All Things. The fount of all peace, strength, and creation. You are blessed to experience this awakening, for most men spend their entire lives in ignorance.”

Tong fingered the hilt of the knife at his waist. “If I do what you say… they will follow me… fight for me… die for me?”

In the gloom of the subterranean stair Iardu’s eyes gleamed bright as torches, shifting from scarlet to saffron, from emerald to azure. “The Old One who touched you has already seen this. Their decision was made before you ever arrived.”

“Why would these people spend their lives to save mine?” Tong asked.

Iardu explained as they trudged up the long stair. “Long ago the Sydathians ventured into the upper world. Having explored the vast expanse of their subterranean region, they wished to discover the world of sun and sky. It was a new frontier that excited the imaginations of an ancient folk. So they carried a great tribute of jewels to the Empress of Khyrei-yes, that same Claw who sits upon the throne today. She took the tribute and slaughtered the emissaries without mercy. Sometime later a second band of ambassadors approached the black city. They were tortured to death, their carcasses hung from the palace walls. Khyreins were taught to hate and fear Sydathians, even to hunt them in the red jungle. So the eyeless ones were driven back into their underground realm. Eventually the Khyreins forgot all about them. Ages passed.

“Yet the wisest priests of Sydathus spoke of a day when Sydathians and Men would walk together hand in hand beneath the sun. The surface world, once freed from the grip of tyrants, would open its wonders to those from below. The sun would no longer be a stranger to them. Certain of the Old Ones saw this vision in the depths of the Godstone.

“You heard the priest’s words. You are the Son of the Black City. The time has come. You will give them the frontier they have so long been denied. The world of sun and sky.”

Tong felt the pressure of forgotten history upon his shoulders. Could he be the man to liberate not one but two oppressed peoples? The idea seemed little more than some improbable legend told around the cookfires of slaves. Yet here he stood in the bowels of the earth with a shape-shifting wizard and a multitude of beast-lings ready to storm the walls of Khyrei. His head swam, as if he stared down at the world from some great height and did not quite recognize what he saw there. The world was far greater and far more complex than he had ever imagined.

“What is this Godstone?” he asked.

Iardu shrugged. “What is the moon? Or the ocean? Or a mountain? These things exist because they are a part of the natural world. Since men do not understand the natural world, they fret and ponder the true nature of things. They fail to see the essential unity underlying all of existence. The Godstone is a reminder of that unity.”

After the trek to and from the chamber of the Godstone a great weariness fell upon Tong. He stumbled back through the mushroom wood toward the glittering city-column. He sought only the soft bed of moss where he would lay himself down to sleep.

“Your wounds have healed, but your body is still weak,” said Iardu. “You have not worked the fields in weeks. The daily journey to the Godstone will do you good in more ways than one.”

Tong drank a bowl of water and fell asleep on the moss. He dreamed of faraway lands that he had never seen. Shining towers of alabaster and gold rose from walled cities on plain, coast, and cliff. They had names, these bastions of human civilization, yet he did not know them. Like a soaring hawk, his vision turned back to Khyrei. A blot of darkness where the crimson jungle met the Golden Sea. He looked upon the green fields where his people lived and worked, he floated low above the endless rows of grape, bean, wheat, and corn.

Slaves worked the fields with all the desperate intensity he remembered, but when he sank lower he saw they were not human. Thousands of horned Sydathians worked the harvest, filling baskets with green stalks, shucking corn, picking grapes. Demons in ebony masks whipped and smote them to greater efforts.

He woke from the dream parched and with aching muscles. A fresh draft of water brought him walking into the orange gloom of the cavern. The dancing firelight here never altered: there was no night or day, so there was no way to know how long he’d slept. Only the hunger in his belly told him it had been a long time.

Now came the time of the Godstone again. He felt it growing in his gut, even before the first of the Sydathians lined up and marched into the fungus woods. It had awakened him.

He almost took a step, but Iardu’s voice halted him.

“Tong,” said the wizard. He stood not far away, wrapped in a cloak of black feathers. “I must leave for a while. I will return soon. Remember the Godstone.”

Tong raised his hand in a gesture of farewell. He did not look behind when the sound of beating wings filled the air then faded into silence. He walked toward the forest and the hidden fissure that led deep into the bowels of the earth. He walked lightly, feeling that he now lived truly in the realm of the Earth God. The entity his people venerated had saved him from the Deathlands long enough to allow him this gift. The secrets of the earth itself were opening to him. He did not fear the eyeless ones, or dread spending his time with them. He moved forward in sublime serenity with his thousands of new brothers and sisters.

The dream had opened a gate of wisdom in his heart. These Sydathians were as much his people as were the slaves toiling and dying in Khyrei, as were the citizens of all those cities the dream had shown him. He did not need to know their names, their customs, or their languages. He needed only to know of their presence.

By virtue of a common existence, all living things were of the same family, united behind the masks of shallow differences.

He smiled into the dark as he descended toward the chamber of the Godstone.

The Sydathians, grotesque and beautiful, crowded about him.

This Great Truth, he mused. I will carry it to the world above.

These, my brothers, will help me spread it.

By spear and blade and fang and claw, we will spread this wisdom.

This freedom.