A beam of dusty light shone into the oubliette of the murky rock vault
in which the men were being kept as prisoners for tomorrow's ritual of
Life and Energy. Some of the sun's rays moved across Lloyd's face and
he turned his head away before he opened his eyes.
He gave a deep and hollow sigh that gurgled from the catarrh that
settled in his chest, from the night spent on a cold and damp floor.
He opened his eyes and watched the sunshine glisten off the frosty rime
that painted the walls and ceiling of the cell.
He gave Boyce a few pats on the back and he soon woke up in a similar
condition.
"Do I look as bad as I feel?" he asked Lloyd.
"I could ask you the same!" he replied.
Lloyd slowly got to his feet, not a single part of his body escaping
the rheumatic cracks that such adverse sleeping conditions bring upon
one.
Soon, Boyce attempted to stand up, too and his condition was not much
different that Lloyd's.
He let out an exasperated gasp as he stood up, half hunched-over.
"Oh!" he moaned. "You would think that Palatkans would want to eat
healthy people!"
"I could use another ewer of that hot fowl-broth, that Munsen brought
for us last night." Lloyd mentioned as if hoping that someone would
hand him some through the hole in the cell door.
"My sentiments ..." echoed Boyce.
Both of them simultaneously began to bend and move their arms
frantically, and then their legs. They didn't miss a part of their
body that ached. They had to exercise themselves or else the arthritic
pains would never leave them.
Later, each of them took turns basking their chests in the rays of
sunlight that penetrated into the cell and soon they were both able to
breath freer, and more easily.
"I'd rather be eaten than spend another night in here!" Boyce offered
the statement as something easy to think about, but it turned to annoy
Lloyd's own thoughts and fears about it all; he had taught Boyce about
the fact that the Palatkans cut up and ate their victims alive.
He still kept that fact to himself, needing Boyce's strength of
ignorance to keep himself from going mad.
The sun was higher in the sky and they waited for someone to come and
bring them food, assuming that prisoners were also allowed to eat.
Then their relief finally came.
A hooded Palatkan priest walked up to the vault door and gave each of
the men a small pail of broth and a long stick of bread.
"Munsen conveys his best wishes and a hardy appetite." said the hooded
man then he came
closer to the hole and whispered to them. "We shall let you go free
very soon, friends. Do not worry!"
The message was brief and strong, and with the wholesome food given
them, they believed that they soon would go free.
The silence was disquieting in the city and Boyce and Lloyd both knew
that it was now or never, that the uprising would be put into action.
They waited eagerly and they could see that the day was slowly losing
time, the sun already disappearing overhead from their view.
Then it happened. Near the centre of the city, a plume of hot red fire
and smoke of purple, black and blue, rose in force up into the sky,
with the roar of a hundred thousand thunders.
Screams soon followed the sounds of buildings crumbling and the men
watched the citizens of Palatka running about aimlessly, caught up in
the uprising between Urre's army an the high-priest's advocates and
friends.
On the flat top of one of the cubed clay buildings stood Munsen and he
hollered into the midst of the city towards Urre's palace.
"Give us honesty, purity and freedom! Give us your life and we shall
spare your families!"
He lifted a cylindrical package into the air and put an ember to it,
then threw it.
Momentarily, a great whoosh was heard and dust and rock spewed all
about the area and towards the cells, to where Lloyd and Boyce watched.
They dove to the floor and covered their heads, but in short order
looked up at one another.
"That's why he told us to keep down!" yelled Boyce.
"I presume so!" Lloyd returned.
They looked to the cell door and saw a hair-line crack running down the
centre of it. Boyce touched the crack then pointed to it after he
nudged Lloyd with his elbow. Lloyd followed to where Boyce pointed and
nodded his head.
"We'll be free ... " Lloyd began. "providing we have a couple more
blasts like that one, but let's get our backsides to that wall and keep
close to the floor!"
"As Munsen said!" Boyce grinned as he pointed out the obvious. "If we
had our electrophore-lasers, we'd be out of here a long time ago!"
Lloyd lost the last few words that Boyce said. Outside their cell was
another blast. This one was louder, and this time they heard the door
start to give-way.
Lloyd crawled towards the wall and stood up, edging close to the window
to look out. From his vantage he could see scores of Urre's archers
shooting at their enemy, just below the palace battlements.
Screams, explosions and sounds of stampeding people and animals
continued through the afternoon and evening, and finally, very late
into the night, the panic seemed to subside then totally fade away.
The only sounds left were that of burning buildings and cracking rock,
and the sounds of the Palatkan multitudes crying and moaning.
The battle was over and the men wished to hear news of Munsen and
whether his uprising was a success. They were up on their feet and
both peered out of their cell window. They watched the city burning and
the people's attempts to bring their small holocaust under control.
It didn't happen right away, but following a quarter hour watching the
scene, both had realised that there was no sound except for the
physical movement of the citizens. No one cheered.
There was no one making speeches or announcement. There was no one
about shouting direction for the people to mount their rescue of the
city, from fire.
The fires were the priority, and the bandaging of the seriously hurt in
the fighting.
The sky was illuminated by the blaze of the fires. When the night gave
way to the sun's morning rays, there was hardly notice that a new and
majestic day had begun.
For many hours, Lloyd and Boyce kicked at the hair-line crack in the
cell door but couldn't smash it in two. They couldn't get free and in
the quickly approaching daylight they knew that there was no hope.
Soon after the sun rose in the distant end of the Serpent Strip, and
the two men were morosely seated on the dusty cell floor, the door fell
open and there before them stood three Palatkans.
The two young women each had a horse by its' reigns, in one hand, and a
large travel pack slung around their arms.
The same young man, who had brought for them the previous morning,
stood before them now with a golden goblet of wine in each hand.
He handed a goblet to each man and they held them for a moment,
silently waiting for something to be said.
At the edge of a burned out clay building, a crow was picking at a
piece of garment showing under a pile of large rocks.
It didn't caw of flap its wings nervously, but Boyce had seen it just
the same, and he pointed to it, never saying a word.
In the eye of the young leper man, a tear was forming until it was
finally born onto his cheek
and trickled into the dry crusts of his face. He kneeled before the
two men.
"That was our friend and leader, Munsen. His own sacrifice assured,
for us, the death of Urre." he told them and they listened, very
saddened.
"What is your name, my friend?" Boyce asked him.
"I am called, Virgil!" he answered.
"Rise up, Virgil, and rule this place with peace and compassion. See
life and all its energies for what they really are. Make your own
power and forces of life, through love, compassion and trust ... and
never again will you need to eat human flesh in hopes of attaining it
all."
Virgil rose to his feet and looked at the two men, in such a way as one
master would look with respect to another.
"We drink to Munsen and his vision of peace." hailed Boyce and he
lifted the goblet to his lips to drink.
Lloyd touched his forearm but Boyce shook his head slightly, then
nodded at Lloyd, to drink as well. Lloyd complied with his request.
"With the trust I show to you, in drinking this, which may otherwise
have been poison, so it shall be a reminder of the trust that you will
seek and find."
"With all the power given me through my promise to Munsen, I now let
you and your friend go freely and in peace, through Palatka."
They bowed to one another and Virgil helped the men put the travel
packs about their shoulders and then up onto the horses.
They pointed in a southern direction to a pass that lead up through the
cliffs of the canyon but before they urged the horses on their way,
Boyce turned to Virgil.
"The Palatkans truly are a beautiful people. May you multiply and
become a truly great nation."
Boyce blessed his new and goodly friend then motioned to Lloyd to ride,
and they kicked their heels into the horses and galloped towards the
pass in the cliffs.
Behind them, Virgil and the two young women watched them ride away, and
the crow that had picked at the rocks, lofted into the bluish skyway
and soon disappeared.