City of gods - Hellenica (6 page)

“But why me?”

“They’re not just asking for you,” said Elazar with a laugh, “they’re bringing in a group of young beings with powers. Gods, if you will. But these are not
entrenched
gods like Dagon and Lugh. Hellenica wants the young, the unjaded. They want those that still care more for society than themselves.”

“I’m not a god,” said Tommy. “I can’t even walk without assistance.”

“Do you remember your early youth, your parents, Tommy?”

“No.”

“Nor do I. You may be a god, or something very much like it; there’s a character similar to you in a book based on my Torah.”

“If I’m in the Torah then I can’t be a god,” said Tommy. “Your religion is monotheistic.”

“
Vehemently
monotheistic,” said Elazar, “but both the Torah and this book, which we call
The
Bible
, have certain grey areas when it comes to supernatural beings. If not a god, you’d be considered a demigod, or perhaps an
angel
. The book calls your kind
Horsemen.
”

“I still don’t follow.”

“You won’t need to, Tommy,” said Elazar, “but I’ll tell you that your talents are wasted on this island. My question to you is this: do you want to further your studies at the Academy, or stay here building toys?”

Tommy thought for a moment. The prospect excited him to be sure, but he was happy here. This place needed him, and he knew no other home.

“I’ve worked my whole life to make a perfect society, Tommy, one based on compassion and harmony, not strife,” said Elazar. “But I’ve only succeeded in an unseen microcosm here. No one cares for Lepros, and no one ever will. But if you go inland, you’ll show them what we can do. Will you go?”

“Yes.”

“Good,” said Elazar. “You report this evening. So listen to what they teach you, and be careful. The
Academy
is trustworthy, but the rest of the world is not. Though you may have supernatural powers, I fear you can still be killed. And there are those in the conurbation who’ll seek to do just that.”

PART II

THE ACADEMY

HELLENICA

The Spartan mercenary picked up Kayana two hours before dawn. He was prepared for her; he wore thick gloves and he kept his windowless van flooded with light. They stole off quietly into the morning and together they traversed the conurbation in a zigzag fashion, avoiding the dangerous districts like Éire, Papua, and the Apache Courts. Soon Kayana lost track of where they were.
The safe areas in this city are rare
, she thought,
and are getting rarer still.

Still, she felt protected in the van they had sent.  The van appeared to be run-down from the outside, but the mercenary explained
that the exterior was run-down on purpose, to blend in with the city and to prevent kidnappings. Inside, the van held the latest technology. It showed a holographic map of the conurbation, potential threats ahead and the best streets to take, updated in real time. She also had quite a bit of space in the back seat and could turn the lights completely on or off with a switch. The driver, a Spartan mercenary named Cassander, told her he could drive in complete darkness if need be; he had night-vision goggles. 

“We don’t have an escort,” said Cassander. “Strength and numbers are no substitute for stealth nowadays; kidnappers have been getting bold. It’s a shame.”

“Kidnapping is a function of ransom, which is a function of economic disparity,” said Kayana. “It’s not a shame. It just
is
.”

“You’ve been in that cage too long,” said Cassander. “It’s not just money nowadays. A god gets bored, asks a follower to kidnap some high-ranking official or Druid priest, and that starts it. You think a Celtic god is gonna pay an Apache
ransom
to get that Druid back? No, he’ll round up ten Gallic Warriors, have them attack at dawn. They’ll come back with the priest and ten Apache heads. They’ll sing a song about the rescue and wait for the Apache counterattack. It’s a sport to these gods.”

Kayana nodded her head in understanding. She sensed that the violence outside was different than when she had entered the institution.
Bad things should happen as a matter of nature, of time or even bad luck,
she thought,
but not for sport.

“We’re taking a detour,” said Cassander. ”Turn the lights off.”

Cassander drove the van into a tunnel and they were underground. Right before she turned off the lights, Cassander turned to look back at her and smiled.
He had a Hellenic name and pale skin, but by his accent Kayana guessed he was born a Sumerian. When he turned to smile, she noticed that he was young but had a seasoned look in his eyes and a deep scar on his neck.
He’s old beyond his years and truly familiar with kidnapping
, she thought,
and he knows Celtic headhunters all too well.

Kayana looked outside and found that they were deep in the bowels beneath the conurbation. She’d heard of this place and liked it; though it was dangerous, it felt untouched by the city above. There were monsters and diseases down here to be sure, but monsters and diseases kill out of instinct, not out of sport, and Kayana felt safe.

Kayana looked into the darkness and could see the faint images of creatures scurrying about. Many of the creatures were natural but some were not.
How many unnoticed battles have gone on under the ground between these creatures?
she thought.
How much blood has been spilt over territory lost, won and lost again?

They traveled through the tunnels for more than an hour. Cassander’s front window illuminated the surroundings with night vision, and Kayana could see that he was clearly on a road. They even passed several cars going in the opposite direction, and Cassander waved each time.
I’m not the only one who feels safe in the darkness,
thought Kayana.
Hellenica must use this as their main thoroughfare.

“Kidnappers, thieves, they can go anywhere now,” said Cassander, “any district, at any time. The key is traveling where they don’t
want to
go. Too much effort to get down here, nothing to steal. So we’re safe,
more or less
.”

Cassander pumped the brakes and they came to a complete stop. He backed the van up a few meters, and then parked around a corner. He motioned Kayana to be quiet and pressed a few buttons on the dashboard. A small camera extended from the front of the van and displayed what was around the corner. Two creatures twice the size of bears seemed to be locked in a desperate fight. Kayana heard the grunts and growls, but couldn’t quite make out their shapes. After five minutes, the slightly smaller one bit the larger one. Kayana heard a squeal, and the larger one collapsed to the ground.

“Don’t worry,” said Cassander, “they eat fast down here.”

Three minutes later, Cassander drove past the larger creature’s remains and they were going through the tunnels again. He picked up speed, and Kayana could see several smaller creatures getting out of the way of the tires as they moved forward. They came to what looked like an underground river, but from its smell Kayana could tell that it was sewage. Cassander pressed another button, and a protective layer came from the roof and covered the windows. Cassander waited for the layer to snap shut and then proceeded to drive straight into the muck.

“Kidnappers don’t
want to go here,” he repeated with a smile. “Breathe through your mouth.”

They traveled like this for half an hour. Cassander was navigating the van with sonar now, moving slowly around the corners. They came up for air and stopped on a bank. Cassander pressed another button and a spray from the roof washed all the detritus from the van. Kayana noticed there was daylight at the end of the tunnel, and Cassander began to drive towards it.

“This is the only good part of this trip,” he said with a smile. “Arrival back in Hellenica.”

They came up through the opening and were surrounded by four thick walls, 100 meters high, with gunmen in the towers pointing at the van.
It looks like an Ishtar gate,
thought Kayana.
The Hellenica I knew never needed gates, let alone an Ishtar gate with gunmen.

Four Spartan mercenaries came up to meet the van. They were four different races, and had probably had been born in four different districts. But they carried all the markings of Spartan guards: wiry, muscular bodies covered in battle scars, scowling faces and untrusting eyes. A guard commanded Cassander to open the window, and Kayana realized how different Cassander looked in comparison to the average Spartan. The man outside the van window was a seasoned warrior who would kill anyone or anything if ordered, but Cassander’s face showed empathy, and he had a soft smile.

“License?”

Cassander held out his hand; they scanned his palm lines until their machine beeped.

“Business?”

“I’m transporting this young woman on orders of Charon,” he said. “We’re taking her to the Academy.”

“Mind if we take her out and ask a few questions?” they asked.

“I don’t,” said Cassander, “but you might. She’s not the type you want to get near; she’s a
Horseman.
”

The Spartan mercenary mulled it over. He peered at Kayana from the front of the window, and then spat. He moved away from the van and stopped twenty meters away to make a phone call through his earpiece. He came back to the van and spat again.

“By Charon’s orders, we’ll let the van in,” said the mercenary, “but if you’ve smuggled in any contraband or migrants,
intentionally or not
, your life is forfeit.”

“I have no hitchhikers,” said Cassander. “Nothing could survive that ride.”

The mercenary gave a nod and the gates started to open.
The Hellenica I remember was open and free. A city on a hill perhaps, but welcome to all
, thought Kayana,
and now they have thick gates and spitting guards who fear migrants. All this came about after I was in the institution for only a few short years.

Kayana also wondered what Cassander meant by
Horseman
. She’d noticed that he had not called her a
god
, and she’d never felt that she was a god. Gods were petty, and only acted in their own self-interest.
But everyone here seems to understand the power of Horsemen,
she thought.
Whatever we are, people open gates for us, and keep their distance from us too.

The van went through. Hellenica spread out before Kayana and she couldn’t believe what she saw. Long walls protected the city, each with turrets of guns, and each with a Spartan mercenary in the tower. The interior of Hellenica was still the same; there were broad streets, single-story buildings with Doric columns, and doors open to the public. But it felt oppressive, quiet.

Hellenica is a city of ideas, not mistrust for the outside,
thought Kayana,
and they don’t depend so heavily on Spartan mercenaries.

“Quite a bit has changed since you went away,” said Cassander, “and don’t think we’re unaware of our flaws. Not pretty anymore, am I right?”

“Hellenica is not as it should be,” said Kayana.

“By
Ninkharsag
, you’re right,” said Cassander, his Sumerian accent thickening just a bit. He pulled out his necklace and kissed the small tablet attached to it. Kayana noticed that the tablet was covered in cuneiform.

/***/

Cassander told Kayana to keep her distance from all passersby, and they walked through the streets of Hellenica freely. As they walked, Kayana sensed Hellenica still held a bit of its old self. She heard citizens freely squabbling about philosophy, art and the gods. She was pleased that the coliseum was hosting theater and not war games, and that there were still foreigners walking about. Hellenica had not yet fallen towards complete provincialism and xenophobia.

They passed through an open market that was selling fruits and vegetables from across the conurbation. Kayana saw meter-wide giant mushrooms from the Manitou, honey mead from Little Asgaard, and sushi straight from Dagon’s markets. She also saw a bull about two meters high at the shoulder; a man in a white coat claimed that this was an Aurochs he’d brought back from extinction through genetic modification.

She saw a Mesopotamian man and a Papuan arguing in a public forum about the nature of gods in society.

“Pluralistic societies
can
exist next to one another,” said the Papuan. “It simply takes a common
economy
. One never attacks a trading partner, so if the Celts ever went into business with the Apaches, they would be bound together and—”

“That’s simply not true,” said the Mesopotamian, interrupting. “The conurbation
has
a unified economy, and we’re headed towards civil war as we speak. The gods,
if they are really gods
, gain power through strife. We’ll be at each other’s throats for the next thousand years, unified economy or not.”

“There’s a human desire for justice, for sanity and for dignity. Over time they will win out,” said the Papuan.

“Justice, sanity and dignity are on the wane, and depravity is on the rise,” said the Mesopotamian. “Many districts have resumed the practice of human sacrifice to appease their leaders. The Celts have their Wicker Men, the Aztecs their blood ceremonies, and even my people, the Mesopotamians, have resurrected their fire pits!”

“Yet we still have a free society within these walls,” said the Papuan.

“And outside these walls our society is crumbling, common economy or not,” said the Mesopotamian. “Our gods are so petty that I would be killed for these words, most likely as a human sacrifice. This is truth and you know it.”

The Papuan nodded, defeated in rhetoric. The crowd dispersed and Kayana noticed that the Mesopotamian took no pleasure in his victory; he
was deeply saddened by his own argument.

“Don’t let his eloquence disturb you,” said Cassander as they walked on. “All is not lost here.”

“Perhaps it soon will be,” said Kayana. “This is a town of poets defended by paid mercenaries. How long can this last?”

“You’d be surprised,” said Cassander. “The citizens of the conurbation secretly yearn for Hellenica, even if they’re too terrified of their gods to admit it. They all want the freedom to listen to men argue like that.”

“Freedom alone cannot sustain a society,” said Kayana.

“Are you sure about that?” said Cassander. “Look there.”

Cassander pointed at the man in the white coat walking by, leading his Aurochs past them. The Aurochs was even taller than Kayana had initially thought. She looked down and saw that the added height was due to a floating pad the Aurochs was on, made weightless by a powerful electromagnet. Cassander pointed at the wheel that guided the pad; it had a full-color digital display.

“Freedom brings innovation, innovation brings
technology
,” said Cassander. “Hellenica has technology and the other districts don’t. That alone will maintain these city walls and pay the mercenaries for quite some time.”