Zenak (18 page)

Vokar, after giving his orders, ran back to his room's bal­cony. He saw Zenak quietly walking toward the main palace door. Behind the door two dozen well-trained fighters waited.

“Stop, you fool,” Vokar yelled out from the balcony.

Zenak looked up and saw Vokar in his balcony. Vokar's black robes rustled in the wind and his coal black eyes gazed at Zenak.

“Someone else, just lately, called me that and now she lies in a pool of blood and stares at her toes,” Zenak yelled up to Vokar.

Vokar was taken aback a little. Mara was dead. For a moment he felt an emptiness in his stomach. But only a moment was all Vokar took to mourn the woman he loved. Then he quietly composed himself.

“Go away, Zenak. I have hundreds of fighters in the palace. They will cut you down,” Vokar yelled back. He had no intention of letting Zenak go, but he did want a chance to get at Zenak on his own terms.

“Why do you need them? I thought by now your powers would have little need for an army,” Zenak said sarcastically.

“My powers could reduce you to a cinder,” Vokar said.

Zenak looked at Vokar coldly for a few moments and then said, “Go ahead, I'm waiting, reduce me to a cinder.” He stretched his arms out, threw his head back, and closed his eyes.

“I will not waste my energy on you,” Vokar said.

Zenak started laughing, his bluff had worked. He knew that if he showed no fear to Vokar that Vokar would not trust such fearlessness. Vokar was such a suspicious man that any fearlessness in another person made Vokar wonder what power that person had.

The truth was that Vokar was afraid to use his power imme­diately on Zenak. The reason, though, was that all the time Vo­kar had known Zenak he could never control him with his eyes and now Zenak's fearlessness put even more doubt in Vokar.

“Now, Vokar,” Zenak yelled, “since you are afraid to use your powers I will use mine,” Zenak pointed to his sword, “to reduce you to a thousand pieces.”

“Guards, to the courtyard, but do not attack,” Vokar order­ed. The doors of the palace flung open and hundreds of fighters filed out into the courtyard. Zenak faced them and firmly stood his ground, his sword ready for action.

“Now, Zenak, you shall die and I shall have the pleasure of watching,” Vokar said somberly. “Attack,” Vokar yelled to the guards.

The guards never attacked, though. The instant Vokar gave his attack order another voice resounded throughout the courtyard with a thunderous “No,” as if the palace itself was talking. At the sound of it Vokar grabbed the railing of his balcony and fearfully looked around for the origin of the voice. The guards moved closer to­gether and looked around nervously. Only Zenak stood his ground. He was puzzled but did not really care about the voice. He figured it was some wizard's trick and all he wanted to do now was fight.

The voice spoke again, “You soldiers of Soci shall not stop Zenak from his task. Zenak is the last man on the panels of Destiny. Destiny must be fulfilled for it is the end. Leave Zenak alone.”

“We want to kill him, though,” the mesmerized captain yelled as he turned around looking for someone to talk to.

“No, you don't,” the voice said. “Vokar's spell is taken away from you and the rest of Soci.” At that the sol­diers saw a flash in front of their eyes. Suddenly, they felt strong and happy and looked at Zenak with respect.

“Who are you?” Vokar questioned.

“We are the kings of Soci. The kings who ruled for thou­sands of years. We never died, we couldn't. We left only our physical selves and melted into the walls of the palace,” the voice said.

“What do you mean?” Vokar asked, “I killed Demis and I saw him die.”

The voice answered, “You destroyed his physical self just like the panels said, but his mental self is here melted into the walls with the rest of us. Vokar, you are a small fool and will serve only one purpose. Your purpose is to help Zenak fulfill his task and thus fulfill the panels.”

“I will never help Zenak,” Vokar yelled.

“The panels must be fulfilled,” the voice continued, “for only then will we be able to die. We are tired and we want to go into the One. The Island is also tired. It is corrupted, dirtied, and does not progress. It is time to start anew. So, Zenak, go fulfill your part of Destiny. But remember, your own destiny is not concluded. And you, Vokar, you will do what you are sup­posed to do even though you will think you are not doing it. Remember your destiny ends here with the rest of us. Only Zenak will march on.”

Vokar shook with anger. “You cannot beat me,” he yelled. “I am more powerful than Destiny. I can beat her.”

“We shall see,” the voice said as it seemed to fade back into the walls.

Vokar looked down at the courtyard and looked straight at Zenak. “You shall die,” he screamed to Zenak. Then he ordered the guards to attack.

“We will not,” the captain of the guards replied.

“I will melt all of you,” Vokar threatened.

“So who cares? The Island is finished. We are going home to our families and prepare ourselves for the end,” the captain said. Then the soldiers filed through the palace gates to their doomed homes.

Vokar sullenly watched the soldiers leave. He could not be­lieve what was happening. He heard Zenak laughing below in the courtyard.

“It is all over, Vokar,” Zenak yelled. “I'm coming to cut you up.”

“Come ahead. I will do away with you and recover my world,” Vokar said.

Zenak bounded to the palace door and within moments was in Vokar's chamber. As he climbed the stairs to Vokar's room, Zenak felt as if strength from the walls themselves was pouring into every muscle in his body. He felt more powerful than he had ever dreamed he could feel. At Vokar's door he felt invinci­ble.

Zenak crashed through Vokar's door, his sword ready for Vokar's heart. But once in the room his sword became red hot and he was forced to drop it. He saw Vokar staring at him from a few feet away.

“We meet again, wizard,” Zenak said. “You know you will die for what you did to my son and wife.” When he said this he felt he had said it just to give him a reason to fight. He later perceived that other things were much more important than a wife and child, but he could not grasp them now.

Zenak approached Vokar. He could, in his fingers, already feel Vokar's neck breaking. He could feel the white flesh break­ing as his fingers cut through Vokar's throat.

“You won't come any closer,” Vokar said. Then his eyes flared red and they turned quietly to blue. Zenak stared at Vokar as blue haze permeated the room. Zenak could feel his whole body weaken. “Now die,” Vokar said with a laugh.

Zenak's body began to bend backwards. Slowly, his back was breaking itself. Zenak strained to stop it but it was to no avail and a sharp pain in the middle of his back announced the end of Zenak if he could not break out.

“No, I will not allow this,” Zenak said firmly. He wres­tled with himself even harder and in a few moments he was straigh­tening himself out.

Vokar fumed when he found Zenak standing straight. Zenak smiled a little and stared straight into Vokar's eyes.

“You were lucky,” Vokar said. “But you will die.”

Vokar concentrated his powers on Zenak's demise. But the more Vokar concentrated the more stubborn Zenak was to any of Vokar's powers.

Zenak defied all the attacks on his brain and body from Vokar. Vokar sweated as he intensified his efforts, but in no time he found his efforts useless for Zenak had per­meated Vokar's barrier and was staring straight through Vokar's eyes into his soul.

“Now, Vokar bring on all of your power, for I'm linked to you and cannot be killed by you,” Zenak said. A slight smile crossed his countenance as he kept his gaze on Vokar's eyes.

Vokar was stunned. He had never expected such a thing to happen. He heaped even more of the cosmic forces on Zenak, but instead of harming Zenak, the walls of the palace began to shake. And in moments the palace was crumbling around the two warriors, until there was nothing left but a large pile of rub­ble on which Vokar and Zenak stood. The forces that destroyed the palace saved Vokar and Zenak by protecting them from the falling rock of the palace and placing them on the rubble. Neither knew that this had happened, however, for they were concentrating on each other.

“Die, Die,” yelled Vokar.

But Zenak stood like a bronze giant staring into Vokar's eyes all the way to the wizard's heart. Vokar summoned even more power and the earth began to tremble and fire leapt up from the cracks in the ground engulfing all of Mea and her in­habitants in seconds. Zenak still stood in front of Vokar un­hurt. Vokar summoned more power and lightning began flashing through the skies as far as eyes could see. Mountains be­gan splitting all over the Island, spurting hot lava from the bo­wels of the earth and covering towns or cities near or in the mountains. Zenak still could not be moved. He was now smiling at the profusely perspiring Vokar, and Vokar was amazed with himself for he was summoning power he never dreamed existed.

As more of the cosmic forces were summoned by Vokar, more of the Island was destroyed. On all shores tsunamis suddenly and without warning appeared and wiped out entire fishing communi­ties and ports. The inland towns were destroyed by great chasms in the land opening up and swallowing them; raging fires were sweeping over the land; and floods from the many rivers on the Island were engulfing cities and towns. Deparne fell to rub­ble only minutes after Mea fell. All of the inhabitants died. Habor, Zenak's good friend, died trying to save his newly adopted son from a fire. He grabbed the boy and ran out of his house only to be swallowed by a fiery chasm which opened before him as he ran for open spaces. In minutes everyone on the Island was dead, from either fire, floods, buildings falling, or the ground opening. The Island had been purged and a new day was coming.

Chapter 18

Yes, in those few moments all had died except Zenak, Vokar, myself, and a young Muke. I, Thurnak, for some reason acquired the gift of prophecy a few days before the prince was baptized. I knew what was going to happen to Zenak and the rest of the Island before it happened, but every time I tried to tell some­one my voice would be unintelligible. It was frustrating before I realized Destiny had a place for me. So, when I saw the end approaching, I headed quietly for the cave where we kept our unused scrolls, for scrolls need to be kept cool. My ability to see the future pointed out to me that the cave would be kept intact. I took my pens and large supply of ink. I also took with me three years' supply of dried mark meat, three years supply of water, and a few jugs of wine for my nightly nightcap.

With my prophetic power I watched Zenak all through his trials and I jotted them down. I also saw the end. I saw the young Muke who survived protected by his parents as rocks rained upon them from a collapsing hill. I watched Zenak and Vokar battle each other for days. I saw Vokar summon all the powers until finally all he had left to summon were the demons of Varsoula. But even they were useless for they could not penetrate the concentration barrier between Zenak and Vokar. So they returned to Varsoula, Vokar tried again to summon the cos­mic forces, but the only response he received were a few grumblings of the earth and some lava spurting out in other places on the Island. Vokar was drained. Zenak, on the other hand, grew in strength everyday and after the demons came from Varsoula he felt stronger than he had ever felt.

“Well, Vokar, you are finished,” he said to the now aged wizard.

Vokar dropped his gaze and the barrier was broken. He looked like an old man ready to die. “I wanted to rule the Island,” he said.

“Instead you destroyed it,” Zenak said as he looked around and saw the havoc that had been created. As far as he could see everything was dead, burned, and destroyed. The great mountains were different shapes and sizes than they were a few days earli­er and lava was still oozing out of them. “Destiny has spoken and now she shall speak once more,” Zenak said. He walked over to Vokar, took the old man by the head and throat, and twisted Vokar's head, neatly breaking his neck. Vokar did not struggle. Zenak then picked up the body and threw it into a nearby crevice. When the body was thrown in, a column of fire came out of the crevice and the ground rumbled a bit. Then all was quiet.

Zenak stood alone and looked around. Everything was dead. Was this his final Destiny? Was he to wander among the dead all his life? The kings of Soci had told him that his destiny would not be fulfilled when the end came. But what was his des­tiny?

As he stood pondering his future, a bright, white light hov­ered above his head. Zenak looked up at it curiously and then in a flash of light he was gone and the white light had disappeared.

I have no idea what happened to him for my powers are not that great, so I will not even speculate. But I am sure that Destiny has some­thing great in mind for Zenak.

As for myself I have less than three years left to write. But this will be plenty of time to write the history of the Island in its totality. I am…or was the foremost expert of the history of the Island. I will also write Zenak's history up to the time of the baptism of his prince. I will enjoy writing about Zenak, warrior of warriors, King of Kings.

Note from Sylvan Anders:

Solok died when he finished translating this scroll. It seems that when he read this scroll his memory was jolted and all his life came pouring back into his con­scious. He realized that he was the young Muke that Thurnak mentioned who was left alive after the holocaust. He also reali­zed that Destiny had kept him alive for the purpose of being our translator. He lived until he was sure that I had the ancient language mastered. Then one night he told me that his purpose in life was over and that he had never felt so tired. I helped him into bed and the next day I found him dead. He had a con­tented look on his face and I felt no sadness.

I also realized that Destiny had picked me to be the new translator for this lost society. I plan to devote all my time to the rest of the scrolls and you, the reader, will receive each translated story as soon as I finish it. You will see how these people lived and where they came from.—Sylvan Anders