From the Cathedral spires the Rogjans called out to the countryside some cantorial chants, announcing and honouring, and strangely, even canonizing the Cardinal Allen.
On the evening of the third day, all those residing at Halls made preparations for a day of feasting, and at sunrise the feeding began. To enjoy this day to the fullest, the coenobites brought to Halls a caravan of women from Iÿnondan and they caught up from their three day celibacy.
Everyone was fulfilled, promising their living spirits to Allen's resurrection as they reflected on his well-rounded life.
After their observations of praise, Manguino and Tohm repaired to the office to speak of their friend. Of all the brothers at Halls, they two knew him best and regarded him most highly.
"How he will be missed by all!" Tohm told Manguino. "Most everything that I know, he showed me.
"Even the few, and greatest, amongst us falter. He made a mistake and so paid for it." Manguino explained to Tohm that Allen's obsession to inseminate Dearborne overtook him. The manner of his death, however, greatly puzzled him.
"I would like to know how such a dainty woman as she could break the neck of a man as physically powerful as Allen?" questioned Manguino. "I don't believe that Brook had killed him."
"That is something we all ask, Your Grace. We must bring them both to justice, regardless of guilt!" Tohm was speaking like his teacher. He didn't care, now. He just wanted Allen's death avenged.
"I agree, but it's said that Allen was caught forcing her and Brook himself admitted to the killing our friend. Yet, I know that he's lying."
"Would you like to know my thoughts?" Tohm asked Manguino. "I believe it was that northern man, that had disappeared, who was the man that killed Allen. What perfect place to hide from us — at the Blue Mansion!"
The Archbishop's eyes glared for a moment but refused this idea. He speculated that the dissident was long gone from Pomperaque by that time.
Tohm, however, carried on until he began to convince Manguino of his idea.
"We must bring the Lady Dearborne to trial then, if only trying her on the basis of her refusal, as your subject, to bare his Holy Child. We can try Brook on harbouring a dissident and charge him with heresy."
It didn't matter to Tohm about the deaths of more people. As far as he was concerned the whole of Phoride could be sacrificed to avenge Allen's murder.
Manguino wanted no more bloodshed. He couldn't trust Brook either, and he had to decide. Brook's show of power, as of late, had made him seem greater and more beloved, by the people. Then there was the letter that he sent with Allen's body.
Manguino
My promise fulfilled, Brother.
Recompense shall not be tolerated.
Let it pass for the good of your
own condition!
Sovereign Lord B. S-B.
He, as ArchBishop, wanted to fold, and pass on this retaliation, yet, just couldn't convince Tohm of that desire.
His views to go ahead, seemed more sound and he was urged by Tohm, like he was urged by Allen so many times before.
"She is Lady Dearborne Scullion, Tohm; Brook's wife — you do understand? You did hear me tell Allen that night, I am not responsible for him — even though I did wish him success."
Tohm's impatience poured out of his soul. He sighed heavily cutting into Manguino's line of thought, and in leathery breaths, filled the office with his hostility.
"We cannot hold back, Your Grace. We must act, now! We must take this scourge of the earth, this Brook Scullion, by total surprise. We have to make the Phoridenes to believe that Brook and his wife are Evil, and that they should be punished under the Canon Laws, for their crimes."
Manguino nervously paced around as he listened to Tohm's inspiring confidence and need for justice. This was building excitement within his heart.
"He is not a clean man, my great one. Let us storm his house and find the proofs of his blasphemies and sacrilegious practices. Let them receive their judgement from you!"
The ArchBishop shook with excitement. His whole body trembled, the layers of fat migrating all over.
He sat at his desk and glared with passion right into Tohm's eyes.
"Yes, yes! We could do it, no matter how great our Lord Brook is. We must plan, Tohm. We have much work to do!"
The ArchBishop was finally sparked. He absorbed Tohm's passion and ferocity, and what's more, he no longer feared his brother.
Tohm continued.
"Our Almighty can be swayed to see his practicality. It is grand to have a god in your confidence." Tohm sank to his knees and prostrated himself before Manguino. "Let us go, my Almighty! Let them feel your wrath!"
Manguino stood up from his chair and with fire burning in his eyes, he slammed his fists on his desk.
"Yes — they shall feel my wrath!"
He turned. Facing Tohm, Manguino then lifted the front of his robes.
Tohm looked up at Manguino and smiled then his head disappeared under
Manguino's robes.
CHAPTER NINE
Over a week had passed since the feast-day at Halls, and once more the city of Pomperaque seemed to have returned to normal. There was, however, a feeling of apprehension that loomed over the city, though, but no one really gave it much thought.
Pomperaque was relatively quiet. The markets and bazaars weren't as lively and there seemed to be some kind of event, at Halls.
As far as most people were concerned, there wasn't anything obviously wrong.
No one noticed the reek of conspiracy rising from the depths of hell to fill the masses with a weakness that soon took them over.
The nature of the day sapped the power of spirit from everyone, and they all were vulnerable and passive like sheep.
Brook and those in his household had behaved oddly this day. They were loose with their thoughts and spoke out without cares or fears for anything or anyone. Their hearts felt light and Brook had felt at ease and he believed that since Manguino had not avenged Allen's death by now, he had indeed followed Brook's order to 'let it pass'.
All day Brook was in his viewing den with his wife, Lloyd and Boy, going over a map of the Northern Continent, showing his guest and Boy the route that they would take to the great library at Alugean, near the port of Angaent.
They were close to each other — now more than ever — because Brook had revealed to Boy and Dearborne that he had known for a long time, that Boy was really his son. He had made Dearborne and Boy very happy, and they felt relieved that Brook had accepted it, in secret, for so many years.
In the den, Dearborne stood apart from the man. She stood at the cabinets and pushed buttons on Brook's panel, when he gave her the word; and then the men stood at the screen tracing out the route on different maps. Each map was a more detailed version of the sections showing that way to the mountain.
Brook had made plans with Empal to fly Lloyd and Boy to Virune, on his Kenttitian Eagle, during some night when they wouldn't be seen. That night was soon approaching them and they still had some things to learn.
Nearing the late afternoon, Brook showed to his son and to Lloyd a passage-way that ran underground in two directions, built by Carter Blue as a precaution against a personal attack. These passage-ways were still in good condition, leading north to the Joenine Forest and just south to the inlet which leads to the ocean.
Both routes were safe and quick, but Lloyd and Boyce would take the northern route to a clearing where Empal would be waiting with his eagle.
The passage-way ran under the Blue Mansion from Brook's den and the viewing wall was the hidden door that gave access to them.
Brook demonstrated to them the working of the door and showed to them the bracing that they would use to buttress the door; in the case of a sudden attack and an insured escape would be necessary. Lloyd shrugged off these things feeling them to unnecessary to his knowledge, but Boy absorbed every word that Brook said, as if those very words were his life-giving air.
Brook finalized what he thought to be the most important things for him to convey.
"Boyce … my son. Learn whatever you can at the Alugean Library. Know the truths about the past then return to Phoride. You will inherit this land from me, and you will become a great man." Boyce listened with intensity to his father because he knew that he was communing with a great mind. Boyce nodded to him with silent promise.
"Rule with kindness and love, but don't allow men of evil, men like your uncle, the ArchBishop, to tread over you and grind you into the earth." Brook breathed for a moment then briefly looked away from Boyce. "I have been too kind and have allowed too much to pass into being. Now, it's difficult to fight the evil."
"I promise you, that I will follow your words, father!" promised
Boyce, and Lloyd gave his word to Brook, as well.
"I shall watch over him, Lord. I will guide him to do what is right in accordance to the oldest book's ten laws, and my people shall help us!"
Brook forced a grin and slowly nodded.
"Good!"
He motioned to Dearborne and told her to activate, on the panel, the playback for pictures of Alugean.
"I must make certain that you know the entrance to the inside of the mountain. Watch and remember, since this will be the final time I will show you."
The pictures flashed on the screen, showing recognizable landmarks that are in the vicinity of the entrance and finally there came the picture of the entrance itself. It wasn't very large and was almost hidden, and there was one small panel such as that which Brook's gadgets have, and from that panel, entry would be gained into the library.
"Remember," Brook told Lloyd and Boyce. "the numbers that must be pressed are these: Seven, Two, One, Nine — count to five and then press One, again — the vault door will open. Inside there is enough food and water, that you will not have to worry about running out for your duration of stay. There are enough supplies there for both of you to live on for twenty years, and more."
"We will stay there fifty, if need be!" Boyce promised.
"You will try to unite the lands in the north, with Besten?"
Lloyd nodded affirmatively, answering Brook's question.
"They will all help me, I trust, when the time comes. They understand my intentions."
Far in the distance there was a riotous sound. It came from the street and Dearborne rushed to the window and peered out to see what was the cause of it.
"Brook!" she suddenly screamed out Brook's name, but could hardly say anything else. Brook went quickly to the window, and Boyce and Lloyd went with him.
When they saw what was making its way down the street, all that was heard was a deathly silence in the room, being filled in its place by the sounds of impending violence.
"My God!" Brook said, his voice shattering with devastating uneasiness and fear.
Boyce looked, too. His heart jumped within his body as he looked at the frightful expression on the adults' faces.
They all watched the ArchBishop and a dozen monastic guards and clergy march up towards the mansion and disappear as they reached the main door beneath them.
"I can't believe that Manguino is here." Brook started. "Yet… I am not surprised. I understand my dear brother."
Dearborne took Brook's arm.
"What will we do, Brook?" she pleaded with him.
He looked at her and the other two men.
"Lloyd and Boyce must leave right now, and you must leave with them." Brook said to Dearborne and made his way to the viewing wall. He tugged at one of the drape-cords and the wall swung open to a space that was just large enough for the book case where he removed the big book from its hiding place. He beckoned Lloyd and the others. Lloyd and Boyce quickly went to him but Dearborne moved from the window to the room doors and locked them.
Pounding sounds could be heard echoing throughout the mansion, followed by the blaring twangs of the electrophoric guns.
Three successive bangs were heard as the wood and stone main doors cracked and buckled under the strain.
"They're inside." Brook said, with acceptance. "Dearborne, come!"
He handed the book to Lloyd and looked between him and Boyce.
"Care for this book, and use it to teach those in your land. They will not doubt its truth."
"I will." vowed Lloyd.
"May God watch over you!" Brook blessed his son and Lloyd then stretched his hand to Dearborne to approach him and take it. She did.
"I will miss you, my love." he said to her and kissed her.
"I will not leave you, Brook. Boyce must survive for us and there is Lloyd to watch over him. We … we are no longer important." She embraced Brook and met Lloyd's eyes when doing so. She slowly lowered her eyelids as to say to him that she is staying. He pursed his lips and nodded to her.
Brook, still embracing Dearborne turned to Lloyd and gave him a desperate and hopeless little grin.
"You two will leave now. My Dearborne will stay by my side. Go now, the devil will arrive soon."
Just as Brook finished his thoughts to Lloyd, there was a tinny and hoarse voice come from behind the door.
"Break it in!" it commanded. It was Manguino.
"Quickly, leave!" Brook said to Lloyd, leaving Dearborne and pushing
Lloyd and Boyce through the ajar passage door.
"Father … !" Boyce began but Brook stopped him.
"You must go, my son. There's nothing that you can do!"
They stared at one another, and without further words, with an understood good-bye, they finally left.
Brook patted Lloyd on the back and instructed him to blockade the passage door with the buttress. He did so.
There was a blasting twang and the door splintered apart.
Brook quickly turned towards his gadgets and frantically started to press buttons, turn knobs and adjust levers.
The ArchBishop entered with his men and Brook took Dearborne behind him.
Three of Manguino's Angels grabbed Brook's arms and they put one of the shiny metal armaments under his chin, and another clasped Dearborne around her entire body pinning her arms to her sides so she wouldn't move them.
Manguino grinned at Brook and gave Dearborne a quick look-over.
"Hello, Brother!" he said.
"You bastard!" Brook spitted-out at him, in return.
"In error as always, Brook. I am the true son!"
Manguino motioned his hand to the vicar Tohm and Tohm thrust his fist into Brook's stomach.
Brook struggled for a moment until Tohm proceeded to bravely punch him, all-the-while the Angels holding him. Brook then slumped over in unconsciousness. Dearborne had turned her head away, through it all and then saw that he was limp on the floor.
" _ And you my darling sister!" Manguino said as he neared her. "The small, barren field will finally be ploughed and seeded."
The ArchBishop ripped her blouse from her body, her breasts were exposed to the air, and each man standing there saw their rosy purity.
She began to scream out and she tried to wrench herself free from the guards who hugged her arms to her sides.
Manguino grabbed each breast with his hands, clutching them until she hollered and cried in the utmost pain. She kicked out but she couldn't hit anyone and Manguino let go of her. From her pale nipples issued whitish droplets, mingled with blood, which slowly ran down her ribs.
Manguino ordered two of his Angels to force her to the floor, and they each held her legs down while the first Angel continued to hug her arms to her sides.
The great ArchBishop smiled at her.
You may even like it, Lady Scullion!"
He got on his knees then bent over. He licked the white and bloodied droplets from each of her breasts and smiled at her when he finished.
He pulled the dress from around her hips, taring her undergarments, all in one quick motion.
"Very pretty!" he said to her, and she heaved with her body to get loose but to no avail.
"Ah, spirited!" was the last thing that he said to her as he lifted his habit and moved closer.
Brook opened his yes and tried to get up to help his beloved wife, but
Tohm kicked his head back to the floor and Brook saw Manguino invade
Dearborne in the moments before his lost consciousness.
During the ArchBishop's blessing, Brook's gadgets whirred and clicked, but little regard was payed to the commotion.
Dearborne trembled under her humiliation and was spared the finish when she, also, lost consciousness.
Self-satisfied and drenched with sweat,and stained with his own orgasm, Manguino looked up and smiled. Only then did he realise that the great mechanical thing in front of him was aflame and smoking. He shook his head when he finally noticed.
"You have been an annoyance, my dearest brother!"
On the mount, the Seer cried.
There was nothing that he could do to prevent what was to be, but now it was his time to descend to Pomperaque. He stood on the highest overhanging cliff, spread his arms to the mild evening sky and threw himself off.
"With the i-cam-raff I come — by the will of God!"
As he fell towards the city, he transformed into a beautiful and large swallow, and gently glided down to Pomperaque's towns-square.
CHAPTER TEN
On the following day, word had gone to all the citizens of Phoride, calling them to the town's square to observe the execution of a high official, set for sundown. The high official's name was not given.
Most of the men and their male children had obeyed, what was a command to attend. Knowing well, who the unnamed official was to be executed, all but a few of the Prominants had left their wives at home.
That was a direct symbol of their disobedience towards the ArchBishop.
Manguino had not regarded the petition sent to him asking for a pardon, for Brook, based on the Canon's Law and its declared punishment.
No one believed the allegations towards Brook and his wife, but they could do nothing to help him. There were many monastic guards watching the whole city and they had made it very difficult for any large groups of men to meet and talk.
At sundown, large numbers gathered in the square and waited.
They all looked at the two spreader-arches set on a platform, about a meter high, to one side of a large podium and the entire square took on the appearance of a theatre stage.
There was an uneasy silence there. With all the men and boys crowded together, the silence had an almost unnatural aura to it. Nothing was said.
Soon, several messeigneurs and cardinals came out of nowhere with the ArchBishop. Three walked on each side of him, as if guarding him from approach, and each man carried a club with spikes protruding from them, and Manguino carried a scroll of parchment enveloped by a black lash.
Everyone in the crowd watched as the ArchBishop approached the podium and the others swung their clubs from side to side.
Lloyd and Boyce watched the event also. They hid themselves in the shadows of an alley and were able to see the entire square without revealing their presence.
Manguino was apparelled in a festive garb as were his men, and when they reached the podium, they helped him up the steps to it.
He grinned and spoke.
"People of Phoride! — We are all gathered together this day to rid the earth of two blasphemers who think themselves above the law." he shrieked to them.
Boyce was becoming anxious. He wanted to leave but he knew that he couldn't. What's more, Lloyd forced him to stay. He knew that it was cruel to make a child witness his parents' execution but Lloyd hoped that Boyce would understand why Brook allowed it all to happen.
"He's the one that should be killed." Boyce said to Lloyd, trying to keep his tears from showing. They listened to Manguino carry on.
"The Almighty cannot allow any insubordination towards himself and the institution that he created for you all. These two will be made an example of. You all will see to what an end disobedience results!"
He slid the black lash off from the scroll and unfurled it.
"Bring the demons!" ordered Manguino.
Several of his men walked over to the platform and slid a door open and dragged Brook and Dearborne from it, and pulled them to the foot of the podium. When before Manguino they forced Brook and Dearborne to their knees but they stood up immediately. They would not kneel and after several times of their being forced to kneel, and their rejection to comply, they were permitted to stand.
Manguino glared at them and gave them an Evil little grin. He proceeded to read the scroll to the public.
"The former-ruling Lord of Phoride, Brook Scullion-Blue, and his wife, the Lady Dearborne Scullion-Blue, have been found guilty of possession of ancient, sacrilegious manuscripts, and of pictures of Hell." he paused for a moment then proceeded. "In refusing blessing from men of the Almighty, and the performing of sorcery, leading to the subsequent death of the High-Cardinal Allen — they are now charged with practising their subversions against the Canon Laws and the citizenry of Phoride."
The people were quiet and most had tears in their eyes, and they all knew that everything that was said about their Lord Sovereign was not true. Yet, they could do nothing for the square was too well-guarded.
Brook gave a longing look to Dearborne. Both knew what was upon them and they both
knew that they could not change what was happening to them.
They felt dead, already. They were both beaten very badly. They were scarred and bruised and Dearborne's body was violated by each and every coenobite, hurting her to the point where she could hardly walk, or even stand.
Their faces were pale and drawn with blackish-blue rings circling their protruding eyes. Both were dressed in torn and dirty course-woven sackcloth.
Both were made to smell bad, having excrement, from Halls, thrown over them and large insects, and vermin of every kind, crawled all over them.
But now, after nearly twenty-four hours of severe torture, they could no longer scream out in horror of their state of being.
"They pleaded innocent to all their charges. In lack of their confession to these charges, they are found to be guilty and I now pronounce my sentence upon them!" Manguino tried to keep from smiling to himself, his ego inflated with pride at the idea of judging his respected brother.
Miel and Cassta were in the crowd. They looked-on and tried to see some way to help them but there was absolutely no way to do so. Too many guards were positioned in all the key places and no one could enter or leave the square now.
"May God help them!" Cassta exclaimed and Miel pulled on his shirt to quiet him.
"Before I pronounce sentence, you may speak!" Manguino told Brook.
Brook looked up at him with huge blood-shot eyes, then turned to the people. He lifted his bound hands into the air as a gesture of plea.
"I do not accept the kneeling of one man to another, since no man is so deserving." he cried out to the people, and circling above the square was a large swallow that was loudly singing. He
kneeled before Dearborne as he still spoke to the people in his loudest possible voice. "But I do kneel before this dear woman because her love had made her brave and she accepted my woes onto herself." he cried out and there was a gasp from those in the audience.
He stood again and took a few steps forward.
"Stay true, my friends of Phoride. I now die but my lineage is not following me in death."
There was a murmur in the audience and Manguino became nervous and started to look worried.
The swallow that circled overhead was now on the ground behind the people; and Boyce watched with Lloyd, as it turned into a man, dressed in robes of chamois material. They watched him move into the crowd.
"Yes, my brother, Manguino. If you truly were a god, you would know that there is, indeed, a progeny between my wife and I. We have kept him from all the eyes of Pomperaque and he will soon avenge our death! You, Manguino — you have committed the crime!"
"Enough!" Manguino screamed out an order, aimed at Brook.
"Burn in Hell, Devil incarnate!" Manguino began to enter into a fit when he heard this from Brook. The people were also disturbed by it.
Most of the people that were in the crowd didn't know what this Devil was, but those that did know explained that it was the name of a legendary Being who was the ultimate Evil, and was actually Evil itself.
Manguino was shocked to realise that so many knew of Devil. That was forbidden knowledge and it wasn't taught at the Blaisaman. 'How?', he wondered?
He motioned with his hand at Brook and several of the guards grabbed him and Dearborne
and spread both out, on the spreader-arches, making the wrists-bonds tight to the point of drawing blood from them.
Boyce began to tear, as Lloyd held to his arms.
"Even now your father is instilling doubt in the Phoridene's minds about the ArchBishop! Your uncle will be obsessed with fright for a long time!"
Suddenly from behind Lloyd came a hand and a hiss of air. He turned around quickly, ready to defend his and Boyce's life, if need be, and saw that it was Empal.
"It's dangerous to stay here any longer, my friends!" Empal said to them.
"A moment!" demanded Boyce and Lloyd nodded in agreement.
"Alright, but if I could find you here, anyone can!"
They understood but they, nevertheless, stayed longer.
Although the Angels were brutal with Brook he continued to yell to the crowd.
"Look at your Almighty now, my people. See him squirm in his discomfort. See that he is only a man, and nothing more. Do not submit to his will. Unite against him or he will destroy you!" Brook struggled as he yelled, shaking the entire arch to which he was tied.
"Enough!" screamed Manguino, hoarsely. "You have said enough … and that is enough from you!" his incoherency weakened his control.
He raised his hands to them and the Angels ripped the stinking sackcloth from their victims' bodies and began to bludgeon them.
The mob's voices died down and all were dumbfounded, as they beheld the torture.
"Prepare execution!" cried Manguino. "For their transgressions of
Canon Laws, I now pronounce the only sentence possible on these two —
DEATH TO THESE SINNERS!" he yelled.
The crowd was mute. They watched Brook's and Dearborne's naked bodies writhe and convulse in pain as they bled from huge wounds made on their bodies by the Angels' studded gauntlets and the messeigneur's spiked clubs.
There were a few women within the audience who fainted from what they saw and many had slowly begun to walk away. They refused to watch their best and most beloved leader slain by someone whom they didn't understand, or like very much.
"Remember this day, people of Phoride." Brook forced himself to say as he began to lose his breath, then with his last ounce of strength he blessed them all. "May the True Living God have mercy on you all!"
He stopped struggling from his stretched out bondage and watched
Manguino raise his hand, then drop it.
The Angels had raised their electrophoric weapons and when Manguino dropped his hand, an eternal twang echoed throughout the land. Brook's and Dearborne's bodies trembled and shook violently then, in a short order, just hung there swinging back and forth.
"Quickly, now. We must leave!" urged Empal and they finally made their way across town, heading north to the Joenine Forest where Empal had left his Kenttitian Eagle.
Manguino stayed at the podium for a while and gloated over the dead bodies of his rival brother and his lovely wife. With him were several of the guards and messeigneurs, waiting to escort him back to the cathedral.
Soon, a large figure approached him and began to speak to him.
"I had foreseen this event!" said the man.
Manguino looked over at the man and he became pale, as if he just died.
"Jessuum Benitar!" exclaimed Manguino. "Why are you here, I haven't seen you since … since Smith's death."
"My mourning for your father is over. I now mourn for Brook." Manguino climbed down from the podium and cautiously and shyly approached him. Jessuum continued. "What had occurred here today, my little man, will never be forgotten. You have done something that will never leave you, and I see the eventuality and inevitability of vengeance."
The ArchBishop began to fall over his words but then slowly said what was on his mind.
"Then tell me, Seer, you are prophetic — who and where is Brook's offspring?" Manguino waited eagerly for Jessuum's reply.
"I cannot tell you directly and you know this. All I can do is dream and you must decide what it means to you." he said.
"Tell me, then!" he demanded from Jessuum and he tipped his head showing that would consent to an answer. He began to chant.
"There is a man on a trek to a place
Where the sky is touched by
A legendary grace.
There the little one learns to face
His long road back, uniting the world
In its promised Peace!"
Jessuum broke from his stare and slowly turned, and looked back at the
Almighty ArchBishop.
"That's all for now, I must depart!" he told Manguino then began to walk away.
"Wait!" squealed the ArchBishop. "Why do you leave?"
"Patience is a quality that you are not endowed with. How unfortunate!
I will be near, when I am needed!"
Jessuum walked away from the ArchBishop headed for no place in particular.
MIDDLE: THE PROMISE, FULFILLED
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The deaths of Brook and Dearborne had not meant the death of the world, or even that of Pomperaque. Life endured as it was seemingly meant to, and the evil that lived in their time had carried on, as well.
There came a frightening peace in Pomperaque, as there was a frightening quite, since no forms of dissention or negative thought was permitted under Manguino's own amendments to the Canon's Laws.
Public gatherings of men (as were private meetings), were not wholly forbidden, but the numbers of men that gathered was limited to no more than four at a time — unless there was a city conference called for meeting, in the town's square, by the ArchBishop's own request.
Even the Phoridene Council was forbidden to convene without the presence of the ArchBishop Manguino, or a tribunal of Cardinals representing him.
The brisk activities of livelihood that had once occupied most of the morning hours began to fade away and break down in pattern and even the children that once played in the streets around their parents' stalls and kiosks, no longer did so in their usual fervour.
Very few people carried smiles as they once did, in the days prior to their best and most beloved sovereign's execution.
The smiles that the people kept from their faces had equalled that hate and distrust that they carried in their hearts for their great Almighty, ArchBishop Manguino.
There was a very odd change in the lifestyles and habits of the people, not only in the city of Pomperaque but throughout the entire great states of Phoride, as well. The entire population had become somewhat indolent, apparently not caring for what happened to them from day to day. The whole city of Pomperaque walked about the streets in a glazed daze, with blank faces and empty hearts as if they were in a purgatory of sorts.
Whatever there was to Pomperaque's night life, was now gone and forgotten and even the rains that were once eagerly awaited throughout the year, were left to come when they came, and the people kept themselves from partaking of it when it happened. Even harlots and satyrs, of which were once many in the city, had let their passions leave them.
With all those immoralities that had carried on during Brook's rule, those acts of perversion and indecencies that he tried so hard to curb his people from delving into, were now halted by themselves as if in honour for the deaths of their two great and courageous martyrs.
Manguino did not understand what was happening to the people of Phoride.
"They're allowed to do what they please, to whom and with whom they please, and even how they please, and yet why don't they do anything but walk around as if they are all without spirit?"
Manguino asked that question of each coenobite at Halls, from the
Cardinals that ranked just
beneath him, to the novices and children training in the monastery. No answer was given to him and no speculations were entered into.
In the first several years following Brook and Dearborne's execution, many of the city's Prominants and even some of the peasantry, secretly sent their female children to some of the larger cities to the north, away from the watchful, lusty eyes of their god.
As if in desperation to produce his own line of gods, his own offspring, Manguino had brought to him young girls and women to play favourites to him, and to bare his holy children.
He had proclaimed though a decree that when upon entering the age of ten, all virgin girls, to the age of twenty-one, would be brought to Halls to be trained by his followers in the ways of life.
While as the first years passed, the females between these ages that were brought to Halls, had been personally attended to by Manguino.
His lust for the flesh of young women soon became weak and his acts were only made on the women purely to satisfy his desire of producing from them his offspring. Yet, with the dozens of women that he had made pregnant not one of the children were free from some kind of degenerate deformities — much like that of his first offspring, now in his twenties.
Through the first days and weeks of birth many of the children died on their own, and some of the women, seeing the monstrosities that they bore from the ArchBishop, had been shocked into eerie cataleptic states of being.
Manguino could not accept the horrible children coming from him and he cried to his physicians to cure him from what he believed was certainly a curse put on him by Brook; but when they could find nothing at fault with either him or the women that he had copulated with, he had the remainder of his children, with the women that bore them, burned alive at the city's incinerators.
However, Manguino's mind strained even at this subtle act, for not a scream nor even a gag was heard to exude from any one of those that were slaughtered.
Manguino turned to being ill and he spent the major part of the next several years in a state of listlessness.
He had sent some of his Cardinals to various parts of the continent to find and bring back for him beautiful and strong females, no matter from what race they were taken. Manguino had believed that there had to be at least one female, amongst the human-like species inhabiting the northern continent, capable of producing normal and strong children.
He had placed in charge of this mission his regular hunter in these sorts of endeavours; the Nasino, Cardinal Levy. In his silent Nasino manner he compiled a force of coenobites to do their god's bidding and they spread over the continent collecting females and teaching Manguino's ways, as well.
By the end of the following year, hundreds of human-like females and true human women were herded like cattle to Halls Cathedral, by only half the force sent out to collect them.
Some of the women were bought by these coenobites but most were snatched from wherever they could be found. Those not suiting the ArchBishop's specification were made to indulge those who had found them, then they were discarded or disposed of, depending on what degree of pleasure the hunters had experienced with them.
Within the first weeks, nearly seven score females were brought back to Halls and the ArchbIshop immediately began administering his blessings to those who were most to his liking. To his amazement, some became pregnant, came to full term and gave birth within several weeks while other appeared to have a infinite gestation, until they also gave birth. Finally, all those that the
ArchBishop bedded had given birth, with the same horrid results — and the same end became of them.
When Manguino desired to turn again to young girls from the city, there were very few to be taken. The choice were married-off by their kinsmen early in their lives and only the homely and very ugly remained. Those were the ones that were not wanted by any man; some not even during the season of the rain.
Manguino, feeling that he knew the nature of the imaginary curse that he thought was put on him by Brook, took those ugly girls and women and set himself ready to have them give themselves to him.
One day, there came to the ArchBishop the most unsightly of these wretched-looking women. She was squat and balding. Her body was covered with thick black hair, similar to the hair of the Teniqués. She had yellow irises and a runny pustulated mouth, and thick stringy mucus constantly flowed from her huge nostrils.
Her laugh ran course through men's ears and the town thought of this woman as a witch because of her formidable looks.
There wasn't a single piece of skin on her body that was clear from open sores, and yet she was of the prize of looks from the ugliest of women in Phoride.
However, this woman (if one chose to call such a hideous rind, by that word), had one quality that most all of the others that the ArchBishop bedded had lacked. She was clever. She made herself seem worldly to Manguino, the man whom she had secretly loved for so many years.
When Eckma was summoned to Manguino he could hardly look at her without wincing and she didn't hesitate preparing herself to have her hour of delight with him.
She took off her rags and stood before him squeezing parts of her body attempting to excite him and growing in excitement herself.
Manguino was surprised that she was so eager and willing to let him in and he thought, that maybe a woman's willingness was the key to ensuring him healthy offspring. He readied himself to invade her body, for the little that he thought it worthy. Then, Eckma refused to let him come in onto her and he could not understand this.
Now, as it was that Eckma was very clever, she tried not to anger her beloved Manguino and she sat him down on the bed near her and caressed some of his parts while she explained why she refused him so suddenly.
"I have been a virgin all my twenty-eight years, my dearest ArchBishop." she said to Manguino. "I had always wanted children but what I wanted more was … you!"
Manguino looked at her and felt a disgust that he could not shrug, but her gentle caresses, which made him grow with excited impatience soothed him, as well.
"What do you mean by that?" he demanded and as she smiled a creamy rheum flowed from her nostrils to the corners of her mouth.
"I had loved you since I was a little girl, and I wished and prayed that some day I would have the pleasure, and the honour, of being blessed by you. But I believed that was all just a foolish dream." she said and she smiled again, with a clear tear issuing from her eyes. "I had also dreamed of being wed to you, my true love." she added.
He grew to completion and she continued to caress him and he felt a powerful but uncomfortable urge to invade her. He was becoming sure that the woman's willingness was the key to his product of normal progeny, but when he pushed her down on the bed, and was just on the
verge of having her, she pushed him off from herself.
"Steady woman, you can't refuse me!" blurted Manguino as he dripped onto the covers by her hand.
"I do not refuse you, me hoped-for love, but welcome your all into me — with an open heart — but I would hope to suggest to you one thought I had dreamed an age ago!" she said.
"What thought, woman?" he demanded of her, becoming frustrated and quickly becoming limp.
"The dream had shown me that you could not have the offspring of your heart's desire; and then there was me, with you as the objective of love, to my own heart's desire, calling me to your bed. But, in my dream I saw that you had wed me. With the union between us and my own desires towards you, we produced many children of godly quality!" she looked up at him as he turned away from her to wipe himself, and she cried.
"What now, Eckma?" asked Manguino in a voice oddly resembling a distant compassion, as never before heard coming from his lips.
"I know that a marriage with you could never be. Forgive me for even thinking such a thing." she said and looked at him, right into his eyes. "You may do with me to your pleasure."
Manguino stood there for a moment and looked at her lying on the bed, her eyes closed and her large legs lying slightly apart.
He thought, what an odd feeling it was to have a living human woman love him so. He imagined what a love from a beauty would be like and he envied his now dead brother, because of his wife, and he envied all the wedded couples in the whole world.
He had never given consideration to such a union, but he thought, maybe it is time? Maybe
that is what was necessary, for him, to have proper children?
Manguino went over to his chamber doors and pulled a small rod out of the wall, summoning a servant to attend to him, and then he went over to Eckma and took her naked cankerous body into his arms and kissed her mouth, smearing some of her pus onto his own lips.
"You will be my wife, Eckma and I will love you, and make love to you, with more intense passion than I have ever, with anyone."
Soon, an attendant knocked on the door and Manguino ordered him to enter. When the servant saw his god lying by that unearthly ugliness and passionately caressing her, he very nearly fell faint but he looked to the floor and waited to be ordered.
"Seek Cardinals Levy, Tohm and Jordas and bid them prepare the chapel for my wedding, and have the Rogjans announce this from the city spires!"
The servant couldn't say a thing. He just nodded then backed out through the doors, closing them after him.
Immediately, he ran to the dispensary and vomited violently into a duct there, and Polis, the physician, gave to him a drink of medicine that stopped the lad's affliction. He explained to Polis about Manguino's strange taste, and his even stranger request, then he went off and rounded up the three Cardinals; conveying the message and telling them who the bride was to be.
"The Almighty had made his choice. Let us abide with his requests!" suggested Cardinal Tohm, and they went to prepare for the ceremony.
Throughout the afternoon and evening the Rogjans sang out the news to
Pomperaque, and for the first time in years, since the executions of
Brook and Dearborne, did the people laugh and rejoice for their
Almighty ArchBishop — and his misfortune.
Manguino was pleased and happy to see his beloved people having a good time and enjoying themselves, even though he had no idea that the celebrants were really mocking him.
At the wedding, a few of the Cardinals and others that were there could look upon the bride as she and Manguino emerged from their wed-eve initiation chamber.
Cardinal Tohm was the ArchBishop's second during the ceremony, and Cardinal Jordas had performed the ceremony of unity. The ceremony was the Bonds, performed to consecrate the union of two in marriage. The couple was fused together as one entity for all of eternity, by promise of eternal love and full allowance to life together, regardless of hardships that may possibly happen between them.
Now Eckma knew she was safe from death, no matter if she had children, and regardless of their appearance.
The bond between them; the cutting of wrists and the joining of them through the drinking of each other's blood, assured the cunning female that her life was her's and that she was Manguino's, forever.
At the completion of the wedding ceremony, this one where the bride and groom were married in their naked flesh, the men of Halls were to pay their tribute and honour to the bride by the kissing of her genitalia.
Although Polis gave all those attending a potion of medicine to keep their stomachs calm, most of the Cardinals still felt gravely ill whilst in Eckma's presence.
All the novices, vicars and Cardinals that passed by the wedded couple bowed down, on bent knee, before their new god's consort. All kissed the sagging brownish flesh that dangled from between Eckma's legs, in a single and complete sweeping motion. And even in this brevity, a vast portion of them quickly ran out of the wedding hall to take full account of their week's food intake. Only Cardinal Tohm summoned enough nerve and will to take Eckma about her hips in a sustained embraced. He kissed the lips of her genitalia until a small split formed in one of her many scabs, letting a thin brownish fluid dampen his mouth, chin and eventually to soak his beard. Some of the stinking pus found its way into his mouth and Tohm, obviously and ceremoniously, swallowed it in full.
"You truly were trained well by Cardinal Allen, my dear Tohm!"
Manguino whispered to him, then kissed him on the mouth.
The wedded couple were carried to their marriage bed, prepared with sweet smelling linen and the entire room was decorated with many pleasant flowers.
When they were left alone, Eckma produced a good sized vile from her vagina and she held it up for Manguino to see.
"What is that, my darling?" asked Manguino.
"It is a small bottle of rain water." she answered. "If captured in glass, the water of the rain retains its potency."
"Why do we need that? Put it away!" he ordered but she refused.
"Your promise of intense love to me must be aided by this, my love. I know I am ugly and this will help the both of us, immeasurably." she said.
Manguino finally nodded, and after entering her body, she opened the vial and poured the contents over both their genitals.
Very little was seen of the newly wedded couple over the next couple of weeks. They stayed in their wedding chamber and consummated their promise.
The people of Pomperaque returned to their blank and lifeless style of living, knowing well that their ArchBishop Manguino had indeed found his true love.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The years passed after the fateful executions in Pomperaque.
The years also passed for Boyce and Lloyd, studying the ancient ways in the Alugean library.
Since Besten was close by, Lloyd had at intervals gone there to see his family and obtain some news of events in the city of Pomperaque.
The first years were depressing for the young Boyce, trying to grow up without his real father and terribly missing the kindness, and love, from his beautiful mother, and at times, turning frustrated in not having others of his age to play with, and little girls to pretend being in love with.
Then it happened, that after several years of stay at Alugean, Boyce grew to manhood, possessing a quick mind and agile body, trained to full perfection by the guidance of his mentor and friend, Lloyd Bartlett.
When Boyce was nearing his eighteenth year and he knew his studies of the past, as-well-as
remembering his promise to Brook, and his manly body could hold up against the sharpest blows delivered by Lloyd, Lloyd took him to his father in Besten to meet his father and mother, Harvard and Rae Bartlett.
Harvard was pleased, beyond words, to meet Brook Scullion-Blue's only son and he treated him in the manner much befitting a King.
Several months after their acquaintance, Boyce trusted Harvard enough to tell him that the ArchBishop was really his uncle; Brook's brother. This news, however, didn't disturb Harvard Bartlett because he divulged to Boyce, his own knowledge about his own ancestral relationship to the ArchBishop and indeed to Boyce himself.
"We are much like cousins far removed, yet not removed so far as to keep me content." Harvard told Boyce. "I am the fifth generation descendant of Daphne Jones, daughter of Richalé, son of Hosea Jones. I am from a line of the male twin. Your family of Carter, is on the other hand, from the line of the daughter twin, Dioneza. We are related, so as to say, in common knowledge and theory about our ancestral line." Harvard took a large rolled piece of animal skin and spread it out before Boyce to let him see a genealogy of their common family roots.
"I see the broken line of my father. He is not a true Blue descendant." said Boyce but not without pride.
"Yes, we know that he was a foundling and we also know who his real parents are." Harvard told Boyce.
Boyce was amazed and he smiled, eagerly waiting to hear more.
"My son conveyed to me a story told to him about your father, and in fact it was told to him by your father. He said, that your father was found by a stream swaddled and left in a skull of a lion."
"Yes, that is so, my Lord Bartlett!" Boyce fervently confirmed.
"From the line of Wind Jones, daughter of Richalé, son of Hosea Jones; we have her forth generation great grandson, Guiness with his wife Joanna, pursued by Elkinii plains slave-traders. Having given birth to a son, they continued to run through the Virgin Mountains trying to escape the slaver. Knowing that they would be caught, they wrapped the child in the sackcloth of Joanna's apron and hid him by a river in a lion's skull, where Smith soon found it while his own wife was in heavy labour baring a child. Beside their own son Manguino, the adopted Brook (giving him such a name as he was found), was raised by them as their own." Harvard finished the account, according to his knowledge of it and eyed Boyce for a moment, admiring how the young man was absorbing everything that was being said to him.
"Is that why my father was not evil?" asked Boyce.
"Many of us believe so." confirmed Harvard then continued. "The evil seed befell your uncle, the ArchBishop Manguino through his grandfather Father's incest with Lucaea. As you had studied alone in Alugean so did Carter study, and then he left the great library to learn from the world. He reached the land of BanGor, to the east, that was and in ruled by a cult of high-priestesses that are directly descended from Anna, the first wife of Hosea Jones (yet not from Hosea's own loins). Carter had fallen into relations with the great granddaughter of Anna and their product was Smith, your father's father. Anna's evil seed was passed through Smith to Manguino. As Anna and Hosea's first son Cano turned evil, into being the Canon Di'Vaticanus, so did Manguino become the ArchBishop!"
The fascinating story made Boyce wonder if the old times with Hosea Jones were any different than the times now, since he knew more about the Twentieth Century history than he knew about his own. But now from what Harvard had told him, he better knew who he was and declared that he was ready to prepare for his return to Pomperaque.
Within the next several years, from 3055 C.E. to the end of 3058 C.E., the entire northern continent joined under an idea of unity and love. Under the leadership and guidance of Harvard Bartlett, Lloyd and Boyce became figure-heads of the community. They increased the prosperity in the land two-fold over a period of three short years and they built up a fighting army as powerful as any that had ever fought on the earth.
Soon, the northern nations and dominions were uniting into one power that came to be called the Northern United Alignment. It was a union of free states consisting of Besten, Virune, Krolalin and several smaller city states (Netheda, Ohigh and Elkinii), and from these united areas came an army of one million strong, on land, one hundred thousand strong, on sea and seven thousand strong, in the air. Each of the major united nations controlled their own special force of power. Virune, under the leadership of Empal, trained and took command of the air using the giant eagles that they had learned to domesticate. Krolalin trained their land army to use whatever weapons were available to their utmost potential, as well as developing a land cavalry that was twenty thousand strong. And there was Besten, a sea-faring people who adapted easily to naval warfare with a force numbering one hundred thousand men.
Bestenese scientists were let into Alugean to search the library contents for plans on which to build weapons, like those used by the ArchBishop's monastic guards. With much difficulty and lack of proper equipment and resources, the developments were made but they never seemed to progress very quickly.
For the generals and leaders, suits of rubber, leather and gold plating served as armour protection against electrophoric and laser shock. Although not superior in strength to hold up against constant jolting, they at least served the person to live while in their retreat, if hit.
Monastic spy activity in the north warned the ArchBishop Manguino that an army was being formed that could potentially be used gainst him. It was an accurate speculation seeing that the spies didn't really know what was being planned or even who was doing the planning.
On the first word of such a mounting of forces and arms, Manguino demanded that an army be compiled for him and every eligible male from fifteen to fifty was ordered into training, for war, while the women between twenty and thirty were formed into separate fighting forces. Even the ladies from the Prominants took over working then men's jobs, since they were the only ones to be permitted to stay at home.
After two years of nothing happening in the manner of war, threats or anything else of great aggressive significance, those of the Prominent class were allowed back to their social life-styles while the rest were coerced into staying in the forces.
Those Prominants who were sympathetic to Manguino's rule, for whatever self-centred reason, stayed on as his generals. They were even so powerful as to order all those at Halls, to do their bidding; all those at Halls except for Manguino.
With the final preparations taking place with the Northern United Alignment, ambassadors were sent to the hostile states and lands between Besten and Phoride, and there asked them to follow them to freely pass through without harassment or troubles.
Agreements were signed with all these states including the ones that were thought to be the most difficult; Palatka, Sedar, Nolunge and Flinnd.
The time was at hand when the two men would leave on their long journey back to Pomperaque. Although the signed agreement of passage was to make the route shorter for the two men, the distance was still great and would require many days of travel.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
In Pomperaque, several years had passed since Manguino's marriage to Eckma and although they had indeed produced children of normal looks and awareness, they never lived passed a couple of months.
Since the marriage, Manguino hardly ever involved his mind with the affairs of Halls, or of Phoride.
During the rains, very large glass tubs of water were collected then taken to Manguino's bed chamber and poured into a huge glass pool, and there the ArchBishop indulged in violent sex relations with Eckma, to the point of drawing blood from one another.
In the few years after their marriage, the physician Polis had discovered that Manguino suffered from a venereal cancer and there was a fear of death, but Manguino told Polis to search for the answer in Brook's machines.
"My cure lies somewhere within those gadgets, Polis! If you value your own life, find it!"
Manguino threatened him.
Polis spent entire days going through the mechanism in his search for the answer and then he found something. It was a formula to retard aging. He wondered if it would cure his master and thus took it to him.
Lacking trust, Manguino ordered the injection to be given to Polis first and then to Eckma.
The aged Polis's hair took on its once younger hue of auburn and Eckma lost her open sores and rheumatic nose, as well as gaining hair on her head while losing it on her body.
Seeing that Eckma now looked like a normal, yet still fat woman, and even somewhat appealing, he had several shots given to him every day until Polis devised a capsulate form of taking the drug.
With the new found youth and beauty, in himself and Eckma, Manguino indulged in the pleasures of the flesh with his wife, which now was indeed much more pleasurable for him.
Eckma became pregnant again, and Manguino was certain that his child would be the ultimate, due to the drug that both of them were taking.
Minding the rule of the state and church, was the Cardinal Allen's eldest son. He, too, was now a Cardinal. His name was Orren and he was the child born to Allen, and some forgotten mother, around 3034 C.E.
Now he was twenty-five and he managed the kingdom for Manguino, while Manguino indulged in his debauchery with Eckma, and also with others of both sexes.
Orren took over for the deceased Cardinal Tohm who had gone to visit the barbaric Palatkans, the lepers, to entice them to join Phoride as an advance army in case there was an attack from the north. With their agreement to do so, they ate him, so bonding the contract with Pomperaque.
As in many times before, in periods of crisis and great tension, Jessuum Benitar appeared in Pomperaque to give its ruler a word of foreseen troubles.
Jessuum had not approved of the ArchBishop, of what he was, or what he had become, but it was his duty to give warning to those rulers of Phoride, whether they were good or evil, and all prophecies were given in dream parables and these frustrated Manguino.
In the eighth month of Eckma's pregnancy, she and Manguino still
carried on in the glass pool of rain water and since the great
ArchBishop wanted to converse and play at the same time, he summoned
Jessuum to his chamber.
Jessuum stood majestically over the pool of water, keeping his chamois robes from being fouled by the water, while watching the crazed ArchBishop fornicating with his now better than homely wife.
The sight was the most disgusting abomination to this ancient and noble man, who could see into the future.
"I must leave soon, Manguino. I must go from this place — so would you please consent to take it out and speak with me?" asked Jessuum.
"I will finish soon my trusted Seer. Have food and drink, and I will be with you soon." answered Manguino paying little attention to where Jessuum was.
"I have not eaten for a fortnight and I will not eat, nor drink, till I leave here. I cannot foul my body or my spirit by the uncleanness of this place. I shall wait for you in the chapel for one hour — but no more! It will be your own choice whether or not you hear what will be." said Jessuum then turned and was gone.
Uneasy, the water no longer had an affect on Manguino and so he climbed out of the pool and put on a surplice and headed down to the chapel, leaving a trail of water behind him while Eckma circled the pool and drank some of the scum from the surface of the water.
When Manguino reached the chapel, there was a line of monks parading through the halls and chanting a hymn exhorting the spirits of the passed dead monastic men.
He came upon Jessuum Benitar looking straight into a small group of young boys who were sternly placed on their knees for prayers, undoubtedly as a disciplinary action by some higher cleric teacher.
"What have you to say to me, Seer?" demanded Manguino.
"Don't speak to me in such a tone, Manguino. In a spit you could be no more and there is no one who would grieve." Jessuum responded. "You have been given, and you have taken, many wonderful things that you have never given thanks for, to the one true, Living God."
"If you were not the Seer for me, for my father and his father, I would not permit you to speak so in my cathedral." stated Manguino in an angered voice and Jessuum grinned.
"Do you feel better, now that you have made a threat — so petty, as it was?" Jessuum put Manguino in his place and gave him the feeling of being a child. "I do not like you, Manguino and I do not approve of that for which you stand. I despise your crude manners and even cruder methods." Jessuum backed away from the stench of the ArchBishop's body; the stench that was caused by the over-use of the same filthy rain water. Jessuum resumed. "Should the people of this great land lose their fear of you, my son, no one would be here when you needed them, to fight for your precious stick of flesh. Not a single citizen would kneel to kiss your fruit for the redemption of their sins."
"What have you to say for our tomorrow, Seer? You tire me with this worthless palaver about my indulgence." ordered Manguino, scratching at his manhood.