Martyr (The Martyr Trilogy) (19 page)

“What
did it say?” Maya asked, wide-eyed and enthralled.

Kuro
didn’t directly address her question, saying instead, “Most of the followers of
Chaer-Ul rejected the manuscript as a forgery, and those who did choose to
believe it were branded as heretics, ridiculed and abused.”

“Why
didn’t someone just ask Chaer-Ul if it was true?” I asked.

“Have
you ever tried to ask Chaer-Ul a direct question?” Kuro challenged me.  I had,
and the point was well taken.  He went on, “I didn’t ask.  Chaer-Ul told me the
message was from him.  He warned me not to share it with anyone, but it was
like trying to extinguish a fire with gasoline.  I think he knew I would preach
it, and that he intended the inevitable result – my separation from the rest of
the resistance, and my formation of this small group.”

I
glanced at Maya, whose teeth and fists were clenched, and who looked as though
she were about to explode with suspense.  I asked her question again.  “What
did the manuscript say?”

“It
was a series of prophecies about a man whom Chaer-Ul would call from beyond
this world to aid us in our time of greatest need.  It foretold the coming of
the one who would be called ‘Martyr’.  I believe it was about you,” he said. 
Maya’s eyes turned to me, scrutinized me.  I got the distinct impression that
she took Kuro’s words at face value, that the information resonated with
something she already knew, and that she was merely probing me now in an
attempt to determine whether I knew it too.  “The real question,” Kuro said,
“is what you believe.”

“I’m
not really sure what to believe,” I said.  “Some pretty strange stuff has
happened to me recently, so I’m open to being convinced.  As far as being ‘The
Promised One’, I’m not so sure.  It’s hard enough to come to terms with
possibly being the reincarnation of a legendary hero; this information adds a
whole extra layer of hype.  I don’t look forward to the day when the masses
screaming my name come to the painful realization that I wasn’t who they had
thought I was after all.”

“That
day isn’t going to come,” Kuro said with a smile and what seemed to me an
unfounded confidence.  “That I trust you’ll see soon enough.”

 I
let that one go.  “So, does anyone live in the town below the dam?”

 “Not
anymore.  Not since the plague.  This whole area north of the mountains appears
to have been hit early and hard by it.  It spread extremely quickly and killed
almost everyone in the town.  There is some evidence of a few people trying to
flee, but they too died before getting very far.  It is not known whether the
majority that remained were unable to leave in time, or simply unwilling.  We
also don’t know if there was something that made these people more vulnerable
than others.  Very little is known about the mode of transmission of the virus;
the science that might have uncovered that knowledge was lost with most of the
world’s population.  That town down there is a massive tomb.  The bones of the
dead still litter its streets and houses.  We have cleared them from the places
that we needed to use, but the idea of giving the population of an entire small
city a ‘proper’ burial was simply untenable.  It’s kind of creepy, at first,
but you get used to it.  The mall isn’t much fun, more for the sheer number of
skeletons you have to step over to get anything done than for any lingering
emotional impact.  You might see it differently through fresh eyes, though.” 

Maya
and I were a bit freaked out, so Kuro went on, “The good news is, because of
the sudden manner of this area’s demise, the town has never been plundered. 
There’s a lot of useful stuff down there, much of which is still just waiting
to be found.  Charr keeps her workshop down there.  I don’t like it, as she
spends an awful lot of time there.  It’s much safer up here.  But she found a
place that was set up perfectly for the kind of fabrication she likes to do,
and it would have been an enormous undertaking to dismantle it and haul it all
up here.  She’s always careful, and she’s sound-proofed and booby-trapped that
place to the point that I’m scared to drop in on her without warning.  It’s
never been a problem.  For that matter, we’ve been here for a couple of years
now, and we’ve never had an unfriendly visitor, thanks be to Chaer-Ul.  It seems
as if Magus is yet unaware of this place, and that’s a huge tactical
advantage.  We train here, and when we do venture out, it is for the purpose of
surveillance and gathering of intel on Magus’ movements.  Occasionally a raid,
but we just don’t have the numbers for a large-scale operation.”

His
tone suddenly brighter, Kuro said, “Anyway, enough about death and war for
now.  I’m hungry!  Who else is hungry?”  We both voiced our assent, and the
three of us started out of the room.  I leaned my new staff against the wall
near the door, where I was sure I’d remember to look for it, sheathed the sword
Kuro had given me, and we headed for the lift.

As
we made to step out of the elevator on the upper level, I was almost bowled
over by Doog, running down the hallway with a long folding table under each
arm.  We followed him out, and shortly Charr emerged behind us carrying
flatware, utensils, and cloth napkins, then Jager with a big steel drum and
some ceramic mugs.  Kaire was assisting Knox with the grills.  Seeing her, Kuro
waved her inside for a private word.  Corvus still leaned near the door
outside.  It was he who addressed me.  “So, I understand you bleed just like
the rest of us.  Feel pain too.  Those are weaknesses Magus is bound to
exploit,” he sneered.

I
stopped in my tracks and spun to confront him.  “What is your problem?” I
asked.  “I mean, besides…?”  I made a not-so-subtle motion with my finger to
indicate the portion of my face that mirrored his scarred half.  Corvus drew
his sword in one lightning-quick motion and brought it to bear on me.  I met
its tip with my own, almost as quick.  I noticed that he had returned his spear
to a sheath on his back. 

“I
have an eye for weakness.”  While his seeing eye stayed fixed on me, the dead
one darted this way and that, as if that side of his face were asleep and
dreaming.  The effect was quite unsettling.  He began to side-step, circling me
slowly.  I matched his movement, stepping in the opposite direction, not
allowing him to gain a position of advantage.  “I identify weakness in my
enemy, and I turn it against him.  Magus does the same.  Your ability to be
injured, but not killed, is a liability, not an advantage.  Were Magus to
capture you, he could torture you in ways not possible with a normal man, to
extract information or to put pressure on the resistance.”  We continued to
rotate in a slow, counter-clockwise circle, blades poised, keeping one another
in check.

Jager,
having relieved himself of his burden, drew his sword and advanced cautiously. 
Charr stepped into his path.  “Don’t interfere,” she said softly.  “Corvus will
not harm him.”  And louder, for Corvus’ ears, “Kuro would have his head, he
knows that.”  Jager took a step back, but kept his sword in hand. 

Corvus
growled, not removing his one good eye from me, and said, “You have another
weakness as well, a greater one.”  He steered the tip of his blade to the side
and pointed with it, directly at Maya.  “A true warrior avoids romantic
entanglements.  Your feelings for her put us all at risk on the battlefield. 
You would be better off…without her.”  He spun free of the circle we had been
tracing and drew back his sword arm to strike.  At the same moment Kuro emerged
from the dam, having apparently finished his business with Kaire.  Assessing
the situation in a flash, he shouted, “No Corvus!  Not like this!”  But even as
he spoke Corvus’ sword sliced through the air toward Maya; Kuro was too late to
intervene.  I on the other hand was not.  I lunged and met his blade mid-swing,
diverting its tip from his intended target.  But my parry had thrown me off
balance, and I was slow to recover.  Without a doubt his skills with a sword
far exceeded my own, and now he turned them against me.  With a quick,
spiraling motion around my blade, followed by a flick of his wrist, I was
disarmed, my sword flying through the air behind me.  There was no time to
retrieve it.  Maya stood unarmed and in shock, as he raised his blade high into
the air, then brought it down with vicious strength in an arc that meant to
sever her head from her body.  Instinctively, desperately, I thrust my
unprotected arm between him and Maya in an attempt to intercept the razor edge
of his sword.  As the milliseconds stretched, I waited for the sick sound of
steel cleaving bone and sinew, and the agony that was sure to follow.  As
expected, the blade contacted my arm, but instead of pain there was a brilliant
flash of white light, and his sword rebounded from my arm with such force that
it flew from his hands, and he was sent sprawling to the ground at Kuro’s feet,
where he landed hard on his back.  For several seconds I simply held my arm
aloft, waiting, I suppose, for a red line to appear, and the end of my arm to
slough to the ground.  Or at least for something to hurt.  But it didn’t
happen.  Slowly, I withdrew my arm, then stepped to Maya and placed it around
her shoulders.  She was shaking.  She lifted her eyes to mine and with shuddering
breath whispered, “Martyr”.

18

Every
face was touched with awe, save for that of Kuro, who displayed only a knowing
smile.  "So at last you become in the flesh that which in fact you
are."
 
"Now you speak like Chaer-Ul," I said.  "I've had
enough of mysteries and cloudy premonitions.  Speak plainly what you
know."
 
"Oh, no worries friend," said Kuro, pausing as he approached me to
offer Corvus a hand.  Corvus accepted, then hastened to
retrieve his sword.  Kuro continued, "The time has come for that
which was hidden to be revealed.  I apologize for the manner of
enlightenment;" he narrowed his eyes and tipped his head in Corvus'
direction without actually looking at him, "Corvus can be a bit
over-zealous at times.  I hate to imagine how this might have played
out if he – and I – had been wrong.  But clearly that was not the
case." Kuro reached the place where I stood, turned and gestured with a
broad sweep of his arm to include all now present in his address. 
"In the beginning, when Chaer-Ul formed the worlds, he made men,
and populated his worlds.  He drew a limit for the years of a
man's life, and prescribed a law: that all men must die, but once.  When
the law was made, man knew nothing of the existence of other worlds, countless
beyond number, but all within the scope of Chaer-Ul's creation
and dominion...and plan.  Neither has anyone ever passed from one
world to the next, but only from his own world into the place prepared by
Chaer-Ul for those departed from this life.  But now, in our
day, and as you are all witness today, he has brought a man from
another world to aid us in our own world's time of
greatest affliction."  
 
I scanned the faces of those standing nearby.  All listened intently,
weighing the words as if to determine their worth.  Not yet fully
convinced of their veracity, but eager to hear what Kuro had to say. 
There was a measure of doubt in every face, but also a new thing:
hope.  Kuro went on, "In Chaer-Ul's wisdom, he was pleased to make,
among his myriad worlds, degrees of variation.  It followed that while
some worlds would vary greatly from one another, there were others that
differed only in the minutest degrees, perhaps even
imperceptibly.  In two such worlds, there could be said to
be duplicates of every individual, such that in another world you could
find another Kuro, another Charr, another Jager, and so forth.  These
copies could be identical down to the smallest components, what
science once called the 'genetic code'.  Thus it could be said
in truth that any such pair described different variants of the same
person, though the circumstances of their lives, their decisions and thoughts,
even their age at a given time could vary considerably.  Because of fine
differences in each world’s cosmos, time would flow differently in each
world."

I
realized that he was talking about me and Tal-Makai, had even suspected something
of this nature, but the skeptic in me spoke first.  “With all due respect, all
of this sounds pretty specific for a prophecy.  Are you suggesting that these
ancient writings of yours – conveniently missing as they are – contained
details about genetics and parallel worlds?  I’ve spent a fair amount of time
studying the prophecies and parables of many different religions, and I can
tell you that they are never so clear, except to their followers, and after the
fact.”

“A
very astute observation, my boy,” said Kuro.  “And I’d have been just a little
disappointed if you hadn’t picked up on that fact.  True enough, the words I
speak now were not all contained in the original manuscript.  They represent my
own musings on the text and its implications, combined with fragments pieced
together from the spoken words of Chaer-Ul – those spoken to myself and to
others.”  At this point Kuro mistakenly interpreted my uncertainty for
something else.  “Perhaps he has told you something as well?”

“No,”
I said.  “I mean, he’s spoken to me, but he’s never said anything of
substance.  Just things like, ‘You will become what you will become’…you know,
very circular stuff that was probably just meant to make me think.”  But as I
said this, I recalled with shocking clarity one thing that Chaer-Ul had told
me.  “Wait!” I said.  “He did say, ‘That you live…is because of who you are. 
That you are untouched…is because of who you must become.’  Does that mean
anything to you?  Why did he make such a distinction?”

Kuro
stared at me blankly for a moment, then suddenly burst out laughing, and
slammed the butt of his spear against a stone at his feet several times.  “Oh
yes!” he said at last.  “I dare say that one thing says it all!  And this
confirms a great deal of my speculation on the precise meaning of the
prophecy.”  He walked to a spot in the middle of the gathering, and head
lowered, took a slow, deep breath before proceeding.  “Jager and Kaire have
been telling me the details of your encounter with Magus’ men at Milltown, and
the terrible things you endured.  Your gear deflected a bullet, and you were
subsequently skewered by a blade, is that right?”

“That’s
how I remember it,” I said dryly.

“Was
there anything different about the bullet?  Did you expect it?  Do you remember
what you were thinking in the seconds before it struck you?”

I
gave him a look that I hoped conveyed my complete lack of appreciation for
being forced to re-live any portion of those events.  But when I made a genuine
effort, the shards of memories reassembled themselves to form a true picture of
what had happened.  So I told him, “I had glanced over my shoulder and seen a
fleeting glint of light.  I knew at once that it had to be a reflection from
the scope of the sniper rifle we had seen in the Caretaker’s war room.  I
steered my deer…I was…”  When I realized it, I shouted the words, “I was trying
to protect Maya!”

A
grin from ear to ear, Kuro added, “As you were today.”

The
implications were slow in their advance upon my psyche.  “So…I’m untouchable…when
I’m protecting Maya?”

“That,
yes, but that understanding is far too narrow”, said Kuro.  Then he repeated
the words that Chaer-Ul had given me.  “ ‘That you live…is because of who you
are.  That you are untouched…is because of who you must become.’  You cannot
die, because you, in the form of Tal-Makai, have already died in this world.  A
man may only die once.”  And while that was only starting to sink in, he
finished, “And you cannot be touched, are absolutely incorruptible and
effectively invincible, because you are Martyr, or rather, when you become
Martyr.  That is, when you lay your own life down for what you know to be
right, for what you believe.  When your self-interest is eclipsed by your
concern for others, to the point that you will not cling to your own life when
theirs are at stake.  That is what it means to become Martyr.”

Corvus
interrupted, “Unfortunately, the only thing he believes in now is a girl.  What
if she’s not around to protect when the enemy comes for him?”

This
time Kuro spun angrily and snapped, “Corvus, you are out of line!  We have yet
to discuss your reckless behavior here a moment ago.  And we certainly will,”
he added with ominous tone.  Corvus did not fail to appreciate the sincerity of
his words, receded a half step.  Then to me Kuro said, “But Corvus has a
point.  You have not yet fully ‘become’.  Your training must now focus not only
on the acquisition of skills, but more specifically on unlocking that which
lies within.  I do not know exactly what Martyr must do, or how you will be
instrumental in the redemption of our world.  On such matters the prophecies
are silent.  But you must be willing to act; to do whatever it is that Chaer-Ul
requires of you.” 

Here
Jager chimed in. “There is also wisdom in what Corvus said before, though his
manner may not have been right.  If you are not able to understand the true
nature of what you must become, if you cannot master not only the sword, but
also your own heart…then these unique abilities will become a liability, a weakness
that Magus can and will exploit.”

“Your
inability to be killed,” Kuro said, nodding acknowledgement of what Jager had
said, “is a fact; a function of the manner in which you, and not Tal-Makai,
came to be in this world.  But – and never forget this – your invulnerability,
the fact that you can be effectively ‘bulletproof’, is not intrinsic to your
circumstances.  It is a gift from Chaer-Ul, a thing that he has been pleased to
bestow, and which should not be taken for granted.  You could not be Martyr if
you had not come to occupy the place of Tal-Makai – one particularly set apart
by Chaer-Ul.  But you are Martyr – whatever that title means or may come to
mean – only because Chaer-Ul decrees it.  It is not because you live while Tal
does not; it is by his will alone.  Martyr…is a creation of Chaer-Ul.  I may
not know what he has in store for you, but I cannot believe that he brought you
here for nothing.  This is a new thing that Chaer-Ul does today; such things
have never been seen before.” 

It
was a lot to take in.  If it were even true.  But the things I had seen seemed
to lend credibility to Kuro’s words, as much as it bolstered his faith. 
“There’s something I think you should know,” I said.  “You’ve been away for a
long time, and I’m not sure the views you hold are still as heretical as they
may once have been seen to be.  The name of ‘Martyr’ is on the lips of many.  I
heard it when I first entered Reya’s camp, and on several occasions
thereafter.  The people are desperate for something to believe in, for someone
to follow.”  

"I
don't think so," said Kuro.  "I didn't leave because of the
whispered insults or the condemning stares.  I've never had a care for
what people think of me.  I'd have been perfectly happy to dwell
in enmity with my neighbors, knowing my conscience was clear before
Chaer-Ul.  No.  The camps breed complacency.  Warriors go
soft, begin to care more about what's coming up on the community social
calendar than about formulating a plan to reclaim our world.  I was
sickened by those who were content to hear the voice of Chaer-Ul through others
more willing to seek him out.  They've lost purpose, wandering through
life with blinders, pretending that it might go on this way indefinitely. 
Look at this world!  It's a wasteland, devastated by plague, and now
Magus would burn up any good that remains with his vile sorcery and
allegiances with dark powers.  I couldn't countenance the apathy I saw
around me!  If I were to be the only one to stand against Magus, I had to
try.  And finally, after long months of searching, I managed
to gather these few who were ready to give all, even their very lives
if necessary, for the name of Chaer-Ul."
 
"Things have changed, Kuro," said Kaire.  "You speak of a
time when the camps had grown complacent.  That was in the beginning,
when Magus first began his campaign against Chaer-Ul.  Nobody could
have anticipated the kind of power he would amass, nor the depths of depravity
to which he would descend.  And nobody thought we'd still be fighting him
to this day.  After you left, Magus' attacks grew ever more frequent
and widespread as his dark army grew.  The people were afraid at first,
but grew tired of living in fear.  The camps demanded strong leadership,
and through that leadership they came to be far more organized and
disciplined.  Today the settlements that are militarized far outnumber
those that are not.  But the attacks were relentless, and many good people
have been lost.  Those that survived to continue the fight grow weary and
begin to lose hope.  The whisperings about Martyr, a hero-redeemer sent by
Chaer-Ul, started to be viewed less as the mad rantings of heresy, and more as
a source of hope.”

“It’s
true, Kuro,” I added.  “If you believe that I am Martyr, maybe they will too. 
Perhaps I can be, if not a hero, at least a symbol under which all of the
resistance can unite.  Your faithful few, however strong, cannot stand alone
against Magus’ thousands.

Corvus
had by this time collected what remained of his dignity and drawn near Kuro’s
side.  Kuro addressed him.  "Well, what do you think now?"
"With all due respect, I think this ‘gift’ is nothing more than good
armor.  A defensive advantage, maybe.  Invulnerability won't slay
Magus' legions.  He can't fight!  I may not be able to stop a blade with
flesh, but I don't have to.  I just have to make sure the enemy's sword
never makes it that far."
Kuro pressed him.  "Do you believe he is the one Chaer-Ul told us to
expect?  Do you believe he is Martyr?"
Corvus huffed derisively.  "I don't know.  I don’t see how he
offers anything we don’t already have.  If he is Martyr...then I have to say
I'm a bit disappointed."
A second later the tip of Kuro's blade hovered millimeters from Corvus' good
eye.  Corvus made no attempt to defend, his arms never moving from his
sides.  This was not a failure to act, but evidence of exceptional discipline. 
He would not act against his master even at the cost of his life.  Had I tried
the same trick, the response would have been quite different.  "Words
should be weighed before they are meted out," Kuro said, sword still
menacingly poised.  After a prolonged pause he added, "fortunately for
you, I don't believe faith should be coerced," and withdrew his weapon
slowly.  "You expected Chaer-Ul's Martyr to appear in the clouds as a
conquering hero.  Is it not like Chaer-Ul to act in precisely the manner
that is least expected?"  Corvus remained thoughtfully silent, his
opalescent eye flicking once to me, and then back to Kuro.