local settlement date 35,991
You are free not to believe this.
King Namor Zujahrah
18 salt lake 36
"One big monster God to rule a nation. Interesting concept, King Namor. How many of these Gods are there on Barbancor. If they have war among themselves there must be more than one monster.
Or is it the one monster God that divides up the demigods, us puny humans, to fight like in the games we made the Draves play."
"No and yes, Old King. From what I have learned, there are at least three of these only one god Monster gods. They, all three, demand that anyone in association with a god that isn't the one true over monster God is the enemy that is most vile and must be an object of terror, hate and genocide. For terrorism is the religion of the one true monster God. Karnalana tells me that there are quite likely smaller one true gods in isolated regions. If a region is isolated so that it is too much trouble to get to another region than there is little chance of proper terror against someone else and the terror must be reserved for smaller scale community hate and violence."
"It is a very interesting brain drain concept. Keep the masses ignorant, hateful and cowering in fear so that they don't notice they are slaves to the War Lords. It's like all of the royal family as one voice making laws to obey or die. And they add die and be tortured. And you think we brought this concept of governing with us from our last planet."
"There are strong hints of it in the RFISS log book that this way of thinking was with us on the ship. I can't imagine it was new to the ship. So we likely bring this mind virus with us from the last planet."
"Well, King Namor. It is very interesting. I would say impossible. But I do not believe, having seen the last few years what is happening here, that impossible is so very unusual. I would rather say the monster thing non-thing is getting tired and wants us to kill it."
"Old King. I believe that is what is happening. The War Lords don't even know they are the War Lords. The monster isn't a real thing, it is a mind virus. So it acts like a real thing. It can, I am certain, be attacked on the language level. I think we can educate the virus out of us and them so that there will be no more us and them. Simply all of us and the rest of the other creature on the land, in the air and in the sea."
"You are absolutely right. You job, our job, however, will not be easy."
"If it was easy someone else would have done it in their spare time thousands of years ago. And we are only doing it now because it is absolutely necessary. The whole thing will crash so that we can't get back up if we don't remedy us."
"I will sail with you to Barbancor when the war is over. We will heal them and us. The remedy will be simple. We will have to make the effort to apply it."
Namor and the old King stood on one of Castle City's first Ships. It was still sitting on dry land. It was almost ready to slide into Salt Lake 36. The ship was not officially a ship according to patent. It was much faster.
The schooners, royal family patent number SWV 19_36_13_11 type: BN LNSC, were built under the supervision of Adrone engineers and designers. The schooners had three masts. Unlike all other ships of the planet, its sails were mounted sideways to the sailing direction.
Unbelievable.
Everything the royal family had every owned had been documented. Castle City had thousands of years of technology locked in books and buried under rock.
Namor could see the thin ring of dull black below the ice of the machine mountain. The soil was removed to build gardens. The fine sand was used as building material. It was all floated down the rivers.
"Old King."
"King Namor."
"I don't know if it was designed that way, but it works that way. We decide to leave the Castle and we have the plans, books from under rock and from a neighboring island two thousand years ignored we have engineers and designers and ship builders. And in a few years from now. We will be wondering about."
"What."
"Something is wrong. Look there."
The old King saw it. A large cloud on the desert. Kicked up by many soldiers.
"The are still mostly below the horizon. It will take them another few days to get here. They are suicidal. We can have a hundred thousand armed soldiers before we could finish two brew."
Namor climbed the middle mast of schooner 36 to see if he could see anything coming from any other direction. Seeing nothing, he climbed back down.
"They have sent over a thousand ships since they started attacking us. Always more each time and everyone of them burnt. They can't possibly have enough trees to build enough ships to bring enough soldiers to take the castle."
"The may be suicidal. They are certainly relentless. I would say fearless but I think that would be exactly wrong. If this God nonsense is real for them. They are driven by terror to bring it to us."
"They have won our undivided attention. So perhaps they are winning more than we think."
"Or they think."
No soldiers had made it to land after the first invasion. Adrone was the only harbor where a ship could get close to land. Much of Castle City Island was high cliff. Adrone island was the only water that was not protected by reef. It was the only real port.
"Fascinating. I don't think I could have imagined standing on a schooner with the discoverer of lost libraries, watching a cloud of dust coming to plunder the Castle."
"No, the strangest things are true anymore. Come, Old King, let us inform our Queen Barbaralba that soldiers from Barbancor have come to feed our hungry vultures."
Many vultures had taken residence around the Castle, looking for scraps of dead meat. There were no more dead Draves along the old trails. Old trails were replaced with new roads. Roads from the rivers to transport material away from the rivers to build.
Schools, libraries, markets, gardens, forests, wood shops, metal shops, public baths.
Namor and the Old King found Barbaralba in a metal shop. She was pressing to get a plasma gun made but even simple electricity was still an entry in a royal family patent book.
"Hello, Namor. Old King."
"Hello Barbaralba. What are you working on."
"I asked for a sonic pulse gun, plasma guns are out of the question. I get a canon."
"What's a canon."
Barbaralba took Namor's hand and led him around to the back of the shop.
"That lump of metal. Is that a canon."
"It is a very modern canon. It is a cross breed. There is a model patent where you put in you gun powder and your ball. Very ancient. This is a couple hundred years ahead of that."
"What's gun powder."
"Also very ancient. Gun powder is what gives us a very unfair advantage of our enemy. It is a chemical mixture that explodes with extreme violence which when properly controlled can be translated into high velocity projectiles. Such as a lump of metal."
"Sounds like a fun thing."
The Old King smiled at Namor's light hearted approach.
"Help me move this and I'll show you how we will arm the schooners."
It took four people to move it out across the sand floor.
"We aim the canon at a ship. Then we slide a big bullet in here."
"What's a bullet."
"Same as the canon but the ball is more like a short arrow and gunpowder is built into a metal casing which acts as the back of the canon. It is quick to deploy. Hold your ears tight."
A hammer hit the back of the metal casing inside the canon and the metal ball explode out of the front of the canon and smashed the stone target to dust.
"Bleeding Beast."
"They don't take up much space. With a fast ship, we will always be dangerous and out of reach."
"Dangerous. Yes. That was why we came to find you. There is a Barbancorian army on their way over the desert."
Barbaralba looked at Namor to make certain she understood him.
"Two or three days away."
"Over the desert. They will be vulture food."
"They like to die in battle obviously. If I understand the book, it gives them some bonus material in the afterlife they have in the death world."
"Well, if they like dying in battle, we will give them one where they can all die fast and go to their death life."
Word spread fast around the villages. It was an event new to the planet. A direct attack on Castle City. Even royal family members who still refused to give up the Castle had heard the news.
Some heard it was an army of ten million, which was impossible, many heard ten thousand, which after another day of watching the army come closer, seemed most likely.
A hundred ships. Castle City had yet to finish their first 36. They could carry half as many soldiers.
The army of ten thousand was marching toward gate 1.
Three canons where ready to use. Over a hundred bullets had been finished by the time the Barbancorian army started their march that would bring them to Castle City.
A few million people were prepared to defend the Castle. Barbaralba organized sixty thousand soldiers. Armed with swords of metal, knives of metal, bows, cross bows, 200 high-powered bows with 12 firebomb arrows for each. Each soldier had three runners to bring more arrows.
Barbaralba knew that it was far too much. It was like killing fish by hitting them on the back of the head. No flopping around looking for water.
The Barbancorian soldiers stopped marching just outside the range of the two soldier cross bows. Well within range of the canons. The canons were pretty useless against soldiers. Except for their shock value.
"Animals. They have animals."
They had canine. The royal family had a patent on all canines. There had never been one on the island.
"Fire canons."
The killer canines covered distance fast. The army advanced slowly behind them. Two or three canine got ripped to meat pieces from each shot. Far too few for the speed of their attack. The canines reached firebomb range and were met by 200 explosions of fire, each setting four or five canine into a blaze. They kept running until the fire crippled their muscles. The howls of the beasts swallowed up even the canon blasts.
Barbaralba ordered continuous fire. The soldiers ran through the firebombs behind the canine. Many soldiers made it through to one man bow arrow range. None moved much beyond that point. There were far too many arrows flying at them. They stood their ground until they died and still the canine came. Most were burning close to death before they made it through to Barbaralba's army. Some of them had many arrows in them and kept running.
They ran until they found flesh to tear. Faces and necks. Until they were chopped apart by swords. Dead, they still held their bite. They were very much the flesh version of the metal beasts of the royal family parties.
"Namor."
Namor pulled his sword out of one canine's throat to spin around in time to put up his sword, and his arm. The canine took both in its bite and its momentum knocked Namor onto his back.
Barbaralba drove her sword through the back of the canine's neck and out its throat, grazing Namor's neck and shoulder. She pulled the sword out just as fast as it had gone in and chopped at the dog's neck until its body left its head.
"How are you doing. Drave King."
"You are so beautiful when you move. Can you get this bloody canine head off my arm."
Barbaralba laughed and kissed Namor through all the blood before cutting the back of the canines jawbone off. She slid her sword along Namor's sword and pried the teeth of the beast out of Namor's arm.
"That was the most frighten real beast I've ever seen."
Barbaralba rapped Namor's arm and helped him up.
The fight was over. The canine had killed only a few. Limbs bitten through and faces crushed. Necks torn off. The Barbancorian army had left a lingering terror. A most vicious demonstration of aggression. Brilliant terrorism.
"It was a good thing you got your sword up, King Namor. They do not stop at bone. Those vile creatures."
"It is a very good thing that you are a fast and brutal killer. I may not have had so much luck if the beast made another attempt to bit my face off."
After wrapping up Namor's arm to slow the bleeding, Barbaralba went with Namor back to village 36 to have Zauqir and Namor's mother tend to his wound. And rest a few days in the dwelling he still rented from the old man. A little vacation to relax.
"Mother. It is nice to see you outside of the castle."
"Namor. I am happy to meet my son here. The Drave King loved by Drave and royal family. It is a blessing I would not dare ask the gods for."
"Well, Mother. I do believe that it is us who are closest to becoming the gods. And we can chose what we do. Let them chose through us."
"You are bleeding. Was this the choice of the gods."
"They have delivered death to a few and for me a few holes in my arm. But I am very much still alive. There was a moment today when that stood in question. The Barbancorian army breeds killer canine."
Namor took his wrapping off to show his arm. Holes on both sides.
"Bloody beast. It is a wonder it didn't take your arm."
"Yes. That it is. The wonder of a metal sword I had beside my arm. And the wonder of the quickness and strength of Barbaralba."
Zauqir led Namor to a chair.
"Sit, Son. You need some stitching."
Zauqir had the Old Man boil water and took some strong alcohol from the bar. The old man brought needle and string to close the larger tears.
Zauqir made Namor drink from a glass of strong alcohol and cleaned the wounds with the rest.
Namor wanted to scream a couple of times but he knew Barbaralba's scars. She noticed him biting his teeth and kissed him.
"Take some air. Drave King. Breathe slow and deep."
Namor laughed. He managed to think of Barbaralba and fish until Zauqir was finished torturing him.
Then he laughed once more and ordered a brew.
"Mother. You should see the ocean. It is so beautiful to be under water with all the different fish swimming around you. Most of them fearless. Some even sucking at your skin like little kisses."
"That sounds almost as beautiful as the love you have for Barbaralba."
"Love is a very beautiful creature."
"It is a magical creature."
Namor watched Zauqir watching Orthia. She was very happy to see her son in the company of her Drave lover. Happy to see the boarders fading.
"Maybe one of the things the Barbancorians need is a good brew. If a soldier can sit down and have a good brew and a nice bowl of soup, he is less likely to get up and go kill someone. That's my firm belief. Not knocking love, of course. I could teach them how to make a good brew. And you could sit down and love one another."
Everyone laughed and gave a cheer to The Old Man's brew.
"When it comes time for protocol. We will serve them your brew."
"And if they don't like it. We'll kill every bleeding one of them."
"That sounds reasonable, Old Man."
"Well, my friends. I think King Namor needs some very personal loving and some rest so that we are of good cheer for our coming attack on Barbancor. So if you will excuse us, we will make a very early evening of it."
It had been many moons since they had walked to Namor's apartment. Everything looked the same if one saw only the physical structures. But the life was different. It had just a little more lightness in it.
Everyone knew who King Namor and Barbaralba were. They were happy that their neighborhood was still sometimes home for the two new world heroes.
Namor could not get the live beasts out of his mind. He knew they would not be prepared for all eventualities. The canine attack was not at all expected. The Barbancorians had been fighting among each other thousands of years. Even without metal and weapon patents. There were so many ways to impose violent death on another people. Another people that had a different monster God. But the monster God was the mask of the War Lords. And when it was boiled down to the motives, it came out to someone had something someone else wanted. Or someone had something they did not want someone else to have.
"It could be that simple."
"What could be simple."
"Ending this bloody war, Barbaralba. War is such a pathetic myopic thick skulled way to act out a creatures existence. There are better things to do with our time. War is driving us into the ground."
"What else are we going to do."
"Chase the fish with you. Build a space ship. Build or create almost anything. I don't know. We are so wrapped up in darkness from our blindness, we might even fear life without killing or enslaving one another. But life, I am certain, very much would like us to try it something besides myopic war games and the madness that goes with it."
"Okay, Drave King. Let us imagine that here inside your flat there is no war. There may be the odd difference of opinion but I adore you as your adore me and let us see what we create."
"Okay, Barbaralba. Very soon we will visit Barbancor and kill all the killer canine and blast all the monster Gods off the face of the planet."
chapter 19
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