‘You fools!’ he yelled, ‘don’t you see you’re next? You’re next!’
Then the Chairman appeared from inside the building, descended the steps and stood in front of Jon11 and, after holding up a hand to quell their shouting, began to address the crowd.
‘Men of the village!’ he said in a solemn voice that was clearly audible now that an expectant silence had fallen, ‘we have assembled here today for a great occasion. One that although regrettable is I’m afraid necessary and unavoidable. This ingrate,’ and he turned briefly to glance at Jon11, ‘has been spreading lies about our great Lord Korok. Lord Korok is just, merciful and patient. But there are some sins which cannot go unpunished. Jon11 has gone beyond the bounds of civilised life and must pay the penalty. Normally the punishment would be that he would be forbidden to enter the Gate of Light but for his crimes that will not be enough.’
A frisson of excitement rippled through the crowd. It was evident that they knew what that punishment would be. Shana looked helplessly at Jon but he shook his head. He did not know.
The Chairman turned to stare directly at Jon11.
‘Well,’ he said in a flat, disinterested tone, ‘do you have anything to say? It may not be too late to cry out to Lord Korok for mercy.’
Jon11 tried to look past the Chairman’s bulk to the hushed crowd beyond.
‘Listen to me people! You have been lied to! Maybe I haven’t got all the answers, maybe I’ve got some things wrong but my message is still the same! The Council is not your friend; you are being used for some purpose which is not clear but cannot possibly be for your wellbeing. Korok? Maybe there is a man called Korok hiding somewhere but he is not on your side – I tell you again. Look past all these tricks. Something is wrong! You are being used!’
Suddenly Jarz and another man broke from the first row of onlookers and bound Jon11’s mouth. His pleas became first muffled and then completely inaudible. The other man and Jarz then returned into the crowd; somewhat hurriedly Jon thought.
The Chairman also increased his distance between himself and the captive. Then he looked up into the sky, raised both hands and cried: ‘Now!’
And then it happened. A great column of blue-white heat descended with Jon11 at its exact centre. He writhed madly for a few desperate moments and then slumped as his skin was blackened and torn away. A great breaker of blistering heat crashed over Jon and Shana as in horrified fascination they watched the execution unfold before them. After the skin the musculature was dissolved revealing the inner organs, then just the bones, which when relieved of connective tissue fell in a calcined pile to the ground.
Shana screamed. She was the only member of the crowd to do so.
It was not over. The bone pile grew translucent, then transparent and finally blew away in a few curls of bluish vapour. The ground was empty.
The crowd dispersed, its members chattering excitedly to each other as they departed. Only Jon, Shana, the Chairman and Jarz were left. The Chairman lingered for a moment, discussing something with Jarz and then left without a backward glance. Jarz glared at them for a while; looked like he was going to say something but then apparently thought better of it and marched off.
Only Jon and Shana remained, shaken to the core and with their arms around each other as they tried to forget what they had witnessed. But then Shana lifted her head and looked back at the pole. ‘Something wrong,’ Jon heard her murmur before she crossed to where Jon11 had died. He followed her and watched her crouch down on the ground, pressing her palms onto the soil. She looked up.
‘Jon, we felt the heat. We saw what it did. But look – the ground. There’s no trace of any damage. It’s as if nothing has happened. That’s not possible.’
Jon looked down at where she was pointing. She was right – there was not the slightest sign of any disturbance.
She stood up. ‘Let’s get back.’
They returned to the house in total silence, stunned into muteness by the enormity of the recent past. But the silence did not last.
No sooner had they arrived back when the building shook to a great voice, a voice like splintering stone.
‘Jon. Shana. You have displeased me. You did not glory in the overthrow of an enemy. That is weakness and weakness is something I will not tolerate. But as you have not spoken out against me as Jon11 did, I will be merciful. Your punishment will be mild: I will not allow you to enter the Gate of Light with my army. Your days will be spent here, alone, in an empty village where you will have to scrabble for every speck of food, search for every drop of water.
‘And Shana. I know of your movements in the world of the visualiser, which you have entered without my permission. But I will wait to see what transpires. It may be that from what you see and discover, wisdom may come to you in a way that it cannot come to your companion.
‘But beware: I watch you always.’
And with that, silence fell.
Eight
‘You must not go back into the visualiser,’ Jon told Shana.
She stared stonily back at him. ‘And why is that?’
‘You know why. Korok knows you’re in there and he doesn’t like it.’
Shana stretched her long limbs where she was lying on the bed. ‘And tell me something he does like – apart from glorying in the death of an enemy, that is. No, he did not forbid me to use it; in fact, he said I might learn wisdom. Perhaps I will.’
‘And do you want Korok’s brand of wisdom?’
‘I want the opportunity to find out more, so I can escape from this madness. Jon, you and I both know that what we’re seeing can’t be all there is. It’s like some kind of puppet show with Korok pulling the strings.’
Jon had not seen a puppet show but he was able to guess her meaning.
‘Maybe what you’ll see will make you like Korok – despising weakness, glorying in suffering.’
She gave a sad smile. ‘Do you know so little of me, Jon? Do you think that I could become like that?’
She got off the bed, came to him and ran warm fingers over his weary face.
‘You and I are swords from the same forge Jon but we do not kill for the love of slaughter – only to defend ourselves from those who have that lust. Trust me.’
He smiled under the touch of her slim fingers. ‘I do. You must do what you think is right. I can’t go with you. You must go in there alone.’
They kissed again; this time with a sad gentleness.
Shana was immersed in the world of the visualiser. But this time there were not the terrible scenes of people hiding, running, dying. When the images stabilised they were of the interior of some large building made of material she did not recognise, a building in which she appeared to be entirely alone. She was in a long corridor between high walls that had many shelves on them. On the shelves were rectangular objects.
She selected the nearest and was surprised to see it fall open, revealing many thin sheets that had marks on them which she recognised as words. On the first page there were many words, with those at the top bigger and blacker than the rest. Shana was not surprised to discover that she could read the words: she had known that she would.
They said: The Conquest of The Degenerates – Vol 1.
She read some pages but found that her understanding was not as great as she had assumed; there were words there that she could not interpret except that they appeared to be referring to various places. Some were a type of village, but much, much bigger than the one she was in. Others referred to entire areas that held many villages. The names were strange; tongue-twistingly strange.