Chapter Nine
Hope Lost
Reaching out my hand I felt at the carving that seemed so lifelike as to be real. Only half of the statue was unspoiled like this though.
The woman’s other arm was missing and half of her face had been smashed away. Even given the damage the statue had received the flawless rest of her creation would have commanded the attention of every museum in the world.
I moved deeper into the ruins set atop the bordering ring of stones that walled the village off from the rest of the island. Chartering a way through fallen pillars I came to perhaps the centerpiece display of this ancient site.
A bronze sculpture depicting a man with the royal bearing of a king stood with a sword in one hand, while with the other hand made a gesture that said ‘Give me more or else!’. The casting of the bronze statue was flawless in its creation. However instead of being enthralled with the man of bronze and the commanding presence of his scowling gaze I found myself rather disliking him.
The man depicted in bronze was King Solomon, who more and more to me was nothing but a man of vanity with a penchant for roving maliciousness in order to get his way at any cost. In the height of his reign he had unlocked a means of descending to these lands, but he hadn’t come alone.
He’d brought with him an unholy legion of demons that were subjected to his authority by the many sorceries he had enacted upon his fall from the ways of God by which to give himself more power and prestige over the courts of men. With his demon armies he had come down to war against the ancient kingdoms of this realm, who in the end had begged for his mercy to stop the torment that he had unleashed upon the islands of the inner Earth.
Solomon relented and he called his dogs off so to speak, but in return a yearly tariff of all the varied and vast wealth of the lands below was to be sent to the surface in order to fill his treasuries without fail. He took the princesses of the island kingdoms as hostages so that their fathers did his bidding without question and thus a hatred was formed in the hearts of those who lived below for those who ruled above on the surface of the world.
Towards the end of Solomon’s reign however things went wrong. Ill in health and unable to muster the control he’d once possessed over his demon minions things began to fall apart.
The demons and their fallen angelic fathers wishing to eclipse the reign of King Solomon usurped his control over these lands of Undersea. Solomon wishing to please his crying and pleading brides ordered the portals to the surface to be destroyed, but it was already too late.
An unholy wave of offspring arose within the underlands and their monstrous appetites were such that they sought to devour all. The kingdoms fell as people fled to farther and farther outlying islands until all memory of the glory of former realms that had once existed seemed to vanish from memory.
In the absence of humans to devour the monsters of fallen angelic creation warred among themselves until they ripped each other apart until only a few of them yet remained to plague the remnants of mankind. Slowly order was restored by the intervention of angels who had not fallen and slowly a few scattered survivors returned from the outlying seas they had taken refuge upon.
The former island kingdoms and all the advancements of the past were forsaken though for the people had no desire to be destroyed by the conquering appetites of yet one more invader to these lands. Instead they sought to live peaceably and to this day they had in large part done so.
There were exceptions to this however. The Sea People were descendants of both the native peoples and those of slaves brought by King Solomon by which he sought to extend the diversity of the island people’s genetic appearances into even more exotic appearances by which to provide himself and his courtiers even more in terms of women of exotic quality with which to fill his courts with. Such were the actions of a king who forsook honor in order to play the part of a fool.
The former slaves of Solomon, in fear should Solomon ever return to Undersea, took to living underwater, but unlike the Islanders on the surface they retained control over the advancements that had been common to them in their former days before King Solomon’s loss of control over the dark spirits that he had employed as warriors for his pursuit of everlasting glory. Now this underworld of islands and expansive seas was a hodgepodge of varying people groups and once more it lay under the threat of invasion, only this time there was no combined front to withstand the aggression as Tolak’s people were more interested with being left alone then taking a side in any conflict.
Above all Tolak’s people clung to the simple life that they had enjoyed for centuries. Their reasoning did not go far enough as to show them that to the invaders they were little more than innocent resources to be used and exploited by those with broader ambitions. Some like Tolak understood this, but few others did.
Tolak had shared all of this with me of the history of these lands and I true to my love for my profession as an archaeologist had listened in rapt detail to every word. Now however my soul was filled with disquiet for what would take place within this hidden realm as those above coveted to have control of it even as King Solomon once had.
Tolak’s people would not even fully heed his warning of building extra boats. Oh they made the attempt at it, but their actions were one of slowness as they had no wish to leave their homes and brave the oceans of Undersea.
“Samantha?” A little voice called out.
I turned away from yesteryear’s sorrows and called out, “Over here Sheatera.”
The little girl scampered around a corner and then with a quizzical look asked, “Why you come visit the old ones so much?”
“Because history fascinates me.” I said, in reply, as I took her hand and together we headed back to the village down below the escarpment of rocks where once King Solomon in his vanity had this temple built to suit his own latter life quest for self-glory and deification.
“You like bad history?” The little girl asked sounding perturbed.
Laughing I said, “No, but the stories whether good or bad have a message to teach. We can learn a lot about how we should live in the present based off of what has occurred in the past. Learning from our mistakes if you will.”
The girl nodded and then changed subjects abruptly, “Did you hear the thunder booms earlier?”
I felt a line of worry crease across my brow as I glanced at the inner reaches of the island. “Yes, I did. Thunder without any evidence of a storm.”
Shaking my head as I tried to distill the worries evoked by such a conundrum I said, “Come let’s get back. Your father will no doubt be wondering where we are.”
Making our way through the village I had apprehension once again creep over me as the normal bustling activities of everyone going about their daily lives was strangely absent. I picked up our pace at the sight of a gathered crowd upon the beach up ahead.
Reaching the crowd I pushed my way through, until with a gasp, I beheld what everyone else already had. All along the surf line of the beach bodies had washed ashore and even now with each new wave more were coming to shore. The bodies were not those of uplanders. They were the Sea People.
Struggling to keep the contents of my stomach down I left Sheatera, who was crying behind and made my way out to where Tolak and several other warriors stood gathered around the bodies deposited on the sands of the beach. At Tolak’s feet lay the body of a young girl with hair it seemed that went forever.
There did not seem to be a mark on her, but she was just the same very dead as were the rest of them. Tolak glanced up and I noted the worry etched deeply into his face. In an emotionally gruff voice he showed his respect for me by asking my opinion, “Do you think it was poison? I see no marks upon them.”
Glancing to the sea that continued to crash waves ashore I shook my head, “If it were poison there would be other sea creatures as well, but there are not.”
Tolak and several others nodded in apparent agreement. I kneeled down beside the girl and not even wanting to touch her for fear the loss of such a young life would become even more real to me, I made myself do it anyway.
Going on a hunch I combed the girl’s hair away from her ear and as I’d suspected there was the blood I thought I might find. Pressing my hand to my mouth to cut off a sob I felt Tolak kneel down beside me.
Glancing to him I gestured to the girl’s ear and said, “Those muffled noises you heard several hours back that sounded like thunder, but had no storm clouds?”
He nodded grimly and I continued, “They must have been explosive devices that the uplanders dropped into the water. Such an explosion underwater would carry a shockwave with it. The shockwave must have blown the eardrums and perhaps even ruptured the brains of all the Sea People in the immediate area.”
Tolak looked steadily down at the girl laying still upon the sand as I began to mourn the loss of what likely must’ve been entire communities. The proof of that came ashore with each new wave which brought more and more bodies with it.
Through my tears I glanced at Tolak and whispering I asked him brokenly, “Do you hate me?”
Turning shocked eyes to me he exclaimed, “Why hate you for this?”
“Because this and maybe even the extinction of your own people is coming at the hands of the people I come from up above!” I wailed out.
Half turning to me he grasped my shoulders and shook me slightly as his eyes bored into mine, “You not responsible for this! People above, people below, it makes no difference, some good some bad. There are islands not far from here were my own people eat each other without any help from those above. Evil is here just as above and those of us who know good and are of the Creator’s light must not blame ourselves for what others do. We stand by our actions and your actions are good. You a good woman!”
Looking into the sincerity of his eyes I said, “I love you!”
He pulled me against his chest and for a moment I had peace, but it couldn’t last. Pulling back from him I said, “They’ll come here now. Without the Sea People to shoot their crafts down they’ll overcome the monsters of the island and be here before you know it. You can’t make peace with these people who are coming Tolak. They are evil and your people to them are nothing more than an exotic resource by which to exploit and use up till you’re all gone!”
Tolak nodded and letting go he stood up and bellowed out commands in a voice within his own language that none of his people went unaffected by. As one they peeled back from the beach and ran for their shelters as the events of this day finally woke them up to the reality that they weren’t safe here anymore.
*****
Hours wore on as the whole community worked to build the crafts that they had lagged behind in accomplishing over the past several weeks since the order had been given to build them. Already the provisions for the journey that Tolak’s people would face were piled high on the beach.
Standing within the dear little house that had been my home for but a few blissful weeks in Paradise I acknowledged that my fairytale had come to an end. Paradise wasn’t so much Paradise anymore.
Turning I left the view of the beach which even now saw native built log rafts being pushed down it and made ready to be plopped into the heavy surf and went to one of the windows that faced the open ocean. I didn’t know what lay out there and truly did it even matter as where could my adopted people go to flee from the elite of the nations above who were descending even now as wolves to ravage the flocks of these gentle peace minded people.
These invaders would spread out until their polluting touch had spoiled everything and everyone. They’d send out drones with heat seeker devices and one by one capture the little flotillas of escaping people or terminate them where they found them in order to complete some warped ethnic cleansing on the part of their masters.
I could see it all happening before my eyes. There would be no escape for Tolak’s people, but what else could they do?
I felt Tolak’s presence behind me and I leaned back against him before turning and pressing my face into his chest as I relished the feel of his arms about me one more time. Looking up at him through my sudden tears I whispered, “Could you make love to me one more time before all that’s good about Paradise has been lost?”
His lips closed over mine and I kissed him back with all the passionate fervor I felt for him and the life I had hoped to experience within the reach of his arms for years to come that now had been reduced to but perhaps a few hours.