The Red Harlequin - Book 2 Kingdom Of Deceit (Extract)

Please Note: this is an extract of Book 2. The entire Book 2 is available on Amazon in paperback and kindle edition.

Ferya

On the fourth day of my journey I began to see traces of Chromes and, truth be told, they were not very reassuring. I kept to the shoreline which led past numerous white mounds. At first, I thought they were made of sand. Two long stakes jutted out of one large mound that attracted numerous birds. As I drew closer, a horrible sight sent shivers down my spine. The vultures were feasting on two bodies that had been impaled on top of the two sharp pointed wooden poles.

On the mound, between the poles, a stone plaque read:

This is our just punishment

For trying to steal the fruit of the Sea,

The Sacred Salt,

Of which only the King,

Divine descendant of Adio and Adia

May use as he desires

 

Clearly these were the precious reserves of salt Chtomio mentioned when he spoke of the Reds. I moved away from the abominable sight, grimly reminded of my own experience with the Wheel of Chance in Ayas.  Somehow I had naively thought the Red Kingdom was different from the other territories. Less violent. More just. I would be proven wrong yet again.

The salt reserves also told me I was now deep inside Red Territory. I was tired, for I had walked with very little rest, for such was my impatience. Just beyond the last mounds of salt I saw a mountain. It had been blasted in half by nature, seemingly in an act of rage and it dominated an otherwise flat land.  As I came closer, I realized that what I initially thought to be a natural protuberance at its peak was really a rose colored palatial tower. Excited by this discovery, I quickened my pace.

The tower loomed, horn-like, out of the rock, itself. Below it lay an imperial, rose red city spotted with towers capped by crimson minarets.  A ring of tremendous statues attached to the imposing outer walls circled the entire base of the rock like an enormous belt made of stone. They too were of the same pale red color of the tower. I counted at least thirty statues, but more likely stood on the other side of the mountain. The closer I walked, the more imposing the city and the statues' astounding size became. Each was at least as tall as twenty Chromes put together!

"This must be Samaris!" I said out loud.  My mind flew back to the stories my father used to regale me with, about the first war he fought against the Reds.  But he had never mentioned the city of Samaris. He probably fought elsewhere, for the Collective Laws stated that all cities were sacred to the Gods, and must not be destroyed, regardless of their inhabitants' color.

I looked at my garments and grew nervous. I had a new mask and a new mantle. Both made me appear to be a Red Chrome -- but would they be enough to pass into Samaris unobserved? For a moment, I fretted about my Chrome, too, but then I remembered how being Red or Black did not matter anymore, according to what Chtomio had told me. His exposure of my true lack of aura comforted me.

I wondered what his reaction would be seeing me. He had forbidden me to come into the Red Kingdom but he surely could not expect me to stay away from all the Territories. I hoped my presence would make him happy, although a part of me feared that he would not be pleased.

The masks carved on the imposing statues forever scanned the horizon. A large crowd had gathered at the entrance to the city. As I drew close, my nervousness increased. I was, after all, entering a city which had twice been the enemy of the Black Nation in recent times.