Into Eden: Pangaea - Book 1 (38 page)

New Sodom was an imposing city for one barely five-hundred years old. Unlike its namesake, it was built with a ten-pace high yellow brick wall topped with parapets. The ram-head Emperor Canaan bragged that chariots three abreast could ride atop these walls. The wall rose from a moat stocked with crocodiles that was ten paces wide and was fed by the River Gihon. As the oxcart passed over the bridge and into the city beneath its walls, the three observed Eden legionnaires armed with crossbows every few feet along the top of the wall, and more an-nef soldiers milling around at the gate itself. Fortunately for the three of them, the troops were not interested in searching oxcarts or scrutinizing the uniforms of its hitchhiking riders.

The city was noisy and crowded. The Green Highway appeared to be Eden’s capitol’s only paved street, and it ran the length of the city. Step-pyramids perhaps twenty paces high rose above the city. Buildings were mostly wood, although some of the larger structures were built of yellow brick. All buildings, large and small, were roofed with palm thatch. The an-nef crowds that swelled in the streets were boisterous, and occasionally violent. In their ride to the city’s center the three saw no fewer than three fights along the roadside. One concluded with a bull-head goring his panther-head rival. Another bloody fight between a lion-head and a wolf-head ended with the lion-head ripping out the throat of his opponent. The last was a sword-fight between two ram-heads. One of the ram-heads lost his head right in front of the oxcart as a crowd cheered the combatants on. In each case the crowds seemed to enjoy the spontaneous blood-sport, and Moab just kept directing his ox through the crowded streets, talking away the whole time, and seemingly not noticing the bloodshed that erupted on all sides. All around these acts of violence legionnaires and occasional Secret Police congregated, seeming to not see—or care what was happening around them. Once, when a wolf-head youth stole a female’s purse he made the mistake of running across the path of one of Canaan’s Own in his flight. The Secret Police officer—a bull-head—tripped the young an-nef as he fled. Before the wolf-head could get back to his feet, the bull-head drew his sword and ran him through. Life in New Sodom could be violent and brief.

Moab pulled the oxcart up in front of a stable a couple of blocks from a plaza on the city’s center. In front of them were rows of wooden bleachers that had been erected for the coming festivities. The bleachers stretched out along the road in front of them as far as they could see. Across from them was a large stone stadium that Jesse estimated could have seated twenty to thirty-thousand humans, probably fewer an-nef. A block away was the city’s largest step-pyramid, forty paces high, with a small temple housing a statue of Emperor Canaan at the top. Next to it was a sprawling palace that was the emperor’s home, and somewhere in the maze of palm-thatch roofed mansions that housed Eden’s upper crust of society was the home of General Anubis. Soon, Jesse thought, to be the late General Anubis.

Moab called to the three, “This is where you get off!”

They thanked Moab and jumped down to the street.

“Here,” Jesse said, fishing a denarius from his purse, “this is for your trouble.”

“Thank-you my Lords! Thank-you!”

The three walked off down an alley in a hurry. It was starting to get dark and they didn’t want the locals looking at them too closely. The sooner that the sun went down, the safer that they were. At least, Jesse thought, they didn’t have the dogs to contend with anymore.

Moab felt the heavy gold coin in his hand. Strange, he thought, it felt heavier than an Eden mark. He squinted in the fading light, but his old eyes could not make out the image on the coin. Just the same, it
felt
wrong. It was larger—that was it. He looked at the coin again, but still could not make out the image. Getting old was such a bother. He ran his fingers over the rough ridges on the coin’s rim. No, Eden’s coinage had no such ridges. Surely the two young Secret Police wouldn’t have had an Atlantis denarius? No bother. He had to unload his hay and get ready for the big parade. It was getting dark.

The black dog arrived at the gates of New Sodom at sunset. It trotted past the city gate guards and then began to run down the Green Highway, shouting as it went, “There’s humans in the city! There’s humans in the city! There’s humans in the city!”

The three hung around in the alleys until well after sundown. They would wait, Jesse thought, until later in the evening and then wander over to the mansions a few blocks away and see if someone could point out which one was Anubis’, but shortly after dark an-nef crowds started to swell in the alleys nearby, all heading back in the direction of the Green Highway. Curious as to what the excitement was all about, the three decided that it wouldn’t hurt to take a look while they waited. Once they had stepped into the crowd they were pushed along by a wave of an-nef that brought them back out to the city center. Everyone was clambering to find a spot on the bleachers to see the big event—whatever the big event was. Jesse and Perez climbed to the top of the bleachers to get a good seat in the back—the higher up the better—few of the adult an-nef were as short as they. Enoch ran under the bleachers and peered out from between the seats. He was accompanied by several an-nef children that clearly had little interest in what their parents wanted to see.

“A puppy!” one little bull-head girl exclaimed. “Can I pet him?”

Enoch started to smile.

“No!” her older brother shot back. “He’s probably got fleas!”

The smile left Enoch’s face and he went back to trying to peak out between the seats.

From their vantage point atop the bleachers, Jesse and Perez could see the Green Highway for some distance in both directions. Along the roadway torches had been lit every ten paces or so on both sides of the street. It lit up the street well for the pageantry to come. From the torches hung red flags with a white and black stylized Ram logo at its center: the new symbol of Eden. The street itself had been roped off to keep the an-nef from using it and Eden legionnaires armed with crossbows rode up and down the street keeping order. There was not a doubt in Jesse’s mind that if anyone had crossed the rope line they would have met swift death.

Across from them a makeshift reviewing stand had been erected with an enormous red Ram-logo flag draped over the front, and while no one presently sat in the four cushioned, high-back chairs atop the stand, hooded Secret Police in full dress armor walked nervously back and forth searching the stands for suspicious activity. Suddenly Jesse became acutely aware that their disguise uniforms lacked the signature white paw-print on the shoulder pads as all the Secret Police on the reviewing stands had. He crouched down a bit to make sure that his shoulders were behind the an-nef in front of him, and saw that Perez was doing the same.

While the crowd waited for the main attraction, several an-nef legionnaires armed with swords came out in front of the viewing stand and chased around two an-nef in gray Atlantan uniforms with winged helmets with a life-sized effigy of Atlantis’ Emperor Herculous II seated on a sedan-chair. The effigy was crude, made of purple robes stuffed with straw, and had a head the size of a pumpkin painted white, with yellow-straw hair. To the crowd’s delight, the an-nef in the Atlantan uniforms dumped the sedan-chair and fled, leaving the dummy behind on the street. At first the crowd roared with laughter as the dummy toppled into the street, then they cheered and whooped as the pursuing Eden legionnaires whacked the effigy to pieces with their swords.

A few minutes later the crowd grew quiet as a large gold carriage pulled by eight horses pulled up in front of the reviewing stand and stopped. Immediately Canaan’s Own swarmed the carriage and one of the Secret Police placed a gold step in front of the carriage’s door. While he did so, two others rolled out a red carpet to connect the carriage with the steps of the reviewing stand. The carriage door opened and two immense, masked bull-head guards stepped out, crossbows at the ready. They wore their black uniforms with redlined capes and with Ram insignias on their chests. Their shoulder-pads had painted the insignia of the white paw on them, marking them as Canaan’s Own. Next to emerge was Emperor Canaan himself, in gold battle armor, accompanied by one of his forty-something wives, dressed in white flowing robes and a gold tiara perched between her straight ram horns. Following the two ram-heads were two lion-heads, both in fine civilian attire, the lion dressed in black with a gold ram-head pendant dangling on his chest, and the lioness dressed in a white robe similar to the emperor’s wife, and wearing a silver tiara. Jesse had no idea who these other dignitaries were. Vice-emperor, and his wife, perhaps? The four solemnly ascended the stairway, with one bull-head leading the way and one bringing up the rear. The crowd—which had been so boisterous during the preceding entertainment—remained deathly silent during the procession. But when the emperor had taken his seat, they broke into a cheer and began to chant, “Canaan! Canaan! Canaan!”

The old emperor nodded in acknowledgement and waved to the crowd. They yelled all the louder, “Canaan! Canaan! Canaan!” Finally, the emperor stood and waived the crowd to be silent. He then announced in a loud voice that could be heard clearly from the bleachers where Jesse and Perez sat,

“Let the parade begin!”

The announcement was followed by another roar from the crowd. When the roar subsided to a murmur, six an-nef trumpeters stepped forward from behind the large flag of Eden and blew the introduction to a processional, then stepped back beneath the stand. When the trumpets ceased, the crowd again grew quiet as drums could be heard beating a couple of blocks away. Jesse and Perez looked to their left to see a band of drummers rounding a corner, led by flag-wielding an-nef. Another roar went up from the crowd as the drummers approached. The drummer corps was made up of an-nef of every variety: wolf-heads, panther-heads, lion-heads, ram-heads, jackal-heads and bull-heads. The flag-bearers that led the drummers held flags with profiles of each type of an-nef. But out front of all of them a big bull-head carried a large red Ram flag of Eden higher than all the others.

The drum corps was followed by a column made up of thousands of Canaan’s Own, dressed in their black uniforms with distinctive white paw-print shoulder pads and black masks. These Secret Police carried crossbows, but no shields. They were obviously enforcers, not soldiers. Their ranks were ordered by height, with the shorter jackal-heads in front, and the larger bull-heads bringing up the rear. They marched in a precise goose-step, a well-rehearsed show of efficiency and order. As they passed the crowd again grew silent. Whether out of fear or admiration Jesse could only guess.

Behind the Secret Police marched the legionnaires. Like Canaan’s Own, they were arranged by height, with the jackal-heads again leading the way. They goose-stepped beneath the torchlight, casting long shadows that somehow made them look all the more evil. Each legionnaire carried a shield in front of him, a broadsword strapped to his back and wore a crossbow dangling from a holster at his side. Unlike the Secret Police processional, the crowd cheered wildly as they passed. After the jackal-heads with crossbows came a column of jackal-heads with spears. The column seemed to go on forever. Jesse had just concluded that the parade was to be a display of jackal-headed military might when a ram-head column rounded the corner, armed with crossbows like the first of the jackal-heads. Again, the ram-head legionnaires numbered in the thousands. These were followed by panther-heads, wolf-heads, lion-heads, and bull-heads, each marching with such precision that even Jesse was impressed with the enemy’s discipline and training.

Behind the bull-heads came Eden’s cavalry. Thousands of horses, their riders, holding spears, passed by the stands in precise formation. The horsemen were followed by the charioteers. The crowd went wild as charioteers with horses decked out with plumes just for the occasion passed by. Jesse did not know that many chariots existed in all of Pangaea. But what followed the chariots gave Jesse a chill: triceratops brought up the rear pulling mammoth crossbows five paces in length. Behind each crossbow was a wagon loaded with giant bolts the size of roof-beams. The crossbows were all manned by bull-heads. This last display of weaponry brought the crowd to its feet again, cheering as these strange and powerful weapons passed by. War with Eden was not a possibility, thought Jesse, it was a certainty. And Atlantis was about to get its butt kicked.