Gona

By J. G. Zomchick

Journey to a world beyond worlds. To a place where hatred causes suffering and being different is death, or for those who are willing to conform, slavery. This is the planet Piedra, a place of awe inspiring imagination, yet so real that the aroma of the sweat and blood of its people will grip your mind forbidding you sleep. Where those who have nothing, even the little they have will be taken away. Still in all of this darkness there is hope and that one hope is Gona.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 25, 2010
• ISBN: 9781469120805

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Copyright © 2009 by J. G. Zomchick.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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Contents

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 20

CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 22

CHAPTER 23

CHAPTER 24

CHAPTER 25

CHAPTER 26

CHAPTER 27

CHAPTER 28

CHAPTER 29

CHAPTER 30

EPILOGUE

I dedicate this book to God

CHAPTER 1

Anxiety

A tessellation of autumn leaves canvasses the seafront courtyard of the La Palace. A sight of great value throughout the country of Worship, for you may search your entire life and you may never find such a sight.

Trees are sparse for the land is dry and barren since years upon years the joy of rain and fresh water has been lost.

Despite the rarity of the fallen foliage, it will go unnoticed this day, for what lies on top is a tapestry like no other, a single woven cloth of two races—united by hope and stitched by an unspoken desperation.

Bands of Whites dot a sea of Green outside the palace. The Greens, large and muscular, vary in the shades of the color which give them their name. A large pointy shell of unbreakable bone protrudes from just under their eyes. This shield of bone, which curves downward, is commonly called their beak. In fact, there is no other name for it.

One can argue that it is not truly a beak; for unlike a bird or any other creature the Green’s beak is not a mouth nor is there a bottom piece to it. Veiled under the beak is an almost human-like mouth. The beak itself is overlaid with a thin membrane of skin. Odd and almost rubbery, their skin heals quickly. Even large gashes through muscles heal in a couple of days.

The place where the Greens have gathered is the courtyard of their king.

Parties of Whites group together. They have traveled from their Soulnation, or homeland. Unlike their informal allies, the Whites’ skins are hard, almost metallic and seemingly unbreakable.

They are warriors by purpose, not by design, for their hearts are given to poetry and the arts.

Thousands have traveled for this meeting and stand in pockets discussing the political, emotional, and artistic significances of the union in front of them.

There is one more aspect that has to be noted, perhaps the most notable of all. The reason why the two groups are meeting here is the Flesh, the blue-skinned warriors of the land of Pride.

The Flesh are brutish, barbaric, and relentless. They are filled with avarice and hatred. Destruction and death are the rewards they grant others and the ways they slake their own lust. There are five kings, who though living in abundance want to destroy all and leave nothing but for themselves.

Of the three races, the Flesh are the physically and emotionally weakest. They are not large like the Greens; nor do they have stone-hard skins as the Whites. However, what they lack in physical qualities, they more then make up with their unrelenting desire for death and destruction.

They are the only race on Piedra to have outer ears, yet they are deaf to ideals such as love, mercy, and hope. The land of Pride is rich with trees, fresh water, fruit, and flocks, whereas the lands of Worship and Soulnation are desolate and dry.

Year after year the Flesh attack the others, but not merely for plunder. They just cannot tolerate anything or anyone alien to their race.

In desperation, the Whites and Greens had formed alliances in the past, but today promises to bring forth a new union, for a forbidden love and marriage holds an unforeseen hope.

Two years ago, the great Green King Sace fell in love with the White Princess, now Queen, Reva. He had been captivated by her white eyes. Even while discussing politics, the princess’s eyes had gripped him. Almost all Whites have white eyes with no visible pupil, that enabled them to see in the night.

Reva’s eyes, with a slight tint of blue, seemed to reach out to Sace and hold him in a warm embrace with every glance. His determination for peace, mixed with a compassionate heart, was unmatched by any she had ever seen.

Her people are well known for their passion. However, their passion is purely for themselves and for what they can write, sing, or perform. King Sace’s heart is pure with the strength and tenacity to take on the burden of fighting for world peace upon himself.

Two years, a scandal, and an almost full-blown war between two already uneasy allies later, two nations now wait for a birth, a one-of-a-kind birth from the blessed union of King Sace and Queen Reva.

Never before had a Green and White ever been successful in child bearing. People have been arriving for over a month, camping around the La Palace. And now the moment is upon them! Queen Reva has been in labor for seven hours. A successful birth can combine the two nations into one powerful force, but a death may ignite a bloody war, which the Flesh can exploit and scavenge the remains of what could have been two great nations.

King Sace waits patiently on the balcony, though he is worried more for his wife than about the security of the nations, which lie before him. Anxious as he is, he had been sent out three hours ago when the labor became hard. A hush falls over the crowd as Samuel, King Sace’s closest advisor, comes out on the balcony, and hesitantly approaches the king. Noticing the sudden quiet, the king turns toward his friend. Samuel reaches over and whispers to King Sace. The King hastens inside, leaving the sea of people uneasy.

Time flows slowly as the people wait. In the inner chamber, the master bedroom, the walls are patterned with huge blocks of marble, granite, and iridescent rocks. Sace rushes to the side of his exhausted wife. He gazes into her beautiful eyes. A smile forms under his beak. They caress each other’s hand. They speak with no words yet an eternity’s worth. It’s still not long enough as Reva’s nurse interrupts them. She holds two babies in her arms. This is the first born. She hands him a small boy, who resembles the Whites, a hard, white—skinned small frame. The one difference is that his round, red eyes are like the eyes of his father and all Greens.

And here is his brother, the nurse smiles and hands him the second born. He is a Green, through and through, soft clay-like green skin, and a hard unbreakable upper beak, which covers mouth and chin. He looks like a true Green, like his father, until he blinks. His eyes open and he gives his father a long, captivating glance. His white eyes warmly caress his father’s heart.

They’re beautiful. The king’s voice almost sings to his wife. The moment they share is like no other.

Suddenly Queen Reva’s breath becomes heavy. King Sace hands his sons back to the nurse as his wife’s breathing turns into deep gasps. Doctors rush to her side as Saces shouts prayers for his wife and orders at his servants. Thirty of the longest seconds later Queen Reva dies, with her hand in his hand, she dies.

The second born begins to cry, not a cry of travail; as impossible as it sounds he suffers the loss of his mother and cries for his father, a cry of loss and sorrow. With no time to mourn, King Sace’s advisors urge him to attend to the hundreds of thousands who are waiting in the courtyard.

They advise him to increase the guards in front, King Sace refuses. If you treat them with contempt they will respond with contempt. He states to his advisors very matter-of-factly, takes his two sons up in his arms, and walks out on to the balcony.

The people cheer at the sight of the two miraculous babies, but the king gives out a tremendous bellow, which grips the cheering crowd. This is not the time for celebration! he repeats twice until the people quiet down, nudging each other into silence. This is not the occasion for celebration… He continues: nor for cheering! Queen Reva—the most beautiful and intelligent woman who ever lived—died this twilight to give birth to these two amazing children. Take time to mourn a warrior who gave her life today, mourn, give honor, and then celebrate their birth when the time is right. With this, he turns his back to the crowd and leaves without looking back at them.

He names his first born Esau, after his father, a great military leader, and his second son Gona, because of his travail, since he seemed to take his first breath even as his mother gasped her last.

CHAPTER 2

Grace

Seven years pass and the union between the Whites and Greens continues to grow, maybe out of necessity or maybe because of, what many feel, King Sace’s somber words that swayed and united the people. The union was enough to keep the Flesh from making an outright attack for these seven years. Life went on its normal course. The boys have been training and schooling since the age of three.

La is the capital of Worship, and the main palace is called The La Palace. However, there is also a group of many smaller castles that are on the seaside, about a mile in from the sea. These castles stretch along the peninsula of Worship’s southeastern coast. Towers stand along the Peninsula as lookouts. This group is also commonly called the La Palace. Either way you call it, either the single palace or the group of palaces, the boys Esau and Gona ran the La Palace.

The interior of the country had little crime; by necessity the people had to work together or die. Certain bounty hunters scavenged the land, picking up any criminal who has escaped the system. The Bounty hunters are all unscrupulous characters, mostly relatives of royalty—too far removed from the King to live a life of luxury without working for it, but close enough to get the best jobs. They usually make up charges and bring in fugitives in order to seize their belongings.

Of these characters, Tyre is by far the worst. Surviving on a small island, just off the coast, he is a distant relative of King Sace himself.

Tyre usually writes a ledger of false charges, which he then uses as warrants to attack families, usually the more well-to-do families, some who are themselves related to royalty.

The bounty hunters usually sell the family members who can work into bondage and remove all valuable possessions as reward for their bounties. The difference with Tyre is that he usually kills the entire family and burns the entire household after removing what he deems valuable.

It was a cold blistery night when Tyre and his troop rode in upon their botes, a cross between a camel and a giraffe. These botes have hooves like a horse, long necks with two to five small horns on their heads, a large hump on their backs, and a banana-sized trunk for a nose. An animal of great value, they can travel quickly over the sandy plains, and survive with little or no water for a long time. To own one would show that you were someone of great standing; Tyre owns five. Though he loved wealth, he loved showing off even more.

This was the night that Grace was captured and tied to the back of one of the botes with a rope weaved from wild grass. Tyre had eyed her family for months. After falsifying documents claiming treason and thievery, he and his troops killed the entire family, stole all goods that seemed valuable, and burnt the house to the ground.

They only took Grace to prove that he was not recklessly murdering innocent people.

Already King Sace had been eyeing him deeply on his last few visits. No one survived for prison? asked the king, eyes piercing straight into Tyre’s heart. But the hardened Tyre did not even flinch as he replied, They fought back your sire… we had no choice.

Three times in the past year you have been in and out these stony gates and never one survivor?—They all fought back, or got consumed in the fire? Tyre shaking his head pretending concern It is a pity, but the like of these a wild life—unpredictable and violent, not willing to abide to the law. Three months past since this conversation and although Tyre has no remorse he was concerned that the king might remove him from his position. So tonight he spared a child.

Overweight and deformed Tyre looks more like a Backslider than a true Green. Bitterness dressed in sweet appeal draped over his hunched back. Two of his troops go into the palace one with young Grace under his arm like a sack of dung. They follow Tyre as he enters with a wooden box, also a sign of wealth, and a large leather covered book.

The guards lead them to a stone table; most furniture is made of stone or hardener mud. The room is covered with seashells and other items, which originated from the ocean. Shells, claws and the like were used to make almost everything from armor to combs. Ocean life is the only thing Greens and Whites can find in abundance.

The guards pour Liquid Luminescence into a large glass jar and a second milky liquid into a second jar. The two jars narrow into long glass tubing which backed by mirrors run all around the room. As the two jars are emptied into the tubing, the liquids combine causing a pulsing orange-red glow, dispelling the darkness. This invention is one of the few remaining inventions from the banned ancient art of science. Tyre clears a space as if he owned the place, and places his book upon the table. Then quite methodically, he opens his box and removes his most valuable treasure-jars of different colored inks. Only the rich can afford ink. Merchant-ships of the Flesh are the only deep sea vessels. But they cannot dock on Green territory, so Tyre has had to do all his transactions in the shadows; mostly from the shores of his private island.

Of all the inks red is the rarest and most costly. There are only eight quarts across the entire planet. Thicker and persistent, one drop can soak half-a-page and cover it completely. Tyre opens the book to the pages where he wrote the charges against Grace and her family.

An evil smile cracks under his crooked beak. He turns toward his two assistants and motions them to carry the girl upstairs to present his offering before the King. What will the fate of Grace be? With the charges that Tyre wrote against this child only one punishment can be satisfactory. The dungeon. She will be lowered on a rope into a hole in solid rock. At the bottom of the hole is a large cavern; it is said that there are many caverns under the string of castles in The La Palace.

Poverty, due to lack and years of oppression from the Flesh, allows for no food for the prisoners. They hunt vermin, insects, and bat-like creatures called strains, which are indigenous to the underground caverns. There is no light, so prisoners feel around blindly often being bitten, poisoned, and often eaten by the creatures that live there. If you are found by another prisoner, a fight for life begins. The winner gets fresh meat and the ability to survive another day.

No sooner does Tyre and his companions leave the inner court to venture upstairs to present themselves to the king, than a figure spying from the shadows sneaks out. Curious as to why a little girl his age is tied and bound, Gona had been soaking up everything from behind a stone cabinet. Gona slowly walks up toward the book on the table. It looks like a shrine beneath the Liquid Luminescence lights and surrounded by odd jars of inks.

Switching his head from side-to-side he approaches, even at his young age his movements are cat-like, he scans the opened page, the first of many describing the crimes of Grace’s family. Although only seven, Gona can read three modern languages and two ancient ones. While flipping the pages, which seem obviously fantasy not fact, his father the king skeptically hears the case pleaded before him by Tyre’s lies.

King Sace cuts off the deceiver’s rants, as tears are held back. He sees Grace tied like a wild animal—barely strong enough to struggle, broken, and accepting the bitter fate before her. The burden of loss is suffocating her and pain of the sufferings to come numbing her. Some animals get so frightened when a predator approaches that they turn lifeless, and so does Grace. The royal nursemaid, a distant cousin of the king visiting for the week, hangs his hand and turns a corner. Her usually strong unmoving stature is now slumped and she sits crying there.

What cuts King Sace’s heart the most is that this young famished girl, (Tyre has not fed her in the three days since he imprisoned her) is the same age as his sons, is doomed and bound by the law. There is nothing that he can do about it.

I assume that you have the appropriate documentation against this girl? Tyre bows his head, but, of course your majesty, right downstairs.

The king rises and the entire entourage follows him as they head for the stairs. The king is followed by Tyre, his two servants, the girl, the royal nursemaid, Samuel, the head royal advisor, and a company of guards.

As they start down the stairs, Gona, intrigued by the false document, is startled by the noise of the approaching mob, realizes that he has pulled the book toward him. Quickly pushing it back he topples the red ink spilling it forward splashing it all over the pages. As it quickly soaks into every fiber, Gona bolts from the scene. The King walks over to the table, in front he sees the red soaked book and demands "What is