The Story Of URZENNA – Part 3

Hidden under the shining skin of Lake Elama there once was a secret cathedral, lit by glowing anemones and built from pink coral and polished shell with half of a gigantic polished pearl for a cathedral dome.

It was here that Mazjamoon took Prince Urzenna to meet with the high priest Hakhan.

“We welcome you, king of the future, into the heart of our temple and the temple of our hearts”, said Hakhan, “Thanks to the botanists among our order, we have lung plants to provide us with breathable air. It is thin but we adjust to it and at least down here God can hear us pray but our enemies cannot”.

“It is certainly an odd place to find a church”, remarked Urzenna.

“Why so odd?”, asked Hakhan, “Wherever the Goddess may dwell her servants may also dwell and the Goddess dwells everywhere, in all things and in all places”.

“Even in the heart of my father?”, asked Urzenna, “My unholy father who never had a single short hair of humanity”.

“Even in the hearts of snakes and scorpions”, answered Hakhan, “But why do you hate your
father so deeply?”.

“Because I love him so deeply”, replied Urzenna.

Hakhan then presented his daughter, Kenrya, to Urzenna, “This is my great love”, he said.

Urzenna thought she was as beautiful as a summer in Heaven but Hakhan did not like the longing looks that Urzenna gave his daughter because Urzenna was famed as a philanderer and he commanded his daughter, in secret, that she confine herself to her bed chamber.

But, while Urzenna plotted with Hakhan in the secret underwater temple, Haminid lay dreaming in his bed and, as he dreamed, a demon swarm crept into his head and stung his brain with terrible visions till he woke up screaming for help.

“Urzenna has betrayed me”, the king whispered to his wife, “He has escaped from his prison pit and fled into the arms of his beloved church and,together, prince and priests are plotting to steal my life and crown”.

“How do you know all these things?”, asked his wife.

“Demons have built their nest in my brain”, said the king, “While I slept”.

“Demons?”, asked his wife, stunned and horrified by the kings words.

“Enemies of the goddess. Creatures from out of the womb of chaos, who fed upon the terror and the grief and suffering of man. It is they who pour greed into honest men’s hearts and whip nations into war. Like farmers, they plant the seeds of man’s sorrow and now they tell me that my son, Urzenna has joined hands with my enemies but they tell me not to fear for they have the power to raise my first born Kalimed from the depths of death”.

“No!”, cried his wife, “You musn’t let them. They are evil. Nothing more than evil!”.

But Haminid would not listen, “What’s evil is the treachery of my son”, he said, “Like being strangled with my own hand. What’s evil is the fate that will befall me if I do not stamp my heel upon him and his praying friends”.

The noon sun shone on Lake Elama and, deep within its waters, in a chamber of the sacred temple, Urzenna woke with Kenrya, the daughter of Hakhan asleep beside him where she had spent all night talking and talking about the death of her mother and about being raised by her father and all the hopes and dreams of a girl who had never known any freedom and now all, outside his troubled heart, seemed peaceful as he stretched out and yawned but then, at the foot of his bed, he saw an airy figure shimmering like moonlit water, appear and, narrowing his eyes, he saw that it had the face of his dead brother Kalimed.

“Urzenna, my beloved brother. Listen to me now for I am sent from Heaven to bring you warning”, said the apparition.

Urzenna’s heart was tugged both north and south, unsure whether to smile with joy or shake with fear; sleep still clouding his head and blurring his vision, “Kalimed?”, he whispered gasping, “Are you alive?”.

“Not alive but life itself. I am the soul of Kalimed that has become one with the soul of the Goddess”, the spirit answered, “But those who are the enemies of light have cast their net upon the mind of our father and they’ve used some demon’s curse to wake my body from its tomb. Without life or breath, my body walks and speaks but the dark thing they have created, though it wears my flesh and face, is not me. It has a dozen demon souls wriggling inside it and, with the invisible sword in its undead hand, it could conquer our world”.

“Oh mother of all hope!”, exclaimed Urzenna, “Tell me what to do. Whatever I must, I will do it”.

“One needs holy water to quench a demon fire”, said Kalimed, “And if the demon prince now wields the invisible sword then you must have might to match him and only the “Belt of greatness” is the equal of the sword. The man who wears it can knock mountains down”.

“Then I shall find the belt of greatness”, swore Urzenna, “And then drive the demon who wears your face back into the tomb”.

Urzenna started to weep, “I love you Kalimed, my dear brother and I miss you so now that you’ve returned to the womb of our goddess. For all my life, with all my heart I envied you and often my envy turned to hate but I do not hate you now”.

“Weep not, Urzenna”, said Kalimed, “Had I lived any longer then our father would have killed my soul. He disciplined my mind and made my body strong but he let my heart wither. He did not love me but only that which he wanted to make of me; a man of stone just like him. You are more like our mother; soft in mind and body but strong in heart and the Goddess only picks strong hearts to be her heroes. You will succeed, my brother. I have faith in you”.

The belt of greatness hung upon the highest limb of the tallest tree in the garden of Angels which was three thousand miles towards the setting sun. Only one road led there; the road of trials which passed through the deadly swamp lands of Agash, the evil petrified forest of Viprak and the terrible desert of Dragoom.

“Only a band of incredible men can manage a quest with such impossible hurdles”, said Hakhan, “The men of our Church are all at your command, my prince but none of them are great warriors”.

“And yet they have fought and conquered the hardest foe of all, the demon inside themselves”, said Urzenna, “And that makes each of them a warrior of warriors to me”.

Ten men then rode behind Urzenna on his quest; ten men who were the strongest and the cleverest, the most skilful with arms and the boldest of heart that Hakhan could find, followed the great road of trials which led to the Garden of Angels.

But Kenrya, the daughter of Hakhan, who had fallen in love with Urzenna, feared that he might not return from his dangerous quest and pleaded with her father, “Please call him back. It is not safe for him. Send another man in his place”.

“Once destiny has drawn its sword, no man has the right or the power to resheathe it”, said her father, “The Goddess who is all has chosen Urzenna to be her champion and her will is my law”.

“Then let me go with him and face whatever dangers he may face”, she begged.

“My daughter, who art God’s most precious gift to me. How could I let you, a lamb, go and wander where there are wolves; worse wolves than your young mind could ever imagine. Your destiny is not in some distant, dangerous realm but here at home with me”, said her father.

“But if my destiny is here at home then why does my heart tell me to follow Urzenna?”, argued Kenrya.

“One’s longing and one’s destiny are seldom the same”, said Hakhan, “If they were then every poor man would be a king”.

But Kenrya was not convinced and she shouted to the Goddess to let her go with Urzenna.

“Oh great mother of all life”, she pleaded, “Who bore all the birds who fly freely in the sky and all the fish who swim freely in the oceans and all the deer that run free in the forest. Let me be free
to follow my heart. Let me go with Urzenna”.

And the Goddess spoke to her and Hakhan and said, “What needs to be shall be” and Kenrya was transformed by the Goddess into a Songthrush and she flew after Urzenna.

But Hakhan was angry, “Why did you let my daughter go?”, he demanded, “Urzenna does not love her. He has many women and, to him, she is nothing. Why must she break her heart for him?”.

“My ears cannot hear the breaking of every heart”, said the Goddess, “But I hear orphans and Mothers with their dead children sobbing; I hear the tortured, the starving, the injured, the sick and the dying scream . I feel the panic and the misery of earthquakes and famines, floods, fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, plagues and wars and then, when I look across time and into the future
I see Urzenna, the great king and Urzenna’s children bringing so much hope and happiness and an end to the suffering of many of the millions and so I say, ‘Urzenna must be good’”.