A Warrior's Redemption (The Warrior Kind) (21 page)

“Give us the box slave and we won’t make it too hard on you.” One said self-confidently.

Krista shook her head no in defiance and waited for the inevitable. The boys came at her from all sides. She took the brunt of the hits even though she was older and bigger than the boys, but she was dealing out some damage too. One of the boys picked up a piece of wood and wacked her across the back of the head hard making her see stars briefly. She fell to her knees half screaming from the pain of her throbbing head. The boys quickly closed in and started to kick at her.

Krista’s hand found the knife tucked in her dress and without remorse she drove it through the calf of a leg extended out in the process of hitting her. The boy screamed like a stuck pig and hobbled down the alley screaming for help. Krista got back up to her feet holding the knife out waiting for the next challenger, but the boys had enough.

“Quick grab her stuff and let’s get out of here before she sticks another one of us! You’re going to pay for that slave!” Yelled one boy.

She took a menacing step in his direction and he and his buddies took off down the street with her stuff at a run. After they were out of sight she reached to feel her shirt and see if the glass bottles were still intact. They were. She breathed a sigh of relief. She always bought extra stuff that they didn’t need so that the street boys would think that they had gotten the best of her, when they stole or destroyed her boxed goods.

She made her way out of the village without any further problems. She neared the little cottage in the woods to find Sansa still sitting by the fire. She tried to straighten her gait to not show the bad limp she had gotten from the fight. She brushed the blood away from her split lip and turned her head to the side and let her curly hair fall forward to block off view of the injury from Sansa.

“Here you go Sansa.” Krista said setting the bottles of tincture fluid down beside her.

“I’m kind of tired. I think I’m going to go lay down for a while. You can go ahead and start the cough medicine without me.”

She turned toward the cottage, but Sansa’s sudden grip on her arm stopped her. The grip on her arm pulled her back around and an aged finger lifted her chin up and brushed her red curls off to the side.

“Oh dear child not again! Look at what those hooligans have done to you! That’s it! I’m going to town and having a talk with those boys’ parents and…!”

“Sansa!”

Somewhat shocked at Krista’s angry tone of voice Sansa stopped in mid sentence.

“Sansa, that would do no good and besides I’m a slave in their eyes! This is how slaves are treated! Things are never going to change!”

Krista gently pulled out of Sansa’s grasp and limped over towards a small brook that ran past the cottage. She sat down on the cool grass and stretched out her sore leg as big tears welled up in her eyes. She brushed them away before they could slide down her cheeks. She never cried, for what good were tears anyway? They had never changed anything for her.

She hadn’t noticed Sansa’s approach until she sat down on a stump beside her, “Come here child.”

With little protest Krista let Sansa pull her head over into her lap. Sansa started to brush the tangles out of her curly hair with her fingers as she had done for many years. Sansa had been more of a mother to her than her own mother had been.

“Krista?”

Krista looked up and met Sansa’s gaze.

“One day things are going to change for you. For the better darling, of this I am certain.”

“How do you know that? Has your God been talking with you again?”

Sansa didn’t let Krista’s caustic attitude affect her, but replied kindly, “Actually I was talking with Him the other day and He left me with the distinct feeling that after I’m gone you’ll be taken care of and that you will know happi
ness as you have never known it before in life.”

“And when is this happiness going to happen?” Krista asked mockingly.

“In the Creator’s good timing you’ll see it come to pass my dear. I know you’ve never fully shared my belief in the God of Heaven Krista, but don’t doubt me when I tell you that He’s not only real, but that He always keeps His word. This revelation of your future after I’m gone has given me peace.”

“I only believe in what I can see Sansa. After you’re gone happiness will be a long dark hallway with a light at the far end of it that I’ll never reach before it’s extinguished. Prom
ise me you won’t leave me Sansa! You’re the best thing that has ever happened in my life!”

“Krista my time is drawing near and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. But if you trust me at all know that what I’ve told you is the truth and that it will come to pass. Hold on to what I’ve told you when times grow dark in your life and have faith that what I have told you will come to pass.”

Krista laid her head back down hoping that Sansa’s words would come true, but all she felt was a growing sense of dread for what the future would bring.

Chapter Eleven

The Past?

Rolf followed me down the main street of the village of Thunder Ridge Castle. The village itself was called Ta’arny and I had visited it often since my arrival at the castle. It was like walking through a part of living history, a history that was now mine. The town’s people left me alone for the most part after acknowledging my presence, with a warm welcome of good morning, which I returned in kind. They knew where I was headed.

I was headed to the chapel, which was the center of every Valley Lander town. The building wasn’t pretentious, but it was beautiful. It was made out of cut stones that had been from the original chapel. It had been burned down four times over the years. As it was being rebuilt, as much of the original building was incorporated as possible, which created a eclectic styled appearance. Flowering vines twirled their ways up the rough stone sides of the chapel gracing it with their blossoms. The dome of the chapel was of an aged white plaster veneer and there were words scrolled around the dome that read, ‘Until the Savior comes we fight on’. It was a saying that dated back to when all the people of this world had belonged to one tribe, the Vallians.

I passed under the oaken door lintel into the spacious chapel beyond. There was a sense of peace within the chapel that soothed my soul. Passing through the rows of seating I went out a side door on the far end of the chapel. Rolf stayed in the chapel. I think he found it soothing as well and usually stayed inside when I came to the chapel garden. The side door had already been open. I stepped into the garden beyond. The morning sun touched my face as did the pleasant aroma of the meditation garden. The garden was enclosed within a courtyard that was located off of the chapel building. It contained a central reflecting pool with paths that radiated off of it throughout the garden plantings. What interested me most about the garden was not its plantings or its peaceful beauty, but rather what was inscribed all over it. The stones of the pathway, the courtyard walls, and even the boulders situated in the landscape plantings were all artfully inscribed with the fragments of the Holy Scriptures that were still left to us. I had spent hours in this garden going over the fragments of the words of the Creator. It was both exhilarating and frustrating to see so many of the Creator’s words. It was frustrating because there was so much missing. One could get the jist of it, but not the full substance or even the contextual meaning of some of the passages.

“Frustrating is it not?”

Surprised I turned away from the inscription on a boulder I had been tracing with my finger. It was the head priest of the chapel. He was a rather enigmatic individual. It was hard to read what went on behind his intelligent eyes, but I liked him all the same.

“Good morning John.” I said.

The priest smiled and said, “Good morning to you too Master Ta’lont. Sorry to break your meditation of the scriptures, but I could not but help notice the troubled look on your face. I guessed that it had to do with the fragmentation of the scriptures left to us.”

“You are right of course. Do you think we will ever know all that has been said by our Creator?”

“Indeed I do, but what is most important is that until that day comes that we keep saying and believing in what we do have.”

Nodding my head in agreement I added, “It’s hard to inspire others when blind faith is needed to believe as we do though.”

“And yet we believe. Why is that Roric?”

“I suppose because I know that the Creator is real.”

“And why is that?”

“Because He has made Himself real to me in my life and the situations I have faced. There is no reason left to doubt that He isn’t real. I just wish I could know more of Him than what is left to us.” I said, as I gestured around me at the fragmented inscriptions scattered throughout the garden.

“I have wished much the same all of my days here in the Valley Lands.” John said reflectively.

“You are not of Valley Lander heritage?” I asked somewhat surprised.

“No, I was not born here. You might say your grandfather picked me up on an excursion of his into the Attorgron Forests.”

“Picked you up?” I asked leadingly.

“Yes my parents were killed and I had no place to go. Your grandfather raised me, as if I was a son along with your father. I am very grateful to him.”

“What was my grandfather doing in the Attorgron Forests?” I asked still perplexed by this out of place revelation about my grandfather.

John looked at me speculatively before he answered.

“That would be a matter for your grandfather to divulge and not me. Time is growing short though and your grandfather is too weak to return there. You may get the answers you seek before much more times goes by. That is all I will say.”

“You and my grandfather share several common characteristics it would seem.” I said letting my frustration show with all the secrecy going on around me.

John laughed but then sobered quickly.

“It is not easy what your family has done since our peo
ple have come to these lands. They have protected us from secrets that have the capacity to destroy us all. It was one of the reasons your father gave for leaving. Do not be too hard on your grandfather. He has only been doing what he has thought was best for us all. Now I must be off. I have a wedding to perform in a small community not far from here. Good day to you Roric.”

As he left me I watched him go somewhat resentfully. All the peace and tranquility I usually felt when I came to visit the chapel was gone. It was obvious to me that the priest had wanted to arouse my curiosity about what secrets my grandfather held on to, but why?

What was his angle in all this? And what had my grandfather been doing in the Attorgron Forest lands during a time of war, when no Valley Lander went farther than the gates of Kingdom Pass? It was time for my grandfather to answer some questions. I strode abruptly back towards the castle.

My grandfather’s eyebrows arched up slightly when I slammed his study doors closed behind me. I came over to lean on the front of the massive mahogany desk that Thaddeus sat behind. The desk’s surface was a jumble of parchment papers, sketches, books and eclectic artifacts.

“The secrets about this place and my families’ role in them won’t wait any longer!”

Thaddeus’s eyebrows rose up further, “What brought about this outburst of needing to know? I thought I had at least a month or so to prepare for your orientation.”

“Orientation?”
I asked leadingly.

Thaddeus waved his hand gesturing my question away and brought the focus back to his question.

“This morning at the chapel the head priest made mention of yet another disturbing occurrence on your part. You were in the Attorgron Forest on some mission during the last war. Why were you there?”

“I might have known that troublesome priest John was involved!” Thaddeus said testily closing the book of papers he had been looking through with a huff.

“He said you raised him as a son alongside my father?”

The old man grunted his assent and then added, “The secrets the Ta’lont family protects were tasked to us alone to safeguard and not to outsiders, which has made him increasingly jealous over the years!”

“Well I’m a Ta’lont and I want to know what is going on around here.”

My grandfather met my stare for a moment and then looked down at the desk in front of him and grumbled some
thing unintelligible.

Looking back up he said, “Alright orientation starts now!”

Reaching over to a figurine of a rearing stallion on the corner of his desk, he turned it to the right and immediately there was a snapping noise from behind me. I whirled around to see several metal poles rise out of the floor in front of the doors, which blocked the study off from any access from the outside.

Turning back to Thaddeus I heard him grumble as he got up, “So much for a late breakfast.”

Thaddeus shuffled stiffly over to a stone wall grabbing his cane enroute. On the wall between two book cases was the suite of armor of the house of Ta’lont. Thaddeus touched the different colors in the suite of armor in a seemingly random sequence. As he finished touching the different colors an area of the wall roughly in the shape of a doorway became translucent. I stepped back in shock and looked at Thaddeus. I had never seen anything such as this occur before. Thaddeus stood looking at me not offering any an
swers. Regaining my composure I stepped forward and touched the shimmering doorway.

Snap!

“Ouch!”

I shook my finger hard through the air painfully. My whole body hurt from touching the shimmering curtain, especially my heart.

I looked at Thaddeus and I saw him smile grimly and say, “Sometimes feeling is believing
just as seeing is. Put your right thumb on the sword of the coat of arms and hold it there for a second.”

I did so and watched in disbelief as the veil of shimmering light over the doorway disappeared to be replaced by the entrance of a hallway beyond. Thaddeus stepped into it and I followed him. We moved into the darkness, which was only dark for a moment, as the floor began to illuminate with ambient light that I couldn’t have explained the existence of if I had bothered to try. As Thaddeus progressed down the long hallway there was a feeling of falling through space that made me feel slightly queasy. Suddenly we came to a room at the end of the hall that brilliantly lit up as we entered into it.