The men took their capture in stride with the rest of their delays, and
Boyce laughed.
"Under the circumstances I couldn't see being cordially invited."
One of the hunters poked Boyce in the ribs with the end of his club and
Lloyd watched.
"I guess that means silence?" Boyce jested.
Lloyd and Boyce were quiet while the leper hunters took them into the heart of Palatka.
Hung in discomfort, they heard the sounds of life get louder until they saw buildings and people pass them on each side while they were carried deeper into the heart of the city.
The haul into the city finally ended and they were dropped to the hard ground, and plumes of dust lolled about their heads.
When the dust settled from in front of their faces they saw a pair of scabby and puffy, sandled feet before them.
Each man slowly leaned backwards as far as they could and looked up at the tall body of a heavy set man, dressed in plain-looking robes and he was fanning himself from the heat.
"Release them!" said the leper and several of the hunters cut the ropes and the two captives got up from the ground beating themselves clean from the dust in their clothing.
"Thank-you!" said Boyce.
"Yes!" echoed Lloyd.
They looked at one another for a long time, then the Palatkans that had them released spoke.
"I am Urre, ruler of this race!" he said then proceeded. "I will ask you why you attacked my men?"
Lloyd and Boyce glanced over at each other and Boyce spoke.
"We seek forgiveness for that aggression!" he said and the Palatkan ruler waited. "We slept on the hill and when we woke we saw your men. Unaccustomed to seeing Palatkans, we undertook to defend ourselves. We are sorry!"
Boyce finished and Lloyd felt ill because of Boyce's statement about the Palatkan's appearance.
Urre had an insulted expression and from behind him came a sedate and shy voice. It was a man's voice yet it was very gentle.
"Are you the travellers from Besten?" asked the man.
"Yes!" answered Lloyd. "I am Lloyd Bartlett and this is my friend and apprentice, Boyce Loebh."
"They are the ones we have agreement, to let pass through Palatka!" said the man.
"Hold your tongue, Munsen!" ordered Urre. "They had broken their agreement with their attack upon our people."
Boyce and Lloyd looked at one another, realising that they were in a predicament.
"Take them to their cells." ordered Urre.
Several Palatkans grabbed Boyce and Lloyd, and dragged them off to one side of the city, to the cliffs of the canyon where huge dungeon-like cells were made for Palatkan prisoners.
They were cold and dingy rock cubes, barren of anything on which to rest on and to keep warm with.
The cells smelled musty and there were unrecognizable things written on the walls and ceiling, and some were even seen on the floor when the layers of dust were kicked up by the men's pacing.
"You should never have said that we weren't used to Palatkan appearance!" Lloyd scolded Boyce then sighed.
"I was being honest with them!"
Lloyd put his hand on Boyce's shoulder and tried to console him, from his error.
"It's alright, Boyce. Maybe we can talk to Urre and see if we can apologise properly." He moved away and looked out of the hole in the rock door. "Until then, we should make the best of this place."
"It is so cool in here but outside the heat is blistering!"
"Wait until his evening. It'll be worse in here."
Lloyd came away from the door and leaned up against one of the walls and huddled himself into a ball.
"Better get some sleep now because it will be too damned cold to sleep later tonight!" Lloyd instructed Boyce and he went down on the floor and tried to sleep.
It was difficult but they finally managed to fall asleep and after sunset, Munsen came to them with offers of warm blankets and a hot broth of cooked fowl.
He called to them several times and Boyce finally got up and went to the rock door.
Lloyd also had gotten up and went to the door.
"I am Munsen, the high-priest of Life." he said to them. "I was told that you will be in our rituals of Life and Energy, after-tomorrow." Munsen told them.
"I will make a tough meal, my friend!" Lloyd promised to him.
"You know of our ways, then?" Munsen urged for clarification.
"Yes, we do!" Boyce said. "Would there be any way for us to appeal to
Urre, to honour the passage agreement?"
Munsen looked down and shook his head.
"I am afraid that our Lord Urre had never intended to allow you passage."
Lloyd and Boyce glanced at one another and Lloyd sighed.
"You were right, Boyce!"
"I had brought for you blankets and hot broth to drink. Your cells will be unbearably cold by dark, and these should help!"
He pushed the blankets through the hole, followed by the large amphora of broth.
"I am truly sorry that it's not very much, but it is all that I could get for you!"
"At least we'll be more comfortable before we die!" Lloyd commented in a sarcastic tone of voice.
"Please don't!" pleaded Munsen.
"I am sorry!" Lloyd was apologetic, realising that this man was really and sincerely trying to be kind.
"Listen!" he told them. "Long before we had your Bestenese Emissary come to have us sign the agreement of safe passage, I had a dream-vision about it and about you."
Boyce and Lloyd eagerly listened to the man.
"I saw that Urre would not honour the agreement. Now, I set in motion a plan to throw him down from power if you did come and if you were captured. You came and you were captured."
"What is your plan, Munsen?" requested Boyce.
"I have many friends that are, at this very time, arming themselves for our attack tomorrow. If we succeed in destroying Urre's rule, you will be given supplies and be allowed to go freely, and in peace."
"What if the overthrow fails?" Lloyd had wondered listening to Munsen speak.
"I have other friends that will risk their lives to free you, if the rebellion fails."
"Why?" Boyce was confused momentarily and he needed to be given a reason why someone, who they didn't know, would die for their release.
"I had seen the doom and destruction of Palatka with your deaths, and so if you had but a hair harmed on your heads. Palatka must have peace with you, Boyce Loebh; yet, I don't exactly understand why?"
Munsen's reply fit into the men's understanding.
Somehow Munsen knew these prisoner's importance and he knew that their harm would mean the extinction of his civilization.
"We engage our uprising tomorrow. When you hear commotion and thunderous booming, keep low to the floor. We have found a way to make a burning substance that is explosive. It can shatter rock and kill."
"Please take care and may the true living God bless your victory."
"If we believed in Him, I would hope that it would be so!" Munsen said and before he left he told them that he would try to see them once more before the battle, and then he left them.
"He has a leader's compassion!" Boyce stated.
They wrapped themselves up in the blankets given to them and they drank the broth.
They fell sleep and the blankets helped to keep some of the chill from them and they managed to get some sleep, though uncomfortable as it was.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
A beam of dusty light shone into the oubliette of the murky rock vault in which the men were being kept as prisoners for tomorrow's ritual of Life and Energy. Some of the sun's rays moved across Lloyd's face and he turned his head away before he opened his eyes.
He gave a deep and hollow sigh that gurgled from the catarrh that settled in his chest, from the night spent on a cold and damp floor.
He opened his eyes and watched the sunshine glisten off the frosty rime that painted the walls and ceiling of the cell.
He gave Boyce a few pats on the back and he soon woke up in a similar condition.
"Do I look as bad as I feel?" he asked Lloyd.
"I could ask you the same!" he replied.
Lloyd slowly got to his feet, not a single part of his body escaping the rheumatic cracks that such adverse sleeping conditions bring upon one.
Soon, Boyce attempted to stand up, too and his condition was not much different that Lloyd's.
He let out an exasperated gasp as he stood up, half hunched-over.
"Oh!" he moaned. "You would think that Palatkans would want to eat healthy people!"
"I could use another ewer of that hot fowl-broth, that Munsen brought for us last night." Lloyd mentioned as if hoping that someone would hand him some through the hole in the cell door.
"My sentiments …" echoed Boyce.
Both of them simultaneously began to bend and move their arms frantically, and then their legs. They didn't miss a part of their body that ached. They had to exercise themselves or else the arthritic pains would never leave them.
Later, each of them took turns basking their chests in the rays of sunlight that penetrated into the cell and soon they were both able to breath freer, and more easily.
"I'd rather be eaten than spend another night in here!" Boyce offered the statement as something easy to think about, but it turned to annoy Lloyd's own thoughts and fears about it all; he had taught Boyce about the fact that the Palatkans cut up and ate their victims alive.
He still kept that fact to himself, needing Boyce's strength of ignorance to keep himself from going mad.
The sun was higher in the sky and they waited for someone to come and bring them food, assuming that prisoners were also allowed to eat.
Then their relief finally came.
A hooded Palatkan priest walked up to the vault door and gave each of the men a small pail of broth and a long stick of bread.
"Munsen conveys his best wishes and a hardy appetite." said the hooded man then he came
closer to the hole and whispered to them. "We shall let you go free very soon, friends. Do not worry!"
The message was brief and strong, and with the wholesome food given them, they believed that they soon would go free.
The silence was disquieting in the city and Boyce and Lloyd both knew that it was now or never, that the uprising would be put into action.
They waited eagerly and they could see that the day was slowly losing time, the sun already disappearing overhead from their view.
Then it happened. Near the centre of the city, a plume of hot red fire and smoke of purple, black and blue, rose in force up into the sky, with the roar of a hundred thousand thunders.
Screams soon followed the sounds of buildings crumbling and the men watched the citizens of Palatka running about aimlessly, caught up in the uprising between Urre's army an the high-priest's advocates and friends.
On the flat top of one of the cubed clay buildings stood Munsen and he hollered into the midst of the city towards Urre's palace.
"Give us honesty, purity and freedom! Give us your life and we shall spare your families!"
He lifted a cylindrical package into the air and put an ember to it, then threw it.
Momentarily, a great whoosh was heard and dust and rock spewed all about the area and towards the cells, to where Lloyd and Boyce watched.
They dove to the floor and covered their heads, but in short order looked up at one another.
"That's why he told us to keep down!" yelled Boyce.
"I presume so!" Lloyd returned.
They looked to the cell door and saw a hair-line crack running down the centre of it. Boyce touched the crack then pointed to it after he nudged Lloyd with his elbow. Lloyd followed to where Boyce pointed and nodded his head.
"We'll be free … " Lloyd began. "providing we have a couple more blasts like that one, but let's get our backsides to that wall and keep close to the floor!"
"As Munsen said!" Boyce grinned as he pointed out the obvious. "If we had our electrophore-lasers, we'd be out of here a long time ago!"
Lloyd lost the last few words that Boyce said. Outside their cell was another blast. This one was louder, and this time they heard the door start to give-way.
Lloyd crawled towards the wall and stood up, edging close to the window to look out. From his vantage he could see scores of Urre's archers shooting at their enemy, just below the palace battlements.
Screams, explosions and sounds of stampeding people and animals continued through the afternoon and evening, and finally, very late into the night, the panic seemed to subside then totally fade away.
The only sounds left were that of burning buildings and cracking rock, and the sounds of the Palatkan multitudes crying and moaning.
The battle was over and the men wished to hear news of Munsen and whether his uprising was a success. They were up on their feet and both peered out of their cell window. They watched the city burning and the people's attempts to bring their small holocaust under control.
It didn't happen right away, but following a quarter hour watching the scene, both had realised that there was no sound except for the physical movement of the citizens. No one cheered.
There was no one making speeches or announcement. There was no one about shouting direction for the people to mount their rescue of the city, from fire.
The fires were the priority, and the bandaging of the seriously hurt in the fighting.
The sky was illuminated by the blaze of the fires. When the night gave way to the sun's morning rays, there was hardly notice that a new and majestic day had begun.
For many hours, Lloyd and Boyce kicked at the hair-line crack in the cell door but couldn't smash it in two. They couldn't get free and in the quickly approaching daylight they knew that there was no hope.
Soon after the sun rose in the distant end of the Serpent Strip, and the two men were morosely seated on the dusty cell floor, the door fell open and there before them stood three Palatkans.
The two young women each had a horse by its' reigns, in one hand, and a large travel pack slung around their arms.
The same young man, who had brought for them the previous morning, stood before them now with a golden goblet of wine in each hand.
He handed a goblet to each man and they held them for a moment, silently waiting for something to be said.
At the edge of a burned out clay building, a crow was picking at a piece of garment showing under a pile of large rocks.
It didn't caw of flap its wings nervously, but Boyce had seen it just the same, and he pointed to it, never saying a word.
In the eye of the young leper man, a tear was forming until it was finally born onto his cheek
and trickled into the dry crusts of his face. He kneeled before the two men.
"That was our friend and leader, Munsen. His own sacrifice assured, for us, the death of Urre." he told them and they listened, very saddened.
"What is your name, my friend?" Boyce asked him.
"I am called, Virgil!" he answered.
"Rise up, Virgil, and rule this place with peace and compassion. See life and all its energies for what they really are. Make your own power and forces of life, through love, compassion and trust … and never again will you need to eat human flesh in hopes of attaining it all."
Virgil rose to his feet and looked at the two men, in such a way as one master would look with respect to another.
"We drink to Munsen and his vision of peace." hailed Boyce and he lifted the goblet to his lips to drink.
Lloyd touched his forearm but Boyce shook his head slightly, then nodded at Lloyd, to drink as well. Lloyd complied with his request.
"With the trust I show to you, in drinking this, which may otherwise have been poison, so it shall be a reminder of the trust that you will seek and find."
"With all the power given me through my promise to Munsen, I now let you and your friend go freely and in peace, through Palatka."
They bowed to one another and Virgil helped the men put the travel packs about their shoulders and then up onto the horses.
They pointed in a southern direction to a pass that lead up through the cliffs of the canyon but before they urged the horses on their way, Boyce turned to Virgil.
"The Palatkans truly are a beautiful people. May you multiply and become a truly great nation."
Boyce blessed his new and goodly friend then motioned to Lloyd to ride, and they kicked their heels into the horses and galloped towards the pass in the cliffs.
Behind them, Virgil and the two young women watched them ride away, and the crow that had picked at the rocks, lofted into the bluish skyway and soon disappeared.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
They rode the horses hard and steady, each day and in their five days of travel they managed to cover over seven hundred kilometres.
The last five days, since they left Palatka were the safest and easiest five days of travel since the day they had left Besten.
The horses were strong and they made good time. The few rests that they had along the way were enough rest for the horses, too.
Boyce was pleased that Pomperaque was soon within his grasp and Lloyd was pleased that Manguino would soon feel his death, like the common man that he is.
Ahead of them stretched the lush and friendly Joenine Forest.
Each man could still remember the glen from which Empal helped them escape to Virune, then on to Besten.
The beauty of Upper Phoride was just as Boyce had remembered it.
"I know my way from here!" he said to Lloyd as they slowly rode through the forest. "Shall we go to the entrance of the Blue Mansion's underground passage?"
"No!" Lloyd answered quickly. "It would not be safe and it may draw unnecessary attention to us."
"You are right." Boyce agreed. "We'll stop at Gothal for a while. I must see if the Abbey Mother from the Abbey of Our Holy Saint Mariot, is still alive."
"Is it wise to do so?" Lloyd questioned. "I mean, she may now be a spy for Manguino."
"Lloyd, she believes in the same God as we do. She always has and she dislikes Manguino.
Lloyd sighed and soberly warned Boyce. "You'd better be right, Boyce.
We've come too far to be stopped now."
They rode some more and near the late afternoon of their fifth day out from Palatka, the two men spotted Gothal and its main, and most majestic monastery, the Abbey of Our Holy Saint Mariot.
It rose out of the ground like a living being. A refuge across the crystal River Clains, that crossed their path before them.
"There must have been rains here, recently." noted Lloyd. "The river has swelled some and is moving faster!"
"It's so lovely this way." was all that Boyce care to respond.
"That it is!"
They rode towards the river and slowly proceeded to cross it.
They were on the other side of the river and there they briefly stopped to take-in the beauty of their surroundings.
Suddenly, the horses beneath them were frightened and they bucked, without warning, and several men came out of nowhere, and proceeded to beat on Lloyd and Boyce.
In a nearby tree, was a crow, as dark as midnight, and it squawked and cawed when the men got to the other side of the river, and it watched the other men attack.
In frenzied excitement it eyed the struggle that took place at the river's edge, and its shrieks were echoing throughout the entire forest.
Caught unawares, and while weakened by their journey, the ambushers knocked both men unconscious and took all of their possessions, including their two horses, and their clothes. The left them both naked, lying unconscious and bleeding, half in the water and half on the river's bank.
The crow left the tree and went to where the two men were sprawled. It crowed and flapped its wings around Boyce's head, and began to tug at his hair with its shiny beak. Some bloodied hair hung from the crow's beak, but there was no movement from Boyce.
They lay in the water for some time until several women came walking along the river from Pomperaque, leading a cow.
The women were members of the Abbey. Three were abbey sisters, the full nuns, and with them walked two novices.
They were discussing the good fortune of their being gifted a cow by the Prominent, Miel, in the market that very morning. Then they heard the frantic crowing and one of the novices looked for the origin of the noise and saw Lloyd and Boyce, motionless at the river's edge.
She ran to the bodies and turned one over onto its back. Her eyes opened wide and she could not believe the beauty of this young, but badly injured man. She checked his body for broken bones and severe cuts. She did the same with the other body, taking the same care inspecting it until the other novice and the three nuns came to help her.
She returned to the gentle handsome man, the younger of the two. She put her ear against his muscular chest and sighed with relief when she heard his heart beating.
"This one is still alive!" she said as if relieved.
"This one, as well!" the others confirmed about Lloyd.
The pretty novice ripped her plain white dress and wet it in the river then wiped the young man's cuts and bruises.
He stirred but never came to.
The other novice ripped her dress, too, and rendered care to the other man. The third nun looked around, keeping a vigil in the event that those that did this to these two men might return and inflict further harm upon all of them. She held onto the rope that was tied around the cow's neck.
"We have to take these men back to the Abbey, my children!" the first nun told them.
The other non-avowed, with her big beautiful eyes, questioned the safety of doing such a thing but the nuns accepted taking the men back to Gothal.
The crow was still hopping around Boyce's body but the young novice didn't chase it away. She helped the other four women lift the men onto the cow and they took them back to the Abbey, inside of Gothal.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
One day passed by and the men were still in an unconscious state, just as they were in part of the following day.
Since the late afternoon, when the five women found the men, the novice first to be at their care, stayed and watched over them — especially Boyce.
She counted away the hours while they just lay there, pale and unaware of existence.
It wasn't until the middle of the afternoon of this second day that Boyce stirred and the young novice was there. She wet a clean cloth and wiped the sweat from his head and face, and watched him slowly open his eyes. As she went to wipe his face once more, he took her hand into his own and felt its delicate softness.
"Can you hear me?" she asked him in a whisper.
"Yes!" said Boyce and he tried to get up but the couldn't.
"You will be alright soon, but now just relax."
He looked around the room, which he was in, and on a window ledge he saw the crow that he had been seeing since they left Besten.
He couldn't take his eyes off the novice and he touched her face once more.
"I am real!" she told him. "My name is Lilith."
"You are very beautiful, Lilith!"
She smiled at him.
She was happy that he liked her appearance because, since that day when she found him and his friend, by the river, she was in love with him.
"My friend?" he asked her.
"He is fine. Some sisters are looking after him!" she told him and he smiled, taking her hand.
"This is the abbey, then?"
"Yes!" she answered.
He held her hand and lapsed back into a deep sleep after sighing with a relieving breath.
"What are you called?" she asked him but he didn't reply.
She kissed his hand that clutched her's. She kissed him on the forehead, too, and stayed with him for another night.
Lilith was slumped on the floor beside the bed. She was asleep but she was still holding on to Boyce's hand.
Boyce stirred and opened his eyes.
He was sore all over and his head throbbed. He touched the small gash on the side of his head, with his free hand, then he became aware of the hand that he was holding. He looked down to where the pretty novice was, her face resting on the bed, like a sleeping angel waiting for a waking kiss.
He stroked her hair and her cheek until she, also, finally woke up and accepted his gentle caresses.
"How do you feel today?" she asked him, getting up off the floor and sitting at his side, on the bed.
"I can imagine how Grenadine feels!" he muttered.
"What?" she asked him but he never answered.
"You are Lilith?" he checked and she nodded. "I am Boyce!"
She smiled at him.
"Boyce!" she repeated. "That's a beautiful name!"
"In comparison to yours, Lilith, mine is but a name like barren dirt."
"I am flattered!" she thanked him with shyness.
"I, also! To wake to a beauty such as yourself is indeed a blessing from God."
"You have been unconscious for a couple of days now. Do you remember what happened?"
He looked around the room and saw a crow perched on the window sill outside.
"It was strange, but we crossed over the River Clains and I heard that crow making a racket." he told her and pointed at the crow. "Suddenly, several men came out of nowhere and the next thing I know I'm gazing into your lovely eyes!"
She took his hands and pressed them into her own.
"You'll be fine, in a day or so. Then you'll be well enough to get out of this bed and walk about."
A knock came at the door then it opened.
One of the sisters that helped to find the men brought into the room a fairly large tray full of food, and she helped Boyce to sit up for eating before she exited the room.
Lilith sat closer to Boyce and gently began to feed him.
"Are you hungry, Boyce?" Lilith inquired.
"Yes, I am!"
Boyce enjoyed the attention being paid only to him by this wonderfully beautiful girl, and as the day carried on and his feeding was done, she sat by his side and spoke with him about all manners of things.
In the late afternoon, when Boyce was telling Lilith about his life in
Besten, the door of the chamber slowly opened and Lloyd walked in.
Boyce saw him and forced himself to sit up. He smiled. He was happy to see Lloyd and, at that moment, was also happy to realize that his trust in the women at the abbey was warranted.
Lloyd had his left arm in a sling and his open tunic revealed a bandaged chest.
"Did you hurt yourself, my friend?" Boyce asked him, sarcastically.
Lloyd smiled and he soon saw that Boyce had no bandages around him.
"How are you faring?" Lloyd asked him, looking at Lilith.
Boyce took Lilith's hand into his and smiled at her as he answered
Lloyd.
"I am fine, but I was told I should rest for a day or so!"
"I was told the same!" admitted Lloyd. "But I am older and must keep moving lest I become immobile."
"Next time, we'll fly!" Boyce joked with his friend and they both laughed.
A nun marched into the room and put her hands on Lloyd's shoulders and turned him around to face the door.
"Out of bed, again! I did ask you nicely to stay in bed and rest.
Didn't I? Now come with me!"
She nagged at Lloyd for leaving his room, obviously not being the first time he did so and both Boyce and Lilith laughed as they watched her parade him out the door.
"You have a strong friend in … Lloyd, is it?" she said, making certain that she remembered Lloyd's name correctly.
"During times like these, one must be strong." he told her, putting his hand around her waist. "He is my right arm, and I am his!"
The crow was still outside the window but it was now no longer quiet. It squawked and pecked at the glass of the window pane and they stopped speaking and looked at the bird.
They were annoyed at being disturbed in such a manner but Lilith didn't show her aggravation.
"Your pet seems disturbed about something!" Lilith said to him.
"It's not my pet!"
Lilith became puzzled and told him that she and the other four women found it hopping around on the ground and on his back when they found them. They presumed that the crow was a pet and let it come to the abbey with them.
"Let it in!" Boyce told her and she slowly went over to the window and opened it, pushing the swinging pane enough to let the crow hop in.
It stretched its wings and cawed then flew right to Boyce and hopped around on his lap.
"It's a very strange bird, I think. I haven't seen many crows, only a few during my childhood, then I see this one throughout my entire trip from Besten." He told Lilith, about his odd feelings towards the bird and the sudden affinity that seems to have formed between them.
"Lilith, will you push that small table over here?" he requested to her and she didn't hesitate to do his bidding.
When she brought the small table to the side of the bed, he took the crow on his wrist and set it down on the table.
They talked and watched the bird make a joking spectacle of itself and this continued through to the evening when Lilith collected some of the dirty compresses that she used on Boyce when he was unconscious.
"I must leave now, Boyce. The Mother Abbes had given me chores to do when you are well enough to be let alone."
Boyce lost the smile that he had on his face. He rolled his eyes and gasped while he stretched out his hand to her.
"But, I'm not well, Lilith!" he cried to her, hoarsely, and she laughed at his sweet attempt to keep her near to him.
"You are a very silly man." she told him then went over to him and kissed him on the forehead. "You're sweet, too!"
"Will I see you later?" Boyce asked her in a solemn voice and he took her hand.
Smiled and nodded.
"You will be on your feet tomorrow and we can walk in the garden." she promised and he kissed her hand while he gazed right into her beautifully large brown eyes."
"Sleep easy and may your dreams be sweet!" she said.
"They will be sweet … I will dream of you!"
Her heart was beating heavily and her quick breaths passed through her like burning spears when she made her way out of the room.
She felt uplifted, as if she was no longer of mortal body but of spirit. She knew that Boyce was beginning to feel for her; it was the same as she felt for him, at the river, and saw his face.
Inside the room, Boyce continued to stare at the doors through which Lilith exited and the crow beside him bounced up and down, flapping its wings and crowing in its unusual 'zoar-caw, zoar-caw' manner.
"She's a gem, crow!" Boyce spoke aloud and the crow continued its usual, strange squawk. "I am pleased to see that you agree with me."
He let the crow sit on his arm and he looked at it for a silent moment before it continued to caw.
"You are a strange bird, crow, and you sound strange, too. Shall I keep you as my friend?" he spoke to the bird as if he believed it could understand him, and the crow cawed back to him as it balanced itself on his arm. "Alright." Boyce continued. "You are now my new companion and my friend. Now, what shall you be called?"
He looked at the bird, in an odd way as if wanting the bird to tell him its name, but the bird just crowed at him: 'zoar-caw, zoar-caw'!
"Very well, crow. I will call you Zoro! Do you like that?"
The crow stopped cawing and bounced up and down on his arm.
"Now sleep, bird. We have a great day before us!"
He set Zoro on the table and he slowly sank down into the bed and fell asleep.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
When daybreak came, Boyce didn't hesitate waking and getting out of his bed. He made his painful way to the window and looked out onto the majesty of Gothal. Below him many nuns were already awake and working on the vegetable gardens, and fruit groves. Over to one side was the flower and tree garden and there was a group of nuns maintaining its beauty through their trimmings and cultivating.
Lilith walked into the room and Boyce slowly turned around to greet her.
Zoro only looked at her when she came in. He was very quiet and squawked only once when he sensed someone at the door, but otherwise, he didn't make a ruckus.
She wheeled a small cart into the room, laden with a variety of foods for Boyce to dine on.
"Will you eat with me?" he invited her in.
"Yes, thank-you!"
They spent a long time eating breakfast then, when they were finished,
Lilith had Boyce get
back on the bed and she looked him over once more to make certain that nothing was at fault with him.
"I'm just a little sore now, that's all. I can walk!" he informed her.
She helped him put some clothing on himself and she showed him around the abbey; through the school and chapel and through the library. There they heard Lloyd having an aggravated discussion with a nun, about the poet, Djenaud Smarte. This made Boyce laugh because he knew that Lloyd didn't think very highly of that particular poet.
Lilith knew that the opposite was true of Sister Rhonta and she could hardly keep from laughing, herself.
"Listen to them!" exclaimed Boyce.
"Does Lloyd dislike Smarte as much as Sister Rhonta admires him?"
Lilith asked him.
"It certainly sounds like it!" he said then listened some more to the highly vocal discussion between his friend and the sister.
Soon, however, Lilith lead by the hand, to the garden and there they walked about for several hours and told one another some other about themselves then they sat on a marble bench in a cosy gazebo.
Boyce had fallen into a mutual love with Lilith and each of them were aware of it. Now, however, was the first time that they had voiced their feelings and no one else was anywhere in the garden to disturb them, accept for Zoro, quietly watching them from a tree top.
"I love you, Boyce!" Lilith revealed to him and he gently embraced her.
"I love you!" he also admitted, and they embraced each other's wanton bodies and kissed each other's lonely lips for the first time.
Their time together was brief and yet their love for one another bonded them together so strongly that their spirits became fused as one.
Boyce felt dishonest in keeping most of the truths about himself, from her, and he now decided to tell her every detail and account of his life, and why he came to Phoride.
Lilith also told Boyce more about herself revealing to her love that she was the daughter of the Laurentine Consul, Debran. To keep her innocent and safe of monastic validations, he left her at the abbey before going on to Pomperaque.
Boyce learned that this young man was more than just a beautiful, dark hair and dark-eyed novice, waiting to turn seventeen so that she may take her vows and become a full fledged nun of the abbey.
That was a wish of her father, Debran. The only way to save her from the lustful designs of some carnal coenobite at Halls, was to have her become a simple and uninteresting sister.
CHAPTER THIRTY
A week passed by and although Boyce and Lloyd had recuperated they didn't make plans to leave Gothal and its peaceful atmosphere. However, near the end of the second week, both Boyce and Lloyd were visited in their dreams, by the spirits of Brook Scullion-Blue and Dearborne.
To Lloyd, Brook's vision reminded Lloyd of his promise and his destiny to help Boyce attain his rightful place as the Lord Sovereign of Phoride.
Boyce's vision urged Boyce to leave Gothal and take Pomperaque and the rest of Phoride, away from Manguino. To that vision urged by Brook, Dearborne urged Boyce to hold Lilith close to his heart and to take her as his wife; his Lady of the Blue.
Boyce conveyed his dreams to his beloved Lilith and he asked her to be his wife.
With all he heart and spirit, she promised herself to Boyce, as his wife.
In the days following the proposal, Boyce and Lloyd made plans to enter Pomperaque and how they would begin their recruitment of the common people to Boyce's side.
The plans were finalised and two days before they left Gothal, the Mother Abbess married Boyce and Lilith, in a private ceremony performed at the tomb of Brook and Dearborne.
With all their love shared between each other in their consummation of marriage, Boyce promised to return for her when his duty was accomplished and his invasion of Phoride was successful.
He did not want to leave her and her heart couldn't let him go but Lloyd promised Lilith that he would watch out for Boyce and she somehow knew that Boyce would be safe.
Lloyd found it difficult to leave Sister Rhonta. Their utter differences of opinion towards Djenaud Smarte brought them close together to a point that resembled love for one another.
Although such things weren't permitted of the full ranking nuns, Rhonta gave Lloyd a kiss before the two left for the gates of Pomperaque, not very far away.
They were given their old clothes and some dirty travel packs full of clean clothing, food and two sacks full of copper and gold coins.
They looked like they travelled for years from some unknown place on the world, to Pomperaque.
On the morning of their fortnight's stay at the Abbey of Our Holy Saint
Mariot, the men left the abbey for their short walk to Pomperaque.
The five women who brought them into Gothal also watched them leave and the Abbess Mother, Mariot, blessed them in their promised mission and its hoped-for success.
PART II: THE BIRTHRIGHT AND THE SCEPTRE
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Patches of wispy-like clouds passed over the moon, in the humid night sky.
Pomperaque was unusually quiet this night and the star-gazing Cardinal
Orren had noticed it. He also felt ill-at-ease, this night.
With pale blue eyes he looked at the moon for most of the evening and after midnight he saw an odd sight in the northern skies. It was a vision that he did not want to accept. At first he thought that his tired eyes were causing the vision but the corresponding feelings that he had when he saw the strange sight, made him take notice, and he reported it to the ArchBishop.
Orren was one of the most trusted Cardinals in Manguino's legion of coenobites. He had all the qualities of his late father, Cardinal Allen, and this was fitting, as he was the great sainted cardinal's eldest of thirteen sons.
Cardinal Orren had gained the favour of the ArchBishop, not only because of his decent from Allen, but he had saved Manguino's life when some oppressed peasant attempted to kill him several years ago.
For his reward, Orren was given the command of Phoride's armies and he became somewhat of an administrator, in place of Manguino.
He resembled his father, Cardinal Allen, so closely that many were led to believe that when Allen died, his soul entered into the body of his first-born son, Orren. With this belief came Orren's high honours and unquestioned obedience from those around him. He was conscientious and he improved on Manguino's spy network, spanning the continent. He wanted to know anything and everything about the other states and kingdoms, realising that Manguino's concentration on producing progeny with Eckma left his rule and life vulnerable to hostility.
Now, Orren had never before played on his intuitive impressions concerning threats against the cleric rule, but this night had actually frightened him.
It was late when he went to call on the ArchBishop Manguino, finding him in his usual circumstance with Eckma — even that late at night — and being accustomed to it all, Orren didn't hesitate to reveal his vision to him.
He pounded on Manguino's chamber doors until he was told to enter and while he watched his master, and Eckma, in the glass pool, he paced around them recounting the details of his vision.
"I had been startled this evening by a sight in the sky, my Almighty!"
Orren told him.
"What kind of sight?" asked Manguino while he sucked on Eckma's neck.
"I was watching the moon and from behind a cloud, I saw the Mons!"
Orren revealed.
"Now how is it, Orren, that you hadn't seen the Mons when there was a personal threat upon me?" queried the ArchBishop.
"Mons is an omen of threat to all — not just to one. It's an omen of war. What's more, a great
war. I was not the only man to see the Mons. Several others have seen them, too. Peasants and Prominants, and some of our own Monks saw them." Orren told Manguino.
Manguino took Eckma's breast from his mouth and he looked at Orren with annoyed eyes.
"Do the Mons tell of what kind of danger may befall us?" Manguino demanded. "If so tell me. If not, find out!"
Orren took all his strength to keep from showing anger against
Manguino, then he spoke calmly.
"The Mons are a portent of doom and destruction, my ArchBishop. The visions came to us to warn us and to have us prepare for surprised aggression."
Manguino listened to Orren but didn't feel threatened by what Orren thought he had seen.
Manguino was certain that nothing would happen to his rule. Jessuum
Benitar promised him before giving him the puzzling prophesy:
"Tell those of your court, the Prominants, if you will, but never is it to be repeated to you, for on that day when that request is done, so should it be the end of your rule in Pomperaque."
Manguino remembered and he told Orren about it, but Orren didn't believe in Jessuum Benitar's words.
"As long as I do not hear the prophets' words again, all will be well, and since I will not ask it to be read to me, I shall be safe." promised Manguino.
"Do you believe in a prophesy that may have no merit and dispel that which your most
trusted servant, and others, have seen?" Orren was angered and spoke in a booming voice.
Manguino bobbed in the water and Orren just stood there. Both were quiet until Manguino came out of the water and wrapped a robe about himself.
"How did you see the Mons? Single, coupled, regimented?" Manguino requested to him to tell more of his vision.
"There were four separate apparitions, great one. Each was a knight of his own colour — black, red, white and ashen. Each rode on a horse of their same colour. They came from behind thin clouds, and made their way towards the city and its heart. Yet, as they reached the roof tops of the city, they vanished."
The account assured Manguino that nothing was amiss. He knew, as well as anyone, that doom only came if the Mons were seen to ride through the main streets of the doomed city.
He told Orren not to worry about the Mons, ensuring him that everything would be fine.
"We are safe, as long as we don't become stupid, Orren." Manguino calmed down.
"Could I be granted the privilege to study that prophesy that Jessuum gave to you? he made a small plea to Manguino and was to do so under the condition that he doesn't read the prophesy aloud!
Orren also asked Manguino for his permission to mobilize the Phoridene
Army, as a precaution, but this he wasn't given to do because of
Manguino's belief that they were under no threat of overthrow.
Orren left Manguino to continue his obligation with Eckma, and he was more disillusioned now, with Manguino's attitude, than what he was when he saw the Mons.
He never went to sleep that night. He had all his Generals meet with him in his own chamber, and with them, he decided to have the armies in battle-ready status, as a precaution.
Orren had never proceeded against Manguino's orders and better judgement, but this time it was unanimously agreed between his men that, to be safe, they should pay heed to the Angels of Mons.
The next morning was beautifully sunny and warm.
Lloyd and Boyce had walked for about two hours, from Gothal, before reaching the northern gates of Pomperaque. Pomperaque was truly different than they remembered it to be when they left it, some eleven years ago. There were hardly any horses and carts in the city. Most of the transportation was made up of large cumbersome cars, with wheels, that ran along metal tracks.
The city was highly mechanized and all the machines were powered on electrical energy, and there were few things in the city that were old. Everything was newly built and only a few years old.
Some of the few older buildings in the city were the Halls Cathedral and the rundown, and abandoned Blue Mansion. Also, the town square was just a renovated version of the old square and the men walked through it remembering the way it used to be.
At the very spot where Brook and Dearborne were executed there was a marker made of precious metals and it was put there by the citizens of Pomperaque who never wanted to forget the two greatest people that had ever lived as Phoride's elite.
It wasn't a large marker. Manguino had forbidden that. He also forbad the writing of specific sentiment, or the placing of names. All the marker said: "May they be forgiven in the next life."
Zoro bobbed up and down while sitting on Boyce's shoulder and it cawed in a frantic manner. Due to its behaviour, then men moved away from the monument and off to one side of the town
square where there were many vendors busily selling items such as food and clothing, jewellery and home-stuffs.
The men slowly walked from kiosk to kiosk and they checked some of the goods being sold until they finally came upon the kiosk where Empal had his goods displayed.
The market brought back memories for Boyce; remembering the fun that he used to have when he was out with Dearborne.
Empal's kiosk was in the same place as it had always been. This brought for Boyce some degree of security and stability, and it also helped his confidence to go ahead with the plans that have been made for his retake of Phoride.
Empal had seen the two men and was now finally relieved from the worry that he had for them throughout the passed month, since they left Besten.
He knew that they were supposed to have arrived in Pomperaque long ago, having taken the shorter route, but he knew that there had to be some good reason and he was certain that they would be told to him.
He saw the strange crow perched upon Boyce's shoulder and he saw how dirty and ripped their clothing was. Other than their wandering appearance and their stale smell, Empal thought to himself the traveller's prayer of thanks, to God.
They came up to Empal's stall and they stayed around there for a while choosing fruits that were the ripest and biggest for their price.
"You have good fruit here, old man!" said Lloyd, as he picked up an apple and bit into it.
"Would you trade or pay money, for that?" asked Empal as he pointed at the apple.
Zoro jumped down onto the stall, from Boyce's shoulder, and started to pick at some grapes
and corn. Empal waved it away and he looked somewhat annoyed.
"We'll have that, which my bird began to eat, and a kilo of apples, and two pomegranates!" said Boyce.
"I don't wish to sound less than trusting, sirs, but I would care to see my payment first." Empal stated while he looked at them with wariness.
A huge monastic guard came to Empal's kiosk and glared at the two men, and Empal. He saw the strange crow, now back on Boyce's shoulder and squawking at him.
In a booming, but tinny sounding voice, the guard spoke to the strangers and Empal.
"Do these men give you trouble, Virunese?" he asked Empal.
"No!" he answered. "I just wanted payment for my goods before I give it to them!"
The guard looked to Lloyd, who took another bite from the apple that he had in his hand.
"Pay the man, vagabonds!" ordered the guard as he put his right hand on the case of his electrophore.
He watched the younger of the two men throw a gold bit to Empal and Empal put on a half-happy, half-surprised expression, while he filled a small basket for them.
The guard turned to Empal after he saw the gold coin thrown to him.
"It would be wise not to judge strangers on their appearance, vendor.
You never know what wealth you may accumulate from them!"
The guard started to walk away and Boyce laughed a little to Lloyd and Empal, then the guard turned around once more and showed Empal a small triangular device, slowly rubbing his finger over it.
"Don't forget to pay the tax cleric when he comes around."
The guard continued to walk away from the stall and Empal filled the basket with the rest of the fruit that the two men ordered.
Boyce cautiously winked at Empal and spoke to him in a taunting voice.
"Old man …" he said. "Where can my friend and I get lodging and a bath?"
Empal stopped for a moment and looked around, then he pointed across the square to a small side-street.
"Down that way is a tavern called The Lion's Skull Inn. The owner should be able to put you up there for a few days. Just tell them that Empal sent you."
"We are greatly obliged … Empal!" exclaimed Boyce and he took the basket of fruit and they made their way around the square to the small street where the tavern was located.
Boyce had thought it to be an odd sight, seeing some of the old familiar people, who were now older, still working their same kiosks, and some of the stage shows that he remembered were still exhibited for the people, but now just a little different and less spectacular. Of course, he thought that they lacked spectacle value since he was now older.
He turned around for a moment and looked towards Empal, standing with a tall Cardinal beside him. The Cardinal was collecting the church's share of the tax.
They made their way slowly to the tavern and when they got to it, they walked in and headed for the flat-table and he ordered a mug of cider.
When the tender brought to him the cider, Lloyd stopped him and asked him for lodging.
"Tender! We are strangers in this city and we would care to stay here in the inn. Empal, the vendor, said that you may be able to have us?"
The tender was going to tell them that there weren't any rooms available, but Lloyd's mention
of Empal's name, and the leer that Lloyd gave to him, made him reconsider.
"I do have one room that you can both use. I'll take you to it when you are finished here!" he told them.
Lloyd downed the cider immediately and the tender shrugged then showed them to their room.
"My name is Cavander!" said the tender as they walked up the stairs to a room at the end of the top hallway. "If you want privacy, this is one of my best rooms."
He lead them down the hallway then motioned for them to stop while he went into a large room, which was obviously his own, and brought out a large bundle of bedding.
Once inside their own room, Cavander closed the door and looked at them.
"I know who you are, and why you are here!"
He kneeled to them and kissed Boyce's hand.
"I'm your servant!" said Cavander.
"To your feet Cavander." ordered Boyce and helped him to his feet. "I will not be like Manguino to have men, who are in most cases better than he, to kneel before him."
"I hope that we can trust you, and count on you for support!" said
Lloyd.
"Whatever you ask of me I shall do, even if it means to lose my life for you!" promised Cavander.
"The main thing I ask of you, Cavander, is that you do not treat us as our status. This I ask of you even so to the point of treating us as lesser than peasants."
"It is important that you do this!" added Lloyd.
"I will do your bidding!" nodded Cavander, then he took the bundle of bedding and from
inside it brought out a small cask and a smaller square box.
He opened both containers and the two men saw their contents. The cask was full of gold bits and the smaller square box had two electrophoric-laser guns, like those which they had lost.
"You will need this while in Pomperaque, masters!" Cavander echoed to them what Empal had told him they were to be used for.
He was ready to leave their room after he made the beds for them, and he was about to open the door, he looked straight into Boyce's eyes.
"We all loved your father and mother, my Lord!" he said.
Boyce nodded to him.
"Yes, I know, Cavander!"
Cavander sighed then left the room and the two men decided to sleep through part of the afternoon.
By the time that dusk came around, Boyce and Lloyd were awake and they had a nice bath down the hall. They dressed in clean clothes then went down to the tavern and had something to eat and drink.
When they were dressing they discussed with each other their needs to start recruiting people and their only conclusions were to either risk being given away by some satisfied follower of the ArchBishop, or to be killed by some desperate sorts who would take them for spies or just as troublemakers.
Their final decision was to start with the lower classed folk of
Pomperaque; those who
usually had to steal in order to survive. These were the oppressed.
Moreso than going down to the tavern to eat and drink, the two men went down to the tavern to flaunt their moneys and so to entice some criminal types to come and rob them.
They weren't going to walk the streets of Pomperaque this night. Instead, as soon as they ate, and listened to some of the common folks' songs about the history of Phoride and its heros, they returned to their room and waited for their, hoped-for, late-night visitor.
The moon had already traversed most of the night sky and morning wasn't too long from coming.
It wasn't until about two hours before dawn that the men heard the sounds of uninvited guests entering their room.
Boyce quietly took to the door while Lloyd slowly crept to the window and they both waited for the predicted rush that the visitors would make into the room.
Then it happened. Both door and window flew open and the expected men rushed into the room and dove onto the beds jabbing into them with knives.
Lloyd and Boyce allowed the men to stab the beds for a while until they realized that there wasn't anyone in the beds.
Now, Lloyd switched on their portable electric light and illuminated the bed and two scruffy-looking young men.
"Trying to rob someone is one thing, killing is quite another!" Boyce said to them and suddenly the two men rushed Boyce, thinking that only one of them was in the room and when they came very near, Lloyd punched the men and took their knives from them when they were on the floor.
They rushed both men this time but Boyce and Lloyd's training to fight hand-to-hand, helped them to quickly subdue the two robbers.
The four men just looked at one another while Boyce had them seated in a corner, Lloyd covering both of them with what the men knew was an electrophore, of sorts.
"Are you two the ArchBishop's spies?" one of the criminals asked Boyce.
"No, we're not!" answered Boyce, then he took a small sack of gold and poured it out on the nearest bed. "We are grateful that you accepted our invitation to join us here!" he added to them.
The two criminals looked at one another and they both knew that they were tricked into coming.
"It seems to us both that you dislike the ArchBishop Manguino!" Lloyd said to the two men.
"We are not the only ones that feel his tyranny! There are many, but only a few of us try to do anything about it, in whatever way that we can!" the larger of the two criminals said in a voice that started to get louder.
"Now there's no need to scream, my friend. We are not unlike yourself." Lloyd said to him and then he put away his gun.
"We would like to hire your services and buy your loyalty!" proposed
Boyce.
"Loyalty cannot be bought, but what do you offer?" asked the larger of the two criminals.
"We offer to you this gold," Boyce pointed to the gold on the bed. "and we offer to you honourable positions in the new government. If you accept you must follow both of us blindly or else you will be killed. If you do no accept we shall hand you over to the monastic guards and have you charged for whatever crimes you have committed, or even those you haven't committed."
"You give us a hard choice." said the smaller man.
There was a brief quiet in the room while they all exchanged looks.
"Hard choices …" Lloyd began. "are often-times the choices most worth making!"
The bigger criminal stood up and folded his arms upon his chest.
"It seems we are inclined to accept your offer … Masters!" he said.
"Very wise!" Lloyd responded.
" — And in this new wisdom, you will be our compatriots and will not address us as master." Boyce expressed his intent of partnership. "I am called Boyce Loebh, and this is Lloyd Bartlett."
"I am Mingo, and this is my brother, Bix." said the larger man, pointing to the smaller man.