Red Leaves and the Living Token (23 page)

Emret looked up at Moslin and smiled. "I think we have to go a little further."

-

Two large Botann soldiers, wearing the crest of the Holy Master Cleric, crouched in the underbrush. A short distance away, Moslin and Emret held the Tolken up high as they studied it, high enough for the soldiers to see.
 

One of the Botan scouts turned to the other, his mouth open in awe. "They have the Token!"
 

Three more soliders lay on the forest floor, hiden further back in the trees. One in the front signaled to the smallest in the group. "Report to his Holiness. Ask for reinforcements. Be quick!”

-

Two of Lord Valance's over-sized Zo guards stood on either side of the open doors at the rear of a black carriage, the same that Bedic had escaped from earlier.

"It looks like forced entry. Someone broke the lock from the outside." One of the guards said.

"Who would've done that?" Lord Valance demanded.

The Soldiers looked at each other without response.

"Follow the tracks. I want him found immediately. The last thing we need is someone else on the mountain looking for things.

"And where is Rinacht? He never showed up to collect the other half of his money." He turned to Lord Barnus who was leaning up against another black carriage. "Find him!"

R
inacht stopped outside the incredible stone gate that protected the Petra lands. A hundred foot high wall extended past the gate as far as he could see in both directions.

Seeing his home again after so many years brought up an unexpected degree of emotion. He'd kept it bottled up so well for so long that he'd forgotten how much leaving his home had effected him.

"Rinacht Turl, nephew to General Turl, requests entry." He yelled up to the gate guard who was standing on an outcropping a good 30 feet above him.

The guard eyed him for a moment then signaled to someone inside the gate. Rinacht waited patiently. He fully expected the guard to return with a cross bow and ask him to withdraw from the gate. Such had been the state of affairs when he was asked to leave years ago.
 

The massive stone walls shuttered as the internal mechanics started to move. Perhaps he had less to fear than he thought. With a loud rumble, the two doors separated to reveal a polished roadway beyond. Gas lamp poles of black iron paralleled the tightly paved stone road, as it vanished into the distance. It was still a ways into the city. At least he'd made it this far.

He'd find an inn on the other side of the gate and save his visit with his uncle for the morning.

-

Rinacht waited outside his uncle's office. He'd been kindly directed to a row of plain grey chairs up against the far wall. Twenty years later and his uncle still had the same chairs, he chuckled. He couldn't remember how many times he'd had to sit in them as a youth. They were uncomfortable on purpose, he'd been told once, to help him think about what he'd done to warrant the visit.

He felt as though he was fifteen again, waiting to be reprimanded. In a way he was. If he couldn't convince his uncle that he had a legitimate reason for coming back, it'd be the worst reprimand of his life.

The office director signaled to him. "Your uncle's ready to see you now.

He stood up. His legs were unsteady. He wasn't that nervous, was he? His heart was pounding. He'd have to it rein in. His uncle could smell fear. The way he saw it was, it meant you were guilty. He took a deep breath and prayed for confidence.

He opened the door gently and entered the office. His uncle stood behind his desk staring out a window. A busy plaza filled the view, full of Petra soldiers hurrying about. He closed the door behind him.

"Take a seat Rinacht," General Turl invited, without turning from the window.

“Thank you for seeing me on such short notice. I know you're a busy man.” Rinacht said quietly.

The General finally turned to face him. He had a pained expression on his face. "I've been thinking a lot about the last time we talked, about the decision we came to. Was it fair? Was it just? You're my sister's son for Red's sake!"

He leaned over onto his desk, his palms flat. "Rinacht, you can not come back here! I'm sorry."

This was a surprise. His Uncle had been thinking about forgiving him? Thinking about it? That was a miracle. When he left he was lucky his Uncle hadn't killed him. Twenty years was a powerful thing indeed.

"Please, I'm not here to ask for my way back." He lied. This was precisely what he had hoped to gain. But not before he leveraged what he'd found. "I have something that I believe might be of great Petra National interest."

The General leaned back off his desk. "What?" He shook his head disbelieving.

"Let me show you." He lifted his shoulder bag up onto his lap and riffled through the top pouch. "Uh."

He pulled out a dark cloth and unwrapped the dark purple figurine in the shape of a small bird.

The General leaned forward and stared at the little bird carving. He furrowed his brow and shook his head again. "What is that supposed to be?"

The door burst open. Startled, Rinacht fumbled the figurine, then turned to see a little boy bouncing into the room. The General slipped around the desk and picked up the boy. "Rinacht. Meet your Nephew, Haden."

"My Nephew?" He stood up and set the figurine on the desk.

"Your little sister's married now. This is her oldest little boy."

"Hi Haden." Rinacht tried to shake his hand, but the boy just stared at him with pitiful frown.

The General set him down. "I forget how big you’re getting. I can hardly lift you!" He tickled the boy under the arms.

"Stop it Grandpa!" Haden laughed and squirmed away.

"Grandpa?" Rinacht asked.

"Well, someone had to raise your sister! But I don't really need to explain myself to you. And quite frankly, Rinacht, this makes it more difficult for everybody. Now your sister's gonna have to explain to Haden why he's got an uncle he's never met."

"Wait. Wait." He rushed back to the desk to get his figurine. But Haden was already there studying it. "Oh, Haden, please don't."

It was too late. Haden had picked it up out of the cloth. Rinacth watched as the darkness of the figurine dissolved. Then a flash of brilliant white light flooded the room. Both the General and Rinacht ducked in reaction and covered their eyes.

The light receded to a less brilliant glow. Haden stared at the object in his hands in amazement, his eyes full of wonder. Then Haden froze, his eyes went blank.

Rinacht was stunned. The boy restored it to white. How? The boy stood motionless in some kind of daze. He watched him, recognizing the look. Handers had done the same thing when he touched the Token.

Then Haden was back. He blinked a few times before a look of profound sadness came over him. He sat down.

"Haden?" His adopted grandpa asked.

He looked up at Rinacht. "What is this?"

"A fragment of the Token." He answered.

The General stepped up behind the boy with his hand out to touch it. "Is that possible?"

"Yes." Rinacht answered.

"How?" The General asked.

"My employer found the entire Token buried in the sand on a beach. I don't know how he found it. He went out there by himself after visiting his son in the hospital. His son is sick and is probably not going to make it. I imagine he was out on the beach wrestling with that. Then it was just there, right in front of him.

“He followed the Token to our mountains, saying it was the only way to save his son. He didn't say how or why, he just figured it'd help him somehow. And indeed it did. The Token took him straight to the Temple of the Reds."

"Impossible!"

A small butterfly fluttered past Rinacht and landed gently on Haden's head. Another landed on his arm.

Rinacht noticed a few moths that had darted back and forth in the middle of the room. They suddenly lined up next to each other and froze in mid air, still beating their wings. They just hovered. The butterflies launched up from Haden and joined the moths in their strange hover. More flies and other small insects joined the group until together they had created an unmistakable solid line floating in mid air. The line pointed straight down the middle of the room to the north.

The General stared at Haden in disbelief. "A just cause and physical evidence? This man, your employer, was he Petra?"

"No. Zo."

The General slammed his fist on the desk. "Zo!" The hovering insects broke formation and fluttered away. "Where is this man now?" He demanded.

"I left him on the mountain 12 hours ago."

"Could you find your way back?"

"Yes. That is why I came."

"Good. I'm sending you with my 12th Battalion. Find him and bring him back here. We must contain this. Where's rest of the Token?"

"He still has two other pieces."

The General strolled up behind Rinacht and patted him on the back. "Rinacht, I know coming back here wasn't an easy thing to do. I commend you for facing your fears in light of what needed to be done. You've rescued part of the Token. You cannot fathom the service you've done for your country. Now my son, go and save the rest of it!

-

The Holy Master Cleric sat at his unnecessarily large desk scribbling a note on a pad of paper. An aid approached him from the side and whispered in his ear.

"Yes, I was expecting a report, but I'll hear from him directly." He answered the aid.

She signaled to the door assistant who ushered a young soldier into the room. They hurried across the polished tile floor, the distance exaggerated by unbroken emptiness between the door and the Holy Master's desk.

"Thank you for your faithful service young man." The Holy Master Cleric greeted the soldier. "We are indebted to the young souls who serve us in your capacity. But please, you wished to speak to me?" He signaled for the soldier to come closer.

"Yes, your holiness. Due to the nature of the report I felt it would be best to deliver it personally." The soldier explained.

"OK."

"We were under order to follow the Zo boy and his guardian when they took an unexpected trip into the mountains outside the city. The boy insisted on going up a steep
,
winding trail despite his chair.
Near the top of the trail
,
he wandered off into the underbrush and came back with a white glowing object.

"Upon closer inspection we determined it to be the Holy Botann Token."

"The Token? Your certain?" His Holy Master Cleric asked.

"We're fairly certain, yes." The soldier said.

"We'll need you to guide other personnel to the location as soon as you can."

"Of Course." The soldier said.

"Thank you, young man." He motioned to the door. The soldier turned and hurried the same way he'd come. The Holy Master leaned over to speak as if there were someone on his right even though no one was there. As soon as he made the motion an assistant rushed up to fill the empty space and hear the Master's command.

"Assemble the captains of the militias as well as the commander of the special guard. I want them here in twenty minutes."

-

Hander's woke up in a dark room lying in a bed next to a window. His head was spinning, but he sat up anyway. He couldn't remember where he was or how he got there. His wounds were dressed, and his clothes were clean.

He realized he wasn’t alone. Two figures were in the room with him. It was Bedic. He was sitting at a small table reading. The other, a small girl, was standing by his bed looking out the window behind him. She looked familiar. Had he seen her before? Ah yes, he remembered. She was in the room when he first met Bedic. His granddaughter. Moslin’s little girl.

"Thank you," Handers muttered.

Sinesh turned to him from the window and smiled. He leaned back to see what she was looking at. There was a mountain side a little ways off. They must still be in the mountains, he thought. Up on the mountain side something glowed in the darkness, partially obscured by the dense forest.

The faint light was beautiful. It was a beauty he'd grown very familiar with. So much, in fact, that seeing it from a distance had a strange effect on him. It wasn't until now that he realized how significant the separation was for him. The Token was gone. The light shining in the distance was for someone else now. That hurt him. He touched his top shirt pocket gently, feeling to make sure there was still something there. It was.

"Who has the Token?" Bedic demanded.

"What?" Handers wasn't prepared for the question.

"The Token." He pointed towards the pin point of light on the mountain side. "If Valance had it, it wouldn't be glowing."

"Valance only has a part of it."

"What do you mean he only has a part of it! Why didn't you tell me that?"

"I didn't know it was important."

The old man grabbed Handers by the shirt. "List to me boy, where is the rest of the Token?"