The Awakening (The Stones of Revenge) (12 page)

“Well obviously you survived, did any of your companions?” Landon asked hungry for more.

“That is the most interesting part. You see we made a plan to attack the army from each direction. I stood with my back to the cliff, Dathan stood on the Eastern flank while Abiram stood on the Western. The idea was to flood the field with the oil we had stolen so that when the archers fired their flaming arrows it would ignite the field causing confusion. I remember standing there watching the wave of people sweep over the hills slowly approaching our position. We only had a few minutes so we dumped the barrels of oil out in three lines one hundred yards apart. Then, Dathan used himself as bait to lure the soldiers into the exact position.

“As soon as the first wave was close enough, Abiram launched a volley of arrows into the men. He managed to kill a number of them before they split into two columns, one advancing upon him, the other upon me. Then, as if according to script, the army launched their second wave making sure we were hemmed in by the cliff. The second wave of soldiers created a solid wall behind the first making sure we had no way of escape. Then, they launched their own volley of flaming darts towards us. Immediately, the ground exploded into a conflagration of stripes and panic erupted amongst the troops. Seeing our chance, the three of us rushed to escape, but once we passed the first line of fire our hearts sank. There was no room to run for the last wave of men was advancing.

“In our shock, Abiram was caught from behind by one of the soldiers we had passed. Dathan rushed into the fray and sliced the man’s arm off freeing him. I had five men circling me and the only way open was back towards the cliff, so I took it. Running as swiftly as I could I raced away from the soldiers and their deadly weapons searching for any place to hide. For a moment, I thought I heard Dathan yelling for me, but it was drowned out in the cacophony. Seeing there was no way around the army I decided to try my luck with the cliff. I Searched for Abiram and Dathan but I couldn’t see through the flames and the men. We were all on our own and my destiny lied at the bottom of the ravine. I braced myself, threw up a short prayer and jumped.”

“How did you survive?” Landon asked reigning in Aquila to make a sharp turn around and old rotted tree.

“I have no idea. The next thing I remember was lying in a healer’s hut. They told me a man dressed in a black cloak had brought me there, but they had never seen him before. I never got the chance to thank him.”

“What about your friends?”

“I attempted to contact families, but I was told they had disappeared months before. I can only assume they were killed in the fight. Needless to say, I never stole anything from the state again.”

Gavin ended his story and stared at the road before them. Landon wanted to ask what he did afterwards, but decided it was best to save it for another time. They turned the last bend in this section of the road and spurred their horses forward into a gallop. The rest of the afternoon passed in hard riding. This section of the woods extended well into flat lands with sparse trees.

Soon night came and the two of them once again made camp in an open clearing. However, this time it was not near a creek. They had to walk back up the road half a mile to give their horses a drink. Once they were fed and set up for the night, the two men hurriedly fell asleep to prepare for the last days’ ride.

However, Landon awoke suddenly while the moon was still high in the night sky. Due to the scarcity of trees, Landon could see the full moon shining in all its brilliance. A massive windstorm swept through their camp rousing him from his sleep. Landon tried to sit up but was blown onto his back again from the thrust of the wind. Immediately he was reminded of the night before they entered the forest when lightning struck the trees and a similar gust had fed the flames causing more damage.
What could possibly cause this fierce blast of wind to appear out of nowhere, twice? It seemed that this forest carried more secrets than he knew. He lay there trapped for what seemed hours while the gusts flew by. In reality it had only been a few minutes before the storm dissipated.

He felt the pressure on his body ease and he sat up again without restriction. He looked about him and noticed that Gavin lay soundly asleep. The tempest hadn’t affected him at all. Landon believed he knew something and thought to inquire of him in the morning. At the present, he needed sleep, so he found his spot back on his bedding and looked up towards the dark canopy above him. He noticed a sudden break in the cloud cover and could see a few shimmering stars high above. He longed to be out of these woods and relax under the entire night sky again.  He stared at them for quite some time attempting to decipher which constellation they belonged to, but soon he found himself lost in sleep again.

The third and final morning came and the two men once again packed their camp and made way to leave the forest later that day. The riding this day was the fastest of the three and they made much progress as they journeyed through the trees. Landon noticed that the light became brighter the further they travelled as the canopy thinned out. The temperature also began to rise.

Soon they came to a bend in the road and slowed as they approached. Landon could see a bridge crossing a wide stream through the trees up ahead. As they rounded the corner they saw the bridge completely and realized they would have to ride single file to cross it. Gavin entered first feeling the weight of it with his horse. It seemed quite sturdy being built of solid oak, so he proceeded over it. Landon followed close behind and noticed as he crossed that the bridge hung a good thirty feet over the water. Had there been a rotted board somewhere the bridge would be their last. But as it happened there were no rotted nor loose boards and the two men crossed over uneventfully. That is until they were almost to the other side.

As they prepared to leave the bridge, a gang of four men appeared suddenly from behind the trees with bow and swords at the ready. The leader of the men was a stout man about six and half feet tall with no hair and a dark complexion. His voice resounded among the trees.

“Good day gents. My name is Kimball and I’m afraid I must exact a tax from you,” he bellowed.

“And if we refuse?” Gavin asked a fire already burning behind his eyes.

“You refuse, and we burn the bridge down with you on it,” another man replied holding a bow and carrying a flint sack.

“But if you burn the bridge, how will you cross it again?” Landon asked. The man with the arrow got a quizzical look on his face.

“Maybe I’ll just shoot you with the arrow and save the bridge.”

“You can try,” Gavin said drawing his sword. Landon took the cue and drew his own sword. The man with the arrow took two steps backward in obvious fear of Gavin. Kimball stepped in.

“Gentlemen, forgive my associate. Wolfe simply hasn’t eaten in a long while. This all needn’t come to bloodshed. Pay us our toll, and you can be on your way.”

“Besides, it’s two against four,” cut in a man holding an axe.

“Numbers mean nothing to me –” Gavin warned.

“He once fought an entire army single handed,” Landon encouraged. It seemed such a ludicrous statement but something in Landon’s voice and Gavin’s eye made the four men hesitant to challenge it.

Finally, the man with the axe said, “I highly doubt that. We would most assuredly have heard of it.

“I find it unlikely that four miscreants living in the woods would encounter enough civilized people to educate themselves on the matter,” Gavin retorted giving extra emphasis to each insult. Wolfe hesitated as if trying to understand Gavin’s words then, deciding they must have been insults, drew his arrow back itching to release it into Gavin’s heart.

“I’m going to ask one last time, then it will come to bloodshed,” Kimball said in a hushed tone his eyes narrowing.

“Then I shall refuse one final time.”

At that remark, Kimball gave a signal to Wolfe and he released his grip. The arrow sped unerringly towards Gavin who sat helplessly waiting for it to strike. Landon watched as the arrow inched closer to his companion’s heart as though in slow motion. Then, without warning, Gavin twitched his blade and the dart fell harmlessly to the ground split in two pieces. He dismounted before Wolfe had time to assess what transpired and charged him. Kimball moved to intercept Gavin.

Landon followed suit but was cut off at the bridge by the other two men. The first swung his axe and Landon leapt back. The axe hit the end post of the bridge and became wedged into it. The second man sidestepped his friend and aimed his sword at Landon’s throat. Feeling more confident against a sword, Landon parried the blade then returned with a blow to the head from the hilt of his sword. The man fell and didn’t move. He then turned his attention on the man with the axe. He had freed himself from the wood and was advancing upon Landon. Seeing his friend on the ground he bellowed in rage.

He charged at Aquila who was closer to him than Landon. Neighing, she reared up to defend herself with her front hooves. Landon arrived just in time to block the bandit’s axe from cleaving one of her legs off. Struggling against the weight of the axe, he pushed with all of his anger and caused the man to stumble backwards. A look of shock appeared in the man’s face. He had never expected Landon to be so strong. Landon moved into a defensive position between Aquila and his enemy.

Suddenly, the point of a blade appeared in the midst of the bandit’s chest. He looked down and his shock turned to horror as blood began to pour from his breast. Gavin withdrew the blade and tossed the man over the bridge into the river below. He then turned towards the man on the ground.

“Is he dead?” he asked.

“No, he is only unconscious.” Landon said. Gavin nodded his understanding then drew his sword high in the air preparing to strike.

“You can’t!” Landon cried.

“And why shouldn’t I? He quite possibly is a part of a larger band waiting nearby who will regroup and come after us. We cannot risk letting him live.”

“I will not be a part of this!”

At that moment, the man opened his eyes and saw them standing nearby arguing. He immediately grabbed his sword and made to attack Gavin. Gavin make one quick block then easily stabbed his sword through the man’s heart keeping him still for good. Landon knew he had not killed the man in cold blood, but the fact that he was willing to left him with a shiver in his spine.

Leaving the three men where they lay, Gavin and Landon mounted their horses, crossed the bridge, and hurried on their way in silence. Not a word was spoken for over two hours. It was only once they reached the forest’s edge and the waning sunlight from the day filled their eyes that the stillness was broken. Before them lay a straight road which ran through a small verdant plain and eventually wound up the very tall mountain directly in front of them.

“That is our way. Ellington lies at the summit.”

Chapter
Twelve

An Unexpected Meeting

Gavin and Landon raced across the open land toward the massive summit before them. Landon remained amazed at the events which had just transpired. He knew that he would be forced to fight one of these days but his conviction never to kill again was put to the test today. He knew that had Gavin not shown up his opponent would not have hesitated to kill him, as Landon had.  This made him question himself.
Was a principle worth believing in if it costs you your life?
Isn’t preservation of life more important?
He felt torn within his heart. The regret he felt on the day he had killed that bandit was like nothing he had ever faced. Such an act as taking a man’s life was irreversible, but there was something inside him that wanted to defend himself on that bridge and that could not be ignored.

As he rode Aquila towards the massive peak before them, the sun moved slowly towards the horizon, bathing the lowlands in an orange glow. Images of rolling waves of blood was all Landon could see; the blood on his and Gavin’s hands. He began to wonder if all of this was worth discovering the secret of his father’s ring. How many lives was it worth? So far it had cost Landon only one life, but deep down he knew he would have to take another eventually.

Trying to shake the thoughts from his head, Landon kept his gaze on the rounded crest lying before them. It was a structure he had heard of many times before but never seen. Stories of the famous Ellington Cap had been told by many travelers in caravans that came annually to Camsbury as well as from traders in the taverns. But never did they explain it to look this majestic. In the setting sun the purple mountain’s rim glowed on its west side portraying a halo of light on its surface from the golden rays. For a brief moment the mountain resembled a benevolent sentinel king keeping watch over his beloved kingdom.

Landon saw how much calmer the world might be with a benevolent king in power instead of the backstabbing Lords who now ruled. He hoped for a day when such a person would rise and blast away the power of the Lords replacing them with a strong hand that could unite the realm in a true peace. With the recent knowledge Gavin had shared about the political landscape, he felt the turmoil now more than ever. He knew that soon a dam would burst washing the realm in a war that would consume many more innocent lives. If his ring truly held power, Landon knew he had the responsibility to use it to defend them from this kind of atrocity. He just hoped this trip would not be in vain. Not to mention, he was growing weary of Gavin.

The sun fell behind the massive rim of Ellington Cap taking with it the golden crown. The two men rode on in the growing twilight feeling the ever looming presence of the mountain.

“Did you know the Cap was once a terrible volcano that destroyed many towns in its fury?” Gavin explained.

“Is that so?” Landon said with irritation in his voice.

“Indeed. You see, many ages ago the men in these parts of the world resolved to find a way to end the mountain’s reign of terror.”

“How do you stop a volcano?” Landon asked as though the idea perturbed him.

“That was their question. They decided the answer was to block the flow of molten lava with as much rock as they could. So they quarried and quarried and built and built. Finally, Mount Ellington was capped with stones nearly to its brim. However, disaster nearly struck a few months after their glorious achievement when the mountain grew angry at the restraints the people had placed upon it. It took revenge upon the towns by unleashing its full fury.

“The ground rumbled violently and steam arose from the cracks in the cap. Suddenly, the molten rock erupted from under the ground but it was met with a strong resistance from the structure created within the volcano’s core. Pressure grew under the stones burning and melting the rocks. Over time the rocks hardened into one solid mass. The mountain, however, did not give up and continued to push against the cap. Eventually the pressure caused a violent explosion that blasted off the west side of the mountain. With the rocks solidified the lava flow became permanently blocked. The mountain was silenced and has not uttered a word since.”

“That is a fascinating story, but as usual, the point to it escapes me.”

“I’m simply trying to make conversation. If this troubles you, I will stop,” Gavin said calmly but with a tinge of hurt in his voice. Immediately Landon felt his stomach sink. Perhaps Gavin really was trying to change and his lack of effort might make things irreversible between them. They did have to rely on each other for however long they would be together.

“I apologize. I’m simply uneasy about what happened earlier today.”

“It is understandable. You are unfamiliar with bloodshed.”

“I am all
too
familiar with bloodshed, actually,” Landon retorted.

“Fascinating, that is a story I would very much like to hear.”

“I’d rather not.” Landon glanced at Gavin with a fierce anger in his eye and Gavin knew the reason why.

“I take it your knowledge comes from the unfortunate act of taking another’s life out of necessity?”

“What do you know?” Landon exploded. “You sit there and claim to know so much about the world, but you know nothing of me!”

“I know that your father was a great man who bequeathed to you a gift of extreme importance. I know that your mother was a woman of such elegance and beauty that women grew jealous at her entrance to a room. I know you have a deep seated emptiness within you for not having the opportunity to meet them. And I know from your reaction to bloodshed, that your abhorrence to it can only have resulted from the intimate knowledge that only comes when you deprive a man of his last breath,” Gavin said calmly. Landon sat silent bemused at the truth Gavin had just spoken especially of his parents.

“Yes, I killed a man in self-defense, and I never will again,” he said quietly.

“For your sake, I truly hope that comes to fruition; however, we have many dangers ahead and many people will try to stand in your way once you have been discovered. You may soon find that your principles are not as easily stood upon.”

In his heart, Landon was beginning to fear that Gavin was right, but he refused to respond. Instead he watched as the sky darkened into twilight and searched for a suitable location for the night. Gavin did the same and offered a solution.

“At the base of the Cap there used to live an old hermit. I met him many years ago on my travels. If he is still alive perhaps we may find shelter for the night. But I warn you, he has a very strange way about him, so be very tight lipped about our business.”

Landon nodded his understanding and within minutes they came upon an old shack nestled into the hillside a few yards off of the path with a few tall trees scattered about. There were no lanterns or candles lit which made the place seemed deserted. Landon serious questioned whether this hermit still lived there. The two men rode up to the shack and Gavin dismounted. Landon watched as he walked up to the door, but instead of knocking, Gavin ran his hand along the door as though he was searching for something.

His hand stopped about a third of the way from the top. Gavin scratched at the door until he was able to retrieve what looked like a small rock then he placed into his pocket. Turning to Landon he said quietly, “Look for a thick branch about the length of your arm.”

Landon dismounted and began searching for any piece of a broken limb he could find. The hunt was difficult due to the limited fading light. He scoured the ground near one of the large pine trees keeping his face close to the ground but he could not find a single piece of wood. Suddenly, the ground lit up and Landon could see a pile of broken branches about ten yards away. He hurriedly picked up the nearest branch and turned to see where the light was coming from.

Behind him, Gavin had already found a branch and after wrapping the end with a piece of cloth, he had lit it on fire creating a torch. Landon looked at the branch in his hands then tossed it aside hurrying back to the shack. When he arrived, Gavin was busy searching the ground.

“What are we looking for?” he asked.

“There used to be a large wooden door built into the earth. According to the stone I retrieved, it should be about fifty steps from the door. Forty-six, forty-seven, forty-eight,” he began counting aloud. “Forty-nine, fifty.” Gavin stopped and bent over the ground with his torch revealing nothing but grass and leaves.

“Looks like whatever was here is gone,” Landon said. Without answering Gavin knelt down and began to feel the ground hoping to find some clue as to what happened. Landon watched as he ran his hand along the ground in a square shape. Suddenly, he thrust his fingers into the leaves and began removing them from the area. Fistful by fistful the pile of leaves disappeared and a small square of grass with definite boundaries began to appear in the ground. Finally, he reached under the grass at the edge of the square and lifted the entire patch into the air revealing a hidden cave.

He knocked on the side of the walls which gave back a hollow sound. He thrust the torch forward into the hole to reveal a wooden ladder they could use to climb down. Landon didn’t like the idea of crawling into a dark tunnel underground but he liked even less the prospect of spending the night in the shadow of the shack. He glanced back at it. The old shingles and the broken windows snarled back at him with hate. Darkness emanated from within. The hairs on the back of Landon’s neck stood up.

“Get the horses and tie them up to the posts on the backside of the house away from the road. Then return here.”  Landon wanted to protest not desiring to be nearer to the building, but he did as he was told and found Gavin waiting for him on the steps of the ladder when he returned. He handed Landon the torch and slowly began to lower himself down. Landon leaned over the hole trying to give Gavin as much light as possible. About fifteen steps down Gavin stopped.

“This is the bottom. You can go ahead and come down.”

Carefully Landon eased himself onto the ladder with torch in hand and climbed down the steps. When he had cleared the rim of the hole, Landon closed the door above him and continued his way down. Near the bottom Gavin retrieved the light allowing Landon to finish his descent.  Looking around all Landon could see was a short narrow passageway that led to a solid wooden door. The two men approached it, and Gavin knocked hard and loud with three solid pounds. Behind the door they heard a metallic clanking sound and the shuffling of feet. Finally a man’s voice echoed from behind the door.

“What do you want?” a feeble but stern voice asked.

“We seek shelter for the night,” Gavin said. The man opened a tiny slit in the top of the door.

“Show me your mark, otherwise pray you will survive the night.” Gavin reached into his pocket and pulled out the small stone he had taken from the door. He held it up to the man under the torchlight.

“I see,” the man said inspecting it, “very well.” The man unlatched the door and opened it as an invitation.

“You go in first. I’ll follow,” Gavin said. Landon figured they had already come this far, it couldn’t get any worse.

Behind the door, the sides of the tunnel had been crafted into a stairway made of hardened earth which provided a fairly easy descent. Once at the bottom, Landon needed Gavin’s torch to see his next step because it was pitch black. He paused for a minute allowing Gavin to secure the door and catch up to him. The torchlight revealed a long passageway which dead-ended into a ninety degree turn left or right. At the end of the hallway, the three men turned right then followed the passageway until it turned sharply again to the left. This led to a new long corridor which fed into a large chamber lit by candles hanging in a wooden round from the ceiling. Along the sides of the chamber were shelves of jars stacked to the ceiling. At the end of the large room were two wooden doors one on either side of the wall.

“What is in the jars?” Landon asked

“Suppose you should tell me what two men are doing in this part of the world digging up secret doors leading to underground caverns?”

“Forget it.”

The old man let him drop the issue and led them to the door on the left.

“Gentlemen, behind this door you will find lodging for the both of you. Help yourselves to any comfort which I own but I warn you, venture not into the tunnels from whence we came. Only death exists there.” He stopped to look deep into both of their eyes to ensure they understood his counsel. Then, as though struck suddenly by an ill thought, his gaze arrested on Landon’s right hand. His head turned sideways and his eyes glazed over as if he were in a trance.  Landon flinched as if about to recoil when a quick glance from Gavin told him to relax and give in.  Landon did so and watched as the man inspected his ring without touching it. For an awkward few minutes Landon stood still wondering what the crazed man would do next. Then just as suddenly as it began the man stood tall and carried on about his business. Landon and Gavin entered their room for the night and closed the door.

“Do you suppose he knows of my ring?”

“It is very possible.  Mavin knows many things about the world. He has seen parts that many have dreamed of. Then of course, he may just have thought your ring looked nice. Either way, I’d take care tonight,” Gavin warned and Landon was unsure if he was serious.