*****
Slowly consciousness returned and with it the sensation of pain, which kept my eyelids firmly shut. My head felt like it had been used in a game of street ball.
I became aware of the sensation of something else disturbing, a rocking motion of my whole body. Yes, I was swinging, or maybe I had been hit harder on the head than I had realized. Heat! The sensation of heat also occurred to me. The thought of swinging, combined with heat, reminded me of a pig roast, except in this scenario I would be the substitute for the pig. Panic at the possibility of being cooked over a fire can provide amazing recuperative powers. I sat up in my swinging prison and opened my eyes painfully against the bright light. Coming quickly to an awareness of my surroundings, I was glad to see that there was not a fire kindled beneath me. Instead it had been the heat of the mid afternoon sun beating down on me that I had felt. As for the swinging, I was suspended in a sturdy looking wooden cage, which hung over the side of a wagon.
Hearing the murmur of voices coming from behind me, I turned as best as I could within the tight confines of my suspended prison, still not comprehending the situation well. A cold liquid sensation engulfed me from my head down as I saw a figure off to my right throw something at me. Coming to a full realization, I looked around me as water dripped off my face.
A large group of angry people were gathered along a narrow bench in the lee side of the hill that overlooked the Kurt’s family farm in the valley below. Near the edge of the gorge, surrounded by Zoarinian guards, stood the Kurt family. Gripping the bars of my cage with white knuckled fingers I tried to call out to them, but was stopped by a voice off to my right.
“It won’t do you any good to cry out to them, Roric. Besides, haven’t you caused them enough trouble already?”
I turned my attention to the voice’s owner and saw the robed figure from the citadel, who had tortured Treorna. Every fiber in my being united in that instant in an overwhelming desire to see this man, if you could call him that, utterly destroyed.
Meeting my stare and seeming to take great amusement from what he saw there, he leaned forward and tauntingly said, “Yes, I know you hate me. How helpless you must feel, almost as helpless as poor dear Treorna was. She begged for me to kill her in the end, crushed by the fact that her God did not come to her rescue. I, of course, had to heed her request. So I cut out her heart while she recanted of her treasonous betrayal of the sacred trust bestowed on her as a high priestess.”
I lunged for him, a guttural roar passing through my lips. My fingers narrowly missed the fabric of his clothes, as I reached for him through the bars. He stepped back from my cage laughing uproariously at my attempt to grab him.
His cold lifeless eyes flickering their disdain for me reminded me of a snake. He spoke again, “Don’t worry Roric, the headache you’ve caused us will soon be over; but first what do you say to a little entertainment? Oh, by the way, the name’s Marfoul, the author of your demise and all you hold dear.” He gave me a mock bow.
Marfoul rose from his bow cockily and then pranced away from me towards the crowd gathered on the cliff top overlooking the canyon. “Good people of the Zoarinian Uplands, loyal friends of the cities of the Plain, hear my words.”
The crowd ceased their muttering as they turned all their attention to the devilishly commanding figure in front of them. “These citizens that stand before you are spies of our hated nemesis, the Valley Landers.”
Boos erupted from the crowd.
“Yes, yes I know. It’s hard for me to believe too, that people such as these could make their home in our midst under the pretense of being loyal citizens, and all the while they were plotting our demise behind our backs.”
Roars of anger erupted from the crowd as they pushed against the guards holding them back from the Kurt family, who were arrayed along the cliff’s edge.
“Should we offer them forgiveness for their trespasses and let them go?” Marfoul asked.
Shouts of "No, kill them!" erupted from the crowd.
Marfoul shrugged his shoulders and glanced at me, his eyes sparkling with mischief, “What can I say, the people have spoken. Who am I to say otherwise?”
Shaking the bars of my cage I screamed, “Let them go! They’ve done nothing wrong! If it’s blood you want then kill me, but let them go! They’re innocent!”
Marfoul laughed as he advanced toward Samantha, “Afraid I can’t do that Roric. They are, after all, traitors for harboring and abetting you. Worse than that, they are Creator-worshipers.”
He seemed to spit out the last word with utter hatred. Turning to the crowd he announced jubilantly, “I think it’s time to get the festivities you came to see underway, don’t you?”
The crowd roared its approval, not knowing what was going to happen but expecting to see a good show, especially whenever one of the Temple Brotherhood was involved.
Marfoul reached an arm around Samantha’s shoulder, who tried her best to pull back from him, but he wouldn’t let her. She was at the end of the line. Her three boys and Dorie stood between her and Eliak. All of them had their hands bound in front of them, connected to a single length of rope.
Suddenly, Marfoul bent and kissed Samantha forcefully on the mouth for a long moment, even as she resisted bitterly. Eliak roared like an enraged bull and started toward Samantha and Marfoul, but was brought up short by several spears leveled against him.
Marfoul drew his head back sharply, blood staining his lip from where Samantha had managed to bite him. He struck her sharply across the face with the back of his hand.
Marfoul, seeing that Eliak was about ready to walk through spear points to get to his wife’s side, sneered and said, “Well, if you want her that much big boy, go and get her!” And with that taunt, Marfoul shoved Samantha over the cliff’s edge.
Samantha’s face was white with terror as she fell, but she mouthed three words to her family before she disappeared over the edge.
“Samantha!” Eliak roared out, as he ran towards the edge of the cliff.
The slack quickly disappeared from the line between Samantha and her eldest son, and as the line drew taught it jerked him off his feet along with his two brothers and Dorie. He slid off the side of the cliff after his mother before he had a chance to catch a grip on the cliff top. He was soon followed by his brothers and sister. They tried desperately to hold onto something to halt their free fall, but failed to do so as they were dragged toward the edge screaming hysterically in terror. As Dorie disappeared over the edge she screamed out, “Daddy!”
It could have all been over then but for one thing: One man’s love for his family and the will to do whatever it took to protect them. Uttering a cry that rocked the hills, Eliak bellowed, “Creator give me strength!”
The rope went taut and the crowd sucked in a collective gasp. Eliak remained standing, how I do not know. He was poised on the very edge of the gorge with the rope gripped in his bloody hands. Giving one great heave, he jerked up on the rope and managed to get it over his shoulder. Blood ran freely from his bound hands where the rope sawed into his wrists. He turned away from the cliff’s edge.
It looked like he would be pulled over backwards for one moment when he turned, but he managed to stabilize himself and then he began to walk. Short step by short step, the rope inched up over the cliff’s edge. Dust rose from each heavy laden step forward, and all that could be heard in the stillness was the heavy breathing of Eliak.
The crowd remained breathless, as they witnessed the super human struggle taking place before them. Suddenly, Dorie was at the cliff top pulled along by her father as she made every effort to stand and help ease her father’s burden. The youngest boy made it over the cliff’s edge, slowly followed by the second oldest boy. Both boys fought to get to their feet.
Gaining their feet they began to trudge after their father with all their heart. The untested muscles of two boys performing more than many a grown man’s ever will. Elim, the oldest boy, made
it over the edge and got to his feet and added his strength to the line.
Eliak fell heavily to his knees, the life spent out of him, but he still continued to crawl forward, even as droplets of blood sprayed the dust in front of him from lungs that were shattered from the strain of the pull.
Finally Samantha made it to the cliff top, as her lips moved fervently in what I knew were prayers to her Creator. Samantha and her children rushed to their father’s side just as he collapsed into the dust of the cliff top. They gathered around him, touching him with their bound and bloody hands, praying fervently for his life like only a praying family can.
Tears streamed down my face as I gripped the bars of my cage impotently. I turned my head to glance at Marfoul. All smiles and false joviality were gone and were now openly replaced with a naked hatred that radiated out from every part of his being.
Marfoul lifted his arm and broke the stillness of the moment, “Kill them! Kill them now!”
As dazed guards clumsily rushed forward to do his bidding a miraculous thing happened. I felt as if I must be dreaming, even though I knew I wasn’t. A strong wind blew onto the cliff top, knocking the hats off several of the onlookers in the crowd.
A void of air formed immediately, following in its wake, which seemed to suck all the breathable air from the cliff top. Breathless, I watched as flashing thunderclouds that blocked out the sun materialized all around us.
In my days in the arena I had spent many nights locked up in rusty metal cages when thunderclouds like these would storm in. Those nights had been a living horror for us, who had been locked up in those cages.
Continuous air to ground lightning strikes would occur all around us as we sat huddled in the middle of our cages, soaked and shivering in fear from the storm and the dampness of the rain. I had learned early on to stay away from the bars and standing pools of water after having witnessed one man blown apart from a lightning strike to his cage, against which he had been leaning. It had left a lasting impression on me and a respect for the power of lightning. This storm had no lightning, but it had the electric feel of it all the same.
The crowd and guards drew back in fear. Marfoul, seemingly coming unhinged by the fast approaching storm, screamed at the guards, “Kill them now, you carrion swine!”
The guards, coming out of their daze, moved back towards the Kurt family, who hadn’t moved the whole time nor ceased from praying. The guards, now more afraid of Marfoul than the approaching storm, rushed to do their assigned task with swords lifted high. The storm hit the cliff top and out of it materialized beings clothed in flame. They strode purposefully from the storm towards the cliff top. Each fiery being intercepted one of the guards headed for the Kurt family.
Their appearance was fierce and terrible, and as they approached they lifted one hand and withdrew swords that seemed to be made of light itself from behind their backs. In one fluid overhand, downward motion they ended the lives of the stunned guards. As the guards hit the ground, the warriors of the storm turned towards the crowd and advanced purposefully towards them. At their approach, the crowd broke and fled, trampling over each other in their haste to get away from the flaming swords of the avenging warriors behind them. After the crowd had fled I looked around for Marfoul, but he was nowhere to be seen.
Then I saw two of the warriors headed my way, while the others gathered around the Kurt family, who seemed to be in a world all of their own as they prayed. I watched the warriors of fire approach and knew that I too was going to die soon. As they drew near I tried to maintain eye contact, but could not and looked down awaiting the killing stroke that would end it all. Instead I was greeted with silence and a long pause, which caused me to look up tentatively.
They stood there and seemed to be waiting for me to acknowledge them in some way. “Are you going to kill me?” I asked.
They smiled, which caused a feeling of peace to well up inside of me, despite the fury of their presence and appearance. One spoke, “No, it has been appointed for you to see what is going to take place here and to be strengthened and encouraged by it. Come and see what the Lord will do.”
“But I……” No sooner had I had begun to say that I couldn’t because of the cage I was in, than I found myself on my feet walking in the direction they indicated.
I stopped when they did, one on either side of me. There on the cliff’s edge, seemingly unaffected by all that had transpired around them, kneeled the Kurt family, still deep in prayer. I felt like I was in a trance as one of the storm warriors that had freed me left my side, approached the Kurt family and knelt down by Eliak’s side. He leaned forward and touched Eliak with a pierced hand. Nothing happened for a moment and then I saw Eliak move and get to his feet, followed by his family.
The ropes fell off their hands as they did so and piled up at their feet. Incredulous, I turned to the warrior directly to my left, “How is that possible?”
“As it is written, ‘The prayer of a righteous man availeth much,’” said the warrior angel.
“Watch.” The angel gestured with one hand towards the Kurt family.
The figure who had touched Eliak was saying something to them that I could not make out, but the whole family seemed to be hanging on every word that was spoken to them. The man who spoke held his hand out and over the cliff’s edge, and immediately a doorway wreathed in light formed in the darkness of the storm cloud. Without hesitation Eliak, holding Samantha’s hand, moved toward the door, walking through thin air to get to it. He paused at the door and let Samantha pass through ahead of him and then the rest of his family, one by one.
The light was indescribably beautiful as it shimmered from the doorway in waves of color too numerous to count and in brilliance too difficult to describe with words. The shimmering light obscured what lay beyond the doorway. “Where are they going?” I asked, completely awestruck by what I was seeing.
My fellow observer, in a tone that expressed wonder at what he too was watching said, “To a place prepared for those who believe in the Son of the Creator and obey His Father’s statutes; a people that willingly forgo the sinful pleasures of this world. A peculiar people, who seek the heavenly Father’s desire for their lives first, as they lay all other cares aside. It is for these people, who have no place here in this world and for whom this world is not worthy, that such a resting place has been prepared until scripture is fulfilled and the end has come and all things are made brand new.”
I watched as Eliak disappeared through the doorway, followed by the Kurt family protectors. Not fully understanding what I was seeing, but knowing the deep yearning I felt within me for what I knew to be the truth, fully understood or not, I asked, “Can I go with them?”
A voice of authority, which felt as if it could crush me and yet breathed life into me at the same moment, spoke off to my right, “There is a place for you there Roric, and for all who have asked forgiveness in My name and live a life sanctified before Me.”
I fell to my face, unable to stand face to face with my Creator’s Son. Everything I had done wrong or imperfectly in this life rose up against me like a suffocating cloud of oppression.
“A repentant heart is precious to the Father. Be bound no more by your past deeds and your fears of the future; for I am with you always.”
Unable to speak past the waves of emotion racing through me, I still framed a word in my mind, “Why?”
“Because I love you. So much so that I died for you and rose again so that you might live forever with Me in my Father’s presence. Stand now, Roric.”
I was on my feet facing the Savior of all mankind, without knowing how I got there. I recognized the figure of the man then as the one who had healed Eliak. How could I not have known who He was earlier? It was so clear now!
“Roric, will you follow me?”
“Yes!” I said, without hesitation.
“Will you obey me and go where I will send you?”
“Yes!”
“Forsaking everything for my namesake, even your life?”
Panic filled me. Was I going to fail? Was this a test? I stuttered to form an answer, suddenly unsure of anything when it came to my own strength to do the simplest of things,
“I’m weak, but if You help me I will do it.”
“It is enough, as My grace is sufficient for thee and My strength is made manifest through your weakness. Go, and may the Spirit of the Creator that dwells even now within you, comfort and strengthen you for the tasks I have set for you. Call upon My name and I will hear you and rescue you from all your enemies and troubles. I will never leave you nor forsake you. Roric, know that the plans I have for you are good and not evil. Be at peace and become one of My precious jewels, set in a place of honor for all eternity. The harvest is ready, but the workers are few and yet My Father’s will shall be accomplished. Awake to your place, Roric, set your hand to accomplish My Father’s will and be blessed.” He smiled then and began to walk away with the remaining protector towards the door in the storm.
Almost frantic I yelled out, “Master wait! What is it that I should do for You?”
Turning He said, “Be My holy warrior first and foremost and live according to My Father’s Word and His Holy Words only and all will go well with you. As you learn the Words of My Father and depend on His Spirit to guide you on your journey, the hidden mysteries since the foundation of all creation will be revealed to you. You will see through the darkness and overturn the blindness and oppression of many. If you but believe and pray down the Creator’s blessings, nothing will be too great for you to accomplish in My Father’s name.”
My Master turned towards the door and stepped through it, which melted around Him into nothingness. There was the sound, as if a thousand lightning bolts went off at once and then there was complete silence as the clouds disappeared.
I blinked my eyes against the harsh early afternoon sunlight that had suddenly appeared and blinded me. I wheeled around and surveyed the cliff top, as I shielded my eyes with one hand. Everyone was gone except for the dead guards and what the crowd had left behind in their mass exodus to escape.
Had everything I remembered really just happened on this quiet and deserted cliff top? I felt such a lightness of spirit within me! The Spirit of the Creator within me felt like a happy babbling brook overwhelming its banks in the time of spring rains. I let it. My mouth fell open and words with no meaning to me poured forth in exaltation and praise to my Heavenly Father. A sense of purpose and a feeling of being loved welled up inside of me such as I had never felt so keenly before.
“Thank You God, for freedom from the bonds of this world. May I ever please You and never disappoint You.”
Feeling released by the Holy Spirit I stood, but it would have been nice to stay in that place of oneness with my Creator forever. I walked over to the cliff’s edge and peered into the valley below. Smoke still rose from the ashes of what had once been the Kurt family’s homestead. Anger at the senseless destruction of a place that had been like a home to me these past few weeks caused my fists to clench tight. People like Marfoul, that could commit such atrocities, had to be confronted and now I had the heavenly authority to do it. Turning from the cliff’s edge, I looked through what had been left on the cliff top.
I personally didn’t care for any of the poorly made weapons the guards had on them and I had all but given up hope, when I came across a set of three Nizak fighting knives on the last guard. Forged by the hill tribesman of the Khartian Mountains, they were excellently made. They measured a little over a foot from hilt to point and were slightly curved up towards the point, but not too far to negate their ability to be thrown accurately. Their true usefulness in battle was in close hand-to-hand combat, one in either hand with the third in the waistband to replace a thrown or lost knife, if need be.
They were the only things worth taking from the cliff top. Gathering them up and stashing them in my waistband I headed northwest towards the Valley Lands. I hadn’t gone very far when I came to a small stream lazily making its way down the steep hill. Overcome with thirst, I drank deeply as I splashed water up onto my head. My head still hurt from the blow I had received earlier in the day and the cold water helped with the pain.
I heard rustling in the brush across the stream from me. Going completely still, but poised to move at a moment’s instance, I slowly lifted my head to look across the stream. There stood the stallion named Flin, saddled and fully provisioned. He was munching on some tender leaves from the bush he stood next to. Eliak or one of the boys must have saddled and loosed him before the Zoarinians could intervene. Lifting my head heavenward, I said a silent thank you for the provision of the gift I had thought lost to me. Looking back at Flin, I saw him flick his head over his shoulder in the direction of the Valley Lands.
“Okay boy, we’ll go. Have some patience, it’s been a long day.”
I got tiredly up to my feet, grateful that I had a horse to ride. My head throbbed steadily as I approached Flin and laid my hand on his neck and then pulled myself into the saddle. He accepted me as his master without resistance, of which more than just my sore head was grateful.
A Warrior's Redemption Page 18