The Mahogany Door

by Mark Boliek

Chapter 23

  JT and Kali were led by Atal and a group of soldiers down the long corridors of the Godwin Castle. The burning afternoon Bruinduer sun was starting its final descent and rested on top of the Bruinduer mountains. Godwin guards and citizens continued to run about the castle in confusion. It was a myriad of survivors having no idea how to cope with the tragic destruction of the Bridge of Common.

  Some subjects voiced that the Council of Common would know how to deal with the situation while others were not so sure that the council would be much help at all. Others, however, voiced the need for help from another source, one JT had heard earlier as the bridge crumbled and people desperately searched for loved ones; Kawaida.

  JT and Kali quickly found themselves outside of the castle where they were led down a long embankment. Halfway down, JT noticed a young woman sitting with a small boy. JT recognized the voice. It was the same fair voice that he had encountered at the bridge just before he and Kali crossed back into Godwin. The young woman was hoodless now and her skin was pasty but her eyes were warm and soft. She had the aura of a comforted soul. Her long, black hair flowed gently in the air as she gazed downward at her child caressing the young boy’s head.

  ‘Kawaida will help us,’ the woman stated with a floating, wispy voice. ‘He is here as he has always been. It was foolish for us to think that he had gone.’ Her eyes shot up to JT. ‘Yes, Kawaida will help us.’ She raked her hand one last time through the young child’s hair. JT’s emotions turned to pity for the woman and her child. He had seen the bridge explode and he knew that no one could have stopped the disaster, and even if Kawaida existed, his help would come too late.

  ‘Kwad…, Kiki…, whatever -- there’s that name again. Who’s that woman talking about?’ JT asked glancing at Kali and hoping for an answer. ‘The man who gave us Joshua and Gabriel mentioned that name too,’ JT added. Kali said nothing, but looked at Atal in hopes of a possible explanation. Atal stared straight ahead ignoring JT and Kali.

  ‘Gosh,’ JT spoke toward Atal. ‘You rescued us from the desert. At least give us a hint or something.’ JT pleaded. He didn’t know why, but he felt a small rush of confidence and certainty run through his body. Though Atal was taking him away, he felt safe beside the man with the black, bushy beard in spite of the fact that he was leading him for the second time to a dungeon cell.

  ‘JT, you’re nuts. He doesn’t know who that Kada…, Kada…, cockamamie is.’ Kali’s tone was angry, but JT quickly thought for a second that she was trying the same trick on Atal that she played on Michael to get him to reveal information that usually was difficult to receive. Throughout the adventure, she seemed to be a master on how to push other people’s buttons.

  ‘Kawaida is a myth of the people that live here in Bruinduer,’ Atal stated as he continued to lead JT and Kali to the dungeon. His voice was solemn and serene as he spoke. ‘He was a being of great power and intellect and was believed to have created and aided this world and everyone in it. That’s until greed came into Bruinduer.’ He turned and leaned into JT. ‘But like I said, it’s only a myth.’

  JT shook his head and thought sincerely. This Kawaida- koo- koo person, or thing then couldn’t possibly be Billy these people are calling for, right? The Vryheid were the ones who created Bruinduer.

  The trio and guards walked just a little longer and entered a dark, brick building. They marched down narrow passageways past other cells that were empty. Toward the end of one of the corridors, two of the Godwin guards creaked opened two large iron doors across from each another. Atal pointed JT to enter one cell. He then led Kali into the other one. He slammed the great iron doors closed and locked each with two loud cracks. He stood silently between the two cells. He appeared as though he wanted someone to ask him a question, as he looped the keys with his finger and rocked on his heels. The two other Godwin guards left the building. Kali went and lie down on a long, hard steel bench with a gray wool blanket and very thin pillow.

  ‘I could use a bath,’ Kali mumbled and then covered herself, ‘but at least this cell is cleaner that the last one.’ She was very indifferent as to what was happening. She was horrifically shocked at the explosion of the bridge, and at that moment, she was really happy just to be alive. She thought that being in the cell alone meant that she would not have to endure any great moment of adrenaline laced excitement, at least for the time being. She was exhausted and fell asleep rather quickly.

  JT continued to pat his hair free of dust as he listened to Kali lament. Atal continued to stand, rock back and forth, and wait between the cells as he stared into space.

  JT sat on his steel bench and placed his elbows on his knees and rested his chin in his hands peering at Atal. ‘What’s going to happen now?’

  After he heard JT’s question, Atal became still and turned to JT. ‘The Council of Common will hear what both sides have to say. You see, King Michael will hopefully go before the council and ask them to investigate why the Bridge of Common was destroyed.’ His voice was cynical and he gave JT a sarcastic nod and smirk.

  ‘Yeah, that’s all good,’ JT responded, ‘but Charlie already said that he wanted to destroy all of us. I don’t need some kind of council to tell me that.’

  ‘That’s why I insisted to King Michael that we needed to attack Charlie first before he had a chance to muster his entire army for an assault on Godwin.’ Atal angled his eyes to the floor, placed his arms behind his back, and shook his head. ‘It’s really quite useless, the Council of Common.’

  JT didn’t respond. He watched Atal Leer as he stared at the smooth concrete floor of the prison appearing to mull over the purpose of the Council of Common. JT then looked into Kali’s cell. She hadn’t made a sound. She lay motionless except for the slight movement of the wool blanket as it rose with every gentle breath she took. He wanted to be with her. He wanted to tell her everything was going to be all right, but for some reason he felt the worst was yet to come. He desperately wanted someone to pinch him so that he would wake up from this very intense nightmare and discover that he never left his bed in the Shorts’ farmhouse.

  A slight burst of wind shot through the hallway of the prison. The breeze brushed through the corridors and cells as though it were hunting for something, or someone. The gust of air tipped Atal Leer’s turban off of his head. Atal reached for the turban and JT saw Kali shiver from the coolness of the moving air and she clutched her blanket tight around her neck. As Atal rose back to his feet he wheeled back to JT and placed his face against the bars.

  ‘Come with me,’ Michael’s loyal subject said in a low whisper.

  ‘What?’ JT answered. ‘Go with you - where?’

  ‘To the Council Chamber. I’ll take you to the hearing.’ Atal very carefully, trying not to jingle too loudly, released the cell door keys from his palm. He glared into JT’s eyes.

  JT swiveled his head to his left and then to the right. The waning night was still and cold. JT gathered his thoughts and pondered why Atal was doing this. His brain was working at light speed as his thoughts shifted into a jumbled mess. He didn’t want Atal to have the chance to change his mind.

  Quickly, in a voice that matched Atal’s tone he answered, ‘Yes, I’ll follow you.’

  Atal smiled at JT. It was a strange smile as though he knew he wasn’t supposed to be letting a prisoner free, especially a prisoner his king had told him specifically to lock away. However, with a quick shrug and a wink in JT’s direction, Atal released JT.

  JT thought briefly back at his intense confrontation with the Triton guard in the great pyramid and how he faced him in hand-to-hand combat to secure his freedom. He wondered if he should attack Atal, free Kali, and then flee, but he suddenly felt as though he had nothing to worry from Atal. It was difficult to place, but he felt no bad intentions from the Godwin subject.

  JT quickly glanced over to Kali who was still fast asleep on her metal slab and felt assured that as he left her there she would at least be safe behind bars and no harm could in
itially reach her.

  JT and Atal snuck silently out of the prison and down the winding roads of Godwin. The streets were completely silent. No one was running about trying to make sense of the exploding bridge and the confusion that followed the aftermath. The houses were dark and the curtains drawn. Fear had engulfed Godwin.

  ‘Why are you doing this?’ JT asked Atal as they moved in and out of dark alleyways and shadows dodging behind scruffy bushes.

  ‘At the moment...,’ Atal began and then stopped. He heard a slight noise and quickly looked to his left. He grabbed JT and they both leapt into a ditch beside the road. As they settled, Atal peered over the edge of the ditch spying down one side of the road and then continued with his last statement to JT, ‘I have no idea why I am doing this, my friend. But, you need to see this. You need to make this right.’

  ‘What am I supposed to do even if I don’t agree with what the council might say? You’re the army commander,’ JT stated with a slightly panicked voice. It seemed to him that everything he tried to do, such as trying to get Michael to listen to reason and stop his charade in trying to fulfill some mystic destiny, or trying to get Charlie to leave Bruinduer, only landed him in a prison cell.

  ‘I hope that what it is you’re supposed to do will reveal itself soon. For I fear that if nothing is done, we’re all doomed,’ Atal replied as he grabbed JT, hopped from the ditch, and pulled him down the road swiftly.

  Without warning there was a powerful jolt in the ground. Atal and JT lost their balance as though they were standing on a board that was on top of a rolling log. The shaking intensified for another few moments and Atal and JT were forced to their knees by the quake. The ground stopped rumbling. Birds began to caw and fly from their hiding spots as they searched for a safe place to settle in for the night.

  ‘What in the world was that?!’ JT yelled.

  Atal covered JT’s mouth hoping to keep the excited boy quiet, and in a calm voice only answered, ‘I don’t know. I have a feeling, but we must go.’

  JT and Atal continued their way down the winding, ghost town streets of Godwin and passed outside of its border. The air began to cool as the sun disappeared behind the mountains and the two stood before the large, grayish blue, spire shaped building that JT had noticed earlier when he arrived back in Godwin after the explosion. Its hue shined brightly in the early night sky.

  ‘What is this?’ asked JT as he panned up to the top of the towering, intimidating structure. ‘I saw this earlier for the first time. It wasn’t here yesterday morning. I think I would have remembered seeing that.’

  ‘This, my friend, is called The Chamber. It is where the Council of Common meets. It’s only conjured when the council convenes. It’s a place where Triton and Godwin try to mend their differences,’ Atal sighed. ‘Since I have been here in Godwin these many years, this is only the third time I have seen the building. The first being right before the Battle of the Beginning, and the last when Bruinduer was split into the two kingdoms.’

  Atal strolled confidently up to the building’s entrance which was surrounded by Godwin and Triton guards. A piercing silence wedged the two contingents whom stared at each other with burning hate and disgust.

  JT crept behind Atal. His heart knocked at a blistering rate. His breath became shallow. He had no idea what to expect. He was still an escaped prisoner.

  They trudged slightly up the blue ramp to the two gigantic steel doors of the Chamber. An aura of distinct confidence cloaked Atal as he passed the Godwin guards stationed at the doors. They smacked their heels together at attention and saluted him as he went by them. The Triton guards remained silent.

  ‘Good evening sir,’ a large, young Godwin guard dressed in his finest blue, silk jacket said as Atal approached. He peered on JT with only a little concern.

  Atal snapped a quick salute back and briskly overtook the men without stopping. ‘Carry on.’

  The two enormous steel doors parted and Atal and JT walked into a huge space. The inside of the Chamber opened up like a cathedral. The air and everything around JT tinted to a shade of granite blue. He rubbed his eyes as he marched deeper into the chamber thinking that his vision was impaired somehow, but objects and people around him remained the hazy blue, and he continued following Atal.

  There were no square walls within the building and JT felt he was standing in a huge, upside down, ice-cream cone. The walls, or better described as sides, were painted with people that sat crunched together in bleachers that soared to the top of the spire. On one side sat the loyal subjects of Triton that were left in Godwin after the bridge’s destruction (the two kingdoms did trade, so logically even loyal Tritonians would still be in Godwin). They held red flags and wore hoods that covered their faces. On the other side, subjects of Godwin held white flags and sat silently with very sincere expressions upon their faces. JT realized where all of the people in Godwin had gone and why the streets were empty. The ones not huddled behind their closed drapes had come to the meeting.

  JT noticed the patrons of the Chamber staring toward a panel of seven individuals that sat about one third of the way up one of the sides from the chamber’s floor in massive, ominous black seats separated by ten foot gaps behind a large, steel table long enough that it started to curve around the chamber’s cylindrical body. The tips of their heads were all that could be seen.

  The man seated at the far left of the table had long, streaming white hair and his deep black eyes were too large for his head. His nose was long and pointed and he was dressed in a long dark robe. The remaining individuals of the panel except for one to the far right, who looked identical to the man at the far left, were dressed in long robes, but their faces were mostly covered by a hood. The only features of their faces seen were long, pointed chins with a clump of gray hair attached to each one appearing to hang from nothing.

  JT and Atal walked out onto the main chamber floor. A mumbling noise from one of the men on the panel broke the Chamber’s ambiance and the Triton subjects erupted in the loudest cheer that JT had ever heard. In an instant, the people rose and jumped up and down on the floor. The building rumbled from the vibration.

  Atal grabbed JT’s arm and flung him into a chair on the last row of the chamber’s floor and slid behind him still standing.

  Suddenly, a loud bang echoed impossibly over the cheering subjects.

  ‘Order in this chamber! There will be order in this chamber!’ The man on the far right raised a large gavel and struck the steel table again, ‘WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!’ A hush quickly came over the crowd.

  Atal reached beneath JT’s chair and pulled a strange looking headset from beneath it and strapped it around JT’s ears. JT grabbed the headphones and pressed them tightly against his ears. He heard a wavy, hollow rustling through the earpieces and then heard a deep grumbling as though someone cleared his throat. It sounded as if the person was sitting right beside him. JT quickly glanced at the man to his right, but Atal tapped him on the shoulder and pointed toward the panel of seven men. JT saw the man who had pounded the table with his gavel, place his fist over his mouth and cough. JT heard the cough as clear as a bell.

  The man who had just coughed began to speak, ‘Now that order has resumed, I hope that there are no other outbursts such as that one. This is a serious matter.’ The man’s voice reminded JT of a very large bullfrog.

  JT heard a few groans residually through his headset from the other six men. He also detected a few members of the audience chuckle around him. It was apparent that those subjects didn’t feel the council would heed their own sense of seriousness of the situation.

  ‘Now that the chamber has been called to order, this business can now be dealt with as needed.’ The man twisted his flowing beard in his fingertips and then slammed his gavel back on the steel table, ‘WHAM!’ ‘Please bring in the sovereign right ruler of Godwin and the right representative from Triton.’

  Two huge steel doors from the left side of the panel’s table opened and two sets of guards
, one from Triton and one from Godwin marched through with their respective red and white flags waving with every high step. Immediately behind the guards came the ruler of Godwin, Michael. He donned his finest royal outfit with a long, flowing silk robe and a larger, jewel-crusted, shiny crown. The crown, though still tainted with the color of blue from the air around him, glimmered and sparkled throughout the chamber. Worry dressed the young King of Godwin’s face. JT could tell that Michael tried his best to show a sense of confidence, but his eyes told a different story -- a tale of a young man who was confused.

  Behind Michael, the representative of Triton labored through the door. To JT’s surprise, it was not Charlie; it was Tickler -- the slimy, little runt of a man that he had met when they arrived in Triton on the previous day. He was hunched over and dragging his left leg behind him while rubbing his hands constantly in front of him; his turban cocked to one side. The only noticeable difference JT saw in the disgusting little man was that he wore a brand-new outfit.

  Just as the two representatives turned around the corner to enter the floor of the chamber, the entire hall erupted with approving cheers.

  JT scanned around and the people were excited beyond normal. He wasn’t sure at first, but he wondered if the subjects were cheering for their respective representatives or if they were cheering the fact that a solution or explanation of the exploding bridge may soon take place.

  Guards moved hurriedly into place at the center of the chamber and surrounded two large, padded, metal chairs that sat on bases. Michael and Tickler climbed the few steps to their pedestals and took a seat. Tickler reached to shake Michael’s hand, but Michael peered straight ahead at the panel of seven men and did not acknowledge Tickler’s presence. A slight rumble of jeers snaked through the Triton side of the audience as they noticed Michael’s show of disrespect toward Tickler, but the Godwin side’s cheers grew louder and the subjects snapped their white flags intensely.

  After a few moments and obviously accepting the adoration of the crowd in the chamber, Michael and Tickler placed headsets on and settled in their seats. The man on the far right of the panel slammed his gavel down on the steel table, ‘WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!’ ‘There will be order in this chamber!’ the man barked and JT yanked the headphones away from his ears because of the vociferous pounding.

  ‘This inquiry has come to order!’ a scratchy and nasal voice exploded over JT’s headset. JT couldn’t tell which one of the men on the council had spoken.

  ‘We have been brought here today,’ continued the voice, ‘to hear about a terrible and horrific tragedy that has happened.’ A groan ruffled through the audience. Even the indirect mention of the exploding bridge brought obvious disgust to the people.

  The scratchy rough voice continued, but as it spoke there was a sense of sarcasm that rang through its tone, ‘The Bridge of Common has been destroyed. Certainly one of our distinguished representatives can give us a reason why.’ A deadly silence covered the audience as they sat in anticipation. ‘Will the distinguished representative from Triton please let us know anything of value on why the Bridge of Common was destroyed?’

  Tickler, with his greasy hair and his scraggly unkempt beard squirmed about in his chair. He cocked his head up toward his right and squinted his eyes as though he were trying to remember something. After a brief moment, he began to speak with his permeating, hissy voice, ‘Yesss, yesss, my Majesty believes that the Godwin people look to destroy him and everything he has built.’ An eruption of disdains and boos pierced the air from the Godwin side of the chamber. The Triton subjects remained silent.

  ‘My Majesty feels as though Godwin wants to take all of our resources. They want to take all of our water. He feels as though Godwin wants Triton to be gone - wants us to be like them.’ Tickler was restless. His lips turned white and his voice suffered. ‘My Majesty doesn’t know why we are even having this meeting. He thinks it is Godwin who destroyed the Bridge of Common and is blaming him with no cause. He feels as though Godwin did it because Godwin is jealous of Triton.’ The Triton side of the chamber exploded in cheers this time, but the Godwin side did not stay silent. They stood up from their chairs and yelled with repugnance at the Tritonians and toward Tickler. They gestured with their arms toward the waving red flags and stomped their feet.

  ‘WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!’ the gavel from the man on the far right was relentless.

  ‘Order! There will be order in this chamber!’ The man had to pull his robe sleeve almost to his shoulder in order to bring the gavel down hard enough on the steel table for the entire chamber to hear it hammer over the cheers and shouts.

  After a few moments the crowd subsided with a rumbled hush. The man on the far left spoke next. His voice was mellow, crisp, and smooth. ‘If this is true, then why is the Triton army on the other side of the ravine at this moment?’ Fluttering claps came from the Godwin side of the chamber. ‘Surely, if Godwin had destroyed the bridge, your king would not have had his entire army waiting in such a short period of time.’ The entire Godwin side of the chamber then erupted in applause nodding their heads in agreement.

  Tickler squirmed restlessly in his chair and grinded his hands together. He rubbed them so hard that JT could see even in the blue-tinted air that they were turning red. He glanced toward the right and then spoke. His tone was uncertain. ‘It was coincidence. Yesss, yesss, coincidence.’ His words broke and chopped. ‘My Majesty sent those troops to protect. He had information from spies that Godwin was going to do something terrible. He moved the army in case Godwin was to do something. Apparently they did.’ The Triton side then erupted in applause and cheers.

  Without warning another rumble quaked the ground and the entire building shook. An echoing of screams reverberated through both sides of the chamber. Members sunk their heads in their laps, and JT was jerked back and forth forcefully almost thrown from his chair. The rumble then swiftly halted.

  Tickler straightened his headphones back on top of his head after the quake and excitedly stood up and pointed at Michael who remained still and silent as though he had not even noticed the rumbling. ‘You see, they want to destroy us. The First from Eden is using his power to close the ravine so he can attack us.’ Tickler pointed at the panel and then pounded his chest. ‘We need to protect ourselves!’

  A panicked murmur resonated through the crowd.

  Atal Leer, who had been standing behind JT silent throughout the hearing, grabbed JT on his shoulders. JT turned to see a horrified look on his liberator’s face. The man with the shaggy, thick beard quickly mouthed that he needed to leave the hearing and gestured toward the entrance. JT stood up as though he was going to leave with him, but Atal sat him back down on the chair and pulled the earpiece away from JT’s right ear.

  ‘You need to stay here. You need to listen to this,’ Atal said sincerely.

  JT nodded his head and Atal left the chamber. Six Godwin guards departed with him.

  The crowd silenced after a few moments of uncertainty. They were now totally reliant on the outcome of the hearing. They hung on every word trying to make sense of the events that had and were taking place around them, hoping their leaders could resolve them.

  ‘Certainly we need to understand what our friend from Triton is saying,’ another voice echoed through JT’s headphones. It must have been another man on the panel that was wearing a hood. JT could not see anyone’s lips move on the panel. The voice sounded as though it emerged from a deep well. It boomed and pounded through JT’s head. ‘It’s obvious that Triton’s move is self defense. It seems to me, their sovereign kingdom is only protecting themselves from a throng of people who want to steal their resources and make them fall to their will. Look at what the First from Eden is doing. The ground just shook. That should be proof enough!’

  A cheer came from the Triton side of the chamber, and the Godwin side hissed and booed. They couldn’t believe someone would say this about them or their king.

  ‘What do you have to say for yourself, our right
and noble friend from Godwin?’ continued the man with the scratchy voice echoing through JT’s head. ‘How do you defend this accusation?’ Every eye in the Chamber of Common from the bottom to the top stabbed Michael’s crown.

  JT couldn’t figure out but definitely wanted to know what was percolating in Michael’s head as he sat silent and still. As JT continued to ponder, a slight breeze popped him in the back of the neck and ran through his hair. Michael stood up from his chair.

  There was no describing what JT had seen in Michael as he stood in the middle of the chamber. The young monarch carefully held his robe as he rose, and though the tinted blue air gave everyone in the chamber the same hue, what light was left beamed through Michael’s crown and illuminated the Godwin king as though a spotlight shown on him. Proud and distinguished he stood with his head slightly pointed upward. He then spoke.

  ‘It’s all lies,’ began Michael trying hard to hold back his lisp with no success. ‘There is no reason why the people of Godwin would want the Bridge of Common destroyed. We are trying to live our lives in peace with the people of Triton,’ Michael sighed with a deep shallow breath. The chamber fell silent. ‘We all have a destiny to fulfill in our lives. And the destiny of Godwin is to survive and prosper with its way of life.

  We would have no reason to destroy the very thing that helps us protect that way of life. We trade goods with Triton using the bridge, and the ravine flowed with the water we received.’ Michael took another deep breath. His confidence grew with every passing word.

  ‘I will not lie, and I will say it is true that we enjoy the water we receive from Triton. We are grateful that they supply us with enough to enjoy the things we like to do such as maintaining our fountains and gardens. Some may say we use too much, but that is our way of life.’ The Godwin side of the chamber erupted with thunderous cheers; their white flags whipping the air.

  The man on the far right of the panel banged his gavel on the hard, steel table. ‘Order will come to this chamber!’

  After a minute more of joyous cheers, the chamber fell quiet.

  ‘So, you admit that you want to take the resources of the people of Triton!’ the deep, well-like voice rang through JT’s ears.

  Michael dropped his head. ‘I admit only taking what we want to use.’

  The Triton side exploded in angry, threatening jeers toward the young Godwin king.

  Michael continued over the noise of the Triton people, ‘But, there are hundreds if not thousands of Triton citizens that now call Godwin their home. They are free here. Free to make their destiny what they want. They are no longer under the control of a tyrant!’ Heckles from the Triton subjects increased with intensity; some jumping out of their seats and throwing their fists toward the panel.

  ‘WHAM!’ went the gavel. ‘There will be order here!’ the man on the far right yelled again. The chamber reluctantly hushed.

  The mellow, low voice from the unhooded man who sat on the left swam through JT’s ears. ‘So, if you say that it was not Godwin that destroyed the bridge, I assume that you believe it was Triton’s doing? What do you plan to do, and why?’

  Michael stood and shut his eyes. He was silent for a reflective moment, thinking, pondering, and shuffling through all of the options he may want to take to resolve the conflict. JT felt his heart jump from his chest. His left knee began to shake uncontrollably. The fate of Godwin depended solely on what Michael was about to say. In fact, JT felt that the fate of the entire land of Bruinduer hung on Michael’s words.

  ‘I will ask this chamber to sanction war against Triton if need be.’ Michael bowed his head and breathed a mountain of air. ‘But even if this chamber denies my request, I will utilize my option as a sovereign leader, and will go to war anyway.’

  JT’s jaw dropped.

  Silence slammed hard over the chamber.

  ‘Why?’ the mellow voice cracked with concern. ‘Why would you go to war over trading or even water? And why in this world would you fight for the citizens of Triton?’

  ‘Freedom,’ Michael said in a forceful tone without hesitation, his eyes burned with a seriousness that JT had never seen come from his long lost companion from Athens Eden. ‘We will not bow down to the will of a leader who has lost his mind.’

  The Chamber of Common shook from the thunderous, cheerful roars of the Godwin side and the biting, hateful dissent of the Triton side. JT thought the roof might fall to the ground from the noise. The Godwin side screamed for Michael’s name to live forever, and the Triton side screamed for the Godwin king’s death. The pandemonium seemed to last for an eternity.

  The old man with the gavel slammed it as hard as he could on the steel table, and could only stop after a few minutes due to exhaustion. The chamber would have to fall silent on its own.

  The chamber finally went still, and Michael stood in relaxed solace. He had become a leader. JT saw Michael’s transformation right before his eyes. He saw the nervous, lost boy turn into a confident spokesman for his people. He couldn’t understand why two days before, the Godwin citizens threw flowers at the wheels of his royal carriage, but now he knew why they loved him so.

  ‘You do realize, leader of Godwin,’ the deep, well-like voice echoed once again through JT’s headset, ‘that we will not sanction this war against Triton. We feel there is not enough evidence to warrant one. You will have to work this out for yourself.’

  Michael nodded his head. ‘We will have to hope then that –,” Michael began, but suddenly the doors of the chamber flung open.

  A nervous Godwin soldier ran across the chamber floor and stood in front of Michael and Tickler and meekly faced the Council of Common. He scanned around quickly and noticed that everyone was silently peering directly at him. Hot sweat ran and beaded down the sides of his face, and he quickly snatched the turban from his head respectfully and rung it in his hands.

  ‘The... the... ravine,’ the Godwin soldier stuttered. ‘The… the ravine has… has closed. The Kingdom of Godwin and the Kingdom of Triton touch... again.’

  ‘His destiny must be fulfilled,’ the wispy voice danced through JT’s ears. He knew it was Billy.

  JT saw Michael look down at the soldier. The Godwin monarch then stoically and thoughtfully panned around at the Bruinduer citizens that lined the walls of the chamber. A tear trickled from his eye. JT didn’t want to believe what he heard come from Michael’s mouth next, but just the same, the words would ring through every person’s headset in the Chamber of Common. ‘War it will be.’”