by James Somers
The crowd quickly stormed up the staircases, trying to find the assassin. Mordecai launched a vicious round of kicks and punches at Isaiah. For a moment, the High Priest met them. But Mordecai soon overwhelmed him with youthful vitality.
He smashed Isaiah in the chest, complicating his already labored breathing. The elderly High Priest staggered back, but Mordecai pursued him, landing several severe blows to his head. Isaiah fell to the stone floor as Mordecai picked up his sword and prepared to deliver the deathblow.
Multiplied air-whistles warned him in time to turn and deflect Gideon’s sword whirling toward him from twenty feet away. Mordecai smiled at his nemesis. “You should never throw away your weapon so foolishly, Gideon!” He charged at the priest who had nearly killed him months before, revenge boiling in his eyes.
“I didn’t,” Gideon said. He pulled a cocked pistol from his robe and fired. The blast caught Mordecai unexpected in the sternum. He buckled to his knees, dropped his sword, blinked once in astonishment, then fell forward dead.
Gideon ran to Isaiah’s side as many more of the priests reached the seventh level and charged down the walkway. “Are you all right?” Gideon asked.
“I never would have thought to see the day when you would use such a crude weapon,” Isaiah said as Gideon helped him to his feet.
Gideon looked at Mordecai lying in a pool of blood on the stone walkway. “I’m starting to gain a new appreciation for them.”
ETHAN MUST GO
After all was said and done, Mordecai had taken the lives of four priests with one wounded severely and one burned across parts of his chest and neck. But the Deliverer was alive along with the High Priest of The Order of Shaddai. “I never thought something like this could happen,” Isaiah said. He stood, leaning on the walkway railing outside of his residence.
The lamps made the courtyard look like firefly season. The entire order had awakened. They conducted a full search of the Temple grounds for any other intruders who might have come in with Mordecai. So far, no one else had been found.
“Mordecai was impeccably trained, Isaiah,” Gideon said. Ethan stood next to his mentor, watching the lantern lights spread out across the courtyard, up onto every level of the complex. “If anyone could have gotten inside the Temple, it would have been Mordecai.”
Isaiah dabbed a facial cut with a damp cloth. “I dreamed this was happening moments before it came to pass. And the vision wasn’t just about Mordecai. I saw demons surging against the Temple and angelic guardians defending us, even pushing the hordes away. But Mordecai got through.”
Gideon scratched his chin. “It’s curious. I wonder how Mordecai could get through and not the demons?”
“Maybe the demons kept the angels occupied in battle while he got through,” Ethan suggested.
Isaiah brightened. “A diversion! Very clever, young man. Gideon, I suspect Ethan may be correct, but that worries me even more.”
“Why?”
“Because this means they know the Deliverer is here at the Temple. He will be Mordred’s primary focus and that means the enemy will stop at nothing to penetrate our defenses in order to get him.”
“What should we do, Master?” Gideon asked.
“I am beginning to think you were right when you suggested taking Ethan to Macedon. He cannot remain here forever if the prophecy is to come true. And this place may have become more dangerous than any other, now that they know where he is.”
Gideon pushed his advantage. “So we can take the Word to Macedon?”
“There seems to be little choice in the matter at this point,” Isaiah admitted. “Despite the dangers of such a mission and my desire to have your apprentice train longer here at the Temple, I’m afraid Ethan must go.”
They came to a place in the Temple where Ethan had never been before. Two of The Order’s most proficient warrior-priests guarded the entrance to the tunnel entrance. They nodded as Isaiah walked into the tunnel past them with Ethan and Gideon in tow.
The tunnel, lit on either side by lanterns, began a winding descent below ground. The distance was not far, but when they reached the bottom, another pair of guards waited to examine them before Isaiah and his company could go further. The chamber where the tunnel terminated was small with a freight elevator opening up on the right side. “How does that work?” Ethan asked.
“The elevator is powered by a water wheel which intersects with an underground tributary of the river,” Isaiah said. “When we want to transport a copy of the Word to the exit tunnel at the top of the chasm we engage the wheel with a special gear, which is attached to a pulley for the elevator. And if we want to bring it down, gravity is the driving force.”
Ahead of them, a massive door stood on the far wall. It took up almost all of the space on the wall. “This is where we will enter the Hall of Scribes,” Isaiah announced.
One of the guards produced an iron key on a chain around his neck. Isaiah produced a duplicate key on a similar chain and together they placed the keys into locks on either side of the door. Both men counted down from three. In unison they rotated their keys counterclockwise and then clockwise all the way around. Ethan heard the sound of large bolts sliding out of place and locking into position through the thick metal door.
Isaiah and the guard removed their keys and then Isaiah turned a handle on the far right of the door and pulled it open. The huge door moved much easier than Ethan had supposed it would, a sigh of air escaping into the small chamber as the vacuum seal was broken. Ethan expected the chamber beyond to be dark, but sunlight spilled from within.
When the three men entered the Hall of Scribes, the vault door closed behind them. The chamber was massive in length and the height was three times that of a man. Intricately carved, stone pillars ran the length of the room on both sides of a central walkway and detailed representations of the country’s history, up through the last king of Nod, decorated the stone ceiling
Ethan noticed small mirrors hanging at carefully selected angles all around the upper regions of the chamber. This complex system brought sunlight in from a tunnel above, dispersing it throughout the room, virtually eliminating all shadow within the Hall of Scribes. Even more interesting than all of the detailed beauty was the lack of sound.
Only the minute etching of quill pens to parchments interrupted the pristine silence. On either side of the chamber, rows of large desks sat where priests concentrated upon transcribing the Word of Shaddai. They produced copies of sacred texts for transportation, by the brave, to places all over the world.
“Whoa,” Ethan whispered as they all stood at the head of the room.
Every transcriptionist within the Hall of Scribes looked up from his desk at the sound of the voice. Ethan felt instantly embarrassed. But when the men all saw Isaiah and Gideon with the boy, they disregarded the interruption and went back to work.
Isaiah laughed. “It’s all right, Ethan. This is where we preserve the Word for mankind. There may be other outposts in places abroad, but here is the only place where the original documents containing the Word may be found.”
The three of them walked down the length of the room. Ethan watched the men who transcribed each letter of the Word with tremendous care and exacting precision from old parchments to new ones. “So these are the original writings of prophets?” he asked.
“No, these are only exact copies,” Isaiah explained. “These have been meticulously studied to be sure they contained no error. We use the exact copies and keep the originals safely stored away where only a select few know their location. The enemy could literally tear this complex apart and never hope to find where they are stored.”
A slight whistle almost escaped Ethan’s lips, but he reined it in.
Isaiah led them to another room at the far end of the great hall where a large wooden door stood on iron hinges. Isaiah used the same key, from the vault door, to unlock it. When he opened the door, they found the room beyond completely dark. Isaiah removed a torch from the wall and held
it up to one of the nearby sunlight mirrors. A small crystal lens on the framework around the torch caught the light and focused it on the wick. It ignited almost instantly.
Isaiah stepped inside the room with Ethan and Gideon following. This was a storage room filled with ten steel chests. “Each of these chests contains a complete copy of Shaddai’s Word, Ethan. You and Gideon will bear one of them to the Isle of Macedon. You are responsible for locating someone who can aid you with its safekeeping. The Isle of Macedon has been under occupation by Mordred’s forces in times past. We are unsure whether that occupation continues presently, but the call has been issued, and we are duty bound to respond. I charge you to protect the Word with your life, Ethan, for through it the souls of men are saved.”
Ethan tried to swallow the lump mounting in his throat as the High Priest continued. “The Isle of Macedon is a heathen territory and very dangerous even without Mordred’s presence there. This is what you have been trained for and that training is important, but never forget, without the Lord we can do nothing.”
Ethan nodded, glancing at the steel chests containing the Word of God.
“Ethan, do you pledge yourself to this task to the best of your given ability?”
Ethan looked the High Priest straight in the eye and confidently said, “I do.”
PREPARATIONS
The ride down the river from the intersection point, high atop the gorge, was much less dramatic than they had experienced coming in. The steel chest holding the copies of the Word of Shaddai made the shorter trip with two priests in one boat, while Ethan and Gideon floated in another with their personal supplies and weaponry.
The boats stopped at a different place than the cave where Gideon had led Ethan and Levi Bonifast through to get into the Temple. Here they were still higher up in the mountains, but the way was more open to get off and be able to unload cargo. In fact, it seemed like such an obvious opening to the Temple complex that Ethan could not help but ask why.
“Gideon isn’t this a bit conspicuous? I mean someone could float the river from this point and come to the cave we entered by originally and then take the flume of doom ride right into the Temple gardens.”
Gideon smiled as he unloaded gear. “You would think so, wouldn’t you? But if you actually tried it, you would encounter a horrible truth too late to do anything about it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Another quarter mile down the river from here it drops over five hundred feet in a waterfall,” Gideon said.
“Oh.” Ethan tried to imagine the surprising terror such an experience would invoke. Then he wondered how many people had actually found out the hard way over the years the Temple had been in existence here.
The two priests accompanying Gideon and Ethan loaded the steel chest onto a plain wagon. “I still don’t understand why we have to split up,” Ethan said.
“It will be safer this way, Ethan. If the enemy is looking for us, then we don’t want to give them only one target. I might be able to divert attention, in case we’re being tracked.”
“But why are you going back to Millertown? That’s got to be at least a day’s travel around the mountain.”
“I know some shortcuts. I can do a bit of surveillance and see if Mordred’s forces are there looking for us. Once I know, I’ll pick up a horse in town and then make my way to the rendezvous with you at Hopple.”
It just didn’t add up for Ethan. This plan seemed to take some unnecessary risks with their operation. “Is that the only reason you want to go back to Millertown?”
Gideon tensed under the scrutiny. “Why else?”
“I don’t know,” Ethan said cautiously. “You have friends in Millertown—especially Arness’ family. This risky move wouldn’t have anything to do with them would it?”
Gideon’s face hardened to stone. “Ethan, I realize you are new to The Order, but it is not acceptable for you to question the tactical judgment of your mentor. You will follow my counsel in this matter without further question. Is that clear?”
The words hurt Ethan. So it’s to be like that, is it? He glared at Gideon, then slowly, rigidly bowed a little at the waist in submission to his mentor’s authority. Ethan did not say a word—his teeth fastened together as he made his best effort to hold back his anger.
Gideon sighed. “Now, go with Joseph and Micah and take the Word to Hopple. Stay hidden, and I will meet you there in a few weeks.”
Ethan listened, but he purposely averted his eyes, too angry and hurt to look at his friend for the moment. Gideon regarded his fellow priests, Joseph and Micah, with a wave as they loaded the wagon, then he mounted the lone horse which had been left saddled for him next to the wagon.
Both the wagon and horses had been supplied from a farm owned by a friend to The Order. The priests paid the man money to keep horses and various supplies for them in order to simplify these missionary journeys.
Gideon looked back at Ethan. The boy met his gaze, but quickly averted his eyes to the ground.
Gideon sighed.
He snapped the reins and the horse sped him away toward one of the secret passes through the Thornhill Mountains which would bring him out close to Millertown.
Ethan watched him go, trying to ignore his wounded pride. Gideon was still his friend, but this odd behavior had him worried. Ethan helped Joseph and Micah finish loading the wagon, praying silently for Gideon’s safe arrival in Hopple as planned.
Sarah watched from the side of a nearby building as the Royal Emissary from Macedon entered his private coach, preparing to leave Millertown. The falcon had returned with a message from the Temple. The Order intended to send the Word out to Macedon within the next several months. There had been no indication, whatsoever, that priests from Shaddai were already en route.
Nightfall approached as the ranks of soldiers, accompanying the Emissary, prepared to escort the man home. Strange that they would leave at night, she thought.
A hand clasped around Sarah’s mouth, pulling her behind the building. She tried to scream as the dark figure in a cloak and hood pulled her close. However, as soon as the hood fell down, she almost screamed in exultation.
“Gideon!”
He shushed her with his finger as she wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’ve missed you so much. What are you doing back so soon?”
“I’m on a mission to take the Word of the Shaddai to the Isle of Macedon.”
Sarah cast her gaze mournfully toward the ground. “What’s wrong?” Gideon asked.
“Gideon, you’ll be gone for months, trying to get to Macedon and back…if you make it back at all.” Tears began to stream down her face.
Gideon tipped her chin upward. “I’ve always come back. And after this mission, I’m sure Ethan will be capable of going on without me.”
“You mean you’ll leave The Order?”
Gideon smiled and took a deep breath. “Yes, I will leave The Order after this mission.”
Sarah had wanted to hear those words for so long. And she had hoped to hear them from Gideon before she shared her own news. “My love, I have something to tell you.”
Gideon looked into the eyes of his young bride, trying to discern what it was she might be about to tell him. Nothing could have prepared him for the actuality.
“I’m with child, Gideon.”
Gideon tried to breathe, but no air moved in or out of his body. “Did you say?”
Sarah stared into his eyes, watching him stammer for the first time since she’d come to know him. It’s quite enjoyable, seeing him this way, she thought.
“Yes, my love, you and I are going to have a baby.”
So many things happened to Gideon at that moment. His breathing labored, his palms became clammy, perspiration gathered on his upper lip and brow, his knees felt weak and his heart rate ran rapid. Not knowing what to say, he simply held his bride tightly. She returned the embrace, shedding joyous tears. Everything was going to be all right, finally.
They linger
ed in town only a moment longer. Gideon helped his bride onto his horse and then climbed up into the saddle behind her, being as gentle as he knew how. They rode slowly toward their home. They would celebrate there and enjoy each other’s company for one last time before he left for Hopple and the mission to Macedon—his final mission for The Order of Shaddai.
What had not been apparent to Sarah or Gideon, but which undoubtedly would have been clearly seen by his young apprentice, was the demon watching them as they stood by the building in the dimming light of dusk.HJJJ He watched them as they held one another. And he listened as they exchanged joyous information between husband and wife.
The demon did not know exactly where this man was going other than to Macedon. But it did realize who he was. The puzzling thing had been, the whereabouts of the priest’s companion, the boy. The demon had been assigned to watch for the Deliverer in Millertown, by Jericho himself, but only Gideon the priest had come.
Nevertheless, the implications of Gideon and Sarah’s conversation were not lost on the demon. He knew, as well as most, that priests of Shaddai were bound to The Order and did not marry. This was something new and interesting to see.
The demon followed the couple riding horseback to their home on the property owned by Sarah’s parents. He watched and listened more. Then he left the home during the night to find Lord Jericho and report the valuable information he had acquired.
HOPPLE
As expected, it took Ethan, Joseph, and Micah several weeks to get to the small fishing village of Hopple. Only five hundred people living in modest dwellings occupied the village, pulling their livelihood from the sea. Their location did have other advantages, however, as it provided a place for ships to make port with goods from Wayland and places north of Nod, if they happened not to be going to Emmanuel City.