by James Somers
“Thank you.” Gideon grabbed the vessel of water and Ethan took the platter of food. The young men crossed the room and ascended the stairs, two flights to the second floor. They found their room as the barkeep had said. Gideon opened the door cautiously, surveying what lay within.
There was a large bed with a basic wooden frame. The sheet did not look very clean and there was a heavier brown blanket on top of it. Against the wall, opposite the bed, stood a simple chest with two drawers. A ceramic basin and pitcher for washing sat on top. A small table with two chairs sat in the corner.
Ethan took the water pitcher from Gideon and placed it and the platter of food on the table. Ethan did not speak until Gideon had closed the door behind them. “That was amazing, Gideon!” he said.
Gideon only smiled.
“I can’t wait for you to teach me how to fight like that,” Ethan said.
“There’s much more to being a warrior-priest than fighting, Ethan.”
“Well, yes, of course.”
“Do you know what the first thing was that I did down there, the first thing I do anytime I’m faced with a violent conflict?”
Ethan hunched his shoulders.
“I prayed to the Lord for his guidance and strength. There is one important lesson you should learn at the beginning. No matter how accomplished a warrior one may be there will always be someone better, a situation that you won’t be able to handle. But nothing confounds Shaddai, Ethan. All things dwell under his divine control and are subject to his will. If you will always seek the will of Shaddai, then you will always find it. Now, let’s have a bit of that food, shall we?” Gideon removed his cloak for comfort’s sake. They divided the remainder of the meal between them with Ethan allowing the larger portion to Gideon.
“Do you think those men will come back for revenge?” Ethan asked as he chewed on some bread.
“Probably. Men like that never learn.”
NOCTURNAL VISITORS
It had been close to dusk by the time the barkeep had knocked on their door with news about passage across the Azure Sea. A merchant vessel on its way to Emmanuel was scheduled to leave in two days. Gideon thanked the man and told him he would receive his promised money when they were ready to depart for the ship.
“I’ll take you down tomorrow and introduce you to the captain, myself,” the barkeeper said.
Ethan and Gideon had another day and a half to wait before they could leave the Weary Traveler and the town of Tilley. They decided their time would best be spent if they did not venture far from the inn. The pirates they had encountered might be waiting for an opportunity to exact revenge.
Ethan watched the last rays of the sun sink below the deep blue horizon of the Azure. He had never been to the ocean before, but he had heard of the Azure Sea. Its waters had often been compared to sapphires. Seeing it now for the first time in his life, Ethan understood the analogy. It was simply beautiful. Even in the moonlight, it sparkled.
Gideon lay on the bed, getting some sleep while he could. Trying to get any quality rest aboard a merchant vessel would be nearly impossible. Ethan took the first watch.
Sailing ships were busy entering and leaving the harbor up until just after nightfall. The docks functioned like a well-oiled machine. Ethan wondered where the ship was that he and Gideon would be taking to Emmanuel. He paused, thinking about what the priest had told him. Then he prayed silently for Elspeth and the journey they were about to make in hopes of rescuing her.
A noise woke Ethan. He couldn’t place the sound-perhaps a distant musket shot. He had little doubt that things got very dangerous in a city like Tilley after dark. It had been seedy enough during the day.
He quickly scanned the room. The light of the full moon shone through their open window. Ethan sat in the shadows just out of the oblong moonshine’s reach. He held one of the pirate captain’s black powder pistols in his lap, just in case.
Gideon was still asleep. Sound sleepers those priests, Ethan thought. He was actually glad he woke before Gideon did. He felt like kicking himself for falling asleep in the first place.
Ethan heard more noise in the street now. There were at least two people brawling outside. He peered out the window and saw one man stagger as he threw a punch and missed. The other fellow returned the compliment and did not miss.
More noise came from outside their room, downstairs. Ethan crept over to the door to investigate. He heard people pass in the hall-a man and woman. He waited until their voices trailed down the corridor. Ethan heard a door open and close, assuming it must be clear now.
He opened the door to their room. No one else was in the hall. An oil lamp flickered from a mount at the far end of the corridor. Ethan stepped into the hallway and closed the door. He heard a commotion coming from downstairs. A glass broke. Ethan knelt down at the second floor landing to see what was happening in the main room of the inn.
A group of pirates had congregated near the bar. The pirate captain from earlier stood at the forefront. He held the barkeep by the shirt with his good arm. “Where are they?” he bellowed as he pulled the man halfway across the mahogany countertop. Two of the captain’s men cocked the hammers on their pistols and placed them on either side of the barkeep’s head.
He’s going to tell them. Ethan knew silver coins wouldn’t keep the man from saving his own skin.
“They’re up in seven!” he confessed.
The pirate captain grinned, showing all of the cavities he had been cultivating in his smile. He shoved the barkeeper back into the ceramic mugs stacked against the back wall. They flew in every direction as the barkeeper spilled to the floor in a heap. “Come on, lads. We’ve got revenge to take in number seven tonight!”
As the men turned toward the stairs, Ethan caught sight of other visitors in the bar with the pirates. Demons! Ethan hurried back to the room and shut the door quickly, hoping that he and Gideon could still sneak out in time.
As Ethan turned to wake Gideon, the head of a demon rose through the dusty floorboards, its form passing through solid matter. Ethan froze mid-step, startled by the sudden appearance of an enemy there in the dark. For a second, he almost forgot the creature could not see him.
The demon ascended into the dark room, until its feet cleared the floor. Then it looked around, searching the shadows for anyone else who might be present. The demon wore the same black and red garment as the others-Mordred’s colors. A sword hung near the creature’s hip, suspended in mid-air.
The demon hopped up to the edge of the bed’s footboard, perching there like a vulture over its prey. Ethan couldn’t decide what to do. If he woke Gideon, the demon might kill him. If he did not, at the very least, the pirates were coming up the stairs to kill them both. He had no choice.
“Gideon, there’s a demon in the room, wake up!”
The creature did not move until Gideon flinched and sat up. The demon snatched the sword hanging by its side. Ethan dove across the space between the door and the bed, catching Gideon with both hands. The demon slashed into the mattress, just as Ethan pulled Gideon out of the way, onto the floor.
The blade tore a huge gash through the bed, sending goose down up in a white plume. The boys rolled off the floor to their feet with Gideon still held in Ethan’s grasp. They backed into a corner as the demon frantically searched for the invisible boys.
The pirates came down the hall. Their heavy footsteps fell on the old floorboards like an army on the move. The demon ran out of the room, its body passing through the wooden door unhindered.
Gideon and Ethan grabbed the weapons they had commandeered earlier and rushed toward the window. The door burst open behind them, slamming into the wall as Gideon followed Ethan over the windowsill. The pirate captain spotted them and fired his pistol.
Gideon rolled down the slope of the roof out of control, until Ethan grabbed him. “Thanks,” Gideon said.
The pirate captain appeared at the window. He howled in pain as his men pushed behind him, mashing his broken ar
m. “Off me, you dogs!”
Ethan and Gideon ran along the shingles until they found an adjacent rooftop. It stood about ten feet lower than the roof of the Weary Traveler with a gap of fifteen feet. “We’ll have to jump for it,” Gideon said.
Ethan was not afraid of heights, by any means, but the jump looked like a one-way ticket to a broken ankle. Gideon took a good run and sailed over the expanse. His loose-fitting, priestly attire billowed around him. He dropped to the neighboring rooftop, allowing his body to collapse at the knees. He rolled out of it and back to his feet.
Ethan didn’t know if he could make it or not. He was quite sure his attempt would not be as graceful as Gideon’s, even if he did make it. The sound of pirates smashing through the window and spilling out onto the roof convinced him.
Ethan backed up, then surged forward into the fastest run he could manage before running out of rooftop. He kicked off with the last step, vaulting through the air. There was nothing now but wind and gravity in the dark. He tried to judge the distance and speed, but didn’t quite manage it. He landed with a bounce, of sorts, shaking every bone in his body from his feet upward. His tuck and roll fumbled into a stagger and crash.
Ethan hit the roof hard with his shoulder and face. Gideon rushed to him and helped Ethan back to his feet. The left side of his face felt numb, yet it burned at the same time. Blood dripped from cuts on his cheek and shoulder.
More pistol fire erupted behind them. Gunpowder flashed in the dark. They heard shots whiz through the air around them, ricocheting off the rooftop as they ran across it trying to find a way down to the street. The deep voice of the pirate captain bellowed behind them, “Bring me their heads!”
OVER THE ROOFTOPS
The demons had taken up the chase by now, but they were not going to get far without natural eyes. The clientele inside the Weary Traveler suited their special needs. The nightly patrons were just the sort of dregs and addicts who made it easy for the demons to move right in, control their weak minds, and inhabit their bodies.
The heavy wooden door burst open, and a motley crew of demon-controlled bar patrons spilled out into the street. This lot would not clamor on the rooftops with bumbling pirates. They took the swifter route through the streets. Now they had natural eyes with which to see Shaddai’s Deliverer.
There was an old woman in her eighties. She had lived a hard life addicted to Pharmakia and could barely walk these days. But under the control of these dark forces, particularly the demon leading the brigade, she was more spry than a ten year old on chocolate.
The next was a man in his fifties. He had served in a previous war, losing an arm for his service. A hooked hand now resided in its place. Hook hand had lost his wife to a bout of plague sweeping through Tilley nearly ten years ago. These days he was a regular patron at the Weary Traveler, mostly because they allowed him to purchase his drink on credit for a few days at a time.
The last was a young man who swept and mopped the inn. He was also responsible for removing the rowdies. Being a man of considerable size, he would bounce them out on their heads into the street whenever the barkeep gave him leave. Being a bit of a street bully growing up, the bouncer enjoyed this part of his job the most.
Three demons had been near the docks when the wounded pirate captain had shown up earlier screaming his head off about his broken arm and the young man who had done it. When the captain’s arm had been set into a splint onboard his ship, by the resident surgeon, the same three demons had been listening.
The pirate captain had sworn his revenge on the young man in the green cloak and the ruddy youth traveling with him. When the captain had organized his men to go back to the Weary Traveler inn, three demons had followed them. They waited to see exactly who the youths were and where they could be found. Now, the pirates had flushed out the prey. Three demons sped down the dark streets of Tilley inhabiting the only three people who had not fled the inn when the pirates had returned.
Five blocks away from the Weary Traveler Inn, Ethan and Gideon paused, attempting to find a safe way down to the streets, or a way to circle back to the stables and their horses. The noisy pursuit of the pirates had faded by now as the boys had nimbly outmaneuvered them several rooftops back. The city sounded alive below them. People made their way to taverns where they could spend what little money they had on drink and frivolity.
“There’s an alley on this side with some crates and hay bales, Gideon. Do you think we could make the drop here?”
Gideon walked over to where Ethan was standing on the edge of the roof. Under the cast of an oil burning street lamp, they saw what appeared to be a delivery yard for a seed and feed business. Bales of hay and stacks of seed bags lay just beneath them. A wagon sat parked on the opposite side. The drop from here was more than twenty feet.
Then Gideon spotted something that might help them. Against the wall, on the opposite side of the alley, lay a tall ladder on its side. Other farm equipment and tools were stacked nearby or hung on the wall by hooks. But there was no way for them to reach the ladder.
“What happened to you exactly when you disappeared back at the camp?” Gideon asked.
“I’m not quite sure. I wasn’t trying to make it happen,” Ethan said. “I suppose I must have entered into the realm of demons or something. The demons could see me. The weird thing was that my appearance changed too.”
“Really, how so?” Gideon asked.
“I was wearing this armor that resembled mercury all over my body. And I was carrying a sword. The blade was as brilliant as the sun to look upon and it hung by my side without any connection to my body. Every time I’ve seen the demons, they’ve been carrying similar weapons.”
Gideon looked back at the ladder and pointed. “Do you suppose you might be able to pass through the spiritual realm and get to that ladder?”
Ethan judged the distance. He could not, the way he was. As for the spiritual, he simply did not know. “I’m still not sure how I entered that state.” Ethan looked hard at the ladder lying there against the wall. If they started back across the rooftops then they might run into the pirates. Surely, they had not given up their search. He knew he had to make this power work for him, somehow. Then, almost as if a switch turned on, Ethan disappeared.
Just as before, the world took on a more vivid state for Ethan. He saw more, heard more, and felt with more clarity than he ever could in his natural state. Once again, he found himself in the quicksilver armor with the brilliant shining sword at his side.
Ethan felt power surging through his spiritual body as though he were a waterwheel fed by a raging river. He saw Gideon smile when Ethan disappeared. He tried to speak to Gideon, but the warrior-priest did not hear him, just as he had suspected.
Ethan ran to the edge of the roof, leaping away without fear. He sailed out over the courtyard much farther than he would have been able to manage naturally. He somersaulted, six flips through the air, coming down on his feet. It was an exhilarating feeling.
Ethan returned to his natural state as he ran toward the ladder. He had been able to turn off this realm shift with a thought. Can it really be that easy to shift from one realm to the other? he wondered.
“That was perfect, Ethan!” Gideon shouted from the rooftop.
Ethan grabbed the ladder from its place, rotating it around, over his head, in order to maneuver it past the wagon it had been kept behind. He looked for Gideon on the roof so he could bring the ladder to rest near him. Ethan watched in horror as an old woman came up behind Gideon. But she was not a normal old woman. She was controlled by a demon. Ethan saw the creature’s form like a shadow moving within her body.
“Gideon!”
The warrior-priest spun on the old woman, instinctively unleashing a vicious roundhouse kick, knocking her to the ground. The old woman turned a sadistic, toothy grin on him, rising to her feet again.
Ethan was already half way across the courtyard with the ladder, maneuvering it vertically as he ran. The old woman gro
wled with an unnatural voice and lunged at Gideon. He turned, leaping out of her reach-off the roof-toward the approaching ladder. Ethan saw the move and tried to compensate.
The ladder nearly tore free from Ethan’s hands when Gideon caught the top rung, swinging his legs around to land two rungs below the top. Gideon quickly descended using the side rails to slide down the ladder. He was half way down when the old woman leaped away from the building, copying Gideon’s move.
When she landed on the ladder top, it became too much weight for Ethan to hold. As the ladder tipped backwards, he used Gideon’s weight at the middle and the woman’s weight at the top in order to bring it down even faster. The top end of the ladder, with the old woman, slammed into the parked wagon as Gideon dropped to the ground. The old demon-controlled woman smashed right through the bottom of the wagon with a horrendous explosion of wood.
“HELP, HELP! Two men are killing a woman!” Hook-hand shouted as he ran into the crowded street in front of the Old Panther Pub. A great many men had congregated there tonight and they were outraged by what they heard.
“What’s that?” someone cried.
“This way, two young men killing a lady!” Hook-hand shouted again.
“Come on!” The men began to follow. The crowd turned into a mob quickly. Men with guns, knives, and torches followed Hook-hand through the streets. Within moments, the young bouncer appeared ahead of them, running back toward the crowd. “Hurry, Hurry! They’re trying to escape! They’re behind the Seed and Feed!”
It happened to escape everyone’s notice that these two men looked rather feral. They smiled as they ran ahead of the crowd. But the most significant characteristic, concerning Hook-hand and Bouncer, was something none of them could have seen. They were possessed by demons.