by L. M. Roth
“What are you talking about?” Valerius asked slowly with carefully measured syllables. Marcus knew his father was attempting to keep his patience.
There was nothing to do but tell him the truth.
“The Pearl of Great Price is but a symbol, if you will,” Marcus began slowly, fixing his eyes on the wall opposite.
“It represents the Kingdom of Heaven, which all men must seek if they desire to truly live. Anyone may buy it, but it will cost all your precious possessions, all you hold dear.”
Marcus paused to take a shaky breath. He dared not look at Valerius, who was ominously quiet.
“You see, Father, man was not intended to live as we do. We were created in the image of Dominio, the great and only God. We were meant to be His glory bearers, to rule the earth. But we challenged His authority, and by doing so rejected Him; and we fell into the darkness of our own way. Blind and confused we wandered through this world alone, trusting to our own instincts, which were not wise or good. We began to envy one another, hate one another, and go to war in order that we might rule one another, and take from each other what did not belong to us. Deceiving ourselves that we were gods ourselves, we went our way practicing evil, until our divinely created nature became corrupted, and we lost our inheritance as sons of God.
“But it grieved Dominio to see what we had become. So He sent His only Son, Alexandros, to come into this world and rescue us, to save us from ourselves. He stood in our place in judgment, took the punishment for treason that was rightly ours. He laid down His own life for our sakes, that He might give back to us life everlasting. For anyone who follows Him, He will give life beyond the confines of this world; a life where we will be reunited with Dominio, and be His children forevermore.”
Marcus paused for breath. The rush of his words had left him shaky and he clamped his trembling hands together. He buried them in the folds of his robe, where his father could not see them.
Valerius at last broke the silence.
“What does this Kingdom of Heaven you speak of have to do with a Pearl?” he asked in a low monotone, devoid of any inflection or emotion.
“Well,” Marcus cleared his throat and kept his eyes fixed on the wall.
“The Kingdom of Heaven is Dominio’s government. It consists of laws, just as any earthly kingdom. But the laws of the Kingdom of Heaven are intended to spread justice and righteousness: laws such as, forgive your enemy, do good to those who hate you, give to those in need, do to others what you would have them do to you.”
Here Valerius interrupted with a sneering laugh.
“But that is madness!” he scoffed. “Who could ever forgive an enemy, or do good to those who hate you? Such is contrary to our very nature!”
“Yes!” Marcus interjected, “the nature that fell into darkness when we rejected Dominio. We turned from His voice, and listened to other voices. Therein lies the problem.”
Marcus then related to Valerius the Great Rebellion, and told of Leon who challenged Dominio with one third of the Heavenly Host and was banished from Heaven.
“And they fell to earth like stars from the sky. And like stars they dazzled us with their light. They spoke lies to us that appealed to our fallen nature. ‘Kill your enemy.’ ‘Repay with evil those who hate you.’ ‘Give no thought to the poor, but take what you want from those who rightfully possess it.’
“You see, Father, we became like them, to such a degree that even our laws have become their laws. Look at our Empire: we invade other lands, kill their rulers, enslave their peoples and take whatever we fancy. Can this be right? Is this just? No!
“And I have found on my journey, that whatever a man worships, that is what he becomes. I met a man who worships wealth: he lay in wait for me on the road to kill me so he could take the Pearl if I found it. I knew a maiden who worships frivolity: she became a fool who forsook Dominio so she could pursue her folly. I witnessed an entire tribe who worship a lie reject the Truth when confronted with it, and exile on pain of death the man who sought to set them free.”
After a pause to steady his voice Marcus continued. The only sound in the room was labored breathing from Valerius, as if he was beset by some powerful emotion.
“You ask how the Kingdom of Heaven is like a Pearl. I have found that when one is confronted with a difficult choice, that the decision can be painful to make. I had to decide only a few months ago whether to repay one who had wronged me, or to forgive him and release him from my wrath. I confess it was not easy, and I wrestled with it for a long time.
“But the anger began to gnaw at me, bringing me even more pain. Just as a clam is irritated by a grain of sand that slips into its shell, I began to perceive that the anger was something I was never intended to keep. I had to let it go, and allow Dominio to fill me with His Spirit in that wound that hurt so deeply, so He could heal it and replace the anger with His love for the one who wronged me.
“When we yield to His laws instead of our own fallen nature, He covers that painful wound with the glory of His Spirit, and we become like Him; even as the clam covers the irritant with the coating that produces a luster that becomes a precious object. But to follow the Kingdom of Heaven and obey it, will cost us everything we are and all that we have. It is our Pearl of Great Price.”
Here Marcus stopped. He had shared all that was in his heart. He waited for a response from Valerius. It was not long in coming.
“Do you realize, Marcus,” he began, “that you reject everything our Empire is based on? Are you aware that you reject me, a soldier, a General who led the Imperial Army on the orders of first Emperor Beatus, and then his daughter, Empress Aurora?”
Valerius now began to laugh, but not with good nature.
“Look at you! My son! You who wanted to be a soldier like your father!”
The voice of Valerius rose to a dangerous level as his fury was at last unleashed.
“Well, a fine soldier you would make!” he mocked.
Marcus flinched and stared at his father, stung by the mockery in the eyes of Valerius, who had never shown any feeling but love and pride in his son.
“No soldier would forgive his enemy! To do so would be to commit treason to his own government! No soldier would do good to those who hate him. Such an action would unman his pride!”
Valerius rose to his feet and grabbed Marcus by the arm, jerking him to his own. So violently did he seize him that Marcus’ teeth involuntarily clamped together and he bit his tongue, bringing tears to his eyes.
Marcus gulped but did not flinch from the wrath of his father.
“Listen to me,” Valerius said in a deadly voice. “You could have bought any pearl and brought it back to the Empress to secure my freedom and that of your mother.”
Marcus interjected.
“But that would be lying, cheating the Empress!” he protested.
“What does that matter?” Valerius bellowed. “Has she not robbed you, selling you into slavery? Has she not robbed your mother and me, imprisoning us for a trumped up excuse? Has she not robbed us all by confiscating our home?” he thundered.
“But, Father, it would be wrong to cheat her! It is never right to return one evil for another!”
Marcus and Valerius stood face to face and stared at one another with the incomprehension of two strangers who have only just met for the first time. Valerius gave one long measuring look at his son, and shook his head.
“Very well, Marcus. You have chosen. This Kingdom of Heaven you wish to follow has a greater hold on your loyalty than your own father and mother. Such being the case, I leave you to follow it. You are no longer any son of mine. Be gone from my sight!”
And with that last utterance Valerius turned his back on his son.
Chapter XXXV
What the Empress Proposed
How he made it out of that room Marcus never knew. He took one last look at his father’s unyielding back through tear-filled eyes, noting the soldier-erect posture, the feet spread slightly apart in b
attle stance. Marcus made no plea: Valerius was not known for changing his mind.
Blindly, he stumbled into the corridor, where an armed Guard waited to take him to the Empress. Marcus followed the Guard, hardly aware of where he trod, looking neither to the right nor the left. So must he do now; the past was over. He must never look back.
Neither the spurning of Tullia nor the treachery of Felix had wounded him as deeply as the rejection of his father. To Marcus, Valerius was his hero. All his life he had wanted to be like him. His father’s scorn had cut to the core of his being.
Numbly, he thought of what awaited him in his audience with the Empress. He did not fear her wrath nearly as much as he had his father’s. All she could do was to kill his body: she did not have the power to destroy his spirit, as his father’s rejection threatened to do.
And yet he knew that the whim of the Empress would decide the fate of them all.
The green eyes were even more opaque than Marcus remembered. They never blinked nor changed expression as he told the Empress of his travels. He spoke of the hospitality of Governor Urbanus, described the wealth of the Ashkani and the fabulous city of Koohyaram, and related the shipwreck that had followed the great storm.
At last Aurora interrupted him.
“What of the Pearl?” she abruptly demanded in a voice of steel. “Where is it, Marcus?”
The words escaped his lips faster than thought.
“I do not have it, Your Grace,” he groaned. “Alas, it does not exist.”
Aurora looked at him through narrowed eyes. For one long moment she neither moved nor spoke, as if unable to believe the truth of his statement. Then she rose slightly to her feet, her hands upon the arms of her throne.
“Does not exist?” she echoed him. “Did you say the Pearl of legend does not exist?”
Marcus nodded sadly, and then remembered his manners and whom he was addressing.
“Yes, that is what I said, Your Grace,” he answered. “The Pearl you seek cannot be found. For it refers to something of greater value.”
“What,” she intoned in a voice laden with menace, “could be of greater value? Answer me, Marcus!”
Feeling that the worst that could possibly befall him already had, Marcus told Aurora the story of Alexandros and the Kingdom of Heaven. Not once did he pause, not once did she interrupt.
When he had finished, the silence was deafening. He glanced at Aurora. She was looking at him with doubtful eyes, as she idly drummed her fingers on the arms of her throne.
Then suddenly she broke the silence with peals of laughter. It was not her usual delicate giggles, nor was it the mockery of Valerius. Aurora burst into gales of genuine amusement that resonated like the ringing of a silver bell, and brought tears to her eyes. For several minutes there was no other sound but the roar of her laughter. Marcus waited uneasily for his sentence.
At last Aurora collected herself and daintily dabbed the tears from her eyes with a bit of white linen that she drew from the folds of her peridot green robe. She took several deep breaths before she addressed Marcus.
“Well,” she said as she inhaled once more, “I must thank you for bringing back such an amusing tale. You have at least succeeded in entertaining me, if nothing else.”
Aurora nodded her head as she looked at Marcus. Then her green eyes glinted coldly like some reptile creature that eyes a potential prey.
“However,” she spat out in a swift change of tone, “you did not succeed in bringing back what I sent you to find. You have failed in your quest, Marcus.”
Marcus hung his head, dreading to hear his parents’ doom spoken by the lips of the Empress.
“Hmmm,” she purred, “I seem to remember a condition that accompanied my request. Do you recall what that was, Marcus?”
He glanced up at her hastily. He licked his lips, but his tongue felt as dry as his mouth. He could barely speak the answer to her question.
“Yes, Your Grace,” he responded, “I remember.”
“Yes, it was your life and the release of your mother and father for the purchase of the Pearl, and I recall telling you if you did not give me the Pearl, I could not give you your parents.”
She paused for a moment, and gave Marcus the watchful look of a cat playing with a mouse. A glimmer of ice stirred in the depths of her jade green eyes.
“Well, what shall we do now?” she asked in feigned bewilderment. “I do not desire to be cruel, but you have not fulfilled the mission which I gave you. How can you possibly buy the release of your parent if you have nothing to give? And how can I possibly allow you to live when you have failed me in the task I set you to do? Why, I might be perceived as weak, and that would never do for a ruler, would it?”
Aurora smiled at Marcus; a smile that never reached her eyes. His heart pounded violently in his chest, and a throbbing beat answered in his throat, rendering speech impossible.
Aurora sighed in bogus despair. She shook her head as though saddened by what she must do.
“A ruler must keep their word, Marcus. We made a bargain, you and I; but you did not keep your part of it.”
The Empress paused. A shadow crossed her face; and for a brief moment Marcus thought he detected hesitancy on her part.
“I think,” she said slowly as though searching for words, “I must have a little time to decide what is to be done.”
Marcus could not have been more astounded by her wavering then if the sun had suddenly appeared in the midst of a pelting rain storm. Was there hope to be had after all?
Aurora gave herself a little shake, as if annoyed. She gazed into the distance, then whipped her glance back to Marcus. She picked up a small bronze bell at her side and rang it vigorously. The Guard quickly entered the room from his post outside the door.
“Take him away to the ante-chamber,” Aurora ordered.
Turning back to Marcus she gave him one level look from her enigmatic eyes.
“I will send for you when I have decided your fate.”
She stood before him with her arms akimbo, her hands slipped into the long hanging sleeves of her robe. The rubies in her crown flashed with the red fire that to Marcus appeared as drops of blood on her head; the blood of the innocent, condemned by her hands.
A cold tight smile crossed Aurora’s face as she considered Marcus. She slowly inclined her head toward him.
“I have decided your fate, Marcus,” she announced in her silver-smooth voice.
Her tone was as casual as though she were but discussing her choice of food at a banquet. It was clear to Marcus that his fate was of little importance to the Empress.
“Yes,” she nodded as she gazed at him with gleaming eyes. “I have decided to allow you to live.”
A gasp of astonishment escaped Marcus. Before he could speak Aurora raised one hand.
“Do not interrupt your Empress!” she warned him, a stern frown creasing her brow. “Or I may regret my leniency.”
She paused to allow her words to penetrate. Marcus bowed slightly and waited for her to continue.
“Good boy, Marcus, very good indeed! I see you have been shorn of some of the arrogance with which you addressed me before you set out on your journey. That pleases me; that pleases me indeed!” she laughed softly, then continued.
“I must say that I respect your courage in returning to face me, knowing that you failed. You could have stayed away to prolong your life. You could have purchased another pearl to palm off on me as the Great Pearl and pretended to have fulfilled your quest. Yet you did not.”
Aurora paused and glanced at Marcus with a strange look in her eyes that surprised him. Was it respect?
She nodded her head.
“Yes, I respect courage. How like your father you are, Marcus!” her voice faltered and broke as she said this last.
Her face twisted suddenly, and Marcus thought he saw a glint of tears in the jade eyes. Quickly she recovered herself.
“Because you are so brave, I wish to give you one more chance.
If you fulfill the task I am about to give you, I will grant your freedom and release your parents.”
With renewed hope inflaming his soul, Marcus dropped to one knee before the Empress.
“Your Grace, what is my task?” he asked in a voice that shook with emotion.
Aurora bid him rise, and removing her hands from her sleeves, stood erect before him. Marcus had to confess to himself that in her dignity and beauty she looked every inch a queen.
“Your task, Marcus,” she pronounced, “is to travel far and wide and bring back to me four objects that I desire most ardently: I want the Fountain of Youth, a star from the Heavens, the Rays of the Sun, and the secret of life. That is your task,” she said in a tone of dismissal.
On hearing it, Marcus bowed and prepared to take his leave. Aurora’s voice called him back.
“There is one more thing I require of you, Marcus: do not fail me a second time.”
Quest For the Kingdom
Part III
Invitation To Eternity
By L. M. Roth
Copyright © 2012 L. M. Roth
All Rights Reserved
Preface
Judoc looked at the fire for several moments, as if mesmerized by the dancing flames. When at last she looked away, she glanced at the faces of all in turn before she spoke.
Instead of answering Marcus’ question, she posed one in turn.
“Do you recall the day when Brenus ran off the path, and I called him back?” was her unexpected query.
“Yes,” Marcus promptly replied. “You seemed concerned beyond all reason, I thought.”
“I had good reason,” Judoc quickly responded. “For you see, they live in the wild places and we must not stray from the path.”
“They?” Felix echoed, as he glanced aside at Marcus.
Marcus hoped Felix would not mock Judoc, who was deadly earnest.
“They,” she answered without hesitation. “The Tuadan.”
“And who are the Tuadan?” Marcus coaxed her to further disclosure.