A Warrior's Journey (30 page)

“Evelyn’s worth far more than this old musty
tome is to me. I didn’t think any male with red blood in his veins
would pass up the chance at keeping her for himself. So I’ve been
expecting something like this. Guards!” He yelled curtly towards
the double doors leading off into the rest of the mansion, but to
his surprise no one responded or came.

Turning back to Larc with even more new
found respect in his eyes he said, “It would appear that you have
anticipated my surprise party, congratulations once again. However
any celebration would be ill advised on your part, because I still
hold all the best cards.” He said as he brought up a heavy pistol
that had been resting in his lap underneath the table top and
pointed it in Larc’s direction.

Evette’s breathing seized up at the sight of
the gun, Larc squeezed her shoulders reassuringly and then moved
around her towards the Baron. Evette almost made a grab for
Larc.

Didn’t he know that the Baron wasn’t
bluffing, when it came down to shooting people, but she stopped
knowing that he must have some plan he was going by. Larc advanced
down the table the gun in the Baron’s hand tracking his movements.
From the smile on the Baron’s face it was obvious that he was
clearly enjoying himself.

“That’s far enough big fellow, take a seat.
I imagine that you must have some bargain in mind to get either the
Bible or the girl. I have to admit that I’m curious as to what it
might be.”

“No bargain. Like I said you’re going to let
both Evette and the Bible go.” Larc said nonchalantly, as if
addressing a foregone conclusion.

Larc pulled out a chair and coolly sat down
facing the Baron from only one place setting away.

The Baron’s good mood was wearing a little
thin, “And why would I do that?” He asked somewhat tightlipped.

Larc said, “Zevin come in please.”

I pushed the double doors open and then
pulling Evette’s father to his feet I thrust him into the dining
room. He came to a stop not five feet from the Baron. I could see
the Baron looking down the hall behind me for any sign of the
guards he had placed there. I could have told him that they were
beyond helping him now, but I think he guessed it.

“What’s this disgrace to the human species
doing in my house?”

“A disgrace of the human race was already
here before we brought this one along.” Larc responded
steadily.

The gun in the Baron’s hand rose slightly
towards Larc and I saw the trigger finger tighten softly.

“My patience with your continued impudence
is growing thin, but my curiosity still craves the answer to your
foolish notion of there being anything that could induce me to
allow two of my prize possessions to walk out of this house. Please
continue with your charade, but make it brief, the beef tenderloins
are growing cold.”

Larc looked at him for a moment, palpable
dislike for the Baron clearly evident on his face, which only
seemed to goad the Baron on, who smiled nastily back at him.

Larc looked at Evette’s father and said,
“Tell your story and if you leave anything out I’ll gut you here on
the spot!”

Evette’s father began the sad and sordid
tale that I had already heard in the church. I wanted to stay near
Larc and the Baron in case we had to jump him, but something deeper
inside insisted that I go over towards Evette and I listened to the
urging from within me and did so.

I didn’t know what comfort I could offer to
Evette, but I would do what I could. As I drew up beside Evette I
noticed that her eyes were glued to her father and I turned around
to hear again what I wished I hadn’t had to hear the first
time.

Evette’s father spoke slowly as if reticent
to bare the truth to even more people. “When I brought my wife here
we were broke and deep in debt. I was used to a grand lifestyle and
my poverty weighed heavily on me. I, to my everlasting shame,
viewed my quality of living as more important than my relationship
with my wife. When the Baron came to me with an offer that I
couldn’t refuse I hastily agreed to it not for a moment considering
the cost of what my actions would bring upon others. I was selfish,
still am, but what I’ve done and what I’m responsible for has to be
set right. The Baron coveted my wife for her beauty and offered me
money to have his way with her regularly on the condition that the
affair would be kept secret. My wife loved me very much and I made
her do something against her will and faith and I accept the full
responsibility for her death and suffering that came largely as a
result of my actions. I gambled away the best gift I ever had given
to me, I see that now.”

“You sold my mother to the Baron? It’s not
true! You’re lying!” Evette screamed disbelievingly of what she was
hearing.

Her sweet loving mother in the arms of the
monster who had used her! No it couldn’t be!

But as she watched her father’s head nod yes
sadly, her gaze found its way to the Baron, who had a somewhat wry
expression on his face, as he confirmed what her father had said,
“I know it’s sordid, but it’s true. This worthless trash of human
debris was so greedy to fill his pockets that he sold his one
priceless possession, your mother, to me to do with as I pleased.
Your mother was a rare woman Evelyn. I would have given my entire
fortune to be in her presence, as it was your father sold her to me
for mere pocket change. She deserved to have a man like me to love
her instead of a sniveling little pompous coward of a man like
him!”

I watched as tears came streaming down
Evette’s face, as she was forced to accept the truth of the depths
of her father’s capriciousness. But she hadn’t seen it all yet and
I cringed inside with pain for her.

Her father started talking again, “It’s all
true Evette I’m afraid. When I realized the enormity of my mistake
there was nothing I could do. I tried to break out of the deal, but
the Baron threatened to expose our deal to the public and I just
couldn’t bear to have that happen at the time. So the situation
went on and your mother lost all love for me and I grew to resent
her for what I had made her do. I treated her spitefully and with
her soul wounded beyond repair she began to slip away from us. When
she died I was almost grateful. I was eager to bury the misdeeds of
the past and start all over, but to my horror the Baron wouldn’t
let me. He insisted that the arrangement was to be continued with
Evelyn serving as her mother’s replacement. I refused at first and
then gave in presumably, when the Baron offered to build a new
church that I had wanted for years in addition to the money he had
already given me. I sold my soul to the devil for what I did!”
Evette’s father said, as he dissolved into sobs of remorse.

The Baron gazed distastefully at him, “You
sold the only thing of value in this world, your family. If I had
any compassion for you I would shoot you now, but I’d rather you go
on living and suffering from your mistakes. It’s more enjoyable for
me that way at least.”

Evette’s father looked up, “I didn’t sell
all of my family Baron, that’s what makes what I did truly
unpardonable!”

The Baron looked puzzled at the statement
and Evette’s father went on. “I didn’t agree to the deal for the
use of Evelyn for either money or the church that you promised me.
I hated you and out of hate I got back at you in the only way that
I knew that I could reach you. You see Baron, Evelyn is not my
daughter, she’s yours.”

There was silence for the space of a second
as Evette’s and the Baron’s gazes found each other in shock over
what had just been revealed. Cobalt blue eyes met their mirror
reflection and other similarities long overlooked now stood out in
sharp relief.

A wail of raw pain came out of Evette that
twisted my soul into knots at the hearing of it. I knew she still
had my knife and I saw her one hand almost subconsciously going to
her side, as she stared in horror down the table into the eyes of
the Baron.

Kneeling down on one knee beside the table I
put my left hand up onto the table palm up before Evette and then
whispered loudly, “Evette?”

Her broken eyes turn to meet mine. The words
just came to me and I knew that I had to give them voice, “Remember
how God thinks of you and how much He loves you! Remember what the
Creator’s Son thinks of you! Nothing else matters! Nothing else
matters, Evette!”

At my words something seemed to click in the
stormy blue depths of her eyes and I saw her nod slightly. She put
both of her hands on mine and then bent forward to lay her head on
her hands, which rested on top of mine, while I leaned forward and
rubbed her back consolingly with my other hand.

The Baron took his eyes off of Evette and
turned to stare wrathfully at the parental imposter standing before
him.

He barked out, “How is this possible? How do
you know that she is my daughter?”

The blubbering individual in front of him
sputtered out, “When I was a boy I had a high fever for a prolonged
period of time. The doctors said that it would take a miracle of
God for me to ever father children of my own; after Evelyn’s mother
started going to see you I ceased all physical relations with her.
She is your daughter, in truth I swear it.”

The Baron stared at him for a moment and
then said, “You let me.....” He said letting the crime of his own
lusts left unsaid and then he exploded angrily, “To my own
daughter!”

Before Evette’s imposter father could
respond there was the sound of a loud cough of air in the room. The
bullet struck Evan Hales Edwards between the eyes and he was dead
before his body hit the floor.

The silencer on the pistol coughed three
more times, as the Baron fired into the lifeless lump of flesh on
the floor.

Larc stood up and walked over to me and
Evette, as the Baron continued to sit and stare at the man on the
floor. I helped Larc get Evette up on her feet and she and Larc
headed for the double doors.

The Baron looked up as they neared and said
somewhat hesitantly, which was strange for him, “Evelyn I.....” He
said floundering at a complete lack for words to say.

Evette cut him off from any more
floundering. “My name is Evette.”

“Trenall.” Larc quietly undertoned.

Evette looked up at Larc wonderingly and
then at the Baron her father, “Yes, Evette Trenall. I have nothing
further to say to you, nor anything I wish to hear.”

Suddenly looking very old the Baron nodded
his head in confirmation and remained quiet. The Baron reached
beside him on the table and held up the big black book, “Don’t
forget to take this. I have no further use for it.”

I’d had no intention of leaving without it
and I took the book from his hands. I held it reverentantly against
myself, as I followed after Larc and Evette.

Talaric stepped into the room from where he
had been covering the Baron with a stolen weapon from one of the
dead guards in the hall. Talaric kept the point of the weapon
casually trained on the Baron, as he too exited the room pulling
the double doors shut as he did so.

The Baron shook his head ruefully, as he
acknowledged that Larc has been the one to have all the angles
covered one way or another. He glanced at the pistol in his hand
thoughtfully.

As we made our way back out of the labyrinth
of the mansion, I heard the distinctive but muted cough of the
Baron’s pistol and all was silent once more as we headed back
towards the secret passageway.

We had almost reached the SUV, when sirens
and shouts rang out from the mansion behind us. The sound of
vessels firing to life could be heard to. They would be after us
within moments.

Talaric was looking at the mansion and I
grabbed his arm, “Come on Talaric get in the SUV, they’ll be down
on us in a moment! We’ve got to get out of here!”

Talaric reached up and covered my hand with
his and turned to look at me. “I’m not going Zevin. The Creator has
something He wants me to do here on Earth yet. I don’t know what it
is, but He wants me to stay. I’ll hold them off as long as I can
and give you the best chance to get away.”

Talaric’s arms folded around me as he hugged
me fiercely and I him, “I love you little brother take care of
yourself! Tell mother and father that I love them and that I didn’t
let them down on this mission. Somehow, God willing I’ll be able to
come home one day, if it can be done.”

And then he was walking away into the
gathering shadows of night carrying a bag of the Earth style
weapons that he had gathered up in the mansion earlier.

“You had better find a way to get home or so
help me I’ll find a way to come back and bring you home myself! Do
you hear me?”

Talaric lifted one arm in acknowledgment,
but kept moving on back towards the mansion.

Larc touched my shoulder, “We need to go
Zevin!”

I nodded my head and got in trying to watch
the retreating form of my big brother for as long as I could before
he was swallowed up by both distance and shadow.

Talaric watched as the glow of the lamps of
the vessel that his brother and friends rode in grew dim in the
distance. It hadn’t been easy to stay. He had wanted to go home and
escape the strangeness and dangers of this world as bad as the rest
of them had, but last night he’d had a dream, a fantastic
dream.

A dream that he didn’t think was so much a
dream, but rather a glimpse of something that was going to happen
in the future. And then earlier today he had heard a voice that he
had verified as coming from the Creator telling him in no uncertain
terms that he was to stay and accomplish some task.

What that task was he did not know yet. He
was just excited that the Creator wanted to use him for anything so
he had willingly made the sacrifice. Turning back to the task at
hand he saw that the Baron’s men having satisfied themselves that
the perpetrators weren’t on the mansion grounds were beginning to
give chase.