“Well, that is one thing we have in common. Make sure that deed matches assertion. You ken?”
Talgath nods. “Ai. Will do. A clean slate is all I ask.”
“You overstep,” says Tennilus. “Abandonment of kin and malicious deed are not easily forgotten. As I mentioned, trust must be earned. You have far to go.”
“Well, I say thankee for the chance to earn it,” says Talgath.
“Come in.” Talgath enters. “Lonnie is in the receiving room, awaiting you, along with your son Leopold.”
“Gratitude.”
Talgath enters the receiving chamber and sees Lonnie, sitting with Leopold in the marguelite sofa. Leopold, a chubby, blue-eyed little wonder, takes cursory notice of his father. The boy is preoccupied with a cup and ball game.
Lonnie looks up. Her eyes are red from crying, making her dark green eyes even more luminescent. Talgath finds it nearly impossible to swallow. She is even more beautiful than he remembered. For a moment, he is speechless and doesn’t know what to do. Almost forgetting his manners, he bows to her. “Good day, Lady-Mais. How fareth?”
“Excited, nervous, angry, a little giddy, a little unsure. I don’t know what to feel. I never expected to see you again, so I am obviously happy to see you again. Yet, you abandoned us, and such things are not so easily forgotten.”
Talgath nods and bows his head in shame. “Ai. I cry pardon, my lady. I grew bored and felt trapped. When I wanted to come home, it was too late for me, for I was already in too deep.”
“And you have aligned yourself with Herod-Sai. Have you not?”
“The only reason I still draw breath is because of him.”
“But my father, your esteemed father, who we loved despised the man. And yet, I feel obligated to him for saving your life. He has asked me to sell him the shares of Selenius publications. I must admit I have been tempted. If only I could be assured, you would not abandon us again. You ken.”
Talgath moves towards her, slowly putting his arm around her. “Listen to me, Lonnie. You can’t sell your shares of my father’s company. It’s the only thing he wants of us. You sell him them and our lives will be forfeit. So long as he believes he can induce you to sell shares, then my life remains, as does yours. He would sooner have me dead than a liability. You ken?”
While tears stream down her face, he hugs her with all his might. But she returns the embrace half-heartedly. “I don’t know what to do,” replies Talgath. “There is a way out of this, but the solution escapes me. The only thing I care about is protecting you and Leopold.”
“Then you should do whatever it takes to protect your family. You ken? Prove to Herod you are more than an errand boy to obtain the shares of your late father’s company. Show him you are not expendable. Show him that you are an invaluable part of his plan, and he will not find it so easy to eliminate you. You ken?”
Talgath hugs her fiercely and kisses her passionately. “Lonnie, when did you become so devious? And so smart. Would not have expected it from you.”
“I have lived too long without you and without the comfort of a family. I have been lonely and close to despair. Now I have my family intact, I’ll do anything within means to have it. I will not have it wrenched from my grasp again.” Tears stream down her cheeks and Talgath wipes them away.
“Set watch and warrant it, I’ll do anything in my power to maintain it. I’ll never leave you and Leopold again. I will show Herod just how invaluable I am. So much so he will not move to strike me from his inner circle. But until that time comes, you must make me a promise. You will not sell him those shares. Agreed?”
“I promise. For the sake of our family, I’ll do whatever it takes. Meanwhile, you do your part to win your worth to Herod-Sai. I feel we have been given a second chance,” says Lonnie.
“I won’t waste it,” says Talgath.
Chapter 37: Perpetual Pain
Dante returns to his room during recess and buries himself inside his feathered pillow. He hopes to drown out the monstrous pulses reverberating throughout his temples. The waves of excruciating pain are intense. Though Camillia is too big for the cot, she lies on it, nearly pushing him off. Unable to comfort Dante, she nevertheless tries and lays her massive head on his back.
He is barely aware of her presence. When the pain becomes too much, he cries out. The pain subsides for a couple of minutes and returns with a vengeance. He checks his pulse and realizes it’s beating too fast for him to count the number of beats. He only knows one thing- it’s well over a hundred again.
He thinks briefly of going to Merlin, but what the hell would he do? By the time Dante finds him, his near-comatose forty beats a minute would be back to normal.
Dante rolls over in his cot, forcing Cammilia onto the ground. She lets out an irritated growl but resigns herself to the hard floor. When the pain reaches its climax, and it is more than he can bear, Dante cries out in anguish. He punches his fist through the wall. Once again, Dante will be forced to repair another hole in his wall. He may even receive a sanction, but this is the furthest thing from his mind.
He prays for a reprieve and then recounts this morning’s painful events.
Dante strikes a board and splits it with one punch, using the strength of his forearm rather than his wrist naturally. The hundreds and thousands of hours spent board punching coupled with the endless drills has paid off. His appendages are now lethal weapons.
But Dante is more concerned with drowning out the pain that eats its way into his temples again. Flittering images around him flood his brain with a 360-degree view of the gymnasium. Dante is aware of every movement, every nuance from every recruit, and is aware of their every intention.
Savelle puts two more boards in front of him. Before he moves out of the way, Dante fires out a lightning quick jab. Both boards splinter and nearly takes off Savelle’s head. “You little fuckin’ runt!” says Savelle through clenched teeth. Savelle fires a powerful jab towards Dante. Dante feels the heat of it even before he begins his strike. He is well prepared and blocks it. As he has been trained, he fires a lightning quick jab into Savelle’s mid-section. Savelle grunts and bellows over.
Before Dante can launch a devastating blow to end the scuffle, Merlin stops him.
“Dante, wooden turnstyle now! At tempest halt!” Dante takes off for it in a sprint before Savelle recovers and pursues him. The second Savelle comes to, he takes off but is stopped with a shake of the head by Merlin.
Dante steps into the wooden turnstyle. As he does, he pictures another snapshot of his surroundings. One of the horizontal boards flies dangerously fast. Dante jumps up, missing it before it would have knocked him off his feet. Two more vertical boards swing out towards him. He blocks them with his elbows, feeling every inch of the wood but little of the pain.
Two more boards fly at him, one in the face and one in the stomach. As Dante sidesteps, the boards narrowly miss his face by inches and aims for his mid-section. Dante chops it forcefully with his left hand, knocking a large chunk of wood from it.
Dante pivots, dives, and sidesteps several other boards, narrowly missing getting bludgeoned to death. Several other boards whiz straight at him. He crouches down, flips up in the air, and strikes out viciously with a hook. This knocks a chunk of wood from another board.
The machine speeds up. He sidesteps, crouches down, snaps his leg, and pushes it forward, splintering another board. And just as quickly it stops, giving Dante a momentary rest.
That doesn’t last long. Merlin and Germanicus stand before him. “Showing off today, Dante?” asks Germanicus.
Dante merely shrugs. “Stop!” yells Merlin to the rest of the recruits. They all look to him. “Boys, Dante is feeling especially confident today. He feels he can do anything. Let us permit him to show us. Shall we?”
The recruits raise a clamor, hooting and cat-calling. Merlin smiles and raises his hands to quiet them. “And if he doesn’t runts, you’re all going to pay for him wasting our time.” The recruits boo
and hiss, vocalizing their displeasure.
“Dante will show us all how to do gauntlet number two.” The recruits cry out vehemently.
Dante looks at Merlin incredulously. “Merlin, I cry pardon, but I’ve never done gauntlet number two. I don’t think-”
Merlin cuts him off by sweeping his feet out from under him. Dante flies airborne and falls to the mat. He is so taken aback by the assault, he forgets to put up his guard and pays for it. The second he lands, Germanicus steps in and fires a sickening punch into his midsection. This expels the air out of him. Dante doubles over and coughs for several seconds.
“That’ll teach you to speak out of turn, runt!” yells Germanicus. “We give you an order and you hop to it. Now hop to it! At tempest halt!”
“I cry pardon,” says Dante in a meek voice. He jumps up, sprints off for gauntlet number two, and finds his protective suit. Cammilia, senses his purpose. She helps him into it by zipping up the back with her teeth the moment he gets in.
Dante faces the gauntlet and immediately sees all its various intricacies. It is very similar to gauntlet number one with only a few differences. Seconds later, the vision is gone, but it appears etched on his subconscious. In his mind, he is already plotting his course through it.
“Dante!” says Merlin, addressing him and the recruits. “Are you prepared to show us all how it’s done?”
This time, Dante does not argue. “Ai, Merlin.”
“Go!” yells Germanicus. Dante takes off like a shot He sprints up to the first ramp and launches over the wall like clockwork. He races for the tripwires, deftly moves in and out, and crouches down to his belly and knees. Then he dives up and over the next one and stands up. Dante carefully positions his body around the maze of several intricately connected wires that extends about ten yards.
Dante grabs the parallel pole and hoists himself through a series of twenty slots. He uses his momentum to pull the pole out of its current position, while maneuvering the pole into the next slot. By the time he reaches the top, he is sufficiently winded. Still trying to catch his breath, he heads for the moving parallel bars. He jumps onto the first bar, while simultaneously ducking from another one that barely misses his head.
As he walks along it, another migraine works its way into his brain, increasing the amount of pressure. The pain intensifies with each second. Dante drops to his knee to will it away. But it’s a mistake born out of exhaustion and pain. The bar shimmies and shakes, disrupting his balance. He falls from the bar thirty feet into a mound of mud. It knocks the wind out of him once again. Dante cough, wheezes, and tries to regain his breathing. Cammilia runs up to him, barks, and then turns her tail to him. He grabs it and she pulls him from the muck. Dante removes his protective gear and shakes his head in disappointment.
He looks over at the group of boys. Some are laughing, while others wear rueful expressions. They are not happy. Merlin and Germanicus smile sardonically, while clapping their hands. “Thankee Dante,” says Germanicus. “Thankee for taking us away from our drills and wasting our time today.” They both look towards the recruits.
“Boys, it seems Dante’s ego does not match his assertions. He has failed and you will pay for that misstep. Let it be a lesson to you all. Go out on to the track and do wind sprints for the next thirty minutes or until you puke. Whichever. Doesn’t matter to us. While doing your drills, show Dante how you feel about that. Anyway, you see fit. You ken?” He asks.
The boys look towards Dante. Maximus, Luke, and Jericho clench and unclench their fists, savoring the moment when they will be able to unleash.
Dante turns to Cammilia, who looks at him expectantly. “Stay!” He says. She whimpers, as if to change his mind.
“No,” says Dante. “I have to do this on my own.” Cammilia reluctantly lays down.
Dante takes off like a bullet. The boys look at him but then turn towards Merlin and Germanicus for the signal. “What are you waiting for runts?” asks Merlin. “Go!”
The boys run after Dante, through the gymnasium and outside the rectory to the outside. Merlin nods at Savelle. Savelle smiles and takes off after the group, but not before grabbing his allen beads.
Once outside, Dante takes off for the track, while the boys run after him. He outpaces them and stays well ahead of them.
Luke and Jericho however, cut across the field and avoid the track. They head straight for him, trying to cut him off. Dante wants to run in the opposite direction. But he stays the course, knowing a physical confrontation is inevitable. He steps up the pace, hoping to outrun Luke and Jericho. Then, Dante looks towards them. His vision returns for a few seconds and he knows he can outrun them. Dante smiles to himself.
A fraction of a second later, he goes to the ground- hard- his feet seemingly with a mind of their own. He looks at them to be sure they’re there. Savelle has swung his allen beads at his feet, causing them to enclose in on themselves. Dante coughs and tries to recover from the fall.
He puts up his hand and deflects a kick headed straight for his face. He feels the edge of Savelle’s spur graze the side of his face, opening a small laceration on his cheek. Luke and Jericho swing around and grab his hands, while Savelle kicks into his side. Dante doubles over. As the next kick comes, he snaps out his foot, catching Luke in the shin, causing him to fall. The kick goes off course and hits Jericho in the groin. He doubles over and cries out in agony.
In the next second, Dante’s back erupts in mind-numbing pain. Someone knocks him forward about ten feet face first. Maximus, Whitman, Petronius, Syrus II, and Constance rain down blow after blowing on him. He absorbs every agonizing strike. Savelle takes him, turns him around, and is about to strike out, but he’s stopped short.
“Stop!” yells Merlin. “That’s enough. You’ve made your point! All of you!” Savelle looks at Dante with an indignant, gloating look. “Oh, you’ll be getting yours, runt, set watch and warrant it.”
“Looking forward,” says Dante.
“Jest while you can, little man. Be wiping that smirk off your face soon enough.”
Dante stiffens, knowing he will get it even worse tomorrow.
The events that took place later that morning were more perplexing.
Dante jumps up on Merlin’s apothecary table and winces with every step. Merlin takes his hand and examines it. “Does any of that hurt?” He asks.
“No,” says Dante.
“Good.”
Merlin then examines his head and uses his stethoscope to test for any sign of broken ribs. Merlin even takes a rubber hammer and tests his reflexes. He puts them all away. “You’re fine.” He says. “No broken ribs. No concussion. Take off your clothes, get in the mudbath for the next two hours, and then you may have the rest of the day off from your bouts.”
“Merlin?” asks Dante.
“What?” replies Merlin.
“I’m still a recruit here, right?”
“Of course,” says Merlin. “Why would you believe differently?”
“I started a fight with Savelle.”
“Not exactly true. He started one with you. You were defending yourself and you should. It’s what we’ve been training you for. How are the headaches?”
“Fierce,” says Dante.
Merlin nods his head as if he expected as much. “My sight returns for short periods of time. My heart beats so fast I sometimes think it will explode from my chest.”
“It won’t,” says Merlin.
“How do you know?”
“Last time I checked, runt, I was the Merlin. But you wish to question my expertise?”
Dante shakes his head. “No. I cry pardon, Merlin.”
“Look around you Dante. You have been here for almost three years and here you stand. Completing every difficult challenge that’s placed before you, while most of the other recruits have fallen by the wayside. Your presence here makes you one of the elite. You complain of constant pain, but I have seen you will away that pain time and time again. Champions are not born. They’re
created here. You might just be on the precipice of something extraordinary here. Don’t sully it by being such a whiny little pissant!”
Dante nods. “Ai, Merlin. I cry pardon.”
Merlin turns to Dante. “Take the rest of the day to heal, pray and rest. You can join us for mass this evening.”
With the pain spreading through his head and increasing almost every second, Dante sits in the middle of his bed. He crosses his legs and concentrates on his mid-section. He thinks of nothing else. Soon, that intense, fever-pitch pain diminishes. Dante smiles to himself.
Chapter 38: Moving Up
Talgath waits outside Herod’s castle for several hours. Though Herod is not busy, he keeps him waiting to reinforce the fact Talgath is an underling. He is a hired hand, subservient to master Herod-Sai, and arrives without an appointment.
When Herod feels he has waited long enough, he motions to Tennyson. “See in the ruffian, Tennyson-at tempest halt. Curious to know what he has come for, so I am.”
Morgana walks to the massive bay window and looks at Herod. “It’s something important, Herod. I can feel it. He has valuable intel and may want something for it.
Herod rubs his chin and ponders what this could be about. “Good or bad I wonder.”
“Good for him I would ken.”
Morgana and Herod head to their receiving chamber. Morgana sits in the comfy leather sofa imported from the Swahili Province. Herod sits in his throne.
After a few minutes, Tennyson announces himself at the door. His house man, Plymouth opens the door and Tennyson walks in with Talgath.
“Good day to you, Herod-Sai. We are well met,” says Talgath with gratitude.
“I presume you have settled in to your new domicile. No problems to speak of? I have heard of your campaign. Felinius tells me you were indispensable. It is well to hear.”
At the mention of Felinius, Talgath puts his head down in shame. The burden of guilt stews inside him.
The Test of Ostra Page 22
