A-Viking (Betrayed by Faith Book 3)

by Paul C. Middleton

  He shrugged to her and quietly said, "What will be, will be, Nin. If this is the path we have to take, then take it we will. However you, Brianna and Rinzen can take trips so you can familiarize yourself with other locations, say in the U.S., Europe, and South America, while we prepare for the assault. That way we will be ready to strike as quickly as possible after it." Nin could feel his calm acceptance of what had been said. Slowly she released the tension she held in her body and nodded to the group.

  Outside Blackheath, Monastery of St. Michael’s Sword, March 21st.

  It had taken longer than Griffin had hoped to organize the travel for Brianna, Nin, and Rinzen. They had left Sydney on the seventeenth and would not be back until this evening. It had been agreed - delaying the assault until they returned was optimal. It would give the now thirty members of the Sisterhood force the opportunity to see their abilities in action and their willingness to commit violence. Now they would have eight women in an assault group of over thirty.

  Griffin had been scouting the Monastery in the evenings. In these trips, he had seen that they had between fifteen and twenty guards on the walls at night. If Nin's ability truly worked to cloak them as they approached the Monastery, it would be an easy assault. They were not locking the gate, so it was not like the team would have to break it down that would probably wake everyone in the Monastery. He had noticed that several of the Monk-guards were armed with rifles. If Nin’s ability didn’t work, they could cause problems.

  The difference between a medieval fortification and most of the sites that the Order and their supporting groups based out of was an academic difference. The walls there to protect them from external interferences were equally apt as defenses against most of the people who would try to harm them. Even in the modern age, unless an attacker had artillery or support weapons, the walls were a strong defense. St Michael's sword had additional defensive advantages. Only one road went into it. It was on a solid rock foundation, inside mountains and Australian bushland.

  He wasn't planning to rely on Nin's ability to hide their approach from the guards. The plan was to approach the gates using the shadows on both sides of the road leading to the Monastery. They would be less likely to be spotted that way. If possible, they would capture the monks.

  Nin had added another suggestion that would definitely add confusion as to what had happened to the monastery. Her wrinkle to the plan was for those who had talent with the plane of earth to shake the monastery's foundations causing it to collapse. The Order would likely know what had happened, but any government investigators would not have a clue. The entire Blue Mountains region was along a fault line, and the collapse would likely be blamed on poor construction combined with a mild earthquake. Even though the simulations wouldn't confirm, there would be no practical way of defining it as an assault. The disappearance of the monks would just be another mystery.

  Brianna drove the car to the location where they were forming the assault party. From there, it was it was an eight-mile hike to the Monastery. There was plentiful cover provided by the local bushland and no clear sightlines from the monastery’s walls. Griffin's caution in the approach somewhat annoyed Nin until she realized it was merely him being thorough. He would have done the same for anyone whose abilities he had not witnessed before. He trusted her, but he wouldn't let his trust risk lives he felt were his responsibility.

  They started just before sunset, and at the careful pace Griffin set they took nearly four hours for them to reach the Monastery. Every time there was a rustle of leaves or the snap of a breaking stick on their travel to the Monastery, both Griffin and Rinzen winced. The smell of Eucalyptus and the unfamiliar sounds of the Australian bushland had them constantly on edge. Despite their tension their passage through the forest was silent, as if they were ghosts. Many of the Sisterhood's supporters were not nearly as quiet, but Brianna was by far the worst at woodcraft.

  Griffin attempted to show her how to move more quietly through the woods as they traveled, however, she seemed to simply not have the knack for it. That would definitely be something Griffin would train her in when they had time.

  The group had an eclectic choice of weapons amongst them. A half-dozen had crossbows, another half-dozen bows, and everyone was armed with some form of sword or axe. Everything from a short, machete-like Saxon langsax to a heavy Viking broadaxe. One of them was even carrying a needle pointed Italian dueling rapier. Griffin had passed on the short sword he'd used against Xandrie, to one of the women with a bow, as by coincidence she was a cousin of its original owner.

  The plan was to attack and disable the monks if possible. Griffin knew several of the ‘monks’ and felt they deserved a chance to look at the truth. If, however, they maintained their fanatical devotion, he would also have no qualms about shooting them in the back of the head. A half-dozen of the men, including Griffin, were carrying stout pieces of wood so these ‘monks’ could be captured and assessed.

  As they approach the Monastery, the guards walking post on the walls were obvious. The gates to the Monastery, however, were wide open. When Griffin offered the whispered suggestion that they should rush the gates, Nin shook her head and quietly said, "It will be far easier for me to cloak you from their perceptions if we just walk calmly up to the gate, as if we belong there." Griffin looked at her rather confused, but she simply shrugged and motioned for them to continue.

  By the time they went through the gate the strain on Nin was showing. Sweat beads were starting to slowly trickle down her face. Griffin motioned for those armed with bows and crossbows to take aim at the monk-guards farthest from the stairs up to the walls. Then those with clubs paired off with an equal number of those that did not have bows and started towards the stairs.

  Griffin struggled against a rising excitement. This had been how he had lived his life for centuries now. The sense of completion battle waked in him would not be denied.

  The pairs worked together so that the club-armed member would knock the monk on the head, hopefully just knocking them out while his partner would catch him as he fell to prevent either an accidental discharge of the rifle or a clatter as he fell. Nin had mentioned that violent noise could pull some people out the deception she was weaving for them.

  Everything was going as planned until one guard turned to face another just as his head was struck with the club. The individual who saw this acted as if waking from a slumber, suddenly seeing all the attackers for the first time. His reaction was futile, however, as he was taken in the neck by a crossbow bolt and the chest by an arrow. There were still five of the watchmen up when this happened. Three remained in their relaxed state, but two on the wall reacted. The remaining pairs rushed those two and quickly knocked them out. Approaching the final three carefully, they knocked the guards on the walls unconscious. All the unconscious men were dragged down to the courtyard.

  Griffin’s group heard too late, though, the noise of people preparing for combat in the dormitories. One of them must have been alerted by the sounds outside and woken the others. Thankfully Griffin had recently been to this monastery and knew the armory was under the chapel. Four of his last six teammates had been stationed at the door to the chapel. The final two along with Joy, Rinzen and Brianna were guarding Nin while she concentrated on her task. Nin was swaying with the effort put into the cloak she had maintained and finally released her hold on the illusion. The group couldn’t be precisely sure what she had done. Whatever it was had been very effective, though.

  The Sisterhood members who had been on the walls drew their weapons and prepared to fight. The monks had basic hand weapons, like arming swords and cudgels, in their dormitories. Their firearms were in the armory, along with all their armor and that was under the Chapel. Griffin was weighing his options and decided to take the lead. He could hear the door being barred, so the monks obviously did not plan to come out and confront them. Focused on the door, Griffin drew on the Etheric. Pushing out the energy, a bolt of force formed and shattered the do
or. He might have hit it a little harder than intended, as not only did the door splinter but several of the monks who had been barring the door were tossed back, tumbling along the floor. One of them looked like he'd broken his neck.

  Griffin yelled into the dormitory area. "We only killed the one who tried to fire a rifle at us. I found the truth behind what the Order is trying to do. They seek to exterminate a group of people for what they were born as, not because they are Demons, not because they are unnatural, because of who they are. I found out my heritage is the same as theirs. I give you a choice, you can come out without weapons and have the option of reading the truth, or we can kill you where you stand."

  There was a pause, and suddenly six of the men in the dormitories charged forward, wielding single swords. These would be the fanatics, convinced that whatever they had done was in the right. Griffin felt no grief as they were shot down by the bowmen. "I repeat - if you want to live and see the evidence I have, come out without a weapon."

  Murmuring could be heard from within the dormitory foyer. Griffin stood with his sword ready and held out his hand when he heard several of the Sisterhood moving forward towards the door, stopping them. Eventually, a voice shouted out from the dormitories. "Is that you Griffin? If you've betrayed the Order what strength can we give your word?."

  Griffin shouted back, "The Order broke faith with me. I abandoned them because they have lied to me for over two centuries. My word is still my bond. It was they who broke their end of the bargain. This very oath goes both ways. I swear if you agree to come out unarmed, attempt to harm none, and follow any reasonable commands, you shall not be harmed. I also swear that if you do not do this, all of you shall be slaughtered."

  There was muttering again as three more monks left the building armed. Although they may not have done so entirely by choice. Crossbow bolts skewered them as soon as it was evident they were armed.

  "We threw out the three who are arguing that we should pretend to follow your request. The rest of us will comply with your conditions. We take them to mean that if one acts, all die."

  "Then put down your weapons and come out. We may restrain you while we travel, as much for your safety as it is for ours." The relief of not having to kill more men tonight was apparent in Griffin’s voice.

  There was a clatter of swords hitting stone as they discarded the weapons. They came out one at a time hands on heads, so it was clear they were not armed. None of them were playing silly games with this. Once they were surrounded and led out of the Monastery, ten of the Sisterhood combatants broke off to return to the vehicles. Another group collected the bodies for movement. One individual collected the swords. The rest, about fifteen, stayed to keep an eye on the monks.

  Within an hour and a half, the ‘sisters’ were arriving with their vehicles. Nin insisted on going with the closed van, even though it would be tight with all ten corpses inside. It had a partition between the cargo area and the driver's compartment so the bodies would not be visible to a casual police stop. And Nin assured them she could prevent the police from wanting to search the back of the van.

  Griffin gave the drivers the location of his brother, Einar’s safe house. He wasn't sure his brother would approve, but he was sure his brother wouldn't disapprove. This was a step toward gaining allies against the Order. It was the goal he had left the others so they could focus on pursuing it.

  Before they headed off, they stopped about a quarter-mile away from the Monastery. Nin stood with Griffin and walked him through what he needed to do to complete their plan. He needed to feel the foundation stones of the Monastery, draw on the plane of Earth, and 'encourage' the foundations to shake.

  Griffin concentrated hard and found himself actually feeling - as if with his hands - the foundations under the Monastery. Not the concrete foundations, but the stone below on which everything was built. Pulling on the energy of the plane of Earth he got it to slowly shift back and forth. Sweat dripped down Griffin’s face, and the muscles of the shoulder and neck were tensed. While he was drawing so heavily on the plane, a symbol on each of his wrists glowed. Neither the men nor Brianna could clearly make them out, but obviously, his heritage was more complicated than he had thought. It was something they would have to research before they moved forward, at least after the attacks on other continents.

  Slowly at first the Monastery began to rock back and forth. The taller structures could be seen swaying. Then with what seemed like slow motion, cracks appeared in the towers and walls. After about five minutes of this process, suddenly the entire building just collapsed in on itself. What had started as cracks appearing in the walls and a slight fog of rock dust became a cascade of larger and larger pieces until there was no building left. The cloud of choking rock dust flowed down the hilltop the monastery had been build on like a wave.

  Many of the monks had expressions of terror on their face once they saw this. A couple, expressions of disgust. Three of them had expressions of absolute awe. With this stage of Griffin’s plan complete, they headed off to Einar's safe house. The boxes of documents with proof against the Order were supposed to have been left there, and perhaps they could be used to convince these men the truth of Griffin's claims. It was unfortunate they would probably not have this option when they assaulted the bases in Europe and the Americas.

  Regret and exhaustion washed over Griffin as he saw the devastation he caused. It had been necessary destruction, but he still regretted it. While he reveled during the actual battle, once the fighting was over and the clean up done, he wished that no more conflict was necessary ever again. He felt the waste of lives and resources to the depths of his soul now, where before when working for the Order, he had freely accepted it. What had been a magnificent building, home to several generations of monks, with a church that had held worshipers who believed in their religion and goals, was now a pile of rubble and dust. Griffin saw in it the start of the destruction that would take place if the Godborn were united and the Order was destroyed.

  Mount Victoria, Australia, March 22nd

  Word had spread quickly about the attack on the Monastery of St. Michael’s Sword. Although the Sisterhood’s cells in the Americas were so far unreceptive to the concept of launching their own raids on monasteries, several of the cells in Europe had merely asked for a target.

  Based on his knowledge of the Order's sites, Griffin chose the Order fortress in the Tarpa mountains of Poland. This was mostly due to its relatively secluded location, but also because he knew the vast majority of the support staff were fanatical in their devotion to the Order’s goals. There would be few, if any, casualties there that might otherwise have joined their cause.

  It would be two or three more days before the assault could be prepared and take place. Joy used that time to convince American cell leaders to put their groups at least on standby for a follow-up attack. The attack would take place two days after they arrived in Poland. Griffin wanted time to train with the cells that were coming in from across Europe. He had no idea of their skill level, and Joy had admitted that the European groups were the most ‘mixed’ when it came to training. Many of them tried to live normal lives, thinking that was the best way to hide. It surprised him how many of these cells had supporters amongst pagan groups. That was almost a contradiction of their philosophy of hiding in plain sight.

  He couldn't say he really approved of pagan religions now. He felt that no religion could be trusted. All of them were probably built on lies. Nin's description of the Norskrinjar, Graki, Keltoi, Ajeyptos and her Father’s line was of groups of people who had either 'magical' abilities, or advanced scientific skills. The ancestors of these people had traveled from somewhere and used their superior knowledge to gain the trust and awe of large groups of individuals. That made them no different from her father and brothers, and to some extent herself. He remembered reading a book in which the author said sufficiently advanced magic and sufficiently advanced technology are indistinguishable from each other. He’d always f
ound the concept confusing until now. Perhaps that person had either been one of the Godsborn raised with knowledge of the Travellers, but after everything that had been explained to him understanding of that comment had finally dawned on him. It made him reconsider what the Travellers, wherever their abilities had come from, were. From her description, they were not actual gods.

  He was careful to remember Nin was trying to fix the problems these Travellers had left the world with, after inserting themselves into human society as Gods. Occasionally, the situation and her involvement in making those problems would get to him, and disgust would come to the forefront when he was thinking of it. Griffin no longer doubted that Nin could sense his emotions, as when the disgust rose to the surface in her presence, he could see an expression of pain on her face. He sighed internally. He didn’t want to cause her suffering, and he was developing a strong respect for her. The past had to stay in the past, for both of them. Remembering the self-loathing he had felt once he realized how he had been duped, he finally started letting his ire at her go for good.

  But he had other preparations to make. Grey wanted to travel with them. Before Griffin would allow him to, he wanted to make sure that his skills were at least sufficient to stand his own against a Paladin in training. If his skills in hand to hand weren't at that level when they left, Griffin felt he would be as much a liability as an asset. It wasn't numbers they could take with them. It was a small group of highly skilled individuals. The only reason Brianna was coming with them was so he could continue her training, and because, after Nin, she was the most skilled at drawing on the planes, at least in theory.