The Marus Manuscripts

by Paul McCusker

  “It’s the sword that belonged to Commander Soren of the Palatians,” Sister Leona explained.

  Kyle looked at the sword with awe and said, “You mean the one the commander used to try to kill General Darien?”

  “The very one.”

  Darien held the sword up. The light from the gas lamps caught the edges of the sword, sending thin beams of yellow in all directions. “How did you come by it?” he asked.

  “It was a gift to our order from the king,” Sister Leona said. She searched a nearby closet and pulled out the sword’s belt and sheath. “But it is yours by right, General. If you need it for your secret mission, then you must take it.”

  “I’ll borrow it,” Darien said.

  They slept only a couple of hours before Darien was ready to move on to his family’s farm. He woke Kyle up first, then together they went to Anna’s room to say good-bye. She sat up in her bed and rubbed her eyes sleepily. When she realized they were leaving her, she was immediately distressed. “I’m afraid,” she whispered to her brother.

  “So am I,” he admitted. “But it’s probably a good idea for you to stay here.”

  “What if something happens to you?”

  “I’m the protector,” he said as bravely as he could. “Nothing can happen to me.”

  Neither of them believed it, but they didn’t say so.

  “How will I know where you are?” she asked. “How will I find you?”

  “We’ll find you,” Darien assured her. “Or we’ll send for you.”

  Kyle smiled. “Yeah, we’ll send somebody with a secret code. He’ll say: Uncle Bill wants to see you.”

  “That’s silly,” Anna said.

  Kyle nodded. “Yep,” he agreed.

  Darien put a hand on Kyle’s shoulder. “The sun is up,” he said. “We have to go.” Then he left the room. Kyle lingered, looked at his sister with a worried expression, then spun on his heel and left.

  Anna buried her face in her pillow and prayed to the Unseen One, “Please don’t let anything happen to them.”

  Darien and Kyle walked around the village of Dorr, staying close to the outlying fields so they wouldn’t be spotted. The only living creatures they ran into were a flock of sheep and their shepherd. Darien said hello to the shepherd as if they were on a morning stroll rather than a couple of fugitives on the run. The shepherd smiled back and said “Good morning” pleasantly.

  Kyle felt that sick feeling in the pit of his stomach again and immediately prepared himself for something bad to happen. Maybe the shepherd was going to attack Darien with his crook. The shepherd just looked curiously at him, however, then walked on. That’s strange, Kyle thought. Is my “protector antenna” going wrong?

  Anna, asleep in her bed, saw the encounter with the shepherd in a dream. But she also saw what Darien and Kyle didn’t: The shepherd waited until they were out of sight and then ran to the village. In her dream, she felt peaceful and unalarmed. When she awoke, however, her heart beat furiously in her chest. Panicked, she looked around her room. The thick curtains on the single window were drawn. The small wooden washstand, the bedside table, and the rectangular brown carpet on the floor all seemed to be cast in a single shadow. Suddenly the door was thrown open and a man rushed in, his sword drawn. Before Anna could scream, he ran her through in a single thrust.

  And then she was truly awake. It had been another dream. Her room was filled with the half light of a sunny day that pushed through the drawn curtains. The door was closed.

  She tried to figure out what the two dreams meant but didn’t know how. Chilled and feverish, her eyes burning in their sockets, she tried to stand up. Her legs gave way, and she collapsed onto the floor.

  That’s where Sister Leona found her later in the morning.

  “Father!” Darien cried as he and his father embraced.

  The stooped and bearded old man held his son. “Darien!” he exclaimed.

  His mother joined the embrace as the three clung to one another.

  It was late afternoon, and the four of them met in a small cabin on the outer limits of Darien’s family property. Just in case King Lawrence had people watching, Kyle had run ahead to the back door of the house to secretly tell Darien’s parents where their son was. “Tell him to meet us at the old house after dark,” his father had instructed.

  “Is it safe?” Kyle had asked.

  “No one but our family has any idea it’s there,” Darien’s father had replied. “I am Torbin, by the way. This is my wife, Evelyn. You must be my son’s guardian angel.”

  Kyle had nodded as a reply and said, “We’ll see you there after dark.”

  He had run back to deliver the message to Darien. They had then made their way to the old house, so called because it was where Darien’s ancestors had lived when they first settled the land. It was a one-room cabin that reminded Kyle of an oversized playhouse. Inside were a few items of furniture—a cot, sofa, and kitchen table—and not much else. The cot had captured Kyle’s eye first. He was tired and felt as if he’d been in a relay race most of the day. All he wanted to do was stretch out and rest while Darien conversed with his parents around the small kitchen table. So he did.

  “The king’s men were here yesterday,” Darien’s father said, his tanned face wrinkled and folded like a plowed field. “They’re probably watching now, too. But we were too smart for them. I had two servants dress like us and ride to town while we slipped out the back door.”

  “Is everyone all right?” Darien asked. “Did the king’s men do anything to you?”

  “Oh, they were abusive and pushed us around a little, but nothing serious,” Torbin said.

  “They broke my mother’s china,” Evelyn complained. “The bullies!”

  “They could’ve broken more than that,” Torbin said.

  “How about the rest of the family?” Darien asked.

  His father rubbed his beard absentmindedly. “They are well. They’re wondering what brought this on. Why would the king suddenly turn on you?”

  “He thinks I want his job,” Darien said wryly.

  “Ah,” Darien’s mother said. “Then he knows about our visit from the Old Judge.”

  Darien shrugged. “Maybe he does.”

  “Or maybe he’s worried because of your success as a general,” Torbin suggested.

  “This is terrible! Just terrible!” said Evelyn. “You never should have left the farm. If you’d stayed here with your family, none of this would’ve happened!”

  Darien reached over and stroked his mother’s face. “My place was not on this farm,” he told her. “I was called to other things.”

  “Yes,” Evelyn said with a frown. “And one day I will have words with the Unseen One about that!”

  Darien ignored her comment and said, “Meanwhile, we have to be sure you’re safe. I think the prince of Gotthard will give you sanctuary until we can sort out this mess.”

  “Gotthard! You want us to leave our farm?” Torbin asked.

  “I don’t see that we have a choice. The king may decide to punish you as a means to get to me. So you must pack your things while I try to make contact with the prince on your behalf.”

  “On our behalf? You’re not coming with us?” Evelyn asked, her voice laced with worry.

  Darien shook his head. “The prince can give you refuge without much trouble. To help me directly would threaten his relationship with King Lawrence. What with their various treaties and agreements, he dare not take the chance. I will find other places to hide.”

  “Other places to hide . . .” Torbin groaned and hit the table angrily. Kyle opened an eye to look at them. “The greatest general in our land, and you have to hide. May the Unseen One see our plight and deliver us from this madness!”

  Darien agreed, “And so He may. But until He does, we have to take every precaution.”

  Kyle reluctantly gave up the cot to follow Darien and his parents outside. While Kyle waited on the porch, Darien hugged and kissed his mother and fa
ther good night. Then they began the long walk home across the field. It was a beautiful summer’s night. The chirping crickets and flashing fireflies went about their business as if the world hadn’t been turned upside down for this family. Darien and Kyle watched Torbin and Evelyn until they disappeared over the dark horizon.

  “Now, how am I going to get in touch with Prince Edwin?” Darien muttered as he turned to go back inside the cabin. Suddenly, without warning, a loud shout seemed to come from all around them. Darien quickly reached for his sword, forgetting that he’d left it inside. It was too late anyway. They were surrounded.

  “A man of your experience should be more on his guard,” a voice said. From the darkness of the woods, Colonel Oliver approached carrying a torch. Like phantoms bearing candles, almost 100 of Darien’s most faithful soldiers came forward.

  “What are you doing here, Colonel?” Darien asked after briskly shaking his hand. He was amazed. “How in the world did you find this place?”

  “The Old Judge sent the girl to me a few nights ago,” Colonel Oliver said.

  “Anna?” Darien asked.

  “Yes. She told us where and when to meet you. I got the word around to those I knew would want to come.”

  “But what are you doing here?” asked Darien.

  “We’re with you, sir,” Colonel Oliver said resolutely. “Wherever you go, we go. None of us desire to serve under any other commander, even if he is supposed to be a scoundrel and a traitor.”

  Darien looked around at the faces of the men, knowing well what they were sacrificing for him. “I cannot ask you to do this,” he said in a choked voice.

  Colonel Oliver nodded. “Nor do we expect you to ask,” he said matter-of-factly. “Which is why we’ve come of our own free will. Now, are we going to stand here all night or are you going to tell us what you need us to do?”

  They spent most of the night discussing their options. Having so many men to help made all the difference in Darien’s attitude. He became a general again.

  Kyle sat on the edge of the cot, knowing he wouldn’t be able to sleep now. Instead he wondered about Anna—the bold errand girl for the Old Judge. Somehow she seemed so different from the whiny little sister he had wanted to desert before this adventure began. He hoped she was being well treated at the convent.

  Sister Leona took care of Anna personally. She fed her soup and spoke gently to her while dabbing her forehead with a cool, damp cloth. Anna felt as if she was constantly drifting between her dreams and reality—to the point where she wasn’t sure which was which.

  “The Ancient Fathers and Mothers had dreams,” Sister Leona said. Though they had only begun to talk, Anna had the feeling that they had been chatting for hours and this was a conversation in the middle of it all. “The Unseen One used dreams to speak to the chosen ones. Only a handful are left who have the dreams or know how to interpret them. These are the days of abandonment, when the leaders and their people turn away from the ancient ways and the Unseen One.”

  “I don’t like my dreams,” Anna said through a voice like sandpaper.

  “No. Few of us do.” Sister Leona wrung the cloth out, then reapplied it to Anna’s face. “To be a voice for the Unseen One can be a great burden. Sometimes it involves suffering—even sharing the suffering of others. But our faith in the Unseen One carries us through. Do you have that kind of faith, Anna?”

  “I want to.”

  “Then feed that faith with prayer and study, silence and solitude. Will you do that?”

  Anna closed her eyes. “I’ll do my best.”

  When she opened her eyes again, the room was empty.

  She slept until evening. Sister Leona knocked gently on the door, then walked in. She wore a cloak, as if she were about to leave.

  “How are you feeling, Anna?” she asked.

  Anna took a deep breath. The burning in her eyes had stopped. She felt weak but much better and said so.

  “Good,” said Sister Leona, taking Anna’s hand and sitting beside her on the bed.

  “Have we been talking?” Anna asked.

  “A little,” Sister Leona said.

  “Then it was a dream. I dreamed we talked a lot.”

  Sister Leona smiled and patted her hand. “I hope it was a pleasant dream,” she said. Then she stood up and explained, “I have to leave for a while. I’ve been summoned.”

  “Summoned?”

  “The king has come to Dorr and asked to see me.”

  “King Lawrence?”

  “There is no other king that I know of.”

  Anna sat up quickly. Her head spun. “Sister . . . I had a dream about soldiers and swords and . . .” She couldn’t bring herself to say the word death. “And danger,” she said.

  “We’ll talk about it when I return,” Sister Leona said. “In a little while.”

  “Will you also teach me?” Anna asked. “The Old Judge said you would teach me how to use my gift—and you’d give me something.”

  “You have all you need,” said the sister with a knowing smile. She handed a small mirror to Anna and left.

  Anna wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do with the mirror. Was she supposed to say “Mirror, mirror on the wall”? She looked at her reflection. Her face was pale and gaunt. Her eyes sat atop dark circles. Her eyes! Her entire life she’d had brown eyes. Now they were two separate colors; one was blue and the other green. She put a hand to her mouth as if to stop her sudden intake of breath. She stared at them, unsure what to think.

  After a moment, Anna lay back in her bed. The wheels of her mind spun wildly, and her heart raced. What does this mean? she wondered. She heard voices whispering in the hallway, and then a young girl walked in. She was pretty, with long, braided hair and freckles on her nose. She said her name was Dawn and that Sister Leona wanted her to sit with Anna for a while.

  “I don’t need anyone to sit with me,” Anna said. “I’m all right.”

  Dawn reached over and touched Anna’s forehead tenderly. “Are you sure?” she asked.

  “Yes, I am,” she replied, and then she fell asleep again.

  Her dreams were fitful. In them she saw Sister Leona walk down a dingy hallway and into a room with candles and lamps set up in odd places, as if the room normally wouldn’t have so much light. The walls were covered with cheap paintings and documents that looked like legal papers and diplomas. A rolltop desk, also covered with papers, sat in the corner. In the center of the room, King Lawrence leaned back in a large thronelike chair that didn’t belong in the office at all. On one side of him stood a short, bald-headed man who kept wringing his hands. On the other side, General Liddell stood as straight as any ruler. Sister Leona knelt out of respect for the king, then waited.

  “Get up, get up,” the king commanded wearily.

  Anna was surprised because this was the first time she’d had a dream about the king where she could hear him clearly.

  “What can I do for you, sire?” Sister Leona asked when she stood up.

  The king rested his elbow on the arm of the chair and his hand against the side of his face. “Tell me about General Darien,” he said.

  Sister Leona looked puzzled. “General Darien?”

  “Don’t play innocent with me,” he said. “General Darien came to see you last night. Or should I say earlier this morning? What did he want? Why was he here?”

  Sister Leona glanced around nervously. “Your Highness should know better than I would.”

  “Indeed? Tell me what I should know.”

  “General Darien is on a secret mission. That’s as much as he said. I assumed it was a mission for you.”

  “Were you not aware that he is suspected of being a traitor?” the king asked.

  “The newspapers hinted at the idea, but I haven’t seen any official papers or warrants for his arrest. I’d be a fool to believe everything I read in the newspaper. Besides, General Darien denied it.”

  “He would deny it, wouldn’t he?” the king scoffed.

&n
bsp; “He would if he were a liar,” Sister Leona said. “But I have no reason to think he’d lie.”

  The king jerked forward in his chair. His eyes were aflame, his face twisted into a scowl. “Yet you would believe your king to be a liar!”

  “Why would you say such a thing to me?” said Sister Leona indignantly. “I’m a loyal subject.”

  “Are you?” the king bellowed. “Then explain to me what you, my loyal subject, did for General Darien!”

  “Did for him? I don’t know what you mean.”

  The king waved his hand. “Oram!”

  A tall, hairy man dressed in a vest of sheepskin stepped from a corner behind Sister Leona. “Yes, Your Highness?” he said.

  “She doesn’t understand me. Please enlighten her.”

  “Eh?”

  “Say what you know!” the king commanded impatiently.

  “Oh,” he said, shuffling his feet like a small child. “Well, like I told you, sire, I was walking this morning with my flock, and I saw General Darien and a boy walking from the sister’s convent. We said hello in a friendly manner. I knew it was Darien but acted like I didn’t because I read in the paper how he might be plotting against you. And then I saw that he was wearing a long gold sword. So I thought, Hold on, that’s the sword that was in the sister’s study, ’cause I seen it there myself when I had business in the place once or twice. I was then wondering if maybe the general didn’t rob the sister of the sword. So I ran to Phipps here, our magistrate—”

  With this acknowledgment, the bald-headed man nodded.

  “—and he told me he’d contact you if I went to the convent to see if it’d been robbed. Well, I happen to know one of the girls there—she’s one of the few girls who’ll give me the time of day, the rest being holy snobs and all—and I asked her right away what was up with General Darien. Did he come in the night to rob them? And she said that the sword wasn’t stolen but given to General Darien by Sister Leona, along with some food.”

  The king gestured to Sister Leona as if to say, “Well?”

  Sister Leona said firmly, “Are you accusing me of something?”

  “Apart from giving food and a weapon to my sworn enemy, then no, I don’t suppose I am!” the king shouted ironically. His face had turned bright red.