“I got you all packed up with food,” he said to both of them at once. “And you each have a blanket and towel.” He then held out the coin purses to them, but before releasing them into his sons’ hands he added, “You each get ten silver from the community fund, as with all the kids who leave for The Choosing. In addition to that, I’ve added five silver each out of our savings.” This last part he said quite boisterously as he swelled with pride at himself. “I expect that should be enough to get yourselves a room at a few inns along the way, and keep you fed. And if there is enough left over…” he trailed off for a moment, holding back the tears that a man of his age and size shouldn’t show, “use it if you can to send message back that you made it safely.”
CHAPTER 4
James
James ended quickly, trying not to lose his composure. The only time that he had ever cried in front of his boys was when their mother had passed away, and that he was sure neither of them could remember. He didn’t want to think that this might be the last memory his sons would have of him. Quickly he thrust out his hands, giving one coin purse to each of his sons.
“Boys, tell everyone ‘thank you’ again since they have all worked very hard to make you these gifts. You need to be getting to bed as you have a long journey ahead of you. I have to go attend to our customer.” James turned and strode across the room.
Everyone else had forgotten the young man at the opposite end of the common room seated quietly against the window. He was now reading a book, aimlessly tracing absent symbols on the table with his free hand. Trying his best not to eavesdrop, he looked up suddenly when James came between the lamp on the wall and his book. They spoke in hushed tones and James picked up the man’s mug and returned to the bar to refill it. Returning it, again they spoke quietly and James turned and walked back across the room to his friends and sons. As James came up, the twins were just finishing bidding everyone goodnight and thanking them all again several times for the gifts.
“The boy’s name is Ashton,” James stated. “He’s from Glenvale. He says if you guys don’t mind, he would like to hit the road with you in the morning. He too is going to The Choosing.”
Both boys nodded to their father, and then to Ashton across the room, who was watching them patiently. Almost simultaneously they then said, “Goodnight dad.”
“You go ahead, Garret. I need to speak to your brother for a moment,” James said.
"Sure thing, Dad," Garret replied.
James, Emily, Samuel, and Jack watched as Garret turned to walk down the hall towards his room, carrying with him all his new belongings. They smiled at his retreating steps, knowing they would be missed, but knowing too they had given the boy all they could to prepare him for whatever might lay ahead.
"Seth, why don't you take a seat," suggested James, pointing to the chair he himself had sat in moments before.
Seth looked around at the faces of his friends and neighbors before sitting. His father's tone frightened him and the fact that none of them would meet his gaze troubled him deeply. Preparing himself for the worst, he sat down as his father had instructed and waited for whatever it was that his father intended to say.
"I wouldn't do this if I didn't feel I had to, Seth." James said taking a moment to get his emotions in check and focus his thoughts. "You know that everyone here loves you like their own child. We are all your family and any one of us, including your brother, would lay down their life rather than see you in pain."
Now Seth began to become afraid in earnest. He was not sure where this conversation was leading, but nothing about his father's tone nor the grim faces in the room bode anything positive. Seth began to shake from nervousness but tried to hold on to some semblance of control to hear what it was that his father was trying to tell him.
"Starting tomorrow it’s just going to be you and your brother looking out for one another, and the gods know your brother is going to need some looking out for with his grand dreams of battle and all," James said.
Seth let out a sigh of relief and even managed to smile a little at his father's comment. This wasn't anything new. In fact, he had been thinking the same thing earlier in the evening. He nodded his understanding to his father and sat silently letting James continue. James stood for a second, seeming to steady himself and gather his thoughts. He was a large man, both tall and muscular, so he found it odd that he looked so worn. Where he usually stood tall, his broad shoulders held back as if daring the world to face him, now he stood slumped, eyes downcast, ashamed.
"You're a wonderful young man and we are all very proud of you. I know if your mother were here she wouldn't be able to let either of you go tomorrow." With his last statement James nearly lost his resolve and his voice faltered slightly. He could barely keep his emotions at bay. "What I'm meaning to tell you Seth..." James paused, looking to his friends for support. All of them had tears in their eyes, and Emily was openly weeping by this point. Taking a deep breath James continued. "Seth, Garret isn't your brother, I'm not your father and your mother wasn't your mother." James barely finished before he lost control of his emotions.
Seth sat open mouthed, tears streaming down his face now too and he shook his head in disbelief. All eyes were on him, every look a mask of pain and sorrow. Seth could hardly breathe and it felt as if in a single moment his entire life was stripped away, if it had even been his life to begin with. He could find no reasoning to his father's words. They echoed over and over again in his head but simply did not ring true.
"What do you mean, Dad? That's not possible! We're twins, how could we possibly not be brothers?" He cried.
James tried to settle his own nerves and took several deep breaths before responding to his son's questions. "You have the same birthday it is true, Seth, and the two of you do nearly look identical, but the reality is that you are not brothers. I only tell you this now because your mother...I mean, Cassandra and I swore to each other that when you were ready we would tell you. But she is gone now, so it is up to me to tell you the truth like we agreed when we decided to raise you as our own."
Seth spent several minutes just sitting with his eyes closed, not wanting to believe what he was hearing, and not wanting to see all the faces around him—the faces of the people who had lied to him his entire life. Feeling deceived and betrayed he gritted his teeth to try and gain control of his emotions. Without bothering to open his eyes, he growled more than spoke, "Then who are my parents?"
Desperately Seth hoped that soon he would wake up to realize that this was some twisted nightmare, or at the very least some kind of cruel joke, but he knew deep down it was true. Something about it made sense. He had never been treated any different than Garret. In fact, everything besides the loss of their mother had been damned near perfect until now. He wasn't sure if he even wanted to know the rest but his father began talking before Seth could rescind his question.
"The night your mother was in labor with Garret I was at my wits’ end. There was water to boil, your mother was bleeding and screaming, Emily and Rose were taking care of her, but I was a nervous wreck," James said with a glazed look of remembrance in his eyes. "I was running back and forth from our room to the kitchens with towels and water, unsure if I was doing anything right. There was a terrible blizzard outside and it was all I could do to keep a cooking fire lit in the kitchen to boil the water. As I rushed from the kitchen back towards your mother, there was a faint knock at the door. Worried about your mother, I took whatever it was I was carrying to the room first then returned to open the door. The wind had been howling so violently outside I had had to bar the door just to keep it closed. It burst open as soon as I had it unbarred and outside, in the storm, stood this woman. She was just a tiny little thing, and to this day I can’t say for sure, but it appeared that the only thing she was wearing was a bear skin pulled over her shoulders. She was shivering terribly and it was obvious she had no money, so I invited her in, barred the door behind her, gave my apologies and simply ushered her into a
room on my way back to your mother. Very soon after your brother was born and I spent the next few hours with your mother and Garret cleaning up, happy that everything had gone well. I had completely forgotten the young woman in the other room."
James paused as if thinking a moment before continuing. “It was an hour or two past midnight when your mother awoke, believing she heard Garret crying, but upon checking him she found he was still sound asleep. Yet the sounds of a crying babe remained. She was too exhausted from giving birth to go and find the source of the sound so she woke me up. And I found you in the room I had allowed the young woman to stay in. You were in the middle of the cot wrapped in the bear hide that she had arrived in. You had only been born in the previous hours as your skull was still elongated to permit birthing, yet the young woman was nowhere to be found. Jack and I looked all over for any signs of tracks or blood in the snow outside but found nothing. The woman had vanished without a trace. Your mother was already nursing Garret and so put you to the breast as well, thinking that the woman would soon return to claim you. Days passed and then weeks. She never came nor did we ever see any sign of her so we decided to raise you as our own. We swore to one another that someday, when you were ready, we would tell you the truth of it. So in keeping a promise to your mother, bless her soul, I am breaking my own heart," James admitted tearfully. But then, after a further moment of thought, he declared, "You’re my son, damn it, no less than Garret, no matter what." Seth sat, choking back sobs, barely able to take a breath. His entire life had been a lie. Or had it? Just because he hadn't been born to James and Cassandra didn't make them any less his parents. Truth be told, they had saved his life by taking him in. Seth decided than that it didn't matter. His family was still his family. The only problem Seth had with the sudden admission from his father was that, for the first time in his whole life, he didn't really know who he was. Seth’s family was James and Garret, and even all their neighbors who apparently knew the real truth of the situation. But it was now also possible that Seth had another family entirely out there somewhere. Seth still felt a little betrayed that everyone had seemingly kept this secret from him, and by doing so may have stolen from him a whole other life and family entirely. It just didn't fit though. Seth knew his father, he knew his neighbors and he loved them all. He knew that they had only done what they thought was best for him.
"Does Garret know?" Seth asked eventually.
James shook his head, just beginning to recover and reign in his emotions.
"I hope you can forgive us and understand that we only wanted you to have a normal life, the best life we could give you, and that we all love you very much,” James pleaded.
"I love you all too." Seth looked at everyone in the room. "But, do we have to tell Garret? I don't think I am ready for him to know yet, if that's OK."
"I had already decided to leave that up to you, son. I've never seen a pair of siblings as close as you two," James said.
"So what do we do now?" Seth asked. He took a deep breath, finally able to breathe again as the knots in his stomach began to subside.
"That too is up to you. None of us knew how you would take the news, but we all hoped...” James trailed off.
"I think that you and Mom and everyone else did what you thought was best," He announced. "Though I do wish you had either been honest with me all along or perhaps never told me at all. In any case, you are all the only family I have ever known, and just because I’m adopted, that doesn’t make us any less family."
James grinned from ear to ear with a sigh of relief. The whole room seemed to feel lighter all of a sudden and James stood tall and grabbed his son in a monstrous hug. Before long Seth had hugged each of his neighbors, and with lots of apologies and words of encouragement, Seth was finally ready to join his brother in their bedroom and get some rest for the journey tomorrow. Thus he said his goodbyes and left the alcove and quietly went to his room, hoping not to wake his brother if he was already asleep.
He crept into the room he shared with his brother and was pleased to find Garret snoring lightly. A small candle burned on his bedside table. Garret had apparently lit it before going to sleep so Seth could see when he finally came to bed. He quickly and quietly undressed and crawled into bed, reassured by his brother’s actions that he had made the right choice not to tell him about his being adopted. He didn't want anything to change the relationship they shared.
Seth lay in his bed thinking a long time about his past and his family, but soon realized that what was done was done, so he instead focused on what lay ahead. Though his life was already irrevocably changed, he was aware that, starting tomorrow, their lives would never be the same again.
Their journey would only take two weeks, first winding south through the foothills of the mountains, then across the plains following the Rapagalon River ever south to their destination, the capital city of Valdadore. They would pass through, or at least near to, a few villages and towns along the way. It would be their first venture away from home without their father.
At least they would be together. Seth imagined their journey south, imagining the many things they would see, people they might meet. Seth slowly drifted away from consciousness, drifting as he did into dreams of his own making, his subconscious mind bringing unconscious acceptance to whatever might lay ahead.
Seth found himself in the kitchen of the inn. The cooking fires were ablaze, warming the room to an almost uncomfortable level. His father could be heard in the common room speaking with guests. The wind blew outside and rain hammered on the roof. These were all normal memories to Seth, since often when the weather got bad, their neighbors would come and visit with one another in the common rooms at the inn. But still something was out of place that Seth could not put his finger on.
The door separating the common room to the kitchen swung open just then, and the crackle of the cooking fires was drowned out beneath the sound of several boisterous conversations. A young woman entered the kitchen, smiling at him. She was beautiful with long brown hair falling around her shoulders in loose curls. Her skin was fair, the color of fresh milk. Her eyes too seemed to be smiling at him, enchanting him with their green depths. It was then that Seth realized what it was before that he couldn’t find.
Nothing was missing, nothing even out of place. What was wrong about this room was its size. Everything here seemed overly large, and it only took a second for it to dawn on him. The room wasn’t large. He was small. He was a child, barely four years old, and the beautiful woman who stood before him smiling was his mother. He concentrated as hard as was possible to commit her face, her smile, even her scent to memory. Her expression changed then to a look of concern. She must be wondering why Seth was staring at her. Then her expression altered once more as she pulled her eyebrows together, her lips into a straight line and scrunched up her eyes in thought. I knew it! Seth thought. Garret got that from Mom. Seeming to come to a conclusion, she knelt, bringing herself down until their eyes were level. She again smiled at him knowingly.
“Seth, honey, don’t worry about what is coming. Everything is going to be just fine.” She still smiled though her eyes took on a look of concern. “Why don’t you go get in bed and get some sleep? Garret is already resting.”
He nodded once and headed for the door. Pausing as he opened it, he turned around and met her gaze again.
“I love you Mom.” Seth barely managed to whisper the words.
“I love you too,” she replied, a look of deeper meaning and understanding on her face. “Now, run along to bed.”
Again Seth nodded and turned. Walking through the door he was greeted with familiar faces in the bright room. Then everything seemed to swirl, sucking the light from the room, encasing everyone in shadow. The light continued to drain until Seth was lost in darkness. He knew it was just a dream, yet he wished it to continue, knowing all the while that it would not. The dream, perhaps the only memory he would ever have of his mother, was over. He let the darkness consume him th
en, his subconscious mind taking over, and fell into a deep, restful sleep.
CHAPTER 5
Garret
Garret too found himself dreaming, an all too real dream. He stood upon a plain wearing brightly polished armor. In his hand was the sword Jack had made him, only now it was different. Now he held it familiarly, like he had been carrying it for years. Ahead of him lay bodies, heaped into piles, burning.
The ground around him was stained with blood; gore lay across the land. Dismembered body parts, people’s entrails, a scalp here and an ear there, it was a vision of death. Yet behind him, the plains teemed with life, hundreds of lives, maybe thousands. A force to be reckoned with was gathered of the bravest, most courageous men the world had ever seen. They were some of the most powerful fighters ever to be amassed. They stood for a purpose. They stood for him, with him, awaiting his command.
Facing them stood another great force. A mass of black armor, crimson pennants, hulking trolls, twisted orcs, massive ogres and unnaturally strong humans waited to oppose them. Their blades dripping with blood, they stood in no formation, each creature edging up to the invisible line that held them at bay. At their head, central to this inhuman army, stood a man. He was a ghastly sight. His gore-covered armor seemed to be made of blood. Spikes jutted from it at every joint, and his helm was fashioned in the likeness of a ravenous wolf.
In one hand he held a blackened evil sword consumed in unnatural power, in the other a staff of bleached bone, stained red from human blood. His eyes, even from this distance, could be clearly seen. Two crimson orbs danced behind his skull mask, taking in the army across the plain, moving from one extreme end to the other. The eyes darted from foe to foe until they came to rest on Garret.
Age of the Gods: The Complete, twelve novel, fantasy series (The Blood and Brotherhood Saga) Page 3
