by Lee Duigon
“My master offers you one last chance to declare your submission to him and surrender your boy king to him. He won’t make this offer a second time!”
“Then we won’t have to hear it a second time,” Uduqu said.
“Why do we give a hearing to this gallows bird?” Chief Shaffur said.
“I am a herald!” Goryk said. “It is not lawful to harm me. But what says your poor little king? Has he learned yet to speak for himself?”
Ryons felt like being sassy, but his teachers all said kings had to act a certain way. Too bad!
“You must think we’re all jackasses,” he said, “to be taken in by your master’s tricks again. You’d better think of some new ones! We know there is no Thunder King, and hasn’t been for years and years. We can’t hang you, I guess. But it might be a good idea for you to hang yourself. Go away!”
Goryk showed his teeth. “Very foolish, my lords. You’ve seen but the merest fraction of my master’s power. You have no idea what you face—no idea at all.”
Obst laughed out loud, causing all heads to turn.
“We have no idea!” he said. “Poor fools! The living God has used your master as a tool in His hands to accomplish what He wished—the unfettering of His spirit. And yet the axe boasts itself against the woodsman! What could be sillier?
“The bell has been rung, the lost books recovered. You will see the hand of God stretched out all over the East, from sea to sea: for He desires all the nations of men to know Him. The more you vaunt yourselves against Him, the more you fight against Him, the more you do His bidding—in spite of yourselves!
“Go, Goryk, tell your masters that their weapons are turned against themselves; and that far from fearing them, we pity them. The spirit of the Lord is with us. Never again will it be far from us. Never again will God’s word be kept from any ear who will hear it. And you, who would imprison pitiful Heathen gods who are only idols—you have only done what the true God raised you up to do.”
The chiefs clashed their weapons on the legs of their stools. At a nod from Uduqu, two young Abnaks ushered Goryk from the hall.
“If he ever comes back,” said Gurun, “hang him.”
Obst shook his head. “Be sorry for them all,” he said. “They have no understanding of what they’ve started and no thought of where it ends.”
“Does it have an end?” King Ryons asked.
Obst smiled at him. “The work of the Lord have an end?” he said. “No, Sire—only one new beginning after another.”
The end for now…
Table of Contents
The Castaway
Gurun Explores the Ruins
The Trapper
Another Journey
An Interrupted Journey
The King and His Council
What Can a Blind Man See?
Among the Blays
Helki on the Trail
An Omen of Wrath
The Blays Find a Home
Into the East
Oziah’s Wood
The Blays in Battle
The Legacy of the Temple
Two Angels
A Heathen Prophet
The Village and the City
Helki on the Trail
Hlah’s Holy Man
Lord Reesh’s New Disciple
Cold Wind
Hoe Tim Met the King
Men Like Gods
Hlah and the Rangers
How Gurun Met the King
What Angel Saw, But Could Not Tell
How the King Saved Hamber
How the Animals Fled
The Golden Pass
How the King Returned to Obann
How Orth Received a New Name
To See Without Seeing
Helki and the Town
Gurun and Obst
How Lord Reesh Met the Thunder King
How Some Abnaks Were Tamed
Helki Picks a Fight
Lord Reesh Says a Prayer
A Message from the Thunder King
Of Gallgoid, and Helki
How Ellayne Carried Out Her Plan
How Gurun Received a Gift
How Ootoo Practiced Charity
A Valuable Piece of Rust and Dirt
The Road up the Mountain
The Toddling Prophet
How a Father Got News of His Daughter
A Stranger on the Road
What Galloid Discovered at the Golden Hall
