Preserving Hope

by Alex Albrinck

  Faces fell to the ground. Adam looked around, confused. “Why are you reacting in this manner? Where are the three women? Are they out Trading?”

  Will walked forward. “Come with me. I’ll show you where they’ve been sent by the residents of this village.”

  Adam nodded, and moved toward the gate with Will, as Arthur and the others stared after the two of them in horror.

  Will walked the path that Eva had traveled that fateful day with Arthur and Maynard. “Your sister was a delightful woman, Adam. I considered her a true friend—”

  “Wait,” Adam said, stopping. “What do you mean that my sister was a delightful woman? Has she changed?”

  In answer, Will kept walking, and Adam followed, until they came upon the small cross marking the fake grave Will had created for Eva. “Much has changed since you’ve left. The village has devolved into a place of jockeying for political power, and your sister found herself on the wrong side of that struggle. She was banished, and I was locked in my room as her opponents walked her away from the village. I escaped, and raced after them, arriving in time to find out that they’d never intended to simply banish her.” He gestured at the cross.

  Adam’s face contorted, first in disbelief, then in rage. “They murdered her? They murdered my sister?” His voice rose barely above a whisper. “Who has done this, friend? I sense no evil in you, no evidence that you lie.” He frowned. “I also sense that you are, perhaps, well along the path I described to the villagers.”

  I am, Will projected. And I beg you to resist sharing your knowledge with your former neighbors. All three of the women you seek have met unhappy ends.

  Adam’s face showed that he heard, and Will projected images and memories of Eva’s stabbing and Elizabeth’s beating. Adam’s grief was overwhelming, and the man fell to his knees, sobbing.

  “I was gone too long,” he whispered. “I’ve failed them. I should have come back sooner.”

  Will looked at him. “I arrived too late to know what happened to Genevieve. But I believe she met an end similar to her daughter’s, for she told Elizabeth to never share anything she might learn with the villagers.”

  Adam’s grief poured out once more, and then he looked up. “What she might learn?”

  Will nodded, and outlined the bizarre structure of the village after Adam had left. Adam was stunned. “How could they allow themselves to be so deceived? It’s wrong. Why did they do nothing?” His eyes narrowed at Will. “Why didn’t you do something? You would be capable of changing everything immediately.”

  Will sighed. “It’s a question I ask myself constantly. The answer, quite simply, is that Elizabeth asked me not to interfere. She wanted the villagers — especially Arthur — to find their own goodness and change of their own free will. She’d never been free to do as she wanted, and I relented, and did what I could to set a positive example.” He shook his head. “It didn’t work.”

  Adam’s eyes flamed. “That’s all you can say? It didn’t work? My sister and Elizabeth were murdered because of this system, and you elected to have your actions directed by a girl who’d had no taste of freedom?”

  “So you’re saying I should have treated one used as a slave by others as my own slave by forcing her to do something against her will?” Will’s eyes flashed. “She had the right to live as she chose. I refused to force her to pick a path of my choosing.”

  “Her choices have left her dead, and Eva and Genevieve with her,” Adam seethed. “Could you not see the danger?”

  “Of course,” Will said. “That’s why I went after Eva. That’s why I broke up the mob attacking Elizabeth despite having a sword-wielding maniac trying to kill me.”

  And that’s why Eva and Elizabeth are still alive, and you’re the only one in the village who knows it.

  Adam’s eyes grew wide at this, and his mouth, opened to deliver a stinging reply, snapped shut. Prove it.

  Will projected a web of Energy to envelop Adam, and then reached out. Eva! Elizabeth! Adam sends his greetings!

  There was no reply, and Adam’s gaze leveled on Will, growing angrier and angrier. Will was worried. Had something happened to Elizabeth and Eva, despite the extraordinary measures used to save their lives.

  And then they heard it. Adam? Is it really you? I had feared you dead!

  Adam’s face shifted from anger to joy in a near-instant. Eva! You’re alive! I heard what happened and I feared the worst. Is… is Elizabeth there with you as well?

  Yes, she’s here and she’s fine. I can’t wait for you to see her again, Adam. She was just a little girl when you left, and she’s a beautiful young woman now. She’s alive due to the man you’re with right now; treat him well.

  Adam’s look at Will was one of appreciation. I will do that. I miss you both. I should have come back sooner, to help protect you…

  You did what you needed to do, Adam. Make things right there.

  I will.

  Eva broke the connection, and Adam studied Will again. “She’s not easily impressed, Will, and you’ve clearly had an impact on her.” He took a deep breath. “I don’t agree with how you’ve chosen not to use your abilities, but I appreciate you doing whatever is was you did to save both of them. You have my eternal gratitude for that.”

  He held out his hand, and Will shook it.

  “Why did you leave?” Will asked.

  “I’m a Traveler, Will. It’s my job—”

  “No, not here. There.” Will waved his hand, as if referring to the faraway village Adam had called home for so long. “It sounded like a wonderful place.”

  “It was,” Adam said, his voice heavy. “But word spread of our skills, and with it came word that we were witches, consorting with the devil, and other such tales designed to frighten people. It worked. While I was away Trading, another local town rounded up an armed force with swords and pitchforks and torches, invaded the community… and slaughtered every single person there.” He choked back another cry. “I returned home just as the last of my friends and neighbors perished; he lived just long enough for me to learn what had happened. After his burial, I left and came back here.”

  He took a deep breath. “Will, I’m tired from my journey, but I’m sickened by what happened here. I don’t know if I can live here with these people, knowing what they’ve done. I don’t have that capability to forgive.”

  Adam turned and walked back toward the village, leaving Will with a very bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

  XXVIII

  Rebirth

  Will followed after Adam, as the incensed man made his way back inside the walls of the village. Adam didn’t ask to see the graves belonging to Genevieve and Elizabeth; he knew what had happened to them, and it mattered little where they’d been laid to rest. It only mattered that their lives had been destroyed by those in the village. They were all still standing where Will and Adam had left them, their faces expectant upon Adam’s return. Will almost laughed. Did they truly believe Adam — or anyone else — would share the knowledge of how to gain incredible power with people who’d shown the capability to do violence against others?

  Adam marched past the waiting villagers, past the Stores and Shops, and down the corridor rooms until he reached Will’s room, which he entered. Will, following behind Adam, saw him exit and return back outside. Seeing Will, Adam gestured with his head toward Will’s room. “Who is using my room these days?”

  Will gingerly raised his hand. “It’s the room I was assigned. They believed that—”

  “That I was dead,” Adam said, frowning. “It matters not.” He spun on his heel and entered Eva’s room, shutting the door behind him. Will stood staring at the door for several moments, uncertain what to do. The look on Adam’s face suggested that he was incredibly angry, and perhaps capable of violence. He’d done nothing so far, however, to earn Will’s mistrust.

  He walked back to the courtyard, where the villagers still milled about. Arthur walked over to Will. “What… what did you tell h
im? He seemed very angry when he came back.”

  Will snorted. “I told him the truth about why the women he was looking for aren’t available.”

  Arthur stared at him. “How could you do that? Why would you want to make a man like him angry? He knows, Will! He truly knows how to do what we’ve all wanted to do for so long, and he was prepared to tell us. But now… for your own selfish purposes, you’ve told him exactly the wrong things, and made him angry. He’s no longer likely to share anything, Will. How could you do this to all of us?”

  The man’s ability to spin any event to his advantage was uncanny, and even now, Will still marveled at the fact that many of the villagers were nodding at Arthur’s words, angry at Will for likely denying them the chance to make blue flames with their hands.

  He rolled his eyes. “Arthur, stop it, now. He can read minds, Arthur. There is no denying a man like him the truth; he knew the truth before I ever chose to say a thing. I dare say he has, or will, be checking each of you for the truth of your involvement in the deaths of those women. He will know. And how could you deny the man the right to his anger at the truth of what happened? There is no defense against the truth; you may try to persuade him to alter his opinion of the facts, but you will not be able to deny him access to those facts.”

  Arthur’s glare intensified. “I cannot believe you’d do this to us, Will.” He glanced at the crowd. “They seem quite angry at you, don’t they?”

  Will merely laughed. “You’re actually going to try to incite violence against me now, when the truth of those actions will deny you everything you’ve sought? Your need for vengeance against imagined wrongs is why you’re in this position.” He glanced around at the waning daylight. “I’m going to bed. I’d recommend that all of you do the same, and think about apologizing for murdering that man’s sister.”

  Before Arthur could respond, Will turned around and left, walking back to his room, stopping only when the door was shut behind him. He used the hatch he’d built into the roof, climbing out of the room and onto the roof, where he lay down, looking up at the emerging stars. Elizabeth was out there, somewhere, having ridden to Eva with Richard as her protector. He hoped the journey was uneventful. And Eva was in a mysterious town, which she’d not yet identified, a location in which entry was difficult and suspicion of newcomers was equally high. Should he go there to check on the women? Did they need him to check on them?

  He sighed. Right now, he needed to be alert to what Adam might try. Would the man be so rash as to try to go after Arthur? Would he simply steal away into the night? The latter, of course, was Adam’s choice, but Will had no interest in letting the man commit the type of atrocities — against, effectively, an unarmed opponent — as those committed against the three women who’d died during his long absence. If Adam forced his hand, would he reveal his own abilities in the effort to stop him? Will struggled with that dilemma for hours, even after he climbed back into his room and lay on his cot, eventually drifting into an uncomfortable sleep.

  He awoke to a gentle but urgent tapping on his door. “Will, are you awake? It’s Adam.”

  Stifling a yawn, Will rose from his cot and opened the door. “Isn’t it rather late, Adam?”

  Adam shrugged. “I thought so too, but Arthur asked me to get you. It seems something is wrong with the water Wheel, and he needs you to try to fix it.”

  Will arched an eyebrow. “What’s wrong with the Wheel?”

  “Listen.”

  Will listened, trying to figure out what was wrong, and then realized what he wasn’t hearing. Water. The water wasn’t flowing from the Wheel, wasn’t flowing through the aqueducts and out through the waterfall and drainage system. Something was wrong, indeed. “I’ll go look.”

  Adam nodded.

  Will walked out to the courtyard, and found that the gate was already opened. He grabbed one of the torches they’d used at the party a few nights earlier — the party at which Elizabeth had been beaten to death — and pulled it from the ground. He walked out the gate and, once out of sight of the village, sent a sheet of Energy flames at the torch, lighting it and providing a source of illumination to the path which moved toward the Ealdor River and the Wheel. He marveled at the urgency of restoring running water to villagers who had never known such marvels until a few years ago; now, they felt they couldn’t survive without it.

  He walked, aware of how quiet the forest was at night. He’d expected more noise as nighttime predators and scavengers emerged, but perhaps this forest was unique in its lack of nocturnal nightlife. Well, except for him.

  He approached the Wheel and frowned. The Wheel was still turning, still scooping up buckets full of water and dumping them out. Yet the water was splashing down on the shore-side dock, rather than reaching the aqueduct system. He wondered what type of debris blocked the structure.

  Will reached the dock and hiked up the ramp, and looked inside the aqueduct.

  His heart sank.

  Arthur was bound and gagged, crammed into the opening of the aqueduct system, his body acting as a shield preventing the water from flowing. The man’s eyes widened at the sight of Will. Will seized Arthur and pulled him out of the aqueduct, and tore away his bindings and gag. “What happened?”

  Arthur’s shock was too great to speak, however. As much as Will savored the man’s silence and terror, he needed answers. “What happened? Who did this to you?”

  Even as he asked the question, however, he knew the answer. The more critical question, though, was why. Why had Adam abducted Arthur and left him in this spot? And why had Adam sent Will here to fix the problem with the Wheel, since Arthur himself had clearly not requested Will’s presence?

  The sound of screaming rose in the distance, and Will noticed the bright glow from the direction of the village.

  He scrambled down the ramp and off the dock, seized the torch, and ran toward the village. Running toward yet another home that was on fire. This time, however, it wasn’t just his home; it was the entire village. And this time, Adam wasn’t rescuing him from the fire; he had set it.

  The images came to him as his pace increased. Adam had used his Energy to lock everyone in the village down. He’d seized Arthur, bound him, and carried the man to the Wheel where he’d left him in the aqueduct. After getting Will out of the village, Adam had used his Energy to smash the kegs of wine and ale over the exteriors of the rooms, and then sent his flaming Energy into the alcohol, setting the entire village ablaze. Only when it was too late for any of them to escape did he release their bonds, to enable them to be fully aware as death claimed them all through the fire.

  Will saw Adam standing outside the village, a look of grim satisfaction on his face illuminated by the flames which destroyed everything in sight. Will absent-mindedly felt the paper scroll computer in his pocket, as it was the only truly irreplaceable item he owned. He had money aplenty buried in the hidden cave he and Elizabeth had used for training — and more recently, healing — and was unconcerned about losing his wealth.

  Now, though, he recognized that Adam had decided to use his abilities to act as executioner of the villagers who had, to the best of their knowledge, murdered three innocent women. Adam’s earlier words — “I don’t know if I can live here with these people” — took on new meaning. He hadn’t been planning to move away to avoid the villagers; he’d been planning to exterminate them all.

  “I did what you wouldn’t do, Will,” Adam said, as Will walked up next to the man. “I made sure those cowards and evildoers never again had the chance to harm innocents.”

  “But why, Adam? Why do they not get the chance to redeem themselves?”

  “They’ve had chances, Will. Your memories tell of that fact, and you’ve been here for only a short time. Their memories told of daily choices made concerned only with themselves, and rationalizing the ill treatment of first Genevieve and then Eva, but always of the child known as Elizabeth. Grown women might have the chance to defend themselves, but a child? It is tha
t crime for which I’ll never forgive them.”

  Will shook his head, still too in shock to recognize that he’d never again talk to any of them. “The child you speak of — she specifically told me that she associates those who would commit murder with Arthur, the one who wounded her the most deeply of all. Make no mistake, Adam. What you’ve done here is murder, not vengeance. You may have found yourself unable to forgive them what they’d done — but will Eva ever forgive you? Will Elizabeth? Would Genevieve?”

  Adam’s face showed the slightest tinge of doubt. “What’s done is done.”

  The walls finally collapsed, lit by the burning rooms, and the two men watched as the entire village smoldered into nothing but ashes.

  Will glanced at Adam. “What about the animals? Are they guilty as well?”

  Adam shook his head. “They were freed before I woke you. Only those with the free will to choose their actions paid the ultimate price.”

  Will heard a sound behind him, and turned to find a bedraggled Arthur shuffling in to view. The man’s face was the epitome of confusion, as if his brain could simply not understand what he was seeing.

  “Only two were saved from the fire,” Adam said, without turning to recognize Arthur. “One, because he and he alone worked to change the village for the better, refused to participate in the evil it had become, and tried to save those persecuted within the walls. The second? He will serve as a constant reminder of what the face of incorrect choices looks like. He will live the rest of his days having to remember what he’s done, and live with the fact that his choices led to the deaths of over fifty men and women who likely would still be alive now if not for him. He will have to live with the knowledge that he murdered his wife and daughter.”

  Arthur had no response.

  Will looked at Adam. “You’ve destroyed our home, Adam. We have nowhere to live, no means of making an income to buy the supplies we need to survive. What do we do?”

  Adam suddenly whirled upon Arthur, threw the man to the ground, and forced something into the man’s mouth. To prevent gagging, Arthur was forced to swallow the food Adam had injected into him.