A Warrior's Journey (27 page)

He had claimed her though and the decision
had been taken from her and in some ways she was grateful for that
even though it terrified her too. He was a good man, it would be
okay, at least she hoped so.

Larc felt her shiver as she stood silently
within his arms. It wasn’t from the coldness of the early morning
he was pretty sure of that.

He hadn’t wanted to be so forceful sounding
with her, but he was almost certain that if he had left the choice
up to her that she would have made a decision that wasn’t in either
of their best interests, but he wasn’t heartless either.

“How do you feel about what I said?”

After a short moment of pause she responded
softly, “I’ll try.”

She continued, “I knew there was something
different about you the moment I saw you in that little cell.
You’ve saved my life twice already. I like you and the ideals that
make you different, especially your belief in the Creator. I could
come to care for a man like you, but I’m not sure that I’ll ever be
able to satisfy you physically. I know that’s important with men.”
She finished half choked sounding.

“It is important, but its only one of the
many things that I am coming to love about you. I want to work with
you on this Evette and allay any fears that you might have. How
about this? You’re in complete control of the physical side of our
relationship. You take it at your own pace. I’ll be there when
you’re ready to try more. Take it as slow as you need to, even if
it takes years.”

Evette turned in complete shock and gazed up
at Larc, “You would do that for me?” She asked as she gazed at him,
as if he couldn’t be real.

“That and much more.” Larc responded
truthfully.

She continued to stare up at him.

He let her gaze into his soul for a moment
longer before he broke her study of him, “Now if I may I would like
to hold your hand as I escort you back inside.”

He held out his hand and without any real
hesitation her hand slid into his and they started walking back
towards the cottage. Before they reached the door Evette stopped
and looked up at Larc while still holding his hand. He looked at
her in question his eyebrows raising expectantly.

“You forgot to tell me something,” She said
smiling softly.

He would do anything to make that smile
bigger and come more often to her face.

“What’s that?” He asked genuinely puzzled,
as to what it might be that he had forgotten.

“You haven’t told me what my new last name
is yet.” She said gazing up at him somewhat coyly.

He stared at her enthralled for a moment at
this new side of her and then remembering the question he stuttered
out,

“Trenall.”

“Evette Trenall. I like it.”

She turned back towards the door, which Larc
hastily opened for her and then disappeared into the darkness
inside.

Larc stood there for a moment having been
thrown completely off of his game. What God given power had God
given to Eve and to her daughters to completely undo a man’s
control over himself and his heart? He didn’t know, but he wanted
to experience more of it!

Evette lay staring up at the ceiling
reflecting on everything that had happened this night. Somehow
against all odds she’d stumbled into the hands of a man that she
could respect. A man who wanted her and yet wanted her enough to
wait. A tear slipped down her cheek. She had a man. A real man.

The kind of man that her mother had prayed
for her to have one day. More tears fell unchecked, but they were
more out of a sense of hopeful rebirth than out of any vestige of
sorrow. It was going to be different, so very different!

A tremulous smile came to her lips and she
whispered, “Thank you God!” And then surprisingly she fell
asleep.

The next day saw me driving again. We
reached our destination around ten o’clock. It was a small town
nestled in the hills. It appeared to be a rather quaint little town
that had gone unscathed by the ravages affecting the larger
society.

Evette directed me down the back streets of
the town, but we still gathered some unwanted attention from
passerby’s on the streets.

Their unkind and suspicious gazes seemed to
linger on us as we passed. I’d only been here for a few minutes and
I didn’t care for it already. I could only imagine how Evette felt
about coming back to her old home. I asked as much of her.

“It used to be nice, but it changed. Or I
should I say its people have changed, for the worse.”

I couldn’t disagree with her on that one.
The town of Loch Lynn Heights appeared to be an unhappy one at
best, with a more adequate description of it falling in somewhere
between unhappy and menacing. I didn’t care for it or its people
and I was eager to get the Bible and then get out and head
home.

This entire trip had been a stressful ordeal
and I was eager to put it behind me and wake back up in my own bed,
with the only pressing concern being to survive my daily sparring
match with Rolf unscathed. Evette broke into my daydream by
directing me towards a white building that sat up on a hill by
itself.

I glanced over at Evette to see her sitting
there tensely. She was as tense as tense could get. She had
surprised all of us this morning, when she had come out of the room
that they called a bathroom.

Somehow she had washed the red dye from her
hair bringing back the natural brunette color of her hair. Her
natural hair color was much more becoming and less harsh than the
intenseness of the red color her hair had been. I was pretty
certain that Larc had liked the change too; going by the way he had
eaten her up with his eyes. She had simply smiled shyly at the
intenseness of his gaze on her and asked if there was anything to
eat.

Larc didn’t know it yet, but she had him
wrapped around her little finger. I wasn’t sure I wanted that in a
relationship with my future woman. Would I have a choice? Larc
looked happy enough though, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

I drew up the SUV in front of the building
that I recognized as a church. Excitement began to course through
me at the prospect of the near success of our mission. Evette was
the last to get out of the vehicle.

Thanic and Orhanin stayed with the children,
while Talaric drew off a ways to hold watch. There were only two
other vessels parked in front of the white church building.

Larc started up the stairs followed by
Evette and I trailed along behind. As we neared the top of the
stairs a woman with what looked like cleaning supplies bustled out
of the two big doors. She seemed surprised to see us and dropped
the stuff she was holding.

She gave Evette a particularly sharp look
and then with a last glance at us she hurried on down the steps
past us and after throwing her stuff into one of the vessels she
drove away.

Larc looked at Evette, “Did she recognize
you?”

“I don’t see how she could have. I was only
twelve when I ran away from here.”

We continued on and into the church. It had
a musty old smell to it. The cleaning lady could have done a better
job I thought to myself. After a short entrance area the building
opened up to a larger elongated room with a vaulted ceiling. There
were rows of seats to either side of a central isle, with a raised
stage area at the far end of the room.

We moved further into the church down the
central isle. I felt nothing of the presence of God in the place,
just emptiness. I saw the form of a gray headed man sitting on the
front row of the benches near the stage on the left side.

Evette stopped when she saw the man and Larc
stayed beside her, as I advanced to the front of the church to
confront the man. He was an older man, but he looked older than I
doubted that he was.

The air of defeat and the troublesome issues
of life seemed to wear heavily on the man’s face and countenance.
It appeared, as if he was tired of living life itself.

He raised time wearied eyes up to look at
me, “Can I help you with something?” He asked tiredly in a tone of
voice that signified that he meant the opposite of what he had
offered.

I disregarded his insincerity of statement
and went to the crux of the matter, “I’m looking for a Bible. Do
you have any that I could take with me?”

The man snorted slightly and shook his head
with a sad look to his eyes, “You’re too late my friend. If you had
come, but two years ago you would have found a Bible in every pew
and even more of them stacked up in the supply closet. There all
gone now though.”

I looked at him somewhat harshly not
trusting him, “You’re saying all the Bible’s are gone? None are
left?”

Somewhat taken aback by my intensity he
quickly responded, “The only Bible left in Loch Lynn Heights, to my
knowledge is held by the Baron.”

“Who is he and why is he the only one that
possesses a Bible?”

The man seemed surprised, “You don’t know
who the Baron is?”

At my threatening look he hastily said, “The
Baron’s family founded this town a long time ago and they’ve been
in control of it ever since. About fifteen years ago there were
some private investors, who tried to take control of the town over
from the Baron’s family. They succeeded to some degree. When the
disaster occurred, the upheaval and disorder that followed caused
the Baron to step back into the town’s picture once more. He either
bought out or forced out and some even say killed all those who had
opposed him. Since then he has had complete control over the town
in the absence of any outside control. He felt that the town needed
to go in a different direction spiritually. He felt that he should
shepherd the new spiritual movement. He holds services here every
Saturday night, which is tomorrow. He may bring the Bible with him,
he doesn’t always though. In any event I wouldn’t recommend that
you come. He doesn’t like strangers to come or stay in his
town.”

“What does he preach from, if not from the
Bible?” I asked derisively.

The man had the grace to look away in shame
as he muttered out, “He uses selected texts from other religions
and commentaries by various authors, as well as his own opinions,
which he uses to reinterpret the Bible with. Attendance of his
sermons is mandatory and before you ask about it, don’t! He won’t
give you the only surviving Bible left in the town for any price,
primarily because it helps to reinforce his position of control
over the town. He isn’t the kind of man to lose anything of his and
if he does he exerts a terrible retribution on any that he can find
responsible. He’s a hard man.”

“Is that what happened to you Papa, when I
left?” Evette asked her voice ringing out in the quiet church.

The older man moved off of his seat faster
than I thought he was capable of and turned to face the voice that
had spoken.

His face as white as a sheet he whispered,
“Evelyn?”

Evette who apparently was formerly known as
Evelyn in this town started approaching the man, who apparently was
her father. She must favor her mother in resemblance, because I
couldn’t see any of her father reflected in her.

As Evette approached her hand snaked out and
slipped a dagger out of my belt. She continued on past me.

The suddenness of her move had surprised me.
I glanced at Larc to see if he wanted me to intervene on behalf of
the man’s part, but he waived me off. I didn’t like the man anyway
and was perfectly fine with letting Evette make mince meat out of
him if she wished to.

The man backed up in a near panic, as Evette
advanced on him with the knife blade up, where he could see it.

“Dear, dear, Papa did the Baron exact a
terrible retribution upon you? Where are the scars? Why do you
still have your legs or even your life for that matter?” She said
the last, as she flicked the blade up to touch her father’s chest
causing a pin prick of blood to stain his white shirt.

You better start talking fast buddy, I
thought, as I viewed the scene as a spectator.

Her father held his hands up in a placating
gesture, “Evelyn I regret two things in my life above all others.
How I let your mother down and after her death what I let become of
you!”

The point of the knife went deeper as Evette
nearly screamed, “You regret! Oh I’m sure you have regrets Papa,
but me and mama aren’t one of them! For instance I’m sure you
regret the absence of the golden temple that was to have been built
on this very spot, from where you were going to lead a great
revival, as you preached forth with great eloquence to the masses
that came teeming to bask in the glow of your righteous zeal! The
absence of that I’m sure you regret! Tell me papa why wasn’t it
built? Was it because you let your little girl that you let be used
as a common whore, escape? Is that the terrible retribution that
you faced?”

Her father was fairly whimpering as he
bleated out, “I’m sorry! I know what happened to you was
unfair…”

“Unfair!” Evette screamed white with
fury.

Her fury turned cold as she brought the
knife up to her father’s throat, she intoned savagely, “You look
afraid. Why would a supposed man of God be afraid to meet his
maker? Maybe it’s because you think you’re destined for hell rather
than heaven, at least I think so. I have one thing to set right
with you before I let you find out. You said unfair. Unfair is what
you did to my mother! She worshipped the ground you walked on and
you threw her under your feet and walked all over her every chance
that you got! You broke her heart! She deserved better than you!
But that’s not what I’m going to kill you for!”

Staring at him squarely in the eyes only
inches apart she almost whispered her threat, “What I’m going to
kill you for is when the fall after my mother died you began to
drop me off after school at the Baron’s mansion and let me be
played with by a monster, until I was lucky enough to escape on the
eleventh time that I tried too! For three years you daily threw me
into hell! I think it’s about time you tried it for yourself!”