A Warrior's Legacy (5 page)

The sky was full of bright shining stars. If
her gods were not real how then had all this come to be?

She sank to her knees and looked up
imploringly at the sky, “I don’t know what to do?” She
screamed.

After a moment she screamed out of her very
soul a plea for help, “Please!” And then she collapsed onto the
ground of the garden sobbing brokenly at a complete loss at what to
do.

She felt a breeze ruffle her long black
hair. The wind grew stronger and she looked up from her sorrow.
There shouldn’t be wind!

The night had been a clear one. She looked
up and gasped out loud and scooted back in the grass away from the
small temple in the garden as currents of air had begun to swirl
around the small shrine temple and were picking up speed.

Terror-stricken she slid back further as she
watched the swirling winds become a maelstrom of power. The temple
disintegrated into pieces and swirled away out of view until there
was nothing that remained. Not even the foundation of stone
remained.

The winds dispersed upward and she saw solid
dark clouds form overhead backlit by the moon and out of it came a
column of fire that shot down and slammed into the ground where the
temple had stood shaking the foundations of the city and the great
wall itself.

Zalisha screamed and hid her face in her
arms believing her death would be soon. The citizens of the city,
strangers, and night sentries alike rushed from their dwellings or
stared from their posts on the wall in stupefied horror at the
temple on the hill, where the column of fire that reached into the
heavens blazed forth into the night.

Zalisha drew in shaky breaths. Why had the
fire from heaven not consumed her yet?

She looked up from the ground slightly and
watched in fearful wonder as the flames swirled.

“Zalisha. Come closer.”

At the voice of authority every nerve in
Zalisha went limp and she fell with her face to the ground a
quivering mass of fear.

“Zalisha! Come!”

Slowly her body uncoordinated in her fear
she began to crawl on her hands and knees toward the flames. She
stopped when the voice spoke again.

“Zalisha do you know who I Am?”

Zalisha whispered brokenly, “No, but surely
You must be God!”

“Well said, I AM. I am one God and there are
no others before me. Zalisha all that you see I made. I formed man
from the dust of the ground and I control all things and have all
power and I am not limited in anything that I set my hands to
accomplish. I am without beginning or end. I am eternal. These are
only some of the names that I am called by; Yahwey, Jehovah, El
Shaddai, El Elyon and the Creator of all life. Who do you say that
I am Zalisha?”

“You are the Creator! I will serve no other
than you even if it costs me my very life!”

“It has cost many who believe on my name
their lives, but I am faithful to those who put their trust in me.
They shall rise again as new creations and shall give me glory.
Blessed are you among the masses of your people for your belief
this night in the Almighty Creator. I find no deceit in your heart
and I will bless you with My presence for as long as you remain
faithful to Me.”

Zalisha cried out from the ground not daring
to look at the column of flame before her, “Creator bless not only
me but my people to! We are dying! Our hope is gone and we have no
peace from our enemies! Without Your help we shall all perish!”

Zalisha waited to feel the heat of the fire
upon her for her impudence to ask the Creator of the universe
anything.

“I have seen the bondage of your people. I
will send you back to your people with My words. My words are this.
If your people will cease from worshiping and following after gods
that are no gods and in turn worship and honor Me instead then I
will make them My people too. As it is written draw near to Me and
I will draw near to you. I will release you from your bondage and
bring healing to your lands. I will fight your battles and the
children of your people will be raised in peace not known by their
fathers.”

Zalisha whispered, “Oh God let it be so!”
She whispered into the ground overcome by the promise of the
Creator’s words for her people.

“Zalisha now hear the warning I give you of
what will happen if your people do not heed My words. The remaining
habitations of your people will become a wasteland like the lost
cities where only the wolves roam and there is no clean thing found
within. There will not be one man left alive of your people’s
lineage if your people fail to heed My words and forsake their
idols and wicked ways. Now go and do not tarry in accomplishing the
task that I have set before you as the day is fast
approaching.”

Incredulously Zalisha felt the ground role
under her and the sun six hours earlier than it should have crested
the distant horizon. The column of flame disappeared back into the
cloud, which in turn dissipated until there was just clear blue sky
overhead.

Zalisha pushed off from the ground to stand
and then surprised by the painless action she looked at her hand.
The cut marks and the infection caused by the poison were gone!

There was no trace of the injury ever having
occurred to her. That wasn’t all that was different. A strand of
her hair was laying across the front of her shoulder, it was white
as snow!

She looked at the risen sun and remembered
the weight of her task for her people and she strode out of the
garden and back towards the inward dwelling of the temple hill
quickly. A man stood in her way. It was General Lasho.

As she drew near he knelt down before her,
but she grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back up and looked
deeply into his fearful eyes, “General Lasho as you have forever
been my father’s friend then be one to me now!”

His old eyes regarded her as he gave a curt
nod, “Forever my Princess! What are your orders?”

“Gather the people! All of the people! The
rich, the poor, the soldiers, the slaves, the children, the
elderly, even the dying and gather them together in the fields so
that I might talk with all our people at one time. You must do this
with all speed and singularity of purpose! Now go!”

The crowd parted before her as she made her
way through. The sound of the people was loud as they discussed
everything that was happening.

The crowd grew quieter as they caught sight
of the high priestess mounting the platform in the midst of her
people. General Lasho caught her before she was all the way up.

“How are you going to speak to so many
people clearly that they can hear you?”

“I will do what I can. It’s up to the
Creator of the universe to do what I can’t.”

Puzzled he watched her go. Zalisha stood at
the railing of the platform and faced her people.

“My people I have called you here today to
tell you a truth!”

The sound of her own voice shocked her, but
she continued. The great crowd gathered before her were suddenly as
quiet as the grave, as each of them had heard her voice, as if she
had been standing beside them.

“We have believed a lie! All of us have
believed it, even worshiped it. We have worshiped gods made of our
own hands that neither speak or think for themselves. We have
denied the Creator of us all the homage that He alone deserves as
the one true Creator of all life. The Creator appeared to me in the
night out of the column of fire that many of you saw with your own
eyes. He told me of the error of our people and He told me what
would befall our people if we continue down our current path of
misbegotten worship to idols that can not save us. Our remaining
city will become as the lost city of Lancosa! Dead and lifeless
will our people be if we do not heed the Creator’s words. Not one
of us will survive!”

The crowd muttered fearfully among
themselves.

“He also told me what would happen though if
we forsook our false gods and the traditions of our culture that
have enslaved our people for generations. He will heal our land and
our people. Even as the mark of the Sorcerer is no longer on my
hand do I believe that He will heal the malady that the Sorcerer
has cursed us all with!”

She held her hand up as she said that and
she heard the surprised gasps from all those close enough to see
that her hand had been healed.

“He will give us victory over our enemies
and our children will know peace!”

A voice rang out from the audience, “Don’t
listen to her! The gods will come down upon us this day if we let
her blasphemy go unpunished!”

There were echoing calls throughout the
crowd and soon there was a mob pressing against the ranks of the
soldiers General Lasho had stationed around the platform.

“Silence!” Zalisha’s voice echoed so loudly
in everyone’s ears that many put their hands to them out of
pain.

“Fools did you not feel the world move under
your feet and the sun rise while it should still be night? Did you
not see the column of fire stretched up into the clouds? Can you
not see the healing done to this hand that was beset by the same
poison that killed an entire royal family in a night?”

Another voice rang out, “The gods are angry
with us because of your blasphemy! Seize her!”

The mob pressed harder against the
soldiers.

“Very well! Since you have such great faith
in your god’s let us put them to the test!”

The crowd went still at her words.

“I need two people who have faith in that my
words are true to join me on this platform.”

The crowd looked among themselves. General
Lasho stepped forward followed by his son.

As they made their way up the platform
Zalisha addressed the mob at its base, “Does a thousand of you
against one of us sound like a fair enough test? Gather three
groups of a thousand each, one to represent the god of land,
another to represent the god of water, and another to represent the
god of fire.”

The three companies formed and the crowd
moved back from them looking curiously at the platform to see what
would happen next.

“Alright people of the land pray to your god
to cause the boards of this stage to open and for the ground to
swallow up General Lasho. You people of water pray that his son
will be drowned in water even as he stands here on this platform.
And finally you people of fire if you believe that I am guilty of
blasphemy against the gods pray down fire from heaven to consume me
where I stand!”

As the people started to pray a voice rang
timidly out from one of the groups, “What if nothing happens?”

The voice giver was immediately pummeled by
those around him.

Zalisha responded, “I can well see how you
would come to ask such a question, for what have the gods we’ve
prayed to and made sacrifices to done for us? If your gods do not
answer you and mine does not see fit to intercede on my part than
you have my permission to kill me in whatever way you see fit, as I
do not want to live to see the folly of my peoples
destruction!”

Excited at their win-win proposition the
members of the three groups through themselves into pleading for
their gods to act on their behalf. Time passed and nothing happened
and the groups grew more violent in their pleas.

“Should we give them more time?” Zalisha
asked the crowd at large.

An older man rose his fist into the air,
“No!”

His cry was picked up by others in the
crowd.

The group members began to yell, “We need
more time!”

“More time!” Screamed Zalisha.

“In the last one hundred years of our
kingdom we have lost over half of our people and two thirds of our
land! Our people are dying under a cursed disease and the royal
family was killed in a single night and you want to give the gods
more time to act on our behalf? Enough! Creator of all life, if
your servant has found any pleasure in Your eyes reward these three
groups with the folly of their beliefs!”

Before her words had time to dissipate the
ground shook beneath their feet hard enough to cause Zalisha to
grab onto the railing to keep her footing.

The land beneath the people of the land god
disappeared as they fell into the void. Their screams of fright
were abruptly cut off as they were swallowed up by the ground.

A column of water fell from the heavens out
of the clear blue sky to land on top of the second group. The
impact of the water alone would’ve been enough to kill. The water
splashed upwards carrying its victims, but acted as if it was
contained within a clear sided box. Not one drop of water splashed
onto the surrounding crowd.

The crowd of people were to shocked by what
they were seeing to even move out of the way if they had wanted to.
The invisible box spilled out on the one side and swirled into the
void left in the ground by the first group and filled it. The eyes
of the crowd swiveled to the last group knowing their fate even as
flames licked out of nowhere to consume the third group up in a
scorching inferno.

The flames having achieved their objective
poured out along the ground like molten lava and burnt up the
standing water in the pit. There was a rumbling of the ground once
more followed by a great shaking.

When the shaking stopped and the dust
settled the field was as flat as it had been before. A fact not
immediately noticed as an entire people were already on their knees
begging for their lives and forgiveness.

Eventually a peace came over the crowd and
they began to talk among themselves asking questions like “What do
we do now?” “How do we serve the Creator?” “How do we please
Him?”

Zalisha listened and then spoke. “We should
do only what we know the Creator would want of us and wait for
further instruction as to what we don’t know lest we should make a
mistake and be worthy of punishment by our Creator worse than those
who have already perished.”