Aela (10 page)

CHAPTER 4

The Awakening

B
ack at the Temple of the Sun there was pandemonium, Juno was furious that Rom was gone but worse that the Sacred Sword had been stolen. He now feared his hold on the people would wane, as his power and popularity rested on the fact that he was the custodian and keeper of the Sword. He must not let the people know the Sword was no longer situated in the inner sanctum.

He devised a plan to have heavy golden curtains erected around the inner sanctum, so that only on very special occasions the Sacred Sword would be revealed to the eyes of the general public for them to worship. In his mind he envisioned that the people would look towards him with even more admiration and respect.

In the meantime, he ordered the goldsmiths to make a replica of the Sacred Sword and have it suspended by a golden chain, like the original one, so that nobody would detect that it was not genuine. Quickly his orders were carried out, as nobody wanted to lose their lives and by sunset all was installed.

He inspected the workmanship closely, all the time thinking how clever he was and wondered why he hadn't thought of this action before. Juno sensed that he now had greater power over the people and his numerous enemies amongst the council. But he must organise his plan to retrieve the Sword and recapture Rom to whom he considered the cause of all his troubles.

‘Prepare the best warriors to go forth, to sneak up on the Temple of the Moon, seize the Sword and bring it back here. Also Rom must be recaptured and brought back alive. I appoint, you, Tet to lead the men and do not return until both aims have been accomplished. Otherwise, death to you all awaits on your return, if you fail in this mission. But if you return victorious with the Sacred Sword and Rom as a prisoner, bountiful rewards will be bestowed on you all. Go now with my blessing and may the sacred fiery sun give you the courage to carry out my orders,' Juno shouted at the warriors, then sweeping up his bejewelled cape, Juno strode out of the room.

Whilst back at the cave, Eena, was particularly pleased with herself that she had in her possession the Sacred Sword, as well as Aela and Rom in her safe keeping. She would continue to prepare them for the ultimate test.

‘Guards bring Aela to me immediately,' commanded Eena as she stood motionless near her throne.

In a matter of a few minutes Aela was standing before Eena, who in turn was wondering what was going to happen to her next. With a wave of her hand, Eena dismissed the guards and the two women were alone together in the Assembly Cave staring at each other. Above them were situated many glistening stalactites hanging down from the ceiling, looking like a conglomerate of twisted branches sticking out in all directions.

‘My warriors have recaptured Rom from Juno at the Temple of the Sun and they have brought him back to me,' blurted Eena staring at Aela with a triumphant smile.

Aela looked startled at this news, and relief as well as concern flitted across her face, ‘Rom is all right? He is not injured in any way? Take me to him now. I want to see for myself he is alive and well,' commanded Aela.

‘You are in no position to order me around. You are my prisoner and I am in charge of you. You are to do as I say, otherwise all will not go well with you and Rom,' stated Eena in menacing terms. ‘Guards, bring Rom to me this instant, so I can deal with both of them together,' shouted Eena as she paced up and down in front of Aela.

With Aela and Rom standing before her, Eena stopped her agitated walking and she turned to face them, ‘Both of you are to take my instructions very seriously, you Rom, are to refine your warrior skills.'

Then pointing her finger directly at Aela, ‘You, Aela must hone in on your spiritual powers and by the next full moon, stage one of my plan will be executed.'

Whilst Eena was talking, Aela and Rom were exchanging significant looks between each other, trying to send messages to the other with the lift of the eyebrow or mouth the words, so the other could lip read. Realising that her words were not being listened to, Eena, lost her temper with the duo, ‘Guards take them away, before I regret what I may do to them. I have no time or patience with them.'

Both were hustled away in different directions, Rom back to his prison cell and Aela was marched by the guards and escorted to her room. Sitting on a chair and feeling very despondent, Aela was desperately thinking of what she could do to escape from her predicament as a prisoner.

Suddenly, a thought flashed into her head, she would meditate and send messages to Rom in her mind through the air to him. Closing her eyes she began to concentrate, allowing her mind to be emptied of everyday thoughts. Relaxing her body from the head down to her toes, Aela was very soon lifting her energies to the higher plane of consciousness.

Her spirit then began to travel through the atmosphere to the place of everlasting peace and all encompassing love. She heard herself calling out Rom's name as her spirit soared, ‘Rom, Rom listen to me. We must escape this place as quickly as possible, I do not like Eena and her plans for us. Rom can you hear me? Can you hear me?'

In the meantime Rom was sitting on the floor of his prison cell thinking very dark thoughts of how he would like to run a sword through Juno's, Brude's and even Eena's bodies. All he wanted to do was to seize the magical Sacred Sword, take it back to his people and for them to benefit from it in some way.

Then somewhere in his mind he heard Aela calling his name, he looked around but she was not there in the dark dank gloomy prison cell. Where was she? Then the voice called again for him.

He replied saying out loud, ‘Aela, Aela where are you? Come to me, come to me.'

Then a picture came into his mind of Aela sitting in a chair calling his name. ‘I can hear you Rom. We must think of a way to escape from Eena and her warriors. Come to me in your thoughts at sunset.'

Then it was quiet again and Rom could hear his heart thumping loudly in his chest. But how to escape this prison cell fully occupied Rom's thoughts as he was sitting on the stone floor with the rest of his body leaning against the wall.

Soon he heard footsteps stamping along the corridor outside his cell and they abruptly stopped in front of the prison door. There was a scraping noise of a key being inserted in the lock and then turned. The door was flung open and in strode Ardu, resplendent in his bejewelled tunic and sword at his waist.

‘Well, we meet again. This time you will not escape or be spirited away by Juno's men. Come follow me immediately we have much work to do.'

Rom was pushed roughly by a number of the guards who were determined that this time he would not escape. He soon found himself in a large cavern, where there were several men working at various tasks making and repairing swords, shields and other equipment for war.

‘Come here Rom, and choose your sword and other weapons as the lesson must start immediately. We have no time to the waste,' ordered Ardu.

Rom picked up a sword and a shield and faced Ardu ready for any further instructions. In his mind Rom decided he would fight as though it was a true life combat and not as if it was a lesson. Ardu, sensing the change of mood in Rom was doubly on his guard. Both men faced each other trying to find an advantage to thrust their sword into the body of the other.

Suddenly, in rushed a guard, ‘Ardu, you must come quickly, Brude's men are on the way, marching through the woods towards us. They are going to attack us.'

Ardu stopped in his tracks and shouted out, ‘Guards take Rom's sword and shield. Bring him with you, we must prepare for the invasion.'

Instantly the room was filled with men holding their weapons at the ready and all talking at once. Rom's weapons were very quickly taken from him and everyone started running down a large passageway, with Rom placed in the middle of the pack. In the main cavern the place was alive with activity, with people racing around in all directions, very intent on their tasks, in order to help prepare as quickly as possible, for the impending attack.

Eena was pacing up and down muttering out loud, ‘It has come at last, Brude is almost upon us. The war is now real and not just a nightmare in the distant future.'

Ardu was in the thick of the activity giving out orders promptly and one could see he was clearly enjoying every moment of the situation.

At long last he would fight Brude and his men in combat, the score would be settled for at once all and he and his men would be triumphant. A thought flashed through Ardu's mind, that when the battle commenced the Sacred Sword should be prominently displayed for everyone to see. This would give his men an advantage and as it was believed that the Sword had magical powers, then victory would be assured.

‘Eena we must place the Sacred Sword at the head of our men. It will make our enemies afraid and they could panic and run away,' shouted Ardu at the top of his voice.

The men took up the cry, ‘Victory, victory,' unsheathing their swords and whirling them in the air.

Eena started laughing out loudly, ‘Ardu, what a wonderful idea, bring the Sword immediately. You, Ardu will have the honour of carrying it. Men now assemble outside of the main Cavern, prepare yourself for battle.'

Brude's men were making good progress through the woods and they were now in Eena's territory very close to her headquarters. Tet thought the best move was to obtain permission from Eena to move quickly through her land, rather than going around the long route which would take three days to complete. So he sent an advance party to parley with her for safe conduct, in return he would pay her with jewels and gold.

To Tet's surprise his men returned very quickly with the news that Eena did not want to negotiate with him, but instead were preparing to fight him, Brude and all his warriors as soon as possible. But why the change of tactics? There must be a reason, they were obviously hiding something. Then an idea came to him, perhaps Eena had an arrangement with Juno to join forces with him, to defeat the opposition and together rule the conquered territories. He must send a courier to let Brude know his thoughts on the turn of events and await his orders of what next to do.

Tet organised his men to set up camp in the woods and soon a courier was on his way with the latest news for Brude. Then Tet arranged for a small group of warriors to search through the woods to determine whether Juno and his army were on their way to join forces with Eena and her men. Tet did not want to be surprised by Juno and his men from behind, as he paced up and down nervously waiting for news or orders from Brude.

Rom was also very impatient, he began to walk around his prison cell trying desperately to think of some plan of escape.

Before he knew what was happening, the door of his prison was flung open and in walked Ardu, holding the Sacred Sword in both hands in front of his chest, ‘I believe you were hoping to seize this prize. Eena wants me to carry this in front of our army, when we go into battle against Brude and Juno. I have decided that you are to carry it instead, directly in front of me, so that I can keep an eye on you. Guards, take Rom and prepare him!' shouted Ardu.

Rom was instantly whisked away to be dressed for the big clash between the armies. With these turn of events Rom was very pleased with himself as now he had a chance to escape and rescue Aela as well. But he must be extremely careful how he conducted himself, so as not to arouse any suspicions from either Ardu or Eena. But how to get a message to Aela so they could escape together. In the frenzy of preparing for battle, he may have a chance to rescue Aela and they could disappear into the woods and then make their way home to the Temple of the Moon.

Brude was furious on hearing the news that Juno and Eena may have joined forces and their combined armies could be this instant on their way to invade his territory and capture the Temple of the Moon He must plan immediately for the attack and so he was soon busy giving out orders to his men.

In the meantime, he sent word to Tet through a scout to stay where he was positioned for the time being with his men and to deploy spies to watch what Eena was planning to do with her warriors. Perhaps he could strike a deal with Juno and together they could vanquish Eena and her army and divide her territory between each other.

All these thoughts were running through his mind as he prepared for the conflict. At all cost he must be the winner and come out on top, whatever the outcome, Juno was determined to be victorious. Perhaps now was the time for him to defeat his foes, so that he could reign as supreme commander over all the territories. He always wanted to do this, but couldn't find the right excuse to challenge both Juno and Eena at the same time in battle. This was his moment for glory, the gods were surely smiling at him, with these turn of events that had suddenly come his way

Rom was quickly prepared for battle and he then placed in front of Ardu carrying the Sacred Sword in front of his chest as planned by Ardu. Eena gave the signal for the drums to start beating so that Ardu and her warriors were to assemble in the great Cavern now.

Then they marched out into the dawn, just as the sun was rising over the nearby mountain. They were soon on their way to take up strategic positions atop a mountain pass, in order to await the invading armies that would march along the valley below.

In the meantime Tet's spies took up their positions on either side of the pass and watched as Eena's army came out of the Cavern. To his surprise, he saw Rom carrying the Sacred Sword with both hands, directly marching in front of Ardu. ‘How can that be when this precious symbol which should be situated in the inner sanctum of the Temple of the Sun?' Tet exclaimed, ‘this must be a trick, but I will send a messenger back to Brude with this piece of news.'

So Tet and his men continued to watch Eena's army as they slowly marched along the valley.

The sun rose higher in the sky and still there was no evidence of Juno's warriors joining forces with Eena's men. What was holding the two armies up, thought Tet. There must be another plan that Ardu had in mind. He began to feel nervous and agitated and started to pace up and down tightly gripping the hilt of his sword with one hand. Then he suddenly thought of a plan to sneak up on Ardu and some of his men could take a prisoner so that he could find out what strategy that Juno and Eena were going to use in the clash between the armies.