Redemption

by

Copyright © 2010 by Richard S. Tuttle.

All rights reserved.

All characters and events in this book are fictitious.

Any resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

It was a sunny spring morning, and the Borundan general whistled merrily as he rounded the corner of the stables. He halted at the sight of blood running across the cobblestones, and his eyes followed the flow back to its origin. His smile faded rapidly as he hurried over to stand next to the body of a dead horse. General Wikner looked at the remains of the horse and felt his stomach churn. The animal's carcass appeared as if it had exploded from the inside out. He turned his head away from the grisly scene and closed his eyes. The sounds of soldiers milling around quickly brought him back to reality. He opened his eyes and saw the stableman standing near the side of the building.

"Get a detail and clean this mess up," the general ordered the soldiers as he marched over to where the stableman stood.

He noticed that the man had emptied his stomach on the ground and shook his head in sympathy.

"What happened to that animal?" he asked.

"It was Prince Zinan, sir," the man replied. "I don't know what he done, but I know he done it. He was right angry with the beast. The animal was just hungry is all. I offered to get him another horse, but he was angry and refused. When the animal wouldn't obey his commands, he jumped off and glared at it. Next thing I knows there is blood and guts spraying all over the place. It was the most gruesome thing I ever saw."

"Go clean up," the general said softly, trying to control his anger, "and mention this to no one."

"What will I say?" frowned the stableman. "Everyone's going to ask me about it."

"Tell them the truth," instructed the general. "Tell them you don't exactly know what happened, and then say nothing more about it."

The general spun and marched towards the palace. He walked through the door and headed directly to General Ortega's office. General Ortega was not in, but as General Wikner turned to leave, General Ortega appeared walking along the corridor.

"We need to talk," General Wikner said conspiratorially.

"Is this about the horse incident?" asked General Ortega.

"You know about it already?" gasped General Wikner. "Who else knows?"

"I am not sure who else knows," sighed General Ortega. "I saw it happen from a window upstairs."

"The men are not going to like this," declared General Wikner. "We have to speak to King Garrick about it."

"Are you daft?" frowned General Ortega. "Don't you think the king already knows all about his cousin and the evil magic that spews from him? I am certainly not going to be the one that brings it up to him."

"But the prince's wrath grows stranger every day," argued General Wikner. "It is only a matter of time before he does that to one of us. The king must put a stop to it."

"Good luck to you," General Ortega shook his head. "I will not be the next one destroyed. Prince Zinan knows everything that goes on in this palace. The day after you complain about him to the king, you better make sure that you are far away from Tarent."

"He wouldn't?" scowled General Wikner.

"You haven't seen her spouting off lately have you?" General Ortega nodded in the direction of Naveena who was approaching along the corridor. "She was the king's advisor until Prince Zinan wanted the spot. He gets whatever he wants. I would forget the whole thing if I were you. I know that I have already forgotten it."

General Ortega pushed past General Wikner and entered his office, and promptly closed the door. General Wikner stood in the corridor speechless as Naveena passed by.

The advisor to the king's advisor barely glanced at the general as she passed by him. She strode purposefully around the corner of the corridor and up the stairs to the office of the king's advisor. She entered the room and shut the door behind her.

"Have you gone mad?" she snarled at Prince Zinan.

"Do not yell at me," the prince snapped. "I have a headache."

"I am sure you do," Naveena replied softly as she walked around the desk and placed her hands on the prince's head and massaged it. "Zinan, you can't go around making such displays of your power, and I can't always be there to cover up for you."

"Cover up?" balked the prince. "Why should I have to cover up? Is the opinion of some stableman so important now? Perhaps I should have killed him instead of that foul beast."

"Do you think that the stableman is the only one who noticed?" Naveena asked. "You did it in the courtyard. There were probably dozens of people who witnessed your rage. King Garrick will know by the evening meal."

"Let him know," spat Prince Zinan. "I have had an awful day, and I don't care who knows about it."

"You need to care," retorted Naveena. "The king can order you hung, and there are scores of men who would step forward to do the job. You may think that you rule Borunda, but that is not yet the case. Thousands of men owe their allegiance to King Garrick, and they will do whatever he says."

"Maybe that needs to change," snarled Prince Zinan. "You always said that I needed him to build the armies. Well, the armies are built now. Why do we need my cousin around any more?"

"Building the armies is only the first step," replied Naveena. "You said yourself that your spies are reporting a buildup in both Arin and Salacia. We are not ready to conquer them. The other countries must be brought over to our side first. Garrick can be more successful at doing that than you can."

"We do not need allies," balked Prince Zinan. "Our armies are already large enough to crush both Arin and Salacia."

"I do believe you are right," nodded Naveena, "but think past those battles and victories. If we lose most of our army defeating Arin and Salacia, who will be left to defend our lands? We will have destroyed the Great Peace, giving freedom to Odessia, Caroom, and Vineland to attack us. We would also have three times the territory to defend. It can't work that way. The other countries would see our weakness and seize the opportunity. You remember the lessons of history. Open your eyes and see the truth."

"All right," Prince Zinan sighed as he waved Naveena away from him. "The headache is gone now. I will give Garrick more time to set things up, but if he even thinks about harming me, I will act whether our plan is ready or not."

"Understandable," nodded Naveena as she frowned at the searing pain inside her head. "While we are talking about your cousin, I think he is getting too close to Princess Belinda."

"The Vinelanders are still here?" asked the dark prince.

"For another day at least," replied Naveena. "Garrick plans to take King Gregory hunting tomorrow."

"Well," smiled Prince Zinan, "isn't that opportune?"

"No," Naveena almost shouted. "You will not kill her. You cannot just kill everyone who displeases you. Just find a way to keep Garrick occupied until they leave."

* * *

Audric placed the small pebble on top of one of the large sea rocks that framed the horseshoe bay. The pebble was as smooth and round as a large pearl. The top of the giant sea rock was square, but its surface curved downward, slightly at first, but increasingly vertical towards the edges.

"This pebble is like the Talent," the old man instructed his students. "It exists in harmony with all things around it. It seeks neither to rise nor fall; it merely remains. When the Talent is used, there is a reaction to its essence. A beneficial use of the Talent seeks to raise the pebble higher, while an evil use will draw it downward."

"You want me to try to raise the pebble?" asked Jared.

"I want you to stop it from falling," smiled Audric.

"But it is not in danger of falling," frowned Jared.

"The pebble is always in danger of falling," declared Audric. "Act now or it will disappear between the sea rocks."

Jared concentrated his will on the small pebble, but nothing happened. Audric winked at Prince Antion and stepped around to the other side of the rock. He also focused his will on the pebble, and it began to slowly roll down the face of the large sea rock. Jared's brow creased in concentration as he tried to force the pebble to return to its starting position, but he was unable to.

For many long minutes the duel continued. Jared's body began to quake, and sweat formed on his brow, while Audric remained quite at ease. Eventually, Audric reached out and snared the pebble with his hand.

"You were working against me," frowned Jared. "I do not understand why."

"I had evil intent," shrugged the old man, "theoretically speaking. With a bare minimum of force, I was able to halt your drive to place the pebble back where you thought it belonged. Such is how the Talent works."

Audric placed the pebble back at its starting position and then handed a cloth to Jared to wipe the sweat from his face.

"There sits the Talent," lectured Audric. "It sits in equilibrium right now, but just the tiniest shove will start it on a downward slope to oblivion. You could do a thousand good deeds with the Talent, and it would never rise higher than it is right now, but one single use with evil intent, and it would start to roll downward. Each successive ill use of the Talent would result in an even steeper decline until eventually, it is beyond all hope of ever returning to equilibrium."

"But I was able to halt its slide," Jared pointed out.

"Indeed," agreed Audric, "as long as you kept constant concentration on it. What would have happened if you stopped for a moment?"

"The pebble would have been lost in the sea," answered Jared.

"Correct," nodded the old man. "Did you also notice that the lower the pebble was, the greater the effort required by you to halt its slide?"

"Very much so," replied Jared.

"Thus it is with the Talent," declared Audric. "The men and women who wield the Talent are not prefect specimens of humanity. They make mistakes as all people do. A single infraction might be repairable, perhaps even two or three, but the more uses with evil intent, the greater the effort required to return to equilibrium, until there is no chance of return."

"And you cannot count all the good deeds before the original evil one," remarked Prince Antion, "because there is nothing higher than equilibrium."

"Quite correct," smiled Audric. "You cannot store up good deeds as it were. Therefore, one must always be on guard to never use the Talent with ill intent."

"Is it truly the intent that makes a difference?" questioned the Arin prince. "I mean, isn't a foul deed a foul deed no matter what one's intent is?"

"An act in itself is seldom good or bad," explained Audric. "Take for example the ability to change one's appearance. If I were to change my appearance to get by guards to steal the king's jewels, would that be evil?"

"It would," nodded Prince Antion.

"Suppose I changed my appearance to protect my own jewels from a thief?" asked Audric. "Would that also be evil?"

"It would," answered Jared. "It doesn't matter about the secondary reason for the deception. What matters is that you sought to deceive."

"Not true," Audric shook his head. "In the second case you meant no harm to anyone. In fact, your altered appearance would cause no distress to anyone at all. You merely sought to protect yourself, and there is nothing evil about that."

"Can the same be said for killing someone?" frowned Prince Antion. "Can you kill to save the life of another?"

"Murder by its nature is a foul deed," answered Audric, "but the answer to your question is yes. One must be particularly careful in such areas though, because you are indeed causing harm to another. One should seek every other possibility before resorting to killing, but if it is the only way to save an innocent life, then there really is no evil intent."

"That doesn't seem right," frowned Jared. "How can killing ever be without evil intent? You are wishing a person dead."

"Are you?" posed Audric. "Wouldn't you have wished the murderer not to attack? Wouldn't you only wound the assailant and not kill him if that was all that was needed to save the life of the innocent? I said one had to be careful here. It must be the only path available to you, before it can be done without retribution. I would strongly suggest avoiding such a circumstance."

"I have to dwell on that," Jared shook his head.

"It is an important question to dwell upon," Prince Antion stated. "There may come a day when taking someone's life might be the difference between the world as we know it, and a world of evil and oppression."

Audric stared at the Arin prince as if he were looking deep within his mind. Prince Antion turned his head from Jared and locked eyes with the master.

"I have felt that feeling before," Prince Antion said sternly. "Doesn't that start your pebble rolling?"

"No," Audric blinked. "I apologize if I have offended you, but I assure you that there was no evil intent on my part. You are a creature such as I have never seen before, Prince Antion. We have learned that you are like a well of the Talent, which is to be used by others, but I have this feeling that you are much, much more. Why do you think Jared will be called upon to kill someone?"

"I don't know that he will be," replied the Arin prince, "but I am sure that he must resolve that question before we leave here. We have enemies, Audric, enemies that seek our lives."

"Who are these enemies," asked Audric, "and why do they want you dead?"

"I would prefer not to answer the who," replied Prince Antion, "but they want me dead because they sensed the Talent inside me, and they fear it."

"If it were ever to be used against them," remarked the old man, "there is good reason for them to fear it. You are a walking wealth of the Talent. You must guard that no one ever uses you for evil."

"I will try to guard against that," promised Prince Antion.

"I mean it," pressed Audric. "One thing we have not covered yet, and that is the comparative strengths of the Talent. Just as the pebble gains momentum on its downward slope, the use of the Talent with an evil intent is much more powerful than a like Talent of good intent."

"Are you saying that two people, evenly matched in ability with the Talent, would be unequal opponents if one was evil?" questioned the prince.