The Seventh Mountain (41 page)

Slone received his awards, grinning and
waving at the crowd.

Jamal, Nick and Chenoa were called to the
stand as a group. They received awards for academic excellence,
teammanship, and a new award for being pre-chosen.

Much later, Mark received four awards for
courage, as well as awards for teammanship, leadership, freshman
sword single combat champion, and a new award for being pre-chosen
by The General.

The morning ceremony ended at eleven. Mark,
Chenoa, Nick and Jamal ran to find Tim. He was waiting for them at
The Oasis.

“It is going to get awfully crowded in here.
Better grab a table for your families, quick.”

Mark said, “That’s okay. We ate a big
breakfast. We just wanted to say congratulations.”

“Thanks. I never expected that. You could
have knocked me over with a feather.”

Mark unpinned his rose. “Here; I want you to
have this. My mom gave it to me this morning to say
congratulations. I can’t wear it under the blazon. You wear
it.”

“Okay, I will. But you get it back right
after the afternoon ceremony.”

Mark reached up and patted Tim on the arm.
“That’s okay. I want you to have it. I’m proud of you.”

Jamal said, “You deserve to make teacher.
I’m proud of you, too.”

Nick and Chenoa said, “Me, too.”

The friends split up to find their
families.

Tim made his way to the stage. This would be
the first time that he sat at the teacher’s table as a real,
fulltime teacher.

Tim sat down. Ms. Vanmie said, “Nice rose.
Congratulations.”

“Thanks. Mark gave me the rose.”

Ms. Vanmie had just taken a drink of her
beverage. She spewed when Tim said that. “You’re kidding,
right?”

“No ma’am. His mother gave it to him to say
congratulations. He could not wear it under his blazon so, he gave
it to me.”

“That’s too funny. He just tagged you.”

“What do you mean? Nobody is stalking me. My
picture is still…” Tim caught himself.

Ms. Vanmie was rolling. “That’s okay. I know
you look at the album every morning. It’s not against the rules. He
didn’t need your picture. He gave it back to me. That’s not against
the rules either.”

“But he must have had more than a hundred
chances to tag me.”

“He didn’t want to tag you. He wanted to
give you a breather, let you relax. I picked up his thoughts when
he asked for an assignment.”

“That is funny. How many points does he
get?”

“I don’t remember, offhand. I have to look
it up. It’s well over two thousand and that prevents you from
tagging him. You can give me his picture back, now.”

“That puts him in the lead. We have to tell
Mrs. Shadowitz. We have to get him a new flag.”

Three o’clock rolled around. All of the
students were mounted, lined up according to rank and waiting to
pass in review. Tim, carrying a flag, ran up to Mark.

“Mark, give me your flag. You take this
one.”

Mark looked at the number one flag. “What’s
going on?”

“You move to the front of the line. Listen
to the announcements.”

Mrs. Shadowitz began. “Well… we have some
late breaking news. Ladies and gentlemen, it seems that we have
some extracurricular points to add for one of our students.
Students, faculty, staff… brace yourself for this… Mark Young has
tagged Tim Fairbanks. He has earned two thousand, three hundred and
twenty-one points…”

Laughter flowed from the faculty and
staff.

“That puts him more than a thousand points
ahead of any other student this year. By unanimous vote of the
Council of Elders, he is the school champion. All accolades have
already been presented. They will not be recalled. However, he will
be acknowledged as school champion and awarded a three week,
all-expenses-paid vacation, for him and his family, anywhere in the
world.”

Applause sounded from the stands.

“Please stand… I present to you, the Four
Thousand, One Hundred and Fifty First Year, Seventh Mountain,
Student Body.”

Mark led the parade of students. They
approached the stands and Mrs. Shadowitz called, “Salute!”

All teachers, faculty and staff, lined in
front of the stands drew their swords and held them high. The
parade passed in review. Thunderous applause roared from the
crowd.

The end of school festivities began
immediately after the ceremonial events. The crowd occupied The
Oasis and the school grounds. Everyone was eating and waiting for
the final fireworks show.

Mrs. Shadowitz found Mark and his family on
the school grounds. Chenoa’s, Nick’s and Jamal’s families were with
her.

“Oh, good. I’m glad you are all here. Would
you all follow me, please?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

They followed her to the front entrance to
the mountain. That was where the art auction was going on. There
was a huge new statue on the ground in front of the entrance. It
was four horses with four figures standing in front of them. The
horse in front was rearing and the other three knelt. It was a
giant copy of the four statues that Mark had commissioned as
Christmas presents for his friends and family.

Mrs. Shadowitz led the group through the
crowd right up to the front of the statue. Emblazoned in emeralds,
the simple inscription read:

For Friends

Destiny Chose Friends, Four.

Legend Sprang From Emerald’s Core.

“I told you that we would let you know when
we could shed some light on what your destiny is.”

“Yes, ma’am. My destiny was to use the staff
to unlock the labyrinth.”

“That is part of it, we believe. There is
more to the staff than we have discovered and we still have no idea
why you four were pre-chosen.”

“There’s more to the staff. What is it?”

“We are sure that you will discover that, in
time. Since we know that all of your destiny has not yet been
fulfilled, we will have a guard watching you this summer. That goes
for all four of you.”

Mrs. Shadowitz looked directly at Mark and
he could tell that she was bracing herself mentally for what she
was about to say. “The head of each of the other schools has asked
if you would come and try the staff on their labyrinths.”

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