Zachania (21 page)

“Me, what worth
can I be to a god.”

“My spirit can
never again visit my beloved Zachania, your family are the last of
the Zachanian’s living beyond my land, you Talon, you have been
chosen free Zachania.”

“Me, what
possibly could I do?”

“You have the
strength, it took me centuries to separate my spirit from this body
in ice, I visited your Grandfather, in dreams just as I visit you,
but he did not possess the strength I feel in you.”

“My
Grandfather, what do you know of him?”

“He is in
Zachania.”

“In
Zachania.”

“Be silent now
Talon, I do not have much time, you must travel to Zanlia, there
you will find a Pangkor temple, show your pendent to the Lord monk,
he will give you safe passage to Zachania, once there your destiny
will unveil itself to you.”

Surprisingly
Talon found himself agreeing, a feeling of overwhelming fulfilment
arose in him

“One more
thing, the Emperor seeks you, he knows of your existence and
importance and he will stop at nothing to destroy you. I will not
be able to visit you for some time, this has taken much from me”
replied Apollo growing weaker by the second.

“Go Talon, go
and fulfil your destiny.” he added before fading away.

Talon suddenly
woke up violently, sitting up he found himself clutching his
pendent around his neck.

“Grandfather,
your alive.” he sighed remembering his dream.

He rubbed his
face rubbing away the sweat.

“Am I going
insane?” he sighed as he washed his face in a bowl of water besides
his bed

Talon sat back
down and stared at his pendent as the light of the moon shone
through his window. He thought about his dream and then his mind
wandered about his life, he thought of how he had excelled at
everything in his life, he had always felt that he was special,
like he had been chosen to be someone but now he felt that he had
something much more important to do, he felt no fear even though he
knew not exactly what he must do but he had a beginning, this was
the start of a new journey, a journey that would bring him to his
Grandfather and this path would begin in Zanlia.

When Chang
awoke he found Talon already dressed and sitting at the table,
Chang welcomed Talon just like every morning until he saw Talons
belongings packed by the door.

“What is this?”
Chang asked shocked pointing.

Talon swallowed
deeply and rose to his feet.

“I must leave
you my friend.” he replied humbly as he approached Chang and placed
a hand on his shoulder.

“Leave! Why
must you leave Talon, have you thought this through?”

Talon half
smiled.

“My friend, I
must leave, I cannot explain to you why but nothing has ever been
so clear to me, this is not a reflection on you or the temple, both
you and this place will be in my heart forever but I have just
realised that I have a destiny and that this destiny is not here my
friend.”

“Where are you
going Talon?”

Talon shook his
head slightly.

“You have been
like a father to me Chang, between us there are no goodbyes but
where I go will have many dangers for me, out of my love for you I
will spare this from you”

“Talon.” Chang
pleaded sadly.

“Till we break
bread again my friend.” added Talon before kissing Chang on the
cheek and picking up his belongings.

Talon walked
out into the sunshine and made his way to seek an audience with the
Lord Monk Mowloon, as he did not want the monk to hear of his
leaving from Chang, out of respect Talon would have to inform the
Lord Monk himself.

A short while
passed before Talon found himself in front of the Lord Mowloon.

“My Lord I have
come to inform you that I will be leaving the temple this
morning.”

Mowloon looked
at Talon with no surprise at all.

“So the day has
finally come.”

“You do not
looked surprised my Lord.”

“I knew your
destiny lay elsewhere from the first day I laid eyes on you.”

“Your wisdom is
great holy one.”

“Ha!” laughed
Mowloon “it was not my wisdom but my eyes, one day when you was
training from the yard I saw your pendent fall from your garments,
before you had time to hide it I saw the markings of Apollo.”

Talon began to
explain but was halted mid-sentence as Mowloon held up a hand.

“Please, do not
indulge me on where you are going, you wear the markings of Apollo,
it is clear that your life has great importance, I am just a humble
monk and the running of this temple is all that I need to
know.”

Talon bowed and
said thank you just as the Lord Monk himself kneeled before Talon,
Talon quickly kneeled and tried to lift the monk to his feet.

“My Lord please
you are my Lord!” Talon sighed feeling embarrassed.

“Please rise.”
he added pulling Mowloon to his feet.

Talon looked
into his eyes as the monk got to his feet, he felt confused at the
respect that the Lord monk was bestowing upon him, Mowloon looked
back at Talon wondering if he knew what he could become.

“The temple of
Pangkor will always be here for you, please take some papers giving
you safe passage to where ever you go.”

Talon received
his papers and set upon his journey into the unknown, as Talon left
the temple he turned around to a last look, the temple had become
his home and he would miss his friends, he whispered a goodbye
before turning to the road.

He found
himself feeling refreshed there was a new found vigour in his step
as walked the cobbled road.

The months he
had spent studying as a Pangkor monk had served him well, he felt
strong both physically and mentally, suddenly Talon felt content
like he was now ready for anything.

He decided to
head north staying close to the western coast a journey that would
take him to the town of Vilsillius, Talon threw his bag over his
shoulder and quickened his step,

“If I make good
time I should reach Vilsillius in three days.” he sighed.

Vilsillius was
a heavily populated town situated on the western coast of Kratos;
the town was by far the largest town in all of south-western
Kratos.

It boasted the
largest port this side of Kallick Town where its fisherman were
commonly known to be the finest on the island, it was also a large
trading town where people from all over the island would travel to
either buy or sell their wares.

The Empire only
had a small presence in Vilsillius as the town was under a strict
dictatorship of the ancient Akraf family; its leader now was a
mysterious man known as Lord Avrar Akraf.

The ruler lived
in large castle and had his own small army; fiercely loyal to the
Empire he was allowed to collect taxes and rule the town his own
way.

Akraf was good
at his job; Vilsillius was a prosperous town both for him and for
the Empire and it suited the emperor that Akraf was responsible for
the town.

Most people
silently complained about the taxes the strict Lord bestowed upon
them, but the Lord had a simple answer ‘pay the tax or trade
elsewhere’.

Lord Akraf’s
temper was legendary and in this part of the island there were many
tales of the harsh and often-violent retribution handed out by this
wicked ruler, there was a saying that went like this,

‘
If thou is Akraf’s
friend then thou is a rich man, if thou is Akraf’s enemy then thou
is a dead man’

When Talon
reached the town he was impressed by its size, when he reached a
market square he could not believe the size of the place for as far
as the eye could see there were market stall selling everything you
could possibly imagine. Talon also found himself disappointed at
the dirtiness, the streets seemed very old and they were riddled
from droppings from all the livestock which were paraded for
sale.

When Talon left
the temple at Varanasa the Lord Monk had given Talon, monk’s passes
for safe passage, Mowloon knowing that Talon would pass through
Vilsillius also asked Talon if he could drop a letter into the
Pangkor temple there.

Once Talon was
given directions he soon found the Pangkor temple, he was dressed
in his monks robes so the Vilsillius monks greeted him and invited
him in. Talon told them he had a letter for their Lord Monk and
within a short time he was taken to his room.

“This is most
peculiar” the monk said reading Talon’s letter.

Talon lifted
his head in innocence.

“My Lord
Mowloon states that you are on route to Zanlia and asks me to give
you one thousand silver Krasos from the Pangkor treasury” the monk
said reading the letter out loud

As Talon raised
his eyebrows trying not to look surprised at the large sum of money
he was talking about.

“And I am to
ask you no questions, nor speak to anyone of this matter.” he added
once again going back to the letter.

Talon smiled
slightly and just bowed his head.

“Well, I will
get this sum of money for you, will you stay for something to eat
young monk.”

“I am sorry my
Lord but I must refuse I have a long journey before me.”

Once Talon had
the riches he headed straight back to the market, he would buy a
horse and some decent supplies, in fact with this amount of silver
he could buy ten horses if he so wished, he silently thanked the
Lord monk Mowloon, he was very much surprised but this was a very
grateful surprise.

As Talon
admired the market traders and all the merchandise they were
selling, he saw some horses in the distance and began making his
way towards them but before he reached them he was distracted by
some shuffling amongst the crowds in fron,t as Talon took another
look he saw men and women running away from men galloping on
horseback, he noticed that the men were whipping people as they
passed and were shouting violently for people to move. The
tradesman had a look of terror on their faces as they tried
frantically to move out of the way.

He saw that the
men were dressed as soldiers but they were definitely not dressed
as the Empire’s military.

“Quickly move!”
a stranger shouted pulling Talon to the side.

“They would
have ridden straight over you.” the stranger added as the men rode
past.

“Who are they?”
Talon asked angered.

“Ah, you must
be new to Vilsillius, they are Akraf’s men, hark my words if you
wish to stay healthy here then stay well away from them.” added the
stranger still cursing them.

Then suddenly
the horses stopped, Talon saw that one horse was jumping up and
down, Talon moved closer and saw that something was blocking there
path. The soldiers were shouting angrily. Talon moved closer still
and noticed an old lady who had fallen to the ground and was
obviously in a great deal of pain, she was holding her knee where a
large cut was bleeding, Talon ran to comfort her.

“MOVE THAT
WOMEN NOW!” one of the soldiers screamed.

“I think her
legs broke.” Talon replied very firmly back.

“MOVE!” the
soldier shouted moving his jumping horse even closer barely missing
the women.

Talon stood up
and looked the soldier coldly in the eye before answering him
calmly but with a stern tone.

“I said her
legs broke, ride around.”

The other
soldiers looked at the leading soldier with shock, and the crowd
sighed in anticipation of the soldiers reply to this stranger who
had dared speak back to a soldier in such a manner.

“Ride round you
say, I will damn ride over you.” he said before kicking his heels
into the horse ushering it forward towards Talon.

“YAR!” the
soldier screamed.

Talon moved
quickly grabbing the horses bridle and with one swift move pulled
the soldier from the horse, the other soldiers quickly pulled their
swords and charged towards him, the first soldier to reach Talon
raised his sword and tried to strike Talon, he brought his word
down over his head in a downward motion but Talon evaded the blow
and grabbed the man’s arm pulling him from his horse and then
grabbing the sword at the same time, as the soldier fell Talon then
followed with a strong kick to his face which knocked him
unconscious to the ground.

The rest of the
soldiers who numbered over twenty now made a move for Talon, some
were still on horseback and some had dismounted, one soldier
attacked Talon on foot Talon raised his sword and parried the man’s
attack knocking him off balance then Talon struck him in the face
with the butt of his sword.

Talon then
turned and readied himself for another attack, two more soldiers
advanced only to be knocked unconscious by a kick to the face and
an elbow to the temple, Talon was using all the skills he
possessed, his skills as a gladiator a Imperial soldier and Pangkor
monk within moments four more soldiers lay bleeding on the
ground.

Talon turned as
he heard more soldiers arrive, eager to not be flanked Talon backed
towards a wall, there were now twenty soldiers before him all ready
to advance but the soldiers hesitated trying to find a weakness in
Talon. Talon spat on the ground and stood motionless ready to meet
any attack, he stood proud as he sensed the soldiers fear then
another soldier rode up on horseback and the soldiers parted to let
him through.

“Drop your
sword and surrender or you will be slain.” the man on the horse
shouted.

Talon raised
his sword to the man on the horse but then noticed the man’s face,
he was older than the other soldiers and he looked more sincere,
Talon looked around at the other soldiers who waiting and ready to
attack like a pack of wild dogs.

“Tell your men
to lower their swords and I will lower mine, I was acting in
self-defence.”

The man on the
horse slowly came closer.