A Warrior's Journey (29 page)

I corrected him, “We have to rescue her and
while we’re at it we can grab the Bible too.”

A breathless voice broke into our
conversation, “And I know where they’ve taken her!”

We both turned towards the voice heaving for
breadth. Talaric stood panting heavy at the front doors of the
church, as he leaned against one holding his left side.

“The security looks tight. The place is a
veritable castle. It’s going to be hard to find a way in.” Talaric
finished still breathless sounding.

Hard or not we had to rescue Evette before
further abuse could be done to her by the Baron.

“I know of a way that you can get into the
mansion that will take you past all the security.” The voice had
come from Evette’s father, who looked up at us his face stained and
puffy from tears.

We all turned to him and I asked, “How would
you know of such a way? You don’t appear to be on the best of terms
with the Baron.”

He hung his head down and said almost too
softly to be heard, “Because it was the way my wife went to the
Baron’s mansion, when she was summoned by him.”

Larc stalked up to Evette’s father and I
thought for a moment that he would pick him up and shake him
around, like a dog would a hated chew toy.

Instead Larc squatted down in front of the
man, who was already cringing backward in fear from him. Larc’s
tone was one of barely restrained civility, “Just what haven’t you
told us or your daughter about?”

Evette sat on the bed in the finely
furnished bedroom. She was alone at last, but she knew that was
only a temporary condition. An armed guard stood outside the
door.

Her façade of cool indifference disappeared
and was replaced by deep sobs that she tried to keep inside. Her
body jerked hard with the effort to keep the sound of her emotional
outburst to herself. She just couldn’t help it, as she melted off
the bed to the floor.

“Oh God please! Please not again!” She said,
as she sobbed openly into the carpeting of the floor.

This was the same room she had been made to
stay in as a little girl and it hadn’t been changed in the
slightest detail. After they had arrived at the mansion she had
undergone further questioning over a lunch that had been prepared,
which she had eaten none of.

After some more verbal jousting the Baron
had informed her that dinner was to be at 6:00 PM and that she was
to retire to her room to freshen up and rest until then. She was to
wear a dress that vaguely she thought she remembered her mother
having worn once.

She didn’t even want to consider what would
happen after dinner if she wasn’t rescued. The dress lay even now
on the bed behind her. She continued sobbing and feeling helpless
over the situation.

“Oh God I can’t bear this! Not again!” She
choked into the carpet.

“Shhh shhh there now. Be at peace dear
one.”

The words came from right beside her, even
as a hand rubbed her back consolingly. Evette reared back up to her
knees and had her breadth seize up in her lungs at the sight of the
figure of a man kneeling down on one knee beside her.

She asked the dumb question even though she
already knew the answer, “Who are you?”

The man smiled warmly, “Who do you think I
am?” He asked, as He turned both palms of his hands up for her to
see the scars that were there.

She shook so hard that she felt that her
heart would cease to work at the enormity of the One whose presence
she was in.

“Peace daughter of Eve for God has heard
your cry and provided a way for you to escape to safety.” Peace
flowed like a river into her and her sobbing tears stopped
instantly.

“Tell me how it is that you would like to be
called?” He asked with a knowing look that read into her very
soul.

She asked another dumb question, “You don’t
know?” She could have slapped herself.

“I do know, but I would like to hear it from
you.” He asked still smiling.

She quickly responded, “Evette.”

“And so you will be known forever more as.
Evette would you like to take a walk with me?”

Would she ever! Anything to get away from
this place and stay in His comforting presence.

“Yes!”

He rose and extended a hand to her, which
she took and got to her feet. Following after Him she came to the
doors of a balcony, but He didn’t stop, instead He continued on,
the doors opening before Him, as he stepped out onto the balcony,
she hurried after Him only to see Him walk through the balcony
railing into thin air.

Swallowing hard she followed, even as her
heart felt like it had stopped beating in her chest. He had said to
follow so she was going to follow even though she was sure of
nothing but death being the likely outcome by doing so. She closed
her eyes as she stepped through the railing into thin air, but her
foot came down solidly.

She opened her eyes and in the panic of the
moment of realizing that she wasn’t supported by anything she began
to fall. The same hand as before reached out to her and she latched
onto it like a drowning person would to a life preserver.

Instantly she found herself within a
beautiful garden that was filled with wonders beyond
comprehension.

She met her Savior’s eyes in shock at her
surroundings, “Shall we walk together for a little while?” He said
as He extended His arm to her and gratefully she took it as they
began to walk down a path in the garden.

After a while of silence Evette asked
quietly, “Why me Lord? Why would you show me all this and reveal
Yourself to me as You have? I’m nothing special!”

He stopped and faced her and held her hands
in His, “That is where you are wrong Evette. Everyone My Father has
created is special.”

He looked deeply into her eyes and it was as
if she could feel Him repairing her soul. “Even the Baron after all
the evil he has done to you and many others.”

Evette couldn’t understand that, “How could
he be special after what he has done?”

“Because I died for him just as I did for
you and everyone else. I bore every sin and act of shame on the
cross from the foundation of the world and those yet to come. I
knew the cost and I gladly bore it so that those like you, who
choose to believe in Me and the One who sent Me, might live for
evermore in the presence of the King and know nothing more of
sorrow.”

Evette fell to her knees sobbing, “I’m so
sorry for all the bad things I’ve done! Forgive me or I will
die!”

The Creator’s Son pulled her head into His
lap, as He sat down in the cool grass beside the path. “You are
forgiven. Evette I did not have to do what I did for all mankind,
instead I chose to fulfill My Father’s will so that all would have
the opportunity by which to be saved so that none should
perish.”

Evette looked up at Him, “Why would you do
that? Why suffer for me of all people?”

For the first time since she had seen her
Lord face to face she saw sadness cross His face as He gazed down
steadfastly into her eyes, “Because of something you have never
experienced in your life, a father’s love for his children.”

Evette’s head dropped back into her Lord’s
lap and she sobbed. Every bad memory and bitter hurt came pouring
out in a torrent of emotion, while her Lord held her cradled
against Him.

When she grew quiet, He spoke, “Evette there
is something you want to ask of me, is there not?”

Evette shook her head no, “I don’t want to
go there. I don’t want to be mad at You anymore!”

“That’s why you need to ask the question
that embitters you so that there might be healing.”

Evette was quiet for a moment and then spoke
the question that had separated her from God for years, “Why did
God not hear me, when I cried out to Him over and over as a little
girl? Why was I allowed to be treated like I was? Why did it feel
like I was forsaken?” Evette finished softly.

“God heard everyone of your cries and you
have never been forsaken or out of my Father’s sight for even a
moment dear one! When creation was spoken into existence everything
was good. The curse that all mankind and creation suffers under was
not of My Father’s making. It was man that brought destruction upon
himself, but the Creator of all life made a way out of man’s
mistake. I came to bear the sins of all mankind and by My sacrifice
I have redeemed that which was lost. All those who believe in My
name and thus Him who sent Me will have everlasting life. All
things will be made anew and every tear and sorrow of this life
will be comforted and wiped away in the peace and security of My
presence. Everlasting love will belong to those who have put their
trust in Me, as I am their atoning sacrifice.”

There was a pause and then He continued, “Do
you see it now Evette? The Creator has never at one point ceased to
love you fiercely and long before you were born made a way for you
to be reconciled back to Him, as it was originally meant to
be.”

“Thank you I understand now. Life’s just so
hard sometimes it’s hard to see the answer clearly even when it’s
there all the time,” Said Evette softly.

“Life can be very hard, as it has been for
you, but soon you will be given a safe haven to rest in.”

Evette had a sudden question in concern to
that, but she buried her face to fearful and embarrassed to ask
it.

But the answer came because God can read the
hearts of men and discern their thoughts and desires and grant
them, “You will be with Larc.”

Evette felt a fierce gladness course through
her at the simple answer and said another heartfelt thank you in
her soul to her Maker. She hadn’t known how much she had wanted to
go with Larc until this moment.

“There is something I want you to understand
about how I see you right now.”

Evette looked up seeming to understand the
gravity of the statement and the need for eye contact.

“I see you as an heir to the Kingdom,
because of your belief and walk with Me. It also means that I see
you as guiltless and as pure as clear driven snow. I find no fault
or shame attached to you and I love you fiercely and will never
allow any power to separate you from Me and your eternal destiny in
My Father’s courts. This is how I see you. It is important that you
remember it and not think otherwise of yourself, do you
understand?”

Evette nodded.

“Good, I’m sending you back now for your
deliverance is near. Remember what I told you about how I see you.
Nothing else matters.”

Evette opened her eyes and saw the carpet of
her old room in front of her eyes again. She sat up slowly feeling
stiff and blown away by what had happened. Had it really all
happened?

The evidence, if she had needed any, lay on
the carpet beside her. A single white lily she had never seen
before that had delicate lilac colored veining and speckles
arranged in an eye-catching pattern all over it, lay on the carpet
before her. She picked it up gently in awe at its beauty and
meaning.

It smelled heavenly and no sooner had she
smelled it than it simply disappeared. Evette smiled, she was going
to be all right.

She knew one other thing as well; she had to
get a bath. On her way to the bathroom she arranged the back of the
chair under the door knob to her room to keep out unwanted
visitors. Glancing at the clock she could see that no time other
than what had lapsed since picking up the flower, had occurred. God
could do anything, even the stopping of time.

Evette sat at the far end of the formal
dining table across from the Baron. He was resplendently dressed in
a burgundy silk dinner jacket with a white shirt and black pants.
Everything about him was meant to appear, as if he was one of the
southern gentleman, from a long bygone era.

The picture was complete except for one
thing, a scowl marred the Baron’s aquiline features, as he stared
down the long table at Evette sourly.

Taking the slim cigar from his lips he
stated in a barely civil tone of voice, “I thought that I made it
clear that you were to come to dinner in the dress I had laid out
for you in your room!”

Evette paused with a spoonful of soup
halfway to her mouth and gave him her most fake looking smile that
was gratingly awful to behold, because of its lack of
sincerity.

“You did, but I chose to ignore your
instructions.” She said matter-of-factly and continued to coolly
sip her soup.

The Baron’s face was brooding in response to
her flippant answer, “This will not do Evette. I will tolerate no
disrespect from you or anyone else. If you continue to disobey me I
will have to break you of the habit by using whatever force I deem
necessary!”

Evette’s spoon came down with a sharp click
onto the table and she was just about to launch the bowl at the
Baron, when a deep voice, she recognized as Larc’s, spoke from the
doorway of the open patio terrace doors, “The only thing that is
likely to get broken tonight is your neck if you continue to make
statements like that.”

The presence of Larc was like a warm breeze
coming off the ocean and it helped to ease her tensed up nerves so
much so that she smiled genuinely, as she felt Larc’s big hands
settle reassuringly over the tops of her shoulders.

The Baron’s entire demeanor changed, as he
smiled almost jovially at Larc, but his eyes were those of a viper
prepared to strike at a moment’s notice.

“Congratulations on getting past my security
forces. You are a man of extreme talent, but what do you plan to
achieve for this brave but foolish endeavor of yours?”

“Why I came for your Bible and I’m going to
leave with it, along with Evette as well.”

“Why would you risk so much for this bygone
relic of the past?” Asked the Baron with a wolfish smile, as he
held up a hefty looking book, with a black cover, that had the Holy
Bible written on it.