A Warrior's Legacy (23 page)

The temptation to gaze into those pools of
living color for forever was just to overpowering. I carried the
clay mask to a table and I pulled out my sharpest knife and began
to carefully carve out where her eye sockets were, but being
careful to leave the clay on the edges. I motioned to a man
standing by with a box of wet sand that had been leveled flat. I
gently placed the clay mask on the damp sand.

The blacksmith helping me knew what I was
doing now and he took over. He placed another box of pressed
dampened sand overtop the other box and pushed down on it gently.
Carefully he pulled the boxes apart and removed the clay mask to
reveal a perfect impression in the damp sand and I nodded my
approval.

He took the boxes over to a second forge and
began pouring molten metal into a channel that had been cut in the
sand in order to reach the void left by the clay mask impression,
while I started to make the glass.

It took a while, but I finally had the glass
to the temperature and consistency that I wanted it. My audience
was completely engrossed as was I.

I had made more glass than I had needed, but
it was easier to do it that way. Using the clay cutouts as forms I
poured out the lenses of the mask and let them to cool and harden.
The blacksmith was ready with the cast mask.

He had already taken off the rough spots and
it was a finished piece he handed me.

“Great job!” I commented and his face
creased into a big smile.

The men of Lanoria were as big or bigger
than I was. The blacksmith was large in every way and yet he
displayed a gentle and artful touch to his work that I
appreciated.

The glass lenses had cooled and with a
little sanding they slid into their slots easily. They stayed put
thanks to a glue I had put on the metal rims we had fastened them
to, which was made of plant resin. An adjustable leather strap,
which hooked on to the two ears of the mask, was fitted onto
it.

The mask was done.

I hoped it worked, because if it didn’t I
would be responsible for being the one, who burned my lovely
temptresses alluring eyes out.

I held the finished mask out toward Raya and
she stepped closer. I fit the mask to her face and adjusted the
leather strap around the back of her head securely beneath her
hair. Her glowing eyes lit up the smoky orange tint of the glass
lenses intensely making the glass look like it contained the
essence of a priceless gem. The mask fit perfectly on her face.

“It’s hard to see clearly.”

“Good! It wasn’t meant to be seen through
clearly in this low light environment.”

I turned to the people’s leader and asked,
“Where can she test it?”

He lifted a hand towards the cavern ceiling
and I looked up not understanding. Raya was already running away
though. She had pushed the mask up some so she could see.

Watching her climb with the surety and grace
that a mountain goat would have was a nervous experience as I was
afraid that at any moment I would see her fall to her death.

She reached a hidden plateau near the
ceiling of the cavern, which she ran along in full view of the
anxiously watching crowd of thousands, who had gathered below.

No wonder these people were so fit climbing
up and down rock walls like that! What she had done in mere minutes
would have taken me hours to accomplish and that was assuming that
I didn’t slip and fall to my death in the process.

I saw her pull the mask down and secure it
in place and I whispered a silent prayer. She pulled on a rope and
immediately a portion of the cavern ceiling opened up and rays of
broad daylight shot into the cavern.

The watching people immediately shielded
their eyes from the intense light with their hands, even as they
tried to peer through them to see what had become of Raya.

I knew the exact moment when Raya standing
fully in the sun’s light opened her eyes. Her whole body jerked and
her hand flew to her mouth. For a moment she was still and then a
burst of laughter peeled out past her hand as it echoed her sheer
joy at what she was seeing.

She reverted to her native language in her
excitement as she called down to the crowd of witnesses below. I
could guess what she was saying because the crowded throng of
people below erupted into their own expressed joy.

As for me I was thrilled that it had worked,
but I couldn’t get past how much Raya affected me as she stood
highlighted by the sun’s light from behind her as she jabbered away
excitedly to those gathered below.

It was like she had the power to stop the
beating of my heart in my chest, but instead she was causing it to
beat a thousand times faster than it ever had before.

I felt a hand squeeze my shoulder and I
looked to the side. The old leader had come up alongside of me.

“Thank you Zevin Ta’lont for giving my
people back the daylight and a future to go along with it! Our
warriors are yours to command and may we be successful in revenging
the wrongs of the past together!”

I met his eyes and said softly, even as
people jumped up and down around us excitedly unmindful of our
serious conversation.

“Thank you for the honor of leading your
warriors into battle. I’m not sure there are any finer warriors
that exist in this world than those gathered here. It will be my
honor to fight alongside of them.”

He nodded and squeezed my shoulder and we
both looked back up at Raya who was dancing in the sunlight.

“I may have given you the ability to once
again enjoy the light of day, but it is my most earnest desire that
your people come to know the words of my Creator, who made both the
day and the trinial, so that they might believe in their hearts and
minds the truth, whether we are successful in battle or not.”

His wise old eyes turned back to me, “I
believe it will be so.”

I was about to look back at Raya’s jubilant
dancing form when he spoke again, “Tell me Zevin do you plan to go
back to your homeland if we are successful in this battle and in
defeating the sorcerer?”

I thought about his question carefully
before replying.

“I do miss my homeland, but my father felt
that I should make my destiny here in Assoria.”

“I wonder then if I could persuade you to
carve out your destiny with us, in particular the peoples of
Lanoria?”

“Maybe.” I said feeling my way softly as I
glanced back at Raya, who was making her way back down to the
cavern floor.

“If she was yours would you stay?” The old
man asked as softly as I had answered.

“Yes I would.” I said.

He studied me for a minute seeming to read
something of importance in my eyes and face.

“She comes with a grave responsibility. You
see she is a princess. Only a king would be worthy of her.”

Shocked I glanced toward Raya, but she was
lost in the crowd. How was she a princess?

“Is she your daughter?”

“No, but I care for her as if she was. I am
not a king. I am a warrior and an old one. I need a younger warrior
to take my place and a princess deserves a king. How about it?”

I looked at him incredulously, “You hardly
know me to offer me so much!”

He shrugged his shoulders, “You are a
descendent of a man who was worthy enough to be a king, if ever
there was a man and by your actions and my judgment I can see that
you are the same kind of man. It is enough.”

I looked out over the jubilant crowd of
people lost in a world all of their own. Was this what my father
had seen for me?

Was this what the Created wanted me to
do?

The door before me was open. It was now up
to me to walk through it or not. Suddenly I remembered what the old
woman had said to me.

I turned back to the old leader, “I’ll try.”
I said earnestly.

“That’s all we can ever do Zevin is to
try.”

Suddenly Raya was back before us and I had
the distinct feeling that she was not going to be pleased at having
been given away.

“I’ll handle this Zevin.”

The leader stepped away from me and stepped
into the crowd, which parted before him. He climbed up on a boulder
projection from the floor so he could be seen by all those gathered
in the cavern that easily numbered into the thousands.

A hush fell over the audience as they caught
sight of their leader.

“What a great day is before us Lanorian’s!
These are amazing and dangerous times, but we as a people are used
to danger aren’t we? We have survived against all odds as a mixed
people and have even thrived far from the light of day. A miracle
to be sure! I have asked myself why? Why have we survived? What is
our purpose? What can our future possibly be? And now that answer
has come! Thanks to this man an answer to our future has finally
come, through a series of extremely unlikely events. I believe he
is not responsible solely for the course of his actions that has
brought him to us. He has spoken to me of his Creator, which
verifies the rumors that we have heard. I say that it would be wise
for each of us to listen to what he has to say concerning his God,
with each one of us discerning by ourselves whom we will serve and
worship as the power behind the very breath of our daily lives.
This man has given us the ability once more to walk in the light of
day and leave our dark caves if we wish to. For most of you this
will be your first time. For some of us it’s something cherished
that we have been kept from for over a century! This is not all
this man has done for our people!”

He then explained about the Northern and
Western women. I have never felt such open eyed looks of gratitude
by men before.

“This man has only asked one thing of us. It
is a dangerous thing. Some perhaps many of us will die if we agree
to do this thing. He has asked us to join the remaining Eastern
city to the south in its last chance for not only survival, but
ultimate victory over our common enemy. Should we help them or
should we hide in the dark recesses of Lanoria content with what we
have been able to carve out for ourselves and let the misdeeds and
treachery’s of the past bury themselves?”

A deafening roar of “No!” erupted from the
packed cavern.

It was a mighty sound that must have echoed
back and forth down the labyrinth of the cave systems of Lanoria
for miles.

“What say you then? Are you saying that you
wish to march fourth from these very mountains out into the light
of day to smash into the rear of the enemies might and crush them
with our resolve to see that our honor and that those who have died
before us be avenged?”

“Yes!” Came the resounding chorus, whose
echoes resounded throughout Lanoria as before.

“I say we not only crush the enemy, but that
we pursue them to their proud cities and tear them down to the
ground for their villainous treachery and then I say we root out
the sorcerer from wherever he may be hiding and stone him with the
rubble of those cities!”

“Fight! Fight! Fight!”

Was the impassioned chant that echoed on and
on from those gathered as they shook their fists into the air with
violence.

He held up his hands to quiet them down.
“Who will lead us on this quest?”

“You will lead us!” Came the scattered
replies from an audience suddenly unsure.

“Me? I am an old man! I must surely die
soon. I say it should be a younger man. There are many fine
warriors among you, but which of you has much experience in
fighting a human foe?”

There was utter silence as the people looked
among themselves.

“There is one here that does have experience
in war and leadership.”

He gestured to me.

“He has already shown himself a warrior of
consummate skill in defeating one of our greatest warriors ever and
he did it in the dark without even the ability to see as we do. He
is not just an ordinary man of extraordinary circumstances though.
No, he is of the very seed of the man who saved all our ancestors
from ruin and brought us here to Assoria. What better man is there
to lead us once more to victory over those that hate us?”

As one the audience pivoted to me extending
their fists shouting, “No one!”

The old leader wasn’t finished yet though.
“I believe you have made a wise choice in making this man your
leader into battle, but consider this that I am about to tell you.
After this battle, after the war what then, when our people are
free to go into the light of day and enjoy the warmth of it? Who
will lead us then? We are neither the East nor are we the North. We
are the people of Lanoria! Every kingdom needs leadership and a
channel of command. This man is a man of enduring legacy and yet he
has no place to call his own. I say if he is fit to be our leader
in a time of war then he is also fit to be our leader in a time of
peace and to seal this bond I say we give him our princess’s hand
in union so that the strength and honor of the Ta’lont name will be
forever among our people!”

A deafening roar erupted of approval for
their leader’s advice. Raya’s face had been one of elation as had
the rest of the people, until the old leaders last words had
registered to her.

Before I knew what was happening we were
pushed together by the crowd to stand in front of the old leader.
Raya gazed at the old man reproachfully, but he seemed to ignore
her.

“Zevin Ta’lont will you lead us in war and
in times of peace and assume the leadership of our new nation by
taking the daughter of our people as your queen?”

“I will!”

There was a burst of applause and general
merriment throughout the cavern, as backbreaking slaps by warriors
abounded as they anticipated meeting new females.

It was a lot to take in and I wasn’t quite
sure what had happened. I was the king of these amazing people. The
odd thing was that it felt unbelievably right to be so.