A Warrior's Return

Book Four

of
The Warrior Kind

Words of Action

Copyright © 2013 by Guy S. Stanton, III.

Published by Guy S. Stanton III at
Smashwords

All rights reserved. No part of this
publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any
form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other
electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written
permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations
embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses
permitted by copyright law.

Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the
author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used
for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living
or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or
locales is completely coincidental.

Book Layout ©2013 BookDesignTemplates.com

Ordering Information:

A Warrior’s Return
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available for sale everywhere eBooks are sold.

Author Website

A Warrior’s Return/ Guy S. Stanton, III. --
1st ed.

ISBN 978-0-9910565-3-8

Dedicated to all those, who

are sinners saved
by Grace.

Zevin looked up, as he heard the muted noise
of what sounded like an alarm of some kind going off within the
castle. His eyes met Raya’s and a look of alarm was shared between
them. He quickly got up placing Saraenya into Raya’s arms before
running into the inner workings of the castle, leaving his wife and
young daughter on the breakfast patio of their bedroom.

The sound of the alarm was emanating from
the lower levels and Zevin half tumbled down a steep stairwell in
his rush to get to the source of the disturbance. A long hallway
opened up before him that appeared to end in a solid wall.

Zevin didn’t stop. He ran directly through
the wall, as if it was a curtain of water or light instead of a
hard wall.

The image of a wall’s flat surface
re-materialized into place behind him. The space he had entered was
a large space sealed off from the rest of the castle.

He had noticed the odd absence of rooms in
this remote section of the castle, while in the process of
remodeling. He’d found the space quite by accident when he’d put
his hand up to lean on a wall, as he was investigating, and had
watched it disappear through the wall.

He had walked on through to discover the
secret chamber he now stood in. Gavin and Raya could enter the
space, but no one else could as they lacked the gene that Tadias
had encoded his work with.

The room had a striking resemblance to the
main room of the underground lab that lay underneath Thunder Ridge.
It had seemed to come alive when he had entered it the first time
and within moments he had been speaking to his sister Ellanara.

She had been in the underground lab beneath
Thunder Ridge when a long unlit icon had flashed up alerting her to
something different. Within minutes she had been standing beside
her brother in Nassoria.

The sight of her appearing by his side had
almost caused Zevin’s heart to stop. The ability to transport
people and items from one lab to the other was only one of the many
interesting capabilities of this place.

It had been a long discovery process.
Ellanara seemed to enjoy the challenge of discovering the secrets
of the lab and Zevin had only been to glad to let her take the
point in unraveling the complexities of technology that the lab
housed.

It was readily apparent that the sorcerer
had never found this place. The available power source for this
hidden facility was virtually unlimited. The amount of damage he
could have inflicted upon the world, with control over such a
place, would have been incalculable.

As Zevin stormed into the space, what he
noticed first was the presence of a crystalline display that
appeared to have risen out of the floor. He hadn’t known it
existed.

It had a yellow flashing icon on it. The
alarm had silenced immediately upon his arrival into the space, but
the flashing lights had not stopped.

A cool modulated voice, similar to the one
that had been on the space vessel he’d ridden to Earth, broke the
silence.

“Unknown communication broadcasted on the
Liathus frequency. Origin of message, Earth. Selected recipients
none. This is a general broadcast. Warning protocol enacted, as any
response will be viewable from third parties, as there was no
encryption. Proceed with extreme caution, as the framework delivery
of the message is of Orlandian design.”

The voice died off, even as Ellanara
appeared beside him.

Zevin was getting used to his sister’s
sudden appearances and simply asked, as she passed by, “Did you
hear all that?”

“Yes.” She responded softly, even as she
began to tap away at panels of keys all along the interfaces of the
displays within the lab.

She reached one hand up and touched a piece
of equipment attached to her ear.

“What does your analysis of the signal
indicate Abby?”

The voice of Abby spoke into the room as if
the system was there instead of at Thunder Ridge.

“My analysis of the signal indicates that it
is clearly of Orlandian framework and therefore should be presumed
hostile; however signal impurities point to it coming from an older
outdated source. The signal was also amateurishly sent, which is
doubtful of Orlandian structure.”

“What is going on?” Raya asked, as she
walked into the room alone.

Zevin shook his head indicating that he
didn’t have a clue yet as to what was happening.

Abby’s voice continued, “There is some
positive news in my analysis. The signal was cut off abruptly
before complete broadcast could be achieved. The signal’s strength
died off relatively quickly, after reaching us, and may not have
traveled in any legible integrity past us into space.”

Zevin looked quizzically at his sister, “How
is that a good thing Ellanara?”

Her cool green eyes glanced over at him and
then back to the display.

“Trust me Zevin, that’s a good thing. A very
good thing!” She reiterated passionately, as Zevin and Raya
continued to look lost, as to what was going on.

Ellanara looked back at the lit up displays
before her, “You’re sure we won’t be located by opening the message
Abby?”

“No only if we respond, which should not be
done for any reason, unless of course your father says
otherwise!”

“Point well taken Abby.” Ellanara said under
her breath, with a hint of temperament leaking out into her
voice.

“Opening the message now.”

Three spellbound pairs of eyes lifted to the
screen and read the few simple lines of text that appeared
there.

After a moment Raya with a deep frown said,
“It doesn’t make any sense. It’s complete nonsense!”

She looked over at Zevin and Ellanara, only
to find them staring with intensity at the riddle on the screen, as
if it had all the meaning in the world to them.

“Isn’t it?” Raya asked.

Ellanara repeated the simple lines of text
on the screen out loud. “All the trees are fallen down, but the
four winds are hiding. The butcher has come home, but the baker is
still kneading the dough. Who will blow out the candles before they
start receding? For now is the time to be deceiving.”

Zevin glanced at Raya, “It’s my brother
Talaric! It has to be! We did this kind of stuff all the time
growing up.”

“But what does it mean?” Raya asked, staring
at the words completely perplexed by the riddle posed in the oddly
formed sentences.

Ellanara spoke, “Well take the first line,
‘All the trees are fallen down’, if the trees are all gone than
there is no cover left, Talaric is in danger of being caught, and
the next part, ‘but the four winds are hiding’, says he has to keep
moving like the wind in order to remain invisible. I’m not sure
about the next part, ‘The butcher has come home, but the baker is
still kneading the dough. Who will blow out the candles before they
start receding? For now is the time to be deceiving.’?”

Zevin spoke up, “I think it means something
like the enemy knows of us and is determined to kill us, but
they’re not ready yet, because the dough is still being kneaded it
hasn’t had a chance yet to bake. There’s still time to prepare in
other words. The last part is a mystery though.”

Raya spoke up, “They must be enemy warriors
or something equivalent to enemy units, but why would they be
receding?”

There was a moment of silence and then Zevin
spoke up, “They could be ships of some kind receding through a
water vortex channel. They could be headed here!”

“He’s asking for our help to stop them from
coming?” Ellanara asked, but Zevin shook his head no.

“No Ellanara look at the last part, ‘For now
is the time for deceiving.’ That’s saying that what you think the
message is saying in the previous statement is actually the
opposite. He intends to kill or stop an enemy invasion, but if he
fails than the purpose of this message is to give us a chance to
prepare ourselves for the coming attack.”

Ellanara nodded, “I need to go tell father
about this!”

And like that she was gone and Zevin and
Raya were alone together in the lab.

Zevin was looking reflectively at the words
on the screen and Raya curious as to why, asked, “What is it Zevin?
What are you thinking?”

Zevin looked at her and smiled, “I didn’t
think he ever paid any attention to the silly word games that
Gavin, Ellanara and I thought up.”

Raya stepped into his arms and looked up,
“You’re going to go help your brother aren’t you?”

But surprisingly he shook his head no and
she looked at him in surprise, “Why wouldn’t you?”

Ruefully he stated, “It might sound juvenile
of me, since I am a king after all, but the simple statement of
fact is, I don’t think my father will let me.”

“Is that the only reason you’re not
going?”

“No, if whatever Talaric is planning doesn’t
work, then the enemy will have to be stopped on our side. This
place has the power to protect this world I think, if we can figure
it out in time. It’s my responsibility to personally see that my
people are kept safe. So I should stay here and figure this lab
out. Someone else will have to go.”

Raya laid her head against his chest and
said, “Maybe it’s selfish of me, but I’m glad you’re not
going.”

Zevin hugged her to him and then on a
lighter note said, “Even if I can’t get this place to work in
defense of our world there’s always you.”

Raya’s eyebrows rose expressively, “I see,
have I been relegated to nothing more than a weapon?”

“The most beautiful weapon I’ve ever seen!”
Zevin said.

Raya laughed softly, “You’re going to pay
for that later!”

“I know.”

A moment passed as they held each other,
“I’m glad your brother is still alive. I know how much that means
to you.”

Zevin held her closer. It did mean a lot to
him that his brother was still alive. What kind of man had his
brother become in the years since last he had seen him?

Six months previous on Earth

I sat down to add a little extra makeup to
cover up the slight hollow of my cheeks. It had been a lean month.
No one had money for either exotic dancers or whores, of which I
was both.

I was finished with the makeup, good thing
too, because Tina came in early from her act. Bubbly as ever she
rattled on a million miles a second, as her heavy breasts
threatened to spill out of the next to nothing costume she
wore.

Even if the costume had slipped off Tina’s
chest, her girls wouldn’t have gone anywhere. They were implants,
bad ones at that. Everything was cheap these days, even implants,
because no one could afford to buy quality, if there was such a
thing as quality anymore.

Tina was getting fat too and that wasn’t
good. If she got any fatter she wouldn’t be allowed on the stage
and if she wasn’t allowed on the stage, then she could only hope to
get high paying encounters with clients, which is where the real
money was.

There were few enough good paying clients as
there were without stacking the odds against yourself by getting
fat and perceived as cheap. Going from cheap lay to the next cheap
encounter, until she was working for a dollar or two was a fast
road to hell. With all that cloud of negativity surrounding Tina,
she was still my friend and the least I could do was listen to
her.

She was babbling on about something, “Tina!
Tina! Slow down what are you trying to say?”

Tina seemed to gather her scattered wits
some and sucked in a big breath and managed to slow the pace of her
words down, just barely, “There is a man! A big man! A dangerous
man! I know if you try you can get him! Such a man would have to be
rich, but rich or not it would be worth it just for the experience!
I’d do him for free, but he probably wouldn’t want me.” She
finished on a self-deprecating note.