Chapter Fourteen
Divine Empowerment
As we rode along I debated endlessly with myself over what I should name my stallion. I mumbled countless ideas to myself, but to no avail.
“Should I be concerned that my husband talks to himself? Susori asked with a playful tone to her voice.
I explained my predicament and she laughed out softly, “But he already has a name.”
“He does! Well, what is it?”
“Phalon.”
“Phalon. What does it mean?”
“First to the fight and the last to leave.”
“Really!” I exclaimed.
She nodded, but there was a slight tilt to the side of her mouth that hinted at mirth. I was being had again!
“That’s not what it means! Out with it. Be truthful now!”
She smiled and shrugged, “It sounded good.”
I gave her a stern look and she rolled her eyes and said, “Phalon means, ‘point of the spear.’”
Now that, I had to admit, was quite anti-climatic.
“Depending on the interpretation it can also mean, ‘the point of no return.’”
I nodded. That fit better. In a way that described the current situation. Just up ahead of us lay the border of the northernmost nation of Ayenathurim, the Kingdom of Martz.
Little was known of it, even by Susori. It was said to be sparsely populated with virtually no regimented order to it. It was also where the headwaters of the Gargon River were located. The little that the Cronians had been able to discern as to where the monsters hid the children was that they went north, far north. The name of the river we headed for now suggested the area was known for its share of monsters in the earlier days of antiquity. It wasn’t much of a lead, but it was something.
*****
As we rode through the sparse high country of Martz, I wished fervently that Susori was not along on this mission. Things might not end well and if we met with significant force our chances were slim at best. It wasn’t to be helped though.
Twenty miles into the Kingdom of Martz, I called the order to make camp on a rocky promontory that looked like it could be defended. There would be no fire tonight.
A night without a fire at this altitude was not an easy thing to suffer through. As hard as I tried to produce extra heat and shelter from the chill wind that blew across these high plateaus at night, I couldn’t manage to get Susori warm enough to stop shaking.
My arms already wrapped tightly around her, I whispered into her ear, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s nothing,” she chattered back to me.
“Don’t lie.”
“I can handle it,” she insisted.
“I know you can, but I’m still sorry.”
She pressed her cold nose into my forearm and I heard her mumble out, “How I have been blessed to have been given to a man that worries so much about my comfort. You are so unlike the men of my people, even my brother. To them, women are nothing but a pleasurable diversion and a source of children and yet I sense respect for me in every action of yours. How is it that you are so different?”
“I had a good teacher,” I said simply.
I tried to hold her a little closer if possible, but she was as close as she could get. She was wrapped up in my blanket, but it was still obvious to me what a delight of feminine craftsmanship she was. “I wish……”
She turned her head to me slightly, “You wish what?”
“I wish it was warmer and that there was nothing between us and nowhere to go tomorrow.”
I felt her smile against my arm and say, “There will be other days for that, my love.”
I hoped so. I wasn’t really sure what would happen tomorrow. I held her a little closer.
*****
The rocks rose up impressively to either side. Soon we wouldn’t be able to take the horses any further and we would have to go on by foot.
I knew we were at the right place as I’d never seen so many bones before. The ground was literally covered with them. It was sickening to hear the steady crunch of bones, now brittle with age and weakened by the elements, being pulverized under the hooves of our horses.
Darkness had been allowed to rein in this forgotten corner of the world for far too long!
The deeper we went into the canyon the more it seemed as if we were immersing ourselves in a vat of black dye as the spirit of the place was so oppressive. I dismounted and was followed by the others.
The recruits were all visibly shaken by our surroundings. Who wouldn’t be?
They were getting quite the training exercise this time out. So was I for that matter.
I looked from the group to the steep gorge before us that got steadily narrower. The Gargons knew we were here. I could just sense it. I could sense a lot more things than I used to.
Turning to the group I asked them directly, “Which of you know that, if you were to die right now, El Elyon would allow your spirit to enter Shamayim?”
Slowly at first, but then quickening with speed, five of the group of 15 men raised their hands.
I nodded, appreciating the honesty of all of them. “Okay, you five over here,” I said, motioning off to my right.
The five moved to my right as assigned by me and I addressed all of them again by asking, “Now which of all of you thinks we have a chance of overcoming the enemy today? Those of you who feel that’s possible I want you to move into a group over here on my left.”
I waited patiently, but none of the young men moved. I nodded after a moment and said, “There is both a unifying factor apparent in all of you and a division. You all believe defeat is certain and yet only five of you believe you’re destined for life after this brief existence we share is over. There’s a big problem here. What do you think it is?”
One man in the larger group asked by way of answering, “That we’re not all ready to die?”
“That is a problem, but not the main one. Anyone else?”
Silence dragged out for a moment, then one of the scouts I had harangued harshly for his ineptitude on the job spoke up hesitantly, “That we’re not confident that El Elyon’s power is greater than the evil before us.”
“That’s it! That’s the problem. While continued life isn’t guaranteed to any of us, eternity is guaranteed to those of us who have chosen to believe as the Holy Scrolls have taught, but all that aside, what happens now is how we are defined in our mortal existences on this planet. None of us possesses any special ability to overcome forces greater than our own strength. Five of you are ready to die, but none of you are ready to live in a spirit of power and the freedom that comes with it! No one wants to die and yet the only faith you are all exhibiting is that you will die if we take one step further. We are deep in enemy territory far darker than I believe any of us have ever experienced. Who here wants to approach this situation outside of a spirit of fear?”
Instantly all of them raised their hands plus one. My gaze shifted to Susori who had timidly lifted her hand as well.
“All right, come here everyone.”
They all drew close to me. I stooped down and picked up a rock and asked, “Who made this?”
“El Elyon,” several of them said.
I nodded. Then I drew my sword free and held it up to the sky and asked, “The metals used to forge this blade, who put them in the hills and deep places of Ayenathurim to be found and made thus into this creation of man?”
“El Elyon!” they all responded confidently.
I nodded, “I could go on and on and say that about everything around us and I’d get the same answer wouldn’t I?
They all nodded affirmatively.
“Now, can one of you tell me of the existence of something that El Elyon did not create?”
With surprise on their faces they, to a man, looked toward the forbidding gorge ahead of us.
“That’s right. The Creator didn’t make the Gargons did He?”
“No sir!” the recruits responded firmly.
“So then, who do you believe is the stronger force to be reckoned with in this gorge right now, monsters without hope of a resurrection or living spirits such as ours who find our right and position of authority in the Master who formed and spoke into existence all that we see around us?” I had them now and I pressed forward all the way, “In the Holy Scrolls it was us humans, created in the image of El Elyon, that were given the right of dominion over this world! Those monsters laying in wait over there are usurpers of our promise! They have no right to be here! They gain power only through fear and we lose authority through our lack of knowledge of what El Elyon crafted within us from the beginning! Who here wants to start over?”
They all pressed closer as I knelt down. They followed suit and I did what I had become increasingly known for, I prayed. “El Elyon, I pray that you would make us men and this woman grounded in the authority that you gifted to our kind in the beginning of this world. You have not been overwhelmed. You have not been surpassed, but You have been largely forgotten along with Your most excellent ways. I pray that would change in the hearts of all of us gathered here. Craft in us the Spirit of power You promised was ours for the asking when You gave Your words to us, recorded down in the Holy Scrolls, by which You told us that we do not live by bread alone but by every word that has come out of Your mouth! Take far from us the self-imposed ignorance of our generations of neglectful thoughts and open in each of us a will to be in Your will alone and no other. Make us conform to Your words and give us the gifts that You’ve held in store for those who would simply ask for them. Out of a contrite and humble heart we kneel here, dependent on You and You alone to do what we could never do on our own, for in You all things are possible! We give You the glory, the honor, and all the praise for the victory we are about to claim through the power of Your Name, El Elyon! Amen.”
“Amen!” echoed out strongly from all those gathered.
I stood up and pointed with my sword up the gorge as the Spirit of El Elyon, that I so willingly gave myself over to, swelled within me the ability to do far greater than I had ever done before, “To victory!”
“To victory!” echoed out behind me.
I spent no more time on them, but began to run up the gorge. The very atmosphere of this place had changed within a microcosm of time. Where before there was darkness, now there was the light that we introduced to it by the unfettered desire of our hearts to overcome that which is evil.
The very rocks that towered above us seemed to snap and crack with the sound of the joy of seeing creation in order once more. A cavernous tunnel was suddenly before us across the river and so were the monsters.
I ran into the raging river and smacked it hard with my sword, “Whom do you serve? The destroyers of appointed order or we who walk in the Divinely appointed dominion of this world?”
With a throaty roar the river peeled back and mounted up into a wall across the length of the gorge until it overflowed overtop of us and formed a watery tunnel that glistened brightly with the refracted rays of the sun that had come out of hiding on this cloudy day.
I strode across the dry riverbed toward the line of monsters who spoke among themselves in their dark tongue. Anxiety was deeply etched upon their beastly features as they watched us come closer.
“Your existence is an abomination! Your actions worthy of the worst of Sheol! Your future is no more! We’ve come for that which was stolen in the night and by the might of El Elyon we claim victory as is ours by right! Cut them down now!”
Like the dumb beasts of twisted perversion that they were, they stood in stupefaction as they were unable to access their ability to flee through dimensional time and thus they were left to face our wrath, which was far greater than any mortal could manifest on its own. It was El Elyon moving through us that drove us to leap forward and hack down the monsters whose mere image had stopped the hearts of other men in fear.
In reality the unredeemable spirits they possessed were nothing short of cowards that had boasted themselves into loftiness, because of genetic leftover abilities gifted to them from their fallen fathers. They were no match for us and their anguished bullish roars sounded loud as we cut off their existence in the lands of the living.
I pressed on into the dark cavern that’s stench echoed loudly of the uncleanliness of its occupants. I called out while dragging my blade down the wall of rock, “Rocks, were you formed by the Master of all glory to house darkness? No! So why then the sheltering of darkness when the light of the Almighty pierces to the innermost depths of this world and sees all?”
As if on command the rocks overhead split apart, but not a rock fell as light pierced down from above and lit the way before us. The tunnel ended as it opened up into a great cavern, the top of which peeled away with a rumble of stone.
The entire one side of the cavern was formed into a stockade made out of the bones of past victims of monstrous appetites. At the sight of me at the opening of the cavern and of the piercing daylight overhead I watched those Gargons not yet slain by me and my companions head as one for the stockade and I knew that they intended to kill as many of the children as possible.
In the hierarchy of evil, if victory can’t be obtained then the order of the day is to attain as much destruction as possible. Seething rage overtook me and I reached out with the hand with which I had clung onto Urtholan and said, “Hold where you are in the name of El Elyon and proceed no further!”
As one the Gargons fell to their knees and grabbed at their bullish throats in response for the severe need of air. Wheezed roars of fright erupted from their clamped throats, as I felt the Spirit of Ruach, that was heavy upon me, clamp off the ability of these monsters to perform any more evil than they had already done.
The Gargons fell to their faces dead and the bones holding the children back dissolved into nothing. Susori ran past me, screaming out in her native tongue, and the children came to her as if she was a mother to them all.
She grabbed up the littlest of them as the older children helped to carry the other young children. They streamed out around me in the direction of freedom, each of them seeking to outdistance the other in their hurry to exodus the cave.
The last child ran past me and the cavern before me, filled with the fallen forms of strangled monsters, erupted in fire as the floor cracked up and vomited forth magma into the room. I made my way after the children and as I walked rocks fell and the tunnel was filled.
Reaching the mouth of the tunnel I proceeded into the water tunnel, surrounded by the men who had overcome themselves and become seasoned warriors of righteousness. Not one of them had fallen and not one of them would ever be the same again.
We all now knew, if we had not before, that there was a God in Shamayim, who yet cared for the predicaments of those who entrusted their lives into His safekeeping. No words were said as we cleared the other bank of the river. We turned and watched the river crash down on itself and engulf the riverbed once more with its turbulence.
I raised my sword, “To El Elyon be the glory!”
The others raised their swords and echoed the same. Now, as life is full of obstacles and challenges, I now turned to the task of dealing with several hundred children.
Susori stood surrounded by a solid mass of them. As I approached her a little girl stepped forward and lifted her arms to me and I picked her up. She pointed upwards into the air and said something I couldn’t make out.
I turned to Susori whose face was awash with tears. Susori spoke, “She wants to know if the God you serve would love her too?”
I turned back to the little girl and nodded emphatically and said, “The promise of the new covenant is to all.”
I knew she didn’t understand my words, but her face split wide in a grin, as she read the emotion of my answer and she hugged me with all the strength that she had, as seemingly all the days of her harsh captivity melted away as if they had never been.
As we came out of the gorge and back onto the plain I was greeted with an unseasonably warm wind. I started the journey to the south that would return these children home. I prayed this day would be the changing point for the nation of Crona, to stop their fallen ways and instead usher in an age of grace.
Whether they chose to change or not, I thanked El Elyon for the lives of these children and the new steps of the faith I had taken in my life. Susori, holding a child in one arm, took my freehand with hers and looking to her I saw a joy that made her only more beautiful than before.
“I understand now. I worship Him too.”
Feeling a tear course down my cheek I said, “I’m glad!” And together, hand in hand, we walked south with the innocence of an entire nation following behind.