Read The Sword and The Seven Stones: Diamond Page 27
Chapter 25
Alman woke up. He had gotten very little sleep the whole night. He sat up and looked around at all the others. They were still sleeping. He stood up and walked for a bit on his own. He had thought about all the pros and cons and for the large number of cons it all came down to the one pro he could think of. His father. It was the only reason why he needed to go alone and do this and bring this to an end. He wanted to go back home and tell his father of this adventure and how it changed his life. He was glad that Gavin was here with him because of all the stunts he and Harry pulled over the years, his father would never believe him. As he looked over the land that lay so perfect in front of him, he would have laughed at any man that said he would be doing something this courageous. He liked to have fun but courage wasn’t a part of it. Now he stood here not thinking like the boy eight days ago but a man who had seen more in such a short time then others had seen in a lifetime. To fight for something worth keeping, not for the pure joy of having. To watch as men died fighting the fight he started. He took the sword out and looked at it in the sunlight. Etchings had been starting to grow down the blade of the sword. It was as if each time he passed a different obstacle, another etching would crawl down the blade. The tip of the sword was the only space left. He knew he had to get through one more before the sword was complete. He turned, sword raised at the sound behind him. Once he saw that it was Gavin, he lowered his sword. “Rough night?” he said to him as he approached Alman. He stood beside Alman, looking out over the land. Alman looked at the man who had always been a constant in his life. He kept his father from falling apart when his mother died and never had anyone gainsay his trust to the kingdom. “I want to apologize for this. At first it was about a sword. Something brought me to it and when I touched the steel it was as if my fate had been sealed. I want you to tell my father if I don’t make it back that his lessons were heard. If I could take back all the stupid things that I did and spent more time with him, I would have. I lost him after my mother died. She was his whole world. I found life without him and resented when he thought he could intrude on it. Now I know that he was only trying to get back in and I wouldn’t let him.” Gavin could see that the words he spoke were true. The anguish in his eyes told it all. “Alman, I don’t think you were all to blame. Any man would have reacted the same way. It is not who you were but who you are today. You must find the strength in you to do this. I will not go back to my friend without you.” Alman nodded and watched Gavin as he walked back to where the others were. When he finally had himself in check, he walked back over to the group. Tresha waited for him and then took him off to the side. She asked him to close his eyes and when he did, he heard a small voice. It was the fairy, she was speaking to him, but how? He couldn’t understand her before. “The road is not hard that you must follow but what you bring with you must be pure. You will need to find the strength within to save those who you love. You must be willing to give what must be given or all will be lost. You will only be able to take the sapling on the twentieth hour the day before the new moon. If it is taken before or after, it will die. You cannot touch any of the roots. It has to stay whole and when you hand it to Ishma, you will have to have the answer to his question he will ask of you. Are you prepared to make this journey?” Alman had thought about it all night. He was ready. When he opened his eyes, he noticed that the fairy was gone. She wasn’t with the men and she wasn’t anywhere around him. She had done what she was supposed to do. Alman walked over to the others. It was mid-day and he wanted to set out. He didn’t know how thick it would be to cut through the overgrown part of the forest and get to the center. He knew it wouldn’t be easy. He took the bag that Luc offered him and set out down the mountain to the forest that circled another. Gavin and the rest watched, worried that it would be the last time they saw the King’s son alive.
It was another hour before Alman made it to the forest. As he got closer, he noticed that it looked more like a thicket bush with its thorns ready to take on whoever dare to pass. As he tried to push one bush aside, the razor sharp thorns sliced across his hand. Lifting it to see what damaged transpired, he took a rag from his bag and wrapped it around the gash to stop the bleeding. He took his sword from his side and sliced through. It sang as the blade cut the branches away as if it had come home. It wasn’t easy but after another four hours, he stood in the clearing. Wiping the sweat from his brow, he was amazed at what he could see. In the middle, a tiny sapling stood bright with the sun, beaming down upon it. Alman had never been so happy but he knew from what the fairy said, he couldn’t take it until the twentieth hour. He swung around when he heard a noise behind him. It was Ishma, standing there in robes of cream coloured wool. He didn’t look young but he wasn’t old either. Ishma smiled as he walked up to Alman. Looking at the boy who came to him that day just a few weeks ago, to the man that stood before him, he knew that he had chosen the right man. Or was the right man brought to him? “If I saw you tomorrow in the village and offered you the sword again, would you take it?” Alman stood, looking at this man who had sent him on this wild journey. Would he have taken it again knowing what he knows now? There was no doubt, he knew he would do it all over again but not for the sword but for the people the sword represented. That would be who he would do it for. Alman noticed that there were no walls where he was. The mountain that many wanted to travel on stood right in front of him. “Ishma, why me? I am but the King’s son and as long as he lives, I have no say on how things are run. Ishma was a little put out that the guard didn’t tell him the truth but he would do so now. “Alman, your father is dying and when he does, we need you to be there when it happens. The sapling is a symbol and many have tried to get it but only the true person could obtain it. The cats were placed in your way as a protection for us. We needed to know that you were the man to do this.” Alman was getting fed up with all of this. He had lost friends and good men to those cats and whatever creature that was in the river. They traveled for days and then when he finally got here, this guy tells him his father is already dying. Why would he tell him that he needed get the sapling to save him and the ones he loved? His father was already dying? He walked away, thinking of everything they had gone through to get here. Harry was gone and the others didn’t have to die either. Alman walked over to the sapling as Ishma looked on. The fairy told him to make sure that when he took the sapling out that it had to be whole. He didn’t know why but he measured the sapling with his hand and then measured the ground and took his sword and started to cut the earth. The sword glowed bright with each plunge into the earth. Ishma watched as this boy who had turned into a man in a short time did exactly what he needed him to do. When he had walked into the blacksmith’s shed, he was unsure that this boy would be the one. So many years had gone by and they only had one time every hundred years to get the sapling. As the sword plunged in one last time, Alman could only hope that he didn’t hit any of the roots. He put his sword down and gently pulled it from the earth. The fairy also told him that if he did hit any of the roots, that it would wither and die and they would have to wait another hundred years to try again. The sapling stood tall and the earth around it showed no signs of any roots. He stood up and brought the sapling over to Ishma. “I hope that with this, whatever you are trying to achieve, that it is done.” Ishma held out his hands and smiled at Alman. “This is just one small step but now that we know that you are one of the ones needed, it will all come together.” Alman walked over to his sword and picked it up. “Okay, you have your tree and now since you have been nice enough to tell me that my father is dying, I would like to make the journey home.” Ishma, holding the sapling in his hand, smiled at Alman. “This is not over yet. You have to talk to one more person before we can let you leave.” Alman drew his sword and with the point ready to draw blood, he looked the old man in the eyes. “I am done. I did what you asked and now I am going to go home. If my father is dying as you say, then I need to be there by his side.” Ishma smiled and l
ooked beyond Alman. “It is about time you got here.” Alman turned around to look who stood behind him, sword still positioned at Ishma’s throat. “Who are you?”