The Fall of Arnon

Chapter 21

Sir Storen's eyes narrowed as he watched the two figures melt into the house along the other side of the street. He had been plagued by the idea of what the priest and Sir Ryan could have been doing at the scene of a crime at this late hour of the night. Sir Ryan's explanation had been rushed and convoluted, and Sir Storen had believed none of it. So, he had stayed behind to discover what the two could have been doing.  

Now, he could see his chance to prove them traitors to the king staring at him from across the street and the gaping mouth of the door they had left wide open.

With a flicker of a smile, he dashed across the road. 

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There was only one way to go now. The room of the candles stood vacantly but for the sea of waxen sticks, and they could not go back. 

As he stared down the dark passageway leading into the depths of the world, Sir Ryan begged God that somehow, someway, there would be a light at the end of this tunnel. 

The tunnel led on for a little while on a slight incline until it took a sharp right turn. Here, the walls began to close in on the two men, and Sir Ryan was hard pressed to keep moving as his shoulders began rubbing up against the dirt-encrusted walls.

"This is tight," Lerendo moaned behind him.

"Thank you, Lerendo," he bit out as a chunk of dirt hit the ground and crumbled beneath his feet. 

"Wait." Lerendo cried, stopping Sir Ryan in the middle of his long stride. "I know this place."

"What?" Sir Ryan turned coming face to face with the young prince. "You know this place? How do you know this place?" 

"Well, at least I think I do. It's just it seems familiar somehow." He struggled to put his thoughts into words. 

"Great," Sir Ryan whispered. "At least it seems familiar to someone." He began to pivot back around, but he was stopped by Lerendo's hand. His wide eyes seem to glow in the dim light of the lantern.

"What is it now? We're wasting time," Sir Ryan said impatiently.

"I know this place. I remember I used to play here with my sister when we were little and didn't want to be found by our mother. But then, it didn't seem as creepy." He looked around with a shiver. 

"You know this place? Then, do you know where it leads?" He asked in a more animated voice.

"Yes," Lerendo sounded less than sure of himself, but that was enough for Sir Ryan. 

"Then, let's get out of here!" he cried. 

"Oh, oh, okay," Lerendo stuttered as he was pushed back down the old tunnel.

It seemed a shorter journey back through the claustrophobic underground passage, and Sir Ryan only stopped once when he thought he heard a sound in that deathly still room of candles. But, soon they were once again flying through the streets of Arnon. 

It felt wondrous to finally have the cool wind sweep through his tangled mess of hair after being in that wretched place for far too long, and Sir Ryan let the air tear through his airways. 

Again, they passed through the crack in the wall and again they raced across the winding roads. Every stride brought them farther from the stone and mortar of the city and closer to the wood and leaves of the forest. 

Suddenly, Lerendo pulled Father Thomas's horse to a standstill and pointed to an inconspicuous clump of grass. "That's it," he gasped.

Sir Ryan jumped to the ground and began to examine the said area of dirt. "There's nothing here," he said, looking up at the boy.

"Here, let me," the boy fell clumsily from the horse and began feeling the ground as if for some secret key. Then with a grunt, he pulled at the earth. A strange gesture for any person, but with the earth came the creaking sound of old hinges, and it fell open revealing an almost frighteningly small underpass. 

"Well, now what?" Lerendo lifted an eyebrow at the old knight.

"Well, now we..." He stopped, listening. "We go that way." He leaped to his feet and pointed deep into the forest.

Like fairies floating through the bare limbs of the trees, the lights formed a sort of circle. It was the scene of long ago in the old stories. When the creatures of the woods would unite to sing the song of old dreams forgotten to the world of men. All eyes watched in silence the dark figures swaying with the endless chant that rose and fell into the night sky. 

Sir Ryan was mesmerized by the whispering lights as they glowed eerily among the haunted forest of Othelio. He had barely blinked before the two of them were among the strange gathering. Like cold water splashed without feeling upon the glowing embers of a fire, the feeling was gone. The figures seemed to simply waft away into the night air, nothing more than smoke and mirrors in their fading shapes, and they left nothing of themselves behind in the cold damp forest. 

He looked about him, but there was nothing left of the swaying figures except for one lonely soul left fully in the middle of the large circle of trees. This form seemed somehow less romantic. It might have been the lack of a flickering candlelight to dance across his face or the moonlight that shone in an unforgiving light upon his bald head.

With a cry of delight, Sir Ryan vaulted from his horse and in a few short strides had thrown his heavy arms over his friend's shoulders.

"Thomas, you're alive," he cried. The priest had no room in his lungs to reply to the other man as he was being slowly crushed. But, he smiled a contented, quiet smile as he was placed down like a child upon the dew-laden blackened grass. 

"You came," he smiled. "May God be praised, you came."

"Amen, my friend, amen." 

As they rode away from the lurking shadows of that forest, the first lights of morning began peaking above the mountains far away. Golden hues melted into the red firelight and soon burst out in all its beautiful glory. 

Sir Ryan watched as the rays shot into the sky, proclaiming to the world a new day. A new day waiting for the world to greet it once again. So, Sir Ryan turned his face from the sun deciding that he had had enough for one day, and this day may just have to pass him by. He had saved his friend, and as he watched Father Thomas clumsily reign Lady Rose in and Lerendo grab tighter around the old man looking more and more like a man fighting to save his life, he realized he had not only saved one but he had gained a friend as well.

Then, he smiled at the beaming sun and nodded knowing that no matter what happened, the Creator of that sun would always be there in the dark and in the brilliant brightness of the morning to save him from whatever may lie ahead.