Opening the heavy Church door proved easy for Jovan. Finding the place deserted and vacant, however, proved more than he could handle at first.
The cold wintery air cut through the heavy scent of ancient dust inside the church. The harsh dimmed light of the early morning hours did no justice to the lavish and colorful frescoes adorning the Church's walls all the way up to the ceiling. The place looked sad, lonely, and unkept for months. To Jovan, it seemed as if the characters depicted in the scenes covering the inside of the Church had come alive only to pity him. He felt wronged. He felt afflicted. He felt unnerved.
Had he been so wrong about it? About all of it? His gut feeling hadn't been wrong in the past - at least in anything not related to his best friend and the betrayal that caused him so much pain. But he could not move past the sickening feeling that he was wrong this time - and this was the time when being right mattered at the level of someone's life. Jagoda's life.
He swore. Loud. So loud that it stirred not only the dust around them but it also stirred Anil's depleting courage. Jovan looked back at Anil, sensing that the man took a step back, and was about to scold him, when he noticed Anil's eyes. There was no fear in them. There was... resignation masked by tears. Jovan turned back, in a heartbeat. And gasped in despair.
There she was...
His dear Jagoda, laying on the dust-covered and ice-cold ground...
In the shadow, enveloped by the darkness of the corner in the oldest part of the Church...
"Nooo!" Anil exclaimed and rushed inside even before Jovan could blink. He leaped toward Jagoda, exclaiming her name to high heavens.
And then, the room fell silent. Just as the silence had been disrupted by the sound of Anil's voice, it now was disrupted by the sound of Anil's lifeless body falling to the ground beside Jagoda's.
"Anil!" Jovan shouted and leaped toward his companion, only to stop less than a foot away from him because of the tip of a sword pointed at him.
"You shouldn't send a beggar on a warrior's mission," said a voice that raised Jovan's temper more effectively than the sight of Anil's body falling to the ground.
"You're one to talk," Jovan hissed through his teeth as he felt the tip of the sword against his neck.
"I find it amusing when men facing certain death pretend to be mad at their own misfortune," said the owner of the voice, standing in the shadow corner which hid his face.
"I find it amusing when men pretending to be warriors act like cowards and attack defenseless beggars," Jovan replied stoically and took a decisive step to the side, furious at himself for not seeing the man hiding in the shadow before he attacked Anil.
"You and I both know that this... poor excuse of a beggar was not defenseless," the man in the shadow snarled and lowered his sword.
"I have called him many things, but never that," Jovan clicked his tongue, seemingly unbothered, and intentionally placed the saber sword he began to draw at the man back into its scabbard, in a sign that he was not threatened by whoever was hiding in the shadow.
"If You were a reputable warrior, You would know that a sword, once drawn, should never return to its sheath without being put to its intended use," the man advised Jovan in a judgemental tone of voice.
"I pity You," Jovan forced himself to steady his breathing and his pulse. The last thing he needed now was to give into the rage and anger boiling in his gut.
"And why would You pity a man such as myself?" The man grinned and leaned on his sword.
"I pity You for launching at a man who did not see You coming. Impotent men often rely on their sword for displays of their masculinity. And only incompetent cowards feel the need to prove their worth with the tip of their sword," Jovan chuckled and took another step away from his opponent. He needed to distance himself from whoever hid in the shadow - not only for safety but also to be able to see his beloved Jagoda.
"Ha! The only pity I may feel at the moment is for my sword," the man snarled with obvious fury.
"Why is that?" Jovan raised his eyebrow nonchalantly.
"Because it would have caused more damage to that beggar's worthless body if it had been doused in poison beforehand!" The man snarled again and clicked his tongue twice.
"I knew I recognized that pusillanimous voice from somewhere," Jovan chuckled and made sure it sounded as sarcastically offensive as it possibly could while he gripped the handle of his sword to channel the rage battering his heart because he realized that the man facing him was the one who shot him and Jagoda with the poisoned arrow the day they met.
"How dare You speak to me that way! You are nothing more than a commoner!" The man shouted, which caused Jovan to chuckle again.
"Mediocre soldiers who do not rise above the rank of a private do not deserve anything more than a mediocre retort," Jovan took a few seemingly unbothered steps around the room. "And I assure You, I am no commoner."
"Who are You then?" The man composed himself and picked up his sword.
"Jovan the Valiant," he said proudly.
"You dare stand before me and call me mediocre?" The man moved out of the shadow and drew his sword at Jovan. "You are no more than an incompetent vagabond!"
"And You lack good aim," Jovan flashed his pearly whites, amused, when the man launched at him and missed his mark.
"My aim was on point when my poisoned arrow pierced You the first time!" The man shouted and launched at him, missing again when Jovan moved to the side.
"You think too highly of Yourself. After all, that arrow of Yours missed the target You were aiming for, didn't it?" Jovan turned the sword in the air, as if he were showing off rather than in his own defense. "Either that, or Your poison is as mediocre as Your aim."
"It did the trick this time," the man stopped suddenly and grinned with wild rage in his eyes.
"Liar," Jovan whispered as a cold sweat of fear rolled down his back. He stepped back, and moved toward Jagoda and Anil's bodies laying on the dust-covered ground. He crouched down beside Jagoda, while pointing the sword at the man, and searched for her pulse. "She's alive, and I intend to keep it that way!"
"Not for long," the man bellowed out a laugh. "I told Zora we did not need guards here. I just need to wait until the poison does its job. The poison works slowly, but it knows its way through the body. Not even You can stop it."
"I'll kill You!" Jovan rose and launched at his opponent. They fought, long and gruesomely hard. Cuts, bruises, and aches of the muscles began to cover both men's bodies. But Jovan did not give up. He couldn't. Not when his beloved's life was at stake.
"What kind of a man would go against his own ruler and give into disobedience of the state, fueled by blind greed?!?" Jovan shouted at the man.
"It is not a blind greed!" The man shouted back. "We intend to rule the state with full intention and a clear plan of action!"
"It will be difficult to do since Your precious leader joined Our forces!" Jovan snarled and decided to bruise the man's ego. He pushed the man away and leaned against the wall for a moment.
"Zora did not join Your forces! She penetrated Your defense line with such ease that I bet all of Jagoda's followers have ended their useless lives by now!" The man laughed, sensing that his victory was near.
"You cannot kill them all! You never will!" Jovan straightened out and whirled his sword in the air. He felt the strain in his body, but forced it away. This was not the end of the journey. It couldn't be...
"You call Yourself Valiant! Ha!" The man laughed with sarcasm and began to walk slowly toward Jovan. "Some Pasha's Fencer You are!"
"He is!" Anil shouted and threw his trusted dagger at the man's back with such force that it thrust his sword in the air. The man fell, on his face, with a heavy thud that echoed along the walls of the Church, all the way up to the ceiling.
"Rabbit whisperer!" Jovan exclaimed with joy and rushed toward him, embracing Anil and picking him up off the ground. "You're alive!"
"And badly hurt," Anil whispered, feeling the pain of his open wound along his right side.
"That, You are! But how?" Jovan set him down, immediately crouching beside Jagoda.
"Sometimes playing dead proves more advantageous than a full blown sword fight," Anil nodded at his own wit and exceptional intellect, and crouched down on the other side of Jagoda.
"You are a genius!" Jovan patted Anil's arm. He then brought his arms around Jagoda and picked her up. "We have to save her!"
"We have to take her to Bojana! She saved Jagoda once, she can do it again!" Anil shouted as they rushed out of the Church, but not before Anil retrieved his trusted dagger from their unworthy opponent's body...