The Seven Orbs

Chapter One

Wisdom, Winsome, and Agyle.

8

  

The Jenri Clan consisted of Mother Magrit Jenri, Head Council to the village and mother to Winsome and Wisdom. There was no Father Jenri. The story she told her sons was that their father fought in the War of the Three Kingdoms and lost his life to the dragon. He stood in the presence of the great beast, closed his eyes as the fire raged from its open mouth, and thought only of his family as he turned to ashes. When they were younger, Wisdom and Winsome loved that tale of bravery and honor, but soon they were nigh their teens and the story began to lose its truth. How could Mother Jenri know what was in Father's mind in his final moments? Still, Wisdom imagined that the dragon would not single out one single soldier. It would sweep its fiery breath across the largest pockets of warriors. Why waste your time on one single soldier?


Winsome was talking with his friend, Agyle, about the coming war. Word was spreading across all the villages of the three Kingdoms that the temporary King refused to grant freedom to the governors. The time of agreement was upon them, yet the King would not part with his throne, though it were made of paper, the villagers said. A true ruler would keep his word. There was peace. The treaty was temporary. The governors were patient. They waited till the time was at hand, not a moment sooner than agreed upon. And yet word on the air told of a King that betrayed the treaty. Was was necessitated, it was said. But was the King prepared for battle? This was a new age. Could the old defeat the new?


Wisdom sat quietly but fidgeted as he waited for a pause so that he could speak his mind. "The Bosque Governor and the Aquell Governor have been preparing for this War for years, since we were infants in the last War," Winsome boasted to a smiling Agyle."


Agyle agreed, "They hired blacksmiths from the village, stonecutters, and carpenters from their own villages to build their mechanical weapons. Deep the the forest, they cut trees for wood, collect rocks from the hillside and from the river for the ore they carry. One blacksmith told my Mother that it was his job to forge the spear-heads, big as a bear. The carpenters built the housing of the giant spears, big enough to kill a dragon. And the stonecutters built the wheels to carry the massive machines that will fling the spears. Catapults are nothing compared to these weapons, the blacksmith said."


"Where do they keep them?" Winsome asked.


"Beneath the Bosque Castle," he replied. "It is also rumored that there are new types of crossbows that can fire multiple arrows, smaller, sharper, quicker. Reloadable. It takes two men to wield one. Our little kingdom is going to fall."


Wisdom stood with anger on his cherub face, cheeks fiery red, lips white from biting them. "You speak like traitors. Our Father died on the field of battle for our King. We must do as our King demands. We must support him."


Agyle pushed the feather-light Wisdom, and the young boy fell to the ground. "Winsome," he said, "you must instruct your brother to learn his place. His elders are speaking. He must learn to listen or he may never learn his place."


"I tell him, but he idolizes the King," Winsome said with a sigh.


Wisdom placed his hand on the small wooden sword that he carried in his belt line. It was no more than a sharp flat slat that had fallen from the sheep yard fence. He got to his feet so Agyle could see the weapon's hilt, a cut of leather wrapped around the end of slat.


"What are you?" asked Agyle. "A King's Guardsman? See how my hands tremble. Why, look, Winsome, your brother is a Guardsman, and he can't even withdraw his weapon." He stepped toward Wisdom, who backed away two steps. He lost his grip on his sword as the leather hilt loosened. He glanced around nervously and restrapped the hilt.


Winsome and Agyle laughed at the boy's foolishness, then walked away from him. Now his face was flush with shame. He couldn't even draw his sword. What good was he with War at hand.

Chapter Two

The Secret Passage

1

COMING SOON