The Kingdom

  Cutting me off he said, “Your name is no longer Rollan and it would be unwise of you to mention from where you come. Your name is now Benaiah.”

  As my mind grappled with the knowledge that I had just been renamed I couldn’t resist asking, “Of what people are you from?”

  “By birth I am of the Yesathurim lineage, but I’m not prejudiced as are some of my kindred. I call people from many lands my friends and have been close to many of them as if they were my brother.”

  My mind reeled with the awareness that I stood within the presence of one of the mythical Yesathurim, El Elyon’s chosen people. Not only that, but it seemed that the man had adopted me.

  Again, as if reading my mind, Kuri spoke, “You have a choice before you, Rollan. No one can take that from you. It is a divine gift from above. You are free to go or come along if you wish.”

  For a brief moment I thought about stopping, but my feet kept going, perhaps even a little faster than before.

  Kuri nodded positively, “Benaiah it is then.”

  I felt a strange peace envelop me then. Almost as if I had been joined into a family of some kind.

  “What does Benaiah mean?” I asked softly.

  “El Elyon has built.”

  I glanced at him in shock. Why would he give me such a name? Surely, I was not worth so much as to have a name that meant that?

  “Everyone has worth in El Elyon’s eyes,” he looked at me then and said, “Even the life of the man you killed had worth. All life endowed with a spirit from the Creator has value.”

  I swallowed and looked away from his gaze, “Why do you wish to have a self-confessed murderer tag along with you?”

  He shrugged, “Name someone you know who is without sin.”

  I couldn’t so I remained silent.

  I needed to know something and he didn’t seem unwelcome to questions so I asked it, “What am I to you? I mean, I’m just a Kingdomer from the weakest of the seven kingdoms, while you’re of El Elyon’s own people. I’m not even a full blood Kingdomer at that. It would seem that I am unimportant and yet you have made me to feel that I am.”

  His face turned to me and I relaxed upon the sight of his smile. Regarding me steadily for a moment he then said, “You have value to me Benaiah. I care not who your father or mother were, for you have chosen to follow me and that is enough.”

  Confused, I shook my head. He’d given me an answer and yet I wasn’t satisfied with it. Something dawned on me then. This man truly didn’t seem to care that I was the product of a mixed union of two opposing blood lines. Knowing that made the invisible cord I felt binding myself to this man grow only stronger somehow and yet I was confused. What had I gotten involved in?

  “What exactly have I chosen to help you do?” I asked, not feeling too good as to the sense behind my question.

  “For a long time now there has been a war going on in the spiritual realm which has gone back and forth within the confines of mankind’s existence. I’ve come to bring an end to that war. A war in which the result is already known.”

  I blinked repeatedly as my mind traced back over the words he’d just spoken. Suddenly I wondered about the wisdom of my joining up with this man. He spoke of things far above the life of a farm boy and yet, in a way I’d left the farm behind. What was I now?

  “Don’t think too hard on it all, Benaiah. It’s really quite simple, the complexity comes in the application of the details, but if you know where you’re going there is no need to worry about the journey to get there.”

  “Where am I going?”

  “It’s not so much the where as the fact that I’ll keep you safe wherever we are.”

  “I thought you said earlier that following you could lead to my death?” I asked in consternation.

  “This is true, but it changes nothing of what I have said.”

  “I’m confused,” I exclaimed out loud.

  “That’s because you lack understanding, but cheer up Benaiah, with experience comes faith.”

  “Faith in what?” I asked blankly.

  “Faith in whatever El Elyon has purposed for you to do in life.”

  “I still don’t understand.”

  “And yet you will. It’s as simple as that and yet for some it is too much.”

  I shook my head, “It’s as if you speak in riddles.”

  “Tell me Benaiah, what is it that you are wanting of me to say?”

  I debated on it and decided it all boiled down to one thing, “Can I trust you?”

  “Yes, Benaiah. I never go back on my word. Does that satisfy you or do you need to know something more?”

  I shook my head, “If I can trust you then I guess the rest of what I don’t know doesn’t matter.”

  His hand reached out to pat my back warmly, even as his words rolled out authoritatively, “And thus faith is built.”

  That seemed to be indicative enough of how far we’d both come in such a short time together.

  “How do you end a spiritual war?” I asked curiously.

  “Through prayer and the right application of strength.”

  “I’m not much for prayer,” I admitted.

  “And yet a man can change if he wishes.”

  “I’m only fifteen.”

  “And yet I say you are a man now. It’s for you to choose, be the man or be the child in need of milk to sustain itself.”

  I fell silent.

  We walked on and I drank some more water from the skin of water that was draped over my shoulder. There was one thing I knew. I certainly didn’t want to be a child in need of milk. It was time to become a man. A man with a new name and a peculiar sounding purpose.

  *****

  I missed my horse. It really hadn’t been mine, but for a while at least it had been in my possession. I really didn’t have anything that was really mine.

  “You have your soul, which is of great value Benaiah.”

  I glanced to the side at my benefactor as I gestured angrily to my head, “What’s up with this reading my thoughts all the time? Don’t you have something better to do?”

  Kuri glanced around the still desert scape that we were wandering through before his gaze finally came to rest on me, “It would seem that I don’t.”

  I shook my head disgustedly and looked away. Well, at least he was honest.

  “How do you do that anyway?” I asked.

  “It’s a gift.”

  “Can you teach me?”

  “No.”

  Well that was abrupt, I thought to myself.

  “But I will teach you other things if you’re willing to learn.”

  I looked around for a moment before my gaze came back to the warrior who seemed to have adopted me. It was hard to tell how old he was. He had scars that bespoke of hard-won experience and while there was some gray in his beard I didn’t think that it was so much a sign of age, but rather of burden.

  On the whole my companion did seem to be rather burdened of spirit. Almost as if he carried the weight of the world on his broad shoulders.

  He struck me as both very wise and yet as one who didn’t put forth his own wisdom rashly. While I was someone who lacked control over my emotions. Just like with killing the soldier, when emotion took hold of me I was a lost cause, until my emotion was spent.

  Kuri wasn’t like that. He had control over his emotions.

  “Could you teach me to be……?” I found it hard to put into words.

  “Controlling of your emotions?” Kuri inquired.

  “Yes.”

  “Now why would you want that?”

  I blinked, as that wasn’t a question that I had been expecting.

  “Why wouldn’t I?” I asked uncertainly.

  Kuri remained silent.

  “Isn’t it good to have control over one’s emotions?” I asked, still uncertain of how I had gone wrong.

  “Mastery yes, control no.”

  This man was utter ridiculousness with the way he seemed to twist words! What was the
difference? Mastery versus control?

  A question came to mind. Who had the mastery, if I was the one exerting the control?

  I glanced to Kuri, “Mastery, how is it done?”

  Kuri smiled, “Well, it starts with listening, as opposed to talking.”

  “What do I listen for?”

  “No talking Benaiah. Just listen.”

  “I……” Kuri held a finger up and I stopped.

  I waited, but he didn’t say anything. How was I supposed to learn, if he wasn’t going to teach?

  The thought occurred to me then, how was I supposed to learn if I couldn’t first listen?

  I blinked, as the value of that truth occurred to me, which meant that I had just learned something. Okay, now what? More listening I guess.

  Kuri was still headed southward and the pace we kept was a fast one. The water and the food had really helped to restore me and I kept to his fast pace rather well.

  What was that sound?

  The sound of the sand first giving way then falling from my foot with each stride forward. I’d never paid attention to so simple a commonplace sound as that of sand moving underfoot. It was quite rhythmic in the ebb and flow of its resonance.

  I found myself speeding up slightly just to hear the difference of the sound as the sand compressed and gave way beneath me. A bird’s flutter of wings nearby sounded loud to my ears and my eyes caught the bright yellow markings of a So-so bird in flight.

  The regular beat of its wings, alternating flashes of color, the sound of its melody trilling out in soft chords of musical harmony, all set against the heavier bass sound of my relentless journey across the sand was inspiring.

  There was another sound. My breathing. It was loud and yet it had rhythm to it, even purpose as it drove my feet to create a beat of their own.

  I listened to all of it. The fall of sand, the steady beat of my heart, the beat of the bird’s wings coupled with its sweet notes.

  There was an order to everything, a consistency of will. There was my will to move. The bird’s ordered existence to fly and sing. The sand to act as sand. The sun to remain in its fixed progression across the sky. Nothing I saw or heard existed of itself. Far from it.

  Everything was rather at play in a tandem array of intentionally purposed design. I hadn’t designed myself, nor the bird itself, and yet everything around me flowed in harmony that was ever variable and always changing. Even changing as it was, it never outpaced the design which governed it.

  Everything then must be subject to mastery. Mastery of a divine origin. It wasn’t about control or me having mastery. Rather it was about El Elyon having mastery over His creation of which I was a part.

  The mastery of self was in learning to give over mastery to the Master of all life. How long had I thought that I existed in and of myself, when in reality I had always been a part of all the divine design that was around me?

  I’d been like one wheel of four on a wagon, loose on its axle, causing a dis-rhythm to the whole ride of the wagon. As a wheel I couldn’t fix the problem, but rather I was reliant on the wheelwright to set my wheel into balance, even so I was reliant on El Elyon to set me right in life.

  It wasn’t about me being in control of anything, but rather me being reliant on El Elyon to keep my purpose for existence continuing on in the rhythm of all life. Wow!

  This was really amazing. I turned to say as much to Kuri, but he wasn’t there. Where was he?

  I saw him then in the distance. He had to be almost a mile behind me!

  How had I run so far?

  I sat down in the sand, suddenly exhausted, even as I contemplated on what I had learned. There was so much I still didn’t understand! But I understood more than I had before, which was progress.

  I glanced at the sunny sky overhead. Was El Elyon watching any of this?

  Was I alone in my discovery of my need for my Creator to take charge of my life in order that I might fulfill my created purpose in the rhythm of all life?

  “No, you are not Benaiah.”

  I blinked, only to see Kuri standing between me and the sun. How had he covered so much ground so quickly?

  He moved then and I blinked against the harsh glare of the sun. Kuri sat down beside me in the sand. His hand fell on my knee as he said, “It is good to have someone to teach, who is willing to listen.”

  I looked at him as my mind puzzled away at something that remained just out of reach. Slowly I said, “It’s good to have a teacher, who knows how to make me listen.”

  Kuri smiled and slapped my shoulder before getting up and then pulling me to my feet, “Come along then. We’re too exposed out here in the open. We’d easily fall prey to a pack of Evanik hounds tonight.”

  It was a sobering thought and it gave energy to my tired body to once again move forward briskly. I keenly felt the tiredness of my earlier fast paced travel, but I also felt richer for it. I didn’t understand a lot of things, but I was learning.

  As weary as I felt, Kuri seemed to have gained in energy and before long I felt his hand slip around my shoulders as he helped aid me along, even as the sun began to dip beneath the western horizon. Where had the day gone?

  It had been morning, but soon it would be night. Had I run for that many hours today?

  I can’t remember making camp after darkness fell. I remember drinking, then eating, and then falling asleep.

  Chapter Three

  Song in the Night

  My eyes opened only to see that it was still night, but there was enough light given off by the moon to see. We were camped on the flatness of the plain!

  The reality of that fact had me coming to full awareness in short order. I looked around and in the faint moonlight I saw Kuri standing there. Then I heard the howl, which was soon followed by many more.

  My heart had frozen at the first howl and it all but shattered at the sound of the voices of many. They had found us and we were without ability to take cover from them out here on the plain.

  “Slip beneath the sand as you did before, Benaiah, and leave this to me,” Kuri said softly.

  “I can help.”

  His gaze turned to me and somehow I felt pressed back into the sand by the authority that he seemed to manifest at times, but even though his gaze was overwhelming his words remained calm, “I have not yet taught you how to fight Benaiah. To let you attempt to help me now, in your inexperience, would be to put your life at peril. Do as I say and trust in my protection until you are able to handle more.”

  I said nothing more and began to start scooping sand overtop my legs and then my torso. The frenzy of crazed yips had gathered in force out on the plain. Submerged under the sand I waited to see Kuri torn to pieces by the mob of glaring eyes that I could now see all around us.

  There was no sense to these dogs. They were always starving and yet killing many. Why did they run in packs of 40 or more, when they ruled the night uncontested?

  Their eyes glowed blue and their howls made me long for the sound of a wolf’s howl instead.

  “Remember to stay down, Benaiah, and do not speak.” Kuri said. He stood alone in the dark as the snarling horde drew closer and closer.

  What was holding them back? Why did they hold back from a man alone?

  I heard the grate of steel leaving its sheath and my eyes opened to see Kuri pulling his sword free to hold it up before him. The moonlight glinted off the blade lending a sheen to the night as blue-eyed glares closed in for the kill.

  Kuri did something then that I would never have expected. He began to sing. At first it was only a deep hum and then it rose into a wordless song. It's pitched resonance seemed to impact the sand around me, as if the sand wanted to join in with the rhythm of the song.

  The singing did not dissuade the horde, who seemed to become incensed by the lack of fear of the opponent that they had singled out in the night. Evanik dogs leaped forward with huge canines bared for Kuri, who suddenly wasn’t where he had just been.

  His fe
et seemed to slide along the sand in a whisper of sound, as the sword flashed left and right seemingly everywhere at once. Unholy howls rent the night, for it was said that every one of the horde had a demon in it.

  Demon power or not, I watched from beneath the sand as a man unlike any warrior I’d ever seen stood his own against a howling storm of viciousness. Although I heard the sound of the dogs, what I heard most of all throughout the fight was the deep resonance of Kuri’s voice continuing in soul stirring song that seemed to bring life into the dark of the night.

  As I watched the fight I noticed that there was a rhythm even to it. Even as I had run today faster than ever before, I now watched a sight unlike any I had ever encountered. Evanik dogs fell and shrieks rang out and yet the bloody flashes of the sword by moonlight never stopped as they carved up every attacker that came near.

  There could be no warrior such as Kuri in all the seven Kingdomer Nations or beyond for that matter.

  There were too many slain bodies to count laying upon the ground as dark shadows in the night. I heard the last of the pack give up the fight and run away across the desert.

  Kuri stood there alone in the dark in the stillness that followed. Never had I heard of a pack of Evanik dogs giving up a fight. There was something about Kuri that had gotten to them where other men had failed.

  Kuri turned and walked to where I lay beneath the sand. I watched by moonlight as blood continued to drip off the blade hanging at his side.

  He squatted down beside me, but his eyes remained focused on the flat expanse of moonlit desert that stretched out all around us. His face showed little of the exertion of battle and I marveled all over again.

  “Tell me, Benaiah, do you fear me now?”

  I swallowed, as his gaze left the distant plain to gleam probingly down into mine.

  “Not even if you taught me all that you know could I ever fight so well as you. There can be no man alive who is your equal!”

  Kuri said nothing for a moment and then he broke his silence by re-asking his question, “Do you fear me Benaiah?”

  Why did he want to know this?

  “Yes…….and…….no,” I said in a stutter, not overly sure of my answer.

  Kuri cocked his head to the side and regarded me with a questioning smile that somehow relaxed me enough to let me form my own thoughts and explain, “If I was ever to desert you and become your enemy I could never win. If I’m to remain by your side as a friend then why should I fear you?”