True to his word, King Stephen's advisor had provided a young page to escort them, by carriage, through the eastern portion of the city where the Temple of Shaddai lay near the city's border with the vast forests beyond. Far from a secret installation, as the Temple in Nod, this Order seemed to be housed within what Ethan could only call a palace-equal to, if not surpassing, that which King Stephen dwelt in.
Levi pulled his head back inside the carriage window. "Boy, would you look at that!" he exclaimed to Seth sitting across from him in shadows of the velveteen carriage.
Seth smiled coyly. "Sorry, can't."
"Oh, yeah right," Levi said sheepishly. "Sorry about that, mate."
Seth laughed. "Not at all, Captain. I live for embarrassing moments like that."
Ethan could hardly believe the structure before them: intricate stone carvings inlaid with gold, silver, and precious stones. Ethan had thought the Temple at Nod beautiful, but in a far more functional way. This seemed almost gaudy to him, and he wondered what manner of men trained here.
Their carriage drove across a bridge over a deeply set trench with a river running through the bottom. Ethan peered out the window with Levi, trying to gauge it. "That must be a fifty foot drop," Levi said.
Ethan looked back inside at Seth. "Have you ever been here before, Seth?"
"Years ago, before I lost my sight in Macedon, but I don't remember it as you're both describing it," he said. "In those days, The Order of Shaddai was still establishing itself and only had a modest few buildings with a training yard in the middle."
"Well, I'd say they've established themselves pretty well," Levi said. "They're living posh. I wonder what kind of warriors they make."
Ethan wondered that as well.
Once inside the courtyard, their carriage was met by a contingency of priests dressed in golden colored robes with embroidered fringes and cuffs. Most of the ten men standing before them had graying hair and wore tall pointy hats upon their heads. Ethan looked at them queerly, until he spotted Isaiah coming out of one of the archways leading within.
Isaiah smiled and gave Ethan a slightly exasperated nod as he passed the other priests, letting him know he too had similar feelings about the Wayland priest's attire. He approached and embraced him. He whispered into Ethan's ear, "We must talk privately as soon as possible."
It had taken nearly an hour of pomp and circumstance, introductions and ceremony before Isaiah, Ethan, and his companions were left to speak together alone. Isaiah began to sip from a cup of tea as the steward finished serving them all, then left the room with a bow.
"Master, I'm so glad to find you safe here," Ethan began, almost before the door had closed. "When we saw what happened at the Temple-" He couldn't go on, the horror of the scene still fresh in his mind.
Isaiah nodded gravely, searching each of their eyes. He paused at Seth. "It's good to see you again, Seth."
"Master."
"I'm sorry for your eyesight, my friend."
"The Lord has blessed me with a new sight to replace that which was taken."
Isaiah smiled weakly and nodded. "Things are worse than you may know, gentlemen." He paused to gather himself. "Mordred sent an army to attack the Temple. They appeared to be some sort of cross between man and demon-abominable beasts. They came to us through the pine forest and we were unable to stop them. The last I'd heard, before departing, was that the entire pride had been killed trying."
"But how did they find their way?" Levi asked. "That place was buttoned up tight among the Thornhills. I don't see how-"
"That is the worst of the matter," Isaiah interrupted. Anger and pain burned on his face. "Gideon led them to us."
"What?" they all three asked at the same time.
Ethan tried a weak smile. "Master, did you say, Gideon led them?"
The heartbreak in Isaiah's eyes left no doubt. "He betrayed us to Mordred, Ethan. Our lookout spotted Gideon leading them safely through the Shale Steps and then on toward the arch beyond the Pine Forest. Otherwise Mordred's soldiers never would have found us."
In the back of Ethan's mind, puzzle pieces began to click together, forming a picture he did not want to see. Gideon in the uniform of Mordred, not fighting for their sport, but training? Seth and Dung finding an assassin in the dungeon cell rather than Gideon. And the ability of Mordred's army to find the Temple despite only a few secret ways of entry.
They sat speechless for a long moment, before Isaiah carried on. "There is more," he said. "The High Priest, here, has received a message by hawk from one of their spies onboard a Wayland barge near the Northern Horn. They've spotted an armada of ships, bearing Mordred's standard, rounding the cape-three days flight by hawk."
"When was the message received?" Levi asked.
"Just before your arrival here," Isaiah said.
"That would put them just under two days from the Port of Trace and another day from here," Levi surmised.
Isaiah nodded. "The invasion we feared has finally come to Wayland."
"Does the King know?" Seth asked.
"A courier is already on his way to bring Stephen word, but I'm not sure what capability he still possesses after his defeat at Emmanuel. I'm afraid the situation is very dire."
Ethan had been staring at the wall during all of this as though he hadn't heard. "Is Gideon dead?"
Isaiah looked at him. "I don't know, Ethan. I would have hoped so-"
Ethan looked into his eyes, stunned.
"-after all," Isaiah continued, "it would become our duty to deal with him if he had survived. And that would be a very hard burden to place upon you or any of the surviving priests."
It had not occurred to Ethan, until that startling moment, that he should ever be called upon to kill Gideon. He had become more than a brother to Ethan in their relatively short time together. Harming him seemed unthinkable despite his betrayal. And he wasn't even sure he believed that. There had to be some other reason, some way that Mordred had controlled him, forced him to lead his soldiers to the Temple. "Master, I can't-"
Isaiah leaned forward, placing his hand upon Ethan's shoulders. "My son, I know as much as anyone how you must feel, but we have a duty unto Shaddai. I have known the man longer than any of you, and he has been my closest confident and friend for many years-a treasure of wisdom and skill among our Order. However, this betrayal cannot go unpunished, despite our feelings on the matter."
And then, suddenly, Ethan knew why Isaiah wished Gideon killed in the explosions which had brought down the mountain upon Shaddai's Temple. He too wished it, now that he thought of the alternative. It hummed in his mind-a glimmer of hope that he would not have to ever see Gideon's face again under these circumstances.
"As I said, I would hope that he was killed-" Isaiah started again.
Ethan saw the doubt in the old man's eyes. "But?"
Isaiah paused. "But we received a report from another of the High Priest's spies, a day ago. A lone warrior, no doubt trained in the fighting arts of Shaddai's Order, entered Wayland almost a day after you were taken by the King's men."
Ethan realized he was holding his breath.
"He ambushed several guards and infiltrated the fortress at the wall. This warrior started a fire and took one of their horses. They found the bodies of three of their elite guardsmen, sent to track down the thief, dead nearly a day's travel into Wayland. One more survived the attack with a broken shoulder and leg. His description sounded very much like Gideon."
Fear welled up in Ethan's mind. Surely the task of destroying one of The Order's most revered warriors would fall to him, the Deliverer. How could it not? But no matter how much he thought on it, he could not see himself doing this awful deed.
Isaiah sat back in his chair and sipped on his tea again. "Do not dwell on the matter now, Ethan. It will only trouble you more, and I need you for another task before we can consider anything else."
Ethan tried to relax, but it was impossible. Still, pushing the assassination of his priestly brother from his mind was far better than torturing himself with it. "What must I do?"
"I fear the King will not take the news of Mordred's invasion well. He has not been himself for some time, as I've heard from the court after your arrival. So we need to know what kind of threat we are facing. It may fall to The Order here, though I fear that alternative nearly as much, to devise some way of countering the attack that's coming."
Ethan stood up, eager to busy himself with another task. "I'll go find this armada right away, Master."
Isaiah stood along with the others. "Seth and Levi can help me here. Believe me, gentlemen, there's much organizing that needs to happen if these priests are to be of use against Mordred and his army."
Ethan nodded and started to go.
"Ethan," Isaiah said, "be sure that you do not engage Mordred's armada. We'll need the information you gather in order to prepare here. And I wouldn't want to risk losing you out there all alone."
Ethan tried to force a smile. "Yes, Master. I'll try not to do anything foolish." And with that, he disappeared into the spiritual realm.