THE HAUNTED KINGDOM 3 by CHARLES E.J. MOULTON (best books to read now txt) 📖

without a single soul around to manage their contents or find themselves nurtured by …
“I want to arrive soon” Alex whispered to himself. “I want to go home.”
Adnicul half grinned. “Are you sure about that?”
Alex winced sympathetically. His companion saw how tired he was. How sick of traveling he had become. “Yes, I am. I want to finally get this over with.”
”Have you ever confronted her?”
Alex tried to chuckle, but only managed a grunt.
“I don’t think it is possible for anyone to comprehend the pressure that is weighing me down right now.” Then, he added. “I almost think Lucinda finds all this funny. To her it is all a big joke. But in actual fact, if I lose it will be the end of civilization as we now it.”
Adnicul shook his head, patted Centurion and smiled. “Wish I could help you, my friend.”
Alex cocked his head and sighed. “Adnicul, you already have.”
Adnicul gave Alex a surprised look. “Really? I have?” Alex nodded. “How did I manage to do that?”
“By teaching me tolerance.”
”Tolerance.” Adnicul nodded to himself. “Don’t forget that I almost ruined your country. I hated you once.”
”I hated you. But I know this:” Alex pointed to the road ahead. “Whatever is waiting for me over there, I will be needing patience and calm and tolerance. Nothing can weigh me down there or I will be dead in two seconds. You helped me get there. Without you I would not be here today.”
“If that is the case, I am happy to oblige with my efforts.”
The mentor looked down.
“What is that?”
Alex looked at the mentor and then at the ravine under them.
“What is what?”
”There was movement down there …”
”Oh, really?”
The only thing that Alex saw were the trees swaying in the wind and the gentle river flowing way beneath them.
“Do you wish that you hadn’t gone the road that you chose, Alex? I mean, letting Lucinda in to your own heart, excommunicating her and the having to pay for it?”
Alex looked down into the ravine and did see movement down there. There was something, but it seemed to be something unimportant. A few stones that were trickling off the mountainside.
Alex had a very bittersweet smile on his face. “Too late for regrets, friend.”
”But do you wish you had turned a different corner back then.”
Alex looked at the sun and his eyes seemed to be drifting off, seeking new territory, seeking old times, old friends long gone. His voice was almost worn to a whisper now as his ghostly words sang a song of old pains to be forgotten. “Sometimes, Adnicul, when the sun sets and I wish I were sitting by the fire I wonder why I sometimes lose my temper, why I favour some things and exclude others. Sometimes, I watch the campfire and I see myself in it and I wonder what made me scream those soundless screams all those endless nights. I wish I had never seen what I had seen. Maybe if I had killed her back then, put her to trial, then I would’ve never met Madeleine and I would’ve spent all those years fleeing.”
”But you wouldn’t have anything to fight for, would you?”
Alex looked at Adnicul. A wind ruffled his hair.
Alex smiled. “You have a point. The bittersweet has a certain appeal to it. I will never find out what really happened in 1392, ever.”
”But you can kill the memory of the pain by erasing the torture instruments.”
Alex winced again and Adnicul saw how aggressively frantic that look was in its calm. “How?”
”By not being dependent upon what you see or what ills people do to you?”
”Am I dependant upon the ills that people do to me?”
”Yes, you are. You must learn not be so dependant. But there is a road that you must go alone.”
“The road to independence?”
Adnicul nodded. “The road toward independence is the one you started treading on the 13th of October 1422, Alex. You have come a long way since then.” Adnicul sighed. “Real independence is actually nothing more than being able to give everyone a piece of your own cake and still being able to keep the whole thing yourself.”
”What do you mean?”
Adnicul grinned. “Tolerance. You have nothing to prove, which means you don’t have to loose your temper. Thus, no one will test you to see how far they can go, albeit they will try because they feel you have something to hide.” Adnicul smiled. “What did you hide, Alex, when Lucinda entered your soul in 1392?”
”I don’t know.”
”Find out. You might be surprised at what treasures you encounter.”
”Lucinda only challenged what you were hiding. Madeleine only was. I was. What did you hide?”
”Myself.”
Adnicul smiled, no he beamed. “It makes me proud to know I have brought you here. But there is a catch.”
”What catch?”
”Why did you hide yourself? Why did Lucinda feel she had to challenge you, let alone that she was part of a grand scheme to detroy the universe?”
“Because I did not face her?”
”Nah, not really.”
They passed a small road that lead upward toward a field. They both saw it in the corner of their eye but took no real notice.
Alex sighed.
“Because I didn’t face myself.”
”Why didn’t you? Why were you afraid to face yourself?”
”Because I was afraid what I would find when I face myself.”
”This is the moment of truth, Alex. Tell me. Why were you afraid of that?”
“I don’t know.” Alex stopped and thought for a moment. He did hear those noises again. He did hear that something was behind them. But King Alex was too occupied with finding himself out to notice. “I do know.” He began to get excited. “I do know. I was different back then, wasn’t I? I was. It was not that I was better. I may be better now, for all I know, but in 1392 I started living in fear because Lucinda told me that hell was going to fry me alive if I told her secret. But it was just a game and I am a victim of that game now. Lucinda just made me believe in ghosts. She made me afraid. She left me, but she gave me a fear of ghosts although she was away. I turned into a man just living for the escape of ghosts and I escaped into rage and love affairs and intolerance. It wasn’t that I was a bad king. I was good. But I was confused. In my own soul, I was …”
Alex looked to his side. Adnicul had disappeared. Alex hopped off the horse and looked down the ravine. No one there. He climed the ledge. No one there. He stepped on to his stallion again.
“Adni?” No answer. “Where are you?” Alex trotted back toward the small path that seemed to lead up toward a field that they had passed earlier on. “If this is a joke it is not funny. Adnicul?”
Alex trotted up the path and felt himself shiver in his clothes although it was quite warm.
He trotted up on a field and immediately saw another crossing path that he had overseen earlier. It lead into the valley and there was a muddy road that criss crossed it. Upon it was Rumar, running like the wind. Somehow, this large beast had followed them all the way here to sneak up behind them without letting the hear it.
Somehow Rumar had been able to steal away Adnicul and run away with him across that muddy field.
There was no way of telling if Adnicul was hurt, but all that Alex could see now was that his new mentor was laying across Rumar’s shoulder unconcious. It had all happened very fast and very silently.
Alex began riding after him.
“You are not going to get away with this!”
Rumar laughed and ran even further away with his large feet, Centurion galloping wildly after them.
“You are not going to get away with this!”
But the faster he ran, the further away the two fled. Eventually, Alex lay there in the mud crying, his tears mixing with mud, Mercutio silently knowing what was happening.
Alex stood up, screamed at the wind and sobbed, having lost a friend, seeing Rumar leave in the distance. He had lost a friend. Or had he? He had been a year on the road now. He had to go back and find Adnicul. Was he going to go back and find his new friend or go on without him? A week more or less would not matter, would it? Lucinda could wait. Adnicul was, after all, a guide to hell. Rumar had stolen his friend. He had been ripped away from him without fore warning.
Slowly, Alex mounted and decided to ride back to find his friend.
“I owe it to you, Adni” he told himself that day.
After all, Adnicul was responsible for the winning-back of his own soul.
It was a mutual life debt in both directions and Adnicul’s kinship and trust was probably the most important friendship he ever would have, except for Belinda’s.
He felt himself shiver as he rode back in the opposite direction, riding off to find an abducted pirate.
He felt himself shiver as he though about what Adnicul had said about the message for triumph.
“The fact is that when the dark empire falls, you will know by a raven or a dove or an eagle that it has fallen and it will be surprising, I guarantee it.”
With these thoughts in mind, he rode off to find the truth.


CHAPTER FIVE

VENTURE AND DECISION TO LEAVE

He could clearly recall this bridge.
They had crossed it on the way to the ravine.
Below him a bigger river was flowing toward the inner parts of Nocturania, or what seemed to be Nocturania. Mercutio slowly trotted across the bridge and ended up on the other side.
Alex looked behind him and wondered if he should turn around again, check just one more time in the cave if Adnicul was there.
He looked up at a cloudless sky. It was hot today. Not even a cumulus cloud. Blue as could be.
He sighed. What date did he have today?
He did not know.
He just knew that he had been told that it had been March 17th back in the valley.
But Adnicul and he had been on the road for quite a bit, so what could it be? April 1st? April fools?
Heaven knew.
Time really was only a number here. Only a number.
In fact, the king of Prosperania was on the table in his Grand Hall and he was sleeping.
In fact, he was only dreaming all of this.
The catch was that if he lost what ever duel was coming up, this dream would come true.
Come true? Dreams coming true? Sounded too good for this kind of pessimistic situation.
It was more like a nightmare being shoved down the throat like in the dungeons of the Wilta Prisons.
“I am tired, Mercutio!”
The stallion shook his mane.
“Don’t talk back, friend!” Alex mused. “I am tired of all of this. Tired of pushing. Tired of being a victim. Tired of never ever arriving at my destination. Tired of losing my guide.” Alex looked at his horse. “What about you?” Mercutio seemed to listen, but had no real interest in speaking. “How is it that I think you can speak?”
Alex