In Harmony We Trust by Ryan Matthew Harker (first ebook reader txt) 📖

mercenary leader and spoke calmly, “No, my son. This monastery has been our home and refuge for many decades, centuries for some. It would not feel right to abandon her now just because of a little turmoil.”
Jeshux grimaced. “I’m afraid this is going to be more than just a little turmoil. The monastery may not survive intact.”
“All the same, Jeshux, all the same,” Jin responded without fear.
Seeing the determination reflected back at him from the face of each and every monk before him Jeshux sighed deeply. “Well then Jin all I have to say is thank you, thank all of you, and I’m sorry to have brought this terrible tragedy to your doorstep.”
“What must be, will be,” the old monk intoned gravely. “Stress not for fate you cannot predict, nor control, as it is out of your hands. And now be off with you while you still have the time.”
“Aye,” Jeshux muttered. “So long my friend.” With that he turned his horse and followed by the rest of his motley assortment, fled away from the Midnight Monastery.


Sefu had witnessed the arrival of the mercenary Commander General from her place of concealment on the outskirts of the monastery. Having been none too pleased with this turn in events but realizing there was nothing to be done about it at the moment, she settled in to observe the goings on in anticipation of an opportune moment to strike her targets. And now less than an hour later Sefu scowled from her place of concealment as her prey rode off and left her behind. This job was definitely not going as smoothly as anticipated, definitely not doing much to enhance her reputation. However, it had been a long time since she had been presented with a challenge and if anything these would be saviors were definitely turning into a challenge.
Allowing herself a tight smile the assassin moved away from the front of the monastery, all the while keeping an eye on the monks as they made their way inside, and the mercenaries as they prepared for battle. If she was going to pursue her targets efficiently then she needed transportation so she made her way around the monastery until she found the stables.
The stables were a small, sparse affair mostly filled now with the exhausted animals that Jeshux and his men had arrived on. Sefu entered quietly so as not to disturb the tired creatures and made her way past the stalls until she found the horse that she desired.
After saddling the beast she led it outside, mounted, and quickly made her way in pursuit of her targets. As she galloped down the recently churned up road the assassin made a vow that they would not escape again.


Vohrmint and his men, nineteen in all, were ready and waited out front of the monastery. They did not have to wait long. From the surrounding cover of the trees that bordered the road came indistinct noises of travel, the sounds of the many feet of many species beating upon the hard packed dirt of the road and as it steadily grew louder the sound had the effect of steadily increasing the tension felt by the awaiting mercenaries. The Midnight Monastery was, on the surface of things, little more than a modest size structure built in the old manner of large hand hewn stones, which had been quarried not too far away, then brought and shaped on location before being set into place. The site of the monastery was a large clearing of a mostly natural design with only enough trees felled to supply the needs of the monastery’s construction. A single dirt pact road led to and opened into the clearing, split to circle around both sides of the monastery before it joined again on the other side and led away. The mercenary guard left to defend against and delay the enemy only had one real advantage offered by the terrain and this was that only a limited amount of troops could enter the courtyard-like frontal clearing after leaving the cover of the surrounding forest. This number was limited even further by the number of defenders in said clearing.
Vohrmint had his men situated in a double half circle formation with one set of ten soldiers arched away from the monastery with the other nine in front of them in a mirrored pattern that arched away from the road. He stood in the front of them all and calmly watched for visual confirmation of his enemy.
The horde Harmony had sent, after being worked into a frenetic state from the frantic chase led by Jeshux, barely paused or hesitated in any fashion in their advancement from the wooded roadway into the clearing. The mercenaries wasted no time but with rifles ready began a steady barrage of charged plasma, searing photons and hot lead, which dropped werewolves and goblins indiscriminately. Such a vile force as Harmony had deployed on this mission had little use for firearms and despite the increasing number of evil dead that had quickly begun to pile around them the mercenaries soon found that they were abandoning their own firearms in favor of their close quarters weapons of choice. Daggers were produced along with a variety of swords, some of the traditional bladed variety while others blazed fiercely with the arcane energy they contained. The goblins carried traditional gobline curved sabers while their bestial werewolf companions resorted to razor sharp claws and fangs.
It was soon apparent to Vohrmint that despite the ferocious bravery of his comrades the seemingly endless stream of enemies would soon overwhelm them. Then from over the trees came the giant bat like forms of Harmony’s vampiric air force. Dozens of the creatures flew in on membranous wings and struck the mercenaries from above. This was all the outnumbered defenders could handle.
Waving his sword frenetically Vohrmint took down opponents left, right, and above him before shouting the retreat. “Everyone fall back into the monastery!”
Without a wasted moment the surviving mercenaries turned to comply but every step was hard earned as the continued attack devastated them from behind. They fought every step of the way as goblins, werewolves, and vampires pressed in from all sides- even from above- and finally gained the doorway at the top of the monastery steps and desperately made it inside to the temporary sanctuary behind its closed doors.
“Now what?” one of the soldiers leaning on the door next to Vohrmint asked breathing hard.
Vohrmint looked sideways at the soldier and realized he still held his sword. Wiping brackish looking blood from the great blade before sheathing it he replied, “It won’t take long for those bastards to break in. I’m sure by now they’ve realized that Jeshux isn’t here but we’ve pissed them off and they’re not likely to leave before they’ve destroyed the monastery, unfortunately. Our responsibility is to the safety of the monks. Let’s locate Jin and the others while there’s still time.”
“Yes sir!” the remaining mercenaries chorused.
In the lead Vohrmint made his way through the large upper passageways. He found the stairwell he was looking for and the grizzled warrior headed down into the small lower passageways until they were well below ground level.
During the Midnight Monastery’s initial construction builders had sunk its foundation up to twenty feet into the ground with the rooms of the lower ten feet sealed, used only for storage or sometimes as places of strict seclusion for private meditations and secret ceremonies. Known only to Jin and a select few in the higher orders was that throughout the many decades of the monastery’s first century the monks had utilized different methods, not all of them in harmonic accordance with their enlightened ways of living, to dig and expand even further under the monastery’s foundations, tunnels and chambers up to fifty feet deeper in some places. It was to these secret places that Jin knew they would have to go.
Vohrmint led the mercenaries as far down into the catacombs as he could, which was not far, and found the monks of the Midnight Monastery where they were squirreled away in one of the larger storage chambers in the second level basements.
Jin met them outside the door and silently acknowledged their shared plight with a short nod towards the diminished mercenaries before him.
“If only immortality meant invulnerability,” the old monk intoned soberly.
“Aye,” Vohrmint agreed. “But if that were the case I’m afraid we’d all’ve been driven madder than Harmony long ago.”
“Perhaps you are right,” Jin sighed. “How much longer do we have?”
“I estimate another three to four minutes until they’re through the front door,” Vohrmint said just as a dim crunch was heard from overhead followed by a slight reverberation through the old stones.
“Make that zero minutes,” Vohrmint grinned fiercely. “I’m sure it won’t be long now until they find us. Fortunately these hallways will disadvantage them as much as they do us. We’ll defend you as long as there’s breath in our bodies.”
The monk released a sigh before speaking slowly, “That may not be necessary.”
Vohrmint’s eyes narrowed. “What are you driving at?”
Jin turned and opened the door at his back. Waving the mercenaries through the monk said, “What I mean is that we may be able to avoid any more conflict.” Continuing across the breath of the room the old man revealed, “A very long time ago, in the first decades of our order’s existence, it was conceived that although being peaceful in nature there may come a time when the servants of this monastery may have need to make a hasty, and in all probability, secret departure.”
Stopping in front of the chambers back wall the wizened old monk placed his hands upon the ancient stones and muttered a vague indecipherable phrase. There was a short pause, maybe only a heartbeat or two and then a low rumble began to vibrate silt from the cracks in the stones. Then the stones shifted in all directions and revealed a small doorway leading into darkness. Another short incantation and torches bracketed into the walls suddenly came to life lighting a short hallway ending in a stairwell that led down.
Turning to confront the astonished gazes of monk and mercenary alike Jin finished his narrative. “And so all those years ago this was built, at great expense and great loss of life. Times, it seems, were a lot more barbaric then and atrocities that we could not condone today, such as slave labor, were commonly practiced in the erroneous misconception that the end justified the means.”
Vohrmint was the first to come out of his amazement induced stupor. “Why you sly old dog!” he finally roared and slapped Jin on the back, almost knocking him over. “You’ve been holding out on us!”
“Yes. These passages have been a secret handed down from generation to generation among my line. I’m sorry for not mentioning it earlier. Maybe loss of life could have been prevented,” Jin bowed his head in sorrow.
“No sir, I approve,” Vohrmint laughed. “Those good old boys up there died bravely and with honor. They fully knew what they were getting into. We’re all volunteers here. Besides it’s good to have a few tricks up your sleeve, a few secrets.” There was an increase in the commotion coming from above which caused Vohrmint to pause in his praise. “What’s important now is to get all these good people out of here.”
Everyone heartily agreed and soon, after they had shepherded monk and mercenary alike through the secret passageway, only Vohrmint and Jin remained. The old men looked back the way they had come, one immortal with a fierce grin upon his face and the other just old with a tear in his eye for the loss of the ancient structure which had been his home for longer