Field of Blackbirds by Clayton Jeppsen & Lindsey Jeppsen (e reader manga txt) 📖

had a message for him. What Lazar dismissed as a silly childhood fable, was now presiding over him and vindicating its very existence. He stared into the dark grey coat, so vehemently, that he swore he could see the falcon’s pounding red heart. Lazar shuddered. Sorrows began to drip from his soul. His bosom swelled as the torque of antipathy began to loosen. The obelisk in front of him formed into a stone stairway, enticing him upward. Lazar struggled with the reality of it all, but he didn’t want to abort the feeling or undermine the delivery. He was face to face with the falcon.
“What do you want? What are you trying to tell me?” Lazar wasn’t sure if he was thinking out loud.
The bird, silent in deity, just stared back at Lazar. But his mind was flooded with feelings and ideas, so profound; it was like he was reading them from a page. He was washed clean by God’s mercy. He needed to forgive himself. It was time to get off his knees and stand. He needed to move forward as a whole man to be strong enough for what was to come. What was to come? It was the only void on the page.
Lazar’s vision began to blacken and then he was looking at another blank page beginning to fill with words. He had to dissolve all his fears. He had to pardon all his enemies, including himself. He had to trust in his inner strength, trust in God and yes, like the great Prince, he had to lay down his weapons. In return, life would not only work for him, but it would be kind to him, kind and beautiful. And beautiful only meant one thing; Milla.

Lazar’s eyes began to burn. The sun had shifted slightly around the bird. He looked down at his feet and they were still on the ground and the giant obelisk was just an obelisk.
“Lazar, are you all right?
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Lazar glanced back up at the falcon, but only for a second, as if to ask, “Are you sure?” But he instantly felt awkward.
He walked to the ledge and stared into the river. He lifted his rifle from his shoulder and held it over the water.
“I’m done, Radenko. It’s over.” He let go, and the gun splashed into the rushing darkness. Then he tossed his pistol like a discus champion at the Olympics.
“I guess you can borrow mine when you need them.” stated Radenko, with a hint of curiosity in his tone.
Lazar felt, not only the physical weight, but the emotional mass nearly evaporate from his body. There was no shame in harmony. No shame in promise. No shame in peace. If he laid his guns to rest, his most infinite aspiration could materialize. The falcon had made this message clear.
“I don’t think I’ll need them, at least for a while. Radenko, what happens if Serbia decides to fight Montenegro tomorrow, because your blood’s not pure? We’re both Yugoslavian. Bosnians, Croatians, Kosovars, we’re all Yugoslavian. Milla is Yugoslavian. I’ll defend our country, but not from her own children. I won’t fight my neighbors. I’ll never fight you, Radenko.”
Movement atop the obelisk caught Lazar’s attention. The falcon stretched his wings but remained posted. Something startled it. The falcon’s head turned to the north. What was it? Lazar wondered. What was coming? There was nothing on the bridge, nothing in the distance. The falcon cawed and spread its wings again. He ascended, gracefully from his podium and challenged the southern horizon, disappearing from reality, disappearing from fantasy.
“Let’s keep moving, Radenko. It won’t be long before they come looking for us.”

************

The farther they got from the city, the fewer cars passed them, dimming hopes of Good Samaritan assistance. When Radenko heard the distant growl of an engine, his thumb went up. At one point, an old farming truck pulled up next to them. But when the old man saw the uniforms, he simply expressed his regret,
“Sorry boys.”
They must have walked five miles or so. Radenko thought about the way Lazar acted on the bridge. He really couldn’t make sense of it. Radenko wasn’t sure what kind of awakening Lazar had gone through. He just knew that he wasn’t ready to consign his own guns over to a watery grave. What about protecting the innocent? What about protecting themselves? And it wasn’t so far fetched to think that he would, someday, have to protect his father, from General Pec or Nikola. And one thing was more definite than his own existence; he would require the ultimate price of anyone seeking his father’s life.
Radenko wanted to take his father, dust him off, and throw him back into the fray. He acted much older than he really was. There were plenty of Generals older than the age of sixty-two, who would swear they were in their prime. There was no time more expedient than now for the incumbency to be heard and felt.
Radenko wondered if he was being selfish. Perhaps he only waited until now to speak up because he was involved. But he put that thought to rest. Things had never been worse than they were right now; never more dishonesty, never more corruption and never more death. He had to get back to his father. He had to reenter the realm of law, brazen and unbridled.

A fuzzy sound, distant and soft, roared into life. Radenko turned toward the sound with his thumb still held high in the air. A cloud of exhaust spawned behind a caravan of trucks and jeeps.
“No,” said Radenko, gnashing his teeth, “it can’t be.” Radenko’s arm dropped. He couldn’t bury the adrenaline in his eyes.
“What?” asked Lazar, discovering the answer on his own, after looking over his shoulder.
“It’s Nikola.” Radenko contritely stated the obvious.
It was inevitable. There was no escape. Lazar and Radenko kept moving forward, beset in their derelict, expecting to be shot on sight.
“What do you want to do?” asked Lazar.
“I want to tell the truth.” answered Radenko. “He’ll expect at least that from us.”
Lazar nodded at Radenko. Radenko nodded back; a gratuitous, but subtle appreciation for the camaraderie, the friendship.


Chapter – 40 Eternity


With both arms, Radenko raised his rifle to the sky, signifying the white flag. Lazar’s empty hands followed. They slowly turned around and watched as the convoy tightened the reins. Down shifting, rubber locking against the asphalt, and bits of sand and small rocks being thrown into the undercarriage; it all sounded like a barking dog warning you that he was about to rip you apart.
A jeep peeled away from the convoy and drove onto the shoulder just feet away from them. They were peppered with dirt and rocks. The occupants of the jeep masked themselves momentarily behind a curtain of dust. And when the curtain began to fall, the shadowy figure behind the glass mutated into a cold sinister being, wrapped tightly in officer’s dress.
Nikola stepped down from the jeep like a black knight dismounting his ominous steed, ready to claim what never belonged to him; virtue. Nikola sauntered over and stood before them. His red beret drooped down the side of his head. He needed to study them to prolong the suspense. Nikola reached for Radenko’s weapon, jerked it from his grip and tossed it behind him. He moved within inches from Radenko’s face. The air was thick and impenetrable like the resisting forces of magnetics.
Nikola loosed a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed the tip of his nose. Clearly he was sick, which seemed to peck at his command presence. His eyes investigated Radenko’s, those glossed over eyes that never seemed to reach their destination, falling just short of target. Radenko wondered if he had been drinking again, or if he was just sick.
Nikola finally withdrew from the contest, never saying a word to Radenko. He turned toward Lazar.
“Corporal, put your hands down.”
Lazar almost forgot that his hands were still up.
“Where is your jeep, Corporal?” Nikola asked, playing a less intense staring game with Lazar.
Lazar had to think about this question. He had planned on telling the truth, but he didn’t want to set anyone on Milla’s trail. He knew Radenko would understand.
“It broke down.” said Lazar. “We had to leave it behind.”
Nikola just stood quietly, glaring, as if to give Lazar a second chance to reform a truthful answer. Lazar was distraught. He hoped they hadn’t already found the jeep.
“Where are your prisoners, Corporal?”
“We let them go. They were civilians. We found them to have committed no crimes.”
“That was for me to decide, not you.” Nikola sniffled and dabbed his nose again. “You disappoint me, Corporal. Now I must risk more troops to do the job you couldn’t handle.”
“I sent Goran to lend you reinforcement. What happened?”
Radenko was so fixated on Nikola that his peripheral had failed him. He hadn’t noticed Goran in the passenger seat, watching them, blowing smoke from the side of his mouth. Today he would collect his debt.
“You sent Goran to kill us!” blurted Radenko, earning Nikola’s complete attention.
“That’s a very, very serious accusation. You should be careful, Radenko. You’re both alive and well aren’t you?” neither responded.
“What should I do with you two? On one hand, I have a soldier who is insubordinate and AWOL in his own mind. And on the other, I have a soldier who is disloyal and who shoots his own men. The truth is; I have no use for either of you. What would you have me teach my men; that this is okay, that this kind of behavior goes unpunished?”
Right or wrong, both Lazar and Radenko knew what they had done was treasonous. Radenko’s tunnel vision also kept him from realizing that more vehicles had off loaded and they were now