Over the Dunes a Rider Comes Page 8

  Reaching up again, Summer lifted the crown back off his head and looked down at it "Whether it is sitting on your head or not, it is still just a ring of gold -- and jewels nothing more."

  with a backward glance Summer tossed the crown on the bed. “ But with or without it. You. Are. A. King! It is what is in your heart, Ashes your soul, that makes you a king, not a crown ."

  Ashes stared hard into her eyes. "There is so much you don't know about me Summer I was such a fool -- not here -- but before. I thought that I could change things; make them better for everyone. I failed." Ashes voice dropped to a whisper "I did not want to leave you Summer, I love you so much, but there was nothing that I could offer you but sorrow and pain. So I left. I'm sorry Summer. I am so sorry!"

  A cold fear filled Summer. "What don't I know?! What are you talking about Ashes?! You're making no sense."

  A deep ringing echoed through the city streets before Ashes could answer. "The gates!" turning on his heels he ran out the door Summer ran out the door behind him.

  "Ashes wait, damn you come back! What are you saying? tell me!!"

  Ashes glanced back, but kept on running down the hall the look in his eyes hit Summer like ice water, "no!" she spat “I am not losing you husband!” spinning around she ran back into the room.

  Moving quickly, she stripped off her night clothes and started to pull on her clothes and armor. Her hands and fingers felt like they did not belong to her moving slowly and clumsily. as she buckled the last strap she heard a horse racing down the street below, looking out the patio door she saw Ashes charging China down the street toward the gates. Watching him a cold hand clutched her heart, as she realized that he had been trying to tell her she would not see him again, and somehow that this was not the first time.

  Ashes guided China past crowds of people running down the streets, many older women with children were heading away from the walls trying to get to the safety of the castle. Others were running toward the gates carrying whatever they could find to fight with willing to die if necessary, to save the city and those they love.

  When Ashes reached the courtyard the outer buildings were already on fire and the courtyard itself was a mass of swirling men and horses. The gates were filled with masses of men streaming into the city. He spotted Abby riding Brian in the center of the fighting, swinging her swords non-stop as she faced-off against a much bigger man.

  Vale and Calaco were at the base of the gates; the stallion was striking and kicking at anyone who came close. Vale used his sword to put a quick end to any of their enemies that the stud missed. Even Clip and Topper were in the midst of the battle the stump of his leg tied to the saddle as he used both his swords like a sickle mowing down any of the enemy who got too close.

  Three men had Fredrex boxed in, the big man bleeding badly from a gash in his shoulder. Ashes charged China at the men shoving his sword deep into the closest one's chest, Fredrex used a backhand swing to knock another under China's hooves China struck out with a forefoot hitting the man in the back of the head. Fredrex finished the third man off. "Are you going to be ok?" Ashes ask Fredrex grunted in answer lunging back into the battle.

  Ashes started to turn China back into the main battle when the stallion jerked then fell hard onto his side. Ashes jumped out of the saddle as his horse fell. He landed on his feet and spun around to see what was wrong with the stallion.

  The breath went out of his body like he had been struck when he turned around. China lay on his side a pool of blood rapidly spreading out from his body. A spear-shaft was buried, deep in the stallion’s chest. Libbor stood, just the other side of him, with a sneer of contempt on his face.

  "I have taken everything from You Ashes, your army, your city, your people, your horse and after you are dead I will take your Queen!"

  Ashes snarl and the savagery of his attack took Libbor by surprise. No one who knew him would have recognized him. Ashes had fought in countless battles in his life, but the one thing he had never done was to let his anger control his actions. This day, that changed. Here in front of him was the one man besides himself, that had caused all the deaths. Here was someone that he could kill with no regret.

  Libbor's sneer quickly faded as Ashes pressed his attack, not letting up he drove the bigger man back. With every blow Libbor's swings were becoming more and more desperate. As Ashes pressed his attack, Libbor swung his sword, in a two-handed swing trying to use his greater weight to regain the advantage, throwing him off balance. Ashes ducked the wild swing, then gripping his sword with both hands shoved it hard into Libbor's chest.

  Libbor's eyes widened with surprise and shock as his body sagged against Ashes' sword. Jerking his sword backward Ashes let the body fall, even before Libbor's body hit the ground he was running back to China kneeling next to him, Ashes lifted his head as the stallion took a last labored breath.

  "Oh China, forgive me, friend!" Ignoring the battle, Ashes stroked China's soft muzzle. Something besides the horse's body flashed in the light of the burning buildings all around them.

  The jewel! Staring in disbelief, he reached out and picked it up.

  "How?!" Ashes muttered. "Why are you here? Why now? Is this what you wanted?!" Ashes' voice rose to a yell. "You promised me all that I could dream of; all that I could ask for, you lied!! I wish I had never found you, I wish I had never made that damn wish, I wish that in the desert I had just died!......... Please if a life is the price for making a wish, take mine, don't make any more suffer because of my mistake."

  Ashes knew from the sounds of the battle, that his last wish was wasted. Pushing himself to his feet, he started to rejoin the battle. When something hard and heavy hit him spinning him backward, Ashes looked down in surprise at the crossbow bolt sticking out of his chest.

  His legs no longer wanted to hold him up. As he fell across China's body, "Forgive me God" he whispered " all I wanted was peace, I did not mean for it to be this way." the sights and sounds of the battle faded as Ashes felt himself drifting, he felt strange. not the fear and uncertainty he thought he would feel.

  When his sight came back his was still drifting through what seemed like an endless fog. and there was something else, a sound, straining his ears he tried to make it out, someone was calling to him, the voice when he first heard it seemed very far away very faint, with each word it grew closer till he could hear each word as if the speaker was standing next to him.

  "Fear not and mourn not, brother, and know that no lives were truly lost this day." Turning his head Ashes tried to find the speaker." Who are you, where are you? show yourself!" Again, the voice spoke, seeming to drift closer, Then further away. "Well you know me brother, both now and in the desert, many times in the past months you have spoken to me."

  Ashes voice was barely a whisper, "You're the jewel?"

  The mist swirled, "That is part of what I am, yes."

  Ashes voice rose, "Then tell me what has happened, you said that there were no lives lost, that is not true, I saw my friends die, my city burn, China, the most loyal horse I have ever known is dead! are you saying their lives meant nothing?!"

  Ashes felt a warm breeze calming him

  "Peace brother, I will tell you what I am saying, you made a wish in the desert, you wished for peace, peace cannot be brought by one man alone, true peace can only come when all wish it, you had to see that for yourself."

  "So it was a dream then?" Ashes asked. "None of it was real?”

  His thoughts on one person in Particular "Summer!" the thought of losing her again hurt.

  "There are many realities, this is just but one. Our actions today shape our reality of tomorrow. Reality is never set in one place. What you think of as a dream here, in another place, is a reality. What you think is real, is but another's dream." The voice drifted through the mist, never in one place, Ashes had stopped trying to find its owner.

  "I want answers!" Ashes snapped "Not riddles! Was what I just went through a dream? That is all that I want to know. Did
I just get a kingdom, and everyone, that I ever cared about killed because of my foolishness?"

  "Foolishness?!" The voice seemed much closer now. "Look, brother, look and see the answers to your questions for yourself." The mist swirled again in front of Ashes, as a swirling mix of light and color that seemed to pull him into the center.

  Ashes stood in the city courtyard once more. Remains of shops and homes were all that stood to tell that there had ever been a battle at all. The courtyard was busy with soldiers and citizens clearing the debris away.

  Ashes looked around in amazement. "The city and the people are alright? But we were overrun, outnumbered, the city was burning, what happened?"

  "You happened," came the soft whisper. "A king who was so willing to protect his people, that he stood in front of his men in every battle, who was never willing to let even the poorest of his people go hungry or cold, who cared for every life in his kingdom from the greatest of his generals to the cat who hunts mice in the barn as equal to his own, who gave a wandering people land and a home, where they could grow and prosper, who never saw himself as better than any of his people."

  "When that king fell in battle, there was no army, no force great enough, to hold back the anger of his people, The cry and rally went from one end of the city to the next, Even the weakest, found the strength to strike back at their king's killers. Libbor's armies were driven back into the fields outside of the city. Just as the Cocoans arrived. You gave them a home and a second chance. They are a proud, honorable people. They came in answer to your call. Libbor's troops fled. The war is over!"

  "You sought peace, Ashes, it was a good kind wish sadly you did not understand that even peace has a price no mortal man alone can bring peace, Many have tried, but for everyone who has tried there are hundreds who see such things as weakness they do not know or care about the suffering that their actions bring."

  Ashes watched as Summer, his queen, walked down the main city street with Fredrex by her side. "Is she going to be alright?"

  The mist started to swirl again. "Yes, she will mourn her husband's death as the city will mourn the loss of its king, but they will recover, death and loss no matter how hard, is but part of life."

  "And now?" Ashes asked. "What happens to me now? Am I dead?" The mist swirled ever faster. “No, your life continues. Your fate is your own. There are many roads ahead of you, brother, which ones that you chose is your own decision. You must decide yourself, what it is that you want"

  Ashes looked sadly at the swirling mist. "What I want most, I have lost for the second time."

  "What was lost can be regained." The voice said knowingly. Again the mist stopped spinning and Ashes saw a familiar figure standing in a field, hoeing at rows of corn.

  "Summer?" Ashes asked longingly.

  "She has not forgotten you or stopped loving you." The voice went on. "Many men have courted her, and she has forsaken them all. She waits for one man, you and you alone can decide if she has waited in vain."

  "All of this time and she still loves me -- after what I did to her?!" Ashes' throat tightened. "Where is she? Is it far?"

  The voice grew faint again as the mist started spinning around Ashes till he felt that he was being pulled into a whirlpool “Follow the sun three days ride from where you awaken, at the foot of the tallest pike you will find her. Farewell, my brother, and take heart when you awaken, for in the eyes of your brothers, you will always be a king!"

  Ashes woke with a start as something pushed against his chest. He opened his eyes to see a long face with large brown eyes staring at him. Ashes leaped to his feet. "China!" He yelled, throwing his arms around the horse's neck joyfully. Ashes hugged the horse, running his hands through the stallion's mane, "I thought that I lost you. I thought that I would never see you again!"

  The stud lifted his head, snorting, as his rider let go of his neck. The oasis and the pool were gone, all that remained was a single tree. With his saddle bags and water jugs filled to their limit.

  Ashes saddled and bridled China, then tied down the saddlebags and the water jugs. he swung up into the saddle pausing to look over his shoulder at where the pool had been.

  "Whether a dream or real, I still am not sure." Ashes said. "But I promise you this, I will never again raise my sword in battle unless it is to protect myself or those that I love, If ever there is a time when all men work for peace, I will stand beside them."

  China pulled impatiently at the bit and Ashes let the stud have his head trotting over the dunes.

  Ashes did not see behind him, as the dust of their passing settled...Sands under the single tree began shifting on their own in ever-growing waves. Growing slowly at first, then ever faster grass began growing here and there. Trees burst out of the ground spreading green leaves out to the sun. A small trickle of water started to seep out of the ground flowing faster and faster till the ground in the middle of the new oasis was filled with a bubbling pool of water. The sun shone on the water, lighting up the stone pedestal, in the center, were a sparkling jewel sat waiting...

  For In the distance, over the dunes, a rider comes.

  Copyright © 2017, Vaughn Hansen

  All Rights Reserved

  About the Author

  Vaughn Hansen is the middle child of seven children, two sisters and four brothers. He was born in Ontario, Oregon and grew up in Tooele, Utah. As a young man he worked as a ranch hand, helping to break wild mustangs and working with cattle and sheep in Nevada, Wyoming, Oregon, and Montana. He spent four years in the army before moving to Indiana with his sister Amy who shares his love of animals, to start a small farm where they take in older and disabled animals.