With
the children’s minds soothed, the story resumed.
“The turncoat expected a hero’s
welcome when he crossed into the village.
Instead, he was forced to wait for hours before the warlords would even
consent to meet with him. He was treated
with a cold disdain and the more he divulged, the less impressed they
appeared. Insulted by their callous
treatment of his efforts, the man withheld a great deal from Demetrios’ plans,
deciding to switch sides again. Perhaps,
he concluded, it would be better to fight on the side of freedom. In truth, the warlords knew that a man who
would betray his compatriots could never be trusted. They didn’t even need to use black magic to
know that the traitor’s heart had been corrupted. All along, the warlords had planned to kill
their lackey. His blackened heart would
be more useful to them to conjure one of their most wicked spells. They believed a traitor’s blood became irreversibly
tainted and as it pumped through the body, the heart warped and became stained
with a dark evil. The traitor’s heart
would be cut from his body while he was still alive and tossed, mid-beat into
the flaming cauldron. Once combined with
the key ingredients from their spell books, the evil would concentrate. Then the warlords would be able to release the
wickedness back into the world as a demon- a demon they commanded.”
The
old man paused for a drink while his grandchildren whispered excitedly amongst
themselves. They had been anxiously
waiting for the really scary parts to take off and finally the story was
weaving in that direction. Even Maddie was hoping the traitor would suffer yet she did not like the idea of the
warlords having control over a wicked demon.
She feared for the brave captains and their loyal men.
“Grandpa, how come the warlords can
be traitors and no one cuts out their heart?”
Nathan asked.
His
grandfather smiled in return. He had
hoped that one of the boys might notice the correlation between the minion’s treachery
and the fact that the warlords had commanded him to do just that.
“Have you heard this story before?”
He asked the boy, teasingly, for he was certain the boy had never heard this
story before.
“Nope,” Nathan responded. “It’s just not fair that they sent that man
off to spy and then they call him a traitor.
They’re the traitors for using evil to make people into slaves and then
they pretend that they’re good when they’re really the bad guys! Does the black
magic backfire?”
At
this, his siblings shushed Nathan and told him to quit interrupting
Grandpa. They preferred hearing the
story the way it was intended rather than their brother’s attempts to puzzle it
out. But before their grandfather could
continue, another interruption plagued them.
“Are you all having a good time?”
Their mother asked. “I hope the story is
almost over because we’ve got an early bedtime tonight.”
The
cries in protest rose loud and bitter.
Friday nights had always been the one night they were allowed to stay up
later. Instead they were being sent to
bed earlier than a school night.
“Did you forget we’re spending the
weekend at Uncle Mike’s? It’s Tyler’s
birthday so we need to hit the road early to get there in time for the party.”
Now
the kids were torn. Their Cousin Tyler’s
party would ordinarily be a source of great excitement but they’d been sucked
into the story and hated the idea of missing out on two whole nights while they
were away. Tyler was a cousin on their
father’s side so their maternal grandparents would not be attending the party
and even if they did, there was no way their grandfather would tell that story
outside of his own home. Since school
was closed for Veteran’s day, they would not return until Monday
afternoon. In support of his daughter,
the old man ordered everyone to bed with the promise that they would start the
story earlier on Monday as a compromise.
He tucked the children into bed and wondered what he was going to do
with his spare time for those two days.
****Please
return for Part 6 on Monday, November 11th****
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