The Paladin: a story of Faith

The Sacrifice

A young paladin did her best to quell the pride she felt as she marched behind the other paladins. Ahead of the company of paladins, the king's emissary, an elderly duke, accompanied the sacred relic of the order of paladins. Around them, a thousand armored knights marched as well, meant to be both protection and part of an honor guard for the king's emissary, who alone of the thousand knights and five hundred paladins, rode horseback. He kept his horse abreast of the sacred relic of the paladins. Trailing behind, a bevy of wagons held supplies and equipment needed for camping along the way.

A rendering of the god they served, the sacred relic would give the paladins an advantage, should they be called to fight. The paladin had been told privately that, though they were to accompany an emissary to a negotiation, their mission was hardly one of peace. Though they were being sent as an honor guard, their presence was also a show of strength by the king.

Though the paladin didn't understand why the king had chosen to send his oldest duke along with the relic instead of a younger, more intimidating negotiator, the fact that she'd been chosen as part of the honor guard still astounded her. Out of the three thousand members of her order, only five hundred had been chosen to accompany the sacred relic to the field of meeting that was said to have been chosen by their enemy for negotiations. Even her older brother- who was by her family's account the better warrior- had failed at least one of the tests by which the honor guard had been chosen.

Being part of an honor guard, however, had its disadvantages. For one thing, she had to march 'at attention', staring only at the head of the paladin ahead of her and trying not to squint at the sunlight reflected off of his helm. The march was, therefore, rather boring and tedious.

Unused to the unusual manner of travel, the young paladin's legs ached at the end of each day. Also, the slow march guaranteed that she and the others of her order baked under the hot sun overhead, encased in their armor as they were. The paladin did her best not to grumble in the evenings or to ask why they'd left their horses at home. The paladins, like the knights forced to march before them, were ordinarily mounted warriors.

To stave off boredom as she marched, the paladin mulled over the events of the previous few days. The announcement had been made to all those of the paladin order that the king had ordered five hundred of his best paladins to accompany a delegation that would meet on neutral territory to discuss relations between the two entities. A series of tests would be administered to all and only those with the highest scores would be allowed to join the delegation. The honor guard was to be a permanent assignment, and came with a large stipend, which the paladin's father promptly took charge of for his daughter.

As she marched, the paladin ignored the dust kicked up by over a thousand other people and lost herself in her thoughts. She took pleasure in remembering the fuss her mother had made over her when it had been announced that she'd been chosen as part of the honor guard. A celebration had taken place, over and above her older brother's disgust.

The youngest of the full paladins in the honor guard and the only female in her family to join the order, the young paladin had been shocked and delighted to be chosen. She had also been astounded to learn that her older brother had not. Her pleasure was only slightly dampened by the tension with her sibling, exacerbated by her father's and grandfather's censure of 'the boy' for not surpassing his younger sister in skill and ability.

The young paladin still marveled that her brother had failed at some portion of the test, having been a full paladin for several years longer than she and holding a higher rank. She, on the other hand, though battle-tested but yet to make a name for herself among the members of her order, had succeeded in passing so well that the grand master of the order had visited her at her parents' home in order to congratulate her. It was no wonder why her older brother was so angry. She wondered what her relationship with her family would be like upon her return home. It had been insinuated that the appointment to the honor guard was a permanent one. Would her brother ever be allowed to join?