Lions of Men

Chapter 11

Eudarius Healrose was baking in the high noon sun. Sweat poured from his head, blurring his vision of the riverbank dead ahead. The water was calm enough to cross, but the intense heat weakened him and his men as they toiled to steer the canoes to shore.

"We're almost there," Eudarius said to Daylan, his son. "Just give it a few more strokes."

"The day burneth as a furnace," the young man said. "I never anticipated that the coast of Brudayah would be so torrid; not around this time of year at least."

"Despite the tumultuous rains that pour from the heavens, Brudayah is a wasteland," Eudarius said.

"Remind me again father, wherefore we chose to take this assignment?" Daylan said panting, as he dug his oar into the muddy water.

"We choose not to give in to strong drink like the rest of our Fellowship brothers."

The lad shook his head. "If drinking is so lacking in valor, then why do so many take part in it?"

"If ye served the gods our friends do, would you not rather forget?" Eudarius said.

Daylan smiled and nodded. "So you chose the squalor of the wicked over the comforts of the rich?"

"These men are the lesser of two evils," Eudarius told his son. "I'm certain our affluent friends will commit far worse than these three poor souls."

Daylan scoffed. "Poor Souls? They're the surviving members of a notorious gang that raped, pillaged, and massacred villagers up and down Lagorah's coast."

"Victims of circumstance, I'm afraid. The Levanites, the Kabaazites, the Shaamrites, Theocales; they all know the way and choose not. May God have mercy."

The men finally reached the bank of the river, and Daylan and several men got out of their canoes and pulled them to the shoreline. Eudarius stepped out and stood before the three captives.

"Azal, I offer you one final opportunity," he said to one of the prisoners. "Repent of your sins, and be free."

Azal sneered at him and put up his hands which were bound in chains.

"For the last time; the freedom you offer and what I desire are not the same."

"I cannot release you. Your crimes are too great."

Eudarius moved to his left and stood before the other two prisoners. "What I do offer you is forgiveness for your sins. Repent, and Jesus will have mercy on you and receive you into everlasting life."

"How will mercy help us hither?" Azal yelled.

"You will suffer where you are going?" Eudarius assured them. "The men you are about to meet are not as kind as we are. But they can never destroy your soul. Believe in the name of Jesus, and be saved."

With that Azal jumped at Eudarius, but was immediately accosted by his men. Eudarius didn't flinch, but turned and walked away.

"You may keep your blasted mercy!" Azal yelled. "You're nothing but a bootlicker for Rashnee and his blasted sycophants! Thy God is weaker than the women I've pleasured!"

The Shirobethnians had to subdue the big man to get him under control.

"Let us make haste," Eudarius called out to his men. "They'll be expecting us peradventure."

The men hiked about four miles up the bank before reaching a gorge in the valley of Brudayah. The land was as desolate and unforgiving as Eudarius remembered. One of the largest islands in Laynemarah, criminals from all over the region were condemned and sent here for the most horrific crimes. At fifty-two years of age, Eudarius considered himself courageous enough to plunge into battle, but places like this made him uneasy.