Red's CD Project Story 2: Part 37 – The Unforgiven (section 1)

Note: So I decided to break this song up into three installments. I thought it was appropriate considering the song. Also, it'd keep from this post from getting way too long. I have had a hard time finding time to sit down and write lately. I think breaking this up also will make it feel less daunting and take some pressure off me. Don't miss the Dark Tower installment below. Hey where's the movie list updates? Gone the way of the 1,000 greatest albums, perhaps.


Disc 2
Track 16: The Unforgiven III by Metallica

“How could he know this new dawn’s light would change his life forever”

Sensing a shift in the attack, the Children converged on Ewam and the sword. Even those soulless, bloodthirsty beings could feel the rhythm, hear the hum the blade made as it sliced through the air. Like a magnet it drew them, or perhaps they drew it. The heat coming through the pommel increased with each kill.

At some point, Ewam faintly became aware that he no longer controlled his arms, his legs and his heart. The sword was driving his actions, driving his thoughts from his brain. With each new enemy to arise before him, Duna twitched to life, cutting them down with ease. When a troup of twenty or more came at once, Duna burned in his hand. He gave one great stroke that brought with it a great wave of hot white sand. Each grain burned through the Children, who shrieked with pain, before being buried under a fresh, smoking dune.

Then Ewam was before the circle with Banik cleaving his way through the backtrail. The circle, knowing the real danger was before their two black-robed masters, formed a single line before Ewam. All along the field of battle the moans, the shrieks, the howls and the cheers came to a halt.

For all the rest was ancillary to those two black-robed Dinar, the row of Children before them and that one man with his magic sword.

***

“Set sail to sea, but pulled off course, by the light of golden treasure”

Kendra Leone, for at that point she was still a few days away from becoming Kendra Perde, had left Omet secretly that fateful night all those years ago, and she was provided steed by a man named Hector Cortobrane, brother to the Queen, mother of Ewam and Eden and father to Randall, future mayor of Stra. No one trusted Hector any more than they had to, but he was a sly man, who could provide things such as a horse to a lady looking to run from the city without notice. She knew no one else to whom she could turn.

Kendra navigated her way to Thunder Sted to apologize to the man she loved and say farewell. Be it that she was young and naïve to believe such things are done so easily and finally, but her word was given to another. Ewam had to respect that. Never once did it cross her mind that the chord between them could not so easily be cut. Her heart was in this and so was his.

Under the moon at Thunder Sted, Ewam came stumbling from the field, soiled and dirty. Under his buttoned shirt, his chest heaved from a great heart. A heart, she knew then, she could no longer resist. She floated across the porch in her blue riding dress as a cloud swept across the moonlight. They hesitated before embracing, saying words neither would remember as a drizzle touched the parched earth. If not for that cloud, a careless shadow from an already fattening young man ordered to follow some girl by his father would have crept out from where he hid along the path, probably alerting the two soon-to-be lovers of the intruder in their mist. He was a dumb boy spiraling toward being a dumb, yet sly man like his father. He did not understand who or what he saw other than two nobles preparing to bump middles.

Randall knew his father dealt in such secrets to gain power. He assumed these two were no more than pawns for Hector Cortbrane to play. Years later, the memory hit the fat man as he stood before Eden in Union Hall. He could not stifle a laugh. That how the woman had known so much. She had viewed it through him using some sort of magic. She had pieced together that the two brothers were, at least secretly, at odds. It was their one true weakness and now it was up to him to exploit it to ultimately get rid of both of them. How could he have ever known that night would mean so much?

“My Lord, I can prove their transgression. Only now did I realize it?”

Eden’s ears perked as he fondled the sword. The thing already appeared to have a hold on him.

“I will hear this, then set myself to delivering the penalty.”

* * *

“Been afraid. Always afraid. Of the things he’s feeling.”

The line opened in the middle allowing the two Dinar to come forward. From them came a putrid smell that soaked through the smell of death that covered the field. When they were before him, both pulled back their hoods to reveal identical decaying, green faces with black teeth that grinned out permanently from the loss of their lips. When they spoke, it was with an echo, as if their voices originated from the underworld and then sounded out from hollow mouths.

“I am Lars Met-Lan Ica, Dinar of the orignal blood,” the one to Ewam’s left said.

“I am Het Met-Lan Ica, twin brother of Lars, Dinar of the original blood,” the one to the right said.

For a moment, Ewam was stunned to find his foes to be twins. It was coincidence, but one that unsettled his nerves. He thought of Eden. He wondered if his brother was overcoming the ache that touched his heart and mind. Ewam needed his brother to be strong.

“I am King Ewam of Satar,” He regained his composure. “You have committed crimes against the people of Stra that are not forgiveable. I am here to deliver your penalty.”

A forced laugh came from the two.

“Are there not two Kings of Satar?” Lars said.

“Perhaps being brothers, twins, is not the same for those in the light,” Het said.

“We have been loyal for an age,” Lars said.

“Beyond death and the great change,” Het answered.

“I would not trust a man that touches one of those swords,” Lars answered.

“I believe one may have already lost trust in the other,” Het said.

Banik arrived at Ewam’s elbow, bringing his mouth to Ewam’s ear.

“Close off your mind and heart, it’s a window for them to see you and the one’s you love.”

“A member of the failed, Sorna Watch,” Het said, seeing Banik.

“Not just any member, at that,” Lars said.

“Your father licked the blood of your baby when he spilt it in the sand,” Het’s mouth opened wide.

“Then laughed as he burned the babe’s flesh,” Lars continued.

“NO!!!” Banik raised his sword, and charged at the two. He disappeared as the Children converged on him.