§1-1
When the arrow punched right through my chest, the identity of me was still a slave of a Muslim, a servant of Satan, which brought me with intense disturbance. Yet the spreading pain swept all my concerns away, and then, swept my consciousness out of my flesh. Everything became ambiguous in front of my eyes; the only organ kept working was skin – feeling the sticky liquid I poured abomination upon, and the Muslim’s action of searching certain object in my pocket after my fall. Maybe I forgot the hearing. It was rather quiet around me; even the hoofs could not make clear clops on the sand. However, I heard a voice of a woman, speaking French, probably. I was unable to understand her words, but I could learn her tone, something like threat.
Suddenly I wanted to laugh, if only I could, for two reasons. Firstly, how could a Muslim understand a language even I failed to comprehend? The second was joy emerged from the bottom of my heart. I could barely describe the feeling, something spreading from the wound, but contrary to pain. Perhaps, that was death.
I was grateful that I shut my eyes and mouth. As long as a single ray of wind blew, they would be filled with grit. The gratefulness was born right when I struggled to get up.
That was true: being stricken critically, I managed to stand again. The sky was fully darkened while my fall was made at midday.
‘Alive?’
Thinking about that, I looked around, in case that the realm I stood was not the hell, but the distant suburb of Jerusalem, still.
‘How ironic it is. Heaven? Or hell?’
My sight reached a dark figure of a human, twisted, headless.
He died, and I thought of the French-speaking woman’s words, which seemed to contain dictions like ‘Die fool’ or some sort.
Now the Muslim was slain. Could it be good news for me?
I stroked my bosom, no wound, but covered with cruor. The cloth indeed was pierced. I found a crossbow arrow around me. As an Italian, the special sense towards crossbow made me tremble before the sharp, fatal arrow. I did survive from attack of the missile, like a miracle.
‘Magic?’
Compared with the cliché such as ‘God preserves’ by those damned priests, this explanation was more favored by me.
I found myself paying too much for keeping standing. Arduous it was, I staggeringly made my every pace. ‘What was shed is shed.’ I thought, feeling weak as can be.
‘I would rather die as well.’
I pulled my own body to the corpse. After making sure that that was my previous master, I searched for the track of that item.
Gone.
As I supposed, the French-speaking woman aimed at it. Obviously, my master was less lucky than me. Being chosen such a way to die, he could not be saved even by God.
‘Where to go?’ I questioned nobody.
The necessary question made me desperate from the inside.
‘I should travel north,’ I thought, ‘for there was source of water marked.’
The word to describe the starry sky could only be ‘bright’. Towards the shine of Polaris, I took, in my view, the first step heading to freedom.
It was half a month earlier. A knight dismounted, shaking his cloak to get it away from the earth. Then he turned to the enormous and guarded city gate. A guard came forward and greeted him. After a brief chat, the guard led the horse away to the stable while the knight making his way to the castle deep in the grand city.
The castle deep in Jerusalem.
The bustling crowds on the streets were as usual, so was the knight. He strode in haste, shuttling in the crowds. He avoided every and each man who came to him, as if he had some significant business to finish.
What was he hurrying for? The knight didn’t even know the answer himself.
He was warmly welcomed. But the knight barely stopped, continuing to go upstairs, up to almost the top of the fortress. Then, he made a turn to a capacious room, in which sat the man the knight bowed to.
‘My lord, I’m back from Damascus. What is the mission that matters?’
The knight was saluting the man sitting behind the big table who was elder than the knight, wearing grizzled beard which shared resemblance with the white cross on his black frock.
‘You are quicker than I expected.’ said the elder man. He added ‘Have you ever heard anything about the “Manuscripts” on your way?’
‘Manuscripts? I have no idea. What manuscripts?’ answered the knight.
‘A shepherd discovered ancient scrolls recording religious texts, which were the manuscripts I referred. They are antiquities, even older than the city going to die of age, oh no, my Holy City. The mission is…’
‘To take the scrolls? Grand Master?’ the knight interrupted. In his tone, there were tough stance and arbitrariness, as if similar businesses had already been a part of his life. He was not a man gentle.
‘No. We have obtained the scrolls, and we found the contents attractive.’
The Grand Master, according to the knight, lifted his corners of his mouth, showing mysterious smile.
‘Have you ever known the reason why we were repelled from Eden?’ asked the Grand Master.
‘Well…certainly, for the original sin. Adam and Eva, they touched the thing forbidden.’ replied the knight with hesitation.
‘Then, in your opinion, how long should human keep atoning for the sin?’ the Grand Master went up to the knight, looking into his eyes, and questioned.
‘I don’t know. Till the Armageddon?’
‘You are wrong.’ He denied the knight, ‘What we have paid is enough. According to the scrolls, when the Holy Jade becomes one piece again, the original sin will be absolved. We can’t clarify the authenticity of the record. But the pieces of Holy Jade have already descended upon this land.’
‘What is the Holy Jade?’ the knight puzzled.
‘Scared articles, unlimited power.’ The Grand Master made his way to the window, gazing at the floating crowds, and continued with ‘The Jade itself is a sort of examination. Common men can’t resist the temptation of abusing its power. Only one with steady will is able to control it and collect them together. God wants to see whether we have become more devout or not. And we, the Order, will be the people who make the answer.’
‘Thus, my mission is…’ The knight felt not like thinking about the tale told by the Grand Master. What he merely wanted to know was his next quest.
‘You are expected to gather nine pieces of the jade, on behalf of the entire human race. Then transfer all of them to me and hold the ceremony under the instruction of the scrolls.’ The elder man didn’t turn to see his man, but the Grand Master’s note still offered the space for imaging his expression.
Then the knight became serious. ‘I understood.’
‘No hurry. I know those simple sentences would not make me clear. In order to aid you,’ the Grand Master stood sideways slightly, and saw into the dark corner of the room, ‘I request this lady to offer supports…’
A slim figure emerged from the shadow which the candle light could not cover. She caught the knight’s attention without efforts.
‘Nice to meet you, Sir Vibnimp.’ Taken her white glove off, the woman gracefully reached out her right hand, ‘Call me Leastia.’
With tension, the knight did the same thing and shook her hand. He was ashamed of failing to keep his hand clean for the journey. Quite the opposite, she did not care the matter concerned by the knight at all.
‘Well, greetings, Leastia.’
Then, the knight looked at the Grand Master and could not help to put forward his question.
‘My lord, how will humanity become if it is done by us? I mean the ceremony.’
The other blurted out the answer, as if he had already prepared for this.
‘Free.’
千里眼
声呐
发表于 2012-12-1 00:19:21
沙发
楼主
发表于 2012-12-1 00:23:18
发表于 2012-12-1 11:50:01
