Green: The Beginning and the End by Ted Dekker Read Free Book Online Page B

son and daughter. Marie still lay on her back, pinned under Samuel’s sword.
    “Stand up,” Thomas said.
    Samuel stared up at his father. He made no move to relinquish his hard-won upper hand.
    “Get up!” Thomas roared. His voice was heavy with rage, and it seemed to have caught Samuel off guard.
    His son slowly removed his sword and stepped back. Marie rolled over and pushed herself to her knees. Then to her feet. They stared up at their father, wounded and bleeding.
    “Is this what we have come to?” Thomas demanded. “A band of vagabonds who would return to their own captivity? You want to join the Horde again?”
    “We should kill them, not join them,” the woman who’d challenged Chelise said in a low voice. She might as well have screamed.
    Thomas thrust his hand at the horizon. “Killing is what they do. To kill them is to join them!” He paced atop the cliff, and with each footfall, Chelise felt her fear grow. She didn’t like the sight of the desperation that possessed him.
    “Is it Horde that you want? You’ve lost your belief in the difference between us and them, is that it?”
    “No,” Mikil offered. “No, Thomas, that’s—”
    “You’re doubting that Elyon is here, among us? That he cares? That he has any power? You wonder if he loves his bride the way he once did, if the Great Romance has become nothing more than the talk of old men around a campfire? Is that it?” He shouted his challenge.
    “Thomas—”
    “Enough! You had your chance to defend your hearts. Now it’s my turn.”
    The words turned the night cold. It wasn’t often that he was like this, but Chelise knew him well enough to know that he’d made a decision, and no force this side of heaven or hell would change it.
    “My own son has challenged the very fabric of our way, and he has drawn my own daughter into a fight to the death. Fine. Then I, Thomas of Hunter, both their father and the supreme commander of this Circle, will issue my own challenge.”
    He stood above them, legs spread to the width of his shoulders, hands gripped to fists.
    “I will settle this business once and for all. I will do it on my terms. We will see if Elyon has left us. The Circle will know to a man, woman, and child if he who woos us, who commands our love, is real or if he is nothing but hot air from the mouths of old men.”
    “Thomas, are you sure you want to do this?”
    But he ignored William. “I hereby exercise my right to take on this challenge from Samuel. Do you accept?”
    Samuel offered a cynical grin and looked up through loose locks of hair. “As you wish.” Then he added for effect, “Father.”
    “Good. Then I will go to the Horde and cast my challenge. If Elyon is who I say he is, we will all survive another month. If he is not, then we will all be dead or Horde within the week.”
    The words echoed through the canyon. The fire was dying, starved of wood. A dog barked from the main camp a hundred yards behind the red pool, where they’d all dipped their cups to celebrate Elyon’s love.
    Now they were faced with death, and their cups sat heavy in their hands.
    “Do I hear any objection?”
    “How can you risk our lives like this?” some fool was brave enough to ask.
    “There is no risk!” Thomas thundered over their heads. “If Elyon fails us, we should be Scabs. We will only be as we should be. If he rescues us, we will finish this celebration in earnest.”
    A deep breath.
    “Anyone else?”
    No one dared.
    “Send our fastest runners to the other three Gatherings. Tell them to come. We will live or we will die together as one. Is that clear?”
    Still no objection. Not even from the council, who surely knew how dangerous this course was. But they just as surely knew that to cross Thomas was futile.
    “Good,” Thomas said. “I leave tonight. Samuel, Mikil, Jamous, you three and you three alone will come with me. Get our horses.”
    He was going to the Horde, to her father, without her?
    Chelise stepped