Green: The Beginning and the End Read Online Free

or what we have been told he says? Have any of you heard this specific instruction from Elyon lately? Or are you all too drunk on his fruit and water to notice his absence?”
    “This . . .” Vadal was trembling with rage. “This is utter nonsense!”
    “It used to be that we celebrated the passing of every soul, believing that they had gone on to a better place. Now our celebrations at the passing are filled with mourning. Why? Where is Elyon, and where is this better place?”
    None of them could deny the subtle shift in their treatment of the dead.
    “We used to long for the day of Elyon, clinging to the hope that any moment he would come swooping over the hills to rescue us once and for all. Now we long only for the day of the Gathering, when we can drink the waters and eat the fruit and dance ourselves silly, deep into the night. The Great Romance has become our elixir, a place to hide from the world.”
    “You’re speaking rubbish.”
    “I say bring back the days of our glory! Hasten the day of Elyon’s return. Fight Qurong the way the Eramites do.”
    “You’ll have to fight me first,” Vadal said.
    Samuel pulled his horse around on its rear quarter to face the man. His mount snorted in protest. “So be it.” Loudly to the whole gathering, he said, “I’m told the followers of Eram also respect the challenge as we once did. I challenge Vadal of Ronin to combat as in the days of old. It is still permitted.”
    Was it? Thomas felt his gut churn.
    “I accept,” Vadal snapped.
    “To the death.”
    “Stop it!” Chelise cried. Then, in a softer voice, “I warned you about this, Samuel.”
    “Did you? Our prevailing doctrine denounces violence against the Horde,” Samuel said, “but what does it say of the challenge? We speak all night long about tales of the heroics that preceded us: Elyon this, Thomas that . . . I say let the heroics be seen in the flesh. Elyon will save the one who speaks the truth as he once did.”
    His argument contained a thread of truth that turned Thomas’s blood cold. Before their very eyes they were witnessing the greatest threat to all truth. And from the mouth of his own son. But Thomas was too stunned to form a response. This was his own son, for the love of Elyon!
    Chelise whispered his name urgently, and he saw that she was staring at him, begging him to stop Samuel.
    Instead, Thomas looked at Ronin and Johan for support. William, Mikil, Jamous—any of them. They all stared at him for guidance. Were they, too, growing tired of waiting for an imminent return that had been imminent for longer than any of them cared to think? Could this be the source of their hesitation?
    Samuel wasn’t the only one to wonder if Elyon really was coming back for a “bride” anytime soon. After all, he’d allowed them to take beating after beating without so much as lifting a finger. What good was being disease free if you lived in ridicule and on the run?
    Thomas caught Ronin’s stare. “Ronin?”
    The spiritual leader of Thomas’s clan frowned, then studied his son Vadal and Samuel.
    “No one in the Circle has issued a challenge for a very long time. Never, that I know of. It’s utterly foolish.”
    “But was it outlawed?” Samuel pressed.
    Chelise flung both arms wide. “This is so much nonsense, this flexing of the muscle to prove a point. And to the death ?” She turned to the others. “Come on, Mikil! Johan, surely you can’t think this is permissible.”
    “It’s absurd,” Mikil said, and Johan agreed, but neither was demanding. The fear in Thomas’s gut spread. Why weren’t they rushing out and dragging Samuel off his horse in protest? They harbored a small vessel of doubt themselves? Surely not all of them!
    Samuel took advantage of their inaction. “Didn’t Elyon once condone our use of force? Has he changed his mind? Does Elyon change his mind? Well, well, by the heavens I’ve made a dreadful mistake, I will change the way it is done! Is this a perfect