Red Leaves and the Living Token Read Online Free

swords!"
    "If only it was that easy." He shifted his weight. "As you said. One or two days is the most I seem to be able to be apart from it."
    "What you've done cannot be undone with a wave of the hand. Bring me the swords and I will help you endure the pain that will come. And I promise you this temporary suffering will pass and in return you will find... rest."
    "I understood there was another way."
    The School Master shook his head. "The Token cannot help you now. To use it to find them would only seal what's been done."
    "But the writings say..."
    "Valance," Lord Whiting interrupted.
    Lord Valance turned. Lord Whiting pushed open the false door in the back of the room revealing the passageway.
    Several sets of foot prints marked a trail in the dust covered stone floor.
    Lord Valance hurried to his feet and rushed to the back of the room, knocking over a shattered table in his haste. He stopped himself with the stone wall surrounding the passageway and turned back to the school master.
    "What is this?"
    Lord Barnus stepped into the room. "Valance, the Soldiers reported a man and two children running from the outer wall."
    "There is one way and one way only. Bring back the swords!" The School Master shouted.
    Valance eyed his old master. Then turned to Barnus.
    "Bind his wounds. Keep the soldiers here. Whiting and I'll go after the man and children."
    He motioned for Whiting to follow him as he charged down the passageway. Lord Barnus, alone with the school master, climbed over the debris and stood over him.
    "Lets just say, I don't share Valance's affection for the past."
    He pulled his overcoat back over the hilt of his sword and drew the dark blade.

    -

    Lord Valance and Lord Whiting raced down the dark stone passage way. The tunnel turned sharply before ending at a large stone door. They pushed it open and found themselves on the outside of the outer wall of the school. The grassy pasture rose up into gently rolling hills to the south.
    On the top of one of those hills. Nemic, carrying a wooden chest, paused in his flight to look back at them. Lord Valance smiled. Upon seeing them, Nemic took off at a full sprint.

    -

    Nemic ran to the edge of the cliffs and looked down over the edge at the sea below. A blur of panicked thoughts raced through his mind. What were his options? What should he do? He'd been fortunate enough to elude them this long. But how much longer could he count on his luck? Should he continue running along the coast to the west? Could he evade them? Or would he just end up putting the Token in their hands? Could he risk that? Even at the expense of his own survival?
    He opened the small wooden chest and took out the tightly wrapped bundle inside. As he unwrapped it, fold by fold, a soft, pale glow cast beams of reddish white light through the misty air.
    He pulled back the final fold and revealed the source of the glow. He had always thought that someday he might inherit the right to hold the Token, to see it with his own eyes. But now, under these circumstances, the impact of seeing it horrified him. It meant the previous Keeper of the Token was dead.
    He stared at the perfect beauty of its carved form, resembling a shrunken tree with a ball of roots at its base and a slender bird wrapped around its trunk. He had never known what it looked like, only its function and importance. And now, he would've given anything to have this honor, seeing it first hand, take from him. Everything about his possession of it meant that something had gone wrong.
    The clomping of horses in full gallop peaked above the roar of the sea below. Nemic turned abruptly.
    A tight pack of black horses raced across the black rock of the cliffs towards him. The men on the horses held their swords above their heads ready to strike.
    The blood drained from his face. His time was up. There would be no escape.
    He turned back to the ocean and held up the figurine in front of him.