Kingdom's Dawn by Chuck Black Page A

answers overpowered any inhibition he might have once felt.
    â€œYou heard my father’s last words, and I think you know what they mean. Who are you, Gabrik?” The question was simple. Leinad knew that its answer would go far beyond that of “the blacksmith of Mankin.”
    Gabrik looked at Leinad, then turned to adjust some leather straps on his horse. There was an urgency in his movements that hadn’t been there earlier. The muscles rippled across his back.
    â€œI am a servant … a servant of the King. I am a messenger. I am a guardian.” He turned his head toward Leinad. “I am a Silent Warrior.” He finished his adjustments and turned squarely to face Leinad. “I have one remaining task, and my mission here will be complete, for a time. And yours will begin.”
    â€œMy father spoke of a promise. What is the promise?” Leinad asked, resolving not to let Gabrik leave him with unanswered questions. How he would stop this massive warrior from leaving was something he wasn’t sure how to accomplish.
    Gabrik walked to the opposite side of his horse and removed an object. “The search for the promise begins with this, Leinad.” Gabrik held forth the beautiful sword and scabbard Leinad and Peyton had seen in his blacksmith shop weeks earlier. “I was commissioned by the King to fashion it for you and deliver it today.” The sword was truly a work of mastery. Leinad responded with disbelief and did not feel worthy to accept it.
    â€œBut I … I can’t,” Leinad said. “I am unable to—”
    â€œYou have been chosen, Leinad. If you do not accept the sword and its mission, the restoration of Arrethtrae may never come.”
    I am but a boy
, Leinad thought.
I could not even save my father. Even with this magnificent sword, how can the King use the likes of me to bring restoration to the kingdom?
Leinad found a hundred reasons to refuse the sword and its mission, but one haunting truth would not let him: The King believed in him, and so did his father. Even if he failed, how could he deny such trust and honor?
    Leinad stared at the sword offered to him and wondered at its beauty and purpose. He slowly lifted his hands to receive it.
    â€œAs the King lives, I swear to give Him my life in service.”
    Gabrik placed the sword in his hands, and Leinad secured the sword and scabbard about his waist. Strangely, it strengthened his heart and his resolve. He looked once again into the penetrating eyes of the Silent Warrior.
    â€œWhat is the promise and where do I find it?”
    Gabrik shook his head. “That is something I cannot answer, for I do not know.”
    â€œThen tell me, Gabrik …” Leinad hesitated before asking his next question. “Who is my brother?”
    Gabrik paused, crossed his arms, and his gaze went to the ground. Leinad wondered what additional fabric of his life was about to be torn.
    â€œWe have urgent business to attend to, but you must know the answer to that question if you are to be prepared for what lies ahead. Before you were born, your mother gave birth to twin sons. Peyton raised them as he raisedyou. One son was a noble boy with a heart for the King. The other son, however, had a heart that would not be bridled, and his rebellious spirit directed him. His jealousy over his brother grew day by day. Your father loved them both, but all his efforts to turn the heart of the second son were met with contempt. One day, while in the fields away from your father, the second son’s anger and jealousy became so great that he killed his brother.”
    Leinad now understood the ache he had felt in his mother’s heart and the sense of failure he felt from his father from time to time. This was one of the lost pieces of the puzzle he had searched for regarding his own past.
    â€œWhat happened to the—” Leinad spoke words that felt unfamiliar—“to my other