The Last Summoning---Andrew and the Quest of Orion's Belt (Book Four) by Ivory Autumn Page A

Andrew ordered, his voice thick
with anger. Sweat gleamed on his forehead, causing his hair to
stick to his face. His eyes were filled with indignation, and his
hands shook as he held the sword. Croffin and Freddie stood by him.
Fear and uncertainty shone on their faces.
    Everyone looked to him, waiting, watching,
wondering.
    The silence was heavy, as the heat beating
down on the crowd, pressuring him to speak. He looked into the
faces of the people. Most of their eyes showed fear; and some
looked angry. But mostly there was fear.
    He held the sword high, and looked to the
soldiers. “I and my friends are strangers to this village, so do
not take your anger out on these people. We have not taken of your
supplies, so we are not bound by the same promise. However,
regardless of the dire circumstances of this village, I can no
longer sit silently by and watch as they hand in their weapons
without giving a word of caution. Oh, good villagers, if you give
up your weapons today, you will have given up your last means of
defense. Don’t you see that you must not give in! For on the day
that you do, you lose your last means of independence and you may
never get it back again!”
    The people cried out in angry shouts,
swelling with fear and worry, that the soldiers might think them of
the same mind as Andrew.
    “Please! Listen!” Andrew cried above the
angry crowd. “I’ve been sent here to warn you that if you do not
take a stand while there is still time, it will be too late. If you
let The Fallen rule over you, you will become a fallen people. Do
you not see, if you do not awake, and listen while there is still a
little time left, while there is still hope left, you may not be
able to take back what you have so foolishly given away for a
morsel of bread.”
    “But we have no choice!” the crowd cried.
    “I know,” Andrew said. “That is why I am
here. To give you a choice, where there was none.”
    “Lies!” The soldiers shouted, trying to sway
the crowd. “Silence these traitors! Those who rule you have only
wanted what is best for the people. They have always given the
people their freedom, and protection, and security.”
    “You are not FREE!” Andrew shouted, his voice
strong and powerful. “Have you have forgotten so quickly?”
    “Free?” A soldier barked, turning to the
crowd and lifting up his hands in reassurance. “You have been
always free. Your rulers have always seen to it that you have been
free from fear, free from war, free from ignorance, free from
poverty, and even now he has sent this wagon full of food and
water, so that you will be free from hunger! This boy is a
conspirator trying to divide the people against their own
rulers!”
    “No!” Andrew shouted, his voice filled with
emotion. “You are not FREE! Even a master of slaves provides food
for those who serve him. For you have sold yourselves into bondage,
and willingly, at the price of your firstborn, and the promises of
a better future. Look at yourselves. You have believed in a lie, a
great lie that has covered the world and shrouded even the sharpest
of minds with vain promises, and cheap indulgences. Do you not
remember what it was like, not so long ago? The days when you kept
what you earned, in the days when you were free to do as you sought
fit for yourselves? Do you not remember the days when speaking your
mind was not a crime? Do you not remember what it was like to be
really free? You may have gained a crust of bread, or water today,
but for what? To prolong a life of captivity?”
    “We are free, you idiot!” A man shouted,
trying to pull Andrew off the wagon. “We are alive. And that is
what matters!”
    “Kill them!” The guards shouted. “They speak
against their sovereigns, and will pay with their lives.”
    Andrew didn’t seem to hear the guard, or the
angry shouts of the people. He quickly scanned the crowd for one
face, one hint of light. The only faces he saw were that of the
woman and child he had helped, and