Temple Sword

Chapter 2
Spring 1292
塞浦路斯
-
The roar of the sea calmed the scarred knight. He frowned and looked at the dock not far away. Three sloops were moored in the port, with red crosses printed on their sails.

Servants and longshoremen scurry by the ship, meticulously preparing the ship for the months-long voyage that follows: they load water, food, clothing, hay, weapons, and spices up the gangway.

William Barto harnessed his horse with skillful movements, and each time he harnessed him, he whispered sweet words in its ear as if begging its forgiveness.

Before he rode off to the port, he glanced back at his humble manor, with its lower hall, and the plants dancing in the breeze, which he might never see again in his life, and which he would Leave this land forever.

"How can I keep you here, my lord?" the white-haired servant who came to him asked sadly, "What would we do without you?"

William didn't answer, but just smiled encouragingly at the old servant, and grabbed the old man's shoulders. He didn't want to stay longer even for a day.

A strange feeling came over him as he recalled his childhood longing for the Holy Land.

He left his hometown, left behind the past and entered a new world to start a new life when he was only 15 years old.As he grows into a squire and then a knight, he has lived through wonders and horrors of all kinds.

As a knight, he traveled almost every corner of the Holy Land.He fought, made and lost friends.His own family got the Bartow name long before he, his father, grandfather, and even great-grandfather.

He knew many terrible and terrifying things, and those memories seemed as clear as yesterday.His eyes darkened and a lump formed in his throat, but only for a moment.

"This shouldn't be like this, Master Barto." The old servant asked, "Why do you have to go?"

"We have lost the Holy Land forever, Maritius," William said gloomily, "we have defiled it, we have ravaged it, we have distorted it.

Well now, we have been punished for this and we deserved it.The war is over, Acre has fallen, the Mamluks will soon drive us all back to the west, the holy war has been lost..."

"Thhibaud Gaudin said it's not over yet," Maritis countered. "According to what the head of the group said, we can still regain the lost ground."

Thibaud Gaudin is old and cowardly, William said to himself, and immediately blamed himself for thinking.Going home is his own decision, just like his decision to come to the East, if he made a wrong choice, then he can only blame himself, not others.

"See those three sailing ships, Maritius?" He pointed to the harbor below and the sloop bobbing on the water, "Priest, knight, squire, rider, servant... we'll all be home soon .Even if they don't leave now, they will go back next month, or next month.

Even the head of the group realized that he and we can do nothing here, otherwise why would he sell the island to Lusignan? William squeezed the loyal servant's hand, then pulled him closer, and hugged him tightly.

"Take care of yourself!" He patted him on the shoulder again, then turned and mounted the horse.

"My lord!" Maritis asked behind him, "do you think the Lord has abandoned his earthly kingdom?"

"Master?" William looked into the tired and sad eyes of the old servant, "Which master?"

As he spoke, he whipped his horse and whipped his horse, without looking back.
-
—

1292, St. Jacob's Day (July 7)

Serdahli, Hungary
-
The Hungarian summer was dry and hot this year, and the inhabitants of Serdahli felt like a loaf of bread in an oven, but William Barto dismissed the onslaught of the sun's rays, and he knew what was real Hot, he knew what it was like to live where it rained every forty days.

For him, the Hungarian heat was just a touch of mildness.He stretched out in the saddle and took a big breath to smell the smell of home. The smell of Zelda Heli was very sweet. He had never smelled such a scent in the air since he was a child. He was used to it. salty.

The taste here is completely different from the east, William took another deep breath as he thought this, the sun's rays shone on his head again, but he just squinted his eyes in enjoyment.

But William Barto didn't care too much about the weather, after 23 years away and nearly five months of travelling, he didn't even care that his horse had mud up his neck on the journey home, what matters It is he who is back.

He hadn't seen his sister Esther for 23 years. In William's memory, she was still an innocent and pure girl.

She was eight years younger than him, and Esther, seven, was betrothed to a boy named Vader while William was traveling to the Holy Land in the East. Neither of them had a choice: their father died in the Eighth Crusade, and The mother wants to give them both the best life.

So the mother married Esther into a noble family and sent William to the Holy Land to manage what was left of his father's estate.But she herself fell ill, and her mother died of tuberculosis before William reached the shores of Messina.

As William gets closer to the last of his surviving family members, his heart starts pounding too.The only thing that worries him is this dilapidated shed, which is the most pitiful place he has ever seen.

He had arrived in Zelda Heli two days ago, but after riding happily into the family estate, he found that it was full of strangers' faces, and he had no idea who his sister and brother-in-law were.Forced to spend the night in a hotel, he collapsed into an uncomfortable bed in rage and anxiety.

He didn't know until the next day that his sister had a difficult family life and had sold the estate years earlier.They hid in a small hut that could not withstand any wind in Zelda Heli.

William dismounted, tied the horse to the trunk of a dead tree, and walked hesitantly towards the door.A crumbling wooden door creaked at the entrance, and a silent darkness shrouded the inside.

"Esther?" he asked hoarsely as he knocked on the door. "Is anyone there?"

A deep grunt answered him, but then fell silent again.William opened the door cautiously, and then a stench came directly to his face, he immediately covered his mouth with his hand, frowning and moved on.

The hut smelled so disgusting of excrement, urine and vomit that William couldn't believe his sister lived in such filth.

"Esther!" he yelled in despair, but this time there was no response.

His eyes slowly adapted to the darkness, and he saw a man sleeping soundly beside him, lying on an old wooden box with his hands and feet hanging in the air, with an empty wine bottle on his chest.

He was dressed in tattered clothes, his hair was knotted and glued to his scalp, and his beard was unkempt and dirty.Although it was already afternoon in his heart, the alcoholic was still in a deep drunken dream.

Suddenly, there was a faint rattling sound behind him.William turned and reached for the sword at his waist, but his body immediately relaxed when he saw the source of the sound.

A three or four-year-old boy was playing with some pots in the corner. William's heart skipped a beat, and he leaned closer to the child and bent down.

"What's your name, little one?" He asked softly in the gentlest voice he could, not to frighten the boy, who was probably his nephew.

The child stared at him with large brown eyes, and the corners of his mouth were drawn down, as if not wanting to appear intimidated by strangers.He didn't say anything, just clutched the basin tightly with his dirty little hands, which filled William's heart with pity.

"Tell me," he leaned closer, "is that your father?"

The boy nodded, but no sound came out of his throat. He looked at the man in front of him curiously, at the clothes made of iron chains from his hands to his feet, at the clothes he was wearing Looking at the heavy cloak and the fiery red cross pattern on his chest, he looked at the dagger and long sword hanging on his waist.

The stranger's hair was long and dark, and his thick, trim beard gleamed with sweat, and the boy was so captivated by him that he was sure he was seeing an angel.

But he is also very scared, because he looks huge and powerful, and he seems to be able to kill himself with a single finger.But his eyes shone benevolently, despite the horrific scar on the left side of his cheek.

"Can you tell me where your mother is?" William asked.

The little boy stretched out his hand silently, and he pointed to the far end of the hut, where there was only a doorway covered by a tattered shroud.

William straightened up, walked to the door opening, pulled the shroud aside, then pushed away the wooden stool blocking the way, and looked outside the door opening.

Outside, an old walnut tree shaded an untended yard, at the base of which William saw a small mound and a simple wooden cross with a few dead flowers on the mound.

"No," he whispered to himself, his feet firmly planted in the ground, and he could not approach the grave, which he knew very well whose body was buried there. "No, that's...impossible...no!"

He shivered, and slowly, a shiver ran through his whole body.William felt like he couldn't breathe, his mind went numb, and the world revolved around him.

"Esther?" he muttered his sister's name, as if waiting for an answer, as if hearing it all was a misunderstanding, but no one answered him.

He finally took his heavy legs and approached the grave step by step. "Esther! Please forgive me for not being by your side, please forgive me for not taking good care of you!"

The next moment, the cold and numbness was replaced by something else, a ferocious, maddening rage.Helplessness and hatred erupted like a volcano in the depths of his soul. He pulled out the long sword from the scabbard hanging on his belt, and frantically began to chop the air around him.

William cast his gaze skyward and raised his weapon aloft as if to duel with God himself.

"How could you do this to me!?" He snarled, the blood vessels in his throat constricted, the veins on his neck popped, and he spattered like a mad dog. "I dedicate my life to you! Why? Why?!"

His legs gave way and he fell to his knees, but his eyes remained fixed on the sky.

"Is this what I deserve? Haven't I done enough for you!?" He continued to growl furiously, his stomach and throat clenched as if by icy hands. "Go to hell you, damn it!"

Finally, unable to bear the pain that tore his heart any longer, William fell on his sister's grave and fell into darkness.

(End of this chapter)