Eden Legacy Read online

  Font of Beginnings

  Thomas felt like a mixture of a madman and a giddy child as he paced about his room collecting his finest jewelry and robes to bring with him on his journey. The young king of Havilah was embarking on a quest to find his future queen and wanted to make sure he would make the best impression on the kingdoms he visited.

  First his small fleet of ships would sail to Cush, a poor country with a worn and diminished king but he had heard great stories its princess’s beauty. After spending a few days in Cush he would lift anchor and sail to the Tigris River where he would dock and investigate the glorious three princesses of Assyria. He had been assured by Pine, Juniper and Cypress that, here, he would find his queen.

  After spending a week being pampered in Assyria they would load up and cast their sails, sailing to the Euphrates River where they would fish for the many bizarre creatures there. The Euphrates River wound beside the kingdom of Vane, but Thomas had no interest in the princesses there.

  Little was known of Vane’s people but they were rumored to be deformed and demented of mind. No one from Havilah, Cush or Assyria ever ventured into the land but there was great fishing to be had in the Euphrates’ waters, which were avoided and unused by the people of Vane.

  Finally King Thomas would come home on his own kingdom’s river, the Pishon, where he would make one last stop.

  On the far outskirts of Havilah there was a small cottage where a man, a woman and their daughter lived. Thomas’s father had been a close friend of this family of his subjects for many years. Thomas didn’t know why this close relationship had come to be. But when his father was on his deathbed, Thomas had promised him he would consider this family’s daughter to be his bride.

  The court of lords was up in arms at the idea that he would choose a commoner as his queen but he would at least meet the girl and honor his father’s request.

  “Hurry, sire!” Pine’s voice beckoned him from the hallway beyond his door. “We must leave soon on our journey if we are to reach Cush by tomorrow’s midday!”

  Thomas grabbed his ornate traveling bag and stuffed a few more robes inside. He placed a roll of parchment within it along with containers of multicolored staining ink and a small bamboo writing wand. “This will have to do.” He sighed, nervous that he had forgotten something he would later need.

  With a yank on the bag’s drawstrings he closed it up before sealing it with a knot. “Pine!” He called out his room into the hallway. “Come and bring my bag to the ship for me!”

  The husky strong Pine stepped into Thomas’s room and tossed the king’s heavy bag over his back as if it were only filled with feathers. “Are you anxious yet, sire?” he asked while leaving the room. “You may soon meet your queen!”

  Thomas grinned. Whoever she was, he had longed to know her; it seemed, since the day he was born. He looked around his room at the strands of gold that trickled like lace down his walls. He looked at the rubies and sapphires in his shimmering golden crown before he pulled it snug upon his head. Havilah had more riches than any kingdom in any land he had heard of, and he as its ruler, was the wealthiest man in the world.

  But all wealth is nothing without a beautiful soul to share it with by your side, he thought. Once she is with me certainly the beauties of the world will open their magic to me in all aspects of life. What will she look like? he wondered. Surely her beauty will rival her mind.

  The young king had yearned for a strong-minded girl to have by his side for some time now. He also couldn’t deny his desire to pull a supple girl’s body close to his.

  He left his room in a stride of confidence. He would leave his castle and his country and when he returned he would know his future bride.

  As Thomas stepped into the hall his soft shoes passed with whispers on a majestic ruby floor. He weaved in and out of Castle Ah’s many hallways and down a series of stairwells into the main hall. All of the floors in the hallways of Castle Ah were made of pure ruby, mined from the caves dotting Havilah’s landscape. The veins of Castle Ah exuberated Havilah’s wealth. A team of cleaners polished them day in and out.

  Diamond chandeliers twinkled as they hung high above the main hall’s ruby floor as Thomas stepped into it, reflecting the sunlight shimmering in from the crystal ceiling above. His subjects came and went freely, often times leaving gifts of admiration for their young king on the stairs leading to a well in the center of the room. There was one more thing Thomas had to attend to before leaving on his quest. On one of the stairs to the well he had placed the figs he had collected from the far away land almost a month ago.

  He walked to them and lifted one of the fruits in his hand. A surge of power swept through his arm. The fig’s fleshy skin sent shivers through his back and neck. “Why hasn’t it rotted or aged?” he spoke to himself.

  “A good question, my sire!” A raspy woman’s voice came from behind him.

  He turned to find his personal Pan, or as some called her, ‘Mystic’, bent over her cane close to his side. Saliva trickled from her lips.

  “Dora!” Thomas jumped, startled by her presence. “Why would this be?”

  The wrinkled old woman grinned her cracked smile. “I have been thinking over this for weeks now. There is a religious sect in our kingdom which tells a tale that I believe could explain this.”

  “What religion?” Thomas placed the fig back in its bowl.

  “The Hebrews.” Dora’s eyes twitched.

  Thomas knew that the Hebrew religion was practiced, among others in Havilah. He knew little of their beliefs but had desired to research all the religions of his land when he had the free time to do so. “What does their tale say?” He began pacing with Dora by his side through the hall.

  “It is a long story, and I need not trouble you with its entirety now, sire, but suffice it to say that it is the story of their God’s creation of mankind and of humanity’s rejection from their creator.” Pan Dora’s smiled wickedly as she grinned behind Thomas’s sight. She cracked her deformed knuckles as she talked. “But in the Hebrews’ tale they speak of two eternal trees, the ‘Tree of Knowledge’ and the ‘Tree of Life.’

  “The Tree of Knowledge produced a fruit which, when eaten, gave mankind understanding of many things in the world and injected humanity with the knowledge of, and desire, for sin. It is rumored that the fruit of this tree was apple.

  “The Tree of Life produced a fruit that gave the first humans the ability to live forever without disease or injury. When their God discovered that humanity had eaten from the Tree of Knowledge he banished them from living near or ever eating from the Tree of Life again.”

  Thomas turned and held Dora’s stare. “What fruit did the tree of life bear?”

  “No-one knows.” She picked a fig up and held it in her palm. The veins in her arms danced and quickened pulse.

  “Fig?” Thomas took the fruit from her grasp and felt the swift energy he had felt before surging through his arm. “If it is true, do you know what diseases we could cure for my subjects? The pealed skin from one of these figs could be what rids this land of leprosy.”

  “Sire!” Dora gasped while clenching her bony hand on the king’s arm. “Think of yourself! You could live forever! What greater blessing could this land ask for than to be forever ruled by the glory which is you?”

  “You flatter me.” Thomas shivered and moved away from her. “I would never wish for such a thing and curing my people of disease would be much more fulfilling.” He set the fleshy fig back in its place and left Dora staring at his back as he made his way to the entranceway of the throne room.

  His hand caressed the open oak doorway as he stared out into morning’s sunlight glinting off the Pishon River in the distance. “Dora!” he called behind him back into the hall.

  “Yes, my sire!”

  “While I am away, speak with the Hebrews and try to learn more of these trees and their fruits. I may put the figs to use when I return.”

  “As you wish.” Her voice was l
ike a whisper.

  5