Jerome kept looking at Damianos in astonishment for he expected the old man to put some words of wisdom into the mind of his friend, but alas, he was the one who was encouraging him to take a plunge into the depths of fire.Even though Morpheous was determined, even though he was a.s.sertive about his choice, he still had that tinge of worry in heart for his sister Eva. He looked at Jerome and said,
"You stay here until I ask you to come out. Let me try to reason with them first. And in case ..."
"In case what Morpheous?" asked Jerome.
"In case something bad happens, then take all the men from the village and go to..."
Before he could complete his sentence, he saw Nicholas coming running towards them. He was panting for breath. He wanted to walk along with them but there were still a few people with burn injuries who needed his help near the pond. Torn between what he wanted to do and what he ought to do, he decided to stay back and help them.
Taking a queue from them, he also hid behind a tree as fast as he could and rested his head on the trunk for a while.
"Why are you here?" asked Morpheous.
"I am here to help you out," said Nicholas and lifted his robe to show a long dagger wrapped in a leather parchment.
"But you are from the kingdom. Why will you help us out?", enquired Jerome with non-polite aggression to which Damianos cornered his eyes.
"I have seen what you people have been through and in no way this is fair. So let me be the person who goes ahead and talks with them. Some of them would know me as I am the royal horse-keeper. I will try to persuade them..."
"There is no time Nicholas, they have already moved towards the croplands which were unaffected by the fire. If destroyed, then we have no means of survival," spoke a restless Morpheous.
"Then come along with me. We will try to talk with them together and if the worse happens... we will see what we can do," said Nicholas and took out a lavender-colored flower from his pouch, and continued, "Crush this in your palm and inhale it. It will help us against the coal dust ball, in case you happen to use it."
Morpheous looked at Damianos who was a bit skeptical about this recent development. But there was no time to spare. So Morpheous immediately took that flower and crushed it in his palm and inhaled it. It was an utterly pungent-smelling flower. The smell was so hideous that it was like an unbearable stench. It was a rare species of Foxglove flower which grew only along the foothills of the kingdom.
As he inhaled the crushed flower a hint of guilt spread on the face of Nicholas for he hadn"t given a remedy for suffocation against the coal dust, instead he had given a silent poison that would slowly affect his circulatory system. Had it not been a task given by Balthazaar, Nicholas would have never dared to poison the man who was nothing but a benevolent soul.
"I am definitely going to h.e.l.l," thought Nicholas and took a deep breath, for he momentarily felt a pang of overbearing guilt burdening his heart.
Crinkling his nose for a moment, Morpheous looked at Nicholas and asked, "What about you? Aren"t you going to inhale one?"
To which Nicholas took a deep breath and replied, "I just had one, and I thought you should be the one to use it."
Morpheous was moved by his gesture and so was Damianos. He looked at Nicholas and said, "Ambracia will remember this sacrifice of yours."
"Follow me now."
To which Nicholas silently obeyed and started walking behind him. They were hardly four to five meters away from the cropland area when a soldier spotted them.
He screamed at his fellow archers.
"Aim."
Morpheous immediately raised his hands up in the air indicating his submission, as he first wanted to talk with them. Seeing Morpheous raising his arms, Nicholas also followed suit and walked towards the soldier who was giving the command.
"Halt!" ordered the soldier, seeing that the approaching men were already in a submissive mode.
Before Morpheous could start speaking, Nicholas said,
"Do not harm us. I am from the kingdom." and he lifted his robe slightly with one hand to show the dagger. The hilt of the dagger was ornated with the symbol of Nubia and it was evident that it had been forged in the royal armory. Seeing that the head soldier relaxed his tone a bit and asked,
"Who are you and why do you dare to interrupt us in our mission?"
"We are not here to interrupt," said Nicholas and then continued, "We are here just to express a humble request. I am the royal horse keeper at the kingdom."
"Speak !!!" ordered the soldier.
Nicholas hesitated a bit but Morpheous gave him a gentle nod and thus he continued,
"You have already dug up the burnt cropland area in search of the ingot and now you are moving to the areas which were not affected by yesterday"s fire. But these remaining croplands are the only source of food and money that the men from this village have."
"So?" asked the soldier with an irritated tone.
"So we are here to request you to wait just a couple of days, till they can harvest it. After that, you can dig up the land and search for the ingot."
"Hmm...fine you may leave now", mumbled the soldier.
"So you are going to leave the croplands intact?", asked a beaming Nicholas as he couldn"t believe that he was able to persuade them so easily.
"Leave the croplands it seems !!!" chuckled the soldier and then he drew his sword out from his scabbard and looking at them which his murderous eyes he said,
"Look at my sword you fool. Does it look like I am going to leave the croplands? I am not returning back to the kingdom unless I have that ingot in my hands. I do not care if I have to destroy every inch of land that you have."
His threatening voice echoed in the field.
Nicholas was rattled in fear seeing the sword in his hands but Morpheous on the other hand burned in rage. Drinking up the insult that was thrown on his face, he said,
"Then you shall never go back to the Kindom."