CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
They rode the horses hard and steady, each day and in their five days of travel they managed to cover over seven hundred kilometres.
The last five days, since they left Palatka were the safest and easiest five days of travel since the day they had left Besten.
The horses were strong and they made good time. The few rests that they had along the way were enough rest for the horses, too.
Boyce was pleased that Pomperaque was soon within his grasp and Lloyd was pleased that Manguino would soon feel his death, like the common man that he is.
Ahead of them stretched the lush and friendly Joenine Forest.
Each man could still remember the glen from which Empal helped them escape to Virune, then on to Besten.
The beauty of Upper Phoride was just as Boyce had remembered it.
"I know my way from here!" he said to Lloyd as they slowly rode through the forest. "Shall we go to the entrance of the Blue Mansion's underground passage?"
"No!" Lloyd answered quickly. "It would not be safe and it may draw unnecessary attention to us."
"You are right." Boyce agreed. "We'll stop at Gothal for a while. I must see if the Abbey Mother from the Abbey of Our Holy Saint Mariot, is still alive."
"Is it wise to do so?" Lloyd questioned. "I mean, she may now be a spy for Manguino."
"Lloyd, she believes in the same God as we do. She always has and she dislikes Manguino.
Lloyd sighed and soberly warned Boyce. "You'd better be right, Boyce.
We've come too far to be stopped now."
They rode some more and near the late afternoon of their fifth day out from Palatka, the two men spotted Gothal and its main, and most majestic monastery, the Abbey of Our Holy Saint Mariot.
It rose out of the ground like a living being. A refuge across the crystal River Clains, that crossed their path before them.
"There must have been rains here, recently." noted Lloyd. "The river has swelled some and is moving faster!"
"It's so lovely this way." was all that Boyce care to respond.
"That it is!"
They rode towards the river and slowly proceeded to cross it.
They were on the other side of the river and there they briefly stopped to take-in the beauty of their surroundings.
Suddenly, the horses beneath them were frightened and they bucked, without warning, and several men came out of nowhere, and proceeded to beat on Lloyd and Boyce.
In a nearby tree, was a crow, as dark as midnight, and it squawked and cawed when the men got to the other side of the river, and it watched the other men attack.
In frenzied excitement it eyed the struggle that took place at the river's edge, and its shrieks were echoing throughout the entire forest.
Caught unawares, and while weakened by their journey, the ambushers knocked both men unconscious and took all of their possessions, including their two horses, and their clothes. The left them both naked, lying unconscious and bleeding, half in the water and half on the river's bank.
The crow left the tree and went to where the two men were sprawled. It crowed and flapped its wings around Boyce's head, and began to tug at his hair with its shiny beak. Some bloodied hair hung from the crow's beak, but there was no movement from Boyce.
They lay in the water for some time until several women came walking along the river from Pomperaque, leading a cow.
The women were members of the Abbey. Three were abbey sisters, the full nuns, and with them walked two novices.
They were discussing the good fortune of their being gifted a cow by the Prominent, Miel, in the market that very morning. Then they heard the frantic crowing and one of the novices looked for the origin of the noise and saw Lloyd and Boyce, motionless at the river's edge.
She ran to the bodies and turned one over onto its back. Her eyes opened wide and she could not believe the beauty of this young, but badly injured man. She checked his body for broken bones and severe cuts. She did the same with the other body, taking the same care inspecting it until the other novice and the three nuns came to help her.
She returned to the gentle handsome man, the younger of the two. She put her ear against his muscular chest and sighed with relief when she heard his heart beating.
"This one is still alive!" she said as if relieved.
"This one, as well!" the others confirmed about Lloyd.
The pretty novice ripped her plain white dress and wet it in the river then wiped the young man's cuts and bruises.
He stirred but never came to.
The other novice ripped her dress, too, and rendered care to the other man. The third nun looked around, keeping a vigil in the event that those that did this to these two men might return and inflict further harm upon all of them. She held onto the rope that was tied around the cow's neck.
"We have to take these men back to the Abbey, my children!" the first nun told them.
The other non-avowed, with her big beautiful eyes, questioned the safety of doing such a thing but the nuns accepted taking the men back to Gothal.
The crow was still hopping around Boyce's body but the young novice didn't chase it away. She helped the other four women lift the men onto the cow and they took them back to the Abbey, inside of Gothal.