The Barren Land
The Shepherd, Book I
A Novel by Jeffrey B. Linn
All Rights Reserved

Chapter XIV

"The dragon moved to recreate the world in his image," mentor continued. "He instructed that the Palace library be burned, including the Code of the Maker King, records of ownership, laws, proceedings, calendars marking seasons and festivals, any memory of Archon. He banished the royal family, save Archegos, and cast all of the Palace furnishings, the thrones, the tapestries, utensils; everything, into the flames. He then imported unspeakable things to populate his chambers. He even presided at the Seat of Judgment, deciding cases according to a diseased caprice.

But one day, some months after, he was confronted by a most unusual supplicant. He could not at first discern how one of such low birth had gained admission to the Hall. Beneath him on the pavement stood a common shepherd."

"What business hast thee, small one?" queried the dragon.

"I have come to settle a debt," answered the shepherd.

"Am I to be counting ewes!" the dragon hissed.

"In king's blood."

"Oh, my! A grave assignment. But have you brought a king with you!" he bellowed.

"Myself, heir of the Maker King."

"Then, madman, why are you dressed as a shepherd?"

"I am the Shepherd, who conducts all who come to me from this broken world to the new one."

At this the dragon blanched, but briefly. Then, turning to his cohort, said, "I will grant this madman's wish. Escort him to the city gate and impale him on it." He reasoned that a dead man cannot reclaim a crown. So the Shepherd was deprived of life, and hung there some days.

But one morning, however, the dragon had a ghastly shock, for the first litigant to approach the Seat was the same Shepherd.

"I have come to proclaim a debt paid in full," he announced to the dragon.

At this all assembled noted a loud cracking sound and the Crown of Authority slipped from the dragon's brow and shattered on the stone floor . The dragon stooped and grasped for the scattered pieces. "You will cling to those shards," said the Shepherd, "until I return to dust them off!"

"As for your crown," he said, turning to Archegos on the lower throne, "you are senteced to wear it, knowing the consequences of evil without discerning its remedy. Unless, perhaps, you come to me." Then he drew another crown from within his cloak. "And see what I have found. I have purchased this Crown of Fellowship with my blood. Henceforth it abides within me, that anyone who comes to me may know both the Maker King and his heir." The Shepherd then departed.

"The city is now draped in ash, a sepulcher peopled with enslaved spirits. Lacking lawful authority, the dragon employs sorcery to control whomever he would. Archegos stole away by night, and some say he later erected a fortress of granite in the western hills."

"Therefore, we know that nothing in this waste can prevail against the Name of the Shepherd. There is no valid power here save his."

The gatekeeper stepped back into the light. Then, with evident contempt he shouted, "Phantom, by the Shepherd, away!"

All eyes were drawn to the heavens, where we observed but the pleasant cerulean of a wholesome twilight. The shadow was gone. At that instant I knew the power of the Name, and all fear of His prophecy to me with that darkness went.

THE END

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