Crusaders Part 9

Present

"Oh my God! You are the one who was there. It been like ...." I was awed by the Priest who still remember me after all these years.

"Twelve years is a short time for me. But the better memories I retain to further my works for the Church." Then priest lie back on his bedding and smile. "In addition to the girl, I have also brought in more to my house but only she was to be a servant like me. There is a secret which I would shared with you, she was with a child but we destroyed it while it was in her. The old lady has many herbs for many ailments."

"But what did happened after then? You have aged and yet its not your time." I took hold of the priest's hand and I can feel it tremble. "Why do you tremble, my dear friend?"

The priest cry again and turned his face away from me.

"Don't make me recount those years. If not for my personal belief in the faith, I would had joined the dead in Hell, as a sinner."

I pat the priest on the shoulder.

"Rest my fellow brethren. No harm shall come to you here." I took my leave of the priest as he lies facing away from me. When I got up from the bedding, I chanced my view of the man who stood by the doorway. "Father Sebastian, please step in."

But he declined my offer. "Could we talk elsewhere? He needs to rest."

We meet at the deck and the priest was kind to offer me a small jug of wine which he took from my quarter.

"A good wine and the time drink so we would be stupor during the storm." We both took our swig on the jug and soon we were sitting on the deck. " I would tell you about the fate that befall Father Rudy. The Church has a long history over which time it has changed in many ways, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. We stand to protest against some of the wrong things they believed the Church believed and done some things differently to what Protestants believe the Bible has instructed. It resulted in Catholics believing what certain individuals and traditions have said, rather than what God has said through the Bible."

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Five years ago

"Its heresy what you said. Repent your ways and returned to the right way." The pain is excruciating yet the man who used to don the flock held onto his stretched limbs and begged for mercy in his own whisper.

"He won't talk. If I pulled another turn, he may just die. Not many has come this far and lived." The Inquisitor speaks the truth for he's done many of these.

"Release him and throw him to the dungeons. Bring me another." The priest was released from the rack and dragged by his feet to the dungeon. They left him there with three others. Its a small cell but its not crowded as many who leave here never come back. One of the three who shared the cell came forth to hold the frail man who just joined them. He offered the tortured man a drink and move his body to a comfortable position.

"Father, speak to me. How much have you hold onto?" The man cradled the injured man.

"Do...not.... betray...your faith." The tortured man slipped into unconsciousness.

Three weeks later, the injured man was able to sit up on his bedding. His body is still in pain but there is work to be done. The man tried to stand up but he finds his legs failing him. He tried to feel his limbs but all he does is feel is pain. He calls out but no one is listening. He sat there and cried out more times but still no one came. He reached for table nearby but he could not reached it. He ended falling on the floor and this time he laid there not moving. It was not another hour before he was found by the others. By then his body reeks of urine and dirt.

The priest soon find himself able to walked by himself in a months time, and it was not for a year before he was reading the Bible again. He started his preaching again but in the far away lands far from the Catholic Churches. He ran before they could catch him and he ran faster then before. Its was like God is sheltering him from the pursuers.

Then last weel the younger priest came to see him; "We have seek passage to the New World. We would escape when the time is right. Be prepared, Father Rudy."

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Present

"Move your butts, Gentlemen." We were kicked by the sailors from our stupor. As we got up, we looked over the railing to see the sights that no man should be allowed to see. Its a sea of serpents and they are big ones who swims in the sea. "God help us."