A Bride for Jeshona Part 3

      Here is the last part of the prologue for my book, “A Bride for Jeshona” which you can access for a donation of any amount at www.envisionmission.org/media – just scroll down past the sermons and follow the same instructions as you would do donate and receive a code for any of the music on that page:

     He snarled and growled, but there were no words to express his anger.

     Then a single word came to his mind. “Defeat.” He refused it. “No, curse you! I hate you! I will not be defeated! I have nothing but hatred for you! Nothing but hatred!” He began to thrash at the air around him. He screamed in terrible anger and kept screaming wildly without ceasing. Then he began to lash out at everything around him. It was a chaotic dance like that of a rabid beast. He beat his fists against the walls blindly trying to kill whatever it was that had overtaken him. His fists started to bleed and his hands became bruised, so he began to kick his throne relentlessly until it fell to the floor.

      Then he stopped. He was about to cry helplessly, but restrained himself. Never. I refuse to lower myself to weakness. He calmed himself and focused his thoughts. What are you doing? Will you cry for help? Will you weep like a little child for its mother? “No!” he screamed. “I am Leviathan! I will not yield! My armies may be defeated, but I am still alive.” He began to speak in a devious whisper, his voice rising and falling as he paced about the room, clinching his fists with determination. “Gadlon cannot defeat me as long as I am alive. He has won this battle, but he has not won me! I am greater than he. No one, not even my teacher, can destroy me. I have surpassed him. The student surpasses his teacher! Yes, and I will destroy him.”

      He spoke madly as if someone else was there with him. “Ah, but I have lost my place in the kingdom. Gadlon will never forgive me…but what does it matter?! Adora will always be Gadlon’s kingdom, not mine. I have no place with him.

      “So I must retreat to the lowly region of Kosmon? To that desolate wasteland where only peasants and nomads dwell? Shall I lose my seat at the palace in Adora only to gain a throne over a desert wasteland full of common fools and criminals?” He smiled to himself. “If this is my lot then I shall take it and I will make it prosper in my hands.” His eyes grew wider. “I will build up a new army, apart from Gadlon. I will suck every resource out of the land and make it grow a thousand times over. I shall have my throne and attack Gadlon’s kingdom when my forces are strong again. I will have my victory! No one, not even Gadlon, can take it from me.”

      He clenched his dagger and pulled it from its sheath. As if it were the very weapon that would bring him his victory, he raised the dagger before his eyes. Then he nodded his head, fully assured. “They will know the name, Leviathan, from the least of them to the greatest. Even if my army is defeated in battle, the battle itself will be my victory, the very pleasure of it. I will summon my power from the depths if I must!” He laughed.

      The sound of horses’ hooves beating the earth from a great distance away caught the king’s attention. He knew it was his troops coming in from the battle. Upon hearing it, Leviathan quickly stormed out of his chamber. He ran down the hallway, through the next door and into one of the outside portals of the castle. There his eyes found one of his subjects, a girl, curled up in a naked corner of the room, weeping.

      “Servant!”

      The girl quickly found her composure at the sound of her lord’s voice. She stood up to face him, trembling in fear.

      “Stop your pathetic crying and go tell the kitchen servants to prepare dinner. Tell them that I will provide the meat.” He glanced down at the dagger he was holding and then back at the door from which he came. “I shall have the meat ready in about an hour.” He turned back to the servant. “Then we will eat. And we must pack our things quickly! After supper we must leave this place and go beyond the forest of Abussos to Kosmon. Do you understand me?!”

      “Yes, my lord,” she managed.

      “Then go you little wretch!”

      She fled quickly to do her master’s will.

      Leviathan smiled deviously. He turned and began walking back toward his chamber, still carrying his dagger in hand and licking his teeth anxiously.