Dawn of the Dreamsmith (The Raven's Tale Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

fears.
    Cole didn’t reply. For a few moments they walked again in silence, the young man staring at the flagstones, lost in his thoughts. Merryl decided to change the subject. “He was a student of mine, you know.”
    Cole glanced up, his interest piqued. He had not heard this before. “The Archon?”
    Brother Merryl nodded. “As a novice he was bright . Gifted, even. Inquisitive. For him, it wasn’t enough to know that something happened. He wanted to know why. How. He was also impetuous, impatient. Hot-headed and argumentative. He always believed that he was right. Most often, he was.” Brother Merryl stopped walking, and raised his eyebrows. “You remind me a lot of him, Cole.”
    The boy smiled awkwardly. “I’m sure I don’t know to what you refer, Brother.”
    They resumed the walk back to the Hall of Novices. “So, what happened?” Cole asked eventually.
    “Happened?”
    “Well, if Elder Tobias is anything to go by, hot-headed know-it-alls do not rise up to the higher echelons of the Order, no matter how gifted.”
    “True. Shortly before he was due to graduate and don his Brotherly robes, he left Stelys. We found a note in his sleeping cell, which said little other than that he believed he had found something of importance, far from here.” Merryl clucked his tongue. “Impulsive, as always. Shortly before he disappeared, he had cloistered himself within the Deep Archive, researching goodness knows what. We could only assume that while there he made a discovery that others had missed. Or believed he had, anyway. After nearly two years, he returned.”
    “Did he explain where he had been all that time?”
    Brother Merryl shook his head. “Not a word. But he came back a changed man, no longer the foolhardy boy we had last seen.”
    Cole frowned. “Changed how?”
    “More serious, driven. It was difficult at first to reconcile the man who arrived with the rebellious youth that had left us. He returned with a vision for the Order, said that it was imperative that we evolve, for the good of the realm. He graduated with haste, and rose quickly. I would never have believed it possible, had I not witnessed it myself. As he gained seniority, he was able to enact his vision. The Divine was gone, he told us, if He had ever even existed. If any other had spoken so, he would have been expelled, cast out. But he spoke with such conviction.” Merryl sighed. “He gained followers, those with whom his message of mankind’s supremacy struck a chord. It shook the church to its foundations.”
    “You’re talking of the Great Schism, Brother?”
    “A dark time,” Merryl agreed. “A bloodless civil war that lasted a decade. By then an elder, his support grew until it became the majority. Eventually, every church and shrine stood empty and he took on the mantle of Archon of the new Order of Enlightenment. Over time, all who remained fell into line with the new way. It was better than the alternative.” He grimaced. “Perhaps it was not so very different. We were still preachers, of a kind. But now the word we spread spoke of the need to progress, to advance the species. To elevate mankind above all.”
    “What did the common folk think of this? Was there no opposition to what was taking place?”
    Merryl did not answer immediately. “At first we thought there would be an outcry,” he said after a pause. “But our fears were unfounded. Ours is a hard land, our people lead lives of strife and struggle. After a lifetime of having their prayers go unanswered, belief in the Divine was not as strong as it once had been. Oh,” he went on, “I’ve no doubt the pious continue to worship in hidden corners away from prying eyes, but they are not so many as you would think. Many seized upon the knowledge we offered, using it to make tangible improvements to their lives. Others ignore us just as they ignored the sermons that came before. For them, life goes on as it always did. One preacher in robes is much like