THE TIDES OF TIME

- Chapter 34 -

Opening the heavy Church door proved easy for Jovan. Finding the place deserted and vacant, however, proved more than he could handle at first.

The cold wintery air cut through the heavy scent of ancient dust inside the church. The harsh dimmed light of the early morning hours did no justice to the lavish and colorful frescoes adorning the Church's walls all the way up to the ceiling. The place looked sad, lonely, and unkept for months. To Jovan, it seemed as if the characters depicted in the scenes covering the inside of the Church had come alive only to pity him. He felt wronged. He felt afflicted. He felt unnerved.

Had he been so wrong about it? About all of it? His gut feeling hadn't been wrong in the past - at least in anything not related to his best friend and the betrayal that caused him so much pain. But he could not move past the sickening feeling that he was wrong this time - and this was the time when being right mattered at the level of someone's life. Jagoda's life.

He swore. Loud. So loud that it stirred not only the dust around them but it also stirred Anil's depleting courage. Jovan looked back at Anil, sensing that the man took a step back, and was about to scold him, when he noticed Anil's eyes. There was no fear in them. There was... resignation masked by tears. Jovan turned back, in a heartbeat. And gasped in despair.

There she was...

His dear Jagoda, laying on the dust-covered and ice-cold ground...

In the shadow, enveloped by the darkness of the corner in the oldest part of the Church...

"Nooo!" Anil exclaimed and rushed inside even before Jovan could blink. He leaped toward Jagoda, exclaiming her name to high heavens.

And then, the room fell silent. Just as the silence had been disrupted by the sound of Anil's voice, it now was disrupted by the sound of Anil's lifeless body falling to the ground beside Jagoda's.

"Anil!" Jovan shouted and leaped toward his companion, only to stop less than a foot away from him because of the tip of a sword pointed at him.

"You shouldn't send a beggar on a warrior's mission," said a voice that raised Jovan's temper more effectively than the sight of Anil's body falling to the ground.

"You're one to talk," Jovan hissed through his teeth as he felt the tip of the sword against his neck.

"I find it amusing when men facing certain death pretend to be mad at their own misfortune," said the owner of the voice, standing in the shadow corner which hid his face.

"I find it amusing when men pretending to be warriors act like cowards and attack defenseless beggars," Jovan replied stoically and took a decisive step to the side, furious at himself for not seeing the man hiding in the shadow before he attacked Anil.

"You and I both know that this... poor excuse of a beggar was not defenseless," the man in the shadow snarled and lowered his sword.

"I have called him many things, but never that," Jovan clicked his tongue, seemingly unbothered, and intentionally placed the saber sword he began to draw at the man back into its scabbard, in a sign that he was not threatened by whoever was hiding in the shadow.

"If You were a reputable warrior, You would know that a sword, once drawn, should never return to its sheath without being put to its intended use," the man advised Jovan in a judgemental tone of voice.

"I pity You," Jovan forced himself to steady his breathing and his pulse. The last thing he needed now was to give into the rage and anger boiling in his gut.

"And why would You pity a man such as myself?" The man grinned and leaned on his sword.

"I pity You for launching at a man who did not see You coming. Impotent men often rely on their sword for displays of their masculinity. And only incompetent cowards feel the need to prove their worth with the tip of their sword," Jovan chuckled and took another step away from his opponent. He needed to distance himself from whoever hid in the shadow - not only for safety but also to be able to see his beloved Jagoda.