A Path Forward

Uncle Phil arrived with the sheriff, of course. The antiquarian was gone before they arrived, though he found a way to leave the sword by my hotel room. Ruth didn’t seem to remember much, and we all generally decided it was best to leave it that way. After that night, there was no longer any need for my aunt, uncle, and cousins to deal with the pale figure that used to lurk in the woods. It was simply gone. There wasn’t that much left of summer break, though, so Ruth and I were on a plane back to Tennessee a couple of weeks later.

As for me…the entire series of events wasn’t the kind of thing one can let go of easily. I knew there was something else out there, even if I couldn’t see what it was. I enlisted after high school, and the Army sent me to a place called Bosnia in what my school geography class had still been calling Yugoslavia. It didn’t help. I wasn’t one of the ones who came back broken, just someone who came back without any more answers. That old antique shop in Idaho still called, even after my dad helped me find at least some blue collar work around Oak Ridge. I was in my mid-twenties before I finally had enough. I saved up some money, and I quit my job.

The flight to Idaho felt longer than it actually was. If I was being honest with myself, I wasn’t even sure the antiquarian would be there anymore. I still landed in Boise and rented a car, following what I could remember of my uncle’s path to the last town before Mythic Ranch. I didn’t expect the conversation I heard when I entered the shop. The antiquarian was leaning on the counter, talking with a man who wasn’t much older than I was.

“The boy isn’t coming back, Robin,” the younger man said gently.

“Patience was never much your strong suit, Galahad,” the antiquarian replied with a wry smile. Then he turned to me and pointed. “Though, I think you’ve already lost the bet.”

Galahad eyed me and shook his head.

“I told you he’d come back eventually. It won’t be the first time someone’s had to find their way.”

“I know, I know.”

I hesitated, looking between the two men.

Robin yawned as he stood. “It definitely took you long enough, didn’t it William,” he noted casually.

I shrugged. “Maybe I had to sort some things out first,” I replied.

Robin grinned. “So did I,” he agreed and turned to the man with him. “Did you bring what I asked for, Sir Galahad?”

Galahad plopped a file down in front of Robin. “It’s all in there,” he sighed. “Lad’s certainly got guts.”

“One doesn’t face a pale man down without them.”

I grimaced. “I don’t understand,” I said.

Robin shrugged as he opened the file. “Expert marksman, airborne, ranger school, a bronze star, combat infantry,” he read approvingly. “I think we can work with this one, don’t you, Sir Galahad?”

Galahad nodded. “Assuming he’d come back after that,” he rumbled.

I looked over at Galahad. “I came back,” I told him with a note of challenge in my voice. “It’s been hard not to after what I saw out here.”

Robin chuckled.

Galahad shook his head. “Well, we all come when we’re ready,” he said. “It’s hard to ignore the call once you feel it.”

I grimaced. I had tried, but nothing I had done felt right…until now. “So…what am I getting myself into,” I asked. “Some sort of attempt to bring back the knights of the round table?”

Galahad shook his head. “No, lad, our names are happenstance,” he chuckled. “As it happens, Sir Robin’s parents were fans of Errol Flynn, and my own were Oxford scholars studying the legends of King Arthur, trying to find some link to history.”

I laughed.

Robin joined us. “It does throw people off, considering the Grand Master’s name is Roland,” he chortled.

I stopped laughing. “Grand Master,” I asked.

“Yes,” Galahad confirmed. “It’s been the title of the head of our order for almost nine centuries now. You could say that we’re the descendants of the remnants of the Knights Templar.”

“The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon,” Robin corrected gently.

I shook my head.

“We’re still few in number,” Robin continued, “only a remnant. The question is on you. You’ve already faced a pale man. You know that there is more to this world, what is seen and unseen. So, will you join us?”

I considered the idea for a long moment. I felt as though someone were nudging me along, urging me forward through a quiet voice. I nodded slowly. “I’ll go with you,” I agreed.

Robin smiled.

Galahad grinned. “Well, it’s a good thing Sir Robin insisted on buying three plane tickets,” he remarked.

“Where are we going,” I asked.

“Paris.”