An excerpt from my novel Eretzel, Book Two in The Sword of Fire series. In this scene the hero Daniel explains to his young student what it means to be a warrior. They begin with issues you expect would concern a warrior-in-training, but very quickly the conversation moves to the non-fighting aspects of the warrior’s code. In book one, Daniel takes on the role of knight as older warriors mentor him. In book two he takes on the role of mentor to a young man he has been training in the warrior arts, acting in this scene as a guardian, protecting the young man not with his sword, but with his words.
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“Courage is not the lack of fear. Courage is doing what you must despite your fear,” said Daniel. “My father used to tell me that courage is not your goal. It is the tool you use to reach your goal and, as is true with most tools, it is neither good nor evil, but can be used by good men and evil men equally to achieve their needs.”
“And honor?” asked Raviv.
Daniel and Raviv sat near a small fire, watching the embers glow as a hunk of pork roasted on a spit above the coals. Daniel had chosen to take Raviv alone with him hunting instead of also including Elan and Ehud on the trip. The two other boys still had their father. Raviv had lost his at an age when a boy needed his father most. Daniel was using their time alone to tell Raviv of the warrior ways of his people.
“Honor is doing what is right no matter the cost. Honor is walking the right road whether that road is smooth or rocky, flat or over the highest mountain.”
Raviv nodded solemnly.
“Next is wisdom, right?” he asked. “I know what that is. Wisdom is knowing everything about something.”
“Close,” said Daniel, “but what you speak of is knowledge. Wisdom is not exactly the same thing. Knowledge is like a map of a land. The map may show every mountain range and river, but it will do you no good if you do not know where you are and where you need to go. Wisdom tells you these things, for wisdom is the compass that gives you direction. It is the ability to know why something is right or wrong, not just that it is so.”
“But what about fighting?” asked the boy.
“There is much more to being a warrior than just fighting,” Daniel said. Raviv stared at Daniel intently. Raviv’s father had always been kind to him, but had never had the time to show him this kind of attention, and the boy was taking in Daniel’s words more ravenously than any meal he had ever eaten.
“The warriors of my people are called paladins,” said Daniel. “They are the warriors of the king’s house and are mostly made up of men of his own family. They are the protectors of the realm in time of peace and the leaders of the army in time of war. Being of the king’s house, they are held to a higher standard than mere fighters.”
He drew forth the knife his parents had given him and held it before Raviv.
“Wisdom, honor, courage, faith are the words written on the handle, but what a paladin stands for is much more than that. Here is a poem we used to say to remind us.”
Daniel began to recite.
Courage in battle,
Honor in doing,
Truth in speaking—
That is the way of the warrior.
Leading from the front,
Asking not from others
What you would not do yourself—
That is the way of the warrior.
Wisdom in council,
Patience in study,
Encouraging many—
That is the way of the warrior.
Working hard,
Laughing harder,
Serving best—
That is the way of the warrior.
Openhanded to the poor,
Showing others the way
That true treasure is stored—
That is the way of the warrior.
Know your battlefield,
Know your weapons,
Know your equipment—
That is the way of the warrior.
Mercy to the weak,
Keeping the peace,
In word and deed—
That is the way of the warrior.
Daniel stopped, and both he and the boy were silent for a time, staring into the fire.
“I shall be a warrior when I am a man,” said Raviv after a time.
Daniel stirred the coals with a stick, thinking a moment before he replied.
“My father would often say that to be a man is to be a warrior, and it matters not whether the man holds a sword in his hand or a pen or a plow. To be a warrior is to be the protector of those in your charge; therefore many men are warriors. It is not the type of fight that makes you a warrior. It is the fact that you fight at all and the heart within you while you do it.
“I have seen farmers back home who had a warrior’s heart, for they fought against a hard earth every day to feed their families. Too much or too little sun or rain or wind all made war against them, and yet these farmers toiled on, fighting without giving up. To fight each day against forces greater than yourself and not give up, then to get yourself up the next morning and begin your battle all over again, that is as good a description of a warrior as I have heard.”
Daniel looked over and was surprised to find tears falling down Raviv’s face.
“My father gave up,” said the boy. “He was no warrior.”
“Yes, I know,” agreed Daniel, both understanding the man and hating what he had done at the same time. “Your father’s father left him when he was your age; did you know that?”
“No,” replied Raviv looking up, “he never spoke of it.”
“The sons of Anak saw your father the night he left, and he told them that,” said Daniel. “He thought that since he had survived such a thing, you would be able to do so as well. He thought that, and so do I.”
“But if his father did that to him and he to me, will I abandon my own family one day?”
Daniel turned to face the boy better. “It is not set in stone that a son must repeat the mistakes of his father. You have not the same heart as your father; you are a different person, are you not? The family you grow up in is only a part of what you are. You are like a tree, and your family is the soil that you are planted in. But whether that tree is beside a stream or on a mountain top, grows in time of rain or drought, many things besides the soil determine how that tree shall grow. Look at the sons of Anak: seven warriors raised in the same house, yet as different as seven types of trees when it comes to the hearts within them. And men are not trees. We have minds to decide our own paths and feet to take us down that path. Does the son of every baker become a baker? Do all the sons of wool merchants become wool merchants? Some do, but many seek their own way. You must decide your own path and then follow it.”
“I shall be a warrior in my heart,” replied Raviv. “I do not know if I will earn my living with a sword or a pan, or a pen, but I will never abandon those under my care. I shall be a warrior.”
NOBILIS VOS ESTOS,
Bill McGrath
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