The Paladin: A Guardians of the Herald Short Story

By Mark Malcolm

The date is March 18, 1314. The King of France in conjunction with the Pope in Rome has orchestrated the fall of the Knights of the Temple of Solomon, the Knights Templar. A spiritual war has been raging on earth for centuries and the Templars are the last order to still know how to use fervent prayer to enter the spiritual realm known as the ether. It is in this unseen world of the ether where godly men and women have been fighting alongside God's heavenly host of angels against the demonic forces of Hell and Hell has been winning. Recently, the king forced a confession from both Jacques de Molay, the Grandmaster of the Knights Templar, and his closest aid Geoffrey de Charney. The two men however have recanted their confessions and are to be burned at the stake as relapsed heretics. The knights are scattered across both France and the world and cannot prevent an earthly death. However, distance is no obstacle to knights who can enter the spiritual realm and so one final battle is planned to save the men's eternal souls.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mark Malcolm
• Release date: Feb 20, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311898449

Mark Malcolm

Mark Malcolm is a child of God, husband, father, project manager, technical writer, gamer, fiction writer, Marine ('87-91), has practiced Shao Lin Kung Fu and Tai Chi, been published in magazines and newspapers (editorial anyway), and seen the Southern Cross.The goals he has currently are to more accurately identify the path God has for him to walk, continue to provide for his family, establish a solid web presence, and learn to better relate to the people around him.

Book preview

The Paladin

by

Mark E. Malcolm

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© Copyright Mark Malcolm 2016

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The Paladin short story written by Mark Malcolm, The Cavalier is a short story in the Guardians of the Herald world. Some of the characters depicted herein are based on historical figures in the public record. All other characters are fictional and any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental.

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The Paladin

We have known you only as Paladin for so long. Will you not reveal yourself to us now before this final battle? a lone knight asked him. At least let us know the man who has lead us so valiantly these many years before we die.

He looked to his left without raising his visor and met the eyes of the female angel who hung in their air slightly back and over him. Her wings slowly stroked the air too slowly to actually maintain altitude, but she flew nonetheless. Her curly black hair shifted slightly as though her wings actually created a draft as they moved but decades of prayer and travel through the ether had taught him that though his eyes told him he was in the physical world, the rules in the ether were decidedly different. Her pristine white robe hung to her ankles and shifted slightly in the imaginary breeze as well, held together only with a simple rope around the waist. Yet it was the flawless complexion that had always transfixed him, that cream-smooth skin with a slight tint of almond. He often wondered if the master painters of their time were painting real women or those they had seen during their prayer time. In answer to his silent question she gently shook her head, but she smiled at him as she did. He never got tired of that smile. It was what had won