I

There was talk that our king was mad when he came before the court and told them all of the angel who had come in his dreams.
“The angel has told me that our neighbors have betrayed us and are to attack our kingdom in seven days. Their army will be grand and it will take every man in the kingdom to defeat them, but if we are prepared when they set eyes on our walls, our kingdom will not fall.”
The courtiers were not pleased with the king’s news and many stood to challenge him.
“The neighboring kingdom has long been our ally,” said one.
“What reason could they have to attack us? Have we done them some wrong?” said another.
“I know not their reasons,” said the king, “I only know that in seven days’ time we must be ready for battle. We must take every soldier and every man from the field and ready them for battle. If we do not, our kingdom will fall in seven days’ time.”

II
For the next seven days our kingdom prepared for war. Not a man worked in the fields and every smith was busy crafting weapons for the coming battle. There was much talk of the king’s angel, as many of the courtiers had spoken of it to friends and family. There was unrest in the kingdom, but all waited to see if the king’s prediction was true.
On the seventh day, the sun found the army of our neighbors at our borders. Their army was grand; as wide as the seas.
The king led our army beyond our walls, riding his great grey horse. He led them onto the battlefield, crying that his angel had foreseen their victory and that none of our men would fall this day.
The battle lasted all day and all night and when the sun rose on the eighth day it found the battlefield red and littered with the bodies of our enemies, but no child in our kingdom was without a father.

III
That night, the angel came to the king again and said, “There is a devil among your court. He has taken your wife to bed with him and whispered sins in her ears. He has fled the kingdom and now she means to kill you.”
When the queen awoke and drew the dagger from beneath her pillow she found the king awake and in tears. She tried to hide her blade, but the king took her by the wrists and shook it from her hand. He cried for her to leave his chamber and his kingdom and never return, for if she did he would have her head for her treachery.
The next day the king called for his generals and set them to find the man who had poisoned his wife’s thoughts. In three days they returned, with a man the king had once called a friend.
The king sentenced the man to be locked away for three days without food or drink and on the fourth day to be hanged and quartered as was the punishment for such treason.

IV
The third time the angel came to the king he said, “Tomorrow the spring rains will collapse the south wall. Send no workers there lest they all perish.”
“But what of our defenses?” asked the king.
“The victory over your neighbors has shocked your foes into fear. You will be safe.”
The next day the king called all the workers from the south wall and at midday when all in the castle were taking their lunch they heard a great crash. All rushed outside to find the south wall in ruins, and all doubts of the king’s angel were silenced.

V
“Three miracles,” said the king. “Three times this angel has saved our kingdom.”
He was standing before his court. His head had been lost in thought for many days and the courtiers were anxious to hear his announcement.
“I wish to meet him,” said the king, “I wish to thank him for all that he has done for our people and kneel before him. I wish to offer him what service I can to repay the service he has done our people.”
So the king commissioned a great ship to be built, the like our world had never seen and there were no protests from the court. They all believed now.
For seven months, when their work was done in the fields, the men of our kingdom spent their days working on the king’s great ship. The women and children would come and watch and wonder at what our king might see when he underwent his great voyage.
When the great ship was finished, it sat in the harbor shining in the sun like a marvelous jewel and when the king saw his ship he smiled and said, “The angel will be pleased.”

VI
The next day the king made ready to depart. He loaded the ship with what foods and supplies the castle could spare. His crew he made from his two sons and his father, who had been eager to meet the angel since the king’s first dream. (In fact many had said it had been the king’s father who had put the idea of the ship into his mind.) The care of the castle and kingdom he left to a cousin.
All gathered at the harbor to wish the king farewell and watched as the ship sailed out over the ocean, and when it hit the horizon it rose from the water and sailed into the sky.



Jason Helton writes from Lee's Summit, Missouri.


Copyright © 2006. Do not reproduce without permission.

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