Gabriel applied his healing touch to stop my bleeding and tended my punctured hands and the injury beneath my eye. I heard fighting in the distance and wondered about Marcus.

“We’re safe here,” he said. “No need to worry. We must stay here until we’re sure the evil ones are gone. They attack you to rob you of the King’s blessings.”

“What blessings do you mean?”

“The King offers you power, possessions, and pleasures. He has sent me to be sure you have them.”

He reached into my pack and pulled out the TravelGuide. It had transformed back from a sword and somehow reappeared in my pack. He read to me from several places.

“You see, Nick? He offers you power to lead your comrades. He promises you great importance and influence. What made you so successful in business will make you successful in the King’s work.”

Yes. That makes sense.

“He also offers you great possessions. The present world is his, not just the world to come. He promises treasures for you to enjoy.”

I nodded, as Gabriel read other parts of the TravelGuide.

“He offers you great pleasures, all you yearn for, as your reward for serving him. The TravelGuide says so, does it not?”

“Yes,” I said. “It does.” He read other parts of the book, skipping from here to there—I hung on his every word.

Suddenly a large figure stuck his head into the dugout. I lurched back against the rocky lining, hitting my head.

“Marcus! Are you all right?”

“Do not listen to him, Nick!” Marcus cried.

“What?” I looked from Marcus to Gabriel. “He rescued me from the beast!”

“He is not what he appears.”

“Marcus, my friend, please let’s calm down,” Gabriel said.

“You are not my friend, nor his, name-stealer. You are a traitor, the sworn enemy of the King.”

“But … he reads from the GuideBook,” I said.

“Yes,” Marcus replied, “and he twists it to make it say whatever he wants you to believe.”

“But he speaks the King’s own words—he taught me about power, possessions, and pleasures.”

“Read the GuideBook, all of it,” Marcus said, voice loud, eyes burning as he stared at Gabriel. “Power comes later in Charis to those who forgo power now in Thuros by serving others. Possessions come later in Charis to those who forgo possessions now in Thuros to invest in the King’s work. Pleasures come later in Charis to those who forgo pleasures now in Thuros and live in purity.”

Marcus quoted from the book, passage after passage, countering the claims of Gabriel, who then turned to still other parts, reading sentences here and there, weaving them together eloquently and persuasively. It was a war of words.

“I’m not sure what to believe,” I said.