I have been working on this story for a few years. I had to stop to write Natara’s story, but in the last several weeks, I have gone back to this story and finally published it in January 2023. The amazing Shauna Guymon did the cover art.
This is actually a story within a story. You can go here to read the original story. Grace Part 1 – Jaredite Stories. Please note that anything on JarediteStories.com has not yet been professionally edited. 🙂
I’m excited for this story to be published. Unlike Natara, this story is much lighter. It has a bit of magic, dragons, unicorns, along with an amazing message how love can help us heal.
I believe this book is appropriate for ages 12 and older. It does include some sensitive topics like emotional and physical abuse, peril, trafficking, human sacrifice (no one gets sacrificed), but I feel it doesn’t go into the depth and detail that would make it inappropriate for teens.
Get your book here: Hermes and the Dragon
Chapter 1—The Trial
A long time ago, in the wooded and hilly kingdom of Geccal, lived the most beloved King Penn and Queen Enid. Their majestic and pristine castle was located in the city of Langwell, surrounded by many small and diverse villages, each with its own unique charm.
King Penn and Queen Enid had two children, a son named Cadus and a daughter named Brisa. Cadus, two years older than Brisa, was a lanky, yet handsome boy. His shoulder-length dark hair could never be combed properly and was always looked a mess. His eyes were dark, mysterious, and mischievous. As a young child, he preferred to be outside with the animals, playing in the creeks and ponds, and climbing rocks rather than learning his lessons and what he needed to know to become the future king. Now, a young man of sixteen years of age, he still preferred to be outside with his friends target shooting with bows and arrows, flirting with the girls in the village, and creating mischievous havoc, nothing bad, but typically not recommended for the prince and future king. King Penn always was concerned about Cadus’s hair since its messy appearance looked unfit for a prince. Queen Enid teasingly reminded the king that eventually his hair and mischievousness would calm down, and he would make a brilliant king. After all, King Penn also had unruly hair and had a mischievous streak in him as a young boy.
Brisa was almost the complete opposite of her brother. Her long, wavy hair was golden colored, and her piercing eyes were like deep blue sapphires. She loved being with animals and had a special gift to communicate with them. When she was twelve years old, she received a yellow puppy and named him Dumont. He grew to be a large golden dog that stayed by her side wherever she went. Even though Brisa was beautiful and the daughter of a king and queen, a sadness persistently permeated her eyes.
One day, a boy who was about fourteen years old, was brought into the king and queen’s courtroom with his hands and feet bound with ropes. Angry men from a nearby village, who escorted him into the courtroom, demanded Scarface, which is what they called him, to be imprisoned for life because of his monstrous appearance.
King Penn, taking Queen Enid’s hand, looked at the boy and asked, “What’s your name?”
The boy, looking down at the marble floor, angrily and disrespectfully replied, “You heard.”
With patience in his voice, the king responded, “Yes, I heard what they call you, now, tell me your given name?”
Looking down and barely speaking loud enough for the king to hear, “Hermes.”
One of the villagers shouted, “Scarface. That’s the only name he deserves!”
“Pandarus,” shouted the king, standing up from his throne. “Quiet! No more outbursts from you.” King Penn sat back down and gave a knowing look to his beautiful queen.
Cadus and Brisa, with Dumont faithfully by her side, watched the proceedings from an alcove at the side of the courtroom. Brisa, who was fourteen years old, asked her brother, “I don’t get it. Why is everyone so angry with the boy, especially that one man? Pandarus?”
Cadus looked at her incredulously and quietly said, “Look at the boy.”
Brisa looked. Although a hood covered his head and part of his face, Brisa could still see that his face and neck were completely disfigured. He only had part of his nose and part of his right ear was missing. His skin contained deep scars which made him appear like a grotesque monster. He looked younger than his fourteen years; since he looked scrawny and malnourished. Brisa turned her head away from the scarred boy and asked Cadus, “Why does this boy have so many scars?”
Cadus asked, “What, you haven’t heard of Hermes? I’m shocked! But I know Father tries to shield you from many incidents in the kingdom. You know my friend, Bama, right?” Brisa nodded and seemed to slightly blush at the mention of his name. “Do you like Bama?” Cadus smiled with a mischievous grin.
“No, of course not,” Brisa quickly responded, taking a deep breath to calm herself. “I barely even know who he is.”
“I’m going to tell him that you like him,” Cadus grinned.
“Don’t you dare,” Brisa threatened and punched him in the arm.
Cadus sobered and said, “Bama lives in Negony Well, the same village as Hermes. He told me that a few years ago Hermes was trapped in a house fire someone purposely set. His father, Marnin, wasn’t a nice man. He would beat his wife and the boy for the smallest things. He robbed and plundered the villagers and others in surrounding villages. Villages brought him here for a trial, but somehow, Father released him without a sentence. The villagers were angry he wasn’t thrown into prison, but there wasn’t enough solid evidence to convict him.”
“Couldn’t they prove that Hermes and his mother were beaten?” asked Brisa, watching the proceedings and the boy.
“Marnin hired a lawyer who had his mother and Hermes excluded from the trial. Some say he paid the lawyer a lot of money to get him acquitted. There was nothing Father could do. I overheard him talking to one of the villagers and telling him there wasn’t enough evidence to send Marnin to prison. The villager was so angry.” Brisa watched her brother in complete captivation.
Cadus continued, “Bama said many of the villagers were so enraged, that during the night, they set fire to Hermes’ home. His father was killed in the fire and Hermes was severely burned. Fortunately, Hermes’ mother wasn’t home. The day before, she had been severely beaten by Marnin and left to stay with her sister.
“That’s awful. I feel sorry for the boy.”
“Bama said the only reason Hermes survived is because his dog pulled him out of the house. The villagers came to help put out the fire, and the healer found Hermes almost dead with his dog lying dead next to him. She put healing herbs on his horrendous burns and used her hands to infuse healing light into him. She brought Hermes to her home and treated him for several days until she knew he would survive. Even though he went to live with his mother’s sister, the healer continued to visit him for several months. Hermes survived, but he was left with the scars you see.”
“So, his appearance isn’t completely his fault, right Cadus?” Brisa responded, shuddering at the thought of the boy being treated so badly.
“No, but because the scars look so horrible, and because he’s Marnin’s son, the villagers fear him and have completely shunned him. Bama thinks Pandarus is the one initiating the hate toward Hermes. They accuse Hermes of bringing bad luck to their village. They haven’t received as much rain as the rest of the kingdom, so their crops are beginning to dry out and their animals aren’t gaining the proper amount of weight. Also, I heard he’s mean to other children; he purposely scares them and freaks them out. The parents are upset and want him to leave. The villagers believe if they cast Hermes out, rain will return.”
“What about his mother?”
“She died about a year after the fire, leaving Hermes to fend for himself. He doesn’t have any brothers or sisters and had been living with his mother’s sister, but he tormented her children and stole from the market and even from villagers’ homes, so her husband finally had to demand that he be put out. His mother’s brother, Rouvin, and his wife took him in for several months and treated him kindly until Pandarus and others began to threaten Rouvin and his family. He reluctantly had to let Hermes go. And he was on his own after that.”
“How sad for Hermes,” pondered Brisa. She turned her eyes to the boy standing in front of her parents and asked, “How old was he?”
“I think he was about nine years old when the fire happened; he would be about fourteen now.”
“How sad,” Brisa said compassionately, and a tear escaped her eye.
Returning their attention to the happenings in the court, Brisa and Cadus watched with a perplexed look in their eyes.
The villagers, led by Pandarus, demanded the king put Scarface in prison for the rest of his life. They were convinced he purposely cursed their land and claimed if the king did not imprison him, they would take care of him like they took care of his father. They reminded the king he did not convict Marnin, so he had better convict Scarface. They were convinced Hermes was just like his father and would certainly create further destruction in their village.
King Penn was torn. The villagers attempted to present sufficient evidence that the boy was a curse and needed to be imprisoned.
“Isn’t there another way to protect Hermes?” the king asked the people. “He’s just a boy, how can he possibly be a curse?” The people angrily demanded life imprisonment.
King Penn listened to the demands of the people, consulted with Queen Enid, and looked to the back corner of the courtroom. Everyone turned around to see what King Penn looked at. Brisa saw a flash of a sapphire-colored robe leave the room.
King Penn announced his decision looking directly at Hermes. “Hermes,” he said, “I’m not sending you to prison.” At that pronouncement, Pandarus pulled out a knife from a band on his leg and rushed to the king and queen. The guards spotted the knife and tackled Pandarus to the floor. Pandarus flailed the knife and caught one of the guards in the arm, the knife deeply penetrating his skin, causing him to lose his grip on Pandarus. Pandarus immediately stood up, but another guard, the tallest and largest of King Penn’s guards, jumped on Pandarus, wrapping his large hand around the wrist holding the knife and knocking him back to the floor. When the knife hit the floor, it slid across the floor until another guard picked it up. During the scuffle, Dumont quickly stood up and took a protective stance in front of Brisa.
“Stop, all of you! Guards, take Pandarus to the prison,” King Penn shouted, taking a protective stance in front of Queen Enid. “If anyone else pulls a weapon in this room, he will also be taken to prison.”
“No!” yelled Pandarus. Two guards flanked him on either side and dragged him out of the courtroom with angry villagers yelling at the king. As he passed Hermes, he stared directly at him and threatened, “I will get you. I will hunt you down until you are dead.” The two guards led him away from the courtroom while Pandarus continued to yell and scream. Hermes sat on the floor, dropped his head, and pulled on his hood to assure no one could see him.
King Penn stood up, held up his hand to quiet down the villagers. When the room quieted enough for the king to be heard, he spoke with a determined voice, “Now, let me finish! Prison isn’t the right place for the young lad, so instead, I’m casting him out of the kingdom.” He looked at Hermes and in a softer voice said, “Stand up, Hermes.”
Hermes looked at the king perplexed. Where would he go? How would he survive?
“What? How can Father do that?” Brisa whispered to Cadus with fear in her eyes.
“Listen to Father,” Cadus whispered to Brisa.
Another villager stomped around and yelled, “No! He must be put into prison—for life! If not, he’ll come back to haunt us!” The villagers noisily agreed with him.
The king again waited for the villagers to silence with the guards holding the villagers back and away from the king and queen. He then said, “Hermes is too young to go to prison. I will have my guards personally escort him to the edge of the kingdom.”
Looking at Hermes with compassion in his eyes, he said, “Hermes, you will have time on your own to do some meaningful contemplation. I hope you’ll ponder on the importance of kindness and how kindness will change your world.”
He then looked at the villagers, “I’m disappointed in each of you. You’ve taken a young boy who was scarred because of your thoughtless acts, and you have treated him like a monster. It’s no wonder he became a monster; he fulfilled your unintended expectationfor his life. It’s time you also learn kindness and to treat each other with respect, not with contempt for each other. Now, all of you, out of my courtroom!”
After the villagers left the courtroom, King Penn called three of his guards. “Bodi, Zarek, and Elden. Come here please.” The three guards directly went to the king. “You are to take Hermes to the edge of our kingdom and no further. He will then be on his own.”
“But sir,” Zarek said, staring at Hermes and wondering how the boy would survive on his own.
“Take him,” commanded the king. With that, the guards walked to Hermes, took off his shackles, and escorted him out of the courtroom. On their way out, they passed Brisa and Cadus. Hermes, looking at Brisa, saw tears flowing down her cheeks from her sapphire blue eyes. He hissed at her. Cadus quickly moved to protectively stand in front of his sister and Dumont stood next to Cadus. The guards swiftly scurried him out of the courtroom and out of the palace.
Brisa went to a window and watched the guards put Hermes into one of the palace’s elaborate carriages pulled by two large horses and surrounded by two guards on horseback. Suddenly, she saw a man in a sapphire-colored robe following the boy. “Was that the same person who I just saw Father look at?” Brisa wondered aloud. “Yes! Cadus, come here!” Cadus came to the window and Brisa pointed to the procession. “See the man in the sapphire robe?”
“Yes.”
“He was in Father’s courtroom during the trial. Who is he?”
“I don’t know. I can’t see his face, and his robe doesn’t look familiar to me. His robe is the same color as yours and Mother’s eyes.”
“Yes, it is. I need to find out who he is,” Brisa ran from the window to find her parents.
Cadus watched the procession until it moved out of sight.
* * *
Brisa, with Dumont at her side, approached her parents while they softly talked in their courtroom.
“Come to us, my dear daughter,” King Penn said, holding his arm out to Brisa and bringing her into his embrace. Queen Enid gently put her hand on her daughter’s arm.
“That was a tough one,” King Penn confided to his daughter. “I feel sadness and disappointment at the hatred the villagers had toward Hermes.”
“Why were they so hateful? It didn’t seem fair. It wasn’t the boy’s fault he was burned. Cadus told me the villagers set fire to his house. Is that true?” Brisa asked with tears in her eyes.
“Yes, sad, but true,” her father gently answered. “The villagers brought Hermes’s father here many moons ago, but the evidence was so obviously skewed that I couldn’t convict him. I knew Marnin and his evil ways. How I regret letting him go, but there wasn’t anything else I could do. I feel personally responsible for Hermes.”
“Then why did you send him away? He’s just a boy! How could you?” cried Brisa, tears falling down her cheeks.
“If I sent him to prison, I would be delivering his death sentence; he wouldn’t last in prison more than a few weeks before someone would kill him.” Brisa stared at her father in disbelief. “I actually gave him a chance at life.”
“Where will he go and how will he take care of himself?” Brisa importuned. “He’s so small and thin; he looks like he could blow away in a gentle wind.”
Queen Enid responded, “Hermes will be taken care of. Did you happen to see someone in a sapphire-colored robe?”
“He followed Hermes and the guards,” Cadus stated.
“I thought I saw him here in the courtroom,” Brisa said.
“He’ll be sure Hermes is well taken care of and will help him heal,” the queen responded while combing her fingers through Brisa’s long wavy hair.
“You mean his scars will be healed?” Brisa asked hopefully.
“More than that,” replied the king as Brisa looked at him questioningly. “His heart.”
“Who’s the man?” Brisa asked.
“Jovah,” King Penn answered, taking Queen Enid by her hand to lead her out of the courtroom.