Excerpt: Edge of Heaven

"Commander." One of his men addressed him.
"Yes?"
"How are we going to go about this? I mean, if we're to do this, what are we to do with our families? They will become easy targets, for being connected to us if we're found out, and we can't let them use our loved ones against us."
The commander nodded, addressing all of his men with his response. "We'll need to get them to safety soon after we commence." He sighed and looked down, hoping his men would believe what he was about to say next, and trust in him enough to take care of it. "I've heard of an island. One that's uninhabited by humans."
One of the men on his left spoke up. "But that can't be. If this island really exists, it would have to be claimed by someone, there's no way it would just be left like that."
The commander shook his head. "That's the thing. It's claimed. Just not by humans." He sighed and forced himself to continue, knowing how outrageous this was going to sound to the men around him. "The island is inhabited. I don't know exactly what it is, but there's something that lives there. That guards the place. My father said that, when he was younger, he took an expidition out in search of new lands. He said that, even though the crew was tired, and wary, and were all pushing to simply return to shore after they had been out to sea for so long, he redused to give up. He said it almost left like he was being drawn to something far out of his reach. Something he couldn't name, and couldn't explain. He agreed that in two days time, if there was no sign of land, he would admit defeat, and they would all head back to shore. The rations would be tight on the way back, but nothing that they couldn't endure. Reluctantly, they agreed. At the end of the second day, just as the sun was setting, with his telescope in hand, he spotted land. He told me that at that moment, he knew he had been right when he agreed to set off on this vouyage. He could usually skim over the details then, I was young when he told me this. When I was older, I refused to listen to it... He said they went ashore, and that something attacked them. He couldn't describe what it was exactly, but they barely escaped with their lives."
"And you think this island exists?" One of the soldiers ventured, disbelief lacing his tone.
"I'm not entirely sure if I believe it all myself, but what I do believe, is that there has to be some land out there, claimed or not, that no one is currently living on." He lifted his face, and looked each men in the eye in turn. "I'm going to set sail, and find us a place where our families can live, without worry of being attacked because of the wrongs we begin to set right this day."
The men were all silent for a moment, as they took in the information, and thought over the momentous decision they were making. Suddenly, a man with unruly black hair, and the thin white line of a fading scar across his left cheek stood up, his shoulders back, and his posture proud. "Commander." he said, reverence and resolve in his tone, "I have..." He looked around at each of the men with him. His brothers in arms, before looking back to his commander. "We," he said sternly, "Have taken an oath over our swords, and before god, that we would follow you." His words were steady, though the emotion in his voice made the tone quiver slightly, before it steadied again. "Through armies, and hardships untold I have followed you." He took hold of the hilt of the sword at his side, and drew out the blade in one sure, practiced move, and drove it into the floor. He bent, and knelt before his commander, head bowed. "This sword is yours, and I will be honored to follow your command once again this day." His voice rang strongly off of the walls surrounding them.
There was a heavy silence for a moment, and then, as the command stood watching his men, one by one, every man knelt, and bowed their heads in a show of utter loyalty. "We follow!" They echoed as one.
The commander closed his eyes, and slowly let out a relieved and grateful breath. He opened them, and let his gaze settle on his second in command. The one who had always been at his back in battle, through thick and thin, and the one who had once again been the first to pledge his allegiance. He gaze drifted briefly to the scar on the man's cheek. Even now, he remembered with perfect clarity that night, when, surrounded by the enemy, he had taken on his upper arm, a slash aimed for his second in command, that would have likely taken his head. He still had the scar, matching the one left by the tip of the blade on his second in command's face. That scarring had bound them as surely as blood, and this was now the man that he was most proud to call friend, and brother.
He steeled his gaze, and straightened to his full height. "Rise." He told all of his men, but his eyes lingered a moment longer on his second, before roaming over each of the men gathered there. "Tonight, we plan. Tomorrow, we begin to execute the battle of our lives!" He drew his sword and let out a war cry, and in an instant, the room was filled with the voices of the warriors determined to make things change.
They stayed up long into the night, perfecting ideas and plans that would carry them through the trials that awaited them in days, weeks, months, to come.