by W. C. Jasper
The speaker of the meeting was Lord Akula Kiaaran, a Council Elder who was erudite in matters of politics and governance. He began, “The first matter to address—” when the room was disturbed by a sudden interruption. A soldier stationed in the city came running into the hall in panic and knelt down on one knee. In a loud voice and an urgent and fast pace he announced, “My King, there has been an attack in the third sector of the city by a team of ten soldiers from Gessold who have sneaked in and have taken a household of 14 people hostage and are demanding to meet with you immediately.”
Before his sentence reached its end, the King, the Prince, and General Thayman had already picked up their weapons and almost crossed a quarter of the room. As they dashed towards the door, Prince Jared announced loudly, “You’ll be coming too, Thaymas. Follow me.” Thaymas was shocked that he would be summoned, and his mind was trying to list out all the reasons why he would be summoned; but he was also wise enough to know that this was not the time to do any of that. After a half a second of thought, he shouted out in reply, “Yes, My Prince!” He started verifying if his weaponry was in place and that he was prepared when the Prince spoke loudly to him again, saying “You shall be taking one of my horses.” “Yes, My Prince!” he shouted out in reply and waited for him to reach the door so he could follow him.
Prince Jared had the most elegant, pitch-black horse named Kirua; and Thaymas too was given a young, strong black horse named Erwin from Prince Jared’s Military Arm - SAS Arm (Stealth And Sound Arm). King Jeraash rode the most magnificent white horse named Illumi; and General Thayman too, had a powerful and elegant white horse named Mirio.
The King rode at the front on their way to the third sector, which was only five minutes away on a horse. Moments after they had started riding, Prince Jared spoke with his eyes fixed ahead and a rather thoughtful voice to Thaymas who was riding next to him, “We are brothers by blood, and yet this is the first time we have truly met…” He took a sizable pause, shook his head, and continued, “Well, we will have much time to discuss in length later. For now, just be informed, you will be living in the Royal Palace from now on.” Thaymas knew that technically, they were not related by blood, as his father was adopted into the House of Rash-Yaph by King Jahous. But he had also heard from his father that King Jahous and his house counted the bond of love as the bond of blood itself. He wanted to reply and say, “As you say, My Prince,” but the thought of living in the Royal Palace was too much for him.
After a couple of seconds of silence, having deciphered what Thaymas was thinking, the Prince added, “Your father too has his own quarters in the Royal Palace, do not think much of it. Your father is a father to me as well. Which means we are brothers in every true sense. We have a lot to catch up on.” Being called a brother of the Crowned Prince by the Crowned Prince himself was too much for him to take in. He was even more baffled by the fact that Prince Jared had no filters in his words. He thought to himself, “Who talks in such manner in their first meeting with someone?!” He was astounded by Prince Jared’s complete disregard for societal norms. He was not sure what to make of it.
Upon finishing his sentence, he turned to him and smiled at him courteously. Thaymas, as appreciative and capable of scepticism as he was, also had a keen ability for discerning people. Even in the courteous smile that Prince Jared flashed at him, he could see more honesty than most people’s hearty laughter. This told him that the Prince was not only at odds with dishonesty, but also had a lot of love for him even though they had never met each other before.
The party was now riding east at a tremendous pace. As they were about to reach the scene of the incident, Prince Jared signalled with his hand for Thaymas to follow him and broke off from the King’s lead and went away to the north. No words were spoken, and no other communication took place.
The King reached the front door of the house which was facing south and hopped off his horse just a moment before his horse came to a stop and landed casually on the ground with perfect control and balance like a Balkan Lynx and the grace of an elite ballet performer. General Thayman dismounted from his horse in a slow and leisurely fashion with his eyes fixed on the intruders and proceeded to stand behind his King as the dust settled behind them in slow, wavy comportment.
Houses all over Jerudia were huge and had numerous, spacious rooms. And as was Jerudia’s culture, most married couples took turns living with each other’s parents. Seldom did any child live with only their parents, they always had multiple elders in the house to look after them. On account of this, houses had far too many rooms that could accommodate numerous families at any given time. This served to be a wonderful construct, as it inculcated and maintained a sense of belongingness among every section of the extended families and children grew up with strong values and human connections.
Most houses had big yards, fence walls, and gates to the front and back. The house of the incident too, was huge, had big yards and gates at the front and the back, spacious passages on the sides with various bushes and plants of edible seeds, spices, and such. It had a fence wall 7 feet tall with a gate at the front that was 10 feet wide. To the eastern side of the house, outside the fence wall, ran a narrow path beyond which stood thick trees and bushes. The trees in the residential districts typically ranged from 15 feet to 30 feet in height, and these trees too ranged from 15 feet to 25 feet. Behind the rear gate, the narrow path continued to run over to the west, kissing the rear fence; and beyond that path lay beautiful open fields.
The front gate stood open, and outside of it stood four soldiers of Gessold with white armours covering from head to toe, leaving only a ‘T’ shaped opening for the eyes and the nose. The only un-armoured parts of their body were their hands which were covered with white gloves. They all carried broadswords and round shields on their backs. One of them stood at the front with a prominent pin on the breast of his armour that made it evident that he was a high-ranking officer and the other three standing behind him were under his command. The King stood in front of them about 12 feet away, waiting for the intruders to speak the first words.
He had waited silently for about 70 seconds when the leader of the intruder squad spoke with a loud voice, “You seem to be in no rush to save your subjects, King Jeraash. Should I take it to mean then… that you do not care about your subjects?”
King Jeraash replied in a flat tone with a grave face and a hint of sternness, “If I had no care for them, you would already have been taken into custody by now.”
“Hmm… As straight” replied the intruder with a gesture of his hand that imitated an arrow’s flight, “as advertised… I was told by Emperor Thon that the best way to strong-arm you was to put your subjects under threat, even just one of them. As a matter of fact, that is what brings us here today, King. You see, inside that house, six of our men have bound up 14 of your precious subjects in a huddle and are standing around them with explosives in their hands. And these are not the primitive dynamites you use. These are advanced instruments invented by our scientists. Something the world has never seen before. Each one of them would burn and destroy about 25 sq. ft. of everything around them, which is enough to kill all of them in there. Which means that if all six of them are made to explode, they would bring that entire house down, leaving no one alive. Nothing would be left.”
His voice oozed arrogance as he continued to boast of his country’s superiority in scientific advancement, “A beautiful invention by our scientists, we call them 'danes'. Cubical boxes of just 5 inches with two individual containers inside them, the containers house two extremely potent chemicals, which if mixed together create the magnificent explosion. The danes have thin metal pins pointing out from opposite sides, you pull them both out, and both the containers inside release the chemicals within. And once they both come in contact with each other, in a few seconds you get to behold the beauty of grand demolition. I admit it isn’t perfect yet and there isn’t a proper control on the timing, but our Emperor has enough soldiers
who would gladly lay down their lives for his cause. I tell you all this, so you understand very clearly that you have no other option, but to obey me. If you try to attack any of us, my men in there will see it through that open front door and bring about the end of this household. If you do not comply with our demand, I will give them the signal and they will bring about the end of this household. If anyone tried to attack the soldiers in there by sneaking in or by shooting arrows at them, before even one of them could be subdued while they wear their full armours, all six of the danes would successfully be set off and… they will, bring, about, the end of this household.”
The King had gleaned by now that exploding even one of those would make the others explode as well due to the proximity. He looked at the door of the house again, trying to assess the situation further and determine if he could somehow make a move and still have the citizens safe. But looking through the open door of the house, he could see that one of the soldiers inside had a straight and clear view of the King and their own leader’s back. This soldier was standing behind the hostages who were seated on the ground in front of him and watching King Jeraash and their leader. King Jeraash knew well that if he had made any sort of move, it would mean the certain demise of the family inside.
Noticing that the King had made no response, he continued, “Oh! Most wise King… Our Emperor is quite wise too. He informed us that the two greatest warriors on the entire planet are you and your brother, and you two are the only ones who could fight your way out of this. Hence, I want your brother standing right beside you as you get me what I want so that I can have my eyes on you both.” General Thayman spoke urgently at once, “The Prince is away on a hunt. I will go get him right away, please do not hurt our people,” and got on his horse and rode away speedily.
As soon as he left, King Jeraash spoke in an ever so flat voice, “What do you seek?”
High ranking intruder: “How very honourable of you to value my time. I value it as well. I need you to hand over the scrolls of the prophecies by Delian within the next 15 minutes. I am already aware of the distance between here and the palace, so no trickery either. And you will be sending someone to fetch it right away. As soon as 15 minutes are up, I will execute one of the hostages, at 20 minutes, another one; and you will stand by and watch, unable to do anything about it so that the danes don’t explode and kill all 14 at once.”
“You,” said King Jeraash looking at one of the soldiers standing by, “Ride to the palace at full speed and tell the Queen that I have asked for the scrolls of Delian at once and get it here at the earliest.” The soldier took off at once, swiftly got on his horse and rode away with all the speed he could muster.
Only 30 seconds had passed after the soldier had taken off to fetch the scrolls of Delian when multiple screams emerged from inside the house. The leader of the intruding squad turned around and noticed that the guard who was in straight view from the gate was not in his sight anymore. He noticed something inside the house springing about for a moment, too fast for his eyes to follow or to even venture a guess as to what it was. Suddenly, fear started to creep into his mind that they might be losing control of the situation. But his better sense told him it was impossible because the men inside were all armed and fully armoured and would either kill any intruder at once or at least blow up the house with the danes at the first hint of trouble. There was definitely not enough time to neutralise all six of them before one of the others would set off their dane.
His eyes surveyed the house and the fence walls in the hopes of noticing something. But before he could find anything, a loud, relaxed voice emerged from inside, “You can make your move, My King.” The four soldiers outside the house turned around and stood completely stunned, unable to make any sense of it. The sudden realisation of their doom dawned on the soldiers as their minds still struggled to make sense of how the impossible had just transpired.
They turned back, bracing themselves to face the King and his soldiers charging at them to cut them down. But no such thing happened. The King stood expressionless, staring into the eyes of the leader. He asked calmly, “You are quite clearly a high-ranking officer, what rank do you hold?” There was no reply, which prompted the King to clear his throat and ask once again with not much change in his voice. But there was no need for it as his eyes were scary enough at this point.
The officer answered, “I am a Captain. I have command over 1500 men.”
King Jeraash asked politely, “I’m sure you know by now that your fate is sealed, shall you surrender yourself and be taken into custody willingly?”
The Captain started laughing loudly with stark smugness and was about to speak when he noticed the King signal to him with his eyes to look behind. Prince Jared was emerging from the house with the six soldiers tied into a bundle, dragging them behind him with one arm over his shoulder. The Captain was shocked at noticing that it hardly took any effort for the Prince to drag the bundle of six soldiers behind him. Just then, Thaymas jumped out from among the thick trees that were to the eastern side of the house and ran over the fence wall to stand beside the party at the front. As Thaymas and the soldiers looked at the Prince dragging the soldiers out of the gate, they thought to themselves that this was probably the greatest warrior to ever walk the Earth. But this sight that declared the greatest warrior also announced his royalty with every glorious step he took.
Everyone stood stunned and stared at him in awe with absolute silence as he dragged the bundle of soldiers out of the house and dropped them behind King Jeraash and proceeded to put on his cloak again. All of them were still alive, but four of them had bleeding palms and three had broken helmets. Prince Jared proceeded to take three hay blocks from the ones lying nearby and set two of them one upon another, and the third in the front of them forming a seat. He sat upon it, leaning back with his left leg bent in front of him and his right leg upon his left leg and his palms behind his head.
When Prince Jared had broken off from the party and headed in a different direction, the general plan was already very clear to everyone including Thaymas without any words being spoken. Prince Jared and Thaymas moved from behind the house and took position in the trees on the eastern side of the house. They both hid in the trees at a height of around nine feet, analysing the situation and listening for any information they might get from the conversation outside the front gate. Prince Jared slowly removed his shoes and mantle as he waited for vital information that would let him finalise a definitive plan. From their position, they had a view of the window on the eastern side of the main room of the house. They could see two soldiers through it. One was near the window and often looked outside in surveillance, but Thaymas and the Prince were not visible to him inside the trees. The other visible soldier was the one that King Jeraash could see through the front door who stood towards the northern end of the main room, behind the hostages.
Once the Captain from Gessold was finished with his extremely exhaustive monologue revealing their plan, Prince Jared asked, “Could you hit those two with a single shot?”
“No one could neutralise two targets with a single shot, My Prince,” he replied.
“Hmm… that seems to be the case, doesn’t it?” said Prince Jared with a queer expression as his face proceeded to exhibit the inception of a definitive plan.
Thaymas: “But I shoot arrows faster than anyone I have ever encountered. I could hit those two we see within two seconds. That will definitely be fast enough.”
“True. But naah… That won’t be necessary,” said Prince Jared and proceeded to give him a deep smile and continued, “I am going to move inside the compound and take position right beneath that window. I need you to shoot the soldier that is standing close to the window as soon as I give you the signal. You will need to shoot the hand that is holding the explosive device, as it is anyway the only exposed surface of his body, clear?”
“Yes, My Prince,” answered Thaymas, “But there are five more soldiers in there, any one of the
others may explode their devices by the time you neutralise them, or this soldier himself may regain his device and explode it by the time you neutralise the others.”
“Trust your Prince,” said Prince Jared, winking at him with a crooked smile and leapt into the compound with the stealth and agility of a black panther. As he moved like a shadow and took his position under the window in an instant, Thaymas was stunned and taken aback by how inhumanly fast and stealthy his movements were.
Thaymas nocked his arrow and waited for his Prince’s signal. The soldier that Thaymas was supposed to attack kept moving his hands nervously. And every small movement of his hand now caused Thaymas’ bow and arrow to wave with it, keeping with its rhythm. Thaymas’ eyes stayed nailed to his target with absolute steadfastness, and his nocked arrow waved in perfect harmony with the movements of his small target.
Prince Jared did not take much time and raised his right hand and gave the signal to Thaymas; immediately after which, he himself leapt into the house. Just a fraction of a second before Thaymas’ arrow hit his target, Prince Jared’s right elbow made contact with the soldier who was visible to King Jeraash, shattering his helmet and sending him flying across the room and rendering him unconscious. As he was sent flying, the dane escaped his hand and flew through the air into the rear room on the northern end. Thaymas’ prey now clutched his hand in pain as the first scream was heard by the party outside the house. Within the next 2/10th of a second, three other soldiers who were standing around the hostages screamed in pain as they clutched their palms.
