Execution
Part Two of the Akeldama Chronicles
F.N. HAMMACK
© 2017 F.N. Hammack
COPYRIGHT
Hammack Publishing
© 2017 F.N. Hammack
All rights reserved. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher and author, at the addresses below.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Ebook Edition
Editing by Debbie’s Editing & Proofreading Services.
Cover Design by Takecover Designs
Acknowledgements
Thank you everyone who loved the first book and are reading this one now. You have no idea how much it means to me. XD
Also, a special thanks to my fellow authors and our, “questionable conversations.” I am lucky to have found you guys.
Lots of love and hugs,
F.N. Hammack
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE:
COPYRIGHT:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
CHAPTER 1:
CHAPTER 2:
CHAPTER 3:
CHAPTER 4:
CHAPTER 5:
CHAPTER 6:
AUTHOR’S NOTE:
AUTHOR BIO:
Chapter One
SULIT
(adj.) something that is worth it.
Rhys Thierry
She was alive! She was really-truly-physically alive!
That single thought repeated itself over and over again in my mind as I crept through the halls of the castle. Cassius had guards stationed everywhere, making it nearly impossible to move about unseen. Nearly being the apropos word.
Unfortunately for him, I grew up in this castle and knew every nook, cranny, and secret that this ancient place held within it’s stone walls.
I could sneak around blindfolded if I had to and not get caught, which made me the perfect person to infiltrate the castle. Aside from Aramis that is…that bloody bastard could get in anywhere. Even if he was currently as mad as a loon…when he wasn’t drowning at the bottom of a bottle.
Grief made even the best people fall into the abyss of never-ending madness and Aramis was already halfway there to begin with. Sienna’s “death” was just the icing on the cake. Simply put, he was unstable and in times of war, that got people killed; which was precisely why I volunteered to be the one to go undercover in the castle.
Had Aramis come…well…the chances of survival wouldn’t have been in his favor. And, I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t let him die.
Not for his sake.
Or even Soren’s…
To be honest, I didn’t care about either one of them as far as I could throw them; but, she loved them and for her I would make damn sure those imbeciles stayed alive.
Every letter that she had sent me after I had left the kingdom had been about them to some degree. She had written of the various gifts Soren had created for her and the many midnight adventures that Aramis took her on. She had written of their secret romance that had turned into the scandal of the kingdom.
I had forced myself to read every single one of them.
I had forced myself to keep them even though the words within had brought me pain.
And then, I forced myself to reply and tell her nothing but lies.
For two whole years…two long, long years, I stood back and watched her be happy with her husbands. Well, I had only stuck around for the first month before venturing into the west lands. I couldn’t physically see them with her with my own eyes. I would have said or done something and then everything would have changed…
I couldn’t completely free myself of her though; ergo… all the letters.
Then, one week passed without a letter.
Two weeks.
Three.
Instead... news traveled of the siege upon the castle.
The traveling bard had spoken of the King and Queen’s deaths, as well as half of the castle’s inhabitants…my parents and brother included. My father had been the King’s head advisor and my brother a royal guard.
As soon as I had heard the news of the siege, I knew they were included in the victims. No usurping king would keep the retainers of the previous one. Aside from that, my family was known for our loyalty to the crowned family; going back generations. Where there had been a Akeldama, there had been a Thierry hiding in the shadows ready to kill on their behalf. Though, in the last couple of generations, the Thierry’s had moved away from their assassin origins and taken up the roles of the king’s guard. Our families had been intertwined for as long as anyone could remember. A fact that no usurper could ignore.
I had come home immediately, praying to the gods for Sienna’s safety because the bard had been unable to tell if she had been one of the executed.
I had arrived in Akeldama during the depths of night and gone to the one man who I knew would have all the information that I needed. Old Man Jenkins might be blind, but he heard everything. The batty old man had ears like a fox, able to hear a pen drop from miles away. Once again, my faith in his abilities was proven true.
He told me where to go to find the remnants of the guard. They were scattered in the forests outside of the capital village, Balisia; struggling to evade the numerous hired mercenaries that Cassius had ordered to hunt them dog like rabid dogs.
Then he had told me to find the local witch, which is where I found Aramis in a drunken stupor with tear stains on his face and incoherent mumbles and Soren, unconscious with what should have been a fatal wound to the gut.
Turns out the witch was Aramis’s twin sister…
A witch was now related to the royal line.
Bloody fantastic…
But that was only a passing ire at the time, all I was really concerned with was finding Sienna. And when I found her, I would no longer stand aside and leave those two fools to protect her. I should have been there, guarding her from the shadows. Had I been there instead of in the tribal lands sulking, she would have been safe. It was a mistake I would never repeat.
We spent two bloody years searching for her and establishing a rebellion to protect her. While her consorts might have believed the worst after months of no sign, I knew the truth. The heart of the land was still beating, which meant that Sienna’s heart was too. As the last heir of the bloodline, had she been dead, the land would have been as well. And though the land was clearly sick, it was not dead.
Not yet.
Until that last leaf had fallen from the last tree, I would have held out hope. I would have continued to search. I could do nothing less.
My heart had nearly burst from my chest when I had seen her in that dungeon moments ago. We had searched through the dungeons several times during the last two years and she hadn’t been there. I hadn’t expected to see her there today either, and the shock had nearly killed me.
All I wanted to do was hold her and I had, had every intention of doing so…until she flinched.
She had shied away from me as if I were in league with the usurper…as if I had betrayed her. That one small, instinctive movement had broken me.
I turned the corner and stepped into
the queen’s private library. This had been Sienna’s mother’s favorite place to come and just breathe. The queen’s library was extensive; though unlike the political and numerical journals in the king’s study, the queen kept books of fantasy and mythology. Books of impossible adventures and fairytale endings. Things that offered an escape from the trials of royalty. It was her guilty pleasure and she could often be found curled up on one of the little nook beds with a giant tome in her hands. As this was her private sanctuary, only family was allowed entry.
Fortunately, Cassius had thought the queen addle brained and had no interest in her private library. It remained the way it had always been.
Smirking, I walked to the massive painting of the mountains surrounding the castle and placed my hand on the fourth marble brick next to the bottom of the portrait.
Snick.
I waited until the hidden passage door opened fully before stepping inside the dark tunnel that would lead to a small one man cave a three-hour’s walk from the castle’s grounds. Grabbing the unlit torch from the wall mount next to the passage entrance, I used my firestone to ignite a flame. Then, I turned and tapped the second brick from the ninth row, closing myself inside the tunnel.
When the tunnels had been created, the maker hadn’t wanted his adversaries to use them as a way to sneak into the castle, so they were a one-way trip. You could leave but not enter.
Unfortunately…
We could have used that advantage right about now.
With a heavy sigh, I ditched the guard’s armor. It wouldn’t do for anyone else to see me in outside of the castle. Left only in my pants and a thin undershirt, I began the long trek to the resistance camp.
And without fail, memories of Sienna overtook my mind.
*********
“Please, Sienna! Don’t tell!” I pleaded, wiping the tears from my eyes while trying desperately to hide the shards of glass under the furniture. Mother would be so angry with me.
“It will be okay, Rhys. I promise.” Sienna placed her hands on her thin hips, pushed her shoulders back and raised her chin in the air. She looked exactly like the Queen when she did that.
Just then, their mothers walked through the doorway and saw the two of them next the shattered vase. I swallowed nervously, shifting on my feet.
“What have you done?! That was a gift from King Masaari!” Lady Ana, my mother, yelled as she stormed over and grabbed my hand pulling me to my feet. I hung my head in defeat; I would be whipped for this.
The Queen, Sienna’s mother, silently stepped next to them and frowned down at Sienna disapprovingly before placing her hand on my mother’s shoulder. “It is just a vase, Ana. I will not demand recompense for a vase.”
“My Queen,” Mother said, bowing her head, “I cannot accept your leniency in this matter. My son must learn how to behave in the presence of royalty. He destroyed something that is irreplaceable--a symbol of the diplomatic truce between our people. He must face his punishment with honor or else shame our family.”
“Very well,” the Queen said with a composed face before raising her voice and calling for the guards stationed outside the room.
I tried to stop crying, Father said boys my age don’t cry. I had already upset mother; I didn’t want to upset him too.
The guards entered the room and stood tall before the Queen in unison, patiently awaiting their orders.
The Queen sighed heavily, glancing at Mother one last time before pursing her lips and gesturing at me. “I demand that Rhys suffer ten lashes for the destruction of royal property.”
Without objection, one of the guards stepped forward as the others backed away. Two guards broke from the rest and held me by my arms. They turned me so that I was facing the opposite direction and then ripped my shirt from my back, exposing my skin.
I held my breath; scared to move for fear that it would make the coming pain worse. I closed my eyes and waited for the first lash.
Suddenly, Sienna ran up and pushed the guards away from me, standing in front of me like a predator protecting her cub. She glared at my mother with fire in her eyes and said, “I was the one who broke the vase, not Rhys!”
Startled, I gazed at her in amazement. Why was she lying?
“Sienna,” the Queen asked, crouching next to us. She lowered her voice to a whisper so that only Sienna and I could hear her. “Do you know what will happen if you take the blame for him?”
I frowned, confused, but Sienna simply nodded her head fiercely and said, “yes.”
The Queen sighed once again and gracefully rose from her crouched position. “Guards, instead of Rhys, Sienna will receive the ten lashes.”
“My Queen!” Mother called in alarm. “That is not necessary. The Princess does not deserve such a harsh punishment.”
The Queen lifted one brow and asked, “why not?”
“I-I…forgive me, but I do not understand.” Mother said, bowing deeply.
“The punishment is the same one that your son nearly received yet you did not complain then. In fact, you encouraged it. How is my daughter different than your son?”
“She’s the princess, the heir to the throne.”
The Queen titled her head and smiled, “and, that means that she is above the law?”
Mother glance away and blushed at the veiled ire in the Queen’s voice.
Meanwhile, the Queen continued speaking in that scary voice she sometimes got. It was so finely controlled. Scary…
“As you’ve stated, my daughter is the heir and as such she will one day rule this kingdom. Royalty tends to have two paths in life; though there are the seldom excepts. They can either be beloved by the people or they can think of themselves as gods in human form, which will inevitably end badly for everyone. I cannot control the path my daughter will walk in life, but I can teach her to take responsibility. She admitted to breaking the vase, and as such she will take the punishment.” I wouldn’t have believed it possible, but the Queen’s voice got even colder by the time she had finished.
“She’s taking the blame for him.” Mother whispered.
Lifting her brow, the Queen glanced at us from the corner of her eyes before leveling a chilling look on Mother. “And in the eyes of the world, whose word holds more weight? Your son or my daughter?”
Mother didn’t respond.
Sighing, the Queen nodded to the guards.
Sienna turned around and bared her back, shooting me a wink out of the corner of her eyes. I frowned. I was the older of us! This wasn’t right.
I opened my mouth to beg them to whip me instead, but Sienna’s mother caught my eye and slowly shook her head. She placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed it gently before hardening her face and lifting her chin, watching dispassionately as the guards whipped Sienna in my place.
What felt like hours later, the Queen instructed the guards to take Sienna to her bedchambers and summon a healer to attend her. Then, she glanced at Mother and nodded towards the door in an unspoken command.
Mother started walking to the door, calling over her shoulder. “Come along, boy.”
I started after her but paused when the Queen said, “no.”
Mother froze, back stiff.
“I need to have a word with him, Lady Ana.”
Seconds later, Mother walked out the of the chambers and shut the door behind her without a word.
I glanced cautiously at the Queen, who smiled kindly back at me. The frost had melt with my mother’s departure. She waved a hand to the settee nearby and we sat.
“Tell me what just happened.” She ordered.
Uncertain, I frowned and shifted on the uncomfortable seat. “Si-Sienna got whipped because of me?”
“Yes. Now tell me why.”
“She lied?” What did she want from me?
Laughing softly, she laid a hand on my shoulder. “Relax, Rhys. This is just a simple conversation. No need to look as if you're headed to the gallows.” Smiling, she shook her head at me. “While lying isn’t preferable
, it’s occasionally a necessary evil. She wasn’t whipped for lying.” She glanced at me, waiting.
I glanced around; trying to think of something else.
Sighing, the Queen tried a different tactic. “What has your father told you of the ties between the Thierrys and the Akeldamas?”
This just kept getting more and more confusing. “All he ever said was that we were basically family; and family takes care of family.”
Aggrieved, the Queen rolled her eyes and muttered something about idiotic monosyllabic men under her breath. Was she referring to my father?
Then, she grinned and said, “I guess I shall be the one to tell you. Many centuries ago, the then Queen of Akeldama, the only Akeldama Queen in the entire history of our lands in fact, saved the life of a boy from a terrible fate at the hands of his owners who were planning to sacrifice him in the name of their gods. That boy was your ancestor. He was nameless until young Akeldama gave him a name. Thierry.”
Execution: (The Akeldama Chronicles) Page 1
