Knight of Endrell Book One: The Red Empire

Chapter Nine

Chapter 9

The walk to the palace was long and glazed with senseless demonization. People stood outside and popped out of their windows as Kinai passed by, shouting, "Traitor! The wrath of the dragon be upon you! I pray the emperor consumes you whole, body and soul!" They did not even know who he was or why the guards were taking him away. They just assumed that he had done something terrible without an inkling of thought other than to cast hatred at him like confetti. There was one man who saw him from a window and came outside of his house to confront Kinai. He was a big, bald, sunburned grizzly man wearing a dark grey silk shirt with the emblem of the red dragon upon the front of it, and dark grey silk pants with a large belt and armored leggings over steel-toe boots.

He came out gnashing his teeth at the captive knight saying, "I'll teach you,” he said with a deep Arabaci slur, “what happens when you offend the red dragon!" He dashed forward and clubbed Kinai in the face with a heavy right cross, just as the Gisic spy got in the way and pushed him back shouting, "No Bigsban! Not this one! He goes to see the emperor."

Kinai gave Bigsban a fearsome look, silently warning him not to do that again. "Besides," said the Gisic spy, "you see the look in his eyes? With that ferocity he butchered one thousand of our soldiers by himself. He is much too dangerous for any of you. Understand?"

Bigsban growled at Kinai but then withdrew his harsh behavior in light of Kinai's unwavering stare, not caring for his growls of retort. "Understood counselor." said Bigsban. "But if he is truly so dangerous, then how are you so certain that he won't break out of those shackles and destroy us all right now, ah? He then turned and went back into his house. The spy maintained a stone face until Bigsban was gone, then looked fearfully upon Kinai who looked back at him with a stone face. "Don't be afraid to take me officer," said Kinai blandly, "I want to see your emperor, do as you will."

The spy knelt down on one knee, facing him, and whispered, trembling, "Messenger of death, has our judgment finally come this day?"

Kinai raised his head and said with a cold expression, "Yes it has. This is the beginning. The actions of your emperor will determine how it ends."

The spy stood up, ready to move on toward the palace, and while pulling off, said, "Archmother, have mercy on us."

When the guards brought Kinai about half of the way, they entered into the palace district of Mem-Cortizine. This district was dressed with tall Romano-mayan style temples, theatres, gardens and courthouses with high standing torches, ever burning beside the entrances to the temples. Mem-Cortizine was formatted around the palace as a circle within a circle, spanning two miles in diameter. Within the inner circle stood the palace itself while the politicians' quarters, soldiers' barracks and grand houses stood along the ring of the outer circle, with  the temples, theatres, and courthouses spread out in the space between the outer and inner circle. Everywhere Kinai looked, great masses of all kinds of soldiers marched the walkways, some accompanied by members of the Monte Farasus in groups of forty. Men of commerce sat in open theatres going on about their business talk, and politicians likewise met in courts and villas discussing their politics. This of course, was not unlike Endrell, where Abomin had his new castle built in the center of the city.

Now with the palace of Gis in full view, Kinai saw the walls of the prisons on the right side of the palace (Kinai's left) with its few doors and many Gisic patterns after the nature of the scales of the red dragon. The prisons were an obvious sight since prison guards could be seen dragging long rows of captives linked by chains along the walls, leading them into the prison doors. Instead of windows there were clusters of high watchtowers with many levels, and bridges leading from one tower to the next. The prisons extended out from the palace to one thousand square feet and stood one thousand seven hundred feet high. Looking towards the foot of the prison side of the palace, Kinai noticed a sewer passage closed off by a portcullis gate of heavy iron cross bars, guarded by two very large soldiers with built bodies, wearing iron helmets, gloves, boots, and loin belt. They were armed only with swords that were much like giant butcher knives and each were accompanied by two big tiger-like creatures with scales instead of fur.