The Bastard

Chapter 2

Dwayne returned home, visibly grim and charged with profound tension, bringing back his father's lifeless body. His arrival plunged the house into an even more frenzied panic, with urgent orders to swiftly pack the most valuable belongings for departure. There was no time for the family to conduct the customary seven days of mourning and bury his father properly. Alan, being considered an outsider, found himself confined to his room—the last sanctuary of their previous life, spared from the chaos of hurried packing.

He paced back and forth between his room and the tomb, alone in front of his father's stone coffin. There, he lit a candle tirelessly replacing it with a fresh one each time the previous one had burned down to the last drop of wax. Silently, he wept alongside the flame, not even realizing that he was shedding tears in solitude.

Melissa howled terribly, cursing Dwayne incomprehensibly for something that Alan had no idea about, lunging at Dwayne with her fists frantically, being thrown back by him carelessly. The stepmother, as Alan slipped back into her room unnoticed by the shadow, sat mournfully in the chair beside her husband's empty chair, staring at her trembling hands. Alan squinted indifferently at all of them, still desperately full of life despite the loss, oblivious to the passing of a beloved family member. Alan crinkled his nose in disgust, hoping his father's spirit didn't see it. Something was in the air, stirring the atmosphere, threatening to bring great change, and Alan waited indifferently, forgetting in his grief his dream to leave.

He missed the opportunity to fulfill his dream - the massive doors of their fortress were breached with a battering ram, and the courtyard was flooded with reckless horsemen led by King Hardy, whose green eyes squinting hard. Hardy looked grimly at the soldiers, who dropped their weapons obediently before him in surrender, and ordered:

"Throne traitor Dwayne Lear to me! And bring the rest of the Lears."

The bloody Dwayne was dragged out by four men, he did not give up easily, resisting until the end, and looked with angry eyes at his sire and former friend, not even denying his guilt. Alan, who had come out perplexed at the noise, clenched his fist with a bunch of red memorial candles to his mouth, seeing, and staggered toward his chambers to draw his father's lighter-than-usual sword, forged especially for his hand, but not before king's guards were rattling up the stairs to the sleeping quarters, intent on pulling him out with his stepmother and sister. He was seized at the door and dragged downstairs to the king's judgment.

Melissa rushed out on her own, folding her hands in a pleading gesture as she cast imploring looks at Hardy. He had been her frequent dance partner at balls, and she had relied on his mercy and reciprocity until her elder brother betrayed the king.

"Your Majesty, have mercy!" Melissa exclaimed, throwing herself to her knees and carelessly scattering her lush silk skirts. "We knew nothing, Dwayne acted alone!"

"Be quiet, silly!" the stepmother intervened, grasping Melissa's hand, silencing her with a firm hold, and then humbly bowing to the king. "I beg your pardon, Your Majesty. Could you please inform us of the accusations against my son?"

"He is accused of organizing a rebellion against my father, our king, and of murdering my father," Hardy declared coldly, staring at him sternly and reproachfully. "Your son, Amanda, was planning to sit on the throne in my place, and for that, he will be punished along with the rest of your family."

"No, I beg you, no," the stepmother pleaded, releasing her daughter and sinking to her knees. "Let him live, please, he is my only son! Take away all our lands and possessions, and we will go into exile immediately, never to return."

"I'll take your lands and possessions anyway," Hardy said with a frustrated expression as his stepmother and Melissa shrieked in unison, "Quiet!" He continued, "Your daughter and stepson will be prosecuted by court in memory of your husband, and you, Amanda, will live out your days in the castle for failing to raise your son in obedience to the throne. Dwayne will be executed."