Be the Hero (Book I)

Chapter XXIII | Fulfill the Prophecy

Pharaoh's Castle

It was destroyed. The castle was pillaged by the kingdom itself. Many soldiers died and peasants too. It was all for the sake of freedom from Pharaoh's ghastly rule. Surprisingly he survived without a scratch and took his remaining army and any weapons with him. One may ask how he managed to keep his army with him--it was magic. 

   A hallucinogenic drug known as pharaoher named after Pharaoh obviously, was used to control the soldiers for a set amount of days.  The more you were instructed to take the more time you were almost worshipping Pharaoh.  Some soldiers or any military position weren't as affected as others.  He had forced them against their will to take extra after he established plans for war on the Land Without Magic. 

  He saw it as an easy target.  No magic against hallucinating soldiers was certainly a strange fight.  He knew that the tribe had been stationed in that land and had thought Benjamin Ainsworth might be there.  But that wasn't the prophecy.  The prophecy wanted the evil sorceress to cower, not be hurt or killed.  But, Pharaoh had a very dangerous hamartia--a fatal flaw--and that was blood lust.  

The dastardly king paced back and forth as he over looked his new Court of Justice. It was not a court for legal purposes but it was for military. He wanted his people to believe that the CoJ was something that fought sunshine in a time of darkness. In reality the CoJ received far more pharaoher, but one decided to trick the king into thinking he was taking the drug.

He was established as the new Captain and replaced Second Captain Willaim who was killed in the civil war. The new Captain said his name was Wilson of Harogorc--a town at the bottom edge of the kingdom. The king didn't even bother to check the census for a "Wilson of Harogorc". Perhaps it was a homegrown pseudonym. He was a battered looking man. Defeated, exhausted, and lonely. His blue eyes once sparkled with youth and positivity, but after he was drafted into the army those eyes turned into pits of despair.

Next was his three Sirs: Sir Forrest, Sir Damon, and Sir Thomas. Forrest was ruthless even before he was drugged with pharaoher. He did love once, but it failed miserably and his ex-wife took custody of his son. Damon and Thomas were brothers closer than any other siblings.  They'd die for each other because they promised to their parents that they would protect each other. 

   Just as his Court of Sirs, Captains, and Dukes settled down the king started speaking.  "You boys know the prophecy, aye?" He asked and the CoJ nodded. 

   "It wants me--the great King Pharaoh--to have this evil sorceress cower before me!  That is not enough, no, no!  Benjamin Ainsworth--I suppose you've heard of him.  He was with this dark-haired lady, that the artists had drawn for me.  She seems beautiful.  Now how can a man resist someone like her?  I believe that she is our target--our evil sorceress," he said and smiled devilishly.

   "We needn't have her cower, because she and Benjamin Ainsworth are the reason I don't have the throne anymore.  She needs to die and if he loves her--God forbid--that will be far more painful a punishment than death.  A broken heart will never truly be healed, because your beating organ is so fragile, so tangible."

   "That's when we've won.  When the sorceress is dead and the man who loves her is heartbroken."

   "But what if Ainsworth were to die and the sorceress could be all yours.  Surely she can't love him," Forrest suggested receiving a smile from the king.