The last of the Dragons-Set 2

286

 1 Week Later

"Rise for the Queen!" Sir Ivan commanded as Tahli and Amy escorted me up the steps.

I was led to a large, wide throne, raised by dozens of wooden planks stacks on top of each other. The throne had six additional, though smaller seats around it-three on either side. A crowd of hundreds, maybe thousands of villagers surrounded the fenced in area that the throne overlooked, waiting anxiously for the event to begin. Backed by a shallow slanted beach, rather than a sheer cliff face, the backdrop for the days event was somewhat different from what I was custom to. Tahli, Amy, Bailey and I sat down, myself on the large throne, Bailey on my right, and Amy and Tahli on my left. I gave a nod to sir Ivan. Proudly obeying my command, he stepped out into the pit and raised his hand, quieting the crowd. Sir Ivan looked to me for permission to begin the event, which I happily gave with a single nod of my head.

"Bring them out!" Sir Ivan shouted.

A group of Guards pushed their way through the crowd on on lookers, with five men in chains in their grasps. The five men were severely beaten, bloodied, and visibly shaken. The second man in line fell to his knees as soon as he was let go by the guard forcibly moving him into the center of the pit, though the guard forced him to his feet again. Sir Ivan turned and walked to the edge of the podium that stood out in front of the throne.

"You five men stand accused of conspiring to murder the newly elected Queen Jessica Albo for reasons that the five of you have chosen to keep to within your minds. That is your right. The five of you were given two opposing options. You were offered a fair trial, in which the punishment would be death for the five of you. The opposing choice you were given was to fight one another in hand to hand combat to the death, until only one stands. Whether or not you are, in fact guilty, is not taken into account should the second choice be selected. The five of you were ordered to vote. Three of you selected to fight, so a fight to the death is what you will partake in on this day. Should you refuse now, you will be put to death. The man who stands by the fights end will be pardoned of his crime, and released-with no trial that determines guilt, or innocence. Queen Albo has ridden on horse back for three days to attend this event in the comfort of your own home village camp. You lot best be grateful." Sir Ivan exclaimed.

"But sir I didn't d-"

"Shut up!" One of the guards shouted as he struck the man in the leg.

The men crippled as he fell to the ground, before forcibly being stood back up by the guards. Sir Ivan chuckled, before he spoke once again.

"Now then, shall we begin?" Sir Ivan said with a powerful voice.

The five men said nothing. I gave Sir Ivan another nod, which he followed up with by nodding to the guards. The dozen or so guards removed the prisoners chains, and pushed the five of them into separate sections of the fighting pit. Several more guards came forward with five shields, five daggers, and five swords-giving one of each to each prisoner. The shields were small, oval in shape with a dull grey metal surface, its small size barely enough to cover more than just a torso. Sir Ivan turned to me and nodded, before returning to my side.

"Let the trial begin!" He shouted.

The crowd began cheering, prompting the men to attack one another. The five of them looked terrified to engage one another, unwilling to die fighting for their freedom. After nearly a minute of uneventful shouting from the crowd, one of the men ran at another, across the pit-shouting as he held his sword up above his head. The crowd roared as the first man swung down at the second before a third man engaged in the fight, quickly dropping his sword to the ground as he attempted to swing it-his grip unable to hold its cold handle. The first two men turned on the third and drove their swords deep into his chest, pulling them back as blood gushed out onto the dirt ground. The man stumbled back before collapsing into his own blood as the remaining four men continued to swing at each other. One of the four men slipped in the blood of the first, falling to the ground as a second bore down on him with his sword-the remaining to still wildly swinging their blades at one another behind them. 

"Get 'em! Get 'em!" I heard one woman from the crowd shout.

The two men on the ground wrestled in the blood pool, rolling away from it as they both lost grip on their swords. Eventually, the man who had managed to slip in the bloody dirt managed to pull his dagger from his belt, and drove it into the shoulder of his opponent. The man fell to the ground as he grabbed at the wound, before putting his hands up to prevent another stabbing attack. The man with the dagger drove the blades hard iron tip through the mans hand, pulling the blade up through the mans hand and out between his fingers, cutting the middle finger off. In shock, the man put up no further defense as his throat was slit open, spilling his blood out onto the ground. 

Shocked at his victory, the killer ran at the other two who were still fighting one another. One of the men fell with a swift strike from the others sword, before the two killers turned on one another. Surprisingly, the man with the sword would fall as the dagger holder under-arm threw his dagger towards the sword wielders head, sticking into his skull at an angle, right between the two eyes-dropping the man to the ground. Dumbfounded, the victor stumbled his way over to the throne I sat upon, and stood, silently, waiting for instruction. Sir Ivan stood up and walked towards the podium.

"You stand as the victor of this rather brutal engagment between five suspected assailants of the Queen. As victor, you are hear-by pardoned of your suspected crimes, and are free to leave at your own will." Sir Ivan exclaimed to the lone victor, before he then turned to me and gave me a nod. 

I returned the nod, before standing and making my way back towards my guards as Doron suddenly appeared from the clouds over head-with the others soaring just off the beach. The now dispersing crowd looked up at the dragons soaring over head, pointing excitedly as the beasts beat their wings down on the air.

"We don't have time for this pompous trash. If any others wish to make an attempt on my life, I'd prefer they have their attempt." I said as Doron circled around and landed off in the distance, with Ragon close behind.