Displaced

Chapter 60

Dozens of bodies covered the polished stone floor, each of them coughing, hacking, dying. Some grabbed their throats as if choking, while others just writhed about in agony. A few managed to make it to one of the two doors connecting the hall to the rest of the palace and clawed desperately at them but both were locked tight. In the middle of it all stood one confused, terrified, and despairing child who barely noticed any of this; she was too busy staring at the blade of the only person she'd come to trust in the last year as it dripped with the blood of her king.

A shrill, high-pitched shriek of terror pierced through the cacophony. "Ramad, no! Guards! Guards!" the Queen cried, backing away from Sebastian as he used his foot to shove her husband's lifeless corpse off his sword and onto the ground.

"Your guards are dead, woman. I killed them myself when you were busy gossiping about who had the best hair," the towering knight sneered. "Screech all you want, nobody's going to show up."

"Sebastian, you traitor! After all that we did for you, this is how you repay us?"

"And what, exactly, did you two do for me? Give me the honor of being a glorified nanny? That's what I always hated so much about you, you pathetic woman. To you, serving the nobility is the greatest height any commoner like me could ever hope to achieve. I regret to inform you that I humbly disagree."

"I'll have you strung up by your own entrails!"

Sebastian just laughed. "A little bit late for that, wouldn't you say? It's already over. The Ubran Legions will begin their assault on the border at any moment, and anybody who had even the remotest chance of organizing a resistance is now dead. The death blow has been struck. Ofrax will end."

"You...! Die!" Queen Terassi howled, pulling a decorative sword from a nearby wall and she exploding towards the now-former bodyguard. She moved so quickly that her body practically blurred in Arlette's vision, but Sebastian seemed entirely undaunted. The royal mother's strikes came at him in a flurry as she unleashed her full fury towards him, but not a single one struck. While the Queen's body was moving so fast that Arlette could barely keep up with her countless blows, Sebastian's movements were steady, deliberate, almost slow. His sword floated about lazily yet was always just where it needed to be to parry the woman's blade.

"Such power is wasted on you," Sebastian groused as he easily ducked beneath a sword slash. Suddenly the fist of his empty hand slammed into the Queen's gut just under her ribs, dropping her like a rock. He casually kicked her sword from her hand and across the room. "If you'd bothered to train yourself, well... you still wouldn't have touched me, but you would have at least made this a little entertaining."

His foot shot forward and delivered a brutal kick to her stomach, causing the woman to vomit up her last meal all over her face and dress.

"You bastard!" she coughed. "You will rue the day you-"

"Give it up," Sebastian interrupted. "You've already lost." With casual ease, his sword flicked out and sliced the tendons in her left knee. The Queen screamed, then screamed again as he did the same to her right knee. She tried in vain to get up, but no longer could move her lower legs. He smiled and sliced her arms at the elbows as well.

"Kill me and get it over with then, traitor, so I can finally join the daughter you took from me," she hissed, an unending hatred burning in her eyes.

"Oh no, I couldn't do that," he replied, grabbing her by the back collar of her outfit and dragging her roughly across the room like a sack of grain. He stopped right in front of Arlette and dropped the Queen's crippled form in front of her. "That's a task for little Arlette here."