“Oliver, you cannot peep into the king’s court. If they see you you’ll be put in the dungeons for your lifetime.” As George closed the door I saw a lady going into the court. But I couldn’t see her face. The passage was narrow and dark. We had to walk one behind the other. There was single torch blowing at the entrance. George took it and started walking.
“George, how do you know this place? Does everyone in this palace know it? Is it safe? What if the guards were standing at the exit?” I poured these questions.
“Stop it Oliver. First I’m from this palace. So I know every inch of this palace. Second, just the three of us me, Elisa and Adam know this way. Maybe the person who built the castle may know it. there will be no guards at the exit. No more questions. Just walk.” As he finished talking we arrived at the exit. George slowly opened the door and we came out. The court was so bright that I was blinded for a few seconds when I came out. Then everything came into focus. We were standing right at the back of the throne. There was a screen near us. We went and hid behind it. I was staring at the court with awe. So George literally pushed me to the screen. There were ten chandeliers at the ceiling. Each one had thousand candles emitting bright light. The walls were painted white. We were at least two floors above the ground. There were paintings on the wall. I recognized the king on those paintings. Now the throne near Adam was occupied by the lady who entered the room when we entered the passageway. Adam was talking to her. I was shocked on seeing her.
“Hey, is that…” I started to ask before that someone blew the horns.
“The king is coming.” George said. To the right side of the lady a man was sitting. I recognized him.
“George?”
“Yes? Oliver.”
“You’ve got yourself an emerald throne.”
“I like green color. So I asked the king to present me that.” Yes the George in the past was sitting on that throne. Then the king came in. He was wearing a well embellished tunic with gold work thread and on top of the tunic he was wearing a surcoat. It had the emblem that I had seen on William’s armor, a two-headed shark. The king came to his throne and said
“Let the court begin.” First a man so lean came in front of him and said
“My lord, there’s a serious water problem near my agricultural land. My crops are dying of thirst, my lord. I request you to build a well near my land, my lord. I cannot see my crops dying.” The man started weeping as he spoke. He knelt down to the ground and wept. The king ordered one of his soldiers to make him stand and he said
“A well will be dug near your land tomorrow before first light and this is my promise. I don’t like breaking promises.” He was really a nice man. Many problems were laid before the king like water crisis, land crisis, theft, murder and many more. ‘The time has changed but the problems are not changed. The only difference is that solution was given to every problem in minutes here but in my century it takes twenty years.’ I thought to myself. All those thieves and murders were sent to the dungeons. Finally George said
“Here comes our case.” As soon as he said it three men walked into the court. They were dressed in black clothes and had long beards. A red colored ribbon was tied on their heads. They came and stood in front of the king and bowed. One of them asked
“My lord, my name is Martin and these are my companions and we come from a nearby city called Leicester. Will you satisfy our needs, my lord?”
“Justice will be given to those whose problems are real. Tell me your problem. What is it?” The king replied.
“Your king speaks really well.” I said to George. Eva was so silent that I forgot she was there. She was staring at Adam and the lady.
“You okay?” George asked.
“Yeah” she said plainly without taking her eyes off Adam. The man continued
“My lord, the problem is that we want you to save us from our king’s rule my lord. I know it is a lot to ask but our people are suffering. We can’t bare to see it.”
“Wait. You want us to wage war on your king? Who’s your king?” Sebastin asked.
“My king’s name is Augustin, my lord” the man replied. I was shocked on hearing it. my mind forced me to think that I heard him wrong. But I didn’t. The man was very clear in saying his name. There was complete silence in the court. Then the king said
“Augustin? I heard he is a good man.”
“NO! My lord. Augustin is definitely not a good man. He does cruel things, my lord. He collects seventy percent of our work as tax. Even in the difficult times he collects sixty five percent and says he has reduced the tax because of his pure mercy. The ones who could not afford seventy percent go to the dungeons or gets hanged or burned in the centre of the city. The worst thing is that they suicide, thinking that the death that comes by suicide will be less painful than the death that comes by the punishment of Augustin, my lord.” The man said.
“Who are you people? Are you some kind of protesters or something?” Sebastin asked.
“Yes, my lord. We are the red rebellions of Leicester. We protest against the king’s cruel activities, we collect people who are willing to join us. We help those people who cannot pay the tax. But we cannot continue our work for long because we are running out of things to pay as tax and our brothers are killed very brutally, my lord. Actually he doesn’t kill them directly. He plucks their eyes off and takes them to the forest and allows them to wander in front of a lion’s cave or a tiger’s cave. We do not have a permanent place, my lord. At the beginning we had almost fifty to sixty men but now there are barely ten of them and we cannot afford to lose more. Please help us, my lord. Please help us. I’m begging you” the man finished.
“Red rebellions? What kind of name is that?” I asked George.
“Shh. That doesn’t matter” he said. The king was silent for a long time. Then he said
“Okay, we’ll help you. But before we wage war, I’ll send three of my best warriors to see the conditions. It’s your duty to keep them safe. They will gather information and they’ll send to me. I’ll see the condition and decide whether to wage war or not” Sebastin said.
“Thank you, my lord. Thank you so much. Can I know who the three warriors are, my lord?” Martin asked.
“Adam Kreiger, Elisa Bethalia and George Davies” Sebastin said without hesitation and then he continued “these three are my most powerful and faithful warriors. I’ll send them. You can stay here in this palace tonight and depart to Leicester in the first light. But if they find a single act of betrayal, your heads will become a snack to my pets”
“No my, lord. That will never happen. I swear, my lord. I swear!” Martin exclaimed. The king turned towards Adam and the others and said
“Now you three, go and gain as much as information as you can and keep sending messages about the condition of the people.” Now I got the clear view of the lady’s face. She was Elisa and she looked exactly like Eva. My mind was gathering something but there were many lost pieces.
