Kalahan of Grer

CHAPTER ONE

"Princess Kalahan Adria Elrod, these are your charges," the court speak in unison announcing the punishment, " renounce your title as Princess Kalahan Adria Elrod of Grer, be exiled to the mines for a lifetime of punishment but before the mines, you must spend one year in Thana." The crowd in the courthouse goes silent, even the jury trails off at the end of the punishment. Thana was a worse punishment than death in Grer. Thana kills people more than a war could, people often begged for a hanging than to be sent there. And there on the stand, the Princess Kalahan nods in acceptance of her fate.
Queen Alandra cries out to the King to do something for their daughter but, King Malis instead slowly puts on a smirk towards his daughter. His wife cries to him in presentment but he glares at her to be quiet. The other royals in the family stay quiet in fear that what happened to the princess will happen to them, if they disagree with him, but Prince Alexzandre holds Queens Alandras hand in comfort.
The room is uncomfortably still and in silence, besides the Queen's tears, when the Judge Yal Ren directs his voice towards the Princess, " Kalahan Adria, starting today you are no longer the Princess of Grer, please follow Captain Guardsmen Jones after the sentencing to retrieve the items of interest you have that haven't been given to you by the people of Grer or the King himself. Afterwards you may say parting words to the choice of the people or your family. And then you will be given a new name, because no longer you will be known as Kalahan, Kalahan Adria Elrod Princess of Grer," Judge Yal Ren  concludes his final words and leaves the room.
The King stands up and we salute him while he and the royal family leave the sentencing room. The Queen cries out to Princess Kalahan, but the Guardsmen turn her head away from her eldest child.
"Jones, it's time," Assistant Captain Guardsmen Peters nudges me.
"Thank you Peters," walking straight ahead I stop a few feet short from the former Princess.
"We will be going now ma'am."
"..."
We walk outside into the busy Town Square. On a sunny day in July, it isn't surprising that the town is filled with people, but since a court case rarely appears these days and that a hanging will be happening, the square is completely filled with people. People are rushing to get a view of the hanging, men are trying to navigate their horses and carts through the street, and merchants are trying to sell whatever they could; even making deals because such a busy day with a lot of customers doesn't come often here. Even with the large number of people focused on the hanging, there are still some who stare at the former princess, and she notices. There are merchants looking over from their booths to stare at her, some in wonder, others with sadness in their eyes. As we continue to walk more towards the center of the square, people nudge into her on purpose, spit at her feet, and yell profanities at her and throw things at her feet. The usually tall strong woman, becomes a small girl and looks down as she walks. Putting my hand on her back, I lead her towards the other side of the square, where an underground entrance to the palace is, but also the hanging.
     Coming out from behind the crowd, "Captain Guardsmen Jones!" Judge Yal Ren calls out.
I walk towards the carriage where he is riding in and tip my hat towards him.
"Yes Sir?"
"I wanted to talk to you about something, something that we discussed earlier," he lowers his voice, "about the Queens request Kodeith."
I look over my shoulder and nod towards him.
"Ma'am, I have something to discuss with Judge Yal Ren in private, would you mind for a few minutes to head over to that guard's post for a moment?" I motion to a post with three guardsmen stationed at, near the gallows.
"...No," she replied softly. The former princess walks over and the three guardsmen nod towards me and I bring my attention back towards the Judge.
"What we discussed a few weeks ago will not be happening Kodeith, the punishment which was decided by the king is just too much. I don't believe we could help her," the judge's eyes seemed heavy as he spoke.
"I thought the punishment would have just been exile, and maybe a few days in Thana, not a whole year," I leaned towards the carriage," is there anyway we could get her out of the mines. I know it is almost impossible for someone to live a year in Thana but, is it impossible for her?" 
"I tried Kodeith, I really tried. But there's no possibility for that girl to survive even a month of Thana let alone a year. Though the mines, if the Queen can convince the King to let the former princess be allowed her sentence of a year to be in the mines, there would be a chance that she could survive."
    I nod my head slightly in defeat.
"Kodeith, they are allowing Kalahan to be allowed a safety guardsman for the first three months of her sentence. They don't want her to die just yet, which is why I'm worried. We will have to work fast for our other plan."
"Other plan..? Are you sure that we could even do that? If we get caught-"
"Then leave it to me Kodeith. I will be the one who talks, if this goes wrong, then I'll be the one to blame," I look at him, and then around us, which has gotten busier. We both nod at each other signaling that we must not speak like this anymore, here at least.
Suddenly there is a loud deafening scream, "Christyan! No!" 
Judge Yal Ren and I both turn to see where the girls screaming, and it's Kalahan. Judge Yal Ren jumps out of his carriage and we both run towards her. She continues to scream and pushes her way through the crowd to the gallow, grabbing her and holding her back, I finally see who is to be hanged.
It's Christyan Hald Myers. An assassin whom of which last week, was hair off from killing the king.