The Story of Evil: Volume I - Heroes of the Siege (29 page)

Ty was able to reach up and rub her back. He tried to comfort her, but didn’t think about the burns she had received from the phoenix. Kari winced and awkwardly flinched away from his touch. At first Ty thought he had offended her, but then he saw that he had hurt her. “It’s okay,” Kari said, before he could apologize. Ty felt like an insensitive jerk for causing her pain.

Kari felt bad that Ty felt bad.
All he was trying to do was help. He’s caring and sensitive.

The only thing Ty could do was keep encouraging Kari that it would all be over soon. The fact that they stood in the same claustrophobic conditions for two more hours proved him a liar. The huge yellow-orange sun was beginning to set behind where they stood.

Monsters were everywhere Ty looked. Probably two-thirds of their entire force was stationed around the courtyard. There were thousands of monster archers along the castle wall. Some aimed in toward the courtyard while others aimed toward the large group beyond the castle wall. A security line of all types of monsters with every weapon imaginable stood at the front of the crowd on the steps of the large stone platform that led into the castle. Featured front and center on the platform was a wooden gallows.

Ty’s focus, along with everyone else’s in the courtyard turned to the front doors of the castle when they were opened, and the portcullises were raised.

Ty knew the man who walked out the moment he saw the color of the armor. In a full suit of bright white armor, Prince Silvanus strutted out onto the platform. The Prince
always
wore white. Normal clothes, ceremony clothes; Prince Silas had ridden a white horse and wore white armor in every single one of his exhibition jousts, and today was no different.
He wears white so that he can look majestic, stand out, and be noticed by everyone.

Ty heard a rumor that an elderly castle seamstress had asked him why he liked the color so much. Supposedly, he felt her tone was mocking him. He got angry and cut off the woman’s hands so she could never sew again.

There is a legend of a White-Armored Warrior. Perhaps Prince Silas wants to steal that name for himself. The White-Armored Prince.

The physically strong prince that lacked charm and charisma walked forward with a brazen confidence. He stood next to the gallows and looked over the huge crowd of civilians. Everyone was able to clearly see him from anywhere in the courtyard. The setting sun caught the reflection of the golden crown he was wearing.

“Silence!” the prince yelled, even though very few people were talking. Ever since he was a child, Silas loved being the center of attention. He was a spoiled brat of a boy then, and now, at nineteen, nothing was different. His need to always be in the spotlight had only gotten worse with age.

“Silence!” he screamed louder. Other than a couple of people still quietly sobbing, there was no noise at all except for the crackling of flames. For no reason whatsoever, the prince made one swift motion to the monster archers on the walls.

Thousands of arrows rained down into the crowd. Everyone ducked down and covered their heads. The women and children started screaming in fear.

Ty covered Kari. Cassandra covered Lucan.

When the sound of arrows whizzing through the air and pelting into people stopped, everyone stood up. Luckily, none of the four had been hit. The woman standing in front of Ty had been hit, and she stayed down on the ground. Ty bent down to examine her injury, but she was already dead. The long arrow had pierced through her hand and penetrated through her eye and into her head.

After a couple minutes of screaming and crying from people who had lost loved ones, the crowd stopped and gave their undivided attention to Prince Silas. He unsheathed his golden sword and lifted it up for the crowd to see.

“The Aurelian Sword” Ty said out loud to himself.
If he has that it can only mean one thing…

The prince poked the tip of the blade down into something round that lay in front of him on the stone platform. He held it up for the crowd to see. At first, only the people in the front part of the collected crowd could see what it was. Many of them screamed and yelled in shock, terror, and despair. Ty realized it was the head of a Human.

“I present to you, your beloved KING!”

Chapter 24

The middle and back part of the crowd gasped. Cries filled the brisk night air.

King Zoran, the one who singlehandedly killed Draviakhan, who built Celestial from the ground up, who reigned over his kingdom consisting of all the cities of Element, and who ushered in three decades of a global peace never known before, was dead.

“One man with one sword killed one five-headed dragon and suddenly the world changed. Celestial was built, and a kingdom was born. But that man is now dead. And with it you lose your city, your kingdom. How can the life and death of one man cause so much change? Did you know you were this fragile?” The prince shouted as loudly as he could to be heard by as many people as possible.

“I always knew this day would come eventually. I dreamed of it since I was a child. I don’t know what makes me happier: the fact that he is dead, or the fact that I am now the king? I hated the man you people loved. How many times have we all heard the legend of his famous defeat of Draviakhan? I grew tired of hearing that story. Answer me this: What is the point of that legend if this is what it has led too?

“People expected that I, as the next king, would be just as noble and heroic as he was. At first, that’s what I expected of myself too. I’ve always dreamed of myself as the future king, protecting Celestial from any and every monster. When I asked my grandfather if I could learn how to sword fight and join the warriors he said, ‘No. It’s too dangerous.’ I was never allowed to do anything I wanted to do.

“Zoran kept me trapped inside the castle walls, forcing me to learn manners, relations between the four races, and politics. I just wanted to be king already and be the one in control of my own life. Even though I was the prince, I was powerless. So I spent my time gambling, drinking, and spending quality time with the willing ladies of this city. I figured if I had to wait for his death, I would have as much fun as possible in the meantime.

“And then one day, a couple months ago, I finally found a way to break out of the waiting. My father came to me. The man who Zoran told me was dead was still alive. No longer was his identity kept a secret to me. My father told me that the evil god believes that I am the one who will fulfill the ancient prophecy hidden in this very sword I carry.” Silvanus waved the sword through the air to show off his newest prized possession.

“After meeting my father and learning about my part to play in the planned siege of Celestial, everything made sense to me. I realized the monsters were just like me. All of their lives, they too feel trapped and are only seeking a way to break out of their miserable lifestyle. I realized that my life finally had purpose. I would help lead monsters to take control of the greatest city on Element. I was given the ability to control the element of water and told that the more I serve the evil god, the more I will prove myself to him. He will give me more elements to control as I lead his forces to victory.

“And so, today, I carried out the plans my father gave me. Myself, Visuvis, and a small group of trusted monsters murdered the warriors in the four outside towers, with help from Nightstrike, before they could sound their alarm. Our monsters were able to breach the outer wall and get all the way to within one thousand feet of the inner wall before we were noticed. By then, it was too late for you. We attacked with wave after wave of monsters, overrunning the warriors on the inner wall. Then we broke through and got into the city, just as we planned. And then finally, I did what I have wanted to do every day of my life. I killed the king.”

Prince Silas swung his sword upwards, launching the head of the king off the tip of his sword and into the crowd.

An angered man yelled out from the crowd, “How does it feel to betray your kingdom?”

“Kill him,” the prince calmly commanded nearby archers. The archers sent a fleet of arrows into that section of the crowd. Since most of them were not experts with the bow, they ended up killing the man, along with twenty people standing near him. The prince issued a warning to the crowd. “You do not have to like me, but you will respect my authority. Or else you will die.”

A woman on the other side of the courtyard had seen the man die, but chose to be equally defiant. “We will never respect the man who murdered our king!” The monster archers looked at their leader. The prince annoyingly nodded in the woman’s direction. Arrows rained down on that part of the crowd too, killing more innocent civilians. Ty prayed that no one around him would be fool enough to say a word.

A man dressed in a hooded black cloak, with pieces of silver armor, appeared on the castle’s balcony, high above where the prince stood. Ty realized that this was the rider of Nightstrike. The huge obsidian-scaled dragon landed on the top of one of the front castle towers and let out a blood curdling scream. It seemed to Ty like the whole crowd took one giant step back in fear.

It wasn’t Nightstrike the people were mainly afraid of. It was his rider, the Hooded Phantom. His ominous presence stood above them all. The man was pure evil and commanded the full attention and silence of everyone without having to ask for it. Even babies and children seemed to stop crying as the Hooded Phantom began to speak. His voice was slow and raspy, but very strong. It carried across the courtyard with more command and power than the prince’s voice had. Ty questioned whether or not King Zoran had even had this powerful of a voice. The Hooded Phantom spoke in a tone of hate, malice, anger, and disgust.

“I was once like you. I grew up among you. I was raised in this city. I know how you people think. I know how you act. You care only about yourselves. You think monsters are the evil ones? No! You are the evil. You are selfish. You horde food for your winters. You fill your stomachs three times a day while

the monsters starve. It shouldn’t be that way! Why should you be allowed to live a higher quality of life than the monsters? You are no better than them.

“For them, it’s a cutthroat world, survival of the fittest. They live in inescapable misery, constantly fighting for food and shelter. They fight for their lives. They live every day not knowing who to trust because the monster next to them might betray them at any second, just to live to see the next day.

“You people live in your fortified cities with no worries at all: your health, your gold, your safety, your food. You take every day and everything for granted. You don’t know what it is like to live in constant fear. It’s time you learn what fear is. It’s time you feel the pain the monsters have endured for so long. No longer will this imbalance stand.

“The evil god has opened my eyes to these truths. He has allowed me to see things for how they really are. He has made me the most powerful creation to ever walk this planet, above even the powers that the great Draviakhan once wielded. I control all five of the elements. I will use my abilities to enforce justice on those who deserve it. Monsters will finally learn the peace that justice brings when the four races are held accountable for their actions.

“There is a reason why the monsters, I, and your new king can control the elements of this world and you can’t. There is a reason why you can build, hunt, and cultivate food, but we can’t. You were created with the abilities to serve the ones with power. We are stronger than you, and you are inferior to us. It is time that you finally learn your purpose. From this moment on, you are our slaves. You will build us our houses and our cities. You will cultivate our food. You will fight and die for our entertainment. Anything we command you to do, you will do it.”

The Hooded Phantom spread both of his arms out toward the thousands of monsters in the crowd, on the walls, and hovering overhead. “Celestial has fallen. It now belongs to us. Today is only the beginning. The evil god and his creations will rule over all of Element.”

The prince continued to explain the terrible future which was in store for the civilians of Celestial. “What my father says is true. In this very sword I hold now, I saw the prophecy with my own two eyes. Monsters will be victorious, and I will be their leader. I will rule over Celestial as your new king as my father leads the majority of his endless army to take over any city, town, or village they come across. The reign of Draviakhan was nothing compared to what is to come. The kingdom will be ours. Every living, breathing creation of the good god will be held accountable. Everyone is beneath the height of my throne. You cannot run. You cannot hide.

“With father and son working together, under our organization and direction, empowered by the evil god himself, we will conquer all. The success of our siege on the capital city of this kingdom will motivate monsters worldwide and show them that if they band together, they can take over their local cities and no longer live in misery.

“All that I require from everyone is your respect. It does not matter to me whether you are person or monster. This is my command, and it will be followed by all. No one respected me as prince. BUT YOU WILL RESPECT ME AS YOUR KING, or the consequences will be severe.”

Prince Silas thought that by screaming his command, it would be more effectively enforced. All it did to the civilians was make them hate and disrespect him more than they already did.