by Nick Martell
I didn’t care though. Some things weren’t worth remembering.
In the months that followed, the king sent his Ravens after every person that had ever served my family and had them branded alongside me and my siblings. Not because they were traitors but because they had abandoned children to die. In his eyes they were as monstrous as our father, who had killed one with his own hands. But, unlike us, they hadn’t been lucky enough to receive the treason brand. Instead, they were given the Sacrifice brand.
There are many stories parents tell their children to make them behave—about the once-great Kingman family, a reminder never to take anything for granted; about the gold-hoarding, children-stealing dragons and the titans who wiped them out—but they all paled in comparison to the Sacrifice brand.
At its best, it was like being an exile: a mark that showed you were not just unfit for pleasant society but barred from it. But that was at its best. At its worst, or usual, the name was literal for those that had it: sacrifice. And just like those sacrificed to dragons in stories, it meant they had no future. There was no meaning left to their lives except to die. There was no law, knight, noble, or king that could protect someone once they carried that brand. And every man, woman, and child who had served my household and fled during the riots had received it.
When I was younger, I had thought the punishment fit the crime. I wanted them all to suffer in the same way we had. I wanted them to know what it was like to watch their world burn down around them as they tried to catch the ashes of what they once held dear. All three of us had been scarred for life by those riots, as people we had lived with and cared for and loved either abandoned us or died trying to save us. At one point Lyon had been forced to kill the keep’s baker after he had come at Gwen, all thin and wide-eyed at seven, with a knife. Gwen still had the scars on her stomach from it. And then there was what I had done during the riots that had caused me to black out from blood loss… But like most of my memories from that time, they only resurfaced in my nightmares.
Throughout the years, every time someone with the Sacrifice brand died, my desire for revenge slowly faded. At first my hatred blinded me, but eventually I understood they had gone through as much as we had. Some had wanted to protect their own children, and others had made a snap decision to run when a horde of angry citizens craving blood stormed the keep. I couldn’t forgive them, but with the benefit of hindsight I could at least understand their actions. Although my compassion had its bounds. And my limit of understanding had a name: Lothar Bryson.
I stood over the oathbreaker as he held his bloody nose. He looked much like I remembered him: bright blond hair all over his body, sickly white skin, and a frame as solidly built as the Corrupt Prince’s.
“Michael,” Lothar said from the ground. There wasn’t the normal iron in his voice but a lingering whimper. His age had caught up with him, the bright blond mixing with the white that was only found in those who lived too long. “I deserved that.”
I squatted down so I could look into his eyes. “I should kill you here and end it.”
“Sadly, you need me,” he said. “I’m the only one here with any combat experience. It’s not like any of the guards who were made Sacrifices survived this long. Just women and teenagers.”
“How did the Corrupt Prince gather you so quickly?”
“We work for him. He enjoys the sight of us and thinks we’re entertaining.”
“What a waste of—”
There was a hand on my shoulder. I looked back at the girl in red. “Michael. Now is not the time.”
I returned to my feet and didn’t look at him anymore. Instead, I turned my attention to the other Sacrifices. “Anyone with combat experience, please raise your hand.”
Out of the fifty, three raised their hands confidently and then four more did so with hesitation. Half of them visibly didn’t know how to hold a spear correctly.
“That’s not ideal,” the girl in red declared.
“I’ll think of something. Chloe, can you tell us what this beast really is? Knowing if it can fly or not is important to make sure we don’t get…” I stopped myself from saying “slaughtered” and instead said “overwhelmed.”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I wasn’t privy to that information. All I know is that it’s located near a cave to the north. I’m to sound this horn when we arrive, to signal the others.”
“Are you allowed to help us fight it, or are you just here to blow that horn?”
Her silence was all the answer I needed.
“We need a plan, Michael,” Kai said. “My Sound Fabrications will allow me to get a sense of its position, but unless it has very sensitive hearing, there’s little I can do.”
“I can use my Metal Fabrications to take the brunt of an attack,” the girl in red said. “But I won’t be able to move quickly if I use it on my entire body. If it’s fast, it’ll be able to outmaneuver me easily.”
I put my hands behind my head. How was I going to do this? Without any definite idea about what we were facing, it was hard to make a plan that wouldn’t collapse within minutes.
“I can lead the hunt,” Lothar declared. “I have experience.”
“I’m a Kingman. I don’t need your help.”
“You’re a Kingman who never learned how to become one,” he countered. “Your father had studied war and military strategy for nearly fifteen years before he led his first battle. You barely have five. You have the last name, but you’re not yet a Kingman.”
“You think you can do better than me?”
“I was your father’s right-hand man through the Gunpowder War for a reason.”
I held my tongue. I didn’t want his help. Literally anyone else would be better. I didn’t want to work with the man who had betrayed my family. But I needed to survive this if I was going to make it to the king’s party. My future depended on it.
“What would you suggest, oathbreaker?”
He didn’t gloat but picked up a stick off the ground and began to draw formations in the dirt. Everyone besides Chloe and the Sacrifices gathered around him. “We’ll separate into ten groups of five, excluding you and your friends. Four of the groups will each form one line of a box formation, with another line directly behind them. Our goal will be to box the beast in with your Metal Fabricator friend so it can’t escape. If she can hold it, then we’ll have the numbers to overwhelm it. Even when half of them run away.”
“And if it can fly?”
“Then we’ll pray to every prophet that will listen that it has sensitive hearing and your Sound Fabricator friend can force it to land.”
“It’s not a bad plan. Especially when we don’t know what we’re about to face,” Kai said.
I didn’t want to admit it to him, but it was a good plan. So I didn’t. Instead we began to prepare the Sacrifices, making sure they were aware of how they had to stand and how to hold their weapons, and understood that if they chose to flee, it was imperative not to knock others over. Once everyone had been briefed about the plan, we began our march toward where the beast would be found. All the Sacrifices followed me and Lothar, while Kai, Chloe, and the girl in red took up the rear.
While we walked, there was an itch in the back of my throat that wouldn’t go away… a question I had to ask him… a question I needed answered in case he died fighting today. “Why did you leave us? Where were you that final night?”
Lothar didn’t turn his head. “I didn’t think you’d ask. I didn’t think it would matter.”
“Maybe it does.”
He began to laugh, a sickening, twisted laugh that came from his belly and made those behind us whisper to each other. It stopped as quickly as it came, and he said, “My daughter. I saved her from the rioters instead of you. She resembles Gwen enough that I was concerned they would mistake her for your sister. Which they did. They nearly killed her that night, but she survived, albeit now with a scar that runs down from her eye to her neck. You remember her, don’t you? Emelia Br
yson. She used to make up stories with Gwen that they would re-create for everyone to watch. So when you ask where I was that night, understand that night I chose my daughter over duty. As your father would have done for any of you.”
“Her life was more important than ours?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
Lothar met my eyes. His age disappeared for a moment, the younger man of confidence taking his place. “Always.”
We continued to walk under the shade of trees, no words ever needing to be spoken between us again. At least I knew what he had exchanged his honor for. He made his choice, and that was that.
* * *
We marched for miles, until we ran out of water and were slick with sweat. Thankfully, we reached without too much complaint the small knoll where the beast was supposed to be located. There was a cave that the impostor was residing in, even if we couldn’t see the Raven and Mercenary that were apparently watching over it. Chloe left to sound the horn to signal the others, and before we heard it, the Sacrifices were in position and charging the hill. They were acting braver than I imagined they would; maybe because they were finally getting the chance to relieve their pent-up anger after everything that had happened. Or maybe they thought bravery in the face of a beast would redeem them. Either way, they were brave.
Until a beast flew out of the cave with a roar that drowned out the bone horn Chloe was sounding.
It wasn’t a dragon. Not in the way they appeared in stories at least. It clearly couldn’t breathe fire or ice or lightning, or speak in a human tongue. Nor did it have hard metal scales covering its entire body—nothing to convince me that storybook dragons existed. But this thing was the closest anything ever could be to one. It had talons bigger than my hand and sharper than any sword among our group, and a barbed tail that seemed to act like a rudder as it flew. Rather than having its wings on its back, they were attached to the front legs like a bat’s were. It lacked scales, but its smooth, slick skin allowed it to speed through the air, and it glided above us, blocking out the sun. But despite being above me, I could tell it wasn’t much larger than an elephant would be.
“Kai! Bring it down!” I shouted, eyes never leaving the thing above me.
“Where is it? At least give me a—”
Before we had a chance to attack, the beast landed on the other side of us.
“About-face!” Lothar shouted at the Sacrifices.
In that moment most of them did what I expected and dropped their weapons, then ran as far away as they possibly could. Those that didn’t tightened their formation, raised their weapons, and advanced toward the beast.
The girl in red was already running toward the beast, slowing as her skin and muscles tightened into metal. Every step she took shook the earth. The beast swung its barbed tail at her and she deflected it with a flick of her wrist. She tried to grab one of the beast’s wings to hold it down, but it was efficient at squirming away. It roared so loudly whenever she hit it, my ears rang. Slowly, and with Kai’s help directing the Sacrifices, they soon surrounded the beast and boxed it in with their spears and pikes.
But no matter how hard the girl in red punched it or how it temporarily slowed, nothing seemed to be doing lasting damage. As the battle heated up and we were all drawn in, Lothar and Kai were shouting orders up and down the lines of Sacrifices or dragging away those that had been hit by the beast’s barbed tail. As I shielded one Sacrifice from a strike, splinters of wood showering us both, the girl in red shouted, “Take cover! It’s about to—”
She didn’t have a chance to finish her sentence. The beast leaned back on its hind legs and leapt over the line of Sacrifices in front of it. It landed with a heavy slam at the base of knoll and roared again.
“About—”
The beast leapt again, this time landing in the middle of the Sacrifices, snapping weapons and bones alike. The girl in red tackled its leg, dragging it to a halt before it attacked again, allowing some of the injured to get out of the way. But she couldn’t stop its tail. It whipped at Lothar and Kai, the spikes hitting Lothar in the chest while the length swept Kai along. Both skidded across the ground like stones over water.
They both lay still, and I held my breath until I saw Kai struggle back to his feet. Lothar remained flat and unmoving. I felt nothing, and that was that.
I had to do something. It was increasingly clear we couldn’t beat the beast in an outright brawl, but it had to have some weakness or vulnerability. Its eyes were likely to be one, and it was clearly vulnerable in the air—neither of which we could take of advantage of without a projectile weapon. I needed another idea. And, perhaps, I had one.
The Sacrifices were containing the beast in a circle with their spears. Its back was toward me while the girl in red held its attention, trading blows with it.
It was time to act like my ancestors and show this impostor why the legends about my family were real, while dragons were not.
I took a deep breath and sprinted toward it, picking up a fallen spear on my way. If I could vault onto its back, then I had a chance to get at the eyes. It wouldn’t be enough to kill the beast outright, but if I could blind it, then it wouldn’t be able to jump or whip its tail at us accurately. Of course—
My thoughts were cut off by the beast’s tail hitting my chest.
The shield I had carefully strapped to my forearm and the spear in my hand were nowhere near me when I landed. I was in so much pain, I didn’t even notice that I had hit the ground, my vision blurry and my head pounding. I groggily tried to evaluate my body, making sure I could move everything. Nothing was bleeding too badly.
As I tried to crawl back to my feet, I watched as the girl in red and Kai lead the Sacrifices against the beast. Kai was screaming, a high-pitched wail that sounded more animalistic than human, and the beast was hurting from it. It was cowering, retreating, as the Sacrifices stabbed it with their spears. The girl in red was deflecting all its attacks as if it were a fly she was swatting away.
By the time I got to my feet, it was bleeding, having been skewered by a dozen spears, with dozens more wounds slowing it down. There was no fight left in it as it whimpered and limped away from us. The Sacrifices surrounded it suspiciously, expecting it to swipe at them again. Instead, it just lay down on its stomach.
We had won, and I hadn’t done anything to contribute. If I couldn’t even defeat an impostor dragon, what kind of Kingman was I? Was I as much of an impostor as it was?
As the girl in red and Kai examined the beast, I made my way over to where I had last seen Lothar. If he was dead, I wanted to know. And if he wasn’t, I wanted to know how he had been so lucky.
Lothar wasn’t dead, but he was severely injured. He was standing, hand over his gut, to try to staunch the bleeding spike wounds. His shirt was soaked in blood. When he saw me approach, he said, “We won.”
“No thanks to me,” I said.
“I’d laugh,” Lothar began, “but it hurts too much. You should be happy, Michael. All this does is prove that the Kingman family is no longer needed. Others can carry the burden your family has held since Adrian the Liberator took the throne over twelve generations ago. The age of Kingman and Royals is ending… and a new generation is being born.”
“There must always be a Kingman in Hollow,” I recited as we walked over to the beast.
“Maybe in the past. But no longer. Your father decided that when he killed the boy prince. We may never know why he did, but he decided that the Royals were no longer trustworthy or needed, and that the Kingman family didn’t deserve to have absolute, unchecked power. He began a revolution, and I hope to see the end of it.”
“Your opinion means as much to me as dog shit does on the bottom of my boots.”
“One day you will see the truth, Michael,” he said. “Then you’ll decide which side you want to be on. One side will make Hollow prosperous, the other forgotten in the annals of time.”
Ahead of us, the girl in red and Kai stood with their heads together beside
the fallen dragon. I heard a stampede of horses approaching us from the south and a horde of riders emerged from the forest soon after, circling and surrounding us. The Corrupt Prince rode over and dismounted, Chloe at his side before his boots touched the ground.
“Well, look at this,” he said, hand on the hilt of his sheathed sword. “You actually managed to wound it. I am both surprised and disappointed. I hoped it would still have a little more fight left in it.”
The Corrupt Prince kicked the beast in the side, and it gave out a cry of pain.
“Adreann,” Kai said. “You can’t kill it.”
“Oh, I can’t? Why’s that?”
The girl in red stepped forward. “High Noble Ryder and I believe it to be a Toothless Wyvern. Up until this moment, it was believed to be extinct. It’s been drugged to make it more aggressive.”
“I’m still waiting to hear a reason.”
“Killing it would be genocide. It could be the last of its kind.”
The Corrupt Prince tapped his hand against his chin. “It could be. High Noble Ryder, which is more valuable to me: to have its stuffed head mounted above my throne, or have it chained in my gardens for the rest of its life?”
Kai had no immediate reply. Both options were terrible in their own way, especially for someone whose family’s symbol was a dragon. For him, this was a nightmare with no escape, not when he was in the Royal Garden and his adversary was the prince.
“What do you think, Michael?” the Corrupt Prince asked, turning toward Lothar and me. “Should I kill it or imprison it? As a child, I was always jealous of your Sacrifices. I have always wanted to have something I could kill if I wanted to. Having the closest thing to a dragon would be much better than your traitorous father’s best friend.”
“David Kingman was not a traitor,” Lothar declared.