Shepherds of Wraith: Book One

by Nyssa Renay

“Begriff?” the prince gasped.

  I’d seen this potential practically every day since I moved into the shepherds’ tower. He was the lead servant from Idol sect and had obviously been using his position to keep an eye on the prince, waiting for the right moment to act.

  “It’s actually Laureate Begriff,” he replied, snubbing his nose at the prince. “Or, rather it should be, had I not been forced to be your slave for the entire year. You stole that from me, but I can’t believe you’d understand something like that since everything has been handed to you on silver plat—”

  “What’s your point?” I barked.

  “The point is that while my second in command doesn’t believe we should kill you both and send a real message to the king, I don’t feel the same way…and neither do our partners on Telshakra.”

  “What partners?” I growled but was completely ignored as Begriff talked directly to the prince. I could see Eeliyah’s eyes pleading me not to do anything rash.

  “The defiant movement is not meant to be a violent one,” he continued. “So please, Your Highness, don’t force us to be. If you scream out or call for help at any point once we leave here, we’ll be forced to kill both of you. Understand?”

  “Yeah, I got it,” Raxis replied calmly. “But understand this. When my father catches you, your death will be violent. I can promise you that.”

  “Fair enough.” He smiled impudently and turned to the group behind him. “Okay, let’s go. The shepherds are almost done with dinner, and the cameras won’t stay down for long. The next scheduled maintenance scan will be in about ten minutes, so we have to be ready to move through the archway,” he ordered as the rest of the defiants picked Raxis and me up from the dirt and balanced us on our feet.

  They loosened the leg shackles just enough so we could walk, but they left our hands bound and threw long black robes with large black hoods over each of us. Begriff ushered us quickly through the darkness. We rushed across the academy grounds, stopping here and there to stay out of sight until we reached the Grove of Atonement.

  I could tell by the smell of fresh soil that we’d arrived. I’d seen Shepherd Diabelle working in the garden many times when Raxis and I used the archway to go back and forth to the Divine Mountain. I heard Laureate Begriff whispering orders to the others right before we were pushed through the archway and into the light. When we came out the other archway, the defiants pulled off our hoods as we stepped into the familiar long and narrow damp stone room deep under the Divine Mountain.

  “Good job, little prince,” Begriff said condescendingly, moving toward the other end of the room.

  “It didn’t work,” the prince nervously whispered to me.

  “What didn’t work?” I asked.

  “The archway. It should have incinerated them,” Raxis grumbled.

  “You’re right,” I replied, puzzled as well. I was shocked that the prince was even paying attention to his surroundings at all.

  “Tell me which key unlocks the door,” Begriff whisper-shouted as he held up the set of keys they had taken from Raxis when they captured us.

  “The long one in the middle,” the prince snarled.

  “Good,” he said, unlocking the door. “Now, you’re going to lead us out of here.”

  “To where, exactly?” Raxis huffed.

  “The royal stables…and without being seen. That’s where we’re scheduled to meet.”

  “Meet who?” I asked, yet again.

  “We’ve set up a meeting with the opposition on Telshakra,” Eeliyah offered, eyeing me carefully.

  “Wait, the rioters? You’re meeting up with them?” I asked angrily. I couldn’t believe that Eeliyah was being this reckless.

  “Enough. Let’s move!” Begriff snapped. “Remember, Your Highness, if we’re discovered by anyone, I’ll kill you myself.”

  The prince looked at me, unsure what to do.

  “Just do it,” I instructed.

  The prince led the group through some old unused tunnels that were littered with cobwebs and rat feces. It was hard not to choke in the thick toxic air, and everyone was fighting the urge to cough. I didn’t realize we had been walking in a sewer line until the tunnel led us to an opening at the rear of the Divine Mountain. Through the light of the drain bars, I saw the slow-moving river of shit run past my feet and down the side of the mountain into a putrid, black lake below.

  “This was the only way I could think of to go,” the prince said defensively. “We’ll have to climb down from here, and then we can walk the last bit to the stables. There aren’t any cameras or guards that I know of back here.”

  “I would have preferred not to smell like shit when we meet the opposition,” one of the defiants grumbled.

  “Let it go,” Eeliyah replied to the boy, who rolled his eyes in response.

  Each one of us squeezed through the bars and stepped out into the cool night air, beginning our decent to the stables below.

  -79-

  It wasn’t a large drop to the ground from the outside of the sewer pipe, but because the defiants refused to unchain the prince and me, we had a difficult time climbing down and wound up nearly tumbling down the slope. Though it was hard for the defiants to stifle their laughter at seeing our misery, Eeliyah eventually gave in and commanded a few of her followers to help us make it to the ground safely.

  The group walked for about ten minutes, nervously scurrying along in the darkness, until finally we arrived at the royal stables. Begriff instructed us to duck down as he led us through the opened doors and along the main hall of the stable. From their comfortable hay-lined pens, the old horses didn’t seem to care about our presence as they continued to eat from silver buckets hanging from the tops of their gates.

  Once we reached the halfway point of the hall, Eeliyah cleared away the straw, revealing a hidden cellar door. She pulled the rope on the handle to raise the door and motioned for us all to head down the stairs into a darkened passageway.

  Beneath the royal stables, there was a large storage room lit by torches. It was packed with a dozen older men and women. All of them wore dirty, tattered clothes and sat on one side of a long wooden table, waiting anxiously.

  “Nolmen Naverstadus, it’s a pleasure to meet you after all this time,” Begriff said proudly, shaking the hand of the man sitting at the head of the table.

  “Please, all of you, have a seat,” Nolmen offered, motioning to the empty seats at the table.

  The group settled in as Begriff placed Raxis directly across from Nolmen.

  “I’m sorry if our meeting room isn’t up to the standards of His Royal Highness, but you definitely smell like it suits you.” Nolmen laughed, the rest of the room echoing his chortles. “Since the Divine Mountain has been silent, I’m guessing there wasn’t any trouble with the cameras,” he said to Begriff.

  “No problems at all. Everything went smoothly,” he replied happily. “It was a big risk, but it paid off, right?”

  “Well, bribery doesn’t come cheap,” Nolmen grumbled. “Considering we had to use nearly all of our resources to make this happen, I’m sure you won’t mind if we take the lead from here.”

  Begriff’s once smug persona quickly became uneasy, seemingly intimidated by the defiants’ new partners. “Of course,” he said meekly. “We did our job; now you can do yours.”

  “Yes…yes, we will,” Nolmen grinned slyly in the prince’s direction.

  “What do you want from me?” Raxis asked calmly.

  “Is he serious?” Nolmen scoffed, nudging the man sitting beside him. “You’re a hostage, Sire. I know you’re not very bright, but…wow. I would’ve thought you were smart enough to figure that out by now.”

  “Yes, but for what?” I chimed in. “I understand what the defiants want, but what do you expect out of this? A ransom?”

  Nolmen looked insulted by my assumption that his motives were merely about money. He approached and met me eye to eye. “You would t
hink something like that, wouldn’t you? You’re all the same…bunch of damn leeches,” he snarled, yanking the guardian signet from around my neck and stuffing it into his pocket. “You think you’re better than me? Huh? Always treating the rest of us like shit while you sit up there in your ivory tower. You make me sick!”

  “Nolmen! We can’t stay here much longer,” Begriff blurted out, nervous and impatient. “They must know something is wrong by now. We were told you had a secure place prepared to hide them?”

  “Oh, we’ve got a place.” Nolmen grinned menacingly as he moved over toward Raxis. “It doesn’t have the lavish comforts of home like the prince is used to, but you can blame your dad for that one. He’s hiked up our taxes eight times since instituting the martial enforcement. I can barely afford to feed my family, let alone keep the broken-down roof over our heads from crumbling! But hey, somebody’s got to pay for the war, right? So, I’m going to give you a good look at what we call home these days, and then your father’s going to start listening to us, or else I’m going to cut you apart, piece by piece, and send them to him until he does.”

  That night, they took us to a house on the outskirts of Quelstren. They rushed us into the basement, and from the wide-eyed panic in Raxis’s eyes when they removed our blindfolds, I could tell he had never been in such a lowly place as this before. The only light in the basement was from the candles illuminating the ghostly cobwebs that hung from the ceiling and swayed gently in the mold-scented air. The tiny wood stove in the corner barely gave off any heat. Countless insects fed off the remnants of dried up food in tin cans strewn on the floor.

  While I’d been subjected to deplorable and oppressive conditions like this before, Raxis had never spent a single day away from the luxuries of his royal lifestyle. I could tell the prince was unsettled, but it reminded me of my family’s house and the basement where my father tried to hide me from the shepherds.

  It almost felt like home.

  ***

  We had been imprisoned for three days. I sat silently listening to the oppositionists and defiants argue and complain to each other about everything the Church and the Crown had done to them. I finally realized what Machoji meant about the riots and how the people were furious with King Lexani.

  The experience began to make an impact on Raxis as well. The reality of our situation began to sink in with him. He started asking me questions, trying to comprehend the predicament he was in and the true nature of his subjects.

  “Why do they hate him so much, Vigil?” he whispered early one morning. The others were still sleeping.

  “Huh?” I asked, half asleep. I glanced at the prince, who looked like he’d been up all night, wrestling with his own thoughts. He appeared confused, tired, and defeated. The concepts of hardship and suffering, oppression and tyranny, and life-or-death situations were all new issues for Raxis to comprehend.

  “My father. Why do they hate him so much?”

  “I don’t think you fully understand what your father does to these people.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Come on, Raxis. I’m really tired.”

  “Please, Vigil,” he urged.

  “Honestly?”

  He stared at me for a moment before responding. “Yes, I need to know the truth.”

  “Well, your dad isn’t the most cooperative person. He makes rules and laws that only benefit himself, and he gives nothing back to the people. Before I went to the academy, I lived in a place pretty much like this. These people have nothing, while you and your family have lived a life of luxury for years.”

  “You have, too,” he argued.

  “Yes, but I got lucky. I managed to land the one opportunity to improve my status in life. The oppositionists…the defiants…they’ll never have that chance. In fact, for them, things have only gotten worse. Some of these people have sacrificed everything to get your father to listen, but he ignores them and tightens the noose with his restrictions. Anyone who speaks out gets punished. Look what happened at the academy. Some potentials even died because of it. Remember that? And now these people are here, using you to try and figure out a way to get your father to listen to them.”

  “Do you think what they’re doing is right?”

  “I think their motives are right, but their actions are getting reckless and desperate. Your father has pushed these people to the breaking point, and now this is the only way they can think of to make a point.”

  “My father’s always been that way with me, but I had no idea that he was like that with other people, too. I thought I was the only one.”

  “Well, you’re not. At least you’re lucky enough to get to see your father,” I said, eyeing my surroundings and reminiscing of the happier days with my family.

  “Yeah…lucky me,” the prince said in a tone of self-pity that made me snap.

  “Dammit, Raxis! You have no idea what goes on around you, do you? When potentials are ripped away from home and sent to the academy, they are never allowed to see their families again. They’re forced to say goodbye, and then that’s it! Everything they had…what little it may be…is unwillingly given up in exchange for the chance to become a shepherd and then go off to die in some stupid war. Those are the rules for every single one of us…except for you…because your father is the king and does whatever the hell he wants.” It was hard to keep from shouting at him. A couple of the oppositionists on guard duty who’d dozed off while watching over us stirred but didn’t wake.

  “It sounds like you hate my father, too.” The prince’s tone was sullen and ashamed.

  “Honestly…yes, I do,” I snapped. “But not for the same reasons as these assholes.”

  “Then why?”

  I don’t know if it was the stress of being held captive for so long or the culmination of everything I’d been put through because of the royal family that made me explode. I thought I’d successfully buried the lifelong grudge deep down in my soul. “It’s because of him that my mother was slaughtered like an animal!”

  “Shut the hell up over there!” one of the men barked, flashing his knife in our direction as he woke up, effectively ending our conversation and waking everyone else in return.

  As the room stirred and began the day, Raxis continued to stare down at the ground.

  “I’m so sorry, Vigil,” he said sympathetically. “I had no idea.”

  -80-

  Over the next day or so, the defiants received word that the king had overseen a full sweep of the academy, interrogating every potential and shepherd there. Eventually, they singled out all the potentials who’d been punished at least once for being a suspected defiant and managed to make one of them crack under the pressure. He confessed what little information he had about how we’d been taken to Quelstren. While I felt bad for that unfortunate potential who would surely suffer at the hands of Lexani for being a traitor, I was relieved to know Raxis and I were closer to being rescued.

  The major advantage of the king assuming the prince and I were still in the hands of the defiants at the academy was now gone and Lexani’s focus was quickly shifting to my home town on Telshakra.

  “We’re running out of time!” Nolmen growled at the group sitting around the table. “I told you it was never going to work, but no…you all wanted to give it one last try. Every single ransom letter your men sent to the king was ignored.”

  “Our movement has always been to find a peaceful way to negotiate with the king,” Begriff said defensively.

  “Look where it’s got us! They know the prince is in the city! It’s not going to take long for those patrols to spot our movements and track us back here. The time to act is now.”

  “And do what, exactly?”

  “Lexani has grown detached from his people, and if he can’t effectively govern the people anymore, the people should do it themselves! We need to lead a revolt and end his reign!”

  “How the hell do you expect us to do that?”

/>   “By a show of force! The opposition has pockets of resistance all around the world. We could take away the king’s power by taking control of the distribution of food, water, and supplies he’s stealing from us to send off to the war. We could govern ourselves!”

  “Then who would lead Telshakra? You?”

  “Sure, why not?” Nolmen leaned back in his chair. “I’d be much better than the asshole we’ve got now.”

  “We never agreed to start a revolution! All we want is our freedom!”

  “As do we!” Nolmen slammed his fist down on the table. “Do you honestly think your cause can get anywhere without force? Come on, how naïve are you? Yes, you’ve kidnapped the prince, but it’s what you’re actually prepared to do with him that makes the statement about your dedication to your ideals. I think we should go with my original plan and start lopping off bits of the prince to send the right message…that we’re to be taken seriously.”

  “I don’t like it,” Begriff huffed. “If we start going down that road, then we’re just as bad as he is. There has to be a way to reason with the king.”

  “My father is not a reasonable man,” the prince commented coolly.

  “See? Even he understands what I’m saying! Why can’t you?” Nolmen barked.

  “But Nolmen,” Raxis began. “You haven’t seen what the opposition is truly up against…they have.” The prince pointed to the defiants sitting at the table. “They’re trying to keep you from doing something stupid. They’ve seen enough of my father’s power to know that if you try to use force, he will crush you.”

  Nolmen waived his hand dismissively. “What do you know?”

  “I know enough to see that you have no real weapons to fight a revolution. That’s why you needed me,” the prince said calmly as he stood up and slowly moved toward the table. The oppositionists in the room quickly unsheathed their daggers and started to get up, but Nolmen raised his hand to signal his men to let Raxis approach. “Do you really think those handmade knives and poorly crafted swords are going to be effective against well-trained guards?”