by Brandon Chen
Darien was about to step forward and order the man to stop harming the slave, but Cambyses held out his hand, halting the prince. “This is the natural order of things in our empire, Darien. In order to maintain prosperity, we must sacrifice the freedoms of a few to benefit the majority. That is how it has been and always will be. You should not interfere in such traditions.”
There was a grunt and Cambyses turned to see that the overseer had been knocked back to the ground. Standing over him was Tetsu, and he was absolutely furious. The boy gripped the limp whip in his hand and gazed down on the overseer, who was now unarmed. “I don’t think you know what it’s like to be in their shoes,” the boy snarled, raising the weapon into the air. “Do you know what it’s like? To feel the hissing whip crack across your flesh and scar you so bad that it marks you up just like a bloody painting. I don’t think you know what it’s like, otherwise I think you’d be more merciful. Maybe I should teach you a lesson, huh?”
“No! I’m just doing my job! Please! I work for Master Shazir! Don’t harm me!” the overseer pleaded, cringing in fear before the whip. “I beg of you!”
Tetsu swung the weapon downward, the whip slapping against the sand inches away from the overseer’s face. He rolled his eyes and dropped the weapon onto the dirt, ambling away from the powerless man. “Next time you decide to punish someone, make sure that you put yourself in their shoes first and decide if it’s fair.”
The overseer gripped the hilt of his whip, pushing himself onto his feet. The color had returned to his face and he smiled nefariously. “Life ain’t fair, kid.”
Tetsu spun around, his eyes bulging with rage, and was about to tear the man apart when several of Darien’s soldiers rushed forward and yanked the boy back.
“Tetsu must control his temper when he witnesses mistreatment of slaves,” Cambyses said. “I can understand where his frustration originates. It is unfair and unfortunate, my prince. But, as the overseer said, many things in life aren’t fair. At least we are able to make many happy with the services that servants and slaves provide us.”
Darien watched as Yuu comforted Tetsu by patting the boy on the shoulder and agreeing that the overseer was a prick. The prince sighed. Despite the logical reasoning his uncle had given him, he did not agree with slavery or the horrific mistreatment of the workers. After all, it already seemed like they were being worked to death and their vigorous labor came with absolutely no compensation except pain and misery. “I want to go home,” the prince said.
***
The next day, Tetsu mindlessly roamed through the halls of the grand castle of Persepolis. Usually he didn’t get terribly upset over something that was out of his control, such as slavery. But for some reason, he couldn’t get the image of the permanent scars on those slaves out of his mind. The memories of his own enslavement clung to him as tightly as his own skin. No matter how much he wanted to shake away those torturous memories, they relentlessly haunted him and it was impossible to get rid of them. Seeing those slaves get mistreated the day before only brought back the recollection of his harsh past.
Yuu had tried to convince him that there was nothing wrong with slavery and that social hierarchy was natural in flourishing nations. But Tetsu didn’t like the idea that people were being treated like animals and burdened with the hardships of a nation while a group of rich nobles gobbled away at delicious foods and enjoyed their endless sea of fancy treasures.
Tetsu wondered what Darien thought of slavery. He lowered his eyes and suddenly heard a bumping sound. He halted in the middle of a silent corridor and turned his head. The noise had come from a small doorway where a pair of stone stairs led down to the Royal Jail of Persepolis. The boy reached to his side, skimming the tip of his index finger along the rough grip of the hilt of his sheathed sword. Narrowing his eyes, he began to slowly creep towards the Royal Jail’s entrance.
Ordinarily there were three guards stationed at this entrance, making sure that no one entered the Royal Jail without authorization. But right now there was no one. The ominous silence that lingered in the jail made Tetsu uneasy, and the thumping sound that he had heard only put him more on edge. It had sounded like something hitting the ground.
Discarding his previous thoughts of slavery, Tetsu descended the stone stairway into the Royal Jail, darkness curling around him and locking him in a world of blackness. After several seconds of diving through oblivion, Tetsu spotted tiny flickers of light from lit sconces illuminating the darkness. Shadows receded from a moving light and Tetsu immediately knew that someone was moving there. Freezing completely, he curled his hand around the hilt of his sword, perfectly prepared to strike out at whoever was intruding.
“This scepter really is something.” The voice shattered the silence and echoed through the entire room. Cambyses? “Where did you get it?”
Tetsu exhaled, relieved. There was no intruder. This was only Darien’s uncle, the king’s royal advisor. He began to descend the last final steps and saw that Cambyses was indeed standing in a long hallway, with his back to Tetsu. He held a lit torch in his hands, with his red cape cascading down his back and onto the floor.
The floor was made of coarse, stone tiles. They looked loose and beaten, as if someone had taken a hammer and bashed each individual tile in the hallway. On both sides of the corridor were iron doors that led into individual empty cells, filled with nothing but darkness so thick that Tetsu’s eyes couldn’t penetrate the cloudy mist of blackness that surrounded the silent rooms. Tetsu looked down at the ground and his eyes widened, noticing that a ghostly-white hand was limp on the stone floor, smeared with blood. A body.
Tetsu’s throat tightened and he hastily slunk back up the stairs, away from Cambyses’s possible line-of-sight. His heart was pounding rapidly against his chest, so hard that he swore that he could hear his own heartbeat. Sweat had formed on his brow as heat surged through every inch of his body, making him feel as though it was a hundred degrees. He tugged at the collar of his shirt and gulped silently. Why was there a dead body down there? Cambyses clearly seemed to disregard it. Could he be responsible for the corpse?
“The scepter is an artifact from Ahriman himself,” a mysterious voice spoke suddenly and Tetsu frowned. He recognized this voice from somewhere. It was Zahir, the Magus who worked for the king. This was the strongest mage in all of Persia! “It was knocked out of his hands when the great god of darkness was defeated. This argonaut had it in his possession,” he said. There was a shivering whimper that crept from the lips of yet another person, someone who was clearly terrified. “He’s the first person to have survived a journey across the Lost Sands.”
“So he’s from eastern Dastia? Why, a journey there would take us months. If we even survived that long,” Cambyses said. “So then, adventurer, tell us. What’s it like over there?”
“C-Completely different, sir,” a man’s shaky voice croaked out. He clearly was scared for his life and the strain in his voice seemed to indicate that Zahir and Cambyses had already harmed him. “We have different gods, different cultures, different architectures, and technologies; everything is different.”
“Different gods, huh?” Cambyses said, amused. “If so many cultures each believe in a different pantheon then how is it possible for them all to exist? This scepter is proof that our gods are real. Ahriman, the Persian god of darkness, wielded this scepter in our ancient texts that span centuries.” There was a choking sound. “Your gods are not real.”
“B-But they are! I saw them! In the Lost Sands … they were with your gods as well…!”
“Our gods?” Cambyses frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Ahriman … he battled another god in the Lost Sands. He killed one of the gods that we worship in eastern Dastia; his name is Ares. He was slain in the desert but another Persian god defeated Ahriman, who was weakened. He … he called himself Mithra.”
Zahir burst out laughing, his guffawing echoing off the silent walls of the Royal Jail. “One of your gods bat
tled against our Persian god of darkness. Then out of nowhere, our god of war, sun, and justice appears miraculously to defeat Ahriman. Yet you, an inept weakling, managed to survive their legendary battle and flit away with this powerful scepter. Now that is indeed a tale, adventurer.” There was a snap and a body crumpled loudly to the ground. Tetsu placed a hand over his mouth, wincing. He exhaled slowly from his nose.
“We could’ve gotten more information on what’s out there in the Lost Sands. Why the hell would you just kill him?” Cambyses boomed, shaking his head in annoyance. “The adventurer must’ve had secrets regarding how he journeyed across the wasteland and survived.”
“Who cares?” Zahir smirked. “After all, we have Ahriman’s scepter. With this almighty power I can make anyone bend to my will. Its legendary strength is mine to control now.” He spoke now in a lower tone, dropping to barely even a whisper. “Now we can bring an end to this foolish king’s reign and bring about the Persian Empire that you’ve always envisioned.”
Tetsu’s eyes widened and he began to retreat several steps backward. They were planning on getting rid of the king? With this new weapon that they had obtained, surely they would use its power to assassinate the Persian lord. I have to get the hell out of here. He staggered up the stone stairway and tripped suddenly, cursing as he hit the hard stairs. Now’s not the time to be clumsy!
Cambyses and Zahir stopped talking, turning their attention to the stairway. “It seems that we have an eavesdropper,” Cambyses murmured. “Kill him.”
Tetsu saw a bright light reflect off of the stone walls of the stairway, vanquishing the shadows. The boy grunted, scrambling up the stairs as fast as he could, throwing himself out into the corridor. From the stairway behind him came a burst of fire that surged out into the hallway before flickering away. Tetsu clambered to his feet and sprinted down the corridor, his breath heavy. He heard someone dashing up the stairs behind him but he had already thrown himself around the corner, hoping that Zahir and Cambyses hadn’t seen his face.
Tetsu pumped his arms as he raced through the hallways of the castle, his heart racing rapidly. His eyes darted left and right, completely alert and ready for any magic that Zahir might cast in order to catch him. But nothing came. He bit his lower lip, knowing exactly what he had to do. He had to warn someone. But who? He couldn’t just go to the king without being summoned. He had to tell Darien first. Yes, Darien would believe him.
***
Cambyses climbed slowly up the singed stairway of the Royal Jail and out into the silent hallway of the castle. His bloodied hands were tucked into the long sleeves of his expensive garment. He turned his head and saw that Zahir was standing there at the end of the hallway, gripping Ahriman’s scepter in his hands. “Did you see who our intruder was?”
“It was the young prince’s little minion. The tiny bodyguard,” Zahir muttered. The man had long strings of dark hair that reached down the back of his head to the base of his neck. His bangs were messy and came down over his eyes, which glowed an ominous purple. His ears were hidden behind the layers of his stringy hair and he wore a black cloak that was wrapped tightly around his body, buttoned up at the front. The whole outfit looked like a hooded dress for males.
“Then dispatch him.”
“No,” Zahir said with a sly smile. “I have a better idea. Allow for us to blame this entire conversation on Tetsu. We’ll say that he’s the one who’s after the king’s head. After all, who would the king believe? An ex-slave, or his brother?”
***
“What do you mean you don’t believe me?” Tetsu exclaimed, pulling his spiky hair in frustration as he argued with Darien, who was folding his arms.
The two were standing in the Royal Library, where there were thousands of texts written on scrolls. These scrolls were rolled up and organized upon hundreds of shelves. Each shelf had a different category that was defined by the type of wood the shelf was made of. Overall, the library was just confusing, which was why Tetsu never came in here. The reason Darien was here, however, was because he had to read a certain amount of scrolls a day and absorb all the information that he read. It was said that by the time the prince became king, he would have to retain all of the information in the Royal Library. Or at least try.
“You know that I don’t believe in the gods,” Darien murmured, looking at Tetsu with a worried look. “So what if my father’s Magus has some sort of scepter that he claims is from a god? They say that about plenty of treasures. And how am I supposed to believe that Cambyses is out to get my dad? The two of them are brothers for heaven’s sake! Why would a man kill his brother?”
“Power,” Yuu said, sitting in a wooden chair, reading a scroll while listening to his two friends bicker. When the two boys looked at the noble, he glanced up at them. “Well, it’s been seen through history that some humans would do anything to obtain power. Whether it’s condemning an entire nation to oblivion, slaughtering a family member, initiating genocide, it doesn’t matter. Power corrupts. Tetsu is suggesting that your uncle is misled.”
Darien put his hands on his hips, irritated as he looked at Yuu. “And? Do you agree with Tetsu?”
“I wasn’t there. I don’t know if it’s true,” Yuu said silently. “B-But I don’t know why Tetsu would lie about something as important as this.”
Darien didn’t respond. Yuu was right. This was big, and if Tetsu was lying about something messed up like this, it could result in his execution. But why would Cambyses let something like power get to his head like that?
The door of the library suddenly swung open and a dozen soldiers swept into the gigantic room, their weapons brandished as they stormed towards Tetsu. They halted before the boy, pointing their swords at him. “By order of the king, Tetsu has been condemned to death for treason. Come quietly and your execution will be swift.”
“Treason?” Tetsu exclaimed. “That makes no sense! I’ve done nothing!”
Darien stepped between Tetsu and the soldiers, causing the Persian guards to flinch. The sight of their prince made them lower their swords, but they kept their hostile gazes trained on Tetsu. “It would seem that you were at the wrong place at the wrong time, Tetsu. I believe you.” He held out his hands and all of the guards dropped to their knees, bowing before their prince. “Disregard my father’s words! Tetsu is under my protection. If you want to execute him, you’ll have to get through me first!”
Tetsu relaxed, looking at Darien with twinkling eyes. The prince was willing to put his own life on the line to protect him? One from the slums, an ex-slave. His life wasn’t worth nearly as much as Darien’s. But the prince didn’t seem to care. For him, there was no price on a life. Tetsu smiled. If only everyone in this world was like Darien.
“D-Darien!” Yuu exclaimed, sitting up from the table. His eyes were wide and he pointed to a man who was across the room, standing next to a shelf of scrolls. The man was drawing back the string on a wooden bow, a nocked arrow aimed straight for the defenseless prince. “Watch out!”
Tetsu tore his sword from his sheath, the blade hissing as it whistled into the air. The arrow shot from the archer’s bow with a muffled twang and the projectile pierced the air, moving towards Persia’s beloved prince. The innocent boy stood with his gaping mouth and wide eyes as the spiraling arrow raced for his heart. Tetsu suddenly shoved Darien to the side and took the prince’s place, using his incredible reflexes to smash his sword against the shaft of the arrow. It exploded into a hundred pieces of wood, the metallic head and fletching clattering to the ground.
The soldiers seemed to have expected the arrow to dispatch the prince immediately. But sly smiles spread across the warriors’ lips and they all unsheathed their weapons, wildly charging straight for Tetsu and Darien like a pack of hungry hyenas.
Tetsu grunted, clenching his teeth tightly. These guys were in on the whole operation, weren’t they? He gripped the hilt of his sword tightly and whipped his blade in perfect slashes, hacking the men apart by the dozens. The soldie
rs were in a complete frenzy. They lacked grace and were utterly brutal with their offensive strikes. Tetsu expected more from the Persian guard. They were acting very oddly, as if all of their training had been sapped away and replaced with maniacal survival instinct. It didn’t take very long before the soldiers that had entered the library now lay in bloody heaps around Tetsu. Little did he notice the small wisps of black magic streaming from the lips of the fallen warriors.
The boy panted, perspiration pouring down his face. His black shirt was sopping wet from the heat of battle, yet his expression was cold as ice. He looked down at the corpses that stacked up around him and the puddles of blood that were forming rivers through the library. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a white, clean cloth. Tetsu wiped the crimson-red blood from the sharp blade of his sword, staring at his weapon so he wouldn’t have to gaze upon the corpses of the men he had just slain.
“T-T-This is insane!” Yuu stammered, grabbing his head as he stared at the cadavers that were scattered all around him. He was hiding underneath the wooden table, his lips quivering with fear. His hands trembled and he was shivering as if he were in frozen tundra. “Y-You just killed all of those soldiers....”
“What else was I supposed to do?” Tetsu barked, turning to face Yuu. He threw his bloody cloth onto the ground in frustration and jammed his sword back into its sheath. Sorrow was reflected in his dark eyes. “They tried to assassinate Darien! These guys are the real traitors. Something crazy is going on right now and we need to get the prince to safety. Then I’ll confront Cambyses and handle things.”
“No, I’ll go with you,” Darien said.
“It’s dangerous, Darien. You guys shouldn’t get involved.”
“Shut up,” Darien murmured, reaching to pull a dagger from his belt. He twirled the small weapon in his hand and exhaled. “We’ll do whatever we can to help. I’m not letting you go through this alone.”