by Doug Kelly
Hauk sensed rebellion in the crowd. The crowd’s animosity for the Brills was like a thick, expanding fog that was smothering the birth of the next warlord, who had been conceived for this region’s federation of clans like an illegitimate child from an adulterous relationship.
At the bottom of the steps, Hauk began the fight by using his words rather than his sword. This warrior of many battles knew that his tongue and wit were weapons that had grown sharper with constant use, so he climbed the stairs and confidently brandished both at the top of the staircase.
“Who wants to die today?” asked Hauk.
“You must have a death wish!” yelled Trahan, as he slowly backed away from Hauk. Trahan had intended to move behind his armed guards, so they could defend him, but they had already moved to the edge of the platform farthest from Hauk. One small step behind them and Trahan would fall to his death.
“I wasn’t speaking to you, old man. You’re going to die. I’m just trying to negotiate the amount of bloodshed that it takes to kill you.”
The three guards rapidly understood exactly what Hauk had said. They turned their heads back and forth, taking quick glances into the eyes of their comrades, waiting for another to be the first to make a treasonous move. As it turned out, they simultaneously capitulated. It was obvious that they were outnumbered. They knew a fight now would be suicide, because not only did Hauk’s men outnumber them at the gallows, there were no reinforcements on the way, either. The soldiers whom Trahan had sent into the crowd were fighting a losing battle of their own against the hill people.
Like Hauk, Tig had also seen Aton’s signal and had been quick to act. From all directions, the hill tribes had rushed into the scattering crowd to confront the enemy. After seeing the hill people charge, Trahan’s soldiers, but only those who were sober enough to stand, had tried to form a defensive circle. Tig’s men had surrounded the enemy soldiers’ protective formation, and with their thrusting spears, began to constrict around the ring of warriors who were still loyal to the Brills. With each step forward, pushing their sharp spears into the fleshy mass, Tig’s men compacted the circular formation of the Brill’s opposing force so tightly that Aton’s enemies, who were on the inside of the shrinking ring, could not raise their swords or shields to defend themselves. The tribesmen kept stabbing their spears into the cluster, and lifeless soldiers peeled away from the shrinking circle like layers of dead onionskin. When the dirt under his bare feet turned to mud from all the blood, Tig ordered his men to quit. The remaining defeated soldiers, the few who were still alive, went to their knees, surrendered, and begged for mercy. Tig ordered them to leave their weapons and run away. The Brills were getting no reinforcements this day, or ever.
With his back turned to his three bodyguards, Trahan ordered them to attack, which would have been effectively ordering them to die. Under the circumstances, this was not a wise order to give to disgruntled warriors. Trahan never saw the guard who was standing directly behind him raise his sword and bring its pommel down in a swift arc, hitting the megalomaniac on the back of his skull. Trahan was unconscious before his body made a dull thud on the splintered planks of the gallows’ stage, landing like a rag doll. The crowd cheered. That was when Hauk realized that he had the crowd on his side and was performing for an audience. He took a bow for the masses.
Under the afternoon sun, the prisoner’s eyes were still adjusting to what was just normal daylight, but to them, after living in total darkness for months, was like trying to look into the heart of a blast furnace. They had heard the confrontation well enough, but did not understand what had just occurred. Months of sensory deprivation had left their minds foggy and confused. They had already accepted the fact that they were going to their execution, so that was what they expected to happen. They did not understand that Aton had returned and sparked a revolution; a revolt against the impending rule of a tyrant.
Without explaining anything to the former prisoners of the dark, dank dungeon, Hauk cut the captive’s ligatures and guided them down the steps into the welcoming arms of his men. Davin, Treva, and Briand had no idea who their liberator was. The young volunteer warriors from Tarply began to help the three prisoners wobble on their weak, shaky legs the short distance across the field to the wedding platform. They still had no idea that they were walking toward Aton. They were just glad to be alive.
On the executioner’s platform, Hauk ordered the three surrendering soldiers to drop their swords. They did, immediately. He kicked Trahan’s unconscious body a few times, but the man did not wake, so Hauk bent over and slapped him sharply on the cheek. Trahan roused with groggy, confused eyes, and rubbed the throbbing bump on the back of his head.
“Stand up, old man!” yelled Hauk.
Trahan sat up. His shaky legs were too weak to stand, and he pressed his head tightly with his hands, from opposite sides, because his head felt like it was going to explode. He was dizzy, his vision was blurry, and he had a splitting headache from the concussion.
“I said, STAND!”
Trahan looked up to see if he could find any sympathy in the eyes of his former guards. With his fuzzy vision, he saw none.
One of Hauk’s strong arms hooked under Trahan’s shoulder and lifted him. Then, he pushed Trahan to the center of the trap door. The noose dangled at the level of Trahan’s shoulder. Hauk moved to be beside the trap door’s lever, and he ordered the guards who had surrendered to put the noose around the vile tax collector’s neck. It was a quick struggle, not much of a fight, which ended with Trahan sobbing uncontrollably in front of the citizens whom he had terrorized. Hauk kicked the release lever, and Trahan’s body dropped below the stage, like a falling rock. The crowd roared with joy when they saw his body dangle at the end of the tight rope. The corpse’s neck had stretched and broken, crooked like an old tree branch.
The cheering horde that had gathered to watch the spectacle unfold rushed under the platform and attacked the swinging body. They clawed at the corpse as if they were hungry dogs. Hauk slashed the taut rope with his sword. The body dropped to the ground, and the unruly throng stripped the jewelry that adorned their dead oppressor’s body.
On the wedding platform, when Lanzo regained consciousness and opened his eyes, he could see the sun above him, and he knew that he was on his back. Then he felt the trickle of warm blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. The blood cooled as it streaked down his cheek and flowed into his ear. Still on his back, he flapped his arms back and forth across the wooden planks of the stage, trying to find the sword that he had dropped, but he could not feel it, so he raised his torso to look around for his weapon. He found Esina’s cold gaze instead, staring at him with penetrating hate. He raised a hand and asked for help, but she only gave him scorn as she looked at the arrow in his chest, hoping it hurt worse than what he had done to her sister. That is when Lanzo realized what had brought him down: an arrow. He collapsed flat on his back and tilted up just his head to look at the shaft. With his blurry vision, he traced its length and found red feathers at the end, Aton’s signature. A fit of bloody coughing interrupted Lanzo’s violent curses as his crippled body flailed with the throes of death.
When the crowd had seen the hooded stranger’s arrow drop Lanzo, the empty space around Aton filled with jubilant people wanting to hug and thank him for what he had just bravely done. They buzzed around him like a swarm of insects, blocking his view of the gallows. He slowly fought his way to higher ground, where Esina was on the wedding stage. Aton was just as desperate to get to his love, as he was to see how Hauk had fared against the guards at the gallows.
When he finally reached the stage, Esina was sitting in a chair, head down, crying. She had lost sight of Lanzo’s killer in the mob of people, and she had no idea her emancipator had just reached the ceremonial platform. Standing on the wedding stage, Aton turned to see an angry mob attacking a corpse under the gallows, and three disarmed soldiers, bent at the waist, peering down through the open trap door of the executioner�
�s stage, watching the crowd dismember Trahan’s body. Aton did not see Hauk guiding Davin, Treva, and Briand to his location. As he made his way across the stage to reunite with his only love, the woman of his dreams, he kicked Lanzo’s writhing body off the platform and into a school of sharks that had been circling below. The rowdy mob fiercely pulled at all of Lanzo’s limbs, like a pack of hungry wolves after a kill, and he disappeared into the horde’s salivating jaws, screaming for mercy.
“I heard that you believe in me,” said Aton, tenderly.
The sound of Aton’s voice brought Esina from her grief. She stood, turning with the elegance of a surprised ballet dancer, and she ran to his extended arms. Even though he had a beard on his face, which the cowl hid, she instantly recognized him. She hugged him tightly, as if she never wanted to let go and never wanted to be separated from him again. Using his cloak, she wiped the tears from her eyes and stood on the tips of her toes to kiss him heavily on the lips, and then she whispered something into one of his ears. As her sweet breath flowed across his neck, he felt the melancholy chains that the agony of separation had wrapped around his heart, suddenly shatter and then float away, as if they were carried by the wings of a dove.
When Davin reached the center of the stage, the crowd cheered. Aton was still embracing Esina, so he thought the roar of the crowd was for his public display of affection. He was still wearing his hooded cloak, so his identity remained a mystery. Hardly anyone knew who was embracing Esina. Hauk still had not told Aton’s family that Aton was here. He had been more interested in getting them out of the crowd and onto the platform to reunite them.
The common people loved Davin and cheered for him again when the old clan leader went to the edge of the platform. He thought it was just the start of a revolt, an armed conflict caused by the brutal father and son. After being in solitary confinement for months, his eyes were slowly adjusting to the bright light of daytime. He looked around and saw all the carnage across the fairgrounds, which had always been a location of peace and harmony among the clans, bringing them together annually during the spring festival as a celebration of unity. Now it looked more like a bloody battlefield filled with waste and destruction.
Hauk politely coughed to interrupt the reunited couple’s romantic interlude. He had successfully fought the crowd to get Aton’s father, mother, and cousin through it to reunite them with Aton.
“I have some people here that want to see you,” said Hauk.
Aton found the emotional strength to let go of Esina. He tossed back the hood of his cloak and turned around to look at who wanted to see him.
When the bearded man who had embraced Esina turned around, Davin, Treva, and Briand saw that it was Aton. He had saved them and overthrown two tyrants. When Davin locked eyes with his son, he could not contain his tears of joy. He rushed to the couple as fast as he could with his weak, shaky legs, and embraced both of them with all of the strength that he could summon. Treva and Briand joined the group hug soon after. No one wanted to be the first to let go.
Aton and Esina married each other that day in front of the loud, cheering clans from all around the territory. After the wedding ceremony, Davin, the proudest father in the region, raised his son’s hand as a sign of victory, and the crowd cheered Aton’s name. But if you ever asked Aton what he remembered hearing that day on the stage, even decades later as he ruled over an increasing number of clans in his expanding domain, he would have replied that all he had heard was Esina’s sweet voice, whispering into one of his ears, “I have always believed in you.”
The End