The Tales of Asedith- Loyalty to the Crown

by Donald Davis

  Joshua continued crying as he looked at her. His face then changed to one of anger and malice. He turned his head up and locked eyes with Braden. He gritted his teeth as Braden stared back at him. Joshua drew his sword and ran to the castle door.

  Joshua burst into the castle. He proceeded towards the main stairs when two guards ran at him. Without even thinking, he quickly cut them down. He ran up the steps and circled around. Before he knew it, he was on the floor of the balcony. He ran to the balcony but didn’t see Braden. When he turned around, there were three guards running at him. Joshua parried one of the incoming attacks and stabbed the guard. He ducked to evade the next attack and rolled to dodge the next. As he rolled forward, he cut the ankles of one of the men. He yelled in pain and knelt to the floor. He stabbed the other soldier through the throat. Finally, the man who knelt to the floor had his throat cut.

  As Joshua finished his fight, it struck him that Braden probably retreated to his chambers. He quickly sprinted up more stairs, occasionally having to cut down more guards along the way. Joshua went as fast as he could until he reached the top floor. He looked down the hall and saw Braden entering his chambers. Braden tried closing the door behind him, but Joshua sprinted and tackled him into the room. Joshua relentlessly attacked him with his sword. Braden managed to block all his attacks until he tripped and fell to the floor. Joshua then knocked his sword out of his hands and held his own to Braden’s throat.

  “All right, you’ve got me,” Braden said. “Not everyone can be as great of a fighter as the great Joshua Bracken,” he said sarcastically. “Why, Braden?” Joshua asked. “Why did you do it?”

  Braden smirked once again. “Do what? What are you referring to?”

  “Coming after me and my family,” Joshua said. “You knew that I was the heir to the crown, and you did your best to take that away from us. You practically forced me into your service, and you were going to make me do demeaning tasks for the rest of my life. Now you kill the only person that I’ve loved. Why? Why did you do it?” Joshua's sword edged closer to Braden’s throat. Braden gave yet another smirk. “Power,” he said. Joshua was struck on the inside. Even though it was a simple answer, it baffled him to think of how much power could corrupt people. Looking down at Braden now, Joshua almost pitied him. Braden was a poor sight. Defeated, and laying on the floor with the kingdom falling in around him. Corrupted by power.

  “You know,” Braden said. “I wasn’t sure which event you were referring to. I did kill your true love, but I can’t believe that you still haven’t figured out that I also plotted to have your father killed too.”

  Joshua was taken aback. “What?” he simply said. Braden started laughing. “You really believed that those were Sulvaine rebels that killed him? Joshua, I’ve been behind everything. I hired those men to impersonate Sulvaine rebels and to kill him. I told them that it would be easy to escape after they did, but I knew they would never live to tell anyone.” Joshua grew with anger. Before he acted, Braden continued. “Oh, I also sent the assassin after you during the Braith wedding. My plan was to kill you because I knew you would never be okay with me marrying your sister, but you really surprised me. I contacted the Brotherhood of Coima because I knew that they were the deadliest assassins in Ezera. To my surprise, you actually managed to kill one of them.” Joshua’s sword came even closer to Braden’s throat.

  Braden gave one final smirk. “I also killed your sister.” Joshua’s expression lit up. “Yeah, I married her so that I could solidify more power in Asedith by joining my name to the previous family that ruled here. I hoped that it would help my cause.” Braden shrugged. “However, apparently she was useless. My authority didn’t grow much at all. And besides, I couldn’t stand her. She just always had to help people. One day, the two of us rode out with guards to collect supplies for the city and we saw strangers on the road that needed help. Something about their wagon breaking down and their supplies were scattered and needed to be picked up. Emilia insisted that we help them. And that day, I had had enough. So, I ordered the guards to kill the travelers and take their supplies. Your sister was so scared. She kept screaming and tried to get away.”

  Braden started laughing once again. He seemed half-crazed now. He really had been corrupted. “So, you know what I did? I grabbed her wrist and drug her out into the woods. I beat her for a minute, then I grew tired of her. I stabbed her with my dagger and left her to die. All I had to do was threaten the guards to not say anything.”

  Joshua pulled his sword away from Braden’s throat and stabbed him through the stomach. Braden let out a cry of pain. Joshua stabbed him again and again. He left his sword in Braden the third time. He then jumped onto Braden and started pummeling his face. For a few minutes straight, Joshua pounded on Braden. After Joshua was tired, he stood up and pulled his sword free. Braden’s face was bloody and swollen. Joshua wasn’t sure if he was still alive or not, but he walked over to him and stabbed Braden through his throat just to be sure.

  Sobbing once again, Joshua fell back onto the floor, thinking about everything that had transpired. There was little light left in him. After contemplating for a few moments, he managed to his feet and grabbed the king’s crown. He walked down the castle with it. Once Joshua reached the bottom floor of the castle, he saw Garron, Samwell, and some of their men waiting for him. Garron spotted him and said, “I started to pursue you, but I heard you and Braden in his chambers. Figured you had personal business to attend to, so I left you to it.” Without saying a word, Joshua lifted the crown in front of them. All the men started shouting, knowing they had won.

  Garron and Samwell approached Joshua. “We’ve won!” they both said. “So,” started Samwell. “How good did it feel to kill that freak?”

  Joshua was still shaking. He looked down at his bloody and busted knuckles. “I… I don’t know,” he said. Without saying another word to them, Joshua held the crown in his hand and walked out of the castle.

  Chapter 25: A New Beginning

  It took three weeks before everything had settled down. After Braden’s death, no one was going to even think about challenging Joshua for the position of king. There were some who believed that Joshua truly was power-hungry the entire time and that he only started the rebellion to solidify his own power, while others believed that he was in the right and that he truly did want to bring peace to the kingdom. Either way, things were finally settling down in Roseshire and Asedith alike. Peace had finally arrived.

  “Joshua,” Terra said. “Have you received the recent reports from Garron and Samwell yet?” Joshua turned to her, “Yes, everything is fine. Both cities are doing well and the peace is being maintained.” They were in the king’s chambers, which were now Joshua’s. After the war had ended, one of the issues was with Yordenfall and their lack of leadership. With house Braith gone, there was no clear leader anymore. For the time being, Joshua appointed Samwell as leader of Yordenfall until someone else was chosen. Joshua offered him the position permanently, but he declined. Samwell had always been a soldier at heart, and that’s what he wanted to continue doing.

  Once peace had been attained and men had been stationed in Roseshire, Garron said his goodbyes and returned to Treadrock, where he remained the leader. After hearing that Tedric and Emilia’s deaths took place all because of a fool’s quest for power, it was harder for Joshua to be joyful. But the real thing that bothered Joshua the most was Evalyn’s outcome. She was so sweet and innocent. He had never known her to do wrong. He knew that it had to be done for the kingdom, but he couldn’t help but feel guilty every time that he took those last few steps leading up to the castle. The memory haunted him like a curse.

  Terra noticed the change in Joshua. He still had his good heart in which he used to care for and help the people of Asedith, but he was serious now. His smiles were few and far between. No matter what Terra said or did, she felt like her son blamed himself for the things that happened.

  Both Terra and Joshua stood in the king’s chamb
ers. Joshua sat at a small table, writing back to Samwell and Garron. Terra sat in a chair on the opposite side of the room. “Joshua, I just want to congratulate you. Now that you’re king, everything is as it should be. The food supply is growing, communication is now the strongest it’s ever been throughout the kingdom, and our army grows every day. The people already seem happier and safer than they have in a long time.”

  Joshua, seeming like he paid little attention to what his mother had said, simply replied, “Thank you, mother.” He continued writing his letters. “Whatever you’re writing seems fairly important,” Terra said. “It is,” Joshua answered. Terra gave up. The two of them sat in silence for several moments until Joshua finally stood up with his letters and walked towards the balcony with them. He had previously prepared two messenger pigeons and sat their cages on the balcony.

  Joshua held the letters in his hand and turned to his mother. “Mother, thank you for all you’ve done. I don’t mean to seem rude, but I still have a lot on my mind with what’s happened lately. I know that it’s been three weeks since it happened, but it still seems so recent to me.” Terra smiled at her son. “It’s okay, Joshua. I truly understand.”

  “Also,” Joshua continued. “In any spare time that I’ve had, I’ve been trying to think of ways in which we can prevent tyrants like Braden from ever gaining power again.”

  “Oh?” Terra asked. “What have you come up with?”

  Perhaps for the first time in weeks, Terra could see a hint of excitement gleam in Joshua’s eyes. “Well you see,” continued Joshua. “I was thinking about the subject, and then I thought of something better. Not only should we try to prevent things such as tyrants from an uprising, but perhaps we should prepare a team of capable warriors and skilled soldiers that stands to protect Asedith. Maybe even all of Ezera! A group of people with special skills and abilities that stands for the forces of good. Think about it, if we could somehow manage a pact between the five kingdoms, we could potentially be prepared for the next big threat. Remember the foreign invasion ten years ago? I was young, but I still do. When they attacked out of nowhere, we barely managed to join together in time to defeat them. Next time something huge like that happens, perhaps we can be ready for it, and with our best warriors.”

  Terra smiled. She hadn’t seen Joshua this enthusiastic about anything before. “That’s an interesting idea,” Terra said. “It sounds like you’ve been thinking about it a lot.”

  “I have,” Joshua replied. He shook his head, his voice shifting to a serious tone once again. “Mother… We can’t let something like this happen again… We just can’t.”

  “I know, I know,” Terra said. It saddened her to think of the choice that Joshua had to make. She could see the toll it had taken on him, but she could see why it was for the better. What she said before was true. The people of the kingdom seemed happier than they had in a long time. More men were joining the army and the city guard, food supplies kept growing, and everything seemed to be peaceful once again since house Bracken was the royal family once more.

  “From now on,” Joshua said. “I’m going to put the kingdom first. Its people should never have anything to fear now that we possess the crown once again. I will do my best to protect Asedith and all that it stands for.” Joshua started walking towards the balcony once again, letters in hand. “Mother, there are dark forces out there that bid us all harm. Asedith, all of the five kingdoms, all of Ezera.” Joshua continued walking until he unlocked the cages and gave the pigeons both a letter. “With this group we will form, we will someday fight against these dark forces. I can feel it.”

  She wasn’t sure what drove Joshua to think that Ezera would be in any danger, but Terra looked at Joshua, admiring the man that he had become. Your father would be proud, she thought to herself. Thinking of Tedric now, tears started forming in her eyes. Now their son would carry on the Bracken legacy and go on to do great things, she just knew. Standing on the balcony, wearing the crown of Asedith, Joshua looked like a true king. One to be feared, respected, and loved. “So, Joshua, what would this group be?” Terra asked. Joshua then let the pigeons loose to carry word of this legendary group. He turned back to Terra with a spark in his eyes. “Valor.”

  Author’s Note

  Thank you all for reading Loyalty to the Crown. Your support is much appreciated! Reminder: Asedith is only one of the five kingdoms of Ezera. The story of Ezera, Asedith, and Joshua is not finished yet! Stay up to date by liking and following the Ezera series and The Tales of Asedith on social media. Once again, thank you for your support!