The Last Heroes Before Judgement (2 page)

The hangman’s noose swayed over the whipping post and, through it, the underKing watched our city die with glee. Ulfbar’s Sheriff had his post on the highest hill so that the public could watch justice be served. The property was enclosed with its own water well, supporting a barracks for his town guard and stable for their little ponies. Though the windows were dark, I could feel a Deputy watching me from behind the shutters of every one. They had watched us in that fashion for years, as the playing yard of the boy’s home was so often commandeered for drills and ceremonies. As I passed by, I spit over their wall for the hypocrisy of punishing thieves while never returning a single ball.

Ulfbar had become the shame of the entire Unified Nations of Freemen. Worse, the slummers were blamed for bringing down the only legitimate city in the Slorrick kingdoms. Every speech the lords ever gave about protecting the future of our great city swam to the surface of my thoughts. In the end, it was the powerful governors, the lords that funded them, and the corrupted UNF priests that had failed to save us. In their attempt to bring balance to the great scales, they had succeeded only in appeasing the rich long enough to fully abandon the poor.

“Liars, thieves, and puppets!”

I spit again but my little tantrum was interrupted by a familiar voice.

“Matthius!”

Senjay called from out of sight up ahead on the road. A mist rolled in from the west, made higher by the walls on both sides. Aided by the drifting snow, it blended with the smoke from countless fires to form a heavy yellow haze, thick enough to block the light of the full moon.

“Senjay? Where are you?”

“Charge!”

My best friend sprinted out of the grey mist and tackled me with a hug that landed us both on the ground. He had had a growth spurt while I was locked up and was still coping with the newfound length of his arms and legs. We slipped and slid on the wet pavement while trying to stand but it was funny to us. When we were back to our feet, I slapped at his head, as every bit of his thick black hair had been shaved clean off for the coming initiation ceremony.

“How have you been you ugly barbarian?”

“Well I was thankful just to breathe the clean air of the surface- until now.”

“Well it’s only going to get worse so hurry up you two. It’s almost midnight and I don’t want any trouble with the border guards.”

Omar had little patience for Senjay and his friends- the way older brothers always do. He was already in the cart before I was close enough to see it through the mist.

“So good to see you as well, Omar. Now I know what stinks so awful.”

“Yes, good for you. Now you finally made it, we can leave. Senjay, where is Lazarus?”

“I woke him up already. He had to hit the bath house is all.”

Senjay was pulling on the rear folding wall of the cart. Even with the latches unlocked, the door would not budge. I held up my cuffed hand to show him the reason.

“The hinges are frozen brother.”

Senjay leaned in to whisper, though his mind was preoccupied. He continued to tug on the door.

“They sent you out still shackled?”

“No, the key froze. Are you alright?”

“No, I’m not. You know how many trees it took to make this fire?”

“Um, the sloth paws, the apples…”

“And all the pears, the berries, the willows- all of them!”

“Both of you just get in- so when Lazarus finds his way here we can get on with it.”

I helped Senjay up. He was shaking with anger. Because he loved the forest more than other people, he jumped on Omar.

“All of them. You don’t care? I’ll make you care”

“And, I am right here.”

Lazarus stepped onto the road and I knelt to help him in next.

“Oh, well I’m so sorry sweetness. You know we can’t see Cairan’s in the dark.”

“I’ll help you see the darkness.”

“Get this tree lover off of me.”

“Shush, just go to sleep, it will all be over soon. Say goodbye to Mother Moon.”

Senjay continued to wrestle with Omar and Lazarus continued to stand in front of me instead of jumping on the bed of the cart. Then he pointed to my head with a look of concern.

“What happened to you Matthius?”

“Whatever do you mean Lazarus? I just missed my friends is all.”

He tried to continue but I jumped up and hugged him. I could hear others approaching the cart so I whispered in his ear.

“The UNF won’t take damaged goods, Laz. Let it go, please.”

Lazarus had lost all of his muscle in the winter famine. He did not want to hug me back, so he just patted on me like a pet dog.

“You’re just lucky to be getting a hilt today. That looks too nasty to heal on its own.”

“No implant stops the user from making bad decisions, my dear boy.”

“Then answer me this high-priest. What else could it mean to make your mind as a sword?”

Grandfather stepped out onto the street- a taller image of Senjay. Though he wore the simple robes of a priest, we were far from the Bahgeshi jungle of his youth, so he still looked out of place. I moved to embrace him too, but Grandmother swooped in to be first.

“They sent no word, you know that? Oh, you look starved, and this goat fur is burned! Ugh, you stink. By the light of day, you are bleeding. Matthius, you left here bleeding. Did you ever stop fighting? Could you think for one moment how we might feel if you got all cut up fussing with the wrong prisoners?”

She took turns shaking me and hugging me with tears in her eyes. When Grandfather was patting me on the back, she checked under the rag on my head and gasped.

“So much for a hilt, you won’t make it until morning losing blood like this. No, he can’t go. At least Senjay is older and in good health. We can’t do this He-olt. I cannot do this.”

She nearly had a break down right there in the street, and, by the look of her hair and clothes, it would not have been her first one that night. We let her sob quietly into Grandfather’s shoulder while we loaded up. She told him how it was not fair over and over and he agreed.

“So, they would not take Omar?”

“I was accepted into the academy. I will be a surgeon- just like Grandfather”

“Yes, much praise to the good brother.”

“Oh much praise sire.”

We held up our hands and bowed our heads to him. He did not find it funny.

“So, when do we drop him off and pop the wine?”

“Excuse me, child I-” Senjay cut him off again with his rude pirate voice, “Confiscated it- he did. Said it was contraband mate.”

He finished by slicing at Omar, flattening his fingers to use his hand for a sword. Omar Stonefist, the Knockout King of Kowena, left this world with two sons. Omar got all of the height and the love while both parents were still breathing. He was a babe when the Swillians came to Ulfbar, but, he was old enough to remember watching the flu take his mother. By some form evil, she drowned on dry land. By the time death took her, she was begging for that mercy. For the crime of taking Gwenaley, Omar would never forgive the Swillians. He would never stop blaming me personally, and thought Senjay a traitor for being my friend. Hate was more his guide than even mine. He even thought Leiza a traitor for accepting his mother’s Lokah pearls, left for the daughter she never had.

Omar hissed at us, panting from having to wrestle his little brother. Then he dropped his voice as Grandfather helped his wife onto the steed’s wide back. The beast was so massive he could pull us all on his own and the mega steeds make loyal protectors. He could sense the sadness in the air and shook about his sharp ivory horn to ward it off.

“You children would have gotten us all hauled off for smuggling. I made the smart choice, but of course, that’s something you wouldn’t understand Swillian.”

I leaned toward him across the bed but turned and looked at Senjay.

“You really did try? Ha! So, how’s about we make him walk the plank?”

We scrambled to grab ahold of his feet. Omar kicked and rolled and still did not find it funny at all. Grandmother let out a small shriek that made us stop.

“Oh, He-olt, it’s their last time at play. Why?”

Grandfather turned back, pointing his flattened hand at us with as much threat as any sword.  When we were quiet and still, he kicked the steed into motion.

“See what you two did?”

“Oh sorry, do ye hear a ghost floating about matey?”

“So, Omar’s off to drown in boys- bigger than himself for once. And the girls?”

“The Harlot’s Guild come and give ‘em passage o’er the wall. Sorry brother, they left for the docks about an hour ago. Hey, don’t look back. Seriously, there is no time.”

“That’s it then? The Harlots what, bought them all? When was this decided?”

“I reckon the same day they sold us to the UNF. Matthius, the whole city-”

“Damn the city and the people that let it die. Where is Leiza? Lazarus, where are they taking your sister?”

He looked away from me and would not look back.

“I’m sorry, I just needed to know is all. She’ll be fine anywhere she goes- she’s a fighter. Besides, if she’s going to Vinland, Omar will be there to have her back.”

“No, Matthius, I will not. I’m not going all the way to Vinland City. Oh right, sorry about your girl. She knew how to be polite.”

Senjay put his arm around my shoulder and we slumped down into the bed of the cart. I grit my teeth and tried to put her out of my mind- just as the others had done. There was no time to open such a wound.

“You know, I wish this cart had side seats. They make it so easy to hide from the wind.”

We faked a laugh but the mood did not improve. As we left town, the source of the smoke and the smell became clear. Hundreds of funeral pyres burned out in the dead farming fields. The highway continued for many miles but the wall ended at the blocked cross roads on the edge of town. The guards recognized us and waived us on without bother. Omar was relieved for a time, then started quivering at the sight of torches ahead.

“Alright you two, no more games. Do not get me in trouble, I mean it.”

His teeth chattered as much from nerves as the cold. One guard circled us wide on the back of a pony and we came to a stop while Grandfather spoke to the guards on the road.

“You are mistaken sir. I am High-Priest of Ulfbar South. My authority still stands.”

“We will not turn back you disrespectful little boy. You know, I’ve got a whole posse back here headed for the Commandoes. I give the order and they’ll charge in on you. You want that, huh?”

Grandmother threatened a guard just minutes after scolding me for such behavior. I was the only one laughing. One of the guards moved over to have a look at the noise- so I laughed harder and louder.

“You giving the High-Priest a problem fool? Perhaps the gods will use me as their instrument to exact revenge.”

I banged the loose cuff on the bed of the cart and called out with a force.

“Do-you-want-trouble? Huh?”

“Do you, Matthius?”

I turned around slowly, past Senjay’s cringe and Omar’s frown, to see Sheriff Wellings on someone else’s pony. He had circled around the cart and snuck his way up to the back under the cover of darkness. His face was a pale white skull, withdrawn into the hood of his cloak. The usual bright adornments had been removed from his broad shoulder pads and his white stallion exchanged for a black pony- so no witness could identify him.

“You see what you just done boy? Got no respect for authority.”

He sniffed the air, looked around the cart bed, and then made a show of spitting on the ground.

“You get released from the mine tonight?”

“No sir. I lawfully escaped from an unjustified incarceration.”

“Un-what? You been practicing that, huh? Well, according to Judge Tonney,-”

“Damn you and the Tonneys!”

“You had better tell your little black friend to bite his tongue- before I cut it out.”

“We were north of the road.”

“You assaulted a Priest!”

I spun the cuff around and caught it whilst maintaining eye contact. From his eyes bled the red shadow of my own madness. I knew that I was the only one to see it. I welcomed the rage, as it consumed my fear, and it gave me strength.

“That I did. Didn’t I?”

“Matthius please, hush.”

“The thing is, you handed Sloan the Niner. Now, I am so very afraid of you and your ‘authority.’ Here, take me back, if you dare.”

I extended my hands to him and leaned over the cart as far as I could without losing balance. He licked his lips and backed his pony up just out of reach. He spat on my hands before continuing.

“See now, I think you might be in the mood to do something stupid. I think, you might just up and swing that cuff at me and earn yourself the death penalty.”

“No sir. I would never.”

“You hear that boys? These moon worshippers don’t know the meaning of respect- never have, never will! Get out of my province and ne’er return. Get ‘em out of here!”