Breaking the strings

  The airship Edmon had seen belonged to Rul Rovelli, the future king of Rovelli, his future king. Edmon could not believe his eyes, true royalty was landing his ship near the house and actual lords and ladies were walking down the ramp. Why had they come here? Edmon thought to himself as he and his family and workers all gathered and dropped to one knee as the party approached. Proper etiquette was to greet the highest ranking party in the group and as a prince the etiquette for peasants outside the royal court was to fall to one knee and bow your head until they either passed or spoke to you at which time you could stand and answer.

  “We shall need your farm house for the evening, we are weary of travel and wish to sleep on solid ground,” Rul said. The first thing Edmon thought when he spoke was the air of arrogance and entitlement in his voice. As they stood he looked up and saw his face. It was not a kind face. His jaw and nose were too pointy and reminded him of daggers. His well groomed very short beard did distort his features a little but it could not hide his eyes. They were brown like any other eyes but the slant and way he looked at you Edmon could sense hatred burning forth from them.

  “Pardon my lord, but I'm afraid the comforts of your ship far outweigh the meagerness of our home, the town is but another five miles east, perhaps you would find more comfort at the inn?” Edmon's father answered with his eyes still turned down.

  “Nonsense, we will survive the night here, surely you have another dwelling you can sleep in out of sight and hearing of us. We surely can’t have the commoners listening in on lords and ladies of the court now can we,” Rul said chuckling and gathering insulting laughter from his party.

  “Of course my lord we would never dream of interrupting, may we have but a moment to gather a few things we will need for the night?” Edmon's father asked.

  “I think you have bothered us long enough peasant!” The voice that spoke this time was not Rul’s but a harsh, demanding voice. Edmon found the owner of the voice and was both angry of the disdain at which he called them peasants and afraid of the way they would be treated if they did not run from them.

  “I beg your pardon my lord please forgive us we shall camp near the forest and await your departure.

  With that Edmon’s father turned and rushed the whole group off towards the forest edge to the west. No one spoke until they were at the forest sure to be out of earshot of the nobles.

  “How dare they kick us from our home.” Thera said scornfully.

  “There there now woman it is only for the night and we shall be back tomorrow.” Edmon's father said, trying to calm her down. “Edmon, Reese, Tol and I shall go to the Adtur’s and gather some provisions and sleeping rolls for the night and all will be well.” And so the four men left departing for Aela’s house while the others began gathering wood and getting a fire going in preparations for dinner.

  They arrived at the Adtur’s farmhouse and Edmon quickly sought out Aela and found her in the garden in the back of the main house. Edmon told her all that had happened and she wouldn’t have believed him had she not heard her father calling for workers to gather cooking pots, food, water and sleeping rolls. Hardly had Edmon finished his story when his father called for him to help get the gear back to the group. It was over 3 miles back to the forest edge and Aela’s father had sent a couple of his workers to help haul the gear back. Edmon quickly kissed Aela as she moved her body close to his before he turned and ran to help. When they arrived they quickly set up the sleeping mats and began to prepare the evening meal. They finished their meal without much talking and everyone settled into their sleeping rolls and one by one dozed off. It was still early spring and while it would be a cold night nobody was in danger of freezing to death, still Edmon's father and a few of his workers set a watch to keep the fire going to provide warmth and fend off any wolves or other predators that may have wandered too far from the deep forest.

  Rul had gathered his most trusted friend and cousin Tar, as well as a few of the lesser nobles and their wives and arrived at the farm just as the days work was beginning the nobles of the kingdoms of Thaifor would often show up at farms and demand the commoners wait in the fields while they played farmers. They would wear their clothes, sleep in their beds and do the chores. They never did them correctly and more often than not they would wreak havoc on the animals and fields and they were not tending to correctly. The commoners had to remain out of sight else suffer the wrath of an entitled noble or their even worse wives. Rul never cared about or partook in the play farm. He looked forward to his own demented game of human hunts. Rul never had to fight in a battle but was more than capable of carrying his own when it came to swordplay, and peasants didn't offer much resistance.

  The third day they were there, two days longer than they said they would be, Edmon, his father and two of the veteran workers worked silently through the night feeding and watering the animals so they didn't die of deprivation. They knew they would be severely beaten if they were to be caught, but Edmon’s father said “We won’t survive the tax man and winter if we lose the herd. Just as light was starting to shine in the sky they all retreated to the edge of the forest where they had made their camp. All except Edmon, that is, he couldn't take it anymore and decided he needed to have a closer look at what the nobles were doing and to see if there were any signs they would be leaving soon. Edmon knew he would be beaten if he were to be caught eavesdropping, but he needed answers. He had been there for almost 2 hours, peeking through the window into the main room when all the nobles had finally arisen and were laughing and eating breakfast without a care in the world. He was lost fantasizing about being a prince and all the glories he would achieve that he hadn't noticed the party had changed back into their armor and dresses and the men were dawning their swords, muskets and spears. As they left the house he thought they must be going hunting. He quickly ducked into the weeds as the men came outside and saddled and mounted their horses and began a trot towards his family and the rest of the workers at the edge of the forest. He darted across the clearing into the nearest grain field and began an all out sprint to try and beat them to the encampment his family had been at the past week.

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  He reached the top of the last hill breathing hard and panting his thoughts of why they were going to their temporary encampment were broken by the sound of first one pistol then two more. Surely the knights weren’t hunting this close to their encampment. He mustered his strength and charged the last few strides to the top of the hill, the image he saw was burned into his brain and set in motion every action he took from this moment forward. Three of the workers were laying on the ground face down motionless, lifeless. He saw his mother, father and rest of the workers scattering in every direction. The knights were chasing after them, running them down, hacking them with swords, impaling them with spears and shooting them with muskets. He watches his fathers workers get stabbed, slashed or shot one by one as if everything moved in slow motion. His mother, father and siblings were almost to the tree line and he hoped that if they just made it to the trees they could stand a chance and be safe. The shot that rang out sounded as loud as a thousand bells in his ears as he saw his mother jerk, stumble and fall. His father turned back and tried to pick her up into his arms as the knight he recognized as Prince Rul rode to a stop just feet away from them. He was too far away to hear what he was saying but he knew his father was begging for mercy. He watched Rul raise his pistol, point it at his father and pull the trigger. To Edmon's surprise his father remained standing still holding the body of his mother. He missed, Edmon thought, why else would his father still be standing. But he did not run; he just stood there watching and not moving. Edmon wanted him to move he tried to yell for him to run but no noise came out of his mouth.He wanted to run to him and pull him and his mother and his siblings to safety but his legs would not respond and he stood there motionless staring as his Rul lowered his pistol and fired again. He blinked and as he opened his eyes he saw his brothers and sister huddled just feet away from his father. “Why won’t you move,” Edmon yelled at himself. “Save them,” he screamed in his head but he could not move. As his fathers body finally started to crumble towards the ground he saw Rul had dismounted his horse and with sword drawn he was raising his hand to strike. Art had mustered the courage and was standing in front of his brother and sister with a stick he must have picked up to defend them. “Noooo,” Edmon screamed, breaking his silence, drawing the attention of every Knight and temporarily saving his siblings. Sir Tar, the harsh man who treated them so rudely days before was the closest to him and even though the boy knew he should turn and run and never stop he stood there still as a scarecrow in shock of what he had witnessed. His trance was broken by the boom of a rifle, followed by excruciating pain to the left side of his head. He fell to the ground and the last thing he remembered before he was overtaken by blackness was watching Rul’s sword rise and fall.

  “Why did you not save them?” An unknown voice asked. “You stood there like a cowardly little lamb before the slaughter. You may as well have pulled the trigger yourself you know. Your family would still be alive if you were not a scared little boy.”

  Edmon snapped his eyes open but could not see anything, his world was completely black. “Am I blind?” he thought as he blinked his eyes hoping to see something, anything. As he tried to stand, shooting pain pulsed through his whole body radiating from his head. “Push Through it!” a voice in his head demanded, and he put forth his full might to get to his knees. He quickly realized that the reason he could not see was that he was laying face down in the weeds. As he got to his feet everything came flooding back about what had happened. The grief overwhelmed him and he fell back to his knees and sobbed.

  “Stand up and move” The voice in his head told him, prompting him to rise to his feet a second time. He wiped the tears from his face and saw that the sun had set not long before as it was no longer in the sky, but there was still enough light by which to see the death down the small hill he was still on. He knew he needed to get to his parents and siblings and see if anyone else had survived when he noticed movement among the bodies. Before he could stop himself he shouted, “I’m here, hello.” No one answered. Then he saw why. The movement he saw was not from humans but wolves, and a large pack at that. He scanned the scene and counted 15 wolves feeding on the bodies of his fallen family and workers. When he realized this he began to shout and half run half stumble towards them.

  “Hey, get out of here. Go on get,” he shouted as he began to near the first corpse. The wolf stopped his feeding and snarled, baring his teeth at Edmon and lowered his body ready to attack. Edmon fell back, got to his feet and back up a few paces, the wolf went back to his meal. Every time Edmon tried to chase away a wolf they would threaten him back and he could not get close enough to pull the corpses away. He fell to the fetal position and began to sob.

  “Why won't you please leave, let me see my family.” And as Edmon sobbed he slowly slipped into unconsciousness once again.

  When Edmon awoke again the sun had just risen and he looked about and noticed the wolves had gone. They found the corpses filling enough and had no need to kill and eat Edmon as well. He got to his feet slowly and began walking towards where his parents had been slain. Everybody he passed had been mostly eaten with very little flesh left on any bones. The bodies had been ripped apart and he could not make out whose bones belonged to whom. He made it to the spot where his parents had fallen and the scene was no different. There just wasn’t anything left beside a few scattered meaty bones. As Edmon stood there wondering what to do he heard the voice in his head again.

  “You know what you must do, don't you?”

  “I. No I don’t,” Edmon said out loud.

  “I think you do. You must avenge your mother, your father, your sister and you two little brothers. You must kill Rul.” The voice added maliciousness to the end.

  “How will I do that?” Edmon said shakily.

  “We will do it, I will help you.” The voice now sounded reassuring and Edmon believed he could do it.

  “Take one last look at what is left of your family,” the voice demanded.

  Edmon couldn't stop his head from taking in the bones one last time.

  “We will take everything from Rul, and then we will kill him,” the voice said as Edmon began slowly walking back towards the farm house.