The Eye of Chaos (Council of Champions Book One) ✔️

Chapter Twenty: The King's Army

Cecilia winced as the ropes dug deeper into her wrists. The battle against the peasants had taken less than a minute. The soldiers had been ready to fight to their death, up until the commoners came streaming down the hill in numbers that surpassed five hundred. Their thirty was dwarfed in comparison.

They had quickly tied them up, and now she lay on her side with a pain in her arm. She craned her neck over the beat up body of Sam, but Kaya wasn't in sight.

Two men walked into her view talking about something that made the older one angry. Cecilia squirmed to get nearer, but the ropes binding her hands and feet tightened.

"-already dead. Your daughter is also missing." The one who spoke was much younger than the other, long black hair gently bouncing against his nape. She wished his face were visible, but her position only showed his back.

"It doesn't make any since. Our spy's said that she was in here, and all the information pointed to that as well." The second man rubbed his face obviously frustrated. "How the Chaos does a man die when surrounded by three dozen guards and a moat? We paid off just enough to hold the gate until we crossed, yet this man kills a Lord without a single ally. That just doesn't add up." The wrinkles beneath his eyes showed the long sleepless nights he had endured and the tone of his voice was that of a cornered man.

Cecilia struggled against her bonds and screamed through her gag. He looked at her for a moment before returning to the younger man. "Not that I'm complaining, in fact that man is my new hero. But what now? Where is Rose, Hector?"

From what she could see, Hector reached out and touched the old man on the shoulders. He said something like, "Don't worry David, we will find her." Then there was a glint of silver in his hand.

Cecilia screamed and yelled against the piece of cloth in her mouth and angled her eyes towards the dagger, hoping David would understand. She felt tears well up in her eyes as a defenseless man was about to die and she couldn't do anything. Her heart thumped so loudly it was surprising he didn't hear it.

Hector moved the hand on the shoulder to David's throat and began to squeeze. David's eyes bulged and Hector moved his hand from behind his back and went to kill him. Suddenly two arrows sprouted from Hector's back, and he lay there, dead.

David rubbed his throat and he eyed Cecilia as he walked up to her. On his way he spit on the corpse and motioned for someone to pick it up.

He bent down and removed her gag, tossing it to the side. "Why save me, girl? We captured you and tied you up, still you save me." Cecilia moistened her dry lips, and waited a second before answering to form a sentence.

"I think I know who killed Zellock."

"Who." Now he seemed interested. She shook her head and looked at everyone who had gathered.

"I can't say here. Too many people." David nodded and called to young men to his side. Both of them much younger then even Hector had been.

"Jerad, bring this girl to my tent and Barbos gather Dellock, Smith, and Gallaway. Tell them to meet me at my tent; we may have some interesting new information.

The boys nodded and hurried to carry out their orders. The boy she guessed was Jerad, hefted her on his shoulders, and Barbos scurried off in a different direction. They had replaced the gag over her mouth and this time had added blindfolds to the other contraptions. She had groaned in dismay when David had told her he would need to add blindfolds as well as the cloth back on since they couldn't risk the camp where all the leaders would be hidden.