Chronicles of the Fugitive Prince

Chapter 9: Tyranny of the Griffiths

In Tyne, and around Libernia, the Griffiths ruled tyrannically. They forced many of the peasants and commoners to extreme work for lesser pay, and they forcibly took money and assets from the richer cities and towns of the kingdom. Not everyone in Libernia liked this, and discontent has broken out all around the kingdom.

There had recently been a riot in the city of Dorme from discontent citizens unhappy with the extremely high taxes imposed by the Griffiths and by the seizing of money and assets from many of the cities' nobles. Dorme was built on hundreds of small islands in the Ithacan Sea, a large lake in the south between Libernia and Geland, and the citizens of the city travelled around the city with canoes. The city was prosperous from it's key location between Libernia and Geland and it's trade. The city's buildings were built from wood and reddish-brown bricks along with black wooden roofs.

The riots took place mainly in the city square. A stone church called the Eucenne Basilica stood in the north of the square. It had five dark blue domes with crosses, of which the biggest one stood in the centre of the roof. Five archways gave entrance to the church. A bell tower stood beside the church and was built from red bricks with a triangular roof. Connected buildings lined the left and right sides of the square. It would normally have been a pretty sight, but with the crowd of rioters walking around holding burning Griffith flags, it instead felt scary and intimidating.

"Down with the Griffiths!" yelled Elena, a protester.

"The Griffiths are robbers! Taxes are too expensive! We can barely even buy food with the low wages that we get!" complained Horacius.

"The Griffiths are just selfish and want more money, that's why such high taxes are being imposed!" said Arthur.

Arthur carried his son, Aris on his shoulders. Aris, a little kid around eight years old, waved a burning flag with the Griffith symbol.

Griffith guards entered the square to stop the unrest, led by Captain Whelan, who wore a red cape and silver armor. "These fools dare to insult the Royals of Libernia! They are committing treason and must be punished for it. Barricade the city square. Let none escape!" ordered Captain Whelan.

The guards barricaded the city square so that no one could get out, then they attacked the rioters and cut down many of them.

"Father, nooo!" yelled Aris as an arrow struck his father in the head. Aris fell to the ground on his father's body.

"Fine, we're sorry! We are sorry for protesting! We'll pay double taxes if you want, just please don't hurt us!" said Damian, a protester.

"It's too late for that!" said one of the guards, before skewering Damian with his sword.

One of the nobles, who wore a hazel silk suit, took out his sword and stabbed a Griffith guard in the face. Eight other nobles joined him and charged at the Griffith guards, cutting down a few of them.

However, Griffith archers fired an array of arrows at the nobles, killing them all.

A massacre ensued. The Griffiths cut down half the protesters, and the remaining ones surrendered, kneeling and putting their hands up surrounded by the guards.

"Enough! Please, please we won't protest anymore! Take whatever you want from the city!" pleaded the protesters.

"Lock them up in the dungeon," ordered Captain Whelan.

The guardsmen arrested the protesters, about 26 of them, and marched them to the city's barracks on the opposite side of the square.

The barracks were a large building beside the Governor's palace made of red brick with a lone watchtower. The Governor's palace was built out of stone and brick with a large black roof. It had an archway leading inside. Besides the barracks, an underground staircase led to the dungeons underneath the building. The guards locked up the protesters in there.

The next day, and in two subsequent days, the protesters, wearing torn brown tunics were executed by being hung in the same city square where they protested. They wore torn brown tunics. The first people executed were six men, one child and three women. The guardsmen led the handcuffed prisoners out of the barracks to the city square, where wooden gallows had been set up.

"Let this be an example to all who commit treason against the Griffiths!" said Captain Whelan.

The guardsmen led the prisoners up to the gallows and fasted their necks to the ropes. The child, Aris, was placed up on a stool in order to fasten his neck.

After this, Captain Whelan pulled a metal lever, and the trap-doors on the floor of the gallows opened. The prisoners fell into the trap-doors, and their necks snapped. This was just one example of how swiftly and brutally the Griffiths dealt with any threats to their rule in Libernia.


The most dangerous place to be an enemy of the Griffiths was Tyne itself. The Griffiths had sentries and ruffians in the streets of the capital of Libernia to find suspected enemies of the Grifiths and attack them.

One evening, Cassandra Veinhall had to go to the Tyne marketplace to buy groceries and jewellery. The marketplace was outdoors, in the centre of Tyne, and there stood four wooden stalls: one for fruit and vegetables, one for meat, another one for armor and weapons and one for jewellery. The city hall was in the front of the square. It was a beautiful rectangular stone building with stained glass windows. There were three small towers on the front of the building. Cassandra bought some meat, tomatoes and cucumbers, along with a golden necklace.

On her way back to her manor from the marketplace, Cassandra was followed by four men with hooded leather coats, but she was unaware of it. As she passed through one of Tyne's alleyways, one of the men grabbed her and put her in a headlock. Cassandra screamed and struggled against the man, but his companion pulled out a knife and pointed it at Cassandra.

"Let me go, you bastards!" screamed Cassandra while struggling.

The hooded men revealed their faces: one of them was fat and black haired, the second one was a middle aged brown haired man, the third was a chubby man with grey hair, and the fourth was a young man with long blond hair and a beard.

"Give us your jewellery and all your money! Then we will let you go! Or maybe you should give us your body?" ordered the chubby man.

The fat man grabbed Cassandra's dress and attempted to rip it off.

"Leave me alone! Help!" screamed Cassandra.

Suddenly, the fat man got a wooden staff thrown at his head, and he fell to the floor unconscious.

Cassandra turned around, and a skinny teenager with dark hair and dark striking eyes wearing orange clothes stood at the other side of the alleyway. He was the one who had thrown the staff.

"Get away from her, you bastards!" yelled the boy.

The blond-haired man went and lunged at Cassandra, but Cassandra grabbed the staff and hit the blond haired man in between his legs, and the blond haired man yelled while clutching his nuts.

"Ahhh!"

Suddenly, Cassandra hit him in the head, knocking him out.

The two other men fought the boy, and even though he defended himself well, the two men overpowered him and he fell to the floor.

"Now you're going to pay for meddling with our affairs!" said the chubby man to Louis.

There was a wooden shelf of barrels on the wall of the alleyway beside the two bandits and Louis. Cassandra went up to the shelf and gestured to the teenager, who rolled away from it. Cassandra then broke the shelf with her staff, causing the barrels to fall on the bandits and knocking them unconscious.

"Thanks for the help Louis. They were about to rape me" said Cassandra.

"You're welcome, Cassandra. I will always help you when you need it. Here are your groceries, at any rate" said Louis.

Louis handed a large leather bag full of groceries to Cassandra.

"I'm going to go back home...Thanks again" said Cassandra, still shaken by the incident.

"Do you mind if I come with you?" asked Louis.

"Sure, I'll appreciate it" said Cassandra.

Cassandra and Louis walked back to the Veinhall Palace. However, when they arrived, the front door was open, and the windows of both the door and the front of the house had been cracked. When they entered, they saw a fire consuming the house. Cassandra was horrified. She widened her eyes and but her hands on her face.

"Oh my God! What could have happened?! Who could have done this?!" screamed Cassandra.

"It must have been the Griffiths. They must have done this. Let's go further inside and see what happened." said Louis.

There was more damage done to the interior of the house. The staircase near the front of the house, which fit in nicely with the beautiful hardwood floor, had two broken paintings on it. All the furniture in the manor was broken, and as Cassandra and Louis walked further down the corridor on the bottom floor dodging falling wood that was on fire, they came across all the broken furniture.

"Mom! Dad! Philip! Where are you?! Are you ok?!?" screamed Cassandra.

"Cassandra!" yelled a faint voice from the upper floor.

"Philip!" yelled Cassandra. Cassandra and Louis ran to the upper floor of the palace. The upper floor was also on fire, trashed with furniture and paintings, and the beautiful walls were torn.

"Cassandra! Help me!" screamed Philip. Cassandra entered Philip's bedroom, and she found Philip on the floor of the bedroom.

Philip was bleeding, and his elegant white and brown clothes were riddled with ash. His room was on fire.


Cassandra walked over to Philip along with Louis.

"Oh no! What happened to you, Philip? Where are Rose and Bilius?" asked Cassandra.

"The Griffiths sent guards to arrest me and my parents. I fought them off, but they injured me and set the place on fire. They took Mom and Dad, and I'm pretty sure they took them to the prison underneath the Griffith castle" replied Philip.

"That's terrible. The Griffiths are abusing their power! We need to get you to the hospital right away!" said Cassandra.

"You can't stay here. Your manor has been destroyed and is burning down. You should stay in my house. I can give you shelter there" added Louis.

"Very well. Cassandra, help me walk. We need hoods to hide our identity" said Philip.

Cassandra and Louis grabbed Philip and helped him walk quickly down the stairs to the first floor of the palace.

As they approached the front door, Louis grabbed three grey hooded coats for them to wear. They left the burning Veinhall palace and put on the coats. They then went out into the night. They headed down the street and turned before sitting down on a stone bench

"Are there any reliable doctors around here? I'm afraid that most of the doctors could be corrupt" asked Cassandra.

"As a matter of fact, there is a good doctor near my house. His name is Paul, and he is a great friend of mine. We can trust him" said Louis.

"Then let's go there," said Philip.

So, Philip, Cassandra and Louis walked to the doctor's clinic that Louis mentioned. Paul had a clinic one block from Louis' house, a townhouse painted yellow, with a sign above the door showing the words "Clinic" along with a health symbol. When they arrived at the clinic, Louis knocked on the wooden door.

An old, balding man wearing black doctor clothes and a hat opened the door.

"Hello, Paul. Philip Veinhall is gravely injured, and the Griffiths' guardsmen are to blame. I need you to patch him up real quick" said Louis

Paul looked at Philip and his mouth fell open. "What happened? Did they hurt him?" he asked.

"The Griffiths sent guards to arrest my brother and our parents. He tried to fight them off, but they injured him and set the family manor on fire" said Cassandra.

"Oh, that's not good! I'm sorry, but I don't know if I can help you. If the Griffiths find out, they may arrest me, and who knows what they will do" said Paul.

"Please help him. He really needs medical care. We'll keep quiet about it, and I'll make it worth your while" said Louis.

Louis reached into his pocket and offered some gold to the doctor. The doctor waited for a few seconds before grabbing the gold.

"Very well. Follow me, Philip" said Paul.

Paul brought Philip into his house to a room with a leather medical table and shelves lined with potions. Paul set Philip down on the medical table. He then grabbed gauze bandages from the shelf and bandaged Philip's wounds.

"Uhhhh," groaned Philip.

"It's gonna be fine, Philip. I'm gonna patch you up real good, and you will be healed in no time" said Paul.

Paul then grabbed a healing potion and made Philip drink it.

After they dropped off Philip with the doctor, Louis brought Cassandra to his house, which was a fairly modest wooden house connected to the two buildings beside it in the city streets.

Cassandra and Louis entered the house, which was fairly had wooden stairs on the left side leading to the second floor. Louis led Cassandra to the second floor and showed her a room with a mirror and two wooden shelves, along with a glass vase. There was also a queen sized bed.

"This is where you will be staying, my lady. It is for guests," said Louis. "It's such an amazing room. Thanks a lot" said Cassandra.

Philip was healed within a week. Cassandra and Philip stayed in Louis' house, where they were sheltered and safe.