Murder the Heroes

Chapter Two; Section One

“We didn’t betray him!” He thundered. The others looked around uncomfortably. Nobody contradicted the big man, but nobody agreed with him either.

“So the King might have been wounded, might very well die, because of your treatment of one of your former companions?” Arrend would have liked to have it sound menacing – like his father, like an angry bear – but he just didn’t. So instead he tried for a sneer. The Heroes blanched.

“Look here, lad.” Koral growled, leaning forward, his finger right under Arrend’s nose, as if he was some kind of school boy, “When you do what we do, you make enemies. It’s unavoidable. We’ve made our own enemies, we’ve made enemies in service to your father.”

“He might die, you know,” Arrend interjected. They needed to know that soon they might be serving him. Shocked looks. His timing might have been slightly off on that one.

Koral continued with a low growl. “It is equally unavoidable that those enemies will strike back at us. When that happens people die. And though I’m sad to see your father badly wounded – very, very sad,” the implication was clear, Arrend flushed, “I will not apologise for it. This is how it works. Hit your neighbours and they’ll hit back. But then, you’d get all that if you paid a little bit more attention.”

“I will not be spoken to in this way!” Arrend was so angry he actually squawked. How undignified!

“Yeah? What are you going to do about it?” Arrend’s mouth hung open. Had this buffoon really just said that? He raised himself up in his chair as high as he could manage. This got him about as high as Koral’s pecks. The others weren’t allowed to sit in his company. It was supposed to create hierarchy. It did, but not always in the intended direction, especially when people already naturally towered like Koral did.

Tradition was tradition. He tried to make the most of it. “I’ll have you arrested!”

Koral laughed. It was a cruel, stinging laugh. He would have ordered Koral’s beheading right there and then, if his faculty for speech hadn’t deserted him. Guards around the wall shifted uncomfortably. Koral either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

“Well, let’s say you can arrest us, and let’s be honest, you can’t. What do you think will happen then? Without our help do you really think you’ll catch any of the people responsible? With us in chains, do you really think you can keep others from following in their footsteps? And do you think you’ll be in a position to stop them? Your armies are far from home and your city guard is in disarray.”

Arrend felt stupid. He hated feeling stupid. He wasn’t supposed to feel stupid. He was sovereign and master of the greatest kingdom the north had ever seen! “The Krull will aid me!” he hissed.

“No they won’t,” Snow said, with that voice. “They made their treaty with us, not with you, not even with your father. If it was your father who made the decision to try and throw us into jail, they might side with him. They respect strength. But you’re not strong. If you arrest us, if you succeed to throw us in jail, the Krull will desert you. Your armies will find themselves over-extended and without magical protection. Your advance would be turned into a retreat – a route.” Snow paused, to let that sink in. Arrend tried to speak. The Krull cut him off mercilessly. “If your first act as ruler is to try and throw us in chains, it might well be your last. You would probably end up destroying everything your father built. And then some. Do you understand me, Duke?” He might as well have said rag picker.

Arrend rose. There was no controlling the shakes now. He was livid. Almost he ordered their arrest anyway – almost he ordered them in chains. He just pulled himself back from the praecipes. For one thing, Koral was right – if he did order their arrest, the guards would be hard pressed to execute his command. His father, the fool, had allowed them to keep their weapons even in here. For another, he dreaded the thought of his father waking up and finding his realm, his legacy, shattered. In truth, his father rarely took anything that Arrend did well, but that? That would be something else entirely.