Chapter 1
The hardened knight hunched down in the middle of the saddle as the horse went into full stride . As he did a tear of sweat trickled down his cheek. The valiant knight knew it was not long before the threat of war was nigh. It had been at the forefront of everyone's mind in the city of Valimia. The situation was imminently critical. There had been a state of panic when the royal decree had come down from the palace. All of King Bromus's royal guards had made their way down to the city gates. Groups of soldiers were stationed down in the barracks of the city. This worried the knight because he knew the King would come down from his tower to make his monthly edict.
The knight's horse whinnied as he slowed to the barracks. The horse had been with him since he was a young adept in King Bromus' army. His father owned the horse when he bought her off a farm in the small town of Nankoon. He put the horse near a watering hole to drink after he stepped out of the stirrups. "That's it. Jenny. Jenny, It'll be alright."
It seemed tense at the town hall conference. The hall was packed to capacity. Throngs of the King's and Queen's compatriots were in full force. Their diplomats and ambassadors to the King had their best dressed on.Colors of red and black velvet for the women were interwoven with white and plaid for the men in equal fashion. The tables were laden with the best drinks and food at every table. This was not your usual meeting. This had earmarks of the grand posture that the royal dignitaries rolled out every political year.
The dignitaries would appear before the people with their pomp and circumstance to reiterate what the King and Queen had wanted. It was a somewhat bore to the honourable knight and his brethren. As he looked at the swath of people coming into the town hall, he yawned. "If you've seen one camel you've seen them all." As he looks on he catches his friend over in the corner near the bar. He eagerly walks over there. "How you doin' my friend ?" Roland "Peter...Never thought i'd see you here." He gives him a generous hug. These frilly affairs are the worst ain't they?" Peter "Give me a plug or give me death...!" He fakes putting a sword in his chest while imitating a struggling Mr. Toad, as the nursery rhyme story his mother used to read to him as a child. His friend chuckles and calls the bartender over for another drink.
His friend had tired of the grand gesture as he had. Peter's father and mother were of the demure and unassuming middle class. But taught him the importance of knowledge and books leading to an education.
He grew up outside the city ranks but saw the military march in times of war and peace. He hated it because he knew they were terrible harbingers of things to come. Daily, there was this theme of control. The way they marched, the way they saw the people as chess pieces to be moved. The Royal Guard would come in as adjucators of the law but they just reinforced what the King commanded.
As a young man he saw his beloved city of Valima, the city that his parents would talk about as the golden kingdom in the sky, as the opprtunity bringer they loved, get twisted and pulled under by the politics that were laden in the government. Soon he began to observe crime in its most natural environment. One time he saw a thief run through the street being chased by the King's Justice Guard. It was over some barely ripe fruit and a necklace.
Peter watched the thief run and hide from the troops. Eventually the thief was able to escape. He thought the thief was only trying to live and to help his family. The King's edict gave no precedence to what the thief's rights were. It just floated those ideas as dreams to the people. But didn't intend to bring those dreams to fruition.
If you stole you were a criminal. If you were in need of clothes or basic human rights were scoffed at or made to feel inferior. Peter thought that was wrong. He tried in unsuccessful attemptsto mak petitions to King Bromus but they were met with the same indifference as his friend's had been. During that time, he met his buddy Roland as a meta soldier in the King's army.
As he sat there in the hall, the King's Royal Guard watched the King proceed to the royal podium. The King had a promise to his throng of supporters. He was going to answer the recent crime spree with one powerful message of getting rid of the poor and disreputable in the city. He saw the poor as one of the main reasons for crime.He exclaimed "We need to correct the in efficiencies of our city. The crime epidemic is only caused by one thing...Vagrants that come to our city! People that don't adhere to what we believe in... We have to maintain the rights of the people ! These vagrants don't want the grand metropolis we call Valima, to prosper! Their reprehensible acts disgrace this city, this grand kingdom!This Kingdom cannot and will not accept that. Therefore I put into signing effective immediately the removal of all criminals within the gates of Valima! And they will be prosecuted within the FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW!!"
There is a huge roar within the congregation. Peter sat there hearing this and taking it all in and when the King stated the last part, something in him stirred. It was subtle but he heard it. And it didn't sit well with him. He remembered the thief and what the thief wanted. There was sadness there in him and it crept in like the thief in the night.
