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The Liberation Of Sundrian City By Ander Louis
CHAPTER 3 – YOUR WARNING “But why would anyone ambush Remmy? He’s
our wizard. Father says we owe him everything we have, especially our safety,” Jeremy
grilled, deeply confused. “It’s true!” a sandy haired girl attested.
She held a gristle stick that Jeremy had been eyeing greedily. “Look, see Garresh’s
shoulder?” And sure enough, standing behind Remmy in his special seat on the Emperor’s
grandstand, Garresh could be clearly seen wearing a bandage across his shoulder. “You
see that?” “And look at Deimos,” added Tanner, with
a nod toward the grandstand. “He was furious with Garresh for dropping the carriage on
him. Wanted to kill him!” Linus saw that standing opposite Garresh,
just behind the Princess’s seat, stood Commander Deimos, staring at Garresh with a dark scowl.
“I just don’t get it,” Jeremy concluded, still deep in confusion. But before he could
say much more, he was cut off by a deafening crack, which silenced the audience momentarily
before it erupted in applause. Remiel Culwitch was standing at the front of the grandstand
with his thundersword pointed up into the sky above his head, a thin trail of smoke
lingering around its tip. He stood still in this pose for a few seconds, allowing the
audience the opportunity to admire his brilliance, before grinning broadly and bowing deeply,
then returning to his seat, waving extravagantly all the way and topping it all with a flamboyant
bow to the Emperor just before sitting. The Emperor stood and with the shawls of his long
and magnificent ruby cloak trailing behind him along the polished marble floor, waddled
forth to the front of the grandstand, raising a hand for quiet. A jolly man, he beamed and
smiled while waiting for the silence to fall. He had never been a particularly thin man.
It was common knowledge amongst the townsfolk that the Emperor had a penchant for fine food
and wine. But in recent years he had swelled to a level of obesity that didn’t seem befitting
to royalty. As the silence settled in, he began to address the audience in a booming
voice. “Welcome, one and all. Great to see such
a turn out here.” He spoke in a yell, but somehow managed to maintain the smile in his
voice. “I won’t keep you, we are all eager to
hear from our Remmy, ah…” The Emperor faltered and corrected himself, “from High
Lord Remiel Culwitch. But first, I must make a few quick announcements.”
Emperor *** went on to make the standard announcements, which Linus had always found
quite boring, and never as quick as promised. Linus, as well as everyone else, was really
waiting for Remmy’s speech, or “High Lord Remiel’s Public Report,” as it was referred
to officially. Emperor *** started the announcements by
welcoming the Frianze family to the Special Residencies. The Frianze family, a young couple
with a baby, stood up and waved briefly from the bottom row of the grandstand. As the Emperor
congratulated them on their lemon and rhubarb sweet cake – his new favourite treat – Linus
wondered how long they would last in the Special Residencies; bakers usually had a pretty fast
turnover rate, as the Emperor had a new favourite treat quite often. The crowd had already begun
to shuffle and murmur as the Emperor described, in passionate detail, the sticky sauce that
came standard with the cake. Their Emperor, beloved as he was, was not much one for public
speaking. A shorter-than-it-seemed while later, whilst
Emperor *** warned of a drunken bandit who had been stealing from Vilento’s cellar,
Linus couldn’t help but notice that the Princess seemed to be sitting rather sullenly.
Her legs were crossed, as were her arms, and she was slouched low, leaning into the side
of her chair. She faced away from her father; something no one else dared to do whilst their
Emperor spoke. She must have been the only person in a mile’s radius not looking at
Emperor *** – apart from Linus, of course. Linus leaned close to Jeremy and whispered,
“What’s with the Princess?” Jeremy raised an eyebrow inquisitively, not
quite following. “Does she seem a little...” Jeremy’s
eyebrow didn’t lower while Linus searched for the right word. “Moody?”
“Hmph,” Jeremy shrugged flippantly, without ever breaking his gaze toward the grandstand.
“Maybe she –” Crack!
Jeremy was cut off again by Remmy’s thundersword, and the entire audience snapped back into
attention to see Remmy standing at the front of the grandstand in his grandiose pose again,
extravagant as always. “Well that’s my cue!” said the Emperor
with a chuckle. “So with no further ado,” it was barely possible to hear him over the
applause. “I give you, our city’s chief adviser and warlock, our Remmy!”
This time, he didn’t notice his mistake of not using the correct title, but neither
did anybody else. The audience had erupted with screams and hoots and clapping hands
and stomping feet. Now, as Emperor *** made his way back to
his seat, it was Remmy’s turn to raise a hand for quiet, and when he did so the audience
fell into almost instant silence. He began. “Sundrian City. I have missed you so.”
He was both tearful and proud. “Almost four long months I have – indeed we all have
– awaited my return,” he continued, wiping his eyes dramatically. “Now as you all well
know the purpose of my expeditions is to survey the nearby area, hidden under the veil of
my magic, looking for dangers. A scouting mission with the primary objective of gathering
as much information as possible and returning to you all to report on the dangers outside
our divine impenetrable wall. And I am afraid that as I stand here today, the warnings I
have gathered are vast and complex. We truly walk a fine line of safety.
“Just last night I performed several new emergency enchantments on our wall, to combat
a new threat of Pixieshills, which I discovered roosting not far away over the southern mountains
of Greater Altair. They are devilish little creatures, ruthless and evil. At one point
one of them possessed Garresh, but I managed to expel it using a most gruesome incantation
that I wish to never repeat,” he peered back with an apologetic look at Garresh, who
appeared to be in mild anguish over the memory of the ordeal.
“But Sundrian City, before I warn you of the dangers outside our wall, today I must
warn of a new danger. One that lingers dark and brooding within our own walls. A danger
that far outweighs anything I saw in the last four months.”
The audience held their collective breath. “I speak of doubt. There are people amongst
us who doubt in myself and our city and seek to sabotage us. They seek to see for themselves
what lies behind our honourable wall. And this, my friends, is a fate I would not wish
upon my worst of enemies. “Worse still, doubt gives power to creatures
like pixieshills, and others far worse. They feed on it and it empowers them, and as it
grows within our city, so too are they drawn to it.”
A murmur of terror rumbled from the people. “This is why, beloved people of my beloved
city, we must remain hopeful. We must push forth any man who doubts in the terrors of
our world, for he must stand trial. We must weed out doubt.
“We will weed out doubt!” he screamed, and as he did the entire crowd cheered and
whooped again. When Remiel deemed that he had soaked in enough
of the applause he continued calling over the audience in the most powerful voice he
could manage. “And on that note; let us start the day’s proceedings!”
He motioned flamboyantly to the horn players on each far side of the grandstand, who started
playing the elephant’s entry march in unison. Linus wondered why he hadn’t mentioned the
ambush, but the thought was wiped swiftly from his mind as the thick wooden gates deep
in the pit slid apart. He held his breath, waiting to see which elephant would walk through.