Neytopia › Part 2: Noon › Chapter 33

Hard to kill

The raven and the giant met with the leader to communicate their decision to join him against the king. The leader took them inside the city under the mountain for the first time:

After a wide stone corridor they reached a balcony high above the streets below. Pillars hundreds of meters tall rose from the ground to the top of the mountain. The faces of great ancient kings had been carved into them. On the sides, carved out of the mountain, hundreds upon hundreds of houses. The leader announced,

Citizens, citizens! The heroes will join us and together we will destroy the wicked northern kingdom!

Then the giant and the raven were presented to the whole city, which cheered and clapped at their new heroes. The king gifted the raven a house, with a huge library and a cellar filled with fine wine. The citizens built a great hut for the giant outside the city, as there were no houses inside that would fit his size. The members of his band were also given two houses to share among them.

The day after the raven had settled in, the leader snuck up on him while he was reading in his new home and said,

Did you know I saw him with my own eyes once?

The sneaky intruder startled the raven. But after realizing who the intruder was, the raven asked,

Who?

The northern king.

The leader walked around the room, inspecting the raven’s library as he spoke,

Yes, it was in the city you burnt down. I was a young boy back then. My father, huh, he was showing me their lifestyle and teaching me to trade and barter. You see, there are some products we can’t make on our own, and others that abound in the mountains. So we trade with cities and towns claiming we’re wandering merchants. My father showed me, as he had been shown, a week in the life of each of the trades in our city. And I’m grateful for that experience.

The raven wanted to continue reading. He didn’t really like the leader and didn’t find his story all that interesting. The leader suddenly changed his tone,

Anyway. The important thing is this: we saw him arrive when no one was expecting him; not that anyone ever does, you know. His army occupied the city in minutes. My father and his men were tense, knowing they would kill us all if they discovered who we were.

There he was, our mortal enemy just a few steps away from us. My father looked at his guardsmen, who were dressed like traders and farmers but who also concealed weapons beneath their clothes. He shook his head slightly, signaling to his men that he wanted them to stand down. Any of his men would gladly give their lives to kill the king. As we soon learned, the king had come to enjoy the voices of the local orphanage choir. Yes, if he wasn’t enough of a villain already, he also, you know, liked little kids.

One of our men didn’t think it twice. During the recital he jumped on the king with a concealed knife he was carrying and stabbed him in the chest at least four times. Though he must have missed his heart, because the king stood up from his chair, pushed him to the ground with a single shove, and taking the knife from his own chest, ran it through the throat of his assailant, who helplessly bled to death there, as everyone watched.

The king screamed “Watch! All of you!” His soldiers unsheathed the swords and surrounded the king. We, of course, obeyed and watched our man die. I remember my father holding me, shivering, because he feared they would kill us all. When the dying man had stopped twitching, the king sat back on his throne, looked at the children, and calmly said, “please, continue”.

The leader stopped, took the wine bottle the raven had opened, and poured himself a glass. Then he sat down, sighed and looked at the raven before asking,

What do you take from this story?

That he won’t be easy to kill.

The leader smiled, chugged his cup and replied while he poured himself another,

Wrong. I’ll tell you what I took from it. My father was afraid of that man. My father was weak. We should all have attacked that day. We should all have stabbed his heart, torn him limb from limb. But instead we backed down. There’s something you should know: I will stop before nothing until I have his skull in my hand to use as a cup.

The leader left the raven’s home. The raven went to see the giant and in whispers told him about the bizarre conversation with the leader. The raven feared the leader might have spies eavesdropping on him. The giant asked,

Are you sure we can trust this man?

Trust? No, we can only trust each other and the little girl. The leader is… not right.

The raven stopped, doubting to say the next words.

Giant, if you want to, we can leave and start over, like the little girl said. We may have backed ourselves into a corner. Either way, I will accept whatever you decide.

For now we should stay here. After all, we gave our word. But I’ll let you know if I change my mind.

The raven said one last thing from the door.

Did you notice how the little girl mentioned a war, not a fight. Our plan is to assassinate the king, not enter open battle. Didn’t you find that—

Strange?

Yes. I think she knows something she doesn’t want to tell us.

Before the raven returned to his room, he visited the nurse at the hospital where she worked. The future was uncertain, he might die in a few days. So he walked up to her and hugged her, she hugged him back. After that day he visited her every day of the week, every week of the month.