FORTY-THREE - Rhoswen

Rhoswen & Tadghan witness a major announcement.

Rhoswen woke up in Tadghan’s house.  She hadn’t gotten very much sleep.  She was up long after Tadghan had fallen asleep, tossing and turning, the image of Silvan’s split neck stuck in her mind.

I can’t go back to the Outskirts.  People are more upset than I’ve ever seen them.  I convinced them Xanthus would take in their children, but Xanthus didn’t return.  Tadghan and Rhoswen had passed near the front gate on their way to his house, and it was apparent that leaving the city wouldn’t be a safe option.  They’ll expect me to have all the answers.  I was the one who spread the news in the first place.

Tadghan led her through the dark alleyways and black city streets until they arrived at his home.  The entrance was a small hole in a wall covered with a piece of heavy fabric.

“I don’t have a door,” he explained, unashamed.  “It’s the last place anyone will think to look for you.”  He’s right about that.

The drum beat in the distance, signaling the end of curfew.  I didn’t even get a minute of sleep.  All she could think about was what was going to happen once everyone discovered that she had been wrong�"that there really was no hope for their children, that Silvan had lied to her for some reason.  I still don’t think he should have had any reason to lie… he had to have known what would happen.

Tadghan had given her his bed, saying that he preferred to sleep on the ground.  It was clearly a lie, but it had been a nice gesture, and seeing as he was still snoring loudly, it must not have bothered him too much.  Rhoswen peered over the edge of the bed and saw him resting peacefully in the dirt.  He’s the first man who refused my offer to share the bed with me.  He just said it would be inappropriate.  She smiled at the thought.

But the happiness was short lived, because through the hide that served as a door to the home, she could hear the rabble of the people from outside the city.  They were getting louder, and somehow, angrier.  If they keep this up, they’re going to break through that gate.  There aren’t enough guards to defend it.  The people will overpower them, and then they’ll storm the castle looking for answers.

In the distance, Rhoswen heard the sound of two loud drumbeats.  Someone’s about to make an announcement.  She looked back down at Tadghan, trying to decide whether she should wake him up for this.  Maybe it’s best if I stay far away from any kind of announcement.  I don’t want anyone to recognize me.

The shouts and cries of the crowd outside the city continued.  It was madness, and needed to be stopped, but Rhoswen had no idea how to stop it.  It’s not up to me.  It’s up to Silvan�"but he’s up in the castle, dying.

From the ground, Tadghan stirred.  He moaned and rolled over.  “It’s too early,” he grumbled.  “How can anyone be so angry this early?”

“They’ve been at it throughout curfew.  I don’t think any of them slept.”

“Does that mean you didn’t sleep?”

“I couldn’t,” she said sheepishly.

“I’m sorry,” he said.  He sounded sincere.  “I’m sure it’s not easy.  After everything you saw…”

“It was horrible.  All that blood… I couldn’t stop seeing his face.  I just couldn’t sleep.  It didn’t feel right.”

“Everything’s going to be okay.  I’m going to find out who’s plotting to take out everyone who knows about the children, and I’m going to stop them.  I’m going to keep you safe.”

“I appreciate that, but you don’t have to�"”

“I want to.  I don’t like people who don’t treat each other with respect.”  The sound of the crowd suddenly began to die down.  Tadghan turned to look through the flap that served as his door.  “You said they were screaming all night?”

“Yes, they never stopped.”

“So why are they stopping now?”

“Probably because of the announcement.”

Tadghan leapt to his feet.  “There’s an announcement?  Right now?!  How do you know?”

“There were two drumbeats while you slept.  I didn’t want to wake you, so�"”

“We’re going.  Now.”  He pulled her off the bed and out the front door.

The two of them made their way carefully towards the city gate.  As they got close, they started to see people�"Xantomian citizens�"outside of their homes.  There was a whole crowd of people moving together in the same direction, towards the front of the city.

“That means it hasn’t started yet.  At least we haven’t missed anything important,” Tadghan said.  The two of them fell in line with a few other people, but Tadghan didn’t let go of Rhoswen’s hand.  I guess that just means he doesn’t want to lose me in this mess.  But maybe he’s trying to keep me safe.

“Why are we going to this?  What if someone recognizes me?” Rhoswen whispered into Tadghan’s ear.

“This could explain everything that’s happening.  Or at least give us a major clue.  We can’t miss this�"not a word.  It could mean the difference between life and death in the future.”

Finally they had made it to the main street, where the entirety of the city was gathered before the front gate.  They all looked upwards to the top of the wall.  Rhoswen followed their gaze upwards to see someone she didn’t recognize about to make the announcement.

“Who is that?” Rhoswen asked.

“That’s Thaddeus,” Tadghan said.  “He was the Head of the King’s Guard.  Things are already starting to make a whole lot of sense.  I have a funny feeling he had something to do with what happened to Xanthus.”

He was standing with his back to the Xantomians, facing outwards towards the people of the Outskirts.  On either side of him was a member of the King’s Guard, two men that Tadghan identified for her as Zultan and Castiel.  Men who weren’t to be trifled with, apparently.

Thaddeus turned to survey the city.  The crowd was still, and completely silent.  You could have heard a Bareland Beast pissing into the lake in the distance.  Thaddeus lowered his arms and began to speak.

“I’m sure you’ve all heard that Xanthus is no longer with us.  He made a valiant effort to head out into the Barelands with the Hunt to try to solve the food crisis for us.  Unfortunately, that mission was a failure.  The Hunt returned last night, and although Xanthus put in his best efforts to find a new source of food, he did not succeed.  Everyone with him on the Hunt followed him, and tried to help him complete his mission.  He thought he might have found the solution and he pursued it�"but paid for it with his own life.  I’m told that he died heroically in a fight with a Bareland Beast.  Let’s take a moment to honor our fallen King.”

Rhoswen looked at Tadghan for some clue as to how he felt about this speech.  He didn’t give anything away, but she was certain the he was as suspicious as she was.  She turned back to Thaddeus to hear what else he had to say.  The rest of the crowd was transfixed, waiting with baited breath to hear what came next.  Where did the city go from here?

Thaddeus cleared his throat and continued.  “We have a small amount of food to split between us, but it is no more than we had after the last Hunt, so we have to make sure to divide it evenly.  Make sure you watch over your meat, and portion it, because we don’t know when we’ll be able to get more.  You know how it works.”

Why hasn’t he mentioned Silvan yet?  The Outskirts have been shouting for him for hours, and he hasn’t even brought him up.  Surely nobody is buying into any of this… They can’t be.

“The next thing I have to say is not something that I even have the right to.  So I’ll let her tell you herself.”  He gestured towards the stairs that led up to the top of the wall, and Queen Xanthia stepped up onto the precipice.  She opened her arms regally and she was greeted with very light applause.  When more people didn’t join in, it stopped as quickly as it had begun.

She cleared her throat and began.  “I am here today to tell all of you that I will not be taking over for my late husband as ruler of the city.  Instead, I pass that right on to Thaddeus, who is more than capable of performing the duties of your King.  He served as Head of the King’s Guard for more than ten years and has been on the King’s Council for just as long.  He has an intimate knowledge of the inner workings of this city and I assure you, we are all in very good hands with him as our new King.”

A low murmur spread through the crowd.  People whispered to one another.  Rhoswen couldn’t tell if the majority was good or bad, but it was good that everyone had something to say.  At least nobody is completely indifferent to what happens to them.

Someone from the Outskirts shouted over all the murmuring.  It was impossible to mistake what he said, as there was no other sound to swallow it.  “We don’t want you!  We want Silvan!”

There was a roar of agreement from the rest of the people in the Outskirts.  Inside the city wall, the Xantomians seemed confused by this reaction.  A lot of them probably didn’t even know who Silvan was, let alone why anyone would want him to be the new King.

Thaddeus tried to shout over the crowd and gain some semblance of control, but there were too many of them all shouting at once.  The chants started up again, “SIL-VAN!  SIL-VAN!  SIL-VAN!”

The crowd smashed into the front gate, rattling the bars and shouting louder than they had before.  They’re going to try to break through.  What will our new King do when every person in the Outskirts is in here, shouting for him to give up his position to Silvan?

“Tadghan, we have to leave,” she said.  She tried pulled him out of the crowd, back towards his house, but he didn’t budge.

“Not yet.  He’s trying to say something else.”  Tadghan remained completely focused on Thaddeus, not looking away for even a split second.  He began muttering under his breath, “What are you planning, Thaddeus?  What’s your play?”

Thaddeus was screaming, waving his arms furiously to get the crowd’s attention, but it wasn’t working.  Finally he signaled to the other guards lining the wall.  They bent down and picked up their bows and fitted them with arrows.  That seemed to do the trick.  The crowd silenced almost immediately.

“I do not want my first act as King to be violent in nature,” Thaddeus said.  “I would much prefer to keep the peace, and make everyone happy.  Unfortunately, Silvan is unable to be with us at this time.  Little did we know, The King’s Guard had a traitor amongst them.  The man known as Vanderford was plotting to kill everyone on the council and take the throne for himself!  If he had been successful, all of your hard work gathering food would have been for nothing.  He planned to keep it all and eat while you all starved!  He came at me while I slept, but Silvan was there just in the nick of time.  You all are correct to call him a hero!”

What is he doing?  He’s lying to their faces.

“Unfortunately, he was gravely injured in combat with Vanderford.  He took a near-fatal wound to his neck, but still he fought on.  In his final act before collapsing to the ground in pain, he was able to strike Vanderford down.  The castle Healer is working on him as we speak.  As soon as he is well enough to speak to you, I promise he will be here!”

The crowd cheered.  They were eating it up as if they thought it would fill their stomachs as well as their fears.  They wanted to believe so badly that Silvan was a hero that they’d accept anything Thaddeus told them.

“This isn’t right,” she whispered to Tadghan.

“Not at all,” he said.  “But this may end up being good for you.  I doubt they want to kill you any more.”

“But it’s a lie.  They deserve to know the truth!”

“The truth doesn’t matter.  Nobody in this city has known the truth since Xanthus the First.  All I care about is that the chaos is over, and you’re no longer in danger.  Whatever Thaddeus’s motivations are, he seems to be bound by the people he’s serving.”

“The truth doesn’t matter?  But it matters to me.”

Tadghan wasn’t listening.  He was muttering to himself again, “Now there’s just one more matter he has to settle if he wants to win them completely over to his side.  The matter of the children.”

As if on cue, Thaddeus started speaking again.  “You are right to consider Silvan a hero.  He is a great man.  But I wanted to know why you thought he was such a hero.  So I had my guards get a little more information from you, and it turns out that he convinced King Xanthus to do something a little unorthodox.”

Xanthia began walking away from him at that moment.  He very briefly glanced at her as she disappeared down the steps, but Rhoswen didn’t see anyone else’s heads turn.  Nobody seemed to notice that she was going away.  Where is she going?  Why is she leaving now?

“As unorthodox as the idea was, it was a brilliant one.  Life in the Outskirts is hard.  Silvan talked on many different occasions in Council meetings about his time in the Outskirts.  About how there isn’t enough food, there isn’t enough shelter, you have to work harder to get less… and frankly, I’m sick of it!  It isn’t fair!  So as King, I’m going to institute a new policy that would have been put into effect by Xanthus if he hadn’t so tragically been taken away from us.  Xanthus may not have been able to save all of you, but in his final days, he was trying.  In honor of our former King, I’m going to do everything I can to fulfill his wishes.”

“He’s going to do it,” Tadghan said.  “This is unbelievable.”

“There’s no way.  It’s impossible,” Rhoswen said, already knowing that she was wrong.  She could no longer hear her own voice.  The crowd in the Outskirts was going crazy, they were shouting, jumping up and down, roaring with excitement… and Thaddeus hadn’t even made the announcement yet.

“Please, settle down and allow me to finish!” Thaddeus shouted, regaining control.  The crowd settled, but they knew what was coming.  Silvan had come through for them, and their lives were changed for the better.

I don’t have to hide anymore.  I was right.  Everything I said to them yesterday turned out to be true.  There is hope for the future!  Silvan came through, even if he didn’t actually mean to, it ended up for the best!

“You made this happen,” Tadghan said, turning to her.  “If you hadn’t spread the rumor throughout the Outskirts… if you hadn’t done exactly what Silvan told you to do, this never would have happened.”

Her heart leapt in her chest.  He was right.  Thaddeus had no choice, and she had guaranteed the future safety and freedom of all the unprotected children in the Outskirts.

“There’s a new law in this city!”  Thaddeus roared.  “Any child who is no longer getting the food and protection that he or she deserves will be taken into the city and raised in the castle!  There, we will be sure to give the child all of the education, food, and training that he or she needs in order to enter back into society as a productive human being, and a proud Xantomian!  Some of your children may be Healers… some of them will be armorers or weapons makers… some of them may decide to be Hunters… and some of them may even raise so high as to become members of my own Guard.  But every single one of them will grow to be productive Xantomians.  You have my word as King!”