Chapter 9 - [The King's Executioner]

Within minutes, I was sitting in a carriage with Armond, Solana, and Miriam. The carriage was enclosed, and there was just enough space inside for four people to sit alongside their luggage. Walter and Melissa sat in the box seat at the front of the carriage, and Walter held the horses’ reins.

A single rider rode next to the carriage. Atop the horse was a knight who I didn’t recognize. He wore chainmail and a tabard bearing House Feldrast’s family crest. The knight was young, but he seemed confident.

Feldrast Manor was built on the outskirts of Sableton, the second biggest settlement in the Realm of Northwind. We had long left the city behind when Miriam asked, “Isn’t Mom coming with us?”

“I’m afraid not, Mir,” Armond said with a smile. “She’s watching Merrick right now, so she can’t make the trip.”

“Why do you think the King wants to see you, Dad?” Solana asked directly.

“Uh… well…” Armond tried to hide his true feelings with a smile, but his face told a tale of barely suppressed fear. “Officially, the King has requested that I attend court in my capacity as the King’s Executioner, though I suspect he really wants to check on the status of the [Hellfire] Talent.”

“Uh, Dad?” Solana tilted her head. “I don’t get it. Executioner? Like the guy who wears a hood at hangings?”

“No, no,” Armond chuckled lightly. “The King’s Executioner is a bit different from a normal executioner. Anyway, I’m sorry. I forgot who I was talking to. I’ll try to put it into simpler terms. Basically, I think he wants to see the three of you.”

“Us?” Miriam looked terrified. “Why would…?”

Suddenly, the carriage came to a lurching stop.

“Sir,” the knight riding next to the carriage began to shout, “we’re being…!” The man’s shouted sentence ended in a rasping gurgle as some fast projectile impacted against his chest, and he fell off his horse.

I heard several projectiles impact against the roof of the carriage. From outside came the sound of dozens of horses galloping and several swords being drawn from their sheaths. Fear gripped my heart as I realized we were surrounded by dozens of well-armed men. It was much too early! I couldn't do anything to stop them at my age!

“Outlanders!” Walter shouted from the front seat where we couldn’t see him. As he said this one word, the sound of him drawing his sword from its scabbard rang out.

“Don’t,” Armond said firmly. “Stay and protect the children. I’ll deal with them.”

As Count Armond Feldrast spoke, the light within the carriage suddenly became significantly brighter. In the corner of the inside of the carriage was a spherical brazier. I realized that a mote of Hellfire must have been contained within the brazier, and it was reacting to Armond’s rage.

I looked into my father’s red eyes, and his expression terrified me. The affable man who had been sitting there a moment ago was gone, replaced by this manifestation of cold rage. Fire burned behind my father’s eyes, and the thin veneer holding it back was starting to chip.

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The door to the carriage opened, and Armond stepped out. The laughter of barbarians from the Barren Wastes heralded Count Armond’s departure. Upon seeing a noble exiting from the carriage, they halted their attack.

“Giving up already, nobleman?” asked one of the outlanders. He spoke with a heavy accent and carried a large two-handed axe against one of his shoulders. This outlander seemed to be the leader. He dismounted from his horse and stepped up to Armond Feldrast.

All told, there must have been about thirty outlanders in that group. Five stood in the back with their bows at the ready, ten had stayed atop their horses in a loose circle around the carriage, and the remaining fifteen stood between the carriage and archers with their weapons drawn.

“You dare attack me so close to my own home!?” Armond shouted at the top of his lungs. “My children are with me, you Nyx-damned savages!”

“Nobles always act like they’re untouchable until…” the leader of the outlanders tried to say. Before he could reach the end of his sentence, he was engulfed in a twisting inferno. He didn’t even have time to scream.

“Silence, cur!” Count Armond Feldrast spat as the leader’s blackened corpse fell to the ground.

In the same instant that he killed the leader, Armond had created three other Hellfire sparks. Two of the Hellfire sparks shot toward the carriage like arrows and morphed into a cyclone of flame. Starting at a point a few meters away from the carriage, a protective circle of Hellfire surrounded us.

Solana got to her feet, and she took a few steps toward the cyclone of fire. She seemed to be intent on helping Armond in the fight. I knew the fire would not hurt her, but I was afraid that she could get hit by an arrow or cut by a sword.

“Stop!” I called out to Solana.

“He might need my help,” Solana said with tears in her eyes. She held her hand out, and - with great effort - she was able to create a Hellfire spark in the palm of her hand.

“He’s okay,” I said, gesturing for her to look at the fight.

A cyclone of flame like the one surrounding the carriage also surrounded Count Armond Feldrast. Dozens of arrows flew at him, but they were all burnt to cinders before they could reach their target.

An outlander charged screaming toward my father with his sword raised. Count Armond Feldrast locked his red eyes upon the man for a second, and that was all it took. A Hellfire spark struck the man, and he burst into flames before he could get anywhere close to the cyclone.

Several outlanders attempted to run away, but they were hunted down by viciously buzzing bolts of fire. An instant before they impacted, the Hellfire sparks expanded suddenly, creating a shockwave that killed the outlanders instantly.

One of the outlanders that attacked my father was quite a bit larger than the others. He seemed to be more than eight feet tall, and he wielded a greataxe as a one-handed weapon. Armond hit this large man with a Hellfire spark directly, but it did not have the same effect as it did on the others.

The large man existed at the center of a raging inferno for several seconds, and he emerged out the other end with severe burns. Any normal man would have been burned down to the bone by such a conflagration. The man was able to close to melee range with Armond, and he swung his greataxe hard at the Count.

“No!” Miriam shouted, covering her eyes.

Armond jumped backwards away from the large man’s strike, dodging it by a few centimeters. Armond’s defensive cyclone of flame disappeared as he quickly converted that one Hellfire spark into a form with which he could use to attack. The bolt of Hellfire struck the large man in the chest. Less than a second later, two more bolts struck the man in the back. Armond had utilized some of the Hellfire sparks he had left on the battlefield to attack the man.

The large man lurched forward with blood dripping out of his mouth and black scorch marks covering his body. Then, a Hellfire spark that had been used minutes before to incinerate a fleeing outlander flew at the large man and detonated against his skull. With a crash, the giant outlander fell to the ground, and the battle was over.