Lottery King 2, page 26
“Yeah, well, he’s probably doing a good job of it,” I grumbled.
More than a few-dozen concerned eyes looked down on the gorgon with the white-and-red snakes, and I didn’t like the general tone of concern that echoed from the hundreds of voices.
“He’s trying to garner support,” Poppy said with a quiet gasp of realization.
“And what’s worse…” I frowned. “It looks like it’s working.”
“Rune will have all the evidence you might need, your majesty,” Firo said. “Present the truth to the people, and they will see.”
“Besides,” Helena sighed. “This isn’t the kind of trial the humans have in the United States. There is no jury of his peers. You are judge, jury, and executioner… should it come to that.”
“What about the representatives?” I asked.
“They will bow to whatever decision you make,” Poppy said with a little shrug. “Or they risk facing the wrath of the king as well.”
“That’s how it has always been,” Helena added.
“You make the final decision in all matters, your majesty,” Firo agreed.
“Right,” I sighed as I felt the shock and weight of it all on my shoulders.
This was the part of being king that I would never get used to. I might eventually be able to get used to the money, fame, and servants, but even if I spent the rest of all existence being King of the Eternal Realm, I would never be cavalier about holding the lives of so many in the palm of my hand.
“Are you ready, your majesty?” Firo asked, and he placed an almost comforting hand on my shoulder.
“Yes,” I heaved a huge breath and nodded.
“Poppy, you may sit with Lady Helena and the other representatives,” Firo said.
We followed the seven-foot-tall dragon-man up to the stage, and the ladies sat down beside the balding Lord Oba. I spotted Lord Atlas and the female siren from the party, as well as several other faces I recognized. There were gorgons, satyrs, sirens, merfolk, and faes among the line of two and a half dozen representatives. Firo then led me right to the center circular platform where Rune waited with a thick folder of papers. The pair nodded at me that I should begin the trial.
“Firo,” I said in an urgent whisper as I avoided looking at the gorgon. “The stone-eyes thing?”
“You are positioned too far away from him for his powers to be effective, but just in case, the prisoner’s stonification power has been dampened by a protective enchantment, your majesty,” Firo answered quietly. “It keeps him from being able to use his powers, and there is another that’s keeping him within the perimeter of the stage.”
“Thank you.” I nodded at my head of security.
Firo lowered his chin just slightly before he took up the stance of a proper soldier at the back edge of the platform. Rune gave me a subtle wink and tapped one of his fingers on the thick folder to let me know he had all the evidence ready for me. I walked up the two steps to the middle of the second stage, and I cleared my throat.
The sound echoed through the entire stadium from some kind of magical sound amplification, and the crowds fell immediately silent as all eyes turned to me.
“Thank you,” I said in my normal voice, and the magic amplifier sent my words ringing through the stadium like a loudspeaker. “Thank you all for coming today to bear witness to this trial.”
The crowd was so silent we could have heard a feather drop, and I wondered if anyone was even breathing.
“This gorgon has acted willfully and aggressively to sow the seeds of discourse and revolt in this great city,” I announced.
A rumble of shock worked its way around the stadium, and I paused to allow the crowd a moment to process what I’d said. Then I walked over and looked down at the gorgon prisoner.
“Alexander,” I continued. “You have been identified as the leader of the radical group, Machités gia tin Elefthería.”
Another, sharper gasp of horror ripped through the crowds at that, and I paused for another moment. I didn’t take my eyes off of the gorgon’s head, and his white-and-red snakes glared up at me with rage clear in their little eyes. Alexander himself refused to make eye contact with me, though, and he just stared straight ahead like he himself had been turned to stone.
“Your extremist group…” I announced, “has sown chaos, discord, and hatred through this city for far longer than I have been king. My advisors have informed me that the Machités gia tin Elefthería has been working to cause a revolution for centuries. Now, I cannot and will not place the weight of the group’s entire history on your shoulders, as I know you have not been involved with the group for its entire history.”
Another rumble worked through the crowds, and I began to pace slowly around the little circular stage on the platform. Now I turned my eyes up to the crowds as I continued to speak.
“However,” I began again. “Your actions and leadership, including the attempted assassination of your king during the chariot races, have pushed you, and the group, to the heinous crimes for which you have been brought before us today.”
I paused for effect this time, and I waited until it felt like all the air had been sucked out of the stadium.
“You have been charged with crimes of espionage.” I folded my hands behind my back as I levied the charges. “Seditious conspiracy, inciting a rebellion, attempted assassination, and treason.”
I let the crowd erupt into chaos for a moment as I stepped off the secondary stage, and I walked over to place myself in front of Alexander. Once I was just two feet in front of his stoic form, I raised my hands to silence the crowd.
“How do you respond?” I asked.
“How do I respond?” Alexander repeated in a monotone voice, and his white-and-red snakes hissed violently at me.
The crowd grew utterly silent once more, and I could almost feel the weight of movement as the hundreds of spectators leaned forward in their seats to catch every bit of Alexander’s response.
“Betrayal,” the prisoner growled through clenched teeth, and thanks to the magical amplifier, the words were loud and clear throughout the stadium. “Treason. Murder!”
I refused to give a single reaction as the gorgon stood and stared right into my eyes, but my heart leapt with instinctual fear at the hatred that burned in his gaze.
“The crown!” Alexander raged, and his face turned ruddy with hatred. “The crown has squashed the people under its royal thumb for eons! For centuries, the king has made us bow to the whims of the humans! We are superior to those feeble creatures in every way!”
My blood started to boil as the gorgon continued, and tiny flecks of spit flew out of his mouth like a rabid dog, but I held onto my calm mask and let him dig himself in even deeper.
“The king cares not for us!” the gorgon screamed, and he turned to address the crowd directly. “That bastard Vairn proved that the monarchy has no desire to do what is right for the common people! And now? Now the Goddess betrays us all by putting a pathetic, disgusting, lowly human on the throne?”
Alexander nearly vomited the words at me, and I clenched my teeth together as my fingernails dug into the palms of my hands. My shoulders were tight, my spine was as straight as a steel beam, and I refused to waiver under this asshole’s rage.
“This… this–” Alexander screamed, and he turned back to look at me like I was a piece of gum stuck to the bottom of a million-dollar shoe. “Creature! He has no right to rule us! No one should rule us! We should be free to do whatever we need to do for ourselves! We should be free to live our lives as we see fit! Without the interference of some faraway king who didn’t even know of our world until a month ago!”
That’s when the crowd descended into greater chaos. Shouts from the stands became angry and hostile, and I even saw some shoving break out in the crowd.
“My king,” Lord Atlas asked, and he stood from his seat. “May I speak?”
“Yes, Lord Atlas,” I said, and I stepped back to allow the merman to address the prisoner.
“Do you mean to tell us you would wish for the fall of the monarchy?” Lord Atlas asked in a politely hostile tone. “A complete descent into lawless chaos?”
“Yes!” Alexander raged, and his eyes bulged out of his face. “Let chaos rule! Let the powerful rise above the rest, and let the weak ones fall beneath our boot heels where they belong!”
“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath.
I knew the Machités gia tin Elefthería wanted the monarchy to end, but I thought they were in more of a position like the American Colonies during the Revolutionary War. I’d been hoping Alexander could be persuaded back to reason, but he was clearly far too radical for that.
“Chaos of that nature would cause millions of deaths!” Lord Oba gasped in horror.
I looked over at the balding man, and I suspected he hadn’t realized how loud he’d spoken until his words carried through the magical amplifier to the entire stadium. His wrinkled face blushed with embarrassment as he pressed his lips into a thin line.
“Let them die!” Alexander cackled maniacally in response to the old harpy’s shocked outburst. “If death is your lot in life, let you find your end now!”
I watched the crowds more closely now, and I was a bit horrified by some of the reactions I saw in the stands.
It looked like the majority of people were as shocked by the gorgon’s words as Lord Oba, but I saw several clusters of people who were nodding in agreement. Many of the people who seemed to agree were gorgons, but I spotted harpies, sirens, faes, satyrs, and merfolk among them, too. I could see the sparks of a revolution among them, and I knew I needed to squash this shit.
Now. Before I had a full revolt on my hands.
Anger boiled in my blood, and a flash of fear sparked in my heart as I felt us inching closer to the precipice. I raised my hands to address the crowd.
“Give me your attention!” I commanded.
About half of the crowd settled down, but there was enough mob mentality alive in the stands now that the dissenters and hundreds more who were undecided continued to squabble and shout. Instances of shoving and grabbing broke out in a few places, and I felt the whole thing slipping out of my hands.
“Attention!” I roared in my most commanding voice.
But the chaos continued, and the gorgon prisoner smirked at me as he saw his handiwork in action.
“No more king!” Alexander started to shout again, and he raged through all of his radical group’s talking points.
My blood boiled hotter, and I started to seriously consider simply executing the gorgon right there and then. I knew someone on the stage would be able to provide me with a weapon, and if nothing else, I could command Firo to simply break his own neck.
But I didn’t want to resort to executing everybody who caused trouble for me. It didn’t feel like the kind of precedent I was trying to set. I wanted to be seen as a reasonable king, and one who listened to my people. Unfortunately, I’d only been presented with blindly loyal followers and openly hostile adversaries so far during my rule.
It was clear by the victorious glint in Alexander’s eyes that he saw a clear path to victory before him, and I knew he wasn’t going to back down now.
Not when his goal felt so close.
“Fuck,” I hissed through tight lips.
I had enough evidence for an execution, but I could see that the crowd wouldn’t care at this point. They were too fired up, too heated, to be reasoned with.
If I simply executed Alexander now, he’d become a martyr, a symbol for the very cause I was trying to suppress. His death would be gasoline on the sparking tinderbox, and the whole thing would explode in my face.
I scanned the crowd again, and I tried to focus on the different shouts coming from my subjects. It was impossible to tell who was shouting what, but I heard more than a few calls for action.
The people were furious with Alexander and the Machités gia tin Elefthería, and there were calls for his head on a pike. But there were far too many calls for a dissolution of the monarchy for my liking.
All the while, I could feel the wall of rage coming off the gorgon like a palpable cloud of toxicity. I took a moment to examine the anger, and I felt like I could reach out and touch it. His mind was a strangely solid mass beside me, and I had far less trouble finding him than I’d had with Rune just yesterday.
I focused on the gorgon’s presence for a moment, and it seemed to materialize like a churning black fog in my mind. In the depths of the sooty essence, there was a solid mass of red that writhed and coiled like a ball of angry snakes.
I reached out to the churning mass with my mind, and it felt solid like stone. It was only the anxious tension already present in my mind and body that kept me from gasping audibly at the touch of Alexander’s mind.
Then the rage of the crowd brought me back to the harsh reality, and my eyes searched for support. This was exactly what I’d expected to happen, and I knew what I had to do.
Poppy and Helena stared right at me, and I gestured for the local representatives to converge around me. They all stood from their seats as the crowd continued to shout, and my representatives gathered around me.
“What do we do, your majesty?” Lord Atlas asked, and the merman looked far more worried than I’d expected.
“You must execute him,” the pretty siren from Lord Oba’s party said in a snotty tone.
“No.” I shook my head.
“That would turn him into a martyr for their cause,” Helena said with a nod of agreement.
“I agree,” Lord Atlas sighed.
“But something must be done,” a male gorgon said.
“Life imprisonment,” a female satyr suggested.
“Exile,” someone else offered.
“To where?” Lord Atlas scoffed. “No place in this world is outside the Eternal Realm.”
“Hard labor for his crimes,” another gorgon said.
There were other suggestions, but none of them seemed appropriate. Any kind of punishment would give Alexander what he was looking for: a symbol for his cause. I shook my head at all of them as I waited for them to exhaust their options before revealing my intentions.
If we punished him, his followers would point to this day as a shining example of how the throne ruled the Eternal Realm with a harsh iron fist.
Besides, I’d already made up my mind.
“We’re doing trial by combat,” I declared, and my voice left little room for argument.
“An honorable choice, your majesty,” Lord Oba breathed in a victorious tone.
“No, absolutely not.” Helena shook her head firmly as if she could deny the idea with a show of her will. “That is a horrible idea.”
I wasn’t surprised that the beautiful harpy still objected to the idea, and I wasn’t surprised that she was bold enough to speak out against it. It was becoming more obvious to me that Helena cared about my safety.
“King Michael,” Helena muttered, and her eyes were dark with worry. “No, there are other options…”
“Like what?” I asked.
Helena’s mouth fell open, and I could see it in her eyes. She knew this was the best option, and I knew I could connect with the gorgon’s mind. Between my training with Firo and my mirror magic, I had a good enough shot at winning this thing that I needed to try.
“I think you should do it,” Poppy spoke up, and everyone turned to look at her.
“Lady Poppy?” the pretty siren whose name I couldn’t remember asked. “Are you certain? You know what would become of you should his majesty lose?”
“I do.” Poppy nodded, and she straightened her back a little more. “But I believe in King Michael. And he is right, execution would only bring the gorgon martyrdom. Any just punishment that fit his crimes would do so as well. He must be given the chance to prove himself. Besides, it’s tradition, isn’t it, Lord Oba?”
“Quite right, Lady Poppy.” The balding harpy grinned. “Though we haven’t resorted to a trial by combat in centuries.”
“I’d forgotten about it, to be honest with you,” Lord Atlas admitted. “There hasn’t been a crime serious enough to warrant a trial by combat in centuries.”
“Not since before you began to serve the crown, I believe,” Lord Oba chuckled lightly at the younger merman.
“But what if he wins?” Lord Atlas worried.
“He won’t.” I smirked at Poppy.
“Very well,” Helena sighed, and she gave me a rueful smile. “I can see there is no talking you out of this.”
“Shall I make the announcement, your majesty?” Lord Oba asked, and there was a glint of excitement in his blue eyes.
“Yes,” I agreed. “Lady Helena, Poppy, Firo, Rune, tell me what I need to know about this.”
My advisors, head of security, and the beautiful ladies gathered around me as the other representatives gave me supportive looks before they returned to their seats.
“The king has decided!” Lord Oba’s voice carried through the chaos of the spectators, and the stadium fell silent again. “Trial by combat! The prisoner will fight to the death against his king!”
The crowd went fucking insane at the announcement, and horrified shouts mixed with excited cheers.
“Will you consent?” Lord Oba asked of the prisoner.
Alexander was silent for a moment as a smirk of ugly victory crossed his face. I could see he was quite excited about the prospect, and I knew he was certain there was no way a human could best him in combat.
But he didn’t know who the fuck he was dealing with.
“Trial by combat!” Lord Oba shouted to the crowds. “There will be a short intermission while the contestants prepare for battle.”
Firo and Rune led me and the ladies away from the stage and around behind the stadium to the prep area from the chariot races.
“What are the rules for trial by combat?” I asked the small group once we were out of view of the crowds.
“There are only two,” Helena answered. “There will be no outside interference, and the fight is only over when one of you is dead.”
