literature

The Black Queen's Mercy

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       The next day, Reyna saw a man die.
       “The Black Queen’s Mercy,” Cedrik called it as the girl stared across the square in horror. It was anything but merciful. A dozen iron crosses towered above the small crowd that had gathered. Each bore a man, suspended by barbed chains that wrapped the arms and legs.
       “Traitors, the lot of them,” Cedrik told her. “Hung there naked and starving as an example to others.”
       One of them, a gaunt man towards the front of the group was still breathing. He couldn't have eaten in weeks; his ribs stood out starkly against a windburnt chest. Still, the man struggled weakly against the bonds that held him. Each movement drove the rusted barbs deeper into his flesh. Scarlet droplets fell like rain. A puddle had already begun to collect on the stone beneath his dangling feet.
       Reyna felt the contents of her stomach rise. Cedrik grabbed her by the back of the head before she could turn away. “Look at them, girl. This is something you need to see.”
       Reyna looked, but all she saw was death.
       “Each prisoner is told that they've been given a chance at clemency. One need only escape the cross and his sins are wiped clean.”
       None had. The oldest corpse had already lost his eyes and most of the skin on his face to carrion. For the others it would only be a matter of time. The black birds were everywhere on the buildings that overlooked the square. Their shrieking cries echoed like a chorus of the damned.
       Reyna couldn't hold it anymore. She fell to her knees, splattering the cobblestones with sick. Cedrik said nothing, but she could feel his dark eyes on the back of her neck as she heaved.
       When it was finally over, her throat burned raw and blistered. She wiped the last of it from her lips with the back of her hand, trying to think of anything but the gory spectacle.
       Cedrik lifted the girl to her feet. His gaze was impassive and unapologetic as he met her tear-stained face. “This is the world we live in, Reyna. Hiding from it won’t do you any good.”
       “You… you could have warned me.” Her mouth still tasted of bile, and the words came out thick and slurred. “You didn't have to bring me here. Didn't have to force me to watch.”
       “Yes, I did.” Cedrik told her. His tone was as blunt as always, but he softened enough to wipe a tear from her cheek with a thumb.
       “W…Why?”
       The crowd in the square had grown thicker. Reyna was not the only woman. Even children were there, staring wide-eyed at the motionless figures. Folk were shaking their heads at the crosses, and at the Justicars guarding them.
       Cedrik turned away in impatience. “I already told you. This is our world. Are you a mewling babe to cry and bury yourself away any time you see something unpleasant?”
       A sudden anger flared up inside her and the girl yanked her arm from the Cedrik’s grasp. “And you, what, wanted to teach me a lesson? Thought it would be fun to scare me a little?”
       Reyna dimly realized that she was shouting, but was too upset to care. She could still see the tortured man’s look of desperation as he gave up the fight for survival. Still hear the drip of his lifeblood as each drop wet the square.
       “Making me watch some poor man die? How could you? You’re no better than any of them, those cruel Lords you claim to hate.”
       Reyna didn't know where the anger, the resentment, the hate, was coming from. She just knew that this was wrong. This cruelty, this death. The world wasn't supposed to be this way. Suddenly, everything just felt like too much.
       And then she was beating his chest with a fist as he held her. The blows were pitiful and Cedrik only pulled her closer. “I’m sorry. But that doesn't change things. You had to see it.” She buried her face in his tunic, muffling the sobs. For the first time, he sounded tired. Pained.
       They left the square together. Reyna was still clutching him weakly as the crows began to descend.
Medieval high-fantasy. Short segment pulled from a larger, on-going work (Full story description below).

The small Eastern Nation of Arcadia is in a time of turmoil as border conflicts with her neighboring nations continue to mount. The million-odd inhabitants live at the mercy of corrupt nobility and the sadistic Black Queen who rules them. Reyna is no one, a young foreigner found washed up on the shores of a southern fishing village with no past and no future. But when tragedy befalls her adoptive family, the dark-haired girl finds herself caught in a web of lies and intrigue that somehow intertwines with her own forgotten heritage. Try as she might to simply survive in a world fraught with cruel men and crueler women, Reyna has to fight to keep her very soul intact under the abuses of slavery and war.  Even the innocence borne of youth can’t shield her when she unknowingly wanders her way into the middle of a decade-long struggle for power. A struggle that culminates in one terrible revelation for a girl with no family, no name, and no hope for tomorrow. Welcome to the world of Luxerra and the realm of the Black Queen.

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