They Were Born Upon Ashes by Kenneth Champion Page B

crack in the wood. The king’s men were slaughtering a dozen or so innocent lives, some of them unarmed. She put her hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming.
    Tears started to fill her eyes as she witnessed a teenage boy fall to the ground.
    The old Reza man who she talked to threw his gloves on the ground. Both king’s men had their backs turned. He ran halfway across the courtyard and sent out a massive fireball directed at one of the king’s men. The fire attack landed and the golden armor caught fire for a brief moment before the king’s man snuffed it out by rolling on the dirt ground.
    The other king’s man turned and faced the old man. The king’s man opened his blue hands and the old man levitated off the floor. Penny could see him struggle in the middle of the air. The king’s man jolted his hands forward and the old man came hurling at the wall right next to where she was hiding. She heard him crash into the wall only a few feet to the left of her.
    She could no longer see the old man through the crack. All she saw was the king’s man with his right palm stretched and directed at the wall. With his left hand he reached behind his back and brought out a dagger. He tossed the dagger in the air. He opened his palm underneath the dagger and it floated in the air.
    He pulled his hand back and then hurled it forward as if he was throwing a ball. The dagger came speeding at the old man. All Penny could hear was the crushing of a bone directly followed by the cracking of wood.
    She inhaled sharply as the dagger met its mark. She reached for her side and placed her right hand on the silver dagger. She tried to control her breathing as the footsteps of the golden boots inched closer to her.
    She heard the old man’s body drop to the floor. She looked out the crack and saw the king’s man drag his body to the corner where the rest of the bodies were.
    A crowd of people started to come back out to the courtyard. They stood still and looked at the king’s men from a distance. The Reza king’s man stood still, facing the ever-growing crowd. The other king’s man was working on the two dozen dead bodies. He lined them up so that they were sitting next to each other. Their backs were against the wooden wall of the tavern.
    Penny looked on from the distance. One of the king’s man grabbed a metal stake from a bag he carried and a small hammer. He then walked over to the first dead body. The Reza king’s man turned around and placed his palm in the air. The dead body’s arms flew up above its head and one hand went over the other. The other king’s man hammered the stake through the hands and into the wooden wall.
    Penny watched as one by one the deceased bodies got their hands nailed to the wall. It wasn’t until the sixth body was completed that two men came storming out of the crowd.
    Two Paplons who were alarmingly muscular in size pulled out their weapons and confronted the king’s men.
    “I saw the whole thing,” said the man on the left. “What did these people do to deserve such a fate?”
    One of the Reza king’s men smirked, then said, “They wish to live in this new world. They defy the laws of yesterday, so for that they have been punished.”
    “What are you talking about?” asked the Paplon man. “I saw you two cut down and burn these civilians. Some of them did not even have a weapon out.”
    “No,” replied the king’s man. “But you two seem to have your weapons out.”
    In a quick motion the Reza king’s man threw open his hands and black waves with electric sparks came spewing at both men. One attack for each man landed in quick succession.
    The two bodies flew backwards onto the dirt ground. They were motionless.
    The Reza king’s man pulled out his dagger from his waist and cut open the deceased man in the left corner of the row of dead bodies. Blood dripped from his stomach.
    The king’s man drenched his hand in the man’s blood. He wrote a phrase above the man’s