Adelfried
Adelfried seized Harold’s shoulder. “That is enough. Quit vexing him.”
Harold raised his voice loud enough for everyone to hear, “Does he not vex us all with that hideous helmet? How many peacocks are stark naked because of that cockamamy coif on your head? Did some bird anger you so you decided to make a trophy of its plumes?” Harold started to chortle at his own words. “Wait! No, no, no. I get it, you were hungry, weren’t you? And you figured you would eat a thousand birds so your soldiers could have those little matching feathers on their helmets. I see your generosity is as grand as your belly.”
The king sneered, “Let’s see who’s laughing when I defecate on your bloody corpse!”
Harold’s smile darkened. A devious glimmer peeked out of him that Adelfried had never seen. “Need to defecate? Magic of the body is my specialty! How about we give those stubborn bowels a push.” Harold’s left hand squeezed the air.
The king’s face paled. He bent over, throwing his hands to his knees. “Arrrgh!” He grunted as wind forcefully expelled itself from the king’s backside. Harold twisted his hand in the air. The sound of porridge being slurped through a straw came forth from the royal sphincter.
The king growled, “you will pay with your lives for this!” He turned and waddle-sloshed back to his horse which stepped backwards in self-preservation. He waved his hand violently in the air and screamed, “Archers!”
The twang of bows letting loose followed with a salvo of arrows.
Adelfried threw his arms in the air visualizing a stone wall above them. The warm prickle of magic flowed through him as the conjured barrier deflected the arrows harmlessly to the ground.
“That was not very nice!” Harold barked. “With those clogged bowels I just saved you half a day in the outhouse.” With his right hand holding the staff, he waved his free hand in the air. A cluster of archers dematerialized into loose piles of red flakes.
Adelfried’s stomach knotted, but he kept his focus on the barrier protecting them from the waves of arrows that continued to rain down on them. “Harold, stop! There is no need for death.”
“Addy! This fat peacock of a king is trying to kill us.”
The king screamed, “Attack! Attack! Kill them all!”
Harold’s voice became an eerie echo of itself. “And what do we do with insolent peacocks?” His eyes paled, becoming distant. “We roast them for the dinner table!” He thrust the staff forward in a fit of bloodlust. Flames shot forth from the Root striking the king. He exploded into a ball of fire with a deafening snap. The force threw everyone from their feet including Adelfried who fell backwards. His head slammed into the ground as a searing pain blurred his vision. With his concentration broken the protective wall disappeared. A thick rain fell upon him. He struggled to get up as his head spun. The world slowly came back into view. He wiped the rain from his face. It was sticky and red. A large circle surrounding where the king once stood was now covered in a sickening film of his remains.
Chaos gripped the army. Soldiers ran in fear. “Give me the Root, now!” Adelfried mouthed, but only a whisper came out as a throbbing pain continued to crush his head.
Harold no longer looked like his brother. He was an unfamiliar version in a trancelike state as if feeding off the mayhem around him. With glazed eyes, he smiled at Adelfried. “I promised you, that no one would speak of this morning again.” Bolts of unnatural black lightning shot forth from his hand and the Root with a massive thunderclap. It arced from soldier to soldier across the meadow. Even horses were not spared as a massive web of dark energy sent every living thing in front of Harold into a jerking fit. In an instant, the field became still and silent.
“Harold…” Adelfried tried to say, but he struggled to breathe. A thousand lightning-grilled corpses paired with the smell of burnt human remains turned his stomach.
Sickness broiled within.
He vomited.
Harold, now serene, leaned on the staff as if it were a simple walking stick, admiring his work. He nodded before turning back towards the gate of the fort. “How about roasting that boar? I’m starved.”
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Adelfried was as empty as the wooden bowl in front of him. He stared through it as the terrible events from earlier in the day ran through his head like a nightmare. The charred and distorted bodies merged with the bloody battlefield of his youth. The deafening silence seemed to stretch on forever until the faint sound of metal clapping against wood found its way to his ears. It was the sound of chopping vegetables.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
“Addy! Did you not hear me?” It was his wife, Leyna. “What are you going to do?” She stirred the pot before stopping to taste the fish stew she was preparing. His wife’s porcelain face dotted with brown freckles frowned at him. “Talk to me.”
Sweet Leyna, his only true confidant. She would share her mind, whether he wanted to hear it or not, which was why he loved her after all. His thoughts drifted back to days long ago, when he was simply the brewer’s son, just back from the war, sneaking her pints of ale hoping to win her favor. It had always been easy to lose himself in her large brown eyes, but it was her inability to hold her tongue and her damn-the-world attitude that held his heart. Those were simpler times. Before he had discovered the seemingly limitless power of the Root. Before the countless people angling for it or his favor. Before they hid deep in the forest. Before he had built the fort to protect his family and the people who had come to him for help.
“Addy, talk to me,” Leyna said, now standing next to him.
Still numb, he at last spoke, “He…” The words fought to stay in his mouth. “He should be put to death for that.”
“Don’t be daft.” Leyna rubbed him on the back of his head. “They came to kill us.”
“He murdered them. All of them. They didn’t have magic. He had already disposed of the archers. There was nothing to fear, they—”
“Defended, you mean. What if there were more archers? What if there was someone else with magic? You’ve said it yourself countless times, you can’t protect yourself from something you can’t see.”
“You know a few hundred arrows are no threat to me now, with or without the Root in my hand.”
She returned to the stew to give it a stir. “I’ll not argue that what he did was wrong, but that was an army of soldiers, not innocents.”
“Innocent no, but I can’t shake the feeling that Harold wanted this all along. He’s not the same since he’s come here, he’s…he’s different. The Root is changing him and not for the better.”
“Of course, it has. The Root has changed us all. Think about when you first figured out the magic within it and what you could do with it. You never wanted to start this settlement to help people. You were just a dumb kid with a big heart. You only wanted to drink beer and get me naked.” She paused as if she was expecting at least a small reaction from him.
“What’s your point?”
“My point is, now you have a massive heart, and you have done so much for all these people now living here under our protection. The Root has changed you and I love you for it, but you are changed. Harold is changing too.”
Adelfried shook his head. “Sure, he’s always been a little vindictive or petty even, but this…not this.”
“He has also always been protective, too.” Leyna said, with some encouragement.
“He wasn’t being protective. He was baiting them.”
“But you said yourself, he shared your ideas about helping people. Hasn’t he been using the Root to heal people?”
“Yes, but he has also been saying that the king needed to pay for all the war they have been waging and I think this was his solution.” Adelfried’s words surprised him. It all made sense. It was all a terrible plan put into place by his not so naive brother. This wasn't happenstance, Harold had created the entire situation, on purpose. He had been playing the fool but his choice to leave the fort and face the King was deliberate. It allowed Harold to bait the king into attacking and force Adelfried to protect them. Uneasiness gripped Adelfried. It freed Harold to strike while also giving him a plausible excuse. Adelfried had been set up. But why? For Harold to enact his own form of justice? What was he truly up to?
Small hands wrapped around him. He melted into his daughter’s hug. “Papa don’t fight with Mommy.” The lavender scent of Minna’s long brown hair warmed him as he squeezed her back. She had Leyna’s warm brown eyes but lacked her freckles. He always hoped they would fill in as she got older.
“We aren’t fighting.” Adelfried noticed her small dolls lined up next to a cup of water. “Tell me, what are you playing over there?”
She ran back to her dolls. “They are fishing like you and Uncle ‘Arold, and he caught the biggest fish.” Minna wiggled a doll in her left hand over the cup of water.
“Only because he cheats with magic.” Adelfried said, with a smile surprisingly crossing his face.
“But Papa, you can use magic too, so he says that isn’t cheating.”
“Just because you can use magic, doesn’t mean you should.”
“Why not?” Minna said. Her face started to twist angrily. She had that fire within like her mom. “I want to use magic when I get older. You said I could, remember?”
“I can’t imagine I could stop you if I tried.” Adelfried said with a laugh. “But tell me, why do you want to use magic so badly?”
“I want to throw those bad men over the waterfall like Uncle ‘Arold did.” She grabbed her least favorite doll with the slightly contorted face and gleefully dunked it into the cup splashing water on the floor.
Despair clutched his heart as his innocent daughter meted out judgement to dolls inspired by her uncle who had tossed real men over a waterfall for insulting him. He knew he wouldn’t put his brother to death, but he also knew he would have to separate Harold from the Root. No amount of healing his brother would do could ever make up for this.
“Is Uncle ‘Arold coming to dinner? He promised to take me fishing tomorrow and I have to remind him, or he will try to sneak out of it again.”
Adelfried took a deep breath to try and steady himself before putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Minna, your uncle is going to have to go away for a while, and it could be some time before he returns.”
“Oh.” Her face crinkled in disappointment before looking down at the floor. “For how long?”
“I am uh…not sure, but we will work it out,” Adelfried turned not wanting to involve his innocent daughter any more than he had to with such topics. “Go play with your dolls. Mommy and I need to talk some more.”
Leyna came over with a full bowl of stew and set it in front of him. She said under her breath, “So, you’re going to send him away?”
Adelfried nodded. What other choice did he have? He inhaled the wondrous aroma of the bowl of stew. He took a bite. The herbs and tender fish calmed him and for the first time all day, his nerves started to settle. He knew what he had to do. The muscles in his back eased, until the sound of metal clanking at the door scared his calm away. It was Harold no doubt coming to explain away the horrible deeds of the day. “I’ll let him in.”