Free A Joust of Knights (Book #16 in the Sorcerer's Ring) by Morgan Rice Page B

slowly, inwardly, he rejoiced as he saw his men standing over
hundreds of Empire corpses, victorious. They all looked to him proudly, these
great warriors of the Southern Isles, men he could not possibly be more proud
to lead.
    Slowly, like rabbits emerging from their
holes, the villagers crept out of their houses, out of the village, coming
forward in disbelief at the sight. They seemed hardly able to fathom that all
the Empire taskmasters, these people who had oppressed them so badly, were
dead.
    Erec stepped forward and raised his
sword and walked through the ranks of villagers, slicing the shackles holding
them together—and all around him, his men did the same. He saw the villagers’
eyes fill with tears as they dropped to their knees, liberated.
    He looked down as one of them grabbed
his leg, knelt, and cried.
    “Thank you,” he wept. “Thank you.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
     
     
    Darius was rudely awakened, his head
smashed into the iron bars of the carriage as it came to a grinding halt. He
barely had time to process what was happening when keys jingled in the lock,
the iron door slid open, and several rough hands grabbed him by the chest and
yanked him out into harsh daylight.
    He landed on the hard dirt ground, tumbling,
dust rising all around him, squinting his eyes into the sun as he held up his
hands. His ankles and wrists shackled, he couldn’t resist even if he wanted to.
The Empire taskmaster knew that, yet he placed his boot on Darius’s throat
anyway, enjoying inflicting pain on him. Darius could barely breathe, feeling
his windpipe being crushed.
    More rough hands grabbed him and yanked him
to his feet and Darius shut his eyes again, every muscle in his body aching,
feeling so stiff and sore, every movement hurting him.
    “Move it, slave!” yelled a taskmaster,
and Darius felt a rough shove as he stumbled forward through the streets.
    Darius slowly opened his eyes into the
glaring sun, trying to get his bearings and figure out where he was. At least
that carriage had stopped; he could not stand another minute of its jolting his
head.
    Darius heard shouting all around him,
and he realized he was in a crowded city, people bustling everywhere, slaves
like him, chained by wrists and ankles, being ushered by Empire handlers in
every direction. He was marched with a long group of slaves, dozens of them,
all of them being ushered through a tall, arched stone opening, leading into a
stone tunnel and toward what appeared to be a training barracks.
    Darius heard a thunderous roar, and he glanced
up and saw beyond that, a coliseum twice the size of the one in Volusia. It was
the most glorious and terrifying thing he’d ever seen. And then he realized,
without a doubt, where he was: he had arrived in the Empire capital.
    Darius barely had time to consider it
when he felt a club on his back.
    “Move it, slave!” the man yelled out.
    Darius went stumbling with the group
into the darkened tunnel, and as he lost his balance and rushed forward, he
felt a sharp sting as he was elbowed in his face.
    “Don’t bump me, boy!” snarled another
slave in the darkness.
    Darius, furious that a fellow slave
would catch him off guard like that, would strike him for what was clearly an
accident, reacted. He shoved the slave back, sending him stumbling backwards into
a stone wall. He was so pent up with aggression that he had to let it out on someone.
    The slave rushed forward to tackle
Darius, but at that moment a new throng of slaves marched in, and it was so
dark in here, the boy pounced on another slave, mistaking him for Darius.
Darius heard the boys all shout out, as the two strangers wrestled on the
ground. It went on for a few seconds before the taskmasters appeared with clubs
and beat them both.
    Darius kept moving with the others, and
a moment later, he emerged into sunlight again and found himself in the dusty
courtyard of a square, stone training barracks, its walls lined with arches all
around. Lined up were