Republic

“There weren’t always dragons in the valley. The valley was once beautiful and full of life. The birds sang in the trees. All are dead now. Your greed and your wish to be independent doomed all of your blood lines. In your arrogance you rebelled. You believed that God was on your side; that the capital in all its decadent glory had no taste for blood. That your kin, my ancestors, were weak and more interested in making money than praying to the one true God. You where wrong. Your rebellion sparked two decades of war. The horsemen of the dead South burnt the capital to the ground. The republic lost the wheat fields of the North and the centre provinces starved, but all of this was temporary. We rebuilt the capital and sent expeditions into the South to slaughter all they found. A thousand heads were used to line the walls of the capital. The northern provinces and more were brought into the fold of the Republic and then and only then did the Republic’s wrathful eye turn back to our little breakaway state that had started all the problems. Our armies surrounded you and gave you one last chance for redemption. The patriarch gave you a list of 562 names to be executed and their heads added to the wall of the capital. Your great leader laughed in our faces and told us that we would run out of room to bury our dead. My ancestors laughed to themselves. We had already run out of land to bury our dead. A week later the Republic marched into your lands and crushed your armies and then slaughtered your people. They burned every city and town to ground, they salted the land and carried away your cattle. All of this suffering did not satisfy the Republic. My ancestors brought five dragons into your valley and released them, telling you that you would only be forgiven once the dragons were dead. Until then your people must work as slaves to the Republic and now your time is running out as all can see the Republic’s institutions are dying. The Republic is an Empire in all but name and the legal scholars all agree that if the Republic ceases to exist your people can never be free again and will be slaves for ever.”

The light of the campfire reflected in his white eyes, his face hidden in the darkness.

“That is why we are asking for volunteers to accept the challenge to go and kill those dragons in the valley.” A man from somewhere in the shadows yelled out “What weapons will we be given?”

The white-eyed man responded. “The only weapons you will have is the will of our people and the weapons the Republic lets us have.”

A women laughed from behind the man. “The Republic will never let us have weapons. They want us to fail.”

A young man dressed in a suit, sword by his side, his white eyes studying the crowd, stepped into the light of the fire. “Elements of the Republic would very much like you to succeed.” His voice was an almost perfect imitation of the central provinces but his “R” revealed that he was from the North, maybe even from beyond the border of the Republic. An old women stepped into the circle and yelled at the man. “We are the backbone of the Republic’s economy. Why would they want to help us free ourselves?”

The man laughed before responding. “May I know your name?”

The lady paused before responding. “I am Delphine.”

“Well Delphine, the Republic is a many-head hydra vying for power. Sometimes it fights its enemy. Sometimes it fights itself, and trust me when I tell you, your plantations are at best of symbolic importance to the Republic and there are elements that would very much like to see the destruction of that symbol.” The man pulled out a pipe and began smoking it.

Delphine stared at the man before mumbling “Our lives are playing cards for you.”

The man’s face took on a sardonic grin. “No, you are not playing cards. The estates are playing cards. Your freedom can be a by-product of this manoeuvre or we will find another way to do it.”

John had listened to this in silent wonder, his grey eyes widening at the idea that he could be free. No one had mentioned this to him in his sixteen years on this planet. His mother worked to repair a pile of damaged clothing that she has brought with her, her needle and thread glinting in the firelight. Her eyes turned to her son and her faced became wrinkled. “Don’t you get any stupid ideas in your head. Those fools will be going off to fight dragons with their bare hands and if the thought enters your head I’ll give you such a beating you might finally wise up.”

As these final words left her mouth, she lifted up a stick that was near her. The man’s voice cuts across the night.

“I will be back with carts and food in three days’ time and any of you who wish to go down in the in the annals of history as the liberator of the slaves can come with me.” With that the crowd began to get up and disperse. John got up quickly and tried to disappear into the crowd but before he got a couple of steps his mother hand grabbed his ear.

“John, it’s good to see that you are so keen to get home, but I need someone to help me find my way home in the dark.” She then proceeded to drag him through the dark, back to their small hut. It had no windows and just a hole where a door should have been. As they entered she lit a small lantern and let go of his ear. A girl in her early twenties was sleeping in the one of the three beds, her whalebone-white hair a mess on her pillow. Her grey eyes flicked open and she sat up and asked “Mother, John how was the meeting?”

Their mother responded. “They’re trying to get fools to fight the dragons again. Did you hear anything while you were waitressing at the ball at the manor, Nina?”.

Nina moved over to John and ruffled his white hair. “John, don’t do anything stupid.” Her eyes flicked to their mother before she said “The masters are nervous. One of their representatives has been stabbed to death, in the street of the capital, in the middle of the day and no one is being charged, as far as I can tell. They are losing the power games in government and the other factions are going in for the kill. They all talk about the Republic being on the verge of death and that they are fighting to make sure that whatever replaces it will not exterminate them.” Nina’s eyes flicked back to John and her voice died in throat.

Their mother’s eyes moved to John and then back to Nina and she nodded.

Nina slowly began speaking. “Their enemies want to destroy the estates and get rid of us.”

His mother whispered back “God will protect us all and guide our fate to be in his good grace and deliver us to the kingdom in the sky. Let us all go to sleep.”

Just before John went to bed, Nina grabbed him and whispered “Do not go and fight dragons. If we die, this family dies together, not alone in some distant memory of homeland. Fighting dragons is a death sentence and a painful one at that. Do not do it. For once in your life make a smart decision.”