Chapter 3

Everyone cheered when the King entered the execution terrain, or as the villagers called it, 'The Courtyard of Death Roses.' The name was given because many people were executed there in a horrible, gruesome way and many believed the red roses that once grew in the courtyard had drooped because of the poignant scent of the so called tormented invisible demons of death that took away the souls of the dead prisoners to the gateway of hell. No one liked to go to the courtyard, simply being afraid to be taken away by the demons. Charlotte on the contrary, loved to listen to these legends. Her dad was atheist, or also called, an infidel which made her automatically atheist too. They both didn't believe in those stories. Charlotte was hiding on the terrace princess Teresa told her to go to. It wasn't hard to go to the terrace, since it was close to Teresa's chamber. The princess helped her to sneak in by distracting the guards. It worked, and now she was hiding there. The terrace was small, but cosy and you could easily watch the executions that took place in the courtyard from here.

The courtyard was once brightly colored with several flowers and green, neatly cut bushes where princesses and birds sang and loved to walk. Now conversely, the place looked dark and barren, the bushes and flowers were gone and were replaced by a dry, moldy dark brown soil with some spires sticking out of the ground. Here and there a flower popped out, but was expected to be crushed by someone's feet. In the middle of the courtyard stood a small wooden stage with four poles standing on it with thick ropes attached to it. Sometimes, prisoners had to knot their own rope where they would be hanged up with. They literally 'made' their own death sentence. It was a horrible way to punish someone. The King entered and waved poker faced to the many villagers that were summoned to witness the horrible event that was about to start soon. The big group was standing around the stage, waiting for the king to speak. He was dressed in a camel's-hair coat, a surcoat of linsey-woolsey without sleeves, a black silk cloak without a hood, and a hat trimmed with peacocks' feathers. He sat down on his small - compared to his throne in the castle - throne and shortly clapped twice in his hands, a sign everything was ready to bring in the prisoners.

Charlotte's heart began to beat faster the minute she saw the four prisoners who were brought outside, followed by guards holding heavy partisans who forced them to go up on the stage where an executioner was waiting for them to arrive. He was holding a bardiche, ready to cut through the rope that was attached to the somewhat mechanic construction that would end the lives of four maybe innocent persons. The idea was, that the person would stand on a somewhat higher block that would disappear as soon as the executioner cut through the rope, making the victim fall down with the rope around its neck, hanging and slowly choking to death.

The first prisoner looked to be a teenager, the second one was smaller, corpulent and had orange or maybe light brown hair. The third one looked like he was seventeen years old. He had short black hair and had the average length of any teenage boy these days. The fourth one had blond wavy hair, blue eyes, drooping eyes and wasn't very tall, but not short either. Her father, Patrick Jane, looked absolutely terrible. He had dark circles under his reddish eyes. His skin was pale and he looked like he was about to collapse anytime now.

"What did they do to you..?" Mumbled Charlotte to herself. She watched the king folding out a perkament that had the names of the victims written on it. He started to speak loudly whereas the crowd became silent.

"The four prisoners that are going to be sentenced today are.. The two brothers Henry and Pietson Grumpert, punished for thievery and assaulting a young woman. The young man named Thomas Tudder, who tried to steal food and didn't pay taxes. And Patrick Jane, also punished for thievery and helping out other thieves. These men's punishment shall be Death By Hanging."

The guards guided the four prisoners each one to a pole and gestured them to wrap the ropes around their necks. The teenager, named Thomas hesitated. The executioner punched him in his stomach, making him bent over so that he could wrap the rope around his neck easily. Some people started to cheer, some covered their eyes. A drummer started to slam on the big drum slowly, making the low sounds banging through the place.Charlotte's heart was about to jump out of her chest. Teresa was supposed to give her a sign, a sign she was allowed to shoot the arrow. Questions started to pop up in the girl's head. Did she get caught by the guards? Did she forget about the plan? What if something had gone wrong? The rhythm started to go faster and faster, until the man suddenly stopped drumming. Charlotte's eyes were focused on her dead. The block disappeared from beneath his legs, his body fell down a couple of centimeters/inches. He was hanging now, choking, coughing, struggling to breathe. Tears started to well up in Charlotte's eyes. Where was Teresa?!The sound of a blown horn wailed through the air, clearly the sign. Charlotte didn't hesitate and pointed the bow and arrow at the rope attached to the pole. She drew the string and focused her eye on the moving rope. With slightly shaking fingers, she released the string in hope it would get to its destination.

Patrick Jane felt one thing, pain. Horrible, unbearable pain. His neck started to hurt badly from the rope wrapped around his neck, he couldn't breathe anymore since the rope was excruciating his throat, he couldn't feel the ground anymore and the worst of all was that he didn't actually know if his daughter was safe. The thought was torturing him more than the pain the guards caused when they punched him repeatedly after getting caught. He knew he wasn't going to persevere this any longer. His vision started to become blurry. He heard a snapping sound and felt his body touching the ground again. His throat was free again and he could finally maintain some air to fill his lungs. Lying on his back, he looked at the pole in confusion. An arrow had been fired and cut through the rope. As soon as his body touched the ground, people started to scream and panic. Everyone bumped into each other as they tried to leave the place as quick as possible. When another three arrows were fired, all of them cut through the ropes of the other hanging prisoners, the king cursed and pointed at the terrace. The guards understood, nodded and ran inside.

"Guards!" He shouted angrily. Two guards ran over to him and covered him for the possibility of more fired arrows. The king took advantage of this and made his way inside too to hide from the shooter. Meanwhile, the three prisoners had blended in with the villagers.

Patrick Jane was still lying on the plane in pain, not able to move from the many tortures he had been through. A guard approached him and helped him to get up. When he finally stood, he tried to push away the guard but failed. The guard grabbed him by his arm and looked him in his bloodshot eyes.

"My name is Kimball Cho. I came here to help you and to say your daughter is safe." Spoke the guard without any expression on his face. Tears started to well up in Patrick's eyes. He quickly wiped them away and nodded open mouthed. "Let's go to the cathedral." Said Cho.

He jumped off of the stage and gestured Patrick to follow him. He did as he was told and followed the man who made his way through the still panicked villagers. Cho was fast, the limping Patrick couldn't keep up with him. Cho waited for a moment before continuing to run again.

"Hey!" Shouted another guard at them. He pulled out a knife and ran over to Patrick. Before he could draw his knife into Patrick's face, Cho pushed him away and stabbed the guard in the stomach with his own knife. They shared looks and both knew this wasn't going to end well for Cho. More guards approached them as soon as they noticed the fight.

"Go. I'll hold them off." Spoke Cho, punching another guard against his jaw. Patrick hesitated, but started to run towards the cathedral.

When he entered, he saw the stranger staring at a statue of presumably Jesus.

"Where's Charlotte?!"

"I thought she would come along with you.."

Spoke she, still staring at the statue and playing with a small knife in her hands.

"Does it look like she's with me?!"

The stranger turned around. Patrick gasped when he noticed her sparkling eyes. His heart started to race when he realized who she was.

"Princess Teresa.."

She nodded and picked up a bag from the ground. She walked over to him and handed over the bag. He opened it and pulled out a knife. The small knife he had given to Charlotte, but she lost it during that fateful night. His hands started to tremble when he realized his little girl wasn't here with them. Teresa glared at him.

"Charlotte is in danger..We'll have to work together to save her."