Banished Prince Charming

"Burn...! Don't leave a single building standing...!"

"Kill all of them...! Paint the ground with their blood...!"

"You...! Take a few men with you and guard the gates...! No one gets in or out...! Kill them on sight...!"

"Come on men...! The Red Bandits takes no captives and leaves none alive...! Once our initial deed is done, we can slowly take our time to gather the spoils...! Darlington will fall tonight by our hands and we will claim victory...!"

A rebel captain dressed in black except for a red coloured bandanna that was tied over his head hollered once the initial attack upon the guards manning the gates were ruthlessly slaughtered was successful.

The Red Bandits target tonight was a small town of Darlington, with approximately 3000 citizens, a three-storey stone castle that looked more like a Manor than a castle with no moats surrounding it.

Cl.u.s.tered around it were the nobles' houses and by well off citizens that made themselves known as merchants or artisans, while the outskirts would be the cruck houses of the commoners or plebs.

A perimeter made of a low stone wall was built as a border between these 3 classes, not for security measures but as a deterrent to livestock and other animals from loitering inside the nobles' compound. These low stone walls provided no threat to the horde of rebels that had evaded this small kingdom by storm.

There were 3 gates altogether and due to the size of the population, the kingdom of Darlington does not have many guards around as most of the able-bodied ones were being deployed to the war front to serve as soldiers and in support to the other Lords.

Three hordes of rebels had stormed simultaneously through the 3 gates and had taken the guards with surprise. Armed with either a short sword or a spear, these guards were rendered helpless and ill-equipped as they watched in shock and horror as their comrades fell after taking a few hits from the rebels.

Soon, the gates' entrances were slowly stained red with the blood from the fallen guards.

The crucks roofs belonging to the plebs were soon being lighted up by the torches. Since the material of the buildings were combustible, and it consisted of a single room where the plebs would cook, eat and sleep within, the occupants were simply massacred within by the rebels without even bothering to look for spoils.

The plebs' burning houses soon accompanied the plebs in their deaths.

Confusion, shock and death soon overwhelmed the plebs as the rebels made their way into the inner perimeter where the commoners known as artisans would soon meet their demise with little or no resistance at all.

The old, the young, men and women as well as children were not spared in the merciless massacre that ensued. With 600 or so rebels that stormed the small kingdom of Darlington, it only took mere less than half an hour before the leader of the Red Bandits reached their final goal.

Within the small castle or Manor where the rulers of Darlington resides, a group of guards took up their positions around the entrance to protect against the barrage of rebels who were trying to break the door down.

These guards were better equipped than the ones guarding the town's gates but still, their equipment was subpar to the standards of a knight. "Protect the Royal Highness with our lives...! Take down as many rebels as you could...! This is our final stance...! We may never see the daylight tomorrow but may our guardian angels be with us tonight...! Men...Prepare to tank them...!"

A young yet inexperienced lieutenant among the guards that were assigned within the Manor hollered his last instructions as he gulped down the saliva and nearly Choked with his very own words.

Easier said than done, a scout from the lookout tower on top of the Manor reported that the houses belonging to the plebs on the outermost perimeter had torched and everything was ablaze.

Plumes of smoke and fires blazed in the evening sky and any survivors that tried to escape would either meet their deaths at the end of a blade or being razed by the flames.

Some of the guards in the Manor were shaken by the news and some of them even had fallen to their knees in total despair. Tears streamed down their faces as they hung their arms at the sides, not bothering to pick their weapons to stand guard against the impending doom that was waiting at the other side of the entrance.

"Audemars... Listen to me. You are the heir of the throne but in this kind of dire circ.u.mstances, there would be no throne left at all... No matter what happens to both me and your mother, protect your sister and both of you go into hiding. Keep yourself safe, my son." the King places both his hands gently on my shoulders as he looked at me with his reddened blue eyes.

My father was wearing his worn-out bronze b.r.e.a.s.tplate and was holding to a claymore. That's all he ever possessed and he had even discarded his crown aside as he places his helm under his arm earlier and into the stone floor.

His ash grey hair was tied with a single piece of rope and a curl of hair was covering part of his forehead and his face. I looked at my father, who looked 20 years older than he really was and I fought back my tears that jerked at the corners of my eyes. I simply looked at him and tried to etch his face into the recesses of my memories.

I simply nodded as I found no words to describe what I felt right now. I looked at my mother, the Queen, and she was hugging my younger sister, who was sobbing uncontrollably. My mother had a thin longsword strapped to her waist as she looked at my direction with her eyes that carried a single message, "We may never be out of here alive".

"Audemars... Take your sister and go now...! That door would not hold any much longer... Make your escape right now...!" Mother was trying to push Tanya, my younger sister out from her grasp towards me but Tanya simply clung on harder than before.

"Tanya, follow Audemars into the cellar and hide there...go now...!"

"NO... I WANT TO BE WITH YOU, MOTHER..." Tanya obstinately refused to let go of Mother as she clung to her in a vice-like grip. Suddenly without warning, Mother slapped Tanya across her face and the sudden force made her stumble back a few times.

Never in our lives, our parents, the King or the Queen had laid a finger on us. Both Tanya and I were taken aback as I slowly picked Tanya up from the fall she had taken by from the unsuspecting motion from Mother.

"GO NOW..." Mother pointed towards the end of the hall where a door would lead to a spiral staircase that leads to the cellar. That cellar used to be Tanya and my place to play hide and seek as there are many nooks and crannies underneath the Manor.

Unlike other well-developed castles, there's no underground dungeons or prisons underneath but a short and winding tunnel system that branches out to dead ends and with only a single exit to the surface. There's no point to be on the surface right now as it was now currently swarmed with hordes of rebels and only death awaits.

I crocked my arm underneath Tanya's, and I was nearly half-dragging and carrying her across the stone floor. "Tanya, come on... Let's go. Stand on your feet now..." I pleaded with her, knowing that both of us were feeling half-hearted to leave the place.

BOOM...!!!

A deafening sound broke the silence and it broke everyone's heart as well. The front door that was bolted down with a thick horizontal beam across it was finally infiltrated and was splintered open as 2 rebels entered carrying a short battering ram.

They threw the battering ram on the ground and unsheathed their swords while one wielded two short axes from his back. Soon a group of almost 20 rebels stormed inside the place. Suddenly all hell broke loose as sparks flew when swords, axes and spears met with one another.

"Take them with you as you go down...!!!" the young lieutenant guard hollered his command and surged forward to block off the frontal assault from the door. The rest of the guards were tanked off the assault but soon one by one feel down to the ground, eyes rolling in the back of their heads as pools of blood slowly formed under their bodies.

A few archers from the rebels let loose a few bolts from their crossbow and in that chaotic scene, I saw it landed on my parent's c.h.e.s.ts as it penetrated their thin armour. Shouts of anguish and agony were heard in that room that was soon overwhelmed with the rebels.

I was shocked and numbed as this is the first time I had seen Death coming through the front door. I couldn't move when suddenly I felt Tanya knocked against my body violently. This woke me up from my stupor and I quickly dragged Tanya by an arm as she still refuses to make an effort to stand in her own and cooperate with me.

The door that leads to the cellar was within reach and in that chaotic scene, I had barely managed to enter it along with Tanya that was dragged along the stone floor behind me. I looked back and saw both my parents were holding out the last defence for both Tanya and me as I closed the door and bolted it down with the horizontal thick beams.

Fortunately, the cellar's door was behind a curtain and it looked inconspicuous since it was almost like part of the wooden wall. "Tanya, stand up now, please...! I can't simply drag you any longer...!"

Hearing no response from her as her hand slid down from my grip, I glanced at Tanya as she lay down on the floor. The cellar was very dim and it took me some time for my eyes to adjust. I squatted down and tried to shake her shoulders, thinking that she might have passed out during that chaos.

I suddenly felt a long thin shaft with a fletching at the end of it. Fear gripped me and my body began to convulsed involuntarily. In that dimly lit cellar, I saw a single bolt had entered Tanya's left eye and had penetrated the skull right to the back of the head.

"Tanya... Mother... Father..." My knees suddenly felt like jelly as I mumbled those words as I fell down like a sack of potatoes besides Tanya's body that was gradually losing her body heat. I choked up, a mixed feeling of remorse went up to my throat and stayed there as if it is trying to smother me and carry me to the netherworld.

Darkness soon enveloped me, muffled cheers sounded right behind the cellar's door, as I soon lost my consciousness.