Forbidden Flower by Toki

Author:Toki [Toki]
Language: eng
Format: epub

“WAKE up, dogs!”

“We’re already awake!” Vaedo shouted back at the guard.

“He sounds surlier than usual,” Lioqi observed.

“I won all of his pay yesterday while you were dallying.”

“Dallying?”

“It’s a polite word for—”

“I know what it means. What makes you think I was… dallying?”

Vaedo grinned at his friend as the door to their cell opened. “If you could have seen your face when you came back across the bridge yesterday, you wouldn’t ask that question.”

“Choose something else to talk about.”

“How can you be so cruel to deny me the details?” Vaedo glanced at the guard to see what had been brought for their morning meal. “Where’s breakfast?” he asked.

“Not this morning, boys.” The guard sneered at the prisoners as two more sentries entered. “Your luck has finally run out,” he continued as Lioqi and Vaedo’s wrists were bound. “No more wallowing in undeserved luxury for you.”

Lioqi exchanged a look with Vaedo. So it had come ’round at last. Their reprieve was spent, and now they would pay for trespassing on forbidden ground.

Outside the stockade, a troop of imperial guard fell in around them, surrounding the prisoners and the half-dozen men of their escort. In solemn procession, they marched across the main courtyard of the palace and up the tiers of shallow steps to the entrance. Down a wide hall hung with the banners of the emperor’s ancestors lay the imperial audience chamber. At the back wall, on a gilded throne draped with the costliest silks, sat the Son of Heaven, flanked by his advisors. Favored courtiers stared curiously as the condemned pair approached the dais. Lioqi and Vaedo bowed low and kept their eyes on the floor as they waited for the emperor to pronounce their doom.

“It is my duty to order your deaths,” the emperor said. “However, after much thought and counsel, it has been decided that only one of you will be executed.” The emperor fixed his gaze on Vaedo. “My advisors agree that your crime was the lesser and that your life may be spared without loss of honor. You must be punished, but you need not die.”

Vaedo bowed again. “Thank you, your imperial majesty,” he croaked.

“Do not offer me gratitude yet. You will prove your loyalty and your respect for the law by carrying out the sentence of death on your comrade.”

“No!” The word ripped from Vaedo’s throat before he could prevent it. Quickly he dropped to his knees to show his remorse for daring to contradict the Son of Heaven. “Forgive me, but I can’t do this thing.”

“You must,” the emperor said. “If you do not accept the sword, your comrade will be used for archery practice, and you will be hung.” He nodded to the captain of the troop. “Take them to the small garden.”

The captain bowed. Drawing his sword, he gestured with it. Lioqi and Vaedo moved toward an arched opening with the captain at their backs.

“I can’t do this,” Vaedo said in an undertone.

“You have to. Just make it quick, you clumsy northern oaf.”

“I can’t cut off your head.

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