Revenge of the Dragons by Ed Dunlop

Author:Ed Dunlop
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ed Dunlop

Chapter Twelve

A cold, gray dawn stole across Braxbury Castle as a score of somber knights led Cobby across the drawbridge and out into the stillness of the forest to be executed. Four more knights held Papa Wynn, Joel, Andrew, and the coachman at sword point, but allowed them to follow the execution party at a distance. Sir Rafe rode a handsome black stallion, keeping his distance from the other knights.

A stab of terror tightened in Joel’s chest. Cold fear gripped his heart, squeezing so tightly that he struggled to breathe. A dark mist seemed to settle upon him, swirling about him and threatening to engulf him.

“Papa Wynn,” he gasped, and his voice came out as a feeble croak, “what are we going to do? We can’t let them hang Pa!”

Papa Wynn inhaled sharply, producing only the wheezing, rattling breath of a dying man. Joel stared at him in alarm. Papa Wynn looked so old, so feeble— as if the life had gone out of him. “I—I don’t know, Joel,” he stammered, his eyes filling with tears. “We can’t take on a score of armed men. If only there was some way to prove Cobby’s identity.”

Joel glanced up at Sir Rafe and was angered to see that the bearded knight seemed to be enjoying the spectacle of Cobby’s march to the gallows. Helpless fury surged throughout his being.

“Do something,” he begged Papa Wynn. “We have to do something! Papa Wynn, we have to stop them!”

The old man put a hand on Joel’s shoulder. “There’s nothing we can do, Joel, except…” He paused in mid-sentence and his eyes came to life. “Petitions! Son, we can send petitions!”

Papa Wynn reached within his jerkin and pulled out his book. One of the Braxbury knights tensed and immediately brought his sword to the old man’s throat. “Make one move, old man, and you’re dead!”

“All I intend to do, sir, is to petition King Emmanuel.” Wynn’s voice trembled as he said the words.

The knight paused. “I see no harm in that. You may send a petition.”

Papa Wynn opened his book and withdrew a parchment, and from somewhere within his clothing produced a writing instrument. Hastily penning a frantic message, he then rolled the parchment, held it aloft, and released it to soar over the treetops.

Joel now had a parchment in his own hands and hastily wrote the following desperate petition:

“His Majesty, King Emmanuel:

My father has been mistaken for a notorious outlaw and is right now being led to the gallows to hang. My King, he is innocent and has done nothing to deserve death. Please, Your Majesty, save my father’s life!

Your son, Joel of Seawell.”

Joel released the parchment and watched as it soared above the forest on its way to the Golden City of the Redeemed. Immediately he seized another parchment and sent another petition, and then a third. Help us, King Emmanuel, his heart cried out. Unless you help us, my father will be—

The band of knights led Cobby into the forest and paused in a clearing beneath a huge oak tree.

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