Chapter 44 #2
“You’re right.” My words are much stronger than I thought they would be.
“He is our king, and he’s an amazing king.
Believe me when I say, I wish he were here to address you right now because then I wouldn’t have to.
” I take a deep breath and stand tall. “But he’s not, and that means I have to.
And it stinks, and no, it’s not fair. It's not fair that you have me ruling over you right now, someone you barely know. It’s not fair that our rightful king is lying in a bed right now fighting for his life.
” Murmurs and whispers go through the crowd at that.
“It’s not fair that a guivre nearly stole his life from him and stole our king from us.
” I let my words settle a moment. “But that’s just the thing.
Life isn’t fair. Things happen that are completely out of our control.
When those things happen, it’s how we respond that counts.
The Jaguar Kingdom has been dealt a heavy blow.
There was a devastating attack by guivres that not only leveled some of this very arena, but it cost us the lives of eleven of our people.
And that’s too many.” I swallow back my emotion.
I don’t have to look at my notes for this next part.
I memorized it. “It cost us the lives of Elden Marrow, Soraya Vell, Thomlin Prior, Miraen Sol, Jorah Keel, Lisse and Branik Dore, Anwen Rhys, Cael and Hester Brant, and Oren Tyll. Let us have a moment of silence as we remember those we lost.” I bow my head.
I hear a sob ring out from somewhere in the crowd, and my heart squeezes.
After a few moments, I lift my head. “And it almost cost us the life of our king. Kaldar is recovering, but it’s a slow process.
” I really hope my words are the truth. I haven’t heard anything from Rysden, but I refuse to believe anything else.
I look out at the crowd and continue. “But that blow will not bring us to our knees. You know why? Because we refuse to let it. We will come back stronger after this. We have already begun work on reconstructing this arena. We have spent hours strategizing with Zarreth on how to best deal with guivre attacks. He will address the crowd in a little while, but he has plans in place to make sure our people stay protected, so that each of you feel safe. We will fight back. We’re not going to let the guivres win.
This is our land, our kingdom, our people.
They can’t win against us.” There’s some cheering after that.
“Most importantly, you need to know that your king will be back. You now Kaldar; he won’t be kept down for long.
” There’s a louder cheer at that. “He will come back stronger than ever, ready to lead our kingdom. I feel like I need to warn you. He’s not going to take these attacks sitting down.
He will have a plan, and we will back him.
He is our fearless leader, and we will follow him.
We won’t let any of these trials keep us down.
Why? We are the Jaguar Kingdom. We are fierce warriors.
This is our home, and we will defend against any and all threats.
” Applause and cheering break out all around me.
“It would be negligent of me as your temporary leader not to address the events of the attack, specifically the man that transformed into a guivre.” Murmurs ripple through the crowd now, and I can feel the tension and unease growing.
“The elder board, Zarreth, Kaldar’s personal security team, and myself have spent hours discussing this issue.
This is the best we can come up with. Nobody really knows where Brenes came from.
From all accounts, he just showed up one day in our kingdom.
But because he was with Vaelor, most people didn’t think twice about it.
” I stare out at the crowd. “We believe that Vaelor knew what he was and invited him here. He knew he was going to challenge Kaldar for the throne and knew he wouldn’t win, so he brought a man who could shift into a guivre.
That’s what we believe anyway.” The crowd is noisy now and restless.
“Here’s the question you’re all asking yourselves.
How? I know because we’ve been asking ourselves that too.
Here’s what we know. The guivres were once part of the dragon kingdom.
When they rose up against the dragon kingdom to war against them, they were cursed by the gryphons and trapped in their animal forms. With the death of Terron, one of the last remaining gryphon-bonded, we think the power that keeps the gryphons trapped in their animal forms has begun to fade.
” Panicky whispers echo around the arena, but I continue.
“How do we deal with this going forward? The first step is that we’re going to begin the search for more gryphons.
If there are more, we will seek their help.
Second, we will seek out help from other kingdoms, should it come to that.
Zarreth will address the crowd on how to deal with attacks in the meantime.
Let me say this before I turn it over to him.
” There is unrest and unease in the crowd now, and I hate that.
I’m not exactly sure what to do about it, though.
And then it comes to me. “I want everyone to stand.” I wait a moment, and nobody moves.
“Please stand.” The elder board moves first, and I appreciate their support so much. I really hope this next part works.