The Shadow Knight
When two came at once, he set them against each other, let their zeal create openings.
Blood painted the crossroads. Bodies fell like offerings beneath the gibbet. The last soldier, barely more than a boy, threw down his sword and raised empty hands.
"Please! Mercy! I yield!"
The knight would have accepted surrender. But the knight had believed in rules of war, codes of honour, the sanctity of submission. The man Kaelen had become saw only another servant of his enemies, another potential threat to eliminate.
The sword punched through the boy's chest. Surprise replaced relief in those young eyes as life fled. He fell forward, joining his brothers in death.