A braham turned and saw his elder brother almost dying.

Jacob fell backwards with his eyes closed.

“Oh, no…!”

Abraham uttered.

Abraham was quite worried as he saw this but he had to keep himself together so that he could focus on the war at hand.

Abraham’s soldiers kept on firing until they had conquered. The castle was also destroyed to some extent.

Inside the castle, Austin was arrested by a group of five soldiers which was sent in by Abraham. Austin placed his hands forwards as he knew that he had no place to run now.

Thomas who was trying to escape by climbing down the walls of the castle, then realised that two soldiers were standing where he was about to land. They had aimed their guns towards him. He was also under arrest now.

Abraham had stopped firing. He turned and immediately called a doctor who was in his team.

As the doctor came, he said to him,

“Take Jacob to the hospital now. Do it immediately. His condition seems to be very critical.”

The doctor’s team came and carried Jacob on the stretcher.

Abraham looked at Mr Hart

and said,

“Uncle Hart, you must go with him please.”

“Sure. Are you sure you can handle it alone?”

Abraham then looked at the gate of the castle and saw that both Thomas and Austin were under the custody of the soldiers and were then being brought forward towards him.

“Yes, you don’t worry about that,” Abraham replied. “I’m sure I can handle it all here.”

Mr Hart then looked at them and commented,

“Well, it seems we have attained our most awaited victory.”

Abraham stepped down and walked towards the captives, taking out handcuffs from his pocket.

***************

Six Hours Later

Inside the hospital, Mr Hart was seated at the hospital and he seemed very disheartened. Abraham came running towards him and asked,

“Uncle Hart, what is the progress? How is Jacob?”

Mr Hart stood up sadly and answered,

“I’ve been told that Jacob is no more.”

“What…?”

“Yes, he passed away before he was admitted here.”

“Oh, God!” Abraham got badly heartbroken.

He leaned against the wall and almost sat.

Mr Hart said to him,

“I know this is upsetting but we were already expecting this. Anyone among us had to die.”

“I know,” Abraham cried.

“The good news is that we have conquered the palace and the government is ours now.”

Abraham did not respond to this and simply wiped off

his tears.

“Look Abraham, we have

to pull ourselves together.

The whole state is depending on us.”

“I know. You’re right.”

Abraham stood up and sat on the chair. Mr Hart asked him,

“Where are Austin and Thomas?”

“They are locked inside the cell.”

“Same cell?”

“No, in separate cells.”

“Good.”

Abraham asked him after

a while,

“Where is Jacob’s body?

Can I see it?”

“I would rather recommend you not to.

You have to stay strong.”

Abraham nodded and said,

“Alright, I’ll go back. In the meantime, you arrange his funeral.”

“Okay, where should we conduct it?”

“Somewhere close to the castle or inside the castle. It won’t be a grand event, because I don’t want to waste our limited resources like Thomas and Austin.”

“Right, I agree.”

Abraham stood up and wiped off his tears. He prepared to leave.

***************

Two Days Later

Austin and Thomas who were locked in opposite lock up cells were having a discussion.

“We weren’t invited to the funeral yesterday,”

Thomas said.

“Why would we be? We are after all responsible for his death.”

“No, we are not” Thomas exclaimed getting angry. “Why are we? Why are we responsible? Abraham is the one who waged the war.”

“Look, there’s no point in crying now. We both are guilty for our crimes and besides, we are under Abraham’s custody now. He has won.”

“I’m just suggesting that we should escape somehow.”

Austin chuckled a bit and responded,

“And how are we going to plan it? In front of these jailors who are constantly listening to us.”

Thomas realised that he was right, so he gave an expression of giving up and losing now.

After a long moment of silence, Austin said,

“Things could have been a lot better and easier if Frederick wouldn’t have disappeared.”

“I always thought you knew about it. You are not the one who made him disappear?”

“I am not. I wish that I were” Austin answered.

“Wait, then explain this to me, if you are not…”

“…Forget it Thomas,”

Austin interrupted, “just forget it. It is useless to solve mysteries now. You and I will be sentenced soon.

Frederick’s alive or not, doesn’t matter now. Nothing can change our fate now.”

Angry Thomas walked back inside his cell.

The two jailors who were listening to them all the while, came towards Austin’s cell and one of them whispered to him,

“Sir, we can help you to go out of here.”

“Really?” Austin got excited.

“But we need something really huge in exchange.”

“I will grant you a huge amount of gold and silver. It is locked up in a place nobody knows about.”

The jailor shook hands with him as if they had a deal now.

***************

Few Days Later

Abraham and Mr Hart were at the meeting room.

Abraham began the conversation,

“Now, that the government is ours and the entire state has accepted us, we must get to work.”

“Absolutely!”

“I have made the entire chart. Everything that needs to be done, the budget required, the time required, everything is clear in my mind now. The only issue is of resources now.”

“Resources?”

“We don’t have enough resources. More importantly, we don’t have enough currency.”

“By currency you mean gold and silver, right?”

“Yes.”

That moment, somebody came inside the room without even knocking and gave shocking news,

“King Abraham, Thomas is dead…”

“What?” Abraham asked standing up.

“He has been poisoned or something like that.”

Five minutes later, Abraham who visited the lock up cell personally saw that his brother Thomas was lying dead on the ground. Blood was coming out of his nose and mouth.

“What do you think happened?” Abraham asked the jailor.

“We all think that the food that was given to them recently was poisonous.”

“What about Austin?

Is he dead too?”

“No, your majesty,”

Austin’s mocking voice came from behind.

Abraham stood up and turned to look at Austin who was standing behind the bars, inside his cell.

“You have finally started to break your principles,” Austin taunted. “You are killing your blood brothers without a proper execution.”

Abraham ignored him knowing that he was trying to provoke him by putting the blame on him.

Abraham saw that moment that Austin had left his food untouched. Abraham therefore, instructed to the jailor,

“Throw away this food and arrange new food for Austin. After that, bring Thomas’ dead body up.”

Abraham walked out of the cell and left the place.

***************

That night, Abraham could not sleep as he was feeling quite uneasy. Mr Hart was coincidentally sleeping in the castle. Abraham left his room and walked towards Mr Hart’s room.

Few minutes later, while the two of them were standing together, Abraham apologised and said,

“I’m sorry, I had to wake you up. I am feeling very uncomfortable.”

“I understand why you are.

I am also feeling the same. Thomas’ death is quite astonishing.”

“I am stuck between two points. Either someone deliberately from our team added poison, or there was poison already.”

“The second option is wrong. We had the same food today, we both are fine, everyone else is feeling quite well.”

“I think you’re right. Now the only question is who did it?”

“Someone who dislikes both of them. And there are plenty of people in the state who have more than one reason to

hate them.”

“I know I agree, but how did they access our secret prison.”

“Then, it must be one of the jailors,” Mr Hart suggested.

“Might be…”

“Look, I would suggest you to stay calm. You can run a trial after few days when your government would be stronger.”

“I guess so…”

Meanwhile, back inside the prison. Austin was up and he was quite excited. He said in his thoughts,

Within few days I am about to flee out of this place. I will simply gather all of my wealth from the secret hideout. And after that, I will leave this island forever.

He was too excited about the upcoming days that he couldn’t even sleep.

Back inside the castle, Abraham went somewhere underground holding a lantern and a hand gun. He was trying to find out if there was a secret passage way through which people could enter inside.

While he was walking, he saw that there was a door. He said in his mind,

I never knew there was a room.

He tried to open it but the door was locked.

That moment, he reloaded his hand gun and shot straight towards the doorknob. He did it twice.

He opened the door after that and to his surprise the room was filled with gold and silver. The silver and gold coins were there all over. He got quite stunned seeing that.

Well, look at that! He commented.

***************

Next morning, Austin was holding a large knife in his hands. The jailor outside said to him,

“Today you are escaping, okay?”

“Okay, can you repeat again, how?”

“It’s no big deal. I will simply guard the other jailors. You will use this knife’s lower side to unlock the door. But not right now. There are guards all around.”

“Will it be easy? Unlocking the lock?”

“Yes, although, it would require strength.”

That moment, they both heard Abraham coming towards the cell. The jailor got a bit startled.

As he came closer, Austin moved backwards and hid the knife behind himself. Abraham said to him,

“Thank you Mr Austin you have made my job easy.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I was really worried about how I would cover the expenses of the state with very limited gold and silver. But last night, in fact, just a few hours earlier, my task got very much easier.”

Austin understood after a several seconds and uttered,

“What?”

“Yes, I have found your secret stolen treasure and now it will be utilised for expenses of the state.”

“No! No!” Austin yelled louder than ever. “Don’t you ever dare to touch that.”

“It has already been touched and moved.”

Austin got so heartbroken that his entire dreams and hopes shattered. The knife fell off his hand and he fell backwards.

Abraham left seeing all this.

Austin cried out really loud.

He was badly heartbroken.

“So, does this mean you cannot reward me?” the jailor asked.

Disappointed Austin who was losing his sanity, picked up the knife and sliced his own throat.

His body started shivering like a fish and huge fountains of blood came out of his throat.

Austin was dead.

The jailor got really angry as his hopes had died too.

***************

One Week Later

Abraham was seated on the king’s chair. Mr Hart was seated next to him as he was the most trusted advisor. Abraham began,

“I will conduct the trials, all trials. Thomas’ murder, Austin’s murder, every case.”

“You know very well that Austin committed suicide. Yes, Thomas’ death is a mystery, it must be resolved.”

“Frederick’s disappearance has been a mystery for quite a long time too.”

“Don’t worry, everything will be done. You conducted previous trials quite smartly; one can hope that the same will happen.”

“I hope so…”

“The entire state is happy to see you as their new king. People have hopes and expectations. We both will do this together.”

“I wish Jacob could have seen these days,” Abraham said, “You know last month was quite a difficult one for me. My three brothers died.”

“I know…”

There was a silence for a while. Mr Hart however said,

“Alright, now get ready for your speech. People outside are waiting for you.”

“Sure!”

Abraham stood up.

Abraham walked towards the exit of the castle. Mr Hart followed him but some unknown person from behind stopped him

and said,

“Can you come with me?

I have to show you something.”

“Who are you?”

That stranger walked towards another direction.

Mr Hart followed him as he was quite suspicious.

After a few minutes, the two of them reached a dark place outside the castle.

Two adults were talking there.

Mr Hart paid attention and to

his surprise one of them was Frederick.

to be continued...