Chapter 26: ACCOMPLICES (PART 1)
The people gathered around the Merchant and the little thief did not take kindly to being pushed around by Joda and said a great number of unkind things to him but he was far too gone to even hear them. He was a man on a mission and his mission was almost on the verge of being turned to pancake as he saw the Merchant carrying a huge boulder twice his weight on his shoulder whiles yelling profanities to two people who were cowering away from him.
Joda had enough time to notice the appearance of the new person who was definitely a girl, judging from her long black hair and smooth skin and what he may have noticed was a beautiful face, even though it was hidden beneath a scarf if he had stopped to stare much longer, which he hadn't before launching himself at the Merchant.
The Merchant, weighed down by the gargantuan boulder he was carrying, and his attention fully on the kids he was going to crush turned a little too slowly and a little too late to dodge Joda's tackle. Pain spread through him as he felt the newcomer's shoulder dig into his big belly.
The heavy boulder he was carrying fell backward from his shoulder and landed right behind him. Even before he felt his body fall backward, he knew what was going to happen. Everybody knew, including the two people Joda had tried to save. Everybody could tell that the Merchant was in for a load of pain and prepared themselves for the after effect accordingly. Everybody except Joda.
'Crack'
The sickening sound of bones breaking was the first sign that made Joda aware that he had messed up. The next one was the blood flowing from the Merchant's nose and mouth. The whole market was quiet. Everybody looked at Joda with hostility. Even those who had been booing the Merchant earlier on. It didn't help that Joda was also wearing 'slave' colors. The Merchant was dead. And he was responsible for it.
"Oh shit"Bello, who had made it just in time to witness the accident muttered under his breath just before the crowd of onlookers charged at the murderer, Joda. This was no longer a punishment for pick-pocketing. Joda and the kids he had tried to save were now going to be punished for murder in broad daylight.
"Quick, save him!" Bello shouted at the guards he had come with who jumped on the people attacking Joda and started throwing them off one after the other.
The girl who was still covering the pick-pocket shrank away from the angry crowd as they fell on them. The stranger who had tried to save them was badly bruised as the mob hit him with stones and sticks but he still stood. Refusing to let anyone get past him to them. She watched as he threw off a big man who had attempted to tackle him to the ground. He headbutted another who got too close and shrugged off a heavy hit to the side of his head as if it was nothing.
' I have to help him. I have to stop them before they kill him. I pray someone recognizes me or we're all dead.' The girl thought as she prepared to do something that will cost her, her freedom In the future if it worked.
When Joda realized that he had accidentally caused the death of the Merchant, he had thought of turning himself in like an honorable man would do. That was until the people decided that prison was too good for him.
He knew he was in the wrong and needed to be punished, but with death? Come on! He hadn't meant to kill the man. It was an accident and he wasn't ready to visit the afterlife for it just yet. Escaping was out of the question since they were surrounded. He didn't want the kids behind him to die as well so he took the only option left. To stand and fight.
He had to admit that fighting a crazed mob intent on lynching you, by all means, was much harder than he had initially thought. They bit and scratched and hit and yelled till Joda almost went deaf.
He had initially tried to just push off the attackers without hurting them, but after the people he had thrown off started coming back in waves much stronger and even more stubborn than before, he resigned himself to the fact that he had to knock out a few people here and there to get some breathing space. And so the kicking and punching had started.
"Kill him!", "Burn him", "Blind him!" The mob shouted as they tried to get a piece of the slave who dared kill a Merchant. Joda on the other hand dodged, punched, kicked, and cursed as the mob got angrier and angrier with every attack he made.
He was doing his best to keep the mob a safe distance from the two people he was trying to save, but he could tell that it was only a matter of time before he fell to the angry crowd.
The circle he and the two kids were in was now smaller and even tighter than a miser's wallet. He was bleeding from the side of his head where he had been hit with a stick.
His body ached everywhere, his vision was blurry and his feet were unsteady. One more hit from any of the people advancing on him would be enough to knock him over.
He knew it. The kids he was Protecting knew it. The mob knew it and Bello, who was fighting another group of the dead Merchant's friends knew it. Even the passed-out guards Bello and Joda had come with knew it in their sleep that the servant was a goner and that Orion was going to have their skins for it.
Then the most amazing and unexpected thing happened. The girl who had been shielding the little boy with her body stood up, yanked her scarf off her face, and shouted the most curious thing that every one of the people gathered there had ever heard.
"In the name of my father! King Erlick. I, princess Ivana, order you to halt your attacks immediately!" She ordered loudly and all the attacks ceased immediately as gasps escaped the lips of more than one person. One such person was Bello.
'maybe we're not so screwed after all' he thought as he watched the girl in awe.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone