“I have complete authority to do this, you vile monster.” Elyse turned to the square, took the scroll out, and held it up before her. “I am the new Bishop of Erst!”
A gasp of shock rippled through the crowd. The thug in Jandor’s hand breathed his last and went limp. The other one, half-dazed, gasped and started to drag himself off the platform with his one functioning arm. The fat slaver, however, remained defiant.
“So? Your predecessor legalized slavery,” he said. “You can’t do anything to us. We were acting within the bounds of the law. And now, you’ve just murdered one of my men. Bishop or not, I’ll petition the Duke to have you hanged.”
“It wasn’t a murder,” Elyse said coolly. “It was an execution, a fitting punishment for the crime you and your men are committing.”
“What? Are you deaf, or are you just stupid? Slavery is legal. We aren’t committing any crime.”
“What does the Lord of Light have to say about slavery? In his own holy writings, what did he say?”
“Who cares? Who has time to read any of that when they have a job to do? Only lazy clerics. What I was told personally was that slavery was legal, no limitations.”
“And what all bishops have said for as far back as we know, no ruler, of the church or otherwise, has the authority to go against the divine laws of the Lord of Light. In chapter 4, verse 73 of the Book of Dawn, the Lord himself wrote that ‘slavery is an abomination, a crime of the highest order. Do not suffer slavers and those who work in this despicable trade to live. Drive them from your towns and kill them in the wilderness. Leave their remains for wild beasts to feast upon.’ I don’t care what Nabu said; slavery has always been and always will be a crime in the eyes of the Church of Light, which means it will always be a crime in this God-fearing land. And you, and all of your friends here, are guilty of that crime, a crime punishable under Sacred Law by death! And I, as Bishop of Erst, have complete authority to sentence and punish you for this transgression.”
A look of panic came over the man’s flabby face. “Wait, wait,” he stammered. “But Nabu said... he told us that the Lord’s words were just, uh, uh—”
“Nabu is gone, and I have come to undo the evil and corruption that spread under his term. And I’m starting right here. With you. All of you who are involved in selling slaves are hereby condemned to die. Captain Jandor, you and your men are hereby authorized to carry out this sentence!”
This was the moment I’d been waiting for. Strands of my mind shot out like grasping tentacles, snaking invisibly through the air and plunging into the undead bodies of the Resplendent Crusaders. As soon as a sliver of my consciousness impaled one of them, a sensation of complete control gushed through me with a jolt. In seconds, I was wielding each of their bodies like a weapon, as if I held them in my hands.
The other slavers had all been watching, and they knew the game was up. They attempted to run, to disappear into the crowd, but I’d memorized each of their faces. They hadn’t been paying attention to me while Elyse was up on the stage, so I’d been able to study them more than thoroughly.
Looking through multiple pairs of eyes, I was able to run down and catch every one of them before they could escape. None were particularly fit or strong, and it only took a few punches, trips, and throws to subdue them.
Elyse went from platform to platform, striking the chains off the slaves and gently helping them down, while my zombie Crusaders hauled the struggling, panicking slavers and their thugs up onto the very platforms where they’d been selling human beings like cattle.
“Let the following executions be a well-remembered lesson to anyone who ever considers selling human beings as slaves!” Elyse cried. “Captain Jandor and my Crusaders, tear out their hearts!”
I chuckled. Elyse was certainly full of surprises, and she had a very dark and uncompromising sense of justice. We had more in common than she’d perhaps like to admit.
I wasted no time in carrying out the sentence. Under my control, Captain Jandor smashed his hand like a spear into the fat slaver’s chest, gripping the scumbag’s still-beating heart and yanking it out. The man gasped as he stared bulgy-eyed at his own blood-dripping heart in Jandor’s hand. Before death hit him, Jandor slammed the man’s heart into his gaping mouth, and finally, the slaver’s eyes glazed over and rolled back in their sockets.
A soul slammed into my chest, filling me with a sudden rush. So, this was what it felt like to actually be the final destination of these stolen souls. I had to make sure I didn’t get addicted to this, but if it was a byproduct of a quest for justice, why not enjoy it?
The thug who was next in line jerked himself free of the Crusader’s grasp and whipped his dagger out, his eyes wild with desperate madness. Howling, he flew at the Crusader and attempted to shove the blade through a gap between armor plates.
