SWNOVELS Chapter Chapter Two
A Long Time Before The Great War
A young Gabriel and the people in his village watched the black armor wearing Black Hands dragging a couple of young men from their homes, leaving behind sobbing wives, mothers and children. The Black Hand had been doing this for as long as Gabriel could remember but there was nothing that any of them could do about it. The Black Hands were soldiers of the tyrant known as the Dark One. The Dark One allowed his Black Hands to force young men into serving him. If anyone resisted, they were swiftly killed and put on display for others to see or forced into submission. Very few men joined the Black Hand army willingly. They usually had reasons to do it. The number of men who did it for no reason and were very willingly was the fewest.
“Gabriel. Come back in here.” A boy said from within a small house behind Gabriel. Gabriel looked over his shoulder. A boy that was a few years older than him was standing in the doorway. He looked very serious. “Come on Gabriel.” The older boy said.
Gabriel entered their hut and closed the door. “Victor, the Black Hands just took Arram and Azrael.” He said even though he knew that Victor had seen it as well. “How much longer are we going to let the Black Hands do this before we stand up to them?” It made Gabriel mad seeing how the Dark One kept taking men from every village in the empire. The next time they would see Arram and Azrael, the two men would be ruthless, cold and emotionless Black Hands. The only Black Hands that showed glee in what they did were the ones who volunteered and became great leaders.
Victor grabbed Gabriel by the arm and dragged him to the back of the hut. “Watch your tongue!” Victor hissed. “You don’t want the Black Hands to think that you’re starting up a rebellion against them, do you? Do you want to end up like Papa?”
Gabriel became quiet. Their papa had tried to lead a rebellion against the Dark One and his forces. Their papa and his men had had a few victories before they were wiped out completely by the Dark One himself. The heads of the dead rebels had been sent to their families and then the Black Hands had torched a few of the homes with the families trapped inside as a way to scare others into submission. Their home had been one of the lucky few to miss getting torched. Shortly after that, their mother had died from a broken heart.
“Trust me Gabriel, we are better off keeping our heads low for now.” Victor told his brother. “When the time comes and the Black Hands try to take us away, we’ll flee the village before they get the chance.” Victor was determined not to let the Black Hands take his brother. He had promised their mother to keep Gabriel safe from the Black Hands and the Dark One. “There is a better life for us somewhere out there. I know it.”
Gabriel wanted to believe his big brother. That was when there was a knock at the door. Gabriel and Victor looked at the door as it opened. To their relief, it was just the miller. The miller was an elderly man who had managed to be overlooked by the Black Hands thanks to him needing a crutch. “Good. You two are still here.” The miller said in relief.
Victor nodded. “For now.” He said. He gave Gabriel a look that said to keep quiet about running away when their time came to get recruited by the Black Hands.
The miller sighed and limped over to an empty seat. He took a seat. “Arram and Azrael today. Last week they took seven young men to serve in their twisted army.” The miller looked at Victor. “How old are you?” He asked.
Victor knew why the miller was asking. The law that the Dark One made in his empire, once a boy reached the age of sixteen, was to either join the Black Hands willingly or be pressed ganged by the Black Hands. “I’m thirteen.” He answered. “I still have three years left before I’m to join.” He gestured to Gabriel. “He still has five years before they come for him.”
The miller looked at Gabriel. “They might come for him once they see that he’ll be the only one left in this house.” He murmured softly. Victor and Gabriel still heard him say that. The miller shook his head. “That is assuming of course they don’t lower the recruiting age again.” He added.
Victor and Gabriel looked at each other. Neither of them liked the sound of that. The recruiting age had originally been eighteen but after their papa had led a failed rebellion, the Dark One had changed the recruiting age to sixteen to try to squash any chance of another resistance being formed. A rebellion couldn’t form if it was just made of kids and women.
“What do you mean lower the recruiting age?” Victor asked.
“The Black Hands have been talking for the last few days about lowering the age to thirteen.” The miller explained. He looked around nervously before leaning towards the two. Victor and Gabriel leaned towards him. “They’re saying that there is a rumor going around of a rebellion growing.” The miller told them in a low voice. “An unusual rebellion too by the sound of things.”
“Why is it an unusual rebellion?” Gabriel asked. A rebellion was just a rebellion. The only way he could imagine it being unusual was if women and children were the main forces of it.
The miller shook his head. “I’m not entirely sure.” He confessed. “Just what the Black Hands have been saying. Reports of small strikes against the Black Hands all over the empire. Raids on supplies, the disappearance of pressed ganged men, Small numbers of Black Hands all around the empire turning up dead. The thing is, there’s no one claiming responsibility and the distance between these strikes would suggest that it’s more than just one group of people doing it.”
More than just one group of people doing this? Gabriel wondered if any rebel groups in their village snuck off to do strikes like these. It sounded like a good idea to him. He wanted to stop the Black Hand from taking people from his village. He would do whatever it took to help his people.
Victor didn’t like the sound of this. “I’m old enough then if the Black Hands lower the recruiting age to thirteen.” He said. He looked at Gabriel. “If they do and they come to take me away, they might try to take you as well.” He wasn’t sure if he should support the rebels and try to fight against the Black Hands in this part of the empire or hate them for being responsible for lowering the recruiting age. He refused to join the rebels so they either would run away or join the Black Hands against their wills.
“I know your father was the leader of a local rebellion a long time ago.” The miller said. “I know that he would only want what’s best for you.” The miller looked towards the door again nervously. “If you both want to run away to a place outside of the empire, I wouldn’t blame you. No one in this village would blame you. A great many of us admired your father for his bravery against the Dark One’s forces.”
Victor cut in right there. “But in the end our dad just ended up getting killed and he caused the deaths of many people who couldn’t fight back.” He stood up. “Thank you Elijah for your warning about the recruiting age possibly being lowered.” Victor continued before he looked at his younger brother. “I’m sure that when the time comes, we’ll decide what the right thing is.”
Gabriel waited until after the miller left before he turned to his brother. “We can’t let the Black Hands take us or any other kids to their twisted army.” He said. He knew that Victor wouldn’t like where he was going with this but he had no choice. He had to say it. “We should start a small rebel band here and do what the other rebels are doing. Saving those who are getting forced into the army, destroy the supplies that the Black Hands are transporting. Like what our father used to do.”
Victor shook his head. “No Gabriel.” He said in a firm voice. “You don’t know who we can trust or turn to. If the wrong people hear us even talking about this, we’ll both be in serious trouble if not killed for talking about treason.” His brother was just a few years younger than him but he was still too young to see how starting a rebellion would be too dangerous for them. “We should just keep our heads down low and wait to see if they do lower the recruiting age to thirteen and if they do, we’ll just run away to someplace outside the empire.”
“But what about the people that are being forced into the Black Hand’s army against their will? We should help as many as we can escape.” Gabriel said. “Even if it’s just a few of them every once in a while. What about the kids that will be forced into the Black Hand army if they do lower the recruiting age? Why shouldn’t we try to help them out as well as we can?” Even though Victor had his plan for them both to run away to a safe place, Gabriel still wanted to help others now that he knew there were others out there fighting against the Dark One.
“Gabriel. We are not getting involved with either side of the fighting.” Victor said in a forced low voice. “We are not throwing our lives away for a useless fight that will never end. All we’ll do is delay the inevitable. Now this conversation is over.” With that, Victor went to the backyard.
Gabriel wanted to protest but he knew that once Victor made up his mind about something, there was no changing it. Victor was stubborn and he was sticking with his plan. That didn’t mean though that he could come up with his own plans to pull off small rebel strikes around the area. He wanted to help as many as he could and he knew that he wouldn’t be alone doing this. He would have others supporting him and people who would want to join him even. He just had to wait until he was away from Victor long enough to start his plan.