A soldier, a killer and a fool part 1

Donni awoke with a start, his dreams had been getting worse over the last number of days. This had all started when he had gotten his promotion or perhaps when he first heard the rumors of rebel attacks? Of course the rumors were officially dismissed as accidents or the act of lone religious fanatics but some thing just didn’t feel right.
He got out of bed and looked out side the dawn sky was an amazing color of purple and he could see the people of Barin were starting to go about there daily tasks. From his home he could see the giant flag the emperor had hanging from the Palace walls.
He had lived in Barin his whole life, always in the shadow of the empirical palace, always dreaming of some day working for the emperor. He had decided at the age of five that he would be a soldier, he had carried a stick every where he went as a child practicing his parries and lunges. He had told his mother it was a walking stick as she hated violence and wished him to become a fish monger like his father. He helped his father by day and practiced his sword fighting by night he challenged his friends and enemies to matches and soon began to run out of both. By the age of fifteen he could best any other child in the city and had no one to spar against as even the older children would not challenge him. Undeterred he continued to practice on his own determined to be the best so that one day he could save the emperor’s life.
The emperor was the savior of Barin, Gods envoy to mortals, the bane of evil, champion of justice and defender of the tree of life. In his first year of power the emperor had destroyed there evil neighbors of Kalor. They had plotted to destroy Barin and enslave its people for years but thanks to the emperor that would never happen. He had smashed there armies in a battle 20 miles north of the tree of life and declared Kalor to be part of his empire.
Now was Donni’s chance to begin to repay the emperor for his greatness. After only 6 months in the empirical guard he had been selected to be one of the emperor’s body guards. He had been informed of his new position by Chen one of the emperors two assistants. Donni had never liked Chen and didn’t know why the emperor had such an aloof and arrogant man as one of his advisors but Donni knew the emperor new best. The emperors other assistant Bey was also unusual in Donni’s eyes. A man of large appetite and sluggish movement, he carried a large piece of metal around his neck at all times and it was said that it warded off evil spirits.
Donni finished getting ready and set off towards the throne room. As he walked through the palace he thought of his new position and the fact that he might have to kill some one and he wondered if he would be able to do it. To take a human life to end a persons existence, to destroy that persons dreams with the flick of his wrist. He was still thinking of this as he took his post outside the emperor’s throne room.
“The emperor does not wish to be disturbed” the other guard had told him. He had never seen the other guard before, ‘the man must be in his fifties at least’ he thought, ‘What an odd paring we must be the oldest and youngest guards in the palace. What are the odds of us being pared like this?’
It was as he was thinking this that the two men in black appeared from nowhere in front of them.
“The emperor does not wish to be…….” Was all the other guard got to say as a knife appeared in his left eye socket.
Donni drew his sword and thought ‘this is it.’
He went in to his fighting crouch as the two assassins attacked him, he easily parried there attacks before stabbing the first assassin in the chest before driving his sword through the second mans mouth into his brain.
With both assassins dead Donni dried his sword on one of there shirts and said out loud “I guess killing some one isn’t that hard after all”
It was then he heard clapping and turned to see the emperor’s advisor Chen walk in to view.
“Bravo who knew that a child like you could actually kill two trained assassins. What a bother I guess I will have to kill the Emperor the hard way.”
Donni went into his crouch and was still in it as Chens sword slit his throat. As Donni struggled to stem the flow of life blood from his neck he watched as Chen entered the throne room. He lay there for a few moments as the blood flowed from him and his last thought was ‘Maybe being a fish monger would not have been a bad life’. As his eyes closed it felt as if the world shook at his passing.