Chapter 21

The press conference went off surprisingly without a hitch. No one seemed to object at the steps needed to be taken and no one stood up to defend him as she figured there would be. Many times, there had been those who protested the death penalty but today, they were silent. Once it was over, she headed back inside to the library and told everyone she did not want to be disturbed. Tyler agreed but only if she'd have something to eat first. Grudgingly she agreed and ate a quick meal before heading into the library.

Book after book, she poured through, looking for the old laws, looking for something, anything that would tell her how to handle the situation. One would have thought that Regicide would have been spelled out fairly clearly and shown somewhere in large letters but no such luck. Perhaps it was because the ones who wrote the laws never thought it possible. After all with guards and the Sword, who would have thought it could happen. However, her father and mother had both of those things and it matter not.

"Forgive me your Highness but perhaps I can be of service," a small quiet voice came from behind her and she looked up. At first she was annoyed that someone had interrupted her but then she realized she recognized the voice.

"Egbert? Is that really you?" Sahara looked at him completely confused. The snarf had to be at least a hundred and fifty.

"Egbert? Who is Egbert?" The snarf asked.

"A friend to Uncle Snarf. Sorry. I have no idea why I thought he'd still be alive," the litah shook her head.

"Well perhaps it is because you have your thoughts in other places. My name is Oswald," he smiled slightly. Sahara took him in and realized that he was about Snarfer's age.

"Forgive me. My mind is very occupied," she smiled slightly.

"That's why I am here. I know you said you didn't want to be disturbed but I think I can help. You see your Uncle Snarf used to let Snarfer and I in here to poke around," he smiled.

"Do you happen to know what book I'm looking for? I mean I realize that these are not the original copies as they were destroyed when Thundera was destroyed but even copies work well," Sahara said, showing she understood things might not be in their original order. After all, no one had touched them since the copies had been brought into the library by a ship full of refugees.

"You see I was on that ship that brought them in and I helped get them onto the shelves. I read a good portion of them on our journey before we found out where other had settled," he smiled and carefully made his way to the ladder that lay up against the shelves. Slowly taking the rungs, one at a time, he climbed up to the top shelf where the hole for the current book she was ready was. Thumbing over a few books, he pulled one from the shelf and carefully climbed back down.

"Here you go. Try this one," Oswald smiled.

"Unnatural Crimes and Their Punishments. Huh," Sahara shrugged.

"I guess the elders back then figured Regicide was a bit unnatural," he shrugged his shoulders.

"But not uncommon. Lucius used to tell us some horror stories," she told him.

"I suppose," he smiled slightly and turned to go.

"Thank you Oswald. I really appreciate it," Sahara called after him.

"Anytime, your Highness," he smiled slightly and was gone from the room. It took Sahara all of two minutes to find what she was looking for as it was the first crime on the list in the front of the book. She flipped to the page where the topic started and read intently. It was short and to the point. Should the King or Queen be killed, then the one responsible shall be publicly executed. All those who helped the perpetrator, should die with the responsible party, and their bodies left on display so as to show everyone what the consequences of their actions had been. This seemed to be the same punishment as when a normal Thunderian died and it confused her until she flipped the next page.

The names of the guilty are to be stricken from every record. They never existed. Their names are never to be uttered ever again. Their bodies are to be shot into space and exploded. They will never have a burial place and never enter the Kingdom of the Gods.

"Whoa," she read it again to make sure and then closed the book. She knew what she had to do.

To Be Continued…