Chapter 1: The New King Rises
-Cole-
“The king is dead! Long live the king!”
My father … dead. After years of ruling beside my mother, his life had come to an end, but it was not a simple cold or age that took him from us … No, it was them. It was the pagans. My grandfather had done his best to rid them of this earth, but he had died too, and my own father, for some reason, refused to continue the hunt and see where that had gotten him. Dead. He was lying on the altar, his body wrapped in white cloth, as sage burned around him. My mother cried beside me, as my sister held onto her, trying to comfort her, but there was nothing to do for our mother. No, our father had been the love of her life, and they had fought so hard to be together, only now to be stripped from one another … by them.
My mother had once almost been killed by the pagans. Why would my father not want to get rid of them all? Why could he not see that they brought death with them? Why did he not care more? Now he was dead, but I refused to let his death go unpunished.
I tightened my hand around his sword. It had been his father’s before him, and it had served him well. Now I hoped it would protect me too, as I set off to do what I needed to do to make sure we would all be safe.
“Cole?”
I felt my sister place her hand on my shoulder, but I barely looked at her before I turned around and started to walk away.
“Cole!”
This time I heard her yell my name, and it wasn’t long before I heard her follow me. I looked over my shoulder, seeing her grey eyes lock on me. She had gotten those from our father, while I inherited our mother’s blue ones.
“Cole, where are you going?” she asked, scared.
I did not answer her but continued to walk away. The castle was dark and quiet. They had come in the night and taken out my father, but that was not why it was so quiet. No, they were all grieving the death of their king, and while I would now carry the crown on my head, I could not sit on that throne, until I knew I had made sure they would never be a plague to us anymore.
“Cole!”
“Go back Liana. Take care of mother,” I said and stopped.
I turned to her, and she stopped a few feet away, shaking her head a little.
“I know what you are thinking,” she said.
“No, you do not!” I said.
I tried to walk away but she continued to follow.
“You are going after them? Aren’t you?”
“Liana!”
“Don’t do this, brother!” she begged just before she got ahold of my arm and forced me to turn around. “It will cost you your life! And then who will rule? Do you really want to leave all these people without a king? Do you want to leave our mother without a son?”
“Liana,” I warned my sister.
I did not want to listen to any more. The longer I waited. The further away the pagans got. I could not allow this. They had almost been hunted to extinction, but a few had survived, and I would kill them, like they killed my father.
“I have to do this!”
“That is not true! We need our king, not a dead fool!”
“Liana, let me go!”
“Cole, please! Don’t do this!”
I narrowed my eyes and the dark look in my blue eyes made her take a step back, but I could see the disappointment in her eyes.
“If you go, I fear you won’t come back,” she said.
Liana had a little secret of her own. Something she had not even told our parents. She dreamt … of things … things that would sometimes become true, and she got these feelings, like she could sense when things would go wrong and, often, they would. So, when she said she feared I wouldn’t come back, it had me thinking about it all over again.
“Cole … We can’t lose you.”
“My princess, my prince? I mean, my king.”
It was a good friend of ours that came down the long hallway. He was my oldest friend and we had grown up together, and he was now serving these people as a knight.
“I am not king yet, Sebastian,” I said. “There has been no coronation.”
He nodded, as he placed himself by Liana’s side. He smiled a little at her, and I saw the redness in her cheeks spread. I rolled my eyes at the sight. No one would ever get close to my younger sister. She was always under my protection, and even though Sebastian was my best friend, I knew he even enjoyed playing around with the young women, and my sister was not a toy.
“Are you headed somewhere?” he asked me, slowly trying to understand the tense situation.
“Out,” I said and tried to walk away, yet they both followed me.
“Tell him he can’t, Sebastian!” Liana said.
“Can’t what?”
“Go! He will go after the pagans!” she whisper-yelled.
“Cole!”
Suddenly, my friend grabbed my arm and had me turn around. He looked at me almost scared with his green eyes. He slowly shook his head, not wanting to believe I was this stupid.
“Tell me you aren’t …”
“My father is dead,” was all I said.
“Which makes you king now!” he said.
His grip on my arm only tightened. Now that I was king, it was his duty to protect me, and he could not allow me to go on such a dangerous mission.
“Let me go,” I said.
He shook his head.
“I am sorry, your highness, but I cannot.”
“Sebastian, I won’t warn you again,” I said.
He kept shaking his head. Always so stubborn, I thought, right before I pulled back my arm and punched him directly in the nose.
“Oh, God! Cole!” Liana yelled.
Sebastian moved back, covering his now bleeding nose and groaned. She stood by his side trying to help him, while glaring at me.
“What is the matter with you?” she sneered.
“Our father is dead,” I repeated.
“And you have lost your mind!” she said.
She walked closer and placed herself in front of me, so we stood face to face and with only a few inches between us. She was the only one who dared look at me this way. As my sister, she was not scared of the power I held, and she was not afraid to speak her mind when something didn’t suit her.
“I have to do this,” I said.
“No, you don’t.”
“Liana …”
“You go and you will die!”
I looked at her a little confused, and it seemed her anger changed a little and she looked almost in pain.
“I have seen it …” she whispered. “In my dreams.”
“You saw me die, but not father?” I asked.
She shook her head.
“My dream was about you … I saw you leave in anger and I saw you finding them, but you won’t succeed. Don’t do this Cole,” she said.
Sebastian continued to groan in pain, as he focused on the two of us. Besides me, he was the only one else who knew of her visions. I turned back to my sister, seeing her eyes getting teary as she clearly relived the way I had died in her dream.
“Your visions are not always true,” I said.
I turned and started to walk away.
“Cole!” I heard her call, but I just continued to walk through the many hallways.
I went back to my room and packed a bag before going to the stables, finding my white stallion and getting him ready. Then I got up on his back and, at the c***k of dawn, I was leaving the castle, taking one last look at the gloomy place that was grieving their dead king. I turned away and rode out of there, refusing to let this go unpunished.
