The Exiled King's Guard

Chapter 16: Something Is Off

As everyone rose, the king stepped forward and pulled Zach into a hug.

“ How you have grown! Such a handsome young man! Isn’t he?” he asked, looking around. Everyone nodded in murmured approval.

“ Indeed he is, You Majesty. He reminds me so much of Prince Lucas, they were such good friends.” A cloud of darkness fell over the king’s face. Lord Darius gulped, suddenly realizing he had said something wrong.

“ What you say is true, Darius.” The king said darkly. “ He would have been a great king too one day, had he not been corrupted by darkness.”

My mind was running at full speed. Prince Lucas was the crown prince of Emerteria. Had he been corrupted by darkness? It was a known fact that magic had a lot of influence outside of Cairintar. They had been spared by magic because Zach’s forefathers had found a way to defeat the sisterhood of witches and made sure they could never return. They hadn’t been heard of in a few centuries, so what was this dark magic they were talking about? And why was she hearing about it only now? How recent was this “corruption”? And the question that kept nagging at her was how did they know of their arrival?

“ What do you mean, Your Majesty? Has something happened to Lucas?” Zach asked, trying to sound casual, but I could notice a slight edge in his voice. He was feeling as unnerved by all this as I was.

The king sighed. “ Nothing of importance, my boy. He revolted against me, it was obvious he was corrupted by dark magic, I could sense it. When our forces thwarted him, he ran away. He is no longer the crown prince, the council thought him unfit to rule.” The king ended sadly. “ But now you are here, my other son!” he added, forcing a smile.

Other son!? What?? Thanks to Queen Melanie and Queen Sophie being sisters, our kingdoms had remained fairly close, but there was always an undercurrent of rivalry between the Kings. When Prince Lucas visited their kingdom long ago, Zach would insist on training with him, gloating without shame when he beat Lucas, which was fairly often because Lucas was lean and tall, a disadvantage against Zach’s brute strength. But calling Zach his other son was pushing it a little. Or maybe, now with Lucas out of the picture, the king was looking for other heirs before things got unstable. This seemed like the most plausible explanation that my brain was willing to accept.

“Darius, you may leave us. I have to catch up with Zach here, and thank you for bringing him to me with such haste.” Now it was Darius’s turn to look sour.

“But your Majesty, you might need counsel if you are going to discuss…” he trailed off, catching his king’s stern expression.

“No, I will not be needing your counsel today, Darius. I am just catching up with my boy here.”

“ Then, should I show his protector to their lodgings?” he asked, sneering. This was the second time he had tried to dismiss me and I couldn’t help but wonder what his problem with me was. But I couldn’t speak yet. I didn’t know what their rules for women were and the last thing I wanted was an offended king.

King Reston was looking around confused, trying to identify Zach’s protector. Darius saw his chance and with a contemptuous look at me he said, “Your Majesty, let me introduce the Prince’s protector over there, lady…”

“Commander Ashley Oaken, Your Majesty”, I cut off Lord Darius with a small curtsy to the king. He looked at me with a blank face, then back at Zach and then me again, and he started laughing. He kept laughing for a solid minute, Darius joining in and all the guards and attendants smiling or giggling. Even Zach ended up smiling and joining the group. I just stood there, stony faced, contemplating a few different versions of how I could kill everyone.

“What is the meaning of this, Zach? Are you pulling a prank on me?” the king asked between laughs and giggles. Sobering up, Zach responded, “ No your majesty. She really is my protector.”

“ This is unbelievable.” The king said, trying to drive home some unknown point. He looked at mine and Zach’s faces, seeing our serious expressions, he stopped laughing and looked at me, scrutinizing.

“ Young lady, do you have my son here under some spell? Are you a carrier of the darkness too!?” he exclaimed with the sudden realization. All the guards tensed up, ready for their king to say the word.

I stepped forward, having had enough of the stupidity. “ Do what tests you must, your majesty. If you think I have Prince Zach under a spell, do those tests too. You will only find that everyone made this decision with a sane mind. The only influence I asserted to be chosen for this task was my superior skill as a commander. And since the King handpicked me for this task, I will not have him disrespected further like this.”

The silence that followed was more deafening than most balls and parties I had been to. I had openly challenged the king and everyone was waiting for him to respond. Zach had fixed me with a murderous gaze, as if saying why are you ruining this for me? I felt a stab of guilt, but then I shrugged internally, it seemed whatever I did I was disappointing him, so I would defend my honour, if no one else would.

The flicker in his eyes was momentary, like it wasn’t supposed to show. Then his face turned resolute.

“ I am willing to believe you right now. But make no mistake, I am retaining judgement whether you are a child of darkness or not.” I could work with that. But there was a vital discussion I needed to be a part of, and I had to gain his trust before that, so I nodded my head.

He started moving, taking Zach with him and I was guided out. Lord Darius greeted me with a triumphant look on his face. His smile was polite, but his eyes held the look of I knew you were not needed, and you won't be needed later either.

“ Fargo here will guide you to your room, little miss.” He said as a man who I supposed was Fargo stepped forward. He gave me a polite bow, but his eyes had a barely concealed look of a predator assessing his prey.

Sighing inwardly, I said my thank yous and started following Fargo. It wasn’t hard to guess what he was thinking, but I chose to ignore him, since he hadn’t done anything yet. I let my thoughts drift to Zach. I didn’t know what he was going to tell the king and that worried me. strategically, there were some things we needed to avoid telling him. Like all of our secret doors and passages to and from Warwick castle. If it had been the old me, I would have trusted him to know this, but with the veil of adoration lifted from my mind, it was difficult to decide how much tact I could expect from him. Would he call me when they moved to the attack planning phase of their bonding? I knew and he knew I was the strategist, but would his pride get in the way? And would that discussion happen today? It was urgent, we could only postpone this for so long, we needed to act and act now.

“ This is your room, miss.” Fargo said, and I noticed my surroundings for the first time. We had come into a less luxurious part of the castle. The area was quiet, but there were noises of hustle and bustle nearby. It was fairly obvious that this was akin to the servants' quarters of the castle. Although the décor suggested that it was home to the more elite of the servants. So I wasn’t reduced to the level of washerwomen at least.

I nodded my thanks and was about to enter when my wrist was grabbed roughly and yanked. Finally! Now I had a victim for my frustrations. I pretended to lose balance as I was pulled back. Turning at the last minute, my other hand found his jaw and there was a resounding c***k of bone hitting bone. His grip on my wrist loosened in pain and shock as he staggered back from the impact, but I immediately grabbed his hand and pulled him forcefully, bringing my knee up at the same time to hit him in the sensitive area. As he doubled over, I grabbed him by the neck, and shoved him back towards the wall, closing my fingers around his windpipe. It was tight enough for him to feel it but not completely cut off his air supply. It was a warning.

“ If you try anything again, I promise you, you will regret the day you met me.” I said through gritted teeth.

Shocked and embarrassed, he nodded weakly. He started run-walking away from me as soon as I let him go.

“ Oh and remember to tell your friends too! Otherwise you will feel the consequences too, if anyone so much as touches a hair on my head.” I called after him. He turned, looking scared for his life, and continued on his way without a word, moving as fast as he could.