The Exiled King's Guard

Chapter 19: The Cells

I was sitting in my cell. There was a single light outside of my cell door lighting up the otherwise pitch darkness. The whole place smelled of blood and death, tinged with human excrement. I had felt like gagging as soon as I entered the dungeons and had been tamping down the instinct till my nose adjusted to the smell. Which took a horribly long time and I had almost run out of things to distract myself with in the vastly entertaining cell I was locked up in. I was hoping Zach would show up soon, offer me some explanation that made sense. I had been coming up with scenarios where locking me up was the sensible decision for the past few hours. I had concluded that it only made sense if I was a threat to the king or the state. But I wasn’t. We had come in peace and asked for help. And if I was an enemy, why was Zach not? I felt like I was missing an important piece of information here.

There is one more possibility, the more clinical part of me thought. Zach had no use for me anymore. He was safe, he had resources at his disposal and the last conversation we had was a fight which we had not resolved. Maybe this was his way of getting rid of me. NO! I shook my head, 14 years of friendship and loyalty had to mean something, didn’t it? Zach must have more sense than to let an argument cloud his judgement. He needed me, he didn’t know the castle like I did. Irham’s men would be crawling through Warwick castle. If we wanted to defeat them, we needed stealth and a plan. Both were not Zach’s areas of expertise. This time, his brute strength wasn’t going to be enough. I sincerely hoped he wasn’t trying to get rid of me.

A sudden thought hit me. I hadn’t even considered the consequences for myself if he abandoned me. I would be beaten, starved, violated. I would never see daylight again if he really thought I had dark magic. But why dark magic? I had never done any unexplainable things, and no one ever suspected me back home…

Of course! The Purging! Way back when Zach’s ancestors had purged the land of all magic. An elemental witch had turned to darkness, becoming an unstoppable force of destruction. Cairintar had been the seat of power back then. And Zanthea had invaded with the intent of killing the royal family. As a last ditch attempt, they had purged the land of magic to defeat Zanthea. No magic, dark or otherwise, existed in our kingdom. That could be the reason my “darkness” had not manifested before. But that created a big hole in the King’s theory as well. If no magic could be used, how did I use dark magic to further my military career?

No matter how I tried to think of it, this whole thing was not making sense. And I knew how I had gotten better then, and I had help, not just the kind king reston was thinking.

** Flashback **

“THUMP!” I landed on my a*s again. Irritated, I looked at the boy I was training with, Mason, it wasn’t fair! He was stronger than me obviously. How do you beat a physically stronger opponent? He had me falling in two moves. And while it was better than the one move fall I had been doing last year, it wasn’t enough. And he would tell the others who would make fun of me. They didn’t get it, they were older, stronger, it was easy for them. I vowed that once I was fully grown, I would become stronger than them. I slowly stood up, dusting my pants off and leveled my glare at Mason.

“ You want to go again, One-Move Missy?” he said, smirking.

“ Why don’t you just give up already, Ashley.” My head whipped at the new voice. Zach was standing there, along with the visiting prince. “You can still become a proper lady, and maybe some bloke who hasn’t seen you like this would be willing to marry you.” Zach laughed. My eyes started burning as I looked from Mason to Zach to Prince Lucas. Everyone was laughing. I wouldn’t cry in front of them, or I would never be able to be one of the g**g. As tears threatened to fall, I dropped the wooden sword and walked past them quickly, murmuring my excuses. I saw the smile fall from Prince Lucas’s face as I passed him. Oh No! did he see my tears!? I started walking fast and didn’t stop till I reached the lake. Not many people came here during training and I could cry in peace.

As I flopped by the edge of the lake, I heard footsteps behind me. UGH! “ Leave me alone Zach!!” I screamed as I turned to face him but stopped short. My wide tearful eyes met a surprised stormy grey and I realized it wasn’t Zach.

“ Oh your Majesty! I apologize. I thought you were prince Zach.” I hastily stood up, wiping my eyes.

Ignoring my apology, Prince Lucas said, “Mind if I join you?” before he sat down on the grass beside where I was standing.

Well, yes, I mind! But I wasn’t going to say that to the prince! He was older than Zach, maybe seventeen? I wasn’t sure. I didn’t want to make him mad. So I sat down again mutely. Waiting for him to say something.

“ I saw your practice session” he began. Oh no! Did he come all the way to mock me? “ You have real potential, you know.”

I looked at him, shocked. “ huh! What!?” I responded eloquently.

“ Who has been training you?” Wait, he was being serious? He was not making fun of me? Pulling myself away from my thoughts, I responded, “ Umm, my father shows me some moves after hours and the boys let me practice with them sometimes. Mostly, I just watch their lessons and practice on my own.”

Now it was his turn to look shocked. “They don’t even let you attend training?”

I shook my head, “ I try to get in every year with the new batch. Because I never defeat anyone in trials, they wont let me in. But its not fair, you know, the boys are all stronger. How am I supposed to win? And now its just embarrassing that ten-year-olds are stronger than me.”

“ Its not all about strength. You are small, you can be faster and gain advantage over them.”

“ I can?” I asked, brightening up suddenly, and then saddened immediately, “ but how will I learn if they don’t allow me to train?”

He shrugged, “ I could teach you” and my eyes went wide as saucers. I couldn’t say anything immediately, so many possibilities running through my head. But one thought stuck out prominently.

“ But you will leave soon. Who will train me after that?” he smiled. It was a breathtaking sight. So different than Zach’s ladykiller smile. It was an innocent smile, one that made his face light up. Suddenly, I was very aware that this was an unknown boy. My father had strictly warned me against that, and training with him would be off limits. But he was a prince, I couldn’t say no to a prince.

“ How about this” he said, continuing to smile in the same way, making heat rise up my cheeks. “ I will teach you enough so that you can beat any dumb boy in the trials and get into class.”

“ even Mason?” I asked, excitement bubbling in my chest, “ because if I beat him I can get into the same class as the rest of the boys, finish training early and become a soldier with everyone!”

He laughed at that, his laughter was like bells in the wind. “ Maybe I should teach you how to learn and observe too, so that you can advance up faster, in case you can't beat Mason right away.”

We spent some time figuring out when and where before he realized he was missing his own training. Getting up, he said, “see you soon, kid!” ruffled my hair and left with long strides. I suddenly felt deflated. Kid? Mussing up my hair? I was thirteen! I wasn’t a kid. I suddenly wished I had been taking those lady-in-training classes. Maybe if I acted more like that, he wouldn’t see me as a kid.

Making up my mind, I decided I would be starting not one, but two trainings this summer.

** End of Flashback **