The Exiled King's Guard

Chapter 25: It's Ashley

Lucas POV

It had been another day and a half since I left the town which I now knew as Marthias. Apparently, the thugs had brought me quite far from where I was picked up. I still wondered what they wanted from me and why they had kept me alive after I had stupidly fallen into their trap. If they had tried to follow me, they hadn’t caught up with me at all. The whole situation was bizarre. I had been following Marjorie for a few days, waiting for the right moment to check him for magic. These guys had shown up out of nowhere and hadn’t even bothered with proper security to keep me prisoner. Brushing aside this entire weirdness, I focused on getting back. I had been away for too long. The witches had very good concealment spells, but I still worried about them.

The prophecy made them my responsibility. Esme always rejected this idea of me taking responsibility for her people, but she was a free-spirited witch. She had grown up with different ideologies. For me, my wife’s people were my people. I already thought of all the elementals as part of my kingdom. And while we weren’t married yet, our contract required us to do so once I was no longer in exile. And I had made up my mind about her even though I couldn’t bring myself to love her like that yet. But rarely did any royals marry for love. Sure, father had courted mother, for the public eye. My mother’s father, my grandfather, had agreed to a contract with my father. My mother was naïve back then and had no idea about this contract between father and grandfather. She stupidly believed that father loved her the same way she loved him.

What he loved was the throne, which Grandfather helped him get. King Robert, my other grandfather, was a ruthless king, and Father got wind of an uprising against him. He was able to squash the rebellion before it really started, but he needed to ascend fast, and King Marlon could help him. He was a level-headed king and King Robert’s dear friend. And if anyone came out of the whole thing with a win, it was him. He got his dimwitted daughter to become queen, ensured peace in a neighboring state with great turmoil, and got an ally kingdom for at least two more generations. And the one person who lost the situation was my mother. She was no fool, but she knew she was the less favorite daughter, so she took her chance when she saw it. Only to become the less favorite wife. After little Anessa’s death, father never looked at Mother. Her face reminded him of his failure as a father. I was too young to understand many things then, but even I knew that the name Vanessa for his new daughter seemed inappropriate. For him, it was like he was honoring the daughter he lost. For mother, it was a slap in the face. He replaced her and he replaced her daughter too. I knew mother was not Vanessa’s mother, but only with time did I understand what father had truly done. It was just mother and me for a long time after Vanessa was born. And I could never love her like Anni because she took my father away from me. Father only became a good father to me when he started seeing his future king. And I basked in the attention that I had been craving for so long.

When I came back from Cairintar ten years ago, Mother told me she was dying. I was devastated, and I became frantic about finding a cure for this mysterious illness. It was then that her personal maid pulled me aside and told me to let her go. Mother didn’t want me to know the truth because she didn’t want me to have the burden of this pain. But Lady Althea disagreed with her and told me everything. She had been like a second mother to me and she knew I was strong enough to know this and wanted me to be able to make my decisions with the power of knowledge.

Ever since then, I struggled with what I truly felt for my father. But his assassination attempt on me made it easier to hate him. It was only after Esme found me that I understood he had been influenced by dark magic. She couldn’t be sure when, but it was fairly recent, considering Marta and Elisiya’s reports on him. Apparently, those two had been spying for Esme for a few years. That’s how she found me too. But it was little consolation that my father’s decision to abandon his family had been his own.

Esme suddenly appeared in the distance. I would have missed her in the thicket if she hadn’t been wearing a deep orange, a complete contrast to the green around her. She always dressed in tune with her element, she was an earth witch. There was a debate as to which element was the most powerful. But after seeing the things Esme could do, my bets were on earth witches. It was a huge pity that they could only do defensive spells. Esme had explained their old teachings to me. She said all creation came from the elements. And they were live forces, not passive things to be wielded at will. And some witches had found the hard way that the elements only yielded to the witch if the aim was to protect and nurture. If ever used with the intention of damage, the elements thereafter would refuse to yield to the person and they would lose their powers for life.

I was surprised to see Esme outside the concealment. I knew she hadn’t come to welcome me back home. Even the thought made me laugh. We were both leaders and therefore equals, and while it had felt odd to me in the beginning, I saw how the witches looked at her and respected her and I knew she was their king, not their queen, but their king. So seeing her here, I immediately knew something was wrong.

I got down from my stolen horse when I reached her. As soon as my feet touched the ground, she said, “Where have you been?”

If I hadn’t been looking at her, I would have missed the hint of worry in her eyes. Her voice was calm and measured, like always. “Its been longer than the other times. Did we triangulate his position wrong? But that never happens” she went on, answering her own question.

I didn’t say anything as we started walking towards the concealment. And I felt her gaze boring into me, trying to get me to talk.

“Luc?”

I sighed, “I got kidn*pped” I said sheepishly, looking everywhere but at her. She chuckled in response but, fortunately, did not taunt me as I had imagined she would.

“Now your turn” I said. “What’s going on?”

“Ahh” now she sighed. “A situation has come up. Commander Jeffery thinks you need to interfere. And he thinks that very strongly. He has been trying to get this information to you since the day you left. Eight days and no response, he is probably frantic. He even sent word through Elisiya, but we couldn’t find you to relay it. It now makes sense, since you were kidn*pped and probably unconscious.”

“I can see that you don’t share Jeffrey’s sentiment of this being worthy of our time.” I looked at her pointedly. “Care to tell me what this information is?”

“What does the name Commander Ashley mean to you?” I looked at her confused. “She is from Cairintar. Prince Zach’s protector.” She added.