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8…poisoned
He was no longer Akistu. Now, to the guild and all around, he was Eden, a member of the guild of thieves and enemy the king and all ascending from Royal blood. The music bellow the inn, under the stairwell and the village of Asmalen, was teeming with the high pitched vibrations of the fiddle and the laughing and cheering of the thieves around him. He had not only won them over with his skilled plan in getting the knights sword but in coming back with handfuls of gold from the treasury as well. He was now considered one of them, part of the family, as they put it. Drinks of ale and rum were passed around endlessly. Thieves, men and women, jumped up onto the stage and in the drunken slurred language all knew when consuming the burning bitterness of alcohol, sang songs, most of witch cheered for the death of the king. It had a rather catchy beat however and in no time Azuki found he was singing to himself as he sat before the stage, atop one of the only upright tables.
‘oh fat king sitting ‘pon your thrown, Oh kingly king of orgs! You hide, you cowered, you frightened beast, from those who shall make you bones!’ Every time it was sang it was followed up by cheers and the clapping of tin bottles, as if toasting to the drunken song, than it was repeated and this time with laughter and even a bit of a clumsy dance. Minkan sat beside him, but he was as emotionless as ever. He didn’t sip even a tinny bit of ale. He didn’t laugh at the song, nor dance with the crowd. If anything he was quite boring, standing beside the prince like he was still prisoner. Gran’s sword was beside the prince on the table. Every chance he got the prince looked down to ensure it was still there. He made it clear, the second he walked into the inn with the large blade slung to his belt, that he was instructed to steal the belt, not to give it up to them. The guild leader, his leader now, allowed him to keep it, so long as he handed over the gold and swore to an oath. It was much like what the knights at the castle swore to the king. Loyalty, courage and willingness to put your life before the guild and its leader. He was to go through it some time tonight, or so that is what he was told. Only now he didn’t how he would even be able to. The celebration had started out of hand and it only got worse as the night grew old. “You did fine work tonight.” The leader walked over, two cups in hand. She shoved one at Eden as a stool scraped the tarnished wooden floor and was set before him. She sat right before him, blocking his view from the stage as he glanced down at the clear liquid in the cup. “Don’t worry.” She smiled as he crinkled his nose to it. “Only water for now.” She took a sip of her own as Eden gulped it down. He hadn’t had anything to drink since the other day. His mouth was dry and his throat felt like sand. With a wave of her free hand Mikna nodded his head and took his leave into the crowd. For Akistu that was nothing more than relief. The man seemed too much like the knights who used to follow him around everywhere he went, silent, unemotional, obviously no interest in anything around them. “You impressed us all.” She twirled the liquid in her cup, the tips of her fingers grasping its rim as her wrist turned. “I think they all knew it was me.” No longer did Eden have to hide his royal accent. They all knew now and so he was free to talk whenever and however he wanted. “Who’s they?” She questioned, grey eyes peering over the cup as she sipped the ale off the top. “Everyone.” answered the newest thief, resting the empty cup right by the knight’s sword. “I wore a mask, I didn’t talk. I even tried to keep at a distance from them, but they all knew anyways!” It had annoyed him since the time he heard his name whispering through the crowd. He had wanted Gran to know. After all the knight watched him escape, he knew Akistu was alive, but surly he wouldn’t tell the other’s that he was living…although there was that knight, Anuk, who had seen him. Eden even regretted that. She laughed. In spite of how upset over it he obviously was and sat before him letting a musical laugh dance on her tongue. “Perfect.” As she rose, swinging her legs from the stool she gulped down the last of the drink. “I want them to know! I want them all to know that I have converted the only heir to the thrown of Asmalen!” “Well I don’t want them to know!” He argued back, leaning forward on the table as the slightly drunk woman slammed the iron cup onto the table beside him. “You don’t want them to know.” He argued back with surprisingly cool composure. She simply turned to him with a quirked brow and questioning stair. It had been a long time since one had questioned her ways. “Do I now?” She asked as Eden reached for his empty cup. “No you don’t. If they know where I am than they will try to find you.” His green eyes looked up, so full of a clever, mischievous look that children of the royal blood line normally didn’t have. She assumed the mischief was from his mother. “If they find me.” he continued, eyeing the drop of water left in his cup. “Than you will all be killed for the kidnapping and attempted murder of the one and only royal heir.” “I suppose your right.” She pondered, body sagging back to the stool, shoulders slumped forward as she looked up at the twelve year old boy. “You know you remind me so much of your father.” He felt the small smile he restrained sink completely at these words. After all it was a first to hear of it, and a first to hear it from a thief while she held an almost longing look in her light grey eyes. “Funny I never thought I was like him at all.” She smiled with a bit of a laugh and a shake of her head that pulled lose a few strands of her black braid from the string holding it together. “Come on.” ordered the leader, grabbing tightly a hold of Eden’s wrist and pulling him from the table. “It’s time for your initiation!”
He was pulled up the stairs, or rather the small few steps up to the stage where the open bar stood. It smelled of ale. The wood was saturated with the liquid from spilled glasses until the point where Eden was sure the heavy stench would never come out. It was such a fitting place for it to smell like the drink all seemed to love so much. His wrist was dropped and the women ran forward, crawling her way behind eh bar. The young thief hadn’t noticed his cup was gone from his hands until he saw her filling it to the rim under the knob of a large wooden barrel. “Everyone listen up!” Her slurred voice boomed through the room. Everything fell silent to Eden’s surprise. Even the music screeched out it’s last notes and simmered. She walked towards the long bar, what smelled like rum spilling from the sides of the glass and splattering on the floor. She placed it down while climbing to the top, tall healed boots stomping on the damn wood as she stood and picked up the glass again. “It is time to invite the youngest member into our family!” They all cheered and hollered. Eden even heard a few loud pitched whistles echo through the over crowded room. They couldn’t mask the few displeased faces however, scattered carefully throughout the crowd. Of course not everyone was ready to accept a royal into their home. Her gray eyes struck him and her empty hand flung out. He stood, looking at it dumbfounded until reaching out and finally taking hold. With a violent jerk he was pulled forward. If he did not climb up himself he knew for sure his arm would be pilled from its place. She held his arm up when he stood beside her, making him feel all too short compared to her height, and they cheered more. She didn’t talk again, or lower his arm until the noise quieted again. “Eden!” she shouted his name and he jumped, turning on the bar to now face the woman who turned her body towards him. “Do you swear to put her life before the guild?” “Yes.” He answered quietly and she gave him a goaded look that made him clear his voice and shout as she did for all to hear, “Yes ma’am!” “Than Drink to it!” She cried out, thrusting the drink into his hands and the thieves erupted into cheers again. He looked with an upturned nose to the rum in his hands and than looked to the crowd as if they could stand up and complain to letting a child drink. This wasn’t the castle however. He was living in an entirely different world! Looking back down to the cup he put the rim to his lips and filled his mouth with the liquid. His eyes watered as the bitter flavor burned his mouth, and almost the second he took it in he turned his head to the crowed and sprayed a mist of rum at the floor. The thieves erupted into laughter, even the guild leader. With a glair to the crowd he put the cup to his lips again and as they cheered and clapped and downed it all, letting the drink warm his throat on the way down. He took it away, head flinging forward again and cup upside down. He held a mouthful in his cheeks. There was a feeling in his throat telling him to lurch it up, but he forced it down and as he did people clapped and whistled. “Congratulations!” shouted the leader, his leader. “You are now a member of Asmalen’s Guild of thieves!”
He was nothing but light headed as he helped himself down from the bar. His body felt heavier than usual and a smile was pasted to his face as he wobbled through the crowd of people. He was pat on his back several times, fell into people more than that, and still they laughed and congratulated him. He stole he drank and sang their song. As far as most were concerned he was part of their extended family now. The sword was where he left it at the table, only something more was left behind as well. A small plate of sweet cakes and a fuzzy haired women in a pale blue dress. She stood to catch him as he tripped yet again, this time over the leg of a tipped chair. “I can’t believe that idiot woman made ya drink!” She scowled, leading the tipsy boy to his seat. Usually he would sit upon the table so he could see all and have a watchful eye over the thieves he was so weary of, but now he stayed put in the chair for he felt as though he would fall from it. “It wasn’t all that bad.” He spoke loudly over the continuing music and stomping feet as they danced and sang. “Tasted like acid though.” The cakes were pushed towards him as the inn keeper, Ellie, pulled a chain back up on four legs beside him. “Your gonna feel like diein’ tomorrow.” “You know my mom knew the second she saw me.” He couldn’t very well control what stayed in his mind and what was said out loud as he reached for the first cake and nibbled on the end. Ellie seemed eager to listen however, or at least the prince assumed, and so continued. “When Mikan kidnapped her for me the first thing she did was run over and hug me.” He took a large chunk from the cake as he rested his chin on his folded arms. “I always hate it when she does that. I can’t breath.” The innkeeper chuckled, reaching for one of the cakes on the plate. “It’s a mother’s instinct ta know when yer kid is near.” “Well I don’t like it.” His usual calm and mature tone seemed to be converted to the winning voice of a child due to the effect of the pint of rum he had just consumed. Ellie saw his eyes getting heavy however. He had had a long few days. No doubt, rum or not, he was ready to pass out. “If she thought I was dead she wouldn’t have to worry about me.” A hard slap on his back shot open the drunken young thieves eyes again as the leader sat herself on the table, a grin on her face and two cups in hand. “Why you seem so down?” She questioned, sliding a cup in his direction. He reached out to take hold of it, only Ellie got to it first with a stricken look on her face. “Your not gonna make ‘im drink anymore!” She actually shouted to her leader, dumping the rum over her shoulder. “He’s just a boy!” “Nothing wrong with a boy getting used to a good drink every now and again?” laughed the leader in that banter way. “So what’s wrong?” Those gray eyes fell to his, but he said nothing, or rather had no time to say a single word before Ellie cut in. “He’s just tiered! I would be too after spendin’ this hot day runnin’ ‘round the castle!” The leader looked down to the prince. Sure enough he was cradling his head in his arms again, eyes shut, cheeks flushed with rum. “I can take him to bed than.” She said in a breathy sigh as the drink was lightly placed upon the table. She stood as Ellie did and slowly approached the prince. She had seen him sleeping before. After all in the castle it was her job to keep an eye on the prince during the long nights. She wanted no one else but her guild to be reasonable for her death. She wasn’t there the day he had run away. When there was first word of his death she had thought it was indeed an assassin that put away the only heir. Perhaps relief was great enough to make her accept him into her guild. It took but a nudge to his side and a kick to his boots to stir the tipsy boy from his drunken slumber. He sat up, eyes merely slights, a low growl in the back of his throat as he lazily sat up in his chair. She simply smiled down at the boy. “Get to your room.” Despite her harsh ways of talking to members of the guild, and especially with him, she was oddly gentle with the half sleeping boy, to the same motherly extent that the inn keeper had been. He responded with nothing more than a slight nod of his head before those grassy eyes fell to the table and without speech or even sounds, managed to pull himself from the chair. The background mayhem of laughter, singing and music blocked out any noise the chair would have made when scrapping across the floor. “Same room as before!” The leader called after as he wobbled to the back door and the dark passage. “I will meet you up there!” Of course it wasn’t needed to follow him up and ensure the boy got to sleep, but for so long she was used to keeping an eye on him as he rested it just seemed the natural thing to do. After all it was her fault he was drunk, and she wouldn’t have to stay the entire night…she had to meet with Mikan. With nothing more than a glance to the knight’s sword he had left behind she snatched it up. There would be a few rules to go over with the boy if he was to survive here in the guild. One being don’t leave your treasures lying around. They would be done in a matter of minutes if you didn’t watch it. The leader to the guild of thieves slung the engraved sword to her belt. Long ago the rags that held the keen blade were removed. The silver reflected everything, but now the flickering reflection of the torches shone as she brought the tips of her fingers over the engraved letters. She had to talk to Mikan about what happened in the castle…she wanted to know if this Gran let the prince steal such a ingeniously created sword. The singing picked up again, the same catchy beat to the king’s song. She looked back to her guild, her followers, her family. She truly hoped they were not in danger because of her careless move for now the castle would be hunting them more than ever before. Tearing her eyes away she moved to the door, the dark hall, and started up, hoping she would not discover the prince passed out on the stairs on the way up.
She watched him step into his room by the time she reached the top floor of the small hidden inn. The door wasn’t locked, though for some time he seemed to look for a key he didn’t have before finally opening the it up and stepping inside. She followed after, closing it behind her as Akistu seemed to trip onto the bed. “This room is only temporary.” said the leader as she walked fully into the dark room. There was no lit candles, only the silver flair from the moon’s light, through the windows. “I like this room.” He slurred with distant, spoken into the pillow he hugged rather than to her. “But it’s dangerous to sleep so out in the open now, since you’re a thief at least.” The bed sunk in under her weight, alerting the prince that she was nearer than he had thought. He pressed his hear to the pillow instead, as if it was whispering to him and looked up with his unfocused gaze, to the older woman. “Why do you hate my father?” “The king?” She questioned with a crinkled nose and a look that told him it must have been a stupid question. “How can I not hate such a deceitful, heart chilling, cowardly pig of a man!?” her eyes were no longer on him, but glaring to the wall ahead as if the king stood before it. “He’s a murderer! In all my years I have never heard of such a poor ruler in all my life! The king of thieves should have taken his place at the seat of the thrown when he had his chance if you ask me!” her hands flew into the air as she spoke, taking with them her body to further show the outrage and hate for the current ruler. “You knew the king?” Questioned the prince, but referring to the king of thieves and not the current one. Those intense eyes cast upon him again, though her face was hidden in the dark, as was his. The thin bed sunk in towards the body that rested beside him. “Yes.” She said as softly as the light brush of the wind. “I knew him…he was a great man…very strong.” “What about the old king?” he asked with peeked curiosity. “What about him?” “Did you know him too?” The room fell silent again, aside from the light sigh from the women, the leader of the guild of thieves who was being interrogated by a former prince. What was worse of this situation was that she was telling all truth. “Yes, but only through stories by my mother.” She finally answered, but before the questioning could continue she gave the boy a light nudge. “Push over. I want to tell you a story about how your…grandfather…passed away.”
As he pushed over he felt the bed straighten out again. He assumed she had stood though he could only see shadows in the dark room. He took with him the pillow he hugged tightly, though as he tried to sit up he felt a hand rest on his head, felt a hard push that knocked the tipsy boy back to the hard lump under him. “Stay down.” Instructed the leader and he could feel her sitting beside him again. Only this time he felt the warmth of a woven blanket tucked around him as well. “Just think of it as a bed time story.” He cringed at her words. “I’m too old for those.” He complained and heard the woman merely chuckle. “You might find this one interesting.”
“The king was but a boy by this time, but still his heart was as cold and black as steal, much like it is now. Though even with the innocence of youth on his side, there was an energy to him that was dark and demented, so much so that the people of the castle avoided him. It was enough of a twisted feel that his dear mother sought to kill him and herself on the day of his birth”.
“I remember that story.” interrupted Eden with a drunken slur to decorate his words. “Ellie told it…the first night I was here. I remember it.” He tired to sit up, for he felt the need to move, to feel the heaviness of his limbs, only to greet a firm hand pushing down on his head. “I said to stay put now close your eyes.” ordered the leader, her rough hand no longer holding him down but idly laced through soft locks of clay colored hair set before his closed eyes in almost a motherly way. “No more interruptions or the story ends.” She warned and all that was given was a tiered nod in response.
“It was but a day after he had been thrown to this earth that she hanged herself and the stories started to form in the castle. From the time he was able to walk, and speak, and even hear the voices of the castle, he was told of his mother’s death; he was even blamed for it. He grew up with whispered words around him, stories and claims of such a gentle woman birthing the very soul of hell itself.”
“It’s different.” His eyes opened, the sheets whispering as he moved further under, like he was making his own cave to hide for the breath of cold air that leaked through the window. “What is?” groaned the leader of the thieves, in obvious protest to yet another interruption. It would be the last time she gave this child anything to drink before the sun fell. “The way you talk about my father…The others tell stories about when he was born, but all seem to believe he was born a cold man…your speaking of him differently than I thought you would.” She nodded, though knowing very well the boy wouldn’t see. Eden heard the springs moan under the shift of weight as the women rolled to her side, facing him, he assumed. “I know the true tales.” “How?” he was quick to ask. “What have I told you about interruptions?” There was mocking warning in her voice, but the newest thief could feel the forewarning wide gaze of her grey eyes. “Sorry.” He mumbled from under the blankets, and listened.
“It is not to say he wasn’t brought up any different than the former king however. Still a tutor did not refuse to teach him, still his maids, his guards and tailors sought to his every need, his every order, but they did it with hate in their hearts, and fear that the demon child would cause them death as it had done to their dear, sweet queen Annabel. The prince was not ignorant to these looks of hate and fear. It is to my belief that it was the cause of his hate towards everyone in the castle, and it clouded his mind into believing even those dear to him, such as his father, harbored the same hate and fear in their hearts.
“The boy was strangely tolerant towards the disloyalty of his people, or at least as tolerant as a young boy could be. However, as he grew, becoming more of a man as time passed, his rage seemed to grow within. Think of a garden. One that had been trampled and untended to and imagine a weed being anger. In the untended garden it would grow and grow until all the beauty, all other life within it will die. In a way people made him who he is now.
“By the time he was old enough to take up a sword, the once tolerant boy who swallowed the stories and claims of a demon lurking in his body, started to become harsh and jagged around the edges. The emotionless look in his dark eyes, darkened not by color but hate, started to take on the evil look the servants imagined for so many years. With the hate leaking out he began to take on the very thing they thought him to be since the day of his birth. ‘The demands he cast upon them were near impossible. He would punish, and threaten his servants endlessly, and if any so much as cast him a look of hate, or dared to question his word he would ensure that they would be cast to the streets, though of course it was not in his power to dismiss tutors, servants or even guards and knights for that matter. Only his father possessed that power. The prince had done all his evil in the shadow of his father and so only in secret was evil committed.
“Servants were far to easy to pick off. All he had to do was snatch up gold and jewels from his room, or even he dearly departed mother’s, and hide them in the pockets of their dresses or under the thin mat they slept on. Within days they would be sent to the dungeon, or much more commonly tossed to the streets with nothing more than the cloths on their backs. Knights were far harder to discard however, and the prince found this out soon enough. “More so than most the knights knew the villainy of the princes’ ways, more often they could catch, but not stop, the boy in his heinous acts. In their armor there were no pockets to slip jewels into and every day each man would lock their doors and so the prince could not reach their beds, or hide gold in their room. To be rid of a guard they had to be a threat to the royal family. “He went out of his way, paid assassins from other lands to come to his room in the night and attack, but not kill. They did as instructed for a pay of five bars of gold each, and as he lay wounded in his bed the previous day, always his father would ask who had done such things to him, and the prince would point to the knight that wasn’t suited to his standards. “The knights were not cast to the streets, nor were they sent to the dungeon to rot, but hanged from the queen’s birthing room under the king’s orders. The last words they heard was the reason for their way of death. ‘I have lost my wife and those who dare try and take the son she gave to me I will see to it they die as she had.’ “The prince knew that the Knights would be sent to their death and still he continued to pick them off one by one until fear was the only thing they felt towards him, however because of this fear the people of the castle began to talk in secret to their beloved king and tried to tell him of his loved son’s evil. The king refused to open his eyes. He conceived their warnings as insults to the royal blood line and so they as well were punished. “It took maybe months for the king to become weary of the warnings, these ‘insults’ for far to many workers within the castle had come to him in fear, fearing their life because of his evil son. It was a close knight, Galahad who was next to fear his life, and with him the king agreed to a test. There was a wise woman in the village. Blind she was but her sight was only limited by the morel world. However she could see the evils lurking deep in one’s sole and she could tell the brave king if his son was indeed as crazed as all seemed to think. He agreed to let her see his son and if it were true he was as evil as said he would refuse the title of king to the only heir and travel to Serona, the kingdom his sweet Annabel’s mother, Anna was once apart of the royal blood, for an heir. “That night, while father and son dined together, she was let in and the truth was known. A cursed fate, an evil soul. While the castle felt relief the king was in agony. “That night they fought. They fought at dinner where they once dinned and latter that night they fought in the king’s chamber. It was a distinct sound to be heard. Throughout the castle their voices carried, to every ear and every room. The princes’ voice carried the farthest. “It was long into the night when the prince finally left his distraught father’s room. He was stripped of his title, all had heard the words that started the argument. He was to start his training as a knight and to live under all he was once above. The punishment was light compared to the things he had done. The prince would not stay away from his doors however, for before the grown boy stormed from the room he spat to his father’s feet a promise, ‘I promise to be the cause of your death!’ “It was when the cloak of night started to lift, and the grey of morning was cast was he seen entering the dear king’s room with but a tray of water and an early meal. The guards were weary to let him pass, but the king was the one to order his entry. There conversation was quiet, the prince left. But hours latter the king was found dead in his room and without another heir the prince became king.
She finished the story with a whispered voice, for already she could hear his deep breaths as he slept, she hadn’t a doubt that he heard it all. After all the boy was stubborn, much like his father, and seemed to refuse to give in to what he so obviously needed most. The king needed most to step down and let this boy take his place! She lifted her head from her arms and her hands from the tangles of his hair. The thin bed rose as she sat up and Eden remained sleeping even as she stood on the wood floor. A chill of air struck her. It was so much warmer in the bed when the blanketed boy blocked the cold wind from the night. Her eyes fall to him, having long ago adjusted to the impossible darkness of the room. Such a small boy was tangled in this mess. If only he was born in a different time, maybe one generation from now, perhaps than he would lead the life he was meant to. With but a few steps she was beside them bed, within an arms reach of the sleeping boy. With the back of her calloused hand she brushed his long bangs from those closed eyes and quickly placed a light kiss to his cheek. “Have a restful sleep.” whispered the leader, turning on the heel of her boots and walking to the hall. The door was closed behind her, but she didn’t leave till the lock clicked and the key to his room was kicked under the door for him to use when morning came.
Bellow, within the thieves den, it was still alive with the music and stomping dances. The screech of the fiddle and the laughter of men and woman was heard as she walked down the stairs to her inn really. Opening the door was like being drowned in a wave of sound. Compared to the sleeping silence of Eden’s room this was far too much to come back to. Minkan stood at the front, just the person she had wanted to talk to for standing beside him was the castle doctor, or at least the one she had infiltrate the castle walls long ago. As she approached Minkan’s eyes locked with her own, but the middle aged man continued to hum the words needed spoken into his ear. It was when her heeled boots tapped the old wood did he bow his head and leave the thieves’ side. “I am sorry.” Mikna had a deep voice, but a strong one that spoke over the noise despite how low in volume it was. “For what?!” shouted back the leader as she neared and leaned against the bar beside him. “Anuk…Galahad’s late son has passed as of sun set.” The leader had fallen silent with his words, and in curiosity his eyes shifter to where she now sat on the long table, in one hand a mug that was tipped to her lips. He watched her drink until the cup was empty and slammed down between them. “There is nothing to apologies for. He was in our way…it needed to be done.” So she said but he could feel a sense of lose clinging to the heavy air around her. “But that’s not what I am here to talk about.” She put in quickly before he had the chance to speak again. “The boy. He had asked you to help him yes?” He offered a nod. She lifted up off the table and flung herself to the floor to stand beside him.
“I want to know what happened. I want to know if things went as planed, I want to know…what his plane was…exactly.” Those esoteric, questioning eyes watched him as she spoke those words so softly and carefully. As if she was a goddess speaking a cryptic message only for his ears. She looked much like a goddess in his eyes. “He showed skilled ability to plane through situations.” started the thief, looking away from those goddess grey eyes for it felt as though she was haunting his mind and finding her way into the secrets he held. “The castle wall was an easy obstacle to get over. I may have had a hole in the ground but like a fool he attempted to walk right in through the front door, and like a lucky fool he made it inside.” A tap of tin on wood drew his eyes again to the bar as his leader placed down two mugs willed with the foaming drink of ale. He stood up straight, elbows falling from the bar and took the handle of the cup in his hand, sipping at the foam. “Maybe it wasn’t luck.” Interjected the leader, sipping at her own cup as well. Mikna paid her words no mind and continued. “He was like a lost roach in the kitchen when he actually got past the walls. I could hardly follow his random movements. The knight Anuk saw him…Gran as well… That’s why I apologized because you see I poisoned him while Gran chased Akistu.” His eyes shifted again as he took a sip of his drink, trying to find the hidden emotion and hurt behind her eyes. She seemed unfazed, unchanged as marble as she stood there drinking down her ale. He tore his gaze away and lowered the half empty cup from his lips. “Through another burst of luck he escaped. His hiding place was hardly clever, though it was well suited. A busy knight such as Gran would not go door to door in search of a ghost of a dead boy. I found him, or rather he found me.” There was a crash in the center as a table capsized and glasses shattered. Nether paid it no mind. “He told me that he needed help. I only agreed to keep the orders you gave me. It wasn’t pleasing to work with someone so highly unskilled and who relied on luck far to much.” “But luck is needed as a thief.” Once again she yelled over the crowed. He had just hardly caught the comment before it fluttered past. “To rely on luck alone is foolish.” He took a small sip, whipping his mouth with the back of his sleeve. “I don’t care for your thoughts. Continue.” It was an order and he followed. “The brat refused to tell me what we were doing, or where we were going. The very second I agreed to help he started dragging me about the castle. I picked nearly fifty locks in the guard’s chamber alone. I was handed their undergarments and pillow cases. To be honest I thought the low was as loony as his father. Especially when he told me what was next. I was to hold a blade to the throat of a scrawny little squire and I ordered him to tell his knight of a thief in the castle. The boy had run off, as predicted from a witless child of the royal guard.” Mikan took a break, only to take an angry sip from the near empty mug. “He told me to go to the dog pen next. I had to toss in all the guards clothing and sheets before picking the lock and setting them free.” “Why would you set the dogs free?” She laughed, drinking the last of her ale and slamming it on the table beside her first cup. “Distraction.” He answered. “The dogs were set to chase the guards at the treasury. The prince was to break in and steal a hefty amount of gold.” “Why steal the gold?” She asked again. No longer was she distracted by the ever emptying cup in her hands and so she gazed at him as he spoke. She watched him as if he was telling a mystifying tale of ancient times. “Another distraction.” He continued. “He left the door open. Even though he relies on luck with this I could say he has some small bit of trickery. I was told where to hide when I released the dogs. The guards were too busy with catching the mongrels that they didn’t bother to look. “He met up with me when the dogs were still running around like the brain dead mutts they are. He said he had opened the gate to his mother’s court yard, that there was a way to enter the chimney without getting burned. They had light every fireplace and he even told me I wouldn’t have to hold my breath for long.” “They light every fireplace?” The way she asked sounded like she actually held a sense of fascination for the guard’s inhumane methods for capturing a thief. “Yes. The brutes seemed very eager to capture us. To the point where they were willing to die of heat just to cut off one of our escape routs through the chimney tunnels.” He tapped his fingers on the wood, his brow knitted as he remembered the scorching heat. It had been too hot to work under such conditions, and yet that boy seemed hardly fazed by the sticking, air snatching humidity. “I was to kidnap the queen and to leave a message for Gran. He had to meet us in the castle temple, where the funeral was held, when the bells rang. He was to come alone and bring his sword.” “So he was brave enough to steal from Gran?” She outright laughed at this, the palm of her hand slamming into the table a few times and those eyes seemed to take on life. “I bet it was a surprise to him.” “Yes it was.” Minkan nodded, a very quiet, very subtle way of agreement. “But I believe Eden showed himself to the knight first…his mother knew right away. When I took her into the temple she ran right over to him and tore off the mask…but I wouldn’t put it past a mother to know the child she birthed.” He had expected some sort of comment, but not even a snort was heard from the leader beside him. He dared to shift his gaze to her once more and what he saw was such a distant look. Not a smile locked on her face, but her lips were frozen in an unreadable way, not a smile, not a frown, just a flat line. “Continue.” Even her voice was silent, and her hand waved to him, as if pushing away with a flick of her wrist what he had said. “He put his mask back on, we rang the bell and Gran came.” “And you took the sword and used the queen to leave.” finished the leader for him. He gave that very same small nod. “He will be very useful to our guild.” Mikan couldn’t say much on her choice. He knew she was right for after what he had witnessed that day this new addition was worth the risk of the royal guard. “Keep an eye on him.” Were her words as she stepped away, her hand patting his shoulder in a simply friendly gesture. “I am turning in for the night. I leave it to you to keep things orderly.” He gave not an answer, but she left without one, the crowd seeming to part from her path to the back rooms. He didn’t need an answer, she knew very well he would listen. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~,~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gran hadn’t left the queen’s side. He was like a dog in heat around the woman and it disgusted the king to no end to see this knight, this nobody, fawning over her night and day. A meal was set out in the royal dinning area, a gran feast for that fo the queen’s safety, only the turkey went cold, the warm buttered biscuits cooled, for not even the queen attended the meal. Both Royals had locked themselves in their room, only the queen was kind enough to let enter her maids to draw a hot bath of scented herbs, but of the knights only Gran was aloud at her side, within her chamber walls. The king let no one enter. He let his knights stand guard in the hall, he let them lounge in the guard’s room right before his bed chamber door, but he had locked himself in, his mind fuming with today’s events. That boy, his son, he was there. He had seen him leaving the castle walls, he was there all along! All the cold man could think was, ‘if only I had been told, if only I was there to order the capture of the thieves I would have him again!’ When he had asked his men, ordered it from them with the threat of their life, as to why he wasn’t told the fingers were pointed towards Gran, as they always were. His fingers coiled tightly around the rood of the heavy chair he had set in the corner of his room, his nails tried to carve into the oak as he grinded his teeth. Time was growing short. He needed that Akistu now more than ever. Soon there would be no king for Asmalen and if that were to happen a new blood line, a less inferior, a incompetent blood line would take his place. As the king brooded in the corner of his room, the flickering, dimming candle stub lighting his face in a frightening way, making fire dance in his eyes, he thought. Gran must have known the prince had lived when all else thought he was dead, for the king had not seen him grieve when the funeral took place. That knight knew it was the prince within the castle walls; after all he went to great measures to ensure the information would not reach his king. Gran Knew all along, in fact the king believed he had helped him escape! “One more time.” he growled to himself in the silence of the room. “One more time and I will watch you hang.”
Aki112 · Wed Jan 09, 2008 @ 05:24pm · 0 Comments |
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