Fallen Prince Page 2

  “We want silk,” the goblin continued. “We want all. You—you did nothing. We fought. We deserve all.”

  “If not for us, you never would have been able to overtake the Shaundakul, Garagos. They would have shot you down from their towers like they always do.” He chuckled. “Their dragons would have torn you apart. If not for the wyverns we provided...”

  “We keep wyverns.”

  “Yes, you keep the wyverns. You’ll need them when we call for you again.”

  There was a moment of silence; I wrapped my head just around the corner. The goblin was kneeling before the man, its body draped in jewels and gems. The man was two-times his height, and large around; he faced away from me. He wore full-plate armor, with a tunic of red and yellow draped over it.

  As the goblin rose, I pulled back into the room.

  “And Garagos,” the Akadian said. “Remember if any of the kingdoms find out what happened here, from the horse-lords of the Katellian plains right down to the trolls of Lotos Mountain, you will be held personally responsible. You know what that means.”

  “We do not tell. We do not talk to trolls. We do not talk to humans. We serve only you, great Akadian.”

  I heard a gasp.

  It took me a second to realize it had come from Ellia. I gave her a savage look, then pulled her quickly back the way we’d come. We made a different turn along the line. We reached the servants’ kitchen and took a back exit to the stables, where the farm animals were kept.

  She didn’t even wait to check around to make sure we were alone before she started shouting at me.

  “It was the Akadians!” she screamed. She wrenched her hand away.

  I shushed her. “Ellia, be quiet. There could be goblins anywhere.”

  “Goblins?” she repeated, “or humans? Men. Our own race. Our allies. Betrayers!”

  “Yeah betrayers, and they won’t hesitate to kill us if they find us. Shut up.”

  She fumed and stomped her feet.

  I held out my hand. She hesitated, then gave me hers. I led us into a half-torn chicken coop nearby. I pinched the slats open and peeked through.

  We were on the edge of the battlefield; the famed trees of Shaundakul stretched up high above us. Piles of bodies littered the forest floor, burning not nearly as hot as they should have been. It stank so bad that I would have rather kept my nose inside the chicken coop, only I was pretty sure Ellia was probably crying in there and I didn’t want to see that again. It was obvious that goblins weren’t big on clean-up.

  “Look, I know you’re not going to like this,” I said, “but we gotta get out of here. I think we should head west to Brenham. We can get food and figure out what we’ll do next. Do you have gold with you?”

  She didn’t answer me. The forest looked deserted enough. I sighed and turned back to her. “Ellie, we can’t stay—”

  My voice cut out. The only other thing in the coop with me was a chicken. I looked back through the shutters. In a second I saw her, trudging in her dress onto the battlefield.

  I tore out of the coop, barely checking my surroundings. I hiked to catch up to her, leaning over once to pick a sword up off the ground. When I reached her we were surrounded by smoke and trees.

  “What are you doing, Ellia? Are you crazy?”

  “I have to find my father,” she said.

  “I don’t care what you have to do. Don’t run off without telling me.”

  “You wouldn’t have let me go,” she said. She kept walking; she wouldn’t look at me.

  “That’s because it’s stupid. Ellie, listen to me. We need to get out of here.”

  “I have to find my father, Cyric.”

  “He’s dead, Ellia.”

  She stopped, spun, and glared at me, her fists balled.

  “Or else the Akadians have him…” I backtracked quickly.

  “If there’s any chance he’s here I have to look for him,” she said. She shook her head and started walking again. “You wouldn’t understand.”

  I stopped short. I thought she paused a second before continuing on, but even if she did regret her words, I wouldn’t welcome the pity. She was right; I couldn’t understand. Her father was the king. The day my father had died, all of Shaundakul celebrated. There had been no chasing after him, no burying the body. The very people that surrounded me now wouldn’t have allowed it. And now they were dead.

  Ellia distracted me from my wallowing thoughts with her tripping and poor attempts at inspecting bodies.

  I ran after her, grip tight on my sword and gaze watchful. If there was one thing I’d learned well in my lifetime, it was that there was no changing a princess’s mind about getting what she wanted. Ellia certainly wasn’t surprised when I started helping her.

  “We should look for Noxus,” I said. “Your father would have gone to him.”

  Ellia caught her breath, but nodded.

  The smoke was a blessing and a curse; it kept us hidden, but it made it difficult to find the dragon’s body. When we finally did, Ellia dropped her head in her hands and ran towards it. It was a gruesome sight that I wouldn’t be forgetting anytime soon, and I became certain that it accounted for most of the smell.

  They hadn’t burnt it—pretty obviously because they hadn’t wanted to damage the skin, from which they’d removed the bright sparkling scales that had once speckled it.

  Stinkin’ greedy goblins.

  I turned my back on Ellia who was crying and rubbing the dragon’s neck. I flipped the sword in my hands and walked up a nearby hill.

  That’s when I saw him; such a familiar face. I really hadn’t expected to find him there. I really had thought it was possible that the Akadians had taken him prisoner.

  My mind brought me back to a few days ago.

  I was in the great hall of the palace. I stood in a line of a dozen other soldiers, most of them older than me. Because Shaundakul was a small, peaceful kingdom, it didn’t have an actual war-room. The great hall was used whenever allies were involved. The place buzzed with activity. The other soldiers and I waited for one of the generals to give us our orders for the battle.

  “So, whose going to be in the cavalry?” one of the soldiers beside me crooned, rubbing his hands together.

  “Not you, that’s for certain,” replied another.

  “How will we have a cavalry?” asked a young one. “There are hardly any horses in Shaundakul.”

  “Right. But the Akadians have come. And they have horses.”

  “Horses they’ll be riding.”

  The soldier beside me shook his head. “I heard that the best Shaundakul riders will be chosen to go with them.”

  “Well then you certainly won’t be picked, Slark.”

  Slark gave him a sharp look.

  “No one will be picked,” I said.

  They all looked at me.

  “Only the Akadians will ride. If we’re lucky we’ll get bows, otherwise it’s swords for us.”

  “And what makes you so sure, Dracla?” Slark asked.

  I gripped my jaw. The nickname might not have bothered me that much, if Slark and the others didn’t always make it so clear that they meant it as an insult.

  “Did you sneak into the war meeting again to watch your precious king?”

  “No. It was probably the princess that told him. They’re always playing friends.” A few of them laughed, just the goons that followed Slark around.

  “Tell us Dracla,” Slark went on, “What is a princess’s interest in the son of an exile anyways?”

  I felt my fists tighten, but before I could respond a hand landed on my shoulder. It belonged to one of the older soldiers in line beside me.

  “Watch it, Slark,” he said, with a sharp look in the young man’s direction.

  Slark put his hands up in apology and the others lost their smiles.

  “All in good fun, Matteus,” he replied.

  The elder soldier let his hand fall. Luckily in the next moment the general decided to call my name. I steppe
d forward.

  It took a while for him to fumble with his papers. Then he raised his brows. He pulled a letter from the bottom of his pile, and handed it to me.

  “Read it,” he said. “Alone. You are not to show anyone. Understood?” Before I could nod, he waved me off.

  I walked a few feet away and ripped open the seal. I should have known before I’d read it.

  It was detailed with instructions of when and how and where I was supposed to take Princess Ellia on the day of the battle—so that she, while all the other soldiers were fighting, would be kept safe and far, far away.

  I heard Slark behind me, receiving orders to shoot in the first line of archers.

  I crushed the letter in my hands. My eyes found a table in the corner of the room. I hadn’t needed to look to know it was where King Savras stood.

  I started walking.

  As I approached, the captain he’d been talking to bowed and walked away. King Savras met my eyes. They were grey, like storm-clouds but for me much more harrowing.

  I paused a half-step, then regained myself, moved forward, and bowed. “King Savras,” I greeted.

  “Young Cyric,” he said. “How goes the life of a soldier in wartime?”

  I sort of smiled, then answered, “Very well, Sire. I... I mean, no. No. I have a problem.”

  He frowned.

  “It’s my, orders,” I said. I held the letter up, until I realized it was a crumpled ball. I hid it quickly.

  “Have you found them dissatisfactory?” he asked.

  The look on his face made it impossible for me to get the word “yes” out. Instead I cocked my head a little, “Well...”

  “You know that some soldiers,” he interrupted, lifting a small figurine off the round table and examining it, “have been given orders that they aren’t supposed to speak to others about.”

  He met my eyes. He set the figurine down on the table, distinctly where a picture of the highest tower of Uldin Keep was shown. “Not many, but I do value their ability to do their duty and say nothing else about it.”

  My brow dipped a little; I felt my determination crumbling.

  “Do you agree, Cyric?” he asked.

  I tilted my head. It started rolling into a nod.

  He immediately grinned. “Good lad.”

  He picked the figurine up off the table and handed it to me. I opened my mouth to respond but he was already walking past me. My eyes followed after him, then I looked down at the figurine in my hand.

  I held it now. And his body lay before me, but the life was gone from it.

  I shoved the figurine in my pocket, then turned towards the dragon.

  “Ellia,” I called. She was still kneeling beside it. I called her again and she stood up. When I saw her face all covered with tears over Noxus, the last thing I wanted to do was point out her dead dad, but thankfully she spoke first.

  “Cyric? Kraehe.”

  Maybe not so thankfully.

  My eyes threatened to lull into the back of my head. I realized too late that I never should have suggested for Ellia to find Noxus. In fact I never should have let her come onto the battlefield at all.

  “Ellie? No,” I replied.

  She shook her head. “Look what they’ve done to Noxus. We can’t let them do that to Kraehe. It’s an abomination. I’ve no right to leave her.”

  “Yes you do,” I said. “Your life is more important than hers. She’s an animal.”

  “She’s a granted animal,” Ellia pleaded. “There are hundreds of humans. She could be the last dragon.”

  “There aren’t hundreds of you,” I countered.

  It sounded so dumb that I had to look away.

  I shook my head and stuck the sword in my belt. “I’m sorry, Ellia. I have a job to do.” I walked towards her.

  Her eyes grew wide. She lifted her finger. “Cyric, no.” She backed away. “Cyric.”

  I scooped her up easily. At least at first, until she started kicking and punching me.

  “Ellia, stop.”

  “Cyric, let me go. Let me go.”

  “Stop screaming. You’re going to get us killed.”

  “I don’t care. I order you to let me go. Let. Me—”

  She stopped at the sound of an unsheathing sword.

  My head shot in the direction it had come from. Another sword was drawn.

  “Over here!” someone shouted through the mist.

  My muscles locked. Ellia’s body went limp in my arms. I glared at her. She had, of course, nothing to say now; she just stared at me with wide, frightened eyes.

  I set her down and took her hand. We ran in the opposite direction of the cries. I thought perhaps we were gaining on them—it was impossible to see with the smoke—when forms appeared ahead of us. They hadn’t seen us; they were loading up a wagon. I stopped us short and swung us behind a tree. It was wide enough to easily hide both of us, but the other soldiers were still coming quickly.

  “What will we do, Cyric?” Ellia asked me.

  I could hear their racing steps getting closer.

  “‘What will we do?’” I repeated. I grabbed Ellia’s shoulders. “It’s a little too late to...”

  My eyes went wide in horror.

  For the first time today, I saw Ellia not as I normally did, but as an enemy soldier might. Her braided hair. Her velvet dress. Her earrings and jewels. Her silver shoes.

  “You need to take your dress off,” I said.

  We heard another call.

  Ellia narrowed. “What?”

  “And your jewelry.” I reached for her necklace.

  She slapped my hand away.

  “Ellia.”

  “Stop it.”

  I caught her wrist before the next slap. “Ellie, I need you to trust me. Right now.”

  Her brow went taut. The soldiers turned to shapes in the mist. I felt my body pounding. She nodded.

  I tore off her necklace. I threw it far from us. I wasted one pointless moment considering how to properly remove the dress, then just helplessly reached for the top of it and pulled.

  “Get the back,” she said indignantly. She turned around. It was a maze of strings. I started to untie them then took my sword out and cut down the whole line. She whimpered in complaint. I pulled the dress down and she stepped out of it. She wore a long slip underneath.

  “Take you earnings out,” I said, walking off a ways to toss her dress into the woods. “And your shoes.” She kicked them off. Her silent obedience told me she was probably starting to understand the issue.

  I moved between her and the soldiers.

  “There!” one shouted, pointing at us. Two followed behind him. They were still yards off, but the smoke no longer hid us.

  “Done,” Ellia said.

  I looked back at her to see that she had gotten everything. Her eyes were filled with tears, but my gaze wasn’t on them; it was on the crown resting on the top of her head, bright and silver, and the exact hue and color of her eyes.

  Her gaze shifted behind me.

  “Stay where you are,” a soldier commanded. “Do not move.”

  I didn’t obey.

  I stepped towards Ellia and reached for the crown.

  Somewhere between holding her head steady and trying to block the soldiers’ view of her, my lips were touching hers.

  I was kissing her.

  A part of my mind told me it wasn’t a necessary position, but that was far, far back. Ellia didn’t resist. I pulled the crown off her head, slipped it into my sleeve, then I held her head with both my hands and kissed her again.

  Something grabbed a chunk of my hair and pulled me backwards.

  The world came back into focus in a harsh way.

  Ellia screamed.

  “Think this is your chance for a good time, boy?” the soldier asked. He spun me around to reveal three other Akadian swordsmen standing before us. “I said, don’t move.”

  He threw me down. The other men laughed. I pushed myself off the ground. Feeling my bl
ood rushing hot, and maybe a little high, I grew a wide grin.

  “What’s there to smile about, Shaundian?” the one at the front asked. “The goblins got all the fun, and my blade is hungry.”

  I unsheathed my sword. I understood the Akadian’s feelings well enough.

  “All the better for me,” I hissed, then swung at him. He parried once, but I’d clearly surprised him and when I came around for a second blow, my hilt hit the side of head.

  Ellia screamed. He fell to the ground. The two remaining swordsmen stared at me, wide mouthed. Then their vision cleared and they charged.

  I ducked both and got a swipe in at one’s arm. Before they’d even regained themselves, I yelled and charged the uninjured one and knocked him to the ground. I had him pinned, then I got distracted at the sight of more men running up from the wagons. He struck me and spun me on my back. He straddled my sides to cheering. “I’ll show you the might of Akadia,” he shouted, then raised his fist up in the air. I got a grip on my sword handle before he could hit me, and stabbed it up through his side.

  The warriors made exclamations of shock. I felt Ellia’s crown shaking loose in my sleeve. I had barely a second to tighten it against my forearm, then they all came at me. I had to shove the injured man on top of me into an approaching soldier to fend off a blade. I stood, swung my own sword and made contact with another. I lost sight of the forest around me. They came one after another after another. A man stabbed at my arm. I used the hilt of my sword to strike his face. He fell backwards. I lifted my blade to another.

  “That’s enough!” A voice loud and jarring broke through the other cries.

  I turned on it, my sword raised high, and saw a soldier with his knife to Ellia’s throat. Flanking him were six armored men with crossbows, all aimed at me. The Akadian swordsmen stopped approaching.

  The man next to Ellia gestured to my sword.

  My chest rose and fell. I could hear my own heart pounding. My fist tightened, then I dropped my weapon.

  The closest swordsmen grabbed it, not without a wary glance at me.

  The man with Ellia wore red and yellow Akadian armor like the rest of them, but the emblem and style of his tunic was different; obviously he was some sort of commander. He was tall and larger than the other men by far, and Akadians were already big.