Page 30 of Once Upon a Crown
“I wonder what made him like that.” Based on my life experience, I had the tendency to believe monsters were made and not born.
“Do you know how Aries inherited his throne?” Cai asked and I shook my head. “From what I heard, his father was a horribly cruel man. Apparently, he would beat Aries and his brother often.” The thought made me feel sympathy for Aries as a child, but that did not in any way justify the choices he’d made since.
“The pride in the kingdom of Argon lies in their army, in their men being the strongest warriors one could ever come across. So, when the heir to the throne turns eighteen, he is to fight the current king to prove his strength.” I had a bad feeling about where this was going.
“But Aries decided to kill his father that day, proving he was the stronger leader.”
I’d been betrayed by the people I cared about the most but never had it crossed my mind to end their lives. As if Cai could read my mind he said, “Hate makes people do desperate things sometimes.”
“We’re not beating Aries on a battlefield as long as we don’t have the numbers he does.” Just admitting it aloud sent a spiral of fear through my body. “We have to find those objects before he does, Cai. We need to make sure he never gets them.”
“In the story that I read about the king and queen, it said that the gemstones protected her, through assassination attempts and other attacks. In a way, it was like she’d become immortal. Until, of course, the very same stones killed her.”
“Aries wants to become undefeatable.”
Cai’s expression told me he knew I was right. “We have everything to lose. This is dangerous.”
“Yes, we do, but it’s like you said, Aries is not going to stop and we owe it to the people who have given their lives for us to be here.” I reached for where he sat on the floor next to me, and placed my hand atop his.
“For Jack?”
“For Jack.”
Chapter 13
Cai
The palace grounds provided a decent walk for the first time in days. Though not warm, the weather was more pleasant than before, allowing the cool morning to turn into an almost pleasant afternoon.
Alastor walked next to me — his sword safely in its sheath. I realised it had been months since I’d made use of a weapon. Not to mention how unfit and out of practice I’d become. Muscle memory and adrenaline were likely to kick in if it came down to it, but I doubted that I’d be able to defend myself properly in a serious battle. At least not as well as I used to.
As if Alastor could read my mind, he asked, “Would you like to make use of this time in the training ring, Your Majesty?”
I looked towards the training grounds in the distance, where some of the palace guards were sparring, their laughter echoing from afar.
“I fear I won’t be good competition,” I told Alastor. “But now is as good a time as any to get back to it.”
I couldn’t avoid it for ever. I didn’t want to see the mental image of Thatcher, and it would appear the moment I picked up a sword again. I needed to find a way to push past the memories.
Alastor nodded in understanding. Ever since we’d lost Jack, something had changed in the weapon keeper and second in command. Without being asked, he’d stepped up to take on Jack’s responsibility as my head guard. I knew all of this must have weighed heavy on him as well. Jack was his friend, too. “We’ll start off easy,” he reassured me.
We made our way to the training grounds, where Alastor managed to borrow a sword for me. I wrapped my hand around the hilt and an image of Jack’s body came into my mind.
“Have Your Majesties found out more about the diary?”
I knew what he was doing. Alastor was trying to distract me by talking about something else.
I shook my head and lifted the sword. “Unfortunately not.”
With every day that passed, Aries was getting closer to what he was looking for, and it wouldn’t be long before we had to face him. I thought about Elara’s words. About how we had to find the objects before he did. After I’d found out about them, I’d thought the knowledge was best kept away from everyone and everything for as long as humanly possible. It was too much of a risk to meddle with something we did not understand or know how to control. And while I still believed that we were better off without going after them, it appeared we no longer had a choice. At least not while Aries was alive.
But Elara had a point. If we had the objects, we could find a way to hide them where Aries would never find them, or better yet, we could try to destroy them. We just needed to find that diary.
“I’ve been thinking,” Alastor started. Which really could mean anything. Over the past few years, I’d learned that he wasn’t much of a talker, but that his thoughts ran deeper than one would imagine. He swung his sword towards me.
“Yes?” I ducked away quickly.
“Aries is still some distance from the main city and Mistwood. Perhaps we would stand a better fighting chance if we were to take back the palace and fortify ourselves there.”
