by Pirateaba
“Nonsense, you’re doing splendidly. Come, strike at me.”
Trey saw Flos’ face smiling broadly as he peeked around his shield. He also saw approving looks on the faces of the others watching him, and a smile on Mars’ lips. That gave him the strength to weakly cut at Flos’ side.
“Excellent! Raise your shield—I’ll be striking from the left. Harder this time.”
Despite being ready for the blow, Trey felt his arm compress against his body. He made a wheezing gasping sound as he stumbled back. The King beamed at him.
“I—think—”
“Trey wants to quit.”
In his heart Trey blessed Teres. She glared at Flos, ignoring the disapproving faces staring at her. Flos eyed Teres and sighed.
“One last blow then, from each of us.”
That sounded fine. Trey managed to tap Flos’ sword. Then he raised his shield. Flos was smiling.
“Very good. You’ve a makings of a good warrior, Trey. Now—block!”
He raised his sword high, giving Trey a chance to raise his shield. The young man did, bracing himself. It was just one more strike. But then the sword came down like lightning. Trey froze. It was too f—
The sword struck Trey’s shield. It didn’t cut through the metal, but the impact of it knocked Trey flat.
Trey didn’t feel his knees give way. He slammed back-first into the ground, hearing his back go crack in various places. Trey felt as though his entire body was whumph. The entire impact ran through him and for a few seconds he just stared at the sky. Then he remembered he wasn’t breathing and tried to gasp for air.
“Trey!”
Once hearing had returned he heard Teres’ voice, and felt people crowding around him. Someone opened an eyelid and Trey tried to make his eyes focus. He heard his sister shouting angrily at someone and a contrite voice that was Flos’.
The wind was knocked out of him and it wasn’t coming back. Trey sat up at Teres’ insistence, but then lay back down. He felt…floppy. Could you hit someone so hard their bones turned into rubber?
He felt like he should stand up, but he couldn’t. Trey felt himself being picked up and was carried somewhere. He must have fallen asleep, because the next thing he realized he was sitting up in the room he and Teres shared, in his bed.
“Trey?”
His sister was standing over him. She had a bottle of yellow liquid in her hands. Trey opened his mouth.
“I don’t want to drink that.”
“You don’t have to. It’s a healing potion.”
“Oh.”
Trey thought about that.
“Can you pour it on me?”
“No. Hold still, I’ll rub it onto your back.”
“And my arms. They really hurt.”
Teres helped Trey partly undress. Trey groaned as he saw the bruised skin underneath his clothing, already turning spectacular colors.
“Ow.”
“Hold still. I’ll have you right as rain in a moment.”
He let Teres rub the yellow stuff into his skin. It stank horribly, but the agony went away every place she touched. Trey whimpered as she got to his back. Teres was scowling.
“Where’s the King?”
“I dunno. I shouted at him and then took you to our room.”
“Oh.”
“I can’t believe he hit you that hard!”
“I can’t either.”
“He could have killed you! I thought you were dead when you didn’t move.”
“I thought I was dead too.”
Teres glared at Trey. Then she slapped his back. He yelped. She poked him hard in the back.
“Don’t be smart.”
“Ow. Okay.”
After a while, she finished with his back and Trey felt well enough to rub the healing potion onto his legs himself. Teres sat with him, applying a bit to her own arms.
“What was it like?”
“What?”
“Being hit? It looked like he squashed you with his sword.”
“That’s right enough.”
Trey had to think as he tried to explain the feeling.
“Remember when Trevor Martin got hit by that car and had to stay in the hospital for two weeks?”
Her eyes went wide.
“That bad?”
Trey felt at his chest and back again.
“Actually, I think I’d rather trade places with him. That hurt.”
“Well, he’s not doing it again. He’s mental, that one.”
“I thought he said he was out of practice.”
Trey winced as he handed the mostly empty bottle back to Teres. She rolled her eyes.
“He says he’s not good at holding back.”
“That was him holding back?”
“Yup. That’s another thing he’s not good at, then. If he’s so special that everyone loves him so, what’s he actually good at to begin with?”
Trey thought about that for a moment.
“Hitting people.”
He lay back on his bed, trying to block the horrible healing potion smell from his nose. Teres lay next to him.
“Do you think I can go to sleep, Teres?”
“I think so.”
That sounded like an awfully good idea to Trey, so he closed his eyes. When he opened them again, after what sounded like minutes, it was to hear Teres arguing with someone at the door.
“We don’t care what he wants. If he wants us, he can come and say so himself.”
She slammed the door. Trey closed his eyes, and went back to sleep.
—-
Sometimes later, Teres woke him up. Trey got out of bed, still feeling foggy, but hungry. Which was lucky, because he’d apparently slept till dinner time.
Every day, Flos dined in the banquet hall, at the high table with his trusted vassals while the rest of the people in the hall ate at other long tables. Trey and Teres sat at that table with him as well, but they were used to being overlooked.
Not today. This time, when Trey passed through the tables up to the hall he heard people calling out to him and Teres. Most of them just laughed as they asked Trey if he was alright, or if his head was still in one piece. It wasn’t mocking laughter though, and Trey himself could smile at the jokes.
People reached out, and a few of the older men ruffled his hair, or gave him a slap on the arm.
“Well done, lad. You took the King’s blow like a man.”
“Thought you’d nearly died there. But you sat up, so you’ve got some grit to you!”
It was embarrassing, but Trey still enjoyed it. At the high table, the vassals of the King had words for him as well.
“Trey. I trust you are recovered?”
Orthenon nodded to Trey. Gazi smiled at him, but it was Mars who slung an arm around his shoulder, laughing as she called for a drink for the both of them.
“I took a blow like that from our King once. I couldn’t see straight for two days, I’ll swear! If you can remember your name, that’s cause for celebration.”
Flos himself only laughed as he sat with Orthenon on his right and Mars on his left. The twins sat next to Mars, and Trey found himself in the enviable and difficult position of having to stare past her to listen to the conversation. She was distracting, and Teres kept jabbing him in the side when she thought his attention was wandering.
The thing about sitting at the high table was that the conversation topics were never dull. Tonight’s was especially focused, and Trey saw the servants serving food listening just as intently as the people around him.
“We have a few experienced soldiers, but I fear we must count on a mostly green army to begin with. With Takahatres keeping the Emperor of Sands occupied, our main focus must be on raising the level of our conscripted soldiers.”
“And finding an actual army. We can’t make everyone hold a sword or we won’t have anyone to grow crops, cook, and so on. Plus, we don’t have that many swords.”
Mars stabbed at a piece of chicken on her plate as F
los nodded. He turned to Gazi.
“Your thoughts, Gazi?”
She shrugged. Her eye flicked towards Trey and Teres, while her other three remained focused on Flos.
“We have Mars’ arms. We can outfit an elite core of soldiers.”
“Are you suggesting we take on another nation’s army with a few dozen warriors?”
Orthenon stared at Gazi. She bit into a Yellat and swallowed it before responding.
“We must retake our lost lands sooner or later. Once we do, we will have more soldiers to join us.”
“Declaring the King of Destruction has returned so early is not a wise move, Lady Gazi. It is better to wait for those vassals with their own forces to arrive.”
Orthenon stared hard at Gazi, not deterred by the fact that she had four eyes and he had two. Mars sighed gustily.
“You say that Orthenon, but how long must we sit on our hands here?”
“As long as it takes. There is much to do here, unless you had forgotten. The city is in sore need of repairs, and we can best spend this time planting new harvests for next year, training those waiting to be soldiers—”
“Waiting.”
Gazi said it impassively, but Mars nodded in agreement and Orthenon stiffened in his seat. He opened his mouth to reply, and Flos spoke, cutting the argument apart.
“Orthenon. Gazi. Enough.”
His retainers looked at him expectantly. Flos put down his knife and reached for his goblet. He stared into it and then looked around the table. His eyes did not miss Trey or Teres.
“I have heard counsel from all present. I hear Orthenon’s need for caution, just as I understand Mars’ desire to raise my banner once again. Tomorrow morning I will tell you all what I have decided to do.”
He looked around at his companions. All three nodded and sat back. The conversation turned to less intense matters, and Trey resumed staring at Mars covertly. She really was stunning. Were they really fake?
—-
That night, Trey climbed into bed while Teres took the one on the other side of the room. He felt tired, but not sleepy, thanks to the long nap he’d had. Plus, the downside of using the healing potion meant his body was as energetic as ever. It thought it was time to be up and about, no matter how Trey’s weary mind tried to convince it otherwise.
Perhaps that was why he was still awake hours later to see the door to their room open slowly. Trey sat up, heart pounding as a faint candle’s light entered the room, held by a shadowy figure.
There were no locks on the door, or if there was, Trey and Teres hadn’t been given a key. It wasn’t generally needed in most parts of the castle and the servants were in and out of the rooms. But all that meant was that the mysterious intruder could be anyone.
Trey’s heart beat wildly as he looked at his slumbering sister. He opened his mouth to shout, and the figure brought the candle up to his face.
“Trey. It is I.”
Flos stared down at Trey. That didn’t make the young man feel any better. He stared at Flos.
“What are you doing here?”
This time he didn’t add ‘sire’, or ‘your majesty’. Flos smiled down at Trey.
“I apologize for the late intrusion. But I have business with you. May I sit?”
“Um. Okay?”
Trey felt the bedding shift as Flos sat on the his bed. He sat up awkwardly staring at Flos. The King hadn’t changed into his night clothes; he was still wearing the sword at his belt. He nodded to Trey.
“I trust you have healed from earlier? I did not have a chance to ask over dinner, but I am told you used the healing potion I had sent.”
“I did. Um, thank you for sending it.”
“You should not thank me for that. It was my own fault.”
Flos sighed. He looked ashamed as he stared at Trey, the candle only illuminating parts of his face.
“I was a fool. And your sister was right to call me such. I struck you far harder than I should. It is just that I wished to change the gossip about you and your sister. If you had blocked the blow of a King, it would change what was said.”
Trey recalled all the people who’d slapped him on the back and Mars’ words of praise.
“I…think you did that.”
“Yes, but I did not mean to harm you. That was my fault. I apologize, Trey.”
Flos’ head lowered. Trey stared. It took him a few moments to realize Flow was bowing his head. To him.
“It’s okay. Really.”
“It is not, but thank you for saying so. Trey, I realize today I have asked much of you. But I ask that you and your sister follow me one last time.”
“Follow you? Where?”
“Outside my city. I have had horses saddled in secret—a tricky matter, even with a [King]’s authority.”
Flos smiled ruefully. Trey stared at him.
“Wait, but where are we going?”
“A village. It is only an hour or so’s ride away.”
“An hour—”
Flos clapped a hand over Trey’s mouth before he could shout.
“I know it is an imposition. But I ask it of you.”
Trey wanted to say no, but he couldn’t find the words. Instead, he resorted to a cowardly, if effective tactic.
“Only if Teres says yes.”
Flos nodded, and gingerly Trey went over to wake his sister. He had to shake her several times. She flailed at him until she sat up. She was ready to curse him out until she saw Flos. Her mouth opened as she glared at him.
“I am sorry for waking you, Teres. However—”
“No. Out.”
She pointed to the door. Flos bowed his head towards her.
“Teres, I have one last matter I must ask you to witness. It is of vital importance.”
“No! Can’t it wait?”
The King smiled.
“No, it cannot. Because this must be done alone. No one must know where we are going. Not Orthenon, or anyone else.”
The twins stared at Flos. Trey’s first thought was that he was running away. But that didn’t seem to be the case. Teres folded her arms.
“Why do we have to come?”
“Because I trust you two. And because you are reassuring.”
The twins gaped at Flos. He smiled, and rose.
“Follow me.”
And they did. Teres complained and Trey chimed in, but somehow they ended up dressed and in Flos’ room in minutes. There they stared at the King.
“We’re leaving the city, right?”
“Correct. We must do it in secret, without alerting one of the servants. They will have seen us going into my room, but so long as we are not spotted leaving any of the palace’s exits they will not wake Orthenon.”
“How are we getting out, then? Wait—are we going through a secret passageway?”
Trey immediately grew excited, thinking of revolving walls, illusory doors and magical passphrases. But Flos shook his head, looking wistful.
“I asked Drevish to build me a hidden network of tunnels, but he told me that he had better things to do than waste time creating secret walls and doors. He refused to put a single secret tunnel in my entire palace and told me that if I wished to escape my duties, I should find a way to do it myself without relying on cheap tricks.”
“Then how—”
“It’s very simple.”
Flos went over to the balcony. He beckoned Trey and Teres over. Trey walked out into the very cold night air, expecting to see a rope made of bedsheets, or something else like that. He was not prepared for Flos to seize hold of him and then toss him over the balcony.
“Aaaaaa—”
Trey’s scream was muffled by a huge hand on his mouth. He felt hands on him, and then an impact, reduced by the arms that held him.
“There we are. It’s lucky you’re not full-grown or I might have shattered a knee trying that.”
Flos remarked casually as he put Trey back on his feet. Trey stared at him, and then up at the balcony above
him. It had to be two stories up. He felt dizzy and had to sit.
“Teres. Jump down. I will catch you.”
The King’s voice was low as he called up. Trey heard his sister reply—and thought she was probably making her opinion clear with a gesture as well. Flos repeated his command. Somehow, in between Trey trying not to throw up, he persuaded Teres to jump.
“There we are. It’s not quite as attractive as a secret passage, but I suppose Drevish was correct.”
Flos remarked to the two twins as they tried to follow him on shaky legs. He led them around to a stable where three horses were indeed saddled. Trey and Teres stared at the horses. Trey suddenly recalled what Flos had said and realized there was a huge, wonderful flaw in the King’s plan.
“I don’t know how to ride.”
“Me neither.”
Flow’s eyebrows raised as he tied a lantern to the saddle of his horse, a tall dark beast which snorted down at the twins.
“You don’t? Well, it’s quite simple. I’ll teach you to guide your mounts another time. For now, just hold tight with your knees. I can command three horses as easily as two.”
Ignoring their protests he put Trey on one horse, and Teres on the other. Trey started as the huge thing between his legs began to move. He clutched at the reins unsteadily as he saw Teres doing the same.
Flos sat on his horse as if he’d been born there. He clicked his tongue quietly and all three horses followed him as he led his out of the palace stables. He rode down the streets, heading towards one of the gates. It was open, despite the late hour. Flos waved up at whoever was on top and Trey heard a voice raised in reply.
And then they were out of the city, racing across dry, dusty ground. Trey stared around the dark landscape, where shrubs of tough greenery sprouted up from the arid earth. He had only been out of the city once or twice. Now the air blew in his face—so cold!—and Trey could look up and see a night sky full of stars. Two moons stared down at him, one pale and yellowish like the one back home, but tinged slightly blue, and the other a shade of purple, glowing brilliant in the sky.
After a few minutes, Flos slowed their rapid pace. He turned the horses at a crossroads Trey barely spotted and turned them up another road, making the horses trot quickly. Now they had a chance to shout, the twins did so. In turns.
