The Almost King

by Lucy Saxon

  ‘Why me? Drazan did just as much as I did!’ he protested.

  ‘Yes, but as you’re the captain, you’re the king, and you’re the only one anyone’s going to want to talk about.’

  A thought came to Aleks. ‘Have you done what you prom-ised you would?’ he asked Luka. ‘Talked to your friends in the records department? Because if I’m still enlisted, the last thing I want is to be in the public eye.’ What if the guards came after him, even with his record clean, and arrested him? What if Shulga caught him again? Just because he’d destroyed the journal it didn’t mean the lieutenant would leave him be. He’d hoped with a clean record he could report the lieutenant for harassment, but that might not work out in his favour.

  ‘I talked to my contact while you were away,’ Luka said. ‘The deed should be done by now. Don’t worry, lad – with your files gone, they’ve got nothing against you. And you’ll be too much of a public figure for them to make you accidentally disappear.’ That didn’t make Aleks feel any better, but he let the subject drop. ‘Besides, you think you have problems. If people take this the wrong way, I’ll end up in jail for starting the whole bloody thing.’ He patted the side of the ship to emphasise his point, and Aleks’s stomach turned to lead.

  ‘They wouldn’t, would they? Not once they know what we found?’

  ‘They have every right to,’ Luka replied calmly. ‘I sent out an unregistered ship, and a crewman died because of it. That’s enough to land me in prison for the rest of my days.’

  ‘Then we don’t say how Zhora died,’ Drazan told him, surprising them both. ‘We’ll say it was an animal attack, or something. We all made our choices, Luka. Zhora wouldn’t have wanted you to get in trouble for it – you didn’t know what would happen.’

  ‘No, but I should have,’ Luka muttered. ‘If that’s what you want to do, then I won’t argue. But don’t do it to spare me, lad. It’s my invention that did the damage.’

  ‘It’s the dead zone that did the damage,’ Drazan argued. ‘Both of you, for storms’ sake, stop blaming yourselves! It’s not going to help any, and it’s not going to bring him back, so just stop bloody apologising and deal with what happened!’

  ‘Drazan, it’s OK,’ Aleks murmured. ‘We’ll stop blaming ourselves, we’ll lie on the newscasts. We didn’t mean to upset you.’ Drazan sniffed, blinking back the tears forming in his eyes.

  ‘No, no, I’m fine. I just . . . it was an accident, a horrible one, but getting in trouble for it won’t do anything but harm. I’d rather just lie and move on.’

  ‘Then that’s what we’ll do,’ Luka declared, nodding. ‘Which means we need to get our stories straight. We need to know exactly what we’re going to tell them, and how to do this in a way that will make it all blow over as quickly as possible. I’m sure it can be done, if we think hard enough about it.’

  * * *

  The three of them plotted until Aleks had to go and meet Saria, at which point he and Drazan bid Luka goodnight and headed towards the Compass.

  Saria was already there when the two men arrived, having what looked like a rather serious conversation with Raina. The pair looked up when the door opened, and Aleks raised an eyebrow at Raina, who put on an innocent expression. ‘I didn’t say anything,’ she insisted. Saria laughed, standing to greet Aleks.

  ‘Raina was merely defending your character,’ she told him. ‘Something I probably should have done more of myself recently.’ Aleks leaned down to kiss her.

  ‘Not your fault,’ he murmured. Glancing aside, he tried not to blush at the look on Drazan’s face. ‘Saria, this is my friend, Drazan. Drazan, meet Saria.’ Drazan offered the woman a bow, smiling.

  ‘It’s a pleasure. I feel like I know you already, Aleks talks about you so much,’ Drazan added playfully, making Aleks’s cheeks redden.

  ‘After the last week, I’m not entirely sure that’s a good thing,’ Saria replied, curtseying. Drazan chuckled.

  ‘All wonderful things, I promise. Now I’ll leave you two to, uh, talk. Raina, do you need help in the kitchen?’

  ‘Always. Aleks, Aunt Ksenia says you have permission to take Saria up to your room in order to speak privately, but just this once, and the door stays unlocked,’ she said, wagging a stern finger in his direction. That only made Aleks blush even more, but Raina dragged Drazan away to the kitchen before he could comment. Turning to Saria, Aleks gestured feebly towards the stairs.

  ‘Shall we?’ Saria nodded, letting him lead the way up to his bedroom. It felt strange, bringing Saria up there. He forced himself to focus, taking the desk chair as Saria perched on the edge of the bed. ‘OK,’ he started, letting out a long breath. ‘I’ve got a lot to tell you. Jus– don’t interrupt until I’m finished, OK? I want to get it all out first.’

  Saria’s expression was serious as she reached across the gap between them to take his hand, squeezing it tightly. ‘Take your time,’ she urged softly.

  Eyes fixed firmly on the floor, unable to say what he needed to say face to face, Aleks began to talk – going right back to the beginning, when he’d first left Baysar. He owed Saria the truth, all of it.

  38

  Over an hour later, Aleks finally stopped talking, a lump high in his throat from having described Zhora’s death. He hadn’t left anything out: the journal, Kara and her people, he’d told Saria all of it. True to her word, she’d listened without comment, though tears had come to her eyes at several points in his story. Aleks had moved to sit beside her on the bed, he wasn’t sure when, and Saria had an arm around his waist, her head on his shoulder to comfort him as he spoke.

  ‘Holy gods,’ she murmured when he was finished. ‘You really did get yourself into some situations, didn’t you?’

  Aleks laughed. ‘You could say that, yeah.’ He turned to face her, finally meeting her tearful gaze. ‘I wanted to tell you, but it wasn’t safe. I didn’t want to put you at risk any more than I had already, but I told you what I could.’

  ‘And then I went and betrayed your trust by going to the kingsguard,’ Saria finished, angry at herself. ‘Aleks –’

  ‘Stop,’ he cut in, ‘you’ve already apologised plenty. It’s over. No need to keep feeling guilty about it and bringing it up.’

  ‘Then you need to stop apologising for keeping secrets,’ she insisted. ‘Make it even. From this point on, the past is forgiven, and we’ll move on.’

  ‘Deal,’ Aleks agreed, even though he knew it wouldn’t be easy. It would take more than one conversation for them to forgive each other and learn to trust one another again. But it was a start. ‘So now you know everything. And soon, the rest of the country will too, to an extent.’ He’d told her that they were keeping Kara a secret, and she agreed with their reasoning, promising not to say a word.

  ‘How long have you got before things go public?’ Saria asked, and Aleks shrugged.

  ‘Depends on how long it takes Luka to contact his various people. I’m just going to keep my head down and get on with things, to be honest. I finally have the chance of a normal life again – marriage, an apprenticeship, kids. I want to make a start on that as soon as possible.’ Saria’s expression changed at the word ‘marriage’, and she bit her lip.

  ‘You said this morning . . . you bought a ring, before you left?’ she reminded him tentatively. Aleks blushed.

  ‘Raina’s looking after it for me,’ he confirmed. ‘I wanted her to be able to give it to you if I never . . . if I didn’t make it back.’ He wasn’t sure what to do with it – he didn’t want to take it back, but he doubted it would be the best idea to propose right now, under the circumstances. He said as much to Saria, who gave a small half-smile.

  ‘Give it a month,’ she suggested. ‘I do want to marry you, but you’re right, we’d be fools to jump back into where we were so quickly, after everything. Have Raina keep it a little longer. Then . . . then we’ll see where we are. But Aunt Ana’s been at me now more than ever to find a husband, since I said I’d broken it off with you. I’ll be twen
ty in three months, that’s far too old for a lady like me to be unmarried, as far as she’s concerned. Maybe if you proposed it would actually shut her up.’ Aleks snorted – Anastasia had far too many opinions on Saria’s love life.

  ‘Won’t she cut off your inheritance if I propose?’

  ‘I already told you, I don’t care if she does,’ Saria said, squeezing his knee. ‘She can throw me out on the street – I’m not going to keep quiet and marry some rich man just to make her happy.’ She leaned her head against Aleks’s shoulder for a brief moment. ‘But that doesn’t mean I want you to rush a proposal just to spite her. So . . . a month.’

  ‘A month sounds good,’ he agreed, breathing a silent sigh of relief that she was even willing to consider the idea. ‘We’ll just shelve the subject for a while.’

  Silence fell between them, and Saria glanced at the timepiece on the wall. ‘Dinner service will be ending soon,’ she said. ‘We should go downstairs.’

  ‘Well,’ Aleks started, shifting on the bed to face her properly, a playful glint in his eyes. ‘Ksenia will leave leftovers out for us if we miss service. And while they think we’re up here talking . . . maybe we should take advantage of the privacy. It’s likely to be all we’ll get for a long while, once the newscasts go out.’

  Saria’s cheeks went pink, even as a coy smile crossed her lips. Gods, it felt like far too long since he’d last been able to kiss her properly. ‘And here you told me you were a gentleman,’ she teased, before leaning in to press her lips to his.

  It was four days later that everything went to hell.

  The day the news finally broke was just like any other. Luka had warned Aleks and Drazan that he’d handed the footage to his friend, but they didn’t know how long the process might take. Aleks barely paid attention to the newscast screen in the middle of the junction as he walked the familiar journey to Luka’s warehouse, but when a flash of bright green trees and rust-red dirt crossed the screen, he stopped dead in his tracks. ‘This incredible discovery was made by the crew of a small ship named the Thunderbug, captained by young Aleks Vasin,’ the reporter declared, and a still from one of the videos flashed up on screen, clearly showing Aleks’s face, thankfully sunburn-free. ‘He and two crewmates flew the ship through the Stormlands, finding the country of Karana on the other side.’

  Aleks watched in a mix of awe and horror as their video footage played out, with audio both from them and the anonymous reporter. He flinched at the sight of Zhora on screen, grinning widely as they walked through the forest. Gods, he hoped Drazan wasn’t watching this alone.

  After the video ended, the reporter went on to speculate about the future of the country, referring to it by the name that Aleks had eventually given it, with Drazan’s help. When it became clear nothing else of use was going to be said, Aleks slipped out of the crowd that had gathered around the newscast screen, keeping his head ducked in the hope of not being recognised. Unfortunately, luck was not on his side.

  ‘It’s him! It’s the Stormlands boy!’ a man exclaimed, pointing a finger. Aleks froze like a deer in a spotlight, before darting away as fast as he could, slipping down several side alleys as people began to chase him, shouting questions.

  All his experience avoiding Shulga came in handy, and he managed to lose the group within about fifteen minutes. Ducking into a rarely used public lavatory, he dug his scarf out of his satchel, winding it around his neck and face. He was glad Luka wasn’t expecting him at the workshop that day; the mechanic had been mentioned several times in the newscast, and plenty of people knew where to find him. At least the warehouse was secret.

  He spent the entire tram ride looking about nervously, but, luckily, he remained anonymous. Breaking away from a group of people departing the tram, he headed towards the warehouse.

  Luka was already there, carefully polishing some smaller scratches out of the ship’s woodwork. He looked up at Aleks’s harassed expression. ‘So it’s out, then?’ he presumed, and Aleks growled under his breath.

  ‘A little warning would have been nice,’ he grumbled. ‘I had to spend fifteen minutes running away from crazy people all wanting to talk to me.’

  ‘It’ll only get worse, lad,’ Luka assured him, probably thinking he was being helpful. He wasn’t.

  Aleks spent the entire day hiding in Luka’s warehouse. Drazan turned up too, claiming he’d almost been barricaded inside the tram by people who’d recognised him. Luka didn’t seem to mind the company, putting Drazan to work on polishing, and taking Aleks into the engine room to dismantle the repairs he’d made. ‘You’re lucky you didn’t kill yourselves,’ the old mechanic muttered, removing gears and chains all over the place. ‘One wrong move and the entire ship would have gone down.’

  ‘I’m not as hopeless as you think I am, Luka,’ Aleks said brightly, silently vowing never to admit how close he’d come to getting the mechanism wrong. Some things were best kept secret.

  When the hour grew late and Luka said that they were free to go if they wanted, the two men hesitated, unsure of whether they’d be able to make it home safely. Luka looked pointedly at Aleks. ‘You can’t stay here forever, lads. Might as well get it over with.’ Aleks sighed, running a hand through his hair.

  ‘I suppose you’re right,’ Drazan replied, gathering his things. ‘But if we get kidnapped or something, I’m blaming you.’

  Luka rolled his eyes. ‘Goodnight, lads.’

  No one looked twice at them as they walked through the streets, all too busy going about their own business. Aleks caught several snippets of conversations about the new country, his name involved in plenty of them, and while he was tempted to eavesdrop and hear what people thought about the news, he didn’t dare risk being seen.

  Letting his shoulders slump in relief as they rounded the corner towards the inn, he heard someone scream his name. Looking up, his eyes went wide at the sight that greeted him; the Compass was surrounded by people, all of whom were now staring at him and Drazan with eager expressions on their faces, several calling out to them. Both of them cursed, ducking back around the corner, then between two other buildings to get to the back of the inn, hiding in the stables for a breather.

  ‘We’ll have to make a run for it,’ Drazan declared. Bracing himself, Aleks darted across the short stretch of concrete towards the kitchen door, reaching for the handle. To his surprise it was locked, and he cursed again, pounding on the door. ‘Raina, it’s me! Let me in!’ he called as loud as he dared, hoping she could hear him through the thick wood. After several moments the door opened a crack and a suspicious brown eye stared out at him, widening when it landed on his face. The door opened fully and Raina ushered the pair in quickly, slamming it shut and locking it behind them.

  ‘Oh, thank the gods! We thought you’d never get home in all this madness!’ she whispered, brushing the snow off Drazan’s shoulders. Aleks tugged his hat off his head, stuffing it into his coat pocket.

  ‘What on Tellus is going on? How long have all those people been here?’ he asked, kicking off his snow-caked boots and leaving them by the kitchen door. Hanging up his coat, he headed towards the fire, welcoming the warmth.

  ‘Since shortly after the video was first broadcast,’ Raina replied, practically forcing them into chairs at the table. ‘Stay there, I’ll grab your dinner.’ She ducked away to the other end of the kitchen, returning with two bowls of chunky stew and a basket of warm bread rolls. ‘They’ve been asking all sorts of questions about you both and trying to get inside. It’s been a nightmare – our regulars can hardly get past! Some of the crowd are coming in and paying for drinks – probably hoping you’ll come home and they’ll get to talk to you – but most of them are just lurking outside. Uncle Bo said that if they didn’t leave soon he’d alert the kingsguard to take care of them.’

  ‘Storms, I knew this was a bad idea,’ muttered Aleks, and Raina squeezed his shoulders comfortingly.

  ‘It’ll all blow over,’ she said, leaving the pair to their dinner and g
etting back to work. Had Aleks known it would encroach on his personal life in such a way, he’d have had second thoughts about releasing the video. How long before someone who knew him from Rensav got wind of where he was?

  After dinner, Aleks and Drazan started washing dishes, wanting to do something to help out. When Ksenia came in to grab more food, she let out a sigh of relief when she saw them. ‘You don’t have to do that, dears,’ she insisted.

  ‘It’s the least we can do for causing all this drama,’ Aleks replied.

  Ksenia tutted. ‘This isn’t your fault – you didn’t force them to start behaving like imbeciles,’ she said.

  Aleks smiled at her, reaching out to hug her briefly. The noise outside had eased up a little; hopefully the crowd had got bored waiting and gone home. ‘Is it safe for us to go upstairs?’ he asked Ksenia.

  ‘Not quite, but give me two minutes,’ she assured him, the smallest smirk on her face. Aleks grinned back, grabbing his coat and edging towards the door, Drazan on his tail. He saw Ksenia move behind the bar, chatting amicably with one of their regulars, and handing him a pint of ale. The man went back to his table, the sway in his walk making Aleks frown; he wasn’t usually drunk this early. He stumbled as he squeezed between two chairs, knocking his entire pint into the lap of a ruddy-faced man with a bristly black moustache. Aleks recognised him too; they were friends, he thought. The man’s face went even redder, and he stood up, reaching out to grab the drunken man by the collar.

  ‘I’m terribly sorry,’ the man started, before he was cut off by a firm shove. The drunk man shouted something unintelligible, throwing a hard punch at his companion’s jaw, and then all hell broke loose. Aleks stood in the doorway, watching in shock, and was startled when a hand smacked his arm.

  ‘What are you waiting for?’ Ksenia hissed, pushing them both towards the stairs. ‘They can’t keep this up much longer – we’ll have to throw them out!’ Aleks grinned, catching on, and kissed the woman’s cheek before sprinting up the stairs, coat in hand, Drazan’s footsteps close behind. He owed both of those men a pint.