The King's Secret

by Maryam Durrani

  And to be the strongest of all the kingdoms . . . That would be my chance to redeem myself. Nothing was stopping me. Right now, I could pull away, or let him suffocate my hand.

  I thought of Lance, Lorelle, and Zinovia. I waited for one of the names to pull me back, but they didn’t. Jax and Isabel had a lot more weight. Then Xavier. Xavier would understand. He would come with me. Wouldn’t he?

  I pulled my hand away.

  I knew the kind of person Valentin was. He would use me and then snuff me out like a flame the first chance he got.

  “I can’t.” I flexed my fingers, rubbing life back into my hand.

  His face didn’t change as if he had expected this answer.

  “What if I told you I knew how to kill the drakon?”

  That caught my attention.

  “You’re not going to tell me, are you?” I stepped back, letting out a sigh.

  “No.”

  “You can’t do it alone, you know that.”

  “I can try.”

  Suddenly, an idea came to me.

  “What if I helped you defeat the drakon?” I asked. He crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for me to continue. “Until the drakon is out of the way, we could work together.”

  He seemed to mull it over.

  “You know, Assassin,” he said, raising his eyebrows, “I don’t trust you.”

  “Do you think I trust you?” I scoffed. “You’re the last person I’d go to for help, but right now you might be the only one with answers. And I think we want the same thing, Your High-

  ness.”

  “You’re willing to partner up to kill the drakon? And then

  what, we go back to being mortal enemies?” He raised an eyebrow, dark eyes gazing at me, pulling me in.

  What had become of me? Once, I had only cared about power. I made no friends because I knew what would happen.

  This would happen.

  Hesitation. Obligation. Commitment.

  There was a reason I couldn’t leap forward and accept his offer. I had people waiting for me, depending on me.

  I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and swallowed.

  “By then, if nothing has changed, then we’ll resume our conflict.”

  Valentin crossed his arms over his chest, letting his head hang for a moment.

  “Fine,” he said, looking up. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  I missed Xavier.

  Slowly, the missing started to become a deep longing. He was miles away. There was a drakon on the loose. If anything were happening, if he were in trouble, it would take me months to be notified, let alone rush to a rescue.

  Not that Xavier needed my rescuing. Not that I needed his. But, I needed him. Just a little bit. Just a glimpse of his golden eyes, or cheerful grin.

  Oh, who was I kidding?

  I needed a lot of him.

  I groaned, throwing back my head.

  I should have just brought him along with me.

  No, Astodia needed him. If I wasn’t there, they needed the

  next best thing. After all, who knew how to rule a kingdom better than him?

  No offense, Lorelle.

  Royalty may have run in her blood, but her skills were no

  match for Xavier’s—this was an entirely unbiased thought.

  “The king will see the both of you,” a voice said. I looked up, only to see a man instead of Aedon.

  “He made up his mind, did he?”

  “Phoenix is waiting for you outside the throne room.”

  I nodded, making my way past him.

  Finally. Time to face the beast.

  NINETEEN

  We were alone, save a few guards.

  The king let us speak first.

  “Your Majesties,” I greeted, bowing my head in respect towards the king and queen, although every muscle in my body screamed in protest. He responded with a nod. “Your Highness,” I nodded at the princess whose lip curled in response. Fake. “I come on behalf of Queen Lorelle and Princess Zinovia.” Words flashed through my brain, swirling, mixing, rearranging. “We would like to . . .” We would like to what? All the planning, thinking, worrying slipped away, leaving me with no words in my mouth.

  He waited, raising his eyebrows. I stopped myself from charging up there and yanking his blond beard.

  “We would like to call for a . . .” I glanced at Ashes, who furrowed her eyebrows. “A truce.”

  King Adrean seemed surprised as well. In fact, he seemed amused.

  “A truce? You came all this way . . . for a truce?”

  “Not just a truce, Your Majesty,” I continued, the words now rolling off my tongue with ease, “we came to ask for help.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ashes’s jaw drop.

  That seemed to do it.

  He threw back his head, letting out snorts of laughter. I waited until he was done.

  “Help?” he said between gasps for breath. “This is war, As-

  sassin. You must be out of your mind. Your queen,” he mocked, “must really be ready to raise the white flag. She wants assistance from her enemy?”

  “Your villages are burning,” I responded with no emotion, as if his words were useless and ineffective, which they were, “it’s destroying everything. If we don’t get this beast out of the way, it’ll end us before there can even be a war.”

  That seemed to silence his mocking guffaws.

  “I’ve heard of this beast, but that’s all. They’re but rumors.”

  “I’ve seen what it can do with my eyes. On our journey, we passed a village left in ruins. Bodies were unrecognizable. If we are at war with each other, we’ll leave an opening for the drakon to destroy us all.”

  His blue eyes widened.

  “Drakon?”

  I could tell his fit of mocking laughter was coming back, so I continued quickly.

  “I wouldn’t lie,” I said, turning to Ashes who stood silent, staring straight into the king’s soul. “Phoenix, I’m sure your word matters to the king. Why don’t you tell him?”

  Her head snapped towards me. “I have no say here, not while I’m on the opposite side of this war.”

  “Did you or did you not see proof of the drakon?” I pressed.

  She rolled her eyes. “I saw the charred humans, yes. It was unnatural—the fire, the remains. There’s no way a human could have done it.”

  “The girl is right, her words have no weight here,” the king said coldly. “If it weren’t for your mother, you would have been hanging from the ceiling right now.” King Adrean stood up, stepping off the dais. His eyes narrowed. “Fortunately for you,” he said, stepping towards me, “I received news that one

  of my villages on the border has been reduced to mere lumps

  of coal.”

  Fortunately? One of his villages had been destroyed—men, women, and children—and that’s the term he decided to use?

  “So whatever this creature is—human or mythical beast—it must be put to a stop.”

  “This is not an alliance, I believe?” I raised my eyebrows.

  The smirk was back. He tsked, shaking his head.

  “Oh, Assassin. It seems as if we were one step ahead after all.”

  I frowned. “What?”

  “You see, I’ll be honest,” he said, clasping his hands behind his back. “King Sadim had always been a threat to me. He had you, a coldhearted murder. Now he’s dead,” King Adrean laughed, “and you are standing in the middle of my castle, my domain, my kingdom. And you are powerless.”

  My stomach churned.

  “What . . . do you mean?”

  “These princesses you have replaced him with, trying to rule their kingdoms . . . How did you ever think it would work? They are merely porcelain dolls. If you blow on them, they’ll shatter.”

  “What have you done?”

  “They set off two days ago, didn’t you know?”

  Set off? Who? What?

  Ashes’s wide eyes met mine. “Adalia. The army.”

>   King Adrean had already sent his army towards Astodia. Panic flapped wildly in my chest.

  The princess laughed, icy eyes glinting with mischief.

  “Father, let them go. They’ll never make it in time, and be-

  sides—it’ll be even more fun to let her watch her kingdom burn to the ground.”

  I should have seen it coming.

  “And the drakon,” King Adrean added as his final word, “no need to worry about that. Once it’s under our control, you’ll have nothing to worry about.”

  Was that what Valentin was talking about? Did King Adrean know how to control the drakon?

  He started to laugh again.

  Now, I was shocked. Utterly speechless. The queen’s eyes were on me, an amused look on her face. She sat with her back straight, arms on each armrest, absolutely relaxed.

  Why had I let him fool me so easily? A part of me thought that this whole time, he would be glad to have a ceasefire. But this made more sense. All the time he made us wait, he was only laughing behind our backs.

  I had to make a decision.

  I stared into King Adrean’s eyes with enough malice as I could.

  “Run.”

  Ashes pulled kitchen knives out of her boots, whirling towards the guards. The laughter had ceased, the smirks replaced with looks of anguish.

  The king stood up.

  “Put your weapons down. You’ll never make it out of here alive, Assassin!”

  I spun on my heel, ignoring his threats. Two guards had pulled out their swords, Ashes busy dodging their attacks. I felt someone grip my hair, yanking it back. Tears of pain sprang to my eyes. Reaching back, I grabbed the attacker’s fist with hands. I spun around, ducked under his arm and twisted it upwards until I heard a crack.

  The guard screamed as I pushed him back, slamming him into a pillar.

  Hearing footsteps behind me, I pulled up my elbow, aiming it at the man’s neck. He was taller than I had imagined, so the

  point of my elbow crashed into his sternum.

  “Your men really need chestplates,” I said to the king.

  Before I could act, Ashes jumped onto the man from behind, hooking her arm around his throat. She held on with a serpent-like grip as he gasped for air, trying to slam her against the wall to loosen her grip. With her free hand, Ashes tossed me her knife.

  “More of them are going to come,” I said to her as the man toppled over to the ground. She stood up, brushing the dirt off her hands. “We have to go.”

  She nodded.

  “You can run,” King Adrean called, “but you can’t hide!” As I pushed open the doors, I heard him shout at the men who stood protecting the queen and princess. “What are you waiting for? Go get them!”

  The moment felt eerily familiar. Flashbacks of Trella flipped through my mind. I couldn’t get injured again.

  “Oh, shit,” Ashes said as we pushed past a group of ladies. “Look!”

  I squinted to see Valentin standing at the end of the corridor, guards behind him.

  He stood like an eagle waiting to grab its prey with its talons.

  I pulled on Ashes’s arm, bringing her to a stop.

  “Where are you going?” Valentin asked me, looking as up and down. “What’s the rush?”

  “Move out of the way,” I spat, yanking out the knife Ashes had given me earlier. “The king told us everything. We know

  about the army.”

  “What army?” he continued to ask.

  “Get out of the way,” I said, taking a step towards him.

  The guards pulled out their swords, aiming them Ashes and

  I.

  “Don’t let them go,” one of the king’s guards called from across the hall, catching up with us.

  We were surrounded.

  “Damn it,” Ashes hissed under her breath. She gripped the knife in her fist, but it wasn’t enough. We weren’t enough.

  “What’s going on, Assassin?” Valentin pressed. He seemed genuinely confused.

  “The king fooled us,” Ashes said through gritted teeth. “He kept us here and sent his army towards Astodia already.”

  “What?”

  “He never planned on helping us or calling a truce.”

  “Does . . . does my father know?”

  “We don’t know.” I could feel the coldness radiating off the metal blades towards the skin on my neck, creating goosebumps.

  “You tried distracting me,” I said to Valentin, “asking me to join you when the whole time, you knew what was happening behind my back.”

  “I may be a cunning, intelligent human being,” Valentin said, raising his eyebrows, “but in all honesty, I had absolutely no idea this was happening. Seems like my father and I have a lot to talk about.”

  I glanced at the blades, the sharp tips pointed at us in a perfect ring. There was no way to escape.

  Unless . . .

  My eyes flicked to their boots, and then Valentin’s eyes.

  I waited for him to shout, to signal his men, but nothing

  happened. His eyes stayed on me.

  “Below,” I said without moving my lips in a whisper that

  barely existed—one that only Ashes could hear. “Now.”

  We dropped to the floor, rolling out from between the

  guards’ legs. In a flurry, all of them scattered, leaping to the ground in hopes of catching us.

  One of the guards grabbed my leg, pulling me towards him. I kicked at his fingers, knocking the sword out of his grasp, and gripped it between my hands.

  The guards had gotten back to their positions, forming a wall in front of us.

  “Ready?” I told Ashes. She looking at me, nodding.

  Three.

  Two.

  One.

  As my body jerked forward, ready to throw myself into the sea of blades, Valentin raised his hand.

  “Stop.”

  The guards, who had also taken steps forward, paused, confused.

  He pulled back the left side of his cloak.

  To my shock, I recognized the emerald hilt that hung by his side.

  “That’s . . .”

  “Yours?” He pulled it out with a metallic sound. “From your adventures in Trella.”

  The sword had been a gift from Xavier’s mother. She had told me I would grow into it. I had completely forgotten that I had left it behind.

  The next thing he did surprised me more. He stepped forward, spinning the blade towards him and holding the hilt out to me.

  “It’s yours.”

  There was a shocked silence.

  “It’s not a fair fight if you’re in unfamiliar territory with a weapon not suited for you. If you’re a goner anyway, why not give you a chance to fight to your death?” he smirked. “You’re no good to me dead, Assassin. Let’s see what you can do.”

  I took the sword from his grasp. He turned, flicking his wrist at the guards. Immediately, they parted, giving us way.

  “There’s your head-start. I’ll count to sixty . . . Hmm . . .” He furrowed his eyebrows. “How does sixty-five sound?”

  Ashes was the first to go. She took off.

  I opened my mouth to say something, but Valentin cut me off.

  “One . . .”

  Without looking back, I began to run. I had to warn Lance, Taj, and the Knights.

  I found Lance and the Knights at the local tavern after searching through every possible room they might have been in.

  Eventually, Ashes suggested the tavern, and sure enough, that’s where I found them.

  “Get up,” I said, slamming my hands on the table. The cups rattled, liquid sloshing.

  “Whoa, relax,” Simon slurred, looking up at me. “Well hello there, gorgeous.”

  “Get the hell up,” I hissed, grabbing onto the back of his neck and yanking him from his seat. For extra effect, Ashes grabbed a jug of water and poured it over his head. “We’ve been here too long. We have to get back.”

  “Hey, the fun just started,” Ass
elin rolled his eyes, holding up his cup. “Cheers,” he said, letting it clang against the others cups. Batch grinned, chugging down the contents of his cup.

  “Join us,” Lance said with a lazy smile, gesturing towards two empty seats.

  “Listen to me,” I said under my breath, leaning over so that I was at eye-level. At the entrance, I noticed two guards with their eyes on me. “The king already sent his army to Astodia. We have to get the hell out of here.”

  That got his attention. Lance jumped to his feet, alert.

  “Get up,” he said, snapping his fingers. “Out. All of you.”

  Taj was the only one who didn’t seem to be drinking anything. I motioned for him to follow me outside.

  While the Knights got themselves together, I waited outside with Taj, the night air chilly. Snow had started to fall again, but for now, it was a soft flurry.

  “We don’t have weapons,” Taj said, checking his belt. “They took them all.”

  I rubbed my face. “They’ll be looking for us. We have to blend in.”

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “I’ll explain later, but it happens to be that the king took the easy way out. They’re looking for us,” I said, lowering my voice, “follow my lead.”

  I walked inside, turning to the guards.

  “A man is harassing a lady outside the tavern. Please, help her!” I pleaded. They looked at each other, exchanging glances.

  Then, puffing out their chests, they walked outside.

  “Where is he?” one of them said gruffly, and I pointed at Taj who raised an eyebrow. As the guards turned towards him, I raised my elbow and brought it down as hard as I could on the back of his neck.

  “Hey!” the other guard let out a cry of surprise, sliding out his sword. Taj took the opportunity, grabbing his arm and twisting it behind his back. Then, he grabbed his helmet and slammed it against the stone wall. They dropped like flies,

  knocked out.

  I grabbed onto the guard’s shoulders, pulling him around to

  the side of the tavern where no one could be seen. Taj followed suit.

  “Change,” I gestured. “Quickly.”

  “I—”

  “Don’t worry, I’m not watching,” I rolled my eyes. I made my way towards the front of the tavern again where the rest of the Knights had gathered and led them to where Taj was changing into the guard’s outfit. “Lance, you change too. Take the sword.”