Loren nodded, and the king spoke then. “Loren, why didn’t you tell me?”
“I couldn’t, sire. It would change the way you interacted with him, and King Xavier didn’t want that. He said it could cause more harm than good.”
“Okay, okay!” Xavier announced, frustration filling his tone. “Loren, explain what you mean that the Key is mine.”
“You, future you, will create the Key to send you back in time. It was intended that your father would need extra abilities during your influx year. If your father had died during the first invasion, your influx year would have caused great harm to you. That is why when you first met the prophet, he was so horrifically scarred from the burns. Robbie died in the fire in the Woods during the peak of your influx, Xavier. Your father wasn’t there to carry her out, and as a result of your attempts to save her, you suffered severe burns over seventy-five percent of your body. It was a miracle you lived. However, after that future was averted, Robbie survived because of your father, and you didn’t suffer the burns.”
Jeremiah moaned, “Dear God.”
“You created the Key. You took metal from King’s Mountain and forged the key from that metal. Then you transferred a copy of your powers into the key. You knew your father needed access to the powers you had in order to protect himself, you, and the future of this great kingdom.”
Xavier was speechless. He had created the all-encompassing object of power!
“Could someone tell me what the hell is going on?” Ephraim blared.
As Loren tried to explain who and what the prophet was to Ephraim, the king and his son stared at one another, dumfounded.
Chapter 27
When the king, prince, and the generals exited the palace, royal guards were busily cleaning up the aftermath of war. A lot of Warwoodian lives had been lost, mostly royal guards, but the carnage of the Dark Army outnumbered that of the kingdom. Telekinetics busily piled up Dark Army bodies ready to be burned. The dead royal guards were treated with more care and respect. Their bodies lined the horseshoe-shaped drive with their royalty cloaks draped over their bodies, awaiting their families to collect them. The wounded dark soldiers and royal guards alike were taken to the infirmary for treatment.
“I’ll help dispose of the Dark Army bodies. There’s no need for our people to smell burning bodies into the night,” Xavier stated and walked away from the men toward the guards preparing to set fire to the bodies.
Ephraim questioned watching the boy approach the men, “How’s he going to prevent that?”
A young guard overheard the general and stopped in his tracks. “Sir? In a blink of an eye, the prince incinerated over a hundred dark soldiers into ash at the gatehouse. We would have been overrun by the enemy if he hadn’t. It was… amazing.”
The men looked at one another in shock.
Loren was the first to speak. “I’ve got to see this!” He hurried to where the prince stood talking to the royal guard in charge of the disposal of bodies. Loren clapped Xavier on the back and spoke. Xavier grinned and nodded.
“Jeremy!” Lana’s relieved voice cried from behind the king. He turned and swept his wife into his arms as she launched herself at him. “Oh, thank God!” Then she began to cry into his chest.
Jeremiah soothed his wife, stroking her head and kissing her forehead repeatedly. “It’s okay, sweetheart. Everything is going to be okay.”
“Xavier?” she gulped.
“He’s just fine,” the king answered, turning her so she could see the boy talking to Loren and the guard in the center of the drive.
“I was so worried. He wouldn’t leave with me! I was so afraid you’d both die!”
Jeremiah hugged her close and kissed her forehead again. “Naw. It’ll take a hell of a lot more than one measly army to kill us,” he joked.
“You can really do that?” the guard asked the boy, astounded.
“Yes, sir. I can. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be smelling these carcasses all night.”
“Agreed,” the guard nodded.
“Let me clear it with my men. I’m sure they’ll be ecstatic to be relieved of this duty.”
As the guard walked away to organize his men, Loren sidled up next to Xavier. “I’ve got to see this.”
Xavier looked up at the general. “I’m a little afraid to use it.” He glanced back at his father hugging Lana. “Loren,” he continued in a whisper, “I didn’t even know it would happen. The… the dark soldiers wouldn’t listen! I tried! I really tried to get them to listen and leave Warwood, but they wouldn’t. Then one of them… well, he taunted me. I got mad. I figured if I could do something big… something really scary, they’d just leave.”
“Well, I’d say your mission was accomplished!” Loren responded with a grin, but when he saw the tears on the boy’s face, his mirth dropped. “Hey, now. Xavier, it’s okay.” He hugged the boy. He was only a boy. How old had he been when he had to kill his first man? Twenty? Twenty-one? Lord, how he struggled with it! How much more difficult would that be for a fourteen-year-old?
“I didn’t mean to kill all of them!” the boy muttered against the general’s chest. “I only meant to kill the one that was teasing me so that the others would be afraid and run. The power was so strong… I couldn’t… I didn’t know how to… channel it, stop it. Please! Please, don’t tell Dad. Please!” he pleaded.
Loren pushed the prince to arm’s length and met his eyes before stating, “Young sire, war is messy. Nothing goes as planned or as we’d like. In the first invasion, I…” Loren paused to clear his throat, “I killed a kid. He was a dark soldier, but he was still just a boy. However, if I hadn’t stopped him, he would have killed an unarmed woman with a small child. Bad things happen in war, but it doesn’t make us bad people. As for not telling your father, I think you’re worried over nothing where he’s concerned. If anyone understands what you’re going through, it’s him.”
Xavier nodded and quickly wiped away his tears as the guard returned. “Prince Wells? If you give my men another half hour or so, we should have all the dark soldiers ready to go.”
Xavier gave the man a quick nod. Then, remembering Fox’s bodyguard who had plummeted off the side of the palace’s patio, he added, “Sergeant? There should be another body on the east side of the palace. A dark soldier… ah… fell off the patio.”
A smirk filled Loren’s face. “Fell, huh? Bet he had help with that fall.”
Xavier smirked back at the general. “Of course he did.” That was one death he didn’t feel one iota of guilt over.
Nearly a half-hour later, Warwoodian citizens started to return from hiding, including the teachers and children from the academy.
“XAVIER!” Robbie screeched.
Xavier turned to see Robbie sprinting toward him, her face red and tears streaming down her cheeks like rivers. Something in his gut twisted at the sight of her distraught face. He felt guilty for making her worry and causing her any kind of pain. As she reached him, Xavier scooped her up, hugged her close, and spun her in circles.
“I’m okay! I’m okay,” he whispered as she muffled her racking sobs in his shoulder.
He set her to her feet and cupped her face in his hands. He could feel his own tears now. “I’m okay. It’s over, Robbie. It’s all over.” He kissed her tenderly, but her emotions were too raw to keep the kiss tender. He could feel her love, her desperation, and her relief in her kiss, and it made his knees weak.
When they finally withdrew, Robbie giggled. “You’re glowing.”
For once, Xavier didn’t care. He didn’t care who saw him glowing. He wanted the entire kingdom to know that he loved this girl. With a smile, he kissed her back and felt her surprise and something else as he put his whole heart into that kiss. She whimpered as he withdrew, and he smiled at her again.
“I’ve got some work to do. I… I’m not sure you should watch though. It’s… it’s not a very… pleasant task.”
“No, Xavier. I’m not leaving yo
ur side again,” she whispered, and together they watched the guard finish piling up the enemy bodies.
Nearly thirty minutes later, the sergeant approached Xavier.
“Are we ready?” Xavier asked him.
The guard gave him a nod and saluted him. Xavier felt his father’s presence behind him long before the king’s hand grasped his shoulder reassuringly. Closing his eyes briefly, Xavier imagined the pile of bodies turning to ash. Almost instantly, the group around him expelled sounds of awe and surprise, and when Xavier opened his eyes, the bodies were gone and in their place was a pile of ash.
Later that night, Xavier sat on the sofa in the receiving room lost in thought, and oddly, feeling extremely lonely. Although the dark soldiers had left him with no other choice, killing them the way he did left him feeling guilty and alone. No one could understand how he felt. He was still a freak among freaks. He was the king of freaks and many people acted awkward or even fearful around him. Would he ever fit in?
“Son?” his father called from behind him.
Xavier turned and found his father and Lana with an arm around each other giving him looks of sympathy.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Xavier murmured, turning away from his parents.
The pair entered the receiving room and sat next to him on the couch. His father pulled him into his arms like he was a toddler. He felt awkward at first. He was nearly fifteen for crying out loud, but the comfort he so sorely needed was there, in his father’s arms. So he allowed it.
His father stroked his head as he spoke, “Son, I cannot imagine having to do what you had to do at fourteen. Everything you faced today was more than most men could tolerate. I’m proud of you. But I want you to know something.”
Xavier sighed and muttered, “What?”
“You are not alone. Everything you’re feeling right now is perfectly normal. Son, I’m feeling those same feelings. It’s never easy to kill a man, even when you have no choice. It’s okay to feel bad about it. It’s okay to feel guilty. You care and respect human life, so these feelings are only natural. Unlike you, however, I’ve had practice in dealing with these feelings.”
Xavier looked up at his father, curious. “What did you do to make it go away?”
“It never really goes away, but it will fade in time. Being around the people you love will definitely help. You shouldn’t be alone.”
Xavier nodded.
His father kissed his forehead before telling him, “You better get the door, son. It’s for you.”
Suddenly there was a loud knock at the door. Xavier looked at his father’s grinning face suspiciously before standing and going to the door. When he opened it, he was suddenly tackled by a half dozen bodies. They tumbled to the floor with a thud. Then someone stuck a wet finger in his ear.
“Hey there, Mr. Bigshot!” Garrett’s voice announced before the group giggled and wrestled around with each other.
Slowly the kids began to climb off Xavier, who was grinning from ear to ear. “Hey! What are you guys doing here?”
“Your dad invited us to spend the night in the palace. How could we say no to that?”
Xavier looked at each face and stopped at Robbie’s. He turned to his dad.
“Really? They’re all staying?”
The king nodded. “Yep, but each person will be in their own sleeping bag, and Loren, Lucy, Ephraim, Rebecca, Lana, and I will be supervising. So there will be no hanky-panky!”
“Good thing!” Xavier blurted, eyeing his father with mirth. “You and Lana would embarrass the crap out of me if you started that nonsense in front of my friends.”
The king’s bellowing laugh had the entire group giggling.
“Touché, son.”
In the next couple of weeks, life in Warwood returned to normal. Xavier continued his lessons at the academy in the morning and his lessons on kingship with his father in the afternoons. The feelings of guilt and loneliness began to subside just as his father said they would.
“Well, that’s it for the day,” his father announced from behind his desk. “What have you learned?”
“I’ve learned that you must read a proposal aloud three times before it can be voted on by the legislative body. I’ve learned that Warwood is not completely self-sufficient in our food sources, and that we depend on local common farmers and fishermen to help provide for our food needs.”
“Good, and what have you learned about our laws in today’s discussions?”
“Ah, that it’s illegal for the king to intimidate or bully any citizen into breaking the codes or passing laws that the king sees fit. If the king wants to present a new law, he must do so himself without intimidation.”
“Good! Now, what would you like to work on in combat training today?”
Xavier had been thinking about this for weeks, since he saw his father in action during the War of Kings. He would never know if his father was as good as he seemed to be if he didn’t have a bout with him. The few times he fought his father at the mountain, he had always held back. Although Xavier hadn’t realized it at the time, he knew it for certain now. His father was a very powerful man in his own right.
Xavier grinned. “You, Father. I want to bout with you.”
The king laughed loudly. “Are you sure about that, kiddo? I won’t hold back. I will hurt you.”
Xavier grinned cheekily. “Well, I’ll hurt you, so we’ll be even.”
Again the king laughed. “Well if you’re sure…”
“I am.”
“You know what they say, ‘Be careful of what you wish for.’”
Nearly an hour later, the king and prince stood in the center of the rugby pitch suiting up their armor and preparing for the training exercise. When Xavier’s friends realized who he was fighting, Frankie ran out of the arena and returned with a never-ending line of people. Soon the arena was nearly half full of spectators and observers, all of whom were freakishly silent.
“Ready, son?” the king called from across the field.
“Nearly,” Xavier answered as he tried to get his head into the exercise and off the crowd gathered to watch them.
Jeremiah approached the boy confidently, placed his hands on his shoulders, and looked him in the eye. “Xavier, forget about the people. Pretend it’s just you and me at King’s Mountain messing around and having a quick bout.”
Xavier nodded and did his best to do as his father suggested. He lost all concentration, however, when Robbie screamed from the sideline, “Go, Xavier! You can do it! I believe in you.”
He looked over at his girlfriend grinning like a fool. Just one kiss for luck, he thought and jogged over to where Robbie stood.
“Hey,” he breathed out as he stopped in front of her.
“Hi,” she answered with a large smile.
“Kiss for luck?” he asked, smiling bashfully.
“Oh, I’ll kiss you for anything, anytime, anywhere!” she whispered before planting a breath-stealer on his lips. “Good luck,” she whispered, separating from him.
With an enormous grin, Xavier jogged back to the center of the pitch across from his father, who was shaking his head.
“What? It was for good luck,” Xavier responded indignantly.
His father laughed loudly. “You’re going to need it, son,” he teased, giving his son a cocky smile.
“We’ll see, old man. Bring it!” he challenged back, beckoning his father with a simple wave of his hand.
The king’s grin broadened, and he approached languidly. Xavier immediately scanned his father’s approach, looking for an opening. He saw it and immediately went into attack mode by faking a low blow then going high. His father blocked the attack with a grin.
“Nice try,” he goaded.
Great! His father was going to rub in any mistakes. Well, two can play that game!
The king stepped backward and returned the confident beckoning gesture Xavier had given him just a moment before. Trying not to laugh, Xavier swung low in a direct attack, try
ing to swipe the king’s legs out from under him. The king jumped backwards, and before Xavier’s swing even finished, the king went on the attack with a wide arc of his sword. Xavier barely had a chance to move out of the path of the strike let alone block it. His father’s sword nicked his shoulder. Clenching his teeth against the sting, he attacked the king recklessly. The king anticipated the attack and sent him stumbling past with a kick to the butt.
Rubbing his butt, Xavier glowered at his father as snickers from the stands filtered down to him. Reminded that hundreds of people were in the stands watching sent heat spreading across his cheeks. Regaining his composure, Xavier and the king studied one another, waiting for an opening. The king suddenly lunged at his son. Xavier, startled by the attack, stumbled backwards, lost his footing, and fell to the ground. He managed to lift his sword in defense as the king’s sword swept down at him. The clang of metal against metal echoed around the arena, and several appreciative groans came from the stands. Xavier rolled quickly to the right, sweeping the legs out from under the king. His father fell to the ground with a grunt, buying Xavier time to spring to his feet. He spun and swung his sword at his father, but it never made contact. The king had used telekinesis to cast the sword out of his hands. It flew twenty feet away and landed blade down, wedging itself deep into the turf.
In the time it took Xavier to realize his sword was missing and its location, his father was on the attack again. As the king barreled down on him, Xavier teleported directly behind the king, but the king seemed to know his every move and instantly spun, backhanding him to the ground. Xavier could taste the blood from his busted lip. Feelings of betrayal and hurt flooded his body, and the king lowered his sword a fraction.
“Son, you wanted this. What kind of king would I be, what kind of father would I be if I just let you win?”
Understanding, Xavier nodded and pushed his feelings aside. Then it occurred to him. His father was not anticipating his every move, he was monitoring his thoughts and feelings!
The Prince of Warwood and The War of Kings Page 26
