The Kingdom Thief (Sitnalta Series Book 2)

by Alisse Lee Goldenberg

  “Enter,” Queen Kika called.

  The door opened and a man in armour entered. “Your Highness,” he said. “I need your guests to come with me. The King requests their presence. He tells me it is of utmost importance.”

  “I see,” the Queen responded. “Did my husband tell you what it was about?”

  “I am sorry, but I was not told,” the guard said.

  “Of course,” Queen Kika replied. She turned to Aud and Sitnalta. “I’m sorry that our morning had to end early. But you know the ways of kings.”

  “I do,” Aud smiled.

  “I actually enjoyed it,” Sitnalta said. She winced at hearing how her words sounded. “I’m sorry. I didn’t meant to make it sound like...”

  “Don’t fret,” Queen Kika said with a gentle laugh.

  Sitnalta rose and went to follow the guard. As she walked down the hall alongside Aud, she felt a nervous pit grow in her stomach. She couldn’t get the look on the guard’s face out of her mind. There was something so sad and familiar about him. It couldn’t be that she’d seen him around the castle. She’d seen so many guards that they had all blurred together. This one seemed too familiar. She walked on, chewing on her bottom lip absentmindedly as she puzzled over the issue at hand. She stopped suddenly as it hit her. She reached out and clutched at Aud’s arm.

  “Aud,” she frantically whispered.

  “What?” Aud asked.

  Sitnalta shushed her as the guard turned.

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  Sitnalta tried very hard to put an innocent look on her face. “I stubbed my toe,” she said.

  “Oh,” the guard replied. “Are you all right?”

  “Yes,” she said, making a show of hopping about. “I’ll be okay.”

  Sitnalta waited until he turned and continued on before turning back to Aud. “It’s Jess!” she hissed.

  “You know this guard?” Aud asked, feeling quite confused.

  “No,” Sitnalta insisted. She spoke as quietly as she could. “It’s Jess. I remember him from home. He used to work in the stables when my father was King.”

  “Gerald?”

  “No. Supmylo.”

  “So,” Aud looked critically at the young man leading them. She felt her heart start to thump wildly in her chest.

  Sitnalta looked around and took a gamble. “This isn’t the way to King Parven’s study,” she called out to Jess.

  “No,” he answered. His voice sounded grim. “It’s not.” He turned to the two women following him. “I would suggest you do nothing to attract attention or run. It would do you no good, and I don’t want to have to hurt you.”

  “Where are you taking us?” Aud asked.

  “Home,” Jess answered.

  “No, you’re not,” Aud said. She turned to Sitnalta. “Run.”

  Without a second thought, Sitnalta turned and ran down the hall. She heard Aud yell at Jess, and the sound of someone grunting as they fell to the floor. She sensed Jess running behind her but didn’t dare look back. She screamed for help as she heard his footsteps getting louder as he caught up to her. She heard the scrape of steel as he drew his sword, and felt a blinding pain as he brought its hilt down hard against the back of her head.

  The last thing Sitnalta remembered was Jess’s murmured apology as the world went black.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Panic

  Prince Navor went looking for Sitnalta. The day before, she had promised to meet him for lunch but hadn’t shown up. He gave her some time before deciding that she had either forgotten or had been pulled away by another obligation. He decided to go ask his mother if she knew what had happened and found her cutting some roses for a bouquet.

  “What brings you to the garden, my son?” the Queen asked as he approached.

  “I was supposed to dine with Princess Sitnalta,” Navor answered. “She never arrived, and I was wondering if you knew where she had gone.”

  “Your father called her and Queen Aud to meet with him. Perhaps they’re still with him.”

  “Thank you,” Navor said. He gave his mother a quick kiss on the cheek and ran into the castle to head towards his father’s study.

  He made his way to the door to the King’s study and knocked. He received no answer and was about to turn and go enquire into his father’s whereabouts when he saw one of the King’s servants walking towards him carrying a tray of food.

  “Good afternoon, my Prince,” she said with an awkward curtsy.

  “Good afternoon, Katelyn,” Navor answered. “What are you doing here?”

  “Your father sent a guard to tell us that he was not leaving his study today. He asked for all meals to be brought to him.”

  “That’s odd,” Navor said. He looked at Katelyn and frowned. “That’s not like him at all. I just tried knocking and there was no answer.” He turned back to the door and knocked again. Still, he received no response.

  Katelyn looked worried. “Could he have fallen asleep at his desk?”

  “It’s not like him to do so,” Navor replied. He reached out and grasped the handle of the door. Cautiously, he turned it and entered the room.

  Navor felt as if the wind had been knocked out of him. The room was in disarray. Papers were strewn everywhere. Furniture was thrown over. One of the King’s chairs had a leg snapped off, and there was a deep gouge in his father’s large mahogany desk. Navor stepped further into the room and gasped. Lying in a heap, hidden behind an overturned armchair was King Parven. He ran to his father, feeling a moment of panic before seeing the King’s chest rising and falling with each breath he took.

  Navor turned to Katelyn. “Run,” he told her. “Go get help. We need a healer, and the guards need to be on high alert. Tell my mother that the King has been attacked. We also need to find King Gerald, Queen Aud, and Princess Sitnalta.”

  Katelyn stood for a moment, her face pale. Navor felt concerned that she was about to faint. She quickly snapped out of it and put her tray down before turning and running down the hall, as fast as her legs could carry her.

  Navor knelt over his father, trying to see how badly he was injured. He was scared to move him. What if doing so made his father’s injuries worse? He rose and pulled the armchair away from the fallen King so that he would have more room to try and roll him over. He gently placed his hands on Parven’s shoulder and gingerly rolled him onto his back, barely aware that he was holding his breath as he did so. The right side of King Parven’s head was sticky with blood. Navor could see that somebody had knocked him senseless and left him. He was shaken and angry that this had happened in their home. He wondered how such a thing could have happened. He feared that this meant that Wilhelm had discovered what they had done.

  Approaching footsteps attracted his attention, and Prince Navor looked up to see Captain Josiah arrive with the castle’s healer.

  “Step back,” the healer said.

  Navor did and watched as the healer tended to the King. His old and wrinkled hands were steady in spite of his age.

  “We should move him to his chambers,” the healer said after he had cleaned the King’s wounds. “He should be comfortable as he heals.”

  “He’ll be all right?” Navor asked.

  “Of course he will,” the healer said. “Your father’s seen worse. I remember having to sew up the whole side of his leg after he fell off his horse as a boy. Your grandmother was screaming that he was sure to lose it. This is a mere bump on the head compared to that. Don’t worry, my Prince.”

  Navor nodded. He knew the old man was just trying to make him feel better, and he appreciated the gesture. He turned to Josiah. “We need to find the men who were behind this.”

  “Of course,” the captain said. His dark eyes flashed with anger. “I put my men on high alert. We will comb every inch of the kingdom. I am sorry that this happened on my watch. I will not allow this to go unanswered. Your father will have his restitution.”


  “I don’t doubt that,” Navor said. “Get a couple of your men to help move my father. I want him resting peacefully. He’ll be back on his feet soon enough. I want him to have answers the moment he wakes.”

  Josiah nodded, bowed to the Prince and left to fulfill his orders. Navor turned back to his father and settled down on the floor beside him. He took his hand, hoping his father knew he was there, offering him strength. The Prince did not have to wait long before two of Josiah’s men entered the room. They flanked the King and gently lifted him up between them and carried him out to his chambers. Navor scurried after them to find his mother already waiting by the bed. He saw fear in her eyes, and she held her hand to her mouth as she watched her husband placed underneath the covers.

  “Do you know what happened?” Queen Kika asked her son in a shaky voice.

  Navor shook his head. “All I know is that there looked like there was a struggle. He was on the floor when I got there. I don’t know how long he was like that.”

  Queen Kika went over the day’s events in her mind. She desperately wanted to find some clue as to who had done this. The colour drained from her face as she latched onto a memory. “No,” she moaned. “There was a young man who came to see me. He was dressed in one of our guard’s uniforms. I had just assumed he was new to the castle. I know that we had brought on more men for security. But now...”

  Navor listened as his mother talked her way through it in halting sentences.

  “He said your father wanted to see Sitnalta and Queen Aud,” Kika said. She reached out and grasped Navor’s hand. “We need to find them. Now! I am such an idiot! I don’t think he was one of our men at all!”

  Navor let out a cry. He turned to the men who had brought the King. “Find out if the Princess has been found! Do it!”

  The two men ran from the room as if the Prince had lit a fire under them. Navor watched them go and went to his mother. She had sat down on the bed beside his father and was idly stroking his hair.

  “He’s going to be okay,” Navor said. He wasn’t sure if he was saying it to convince her, or himself.

  “I know,” she replied. She looked up at her son with red-rimmed eyes. “We’ll get her back.”

  “I know,” Navor said, though he was far from certain. He sat beside her and joined her in her vigil.

  Hours passed by and Navor stayed by his mother’s side. He hated waiting, but wasn’t sure what else he should be doing. He felt utterly useless. He wanted to help the search, but when Josiah had returned and said that it was ongoing, he had told Navor to stay where he was. The captain had been firm in his instructions, not wanting another member of the royal family to fall prey to an attack. Until he and the other guards were certain that the people behind all of this were truly gone, he wanted the Prince safely secured with the King and Queen. The Prince was frustrated, scared, and bored, all at once, and he despised the feeling. He hated not knowing what was happening, and the fact that his father had not woken up yet. He hated that Sitnalta was not at his side helping him through this. He wanted to scream his frustrations to the heavens. Every time the door opened and a servant or a guard entered the room, he jumped at the tiniest scraps of news they offered. Yet no questions of his went properly answered. Navor checked the passing of time by watching the sun’s progress through the sky from the balcony of his parents’ bedchamber.

  As the sun set, Captain Josiah entered the room once more.

  “My Prince,” he said with a bow. “My Queen.”

  “Captain,” Queen Kika answered.

  “What news do you have for us?” Navor asked impatiently.

  “I regret to inform you that the news I bring you is not good,” Josiah said with a grim look on his face. “We have searched the castle and the grounds from top to bottom and there is not a trace of King Gerald, Queen Aud, or Princess Sitnalta. The back gate was open, and tracks for a cart were found. We sent men along the path, and a fisherman was caught poaching in the woods nearby. We released him with a warning. He says he hid while a host of men went by pulling a wagon with a large moving shape obscured by burlap as its haul.”

  “The ship is no longer anchored off the beach. It sailed soon after the fisherman says he saw these men.”

  “What ship?” Navor asked. He felt as if the room was spinning.

  “Your father was told that a ship was anchored off the far end of the island. He was looking into whom it could have belonged to,” Josiah told him.

  “I think we have a good idea now,” Navor said. He rubbed his temples. His head was pounding. “We need to go after them. Wilhelm thinks he can send people here to our home and do this? We cannot let this stand!” He looked Josiah in the eye. “Can you be ready to sail within the hour? I will meet you at the gate.”

  Queen Kika gasped. “What are you going to do?”

  “I am going after them,” Navor replied. “Mother, I will not lose her. I can’t lose her.”

  The Queen looked at her son with a mixture of concern and admiration. She had known that he and the Princess had gotten closer. As much as this worried her, she knew that his love for her was real. “I want to tell you not to go,” she said.

  “I have to go,” Navor told her as he knelt down in front of her. He took her hands in his. “Mother, I love her.”

  “I know,” she said. “That’s why I won’t tell you not to go. Just be careful, my son. I can’t lose you.”

  Navor hesitated. He knew that she just might anyway, yet he felt that he couldn’t tell her. Not now. Not like this.

  “You won’t lose me,” he said. He prayed it sounded honest. He stood and leaned over his father, and kissed his forehead. “Wake up. We need you here.”

  “Good luck,” Queen Kika said, pulling her son into a tight embrace.

  “Thank you,” Navor said. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  Navor turned and left the room. As he reached the door, he looked back at his parents, and gave a silent prayer that he would return home to see them once more.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chase

  The wind whipped through his hair as Navor leaned across the railing of the ship as they sailed out to sea. He looked out over the blue water, the sun beaming down from the sky. If it had been under any other circumstances, it would have been a perfect day for sailing. However, Navor’s knuckles were white as he held the wooden rail in a death-like grip, and his heart beat a tattoo in his chest. He didn’t know if Sitnalta was unhurt, or if she was even alive, but he knew he had to find her. He turned and ran for the small dovecote aboard the ship. He had an idea.

  * * *

  Sitnalta opened her eyes with a groan. Her head pounded, and every movement she made caused her stomach to revolt. She looked around trying to move as little as possible, yet still get her bearings. She could tell that she was lying on a wooden floor, and that someone had placed a small bundle of fabric under her head. The ceiling and walls were wooden as well, and to her right was a wall of metal bars. She felt as if the whole room was bobbing up and down, but she wasn’t certain if this was really happening, or if this was a side effect of her head injury.

  “Oh! She’s awake!” Sitnalta heard a familiar voice say from close by.

  “Aud?” Sitnalta tried to speak, but it felt as if her tongue was two sizes too big for her mouth, and it came out as more of a croak.

  “I’m here,” Aud answered. “Don’t try to move. You have a nasty bump on your head.” Aud scrambled forward into Sitnalta’s line of sight. “Can I get you anything?”

  “Water?” Sitnalta tried to say. It came out as ‘waa?’

  “Water?” Aud asked.

  Sitnalta tried to nod, and instantly regretted the decision as the movement caused the pain to flare up in her head once more.

  Aud left her side and returned with a ladle filled with water. A second set of hands helped to lift the Princess up into a sitting position and Sitnalta found her
self looking into Gerald’s worried eyes. The ladle was brought to her lips, and she took a couple of tentative sips, drinking down the lukewarm liquid.

  “Thank you,” Sitnalta said. She looked around and saw that they were in what looked like a ship’s brig. “What happened? Where are we?”

  “What do you remember about what happened?” Gerald asked her.

  Sitnalta thought hard. “I remember that Aud and I were doing embroidery with the Queen. Then...” she winced at the pain in her head. “Someone came for us. He said that the King wanted to see us. We went with him...” she closed her eyes. “It was Jess. I recognized him from the stables at home.” She reached up and gingerly touched the large lump on the back of her head. “Did he hit me?”

  “He did,” Aud told her. “You told me that you recognized him. We realized something was wrong. I told you to run. Do you remember?”

  “It’s all fuzzy after we left Queen Kika,” Sitnalta said.

  “Don’t worry about that,” Gerald said. He offered her some more water. “What’s important is that you’re okay.”

  “But you still haven’t told me where we are,” Sitnalta complained.

  “We’re on a ship,” Gerald replied. “I recognize it as one of the faster ones that used to be in my navy. We’re being taken back to Colonodona.”

  Sitnalta grimaced. “What’s going to happen to us?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” Aud said.

  “The two of us will likely be locked back up in Wilhelm’s dungeons.” He looked at the Princess with a somber expression. “I’m not sure what he wants with you, but he was very interested in your whereabouts.”

  “I can think of a few ideas,” Sitnalta bitterly replied. “If he has me, he might have more support from the people. I don’t think people are very happy with him right now.”

  Aud sighed. “You’re probably right. But we need to focus on the positive.”

  “What positive?” Sitnalta snapped. “We’re trapped on a boat being taken to a mad king who likely wants the two of you dead. I shudder to think of his plans for me. Likely, I will be held captive by another crazy monarch who wants to force me into a marriage I want no part of. And the positive in all of this is what?”