by Sam Sea
"What instructions?"
"First, you are to be washed."
"I am not going to be washed!" the prince protested with a shriek as he jumped out of the bed. Only then he realized he was wearing a nightgown and had no clue how he ended in his bed in the first place.
"Oh, yes you are."
"No, I'm not! And there is nothing you can do about it!"
"Oh, boy, if you were my own kid..."
"But I'm not! And you cannot touch me!"
"A good spanking is what you need..."
"You cannot touch me. I am the future king and will not be spanked! Not by you or by anybody else." He raced across the room and opposite the table, looking for a leverage in case that Serta wanted to run after him.
"Maybe I cannot spank you, but I do not need to feed you either..."
"I don't care. Old Wirk will give me food."
"Yes, she probably would. But I just baked a nice chicken with the liver dumplings in a mustardy sauce, just like you like it." Now she had his attention. "And if you do not go and get washed, a whole body washed, scrubbed with a soap, I will take all that food and feed it the dogs."
"Now, you would not dare!"
"Sure I would. If you don't want to listen, you can eat stale bread for all I care. That dog will enjoy your favorite lunch. Besides, he even smells better than you." She had him, and she knew it, but she still needed to duck as the vase from his table went flying towards her.
"I hate you!" he screamed defeated after her.
His father did good on his promise, and in ten days time, the car was ready to take him on a trip to Three Rivers. He had mixed emotions about going there. The castle was almost completely empty, and finally there was nobody who could boss him around. Yet, he wanted to see the Green Pyramid and see again the priest in a soft white robe with the sign of two moons on his chest.
The squad of twenty soldiers were assigned to follow him. His coach was wide enough that he could lay in it if he desired to do so. His new tutor, the young man with boney cheeks and long noise and face not fully recovered from pimples, was going to be his only company inside the coach. Normally he would have been looking forward to the trip and sitting outside with the driver. The trip, going over new roads and bridges build during the last few years of peace and prosperity, should take them not more than five days.
Two days into it, and the little prince was already half gone through the books he took with him. One, about the Falcan wars was extremely fascinating, with the narrator describing formations and battles fought in grand details, so much so that it seemed to have overpower him.
"You know, when you grow older, you are going to study that book, one letter to another. It has a lot of wisdom and knowledge to give to anyone who is to be a king one day." His new tutor, young man with pimpled face was telling him.
The little prince thought if he should tell his tutor about the conversation he heard two weeks ago, and ask him if he knew what an orange lotus was. But he somehow liked having a little secret to himself and not sharing everything with the others. He also was not quite sure how he felt about his tutor, yet, and wondered if he could be trusted with keeping the secret, especially the one involving him running through secret corridors during the day and at night. "Maybe he would tell my father, maybe he would want me to tell him where they were? No, better not talk... but maybe I can just ask him without revealing where I heard it..." The idea popped into his head.
They were about a day away from getting to the big White River and crossing over from their Kingdome to the one of Kartar.
"Do you know what an orange lotus is?" He risked it after all, but his voice seemed nonchalant, and his eyes were not looking away from eh text of the book he had in his lap.
"Orange locus?"
"No locus... lotus... like the plant... the one which grows in water?" he could not understand that suddenly his tutor seemed rather dumb.
"Hum," his tutor thought for a second. "Where have you heard about that?" He asked pulling the book to himself, trying to see what exactly was written on its pages.
"No, it's not there... It's some book I read before.
His tutor looked at him suspiciously. "You like to read books, your majesty."
"Please, I've asked you not to call me that. I do not like it." Little prince protested.
"Yes, your majesty..."
"So, have you ever heard about it... before?"
"Heard about what before?" His tutor seemed to have forgotten already, but the little prince didn't like the game at all. He could clearly see that his tutor didn't want to answer to him, and right there he knew that he was not better than his father or mother or his other tutor. He was hiding things from him, and he was not to be fully trusted. Oh, how much he missed his uncle.
"Maybe I'll tell you if you tell me where you heard of it..."
The game his tutor started to play, the little prince didn't like. "No, you wouldn't. You would never tell me anything. You’re a liar! He screamed at him. His tutor opened his mouth in the outmost disbelief of such outburst and was already ready to scold him, but a long, perfectly balanced and smoothed piece of a stick, with the metallic spike on one of its end, flew through the window and nailed his tutor's neck to the carriage’s wall. Blood sprayed out of his neck, and little prince yelped in shock, crying for help.
But soldiers had better things to do then to answer his pleading request. They screamed and hustled outside, and he heard the clashing of the swords, of people being thrown down from the coach, of some uttering their dying words.
"Form the line! Put the shields up!" he heard the sergeant scream outside. "Protect the prince!"
He dared to look outside, just from the corner of the window. Whoever was attacking them was throwing spears at soldiers who raced their horses and pad shields up above their heads. They rained down on them, and a solider raiding on the top of the coach dropped his crossbow and dropped right next to his window with three spears sticking out of his body.
"Do not stop! Do not stop! Ride hard!" His sergeant yelled outside. More spears clobbered the top of the coach, and one made it through the window, nailing part of the seat where he was stretched just a seconds ago.
He crunched himself into a ball in the corner, pulling a big bear fur over his entire body, trying to hear none of the screams coming from outside. Even horses seemed to cry in agony.
But the yelling slowly abated, and the coach seemed to slow down, until it came to a sudden stop. He decide to only take his eyes out of the bear blanket.
Everything seemed unnaturally and eerily quiet, and little prince was wondering if he should look through the window. Then he heard the steps of many, and the door opened, and the face of the monster came in. His head seemed almost twice the size of normal with small, evil eyes looking at him. The scariest were the teeth which were obviously too big to be able to fit in a normal mouth. An enormous hand extended towed him
But the monster, with the mumbling sound coming from deep inside the monster’s throat, never got a chance to lay his hand on him. The shouting outside suddenly erupted again, not of soldiers or his sergeant giving orders, but mumbling screams in the language he could not well understand. The monster turned around to check it out, and whatever he saw outside made him jump out. Three arrows suddenly pierced his chest, and he fell to his back, his enormous head knocking the door of the coach.
Somebody else was attacking them, maybe a back up of soldiers which might have ran behind them. As he saw two more monsters being slain, he could not guess what was happening. He reached for the pike inside of his tutor. Life has already abandoned him, and he tried not to look at his dead eyes fixated somewhere where he was sitting. He tried to pull it out, jerking it, thinking it is the only weapon he could see. But he didn't have enough strength to yank it out, and the outside battle was ending very fast.
The little prince could see through the window as other monsters nervously tried to, the noise of galloping horses overtaking their y
elling, and then something shinny flashed through the air, and two monsters lost their heads. He saw riders in long white robes, resembling slightly the robe of a man with the pyramid chin around his neck.
He didn’t understand, if the man in white cloaks were there to save him, then what would that make them? He remembered the man who spoke of killing millions, and decided that he didn't know enough. He needed to know more.
The one who got in and pulled the monster out, leaving the trail of blood, was old, much older than his father or the man he saw before. He was very small, not much bigger than himself. His robe, although white, was not so flush, and seemed rather worn out and dirty. It was almost gray. And he had no chain around his neck.
When the old man's eyes steadied on his, he asked the prince, "Who are you?"
"I am Prince Satorius, the only heir to the king Tormar himself," he answered in a single breath.
"Don't be scared. We mean you no harm. We are here only to help." The words were warm, his intent harmless, could it be that he was safe?
"And who may you be?" the prince inquired with quiver not leaving his voice.
"Where are you going little prince?" the old man bothered not waste time answering it.
"To Three Rivers, I was to meet my parents there for the festivals..."
"What do you make of this?" More voices from the outside could be heard.
"I do not know... They dress just like wildmen in their rags, but their faces? All twisted like that? Their muscles, bodies... almost like some monsters from the childhood tales."
"Whoever they are, they must have come from behind the East Swamp. Look at their spears. They are just like men from the outside would use. They also have no shields or armor...
"What do we do with a boy? All the horses are dead."
"We cannot leave him behind." The voice from the outside reached his ears.
"We cannot stay here for too long. This may be just a scouting party. We have no numbers to face larger numbers..."
"He cannot come with us." The other one said.
"We can take him to the next village, or town. There should be some soldiers there who can then escort him to the city. We are certainly not going to leave him here." He heard the voice of an old man giving commands. "Cut the dead horses off and put four of ours to the couch. You Erton will drive and Veer will take your side. The others take your shields and crossbows to the roof. Les, you finally got a soft seat to properly rest on."
“I am fine…” the voice from outside answered. “I’ll ride on top with a crossbow.”
A second later, a woman, with the reddest and longest hair he ever saw got in the carriage, and with a single effortless pull took out the spear that had nailed his tutor dead. She did it hardly flexing any of her muscles. "A friend of yours?" she asked in a strange accent while his jaws were still wide open.
What other strange things am I going to see today? Who is she? Like a goddess from the books of old, thoughts ran through his mind.
Her iron stare brought him back. "He, he was my tutor..." he remembered to answer.
"Well, it seems he didn’t have that much to teach you, huh?" She said as she lifted his body out with a single hand and showed him outside as if he was a piece of a rag.
"You are very strong," the little prince admired her.
"Yes, I am also very tired."
"Who are you, and what is your name?"
"Mikka. And now, you need to be silent." She said as she put her boots on a seat next to the little prince, and made herself feel comfortable. "We can leave anytime! The sooner the better," she called out loud to the people outside, and soon the carriage started to move again, and she closed her eyes.
Only then did little prince remember to close his mouth and wipe the drooling that wetted below the corners of his mouth.
"Are you a warrior?" He said as he saw her with her eyes closed wiping clean a long strange blade. "I've never seen a blade like that."
"You just make yourself comfortable in there, my princess." The voice coming from the top could be heard and the face with the darkest eyes the prince ever saw grinned at them through the window. But eyes were not only black, but more red as if fire had danced in them. Getting no answer from them, the dark eyed were gone, as Les pulled up his head to the top again.
"He called you a princess?" The little prince enquired.
"Well, he... he is not very smart." Mikka said and smiled at him in such a way that little prince forgot all about the blood still covering his shirt and shoes, and smiled back.
"He looks sick..."
"Yeah, he is... very sick. They are keeping him alive long enough so that he can go and betray his master..."
"And then..."
"Then they will kill his master, and he, he will die... Not very smart, like I told you."
"It's that man in white that's doing it to him, isn't it?"
Mikka nodded her head.
"I don't like him."
"Me neither." Mikka gave him another good look. "You don't seem very upset..."
Satorius shrugged his shoulders. "I’ve seen men die before."
After a while, the old man rode to the carriage window. “What do you want to do with the kid?”
"I need to come with you,” the little prince demanded. “Obviously it is not safe here, and you.. You seem to be able to take care of all the trouble you ran into.
“He can... come with us half way,” the old man answered. “I'll leave few of my priests to guard him while we go and finish our mission, and then we can give him a protection while we go to the city of Three Rivers.”
Mikka nodded her head and shut her eyes again.
"I like you..." the little prince told her as soon as she opened her eyes again. She looked at him. "You are like… my uncle."
"I've been called a lot of different names recently, but someone’s uncle? That's new..."
"And I like you too...” she answered him. “You seem to be tough. I like that. You also remind me of someone..."
"Yeah, who?"
"A little girl..."
"Thanks." The boy said obviously embarrassed
"No, I didn't mean it like that. This girl is very special. Doubt you will ever meet her, but if you do, you will know what I meant."
That night they camped right next to the main road, inside the wild apple orchids that covered a slow raising hills. There was not a house around and they could not tell to whom this once obviously well kept property belonged to. Everybody seemed to be sound asleep, but the old priest felt a presence approaching him, trying to be quiet yet footsteps that revealed someone who was not fully able to walk over branches without breaking them. As he turned around, threw his bear skin of his body and jumped up, he realized it was the little prince.
“I’ll kill you,” the prince screamed at him.
“What?” Derran was confused but then he saw a dagger in his hand "You are trying to poison them all...you are trying to turn them to crazy monsters, all of them!! I will kill you!" he threw himself on Derran with the dagger leading the way.
But Derran was not there anymore.
As little prince landed on the dirt, he was behind him and his staff slapped the boy across his backside.
“I know of your plans-” he still yelled at the Grand Master who slapped him with his staff again.
"Now, boy, you are going to be quiet, and listen..." Derran said all upset, but then composed himself in a single breath." And tell me… You will tell me why you have been evil eyeing me ever since we saved your life, and why you have tried to kill me just now? What is this nonsense all about?"
But little boy was suddenly very confused, all the anger gone from his eyes..."I am sorry... I made a mistake... Now that I hear you talk, I know you are not him..."
"Him who?"
"The one who wore the same robe as you, who came to my father’s house and said how he will poison them all... turn them all to ugly, man-eating orcs… And when I saw those monsters, I understood it
all."
“You do not make any sense boy. It must have been all just a bad dream. No men could ever do this…”
“I am sorry…”
“You are very confused. You probably had a bad dream. I am not here trying to poison anybody. You go back to sleep…” the priest told him as Mikka and others started to raise to their feet. “Everyone just go back to sleep. The little prince just had a bad dream…”
Chapter 14 – Wildmen
The trouble they did not find that day, but the very next morning, not more than ten miles had they crossed and the thick black smoke could be seen above the tree tops in the distance.
"That's where villages and towns on the river crossings are..." one of the guards informed them.
"We better make haste," Ronnich urged them riding swiftly in front of everyone.
"We will make haste, but stay together. We are few as it is, and cannot afford to spread our numbers thin," Derran called him back.
Mikka let Les sleep in the car next to the little prince, and she rode on the top of the coach. Riding a horse was something she enjoyed greatly, but it required at least one of her hand, and she would rather have both of them free.
As they raced forward, the smoke grow thicker and stronger, and as soon as they cleared the last of the tree lines, they saw hundreds of once white houses of a village being put to a torch.
Once milky-colored walls of their small homes were now all turned charcoal, with flames still licking few of their sides. Their roofs, made of thick bales of stray, all seemed to had already been burned down and collapsed or in the process of doing so.
Even before they felt the heat of the inferno, they smelled the air reeking of death and burned human flash.
"Stay together. Form the parameter!" The old priest yelled, but Ronnich would hear none of it. He bolted his horse and raced toward the first house. Right next to it, a woman's body was still burning on the spit, half of one of her leg missing.
