Rudimentum: Oracle

Chapter 19

King Brandon's castle loomed in the distance. Elysia stared at it through the front window of the carriage, the red curtains drawn aside, and the picture painted in the ever-changing ink of sunrise. Buildings swarmed around the castle walls, reaching far out to cover the horizon on all their sides. The capital had swallowed them long ago and now the true heart laid in their wake.

Where her family's castle was built upon a hill, King Brandon's sat on level ground, contrasting his not so level moods. The uneventful and easy journey had relieved her constantly nervous heart. And in half an hour it would be done, and she would be face to face with a king she had only met once when she was a very young child.

The guards had been amiable though she felt a tension between them creeping just below the surface. As if they knew the slaughter in one of their own cities during the Summer Solstice was because of her. And now they had to protect her. She sighed and leaned her head on William's shoulder. He took her hand and caressed it with his thumb.

"We are nearly there," said Swift. He leaned forward from his preferred corner in the carriage. He tucked his bandana into the side of his trousers and rolled up his shirt sleeves, the heat a constant heaviness. All three of their cloaks sat draped across the seat beside him. "You know, it is about time you and Elysia were together. Maybe now you will both be able to get some sleep together." He winked.

William kicked Swift's foot and Elysia blushed.

"Hey!" said Swift with a laugh. "I speak only the truth and that is a lie but let me add another coincidence to our strange little story. What is the first thing you remember Will?"

He blinked. The memory came back as if it had happened yesterday. Elysia's brows furrowed. William said, "I suppose when I woke up in a caged cart filled with other boys from the arena. Why?"

"Those people that came to stop the memory erasure only took the boys who had just been given the forgetting serum," said Swift. "I lied and said I had received it to get out of there. I watched as they pulled your unconscious body onto the cart. And I sat in the corner and watched you wake, fear, confusion and a dozen other things running across your face. For a moment you took it all in and then you opened the cage door, jumped out and ran into the forest. The rest of the boys were silent and scared and watched in emptiness."

"We were on the same cart," said William looking him straight in the eye. He did not know why anger stirred within his chest. Everything that had happened back then he always seemed to be there. Always knowing more than he did. "The coincidences do not seem to end."

"They did take a break for a while," said Swift with a deflated smile. "I have said before that I do not like you William, for reasons I shall now reveal. I suppose it is petty, but it begins right when you left that caged cart. I thought about following you. Hell, I nearly did, but in the end, I lost the nerve. They had saved us from the arena so the possibility they were taking us somewhere better was too great to pass up." He looked down, his hands between his knees.

For the first time since their meeting, William saw tears glisten in his eyes. The sight caused him to swallow unevenly and as if his tears were the hammer hitting the final nail home, William realised he was dealing with nothing more than a man. A man who had hurt and been hurt.

Swift continued, "I hated you because you had left and found something that resembled a family. Something that resembled happiness. It seems I was one jump away from that. Instead, I jumped into hard labour, beatings, petty theft then piracy."

"You believe I had it easy?"

"Honestly? I do, at least better than most." He clasped his hands tightly and looked William in the eyes. He had blinked away the tears. "When I found you on that ship, I knew it was you and my envy quickly became a bitterness I could not seem to shake. But over time, I have come to realise that perhaps we are not that different. That the only difference between us is the why. You fight to protect as you so consistently demonstrate." His words came with a slither of animosity. They cooled though and were filled with a sombreness. "I, on the other hand, fought for self-preservation. It dominated everything I did until one night I could not protect those I cared about."