The Princess and the Bodyguard

Chapter 5

The competition ended in early November; not yet the Princess' birthday, but after the harvest and first frosts. I won. I hope you weren't rooting for anyone else. Honestly, I'm offended if you didn't think I had a shot at winning. I've never lost a fight before.

It was fun to take out the last two candidates in a sparring match, though I personally found it much more enjoyable to get Sadon expelled in August. He'd tried to play some mind games with me during another defense mission and I managed to get all the other men to turn on him. In a fight against only me- without any of his lackeys to do the dirty work- he lost in under two minutes. That was my favorite part.

Now I sat patiently in my chair and waited for the ceremony to commence. Why we were holding it at the training grounds and not on the palace, I didn't know. I guess it wasn't really my place to judge. A lot of the previous noblemen who I'd competed against were seated in the audience with their families.

I looked for Mother, but saw only Erik at the very back of the crowd. Word probably hadn't gotten to her fast enough. And that was fine, I told myself. I could write to her again once I was fully instated as a member of the guard and had money to send home to her. I'd grown used to being away from her now. It would've hurt more to see her in the audience just to be ripped away again. It's better this way. I nodded decisively.

At the sound of trumpets, I came to attention. The prince and his son had arrived. They were late, but no one would tell them that. When you're rich enough, the whole world waits on you. That sounded appealing.

We proceeded to the stage where the ceremony would take place and I waited as patiently as I could. It was unprofessional to move at all while serving on duty, and my nervous energy and kleptomania made that ten times harder. I had nearly gotten struck from the competition because of my inability to keep still. Only when my entire future was on the line had I put any effort into learning to control my impulses.

King Henry greeted the assembled workers, guards, and noblemen. His booming voice carried across the field, talking about honor and respect. I wasn't really paying attention. It was only a matter of weeks before I could finally get rid of him and his annoying family. After that, I didn't really much care what happened. Maybe the kingdom would fall into anarchy. Maybe a new nobleman would take the throne. Either way, I intended to hide my involvement in the fall of the monarchy as much as possible. Now that I had a reputation, I didn't want to soil it. If I didn't like the way the new powers ran the kingdom, I'd get rid of them too.

I straightened slightly when I heard my name. Focus, Kurtis. At least pretend you're enjoying this. Once I actually started listening, I didn't find it very hard to stay engaged. The head of the training camp was listing all of my accomplishments. That felt good to hear.

For the second time that hour, I wished Mother was in the audience to see me succeed. I knew she believed in me ever since I was a boy, but I wanted to prove to her that I had actually managed to be something more than a petty thief. Not that she knew about my thievery, anyways.

"It gives me great pleasure to offer a seal of approval and confirm Kurtis' recommendation to join the ranks of the Imperial Guard." The training head shuffled his papers and returned to his place.

"Kurtis Warren Shubert," the king beckoned to me.

I came broke from the rank and presented myself before him.

"Kneel." King Henry withdrew a sword encrusted with jewels from his side. It wouldn't make a practical weapon but looked impressive for the ceremony. He tapped me on each shoulder, then rested the tip of the blade atop my head.

The weight of the jewels made it much heavier than I had expected. It almost felt like a hand were touching me to give some words of congratulations and support. I'd never felt that before.