Heir of Darkness

Chapter Nine

"So how's the Kingdom? Last thing I saw was the inside of the throne room before stepmother stabbed me in the heart, cursed me and threw me into this little hole." The Prince stood up and dusted himself off, small shards of glass clattered to the ground.

"Erm..." I didn't know what to say, I was shocked by the Prince's attitude and how he seemed to be taking waking up after a ten year sleep so lightly and then to even begin to describe the destruction caused by the Evil Queen was an immense task.

"Well," I hesitated, watching the Prince stretch all of his limbs, "some of the houses turned to the Evil Queen's side and helped her take the Kingdom. Many close friends of your fathers died and their houses banished. She let the ForbiddenForest roam free and now its darkness has swept over the land. But apart from what I was told I don't know much as I was only six when it happened."

The Prince looked dejected but solemn for a moment while I rallied off all that I could remember my father telling me or what I heard passed around the local tavern.

Then he spoke, turning to me, "You're sixteen?" I nodded, "And it's been ten years since the Evil Queen took over?" I nodded again. "That makes me eighteen then." The Prince's face darkened as a shadow of woe crossed his face, "I never got to grow up. I was a child when she stuck me here. She stole my life from me." His voice grew with anger as the realisation of his situation hit him.

"She stole a lot of other people's lives as well. Her darkness has tormented the Kingdom and that's why I was sent here to get you." I spoke; I was still sat on the floor, too shocked by the Prince's presence to move.

"Who sent you?"

"The Teller. He's an old man, a fortune teller who's part of this travelling circus. Before he told me about you I thought you were dead and that by running into the forest I was running to my death- that was until I saw you in that coffin Your Majesty." I explained, my words were mumbled near the end as I remembered my manners and hastily looked to the ground.

"Please, call me Evander." The Prince said and offered his hand to me. It took it, placing my dark, dirty palm against his soft, white one. I felt embarrassed but the Prince –Evander didn't seem to care as he swiftly pulled me to my feet.

I stumbled onto my two feet, nearly crashing into Evander's chest and out noses bumped for a moment before I fell back on my heels. Evander was a full head taller than me and then a little more and his snow white hair fell a little past his shoulder's, barely scraping his collarbone's.

I mumbled an apology and stepped back.

"So what now?" the question caught me off guard and although I had my instructions from The Teller I too didn't truly know where to go from here.

After a few moments of silence I said, "Well, The Teller said we have three days to get to Black Castle and for you to kill the Evil Queen. It's almost been half a day so we really only have two left."

"Black Castle? Evil Queen?" Evander picked up on the names.

"Yes, Black Castle is what everyone called it since the Evil Queen took over and I don't think I need to explain her nickname..."

"No, you don't." Evander turned from me, "I need a minute...to process. This is all very unexpected."

"You didn't think you would ever get your Kingdom back?" I asked, scolding myself afterwards. I shouted at myself internally to let the Prince be. But I was so curious. Here was the lost, supposedly dead, Prince. How could I not ask him question after question?

"I never expected to wake up. When the Queen couldn't kill me she cursed me to sleep eternally as long as I was in that coffin. She unfortunately also cursed me to hear and feel everything around me so I would always know I was alone down here." Evander looked down to the ground and his face hardened with an emotion that resembled sadness but seemed to hold so much more under the layers, "I thought I would be alone for the rest of my life."