Be My Princess [Editing]

The High King

The cold dungeon only served to make me feel worse about my situation. Every now and then there was a drip that had been driving me mad and the shouts of the other men down there unnerved me to no end.

Royalty should never have been kept down here but I couldn’t have expected any better merely for the fact that the high king didn’t care. He had stopped caring a long time ago.

When standing became a task I sat and stared at the bare walls as I tried contemplating exactly what I would have done once I was out of here. Maybe I could attack him! Force him to listen to me! Then he would kill me—wait no . . . then again he was going to kill me anyway so I might as well had. What was the worst he could have done? Kill me sooner?

Why should I have cared what he thought? Now that I had met him for myself he was an awful king. He didn’t care for the cries of his people; he simply sought to appease and it would seem that he cared more for appeasing himself more than anyone else. What happened to the great king who used to hold feasts and laugh with his realm? When I was younger I remember celebrations and dancing everywhere. Now all that happened was complaints being brought forth then the high king would simply ‘take care of them’ whichever way he saw fit. I was surprised that he didn’t see some unnecessary way of fixing the problem I had brought to him.

The creak of the gate caught my attention.

My pulse raced, I already knew who it was. They were coming for me and in only a few minutes I would be in front of ‘his majesty’.

I could hear the footsteps make their way down the hall and towards me. I hadn’t actually prepared for this moment because in my mind it wasn’t real, I thought that I would have found some way out of it but I guess not . . .

“Come with us.” One of the guards said harshly, as he flung open the cell door and pulled me out. I was tempted to tell him to be more considerate but the look on his face warned me against that. Clutching me firmly by the hand he pulled me from the room and towards what I assumed was the throne room. When we got to just outside the room I stopped suddenly. I wasn’t ready. I needed to see Kiara again. I needed to hear her voice once more and assure her that everything would be alright—I didn’t want to die like this! I should have been out with my men fighting a losing war to the end, not killed by some pompous king who thought he knew best.

The men pushed me into the room then dismissed themselves.

The king gestured for me to step forward. I took several uncertain steps forward not sure what to expect.

“Young Prince.” He said in a voice so calm that it was scary.

“Y-yes your Majesty?”

“Do you know the sound that woke me up this morning?” He asked. It was then that I realized he hadn’t been looking at me. This definitely wasn’t good.

“Uh no . . .”

“A large explosion. Do you know what it was?” I didn’t like this guessing game. Something told me that it had a bitter end and I was inclined to believe that.

“A rock . . . hitting a tree . . . ?” I was only humouring him but on the inside I was dying for him to get to the gruesome point.

“It was a fire bomb actually.” He said looking down at his fingers idly. “Such a strange thing too and you know what the worst part was—“

“Okay I can’t do this; your questions are killing me. No I don’t know what the worst part is, no I don’t know how this will affect your kingdom and no I don’t know why it was shot wherever it was shot so could you get to the point.”

His face turned red as his eyes shot over to me. If I could have swallowed my sentence I would have but it was already said and there was no taking it back. He shot up and before I knew it he was standing directly before me with blood in his eyes. Without saying a word he grabbed hold of my hair and pulled me down the hall. I couldn’t ask where we were going but I couldn’t just scramble blindly. Soon it was clear that we had gotten back to the same balcony that overlooked the south wall as yesterday.  My eyes bulged wide when I saw the extent to which the wall had been demolished. The king had every right to be pissed—I could hardly find a piece of that section of the wall that was still standing! But how had it happened; there couldn’t have been that much fire power and which idiot would have been dumb enough to aim for this wall?!

“Your Majesty I—“

“A woman nearly lost her daughter!” he shouted, cutting me off.  “Do you know what could have happened to that little girl if a soldier hadn’t bravely gone forward and saved her?!”

“I—“

“She could have died!”

I opened my mouth to speak again but he cut me off by pulling me from the balcony. I was pulled back to the throne room only this time the Queen was waiting inside for the king. She didn’t seem to care very much that I was there in fact it was as if she didn’t notice . . .

“How are the mother and child?” She asked him. She sat at the edge of her seat and something about her seemed off . . .

“Fine.” He answered, “Tell me Young Prince,” he said, walking back to his throne and sitting next to his queen. “What is the reason for this war again?”

Finally he was ready to listen! “Three different kingdoms have declared war on us because they want my princess and they got support from a few others.”

“A princess?” He asked, sounding rather intrigued.

“Yes, she’s my princess, I found her on the streets and I made her happy.” I said matter of factly because she was my princess and no one elses.

“Interesting.” He rose as if he had just made some decision. He snapped his fingers. “Guards I want her here before by sunset.”

“What, why?”

I didn’t want her here. He was capable of any and everything and there was no telling what he might have wanted with her. He turned to me with a wicked smile when he saw the concern in my face. I hated that look.

“Well if you had four children fighting over the same toy then the one would assume that the most logical thing to do is take away the toy am I right?”

“No!—no you’re wrong!—“

“Nonsense, tomorrow she dies.”