King Of My Heart (mpreg)

CH 20

Harry's POV

It's has been three days since I've become Knight Commander and it's been the most frustrating experiences I've ever had, without Eleanor I would have already lost my mind. The job wasn't what I expected at all; almost all my job was, was trying to piece together stories from fragments.

The Shadows were a network in which information was gathered and then sent to me where I would have to make decisions based on that information; the issue was that because there were so few Shadows, I never got the complete picture. It was like trying to follow a recipe that had all of the ingredients listed but no amounts nor how to cook it, or trying to solve a puzzle that was in black and white from the middle outward.

I was reading a report where our Shadow in Sheffield reported that a large number of livestock have been herded close to the city; I read the report four times, double checking that I was decoding the message correctly before waving the paper at Eleanor "What in God's name does this even mean?!" I put the paper down on my desk and ran my hands through my hair as Eleanor shrugged, lost as I was. I leaned forward on the desk, where I saw the report from our Shadow in London last week where she reported that a large number of troops left the city.

"Wait, Eleanor" I said, holding the two reports side by side "Do you think their connected? Sheffield is Doncaster's largest neighbor and is under control by the Norwegians, maybe the livestock are going to be used to feed these troops; this isn't the only report of troop movements we've had this month". Eleanor looked at the two reports "You're a lot more clever than I gave you credit for, farm boy". I stood up "I'll talk to Sir Panzer and see if we can't get some scouts to keep a closer eye on Sheffield".

-

"So how are you settling into your new position?" Louis asked quietly as we were having breakfast in the dining hall surrounded by his entire court. "It's a lot to learn truthfully but I'm glad I can help you in some way" I said. "Harry you just existing is helpful" Louis whispered, the moment was cut off when Louis's newest arrival, Sven, jogged into the dining hall and knelt in front of Louis "Highness, my friends and I were riding this morning and we spotted the White Stag just north of here, in the direction of York".

The White Stag was folklore; according to the story the White Stag was King Arthur Pendragon of Camelot reborn. Camelot was the first kingdom on the islands after the fall of Rome, and is also credited as being the first government in Europa after the fall of the empire by English scholars; he is heralded as being the greatest English king of all time. It was actually King Arthur that created the nation of Britannia, but not only did he rule the islands but he also controlled a large portion of Francia, our southern neighbor across the channel. After he died it is said that God allowed him to keep an eye on his nation in the form of the White Stag and any king or queen that was able to hunt and kill him, would have his blessing and the golden age would start again. Louis knew this as well so he stood up "Ready the horses, we're going hunting".

Within twenty minutes most of the court were on horseback, because we were going hunting and the less people that were going the better, only five of the royal guard would be serving as escort not counting Eleanor and I. We quickly left Doncaster and as we went into the wilderness toward York.

"Is it much farther?" Louis asked, looking over his shoulder where Doncaster's high walls weren't even visible anymore through the trees; we never went this far for safety reasons but then again we never went hunting for deer either, most hunts were for rabbits, foxes or badgers. "It's not too much farther" Sven said in front, leading us.

"What were you doing all the way out here anyway?" Eleanor asked. "Just exploring, my friends and I have never been this far north" Sven answered. Ahead of us everything went quiet as the hunting dogs stopped barking as they were trained to do so we could keep track of them, they didn't howl though as they were trained when they found prey. We quickly came up a group of hunters, huddled around a small campfire, our hunting dogs surrounded them.

Louis's POV

"Poachers, this is the Prince's land" one of my royal guard said "You're all under arrest". All of the royal guard dismounted and moved forward to arrest the poachers, but as soon as they got close the hunters drew daggers and attacked the lightly armor royal guard; horses screamed as arrows started to fly from the trees and struck several of them in their shoulders or knees which made them collapse. "Ambush" Eleanor snarled "I knew something was wrong".

I yanked on my horse's reins which caused the animal to wheel around but there was nowhere to go; people swarmed out of the trees with spears and herded the panicked animals into a tight circle. Our small hunting bows were no match for the thick leather armor our enemies wore and the only ones that had real weapons were my now dead royal guardsmen. In less than a minute almost all of my companions were dead; only Eleanor, Harry myself remained. This wasn't a coincidence, our attackers never even shot at us, they wanted us alive.

Out of the trees Erik, the Norwegian prince who said that he would help us against his brother, stepped out. I glared at him as he only said "Come", "We've been double crossed" Harry said under his breath.

We followed Erik through the woods and suddenly came across a bustling army camp, which made Eleanor swear under her breath "How can they be this close to Doncaster and we not know?" "We just arrived this morning, you severely underestimated us you English dogs" one of the soldiers that were escorting us said "But don't worry we'll put all of you out of your misery soon enough".

I couldn't tell how many of them there were but it was obvious that they vastly outnumbered my own forces at Doncaster; near the back we saw catapults and siege towers being constructed, nearly finished. We were lead to the middle of the camp were we were forced to dismount; our hands were tied together with rope and we were shoved into a tent "Why are you doing this? Why not just kill us?" Harry asked. "You'll be taken to London, the King is eager to meet the False Prince personally" one of the soldiers said with a wicked smile. I looked at Erik who still hasn't said anything to us, he didn't even glance at me before he walked away.