The King & the Stable Boy

LI: Throwing Down the Gauntlet

The both scream with delight running off to get ready, startling the cooks, who still are adjusting to us actually being here.

William takes a few steps towards the door before his injured right leg gives out, and I'm quick to catch him.

"Are you sure you can-"

"I'm fine." he grits out, getting lose from my grip and keeps going, this time his stride only slightly faltering here and there.

"I was only trying to help." I say gently. I know how hard this must be for him. He doesn't like showing people his weaknesses. Especially not after what's happened.

"I know, and I really do appreciate it, love. You've put up with my moods ever since I've gotten back, I'm sorry." he apologizes, stooping while grabbing onto me for support to kiss my forehead.

"When can Malick be in to help?" I question.

William shakes his head.

"He won't be. Things are much too chaotic for him to leave his position even for just a day."

"What about Evan?"

"He's still undercover. He fled with those cowards to keep tabs on them. Samara said she had a spell to fix me up since Evan and Malick laid a strong magical base in my healing."

I nod at this, smiling at him, stealing a kiss.

Five hours later, I find myself discussing with William as we both kept a watchful eye on the kids who were playing with our pets close by a cliff face. I wasn't worried about one of them jumping, if they did that then I knew Mira was shifting into a bird or Artan wanted to be caught by her or Kyren. What I was worried about was them getting caught off guard and freezing. That wouldn't go so well.

"What if we moved the capital here?" William proposed out of the blue.

"What? Hebe is where it's been since the beginning."

"Maybe it's time for a change. We haven't much room to expand there without taking people off their properties and destroying whatever woods we have left. Juno is much larger than Hebe. We could utilize the space to give the counsels their own spaces and connect the smaller villages into the land."

"This needs to be discussed with the counsels and done once the problem with the rebellion is over though. We shouldn't switch where the government is during this time. I will not let those rats have the satisfaction of thinking they've scared us off."

"Even so, the underground tunnels should begin to be expanded currently. I'm sure the counsel would agree, but we'd need an easier way to get around."

I agreed with him. The tunnels under Hebe and surround townships were vast and much faster than going on the surface. If we were to move here, even if it'd take a while, the tunnels would need to be the first thing begun.

The caw of a falcon sounds above us and we both look up to see Zion's messenger bird over head gently landing on William's broad shoulder.

I pull the message from its holder and the bird was off just as quickly as it'd come. So no return message needed then.

Dearest W,

I've safely arrived home and the house has been greeting me back with open arms. All has gone well with them over the past few years I've been away, our only regret being it took my father's death to bring us all together once again. To think that one of his own men would kill him, simply brings me to tears. How could someone blindside him like that, for years even, being the one closest to them, being the one taken under their wing, only to kill them off themselves? Then he practically vanished into the night, not a person has seen his face since and only those that were there know it was him. I must go and prepare his burial with my younger brother. He was a private man in life and as it will be in death. I thank you for you're support in my time of need.

Yours,

Z

"It's been done." I announce to him.

"So Dacre's..." he draws his thumb over his neck.

I nod.

"Did she say who finished the job?" he questions.

"I can't tell." I admit, handing the letter off to him.

He scans it over, reading through it twice before he understood.

"Ryland." William answers. "Ryland killed Dacre. There were a few witnesses but from the way that abruptly stops, I'd say that that's where that information stopped as well."

"So what do we do know."

"We send our regards to Asher."

"How would he know? Wouldn't the announcement take a while to travel through the kingdoms?"

"No. She's been writing to him as well but she's not writing with his name. If we get tied back to this, it'll be shocking but make sense. It's only bad if it's found out at this time for us. For Natus, it's even more catastrophic. She took extra precautions with Asher, or shall I call him Phoenix." he says.

My brows furrow.

"Do you remember when I was telling you of the harvest ball?" he asks.

"That was nearly a decade ago! You were talking about how Robin first met Asher, but back then he went by-" I pause. "How is using a dead alias any better?"

"No one knew he went by Phoenix except for Robin, Winston, and the Earl his mother married. To the rest of the assembly he was simply Lord Montenarri."

So our tracks were covered.

Good.

But now that the warlock has melted, we have a rebellion to snuff out.