The King & the Stable Boy

BONUS: It's Been Six Years... (I'm so Sorry)

"Leave now? I was supposed to be able to say goodbye"

"I'm sorry, but a missed goodbye isn't worth more than your survival. Now come on!"

And so I left the castle, without so much as a look back. I changed my name, Chandler went silent, and I managed to live on, hiding myself away in some remote Natan village as a farm hand. The news was as sparse as it got, only coming twice a month if we were lucky, and only ever the odd royal decree or particularly unsettlingly news from the shire beyond the woods.

I'd been tending to the livestock when I heard the sound of boots crunching against gravel behind me. I sniffed the air, the scent not feeling particularly familiar, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

"I don't know who you are but Jonny doesn't appreciate trespassers, so you'd do yourself some good to get lost before he comes around waving that enchanted scythe around here. Last time some lost stranger gave him a fright he nearly took their head clean off, and I'd know because I was that stranger."

"You're Noah right?"

I froze for a second before shaking my head, still not showing my face to the man.

"Sorry, mate. The name's Lucas."

"My apologies, but I don't believe that's true. Unless my mates have sent me on a wild goose chase and there happens to be more farm hands with a clearly posh working Anician accent employed under a man named Roy with a temperamental son named Jonah but goes by Jonny, you have to be Noah. Otherwise, I'll need to send a message back to Malick and Roman telling them to be more specific."

I dropped the bird feed from my hands turning to face him. He was a handsome looking caster, broad set, muscular yet lean, his brown locks framed his face nicely and he was quite tall for someone of his stature. He held an aura of a mouse but something in his eyes told me that he could kill me within seconds if he wanted to. By the gods, he screamed perfection for both Malick and Roman. I didn't doubt his story for a second.

"Why have your mates sent you after me?" I questioned.

"Well, they first and foremost send their regards. It's been far too long. And secondly, we have a bit of a problem back at our home you see."

"Define 'a bit'."

-

Of course 'a bit' of a problem was defined as two Anician investigators within their living room. I was staring at the two problems right now. They were two faces I vaguely recognized but never bothered to truly commit to memory.

"Must you have harassed these poor gentlemen? Couldn't do your own sleuthing?" I taunted them.

"Well, if we were able to find you that simply, we would've done so years ago, Mr. Matthews. And we didn't harass them, we simply stayed in town."

Evan, which I learned was the name of Malick and Roman's third mate, scoffed and muttered something about them scaring their children with their presence. Hmm... I hadn't the faintest clue that those two baboons procreated.

"Yes well, you've found me. So I assume this is the part where you take me back to Anicia, put me in the cells for a while, then hang me out in the courtyard?"

"There won't be any of that." a voice said from behind me.

Breathing became difficult. It felt as if the entire world had been warped, I felt like I was being drowned and suffocated all at once, my ears filled with nothing but the fast pace of my heart. I didn't dare turn around, I didn't dare move. My grip on the tea cup in my lap tightened and I could see my hands shaking. I hated myself for reacting as I did to someone who shouldn't matter this much to me, not after all these years, and yet here we are.