The Traitor's Heir

Chapter Seven

The Traitor Hobnar was born in the first year of the reign of the Great and Mighty King Hortrobe the Seventeenth, the Fifty Eighth King of the Halanta Dynasty, long may they rule. He was born one year before the arrival of the Crown Prince Hortrobe, that is to say, the child who grew into the man who is now King Hortrobe the Eighteenth, the Wisdom and Light of our current age. His mother was a kitchen maid, who was said to have a fair face and was sometimes elevated to serving at the royal table when members of the King's Table Staff were ill, although she never rose to call this position her own during her time at the palace.

It is said that changes to her figure were noticed in the long winter of the first year of the Great King's reign and that the girl was sent away to a farm in the far North, on the Za'Reekan border, where two years later she married a local Lord in a small and quiet ceremony. Three years later, the boy, who was clever and a hard worker for one so small, was sent back for an apprenticeship in the royal kitchen, after his mother gave birth to the child who would be the legal heir to her husband's estate.

The King, it is said, took pity on the boy, a fact which is unfortunate, both because of his future choices and because I am certain that it spawned the rumors that the child was actually our wise ruler's own son. There are those who refuse to understand how the King could take an interest in the well-being of a child who was not his own, although those who knew our kind and compassionate King well have never questioned his motivation, for those who knew him understood that he had spent his life as our leader trying to help his people strive for better lives.

The boy, Hobnar, grew into a strong young man. It is said that he was handsome, with fair golden hair and bright blue eyes. It is hard for this historian, however, to judge the truth of those words, for having only known the man as a traitor it is nearly impossible to see any good in him, even if it be in superficial beauty that does not extend beneath the surface.

Hobnar was tutored alongside the young prince and was considered an appropriate enough playmate for him, it seems. He was often in the royal nursery from a young age and was among a band of boys who went round with the young prince, running about the royal grounds and as they grew older even riding out together, above ground, and across the kingdom. In those days, the great draw bridge was rarely drawn up, closing off the side of the mountain and concealing the city from the world above.

The Crown Prince grew in strength and honor. It is said that he was the most handsome boy in the Kingdom and it is an uncontested fact that he grew into the most handsome man in our city and likely in all the world. He was just and kind, a defender of those weaker than him, and when his father fell ill and he came to the throne suddenly he remembered his childhood playmates who had grown alongside of him and who had become his closest companions.

The King gave high military positions to many of his close friends, perhaps remembering the many adventures that he had undertaken with them. Some dared question the wisdom of this decision, not fully understanding that the decision of the King would always be in the best interest of the State. He also made them members of his counsel, sending other grey haired members from his father's counsel into retirement. And after the time of mourning had passed he called for a great celebration, as was the tradition, to celebrate his ascension to the throne.

At the celebration he bestowed a great many honors and titles upon the people who he was close to. Up until that moment he had not given Hobnar a position, perhaps because the other young men in their group were Lords and Dukes and Barons and Hobnar, while a playmate, was still in reality little more than a boy from the kitchen. But at the greatest feast, wine flowed freely and the palace grounds brimmed with all the good people of rank, including Hobnar's own mother and stepfather and half siblings, who he had not seen since his childhood. They came, gathered from the furthest edges of the kingdom, to share in the new king's generosity and swear fealty to him.