•Crowns And Arrows• [Klance]

Royalty Are Dicks

Keith's eyes widened, and his scream of surprise was muffled by the glove over his mouth.
Shit, he'd fucked up. Why was he so stupid? He should have watched his surroundings. Always stay vigilant. That's what Shiro always said. Why couldn't he just listen for once in his life?

He'd been trained for a situation like this, but all the lessons drowned hopelessly in fear. Keith was afraid.
His father would have been mad at him if he saw this. Fear was one of the many emotions the King despised. He was allowed to feel triumph, or anger, but not fear. No, never fear. It was a sign of weakness.

He tried to look around at his assailant, but it did nothing. Alright, go over the instructions. What to do if you get attacked.
One, get loose. That wouldn't work. The man/woman behind him was taller than he, and stronger too, and he didn't feel like slicing his neck open on that sharp metal.
Two, call for help. That wouldn't work either. Even if he could scream, the guards were at least five minutes away, at best. The thief could gather his treasure, slit his throat and still get away.
And three, if all else fails, negotiate. His father strongly disapproved of this part, but Shiro had insisted on teaching him.
According to the King, it was nobler to die than to negotiate with your captors. But Keith didn't think the man -he was almost certain it was a man, judging by his size and voice, though it was difficult to hear through that mask- was up for negotiation.

Keith couldn't let him go with the treasure. If his father found out he'd been bested by a simple thief, he might just kill him. That would be unpleasant.
He just wanted to go to bed, he was so tired. So he stopped struggling and stayed quiet, waiting for the thief to speak again.

Seconds, maybe a brief minute passed as he felt the prince freezing, then shaking and hyperventilating, panicking and probably looking through his options before surrendering under his grip.
Helpless and obedient.

"Good, here's what we'll do." He kept his tone low, almost whispering as he loosened his hand and let go of his mouth, the dagger still resting on his throat.
"You'll sit facing that corner of the room and wait for five minutes as I leave, then go to your room like nothing ever happened. Understood?"
He couldn't take much anyway, the jewels and coins already feeling heavy on his limited belt pockets. "It's just a bit of gold, you won't even notice it's gone."
Wrong, he'd apparently noticed the missing ruby, but out of all that gold? What he pretended to steal wouldn't be more but a speck of dust in all that exaggerated luxury they lived In.

Keith slowly shook his head, careful not to let the knife scrape over his throat. "I can't let you go," he whispered. "You're stealing from us. You will be hanged for this."

He didn't like making threats, but it was all he could do now. And it was the truth. Stealing from the royal castle was bad enough, but threatening the crown Prince with a knife.. He would be killed before he could walk out of here, if the guards caught him.
Then again, his father had never been one for quick deaths to criminals. He preferred to let them suffer till the end.
Keith had attended floggings and people being buried alive for disrespecting his father. Maybe he wouldn't go quite that far for his son, but still. Anyone who touched the Prince was bad for their reputation, if they were let go unpunished.

Keith remembered when one of his servants had accidentally spilled some boiling tea on him. It had been painful, but not nearly as painful as seeing that servant being flogged until his back was bare and bloody.
It had made Keith's stomach turn violently.
But his father said that any good ruler attended the execution of the punishments they'd spoken.

Back to the present, he couldn't let this man go. Especially not with that Ruby, and who knows what else he had in his pockets. The man would be torn to pieces by those who found him, and Keith didn't even want to think what would happen to hím. It wouldn't be good. So he shook his head again. "No."