Unlikely Endings (Now Being Rewritten as: The Pursuit of a King)

Explanations

He launched at Henry with the dagger and the two men wrestled furiously in the confined space as Amelia was pinned in the corner clutching her throat. Blood cascaded through her fingers and she watched it with a morbid fascination. The air seemed to become thicker and she almost did not notice Henry deliver Matthew a final blow, sending him sprawling lifeless to the floor.

The carriage door flung open and Thomas’ worried and blurry face appeared.

“Amelia? Are you alright?”

The last thing she remembered was Henry’s terrified expression as he hurled Matthew’s body out of the way to get to her.

***

The sun was too bright and stung her eyes as Amelia struggled to open them. She was alive, that much she knew. If somehow she had died and miraculously gone to heaven there wouldn’t be the horrific pain she felt in her neck. Perhaps because of her incredibly lustful thoughts she had been banished straight to hell and was now facing eternal damnation.

That would be another thing she could thank Henry for.

“Hello?” she made out some blurry figures through squinted eyes. The shadows shifted and came closer.

“Amelia?” Thomas’ voice washed over her, yet somehow sounded far away. She brought a hand up to cover her eyes and finally began to make out where she was. They were lying within a grassy ditch by the road. Percival, Oric, Thomas and Henry had seemingly all made it through the attack alive.

“What happened?” she asked looking around for the guards they had brought along with them.

“We were attacked.” Thomas replied gravely while inspecting the wound on her throat.

“We were just riding along minding our own business when suddenly out of nowhere the three bastard traitors go for us! But fought them off didn’t we Percy?” he grinned clapping Percival on the back.

“The three guards attacked you?” Amelia asked incredulously. Percival nodded before glancing suspiciously around them for any signs of activity. From where they were sitting they were not visible from the road, however they could not be too careful.

“Yes.” Percival answered “I believe that they were just trying to keep us busy. Matthew must have paid them off…but why?”

“They wanted me to abdicate my throne.” Henry responded gruffly speaking for the first time. Oric and Percival suddenly glanced at Thomas.

“I had nothing to do with it!” he cried throwing up his hands in exasperation. “I want to get as far away from court as I possibly can! Being the King would achieve exactly the opposite.”

“Well what is our next move? I don’t see any horses so I’m assuming they have fled, we’re closer to Varsteel than we are to Elereld which is at least three days journey from here by foot.” Amelia asked frustrated. They needed to get back to the castle as fast as they could to warn the rest of the knights about Matthew’s treachery.

She looked to Henry for an answer but he was deep in thought and would not meet her gaze.

“Well…”

“Shut up Thomas!” Percival hissed “Someone’s coming”

Amelia heard the crunching of gravel under horses hooves as a cart stopped not far from where they were crouching. The four of them peered over the edge of the ditch in an attempt to identify the two men driving it.

“Well I think the whole thing’s a bit daft if you ask me!” one of the men wearing a ridiculous blue hat scoffed at his peaky looking companion.

“Well if you ask me, we shoulda known as soon as old George died. Raiders from the wildlands? Please! That had Bloody Henry written all over it. Fred let’s stop here a while, the horse is about to drop dead!” the peaky one cried waving around a piece of paper as though he was warding off flies.

“Well if yeh didn’t suspect something then, there was no way yeh didn’t think twice when the boy took the throne not a week after his father died. I says to myself ‘John now that’s a little funny’, I swear I did!” Blue Hat replied.

“Not a week after his father died!” his companion assented “And now when they’ve gone to arrest him for his horrendous crimes, the honourless bastard’s taken to the hills!”

Amelia heard Henry growl from behind her and put a steadying hand on his forearm. While shocking, these men were unwittingly giving them all the information they needed and she wouldn’t have Henry interrupt them by lopping of their heads.

“Well now that they’ve got these here posters out, it shouldn’t take too long to catch him. Heard he’s taken that wife of his as prisoner as well! What kind of monster is this man?” Blue Hat cried.

“Nay my friend, I heard the whore went with him willingly, I heard she may have helped him move the King on his way”

“Nonsense!” the man with the blue hat thundered “I saw that poor girl with me own eyes on the day she was crowned! Beautiful, innocent girl she was. I’ll not hear a word said against her!”

“Apologies, apologies” the other man consented “Now I never said she had part in it, I merely said what I heard. Well what are they gonna do now before they hang the blackguard?”

“Not that it makes no difference to us, but they’re crowning that other fellow…now what’s his name?” Blue Hait pondered and Amelia held her breath. Whoever was being crowned must be the instigator of their misfortune.

“It’s that distant nephew of his mother’s now isn’t it? I’ll be glad to be done with them Townsend’s, I’ll tell yeh the truth. You know his name don’t yeh? The new King?”

“Phillip.”