The King's Secret

Chapter 3: The Visitor.

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Caspian.

Suddenly he was aware of the tension in the room, and wondered why he and his friends had been chosen to be present for this particular meeting.

King Alton marched over to the end of the table, right in front of where Caspian was stationed. As he did so he met the young knight's eyes, then turned and sat down.

King Thaddias sat on the opposite side, and his guards took their positions around him, hands resting uneasily on their weapons. Their eyes scanned his friends and him, looking unimpressed by their youthfulness, but tense all the same.

Caspian resisted the urge to place a hand on his sheath, knowing it would only add to the tension. And anyways, he knew he could draw it long before any of the other knights got near his King.

"It is a pity that such events transpired, but I assure you King Thaddias, I ordered no such thing. I was informed that your men were lurking near our border, and refused to turn back upon request." King Alton was saying, and Caspian admired his ability to sound gracious in spite of what he was saying.

"If that were the word that reached me, I assure you I would not have bothered you with this meeting. However, I received very different news. My scouts were reportedly attacked by your men when they attempted to walk the length of the border for charting purposes." King Thaddias replied.

There was a long moment of silence, then King Alton drew in a slow breath. "King Thaddias, I will not question the report you received. But I also know my men, and I have no doubt in their read of the situation. Therefore we are at a stalemate. Might I suggest that we ignore the incident for the time being, and come back to it should another such event arise?"

Caspian watched the King of Adrelawin's face carefully. He saw anger there still, but it was pushed aside by a friendly facade, probably for the purpose of keeping the fragile peace. "Very well, since there was no real harm done to my scouts I will overlook it. But there is another matter which I wanted to discuss."

Caspain frowned. King Thaddias had just said before that he wouldn't have come about the attack at the border if he hadn't been certain it was an attack, yet now he claimed to have another matter to discuss? He didn't like it, it stank of trickery and manipulation.

If King Alton noticed the contradiction, he didn't show it. "Please, continue." He said, waiting.

King Thaddias stood slowly, accepting a map which was handed to him by one of his knights. He unrolled it onto the table and passed it over to King Alton, pointing at a spot on the map.

"As I'm sure you're well aware, there is a gap between our borders. A large section of land, stretching some seven miles across, along the entire length of the border."

King Alton nodded. "No-Man's-Land, yes I know it." 

"Adrelawin is a much larger Kingdom that Rayndra you see, and recently our farmers have been forced to move further and further in order to find grass for the cattle. As the population grows, so does the demand for the animals and thus, the space to keep them." He explained as he returned to his chair and sat.

"So I would like to propose a solution to my problem, as well as to your problem of stretched forces. Give the land to Adrelawin's farmers, and our two Kingdoms can share the burden of border security." He suggested.

Caspian swallowed. Sharing a border with Adrelawin? That sounded more like it would only increase the previous problem, bringing two groups of disagreeing people closer in proximity to each other. 

"King Thaddias," King Alton spoke slowly, carefully, and Caspian felt himself tensing as he knew that his King was about to say something their visitor wouldn't like. "-it is unfortunate that you are having this problem, but I believe you are forgetting the purpose of that land. It was left to provide enough room between our lands that we have the least amount of border disputes possible."