Four Suits (Book 1)

Day 48: Deal

        Leda's mouth plummets to the ground, eyes shrinking back in shock.

         "Naka, Nara!" Ronan surprises her by hurrying to and whisking them from Orian at once. He crouches onto one knee to lessen the substantial height difference. "Why are you out here? It's sundown. No citizens are supposed to be outside."

         The two kids merely grin brighter.

         "Prince Ronan III, you're back," the boy, Naka, weakly cheers.

         "You went to check on the other towns and villages didn't you?" Nara, the girl, goes on, clasping the fabric of his cape. "Did you come back with a cure for us?"

        Despite not cracking to everything else he was faced with, Ronan wavers. His lips meet, tense.

He knows Leda can hear this all but without paying her the slightest mind, his mouth stretches into a frail smile.

         "Of course I have," he whispers. "I have to tell the doctors to prepare the medicine at once. And for that I need you two to head back into your beds and rest, all right?"

"But... but..." Naka pouts. "I-I'm too scared to sleep."

Nara is equally as frightened. Her tiny hand trembles. "Yesterday, Grandma Ophelia went to sleep with us like every other day. But when we woke up she already went bye-bye like all the others..." 

Tears spill down their cheeks. They stare up at Ronan with big, watery eyes.

"W-will Naka and Nara go bye-bye too?" Naka whimpers.

"We don't want to go bye-bye yet," Nara snuffles.

Ronan suddenly can't produce the words. His expression is stuck in place, and he can't seem to move. Leda is unable to stop the frown that spreads across her face. Orian is silent also, sorrow downturning his gaze.

It's the guards who end up intervening, guiding the children from Ronan's side. After getting them to agree to bid farewell, they lead them back the way they'd come—in the direction of their home.

Leda watches Ronan from where she is. He punches his clenched fist into the dirt, stifling unwarranted frustration.

It's obvious he'd wanted to shout all along—have a tantrum like those kids and all the others outside. He'd wanted to vent, scream from the rooftops. But it just so happened he found it easier to be cruel in a moment where the damage had already been dealt.

It isn't that the royal family hasn't been doing anything for their kingdom.

Maybe the fact is, they just can't.

There's evidently more to this situation than Leda expected. The guilt from that realization rattles her insides, tormenting her for screaming the things she did at him.

          "They may have their own side to the story."

Orian was right.

Leda hoists herself onto her shins, but the two guards above her slam her back to the ground, holding her down.

"Master!" Orian exclaims, struggling again in his own confines.