Kingdom's Vice Series: Journey to Alleria ( #1 2014) #Wattys2015

Chapter Nineteen: A Tale of The Past Told By Alec

‘There were always pressures that came with being the son of The Master. My Father expected much of me, sometimes too much. I had a duty to my Father, to my people. It would be my duty to carry on his legacy once he died.

There was a day when I was in the Mines in Sardille, collecting Sapphires to be traded with the city across the sea, when I saw an Ivorian woman, dressed in a white robe and hood, dodging glances. She slipped through the gates somehow, and there was a frantic buzz surrounding one of the other mines that had suffered a collapse. Fifteen miners died in that accident, but one child was found amongst the rubble. The woman removed her robe and rubbed it in the dirt, disguising herself as a miner’s wife. She pulled the boy out and dusted off the debris from his hair. She held him in his arms like a mother would and the boy cried for his real mother. His real mother and father had died—they were two of the fifteen who didn’t make it.

By the time I looked up again, the boy was gone, out of sight for a moment, before I saw the dirt-clad woman fleeing the scene, the boy cradled in her arms. I did the only thing I knew: I reported it to my Father. He was enraged when he found out that an Ivorian thought they could just walk into our land and take what was not theirs and claim it as their own. She stole a child and raised it as her own son. I watched them closely: the woman, her husband, the boy, and the little girl I assumed was their daughter...you.

I had been watching the house of weeks, months. I memorized the woman’s route around the kingdom every day. Every time she attended the market, I reported it. Every time she participated in a political meeting, I reported it. Everything they did was reported to The Master. I made my Father proud of me, which was all I knew and all I wanted.

But, there were things my Father did not tell me. He did not tell me about the secret plans he had in store for the family, a plan that took years to develop into a performance. He had planned a long, elaborate plan to extract revenge against the Ivorian woman who stole the Kennah boy.           I did not want what my Father wanted, but to oppose him would mean risking everything; even my title as his son. And so, he took my knowledge and used it against her, tracked her down in the night and had her killed by a man who lived in the city. They staged the entire thing as an accident, a sick twist of ill-fate, but I knew better, because after all, I was the one who told him.

I saw you when I was younger, and the Kennah boy didn’t have blue hair anymore. He was pale, just like you and everyone in Bardhelm. Your parents went through great pains to conceal his true identity, even from you. But again, I knew better. I knew everything.

And so, when I found you in the Mines, I thought it was history repeating itself: an Ivorian girl sneaking about the Mines, searching for something to steal. You were the splitting image of your mother that day. I felt guilty for what I did, because I knew who you were. I remembered your eyes. I joined you because I wanted to find a way to fix things, to make what I did disappear and you could see me for the person I wanted to be. I tried to convince myself that it was the wrong person, that your mother wasn’t the one I told my Father about...but I was right. So yes, I lied. I kept a secret from you and used your secret as a distraction from what I was really feeling.

Though I know an apology will never make up for what I did, I want you to know the whole story, the truth—from the person who knows best.