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Under His Nose
Kai's eyes fluttered open in the dead of the night. With half his brain still slumbering, he tried to listen for whatever had woken him up from a dreamless sleep. It felt as if his eyelids had weights attached to them, but he forcefully kept them open. He'd never be able to fall asleep until he was sure there was nothing to lose sleep over.
From where he lay on the bed, he couldn't see farther into the room, so he tried to sit up, only to fail miserably.
So, he simply laid there and listened.
When he didn't pick up on anything, he rolled over to the side, closed his eyes and attempted to fall asleep again.
A few seconds later, his eyes shot open as soon as he felt it again. A skitter of alarm crawled down his sides.
This time, he managed to force himself to sit up in his bed out of sheer self-preservation, and looked around the big, pitch black room.
He spotted no ominous shadows or looming demons.
Still, the feeling persisted. It nagged him that there was something he was missing.
Frowning, he loudly called, "Who's there?"
No answer.
He looked up at the jellyfish on the ceiling and wondered how he could get them to light up and illuminate the room. That should put his worries to bed -and hopefully him along with them. The thing was, he didn't remember seeing a switch on the walls; they were always lit when the servants came to wake him for breakfast.
"Um... light up?" he said as he stared at the jellyfish nearest to him. "Light up," he said a little louder. "Lights on! Lights... on. Illuminate! Glow! Shine like a fucking diamond. Fucking hell."
Alright, maybe they weren't voice activated.
He tried clapping.
A muffled laugh drifted to his ears.
He jumped.
"Fucking show yourself already!" he growled, dread combined with anger fueling his emotions. His heart started thumping powerfully against his ribcage, and his whole body stiffened, gearing to face the imminent danger that had crept up on him while he'd slumbered like the dead.
A figure among the shadows moved, breaking away from the blackness that consumed it.
"What are you doing?" General Ryodan emerged from the shadows, an amused look on his face.
Kai started to relax, then caught himself.
"What are you doing here?" he asked warily. What was the General who was supposed to be far away doing in his room in the middle of the night?
"If you've come to kill me, I'll have you know you're the worst assassin ever." Kai said, eyeing Ryodan through narrow slits. He could have taken Kai out while he was asleep.
The General looked at him as if Kai had asked to bear his children.
He was at Kai's side in an instant, towering over him and startling Kai.
He'd moved as fast as Marius did.
"Has someone attempted to harm you?" The General demanded, an expression of pure, unadulterated rage twisting his face. Even his form changed, his broad shoulders tense. He looked just about ready to do battle.
Kai eyed him curiously. Was Ryodan worked up on his behalf? Or was he the best actor in all of Astria?
He said, "Not yet."
"Which means you suspect someone or something of harming you. You will tell me who and what threatens you this instant."
How much could Kai disclose to the Astrian General, especially when the person he suspected was the Astrian Regent?
As if reading his mind, the General urged in a voice that was sincere enough, "You can trust me, Kai."
Wasn't that exactly what a person who shouldn't be trusted say?
But then again, Ryodan had tried to warn him with his eyes ... or wink or glare at him or something. Admittedly, he was still unclear on that one.
He mentally shrugged and decided to deliver his complaints to the General. "They won't let me leave the wing."
A look of understanding dawned on him.
This was not news to him, it seemed.
"You already know?" Kai guessed, mildly stunned considering he'd supposedly been away for a few days, and the guards were unwilling to deliver any messages to him.
"Yes, I received news of the... restrictions placed upon you." Then, looking into Kai's eyes, he said, "It's why I'm here."
Kai motioned for the General to sit on the bed at his feet, while Kai tucked his feet underneath him. The General hesitated at first, then did as Kai had asked, if a little awkwardly. He changed seating positions a few times before he settled on one.
As soon as he had Ryodan's attention, Kai demanded, "What's going on? Why am I being kept prisoner here?"
"For the same reason I'm being kept knees deep in petty skirmishes near the border."
At that, Kai frowned. Cautiously, he asked, "Why?"
Was there a conspiracy brewing?
Ryodan's eyes bore into Kai's. He said, "Because they don't want me anywhere near you."
"At the risk of sounding like a broken record, why?"
"A broken what?"
"General!" Kai was beginning to get annoyed at his ambiguity. He was too groggy to be playing the pronoun game this late at night.
"Ryodan, please," he insisted.
"Ryodan!"
"It's best if you keep your voice down, my Prince. I'm not supposed to be here-"
Kai hit him with a pillow.
He demanded, "Why are they keeping me here, away from anyone of import, especially you? It doesn't make any sense. Didn't they send you to save me from Marius?"
Ryodan sobered up immediately, his face changing expressions from playful to serious with the snap of a finger. "As a matter of fact, they did not."
All sleepiness evaporated from Kai's eyes. He was now wide awake.
Kai had always assumed that the Astrian government, or the advisors, or the King Regent, or some high-ranking official had dispatched a rescue mission headed by the General.
"What are you saying exactly? Are you saying you came for me by your own volition? That no-one here sent you?"
Through slightly narrowed eyes, Ryodan continued, "I believe you are clever enough to have deduced the answer to your questions."
Kai looked away and said, "I've watched a few shows." But was his life really about to play out like some episode of Game of Thrones? Well, he was half-human, half-merman. At this point, was there anything improbable or impossible?
In truth, he'd suspected it from the very start, a nagging feeling that things were not as they seemed, that he was being played for a fool.
Except that being right, or seeing it coming in this case, did not make it any better.
He swallowed, his mouth having gone dry. "If you weren't sent to rescue me, why did you come?"
"Following the death of your father at the hands of the Nostrazian usurper, the throne passed to your uncle, the next heir of age, seeing as your very existence was a closely-guarded secret, even from Zolban."
He paused, allowing Kai the time to let that sink in.
"Once the court discovered that the late King had sired a son who'd now come of age, some of the elders and members of the Council wanted the throne to go to you, thereby restoring the line of succession back to its rightful course. But Zolban vetoed the Act with the help of council members local to him.
He argued that you are a half-breed who not only is terribly unaware of Astria's existence, but also the fact merfolk exist at all. As of yet, you are unfit to rule, or so he claimed."
Kai shrugged. "He's right."
It wasn't like Zolban's claims were untrue. He was new to this whole royalty merman thing. He didn't know the last thing about merfolk, let alone how to rule them.
Ryodan considered the Crown Prince for a long time. It seemed that the hunger for power did not run in the family. Anyone else might have jumped at the opportunity to become sovereign of a powerful nation.
"Zolban is only right now. I mean to change that."
Kai blinked at him, unsure what the General meant by that. "What do you mean?"
"Once you learn all that there is to know, Zolban's whole argument loses its strength, does it not?"
Kai didn't miss how Ryodan's face darkened even in the dark.
He went on, his tone somber, "And he very much realizes this. He can only veto the decision for so long now that he'd been made Regent in your name, and not the true king."
Kai chose to remain silent, waiting for General Ryodan to say what he'd already deduced.
"What I'm trying to say is that out of all of Zolban's various enemies outside the Kingdom's borders, you, my Prince, are his biggest threat to his claim of sovereignty. And you're right under his nose."
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
Out of the pan and into the fire...? Hmmm.
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