Chapter 13
I woke to an uneasy silence and immediately went on the alert. Even though palace life had somewhat tamed me it didn't completely kill my instincts. I knew something was up. I stuck my head through the opening of my old tent and looking out. Everyone stood at a distance staring out into the horizon. I walked over to them and followed their gaze. My heart skipped a beat when I saw a chariot speeding towards us but I breath a sigh of relief after spotting the royal seal of our kingdom.
"It's Rolan." I said with a smile now in place.
"Are you sure?" Chloe asked without looking at me. I didn't blame her for asking; she still had the rest of them to protect.
"Yes, that's his seal." I had never been happier to see it than today.
Within minutes it pulled up infront of us and the door swung open before the coachman could even go around to open it. Rolan came out with a smile of relief. He pulled me into his arms. "I knew I would find you here." I smiled as I clung to him.
"I don't want to go with them . . . don't make me go . . ."
"I don't plan to let them have you."
"Wait, what's going on?" Tony asked.
I turned to Tony. "The King and Queen of some other kingdom showed up saying that I was their daughter that went missing long ago and now they want me going back with them."
"Wait so you mean that you're really royalty then." Emma said, sounding excited. I suppose it would have been exciting but I couldn't see it that way because they wanted to take me from Rolan. I didn't want to leave his side. Slowly he had become my everything.
"Hey . . .what's that . . .?" One of the younger members of the group asked, pointing out into the distance. There was a large cloud of smoke moving towards us rapidly. I felt Rolan's grip around me tightened and his own body stiffened. As it got closer my fear was realized. It was that King and Queen. Why couldn't they just leave me alone? I didn't want to be apart of their kingdom; I didn't want to be apart of them. If they had been so shaken by my disappearance then why hadn't they tried harder to find me? It wouln't have been a very hard task---I was right on the streets, out in the open, wandering about and running around like I hadn't received any home training whatsoever and being brought up in a such a way that education was futile and unnecessary! I needed love and care back then. Back then I needed to know that somewhere out there someone loved me but now . . .now I didn't need anything like that. I didn't need to know that I belonged to some distant king and queen. I needed to know that I belonged to Rolan. Though now thanks to them we would never be together because the king refused to have anything to do with them! Damn them!
The coach pulled up directly behind Rolan's and both the king and queen walked out. I could see that the Queen was disgusted by the surroundings she found herself in and that put me off of her even more. If they couldn't appreciate the place that had nurtured me when they failed to then they could never expect me to accept them.
"Prince Rolan, you heard your father, hand over our daughter." The king ordered.
"I have no control over her, she goes where she feels to and stays when she doesn't." Rolananswered nonchalantly with a shrug of his shoulders. The king scowled at him then took me by my arm. I tried shrugging away.
"Let go of her." Chloe said, raising a piece of iron to the kings neck. She always did extreme stuff like that but I never thought that her courage still extended towards me. The king looked shocked and immediately the guards that had accompanied them stepped forward. My own little family stepped forward too, all looking ready for a fight.
"You see Thomas, if you want her the I'm not the only one you'll have to try taking her from. This is her home and these children are her family. She's happy here and taking her away from all this would only make her hate you."
"No, we're doing what's best for her. Come along Kiara." The queen said sternly. I gave her a defiant look and moved no closer. Wasn't she listening to anything that Rolan had said?!
"Didn't you hear me?" Chloe spat at the king. "Get you filthy hands off her!"
"Young lady I would watch my tongue if I were you." the king threatened. "Have you no respect for royalty.
"My allegiance lie with my king and this kingdom of which you are neither ruler nor citizen, you don't deserve my respect."
"Such insolence!" He struck her across the face. The air around us stopped moving and it even seemed that time itself stood still as we all stood staring in shock. Chloe herself didn't say anythingas she stared over at the king in utter disbelief. before any further actions could be made they all jumped the king and brought him to the floor while smashing the closet rock they could find into on his body. The kings guards drew their swords and Rolan immediately ordered his men to do the same.
"That's enough!" Rolan shouted after his guards had managed to prevent the advance of the king's. One by one they got up but they wouldn't take their eyes off him.
"This is treachery. I should bring you all before the high king and have you executed!" The kind bellowed.
"Go ahead and try, as far as he'll be concerned you're the one who came to our territory and began messing with our people." Rolan said. "And I'm sure that after hearing exactly what happened you'll be the once being sent to the gallows."
The king's face turned red. He whipped around and said to the guard closest to him. "We're not getting anywhere, alert the king, he should be able to sort this whole thing out." The guard nodded, mounted his horse then took off. The king turned and gave Rolan a spiteful smirk. "Let's see how you like it when justice finally takes it's course." I stared at him, not willing to believe that after seeing all the resistance he would still try to take me with them. I could feel a few tears welling up in my eyes and I buried my face in Rolan's face. Once the king got her I would definitely have to leave.Rolan held me gently and led me over to one of the tents. e both sat inside, relishing in the silent company of each other. I didn't dare let go of him because I knew that every moment counted. Soon I wouldn't be able to feel him at all.
It was the clattering of hooves that drew us from the tent. When Rolan saw his father he gestured for me to stay close to the tent then he made his way over to him.
"Father---"
"We'll speak of this later, where is she?"
Rolan sighed then pointed in my direction. The king looked to me but I could see nothing in his eyes; the were hollow and deep, as if they had no end. "Young lady since you refuse to make this any easier for your kingdom you have forced my hand." Rolan's eyes grew wide and that made me afraid. What exactly had I forced his hand with. . ..?
"Father no you can't--"
"Get out of our land, I order you into exile!"
"Father--"
"Silence Rolan! I don't want my land stained with their presence any longer." He turned to the ingand queen. "Take her and leave."
No!
Was this all I would get for my years of pledging my loyalty to the king? He placed me in exile. . .? How could he be so cruel . .. ? I didn't bother glancing at his face again, it was scary now, instead with tears trickling down my cheeks I slowly made my way over to my 'mother' and 'father'.
"Kiara no!" Chloe exclaimed.
"Silence or you'll all be placed in exile as well!" The king threatened. Chloe shut up instantly. It was all she could do because let's face it, where else would they go. This was their home as much as it was mine. The only difference was that I would have to leave it.
"Come along sweetheart." The queen said as she stretched her hands towards me. That only mdeme cry harder. I didn't want to be her sweetheart, I wanted to be Rolan's princess . . .
I took one last look at Rolan and could see angry tears forming in his eyes as well as his shoulders and chest moving rapidly. This had all upset him badly. When the door was closed after I got into the coach I pressed my hand against the window and just kept looking out. This reminded me of the day Rolan first took me from this place. I kept staring until I couldn't see them anymore but even then I didn't stop looking. Instead I replayed the moments we had together: the laughs we shared, the food we stole and even my memories with Rolan: sleeping under the stars, walks out in the meadow, dinners that went on forever. . .And they took all of that from me; I hated them.
"Just wait until you get home, you're sisters will be so happy to see you, though the may no remember. .. but atleast your eldest sister should have some degree of you in her memory . . ." The queen rambled on and on until I could only hear: blah blah blah. It was just noise, noise that made my heart hurt. . .
---Rolan's POV---
I paced restlessly back and forth in my room while I waited for my audience with father. He had made a grave mistake handing her over to them and I planned to let him know that.
"Prince Rolan your father will see you now."
I took a deep breath then made my way to the thrown room. Inside father sat on the throne with that look of arrogance that told me he already thought he was in the right and this was merely a session to clarify that but he was wrong, he was dead wrong.
"Father how could you have let them take her?"
"The better question is how you could have let your emotions cloud your judgements in such a way that you would have been willing to bring your kingdom to it's knees! How could you have acted so irresponsibly--"
"Oh stop it father! Just stop you know exactly why! I love her and you kno--"
"Love?! You let such a dangerous emotion take over! A king must be able to make sound decisions no matter what circumstances they fall under! You cannot allow such a thing to overrule you and cause such dissension between us--"
"No you caused that yourself when you decided to give my princess away." I sat bitterly.
"Rolan that is enough, I want to hear no more talk about that street girl--"
I went absolutely livid. "She was not just a street girl! She was different! Much more refined! You shouldn't have let her go, we could easily have kept her but you were just unwilling to try! You don't care! You never care about anything but your own glory you self righteous bastard!"
"Rolan!---"
"It's true, the only thing you're concerned with is ensuring that everyone speaks of how great a kingyou were well guess what you weren't! You're horrible as king! You don't even care about you'r son's happiness! Forget king, what kind of father are you?!"
"Rolan that is enough! If this is how you behave when placed under a situation that requires you to make a critical decision then I must say the future of this kingdom looks bleak. At this rate you're not ready to take over, you're not even ready to lead a stable crew! If you don't shape up then I'll have no choice but to skip over you and hand the kingdom to someone more capable of managing it. Get out of my presence before you upset me further!"
I stared him in the eye a minute longer. I couldn't believe that he was being like that.
Fine.
I turned and stormed out of the room. If he wanted a heartless and manipulative son that he would see as being more fit to take over then that was exactly what he would get. he made a big mistake saying all of that and I would ensure that he regretted every word, one way or another . . .