by Drae Box
The royal official glanced around the streets and pointed to the right, three streets in front of them. “There.”
“That doesn’t look too bad,” said Aldora. She pointed out a route. “Doesn’t look like we’ll bump into any trouble.”
Wary, Raneth glanced towards the spot where the two Common Gifts had been used to kill. “Let’s hope it stays that way.”
They reached Ali’s Paintings without further incident, Aldora’s chosen route easing them through quiet streets. Raneth knocked on the door, eyeing the green paint around the glass panel in the centre of the door. There weren’t any marks to hint that anyone had tried to break in, but with this much glass at the front of the shop, it would be easy for the mob to smash their way in if they chose. Beyond the main window, the shop floor looked barer than normal; the easel that normally sported Ali’s latest work in progress stood empty in one corner. The bright white wall facing the window was bare; the hooks for the paintings that normally hung there were the only sign that something should be on show.
Raneth thumped the side of his fist against the wood again and this time the white door opposite the front door opened, revealing Ali Hemmington. He was holding a cricket bat, and as he inspected Raneth and Aldora, Raneth lowered his hood and gave him a small wave.
Ali’s mouth dropped open. Then he rushed forwards and drew a bunch of keys from his trouser pocket. He quickly unlocked the door and grabbed Raneth by the arm. He yanked the royal official inside, before doing the same to Aldora and locking the door.
Raneth tapped the glass of the door with a knuckle. “Told you this glass was stupid,” he stated.
“You did,” replied Ali.
He grabbed Raneth’s head in his hands and looked him over, whilst Raneth inspected him in return. Ali looked concerned but calm; his grey hair was now receding at the temples and he was slightly overweight.
“You’ve lost some weight, Ali,” complemented Raneth as the man let go of his head.
“That was before all this started,” admitted Ali. His grey eyes swept over to view Aldora. “Though I dare say I’ll lose a lot more now. Is this Aldora Leoma?”
Raneth nodded as Aldora blushed. “Can we go in the back before we’re seen through the glass, Ali?”
“Yes. Come on through.”
Ali led the three friends through a short corridor that held only the stairs to the upper floor and a doorway into the back kitchen, which they followed Ali through. He’s renovated. The royal official eyed the changes to the small square kitchen. Though the fireplace and the stove were still in the same place, Ali had cut out some of his work counter and added a door to access the back of the property. Raneth shrugged off his bag and sat down cross-legged next to the lit fireplace with his back to the wall. He watched as Ali started to make some fresh drinks on the work surface to the left of the fireplace.
“What’s happened?” asked Raneth. “Where’s Cray, and who exactly are Broken Crown?”
Ali raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean, what’s happened? Where have you been?”
“We’ve been in Newer. We reached Aldora’s village, Brown Buzzard, yesterday, but it had been attacked, and when we went to Wisner to find out what had happened, we found out that her uncle’s now called the Kingdom’s Guardian and I’m wanted for murder–”
“–and for kidnapping me,” added Aldora, helping Pedibastet climb clear of her bag. The Prince of the Cats stepped into Raneth’s lap. He rested his head and paws against one of Raneth’s knees and started purring.
“Oh, well,” Ali frowned suspiciously at Aldora before he looked to Raneth. “King Cray and his whole household are said to be over in the Southern Kingdom, but that’s mostly rumour,” stated Ali, as he reached for a glass jar of sugar. “Aldora, how do you take your tea? Or do you prefer coffee like Raneth?”
“Tea, please. No sugar,” said Aldora, sitting down next to Raneth. “Green tea’s my favourite, if you have any.”
“I do,” replied Ali, reaching for a cupboard above his head. He withdrew two glass jars – one with coffee already ground into a fine powder and another of bagged tea leaves.
“Cray, Louise and Lemuela would go to the Southern Kingdom for this sort of thing, if they didn’t get killed,” uttered Raneth. “That’s the protocol anyway. How did this happen, Ali? How did Giften get like this?”
Ali placed the kettle on the stove to warm it and turned to face the three friends with his arms folded. “Brown Buzzard and Icoque were the first clues that something was wrong. Wisner and Green followed pretty quickly, and Seeth City pretty much locked itself up like a father would lock up a daughter who wanted to work in a Newer brothel.”
“What do you mean, locked itself up?” asked Aldora.
“Closed its gates and refused to let anyone in or out. When Denzel took power, The Giften Daily had the Royal Southern Air Force give them a bird’s eye view of the city to see inside. Newspaper said it all looked a mess. I imagine they meant like Green is right now.”
“Seeth’s always been a criminal hotspot that Giften couldn’t quite clean,” stated Raneth. “The city’s representative was probably just trying to contain the problem before it spread.”
The kettle whistled. “Fat lot of good that did,” muttered Ali.
He quickly poured the drinks and placed the cups on the floor in front of Raneth and Aldora. For Pedibastet, he took a glass of milk from the work surface and poured some of it into a bowl, which he placed next to Raneth. Pedibastet climbed free of Raneth and lapped at the milk, gulping it down quickly.
“What happened to my village, Ali?” asked Aldora.
“Brown Buzzard was upset,” explained Ali gently, taking a third cup for himself and sitting down slowly next to Pedibastet, facing Raneth and Aldora. “There were posters up there and in Icoque calling all sorts of things into question about royal officials. Statistics about misidentification causing a few thousand wrongful arrests last year. One hinted that the number of missing people might be caused by royal officials thinking they were killing their assigned murderers; another called royal officials licensed murderers. Pretty nasty finger-pointing, all at royal officials and how Cray uses you lot.”
“After Raneth helped me find the Dagger in 2005, my village became pretty loyal towards royal officials, more than the average Giftens. Did the village leader, Haethowine Sairnot, give any public addresses?” asked Aldora.
Ali frowned as he thought. “Not that I can recall. A lot’s happened since then. Icoque was the first to riot – kids bunked school to take part. Business were destroyed, abandoned buildings were set on fire, and I heard that there were quite a few murders too, both of royal officials and of people who lived or were visiting there. It spread to Brown Buzzard – mostly teenagers from what I heard – and the army was called to the village when there was a report that it had come under attack.” Ali smiled weakly at Aldora. “At least they were around to help this time.”
Aldora nodded, but she didn’t smile. I know that look, thought Raneth, watching her carefully. She’s blaming herself for the kids acting out because she wasn’t there.
“The kids probably wouldn’t have listened to you, A,” he uttered, resting a hand on her knee. “We’re barely adults ourselves.”
She hummed uncertainly.
Raneth tugged his hoodie off and dumped it on the ground, near enough to the fire to warm it without setting it on fire. He decided to move the topic away from Aldora’s village, to give her the space to process how she felt.
“Ali, what happened to the Kingdom’s Shield? I noticed it’s not in the palace.”
“Denzel Leoma and Broken Crown have it.”
Raneth frowned. “Is that what they’re calling themselves? That name was in a newspaper article yesterday and we heard about it whilst we were in Newer but we didn’t know what it was then.”
Ali nodded. “Yep. Their belief is that the crown is broken and the kingdom needs fixing.”
The crown being Cray, Louise a
nd Lemuela. Raneth rolled his eyes. “How exactly is it broken?”
“Misusing royal officials, apparently. Everything seems to stem from a hatred of royal officials and the king.”
Aldora inhaled sharply. “That would make sense. My uncle was misidentified as a teenager,” stated Aldora as she picked up her cup and gently blew on the tea. “He was bound and dumped on the back of a royal official’s horse and taken to the Icoque royal detectives’ headquarters. They recognised that he wasn’t the guy the royal official was supposed to arrest and let him go.”
“And from all that this mess happens?” uttered Ali. “Talk about a grudge.”
“Uncle Denzel’s gone out of his way to make royal officials fail their assignments before too. I never thought...” Aldora shook her head, clenching her eyes shut as if she were wishing for this all to go away. “I never thought he would do something like this. Maybe get into a fight with a royal official eventually and get himself killed by the royal official defending themselves from him, but not this.”
This is crazy, decided Raneth. What a stupid idiot. Upsetting a whole kingdom because he got mistaken for somebody else.
“Ali, how did Denzel get the Shield?” he asked.
“It happened in Icoque – it was all over the newspapers. Denzel told Cray to meet him to exchange the Kingdom’s Shield for two hundred and seventy-something prisoners – royal officials and army legionaries kidnapped from 2005 onwards.”
“The same year the Dagger was stolen,” said Aldora, glancing at Raneth.
He nodded at her look. “And?” he asked Ali.
“Cray went like a good boy to try and save the hostages, and I think he had a plan to keep hold of the Shield. Your father swooped down in his gift-form and tried to grab it as soon as Cray handed it over, but there were all these Brethren on one side of the stage in the centre of the village – they’re the black jackets you’ve noticed. Your father had to fly back up and abort or get killed by Common Class gifts. The Brethren then killed the hostages and turned on Cray and the two royal officials who were with him. That was the last time anyone saw the King for sure. Rumour is that there were more royal officials a short distance away, with an assignment to rescue the hostages whilst Cray and the other two worked as a distraction.”
“Sounds like Cray,” admitted Raneth, swallowing back an urge to vomit. How could so many trained soldiers get captured without being noticed by Cray, the previous royal official captain and now him? How had the legions not noticed their men going missing? At least with the royal officials, they would have been assumed missing and then killed in action. But the legionaries? Worry about that later, he chided himself. You can’t help them now they’re dead.
He eyed his cup of coffee as he folded his arms. This uncle of Aldora’s sounds careful. If he’s been taking action to get to this point for four years, I bet he’s going to be harder to remove than I’d like. He rubbed at the underside of his chin as he glanced at Aldora. I hope she realises I’m going to have to kill her uncle for treason. That’s the law.
“What about the brown jackets?” asked Raneth.
“Guardsmen. They rely on their weapons and seem to have been trained a bit.”
Quiet fell across them for a while as they sipped their drinks, Raneth desperately trying to process everything Ali had shared. His stomach twisted and churned as he worried. I have to hope Cray and the others did get into Southern Kingdom before they were stopped or killed. He inhaled a slow breath, trying to calm the nerves toying with his gut and the beat of his heart. “Green was the first settlement to get a new city representative,” continued Ali. “They set Leighton on fire for refusing to leave the posters up after the Kingdom’s Shield was lost to Broken Crown. His replacement is a Mening, a retired Royal Mening Guard. If you’re going to get any information about the Kingdom’s Shield, I’d start there. I think she’s the one who trained the Guardsmen too, but that’s just rumour.”
The royal official looked down into his lap. Ex-Royal Mening Guard? That spells trouble. They’re pretty good in a fight, from what I’ve heard. Maybe good enough to beat up a royal official. It’s up to me twice over.
“Now, I’m off to bed,” stated Ali. “There’s a curfew on every night right now, so no going out again until seven if you can help it. They’re on the lookout for royal officials, but quite a lot of them will recognise you two even if Raneth isn’t in his uniform.”
“That’s already happened once or twice,” admitted Raneth.
Aldora nodded.
“You two can sleep in here. Keep the fire going, if you’d like. I don’t mind.” Ali glanced towards the corridor. “And if anybody does break in, Raneth, I would appreciate it if you would rough them up a little.”
Raneth nodded. “I’ll teach them you’re off limits, no problem.”
Ali headed out of the room, gently shutting the door behind him.
“Aldora,” said Raneth gently, “I have to fix this.” He lifted his head. “Bayres are supposed to put the Giften or Southern royal families back into power if they get kicked off their thrones, because we’re distant relations to them. And it’s also my job because I’m the royal official captain.
“Why isn’t your dad here fixing this? Why must you do it?” asked Aldora.
The royal official captain plucked the Bayre Talisman from his neck; it was shaped like a dragon in an S shape, its mouth chomping down on a diamond. He rubbed it with his thumb and index finger as he frowned, carefully feeling for the invisible tug of his father that the talisman gave him.
“My dad feels like he’s in Twelinor City – the capital of Southern. That means it’s highly likely he’s over there being Cray’s personal guard.”
“Not much can defeat an angry dragon,” uttered Pedibastet.
Raneth smiled, thinking of his father’s gift-form, and nodded. He had to tell Aldora now about his obligation. Make sure she understood that he had to kill her uncle. He looked down at his lap for a moment, gathering his hope that she would understand. “Aldora,” he said, uttering her name so softly he wasn’t even sure he’d said it aloud. He cleared his throat and continued. “I have to take out your uncle.”
Aldora frowned at Raneth, her cup halfway to her lips. “No,” she said. She shook her head. “Please don’t.” She put her cup on the floor.
Raneth swallowed and he felt as if icicles had speared his gut. “Aldora, I’m legally bound to follow my oath to the Three Ks.” He paused, watching her closely but she was looking down, preventing him from seeing her face. “Aldora, will you help me put Cray back in power?”
Aldora tucked her hands into her lap as she looked down. “I will, but you have to promise me something.”
“OK,” uttered Raneth. He leaned down, closer to his own lap so he could see Aldora’s face. “What is it?”
She lifted her head enough to make eye contact with him. “I want you to promise not to kill my uncle. Just arrest him. Please?”
Raneth glanced at Pedibastet to see that the Prince of the Cats had stopped drinking to stare at Aldora, his ears flattened back against his skull. That’s exactly how I feel too. Raneth rubbed at his left thigh as he tried to decide how to tell Aldora no. If she was anybody else, I’d be swearing, he realised. But she probably loves this guy despite what he’s done. I can’t imagine being in that position. Dad always taught me that if anyone betrayed me, I should hunt them down and kill them, then declare Lords’ Law Act.
“I can’t promise that, Aldora. I’ve already sworn an oath to the Three Ks. I can’t turn my back on the Kingdom’s People, the Kingdom’s King and the Kingdom Herself just so you don’t lose your uncle.” He swallowed. “The idea of forgiving your uncle leaves a funny taste in my mouth too.”
“I’m not saying let him go,” snapped Aldora. “He should be arrested! But not killed. Please, Raneth.”
Raneth fidgeted around to face the fire instead of her. “I can’t promise anything. Your uncle is a traitor.” He bundled his hoodie into hi
s lap and hugged it to his chest. “You don’t threaten a kingdom’s stability and get rid of its royalty. Every time that’s happened in anybody’s history, the kingdom has suffered a heck of a lot before it has recovered.”
Aldora stood up. “Just don’t kill him!” she shouted. “How is that so hard to agree to?”
“Because he’s going to come after me with everything he’s got,” snapped Raneth, facing her. “He already is. I’m your ‘kidnapper’, remember? He wants me dead or alive, Aldora. He doesn’t care. He must know the royal official captain will be responsible for taking him out.”
“Stop it!” hissed Aldora. “Just because he thinks you’ve kidnapped me, and he wants royal officials killed or arrested, doesn’t mean he’s singling you out.”
“Have you forgotten that article?” growled Raneth. “I could clip him so he can’t flee, but I bet none of the men he has working for him will resist a death shot on me.”
“You realise you’re just proving my uncle right?” Aldora asked. “That you all are licensed murderers if you kill him?”
“Nobody had a problem with me killing convicted murderers,” stated Raneth. “And if your uncle condoned the killing of all those hostages, he’s got some serious charges against him: treason, blackmail, kidnapping, multiple first-count murders and a whole shed’s worth of organised crime stuff that probably spans as far back as the Dagger’s theft.”
“I don’t care. If you kill my uncle, you’re no better than him. You could show him mercy and promise not to kill him. That’s all I’m asking for, Raneth.”
“I can’t promise anything,” snapped Raneth as he stood up. “What if I have to kill him in a fight? If he resists and tries to kill me, I’m not going to stay my blade or my gifts. If I have to defend myself, I’m going to do so properly. The same goes for the Three Ks. I’m not putting myself at a disadvantage over a stupid promise.”
“Fine,” snapped Aldora. She moved towards the newly painted door tucked beside the oven.