The Rest is Silence

by Chii Rempel

  19

  Xavier

  I wake up to the sound of a door closing and immediately bolt upright. Xander grunts something unintelligible beside me, one of his arms still thrown around my middle. As I turn towards the source of the noise, I see Arcadia hurrying towards our bed.

  “Thank Gods, your awake,” she says, breathing hard. Her voice sounds panicked, and it sends a bad feeling down my gut. I don’t even have the time to be embarrassed about the fact that both Xander and me are still gloriously naked, before Cadi continues frantically.

  “We have a problem. A serious problem!”

  Xander stirs beside me and raises his head a little. “Arcadia,” he grumbles sleepy, “this is too early. Come back later.”

  “This is an emergency!” she insists. Xander only waves a hand and lets his head fall back into the pillow. “Xander!”

  I throw my legs over the mattress, grabbing a tail of the blanket to cover the part of my body Cadi doesn’t have to see and put a hand on her shoulder.

  “Cadi, deep breaths,” I say. “What happened?”

  She looks at the door, then back at me. “There’s no time, I don’t know when … I don’t know what –”

  “Cadi, you need to calm down and tell me what happened.”

  She takes a deep breath, then looks around the room in search for something. Then she sees our pile of clothes discarded on the floor, goes to retrieve it and throws them at us.

  “Put these on, quickly!”

  This seems so shake Xander, as he slowly heaves himself up on the bed and stares at the clothing questioningly. “I wore those yesterday, Arcadia. I’m not wearing the same outfit a second time in a row.”

  Arcadia takes his shirt and shoves it to his chest. “Put it on, now.” Her tone doesn’t let room for arguments. I decide to quickly do as I’m told, as does Xander, even though he’s more vocal about his displeasure.

  “We need to leave, as quickly as possible,” she explains, shooting another glance at the door, as if she expects someone to burst in any second.

  “What do you mean, leave? Where are we going?” Xander rumbles.

  “Cadi, you need to be more specific,” I throw in.

  “Someone told the king! Someone told Claudius you’re trying to kill him, Xander!”

  “What?” Xander and I exclaim at the same time. “But who –”

  “I don’t know!” Cadi interrupts. “It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that I overheard my father and the king talking as I was going down for breakfast and it doesn’t sound good. It doesn’t sound good at all! The queen apparently doesn’t know yet and I have no idea if or when they are going to tell her, but your uncle sounded murderous, Xander. He could send his soldiers here any minute to retrieve you, we need to hurry, now!”

  Xander and I practically leap from the bed. Xander’s face is white as chalk, his eyes blown wide. “Fuck,” he breathes. “What are we going to do? I’m not … we’re not ready. I can’t face him today, I can’t do anything. If he accuses me first, before I have any concrete evidence of him murdering my father, I’m ruined. Everybody will think I’m just a jealous, ungrateful brat who wants the throne for himself, I …”

  “Xander, you must try not to panic,” I say. “That’s not going to help us.”

  “What is, then? What is going to help?”

  I stare at him, stare at his panicked expression, his untamed hair, his wrinkled clothes. “I don’t know,” I sigh. “But I know we have to do something.”

  “That’s what I’ve been telling you!” Cadi groans. “We need to move. We need to get Xander out of the castle and somewhere safe before the king and his men can get him.”

  “I’m not running from him,” Xander exclaims. “I’m not some coward afraid to face his enemy!”

  “No, you’re not a coward, Xander,” Cadi agrees, “but you’d be an idiot to run into a fight without a plan. This is not a game. This could end in death!”

  “Cadi’s right, we need to get you out of here,” I say.

  “But –” he tries to argue. I take his hands.

  “The most important thing is to get you to safety. Then we can make a plan, find out who ratted us out. We need a strategy, Xander. And you’re no good to anybody if Claudius decides to put you in the dungeon for the time being.”

  Xander clenches his fists, looking torn, but finally nods. “All right, I’ll go.”

  “Good, we need to –” Arcadia starts.

  “No,” Xander interrupts, “there’s no we. I’m going alone.”

  “What, but you –”

  “There’s no way I’m letting you go without me,” I declare. “You know it, I know it, so no need to argue and lose precious time about this. But you’re right about one thing. Cadi, you can’t come with us.”

  “What? No, I’m not letting you two go alone!”

  “You are. There’s no need for you to go, your father would never let anything happen to you. Besides, we need you here, in the castle. You are now the only person we can trust aside from each other, Cadi. Think about it, you need to stay here and find out as much as you can about who it was that betrayed us and what the king is planning to do next.”

  “There’s only two people who could’ve done it, Xavier, and you know it,” Xander says defeated.

  I shake my head. “No. Guildenstern and Rosencrantz both deserve the benefit of a doubt. Somebody else could’ve heard. Maybe we were not as careful as we thought.”

  Xander nods absently, but I know he’s not convinced. Cadi doesn’t look happy either, but at least she’s not complaining anymore. She can see the sense in her staying here. She’s always been a pragmatic girl.

  “You should go,” she utters. I look between my two best friends, one bend by fear, one by helplessness. I pull both of them into my arms and for a quick moment, everything stands still. We are still us, we are together, and there’s nothing in the world that can break us apart.

  “Come on,” I say, stepping away, “we don’t have time to pack. Grab your coat and as much money as you can find right now, and let’s go! Wait, where’s my knife? We could need it.”

  We grab our things and make our way to the door, halting for a last moment.

  “We see you in a bit, Cadi,” I breathe.

  She nods slowly, sadly. “Don’t take the front door,” she says in goodbye.

  Xander snorts. “We’re felons now, Arcadia, not idiots.”

  And we run through the door without looking back.

  Xander

  If I let myself think about this too much, I’ll cry. How is this happening? How am I running through the forest, with Xavier leading the way, away from my home, away from everything? Everything except Xavier. I won’t lie, I couldn’t do this without him. I was being serious when I said I needed to go alone. It would have been best to leave Arcadia and Xavier out of this. This is my madness, my fight. I’m just making it theirs. But as soon as the words left my mouth I knew they were a lie. I couldn’t have gone without Xavier. I wouldn’t have gone without him.

  So now, with only the clothes on my body and the little money in my pockets, I am running towards an unknown destination. The only consolation about this whole thing is that nobody outside of Trelburg should know what happened yet. I am still their prince. Nothing has changed, for now.

  As soon as we are out of sight of the castle, Xavier slows down. My breath is going quick, my lungs are burning and my throat is dry. He looks like he’s had a fun morning jog. Stupid training regime, always making him better at sports than me.

  I come up beside him and look around. We’re not far from the crossroad, where one would lead us into town and the other … well, it’s a half-day’s trip on horseback to the next village. I’m not really keen on walking that far.

  “So, what’s the plan?” I pant.

  Xavier rakes a hand through his thick locks and breathes out. “I guess there is no sense in hiding right under Claudius’ nose. He’d find us in a whim.”


  I don’t like where this is going.

  “We should try for one of the outer villages. There might be an inn or a tavern we could hide in.”

  Yep, I definitely don’t like this. This means walking, lots of walking. I groan at the prospect. Xavier raises an eyebrow at me. “I know what you’re thinking,” he says, “And don’t worry, I’m not letting you walk around for days. There’d be no sense in that either, as my father and the guard would catch up with us fairly quickly on their horses.” I can see something dawn in his eyes.

  “My father,” he breathes, “fuck. I haven’t thought about him yet. We’ll need to outsmart him, that won’t be so easy. He knows me. He knows my moves. We need to think outside the box.”

  “Are you sure your father will expect you to be with me? For all we know he could think you to be … I don’t know, drunk somewhere? In bed with some girl?”

  Xavier looks at me tauntingly. “It’s my father. This is a matter concerning you, Xander. He’ll know exactly where I am. I just hope they don’t suspect Arcadia of anything. You know, for their own sake.”

  I can’t contain the grin breaking on my face. “She’s a force to be reckoned with.”

  Xavier shivers visibly. “Yeah, I don’t want to be the poor bastard trying to convince Arcadia to do anything she doesn’t want to.”

  “Right. So, what do we do? We can’t hide here, we have no means to travel as far as we need, we have to outwit your father … well doesn’t that sound easy.”

  “Not the time for sarcasm, Xan.”

  “Every time is the time for sarcasm.”

  “Let me think … we could rent a horse, but that would be traceable. We would be instantly recognised. It’s too great a distance to walk, especially with your stamina … don’t look at me like that, you know I’m right. What else …”

  “We could steal a horse,” I suggest.

  “What?”

  “Steal a horse. Nobody would have to know it’s us and we’d have a method of transportation.”

  “We can’t just steal a bloody horse.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because it’s the middle of the day? We’d get caught. We’re not that trained in stealth … we’re not ninjas.”

  I let out a heavy sigh. “I wish we were ninjas.”

  “Me too.”

  Without any sensible ideas left and the adrenaline slowly leaving my body, I’m hit with the impact of this whole situation. I’m walking a fine line between utter frustration and complete rage. Frustration over how it could get so bad so quickly, rage about my uncle and the hold he has on my life. Sometimes I think about what life could have been like if I weren’t born a prince. Had I been a normal boy, born into a normal family, without the weight of expectation and responsibility – who would I be now? But then I remember that being the prince is part of who I am – a part that requires work and devotion and love. I always loved living in a castle, having all that space, all that time. It’s not all fun and games, not all bubble baths and fancy dinners. It’s also strategy and planning and a lot of talking and convincing.

  I’m good at that, I remember. The convincing part. Maybe I could make that our advantage.

  “I can see the wheels in your head turning,” Xavier observes.

  I shake the nagging feelings aside, square my shoulders and shoot him a smirk. “I think I have a plan.”

  20

  Arcadia

  I wait a while after Xander and Xavier disappear into the unknown. Roaming about the room, I make the bed and put away all evidence of them having spent the night here. Nobody needs to know when exactly they decided to run. I hope we did the right thing.

  It’s only when I hear multiple heavy footsteps in front of the door that I know we did. I just wish I was with them.

  The door is being forced open without a knock. Several soldiers storm the room, instantly followed by Captain Colson. He spots me immediately – not that I’m trying to hide, sitting on the divan in the middle of the room.

  “Lady Riverstone,” he says, not an ounce of surprise in his voice, “where are my son and the prince?”

  I stand up as slowly as I can, faking boredom as I let my eyes wander over the faces of the men and women in grey uniforms. At least they haven’t donned their breastplates, that means it’s not that serious. Yet.

  “I wish I knew, Captain,” I answer, giving a heavy sigh. “I had an appointment with the prince for breakfast. Imagine my disappointment at being stood up. I came here to check if he was still asleep, only to find his room empty and the bed unslept in. Consider me unamused.”

  The Captain’s eyes narrow suspiciously. Even if he decides not to believe me, he has no choice but to accept my words. I never gave him any reason to doubt my actions.

  I nod at Xavier’s father as I stride out of the room.

  “Start searching the castle!” I hear the Captain command. “Brexton, Finnser, you two go saddle your horses and start down the road into town! They can’t have gone far yet.”

  I hope he’s wrong. I hope they are as far away as humanly possible.

  My father storms out of the study right as I’m about to pass it on my way to the training grounds, where I hope to find Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. He only recognises me after he’s covered half the floor towards the stairs, then reels back and looks at me with frantic eyes.

  “Arcadia,” he says, walking back to me. “Where have you been? We need to talk.”

  I blink at him and nod. I really have no time for this but arguing with him will take longer that simply doing what he asks. He looks around, then starts stomping towards the dining room without looking back. I sigh and follow him.

  After he’s made sure that we’re alone in the room, he closes the door and points to the table. I assume he’s asking me to sit down. He takes a seat opposite of me, hands folded on the table, eyes boring into mine.

  “So, what is this about?” I ask.

  “Arcadia, my darling, I have bad news.” His face is stern, his forehead creased. “I’m afraid your betrothal to Prince Maleth is no longer valid.”

  I blink at him again, waiting for more to come. He remains silent.

  “I gathered as much,” I say, “Especially after Xander displayed such open affection towards Xavier.”

  My father’s face becomes sour. “Yes. It is highly unappropriated and completely disrespectful to our family.”

  “Actually, it’s alright,” I say, “Really, it’s not like I didn’t know –”

  “You knew?” he barks, “and you let it happen?”

  “I encouraged it.”

  He’s at a loss for words, his face growing red from anger. “This is unacceptable,” he mutters, shaking his head. “You were betrothed! He could have at least broken off the engagement before indulging in a new affair. Not that it matters much anymore. We should have cut our ties with this family when king Aelfred died. The queen had no sense for fidelity, why should her son be any different.”

  “Don’t presume to know Xander. There’s nothing wrong in following one’s heart.”

  “And what about your heart, Arcadia? What about your future?”

  “My heart is doing exactly what it wants to be doing. Xander never belonged to me, I never belonged to him.”

  “That’s good then,” he says and stand up. “Because we need to leave. Go pack your bags, I will arrange a carriage.”

  “What? You can’t be serious?”

  “I’m more than serious. The prince has gone mad and now the king is following him down that path. He was talking about finding him, killing him, just like he should have done the moment he had a chance to. It’s madness. We have no place here anymore.”

  I jump up from my seat. “The king ordered to kill Xander?”

  I run as fast as my feet take me in this long dress. My father stays behind in the dining room, yelling something after me, but I don’t stop to listen. The people I pass stare at me comically. Figures, as I’m running like a madwoman. I couldn�
�t care less though. I need to find Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and I need to find them now!

  Icy cold wind hits me as I storm out of the door into the gardens. It’s the quickest way to the training grounds, where I suspect the two merchants to be. At least, that’s where they’ve been every morning since they arrived.

  Luck seems to be on my side today, because I spot them leave the castle on the other side of the circle garden. They seem to be arguing frantically about something. I pull my skirt up and run even faster.

  As soon as they see me, they are running towards me. We meet in the middle of the garden, at the fountain that has started all of this. It’s fitting, I guess.

  “Arcadia, do you know where –” Guildenstern begins, but I don’t let him finish.

  “Was it one of you?” I demand to know and hope that my voice conveys my furiousness even though I’m panting like a dog.

  “What?” they ask in unison.

  “Did you … rat us out … to the king?” I hiss between heavy breaths.

  They both look taken aback … and quite a bit hurt. Good, yes, that’s a good sign. An honest emotion.

  Rosencrantz looks at me incredulously. “You really think –”

  “– one of us would betray Xander?” Guildenstern finishes with open anger.

  “Well I would very well hope not. But this is no time for foolish trust, not when Xander’s life is at stake!”

  They gape at me with open mouths. “He’s threatening to kill Xander?”

  “Not openly, I hope,” I say, “But that’s what my father says.”

  “I can’t imagine the queen being on board with this,” Rosencrantz contemplates.

  I nod in agreement. “I haven’t seen her so far. Maybe she doesn’t know?”

  “Maybe he’s locked her in somewhere,” Guildenstern says. “It’s impossible not to know what’s going on, the whole castle is going nuts!”

  “Yeah, they’ve heard rumours that the prince went mad and threatened to overthrow his uncle to claim the throne for himself. They know there’s a search party going for Xander … they don’t know that it’s a hunt.”