Thorough Breds 1: My Prince(18+)

8- A lie revealed

Same old. Same old. The palace and all its people were exactly how he had left them. The same luxury he had,  left stared back at him. And for someone used to the wooden walls of ships and navy bases, this luxury was foreign and uncomfortable.

He missed his bed below deck in a ship at sea. And after years of bobbing up and down with waves, stable unmoving ground made him dizzy.

Tharn looked around, his head turning like a top, as he traced the only thing that connected him to this palace. His memories with Type.

He could almost hear Type, taking in third person and teaching Tharn some other rule of friendship. If his days at the naval bases taught him to be a good ruler, his days with Type taught him to be a good person.

His father had called him back because he'd become a very famous figure with the common folk. He'd had dinners with them, wore plain clothes, sat on the bare ground under the burning sun. His father would never even have thought of doing it- a royal sitting with the poor.

But Tharn saw them for more, he saw their lives, their problems, their families, the small things that made them happy.

And in every man, woman and child, he saw a little bit of Type. His freedom, his habits, the way he smiled so easily on the smallest of things.

He had understood people and become a good leader, with the memory of Type to guide him. It was weird to think he would never have done any of this, would have gone straight back to the palace and not inflicted this self exile.

If only Type hadn't left.

******

Dinner was boring, uneventful and over all a pain to sit through. His mother and father hadn't much changed, except he could see his father about to burst from pride.

And yet Tharn was unconcerned.

Where younger him would have done anything for his father's approval, older him had seen so much pain and misery in people's lives, he no longer cared about his father's feelings.

He had been at war, seen people die, families broken. He'd stood as people sobbed in his arms as he told them of their loved ones loss.

It changed a man. War. It gave you exposure like little other things could.

Except perhaps travelling.

Travelling too, in a lot of ways showed you life existed outside your perfect neighborhood too.

People lived in poverty and pain, going about their day hoping to just live. And Tharn no longer cared about wine tastings and ribbon cutting.

This wasn't the type of leader his people needed. They needed more than a few charities and hospitals.

They needed somebody who was willing to listen. Who instead of frowning at their worn out clothes and weary faces, could sit down with them and give them a chance to talk.

And Type had given it to him. This chance to be a better man. Type had shown him that every life was special in its own way. It didn't need to be up to society standards, after all what could be less stereotypical than their friendship.

And it had given him so much.

The thought brought a smile to his lips even as it sent a pang to his heart.

******
Chocolate cake.

He lived chocolate cake. It was the absolute best thing in the world for him. His parents had it made for him, he was sure.

He took a piece on his dessert fork, and the moment he put it in his mouth, he almost moaned.

It wasn't just any chocolate cake, it was the chocolate cake. The same one he used to have when he was a child.

He paused, his heart hammering as he tried to shake it off.

No.

It couldn't be. It couldn't be Type's father who had made this. And yet he knew only using the same recipe wouldn't produce this exact result.

But how?

Type and his family had left twelve years ago.

*****

Have you caught on to what happened all those years ago yet?

******

"Please. I beg of you. Please." A man was dragged in the empty courtroom by men  holding onto both his arms.

His feet dragged on the ground behind him and he seemed like he had put up quite a fight before finally giving in.

The King and Queen watched, apprehensive, yet again. By chance they had heard this man talking to his friends, and so a disaster had been avoided.

"You were the commander of the naval base the prince visited all those years ago. Yes?" The King's voice was fueled with anger.

The man nodded.

"The Queen says she heard you talking to some friends at dinner. You were saying something about why the prince agreed to say. She says the reason wasn't just to prove himself."

The man gulped. "A-As you asked I offered him a chance to stay and learn with us at the base. But the prince didn't want to stay, he was adamant that he return to the palace. I asked him why, and he told me about the servant boy you mentioned"

He took a big gulp of air. His voice quivering with realization of what would happen when he finished.

"I lied to him the next day. I to-told him the boy had left the palace. That he and his family didn't want to stay with us anymore and nobody knew where they went. And he agreed to stay. I only did it because I wanted to serve you. I got scared and-"

Those were the man's last words. The Queen's elongated claws stabbed him straight through his chest.

She turned to Thayakorn. Her expression full of fear, her eyes haunted.

"He can't know Thayakorn. He can't know. I didn't realize. I should have. He agreed so easily to stay. Put all of his efforts into his training. He always wanted to study at a naval base. I thought it was because of his dream."

"Mala stop! I thought Tharn didn't care about the boy anymore. After all he didn't come back that time and for the last twelve years,  never once asked for him. Since we know it isn't true, I suggest we send him away before Tharn sees him."

The woman gasped, then nodded. "Yes! Yes, nobody needs to know about the lie. He doesn't need to know the boy has been here all along"

"I'll have him sent before daybreak. Tonight after the Prince retires to his room."

She turned her eyes out towards the sky. The disaster she had thought her son had moved on from, was staring her back in the face. She knew Tharn, they both did. Even if he didn't care about the boy, he would be livid by the lie. The betrayal.

*****
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Ana💕