The Relentless Past

Ch.Ten

Ch. Ten

William was used to it. The long gossips of women, the long economical matter discussions with various officials. Even Richard seemed to be engaged in talking with his mother. It was almost as if he were invisible. He felt a hand on his knee and he looked up. It was his dad, King Windsor.

" William?" His dad said, his tone totally different from the other deeper one he uses to talk to his nobles.

" Dad!" Willam couldn't contain  the excitement in his voice at seeing his dad after such a long while, he tried again in a normal tone, " Your Highness."

King Windsor laughed, " Oh William. It's okay, you can speak informally. Forget rules and etiquettes. I know your mum forces you to, but be casual with me." His father caught his mother's sharp eye through the crowd and added, " I mean occasionally. "

They both laughed.

" William?"

" yes?"

" you know right?"

" Oh c'mon dad. I really don't want to. And I don't even think I have to, I mean you're here!" William groaned.

" I won't be here for ever. You have to be the next king.  You need to be trained." His dad stroked his beard. He needed a shave. His assistants weren't looking after him well.

" But I'm trained." William pouted.

" That training is different than this one, son. And, before you say Amber can be the next queen, let me tell you, I'm very much willing to let my daughter be the next queen. She's capable and I know it. But I do not want my daughter to face criticism. The others will surely criticize her if I were to ever announce her as the Queen. They never take in females. It's unfortunately the custom. I'm sorry William but you do have no choice. " His dad patted his shoulder comfortably.

It's not like William didn't want to be king, but a lot of responsibilities come with it, and being the troublemaker he is, he would never be a proper king. He would never be a better king than his father, there was no one like his father.

Amber could be Queen. She was disciplined, strong, and definitely atleast better than himself if not than their father. But it was true, Amber was their princess and they would never want her to go through any kind of criticism. Speaking of, he hadn't seen Amber at all today. Where was she?

Amber was bored.

She'd taken her time to pick out her dress, it was lavender in color, with small butterflies laced on the shoulder. The dress went upto her knees in a puffed up manner. She'd also straightened her hair and picked out few hairpins to go along with it, she really looked forward to this evening. It had been a while since She'd last seen everybody together. And truth to be told, she hardly saw her parents more than once a month, they rarely had time for her. So all in all , she was really excited.

All of that went in vain, the moment she arrived here. She received a message from her father right when she arrived, pleading her to not come to the gathering and to lookout for any mishappenings near the building. Oh.

That was right. Each year they had any residential gathering, something or the other happened.  People were shrewd, they would keep looking out for opportunities to humiliate her father, to somehow bring his kingdom down. Even though, her father was humble, kind and he never in his life bothered anybody, they were out there trying to overthrow him. It never worked before, it never would work now.  Amber had already checked the surroundings of the hotel, and she found nothing out of the ordinary.

Now, she sat hunched over right on top of the building, if anybody were to pass by, she would know, the air at such a height was pleasant and she found herself smiling at the chatter and music, below her. Right, the feast must have begun . It was sad she couldn't attend the dinner she was so excited for. All week, she'd been looking forward to it, but the lives of her people were important to her and she needed to protect them. Her father trusted her completely, he'd trained her himself, and he knew what she was capable of. If anything, she could atleast do this much for her busy father. She liked helping him, how much ever she could if it meant her father staying happy. It's not easy being a king. Its obviously not a piece of cake to handle the affairs of your kingdom, both in and out. So, if she could take even 1% off his load,by staying on guard for any danger, she would be more than willing to throw away a dinner invitation.

Amber was lost in her thoughts when all of a sudden she heard few footsteps just a few meters away from her. Must be the nearby building. She looked at the direction of the sound as swiftly as she could, but the person seemed to have already jumped onto the next roof, and was now running full speed above the buildings. She caught a brief flash of red hair. Wait, yellow hair too. Two people.

Amber sprang up, not bothering about her dress, she jumped out to the next building and then to the next and next. The two people still seemed to be running, they were dressed in dark black hoodies.  Amber bared her fangs, sharp teeth wounding her lips, she had a small cut.

The buildings ended and the two people jumped down to an alley. Loud cries of cats were heard, as the two of the hooded figures ran with Amber following closely behind.

One of them threw a stone at Amber, and it hit her arm. One of the butterflies around her shoulder fell off. Amber had enough,  she took off one of her hairpins and aimed for their back, it hit one of their leg and they fell down. Amber wasted no time in getting a hold of them. The injured person lay on the floor, struggling to escape while the other one stood close, not running away. It seemed to Amber that the two of them were really  loyal partners, since the other could have ran away in the meanwhile, but they didn't.

The other person took off her hoodie and revealed her face, she had short blonde hair, contrasting to her pale face. Wait, wasn't it her biology classmate?Maddie? What is she doing here? Amber took off the hoodie of the figure laying on the floor and she was suprised. It was a female, with bright red hair, her eyebrows were furrowed, and as Amber's gaze fell on her lips, she noticed the girl had fangs colored a deep purple. A servant.

And there was only one servant with Red hair and grey eyes. Could it be...