The bird caught in a mouse trap

Chapter one

My mind was lost again.

A big robin sat in the branches above my head, its puffed up feathers swaying in the wind. My eyes followed it on its track down the branch, hopping over leaves and flower buds and bumps to where a cluster of plum coloured berries grew. It picked at them, swallowing it whole. Now I'm craving berries. Once we're done here, maybe I'll head down into the kitchens and ransack it until I find some, or a peach would be nice, too. Now I'm indecisive.

"Arrian." A voice whispered to me, snapping me back from my thoughts. I frown, glancing to my side where my friend and Guard Commander keeled beside me on the cold stone ground.

"Hmm?" I hum, looking back towards where I'd seen the robin. Disappointment gripped me at the sight of the lonely tree. The robin must've flown away during my short exchange with Ceiphus.

"You asked me to come with you down here, well now we're here." He sighed but his usual emotionless eyes were alight with amusement.

"Ah!"

I glance around, suddenly aware. We're in the Prophet's temple, or I suppose it should be called makeshift temple, considering the real one was destroyed ten years ago. It's cold here, cold enough that it feels as if Winter itself has burrowed deep within the shadows around us, waiting to come out and kill everything it touches. The stone ground is hard and my knees feel numb. I don't know how long we've been kneeling here, but it mustn't have been very long since Ceiphus doesn't look more annoyed than usual.

We're in the middle of a flattened section of the mountains, with tall carved slabs of stone around us. Ivy covers it entirely, and only bits of the grey stone underneath can be seen between the vines. Grass shoots up between the cracked stone ground, tickling my ankles where my pants rode up slightly. I suppressed a smile. We sit at the highest peak of the mountain, gazing out at the lands beneath us and everything beyond. The sun sits on the horizon and it paints the sky in whirls of oranges and reds and peach and-

"You come to seek answers, Young Prince?" The Prophet's voice echoed. He rested perhaps five feet away from us, on the cliff edge, gazing outwards. His bare back faced me and I studied the deep scars that lashed across his freckled shoulder blades and down along his spine.

My face heats at the sudden shame that overcomes me at the sight of them. They're the long result of a whipping order by my father twelve years ago. I don't remember much of it, it all happened so very fast. The blood, the screaming and then silence. My father was seated beside me in his golden throne, gazing down at the punishment with a cool calculated look in his eye. I was only ten at the time, but I remember my father forcing me to sit there and watch the entire ordeal. Afterwards, when they'd carried the Prophet out and a trail of blood followed him like a red snake slithering across the marble floor, my father had told me that when I eventually took the throne that I would have to do things like that, too.

"I came to understand." I corrected him.

His head cocked to the side, "What is there to understand, have I not been clear enough?"

"For the past ten years, you've only said one thing. I want to understand why you say it."

The Prophet shifts from where he's sitting, turning to finally face us. His beige robes flow in the wind and he gazes down at us calmly. I've always found it strange how calm he was. I don't think I've ever seen him express any other emotion other than calmness. Even when he took that whipping, he never cried or complained. It took it silently and then left silently.

"I only relay what the Gods' want you to know, and they only tell me one thing. I do not know why, or who she is or the purpose of her life but I do know that if you want your Kingdom to survive, you need her."