THE BLOOD ROYALS Book 2: Long Live The Queen!

Chapter Twenty Six: Leverage

Saine Neane
Prince Relian's POV
Sometimes it does not take much to figure out something is amiss in a situation.

The treasonous General is having tea seated alone in  the underground silo. It's a unsettling scene. For a man who is about to be dead he sure is undisturbed.

Cormac looked at me. He moved his eyes as if to ask what next. Bowie, Barlowe and two other men are sweeping the rest silo. I kept my gaze on Hanniel.

"Clear." Bowie informed me. "No one else is here."

"Are you disappointed your highness?" Hanniel asked me as he sipped his tea. "I would offer you a cup but it's my last tea bag. But you're welcome to stare."

I lowered my weapon. "Good afternoon Hanniel. Do you know why we are here?" I asked him.

"To execute me?" He smiled.

"That depends on the outcome of your trial." He laughed. "Is that amusing?"

He turned his body to face us. He poured the tea and threw away the porcelain cup. It crashed on the floor. "It is because you're not going to give me a trial. You're going to execute me. That's what you have been taught to do. To take whatever you want even life on a whim because you had a bad day. Do you need me to retrace the history of your kind for you? Why are you two still with the monarchy?"

"That's enough talking." Barlowe warned him.

"See? Not even freedom is speech is allowed. You're all working for tyrants!"

"Can I shoot him?" Barlowe asked me. 

"No." I denied Barlowe's request.

I approached the man with my weapon still strapped over my torso. I took off the dark gloves. "Let's talk. It's probably the only chance we have. May I sit?" I gestured to to the log facing him.

"Sit."

"When Xanth and I graduated from Compulsory Military Service, you gifted us with matching knives engraved with the words 'honor above all'. I find it hard to believe that a man who spoke of honor at every waking moment would behave like this. If someone is pulling your strings, then tell me so that I can help you. Are you being blackmailed?"

"My eyes are wide open. Now I see what I should have seen from the very beginning."

I rubbed my jaw. "What do you see?"

"A tyrant." He moved his hand from his side. I tried to dodge the knife but it grazed my neck. I used the gun to hit him.

"Stay down." Barlowe and Bowie stood over him. "Stay down." I touched my neck. "How bad is it?"

"It's just a graze." Cormac assured me.

"Get him up. Let's go." I reached into one of my pockets for a some tissues. I dabbed it over the cut.

"In a few seconds your phone is going to ring." Hanniel's swords forced me to turn. He is bleeding from the side of his head. "Please answer it."

He wasn't wrong when it did.

It's Renée. I stared at the pretty girl on my screen. I did something sappy and made her my screen saver. She will make fun of me when she finds out.

I looked at Hanniel. He smiled at me. "Answer. It could be important."

"Hey, this isn't a good time." I spoke softly.

"If I was a girl and someone talked to me like that, oof! I would soak myself!" A man answered. I felt quickly alarmed.