A RETURN TO KINGDOMS, BOOK 1
Word Count:147,621
For nearly two hundred years, the seventeen territories of the world have lived in peace, each swearing never to repeat the horrors of the largest war there ever was. But when Lady Nara of house Ashhan...
(Picture of grown-up Lila Vraemore since I can't remember if I've shown it or not yet, and while she's only a minor side character in this book- she has a much larger part to play in the sequel.)
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Noveno 21st, 3328 A.G
"Come on- let's get you.... away from... this." Maude heard Renard say. On a normal night she would have punched him away, but on her upper back his palm felt comforting, not uncomely. It used to be considered odd for a king to be alone with a ward, as more often than not wards of war were were women( Even if they were young or male, the standard had stuck around)- yet he was doing so openly where any soldier could walk out and see them. Granted- things had changed since the death of the last king. Renard was the only one in the world, the first in over two hundred years. He'd promised himself he would not meet the same end as the last king, and so far he'd kept that promise.
He helped Maude grab her sacks and carved tent sticks, then they started walking- looking for a large enough spot on the beach. The closest one ended up being at the far end of camp, right up against greenery. The process was slow, as neither were great at it- but they did eventually manage to make the tent stand.
Enough to give Maude privacy while she slept and protection from insects, at least.
If the sea breeze had blown at all that night, the tent would have gone down in moments. They both knew it, but for once Maude decided not to worry. Learning to set a tent up right was not a priority of hers. Though she'd always prefer knives and swords, she wanted to focus more on how to use axes and spears- and the edible plants of the continent.
When she stepped in the tent, Renard peeked his head in.
"Would you feel safer with Guards around your tent for the night?" He asked, making eye contact. Maude saw a leader in him then- one who actually cared about people. She'd seen the same in Nara, just less of it. Renard could have put them around her tent without asking- yet he hadn't. He'd given her a choice and had a look about him that said he would respect her yes or no.
"No." She finally said, pulling her bedroll out of it's sack. "I'm perfectly capable of defending myself."
She gestured to the knife sheath at her waist then, still stuffed with nine throwing knives and a dagger. She would not hesitate to use them if forced to.
She laid her bedroll out, climbed inside of it- and put the clothing sack behind her head. She could have taken a pillow, but that would have been yet another thing to carry when it came time to set up camp. The bow and quiver she'd left in a wagon had already annoyed her to a point of abandoning them except for in training. She could hunt just as well with knives, throw them nearly as far as an arrow could.
Renard did not doubt she could protect herself, but he would never be used to an eleven year old speaking and acting at least five years older, depending on her mood. In a way, she reminded him of his own bastard sister- who he'd been allowed to see only once growing up.
His parent's relationship had been almost perfect. They married for love, never struck each other and rarely fought, yet Lila was always there- a small wedge between them. When her mother- a servant girl, told their father she was with child and would not be drinking mugwort or asking someone to punch her in the stomach- he'd agreed on a few conditions. The child would be given a good life, but she could never be a part of the Vraemore name or an heir to the island.(Though Renard never knew her well, he was almost happy that she'd temporarily become just that.) Renard's father had told him everything on his tenth birthday- when he believed he was old enough, and then took him to see her.
Even then, Renard had been struck by how similar they looked- like they were meant to be twins even though she was four years younger. They'd sparred for hours, Lila winning each time- and had only stopped because she broke his sparring sword. He'd been angry, but his father told him in a hundred different ways to get over it.
It was your own fault- Frey Vraemore had said. If you don't want to get beat by a six year old girl, stop acting like one and train more.
He knew now that it had nothing to do with her being a girl, but still everything to do with him.
He'd seen Maude fight before, and she and Lila had similar styles. They'd both duck almost every time they hit, with the skills of someone twenty years older.
"Were those the first deaths you've seen?" He asked Maude, who was still adjusting the clothing sack.
"My tenth and eleventh." She said, emotionless. "It was the first..... murder though. It felt... so different than watching child rapists and killers be executed by my father. You know he was a horrible person- hit us almost daily, yet like anyone but the rapists themselves he had no mercy for crimes involving children. I still wish one of us had told that he struck us- in front of his council and people so they'd know what a hypocrite he was. I guess there's no point now....."
"I guess that's the horror of this world." Renard shrugged. "Nobles get away with everything so long as they pretend to be good."
"My sister is...." Maude trailed off. "She's something. Takes after our father more than she'd admit. What was the first death you saw?"
Renard sat. He couldn't forget that day if he tried- the beginning of the end of his childhood. The man was a servant who'd been kind to him- and he was only five at the time. According to his father, the man had set fire to over seven thousand coins worth of lemon preserves and juices- yet he'd screamed about how it was an accident right until his head was separated from his body. He'd been going to check on his animals in the pastures, he said- when he walked past the two wagons filled with preserves, set to leave on a trade ship whenever it showed up. There was a guard- a guard that failed to prevent him from tripping and failed to be executed despite being at fault nearly as much. He was supposed to keep people from walking near the preserves- yet he hadn't. He'd later found out that the gaurd was the bastard son of an advisor who'd since died, who'd used the little real power he had to talk Frey Vraemore into letting him live. He told Maude all of it.
It was and would always be about who you know.
"Try to get some sleep." He said. "We've got a long war ahead of us."
