Grieve Him

Chapter 7

I felt my upper body shoot up. I was in my room again. Apart of me wanted the day before to be a dream, but I knew better. I could still feel the weakness in my legs. I could still feel my bruised feet, my head ache, scratches on my legs from the thorns of bushes I had walked through.

"You're awake."

My head turned to Gunnur. It was cold.
"I thought you'd sound happier to see me alright." I said jokingly towards him as my body relaxed.

"You're making jokes right now Mylah?" he said as he stepped away from my window and turned to face me. I opened my mouth, before I could speak a word, his anger filled the room. His voice was like lightning. It struck me and set a shockwave through the room.

"You don't get to joke around! You don't get to use your humour as a coping mechanism now! Not after what you put me through, what you put this kingdom through! Did you even think before you ran off?" he asked rhetorically. "Your father was assassinate and you thought it would be a good idea to be the one to to after him?! Are you insane?!"

I snapped backed, "I didn't see you going after him!"

"Because that wasn't my job!"

"Ye-" I managed to mutter before he cut me off.

"No it wasn't! Long before your father died, he asked me- told me- he as much as ordered me that if anything happened to him, my job was to garuntee your safety first and before I even got the chance to grab you, you had disappeared into the crowd. You think I didn't want to get him?! To grab him?! I fought beside your father for decades! I wanted more than anything to catch that fucker and hang his blood drained body at our city gates! - but that wasn't my job. It was to protect you..." His words sliced through me like a blade. As he spoke, I could feel the anger reshape itself into pain... pain and sadness.

I felt it too. We both had our ways. He got angry, I got talkative. He used violence, I used humour. That's how we dealt with pain.

"It was not your job to catch him Mylah..." he spoke as he lowered his head; like the weight on his shoulders get heavier.

"Thank you for finding me Gunnur. I don't know how I would've gotten home without you." I spoke. Disappointed in the way I had spoke to Gunnur since I had woken.

"Of course." He spoke clearly, barely conveying emotion. The room fell silent momentarily. I asked him about my father. Sadness and sorrow entered my room. I already knew what he was going to say, didn't make it easier to stomach.

He told me my father was dead. I could feel my stomach churn, but I dare not falter. I held my head high and climbed out of my bed. "Then we have work to do Gunnur... are you ready?" I asked as I stepped towards him.

Even though we were sad, we stood strong face-to-face. "Yes. Yes I Am" He said.

We spent the rest of the day preparing my father's funeral, and by the morning, we buried him in the castles cemetery, next to my mother. I had sat there longer than any, Gunnur stood by my side the entire time. No words were spoken. The only noise around was the wind as they shook the leaves in the trees.

Soon it began to rain. I kissed my fingers and pressed them to my father grave. "Requiesce in pace" I whispered, praying for him. I stood up and we moved inside.

"I - I am aware that this is not the right time to talk about it Princess Mylah, but a kingdom is nothing without a ruler. Without your father, we will need someone to take his mantle and as his first and only child, you are to fill that role." Gunnur said as we walked through the hallways.

"I know... but I can't. I can't take his place without finding the man who took him from it." I said.

"As queen, you will have the power to do so"
"We both know how the other kingdoms with react once news spreads." I said as I rolled my eyes. We both knew the political war that would ensue. "A child? As queen? Ruler of a kingdom?" They would perceive us as weak. I knew it and so did he.

"Gunnur."

"Yes Mylah?"

"We haven't made my fathers death public. Do your best to keep it that way."

"And what is it that you'll be doing in the mean time?"

"Finding the man responsible for his death." Although I hadn't looked at him, I could feel the way he had looked at me. As if I was being childish. "Just give me a week. If I come up empty, I will return and we will do this your way."

I knew he could see it in my eyes. I was determined to do this. "So be it." he said, "one week."

"Thank you" I said.

"If you are to have any hope of finding him, it'd be best you don't begin your search with nothing."

"I have something."

"Never the less, I think this will be quite helpful." He said as he walked off. I followed behind him as he led me lower and lower into the castle. We eventually arrived at the doors to the castles dungeon.
"Why are we here?" I asked him.

He didn't speak a word, instead he held his torch to the wall opposite the dungeons door and firmly pushed his hand against the wall. The wall began to shift. The cement holding the bricks seemed to crack and break as the wall opened up like a doorway.

"What is this?" I asked nervously. My voice shaking.

"This, Mylah-" he said as he stepped inside, lifting his torch to another wall and seemingly lighting it; spreading the flame across a dug out piece of the walls inside this room, "- is the Kings Library"

I stared in awe of the bookshelves and layers of this place. in the middle of this circular room was a round table make of stone.

"This library holds all the knowledge you will need as a queen. It took your father years to tell me about it and alot more to show me where it was." He said as I stepped further into the room. Looking around and admiring it. "He was supposed to show it to you. Now that duty has fell unto me."

I looked back at him, almost sympathetically, but I knew he would hate it, so I moved on from it.

"Use this room til morning, I'll find you a way out. You have til then to think about this, look for any information and get some rest... oh and I believe this will help." He said. I turned to him and saw him pull a knight from his pocket.

"We cleaned the blade of blood, but this was the dagger used to kill your father. Thought it might just be useful." He said as he handed the blade to me.

I nodded, then so did he. He turned around the walked out, closing the door behind me. I looked at all the bookshelves and took a deep breath.

"Time to get to work."