A Princess Named Harry: Book 2

Chapter 59

At the beginning of their journey, everything was fine. They were just a bunch of knights being sent out on the king's whim. They had all gotten a say about whether or not they wanted to go; everyone except Varian, that is.

He was in the front leading the rest of the group. He was surrounded by unfamiliar faces. He didn't like it. If it was possible, he wanted to flee from the group and go back to the palace. He would lay low in hiding for the next two months if it meant he could skip out on the expedition.

The knights were too quiet and serious even for his standards. He didn't like the idea of having to hear them laugh and talk his ear off, but he also didn't like the silence he found himself in. The only thing that could be heard were the sounds of the horse's footsteps as they moved through the woods.

The only time the knights interacted with each other was when they needed to set up camp for the night, but even then, they only said the bare minimum. The trip continued that way only until they reached their destination.

Varian hadn't known where they were at first. The place was too ransacked and destroyed. He didn't think anyone would've been able to tell where they were. He'd only heard a few comments that they were heading into forbidden territory, but for the King of Cardiaire, practically everything was forbidden territory.

They all stayed together while they explored the place. To be honest, none of them knew what they were looking for. The king had given them orders to find anything that looked useful and bring it back. Try as they might to meet his expectations, nothing looked useful.

If they had been a little smarter or had known a little more, then they would've been able to figure out the king's hidden motive. He was looking for any incriminating evidence of his crime. The crime that he believed only he knew about. If anyone else knew about it, they were long dead.

During the first days, they swept through most of the rubble finding nothing to show for it. They occasionally found a lost old doll or a few pieces of jewelry, but no one thought the king would be interested in items like that. They pressed on with their search and soon set their sights on the palace. That was when things became troublesome.

The leader of the group, Rainer, decided that they would be better off all searching that large broken palace for treasure. They would rest for a couple of days first before they would start their search again.

Varian knew the group of knights weren't the best, but he didn't know they would become completely useless. After a few days of rest, the knights soon developed a taste for it. They had a vote to use their time as a vacation and not do anything.

"We'll tell His Majesty that we couldn't find anything."

"Yeah, I doubt this place has anything valuable."

"Right? I mean just look at this place. What could the king possibly want here anyway?"

The few knights who actually wanted to complete their task in hopes of returning early only found trouble. Since the territory had been long abandoned, it was practically a breeding ground for all the wild animals.

Bears, wolves, boars, and other dangerous animals continued to attack the group. Varian found himself constantly at odds with these beasts. He was burning out and his blade was dulling. He had to use it every night to kill at least one wild creature, so it made sense his sword was dulling.

He sat for hours and worked vigorously to get his blade back to its optimal condition. After sharpening it and finally getting it in a state that satisfied him, he set out to find the things the king so desperately wanted to get his hands on.

The knights hadn't talked to him at all, but the moment he sought out alone, many of them had some words to say then. Varian, being who he was, ignored them all and pressed on.

He made sure to make it farther than the others did. He wasn't sure if he was acting out of spite or arrogance, but he believed if anyone could find an object in the rubble that would greatly satisfy the king, it would be him. He felt like he was the only one who could do it.

He continued down the ruined road. Once he thought he was in a good place, he would stop and move some of the rubble around. Much to his dismay, he could only find the remains of what were once fancy dresses and a few gold and silver coins. He left everything alone and continued down the road. Even if he had picked up the coins, he didn't think the king would be interested in foreign money. They would probably mean less to him than the doll the others discovered.

Each night, Varian would return to the camp empty-handed, and every time the knights would give him looks. It was obvious what they were thinking. Eventually, Varian gathered up so many supplies that he no longer needed to return to the camp.

Taking his horse with him, he left the group and continued the search separately. Despite his efforts, he continued to come up empty for several days. The one thing he gained was tiny knick-knacks. He decided if he had to return to the kingdom after the two months were over, he would at least have something to show for it, even if all he brought back was useless junk. His quest for treasures only leading to junk lasted for quite some time. It wasn't until a particular day that he finally found something useful among the ruins.