Our hope

Chapter 20: Royal

The dinner was tense as there was only a couple who knew that he even existed. The surprising part was that there was a couple of the Royals that knew who he was. That was the teal and orange king. The teal King was gray as his heir was going to let his father reign as long as the King was alive.

The orange King looked a little older than the princes father. They were the two closest to the Prince as dinner was served. The heirs sat to the opposite side of the rulers to where the Prince was sitting. The queens were the only ones talking during the dinner. If you were looking you could probably catch the Prince smiling.

This was because of the things that you can from his end of the table. Some of the princes talked across the table as the main rulers stayed silent all through the meal. The Prince lead the rulers and their heirs to the war room as everyone took their place the candles above were lit.

"To start off there was an attack on this kingdom. Only a few days ago with my father, mother, and sisters being executed by the Leader of the attack. We did have her in custody until yesterday when oversights allowed her escape. As my family is dead I have assumed the role of leading the kingdom during these trials."

Muttering filled the room as the Prince tried to think of what he was going to say next. What could the others really help with during this time. With no way of knowing what the Rebel leader was going to do there was no way to prepare. The orange King called attention to the room pulling the Prince out of his most recent panic attack.

"Their was rumors that there was another child born but we were under the impression that you died. This was used as an excuse by your parents to explain your disappearance. Most people also used it to explain their erratic behaviour. I applaud you in taking up the throne as you were never given any formal training." The Prince let out a breath feeling a little more confident.

"We should discuss who will be reliving you of this stress." The green King stepped in from the other side of the table from the prince.

"A second in line that we can all agree on would be our best chance, maybe even if we can find a betrothed pair in our children." The yellow queen suggested as discussion turned to setting up an alliance between the two for a take over.

"Thank you for your input but that has already been suggested and we have rejected that. Me and my partner will be taking care of the kingdom as King and consort." The Prince sharply shut down the conversation causing the room to go quiet again.

"Said partner has been taken by the Rebel leader to another kingdom of where I have no knowledge of. I don't know of their intentions for what is to come. I would hope that any of you would have some insight as to what I should expect." The purple King stood up,

"Richard is close to what your father was in terms of selfishness. He will only make deals if he knows he will get the better side of the deal. I would suggest getting your army ready for an attack if you have not gotten word from him yet." Thankfully a knock at the door put a pause in the conversation.

The captain of the royal guard walked in with an envelope. All eye followed as he handed the envelope to the prince. He took a few steps back and watched the Prince open the letter. The knight couldn't help but notice the small smile on the captains face as the princes eyes widened at the news.

The Prince on the other hand would swear to you that he was having a heart attack. It was all in the rebels terrible handwriting. He had tried to teach them better handwriting to make something legible but there was lots more work to be done. There was something off, but the Prince just chocked it up to the voice of the letter being different. Someone else was using the rebels voice for something.

That or the Rebel was using someone else's voice to cover up their true intentions. The orange King carefully took the letter out of the Prince's hand as he read it to the rest of the room. They all looked around at each other as the Prince tried to keep breathing. They started discussing what route would be the best to take. Some was willing to just give the crowns over and others thought that a war was the only way to go.

"Stop!" The Prince finally catching his breath. His head was spinning, something was wrong. Very, terribly wrong but he couldn't place it. Not with this betrayal thrown in his face. He knew the rebel, he thought they wouldn't do this. Maybe the running away wasn't as unwilling as the Prince first thought. He needed to head back to his room before he broke down crying.

"Captain." The Prince said glad that his voice sounded a lot more steadier then he felt.

"Yes sire." The captain stepped forward an passive emotion taking over his face.

"I want you to ready the army. We move out the day after tomorrow to face this King Richard. If he wasn't to take over then he will have to show me just how much he is willing to go through to take it from me." The Prince stood up pushing his chair out.

"I would like us all to meet here at three chimes afternoon to go over strategy. I wish to ask for your experience in protecting my kingdom. If you do not wish to help then you do not have to show up. Thank you." He walked around the table grabbing his letter on the way out.

He was of course reading it over and over and over to try and find somethings are wrong with it. It didn't sound like the rebel, that was the first clue that something was wrong. Made sense that it was signed from someone else. The second point, the rebels handwriting a different in a few places then what it normally would be.

After running into three candle stands and a pillar the Prince couldn't find what he was looking for. A clue, a sign, a reason to still keep faith in his betrothed. The Knight could be heard running to catch up with the Prince after the discussion had ended. The teal, purple and orange kings were defending the Princes birth right to throne as the only surviving member left.

Yellow and green conceded as any further pressing on the issue could be seen as aggression that could start something they did not need. They were already dealing with one impending war. Starting another one would just end badly for the rest of the world. Not to mention several years of peace that kept the alliance between the six kingdoms.

Most of the prince and princesses that listened to the Prince were in his support and voice this to their predecessors. The majority won out that they were going to help in any way they could. The Captain pulled the Knight aside telling him to keep the Prince up as long as he could.

If the Prince did go to sleep then wake him up when the knight would normally get up. The Prince would be sleep deprived adding to the little sleep he got nights before. They could probably win the war without the Prince putting up much of a fight. Or even a fight at all if both of them were able to carefully sabotage enough.

Getting caught with so many more royals in the castle was going to make thing more difficult. All they had to do was undermine the attack plan. Easy with a bit of bickering and miscommunication. He would still need to follow orders of course. That didn't mean he couldn't interpret those orders to be something a little different.