The Heart of King Travis

Spencer's Plan

Spencer was as determined as I'd ever seen him. He looked up at Arialis hopefully and I realized that he was closer with this dragon than any person that lived with us. She looked down at him with her wise eyes, waiting for what he was going to say next. Only a little bit of the area behind the rock was lit, but I didn't fear anything coming for us because of the fact that we had a dragon that was about a tenth of the valley's height.

Spencer started once more with a question to scope out how much I knew. "Are you aware of the rumors that King Travis doesn't have a heart? When I say this I mean it was physically removed by a spell." he said. This was actually something I was not aware of. Primrose Academy trained its students to think of King Travis as a good, productive king. Tremaine had the same idea. "No. What happens when someone's heart gets taken out? Don't they die?"

He laughed. "No. If the heart is removed with a spell, it doesn't kill the person. It just makes them become unable to feel human emotions. Some people just become a shell of a person with no personality, but the lack of emotions is more common. That's what people suspect happened to King Travis because he treats the peasants so poorly." I nodded, taking in what he just said. "What if he's just an evil person in general?" I asked. He shook his head knowingly. "Evil people with hearts can be quite ruthless at most times, but even they have the capability to show complex human emotions. Travis has never shown this ability for the fifteen years he's been in power, so the rumor could very well be true." That actually made sense. Magic could do terrible things to people, especially in this world.

"After listening to quite a few people talk about this in the villages, I decided to research it. I first searched various libraries for books about the spell. I learned that it's not deadly, but simply meant to take emotions away. When someone is pure-hearted to start with, it only takes away their speech and makes them an empty shell of their former self." Arialis snorted and then closed her eyes, ready for a nap. Spencer didn't flinch. "After researching the spell and its symptoms, I decided it fit perfectly with what practically anyone has seen from him. At that point, I only had one question left. Why did he do it?" When he mentioned how much he researched, I started to wonder if Spencer ever went to business school in the first place.

"This part I didn't necessarily need to research, considering there are plenty of people who knew about him before he came into power. I walked around the streets and asked that question to middle-class citizens of Pleamonte. Most  only knew that he had left the royal family quite a few years ago to start a family of his own. No one knew much about him at that time, but the next event that people seemed to know about was when he killed his royal family with magic. Shortly after that, he came into power." I put my hand over my mouth in pure shock and disgust. "Why did people let him become king?" I asked.

"King Travis used his magical powers to brainwash his father's army into working for him. King Millius was known for having the biggest and most well-equipped army in the land, so Travis used that to his advantage. No one would dare cross him with all of the power he has." Once again, Spencer looked up at Arialis and smiled. "Except for me. I've got the one thing to stop him." I looked at him in anticipation. "What do you have, Spencer?" I asked anxiously.

He pulled the little sack out from his jacket. I recognized it. That sack was the same one he had in my room earlier. "Open it," he instructed. I untied the little string at the top and gently removed the cloth. I gasped in shock and almost dropped the object it held. Luckily, Spencer caught it. It was a human  heart. When I first saw it, I was disgusted. Why would he have it? Then, I realized its significance. He'd told me about the rumors that King Travis didn't a heart and he was showing me the proof. This was it. I sucked in the dusty valley air and Spencer handed the heart back to me. It was covered in something blue and slightly transluscent...probably the protective layer. Everything from the red arteries to the ventricles was preserved extremely well.

It took me a moment before I could form words. "Where...where did you get this Spencer?" I asked. He smiled with pride. "One of the people I asked said they had King Travis's heart in their home up North." I rolled my eyes. "Spencer! This could be anyone's heart! I sure hope you didn't pay this person very much." He grinned knowingly and raised his pointer finger to argue. "But alas, this was not the case. I recognized the man who told me this because he was the same man who sold me Arialis's egg six years ago. He didn't lie to me then, so I knew for a fact he wasn't lying to me about the heart." I gave a silent groan. Spencer trusted people way too easily when his curiosity got the best of him. "So did you actually go up to his house to get the heart?" I asked. He nodded and I groaned.

"I actually did it about a week ago when I went on my 'business school field trip'. No one even bothered to ask any more questions." I just turned the heart over once more. "So...what are we going to do with it? Keep it as a souvenir?" I asked jokingly.

"No. We're going to put it back in Travis."

I laughed hardily, thinking he was joking when he said that. Then, I noticed he wasn't laughing along. I paused and looked at his facial expression. He was serious.

"What? You realize we can't do that, right? You literally just said that no one would ever go against him because of his power, right?" I asked, desperate for his confirmation. He shook his head. "There's a good chance that he doesn't have close protection all the time. He doesn't want to come off as weak, does he?" I slowly nodded, waiting to see where Spencer was going with this idea. "Well, if you were to be around him when he least expected it, you could easily put his heart back inside of him. All you have to do is reach inside of his chest while holding it. If it works, he will regain his emotions and be able to undo all he has done wrong." That was when I realized why Spencer wanted me to go to the King's Camp. He wanted me to find a time to slip Travis's heart back in.

"So...if I do this, then Kinsley and the old royal family will be saved?" I whispered. "That's what I'm hoping," he replied.

"Then I'll do it."