Knight's Curse

Part 1: The Silent Prince

All the royal knights were all awoken by a luckily not too familiar scream of pain. They jumped up from their beds or from their chairs and from the walls they were leaning against. The ones who had been in their beds, hurriedly got dressed. The others held their breaths, waiting.

"EVERY KNIGHT ON POST, DOUBLE UP! FIJI! TONGA! TO THE CHAMBERS, ASAP!" The sergeant yelled.

Tonga was standing by the doors, further back and on the outside of the gates. He was stomping his feet, impatiently, next to his co-corporal Fiji. It was a cold January night. He made sure to glaze up at the huge clock on the church tower. 02:34 in the morning. He would had to remember that later, for his report.

At 02:36, when the screaming had only increased, four sleepy knights came running. Out of breath, Kiribati tried to get them to hurry and she would not have to tell them twice. After a quick "Thanks, Kiri!" Fiji and Tonga ran up to the castle and up the many stairs to the royal chambers.

As they got to the chambers, they slowed down and hesitated to enter. The screaming had almost stopped and the only sounds was a low voice repeating, "Breath, my Queen. Slow and steady, now." The midwife had one hand on Queen Janen's bulging stomach. She arched her back in pain, but no sounds came out. "Please do not told your breath, sweetie." The Queen let go of the breath she was holding in with a loud, long moan of pain.

Her usually pale, pretty face was red with an expression no one of them had ever seen her make before. It was terrifying, sweat was running down her face mixing with her salty tears. Beside the bed stood Zalmox, seeming in more pain than his wife. He had taken her hand, something that he now seemed to be regretting deeply. There came no sound from the King, but his eyes were closed and his hand were as red as the beautiful Queen's face. The King was mumbling something under his breath, but no one could hear it over Queen Janen. "You are doing a wonderful job, my Queen."

Fiji and Tonga stood silently and watched. Tonga was nervously fidgeting with the edge of his armor. This annoyed his co-corporal a lot and she smacked to his hand with hers to make him stop. However, to her even more annoyance, he reacted with gripping on to her hand, squeezing it hard. But she did not try to make him stop again. She realized it was actually not that bad to have something to hold onto. Unlike him, Fiji was actually very good at hiding her feelings and this last week had been especially hard on all the knights, not feeling able to talk to anyone made it even worse. The two continued to stand by the door and watch as the midwife bowed down by the end of the bed and announced that she could finally see the head.

As silence finally reached the bedchamber, Tonga closed his eyes and simultaneously turned away from the scene, it was as if the whole room turned to slow motion. He could still hear and he wished he had not grabbed Fiji's hand, after all. The feeling of her squeezing back in excitement, made him want to throw up.

It was a boy.

But the boy never filled the silence with new screams. "Vem kan segla forutan vind?" It remained dead silent. "Vem kan ro uten årer?" The midwife had stopped breathing now, she looked up, terrified. "Vem kan skilles från vennen sin utan å felle tårer?" The King finally opened his eyes and his mumbling became louder.

Tonga finally opened his eyes again and looked up. "Jeg kan seile for uten vind." Tears were running down the faces of the King, as well as the midwife. "Jeg kan ro uten årer." The Queen had passed out and was silent. "Men ei skilles från ven-" The King choked on the last sentence of the lullaby and buried his face in his hands. Fiji had disappeared from Tonga's side and he was standing by the door all alone, watching as the midwife carefully swaddled the silent little prince in the white cloth that had been prepared for him.

The midwife put the stillborn to one of the crying nurses and started to clean up the bloody cloths surrounding Queen Jenen. "Men ei skilles från vennen min utan å felle tårer," Tonga finished, but no one seemed to notice.