Nobody's Child (complete)

Chapter 13 - The King's Maze

Chapter 13 - The King's Maze ©2018CarolynAnnAish 

Boy vaguely remembered the rest of his journey to the palace; it was like a dream from the past, not reality.

The hospice, a place used mainly for patching soldier's wounds was a place Boy had never been in and so he thought he was elsewhere, perhaps back in Eberswald. Hadn't he just seen Thaddeus?—he wondered. Or am I somewhere in the confines of The Locker?

The doctor diagnosed 'a concussion', which he considered more serious it was. Two other doctors disagreed regarding Boy's condition and therefore about the therapy and treatment. One doctor wanted to force Boy to stay awake and for them to administer hot and cold baths; the other said he had no concussion and believed the lad should be bled and given a poppy seed mixture to cause him to sleep.

Meanwhile, Boy lay on the pallet in the hospice, moaning because his headache not only made his vision spin out of focus but also amplified every sound entering his ears. He wished the voices he heard discussing him would stop it.

Sir Leonard, as Mayor of the Palace, counseled with the doctors who told him he must decide. After having attempted to interview Boy himself, and receiving incoherent groans to his simple questions, he commanded that the lad be given a warm bath, and mild drugs to keep him quiet and resting until the following day.

"It's more than obvious the boy is in no fit state to be interrogated." Leonard knew for certain that the king would not want him treated like a criminal and thrown into a dungeon.

"I must inform the king that the boy is here, or we'll incur His Majesty's wrath," Sir Leonard said, standing aside while the doctors' helpers carried the pallet with Boy on it, to the bathing chamber.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

King Branden, deeply despondent, had commanded that he be left alone to rest. Sir Leonard was the only person who knew the king's location —the royal nursery. It was the place where, it was broadcast, the king's son was residing.

The nursery consisted of seven rooms and the entrance was kept locked and guarded. The large playroom had been kept exactly as it was when Prince Branden was last there. Selected servants cleaned and dusted, but everything was returned to its place, just as it had been abandoned, over eight years ago.

The king sat in the large, expensively furnished living room. The walls were adorned with bright tapestries, all picturing animals. Prince Branden had loved these tapestries and had given each animal a name, that of personages of the palace. These 'people' belonged to Prince Branden's 'court'. Around a low table stood four child-sized chairs, the backs picturing carved, brightly painted, animal faces. The lion chair had been the young prince's favorite.

King Branden and Queen Beatrice had wanted at least four children, and being optimistic in their early married days, they had designed the nursery with furniture for four. Three ornately carved chairs surrounded the setting, for the times the king, queen and royal grandmother shared meals with the young heir, who would, they believed, be joined by brothers or sisters. But Branden junior had been the first and only child.

It was in the grandmother's rocking chair that the king sat now, brooding, having allowed his mind to travel back ten years, once more wondering why he had not spent more time with his son and allowed him to travel with him more frequently. It had been while he had been visiting a border castle that his son had been kidnapped from this very nursery.

Sir Leonard entered the chamber with eagerness in his step, but keenly feeling the need not to arouse false hopes. The mayor had tarried to view the boy's birthmark. Sir Helmut had described the birthmark after The Locker affair, but the king had declared he would not accept that as irrevocable evidence. Herbert could quite well have taken up a child who was unwanted by his parents because of the 'bad luck' such a mark was believed to cast upon a household. Some of the king's counselors maintained that Herbert had lied in his writings about the boy being the prince. To provide the throne with an impostor was the way Herbert chose to 'teach the king an irrevocable lesson', these counselors declared. That he had merely taught the boy to be a sage seemed too mild a vindication, for a man like Herbert.