Kingdom Fall (Ethereal #1)

-Chapter 5-

The King's demise

Archie

Archie and Sage found their way towards their room eventually. No one spoke during the journey and surprisingly no one caught then wandering around the palace in the middle of the night. Sage was still in a state of shock. The fire in their room was long dead. Archie lighted it up again and sat on the bed.

'What now?' he said.

Sage didn't answer.

'Do we... tell someone?'

'Tell who,' said Sage finally. 'The king? No one will believe it. Might as well let the king die...'

Archie jumped and leaned closer to Sage, whispering, 'How could you say that? The king might be a ruthless man but he is still a person.'

'What do you suppose we do then?' said Sage. 'You don't know he Queen. She had connections. She will know it's us. Even the Kingdom's Secondary works for her! I should have known something was up when he was experimenting with poisons and crawlers!'

'Huh?'

'Sir Cedric!' Sage said. 'He has this insane hobby of doing research. He's a physician too. He can easily kill someone and save someone at the same time. I knew something was up. He was so obsessed in killing crawlers and making sure no one could trace that a chemical killed it.'

Now Archie was confused, 'Lord Sword is a physician?'

Sage ignored the question. 'If we tell anyone, we will be good as dead! Besides, we don't know who is loyal to the queen and who is not. What if we tell the wrong person? We surely can't tell the king. I-I must even meet with Sir Cedric tomorrow!'

Archie wondered who "Sapphire" was in the conversation. Now that he thought about it, Sage's eyes were like sapphires.

'So... we tell no one,' said Archie.

'I-I don't know. If the king knew, he'll kill... the queen. The queen... can't.... We can't tell anyone.'

Archie sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, 'So... we keep quiet and let the king be killed.'

'He might not even be killed.'

'Or they might get caught and the queen will be killed.'

Sage covered his face with his hands, 'What are we going to do!'

'As you said,' said Archie, standing up. 'We keep quiet about it. We are not sure about what we heard. And... we don't have proof. If there is a conspiracy going on, there is going to be bloodshed one way or another. Don't let anyone know we know something. The last thing we need is to be caught up in something.'

'I knew someone was going on,' Sage muttered to himself, 'I just didn't want to think the Queen would do something like that.'

'Let some sleep,' Archie said. He lay down on his bed. Maybe, it might turn out to be a bad dream.

It didn't turn out to be a bad dream. Since both boys slept late, they woke up late. Archie was sure Sir Wilhelm would be mad. Sage didn't even stir. Archie could understand his reluctance to get up. He had to face Sir Cedric with a knowledge that could get him killed. So Archie didn't bother his roommate and went to meet Sir Wilhelm. As expected, Sir Wilhelm was mad.

They did some sparing. Then Archie was given a few errands. By the time he was done, it was the second hour after the sun's zenith.

'You're done feeding Claws?' said Sir Wilhelm.