Kingdom Fall (Ethereal #1)

-Chapter 6-

Descendants

Archie

King Salvador's death caused uprising in some parts of the kingdom. Most didn't accept a woman as their leader. But that wasn't the disturbing part. It was the part where all those uprisings were skillfully handled. Too skillfully. Archie had been spending the last few days listening to rumors.

There was once an uprising in one of the fortresses. By the next day, the rebels disappeared. That wasn't the only fact. Even a few lords and knights were simply found dead. And they weren't murdered either. The deaths were all
natural and accidental.

'It's the queen,' said Sage.

'The uprisings were surely contained by the queen,' said Archie. 'But Lord Develro? And Sir Conrad?'

'Lord Develro supported the king. I've heard he strictly refused to have the queen as ruler. But the way they died is amusing, found dead and drunk in an alley. Sir Conrad. He fell along with his war-cat into the valley. Lord Jaden was just found dead.'

'Maybe he was poisoned.'

'They all look so coincidental. Only someone involved with politics would know they were the king's supporters,' said Sage. 'I never thought the queen was this powerful. Maybe more than half of the court sides with her.'

'But after seeing how she managed the uprisings, I'm sure those who were against her have second thoughts now.'

No matter what happened in the political world, the apprentices' training went on. Sir Wilhelm was the least bothered by the king's death. In fact, he seemed to approve with the queen ruling.

'She's do fine,' said Sir Wilhelm.

Archie was sure she would do fine too. But he wondered about his father, Lord Shield. Deleanor Shield was a big supporter of the king. Fortunately, he didn't voice too much of his opinion. Gradually, the guilt the two boys felt over knowing something they should not have known dissipated. No one even guessed that the queen was responsible for the king's death.

Even Sage got over it. He had a deeper guilty consciousness than Archie. And soon, the boys forgot that they even knew it. The raids on the neighboring kingdom were halted. Also, surprisingly, Artaria didn't strike back at Shokra. Archie had a feeling the Queen and King Tristan of Artaria must have had some agreement of a sort.

Since there was a lot to think about at the time, Archie concentrated on the only thing he ever wanted to improve to take his mind off things; shooting in front of a crowd.

In his progress, he finally gained the ability to shoot in front of Sir Wilhelm. Sir Wilhelm had to take the greater effort since his apprentice just would not shoot even ever he was watching.

'Just shoot dammit! I'm not looking!' the knight would usually yell. Even he found Archie's problem rather amusing.

The day Archie shot with Sir Wilhelm's gaze on his glued back was a great victory for him.

'You... really can shoot,' the knight gaped. He was so stunned. He had to walk towards the board the pull the arrow out to inspect it just to make sure. 'Do it again.'

'Goodness,' Sir Wilhelm sighed at the end of training, 'the boy can shoot. His aim is perfect. He really can shoot.'

Archie even got used to having Sage watching him shoot. His gaze wasn't too intense and judgmental like other people, mostly due to the fact that he already knew Archie was good at archery.

But Archie still failed at group shooting. Sir Wilhelm kept his mouth shut about his apprentice's skill. No one would believe him anyway. Archie also failed at fencing whenever he was thrown with the other apprentices. But Sage excelled well at fencing.