A Betrayal of Faith ✔

TWELVE: The King

Harudan ran a hand through his hair, tempted to pull out the thick strands. He paced in front of his desk, letting out little grunts of irritation every few seconds. His pet drake, Ignis, was nowhere to be seen and was instead replaced by Sir Jonin, who stood next to the door in silence. The knight hadn't said much of anything since the Princess had escaped.

"That monk," he spat. "What was his name?" But Jonin only shook his head. He sighed as he pulled off his helmet, his first noise in hours. He pushed his short brown hair from his eyes and dropped the helmet on the desk. If it were anyone else, Harudan would have yelled at him to put it elsewhere.

From one of the drawers, Harudan pulled a thin band and used it to tie up his thick hair. The monk, whatever his name had been, had arrived at the same time as the Princess. They'd travelled together, according to her. That would have given them plenty of time to organise something.

But they shouldn't have known that he'd been planning anything. He'd been careful not to alert the Princess of anything. The only people that had known what was going to happen were his Guard and he'd made sure that they wouldn't say a word. He knew they believed in what he thought. It didn't take much convincing.

The only person that had been worried was Jonin and he'd been more worried about what was going to happen to them than anything to do with the Princess. He'd been the one who wanted to kill her after all. He'd just wanted to make sure that Brenmar was going to survive what Harudan had planned.

And it would, Harudan knew that. He was the King, he would make sure it happened. His father had been too scared to go through with his threats when he'd been King, but Harudan wasn't. He knew what needed to be done. The only way to silence Minisia was to take them over.

He could look after the country better than the Princess or her parents. For years before the tensions arose, they'd been asking Brenmar for help. They couldn't look after their own, but under Harudan's rule, they would thrive. All he needed to do was take over and wipe out their monarchy. It would take a few years and a lot of deaths but in the end, it would be worth it.

The treaty had been a trap for them. He wanted to lure the King of Minisia in and kill him while his guard was down. That way the war wouldn't last as long. But instead, the man had sent his daughter. It was better than nothing at all, but it was just the start of a failing plan.

Now, the Princess was gone, taking a young monk and Nerin with her. Nerin, who probably didn't understand what was going on at all. He was too young, too innocent. His baby brother, ten years younger than him. Harudan hadn't wanted him to see what was going to happen when the treaty was signed. He was too young for such atrocities.

But he'd seen them anyway, thanks to that monk. Only Sol and Lune knew where he was. He was probably terrified for his life. Harudan could only pray that he was still alive. None of the guards had found him yet. Instead, they'd found the bodies of three of his Guard, cut to pieces. One of them knew how to fight and it certainly wasn't his brother.

He had guards out patrolling the city for them. All they'd been told was to look for an Ishini monk and an Askari girl. He could only hope that none of them figured out that they were looking for the Princess.

His original plan had failed, but already he was coming up with a backup. The guards believed they were looking for would-be assassins that had tried to kill him and had kidnapped Prince Nerin. He didn't know how long the lie would hold up, but if it worked for the guards, it might just work for the rest of the realm.

Part of him already knew that they wouldn't find the Princess or his brother in Ishmar. The city was a maze and the little group of runaways already had a head start. By morning, they would be gone. It was already dark, meaning that it would be harder to catch them. He would have to do more.