Head in the Clouds

Chapter 10: Coward

"Hey, Dude!" Carter's voice intruded on Clyde's train of thought much louder than the younger brother hoped, "Ready for your big night?"

The sweatiness of his big hands and the tapping of his heel against the ground proved otherwise, but he looked over to his brother with a smile.

"As ready as I'll ever be," he remarked shortly.

Carter knew his brother was lying. Carter occupied the seat right beside Clyde on the leather bench.

"Do you remember when we used to come in here when we were kids?" Carter mentioned.

Clyde chuckled a bit, "Yeah."

"We used to come in here whenever Dad wasn't around, and check out what kind of documents he had laying around," Carter continued.

Clyde remembered those days so clearly. He and Clyde would dart around the room looking for secret entryways via the four bookshelves pressed against the walls, or start a fire in the fireplace with whatever flammable objects they could find. Sometimes, if they were bold enough, they'd snoop through King Archibald's desk drawers too.

"I remember," said Clyde thinking back to when they started a fire with two twigs.

"I used to sit in that chair right there and feel so important," Carter gestured to his father's armchair, "I would sit there and shout out orders to you and you'd carry them out like a dutiful little servant, but when I would give you a chance to sit in the chair... you never would. It was almost like you were scared of the damn thing."

Clyde's eyes fell on his father's armchair. It was just a stupid, brown, leather chair his father had for decades, but he could never let himself sit in it were as Carter could sit in it all day. It's not that he hadn't tried. He did five times, but every time his butt got near it something in him would just make him get away.

"Clyde."

"Hmm?"

"You still haven't sat in the chair."

Clyde could barely react before the double doors to the study swung open. Two footmen stood on either side of the door allowing the king to make his way in.

King Archibald had a way of bringing down a room when he entered. It may have been the way his mouth almost always slanted down or the somber tone of his grave voice, but the feeling of dread followed the king wherever he went.

As such, the moment Clyde got a look at his father, he could feel his heart in his eardrums and his whole posture straightened.

Both princes stood up and faced their father with their arms pressed against their sides and posture as straight as an arrow. Though Carter was much more comfortable in the presence of the king, he was never so comfortable as to speak out of turn or display any form of disrespect to his royal highness, he had already seen what that the king had no problem doing away with one of his children, he didn't want to be the second royal child to meet an untimely death.

"Carter, Princess Gianna needs your help with something," said the king to his eldest.

"Hmm. Sounds urgent," replied Carter. He gave his brother a look then made his way out the room. He didn't bother to check if his wife needed him or not. Instead, he went down to the ballroom.

Alone with his father, Clyde felt as though the room was particularly small. Clyde tried to figure out why he was just standing there. What was so private that Carter couldn't hear?

"Son," the king began as though giving a speech, "this is a very special day. Today, you become a man for your country."

"I know, Dad," Clyde's voice was much feebler than King Archibald's- much less powerful too.