The Dragon and His Prince{ManxMan}

*Chapter 10

7 years ago

Zavian

The walk from seeing my sister off was short lived. I glanced ever so often at Marius whose pinched face and steady wobble was too present to ignore. We passed guards on our way to the library and as selfish and horrible as it seemed, I was glad for his lack of ability to realise how obvious it was that something painful happened to him.

It helped us both maintain the image expected of us.

I opened the doors, knowing that the guard would report how he hadn't been able to walk, speculating what I might have done to the poor boy. It may have been at his expense but this information would keep him safe, my father would have no reason to wonder about how I truly felt about having a slave.

I told him to sit, he had his head bowed as I went through the shelves, I wondered how much he knew, how far he'd been educated and grabbed two different levelled books.

I set them before him then and he glanced up at me shyly, I watched his tan skin darken around his cheeks and tilted my head.

"Here." His lips parted and he looked up at me with wide uncertain eyes. "If you are to be under my rule, I cannot allow you to be illiterate." I set my own book down and sat across from him. "I do not know how far your education has gone...if it ever began." I scratched the side of my head and sighed. "However, you may start here. Now." He looked down at the two books, his lip twitching as he reached out his small hands for the bigger one.

"Besides... If I'm ever going to find you useful, you have to know a thing or two." I opened my book and got out paper, ink and a quill from the draw beside the table.

We worked in silence, during this time I would catch him smiling, his eyes slowly roaming each page, his small fingers gliding over the pages in wonder. I had given him a history book, on of the first I had read when I was around his age, as young as I was so much had been expected of me in such a short span of time. I frowned in wonder, should I have given him a lower grade book?

"Is it true?" I looked up slowly, rubbing the bridge of my nose, his eyes were bright in the candle light, like fire they blazed, staring through me. "Was Zander a hero? Did he really save all those people?"

I glanced down briefly and noted he was rather fast for his age. The book was open right down the middle, the page blank save for the words "Part 3". I shrugged and put my cheek to my fist.

"What do you think?" He blinked at me, his cheeks colouring as his eyes darted to the side.

"It said he saved villages from witches." He bit his lip and his brows furrowed. "Fathers were grateful he banished the wolves, mothers fell over backwards for his bravery in...in keeping their sons from war." He looked up at me, his lips pressed together slightly before he continued. "And- and babies cried for him when he died."

I watched him scratch his head and sit down, he tilted his head, his thumb on the middle of his bottom lip as his brows furrowed.

"Is he not a hero?" My lip twitched and I shook my head.

"So many of these books I find twisted inhumanely." I murmured and his head tilted, he reminded me of the puppies a friend of mine was raising, how their heads would tilt and their big floppy ears would rise at an unfamiliar sound. His fluffy hair fell into his face, forcing him to move the bangs aside. "As much fact as can be found in the recounted history of our kingdom, much is left out that I personally see no truth in."