Not That Far

Chapter 22-Father To The Fatherless

  We rode hard for about an hour before we caught up with the caravan. We slowed down to a walk as we passed through a forest of dwarf firs that ended abruptly at a pebble-covered moor with a large, deep cobalt blue pool in the center that was reflecting sunlight into my eyes. I reined Zurii in while we were still a good ways in the trees and slid off with Shay still clinging to my back. Zaruu stopped his beast beside me and silently took in the sight before us.

  It was evening now and they were already making camp. The slaves were just being herded out of their trailers and into a ragtag line to be fed. And the slave masters seemed to have already eaten and pitched their tents in those irritatingly neat little rows.

  "You lived in these conditions, your majesty?" Zaruu asked, astounded as he took in the writhing masses. Even from all the way over here you could see the slaves fighting over their food.

  "Only for a day and a night. And please don't call me "majesty" either." I paused as a wonderful idea came to me. "I decree that you call me Teirin from now on." I said decidedly with a proud nod. If I was king, I made the rules, so why not exercise it?

  "Very well...Teirin. He said reluctantly, probably disliking being ordered around by someone less than a fifth of his age. "How would you ever be able to rescue them from this? There are simply too many of them!" he exclaimed, meaning the slave masters.

  "I wasn't alone. I had Drayan with me." I had explained my situation to him on the ride here. And apparently he was still reeling from the notion that Daichi was in command of thousands of rebels, yet he hadn't tried to claim the throne when I had went missing as a child.

  "Yes, yes, I know." He said dismissively. "But you are but two people. How could you conquer such a large camp?" he asked, turning to face me.

  "You'd be very surprised how much mayhem two people can cause." I grinned devilishly, much to Zaruu's displeasure.

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  Later that night...

  I gazed up at the stars from my perch high in a tree as I sat watch. The moon had long since set for the night, but morning was decidedly dragging its feet. Zaruu, Shay and Zurii slept peacefully a meter or so away from my post almost seven meters up in a tree. I was supposed to wake Zaruu an hour or so ago, but I had decided to let him sleep.

  No matter if I liked it or not, this man had unwittingly saved my life. From the very start, I had known this mission was probably suicidal, but I had been to blinded by the need to fix what I had broken. Only I hadn't been able to find another way to right my wrongs except by throwing my own life away.

  And here he was, quite literally offering me the world, but I didn't know what to do with it. Or even how to take it. He claimed that I was powerful enough to overthrow the man currently ruling and take back my throne. But how could I? I didn't even have an army. And that murderer's son had the whole world at his disposal.

  I don't know why, but I believed every word Zaruu said about my family though; even when I had been fervently denying it. But seeing my grandmother killed had sealed my belief. I had seen her before, I had realized the moment I saw her eyes staring so calmly into mine.

  Once, when my mother was out, I had gotten into her things. I was very little when it happened, so I hadn't known any better at the time. But I had found an old, small, framed photograph of the very same woman among my mother's belonging that she kept hidden on a high shelf in an ancient, locked trunk.

  I couldn't even remember how I had gotten up so high or how I had picked the lock. But the main reason I remember that day so well is because she caught me up there, digging through her things. And for some reason, she was afraid. More afraid than I'd even seen her before.