The Reformation Wars: Conflicts Rekindled

Chapter 15

Princess Kate's morning began in slow-paced reminiscing over her night with Andre. She fondly recalled their conversation, and by doing so, she rekindled the warm feeling she'd experienced then. Her mind lingered especially long on their parting kiss. Now her heart ached for more of the young knight-to-be's company, and she resolved that she'd have to treat him to dinner the next time.

Then a rap on her door snatched her attention from such thoughts, and Kate grinned. Only one person in the whole kingdom would have the audacity to knock with anything more than a timid tap, and that would be her father. She leapt off of her bed and hastened to open to him.

Kate swung the door open with a cheery smile on her face, only for it to drop at the sight of her father's somber countenance and lusterless eyes speaking of a crushed spirit. She reached out her arms for a comforting embrace, which he readily accepted.

"What happened, father?" she asked softly as she rested her head on his chest.

Maxwell's breath left his nostrils in a jerky manner. "I received terrible news this morning."

From there, he went on to elaborate, informing Kate that Manfred had come to see him not an hour prior. Maxwell told her of the young man's report of Juan's treachery and murder of Alden Holt, and then the following fight between them. His delivery of the information slowed and his voice broke as he came to Juan's death.

Kate comforted Maxwell as well as she could, utilizing hugs, kisses, and words to that end. He thanked her for the support before requesting that she do him a favor and oversee an investigation into the matter. Kate readily agreed, so she playfully kicked her father out of the room so she could get properly dressed.

After a quick breakfast, Kate emerged. Her first order of business was to send a messenger off to Tom Holt's academy to deliver the news. Then she sought out a coroner and walked with him to the knight's hall. She dared not enter the dining chamber herself for her stomach's sake, but lingered nearby so she could hear the verdict.

At first, the coroner had been overwhelmingly blunt in expressing his suspicions of Manfred having killed them both for some reason or another, ostensibly some sort of prejudice against men of the upper class. But Kate couldn't imagine that being the case, given his character and disposition.

So Kate wasn't surprised at all when the coroner emerged after his examination and declared that the matter appeared to be exactly as Manfred had said. The stab wound in Alden's chest curved upward, indicating that a saber had made the cut. Manfred's straight-edged longsword could do no such thing, but Juan's easily could.

Still, as the two made their way through a corridor of the knight's hall to find the High Council chamber, the coroner wrestled with new ways to incriminate Manfred. Perhaps, he speculated, Manfred had actually killed Juan first, and then taken Juan's saber to kill Alden. After giving birth to this theory, the blond-haired man appeared rather proud of himself.

But after ensuring she'd heard correctly that Alden's body was closer to the door, Kate countered, saying she found it unlikely Manfred could move so quickly as to fight Juan, slay him, and take his sword, all before Alden could escape or prepare himself to fight back. And surely with Alden's mastery in the Torlenian style of swordsmanship, he would never fall to an attack that he could see coming that long before it arrived.

"The only way anybody could kill Alden Holt would be to slay him while his sword was still in its scabbard." she said in conclusion.

The blond-haired man acquiesced with a shrug and fell silent.

Along the way to the High Council chamber, Kate stopped every knight she encountered and briefly interviewed them to obtain their opinions on Juan Feliz. For the most part, their opinions amounted to vague notions of the man's greatness, citing some secondhand account of his heroism or speaking of a chance meeting in the hallway that they subsequently seemed to have blown out of proportion. Overall, Kate found the common knights' opinions not to be all that insightful, and for the most part, she learned nothing new.