Head in the Clouds

Chapter 25: Boy Becomes a Man

The king's already bad day turned terrible when the warriors returned with a dead man on their horse. Unfortunately, when Sir Alfred and the other men decided to ride through the city to get back to the palace they didn't consider how already frightened citizens would feel about them toting a dead man around. Now, every eye in Jericho saw what the people behind the wall could do to a warrior nevermind any of them.

Prince Clyde relayed the message to his father and brother while Deidre and the others sat in their places at the table. Her eyes kept shifting to the chaos outside that open window. The city was panicked, the world was going to shit, and no one in the room seemed shocked by this.

"Why isn't anyone concerned?" She wondered as Clyde spoke, "They're acting like this is just some regular Tuesday. There are magical children stabbing people with tree roots. Why is no one in a panic?"

"They say they'll kill us all," Clyde continued.

"They must know magic exists- at least the king and the elder warriors, but Paul, Henry, Clyde, and Andrew? How would they know? It could have been information passed down like Clyde, but they'd think of it as folklore as opposed to an inevitable fact," she considered. She thought back to that morning.

"I got here after everyone was already here and armored up," she considered, "That means they were here much longer than me. Then, Paul had to come get me. He is the king's nephew, so he may be privy to the same information Clyde and Carter got. This means that the king would have had to brief the others about this before I got here, but this wouldn't be enough time to wrap their heads around the idea of magic. No, they would have had to learn much sooner."

"Your Highness," Sir Alfred added, "I don't think we should continue to test them."

King Archibald rested his pointy chin upon his clasped hands. His eyes combed over the table, lingering on Clyde for a moment longer.

"We cannot let these things run us out of our home," the king insisted.

"The elders may have already known and prepared for the possible resurrection of magical beings, so it must be something passed down. That means it's something all warriors must know," she figured. 

"So we fight?" Clyde proposed a bit softly. His hands were clasped together as he leaned forward on the table, his eyes shifting between Deidre and his father.

"That's ridiculous!" Sir Charles exclaimed. He turned his body to the boy thirty years his junior, "You saw what that girl did to Cecil. Do you honestly think that-"

"Let him speak, Sir Charles," the king interjected.

The elder shut his mouth and leaned back in his chair. The king turned to his obviously nervous son.

"It means that someone would have already told the others about magic," she figured as Clyde got to his feet.

"Look, I don't have decades of combat training or anything like that, but I do know that we have to protect this kingdom with everything we have," he looked around and locked eyes with Deidre, "I make a lot of mistakes, but this isn't gonna be one of them."

Deidre peeled her eyes away from him. She almost scoffed at the term "mistakes". A secret engagement isn't a mistake- it's a lie. A flat out lie. It's a lie that would hurt a lot less if he'd kept his emotions to himself and not offered to run away with her.

It was a lie that should have been confessed months ago. Yeah, that would help. She could have accepted it as nothing more than what a prince had to do, but he needed her to know they could be together. He made her choose. He put her in this terrible situation. He did what he wanted.