Another week passed before the king made another appearance, and during that week I must say that I was going rather insane. It had been years since I had stayed in the same place for longer than a week, and the urge to leave was starting to become unbearable. I spent my time honing my skills and making a name for myself among the nobles and the Royal Guard. By the time the king came to visit me once more, they were finally starting to take my advice seriously. My run in with the prince had made me sort of a hero to the Royal Guard and most of the older nobles as well. Most of them had much the same feelings about the prince than I had, and they appreciated the lesson I taught him. Apparently after my encounter with hi m, the prince had withdrawn to his room for three days without speaking to anyone, but then once he left his room, was worse than ever before. He demanded that his father execute me, torture me, banish me and any number of unpleasant things. The King bore it all in stride, and when he finally came to visit me once more almost broke down in frustration.

“I need him gone and you need to take him with you. He was hard to live with before, but after his failed attempt to intimidate you, he has become insufferable. You put me in a very difficult position Sir Francis. I want my son to be more like you, but at the same time I would never be able to forgive myself if I caused his death. Are you certain you can protect him?”

I shook my head, knowing he wanted me to lie but unable to do so. “Your Grace, I will do what I can to protect him from suffering a fatal injury, but he must learn to protect himself. If I step in and protect him against everything, he will die when it is his turn to patrol the rift. He will train with criminals, nobles and merchants, and if he does not earn their trust, they will abandon him and leave him for dead. Whether or not he lives will depend upon his own efforts. I will do what I can, Your Grace, but I cannot make any promises.”

The King sighed and rubbed his face with his hands. “What do you need from my armory and supplies? You can take anything you need. Weapons, armour, supplies, horses, carriages. Anything you need I will give to you.”

“Your Grace, the only things I require are the supplies I came here with and nothing more. I will gather them today, and we will leave this night.”

“Tonight? But I thought I would have time to give my son a farewell feast and arrange for an escort?”

“It must be tonight, Your Grace. And no one must know of this. You can announce that the Prince has left on a training mission in a few days, but no word of this must pass to your court. I know you believe them all to be loyal, but this would be the perfect opportunity to arrange for an assassination. You may believe in your nobility, but the urge to remove your heir and secure their ascension to the throne after you may be too great to pass up for some people. You will not know our path, and you will not know when we leave. Spend what time you can with your son today, for this may be the last time you see him.”

After that, the rest of the day was spent looking after my horse, my kit, and preparing myself for the journey. I planned the route we would take in my mind, where we would rest and where we would eat. Gunther, my warhorse, was very happy to see me, but seemed well exercised and well fed. I found the stablehand in charge of the horses and found a wrinkled old man sleeping on a stool. After waking him gently and thanking him for the care he had shown my horse, he winked to me, refused the gold I tried to offer him, and went directly back to sleep.

My mare was in the same care as Gunther, and was also well exercised and fed. I did not name her, as it is my belief that only horses who have proved themselves deserve a name. This mare was new, and had not had a chance to prove herself yet. She would have the opportunity in the near future, but if she failed, then she would be replaced.

Gunther had been my faithful horse for over five years now, ever since I left the Storm Guard, and he was a majestic animal.  He measured 20 hands to his withers, and was among the tallest horses I had ever seen in my life. When I saw him as a foal, I was drawn to him not because of his height, for he was not a tall foal, but because of his temperament. A breeder was trying to take him away from his mother, and Gunther would not leave. He kicked and screamed and strained against them, refusing to budge. I saw then that he was stubborn and courageous. He was terrified of leaving his mother, but he was also strong enough to defend himself against the people threatening to take him away. To me, those were the ideals qualities in a war horse. I bought him right then and there, and paid the price that the breeder asked without any haggling.

I spent every day of the next five years with that horse, teaching him, learning about him, sleeping by his side for warmth, and fighting with him. He was quite stubborn and very difficult to train, he always wanted to be the one in charge, but eventually a bond of trust formed between us, and he reacted to my actions almost before I knew what I wanted. A good horse is worth more than his weight in gold, and I had one of the best. Eventually I would want to breed him, a horse of his size and temperament would be worth a fortune to most breeders, and I might be able to get enough gold from his offspring to be able to fund my retirement into leisure. Perhaps buy a small estate by a lake and pay for the servants.

My horses were saddled and the bags of supplies strapped to the sides of my mare, with just enough room for the prince, if he proved willing, otherwise I would be the one riding.  With the horses ready to leave, I simply waited. I would wait until nightfall, and then take the prince from his chambers, under the watchful eye of the royal guard themselves. If all proved as plan, they would notice, but they would never suspect anything was wrong.

I would simply walk into his room and leave with him, the royal guard would let me walk past if all went according to plan, and they would let him come with me, especially if I impressed upon the prince the importance of staying quiet. Perhaps with bodily harm or a blade pressed up against his skin. Or maybe I would just go the easy way and knock him out and carry his unconscious body out. I would deal with it when the time came.

I spent the next few hours simply walking around and waiting, even taking a nap; my armour was packed up in my saddle bags and everything was ready so I could leave without any preparation. Normally I would never leave horses saddled and ready for so long, but this was an unusual circumstance and I hoped my horses would be able to forgive me with a bit of barley and apples.

Once nightfall came and almost everyone had gone to sleep, I finally made my way to the prince’s chambers. The guards were surprisingly easily convinced to let me pass, but then again I guess by that time it was common knowledge that I was there at the behest of the king for some secret mission.

I entered his chambers and entered a world of opulence and disgust. His sitting room was larger than the cell I occupied for two weeks, and I shuddered to see what the rest was like. The small room itself had almost every surface gilded in gold and silver, and the floors were covered in rugs taken from the furs of very rare and very dangerous animals. I growled inwardly, and kicked the door to his chambers open with a very heavy booted foot.

The door slammed open, and shrieks came forth from the other side. I surged in, anger removing my hesitation, and disgust fuelling my limbs. He lived like this when a single piece of furniture would be enough to fund an entire company of Storm Guard for a year. It boiled my blood that some people were so unaware of the world and the prices that some need to pay in order to keep them safe. A change would have to be made, and the prince was going to be the one to see it.

He was asleep, passed out in a drunken stupor among a pile of women. The shrieking I heard came from one of them I was sure.

“Ladies, if you value your dignities I suggest you leave His Highness alone for the night and slink home to your parents. I am sure they would love to find out that you have been spending your nights in an orgy in order to get close to the prince.”

The women shrieked indignantly, but they did not move. That was until I raised my voice and impressed upon them the true value of leaving the room. They left very quickly after that, and all that remained was an unconscious prince, naked and alone. The gods love me today.

Next Chapter: Chapter 5