By
Kael's pov
What just happened, what did seraph mean by she saw my past, many things are just going off, first this annoying voice in my head keeps telling me things, and i am always mostly angry, with an exception for tonight tho. And now seraph. I sighed deeply, i am already exhausted. I have to meet with king arid tonight maybe then i might find a little peace.
"Fredric, we're going to Argard tonight" i said as came out of house, fredric has been following me closely since i came back so i know he was there. "I thought we had until tomorrow, why the change of plans".
"I need to do this as soon as possible, i'm not feeling myself. Lets go" i said, he sighed and nodded. We mounted two horses just the both of us and set off.
Barely had we gone, a few miles away, we spotted soldiers putting on Red with black stripes, Salem soldiers. I signaled to Fredric, we quickly got off our horses and hid behind a huge rock. They had torches. "We attack in one ….two… three" i whispered to Fredric and on my count we both came out from behind the rocks ready to attack. "Sire." One of the soldiers screamed in horror, i signaled to fredric and we halted "lenord?, Is that you"....
We sat around a bonfire, "what brings you all, all the way here, lenord" i asked looking into the fire. Lenord was one of my personal best men, next to Fredric. And now that i look around all the soldiers present here were all men from my troop back in Salem. "My prince, the kingdom has been nothing short of hell since the king died. The crown prince has killed all his brothers, in accordance to the throne war, even though they had surrendered the throne to him,...."
"Hold on, you mean keith and my other brothers are dead?" I asked slightly surprised and lenord nodded, well not that i expected anything less from kanan, he has always been paranoid always thought everyone was out to get him.
"Please continue what you were saying" i gestured to lenord to carry on.
"Thank you my prince, in the past one month, more than 500 people have fled the kingdom, the crown prince ordered a barricade be placed at each of the kingdom's borders, he sent out troops of men to go all around and bring back all the people who bad fled, we were among the soldiers sent. But instead we all collectively decided to use the opportunity and escape also." Lenord continued his story, the kingdom is in utter shambles, i thought to myself "my prince, the kingdom needs you back, you are the only one that can save us" my mood darkened when he said that. "No, i cannot go back, not yet". Seraph is pregnant i cannot make any reckless decisions.
"We were heading somewhere, will you come with us or wait here?" I asked all the men. "We go where ever you go, sire". They all chorused in unison. These are men i trained personally for years, of course they will do that.
We all marched forward to Argard. We arrived early at dawn. "You have to keave your weapons here, prince" the guards at city gate informed us. "Why,why do we have to leave our weapons here" Fredric objected his face darkened slightly.
"The king's orders, sorry" one of the guards responded curtly. "Do you mean we will be defenseless in your territory?.... That's not happening, go and inform your king that it's prince kael that is here." Fredric clapped back defiantly. The guards looked a little afraid but they covered it up barely.
"It's alright, fredric. Drop your weapons" i said placing a hand on his shoulder.
"But.. sire, it is unadviseable to be defenseless on enemy territory. Please reconsider". He hurriedly retorted.
"I understand your reasons, fredric. King Arid wouldn't dare attack us here and besides i am sure i trained you all enough to handle ourselves with no weapons, we will be fine." I faced all my men and said calmly. And they nodded "since that is settled, give them your weapons and let's proceed." I said and surrendered my weapon first, then all my men followed suit, "lead the way" i told to the guards and we proceeded into the city.
The main city of the kingdom looks highly colourful and unusually busy considering that it is still pretty early in the morning. I never noticed how great the kingdom looked the first time i was here, well, i was blinded by rage.
"Stop, what is your business here?" Another guard asked us at the entrance of the palace. "Why do you all keep asking the same stupid question, go in there and inform the king that prince kael is here and demands his presence" Fredric retorted angrily at the guard, "someone is in a bad mood today, something wrong?" I asked the pissed off Fredric. "This whole kingdom is just annoying, i hate it, that's all. Pardon me." He apologised. "No need to apologise my friend." I patted his back.
"The king will see you now." With that we went in.
"Prince kael, welcome. Please join us" king Arid sat in the company of numerous women. I'm not surprised, he always liked his women, he owned the biggest human trafficking network in all the 8 kingdoms of the west, well at least not until i obstructed his operations. That was why he kept attacking my men at the borders before.
"Not interested, Arid. Tell your whores to leave us. NOW" I said in my usual final tone, the sight of these women irritate me.
"Leave us," he frowned.
"What do you want, kael. Have you come to threaten me again like last time?" King Arid stood up lazily from the chair, with his robe flowing behind him.
"Far from that, Arid' i smirked " i am here to seek an alliance from you." I continued.
" An alliance?, Only a fool will support you in an already lost battle." Arid scoffed.
" I don't need your help for any battle, i just need you to accommodate a few people. They will occupy just the mountain sides, nothing more" i crossed my hands behind my back.