Chapter 1

Marcus:

A sharp knock at the door broke Marcus’ concentration from the piles of papers that lay spread out on the desk in front of him. He slowly rose from his chair and made his way to the door, his long legs making quick work out of the distance to it. Slowly, he reached for the handle and pulled the door open. In front of him stood a young boy around the age of ten eager to speak with Marcus.

“Hello sir, the king wishes to speak with you in the throne room” the boy said

“Ok, I’ll be there in a few minutes” he replied calmly

“Sir, he wants to see you immediately” stressed the boy

Sensing the urgency in the boy’s voice, Marcus conceded and stepped out from his chambers. As Marcus followed the young messenger down the hall to the extremely familiar throne room, he couldn’t help his mind from wondering what King Charles wished to see him about. As the King’s second in command and best friend, it was not uncommon for the two of them to meet up alone and discuss the goings on of the kingdom and other less formal matters. Marcus was unsure which of the two reasons was behind their impromptu meeting but he was fairly certain that either way, it wouldn’t be good.

When the two of them approached the throne room, the messenger boy moved out of the way to let Marcus proceed by himself. After greeting the two guards that stood on either side of the large wooden doors, he proceeded inside. As the doors closed firmly behind him, Marcus became suddenly conscious of what he must look like.  He knew that spending hours hunched over his desk, reading important army documents didn’t do kindly to his appearance. He reached his hands to the top of his head, trying to flatten down the wild, silver flecked locks that seemed to grow in at every angle. He did his best to smooth out his wrinkled clothes before proceeding towards the throne that stood proudly at the other end of the room.

The throne room was long and magnificent and from this far away Marcus could make out the form of King Charles sitting on his throne. However, even from this distance, Marcus could tell that something was wrong. Compared to his usually confident demeanor, the king appeared uncomfortable and awkward.  Marcus felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. Whatever the king needed to speak to Marcus about was definitely not good.

 “Your Grace, is everything alright?” asked Marcus, noticing the Kings red rimmed eyes as he approache the throne.

King Charles did not respond immediately. Marcus could tell that he was trying to compose himself. Whatever he was about to say must truly be something horrible.

“It’s Jocelyn” he started “She… she’s dead”

              Marcus felt as if his heart skipped a beat. Princess Jocelyn dead? The thought of that was impossible. So impossible in fact that Marcus was convinced that he had misheard King Charles. The look of confusion on his face prompted the king to explain.

              “Yesterday morning she left the castle to visit the village of Elenine and was ambushed by men on horseback” King Charles paused for a moment, taking a deep breath “Two arrows, straight through the chest. It took those cowards two arrows to take one of the most important things from my life, from this kingdom.”

Marcus wanted to rush towards the king, to comfort him or to say something that might help but he remained glued to where he was, seemingly unable to control his own body.

 “How can you be certain that it was her? Did you see her body with your own eyes?” asked Marcus

The king shook his head.

“A messenger from the village came this morning to tell me. I nearly threw him into the dungeons until he showed me this” said the king, reaching a hand into his pocket

As the king withdrew his hand, Marcus was able to immediately recognize what he was holding. A beautiful gold necklace with a solitary round emerald pendant was carefully dropped into his hands. His heart sunk. The necklace that he now held his hands had once belonged to Queen Elena, King Charles’ late wife and the mother of Princess Jocelyn. It had been given to the princess after her mother had been killed and she never took it off. It didn’t matter if she was in the middle of a training session with Marcus or riding her horse through the castle grounds, no matter what she did it went with her.

Marcus decided that he had seen enough and handed the necklace back over to the king. Whatever hope he had been holding onto was gone. Princess Jocelyn was truly dead and it was all his fault.  If only he had been with her life he was supposed to be, then she would still be alive.

“Your Grace, I’m so sorry. I should’ve been there with her. If I had...”

“Don’t” interrupted the king “Don’t place all the blame on yourself. It’s impossible for you to be with her all the time.”

King Charles didn’t sound so reassuring. With the death of Princess Jocelyn, the king had lost the last remaining piece of his beloved late wife Queen Elena and there was no way that he didn’t blame Marcus at all. It had been Marcus’ job for nearly 10 years to keep the princess safe and now he had failed. There was no doubt in Marcus’ mind that the king blamed him for this and Marcus instantly knew that there would be no way for him to be forgiven.

 “So, what now? What do we do?” asked Marcus

“You do nothing. I have already sent Emmett, along with some of soldiers to Elenine. He will confirm her identity there and make sure that her body is treated with the respect that is necessary for a Princess of Almira. Then he will travel back to the city with her body and she will be laid to rest.” He paused for a few moments “Now, I must go. The kingdom needs to be informed and there are many things to attend to before Emmett returns. Take some time for yourself. If I need you, I will call for you”

Without waiting for a response, King Charles slowly rose from his throne, adjusted the crown on his head, and exited the throne room through the back door. Marcus watched the king leave and didn’t move an inch as the door slammed closed behind him, leaving Marcus all alone. Standing completely still, Marcus tried to process what just happened in a matter of minutes. Guilt started to well up inside of him.   

The room started to feel as if it was getting smaller and smaller and Marcus found that breathing became more difficult as a strange pressure in his chest began to spread. He needed to get out of this room. Quickly he spun himself around and ran for the door he had come through. When he made it to the door he felt as if her were going to be sick. It felt as if a horse had stepped on his chest, making breathing painful and difficult. He needed to get to the safety of his own chambers where no one would see him like this.

After a few moments of trying to slow down his breathing, Marcus had decided that he was ready to leave. Taking one last deep breath, he opened the doors of the room and walked through them, calmly acknowledging the guards once again before quickly moving down the hallway. He walked with his teeth clenched in fear that he might say the wrong thing to the wrong person. It was obvious that he was one of the first people to hear the news as the kingdom seemed innocently unaware of what was going on.

After what seemed like ages of walking, Marcus finally reached his own chambers. He thrust his hand towards the door, quickly sliding inside before bolting it shut behind him. He leaned against the heavy wooden door and let out a loud breath of relief. No one would be able to bother him here.

The pressure in his chest seemed to decrease and Marcus felt as if he were in control of his body once again.Out of all the emotions Marcus could’ve been feeling right now, confusion was the one he felt the most. Noting about this made any sense to him. How could something like this happen to Almira again?

Frustrated, Marcus walked back to his office and dropped himself into his chair, turning it to look outside his window. It was yet another beautiful day in the city of Terre. The sun was shining, people were happy and from the outside, things appeared to be normal. At least, that’s what it was like for now. Soon King Charles would have to tell the kingdom the heartbreaking news and everything would change. It would be as if the kingdom was reliving a nightmare that had occurred 19 years ago.

Marcus could still remember the nightmare that was Queen Elena’s murder like it was yesterday. He was there that day when a group of killers found their way into the city of Teisse and waged an attack on the royal family as they travelled through the kingdom. He had even been close enough to see the blade that tore through her chest, pulling the light from from her eyes. It was a memory that haunted him often and a sight that he would never be able to forget.

Every citizen in the kingdom knew that Queen Elena had been murdered as a part of an ambush but what they didn’t know was that they nearly lost Princess Jocelyn as well. Even though she was only a baby, the princess had also received life threatening injuries from the attack. The only difference was that there was a healer there that was able to heal the horrendous wound and save her life with only a scar as a reminder.

Marcus couldn’t help but think that someone was playing a cruel trick on the kingdom of Almira by letting Jocelyn survive that attack many years ago, only to take her life away 19 years later. A nagging feeling in the back of his mind led Marcus to wonder if these two murders had anything to do with one another. The investigation that had followed Queen Elena’s murder many years ago had led King Charles to conclude that the deadly assassins had come from Almira’s neighbouring kingdom Kalstrom. Although the two kingdoms had made peace shortly before Charles’ and Elena’s wedding, there were still some that were willing to do anything to destroy that peace.  Ever since that day, the two kingdoms had been pitted against each other and anyone who ventured into the other kingdoms land was never seen again. If Kalstrom had been as foolish as the have the princess murdered as well, Marcus knew that a full scale war would be unavoidable.

Forcing his thoughts away from those of an impending war, Marcus thought about his history with Princess Jocelyn. Nearly 10 years ago, King Charles had approached the strict, army motivated Sir Marcus and he asked him to be Jocelyn’s full time guardian. As someone who had no children of his own, Marcus was completely caught off guard at the king’s request and knew that dealing with the princess would be no simple task yet he accepted the task anyways.

 From the moment he was first appointed her guardian, Marcus disliked the princess. She was far from well-mannered, privileged and had a tendency of slipping away from her supervisors. Many times she was found wandering Teisse all on her own, sometimes hours after she had slipped away from her supervisors. Marcus however refused to let this happen to him and began to pour every ounce of energy into breaking her bad, unladylike habits. Every day that Marcus spent with the princess became increasingly frustrating for him until one day, he caught Jocelyn playing with her brother’s wooden swords. He noted how calm and focused that she had become and decided that he would use that to his advantage. Since that day, Marcus began basic weapons training with the princess in exchange for her taking her royal duties more seriously, a compromise that worked surprisingly well.

In the years that followed, their training sessions grew shorter and shorter as Jocelyn became more and more involved in the well-being of the kingdom. Marcus had taken this as a sign that he had done a good job in not only protecting her but raising her to be a respectable princess. The two of them had developed a bond very much like that of a father and daughter and Marcus knew that Jocelyn trusted him with her whole being. Losing her was like losing his own child.

A horn sounded from outside Marcus’ window, making him jump in his seat. He peered outside with confusion, unsure of why the castle horns might be sounding. Was it possible that King Charles was ready to make his announcement already? Searching the grounds below his window, Marcus saw the answer to his question. Gathering below was a group of soldiers along with a long line of people, dressed in dark clothes bound together in a single file line. He couldn’t believe that amongst the drama of the day that he had forgotten that today was the prisoners’ march.

The prisoners’ march was an event that happened multiple times throughout the year and involved the whole city of Terre. Criminals that were held inside the castle dungeons were pulled up from their cells, gathered together and were brought to a place that most citizens simply referred to as the Yard.  Sending criminals to the Yard was the same thing as giving them a death sentence but instead of dying quickly, their deaths were prolonged and tortuous and worked towards the betterment of the kingdom. The Yard was located in the southwest corner of Almira and to reach it, the prisoners, along with their heavily armed escort would have to travel through every climate extreme that the kingdom could throw at them.

As a designated work yard for criminals in the kingdom of Almira, the Yard was truly a horrible place to be. The camp was heavily guarded by handpicked, specially trained soldiers taught to inflict whatever punishment they deemed necessary upon those that arrived there. They worked along no real code of morals when dealing with its inhabitants. The only respect they had was for their fellow guards that those that ruled over them. Only the most twisted prisoners were able to survive the Yard for a long period of time while most died within a year or so of arriving there due to being worked so hard they couldn’t bear to live anymore.

Marcus watched from the safety of his window as the soldiers prepared the prisoners to march from the protection of the castle walls. He was certain that if he listened carefully enough he would be able to hear the faint sounds of the citizens of Terre calling to them. Hundreds of people would watch as the prisoners were paraded through the city. Of these people, many would scream insults at them while others would throw bits of rotten food and other items at them as they passed by. All of these things were fully permitted and even encouraged, so long as none of them impeded with the progress of the party.

A few moments passed and the castle gates slowly began to open and the party below passed through them in formation. When the gates shut tightly once again, Marcus finally turned away from his window, blankly gazing around his office. He was in no state to be working and decided that he needed to find something to distract himself for a while, something away from all people. Almost instinctively Marcus rose from his seat and walked towards the door. A ride would help clear his mind… it always did.

 

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