The Royal Pain

Chapter Seven:

I stumbled up the front porch to the Royal house. I was so tired; I hadn't slept on the journey back for fear of losing the prisoner. Six days. My mind wasn't working and I kept forgetting something important. 

I'd left the prisoner with the other guards, telling them that I had to tell the King something important. The only thing was, I couldn't remember what I was supposed to tell him. The door opened and a bedraggled Nathan stood there. 

I fell into his arms. "Aisling?" he mouthed. Nathan was the only person who called me by my full name; everyone else just called me Ash. It was a trait that I'd found quite aggravating in the beginning, but after a while I had gotten used to it. 

The King hurried to his side and together they set me down on one of the golden couches in his office. The room swam and I closed my eyes, hard, only to reopen them still not being able to remember what I had to tell the King. 

"You've been gone for six days!" Nathan accused. 

"You misjudged the problem," I croaked, looking at the King. His face came in and out of focus and it was hard to concentrate. "There were a lot more than expected. I haven't slept in six days and there was something I had to tell you-"

Nathan clamped a hand over my mouth, pulled his father out of the room and returned moments later, draping a fluffy blanket over me. "Sleep. We'll talk later."

"No," I mumbled as my eyelids slid shut.

I tried to make myself disagree as he walked out of the room, I tried to tell him to come back, that I had some crucial information to tell him, but I drifted of into a deep slumber, filled with the flashing images of a chessboard. 

***

"Checkmate," someone mumbled. I heard a rustling and something dropped to the ground. 

I shot up like I'd been prodded with a hot branding iron. "Checkmate!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. I was back in my room, still in Nathan's shirt. I had no idea how I'd got here, or what time it was, but I didn't care. I'd remembered what I'd needed to tell the King and that was enough to calm my raging pulse. 

Nathan came rushing into my room in a navy blue dressing gown. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and relaxed once he saw I was OK. 

"How long was I asleep for?" I asked as I jumped out of bed and stretched. I took a step but stumbled, it was only Nathan's strong arms on my arm that kept me from falling face first to the ground. I clutched my head as my vision swam. 

"Four days," Nathan mumbled, retracting his hand and rubbing his face. 

"You mean, I haven't eaten in five days!" I screeched.

Nathan blanched and pulled me out of my room, towards, I assumed, the kitchen. 

The black and white tiles of the kitchen floor reminded me of a chessboard, and I turned eagerly to Nathan. "I have to tell you something," I whispered as he set me down at the table. It was rectangular and spanned the length of the kitchen. I was sitting in the King's space, behind the chair was a glass wall, looking out at the forest that bordered the back yard.

It was a dark wood, and the smell of it made me sneeze. To the right of the table, the large creme wall stood where I'd first met Nathan. We were both young teenagers and he'd been measuring the wall when I'd walked in. I still didn't know what he was doing that day. 

I snapped my gaze over to Nathan to see that he was putting a bowl on top of the black marble counters. Behind him, the fridge hummed, and the oven sat. Between the two there was a rather large sink, that dominated most of the wall. Nathan looked up and smiled at me. 

He turned to the side, reaching up to one of the many cabinets and pulling out some sort of cereal for me. He took the seat next to me, and handed me the bowl. I pushed it away and stared at him. 

"When I was interrogating the prisoner...he said something. It was bugging me for a while and now I finally know why! He'd said checkmate, and my lethargic mind couldn't fathom why that was important until the true meaning of the word registered. 

"It's like in chess, right? When somebody says checkmate it means your king is directly attacked by the opponent and can't possibly escape. The game is then over; the opponent has won. It got me thinking, and I've come to the conclusion that there's a mole in my ranks. He's going to kill the King, and then the game is over.

"Their first move was to create a pack. Then it was our move; we attacked. Now, it's their move again." 

I frowned as I came to a halt. Did they want to murder the current King...Or Nathan? 

He leaned back in his chair and mulled over my words. It made perfect sense, and us attacking was the perfect opportunity for whoever the mole was to meet with the pack, without causing suspicion. If we'd have figured it out sooner, we'd have realised that attacking was our first mistake, and it could have ended up being our last.

Someone in my ranks was about to commit mutiny. 

"It's a plausible theory, and I have to say, I believe you. It makes perfect sense. The throne is being passed down, at the moment we're weak. No one knows how I'll perform as King, and the throne being handed over to me is like opening a gaping hole for whoever it is to strike. 

"Good thinking, Aisling. I'll alert my father as soon as he awakes."

I nodded my head mutely. I knew each and everyone of my soldiers on a personal level. Plotting against the King was a blasphemous crime punishable by death. Today, I'd lose one of my soldiers, if not all of them. 

Either, I found out who the mole was, or I would be forced to dismiss all of the Royal Guard. 

I felt my throat close up as I figured that keeping Nathan alive was up to me more than ever now. I couldn't rely on the help of my team, since it was one of them who was trying to kill Nathan. 

I was impossibly alone. 

I pulled the cereal bowl closer towards me and began chomping down on the crunchy deliciousness. "Hey Nathan?" I mumbled between bites.

He turned towards me, a soft smile on his face. I placed the spoon down back into my bowl.

"The first day that I met you, you were measuring the wall, why was that? You never told me why." I tilted my head as he looked away. A faint blush spread across his cheeks and I couldn't help but admire how cute he looked. 

"It sounds stupid," mummered Nathan, "but I was going to carve a family tree into it."

I smiled at the idea. "So why didn't you?"

Nathan looked down and played with the edge of the table. "Mom died, and then I didn't see the point in it anymore."

Ruefully, I placed my hand on his arm and smiled hesitantly at him.

When the Queen had died, the whole Kingdom was affected by her loss.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's when you're acting selflessly that you are at your bravest. 

- Veronica Roth 

(Edited)