And somedays, he wanted to sail away from it. Far away, so that just for a little while... he could live.
“Why do I have to do this, Father?” Arawn asked now.
The sun, if one could call Augaurde’s hazy grey daylight such a thing, was just barely rising. The king had returned from another night of war, where he led his soldiers into battle against the Acolyte. It was another losing night, Arawn guessed, by the sheer lack of numbers that had returned.
That, and the sheer number of swords that had been plunged into the snow around the Sacred tree, just before this.
Death was the Citadel’s way... and more and more, it seemed, with each passing day.
“Why do you have to dowhat?” his father asked. “Why do you have topray?”
“No!” Arawn blurted. “No, of course not.”
He would never complain about that. Certainly not with his mouth, and it was rare that he complained even in hisheart.Not after seeing the power of the Veil, years ago. He hadn’t been back to his father’s throne room since, but he’d never forget that day.
Even if it scared him, even if he still held the memory of pain in his knees, and his father’s disappointed face...
He’d felt the gods’ power thrumming through him that day.
He’d been close enough to reach out and touch it.
And there was nothing anyone could ever do to turn him from it.
He looked forward to his time with the Five now, if only because it reminded him that much more of the test of loyalty he was to someday face. It was what a Crown Prince was born to do. Loyalty to his gods was all he’d ever been taught, beyond the art of war.
He was rewarded with smiles from his mother when he prayed. His father was pleased when he recited their ancient laws for hiskind, and even more so when he made less errors as the years went on.
Arawn loved the Five.
He would never dare feel anything else for them.
But...his crown?
His future?
He still wasn’t so sure how he felt aboutthat.
“I mean...why do I have to rule alone?” Arawn asked.
His father winked open an eye. Snowflakes danced lazily between them, landing with a cold kiss on the tip of Arawn’s nose. They gathered in the king’s dark beard as he grunted his disapproval, but he allowed his son to go on.
“It’s just that...” Arawn cleared his throat. “Well, I was born a twin. It was in the gods’ plan, otherwise, Kinlear wouldn’t exist. So... why can’t he and Isharethe crown? Why can’t we rule together, face the Veil asone?”
The question had lingered in him for years now. He’d simply been too afraid to ask it.
But he was growing braver as time went on, and he’d done so well in his trainings lately... he thought maybenowwould be the right time to take the leap.
But as his father stared down at him, he suddenly wished he could take back every word.
The king stared...andstaredeven more, sitting so still that the snow began to pile on his broad shoulders, and Arawn wondered if the man had forgotten to blink. He opened and closed his mouth, unsure of what else to say.
He had a training sword on his hip, and even though Draybor was his father...sometimes, when he looked at him this way, Arawn felt the need to place his hand over it.
If only, so that he would feel a bit more protected.
A bit more like a Sacred Crown Prince.
Strong and chosen and endlesslybrave.
