The Vacant Throne: The Legend Of Kairu Vol 3 (21 page)

After everything I had seen,
‘impossible’ wasn’t a word I’d use to describe our battle.

Cathy stayed close to
me the entire night. She would follow me around everywhere ensuring
that I didn’t leave her sight. It made me chuckle, but I was glad
she did it because I wanted her to be close. We spent the rest of
the evening swapping stories with Markus.

When it was time to call it a night, I
could not find sleep. My mind wandered through thoughts of all the
people who had died today. It was the first time I had stopped to
think about my actions and I was sure it had something to do with
Cathy no longer sharing my head. My conscious was making a roaring
comeback in her absence.

At first I was
worried by these thoughts, but slowly I accepted them for what they
were; a reminder. Killing for the greater good is never easy.
Whether you are a knight or a vigilante Mage trying to put the
world back together, being the cause of another’s death still
weighs heavy in your mind. Our conscience reminds us that killing
is wrong, no matter how you justify it. Without it, the lines
between good and evil can become blurred.

My mini revelation had been enough to
silence my mind for a few hours. My dreamless sleep was interrupted
by the rising sun and I rolled away from the window in the hope of
another hour or two’s slumber. I felt a presence at the door and
slowly turned towards it, dreading the sight of Natalie and her
boot. Luckily for me it was a half asleep Cathy.

“
It’s not time to go
yet, is it?” I groaned.

“
Not yet,” she
answered.

“
Good,” I started,
moving the blanket aside. “Hop in and let’s get another hour or two
of sleep.”

Cathy chuckled nervously. “I-I don’t
know. We should get up and be ready for when it is time to go.”

I groaned again and sat up. “I was
worried you’d say that.”

Cathy shut the door and crossed the
room. She did her best to not trip over any of the bottles
scattered across the floor, and sat down on the bed beside me. “We
have to talk about this drinking problem of yours,” she joked.

I chuckled. The room
I chose for the night had been the cleanest I could find, but must
have belonged to a hard core alcoholic. What he lacked in
possessions he made up for in empty, to half empty
bottles.

“
Rough night’s
sleep?” Cathy asked.

I yawned and rubbed my eyes. “I was up
half the night battling my conscience. Without you in my head it
has decided to come back and make me feel guilty about
everything.”

“
Want me to go back
in there and beat it up again?” Cathy asked.

I laughed. “We came to an agreement and
should be okay.”

“
That’s good,” she
said, scooting closer to me and throwing her arm over my shoulder.
“We should be back at the castle by the end of the day and finally
get a good night’s rest.”

I looked at her arm before returning to
her face. “Are we about to have another hug?”

“
What’s wrong with
little signs of affection?” Cathy asked.

“
It’s
just...surprising, that’s all,” I answered.

Cathy dropped her arm from me. “I could
smack you across the face if you’d prefer.”

“
How would that be
different from before?” I asked.

“
More painful than in
your mind,” she smiled, but it faded quickly. “Do you not want me
to show signs of affection to you?”

“
What?” I said. “No,
I was just shocked because it was different.”

Cathy chuckled. “Well
everything is going to be different between us because I have my
own body now. I’m just trying to slowly learn all these new
emotions without it being overwhelming. Female Humans have a more
complex range of emotions than you.” She stopped and shook her
head. “What am I saying? A head of lettuce has more complex
emotions than you.”

“
Oh, ha ha,” I said
sarcastically.

“
I’ve been a bit
emotionless since being transferred, out of fear of them, but I
have spent whatever free time I get trying to understand them and
I’m confident I won’t break down and cry without explanation,” she
said. “I hope.”

I wrapped my arm around Cathy and
pulled her closer to me. “I’m sure it hasn’t been easy for you to
adapt to your new life while fighting off hordes of angry people
trying to kill us. If randomly hugging me is going to help you
adapt then hug away. We’ve known each other for two cycles and
you’ve lived in my head. You are the only person who could touch me
without making me feel uncomfortable.”

Cathy turned her face
away, but I could see it growing red. “Thank you,” she
said.

A knock at the door drew our attention
and Natalie entered the room. “Thought I heard some voices,” she
said. “You kids have a fun night?”

“
A blast,” I joked,
pointing at the bottles. “Can’t you tell?”

“
You’re a real party
animal, Demon,” Natalie replied sarcastically. “When you two have
finished, meet us for breakfast. The sooner we get him back to the
capital the better.”

*****

Breakfast was short
and sweet and we were back on the trail to Riverside within the
hour. We determined the Yellow Jackets were long overdue to show up
and ruin the party and surrounded Markus in a protective formation.
Cathy scouted up front to meet any foe head on, Natalie was in the
back to watch over everything and I stood next to Markus to protect
him from any incoming arrows. It wasn’t perfect, but it would get
us to the capital.

Markus absentmindedly played with Ser
Scott’s shield. After the funeral, Markus stated that he wanted to
carry his mentor’s shield in his honour. He handed Cathy his old
shield to replace her broken one and he hadn’t been separated from
the shield since. It wouldn’t surprise me if he had slept with the
thing.

“
How are you holding
up?” I asked.

“
Better, if I focus
on what we need to do,” Markus answered.

“
Understandable,” I
replied. “A lot has come at you in such a short time.”

“
Yeah,” he said
thoughtfully. “Me as king.”

“
I guess that means I
should be adding, ‘my Liege’ at the end of everything I say now,” I
said.

A single laugh escaped Markus. “Let’s
not go there. I’ve spent my whole life thinking I was just another
person. How can anyone at 17 be ready to rule a province?”

I chuckled. “I felt the same way when
it was time to choose my future at the Tower. 18 cycles and not a
single clue how the world worked.”

Markus nodded. “What was living in the
Tower like?”

I paused for a moment to think.
“Unpleasant,” I finally answered. “Give people power and they try
to use it over everyone else. The politics of the schools resulted
in everyone being divided so unless you knew what you were, it was
hard to fit in.”

“
Not too different
from Thurlborn Peak,” Markus said surprised. “Growing up with the
royal family was a pain in the backside. Most of the kids were
good. Some liked to flaunt their position to anyone they
could.”

“
How far did you sit
in the succession line?” I asked.

“
Pretty far down,” he
chuckled. “Not the bottom, but I wasn’t worried about having to
take over every time one of my cousins went to battle. I figured I
could coast a bit. Train to be a knight. See if I could get command
of a legion of troops and run a fort near the border. You know
small stuff.”

“
Now you are the
crown prince, heading off to claim your throne from a power hungry
lord so you can stop an evil Mage from seizing control of your
kingdom,” I said.

“
When you put it like
that, I might just have to knock you out and run away,” he
joked.

“
I don’t know,” I
started, “Lady Middleton is pretty quick. You don’t want to piss
her off.”

“
I’ve watched her
cleave a guy in half while giggling,” Markus said scared. “Whatever
she wants she gets.”

“
Yeah, that image
will never leave your head,” I said.

“
At least Emily seems
normal, for an ex-bandit,” Markus said.

It took me a second to remember that
Natalie had given a fake name to hide her Nathan persona. It was
getting too difficult for me to remember who everyone was
pretending to be. If Markus took up a fake name I was going to have
to start smacking people.

“
She’s good at what
she does,” I answered. “She and Nathan have saved my butt a few
times.”

Markus checked the countryside and I
looked around too. I had been so focused on talking to the future
king that I could have taken an arrow to the butt and not even
realised.

The marsh was far
behind us with Riverside visible in the distance. If an ambush was
waiting for us, it would be close to the gate. Entering the town of
our enemy with the person we were trying to protect was a stupid
strategy, but it was the quickest way to the capital. I already
feared this detour to save Markus had left Desroche with too much
time to prepare.

“
What’s up? You have
a weird look on your face,” Markus asked.

“
Just trying to
determine where we will be ambushed,” I answered.

“
What’s the wager?”
he asked. “Inside the town or outside?”

“
Last time was
inside,” I answered. “I doubt the city guard will turn their backs
on something like that twice. Not good for public image. It will
probably be outside the gates.”

Cathy stopped to scan something ahead
before turning around to rejoin us. “Something interesting up
ahead. Looks like a supply cart, tipped over and pillaged by
bandits.”

“
Interesting,”
Natalie said thoughtfully. “Sneaky move.”

“
What are you
thinking, N-Emily?” I asked.

“
Nemily?” Natalie
asked.

“
I’ve always called
you Nemily,” I responded.

Natalie laughed and shook her head.

“
Please continue, Ms.
Emily,” Markus said.

“
I may be mistaken,
but I believe the cart is the ambush,” Natalie said.

“
I believe we have
all figured that out, but remind me to recommend you for a bonus,”
Cathy joked.

“
Yes, but can you
tell me how they are going to ambush you?” Natalie asked. “We’re
back into farm country. Not a whole lot of trees to hide in or
around.”

“
They’ll be hiding in
the grass,” Markus said. “Lying down flat.”

“
Yes,” Natalie said.
“It’s a standard bandit trap and I believe it is meant to look that
way. The object is to kill us without it being traced back to Lord
Michaels.”

“
Kind of too late for
that,” Cathy said. “He’s not exactly Mr. Subtle.”

“
Yes, there was a
failed attack on someThurlborn guards on his castle grounds by a
mysterious mercenary group. That is easy to dismiss as overzealous
gang activity. I am a highly wanted woman after all,” Natalie said
with pride. “However, if that same mercenary group attacks and
kills a Lady of the court and heir to the throne, things look a
little suspicious. Hence the trap. They will be dressed as bandits,
act like bandits and when our dead bodies have been found stripped
of valuables, it will be ruled a bandit attack. No heat falls upon
Lord Michaels.”

“
I think you deserve
that bonus after all,” Markus said. “What should we do? Something
similar to our attack on the camp?”

“
No, they will be
scouting us,” Natalie answered. “They know how many of us there
are. If we split up, they could just break up the trap and hunt us
down one at a time. We have to walk in there together.”

“
And set off the
trap?” I asked.

“
What’s the best way
to disable a bear trap?” Natalie asked.

“
Dropping a stick
into it to set it off,” Markus answered.

“
Exactly,” Natalie
said. “You know what the worst way is? Treating it like a wagon
wheel. It is what it is. We need to set off the trap to disable
it.”

“
You’ve got point,”
Markus said.

“
Fair enough,”
Natalie said. “Demon, stick next to Marky here. Arrows are going to
be coming at you from everywhere.”

“
Done,” I
said.

“
Demon?” Markus asked
curiously.

“
I’ll show you why
she calls me that during the fight,” I smiled.

Natalie moved to the front of the group
and Cathy replaced her at the back. As we approached the wagon, I
scanned the area for mental activity. Sure enough, I picked up two
groups of five in the grass on either side of the ambush area.

From behind the wagon, a man emerged
and tried to look relieved to see us. Tried. He didn’t fit the
standard merchant or even wagon rider mould. He was too fit, too
young and looked like having his wagon flipped over was just an
average day for him.

“
I’m glad someone
came by,” the man said. “I was attacked by bandits.”

“
Worst set up ever,”
Natalie said. “Where are the horses?”

It was a good point. A quick look at
the wagon and the ground around it showed that there hadn’t been a
horse in the entire area.