The King & the Stable Boy

XLII: The Dagger

Noah

"But Papa-" Artan's protests are cut short by William turning to our guard, Fredrick, and ordering him to get Artan out of harm's way.

Before the guard gets to him, I hug Artan tightly.

"Listen. Your papa and I love you very much, you know this right?" He gives a hesitant nod. "Trust us, we will be back before tea time, okay? Go play with Raven, we'll see you in a little bit."

He hugs us both tightly, before allowing himself to be lead off back towards the Rainforest Flock's main house.

When I'm certain Artan is out of sight, I pull William into the forest, earning a pained grunt from him. I move away his cloak to see his side bleeding, a dagger plunged into his side.

"What happened?" I question.

"The revolutionists." he tells me.

Chandler growls. "Enzo is guarded. He only does that when he is hiding something."

He may be, but he's hurt.

He takes my hand, pulling me deeper into the woods until we stood in front of a terrifying sight. A statue of William laid crumbled, a tree having a carve of "Return Chase", and beneath was my name etched out.

"I haven't heard them referred to as the Chase Laws since my childhood," I whisper.

"Eric Chase doesn't deserve such praise for them." William growls. "I took a dagger, but you should have seen the other guy."

I don't laugh at his joke. I move his cloak again, looking at the handle.

"Have you attempted to move it?" I ask, making a move to yank it out, but being stopped by a fierce warning growl from my mate.

"It's silver accented laced in wolfsbane, made from the bones of a vampire." he tells me.

That doesn't kill full shifters. Just barely wounds them. This dagger...

"You stupid King!" I shout him. "You took the dagger for me. I wouldn't have died from it, now you're hurt-"

"It's made from vampire bone and runed. I could only train you to resist so much." he says.

"When did this happen?" I question.

"There was a man trailing us in the stalls of the market, and I managed to just switch places. I didn't take it out right away, because I didn't want to scare or worry Artan." he tells me, grunting as he unsheathes the blade from his side.

I watch disapprovingly as he picks up a discarded rag, wiping the blood clean off the blade, then wrapping it in another, stowing it away in his cloak.

"Why would someone be after me?" I ask.

"Gaia, is your home island, but that's the south side. Up north, the people are much less progressive. Revolutionist wasn't perhaps the correct term, they want to go back to having the laws. This group spawned just after our decree, and they seem to have merged with the group wanting to topple the monarchy."

"There's more to this story." Chandler says. "Push for more."

"What isn't it you are telling me?" I question.

"I didn't want to tell you immediately because of your connection to who is involved in the leadership." he admits.

"Who?"

"Your cousin, Edgar."

I take this in for a moment. I never did like Edgar. Didn't expect the weasel to be capable of leading anything, so I'm proud of him there.