The Prince's Choice ✔

Chapter Twenty Nine • Men and Boys

This chapter will be solely in William's POV. Hope you like it!

-William-

Another week had passed and William was getting more than irritated that he hadn't gotten the chance to go home yet.

The bannermen his father had called on had finally arrived, two days ago, but they still hadn't dealt with the raiders. His father held meeting after meeting with the commanders but they couldn't agree on how to manage the raiders. Half of them wanted to just rush through the lands and hope that they would come across them. The rest wanted to wait until they made their next move, risking another village getting burned down to the very ground.

The day after their allies had arrived they got word that another village had been burned down.

William wasn't smug or happy about his prediction. He kept it to himself. The destruction and death of another village caused William's father to go in to a fit of rage that he had never witnessed before. He had seen his father get angry and upset about battles before, not that he had attended many but a few, but this was different.

William suspected that the merciless cruelty the raiders possessed was getting to his father. The dead children seemed to hit him very hard. Everyone except William had left the tent as his father started his rage-fueled throwing of scrolls of maps and tankards of ale. He stood where he had been the whole meeting, waiting for his father to get his anger out.

William knew how he felt, he just hid it better and... quite frankly... the only thing that caused him to go in to a similar rage had to involve Jade. Otherwise, he didn't care enough.

At the next meeting William stood to his father's right side while they discussed strategy with the commanders and advisers. They were all talking over each other and it was futile to even hope that they would resolve this now, just like before.

William continued to study the map in front of him in silence.

The two villages that had been burned down were about two days on horseback apart from each other. Meaning that they could be working on the third village as the men around him were arguing. William let his gaze trace the roads and he found two villages that could be potential victims for another attack.

"We have to face them head on." A commander said with the type reasoning that could only belong to a true brute. All force and no thought.

"How do you suggest we do that?" William asked and didn't care if his words were rude.

He was sick of getting nowhere. The men around him went quiet and all eyes turned to him. He pointed on the map with his open hand at the other two villages.

"If our scouts haven't found them then how could we, with an army at our backs nonetheless? They will see us coming and disappear before we can reach them." He continued.

"If they run, they are cowards." The man responded and William could sense that he was offended. The way his mustache twitched said more than his words.

"They are not cowards." William's father stated and put his hands down on the table. He turned his head towards William. "My son is right... They will see us coming, and we have to assume that they have scouts of their own."

"We have to find out where they are hiding." William said quietly to his father. He nodded in agreement. "Preferably soon."

"I know." His father mumbled and stood up. "The problem is that they move faster than us. They don't have the same numbers as us which makes it easier for them to change location quickly. We have to assume that they are on horseback as well."