The divided kingdom
At the council table, the search for answers threatens the bonds holding the kingdom together.
When she reached the council chamber, Anastacia saw her father talking to a guard. King Alfred ended the conversation as she approached.
“Have they found Flor?”
“Not yet.”
During the night, Flor, the baby dragon Anastacia cared for, had vanished from the cells along with the other prisoners brought from the forest. The doors had been found open, with no signs of forced entry. That same night, Arthur Raven, one of the king’s advisers, had been found dead inside the castle.
Anastacia looked at the guard, waiting for him to add something. The man simply took his leave of Alfred and walked down the corridor.
“Come,” the king told his daughter.
The meeting had been called to discuss the creatures’ imprisonment again. The day before, Anastacia had hoped to persuade the council to release them. Now she needed the men gathered there to help find them.
The representatives of the great families were already taking their places. Around that table, they discussed the protection of the villages, the deployment of soldiers, and the decisions of the Crown. Anastacia knew of their disagreements, but she had never heard them speak so quietly while waiting for the king.
Charles sat to the right of Alfred’s place. The king’s brother and Aurora’s father, he was Anastacia’s uncle. He broke off his conversation with another adviser when he saw them enter.
Leon, Aurora’s husband, occupied a chair farther down the table. He had urged caution in judging the prisoners and offered Anastacia his help before the events of that night. As the princess passed, he followed her with his eyes.
Near the chair that had belonged to Arthur Raven, a man stood with one hand on its back.
It was James Raven, the dead adviser’s son. That morning he had come to speak for the Ravens, one of the most influential families in the kingdom.
Anastacia stopped beside him.
“I’m sorry about your father.”
“Thank you,” James replied.
He did not sit down. He kept his hand on the chair’s back as he watched Alfred take his place.
Anastacia stayed close to her father.
The king looked around the table.
“Let us begin.”
James spoke before any other adviser could.
“I want to know what you’ve discovered about my father’s death.”
Alfred held his gaze.
“We have not yet identified who killed him.”
“And who opened the cells?”
“Nor that.”
James ran his hand along the top of the chair’s back without taking his eyes off the king.
“Yesterday my father was sitting here. Today I’m the one who has to ask how someone managed to kill him inside your castle.”
“I will find out what happened,” Alfred replied.
“He was under your protection.”
“I know that, James.”
“Then you understand why I cannot be satisfied with a promise.”
Some of the men at the table agreed. Alfred waited for them to fall silent before answering.
“I will not accuse someone simply to give this room an answer.”
Charles leaned forward.
“We want to know whether we are safe here.”
The king turned to his brother.
“The watch is being strengthened.”
“There were guards yesterday. That did not prevent Arthur’s death or the prisoners’ disappearance.”
“Which is why we need to discover where things went wrong.”
“Went wrong?” Charles set his hands on the table. “An adviser was killed. The cells were opened and every prisoner vanished. No one in this room can explain how. Posting more men at the doors is not enough.”
Anastacia looked at Alfred. Her father listened without interrupting, but he had already moved his chair back from the table.
“And what do you propose, Charles?”
“That you acknowledge we have lost control of what happens within these walls.”
In the silence that followed, they could hear the guards shift near the entrance.
Alfred glanced at the door before answering.
“I acknowledge that a man was killed under my protection. I will treat it with all the seriousness it demands. But I will not let this meeting become an exchange of accusations.”
An adviser sitting at the end of the table turned to the others.
“We should never have brought those creatures into the castle.”
Anastacia lifted her head.
“There is nothing to prove they killed Arthur.”
“They vanished on the same night,” the man replied.
“And they were locked up,” James said.
Anastacia looked at him. She had not expected James to be the one to point that out.
Arthur’s son continued:
“If they got out on their own, I want to know how they passed the guards. If someone opened the doors, I want to know who. Both possibilities must be investigated.”
“I went down to the cells,” Anastacia said. “The doors weren’t broken. There were no signs of a struggle in the corridor.”
James turned to her.
“Did anyone see the prisoners leave?”
“None of the guards I spoke to could say.”
James faced Alfred again.
“Then we must consider that someone inside the castle helped them.”
The men began looking at one another. One asked whether James was accusing the council. Another wanted to know who had access to the cells. Questions overlapped, and some were no longer directed at the king.
Leon pushed back his chair and stood.
“James spoke of a possibility,” he said. “He did not name a culprit.”
“And do you think we should wait calmly until someone does?” Charles asked.
Leon looked at his father-in-law.
“I think we should find out what happened before we begin accusing one another.”
“My father is dead,” James said. “I will not stay silent while everyone asks for patience.”
“You have every right to demand answers,” Leon replied. “But we need to keep working together to find whoever did this.”
James let go of the chair’s back.
“Under the orders of the same men who failed to protect him?”
“If each family chooses to act alone, we will have even less chance of finding out what happened.”
Charles leaned back, looking from Leon to Alfred.
“We ask for answers and receive orders to keep obeying.”
“I am asking this council to cooperate,” the king said.
“Trust is part of that cooperation too,” Charles replied.
Anastacia followed the argument, looking for a chance to speak. She wanted to remind them that Flor and the other prisoners were still missing. But the men were already arguing about who had the right to lead the investigation and who could still give orders within the castle.
Leon tried to answer his father-in-law. Another adviser interrupted him, and soon several people were speaking at once.
Alfred stood.
“Enough.”
The voices subsided.
“I remain responsible for this kingdom. The investigation will proceed under my orders. Whatever any of you knows must be brought to me, so that we can work with facts.”
“And if we no longer trust those orders?” asked the adviser at the end of the table.
Alfred looked at him, but James spoke before he could reply.
“I came here hoping to learn what had happened to my father. Now we are arguing about whether we have the right to question you.”
“Everyone in this room has been heard,” Alfred said.
“And no one has received an answer.”
“You demand that I know today what still needs to be established.”
James drew a deep breath.
“I demand that his death matter more than the obligation to agree with the king.”
“Watch your words, James.”
James clenched his fists at his sides.
“I am trying to understand how I lost my father in a place where he should have been safe.”
No one answered at once.
One of the advisers pushed back his chair and stood. He gathered the papers in front of him and walked toward the door. Another did the same. A third stood waiting beside the table.
Alfred watched them move.
“This meeting is not over.”
The men did not return to their seats.
Charles stood as well.
Anastacia stepped forward. Until that moment, she had hoped her uncle would still try to reach some understanding with Alfred.
“Charles,” the king called.
His brother stopped.
“I cannot keep supporting this table’s decisions as though nothing has changed,” Charles said.
“Are you leaving the council?”
“I am.”
Anastacia looked from one to the other. They were the father and uncle she had known since childhood, but Charles had given his answer before every representative of the kingdom.
Charles looked at her before turning away. Anastacia opened her mouth, unable to find anything that would make him stay.
As he passed Leon, Charles slowed his steps.
“Are you coming?”
Leon was still standing beside his chair. He looked at his father-in-law, then at Alfred.
“I’m staying.”
Charles waited a moment. Then he headed for the exit with the other advisers.
James still stood beside Arthur’s chair. He ran his hand along its back one last time and stepped away.
Before leaving, he turned to the king.
“From today onward, do not count on the Raven name to uphold this council’s decisions.”
Alfred remained standing as James crossed the chamber. The guards stepped aside, and Arthur’s son was the last to leave among the men who had abandoned the meeting.
The doors closed.
Anastacia looked at the empty seats. The men who had occupied them were the very ones her father needed to protect the villages and keep the roads safe. Now they refused to support his decisions.
Alfred took a long time to sit down. When he did, he looked around for the advisers who had stayed.
“The search continues,” he said.
Leon returned to his chair to listen to the king. Anastacia remained beside her father.
Before them, the places of Charles and the Raven family stood empty.