The King watched me in silence for a moment, then gestured for me to continue.
I took a deep breath and began, “I’m not very good at talking, given I spent so much of my life not doing it, but I hope that you can forgive my lack of eloquence and listen to what I have to tell you. You have been lied to, Your Majesty, deceived by my father and possibly others.”
“How dare you?!” my father shouted, looking both panicked and enraged as he leapt to his feet, “I took you into my home, raised you to be my heir, and this is how you repay me?”
“Silence, Duke of Ramport,” the King said in an icy voice, “I wish to hear what your bastard has to say. I might choose to allow you to speak when he is done, but until I allow it, remain silent.”
With no other recourse, my father sat back down, but I could feel his rage radiating around him, even from my position on the dance floor.
“Despite appearances, I was indeed born a commoner,” I continued, ignoring my father’s glare, “There is no dispute regarding my noble heritage, but I was raised without privilege or knowledge of that heritage. Much of what His Highness, the Second Prince, told you was true. When I was but a youth who didn’t understand the consequences of my own actions, I found myself on the wrong side of the borderland and was fortunate enough to meet a lion beastman and his cub, who saved me from my own folly.”
The King listened to me with an air of indifference. At this point the entire banquet hall was listening to my words. I wasn’t sure what intimidated me more, the hundreds of ears that awaited hearing what I had to say, or actually saying it.
“When I was fourteen, my father found us. Hunted us down would be more accurate. My father sent his knights to retrieve me and to teach my mother a lesson. They were so brutal in their lesson that when my mother’s body was found, no one could believe that such damage had been done by human hands. I can assure you, however, that five men with no conscience and a lust for inflicting pain can easily accomplish that feat.”
“Nonsense,” the Second Prince decried, “Your Majesty, he is clearly lying. The Duke himself has confirmed that he is disturbed. Even if he is innocent of the charges I brought forth, he is still trying to blame a noble house for a crime that his animal’s kin committed. Worse, he has already lied to both of us by claiming to be mute.”
“Marquis, you certainly do have a lot to answer for. You will answer for your dishonesty later, but first, I wish to hear the rest. If I think you are lying about anything, even about a minor detail, you will be thrown into the dungeon,” the King informed me, “Your mother was the first in a long line of victims. Your claim that the Duke’s knights are responsible for her death goes far beyond a simple murder charge.”
“I am aware of the gravity of my words, Your Majesty,” I answered, “but I do not withdraw my claims. Your Majesty, everything that was done to my mother that day, I bore direct witness to. Every hit, every cut, every break. They forced me to watch so that I would see firsthand what happens to those who would defy my father.”
“And the other victims?” the King inquired, raising a doubtful eyebrow.
“As for the other victims, I cannot say for certain,” I admitted, “I was not forced to watch their unfortunate ends. But if they were killed and mutilated in the same manner as my mother, I would be inclined to assume it was my father’s men.”
The King considered my answer, then he asked, “Assuming I choose to believe you, why would he send you to the beastmen?”
“Your Majesty, my being mute was never a lie. After that day, I didn’t speak a word for over nine years. My father would never allow his daughter to be married to a beastman and I was the useless mute bastard that he had failed to tame. He believed the beastmen to be rabid, mindless creatures, who would kill me offhandedly for his slight. I should not be standing here, Your Majesty. According to my father’s plan, I was supposed to die by General Rastari’s hand. His Highness, the Second Prince, brought me here in chains, under threat of him killing me himself if I did not behave.”
“Father,” the First Prince cut in, “Eduard has been against this treaty from the beginning and I have every reason to believe that he had a hand in this attempted sabotage. While I believe he had nothing to do with the murders that precipitated the war, I know for a fact that he has been actively working against me in my efforts to end the war.”
“Because they had the audacity to come into our lands to rape and brutalize our women!” the Second Prince shouted, “They damaged our property and now they must be taught a lesson.”
“Enough!” the King roared, startling everyone into silence. “Eduard, you forget yourself. My word is law, and I have decreed that Elantro has authority over the Beastlands issue. Your continued defiance is tantamount to treason. You will obey your future King.”
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“We cannot win, Eduard. Even if I agreed with you, we simply cannot win. The army we have been fighting is only a fraction of their main force. You speak of retribution, conquest, and annihilation, but why?” the First Prince demanded, “Why are you so determined to throw away the lives of our people?”
“You want to know why? They may walk on two legs, but they are still just animals. Animals ruling over a territory that they have no right to claim. All my life I have lived in your shadow, Elantro. The golden-eyed heir. The great and wonderful First Prince who everybody loves. And do you want to know what the worst part is? I love you too. You’re my brother and I could never bring myself to take what is rightfully yours. But that doesn’t mean I have any intention of being relegated to obscurity!” the Second Prince bellowed, causing the First Prince to take a step back. “Those beasts started this war. All I want is to claim the spoils.”
“Your Highness,” I interrupted quietly, but that was all I managed to say, before the Second Prince whipped around to glare at me
“You!” he shouted, “All of this fell apart because of you! All you had to do was die and you couldn’t even do that properly!”
I wanted to shrink back in the face of his anger, but I stood my ground shakily. Andrian grabbed onto my hand, giving me the courage to continue.
“Your Highness,” I began again, speaking entreatingly, “You keep saying that the beastmen started the war, but you must know by now that they did not. If you weren’t a part of my father’s plan, then you have been wrongly deceived as well. I won’t claim to understand my father’s motives, but his knights are the ones who started this war. They murdered my mother, raped her, tortured her, and left her body for the animals to dispose of. They did the same to all those other women. My father is the one who damaged 'your property,' as you put it. He has tricked you into believing this war is just. Should you not be angry at the man who manipulated you and put us all in this situation, rather than the ones who are trying to make things right?”
The Second Prince’s rage faltered for a moment as he heard the truth in my words.
“Your Highness,” my father spoke up, choosing his words carefully, “I rue the day I ever let that bastard into my home. He is the one who is manipulating you. Have I not served you loyally since the day I inherited the title of Duke of Ramport? Everything I have done, I have done for you. I have always been on your side. Please do not let him convince you with his lies. The beastmen must be destroyed. They are nothing more than animals laying claim to what should rightfully be yours.”
Having watched the whole scene impassively, the King finally broke his silence, “Elantro, if I recall correctly, I once gifted you something to help you tell the truth from a lie. Have you made use of that gift?”
“Yes, Your Majesty, I have,” the First Prince divulged, “and she has confirmed the truth behind the Marquis’ story. The Duke of Ramport ordered the death of Simona of Rovette.”
The Second Prince, upon hearing that confirmation, suddenly howled in rage and slammed his fist into my father’s face. My father had no time to prepare for the blow and immediately fell to the floor. The Second Prince followed him down, his hand already raised to strike again.
“You. Damned. Bastard,” the Second Prince shouted, accentuating each word with another hit. “Lying. Piece. Of. Shit. You set me up! I’ll fucking kill you–”
The Palace Knights managed to pry the Second Prince off of my father, but he continued to shout and curse as they did.
“Remove that shameful sight from my eyes,” the King demanded, and the raging Prince was dragged from the room.
I felt a small sense of satisfaction at the sight, seeing the man who had threatened and frightened me embarrassing himself in his anger.
Silence followed his departure as the room came back into focus. The Palace Knights had my father in their custody, and the nobles of Vrayna watched the sight with mixed reactions, awaiting what would happen next.
The silence that followed the Second Prince was interrupted by the sound of my father spitting blood on the floor. One of his eyes had already swelled shut and I suspected his nose had been broken. If I felt a small sense of satisfaction before, then I felt a very large one now. I wasn’t a person who was inclined to violence, but I had no problem enjoying the fruits of the Second Prince’s labor. My father’s eyes fell on me, and I made no effort to hide my pleasure at his misery. Letting go of Andrian’s hand, I walked toward my father.
“Duke of Ramport,” I said to him in a low voice. The hatred in his face as he stared back at me was unmistakable, but I didn’t care anymore. “I may share your blood, but you will never be my father. For years I suffered under your violence. You took my mother from me, abused me, and terrorized me. What you have done–”
I choked up for a moment, overwhelmed by the emotions that came from confronting him, and my father immediately hissed, “What I did? I did what I had to do for the sake of my nation and my kin. Your mother was a whore who deserved her fate.”
“And all those other women?” I spat back at him, “Were they whores who deserved it too? And for what? What could a war with the Beastlands accomplish? Or was my mother’s death just so much fun that they had to go back for more?”
“I would never expect a disappointment like you to understand,” my father responded venomously, “You are too weak. I should have never allowed you to be born.”
“But I was born. Because you made it happen. If you hadn’t raped my mother, I would have never been born. If you hadn't murdered my mother, there wouldn't have been a war. If you hadn’t caused the war, the First Prince would have never demanded your daughter marry a beastman. And if you hadn’t refused him and tried to sabotage him by sending me, you would have never been caught. Everything that is happening to you now is your fault. You say I'm a disappointment? Look in the mirror, you pathetic excuse of a father.”
My voice came out cold and calm, but I trembled as I spoke. He opened his mouth to rebuke me, but was silenced by the fist that came crashing down on his head. I looked up in surprise, and the clear blue eyes of the older knight from the training grounds came into view.
Sir Gentry gave me a grim smile and said, “I figured you’d heard enough out of him.”