“Just so you know, this doesn’t change anything” rambled the young boy, who had recovered from the shock, “I’m not going to start calling you ‘Your Highness’ or ‘Princess’ or anything like that.”
“I don’t remember asking you to do any of that.” frowned Aikaterine, “Call me whatever you want, I don’t really see the point of titles. Anyway, we’re here now,” she said, as they arrived in front of a large door on the first floor.
“Don’t just go barging in, dear sister.” came a quiet voice from behind them, “they aren’t done yet.”
Indeed, one could hear the sounds of a heated argument from the other side of the door. The two turned to see a young boy, with silver hair, smiling at them.
“You have a noble look about you. You seem both brave and sensible, are you a Mukuru?” continued the boy.
Ervin, always weak to compliments of his family name, couldn’t help but blush, “Nice to meet, I’m Ervinos Mukuru, and you are?”
“I am Prince Nikolaos Ikona” proclaimed the boy with a royal bow, “son of Queen Theodora Ikona. On behalf of the crown, I extend my most heartfelt apologies.”
Ervinos Mukuru returned a formal bow, but tilted his head, “Apology? I have not been wronged by the crown in any way.”
“But of course, we have wronged you, brave Mukuru. You came here with this one” he stated, pointing at his twin sister, “I’m sure she nearly bored you to death with her lessons about the soil-tilling policies of Thalassanqaba or some nonsense about the proclamations of King Baboonus IV. The fact that you are still standing is a testament to your strength.”
“Niko, you devil! I know exactly what you’re doing, Ervin was my friend first. You can’t steal him.” protested Katerine, turning to her friend, “See, I told you. He’s evil. Don’t be swayed by his respectful words, he doesn’t have an honest bone in his body.”
Ervin had never seen Aikaterine could be so distraught, this was even worse than when he claimed her interest in royal planning was absurd. Niko, however, was perfectly calm and collected.
“You see, Sir Ervinos? All I did was call you brave and strong, and she calls these words lies. Is that how low her opinion of you is?” accused the prince. “My sister, if you do not respect your friends, then why should they stay close to you?”
“That's not what I meant!” anguished Aikaterine, glaring daggers at her brother. This was the reason Katerine had no friends her age. Her brother had a nasty habit of trying to create divides in her relationships. As someone who often knew exactly the right thing to say to the right person, he was often successful in this endeavour.
“Hmm, well she did start talking a lot about the Empire's tax policy and how the Ikona responded to it by spending more on their people's education, so there would be less tax to pay.” mused Ervinos, bringing a horrified look to Katerine's face.
“That does not surprise me at all, you will have to forgive my foolish sister, my friend. She does not realize that a great warrior shouldn’t be pestered by such annoying matters.” grinned the devilish prince, it seemed he had succeeded yet again.
“But because of that, I got to learn about how we managed to swindle from under the Empire's nose for decades!” exclaimed the young Mukuru, “As long as I can ignore all the boring parts some of her stories are actually interesting.”
“Aha, see. What do you know about my friend, Niko?” triumphed Aikaterine, wiping away tears that had formed prematurely. She chose to forget the part about Ervin ignoring ‘all the boring parts’ and tried to seal her victory. “Ervin, you would hate this guy if you really got to know him, he runs away from danger the moment it comes his way. The only thing he’s good at is talking and manipulating people.”
At this point Ervin couldn’t help but laugh, he had long wondered whether he would have been happier if he had a sibling, but it seems the grass was not greener on the other side.
“Okay, okay, you win this time.” resigned Nikolaos, this game of his was nothing more than a passing interest. Besides, the Mukuru boy seemed interesting enough, perhaps he should get to know him as well. “I’m sorry for that display, Ervin. It’s a little hobby of mine.” he laughed, as he extended a hand to Ervin.
Ervin shook his hand, surprisingly he held no contempt for the boy who had just showered him with fake praise, there was just something about his mannerisms that made him immediately likeable.
Niko did not think himself cruel for his little acts of bullying. The way he saw it, he was the only one who could keep his sister from becoming too high-minded. He otherwise simply used his powers of persuasion for personal benefit, whether it was getting out of class early or sneaking an extra dessert at dinner.
The prince also considered himself much more empathetic than his sister, who was interested in ruling the kingdom but could never quite understand other people and their experiences. He saw this when their mother taught them about her policy of re-organizing food production and sending the excess grain to areas that did not produce enough to feed themselves. Katerine was impressed by how the policy increased the number of days people could work because they were falling sick less frequently, which to Niko felt like a robotic and detached way of viewing their subjects.
Clearly what mattered most was that fewer families would go to bed hungry, that joy from having their bellies filled is the goal, nothing more. It didn’t really matter that his sister understood how the policy worked while he had failed to stay awake during that part of the lesson, he was more suited to be King.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Aikaterine often could not understand her brother, or why he acted the way he did. Unlike her, he chose to fit in completely and be the perfect boy the adults wanted him to be. He would insist on using his title when he introduced himself, he would give a full royal greeting to people even when he knew they didn’t care, and he would go out of his way to speak to different people in extremely different ways as if he was tailoring his image uniquely to each person he met.
Yet he clearly understood, just as well as she did, how meaningless these elaborate pleasantries were. She would often catch him muttering under his breath at how silly the formal greeting in Thalassanqaba was, or complaining about the needless complexity of the honorific system in the Imperial Language. When she asked him about this, he simply laughed at her for “not realising the value of customs and traditions” and walked away without an explanation.
Still, the two had a mutual respect for each other. Niko could never deny that his sister was the smartest child he had ever met, and that one day she would likely be the smartest person in Ikona. Aikaterine, on the other hand, had been saved by her brother countless times when she said something unintentionally rude to a noble, he could defuse situations in a way that she simply couldn’t comprehend.
Katerine leaned in close to Niko and whispered, “So then, what are they arguing about? There’s no point denying it, we both know you were eavesdropping.”
Ervin quickly scurried into the huddle, not wanting to be left out.
“They’re arguing quite a bit. Sir Alex wants to take the Hatha and clear the bandits in the Mol Swamplands, but Mother doesn’t like the idea.”
“Why not?” pitched in the young Mukuru, who knew well how disruptive the bandits of the swamplands could be. Thanks to those criminals, merchants travelling from Paligxulu to the Empire had to spend significant sums of money hiring protection when making the journey. “For the past 5 years, we’ve only been launching operations against the bandits on our side of the border, but whenever we push them hard enough, they retreat deeper into the swamplands into the area that the Empire is supposed to be policing.”
“It’s not so simple, Mother is worried that the Empire will use this as an excuse to take up arms against us.” came the immediate response from Nikolaos, sympathetic to his mother's point of view.
“Why would the Empire want war with Ikona?” questioned Katerine, “War would destroy most of our cities and deplete our populations in the process, they’d get nothing from it. The taxes we pay them regularly are worth more.”
Ervinos seemed to agree, after all the Empire could have tried invading Ikona for centuries now, but the usefulness of the small kingdom had guaranteed their independence.
“I would have agreed if I hadn’t been listening.” frowned Nikolaos with concern in his voice, “Something big has changed in the Empire, multiple sources confirm the same thing - the Emperor has launched an invasion of the Holy City of Bāb Al-Nūr.”
Ervinos tilted his head to make sure he had heard right. Ervinos knew very little about the Holy City, just that it was the birthplace of Rihla worship, and that it was found deep in the Desert of Ruin. But that was all he needed to know. It was enough to understand that declaring war on such a city meant not only that the Emperor was going against the most widespread religion of the Empire, but also that he wanted to do so badly enough that he would risk a near-impossible desert campaign.
“So he really has gone insane!” gasped Aikaterine, who knew just as little about the Holy City as her new friend.
“Naive as ever, sister.” griped Nikolaos, who was used to sniffing out baseless rumours. “There’s also a rumour that the Emperor believes himself to be a God, that he seeks to challenge the Rihla himself. Another rumour suggests that there is an evil cult of devil worshippers who’ve gained influence in the Imperial court. If you keep your ear to the ground, you will hear a hundred such tales, each as unreliable as the next. The only thing we know for sure is that the Empire shouldn’t be tested right now, there’s no telling what the Emperor will do.”
“You seem worried, Niko.” asked Aikaterine, well aware that her brother rarely held such a brooding look on his face, “Surely it’s not just because of some bandits.”
“When will you learn to think critically, Katerine?” murmured the boy, half to himself. Ervin turned to see Aikaterine’s reaction, surprisingly the Heart of Learning's greatest prodigy was completely unfazed at the insult, as if she had heard it a thousand times before. “Ervinos, where does the Queen live? And where does the Ikonan Council of Strategy meet?”
“In the capital, Thalassanqaba,” answered Ervin nonchalantly, “But why are you asking me this now?”
“I’m sure you can figure it out, Ervinos. Why are we meeting in Sufundiso if the Council is all the way there?”
Suddenly, the voices died down, and footsteps were heard heading to the door. “They’re done, quick, move away from the door.” cautioned Nikolaos, as the trio did their best to act like innocent children.
The door opened, and Anna Mukuru stared out the door. “Do you think she suspects us?” Katerine whispered to Niko, “Oy, Ervin, say something.”
“Mother!” yelped the little Mukuru, as he ran into her arms. Anna could tell the kids were up to no good, but she had not seen her little one in a while and was happy that he was excited to see her. “Your father tells me you learned something on the way here, Ervinos. Congratulations, you are one step closer to becoming an adult.”
“I think we all know what we have to do regarding the swamplands” came a voice from behind, the Queen was still finishing up the meeting. “Stand by for now, and when the time is right you’ll get your orders to strike.”
“Ah, I guess it’s time I introduce you.” beamed Anna, “Ervinos Mukuru, this is your Queen - Theodora Ikona. Pay your respects.”
Ervinos stood erect, gave a well-rehearsed royal bow, and declared himself to the Queen: “I am Ervinos of House Mukuru, at your service, Your Majesty.”
“Raise your head, young Mukuru.” came a firm response, Ervin raised his head to see the Queen up close for the first time.
Queen Theodora Ikona was a bit older than his parents, but was no less formidable. She sat strong on the famous Ikona throne with a crystalline purple crown resting on her head. She had a coldness about her, maybe it was her piercing purple eyes, which seemed to look through one's soul. “I heard you and my daughter skipped school and went around the bazaar,” she said sternly.
Ervinos froze, had he been followed? Was the Queen angry?
“Oh, Mother, stop scaring the poor guy. I was the one who ordered him to take me,” interjected Katerine, covering for her terrified friend.
“Don’t worry about it, Ervin.” chided Nikolaos, “Nothing happens in the Sufundiso without Mother hearing about it.”
“This is… unexpected,” Theodora muttered to herself, she had never seen her two children come to someone's defence so quickly, and with such unity. She rose, walked towards the young Mukuru, and placed her hand on his head.
“Take care of these two idiots for me”, she whispered into his ears, with a warm smile on her face. Ervin was relieved that he wasn’t in trouble, “As you command, my Queen.” he whispered back.
“So, will you head straight back to Paligxulu tomorrow?” asked the Queen, turning towards Alex and Anna.
“They’re leaving already? No fair, let them stay a while, please?!” begged the twins in unison, not wanting to say bye to their new friend just yet.
All of a sudden, the queen took out two sac-like bags from her drawer and flung them at her children with expert precision. The bags exploded on contact, leaving both of them completely drenched in water, and completely silent. It seemed the Queen and the twins had a … unique relationship.
The three Mukuru burst into laughter, as Anna began to answer the Queen. “I need to get back to my river fleet on the river, they're docked right here. Alex and Ervinos are going home.”
“Mother, can I at least spend the night here with the twins?” begged the boy.
“Of course, you can” replied Alex, “But we leave early in the morning, if you aren’t ready in time we’ll leave without you.”
“Worse things have happened!” Ervinos exclaimed as he ran out with his new friends.
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Ervinos shook his head and brought himself back to reality. Why was he remembering the first time he met the twins, again? That was 5 whole years ago?!
“My nerves are getting to me,” he said as he looked down at his hands and took a deep breath.
“Same here”, mumbled Symeon, as he trembled with two arrows notched onto his bow, “But this is what we came for.”