(no subject)
“How can the king be such a fool? Surely he realizes the unrest growing right under his nose.”
“You’d think. It makes no sense really. Up until, what, a year ago? He was the ideal ruler: he kept the peace, paid attention to the wants of the people, built a strong economy and was kind, merciful, and beloved. Carnians used to have such bragging rights! We had a just, upright monarchy; now we seemingly have a despotic ruler who leaves the kingdom in the hands of his ministers, and increasingly sorry bunch. One by one each honest official has resigned until now only Minister Carmon stubbornly remains. The corruption is spreading; even the military is infected with old loyalists being fired and mercenaries under the control of certain ministers being brought in. We can’t just let this happen; something must be done!” A young man slammed his fist down on the tavern’s table, emphasizing his point.
“I agree,” the boy in glasses next to him replied, “but what can we do? Most citizens haven’t even realized what’s happening and we are merely students, notorious for activist liberal thinking, lofty in our ideals and easily disregarded. Few would take us seriously, just as few recognize the growing threat for what it is. By the time the common subject figures it out it will be too late for the matter to be solved peaceably. And as much as I desire change, I do not wish for bloodshed.”
“Nor do I,” the first speaker concurred. “Still, something must be done. If we recognize the problem then it becomes our responsibility to do something about it.”
A fourth student chimed in. “No one has even seen King Silos recently. I think something must have happened to him, such as illness. Or, you know, something worse. It would be a logical explanation for his long term absence, which is the only thing I can think of that would cause such neglect on his part.”
“Absence, huh? I guess that makes sense, but still…” The second boy looked dubious. “If you theory is right he would have had to disappear -- go into seclusion, whatever -- nine months ago. It would have taken a great effort on the minister’s part to keep it hidden that long.”
“But isn’t that exactly what has happened? As we already discussed, there’s been no rumor of anyone seeing hide or hair of the king in over half that time! And even if something happened to him, there should still be the prince. Alexander is our classmate; we know him, know that he would never voluntarily let the kingdom reach this state no matter how mischievous or irresponsible he can be at times. No, I have to agree that something ominous is afoot.” The boy in glasses looked around the table meeting each of his friends’ gazes in turn.
“So, what shall we do? Stage a coup? Storm the castle? Bribe the maids for information? ‘Cause I kinda favor that last one.” A black haired student wiggled his eyebrows suggestively with his last suggestion.
“Come on Edwyn, can you be serious for once?” the first boy asked, exasperated. “This is an important issue!”
“I know, I know, I’m just trying to lighten the mood! Anyway, if you’re so worried why don’t you do something, or ask someone who might know what’s going on? That seems practical. Or we could, you know, just sit here and complain, talking the matter to death and bemoaning the state we’re forced live in, so on and so forth. Oh, woe to us!” He through out his arms dramatically.
“Edwyn.” This was stated quietly from the sixth person at the table, the only one who had yet to speak so far.
The named boy glowered at the blonde next to him. “You’re such a downer today Will.”
Will just leveled a look at him in return.
“Oh fine. I suppose it was time to get going anyway.” Edwyn grinned to his comrades. “You all know I care deep down inside!”
“Yeah. Deep, deep down,” someone muttered.
“And lay off the worrying Phil; you don’t want to get wrinkles at such a young age.” He ruffled the hair of the boy with glasses as he got up to leave before turning back to Will. “You coming, slow poke?”
The other boy rose from his chair with much more grace then that previously shown by his companion and pulled out some money to pay for their part of the tab.
“See you back at school guys!” Edwyn shouted over his shoulder as he pulled Will from the shop and set off purposefully through the streets.
“Don’t suppose you want to tell me where we’re going?” his friend queried.
“Well, you see, I’m fed up with them talking, talking, talking so we’re going to go figure out what’s happening!” He looked pleased with himself.
“Ed, you can’t possibly think it’s going to be as easy as simply deciding to fix things. If it was, someone much wiser then us would have done so by now.”
“Ah, but we have something they don’t.”
Will sighed. “And what exactly is that? A mythical sword? The ability to fly? Or maybe you got some answers from your magic ball this morning while I was in the shower.”
“Silly.” He grinned over his shoulder at his sometimes-reluctant partner. “We have Alex! Surely he’ll tell us what’s happening, what with us being chums and all. It’s high time we paid him a visit anyway ‘cause he hasn’t been to classes in forever. Must be boring to be stuck up in the castle with dried up old tutors. Boys have to live vicariously you know, or their sense of adventure will dry up!”
Once again, Will sighed. After having Edwyn as his best friend for twelve years and roommate for five, he really should be used to this. But it was true that they hadn’t seen the prince in a while. ‘Worst thing that could happen,’ he thought to himself, ‘is that we get turned away at the gates.’ Feeling better about the plan he walked beside the taller boy to the castle, chatting about trivial things and trying not to think about things too much.