The Medievals 1 by Frazier Brothers

Author:Frazier Brothers [Brothers, Frazier]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-03-24T22:00:00+00:00

The next morning, the guard outside the Royal Bedchamber opens the door for Richard, who has requested a private audience with his parents.

Richard enters to find his mother at the window, framed by the morning light. As he moves further into the room, nerves swirling in his stomach, Richard sees his father reclining in the chair by the imposing stone fireplace.

Richard has come to ask one final time that he be allowed to join the effort to rescue the Descendant. This will be his last opportunity, as Ivanhoe and his small cohort are scheduled to depart this evening after the sun blinks over the horizon.

In the day that has passed since Ivanhoe agreed to lead the search, two more men have been enlisted for the mission.

One is a giant Spaniard named El Cid, a warrior exiled from his homeland and imprisoned here in the dungeon three years ago. He is enormous; without doubt, the largest man that Richard has ever seen. He is the size of at least three men, his legs as big as tree trunks. He has regaled his fellow prisoners with his exploits from his days in Spain; and he claims to have fought off a hundred men at once.

The other recruit is a wisecracking thief named Loxley, one who swears an intimate knowledge of the Beyond. The outlaw, who bears a dark complexion and a roguish smile, says he holds a map of the Eternal Forest within his mind; and Ivanhoe, left with no other volunteers from the dungeon, has selected him to be their guide.

Richard wonders if either man is being truthful about their merits, as both men stand to gain from the mission. In return for the delivery of the Descendant to the King, the two men have been promised not only their freedom, but also rewards of their choosing: for Loxley he has fixed his desires on a chest of gold; and for El Cid, the return of his ship, which is docked in the Royal Port.

“Good morning, my sweet boy,” his mother says endearingly, her face always a kind invitation. Richard only wishes that she had not used the word ‘boy,’ as it seems to undercut his forthcoming request.

As Richard stands there in the company of his parents and their attendant silence, he struggles to remember the formulation of words he had practiced over and over in his room as he lay awake in bed the night before. Through the early hours, he had constructed a convincing argument, and then committed it to memory. But now that memory is nothing more than a shy ghost.

“Richard, I can not let you go,” his father says, answering Richard’s question before it is even voiced.

“Why not?” Richard asks, his argument holding to his throat.

“As I have already explained, your absence would create too many questions,” the King says.

“It is tradition for a Prince to embark on his first diplomatic mission in a time that follows his Triumph Day, is it not? Tell the people that I have traveled to the Lands of the East.

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