I pressed my way toward the archers, then I pointed to the ledges on the cliffs behind us. “Get yourselves up there,” I shouted above the noise surrounding us. “You’ll be far more useful and will need no protection.”
“We lack the king’s talent for climbing,” one archer said.
“Lately, the king lacks the same talent,” I said. “But that’s where you need to be.”
The archer nodded, and then directed his men to follow him. Once they ran for the ledges, I jumped down to join the others, pausing only to wince at the pain that bolted up my leg. “Where’s the captain?” I cried.
The swordsman beside me smirked. “Roden is your captain, not ours. We all know why he was given that position.”
His reaction caused me to pause. “Oh? Why is that?”
“He’s your friend, sire. Maybe you trust him, but you can’t expect us to.”
Actually, yes, I could expect it, and I did. But my retort was lost in the shrieks of several Gelynians charging for us at once. The man next to me tripped and fell, but I held them back until he joined me again. Hoping to draw the Gelynians away from our archers, who were still climbing, I ran deeper into the garrison.
The buildings that served Gelyn’s border vigils were small, but sturdily built from rock and thick planks of wood. They ran in two parallel lines and had a wide space in the center where men could eat, train, and march. That area was congested now with my men and theirs, all of them fighting nearly on top of one another, and so I darted right, through a narrow path between two buildings. There I hoped to make an escape behind the garrison and come out in a better position. However, this path led me to a dead end. As I considered my circumstances, I realized I’d made a mistake coming this way. A bad one.
More men had followed me than I’d anticipated, and when I could run no farther, I faced an outhouse with a steep and rocky hill behind it. Without the option of climbing, there was no escape from this area. So I continued to fight, but the Gelynians were pressing me closer to the hill, far from any help.
“They called you ‘sire’ back there,” one Gelynian shouted at me. “Is it possible we have the boy king here?”
“Yeah, I’m here,” I said. “But thinking you have me is a delusion. Does the fish have a bear just because it’s within reach of the claws?”
I thought that was a good remark, but it seemed to go over their heads, and became a waste of a perfectly good insult. I consoled myself by getting a deep jab into the gut of one of the larger men. At least they paid attention to that.
I used the chance to begin scrambling up some rocks where I’d be out of reach of their pikes. If they tried to follow I could kick at their weapons, or better yet, just drop other rocks down on them. It wasn’t the most graceful fighting style, but in that moment, grace was the furthest thought from my mind.
Except my weaker right leg collapsed as I neared the top of the rocks and I landed back on the roof of the outhouse, nearly falling through it, which would’ve been unfortunate for any number of reasons. The men below me grabbed one leg and then another, pulling me back to them. I tried kicking, but it didn’t do much good. Maybe they did have me, after all.
Then I recognized the cry of a familiar voice. A pair of boots appeared above me and an armful of rocks cascaded over my head and down onto the men below. I would’ve pointed out that I’d had that same idea already, but I supposed it didn’t matter who dropped the rocks, only that it happened.
Arms reached down and braced mine. As I was helped up from the shed onto the top of the ledge, I grinned and said to Roden, “If a battle like this is how you welcome me when we’re friends, I can only imagine what it would’ve been if we were still enemies.”
Temporarily out of the path of any Gelynians, Roden quickly embraced me, and then said, “What are you doing here? When I asked for more soldiers, I didn’t intend for you to come.”
“Yes, but I was bored.” We paused to hear the Gelynian commanders calling for surrender. The battle must’ve been closer to its end than I’d realized. Roden started to move toward the hill to join in the victory, but I pressed him back with my arm. “Your men can finish this. We need a place to talk.”
He sighed. “We can talk. But as you probably noticed already, they’re not my men.” Then he motioned me down the ridge to a quiet cove that didn’t appear to have seen any fighting.
Once we were alone, I sat on one of the smoother rocks and invited him to sit as well. He shifted the weight on his feet, as if he felt more comfortable poised for battle. I understood that, but the fight was over and he and I needed to talk before the next one came.
Finally, he sheathed his sword, and then sat with his hands clasped together. He glanced at me briefly, then hung his head, and scraped at the ground with his boot.
We sat in silence until he finally said, “The night before we took this garrison, I overheard the men talking. They knew it would be hard, and risky, and most of them expected to fail. I almost stepped from the shadows just then, to assure them that I’d fight at their side until the end. But then they said if we failed, it would be my fault, that I had no business being their captain.” When he looked up at me, his eyes were filled with sadness and doubt. “They’re right, Jaron.”
For some reason, a memory from childhood came to my mind of standing before my father as he sat on his throne, staring down at me in full disapproval. Earlier that day, I had taken all the coins from the offerings dish at the church. Stolen them, he said, like a common thief. Looking back now, I knew my actions had embarrassed my father, but all I understood then was his anger. I couldn’t explain that I had given the coins to a young widow in town who’d been threatened with debtors’ prison. Much as I wanted my father to understand my reasons, I worried I might get her in trouble too. In front of the entire court, he had told me I was nothing like a prince should be.
Uneasy with the memory, I stood and reminded myself that this talk was for Roden and not me. With a shrug, I said, “You know my flaws, Roden. I make plans that don’t work, mistrust my closest friends, and do stupid things when the easier option should be obvious. I’m wrong all the time. But I am not wrong about you.”
“I’m a terrible captain!” Roden said. “You can’t convince me otherwise.”
“Oh no, I agree with that,” I said. “You are terrible.”
He drew back. “Is that meant to encourage me?”
Once again, my memories transported me back over the years. “After my father sent me away, I sometimes overheard people talking about the missing prince, about me. At first, I had expected to hear sadness, how much they mourned my loss. They were sad, yes, but not in the way I thought. They didn’t miss me, only my mistakes, my pranks, whatever I’d done that gave them a story worth laughing about. These were people who had bowed when I entered a room, but they never loved me and certainly never respected me.”