The Obvious Solution
Kane
There are times I wonder if I remember a time before I wasn’t constantly at war with a neighbor. I spent over ten years in conflict with Bernard Moonraker for his inability to repay his debts. Now that he is locked up
in the dungeon of my castle, I’m dealing with King Peter of Scarlett Thunder because of his unhinged offspring. Bernard had been a nuisance, much like a cockroach that refused to die. King Peter is a whole different kind of asshole, with enough power and resources to actually be a problem for me.
Neither of us has withdrawn our troops from the battlefield. Our men are waiting for word for them to battle to the death, We send messengers back and forth, switching from veiled threats to half–assed attempts at compromising. We are at a stalemate, neither of us willing to back down or be the one to make the first move. Unstoppable force meets immovable objects.
I stare outside the castle window at the gray skies. It looks like it is about to rain. The smell in the air makes me certain of it. If I were to go to the north tower of the castle, I could see the lightning hit the grounds of Scarlett Thunder. Crimson Peak is on higher ground, and we loom over the other kingdom. We have the geographical advantage of being able to see the enemy coming first.
“There’s been a new letter from King Peter’s messenger,” Rainier says. “Shall we see what demands he has for you today?”
I don’t turn away from the window. “Open it.”
I wait as Rainier does as I say and begins reading the letter. It’s the same demands as before. King Peter is willing to overlook all transgressions if I release his son Jacob and marry his daughter Opal. He refuses to believe that I’m not the father of her unborn baby. I have never touched Opal as her personality repulses me.
I turn to look at where Lex is sitting at the table. Slender and blond, he doesn’t resemble me at first glance. Lex inherited his coloring from our maternal grandfather, King Alexander, while I took after our father. No one would think we are brothers until you see us beside each other. Only then can you see the slight resemblance in our sharp jawlines and cheekbones.
“He refuses to think Opal isn’t anything but the purest of snow,” Lex remarks, “Even though anyone who’s met her knows there’s nothing pure and virginal about her.”
“You would know better than anyone,” Rainier quips.
Lex gives him a mocking smile. “Of course. I’m the whore, after all.”
“You said it, not me.”
“Or are you just bitter we never invited you to any of our parties?”
Rainier grimaces. “I would rather not have attended your disgusting orgies. No thank you.
Lex shrugs. “I don’t know, Rainier. You might have enjoyed it.”
I have to assume my brother is joking or just trying to get under Rainier’s skin. Either way, it’s working. Not wanting to focus on the topic of what Lex gets up to in the dark of night, I join them at the table. I take the letter from Rainier and shake my head over King Peter’s stubbornness.
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The Obvious Solution
I look to Lex and nod for him to begin writing a letter down for me. For all his complaints that he doesn’t enjoy working, Lex makes a half–decent secretary. He writes fast and has nice handwriting. My response to King Peter is quick and to the point: no.
“He’s not going to like that,” Rainier says. “Perhaps we could offer him something besides you being trapped in unhappy matrimony with his awful daughter?
“He only wants blood and gold,” I reply. “Neither of which do we have an infinite supply of.”
Even if the war with the Moonraker pack hadn’t cost me so much, I wouldn’t be willing to give him so much money. If this war with King Peter had come a decade or two later, I might have been willing to pay him off, but at the moment, I am in no mood to spend the money I do have on the likes of that tyrant. I have loans with other kingdoms and packs I could come collect early but that might just entice them to join my enemy’s side to get rid of me. No one ever said ruling is an easy job.
“We could release Jacob,” Lex sugge
suggests.
“Absolutely not,” Rainier counters. “He’s the only bargaining chip we have.”
This is true, and I cannot stand Jacob after what he did to Emory. He almost killed her in the library. I came so close to losing her over his terrible sister’s jealousy. Jacob will not leave my dungeons unless I have no other choice.
Lex sighs. “What do you want to do, then?”
“We can’t give in to King Peter’s demands,” Rainier says. “He could go back on his word as soon as Jacob is back in his custody. He could still choose to attack us.”
“He could still attack us even if we have Jacob,” Lex paints out. “He already has once. Let’s be honest here. King Peter has been looking for a reason to conquer Crimson Peak even before any of us were born.”
alry vary with
King Peter has an infamous mutual dislike of my father, King Michael. The details of their rivalry vary who is asked, but there was a general consensus it might have had to do with my mother, Queen Agatha. The rumor is that King Peter wanted her hand in marriage, but King Michael had beaten him to it. My mother’s native kingdom of Cerise Port had been a wealthy land due to their several ports that made them a central trading hub. Whoever she married stood to gain a lot of money, and my father had won that privilege..
“All of this because of spices,” Lex mutters. “That old bat would have been at odds with Uncle Cyrus and gone to war with him too.”
Our uncle, King Cyrus, is not known for his prowess in battle. Cerise Port is wealthy but not particularly robust with their military. Crimson Peak has been sending down men to help them with that problem for generations. I doubt King Peter would have done anything but suck the kingdom dry of its wealth like a leech.
“Speaking of your uncle, have you talked to King Cyrus about helping with the war? Financially, at least?” Rainier asks.
“I was going to go see him in a few days.”
Lex’s eyes light up. “Can I come? I love going to visit Cerise Port.”
I stare at my brother, exasperated. “Does it have anything to do with Cerise’s red light district? I think
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you’ve done enough damage in that regard, haven’t you?”
Lex coughs uncomfortably. “I should go.”
My brother scurries off, and I don’t bother asking where he is going. Instead, I reach for the letter Lex has written and hand it to Rainier.
“Have this sent to King Peter,” I say. “And don’t bother waiting for a response.”
I get to my feet. Rainier stands up and follows me. We walk out of the room and down the hallway.
“Do you think your uncle can help?” he asks. “Didn’t he already send you money?”
“Hopefully, he’ll be willing to send me a little more until I can think of a way to get King Peter off my back.”
“Do you
think King Peter’s planning something terrible?”
“What else would he be doing?”
I
Rainier leaves to go send the letter, and I continue on to my destination. I largely avoid this wing of the castle. The nobles live here, and I already have to deal with their simpering at dinner every night. The person I want to speak to also stays here, so I can’t avoid it.
A guard standing by nods before he opens a door for me. It leads to a suite of rooms with antique dark furniture. I have never been in these rooms, and they are simpler than I expected. Clark sits at a chair with a book in his lap. He looks up from his book, his spectacles gleaming under the light.
Clark was turned later in life, and his hair is mostly gray. Even vampirism hadn’t managed to fix his terrible vision completely, and he still needs spectacles to see, As a human, he worked as my father’s advisor before finally being given the gift of prolonged life. When I was a child, I used to see Clark as a foreboding, serious character with no sense of humor and no patience for little children,
Still, my father trusted him and sought his counsel for many matters, especially when our kingdom was at war. As much of an asshole as I think Clark is, he has something valuable. Knowledge. It’s the only reason I didn’t have him executed after I saw how he had been mistreating the feeders and letting the guards debase and abuse them.
He puts his book down on a table and gets to his feet slowly. He gives a shallow, mocking bow. “Your Majesty. To what do I owe the honor?”
“Don’t be clever with me, Clark. I’m not here to play games.”
“I would never dare to suggest a thing, sir.”
I resist rolling my eyes and take the seat across from him without a word. He sits down and waits for me to speak. I have vague memories of my father’s war council, a select group of a dozen men he had implicitly trusted to help him win wars. I have a war council of only two men I can trust.
“I need a war council
“About–time,” Clark states. “I would have advised you to put together one before rallying the troops.”
“I would have asked for your advice if you hadn’t done what you did to the feeders.” I think of what almost happened to Emory because of him.
“Are we really going to go over the rights of feeders, again? You always were more soft–hearted than you
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needed to be. Your father always worried about you and how you would fare-”
“Enough,” I snap. “I didn’t come here for a lecture.”
“Of course, Your Majesty,” Clark amends, glibly. “How may I help you?”
As much as Clark annoys me, he has been my advisor since I became king. It’s easy for me to tell him my concerns with the war and how I am at a stalemate with an egotistical king. As I speak, I think of my father who would have already thrown everything he had at Peter. He acted quickly, sometimes too quickly, and I didn’t want to find myself backed into a corner as he sometimes did.
Clark removes his spectacles and wipes at the lenses with a handkerchief. “I would think the solution is obvious, sir.”
Frustrated, I demand, “And what is that?”
“Give him back his son and marry his daughter. Prevent bloodshed for your people and save your kingdom.
“I can’t marry Opal. She’s carrying Lex’s child.”
“Why does it matter? Clark replies. “As long as it’s the same bloodline, your legacy lives on.”
“She’s awful, a total raging bitch. We would never be happy together.”
“You already knew that before, and you were still willing to marry her.”
“That was different.”
“Before you had your little she–wolf by your side?”
“Careful, Clark,” I warn. “You say one bad thing about Emory, and you will spend the next hundred years in the dungeons instead of your comfortable suite.”
Clark put on his glasses, his expression grim. “Do you want to know what makes you inherently different. from your father?”
“What?”
“Like most royals, he understood that duty comes first. Love is a privilege you are not afforded when you already possess so much power.”
I swallow hard. I’ve known this truth my entire life. My parents didn’t hide the facts of this life from me, and I had accepted it for the longest time. That was before I met Emory. I could no more give her up now than I could live without blood. I needed her.
“I won’t lose her,” I confess in a whisper. “I don’t know what I would be without her.”
“Better off,” Clark concludes. “After all, Kane, she’ll age and die like all of her kind. And you’ll be alone once again, but this time with a broken heart. And if you’re not careful, no kingdom.”
