End of War

My mother used to sing when she cooked. Her gentle voice would fill our home as she swayed to the song. Her food was always terrible, but I’d eat a thousand more of her meals just to hear her again. She would smile as she set the plates down, brush the hair out of my eyes and sit opposite me.

I longed for her singing in this silence, the cold air pushed through the trees surrounding us, the grass I sat on was damp from the rain the night before, I laid my head back against the bark of the tree I lent against and began to hum, desperate to create a sound, anything to drown out the quiet.

“Would you shut up” there was an annoyance in his voice that filled me with glee.

“The rope is hurting my wrists” I responded, ignoring his complaint, holding my hands in the air showing him the marks the rope was starting to leave. My wrists had been tied up far longer than my ankles but even they were starting to hurt.

“I don’t care.”

 he threw another log onto the fire he had built, stirring the pot that hung above the flames, his meal smelt better than anything my mother had ever cooked, my stomach let out a low growl at the thought of food. It had been 3 days since I last ate but I dared eat whatever he was cooking.

“And to think I had heard how compassionate the great prince Hyland was” I taunted.

“My compassion doesn’t extend to those who are sent to kill me” he looked away from the flames and stared straight at me, I shifted under the weight of his glare.

“Yet I live” I wanted to push him more, bring as much anger out of him as I could, but when I spoke it came out as more of a question than a tease. Hyland simply smirked and returned to his cooking.

Before my mother died, we lived in a small cottage just outside the castle, in an entirely different kingdom to the one Hyland’s father ruled. She was a handmaiden for the King’s daughter, I grew up inside the castle walls, the King had no son of his own and grew fond of my mother and I. As I got older, he had the knights train me some days he would even teach me himself. When we lost my mother, he mourned almost as long as I did. He took my pain, my anger, and helped me channel it, I wasn’t of noble blood so I couldn’t become a knight so he gave me jobs his knights couldn’t do.

Growing up in the castle meant I knew how they worked, where the guards would be stationed, how to sneak around, I used that to steal goods and spy on other kingdoms, learn their secrets. I was good and never caught. With the information and items, I stole our kingdom grew. We took over land peacefully and our people were well cared for. Then the King fell ill, word spread across the land our kingdom was weak.

Our knights were hunting when King Michel, Hyland’s father, marched his knights into our castle. They slaughtered half our people, when we fought back, they dragged our King into the square and put a sword through his chest. The villagers rioted and thankfully the knights arrived back in the kingdom walls in time to help us fight. We ran King Michael and his men out of our land.

After our princess Amelia was crowned queen, King Michel declared war, some kingdoms joined them some joined us, and a few wanted nothing to do with war. Amelia was like a sister to me, as Queen she kept me doing the jobs I used to do for her father, but she asked me to do something her father never would, to take a life. She sent me to kill Hyland.

“When dinner is ready, I’ll untie your hands,” Hyland told me.

“You could untie them now” I jested, he let out a small laugh informing me that he thought the idea was ridiculous.

“But I will tie you to that tree” he promised.

I watched as he lifted the spoon from the pot to taste his cooking, he removed two full carrots from one satchel that lay next to the fire to feed the horses. Hyland was a similar age to me but somewhat taller, with short dirty blonde hair and a small scar on his right eyebrow, some might say he was attractive. I watched him so closely, I had heard such good things about the prince, but seeing his father, his knights in my kingdom murdering innocent people, children, and families, all I could see when I looked at him was death.

“Why are you cooking me dinner?”

“You need to eat” he answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“you’re going to kill me anyway why waste the food?” I was toying with him now, I wanted to make him agitated.

“I’m not going to kill you; you and I both know there’s been enough bloodshed” what he said made me angry, how dare he speak as if he had known loss, and yet I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Well look at you all high and mighty, you won’t kill me, but you had no problem watching your father kill hundreds of innocent people” I could feel the volume of my voice growing I practically growled the last few words.

“You’re the one who came to kill me, you hold no moral ground” he snapped back “and if you’re so angry at my father why come for me”.

It was a question I had been dying to answer, I was anxious for him to know how we would destroy his kingdom.

“Amelia and I knew it would be impossible to get to the king, besides if you want to topple an empire you go for the heart” he drew a short breath as I paused “everyone knows you’re the only thing the king cares for, kill you and he’d be useless. Kill you and your people will mourn, but they would rejoice at the death of your father” he shot up knocking the log he was perched on over, I could feel how angry I was making him, I was yelling now “because your king is a tyrant”.

“And yours was merciless” he shouted back, I was shocked at his rage and his words.

“My King was a great man he- “

“- your King was like any other, he wanted more and more power and instead of gaining it the honorable way, he stole and cheated his way into more land, into other people’s kingdoms and he used a boy to do it” he was trying to pull my strings now, making it personal.

My breathing was heavy, and I tried desperately to pull my hands apart, the rope tightening. I needed to get to him, to shut him up, to stop him from saying something I refused to hear.

“Your people’s blood is on the hands of your King” he spoke so softly so calmly, I let out a frustrated cry.

“I let you live, even though you came to kill me because enough people have died in this meaningless war.” He paused his voice shaking with frustration “I won’t kill another, and I can’t kill you” he locked eyes with me “despite how much I may want to” he smiled slightly, he was trying to use humor to lessen the tension. I hadn’t decided if it was working yet.

“Why not,” I asked I need to know what he meant, “why can’t you kill me?”

“Don’t you see? You and I are the only people who can end this” he pleaded “I don’t want war any more than you do.” He paced around the fire.

“You came to kill me out of anger and revenge, that’s something I can forgive, something I can understand, but if either one of us dies today this war will never end.” He was trying so hard to get through to me “you mean too much to your Queen and after losing her father she wouldn’t rest until we were all dead if she lost you too. And you already know my father would do the same if I were to die”.

He was right. Our deaths would lead to hundreds more, we had already lost too many. I wanted this war to be over as much as he did. But I couldn’t risk him not being honest with me, if it were a trap, I would never forgive myself. That said I wanted so badly to trust him.

“So how do you propose we end this war?”

“We start with dinner” he smirked.

“Dinner? You’re not serious” I laughed.

He took out two bowls from a pack strapped to his horse. He filled both bowls and placed one in front of me. He had made stew, with lumps of potatoes, carrots, peas, and deer. It smelled like home, despite smelling better than my mother’s food it reminded me of her. In all honestly, I was surprised Hyland even knew how to cook.

He lent down to cut the rope around my ankles, I shot him a look as if to ask what he was doing. He hesitated when he got to my wrists. The knife paused on the rope as he looked me in the eyes. This was an important moment. He had to make a choice, trust me and cut the rope risking me escaping or worse attacking him, or leave me tied up and risk me not helping him. He cut the rope.

I ran my hands over my wrists gently rubbing the rope burns. He picked up both bowls from the floor and held one out to me. I stood and took it from him.

“This is the first meal our kingdoms will share; we may not be able to stop the fighting today, but we will be able to look back on this moment and know that this was the beginning of the end.” He smiled at me “so on behalf of the kingdom of Somerhold I invite you to eat with me”.

I chuckled and nodded showing him he had my trust.

 “Well then, on behalf of the kingdom of Wrothsby I accept”.

He lifted the log he had knocked over up, to use as a stool and dragged another round to face his own then sat down, I followed in suit. He raised the spoon to his lips taking the first bite of a meal that would be remembered for years to come, this moment meant everything, the fate of both our kingdoms rested in the first dinner we sat down to eat together. A meal that the prince had cooked for a man that had come to end his life. As Hyland had said, this moment truly was the beginning of an end.