Cost of a Crown (Book 1)

Two Brothers

Chapter One:

"Thank you, Your Highness, thank you…" The petitioner kept bowing. Walking backwards and bending at the waist to punctuate every declaration of gratitude.

Sitting in an unnecessarily decadent chair next to the throne, not sitting in the throne itself, Prince Keldor resisted the urge to reach a hand up and massage his temples. His tension headache had been building through the last three petitioners, but he refused to acknowledge it. As a half-Gar growing up in the court of Eternos, he learned not to show his weakness at a very young age.

Unlike his brother.

Sitting on the other side of the throne, in an equally decadent chair was Keldor's younger brother, Randor. They were both of them filling in for their father, the King, whom had taken ill and was confined to bed. Keldor, however was taking their duties as acting rulers much more seriously than his brother.

Randor was asleep in his chair on the dais.

One arm propped up on the armrest of the chair, head resting in his hand, eyes closed, mouth slightly open, a bit of drool dripping onto his knee. At least he wasn't snoring. Randor might not be an elegant sleeper, over even a subtle one, but at least he wasn't a disruptive sleeper. Keldor could conduct the petitions in peace.

"Does anyone else have a matter they wish to bring before the throne?" Keldor asked of the room.

A large crowd was gathered in the throne room. But experience had taught Keldor that the vast majority of them were not there to speak. Most people who came to the royal petitions came to watch, not to actually bring a matter before the throne. In a group of approximately fifty or so people, only about twelve of them would actually come forward and speak. That was when King Miro was holding audiences. Since Miro had fallen ill and Keldor assumed the responsibility, that number was halfed. Fewer people were willing to bring matters of personal importance, or even business importance before a Gar.

The one that kept thanking and bowing was only the sixth person Keldor had dealt with that day.

A seventh petitioner stepped forward.

They were an Aquatican, a member of one of the multiple marine races that populated Eternia's oceans and deep lakes. With teal-green scales, and wide, round fisheyes. They wore light armor of a bright bronze color, just a breastplate and loincloth with matching bracers and shin-guards.

"State your name and the matter you wish to discuss." Keldor kept his voice even, controlled and without inflection. A business neutral voice. Not betraying the fact that he was actually just as board as his sleeping brother, or that he was anxious over his father's failing health and preferred to be at his father's bedside instead of here, listening to complaints from people who despised him.

"I am Squidish Rex, ruler of that which lies beneath the sea." He announced. "And I've come to swear my fealty to King Keldor."

A shock ran down Keldor's spine at that pronouncement. One so jarring he almost missed the fact that the entire throne room erupted with rumbling murmurs. King Miro was not dead. His spirit had not departed on his Next Journey. King Miro was laying sick in his bed, very much alive, and this creature from the deep seas was already declaring the Gar half-breed as King. Was Prince Keldor in on it? Was this some kind of clumsy coup by the mixed bastard that Miro was charitable enough to claim and legitimize?

To spite being King Miro's first born son, Keldor was not well liked among the mostly human court of Eternos.

He was not fully human for one. His mother was a Gar woman from the island of Anwat Gar, and while the Gar were human in shape, they were still very noticeably not human. Keldor had the unfortunate luck to have inherited the two most obvious non-human traits of the Gar race: blue skin and pointed ears. There was no hiding or concealing his non-human heritage.

When he was younger, he did experiment with makeups and concealers that gave him a similar alabaster complexion as his father and brother, but he never really mastered the art of contouring and so the makeup never looked quite right on him. When he started to learn sorcery, Keldor tried glamours instead, but being young and inexperienced, the illusion was nothing more than a static mask. The mouth did not move when he spoke, the face never changed expression, and the overall result was to give the people around him an unnerving feeling of staring into the uncanny valley.

Keldor never even tried to hide his mixed heritage now. In fact, he groomed and dressed in ways that drew attention to it. Forced people to acknowledge that King Miro's first-born son was of non-human maternal decent. His ebony hair was always pulled back away from his face, showing off his high forehead and the sharp widows peak of his hairline, and he kept it twisted into a tight knot at the back of his head. Pulling the hair flush against the sides of his head so that it was impossible to miss the tall points of his ears.

Nobody ever let Keldor forget that he was less than human, and Keldor took that. Made it his own. Crafted it into a shell around himself. Wore it like armor.

The voices of the crowd grew so loud, that it woke Randor. Startling him in his seat so that he jerked awake.

"Huh! Wha?" He wiped at the drool on his mouth and blinked still sleep-clouded eyes at the stiff of commotion. Everyone sounded so upset about something, but everyone was also talking at once, so it was impossible for Randor to know exactly what it was he was supposed to be reacting to. He leaned over their father's empty throne to whisper at his brother, sitting as stiff and impassive as he'd been carved from stone. "I miss something important?"

One person stepped out from the crowd. Human, as most of those gathered in the throne room were human. With long dark hair that had just a single streak of gray in it. The only physical indicator of his true age. The face under his beard and bushy eyebrows was disproportionately young to how long Keldor and Randor had known him. It was Count Marzo. Low-level nobility, but high among those King Miro counted as friends.

"I'm sure Prince Keldor has a reasonable explanation." Marzo announced smoothly, possibly the calmest person in the room.

Keldor did not answer him, he didn't answer anyone. His eyes remained on the petitioner in the center of the room. It was not the same person Randor remembered before he fell asleep and he had to wonder at just how much of the day's audiences he missed. Keldor stood from his seat beside father's empty throne.

It took a few moments, but once one person noticed he was standing they elbowed their friends, or the person who was talking to them, or just whoever was closest. Eventually, the alarmed muttering died down and the Prince once again had the attention of the entire assembly.

Randor wished he could command a room like that.

By just getting up off his ass.

Father could do that, too.

"I'm afraid you've wasted a trip." Keldor informed the Aquatican. "My father has not taken the Next Journey, and so I am not King. No oaths of fealty are required."

"My apologies." Squidish Rex lowered his head. "I was under the impression that King Miro was on his deathbed and not likely to recover. And when I arrived in Eternos, it was to find yourself and Prince Randor filling the King's role, if not his title. But it seems I am premature."

"Very premature." Keldor insisted. "I can assure you; my father is not on his deathbed. In fact, he is recovering more of his strength every day. King Miro still has many more years left in his reign. It will be many more years yet before I am King. So, keep your oaths of fealty. I don't need them."

"Forgive me," this time the Aquatican raised his head, looking Prince Keldor right in the eyes, "but I let my own personal feelings get the better of me. Eternia is a world of many races, yet we have never had a King that was anything but a pale-face human. Perhaps I was over-eager to welcome our first non-human ruler."

This announcement sent another upset murmur through the crowd.

Keldor being partially non-human was the central platform for his detractors. It made him a less desirable candidate to succeed Miro. Not more desirable as this Aquatican, as this other non-human, seemed to think.

At his sides, Keldor's hands balled into fists. The only outward indication of his feelings. His expression remained neutral, his back remained straight, his voice was even. "You should leave now, Squidish Rex." He informed the Aquatican. "I am not King, and your fealty is not needed."

Lifting his head, Squidish Rex looked at the rest of the assembly. He was a ruler of his own submarine kingdom, he had to be able to read a room.

The Aquatican bowed to Keldor again. "As you command." He backed away until he was at the doors of the throne room. Then paused, raising his head to look Keldor in the eyes again. "Just know that I am not the only non-human who waits for a different kind of King to sit the throne of Eternos."

He left.

Keldor remained standing. His hands still fists at his sides. Clenched so tight his usually jewel-blue knuckles were white, and his nails were biting into his palms. "Thank you all for coming." He said in that same, even, and perfectly controlled voice. "Petitions are over for today. If you still have a matter to bring before the throne, you may try again tomorrow."

Randor didn't even realize Keldor was leaving until he was gone. Walking behind the throne and exiting through a smaller door behind the dais. Randor had to sprint after his brother to catch up.

"Kel! Hey, Kel, wait up!"

Keldor stopped walking the moment his keen pointed ears heard the door shut behind his brother. He leaned against the corridor wall and, finally, allowed himself to reach his hands up to his face and massage the tension headache that had been building for the past three petitioners. Rubbing slow circles into the sides of his forehead with enough pressure to leave behind fingerprints in his skin.

"You okay?" Randor asked when he finally caught up.

Allowing himself to show the weakness that he couldn't show publicly, Keldor leaned forward and rested his head on his brother's shoulder.

"Father isn't getting better, though." Keldor muttered into the fabric of Randor's tunic sleeve. "What are we gonna do, Ran? I'm ready to be King, that's not what I'm worried about. I'm not ready to lose father!"

Wrapping his arms around his brother in a comforting hug, Randor rubbed circles into Keldor's back. Keldor was great at appearing strong, in control, and in command. He possessed a level of discipline that Randor could only hope to one day achieve. But that didn't mean that he didn't get scared like everyone else. It didn't mean that when a loved one fell ill; he wasn't worried like everyone else. Keldor had reached and age of majority and was a grown man, but that didn't mean he didn't have moments where he felt like a helpless child just like everyone else.

Miro was their only parent. The only parent that either of them knew.

Keldor's mother was a Gar woman who never left the island that was the Gar homeland. Miro brought Keldor to Eternos when he was still just an infant and he had no memories of his mother. He didn't even know if she was still alive or had passed on to her Next Journey, and Miro never spoke of her.

Randor's mother passed onto her Next Journey shortly after giving birth to him and so he was never given the chance to form memories of her.

Miro was the only parent either of them had ever had. It was only natural to feel lost and scared when his health started to fail, and he became frail, started to lose his independence, lost his balance and suffered frequent falls. Keldor and Randor didn't know what to do. They were very much like children again; helpless.

"Let's go see father." Randor suggested. "You never know, maybe his condition has improved since yesterday."

King Miro was not in his bed when the brothers arrived at the King's chambers.

Keldor felt a stab of panic similar to when the Aquatican called him 'King Keldor'.

Where had Miro gone? He could not have gone far. It wasn't like he was very mobile. Oh, gosh, what if he decided to go out onto the balcony for some air and had another one of the falling spells! What if he fell from his balcony?

Then they heard a flush, and the privy door swung open.

Miro shambled out. Walking slowly, leaning heavily on the door frame at first, letting the ancient wood take most of his weight, then taking small, stiff steps across the floor heading back to his bed. Barely lifting his feet off the carpet. More shuffling than actually walking. Easy to catch his toes in the thick carpeting and have another fall.

Both Keldor and Randor rushed to the other side of the room to help their ailing father. Each one taking one of his arms to hold him up.

"Get off me!" Miro snarled at them. He had been bad tempered and irritable since his health started to decline. "I can walk on my own!"

They did not let go.

Past events had shown them that Miro could not, in fact, walk on his own.

"We just wanna make sure you don't fall again." Randor assured him.

"Where's your care giver, father, they should be here to help you." Keldor was more concerned that his ailing father was left alone, unsupervised, and without an aid when he clearly needed one.

"I sent them out. I was sick of looking at them." Miro snapped. "And I don't need help taking a shit!"

They made it back to the bed. Randor pulled back the blankets while Keldor helped their father back in bed.

"I was the greatest warrior of my generation!" Miro reminded them. "There was once a time I was the greatest warrior on the planet!"

"Yes, father, we know." Randor tried to tuck the blankets around him, but Miro refused to lay down or cooperate.

"I defeated King Hiss!" Miro continued. "He's immortal, ya know!"

"Yes, father, you've told us." Keldor assured him.

"Now, that was a battle…" Miro smiled at the far off memory, made fond by the fog of nostalgia. "Just me and Marzo up against the immortal leader of the Snake Men. Just my sword, Marzo's magic, and good old fashioned human guts."

Keldor pursed his lips and said nothing to that. He had his own opinions of Count Marzo and they did not align with Miro's own views of his old comrade. They had a friendship that was forged in the fires of battle, brothers in arms. A bond that could often be stronger than the bond blood brothers.

"Yeah, yeah, Marzo's practically our mother. We get it." Randor grumbled, speaking more to himself than to their father.

"You wouldn't be here if it weren't for Marzo." Miro snapped at him. "He's saved my life more than once. He saved me before I even met your mother, Randor. He's the reason I was around to squirt you into her belly."

"Charming." Keldor commented dryly. There was nothing like hearing graphically vivid imagery of his brother's conception to make Keldor grateful his father never talked about his mother.

Miro scoffed, unimpressed and unsympathetic. "You'll feel differently when your own kids are complaining about your old war buddy."

"Father, why don't you try and get some rest?" Keldor suggested, deciding a change in subject was best. He fluffed the pillows, hoping to coax Miro into laying down. "We want you to regain your strength."

For half a second, Miro's eyes flashed with irrational rage. "Damn it, boy, I'm not sick! I'm just old! This is what happens to you when you get old and you don't cheat and use magic to keep yourself young like somepeople!"

"But, father, we just-"

"Get out." Miro snapped. "Both of you. I'm sick of you too. You're worse than the damn care giver! At least they know when to sit on the other side of the room and shut up!"

He tried to get up to push them both out, but barely managed to lift the blankets to climb out of bed.

"Okay, okay, we'll go." Keldor tried to placate their father. The last thing they wanted was for the old man to try and get physical only to have another fall or injure himself another way.

Both brothers left the room.

"Well, at least he's still energetic and feisty." Randor announced in his most positive voice.

But Keldor's optimism wasn't raised any. "Last time, he got out of bed, grabbed me by the ear and shoved us both out himself." He reminded his brother, rubbing a thumb over the point of one ear with remembered pain. "This time, he didn't get the covers all the way off. He might still be stubborn and confrontational, but he's getting weaker."

"Maybe you should have accepted that mer-man's declaration of fealty." Randor suggested. "Since it seems you're gonna be King soon anyway."

"Don't say shit like that." Keldor reprimanded him. "Don't put father in his grave yet. He might get better. Remember, he was the greatest warrior of his generation. He won't lay down and take the Next Journey without a fight. It'll still be many years yet before I'm King."

Keldor started walking down the corridor, heading for the stairs that would take him out of the residential wing of the palace. He was probably heading to the business section of the palace. Audiences might be over for the day, but that didn't mean there wasn't still work that needed the King's attention, and since the King was unavailable, a Prince would have to do it.

Keldor paused before he got to the stairs. He turned back to his brother, his brain just processing something else his Randor said a little belatedly. "And did you just call the Aquatican king 'mer-man'? Don't do that. That's so rude! That's like when the court call me 'pointy-ear' behind my back. Don't be like them. You're better than that."

…