Seventeen: The Prince and I Play a Fun Game!

Valentin stared at me in shock. Then, remembering where he was, he spared a glance for the frosty-faced king, and his shock abruptly turned into anger, poorly disguising panic. His eyes said, ‘shut the hell up if you want to live.’

Ignoring the silent threat, I even patted Valentin’s shoulder with my free hand, like we were buddies. “Truly, if the prince had not been so concerned for his sister’s wellbeing, who knows what nonsense the people would be spewing right now? Luckily, many people saw how he personally chaperoned my meeting with the princess yesterday, and even better, they saw him having Ewan dragged away in disgrace. And just now, when I snuck out to see the princess again, he was there, vigilantly guarding her. I will be quite proud to one day call him my brother-in-law.”

Crickets.

Any other father, even a distant one, would take this opportunity to nod along and agree, even if perfunctorily, but the king didn’t even offer that much. His eyes shifted to Valentin for a split second, and then away, like Valentin was simply a pile of dirty laundry in the corner of the room, not even worth the attention of getting sent down to be washed.

Meanwhile, Valentin was frozen, like he thought if he went still no one would be able to see him.

…‘Vicious prince’? Yeah, right. All I see is a cowering puppy.

That wouldn’t do at all.

The silence dragged on, which was really a mistake on their part, because it just gave me more opportunity to keep running my mouth.

I tilted my head innocently. “What? Do you not agree?”

The gray-haired noble from before decided to step in, sparing a cautious glance at the silent king. “Indeed…the prince has done everyone proud this time around,” he muttered, tone resembling a wilting leaf of lettuce, completely without vigor. The other nobles nodded randomly a couple times.

The awkward feeling in the air dissipated as the king suddenly spoke up, but not to acknowledge anything I’d said. Valentin had his head bowed, silent and still, like he was waiting to be hit.

“With the situation being what it is, I’ve decided to grant you the opportunity to court my daughter, but an engagement isn’t guaranteed. Your crimes will also need to be punished. We’ll begin that tomorrow. For now, you’ll remain in the palace. The prince will take you back to your quarters.”

With the king making his official decision, the court was cued to start nodding, despite the many questions about my identity that had been left unanswered. “Excellent decision, my grace,” the gray-haired one murmured, the others echoing him. Armand was the only one visibly displeased, pinning me with a stare that I couldn’t decide was more suspicious or hungry.

“You’re all dismissed. Armand, you stay behind,” the king said. He closed his eyes and rubbed the space between his eyebrows, the only obvious sign of annoyance I’d seen from him yet. It was probably more because he’d have to deal with Armand than anything else that had happened.

Indeed, as we were leaving – Valentin dragging me so fast he was practically running – I glanced back and saw Armand almost vibrating with - anger? Excitement? It was hard to say, as he approached the throne.

I would have to keep an eye on that one. What a pain.

Valentin dragged me at light speed all the way to the room with the bars on the window. Er, the room that used to have bars on the window.

I opened my mouth to make a quip about how nice the view from this room was when suddenly I was pushed so hard from behind that I slammed into the ground face first. Luckily, I’d been pushed many times before, and reflexively rolled right back to my feet, spinning to see a very red-faced prince glowering at me like he couldn’t wait to tear my bones from my flesh.

Uhm, rude?

Also, scary?!

Seeing Valentin coming at me like he was going to tear my head off with his bare hands, I backed up, hands in the air.

“Is this any way for a prince to behave?” I said, dodging to the side as he lunged at me. He didn’t answer.

I scrambled over the bed to get to the other side then faced him across it. His eyes flashed with a murderous light, lips pursed. I ran my mouth again, because I was just so good at it. “What angered you, my prince? Those nobles at your father’s feet? They were all rather slimy looking, anyone would be annoyed by them. Or was it me? Did I accidentally burp and not say excuse me? Ah, my bad.”

Valentin vaulted over the bed at me. I had the urge to laugh as I jumped out of the way and skirted the bed to get to the side he’d just been on, but I pushed it down, because I didn’t actually want Valentin to murder me.

He chased me around the room for a few more minutes, both of us becoming increasingly disheveled. What a rush!

“Oh, I see,” I spoke up again breathlessly. Valentin had his hands on his knees as he panted. I was crouched at the head of the bed. All the pillows had been knocked to the floor at some point, and the blanket was only just hanging on by a corner. “I know why you’re so upset. Ol’ papa didn’t tell you that you were a good boy. I get it, I understand – ”

With a furious shout, Valentin came at me again, this time picking up one of the discarded pillows and going for my head, presumably to smother me. Unfortunately for him, I was a little tuckered out now, and I didn’t want to play anymore.

As soon as he got on the bed to grab me, instead of leaping off like before, I snatched the wrist holding the pillow and twisted. Valentin’s angry glower disappeared, replaced by bewilderment as I easily twisted him to the floor and held him down.

Valentin grunted in pain, his arm contorted at an angle that I knew from experience hurt like a bitch.

“Oh, how sad. No head pats for little Valentin,” I said. “But, I imagine, you’ve never gotten a pat on the head before, have you? The king doesn’t seem like the warm, fatherly type at all. And plus, you were little more than a statue in that throne room today, and who would want to pat a statue’s head? But I wonder, if he saw how you just behaved in front of me, what would he say?”

Valentin said nothing, breathing harshly against the floor. I could only see half his face, but the corner of one eye was conspicuously red.

“I mean, has he ever seen you without your head lowered like a servant? Let me tell you plainly, that response you just showed me, that anger – that’s right. Get angry. Get furious. And don’t let any old man keep you from saying what you want to say, do you understand?”

Valentin’s breathing slowly calmed, his one visible eyebrow furrowing. He gave me an odd stare from the corner of one eye, and I gradually let go of his arm, stepping back.

The prince stayed in place for a moment, which assured me he wasn’t about to start up the game again. He rolled over and sat up, still fixing me with that odd stare.

“No, no I don’t understand, and neither do you. What could you possibly know?” he finally muttered.

I hummed, sitting back on the bed and crossing my ankles. “I know that sitting around waiting for him to die so you can take the throne isn’t going to work very well for you. Your father looks like the tenacious type. Nefarious people often have pretty good longevity, who knows how long you’ll have to bow your head? But who says you have to? If you disagree with him, say it. If he’s made you mad, show it. He won’t come to suddenly love you because of it, but maybe he’ll respect you. At the very least, he’ll be a little more wary about moving you around his chessboard so freely.”

Visibly confused, Valentin didn’t respond immediately. It was understandable, after all, it sounded like I was encouraging him, giving him advice. And I was, but given what he knew about me, he was probably racking his brain to figure out what my motive was.

Was I trying to have him go against the king, only to have the king smack him back down again, lessening his power? Was I just talking out my ass? Or was I legitimately looking to help him?

Hard to say, and so Valentin continued to watch me suspiciously.

I shrugged, unconcerned.

“Oh, well. What do I know, right?”

“You know nothing,” Valentin scoffed, getting to his feet. “That is abundantly clear. Father responds quite poorly to anger. If I flew into a rage in front of him, he’d kill me where I stood.”

“So kill him first,” I said lightly. Valentin went silent, either surprised by my casual response, or wondering how I’d managed to dress myself all these years.

“Treasonous words,” he said quietly. “I could have you hanged for that.”

“Ah, but you won’t. You see, I’m quite safe in the position that I’m in, at least for the moment. Besides, I’m sure you’ve thought about it, so don’t even try to sell me on that ‘long live the king’ bullshit. Aren’t you a soldier? You could kill him.”

I was only about sixty percent serious, mostly trying to probe out whether or not Valentin still had some misplaced familial love for his father.

To my surprise, Valentin didn’t continue to threaten hanging me. Instead, he just rolled out his shoulder pointedly and glowered at me. “Yeah, sure,” he murmured. “I can’t even defend against you, let alone him.”

“That’s not the same. I had the element of surprise and a lot of practice twisting the arms of people much bigger than me. Just because you don’t know how to evade that particular move doesn’t mean you’re any weaker than me. We just have different skill sets.”

Perhaps expecting me to mock him for his weakness instead of encouraging him, Valentin stared at me blankly for a while.

I let him process and, in the meantime, scooped up the fallen blanket, returning it to the bed in a lumpy heap.

All my pillows had been on the floor, trampled underfoot, how dirty. Maybe if I asked nicely enough, Valentin would send them down to be washed.

As I was about to do just that, Valentin suddenly shot to his feet, putting on a stern glare, though his eyes seemed to be slightly less hostile than before.

“I have guards stationed below this window, just in case you decide to go back on our agreement. I’ll be back bright and early for your punishment. You won’t like what happens if I have to wake you.”

“And I suppose it would be too presumptuous of me to ask what this punishment is?”

To my surprise (followed by a hint of dread), Valentin’s lips curved into a smirk. He went for the door, throwing some parting words over his shoulder.

“And spoil my fun? Now why would I do that? Get some rest.” He paused as he was closing the door behind him, peeking his face back in for just one moment.

“You’re going to need it.”