Birthright

Harren

Harren could not help but to repeatedly glance out of the carriage window, looking for the queen's men. It had been three days since they had left the safety of Picket and Valor was still at least a day's journey away.

Their food was running lower and lower as each day passed, and the comforts of the carriage began to feel like a prison cell. There was naught to do but listen to Lord Tallgrow's guards gallop alongside the carriage and it was like to drive him mad. 

The carriage came to a halt and Harren's heart jumped to his throat. The door to the carriage creaked open and one of the guards poked his head inside. "Forgive us m'lord but may we stop for a moment to rest. The horses grow thirsty as well as the other men," he asked with his head bowed. 

"I am no lord. You and your men may rest, you deserve it."

The guard gave thanks and departed the carriage. 

"Harren, would it be alright to step out and stretch my legs? They are cramping most horribly," asked Kyran. 

"It would be best if you didn't. You never know who could be watching the carriage. The queen's men could be spying even now," said Harren, pulling back the curtain a bit to glance out the window once more.

"As you say," said Kyran with a groan. 

"You will have your chance Kyran. We should reach Valor on the morrow, and you will be safe," said Harren reassuringly. 

He didn't know why he kept telling Kyran that he was going to be safe. The truth was that he would never be safe. Lord Tallgrow's words had rung true. The queen rules all of Ethios, not just the Queensgrove. She could easily send her men into Valor. 

Perhaps it was the idea of rebellion that gave Harren the false sense of safety. Perhaps he found solice in the fact that the queen had many enemies within the Riverlands, ones who have pledged their allegiance to her but would betray her at the slightest hint of a usurper.

"Will that be what they call Kyran? A usurper," he thought.

Harren knew Kyran's claim wasn't strong and that many lords will try to squash his chances, but he had to try. The queen was not like to marry again, and her rule was driving Ethios into poverty. The foreign merchants saw it as well. They run back to their countries and tell their people that Ethios is weak and ripe for the taking. Rentos had been itching for their chance at Ethios for centuries if history could be believed.

The queen saw herself as a just ruler when it was the exact opposite. She loathed her people. The highborn lords and ladies were the only ones with which she gave her courtesy and even that was coldly given. The smallfolk were of little matter to her. She harvested them like vegetables for the slave trade and shipped them off to the far corners of the world to be beaten and worked until their days were done. She overtaxed the poor and used their scraps to pay for her many parties that were always taking place in the castle. She would even send her brother Gabriel and her Royal Guard to the streets to "cleanse" the sick by slaughtering them where they lay dying in their own filth.

Memories of Harren's sister came flooding back to him. Her smiling face, her laugh, and even the way she always pinched his cheeks and called him little brother. He would never have the chance to see her again, to hear her voice or talk to her about her life or his. His family was gone and all he had was the one he made for himself. 

It was then that he remembered Tymen, Hannah and his other children. Lord Tallgrow had received his letter and had sent his guard out every day to look for the children on the road. They had been doing just that when the guards brought Kyran and Harren into the city. They had not made it to Picket, but he prayed they did soon. He wondered what had befallen them. It worried him to think that they had been captured by the queen. She had been on her way to Picket when they had left the city and could have very well found the children on their way.
He pushed the thought from his mind.