The Last Dance

The Last Dance (9)

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Chapter 9 - Looking

"What do you mean lost?" The King asked with barely contained anger. My Father and I exchanged a look, this false calm was a bad sign, it would have been better if he'd just yelled.

The Knights seemed to come to the same conclusion and started speaking at once to explain.

"We didn't mean--"

"Never would have guessed--"

"--he seemed--"

"--second day"

"The Forest--"

The King put his hand up grimly. "Sir Roden?" He asked coolly.

The Knight took a deep breath and fidgeted before speaking. "It happened on our first night outside the village. He seemed perfectly fine and excited to be coming home but in the morning he was gone. There was no sign of a struggle and all his bags were gone as well as his horse and some of our supplies. We think... in fact we're certain he... ran away," Sir Roden finished hesitantly.

There was silence following the announcement as we all waited for the Kings response.

"I see," He finally said. "And you did nothing?"

"By no means Sire, we scouted the Redwood Forest, and asked a trusted worker to discretely send a few men to look for him, but he left no obvious signs of passage and must have had several hours lead. We did all we could without notifying the village and causing alarm..." Sir Corry explained.

The Kings look of anger was immediately replaced with a grimace. He slumped into a chair and covered his face with his hands.

This action startled us all but my Father and the Queen rushed to his side while I remained forgotten.

"You may go." His voice came out thick with grief and the Knights, looking extremely saddened headed towards the doors. "Tell no one..."

They nodded and left us alone.

"My son... my own son ran away" The King shook his head with grief while the Queen let tears silently run down her face. My Father did his best to comfort them with whispered words of comfort. I felt awkward standing there and wished there was something I could do to help. I was too angry to feel upset. The idiot. Didn't he ever think? Didn't he know what he was putting his parents through?

It was pathetic and cowardly.

After a few minutes, which seemed like hours, the King managed to compose himself and addressed the problem.

"We'll just have to send out a search party" He declared.

"Jeoffrey, do you think that's the best idea? If word gets out that the realms Prince is missing... what will the people do?"

"Do? I don't care Dimitri! My son ran away, what do you expect me to do, sit tight and hope he comes back on his own?"

I was a little stunned. My Father and the King had been friends all their lives and I had never seen him lose his temper like that before, especially at my Father.

"I know you're afraid Jeoffrey," He said quietly, "But causing panic and worry isn't going to help the situation, we have to go about this rationally."

A single tear slid down the King's face. All at once he seemed to deflate as all the fight went out of him. "You're right of course, I'm sorry. What do you propose we do then?"