The Beast of Ildenwood: 16. Enter the Son of the King

The Beast of Ildenwood

16. Enter the Son of the King

The King leaves for the battlefront today.

 

Shoja watches from the balustrade, taking in the hubbub below. Soldiers and guards mill about, packing and preparing. Weapons are carried from the armory and across the guards’ courtyard, where training usually takes place. Shields, armor, bows and arrows, tents and bedding, and much more are carried back and forth as the soldiers prepare to leave. They will be ready within the hour, and that will be the last time Shoja will ever see some of these men, for they ride to battle with an enemy that is still so very mysterious to them all.

 

He is the son of the King, who is by right the Noble Guardian of all of Samat. While he will have to earn the right to rule after him – and that is a very tall order – he is still the son of the King, and that comes with its own weight.

 

I will join the battlefront. I am ready. I can do it. I will help protect our lands from these foreign invaders.

 

He rehearses his words again and again as he walks down the marbled halls, each tile so polished it could be used as a mirror. His own things are packed, and all he needs now is his father’s permission. He wants to join them out there, in the battlefield, where he can prove his worth.

 

His father is giving out orders to a group of men in his chambers when Shoja arrives. “I fully intend to see this war ended before I return, so there must be more than one fortified supply lines,” he is saying to a nearby general. As soon as he sees his son, he orders everyone to leave and grant them a moment alone.

 

“Shoja, I have something to tell you before I leave, my son,” he announces, straightening the embroidered jacket he wears. “I know you want to join us at the front, but I have something quite important I need you to do while I am away.”

 

A quest materializes in front of Shoja’s eyes.

 

Quest: Protect the Artifact
Goal	Protect the powerful and dangerous legendary artifact known as Muna, currently held by the Noble Guardian of Ildenwood, and ensure its delivery to Burj Annur to prevent its use against the kingdoms of the continent.
Reward	Saving your world from potential doom and destruction.
Additional Bonus	Protect the Noble Guardian of Ildenwood. (You will find her on the path to the Ilden Road.)
Bonus Reward	Potentially earning the respect and admiration of your community.
Quest Owner	The King and Noble Guardian of the Kingdom of Samat

 

Shoja considers the quest, scanning the rewards despite himself. This is, indeed, a worthy quest. Nevertheless, he can’t help but feel his father simply wants him away from the action of the battlefield. As usual, he is handling him with woolen gloves, as though the young man might fall and shatter into a million pieces.

 

Shoja is powerful. He knows his own worth. He is strong and accomplished and wields almost any kind of weapon with mastery and skill. And yet, somehow, proving that to his own father has been almost impossible.

 

Still, the quest seems a trifling matter. It is but a journey to the Burj Annur and back, and while it irks him that it will take him more than several days’ worth of travel, he concedes that perhaps this is the way he can prove to his father that he can be trusted with more dangerous tasks. Nevertheless, it would mean that he would be away from the battle for a considerable amount of time, and he does not want to wait any longer. He wants to leave now, with the rest of them.

 

“I wish to face the enemy alongside you and the soldiers,” he tells his father persistently. “I want to fight with you and win with you. Why won’t you allow me this? I am not a child anymore!”

 

The King sighs, raising his arms in exasperation. “How have I managed to raise a son so willing to go to war?” he asks. “You are young and foolhardy – you think yourself a hero. But war is not a hero’s game, my son. It is death, and it is pain, and it is madness. There is nothing honorable in war. Do not be so ready to kill and injure and maim. I did not raise you to find excitement in such things.”

 

Shoja finds himself unable to meet his father’s gaze. His father’s words do not fall upon deaf ears. It is true, he admits, that he has been thinking only of glory and admiration – of the aftereffects of what it might mean to be a war hero. But he has not considered what it takes quite as much.

 

For all of his talk and all of his practice and all of his skill, Shoja has never killed another person. A living, breathing human being. The thought sobers him.

 

But there is something that frightens him even more than facing down an enemy that would be equally ready to kill and injure and maim him.

 

His father’s hand closes around his shoulder reassuringly. “Take Tulpar and catch up to the Guardian. She has but one companion at her side, and more enemies than she might know. But the item she carries is priceless, dangerous, and extremely important to us all. Should it fall into the wrong hands, it could mean the end of everything - destruction of which the likes we have never seen before. I shall feel much assured to know that you will be by her side.”

 

“And who shall be by your side?” Shoja demands, finally speaking his fears. “Who will protect you?”

 

His father’s brows rise with mild surprise. “My son, I ride to battle with our soldiers. Our warriors. Would you not trust them to be by my side, as they trust me to be by theirs?”

 

The prickle of tears begins to form in his eyes, and Shoja looks away. “It isn’t the same thing. You’re my father. It is my duty to protect you.”

 

“And how many other fathers will be with me on that battlefield?” his farther asks gently. “How many sons and brothers and husbands and grandsons will there be? How many are there already? How many have fallen, and how many rage on?” He pats Shoja’s shoulder and pulls him into a tight hug. “I will not be alone with an army of our men – good, strong, courageous men – by my side. But the Guardian – she is alone, with but one person to protect her from enemies that converge upon her as we speak. And so I send her my strongest warrior.”

 

He pulls back, looking at his son. “My most skilled, and my most cherished,” he says. “I do not send you there only to keep you from the war. I send you to her because I do not have anyone better suited. I do not have anyone I believe in more. Who else can I send but my best?”

 

His best.

 

Shoja realizes in that moment that he need not prove anything more to his father. That his father has already seen, has already recognized him for who he is. These words alone mean more to him than anything else, and Shoja is gripped with the reality that this may very well be the last time he sees his father.

 

“Will you come back alive?” he asks, his voice quavering. It feels silly, to be so weak. It feels embarrassing. He is a man. An adult. He should be able to face down whatever challenges come to meet him. But the very idea of losing his father makes him feel extremely lost, weak, and helpless.

 

“I cannot promise what is out of my hands,” his father says, “but I promise you that whatever happens, it will not be for want of trying. After all,” he adds with a small smile, “I want to be the first to hear the stories of your adventures.”

 

“I won’t share them with anyone else until you’ve heard them,” Shoja replies, and pulls his father into one final embrace. “I will meet you here again, when all of this is over.” He says it as though willing it to happen, and hopes that it will be enough.

 

Only moments later, as he watches his father and the army of soldiers leave the palace on horseback, Shoja accepts the quest.

 

And then, as he is already packed and has been instructed to leave as soon as possible, he finds Tulpar and takes off, the winged steed taking him far above the palace and setting off towards the Guardian of Ildenwood. Wind whips past him as they begin their journey, but Shoja does not look forward.

 

Behind him, advancing in the opposite direction, Shoja watches his father and his army until they are out of sight.