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Truth and Trust

by
Thinus Viljoen
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“Doubt thou the stars are FIRE;

Doubt that the sun doth MOVE;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.”
― William Shakespeare, Hamlet
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Chapter 1

“Please, don’t! Please!” the man cried.

“Please don’t have you killed? You know that it is my choice and not yours?”
“I’m sorry Your Majesty, I know. But please! I can’t! My children will be alone! My wife
will be -”
“Oh, shut up! I don’t care about your fucking wife,” the king said. “I only care about how
you are going to be lead out of here and killed for what you did.”
“I… I did it for my family. They were starving and I didn’t know what else to do,” the man
begged.
“Well, if they’re starving you won’t have to wait long for them in the afterlife. This is the
right punishment for stealing from one of my cities’ bread houses,” the king spat at him.
“No, you can’t! Please!”
“Guards! Just take him away and get his miserable life over with. I have somewhere to be.”
“Your Majesty, how should we kill him?” one of the guards asked.
For a while the king thought, and then finally said, “Burn him in his house.”
“But my family is there!” the man shouted.
The king took an irritated breath and said to the guard, “Make sure his family is in the
house. Now take him away.”
And with that the guards took the man out of the throne room, where countless other people
have been taken out of to be killed. The man kept screaming at the king, but the king was
used to it by now.
“Thank the Sun!” the king said relieved and stood up from the throne. “Close the doors. I
am done for today.”
He walked from there down the few steps that led down from his throne to the door one the
left of it. It opened to a long corridor of stone and doors leading to different rooms and more
corridors.
The door he wanted was luckily one of the closer doors. The meeting chamber. He turned
the handle and entered the room where The Red, a group of Royal Advisers, were waiting for
him at a table. All of them stood for the king.
The king proceeded to his chair on the other side of the room. For him, this was the most
comfortable chair in the whole castle. One would expect, he thought once, that the throne
would be the best seat in this royal building, but it was cold and hard and uncomfortable.
He sat down and sighed, because he knew what this meeting with The Red was about.
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“Sit,” he said.
They all went back to their seats except one.
“Your Majesty King Carell Stronghad, on behalf of the rest of the court, I greet you,” said
the man with a firm voice.
“Thank you, Orindo. You may sit.”
Orindo, too, then sat down. Everyone was quiet.
“Well? I want this thing to end and something can’t end if it doesn’t start, so get on with it
already,” the king said irritated.
Orindo spoke. “As you know, Your Majesty, we have asked you for an heir to the throne.
You told us that you must have a son somewhere here in the kingdom but you have not yet
brought him here.”
“It is a bit hard to bring him here if I can’t find him,” the king said. “My men have already
returned from their search in Oaksleaf. You know that.”
“Yes we know, King Carell, but we have this as an urgent priority. Your people want to see
an heir, and some of them are waiting for the right time to kill you. You need an heir to take
over or otherwise your second in command, who you still have to choose, will take over the
throne.”
“If they want to kill me, why haven’t they done it yet?” the king asked them.
“Your Majesty, it’s not quite that easy to kill you.”
The voice came from a young woman who sat next to Orindo.
“You have guards around you at all time, and even if they want to kill you, they know it
will end bad for them. The whole point is that we want the throne to stay in the rightful
bloodline.”
Kisea Majee was one of the youngest but longest members of The Red. She came to Reces
when she was a child, after her parents died, and grew up within the castle walls. Although
she wasn’t the leader, she knew much more about the king than the other. She was the one the
king trusted the most. The king also knew she was very influential. That is why the king
didn’t make her a leader, but as someone who can influence the leader. That, and also
because the king notoriously didn’t like women a lot and making her the leader of his
Advisers would have people think of him as an even bigger hypocrite.
“And what do you want me to do? Get a wife and have a little baby?” the king asked. “You
know I don’t want a wife, Kisea.”
“I know, Your Majesty, that is why we want you to find your child,” Kisea said.
“This whole thing happened between me and a woman I didn’t even know many years ago.
The child will be eighteen by now, and he might even be dead by what we know.”
“We want you to look for him again,” Orindo said. “Where else can he be than Oaksleaf?
Where might his mother have gone to?”
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“I don’t know. As I said, I don’t know a lot of that woman.”

“Could I maybe suggest a search of the whole kingdom?” said Kisea. “We start in all the
towns and if we don’t get anything, we will move to the smaller villages and farmhouses.”
“How long will this take?” the king asked.
“We don’t know,” Kisea replied, “but if the search groups leave today, we might find the
child sooner.”
“Son. We will find my son,” said the king quickly.
“Our apologies, Your Majesty,” said Kisea.
“Are you sure, Your Majesty, that you don’t know anything else about the woman?” asked a
thin looking member of The Red.
“Tatin, His Majesty the king already said –” Orindo began, but the king interrupted him.
“No Orindo, Mollin is right. I can remember her name. And her hair,” said the king.
“Your Majesty, why didn’t you tell us before sent the search party to Oaksleaf?” Kisea
asked him.
The truth wasn’t the thing the king wanted them to know. Last night was the first time he
ever dreamt of that woman. From that dream he remembered only her name and white-blonde
hair without any doubt.
“I only now remembered it again,” the king lied. “Her name is Blanche Trethewin. She has
unmistakably white-blonde hair.”
“Is there anything else you know? Your Majesty?” Tatin Mollin asked cautiously.
“No,” the king replied.
This was the truth. The king knew of nothing else that could help them any further.
“Your Majesty, you have to understand. We have to find your son. The sooner the better,”
Kisea said.
“Damn it, Kisea. I have nothing else. Send my men to go look for the kid as you suggested.
Hell, even kill the mother, I don’t care. Let nothing get in their way. Just tell my men to find
him as soon as they can so that you can stop whining. Now go!”
Everyone then stood up slowly from their seats and, one by one, walked cautiously out of
the room. Only Kisea stayed behind.
“I’m sorry, Your Majesty. I really hope they find your son. I really do,” she said, and then
walked out.
The king was left alone to his fury which soon died away. He didn’t notice that he was
standing until the door closed. He must have stood up when was shouting at Kisea.
(Maybe more narration?)
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The king then thought to himself if somewhere far away his son was alive, and if he was,
what he was doing.
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Chapter 2

Somewhere far away, Regison Trethewin was doing something for his mom.