Chapter Ten

  The Prince of Winter

  The city of Mythis was still in chaos after the Winter Hunter and the handmaiden’s departure. King Gailech was fielding reports from every aid he had to try and figure out what was happening.

  “My lord, funeral processions for Lord Giran will be held tomorrow, it’s expected you’ll be there,”

  “Of course, I’ll be there,” he rubbed his temples and shook his head.

  “Father,” Prince Edmund came to his father’s side and rubbed his shoulder. He was a tall young man. His hair was black as coal and full and thick, slicked back and contrasted with the pale skin he had from years of study in Kal-Dovean’s basement of the ways of winter and survival. He tried to reason with his father, for he knew that the true duty of their family was now upon them, “Father, You can’t let the disruption of some mere tradition rally you, you are king now and the people need you,” He looked down to his father and was met with nothing but scorn.

  “Some tradition? You think the turning is just some tradition?” he raised his hand and smacked his son across the face, “This is a sacred duty we have, we don’t take the responsibility of rule just to rule, we’re not kings, we’re caretakers, ours is to lead the people through this awfulness of winter,” he said.

  “Father, I merely think that if a normal winter were to come we could be, but this winter could-”

  “But nothing! Winter is here,” he scowled, “Winter has come and the Sun Blood is threatened, Goddesses help us, we’ve found a cruel Winter, our people need to know that they are protected and that the spring will still come,” he said.

  “What if the spring doesn’t come, we’ve all heard the rumors of Druids speaking of a long Winter, the coldest winter in a dozen generations, colder than even the Steel Winter, and longer than even the first, if a winter such as that were to come we would need to secure our power and-,”

  “Enough, boy,” King Gailech scolded his son, “Our family will see to stewarding the people to the coming of spring as we have for a dozen generations. That is our sacred duty, by the winter blood in me boy, you’ll never be a fitting king if you don’t understand that ours is the duty to care and guide, not rule and lord our power over people,” he said, “The Sun Blood is a trickle now, I’ll have a message sent to the Druids to find some remnant of it, be it some cousin or even some bastard Giran fathered between wives, we must have a family to turn power to when the Spring breaks this horribleness, that is our job as the Kings of Winter. Until we find it, I’ve business to attend to. I’ll be negotiating grain prices, all that can be grown has been grown, we need to dole it out with wisdom,” the Winter King went back to his papers, “Now go and tend to your duties, if all works we will pass our authority back to the Sun Blood as the Goddesses will,” dismissing his son.

  “As you wish, Father,” Edmund left his father’s view and retreated to the quarters he took in the capital. There waiting for him was Wrimen, a short potbellied man with stringy brown hair that went to his shoulder, a hooked nose wrinkled skin, “Sir, your father has entrusted me with presenting you your duties for the coming winter, you’re to-”

  “I know what I’m to do, I’ve been doing it come the past eight winters, this nonsense, ruling only for the worst three months of the season, I’m tired of it,” he said.

  “Sir?” Wrimen asked.

  “My father is a fool, a puppet of the Goddesses game, the Goddesses say that without them life would be nothing but winter, I say have at me Goddesses, a life of only winter is worth it if we’re free from their yolk, from their ways,” he took a seat in his chair. He overlooked the papers and trades and duties he was saddled with that if completed would be no reward other than his family ceding their power back to the beloved Sun Blood.

  “What if it stayed winter,” Edmund said.

  “Sir, that would be disastrous, you speak of the winter without end, of blasphemy,” Wrimen felt the chill of winter moving up his spine, and as he looked to his employer, “You speak of the consequences of the Goddesses abandoning us,”

  “You say abandonment, I say liberation. If I had my way it would be us abandoning them, my family has led the people through dozens of generations worth of winters, the first winter, the steel winter, humanity has seen worse than the scant few months the Goddesses throw at us every year and they survived, we don’t need them, we can survive without them,” he brushed his hand across the table and threw all his petty works aside.

  “People would die, thousands would lose their lives in the cold and without the coming spring-”

  “The weak would die, and from their deaths, humanity could find its true potential, only the strong can survive winter, and only the strongest could survive a winter never-ending, a never-ending winter could awaken humanities true potential, a humanity where only the strongest live,” he stood from his chair and approached his aide “Just imagine it, a world without this or that Goddess holding a candle of reward for obedience before us, they say the first winter was caused because a farmhand sacrificed an old and used cattle instead of a young and well-bred calf, do you really want to live in a world where we must give up those things we value most just to survive, I say to hell with the Goddesses, to hell with their demands. If they want to leave us in winter, then let the winter come. Those Winter Hunter fools can only prolong the inevitable, the Goddesses will never be satisfied with us, with our sacrifices, and in all likelihood, they’ll abandon us just the same eventually. They want blood, they want a sacrifice, no more, no more under my rule,”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “Your rule,” Wrimen found himself backing away from the young prince who had taken his role and duties so seriously for years, “What happened to you,” he asked, “You’ve always known your place, your family’s role, to take the winter and steward the people though-”

  “My family's role, to take the ravage of winter and see the people through it, oh, I know my family's role well. That’s why I know I can be the king that the people need,” Edmund raised his hand, showing a scar across his palm, “Do you see this,” he smiled, “I gave my blood to the Voice of Winter, the only Deity that would agree to leave us alone, If I’m to worship any deity it would be that one. A crude smile came across Edmund's face, “You see, I have a confession to make, I’ve spoken with the Voice of Winter, brought it my terms, and my demands. And it found my offer acceptable,”

  “Prince Edmund, You’re not well, you’re speaking nonsense, blasphemy, the Voice of Winter is a myth, just as the need for the Sun Blood is a myth, people hold these traditions as sacred, but the seasons will continue to come and go as they please despite whatever ceremonies we hold and sacrifices we make, that is the way of the world,” he said.

  “I killed the Sun King,” Edmund said, a deadly serious look in his eyes. “I brought the fury of winter to this world and I can know I can be the one who leads man through it. I can be the man that shuffles off this cruel tease of the goddesses that people call spring, our world is the Winter, it always has been, and maybe it always should be,” he grabbed Wrimen’s shoulders, “Don’t you see, we’ve been living under them for long enough, someone needs to end this, someone needs to lead humanity to its greatness,”

  Wrimen’s breath came quick, fast, “Sir, the spring is all people have, a life of nothing but winter, the horrors of first winter, the death the suffering, what people did, turning on each other, the rape, the looting, even cannibalism,” Wrimen worried about this mad man holding his shoulders.

  “Only the strong doing what they do, surviving,” Edmund reached for a steel dagger at his belt, “Take this,” he said, putting it in Wrimen’s hand.

  “My lord, I thank you for the gift, but you know steel can’t kill the monsters of winter,” Wrimen gripped the dagger.

  “I know,” Edmund put his hand to Wrimen’s wrist and caused him to jam his own chest with the blade, piercing his heart.

  Just then another hand of the Gailech family entered the room, “Sir your father has requested that- oh Goddess,” he looked down seeing the dead aide on the ground next to Prince Edmund.

  “Winter seems to be too much for some people,” Edmund said, you’re not afraid of a bit of cold are you?” He asked as he approached the aide.

  “No, no sir,” he said, “The King of Night sent me to check on your work,” he said as his eyes darted between the winter prince and the dead man in his office.

  “Those duties will be done and done. Tell the King that the Dark Stalkers live, I’ve sent a platoon out to hunt the creatures of winter,” Edmund took a deep breath and raised his chin up to a regal stance that was demanded of a prince.

  “Dark Stalkers, they still exist?” he asked, “I thought they were just a legend,”

  “Oh, they’re not just a legend, they’re all too real, we’ll kill these monsters of winter yet,” Edmund smiled.

  “What is all this!?” King Gailech intruded on his son’s machinations.

  “Father, not all can handle a winter as vicious as this, “My aide Wirmen, when I was trying to console him from thinking about the horrors of a winter never-ending, he took my dagger and turned it on himself, I know we find ourselves in vicious times father, he had this mad idea that with the Sun Blood dead spring would never come again,” Edmund looked down, bowing to the King of Night.

  “Prince Edmund has sent a platoon of Dark Stalkers out to fight the creatures of winter,” the aide said. Edmund shot a look at him.

  “Dark Stalkers?” King Gailech said, “The Dark Stalkers are an order of murderers and vicious men who prove every reason the Goddesses had for abandoning us,” he looked with disapproval toward his son.

  “Father, the Dark Stalkers are brave men, if you would listen to me and use the men of the Dark Stalker clan to-”

  “To nothing!” King Gailech raised his hand, “How did you even find a Dark Stalker, the order died in the steel winter, they can’t see us to spring, remember my son, our sacred duty is to find the spring,”

  “That’s the Winter Hunter’s duty,” Edmund said under his breath.

  “What was that!?” King Gailech chastised his son.

  “Father, I don’t mean to disrespect,” Edmund lied, “But winter is here, and the Druids say it could be the longest we’ve faced in a dozen generations. The Sun King is dead, and there may not be an opportunity to hand the season back to the light, this could be another first winter, another winter that lasts, a winter where the people could need our family's rule for time and time to come. I have taken the liberty to prepare for this and train a bevy of men committed to the Dark Stalker order. I’ve feared a long winter, and to survive that we need men who know how to fight in the long winter. We need to prepare for the possibility that our rule will have to sustain the people for years to come,” Edmund said just as King Gailech smacked him across the face.

  “Do not speak of the first winter, we are obedient to the Goddesses, we follow their ways, I’ve commanded by tradition that a great and fat lamb be sacrificed to the Goddesses, a show of our loyalty to them,” King Gailech straightened his shoulders, “The Winter Hunters will see us through this awfulness, they will see the spring is found, and it’s our duty to see the land through this awfulness of winter, we have a duty son, you know that, don’t you?” he asked.

  “I know, we have a duty to the Goddesses,” Edmund said, “But father, our rule may last longer this time than last, we need to be prepared to accept the duties of our position, the people need someone who can lead us through winter, and the winter may be longer than you, I, or anyone could have imagined,” he said.

  “The spring will come,” King Gailech said, damn near decreeing it, “It is our duty to see the people to the next spring, we don’t take this responsibility just to have a chance to rule, we don’t relish in the power it gives us, we do our duty, and we take no pride knowing that while it's under our rule people die in the mess of winter, our solemn responsibility is that we see as many of our people to the spring as we possibly can,”

  “For now,” Edmund said under his breath.

  “What was that?” King Gailech asked.

  “Of course, Father,” Edmund stood tall against his father, “If there is a spring to come, I will see the people to it,” he bowed his head. The Winter Hunters swore that they would find the spring, opposed to them were the Dark Stalkers, those who didn’t even believe a spring would come. The Dark Stalkers, and Edmund, were ready for the eternal winter, ready for the world without goddesses, they were ready for a world of darkness.