The Cursed Throne

For a moment Theodore embraced the freedom he had. No one followed him as he roamed around the camp they had set up, and even though they were in the throes of war, he felt oddly at peace. He might have been away from the only place he had ever been, and away from all members of his family apart from his father, but he had never felt more trusted. Before, there was no way his father would have ever allowed either him or his siblings to roam outside the gates even with protection, and now he was roaming far beyond those confinements without anyone to watch over him.

Some of their men recognised him as the prince but most of them treated him as one of their brothers, unaware of his true identity. He hoped that it would stay that way for a while.

As he was about to approach the food tent, a man hurried up to him and bowed. "Prince Theodore, the King has requested your presence in council."

He sighed. "Could you not say I was nowhere to be found?" he asked, frowning when the man's face became panicked. "Nevermind, my father would not appreciate that. Besides, council could not be so bad." Somehow, he had a feeling that he would end up regretting those words. Nonetheless, he thanked the man and strode back through the camp, heading towards the bigger tent where he knew his father would conduct the council.

The men that were gathered for the council rose when he entered the tent, making him pause in his step before continuing to the vacant chair next to his father. "Theodore, my boy, you're just in time," his father boomed, nodding at the men to take a seat. "If you would share your defences now, Captain."

A man three seats away nodded before standing and taking three rolled up documents from a servant behind him and unrolling them onto the table, weighing them down with paperweights. "We are here. I have three thousand men under my command and we shall split into camps and assemble here and here," he explained, pointing out positions on the map. "There, we shall have a high vantage but also vast shelter, and Thegari's troops cannot ambush us. It is there we can overlook the river that runs down into the town, which begins the point of land they seek to control. From what we have heard, their troops are already mid-way through the land and have claimed what they could as Thegari territory."

The King cut him off. "And what of my people in those invaded towns?"

This time, a different man spoke. "I have been sent word that there have been dozens of casualties, Your Majesty. My sources claim that those that opposed the troops and honoured you as their King were slain in the streets. As it is, the Philyan flag has been torched in several places."

Theodore's eyes widened. They had only just left for war and there were already casualties? He was not naive but he has assumed that only those participating in combat would face fatality, not those who had the unfortunates of residing in the towns close to the battlezone. Never in his studies had there been accounts of deaths occurring this early in, except when the deaths were the catalyst to the war. Or, he considered, there may have been accounts within the books that he never studied. There had been several that he'd passed off as having read when in reality he had had a glance at the first page and decided that he would rather spend time with the lower servant boys. Come to think of it, he had spent more time with those boys than he had doing his actual work before his father had become aware of his slacking at his studies.

The man continued talking while Theodore looked around the tent. It was bigger than the average tent pitched around the grounds, but it compared to the tent that he and his father resided in, it had nothing in size comparison. Even though the main feature of this tent was the long table reserved for all council meetings and war talks, there was vast amounts of space leftover that had been filled with small tables that were covered in cloth and held candles, bowls with grapes and fruit in, and various other items that seemed to be the norm for a council meeting.

He was brought out of his inspection when his name was called loudly. The men were all looking at him and his father had a hard stare, so he looked at the map. "I'm sorry?"

"He said, what do you think about that tactic," his father repeated, his tone clearly indicating that he was not impressed.

"I think it is good, a very strong tactic," he replied smoothly, hoping that he had given the desired answer.

It seemed he had done when the man nodded and tapped the map. "When we receive the promised troops from Kratharsis, we shall be able to hold fort here and here. With that stronghold, Thegari troops should not be able to extend its claim and we shall be able to pursue into the territories they have already captured to reclaim."

"And when will those promised troops arrive?" another man said, cutting across the table. "How can we be sure they will keep an alliance with us and not turn to support Thegari?"

"Our alliance is strong, you need not fear that they will betray us. I communicated with King Francis before departing, ensuring that our alliance would be one that would only be broken if he is a dishonourable man," the King said, and Theodore glanced at him. How had he arranged such an alliance that he was certain it wouldn't be broken? In the books he had read, even marriage alliances were never unbreakable.

That thought jolted him and he looked around the table at the men. All were older than him, and there was no doubt that all had experience in what they were doing. Yet he, the Crowned Prince of Philyan, had never been exposed to this before. All his knowledge came from books his tutor assigned to him, and accounts told in preparation for this war. He knew nothing and yet was sat in a war council with experienced men, with his seat reserved because of his birth right. But what right did he truly have to be here?

He was beginning to see just how sheltered their parents had kept him.