The Poison Prince

THE citizens of Adavale must have sensed something thrilling was afoot. More of them were now gathered in the streets and town guards loomed in the busier districts, blocking the obvious exits from the port. Taiden held on to Xylia's hand, dragging the stunned girl along. She had almost completely shut down after the fight in the mayor's residence and was now stumbling every few steps, blindly following him as he pushed her into alleyways and pulled her down shallow side streets. He wondered what had happened to her. She had come into that room – and the fight – with a confidence even he had been surprised by, but now she was broken apart, her free hand still clutching tightly to her dagger.

Taiden halted suddenly when he saw the escape route he had been heading for was blocked by more armed guards.
“How many does Adavale need?” He muttered to himself, scrubbing his hand through his hair in frustration. Desperately trying to think up another plan, he pressed himself against the shadows of the outer wall, tugging Xylia with him.
Taiden was so busy wracking his brain for ideas that he didn’t notice Xylia twisting and squirming her hand in his. Finally, and with some considerable force, she wrenched her hand away from him. The cold air hitting his clammy palm was what got his attention and he blinked before startling at her moving further into the shadows and away from him.
“Xylia, no! Get back here.” He hissed in a panic. She wasn’t thinking straight and if she was spotted by the guard then there was little he could do for her. He doubted she would be in the right frame of mind to fight again now.
She ignored him, and instead found a section of the wall where the stone was easier to grip with her fingers. Taiden watched as she climbed it, one foot at a time, using her hands to find the strongest parts before she pulled herself up and then climbed higher. Soon she was swinging herself over the top, keeping flat and low to avoid detection and vanishing over the other side. All he heard next was the dull thud of her landing on the soft earth outside of Adavale’s boundaries. Her plan suddenly became apparently to him and he grinned wildly.
“Of course. Xylia, you beautiful genius.”
He quickly copied her improvised escape, and was soon back at her side on the outside of the Adavale walls. He noticed her dagger was sheathed now, and she looked a little better now than she had done in the town. Colour was back in her cheeks and those ice blue eyes no longer looked vacant and unaware. She also looked mad, specifically when she looked at him.
“We get to where it’s safe and then we need to talk about a few things.”
Taiden nodded, but kept his lips tight shut. Xylia had gone from a walking catatonic state to frighteningly angry in the space of time it had taken him to climb a wall. He didn’t want to push anymore of her buttons; not after just discovering what she could be capable of in the mayor’s house.

It was her turn to lead the way now – not that Taiden was given much of a choice. He watched her, studying her movements, as she snuck them around the guarded gate with a hunter’s prowess. When Taiden accidentally stood on a twig and snapped it, catching the attention of a man in black chainmail, she acted quickly to hurl a rock back over the town wall, pulling his focus in the opposite direction. Her skills were sharp again, and if Taiden hadn’t been the one to drag her along when she had fallen he would have struggled to believe she had collapsed into such a withdrawn state at all.

Soon, they were back in the forest, safe between the trees Xylia trusted. Trees could not betray her the way people could; the way Taiden had. She kept walking, feeling her anger fire up within her. She didn’t know what direction she was heading in, but she could hear him close behind her, wordlessly keeping up. Xylia just kept moving forward until eventually she felt like she was going to explode. She was hot with rage, feeling her own blood racing around her body, her limbs aching as she tensed her muscles to try and combat her own emotions.
“What the hell happened?!” She spun around to scream at him, startling the prince and leaving him blinking.
“I-I don’t know where to start.” He admitted with a resigned sigh, remorseful that it had come to this; Xylia screaming at him in the middle of a forest he didn’t even know. Taiden had lost track of Xylia’s movements. They could be south or southwest right now. He’d need a town or compass to be sure of himself.
“How about why you left the inn without your cloak?”
His cloak. Taiden suddenly realised that it was still on the bed where he left it, folded neatly like his mother had taught him to. A ball of heavy fabric hit him in the chest and he grabbed at it, pulling it out to see what it was. His cloak. He blinked at Xylia who was closing her satchel over again, her eyes suddenly looking as though they might be capable of turning him to ice themselves.
“Thank you.” He mumbled, fixing the slightly creased cloak back around his broad shoulders.
“Don’t thank me. Just tell me the truth!” Xylia grabbed a small pebble from the ground and threw it towards, but not at, Taiden. “You wanted people to see you as the prince, but that is what got the village of The Draca destroyed!”
“I had to. The mayor wouldn’t let a stranger into his home, and if I wore a disguise it would make him suspicious,” he sighed and slouched, “not that it mattered. He’s in league with my step-mother anyway.”
“Why did you have to see him? Were you planning on poisoning him like you have all those others? Misthaven? Gildstrum? No one has heard from the Duchess of Corlutha in two whole seasons!” She scoffed when Taiden just blinked at her, his eyes wide in surprise. “Even in the north we hear the gossip from merchants. Yes, The Draca are forgotten, but that makes us worth something. We’ll pay anything for what we need now. The merchants who have worked that out exploit it well. They also bring us tales of the mad prince.”
“Xylia, it’s not like that-“
“We had another name for you; the poison prince.”
His blood ran cold at the title, and the way she spat the words out like a bad taste. Taiden didn’t want her to think of him as some monster who lusted for power just as badly as Devanna. He took two steps towards her and she took three back, her eyes still bitterly cold as she glared.
“You have to hear me out.”
“Or what? You’ll try to poison me, too?”
“Listen to me, Xylia. The rumours are not true.” He pulled the green bottle from his pocket and held it out to her, sighing when she reached for her dagger instead. “My only poison is secrets. That’s how I plan to destroy what Devanna has created. In this bottle is not a toxin that can kill, but a medicine that can cure.”
“What?”
“Devanna has been using magicks to control nobles into agreeing with her cruel rule. Increment of taxes, harsher punishment for minor crimes…has no ever wondered why there has never been a single person to stand up to her? It’s because her charms are already in play and the people are her puppets.” Taiden shook his head in shame, and sat down on a fallen tree, his limbs happy to rest at last. “The kingdom may think that I am mad and playing games with poison, but I have been slowly breaking the spell Devanna has been weaving throughout Lyris.”
“But you’re not Nephilite.” Xylia pressed her fingers against her temples where a pounding was starting to set in. She felt like someone was taking a hammer to her skull over and over while she tried to understand what Taiden was telling her.
“And I don’t have magicks. I just studied it to understand what Devanna was doing. Then I was able to reach out to the right people – discreetly of course – they never knew they were working for the prince himself, and develop potions to protect and break the connections between the nobles and Devanna.” He held up the green bottle again. “They just needed to take one sip. I’d slip it into a drink, or on their food, and then they’d come back to themselves.”
“It sounds so easy. So why is the queen still queen?”
Taiden smiled ruefully and closed his hand tight around the little vial. “Because her magicks will always be stronger than my little potion. I could only do enough to protect the homes of those affected. If they left then they would instantly become Devanna’s playthings again.”
“And that’s why they were reported to be sick.” Xylia realised, interrupting Taiden as he parted his lips to continue. “Quarantined in their houses they were safe from her, and they knew the truth.”
“And therein was the second problem,” Taiden began, his eyes sad now and he struggled to find the words, “they remembered everything that they had forced upon their towns while Devanna controlled their minds. Many are still in shock at their own actions, and they are…unable to do their duty currently. Which means that they cannot support me right now if I were to engage in any kind of public attack on my step-mother. It’s why I must be discreet.”

Understanding the truth now, Xylia was calmer, but in clear shock. She took a seat next to Taiden on the log and stared silently at the clearing. Neither of them moved for a long stretch, but just sat with their thoughts and gave themselves the time to think everything over. Taiden had never shared that truth with anyone before; not even Julius. His captain knew shards of the real story, but not all of it. Having someone else who now understood what Queen Devanna was doing lifted a weight from his shoulders. The heavy burden of truth was now split between two of them, though he understood that Xylia had never asked to be a part of it. He had dragged her along because of what The Seer had told him. Suddenly, the missing weight on his shoulders was replaced by guilt.
“How did you know where I was?” He asked curiously, tilting his head to look at Xylia.
She took a deep breath, and seemed to have to concentrate for a moment before she could answer him. “I…I tracked you?” She offered up, although Taiden noticed that she seemed out of sorts giving her answer.
“Tracked me? How?”
She shrugged. “I’m a hunter. It’s what I do. I climbed a tree to see through that window, enticed a kid to smash it with a rock so I could take the shot, and then threw myself through it. You know the rest.”
He did. And he knew how she had shut down afterwards. “Your first kills.”
“I’d rather not talk about that, thank you.” She wrapped her arms around her chest and looked away from him.
“It saved my life.”
“I’m aware. It still doesn’t make me feel too great. I still killed two men. And that’s with me pretending that everyone else survived.” She took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes tight shut.
He reached out and awkwardly rested his hand on her shoulder. “What I mean to say is, thank you. I owe you my life, Xylia.”
She turned to face him again, and she was so close to him now that he could make out the curl of her eyelashes, the dirt missed by the corner of her nose, and that diamond scar that so often intrigued him – it had been deeper than he had first thought.
“I’d rather we just forget about it and move on.”
Taiden didn’t think he could.