Peace Maker - Chapter 217

It was like he was drawn there each night. Like his legs forgot how to get to his own room, like they forgot where else to walk and only knew the steps to this room.

Every night.

And every night, he stepped forward to the door, every night he placed his hand on the door-handle pulling the doors open, and every night he stares into the darkness of the room and walks in.

The cool draft in the room hits his face as he closes the doors behind him. It was quiet.

Boris continues forward as his eyes adjust to the darkness in the room. He didn’t really need to adjust his eyes as he was well aware of the things in the room. The placement of each object, where each chair, table, and rug was located, he knew.

‘It’s been a year since the prince has gone into battle, yet we have not received any details from them yet. Have you received some information, your highness?’

The words ran through Boris’ mind as he walked towards the couch, his mind remembering the conversation from the meeting. His hand tenses up as he remembered how he had frozen slightly at the question.

‘Yes,’ he had replied, ‘we got a new letter about the situation back at camp and the war.’

‘Really?! That’s good to hear. What did the contents of the letter say?’

Boris’ fingers ran over the books on the bookshelves that lined the left wall of the room and paused on one of the books, turning to look at it. It was a thick book with gold linings. He leaned in and read the name of the author. Charlotte Aarvi, the author of Dominic’s favorite series. He looked away and continued to walk.

‘It talked about how they were doing at the camp. There was an incredible setback from the war, as predicted. Many deaths and many injured but thanks to the physicians that we sent over, the injuries were able to be taken care of,’

‘That’s good, so then how’re the resources doing? The place where the war took place is known to have very scarce materials. Are they in a good place with food supplies and such?’

Boris stepped aside, passing by the little table beside the bookshelves. It was where Dominic would sometimes spend the afternoon reading his novels.

At first, Boris had teased him about it, afterall it was fun to see the prince of such a big kingdom become emotional over the death of a character in a book, but after being coaxed into reading one of the novels, he too began to drown in the world of fictional characters. The dusty books that were left untouched by Dominic a few months after his departure, became stained with the large curious fingerprints of Boris as he reread all of Dominic’s favorite books.

‘They’re doing ok. Somehow, they had come in contact with a nearby village and struck up a contract with them initiating their immersion into the camp. Now, both the villagers and our army are working together to provide resources for each other.’

‘So like a trading relationship, really?’

‘Seems so,’

‘That’s presumed that they don’t have anything planned for our army. It would be devastating if we were to put down our guards and they attack us.’

‘I assume that was already taken care of. There was a bit of a conflict between them earlier but that was swiftly taken care of. It looks like we have a pretty good relationship with them as they assigned their own physicians to help our wounded people. Besides, they are well outnumbered. These people come from a starved abandoned village and as much as they lack the motivation to retaliate, they lack strength. With the number of soldiers that we have at the camp, I’m certain that they’ll be fine.’

Boris continued straight forward for a bit before turning to look at the left side of the room where before him was a long table and some chairs that lined the sides of the table. This was where Dominic would choose to have meetings with the heads of the council about topics he was only comfortable talking about in his room. On this side of the room, books lined the walls, in addition, were maps, scrolls of information. Spread out on the table was a large map of the entire empire.

Boris touched the chair that sat at the head of the table. It was also where he liked to have meetings with the head of the councils. The gold heading on the head chair often reminded him of the color of Dominic’s hair. He turned and continued to Dominic’s desk, his fingers running against the edge.

‘I want to know about the most important thing though. How is the condition of the prince?’

Boris flopped down in the chair and swiveled around to face the large windows of the room. He stood up from the chair and pulled open the blinds that covered the window, his eyes taking in the bright lights of the night streets.

He stepped back and sat down in the chair, his eyes looking up at the dotted night sky as he let out a long breath.

It was at that question that he had frozen slightly. His lips had pressed against each other as he drew a smile on his face.

‘Good of course,’ he had lied, ‘The prince had suffered some injuries from the war, but the physicians were quick to help him.’

‘Of course, they would, their lives would be at stake if they were unable to help the kingdom’s precious prince.’

‘Haha, yes.’

Boris’ fingers clenched into a fist as he buried his face in his hands. “Fuck….”

Life in prison or immediate execution. Those were the punishments for lying to the council about kingdom affairs. Immediate public execution was the punishment for lying about the Prince. He had lied about Dominic.

Boris leaned into the chair, his head drawing back as they looked up at the ceiling. He could almost taste blood on his tongue.

If one word about this lie got out to the Kalmin, the trust would immediately be lost and most of his power over the kingdom as of now would be relinquished behind the scenes to Kalmin, and if word spread to the council themself, he would be whipped 10 times with a heated metal rod, stripped of all power and tossed out of the kingdom itself. If released to the public, he would be killed.

He had committed a felony worthy of death selfishly and how he sat there completely unaware of what to do next. His mind ventured back to the conversation he had had with Dominic before he left for war.

‘How long do you think you’ll be gone?’

They were standing at the gates, exchanging final words before he was to leave in the next 3 minutes. It was Boris’ turn to speak with him, the last person to speak with him.

‘Haha, you asked this question already,’ Boris remembered the smile that Dominic had given him as he said that, a light chuckle that held a bit of sadness. ‘Do I need to say it again?’

‘…’

‘Fine…,’ Dominic smiled, his hand letting go of his horse’s rein for a moment, ‘I’m not sure myself.’

Boris shut his eyes as the scene painted itself in his mind, vividly remembering Dominic’s expressions.

‘But I’m sure I’ll be back in the end.’

‘That’s not what you said last time. You said in a few months, by October or so, at latest December. Just short of a year.’

There had been a slight pause as they both exchanged gazes. ‘We both know that estimations are often far from the truth. It’s a war. I might be gone for a few months, or a year or even years. We can never tell precisely.’

Boris remembered the gleam in Dominic’s eyes as he said those words. They were saddened, hesitant to even accept the words that he was saying. They seemed like they were hurting him and then he made eye contact with that emerald gaze, it hurt him too.

‘That’s too long. I can’t wait- the kingdom can’t wait that long.’

‘Well I know it’ll hold on for as long as it can with you in charge,’ Dominic smiled.

‘You trust me too much,’

‘I trust you enough. Don’t let me down,’ Dominic muttered.

They stayed in each other’s gaze for a moment before Dominic let out a small sigh and walked closer to Boris, leaning into his ear. ‘I’m scared too, you know,’ he whispered.

Boris shuddered as the words repeated in his head.

‘Dominic I can go in your st-‘

‘But when I think about Kalmin looking after the council and surveilling every movement, when I think about the kingdom waiting for my return…’ he paused, ‘when I think about you looking after this kingdom and waiting in my chair for me…’

Boris let out a sigh as his eyes opened to the night sky. ‘….I feel more confident in myself.’