Silver Eyes

A/N - It has come to my attention that this story is rushed and choppy, and I am really unhappy with the overall quality. Don't worry, that doesn't mean it's going to be discontinued or anything; we're probably only about five chapters from the end. But I will be going and, as inspiration strikes, heavily editing the first chapters. If anyone wants to point out where (and why) you think needs editing, it would be appreciated.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Asahi walked back to the suite they had been given for their stay, worried more than he wanted to admit about the lack of Knights. He wanted to know what it meant; it had to be something serious to make them all leave. Perhaps Alaex had an idea of how to talk to the Knights; he did say that he had a contact in the palace, it was possible that whoever is was would either be able to talk to them, or at least know why they were gone. It was the only lead he could think of that wouldn’t give him away.

When he got back to the suite, Alaex was busy picking out an outfit. He looked stressed out, and it made the Knight sorry he had to add to the man’s stress levels.

“The Knights are well and truly gone – all of them, out of the castle. And no one seems to know why. Some are saying the left; some are saying they were forced to leave.”

Alaex raised an eyebrow. “That’s...interesting, and certainly unprecedented. It would be even better to know why they left. I don’t suppose there’s anyone of them you could trust to go to?”

Asahi gave the idea some serious thought, but it was a catch 22. “Not really – if I knew why they left, then I could go to the captain, but without knowing the reason I don’t know if they’d help or hinder us. Perhaps I could meet with him when you’re meeting your contact, but that wouldn’t help us now.”

The Lord sighed, clearly not happy with the answer, but willing to trust Asahi’s judgement on it. “Alright, I guess we’ll just have to keep watching for now. There’s a dinner ball tonight, I’ve got a fancy uniform laid out for you in the other room.”

The Knight nodded, and went to get changed. At least the formal uniform he had to wear was more comfortable than what he had to wear to formal functions as a Knight. If he had ever made captain, what was something he wanted to change; because really, they were Knights, and they couldn’t protect anyone if they were wearing so much fabric and metal they couldn’t move.

Once he was done, he came back into the main room, which was still empty. He knocked on Alaex’s door and noticed the Lord still struggling with his formalwear. With a grin he stepped in to give the smaller man a hand. “I’ve never had to wear it, but I’ve had to help my brothers enough times that I know what I’m doing from this side. I’d be lost if I was trying to get it on myself though.”

Alaex grinned sheepishly. “Sorry, I normally have someone to help me when I have to get this dressed up. Thanks for giving me a hand.” Asahi finished, and only then realized how close the two of them had gotten. The smaller man was blushing, his hands still resting on the other’s arms. “Um, we should probably get to dinner.”

The redhead nodded, and backed away, taking a deep breath. What on earth was that about? He had never been attracted to a male, and he didn’t even know Alaex’s real name! They left the suite, Asahi trailing behind the Lord as a proper bodyguard would do. It unfortunately also gave him a great view of the blonde’s ass. He took a deep breath and forced himself to think rationally. He liked Alaex; that much was obvious. Regardless of who the man really was, he was smart, brave, and caring, and Asahi found he could talk to him for hours. The thought of the male body still didn’t do anything for him either; just Alaex. He tried to pass it off as just a passing thought since it had been so long since he had been with anyone, but that was quickly discarded. If that was the case, then why hadn’t he been attracted to D’rian? It certainly would have made the Fae happy.

But without knowing how things were going to work out, he couldn’t afford to act on his feelings. Asahi considered himself to be fairly self aware, and he knew himself well enough to know that if Jalen still accepted him as a suitable husband for his daughter after all of this, he would do it. He’d been brought up too duty bound to do otherwise. It wouldn’t be fair to either of them for his to enter into a relationship with Alaex at this point. If he fell in love with the blond, which he could easily see himself doing, he’d end up hurting the lord if his betrothal went through; and Saela when he married her while still in love with someone else. Unfortunately it was too easy of a decision to make; he would remain Alaex’s friend, and only his friend, unless and until he knew for a fact that he could not getting married to the Duke’s daughter. It still wasn’t an ideal situation, but it was the best he could come up with. When he had set off with D’rian months ago, he certainly couldn’t have foreseen this happening!

The ball went well; Alaex was able to talk to a lot of the other lords and nobles, and most everyone had gotten to the point where they were worried for the future of the country under Kalen’s reign. The unrest was subtle, as it had long been known that voicing your concern with the current monarch would get you killed, but enough was left unsaid to figure it out. The two men headed back to the room, and the Knight could tell Alaex had a lot on his mind. With a mumbled good night the young man disappeared into his room. Asahi frowned, but turned to his own connecting room.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The next few days passed about the same; Asahi would go down, get some practice in with the guards that were still in the palace, and then spend some time gossiping. Not that any of them would call it that, but it was the truth. He easily discovered that it was only the young and foolish left at the palace, and those that couldn’t leave. Most sensible lords and nobles had abandoned the city for their country estates, like rats abandoning a ship. The only ones left were the lords who either knew there was unrest and ignored it, or the ones too dense to even realize what was happening around them. The nobles left were the seven on the council, and they were never seen at social functions or out and about, cloistered in meetings most of the day.
Alaex spent his time mingling with the other lords left. Unfortunately that didn’t get him too much information, and he was only doing it to maintain their cover. He decided the trip wasn’t going to yield any more results, and that they would have better luck meeting with Alaex’s contact and the captain of the Knights, and then heading back to the base. They would stay one more night, as it was too late to leave at this point, but then head home. They just had to survive one last ball.

As soon as the door closed the Lord started peeling the extra layers off, and collapsed onto the chaise in the sitting room. He rubbed at his forehead, and finally looked up at Asahi. “We can’t wait any longer. I’d talked to Kel about this possibility, and he doesn’t like it, but he trusts my judgement. I’m sure you’ve figured out that we don’t want to just help nonhumans escape; we want to fix the whole country. And unfortunately there’s only one way to do that at this point.”

Asahi nodded. “Get a new King on the thrown. But it’s a matter of who will be the next King- Kalen doesn’t have any heirs, and Jalen wouldn’t have enough support behind him to take over, or he would have already.”
Alaex smiled, but it wasn’t a pleasant smile. “Jalen’s heir; Saela and her fiancé”
The Knight exploded. “You were planning this! That’s why you kept asking me what I thought of her, all those questions about if I had another partner, telling me not to write her off so soon. I can’t be a bloody king; I don’t know the first thing about governing, that’s why I went into the Knighthood. If Jalen doesn’t have the support behind him, I certainly don’t. “

The Lord shrugged. “And yet, even being a Knight, you were betrothed to a Duke’s daughter and only child. They must have seen something in you. You say you can’t govern, but you will have Saela, who will have been raised her entire life for duties as a Duchess, at your side, and regardless you couldn’t possibly be worse than Kalen. I’ve been watching for a good time to approach you, and when Kel dragged you back with Rian, it was the perfect chance to get to know you. You are well liked; you know both the Knights and the nobles. Part of the reason Jalen won’t take over is because he’s nearly as old as Kalen; the country needs a young, strong King. Kalen had the army behind him; we need someone that can be a strong leader with the military as well. It’s also possible that there will be political backlash with our neighbouring countries.

“We had hoped to be able to wait longer; ease you into the idea, but things are getting too bad. Until recently the council was able to keep everything under control; really other than his edict against nonhumans which the council couldn’t predict and couldn’t stop, they’ve been able to keep his psychosis under wraps. What I’ve seen the past few days is a government about to collapse. The council can’t keep this up anymore. We need to get him out and you in before the entire country falls apart. Please say you will.”

Asahi couldn’t stop shaking his head. It was too much to take in. They wanted to make him the next King. It was utterly ridiculous. He was meant to be behind the Kings and nobles, ready to defend them. But if there truly wasn’t anyone else, then he was honour bound to do it. “If I don’t?”

“Then it falls to one of Saela’s cousins. I’m sure you know them; one’s 14 and the other’s 10?” The Knight groaned. It was true; there wasn’t anyone else. If Kalen had just married as he was supposed to, and had children, or if Jalen’s wife hadn’t died in childbirth along with their second child, there may have been another option, but as it stood there wasn’t one, not a good one at least. If he said no, then Jalen would have to take the throne, which would make the country look weak and almost certainly throw them into a war, or they’d be forced to wait for one of the young boys to get old enough to take over. Time that they didn’t have.

“I don’t really have a choice do I?”

The Lord gave a tight smile. “You do, no one can force you to do this. But it’s not much of a choice.”

The Knight collapsed on the chaise next to Alaex. “Then I guess you know my answer. What happens now?”

“Now, we need to plan our attack, so to speak. I’ll meet with my contact; let him know you’re in, while you try to meet with the Knights. What we’d like to do is just confine him to his rooms; no one wants to murder him in cold blood, and so long as we’re not bringing harm to him, his guards will most likely not stop us or even help us. From what you’ve said they know there’s a problem and are caught between duty to their King and duty to their country. Hopefully they’ll be happy that we’re solving that conflict. We’ll announce that the King has become too ill to rule, and have you instated as King; so long as you have plans to get married, I don’t think anyone will be too concerned with the fact that you are taking over prematurely.”

Asahi looked at the Lord out of the corner of his eye. “You really had this all planned out, didn’t you?”
The blond smiled, the first real smile since the conversation started. “Of course, you don’t plan a coup for years without thinking everything through.”

“I suppose that’s true. I guess we should get some sleep then. Sounds like it’s going to get pretty busy for us.”

The next morning Alaex and Asahi dressed back into their travelling clothes, and the Knight was happy to be
leaving. It was with a heavy feeling in his gut that he realized that the next time he was here it would be to take over as King.

Asahi left first, heading down to the city barracks. They had decided the best way to do this was to just show up as himself and ask what had happened. He’d tell his captain he was unsuccessful, and that he had returned to give his report when he found the Knights missing. The Knight at the door, one of the newest members, looked surprised and thankfully happy to see him, and immediately led Asahi to the Captain’s office.

The office was already looking like the office at the palace – completely overwhelmed with paperwork. When asked, the Captain would just glare at whoever asked the question and say he had become a Knight to avoid paperwork, not get buried in it. He was a gruff, no nonsense man, as befitted a Captain of a military unit, but since the Knights acted like, and in many instances, were family, he was more like the grumpy uncle.

Thane looked up as Asahi entered his office, a shocked look on his face before it was covered over by his normal stoic demeanour. “About time you showed back up. Could have used you here.”

Asahi shrugged. “Sorry, boss, you know I was on one of the King’s wild goose chases.”

The captain snorted. “No you weren’t. You were hiding out with the rebels with the wizard. I see he hasn’t come back; you get him over the border?”

It was the redhead’s turn to be shocked. “How...?”

“Did I know? Boy, I didn’t get to be the Captain by sitting here looking pretty. That would be you. I know everything that goes on in this country. When the wizard got sent on, as you put it, the King’s wild goose chase, I sent you for two reasons. First, because I knew that you would protect the poor kid, even when you found out certain facts. Secondly, I was counting on you meeting up with Alaex. And I just wanted to say,
whenever you’re ready to move, the Knights are behind you.”

For the second time in as many days, Asahi was speechless. He really felt like he was just a pawn being moved around on a giant chessboard. Or perhaps checkers would be more accurate – the end goal, after all, seemed to be to make him a king. He frowned, crossing his arms over his chest, and ignoring the fact that it made him look more like a spoiled child than an angry Knight.

“Did either of you think to just ask me?”

“Nope. Where would be the fun in that? Seriously though, we weren’t going to tell you until everything was in place; if we were caught, you would still be innocent of everything.”

“Huh. Well, I’m still pretty mad. And the real reason I came here was to find out why the Knights left the palace.” Asahi was fully aware he was very unsubtly changing the subject, but he was quite happy to ignore it for now.

“Well, as you’re aware by now, most of the nobles are gone, so the Knights who were assigned to them left. Those of us assigned to the palace or the nobles still there were getting dragged away from our real duties to either assign extra guards to the King or do other ridiculous tasks. He was getting mad when we ignored his commands to do what we were supposed to be doing, and the Duke, noticing the rising tension, ordered us all out of the palace before the King could try to disband us or have us exiled or sentenced to death.”

Asahi nodded; the Duke had made a good decision by ‘assigning’ the Knights to the city barracks. It was better than the alternatives, at least. “Thanks Thane. We’re heading back for now, Alaex has all the plans, but I’m assuming you know that.”

The older man laughed, and nodded. “That I do. But I’ll get all the info I need from his contact. I don’t believe he knows we know each other, but you can let him in on that once you leave. Make you feel like you’re contributing something.“ Thane winked, and waved him out of the office.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Alaex walked into the manor, waving at the servants. He went into the front sitting room, knowing his contact would be there any minute.

Duke Jalen walked in and embraced the blond. “How are you doing? It’s been a while.”
The lord laughed. “It’s been a little over two months. And a lot has been going on. I’ve met up with both Rian and Asahi. Rian’s really happy there, and I think he might have a little something for Kel. And I met Asahi.”

“Oh? How did that go?”

Alaex shrugged. “It went well. Up until I had to tell him what we had planned. He’s not too happy about that; he doesn’t think he’ll be good enough. Plus I think he’s a bit put out that we planned this all without his knowledge. On a logical level he knows why, but he’s still annoyed. He did agree though.”

“Well, can you blame him? Still, I’m glad he’s with us on this. It would be a shame to have everything go to waste. So where is he now?”

“Meeting with the captain, making sure we have their assistance. We’re heading out today. I imagine we’ll just to going, getting Rian and Kel and coming straight back. I don’t think we can afford to wait any longer.”
The Duke nodded. “Yes, we need to move fast. You wouldn’t believe some of the things he comes up with these days. I can’t...it’s hard even being in the same room with him.”

The blond frowned, it was easy to remember sometimes that Jalen was the King’s brother and that it had to be difficult to watch someone you grew up with and had once been a strong leader reduced to the state he was in now.

“It’ll be over soon, I promise.”

“Thanks my dear. Now you better go before Asahi starts to wonder where you are.”

“Take care of yourself okay? I’ll be back soon.”

tbc...