Marrok shrugged off his uncle’s arm. He didn’t need protection. “Tell me what’s going on.” He stepped forward. Marrok could feel the eyes of everyone in the room glued to the back of his head but he didn’t care. “Well?”
The two men exchanged glances but remained silent. His uncle wouldn’t look him in the face and Rumple seemed to be waiting for someone else to speak first.
“You’re—” Rumple started when Calith took a sudden step forward. Rumple sighed but continued anyways, “Your uncle and I had a pleasant chat earlier. About you, actually. What do you know about our most beloved king?”
“Just the normal things.”
“Enlighten me.”
Marrok shifted under the man’s stare. It made him feel as though the very world itself would crack if he didn’t tell the truth.
“He’s been on the throne for over twenty years. He has a daughter named Snow.” Marrok’s mind began to turn black under the man’s gaze and he struggled to piece together the scraps of news he’d heard over the years. “T-they say his wife’s mad and he keeps her locked in one of the dungeons.”
“And?” Rumple’s voice was soft but Marrok felt an underlying threat that made his spine tingle.”
Marrok glanced around the room, eyes falling on Ella. She was smirking. Her lips moved and he stared at the shapes they took. Border wars.
“And he has treaties with two neighboring kingdoms but there are rumors he’s mounting an army to fight for more land to harvest food on.”
Ella gave him a wink and Rumple gave an approving nod.
“Not bad,” Rose said, “I didn’t think that news traveled to the farming province.”
“We might not get a lot of information back at our farms,” Calith said, “but we’re still able to know what’s going on in the world around us.”
Rose flinched at his harsh tone, “I didn’t mean any disrespect.”
“He knows,” Rumple patted his daughter’s shoulder, “He’s just a being sensitive. He always gets grumpy and defensive when he thinks someone is looking down their nose at him. He was the same way even as a young boy.”
Calith flushed, grumbling as he hobbled away to peruse some of the trinkets on the nearby table.
“It’s my turn to ask a few questions.” Marrok looked between the four of them, wondering which one would be able to give him the information he wanted. Calith never gave him a straight answer to anything, Rose seemed consumed with her books and experiments and Rumple’s cracked tooth grin made his spine shudder. Marrok’s eyes fell on Ella. “The woman in red back at Grimm Tavern. I don’t understand why everyone seemed so afraid of her.”
Rumple opened his mouth to answer but Ella cut him off, “She’s an assassin.”
“What?”
“One of the King’s personally trained Crimson Order girls. It’s rare to see one of them outside the Capital. And people generally don’t like to talk about them.”
“Aren’t trained killers supposed to be all secretive and wear black?”
Rumple opened his mouth again but Ella continued, “They don’t always wear the cloaks. The red serves as a warning sign so that others won’t get in the way.”
“And this woman was after me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you look too much like the King.” Rumple said.
“That’s it?!”
“Not quite.” Rumple’s smile made Marrok’s stomach clench with nerves, “Do you know what the King did to his own brothers when they tried to challenge his right to rule the entire kingdom alone?”
“He killed them.” It was the reason why no one ever dared to fight back against him. A man who would slaughter his own family was not someone who you wanted to anger. “What does that have to do with me?”
“Because the youngest child, the old King’s bastard, was still in the mother’s womb at the time of the massacre. Rumors say she fled the castle with several members of the royal guard. None of them were ever heard of again. Some say that she died before giving birth. I think she lived.” Rumple glanced over to Calith before his smile grew. “And the King thinks so too.
He’s had six children killed for the same reason over the years. At least, those are the ones that I’ve heard about.”
An uneasy silence permeated through the room. Marrok moved over to sit beside his uncle, tucking his hands into his lap. “They’ll kill me if they find me.”
“Or worse,” Ella said.
Rumple waved his hand in the air as if to dispel the gloomy atmosphere. “There’s no need to look as though you’ve already died, Master Marrok. They haven’t caught you yet and they’re not going to. Your uncle and I were talking earlier about what we can do to keep you from being found. I’d like to send you to a group of people called the Hanaar. They could smuggle you out through Gimcrack city.”
“No!” Calith slammed his fist against the table and the arranged bottles shuddered, “They’ll use him as a figurehead to try and gain more supporters. The only thing that those idiots are good for is getting themselves killed.”
“You don’t know everything that they’ve been doing these past few years.” Rumple closed the two distance and the men began bickering like two old widows arguing over which grandchild was the best.
Rose rolled her eyes, stomping off to join Pinocchio who was monitoring her foaming experiment.
Marrok attempted to listen in on the conversation but the two men kept the debate to harsh whispers and table thumping.
“Come on,” Ella took him by the arm and pulled him towards the entrance of the shop. “It can’t be an easy thing to hear, people wanting you dead when you’ve done nothing wrong.”
There was such a sympathetic sadness in her eyes that Marrok wondered if she knew what it felt like to know that someone wanted you dead.
“I know that Stiltskin can appear to be mad but he knows everything about everything. Trust him and he’ll make sure you get through this. Having him as my ally has saved my life more than once.”
“I’ll try my best,” Marrok smiled. Something about her made his entire body relax. He frowned when she looked away. He followed her gaze outside where small flurries of snow began to blanket the entry way. “Is something wrong?”
“I’ve already stayed too long. Soon, the snow will have you trapped up here. I have to leave before that happens.”
Marrok noticed her bag was in the corner behind her and she still wore the frayed traveling cloak. Despite the great annoying factor of her personality, she’d been rather decent to talk to these past couple days. He didn’t want her to leave.
“Why did you help-” he stopped just short of saying ‘me’ “-my uncle? If what you said about the woman is true, you risked your life for two strangers.”
“It was just your uncle I helped?” She smiled but made no comment as for the rest.
“Of course. I knew exactly what I was doing. But, why?”
“I told you. I owe Stiltskin my life. I was merely repaying my debts.”
Marrok knew she was lying by the way she looked away.
“If Calith ever needs help again, send this to the capital city,” From the bag behind her, she drew out a small strip of pink silk. Her fingers caressed along the fabric before she held it out, “I’ll find you. No matter what.”
He frowned, looking it over in his fingers. It smelled like cinnamon. Tying it to the inside of his shirt so he wouldn’t lose it, he looked up to thank her. She was already gone.
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