Chapter 26

As Leo and Vorbuk approached the palace when they arrived it felt like the place was a ghost town. Vorbuk had never been to a palace before. The place was huge and walled in with a gate that had guards tending to it to ensure nobody came or left without their knowledge. It was covered in soldiers ready to give their lives for the sake of ensuring the king's safety above all else.

"Why is everyone so quiet?" The wolf asked as he glanced up at Leo.

Leo did not say anything as he already figured the answer and it was the fact that someone had died in his family. His eyes slowly glanced down at the wolf with a dead look in them that instantly made Vorbuk go quiet. He felt like he had asked the wrong thing from Leo as he remember the reason they were here.

"Crown Prince Leo, you've returned!" one of the guards bowed respectfully to him as they opened the gate for them both to pass through.

All the guards and soldiers kept glancing at Leo with pity and sympathy for what he was coming home to. They all were made aware of what had went down in the palace and knew the state the king was currently in. There was not a soul in the palace that did not know the king spent the entire night with the youngest son's corpse locked up in the room so that nobody could pull him away while he grieved. It was a sad and silent down for the palace and even those who worked in the palace were grieving the youngest as they all knew him well and many of them had watched as the prince had grown up for the fifteen years he had lived.

"Where is father?" Leo asked a guard as he entered the palace.

Before the guard could even respond to him footsteps sounded through the room followed by the voice of the second young prince.

"Welcome home brother!" Curtis forced a smile onto his face as he walked over to Leo and stretched out his arms to hug his elder brother.

Leo hugged his brother tight before looking around the room. He could see all the others in the room look away to avoid eye contact at the situation. He wondered why they would all react like that, but figured it was due to the loss of who ever had passed on.

"Curtis, what happened?" Leo's voice was cracking as he asked the question, but he felt the need to know what happened while he was away.

Curtis glanced down at the wolf that was standing behind his brother and sighed. For a split second there was a deep shadow in his eyes that quickly faded away and turned into the look of grief as he showed a face of betrayal.

"Father has locked himself up in Emery's room all night long. Youngest brother, Emery, was stabbed to death with a dagger in our own palace, brother!" he slowly placed one of his hands over his face as he looked around with closed eyes that showed a look of emotional pain as he spoke.

Leo's face went white for a second as his gut flopped at the words he had just heard. He couldn't stop his emotions from exploding inside of him as he quickly turned around and hurled slightly on the floor and coughed. He could not stop his emotions as they were like a train derailing in him. The thought of losing his brother was one explosion, but to add on top it had even happened in their own home which was suppose to be the safest place in the kingdom itself. All their guards and house keepers in the palace were kept to those truly royal to the crown. It was rare for outsiders to be brought in because those who worked close to the king were field tested as well as kept bloodlines that served them from generation to generation to help push for loyalty at the closest level. That was how the kingdom of Cadirade had always kept its palace from the inside locked down.

For someone to betray the king from inside meant that a bloodline that had sworn loyalty to the deepest would have had to betray them. That was something unfathomable to Leo. He knew how deeply thorough the selection within the palace was for its people. Who could seek out to attack the throne from the inside?

"Where is father now?" Leo forced out the question as he forced back his nerves has strongly as possible to glance over at his brother.

"He is still with Emery. No one has yet been able to convince him to leave the room." Curtis stated as he walked over to Leo and placed his hand on his brother's back to pat his back soothingly.

"I will go see him now than..." Leo shook his head and sighed as he moved forward to walk up the stairs to find his father. Every step he took felt like he was walking on glass that could shatter under his feet. He could feel the vast void of misery his father must be in and was not sure how he would face him when he got to the room.

Curtis watched as his brother ascended the large stairway to the upper level of the palace to head to Emery's room. As he watched his brother's back his eyes slowly narrowed and his face darkened again. All the guards in the room could see it, but none of them spoke a word as they knew it was best to remain quiet rather then to speak out.

Prince Curtis slowly turned his head to study the massive wolf that was still standing at the bottom of the stairs. It looked like the wolf did not wish to tread further into the palace, but instead remain there. The wolf slowly turned to look at Curtis as the both of them exchanged looks with each other. The whole room was filled to the brim with tension as everyone felt like the two of them were studying each other to the max. No one could understand why, but everyone felt uneasy by the situation.

"Is he on guard against me?" Curtis mumbled out then shook his head as he rubbed his forehead and turned to leave the room. From the side those who could not see the situation clearly assumed the prince might've had an emotional migraine from all the stress among the palace right now.

Other's who had a closer look felt the prince was frustrated cause the wolf that looked like a dog on guard. Nobody knew who was right if anyone of them was even right at all. All of them agreed that something in the palace was just simply not right lately and everyone was uneasy about it.