The Forgotten Princess Rose
Chapter 168

Chapter 168: Chapter 168

"Good to see you back and you are without Rose which means she found her family. Daughter of a lord," Finn said, surprised to know they were travelling with someone so important. "What is her family like? Are they good people?"

"I wouldn’t have left her alone with bad people," Zayne answered. "Explain more of what you heard."

"Thanks to what you asked from the king, the town guards have been out in numbers along with all the soldiers. The town guard’s place has been turning away common folk and only seeing those with status. He’s trying to paint a turd as good as he can and present it to us as a diamond," said Finn.

"I am not fond of this kingdom. He will try to make use of our numbers and make us join in his wars. This kingdom is not worth fighting over in this state," Liam said, approaching the large map they had spread out. Their ships waiting were marked out. "It has potential but not with the current king."

"We were given orders to attack if we thought the truce would not work. We are only waiting on you," Finn looked at Zayne. "We’ve given them more than enough time."

"Send word to the ships to be ready to sail in. After our next visit to the palace, I will give them the order for when to approach. I only need to think of who would be best to place on the throne. Rose’s father mentioned the king’s cousin. Look into him," Zayne tasked Liam.

"Would he be a new king or just a puppet until someone from our kingdom comes? We need someone we can trust to be our ally and not later try to start a war with us," said Finn. He did not want to come here again.

"I am aware. Right now, I do not trust any of the royals unless we were to see one of the king’s other children. After having to live in the shadows watching some of their siblings die, they might accept the offer," Zayne thought out loud.

"I need to get my good sword sharpened," Finn said, stretching his arms. "I’ve been a little too bored doing nothing. Are we taking the princes and princess as hostages or killing them on the spot along with the king and queen? Will you at least keep the princess alive-"

"No," Zayne quickly shot that down. "If we are to kill anyone besides the king she will go first. Have you kept up training in my absence?" He asked, going toward the window to peer down at the soldiers in his hold now.

"I have. They are ready for battle at any moment. The king’s soldiers have been spotted lingering near the camp. Just as we are ready for a fight the king must be ready to fight us. I hope this is over soon so we can go home. You need to get some food before you drown yourself in work. I will get it since Rose isn’t here," Finn said, not realising his mistake.

Liam shook his head. As always, he could leave it to Finn to say the wrong thing.

When Finn opened the door, he found Mary standing outside. "Were you waiting to speak to him? Now might not be a good time."

"I wanted to find out about Rose. She is not here so she must have found her family. Is she well there? Do you know if she is happy?" Mary asked, worried about Rose being out of sight. She was such a small little thing that needed to be protected.

Finn smiled as Rose had allowed him to see a different side to Mary.

"Stop smiling and tell me," Mary demanded. He was looking at her like an idiot without saying anything.

Or not.

"She is well. We both know that lover boy wouldn’t have left her if he didn’t think she was safe where she is now. She has a family after many years of thinking she was alone. Maybe we will see her again or maybe she would want to forget about her life before. Right now, we must focus on war," Finn revealed.

"War?" Mary repeated, surprised it had come to this. "It seemed like we were heading toward peace. Do you hear yelling?"

Finn listened closely to what Mary might have heard and then started to run down the hall. "Mary, do me a favour just once and get Zayne’s food for him!" He yelled back to her.

It was small but there was yelling. Only a visitor at the gates caused yelling.

Finn ran to be at the gates before a dispute could happen. It was easy for him to tell that Zayne was not in a good mood so he could not allow a visitor to further piss off Zayne.

"Who is it?" Finn questioned as he pushed his way through the growing crowd.

It was not one of the king’s soldiers since they never got too close when they came to spy. The townspeople had never gotten so close since they still feared the outsiders.

"Who- Oh," Finn relaxed when he saw the familiar face. "You’ll have to forgive me since I didn’t pay much attention to the name but you are her friend. The friend of Rose, I mean."

"I’ve come to have a word with her," Alexander said, ignoring the pointed weapons in his direction. "What happened to a good welcome as long as I said my name?"

Finn leaned on the gate. "Well, when your peers keep standing around our camp to spy on us because your king is afraid, it can’t be helped that the men are a little on edge. Also, a little funny story. Rose isn’t here. She is with her family right now."

Alexander didn’t believe a word of what the stranger told him. "Rose doesn’t have a family. None of us from that place has a family now. Where have you placed her?" He asked, stepping forward.

Finn raised his hand to stop the soldiers on his side. "Weapons down. This is a guest invited by the general. It turns out that Rose does have a family. The only one who can tell you about it is the general but I must warn you. With your peers lingering around, is it good for you to come in here?"

Alexander could easily be misunderstood for stepping into an enemy camp all alone. He could be seen as a traitor.

Alexander walked through the gates without a second thought. He had already left the army just for Rose and wasn’t going to turn back now all because he could be seen as a traitor.

"He’s bold," Finn said, signalling for the gates to close behind Alexander. "This will be fun."

’Two men in love with one woman. What could go wrong?’ Finn laughed in his head.