Jase's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Jase kept his hood low and his broken signet ring hidden under his tunic. Two woodsmen blocked the trail ahead, axes on their shoulders. He needed to reach the banished knight who could raise him an army. But word had spread through these woods that a false prince wandered here, and any stranger might be seized as the liar. "You," the taller woodsman said. "Show your face." Jase lifted his chin. The command came out before he could stop it. "Stand aside. I am your prince." Then he remembered he had no throne, no guard, nothing but a torn tunic and a lie the whole forest already hated. The men's faces hardened. "The impostor," the shorter one spat. He grabbed Jase's arm. "There's coin for handing you to the reeve." Jase pulled free and ran. Branches tore at him. The woodsmen crashed after him, shouting. He burst into a clearing and stopped short. A man sat by a small fire, cleaning a sword across his knees. A red cape, ragged at the edges, hung from his shoulders. Scars marked his hands. This was Gareth Ashborne, the knight captain his father had banished years ago, the one man alive who had seen Jase as a child at court. Gareth did not rise. He studied Jase, then the two woodsmen crashing out of the trees behind him. "That's the false prince," the tall woodsman panted. "Help us take him." Gareth stood slowly. His eyes stayed on Jase. "Prove it," he said, "or I'll hand you over myself." Jase's heart pounded. He reached into his tunic and pulled out the broken signet ring on its cord. Gareth glanced at it and shook his head. "Any thief can steal a ring." Jase's hand went to his neck again. Beneath his shirt hung the locket his mother had pressed into his palm the night the castle fell. He had never opened it before a stranger. He lifted the cord over his head and held it out. Gareth took the locket. Gold catching firelight, a red stone set in the center like a shield. He turned it, found the clasp, and opened it. His face changed. Inside, painted small, was the queen's likeness. And below it, the mark of the royal house that only the crown's own jeweler had known. Gareth's fingers closed around the locket. He looked at Jase a long moment. Then he turned to the woodsmen. "You've made a mistake," Gareth said. His voice was low and hard. "This is no impostor. Leave, and forget you saw him." The woodsmen backed away and vanished into the trees. Gareth pressed the locket back into Jase's hand. "So the boy lived," he said quietly. "Then you'll need more than a locket. You'll need men. And the reeve will send soldiers now that two witnesses have run home with your face in their heads."