Chapter 20: Poised in Providence - Part 9

Prince Heiko slammed the door shut and Baptist started slightly – it would’ve been a larger surprise, had the slave not been expecting it.

“Convince them, I said.” Heiko spoke, turning to face his slave, who was bracing himself. His muscles were tense, and there were no excessive Simonese clothes to hide it. “You’re Burkean, I said. They may believe you. The folly lies with me, it seems, as I too believed you.”

Baptist’s face was scrunched with a culmination of guilt and raw fear.

“My prince-”

“Do not ‘my prince’ me, like some slave,” Heiko purred the dangerous words, with his venomous tone. “You were no Burkean lowborn.”

“My prince,” Baptist said in a quiet voice. “I…I…”

Heiko said, “Hesitating as you spin more lies?”

Baptist wanted to yell out his frustration. It was the Simonese soldiers who stole him from the Burkean town. They were the ones who chained him. The ones who assumed him a pissant.

But instead, he mumbled, “I have not lied to my prince.”