In The East

“He will scream to no end " he thought with a grin " and he will wear his shoes down by walking up and down the corridors and halls. He will get angrier and he will melt at the idea of having me in his hands to get revenge. They won’t have any power over me. No one will have any power over me anymore.”

The stablemen were not very diligent at that time of the year because almost no one went on horseback when the king was not there and the noble beasts were not let out until later in the morning, when the weather was warmer. So, he thought, more precious time would pass before they found out that his young chestnut was missing and connected the two disappearances.

The road began to rise rapidly, skirting the swollen river of muddy water. When the prince saw the old tower, he decided to stop. He forgot that he was in a hurry and that he absolutely had to get to the pass before it was late in the day and that the number of men and animals increased to the point of forcing him to hide in the thick of the forest so as not to be seen. He knew that there a barely checked secondary road that went to the other side and emerged directly within the borders of the neighboring state. He had once been told about it by a boy from the stable whose cousin was involved in salt smuggling. But he wasn't sure he could find it and he didn't want to run the risk of being recognized by someone and being brought back. He shivered in the cold of the morning at the idea of what would happen to him if ...

But the tower drew him in. He left the horse tied to a tree a little distant and well hidden, then he slowly opened the door and carefully climbed the uneven steps. Almost without realizing it, he found himself crying silently and the more he tried to get more strength, the more he sobbed, his tears running down his cheeks and nose. He kept rubbing his face with the sleeves of his clothes and felt increasingly unhappy.

“ I am a prince,” he told himself, and instead he was just a small lonely fugitive.

Finally, he arrived in the room where he had been with his father and opened the window on the river. He took a deep breath and calmed a little. He placed the ladder against the hatch above his head and, with some effort, managed to open it.

The upper room was lower, and the windows were simple square holes, slightly larger than his head, which turned into slits on the outside of the walls.

It was stuffy and full of cobwebs.

In one corner there was a recess dug in the thickness of the wall. A stone resting on the shelf of the niche had some letters engraved on it, perhaps the initials of someone who had been there. The prince picked it up to see if there was something hiding underneath, but only a small black scorpion came out with its tail raised as a sign of clear threat. The child instinctively withdrew, and the scorpion disappeared quickly up the wall.

The prince went back down and closed the trap door. As he approached the window, he saw that someone was crossing the bridge and heading towards the city.

He too wished he had the courage to do it; introduce himself to his father and tell him: “ put me in prison but keep me with you.”

But he was sure that the king would immediately send him home without even listening to him.

He would stay there. He would lock the tower from the inside, hide the horse in the nearby shed, and no one would notice his presence.

He could stay a few days and then ...

No, it was too risky. He absolutely had to cross the border that night.

He began to fear being there alone, but he also feared coming out into the open.

He curled up in a corner and covered himself with the blanket. He tried to read a few pages and eat a piece of bread.

After a few minutes, he had fallen deep asleep.

He woke up by late afternoon and he heard many excited voices talking under the tower.

He looked cautiously and immediately withdrew, flattening himself frightened against the wall beside the window.

His father was down there.

He hurriedly left the room, taking refuge upstairs. He closed the trapdoor and sat down, heart pounding, in the darkest corner. He wished he was as small as the scorpion he had discovered under the stone of the niche. A few minutes later, he heard the king's steps up the stairs and his voice calling him.

His voice did not sound irritated, but he was not going to answer.

Perhaps they would be convinced that he had stopped there for a while and then walked away up the mountain. It was his only hope.

His father opened the trapdoor and went upstairs.

He hid his head in his arms, curling up even more in the dark.

The king knelt beside him and took him in his arms.

"Here you are you little devil!" He exclaimed.

He did not dare look up and felt his head explode as if a hammer pounded inside his brain every second that passed.

"You are not answering me?" The king asked again.

His hands around his knees clenched convulsively, turning purple in an effort to resist his father’s hands that tried to pry them loose.

“ Do you want to stay here a little while longer? Do you want me to come back down and wait for you to calm down and talk to me man to man?”

He nodded affirmatively.

The king got up and left him alone.

After a few minutes, the prince decided to go down to face him: he would not return to the castle, he would rather throw himself into the river.

His father was at the foot of the ladder still leaning against the trapdoor.

“ Father “ said the child, trying to keep his voice steady “ put me in prison for the rest of my life and have me whipped if you want, but don't send me back to the castle. Please.”

“ Why did you run away? Where did you think you were going? “ asked the king.

“ Past the border.”

“And what would you have done?”

“ I do not know. Maybe I would have become a stable boy. I don't want to go back to the castle anymore. “

“ You already said that; yet it seemed to me that you had revealed to me one day that you could not live far from your mother.”

"She no longer loves me as she once did," the prince noted bitterly.

“ She was upset by your escape.”

“ She didn't have to betray me .“ He fell silent for a few seconds, then concluded

“ You didn't have to betray me either.”

“ I never did it,” observed the king.

" Oh yes! You promised you'd be back soon and instead you forgot about me immediately. You left me alone with the teacher and my mother did the same thing.”

" You're too old for these whims.”

" They are not tantrums, but nobody understands me. Everyone thinks I am just a little fool who doesn't want to study and who can make fun of himself. I ... I won't explain to you, father, but if you send me back to the castle I will escape again and again and eventually throw myself into the river.”

There was no trace of tears in his eyes, nor any emotion in his voice.

He was tired, exhausted, as if he had no soul.

The king began to worry about that unnatural tone.

" You decide where to go. Calm down now. I didn't come here to punish you. I want you to stay with me. Take it easy.”

He held him in his arms and felt him stiffen as a statue. He cradled him for a long time, talking to him in a whisper, caressing his head and shoulders, until he felt his tension loosen a little.

" Do you want to come with me to the city? " he asked then.

" I don’t know.”

" So?”

"I don't want to go home," the child repeated, for the umpteenth time.

" Do you know what you running away means?”

" Disobedience to you, my mother, and the teacher.”

" Exactly. I left everything to look for you and this is serious, don't you think?”

" Yes.”

" You were bad, and you made your mother and Antonia suffer; she cried like a cut vine, and many other people did as well.”

" You too?”

"Me too.”

"I'm sorry," the child remarked flatly without any emotional inflection.

" Now you will come with me and you will no longer discuss my orders.”

The king took his hand and started to walk away. He clearly felt that his son at first opposed a certain resistance, then, suddenly, he gave up, as if he had no will or life.

He looked at him and saw that his face had suddenly become completely expressionless, with his eyes fixed into emptiness and his mouth half open.

Then he looked out the window and shouted to his entourage to return to the castle and spread the news that the prince had been found and that he would stay with him alone for a few days more, there in the fortress. Someone objected that it was not possible, but the king silenced him impatiently. He ordered his personal servants return with the necessary supplies. For the rest he didn't want to be disturbed by anyone.

They were left all alone.

The king took the prince's inert hand again and made him sit beside him on the narrow wooden bench near the window.

" A king does not tell lies " he reminded him " and you must believe me if I assure you that I have never betrayed our friendship. The affairs of state are long and complicated and have not given me time to come back to you or write to you.”

"Yes, father," said the prince in a flat tone, after a long time.

" You don't believe it, do you? But now I'm here and I'll stay with you for as long as you want. We'll ride to the pass and if you want to go there, I'll leave you free. We'll talk again like we used to and ... everything else. You decide when it's time to come back.”

He felt the boy’s body shake.

" And if you don't want to go home, I'll take you with me to town. All right?”

" Yes, yes, father. Please. " He almost clung to his arm.

The king let him do it and he gradually relaxed.

Why all that sudden hatred, that exaggerated repulsion for what until yesterday had been his home, his golden kingdom?

He would find out, but not immediately.

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