Hell was a better option. Marion mopped the sweat that had insisted on dripping endlessly, trailing from the tips of his hair down to his neck and into his cloak. Every time he looked back, he could only see his shadow trailing behind him and when he looked ahead, he saw the golden rays that seemed to pull him right into the searing epicenter of the sun. It was like being exiled to death.
Source
His water can had since gone dry, causing him to wait for his salivary glands to slowly secrete their juice for him to swallow at intervals. As his feet sank into the sand, his mind sank into the occurrences that made him, Marion Edever IV, be bound in chains and escorted to the back of beyond by the very men who had once bowed to pledge their allegiance to him.
"Prince Marion"
King Edward Edever's wrinkling cheeks spread out both ways as he laid eyes on his first and only son, the heir apparent to his throne. It didn't matter if he was conceived with a concubine, what mattered was that Marion was his son in blood and character.
"Your Majesty"
Marion lowered himself from the torso, almost causing his head to touch his knees.
King Edward waved those formalities away immediately Marion walked up to him after he had asked him to rise and opened his arms for an embrace. He had done it since Marion was a boy, opening his arms for his son to find his way around his robes and hold him fondly.
They would stand locked together like that until a chamberlain or someone else interrupted. In most cases, the former was the case. This time, there was an embrace, yes, the two bodies soon to be soaked in blood coming together, but not for long. The king's eyes soon widened, then bulged.
Blood seeping from the corners of his mouth, his hands trying to grapple at Marion's robes weakly. Marion's hand went with reflex to break the king's fall, his own heart beating wildly and distracting the countless thoughts that plagued his head at that very minute. He didn't have time to think for long. Instead of chamberlains coming to hide affectionate smiles and call the king to the breakfast table, court officials were hurrying, and the sound of guards marching to the king's room.
Everything happened so fast.
One minute Marion was in his father's arms, embracing him fondly. The next, he was being dragged down the hall of the chambers, his poor father being carried amidst wailings and sighs to the cremation hall.
"I swear, I don't know anything about the king's death. Mom, I would not kill my father" he said to the woman who had nurtured him since he was a child and was only respected after adopting him despite initially having three princesses for the king.
"Marion, I know the children I gave birth to, those who suckled from my breasts. And you are not one of them" his eyes widened with shock as the swirl of robes took her away from the dungeon where he had been caged.
He needed someone he could talk to, someone who would believe that he was not the kind to murder his already aging father who he loved so much, but for the two days which he spent that seemed like endless nights in that dark, cold, smelly dungeon, there was no one.
When he felt a light tap on his arm on one of those days and raised tear-streaked eyes to them, he was surprised to be looking into the light brown eyes he had looked into from birth till he was three months old. She didn't need to say it before he knew.
"My son," he didn't know tears were running down his cheeks until she reached out to wipe them dry.
"I know you didn't do it. You must listen to me, I don't have so much time".
He dragged himself up and crawled closer to the cold, iron bars.
"Your father's brother must have planned this, he has always been against you being king because you're not a legitimate son. I don't know what they did but you must plead not guilty at the court tomorrow. Without evidence, the worst they can do is to send you into exile. To the back of the beyond."
He was going to protest, to say he couldn't leave the palace, to say he needed time to prove his innocence but she shushed him like a mother would a two-year-old.
"Listen to me carefully, you would head to the east following the sun to the place that is called the golden city. You will find my people there, stay there until I send for you."
She pressed something into his hand just as the dungeon doors flung open. He wanted her to stay more, to sustain the comfort she had brought but the guard that sneaked her in was calling for her to leave.
As he dropped to his knees in frustration, he remembered the way her eyes glistened when he called her "mother" for the first time. The shaky smile on her face, the kiss she blew in his direction, gave him the strength to get back on his feet and walk through hell to his destiny.