The Lost Prince and The Demon King [BL]

Perry slipped in and out of consciousness as he waited for whatever came next. Thankfully, his fitful sleep was dreamless. 

Someone pulling him to his feet woke him up. 

"Up," a gruff voice ordered.

Perry scrambled to brace himself against the wall. He blinked and blinked. The cell was mostly dark, but he could make out two other people in the cell with him. One looked like a regular Royal Guard. The other was the man in purple robes with the ridiculously long beard who'd argued with Master Rennin. Clan Leader Vernon or something. Perry decided to mentally call him Long Beard, since he couldn't remember his name. 

What now? What was happening now? The prince had said no one would bother him. Even though he wouldn't trust the bastard as far as he could throw him, he was still a prince and Perry doubted anyone would disobey him just because. 

Meaning this visit had a purpose. 

"Judging by the show Master Rennin put on for my benefit, I believe you are already acquainted with this process." Long Beard moved his hands in familiar and elaborate gestures. 

Perry's body locked up and he found himself unable to move. Again. 

Perry wanted to scream when the Royal Guard handed a bowl with blood to Long Beard, but his mouth had been sealed shut by the spell. 

When the itching finally subsided, Perry exhaled heavily through his nose. 

"Unchain this man," Long Beard commanded to the Royal Guard. 

The guard obeyed and as glad as Perry was to be physically free, nothing about this situation seemed normal. Well, even less normal than being in a strange world where magic and revenants apparently existed. 

"Follow," Long Beard commanded and onwards Perry went, obediently walking behind him. 

As he and Long Beard left his cell, two other Royal Guards carrying what was unmistakably a body bag made their way inside. Out of the corner of his eye, Perry saw them deposit the body bag on the floor, but he couldn't move his head to catch a glimpse of whoever was inside it as they opened it.

"Wait here until I return. Do not touch anything else," Long Beard commanded the Royal Guards. 

Without any word or form of acknowledgment, the Royal Guards stayed perfectly still. Was Long Beard controlling them the same way he was controlling Perry? 

Perry didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't being led into another cell. 

"I do apologize in advance for the cramped space." With another flourish of his hands, symbols on the back of the cell that roughly outlined the shape of a door appeared and started to glow a dark purple. 

As he squeezed his body and shuffled behind Long Beard, Perry decided that if he never saw a secret passageway ever again in his life, it would be too soon. 

But unlike the passageway he'd crawled through in the inn, this one was silent and freezingly cold. No sounds came through the thick walls and Perry's footsteps sounded too loud even to his own ears. 

They walked and walked. And then walked some more. When Perry started to think that this might be his new punishment, to walk endlessly behind Long Beard, they came to a stop. Dark purple symbols glowed in the gloom and Long Beard led him out of the cramped stone passageway and into an ample and spacious room. 

A room with an enormous bed to one side, a multitude of chests, throw pillows, fancy fabric, and gauzy curtains that swayed gently in the night breeze. 

And a very, very large and suspiciously blood-like stain in the middle of the room. 

"Your Majesty." Long Beard bowed and Perry saw the Queen standing in front of him, her eyes red-rimmed as she clutched a handkerchief to her mouth and stared at the maybe-blood stain. "I have brought him, as requested."

Ah, so this had been her idea. Lovely. 

"Release him from that horrid spell." The Queen's voice wavered as she spoke without looking up from the stain. 

Perry might not be the brightest crayon in the box — case in point, how he found himself once again being controlled like a puppet by yet another creepy man —, but the longer the Queen stared at that stain that looked more and more like blood with every passing second, the more uneasy Perry felt.

Granted, he hadn't spent much time with her, but the Queen didn't strike him as someone who would be moved to tears by the death or injury of any random person. 

That left, in Perry's understanding, only two options. Well, one, really. After all, husbands could be replaced, sons couldn't. 

Especially if that son happened to be the sole heir to an entire kingdom. 

"Your Majesty, I understand your compassion for this man, but he is a stranger. Releasing him from the spell would be dangerous. If he escapes or is seen—"

"For once in your life do what you are told without questioning my every word," the Queen exclaimed, finally snapping her gaze from the stain and glaring at Long Beard. "You promised he would not be found and he would stay gone. And yet, here he stands." The Queen gestured wildly in Perry's direction, her eyes wide. "We need his cooperation whether you see a simple gesture of compassion as weakness."

A niggle of pain twisted in Perry's chest at the Queen's words. They shouldn't affect him, this woman meant nothing to him. But try telling his heart that. 

Emotions sucked. Some days, more often than he cared to admit, Perry wished he didn't have any. Maybe then life would be more bearable. 

"As you wish, Your Majesty." With a single flourish, Long Beard released the spell.

Perry stumbled back as far away as he could get from Long Beard and the Queen. He glanced around, looking for something remotely resembling a door. Or a window, either worked for him.

The door he and Long Beard had come through was gone, but… there! A door on the opposite side of the room. He'd have to go around the Queen and Long Beard, but maybe if he threw himself over the bed, he could make it before either of them caught him. Maybe. 

"Please, do not try to escape," the Queen said, her tone as pleading as her voice. 

"You're crazy if you think I'm going to do anything you tell me to." Perry knew he shouldn't answer, but he couldn't help himself. 

Were all these people so detached from reality that they thought he would just do whatever it was they wanted, no questions asked?

Well, they were royalty. So, maybe. 

"My son is dead," the Queen said and Perry, despite everything and all his reservations, stopped. The Queen inhaled shakily and wiped away tears with her handkerchief. "He was killed a short time ago."

Without meaning to, Perry's gaze zeroed in on the blood stain. And then to the room he was standing in. 

"This is his room." Perry gestured weakly to the furniture and throw pillows all over the place. "And that, that is his… his…" 

For some reason, Perry couldn't bring himself to say the word blood out loud. It would make the horrible dawning realization in his brain all too real. 

"Yes," Long Beard answered when the Queen remained silent. "He was killed by Captain Orryn right here, in his private rooms."

Perry frowned and slowly shook his head. "That doesn't sound right."

"We are yet to determine how the Captain gained entry to the prince's rooms," Long Beard said as if he hadn't heard Perry.

"I can give you three guesses." Perry immediately felt bad for his words as he saw the Queen wiping away more tears. Then he mentally kicked himself for feeling bad for any of these people. 

"The reasons and methods are irrelevant right now. What we need, is a solution." Long Beard gestured to Perry and the awful dawning suspicion in the pit of his stomach coalesced into an even more terrifying certainty. 

Perry's scalp prickled and his eyes widened."You want me to take his place," he said, his tone incredulous. 

The Queen straightened her back. "No. We need you to take his place."