The V. Lost Royal

Chapter 1

By DAN BLECKINGER | Feb 2024
The dreading cold air of the night was engulfed with the silence that could crawl on someone's inside. The grandeur ceilings carrying secrets of the great French royals crushed down the Queen who had her heart in her throat. The Spanish queen- Maria Teresa, trapped in a luxurious web of Louis XIV's court moved carefully through the shadowed hallways. The Chateau's pillars usually a symbol of strength and endurance through time, brought a sensation of fear down her spine.

The weight of uncertainty pressed on her as she tip-toed through the castle, barefooted, her son sleeping peacefully on her shoulder. She was not a spiritual person but she kept on praying to the lord to help her escape. Escape from the kingdom where she was now a mere outsider disguised as a Queen.

Months of diligent planning, learning and mastering the map of the grand palace with concealed passages; all led her to this moment where she was forced to remember each turn she was taking and each soldier she was sneaking past. The place was a grandeur mess waiting to envelop inside its deep enormity.

She recalled the early days when she had first come to the palace, smitten by King Louis' charms.

Louis XIV was a charismatic man who knew how to charm his way through a room. Fraught from years of war, he wore his medal of valor and resilience with pride. He was a stern man, with his feet planted deep in his principles and morals from which he promised to never deviate from. His only purpose was to lead his people to glory and safety.

Under his rule, the French people found a leader who would lead them through every hardship. His strong command over the military made the French a force to reckon with. He fought many wars through which he succeeded. His efforts were deem extraordinary when his long time advisor Mazarin passed away and Louis XIV startled the government by seizing personal command of the government and concentrating the armed forces and legal system directly under his supervision instead of selecting a new minister for the job.
He was the king of the people and his Spanish wife, the Queen Maria Teresa was loved by the people despite her Spanish roots and connections. It was a marriage of convenience, a mere political agreement, Louis XIV was not a man of great words but she admired him for his way of life and he loved their son more than anything in life.

She was distraught and broken that she was shunning her son of his father, the love and compassion he had for his future king was incomparable. Recalling the last few years she had no choice but to lead her son somewhere safe.

The man she knew and married was no longer the man he once was. Many medical practitioners of the time told the Queen, he was merely experiencing, "the effects of war."

"Continuous years of war destroy the person in a way you would not know," the man with round spectacles had told the Queen.

The truth about the condition of the king was a kept secret, buried six feet under the ground, no one in the castle was allowed to talk about it.

The guards and the family were guided to treat the young man as the great king he was and not a king that had gone mad. The Queen tried against her will day and night to find the man she had once known but he was nowhere to be found. After years of trying and struggling, she had given up the fact that man would never be back to his senses. Their son who now spoke certain words lingered blankly for his father's attention which was never given to him.

After seeing how the king had become a great threat to his son, throwing objects, punching, kicking, and screaming; Maria Teresa understood it was time to bring their son to safety, protect the future of the monarchy, and preserve the French and Spanish royalty. She had to make a decision she would have never imagined.

The castle she used to rule, the hallways she walked with pride became the same place where she walked like a fugitive on the run.

Walking silently into the night, the fog-laden skies imitated her insides, hard to see through and hazy. She had promised to hide safely back in her homeland where she would give his son the life he deserved.

She knew the crime she would be charged with and all that she would be accused of, stealing a monarch away from its throne would be despised upon by the people. Each day the existence of the young boy was celebrated, knowing that he would be sitting on the bejeweled throne. She had loved the prospect of that, she wished she could explain to the people the lengths he was going to protect the bloodline of any harm.

The queen knew the consequences would be dire, not only would they take her son away from her but put her head on spike. She imagined her son growing up on his own with nothing to protect him against the evil of the world. The thought of that made her shudder and she promised herself to be there for him all the time.

She faded into the depth and darkness of the night, uncertain of what lay for her on the other side.

She fulfilled her promise to her son, living in a hideaway while the monarchy searched for its queen and heir in the shadows of the land of Spain.

The king with his health worsening could only survive for long enough until he gave up with the monarchy dissolving with his ends.

No one knew about the heir that lived in the lands of new York, the young boy himself was unaware.

The unsettling years of the war everywhere even the land of Spain was not space anymore, the queen decided to shield her son from his reality and future and took him to the lands of the America which was being revolutionalized to greatness.

The civilization where people of different heritage were trying to find a safe home. The bustling city of New York with its revolution at peak became a safe space for the Queen and her son Henry.

Being from royalty the wealth was never the concern, she tried roaming around the streets learning the language that sounded unfamiliar on her tongue. Day and night she got through, trying to make the most of her new home.

She had all she needed in her new life in America, a young boy who was protected from his past until he would be of age to learn about his true identity. The Spanish crown protected the Queen and shielded her against wrath of the monarchy.

Years later embarking on the young man he was becoming, Henry did not remember the grand castle he used to live in, he had no interest in the expansive table set with fancy meals or the cars that were always shining in their garages in the house he had no regard for.
Henry wanted to live a simple life, withered in its basic glory and the casual chaos of the life of a basic life man and so he joined a high school that treated him like anyone other than places where he was escorted by the guards everywhere.

His silky smooth blonde hair sprawled across his face lined with freckles and a jaw line that resembled the features of his father, Louis the XIV.

Living in the bustling city of NewYork which was the fine attraction of the architecture in the vintage serenity, Henry tried to learn more about himself. He had no knowledge about his father or about his true identity. All he was told was they came from a loyal lineage and background, Henry was taught French by his mother without being given reason as to why he was learning it.

Waking up and sleeping perplexed, Henry promised to discover himself and the land that he now called home; America.