So here's the begining of Part 2, Chapter 16!
It's pretty big chapter.
Oh and I'm really lazy right now so I haven't gone through and indented everything.
~Aaron~
The rain pelted down, the fat droplets almost stinging as I ran. Puddles filled the road and I ran through every one of them, my clothes getting soaked over and over again. The weather would have dampened my spirits if I wasn’t running for my life. Behind me I could hear the shouting of the guards, they seemed to be getting closer every second, I couldn’t even tell if the footsteps behind me were my group or the people chasing us.
“You guys there?” I yelled between breaths.
“Yeah,” answered Gret panting.
“And we got it?”
“Yeah, it’s damn heavy!” grunted Brand.
“Good,” I muttered. At least we had that. After Gray’s match everything spun out of control, getting worse every minute. What were we thinking? I should have known my luck never let me get a break. Losing the tournament was bad enough but it didn’t stop there; Luecor, Ethan, Ralf, the mask, the Princess…
What were we thinking?
Chapter 16
Good Luck
-6 hours previous-
~Aaron~
We could hear the cheering of the stadium from the tavern. The obnoxious noise just reminded us that Luecor was being awarded the money and the mask. The room was empty; everyone was at the ceremony except for the five of us sitting at the same table from before. My headache was there to help as always and was getting progressively worse.
Thinking back I had to admit that Gray’s fight went a whole lot better than I thought it would. Just the fighting and swordsmanship were amazing and Luecor’s magic was another thing entirely. We were lucky to have a weapon’s master like Gray, he really was something. The moves he pulled were unbelievable, I was beginning to think that he was much older than his stature and voice told. Maybe he had some disease that kept him from growing? He did say that he lived in the jungle for a time; maybe he fought and ate tigas for breakfast. Whatever the answer I had a growing respect for his strength and was now sure that he could take care of himself.
There was another thing that surprised me though, Luecor’s axe. He was the one who saved me from that dragonet, I was sure of that, but why? I looked over at Gray, his feet propped up on the table, half of his face shadowed concealing a face I had never seen even after all this time; his answers were shadowy just like him. When I had asked him about the axe he said he had asked about it too but he didn’t get a straight answer. Neither can you I thought to myself. We asked Gray how Luecor knew him, the question seemed to bring up bad memories for Gray as his face got a little darker, “We are not friends, not even acquaintances,” he said harshly.
“Then what are you?” I asked.
“Enemies,” he said frankly. Yeah, that cleared up their relationship.
There was a small movement in Gray’s hood from his “small” dragon, the creature hadn’t shown itself since it disqualified us. We’d all demanded Gray tell us how and why he had a dragon of all things. The very idea he had a tame dragon hiding away in his hood was absurd. Dragons were impossible to find and they were never carried around like a pet, they didn’t do those kind of things, they were too majestic and noble and stuff. And why hadn’t Gray told us about this before? It was a nasty surprise that got us disqualified. He eventually told us that he had picked up the dragon a long time ago. He never showed us the dragon because it wouldn’t have made a difference, magical animals weren’t allowed in the tournament. After we got over the shock of Gray pocketing a dragon I asked if we could see it, “That’s up to him,” Gray replied. The dragon evidentially didn’t want us to see it.
“Can we get some drinks? Where’s the beer?!” yelled Brand breaking the silence around the table, we all jumped from the sudden noise. Brand swung around roughly in his chair, looking for a waiter or bar tender, of course there was no one there.
“Rook,” Brand moaned, “Where’s that bottle of yours?” he said looking at him pleading.
“I’m not some bar you can get alcohol from. Plus that’s my bottle of fine brandy that I’m saving.”
Brand harrumphed, “How could they just kick us out? We bust our asses for them and we don’t get so much as a thank you.” Seconds after the announcer said we were disqualified these big burly officers surrounded us and steered us out the door. They practically threw us out, I think they did throw Gray; of course he landed on his feet like a cat.
“Why did we go to this thing again?” said Rook sarcastically, “Oh yeah, the money,” he slammed his fist on the table, “Now we’ve got no mask, not even a single trand!”
“I’d say you’ve got a little more than that,” we all turned to look at the newcomer who I didn’t even hear come in. Almost unrecognizable without his red jacked, Sean stood by the door.
“Aren’t you supposed to be with the winner? You being Head Officer and all,” I said surprised, trying not to let my mood show.
“Depends on how you define winners,” Sean said shrugging. He pulled up a chair in front of our table and sat facing us. “Doesn’t matter anyway, I’m not Head Officer anymore.”
“What?” Brand said surprised.
“You heard me, they kicked me out just like you guys. Someone thought there was something fishy about me and here I am,” he shrugged, “I didn’t like that job anyway, I’m meant for bigger things,” he said patting his pocket; there was the distinct clink of a large amount of coins.
Gret’s eyes widened, “Don’t tell me you-,”
“Whoa, hold on a moment!” objected Sean putting his hands up, “I not some thief, I just had one last job.” He reached into his pocket, brought out a medium-small sized bag, and threw onto the table. The jingle of coins seemed to echo in the small room.
“Is this for…us?” said Gret almost reaching for the small sack.
“Yeah, you’ve got a little more trans than you thought. Ten thousand actually.”
“Ten thousand!” we all exclaimed in union.
“Being second place does amount to something,” said Sean.
“Thanks,” I said grabbing for the bag of coins.
Quicker than a snake Sean snatched the sack, “Now remember you just cost me my job and I said from the beginning that I deserve compensation.”
Rook stood up quickly, knocking back his chair, “You want to know why you were fired? Cause you’re a dirty, rotten, mo-,”
I hastily put my hand on his arm, pulling him back down, “Calm down,” I said quietly. Rook reluctantly pulled his chair upright and sat down. I looked back at Sean, “What do you want?”
Sean shrugged, “Not much, twenty golden trans.”
The others started to protest, Rook the loudest, I sighed. One gold tran was worth 50 trans, he’d be getting one tenth of our winnings. Sean was looking only at me, ignoring the others, he knew me too well. “Fine,” I said rubbing the bridge of my nose. Sean smiled and tossed me the bag, I caught it. I opened the bag filled with a mass of golden coins; I reached in and picked out twenty of them then laid it on the table. The others went silent, they were irritated but they accepted that we had to lose some to get some.
Sean swept up the coins with his hands and pocketed them, “Thanks, for a second there I thought you wouldn’t give,” he then pulled out a large jug of ale I hadn’t seen him bring in.
Instantly Brand got over the money and reached eagerly for the ale, “You’re very welcome.”
As Brand happily uncorked the jug and started to drink Sean turned to us, “So what are you going to do now? You’ve got the money, or at least a good amount of it.”
I looked over at Rook, Gret, and Gray. Gret and Rook shrugged, Gray as always didn’t seem to care, “We were going to Cloud Isle,” I said, “To see if we could get a wish out of the Dragon Dancer.”
Sean whistled, “That’s some kind of trip. I can see why you need the money.”
“Yeah, but…,” I sighed, “it’s pointless to go now. Luecor’s getting the mask right about now.”
“Hmm,” said Sean thinking, “That is a problem. I did hear that Princess Hellina was giving that away…” he trailed off, preoccupied with his thoughts.
“What?” I asked.
“There is still a chace that you can get the mask,” said Sean thinking.
“You’re kidding,” I said sitting up in my chair, eager to hear any hope of getting the mask.
Sean looked at all of us contemplating, “It depends on how much you want it.”
“Life or death,” said Rook, I looked over at him, surprised at where that comment came from and I gave an agreeing nod.
“Well, if you put it that way…,” Sean said as he pulled his chair up to our table and leaned in, we all did the same, “The Dragon Dancer’s mask is not really being given at the winner’s ceremony.”
“What?!” exclaimed Brand.
“Shhh,” whispered Sean, “This is all very hush hush. The money and the mask given at the ceremony are fake. The real prizes will be given to the winning team tomorrow at the castle.”
“Why?” asked Gret.
“The threat of someone stealing the prizes is too great at such a crowded place like the stadium. It would be too easy to sneak in and out of there.”
“So…the mask is actually at the castle?” asked Brand, slowly thinking, “How’s that any help?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” said Sean, “You can steal it.”
“What?!” I yelled along with Brand and Gret, “Are you crazy?!” said Rook at the same time.
Sean shrugged, “If you’re that desperate then why is that so hard to do?”
I stared at him unbelieving, “But-but, that’s suicide!” Sean put his finger to his lips, after all these were some serious offences we were talking about, I lowered my voice, “To break into the castle…”
To all of our surprise Gray was the one who spoke next, “It is possible.”
Suddenly we were all staring at Gray surprised, Sean laughed, “That’s one smart kid you got there,” he said smiling.
“But Gray, the castle is a fortress and stealing is against the law,” I said as if speaking to a child.
Gray frowned just a little and I got the feeling he was a little disappointed with us, “Sneaking in wouldn’t be a problem, you’ve been in the king’s guard, that should give you some connections,” I began to speak again but Gray cut me off, “Why did you even bother risking your life in the tournament? It’s evident now that you really don’t have the motivation, you were just playing around,” he backed his chair away from the table and stood.
“Where are you going?” I asked bewildered.
“I’m not just going to mope around and do nothing. My only reason for being here is Cloud Isle and since you seem intent on going nowhere I’m taking my leave.”
He started to walk away, I was going to lose my invaluable weapons master, there was no time to think, “Wait!” I called, Gray turned. “Alright, we’ll do it,” I said, not really believing the words coming out of my mouth.
Gray slowly sat back down, I looked at the others, “Sorry,” I said to them, I had practically forced them into this.
Rook shrugged, “Not like we’ve been known for making smart decisions.”
Brand slammed the jug down, “Hell, I’ve always wondered what it’s like to be on the other side of the law.”
I looked over at Gret, he smiled, “Hey, you’re the boss,” he said pointing at me, “I’ve got nothing to say.”
Sean clapped his hands together, “Well that’s it, you’re going to steal the Dragon Dancer mask. I guess I’ll just have to hang out here a bit longer and tell you how to get to it.” Sean was enjoying this way too much.
Only one thought went through my mind. Damn was I going to regret this.
There was no moon to light our way as we walked through the empty streets, not even the faint light of the stars. That morning the sky was clear but now it was dark with clouds and I wondered to myself if Luecor was the cause of it. Every so often you could hear the muffled thuds of thunder from the clouds overhead, threatening to pour down on us. I looked up and cursed my luck and prayed that it wouldn’t rain. My eyes turned back to the road, I didn’t have time to worry about the weather.
There were a few people on the streets, not surprising since it was past the middle of the night. Every time someone passed I couldn’t help but to get fidgety. Did they know what we were doing? Why was he looking at me that way? Did I look suspicious? With difficulty I tried to shake the nervous thoughts from my head and concentrate. My nerves are ruined, I’ll never do anything like this again I silently promised in my mind.
The lights from the houses and businesses darkened as the people retired for the night and soon the roads were hard to see. My eyes adjusted to the darkness and I went over the plan in my head, trying to calm my nerves. Our plan wasn’t really a plan but a gamble, a great idea considering our luck. We were almost to Cloud Castle, there were yellow dots in the sky up ahead of us where it loomed in the sky. This wasn’t my first time I’d been there, it was a large castle, the second largest in the land (the first was the king’s castle in Kangia). During tournaments and special events the royal family lodged there but usually the castle was used by nobles. Since the building was not regularly used by the royal family it was designed not for luxury but as a fortress, filled with highly trained guards, and thick walls and doors. We are stupid to think this will work, I thought rubbing the grip of my sword. I reached inside my shirt and held my sister’s charm in my hand. Immediately the panicky feeling in my chest disappeared but not without a bad feeling in my gut.
I looked behind me; everyone followed me as if I were the man in charge. Gret smiled and gave a thumbs up, I smiled in return, hoping that I did a good job faking it. He insisted on calling me Boss, accomplishing his goal in annoying me. Rook looked grumpy over the whole, “get the mask thing” but he wasn’t happy unless he was unhappy. Brand was the opposite, smiling, almost eager to get killed. Gray was behind all of us, so far that he was almost alone, his dragon was still hiding on him somewhere. We all asked him if we could use the very useful gigantic, almost-impossible-to-take-down animal. Like before he told us to ask the dragon, unsurprisingly the pigheaded little thing didn’t even come out of its hidey hole.
After what seemed like one deep breath later we reached the castle gates which were closed. As we approached a guard came up to us, covered in armor, helmet covering his face, “State your business civilian,” said a hollow gruff voice.
“Uh, well,” I said slowly, I wasn’t good at all this making up stuff. Someone elbowed me in the back, “You see we’re the Dragon Dancers. So, yeah…we were called here by the king to uh…” I looked to the side. Before I could sound any more like an idiot the guard started to laugh, I stopped talking immediately and stared at him surprised.
“Ha ha, it isn’t every day you see Captain Aaron flustered,” said a much younger sounding man from the helmet.
Before I could stop myself I said automatically, “Just Aaron, I’m not a Captain anymore.”
The guard stopped laughing, “Do you even remember me?” Wait, that voice sounded familiar…
It came to me, “Ralf!” I exclaimed, the guard took off his helmet, revealing my black-haired grinning friend Ralf.
“It’s been forever man!” he said punching me on the shoulder lightheartedly, I returned it.
“Ralf?!” exclaimed Brand also.
“Oh, I didn’t see you there Brad,” Ralf smiled, “Never thought I’d see you again,” he turned around “Open the gate!” he called to the guards. He turned back to us, “congrats on making it to second place in the tournament,” he shook his head, “You know I’d bet everyone in the stands would agree that Luecor wasn’t the winner,” he motioned for us to follow him and he started to walk toward the castle.
“Thanks,” I said to Ralf, this was a stroke of luck for us to meet him here, we didn’t even have to break or sneak in and that was a plus. Suddenly I realized that I’d have to practically betray my old friends trust by stealing in the place he was guarding. Maybe this wasn’t such a good thing I thought sadly.
Ralf shook it off, “Nah, it’s nothing compared to the stuff you did in the guard. The Abguard really misses you.”
I gave him a sad smile, “I miss the guys too.”
“Well you’re doin pretty good so far,” Ralf said looking behind me, “It’d say your guys are rivaling the Abs. What you did in the tournament, phew, it was somethin,” he said to them, they nodded in thanks.
We reached the door of the castle, Ralf gave orders to open the door to let us in, we stepped into the warmly lit hall. “So how are the Abs these days?” I asked Ralf.
He sighed, “After you left the Absguard broke apart, that’s why I ended down here.” He gestured around him sheepishly.
“If you don’t mind, what is this Absguard?” Rook asked, he hated to not know what was going on.
“It was the guard I was put in charge of,” I answered, “It was a special unit, the only reason I got it was because of my age.”
Ralf laughed, “We were ‘special’ alright, we got the name Abnormal-guard. All us nobodies, problem children, too young or old soldiers that no one wanted were put in the Abguard.”
“They really weren’t that bad,” I piped in.
“Yea, after you got through us. Then everyone wanted to be in the Abguard,” he sighed, “Good times.” He stopped in the red carpeted hall and smacked his forehead, “I forgot to ask, where are you guys supposed to be?” he asked turning to us.
Before I could talk Rook said, “They never really gave instructions on where to go. I think we should wait here.” I was relieved I didn’t have to lie to one of my old friends.
“Hmm,” said Ralf, not the least bit suspicious at the lie, “That’s weird; I thought the castle was more organized than that.”
“Would you mind fining out?” asked Rook smoothly.
“No prob!” said Ralf, he started to walk away, “You guys just stay here, I’ll be back in a few!”
I watched him go guiltily, I’m sorry Ralf, I thought. We waited until he was out of sight then took off. It took me every ounce of control to not sprint off down the hallway to the mask but I walked, looking straight ahead and hopefully looking like I belonged there. The servants who took care of the castle went to great lengths to spruce up the castle for the royal guests that would be staying for a few weeks. There was plenty of light in the castle and it was warm from the giant highly wrought fireplaces and torches along the wall. Portraits of past kings and queens hung on the walls, looking eternally sublime in their frames. We turned left into a smaller but no less adorned hallway and walked past the doors that led to miscellaneous parts of the castle. Ignoring the doors we kept going until we reached the end of the hallway then turned right again into an even smaller passage way. As we continued walking the conditions started to get noticeably worse. Everything became dimmer and the shine of the stones getting dull then disappearing all together. We kept walking, all the vases and pictures non-existent, until at last we reached a dead end. I would have wondered why they even bothered having this hallway if I didn’t know where we were going. As I looked at the blank wall, it had half an arms length of bricks on each side jutting out like pillars. I walked to the wall, my hand reaching out and touching it, “Which side did Sean say it was again?” I asked my group behind me.
“Right,” said Rook.
“Left,” said Gret.
“I don’t know,” said Brand cheerfully.
Gray sighed, “It’s the right one, trust me.” Taking the word of Rook and Gray I extended my arm out to touch the wall jutting out to the right. I felt nothing as my finger passed through the stone. Just like Sean said. “Here I go,” I breathed and walked right into the wall. I flinched as I stepped forward, expecting the pain of running into rock but was immersed complete darkness and felt the temperature drop a few degrees. I walked forward some more then felt the pain of hitting a rock when my head smacked the wall. Holding back a curse I raised my hands up and felt the wall that was a hair away from my bruised forehead. As my hands felt all around me I realized that I must be inside the pillar-like part of the wall. My hand also brushed a metal rung of a ladder, just where Sean said it would be. Carefully I shuffled out of the tiny space to my friend’s excited faces.
“So is it there?” asked Gret.
“Yeah,” I said, rubbing my head, “But be careful walking inn, I couldn’t take another step in there.”
Carefully I shuffled back in, my hand out seeing for me as I stepped into the darkness. I caught the metal rung and before I could hoist myself up someone bumped into me, sending straight into the painful metal for a second time.
“Kinda squished in here,” said Brand uncomfortably.
I pushed against him, “Can you give me a little more time and move,” I said through clenched teeth.
“Sure, sorry,” said Brand not sounding very sorry and squeezed himself out. I hurriedly pulled myself up onto the ladder, climbed a few rungs then waved through the wall for the others to follow before resuming climbing. There were sounds below me of Brand finding his way to the ladder; from what I could hear he barley had any room to move in here.
One, two, three, I counted as I climbed the ladder, remembering what Sean had said, “There will be a ladder and you’ll have to climb, I don’t know 150 steps. Be sure to not lose count cause it leads to different places. Then…,” Just in case I lost track of where we were I told everyone to count too. I regretted saying that after Brand started climbing behind me while mumbling his count just loud enough for me to hear.
“Count in your head!” I hissed at what I thought was rung number twenty-five. I quickly climbed, not wanting Brand to run into me. Suddenly there was a light below me; Rook must have conjured a light, I thought. A little yellow flame came from below and floated in front of me. “Thanks Rook,” I called down.
I could barely hear the “Mmhm,” he responded with. Gret came in a little later after him and I didn’t hear Gray get on but assumed did; Gret would have told me if he hadn’t gotten on. When I got to number ninety-three I started to second guess myself but I kept on counting, telling myself that I’d lose count or change the number to something wrong if I thought that way.
“Eighty-one, eighty-two,” mumbled Brand counting again.
“Cut it out!” Rook and I yelled in usion, and we were all surprised by the strong echo of our voices in the quiet space. We should keep the noise down, I thought and I was pretty sure I wasn’t the only one. I turned around and started upward then stopped abruptly. What number was I on? Dang it Brand! I wanted to shout at him but I didn’t want to mess up anyone else’s counting so I estimated I was at around one hundred and continued up.
Though the small amount of light that Rook conjured up wasn’t enough to let us see the bottom by now I could almost sense how far up we were going, how the ground was getting farther and farther away. I didn’t really worry about falling; the walls were so close that just leaning back I could support myself without my hands.
Finally I counted 150 in my head and stopped, looking around and hoping to see this secret door. Nothing. I curse in my head, I didn’t get the number close enough.
There was a tap on my shoe and I looked down, “Are we there yet?” Brand whispered looking up at me.
“What number are you on?” I asked.
Brand looked up at me surprised, “You lost count?”
“Yes,” I said exasperated, “What number are you on?”
“142,” he said smugly.
That wasn’t too bad, I thought. I should be right about there, if not, on 150. I looked around again, inspecting the walls around me even closer.
“Did you find the door?” asked Rook from below Brand.
“I don’t see the door,” I said, “Are Gret and Gray behind you?”
“Yep,” said Gret from a little farther below, “Gray is here too.”
“What are your numbers?” I asked.
“131,” said Rook.
“123 Boss,” called Gret.
“116,” I heard quietly from Gray.
That was about right, I thought calculating in my head, but why wasn’t I seeing the door? “Look around, I don’t see the door.” I called down. Time passed, still no sign of the door. Did Sean send us here on a pointless mission?
“Why don’t we douse the lights?” Gret suggested, “then we’d see if there’s any light from the cracks on the door.”
“Good thinking,” I said, “Rook?”
“Working on it,” he grumbled.
Rook snuffed the lights and we were left again in the pitch black except up above me was a faint line of light.
“There it is!” I said, eager to get out of this place. I reached the crack that was in between two rungs, practically impossible to see with the lights. Experimentally I pushed about the line, it didn’t budge. Above the line, still nothing. I heaved myself against the wall as hard as I could without falling. Again, nothing. I nearly punched the wall in frustration but instead just threw my head back. A moment too late I remembered I was in a tightly cramped space with no room to throw any heads. I flinched expecting the pain of hitting the wall for a third time. No pain came. I turned and reached out behind me, my hand touched nothing but air. “Rook, light!” I called down.
“Ordering us around now?” I heard Rook mutter but a ball of light floated up to me. It revealed a large square hole on the wall opposite of the ladder, something I distinctly remembered not being there before. It would have been helpful if Sean told us all of this, I thought, it wasn’t fun having to figure out a magic puzzle. Carefully I stepped from the ladder to the hole that was big enough that I could stand in while bending down a little. Brand and the others followed me as I walked inside the hole, Brand looking very cramped and stooping down very low while Gray could stand. We didn’t have to walk long before we reached a square door that evidently led to the mask. I looked back at the others and nodded, silently asking Ready? they nodded back, Let’s go. I grabbed the handle and pushed.
For a second my eyes were blinded by the bright lights in the room. Finally they adjusted and saw we were in a bedroom, a huge one with exquisite carpet and an expensive gigantic bed with beautiful silk covers and furniture that I probably couldn’t buy with all the money I could earn in my lifetime. Gold mirrors, jewelry, treasure chests there was an assortment of things only the rich could think of buying. And standing in the middle of the room, looking at me with wide, bewildered eyes was the most valuable thing in the room, Princess Hellina.
“Aaron?” she whispered.
“H-hello Princess,” I said, why hadn’t Sean told us the mask was in the Princess’s room?
“Move it Aaron!” said Brand pushing me out of the way and stepping out of the hole with everyone else behind him, “It’s nice to get out of that rat h-Whoa! Princess?!”
She looked at us, not really sure what to think “What are you doing-,”
“We are here to steal the mask,” said Gray frankly.
“Gray!” I turned and faced him, I couldn’t believe that he just blurted out what we were doing to the Princess of all people. He ignored me annoyingly.
“You’re here to steal the mask?” she asked me, taken aback.
Being the master of smooth talk I said the only thing I could think, “Yeah, sorry Princess.”
She stood there staring for a moment then walked away from us. Alarmed I looked at everyone else, what should we do? I mouthed to them.
The Princess went to a drawer by her bed and motioned to us to come over, puzzled but cautious we walked over there. I looked inside the drawer she pulled and couldn’t help to suck in a breath. Inside was a mask that was dull gray that had no designs only two eye holes. I was surprised at how normal it looked but I was sure this was the Dragon Dancers mask. “Why are you giving this to us?” I asked, shocked.
She looked at me straight in the eye, “I’m rooting for you Aaron, and I’m not going to let that loser take what you won. Take it.”
“But you’ll get in trouble,” I said.
She smiled dazzlingly, “I was helpless when you took it from me. I wasn’t able to stop the powerful Dragon Seekers. Now take it and leave before you get caught.”
I grabbed the gray mask and to my surprise it turned black and when I tried to pull it out of the drawer it weighed like a watermelon, “It’s heavy,” I said surprised.
“I don’t know why but sometimes it’s really light for different people. I can’t even pick it up.”
“Then here, Brad,” I said, passing it to the muscleman of the group, hoping for him it would be lighter.
Brand took it in his hands which dropped down almost to the ground from the weight, “What’s this made of?” he asked, “This is worse than lead.” I also noticed something changed about the mask as he took it but pushed the observations out of my mind, I didn’t have time to be sidetracked.
“Thank you Princess,” I said to her smiling, she smiled back sweetly. “Let’s go guys,” I said to the others and turned back to the secret passage. Someone grabbed my hand and pulled me back, I spun around face to face with Princess Hellina.
I just then saw how her golden hair shined in the light and her green eyes sparkled like the stars were in them. And her lashes…I could go on, “Wait,” she whispered then she reached up and kissed me full on the lips. I nearly had a heart attack. She pulled away, “For luck,” she whispered.
Someone pulled my frozen body toward the door, “Come on you lucky dog,” Gret said laughing. I recovered from my shock to look back one last time at the Princess, she waved and I blushed, hesitantly waving back. Reluctantly I closed the door. Rook had a little flame lit already, “Are we going to go anytime soon or do you want to go back and ask for another kiss?” he asked sarcastically.
I smiled; everything hand turned out not as bad as I had thought and in the end we got a little more than we were looking for. “Come on guys,” I said, “let’s get back-,”
“AHHHHH! AARON!” Princess Hellina’s high pitched scream shocked me and we all sprinted for the door.
“Princess!” I yelled, bursting into the room.
“Hey there Aaron, Dragon Seekers,” I froze, a lone figure stood in front of us, Luecor.
“What are you doing here? Where’s Princess Hellina?” I yelled.
“I’d love to tell you,” Luecor said casually, “But how about we speak alone?” as he talked he motioned to the rest of my group. A huge amount of magic energy swept around the others and before they could blink, they disappeared.
“What did you do to them?” I said and started to draw my sword.
“Wait! Wait!” Luecor said putting a hand up, “They’re just behind the more obvious door,” he pointed behind him.
“And the Princess?” I demanded.
Luecor smiled evilly, “Why are you asking me? You were the one who kidnapped her, I witnessed it. I just got here as I saw you sprinting down the hallway, Hellina in one arm, mask in the other.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, “They won’t believe you,” I said.
Luecor shook his finger, “Oh, but are you supposed to be here?”
My stomach dropped, “Where’s Hellina?” I yelled, she was more important than my reputation. Before I could unsheathe my sword Luecor ran inhumanly fast and stood in front of me. His hand shot out and grabbed me by the neck and held me in the air. Choking I tried to pry his fingers off but his hand was like iron around my neck, he can’t be human, I thought.
“Hellina, Hellina, Hellina. You should stop worrying about that prissy thing. Trust me, she’s not your type kid,” with ease he threw me against the wall.
I landed gasping and in pain, Luecor leaned down, and for a second his evil grin waned, “Can you do me a favor? Give Gray a message for me: I’m not the enemy here.”
“Like hell you are,” I spat at him and lunged.
Luecor easily evaded and grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and with strength I had no chance of resisting he pushed me barreling toward the doors. He laughed, “I don’t really care about what you think. Just give the message. See you in Efedelia kid, now run,” he shoved me out of the door.
My group caught me as I tumbled out. The door slammed behind me. “You okay Aaron?” Gret asked. I got back to my feet and ran to the door, grabbing at the locked handle. “He’s got Princess Hellina somewhere; we’ve got to fight him!”
“We’ve got to run!” said Gret anxiously.
“No! Not without the Princess!” I said pounding the door.
A hand grabbed my shirt and wrenched me face to face with Gray, “We haven’t got the time to fight Luecor Aaron. Look around.” He let me go and I looked around, around me were the bodies of slain guards, looking down the hallway I could see others covering the ground. Luecor had set us up big time. I hated to admit it but I didn’t see any other option, we’d have to run.
I looked around at my group, the hard looks on their faces showed that they were ready. I took a deep breath, “Let’s go.”
We sprinted down the hallways relying only on my vague memories of the castle. The number of slain soldiers increased as we ran, Luecor spared no one in his massacre. In a gruesome way it helped us, there were no guards to stop us, at least for now. But it would have been impossible for Luecor to kill all the soldiers in the castle; we weren’t going to be alone for much longer. Another problem was nagging in the back of my mind, there were plenty of practically unused hallways for us to navigate out of here but there was only one exit, the place we came from at the main gate. I had no idea how we were going to make it out of that.
We ran down the stairs that seemed to go on forever. With the amount of steps we climbed on the ladder I wouldn’t be surprised if we had to go down at least ten floors. As we descended the sound of footsteps grew louder and I knew we were about to confront an unhappy army of soldiers. When I saw the shadows of the front line of a group of soldiers I took a turn onto the fifth or fourth floor. We sprinted down, me trying to remember the nearest stairway and having no luck. I was randomly picking hallways to run down, hoping that around the next corner would be a set of stairs. The voices of soldiers were getting closer but still I had no luck until I couldn’t turn anymore, we were at a dead end. There were two doors either side of us, I did a quick check in the right one, there were no windows or exits from there. Then I rushed into the left room. It was dark in the large room but I could see the outline of someone sitting in a chair, the person stood up when I ran in.
“Aaron?”
Surprised I looked at the figure who spoke my name, recognizing the voice, “Ethan?” I asked.
He walked up to me, the light from the open door revealed that it really was Ethan, or Prince Etheldread, “It really is you. How in the world did you find me?” the sound of footsteps interrupted him and he grabbed Gret and the others and pulled them into the room. Ethan closed and locked the door, “More importantly what are you doing here? And why are is the whole place looking for you?”
I hurriedly talked, “We came here to steal the mask, we did but Hellina was taken by Luecor who is framing us for taking her and he’s killed a bunch of guards so everyone is after us.”
I was relieved to see that Ethan didn’t freak out or look at us as criminals. Instead he quickly took it in, looking worried, “I don’t care about the mask but Luecor’s a problem. Are you sure Luecor took Hellina and framed you guys?” we nodded, “I can’t say I’m surprised. I would love to back you guys up but the King would never listen to me.” He looked at the door anxiously, “I can help you guys somewhat but I can’t guarantee you’ll escape.” He ran over to the window and we followed. He opened the doors of the window to reveal the rain that was pouring down as far as we could see. Water rained inside the room from the wind but Ethan didn’t care, “You can escape on this,” he pointed up at something above his window. At first I saw nothing with the rain pouring down then I could make out a line that went from above his window to somewhere down below us at a steady decline. “It’s a zip line. If I ever needed to escape the castle I’d just zip down this.”
“Will it hold us?” I said admiring the clever invention.
“Yeah, only one person at a time though and it ends on top of the gate so you’ll have to fend for yourselves there.”
“Thanks,” I said to Ethan, “I don’t know how we could make it up to you.”
Ethan shrugged, “No need to repay me. Just do me a favor and rescue my sister,” he said and handed each of us a piece of metal designed to hold onto as we zipped down the line.
There was someone knocking on the door, I motioned for the others to go. Brand volunteered first, he got on the window and put the bar on the line, held on tight, then jumped. The line dipped a little but held and Brand zoomed down through the rain. After the line popped back up Rook went then Gret, Gray went down looking like he had done it all his life then I was left.
The guards were pounding the door harder, “Prince Etheldread!” they yelled, “Open the door!”
Ethan looked at the door with contempt, “You better get going,” he said.
“Thanks again,” I said climbing up I got onto the line then jumped. I was vaguely aware that the door burst open behind me but no one could stop me now, I was flying down the line. Falling would be the more correct term, I felt like I’d smash into a wall on the other end of the line I was going so fast and the rain was stinging When I was halfway down I was suddenly conscious that a guard could just cut the line and I’d fall screaming to my death. I silently hoped that Ethan could hold them off until I could land. There was a bad feeling in my stomach, the guards definitely saw me jumping through his window; it was unlikely that Ethan wouldn’t get in trouble. I started to slow down on my decent and didn’t feel like I was plunging to my death. I could hear the sounds of fighting up ahead; and rapidly enough I could see the gate and the tangle of people clashing. The sooner I got down there the better.
Finally I was at the gate, my group had provided me enough cover so that I could land without worry. As soon as I landed I joined my group in fending off the guards. The gate was thin enough that we didn’t have to worry too much about being overwhelmed, still from what I could see the guards wouldn’t stop coming for awhile. We were doing okay but we were starting to get tired with all the fighting, not to mention all the running we did in the castle. The rain wasn’t helping. I could never get used to that feeling of being soggy and my eyes watering from the rain that hit them. What we needed to do was get off the gate but with all the guards attacking us we couldn’t move an inch. I tiredly lunged at the tenth guard who just blocked my sword, “Man, no need to swing that hard,” I heard Ralf say.
I withdrew my sword and Ralf came at me, I parried his sword, he didn’t really swing though, it was more just for show. “Keep up the act,” he hissed. I took his advice and faked a cut at him. “Jump off the gate right to your left,” he whispered.
“What?” I whispered back confused.
“Trust me, jump off,” he said through clenched teeth.
I looked down, I couldn’t see the bottom but I knew that we were up two to three stories up. Ralf stared straight at me, he really expected me to trust him, and I did. And he still was willing to help me even after I betrayed him. Ralf spoke up, interrupting my thoughts “Don’t beat yourself up, I know you. I don’t believe what people say or care what they tell me to do, you’re my captain and my friend. The way I see it, you over rank the idiot that runs this place”
I smiled, “Thanks,” I said, not knowing what else I could say. I disarmed him with my sword and nodded to him, he fell backwards like he was hurt, taking out some guards behind him. “Hey!” I yelled back at the others, they turned though a little busy with the fighting, “Jump!” I yelled pointing down below. Before they could ask me where my sense was and the soldiers could attack me, I leaped. There was a moment or two that I felt my stomach seize up and I panicked just a little from the drop. Then I landed in the wagon filled with hey, there wasn’t enough of the straw to keep me from getting a bruised butt but that was better than having broken shins. I immediately moved myself out of the wagon so not to get crushed by anyone. My group’s loyalty showed when they fell from the gate following me seconds after. As soon as everyone was off we took off down the street. Thunder and lightning cracked overhead, lighting the path eerily with white light. The rain pelted down, the fat droplets almost stinging as I ran. Puddles filled the road and I ran through every one of them, my clothes getting soaked over and over again. The weather would have dampened my spirits if I wasn’t running for my life. Behind me I could hear the shouting of the guards, they seemed to be getting closer every second, I couldn’t even tell if the footsteps behind me were my group or the people chasing us.
“You guys there?” I yelled between breaths.
“Yeah,” answered Gret panting.
“And we got it?”
“Yeah, it’s damn heavy!” grunted Brand.
“Good,” I muttered. Now our problem was how to escape. The guards hadn’t started chasing us with the horses yet and I was wondering if Luecor had any part of that either. We planned how to escape beforehand; we just didn’t think that we’d be chased at this level. We rounded the corner, they shouldn’t be too far away…There! Standing out in the rain by the inn Sean told us about was a boy with five horses. We quickly ran over to him, I reached into my pocket and brought out a copper tran (worth about 10 trans) and handed it to the boy. He still held onto the reigns when I started to pull a horse away, “Why do you think you can take these?” he asked me.
“Because Sean told you to give these horses to us,” I said hurriedly looking back, the guards were going to catch up soon.
The boy handed me the reigns, “He told me to check.”
“Thanks,” we all hastily got onto the horses, not being very picky.
The rest of the night was a blur, all I can remember was that we rode hard and fast out of the city with the soldiers nipping our heels.
And the rain, it never stopped.
