The Castle of Shadows
Chapter 1: Wanted
The sounds of the battle clashed outside of the castle walls, the crash of swords, the cries of pain and anger, and there I sat in the throne room. The prince, I'm the prince and here I sit with the battle raging outside these stupid walls. I thought. Of course when I voiced these thoughts the head advisor, Renelus, said,
"Your Highness, you are not supposed to fight unless the barriers your mother placed on the throne room are broken." Even in the midst of battle Renelus' high, squeaky voice was annoying. "Besides that, don't you think you should have a sword?"
"I do have a sword," I replied, my sword was a special sword called a katana, the reason Renelus couldn't see it was because it was strapped horizontally to my lower back which was easier than attaching it to my side like everyone else. "Besides, you know full well I only ever fight enemies with my hand and feet as my only weapons. I'm known as The Shao Prince for a reason." Shao was the name for hand to hand combat, which I was well known for using my own style of. The other fighting styles were called Nehao, which was sword fighting, and Kaao, the name of spell work. I was good at Kaao, but Nehao was definitely one of my weaker points, a fact Renelus knew full well.
"Yes but a fifteen year old prince needs to know how to fight with a sword, besides all of your enemies will be using swords." Renelus squeaked.
"That is why I use Kaao shields." I replied calmly.
"Nevertheless…" The doors burst open and one of the messengers came running in.
"Your Highness, some very strong warriors have broken the barriers and are coming to fight you." He gasped.
I smiled. "Finally."
No sooner than the words came out of my mouth than 20 men came into the room wearing the red armor of the enemy. The biggest one called, "Where is the Shao Prince?"
"You're looking at him." I said, pointing to the black crown set with one sapphire in the middle, which I had just sat on the arm of the throne after standing. The men laughed.
"You?" said the man. "You can't be more than seventeen."
"Fifteen, but thank you for the compliment." I was still smiling.
"Very well then I shall be the first one you are to fight." The man took a step forward.
"Why," I replied. "would I fight only one of you at a time when I can defeat you all now?"
The men laughed again but the big man, who apparently was the leader said, "Fine then, you little brat." They all charged at me swords drawn
None of them saw it coming, before they knew it I was standing in the middle of them. I swung my leg up and kick the man nearest me in the face, as he went flying I put my hands of the floor and kicked the next guy in the face as well, putting me in a handstand. A third man swung his sword at my arms, I push myself into the air flipped and landed behind him, I jab him in the back using my palm, causing the energy I had built up in my hand to release. There was a loud crack, his spine had snapped. The next four fell just as easily, then seven more fell, I fought another few minutes. Finally there was only one man left, it was the leader. I ran, to him vanished, and reappeared inches from his face. I knocked the sword from his hand and pinned him to the wall.
"You truly are The Shao Prince," he said. His eyes were cold, and full of hatred and anger, "We were sent here to kill you, Prince Orean."
I almost released him in shock, I controlled myself and said, "Who sent you?" he didn't answer, he instead looked at the ground and spat at my feet. "Then I have no more to say to you." I pulled back my hand and said the incantation, "Patter of rain, Clap of thunder, fly to my hand and strike my enemy; Kaao Reinii." I felt the water and electricity surround my hand and I thrust it forward into his heart. I pulled my hand out of his chest and let his body slide to the ground. I turned around and looked up at Renelus. He still had his eyes covered, the idiot.
"Renelus, I'm fine." I called. He uncovered his eyes, and looked at me.
"Oh, Your Highness, I knew you could do it." He said.
I rolled my eyes and started walking toward him, next thing I knew I was laying on the floor with Renelus, my mother, and my father standing over me.
"What happened?" I asked groggily, my head felt like it had been split open, the side effects of a healing Kaao.
"One of those men that you fought must have poisoned you." My mother said softly.
"Are you alright son?"My father asked, his normally booming voice was rather hoarse.
"Yeah, but mother, what level spell did you use to take out the poison?" I replied.
"It was only a medium level spell, most of your headache is probably an effect of the poison," She said, "I'm just glad you are alright."
"How did the battle go?" I sat up to look at them.
"We drove off the quarter of the enemy we didn't defeat," My father answered. "By the way," He turned to Renelus. "What was Orean's time beating these guys?" He pointed around the room at the twenty bodies.
"I believe it was about 3 minutes, would have been less if he hadn't used Kaao on that last one." Renelus pointed to the body of the group's leader."
"That's my boy." My father beamed at me. I smiled but didn't say anything, my mind was still filled with the man's final words, we were sent here to kill you, Prince Orean. At first I thought that I should have left him alive to question him, but if I had passed out while restraining him, even with Kaao, he could have broken free and finished his job easily. I decided not to tell my parents about the fact that he was sent to kill me and instead asked. "Did you find out where the other army came from, I didn't recognize their armor?"
He looked down at me his eyes were full of worry. "It was The Karwallians, but these men are not from their ranks, the Karwallians wear silver armor. We don't know who these men are. Orean, they may have been sent to kill you, did they say anything?"
"Well, yes," I said, my mother gasped. "That one," I pointed to the leader's body. "Said that he was sent to kill me, then when I asked who sent him he spat and me and…" the words "I killed him" rang in the air but I didn't say them.
"Well it was for the best anyway, and besides that, it appears that whoever did this severely underestimated you." My father said quietly. I smiled slightly, then stood up and said.
"I'm going to bed." I walked to the door, threw it open, and walked out.
The next morning I made my way down the spiral staircase and into the great hall. My mother and father were already eating breakfast. When I walked in Renelus ran up to lead me to a chair, I held up my hand and he backed away.
"Renelus, you know I don't like to be treated like royalty." I said sitting in the chair next to my mother.
"Yes Your Highness, but you are royalty." Renelus replied.
"Okay, I don't care. As long as I have conscious thought I will not be treated like royalty." I glared at him.
"Yes, Your Highness," I cleared my throat and continued to glare at him. "I mean Prince Orean."
"Thank you." I smiled and turned away. After a huge breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast, and sausage, I walked out into the garden despite Renelus' protests of, "It's too dangerous." And "There are people out to kill you." The garden was huge, and one of my favorite places to be alone. I had planted most of the flowers and encouraged them to grow with Kaao. Plants, water, and electricity were the types of Kaao that I was best at. I was not quite good enough at the time but I was almost ready to create a small storm.
My country, Sarmia, was in the middle of a vast forest. The trees were some of the tallest in the land of Wisteran. This terrain made it easy work for our army to win battles.
Now that I was far enough from the palace I looked up at it. The towers seemed to stretch to the sky. I could see some of the servants walking past windows but aside from that the castle seemed kind of empty. I heard a rustle behind me and turned to see one of my friends walking out from one of the bushes. Her blonde hair, characteristic of servants whereas royalty all had light brown hair, had leaves tangled in it. She looked up at me and gave a very pronounced bow.
"Good morning your royal princyness," she said in an over dramatized peasant accent "or would you rather be called your hinnyness?" she looked up at me but remained bowed.
"What about Orean." I smiled.
"Ok." She popped up out of the bow and started bouncing on her toes. Her name was Cecilia and she had rather a lot of energy. "So what brings you out to the gardens on this lovely blood strewn day?" she asked.
"Blood stained?" I said startled.
She looked at me for a second. "Boy, those guys really must have hit you hard."
"Oh," I felt the knot that had appeared in my stomach loosen. "You meant the battle last night; you had me worried for a minute."
She just continued to stare at me, her wide blue eyes penetrating my amber ones. "Popcorn!" she shouted suddenly, I jumped. Cecilia often shouted random words that made no sense, but I should have seen this one coming. "Tut tut." She said. "A young prince shouldn't allow himself to be frightened."
I rolled my eyes, and turned back to the palace, "Shouldn't you be in the kitchen?"
"I had a vision that I should go into the garden," She replied. The other strange thing about Cecilia was that she sometimes had visions of the future, but not very vivid ones, nor important. "and look what I came across, a wanted prince."
I turned to look at her. "Wanted? How…"
"We servants hear things." She cut me off.
"Well I'll be sure to have a word with Renelus." I said.
"He's the one who told us." Cecilia said.
"I know, that is what I'm going to talk to him about."
"Oh," we both stood in silence for a moment, "Well, have fun with that." Then she turned and skipped away.
I shook my head and walked in the opposite direction. Fortunately Cecilia chose to walk toward the castle, so I was walking away from it. I walked a ways and sat down on a beautiful stone bench, our family crest was carved into the side. The design of the crest was that of a tree cleverly made to look as though it was made of water. I had brought a book along; I opened it and began to read. This quietness didn't last long, there was a scream of terror from somewhere around the village which was on the side of the garden opposite the castle. I groaned, stood, and ran in the direction of the scream. When I reached the village entrance I saw the problem immediately, there was smoke pouring out of one of the nearest houses windows. A young woman, around my age, was standing in front of the house looking shocked. Ignoring the murmurs of the villagers when they saw me, I held my hand in the air and said "Kaao Niite." Instantly water fell on the fire from nowhere. Low level Kaao do not have a spell.
"Oh, thank you; thank you so much your highness. I am Sarae, as gratitude for this I will give you anything you ask for." She looked at me with admiration
"That won't be necessary," I smiled at her. "Your safety is enough."
"Oh, thank you sir." She fell to her knees, took my hand and kissed it.
"You're welcome. You three," I pointed at three strong looking men who were watching quietly. "Why don't you help this poor woman rebuild her house?"
"Yes Sir." They said.
I looked back at the woman, smiled, and walked back into the garden as though nothing had happened.
The villagers stared after me; some still had their mouths opened in shock. It wasn't often that a member of the royal family walked into town. I smiled, seeing the prince was a rare sight, especially when he was alone, but I enjoyed seeing their expressions.
"There you are." someone said from behind me. I turned and found myself staring into the face of the head of the secret security squad, a team of highly trained warriors who could move so quietly that even I couldn't detect them. He smiled grimly. I sighed and closed my eyes, I opened them again to find that he had backed off; I smiled and said in monotone.
"Yep, you caught me."
He smirked, "I know that tone of voice, don't think you can use Speed Step this time. You're already surrounded." I felt my eyes widen in shock. Speed Step was a type of Kaao that allows the user to move quickly and silently by concentrating energy into your feet. It is more of jumping forward and landing then jumping again in quick succession than actually running. I turned a found that I was, in fact, surrounded. There was no way of getting out of this; I would have to go back to the palace with them.
"Renelus sent you, didn't he?" I asked. He nodded.
Once we reached the castle I marched straight into Renelus' room, he was sitting on his bed working on some sort of royal document.
"Renelus," I shouted. He jumped and papers went flying everywhere. "Why did you feel the need to send the royal guards to drag me back to the palace?"
"W-well y-your highness," He knew how bad I could be when I got angry, "I t-t-thought that it was f-far too dangerous, y-you are the prince." He looked terrified, I smiled.
"Well you are right but still you should have sent one person after me not the entire squad, they are here to protect the castle and the village, not to search for a prince who is perfectly capable of protecting himself." I looked at him with a slight smile. He seemed to realize that I wasn't mad anymore because he stopped shaking and looked me in the eyes for the first time.
"Um your highness, what exactly happened in the village?" I looked away again as my expression changed to a frown.
"I saved a woman's house from burning to the ground." I replied. He looked up at me again and said.
"Your highness you are not supposed to go into the village alone unless your father has to make a royal proclamation."
"Oh calm down, you know perfectly well that that rule was put into effect for the safety of a prince years… oh." I realized that Renelus was absolutely right. I should have been leaving the castle, sure I could have protected myself but those guys from the security squad were able to sneak up on me, so why couldn't someone else.