Chapter 1
Relena was in the middle of packing then Alyce walked into their room. Seeing Relena packing, Alyce smiled and started to pack her own things.
"Oh, my lady, it worked! We're going home?"
Relena didn't ever bother to turn around, but folded a gown onto her chest. "We are leaving in the morning...... For DarkCastle."
Alyce dropped the gown she was folding with a wail. "No, Lady Relena, why? I though you knew what you were doing?"
"I thought I knew what I was doing, too." Relena snapped. She picked up the dress that Alyce had dropped and handed it to her. "Now we need to pack."
"My lady, why? Why did you pick the Red Knight? You could have picked anyone from the kingdom, someone rich and handsome. But no, you picked the Red Knight." Alyce said with a groan. "What was wrong with Christopher Anderson? He is rich and handsome, and he does not worship the devil!" Alyce cried the last part and buried her face in the gown she was holding.
"Stop that!" Relena yelled "I would marry the devil himself before I'd marry that boorish, self-centered, rude, ignorant, JERK." Relena said shivering at the thought of Lord Anderson. Oh he was handsome all right, and he knew it too. He was young, tall, and had so dark a brown of hair it was almost black. And he had beautiful, dark green eyes. But it was his eyes that made Relena shiver, they were cold and unfeeling eyes. They were eyes that made you know that if he were your enemy, he would show no mercy. 'Lord,' Relena though, 'thank you that I'm not marrying that monster.'
Lord Anderson had the neighboring lands of Relena's precious Peacecraft Castle and he would do anything to get his hands on her land. That money-grubbing monster. Once he heard that her brothers, Milliard and Heero were dead, he jump at the chance of having Peacecraft Castle for himself.
Alyce's wailing awakened Relena from her thoughts. "Lady Relena, why would you choose such a devil when you had your pick of handsome men to choose from."
Whoever she picked, Relena thought. handsome or ugly. One man was as good as another. They would all be masters, And that was a notion she could not accept. Never in her life had she suffered a master. Her father and brothers had left her to her own devices. She never had been forced to do anther's bidding and she was not about to start now, she thought, as she put another dress into her chest.
"But you chose the Red Knight." Alyce gasped, crossing herself. "He's evil. 'Tis said that he never leaves his castle. That he calls witches, sorcerers and warlocks to come to him and teach him their dark secrets, and then casts them out as he practices what he has learned. That's why they call him Red Knight, because he's in leagues with the devil himself." Alyce cried hysterically, crossing herself over and over again.
"Alyce, please, that ti's but a rumor. I'm sure he's not in leagues with the devil."
"Oh no." Alyce cried, she drop the gown she still hadn't packed and grabbed on to Relena's arm, holding on for dear life. "My Lady, I heard he eats human flesh. What are we going to do? He's going to eat us!" Alyce cried all the harder.
Relena rolled her eyes. "Stop this." Relena snapped. Alyce stopped crying. "Rumors! What nonsense," she scoffed. "All the great warriors have nurtured legends about themselves so as to strike fear into the hearts of their foes." Relena said. "This Red Knight ti's but a mortal man. You will see." She patted Alyce's head and bid her sit down upon a stool while she turned back to her packing. "Besides, we will not be at DarkCastle long enough to be eaten by that Knight." Relena said with a smile.
Alyce's head shot up. "What? Why?"
"I have another plan." Said Relena with a bigger smile. "One that will have us be gone of there and be at Peacecraft castle before Christmas."
Alyce just groaned.
*****
Well, this has been a fun trip, Relena thought sarcastically. The king's man had no liking for her, that was plain. And told her right to her face that he considered this as an insult to his rank and name. Everyday he drove the wedding party harder, as though they were off to battle and not traveling to her future husband's holding.
Alyce complained the whole time that she was sore, tired and hungry. But Relena said nothing. She just sat in the saddle, straight and tall, staring straight ahead. She didn't mind, the sooner they got to DarkCastle the sooner she would be back at Peacecraft Castle. But she did feel sorry for Alyce though. Alyce didn't like men very much, because of what her father, King Dekin did to her. And here she was surrounded by man. Relena didn't want to think about what Dekin had done to Alyce. If the man wasn't dead already, she would have killed him a long time ago.
Relena woke up from her thoughts by a rider galloping towards them. He rode up to the King's man, Rashid Kurama.
"Ti's just ahead My Lord." The rider said
Relena gave a sigh of relief and Alyce gave a groan of despair.
"Don't worry, Alyce. We can sleep in a bed and have someone else's face to look at, other then that stone face of Rashid Kurama."
Upon their arrival, however, Relena didn't feel any better and nether did Alyce.
The countryside was forbidding, for around them stretched seemingly endless, flat land. Nothing was planted in the fields, while a great forest marched like a menacing presence beside them. It was nearly nightfall when she first set eyes upon the Red Knight's castle. Despite all her brave words and determination that she wouldn't be afraid, she shivered at the sight.
The sun was setting, casting deep shadows across the walls. The keep was old and gloomy with its arrow slits black as narrow eyes. Hugging the ground, a gray mist seemed to grow out of nowhere. It looked like the keep had not been up kept in years and not one torch was lit in the whole house.
This cannot be the castle. Relena thought. We had to have made a mistake. No, it's not a mistake. Maybe the Red Knight was as dark as the Rumors said he was. Maybe he could call the mist to hide his house from unwanted guests.
Alyce's whimper of fear brought Relena out of her thoughts. Relena looked around and saw the other knights crossing themselves and praying. Disgusted, Relena move forward up to the priest, who was praying his heart out. King Treize had had a priest accompany them in case the Red Knight didn't have one. "Father?" Relena said to the priest. The priest jumped high in the air.
"Sorry, but don't you think we should be going in?"
"Going in?" The priest asked. "In there?"
Just then, Rashid rode over to the gates and pulled out his sword. Using the sword hilt, he knocked on the gates. The party waited. And waited, and waited, with every ten minutes Rashid knocking on the gates. After an hour of this, a light was lit in one of the guard towers, and a man appeared. Relena couldn't tell what he looked like, all Relena saw was a shadow.
"What do you want?" The man yelled.
Well, he is rude. Relena thought.
"We seek an audience with your lord," Rashid Yelled up to the man.
"Well, my lord is not taking audiences," the man yelled down.
By this time, Relena was mad. She was tired and wanted a warm bed to sleep in this night. So she rode her horse closer to the castle. "We need to talk to your lord. So if you would be so kind as to open the gates and let us in." Relena said politely.
"Sorry, My Lady." The man yelled down. "But no one enters after hours, and the castle is closed for the night. So if you want to talk to my lord, you will have to camp for the night and talk to him in the morn."
"But 'tis imported." Relena yelled, trying anyway to find a way in.
"Did you make an appointment?" The man asked.
"Well, no. But I don't see...."
"Is someone my lord knows, dead?"
"No. Look here, I'm really not..."
"Then it's not that important, and you can wait till the morrow."
"Why won't you open the gates?" Relena yelled desperately.
"Because then we open the gates at this time, the wolves from the woods get in. Some of them are big enough to kill a man, and we don't like that. So we open the gates for no men OR women. After hours." The guard said firmly.
Relena wasn't amused with the guard's made up story of wolves. Relena knew it was just a story. But Alyce didn't on the other hand. At the mention of the word wolves, Alyce gave a cry of despair. Relena turned to see her ward whimpering looking over her shoulder and saying wolves over and over again. Relena turned back to glare at the man. On the morrow, she'd show that guard that the wolf story wasn't funny.
"Goodnight, my lady." The guard said. Then he was gone and so was the light. The castle was pitch black again.
"Men! Move it, we make camp." Rashid Yelled. "My lady." Rashid growled with a mock bow. He turned and left.
"My lady," Alyce cried. "Do we have to stay out here?"
Relena put a friendly arm around Alyce. "It's okay Alyce. We'll sleep out here and in the morning, we will talk to the Red Knight. Then, we'll get to go home."
"But what about the wolves?" Alyce looked up from under Relena's arm with tears in her eyes.
"There are no wolves, the guard just wanted to scare us."
Just then, a wolf howled in the distance.
This is going to be a long night Relena thought.
