This chapter took significantly longer to come out than the last one; sorry about that!
A big thank you to everyone who has reviewed this story so far! The feedback is greatly appreciated!
When Brandon had finally reached the city hall, he was informed by a guard that Sky had already been taken to a nearby hospital. By this point, Brandon's legs had become too tired to hold his body upright, let alone run. Nonetheless, he managed to reach the hospital, and met with Kejes in the lobby, who led him to Sky's room. Inside, Bloom and Samara had sat on both sides of Sky, who was lying down on a bed, with a bandage wrapped around his arm, and a band clamped tightly around his shoulder.
"Hey Brandon," Sky said weakly. He tried to sit up, but found it too tiring.
"Hey man," Brandon said, approaching the bed. "Don't try to talk, just rest for now." Sky laid his head back and shut his eyes. "He seems to be doing okay."
"The doctors were able to administer an antidote shortly after we arrived... He'll be fine." Samara explained. She was relieved that her son would be well, but at the same time, distraught that she had been so close to losing him. Throughout the past few days, the queen had worked hard to maintain her royal disposition. However, with events becoming more and more tense, she felt herself slipping closer and closer to the edge, ready to fall over, and break.
"It's a good thing you left the arrow behind," Bloom started, "because if you hadn't, we wouldn't have been able to get the right treatment."
"That's good," Brandon said warmly. He sat down on a small chair next to Bloom, and began to massage his tired calves.
"Were you able to catch the person who shot the arrow?" Bloom quietly asked, keeping her focus on Sky as she lightly rubbed his unharmed shoulder.
"We caught her..." Brandon gulped, looked over at Bloom and paused, frowning slightly. "But she killed herself."
"I see." Bloom and Samara hung their heads slightly, and an uncomfortable silence filled the small hospital room. After several uncomfortable minutes of foot tapping and finger drumming, Brandon stood up.
"Did the doctors mention how long it would take for Sky to get better?" Brandon asked.
"They said it would only take a few hours," Samara said. "The doctor told us most of the poison that did make it into his bloodstream was soporific. Much of the lethal poison remained on the arrow. He will be out sometime tomorrow."
Brandon merely nodded. There was nothing else to do but wait.
Sky was released from the hospital during the late afternoon of the next day, and returned to the palace along with Bloom, Brandon and his mother. He did not hide his fury over the nearly successful assassination attempt, but at the same time he could not help but feel that his challenge had prompted the bold attack in the first place.
The sun was setting, but Sky had kept pacing in the throne room, back and forth, in front of the other visitors who sat on a bench pondering over the identity of the girl who shot the arrow at him. Brandon told everyone that she had killed herself to avoid capture. Sky knew she was working for someone, she had to be. The question was... who? She refused to tell Brandon anything. Would she have taken her own life if she had no one to hide?
Bloom let out a ragged sigh. She had felt apprehensive at all times, and she scanned every visible spot in the throne room, over and over again. The trip was beginning to take its toll on her. She had been the only person who had been really optimistic about a trip to a planet covered in beaches. She was hoping that she would have been able to visit a few of them with Sky, and maybe do some sightseeing. Instead, she was caught up in an assassination conspiracy. Now she had shared the same sentiment that Sky had at the beginning of their trip. She wanted to return to her home. Although, it seemed the more she had wanted to leave, the more Sky was determined to stay.
"This whole Realm knew we were coming," Brandon said testily. "How are we gonna narrow it down to one person?"
"Whoever is leading this operation, we know they have connections to someone who knows the Palace layout," Samara said sagely. "They would not have been able to set up the dart trap otherwise." Sky nodded at his mother's inference. Sky moved to go sit on the bench, but he was interrupted by an unfamiliar voice.
"Your majesty, we have new information on the identity of the woman who attacked you in Sacro," said a tall, elegantly dressed man.
"Well, let's hear it," Sky responded. Brandon stood up and walked over to Sky.
"Who was she?" Brandon asked intently.
"Her name was Mirari Olia," the man responded. Sky and Brandon looked at each other and shrugged, almost as if both of them had expected the other to know who she was. The two of them looked over to Bloom and Samara, and they shrugged as well.
"Is there any other information on her?" Sky asked quietly.
"Nothing else on file about her," the man said, shaking his head.
"Thanks anyway," Brandon said patting the man on the shoulder. The man nodded before leaving. "Still no leads though..." Brandon did not try to hide the disappointment in his voice.
"Actually, the name is one I recognize," said a less unfamiliar voice, coming from the dining hall entrance. Sky jumped slightly when he heard the voice.
"Kejes!" Sky exclaimed. "I didn't know you were there." The stringy man chuckled as he approached the group.
"Mirari Olia was a nobleman's daughter, and the best friend of the Princess of Litus from many years ago. They would both get in to all sorts of trouble around here." The steward smiled at the thought of happier times. "The two of them played hide-and-seek all of the time. It could explain the assassin's strong knowledge of the palace layout."
"That makes sense," Sky said. "Thanks for the insight." Kejes nodded and returned to the dining hall. The group became quiet for several minutes, unsure of what they would do next.
"Well I guess we finally have a—" Bloom was suddenly interrupted by a deafening explosion. The four rushed outside, through the courtyard, and beyond the palace walls to see a burning vessel, and a singed body; what they could only be assume to be the remains of the messenger. The ground below the ship had been scorched black. The group looked on in horror, wondering if there would be another attack. They began to make their way inside the palace as several guards covered entirely in armour arrived on the scene. The guards readied their spears. Sky tried motioning at them to stand down.
"These aren't real guards," Bloom asserted as her eyes widened. "They're... not even living."
Sky noticed the guards seemed to be prepared to fight, and readied his phantoblade and phantoshield. Brandon drew his great sword and took on a fighting stance. Immediately, the guards charged at the four visitors. Sky had moved behind one guard faster than eyes could follow. He slammed his shield against the guard, causing it to stumble forward, following through with a swing from his blade, cutting right through the guard's torso. When the guard's armour fell to the ground a black mist spilled out of the gap, until the suit was empty. Brandon had managed to decapitate one of the guards, and it had fallen similarly.
"What are these things?" Sky asked, as he dodged a thrust from a guard.
"They're powered by dark magic!" Bloom exclaimed.
"Automatons," Samara added, as she felt a chill go down her spine. She would not let anything happen to Sky. Not again.
Sky had managed to hack through several more guards. A few had come close to actually hitting him, but his quick movement and shield had allowed him to avoid harm. Brandon's own feints had tricked several guards into blocking attacks that never came, while leaving them wide open for cleaves that did. Bloom had transformed into her Enchantix form and had set fire to several of the animated suits of armour, burning them until they charred. Though, for every guard that fell, more still replaced them.
"This isn't working out too well," Sky said. Keeping up his quick footwork was taking a lot out of him. His legs were beginning to feel numb, and his arms were getting weak from the constant motions of his blade swings and shield slams. Brandon was becoming equally tired; with every swing, his arms had felt heavier. His blows had become a bit more sluggish, and his feints less deceptive. Bloom was growing tired of trying to pick off the enemies one by one, and it was from this exhaustion that she drew inspiration for her next attack.
"Stand back!" Bloom yelled out in an authoritative voice. The two specialists pulled back until they stood behind her—under the gate of the castle's outer walls—along with Samara. Bloom moved her hands in front of her chest and conjured a sphere of dancing flame in her hands, her hair flying around as if she was in the path of a tornado. She looked forward as the horde of guards began to charge at her. She swiftly brought the ball of fire up in front of her face, and breathed into it, spraying forth a fan of scorching flames, that completely obliterated the entire mob in front of her; melting armour and stone—even turning some of the soil into glass. After she had finished, Bloom took a deep breath in and exhaled. She turned around to smile at Sky. "Not bad huh?"
"Not bad at all!" Sky exclaimed. He moved forward towards her, but was interrupted by his mother.
"Sky, look out!" Samara cried out, prompting Sky to duck down, right as she shot out an arrow of magic that whizzed over his head. The spell managed to pierce through the chest of one final assailant in guard's armour who was hiding behind the vessel wreckage, in the middle casting a spell. The attacker was stopped mid chant and fell to the ground with the grace of a rock, clutching at the hole in its chest. The four moved over to the suit of armour and removed its helmet, revealing a woman with long brown hair and pale skin underneath. There was a trail of blood running down her chin from her mouth. Brandon noticed she was roughly the same age as the other assassin, Mirari, and he let out a heavy sigh.
"Who is she?" Sky asked, not really expecting an answer. The woman looked up at him.
"My brother will kill you," she wheezed, before she spat in his direction and fell limp. Sky could only stare down at the corpse on the ground, as he ran his hands through his hair. Samara let out a sigh, her hands were trembling. Bloom had changed back into her normal form, and hugged her arms.
"After this, we'd better have a good lead now," Brandon said, sheathing his phantoblade. He walked over to an empty helmet, growled angrily, and kicked it, sending it flying several yards away. Seeing two young girls die in two days had upset him.
"Call Kejes," Sky said flatly. "He might know something about who she is."
"Author's" Notes:
When I posted the first chapter of this story, the whole thing was actually finished. I made some changes to the second chapter (to make the story hold on to some mystery for a little longer) which caused a whole cascade of changes for every chapter after it, like knocking over one domino in the middle of a chain by accident, then having to set up all of the pieces after it back up again. This chapter is the one which required the most changes (almost none of the original chapter is still here), so other chapters should be up with less delay than this one.
There is a lot of character introspection in this chapter, mostly here to show how the characters are reacting to constant stress. There won't be as much in future chapters.
On another note, I have no idea if Samara has special powers at all. So I said "screw it" and gave her some.
Thank you very much for reading! Please leave your thoughts, comments and criticisms in the reviews so I can improve! :D