I jerked awake and winced as my body screamed in pain. I looked at the quarter moon, shrouded by the leafy canopy overhead. It was sometime in the middle of the night. We had been on the run for three days now. We had run into scattered patrols, but had managed not to get into a fight all but once. That was when I had almost got run over by a horse. I managed to get out of it with a dislocated shoulder. I rolled my left shoulder and could still feel it grinding a bit in the socket.
I got up gingerly and quietly made my way out of our small camp to stretch a little. I tried not to step on anyone in the dark. I walked through the forest quietly, taking my time knowing that whoever was on watch would no doubt find me shortly.
"Still can't sleep well?" A quiet voice came from the shadows on my right. It was Marcie. I could barely see her in the shadows with her camouflage suit.
I gave a deep sigh and shook my head.
"Walk with me." She said and came out of the shadows and heading further into the forest.
I fell into step beside her as we meandered through the tall maple trees.
"How are you doing?" she asked after a little ways.
"Well... if you ignore the fact that I'm running for my life from soldiers I know nothing about, who want to kill me for a reason I know nothing about, with a rag tag bunch of elite warriors I know nothing about, who like to keep a lot of secrets, and I can't sleep even though you people have run me into the ground for the last three days. I suppose I'm doing just fine."
We walked in silence for a few minutes.
"Well, most of that is going to change pretty soon." She said softly.
I stopped and looked at her, curious as to what she was going to say next. "What do you mean by that?"
She turned back to me and looked into my eyes. "I'm sorry" she said, almost in a whisper.
I heard a twig snap softly behind me and my heart sank. Then my head exploded in pain and the last thing I saw was the ground rushing towards me before my vision went black.

"It had to happen sooner or later."
"Don't play me for a fool, you knew all along."
"None of it would have worked otherwise."
"You don't know –"
"You've trusted me this far, trust me now."

As I slowly became aware of my surroundings once more, I began to wish that I didn't. My head throbbed and my shoulder ground painfully in its socket as I was carried roughly, my feet dragging behind. I could hear the rattling of armor to either side of me, marching in sync. I guess we were finally there, wherever there was. I was glad to have my head out of the rough burlap sack, but the smell of sweaty horses stuck in my nostrils. I'd been in and out of consciousness and I had lost track of time. I opened my eyes and watched the flagstone floor pass beneath me at a steady pace, marching feet to each side of my vision. I looked ahead and saw that we were going down some kind of long, torchlight hallway. Marcie was in front of us, setting the quick pace the black cloth fluttering behind her. How she could have betrayed me I didn't know, or even if she had betrayed me. I wish someone would tell me what's going on.
The guards noticed I was awake and slowed down enough to hoist me up and I stumbled into a walk, almost falling as they shoved me forward. I guess they were tired of carrying me. I looked around a little more. There were no paintings or tapestries, just doorways here and there with no markings. I guess it was some kind of service hallway. I almost collided with Marcie as she stopped at a doorway. I couldn't tell it apart from the others. She looked at my guards and one of the grabbed my arm and turned me around. I heard the rustle of movement then the quite snick of a lock opening. I turned around as the door swung open on silent hinges. She motioned me into the room, checked the hallway, and then closed the door behind us.
We were in a largish room, some kind of meeting room or council chambers. There was a large table running the length of the room, with tall back chairs neatly set all around it. One of my guards pulled out a chair near the middle of the table and the other pushed me down to sit. They stood silently behind me as Marcie slowly paced just to our right. We waited, Marcie's quite footsteps and the hissing of the torches filling the silence.

Intercepted Letter:
"We need to accelerate our plans. The fool is going to bring it down around our ears. I will be there soon. Begin the preparations, meet me at the usual location when we arrive."
~Shadow

The main doors opened and a brute of a man came through. His eyes locked onto me and I knew at once he was much more then just a brute. He was a intelligent brute. I didn't have time to think further as two more soldiers came through opening the doors all the way, and behind them came the king.
He was dressed in simple robes – if you can call diamond encrusted robes simple, with a simple gold crown on his head, with one large ruby framed front and center. It had the looks of something that had been passed down for ages. He was of average height with soft, rounded features. Not exactly what I had pictured as a "pretender king". He stopped across the table from me and pursed his lips in thought.
"So. This is prophecy in flesh is it? Here to remove me from my throne are we?"
It didn't sound like a question that I was supposed to answer. At least in filled in a few blanks.
The brute growled, "I still think it's a load of -"
"You've stated your opinion numerous times," the king said as if he were scolding a child, "do you think me so old that I forget so easily?"
The brute ground his teeth and turned his glare towards me as if I was the problem, which admittedly most likely was by the sounds of it.
The king turned back to me pursing his lips in thought again. "Do you have anything to say?" he asked, as if I had any say in the matter.
"Well, as long as you're asking, I'm absolutely starving so maybe I could get a nice hot meal, but not before I get my head looked at, it seems I took a nasty bump and I don't want to get a infection. After dinner I would love a nice hot bath followed by a nice big, soft bed and to sleep all night. But I'm sure that you are just as willing to fill my requests as you are to answer any questions I say, or even listen to what I have to say." I sat back and caught my breath, wondering if I had just made the worst mistake of my life.
A slight smile tugged at the corner of the king's lip. "Indeed." He drawled out. He turned his attention to Marcie. "Marcie, will you see to his…" he glanced at me again with a placating smile, "accommodations. Oh and don't forget about his, hot meal and bath." His smile dropped as he gave me a final icy look before he turned and left, the doors banging shut before Marcie even finished bowing her head.

I gave up counting doors and how many corners we turned. Marcie had dismmissed the guards after our meeting with the King - not like they were really needed anyways. The door we finally stopped at looked no different then any of the others. She knocked twice and we waited. I was beggining to wonder if there was anyone else in the castle. The dorr swung open silently and a hooded figure peered out at us saying nothing. He nodded once and stepped aside to let us in, Marcie stopping and turned to him.
"Are they all here?" She asked quietly
"You are the last to arrive." Came the equally quiet response. He checked the hall behind us and then shut the door.
We were standing in a bedroom, the secret doorway was behind a tapestry that had been pulled back. There was a huge four post bed and tapestries hanging all around the room. Just before we went into the main room, Marcie stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.
"I don't expect you to have any idea of what is happening, the events that you have started - but please. Keep you ears, and mind, open to what you are about to hear." She looked intensly into my eyes to see if I understood.
I looked back, confused again at the change of events. I swallowed the questions brewing and nodded once.
There was a handful of people waiting for us. What little conversation that was happening died off and people stood coming to form a semi-circle before us. They were all dressed differently, according to trade as far as I could tell, men and women alike. One thing was the same though. They all wore the same simple expressionless mask.
"Welcome to the Underground." Marcie said beside me. "Each of us has special talents, all of us brought together to this room for one cause. To restore the throne to the rightful heir. To long have we suffered under wrongful rulers." Her voice was filled with a hard passion, making my spine tingle with its athority.
""The Elites sought to use you for their own ends, to rule with a mighty fist. They have a great many secrets and shield them with deception and half-truths." It had taken me a second to see who was speaking as the masks hid their mouths. It was a man dressed in volumous, coulorful robes - maybe a merchant.
"The present King rules through fear, and the fear of you ending his rule is what makes him fear you. He will kill you out of spite though he knows this will only incite the prophecies being wispered in his ear." It was a young woman dressed in servants clothes, speaking in a soft voice.
"And we, the Underground," Marcie came around in front of me, "we seek to bring the King off his thrown, to deny the Elites the power they seek, and to put the real King on the thrown once again."
The torches hissed and popped in the silence. "Where is this King?" I asked.
This brought a uneasy rustle to the room, the members looking a little... sheepish oddly enough.
"We don't know." Someone said softly.