After they returned from their quick expedition to Royal City. Charlotte, Sasha, Becky and especially Dean told AJ all the details about the house where Reigns had imprisoned Seth. The surroundings, the distribution of the troops that guarded the house and how they got their food and the source of clean water.
"They receive water from the river that descends from Pan Mountain." Sasha said.
"How long does it take the troops protecting Royal City to mobilize their army to Reigns' house?" AJ asked.
"Riding Black, took us about 6 hours." Charlotte said.
"Less than six hours, then, I have to execute my plan, since Eva will discover everything and send soldiers from Royal City to Reigns' house." AJ said.
"And what is the plan?" Becky asked. She, helped by Dean, had made a more or less coherent map of the vicinity of Reigns' house.
"Let's go to the forest outside the mountain to get some plants that the town healer told me to find. It will take several days because she needs a lot of them. With that she will tell us how to make an elixir to make other people fall sleep." AJ said as he studied the plans in front of him.
"The villagers keep extracting minerals. If you are going to do a rescue operation, you must stop the work." Sasha said.
"No, they need to keep extranting minerals. We have to take those minerals as a bait." AJ kept explaining. "First, I'll send Charlotte and Dean because Charlotte is the messenger and she should announce our arrival, then some villagers will go with the delivery of minerals. A little before I send to Royal City two horses with a carriage, it will reach the gates of Royal City after all the other carriages and I'm supposed to be there."
"Eva knows you very well." Charlotte said. "Also, the person who will drive the last carriage will be a dead man."
"Actually I will only lose my two beloved horses, they have been trained, with the false gates we made. They know where they have to stop. We have to trust that the training will work." AJ said worried.
Dean and the girls were as worried as AJ, if one of the things they have planned failed, they will be discovered and that would be horrific.
AJ kept talking. "One of the villagers offered to take the carriage several kilometers before Royal City. Then he will leave the carriage and send with a couple of dolls that will be used as bait to make them believe that I am really going there with someone else."
Then he spoke with Dean. "Anyways, they will have many of their men busy unloading minerals and when they realize the trap, we must have already saved Seth. Dean, nobody should see you, if nobody knows who you are, you can protect Charlotte. It's unnecessary to say that if one of us fails, they will be a dead man. So if things get tough, Dean you should send Charlotte as far as possible, just as I will send Becky and Sasha as soon as we finish the work on the river. Dean, you and I are the only ones who should risk their lives, and if you hide well, since no one knows you, I don't think your life would be in danger."
"What about Reigns?" Dean asked. "Even if you manage to fool the troops guarding his house, you still have to deal with him."
"That will be my job, Dean. You said he lives alone with an old lady, so it will be only he against me... and I don't know how but... I'm going to win that battle."
...
This is how AJ came up with the plan and now Charlotte announced the arrival of the first delivery of minerals. Immediately, the regents of Parta, Eva and Shane, surrounded by their soldiers arrived at the gates of Royal City. The first two, of ten wagons, were arriving. The soldiers immediately checked the content and the drivers silently walked away to let them do their job. Eva and the King couldn't hide their joy. Ten of these carriages would ensure the prosperity of the kingdom for at least six months and the collecting had only taken a month. With two more deliveries they would be swimming in resources. While the other carriages arrived, Eva went a little way with her husband.
"We should invade, Shane. Please listen to me, just look at the amount of minerals that are on that mountain. With the amount of resources we have just obtained today, we can buy weapons to allow us to destroy the wall and also have a powerful army that allows us to conquer all the neighboring kingdoms." Eva smirked. "I know that the King of Mira, whose sister you expelled from the palace, didn't give you enough resources to buy weapons and that's why you could never defeat the wall AJ built, but now we have resources to spare."
"We could even invade Mira. Bill has a powerful army but he's very off guard and he's not interested in invading other lands. I always thought he was an idiot." Shane said.
"Mira's kingdom could be very powerful, but Bill Goldberg is not an ambitious king, we have to take advantage of that." Eva insisted.
"Ever since I saw you, I knew you were smart. You've been a great ally, Eva, when we have everything in order, I want us to have a shild who can inherit all this." Shane said kissing the woman.
The idea of being a mother displeased her. "All right, my love. Now we should send a soldier to find Randy, he lives in the city. We can talk about this inside the palace, away from people that will spread our plans. We should also contact Roman, he's the man in charge of the army."
Shane told the troops to receive all the carriagesn and take them inside the palace. Also, when the last car arrives, with AJ in it, they should warn him.
Charlotte and Dean noticed this and ran through the place without anyone noticing. They went where they had hidden Black and a small horse that AJ had given to Dean.
"Since you have not been retained by the soldiers, I want you to return to the mountain immediately. I must stay here to spy that everything is going well in this city." Dean told Charlotte. "And for the love of God, Charlotte, don't go to Royal City to walk around, you could ruin the whole plan."
Charlotte pouted, but she didn't complain because she knew Dean was right.
The villagers who had decided to help, were sent back to the mountain because Eva and the king had no interest in taking more hostages. They trusted that with Roman and surrounded by a complete troop, nobody could rescue to Seth, and in addition none of them knew where the boy was.
...
Meanwhile, on the banks of the river, AJ and the girls threw a large load of a strange dust. In three hours the whole water system would be contaminated with that dust that was spreading in the river. AJ went on foot to where Becky and Sasha said it was Reigns' house. He was going to face alone against Parta's most feared general, but AJ was not afraid. He arrived and found the troops snoring, from that moment he had less than 3 hours to take Seth away from that place and take a reasonable distance from the troops guarding Reigns' house. He was totally determined to do this work and succeed.
...
Roman had personally cleansed Seth, who since the morning had not woke up again, but was still alive. He dressed the kid with clean clothes and put more ointment on the wounds. He had to give him water and medicines directly from his own mouth, because Seth was still unconscious. Roman felt a deep chill running through his skin, the plague had already invaded his body. And even though he realized he was also sick, Roman could not think of himself, his only priority was taking care of Seth.
The general heard Mary yelling and asking for help loudly in the kitchen. Roman ran to the room next to his own, to grab his sword and stealthily descended the stairs. On the ground floor was AJ. Roman could not believe what he was seeing. How had that bastard managed to fool the entire troop around his house?
"Then, you came for him." Roman said defiantly.
"You know how this story is, Reigns." AJ said arrogantly. "I will not leave without him."
"To take him with you... you will have to kill me first." Roman said angrily.
"That's the idea, Reigns." AJ smirked.
"No matter how good you think you are. No one, not even you, will take Seth away from me." Roman growled.
AJ realized that Roman was speaking as if Seth was someone important to him and not just a prisoner he had to take care of. However, he did not have time to think about this, because Roman came down the stairs and he had to quickly defend himself from the vicious attack. The sound of both swords resounded throughout the house, but nobody could listed to that because Seth was sick and Mary was unconscious on the kitchen floor.
Roman and AJ were fighting as equals and the raven-haired man had to admit that AJ was a skilled warrior, and this could be a battle with deadly result. Roman managed to pierce the other warrior's left leg. But that did not stop AJ from throwing a huge metal plate that was part of the decoration of Reigns' house, the raven-haired man dodged it, but the swift warrior struck his sword on Roman's right wrist, now it was harder for him to wield the sword.
"I'll kill you Reigns." AJ said and continued the attack.
AJ was a very smart warrior, but he lacked the experience of many different battles, which Roman had. Both inflicted several serious injuries to each other. And that maintained a certain balance in the battle, however, Roman was beginning to feel feverish due to the plague. Anyway, he was not willing to be defeated and lose the boy he loved.
The battle continued on equal terms and for AJ's dismay it was taking too much time. He needed to finish this battle quickly, before the troop woke up. AJ was limping due to the cut that Roman had made on his leg, but incredibly the man refused to surrender. Anyway, he was losing blood and thanks to this Roman, little by little, began to have some advantage over the brown haired warrior. After several cuts and hits, Roman had cornered AJ and with a quick movement, the sword of the brown-haired warrior flew through the air. AJ was now unarmed.
"You're going to die, AJ." Roman smirked.
"Roman!" Seth cried desperately.
"Seth!" Roman got scared and ran upstairs. He didn't care if AJ could retrieve his sword.
AJ also paid attention to Seth's voice and went after Roman. The raven-haired man approached the bed where Seth was shaking.
"Seth, tell me if something is hurting you." Roman was genuinely concerned about the boy and that was something that AJ could not deny.
AJ paled. "He has the plague." AJ immediately walked near Seth. "My sweet little one. I took care of you all this time, preventing anything from hurting you. I failed you." AJ was about to cry.
"He will not die." Roman continued on guard as he watched AJ limping around the room checking the medicines.
"You're an idiot, this medicine only works in very healthy people. This is what the mountain healer gave some villagers who became infected two years ago, when the person is very weak this is not enough." AJ put his hands to his face and then carefully examined the body of his beloved boyfriend. "Seth is very thin, these wounds on his wrists have not yet closed, he will not resist. Even if I took him to the mountain to see our healer, that would take several days, I would lose him on the way."
AJ said, fighting to stop the tears. "Eva finally has her revenge, she has a lot of minerals and she managed to take away the person I love the most. This is the worst defeat of my life, it doesn't matter even if I had won the battle against you... I am defeated anyways."
Roman realized that AJ really loved Seth and that unlike him, AJ was healthy, he could help the boy.
"Are you sure that the healer in your village can cure the plague on Seth's weak body?" Roman asked with great pain in his eyes.
"Are you deaf? He can't survive the trip, you all won. You finally ended up with me," AJ said with resignation.
"AJ." Seth whispered.
AJ, despite his injured leg, took a few seconds to be by Seth's side. "Sweetie." He took one of his hands. "I'm here, I'll be here, no matter what happens, I will not be separated from you."
Roman could see even in the middle of his convalescence, Seth took AJ's hand. And that was the final frontier, which led him to make the most hurtful decision of his life. The words Roman uttered next, hurt him more than the plague itself.
"Take Seth with you. Roman said, feeling the symptoms of the plague on his body. "Try to save him."
"What are you saying? Your troops will wake up at any moment, I lost a lot of time here." AJ seemed to guess the question in Roman's eyes. "I slept all your troop, the effect must be ending."
"I have a carriage made especially for war, I will give it to you and also to my two best horses. If you go on the south side, you can still escape and get to the mountain much faster." Roman, with the little strength he had, approached the boy he loved and took him possessively in his arms.
Mary was standing at the door, she had recovered from the commotion. "Master Roman."
"Mary, this is AJ, the only love of Seth's life." Roman said bitterly. "He will take Seth back to the mountain. Seems like there is a healer who can cure him. Help AJ to go to the main stable, I'll take Seth." Then he walked with the kid on his arms.
"I don't believe you. You just can't let us go like this." AJ stared in disbelief at the raven-haired man.
"Well, I defeated you AJ, I could have buried my sword in your chest and you would not have been able to defend yourself, but I didn't. Instead I am offering you the opportunity to save him. I can't waste any more time when Seth's life is in danger. If you choose not to believe me, you will be responsible if he dies." Roman looked at AJ in a threatening way. "And it will be a great pleasure for me to finish the work and make you pay for his death."
That said, Roman left the room followed by Mary and AJ.
A few moments later, Roman had placed Seth, supplies and medications in the carriage and AJ was ready to go.
"Why are you doing this Reigns?" AJ asked.
"If you love him as much as you say, save his life, instead of wasting valuable time asking things that don't concern you." Roman refused to admit anything to his worst enemy.
AJ wasted no more time and went away from Roman's house, taking Seth with him. Roman saw how the only person he had falling in love with, was going away from him forever.
"The hardest part of letting go is saying goodbye." Roman thought sadly.
He climbed the stairs helped by Mary. The old woman put him on the bed.
"I defeated AJ in the fight, but in the end he won this battle. I will never see Seth again, he will not even know I fell in love with him. I just hope that bastard can save Seth, that's all I want." Roman said and fainted in his bed.
Mary cried inconsolably. The raven-haired kid she had raised, was wounded and defeated. The first time Roman had loved someone, to make a sacrifice of this magnitude, and that was how things ended. And it was still likely that one of them would die, or maybe both.
I'm sorry :(
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