Ch.9- Taking Action
"Why'd I do this, why'd I do this, why'd I do this," apparently Kally was having second thoughts about our plan. How did I know this? She kept muttering, "why'd I do this" under her breath as we entered the courtyard.
"Would all ye who have a meetin' with his grace Duke Hagen enter the Front Hall now?" a herald stood on the front steps of the castle entrance.
Kally, Meliora, Shauni and I went and greeted the herald. The others trailed behind, trying much to hard to blend in.
"All of ye?" the herald was suspicious of our number.
"Yes. We are all family," I said in my most nonchalant voice.
"Well, come on in, all o ye." The herald moved inside to allow us in.
We entered a vast front hall richly decorated with tapestries and engravings, it reminded me of the hall at Queenscove. Suddenly, a man dressed in expensive velvets and silks approached us. He raised his eyebrows at our smudged faces and ragged clothing. I assumed him to be Duke Hagen; I confirmed it from his haughty manner.
"What can I do for you?" he asked sweetly. Kally launched into some tale of woe she had made up the night before. This gave us the chance to study our surroundings. There were two guards standing at the door which led to the rest of the castle, and two standing at the door through which we had entered.
"So, is that all?" he asked with a yawn as Kally stopped talking.
"No!" I stepped forward. He turned to appraise me. At a wave of my hand, the girls whipped out the weapons they had hidden under their cloaks, and let the cloaks fall to the ground. The guards hurried to their lord.
"What is going on here?" the Duke demanded.
"You tell me! Now, we can to this the easy way, or the hard way. We are here to force you to free your nephew and take you to justice in Corus. So, are you going to let him out and come with us?" I forcefully recited the speech I had rehearsed last night.
The duke opened his mouth to say something but thought better of it and turned to run.
"Stop him!" I ordered. The girls immediately began to chase him, unfortunately the guards got in their way. In a matter of seconds the men lay unconscious on the floor. "Come on! We have to catch him!" I waved the girls to follow me through the door that the duke had escaped through. We ended up in a round room with several different passages. "Split up! Kally, you and Allyrianne take that one, Serena and Shana that one, Bailey and Regan that one, Jelena and Meliora take that one." I directed each group down a different passage, before Shauni and I took off down the center one.
"You…hear…that?" Shauni gasped as we ran.
"Footsteps!" I exclaimed, we had definitely taken the right route.
"Damn!!!" we heard curses as we neared the footsteps.
The hallway led to a dead end, and in front of it was Duke Hagen. Immediately Shauni and I pulled out our daggers and stepped forward to place them against his throat.
"The keys," I told him, which if you think about it was really dumb, because he had to reach into a pocket inside his robe. When he did so, he put a dagger in each hand. Shauni and I exchanged glances.
"Shauni, go find the others! I'll handle this!" I directed. She stared at me for several seconds. "GO!" I yelled, at which she took off running as fast as she could back down the hallway. Goddess, what the heck have I done? I've done the stupidest thing I could've in this situation. I've isolated myself with an armed and angry madman, sent my only backup away, and all I'm armed with is a dagger. Wow, maybe insanity really does run in the family. But right now I've got bigger problems!
"If you want to live wench, you'll turn back now!" Hagen growled.
"I have a death wish," I said. I know this is a really bad time for sarcasm but it was a reflex.
"Good. Then I won't feel guilty after I kill you," he retorted.
(A/N – Can you tell I have no idea how to describe a dagger fight and I am majorly stalling? I hope it's not obvious but it must be because do you think that they made sarcastic comments right before they tried to kill each other?)
Hagen tried to circle as they do in normal duels, but even I knew that if he got remotely close to the exit he would run for it. He raised his right hand and lunged at me, expecting me to dodge it so he could run past me, but instead I met his blade with mine. As soon as our daggers met, he raised his left hand to slice down on my head, but this time I do pull away to avoid a potentially deadly blow. He grinned maliciously.
"You're a pretty little thing aren't you? If you weren't such a bold wench, I'd take you for my own," he snickered as we deflected each other's blades as though we held swords. We continued in this strike/block pattern for several minutes before I heard the sound of running and girls voices. My comrades appeared in the doorway and distracted the Duke. As he changed his focus from me to them, I took the opportunity to disarm his right hand with a move my brother had taught me. His awareness quickly reverted back to me and he made a sloppy attempt to disarm me. My friends forgotten, I allowed him to move his back to the door, where Shauni promptly pressed her dagger to his throat. He hung his head and dropped his other dagger, which I took as consent.
(A/N – Wow, that was really bad, wasn't it? I apologize, but I have never fought with a dagger before and therefore have no idea how to choreograph a fight.)
"You don't have any more daggers on you?" I asked.
"Only the one to my throat," he said snidely.
"Where are the keys?" I asked again. He didn't answer, only stared stonily at me. Okay, I did not just risk my life only for him to stare and make annoying remarks. This time, I kneed him in the groin as I asked for the third time.
"I don't have them."
"What the hell do you mean, you don't have them?" I said through gritted teeth.
"My sweet wife, your dear little spy Millicent (GASP) has them!" he grinned with pleasure at our folly. I slapped him as hard as I could across the face. Shauni pushed the blade harder against his neck.
"Explain yourself!" I demanded.
"Naïve aren't you? naïve or just plain stupid. I knew you were coming, that fool who went to the king was dumb enough to come back. So, I sent Millicent to fetch you here."
"Was being captured part of your plan?" Kally asked.
"No. But seeing as how it happened, what are you going to do now?"
"Precisely what I was thinking," Meliora piped up. The girls looked to me, again as their leader.
"You're wife has the keys? Where is she?" I asked Hagen.
"Right here," a cold female voice stated. (GASP!!) The girls turned to see Millicent standing with a sword drawn. She glowed with pride in herself for being so clever as to trick the girls into her grasp. Or so she thought. The girls raised their weapons to point at her.
"Yikes!" she whimpered as she dropped the sword and turned to run.
"Catch her," I told Bailey and Regan. A few minutes later they returned, holding Millicent's arms behind her back.
"The keys, now!" I ordered for the fourth time. Reluctantly, Millicent pulled out the keys and shoved them into my hand. "Are you going to show us to your nephews' room?" I asked her. Her reply was spit at my feet.
"Fine. We'll find it ourselves. Who will stay here and guard them?"
Serena, Shauni, Lydi and Jelena volunteered to stay behind.
"We should all split up, cover more ground," Kally suggested.
"But if I have the keys, how will we let him out if one of you finds him?" I inquired, as always the practical one.
"We'll find you. Come on, we're wasting time."
So, for the next hour or so, I roamed the dark, shadowy hallways and passages of the castle, probably going around in circles once or twice. Finally, I came across a winding inner staircase, evidently leading to a tower room. I began to climb, but it was so long that twice I had stop and catch my breath. After what seemed like forever, I reached the top and an iron door. I sighed with relieve when the first key fit.
"Just leave the tray on the table," a young male voice said when I opened the door.
"I must have forgotten it," I replied. Suddenly the teen stood and turned to look at me.
"Who are you?" he asked suspiciously.
"Kyleah of Queenscove," I curtsied. His eyebrows rose.
"You're a noble lady?"
I looked down at my farmer girls' costume and remembered my smudged face. "Yes, I'm with the Princess's Elite.
"The what?"
"You want me to explain it all this very second?" I asked, becoming impatient to find my friends. He nodded. "Fine. Look, one of your servants escaped and went to the King. The King dispatched us, the Princess's Elite to free you and bring your uncle back to justice. The Princess's Elite is a guard that is formed of young noble women, Princess Kalasin started it." I explained quickly.
"So what now?" he asked when I finished.
"Why does everyone always ask me that?" I groaned.
"Actually, I was talking to the invisible person behind you."
"In answer to your question, we have to find my friends."
"And where are they?"
"I have no idea. Wandering around your castle I guess."
"Well, come on then," he said as he walked out the door and I followed.
"So, how did you become involved in this "Princess's Elite" thing?" he asked, turning down a sparsely lit corridor.
"Princess Kalasin is my friend, and I thought it was a good idea. Danger, adventure, traveling, what's not to like?" I answered honestly.
"Oh yes, breaking into a castle and unlocking a door. Sounds very dangerous," he replied sarcastically.
"For your information, I had to duel with your uncle who had two daggers and I only and one. Then I had to get the keys from your aunt, and then I had to ramble around this maze you call a castle to find you and all you do is make sarcastic remarks. Where is the gratitude?" I asked indignantly.
"So that's the real reason you wanted to be in the Princess's Elite, glory."
"No! I'm just saying that you could be a little more thankful, rather than sarcastic."
"I apologize, and thank you umm…" he said humbly
"Lark, and you're welcome," I supplied.
"Call me Kent," he offered.
"Okay. Wait, do you here that?" I asked, we stood in silence for a moment.
"You find him?"
"No, you?"
"No. Where's Lark?"
The conversation continued from far off as we strained to follow their voices. Kent opened a door that revealed all my friends in a large dining hall.
"You found him Lark?" Kally asked.
"Yep. Kent, this is the Princess's Elite. Princess Kalasin, Shauni of King's Reach, Meliora of Mandash, Jelena of Irenroha, Regan of Nicoline, Bailey of Tasride, Shana of Josu's Dirk, Serena of Darroch, Lydian of Hannalof, and Allyrianne of Hollyrose." I pointed to each of my companions. Kent bowed and said:
"I have already thanked Lark, but I should like to thank each of you for taking the time and the risk to come all this way."
"We didn't do hardly anything! Lark did practically everything!" Allyrianne protested.
"Did she? Then it seems I owe her more than a thank-you." Kent took my hand and gently kissed my fingers.
"Yes she did. Lark's the one who figured out how to get us into the castle," Serena added.
"Which turned out to be a trap," I pointed out.
"True, but you also dueled with Duke Hagen and won," said Shauni.
"Only because you guys had my back," I argued.
"And you found the tower," Allyrianne reminded me.
"Oh yes, I have a great sense of direction." I rolled my eyes.
"So Lark, what do we do now?" Shauni asked, with nods of agreement from the others. Arrgh! Why do they always ask me that question? Do I have LEADER, ASK ME! written on my forehead that no one told me about?
I sighed, resigned to the fact that they were going to continue asking me until we got home. "We stay here for tonight, and leave tomorrow afternoon. Kent, are you coming to Corus with us?"
"Sure. I could use a change of scenery," Kent joked.
"Then it's settled. We leave tomorrow."
"Back to home sweet home."
A/N-This is the last chapter. No, the story isn't finished, I'm going to start another part but it won't be in the form of more chapters. I hate short stories with so many chapters. Of course, in the next story they go back to Corus for the trial, then there are some problems between Joren/Kent over Lark and a new quest to go on. Please review!!!!!