Chapter 4: When Things Fall Apart, Heroes Emerge
Turning the knob, he walked inside where a horrible sight greeted him: Neal was pale-faced, gasping for air, being held against the wall by a slender hand around his neck. The face it belonged to, however, was the same as the face of the stranger he left unconscious in his bed. That face swiveled to regard Joren with a quite insane smile that left him in more fear than any threat could.
"What do we have here? Thieves? Spies? Where I come from, we have a very interesting way of dealing with people with sticky hands." The stranger threw Neal against a bookcase, before going for Joren.
He panicked, ducking under this stranger's attack and rolling towards where Nealan lay stunned. He looked around for anything to use as a weapon, finally spotting a marble statuette. He only had time to point it out to the panicked Neal before the stranger blasted fire at them. It was colored orange.
He thought his heart would explode, but Neal had thrown up a green shield that deflected the blast. It also covered both of them. They looked at each other and in instinctive agreement and rolled away in opposite directions. Joren had gotten a large book from the shelf. He now threw it at the stranger, hoping to distract him while Neal went for the statuette. It worked.
The stranger went for him, and had his hands around Joren's neck when Neal slammed the statuette on its head. The man fell unconscious, unfortunately on top of Joren. He struggled to breathe, the hands still around his neck. "Help me, dammit." His voice hoarse.
Neal helped haul the body off of him, grunting, "It's all your fault. You were supposed to keep him busy!"
When Joren could finally breathe, he gasped out, "T-twins. There are two of 'em. One's unconscious in the bedroom." He also related all he had overheard from the guests. Neal was starting to tell him about what he had found, extending a hand to help him stand up, when the door began to open. They froze as three large men holding swords peeked inside. Guards. Shit.
As the three shouted in alarm, Joren pushed Neal towards the window. "Go. I'll cover you." He stood in front of Neal, throwing anything he could grasp at the men advancing towards him, while keeping an eye out to his escaping partner-in-crime. He knew he wouldn't be able to escape the same way, and was only buying Neal some time. One of the guards had seized him when an orange glow surrounded him. He was immobilized immediately.
The man on the floor stood up. "Get the other kid." He said coolly, "This one belongs to me." Joren stood in panic, struggling to free himself. He saw the man raise a hand before darkness abruptly took him.
***
Neal ran as fast as he could. His mind was running just as fast. Joren's still there. What am I going to do? His pure instinct was telling him to go to his knight-master, even though they had agreed that he go straight to the palace afterwards. There was no one there right now that would be able to help Joren anyway. So he went straight for Sir Myles' house outside of the palace, his mind still on the enemy who had saved his life.
He didn't notice the three men who dogged his footsteps. Or the men dogging theirs.