Fear. Worry. Dread. Foreboding. All of this and more weighed down on Martina as she twiddled her fingers nervously. She still wasn't quite sure how things had come to this. Hopefully the convoy from Seyruun would be able to set things straight.
"Martina?"
A voice broke her from her thoughts. Martina glanced up at Zangulus, who was looking at her in distress. "Yes, Darling?" She tried to sound calm, but she felt anything but calm.
Zangulus reached a hand out to place on his wife's. "You're scaring the horses, dear. Are you all right?"
"All right? All right!" She exclaimed, "How can you ask me that? One moment I'm minding my own business, completely content to be rebuilding my kingdom with the man of my dreams, and now...and now..." Martina was unable to continue, having choked on her tears.
Zangulus gripped Martina's hand tighter. "Seyruun is a kingdom bent on justice. They won't attack us without first letting us prove our innocence. I know you were with me the entire time, so there's no possible way they can charge us with such a heinous crime."
Martina nodded, wiping at her tears. "I know, I'm just...I'm just so scared! I want to be able to lead my life and the kingdom in peace, not lose it all to war!" Martina bit her tongue at that. Not too long ago she had been more than willing to war with Seyruun and the rest of the world to gain dominance over it. How far she'd come in so short a time.
Zangulus just smiled back at her. "Pray to Zoamelgustar for protection. We'll come through this; you'll see. As soon as the convoy from Seyruun comes we'll clear this whole mess up."
Martina beamed back at Zangulus, being reminded again why she loved him so dearly. "Yes. I just hope this 'Princess Gracia' is as merciful as Princess Amelia was...is!"
"Come, Martina. We should rally the troops. We need to keep their moral up as well." Zangulus nudged his horse toward their nearby army, Martina following close behind. As they drew near they were alerted to some of the troops breaking formation. Zangulus yelled out to a nearby soldier.
"What's happening over there?"
The soldier turned to address his king, when he was suddenly pierced in the back with an arrow. Many more followed after.
"We're under attack! Everyone, pull back!" Zangulus' horse reared back in alarm as a wave of soldiers turned in retreat.
"Darling!" Martina cried out, alarmed at seeing her husband nearly be impaled by an arrow himself.
"Martina, flee from here!" Zangulus cried out, even as he steered his horse away from the incoming barrage of arrows. He could hear the battle cry of an oncoming army, looking up in horror to see that the convoy they had been expecting was no convoy at all - but an entire army!
"A sneak attack!" Zangulus turned to see Martina was still rooted to the spot, looking at the oncoming threat in fear. He urged his horse to come up alongside hers. "Martina, quickly, you must go!"
"But what about you?" Martina cried, knowing if she didn't leave she could perish, but not wanting to leave her beloved's side.
"I'll be fine. I've been through worse than this. Your kingdom needs you now. Quickly! I doubt we'll be able to defend ourselves for long. We'll need help from our allies. Now go!" Zangulus commanded.
"Darling..." Martina gave Zangulus one last look, then kicked her horse to retreat. As she fled she heard a gut-wrenching cry of pain, but was too afraid to look back.
oOoOoOoOo
"Please, Zoamelgustar, protect Xoana. Protect my husband!"
Elsewhere Lina and Co. had finally emerged from the prison, now quietly sneaking through the halls of the palace.
"Wow, talk about deja vu." Lina whispered. "When this is all over, remind me to never get on Seyruun's bad side ever again."
"That's asking too much." Gourry moaned, following right behind Lina.
"Hey!" Lina scowled and elbowed Gourry in the gut.
"Miss Lina, Sir Gourry, please be quiet. There might still be guards nearby." Sylphiel silently pleaded. She had felt awkward enough taking out a guard. Sneaking about felt even worse!
"Miss Sylphiel's right, but it seems so quiet. Where are all the guards? Something isn't right."
Zelgadis nodded his head. "You're right, this does seem out of the ordinary."
Lina, Gourry, and Sylphiel all glanced over at Zelgadis. When he finally felt their stares on him he looked up in surprise. "Did I just say that out loud?" At their nods he grimaced.
"Sorry, Mister Zelgadis. I keep forgetting they can't hear me like this."
Zelgadis shot the trio a look as he replied, "It's okay, Amelia. No one will complain anyway, since you're the only one who knows the best way to get out of here."
Lina, Gourry, and Sylphiel all looked at each other and shrugged, deciding it best not to say anything in reply.
"That's true, it's just..."
Zelgadis waited for a response, but didn't get one. "What is it?"
"Did you hear that?"
Zelgadis strained to hear over Lina's mutterings, finally hearing the sound of someone breathing nearby.
"Wait a moment, Mister Zelgadis."
With that, Zelgadis noticed a definite lack of Amelia's presence. "Amelia? Amelia!" He whirled around, as if he would be able to see her walking away.
Lina shot him a curious look. "What's the matter, have a spat?"
"She's gone! Where could she go?" Zelgadis was starting to get panicked.
"Gone?" Sylphiel questioned.
Gourry scratched his head. "I thought she was stuck with you?"
"I thought so, too. You don't think..?" Zelgadis looked like he was ready to tear down the hallway to find his wayward friend.
Lina grabbed onto Zelgadis' arm to attempt to keep him still. "Whoa, calm down, Zel! Tell us what happened. Did she say anything?"
Zelgadis slowed down his breathing as he collected his thoughts. "She alerted me to someone nearby, then told me to wait. And then she just disappeared!"
"Someone nearby?" Lina leaned into the hallway to catch any sound of nearby people. "Now that you mention it, someone is nearby."
"Oh!" Sylphiel put her hand over her mouth.
"Something wrong, Sylphiel?" Gourry looked down at the distressed priestess.
Sylphiel twiddled her fingers in shame. "There is someone nearby, actually. You see, I wanted to help you all out, and when I saw he had the keys to the prison..."
Lina smirked. "You slapped a Sleep spell on him, didn't you?"
Sylphiel hung her head. "Yes."
Lina just grinned. "There's hope for you yet."
Zelgadis opted out of the conversation, trying to sort things out in his mind. What use would Amelia have for a sleeping guard?
oOoOoOoOo
Amelia walked quietly, amazed at the sight she saw. "This is the priestess quarters of the temple. What am I doing here?" She glanced all about her, but not a soul was in sight. "This is so strange..."
"Priestess!" A voice called out.
"Are they talking to me?" Amelia turned toward the voice, but still saw no one. "What's going on here?"
"Little priestess, please!" The voice called out again.
Amelia finally glanced down at her clothing to see that she was in her priestess garb. Still not seeing a source for the voice she called out, "Yes, I'm here."
A man suddenly appeared before her. He bowed politely. "I'm sorry, little priestess. I was searching for another... Perhaps you can help me?"
Amelia studied the man's face, knowing she had seen him before. "Oh, Mister Thomas!" Amelia smiled back at the man, realizing he had been one of the younger guards that patrolled the palace. "Who were you looking for?"
Instead of replying, Thomas looked down at Amelia in confusion. "How did you know my name? Do I..." Thomas gasped. "Princess Amelia!" He fell down to his knee. "But how is this possible? I thought you were..."
"I was what?" Amelia attempted to say, but suddenly she felt something hot running down her front. She looked down to see her white robes being stained deep red. "What?" she tried to say, but an odd gurgling sound came out instead. She could feel herself losing strength, and fell to her knees. Amelia put her hand to her throat to close the large wound she suddenly realized was there. "Why..?"
"No, not again! I'll go get help!" Thomas jumped to his feet intent on dashing off to find help, but was stopped by a sharp tug on his arm. He looked down to see Amelia was grasping onto him with her free hand, giving him a pleading look.
"Stop," she mouthed, trying to keep calm. "This isn't real..." She willed herself to take back control of the situation, not stopping until she couldn't feel the large gash on her throat any longer. A quick glance down at her robes revealed that they too had returned to their white color.
Thomas looked on in shock. "How is this possible?"
Amelia kept a firm grip on Thomas until she was able to pull herself back up to her feet. "Please, Mister Thomas, it's all right. I need your help. That's why I came here."
"Here?" Thomas looked about the priestess' quarters. "But-"
Amelia held her hand out to silence him. "Please, I don't have time to explain. Seyruun is in grave danger. I need to know where my sister is."
"She...she left almost three days ago. She took most of the army to go meet Queen Martina outside of Xoana." Thomas bowed his head.
"Oh no..." Amelia covered her mouth. "We might be too late."
"Princess?" Thomas looked at Amelia with worry.
"Pay me no heed, Mister Thomas." Amelia waved him off. "You have been a great help to me. Should we all survive this, you will be rewarded for your loyalty. Please, stay safe." Amelia bowed low then vanished, leaving Thomas to wonder what had just happened.
oOoOoOoOo
"Would you get a grip already!" Lina was practically throttling Zelgadis. "It's not going to help anyone if you keep freaking out on us!"
Zelgadis gacked in response.
"You can't really blame him, Lina." Gourry sighed and resumed leaning against the wall in boredom.
"Yes, Miss Lina," Sylphiel nodded her head, "How would you like it if one of us suddenly vanished on you?"
Lina paused in knocking some sense into Zelgadis to think about the question. "Well, I admit I would probably be worried..."
"See?" Sylphiel scolded, "So you shouldn't punish Mister Zelgadis for being worried about Miss Amelia."
"Okay, okay." Lina waved Sylphiel off. She turned back to her victim. "But only if you promise to remain calm Zel. ...Zel?" Lina blinked at Zelgadis, who suddenly had a look of shock on his face. "...did I kill his brain or something? Hello, earth to Zel?" Lina waved her hand in front of his face.
Zelgadis' eyes suddenly came back into focus and he latched onto Lina's hand.
"Ow! I was just kidding!" Lina tried to free her hand from his tight grip.
"Lina, we need to go. Now!" Zelgadis turned down the hallway and dragged Lina behind him. Sylphiel and Gourry followed.
"What's wrong, Mister Zelgadis?" Sylphiel huffed out as she broke into a jog to keep up.
Zelgadis kept going, ignoring Lina's protests of pain. "Amelia was able to find out where the Crown Princess is."
"Oww...you mean Naga? She didn't leave already did she?" Lina tried to match Zelgadis' pace to spare her trapped hand any more harm.
"Yes. She and her troops have moved out. They're headed to Xoana."
Lina gasped, then tugged at Zelgadis to move faster. "Come on, everyone. We need to get to Xoana...fast!"
oOoOoOoOo
Author's notes: It figures I'd get snagged on a dream! I've had most of this written out for over a week, but I had to figure out just how Amelia was going to interact with the snoozing guard. (If anyone's curious, he was going to ask her about Sylphiel.)
Anyway, I bet everyone forgot about Martina and Zangulus, didn't they? I nearly did too, then realized they still had a role to play in this disaster. Hopefully soon we'll learn what became of them...and Naga as well. Odd how her army went and attacked Martina and Zangulus when they had been waiting so politely to talk peace with her...
I'm really hoping to gain some resolution in this monstrosity of a fic soon, but even I don't know exactly how things are going to turn out. If one thing's for certain, Xellos better watch his back. (Now to go contemplate the next chapter...)