Luck is on my side today, Cassandra thought excitedly.
She had just hurried out from the castle gates when she spotted the suspicious dungeon warden, Officer Melody Rose. The guard was standing in line at a food vendor's stall, Cass could not see what the vendor was selling through the small crowd surrounding it, but it mattered little to the lady-in-waiting. She was just pleased to have found Rose so easily.
Now, where is Officer Sullivan? She wondered, looking around for a ginger-haired man with freckles and a mustache. She gasped and jumped as a hand settled on her shoulder.
"It's alright, ma'am, it's just me."
The hand was removed as Cassandra turned to see a ginger-haired, freckle faced and mustachioed man standing directly behind her. The man was in his uniform, minus his helmet and about as tall as he was wide.
"You are Sullivan?"
"Yes, ma'am, Thomas Sullivan. I take it you are here to relieve me?"
Cass turned back to watch Rose. She was now at the front of the vendor's line, coins in her gloved hand.
"You're correct."
"She went directly to this stall after leaving the barracks. Didn't see her speak to anyone or touch anything. I must get back to my post."
"Thank you for your help, you are free to go."
"Just holler if you need assistance. My post is at the front gate today."
Cass nodded and Officer Sullivan headed back to the palace. Mel Rose began moving away from Cass and the vendor, a Danish in her hand. The blonde-haired woman strode unhurriedly down the street as Cass followed from about twenty feet behind. She put on the wide-brimmed hat she had grabbed from a laundry cart on her way out of the castle and pulled it low over her eyes. She was certain it was the king's, but he would just have to forgive her for taking it. She was devoted to protecting her princess and friend.
I really hope she didn't spot Sullivan, she thought. Although, she would not be so relaxed now if she knew she were being followed.
Cassandra kept a good twenty feet between her and Mel Rose and stuck to the sides of the road, keeping behind objects and people as much as she could. Rose was a trained soldier. Cass realized that she would be more observant and aware of her surroundings than the overage citizen. She had to be very careful. Again, she prayed that Sullivan had been as careful as she was being now. The castle dungeon guard continued down Corona's main street at a steady pace, only stopping once briefly to put her pastry's wrapper in a trash bin on the side of a building. She never turned around or gave any indication that she knew Cassandra was following her.
The lady-in-waiting took stock of her surroundings, trying to guess where Rose could be headed. Cass knew that Rose lived in the western part of the city and they were heading in that general direction. Cass supposed that was where the woman was headed. Abruptly, Rose made a sharp right turn and hurried down an alley. Cass almost missed seeing her turn she moved so fast.
"Damn, she must've made me," Cass muttered under her breath.
The raven-haired woman sprinted to the alley entrance and peered around the corner. Rose was nowhere to be seen! There were no low windows or ladders anywhere along the alley or anywhere for Rose to conceal herself. Cass stepped cautiously into the empty alleyway. She shuddered as the hairs stood up on the back of her neck. She walked briskly past the small bins and piles of debris, nearly shrieking in surprise as a mangy cat ran out in front of her.
If this is a trap…she thought. Yah, don't finish that thought, she frowned. I have to follow her either way.
She blew a sigh of relief as she stepped from the alley to the narrow street at its end. The narrow street that ran parallel with the main street, was lined with old and worn row houses. It was a fairly short avenue, only running for about a hundred feet in either direction from where Cass was standing. Both ends joined streets running perpendicular to them. The area was completely deserted. Cassandra could just barely hear the hustle and bustle from Corona's busy downtown and square. She stood perfectly still. Sure, this street wasn't a main thoroughfare, but there should be a few people around.
Where are the people? Cass thought. Where's Rose? She couldn't have gone far.
The blonde woman was nowhere in sight. The brunette crept around the corner, pressing herself against a building adjacent to the alley entrance. Having now stepped fully out of the alley, Cass had a better view of the street. Approximately fifty feet to her left, at the entrance to a different alley across the street, the lady-in-waiting spotted her quarry. He right side partially obscured by the wall of a building, Mel Rose was sitting on a wooden box, her back to Cass. Cass couldn't see where the woman's hands were.
Cass ducked behind a large box set against the front of a house ten feet from the exit to the alley she had traveled through. There was no cover between herself and Rose from that point on. Cass silently cursed. If the woman was meeting someone at that box, she was too far away to be able to hear anything they said. A few minutes went by, nothing happened. Cass leaned into the box, trying to conserve some energy, sweat was beginning to dampen her collar and her shirt at the small of her back as she stood in the beams of the warm sun. She was determined to wait as long as it took to find out what Rose was up to on that street.
Cassandra had no time to react as a coarse, burlap sack was pulled over her head, flattening the brim of her hat over her hair and face. The edge of the brim rubbed against her nose as she twisted her head around in an attempt to free herself from the bag. The wind was knocked out of her as she was harshly thrown to the ground. The last thing she saw were exploding stars before her senses shut off.
"What hit me?" Cass groaned as she came to, squinting into the pitch darkness that was all around her.
The young woman shook her head, trying to clear the fuzziness that muddled her thoughts. It took her a few moments to realize that she wasn't in a dark room, but there was actually something covering her head. She remembered then that a sack had been forced over her head just before being knocked senseless. Belatedly, as she tried to raise her hands to remove the sack from her head, she found that her hands were tied to the back legs of the hard chair she was sitting in. Her ankles were tied securely to the front legs.
Well, at least light won't exacerbate the throbbing in my head, she thought.
Cassandra gave up trying to free herself from the bag for the time being. As her thoughts cleared, she was able to calm herself. She concentrated on listening to her surroundings. The bag that covered her head completely blocked out the light and smelled heavily of dirt and potatoes, effectively rendering her senses of sight and smell useless. She could hear nothing except for the steady plink, plink of water drops hitting a larger area of water.
No street noises, she thought. They must have taken me out of Corona. The air is still too. I must be indoors somewhere.
Minutes felt like hours to Cassandra. She tried to keep her training at the forefront of her mind and remain calm, but it was becoming difficult. She was impatient to find out who had attacked her from behind.
Certainly wasn't Rose who struck me and put this bag on my head, Cass thought. She was in front of me. She must have been meeting someone after all. They had to be the one who attacked me.
Cassandra sighed and shook her head.
But I looked up the street in both directions, she thought. But I didn't look back down the alley! Maybe he or she entered the alley after I did and came up behind me from there!
As the lady-in-waiting was mentally kicking herself for her stupidity, she was startled by the loud shrieking noise of rusty hinges as a door opened nearby. Cass sat perfectly still as two sets of feet entered the area close to her. The door shrieked again as it was closed.
"You need to work on your stealth skills, Cassandra," came a female voice to Cass' right.
"Melody Rose, so I was right to follow you after all," Cass said, trying to sound bold.
"Yah, you were actually. You are the Captain of the Royal Guard's daughter. I shouldn't have been so surprised that you and the prince-wannabe-buffoon were on to me."
"Your mistake."
"And yours."
The burlap sack and wide-brimmed hat were ripped from Cassandra's head. Mel Rose tossed them into a corner. As Cass blinked in the sudden light, she gathered what information she could from her surroundings. She was in what appeared to be a shop. Along the wall in front of her was a bench. Above the bench, tools of various types and sizes were hung on pegs. A small blacksmith's forge was in the corner next to the workbench. A pile of firewood was stacked against the adjacent wall. A low fire burned in the forge. There was a thick layer of dust covering the entire room. The distinctive smell of a long unused space was thick in the air.
"You're plan to have me follow you whenever you leave the palace to meet me worked well, Melody," a rather obnoxious male voice said.
Cassandra continued to squint and blink as her eyes adjusted.
"I spotted that fat wall guard follow you out of the gates," the male voice continued. "But we caught a much more valuable fish. Should we milk her for information or ransom her back to the Captain?"
Rose wasn't the only one in the shop with Cass. The second set of feet Cass had heard belonged to a young, thin and blonde man. He was standing in front of the door, looking at Cass without emotion. Cass felt a thrill run through her as she spotted the pommel of a dagger he had thrust in his belt. The pommel was a silver skull with emeralds for eyes.
"So you finally show back up, huh Vince?" Cass said.
The man's face paled.
"How'd you know my name?"
"Your little bandit friend described you to her of course," Rose said. "He's still locked up in the palace dungeon you know."
"The squealer better hope he stays in there, I'll kill 'im if he ever gets out for talking to the guards," Vince fumed.
"Well, he doesn't matter anymore," Rose said, kneeling down in front of Cass. "I suppose if you knew who we were working for, you'd already have them in custody and not be following lowly old me around."
"You'd be wrong then," Cass said, trying to keep them talking. "I was just keeping an eye on you. I know where to find the Serpent."
"Knowing the codename for our employer does you no good," Rose said. "It won't help you find her. Make it easy on yourself. Tell us everything you know. You don't necessarily have to die. Once the Serpent gets what she wants and I get paid, we'll be leaving Corona. Not everyone will be spared, but you could be."
"You won't let me live either way," Cassandra scoffed. "You must know me well enough to know that I will stop at nothing to make you pay for what you've done."
"I respect you for sticking by your principles," Rose said. "I guess we will have to kill you. But first, I want to know everything you know."
"Like you implied before, nothing I know is of any value."
"Not necessarily," Rose said. "I was very careful about my movements and you still found me."
"No you weren't. We found you pretty quickly. Dirty traitor!"
Rose creased her brow in thought.
"Huh, I suppose you are talking about that fool Pete?" she sneered. "I picked him to cover my shift because he was easy to manipulate, men usually are when it comes to someone who is blessed with my appearance. I didn't choose him for his smarts. I didn't need him to be an alibi or cover for me if her were ever questioned. I had an alibi, I said I was at Dr. Mal's office. Tell me, why did you consider me a suspect still?"
"Does it really matter anymore?"
"It does. I want to know where I screwed up."
"It doesn't matter, Mel," Vince cried. "Let's just kill her and be done with it. The Serpent already ordered us to kill her."
"It's the principle," Rose said. "I am a professional infiltrator. I need to know where I screwed it up if I want to continue in my career."
Rose strode over to the forge and pulled poker from the fire. The tip was red hot. Cass tried to swallow the lump that formed in her throat at the sight of the poker. She mentally cursed herself for her stupidity once again.
I should've guessed that she'd have a tail to guarantee she didn't have a tail, she thought.
Rose thrust the poker in Cass' face. The brunette moved her head as far away from it as she could. The back of the high-backed chair prevented her from doing little more than turning her face away.
"Hmm, you are a pretty girl aren't you," Rose said. "I could have counted you as a rival for the male guards' attentions if it wasn't for the fact that you are the Captain's daughter. You know, it would be a shame to spoil your pretty face."
The traitorous guard moved the poker so close to Cass' right cheek she could feel it reddening her flesh. She smelled the unmistakable stench of burning hair as a lock of her dark hair came into contact with the heated poker. Rose laughed as a portion of the brunette's hair burned. Rose roughly put the fire out.
"Don't want to have too much fun yet," she said. "Tell me how did you find me out?"
"Didn't know for certain, until now, fool."
"You're the foolish one, look where you are," Rose sneered. "No one will find you. Now, what do you know of our plans?"
Cassandra said nothing. She knew that it didn't matter whether or not she told Rose anything, she was not leaving that shop alive. But, she wasn't going to go down without a fight. And, she was not going to betray Rapunzel.
The lady-in-waiting winced and sucked in a hissing breath as Rose pressed the poker to the outside of her right thigh. It continued to burn her skin as the fabric of her pant leg caught fire. Rose cruelly put the flames out by smacking them with her gloved hand.
"What do you know of our plans?"
Cassandra said nothing, closing her eyes, steeling herself for pain from the next burn. Rose pressed the poker to another spot on Cass' leg a few inches further up. Cass clenched her jaw hard to prevent herself from crying out. Suddenly, Cass heard Rose snicker in her ear. Cracking open her eyes, she found the other woman's face right next to hers. Seizing what she knew was going to be her only opportunity, Cassandra whipped her head forward, catching the surprised woman square in the nose with her forehead.
Rose cried out and grabbed her nose. Blood immediately started gushing from the once perfectly sloped triangle. As she grabbed her nose, she dropped the poker. It clattered and bounced on the shop's stone floor, landing in a small pile of old straw. A fire quickly lighted and began spreading to the nearby pile of dry firewood.
"I'm outta here!" Vince cried, flinging open the shop door.
Clutching her nose, Rose stumbled back into the bench, but managed to follow the man out of the shop, slamming the door behind her. Cassandra looked to where the fire was quickly spreading from the dry firewood to the ancient wood making up the walls of the shop.
"Whoever built this place is an idiot!" Cass cried. "They built a blacksmith's shop completely out of wood for crying out loud!"
She twisted her body around as the room began filling with smoke, trying desperately to find a way to escape. Behind her she spotted a row of farming implements. Amongst the shovels and hoes was a large scythe. Its old and dusty blade was clearly still sharp and had been well maintained during its time of usefulness. The tool was propped up against the wall with the tip of the blade and the bottom portion of the handle against the ground. Cass would be able to rub the ropes around her wrists on the blade and free herself.
I just have to get over there, she thought, coughing.
Luckily for the young woman, the chair wasn't particularly heavy, comprised of spindly legs and a wobbly back. As it turned out, Cassandra didn't need to make it the four feet over to the scythe. As she tried to hop the chair back by leaning forward and moving back with the balls of her feet, the back legs of the chair gave out and splintered. Cass crashed to the floor on to her side. Pulling her hands free from the broken back legs, she was able to slip the ropes from around the front legs.
By this time, she had inhaled a significant amount of smoke and was finding it difficult to breathe. As soon as she stood up from the remains of the chair, she stumbled to the side, collapsing against the wall. Focusing her remaining energy, she belly crawled to the old, heavy door. She prayed that Vince and Rose hadn't locked her in. In their panic, they hadn't and Cass managed to push her way out of the dying building. She managed to pull herself up onto her hands and knees and crawl about thirty feet from the shop.
She rolled onto her side and coughed as she watched the building quickly become completely engulfed and collapse into itself. A weed-like tree growing out of one side of the shop's foundation had been caught up in the fire, but no other large plants or buildings were ignited by floating embers. Cass lay on the ground watching the fire die down, coughing, trying to catch her breath for several minutes before attempting to sit up.
"Ah, ouch," she winced, placing her hands on either side of her right thigh and grimacing as a wave of dizziness came over her.
Once the dizziness passed, she delicately put a hand to the bump on the back of her head.
"That little shit, I'll get him for that," she muttered.
She returned her attention to her leg. The two burns were rather small and didn't seem too bad. Her skin was red and slightly burned where her pants had caught fire. Her cheek was tender and a portion of hair by her right ear was burned away, nearly reaching her scalp.
"Oh, my hair! I really hope I don't get a bald spot there," she grumbled. "I'm going to rip all her pretty hair out, she how she fancies a bald spot!"
Gently and gradually Cass stood. She carefully tested her weight on her injured leg. As long as nothing touched the burns, it didn't hurt too badly. It was just a constant, dull burn. It was then that she turned and examined her surroundings. Before her sat a lovely country manor. It was two stories tall and appeared to be quite expansive. It appeared to be from the building style popular in the previous century. It had been well maintained, unlike the shop. Vince and Melody Rose were nowhere to seen.
Cassandra cautiously approached a door in what was apparently the rear of the building, it was slightly ajar. The room beyond was a large formal dining room. The house was completely silent. Cass stood at the door, debating about going inside. Vince and Rose were surely nearby still. Probably inside the house somewhere. But, she wondered if this was the home of their employer. On a guard's salary it certainly wasn't Rose's and she doubted Vince would keep such a large in good condition.
The raven-haired woman took two steps into the room. The creaking of a floorboard to her right caused her to whirl around at just the right moment. Rose came flying at her, blood still dripping from her nose, a sword raised over her head. Cass jumped wildly out of the other woman's path of attack, landing on her stomach on the thick area rug. She rolled quickly to the side as Rose swung her sword, narrowly missing having her feet lopped off. Cass sprung to her feet and grabbed the nearest things to her that could serve as weapons, twin, ornate, three-tiered candelabras. She whipped the candelabras forward, flinging the unused candles and the other woman.
Rose slashed through two of them and attacked, bringing her sword back up at Cass, slashing up from right to left. Cass caught the blade in the prongs of one of her candelabras and stepped forward. She smashed the other candelabra down on Rose's still blood slicked hands as hard as she could. Rose cried out in pain as the reverberations of being hit with the brass object went up her wrists and forearms, causing her to lose her grip on her weapon. The skilled lady-in-waiting quickly followed up with smashing the base of the first candelabra into the side of Rose's head.
The traitorous former warden fell to dining room floor with a muffled groan. Cass rolled her onto her back. The woman was out cold. Cass pulled down a curtain sash from a nearby window and securely tied Rose to a heavy dining room chair. Cass snickered as she petulantly tied the blonde woman's hair around a horizontal bar in the back of the chair so that Rose couldn't bend her head forward without pulling her hair.
Cass picked up the sword and kept it at the ready as she proceed to walk through the house. It was just your typical large house, full of rarely used rooms full of rarely used expensive furniture. There was nothing of note until she entered a small room at the front of the house. It was clearly an alchemy lab. She approached the worktable containing the alchemy equipment. Her attention was drawn to an ancient tome sitting on an easel next to the table. She carefully opened it and read through the first few pages and skipped around through the rest. It was obvious to her that the book had several different authors.
This is a witch's spell book, she thought excitedly.
She skipped to the last few pages of the book. The most recent entry appeared to have been made only a day or two before.
I have the princess in my sights. My birthright will be mine. This book will come full circle. The original owner of the sun drop flower started it and now me, her descendant will finish it and reclaim the power of the flower. The spells in this book should allow me to unlock her powers for my use. If not, I can keep her as long as I need. I know of a little slip of an alchemist who might have what I need.
"Descendent of the original owner of the flower?" Cass said.
She flipped back to the front of the book and reread the poem at the beginning.
"The original owner of the flower was Gothel…The current owner of this book is her descendent? This isn't good!"
Cassandra shut the book and hurried with it out of the house. Glancing around, she spotted the house's stables on the other side of the front courtyard. She hurried to it and found a graceful black horse already tacked up. Hoping he was friendly, she opened the gate to his stall and put the book in a side satchel attached to the saddle and climbed onto his back. The horse nickered a little in protest, but allowed Cass to ride him out of the stables and onto the main road.
The young woman hoped that she wasn't that far from Corona. She didn't have a clue as to where she was. She urged the horse on to a faster pace and hoped for the best.