Chapter 9:

The Kidnapping

Corinne lied down on her bed, and immediately fell asleep, entering a nightmare.

*Corinne's Nightmare*

Phillipe was standing in a dark alley, rain was flooding the streets. Phillipe was talking to a man in a black coat, and hat that made it impossible to see his face. Corinne couldn't hear what they were saying, but what ever it was it wasn't good. She could only make up the words; Louis, Calista, take over kingdom. She knew that it meant something, and in the deepest part of her brain she knew what it was. The man talking to Phillipe finally drew a sword. It was a silver sword with a black handle which had an emerald in the shape of an eye on it. He gave the sword to Phillipe.

"Do not fail me." The man said.

"I will not, your highness." Phillipe told him.

"Remember, get the musketeer girl out of the way first. Then after she marries the King, we can get rid of him." The man said. Phillipe nodded.

"And after that we'll get rid of her too." Phillipe said. Now Corinne was just confused, she was pretty sure that she was the musketeer girl they were talking about, but who was she, and who was the man in the black coat.

"And then the kingdom will be mine... ours to control." The man said. The scene changed. Corinne was in a dark room. Suddenly four people surrounded her. She recognized them immediately as Aramina, Viveca, Renée, and Louis. She tried to call out their named, but her voice didn't work.

"How could you?" Renée asked, "What kind of friend are you?"

"Why did you do it?" Aramina asked.

"When did you turn into this monster?" Viveca asked.

"How dare you? I thought you cared about me." Louis finally spoke. Corinne looked at them, she wanted to ask what they were talking about. What they were blaming her for. What did she do wrong? But of course she couldn't talk. The scene changed, and she was no longer in a room, she was in a cave. It was dark, and she couldn't see anything, she could only hear. And what she heard was something that didn't help her calm down, it was an evil laugh, a cackle that witches use when they won a fight except this one was deeper, and scarier, and more evil. It echoed through the cave. Suddenly the man in the black coat appeared in front of her, his eyes looked familiar somehow.

"You will fail." He finally told her, "And be betrayed by someone who calls themselves your friend."

*End of Corinne's Nightmare*

Corinne sat up in her bed, breathing hard. She fell back down on her bed. She looked around the room, Aramina, Renée, and Viveca were still asleep. She wanted to tell someone about the nightmare, but she didn't want to wake them up. She looked out the window, a window in the castle still had light coming from it. She recognized that it was Louis's room. She wondered why he was still awake. She silently got out of her bed, and walked out of the room. She silently made her way to the castle. She opened the door to the palace, and tip-toed to Louis's room. She knocked on the door. She heard footsteps come towards the door, and then the door opened. Louis looked out, he looked surprised.

"Corinne?" He asked.

"Hi." Corinne smiled.

"What are you doing here?" He asked. Not exactly annoyed with her.

"I saw that you were awake." Corinne said. Louis held back a smile.

"Well, that doesn't explain anything." Louis said, trying to sound annoyed, but it was quite impossible with those blue eyes looking straight at you.

"I wanted to talk to you." Corinne said.

"Too bad, you should've thought of that before you left." Louis said, though it hurt him to say it to Corinne. He tried to close the door, bur Corinne was too fast, she stopped the door from closing.

"Stop." Louis said.

"No." Corinne said, "You can't ignore a problem, Louis. If I'm the problem, you can't ignore me. It'll only make it worse."

Louis sighed, "You're not the problem, Corinne."

"Then what is?" Corinne asked.

"The fact that you're back." Louis said.

"You want me to go?" Corinne asked in disbelief.

"No, that's not it." Louis said.

"That's what it sounds like." Corinne said.

"Don't believe everything you hear, Corinne." Louis said, smirking.

"Funny." Corinne said.

"I don't know what the problem is exactly, it's just that... everything is so..." Louis searched for the right words.

"Complicated?" Corinne suggested.

"Yeah." Louis said, "Anyway want to come in." Corinne smiled, but was a bit confused. Since when did Louis have mood swings. She went in any way.

"Louis?" Corinne asked.

"What?" Louis asked.

"I didn't want to leave you like that." Corinne said. Louis smiled at her.

"It's fine, Corinne, really. The important thing is that you're back." Louis said. Corinne nodded, and looked at him, she smiled. Once again she could see the old Louis. The awkward, kind, funny prince she met while sweeping the stairs.

"That's right, Kingy." Corinne smiled.

"She's back." Louis sang.

"No... no, don't sing, you have a terrible singing voice." Corinne teased.

"Funny." Louis said.

"So you still have a sense humor?" Corinne asked.

"Of course, I haven't changed that much." Louis said.

"Ha, you see you were not as miserable as you thought."

"No, not at all." Louis said sarcastically. Corinne laughed.

"Corinne?" Louis asked.

"What?" Corinne asked.

"Can you keep this safe for me?" He asked, and took out a ring with a pearl embedded in it. Ancient writing was carved into the polished gold. The ring was hanging from a gold chain

"Sure, what is it?" Corinne asked, taking the gold chain.

"An old family heirloom." Louis said.

"Oh, are you sure you want me to have it?" Corinne asked.

"Of course, if you can't trust the girl who saved your life more than once who can you trust?" Louis asked, putting the gold chain around her neck. Corinne turned to him, and looked down at the pearl.

"Um... thanks." She said. Louis shrugged.

"It's the least I can do for over-reacting back there." He said.

"It's fine, Louis." Corinne said. Louis smiled.

"You've changed, Corinne. Back then, you could hold a grudge for months."

"Yeah well, you guys were quite stupid back then, it was frustrating to be the only one with a brain." Corinne teased.

"Oh that's just downright rude." Louis said, but the tone of his voice betrayed him.

"No, it's just down right truthful, I mean I saved your life, and you still didn't believe girls could be musketeers." Corinne said.

"Oh, not that again." Louis said.

"And you could believe that man could fly, but a girl couldn't be a musketeer. Where is the sense?"

"You're just trying to make me feel stupid now, aren't you." Louis said.

"Maybe."

"You succeeded in that 4 years ago." He said.

"Yeah. I want to succeed in it again." Corinne said.

"Get to the point." He said.

"I forgot, oh no I remember, do you have five dollars?" Corinne asked.

"Um... why?" Louis asked, taking out five dollars. Corinne took them.

"I need five dollars." Corinne said.

"You're stealing from the King." Louis scolded.

"I'm Robin Hood." Corinne said in a high voice, "Except these five dollars are for me, so yeah, but I still steal from a king. Yeah, now I just need to train more in archery." Louis looked at her. She was holding back a laugh. He bit his lip, holding back his own urge to laugh. Failing... terribly. Both of them burst out laughing. Not only because of their teasing, but because of what it reminded them of. Their time together before the Fall. Corinne put her head on his shoulder still laughing. The clock in the horizon rang signaling midnight. Corinne got up.

"I better go, the others don't know where I am." Corinne said.

"Alright, be careful, you never know what's waiting in the shadows." Louis said.

"Oh, and you're telling me this." Corinne said, giving him one last smile, and leaving. Louis smiled to himself, Corinne hadn't changed as much as he thought.

...

Corinne walked through the palace gardens as she made her way to the apartment. The cool breeze shook the trees. About halfway through, she felt like she was being followed. She silently reached for her sword, and when she heard another blade being with drawn, she pulled her sword out, and swiftly turned around. The man with the sword had a mask on, but his eyes were an odd shade of brown. Whoever he was he was pretty skilled with a sword, and he seemed to know all her moves. Whenever she tried to strike or slash he was able to deflect the attack. She was breathing heavily by the time she defeated him by knocking him out with a nearby branch. As soon as she caught her breath three other men appeared, they all had swords and their blades were bigger than hers. They all charged at her, and she was forced to fight.

"Oh come on." Corinne muttered, "Three against one? This is incredibly unfair." The men were a lot stronger than her so Corinne decided on using wit to defeat them. Hopefully, they weren't as smart as they were strong. She remembered something her father had told, about what to do when you've got the shorter blade. She was able to use the strategy against one of them, but one of them was able to strike at her arm, Corinne gasped at the pain, the cut was deep. Before she could do anything one of the men took out a spray can, and sprayed whatever it was on her. She immediately started to feel drowsy. She felt her sword drop out of her hand as she fell to the ground.

...

Corinne slowly opened her eyes. It took a while for her eyes to adjust to the light, but it didn't take long for her to realize something was wrong.