Chapter 39

"Because of the Princess' refusal to hold to her prophecy, actions must be taken to ensure it follows through. Therefore, the Storm Hawks will not spend the night on their beloved ship. We cannot allow for them to depart and take with them the Princess"

"Agar, man, you can't do this! We don't want to get married!" Finn yelled at the King "I'm your Domo. Listen to me!"

"I don't think they're in the listening mood, Finn" Blinx directed at the boy "Agar, I'm older than him, Christ, I'm older than Stork! Surely there's some rule against that?!"

Stork sent her a shocked and confused look.
"You're older than me?"

"Can we discuss that later?!"

"There is no rule against such a thing. You will marry the Domo tomorrow at dawn" the blind King returned "It will be a traditional ceremony which will be conducted by myself. If the Storm Hawks wish to attend, they may, but it will be so behind bars. I do not wish for this ceremony to go awry. That will be all"

Finn and Blinx were forcibly grabbed from behind, as were the rest of the team, and dragged away from their friends towards the throne and behind it, through La salle des Prophéties and into the round chamber at the end. They were pushed inside and watched in horror as they were closed in.
Blinx raced to the entrance and immediately tried to shift the door, but to no avail, it being made of heavy stone to ensure that didn't happen.

"What is this place?" Finn asked.

"It's La salle des Prophéties" Blinx replied "Agar brought me here earlier when I spoke with him and there was no door here earlier! It was where Le Livre des Prophéties resided"
She looked back to Finn, who was giving her a confused look.

"It's a book he gave to me, it's a long story"

He waved her off as he made his way around to the other side of the room "Well, at least they made it comfortable"
She stared at him in confusion and came around to his side. Situated on the floor was a small mattress.

"Yeah, comfortable sure, if I were to tell you what that was for, I don't think you'd like it so much"

Piper had managed to sneak away the Book and was at the moment studying it hard with what little moonlight she had that streamed through the bars of the cell.

They'd separated them, two to a cell, so as not to have a repeat of last time.
Junko had been restrained, hands behind his back and chained to the wall, to keep him from using his Wallop strength, Aerrow was in the process of trying to pick the lock of his friends cuffs.
Stork stood beside her shivering, as he did.

"Piper, what are you doing?" he asked her.

"I'm trying to figure out why this wedding is so important. And maybe a way to get Blinx and Finn out of it" she replied "But, without Blinx, I can't decipher the writing. She's the only one who can read it"

Stork looked over her shoulder, his eye twitched as he stared down in interest "Let me see that"
She looked away from the book long enough to realise she'd been staring at it way too long in the given light and so handed it off to the Merb.

"This is very interesting" he mumbled after a quiet moment "The wedding isn't the part they're interested in, it's more a formality. It seems they're interested in the possible child it should produce"

"The what?!"
Even Aerrow and Junko had heard that and were staring sceptically at the two across from them.

"That's what it seems to be saying, but the more I read, the more I think they've misinterpreted it"

"So, wait you can actually read it?" Piper asked him.

"It's an old form of Merbish. I studied it in school" Stork replied absently.

"But, if Blinx can read it, does that mean she's part Merb?" Junko asked as his cuffs finally fell free.
Stork shrugged "I don't know. She may have just grown up on Terra Merbia, but I see that as a long shot"

"Whatever the case, now that Junko's free, we focus on saving our friends" Aerrow stated "Stork, get back to the Condor and keep reading. See if there's a loophole. The rest of us will deal with the guards"

Translated by Google Translate...so don't trust it...

La salle des Prophéties - The Hall of Prophesies

Le Livre des Prophéties - The Book of Prophesies