Saving Royalty

Chapter III

“What are we going to do Mark?”

Jack asked looking at his friend as they stood off to the side of the bed where their queen laid sleeping. After getting her looked over by the nurses and doctor they were told that she had a fainting spell and should wake up soon. This seemed to ease both men knowing this. However, Nikki hadn’t been so lucky as the queen.

When she had been attacked and cut she had bled out quickly. This was due to the fact that an artery in her arm had been sliced open which lead to such quick blood loss. She was currently laying in bed two rooms down from the queen.

“I have to bring it to the council that the king has been confirmed missing and both the queen and Nikki have been put here in the med bay.”

Mark sighed. This was the last thing he wanted to bring to the table today of all days. He was worried about what would happen if word spread to the town that the king was missing and they had been attacked in their own castle without even knowing.

“I’m going to need you to go out and find Amy. Bring her back here to the castle while I speak with the council. It’s not safe for her to be out by herself. We can’t allow anyone else to get hurt while we’re here.”

“Yeah, I get it.”

Jack said glancing at Mark, who’s attention was currently on the queen. He frowned, knowing that Mark was more than likely blaming himself for not realizing that they had been invaded by someone and the king had gone missing and the queen and Nikki both ended up hurt.

“Do you know where she’d be? The kingdom is a big place. It’d be faster if I knew where to look for her.”

Mark didn’t reply at first which caused Jack to raise a brow as he stood there in the quiet room waiting for an answer. He heard mark give a deep sigh.

“Kradelmen’s woods. There are herbs that grow there that she collects to help Signe. I’d check there first.”

“Right, I’ll see if I can’t find her.”

Jack said turning toward the door. He stopped holding the doorknob in his hand as he glanced over his shoulder to look at Mark. The man was still looking at their fallen queen. Slowly turning his head back forward Jack opened the door and left the room headed for the woods that was located to the north of the town.

About an hours walk later and Jack had arrived at the start of the woods. He had walked through the farmer’s fields and up north toward the mountains, where the woods fell just below the rocky peaks.

Walking below the dark green overhead of the branches Jack looked around as he walked down the animal trail that had been turned into a path for humans to walk as well. Walking across a small stream that had a man made bridge over it he crossed to the other side. The woods were filled with sounds of wildlife from birds chirping to the sounds of rustling brush from rabbits running across his path and deer rushing off in the opposite direction of him.

Walking through the turns and curves of the road he approached the entrance to the under path which lead to the other half of the woods. It was a small cave that went through a hill side and the path continued to more woods. Walking through the dimly lit area after a few moments he came out to the other side. A small lake that had overgrown grass and different types of plant life all around surrounded the lake. As he walked further the path soon disappeared underneath the overgrown grass.

But the further out he walked he soon saw the back of a blonde haired woman kneeling down in a baby blue dress.

“Amy! That you?”

He called out causing the woman to shoot up from the ground and look at him wide-eyed.

“Oh Jack you startled me!”

She called back looking at the man with a slight frown upon her lips. Jack made his way toward the much shorter woman before he stopped in front of her. She turned fully to face him as the two of them stood there by the water’s edge under the cover of the tall trees that must have been three or four stories tall.

“What are you doing all the way out here Jack?”

She questioned looking up at him. She had no clue as to why he was here but if he came looking for her it caused her room for worry.

“Is something wrong? Is Mark alright?”

She asked wanting to make sure that he was okay. Jack shook his head.

“Mark is fine. He’s in a meeting right now. But something is happened and he wants you back at the castle.”

“What’s happened?”

“I’ll explain later as of right now we need to go.”

Jack told her not wanting to tell her what happened here in the middle of the woods. Amy frowned but understood. She figured Jack would tell her later everything that she needed to know that or Mark would. Turning around Amy bent down and picked up something that was so tiny Jack hadn’t seen due to the tall grass.

“What’s up with the tiny box?”

He inquired wondering why Amy would have a small wooden box the size of her hand. She just smiled at him.

“I thought it was cute.”

Was all she said. Jack placed his hands on his hips and shook his head. He didn’t have time to be standing here asking questions about a box that Amy had he had to get her back to the castle and make sure Mark knew that she was safe and well.

“Alright, let’s go.”

He ordered having Amy follow behind him as they made their way back to the castle.

When they returned the castle staff was running around in disarray. Overhearing people chatting he knew that they had found out about the attack and the king missing. He shook his head knowing good and well that this wasn’t suppose to have happened. Jack sighed as he glanced over at Amy who was to his left holding her little box. She watched as the people were running around and it confused her greatly.

“Mind telling me what’s going on now?”

She questioned wanting to be keyed in on whatever it was everyone was freaking out about while they were running around.

“Long story short – we were attack. The king was taken and the queen and Nikki are in the med bay.”

“What!?”

Amy snapped shocked that Jack hadn’t been able to tell her this out in the woods.

“You don’t think that was kind of the type of information you should have told me when you first found me!”

“I didn’t know who else could have been out there listening, Amy. Our safest bet was to bring you back here and inform you where I knew you’d at least be safe.”

Jack argued knowing that Amy was upset with him for not telling her sooner. But it wasn’t as if he really had a choice in telling her. He was doing as Mark had told him and that was that.

“I have to go meet up with Mark now. I need to know what they’ve decided and what’s going to happen. Please make sure you stay inside close to the guards while we get things sorted. If anything were to happen to you, I’d never hear the end of it from Mark.”

Jack told the woman knowing good and well that Mark would most likely kill him if anything happened to her and it was his fault.

“I’ll stay close. Promise.”

Jack found his way to the second floor. He walked past the office from earlier and turned the corner to the right. Straight back down the hallway at the end of the hall was the door to the chambers where they held the meetings. He knew Mark would be in there holding the meeting since that was part of his job. Walking inside Jack would instantly hear arguments coming from different members as they shouted at one another.

He sighed and walked through the large open room. Marble flooring that reflected like a mirror it was so clean, cream colored stone walls to match the flooring, and golden colored doors was what made up this room. Two guards were placed outside the meeting room doors that Jack passed by as he walked inside and stood off to the side.

It was a fairly large room with a large square table in the middle. A fireplace in the back of the room. And many chairs littered the table to hold eleven men and women and the twelfth chair was for the king at the head of the table – which of course was empty. Mark stood beside the chair and argued with the older men and women whom sat in their seating.

Some wanted to go on a search for the king while others wanted to sit and wait for some type of letter or signal as to what was happening. A few others didn’t know what they should do as they were undecided in their choice. Either way you looked at it the whole room was in a disarray of uncertainty. Once Mark had seen Jack enter the room he called for a short break to allow the members to speak among themselves to allow him to go speak to Jack.

“Did you find her?”

Was of course his first question. Jack nodded his head and watched as some of the stiffness left Mark’s shoulders.

“Good. I’m getting absolutely no where in this meeting.”

He told Jack as they both stood off to the side of the room where they couldn’t be heard speaking. Jack glanced over at the men and women who were still arguing with one another and shook his head.

“Yeah, seems like a tough bunch of people over there. What are we going to do if they can’t agree on something?”

Jack questioned wanting to know what the plan was if it came down to nobody being able to agree on anything – which was where this seemed like it was headed and fast.

“If they can’t agree on anything then the third highest member will be left in charge and you and I will go look for the king ourselves.”

Mark explained. He had held the second seat in the room, but he could only take so much. If appointing the third in command to take over was what he’d have to do in order to leave and find the king himself then that’s what he’d have to do.

“They have to think for what’s best for the kingdom. We haven’t even scratched the surface on what we’d do to protect the town in case of an unforeseen attack. At this rate we’ll be here for weeks fighting over what needs to be done. And by then – “

“By then it could be too late.”

Jack finished for Mark who nodded. Jack sighed and looked to his friend who he relied on greatly for answers. But it seemed that even Mark didn’t have all the answers needed for this here.

“Have you heard anything on the queen or Nikki?”

Jack asked wondering what the conditions of the two of them were now that he’d been gone for a while.

“I haven’t heard anything. No news is good news is what they say.”

Jack nodded. As long as nothing bad had happened while he was gone he could live with them having to wait a little bit longer for the two of them to wake up.

“I do want you to go check the library.”

Mark added causing Jack to raise a brow.

“What for?”

“I want you to see if you can figure out what happened in there. Use your skills to try and paint the picture as to what happened.”

Jack frowned not knowing how much help he would be.

“You know my skills are only good in tracking, I doubt I’ll be able to figure out anything.”

“Just do what you can I have faith in you.”

Mark praised causing Jack to be taken aback. It wasn’t every day Mark would give him such a complement. Nodding his head Jack would do his best in figuring out whatever it was he could. Maybe if nothing else he could figure out what had happened during the scuffle that the king was taken.

Back in the library Jack looked all around for anything that could possibly tell the story as to what had happened. Looking at the floor he noticed there were scuff marks from where the carpet had been slightly cut. Further back from it was a darker line where it looked like someone was pushed back by a strong force and had their feet drag across the ground.

Looking back he noticed that the markings were in front of where they had found the queen.

“Felix must have been protecting her...”

He told himself out loud. He looked around for a second longer and only found a few more clues like some black substance that had seeped into the carpet and some more scuff marks. Headed up to the second floor where Nikki had been attacked he stepped around the spots of blood that had seeped into the wood staining it permanently. It caused him to wince at the thought of all the blood she had lost when they had arrived. Looking forward he noticed a hole in the ground which seemed to be the same s***h mark from the carpet on the first floor.

‘The same attack – the same monster?’

He questioned looking around for more clues. Walking down a ways a bit Jack just barely caught something out of the corner of his eye to the left on the shelf. Looking over he noticed a gap in between the books. There was a book that seemed to be missing. Normally he would just wave it off, but seeing as how this was the restricted area there weren’t suppose to be any books missing.

‘What went here?’

He wondered as he continued to look at the empty space. Suddenly he jumped around reaching into his pocket when he heard something come from below. Ready to attack he eased up seeing Amy down there.

“What are you doing in here Amy?”

He called out putting away his blades. She looked up at him with a frown.

“I wanted to talk to you so I came to find you. One of the maids said you’d be in here. What are you doing Jack?”

She called up to him wondering why he was in the library in the first place.

“This is where Nikki was attacked and the queen was found.”

He yelled down to her. It was then it dawned on him. He leaned over the railing a bit more toward Amy.

“Could you come up here for a sec? I have something I want you to see.”

Amy nodded before she made her way up to him. As she walked up the stairs and came to the top she felt her stomach twist seeing all the wood stained planks. She figured this must have been where the attack had taken place. Pushing the feelings to the pit of her stomach she walked over to stand beside Jack. He pointed to the empty spot on the shelf and her eyes followed his finger to it.

“You’re the record keeper. Do you know what book went here?”

Amy raised a brow as she looked at the empty home where the book use to be. Off the top of her head she had no idea. Not to mention that it would be much harder to figure out what book went there since this was the restricted section of the library and records of these books were basically encoded to make sure that they were kept safe from anyone that could use them in the wrong mindset.

“It will take me a while, but I can get you your answer.”

She told him truthfully. She’d have to do some digging but she’d have his answer. He nodded. He wasn’t going anywhere and it was going to take him a minute to report back to Mark everything that he had found.

“I’ll be back in a bit. Let me know if you find anything before then.”

Amy nodded and gave a small sigh knowing she had her work cut out for her now.

“I’ll get started now.”

“A missing book?”

Mark questioned as Jack had returned to tell him what he had found. Jack nodded he had also informed Mark about the markings he had found in the carpet and wood in the library.

“And Amy is working on figuring out what the book was that went missing.”

Jack told him adding what else he had done. Mark nodded seeming to agree with Jack that what the man had done was the right thing. Mark turned and looked at the people who were arguing just as much as before – if not more.

“I’m going to step out for a moment and check on Nikki and the queen. I can’t take much more of this here.”

“I don’t really blame you.”

Jack chuckled poorly watching the feud happening in the room. Mark sighed and walked past his friend.

“I’ll ask around and see if anyone seen anything prior to the attack.”

Jack added only getting a nod from Mark. Mark had too much on his mid to really give an answer to him. His brain was swimming with all the new information that had been discovered. The king being attacked in the library, the book gone missing, there were pieces of the puzzle that they didn’t have and he was kicking himself over all of it.

Inside the med bay Mark spoke to one of the nurses. He learned from the woman that it was worse than they believed when it came to the queen. She hadn’t just fainted, she had been poisoned. They were in need of a strong herb that they didn’t have and a herbalist that they were short of at the moment.

“How are you feeling?”

Mark asked even though he knew Nikki couldn’t hear him. He sat there on a stool by her bedside looking at her. He felt awful about not being able to get to her sooner. It was his fault he shouldn’t have let her go alone.

He looked at her bandaged arm. The bleeding seemed to have finally stopped which was a good sign. But she had already lost so much blood that she was weak and the nurses told him that she was drifting in and out. He had his back to the wall on what it was he could do and no matter what he believed he felt trapped.

“I’m sorry. I should have been there. I shouldn’t have let you go alone.”

He told her, his voice cracking slightly. Clearing his throat he pushed his emotions down to the pit of his stomach. He couldn’t let his feelings get the better of him now when so many people were counting on him to do something about everything that had happened.

“I’m going to make this right. Believe me. I’m going to make sure you and the queen both get better and we get the king back. However is behind all of this will pay for what they’ve done.”

Of course he was met with silence in the room. Sighing he closed his eyes for a moment before he reopened them and glanced to the foot of her bed. He raised a brow as he squinted his eyes seeing something there at her feet.

Was that a tiny box?

He was curious as to what that was doing in the room. Why hadn’t he noticed it before when he first came into the room? It was somewhat obvious due to the fact that it was a box. Turning his attention back to his friend he looked at her as he sat there for a moment more lingering on all the ideas for what it was he could possibly do. He knew that they needed a herbalist and there was only one good one that he knew of and trusted enough to make the antidote to help the queen.