The King

Chapter 4: Engaged

By the end of the day, they had laid out the plan and I was an engaged woman. 

Luke and Stella’s wedding was to take place at the end of the by the end of February, which was two weeks away. With this plan, and trying to keep them both alive, at least until the wedding, I was beginning to wear out. In the morning I was with Prince Luke and his arrangement, suit fitting, honeymoon destinations and their ambassadors, more meeting of the state, because even then King Jonathan won’t give him a full day off. 

When during the afternoon, I have to trail Princess Stella, bridesmaids’ dresses, menu for the event, quest lists, seating arrangements, ceremony plans, fitting for the rings, on and on the days went on.

It was a Friday when we finally got down to really planning Stella escape. Though they had given me a basic idea of how it was going to go, they really hadn’t thought too much through, but by midnight that Friday, we had it all planned.. Now, we only had a week to pull the whole thing off, God help us. 

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“Princess Stella, when we reach the next turn, take it. Don’t rush your steps or look back, but I believe we are being followed.” 

As we rounded the corner, I drew my sword, waiting.

A cry comes from behind me and I turn to see a man in black holding a knife to Princess Stella throat. 

“Tell Prince Luke to call the wedding off, or we will end it for him”. His voice is smooth, like honey, but there is a hardness that cannot be missed. 

With that he throws Stella to the floor and jumps out the nearest window.

Helping Stella to her feet I say “Go tell Luke its time and to be ready” She nods, drawing her sword, turns and runs towards Luke. 

I run to me room, gather a few belongings and head out. 

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Prince Victor is at the gate when I get there. He looks worried and scans my body for an injury. His face relaxing when he saw none.

“What are you doing here?” I ask. 

A strange smile spread over his face, “Luke sent me, he said you would need help.”

He tosses me a key and gets into the passenger seat of a car he had ready next to him.

We are near the end of the palace ground when we see a small figure start to grow larger. As we draw nearer, I realize that it is Luke. I stop in front of him and roll down the window.

“Be careful and come back to me.” He says as he holds my cheek in his hand.

With his hand still at me cheek, he turns toward his brother, “Take care of her. She is reckless.

Pulling his eyes away from my face, Victor nods, “With my life, you should be careful, too. The palace won’t be as safe.” Luke nods and backs away from the door.

After some time, driving, Victor turns his head over to me, “I’m going to assume you know where you’re going”.

I smile, “Of course, I know.”I say, handing him my phone. 

On the screen there is a map, with a flashing red dot, thirty miles ahead of us, heading towards The Ancient City of New Orleans. The distance between our car and the others is increasing, since he knows where he is going.

“Care to explain”, his face is skeptical.

“Um, we knew that at some point, before the wedding there would be an attack,'' I say, choosing my words carefully, “we anticipated it. Luke, Stella and I came up with a plan. When the man was delivering his message, Stella put a tracker on him, covering it as a struggle.”

He nods his head and put the phone on the dash.

I have 10 days to be back at the palace. Ten days to discover who is more opposed to the marriage than Luke and Stella. Soo opposed they would risk being captured to send a message. From our capital Lafayette to The Ancient City of New Orleans it is a two-hour drive. The problem, however, is not the drive there but rather to get close enough to the group we search. At some point, the assassin sent will have to change his clothing, and then the track will be discovered. That is when we will have to be on our own finding out where in the city they gather, because, though it is no longer the very busy and large city it once was, the people there have a reputation of protecting their own. Getting information will be very difficult.

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As expected, getting the people there to tell us anything, even slightly related to the men we searched for, was a task. They could sense what we were after and from the get-go would say that they knew nothing or that they didn’t sell out others. We finally hit the jackpot when we met the first kind old woman. She told us where to find a bar called “ The Hunt”, then she turned, walking into a crowd. Both Victor and I thought we might not be too well in the head but we decided to go ahead and do as she had said. It wouldn’t hurt to see what was there and if anything, we could cross it off the list of many places in the old city.

When we walked into the bar, the room immediately hush but just a quickly the noise picked up again. Try as they may to make the sounds natural that were all bloody bad  actors. 

“Well, she certainly sent us somewhere we aren’t wanted,'' remarked Victor.

“Yes, the question is why? I can’t see anything worth our time here”.I answered.

As I was about to sit at the bar, the bartender come to us, “You have been requested in the office. This way please.”

“Um, by who?” my question came out more stern than I had wanted it to.

“Not my place to say but neither of you will be in any danger. if you will follow me” he said turning on his heel and heading toward a staircase hugging the bar’s wall. 

At this point we had two options a) follow this man, who we hoped, would follow us to the solution of our problem or b) buck it and run. The latter seemed a little safer but not going to get us anywhere, so up the stairs we went.

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Our trip lead us to an upstairs room, mildly furnished and empty but for one person sitting with their back to us, standing by a door.