Chapter 11: The Royal Assassin (Part 1)
1306 Words
The two reached the inn, but Luna and Belle were nowhere to be found.
“This doesn’t look good,” Jack said. He took out a Blue Emerald and tried making contact with Luna, but to no response.
“This could mean they’re in danger,” Axel said.
“Quite a brilliant assessment, mate.”
Axel leaned against the wall while Jack tried yet again to contact Luna. No response.
“What do we do?” He questioned. “If they’re in trouble, we’ll have to go through half the district to find them!”
“I can summon a raven. It will search through the city quickly while we head to their last position, near the bridge. By the time we get there, either we’ll find them or the raven will.”
“Yeah, that could work. You must be running low on fuel, though.”
“What do you mean?”
“You used some really awesome powers, mate. I don’t know much about magic, but when I create too many force orbs or fields I start to get weak and exhausted. I’d imagine the same must be happening to you.”
“Nothing a potion won’t fix.”
“No, Axel, you can’t drink a potion,” he commanded. “You already used Graewill. In the safehouse I made you drink Repmain, and then you also took an Owl potion!”
Axel began to say something, but Jack interrupted. “Don’t deny it! I saw the empty vial! I don’t know what it is with you and sleep, but in any case: few more potions and you’ll have an overdose! You know how painful that is mate? I should know, I’m an alchemist!”
“Yeah, well, I’m not an alchemist, but I do know my fair share of alchemy. And I know that taking a Thunder potion won’t cause an overdose.”
“One more potion after that will do the trick! And at the rate you’re consuming them, I’m completely sure that’s a possibility!”
“Look, we’ll discuss this later,” Axel said calmly. “Right now, finding Belle and Luna is our first priority. Let me summon a raven. If we run into trouble, which is unlikely since the guards are retreating but if we do, only then will I use the potion. We’ll worry about the overdose later. Are you OK with that?”
Jack crossed his arms. “Fine.”
“Thank you.” Axel muttered a spell and glowing beams of purple light started circulating around the tip of his staff. In a few seconds, the beams converged to create a magical glowing raven, with black and purple feathers. It was perched on top of the staff, and quickly turned its head around to take a look at its surroundings.
“That is cool,” Jack remarked. “You don’t suppose you could teach me that, could y-”
“No. Not at all. Trust me.”
He raised his staff and the raven flew off in search of the two.
“Come on. Let’s find them and get back to base.”
They ran off in search of Luna and Belle.
As they traversed the city, they saw very few guards, and even fewer people around. The guards had retreated and the people had locked themselves into their homes due to the explosion and Ender’s announcement. The stone pavements glittered in the bright morning light, but with the people gone everything felt static and lifeless.
As they again passed through the Economic Square, they saw some rebels taking the injured with them back to the hideout.
They passed by a tavern and continued heading towards the bridge, with the two still nowhere to be found. Jack again tried to contact them through the emerald, again with no success.
“There’s no sign of em,” Jack said. “This is ridiculous. We’ve lost too much time. Did the raven-”
They suddenly heard footsteps nearby and in a split second took out their weapons and got ready to attack. However, standing in front of them were Luna and Belle, also with their weapons out.
“Jack?” Luna said. Everyone put down their weapons. “God, I almost killed you!”
“No, I almost killed you,” Jack corrected.
“Sure you did,” she replied. “Where the hell were you two? We’ve been looking everywhere for you!”
“So were we,” Axel told her.
“See, sis, that’s funny, because if you actually responded to the emerald we wouldn’t be in this position!” Jack said.
“What, you think we weren’t responding on purpose?” Luna argued. “That we were having fun strolling across the city looking for you two?”
“I don’t know, maybe.”
She sighed. “My Blue Emerald broke.”
Jack let out a fake laugh. “And you call me clumsy.”
“It was the bounty hunters, alright?”
“Sure it was.”
“What about yours?” Axel asked Belle.
“Mine doesn’t work,” She replied.
“Seriously? How?”
“I’ve been using it for hours, Axel. It needs to be rejuvenated, I guess.”
“Wait, you know what,” Axel began, “Everybody just stop for a second, alright? Let’s just take a moment to figure everything out.”
All of a sudden something flew from above and everyone again readied their weapons. It turned out to be the raven Axel had sent to look for Luna and Belle. They all lowered their weapons and Axel held his staff vertically for the raven to perch on top of it.
“Is that a… Raven?” Belle asked.
“I’ll explain later,” Axel said as the raven got absorbed into the staff, leaving a shimmering purple light in its place. “First of all, how long have you two been looking for us?”
“For a while now,” Luna said. “We killed the bounty hunters pretty early and ran towards the inn, but you weren’t there. We then went to the tower, which was blown up, nice work by the way, and there was no one around. Not even the corpses.”
“Yeah, the spies must’ve taken care of those,” Jack mentioned.
“Then we went to the Economic Square and you two were yet again completely absent.”
“You could’ve just waited at the inn, you know.”
“Well that’s ironic.”
“What? We thought you were in trouble.”
“So did we.”
“You weren’t responding to the Emeralds!”
“Yeah, well, that’s not our fault,” Belle said. “This was all just a result of miscommunication. It doesn’t matter. We took care of the bounty hunters, at least for the moment. You took care of the guards. Let’s leave before more show up.”
“Well said, Belle,” Luna told her, “Though it might be too late for that. I’d imagine the backup is arriving right now. We can’t lead them back to the safehouse.”
“Hate to say it, but you’re right,” Jack agreed. “We have to remember, if the hideout’s compromised, our entire rebellion, all our efforts, go down the drain.”
“Oh, come on,” Belle said. “I’ve been fighting for the past six hours! When does this end?”
“This should be the last of it,” Luna said. “Well, for today at least. Ender can’t exhaust his resources all at once, and it will take a few more hours for the rest of the bounty hunters to show up and start searching through the city; by that time we’ll already be gone. Until then, we have no choice but to fight this final wave.”
“This should help,” Jack said, tossing a green potion to Belle. “It will increase your stamina for a while. I have to warn you however; once its effect wears off, you’ll be very sleepy.”
“How long’s that going to take?” Belle asked.
“About four hours.”
“That works.” She took opened the vial and drank the entire potion.
“Axel, why don’t you hang back for this one?” Jack said to him.
“Not a chance,” Axel said, summoning a Thunder potion.
“Oh, come on.”
“This ‘final wave’ isn’t going to be easy,” he reasoned. “Especially without the rebels. All of us need to be prepared.”
“Alright, fine. But you can’t drink another potion again for an entire day. Twenty four hours, got it?”
“Got it.” He quickly swallowed the potion, and his strength returned.
“What do we do until the backup shows up?” Belle asked. “I mean, do we just stand and wait?”
“Pretty, much, yeah,” Luna said. “They’ll come to us. We just need to be ready for it. Actually, I think it would be better if we head to the Square. The destruction might get their attention.”
The rest agreed, and they went back to the Square.
- Writer
