L`Univers: "The Sigil" Book 2

The mercenary

    An arrow flew to one of the creatures as it ran away in pain and squawking. A figure with a cape jumped down from a tree and stabbed a creature in the head with a dagger killing it off instantly. Francis and Hugo got free and each killed of a monster as Aelizia cast a spell that pushed two of the monsters away. They looked at each other and came to their senses, Francis thoroughly checked if Cristina was alright but other than a few torn clothes she was fine.

     “Who are you, stranger?” Hugo looked at the person that jumped from the tree, it had a cape and a hood its face was hidden.

     “You wander through dangerous paths…” said a female voice from under the hood. “What made you so?”  

     “We are trying to get to the main city,” explained Hugo. “Can you show us the way?”         

     “What business would a prince and a princess have in the main city?” she asked.                    

     “That is not a concern of yours,” said Francis.

     “And you should behave better to the ones who just saved your life,” the mercenary looked at him.                                                                                           

     “The land is dying!” Aelizia was losing patience. “We are trying to find a solution.”                                                                                              

     “It`s a good cause then,” she removed the hood and revealed her face. She had a small nose with thin rose lips and somewhat big brown eyes with round glasses and short dark hair that was long enough to reach her shoulders. “I`ll show you the way… for a price.”                                                              

     “Huh…” scoffed Francis. “We can`t trust a mercenary,” he walked past everybody. 

     “That mercenary just saved our lives,” said Cristina.  

     “Even so… We shouldn`t waste money on something we can do ourselves,” Francis looked at Cristina.

     “Can you really?” asked the mercenary as Francis got annoyed and touched the handle of the sword.

     “Okay!” interrupted Hugo. “You know these parts, please will you show us the way?” Hugo pulled out a pouch from his bosom that was filled with coins inside and threw it toward the girl. She grabbed the pouch and felt it`s weigh-in her palm, she seemed satisfied and nodded.

     “I like this guy, he is reasonable,” she said as Cristina darted an angry view towards her.

     “He is stupid, is what he is,” Francis looked angrily at Hugo.

     “Name`s Liza, we`ve done a good deal it`s only fair for me to tell you my name,” she smiled as she made a gesture with her hand showing them the way forward.                                                                  

     “So… you seem rather jealous,” Liza walked close to Cristina.

     “What are you talking about?” she was confused.                                       

     “Don`t tell me I didn`t notice you,” she looked at her. “You couldn`t take your eyes off him,” Liza looked at Hugo who was walking ahead of them just after Francis who was the lead. “And then, there`s the thing when I said that he is smart, you looked angrily at me, if I didn`t know any better I`d say it was jealousy.”           

     “Yeah well perhaps you should mind your business,” warned Cristina. 

     “Oh… don`t worry, I will, once I am done with you lot,” she smiled. “Speaking of which,” she pointed in the distance towards the castle. They stood at the edge of the forest, where the forest ended a big green flat field of grass stretched beyond, in the middle of the field was a white castle with its tall white walls and tall white towers, behind it a belt of mountains and one waterfall that came from the mountains and into the castle. The sun rays shined directly on the castle towers and the birds flew right above it, as the water that came from the waterfall was calm as ever. One would think this scenery was stolen from an artist's painting and brought to the world. Not a care in the world as if everything is perfect as if the world is not dying.

     “Enough admiring, we must move,” Francis interrupted them.

     “Right... this is where I leave you,” said Liza. “Lots of people are after me in these parts,” she chuckled. 

     “Well then… thank you,” Hugo nodded.

     “No, thank you,” Liza tapped the pouch of coins that Hugo gave her as she disappeared in the forest.

     The four of them walked down from the hill as they found themselves onto the green field and a cobblestone road that led into the city. Aelizia appreciated the scenery, she touched the blades of grass and enjoyed every moment as the sun was shining on her face. It wasn`t every day that she got to experience such things. The northern part of Oniphere where she was born and grew up was frozen and with constant snow, the sun rarely ever showed up and no grass ever grew in those parts.  

     “Shall we?” asked Hugo as he began walking toward the city.

     They made their way into the gates as they entered the city and were amazed by its greatness. Everything was made out of white tiles the buildings and houses to the pavement and the wells. The people wearing brown robes chanting and walking around on the busy bazaar.

     “There…”  Aelizia pointed towards a building that stood high above all other buildings. The road there was narrow it had old medieval-themed houses on both it`s sides and stands beneath them, where people were selling all kinds of different wares from gold bracelets to fish and bread. They moved up the road and through the crowd they were sticking out like sore thumbs, they were no ordinary folk. They came in front of a set of stairs that led to the entrance of the hall. The hall itself was an ancient construction with columns around it and on the columns stood a big white roof that had engravings and statues overlooking the city.

     “Hold it there travelers, you may not pass into the hall of our queen,” a guard that wore a shining grey armor combined with white pieces of clothing warned them.

     “We seek an audience with the queen,” explained Cristina. 

     “The queen is not to be disturbed at this hour,” said the guard.

     “Tell her we bring ill news,” said Hugo.

     “Whatever it is, it can wait,” persisted the guard.                                              

     “Either you let us in or we take the door down,” threatened Francis.

     “Mind your words, you`ll be swarmed by guards in a matter of seconds.”      

     “Okay, that`s it, tell her the princess of the north came to her visit,” Aelizia stepped up.                                                                                                      

     “The princess? From the north?” the guard chuckled. “If you are the princess from the north then I am the human manifestation of Vega himself,” laughed the guard. Aelizia walked close to him and stared straight into his eyes and mumbled something under her breath. “Very well, I shall tell her straight away,” the guard walked inside.

     “What did you do to him?” asked Hugo but Aelizia was annoyed enough that she walked past him and ignored him.

     “I`ve always been admired by the north folk, but they never seem to leave the north. And now one of them is standing in front of me, a princess no less,” the queen stood up. She had red hair that stretched on top of her head like a tower, her silver crown decorated with shiny diamonds prevented the hair from falling.

     “Perhaps you should be more worried about the situation in the realm,” Aelizia walked up to her and starred at her angrily. The queen was shorter than Aelizia and wore… a wedding dress of all things.

     “Oh… not the talkative type, but it`s true what they say about your beauty,” the queen admired the angry Aelizia.

     “I said enough,” Aelizia raised her staff as the guards were alerted and drew their swords, but the queen just raised her hand and they drew them back in and stood down.

     “All right then, what ails you?” the queen walked back to her white throne made out of stone marble. 

     “The land is dying, crops and rivers have dried out, and it`s spreading,” said Cristina.

     “I`ve heard of this before…” the queen remembered. “Something is causing it, I`ve sent out scouts to the place of its origin but they have not yet returned. Perhaps…” she stopped and looked at the group. “You look like a capable folk, there would be a handsome reward.”                                                                      

     “Now hold it there,” Francis smiled. “Why should we risk our lives for a group of soldiers?” asked Francis.

     “Have you no respect? Have you no feelings? What if those were your soldiers?” Hugo looked at him. 

     “You are far too sentimental,” Francis looked at him. “Feelings are a weakness, and you are weak.”

     “Take that back!” warned Hugo.

     “Or what?”

     “No!” screamed Cristina as she stood between both of them and pushed them apart. “Shame on you!” she screamed at them. “You are acting like children.”

     “We will do it,” said Aelizia.

     “What!?” protested Francis.

     “We need to find out all there is to be about this thing,” Aelizia looked at him. “I am doing this with or without you.”

     “I am with you,” Cristina stood by her side. 

     “No way,” Francis tried to pull her back but she resisted.

     “I`m not a kid anymore and you cannot control me. I can fend for myself from now on.”      

     “You wouldn`t last a day, you cannot even hold a sword let alone fight,” warned Francis.

     “If I may…” the queen stood up. “Maybe not a sword, we have the finest training masters for bow and arrow in all the realm.”

     “There you go,” Cristina smiled at Francis but still whether she knew how to fight or not he wasn`t going to let her out of his sight. He never really cared about anything else rather than his smaller sister's safety.