Chapter 3: Abduction

Raphael de Mourey

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Night is a time when people should sleep soundly and replenish the energy spent during the day, but not jump out of windows in an attempt to kill themselves. What kind of a fool is that?

I've been watching her since the moment she unceremoniously burst into my temporary illegally occupied room. A small, fragile, pale human girl and shaking like an aspen leaf. But who would have thought that she would take such a reckless step.

I don't know what prompted me to rush to save her, but as soon as she took a step out of the window, I quickly rushed after her, overcoming the obstacle in the form of a window frame in one leap. A split second and her blonde head would have already turned into an unsympathetic bloody mess, and a rabid crowd would have run around to investigate the crime, so that it would not be at all convenient for me. From a hard landing in my hands and a strong concussion (falling from the height of the third floor is no joke to you), the poor thing lost consciousness, instantly passing out.

- Mmm, beautiful! What are we going to do with she? A voice with a clear note of interest sounded behind me.

- We'll leave her in the room until she wakes up. It won't affect our plans. Have you found the princess, Dex?

- I found it, but not yet the one we need. The absence of her image does not simplify the task, you know. The king has three daughters, me need to check each one to avoid making a mistake.

I handed the unconscious girl over to Dexter, noting for myself that she was dressed and looked very good, probably an aristocrat.

- Take her somewhere. There is no time, we are looking for a girl and return to Abion.

In the pitch darkness of the castle, bright lights began to flash alternately, and servants and guards, flickering, filled the corridors.

- This is not how I imagined a quiet spy raid. I muttered irritably under his breath. I hate it when something gets in the way of my plans and interferes with them. I would prefer to do everything openly, invade an unfriendly country in a parade, behead the king and return what I came for. Although, for my own pleasure, I would still sit on the throne here during the morning reception of the departed king. And what, it would be funny to look at his relatives and confidants, seized with pernicious horror. But my boring, boring, completely unable to have fun, advisers believe that I lack endurance, patience and compassion, and our army does not have enough time to rest between wars. I can partially agree with the second one, but the first one even sounds absurd. I saved the girl, wasn't it mercy on my part?

My eyes flashed a bright shade of blood at the moment when I forcefully grabbed the elbow of a maid running past, forcing her to jerk back and almost fall, losing her balance. Annoyance rolled up in a wave, but I kept myself in control, knowing that Dexter would eat all my bald spot later.

- What's all the fuss? – my gaze pierced through the woman, hypnotizing her, forcing her to trust me and tell me everything I want to know.

Obviously, everyone would like to have such a gift, but not everyone would like to be on the other side. Nevertheless, I did not use it often, people are so predictable that you can read their faces without hypnosis, sometimes it is too expensive to cover up the traces of influence on the mind.

- How? You don't know? The servant raised her eyebrows in surprise. – Someone tried to get into His Majesty's private office, and the princess also disappeared. Everyone is on alert now, we need to find her urgently. she squealed excitedly. It is unclear what the woman was more worried about, for the princess or for an unfulfilled order. And then it dawned on me, as if a bright providence had descended on me with a gift from above.

- How interesting it turns out! - a smug grin slid across my face, well, isn't it a coincidence — this is a wonderful fall?

- Forget everything that just happened. You didn't see anyone and you didn't say anything to anyone. – I finally let go of the maid's elbow and the next second disappeared as if I wasn't there. The unsuspecting maid hurriedly ran on, rubbing her elbow, which suddenly became strangely painful.

It took no more than a couple of minutes to find Dexter. As expected, he did not return to our temporary room, but settled down in another wing of the building, where there was no need to hide from people scurrying around like annoying flies. The room was tiny and looked more like a utility room, if not for the bed and a small bedside table next to it, with a candle stub standing on it. And does anyone else live in this room? Three people cleaned up here except standing up.

I looked at the girl sleeping peacefully on a small single bed in not the most comfortable sleeping position. Well, how to say sleeping? Is loss of consciousness considered a dream?

She was lying on her side, one arm hanging off the bed, and the other was tangled somewhere in her skirts around her hips. Beautiful, at first sight, but clearly not bright and does not shine with her mind, since she does such strange things.

Overwhelmed by a variety of emotions, I could not understand my attitude towards her – the daughter of an enemy, the daughter of a thief, and yet why did I immediately save her, not knowing who she really was? It's not like me. Although, isn't this the great compassion and kindness of the soul that my inner circle expects from me so much? It will be necessary to poke their nose into the obvious, let them admire.

Irritation bubbled inside, growing anger because of how calmly she lay here and now in front of my eyes, not even realizing that I wanted to wipe out her whole shoddy family from the face of the earth.

- Dex, it's time to go.

- What about the princess? We haven't found her yet. – my faithful adviser and friend asked me, frowning with perplexity.

- It's funny, but this girl that you so casually threw on the bed is our precious hostage. - I continued to drill her with my eyes, and if they could spew fire, she would already be engulfed in an indestructible flame.

For a moment we both stood in silence, each in his own thoughts, not wanting to decide who would be the first to break the silence, until someone outside pulled the door handle, pulling both out of a light reverie. I leaned over the bed and in one motion lifted the girl off the bed, placing her head down on her shoulder so that her blonde hair hung in a disheveled mess. And a second later, we with our "trophy", using the portal, disappeared from the castle.

The abduction went well.