"So what now sir?" Allesio asked me and I gave him a disdainful glare but couldn't say what I intended to.
"Follow me!" I ordered him.
We took another route farther away from the crowd. I watched out for the powder from the bracelet I made her wear. I had told her to shake her hand at intervals so that the powder would leave a trail for me to follow.
I was lucky because it did not take and I found one, I ran towards the spot and it led me to another, I was glad Sage had listened and it led to a trial that we followed.
I wondered why they took her far away from the crowd, and for the first time, I was afraid that something may have happened to her until I saw a tent far ahead guarded by two knights.
"The Princess must be inside as well," Allesio told me from behind.
I didn't react to what he said but we dashed towards the tent, it was two knights against both of us and we beat them effortlessly but we were disappointed when we found no one inside the tent.
I was even more exasperated when Allesio said that Sage was present in the room and that he could tell because he sensed her presence.
I thought that he was out of his mind, so I grabbed him when he bent over at the edge of the tent and yelled at him. I walked out of the tent afterward and boiled on the inside when he said those words,
"Where are you, my love."
"Do you like her?" I asked him as soon as we came out of the tent even though I knew he did.
"She is a nice person sir that is all I can say, so what do we do now? " He asked me. I did not like that he changed the topic but I had to move on with it.
My eyes trailed off to the grass behind the tent and I saw white marks all over it. I left Allesio and ran into the bush following the trail but was disappointed when I saw the bracelet I gave her.
"They probably threw it here sir" Allesio spoke behind me and I wondered how he got to me so fast because I did not hear anything sound like he ran or the leaves.
"Let's return to the crowd, hopefully, we will see her there," I ordered and we left and headed toward where we had seen the Aeradonian captives earlier.
It didn't take long for us to get there, we saw that they had all been awoken and were forced to move, I scanned the entire crowd for the tree where I hid and did not get a glimpse of the princess nor Sage.
"Hope she is fine," I wished.
I saw Allesio's eyes and I looked at what he stared at, his sister who was tied with ropes but I didn't care.
"New plan," I whispered.
"We would have to capture at least two of the knights without the knowledge of the others. That way, we could walk with them and see what has happened to Sage and the princess.
"That would be a difficult one sir, but we can try," I liked that Allesio was ready for whatever plan I had. I had once pleaded with the king that he should join the knights but he refused.
Allesio had so many good qualities but because he liked Sage, I was never happy around him.
We waited for a while for a knight to come to a spot where we could attack without anyone noticing but nothing happened so we decided to take matters Into our own hands.
I picked up a stone and threw it towards a knight, and I asked Allesio to go a little forward and do the same, we were in luck because just like I planned, we caught the attention of two guards that walked towards our direction immediately.
The Tersians are not strong in battle, that was one thing I learned from that entire war, the only reason they had overpowered us was that we failed to strategize and they had planned their attack carefully and it worked very well for them.
As the knights walked towards the trees, I dashed out of my hiding place and dragged him further into the forest. I placed my hand over his mouth so that he could not make a sound because that was going to draw attention.
Once I had him where I wanted, I punched his head to the ground, he tried to defend himself but I did not give him the chance to do that, I broke his arm and I knew because I heard the painful sound of his cracking bone.
Once I had made sure that he was completely powerless, I knocked him unconscious by hitting a vital and sensitive part of his neck, he looked dead but I felt the pulse, even though he was, I had killed a lot of people to have felt a bit of guilt, I had reached a point in my life where I lacked sympathy or empathy, not even the life of my mother mattered to me.
I took off his armor and put them on, then I threw mine on him and walked back towards the crowd like nothing had happened, no one noticed that I was the one and that was exactly what I wanted, the woman who stood near me shivered when I came near and I acted like I was going to strike her just to prove that I was Tersian.
I saw another knight walk out of the trees and I could not tell if it was Allesio or a Tersian so I walked toward him to confirm.
"Hey, what's the chief talking about?" I asked him after I had changed my voice so that it was not recognizable.
"I have no idea what the chief is talking about but I know that some knights are not as powerful as I thought they were, " the knight replied and hit his chest twice and I knew it was Allesio.
Just like I hoped for, a knight alongside an old lady walked out of the trees with the Princess and Sage and that made me sighed in relief.
"At least they are alive," I said to myself.
The knights took the Princess to the horse and Sage was made to work behind them, I kept quiet through the journey until we got to the cliff.
When those knights came from behind, I thought that they had discovered that two of their men were killed and left naked, but they rode past us and one of them handed a letter to the leader of the knights.
The rest of her journey was long and boring, but we made it to Tersian at noon because the sun was still bright in the sky.
When they were taken into the field, I searched for Allesio because we had gotten mixed up in the crowd. He found me first and I told him that we had to leave.
Before we walked away, the leader of the knight called us, since he was the head, it was going to be suspicious if we did not obey, so we did, I was only concerned because he was standing with the princess.
"Yes sir," I saluted him and so did Allesio, we both faked our voices but I was still uncomfortable with the way the Princess stared at us.
"Head towards the palace immediately, inform the king that we have arrived with the Princess and all the captives as he told us to."
Everything worked in our favor, he had no idea that we were headed for the palace but since he sent us, we didn't have to go secretly.
We walked away from him and headed for the palace which was not far away from the field, we remained confident even as we walked into the Palace.
"You can take your helmets off now, the battle is over, " a guard who we met in the hallway said to us but we paid no attention.
Because I was conversant with a lot of royal architecture, I was able to navigate through the palace even though I had never been there before. I led us straight to the throne room where the king had just dismissed a servant.
"Ah yes, tell me you have come with good news," the king spoke first. I must admit that he was the most joyful king I had ever met.
I delivered the information just as the knight had instructed but before we turned to leave, the king asked us,
"Aren't you going to take off the helmet now?"
We froze and stared at each other simultaneously, our luck ran out at that moment because he might discover that we were intruders.
And because I was the leader of the Aeradonian knights, the idea of taking the helmet off and the king would think that he hasn't seen us yet was not a good one.
"Your majesty," the leader of the knight greeted the king as he walked into the throne room with Sage and the Princess.
"Why do you still have your helmets on?" He asked us but we did not say anything.
" You can leave now," he told us and we were back in luck.
When we left their presence, we didn't go straight to the exit but diverted and took a different route without knowing where it led us.
"So what now sir?" Allesio asked me, he never came up with an idea and even if he did I was never going to agree with it.
"We wait," I replied.
"Find out where they would take the Princess to and plot a rescue afterward."
" Then don't you think sir that we should have stayed behind, at least close enough to know what their plan was, because staying here we may never know, " Allesio was right, I wondered why I didn't think of it?
When we got back there, they were leaving the throne room. We followed them secretly, but we couldn't continue when they went up the stairs. I knew where it led them so there was no need to take that risk.
"You two!" We were taken aback by another voice and we turned and saw the King staring at us intently.
"Come with me, I have something for you to do, and take those helmets off now! " He ordered.
And that was it, we were out of luck and thought there was no way out, I touched my helmet and raised it slowly, the King had never seen any of us so I weighed the options that he may think of us as intruders or not, besides there was no way a king could know every knight aside the leader.
"Good now follow me!" He commanded.
He didn't react at all when we took off the helmets, which was a good thing. He led us to his chamber and instructed us to move the bed to another side of the room so that he would get his ring which had fallen under.
I was astonished, the royal bed weighs the same as a horse so it was not a two-man job, but Allesio and I had no choice but to listen. We moved it to the side by pushing it because lifting it would have broken our backs.
He took out his ring and we took the bed back to its original place and left the chamber, we went back to where we had taken off our helmets and wore them back to be on the safe side, even if no one else knew us, I believed that the leader would recognize me.
"Take this food to the princess," We walked past the kitchen when I heard those words and acted quickly.
"I'll go with you," I said and everyone turned around amazed.
" Why, if I may ask? " The chef asked me.
"Because the girl who was brought here alongside the princess is a good fighter, the only reason she hasn't done anything was that she is powerless against the knights, she could easily beat you up and escape with the princess, " I was quick to have prepared such a believable lie.
" I see, go with him then," the chef instructed the servant and handed the keys over to me. I smiled at my victory and walked out of the kitchen with the servants.
I used my fingers to tell Allesio to stay behind us, he understood the sign so he stayed close, and when we got to the stairs, I knocked the servant unconscious Allesio quickly took the tray from him, and wore the apron on himself.
I carried the servant until we got up the stairs and threw her into a room which I was able to unlock after several attempts with different keys.
We got to the highest point of the palace and that was where I believed the princess was kept so I unlocked it after trying about twelve keys.
I saw the fear written all over their faces when we approached them without a word. I believed they must have thought we were about to take advantage of them but they were in for a shock.
A.N So I wrote these three chapters in Adriel's POV at a fast pace because I don't plan to make you relive an entire event for so long, however I could make it exclusive if you want me to. I hope you have enjoyed it so far.
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