ดาวน์โหลดแอป
9.25% The Maiden of the Sun / Chapter 5: Elexis

บท 5: Elexis

"Remember your one goal tonight is gathering intel on where the King has Ana." Elexis said, though she knew that he had memorized every detail of the mission. She was saying it more for herself. She was normally so calm and collected but when it came to Ana- she couldn't lose another sister, they had to get her back, the plan had to go right. They were in the fitting room of an upper class tailor's shop in Nocturn, the tailor was a sympathizer but if he was in here too long, the other customer in the shop might suspect something. It was unlikely though, the only other people in the shop beside them and the tailor, an old man named Mr Artwik, was a bored looking noble woman and two nervous jittery lady's maids, but still it was best to be cautious.

"Lexi, stop worrying! I know the plan. Snoop around under the guise of charting the halls but don't get caught or do anything suspicious."

"And if you need help you remember where our people are placed?" They had a few sympathizers in the palace but not many.

"I won't need any help-" She interrupted mid sentence

"Remember Suzette will help you but she can't do anything while Sarnifease is around or she might get suspicious." Suzette was one of they're best informants, she was the maid of the king's blade. Despite or maybe because she was so close to the King's blade she was able to get them information about what the king knew and was able to tell them the things she gleaned about Sarnifease herself.

"Suzette said Sarnifease will be at the palace tonight. It's too risky to go to her." Axton was proud but he had to put aside his pride, this mission was ro important,

"If your just saying this because you don't want to admit you might need help-"

"It isn't that Lexi, Suzette has helped us so much, I don't want to put her at risk."

"It's what she signed up for when she joined the cause."

"Still, I'd prefer not to risk drawing the attention of the King's personal assassin." He had a point.

"I'd prefer if you didn't draw attention at all, get in, find out where she's being kept, and get out."

"Whatever, now get out of here, I have to actually get changed now." she rolled her eyes and opened the hidden door in the portrait on the wall,

"Remember, get in, get out-"

"I know I know, now go, Conner will be angry if you're late." she rolled her eyes again sticking out her tongue before closing the door behind her and creeping down the secret passageway. There were old passages like this all around the city, built to sneak in scandalous guests in secret. The rebels of the city made use of them quite a bit, especially after the king had learned they had been using the sewers to get around. It had been smelly and gross but it had worked, until the king sent Sarnifease to slaughter anyone she found lurking in the sewers. The attack had caught them off guard, and though on 10 or so rebels had been in the tunnels at the time it had cost them a lot. The one to get away had barely managed to warn a group of rebels about to head into the tunnels on a mission before they arrived. Ever since the rebels had kept extra care and secrecy when using the secret tunnels.

This one had two other branches and as she came upon the fork in the tunnel she thought it over.

The left one, the way she had come in, opened out into an alley a few buildings down from the tailor's shop via a secret door in a fake crate of ink surrounded by other supplies. The Bookstore it was next to was owned by a couple that were also sympathizers and made sure to always have a few crates and boxes around to hide the door, though it was hard to spot even without the extra camouflage.

The right branch opened into a room at a boarding house a few buildings in the other direction, with the excitement cleverly hidden in a full length mirror. The owner of the boarding house wasn't a sympathizer, but one of the workers was a member of the rebellion and made sure that whenever rebels stayed there they got the room(s) with the hidden passageways. But Elexis didn't know who occupied the room at the moment and she didn't some stupid lady's maid going on about the girl walking out of the mirror. Even if the boarding house was closer to the meet up point with Conner, who would indeed start to get worried, and angry, if she didn't hurry it up.


บท 6: Anatia

What did Alonzo mean by old friends? The dread was coiling inside her as she stood behind and to the side of the king's chair at the table. She tried to look bored, even as she surveyed the room for anything amiss. But no one was so suicidal as to try to attack the king, not in his own dining hall, not in this castle. But whenever she tried to tell Ben that he just gave her a weird look, shook his head and continued on with whatever he was saying.

The other guests must have arrived earlier today, they must still be unpacking if they're this late. It was only a few minutes into the dinner but still, who arrives late to dinner with the king? She got her answer a few seconds later when a pale, light blonde haired man strode into the room.

"Nice of you to finally join us, General Caltias." the king boomed. Her eyes locked on the king, this had to be a joke, it had to be. The man was wearing a light blue tailored coat with silver buttons down the front, he was older, taller, broader, but it was the same, he was the same.

"I'm sorry I'm late, your majesty. I was writing a letter to a correspondent of mine." He hadn't noticed her yet but damn it, why was this- why was he here?

She looked at Ben who gave her a questioning look from where he stood guard across the hall. She tried to get the message across that she didn't want to be here but Ben seemed to just think it was because she didn't like coming to these events. So she had to just stand there.

She watched the seam between the wall and the floor across the room the entire time, not daring even a glance at the general. Her hair was done up in a coronet to keep out of her face but she wished she had worn a hood, if only because her bright red hair popped out too much against her dark blue uniform. She hated the stuffy, stiff uniform, she always had, though she almost never had to wear it. Normally fighting leathers and a cloak were just fine but apparently the King wanted her to suffer tonight. The King was talking now but she wasn't paying attention to what he was saying, until.

"Cinis!" he barked, he must have said it a few times already, that or his temper was already getting the better of him. She stepped forward up to the king's side.

"Yes your majesty?" She said it blandly and looked anywhere but at the king, anywhere but at the lord sitting a few seats down as well. Her eyes ended up landing on the platter of roasted chicken with potatoes and carrots and stuffing and man was she hungry. She averted her eyes from the food, deciding that this diner would be torture enough on its own.

"General Caltias was asking if you had found the rebels responsible for starting those rumors about the Lythian Ilosyn rumors." she swallowed, hadn't Ben told the king already?

"Yes." The silence that followed her words seemed to indicate she go on, "I dispatched them yesterday, I thought the Captain had informed you."

The king merely gave a nod turning back to the general to say, "I told you Cinis would have it all taken care of, now," the king continued on and she stopped listening again but when she tried to step back to her place in the shadows the king put out a hand, "No, I want you to hear this, I may need you to find some of these people." so she stayed there, eyes staring straight at the wall across the chamber. She let the words pass through her, let herself absorb the information but not really look at it. It seemed to be at the base level that some rebels had broken into a camp of General Caltias' and had known where all the supplies, the weapons, the food, the armor, was. There was a mole, a rat, and now she would have to go in to smoke em out. That is if General Caltias was wrong in his suspicion of a Lieutenantent in his company. She honestly didn't care about this stupid mole, she wanted to get out of here. She shot Ben a pleading look but he just pursed his lips. She would be getting no help from him then, it seemed she would be left to find a way to manage this, this trap, this punishment, whatever it was. She would deal with it and then she would be done with it. So she just nodded and stood there listening. The general looked at her, not like everyone one else, he snuck glances at her, like she wasn't part of the discussion they were having, like he wasn't supposed to see her but he did. But she was here for a reason, she was here because the king wanted people to watch and see the king's beast on the prowl. She was here to scare them. Or most of them. She didn't look back at him, she just stared ahead at the wall, watching in her peripheral vision, like he would have done if he was smart. But the General looked at her like he saw a person, not a beast or blade or weapon. And he didn't look afraid, not of her. And she thought for a moment as she finally glanced at him for an instant and they locked eyes before she looked away, that it might be the most terrifying part.

Cinis retreated to her rooms that night and found Axton waiting for her, sitting in a chair, reading a book she had left on the table the last time she was here. It was a cheesy romance novel that she was reading secretly. When she entered he sat up straight and stared at her. She kept the mask of the King's blade on, though she had been so eager to throw it off a moment ago. When the door closed behind her he stood and walked to her, she walked past him to the book, he had left it on the side table. She picked it up then walked over to the bookcase and pushed it on the nearest shelf before turning around.

"What, pray tell, are you doing in my room Lordling?" She crooned, meeting his gaze with all the iciness and attitude she could muster.

"Ana, what happened, what are you doing here?" His words were breathless and he took another step towards her but she dodged swiftly turning to grab a dagger from his belt and angling at him.

"My name is Cinis Sarnifease, I am the King's blade. And if you don't leave my room within the next 5 seconds I will spill your throat on the floor." She said it with a cold apathy she didn't possess.

"Ana, what are you doing? We have to get you out of here!"

"My name is Cinis, I am the King's blade and I don't know what you are talking about Lordling but for the sake of the maids that would have to wash the blood out of my carpets I suggest you stop talking. Now." She tried to add a little bite to her words but it didn't come out.

"Ana stop I know it's you, whatever he did to you it's over, we can escape."

"My name is Cinis, I am the king's blade-." she recites the phrase as she has a hundred times but Axton interrupts her.

"Ana-" She barrels on anyway.

"But even if I was this Ana you speak of, why would I tell you, just to end up on the butchering block beside you." The dagger was still pointed at his heart.

"Ana-"

"I AM NOT ANA!" she yelled, but she couldn't stop herself as she whispered, "Not anymore." She had not been Anatia Nalcothy in a long time, not since that night. The night when Alonzo had found her drained and half dead in the forests of his residence. Axton just looked at her like he was seeing a ghost.

"Ana," she didn't try to protest, "what have they done to you?" She stared blankly out the window.

"Anatia Nalcothy is dead." the name hurt as it left her mouth, "They killed her, a long time ago." She didn't look back at Axton when she heard his steps leaving the room or when she heard her door close. She just stood there looking out the window, at the distant mountains, the wall that always lay between her and the home she was stolen from a lifetime ago.


Load failed, please RETRY

สถานะพลังงานรายสัปดาห์

ป้ายปลดล็อกตอน

สารบัญ

ตัวเลือกแสดง

พื้นหลัง

แบบอักษร

ขนาด

ความคิดเห็นต่อตอน

เขียนรีวิว สถานะการอ่าน: C5
ไม่สามารถโพสต์ได้ กรุณาลองใหม่อีกครั้ง
  • คุณภาพงานเขียน
  • ความเสถียรของการอัปเดต
  • การดำเนินเรื่อง
  • กาสร้างตัวละคร
  • พื้นหลังโลก

คะแนนรวม 0.0

รีวิวโพสต์สําเร็จ! อ่านรีวิวเพิ่มเติม
โหวตด้วย Power Stone
Rank 200+ การจัดอันดับพลัง
Stone 0 หินพลัง
รายงานเนื้อหาที่ไม่เหมาะสม
เคล็ดลับข้อผิดพลาด

รายงานการล่วงละเมิด

ความคิดเห็นย่อหน้า

เข้า สู่ ระบบ

tip ความคิดเห็นย่อย

คุณลักษณะความคิดเห็นย่อหน้าอยู่ในขณะนี้บนเว็บ! เลื่อนเมาส์ไปที่ย่อหน้าใดก็ได้แล้วคลิกไอคอนเพื่อเพิ่มความคิดเห็นของคุณ

นอกจากนี้คุณสามารถปิด / เปิดได้ตลอดเวลาในการตั้งค่า

เข้าใจแล้ว