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Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Chapter 9

With Merees leading the way, the trio began making their way down the stairs and through the hallways of the palace. On occasion, they almost bumped into servants hurrying to their duties and guards on patrol. At first, Risha and Leorin had both been nervous when they ran into a guard, or more, but since they were never stopped or asked what they were doing, walking around the corridors, their anxiety soon faded away. Eventually, they came to the kitchen, which was curiously empty.

"Its just around the corner", Merees said.

At that moment, a terrible noise filled the air, drowning out all other sounds. It conjured up images of both thunderstorms and of something worse, something old and hungry and it almost caused the trio to jump out of their skins.

"W-what is that?" Leorin asked, instinctively drawing closer to his sister.

"I-I'm going to check it out", Merees said. She steeled herself and, mustering all her courage, peeked around the corner.

"Well, Princess?" Risha asked. "What is it? What's making that awful sound?"

Merees let out a sigh of relief, causing a tiny cloud of smoke to escape her throat.

"Its just a sleeping guard", she said. "Unfortunately, he's blocking our only exit."

"How do we get him to leave?" Leorin wondered.

The three of them pondered this problem for a moment, brows wrinkled in deep thought. Eventually, Risha snapped her fingers, in a eureka-moment.

"I've got it!" She said excitedly and somewhat louder than she had meant. Nervously, she covered her mouth, in case the guard had heard something, but the snoring continued, uninterrupted. She motioned for the others to come closer.

"What do you think?" She said, having explained her idea.

"Its worth a shot", Merees said. "At any rate, I'm out of ideas and besides, we don't have much time."

"I can't think of anything either", Leorin admitted.

Earlier, the guard, a rhinoceros, had been ordered to keep watch over the small door next to the kitchen. He had not been told why it needed to be guarded. True, beyond that door laid the dungeon, but the only prisoner in it was locked up tightly in his cell, with no chance of getting out.

 At first, our guard had demonstrated the vigilance and alertness so necessary in his line of work, but alas, eventually, his eyes began to feel heavier and heavier and so, having made sure that no-one else was in sight,  he sat down, leaned against the door and, with his head resting on his chest, set course for the realm of King Morpheus. He had just arrived at a particularly pleasant part of his journey there, when a loud voice reached his ears, abruptly returning him to the real world.

As he opened his eyes, the first thing that the guard saw, was a female dragon who glared at him, while stomping irritably with her foot.

"P-princess Merees", the guard stammered, standing up, while trying his best to look professional, something he did not succeed very well at.

 "How may I be of service, Your Highness? By the way", he continued, babbling nervously. "Allow me to express my condolences regarding the death of your father. He was truly a great..."

He stopped mid-sentence, noticing that the princess had put up her hand in the universal gesture for telling, not asking, someone to be quiet.

"Do you know why I'm here?" Merees asked, in a frosty tone of voice.

The guard shook his head dumbly, while doing his best to avoid the princess' withering look. He was the taller of the two, but at the moment, he felt as if he was the one being made to look up on her.

"I bring a message from my sister", Merees continued. "There is a change of plans. She has decided that guarding this door is no longer necessary, you may leave."

She glared at the guard, but to her dismay (and concern), he did not show any signs of abandoning his post.

"Well? I gave you an order, what are you still doing here?"

The Guard swallowed nervously.

"Forgive me, Your Highness", he began. "Its just that your sister gave me strict orders not to leave this door, unless she, or Lorenzo told me so, in person.

"Really?" Merees said, her voice now dripping with poisoned honey. "In that case, I better go and bring one of them here. Though they both seemed very busy when I last saw them and besides, I don't think they would be very pleased to learn that you've been shirking your duty, don't you?"

She turned around demonstratively and made as if to leave, when the guard called out to her:

"Your Highness! Wait!"

Merees allowed herself to relax. So far, so good. Now, all she had to do was keep up the charade.

"Yeees?" She said, slowly drawing out the consonant, while raising her left eyebrow in a disdainful manner."

"T-there's no need to tell anyone about my little mishap", the guard stammered and the look on his face was so pathetic that for a moment, the Princess almost felt sorry for him.

"If Princess Argath no longer wants me to guard the door, then I shall take your word for it, your highness", he went on. "Where should I go instead? Did she say anything about that?"

"Go to the western gate and relieve whoever's there", Merees replied and dismissed the guard with a gesture.

The guard gave a somewhat shaky salute and went away to his new assignment.

Risha and Leorin had been out of sight during all of this. As soon as the coast was clear, they rushed up to Merees and congratulated her:

"That was great, Princess", Leorin said, admiringly.  "You almost had me fooled for a second."

"Me too", Risha agreed. "You should become an actress."

"Thank you", Merees replied, somewhat overwhelmed by the praise. She turned to Risha. "I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to carry out your plan", she said. "I guess it was fortunate for us that the guard felt guilty about being caught sleeping on the job. Anyway, let's go."

The wooden door which had been previously blocked by the guard, was unlocked. The trio stepped inside and found themselves in a cramped corridor. To the left was a locked iron door, with a hatch at the bottom. A flight of stairs led down into pitch-black darkness.

"That's where we're going", said Merees.

She grabbed a lantern, which hung on a hook nearby, opened it and lit the candle with her breath. "I know that you two can probably see fine in the dark, but I'm afraid that's an ability I'm not blessed with. Let's go."

"Come on Leorin", Risha said.

She stopped and looked at her brother; curiosity had taken hold off Leorin, he was now seated on the floor, peering into the hatch, which he had slid open.

"What are you doing?" His sister asked, a hint of irritation in her voice. "We have to go."

"There's someone in there", her brother replied.

"Who is it?" Risha couldn't help but ask.

"Its a bit hard to tell from here, but I think its that boar we saw at the dinner. What was his name, again?"

"Bureno", said Merees. "He is the head of the kitchen. If he's locked up here, it means that the guards must have found something that implicated him in the assassination of my father and half-brother."

"But we know he's innocent", Risha said. "Can't we do something? Maybe take him with us."

Merees shook her head despondently.

"I'm afraid not. We don't have the keys and it would take too long for my fire to melt through the steel. We simply don't have the time."

All three glanced at the door. Merees remembered the times in the past when she had snuck into the kitchen. Despite how busy he usually was, Bureno had always had time for her, often giving her a foretaste of whatever delicious dish he and his colleagues had prepared. A tear formed in the corner of her eye. She wiped it away, before the others noticed.

"Come", she said in a thick voice. "There's no point in remaining here any longer."

******

It is unnecessary to provide a detail account of the trio's trek through the tunnel, seeing as how it was quite eventful. They walked in silence, contemplating the life and the people they had left behind. Eventually, they reached the end of the tunnel and soon found themselves on the city-streets. During their trek, the sun had risen and bathed the everything with its warm light. It seemed, by all indication, to be  the beginning of a pleasant day, one of those days that can make a person temporarily forget all the evil things which exist in the world.

"We should head for the harbor and charter a ship", Merees said. "Any ideas where we should go?"

"Our mom has relatives in another country", Leorin said. "Dad thought that they would take us in, but I can't remember what the country was called."

"Leporia", his sister said. "Do you know of it, princess?" She asked, turning to Merees.

"The name does ring a bell. I must admit though that geography was never my subject. My brother, Keron would have known a lot more though. Its too bad he chose to stay behind."

"Why would he do that?" Leorin wondered, incredulity stamped all over his tiny face. "That doesn't seem very smart, if you ask me. Ow!"

Leorin turned around.

"Why did you slap me for?" He demanded to know, glaring angrily at his sister.

"Don't be so rude", Risha replied. "If the Princess' brother chose to stay behind, I'm sure he had a good reason for doing so."

"Oh, yeah?" Leorin retorted, while massaging the back of his head. "Why don't you ask her about it, then?"

For a moment, Risha considered this. She had to admit that she too wondered why Prince Keron had stayed behind. Was it because he was unable to walk? She was just about to broach the subject to Merees, when she realized that the princess was no longer with them. Where could she have gone? She looked around, when Merees' voice reached her ears:

"Hey! What are you two standing there for? Hurry!"

The lynx-girl looked in the direction the voice had come from and saw Merees standing at the entrance to the harbor, the hood on her cloak once again pulled up. She grabbed Leorin's left paw and the two of them started running.











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