ã€ŠSon of Two Thievesã€‹


 The Two Thieves

    The horses idled away in the big compound outside while the couple inside watched the store. They seemed tense at a point and excited at another.

    "The last time?" the woman asked. She had green eyes and had her hair dyed red. She also had the slender figure of someone that did not engage in tough work. The horse fitting was a contrast to her person. The leather of the seat was torn, and in some places tattered. Yet, she seemed to be at home in the company of the man and the horse, despite the tenseness that was present in the atmosphere around them.

    "Yes," the man said. He looked the same as his horse. Big, rough, and scarred.

    His hands were big on the reins of his horse, tough and rough.

    "The last time, and we won''t have to do this again."

    They both relaxed on their horses like they were reluctant to get down from them.

    "He was sleeping, right?" the man asked.

    "Yes. I made sure he was sleeping."

    "Let''s do this," the man said.

    His name was Jorges Mendes and he was known around these parts as one of the most notorious grocery store robbers. The pretty woman with him was Ariana Mendes, his wife. They were the deadliest trio the area had ever seen, and they kept coming back when security forces seem to have forgotten them.

    The city of Newt was known for the spate of armed robbery that had overrun it and the security forces. There seemed to be new groups of criminals coming up wherever anyone looked. They attacked without mercy, but only a few groups were known to focus on stealing alone without harming their victims. Mendes and his wife were the first who were known for that.

    For some criminal groups, the more ruthless they were, the more respect they invoked. It was different with Mendes and his wife. Mendes'' height and body mass invoked the kind of respect he wanted first, and he milked it for what it was worth.

    At 6''4", he was not the tallest man in the city, but he sure knew how to carry himself, and he had a solid muscle mass that he kept adding to whenever he was doing nothing.

    As for Ariana, she was the fastest gun drawer the city had ever seen. Once a cop pulled a gun on her and regretted it. The cop still had four out of five fingers from the encounter. She was also the brains of the operation, the one who knew where to attack and when to attack, so they would not draw too much attention.

    When the both of them got down from their horses, they had masks over their faces. The place was almost deserted as it was close to closing time. They would just have enough time to get through the door and steal as much as they could before the police would even get wind of what was happening.

    They marched towards the door, guns drawn. The security man, when he saw them, quickly raised his hands in the air without any prompting and stepped out of the way.

    They pushed the door open and let themselves in, leaving the security man behind, a calculated mistake. They did not want to alert those inside, and at the same time, they knew that before the police would respond to the man''s panicky call, they would be long gone.

    "Everybody, get on the ground!" Mendes screamed in his booming voice.

    "You heard the man!" Ariana screeched, shooting into the air to change the mood on the place.

    The few customers remaining and the shop attendants all went to the ground.

    "Nobody should try to be a hero," Mendes began. "I''m not telling you because I don''t want you to fight me. You can try, but I''ll just put you down. I don''t have time to spare."

    There was silence, and fear sailed on the air, carried by forced breaths. Mendes could see the fear in the eyes of his hostages.Great,he thought. It was just the way he wanted it. The robbery would go smoothly now.

    Going round the place, Ariana already had a bag out and was collecting valuables from the late shoppers. It was a big shop, which meant there was still a lot to take from the register.

    **This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    Bernard sat beside his horse and watched the road. He had just been recently transferred to this place as a result of the insecurity prevalent here. It was the police chief''s idea, and it was the proper thing to do. Bernard only wished the proper thing to do did not involve him. There were other cops to choose from.

    He sighed and pulled out a cigarette. From the packet, he took a stick and stuck it between his lips. Then he lit it. When he inhaled, the heat poured inside of him. He exhaled with an O, smiling at nothing.

    It was a bad thing to do, smoking on the job, but there was no one here to report him, and he was not going to report himself. He wished he had a bottle of vodka too. It would set things right in his mind.

    Gunshots from Tansil Store startled him, and the cigar stick fell off from his hand to the ground.

    "Dang!" he cursed.

    The gunshots came again.

    With his heart racing, he jumped on his horse and pulled it onto the road. He checked for his gun in his holster and was pleased when he found it there. Sometimes he reminded himself of ''the chocolate soldier'' in a book he had read. Man and Arms. No. Arms with a Man. No. It was Arms and The Man. Yeah, that was the book.

    He worked in a small, quiet town before he was transferred to this place. Sometimes, his gun had no more use than an empty water gun. He had forgotten the gun at home on some occasions and came to work without any weapon. That day went by peacefully.

    The horse moved faster than the one he was used to, back in the little town of Costa. Everything here moved faster; the people, the day, the criminals, even the police chief''s words¡ªhe had to strain his ears to listen to the man on several occasions.

    At the intersection, Bernard had difficulty turning the horse onto the next street, and they both almost tumbled over.

    When the horse screeched to a stop in front of the grocery store, Bernard wondered what in God''s name he was doing here. All he had ever wanted to be was a rich man. It did not matter what he did to get there. But his life''s choices had been shaped by his father, who was a police chief. The man made him think being a cop was the best timing one could be, so he made the costliest mistake of his life.

    The precinct here was groaning under the crime rate, and as a result, most cops had no partners. The cop that was to be Bernard''s partner was shot the week before Bernard came into town. In the weeks to come, he would meet the man, but not now, not when he needed the man most.

    Bernard sat on his horse, watching, waiting. Getting into the grocery store would be foolhardy. He did not even know how many criminals there were. The report had said they were two, but in things like this, one was never sure. Maybe they had an inside man who would attack Bernard and take him unawares when he was focused on the two. Yet, Bernard knew that the moment between arriving and waiting for backup was the key to saving many lives in many crime situations.

    His hand went to his gun, and he clenched his teeth. He had to take action now. It would be the difference between him and the coward that was beckoning on the other side of himself.

    "Bump this!" he said and jumped off his horse. "Here, boy," he said, tethering the horse to a spot. It was the king''s decree that all criminals in the productive city should be brought to hook, otherwise he would not have been here.

    What right did people who had no idea how a trigger was pulled to make decisions like that? The decisions would not affect them or any of their family members. Why did they not yet the knights too to come down and battle the criminals?

    He crept towards the store and stopped at the door. The glass was not that transparent because one had to come close to be able to peer through the glass. He peered through the glass and found people lying on the ground, shoppers and attendants. It was only one of the criminals that he could see from where he stood.

    The man stood like an elephant with the alertness of an antelope. Bernard knew that going in through the front door was a no-no. He would get a bullet in the chest, and worst of all, he would alert the criminals as to police presence. They were so relaxed like they were not expecting the police to be there yet.

    "Well, the joke is in you," he muttered.

    Then he chuckled when he realized he just put his work above his life. It was a dangerous line of thought, one that would surely lead to death. He shook his head as if to shake off the thought and concentrated on the robbery unfolding before him.

    One of the hostages lying on the ground looked up and saw him, then whispered something to another one.

    "What are you looking at?'' Bernard heard the male criminal shouting. The voice was deep, the movement when he walked over to where the two hostages were was nothing short of intimidating masculinity.

    Bernard slipped away from his position and out of view. He could not imagine a combat match with someone like that. His biceps strained against the tight t-shirt he wire, and his chest stuck out when he walked. Bernard decided he would simply use his gun on the man. It would need everything.

    He moved around to the back of the store, whispering silent prayers. If the store did not a back door, then he would have no other option than to wait for backup. The criminals could hurt someone before the backup would arrive.

    He found the backdoor, but it was shut.

    "BUMP!" he cursed.

    He was so close to single-handedly arresting some notorious criminals and a locked door was going to make him botch that?

    As if that was not enough, he heard the sound of a horse galloping off. The criminals were getting away. He turned and dashed back towards the front.

    True enough, there were two of them on different horses and they were already in full flight. He realized now that he had seen the horses separated from other people''s horses, and did nothing to stop their movement.

    He had messed up, he realized as he dashed towards his horse. He got on top of it and quickly set off after the criminals just as the door of the grocery store pulled open and people crowded out of it.

    A gunshot missed Bernard by inches only because both the shooter and the target were moving. He pulled his attention away from the survivors and continued after the thieves.

 Fate of Two Thieves

    Monte was tired of the crime rate. Try as much as he did to relate with the people of the town, they still carried on the way they wanted. He knew some of the thieves, or at least he suspected them and he had his reason for that. The latest that he knew of, two of whom he had brought into the precinct on few occasions, were a couple. The description matched both husband and wife, but their alibi checked out. They were not anywhere near the place of the crime at the time of the crime. Yet, the Police chief of Newt knew that that was not all there was to it. The man and his wife were involved in something, but he could not charge them to court without any evidence.

    So, when the call came in that it was a couple that was robbing the shop downtown, the chief rushed out of his office, assigning the command of the station to his deputy. He wanted to be the one to catch this couple that was growing on him. He had a soft spot, especially for the woman. She looked delicate and innocent. Monte knew that she was one of the criminals, but he could not bring himself to believing it. Her husband''s involvement could be easily believed, but hers? No.

    "On me!" he told his men as they mounted their horses.

    If these two criminals were captured, it would reduce the pressure being mounted on him by the royalty. They were already thinking of transferring him to a smaller town, deeming him incapable of dealing with the insecurity in his region. Dead or alive, he knew he had to stop the thieves.

    "Bernard is already at the crime scene," one of the men reported, toying with his talkie.

    "Let''s get these criminals!" Monte declared.

    They set off through the street, racing towards the grocery store. Wherever they passed, the people stopped and stared. There were, at least, ten horses galloping on the street all manned. It was the kind of movement that brought confidence back into the town and Monte decided he would have more of these patrols, if for no other thing, but to strike fear into the hearts of the criminals that have decided to turn the city into a war zone.

    "Captain!" one of the officers screamed. "Bernard says they are getting away!"

    "Through where?" Monte asked before he espied the shapes he had seen described on so many robberies a long distance away. "Never mind. There!" he pointed.

    The party turned their horses towards the fleeing couple. There was a triumphant grin on Monte''s face. He knew they could not run away from them. The thieves had the spoils from their robbery weighing down their horses. They, the police, had the finest and fastest horses in the city.

    After a little dash, Monte discovered that what he expected was entirely different from what was unfolding. The couple disappeared into thin air after they veered into a dirt road. Monte did not know if the couple had seen them.

    "Found something," Dany said. He had come down from his horse and was looking at a mark on the ground. It was fresh. Horse hoof mark.

    "They went through here," Monte declared.

    They began advancing. They were no longer galloping fast. There was no need, and they did not want to lose the robbers'' tracks. It occurred to Monte that it was possible that the criminals had escaped and there would be no way he could get them. His transfer would be very justifiable then. He had accomplished nothing.

    The sound of a gunshot drew him out of his self-pity. Someone was shooting and the other was returning the shot.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    "There, faster!" Monte screamed.

    They rode out towards the sound of the gunshots. Bernard could not have gotten there before us, Monte thought. As they rode through the dirt way surrounded by the wood, more gunshots followed. Someone screamed.

    Darn it, Bernard has been injured, the chief thought.

    When they finally got to the sound of the gunshots, everything was calm. Bernard was standing before an opening, staring at a house that was hidden in the woods. It was made like a camouflage and Monte would not have seen it if Bernard was not staring so pointedly at it.

    "Bernard," Monte said, surprised.

    "They opened fire on me," Bernard said. "I was just keeping surveillance for backup."

    "You did well to protect yourself."

    "I killed them," Bernard said, wide-eyed. He was pale and shivered like paper.

    Monte''s eyes moved to the front of the house. There were two dead bodies there, one belonging to the man and the other to the slender, delicate woman that he admired in his privacy.

    Slowly, he walked towards them, his gun drawn. He bent down to feel their pulse. The man was gone. The lady¡­ was gone. He almost sighed, but he stopped himself.

    "Well, they are dead," Monte declared.

    They had their guns drawn in their now lifeless hands, lying by their sides. This was not the end Monte wanted from them.

    "I did not mean to," Bernard.

    "You don''t have to talk about it. You did what you had to do."

    Monte walked past the dead thieves towards the house.

    "Check the perimeter," he said to his men. He wanted to be the first person to set foot in the house of thieves. He reckoned that they must have stolen a fortune.

    When he pushed the door open and got in, he was greeted with the opposite. The roof inside was the same way he had seen it outside. The floor was covered with a threadbare carpet and the only armchair in the house was torn in different places.

    "What game are you playing?" Monte murmured.

    The house was quite a contrast from what it was believed the dead duo had stolen.

    Monte started the process of looking for their hidden wealth when a sound halted him. It was the sound of a crying infant.

    "No," he said. That could not be. Thieves had no time for kids. Why would they have a child?

    The sound was coming from under the bed, and when he bent down to check, he saw the basket containing a baby. He pulled the basket out from under the bed and found a plump, cute, red-faced baby. The baby looked well-fed.

    It took Monte seconds to realize why the house was bare and devoid of wealth even though the couple living here were well-known criminals who had stolen a lot of wealth. They were stealing just so they could keep feeding their child.

    "I would be damned," he exclaimed.

    He walked to the window and took a peek outside. His men were still covering the perimeter. There was only one near the house. He carried the baby, who was oddly quiet, found a bag, and put the baby in it. The bag contained some guns.

    Immediately he walked outside, one of his men turned to him.

    "There''s nothing here, chief," the man said.

    "Why don''t you check inside then? I will take this bag back to the precinct now. When you guys are done, I would like to see you back at the station."

    The fellow nodded and hurried into the house.

    The police chief got on top of his horse and urged the horse forward. He did not want to leave the baby behind. The kingdom of Kora had superstitions that were not kind to the children of thieves. Once a child''s father was caught stealing, the child was put to death so the stealing genes would be halted. In as much as the chief believed in the laws of the land, he found it difficult to enforce this. As a result, he knew a motherless babies'' home. He had delivered about five kids to the home and would always visit to see how the kids were doing.

    He rode to the place now, a building hiding behind high stone walls. Sometimes, he wondered if it was a prison, if the manager did not want any child seeing the light of the day. The gate was made with iron bars, and that was the only way through which the children could look at the world.

    He stopped beside the fence and got down from his horse. A quick look about assured him that he was alone. So he picked the basket with the child out of the bag and gently dropped it on the ground.

    "I can''t keep you, kid," he said." I''m not even supposed to be doing this."

    He got back on his horse and rode away, leaving the horse staring at the receding image of his back. The gate would soon open and the caretakers would discover they had another homeless child on their hands. Monte wondered how long he would keep doing this. He could eventually get caught one day, and the king would want his head on a spike.

 The King And His Woes

    King Harodin sat at his table, near drunk again. He had his golden cup in his hand. In the other, he had his royal pipe. His was the fate of a man that was doomed to die, and he found no reason anymore in life except to drink and make merry.

    "The days of a man in this world are short," he said. "For who knows when he will die."

    He was a little man with an even smaller face, soft and cleanly shaved. Apart from being royalty, he was handsome. What he lacked for in height, he made up for with his comely looks.

    The table was in his chamber, a big affair with golden torch holders and furniture made from the best wood. The king''s image was carved into every one of the furniture and the chamber screamed wealth and royalty. At a corner, there were chests of gold. Harodin was tired of the wealth. He was tired of his people not loving him. The kingdom of Kora had been caught up in the times of new things with peasants and common men wanting to have a say in the way the kingdom was governed. It irritated Harodin, drove him to near madness. If he were a peasant, he would find pleasure in other pursuits of life and leave the governing of the kingdom to those who were born for it and into it.

    "Nature seldom makes mistakes," he said again, trying to convince himself.

    He was a weak man. Maybe because his father and the king before him were strong men. Tough times created strong men; strong men created easy times; easy times created him, a weakling even if he tried to act like it was far from the truth. He knew. It was always difficult for him to take a stand of his own. He had heard of the police chief escaping with children of thieves, yet he had not had the mind to confront him, probably because the police chief was put in service by his late father. He knew he could have the soldiers round him up and have him brought to the palace. He could have his head cut off and served to him on a plate. He imagined it, and imagined the type of fear and respect it would bring to his name. If only he could do it, but he could not.

    In fact, he had found himself lately thinking about the new ways. He did not want to be dethroned and would rather have the peasants ruling his kingdom with him. It was an idea that was repugnant to his most trusted advisor, Shear. Like most of the people in the palace, Shear had served his father and was now serving him. The man knew a lot about ruling that he did not. Most of the time, he had no choice but to listen to Shear.

    Someone knocked on the door, and before the king could say anything, Shear pushed the door open and breezed in. Harodin swallowed. There was that too. He had no authority anywhere. Was it because he did not keep his beard. Shear, on the other hand, kept a beard that he made into twists. They drew attention to his prominently square jaw, the sharp edges that looked like they could cut through the toughest of rocks. He was also tall, much to Harodin''s unease. Whenever they stood together, Shear would bend down to whisper into his ears. Harodin wondered if this was enough reason to depose his father''s advisor, so he could find an advisor that did not make him uneasy.

    "My lord," Shear said, bowing slightly. For all his knowledge and claims of knowing how to run a kingdom, Shear still paid his respects, when he remembered them¡ªit frightened Harodin. What if Shear, one day, forgot who his loyalty was to?

    "Shear," Harodin said, "join me and drink."

    "I have come to give the reports of the spies, my lord. I doubt I will have time to sit and drink. I¡­"

    "Sit and drink!" Harodin shouted before he realized what he was doing.

    Shear flinched. Then he sat beside the king.

    "I am sorry," Harodin said. "I did not mean to shout. You can go if you do not feel like it."Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

    "No, my lord," Shear said quickly. "This is who you are, the one that speaks with authority and forces many to listen. I will drink as much wine as you want of me."

    "Very well then, help yourself."

    Shear poured some wine in a goblet for himself and poured it down his throat, smacking his lips afterward.

    "What do you think?" Harodin asked.

    "Excellent, my lord. This must be from our reserve."

    "You did not lie," Harodin replied, pleased. Kora makes the best wine. Those peasants sure know how to brew wine."

    "Those peasants are also after your life, my lord," Shear announced.

    Harodin looked away.

    "We had our spies tell us what exactly they were planning. Since your father died, they have no fear. Their burdens have been reduced and they have the time to meet and make plans. I think we should¡­"

    "We are not sending anybody to the mines, but slaves," Harodin said.

    "But your father would¡­"

    "I am not my father!"

    He hated it whenever Shear did this thing, and the elderly man was fond of it. It bared his inadequacies to his face and constantly reminded him that he was not worthy.

    Shear swallowed and bowed his head reverently, "my lord."

    He stood up to take his leave.

    "The days of a man in this world are short," Harodin said, standing up and walking to the window.

    From his window, he could see the kingdom laid out in all its glory. His father would often tell him that with the introduction of the gun, the future was here. He would say that the future and the past would meet and clash during Harodin''s reign, and his greatness would be determined by how he would handle the controversy. Maybe, if he had listened a lot more to the old man, he would not have to depend so much on Shear for advice. Every word of advice Shear gave him, including clamping down on suspected peasants who were planning his removal had backfired. The plan was no longer out in the open. It had retreated to the darkness, but it was there, growing.

    "Indeed, my lord. In his time, a man must do what he can to be remembered."

    "Same thing my father would say."

    Harodin turned around from the buildings, the roads, and the towers and stared straight into Shear''s eyes.

    "What do you remember my father for?"

    "Buildings, renovations, and keeping the peace," Shear answered quickly.

    "Would you call it keeping the peace when people resent you and can''t stand the sight of you? But they can do nothing because they would be beaten or killed by your guards?"

    "How did you come to this conclusion, my king?"

    "I was friends with a peasant boy who did not know I was the prince. I would sneak out at night and play around with the boys, some of whom were my age, and some that were not. He spoke of the clampdown, father sending people he suspected of speaking against him to the mines where they would later die. So, is that peace?"

    "My lord, the people would never entirely love you. There are some among them, some vipers and snakes."

    "None of them ever loved my father. At least, none of those that I saw."

    "That is why you would be different."

    Harodin sighed. "You are standing. Are you going already?"

    "No, my lord."

    Harodin walked back to the table and took his golden goblet again. He poured wine from the jug and dropped it on the table.

    "You haven''t told me about the spy, have you?"

    "No, I was about telling you."

    "Go on."

    "Some peasants have been arrested. They were caught calling you names."

    "I don''t understand."

    "They said you were weak and being controlled. That you deserve to die for the sins of your father."

    "Did they say how I was going to die?"

    "What? No, my lord."

    "Release them."

    "What?"

    "Set them free with this message: I am not my father. I will help you where he erred, raise you where he threw you down, and march with you where he abandoned you."

    "Are you sure of this, my lord?"

    "I am very sure. Now go and deliver my message. The people will love me again."

    Without a word, the advisor pivoted around on his heels and walked towards the door. Harodin had already mentally dismissed him from his mind, turning back to the window again. These days, he could not go down to walk among his people without any disguise. His face had been on too much papers already and the people knew exactly what he looked like. If they found him without protection, they would kidnap him, or worse still, kill him for his father''s sins. But he would change all that. He would make it possible for peasants to dine among men, for big men to not look down on peasants so much.

    "We would have no food without these peasants. They till the ground, water it, and plant the food, then they feed the livestock and watch them grow," he murmured. Again, he was trying to convince himself as he was going against Shear''s advice.

 The Kings Shadow

    Sheer walked outside with a big frown on his face. Of course, the frown only came when he had found his way out of the king''s presence. The boy was losing it, getting all cocky and confident and thinking himself king. How was he to know that Sheer was actually the one that put him there? The late king''s time was up because of the behavior that Harodin was displaying now. If the young king did not come to his senses quickly, he would most likely end up in the same way as his father. Well, Sheer smiled, he already had plans in place.

    As he walked through the hallway, his black robe swept the ground. From a distance, he looked like an apparition that was floating through the hallway, one that would scare the children of the servants pantless. Instead of making his way to his chambers, he walked on through the hallway and outside the palace.

    Outside, he pulled his cape down over his head and walked into the street. In the streets, he would look like anyone rather than the king''s advisor. Sheer had made sure right from time that the fabrics that were woven into his clothes were not of the type befitting of the royalty. He had made sure that fancy embroidery was kept away from his robes. To the late king, he felt it was a show of respect, but he did not know until his death. Sheer was sure the king would still be confused in his grave thinking about the way his advisor dressed. He shrugged and continued up the street.

    The stone city of Mora was the capital of Kora. It was here that the king resided. There were giant gates to keep out any attacks that were spotted on time. Other than that, if the gates were breached, then the soldiers would come out to fight. The palace had towers and pathways at the top where soldiers could hide and shoot at the enemy. But Sheer knew that the city of Mora could be breached, especially with the weak king that was in charge. The crystal sword of power would change all that. Legend had it that the person with this sword could stop the bark of thunder from steel guns, control the weather, and put every damn thing under himself. The description was very much what Sheer wanted to think of himself.

    There were few peasants along the city streets because of what Sheer and the soldiers that were loyal to him were doing. The operation to find out those who were in a conspiracy to overthrow the young king and his government for what they called a democracy. Stupid fellows. Humans, Sheer had known, right from time, could not think for themselves. It was for this reason that the royalty was in power. The irony of it was that the elites could not think for themselves. It was people like him, Sheer, advisors who largely stayed in the shadows, hidden from spotlights and standing behind empty-headed kings who could hardly take decisions for themselves.

    Sheer suddenly paused at a crossroad. To his right, there was the chapel for people who were so religious, a building as intimidating as it was awe-inspiring. It was built like a pyramid, rising from a wide base to a pointed top on which there was a cross. Sheer watched the church dully. It was not the place for him¡ªnot until he wanted something down on a large scale. Slaves who were converted to the faith were taught to be obedient to their masters, thieves too. Everything that would keep the ruling class at the top. Sheer knew these things. The late king was not such a dummy after all.

    Sheer looked around cautiously. He did not want anyone recognizing him and carrying the gossip to quarters he would rather not have them. Unlike the other parts of the city, there were no hawkers or roadside sellers close to the church. It was a rule, the house of the lord was not to be made a marketplace.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    "Bollocks," Sheer cursed and turned to walk towards the church. He moved fast.

    When he walked through the doors of the church, he found the church empty. It was just the way he had planned it. Coming here with so many people around was risky. It was all nice and cool to think that he would not be recognized away from the palace because he dressed like the common man, but he knew his luck could run out one day. Standing behind the king, day after day while he addressed the kingdom exposed him in ways he did not like. So with the cape over his face, he hurried to the confession booth and sat there.

    "Forgive me father, for I have sinned," he said.

    He knew the man would be there, the one he wanted.

    "Speak, son," the priest said.

    Sheer took a deep breath.

    "You did not think that I will forget?" Sheer asked.

    "Forget?"

    The window was pushed open and Sheer stared directly at the priest. He was a pathetic, little man who claimed to hear from God. Sheer would like to be heard first of all.

    "Sheer¡­" the man exclaimed.

    "Shut up!"

    "What are you doing here?"

    "Stupid question. Where is the sword?"

    "Why do you want this sword so much?"

    "Why do you love this church so much? Why do you love your life?"

    "You dare threaten a servant of God?"

    Sheer stepped out of his booth. The next thing the priest heard was a bang on his door and his door being pulled open. Sheer barged in and dragged him out like a common criminal. He pushed him to the ground and kicked him in the face.

    The priest screamed in pain.

    "Ah. My nose! My nose! You have broken my nose, you lunatic!"

    "Are you ready to answer me now?" Sheer asked.

    He made as if he was about to kick the priest again, and the little man on the ground shrank away from his leg while holding out his hand to weather the kick.

    "Wait, wait. I have sent some thieves after the sword," the priest cried.

    "And?"

    "They did not find it."

    "Wow."

    Sheer had an incredulous expression on his face. It was borne out of surprise, surprise that the man could defy him so easily whole thinking there were no consequences.

    "I tried to make it easy for your greedy self," Sheer said. "I paid you to find thieves for me and the location of this crystal sword."

    "You paid me only once. I have sent three sets of thieves to places we think the sword might have been hidden. Nothing was there."

    "You want to die," Sheer said. "It is clear. You want to die."

    The priest noticed a change in the advisor''s stance and his countenance. He struggled to his feet and was about to race off towards the church door when he felt a kick from the back. The kick hurled him to the ground, depositing him bodily on a stone surface. He was too stunned to react.

    The cold touch of steel brushed against his neck as his attacker drew his head up from the back.

    "You stupid twat," Sheer said.

    He pushed the sharp edge of the knife deeper into the tantalizingly fresh neck of the priest.

    "Please, please, don''t kill me," the man begged.

    Sheer pushed the knife in a little more, drawing blood. The liquid stained the blade, and the priest trembled beneath him.

    "I will spare you just this once," Sheer finally said.

    He pushed the man away from him. The priest felt his neck, grateful that there was no slit in it big enough to end his life.

    "If you fail me again, you will not live to tell the tale," Sheer said, walking towards the exit. "And don''t even think of running away."

    The priest stood, staring after him, shaken to the core and still holding his neck.

    "Find the damn sword," Sheer said before he finally slipped through the door.

    Still, the priest stood there, unable to move. He was only now just realizing the depth of the trouble that he had so willingly submerged himself in. At first, it was a matter of money. Then duty. When the crown called, one had only one choice: to answer. He had. Continuously. At the confession, he recruited every thief he knew to search for this evasive treasure, but most of them ever came back or were seen again. The ones that came back found nothing.

    The priest turned back to his chambers. Doing the lord''s work was becoming a bit difficult by the day.

 My Name Is Tum

    Kids running about the place. The air was moist and soft. The sun was not yet up in the sky, but the city was awake. All around were people rolling out their wares. Shops were opening. Foodstuff was being wheeled past, and friends were calling out to each other with hearty greetings. The city of Mora was alive with peasants who had woken up to make a living again as they so often did.

    At the corner of a street, Tum sat near a truck of cucumber, chewing thoughtfully on one. He was the son of thieves although he knew nothing about this. All he knew was that he was abandoned by his parents and brought to an orphanage.

    No one knew who brought him there, and he only had to live with the imagination of what his parents must have looked like. If they looked anything like him, then his father had to be tall with blue eyes, dark, long lashes, and sumptuous lips. Were it not for the tattered clothes that Tum had about him, he would have been mistaken for royalty. Buckle would often tell him that he had the nose of the aristocrats.

    Maybe your father was royalty, Buckle would say. Tum would dismiss it with a lazy wave of his hand while thinking seriously about it, and hoping it was true¡ªif it were true, maybe his old man could come back for him again. Bonnie, Buckle''s female twin, whose head was always up in the clouds would snort at this insinuation.

    Tum chuckled, watching the early morning scene unfold before him. He missed the parents he had never seen, but he never let this bother him for long. He was a youth, strong and fast, and willing to do work. He had taken upon himself the task of sewing clothes for the other children in the orphanage. He could make them feel loved even if he did not feel that way himself.

    He scratched his head and wondered where his friends were. They had left early in the morning without waking him up. In the house where they lived and always had to avoid the troublesome house owner, he had woken up alone, and for some minutes, he wondered if the rapture had taken place without him knowing. Then he remembered that Buckle was a rascal. There was no way that son of a gun would make heaven and he would be lost on earth.

    "Tum," a voice called.

    Tum turned around and saw the old woman that they normally pushed her carts and sold her watermelon. An old woman with a full hair of gray. She always wore a black robe and was suspected to be a witch. Her sharp, beadlike eyes and jutted-out jaw did not help matters, same as her robe. Maybe the costly ornaments she wore around her persons kept the attacks at bay. She was looking distraught when she saw Tum near the truck of cucumbers. At first, Tum did not understand the reason for the expression on her face.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    "Madam Caro," he said, smiling wildly.

    "I see you have already started working," the old woman grumbled.

    Tum understood then. His eyes followed the woman''s gaze and he realized she thought he was already selling someone else''s wares.

    "No, no, not at all, madam. This is for Bonnie. I am just keeping watch for her."

    The woman''s face brightened quickly at this.

    "Well, come around then," she said. "The carrots will not sell themselves."

    Tum knew that he and his friends were paid the lowest possible wages for the work they did in the city. They had often talked about moving outside the city to the place of peasants, but only one thing prevented them: the revolt being planned by the peasants. Sometimes, Tum thought it was necessary. Madam Caro was not a peasant.

    She had never planted a seed in her life, but she bought from these peasants when she went to their fields and returned to the city to sell her ware at exorbitant prices. Oh, she did not sell them herself anyway. Tum and his friends were tasked with that. After a hard day''s work, she would pay them meager wages. Tum was getting tired of all of it. But who would take care of the orphans if he did not work?

    "I would be with you in a heartbeat, madam. I just have to wait for Bonnie to get this cart," Tum replied.

    "Why? My business suffers because you wait on your friends?"

    If only you understood what friendship means, Madam Caro.

    "Are you not going to say anything?" Madam Caro asked when Tum remained silent. "Are you not going to do something?"

    Tum tried to smile, but his cheeks were hurting.

    "I will be with you soon," he said finally, wondering where he got his courage from. Even though they were the best salesmen in the city, there were many people who were close behind them, people who would stab them at the back without a second thought to take over their positions.

    "Twenty pieces for one cowrie," Madam Caro finally said before she turned and walked away, grumbling.

    Tum sighed, watching her go away. Someone ran up to her. It was Kettle, the red boy, called so because he whistled a lot. He had had his eyes on Tum''s odd jobs for a long time now, stalking Tum, hiding in the shadows, and waiting for his chance.

    Tum wondered how the boy ate. Most of them were homeless, having been ousted from the orphanage when they turned fifteen, so they could fend for themselves. The ones who lived in terrible houses, like Tum and his friends, owed for years and were always thrown out of the house. Then they would move to another house until they were know all over the city and no landlord would accept them.

    Kettle lived on the street. He was older than Tum and came out here first. Already, he had outlived the goodwill of the landlords and could no longer find a place to sleep. Tum watched him with worry in his eyes. Lines appeared over his forehead as he wondered what the old woman would do.

    Buckle would not be worried. He had often said they were the best salesmen and the people knew it. He seemed to know with an unshaken assurance that people would not pick Kettle over them. Tum did not have that kind of faith. He knew how the heart of man was, and the things that he was capable of.

    "Hey!" Someone screamed from behind him.

 Tum and His Two Idiots

    "Hey!" Someone screamed from behind him. He started and turned around to see Buckle laughing hysterically. "I got you there, didn''t I?" he asked.

    Behind her, Bonnie walked up to them. Bonnie was a striking brunette who walked like the ground did not deserve to have her feet stepping on them, like someone that should be coming down from a wagon all the time. Like Tum, she resembled royalty and would often turn her nose up at the sign of any display she considered silly¡ªand God, they were many, especially by her brother.

    "You did not, you knuckle-headed fellow," Tum cried.

    The three of them could not be more than seventeen, yet they were already alone in the world.

    "I did," Buckle exclaimed.

    "You did not!"

    "I did!"

    "No!"

    "Did!"

    "Not!"

    "Did!"

    "Not!"

    "Did!"

    "Can you two stop jabbering about what you did or did not do?" Bonnie shouted impatiently.

    Buckle, some inches shorter than Bonnie, his sister, snorted. He was the one who looked more like a peasant among them. His tattered clothes were at one with his body, and he had the flat nose of a peasant, plus the muscles of one who worked at the farm all day. Tum knew for a fact that Buckle had never worked on any farm.

    "Always the impatient one," Buckle said.

    "There is time for everything," Bonnie rejoined.

    "Always a time to be too damn serious. That is all the time you have."

    "Tum knows that is a lie."

    "Does he now?"

    "Well, Tum, tell him," Bonnie said as they both turned to Tum. "Tell him that I am not always serious."

    "Err¡­." Tum said, blanching under the two pairs of eyes that were trying to win him over.

    "See?" Buckle said. "He cannot even remember the last time you smiled."

    "You would not understand, Buckle," Bonnie said, then turned to Tum. "Seriously?"

    "Hey, what are we going to go?" Tum asked, trying to divert the discussion. "With the peasants planning an uprising, we know that the crown is not going to keep quiet about this."If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    "The young king looks like he is better than his father," Bonnie said, taking the bait, then she frowned. "I see what you did there, Tum. Don''t think you are off the hook."

    "Hey, we are peasants. You know whose side we are on," Buckle declared.

    "Shhhh, keep your voice down," Bonnie said, looking around fearfully.

    "Why? What is the use?"

    "You don''t know the person walking on the street. Many have died for saying far less."

    "I could die for the truth," Buckle said bravely, rearing up to his full height.

    Bonnie shook her head exasperatedly. It looked like something borne out of habit than anything else. A stranger would get the impression that Buckle always made Bonnie shake her head.

    "Come on, we have to sweep this place," Tum said suddenly, breaking up the discussion between the siblings. "We cannot set up people''s ware in a dirty place. Who would want to buy?"

    He rushed off to find a broom and the two followed. When they returned shortly, the argument in their conversation was gone. They chattered the way they always did, like people who had known each other for a long time.

    "I am telling you there is nothing better than having money," Bonnie was saying. She had a dreamy expression in her eyes. Buckle did not seem to be moved by her assertion. "That would be the dream life," she continued. "To have money and many servants that would do my bidding. To wake up in the morning, knowing that I do not need to come out to the streets to survive." She sighed. "Why don''t we always get what we want?"

    "The world is not fair," Tum said. "That is why I would like to be a king. To set things right with the world. See? I will be rich as well, probably the richest king the world would ever know."

    "Being a king requires that you have to be a royalty," Buckle said. "The last time I checked, you were not."

    "What if I could be? Can''t you imagine it? A magical life. One without all the stress of being the lowly and the cast asides, living on the streets."

    "The responsibilities of being a king would make you wish you just chose riches," Bonnie said.

    "Why would I choose riches over power?" Tum asked. "With power, I can get as much riches as I want."

    "People would want that power too. And your riches as well," Bonnie told him. "See, when you are rich, people would come for your wealth alone. They would not be as much as the people that would come for both riches and power. You can fight them off. But when you are the king, you also have to protect the kingdom, and that makes you weak."

    "I don''t want all of that," Buckle said. "What is wrong with the life that we are living now?"

    The two turned to Buckle, their faces incredulous. None of them could continue sweeping. They watched Buckle the way they would watch someone that has newly become mad.

    "Seriously, Buckle, you don''t see it?" Bonnie asked.

    "There is nothing to see. The life we have now is a simple one. We eat, we laugh, we sleep."

    "Don''t you think laughing in a castle would be more comfortable, especially if the castle belongs to you?" Bonnie asked.

    "I don''t want a castle. I have my friends."

    "Oh buckle, if ever there was a compassionate idiot, it would be you, my brother," Bonnie said, fondly.

    "And you are my sister. What does that make you?"

    "Buckle," Tum said. "I don''t think the life we live is good enough. It is nice that we are friends, but there are some people enjoying wealth that they do not deserve."

    "The royalties are enjoying wealth they do not deserve," Bonnie cried. "The peasants work themselves to stupor just so the lords and ladies of the land could be fed. Their portions must be cut out first for some stupid task."

    "You do believe in the peasants after all," Buckle said.

    "I don''t," Bonnie quickly retorted.

    "Hey, look," Tum said. "A knight is coming this way.

    "A royal blood," Bonnie said with disgust. One could only become a knight if he was born into royalty. Bonnie was two realities away from being a knight if she wanted to become one. First of all, females were not allowed to be knights. Secondly, she had no royal blood in her. In fact, she felt Buckle was right. They were peasants. It was a sad truth to face because she liked to think of herself as being higher than a peasant.

 The Dumbest Knight of Them All

    Up the street, the knight walked. He was dressed in shining armor, which glinted off the sun. There was a breastplate, a helmet, and a sheath for a sword dangling for his side. They could not tell if the knight was handsome because of the helmet covering his face, but what they could tell was that he was tall.

    As he walked past, Bonnie walked out in front of him.

    "A knight!" she screamed. "I did not know the day would come when I would see such a noble spirit among us."

    The knight paused, completely missing the thick note of sarcasm in Bonnie''s voice.

    "Noblest of spirit, deserving of your place in life and more, if only I can touch you, I would be of the same noble spirit as you are. Though not quiet." Bonnie made a show of being sad.

    By the side, Tum and Buckle tried to control the laughter that was struggling to burst through their lips. They knew exactly how Bonnie saw the nobles, and there was no doubt that she was acting it.

    "But of birth, I am not of the same noble spirit as you," Bonnie said.

    The knight removed the helmet from his face. Bonnie almost shrank back but held her ground. If nobility were to be given by looks, the priest would have been a peasant.

    "What troubles you, young lady?" the knight asked.

    "Nothing, my lord, nothing, except your spirit, which I wish for myself that I could be."

    Tum and Buckle tittered, trying to control their laughter. When the knight turned quickly to them, the two showed a straight face.

    "Perhaps I shall see you when I return. I am on a great quest for the king, going to claim a great treasure, one greater than anything money could buy."

    "I will be looking forward to that, kind sir," Bonnie said.

    "Did you say treasure?" Buckle asked while Tum snuck around to the back of the knight. They did not learn to survive out in the rough streets of Mora by being decent citizens. Sometimes they got their hands dirty especially where people they considered undeserving of what they had were concerned.

    As Buckle and Bonnie took up the attention of the knight, Tum circled the unsuspecting nobleman and snatched the purse hanging around his waist without the man noticing it. Then he walked farther away from the man, so he would not be suspected when the man started looking for his purse.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    "Aye, treasure, I was sent on this mission by none other than the king himself."

    "Carry on your way now, good sir," Bonnie said. "I will be looking out for your return."

    The knight nodded at her, then at Buckle who was still trying to stop himself from laughing, ending up making a strange face. It was straight enough for the knight not to suspect anything was wrong, so he turned and carried on, completely oblivious as to the crime that had been carried out against him.

    Buckle waited till he had gone off to a far distance before he broke into uncontrollable laughter. Tum appeared and joined him. After a while, even Bonnie could not continue keeping a straight face. She joined in the laughed and they rolled over themselves on the ground. Some of the other traders watched on, their faces chessboards filled with puzzles.

    "Well, so much for nobility," Bonnie said. "He could not even realize pretense from genuine actions."

    "Well, the nobles are always so full of themselves," Tum said, still laughing. "He thinks the peasants would worship him always."

    "Well, he certainly is not wise," Buckle observed. "You see why we all should just remain where we are?"

    "What are you saying?" Bonnie said. The smile had disappeared from her face.

    "The more we get rich, the more we lose our senses. We could be dealt with by street urchins the way we dealt with this guy."

    "I am not a street urchin!" Bonnie exclaimed.

    Buckle laughed. "Believe it or not, we are street urchins, and we are also peasants."

    "You can be a peasant if you want to be!" Bonnie screamed.

    "Hey!"

    The three friends turned round to the sound of the voice and saw the knight hurtling down the road, coming after them.

    "He is back!" Tum screamed.

    The three turned and fled, running in different directions to further confuse the knight as he ran after them.

    "Stop those thieves!'' the knight screamed.

    Not one person in the market moved. They watched the knight run past after the youths that had just stolen from him. The verdict on their faces were the same: the knight would never catch any of the three kids that had just robbed him and ridiculed him.

    He did not know the first thing about the hidden directions and side streets in the city of Mora. He had probably spent most of his time fighting outside the kingdom, going on heroic quests, or just staying at the palace like the king and other knights.

    As Tum ran, he turned to look back and measure the distance between him and the knight. He found that the knight had taken off in pursuit of Bonnie, the last person he would be able to catch. Bonnie ran like the wind.

    As if that was not enough, she always found a way to throw obstacles in front of her pursuers, making a mockery of them, causing them to tumble and make fools of themselves. Tum chuckled and faced the direction of their friend''s house, Quil. This was where they usually went whenever they stole from the ruling class. Quil''s house was hidden and finding them would be difficult.

    There was little worry about the wares that they had left behind. They would not be paid by the owners of the commodities, and they would probably not get any odd jobs from the people for some time, but they would be alright with the money they had stolen from the knight for the days they would be ignored by the merchants. Still, he knew that the men would come around in the next couple of days. That was how it usually worked.

 My Man Quil

    Quil was an unusual fellow. For a head, he had one round, bobbly one that belittled his body, but he did not seem to care. He had the lanky body of a monk that had been on fast for a long time. But his eyes were alert. They were big and beautiful, adorned with long, dark lashes. They were probably the most beautiful feature on his body.

    Tum was the first person to get to his house, a cave that Quil had managed to make bigger by carving into the body of the rock. Quil was an artist, and all over his room were different sculptures that he had made for different purposes.

    Most were neat and intricately done. Others were experiments. Tum spent his time walking around these sculptures, some of them life-sized, and looking at them like he understood a thing about sculpturing.

    "None of my friends have gotten it here, Quil?" Tum asked.

    "Keep your hands off my work!" Quil yelled. He was older than Tum by a few years at least and did not waste time in lording it over him.

    Tum moved away from the work and turned to stare outside. The cave was on a mountain bordering over the city of Mora. It was a good place to escape the city from.

    "What have you rascals gotten yourself into again?" Quil asked.

    "Nothing, just the usual," Tum replied.

    "One day, the nobles would set a manhunt for the little urchins that keep stealing from them."

    "That manhunt would find no one at the end of it because the crown has created too many small urchins that they would not know where to start."

    "How about they round all of you up?" Quil asked.

    "You speak like you are not an urchin yourself."

    "How dare you? I am a respectable artist."

    "A respectable artist living in a cave. Very respectable."

    "What matters is what I bring to the crown, not where I live."

    "Indeed."

    "Speaking of street urchins, where are your friends?"

    "They should be here any moment from now."

    In truth, Tum was beginning to feel concerned. Bonnie and Buckle were already supposed to be here. He considered the dreadful thought that they could have been captured by the knight that they had stolen from. Maybe Quil was a prophet.

    "Are you sure nothing has happened to them?" Quil asked.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    "They can take care of themselves."

    As if on cue, Buckle pushed the cowries Quil hung around his door and stuck his head into the cave.

    "Hey," he said, excitedly.

    "Buckle!" Tum screamed with great delight. He did not know he would be that glad to see any friend of his.

    He ran up to Buckle and embraced him, then starting dragging him inside. Behind Buckle, Bonnie appeared, breathless with her face full of color.

    "Bonnie!" Tum exclaimed and released Buckle, running to hug Bonnie.

    He dragged his two friends into the room and dangerously close to the sculptures while Quil protested, struggling to cover his works and prevent them from getting trampled over by the excited kids.

    "You rascals should really watch where you are going," Quil complained.

    "Cranky as hell now, Quil, ain''t you?" Bonnie said.

    "Am I now? If you keep robbing royalties, they will come for you. They might decide that I have something to do with you, which would be unfortunate," Quil complained.

    "What are you so afraid of?" Buckle asked.

    "Dying without letting loose my talent."

    "Well, you know there is always something in it for everybody, right?" Tum asked, fumbling through the knight''s bag. There were some coins there, enough to last them for a while and keep the sun off their back. In fact, with the money in there, they could afford to live like rich merchants for a couple of weeks.

    "No, I don''t want any of that," Quil said.

    "Getting judgmental now in your old age?" Bonnie asked.

    "I am not yet old, I just¡­"

    "I have always thought you were old from birth," Buckle said.

    "Well, I''m not. I just think you guys need that more than I do," Quil said.

    "Selfless in your old age?" Bonnie asked.

    "I am not old!" Quil screamed.

    The three friends broke into laughter, watching the worked-up artist. Realizing that they were trying to get him rattled, Quil hissed and walked away from them towards the window.

    "But seriously, Quil, why won''t you accept our offering? It is the least we can do for the type of friend you have been to us rascals," Bonnie said, stressing the last word.

    "It is okay. Thing is I got paid for one of these sculptures. It is supposed to be a knight." He pointed at one of his works, and the three friends crowded around it.

    "I would be damned if this isn''t Sir Mount, the criminal that would not let the traders rest," Bonnie said.

    "It is him, the bastard," Buckle exclaimed.

    "Why are you working for him?" Tum asked, turning to Quil.

    The knight was one of the big problems of the traders in the streets of Mora. He was constantly overtaxing them in the name of the king and his one true advisor. The trio had had few run-ins with him, but they had never been able to punish him for the wrongs he had done to them.

    "Well, we are peasants. We cannot survive by ourselves," Quil said.

    "So we make noble allies?" Bonnie asked. "You think the nobles are interested in being your equal?"

    "I thought you said you were not a peasant," Buckle asked, turning to his sister and sweeping his curly hair from his face.

    "Zip it, Buckle, not now," Bonnie said, heatedly.

    "I don''t want noble allies. That would be stupid," Quil said. "I want their money. We should all go for their money. Or treasures." His voice became lower at the mention of ''treasure''.

    The three crowded around him.

    "Did you say treasure?" Buckle asked, remembering the knight they had tricked. He was going to find something greater than treasure for the king. What could be greater than treasure if not more treasure?

    "Tell us, Quil. What treasure?" Tum asked.

    "Is there something you know that we don''t know?"

    "Of course," Quil said. "I know a lot of things that you don''t.

    "I highly doubt that," Bonnie rejoined.

    "Tell us about the treasure, Quil," Tum urged.

    Quil looked undecided for a while. They were at an opening that served as a window, looking at the city of Mora.

    "I don''t think you lot should know. It is dangerous," Quil said.

    "You can trust us with danger. You know that," Bonnie said.

    "Yeah, you can totally trust us," Buckle said.

    "I don''t know. What do you think about the struggle for liberation?" Quil asked.

 Quils Big Idea

    "I don''t know. What do you think about the struggle for liberation?" Quil asked.

    The three paused. The question looked like a trick question, and Bonnie knew that she had to think clearly. Buckle was about to speak, but she put her hand over his mouth, stopping him. Tum remained silent. He was of the same spirit as Bonnie.

    "We are peasants by birth," Bonnie said.

    "Where does that put you in this struggle?" Quil asked.

    "Fighting for our lives, I think," Bonnie said.

    "What if you don''t have to fight for your lives? What if you have to fight for something more important than you are? Something like the liberation?" Quil asked.

    "Wait a minute," Tum said. "Just hold it right there. You want us to be fighters for the liberation? We should be running for our lives. You should be running for your life."

    "Tum is right. We have the knight''s money. We should leave before the rebellion boils over," Buckle said.

    "Where will you run to? The royal army would be upon you if you go to the peasants'' land," Quil said.

    "Then we keep going. We can get to faraway lands and away from all the trouble."

    "You don''t think you would be caught by a slave master and made a slave?" Quil asked. "What about cannibals? What about people that would just kill you for fun?"

    "We can protect ourselves," Buckle said.

    "He is right," Bonnie said.

    "What?" Tum and Buckle turned around to look at her. They both wore the same confusion on their faces.

    "He is right. I mean, how long will the money take us?" she asked.

    "Far away from here," Tum said.

    "Then? What would we do next?" Bonnie asked.

    "We will find something," Buckle replied.

    "Nobody knows us outside of this city. Nobody would be willing to trust us with their work as we would be complete strangers in lands we do not know and have never been to before. Not to talk of the dangers that would all over us in our journey."

    "What do you think we should do then?" Tum asked.

    "Quil?" Bonnie turned to the eldest in the room.

    "All you have to do is steal a map from the palace," Quil replied.

    "The palace? Are you crazy?" Tum asked.

    "We have never entered the palace before," Buckle said. "We have no business going there."

    "Yet you want to traverse the dangerous terrains outside the safe kingdom of Kora?" Quil asked.

    "That is a different thing," Tum argued.

    "All you have to do is steal the map. It will show you where the treasure is. Many peasants have pooled resources together. The three of you are going to be very rich after stealing the map. The peasants would make sure of that."

    "The peasants?" Bonnie asked. She did not look convinced. In fact, she looked like she was thinking about changing her mind.

    "Yes, come," Quil said and led them to a part of the room.

    He knocked on the wall till he heard a hollow sound. Before their eyes, he pulled a part of the wall out, revealing a hollow.

    "See," he said.

    The three crowded around the hole and were met with the glittering and shimmering of precious stones.

    "Whoa," Buckle exclaimed.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    "Where did you get all of this?" Bonnie asked.

    Tum was struck dumb and continued staring even as Quil pulled a handful of the stones before closing up the hole. The older youth turned to them and outstretched his hand to Bonnie with the stones.

    "What is this?" Tum finally asked.

    "Your first payment. If you steal the map, more awaits you. See? You will never be hungry again," Quil said.

    "Where did you get this from?" Bonnie asked again.

    "You don''t need to know. The only thing you need to do is to steal the map from the palace for the liberation."

    "That will be dangerous," Buckle said.

    "Not as dangerous as this place would get if the royals continue clamping down on the peasants. Make haste while the sun shines."

    **

    Shear was back at the palace, in his chambers, sitting and facing the fireplace. There were fewer things a person could wish for than superpowers. As he stared into the flames, he wished he could make the flames do his bidding. He had often wondered how it would be to send flames after people he did not like. It would be interesting to see what peasants would think of his power. With a wave, he would send them scampering from wherever they were coming from. The rebellion would be done before it could even start. He would roast a few to make the others fall in line. Roasting the king alive would be his pleasure. He would roast him in public and make the people watch. Fear would be the foundation upon which his own kingdom would be built.

    It was for this reason that he wanted the crystal sword. It would give him the power he wanted to quench the uprising and overthrow the king. But the thieves he had been sending to recover the squad were disappointing. They died before they could get to the sword. Apparently, they were not the only people who were interested in this sword. Others have gone for the sword too, and the resulting conflict meant Sheer still was not in possession of the crystal sword.

    Someone knocked at the door of his chambers.

    "What?" he barked. He was already red in face from thinking too much about the failures he had assigned with such an important task. He did not know when his thought moved from the appreciation of a superpower that he did not have to the annoyance his missing powers brought him. If only he had the crystal sword, the realm would bow to him. He would not stop at the suppression of the peasants. He would move the kingdom farther into other lands and conquer them for himself. The royals would bow to him and swear their allegiance to him or else he would have them killed.

    "My lord, you have a message," one of the servant boys said. He was still standing outside the door.

    "Come in," the advisor said, trying to regain his composure.

    The door was pushed open and the boy walked inside carrying a scroll that was tied and sealed by the police department. He knelt and stretched out his hands to the sitting advisor. Sheer took the scroll and waved the boy away. When he was sure the boy had left, he broke the seal and rolled open the note.

    It was written in neat handwriting, perhaps the only thing about the policeman he had on the job to find great thieves for him that was successful. The priest he had visited and threatened was just another type of idiot. They were smeared with failure, and they, in turn, smeared him with it.

    Sheer looked at the note, a frown forming on his face as his eyes went through the content. It was more of the same nonsense. The pastor and the police was not helping his cause. It sucked that he had to keep it low-key and away from the king, so he had limited means to punish the ones who were disappointing him.

    He flung the note into the fire and looked around angrily. He was alone, so there was no one to witness his tantrum.

    "Stupid, stupid people," he complained. "What does it take to find a good thief that would get a goddamned crystal sword? Just one sword, damn it! Not a heavy bag of treasures."

    He watched the paper bend over in the flames, burning and dying, and he wished the same thing upon the people making him think too much.

    "I will have to visit the prison myself," he said finally. It was the only other option left to him. He would read their history, get in touch with their past lives. If he knew exactly who they were, it would be easy for him to find his thief, the one that would break into wherever this sword was hidden and bring it for him. That was the much he could do. He could not steal the sword himself. He was skilled in the art of combat, lessons which he engaged in secretly and away from the king''s intrusive gaze.

    He waited till the sun was down, drabbed himself in another robe, and set out for the policeman''s post. The police chief would still be at his post now, but the advisor did not care. He had the king''s ring, the mark of royalty. There was no door he had tried to open with the key that ever remained shut.

    He got on a horse and set off for the prison yard. It was right behind the police station. There, he would meet men who would find a way to get the sword to him. He knew it was dangerous what he was doing, but it had to be done. There was the fear that the men could get the sword and try to claim it for their own. They had no royal blood, so it would be close to impossible, but not impossible.

    Through the gates of the palace, the advisor snuck past. He took the back gate where he saw the man he had placed there keeping watch. His name was Saunders, and Saunders could not wait for when Sheer would get on the throne. Of course, Sheer was not mad enough to tell him what he was trying to do, but Saunders often thought about it.

    The streets were still filled with people who wanted to sell their wares at night. The horse trotted past the street urchins, moving slowly as it headed towards the prison. The dungeons were at the outskirts of the city as if the prisoners were not human enough to live among others.

    The police hall was not filled to the brim with policemen as was usually the case during the daytime, but Sheer had never been here, so he would not know. He walked up to the first man in the place.

    "Where is the chief?" he asked.

    "Does he know that you are coming?" the man asked.

    "No one knows that I''m coming," Sheer replied. "I come when I want."

    "Excuse me. Who are you?" the man asked.

    "Sheer, the king''s advisor."

 Sheer and the Thief

    The first man came before Sheer. He had the rough face of someone who had seen rough days, one who had passed through dangers and was still standing. Sheer immediately took a liking to him without even knowing his name. There was a scar running down from one part of his face, from the brows to his nose.

    "What are you accused of?" Sheer asked.

    "Who are you?" the man asked, looking at Sheer impatiently and with suspicion.

    "Someone that can change your life," Sheer replied.

    The policeman who had dragged the prisoner out slapped him over the head.

    "Shut up!" the man growled.

    Pathetic idiot, Sheer thought irritably. The fool policeman was always trying to seek his favor by working too hard. He waved at the policeman dismissively, and the man walked away.

    "You speak to the advisor of the king," Sheer said. "See, I can let you out of this place with a snap of my fingers."

    "How do I know you are what you say you are?" the man asked.

    Sheer presented his forefinger before the prisoner. There, the royal signet ring of the king''s advisor sat. The man pulled back with a gasp. He regarded the man gravely.

    "What are you doing here?" he asked. "What do you want?"

    "Good, you are asking the right question," Sheer said. "What are you accused of?"

    "I stole a chest of diamonds from the house of Donne."

    "The house of Donne," Sheer said admiringly. It was the most guarded house apart from the palace. Only a few had managed to break into the place, and this man before him had managed that.

    "You were caught?" Sheer asked.

    "Only because I spent too much diamonds."

    A thief and a fool, Sheer thought. He would not know what to do with the crystal sword. If he wanted to run away with it, he would be easily caught. Apparently, he knew how to break into places, but did not know how to keep himself away from the spotlight. It was the kind of thing that Sheer needed.

    "Was that where you got the scar?" Sheer asked.

    "No. It was in another time, another place. I got away."

    "I see," Sheer said, deepening his voice. "How would you like your freedom?"

    "You¡­ you cannot possibly give me that."

    "I can. I can set you free. I can also find you wherever you go if you want to run away without keeping your end of our bargain."

    "What do you want?"

    "You have to steal a sword for me, a crystal sword," Sheer said.

    **

    After the king''s advisor left, Heron was alone with his own thoughts. He was thrust back into the cell where he had been kept for a long time. It was getting to two years now, all because he tried to live the rich life. He sighed, looking up at the ceiling.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

    The cell was enclosed completely. There was only one little window at the top covered with bars of iron. Even if he got the courage to, there was no way he could climb to that height to access the window. It was about ten feet high, letting in the barest of light into the room.

    Heron''s eyes were on the window while he wondered exactly why the king''s advisor wanted him to steal a sword. He could have asked him to steal any other thing: a box of diamonds, a box of gold bars, anything. But he wanted the sword. Maybe it was a magical sword. Who knows?

    What Heron knew well enough was that he wanted his freedom, and he would do anything to get it. If he managed to get outside these walls, this dungeon, he would be more careful.

    Footsteps sounded down the hallway, and he reclined into the wall while he kept his eyes and ears alert. The cell was dark and damp, and anyone opening the door would have to let his eyes get adjusted to the darkness inside before they could see him at the other end of the wall. He had often thought of how he would use this to his advantage and escape from this place, but the guards always came at the same time, always up to four at once. He could not fight them all.

    But this time, there was just a lone pair of footfalls coming down the hallway. Whoever it was stopped before his door and pushed open the slit in the door.

    "Heron," the guard said.

    Heron recognized the voice. The guard was the most spoiled in the place. He would do anything to get extra money, and Heron thought he would be better off being inside the cell with them rather than outside. He had no business guarding criminals when he was a criminal himself.

    Heron ignored him. He had seen the guard take men from the cells. He never saw them come back. The police chief was in the dark. Heron thought the old man knew what was going on till he heard the criminal outside explaining that the men were being taken for rehabilitation for the king. Which king would what criminals on rehabilitation in his palace? The old man agreed. Well, anything that had the king''s name on it here pretty much sold, anything.

    "Heron!" the guard called again.

    "What do you want?" Heron asked. The guard had come with the king''s advisor after all.

    "Tonight. Get ready," the policeman said.

    Again, the footfalls echoed in the hallway, but this time, they were receding. Heron stood up from where he was and started pacing the cell. There was room enough for him to move. There was no bed nor any seat there. A criminal who robbed a member of a royal family should not expect any kind of civil treatment. If his victims had their way, he would have been dead already.

    He remembered clearly how the robbery had gone, how he snuck into a wagon going to the royal house and sneaked out at night. From then on, it was easy. The guards were more alert to people coming in than people that were already inside the place. He pretended to be someone else a lot and had almost got caught.

    "Tonight," he murmured, wondering if he still had what it takes to sneak into a place to steal. He has been locked up for two years with no trial. If he stayed longer than that, the House of Donne could either forget him or send someone after him to take him out. Either way, it did not look good for him. This help from the king''s advisor was the only option he had to choose.

    "Hey! Hey!" someone called from the other cell.

    It was a young boy who just started stealing and had been dragged in the month before. He talked too much, and Heron had to listen to him since he had all the time in the world.

    "Go to sleep, boy," Heron said.

    "Take me with you," the boy pleaded.

    "I said go to sleep!" Heron barked. He was not in the mood to entertain the boy''s excesses now. He had not even sprouted a single stem of hair under his chin.

    It saddened Heron and maddened him as well. He had heard of the impending clash between the peasants and the royals, and while he tried to stay away from both sides, he could not help but feel pity for the peasants. Anyway, was that not why he robbed the rich and gave to the poor? He was the poor. He got everything and he was grateful to himself.

    People, seeing the scar that ran down the side of Heron''s face would dismiss him as hardhearted, but he was not. If anything, he has the softest heart he had ever seen. A heart, so soft it led to his getting caught.

    "Well, how are you going to survive outside?" The boy asked.

    Heron had forgotten his name. He tried to remember, so his next threat would be personal, but the threat evaded his mind, ran around the periphery, and disappeared.

    "Now you are thinking," the boy said, interpreting his silence as confusion. "I can help you. I have been in here for only one month."

    "Shut up!"

    "You have to give me an answer quickly."

    "You are not going anywhere," Heron said.

    The boy was struck silent by the harshness of Heron''s tone and the finality in his response. Another prisoner chuckled in his cell. Another one mocked the boy.

    Heron laid on the hard floor, feeling miserable.

 The Worst Infiltration Ever

    The palace guards stood outside the gate, standing watch. There were about four of them, all tall and formidable-looking.

    From where the three friends hid and watched, they could see the guards clearly. The king meant business. As the news of the map was being spread through the kingdom, he had taken measures to protect the palace from thieves such as themselves.

    Tum was thinking fast. There usually two guards at the gate, but now, they were doubled. It meant the map was very valuable. They could even steal it and sell it off to the highest bidder, a risky venture. Almost as if Buckle could read his mind, Buckle spoke.

    "Must be something, this map," he said.

    "I have never seen four guards in front of the palace gate," Bonnie said. "Not to talk of the ones inside. It is like they are expecting to be attacked."

    "Peasants," Buckle said.

    The others nodded at this insight. They had almost forgotten why they were there in the first place. The war between the royals and the peasants was coming to a head soon, and the royals did not want to be caught off-guard.

    "We need a distraction," Bonnie said, watching the guards, her brows pulled together in a frown.

    It was twilight, so Tum could see a part of her face.

    "How do we get that?" Tum asked.

    "We pay for it."

    "Wait, from our money?" Buckle asked.

    "Do you want to get in or not?" Bonnie asked.

    Of course, who wouldn''t want to get in? There was the map to the crystal sword at the other side of the gate, and precious stones awaited them at Quil''s place.

    The guards at the gate first saw a dwarf walk up to them. He was small and seemingly harmless, and they felt they could use him to relieve themselves of the tension gathering around the palace.

    "Who do we have here?" The first guard asked, moving close to the dwarf.

    "How would you like to have me?" the dwarf asked.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    The guards could not help themselves and started laughing boisterously.

    "Are you laughing at me?" the dwarf asked.

    Before the guards'' eyes, more dwarves appeared, poised for a fight at the perceived insult their member had received.

    "Okay, enough of this," The first guard said, but fear was beginning to creep into his voice.

    The belief ran deep all over Kora about the dwarves'' ability to speak to the devil and place curses on whoever insulted them. In Kora, dwarves were left alone even when they were at fault.

    Amid the chaos unraveling, three figures crept around the back of the guards and through the gates into the palace.

    Once they were inside, Tum turned back to the gate to hear voices rising as the guards and the dwarves went at each other. They had not begun fighting yet, but the distraction was enough for the three of them.

    "What did you tell the dwarves?" Tum asked.

    "You don''t call them dwarves," Bonnie said as they walked along the hallway.

    "What do you call them?" Buckle asked.

    "Their names," Bonnie replied.

    "Well, what did you tell them?" Tum asked.

    "You don''t want to know," Bonnie replied.

    The hallway where they walked along had torch holders that would cost an arm and a leg in the market that Buckle started thinking of swiping one to take along with him to the market. Bonnie was worried that someone could come around the hallway at any moment and find them standing there, in the middle of busts and expensive statues, intricate carvings made into the wall, and golden torch holders, whose use Buckle could not quite understand.

    Why use gold to make a torch holder? He wondered. But the royals and their ways were one thing that Buckle had never understood since he was born. All he wanted was a simple life, one where he could go out to the fields and roll over the ground with children and his wife, one where he could drink at the marketplace and not be judged for it.

    "We have to blend in," Bonnie said, stating the obvious.

    "Why? We are already inside the palace?" Buckle asked.

    Bonnie gritted her teeth.

    Just then, they heard voices coming around the hallway. In front of them, there was a turn to the left, and it was from this direction that they heard the voices.

    "Quick, we have to hide," Bonnie exclaimed.

    Tum was instantly thrown into panic. His eyes flew from one door to the other before he dashed to one of them. He tried it and discovered that it was locked from the inside. The voices coming around the hallway had gotten louder, which meant the people were nearer.

    When Tum tried another door, he was relieved to see it open. Without thinking and before Bonnie could say anything, he pushed through the door. Luckily, it was an empty room. Bonnie and Buckle flew into the room after him and they shut the door.

    Bonnie left a crack open and peered through it till the cause of their panic came around. It was the king walking down the hallway accompanied by a vast number of guards and handmaidens. Bonnie observed the clothes on the servants'' bodies and realized they would have been caught if they had remained outside. Their tattered and worn-out clothes screamed peasants. The servants looked richer than they would ever be.

    There was a girl behind. It was Tum that pointed her out.

    "Who is she?" he whispered, a little too loud for Bonnie''s comfort. The latter had not even noticed when he came up behind her.

    "Shhhh," she said harshly.

    The girl paused and turned towards the door.

 Please Let This Work

    The girl paused and turned towards the door. They drew back in fear of being found. The girl wore a radiant white gown that swept the ground and had the same face as the king, only younger. She had the crown of a princess on her head, and her face radiated beauty the same way her gown did.

    Tum swallowed, watching the girl. After looking at the door for some time, the girl turned and hurried towards the entourage.

    Bonnie and Tum breathed out quickly. They had been holding their breath, afraid that the girl would be convinced there were people behind the door once they breathed out.

    "You could have given us away," Bonnie cried, turning to Tum.

    Tum blanched white. "My mistake," he said.

    "Could you not hold your ogling till we are safe outside?"

    "Will I see her outside?" Tum asked. "She is a princess. She does not go out."

    "Hey, guys, come over here," Buckle called.

    The two turned towards Buckle. For the first time since they came to seek refuge in the room, they realized the room was a place where armors were kept. They were the knights'' armors by the side and the ordinary soldiers'' armor, breastplate, body shield, shield, sword, sheath. Buckle was standing before the windows, staring with his mouth open.

    Tum and Bonnie walked into the room to look at the armors.

    "Wow," Tum said, staring in awe at all the knight armor. He had always wanted to become something close to the royalty even though he did not know exactly why he was attracted to these things. Only recently had he begun to see for himself that his attraction was for selfish reasons. He wanted to be known and celebrated. Bonnie, on the other hand, had the orphans back at the home they had come from in mind. She was the one who made sure they had enough to give to the children who had become like brothers and sisters to them.

    "We can hide in these," Tum said.

    A crazy light lit up Bonnie''s eyes. "Yes. We can blend in now."

    They jumped into dressing themselves up in the armor. There were other dresses there and Bonnie felt the armor was cumbersome after she tried some on. They were all too big for her.

    Finally, they were dressed up. Tum in a knight''s armor, being the tallest of them all. The armor was well-fitted even though he had a lanky body. Everything sat well on him. Be wondered if the armor could protect him against a bullet.

    Buckle found a smaller armor and forced himself into it although the knight''s armor was more fashionable. But it appeared too big on him, and Bonnie felt he could be easily discovered.

    Bonnie''s dress was made with the finest embroidery, hand-stitched and the pink gown swept the floor just like the princess'' gown.

    "You look like the princess," Tum said.

    "Forget about the princess," Bonnie said irritably. "We have to find the map."

    They got out of the room after looking up and down the hallway, and were about to move when¡­

    "Aha! I knew it!" someone exclaimed, coming quickly around the corner.

    It was the princess. The three of them turned quickly towards the exit to run, but Tum and Buckle discovered that the armor was too heavy for them. Bonnie realized the gown was too bulky to run in it.

    "I heard you the first moment I passed here, good sir," the princess continued. "Avoiding the crowd, are you?''

    Tum, Bonnie, and Buckle were frozen with their backs to the princess. Then Tum had a bright idea when he heard ''good sir''. They were in royal armor covering their peasant clothes. There was no way they could be taken as peasants now. Slowly he started turning.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    "What are you doing?" Buckle asked.

    "Trust me," Tum whispered to Buckle.

    "Yes, yes, the crowd," Tum said. He was summoning his street wisdom, all of which he had gathered while staying out in the streets of Kora with his friends, selling one commodity or the other. "I like avoiding them," he continued. "Too rowdy for my liking. You are not one for the crowd, are you?"

    "What are you doing here, good sir?" the princess asked.

    Tum smiled at her. "Can''t you see?"

    "See what?"

    Bonnie and Buckle slowly turned. Bonnie kept a straight face while she wondered if it would not be best to knock the girl out and hide her somewhere.

    "I was coming to see the king, then I saw the crowd with him."

    "What''s your name, sire?"

    "Greg," Tum said quickly without thinking about it. "Sir Greg."

    "My brother did not make mention of You, Sir Greg."

    "Good. We wanted to keep it a secret."

    "Oh, that was why you hid?"

    "Exactly."

    The girls'' eyes were on Bonnie and Buckle and Tim knew he had to think fast.

    "This is Vinnie, my royal clothes maker, and this is my servant, Hardy," Tim said quickly.

    The princess nodded with a little nod of her head.

    "I should take you to my brother''s waiting chambers then, and make sure no one joins you till he comes," the princess said.

    Again, Bonnie thought of simply knocking the princess out so they could go in search of the map and get out of this place, but she decided against it. It would attract too much attention if the princess was suddenly missing. The first people that would be detained would be the newcomers. If the guards later found the princess where she was knocked out, then she would expose them completely.

    They followed the princess as she led the way to the chambers that they knew nothing about. She pushed open a door and waved them in.

    The room was wide and there was a table in the center. On the table were goblets and a jug of wine waiting for them as if the princess knew they were coming.

    "Make yourself comfortable while I go fetch my brother," she said.

    She was out through the door before she finished talking.

    "Well, this place is beautiful," Buckle said.

    "This is madness," Bonnie said. She was not interested in the affluence on display, the glittering seats, the mahogany table, the polished wood, the expensive statues, the intricate designs. Her eyes were on Tum.

    "Do you realized what you have just done?" she asked him.

    "I saved us some trouble.

    "You think? We are supposed to act like we are royalty. I am supposed to know how to sew. I hate sewing."

    "Well, you had some lessons at the orphanage."

    "I don''t remember a single thing."

    "I am not your servant," Buckle said, coming up to stare Tum angrily in the face.

    "You will have to be till we get the map."

    "The map, the map. What is in this stupid map?" Bonnie asked angrily.

    "You heard Quil. The map leads to the crystal sword, the sword¡­"

    "I have heard all of that nonsense. How sure are we that they are telling the truth?"

    "We sure do need the pay," Tum said.

    "Is there anything in your life that is not about payment?" Bonnie asked.

    "You," Tim replied without thinking. "You and Buckle."

    The answer was unexpected and struck Bonnie dumb. She found one of the seats and settled into it. Buckle kept moving around the room, peering into the faces of the statues.

    The door to the chambers opened, pulling them all out of their discussion and private observations.

    "Sir Greg," the king said walking into the chambers. Two guards followed him in.

    Bonnie was even more surprised. The king was younger than she had thought he would look. Why? He was just a boy, and he seemed lost as well.

    Tum did a little bow, which was as awkward as it was funny, but the king did not seem to mind.

    "My sister told me you came on an important mission," the king said.

    "And a secret one too," Bonnie quickly added.

    The king looked confused. His gaze moved from Tum to Bonnie, then back to Tum.

    "Pardon me, your grace," Tum said quickly. "My royal dressmaker, Vinnie, and my servant." He could not remember the name he gave Buckle. He swallowed instead.

    "She seems to be at liberty here," the king commented.

    "I err¡­ let my household helps express their opinions," Tum fibbed. "Sometimes, they make me see things I would not even have been able to see."

    "Admirable," the king noted and sank into a seat. The three friends followed the king''s lead.

    Tum stared at the guards uneasily. They stood like the statues Buckle had been studying, silent like walls. His eyes settled back down in the king. He looked to be his age mate, and Tum decided he could impress upon the king. What does he know? He has probably been locked up in the palace for most of his life, Tum thought.

    He had heard the news of the old king''s death with great happiness and hoped this one would not be like him. He overtaxed the people and made the peasants sweat to use their own lands.

    "My deepest, sincerest condolence for the death of your father," Tum said, feeling like an impostor, but enjoying it.

    "My father died almost a year ago¡­" the king stated.

    "I know. My sincerest apologies for coming at this time, but you see, your grace, I was on the verge of death myself."

    Tum wondered if he had overdone it and cringes inwardly.

    "The time is past," the king said, waving the discussion away dismissively. "But what brings you here, Sir Greg? Sir Greg of¡­"

    "Homer," Tum said quickly.

    "Homer? I have never heard of such a house," the king said, then turned to the guards. "How about you? Have you heard of that name?"

    The two guards shook their heads. Spoke up quickly.

    "We are a shy lot. Your daughter would attest to this. My people are in hiding until now."

    "Until now?"

    "Yes. We are in search of a secret map."

 A Chance For a New Life

    "Yes. We are in search of a secret map." The words just came out before Tum could think of a better way to put it.

    Bonnie froze again. A look at her face and Tum knew she must be thinking of him as belonging to a special breed of idiots. Now that he had let the secret of their coming here into the open, the king might chase them out of his palace or send them to the mines, or worse still, lock them up in dungeons with no hope of escape.

    "Why do you want the map?" The king asked, suddenly growing defensive.

    "Treasure," Bonny quickly said. "We heard about the treasure and some sword, but we have his sword already. Maybe we can sell the sword."

    "I will buy it," the king said. "You can name your price. I will buy the sword if you get it."

    "Why?" Tum asked, pretending.

    "There are things you do not need to know," the king said. "I will give you the map. All I want is the sword."

    "What is it about this sword?"

    "Something that should make my advisor find the sword and hand it to me. The peasants are planning to attack us, and all I want is peace. With this sword, everybody will listen to me, peasants and royals alike," the king said.

    "You definitely need the sword then," Tum said, turning around to look at Bonnie.

    "Get us some wine," the king barked.

    Someone dashed into the room, carrying a tray of goblets and wine, as if he had been standing there, waiting for the king''s call. The king waved at the other goblets and wine in the jug, and the servant cleared the old wine. He was back in no time, pouring drinks into the three friends'' cups and that of the king. Tum was already wishing he was the king. The king was young, but he carried himself with such regal grace, and would never raise his voice above a certain decibel.

    After throwing a cup of wine down his throat, the king turned towards Tum.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    "My advisor does not seem to care. Of course, he lies that he has sent men after it, but I am sure he hasn''t. Tell me, what does it take to secure a crystal sword from a place where no one lives?"

    "Maybe some things live there," Buckle said.

    "I don''t believe that," the king replied. "I can''t believe that. The sword is my only hope to keep the kingdom together."

    "We will find the sword for you," Tum suddenly said without consulting his friends. They could not object, not in front of the king.

    "I would be extremely grateful," the king replied, standing up.

    "Please, provide Sir Greg with whatever he desires. Fair maidens to massage the soreness out of his muscles. Men to please his seamstress. You can get more drinks for his servant," the king instructed one of the guards.

    He walked towards the door as he stood up from his seat.

    "You can make this place your own, Sir Greg. Perhaps tomorrow, I will present the map to you, so you may locate the sword. If you find treasures other than the sword, they will belong to you. And even after that, the crown would be in your debt. You will have lands and titles as much as you want."

    With that, the king walked out through the door, leaving one of the guards behind. The guard stood still, an unmoving statue. His presence caused the trio great discomfort.

    "Hey, can you get us what the king has for us?" Bonnie asked the guard in a bid to dismiss him.

    "What would that be?" the guard asked.

    Buckle was shocked to hear him speak, having already concluded that the guards were dumb.

    "Everything," Bonnie replied. "Take your time."

    The guard turned and walked out of the room.

    "A spy, huh?" Bonnie asked, turning to Tum.

    "We have to leave," Buckle said, fidgeting.

    "What is wrong with you, Buckle?" Bonnie asked.

    "Don''t you see what is wrong?" Buckle asked, getting more and more agitated. "We are getting into the middle of this. We need to be outside of it."

    "Didn''t you think of that when we agree to help Quil?" Tum asked.

    "Well, who are we helping now? Quil or the young, well-mannered king? And don''t think I have not seen how well you have warmed up to him, how you are enjoying a life that does not belong to you. Even you, Bonnie. I did not expect this of you."

    "Well, we have suffered a lot in this life. How about we relax and enjoy this royal life?" Bonnie asked.

    "I don''t want anything to do with it," Buckle insisted. "My life was perfect the way it was."

    "Well, mine wasn''t. I dressed like a boy half the time and in tattered clothes. No one really knew what I looked like."

    "Don''t you think you are being selfish, Buckle?" Tum asked. "You are only thinking about yourself. What about Bonnie? What about me?"

    Buckle became quiet as he thought of a rejoinder. "What about Quil?" he asked immediately he thought of it.

    "Everything will be sorted out in the end, but for now, let us relax and enjoy this life."

    Buckle had nothing else to say. He watched them glumly. Two against one. There was no way he could win.

 Second Thoughts From the First

    "What do you think of our guests?" Harodin asked his sister.

    "I think nothing of them, your grace."

    They were in the king''s chambers with only the family guards standing around near the walls. They were so still that they appeared to Harodin and Meredith his sister as though they had become part of the wall. The king had not needed guards to fight for his life in the past. His father had not either. Sometimes, he wondered what their usefulness was, but Meredith would not let him get rid of the royal guards.

    "Drop the flattering act. I might be the king, but I am also your brother."

    "They seem genuine, your gr¡­"

    "One more grace and I swear I would sell you off to the royal houses in kingdoms far, far away from here."

    "Are we not supposed to be at war with those kingdoms according to Sheer, your royal advisor?" Meredith asked.

    "There would be no war for as long as I can prevent it."

    "Not even against the peasants whom Sheer hates so much?"

    "Sir Greg will help me secure the crystal sword. With it, I would be able to control the minds of the people. The peasants would end their rebellion."This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    "At just a wave of your magic sword?"

    "There is nothing else I know I can do."

    "You could send Sheer out of the palace. You give him too much power that the people are beginning to wonder who, actually, the king of Kora is."

    "I cannot just do that. He was father''s loyal advisor when we were but children."

    "You are not father. You have to find your way. Sheer wants the crown for himself."

    "How dare you?!"

    "If I don''t tell you, no one else will. You are so blind that you cannot see it either."

    "He wouldn''t dare."

    "He tells you what to do, and you think he would not dare take your crown? Brother, you amaze me."

    "Sheer is my advisor. Nothing more."

    "You sound like you are trying to convince yourself."

    "I am not!"

    "Beware, brother, beware. Sheer might be the death of us."

    "Then you do not really know him. Father told me his story about when we were little and assassins attacked the kingdom. Sheer took us, you and me, to safety, while father, together with the royal guards fought the attackers off."

    "Father told you this story?"

    "Father, Sheer, it does not matter."

    "He really does have his claws inside of you."

    "He does not. Why do you hate him so much?"

    "I have seen how he speaks to you. I have seen how he spoke to father shortly before father''s death. You would know he was planning something if you looked closer. I see the same look in his eyes these days when he looks at you."

    "Sheer would not harm us," Harodin insisted.

    "You would be stupid to believe that. Men would do anything for power."

    Meredith stood from the king''s table and made her way towards the door.

    "Where are you going, sister?"

    "The garden. There is nothing here except the stuffy presence of Sheer ad my blind brother."

    "Be careful. I don''t want you sneaking into the city¡­"

    "¡­or I could be killed, raped, or kidnapped. I know the story. You don''t realize the people do not revere you because of what Sheer has been doing to them?"

    She banged the door on her way out, and the king was left holding his head in his hands.

 Do I... Love you?

    Tum found himself walking down a pathway towards the river and the garden in the palace. It was something that he loved doing: exploring wherever he went, and the palace was not an exception.

    The king had provided them with clothes from the royal wardrobe when Tum lied about his clothes being stolen on the way. Bonnie was tasked with sewing him more clothes, but he knew well enough that that was not going to happen.

    With his hands inside the pocket of the robe that the king had so graciously lent him, he walked along the pathway, hoping to find a quiet place by the river where he could sit still and think. The world was swirling before his eyes, and it was getting more and more difficult to engage in royal conversation.

    At first, they had come along on this mission because it provided them succor from the jobs they were bound to lose. They had security because Quil would pay them, then the king got involved. Then Buckle accused both of them of being selfish.

    If they managed to get their hands on the sword, what would they do with it? Would they give it to Quil or would they just hand it over to the king? The thoughts troubled his conscience.

    He got to the end of the maze and found himself staring into the clearest body of water he had ever seen. It was a glittering river under the morning Sun. As he sat down beside the river and let his naked legs feel the cold massage of the water, he wondered how Bonnie was handling Buckle. Buckle had always been the emotional one, the one who thought more with his heart than his head.

    Right now, his heart was with the peasants. Bonnie just wanted to see the other side of him. As for him, he did not know what he wants. Maybe he wanted adventure, but every time he thought about the sword, Quil''s face would appear in his mind.

    He heard footsteps behind him and turned quickly. The princess was walking down the pathway. Tum froze when he saw her. She had on a flowing gown that accentuated her shape. She had nothing on the gown, but it was probably because she was in the palace, and because the overcoat was going out of fashion. He turned back to the river and pretended he had heard nothing. The princess had not seen him yet, but she would.

    When he first started down the pathway, lined by the side with flower hedges, he never thought that anyone would be interested in seeing where it led to. The maze was intricate and tiring. He himself had been so deep in thought that he did not even know when he got to the end of the maze.

    "You found the end of the maze," the princess''s soft voice fell on his ears.

    He continued staring into the river. "I guess I was drawn here," he replied.

    The princess flopped down beside him. He was concerned about her white dress and quickly turned to see that she did not care. She had a wondering look in her eyes as she stared at the river and not at him. They were behaving like people who had been drawn here by the spell of the river rather than by their own volition. He looked away.

    "You like the silence then?" the girl asked.

    Tum summoned the courage to look her way again. She was still staring into the river. Her facial features were clearly defined. Her nose was long and pointed; her jaw jutted out, clearly defined; her lips¡­ Tum pulled his eyes off her face.

    Adventure and fantasies made him mad. They were the reasons he was here in the first place, and he knew that the knot would keep getting tighter, till he and his friends would need to run away from here. Sir Greg, he thought, cringing at the name he had given himself. It was the first name that had come to his head. He did not know why.

    "Not really," Tum said. "I love listening to nature. It is never silent here. The birds sing, the river murmurs, the cricket calls. As he spoke, he was lost in the charm of the moment, looking around him. The trees formed a canopy over his head, but they did not entirely block out the stare of the morning sun from the garden. Through the space between the trees, the sun made love to the river, producing glitter as an offspring.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    "You speak like a poet," the princess said.

    Tum turned to her. "Have you listened to the noise outside the palace?"

    "I never go outside the palace."

    "Well, there is a woman who pays kids to sell her wares. She does not pay them much, but they are okay with that."

    "Really?"

    "Yes. They sing and chatter and joke with other traders. Always, there is something to say, one adventure or the other. On days when they feel brave, they make jokes of royal knights strutting proudly up and down."

    "Why would they do that?"

    "Because they have their whole world out there, in front of them. What is there not to do? They are not afraid of embarrassing themselves? They do not have expensive garments on. They are free."

    "You speak with a longing."

    "Yes. Royalty is a burden."

    "Burden?"

    Tum recovered from his daydream about the outside world. He knew he had to say something intelligent or he would be caught and the princess would begin to suspect him.

    "My father died when I was young."

    "You still look young, sir."

    "Call me Greg."

    The princess gasped. "I cannot. It is against¡­"

    "Norms set down by people like you and me."

    "You don''t behave like a knight. You have little regard for rules."

    "Useless rules. The rules in my heart are the rules of nature. Listen."

    Silence fell on both of them, but it was magical, not the oppressive silence where no sound is heard. This silence brought the song of the birds closer to their ears. The princess could hear the river whispering to her.

    Her eyes were on Tum while she wondered what kind of a knight he was. He was certainly different from the rest. The way he spoke, the way he threw the rules out of the window. They were not supposed to be here together for this length of time, but that was on her. His voice had cast a spell on her, one that bound her.

    How did he know too much when he looked so young? How did he know about the traders in the city? And these kids he spoke about, they must be peasants, yet he did not speak about them with the same agitation that she had seen royals speaking about the stubborn, dirty peasants. He was certainly different.

    When Tum towards her, she realized the color of his eyes was light brown. The brown was so light and drew her in. She found herself leaning towards him before he turned away. She turned away too, feeling a little embarrassed.

    "You have not asked for my name yet," the princess asked. She felt offended, like she meant nothing to this strange knight whose hand was reaching into her heart and grappling for it with her.

    "I don''t need to," he replied.

    "You don''t need to?"

    "Yes. When I hear the bird sing, I remember what your voice sounds like. When I see the river flowing, I remember you are graceful just the way the river flows. When I see the sun smile, I remember I will see you smile one day."

    "How can you be so sure?"

    "Your name is nature. That is the only beauty there is."

    The princess was blushing so much now that her cheeks resembled roses. She pulled her eyes away from the knight, so he would not see her blushing, but it was already too late.

    "You have cheeks of roses, nature," he said.

    "You cannot keep calling me nature."

    "Why? I call you nature because she is easier to woo. You just have to stare in wonder."

    He stared at her and wondered what had gotten into him. He had seen men profess their love for their love interest and found all of it cringe-worthy, yet here he was doing the exact same thing. Buckle would consider him a fool. Bonnie would think that he has a plan. He had none. He was just going with the flow of things the way he usually did.

    "Meredith," she said, "because I would love for you to know it."

    "Meredith," he said in wonder.

    "Where did you learn to speak that way?"

    "In the streets where little matters more than love and life."

    "You seem to love the peasants more than your own kind."

    "You should be in the streets to learn the way of your people. You would be surprised at what poetry they speak, how much alike we are."

    "What if there is a war between the peasants and the crown?"

    "That is why I am here, to prevent the war."

    Again, the silence fell on them, but this one came with a lot of questions. Meredith wondered if she could kiss the knight. He looked as young as she was, but she was not sure about that. This particular knight was full of surprises.

    She decided that Sheer would not like the knight at all. He would try to do everything within his power to keep him out of the palace. Sheer was one that played by the rules. His insistence on adherence to these rules was suspicious, almost as if he was the one that drafted these rules and wanted to force them on people.

    Their lips met while Meredith was still wondering about Sheer, and their kiss deepened. His hand went around to the back of her head. God, he could kiss. He took it slowly, nibbling at her lips, then sucking, then biting lightly. Her eyes were shut in ecstasy, and she did not realize that she was moaning.

    When he pulled away from her, his eyes sough to penetrate through her. She stood up quickly, shakily.

    "I have to go," she said, staggering. She almost fell into the river, but he was quick. He kept her from falling in and pulled her back.

    "I have to go see my brother," she repeated, unable to hold Tum''s gaze. Tum just stared at her, having lost his voice in the kiss.

    She disentangled herself from his hold and hurried up the pathway, her gown flowing gracefully behind her.

 But Dad, I Love Him!

    Sheer walked down the hallway, deep in thought. He had been away from the palace and the king''s side for too long that he had almost lost control of the events happening within the walls.

    Without his spies informing him of the arrival of the knight who now resided in the palace, he would not have known what was happening. He headed straight to the king''s chamber and knocked respectfully on the door.

    The king grunted from within the room before he gave his approval. Sheer swept in with a flourish and performed a bow before he looked directly into the eyes of the king.

    The king was sitting at the head of his table, doing what he had taken to in the past few weeks. An empty jug lay by the side while another one, filled with wine, was beside the king. The king looked away from him and poured the content of his goblet down his throat.

    "Your grace," he said.

    "You have been away for too long," Harodin said.

    "I beg your forgiveness, my grace."

    "What have you been up to?"

    "The sword, your grace. I am trying to secure the services of thieves who can steal this sword within the blink of an eye."

    "Did you find any?"

    "I found a few, my lord. The police chief will have them delivered to the palace today."

    "I have about the legend of this sword. Do you think anyone else would try to take it for themselves?"

    "Even if they did, they would not be able to wield it. It is only the king that can do that."

    Harodin smiled where he sat. "That means no one else except me can handle the sword."

    "Yes, your grace." As long as you are the king.

    "Good. My worries are gone."

    The king turned back to his drink.

    "Your grave, I am concerned with the presence of the strange knight in the palace. He could be anyone, anything."

    "He is called Sir Greg."

    "From a house, no one has ever heard of."

    "We don''t know the names of all the houses in the kingdom of Kora."

    "But someone must have heard something."Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

    "I am thinking!" Harodin barked. "I would appreciate it if you left me alone."

    "The knight would not leave your sister alone."

    "What?"

    Sheer''s last utterance got the king''s full attention.

    "Maybe I should just go. He is a knight and it would not¡­"

    "Speak! Right now!"

    Sheer cleared his throat and looked around the room as if he was finding a way to water down the heaviness of what he wanted to say. Then his eyes settled back on the king.

    "By the river, in the garden, the knight and the princess sat while the knight made advances at her."

    "Was she resisting?" Harodin asked.

    "No, it appears the knight has some sort of spell on your daughter."

    "Spell? I don''t think this is a matter I have to delve into."

    "You are the king."

    "It is her life."

    "What about alliances with other kingdoms? Are we going to throw that away on the altar of love?"

    "Alliances," the king said as if he was just hearing the word for the first time.

    "She should leave him be. It will not end well," Sheer whispered.

    "How did you know this? How did you see my sister and the knight?"

    "The birds you asked me to send out. They move around."

    "You can leave. I will talk to my sister."

    The advisor bowed again and turned to walk out. The young king could not help but see some sort of contempt in his conduct, but he dismissed it. The advisor probably thought he was not strong enough to handle his sister. He would show him that he knew exactly what to do with his sister.

    Outside, Meredith was about to knock on the door of the king''s chamber when Sheer pulled the door open and came outside. They paused for a while and stared at each other. In the exchange, there was no love lost.

    The princess stared at the advisor like he was the scum of the earth while the advisor looked at the girl with a lurking menace behind his eyes as if he was trying to send her a message: he would take over the crown and there was nothing she could do about it.

    The exchange of gazes lasted only seconds, but for Meredith, it felt like hours. The advisor bowed a little.

    "Princess," he said and walked away.

    Meredith looked after him, wondering what poison he had injected into her brother''s heart this time. As he turned into the next turn, Meredith pushed the door open. Her brother was still at the head of the table, gulping more wine.

    "I was about to send for you," Harodin said.

    "Well, I am here," Meredith replied. She settled into one of the seats and stared at her brother with concern. "Has your advisor ever told you that you are drinking too much?"

    "I am the king. I can do what I want."

    "That is the wine speaking. Anyone who has to say I am the king is no true king."

    "What did you say to me, sister?" Harodin asked as he struggled to get to his feet. He almost fell to the ground and had to hold the table as he settled back into his seat. "I know what you are doing with that boy knight."

    "Boy knight?" Meredith exclaimed, gasping. "That is not appropriate."

    "Neither is kissing him in the garden."

    Meredith now realized what the snake had told the king. She had forgotten that the king''s advisor had his spies all over the palace and the kingdom. She frowned defiantly. If she ever got one of those spies, she would beat him or her into giving up the other spies, then she would make them work for her.

    "Of what business is that to you, brother?" she asked.

    "You are the princess!" Harodin screamed. "You cannot just go about kissing the lips of every strange knight you see. You will get married for the good of the kingdom. It is the sacrifice that you have to make for our kingdom to have allies."

    "You sound just like Sheer and father. Are you not supposed to be different?"

    "You will not understand. But I need you to do what u ask you to."

    "I came here to talk to my brother¡­"

    "¡­and you met your king instead. Let the boy knight be. You are more than he would ever be."

    "I cannot believe this is coming from you, Harodin."

    "Your grace!" Harodin shouted, slamming his fist down on the table. "I am your grace!"

 Three Strikes And Im Not Out

    "We should be finding our way out of this place," Buckle said.

    Bonnie was lying on the bed in a robe, almost naked. She held a cup of wine with her delicate fingers as she watched Buckle unseeingly. It was the way she was when she became tired of Buckle''s incessant complaints and mischievous ways. Not to talk of the little-brained activities the boy involved himself in most of the time. Sometimes, she wondered if there was a mistake somewhere, and they were both lied to about being siblings.

    "You are not listening to me," Buckle said.

    "I don''t have to."

    "Where is Tum?"

    "He probably got tired of your yammering and ran away."

    "He''s had his eyes on the princess for some time," Buckle complained. "We should not be doing this."

    Bonnie looked around the room. There was no one in their apartment, nor one guard, but she had seen the captain of the guard standing outside their door once or twice, a tall, strong-looking woman whom she had caught buckle ogling.

    "What about the captain of the guards?"

    "The captain?"

    "The lady that was outside our door."

    "Oh. What about her?"

    "I have seen the way you look at her."

    "You are not going to detract me. I will not stop speaking about the folly of what we are doing. We should be going away from here. We should be far away from here."

    The door opened at that moment, and Tum walked into the chambers, followed by the captain. Buckle froze. The captain had long lashes and piercing eyes. She was not big or small, but she walked with the agility and alertness of a cat.

    "Can you please, not go out without a guard?" the captain was begging Tum. "I have been specifically instructed by the king to look after you."

    "I am a knight," Tum boasted. "Have you heard of a knight with a bodyguard?"

    "The king would not want any harm to come to you or your people..."

    "And no harm will," Tim said. "I have been protecting them. I will always protect them."

    "There is nothing wrong with the woman warrior protecting us," Buckle said.

    Bonnie stared at his brother in alarm at the same time that Tum turned to him. Buckle smiled at their discomfort.

    "I mean the king has instructed her to."

    "I am not in charge of your protection," the female captain said. "My men are¡­"The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    "¡­ and you are in charge of your men," Buckle said quickly. "Which means you are in change. Let us cut to the chase. You are in charge of our protection. Tomorrow, when we go into the town, we want you with me¡­ with us."

    Buckle was stammering, but he was still managing to keep a bold front. The captain''s face was the opposite. If she had feelings, none of that was on her face.

    "Very well," she finally said. "I will be outside if you need me."

    She walked away from them, her legs barely touching the ground. Try as much as he did, Buckle could not take his eyes off her strong thighs. They would break him and easily too, but perhaps that was the reason for the attraction. The black widow still had suitors no matter how many times male spiders died at the hands of the female ones.

    "Buckle, are you crazy?" Tum said immediately the door shut behind the captain.

    "Maybe I am, but only because the both of you do not listen."

    "You don''t know what she is capable of. You slip, just a little slip, and she is onto you. We will end up in the dungeon," Bonnie complained.

    "Good. Maybe that is where we need to go for our heads to cool off," Buckle said.

    "This is crazy!" Tum complained.

    "It is an adventure."

    Buckle stood up and walked to the door.

    "Where are you going?" Bonnie asked, alarmed.

    "To see our guard."

    Before Tum could dash towards him, Buckle slipped through the door. Outside, he found the captain standing to the side of the door.

    "Hello," he said.

    She barely nodded. It was a slight movement of her head, but that was everything she was going to say.

    Buckle noticed that she was slightly taller than he was, but he was not about to be dissuaded. If anything, it made him more determined to get her to talk to him. He had succeeded inside the chambers. There was a chance for him to success here.

    "You stand here often?" he asked.

    She did not reply. Of course, she was a guard, so she stood often.

    "You don''t ever rest?" he continued. There was no one in the hallway, at least not near them. No one could hear him talking to the captain.

    "I thought you did because you can''t be the way you are without rest. You look so strong and so lithe. I have seen you walk. How fast can you move with that sword?"

    Again, the captain ignored him. She did not seem to be in the mood to engage him. Buckle thought this was her default mood.

    "Always so serious. Should I get you some wine? I wonder how you would look when you laugh."

    "Go away," the captain said.

    "Whoa! She spoke!" buckle exclaimed.

    The captain sighed. "What do you want?"

    "What do you want?"

    The captain looked like she was about to hit him, then she swallowed and turned away from him. She was looking down the hallway.

    "What is your name, captain?" Buckle asked.

    "Captain," the captain replied.

    "Lie. You would not even tell me your name?"

    "What is it to you?"

    "So I can call and wave at you from the other side of the fighting arena," Buckle replied.

    "No."

    "Oh, come on."

    Again, the captain ignored him, unimpressed by his antics.

    "Hey, watch this," Buckle said. He pulled two coins from his pocket and threw them up into the air. Midway in the air, they vanished. He watched the captain, expecting her to be fascinated, but the captain did not even move a muscle on her face.

    "What about that wine?" Buckle asked, exasperated.

    "Stop trying," the captain replied.

    Just then, the door to the room opened and Tum walked out with Bonnie. He cast a cautious gaze at the captain. At the other end of the hallway, there was a commotion as the police head pulled a thief long.

    Tum, Bonnie, Buckle, and the captain froze as the thief was pushed along the hallway. When the thief got to where they were standing, he glared at Tum. The scar on his face was scary. His eyes were bloodshot. The police chief behind the thief hit him on the head.

    "Move, you worm," the policeman shouted before he turned to Tum''s group and bowed his head slightly. As he walked past, however, he could not take his eyes off Tum, and kept staring at him like an old friend. Everything happened in just under a minute, but it felt like a lifetime. The exchanges did not go unnoticed by the captain who stood at the door staring at everybody. When the cop and the thief went around the bend, she turned to Tum.

    "Is there anything I should know, good sir?" she asked.

    "Me?" Buckle said. "You should know me."

 Do I... Know You?

    "I think I know that man," Tum said when they were back in their chamber.

    "The police chief?" Buckle asked. "One of the most corrupt people in the city. You should know him."

    "No, I don''t mean that way," Tum said. "I think I have seen him from my past."

    "From your past? A past that we don''t know about?" Bonnie asked. "We were born and raised in an orphanage, remember?"

    "It might be before then."

    "Before then? Are you kidding me? You were a baby. What could you remember from when you were a baby?"

    "I don''t know. I just¡­"

    Somebody knocked on the door.

    Buckle went to the door and pulled it open. The captain was standing there.

    "A note for you," the captain said, staring at Tum.

    "Let me have it," Buckle said, reaching for the note in the soldier''s hand. The captain waved him away till Tum came for the note.

    "Thank you," Tum said, taking the note from the soldier and walking away.

    "What is in the note?" Buckle asked, running after Tum.

    "Do you mind?" Tum flared. "It is a personal note."

    The captain watched the strange relationship between the knight and his servant before she turned and walked away, shutting the day behind her.

    Bonnie and her brother watched Tum read the note, his countenance changing as his eyes traveled over the piece of paper. When he was done, he looked up at his friends.

    "He wants to see me," he said.

    "Who?"

    "The police chief," he replied.

    "How does he know you?" Bonnie asked, alarmed, feeling like their secret was about to be let out in the open.

    "He called me Tum," Tum replied.

    "Don''t tell me you are thinking of seeing him," Buckle said.

    "What if he exposes us?" Tum asked.

    "We will go with you," Bonnie decided.

    "He asked me to come alone."

    "He wants to kill you," Buckle concluded.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    "He cannot kill me in the palace," Tum argued.

    "Do you know how many royalties have been murdered in the palace before?" Bonnie asked. "Eight. And it all happened in one night."

    "Well, I am not a royalty."

    "Seeing him is not advisable," Bonnie argued.

    For once, the two siblings were on the same side. On their faces, concern for their friend was boldly inscribed.

    "What if he knows something?"

    "What could he possibly know?" Bonnie asked.

    "I don''t know. Something that we don''t know? Something that would help us?"

    "We are the only ones that can help us," Buckle argued.

    "I am the knight," Tum suddenly declared. "I will see him. There is nothing wrong with a knight seeing the head of the police."

    The other two sighed uniformly. They could not stop him from doing what he wanted to do.

    "We will come with you."

    "No, you won''t."

    "Yes, we will, and you cannot stop us," Bonnie insisted.

    Outside, near the labyrinth that led to the river, the policeman stood, waiting for Tum. He could recognize that face anywhere. He had tried all he could to protect the boy because he believed in second chances because he felt remorseful for killing the parents. All they wanted to do was to feed the boy, and he had joined in the operation to shoot them dead.

    Bernard was many things, but he was not a cold-blooded murderer. He was nothing like the king''s advisor who had the chance to make things right but would simply make the evil carry on like it was the only option he had.

    The new king was impressionable and would bend to the advisor''s whims. It was a struggle, putting himself side by side with the demonic advisor in order to humanize himself. He knew he had done too much to be able to even remotely consider himself as a good person.

    He pulled his pipe from his pocket and stuck it in his mouth. There was nothing in it, but the feeling of the pipe in his mouth gave him some comfort. It was not the kind of comfort that the steel he carried on him all the time gave him, but it was some comfort nonetheless.

    When he turned towards the palace again, he noticed the tall frame of the boy he had saved his life walking up to him. Quickly, he looked about him to make sure they were not being watched by anybody. People in the palace hardly ever kept their noses out of other people''s business.

    Sadly, Tum did not know the kind of danger he had put himself in by coming here. Sheer probably thought he was deceiving him by having him deliver thieves to the palace for reintegration into the society. He never saw the thieves again, and he never asked. Snooping around would get him killed, but that was exactly what he was doing now.

    "I did not know you would come," he said as the boy walked up to him

    "Tell me," Tum said. "How do you know my name?"

    "It is a long story," the cop said. "Where do I start? Did you come alone?"

    "What is that to you?"

    "You cannot trust anyone here. You were born alone. If the people know who you really are, they will kill you."

    "What are you saying?"

    "I knew when you were just a little boy. I tried to save you. You see, your parents were thieves, the greatest thieves the kingdom had ever seen."

    "How dare you talk about my parents that way?"

    Tum was flaring up. Bernard wondered what he was told about his parents at the orphanage. Whatever it was, it was certainly not the truth. They lied to him. He helped them keep it that way. Somehow, he felt this boy was his responsibility.

    "It runs in the blood, Tum," Bernard said. "Or at least that is what the kingdom believes. But seeing your tiny self in the baby cot that day, I found it hard to believe that. I have followed you through the orphanage, seen how you treat the other kids. Maybe I was right. Maybe you are my saving grace."

    "I don''t know what you are saying."

    "I think you should leave this palace immediately. The king''s advisor was the one that put up the law of the evil genes."

    "Rule of the evil genes. What in the world does that mean?"

    "It means if your father is a thief, then you would become a thief. If your father is caught stealing, then the family should be wiped off. Leave this place while you can."

    Bernard turned and started walking away while Tum was left standing, staring after him. The revelation was just too much for him to understand.

    "Hey!" he called after the man.

    Bernard stopped and turned towards him.

    "My parents, what happened to them?"

    "I killed them."

 Not The Right One

    On his table, Sheer had papers strewn all over. With a quill in his hand, he was writing one of his letters. He knew that he had to get alliances who did not even know they were alliances, people that he would screw over the first chance he got, because, well, Sheer was going to be a force on his own, a force that did not need the approval of anyone to be. The crystal sword was all that mattered.

    Sitting directly in front of him was the thief that he had met at the prison cell. The man looked impatient and would fidget from time to time just from watching how calm the advisor was. It was almost as if the thief was not in the room with Sheer.

    There was a sword just behind Sheer, one that the thief could reach for and slice him through with it. But Sheer''s calmness prevented the criminal from doing anything rash. He pulled back his thought. There was no way the king''s advisor would be sitting there unprotected. Perhaps, he had a gun under the table since there was no guard in the room.

    "Where is the¡­" the thief started.

    Sheer held up his left hand for silence while he continued writing with his right. The man swallowed ad kept quiet Sheer''s face was as smooth and innocent as can be. The only thing that looked evil on his body was his goatee. He let it grow long and had cowries intertwined in it. The signet ring on his finger seemed two sizes too big for his lean body, yet the way he moved spoke of too much power.

    After about two minutes had passed, he looked up at the thief, his gaze unwavering, his eyes piercing. The thief stared back but got unnerved after a while.

    "Well, are you going to say something?" the thief asked.

    "What are you called?"

    "Gannicus."

    "Gannicus, you have failed the first test. You have no patience. You would be easily killed before you can find the crystal sword."

    "Tell me where to find it. There is no time, and I would love to return to my freedom."

    "I know you would. I would love to stop seeing your ugly, scarred face as well, but I want this to be done as perfectly as possible. Many have failed. What makes you think you can succeed?"

    "Well, I penetrated Donne, didn''t I?"

    "A remarkable feat, but you did not succeed. You exposed yourself in the end and got caught."

    "Because I chose to¡­"

    "Because you have no disciple!" Sheer suddenly screamed, getting up and banging his fists on the table.

    Gannicus was taken aback. The advisor was mad. One minute, he was gentle and even quiet, the next he was an erupting volcano. Sheer''s wild eyes were on Gannicus, burning. He looked like he was a second away from murdering Gannicus. Then someone knocked at the door.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    "Who is it?" Sheer asked, settling back into his seat.

    The boy that walked in through the door was a peasant boy with tattered clothes. He had the bright eyes of a hawk and would not stop staring around the room as he came in. Gannicus immediately disliked the boy. He knew their type. They were trained from a young age to be betrayers, people that would give up their flesh and blood for the wicked ruling elite. Gannicus felt a boy like this was the one who spied on him and brought the Donne soldiers in him.

    "What do you have for me?" Sheer asked the little boy.

    The boy''s eyes darted to Gannicus as the boy expressed his discomfort at the presence of the man in the room.

    "Don''t worry about him," Sheer said. "He won''t tell on us."

    The boy nodded, looking away from Gannicus back to his master''s face. Gannicus felt the need to get up from where he was sitting and leave the room. See no evil, hear no evil, tell no evil. That was the only way one could be free from getting entangled in the plots and machinations of the evil advisor. But he made no efforts to get up from his seat. He knew the advisor would not be pleased.

    "I followed the boy knight, the one you asked me to follow."

    "Okay?"

    "The police chief wanted to see him."

    "Really?"

    Even Gannicus was interested even though he knew that listening to this might spell his death. He felt he was already dead anyway if he did not do anything about it. He would run away once he steals the crystal sword and sell it to the highest bidder. If he could find out how the sword worked, he could even keep it for himself.

    If the sword had half the importance that the advisor had attached to it, then it would be worth something. The Donne was not a house that the crown would like to offend, but they had. They had pulled out one of the Donne''s prisoners, a man who made the Donne look like they were stupid, and they were working with that man.

    "At first I could not hear what they were saying because they were far away," the boy said. "Then I moved closer and heard them clearly. The knight is not a knight. He is the son of thieves. The two greatest thieves the land has ever known."

    "The Mendes," Sheer whispered. He had ordered for their execution himself with the support of the king. They had not been executed in the way he would have loved. They had died on their own terms.

    "The chief asked him to leave the palace."

    "Will he?" Sheer asked.

    "He does not want to."

    "He is brave. I give him that. But he is also dull. The birds are flying about the palace and the kingdom, bringing messages to me, and he wants to hide right under our very noses."

    Gannicus wondered what this meant for him. Children of great thieves were believed to have inherited their parents'' abilities, so much that they were killed the same way their parents were killed. The former king believed he was ridding the land of future criminals in this way.

    "Come, go meet the cook and have your fair share of food," Sheer said. "Tell him I sent you."

    The boy walked away. Sheer turned back to Gannicus, a smile on his face.

    "It seems you will have a competition for the sword," he said.

    "This was not part of our agreement," Gannicus objected. He felt like finding the little boy and strangling him. Was there no honor among the peasants?

    "There was no agreement. There is only my command and your obedience if you want to live!"

    "Is this what you do? Kidnap peasant children and set them against their own?"

    "All is fair in love and war."

    "The peasants are not even fighting you."

    "They will, soon, but they will discover it is of no use."

    "This is senseless."

    "Mind the way you talk, thief. Thieves are still killed in this part of the city, and the Donnes would love for you to be burnt at stake."

    "Screw you!"

 Only One Way

    "Your grace, we received word that one of our prisoners paid you a visit in the palace," the spokesman for the House of Donne said.

    They were in the king''s court where the king listened to the matters concerning the royalty. There was a different court for the rest of the kingdom, emphasizing the difference between royalty and the commoner.

    Sheer stood by the side of the king''s throne, staring into the crowd of the royal households that had gathered for the weekly meet at the king''s Court. They sat on pews, facing the king, all of them older than the young, weak king. Pathetic houses, Sheer thought. None of them worthy enough to take over from the late king''s son. He was the only one that could do what needed to be done, and they knew it. That was why they were wary of him.

    "Your prisoner?" Harodin asked.

    "Permit me to answer him, your grace," Sheer asked the king, and without waiting for a response, turned to the man. "Your king is merciful and just. That is why he allowed you to have a prisoner in the first place. That is why all the houses of the kingdom of Kora have their prisoners. Some of them have their own prisons."

    A murmur went through the crowd of royals. They were certainly not in agreement with the advisor''s speech.

    "We are at a time in our lives when conflicts are coming from every corner. There are the peasants planning an uprising. There are the other kingdoms outside waiting for us to get weak fighting peasants, then they will strike."

    "How can we fight our own?" one of the royals said, standing up.

    "You speak out of turn, my lord," Sheer said. The man he was talking to was the head of the House of Eli. He had white hair flowing all over his face. His beard was white and long. His eyes were Grey. He looked like some kind of God walking among mortal men, yet he let his anger settle down and let himself back down into his seat.

    "Whatever the king is doing now, know he is doing it out of love, out of duty. You will have your prisoner back only after the king is done with him."

    "Does the king know you took our prisoner?" another Donne person said.

    "The king knows everything that goes on in his kingdom. Are you trying to suggest that he does not know?"

    "No, my lord," the man said, scratching his beard.

    Sheer smiled mischievously. He knew exactly what he had done.

    "That would be all, the crown would love to retire," Sheer said.

    He turned to the king who was glad to be let off the hook. Harodin walked away from the gathering of the royals towards the side of the hall, where a little door was waiting for him. He walked through it with Sheer coming behind him, and guards before and after him. As they walked along the hallway, Harodin''s resolve hardened. He had to know.

    "What prisoner was taken from the dungeon?" the king asked.

    "Your grace, this is not a matter to be¡­"Stolen novel; please report.

    "We shall discuss it now! And you must tell me everything you have on this¡­this thief that is causing so much trouble!"

    They both halted. Harodin looked spirited, almost like his father, Sheer observed. But even the late king had fallen to the advisor''s charms and plans. The man was dead and had no more say in the affairs of the kingdom. If the boy continued this way, the advisor would kill him off. In fact, he wished he could strangle him right about now, but he could not.

    It would put a big dent in his plan, and he would be looked upon as a suspect. The other royal houses that were snooping around, trying to find their way up to the crown, would swoop down immediately. That was why he needed the crystal sword. It contained magic far more potent than royal blood.

    "It is a thief, your grace, one that will look for the crystal sword," Sheer replied.

    "Why did I not see this thief before he was sent out?"

    "Your grace, you pressed for results, and I was in a hurry to get something to show you. I wanted him to get the crystal sword quickly."

    "Sometimes, I doubt your intent, Sheer. You do things behind me for which I take the blame and you do not tell me."

    "I apologize, your grace. My intention was not to bring disrepute to the crown, but rather to¡­"

    "Hold whatever your silly intentions are, Sheer. My father trusted you because he knew where you came from. He trusted you because you made him trust you. You seem to have gotten lax over the years. You think I cannot send you away from this palace. For you fail me at every turn."

    "These are grave words, your grace."

    "Yet they ring true. Find me the crystal sword."

    "Actually, your grace, there is a little matter that I would like to discuss with you."

    The king started walking again, and the guards followed. The advisor ran after him.

    "What?" the king was upset and rightly so. Sheer knew he had overplayed his hand. He had had no idea that the Donne had spies as well, spies that informed them about the freeing of the prisoner that made their house look like a field where anyone could walk in to play. It was an oversight on his part, a mistake that he would never make again.

    "Your grace, your visitors. I was told they are to go after the crystal sword."

    The king swirled around so fast that the advisor barely saw him coming. A punch to the face and the king had the advisor up against the wall, pinned there with his hands on the old man''s throat.

    "Keep your stupid spies away from my business," the king warned.

    He was a youth, full of life and vigor. Sheer, pinned against the wall and nursing pain on his face, realized that he had mistaken the king''s quietness for meekness. Harodin was no meek king. He has his father''s spirit. He was growing into this thing, discovering quickly things that he could do and get away with.

    With his hands raised, Sheer uttered no words, but his eyes went to the captain of the city guard, a man who was sworn to him. Some muscles twitched in the man''s face, and he wanted to shout at the man to not draw his sword. It was too early to start fighting the king. The royals and their forces would join hands and send him out of the kingdom. That is if they do not kill him. All he had was the city guards.

    The king let him go and continued walking down the hallway. He adjusted his kimono, swallowed his humiliation, and followed the king without speaking.

    "Yes, my visitors are going to help in this quest," the king said. "I don''t remember telling you about it, Sheer. You overreach."

    "Pardon me, your grace," Sheer mumbled. "It is my desire to serve you and the kingdom that gets the best of me sometimes. My devotion and zeal."

    "Put your zeal in check, advisor."

    They walked farther down till they got to the king''s chambers.

    "Your grace," Sheer ventured again.

    The king shot him a warning look. He swallowed.

    "Maybe I should rather not say, your grace," Sheer mumbled.

    His shoulders were more bent than Harodin remembered them. He looked pitiful.

    "You know you cannot start that with me, Sheer."

    Sheer swallowed. The king''s eyes were still on him. Sheer went through his mind, realizing how quickly the prince had changed from ''the boy'' to ''the king'' in his mind. He had severely underestimated him.

    "I eh¡­ the peasants are gathering and the crystal sword is the only thing that can keep this kingdom from talking apart."

    "What are you saying?"

    "That the groups after the crystal sword should be sent out immediately, your grace. There is no more time to waste."

 Come Away With Me

    Again, Tum found himself sitting before the river, waiting for the princess. He worried that she would not come today. Since he last met her here and kissed her, they had not had the chance to talk to each other.

    He felt that she was consciously staying away from him. He had no idea why. So, for the past three days, he would go through the labyrinth, and make his way to the stream, sit down with his feet dipping I of the river and wait. He felt she would come soon. Their stay in the palace was coming to an end whether they liked it or not. There was only so far a man''s hospitality could go, even if the person was a king.

    Two days and counting, yet there was no sign of the princess. Buckle had stopped disturbing everyone with his talks about leaving the palace immediately. He was now completely immersed in his pursuit of the captain of the king''s guard, a foolhardy thing to do as the captain was mostly guarding the king.

    As for Bonnie, she loved the wealth and abundance. Left for Bonnie, they would not leave the palace. She spent her time playing chess with the learned scribes at the library and exchanging ideas with them. That was probably where she belonged, where she found people interested in the same thing that she liked.

    Tum''s eyes went to the running water. The river was so clear that he could see the red pebbles lying on the floor of the bed. There were shells too of different colors. As the days of the sun slipped through the foliage covering the garden, it glinted off the water and the shells inside the river. The lights were dazzling. They drew his attention and held him spellbound.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    The sound of a twig pulled him away from his preoccupation. He turned around quickly and found a familiar figure walking down the path towards him. She was dressed in a blue gown today and had red ribbons in her hair. She walked like one unsure when she saw him, yet her eyes would not let go of his.

    She walked towards him, then sat by the side without saying a word to him. He stared at her for some time before he turned away from him and kept staring into the river.

    "You still shine, like the sun, princess. The forest comes alive," Tum said.

    "Garden, good sir. And it needed no light for here you were seated already."

    Silence followed their passionate proclamation for one another before Tum turned back to Princess Meredith.

    "I didn''t know you were going to come," he said.

    "I knew I was always going to come. I tried ignoring your note, but I could not."

    "Why?"

    "You are different, completely different from the rest."

    "The rest?"

    "The men that have come with the intention of wooing me."

    That is because I am not royalty, Tum thought, but he did not say it, could not say it. It was because he was pretending to be royalty in the first place that he had access to her.

    "Would you like to see the city?" Tum asked.

    "My brother would never allow that. He fears for my safety."

    "He does not have to know."

    "But I would be recognized once I step foot outside the palace."

    "That is why you have to dress like a peasant."

    "Whoa, I have never¡­"

    Tum leaned over and shut her up with a kiss. It was deep and arresting. The words she wanted to say settled back down and she gave herself up for the kiss, grabbing Tum''s head and pulling him closer. Tum''s hands went over her body. There was little to be added to the body. In fact, her body was perfect. Her tiny waist, slightly pronounced hips, succulent lips, beautiful eyes, everything held Tum spellbound as he sucked on her lips.

    When he finally managed to pull away from her, he whispered, breathing heavily, "you will be fine. I will make sure of that."

 The Princess & The Popper

    The streets of the city were almost the same way Tum remembered it. There were the peasants by the roadsides with their wares or the wares of their masters. As Tum watched them, he remembered that, not long ago, he was here with his friends.

    "They are dirty," Meredith said even though she herself was wearing carefully selected tattered clothes. She looked like a boy in threadbare slacks and a tired cloak.

    "This is the world outside the palace," Tum said.

    He walked over to a boy selling bunches of bananas.

    "I will have one," he said.

    The boy told him the price and he paid.

    "Come on," he took the princess by the hand and they hopped through the street.

    "Where are we going?" Meredith asked.

    "You will see."

    He led her up the mountain where Quil stayed. But he did not make his way to the cave, instead, he moved up the mountain till they found themselves at the top of the mountain. From there, the city was laid out in all its glory.

    "Wow," Meredith said. "I have never seen the city from here."

    "You have never been here," Tum replied.

    The princess suddenly turned to him. "I thought you are from a kingdom far away from here. How do you know so much about this place?"

    Tum blushed first, then he smiled. As he smiled, the color left his face, returning it back to its normal hue.

    "When I first came into the city," he said. "I came in as a peasant because I wanted to know everything there is to know about the city."

    "Oh, I see."

    Tum saw the girl''s eyes light up.

    "What do you think?"

    "This is beautiful!"

    **

    Buckle followed the captain out into the hall.

    "Why do you keep following me?" the captain asked.

    "I want to know your name."

    "You are doing nothing with it."

    "What is in a name?"

    "Everything."

    "It is just a name. You tell me yours, I will tell you mine."

    "Your name is Buckle."

    "Now I''m at a losing end. You know my name and I don''t know yours."

    "Let me be."

    The captain stood still like one of Quil''s statues. The only thing that moved when she spoke was her lips. Buckle''s eyes traveled over her armor. It was light, leaving most of her body exposed. Her thighs were strong and her calves were pronounced. She stood with a spear in front of her while she looked ahead of her. Buckle stood by the side, ogling over her body.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

    "I cannot," he finally said.

    "I could slice your neck."

    "You could¡­ but you won''t."

    "What makes you think that?"

    "Your eyes. They are the lightest shade of blue. I dream of kissing you every night that I sleep."

    "Stop."

    "Your lips, red roses. They make me wonder how things grow and bloom on Rocky parts."

    "Stop!"

    "Your legs, two pillars that I want to feel with my hands."

    The captain turned to other guards standing around. They were muffling their laughter while Buckle continued, unabashedly.

    "The molds before you. I want to call them mine," he was saying.

    The captain dashed towards him, and before Buckle could realize what was happening, he was pinned against the wall with a small knife close to his neck.

    The knife was already biting into his flesh. All the captain had to do was a slight move of her hand and Buckle would be history. Maybe she would be punished for killing him or not, but he would not be there to know.

    "I. Said. Stop!" the captain screamed.

    Her face was filled with fury and red with blush. She could no longer keep calm. Buckle smiled. Finally, he had managed to make her crack. At first, she would not speak much until he made her. Then she became like a wall: the more he pushed, the more he came up against a solid mass pushing him back without even trying.

    "What are you looking at?" the captain growled at the other guards, glaring at them. "Go on, get out of here!"

    They moved quickly, still stifling their laughter. Then the captain turned back to Buckle, who still had a smile on his face, completely confident in his belief that the captain could not hurt him.

    "You see what you have made of me?" the lady said. "A laughing stock before my own men? You see what you have done?"

    "A name, my lady. A name. That was all I asked for."

    "I don''t give my name to servant boys."

    "I''m a man¡­"

    "¡­ and a servant."

    "Same as you. The only difference is you could die being a servant from the sword of another servant."

    "Shut up!"

    "Don''t you see? We are the same thing. A sword does not put you over me."

    "You talk too much!" the captain said and flung Buckle down to the ground.

    Buckle pulled himself up as she walked back to her post, the end of the hallway. He followed her.

    "Does it bother you?" he asked, touching his neck where the cold blade of the knife had been.

    "The next one would be straight to your heart."

    "You give a lot of threats for someone who is soft on the inside."

    Buckle came to stand before her.

    "You are crazy. Or brave. Both have the same end."

    "What is that end?"

    "Death."

    "Will you tell me your name now?"

    "Aris."

    "Buckle!" Bonnie stuck her head out from the open door of their chamber, down the hall to call her brother.

    "Coming," Buckle replied absent-mindedly.

    "Buckle!" Bonnie called, this time more forcefully. The tone was intentionally strong, and Buckle knew it was time to leave.

    "Aris," Buckle said, smiling. "I will be right back. Don''t go away."

    He turned and walked down the hallway.

    "Good to see there is a woman you fear," Aris mumbled as Buckle walked away.

    Buckle came up to Bonnie standing by the door. There was a court messenger beside her. He was small, a child who was just getting into his teenage years. Fourteen perhaps, yet he had the courtly bearing of one who had lived in the palace for two lifetimes.

    "The king summons us," Bonnie said.

    "Summons us? Has he found¡­"

    At a nudge from Bonnie, Buckle stopped speaking. The court messenger was still standing there. It would be stupid to reveal their true identity. Buckle swore inwardly. He was always getting carried away. That was the first reason he wanted them to leave this place. He was afraid of being the one that would spoil things for the three of them.

    "Tell the king, we will be with him immediately," Bonnie said to the messenger.

    The messenger nodded, turned, and left. Bonnie dragged Buckle into their chamber and slammed the door shut.

    "What is wrong with you?!"

    "Staying here was not my idea," Buckle said defensively. "I knew this kind of thing might happen. I cannot pretend for long."

    "We will soon be out of here, Buckle. We have barely stayed here a fortnight."

    "A day is too long to maintain the same lie."

    Bonnie sighed.

    "Where is Tum?" Bonnie asked.

    "I was about to ask you that."

    "Why would you ask me that? Two of you left the chamber at the same time."

    "That was the last that I saw him," Buckle replied.

    "Well, we need to find him. His absence would be noticeable at the king''s chamber if we go without him."

    "You don''t say."

    "Where would he be?"

    "What of the garden? He goes there often."

    Someone pushed the door open at that moment and the siblings started, terrified, until they realized it was only Tum opening the door. He had a big grin on his face.

    "Tum, for the love of the damn gods, where you been?!" Buckle exclaimed.

    "The king would love to see us," Bonnie informed him.

 We Really Stepped In It This Time

    The king looked markedly different from the first time they saw him. His shoulders were not slumped. His eyes were not drooping. They were alert and ready for anything. His back was straight up and his poise had confidence dripping from it.

    There was another man there. He wore dark robes and had shifty eyes that seemed to be everywhere at the same time. Tum immediately distrusted him. The princess had told her about the palace advisor that seemed to have everyone under a spell.

    The advisor was the king''s right-hand man, responsible for most policies that had kept the peasants miserable. The man standing behind the king fit into her description. Tum noticed the man had his eyes on him as the king waved them to their seats.

    "The crown demands your services," the king started without the usual shenanigans. He seemed impatient, unlike the first time they met him. Tum hoped he had not found the other side of power, the side that made men drunk and drove them mad.

    "What does the crown desire?" Bonnie asked.

    "Be quiet, woman!" the advisor screamed. "The king is speaking.

    Tim blanched. He wished he could slam his fist into the man''s face. He could see that his outburst was deliberate, and not at all heartfelt. He was deliberately trying to intimidate them and get into the young king''s good books.

    "Do not shout at my guests," the king growled, turning towards him.

    He cowered, bowing reverently. "Forgive me, your grace."

    The king turned to Tum. "Sir Greg, pardon my advisor. His zeal makes him take leave of his senses."

    Tum nodded.

    "The crown needs your services quickly. The crystal crown of which we spoke about," Harodin continued. "This is the map."

    Tum saw the map on the table for the first time and wondered why he had not seen it immediately he got into the room.

    "This is where the map is located," the king said, pointing at a point in the map. "A forest. We don''t know what lurks behind the foliage."

    Tum, Bonnie, and Buckle all stood up to observe the map better. Their eyes followed the king''s hand as he pointed.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    "You are a knight, Sir Greg. This mission is dangerous and may cost you your life," the king said.

    "I am well aware of that," Tum said.

    "And you have made your choice?" the king asked.

    "Yes, your grace. We will find the crystal sword and bring it to you."

    Buckle fidgeted at this. They were peasants, but they were not ones that gave their words away too easily. Peasants had nothing but words, and the words meant a lot to Buckle. He still remembered their promise to Quil, and he shuddered to think that they would double-cross Quill after taking his precious stones.

    "Well, you have to set off quickly. A scribe has made a copy for you. But this copy only lasts for a few days before the ink washes off," the king said. "In this way, the palace remains the only place where the map stays."

    "When do we go?" Tum asked.

    Bonnie and Buckle had resisted from commenting in order to play their role well. A servant and a dressmaker that constantly interferes in their master''s business would begin to look suspiciously like his friends instead.

    "Tonight, the farewell feast holds. I have never held a feast for anyone going in search of the sword," the king said, his voice dropping low as if he was meditating to himself.

    "May I ask why, your grace?" Tim asked.

    "Well, because they were all thieves. Sheer brings them from the dungeon and sends them after the sword. None has returned. None has ever made it out of the forest."

    At the mention of ''thieves'', Tum''s mind went back to his encounter with the police chief.

    The man had branded his parents thieves and seemed to know many things about him, so much that he could not find the heart to argue with him. They were orphans, all of them, and they knew nothing about the people that brought them into the world. He wondered what the king would do if he got the news that he, Tum, was the son of two thieves.

    Sighing, he tried to convince himself that the king would not be like his father. He would not ask for him to be put to death. The king would show mercy. They were not all power-drunk and corrupt.

    "Tomorrow, you will leave with your er¡­ servants," the king said.

    "Your grace." Tum bowed as the king stood up.

    That was the sign for Tum and his friends to leave the king''s chamber. They walked towards their own, got into it and Bonnie pulled the door shut.

    Immediately the door was shut, Buckle turned on Tum.

    "What were you thinking? What were you thinking promising him that?"

    "What was I supposed to do? Tell him we would not help him get the sword?" Tum asked.

    "Tum is right," Bonnie said. "We could not have said anything. The king has been gracious to us."

    "What about Quil?" Buckle asked.

    "We will answer all of these when we have the crystal sword," Bonnie replied.

    "What chance do we have against hardened criminals that have been sent by the king?"

    "We can fight," Tum said.

    "You can fight? Like a knight? You would be floored in Jo time by the captain that stands in the hallway," Buckle said.

    "Do you want us to tell the king no to his face them?" Bonnie asked.

    "We have no business staying here this long. We have to leave."

    "There is no leaving for us except to find the sword. Don''t you think the king knows our faces all too well and will send his soldiers after us if we run away?" Bonnie asked.

    Buckle swallowed. Apparently, he had not thought of that.

 Sins of The Past

    Bernard walked towards the junction, the place where three roads met. He wondered why the king''s advisor would want to meet him outside the palace. He knew Sheer never stayed in a place, and even when he did, he always had eyes everywhere. Sometimes, Bernard wondered if the kingdom would be better off without Sheer as the king''s advisor.

    He was the advisor to the late king who was hated all over the kingdom. When the king died, not one citizen felt remorse. They had to act it. They had to come out for the burial of their oppressor, but it was clear that they felt nothing for him. Plans were already in place to attack the royals before the king died.

    After the death of the king, the plans were put on hold as the prince was thought to be soft and cool-headed, but it seemed nothing had been done to lift the burdens of the people. The taxes were still high and everyone was expected to comply with the law of the first harvest. They had to give a large part of their produce to the royalty before they could sell the rest. From their sales, they were expected to pay taxes.

    As Bernard rode his horse through the street, he thought if he could, he would have advised the king to lift the burden from the people''s back. If the peasants broke, the royals would have nowhere to run to. Sadly, he was among the first line of defense against the poor peasants who only wanted to survive.

    Maybe, he could talk to Sheer with this opportunity, he thought. Or perhaps fix a meeting with the king and promise the advisor one of the notorious criminals languishing away in the dungeon. He still did not know why the palace was swallowing criminals, but he knew that anyone that left the dungeon never returned.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    He turned into the little street where Sheer had asked to meet him. The advisor had specified that it was a matter of security that could very well plunge the kingdom into troubled waters. Bernard knew that Sheer could be anything, but one thing he would never be was one who hated his kingdom.

    Sheer did everything for the kingdom. He would sell his soul for the kingdom, and that was what made him dangerous. He had his objectives mapped out. The police chief prayed he would never be on the wrong side of this monster.

    At the end of the little street, he found a figure standing there, garbed in the advisor''s favorite dark robe. He alighted from his horse and immediately regretted it. This whole meeting was suddenly beginning to look like something else.

    "There you are," the advisor said, walking towards him.

    The police chief paused and waited for the man to come up to him.

    "Why did you send for me, sire?" Bernard asked.

    His hand hung loosely by his side, but it could easily move fast to the gun in his holster.

    "The boy," Sheer said. "The boy at the palace. You know him."

    "What are you talking about?" Bernard asked, a note of alarm creeping into his voice. He was not ready for this game. He knew that the advisor knew something that he did not know judging by the smile on his face.

    "The boy knight. You know him. Or don''t you?"

    "The young knight? I saw him when I went to the palace to deliver your thief."

    "Funny we are talking about thieves," Sheer chuckled. "Some inherit the trait from their parents, don''t they?"

    "Definitely."

    "Only that you do not agree, chief."

    "I agree."

    "You agree that you do not agree or you agree that they do?"

    "They inherit it from their parents. The town''s physician confirmed it."

    "And it became a law to kill these evil children with their parents as well, so we can rid our society of evil vices. Is that right, Bernard?"

    It was easy to see now. Bernard knew what the advisor had over him now.

 No Good Deed

    Bernard knew what the advisor had over him now. He blushed before he could help himself, then he went pale. It was so noticeable that he looked like a ghost alone with the grim reaper out there on the lonely street that evening.

    "You see, everything comes around," the advisor said and turned away from Bernard.

    It seemed like the advisor was alone, but Bernard knew enough to realize that the advisor could not come here on his own. There were soldiers and palace guards who were loyal to the advisor and would do his dirty work for him. Slowly, Bernard looked around to see if he could find where they were hidden. If they were hiding around, then they were well-hidden.

    "I know what you did, Bernard, and, frankly, I don''t blame you for it. What would you have done seeing the gooey eyes looking up at it, the child helpless in a cot, the parents murdered. Then there is you who have been following the law since you were born, now presented with a chance to become an outlaw for the first time. What do you do? You do something your conscience would support. You save the child. After all, nobody would know."

    "I don''t know what you are talking about."

    "Oh, you do. You very much know what I am talking about. Tum. That is his name, the one you gave him, the one you wrote on the cot. I wonder why. Maybe saving the boy just was not enough for you. You wanted to see him as a symbol of how much you have come to be bigger than the kingdom and her rules."

    "You accuse me."

    "And rightly so. But forget the accusation. The boy seems to have grown into a fine, young man. He''s stealing nothing but identities. However, that is no problem. Nobody is dying. But don''t you see that I am not wrong. He is still a thief."

    "He is not a thief." Bernard''s hand had moved closer to the gun in his holster. He watched the advisory warily. Still, the advisor made no move to call any guards or draw his own gun or sword.

    "He is. Maybe not in the same way his parents were. It is always in the blood, chief. Still, I wanted to thank you. That is the sole reason I called you here."

    "What for?"

    "For disobeying the law, my friend. The law is all-knowing, all-seeing. It is almost as if the law made you disobey it for the law to take effect."

    Bernard had his hand on his gun now. He had to be careful with dealing with the snake in front of him, he knew. He had been stupid. He should have known that his secret could easily get out in the open.

    "I have convinced the king to see the son of thieves after the crystal sword. It seems the luck of thieves has been on his side these past years. Who knows, he would probably succeed where others had failed. If he doesn''t, well, he would be dead. The law dupes supreme."

    "The law is an ass," Bernard said. The gun was out of the holster and in his hand now. "The law is a horse¡¯s ass for allowing people like you make them and enforce them."

    "Mind what you say, good sir."

    "The law should have you rotting away in the dungeon, but instead it has you here, making laws for the innocent and baiting the unsuspecting."Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    "Be careful. Whatever you say to me, you say to the crown."

    "Because you have succeeded in making the king a puppet."

    "Enough of this, Bernard. I won''t cross words with you. I will be on my way now."

    "Just like that?"

    "What? You thought there was a punishment for you for helping the law run its course?"

    Bernard''s hand went lax on the gun. Sheer pulled his gun quickly. His movement was fast. Bernard did not know where the gun came from. The only thing he saw was the flash of a gun. He moved quickly to the side, aware that he was too slow before he felt excruciating pain in his right shoulder.

    He was flung back and fell on the street. The man had aimed somewhere else but had gotten his shoulder. There was no way he could draw his gun with the injured hand. He lay on the ground and made pathetic attempts with his left hand to grab his gun.

    "I would not do that if I were you," Sheer said, stepping up to where the police chief lay on the ground while pointing his gun at the helpless man. "There is always a punishment for everything, Bernard. You were foolish, following the boy all over the place like you were his father. You even chose to deliver the thief to the palace. Maybe you knew he was here; maybe you did not know, but it spelled your death."

    "The gods damn you!" Bernard screamed.

    At the same time, bullets were pumped into his head. The sound of the gun broke the quietness of the evening.

    Sheer turned and walked away. It was easy. The poor people of Kora were cowards. Once they heard the sound of gunshots, they got as far away as they could from there. By the time they got back, the victim would be dead. Peasants. These were the people that wanted the royalty to listen to them. Cowards!

    He joined the other streets, covering his head with a cloak, heading towards the palace. He had some message to deliver. The boy knight would be going in search of the crystal sword tomorrow, and oddly, he had more faith in the boy than in the assembly of thieves he had sent out earlier. He knew the boy''s history. His parents were the greatest thieves the kingdom had ever seen, and he knew that the boy must have inherited some of that from them.

    At the palace gate, he was stopped by the guards.

    "Halt, who goes there?" the guard asked.

    "The crown, you fool."

    The guard was taken aback.

    "I am sorry, my lord," the guard said.

    "Blind fool," Sheer cursed and walked through the gate.

    He made his way to the guards'' quarters and found the man he was looking for sitting with other guards that were off-duty, playing games, and drinking.

    Immediately the captain of the palace guards saw him, he stood up and moved away from his people, walking towards him.

    "Has the ceremony not started yet?"

    "Not yet, my lord."

    "Come over here, Alphonso. We have work on our hands."

    The captain, Alphonso, followed Sheer to a corner of the guards'' quarters and they sat down there where the lights from the new bulbs could not fall on them.

    "The boy knight goes for the crystal sword that I told you about tomorrow," Sheer said. He looked around to make sure there was no one trying to eavesdrop on their conversation.

    "Does he have what it takes?"

    "I think so, and I am rarely wrong. But that is not why I have come."

    The captain focused entirely on Sheer.

    "You have to follow them."

    "Follow them? I have never gone on a quest like this before."

    "You all go with your men, handpicked by you. And no, you are not going on a quest. You are going after the boy."

    The captain was silent as he was trying to understand the implication of what he was being sent to do.

    "You have to kill him immediately he gets the sword, then you bring the sword to me."

    "But he is a knight."

    "A knight?" Sheer chuckled. "He is no knight, and you would not be held responsible for anything."

    "He is no knight."

    "Aye. He is nobody, an imposter that the king wished to indulge."

    "I hope this is true."

    "Have I ever lied to you?"

    "No, my lord."

    "I speak the truth. Kill the imposter and bring the sword to me."

    "But the king¡­"

    "You would become the king''s right-hand man. All decisions and deliberations will go through you. You will get a maiden and a castle. Do not ever forget this when next you think of questioning me."

    "Yes, my lord."

    "Remember, take only men that you trust. The mission is very important."

    Sheer rose and walked away.

 The Send Off

    "It is that time in our history, once again, when the fate of our great kingdom lies in the hands of a nobleman," the king was saying. He had his goblet raised.

    The royals that had been invited to the celebration stood by the side, their own wine goblets raised as well. Tum, Bonnie, and Buckle stood at the table with the king. It was the closest they had come to the royalty all their lives since they were born and raised in their orphanage. Among some members of the royal class, Tum could see distrust sitting squarely on their faces. They did not know who he was and as such, did not trust him. But they were not the only ones there.

    There were some who would lap up everything that the king said because they were blindly loyal to the crown. Yet, there were some whose pretense he could read easily on their faces. They were there for what they could gain. If they could overthrow the king and take the throne for themselves, they would.

    Tum''s eyes settled on Sheer, and he realized he had already placed the advisor among the last set of people. There was forced reverence in his countenance whenever he addressed the king as if his body had long since grown tired of the pretense.

    "Look," Bonnie said excitedly, tugging at Tum''s hand. "All these people are here for us. Who would have thought we could make it up to this place?"

    Buckle glared at both of them at the same time Tum looked into the crowd of the royal families. There were dazzling colors of expensive robes, ladies with the slender necks of the gazelle and their husbands looking like rotund drums.

    Beyond them were the even younger ladies and the charming young men with whom Tum felt he had no chance. The pews had been decorated and the hall was filled to the brim. Most of the royals approved of what the king was trying to do. They could not imagine a war with the peasants. Anything that would avert the war and put the peasants in their place, they were all for it.

    "To Sir Greg of the¡­" the king looked around for help. He seemed to have forgotten what Tum told him earlier.

    "Where again, kind sir?" Sheer whispered in Tum''s eyes.

    "Of the Eastlands," Tum said quickly. Just like he had done with the impostor names that they gave themselves, he did not think before blurting the words out.

    "Eastlands?" Sheer asked. "I believe I¡­"

    "To Sir Greg of the Eastlands," the king said, his voice drowning out the advisor''s voice, as it should. He raised his goblet higher. "You will see your enemies coming from hundreds of miles away. The beasts in the forest will miss your trail again and again, and your mission will draw you quickly to the end."

    The crowd cheered and everyone took a shot of the drink in their goblet. Tum drank his quickly and turned to glare at Buckle who was still staring suspiciously at his drink. The king turned towards Tum and raised his glass before he sat back down.

    The song started. It was slow, allowing room for idle talk as the royals moved among themselves engaging in royal gossip. Tum wished he could engage in the same, but he knew he could be easily sniffed out if he wandered into their midst. The king was still young. Perhaps that was why he had not seen through them. The advisor, on the other hand, appeared to be playing some kind of sick game.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    At the doorway, Tum caught a glimpse of the princess, dressed in a purple, flowing gown. She evaded one of the young men there and hurried outside. Tum quickly stood and excused himself, mumbling something about emptying his bowels. The king nodded.

    Outside, Tum noticed that there were people who preferred staying out in the cold than in the warmth of the hall. They observed him curiously when he made his way outside. He bowed a little before he turned towards the garden. There was no sign of the princess outside anywhere, so Tum realized that she must be in the one place that they both knew.

    Walking quickly, he made his way through the labyrinth. It was sinister this night. The flower hedges cast eerie shadows all over the place, scaring him. He imagined a wizard appearing in the middle of the maze, away from the crowd and the guards.

    If the evil wizard killed him here, nobody would ever know. They would probably find his dead body after some time. Realizing the danger he might be in made him realize that the princess might be in even greater danger. He broke into a run till he got to the end of the maze.

    The river sparkled under the reflection of the moon, like liquid silver. Before the river, someone squatted, staring into the forest. It was easy to recognize the figure of the princes, delicate and comely. Tum made his way towards her.

    "Why have you come?" Princess Meredith asked. Her voice was filled with pain.

    "I saw you leaving," Tum replied.

    "Why have you come?"

    "I wanted to see you."

    "When were you going to tell me you were going away?" Meredith asked. She stood up and turned around to face Tum. Her eyes were brimming over.

    "I did not know I was going anywhere," Tum replied. The king had told them about the mission just this afternoon.

    "You have always known you would leave. Why warm your way into my heart?"

    "You have always known too, princess. I could not stop myself."

    "Don''t go," Meredith pleaded. "Let my brother find the sword for himself if he wants it so much."

    "You know that I cannot refuse your brother."

    "But you can refuse me?"

    "No. I just¡­ I have to do this. I promised him that, and besides, he is the¡­"

    "¡­king. I hear that a lot."

    She turned away from him and walked towards the river. He followed her.

    "Go then. Go away. Do all of my brother''s bidding. I promise I would not miss you."

    "Do not speak that way. You will always be on my mind. Because of you, I will return with the sword. Your brother would not be able anymore to keep us apart even if he does not approve of us."

    "You will return?" Meredith asked, turning back to look into Tum''s eyes.

    "Aye. I will kill the beasts lurking in that forest because of you. Nothing, not even the gods would keep me from you."

    It was a stupid thing to say, Tum knew. For one who lived on the street all his life. Anything could happen to ruin the day and every one of his pals. There was no one that knew that better than an orphan that had lived on the streets of the city all his life. But he was so overcome with passion that he had turned into a poet.

    The princess ran into his arms and held him tight. He felt her bosom on his body, and the world made sense. He could always come back to this warmth, this promise of heaven. The thought of what she was and felt for him would always draw him back towards the palace. There was only one sad thought lurking at the back of his mind: what if she found out that he was not royalty? Would she still feel for him the way she felt now?

    "Promise me that you will come back for me," she said.

    "I do. I promise."

    She reached up with her lips and sought his. Under the moon, their kiss was made in dreams, the stuff of fantasies. Her hands were around his neck and his were around her tiny waist. Being taller, he had to bend low so their lips could remain locked in their passionate communion. The sound of crickets, the lull of silence, and the quietness of nature embraced their entanglement. In the court, a little removed from where they were, the song had changed from solemn music to rock and jazz.

 Dont Tell Me YOU Love Me

    Aris walked through the palace, crouching. There was hardly any guard inside the palace. Almost everyone was at the king''s court for the farewell party of the troublesome trio that had come to the palace. Aris was glad that they were leaving.

    At the same time, she was not. Her feelings were all messed up as she thought about it, creeping towards the king''s chamber. She pushed the feelings to the back of her mind. A soldier was not supposed to feel things like that. They would make her weak, and she had not gotten to her position by being weak.

    Her hand was on the tilt of her sword as she prepared to turn the corner, wondering what could be waiting for her there. She had received a message from a little boy that the princess could be in danger, that there were men who wanted to have knowledge of her forcefully, men who were part of the royal family.

    Having realized that the princess was no longer at the court, she realized it could be true. She knew she would have no mercy on anyone trying to mess with the princess under her guard.

    As she turned the corner with her sword out of her sheath, she was met with a lone figure with a familiar face staring back at her.

    "Buckle," she cursed, realizing what could have happened. The little bastard.

    "Aris," Buckle said. His eyes were so earnest that they almost drew him in. But she pulled hers away.

    "Where is the princess?" she asked.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    "I don''t know," Buckle replied.

    "Who¡­did you¡­did you send any message to me?"

    "I wanted to see you alone, Aris. I can no longer keep it to myself."

    "Maybe you should. Where is the princess?"

    "The princess is fine," Buckle said. "I did not want to come here, but now that I am here, in this palace, and I have seen your face, I do not want to leave. I want you, Aris. I am in love with you."

    "You have to stop."

    "I cannot stop! This feeling; it grips me and makes of me as it wills. I want you and I cannot help myself."

    "No."

    "I love you."

    "Don''t say it!"

    "I love you!"

    Aris turned and raced down the hallway. She was fast, and Buckle had not expected the proud woman warrior to run from his proposal. Aris knew the feeling that Buckle spoke about so well. It had started as an irritation, finding herself thinking about the knight''s servant dancing about in front of her.

    His gimmicks were annoying, but she had grown fond of them, so much that she looked forward to it. Before Buckle came, she was just another soldier, another instrument in the king''s army. After he looked at her, she felt a reawakening, a thought that she could be two things at once: a warrior and a woman, then she realized she was too good to be true. She was supposed to be one or the other, and she had given up being a woman long ago. She ran through the palace doors, disappearing from sight.

    Buckle slid to his knees, weakened by her rejection. The look in her eyes still stayed with him. They were wide and confused, then firm. She did not want him. In his mind, the image of her running away kept replaying again and again.

    "Of things we never could be," Buckle said, sadness dripping from his voice. "Of a time and a chance, of another life where you would be proud to call me yours, oh sweet Aris, fair maiden. I cannot be the mountain to compliment your strength."

    The words kept coming, but Buckle knew he had to leave the hallway and return to the court before people would find him here dying of cupid''s painful, piercing arrow.

 No Love, Only Adventure

    The city was still in slumber when the three friends set off on their journey towards the forest. They were provided with the finest guns and swords from the palace armory and had the fastest horses provided for their journey.

    As they let the horses ride through the city street, Buckle''s heart bled. He still remembered Aris and the rejection he had faced at her hands. Bonnie was wrapped up in herself, mourning the loss of a life that she never had and would never have.

    Tum was lost in thought, thinking about the princess and what they could have had if only he was of noble birth. The world was one big messed up place, Tum agreed. He also felt they should have heeded Buckle''s advice and left the palace when he told them to.

    They got through the city gates and rode out into the fields. The mountains stood out in front of them as if standing in defiance with the peasants against the oppressive ruling class. There were trails for horses to run through, but the fields were in stark contrast with the city where the roads were clean and always swept by the same peasants who worked out in the field, day and night, just so the city could remain standing. There were huts covered with thatched roofs, walls made of red mud. But there was also freedom. There were no walls around the field. It was the kind of place Tum would have wanted to live in, but he had no family.

    "We are even lower than peasants," Tum said, turning to Bonnie, who was riding abreast of him. It was the first time any of them had said a word since they left the city of Mora. "The peasants have parents, families and a house to call their own, a roof over their heads, fields to make a living, but we? We have nothing."

    "Thank you for rubbing that in, Tum," Bonnie replied.

    The both of them turned to Buckle. He still would not say a word.

    "Say, Buckle, did you fall from your side of the bed this morning?" Tum asked.

    "The sun shines, the wind blows, as if all is well with the world."

    "What could be wrong, little brother?" Bonnie asked.

    "I am not your little brother," Buckle snapped.

    They continued in silence again. When they crested the mountain, Tum turned his horse around to take a final look at the city nestled in the valley between mountains.

    "There lies the love of my life," Tum said. "She waits for my return."

    "Don''t speak of love ever. Your heart would be broken in due course," Buckle cautioned.

    "Why do you speak this way, brother?" Tum asked.

    "Aris. She had my heart and my soul and my body," Buckle replied. "But she finds them all worthless. She would rather stand guard for the king, or maybe there is someone stronger, finer, and better than I am."You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    "Oh, the captain of the palace guards?" Bonnie asked. "I warned you to be cautious with her, for a heart, she has none."

    "Do not speak of her like that," Buckle replied heatedly.

    They turned their backs on the city and continued on their journey. The field was wide and free. The birds could be seen flying freely over the sky just the way the peasants lived their lives.

    "I cannot believe we have never come out to the field to live the real true life," Tum said.

    "The life of the peasant, sweet and free until the noblemen want to forcefully take your farm produce from you. They will come with their soldiers, and you will not be able to fight them," Buckle said. "Or is it the savages that pillage and steal from where they did not sow? Life itself is vanity."

    "You speak this way because your heart has been bruised. Surely you can see the beauty that comes with a life that is as free as this," Bonnie argued.

    "Only one thing is certain," Buckle said. "The death of everything. The death of freedom, the death of love, the death of life."

    "Will our comrade ever heal?" Tum asked Bonnie.

    "When you have your heart bruised, I would love to see you heal," Buckle rejoined.

    Their journey brought them to the beginning of the forest where they dismounted from their horses.

    "Let us let the horses rest. We have a long journey ahead of us," Tum said.

    The others did not object, they needed the time to put their emotions in check, especially Buckle. Their gaze was towards the city of Mora, which was getting lost in the distance, covered by dew. But they could see the towers reaching for the sky from within the valley. Then they heard the sound of a twig breaking.

    "Who is that?" Bonnie asked.

    "Shhhh," Tum cautioned. They pulled their guns and slowly circled the area where they had heard the noise. There was a thick bush where anything could be hiding, and the possibility of a menacing beast hiding in there frightened Tum.

    "Man or beast, I will shoot at the count of five if you don''t show your face," Buckle threatened before Tum could get him to shut his mouth. It was not wise, but the shuffling in the bushes stopped. The trio braced for the moment something would leap out of the bush.

    "One¡­two¡­"

    "I don''t think that is wise," Tum said.

    Buckle ignored him. Bonnie remained quiet, her attention fixed on the bush. Her gun was also trained there.

    "Three¡­four¡­."

    "Don''t shoot!" a voice shouted from within the thick foliage of the bush. "Don''t shoot."

    "Meredith?" Tum called, confused.

    The princess got out from the bush to the surprise of the three friends still holding a gun to the princess. She raised her hands in surrender and was smiling sheepishly.

    "This is all wrong," Bonnie said.

    "How long have you been following us?" Tum asked.

    "Not for long," Meredith said. "Are you not happy to see me?"

    "Not in this world nor the next," Buckle replied.

    "Do they always talk to your friends like that?" Meredith asked. "Is he not just a servant?"

    "Bu¡­Hardy is more than just a servant to me. I have, on many occasions, been rescued from certain death by his bravery. My dressmaker is also good with her hands."

    "You should not be here. You should not be out of the palace," Bonnie complained. "It is not safe. And why are you dressed in those tattered clothes?"

    "Greg here taught me how to blend in with the peasants," Meredith replied.

    "We will get you a horse to take you back to the palace," Buckle said.

    "I am not going back!" Meredith screamed. Then she turned to Tum and hugged him tightly. "Tell them, Greg. I cannot bear to stay away from you."

    Buckle hissed and rolled his eyes. "Love does not last."

    "I don''t think she should go back, guys," Tum said.

    "What? We cannot look after her as well," Bonnie complained.

    "It would be more dangerous to her going back alone than going with us. And we cannot spare one person who would go back with her. We have to forge ahead, all of us."

    "This is a mistake, and you know it," Bonnie said.

    "Well, it is one that we have to make," Tum said with a note of finality in his voice.

    "We have to keep going," Buckle said. "There is no time for love in the face of duty."

 The Dream Dies

    On the other side of the mountain, Alphonso and his men camped for the night. They had been following the group ahead of them for the whole of the day. It was easy to follow the boy knight and his people. They did not know that they were being followed, and even if they did, they would be terrible at hiding their tracks.

    One of his men walked up to him.

    "Captain, there is news," the man said as he walked up to him.

    The captain was sitting in front of the tent that the men had laid out for him. In front of him, the man stood at attention.

    "What is the nature of your news?" the captain asked.

    "I think I saw the princess with the men we are tracking."

    "You think?"

    "Yes sir."

    "Are you sure you saw the princess? What would the princess be doing out here?" the captain asked before he remembered what Sheer told him about the boy knight and the princess. They were in love. He chuckled. The princess did not really know who the boy knight was. Sheer told him this morning just before they set out on their journey to follow the boy knight. Once he finds the sword, they would end him.

    The news of the princess being in the other camp would have been a disaster if Alphonso did not immediately get an idea of how to handle the matter.

    All he had to do was to get in touch with the princess and let her know the real identity of the knight that she had fallen for. She would naturally come to their side. Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned. They would be long done with their mission by the tie she would realize that she had been played both ways.

    "I have to speak to her," Alphonso said." Where is she?"

    "Speak do her? Does it not defeat the purpose of our mission?" the spy asked.

    "It helps our mission, you blind fool. Take me to where you saw her at once."

    Alphonso crept with the spy towards the camp of the boy knight, aware that the boy could still pull off surprises even though he had been underestimating him. If the boy was not good at what he did, he would not have been able to successfully fool everyone at the palace.

    The king, the princess, even Sheer, the advisor. It was only through the advisor that he had been able to realize what was wrong. The boy knight was no knight at all. He was a street urchin, posing for the king of Kora, lying his way through the royalties. His stories were so compelling that it was hard not to believe the words from his mouth. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    Yet, there was this lack of refinement about him, especially when he spoke with his ''servant'' and his ''dressmaker''. They looked like they were best of friends. They called each other by their names. It was off.

    "Here, captain," the spy said.

    From here, the camp of their targets was visible. The sun was still at the top of the sky. Alphonso saw the three friends almost immediately, then looked around for the fourth person

    The princess was not close. Alphonso sniffed, turned to the spy, "you can go."

    Even as he said it, he felt his heart take a sudden lounge inside of him. He was sending away the only backup he had in case things went south, but at the same time, he wanted to talk to the princess along.

    Once again, his eyes swept through the forest and the clearing as he searched for the princess. But there is no sign of her.

    "Maybe another time," Alphonso said and was about to move when he felt the cold sensation of steel at his nape.

    "You move, you are dead."

    Alphonso remained on the ground where he had lain to be able to see the camp of the buy-knight with being seen. The sword pierced further. Alphonso wondered if he could reach for his gun before the sword would hit something in his neck.

    "What do you want?" Alphonso asked.

    "Not you, definitely. What are you doing here?" It was the princess. Her voice was still as tiny as he remembered.

    "Same thing I wanted to ask you, princess. What are you doing here? Your brother would not be happy."

    "Screw him. Screw the both of you."

    "Maybe you should include the boy knight, the one that fills your mind at night."

    "Shut up!"

    Meredith pierced the tip of the sword further into Alphonso''s nape. The latter could not move. Already Meredith''s sword was drawing blood from the soldier''s neck. If it went any deeper, the soldier might suspect fatal injury.

    "Why did you come here?"

    "We were sent to find you," Alphonso lied.

    The sword left his back, and he heard footsteps as the princess started walking away.

    "Hear me out, my lady," Alphonso called.

    Meredith would not stop moving away. "There is nothing to hear. Tell my brother, your king, that he should not look for me. I will come back later or I might not."

    "It is about the people you are with, my lady. The king found something about the men you are with. They are lying."

    "They cannot be."

    "Your lover, Greg, is a poor orphan who rips off noblemen of their wealth. He works with a team of his two friends, and they go about sneaking into places they are not supposed to be."

    "That cannot be true."

    "Why do you think the two talk to him as if he were an old friend? Look," Alphonso said and pointed down at the camp where Bonnie and Tum were arguing. The two could not hear what the boy knight and his dressmaker were arguing about, but it did not seem like a master talking with his subordinate. In that instant, it was clear to the princess.

    "Why have I not seen this before?" she wondered to herself.

    "He made you fall in love just so he could rob you. What punishment do you think he is deserving of?" Alphonso asked.

    Meredith was suddenly enraged. She had been made to wait while servants and peasants discussed whether she would stay with the man she loved or not. She hated him now. She wanted him dead. If she could, she would skin him alive till he died of bleeding.

    "I have a plan that you would love to hear," Alphonso said.

 Liar

    "Where is the princess?" Bonnie asked, looking around.

    "Probably plotting on all of us," Buckle said, unaware of how close to the truth that he was.

    "She cannot. I hope she is alright," Tum said.

    "I think she should be wary of the princess," Buckle said.

    Tum rolled his eyes. Ever since Buckle''s love advance was spurned by the captain of the king''s guard, he had turned from the cheerful person that he was into a pessimist.

    "You will get over this, brother," Tum said. "When we return to the palace, you will get your chance to talk to the captain again."

    "We are not going back to the palace," Buckle said.

    At that moment, the princess made his appearance and the three friends shifted their bulk where they sat uncomfortably. Tum hoped that she had not overheard them talking about her. He was still trying to find the right time and place to tell her about his true identity. He would probably be heartbroken like Buckle, but he knew that he had to try.

    "Where have you been, my princess?" he asked, finding it difficult to carry on with the charade. He was no knight, and he had pretended for a long time to be one.

    They continued on their journey until the night fell, and they had to camp under another tree. The sounds of the forest were nostalgia, bringing back to Tum the moments he had spent in the garden with the princess. He looked across at her facial features reflected by the fire that they had made and fell in love all over again. But she seemed like he had a lot on her mind.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    "Here," he said, handing her some of the cheese they had gotten from Mora before leaving.

    "I am not hungry," the princess said, looking away.

    "What is wrong? Are you okay?"

    "I think you will leave Mora. You will leave the kingdom of Kora, and you will leave me."

    "Why would you think that? I would never leave you. I promised you that I would get back to you."

    The princess sighed. Tum felt they had not really spoken about what was on her mind. There seemed to be a lot, more than he had thought at first. He wondered if this was the right moment to tell her who he really was.

    "Meredith, I would love to tell you something," Tum began.

    "Troll!" Buckle screamed.

    Tum spurns around quickly, drawing his sword with the same movement. Beyond the fire they had made, there were a group of trolls, ugly-looking creatures of different sizes and strength. Tum saw the biggest one with three horns on his head and a protruding nose. There were about seven of these creatures and each of them held a huge club.

    "I would be damned," Tum said. He ran to the front of the group as the trolls rushed forwards. The battering club came down on the sword that he had drawn. For one not trained by the king''s soldiers, he was exceptionally skillful with the way that he handled the sword, dancing around the troll on nimble feet.

    Bonnie jumped into the fray, leaving the princess and Buckle by the tree.

    "You have guns, dammit!" Buckle screamed, pulling his gun from his holster. Gunshots rent the air as the trolls dropped to the ground. More gunshots followed as Tum and Bonnie followed Buckle''s lead. The remaining trolls turned and disappeared back into the forest, tails between their legs.

    "Go on! Run away, cowards!" Buckle screamed after them.

 The Guardian

    The next day saw Tum getting up late when the sun was already up in the sky. There was no sign of the others, only signs that they had slept there with him. The princess, Tum quickly thought, alarmed. He was going to tell her who he was yesterday before they were attacked by the trolls. Now, she was no longer here.

    Was it a dream? He wondered. Was last night a dream?

    Getting up from his sleeping spot under the tree, he looked around carefully and slowly this time. There was no one around. Then he heard footsteps headed his way.

    Quickly, he swiped his sword from the ground where he had kept it while he slept. After the attack last night, he could not sheath his sword, not when the trolls could come calling again. They were the guardians of this place and would be furious that they had already missed their prey.

    The person that appeared was neither his companions nor the trolls. The man had scars all over his face and looked like he had been to hell and back. He still had his sword, but his chest was bare and he had scratch marks all over it. Tum watched him cautiously.

    "Who are you?" the man asked.

    "Who are you?" Tum asked. He had gotten rid of the knight''s wear that made movement difficult for him right from the start of their journey.

    "You have to leave the forest at once," the man said. "The crystal sword is a myth. It does not exist."

    "How do you know what I am looking for?" Tum asked. The hilt of his sword was burning into his hand because of how tightly he held it.

    "Everyone that has ever come into this forest was looking for something. The ones who will come in will look for something. There is only one thing in this enchanted forest: the crystal sword."

    "Well, that is not why I am here."

    "Then you need to leave!"

    The man''s voice changed and so did his eyes. They became darker and darker till every part of his eyes was an eerie black color. Tum was scared for his life, but at the same time, he wondered if the man could still see. His question was answered when the man charged at him with a sword, which materialized from his hand. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    Tum, swift of foot, moved quickly away from the path of the sword and was just in time to get a scratch across his cheek. With his sword, he swung down on the strange man''s sword, parrying his thrust even as he moved to the side. The first onslaught had been too fast and unexpected that were he a slower person, he would have had the point of the spelled man''s sword buried in his head.

    The man swung again, this time bringing his sword down hard on Tum. Tum raised his sword to meet his, parrying once again and dancing out of the man''s way. They did a little dance with Tum moving backward and away from the strange man''s onslaught while the man continued swinging hard, trying to batter Tum into submission.

    Finally, he struck Tum hard, and although Tim put up his sword to defend against the attack, the force of it pushed him backward, and before he realized what was happening, he had already fallen to the ground.

    Quickly, he rolled over giving his attacker no chance to impale him against the ground. Soon, he was upon his feet again.

    Breathing hard, furious at missing his opportunity to end Tum, the spelled man dashed towards Tum, throwing all caution to the wind. Tum dodged his attack smoothly, swirling beside the man''s thrusting sword and towards the man. Ashe got close to his attacker, he took a swipe at the man''s bare body, cutting him deep in the side and drawing blood. Then he posed again for another onslaught.

    The only acknowledgment Tum got from his blow was a grunt from his attacker. The spelled man looked at his bleeding wound, then at Tum before he dashed towards Tum again. Prepared, Tum stepped to the side again, moving away from the blade. He was about to bury his sword in the man''s chest when he saw another blade in the man''s free hand. He saw it late. The blade seemed to just quickly appear whenever the man wanted to strike him.

    Tum quickly changed his direction and pulled away from the blade that was coming quickly for him. Life moved in slow motion as the blade came towards his face.

    The blade struck a part of his hair, cutting it off. His change in direction pulled him into another trajectory where he lost his balance, staggering to the ground. He rolled over and came to a halt, feeling pain in his sides.

    The spelled man came towards him, his sword raised. Tum breathed with difficulty. His own sword had fallen off his hand in the last attack and now lay far away from him.

    "You will leave the forest, dead or alive," the man said and was about to bring his sword down on Tum when Tum remembered Buckle''s scream: you have a gun, dammit!

    He quickly reached for his gun, pulling it off the holster hanging around his body fast, aimed, and shot, all before the man could bring his sword down on him. A red hole appeared in the man''s head, halting him. He kept shooting till the man staggered backward and away from him. Tum quickly scrambled away from the man and watched him fall. Still, he kept shooting, frightened off his wit.

    He could not bring himself to stand up and walk over to where the man had fallen. His sword lay some distance away from him, closer to the man than to him. He wanted to go pick it up, and at the same time, he was scared the man could stand up at any moment.

    "Bonnie," he said, suddenly remembering his companions. "Buckle! Meredith!"

 Enchantment

    Bonnie! Bonnie!

    The words hit the insides of her head, coming out an echo. Bonnie rolled over as she continued sleeping.

    The sound of a twig was what woke her up, imbuing her with the feeling of alarm. She sprang up. The sun was already up in the sky and was beating down on her through some space in the forest''s canopy. She realized she was just noticing the heat of the sun since she had been lying there. Looking around, she realized that there was no one there with her.

    Buckle, Tum and, the annoying princess were gone. A frown sent lines crisscrossing her face as she took her mind back to the events of last night. The last thing she remembered was fighting off the trolls. They had decided that they would not sleep that night till the morning when they would continue on their mission. She did not know when she slept off.

    She must have been dreaming for Tum''s voice was still in her head, fragments of it. Or was it real? Were Tum and the others in some sort of trouble? Had they been kidnapped by the trolls while she slept? Why did the trolls spare her?

    She got up quickly and was glad to realize that she still had her weapons with her. However, her companions were gone. The only sign that they had been there in the first place was the dead fireplace where flames had once danced before the attack of the trolls.

    "Buckle?" She called.

    There was no response. She already felt there would not be one. If her companions had been taken against their will, then there was no way they would be free to reply her. They could even already be dead, she realized, and her heart sank.

    She walked away from where they had slept, looking for a sign or a trail to follow. There was none. The sound that had woken her came again. It was the sound of twigs breaking, ruffling in a nearby bush.

    Before I count five¡­ Buckle''s voice said in her head.

    "I''m out!" the princess screamed as she jumped out of a nearby bush.

    Bonnie was taken aback and stumbled, almost falling to the ground before she got a hold of herself.

    The princess turned towards her. The young lady staring at her had all the features of the princess, yet Bonnie felt that all was not right. The feeling tugged at her mind until she saw the princess'' eyes turning black all through. Black liquid began dripping from her eyes as well.

    "You don''t like me, Bonnie," the princess said. "You want Tum all for yourself. Maybe you want Tum and Buckle and all the men you will never have."The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    The princess had started approaching Bonnie. Bonnie moved back, frightened pantsless. She knew now that the person in front of her was not the princess, but she did not know who the person was.

    "What manner of sorcery is this?" Bonnie muttered to herself as she moved back and away from the princess.

    "You cannot have all those men because of what you are, a peasant! You want your knight in shining armor, and Tum looks like the one, does he not?"

    "This is not real."

    "You can touch me," The princess said, reaching for Bonnie.

    "Don''t touch me!" Bonnie screamed. She hit her leg against the root of a tree and fell to the ground.

    The princess was upon her in an instant. She jumped on top of her and pinned her hands to the sides.

    "What about me? Do you like me? Would you love to do the forbidden? You could kill off the boy knight and have all of me."

    The black eyes were close to Bonnie''s face and the princess''s lips were moving close to hers.

    "Get off me!" Bonnie screamed.

    The princess took her lips and held them with hers. Bonnie struggled and pulled her face away from the princess. Her grip on her hands was ironclad and was proving impossible for Bonnie to free herself of.

    "Why you love loneliness?" the princess asked. Her voice had changed. It sounded like the chorus of many voices, eerie and frightening. "You could have me. You could have Buckle your brother. You could have anyone, but you refuse to do what needs to be done."

    "Let me go!"

    The princess bared her teeth, and Bonnie watched in horror as the teeth turned into fangs, wicked, long fangs looking as sharp as they were long.

    "I could let you go, or I could feast on you," the princess said and bent towards Bonnie''s neck.

    As the princess bent towards Bonnie''s neck, a surge of energy went through the peasant girl. She struck the girl on top of her with her knee and pushed her over. The princess rolled off her, fangs and all.

    "If I don''t have you, no one else will," the princess roared and charged towards her.

    This time, the princess was met with a gunshot to her forehead. It froze her to her halt. The blackness in her eyes started to fade. Her fangs disappeared. Bonnie could not bring herself to shoot again. Before her very eyes, the princess disappeared into nothingness, slowly sailing away like smoke on the evening wind.

    Bonnie got up to her feet and checked all over her body for any injury. There was none. She had not been bitten. She had heard of werewolves and vampires who could take on the image of others and would not age a day.

    But she had not expected to meet anyone in the forest. The fight with the trolls last night and the encounter she had just had this night reminded her that their mission was a dangerous one.

    She walked around, looking for a pathway or signs of her companions.

    "Tum! Buckle!" she called, refusing to call the princess for fear it could be a summoning call. The forest was full of enchantments. It was a warning she had heard over and over again, but one she had not really taken to heart. She had felt the young, able-bodied men who were assigned to giving her baths just liked telling stories. Well, she had one herself if she survived the rest of the journey.

    The enchantment, they said, got stronger when one got closer to the crystal sword. It was the most difficult thing to do.

    "Tum! Buckle!" she called again.

    The forest replied to her with silence. There was only the sound of her footfalls and the birds singing overhead.

 What Game Is this?

    Buckle!

    The voice was in his head.

    The forest sent the wind, pushing him deeper into his slumber. He did not want to wake up. He was in that state between sleep and wakefulness where sleep was the sweetest. The voice at the periphery of his mind was trying to drag him back to wakefulness, but he did not want that. There was nothing in the world anyway apart from heartbreak and suffering.

    Buckle! The voice called again.

    Buckle tried to drown the voice out, but it was persistent, insistent, and kept tugging him to wakefulness.

    "Go away," he mumbled.

    But the voice would simply not go away. It kept ringing in his head. Finally, his eyes sprung open and he saw the sun shining down on him.

    He blinked. There was no sign of any of his companions. He wondered where they had gone to. Only last night, they had been together fighting off trolls. The way Tum behaved, he had jumped into the fight unthinkingly, striking with his sword rather than his gun. Buckle had set them straight when he found his sister who usually thought before she did anything joining in the sword fight.

    Buckle looked around for his gun, only to discover that it was missing. The only thing that was there was his sword, lying in its sheath.

    "Where are these people?" he mumbled, looking around. Even the princess was nowhere to be found. The events of last night had gotten blurry in his mind towards the end. When did the fight stop? When did they start sleeping? What happened? They were supposed to stay awake and keep watch in case the trolls came back with more of their kind. They had thought of continuing their journey that night but decided against it. None of them knew what lay ahead.

    "Tum! Bonnie!" he called.

    He did not want to mention the princess because he hated what her presence meant here. Not only was love blind but, love was also stupid, and he was not going to be a part of such stupidity.

    He picked up the sword from where it lay and turned back quickly at the sound of ruffling leaves. Someone stepped through the foliage, coming onto the trail near where they had slept for the night. It was easy to place this person. There were the strong thighs that looked like pillars and the stiff walk as she strode towards him.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

    "I have been looking for you," Aris said.

    "Aris?" Buckle asked, unbelief in his voice. It was not possible. She could not be here.

    "It is me," Aris replied.

    "How are you here?" Buckle asked. "You left me at the palace."

    "I am here now. Is that not all that matters?"

    "You rejected me."

    "Did I?"

    "You did. You ran away from my proposal. You could have told me that you loved me too."

    "But I do. You know that I love you too. I would have cut off your head if I did not."

    "This is not real. Where are my companions?"

    "I killed them for you."

    "What?"

    "They would not let me get close to you."

    "You killed my friends?"

    "Would you rather I kill you?"

    Buckle noticed there was a knife in Aris'' hand. It was a little hunting knife, but it looked terribly dangerous in Aris'' hand when Buckle thought of the many things that she could do with the knife.

    "Put the knife away, Aris," Buckle said, moving backward.

    "Oh, do you now believe that it is real?"

    "Don''t come close to me," Buckle said. He pulled his sword out from his sheath.

    "You want to fight me now?" Aris asked. She paused and watched Buckle with a mocking expression on her face.

    "If you come further, I will strike you," Buckle warned.

    "I would love to see you hurt me. Is that what you have been thinking of me?" Aris asked and started moving towards Buckle again.

    Buckle continued moving backward.

    "Kill me, Buckle!" she screamed and rushed towards Buckle.

    Her eyes were turning all black and Buckle was knocked off by that before she knocked him off his feet. Buckle could not act as he was struck with a mixture of emotion. He was definitely not going to hurt his love interest, and he was struck dumb by the blackness spreading all over Aris'' eyes.

    He fell to the ground while Aris stood over him, his sword clattering to the side.

    "You never loved me," Aris accused him, bending towards him, her hand raised with the short blade glinting in the sun.

    "No!" Buckle screamed. "Don''t do this!"

    Even as he screamed, he knew that it was useless. The person bending over him was not the Aris that he knew. This person was something else, an enchantment set up by the magical forest to keep them back.

    "Will you give me your heart?"

    "This is not real! Get away from me!"

    The knife came down. But Buckle reacted fast, scrambling away from the knife''s path. He grabbed his sword quickly and ran it through Aris''s heart without remorse.

    Aris paused, looking at him.

    "I said you never loved me," she said, then she started pulling the sword out of her chest.

    Buckle was only confused for a little while before he reacted quickly. He pulled the sword out and it ran through Aris'' hand injuring her. Squeezing his eyes shut, he thrust the sword into her head and pulled it out again. He had no idea why he acted that way. But as he watched, he saw Aris crumble to the ground. Before she fell, she began to disintegrate into dust. By the time she fell to the ground, there was nothing left of her. The forest was back with its sounds and emptiness.

    Shaken, Buckle moved away from the disintegrating body, still clinging to his sword. If this was a nightmare he wanted to quickly wake up from it.

 You Cant Keep A Good Bonnie Down

    There was only silence, no matter where Bonnie turned. Only silence.

    When she thought she could hear the muttering and murmuring of the soldiers that she felt were solidly behind her, their voices fade. It was like the more she tried to listen, the faster the voices faded.

    Her eyes sprang open and she looked around quickly to realize that she was alone. The boy knight was gone. His friends were no longer there. She had no idea where everyone had gone.

    "Greg?" she called.

    Maybe he had gotten news of her planned revenge and had abandoned her. Why could she not just accost him and make him tell her the truth?

    "Greg?" she called again.

    The silence of the forest replied. Her voice echoed on and on. There was only the singing of the birds and some static humming from the heart of the forest. It took her back to their time in the garden at the palace. She had fallen in love with him right there because of who he was. Now that she had realized he was not the person he claimed to be, she could not wait to make him face some form of punishment, but she was beginning to have cold feet about it.

    If the soldiers had their way, Greg and his friends may be killed.

    I have to warn him, Meredith thought to herself.

    She was looking for a way, a sign, anything that would show where the trip had gone off to. The more she looked, the more it seemed that everywhere was the same. Finally, she found a pathway and was about to proceed up it when she heard the rustling of the bushes.

    She paused, terrified.

    Someone was coming from the vegetation. The captain burst out without much ado, looking lost. He looked this way and that before he realized that someone was standing in front of him. He turned to look at her.

    "Alphonso," the princess said. "I have been looking for you."

    "Liar!" Alphonso screamed. "You were looking for your friends. You wanted to tell them about our plans, so they would be wary of us."

    "I cannot find them. Do you know where they are?"

    "I had them all killed while you slept. Do You see? You cannot do anything without the king and his advisor noticing it."If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    Alphonso was coming towards him, looking menacing. Without thinking, Meredith started moving backward, one step, two steps, then she realized what she was doing, what was happening.

    "What are you doing?" she asked.

    "Making sure you receive your own punishment," was the reply.

    "Don''t come near me!" Meredith screamed. Her voice was without conviction. There was no weapon around her, nothing to defend herself with.

    "Or you will kill me?" Alphonso asked, chuckling.

    "You betrayed me," another voice said, coming from behind her.

    She turned around quickly and found Tum standing there.

    "Greg," she called, moving towards him. Then she came to an abrupt halt. The young man in front of him had no pupil in his eyes, just a cornea that was black all through.

    "This cannot be real," she muttered and turned back from the danger she had run from only to discover that Alphonso was missing. As she turned back quickly to face Tum''s image, she found him standing in front of her. A resounding slap knocked her out.

    Time passed slowly and she felt herself being dragged across the ground. She was slipping in and out of consciousness. Finally, she pulled her eyes open and found that she had been tied to a tree. The only thing she could move was her neck. Tum was standing by the side with a whip. He grinned at her when she turned towards him.

    "You betrayed me," he said. It seemed to be the only words that he could say.

    "This isn''t real," Meredith said.

    The whip cracked on her back, making pain run through her body. There was no telling what was real and what was not. The pain seemed real enough. She found herself screaming. Behind her, Tum was laughing hysterically. He brought the whip down on her back again. This time, harder. Meredith could not contain the pain. She wanted to pull herself away from the tree and her bonds or uproot the tree entirely. But she did not have the strength. She could only struggle frantically while waiting for the next swing to bite pain into her back.

    The whip landed again. Meredith screamed louder. The pain was much.

    Meredith!

    The voice called in her head.

    The whip landed again, distracting her. The voice was getting distant, but she was trying to listen to it.

    "You made me lose everything!" Greg screamed and flung the whip again.

    Focus on my voice!

    The princess tried her best to focus. It was hard, but it was hard. The pain was stinging her back and there was another whip coming towards her. She let her mind wander from her body after the voice that was calling her. She could hear other voices as well. They were all there, her companions.

    When she turned back, she realized that the whip coming for her back seemed to be stuck in time. The Tum that was punishing her was gradually disappearing. The forest was fading, but the pain remained.

    "Princess," Buckle called.

    The princess opened her eyes to see different pairs of eyes staring down at her. She recognized Tum''s own and was glad to see that his eyes were not covered with black color in all its entirety. She sighed weakly.

    "You were caught in the forest''s spell. Come on, get up," Bonnie said.

    Tum helped her get to her feet, touching her back. She whimpered in pain. Gingerly, Tum pulled her gown from her back. Meredith knew what she was going to find. Apparently, the spell in the forest was as strong as she had been made to believe; it was not a fairy tale.

    "You have marks on your back," Tum said, disbelievingly.

 The Trouble With Trolls

    The journey to the cave where the map directed them towards was an uneventful one. After what they had faced in the past two days, they were grateful for the silence and lack of action. The princess walked beside Tum, still thinking about the plans of the soldiers to get the boys immediately they got their hands on the sword.

    She wanted to pull back on the plan, but she could not let herself. There were many things on her mind. If she told the group about the plan, they would see her as a betrayer. They would not wait to hear her own side of the story. She had been with them for some time and knew for a fact that the two hated her.

    She was still angry with Tum, but she did not know if he was feigning his care like Alphonso said he was or if it was real. But the boy knight had jumped in front of the trolls for her. He had woken her up from the torture of a nightmare that she was having. It was as if he knew exactly what to do.

    "Have you been here before?" she asked him as they walked along the trail. The mountain they were going towards was looming ahead of them. The mountains were on both sides of the trail with the vegetation providing cover for whoever could choose to spy on them from the top. Tum constantly turned towards their sides, scanning it carefully as if he was afraid of something coming towards them from there.

    "No," Tum replied, turning to look into the princess'' eyes.

    The princess looked away, unable to keep his gaze. They both walked along in silences with Bonnie and Buckle bringing up the rear.

    "The marks on my backside. What do you think they are?" she asked.

    "The mark of the forest," Buckle answered from behind them. "The forest sends foes after you, and when it cannot get you, it marks you for the last guardian to notice your advance. I have been trying to tell you about it. If you follow us to the cave, we would be seen by the guardian of the crystal sword before we even make it close to the cave."

    "And how did you know all these?"

    "In the streets," Buckle said before he realized they had to still pretend.

    "We walk the streets sometimes," Tum added hastily, although he did not realize the need to. He had already told her that he walked the street disguised as a commoner.

    "How long did you stay in Mora that you already know all of these?" the princess asked. Alphonso was right, she realized. Greg was no nobleman. His servant, Buckle, was his friend. The way he barged into their conversations was all that she needed to see.

    "She has to stay back," Buckle said, pulling at Tum''s hand.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    "No," Tum said. He did not even need to think.

    "I will stay back," Meredith said.

    The trio was surprised. Buckle was more relieved than surprised.

    "Why?" Tum asked. He was pleading with his eyes.

    "It is okay," Meredith said. She had to stay back and away from them for the army to take them out. She was further enraged that Greg had continued lying to her. Is his name really Greg? She wondered. "I will be fine."

    "Come on," Buckle said, walking past the two. Bonnie followed. She had been unusually silent since she woke up from her own nightmare.

    Tum finally left the princess and went after his companions. He kept looking back till he could no longer see the princess who was resting under a tree.

    Up the hill they went, coming closer to the cave till Buckle pulled them to a stop. He dragged them behind a boulder that was somewhere up the hill.

    "Look," he said, pointing.

    "What?" Tum asked. He could see nothing except the open mouth of the cave that they were headed to. He took out the map from his bag and watched it. The cave was their destination. The sword was in there somewhere. They had to sneak in, take it and leave.

    "Why are we stopping?" Bonnie asked. "Why are we hiding?"

    "Can''t you two see it?" Buckle asked.

    He could see it clearly. A sleeping giant troll by the mouth of the cave. It seemed to have some sort of camouflage powers, but Buckle could see the shape. He could see the stomach pulling up and down. The giant could measure as least ten feet standing from the way it curled its body around the cave entrance.

    It could be longer, Buckle was not sure, but he did not want to check it out. A stomp to the head by the giant and his life would be a thing of the past. There were no horns on this one''s head, and it almost looked like a human apart from the third leg that stuck out from in between two legs. That was the only hideous thing in the body of the giant, and of course, his size. The giant had its back turned to them.

    "Let us get the sword and get out of here," Tum said. He was about jumping over the boulder to hurry towards the mouth of the cave when Bonnie pulled him back.

    "There is something there," Bonnie said.

    "What?"

    "I cannot see it, but I can feel it," Bonnie said. "It is resting, a lot of rages. If its sleep is disturbed, we would not make it out of here alive."

    "I don''t¡­" Tum paused. He could hear something now. The sound suddenly invaded his hearing, the loud snoring of a giant being. He could feel the ground vibrating under his legs. There was something there alright, but the more he stared at the place, the less he could make out anything. "I hear snoring," he said.

    Buckle realized that he could not hear anything, neither could he hear anything.

    "See no evil; hear no evil¡­" His voice trailed off. He was not sure he got it correctly. Everything was in the opposite. One could see. The other could hear, and the other could feel. Was it not supposed to be ''speak no evil'' and not ''feel no evil''? Something was missing, and it scared him. It felt like they were in a puzzle. God, he hated puzzles.

    "Ah!" Bonnie screamed.

    "Speak no evil!"

    "Down!" Tum screamed. He heard the giant moving. Buckle saw the giant moving. Bonnie felt pain somewhere in her mind. Her eyes were short and Buckle''s hands were covering her mouth, trying to stop her from screaming and exposing all of them. The giant roared. The sound was loud on Tum''s hearing.

    He covered both ears with his hands. Bonnie struggled against the pain that she felt while Buckle tried to silence her. Speak no evil. He understood it now. If Bonnie spoke what she felt, the troll would easily find them hiding at the back of the boulder, and Buckle was sure none of them could outrun the troll. This was it, the graveyard of many thieves and brave men.

 Buckles Ace In The Whole

    "Be quiet, Bonnie," he pleaded.

    "It hurts, it hurts," she mumbled when Buckle thought the pain was coming down. He quickly clamped his hand over her mouth again.

    Tum heard the troll heading towards them. With each step, the ground vibrated. They had already made too much noise and the troll knew where they were. He reached for his sword and his gun. If they were going to die, then he would not go down easily. He could at least shoot the troll in the eye before it would descend on them. He prepared to shoot even though he could not see the giant.

    A song broke out behind him. Buckle''s tingling voice spread through the atmosphere, infiltrating the troll''s roar and causing the troll to halt completely. The voice was filled with sadness, everything that Buckle felt since he was rejected by the captain of the king''s guard. Tum himself was mesmerized by the tune.

    "The time comes for harvest, and here my big friend I stand

    How will I be your meal if you stamp me into the sand?

    What do you say, old friend, that I give you my hand?

    Or would you rather love to eat from the sand?"

    It was a funny song, but it brought Tum close to tears. He also noticed that Bonnie could no longer feel any pain. The troll was silent. He turned towards Buckle and the latter nodded at him, pointing a rock stuck further up on the mountain.

    As if they had telepathic understanding, Bonnie and Tum sneaked around the giant who was still rooted to the spot, listening to Buckle''s song. They could see the troll now. It was as if Buckle''s song was an enchantment that pulled all of its magic off its body.

    They got to the top of the hill and heaved against the rock. The troll was right on the rock''s path, and Tum knew if they could dislodge it, they could get rid of the troll with it. Again and again, they pushed, but the rock would not budge. Tum realized they needed Buckle''s strength, but there was no way they could stop him from distracting the troll with his song.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    "One last pull," he whispered to Bonnie.

    Together, they heaved again. The rock moved a little, then started rolling down the hill gradually. As it went, it picked up speed. Buckle jumped out of the way and stopped singing. They watched the troll shake his head as if shaking off an enchanting.

    It heard the sound of a rock rolling up to it quickly. By the time it turned, it was too late. The rock had already taken a leap into the air, headed for the giant''s head. It tried to bring up a hand to defend its head, but the hand was slow. The rock smashed into its face, knowing it off the mountainside and down the valley. A scream of pain followed as rock and giant rolled down the mountain, tumbling over and over.

    "Good job," Tum screamed and they all rushed into the cave.

    At the middle of the cave were treasures of every kind. The sword was stuck into a mountain of precious, glittering stones, stones that would change their lives forever.

    "Don''t touch anything," Buckle said. "I have heard this story too many times. "We take what we came for and we get out of here."

    Tum nodded. Bonnie nodded. Maybe heartbreak was a good thing, Bonnie thought. The Buckle she knew would have dived into the sea of precious things without thinking about the consequences.

    "Go on, Tum," Bonnie said.

    Tum walked towards the sword, half expecting something to rise from the glittering sea of wealth all around him. He wondered what would happen if he reached out to pick one of the stones. Just one of them would change their lives. The stones were worth, by far, more than everything that Quil gave to them.

    "Focus, Tum," Buckle said as if he knew what was going on in his friend''s mind.

    Tum stepped gingerly on the overflowing wealth till he got to the sword. He pulled out his own sword and quickly exchanged it with the other one, then he held the sword up. It glinted like a diamond in the sun. The wind that sailed through the place seemed to be saying something. The three of them were quiet. The blade had struck them with awe. Tum felt power coursing through his veins before he brought the sword down and slipped it into his sheath. He walked down towards Bonnie.

    At the mouth of the cave, he handed the sword to her.

    "Give me your sword," he said.

    Bonnie did it without question. She knew what her friend was thinking. They could still help Quil and leave the king. They owned royalty nothing. She respected Tum even more. He was in love with the princess, yet he cared more about the peasants more than anything else. Now, he would have the unenviable task of convincing the princess to come over to their side.

    "Let us go," Buckle said, already bored with the exchange of looks between Bonnie and Tum.

 Love, Betrayal & Death

    Princess Meredith moved down the trail, looking for signs of the soldiers that were following them. She knew they would be around somewhere. Mixed feelings assailed her. She still loved Tum even though she felt he had not done right by her. Maybe what he deserved was what she got in her own nightmare. Some thrashing. She was the princess; she would tell Alphonso what to do. She could not bear to see them die.

    "My princess," Alphonso called, coming out from behind the tree where he had been hiding. Some of his men came out with him. There were about twenty men with him, all armed with swords and guns. Instantly, Meredith felt safer.

    "They have gone to the cave," the princess said.

    "Good. May they succeed," Alphonso said, grinning.

    Meredith did not like the grin on his face. It was full of bad intentions.

    "You will not kill them," she said.

    "Why?"

    "I want to take them as prisoners," Meredith replied.

    "Anything you want, princess."

    Meredith was confused. She was not used to so much power as she had always been behind her brother. Maybe she would even be a better ruler than he was. The first thing she had to do was send Sheer away in disgrace. He was a terrible adviser.

    "Let us find them," Alphonso called out to his men.

    Meredith followed at a distance. She felt terrible. Maybe she should just call off the assault and have the soldiers escort them home.

    They walked past a giant troll lying on the ground with a bloodied face, knocked out. It was still breathing and was, therefore, alive.

    "Hack the troll to death," Alphonso commanded.

    "Leave the troll alone," Meredith countered.

    The soldier who had marched close to the troll with his sword drawn turned to look at his captain.

    "You kill the troll, you mess with the magic of the forest," Meredith continued, "and the forest can be very unforgiving."Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Alphonso nodded. "Let the troll be."

    They continued up the hill. The princess had been up here before. It was here, in fact, that Buckle forced her to turn back. If the giant troll was the guardian of the crystal sword, then it could only mean that the grip had gotten their hands on the sword.

    As much as she hated Tum at this moment, she also realized that the group was smart and strong. It was the kind of team she would love to belong to if she were a peasant. They could teach her the moves behind beating giant trolls, getting used to the city, and learning the ways of the peasants.

    "Hangover the sword," Alphonso screamed.

    From behind the captain, the princess watched the three of her companions look astounded.

    "The sword or we will kill you three.

    **

    There were many things that Tum had expected: an army of trolls outside waiting to fight them for the sword; an enchanted army of dead men that the forest had killed while they were in search of the sword; an army of strange animals and creatures.

    All of these, he knew they could fight off as long as they had the crystal sword. But he had not expected the soldiers from the palace to try to double-cross them. It made him wonder who they were working with.

    "I come in the name of the king," he said. "You shall accompany us back to the palace. There, we will hand the sword over to the king."

    "There is a new king now," Alphonso declared. "He would love for you to hand over the sword immediately."

    "No!" Tum cried. "You speak treason!"

    "It is you who speak treason by referring to the old king as our king."

    "Run!" Tum screamed and dashed to the other side of the mountain, running sideways across the top. His friends followed. Gunshots rang out. Buckle moved too late.

    Tum was already about to jump into the foliage on the other side when he heard Buckle scream and fall to the ground. He turned around. The soldiers were still shooting, but Tum noticed that the bullets were flying past Bonnie and him. Buckle was groaning on the ground. He ran towards him. The soldiers advanced, racing up the hill.

    Before Tum could get to Buckle on the ground, he noticed a soldier close by and swiped his sword at the man, slicing him across the chest. More soldiers came, and more soldiers fell. When he had cut down three, the soldiers stopped coming. There was a loud noise, the stamping of feet. The ground vibrated. It was like the army of the forest was coming together.

    "Fall back!" the captain cried. "Fall back!"

    The soldiers turned tail and ran. Tum wanted to go after them with his gun but he stopped himself and hurried to Buckle''s side. The latter had been shot in the tummy, close to his chest. The wound was ugly, and the blood would not stop coming out. The ground was still vibrating.

    "Run¡­" Buckle managed to say. "Leave me. Save yourselves."

    Tum and Bonnie refused. In no time, the valley was filled with trolls of all kinds, fairies, dwarves, and giants. They all stopped before them and watched Bonnie. Tum braced himself for a fight before he realized what was happening.

    The creatures, every one of them, bow to the two before they turned and raced off into the forest again.

    "Find¡­ the princess," Buckle said. His breathing was getting troubled. He still felt bad about his spurned love advance, and now facing death, he wanted something different for his friend.

    "I have to stay here," Tum objected.

    "Go. Find that witch, I will be with him," Bonnie said. Tears were already welling up in her eyes.

 I Will Do What I Must

    "You shot them!" Meredith shouted. "You killed Buckle!"

    "That is what my orders are," Alphonso countered.

    "My brother could not have ordered you to shoot guests. He would do no such thing."

    "Who said I take orders from your brother?"

    "He is the king!"

    "He is not my king. Your brother is too weak to face the trouble that will come for all of us. Lord Sheer is the one that we should follow."

    "Sheer asked you to kill my brother''s guests?"

    "Why do you think we came out all this way? To protect you?"

    Alphonso was enraged. It was not the arrogance of a mission gone, rather it was anger at the failure of his mission that made him spill his guts to the princess.

    He was tired of serving the spineless royal family. He wanted someone who knew when to stand up and conquer. The realm was theirs for the taking. They had the strongest army the realm had ever seen, yet they sat around waiting on the king, a teenage bit that did not know the first thing about ruling.

    "How many men did we lose?" He asked his deputy.

    "Four men. The boy knight killed three and one was trampled in the stampede."

    The stampede, Alphonso thought angrily. They were all supposed to be dead, but the trolls and the other creatures in this forest had run past them.

    Alphonso thought they were probably going to fight the one who had the sword. The three would be killed by the trolls, but that presented the problem of getting the sword back.

    "I am the princess and I did not order you to shoot! I am of a higher hierarchy than Sheer. You are sworn to serve the royal family."

    There was a ruffling of leaves near them. The soldiers all turned towards the sound, scared out of their wits.

    **

    Tum walked through the forest at alert. He had seen the creatures bow to Bonnie, but he was not sure that was all. They could be lurking in the corner, waiting to take on them unawares. He could not believe that the creatures would just let them go like that, with the sword and all the commotion that they had caused. There had to be something else, some form of last resistance. But he had to find the princess before then.

    He was also aware of the men that had just attacked them and shot Buckle. His heart was heavy at the thought of Buckle dying in the forest because of a king''s distrust and greed. He realized that he was right to want to keep the sword away from the king. The king would become a tyrant with a sword like that.

    Voices stopped his movement. They were loud and unsparing. The princess! He thought and his eyes widened. He crept closer and took a peep from behind the back of a tree. The princess and the men who had attacked him were discussing heartedly. She had betrayed them!

    Without thinking and overcome by emotions, he ran out towards them.

    "You betrayer!" he yelled, coming towards the princess.

    The soldiers all had their rifles aimed at him. He knew that if he moved further, he would be shot.

    "This was your plan all along?" he yelled. "You pretended to fall in love with me! Betrayer! I curse the day I curse my eyes on you!"

    "This is not what it looks like," Meredith pleaded.

    "It is exactly what it looks like. You have betrayed the peasants again for your stupid, royal gain."

    "And when were you going to tell me you were a peasant?"

    "So that is it! That is why you betrayed the only real friends you ever had?"

    "Enough of the squabbling!" Alphonso yelled. "Cut his head off!"Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    "No," the princess screamed, running over to stand before Tum. "Take him instead to the king as an impostor."

    "If you cut my head off, how will you know how to use the crystal sword?" Tum asked, raising his own sword. "The king would love to know who got him the sword even if the person is a peasant." He said the last word with a spiteful gaze in the princess''s direction.

    "I can claim I got the sword myself," Alphonso said. "Kill him."

    "You will have to kill me first," the princess said, still standing in front of Tum.

    "You don''t know him and yet you want to protect him?" Alphonso asked.

    "I want him in the dungeon for the rest of his life, thinking about what he did to me."

    Alphonso thought for a moment before he shrugged. "Sounds fair. Get the crystal sword from the impostor. Bind his hands and feet. We have the sword. Get the horses ready. We ride for Mora."

    The ground, which suddenly started vibrating, said otherwise. There were enemy forces coming close and the captain had no idea where they were coming from.

    "Get on your horses! Bind the prisoner!"

    The men bound Tum and bundled him towards a cage. The door was shut.

    "Get them out of here!" Alphonso screamed.

    The thunderous footfalls of the enemy were coming from before them. He pulled out his sword and prepared for the fight. Behind him, the horses with the prisoner and the princess set out for Mora.

    The first thing the men saw was a flying shadow in the sky. It was a large bird, and on top of it was the lady they had seen the boy knight with, the so-called dressmaker, Bonnie. She had another sword in her hand, and this one glittered. Alphonso stared down at his hand, at the sword that he had taken from Tum. It was an ordinary sword. He was a fool not to know. The crystal sword had to have a distinguishing feature between it and the other swords. Why had he not thought of that before dispossessing Tum of it?

    "Fire!" he yelled.

    He tried to bring his rifle to train on the girl riding a strange black eagle. But before he can do that, an onslaught of trolls from the forest slammed into him. He was sent tumbling back, rolling, and rolling on the ground.

    When he came to a halt beside a tree, he realized that both the rifle and his sword had been knocked off his hands. He had asked Sheer for more numbers to penetrate the forest. Sheer had refused. The best men, he said, would do the job. Were there not only three peasants to bury? Twenty men were more than enough. Now, as Alphonso lay against the tree, listening to sporadic gunshots going off and his men screaming in pain, he realized that not even the whole army of Kora could bring the forest to its knees.

    A shadow hovered above him. He raised his leg to see a big foot hanging over him. It was the last thing he ever saw.

    **

    "Open the gates!" the guards screamed as the lone wagon rolled down the trail towards the gate.

    Enil, the soldier who had managed to get the princess out of the forest with Tum as a prisoner was Alphonso''s second in command. He rode the carriage through the streets of the city, certain that he was a lucky man. He had heard the screams and dying shouts of the men he had set off with on this journey as he rode through the forest. He was certain Alphonso was dead.

    At the front of the palace, he found the king and Sheer waiting. He got down from the horse and helped the princess down. The advisor was looking startled as he stared at the carriage. Enil had nothing to say to the advisor. Alphonso was dead, and that was the man loyal to the king''s right-hand man.

    "Your grace," Enil said, bowing before the king.

    "What is this?" Harodin asked. "Why is the knight bound in a cage?"

    "He is no knight, your grace, but a little thieving peasant boy, who wanted to rob you of your crystal sword," Enil replied.

    "What? Where is the sword?" Harodin barked, already turning red with rage.

    "This very moment, the captain battles the troll and the thief''s friend who he passed off as his dressmaker in the enchanted forest. He bid me make haste and return with the princess and our prisoner.

    The king cast an unforgiving look at his sister.

    "I told you to leave the boy knight be!" the king thundered, glaring at his sister.

    "The boy is no knight, your gra¡­" Sheer began.

    "Silence!" Harodin yelled.

    "Your advisor sent soldiers after your guests, brother. They¡­"

    "An oversight on my part," Harodin said. "If I had sent soldiers, they would be back with the crystal sword now and the heads of the thieves."

    Harodin turned to Tum who had not uttered a word since he was accused.

    "Common, thieving peasant," the king said. "That I let you dine at my table, feast with my family. All you repay me with is treachery, of not only the kingdom but your soul also. I sentence you to die!"

    "Brother, do not rash," Meredith pleaded.

    "Get the prisoner and the princess out of my sight."

    The soldiers opened the cage and brought Tum down. Some of the citizens had gathered. Among them were the peasants on whose faces he could see admiration, admiration of him for what he had tried to do. But he did not feel the same way about himself. He felt terrible, like a failure. Like Buckle, he had failed at love. He had failed at protecting his friend.

    As he was led away, he cast a long, accusing stare at the princess who quickly pulled her eyes away.

    He was led past the palace gate and down towards the dungeon instead of the royal hallways he had gotten used to. With tears in his eyes, he remembered Buckle''s insistence that they left the palace. The both of them, he and Bonnie, had been deaf, blinded by the riches they had never before seen. Only Buckle stayed true to himself, even in the face of so much wealth.

    He was pushed roughly into the cell and the door shut in him.

    "Traitor," the guard said and spat like he was a curse. He lay on the ground where he had fallen from the guards push unable to pull himself up.

    "Oh, death, where are you?" he mumbled.

    "Shut up," a voice called from the other cell. "You have only just come."

    Tum ignored the voice. He had nothing to live for. His love had been a lie. He had started it, and the princess had completed it. A lie for a lie. But the betrayal was what hurt him most.

    "My lord," a voice called.

    Tum stirred. The voice was different. He knew that voice.

 A King and His Word

    "My Lord Greg," the voice called again.

    "Aris?"

    "My Lord. What happened?"

    "I am nobody''s lord. Not anymore," Tum replied. "It was fun while it lasted."

    "I saw through it all, but you have the courage, the boldness of spirit to be a lord."

    "My spirit ebbs at a low tide."

    "Take courage and rise again. There are some who are with you."

    "With me?"

    "I seek news of your servant."

    "His name is Buckle¡­" Tum said. The next words refused to leave his throat.

    "I want him to know that I made a mistake running away from him. I should not have let him leave."

    "Hmm."

    "Where is he?"

    "Is he coming back?"

    Tum did not know what to tell her. He had seen too many heartbreaks to want to cause one. How would he tell her that the man she now wanted was dead, gone?

    "Yes. He is coming back."

    He heard footsteps coming down the dark, dungeon hallway.

    "You have to leave," he told the captain. "Someone this way comes."

    "I await his return," Aris said, standing up.

    Enil walked down the dark hallway. The captain was rising as he approached, and he had overheard the last words of their conversation. He knew what it meant to be on the other side, against this captain. Aris was a warrior like none had ever seen. To see her fighting for love would be one great sight, but Enil knew he did not want that against himself.

    "Captain, the king seeks your presence," Enil said.

    Aris walked past him. He stood there, staring at the condemned Tum before he turned and followed the captain out of the dungeon.

    "I overheard the prisoner lying to you," Enil said.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    "What you heard or did not hear is none of your business," Aris said, brushing him off.

    "He told you his servant, Buckle, was coming back, right?"

    "What is it to you?" Enil asked, turning on the man.

    "Nothing. I was just wondering why a man would love to lie to the grave."

    "Speak."

    "There is nothing to say, and you would not believe me anyway."

    "Speak!" Aris said, drawing the man back when he tried to leave.

    They were of the same height, but with the way Aris stared into his eyes, Enil felt she could have been standing three feet clear of him. He stared into his eyes, then he looked away.

    "We found them fighting for the sword, the three of them."

    "He did not tell me that."

    "He would not."

    "Here," Enil said, showing her a piece of clothing he had gotten from Tum. It looked like a piece from the robe Buckle had worn on the journey, and Enil had obtained it for this reason. "The poor boy''s cloth as he fell. He was still stricken with grief at your refusal. He bid me give you this."

    Aris gasped. "But you know nothing about us."

    "Dying men keep no secrets, well, except for the prisoner in the dungeon, but then he might have someone he would be willing to pour his heart to."

    "The liar!" Aris declared in rage.

    Inwardly, Enil smiled. It was always fun to watch how feelings made the very best of soldiers take leave of their senses, especially if those soldiers were rivals.

    "I am going to see him!"

    "He would have another lie handy. As you know he''s quite smooth with his tongue."

    Aris had noticed this in the way Tim spoke with the king. He was too smooth for a noble many of whom she thought were unremarkable and uninspiring.

    "Besides, the king wants to see you now."

    Aris nodded and follows Enil towards the king''s court. Enil leads her to the king''s throne, bowed, and turned to take his leave.

    "Stay," the king said. He was seated on the throne on the only platform in the court.

    The captain of the king''s guard and the deputy of the Palace guard stood before him. Beside the king, Sheer stood, ever loyal in his position, or so it seemed.

    "Word has come to us of the gathering of the peasants somewhere in the city," Harodin said. "They are looking for a way to fight us back, and I have no intention of seeing back to watch peasants overrun this city."

    Enil shuffled uncomfortably where he stood. He loved running from fights. It ensured he stayed alive. That was when the captain decided to sacrifice himself and the men that were in the forest to the trolls, he was the first to respond to the captain''s request to take the princess and the prisoner home. None of them would contest that with him. The thought of a battle in the city upset him. He was going pale, getting drained of color.

    "We have to find them before they strike," Harodin declared passionately. "I would have their heads hanging on a spike before I give in to their request since they have chosen to mistake sensibility as weakness. I shall show them what a king does to treasonous subjects."

    The boy was barely twenty, yet he was talking as if he had been to the battlefield, Enil thought. He had no intention of being her to defend the king and his advisor. The peasants were enraged, and he did not think anything could stop them, not all the armies of Kora whom the peasants outnumber fifty to one.

    "Anyone you see or suspect of plotting on the crown is to be executed on the spot," the king continued, leaning back into his seat. Tomorrow, the traitor in the dungeon would be brought out to the people and publicly executed. The people must learn to respect the crown. I would have his head on the gates of the city as a message to the peasants."

    The captains nodded.

    "One more thing before you go," the king said.

    They looked towards him, attentive.

    "Kill whatever stands in your way. That is my command."

 You Betrayed Me!

    "What is this I hear?" Meredith barked. "What is this I hear that you plan on executing your guest and fighting the peasants when they have done nothing to provoke you?"

    Meredith was standing in the king''s chamber. She had barged in without knocking, an offense punishable by death. But she cared no longer.

    Her heart still felt something for the man in the dungeon even after discovering she had been lied to all along. The news of his imminent execution and the bloodshed that would follow an impending clash with the peasants filled her with dread. It was something she wished, very much to avoid.

    "You barge into my chambers without permission!" Harodin screamed.

    In that instant, Meredith saw their father in him. He looked so much like him with his golden hair and the madness that now resided in his eyes.

    The way he barked and screamed rather than speak. The memories were all coming back. The only thing missing was the evil Sheer standing by his side and egging him on.

    "You have to stop this madness. Sheer wants a battle with the peasants. The peasants are your subjects. Listen to their pleas. The fights would put your name in the mud, a king that went to war with his own people."

    "And who are you to tell me what to do?"

    Meredith fell on her knees. It was a complete transformation from the fiery-spirited girl that had barged into the room. She was soft, pleading with tears in her eyes and her hands raised in supplication.

    "I beg you, brother. Do not do this. It makes no sense. You cannot fight your own people."

    "What of the impostor? The boy knight."

    "You know how the people feel about him. You could banish him from the kingdom. We must not shed blood."

    "Oh, sister. You know nothing about ruling men," Harodin said and got up from his table. Surprisingly, there was no wine on his table today. He was clearheaded and that was frightening.

    If there was wine on his table, Meredith could conveniently blame the wine for intoxicating him and messing with his thinking. She watched him walk to the balcony from where he could see the whole of Mora and the outlands where the peasants farmed.

    "Come here, sister," Harodin called.

    Meredith got up from her knees and walked towards him. He waved his hand at all the land and stared at her.

    "All of that? Do you see it?"

    Meredith nodded. Her brother looked like a mad man, calm, calculating, evil. It was almost like Sheer had taken a lodging in his body, and his body had gone missing.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

    There was none of the gentility, none of the compassion. It was as if he had been looking for an excuse to launch an attack on peasants and be justified. Tum had given him that.

    "Father used to bring me to this place. He would point out the land. As far as your eyes can see, little sister. As far as your eyes can see. The lands, trees, crops, peasants, and all. They belong to the crown. All of them. There is no exception. That is why the crown protects them, and that is why they pay taxes."

    "You don''t have to declare war on them."

    "What would you have me give you? Peace or the miserable impostor languishing away in the dungeon?"

    "Brother..."

    "I would give you none. There is no peace when there is rebellion. It will simply stay under the calm sea, and when it will rear its ugly head, we may not be ready for it."

    "Brother, think. You were not always like this. Sheer has your mind bent on war."

    "Sheer is my faithful advisor. He was father''s advisor, and he has been nothing more than serving the royal house even when we do not deserve him."

    "He really has you now firmly around his fingers."

    "He has nothing, but the truth, the bitter truth. Leave me. Your man dies tomorrow, and the rebellious peasants with him. The ones who repent will be spared."

    "Brother..."

    "Leave!"

    The guards moved towards Meredith and she quickly turned towards the door. She would not have the guards treat her like she was a slave. Slowly, she walked towards the door, heaviness faltering each step.

    She was out in the hallway the same way she had come. There was one last thing that she could do. The captain, Aris. She was a woman. She might listen to her, especially if she told him that Sheer acted without the king''s knowledge and wanted the sword for himself. If she could free Tum, the peasants would not have much reason to fight.

    She ran to her room and spilled the ornaments from her body. Leaving her body plain with only the expensive robe still clinging to it, she wrapped a cloak over her head and hurried towards the dungeon. She wanted to see Tum one last time before she made the plan to get him out of there.

    Her heartbeat as she walked down the stairs towards the dungeon.

    The guards who were there quickly recognized her.

    "My princess," they muttered, bowing. She looked around for Erin, the offensive Alphonso''s second in command. He was not there.

    "Where is the newest prisoner kept?" she asked.

    They directed her to the far side of the dungeon. A guard led the way with a torch in his hand. The flame burned like the one that would soon be quenched in Kora.

    "Impostor," the soldier called.

    From inside the prison, the light hurt Tum''s eyes, but he managed to see the princess standing there. She was still beautiful, but he did not think he could forgive her, not after what she had done. Buckle was dead because of her.

    "Have you come to betray me again?" Tum asked. His voice showed his weariness.

    "You can go," the princess told the guard who was still standing there. She took the torch from him and watched him leave. Then she turned to Tum. "I have to get you out of this place."

    "You can''t keep deceiving me," Tum said. "My friend died because of you."

    "I did not kill your friend."

    "You came with the soldiers."

    "The plan was not mine, you fool! Now, listen to me. I''ll get Aris to let you out of here. You will have to flee the kingdom."

    "I will never trust you again," Tum said.

    "You forget that I trusted you first and you failed me."

    "It was nothing like what you did."

    "Do you want to die?"

    "I would rather die than accept any help from you."

    The princess'' mouth was set. She still felt crossed by Tum''s actions

    "Have it your way then," she said.

    She walked away with the light, leaving Tum behind.

    Tum listened to her footfalls. It felt like the world walking away from him. He had gotten the news that he would be killed tomorrow. The king wanted his execution as quickly as possible. He sighed.

 Day Before Death

    In the darkness that would bring the day of the execution, hooded figured walked through the streets of the city. Most of them were fat. The soldiers watched them, bemused, having been told to set up watch in particulate parts of the city. If most of the peasant population were this fat, then how did they expect to fight the soldiers who were well-trained and faster?

    What they did not know was that more than half of the people that passed were not fat at all. In fact, they were tiny, hiding weapons inside bundles and wraps of clothes that made them fat.

    Quil moved among these people, certain that the day was at hand¡ªthe day of reckoning for the crown. The peasants had endured enough injustice at their hands. After killing the king, the advisor would be next.

    The kingdom would be without a leader, then the peasants would kill every nobleman in sight, everyone with royalty in his or her lineage. He knew he could not stop his men from raping the women. He was not planning to.

    He made his way into a house, waited for four other people to get into the house with him, then he shut the door.

    "We have a problem on our hands," he informed the men with him in the house. The house was a little one. Very little space was left with all four of the men crammed in there with the furniture. Still, they were not the only ones. Some people were already there waiting for them. "The boy, Tum. He probably wanted to get us the sword even though all I asked for was the map."

    A hush fell over the men.

    "He''s going to be executed tomorrow, my source in the palace says," Quil continued.

    "We have to save him," one of the men said.

    "And we will," Quil replied. "But he has fallen for the princess."

    "Fallen for the princess?"

    "He fell in love, like a young idiot."

    "We have to rid him of that thought. There is no place for a love like theirs. Royalties only deal with royalties," one of the men who had his beard plaited into braids said.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    "I suspect she must have betrayed him after finding out who he really was," Quil said. "Tomorrow, we strike."

    **

    Princess Meredith walked out of the dungeon and went in search of Aris. She doubted there was anyone who really knew what happened in the forest. Erin would be about spreading falsehood to save his own head. He was just as vile as Alphonso and the advisor. She wondered if the sneaky deputy had gotten to Aris. She hoped not.

    Aris was not at her post when Meredith got there. The princess suspected that the female warrior had already retired for the night. She went towards her quarters and banged on the door.

    At the second knock, the door was opened from the inside, and an angry-looking Aris stared at her. The anger in the guard''s face quickly turned to a subservient expression. She bowed her head slightly.

    "My lady," she muttered.

    Aris was no longer in her combat wear, but she looked formidable nonetheless. Meredith found her eyes running over the captain''s muscular arms.

    "I fear I keep you from sleep," Meredith said, "but still the matter is urgent, otherwise I would not have come."

    "Come in, my lady," Aris said, letting the princess through be fire she pulled the door shut.

    The room was bare except for the mattress on the floor and the bag of clothes by the side. The captain lived like a Spartan, Meredith observed.

    "The king plans to execute the prisoner," Meredith said.

    "A traitor," Aris said. "His punishment is well-deserved.

    The princess was shocked. She stared at Aris, speechless.

    "You don''t know this ''traitor'' then. The king does not know it, but Sheer wants the crystal sword for himself. He sent soldiers after the man who now suffers in the dungeon, instructing them to cut down the king''s guests once they laid their hands on the sword. Why do you think he did this?"

    Three lines appeared on Aris''s forehead as she thought about what the princess had said.

    "How do you know this, my lady?"

    "I was there. The bastard Alphonso shot and killed Buckle before the trolls came for them. His sister, Bonnie has the sword, and with it the command of all the trolls in the forest."

    "It was not the prisoner?"

    "The prisoner was captured by Sheer''s soldiers of which Erin was among."

    "So Sheer is working again the king and the king does not even know."

    "I swear on all the gods that this is true. He fights the king standing beside him."

    "We have to warn the king," Aris said.

    "I already tried. He would not listen. His heart is completely poisoned, and he would do everything to fight the peasant in a war planned from the very beginning by his scheming advisor."

    "To what end?"

    "He wants the crown for himself."

    "A traitor, a usurper."

    "We must free the prisoner, with haste."

    They dashed out of the room, but when they got to the dungeon, they realized that the guards had been tripled. There was no way they were going to pull off any rescue mission, the both of them.

    They watched the mouth of the dungeon while tears appeared in Meredith''s eyes.