Things Left Undone Book 2, Chapter 9
Long Live the King
By CuteLucca
After searching 600 AD for what seemed like hours, the three resorted to searching the tiny town of Dorino. They went into the local tavern, the Dark Moon.
A young lady sitting by herself in the corner caught their eye. Magus went over to her, but she kept her attention rooted to the mug of frothy ale in front of her. After she finished off another two mugs without even glancing at Magus, he cast a confused shrug at Lucca and Flea.
Magus sighed and turned back to the girl. He stood behind her for a moment, then kicked the stool out from under her.
The girl fell to the ground with a slam, and the tavern went quiet. A large man from the nearby table stood up, and approached Magus with a glare on his face. He scooched down, lifted the girl up, and brushed her off.
"Now what did you do that for?" The large man, who had a stubbly beard and a metal plate over his left eye lifted Magus off of the floor by his cape.
Magus dangled for a moment. "Because your friend wouldn't talk to me. I simply asked her a question, and politely, I might add."
The man then threw Magus to the floor and returned to his place behind the girl. "When Sydney doesn't want a man, she gets angry if he keeps bothering her." he said, with a sinister grin on his face.
Magus reddened when Flea and Lucca started laughing. "I did not want her. I wanted to know where I could find Roth, the seer." He was still sprawled on the floor.
"Aah. The seer!!" A small man in the back corner laughed, and turned to the rest of the people in the bar, who were still watching, fascinated. "Our new caped friend here wants to find Roth!!" He doubled over laughing, and the rest of the people followed his example. They didn't stop until several people had spewed up their lunch, and two others had choked and passed out on the floor.
The girl, Sydney, did not laugh. She just stood there the whole time, with a blank stare on her face. But then, Magus, Flea and Lucca noticed her eyes. They were originally gray and glazed, but suddenly they flashed bright green and reflected the firelight in various shades of orange.
The three were not the only ones to notice the change, though. Everyone gasped, and the small man in the back corner, who was holding a large stein to his face, guzzling the contents, dropped it. It clanged on the floor. He slunk to the corner and hid behind a chair. Lucca turned around, and everyone that was in the bar originally was now either gone or hiding behind chairs, tables and barrels. Even the bartender was crouched behind the counter, only his eyes visible.
She turned back to Sydney, whose eyes were still sparkling. Suddenly, Lucca and the others were possessed by a fear so profound that they were reduced to a cowering, shaking pile on the floor. They were even too scared to scream.
Just as suddenly as it came, the fear dissipated. Sydney turned to the rest of the people in the bar, who were victims of the same fear, and spoke. "Let that be a lesson to you. Do not laugh at my father."
Magus lifted his head from under his gloved hands and turned to Sydney. "Roth is your father?"
"Yes, fool. Do you want to find him so you can laugh at him, or are you one of those few who want to arrest him?" Sydney glared at them.
Magus stammered. "Well, we actually wanted to ask him for advice."
Sydney snorted. "Well, good luck trying. He's currently being held in King Guardia's (may demons devour his soul) dungeon."
"Why is he in the dungeon?" Lucca got off of the floor and ordered a drink from the bartender.
"Because he predicted the king's untimely demise. The king is now going to great lengths to avoid the prophecy. He's not leaving the castle, and rumors say he dresses as a normal soldier to throw off any potential assassins." Sydney sighed. "My father is scheduled for execution tomorrow morning."
Magus yelled. "No!! We've got to break him out! He's necessary to save the world!" Magus explained to Sydney and her silver-plated friend, whose name turned out to be Gord, about all their adventures and how Roth was necessary in the scheme of things.
Sydney gave them a sad smile at the end of the story. "I don't know who you are, where you come from, or if you're telling the truth. But I want my father out because I love him." She was silent for a moment. "Tell you what. Gord and I will come along, and we'll be of as much help as we can. We have to hurry up, though, cause' it's getting dark and tomorrow morning is the guillotine date." She motioned to Gord, and he went to the back of the bar and returned a few minutes later with a large sack.
She opened the sack and dumped the contents onto a table. "Rope. Throwing stars. Food, water. Black clothing. All clear? Now, I'm in charge of this operation." At the angry glances from the others at that remark, she added, "He's my father. Now go out back and change out of those gaudy bright clothes into these dark ones. We want to get in and out without attracting any attention."
* * * * *
A half hour later and under the cover of a cloudless night, the five jailbreakers slunk up to the castle walls.
"We don't want to kill anyone, okay?" Sydney cautioned. Gord removed the rope from the bag and attached a metal hook to the end. He twirled it around his head several times and then let it go. It flew over the wall, and it hit with a light clink. Gord leaned his weight on it to make sure it would hold. It did, and the five scaled the wall and waited at the top, on the walkway.
The closest sentry was facing away from them, so they dashed for the tower where prisoners are held.
As they were running, Gord dislodged a large rock from the wall. Everyone stopped, as the rock fell down in seeming slow motion, down until it bounced off of a helmeted sentry's head. The sentry crumpled onto the ground, and the resounding clang of rock hitting armor and armor falling onto a hard floor alerted the sentries.
All fifty of the guards on the wall turned as one to look at the black-clad invaders. Everyone stared at everyone else for a millisecond, then, tripping over each other, the five invaders scrabbled for the tower door. The soldiers yelled, and raced for the door in a more orderly fashion. The lights all through the castle flicked on, and within minutes, the whole place was mobilized and prepared to apprehend the crooks.
Meanwhile, those crooks were racing through the tower.
"So how are we supposed to find him if we're being chased by hundreds of soldiers?" Magus spat out in between steps.
Sydney was running behind Gord, and she was whapping him on the head every few seconds, yelling things like "You IDIOT!" and obscenities that even pirates would blush at.
They rounded the corner at breakneck speed, and came across a group of soldiers blocking their path. They bowled right through them, and kept on running.
Flea looked back, and screamed when she saw about fifty guards crowding into the corridor behind them. "Run, run, run! Where is that guy!?!"
They were coming to the top of the tower, with still no sign of Roth. The hallway ended in a choice of three doors.
Lucca, who had led their charge through the tower, kicked down the middle door. They came to a room that was empty except for an old man. "Dad!!" Sydney launched herself into her father's arms.
"No time for that!! How are we gonna get out of here!?!" Magus looked out of the door, and was confronted by a group of soldiers stampeding to the end of the hall. "We're trapped!!"
Gord draped the old man over his massive shoulder, and looked out of the window. "We're gonna have to go out there." It was a sixty foot drop into a moat.
"How? We can't fly, and I left our gear out on the walkway!" Sydney yelled. Just then, the soldiers flooded into the room, trapping them. Their choices were either jumping out of the window to certain death, or facing an almost unlimited amount of soldiers, also certain death.
"Sydney! Can you do your fear thing again?" Flea ribbed her. Sydney went still, and suddenly, everyone was floored, whimpering and shivering in fear, including Magus, Lucca, Flea, Gord and Roth.
Flea whimpered. "Not us!" Sydney released them all. "Sorry. Everyone within range is affected, good or bad." The soldiers got to their hands and knees, shaking off the remnants of the fear. One of the soldiers ran with his sword raised to attack Flea, and to keep from being killed she hurled a throwing star at his face.
It gouged deep, and he fell to the ground, dead.
The soldiers gasped, and dropped their weapons. One or two rushed over to the dead soldier's side, trying to nurse him back to health. "You killed our king!!"
Flea shifted and looked around. "I killed the King? Uh oh..."
The soldiers got up and approached the invaders with swords drawn and spears leveled.
Flea blanched. "The prophecy! It was true!! I... I... I didn't know it was him!! GYAAAH!!" The soldiers fell upon them, hacking and thrusting.
But just before they were reduced to bloodied chunks on the ground, they all leaped out of the window. They fell and fell, finally splashing into the water sixty feet below.
Gord, with Roth, was the first to emerge. He crawled onto the bank, hacking and coughing the water out of his lungs. Magus was next, unharmed except for a few cuts he received before jumping out the window. Flea crawled out of the moat and glared at the guards yelling down from the window. Then Lucca dragged an unconscious Sydney out of the water.
They could hear the guards deploy bowmen onto the walls, and to the hail of arrows and spears, they made their escape. Dripping, sore, and tired, they boarded the Epoch and returned to 12,004 BC.
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