The Inner Kingdom: Quest One (Dragon Quest Book 1) (13 page)

“There’s no time for pleasantries,”
Rṓ
gaire apologized to me as he turned to Leev. “The palace is under attack.”

“Get me Leo, and sound the alarm to prepare the guards. Now!” Leev instructed, his demeanor changing from a charming young man to an intimidating future ruler.

The Action

Location: The Castle

◑
Angi
e
◐

Every time I wake up it seems to be at the sound of someone knocking. I realized that this time I was not in a warm bed, and my face was pressed against a cool surface.

When I opened my eyes, all I could see was two giant moons illuminating the night sky, and tiny lights below that startled me so bad, I hurriedly scooted away from the glass so fast that I fell backwards onto my head off of the dresser.

Pulling myself up from the floor, the pain I felt in my neck made me feel sorry for the person knocking on the other side of the door.

Stumbling through the darkness in the room, I finally made it to the source of the noise.

Putting on my most irritated face, I opened the door to find Leo on the other side…again.

“Why does it always have to be you?” He sighed heavily backing away from the door.

“My sentiments exactly. Why are you here?” I questioned, feeling like I was having a
déjà vu
moment.

“I don’t know what possessed me to come here,” he muttered, starting to turn around and then changed his mind. “I am here to try to talk some sense into you and your sisters.”

“Okay, talk.” I gestured for him to continue while leaning against the door of the room after closing it softly behind me.

My response must have shocked him since he just stared at me speechless. “You’re not going to dispute me?"

“I am too tired to argue with you right now. I will give you five minutes to talk.”

“All right, I am going to get straight to the point. I want you to reconsider returning to Earth.”

“That was very precise, and it deserves a clear-cut answer. No,” I responded, turning my back to him to go back into the room.

“How can you just ignore your sense of duty to your world? What about the family you will be leaving behind? They are expecting to see you again one day. If you leave, you will never see your real parents.”

No matter how hard I told myself not to listen to him, and to just walk away and close the door, I could not make my hand turn the doorknob. “What do you expect from us? We were taken away from the only home we have ever known and brought into this world where we are told that this entire world is depending on us to bring peace. In less than twenty-four hours I will be eighteen, and back on Earth I will just be another girl trying to get into a good college. Not a girl literally carrying the weight of a world on her shoulders.”

“I understand that this must be difficult.”

“No, you don’t understand. In two days, you expect us to turn our backs on everything we have been raised to believe is true and believe in a destiny that was told to us by someone who tried to trap us here.”

“You must understand why he did it. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and listen to reason. Your world is no longer about you or your sisters.” Leo stepped closer to me, forcing me to look up into his face. “How do you think Nolin feels knowing that your parents entrusted their babies to him to keep safe, and he in return handed the dragon warriors over to people, who would soon come to betray their own world?”

“What would you do if you were in my situation?” I asked deflated and confused by the many emotions going through me.

“I’m not going to say I wouldn’t be angry. You have every right to be upset, and I know Nolin regrets ever lying to all of you,” he stated backing away with his eyes still on me. “I believe you already know what to do, and in the end you will do what’s right. At least that is what I would do.”

Before Leo could completely turn around, a loud shrill filled the air.

“What is that?”

“It’s the emergency alarm. Something is wrong. I must go at once.”

“Wait a minute. I am going, too.” I yelled back.

Before I could open the door to get my sisters, I found April already in the doorway. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know. Leo says there is an emergency. Where is Ashley?” I screamed above the loud noise as I looked into an empty room.

“I thought she was out here with you.”

“There is no time to explain anything at the moment. We need to go now!” Leo commanded, already sprinting down the hall.

Exchanging short glances, we quickly took off behind him as he activated a celta that opened a portion of the wall leading to a long spiral staircase.

“Where are we going?” I yelled as the siren continued to wail.

“The guard’s station,” Leo responded without looking back as we descended down the stairs. The door closed behind us, shutting out the sounds of the alarm.

Peaking over the side of the stairs, it appeared to be a long way down, but as soon as I had taken about ten steps, I was already putting my foot down on the bottom floor.

Looking behind me, I realized what seemed like a long way down now appeared to be a lengthy journey back up. The room we had entered was filled with heavily armed men who parted for Leo as he plodded his way through the sea of armor. Up ahead, I could see the prince, and as I got closer, I could see Ashley standing beside him.

It did not take long for Ashley to spot us coming towards her. She met us halfway, giving both of us a big hug, as we examined one another.

“I was afraid something had happened to you when you weren’t in the room,” I confessed.

“I am fine. I was with Leev and his father, and then all of a sudden he was told the castle was under attack.”

“Hold on, Leev? You are calling him by just his name now? How long was I asleep?”

I did not like the blush that was beginning to spread across Ashley’s face. “That is not important right now. The castle is under attack.”

At that moment, a loud whistle filled the air, quieting the guards around us.

“As you all must know by now, Queen Jewel has awakened, and it hasn’t taken her very long to strike,” Leo's voice roared through the quiet room. “I want several men to go ahead and help the guards stationed in the towns to help evacuate the remaining people into the castle.”

Without questions, a third of the men in the room disappeared up the stairs.

“Now, I will need the rest of you to suit up and prepare for battle, Jewel is too weak to attack us directly, so we know she must have sent some of her underlings to fight for her. There is no longer time for training. It is time for action. Will you fight for the kingdom?”

The battle cry coming from the guards was even more deafening than the alarm in the hall.

The men begin to grab weapons off of the walls behind the prince that I did not recall seeing when I first came in.

“What should we do?” April asked, stepping toward Nolin.

“It would be best if you stayed hidden until the battle is over,”
Rṓ
gaire answered for Nolin appearing out of nowhere.

“As much as it pains me to admit it, he is right. The only reason why Jewel would react so quickly is because she knows you are here, and she can feel that your powers are weak,” Leo added unsheathing a sword at his side to inspect the blade. “Nolin, I will need you to go to the king and take the dragon warriors with you.”

“I don’t like this. Are you sure you don’t need our help?” I asked, stepping closer to Leo. “It looks as if you could use us.”

“If you want to return back to the Earth world alive, I suggest you go with Nolin.”

“No.”

“Why don’t you ever do what you are told?”

“Because I am stubborn, and also you told me that I should do what’s right, so I am.”

“Count us in, too.” Ashley insisted stepping beside me, along with April. “We can’t let you be the only one doing the right thing. Are you trying to make us look bad?”

Rubbing his hands over his face, Leo finally relented as he saw that we were not going to run and hide. “
Rṓ
gaire bring me some armor for them.”

Rṓ
gaire quickly left and returned with three gold belts. As we each took one from him, I was wondering what we were supposed to do with these shiny over-sized belts.

“Just put the belts on.”

Still maintaining our doubts, we did as we were instructed. Needless to say, they were about three sizes too big. All of a sudden, the belts began to tighten and spread rapidly up and down the length of our bodies. When the belt stopped growing, I turned to my sisters to see that the belt had transformed into a full-body armor suit, which molded to our figures.

“There are so many things I want to ask. Number one being, what happened to our dresses? But I have a feeling you are just going to tell me that there is no time for questions.”

“I’m glad you understand the situation we are in,” Leo countered with a hint of a smile on his face. “
Rṓ
gaire, escort them to the castle’s wall.”

“I thought you said we would be able to help.”

“You will be able to help from afar. From the castle’s wall, you will be able to see the battle and provide moral support to the men fighting for you until you are strong enough to fight for them.”

I wanted to argue with him, but I knew it was pointless. Looking at my sisters, I could tell that they were not happy with his decision either.

“I have made sure that all of the men are suited up and ready,” the prince interjected now suited in full-body armor himself. “Word has spread that we are under attack by three unicus and they are quickly approaching the castle’s wall.”

“Unicus?” April looked just as curious as I was.

“There is no time to explain.
Rṓ
gaire, go ahead and escort them out, and let no harm come to them,” Leo ordered, making it clear that there was a hidden threat in his statement.”

Rṓ
gaire gestured for us to follow him as he went toward the stairs and activated a celta that was well blended into the railing. After the celta disappeared, we continued to follow him up. Once we reached the top of the stairs, I was stunned yet again when I stepped right into the fresh night air.

Stepping through the door, I realized that we were high up on the castle’s wall, and could see the people below rushing into the castle.

“Follow me,”
Rṓ
gaire ordered steadily walking down the length of the wall, unfazed by the chaos below.

After walking for about five minutes, I finally saw what we were up against. Standing not too far away from the wall was three giant black horses with wings and a long sharp pointy white horn. The mane around their head and legs were wild and long, as they struck the ground with their front hooves. Even from where I was high up on the wall, I could see the gleaming light coming from their red eyes.

“Is that a unicus?” April muttered backing away from the wall with fear in her eyes.

“Yes, usually they are peaceful solitary creatures. We have never had a problem with them before, but somehow Jewel must have made them an offer they could not refuse,”
Rṓ
gaire explained, looking down at them with disgust.

“And to think I wanted one of those when I was a little girl,” I joked.

“Bring out the dragon warriors!” A loud voice roared cutting through the night like thunder.

Trying to see who made the sound, I realized it was coming from the lead unicus that stood higher than the other two behind it. I could barely make out the guards below as they surrounded the creatures.

“You can make this easier for yourselves if you just hand over the dragon warriors!” The creature continued to demand.

“I couldn’t hear the answer that they received, but judging by the sudden earsplitting battle cry coming from the guards, I knew what the response was.

The battle had begun. I don’t believe that I will ever be able to forget the sounds of that were rising up from below.

No matter how many guards attacked the beasts, they never showed any signs of being injured. The clash of swords against what sounded like metal was actually the sides of the unicus and their horns. It was like they were mechanical, super-steel robots; then came the screaming as the creatures trampled over guards and pierced them with their horns.

A glowing sword stood out amongst the shiny armor as I made out Leo’s solid figure lunging at the creatures, using his energy to make his blows even more powerful.

I couldn’t watch the scene any longer. “They need our help down there. How do I get down?”

"Leo will have me killed, if I let you on the battlefield,”
Rṓ
gaire protested.

“Not if he dies first. How can I get down?”

“I can’t voluntarily let you down.”

“Then how about involuntary?”

“I guess there is nothing I can do if you knocked me out, and discovered how to use the transport celta,” he stated pointing toward a giant drawing of two moons about a foot away from us on the floor.

As soon as he turned back around from showing us the celta, I put everything I got into my right fist, laying him down hard on the floor. “I’m glad you see things my way.”