Chapter Seven

 

 

 

Laura

 

Much to my dismay, there’s a knock at my door bright and early the next morning. The longer I try to ignore the noise, the louder it gets, so I finally climb out of my bed to answer the door. To my right, Shane is still sleeping on my purple couch, completely undisturbed by the noise.

“Stop beating on my door and nobody gets hurt,” I say, rubbing my tired eyes. When I open them, I find Ryan fully dressed in his guard uniform, standing ready to knock again if necessary.

“Sorry to wake you, Laura, but your father has requested that you, Shane and your brother accompany him for today’s events,” Ryan says, always polite.

“What events are today?” I yawn. It’s too early for this.

“The capture of your sister, as you discussed with your father last night. She’s supposed to attempt to rescue Isaac today. Did you forget?”

“I woke up two minutes ago. Give me a break. When are we leaving?”

“In an hour. Be in front of the palace in forty-five minutes. And make sure to bring Eight.”

“I thought Dad dismissed him from the mission,” I say, worrying for my brother. I don’t want him to be tied to Alicia’s death. He will never forgive himself.

“He wants to ensure Eight’s loyalty. He wants him to see the pain Alicia has caused the city so that he isn’t swayed to her side.”

“Eight would never be disloyal to us.”

“I know that, but your father’s become paranoid since Alicia’s attack. Just bring him,” Ryan demands.

“Fine,” I snap, slamming the door in his face.

Today will be difficult. Last night solidified my plan to betray Alicia, but it won’t be easy. The hateful words she said about my father only made me more loyal to him, but she is still my sister. Once we’ve captured her and Dad is done interrogating her, she’ll likely be killed. I don’t know if I am prepared to have a hand in that.

Before I wake Shane, I get ready myself so that I’ll have some alone time to think. From my walk-in closet, I grab a pair of black leggings, a tank top and some sandals. Then I locate my protective black vest, similar to the ones that are part of the Royal Guard’s battle uniform, which will give me an extra layer of safety.

Weapons are next. I place a sword in a sheath with a strap I hang around my shoulder, pack several knives in a pouch I carry on my right hip and a gun in a holster on the left. Carefully I braid my long black hair and tie it at the end with a small, red rubber band, so that it will stay out of my way in case I have to do any fighting.

Unfortunately, the mere thought of having to fight anyone makes my heart heavy. If I do anything to prevent Alicia’s capture, my father will shun me for the rest of my life, if he doesn’t kill me, and I’ll be cut off from nearly everyone I love. And if I fight for my father, Alicia’s death will be certain. I will lose my only sister. It is an impossible decision, but one that I have no choice but to make.

Once I am ready, I go to wake up Shane. He’s never been on a mission with the Royal Guard before, as far as I know, so he’ll need to learn what he’s expected to wear and carry to any possible battles. I shake his shoulder gently, and he stirs, but doesn’t open his eyes.

“Shane, you’ve gotta get up,” I say, flicking him in the forehead. He opens his eyes only to glare at me.

“Doesn’t anyone in your family know how to wake someone up—I don’t know—gently?” he says with a yawn.

I roll my eyes. “I tried that and you didn’t respond. Hurry up. We’ve got thirty minutes to go before we have to meet my father and Ryan in front of the palace.”

“I’ve already met your father—and Ryan,” Shane says, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “And why do I need to get ready? Are you confessing your undying love for me to them?”

“What? No!” I say, blushing as I smack him upside the head. “Stop talking nonsense. We’re going to capture my sister today.”

His face is instantly serious. “Oh gosh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to… I shouldn’t have been joking… I…”

“It’s fine. Just shut up and get ready. Put on the uniform you were given for battle. You have to wear one of these stupid vests, a long-sleeve shirt and black pants. I don’t care what kind of shoes you wear,” I say.

“I can see that. Sandals? Really? What if someone shoots your foot?”

“Magically, bullets are capable of going through fabric,” I say with an eye roll. “So, really, it doesn’t matter.”

“What if you stub your toe and it brings you down in the middle of a fight?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Shane. I’ve been shot, stabbed, punched… You name it. A stubbed toe isn’t going to faze me.”

“You’ve been shot? What happened?”

“A bullet hit me. We don’t have time to tell stories. Get ready, and I’m going to go to the weapons room to get some things for you to save us time,” I say then leave my room without another word.

The great thing about the palace is that there’s a weapons room on every floor. The only places to train with the weapons are the room on the first floor and outside in the forest, but, for convenience, we have a supply of deadly instruments down every hallway.

Quickly, I enter the room and grab a gun, a few knives and a sword—the same as I have. I’d imagine that Shane can use each of these tools with excellence, but with his clumsiness, I wouldn’t be surprised if he just manages to injure himself instead. On second thought, I should probably bring a roll of bandages just in case.

When I return to my room, Shane is dressed and ready to go, leaning on the balcony and looking out at the forest as he waits for my return.

“Arm yourself with these. We ought to go make sure Eight’s doing okay and walk down with him,” I say, sighing. “I highly doubt he wants to attend today’s spectacle.”

“Then why doesn’t he just stay home?”

“Dad ordered him to attend. He’d be severely punished if he ignored that.”

“That’s awful,” Shane says, grimacing as he puts knives in his pockets, the gun in a holster around his waist and the sword’s sheath around his shoulder, resting against his back like I have mine.

“Tell me about it. C’mon,” I say, leading the way to Eight’s room.

To my surprise, when I open my brother’s bedroom door, I find him already dressed similarly to Shane and me and even armed with weapons that he’ll probably never use. I’m rather impressed.

“Who are you and what have you done with my brother?” I ask. Eight looks up at us, a bit surprised at our arrival, and smiles sadly.

“I just thought it would be a good idea not to piss Dad off today,” he says.

“Probably a good idea. You gonna be okay?” I ask.

Eight ignores my question. “We’d better head downstairs. He’ll be mad if we’re late.”

“Yeah. I guess you’re right,” I say. Eight brushes past me, clearly bothered by today’s events. We’re going to capture our sister. She will eventually die because of this. Eight is devastated, and I am just fine. “I’ll meet you guys downstairs. I’m going to take a more challenging route.”

“I’ll go with you,” Shane says.

“It involves climbing trees.”

“Never mind,” he says, hurrying after my brother. I smirk.

The front doors of the palace are just below my father’s balcony, so I enter his room and walk to it. In Dad’s room, nearly everything is painted black. Darkness covers everything, from the carpet, to the walls, to the furniture. Only a dim lamp shines from the nightstand beside his bed, combined with the light from the window, making it easy enough to find my way through the dark room.

There’s a tree conveniently located beneath his window too, an easy way for him to escape in case of an attack. That’s why there are trees by mine and Eight’s windows too. He wants us to always have a safe way to get out of the palace in case we’re losing a battle so badly that we won’t live unless we flee. Of course, I’d rather die with my fellow soldiers than run away from a fight, but Dad refuses to give me that option. I’m needed. My life assures Karkonia’s future, and must be protected at all costs, even at the expense of making me look like a coward. I hope it never comes to that.

I climb down the tree quietly, and sit in the branches for a little while, watching as Shane and Eight arrive to stand next to my father and Ryan, who are wearing the same thing that Shane, Eight and I are. We’re all wearing matching outfits to capture my sister. What a lovely bonding experience. Before I jump to the ground, I take a moment to push all of my emotions to the back of my mind and lock them away. My actions today can only be based on observation and instinct. That is the only way to ensure that I will make the best possible choice.

While I’m thinking, I watch my father pace back and forth, growing more irritated with my absence by each passing second.

“Eight, where is your sister?” he demands, crossing his arms, and looking around for me.

“I have no idea. She was right behind me when we left my—” Eight begins, but I jump out of the tree and gracefully land on the dirt in front of them.

“I’m right here,” I say, smiling triumphantly.

“Show off,” Eight says, rolling his eyes.

“Nice of you to finally join us, Laura. Let’s get going,” my father says. A black car is waiting for us nearby, and we follow the Emperor to witness the attack that will, for good or bad, change all of our lives forever.

 

* * * *

 

The drive to Karkay’s training camp takes only thirty minutes and by the time we arrive, the action is fully underway. From the car window, I see young guard soldiers running to and fro, trying and failing to round up the rebels and get the situation under control. Alicia is nowhere to be seen, but she seems to have found plenty of people to help her with this mission. Someone nearby aims a gun at our car, and I yell for everyone to get down as the glass shatters and the bullet narrowly avoids hitting anyone within the vehicle.

“Why hasn’t this been taken care of?” my father shouts, covering his head and climbing out of the door. He pulls a gun from its holster and loads it.

“There are apparently quite a few more rebels than the guard was prepared for. Alicia must’ve brought a small army,” Ryan says, ensuring that everyone in the car is now safely hidden behind it.

“Laura, I thought you said that she was only bringing a few rebels to help free Isaac.”

“Well, apparently she lied!” I shout, staying close to the ground. I draw my gun and move toward the back of the car, leaning around the side and taking down the soldier who aimed at us quickly and easily. Luckily, from his clothing, he doesn’t appear to be on our side. The rebel’s emblem is embroidered on his shirt, visible as he falls to the ground, gone from this world. This will buy us a few minutes.

By now, Eight, Shane and Ryan are crouching close to the ground and using our vehicle as cover. Ryan, ever efficient and prepared for any disaster, immediately begins taking charge of the situation, distributing orders to the four of us in a quiet, yet terrifying, voice.

“Shane, immediately escort Laura, Eight and the Emperor to safety. Protect them with your life. I’m going to radio for back-up then go give instructions to the soldiers in our camp.”

“No! I’m going with you, Ryan. You need help!” I whisper.

“You most certainly are not, Laura,” my father interjects. “You will come with us and hide. You need to remain safe.”

“No! I’m not a coward, and I won’t abandon my fellow soldiers—not now, not ever.”

“Laura Annette White, you will come with us immediately. I have no problem with you fighting when we have control of a situation, but that’s as much as I’m willing to risk.”

“But, Dad, I can’t abandon them—” I begin, but he cuts me off.

“You can, and you will.”

Ryan nods in agreement with Father, and I punch the side of the car, frustrated.

“Fine. Let’s go,” I say with no intention of staying with them once we’ve safely hidden my father and brother. After that, all bets are off. I have to find my sister, and after what she’s done today, I’m ready to spill her blood. I won’t let her escape this time. She will pay for this.

Ryan and Shane make sure the coast is clear and, after obliterating the few rebels that were in this area, take off in different directions.

“I trained at this base. There’s an old bomb shelter underground, not far from here. We keep a good supply of weapons in there, so it should be pretty safe. The rebels probably won’t know about it,” Shane says. He leads us to the back of the long building that makes up the base, a place that the rebels have yet to reach. They’re still attempting to fight their way into the building toward the front, and it’s taking nearly all of their strength. Likely, the rebel that shot at our car was only a lookout, standing in the open. Luckily, he’s no longer able to give away our position.

A chain link fence topped with barbed wire surrounds the entire building, and once we’re behind it, Shane quickly locates a large hole in the metal, easy enough for us to crawl through. One by one, we follow Shane into the camp, crawling on the dirt and staying close to the ground until everyone’s through, just in case.

“I think we should probably just crawl to the bomb shelter. It’s not far, and I don’t particularly want any of you to get shot,” Shane says quietly.

“You obviously have to lead, so I’ll go last. I can watch for rebels, and Dad and Eight are going to be safest between the two of us. We’re both better shots,” I say, only assuming that Shane can shoot a gun efficiently. He had to be recruited for the palace guard for something, and it’s likely for his good aim rather than his gracefulness, which I’m certain is nonexistent.

The crawl to the bomb shelter goes swimmingly until a bullet hits the ground near my leg. I immediately turn around and fire my gun in the direction that it came from, but miss. The shooter, who I’ve now identified as a rebel, aims his gun at me again, but I’m faster than he is. One more rebel down and one more life to add to the blood on my hands.

“Keep going. It’s safe now,” I say, following Shane and the others closely and quickly to the bomb shelter. Shane opens the rusted metal door that is attached to a low-to-the-ground, metal platform, and reveals a rusty ladder that leads down into darkness.

“Um, Mr. the Emperor, Sir, I think you should go first, since you’re the leader of the country and all,” Shane says nervously, handing my father a flashlight that had been taped to the inside of the bomb shelter door.

My father takes the flashlight from Shane and follows his instructions without complaint, surprising all three of us. Dad generally hates it when people tell him what to do, no matter what the reason. I guess it comes with being the Emperor.

Eight is next in line, so once my father has reached the shelter floor, he steps onto the ladder and begins to make his way down. Knowing this is my only chance to escape being confined underground for the duration of the battle, I quietly begin to make my exit while Shane is making sure that my brother reaches the bottom safely. I am halfway to the gate before he notices my absence.

“Laura! What are you doing?” he shouts upon discovering me, but instead of admitting defeat and returning to the bomb shelter, I sprint away through the hole in the fence to meet Ryan in the center of the chaos.

“Hey! Come back here!” Shane shouts, closing my brother and father up in the shelter and running after me. He’s fast, but he’s no match for me.

When I reach the scene of the battle, Ryan’s orders have already gone into effect, and the situation is beginning to wrap up. The number of Royal Guard now greatly exceeds the number of rebels, and several of our enemies have either been taken prisoner or are lying somewhere on the ground nearby, dead.

“Laura, I thought I told you to stay hidden!” Ryan shouts once I find him, and I shrug.

“Did you really expect me to listen to you? I can’t just hide while other people are out here risking their lives for my country,” I say. The rebels that are left aren’t firing right now, as they’re all in hiding, hoping that they can escape without being killed. Shooting at us will only alert us to their location.

“No. I figured you’d come. You need to find Alicia and bring her to your father. If you’re not going to stay safe, at least do something useful.” Ryan sighs.

“Got it.” I nod, just as an out-of-breath Shane finally catches up to me.

“You. Are. Fast,” he pants, resting his hands on his knees for a moment.

“Yeah, I know. Ryan says we can go hunt down Alicia, if I’m not going to go into hiding,” I say, patting him on the back. “He’s already gotten the situation under control, and we can’t let her escape.”

“Right,” he agrees, standing upright once again.

“Ryan, have you seen her?”

“Yes. She just took off toward the city in that direction,” Ryan says, pointing to our right, where I can see an outline of Karkay’s downtown skyline past several abandoned buildings that surround the training base. “I sent men after her, but they left about ten minutes ago. She’s likely well hidden by now if they haven’t caught her.”

“All right, let’s go,” I say, grabbing Shane’s wrist as I take off running. A poorly paved road extends from the front of the training camp and into the city, lined with crumbling buildings, businesses from a time past. Old grocery store signs still hang above a few of the broken glass windows of the strip, and there are even a few mannequins left in the trashed boutiques.

The downtrodden appearance of the old buildings is supposed to hide the training base, which looks equally deteriorated, from our enemies. However, this only works when the enemy isn’t working with your older sister who is hell-bent on destroying your country and your life.

Shane and I run together in silence down the broken street until we finally run into evidence that Alicia was here—a dead guard member lying on the sidewalk in a pool of blood. Although he doesn’t appear to be breathing and he has a gun wound to the chest, I take his pulse just in case he’s still alive. Nothing, but from the looks of things, he’s only just died. Alicia and the other guard are close. I can feel it.

A nearby gunshot confirms my theory, and Shane and I hurry toward the sound that came from an alley close by. In no time, we’re there, just as Alicia runs into the street, widening her eyes when she sees the two of us.

Before she can try anything, I aim my gun at her head. “Drop your weapons. I know you have a gun.”

Shane follows suit. “But we have more guns, because there are two of us.”

Alicia throws her gun on the ground and crosses her arms. She isn’t going to attempt to fight me. “So did the last two guys, and they’re both dead.”

“Yeah. They’re dead. Funny, considering how you said all you wanted to do was rescue Isaac and leave.”

“They were both chasing me! What choice did I have?”

“You shouldn’t have attacked in the first place. Kick your weapon to us or I’ll kill you now. I know you have more than that, so get rid of those too.”

Reluctantly, Alicia drops four knives and another gun onto the ground, kicking the weapons one by one toward Shane and me. “Here. That’s all of them.”

“Good. I can’t believe you could do this to our family.” I spit, running to stand behind her and holding the gun to her back. “You’re coming with us. Don’t make a fuss. I’m not conflicted anymore. I have no problem with cutting you down if you try something.”

“I shouldn’t have trusted you. We didn’t prepare for the increased volume of Royal Guard stationed at the training camp, and we lost nearly half of our men,” she accuses. I ignore her and push her toward the main area of the battle.

“I don’t particularly care. You act like all you want is peace, but I know better. All you want is revenge. You’ve grown fond of Malibah and you hate the idea that Father is going to war with them. You’ll kill anyone to stop him, even if it’s me or Eight. You saw it. You knew that I wanted to trust you. I wanted to help you, but then you lied about Father. You betrayed us again.”

“Laura, I swear. I didn’t mean to—”

“Save it for someone who cares, Alicia, because I don’t. I’m done.”

The rest of the walk is silent. Shane covers me from behind, watching out for any danger that may lie ahead of us and standing in the way of any harm that could come to me from the back.

He does his job well. I’ve let myself become distracted by the pain Alicia has caused me today and don’t see the rebel hiding in one of the abandoned buildings close to the training camp, but Shane does. He throws me to the ground atop Alicia and gets grazed in the arm by a bullet that was meant for me. Shane grimaces in pain, but he shoots the rebel down despite it.

“Are you okay?” I ask, pulling Alicia to stand again, but taking one hand to help Shane up. Alicia doesn’t try to run. She knows I’ll kill her.

“I’m fine. Let’s just keep going,” he says. The fabric of his shirt is torn, and blood trickles down his arm, but the wound doesn’t look too deep. A few stitches should fix it up.

“I’m sorry, Shane. I should have been watching.”

He smiles and pats my shoulder. “It’s okay. I’ll cut you some slack, just this once.”

“Thanks.” I sigh. We’re nearly back to the camp, and Alicia has walked in a somber silence for the length of our short journey, much to my delight. The less I have to hear her lies, the better.

In the distance, I see Ryan, Eight and my father, waiting patiently for Alicia’s delivery. Her silence doesn’t change as we grow closer to the lot of people—two of whom are anxious to witness her arrest—and neither does the expression on her face. Instead of sorrow, her soft features carry an air of strength as she marches toward her imminent death. My sister is brave, I’ll give her that. You’d have to be to defy Karkonia’s ruthless Emperor and his youngest daughter, who is equally vicious.

But now, as I lead my older sister to her capture, I am feeling anything but vicious. Instead, I am the one filled with sorrow as I look at Father, praying that he’ll show her mercy but finding only hatred in his eyes.

The kindness that was once there is long gone, likely lost forever to the cruel man that he is quickly becoming. As I lead my sister to her death, I finally see what she has seen all along. My father no longer has the soul of a good man. He truly has become a monster.