Naroaika

Chapter 26

The party ended in with no issues. I was dropped off by Al as he insisted that he should and it wasn't safe for a lady to travel alone.

The next morning, I rode towards Azalea and as Zed was in training so it was easy sneaking away from him. I couldn't waste any more time.
I ran up as I reached the tower.
"Azlo!" I called out. He was sitting on his chair as usual. There were different mixtures of weird stuffs kept around him.
I told him everything that had happened, how the dust did not work even if I threw a handful of it at his face.
"I told you to just sprinkle some on his face." He said looking at the jar of dust, that now looked ordinary. "But that doesn't mean it wouldn't have worked."

"So you mean you don't have any answer to it?" I asked.
"I never said that."

There was still hope to return Al's memories of the real world. I asked him what I could do now. Azlo took a pinch of the dust from the jar and added it to the pot that was on the table. He did not reply to my question and continued on some processes and I saw that the dust started to glow. I looked at it in amazement.
Azlo smiled in satisfaction. "I guess this will do." He put the dust in a small pouch and handed it over to me.
"Just sprinkle it on his face as I told you before. It will definitely work, but remember it'll lose its power in a week."

I took the pouch and tied it on to the buckles under my dress. As I passed through the woods, my horse suddenly stopped. In front of us, there was thorns scattered on the ground.
"Who could have done this now?"

My question was answered when four men came out from the bushes. 'Well guess I got myself in some trouble again.' I was outnumbered and I did not have any thing to defend myself. I had to make a run. I gripped on to the lead rope and pulled it slowly but they came forward.
"You better not move if you value your life." One of the men said.
'Am I going to die here?!' I thought. They got down from their horses and pulled me down from my horse.
They didn't look like the bandits we encountered before. They wore cloaks and masks to cover their identities.
"Get on!" One of them ordered.
I had to follow what was instructed and got on one of their horses. My hands were tied up and my mouth was muffled. The man sitting behind me looked dangerous. As I scanned him, a sword on his side. There was a crest on it but it was one I had never seen before.

'Are they soldiers?' I thought. 'But where are they from?'

'Ever since I came here, I had been kidnapped a lot of times. Why was it supposed to be only me?'
We crossed a bridge and the weather soon got colder. I did not know where they were taking me but until now, they haven't done anything not to mention they didn't speak even once.

"W-who are you guys?" I asked with my mouth still muffled but the glare the man gave was enough to shut me up.
We reached a town but we didn't stop. As we went further, a palace stood infront of us.
'Where is this? Are we in another kingdom?!'

The men got off the horses and pulled me down too. 'Ugh! Too rough!'
We walked pass a hallway and soon to a court room. They then threw me on the floor as they knelt down. I was dumbfounded when the men removed their hoods. They were knights of the Royal family of Gardenia. 'They were spies?!'
In front of me, there was a man sitting. He had blond hair and eyes that were deep red. He grinned at me from above.
"So this is the woman."
"Yes my Lord." One of the knights replied.
"I see, I didn't believe that she would be pretty." He got up from his seat and walked down. "That bastard does have a good taste in women, I suppose."

'Who was he talking about? Al?'

This man grabbed my chin and glared right into my eyes. I trembled out of fear but I had to put up a strong stance.
"I wonder what he would feel if I did something wrong to you." He said moving his hands towards my shoulder.

This man was dangerous. I had to run away but how? I don't think there'll be help that would come anytime soon.

'This man only had good looks, his personality was the ugliest that I've ever seen!'

They locked me up in a room and untied my hands. I looked around and saw that there was one window in the room. I looked down to see a lake below it. There was no way I could escape from here.

***

The Celeste Mansion was in a chaos when Jerinah hadn't returned home that day.
"My baby!" Sofina cried.

There was tension in the House of Ascian and the Royal palace too. The realization that there were spies from the neighbouring kingdom showed the weakness of Gardenia.
There was a letter written to Al from the Kingdom of Braeona.
"Ijel that son of a bitch!" Al banged on the table that was next to him. "I'm going to Braeona!"

"I'll go with you." Keilan said but Al refused.
"Your marriage is coming up soon. You better stay put." Al said, now grinning.
"You don't want your fiancée to be worried do you? Anyways, I took that bastard out the last time. It'll be easy as it was even now."