The Dragon's Flame Queen ✔

✔Chapter XVII - Shadow Guard of The Royal Protector

Chapter 17.

A frustrated sigh left Master Valentine's mouth, as he walked down the spiral staircase coming from the tower of the castle. His mind was in a swirling wheel of thoughts and worries. He felt as if the present incidents would just age him faster than any dragon.

He let out yet another sigh. Lately, the young prince had been in numerous attacks. As he was reaching the age of maturity the attacks kept growing. First inside of the castle now outside of it. It was becoming a problem for him as he had been scrutinising each and every Dragon Guard and with more than thousands of them, Master Valentine's work increased tenfold. He didn't know when he had taken his supper and enough rest.

It was fortunate for the Prince and Seraphina that he was near Rockmond, otherwise, it would have been fatal. Speaking of fatal, Master Valentine had felt his heart jumping to his throat when he witnessed the attack on Prince Demian. Had he not deployed a few Shadow Guards to watch over the Royals, Prince Demian and his bride would have been ended up in the Dragon Graveyard.

Moreover, he had been investigating for the culprit who had the nerve of harming His Highness. It was a disappointment that the enemy could track them down even with Shadow Guards. The men from that Guard were best in everything yet, even they failed to notice the approaching threat. A thought struck him and he halted immediately. 

Was someone from inside the castle informing the enemy? Who could that be? He had selected every man carefully even taken his time to search for their background. There were many Shadow Guards among the shoulders, secretly watching them. He knew his selected men would not dare to defy him and he had fully trusted them but who could be so cunning playing the strings even after his surveillance.

Besides, other than Billard, no one knew about his Shadow Guards. Billard would never try to kill his own brother. Was it because of the curse? Did the enemies found out about it?

So many questions came all at once and he found himself unable to answer any of them. As he reached the end of the spiral case, a hard wooden door blocked his way. 

He knocked two times and waited to knock three times again. Three knocks came from the other side followed by two as the door opened. The guard's eyes drifted behind him for an inspection then he gave a curt nod and stepped back as a tunnel appeared behind the guard. It led him down another spiral staircases into the womb of the castle. He went down as the darkness of it grew along with the thickness of the air. The burners stayed attached with the stone walls maintaining a great distance as he crossed all of them and finally reached his destined place. 

Upon hearing the door's creaking sound, a man turned toward him. He kneeled on his knee and greeted, "Master Valentine."

"Reginald, how come you didn't see an approaching enemy? You have the best sense out of all of them." Master Valentine's voice hard, a hint of disappointment visible in it.

Reginald Bertrand began, his voice had no trace of emotions, "I apologise for that as I failed you, the enemy had been following them but I could not sense them. However–" 

He halted and Master Valentine's brows shot up, "Finish your sentence, Reginald."

"Shall I tell Master Valentine what I truly sensed?"

"Pray, tell me."

Reginald tilted up his head, his eyes cold as ice and dark as night, he said, "There was an unusual scent I caught. I never had smelt it. It was difficult to know in the market but as I neared it, I found it was moving."

"Moving?"

"Yes, Master. Until I found it was the last man I killed."

Master Valentine's brows shot up.