Journey Into the Knight

Chapter Forty

King Henry was not wearing the suit he wore to the wedding. He still looked like a king in his uniform, just like one of his soldiers, just more decorated. His black hair was slicked back, almost the same colour as his eyes. When he walked into the centre of the room, JongKook quietly stepped to the side, leaving Byul still tied to the chair. YongSun could feel her powers growing, she had been desperately reaching for them the second JongKook picked Byul to be in that chair, but they hadn't reached a level she could use yet, well not effectively. Now that she could see how much JongKook hurt Byul, she reached harder, now that the king had shown up, she was going to need all the powers she could pull. Henry looked at his captives with a calculated look. "I am impressed at your attempt to free the princess." His voice matched what he said, he genuinely sounded impressed. "I was brazen." A slight chuckle. "I never thought you would try something at the wedding but it was a good distraction."No one in the room moved since he walked in, he was just casually standing there as if he was at afternoon tea. "Word has reached me that the camp I was holding some prisoners at has been liberated." His dark eyes flicked to Byul, making it hard for YongSun to not pull at her chains, her fingers trembling to attack. "I guess I have you and your little friends from the Knight village to thank for that." YongSun shouldn't have been shocked that he knew that. "I will admit when I stole those children, I didn't know who would show up to collect them, the power I felt coming from that village, I never imagined it would be YongSun." His eyes landed on her, it was as if he was trying to suck her soul with his gaze. "I didn't think your father would ever tell you how to unlock your powers." A sick smile. "What a treat for me."YongSun was buzzing with anger, she had to swallow a few times before she could bring herself to speak. "What are you talking about?" A snicker. "Did you really think I was making my son marry you for the navy?" He flexed his fingers, his eyes fixed on the black stone ring on his finger. "No silly girl, I was after a different type of power," Eyes back on her. "Your power.""How do you even know about that?" This came from Byul, probably trying to draw his attention from YongSun.He took the bait and turned. "Ah Yul, I will admit you pulled one over on me, I'd never have guessed you were a woman, or else I would have shoved your head on a spike outside my palace...much like those men who were aiding you." Byul paled, it must have been outside help she brought with her. "You see this ring has been passed down my family, man to man." He flexed the black ring. "It has special properties that allow me to do...things. One of those things is to detect great powers. Like the power of the Uju." YongSun should have been scared, she should have been something but angry, but she couldn't help it. All the work they did, this whole mission, it was a trap set by Henry and they fell right into it. "So you knew what I was." She said flatly.Henry shrugged slightly. "Not you specifically, not right away. I felt your birth, I had my men try to trace it but your father bound your powers before I could." He tapped the side of his head. "Smart man, your father." He let his hand fall again. "I felt the same source of power almost a year later, but again before I could trace it, it disappeared." That must have been the Lunarous. "But they weren't as smart as your father YongSun, they didn't hide it well enough, every year a little blip of power arose and after almost a decade of looking I found it." His face turned dark. "Only to have it ripped out from under me at the last minute." He sounded like he was losing his king's voice, becoming a desperate man. "You were harder to track but the bind your father put on you wasn't strong enough, powers slipped through and that is how I eventually found you."YongSun sat up as straight as she could. "So you think you can get me to use my powers for you?" She felt a smile rise on her lips. "I'd never." Henry smiled as well. "Like I'd leave such a chance open." He walked closer to her, uncomfortably close. "No YongSun you were never meant to live, you were always meant to end up in this room." He grabbed her chin rather forcefully. "This is where I take your power and convert it into power for me and my army." A chuckle. "I will finally be powerful enough to take out the North." So that is what he wanted from Thaiston, the power to crush the North. It was almost so simple that she felt stupid for not seeing it, how had Kedoeron held power for so long, all these generations of being stronger than the South, keeping the North at bay. YongSun figured if he was in such a sharing mood, she'd ask him something. "Then why the prisoners, why attack the Knight, just to lure me out?" "No, the Knight has powerful magic, powerful enough to mask the location. It isn't only Uju power I siphon, it is any power. Even a child with a bead of magic can turn the tide in a war. They were there to replace what I had lost with you, and to lure the magic force I felt there, that I now know it was the Solarous magic." He dropped YongSun's face, her chin throbbed. "The second you tried your powers on me and ended up ill is the moment I knew it was your power I felt that day." He must have meant the day she unbound her powers. He turned and clapped his hands. "In fact, let's give you a demonstration!" JongKook moved forward and started taking the binds off Byul, who made no move against him, it would not be wise to. He dragged her back to her chains and locked her up. Then he moved to the door, opening it long enough to receive someone from the other side. A man wearing a prisoner uniform, once white but now brown with dirt. His blue eyes looked around at them panicked, his protests muffled by the gag in his mouth. JongKook threw him in the chair and locked him in. Henry cracked his neck. He rolled his shoulders. Finally, he fixed his sleeves, rolling them up to his elbows. "This is one of the prisoners I extracted from my camp not long before you attacked it." YongSun, TaeOh, and Byul all strained against their chains, but there was no use, they were not going to break out of them and even if they did, what could they do against the king? The man started shaking violently, most likely assuming something bad was about to happen to him. His eyes were erratically moving, looking to them to free him, to help him. YongSun felt tears spring to her eyes, knowing there was no way she could help him, if she used her magic now then Byul, TaeOh and she were doomed. Three lives for one seemed like the right choice but that didn't make this feel any easier. Henry lifted his right hand, the one with the ring. As it got closer to the man it began to glow, like a light under a river of mud. He grabbed the man by the throat with force, YongSun thought he was going to snap it with his grip but he didn't. The ring continued to glow brighter as Henry tightened his grip. YongSun could hear the man's screams through the gag, shrill enough it sounded like a mouse getting devoured by a hawk. Black veins snaked their way up the man's face as well as on Henry's hand, pumping as if something dark lived beneath his skin. The vein's reached the man's eyes, turning them as black as Henry's ring. The screaming finally stopped, so suddenly that the absence of sound hugged YongSun like an eerie blanket. When Henry removed his hand the man's neck was purple and his head dropped. There was no doubt he was dead. Henry turned, revealing his eyes were as black as the ring. Veins still on his skin, making him look truly like the monster he was.Byul could not believe her eyes. Sure she had seen magic, between the Knight village and YongSun, but never had she imagined that Henry could do magic, or at least steal it. But then again it was as if everything fell into place, there had been many battles Byul had seen that looked like it would be their last, until as if by magic the tide in the war changed in their favor, as it turns out it was magic. Henry looked like a demon, maybe he was. His eyes were a black as the soul inside him, veins snaking up his body from that ring on his hand. One she always knew he wore but thought nothing of it, she wondered where it came from, maybe hell itself. "Now that you have so helpfully faked your own death, I don't have to explain it to the kingdom." He nodded to JongKook and that is when Byul started to panic. JongKook removed the man from the chair and tossed him outside the door like he was nothing but garbage. Then JongKook turned to YongSun. Byul's heart stopped.Every inch he took towards YongSun was a stab in Byul's chest. Every cell in Byul's body buzzed with fear, with anger. "Stop this." Byul heard herself say through her teeth, everyone turned to her. "She will have too much power for you to take on." She was desperately trying to buy YongSun more time.Henry turned his black eyes towards Byul like he was sucking out her soul. "Are you offering to take her place Yul?" A sick smile. "I've learned even the most basic human has a bit of magic in them."Before Byul could answer TaeOh did. "No, but I am."Henry wheeled around. "Oh, the Nobel TaeOh speaks up." He laughed. "You will do anything to protect them. Anything to be the hero." Henry looked back to JongKook but nodded at Byul, her heart sank but it was better it was her, YongSun needed more time, and TaeOh would make sure she got out. YongSun and TaeOh both thrashed against their chains. "No!" YongSun yelled, "Take me." But Henry didn't listen. "Oh YongSun I know it will be hard to see but Yul is right, I need more power to be able to take all of yours, what I can get from Yul should keep going for a while, which means you live longer." He smiled at her. "Won't that be great?"Byul let herself be taken by JongKook, let herself be dragged back to that chair and get strapped in. This is what she needed to do, she needed to do this for YongSun, if she died then YongSun had a chance. She could hear both TaeOh and YongSun screaming but she blocked it out. She let her fear consume her, let it take her over, cover her like a warm coat, it strangely calmed her down. Henry turned to her. "You were always one of my favourites Yul.""It's Byul," She corrected him. "If you're going to kill me you should at least know my name." She looked him in his dead eyes. "My name is Moon ByulYi and you took my family away from me." She spat at him. Henry cocked his head to the side and sneered. "You burned my village and you murdered my mother." "And look what I turned you into, my fighter, fighting for the side who killed your family." Byul swallowed. "A mistake, but it is one that brought me here, to this life, and as much as I want my parents back, as much as I wish I could take away the memory of your soldier slitting my mothers throat out of my head, I am glad I could finally meet you eye to eye as Song JiHye daughter and tell you I can't wait until someone kills you." Something changed in Henry's eyes. He tapped his chin as he walked around the room. "Song JiHye, that brings back memories. As I recall, she was hiding something important from me." Byul didn't care what his reasons were, he killed her family and she was helping YongSun to hopefully kill him. "She knew the location of a great power, something stolen from the North, something I desperately wanted." He lifted his ring hand and reached towards her, the small light began to glow as it approached her. He started laughing. "And here we come full circle, everything has fallen right into my hands." "No," TaeOh said sharply as if he figured something out she hadn't. Henry stepped closer and the ring grew impossibly bright, Byul felt like her soul was being sucked out of her chest. "Not only do I have the Solarous but I have had the Lunarous for years."Byul's stomach plummeted. "What?" Bile filled her throat as Henry moved closer. The world seemed to fade from around her. "I have all the power now." He laughed. "NO!" YongSun screamed. A shock wave of power threw Byul across the room, chair and all, her head smacked against the wall, blinding light behind her eyes as the world fell to chaos.